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.