Work Text:
Cleo applies another layer of lipstick, glancing at her best friend’s reflection. Seven years ago, she had been a lonely twelve-year-old girl planning on becoming an Egyptologist like her missing father. Now nineteen, her father is still missing, and she’s concluded that he’ll never be found. Maybe he doesn’t want to be found. She’s much more impulsive and outspoken than she had been, though she’s rarely blatantly rude. Her former best friend Natasha has moved on with her life, having graduated near the top of the class and is going to college with her long-time boyfriend.
Cleo barely graduated high school, dividing most of her time with skateboarding and hiding that her best friend is a living mummy. However, she and Tut have definitely drifted apart. By the time Cleo became a freshman, Tut was nevertheless stuck in his ten-year-old Pharaoh body. Cleo had joined a ‘bad crowd’ of skateboarders, and she is now dating the leader – despite the eight-year difference. Tut lives in the International Museum of World History, severely missing his realm from three thousand years ago at each passing half year.
Tut wishes for a calmer lifestyle. When he was ten originally, his best friend Nepka was being punished for something he hadn’t done in the first place. The punishment had been issued for him to be crushed, and Pharaoh Tutankhansetamun had laid his life on the line to save his closest friend. Loyal as he is, he can tell Cleo’s life has been on a downward spiral for quite some time. He is willing to risk his own afterlife if it means Cleo can return to a simpler home life. Tut repeats these words as he solemnly walks toward the bright golden lights, barreling down the silver tracks.