The Burden

Chapter Six

"Do you mind if I sit down? I'm feeling oddly faint."

Ahkmenrah looked towards Teddy and Sacajawea as they stood near the front desk of the museum. "Of course not, lad. Rest all you need." Teddy answered, pulling the swivel chair out for Ahk. It was the next evening, and everyone was bustling about like usual. Teddy and a few of the others stood near the front, waiting for Larry. They normally did, as Larry didn't always make it there before everyone awakened, but tonight they were gathered there for a special reason. They were ready and determined to find the rest of the ingredients for the healing spell for Ahkmenrah.

The Pharaoh was with them as well, having retrieved Jedidiah and Octavius from their exhibits. Normally, they weren't fond of being carried around too much, both having too much pride to admit that someone carrying them was much nicer than walking, but neither minded when Ahk held them. Ahkmenrah was very gentle about it. Not to say anyone else was particularly rough when handling them, but Ahk seemed to take extra care when doing so. He had a very patient, gentle personality, one that would make him a wonderful soon-to-be-parent.

Ahkmenrah was starting to feel more symptoms, feeling overly tired and weary, coupled with the cramps. The cramps weren't as bad as the previous evening's had been, and the nausea seemed to have lessened as well. There hadn't been any change in his size yet that evening, but everyone knew there would be soon. The Pharaoh sat down in the swivel chair, moving his hands and letting Jedidiah and Octavius walk from his palms onto the counter of the front desk.

"How're ya feeling, Ahk?" Jed asked the Egyptian as soon as he got comfortable on the counter top.

"Not terribly bad, but oddly exhausted." Ahk sighed, a look of confusion planted upon his face.

"No doubt creating a life inside of you is draining." Octavius added. "I do hope you feel better soon. Perhaps you only will when the baby is born."

Ahk nodded, eyebrows raised in light worry as he thought about it. "Maybe you're right. This seems like it will be an exhausting process."

"Larry told ya, didn't he?" Jed chuckled. "Not so easy breezy, is it?"

Ahk smiled, laughing lightly, "Certainly not. Still, it won't be a long process for me, so I'm thankful for that."

As the Egyptian and the minuscule men continued to chat, they were interrupted by the sound of keys jingling and a door opening. "Hey, guys." Larry greeted with a smile as he came in from his locker room.

"Good evening, Larry." Ahkmenrah replied, nodding at him as Jed and Octavius waved at the approaching night guard.

"Anything happen yet?" Larry asked as he came close to the front desk, eyes darting to Ahk's stomach, searching for any sign of new growth.

"No, not yet. But the nausea and cramps aren't as intense as last night. I'm thankful for that." the Pharaoh replied cheerfully. "Wouldn't this put me into the second trimester?" he questioned.

"Yeah, I think so. I think the trimesters are passing by each night." Larry answered, his face grimacing somewhat once the words left his lips. Jesus Christ, that's gotta be insane...

"Lawrence, shouldn't we be be off...?" Teddy remarked, worry evident in his furrowed brow. He had Texas near him, holding his reigns, ready to mount.

"..Yeah, yeah. I guess Nile water next, right? Ahk, you said there were paintings of it in your side of the museum, yeah?" Larry addressed the expectant pharaoh.

"Yes, it should be simple enough to just take a trip into the frame and retrieve it." Ahkmenrah answered, still sitting in the swivel chair, his feet lightly dancing on the ground and moving the chair ever so slightly from side to side.

"Well, if that won't take long, maybe we could knock out the newt too." Larry remarked, shrugging, feeling optimistic about this night already.

"Toad. Toad, Larry." Ahk corrected, his tone becoming somewhat serious at that. "It has to be a toad, or it won't work." he told him. The mummy had been overall, quite calm about this whole ordeal, really. Despite his nonchalant demeanor, he wasn't fond of the thought of being ripped apart and simply just..left like that.

Larry seemed somewhat surprised at Ahk's tone, hardly ever hearing such from him. "..Right, right. Toad, got it." he clarified. The mood nearly shifted in the room from this exchange, Ahkmenrah nearly having an irritated look upon his face. There was some silence, which didn't help to mask the discomfort.

"…Come on, lads, we need to get going!" Teddy interrupted the sudden quiet in the room, feeling the need to fill the silence and hopefully put an end to the uncomfortable vibe setting afloat. He was also eager to get going and accomplish the task at hand.

"Right! Right.. Jed, Oct, you guys.." Larry started, looking at the two pointedly.

"We'll keep an eye on him!" Jed replied, giving Larry and the others the clearance to go ahead and leave. Larry smiled some with a nod before turning to head off with the others, ready to embark on the mission of finding the remaining items.

author's note:

hello! it has been an insanely long time since we last spoke! how are you? i recently logged back onto here and onto archiveofourown and am feeling a little inspired to clean up my fics- fix grammatical errors and whatnot! i fixed up this one and a few other of my longer ones, they're just surface errors, repeated words, spelling errors- that typea thing. i cleaned my account some too. there are some fics i wrote so long ago, that even had good plot ngl, that just seemed past the point of no return for me. so i took down quite a few. it has left me feeling quite refreshed, though. like i have a clean slate! anyways, enough about me. here is a supppeeerr short chapter, for which i apologize. it's just a lil something to tide you guys over until the next one, which hopefully won't be too long of a wait, as i'm feeling inspired lately! thanks to those who have followed this one for so long, i hope you stick around while i keep writing it! tell me your thoughts if you'd like! bonsoir! ✨