darling, won’t you ease my worried mind
is a MoonKnight fanfic written by gnimmish, which deals with Marc Spector/Steven Grant and Layla El-Faouly as they recover at a hotel from the climactic battle in the episode "Gods and Monsters". The fic can be read here
darling, won’t you ease my worried mind contains the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: Layla is the one who taught Marc how to pick locks.
- all lowercase letters: The fic's title is entirely in lowercase, but the actual fic contains proper punctuation and capitalization.
- Anywhere but Their Lips: Layla kisses Marc on one cheek and Steven on the other.
- Comfort Food:"Layla sits down on the edge of the tablecloth and takes the little plastic bowl piled up with lentils, pasta, rice and spicy tomato sauce - because what she wants right now is carbs on carbs on carbs and the taste of her childhood, safe and comforting and exactly the same as it was when her father used to make it for her."
- Completed Fic: The fic is complete at a single chapter.
- Crush Blush: After Layla kisses Marc/Steven on the cheek in gratitude for getting kushari, one of them (Layla suspects it's Steven) blushes.
- Empty Eyes: Layla considers the expression Jake Lockley had on his face to be "blank, cold, shark-like - the gaze of a ceaseless hunter".
- Het: The pairing tags are Layla El-Faouly/Marc Spector and Layla El-Faouly/Steven Grant (though Marc and Steven are technically the same person).
- Hurt/Comfort Fic: Although not tagged as such it definitely fits the criteria, be it referring to recovering after the climactic battle or Layla comforting Steven to prevent him from losing control to Jake Lockley.
- One-Shot Fic: The fic is a single chapter long.
- Pseudo-Canonical Fic: The fic takes place after Moon Knight and Layla's fight against Harrow in Egypt but before the final scene of Episode Six (where Marc and Steven wake up in Steven’s flat) and ignores the implication that the main events of the series were a fantasy created by Marc in a psych ward.
- Shower of Angst: Layla takes one towards the start of the fic to wash off all the grime and dirt from the battle.
- There Is Only One Bed: The only room available at the hotel has one double bed. Layla doesn't care.
- Titled After the Song: The fic's title is a lyric from the song "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos and Eric Clapton, and a snippet of the song is sung by Steven to Layla.
- You Are Not Alone: When Steven is fighting to prevent Jake Lockley from taking control of his body while Marc is MIA, Layla grabs his hands and assures him that he’s not on his own.
