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“Close the door.”
“Is that how you greet the love of your life?”
Harry momentarily looks up from the scroll unrolled on his desk, giving his husband a smile before going back to studying ancient writing. His eyes sting by now, since he’s been staring at a mountain of similar scrolls basically all day. It’s not like his back is any better considering he’s been hunched over his desk, standing there while leaning on his palms ever since he got back from teaching his last class about half an hour ago.
He feels a pair of arms snake around his waist and a pair of warm lips on his neck. Harry sighs and continues reading, ignoring the feeling of his husband’s chest against his back. Normally, he’d lean into it, turn his head so they could kiss but he’s not going to snog right now while he has a scroll that’s a few thousands years old in front of him.
“Aren’t you supposed to be teaching a class right now, Zayn?” Harry asks nonchalantly after several minutes of having his husband attached to his back like an oversized sloth.
“I cut it down to twenty minutes. The kids deserve a little break before their exam on Friday. We covered everything already, I just told them what to revise for the test and let them go,” Zayn says into the skin on the back of Harry’s neck and goes back to peppering small kisses everywhere he can reach. Harry would be too distracted by this if he didn’t have more than a decade of practice.
“What are you doing here then?” Harry questions as he reaches for a small magnifying glass. These teeny tiny writings at the edges are going to kill him.
“Wow, I’m glad to see you too,” Zayn scoffs and his arms leave Harry’s waist at last. He walks around Harry’s huge mahogany desk and plops down into a chair in front of it that’s usually for guests and students venturing into Harry’s office for numerous reasons. Sometimes just to whine about essays. Sometimes to try and raise their grade up with offers of intimate nature knowing damn well Harry’s happily married.
“You know what I mean,” Harry mutters without his eyes leaving the writing. “I hate when you’re bored, I’m busy and you try to distract me.”
“I’m more than aware of that, baby, we’ve been married for six years, I know you better than the palm of my hand. But you must know that I hate when you’re pointlessly stressing over things and spending hours locked in your office, going over stuff we’ve researched thoroughly together and with the team.”
Harry doesn’t answer. Instead he rolls up the scroll, gently puts it in the archive’s case and pulls out another one from an identical black tube. He carefully unrolls it on his desk, his gloved fingers careful not to destroy the delicate papyrus. Between reading the lines of the dead Egyptian language, he hears Zayn stand up and soon enough, there are tattooed hands he knows as well as his own gently grabbing his wrists and pulling them away from the scroll. Harry lets himself be manhandled so they’re facing each other with a sigh and an exaggerated eye roll. Zayn’s silent as he takes off the white cotton gloves off of Harry’s hands, putting them on the desk and grabbing Harry’s left cheek with his hand.
“Haz, you need to take a break, okay?” Zayn says softly, his thumb caressing Harry’s cheekbone.
Harry knows it. He’s more than aware that he’s obsessing over everything, double-checking their research, trying to make sure they didn’t overlook a single detail because what if that detail is crucial and they’re not going to be successful because of it? Throwing away decades of research, thousands of funding and hours of time just because they didn’t translate one fucking line properly. He can’t let that happen. Nefertiti’s tomb has been a myth for thousands of years and now when they’re so fucking close to revealing it and finding her, uncovering the mountains of deception that were used to try and erase her from history, they can’t fuck up. They just can’t.
“Baby, look at me, please.”
Harry reluctantly turns his head and looks at his husbands face. His beautiful, beautiful face that even after a decade together, can capture Harry’s full and unwavering attention.
“We’re going to find her, Harry. You know we are. We’ve been through everything, we found all the evidence that we have knowledge of, we have a great team. Everything’s gonna be perfect.”
“How can you know that?” Harry opposes petulantly.
Zayn just smiles and tucks Harry’s hair behind his ear. “Because that’s what going to happen. We know what we’re looking for, we know where we’re lookin. It’s simple.”
Harry sighs, closing his eyes for a moment and finally letting himself enjoy Zayn’s touch on his cheek. “How can you be so calm? We’re leaving next week.”
“I’m not exactly calm, babe. But I’m more excited than stressed. And you know what?”
“What?”
“We’re going to get early dinner tonight, at that Greek restaurant you love so much. Then we’ll go home and I’ll fuck you till you forget all about Egyptian pharaohs. How does that sound, love?”
Harry laughs and he can’t help himself but give Zayn a short kiss. He wraps his arms around Zayn’s neck, crossed at the wrists and they just smile at each other for a short while, as if they were in uni again and not in their 30’s.
“I hope you know that I have the 8AM class tomorrow morning. I also hope that knowledge comes back to me before we go and attempt to dig up another royal grave,” Harry chuckles.
“It came back to you many times before since we’ve dug up quite a lot of royal graves in a desert together.”
“That should be morbid, really. Somehow it isn’t.”
“Well,” Zayn smiles and leaves a trail of kisses along Harry’s jawline. “Some married couples like to have babies or have dinner parties. We dig up Egyptian mummies on a regular basis. Everyone has their thing and this is ours.”
“You know,” Harry says between kisses that have moved to his lips. “I wouldn’t mind having a baby. But I love our marriage anyways. I’d never trade our expeditions for boring dinner parties where we try to like, show off our new wine fridge or whatever to our neighbours we don’t really like or friends from uni. I just, I knew we were on the same page since our first date.”
“I did too,” Zayn whispers against his lips. “Besides, we’re not that old. The tombs aren’t going anywhere. If we ever want to take a break to like, properly settle down, we can do that. Those mummies have been there for thousands of years, they can wait a few more.”
“Are you aware that anyone could barge in right now and see us snogging? In my office? In our workplace? Any student of mine could knock on the door right now and catch us here, kissing above a scroll that’s older than this city,” Harry says breathlessly but he doesn’t stop kissing Zayn in between words.
“If memory serves, we’ve fucked here before. Not once.”
“The door was locked and it wasn’t three in the afternoon.”
“Okay then,” Zayn says and pulls away from Harry. “Let’s get those scrolls back into the archive and we can get to dinner. We’ve got a reservation in an hour and you know traffic’s gonna be shit.”
“How’d you know to make a reservation?” Harry wonders, a crease appearing between his eyebrows as he watched Zayn carefully put the scroll from his desk into its tube.
“You’re not very mysterious. I know your ways, baby,” Zayn smacks a kiss on Harry’s cheek and leaves his office, letting the door swing open after him.
Harry packs his things with a dumb smile, wondering how he found someone so perfect for him.
<>
The next morning, Harry battles his way through dozens of students that would rather be sleeping than already having a lecture behind them while getting into Zayn’s classroom. A few students who probably already had their coffee greet him and Harry tries to make his smile as genuine as possible since he feels like he’s going to murder his husband.
When he finally gets to Zayn’s desk, the lecturing hall is almost empty and it takes a lot of strength not to slam the box with lunch onto the wood.
“Babe, hi,” Zayn smiles at him, standing behind his chair and rearranging some essays. “Thanks for my lunch, I must’ve forgotten it in the car. I was just about to text you actually.”
“Don’t babe me,” Harry whispers through his teeth. “I spent the entire exam my class just had walking around like a hungry lion in a cage. Why? Because I can’t sit comfortably and that’s all thanks to you.”
“I’m gonna be the devil’s advocate and remind you that I wasn’t the one begging to have my arse spanked last night, that was all you love.”
“You’re so annoying. We’re behaving like teenagers. I’ve got a video conference today. Which, believe it or not, requires quite a lot of sitting.”
“Goodbye, professors!” some student chirps while walking past the desk and Harry clears his throat, raising his voice back to normal and saying ‘ Goodbye’ as well.
“Alright, we look like we’re having a marital dispute which we are not,” Harry says after the student is out of earshot. “Your lunch and the little detail of my sore arse aren’t the only things why I stopped by. Stop smirking like that. The team has a meeting, today at 4PM in the conference room on the second floor. It’s the last one before our flight on Tuesday.”
“Thank you for stopping by, babe. My day is always better when I see you unexpectedly,” Zayn grabs his hand with a smile, discreetly enough that the handful of students still packing up or talking don’t see it. Either way, everyone knows they’re married, despite them not having matching last names. It’s not like they’re in a secret illicit relationship or they’re full on making out like some students do in the hallways.
Harry groans but he’s fighting a smile. “That was so cheesy. I love it.”
“I love you.”
“Okay, that’s enough PDA for this room. I’m leaving. Love you too, by the way. Don’t be late for the meeting or we’re leaving you in London. Bye.”
Harry desperately wants to leave a kiss on Zayn’s cheekbone but fortunately, he has enough self-control to leave with just a smile and a squeeze of a hand.
<>
Nine weeks and two days later, on a day that they deemed unsuccessful from the beginning, they find Nefertiti’s tomb in the late afternoon. They were almost ready to leave when they were called back inside the maze of corridors that were hidden for millennia, a member of their team saying ‘ I think we found something.’. They couldn’t not go.
After about half an hour of removing the rubble, brushing away debris and dust, there was it. Untouched and well preserved, the seal to a tomb was right in front of their eyes. With the hieroglyphs translated, there was a very slim chance left that this wasn’t Nefertiti’s masked tomb. This was it.
Years of their own work. Decades, if not centuries, of research conducted by many scientists and explorers. Millennia of myths about the queen’s secret tomb. And there it was. Disguised as nothing in the corridors branching off of Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Most historians and archeologists have certain goals set for their work. This was theirs, ever since their first expedition as students. The hard work getting their degrees, the research, putting their team together and digging through Egyptian deserts, it all led to this. Of course, they didn’t think I’d be possible to get to Nefertiti so soon. A little sliver of doubt that they’re never going to find the tomb was there too. And yet, here there are. They’re not old as they feared they would be, or assumed they’d be. It’s surreal.
Harry can’t help but touch the seal with his bare fingers. He’s risking God knows how many things by doing it but he has to, needs to feel this under his fingertips. It’s real, it’s not just a dream.
He looks at Zayn, both of their eyes wide in excitement and awe. “Are we going to open it today?”
“We won’t sleep knowing it’s here. Might as well do it.”
“God,” Harry breathes out and flings himself at Zayn, wrapping him in a hug. “We did it. I can’t believe we did it. It’s here, the seal is unbroken, the writing says what we needed it to say.”
“We did, babe. It’s not a myth anymore, it’s right there.”
“Fuck, my hands are shaking,” Harry laughs, his throat choked up like he’s going to cry. He might actually, because not only is this the thing he’s dreamed of for years but it’s a colossal historical discovery. And they did it. Their names are going to be attached to this like Howard Carter’s is to Tutankhamun’s tomb. The second they take the seal off, history will be made. The most famous Egyptian queen beside Cleopatra will be uncovered again.
“There’s no curse,” Zayn says, his hands clutching Harry’s, a focused razor sharp look on his face.
Harry takes a sharp breath. “There’s no curse,” he repeats.
Ever since they were about to go on their first expedition while in uni, the towering threat of the curse of the pharaohs has been freezing their blood and even making them fear mundane things from time to time. It’s always a risk, despite the knowledge that most curses are just made up or circumstantial to some misfortune. They’re Egyptologists, not fortune tellers on a fair and they know that no such things exist but the fear is still there. Our mortality is so fragile and even something as preposterous as ancient curses can make us shake with fear.
This has been a tradition for them, by now. There’s no curse . Three words that couldn’t possibly stop some ancient power from fucking up their lives, no matter with how much conviction they say them. But it helps. It’s a small thing that can calm them, at least a tiny bit.
“We’ve done this before. We’ve open many tombs. We’re still alive.”
Harry nods. “There’s no warning on the door. We’re not disrespecting anyone or anything.”
“Yeah,” Zayn breathes out and lets go of Harry’s hands. He turns at at their team, all of them breathless in anticipation. “Could I get a small hammer?”
After a few minutes of kneeling by the seal, both of them slowly getting it off with shaky fingers, the tomb is ready to be opened. They let the excavation team they hired get the stone door out of the way, which is truly a feat in the cramped corridor.
And there she is. A colorful sarcophagus surrounded by countless artefacts, all the things a dead soul would need in the afterlife. The air from thousands of years ago, musty and heavy, smells better than a lavender field to Harry right now. The dust, the spiderwebs, the insects. It has a certain magic to it that can’t be described. The feelings of uncovering something that’s been untouched for millennia is powerful, fulfilling, almost miraculous. The photos they take then will be in history books one day, on countless websites in just a few days.
Harry and Zayn look at each other before stepping in, seconds away from being the first people to enter a solitude of antiquity, untouched for longer than one could phantom. They don’t say anything. The words aren’t needed. They know. This is it. This is what they’ve always wanted. And now it’s right at the end of their fingertips.
<>
When they get back a few weeks later, it’s chaotic to say the least. They give interviews, National Geographic films a video with them about the mummy and the artefacts found inside the tomb, there’s just a lot of things they didn’t really expect to deal with. It turns out, Nefertiti brough interest of not only the arguably small community that was interested in their previous findings, but also the general public. They’re not strangers to having their worked noticed on a slightly bigger scale although this is much more massive than they ever expected.
Beside all of that press bullshit, they spend countless hours inside of labs with their team and various scientists trying to confirm the mummy’s identity and inspect the artefacts. All of it needs to be probably sorted and examined before it can be put together into an exhibition, which is very much desired by more than one museum. What they found was nowhere near Tut’s tomb but it was still pretty fucking awesome. Most importantly, it was authentic and untouched, the colours still bright and wood unrotten due to the sealed atmosphere.
They’re flying home from Italy, five months after uncovering Nefertiti’s tomb, when Harry decides to unpack the baggage he’s been carrying around for a few years. After spending a week in Rome, telling the same story of Nefertiti’s tomb and showing the same pictures and videos every day, Harry’s more than exhausted on their 5AM flight to London. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep or the excess of work that makes Harry turn in his seat and nudge Zayn awake, who knows.
“Baby, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Harry says quietly. The plane is eerily quiet, most of the passengers sleeping or simply too tired to talk.
Zayn rubs his sleepy eyes, yawning before he looks at Harry. “What’s up?”
“This will be a bit serious for talking about it on a plane but it’s truly about time we talked about it.”
“Is something wrong?” Zayn asks, his eyes suddenly more alert.
Harry just shakes his head and grabs Zayn’s hand in his. “Nothing’s wrong, I just. I wanted to talk about us taking a little break from all of this? Like, not right now, obviously we can’t do that. I’m proud of what we this and this is the biggest accomplishment of our careers.
“Katherine was talking about how we can go on an another expedition in a few months. And I just, didn’t feel excited about it, you know? Like, before this, I was eager to go anywhere but it can’t get better than discovering Nefertiti’s tomb. We’ve reached the peak. I don’t want to spend the next few years digging around Sahara, trying to find basically the same things we’ve found over the past decade. I want us to be at home, together, and maybe focus on our family instead of on mummies.”
“You want a baby, don’t you?”
“Fuck, yes!” Harry giggles. “I wanted Nefertiti’s corpse more than anything, we found it and now I want our living breathing baby. And no months away from home for at least two years. Or maybe a bit longer, it takes some time to actually get that baby home.”
“You’re so high maintenance, babe,” Zayn laughs. “Oh, you wanted to just find one of the most famous Egyptian queens in history and now just a baby.”
Harry looks at him with some slight concern. “You don’t want kids?”
“No, of course I do,” Zayn says and kisses Harry’s cheek. “But I think we need a proper vacation first. Fuck off somewhere for a month and not think about anything.”
“Oh, definitely. After all of this is over in a few weeks, we’re going to Italy for a month and we’ll eat nothing but pasta. We might get fat but it’d be so worth it.”
“And then, we can think about that baby.”
“Yeah. Vacation, then baby talk. Sounds like a solid plan to me.”
<>
The Pyramids look the same as they always do, even after almost five years of not seeing them. It’s not like Harry hasn’t been to Egypt for that long, he just spent his time in the country in Luxor, where the Valley of the Kings is and not here. Contrary to popular belief, Egyptologists do the majority of their “digging around” nowhere near the Pyramids. Since they’ve become a very popular tourist spot, it’s kind of impossible to explore the area around them all the time.
It’s the first time they’ve taken Vivienne to Egypt. Some people would raise their eyebrows at taking their three-year-old baby here but it’s no different than going on vacation. Just because her dads might have some work here too, doesn’t mean she won’t spend plenty of time splashing around in a pool as well.
Harry might be subtly trying to trick his daughter into finding a liking to Ancient Egypt but there’s no concrete evidence. If he puts on Scooby Doo in Where’s my mummy? for her sometimes, well that’s just a cartoon, isn’t it? Zayn calls him out on it sometimes, complains about how they need to let her find her own interests and not just follow whatever the two of them are doing. Although, neither of them would mind if she followed their footsteps. With all the things connected to ancient Egypt they have around the house, it might as well happen without any persuading from Harry’s side.
Over the past few years they’ve mostly done research at the university, still working with their team only that they didn’t always go with them at the expeditions. Neither of them have actually been to a full one, always just sort of visiting for a week or two. Harry didn’t want to miss hearing his daughter’s first words or first steps for things that have been in the sand for thousands of years and could be there for hundreds of more, if not discovered. The decision to put time with Vivienne first was a no-brainer for them both.
This is one of those rare times when the excavations are happening in Cairo and not Luxor so they take Vivienne to see their team who have been working there for three weeks already. As any three-year-old, Vivienne loves the sand and doesn’t care much about anything else. When Harry tries to carefully show her some artefacts, she focuses on his face instead of the dusty piece of ceramics he’s holding and starts giggling. It’s only natural Harry abandons the clay shard and kisses Vivienne’s face until she’s squealing with happiness.
Vivienne’s lack of interest in Ancient Egypt doesn’t necessarily mean that she won’t be an Egyptologist like her dads (“ Stop trying to make her into a little copy of you, Harry. The matching clothes are enough. ), she makes everyone around the excavation site quite happy and their breaks are more cheerful than ever. It might be a bit hard for Harry and Zayn to actually focus on what their team has uncovered with a toddler always in one of their arms but it’s still nice to introduce their daughter to what they do. A desert in Cairo isn’t your regular take-your-kids-to-work day but they’ve never been a regular married couple have they?
Later when they’re back home in London, watching Vivienne play on the floor of their living room while they go over some of their latest research together, they know they’ll never regret anything. No excavation site is better than the sight of their daughter, doing anything at all, and just them, being a family.