Moon Knight Oneshots

That's What I'm Here For

Summary: Request from Anon on tumblr for Anger Born Of Worry! Marc is overworking himself, and subsequently, the body, and Jake has reached his limit.

"Marc what the fuck are you doing?"

It was nearly three a.m. now, not that Marc had particularly been paying attention. Jake's voice startled him so badly he missed his mug and spilled hot coffee all over the countertop.

"Shit," Marc muttered. He glared at Jake's reflection in the coffee pot, a glare which was returned tenfold by Jake's hard eyes. "Happy? Now I have to make another pot."

"Not what I asked."

"Oh, grouchy today, huh?" Marc grabbed a handful of paper towels and started mopping up the mess. "Are you annoyed it was too hot to wear your turtleneck?"

"Answer the goddamn question, Spector," Jake growled, throwing the paper towels away with more force than was strictly necessary. Marc sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he walked over to their desk.

"Just Moon Knight stuff, okay? Khonshu said there's a 'traveler of the night in danger' and we need to find him before the next full moon, which only gives us two days, so I'm just trying to find him."

Jake raised an eyebrow at the maps and books scattered haphazardly over their desk. "At three a.m.?"

"Well, I started at five--"

"Dios mío, Marc, did you even eat dinner? Have you taken a goddamn break at all?" Jake snapped, throwing up his hands. Marc didn't need to answer for Jake to know that he hadn't though. He felt their stomach squirm hungrily at the mention of dinner, and given how heavy their limbs felt, Jake wasn't surprised Marc had wanted a cup of coffee earlier.

"Jake, this is really important, Khonshu said if we don't find this guy then people will kill him," Marc reasoned. "Khonshu said he protects hundreds of lives, without him they'll get hurt--"

"Marc, there's always going to be someone in danger, always going to be someone that could get hurt, what about you?!" Jake started to pace around the room, raking a fist through his hair with a groan. "¿¡Y nosotros qué!? Are you going to pull this shit every time Khonshu has something we need to do!? You can't do this to yourself!"

"People need our help Jake, I'm not going to abandon them!"

"I'm not tellin' you to do that, I just want you to take care of yourself for once!" Jake roared. He marched into the kitchen and grabbed a microwave pasta dinner from the freezer, not particularly caring if it was one Marc liked.

"What're you doing?" Marc said as he tossed it in the microwave.

"I'm feeding us and then we're going to bed," Jake snarled. "We'll find this guy tomorrow."

"We might not have enough time tomorrow!"

"We definitely won't have enough energy if we don't eat and sleep!"

"God, Jake, why the hell can't you just back off!? I've been doing this for years, what's the big deal now!?"

"I'm fucking worried about you, idiota!"

Jake slumped into a chair at the dining table, resting his elbows on his knees and rubbing his face with his hands. His head pounded against his eyes like a marching drum, and his stomach rumbled angrily at him. His whole body felt like a ton of bricks, pulling him so far down into a black sea that he couldn't tell what was up or down anymore. The sound of the microwave felt like pressure in his ears, the inside of his skin itched with exhaustion, and on top of it all he had to convince the person causing all of this that they didn't need to go through any of it.

Why couldn't Marc understand that this only ever hurts him?

"You're worried about me?" Marc said softly. Jake nodded slowly, closing his eyes. "Why?"

"I fucked up the first time," Jake muttered. The timer for their dinner went off and he got up to retrieve it. "I let you stay up every night, running around saving people when we were supposed to be resting. I let Steven stress and panic thinking he had a sleeping disorder, let you both feel so completely alone day after day. I let you two do things that I knew hurt you. That's why it's a big deal now. I'm worried because you're hurting yourself. That's why I'm not letting you do things like this anymore. Not sleeping, not eating, not talking--all the shit is done now. I fucked up the first time, I didn't protect you two like I should have. I won't let it happen again."

He stirred their food for a moment before starting to eat. He relished the warmth spreading through his middle, the comforting weight of food in his stomach that grew with every bite he took. It melted away some of the tension in their shoulders, bringing the anxiety in his heart to a screeching halt. That's one problem solved, he thought, breathing out a small sigh of relief.

"This is good," Marc said quietly. Jake smirked.

"You haven't eaten since lunch, I think a cockroach would taste good to you right about now," he said.

"I don't... mean to hurt us," Marc said. "I just... I forget that we're okay now. I forget we don't have to feel like this anymore. I forget that this hurts."

"I know." Jake stirred around their food a bit more, trying not to eat too quickly. "But that's why you gotta listen to me. You can't fight me every time I try to take care of us. It's hard enough to be starving and exhausted, I can't have an argument with you on top of that every time."

Marc sighed. "Yeah. Sorry 'bout that."

"Está bien. We just need to work on it, that's all."

When Jake and Marc finished their dinner, Jake felt somehow even more tired than before, the weight in his stomach adding to his already heavy limbs.

"Jeez, I didn't realize how tired I was," Marc said with a broken down laugh. He yawned and stood up, trudging slowly towards their bed.

"That's what I'm here for," Jake said. "I can notice for ya." He pulled off their clothes, turned out the lights, and climbed into bed. He was just about to fall asleep when Marc spoke again.

"Jake?" he muttered.

"Mm?"

"I'll try to take better care of us. No promises on how well I'll do, but you don't have to worry I'll fight you on it anymore."

Jake smiled, and rolled their body a little tighter in the blankets.

"Gracias."

A/N: Hey everyone, I hope you liked this! If you want to request a Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt for me to write, my board is on my tumblr (joyful-soul-collector)!