My feet hurt. My spine hurts, my head hurts and I just want to crash and sleep through my entire day off tomorrow.
"What's wrong, Nuni?" Atem appears beside me as I clear the table despite my insides screaming at me to go to sleep.
"Just tired." I yawn.
"Then you should sleep." He guides my hands filled with dishes and garbage and makes me set the things back onto the table.
"Atem..." I growl through another yawn.
"Can't." I pick the dishes and trash back and walk back and forth across the kitchen putting things where they belong.
"Why not?" Atem asks me, his voice sharper than normal.
"Because I don't want to have to do it tomorrow." I tell him "I want to film a video tomorrow and if I save cleaning for tomorrow then I won't have time,"
"Why must you be the one to clean?" he asks me. "what has your mother and your brothers done all day?"
"They play, eat, sleep and create more of a mess for me to clean." I tell him a bit bitterly. I'm just so tired I suppress the urge to groan and turn the water on to wash the dishes.
"Nuni." Atem sighs, "may I ask you a question?"
"Sure." I say trying not to take my annoyance out on him. "why not?" after all, he has yet to do anything hurtful to me... unlike my mother.
"Why do you behave as a slave to them?" He asks.
I rest my hands on the ledge and breath a deep sigh. "because in the end... it still needs to be done and I waste more energy yelling at them for not helping than if I just do it."
"I see." Atem sighs as if he's sad. I don't look at him. I just wash the dishes, like always.
"You deserve more." His fingertips ghost across my skin, leaving it strangely warm.
"they do not deserve you." he stands beside me as I wash the dishes and for once, my tiredness is not the only thing on my mind as I was the dishes. Atem's words sink into my mind and my heart. I put a plate away and go into the next dish.
Is what he said true? I wonder do I deserve better?
"Will you sing to me, Nuni?" Atem asks. I take a breath.
"I am a lost boy, from never land..." I sing without thinking of the next words and Atem stands beside me and right now. I am not alone.
YOU ARE READING
If Atem Lived in my Head
FanfictionNuni is all but a slave in her own home. On a trip to Egypt she uncovers a peculiar pendant and finds a handsome and some what frightening spirit within it. Nuni doesn't know why this puzzle has "chosen her" but her life can change... if she lets i...
