Demons [Eddie Brock] Venom

4. Wine

                Coming home from work, Rory trudged up the six flights of stairs with tired feet. The sexist policy that women wear high heels was getting old, so she held her shoes in her hands and walked barefoot up the grubby stairs, keeping a sharp eye out for thumb tacks, needles and other things that would suck to step on.

At the top of the stairs she ran into Mike, the other tenant on the floor; she averted her gaze so that she wasn't looking at him as she walked around him. He stood stoic and burly in her way, but she managed to squeeze by him with a muttered "excuse me", remaining polite despite the fact she wanted to tell him to "get the fuck out of the way".

It was better to be polite and meek than assertive.

"Not even a 'hello'?" he asked with a sardonic tone.

Rory's shoulders tensed, she was holding her keys and turned towards her apartment. She glanced over her shoulder at Mike, who still stood at the top of the stairs -was he waiting for her, or did he see her coming up the stairs and decided to be a creep? She offered a small, forced smile and said, "Hello, Mike."

"That's better," he grunted, then trampled down the stairs.

Rory let out a breath of relief.

Half an hour later, she heard a knock on the door. Her hair was wet from a shower and she was wearing sweat pants and a baggy t-shirt that definitely belonged to a one-night stand. Disgruntled to say the least, she trudged over to the door and opened it.

"Oh shit," she said as she faced Eddie. In his hands was a bottle of wine and her coffee mug.

"You forgot," he noted.

"I forgot," she admitted, and apologetic cringe upon her face.

"Well, you look dashing," he said, a grin on his tired face.

She cracked a smile. "Freshly showered, ready for bed."

"You know it's seven, right?"

"Come on in," she replied with a laugh, stepping out of the way so he could enter. As she closed the door, she could hear Ziggy across the hall cranking up his music. "Well at least we have some gentle music to set the mood. Take a seat, I'll whip something up to eat."

Eddie put her mug away, remembering where she grabbed it from that morning, and then looked around at her apartment. It was exactly the same as his, only a bit nicer with more personality because she had paintings up, a few decorative things here and there, but nothing that exacted much about who she was. The artwork was vague, abstract, but none of it matched just right, the colours were slightly different. A string of paper lantern lights hung over the window that overlooked the next apartment building over.