Portrait of a Pharaoh • Ahkmenrah x Reader (NATM) ✔️

Chapter 34 | hellos and goodbyes

A/n: I googled 'was ancient Egypt gay' for this and the first picture that came up was tomb art of two men fucking so I think it's safe to say yes, it was.

It was fun seeing your dad again, but today was his last day before he headed home. And coincidentally, the last day Ahkmenrahs parents were on display in the museum before heading back to England. They'd spend the night with Ahk one more time before hey had time part again, but they didn't fret, they knew they'd see each other again some day. With how modern historians were getting so strict about keeping artefacts together, one day they were bound to reunite the family permanently.

You'd get to see your dad again pretty soon, when you graduate in a month or so. So tonight you were all back at the museum so Ahk could spend some time with his parents and your dad could chat to some of the exhibits he'd come to find rather interesting. He and Teddy seemed to have a similar sense of humour and were laughing away with each other most of the night. You were in the staff room currently, with a box of beads and some tools away from the chaos. After the suggestion of making Bastet the museum cat a little Whesek you couldn't stop thinking about it. So you'd bought a cat collar and we're now weaving beads into it to make him a little Egyptian collar.

The cat in question sitting in your lap and purring away as you threaded head after bead together.

"Tch, shit I need more blue..." you muttered, finding the blue section of the organiser empty.

Pulling out another packet from your bag, you opened it and poured it into a bowl so you could seperate the blues from the other colours. As you did, you noticed movement from the corner of your eye and found a familiar face squeezing under the door.

"What's good general man?" You said.

"(Y/n), there you are" Octavius replied.

"No Jed? Usually he's stuck to you like glue"

"He's dealing with some of his men at the moment. Something about a railway malfunction?"

You wondered how long the Wild West minis had been making that railway. Surely they'd have finished it by now, it's been years in that exhibit. Do they just take it apart and re-make it? Does the tablet reset their progress? You hadn't actually thought about it.

"And you?" You asked.

"Rather bored really, everyone seems to be occupied" he replied.

"Well if you want something to do I need these blues put in that organiser"

He shrugged, figuring why not. The beads were much bigger against him then they were on you, he could stab his sword into the hole and pick it up to move into the organiser.

"What are you making this time? You always seem to have crafts going on" Octavius asked.

"A mini Whesek for Bastet" you replied.

"Ahkmenrahs idea?"

"Him and my dad"

Occupying himself by helping you with the beads, Octavius sat on the edge of the bowl and picked out the blue ones, tossing them into the organiser.

"By the way, has Jed told you anything Uh... significant recently?" You asked.

"Not... that I can think of. Why?" Octavius replied.

"Ahh that wuss. Look I know I really should stay out of peoples personal business but he's driving me mad here. He totally likes you, like major crush"

Octavius was silent a moment, a little shocked but not that surprised when he really thought about it.

"He does?" He asked.

"Oh yeah, totally. Although because he's from a time where it was super homophobic, I think he's dealing with some internalised stuff that's making him scared to say anything. Even with the underground community of gay cowboys from the time" you replied.

"Ah, I see. That makes sense. We are worlds apart when it comes to time. Everyone is very casually bisexual where I'm from"

"Oh you can say that again. You Roman's were gay as hell and total shit posters. Some of the carvings and paintings we've found in the ruins of your buildings are like memes of the era"

Octavius snickered, he remembered the graffiti all over the walls of buildings fondly. Some of the funniest stuff would be written there, and every so often something so mundane would show up it made him wonder who had decided to use the town halls wall as a diary.

"We did have our fun with graffiti, I'm sure the shop owners weren't too fond of their walls being vandalised though" He said.

"What was it that made you Roman's so wild? The lead in the water?" You asked.

"You say that like it's a joke, but there probably were some strange side effects from lead poisoning"

Even with the glory of Rome, the powerful armies and massive monuments they were still ancient humans who hadn't figured the world out yet. It was hard to believe they used lead pipes back then to a modern human, but they did.

"Anyway, I think Jed is just super nervous about judgement since it wasn't that great in his time for the queers. I tried to assure him it'd be ok since it's the modern day and he's in a museum but I think he's still working through it" you explained.

"It's odd to me, that we seemed to go backwards in progress. Same gender relationships were so normal in my time. Fast forward to his time and it's taboo. And now you're having to fight for rights again. My time wasn't perfect of course, but still we seemingly went backwards in progress" Octavius pondered.

"I know, it's strange. Every single culture from history has some kind of community of queer identities and yet we're still trying to fight for rights... even all the way back in ancient Egypt people were kissing other dudes"

"I don't doubt that if Ahkmenrah is kissing you"

You snickered, he was right. Anyone that liked you must be at least a liiitle bit, you know.

"I don't want to push Jed or anything, but maybe you should give him a little hint or something. He'd listen to you for sure, if you told him it's ok, maybe he'll come around" you said, threading the beads Octavius had organised onto the collar.

"I think I will... for both his sake and mine. I wouldn't mind a kiss or two from him" Octavius admitted.

"I fucking knew you two had the hots for each other"

"Had the hots..? Oh feelings"

Every so often he'd be reminded how much the world has changed when someone said modern slang and it took him a moment to realise what it meant.

"I think you'd be cute together. Actually pretty much the whole museum does, I think Jed would be happy if you gave him the hint that you like him back. It'd put his doubts at ease" you said.

"What is it you modern people say..? 'Ship?' You ship us?" Octavius asked.

You almost dropped your damn beads hearing him say that. Who gave the Roman access to fanfics?

"Where'd you learn that?" You asked.

"Nick, last time Larry bought him to visit. He said he 'shipped' two video game characters" Octavius explained.

Ah, of course. The kid was 14 and on the internet so he'd definitely know what shipping was.

"Well you're right, I just wasn't expecting to hear a Roman general use internet fandom language" you snickered.

"I knew I was right. I suppose I'd be correct in saying I 'ship' you and Ahkmenrah then?"

You couldn't help but smile at that, even your museum friends liked your relationship with Ahk.

"Yeah, that's definitely right"