Stayla

Stayla is the het ship between Layla El-Faouly and Steven Grant from the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom.

THE GOLDFISH PROBLEM
Upon finding Marc's phone hidden in one of the wallboards of his apartment, Steven charges and opens it to find several missed calls from Layla. He calls back and she refers to him as Marc, explaining that she was texting and calling the phone for months for indication he was alive and safe. He is confused, telling her that he's not Marc and he doesn't know who Marc is. She hangs up after that, frustrated and confused.

SUMMON THE SUIT
Steven and Marc speak in Marc's storage locker about Marc's job before Steven steals Marc's bag of supplies and tries to leave the storage building to check them into a psychiatric facility. However, Khonshu is there to scare Steven into running out of the building and tripping right in front of Layla's moving motorcycle as she was looking for Marc. As Layla takes them to Steven's apartment, she explains, still believing Steven is Marc, that she was worried for Marc's safety and that her and Marc are married. Steven questions her and she grows frustrated, believing that Steven is some kind of false identity Marc created to hide from someone in the area. Steven tells her that he will tell her everything after she drops him off at this apartment.

At his apartment, Layla looks around and finds a book of French poems on Steven's bookshelf. They recite a few lines together and Steven explains that the poet is his favorite. Layla then turns and disagrees, saying that the poet is her favorite, still not understanding Steven is not Marc. She continues into the apartment, seeing that Steven is also studying and learning to read Egyptian hieroglyphics. The two connect on the subject, because Layla is both Egyptian and can also read hieroglyphs.

After yet again thinking that Steven is still somehow Marc, she produces divorce papers that were sent by Marc that she signed, requesting Marc's signature to make it official. Steven is baffled at the papers, wondering aloud why Marc would divorce someone like Layla at all. Layla asks what he's doing, and he explains that him and Marc are not the same person like she had been previously assuming. He tries to explain his situation by showing her the scarab from the bag from Marc's storage locker, but Marc tells him that showing it to her will get Layla killed and Steven stops suddenly, telling her that it's nothing. However, Layla is already invested at that point and pushes Steven aside to find it for herself.

She finds the scarab and gets upset, telling him that she had been trying to find it with him for years, only for Marc to find it on his own and hide it from her. Steven insists that she take it because he doesn't want the trouble, begging her to help him because he thinks that he is in danger and she is the only person to help him out of it. She asks if he remembers anything about trying to find the scarab with her and he says that he doesn't.

Layla is able to track down Steven's location after he is kidnapped and taken to one of Harrow's compounds, where she asks Steven to "summon the suit" to get out of being attacked by Harrow and his men for carrying the scarab. Steven tells her that he doesn't know what that means or how to do it, while refusing to give Marc control of the body to handle things. After running to hide in a room, Layla tries to push Marc to front instead of Steven to get them out of the situation. Steven panics as both Marc and Layla are pressuring him and he collapses, saying that he can't do it. Layla reads him and understands, telling him that they will find another way out.

When a jackal invisible to Layla appears and pushes Steven out of the window, he is finally able to summon his own version of the Moon Knight suit and him and Layla fight the jackal together in the street. As they begin to lose, Steven finally allows Marc to front, where he leads the jackal away and kills it. After he succeeds, him and Steven get into an argument about Layla where Steven claims that Marc abandoned Layla and that he only breaks things around him.

THE FRIENDLY TYPE
Marc lets Steven help him and Layla read and decipher the hieroglyphs on the sarcophagus to find Ammit's tomb without the scarab, but insists that Layla doesn't see. Marc and Layla are then threatened by guards of the artifact and Marc dons the suit to take them down with Layla's help. They successfully find what they need as well as taking a car out to the middle of the desert to attempt to locate Ammit's tomb with the information they gathered from the sarcophagus. When first trying to decipher it, they are unsuccessful, and Layla tells Marc that they should let Steven decipher it instead. Marc is annoyed at the request, but eventually gives in. He insists on taking the items and himself away from the car to switch to Steven. Steven starts eagerly putting the pieces together and Layla approaches him. He starts rambling about the fact that Egyptians used constellations as landmarks and the fabric they retrieved from the sarcophagus is showing the constellation above where Ammit's tomb should be. Layla is impressed and a tension hangs between them before she asks how to use the constellation in the fabric. Steven explains that the constellation placement in the fabric is inaccurate because it was marked thousands of years ago, and starts shift over time, meaning that they need to find out how to pinpoint where the stars were aligned on the night the fabric constellation was created. Khonshu is able to turn the sky back to that night with Steven's help, but the action both drains Steven's strength as well as causes Khonshu to be imprisoned by the other gods. Without Khonshu and drained of his energy, Steven collapses and Layla cannot wake him.

THE TOMB
While trying to wake Steven, Layla is ambushed by Harrow's men and successfully destroys their truck as Steven finally wakes up. The two drive over to the location of the tomb, and Layla tells Steven that it's likely that Harrow's men will be at the tomb already, so they'll need Marc to help fight them off. Steven refuses, saying that him and Marc had previously made a deal that Marc would disappear when Khonshu was out of the picture. Layla gets upset at this, reminding Steven that removing Marc from his life also meant removing Marc from hers, and that the two hadn't let her in on the deal at all. Layla then warms to the idea, only to say that she figured that Marc would want to do it on his own without them anyway, so they're probably better off without him. The two then continue on foot until they find the tomb, only to see that Harrow's followers have set up camps outside of the mining area into the tomb. The place seems to be deserted, and the two check for supplies before sneaking into the tomb. While checking for supplies, Steven and Marc have an argument about Marc being locked out of the body. Steven assures him that he'll be fine without Marc because he has Layla. Marc then accuses Steven of being in love with her, and the two bicker about it. Marc says that he'll throw them off a cliff if Steven tried anything with Layla while Marc was unable to control the body. Steven brushes him off and leaves the tent to rejoin Layla.

Layla puts on Steven's harness to have them drop into the tomb. In such close proximity, Steven is awkward around her. She mentions that he smells just like Marc, and as Layla leans in for a kiss, Steven hurriedly explains that Marc's been pushing Layla away in an attempt to protect her from Khonshu. Layla tells Steven that the doesn't need protection. Steven tells her that he was telling her then because he wants to be honest with her and tell her Marc's intentions. She appreciates his attempt at honesty, and then he awkwardly kisses her. She pulls away and then tells her that she's going down into the tomb. As she descends, Marc fronts to punch Steven in the face.

Steven falls down into the tomb after Layla and Steven gushes about the beauty of the tomb. The two discuss Layla's father, who was an archaeologist that was killed at a dig site years ago. Steven apologizes for her loss and tells Layla that he's sure that her father is looking down proudly at her being in Ammit's tomb. The two descend deeper into the tomb to find that it is a maze, and enter a room with a sacrifice table covered in fresh blood. They look around before finding that there is a blind corpse guarding the room, hearing that Harrow's men are also trying to kill it by shooting at it. Layla is unable to hide anywhere else but against the sacrifice table, so the creature soon hears her and Steven and Layla are separated trying to escape.

ASYLUM
After Marc is shot and killed by Harrow in Ammit's tomb, Marc and Steven find themselves in a psychiatric hospital, a creation of their subconscious as their mental inner world common in Dissociative Identity Disorder, and now also functioning as their temporary afterlife as Taweret guides them through the Egyptian underworld to their final afterlife. Taweret sends the two to share their memories with each other to balance their souls so they can successfully make it to their afterlife. While looking through the memories, Steven asks Marc if he thinks Layla is doing alright in the real world without them. Marc assures him that Layla would do whatever it takes to keep Harrow from succeeding in his plan, with or without them there to help her. Later, Taweret tells Marc and Steven that there are souls coming to the underworld before they are ready. The two understand this occurrence to be Harrow's doing, and Steven begs Taweret to send a message to Layla to free Khonshu so they can return to their body and help her defeat Harrow.

GODS AND MONSTERS
Taweret gets Marc and Steven's message to Layla and she successfully brings back Khonshu. With Khonshu back, Steven and Marc are able to be resurrected and they fly to Cairo with Khonshu to take down Harrow and Ammit, who has been freed by Harrow, her new avatar. They begin fighting Harrow, when Layla arrives as Taweret's temporary avatar, the Scarlet Scarab, to assist them. Marc holds her and tells her how much he missed her and was worried about her, and Steven tells her that she looks incredible in her new outfit, and that he's excited to show her his and Marc's new skills. Steven, Marc and Layla then all fight Harrow together.

Fanon
Because of its semi-canonicity and because of the pair's dynamic, Stayla is somewhat popular among the Moon Knight fanbase. Stayla is the seventh most popular ship for Moon Knight (TV Series) on AO3, and is the second most popular ship for Layla El-Faouly and fourth most popular ship for Steven Grant. Stayla is often paired with MoonScarab or the poly ship between Marc, Steven and Layla.

Fandom
FAN FICTION