Chapter Text
When akh first woke that next night, to an already half open coffin, thanks to tilly, he pushed the lid off carefully, and sat up. He unraveled his bandaged arms, his torso and his legs, before gently laying them at the foot of his coffin, and dusting himself off.
His first objective; go to the dinosaurs. It was his first priority to see them, because wherever they are, that's where the handsome knight would be.
He turned to exit the Egyptian hall when he noticed tilly lingering near the door, a small frown on her face as she waited for him to notice her. Tilly frowning, Akhmanrah had found, was extremely rare. So something upsetting must have happened. For a brief moment, as he edged closer her he wondered if anyone had seen his run in with trixie and lancelot the previous night, and if that was the reason she seemed so upset and worried, but as he stood in front of her finally, he noticed a letter hanging loosely in her left hand.
An update from the American museum of Natural History…
Larry had quit his job as the museum nightguard.
This left Akhmanrah really quite upset. Because he knew why. And he understood why. Entirely. But he felt guilty. Extremely guilty, really. It was his fault in a way. The tablet was here with him in the British museum, therefore, now at night, his family was no longer his family. They are gone now. A permanent slumber-
The thought of an eternal sleep made akh physically upset. It was like their death, all over again. He thought about teddy and Sacajewea, saying goodbye finally, jed and Octavius, having to turn back to back to walk to each of their dioramas, he thought about dexter, in his tree forever making children giggle, and never getting to giggle with them, he thought of Attila and his fascination with magic, and his love for entertaining the young. The Neanderthals, Laa, who'd only just discovered life, and love, with Tilly! Now he had to give that up so soon after discovering it…
This was his fault; they did this for his happiness.
Larry's exhibit family was gone, because he was gone.
Tilly opened her arms out for a hug, a pout on her face as she tilted her head to the side. He gratefully accepted the embrace and simply let the revelation linger in the air, before he pulled away and sighed,
“Larry’s taken up teaching, or at least he's studying to be a history professor now. So not all bad news, ay! Apparently he's volunteering at the museum now as well, a tour guide for the younger kid groups”
Akhmanrah laughed and nodded, smiling again to himself, as he remembered something Larry had once told him.
“Children don't care for logic. So I can tell them all about the exhibits' personalities and the tablets' magic, and they’ll believe it! Adults just don't get it.”
He’d disagreed with Larry, he remembered those two young girls he'd spoken to on the first night of the museum reopening after the fight of the Smithsonians. Larry just waved him off.
Tilly left the egyptian wing, leaving Akh to awkwardly stand in the doorway and think about this new information. He misses his American family back home, and for a moment he thinks, does he really want to go and find lancelot now? Won't he just feel uncomfortable and upset? Lancelot was a bad person after all.
No. That wasn't true. Lancelot had to come to terms with the fact that he was a wax figure, that camelot- arthur and guinevere, none of it was real, and he had to face that fact in less than one right, hell he faced a performance of his own life, people pretending to be him, in his head he must have thought they were mocking him! He had a right to be upset.
He wasn't the villain the museum was making him out to be.
And now he sat alone each night with a bunch of dinosaurs, so he wasn't in the way, and the dinosaurs were out of the way too.
Akhmanrah frowned. That wasn't fair at all. And he wouldn't stand for it.
With a new found confidence, Akhmanrah inhaled deeply and puffed out his chest before beginning his determined walk to-
Shit.
He didn’t actually know where Lancelot and the dinosaurs were hidden each night. He bites his lip thinking for a moment before deciding to resort to retracing his steps of the previous night.
His old family would not stop him from finding a new family here, they'd want him to be happy, make new friends with the exhibits that had come alive and find a new community for himself. They'd want him to be happy.
And right now his happiness depended on finding lancelot.
And that is just what he'd do.
And so, off went the young Egyptian prince, on his search for the gallant blonde knight.
Akhmanrah had to hide himself in the shadows and behind the pillars of the grand museum, as all the exhibits were often quite excitable, especially with not being used to their new life, and they all wished to talk to Akhmanrah any chance they got, to his disappointment. Therefore, Akhmanrah was hiding behind all the grand stature and architecture of the museum, hiding and waiting for his opportunity to move. It was thrilling to sneak around like this, of course he’d done nothing wrong, but it excited him to sneak around in this manor; it reminded him of his adventures back with his gang at home.
When he eventually managed to make it back to where his encounter with Trixie and Lancelot had been the night before, he walked to the end of the corridor where he had seen the two disappear. It led off to a few different rooms, however none of them specifically were the medieval england hall, or the dinosaur skeleton hall, so instead he tried to silence himself as much as he could, and he listened carefully for any signs of where the dinosaurs or the knight might be.
And just barely, he could hear clattering bones from the right hall. Akh couldn't suppress his grin as he jogged down the hall trying to find where the sound of the noise came from. He approached an astrology hall, a pop up exhibit on loan here. It was a spare hall that had been filled with-
An alarmingly loud raw, echoed through the halls, making everything, even the floor shake; Akh stumbled slightly before he heard the clanking of armour and another, familiar, booming voice, “REPTER! What have I said about yelling!!” He has to stifle a laugh as he hears the little dino make a sad sort of whine noise in response to the scolding of sir lancelot.
Akh runs forward the the doors of the astrology hall, and he is pleased to know he is right, this is where they have been. He sees a clearly frustrated and tired knight scolding a rather surprisingly small velociraptor skeleton who was running around in circles around Lancelot's legs while he taps his foot impatiently and pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration.
He hears the man's wish, and just as he's about to step forward, an incredibly large Brachiosaurous skeleton who was sitting and observing nearby, leans down towards Lancelot. It gratefully lets out a purr like noise as its lowered head is greeted with ‘skull scratches’. It leans its head into lancelots hands and it reminds Akhmanrah of the cats he used to own back in Egypt, forever preening for attention and nuzzling his hands.
“What am i gonna do with you guys Bronty…” the knight whispers and leans his head against the dinosaurs.
But what affected Akh more in that moment, was not the memory of his cats, and wasn’t the surprising softness of the long necked dinosaur skeleton, but instead was the gentle smile on the knight's face.
Not cocky, or snarky like their first encounter.
Not surprised and mocking like when he laughed at the frog and discovered the tablets magic.
But kind, gentle, real.
Like it was a quiet intimate moment between him, and the pharaoh. Like he was letting himself be loved, like he had accepted this existence and was content.
Maybe it was the museum light, or maybe it was the tablet's magic, but to Akhmanrah, it was like he was being bathed in gold. Shining and smiling warmly at his dinosaur companion. Akh would be lying if he didn't say his undead heart, back in his jar in his tomb, fluttered. He wondered what lancelot would look like back in the golden rays of Egypt, dancing around him and surrounding him in a soft greaming light, and rough dark golden sands-
His admiration was alas broken by a familiar three horned skeleton, Trixie, nudging open the door and revealing his hiding space to all the awake dinosaurs.
All boney or un-bony skulls turned to him, and his eyes glanced up to meet lancelots for just a brief moment, before five dinosaurs were bounding towards him, and he had been pinned on the floor being nuzzled by rough boney dinosaur puppies yet again.
—
Why was he here again.
And why was he so-
Before Lancelot could finish that terrifiying thought, the handsome Egyptian prince was on the floor yet again, being fussed by 5 of the seven dinosaur exhibits in the museum. It took Lancelot 2 seconds to realise this after their eyes met.
That was 2 seconds too long, and Lancelot yet again, ran towards the chaos without another thought, other than tilly and the museum's disapproving glare. He pushed through wagging bone tails and interlocking ribcages before he finally got to the laughing prince.
“Sir Akhmanrah-”
“Lancelot!!” The prince laughed back, giggling and howling with laughter as he was pushed and nuzzled in every direction by each dinosaur, which were all aggressively nudging and sniffing him, despite the fact they had no actual sinuses. Lancelot reached forward trying to grab the prince's shoulders or arms to pull him up, but at that moment one of the dinosaurs knocked him down. He clattered to the floor and fell on top of Akhmanrah, bracing himself with his arms on either side of the Egyptian's head.
He was briefly reminded of one version of his tale where he had found his dear friend and his lady companion in a very similar way; however he did not allow the thought to last long as he kicked his foot back, and caught the muzzle of one of the skeletal beasts, knocking in back and allowing him to kneel. He span around unsheathing his sword ready to as he had done with trixie before, knock the nose of each of the exhibits till they backed off, however at seeing the unsheathed word, each of the 5 dinosaur skeletons scattered to different parts in the hall, each most likely recognising what Lancelot's intentions were.
Lancelot wasted no time now, in standing back up and reaching for Akhmanrah, who was still smiling to himself. What the prince did not expect was to be hosted up by the man like he was weightless, and to be patted off by the knight, who looked mortified and very embarrassed.
Akhmanrah's cheeks darkened as his crown was handed to him and yet again Lancelot began to furiously apologize,
“Sir Akhmanrah, my greatest apologies, this is entirely my fault and i am deeply embarrassed, the dinosaurs dont often see others and they fail to realise they cannot crowd people in such a way- you are not injured are you? I am aware they can be quite rough…”
He was gently holding Akhmanrah's arms as he checked for any injury, his brow furrowed and face scrunched up in concentration and guilt.
Akhmanrah was, of course, slightly disheveled from the events, so his cape had been moved slightly, and Lancelot spotted an array of scars slowly creeping out from his side leading towards his back. These had previously been hidden by his cape it seemed, and Lancelot reached on instinct to check them, before his hand suddenly snatched quickly, and rather roughly too. He looks up to see Akhmanrah's eyes glowing a mesmerizing yellow, as beautiful as shining topaz. For a brief moment Lancelot was frozen, stunned by the sight, all until the grip on his hand began to hurt an alarming amount and he yanked his hand away, stumbling back a step slightly surprised by the strength of the tablet keeper
Once Akh sees the man stepping back in shock, he immediately snaps out of it and reaches forwards again but this time Lancelot takes another step back.
“Lancelot, im sorry-”
“Not at all. That was entirely my fault- I was in the wrong- and so were the dinos, i promise this wont happen again- and i mean it this time, i swear- i'm so sorry- but if you could refrain from coming near this part of the museum from now on-”
“No lancelot!” Akhmanrah interrupted rather suddenly, his face scowling and firm. “I enjoy coming to see the dinosaurs, I don't mind the odd accident either so you must stop apologizing for them! And plus, I know how to handle a large bone puppy. We had a dinosaur skeleton back in america- rexy-”
Trixie's head appears curiously behind Lancelot, once again. He didn't notice her this time however. Akhmanrah smiled, she looked like Rexy too, trying to squeeze through the Egyptian exhibit.
“Plus- id like to give you some company that isn't just bones-”
“No thank you!”
Akh stumbles over his words and freezes.
Lancelot continues
“Your much too busy to come here, plus what would all the other exhibits say-”
“Lancelot.”
“Please your highness, don't worry for us, we're all fine, don't stress yourself with our feeble existence here when you must be so busy-” lancelots putting on a smile, trying to be pleasant and polite, maybe even try to convince more than just him that he was fine, but Akh quickly loses focus on what he's saying soon after he starts
“Your highness,,? Was that not a title reserved for your friend Arthur..?”
Lancelot's smile froze on his face.
Shit.
“Y-you are royalty…are you not..?”
“Well i was a prince when i died yes, so i did have status but-”
“Just because I used to work beneath my king Arthur does not mean I cannot use his same titles for other royal families… though are you asking me to refer to you as my prince instead?”
“NO! No, no… please just call me Akh.”
“Sir Akhmanrah then.”
“Just Akh…that's what my friends call me…”
There was a moment of hesitance before lancelot said “yes, Sir Akhmanrah, anyways-”
God this guy was stubborn.
“Like i said, please do not keep returning to this part of the museum when there is no need for you too-”
That was ok. Akh could be stubborn too.
”but i want to.”
“But your parents-”
“Cant control where I go. They also do not care as long as I am safely inside the museum.”
“The other exhibits-” the knight tried
“Also do not control me! Lancelot, i have free will-”
“Surely you would much rather their company my prince-”
Trixie, clearly frustrated by the man's constant stubbornness, headbutted Lancelot's back causing him to fall, clattering to the ground once again, and to Akh's pleasure; he wouldn't have been able to look him in the face after the end of that sentence.
He reaches forward to offer help, but Lancelot had already pushed himself up and was scolding her again despite the fact she seemed clearly unbothered and bored by his annoyed tone
It seemed to Akh that despite the fact he could calm and wrangle the dinosaurs, they were still rather naughty.
Akh was getting tired and frustrated by now. The stubbornness of the knight and the misbehavior of his dinosaurs were getting in his way of having a private conversation with the man, so while Trixie was being told off, he reached forward and counted her ribs.
Now this might seem random, however-
POP.
A little trick he learned in the American museum of natural history.
The 7th rib of a dinosaur always pops loose.
He lifted the bone in front of Trixie's face, and in an instant, Lancelot shut up, confused, and at the same time Trixie jumped to attention, her jaw opening with a smile and her body crouching to be closer to the ground while she wagged her tail.
And just the same as rexy, when he threw it to the other side of the hall, she went scrabbling after it, sliding across the floor after it.
Akhmanrah turned to a stunned lancelot with a charming grin.
“I know how to handle dinosaurs. Lancelot, I want to give you company. I’ve seen how the other exhibits treat you. You spend all night here alone. Dinosaur bones aren't the same kind of company as other humans. I want to come here to talk to you, and play with the dinosaurs as well. Call me selfish but they remind me a little bit of home…and so do you. So I want to come here on some nights, and I want to spend time with you. You can't change that.”
There was a beat of silence before lance opens his mouth to speak
“And before you protest again! Take it as an order from- your prince…” he stumbled over the words slightly, saying them before he realises what's coming out of his mouth, “ now you can't say no…” his cheeks had darkened again but he giggled maliciously at his plan.
Lancelot gulped.
He might just be screwed.