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

Chapter 35 | the ocean

With only a month left before your graduation ceremony, and all your classes over for the year, you had a gap of time where there was nothing on the schedule. It seemed life was finally giving you a break, no magic shenanigans, no school, no meeting your boyfriends pharaoh parents. So with this gap of down time, you figured it was the perfect chance to just have some adventures with Ahkmenrah. There were lots of things to do in the modern day, many of those things the ancient Egyptian hadn't done yet. So you asked him, what's something he'd like to go do?

That made him think for a while, there was a lot of things he wanted to do. But he didn't know where to start, and now he was more aware of what triggered him he wanted to make sure so stay away from anything that could set him off.

"Hmm... well I've never been to the ocean before. The closest I got to a beach were the banks of the Nile. My home was in the middle of the desert, and I had a kingdom to attend to so I didn't have the chance to travel often" He said, having spotted a picture of the beach on the calendar on your wall.

"Oh yeah, you've never even seen the sea in person huh? Well we could definitely go to the beach" you replied.

"It sounds fun! I haven't been swimming in centuries"

"That's decided then, we'll go to the beach. We'll need towels, sunscreen, swimsuits..."

You were off, on a mission to gather everything up to head to the beach. Packing towels into your bag, putting on some beach appropriate attire and sunscreen and reminding Ahk that wearing priceless ancient jewellery to the beach probably wasn't the best idea. As much as Ahk didn't really like cars because of the motion sickness it gave him, you had to drive down there. Luckily this time, he didn't feel too bad. When you arrived you found it wasn't super busy, but people were out and about. Perfect timing, you could have a whole section of beach to yourself.

Taking your bag from the car and locking up, you began to head down the path and trudged though the sand down to the shore.

"I've missed the feeling of sand. Expect when it gets in my shoes..." Ahk reminisced.

"I could go without the calf workout that is getting all the way back to the car in the sand later on" you replied.

"I used to make up all kinds of games by drawing in the sand as a kid, and when we had rain and everything got wet you could make sandcastles that would actually stand up and not crumble"

It may not be the deserts of Egypt but the beach sand did being back some fond memories. You found a good spot, and set up your stuff to return to when you were done with the water. Ahk was mesmerised by the crashing waves, the smell of sea salt and modern ships off in the distance. It looked just like all the photos in the museum, but a million times bigger.

"A lot bigger than the Nile huh?" You said.

"I can't even begin to imagine how deep the oceans is" he replied.

"The challenger deep in the Mariana Trench is 36,070 feet deep, so yeah it's pretty hard to picture"

He almost got mental whiplash hearing that, the pyramids weren't even that tall in height. You could probably fit several pyramids in that trench.

"Excuse me, how deep?" He replied, flabbergasted.

"36,070 feet" you replied.

"Mother of Ra..."

He looked out at the ocean, now a little nervous knowing it could get that deep. But as long as he didn't swim all the way out to that area he'd be fine.

"Come on, good weather for swimming today" you said, heading toward the water.

He followed along, the dry sand turning to damp sand, the waves starting to reach his feet. It was a little cold at first, but with the warm weather it'd warm up quickly. He waded through the water, feeling each wave crash at his legs. The sensation of wet sand beneath his feet reminded him of swimming in the Nile as a kid, making the most of the fun before a crocodile showed up and he'd have to call it a day.

"Oh sick!" You said, reaching into the water and pulling something out.

"What is that?" He asked.

"A cuttlefish bone, they wash up every now and then with all the shells"

He looked at the strangely shaped white blob, it didn't look like a bone, but it was vaguely the shape of a cuttlefish.

"I never even considered what their bones looked like..." he pondered, taking it off you for a closer look.

It didn't really feel like a bone either, it had an almost spongy consistency to it.

"Let's duck dive for shells and sea glass. Maybe we'll get lucky and find a shark tooth as well, it'll be fun!" You smiled.

Collecting shinies? Now that was something he could get behind. He could make them into jewellery or maybe take them into the museum to show the others. Maybe he'd even get lucky and find a fossil.

"Perhaps nun will bless us with something cool to find, it sounds fun!" He agreed.

Maybe the Egyptian sea god would show you some luck? Eager to find out, you swam a little further out around the rocks and began to dive under looking for cool things. The ocean was so much different than a river, everything Ahkmenrah saw down there peaked his interest. Even if the salt water stung his eyes a little, all the treasures he was finding made it worth it. Interesting shells, chips of fossilised corals, the occasional jewellery that someone had lost while swimming. Each time he found something, he'd pop back up to the surface and excitedly show you. It was rather cute.

You found some pretty cool stuff too, some pretty shells, some metal that looked like it came off a boat covered in barnacles, occasionally a fish would pass you by and you'd stop to watch it. Any time you came across some rubbish or plastic, you made sure to grab it to throw it out properly. No turtles or crabs would be getting tangled on your watch.

Who knows how long you spent finding cool things and putting them in your pockets to keep, but you were having so much fun. Ahkmenrah was having the time of his life as well, an old dream of his to see the ocean being fulfilled.

He'd ducked underwater again, looking among some rocks for any cool shells hidden amongst them, when something pointy caught his eye. He brushed some of the sand away to grab it, and when he pulled it out he almost screamed in excitement before remembering he was underwater. He quickly broke back up to the surface for some air and a better look.

"(Y/n)! Look at this!" He called out.

You swam over, amazed for find he was holding a massive shark tooth. It looked old, very old. Turning all dark and a bit worn down with its age, it was still an impressive find.

"It's huge!" You said.

"I wonder what kind of shark it came from? And how old it is?" He pondered.

"Take it to the museum, they'd probably have a record on shark fossils"

He definitely had something cool to show his friends back at the museum now, he was rather exited about the find.

"This is so cool, finding old things is so much fun"

"Maybe you can be an archeologist while you're alive and staying with me. Pharaoh by night, archeologists by day" you suggested.

He hadn't actually thought about what he'd be doing while he was spending your life with you. Up until you died, the two of you would be living in the modern world day and night thanks for the tablet. He'd been so wrapped up in figuring out the tablets secrets, getting used to living in this day and age and helping you with university he'd not even considered what he'd be doing in this part of his afterlife.

When you eventually died, the tablet would go back to its original magic and the two of you would be dead in the day and rise at night. But until that happened decades in the future, he'd be alive with you night and day.

He'd need something to do.

"You know... that actually sounds pretty fun" he said, looking down at the shark tooth.

"I can be the museums art curator, you can be the museums archeologists. And undead pharaoh by night" you replied.

Maybe he'd just found his calling. He was from ancient history after all, he'd have a real advantage when it came to identifying ancient artefacts.