not maybe, definitely

The more time slipped by between them, the more comfortable Venom seemed to be getting. Maverick noticed how she snuggled down into the furs more, a loopy sort of smile spreading over her face while her sunset eyes slowly hazed over with her drug-induced delirium. He could feel that same sort of foggy relaxation coming over his body, letting stress and cares alike seep away only to be replaced with blissful euphoria. A warm feeling began to grow in the pit of his stomach, that heat seeming to pulse and grow in time with his heartbeat whenever he looked over to Venom. While he tried to make small talk, Venom remained mostly quiet, giving little signs that she was still paying attention to him in the form of a tilt of her head or swivel of her dark ears. But most importantly, she looked like she was unwinding and actually enjoying herself. That brought a bigger grin to Mav's face. He was an agent of chaos at times, sure, but more than anything he was a hedonist, living life for the thrill and pleasure of it. In his mind, there wasn't any other way to be. After all, if you lived in a constant state of measure and expected decorum, were you really alive at all?

The good times seemed to hit the pause button when he asked that ill-fated question about what was on her mind. Almost immediately, the dire wolf watched the grin slide off of Venom's face as if it had never belonged there to start. She withdrew inward, turning her eyes away, but he saw the sorrow held behind them before she averted her gaze. Maverick's smile faltered, twitching somewhere between staying where it was and vanishing completely. It disappeared entirely when Venom spoke. Memories plagued her. Her husband had left her out of the blue. Venom didn't finish her final thought, but she didn't need to. Maverick understood all that he needed to. The brute swallowed the knot in his throat. He'd never loved and lost before, so he couldn't know the pain she was going through, but he was no stranger to pain in general. That had to count for something, right? "Damn... That's rough, Ven..." he murmured in the sudden stillness of the den. Dark turquoise eyes shifted downward for a moment, his hazy brain taking a moment to think of what to say. Was there even anything one could say to a revelation like that?

After a moment of thought, Maverick decided that the best course of action was to do what he always did: speak true and from the heart. The brute snorted in distaste and casually rolled over onto his back, gazing at Venom from his now belly-up position as he made himself more comfortable. "Fuck him. It's his loss. I dunno what sane brute would give up getting wrapped in those long legs of yours all the time." Maverick shot Venom a curious yet teasingly wicked look from his upside-down position, a cheeky grin appearing on his muzzle again. "Was he gay? He sounds like he's gay. That's gotta be it, right? No way any brute with a pulse would want to leave a woman like you. I mean..." Maverick gave a wide, sweeping gesture of his forelegs towards all of Venom from nose to tail. She had the looks, she had the power, she had the wit and intelligence. Venom was what brutes would call a total package. Was he being bold and a little bit crude in his comments? Yes, no doubt. But it was so quintessentially Maverick that he didn't feel any sort of shame or embarrassment for pointing out Venom's obvious attractiveness and beauty. Surely she was aware of it too, right? Someone like an empress had to own at least one mirror. And besides, he wasn't saying anything that wasn't obviously fact.

"Maverick"