[ Angela cracks code in muscle and bone, reads the cipher always tapping in the rush of his veins; still, she lets him keep his secrets and asks, simply, just to be able to thumb over them every once in a while. Like an old journal written by a good friend, some pages kept untouched out of love and reverence.
And he can read her, read the hopefulness in her tone. She wants to know that her caring is worth something, that it's percolated into some crevasse and formed a cast that would've fractured and splintered otherwise. A doctor's worst nightmare is a patient who loves their pain more than their wellbeing: it's always the same question they ask when someone slips through their fingers. Why didn't you tell me?
So. Venom tells her. ]
You're helping.
[ Present tense. No, present progressive tense. Something indefinite but continuous, something that prompts him to tip into her hands and her pull, to settle his forehead to her forehead until their lashes almost touch.
He's exhausted, and he could fall asleep in her palms. ]
And, yeah. I know. [ He smiles with his eye closed, resigned but gentle. ] I don't doubt that.
[ A few weeks ago, a few months ago, maybe his answer would have been less committed: a "you wouldn't let me not be your friend", as if it's on Angela to hunt him down. By now, he's sure that she knows that it runs both ways. ]
no subject
And he can read her, read the hopefulness in her tone. She wants to know that her caring is worth something, that it's percolated into some crevasse and formed a cast that would've fractured and splintered otherwise. A doctor's worst nightmare is a patient who loves their pain more than their wellbeing: it's always the same question they ask when someone slips through their fingers. Why didn't you tell me?
So. Venom tells her. ]
You're helping.
[ Present tense. No, present progressive tense. Something indefinite but continuous, something that prompts him to tip into her hands and her pull, to settle his forehead to her forehead until their lashes almost touch.
He's exhausted, and he could fall asleep in her palms. ]
And, yeah. I know. [ He smiles with his eye closed, resigned but gentle. ] I don't doubt that.
[ A few weeks ago, a few months ago, maybe his answer would have been less committed: a "you wouldn't let me not be your friend", as if it's on Angela to hunt him down. By now, he's sure that she knows that it runs both ways. ]