Night life || Ahkmenrah

Thirty One

They left the World War Two room behind in their shadows and Damien felt himself breathe slightly easier. The noise of the air and space museum alive around them was a cacophony of souring planes and rumbling engines. Still, he preferred it to the room they had just left. His hand was loose in Ahk's grip but the pharaoh hung on as the blonde led them through the crowds. Around flight control desks and between talking pilots. "Pilots are always such chatterboxes", Damien muttered as he side stepped a group of astronauts. "Just because they fly, they have to tell the world about it. Adrenaline junkies". 

"I take it you dislike these pilots?" Ahkmenrah asked curiously as they retreated up to the second level. It was still loud but not as busy up there. Here it was the older planes. The ones make of canvas and wire and wood. Ones that Damien recalled reading about when he was young and saw when he was alive. Then there came the metal ones and later war. 

"They just are vain", Damien scowled. "Big egos".  He may still be irritated about the room they have just left. 

Ask chuckled at something. "Once, when I was early in my rule", he spoke calmly. Damien slowed, the crowds of people lulling around them as they made their way back and away from the larger planes. They found a bench against the wall of the corridor and took a seat. Ahk's fingers grazing Damien's knuckles as he continued. "There was this war general who had served my father. He had a history of victories and mocked me as a young king for my inexperience. To punish his insolence I challenged him to a duel. We fought under the hot sun as my advisors watched and I coated the golden sand with his blood". Ahk grinned proudly. "None of my court mocked me like that to my face again". 

"And the moral of the story is?" Damien raised an amused eyebrow. Ahk merely laughed and squeezed their joined hands as he leaned in to press a kiss to the corner of the blond's lips. 

"Men speak higher of themselves with no actions to prove it. They will be shown to be false one day". 

Damien chuckled lightly, mood improving at yet another bloody and violent story from Ahk's life. Not that the man ever thought of his stories as violent, they were accomplishments. Tales of where he had proved himself or saw himself as a good ruler. Anyone else may have interpreted his stories to be tales of a tyrant ruling over his subjects with threats of execution and blood spilled. But Damien was far to aware of the bloodiness of history. Besides, the general in his story had accepted the duel and those were to the death. "And the other moral being, don't mess with Ahkmenrah?"   

Ahk beamed back, eyes fond at the flirtatious words. "May my enemies take it that way. You are the only one allowed to mess with me". 

"What if I mess with your heart?" Damien smirked at him, blue eyes crinkling. 

Ahk adjusted the makeshift sling cradling his other arm and adjusted his sore hand over his chest. His face didn't change at the pain the movement must have caused, instead he sighed and playfully batted green eyes at him. "I fear you have been messing with my heart ever since I heard your voice. I would burn my kingdom for you beloved". 

"I doubt that is what your parents thought of when they made that tablet for you". His tone was teasing. 

Ahk shrugged dismissively. "I loved my parents. But if they honestly thought I would give my soulmate nothing less then they were mistaken. My father wages wars in my mother's name. I would have endeavoured to give you if we had met in life". 

"Promises, promises", Damien giggled. He had heard the words often enough, the brunette repeating them almost every week, but they never failed to make his cheeks flush. It was intoxicating, being loved like that. He was was giddy from being treated so preciously and passionately. Ahk didn't treat him like one would a set of precious jewels. He loved him like one would love a comforting toy and a god at the same time. Cradled close and stitched together, held with an owning possessiveness, yet also worshipped. Was it healthy? Maybe not, but they were dead and neither cared over such things. 

"Smooth talker". Damien let go of his lover's hands to cradle his face. "You know, if we met during my lifetime. If I found you in the museum when I was alive, I would have stolen you back and run from the war. I would have entombed myself with you so we would never part". 

Ahk had sunk into the touch, eyes closing as if to savour it. At Damien's words a slow smirk tugged on his lips. The blonde feeling it under his fingers. "Now who's making promises?"

"I guess I learnt some words from you". 

"And they are beautiful", Ahk opened his eyes and the green was as timeless as emeralds. Damien didn't, couldn't if he tried, resist leaning in close and pressing a slow kiss to the man's lips. Ahk leaned forwards to respond eagerly but cut it off with a hiss. 

"Careful of your arm", Damien reminded as he pulled back. He let his hands drop to examine the wrist, which was still sore looking. "Does it hurt?" He was aware that it was a stupid question. 

"It is nothing I cannot handle", Ahk sighed. "Though I am frustrated at being injured. It will do us no good if my brother's soldiers find us again". 

"I was a soldier too", Damien reminded. "Though this younger image of me has not been trained, I do remember somethings from my life". 

Ahk seemed to ponder the information for a few seconds. "What is it like?" He asked eventually. "I am returned to life the exact state I was before I was poisoned. But you are returned to a state younger than you were". 

Damien shrugged. "It took a little bit of time to grow used to my body again. I was ten years older when I died and I had forgotten how young I was. My mind is the same it was when I died though, not that of my younger self. I am no longer bothered by it, have not been since the first year of this afterlife. Though"- he smiled- "you died at age twenty five while I died at the age of thirty three. Does this make me older than you?" 

Ahk frowned at him. "I am over four thousand years old". 

"You've been dead. That doesn't count". 

"My body is two years older than yours". 

"But my mind is eight years older than yours". 

"I am still four thousand years older than you". 

"Ahk, that does not count. Darling, come on!" Damien laughed as Ahk stood up. He rose and followed the pharaoh towards the glass railings overlooking the floor below. "I am just teasing you". He nudged their shoulders together and watched the slight frown fade from the other man's face. "I guess we can be the same age since we were both seen as respected adults within our respective cultures". 

Ahk smiled. "I shall settle for that". 

"You just don't like the idea of me being older than you", Damien teased. 

"I do not like the fact that you aged past me while I remained seeking your existence through papers and whispers". 

Damien's smiled softened. He knew that Ahk's first fifty years of nights alive again had been by himself. The man didn't like talking about it much, other than for the fact that his need to read about his discover had been his drive to learn English. "Don't dwell on that", he soothed. "I was returned to you in the exact state I was the day I first saw your sarcophagus. Everything else is just other lives. I am here with you". Ahk's smile was like dawn sun on flower petals, warmth and colour and life. 

Unedited 

Back again. I missed these boys. It took me a bit to get back into the rhythm of writing them, but I managed it. They are such hopeless romantics and their dynamic is very much inspired by Gomez and Mortica Addams (90's movies specifically). 

hope you enjoyed.