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Chapter Text

 Ahkmenrah stood back, rambling on to his mother as the New York exhibits explained to Larry what they had decided. He didn’t feel he could call them friends at this moment, and they certainly hadn’t consulted him on their decision of him staying in England, so why should he contribute? He could barely look at them, having stared unfocused at their feet when he followed them back. They hadn’t been concerned for him when the magic was dying. Not even Nicky, or Larry. They had focused in on Dexter. He had tried to rationalize it on the walk back to the museum, Dexter was an animal who likely didn’t understand what was happening. Dexter was small and childlike, most people would feel the need to comfort such a being. But the selfish part of him wanted to howl and cry, he had been literally dying in a way none of them could relate to, his body shutting down and decaying before their eyes. Or rather, it would have been before their eyes if they had looked to him. Which they hadn’t.

  Teddy he could excuse, he had already gone stiff. But he had had Sacajawea by his side, who didn’t turn. As he’d crumbled against the railing, he’d looked to Jedediah and Octavius, but they were absorbed in one another and trying to keep up with what Larry and Nicky were doing with Dexter. He’d tried to reach out for Attila, whom he’d always had something of a connection with, the king being able to speak his language and the warrior treating him as an equal. But Attila was crying, staring up at the Capuchin. Ahk slumped over, alone, his eyes fogging over and congealing, leaving him unable to even gaze at the moon one last time. He closed them against the growing darkness, and waited for Anubis to come guide his soul. But his heart was so heavy with grief in that moment, would it have balanced against Matt’s feather in the test to gain access to the afterlife? He wasn’t sure.

  He repressed the thoughts as perfectly as he had upon being released from his sarcophagus after fifty four years of suffering, another thought he shouldn’t be dwelling on, choosing instead to tell his mother all about the night’s adventure that she had missed. He heard his father thank Guardian Daley for returning him home. But what was home anymore? Home could no longer be Egypt, and it had been New York. Cambridge had never been home. Could this English museum truly be where he belonged? Merenkahre would clearly be the pharaoh here, Ahk would have to return to being beneath him after fighting tooth and nail in New York to be seen as a true adult. He would no longer be Ahkmenrah, fourth king of the fourth king, Ruler of the lands of his fathers. He would be Ahkmenrah, son of his father Merenkahre.

  It was only on the lowest nights, locked in the sarcophagus and out of air, when screaming was no longer a possibility and he couldn’t find it in him to bang and rattle, that the magic felt like a burden. But right now, gazing at a mother he hadn’t had time to properly miss, a father who would always see him as something more than he could ever be, and friends who apparently wanted to send him away, that he found himself wishing that the fool Lancelot hadn’t given the tablet to Larry in time. He wished the magic had died, and left him dead once and for all, whether his heart would have passed the test or not. When this realization hit in the back of his mind, his jaw snapped shut. His mother looked at him, amused.

“You do not have to worry about being improper my boy, you are incredibly excited. I will not fault you for speaking great lengths,” she laughed, brushing her hand across his cheek. Now he felt worse. He was a child again, that’s all he would ever be to his parents. A child who couldn’t behave properly without being reminded of the rules. A lump was forming in his throat, and his chest tightened. He needed to get away. He nodded to her and fixed a smile on his face before drawing away quietly.

“Yes, quite. Now if you will excuse me, I feel I must…I am quite dehydrated and need to sort it out,” he explained haltingly. She accepted this easily, having the same needs as him. After all, it wasn’t a complete lie, his body felt completely out of sorts after his second brush with death. He didn’t notice the attention his comment had drawn from his friends, however.

“Dehydrated? Since when d’you need to drink water, King Tut?” Jedediah called from Attila’s hat. Ahkmenrah’s tight smile faded and he clenched his fists discreetly, tucked into his cloak.

“Since I was born, Jedediah. I am a fully blooded being. I may be dead during the day but my body lives at night,” he couldn’t keep himself from revealing in the driest tone he could manage, already brushing past the group to leave the exhibit. There had to be water fountains around somewhere.

“Whoa, what?! Ahkmenrah, wait!” Larry called after him, and he wasn’t ashamed to say that he sped up ever so slightly. The night guard thankfully didn’t catch up with him until they were out of range of the exhibit, grabbing onto his trailing cloak. The pharaoh reacted automatically, whirling around to pull it out of the guard’s hands.

“Do. Not.” he growled. The guard put his hands up in surrender before trying to reach out for his shoulders. “Ahk, buddy-”

“Guardian, if you insist on speaking to me at the moment, you will have to walk and talk. I need water right now, truly.” Without giving him time to respond, he turned around and continued on his quest. Hah, “quest.” If it wasn’t for Lancelot and his quest, he might have been able to continue his death believing his friends cared for him. The lump steadily grew in his throat, his chest tightening with more than just the desperate need for air he was used to in his sarcophagus. He wished he’d kept his mouth shut, then the other man wouldn’t have followed him.

“Why didn’t you tell me you need to drink? To eat?!” Larry hissed to him, struggling to keep pace with the distraught pharaoh but still attempting to give him privacy by lowering his voice.

“I had no reason to. Why would I inquire about it simply because I was allowed to roam around?” he hissed back, looking anywhere but at Larry. He had often entertained the idea of informing Larry of his need, but he didn’t want to put strain on him more than the museum already did. He also knew that if Teddy found out, it would add to his guilt over leaving the young man to the former night guards’ devices for so long. But he couldn’t articulate that now, not while being swallowed by bitterness and betrayal.

“Wha-? Ahkmenrah, you’re not making sense. Did you not trust us with this? Will you-ugh-Ahkemnrah, please slow down and talk to me!” He latched onto his arm, bringing the young man to a halt. The pharaoh’s eyes had a gloss of unshed tears in them, and his lips trembled ever so slightly. But there was also a terrible anger in his face.

“I never should have trusted any of you with anything, as you all clearly didn’t think the friendship I shared with you was important,” he tried to remain strong but his voice wobbled and cracked dangerously. Larry, at least slightly well versed in handling sudden mood changes with Nicky, quickly pulled him through the museum until they found an abandoned office room. Once inside with the door shut, he maneuvered the pharaoh into one of the plush arm chairs and sat across from him.

“Now, what are you talking about? Ahk, we love you, how can you still doubt that?” Ahkmenrah took a deep, slightly hitched breath, and held it. He’d managed to calm down during the search for privacy but was still upset and having a hard time getting all the emotion under his mask. Larry’s words hadn’t helped.

  He didn’t speak and the silence rang out in the office. Larry stared at Ahk while he remained as still as possible. When he remained silent, the guard shrugged his shoulders and made a show of getting comfortable in his chair, commenting on how he could wait the rest of the night if he had too. Ahkmenrah didn’t doubt him, he was a father after all and had gained patience from dealing with the exhibits for so long. The pharaoh himself however found that he didn’t want to wait. If he dragged this out by refusing to talk, he could lose his chance forever. The New York exhibits were only meant to stay the night and the next day, boarding the plane back to New York before night fell. If Larry listened to the others and left him in England, he’d well, be left in England! He took another deep breath and tried to convey what was upsetting him in the clearest way possible, as the people at Cambridge had taught him.

“Guardian of Brooklyn…I am a flesh and blood. If you cut me, I will bleed. If I don’t eat I will grow hungry. The tablet grants this, and fixes it after each night. In the morning when the magic leaves me, I decay back to…how I truly am.” Larry stared at him uncomprehendingly, making a motion to continue with his hand. Ahk groaned in frustration.

“So on that rooftop-when our lives were ending…I could feel my body die again but it was almost worse than being murdered. This time I could also feel what internal organs I have left begin to rot, dust piling in the empty spaces that the tablet’s magic usually fills” His frustration was quickly being replaced by misery. He was curling into himself subconsciously, as though to protect himself. “My heartbeat was slowing. I was dying Larry, I was dying alone with all of your backs turned to me-!” His breath hitched, and he pressed a fist to his mouth, shutting his eyes tightly.

“And now,” he continued while the guard was still in shock. “Now you all want to leave me here, where I’ll never-I’ll never see any of you ag-again–” he had to stop, holding his breath tightly to keep from sobbing aloud.

  Larry scrambled to kneel in front of the distraught man. “Ahkmenrah! I’m so, I didn’t, I wasn’t thinking! Everything was going so fast on that rooftop, I just, I saw Dexter first, I didn’t even think to turn around to look at the rest of you. If I had known you were alive alive, I would’ve–”

“How could you not know?!” The pharaoh burst, tears escaping down his face. “I’ve never spoken about it, but you knew I was a real muh-mummy, you knew I was a murdered man, how could you not realize?!”

“I’m sorry, Ahk, I’m so sorry.” Larry pulled him out of the chair and the pharaoh all but fell into him, clutching him tight as he tried to reign in the tears. The guard continuously apologized and tried his best to comfort him without overstepping any boundaries, he had a feeling that after the events of tonight, a lot of long felled ones were probably standing once more. He could feel Ahkmenrah’s heart beating fast, and felt his own break. There were so many signs, and he had missed them.

  The heartbeat was the most obvious. Ahk also breathed regularly, whereas the other exhibits would stop and start when some subconscious part of their mind realized either that they didn’t need to or freaked out and insisted that they did despite the lack of need. He’d caught Nicky sharing food with him several times over the years when they were closer, and hadn’t even realized that he shouldn’t be able to eat it as he lacked a stomach or a digestive system. His brain was going wild, trying to find every little hint he’d missed and suddenly remembered embracing the king one night and hearing his stomach growl. It had confused Larry at the time, he didn’t feel his own stomach rumble, but it had to be his hadn’t it? How stupid he’d been! Bruises after rough soccer games, a bloody nose when Rexy accidentally struck him with his tail, hyperventilating while being introduced to the elevator and passing out, the way his screams would stop after a few hours on the first few nights when Larry had left him in his sarcophagus..!

  That was the true punch to the gut. Fifty four years, he’d grow hungry and dehydrated every night. And for fifty four years, he would suffocate every night, only the tablet keeping him alive. He tightened his hold around him though he was probably more distraught than the pharaoh at this point. The tears had stopped quickly as he regained control of himself, and his breath was mostly even again, but he was still clinging to the guard.

“We’re not going to leave you here if you don’t want to stay,” he offered, rocking the two of them side to side. “We’ll all go back to New York, and, and we’ll try to make this up to you. We’ll do everything in our power, okay?” He felt the king nodded and mumble into his shoulder that he wanted to go home to New York. Larry began to slowly pull away. “Okay. Why don’t you spend until sunrise with your parents? Me an’ the guys will go make sure everything else in the museum isn’t on fire and will be in its proper place when we take the tablet back with us.” The king nodded at him again, pulling away fully. Larry crossed over to the desk to get some tissues for him to clean his face. He hugged the young man tightly once more before they left the office, made a pit stop at a water fountain, and went back to the Egyptian exhibit.

  On the walk back, Larry was surprised at how well Ahk was hiding what had just happened. His face had already cleared up of blotchiness and his eyes were dry. He held his head high, his back straighter than ever, and he walked with as much regal grace as he usually did. It made Larry wonder if he shouldn’t have been surprised, if things like this happened more than he knew. Ahk was clearly capable of keeping painful secrets, naturally he would be good at hiding displays of emotion. He made a beeline for his mother and didn’t acknowledge anyone but her and his father. Larry gathered up their friends and drove them out of the exhibit carefully, setting them right on the mission to fix the museum. Half an hour until sunrise, they gathered in the storage room and prepared to get back into their crates. That’s when he decided to drop the bomb.

“Ahkmenrah is coming back with us.”

“What?! But Gigantor, he belongs wit’ his parents!” Jedediah insisted, with Octavius nodding by his side. Nicky also agreed from where he sat mostly dozing atop an unlabeled grate.

“I agree Lawrence, he has been lonely for far too long,” Teddy supplied. Sacajawea remained silent by his side, carefully gauging Larry’s face.

“I don’ care how hard it would be to make the museums accept it, he’s gotta stay! We’ve convinced them of crazier things Gigantor, really-”

“He doesn’t want to stay, guys, he said so!” he burst out before they could continue to try and blame him. They stared at him, though Sac didn’t seem surprised at all.

“…Really?” Octavius inquired.

“Really.”

“Huh,” Jed scratched his hair beneath his hat in confusion, glancing over at Octavius who just shrugged. Teddy stood up straighter, clearly shocked. Sac placed a gentle hand on his arm and nodded. Attila just hummed.

“Yeah. So I’m going to grab him, okay? Don’t try to change his mind or anything, he was pretty, uh, set on going back to New York. And uh,” Larry didn’t know how to phrase this. He wasn’t sure if Ahk would want to be around them or not. But if he told them to give him space, he might take it as them ignoring him again. “He’s uh, probably really tired of talking by now, so don’t be surprised if he’s uh, distant, or something.” He quickly escaped, rushing back to the Egyptian exhibit.

  The three royals were seated on the ground, leaning against one of the sarcophagi. In what Larry could assume was an uncharacteristic display of affection, Ahkmenrah was sitting between Merenkahre and Shepseheret, leaning against his father’s shoulder. He appeared to be asleep. Another thing the night guard didn’t know he could do. Backing out as quietly as possible, he stepped heavily in the hall beforehand to alert them to his presence before knocking on the wall just before the entrance way. He didn’t make the turn into the exhibit, instead calling out for permission. After a moment, the senior pharaoh responded affirmatively. When he rounded the corner, he found them standing in a more dignified half circle, Ahk showing no trace that he’d been dozing moments beforehand. Wow, Larry needed to sneak up on him more often, who knew what he hid from him on a regular basis. Pushing that thought aside, he gestured to his watch, letting Ahk know his time was up.

  He bowed to his parents and kissed his mother’s hand. They enveloped him in one long hug, whispering to one another in Egyptian, before they each straightened and separated. Ahkmenrah gathered the tablet and strode with purpose out of the tomb, his parents not watching and him not looking back. The night guard clapped a hand on his shoulder once he was in reach and thanked the heavens when the pharaoh didn’t shake him off. When they returned to the storage room, everyone greeted Ahk, who nodded in return, then climbed back into their crates. Once the sun rose, Larry sighed heavily and nailed the crate shut again. Nicky shared a worried glance with him.

  This was going to take a long time to fix.

Chapter Text

  The flight back to New York had been an uncomfortable one. Due to the time difference, the sun set while they were flying over England, but then “raised” again while they crossed the ocean, making them awaken for a short period before collapsing. Ahkmenrah was unsure what his frien--the other exhibits did during this period. He himself laid as silent as he could manage, trying not to panic at the knowledge that he was trapped in his sarcophagus and another crate. The crate was nailed shut, and his sarcophagus was fitted with the pins and a lock to prevent any over eager airport employee from opening it. Insulated by the packing peanuts and the bandages wrapping around his face, even less air than usual was filtering in through the lid’s opening and reaching his artificial lungs. It was difficult to decide whether or not it was a good thing that the archeologists at the English museum had rewrapped him, binding his arms and legs. It kept him from giving into the urge to slam into the casket, but it added to his utter discomfort.

  At some point Sacajawea tried to speak to him through the casket. Ahk attempted to respond, knowing that she was suffering from a fear similar to his, but he was afraid that once he opened his mouth he’d simply begin to scream. The bandages didn’t really lend themselves to more than screaming or groaning anyway. He was just thankful that his death mask had been kept by Egypt, he’d never be able to breathe through that. He settled on just tapping the wall as best he could with his elbow when she would go silent. They didn’t have to remain awake on the plane for very long thankfully.

  But of course, nothing in their lives could go simply.

  Larry was had made it his mission to have a proper heart to heart with Nicky. The stress and added worry about the museum had made his son more willing to talk, so they had spent a good portion of their day doing so. Nicky had stayed home from school, too tired from the flight for there to be any real reason for him to attend, so they had a lazy day. The conversation alternated between light and heavy, and they both felt better for it. Unfortunately, they got so caught up that Larry didn’t realize that it was passing sunset. He’d picked up his keys when he dropped the exhibits off that morning, and they rested heavily in his pocket as he realized he implications of him being late. There was a security lock on the sarcophagus, and its single key sat shiny and new on his ring. Which meant Ahk was left locked in his sarcophagus.

-

  Bolstered by the fact that he had been able to remain quiet on the plane, Ahkmenrah remained silent for almost an hour in his casket, doing his best to stem the panic. Over the course of his years of freedom, he had been trying to learn ways to keep himself from panicking. The old ways he was taught when he was young to keep calm during court were more effective for when he was out and about in the museum, not battling phobias. Right now, the best option seemed to be blocking out the circumstances and pretending that he was somewhere else entirely. If he was still on the plane or somewhere in transit, there was nothing he could do and shaking and screaming wouldn’t help anyone. He closed his eyes against the darkness and forced himself to breathe evenly. After a few hitching starts, he managed to sink into his mind. Daydreaming of the palace, he could almost pretend the warmth of wrappings insulating him was the sun’s rays on his skin. The grit of dust that of the sand dunes. He then preoccupied himself with processing what had happened.

  It was wrong to blame the others, he knew. That didn’t mean he didn’t blame them, no, he had a feeling that he would hold onto the feeling in his heart far longer than he wanted to. It wasn’t fair to them, but the emotion remained locked tight in his chest no matter how he tried to dissuade it. He’d rationalized it. Teddy and Attila couldn’t move much if at all, and Jed, Octavius and Sacajawea were trying to spend their last moments with the ones dearest to their hearts. That thought sent a pang of pain through the heart that still beat in his chest despite everything. He didn’t have anyone that dear to him. And Dexter was dearer to Nicky and Larry than he was.

   Nicky hadn’t spent much time with him in years, too busy with school and friends to spend his Saturday nights at the museum. It made sense that they had apparently grown apart. And Larry had apologized already. He shouldn’t blame them. But he did. He was also bitter over being left out of the decision making, though he knew they all legitimately thought he was better off with his parents. His friends didn’t know he’d spent thousands of years with them in their tomb and actually wanted time away from them. It hadn’t even been one hundred years since the tomb had been excavated and they’d been separated. Besides, his parents deserved to go to the afterlife with their Gods. Unlike him.

  Getting to say goodbye after this adventure had meant more to him than the prospect of him staying had. Merenkahre hadn’t been pleased that he didn’t want to stay, but Shepseheret talked him down. Kids eventually left home, princes became pharaohs, she argued. It had taken a considerable effort not to get angry at the kid remark. A burst of emotion from recalling the moment made him gasp, breaking the slow breathing cycle he’d gotten into. Dust and grime entered the lungs that the tablet’s magic created to keep him alive. The image he had built of his beloved Egypt broke and his eyes snapped open.

  The world around him returned, and he was again aware of his situation. How long had he been waiting? Maybe they were still on the plane. But then, he could hear the painfully familiar sounds of the museum continuing on with life without him. He had pushed on the lid with his bound feet when he first awoke, but now fought to free his hands to properly push at it, but it still didn’t open. He tried harder but the pins still held, lid simply rattling against base. Not again! The voices and footsteps of his friends were too far away to still be in the crate with him which meant that they were back in the museum. So why was he still locked in?! Unbidden, his hands balled into fists and began to beat at the lid. His breath came faster and faster, but he refused to scream and locked his jaw in place. Holding the increasing pressure in his chest however just put him seconds closer thrashing as much as he could, bound the way he was by the bandages. Fortunately, something knocked back on the lid before he could, jolting him out of his trance.

 “Ahkmenrah!” Sacajawea shouted.

“Be still!” He heard Attila shout in Hun. He tried to ask why he was still locked in, but even to him it sounded muffled.

“Ahkmenrah, English please. We can’t understand Egyptian.” Sac interjected gently. Ahk took a deep breath again, dust entering his body once more and making him quake. The sarcophagus shook in consequence.

“Why,” he tried his hardest to enunciate in English through the bandages and shout to be heard, “am I locked in?” There was a pause, hesitation evident.

“Larry hasn’t made it in to work yet, and he’s the only one with the key. We tried looking in his security booth and the offices, but there’s no copy. We haven’t heard from him.” He gasped hard, and set himself into a coughing fit, his head banging into the lid and heightening his desperation.   

“Try to keep calm, Ahkmenrah. I know it’s hard, you know that I do, just keep breathing. I know you can’t hear mine, but breathe as I count, alright?” Sacajawea tried her hardest to calm him down. She didn’t suffer from claustrophobia, but she did have a similar phobia of being locked in, called cleithrophobia. She had the added security that her past imprisonment wasn’t purposeful while Ahk’s past of being locked in was made a heavier burden by the fact that it had been powered by malicious intent.

  After his actions the night before in England, she had been set on having words with the pharaoh. She set out immediately to see him when she awoke, but found a worryingly silent and sealed sarcophagus. She and Teddy had searched for the key to no avail, returning quickly when Attila signaled that Ahk had begun to panic. Sac heard his breath hitch and stutter before following her counting.

“Now breathe out with me,” she continued to guide him. Attila was watching her and the sarcophagus closely. Behind her, Teddy was pacing in distress. He was taking having to leave Ahk to his cell again very hard. He had been compliant to the previous guards’ deeds, hell, he would sometimes taunt the pharaoh himself, safe beyond the reach of his statue guardians. The president had taken it upon himself to apologize to Ahkmenrah when he was more settled and things had calmed down in the museum. The king had smiled and forgiven him easily, too easily he knew. Watching how he interacted with him versus the other exhibits had shown him that he wasn’t truly forgiven, that the man still held doubt or fear of him. It had taken over a year to get Ahk to be as comfortable around him as he was around the others. The idea that this repeat of events could set that trust back terrified him, making him endlessly restless. Eventually he broke.

“There has to be something we could do!” Ahk distantly heard Teddy exclaim. Memories of the president promising he would never be released surfaced unbidden, causing him to forget what Sac was attempting and cry out, his fists to smashing into the lid again.  

“TEDDY PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME IN HERE AGAIN, DON’T LET THEM LOCK ME IN DON’T LET THEM KEEP ME IN HERE, PLEASE, I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING, I NEVER DID ANYTHING TO THE GUARDS, I PROMISE, YOU DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO THEM, YOU DON’T HAVE TO KEEP ME LOCKED IN!” Sac and Attila turned to stare at the president who had gone stock still, pale and wide-eyed, staring horrified at the shaking sarcophagus as Ahkmenrah devolved into wordless screams.

“LAWRENCE!” Teddy roared, whirling to face the exit and quickly putting distance between him and the casket. “YOU HAD BETTER GET HERE SOON!”

  Meanwhile, said night guard had finally gotten in to work and had been immediately pointed toward the Egyptian exhibit. When the screaming reached his ears he broke out into a hard run, struggling to get the key to the security lock off his ring as he went. He wasn’t going to risk Dexter poofing in out of nowhere and stealing Ahk’s ticket to freedom.

  Teddy snatched up the key as soon as he was within reach and rushed back over, brandishing it to Sacajawea who had been trying to get through to the pharaoh. Attila stood at the foot of the sarcophagus, looking troubled. After a moment of deliberation, he breathed deeply, opened his mouth wide and hollered something. Ahkmenrah quieted and went still. Attila then rounded the casket to stand by his head and speak to him, though no one but the pharaoh could understand him. The imprisoned man responded shakily, barely audible to the crowd, but Attila seemed satisfied, replying to him before turning to Teddy and Sac and nodding. Larry mumbled something about not letting him fling the lid off.

“Right,” Teddy started but Sac shushed him. They didn’t need a repeat of the meltdown he just had.

“Ahk, listen to me carefully. I need you to keep your hands away from the lid, alright?” Teddy set about unlocking the security lock and removing the pins on the sides. He left the last one in until Ahk gave an affirmative sound. “Good. Now, keep still alright? I’m going to count and you’re going to breathe with me again. Attila is going to open the lid. One, two, three…” She set into counting as soon as she dropped the bomb, trying her best to keep him too preoccupied to truly process what she’d said. Attila made quick work of pulling the lid toward him, away from where Ahk’s head would be. As soon as light was filtering through his wrappings, the pharaoh sprang up into a seated position, struggling to get them off his head. Sacajawea tried to help but he flinched away. Once off, he blew the dust out of his lungs and simply took a moment to inhale fresh air, one full body shudder wracking his frame. When he was finished, he looked over and met Sac and Teddy’s eyes before grinning.

“So we are back in New York then?” he asked simply, as if the last fifteen minutes hadn’t been composed of his very vocal agony.

  Teddy nearly fell over he was so floundered, and a clatter from across the room suggested Larry had. Sacajawea had found that men, rulers especially, didn’t typically have the best coping mechanisms. She had seen Ahkmenrah paste on more fake smiles than anyone else seemed to notice. So she wasn’t shocked that he was acting casual, though she was surprised that he seemed to expect them to go along with it, as if his new screams hadn’t reminded them all painfully of the years spent listening to him as background noise. Sacajawea’s exhibit was soundproof, but she had been able to pick up the constant vibration he set off. To be fair to the pharaoh, they did have a history of choosing the easier route of ignoring the signs rather than acknowledge them and face consequences. Current signs were the red not yet faded from his eyes, his deeper than normal breathes, the fact that he was dressed in his wrappings and still seated in his hated sarcophagus. Together, they further threw off the image of him smiling up at them.

  When Teddy and Sac didn’t respond, the king turned around to Attila, who was analyzing him. Repression in battle could be good, the Hun knew, but repression afterward never lead anywhere positive. It was also wrong that he hadn’t emerged yet. Men didn’t willingly stay on the battlefield if they didn’t have to. Ahkmenrah presented his hand, and Attila automatically clasped it tightly, pressing their forearms together. The two had seen “football” players on the television do it, and found it to be a fine expression of manly unity. The warrior king thanked him for helping himself regain himself, to which Attila simply gripped his hand tighter for a moment. Though Ahk was the only one outside his exhibit he could truly have words with, they often didn’t need them. In this moment, they were content with silence. When he released, Attila picked at the bandages encasing his fingers. Ahk’s eyes locked on his hand and he was reminded painfully that he was bound. Bound and surrounded by people who weren’t saying anything. He cleared his throat and gently reclaimed his hand from the Hun.

“Right. If you could give me some privacy, I need to right myself.” He spoke to the wall behind his friends more than them, unwilling to look at them. Larry took a few steps closer, the opposite of what Ahkmenrah wanted.

“Er, yeah, of course. Do you, uh, do you need help-?”

“No, no, that won’t be necessary Guardian.” He gave a friendly smile. Larry struggled for a moment before indicating for the others to follow him. Sacajawea gave him a hard look, promising a conversation later, while Teddy remained frozen in place staring at him until Sac took his hand and pulled him along. Attila followed them easily, but his eyes didn’t leave Ahkmenrah until it was impossible to keep watching him. Ahk listened carefully and as soon as their footsteps left range of his hallway, he called to his guards to block the entrance. He was desperate for privacy and wasn’t going to let someone wander in right now.

  First, he would free himself. He carefully slid the lid off the side to rest against the sarcophagus, aware he would be in trouble if it got damaged. Then he set about undoing knots and layers. He could never be truly relaxed in his exhibit, but tonight he was determined to find comfort in his home somehow. Though if he had known the others were having a conversation about him, he definitely would’ve left to prevent it.

 
~~~~~~~~~

“So, we’ve uh. We’ve got a problem we’ve been ignoring.” Larry started, awkwardly leading the conversation. In the safety of the security office, he, Teddy, Sacajawea, Attila, Jed, and Octavius gathered in a circle, all trying to get comfortable despite the tense atmosphere. Teddy was feeling the worst of them all, he and Attila had had free roam of the museum under the previous rule of the night guard trio, and they had never truly fought to get Ahk’s freedom, but unlike Attila he had supported the rulers.

“Ahk ain’t the only one who got locked up,” Jedediah argued defensively. All the miniatures feared having the gates pulled closed and locked on them once more. What he didn’t realize was that it was a different brand of fear, that they feared being unable to explore and fulfill their manifest destiny, and truly their boredom, while the pharaoh feared pure isolation and the physical and mental harm that came with it.

“We weren’t alone, Jed, it’s different” Octavius argued back, elbowing him in the side. Jed huffed and crossed his arms.

“We’ve got problems beyond that, though the fact that we haven’t really addressed his imprisonment isn’t, uh, isn’t great either. I’m more talking about England than this evening. That was my fault entirely.”

“What’s the problem then?”

“Did you not notice any of how he was behaving after the rooftop with Lancelot?” Sac inquired from her spot on the couch. Teddy had been deposited next to her and he sat wringing his hat in his hands, staring unseeing at it. The miniatures stood on the coffee table, Attila stood against the wall next to the door, and Larry stood before the desk. Normally Ahkmenrah would be present as well during these meetings, and the empty stool sitting to Attila’s side was a blaring reminder that things weren’t right.

“I had other things on my mind, thank you very much!” Jed huffed, purposefully not looking at anyone. He and Octavius both become a little red faced, though Oct simultaneously looked very pleased with himself. At the realization that they wouldn’t be losing each other, they had haltingly agreed to try to be more open with each other. They’d held hands in the cover of Attila’s hat to their hearts’ content.

“Well, he was really uh, affected by you all nearly dying and us wanting him to stay in England,” Larry summarized briefly.

“Guardian, why didn’t he want to stay?” Octavius inquired, clearly confused. Teddy perked up at this as well, managing to glance up a little and loosen the grip on his hat.

“He didn’t say. But I think he didn’t want to leave us. Ahk really loves us, guys, and in turn we really hurt him last night… I think he got the impression that we don’t care about him.” Everyone shifted a little, uncomfortable. Larry wasn’t sure how much he wanted to directly spell out for them, his and Ahk’s conversation had clearly been private and he didn’t want to hurt him further by breaching that expectation of privacy.

“Just--just think about how you each physically felt on that rooftop and try to imagine how a reanimated mummy would feel. Then imagine-I don’t know-the best analogy I have is to imagine all your friends are having a big, all-week-long sleepover or mission or something, and then after the third night they take you back to your parents’ house and drop you off without explanation.”

  Everyone fell silent, processing what Larry said.

“How can we make this right?” Teddy inquired quietly. Sac gently pried his hands away from his hat and held them reassuringly. Larry sighed and shrugged.

“We’ll just have to try our best.”

Chapter Text

  The next night, Ahkmenrah he emerged from his sarcophagus to find a surprise waiting for him. Nicky was leaning against one of the tomb’s interior walls, grinning at him.

“Hey, Ahk,” he greeted casually enough. If it hadn’t been years since this had happened, it would almost seem normal.

“Hello, Nicholas,” he greeted in turn, tone guarded. As happy as it used to make him to awaken to his young friend, his presence here after their latest adventure didn’t sit right with him.

“Aw, don’t ‘Nicholas’ me, I’m sorry that it’s been so long since we’ve really hung out. Life really gets in the way of some things, yano?” The pharaoh resisted the urge to remind him that he’d lost that privilege a long time ago, but didn’t. He could never forgive himself when he was cruel to Nicky, no one deserved cruelty but especially not the child.

“It’s alright,” he soothed quickly, “but you know the rules. Leave me be to get ready for the evening.”

“Right, and you’ll remember to call off your guards?” he joked. They both remembered the first time ten-year-old Nicky had barreled into the chamber while Ahk was dressing. The guards had moved faster than child had been able to believe, one blocking the entrance to the interior chamber, the other snatching him up. The teen still wasn’t sure what the guards actually did to intruders, no one was allowed in while the pharaoh was out, and he had never been unable to keep them from doing harm. That didn’t make them less threatening.

  Ahkmenrah hummed and made a show of considering the question. Nicky gave him a “puppy dog” face, making him laugh and concede, calling out the all-clear to the looming Anubis guards. Once the younger one had left, Ahk heaved himself out of the casket and set about unwrapping and dressing in his robes. Although they had fallen easily back into their playful companionship, he dawdled while preparing himself for the evening. Ahk didn’t understand why Nicky be visiting him first on one of his rare nights at the museum, let alone be visiting him before anyone else.

  Once dressed, he and Nicky exited the exhibit and made way for the roof. If they weren’t playing with Rexy or soccer with the others, they were probably talking on the roof. Larry hadn’t been psyched about that at first, but he conceded that there was no other place for them to get privacy for when they didn’t want to be bothered by others, and Nicky promised not to go near any edge. Ahkmenrah for his part had promised Larry that it wouldn’t matter if he fell from such a height, his crown would protect his brains from splattering on the concrete, and any other broken bones were inconsequential. The night guard had turned a little green and stared at him for a long moment before simply patting Ahk on the shoulder, prompting him again not to go near the edges.

  Dread was spinning in his “stomach” as Nicky lead the way. He didn’t really want to talk right now. He may not want to talk to anyone for quite a while, the way he was feeling. But to his surprise, when they reached the roof and the door shut securely behind them, Nicky rummaged through his backpack, and without a word, offered a brown paper bag. Ahkmenrah eyed it warily for a moment before deciding to trust him and accept it. When he opened it however, he couldn’t help but groan and thrust it back at the seventeen year old.

“Nicky-!”

“I can’t believe you never told anyone!” he cut in angrily. “I used to bring you food, how could you have never let slip you actually needed it unless you were purposely keeping it a secret?”

“I don’t need it, Nicky! I’ve survived this long, haven’t I?” This only served to make the teen more upset, shoving the bag containing a sandwich and water bottle back into the pharaoh’s chest.

“Yeah, you’ve ‘survived’. But have you been living?” Ahkmenrah stared at him blankly.

“I have no idea what you mean,” he stated flatly. He was usually more coy about not understanding someone in conversation when some new invention or moral concept was being employed, but Nicky had explained so much to him in the past that he found it easier to just be blunt. Nicky scoffed, crossing his arms across his chest defiantly.

“You know the difference between surviving and living,” he tried to state, but Ahk continued to stare. Now it was Nicky’s turn to groan. He dropped to the ground cross legged and gestured for Ahk to follow. He slowly settled upon his knees with his ankles beneath him, his cloak billowing out behind him in the slight wind.

“I’ll find a book on it for you or something, I don’t know how to explain it. Just- life is meant to be spent making yourself and those around you happy, and to make a mark on the world. To be happy you have to try to be as healthy as you can, and find ways to make yourself comfortable and content. You’re not supposed to be starving yourself and keeping it from your family,” Nicky finished with a glare. Ahkmenrah was affronted.

“Life is “meant to be spent” keeping ourselves as close to our gods in image and in action, not on trivial things such as bodily comfort,” the pharaoh fired back quickly. What Nicky was saying was meant for the joys of the afterlife!

“Trivial-? Ahk, are you hearing yourself?!”

“Yes, trivial! If my soul is reclaimed, there will be no discomforts, no hunger or grime or need! I am as my situation begets. My father’s father was Ra himself, to acknowledge any way in which we are different than the gods is to set ourselves adrift from their light.”

“Okay, fine, cool it. I get it, you couldn’t tell me, sheesh.” The kid scrubbed his hands over his face before slumping into his hoodie, fiddling with the paper bag sullenly. There was no arguing with Ahk over his religion, and there was technically a rule against it in the museum. Not with arguing with the king specifically, but arguing over religion in general was a no-no outside calm debates. Even those were few and far between, not many could stay calm when in defense of their beliefs, but Ahkmenrah was the worst. He did note that something about the lecture was bugging him, something he said sounded different. He’d figure it out later and bring it up to his dad.

  Ahk watched him, growing more dismayed. The pharaoh hated upsetting Nicky still, even after so many years. He swallowed and tried to fight the instinct to comfort him, but found himself speaking after the hoodie continued to eat his friend during the long silence.

“That…that’s not the only reason. I would have trusted you and the others with my care, believe me. But,” Nicky was paying rapt attention to him, “to be truthful, I thought the reveal would only hurt you all…” his voice trailed off as he fiddled with his sleeves in an unconscious reflection of Nicky. He knew that was likely why he mentioned it at all, he was hurt and it was a form of lashing out. Not that he’d ever admit it.

“Why would it hurt us?” He was more teenager than hoodie again thankfully, but this was the exact thing Ahkmenrah hadn’t wanted today, him talking about his feelings. He was horrified to feel his face heating up and took a long moment to gather himself.

“Maybe not all of you, specifically your father and President Roosevelt.”

“Because?”

“…”

“Ahk?”

“Because Teddy was compliant in my imprisonment which starved me for so long, and Guardian Daley would think he had to supply food for me on a regular basis and put even more of a financial strain on himself than the museum already does.” Ahk successfully got it all out in one breath before withdrawing back into himself. He was done talking. Beginning to stand, he was surprised when hands grabbed onto his forearms, pulling him closer to the teen. Nicky was staring up at him with alarmingly bright eyes.

“And you think continuing to keep the secret so Teddy couldn’t try to make it up to you helped? Or that we couldn’t have worked something out? You can be so dumb sometimes, Ahk.” His words were biting, but when the pharaoh was close enough, the teen captured him in a hug. Ahk rocked unsteadily onto his knees, awkwardly captured. He held onto his friend, convincing himself it was so that he wouldn’t fall over and not because he wanted the comfort.

“You have to stop hiding things from us,” Nicky spoke into his chest. “I mean it. You’ll be happier and so will we.”

“Revealing secrets hasn’t brought me happiness so far,” he argued quietly , unconsciously holding the teen closer.

“Well,” he drew back to look Ahkmenrah in the face, “when I told my dad I wasn’t planning on going to college right away, if ever, he wasn’t immediately happy. He was actually really upset about it for most of the trip, Lancelot helped me more than he did.” Ahkmenrah’s grip on his hoodie tightened. “But we sat down yesterday and actually talked it all out! And I really think things are going to better between us now. It wasn’t easy, but now we’re both happier. So you just need to do the same for your secrets.” They broke apart, now sitting closer than before but still able to be comfortably in their own spaces.

  Ahk sat back on his ankles again and scoffed, tugging his cloak around him. The mention of Lancelot combined with their rooftop location had brought a chill to his body, he was hyperaware of his breathing pattern and the gravel beneath his knees.

“I think my four thousand years has breed too many secrets, Nicky. If I tried to talk them all out we would do nothing else.”

“You don’t have to tell us all of them, just like, the important ones!”

“Which are the important ones?” he asked dryly, eyebrow raised. “I don’t think it was that important to know my baser bodily functions, which you and your father apparently did.” Nicky pursed his lips and considered for a moment, thrown. Obviously what he, his dad, and the more modern exhibits would consider important things to know would be different than the ancient king’s standards.

“I…I don’t know. Just, just try to answer honestly when we ask you things.”

“When I speak honestly you all typically tell me I’m being too dark.” Ahkmenrah’s voice and gaze were growing flatter, he was clearly becoming less and less convinced of what Nicky was trying to convey to him. Nicky floundered, trying to recapture lost ground.

“I-I’ll talk to them about that! We uh, we clearly haven’t appreciated how different your way of thinking is from ours. We’ve tried to make you act more according to our standards without considering yours.”

“That’s not necessarily wrong,” Ahk argued on Nicky’s behalf. “We aren’t in Egypt. We are in the Common Era, the modern era, there is no room for my way of thinking here.”

“M-maybe outside but in the museum you should be able to be yourself!” Nicky fought. “What goes on here isn’t exactly the norm, we should’ve acted differently.”

“Nicholas, you’re getting worked up over nothing,” Ahk tried to soothe. “If it means that much to you, I’ll try to be more honest when asked direct questions from now on. But if anyone, especially your father, is unhappy by the results, I’m sending them your way. Deal?” Nicky brightened and agreed, clearly overjoyed to have reached a compromise. As a show of good faith, the pharaoh ate half of the sandwich and drank some of the water, making the teen beam at him.

“Now if everything is settled between us and you don’t mind, I’d rather not be on a rooftop right now.” Ahk smiled but the self-deprecating edge was visible. Nicky paled and set into action instantly, scrambling to gather his backpack and reach his feet, even tugging on Ahk’s arm in his fervor to get them down.

“I am so sorry dude, I didn’t even think about what happened with the tablet yesterday, I was just thinking about the aftermath.” Nicky practically propelled his down the stairs.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Ahk waved him off easily despite the chill still deep in his bones, the sensation of dust in his insides. Maybe being honest wasn’t going to be so easy.

  For the rest of the night, the two played soccer together, at one point having to chase after Rexy when he caught it in his jaw and ran with it, and relaxed in the security office. Ahkmenrah noticed Larry and Teddy hovering around in the corner of his eye while they played, but thankfully they left them alone in the office.

  The next night, a “self-help guide” on “Living and Surviving: The Difference and How to be More Intune with your Needs” was resting beside his sarcophagus with an apple. He scoffed, but could never resist a book. He got ready for the night before picking up both and flipping the book open. He’d long since mastered the ability to walk and read, and so set off for the front booth with his nose stuck in the pages.

~

  Really, the trouble Nicky went through to help his friends. He’d dragged his dad after his shift to the first open bookstore, despite all his tired groans.

“It’s to help Ahkmenrah,” was the only argument it took to make the guardian agree, but that didn’t make him any happier about putting off sleep. They’d searched the surprisingly large self-help section for what felt like hours before finding the book that was titled almost too perfectly. Larry also picked up a book for himself, “Facing the Consequences of Lacking Communication.” Nicky joked that it would help the museum situation and their own, which earned him an elbow to the side and an attempt at a noogie, which the teen easily avoided due to Larry’s fatigue.

  On the subway home, Nicky remembered his conversation with Ahkmenrah on the roof, and what seemed off suddenly clicked in his head. He fidgeted a little, trying to find the confidence that he had behind a turntable. It just felt like he was breaching some form of privacy on the pharaoh’s side, but he really thought he should say something about it. After all, he’d told Ahk to be more open, and he and his dad were also trying to be more open. So he took a deep breath and steeled his nerves.

“…Hey, dad?”

“Yeah, Nick?” Larry was slouched low in his seat with his eyes closed, the crown of his head resting against the window. There weren’t many people present on their early morning trek.

“Ahk’s like, super religious right?” Larry cracked one eye open and gave him a side glance.

“Yeah, thinks the sun dies and is reborn every morning and everything. Why?” Nicky crossed his arms tightly, very uncomfortable.

“He just-we were talking and I accidently impeached on his religion so he was lecturing me, and he said something that made me--worry I guess. His word choice was surprising.” Larry sat upright and gazed at him steadily.

“What’d he say, Nick?” he asked quietly, carefully.

“…The afterlife came up and he said that “if” his soul was reclaimed, he would rejoin the gods. He used to say “when” he rejoined them.” Larry hummed and pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing.

“…Okay, thanks for letting me know, Nicky.”

“It’s cool.” His crossed arms loosened a bit, the weight off his shoulders. He let himself grin, nudging his dad’s shoulder.

“You should’ve seen us running after Rexy. He managed to catch our soccer ball between his jaws and took off.” Larry laughed, nudging him back.

“I think the whole museum could hear you two yelling after him, buddy.” Nicky threw his hands up defensively.

“What else were we supposed to do? We were tied! The game couldn’t be over then.”

“Didn’t he end up winning though?” Nicky scoffed, slumping back in his seat.

“Yeah he did, he totally killed me. It wasn’t fair though, after Ahk promised Rexy that he’d spend more time with him, he was totally cheating for him. I don’t think his tail has ever been in my way more than it was tonight.”

“You’ll just have to challenge him to a rematch next time you see him, no dinosaurs allowed.”

“Totally, then I’ll really show him whose boss.” Nicky laughed and the conversation drifted elsewhere. Inwardly Larry smiled. He’d gotten Nick planning to go back again, gotten him working on his friendship with the king again. Maybe things would go their way after all.

Chapter Text

  Sitting with his sandaled feet up on the desk, Ahk started reading the introduction to the self help guide and munched on the apple. While he resented the presence of both items, it would be rude to disregard them. The book didn’t bear the telltale signs of belonging to a library, which meant Larry or Nicky had to have paid for it, and the apple as well. The apple was almost too good, and he ate it slowly, savoring it.

  The book so far hadn’t done anything but patronize him, so he was pleased to hear the motorized toy car the miniatures rode around in stop beside the desk, if only for the distraction that was sure to follow. He didn’t move, knowing an offer to help them reach their destination wouldn’t be welcome, and leaving his relaxed position upon their arrival would make it seem like he wasn’t supposed to be sitting the way he was. He technically wasn’t, but he couldn’t give that away. By the time Jedediah and Octavius had made it to the top of the desk, he was finished with the introduction and first chapter, and the apple was half gone.

“Hey, King Tut! Yah wanna share that apple, boi?” Ahk inwardly twitched at being referred to as “boy”, but reasoned that Jed talked to everyone like that. He broke off a piece fit for the two of them and placed it on a bit of napkin before them. The desk didn’t usually have napkins, but it wasn’t becoming for a king to have apple juice dripping down his chin, so he had grabbed some.

“Sweet!” Jed crowed, immediately sitting and digging in, pulling Octavius down with him. The pharaoh eyed them covertly, hoping they weren’t about to have some kind of romantic picnic or something. He was more than fine with their relationship, happy that their overt sexual tension may finally be resolved and make them less annoying, and make them happier, but if there was anything he didn’t need right now it was a happy couple in his space.

“Mmm!” Jed took a bite and loudly slurped up the juice before jumping up. “I forgot! I need to get to the Hall of African Animals right now!”  He scrambled to his feet, hastily wiping his chin. Then he paused, teetered on one foot before dropping back down, snatching up his part of the apple, and kissing Octavius’ cheek quick. He ran and dropped off the edge of the desk deftly, and Ahkmenrah had to resist the urge to check to make sure he was okay, but the car engine started up soon after and he knew he was fine. Octavius was busy blushing and coughing to cover it up. Ahk kindly looked away from him, adjusting himself in his chair to sit properly now that it wouldn’t seem rushed, before watching the toy car disappear down a hall.

  They enjoyed an amicable silence while they finished their apples. When Octavius was done, he cleaned his hands and face with the napkin and stood up. He cleared his throat, recapturing Ahk’s attention.

“I wanted to ask you something,” Oct started. Ahkmenrah inwardly sighed and hoped to Horus that Octavius wasn’t about to bring up something relating to the last few days.

“You’re always welcome to, Octavius.”

“Right. Did your father really mean it when he said he was the son of Ra?” Octavius inquired, somehow managing to sound condescending and confused at the same time. Ahkmenrah sat up straighter.

“Yes, he meant what he said, and what he said was the truth.”

“Does that make you Ra’s grandson or something then?” A sneer was beginning to twist on his face. The pharaoh was harshly reminded of why he and the miniature could never speak of their respective homes in the other’s presence. They couldn’t help but argue. Over the years they agreed on many a compromise, and one of the main ones was that they wouldn’t speak of their country’s opinions of the other. Another was that Ahkmenrah wouldn’t refer to Octavius as “emperor”, as that was a title he never claimed, and likewise Octavius wouldn’t call Ahk “pharaoh”, as that wasn’t the Egyptian term but a strange English invention. Ahkmenrah had begrudgingly come to accept and sometimes use the term himself, but it was nice to have at least one person not use it.

“It is no different than you being a descendent of your goddess Aphrodite, Augustus.” He worded carefully, trying to keep his tone reserved but some heat escaped. He’d nearly said ‘claiming to be’ instead of ‘being’ and he silently congratulated himself. Octavius meanwhile, spluttered.

“Of course it’s different! My gods are real—“

“Augustus.” He pressed, fire in his eyes. “I remind you of the agreement we made almost eight years ago regarding our cultures.” Octavius straightened up and adjusted his armor for a moment.

“Right. I apologize for bringing it up, I knew we would likely have a row. I should have just let it be.” He inclined his head in apology.

“It’s quite alright,” Ahkmenrah forgave him easily aloud though he knew he didn’t legitimately. He would avoid the Hall of Miniatures for a while, then he would get roped into some game or incident with Octavius and Jedediah, then things would be alright again. He sat looking out on the museum, assuming Octavius would have run off as the miniatures were want to do, but he instead felt eyes on him and turned to find him still standing there, staring up at him.

“Are you doing that thing you do? Lady Sacajawea and President Roosevelt were saying something about you stating you have forgiven someone when you really haven’t.” If Ahk hadn’t been raised for the court since birth he might’ve spluttered indignantly, or blushed, or maybe his eye would have twitched. But as it was he remained stone faced. He inhaled deeply and tried to remember what Nicky had said about being honest responding to inquiries, and how it would help his overall life at the museum.

“Would you prefer I admit that I will hold a small grudge for a while and forgive and forget about it later rather than sooner?” He asked in a sigh.

“I suppose I would,” Octavius answered honestly, causing Ahk’s head to snap over to him. The Roman king shrugged.

“I know it’s…hard,” he said carefully. His hands moved anxiously before latching onto the belts of his armor securely. “I have had 62 years of…playing, I suppose, to relax. I was as rigid as I was in life originally, but that grew old quickly. We as a miniature Rome could not expand, no matter how we tried, only fight against the old guards. Fight against our neighbors. So why be an utterly strict military leader all the time? Everyone needs a break. I don’t have to act like a king all the time anymore, or keep secrets as I did in life. I still am a king, and that won’t change no matter how I act. Because I have my country who will support me in my role as leader.” He gazed up at Ahkmenrah who was temporarily stunned silent.

“But I’ve come to realize that you haven’t had any of that. I’ve realized that you have only interacted with a handful of people since you died back in Egypt. Then you got stuck here with us, and we haven’t treated you as well as we could. I mean that!” He insisted when Ahkmenrah went to argue.

“We left you for 54 years. Then we…We let you pretend that that was a fine thing, that you were okay. It was easier than having to be apologetic-”

“Octavius,” Ahk uncharacteristically interrupted the other man, “in the spirit of being honest, I wish to have a reprieve from heavy conversations, if only for a day or two. Please.”

“Phew, fantastic.” He scratched at his chin, and sagged, visibly relieved. “I’m not sure I had that conversation in me right now either. I usually spend some time preparing before any big speech or debate.” Heavy conversations with the giants still weren’t his forte. It was easier when you were on level footing with the other person.

“Yes, there were many statues depicting you as a great orator, were there not?” The king smirked. Octavius pointed at him threateningly.

“Don’t you start on statues, Mister Egyptian. King of the hide-statues-of-everyone-everywhere people. Have the architects even found any of yours yet?”

“What makes you think there are statues of me?” He asked with an eyebrow raised, gazing at the Roman skeptically.

“Uh, the fact that all the kings and queens had them made?” Ahk shook his head.

“No, I do not have any statues. My father never had any of me made whilst he was alive, and I focused on the temples of the Gods while I ruled, not on my tomb.”

“Why didn’t he have any of you made?” Octavius was aghast, from what he knew of the other’s culture, this didn’t make any sense. Ahk shrugged.

“In life I did not understand either. There were many frescoes of us as a family, or just my father, brother and I together. When I ruled, many of myself alone were painted. But when the tablet awoke me after death it all made sense. Having ka statues would risk splitting my soul into pieces, I could’ve awoken a partial person.”

“Right,” Octavius forced himself to agree. After all, as far as he knew, his soul wasn’t split into any of his statues. “I see. Makes sense.” The king nodded, zoning out slightly.

“Besides, could you imagine a statue of me here, sharing my soul? A m-uh-…mummy and a statue of the same person, reanimated and animated at night fall.” He grinned darkly. His mind wandered down the road of that possibility, while Octavius shuddered. Yes, he could imagine it. He could imagine the statue being smashed by the previous guards. If it worked how the Egyptians thought, the smallest break would’ve been enough to damage the connection the soul had to the statue, and after that…the statue probably wouldn’t have had much more personality than any of them had during the day.

“It would certainly be strange if there were two of any of us!” he agreed aloud cheerily. Ahk never needed incentive to get darker, and if Octavius’ mind had immediately gone to the former night guards, Ahkmenrah probably wasn’t far off.

“Annn-nyway, are we okay now?” Oct asked, quickly changing the subject. Ahk’s eyes quickly changed from darkly amused to introspective.

“…I think so,” Ahk answered honestly after a moment of consideration. Octavius crossed his arms at him and raised an eyebrow.

“I mean it!” he insisted, an amused grin bubbling up on his face. Octavius put his hands on his hips, squinting at him. Ahkmenrah sighed and straightened upright.

“I, Ahkmenrah, fourth king of the fourth king and son of Merenkahre, swear to you that I am not holding a grudge. Unless you keep pushing it,” he ended his very serious oath with a sunny grin. Octavius laughed in a quick burst, startled by the joke. He tried not to focus on the change in the king’s title as Jed rode back up to the desk, hooting and hollering for Octavius and Ahk to help him. He was off the desk and in the passenger seat of the truck before the king could blink, and he raced after them, the self-help book left behind. It was open to chapter two, which was simply titled “Let the Little Things Go.”

Chapter Text

  Teddy sat upon his horse, Texas, motionless. He watched Ahkmenrah and the tiny electric automobile race off down the hall and gripped the reins. He wanted desperately to follow and help, but stayed himself. A day or two without heavy conversation, that is what Ahkmenrah had requested of Octavius. Could the president approach without igniting a “heavy” talk? He feared he and the other man needed to have words, but the king did deserve a break. But the waiting was wearing on himself.

  He had always been “President Theodore Roosevelt; at your service!” before. But he currently could not aid someone who had become incredibly important to him, couldn’t even be around him. Texas shifted beneath him, sensing the nervous energy and wishing to fix it. Luckily, there was someone else in the museum who knew something was wrong with the former president.

  Teddy startled when a hand gently pat his foot, which had been resting stiffly in the stirrups, but quickly eased when he found it was Sacajawea, looking up at him fondly.

“Hello, my dear,” she spoke kindly, and Teddy found himself moving on autopilot to make room for her behind himself on his saddle. She climbed up, motions as easy as breathing, and wrapped her arms around him.

  The two remained silent, just being together in the shadowy corner that Theodore had hidden himself in. Teddy released the reins and tangled the fingers of one hand in the strings of her braids, the other having been claimed by her own hand. He breathed in deeply and sighed.

“What troubles you?” she asked, voice gentle to break the quiet naturally. She was treating him as though he were fragile, which would normally infuriate him, but at this moment he found he needed it. He never could figure how she had learned him so fast, so deeply. He sometimes felt like a fish floundering on dry land in their relationship, with how effortless she made it seem, but he knew that Sac worked and tried just as hard as he did. They had both made mistakes in the past, and they would make mistakes together in the future. But such were relationships. His current mistakes with the pharaoh were the ones weighing him down at the moment; if anything Sacajawea only made the trouble more bearable. Again, he realized, such were relationships.

“Nothing I can fix currently,” he admitted. He knew that Sac was also eager to speak to the pharaoh, though she was a touch angrier than him. Or a ton angrier, it depended on how one looked at it. Theodore looked on it with apprehension of it ever being turned on him. She shifted behind him, and Teddy knew she had picked up on the situation he was referring to.

“Yes, there’s nothing to be done for that now, is there,” Sac agreed a bit stiffly. Teddy gripped her hand a tad tighter until she relaxed again. “As that is how it is, and we both acknowledge it, why do you lurk in the dark?” Theodore was momentarily glad that she was behind him and couldn’t see the blush spread up his neck. He must seem rather silly, spying on the pharaoh like this.

“I’m just feeling…” Useless. “…restless.”

“Well, why don’t we find Larry and see if he, or someone else, needs us?” “We” and “us” were terms that Teddy had found he greatly enjoyed. He melted back against her, finally, and nodded his agreement. She guided his hands back to the reins before wrapping her own securely around his chest, bracing him. Together, they trotted out of the dark and back into the light, already making one another feel better about their current predicaments.

-

  The next night, Ahkmenrah’s body breathed in life, only to sigh with sleep. Sometimes he would doze off in his sarcophagus if he was particularly tired mentally, and last night’s African Animal fiasco had left him more than a little drained. He didn’t typically sleep long, the second that his lungs grew strained from the decreasing oxygen he would awaken and be out of the case in a flash. This night, however, he wouldn’t get to that point.

  Negative dreams swirled in his subconscious, making him shift anxiously. At a particularly bad part, his hand snapped out instinctively to lash out at his opponent, his knuckles connecting wrong with the roof of the case. It was sent up briefly into the air, rotating on the base by his feet, before crashing back down. The pain from the unplanned punch lurched Ahk awake, his body rocking up as the lid came down, smacking into his head.

  He had yelled out before he could prevent it, thrashing out of his prison, clutching at his forehead. He landed beside the case, legs clumsily crossed and retaining his tension, his toes curled with pain. His right knuckles were swelling fast. He bent over his lap, cradling his head and cursing in every language he knew while fighting off the moisture in his eyes. Footsteps and horse hooves were approaching fast and he groaned to himself, wondering if he should call off his guards. If the others had heard him, there was no way in hell there were going to be barred from his exhibit, and he’d prefer none of his friends were torn apart this night. But before his scrambled brain could process this, a voice was cutting through the fog.

“What happened?!” Larry called out, fright evident in his voice. They’d never heard Ahk yell like that, not even when trapped. In the hall, Texas was rearing back and bucking, anxious and desperate to get through the blockage just as his rider was.

“Nothing!” Ahk snapped, anger flaring. He didn’t want to deal with this right now, everything hurt and everything was confusing. Pressing his hands to his head hurt his hand, but releasing the pressure hurt his head. His Anubis guards blocked the doorway with their spears, currently preventing entrance. They wouldn’t dare close the museum gate, knowing what that meant, but they each had a hand on it threateningly. Larry glared at them and brandished the keys in their faces, daring them to try that route.

   While Larry had them distracted, purposefully or not, Sacajawea squeezed through their bars and sprinted toward the inner chamber. One turned and tried to stop her, but that just allowed Larry to vault over the remaining guard’s spear and soon Texas was bursting in as well, President Roosevelt brandishing his sword atop him. Ahk peered up in time to see the tip of one spear going right for Larry’s back. Fear striking him like lightning, he called out the all clear before the night guard even noticed the danger. Nicky however, having lagged behind to grab the first aid kit, witnessed the events unfold and vowed to properly respect the gargantuan statues in the future.

  Sac, in the meantime, had reached Ahkmenrah and kneeled before him, trying to peel his hands away to survey the damage. The added knowledge of what had almost happened to Larry because he hadn’t acted fast enough had made Ahk stiffer than any non-magic statue could be, his muscles locked down and coiled tight. Larry and Teddy hovered anxiously outside in the inner chamber, Nicky remained by the first door to eye the Anubis guards who had abandoned their defensive stances to also look worriedly toward their king. Sac continued to try and persuade Ahk, but nothing appeared to be getting through.

“Ahkmenrah, you stop acting like a child and show me this instant before I press my thumbs into your knuckles,” Sacajawea chastised angrily. Ahk’s head slowly rose, terribly angry fire burning bright in the eyes he revealed to her, piercing through to her heart. He glared at her more fiercely than she realized he was capable, slowly moving his hands. His knuckles were split open and appeared broken, so the blood shouldn’t have surprised her, but none of the other exhibits were capable of bleeding so it was still something of a shock.

  Using her surprise, he unwound himself, and began stalking past everyone. He used his best “pharaoh walk” as Nicky had once called it, bloody, split open head held high, neck long, his swollen hand crossed behind his back.

“Leave. Me. Alone.” He growled, barely loud enough to be heard. Nicky stepped aside, silently offering the king the first aid kit, which he took with the slightest nod.

-

  Three hours had passed by the time Larry and Nicky had tracked Ahkmenrah down. It had taken at least half an hour to get Teddy to calm down from his tizzy, and another fifteen minutes before they could convince him and Sac to take the rest of the night off. Ahk clearly wasn’t going to be responsive to any of them that night. The two Daley’s would make sure he took care of himself, even if it was from afar.

  They hadn’t expected to find him in the Civil War exhibit. A kind of fight club went on in that exhibit, the inhabitants going there to fight out any pent up energy in a safe environment. It was mainly the Civil War men themselves and the Huns. Occasionally the miniatures would storm and a new brand of fighting would occur, but that was rare, once a year maybe. Jedediah said this was to keep the men from developing tactics against them.

  Attila had been trying to get Ahk to come regularly for several years, but the pharaoh never went more than once a month, and he usually worked on his defensive fighting rather than his offensive. Tonight had clearly been different. The fighting was over, everyone sitting together as they usually did afterward. They behaved like old comrades around a fire, trading stories of old battles, won fights. Larry had never heard of Ahk actually talking during this circle, the man more eager to hear the tales and learn new stories.

  Tonight, Ahkmenrah sat tall at Attila’s right hand. His forehead was wrapped, blood peering through the gauze, pressing his curls to stand wild atop his head. Both his hands were wrapped, his left just in standard fight style, the right wrapped tighter, clearly immobile and swollen. The Civil War men were adjusting one another’s stuffing, which had apparently been severely misplaced, while listening to the king speak. Larry could see Attila’s hands twitch, and he knew that he was restraining himself from touching the king. He was incredibly protective of anyone he grew to care for, and Ahkmenrah was definitely on that list. He was also surprisingly cuddly with the Egyptian, as they had seen during the Tablet’s decay. It was probably taking every ounce of the Hun’s restraint not to pull the king into his lap and protect him from anything that could damage him further. But if what Larry suspected had happened tonight, which was Ahkmenrah knocking every other exhibit to the ground, Attila knew better than to make him feel belittled.

“The enemy was pressing in fast and ruthless. We had knowledge of horses by this point, the Romans having stolen that surprise from them a century ago, but the sheer shock of who rode them was enough to allow them to trample many good soldiers. The Jewish people my people mistreated were some of the first to go down, fighting for a kingdom and Gods that they didn’t love. The Gods didn’t seem to love us this day much either. Nothing was going well. The enemies were determined to kill me and my parents.” Everyone listened with bated breath. Nick and Larry slowly slid to the ground, joining the circle in sitting crisscross.

”It was a coup, of sorts, led by my older brother. He had long left the kingdom to try and make his own start elsewhere, but had apparently been unsuccessful. Still, the men and women he had taken with him had doubled in numbers, and they had reckless abandon on their side. Kahmunrah never made it to the three of us this day, but some of his men managed to get close to us. We had slaughtered many, I lost count of how many fell to my blades, but at halfway through the battle the Gods frowned upon me. My weapons broke, and I was left to use my fists. I could hold my own with no implements, but it made taking down opponents more time consuming, and it required more focus. This way, one of the enemies found a blind spot between me and my mother. He took his chance and made a move for the king, Merenkahre. But he was not phased, and he beat the assailant down before any harm could be done.

Seeing all of his soldiers losing, even the ones who managed to get close to us, set Kahmunrah running again. Those of his people that were captured were executed at my father’s orders. We spent many days praying to the Gods, thanking them for the success. I spent many days thanking Horus and Hathor specifically, for protecting the King at that moment of weakness on my part. Not a fortnight would go by ever again without me working to improve my technique, not until my death.

I was fifteen when this happened.” He ended, the room making various noises of astonishment at this reveal. Nicky shuddered by his father’s side, prompting Larry to wrap a reassuring arm around his shoulders. Conversation moved on to lighter tales. When the foreign exhibits starting filtering out of the Civil War men’s domain, Attila nudged Ahkmenrah and looked at him with a surprisingly convincing puppy-dog face. Ahk sighed and lifted his arms, nodding. Attila wasted no time, scooping him up as though he weighed nothing, and carrying him off toward the Hun’s exhibit. Larry and Nicky considered him taken care of for the rest of the night.

-

  Before getting back into his sarcophagus before sunrise that morning, Ahk flipped through the self-help guide. Chapters 3 and 4 were entitled “Accepting Comfort” and “Releasing Emotion Healthily.” He hummed and considered those lessons learned.

Chapter Text

The next night, everyone gave Ahkmenrah a wide berth. Clearly waking up to someone in his exhibit every night wasn’t helping. Sacajawea allowed him two hours of space before she sought him out. She found him in the underwater room, watching the whale and other animals move. The blue light shimmered on his frame, highlighting different features in ways that the normal museum lights didn’t. Despite being alone, he did not appear to be any more relaxed. His shoulders were held stiff and proper, and he stood rigid. The light alternated in making him look eons older and decades younger.

Sacajawea crossed the room to stand beside him. She didn’t look at him, he didn’t look at her. She gave him time to adjust to her, and didn’t touch him. After a long moment, she broke the silence.

“Are you ready to talk to me?” He hummed.

“Do we have something to discuss?”

“We have much to discuss. Concerning you and keeping secrets.” Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him frown.

“Nicholas and I already discussed this.”

“Well, I am not young Nicky, so I’m going to also require a conversation.” She finally turned to him, face set and stern. He sighed and turned to her as well, eyes tired and closed off. Sac tried to soften her demeanor and gently raised a hand to his head.

“Are your wounds healed?” He allowed her to lightly press along where his striking bruise and torn skin has been yesterday before nodding. He raised his hand and flexed it, proving the bones to be back in place once more, the skin mended together.

“All is well, the magic of the Gods has made it so.”

“Yes, your Gods do love you.” Sac could practically feel him receding into himself at that comment. “And you spread that love to the rest of us. Your Gods gave you a gift, and in turn you have treated your body maliciously.”

“I acted accordingly to my situation,” he argued. “My...functions are not a subject for discussion. The Gods-”

“Made you to reflect their image, you are meant to be above mortal needs, yes yes. But your Gods created you with those needs. You have them for a reason. To purposefully harm your body and your mind is not why they gave you them.”

“Do not presume to know--”

“You and I have spent many an hour discussing our beliefs, Ahkmenrah.” He reared back a little, eyes growing a fraction wider. “I do not believe the same things as you, nor you me. But our beliefs do not make the other’s false. Many things happened to me as a child, things that were terrible, and things that were not. Hunger is one of the terrible things. If it wasn’t for the land making roots available to me, Lewis, Clark, my baby and I would have starved to death one winter in their expedition. We had already turned to eating candles.” She gazed at him with hard eyes, refusing to drop eye contact. “So I refuse to believe that your Gods would have you starve yourself for eight years.” Ahkmenrah straightened up further, a fire in his eyes.

“You forget that they have starved me for a lot longer.” The anger in his eyes swelled. “I have been alive for a long time, Sacajawea. I haven’t eaten regularly since the food buried with me in my family tomb was depleted. And that was many a decade before we were discovered.” He closed his eyes tight and breathed out, forcing himself to calm. “...If Guardian Daley wishes to grant me access to food again, I will gladly partake. But I will not allow any of you to treat these eight years as any matter of consequence. Eight years is nothing in terms of hunger. Nor is fifty-four years.”

They stood there, his breathing deep and slow, her’s stopped. She didn’t need to breathe, after all. She didn’t need any physical thing anymore.

“Alright,” she spoke softly. He opened and raised his eyes to hers. “Alright. We cannot understand. We don’t have a point a reference such as yours. We cannot relate to all of your pains.” He turned back to face the whale. “Just remember that we react how we do because we care about you. And these facts you have hidden from us--from our understanding, are horrifying.” He glanced back at her with guilt in his eyes. “So just let us care. We only wish to help.”

“I didn’t wish to burden you.” Sac sighed, and reached for his hand, squeezing it tightly.

“Knowledge can be a burden. But we are happier to share this burden with you than to leave it all on your shoulders.” She smiled at him and he grinned hesitantly back.

“That goes for all of your burdens,” she pushed. “Someday we will discuss the way you repress things.” She laughed brightly at his pout. She didn’t wish to push him too hard, but if he was willing to talk right now, she wasn’t going to waste the chance.

“What happened yesterday? You’re not still having problems with the tablet’s magic, are you?” Everyone had been confused as to what exactly had occurred. It had been an hour past sunset and Ahkmenrah appeared to have still been inside his sarcophagus, something that had never happened before as far as they knew. She and Teddy had privately shared fear over the tablet still decaying, or their friend having lasting issues from the decay.

“No, it is fine now. Khonsu healed it with the rays of the moon. I just…” he hesitated and Sac gazed at him expectantly. “I had a nightmare.”

“You were sleeping?” her eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. “You sleep?” He sighed a little harshly, and resisted the urge to rub at the back of his neck, a habit he had picked up from Larry and Nicky.

“Yes, I sleep sometimes. I get tired some nights and don’t always awaken refreshed the next day. Or I get worn out early in the evening.”

“Where do you usually sleep?” She couldn’t imagine him making a routine of sleeping in his exhibit, it frightened him too much. His shoulders tightened, and Sac could swear under the blue light that he was beginning to blush.

“Oh, you know...around….” he gestured vaguely. Sac continued to stare at him but he didn’t elaborate. He wasn’t going to admit to the places he’d fallen asleep in. Especially not on the couch in the security office, or in the piles of furs in Attila’s exhibit, or up in the rafters, or in the basement storage room, or any of the definitely not bed shaped places he’d picked to pass out on.

“Okay,” she gave in, tone colored with amusement. He shrugged, giving her a lopsided grin. “So you had a nightmare, and what, took it out on your sarcophagus?” His smile faded.

“I believe my hand lashed out in my sleep, punching the lid. When I woke up I was still...in the dream and briefly forgot there would be a roof immediately over my head. So I lurched upward from the pain in my hand and, well. The rest is plain.” She hummed, nodding.

“How long were you buried with you parents?” Ahkmenrah scoffed and shook his head, his arms crossing. He didn’t know.

“I’m assuming that means ‘a very long time, Sacajawea, you wouldn’t even believe.’” He cracked a small smile but remained stiff. She sighed. This was enough for them tonight.

“Alright, I’m done pushing. Any other pressing secrets you can think of to share?”

“As I told Nicky, I don’t know what you would consider important compared to what I would consider important,” he admitted. She inclined her head. Different reference points, she had to remember that. It had come up in her and Teddy’s relationship as well, things she thought were very important wouldn’t cross his mind and vice versa. It had definitely come up with the pharaoh in the past eight years as well, but she hadn’t realized just how different Ahk’s life was from the rest of them. Apparently neither had anyone else.

“So we’re done for tonight. Do you want to stay here by yourself for a while, or come make tea with me?” she offered her hand. Ahk stared down at it, deeply considering the options. After a moment, he unwound his arms and took her hand gently. She gave it a squeeze before leading him back to her exhibit, where she apparently had to tools and supplies to make tea. They only had to take one of her jugs to the water fountain for water.
---
Ahkmenrah sat in Sacajawea’s exhibit, savoring the tea she made. Some of the exhibits could eat and drink, depending on what they were made of. The miniatures, being made of metals like tin and lead, could eat basically anything. The magic would remove it when their artificial insides disappeared.

Teddy and Sac, being made of wax, could not eat warm things, or they risked damage to their facade. Neither of them particularly liked eating, they had shared with him one movie night when Larry had brought in popcorn from them all. Things tasted odd, and they didn’t like the way it felt in their “stomachs.” But the look Sac was giving him as he drank her tea could only be described as jealousy. Underneath the pride she was feeling at his clear enjoyment, she was wishing she could also drink the tea.

Lewis and Clark briefly stopped arguing to share stories of the different teas Sacajawea had made them, of how the ingredients had reflected the area and region of North America that they had been in. Ahk listened intently, holding his cup tightly and relishing in the warmth of it. He didn’t talk to the men very often, as they preferred arguing with one another than exploring the rest of the museum. Though they often explored the museum while arguing.

Just as one of their tea stories began to devolve into them arguing about what part of the exhibition had including a specific type of tea leaves in which season, because jasmine doesn’t grow in that area Clark, Teddy rode in on Texas.

“Are you here, my dear?” He called ahead of himself.

“We’re here!” she called back, choosing to ignore the growing argument while Ahk watched them with interest.

“Ah, my king! I didn’t expect to find you here!” Teddy called to him while dismounting Texas. Sacajawea crossed the room to greet him, embracing him briefly.

“Good evening, Mr. President,” Ahk responded distantly, still wrapped up in watching the argument unfold. He finally snatched his attention away to look at him when he and Sac settled back down around the fire pit.

“Sacajawea makes amazing tea,” he stated, still clutching his cup. He hoped they could have a normal conversation, like a normal night. He was doing his best to get over his hurt, and people treating him normally would help. That night’s self help chapter had been titled “...and keep talking about it, and keep talking about it, and keep talking about it…” and discussed the importance of well, talking about your problems. He definitely felt lighter after his discussion with Nicky, and lighter still with each following conversation, but he wasn’t ready to face how he had hurt the president by hiding his hunger.

“Ah, I was always a coffee man, myself! Always good to the last drop, I’d say.” He shared a smile with Sac, who rolled her eyes good naturedly. Apparently they had argued over coffee and tea in the past.

“Don’t mention coffee at Cambridge, the Brits would throw a fit,” he confided to them.

“Quite right?” Teddy raised a brow.

“Quite right,” Ahk confirmed.

“That is one reason why America could always beat them, we’re more caffeinated! Haha!” They shared a laugh, and spent the rest of the night in each other’s company. Ahk soaked up the evening, unbelievably happy to have something familiar, less stained by what had happened in England

Chapter Text

Affairs in the museum wouldn’t ever return to how they were, not really. Everything was different, some ways small and barely noticeable, others glaringly obvious.

Ahkmenrah was a tad more reserved than before, not the first to initiate conversation as often as he used to. But he was also blatantly more honest than before, and not in the a blunt way of someone not aware of social convention and what was and wasn’t said in conversation, but in the way of someone who was tired of others assuming things incorrectly.

Everyone in the museum also tried to put in the effort to notice when the king was being shoved to the side while decisions or adventures were occurring. People also sought him out more often, now aware that there was nowhere else he would rather be and that he would enjoy the company or would gladly help out. The miniatures especially found a friend in him in pulling pranks around the museum, Ahkmenrah could get materials faster than them, and helped make sure the prank was as least likely as possible to hurt someone or part of the exhibits.

Larry brought in bulk boxes of things called “chewy bars,” sticks of oatmeal that had various other ingredients to taste depending on the color of the wrapper. Ahk loved them, and he only required one or two a night, so they didn’t press on Larry too much financially. He and Sacajawea made a routine of having tea together on specific nights of the week, if nothing else interfered. Nicky started visiting the museum again, getting advice from Teddy and blowing off steam playing with the exhibits. Boredom was a problem everyone had, so no one was ever too busy to play soccer or some other game with the younger Daley.

Teddy made a habit of keeping water in his canteen, and would offer it to Ahkmenrah after he had been running about. The two also began to have little...debates. It begun as sharing stories to get Ahkmenrah to open up, and quid pro quo, Teddy sharing a story of his own. Then they began debating over styles of ruling, or as Teddy was quick to correct, governing. It surprised the two on how much they agreed, though they’d argue over who would have had a harder time implementing laws or changes.

So things were different. Better in some ways, not in others. That’s the best reaction any of them could have hoped for.