#comic!verse

She snorts but the sound is drowned out by the loud cracking of bone echoing against tile in whoever’s office this is. Red is snacking on the former occupant, slurping brain up and into the symbiote’s maw.

Cletus had been helping with the digestion but Red claimed she’d wanted to experience the feast first hand, and who was he to deny either of his girls anything.

“What’s the weirdest lie you’ve told ‘em and they believed it?” Frances asks him.

“I don’t know ‘bout weirdest, darlin’ you know my meter’s a little whack when it comes to judgin’ that shit.” He squeezes her leg fondly. “You know, back when we almost had New York? They asked ‘bout you.”

“Uh huh?” She purses her lips together, and her eyes drop back to the folder, not really seeing the words written out any longer. “What’d they ask about?”

“If I manipulated you, if you manipulated me.” He shrugs but he pulls the folder out of her hands and his grip on her leg tightens. “Now, why’d ya think they’d ask a thing like that?”

There’s a beat of silence in the room, the only sounds now the steady gulping of symbiote and grey matter. Cletus’ hand leaves her leg to grip her chin, lifting her head until green meets blue and yellow.

Frances’ nose crinkles and her own hand, tipped in her usual ice white claws clasp onto his arm. A sneer craws over her features. “Babe, my powers feed on bloodlust and violence. They amplify them-”

“I’m plenty lustful for blood without you around, darlin’.” His fingers uncurl against her jaw in a mimic of a caress as he carefully looks for the tell-tell flare of yellow in her eye. “For example, I’m thinking about how easy it’d be to choke a good scream out of you right now.”

The flare never comes. And she smirks.

“I know. I can feel your impulse, throbbing against the surface. And that’s the difference. I could make it burn brighter, make your anger swell and burst into life...but you can do that just fine on your own. I don’t even have to amplify it, it’s seeping into me without me doing a thing.”

A low groan escapes Cletus as he shifts, pulling Frances onto his lap, his grip on her neck loosening, sliding down her throat and resting over her heart. “You’re feeding on it now, right? You’re letting my bloodlust fill you, aren’t you Frances? So why’m so drawn to you? I felt it that first time, when I scooped you out of your cell. I felt it those goddamn blissful weeks in New York...You went off with the boys and you left me to go after Daddy, damn it girl, you gave me withdrawals.”

“Don’t you get it, love?” She grinds down on top of him, through both sets of starchy Ravencroft jumpsuits. “I never used my power on you, not on purpose. It’s like we’re naturally feeding off each other. It’s a perfect circle.”