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“Tony Stark!” Eddie blurts before he can stop himself. He’s met a lot of celebrities with his job – well, previous job – on the Eddie Brock Report, but Tony Stark had never been one of them.
Until now, when Eddie finds Tony Stark leaning against one of his mustangs that just so happens to be parked in front of Eddie’s apartment.
“Mr. Brock,” Tony Stark greets Eddie with a smile and a handshake. “Just the man I was looking for.”
Eddie returns the handshake, still blinking from shock. “Me, you were looking for me? Is this about my…”
Me? Venom growls.
Eddie can feel Venom surging underneath his skin, getting ready to protect Eddie, protect himself, protect them.
“Not directly, actually,” Tony Stark says, grin sliding into a tilt. But with Stark’s eyes still covered with sunglasses, Eddie isn’t sure exactly what he means. “Can we go inside? I have a job opportunity for you.”
“You have a job… for me,” Eddie repeats, and he scrubs at his face because he knows he sounds dumb. He’s been star struck before and masked it better than this, this being where he simply repeats what Stark is saying, but most of his brain power is tamping down Venom’s – and his own – curiosity.
“Should you choose to accept. Completely a voluntary offer, no strings attached.”
“Huh,” is all Eddie says, and the red flags start waving in his mind.
Still, it only piques his curiosity. Eddie leads Tony up to his apartment, but then realizes his mistake as soon as he opens the door.
“Uh…. Is there somewhere else we can go?” Eddie asks, wincing. “I didn’t realize we’d be having guests, and…”
And Venom had gotten hungry, as usual, and therefore messy with the last of the tator tots. Eddie had run to the store rather than clean up because food had taken the priority. Potato remnants are still scattered throughout the kitchen, and there’s even spots of ketchup from where Eddie had tried to coax Venom into trying condiments on top of the tots.
That hadn’t gone over well, especially the mustard.
Sorry, Venom says, but it’s about the mess. Definitely not about the mustard – Eddie had had to apologize about the mustard.
“You’ve got nothing on the Avengers Compound, kid. Unless you’ve got stacks of dead bodies in there…?”
“No, nope, none of those. We don’t do that,” Eddie trips over himself to explain, but winces as he bites back the ‘much’ that should be tacked onto the end of the sentence.
We don’t do that much. Could do it much more, Venom agrees.
But now Eddie has to show the Tony Stark the tragic state of his apartment or else the Iron Man is going to think that Eddie is hiding dead bodies in his apartment. Then Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers would probably come after them, and Eddie really doesn’t want a showdown, because they’re definitely the good guys but if they start shooting at them then…
You will not die, Venom promises.
Now is the time to talk himself about that potential mess, then, Eddie thinks as he lets Tony Stark into his apartment. Eddie winces, but Tony doesn’t even seem to notice the dirty dishes in the sink or the tots smeared on the floor or the ketchup that has yet to be cleaned up.
It’s not human heads piled in the corner, anyway.
“Now, job offer, for you and your… partner,” Tony says as he whips off his sunglasses with a smile.
And… oh God. Eddie had already liked Tony – the arrogant assholes at the top don’t usually own up to their mistakes and then try to fix them, but Tony Stark takes the cake on that one. Hunting down his weapons, clean energy, and saving the world twenty times over means that Tony Stark has Eddie’s respect, professional and non.
And now there’s Venom bubbling in Eddie’s chest because Tony had called him Eddie’s partner. Not a parasite, not a disease, they were partners, and Tony had called them that and now Eddie knew that Venom also really liked Tony Stark.
“What, what can I possibly do for you?” Eddie asks, reeling.
Tony look away, tapping his fingers against his chest. Then he turns back to Eddie and shoves his hands in his pockets.
“Theodore Ross. US Secretary of State,” Tony says quietly. “He’s got dirt in his past, but my hands are tied. I can’t do the digging myself, or I would. I need an investigative journalist with… more backup than they usually come with. He’s a dangerous guy.”
Eddie lets that soak in. He’s flattered. Tony Stark, Iron Man, is coming to Eddie Brock for help. For Eddie’s actual expertise, even, though having Venom a part of the mix is a large chunk of it too.
Venom is already chanting in Eddie’s head. Yes! Yes! Yes!
“You want me investigate the guy or…?”
“Investigate only. Your partner’s skills are to protect you. I’m not asking for a hit on the guy, Jesus!” Tony exclaims.
“And the information I find?” Eddie asks, biting back Venom’s continual chant of yes, yes, yes.
“Yours to share and take credit for. I’d appreciate a heads up on what you find before you release, but that’s not a hard rule.”
Eddie is already agreeing – he’s aware of Ross, and has enough suspicions about what that type of guy hides in the closets of the past – when Tony says that he’ll pay for all Eddie’s expenses.
“Yup, I’ll do it,” Eddie agrees to Venom’s cheering in his head. That’s a type of offer you don’t turn down.
The rest falls into place at a speed that doesn’t happen in Eddie’s life, but seems to be typical for Tony Stark. Soon enough Eddie has a plane ticket booked to New York, courtesy of Tony, where Eddie will read over the preliminary information about Ross and do a bit of off-site digging before chasing leads in D.C.
Eddie can only stare as Tony Stark walks out of his rundown apartment in San Francisco, Tony’s suit just as pristine as when he walked in. It’s quite a sight.
We like that one, Venom voices. We really like that one.
“Out of our league, buddy. So, so far out of our league,” Eddie sighs.
But Venom isn’t listening. Venom is thinking about taking down the Bad Guy to impress Tony, and what else might impress Tony when they get to New York, and what food Tony might like, and if Tony likes tator tots.
“I bet Tony likes mustard,” Eddie teases as he starts cleaning up his kitchen.
NO MUSTARD!