Summary:Maybe Steven’s one-sided friendship isn’t so one-sided after all… AKA a Moon Knight Pygmalion AU
Author’s Note: You can thank @letterfromvienna for encouraging me to turn this silly little idea from a throwaway idea to a two part bit of self-indulgent, romantic fluff, and for contributing some wonderful ideas and bits of dialogue. Thank you also to @acrossthesestars for endless support in the form of proofreading, hand holding, and mood board making. I love you so much, my crow.
Steven can’t remember the first time he decided to take his break in the classical statuary gallery rather than the usual staff canteen. He’d tried eating there first, hoping to befriend some of his new coworkers. Months into working at the British Museum though, most of them remain politely disinterested in getting to know him.
He’d tried, really he had. Memorizing the names of their kids, remembering birthdays, letting them vent about their days. He’d even tried to organize after hours meet ups but after one too nights sitting at a bar surrounded by empty stools, silent phone in hand, he’d given up. He’s too talkative, too excitable, too… much.
It’s easier this way, retreating to the overlooked room tucked behind the Parthenon sculptures. That area is always swarmed with guests eager to see the Elgin Marbles. Steven avoids it. The idea of all those stolen artifacts in one place makes his neck itch. Granted, the museum is filled with those sorts of objects but somehow the sculptures and friezes in that room (at least, the ones not missing their heads) seem to glare down at him accusingly.
He much prefers your gallery. Sunlight streams in from banks of antique windows, painting the marble-clad room in shifting shades as the light changes. Blush pink and champagne gold in the morning, cool green in the afternoon when it filters in through vining ivy. His favorite time to visit is in the velvety blue nighttime when the lights are dimmed and moonlight glints off milk-white stone. It’s magical then, easier to imagine that the statues are just on the verge of leaping out of the shadows, bending closer to hear his late-night chatter.
Each one is familiar. The hunter, endlessly pursuing a stag he’ll never reach. The musician strumming her lyre. The bull-headed minotaur pondering his strange existence (“You and me both, mate.”) Steven’s walked the floor enough times to know them all from every angle. Knows every raised stone eyebrow and deceptively animated hand gesture. Time and again though, he finds himself drawn to the far left corner.
To you.
“Hullo!” He greets you with a half-wave and a shy smile, a brown paper bag clutched in his hand as always. “What’ve I missed?”
So I have yet to indulge in moon knight fanfic,,, but I could not pick a better first …and emma !!!!! The way you just keep slaying it? No matter what you write it’s spectacular as always
you’ve captured his voice 100% spot on and I can’t believe you’re making us wait like this for the next part wtf
“And you’re sure they’re on board with me crashing the weekend?”
You turn to look at the man you’ve been seeing for the last several months. He smiles at you from below the worn baseball cap jammed over his dark, unruly curls, his sharp jawline visible under several days’ scruff. “Yup, just like I told you last time. They’re gonna love you, baby, don’t worry.” He grips your knee reassuringly before turning his focus back to the winding road.
His truck lurches as one tire skirts the edge of a massive pothole. You reach for the dashboard to steady yourself but he’s already adjusted. The roads leading to the beach house his squad have rented for the weekend are lined on either side with rolling grassy dunes under an endless blue sky, and the gravel crunching under the tires reminds you how far you’ve driven from the stress and grind of daily life. This is the first vacation the two of you have taken together, and it’s also the first time you’ll be meeting the men Frankie described as his old army buddies. They’re clearly important to him, and that means making a decent first impression is important to you.
“Almost there,” Frankie murmurs, his eyes trained on the road ahead. The truck crests a small rise and the rented beach house comes into view. It’s cuter than you expected, a pale, robin’s egg blue with white trim and large plate glass windows. You roll the window down and lean your head out for a better look. A salty breeze whips past your face, bringing with it the scent of drying seaweed. Gulls squawk and croon overhead and the noonday sun beats down onto burning sand.
Tags:Fluff, Friends to lovers, Demisexual reader, Passing mention of unwanted sexual advances (not from Steven)
Summary:Maybe Steven’s one-sided friendship isn’t so one-sided after all… AKA a Moon Knight Pygmalion AU
Author’s Note: The response to Part One has completely blown me away. You can thank @letterfromvienna for encouraging me to turn this silly little idea from a throwaway idea to a two part bit of self-indulgent, romantic fluff, and for contributing some wonderful ideas and bits of dialogue. Thank you also to @acrossthesestars for endless support in the form of proofreading, hand holding, and mood board making. I love you so much, my crow.
Your heart thunders in your ears as Steven steps into view and oh, the sensation of having a pulse again is nearly as dizzying as being close enough to touch him.
“Hello, Steven.” The words weigh on your tongue like honeycomb, sweet and strange. This isn’t your mother tongue but it feels right to greet him in the language you’ve gathered over the centuries.The one he makes sound so dear.
“Uh, hiya,” Steven manages weakly. His eyes dart between you and the empty plinth beside the bench, uncertainty in every line of his body. Jackal-headed soft toys litter the marble floor between you. They’d gone tumbling from the box he’d dropped upon seeing you but he doesn’t stoop to gather them.
Accurate depiction of me squeeing into my pillow this morning:
ITS JUST SO PERFECT????? Emma!!! How do you do this!
oh my god. It’s SO unique!! And yet it fits into Stevens life like it was meant to be! A whole ass fairytale like they were meant to be and I’d like to personally thank Apollo for being an ass - for giving her the chance to meet the man of her dreams.
