CHOCOLATE. ❪ Eddie Brock ❫ ✓

three

It made sense most people didn't agree with laws that would protect mutants and aliens and creatures alike. Humans never agreed with each other on things. For example, presidential elections. Not every single US citizen vote for Donald Trump. Point was, there would always be people who disagreed with other people. That was how wars started, relationships broken up, and mental illnesses developed.

Maple's bakery rose in popularity each day because of Venom showing up whenever he wanted a snack or because he simply wanted to spend time with Maple in the kitchens when it was Eddie's day-off from work. People who saw Venom as a hero would become regulars at the bakery, hoping to catch a sneak peek at Venom one day. And there were the old regulars who stopped coming because Venom started coming.

Maple wasn't a mutant or bonded to a symbiote, so she wasn't used to backlash for allying with an "alien." But her mother didn't raise her to be a little bitch. No matter how frazzled she got, she had to remember the good things in her life. She loved her bakery, the smiles on people's faces when they ate her pastries, and she loved spending time with Venom and Eddie.

That was why when she was cleaning her window of red spray paint that said "MUTANT LOVER," it didn't bother her much. It did a little, but she didn't care if she was a "mutant lover." To them, mutants and symbiotes alike were human like her. They looked different, had different abilities to that of a human, but she didn't care. If she wasn't a baker, she would have loved to be a lawyer for alien and mutant rights.

It was a good thing she went to the bakery early every single day to bake fresh pastries. Once the leftover pastries in the display box were done for the opening times of the bakery, she would take them home for Eddie and Venom, then make new ones the next morning. She just couldn't fathom the idea of giving her customers one-day-old pastries.

Clark, her assistant baker, sighed upon seeing the spray paint. He had been so excited to bake cream horns, but the vandalism made his shoulders slump. Maple was cleaning with a rag and bucket of water.

"Hey, Clark, you can get started inside. I'll clean this up and be in to help you."

"This is a first," said Clark.

Maple sighed. "Yeah."

"Should I be scared?"

She smiled gently."Try not to be. I need you with me."

"Want me to report this?"

Maple shooed him away with the rag. "Get to work. I'm still your boss. If it makes you feel better, I'll report it if this happens again."

He nodded and saluted her, walking inside. "You got it, boss."