Welp, I caved in and wrote a fanfic because I need to insert myself/ an OC in any piece of media I consume.
You can basically consider my OC as a x reader or Y/N, I'm just not really good at writing Y/N's POV lol
The fic will follow Moonknight's plot, and will definitely have Steven Grant as the main love interest, but expect a bit of flirty vibes with Marc Spector as well.
This will also be a slow burn, so expect a lot of mutual tension and the whole "oh no there's only one bed", or "oh no, we're in a very tight space, what are we gonna do about it" etc. ;)
I really hope I'll manage to capture Steven and Marc's characters in this story, but since there's only three episodes out right now I'll try my best ^^
I'll put a TW before every seem that might be sensitive, feel free to tell me if I missed something !
One more thing and I'm done : English is not my first langage and I apologize in advance if I make any mistakes, once again, feel free to tell me !
(The story is also available on AO3 for those who prefer to read it there)
Enjoooooy !
Chapter 1
« Mafdet (also Mefdet, Maftet) was a goddess in the ancient Egyptian religion. She was often depicted wearing a skin of a cheetah, and protected against the bite of snakes and scorpions. She is part of the ancient Egyptian deities during the First Dynasty of Egypt. Mafdet was the deification of legal justice, or possibly of capital punishment. »
« Sara, are you alright ? »
« Huh ? Oh, yes, sorry… I didn't sleep much last night. »
« Nightmares again ? »
« Yeah, more or less… »
Sara shamefully deleted the lines of z that had been accidentally typed on her computer as she dozed off in the middle of a lecture. She ignored her friend's worried look and pretended to never have lost track of her teacher painfully trying to explain the difference between melancholy and spleen in the 19th century literature.
The nights had been… eventful, and not in the way college nights should be eventful. The dreams were back. Worse, she, was back.
And she was looking right at her from the window on her left, sitting elegantly on the roof of a two stories coffee shop. The goddess was both terrifying and magnificent. Sara was still taken aback every time she caught a glimpse of her feline face and fur, similar to a cheetah — she reminded her of that evil lady from Wonder Woman, or at least she tried to convince herself that she did so that she would not lose her mind from having a literal Egyptian goddess stalking her since she turned 20.
Mafdet appeared in her dreams at first, dreams filled with pyramids, quicksand and snakes — Sara hated the snakes more than anything. It took her at least six months and unbearable exhaustion to stop being afraid of falling asleep, and six more months to finally establish a form of dialogue with Mafdet. Sara quickly learned that the goddess was a fan of riddles and obscure meanings, riddles that almost drove her insane. The nights became more and more unbearable as the dreams went on, and soon, Sara couldn't bear another morning where she woke up drenched in sweat and barely rested. So she decided that the easiest way to go back to her normal life was to solve her annoying riddles and hope the goddess would finally let her in peace.
That was the first mistake.
The second one was to go through with her plan when she discovered the answer to the riddle.
And what a desperate plan it was… The riddle had been fairly easy to solve : Sara had to set the goddess free from her prison of stone, which was coincidentally stored in a museum barely thirty minutes away from her appartement. Being one of the lesser deities, Mafdet's seal wasn't considered as particularly valuable, and Sara had never been so relieved to find the statuette sitting without any protection in the Egyptology department of the museum. It was a small representation of the goddess, with a cheetah head on top of an undefined body, exactly like the one she had seen in her dreams.
Obviously, the only reasonable way to break this statuette without ending in prison was to break it by « accident », which was exactly Sara's plan. It helped that she had stepped into the museum looking like she had just emerged from the dead, sweating and shaking from stress. Dizzy and exhausted from all the madness her dreams had been, it hadn't been hard to pretend she suddenly fainted right in front of the statuette, knocking it down to the ground by the same occasion. Sara had heard a loud shattering sound and knew her mission was done. She had pretended to be out for a few seconds for good mesure as the security rushed to help her, but she had almost wanted to stay on the ground out of pure relief.
A few heartfelt apologies and administrative papers later, Sara was out and free of her torment. Or so she thought.
Because the first thing to greet her when she came back to her apartment was Mafdet herself.
The goddess had said nothing and only bowed her cheetah head in a form of gratitude, before settling into Sara's favorite armchair as if she was her new roommate.
Sara vaguely remembers fainting, and being terrorized by the various apparitions of Mafdet in her daily life after that visit at the museum.
At first, Sara thought she was simply going mad and almost checked herself into a mental hospital to avoid the sight of the goddess, convinced she was nothing more than a hallucination. But then, things began to happen, things she could not ignore, like a random gust of wind sweeping a bicycle away from Sara right before it crashed into her or creepy guys suddenly not bothering her anymore when she walked home at night. When she witnessed Mafdet pulling a book from a shelf in the Egyptology department and letting it fall to the ground for Sara to pick up — it was an old book about « Avatars », the humans meant to be a sort of bridge between Egyptian gods and humans : the message was quite clear —, she finally accepted the goddess wasn't just a figment of her imagination.
Yet, Mafdet never talked to her. She was just… there, most of the time. So Sara moved on with her life as if it hadn't dramatically changed, graduating in French literature and learning everything she could about Ancient Egypt and deities during her free time — just in case. The dreams had stopped, and the goddess wasn't interfering with her life, which was almost normal.
But then, about two years ago, the goddess had left, permanently, and it took Sara about a week to realize Mafdet was not coming back. At first she had felt strangely unprotected, until the newfound normality of her life erased any kind of regrets she may have had.
Ah, if only it had lasted longer…
« Sara, be careful ! »
The girl stumbled back as a honking car flew past her and her friend.
« Bloody hell Sara, are you okay ? You've been acting very weird for a while, are you stressed out by the exams or something ? » she asked, refusing to let go of her jacket.
« No, no, I promise, I'm fine… I've had the same, um, sleeping disorders a few years ago, it'll pass, » she said, giving her friend her best don't-worry-about-me-everything-is-fine smile.
Her friend didn't seem very convinced, but she wasn't the kind of person to press the subject. Sara sighed internally and looked at her watch.
« Oh shit ! » she exclaimed, « I'm going to be late for my first day at the museum, gotta go, I'll see you tomorrow ! »
« Okay, be careful, and call me if you need anything ! » her friend shouted as Sara was already bolting towards the museum, which thankfully was only a few blocks away from her university.
She stopped at the entrance after her run, panting and sweating — it seemed to be a regular occurence for her to look suspicious in front of a museum —, but she still took a few second to quickly wipe the sweat off her brow and pat down her hair in an attempt to make it seem like she wasn't in a hurry.
Okay, breath in, breath out, she thought. You're already hired, you did the worst of it. Everything's gonna be fine, everything's gonna be just fine…
She kept trying to calm down her nerves as she walked inside the impressive building and went straight for the gift shop, fighting the urge to admire the various displays.
Sara needed this job. She just couldn't afford to mess up her first day. Even with the help of her parents and her scholarship, being a student in London was way more expensive than she thought, worse, her mismatched courses and classes didn't allow her to take on most part-time jobs. With all the books she had to buy for her PhD, she had to take on any job that would give her even less than a minimum wage. Thankfully, the Egyptology department had seen the number of visitors basically double as a new movie around ancient Egypt had been recently released. More visitors meant more clients, and more clients meant more people at the gift shop, to Sara's luck. Her « surprisingly wide » — the manager's words, not hers — knowledge of ancient Egypt and situation allowed the museum to basically bring her whenever they needed — mostly in the afternoons and on the week-ends, where the museum welcomed the most people — without having to pay her a full salary.
Sara had signed the papers almost immediately, thanking whoever created that movie for unintentionally offering her a job. One that also gave her a free entrance to the entire museum.
Yeah, she couldn't mess it up.
As she neared the front desk, she noticed a man that would probably become her coworker absent-mindedly poking some plushies on display, looking like he hadn't slept in five days.
Nice, we'll have at least one thing in common, Sara thought, and a nervous laugh bubbled up.
The closer she got, the more she could see his features, and she immediately noticed his hair — brown, curly, with a strand falling over his brow. She slowed down when she noticed a customer walking to him, not wanting to wait awkwardly by the gift shop. Sara watched as the guy's face lit up, a smile blossoming on his lips as he greeted the customer.
Damn, he had a really pretty smile.
He efficiently put the customer's gifts into a bag and waved a cute goodbye as they left the place. Actually, he was pretty, all of him. He reminded Sara of those people who seemed to have rays of sun inside them, and she really hoped her first impression of him was the right one.
« Hi, » she said when she finally got to the front desk. « I'm supposed to meet Donna here for my first day, I hope I'm not too late, » she added for good mesure, knowing she had checked the time five time before coming in.
Up close, the man looked even more like a puppy, with tired wide eyes and looking like he had no idea of what was going on. His brows furrowed as he probably tried to remember when the manager had told him he was going to have a bit of help in the store — if she had, Donna shockingly hesitated on his name when she had mentioned him event thought she had said he'd been working here for a while.
« Ah, yes, » he suddenly said as he seemed to remember something. « Sorry, I thought you were supposed to come tomorrow, I must've forgotten. Donna's out for a break, she should be back in a minute. I'm Steven, by the way. »
Oh lord, his voice. Sweet and raspy, like honey. Sara always had a thing for voices, but man, his was so eroti…
She almost forgot to shake his hand.
« Nice to meet you, I'm Sara. »
He had nice hands too, big and strong, surprisingly rough for someone who worked at a gift shop. Must be a manual person.
« Donna said you were in college, is that right ? What year are you in ? » immediately asked Steven, and Sara was thankful for it, she couldn't stand awkward silences.
« I finished my master last year, I'm working on my PhD now. »
« Awesome, » he said, and he sounded like he really meant it. « What are you studying ? »
« I study French literature — I'm from France, actually, they let me study abroad for a year, » she added, knowing people usually noticed her accent even if she could hide it fairly well.
Steven shifted his weight so that he wasn't slouching on the counter anymore, something lighting up in his eyes.
« French literature ? That's wicked ! I've been learning french for a while to read my favorite poet in her original language… » he said with excitement before quieting down, as if shushing himself for being to enthusiastic.
But Sara was as excited as he was and immediately matched his energy. Usually, when she mentioned anything related to books — especially to men — they were all uninterested, or at best barely listening and criticizing her taste in literature.
« No way, that's awesome ! » she exclaimed. « Who is she ? »
« It's… »
« Stevie, stop bothering the costumers ! »
They both turned to see Donna storming in the gift shop. Steven immediately lost his enthusiasm and seemed to sunk back into himself. Even Sara felt a bit intimidated by the manager. She had already seen Donna before and realized that she wasn't a bad person per say, but she was definitely not the cool type of boss.
« It's Steven, actually, Steven, » he repeated, pointing to his badge.
« All you are is bloody useless if you spend your time bothering people with your annoying facts. Ah, Sara, it's you ! Follow me, I'll give you a badge, » she said while heading away from the counter without even checking that Sara was following.
« He- he wasn't bothering me, I was the one to… » she began to mutter pathetically, but Donna wasn't even listening.
Sara shot an apologetic look at Steven and jogged to catch Donna's long strides. She didn't notice Steven's stare linger, the stare of someone who was watching a gift being ripped away from them before they could even open it.
Just as Steven couldn't see the look of horror a certain goddess had on her face when she had set her eyes on him.