This is a spin off fic from 'Bayek of Nowhere, Father of No One.' This chapter is set shortly after chapter eighteen of that fic.
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Of all the things Khemu misses most about his old life in Egypt, two thousand years ago, the one he misses most has to be the people. His mother, and his friends. He understands, in a deep, sad way, that he's never going back and they'll never come here. There's nothing he can do about it, and at least his dad's here, so Khemu clings to him and doesn't think too hard about everyone else.
But that doesn't mean he's going to turn down the chance to make new friends.
He lives in a warehouse full of grownups trying to save the world. Mostly, as far as Khemu can tell, that means lying around all day in front of computers called animi, and even though he sort of gets what a computer is, he doesn't understand how that's going to help save the world. It's just boring, and the first person—besides his dad—that catches Khemu's attention is the Sage.
For a long time, that's all he hears people call him. Don't go near the Sage! Stay away from the Sage—he's dangerous. Only he's just a kid, right around Khemu's age. And all he ever does is sit in a corner, quiet and watching everything that happens.
Khemu doesn't know much English. His first language is Egyptian, and he'd picked up a few words of Greek, mostly from his mother. She was from Alexandria (which used to sound so far away to Khemu, before he came here), and she'd teach him words sometimes. English, on the other hand, is new. Khemu's dad says he's learning fast, but Khemu knows that's just because he doesn't have anything else to do except sit around and listen to people's conversations. He just hopes it's enough.
One busy afternoon, when no one's paying attention to Khemu, he ducks and dodges his way through the tight rows of animi, until he makes it to the space that the Sage has pretty much carved out for himself—under a supplies table, all the way in the back, in the shadows.
"Hello," he says, holding out a hand and enunciating clearly around the foreign words. "Me—I… I'm Khemu."
The Sage stares at him, his expression blank. Khemu wonders if he's even saying the words right.
"Khemu," he says again, because at least he knows he's saying that word right, and he points to his chest. "You?" He reaches his arm out to point at the Sage instead.
The Sage stares at Khemu for a long time, then lets his gaze drop slowly down to Khemu's finger. He reaches a hand up, wraps it around Khemu's finger, and pushes it down. Khemu doesn't resist, just urges again, "You… who?
The Sage—the boy, takes his time answering. Khemu isn't sure if the boy understands him or not, but finally when Khemu has almost given up on him—
"…lijah."
"Lijah?" Khemu repeats.
"Elijah," the boy says, voice just a little bit stronger than the first time.
"Good name," Khemu says, although he has no idea if it's good or bad. Like everyone else he's met here, it mostly just sounds weird to him. But he grins, to try and make Elijah smile back, but he just keeps that same blank look on his face. With his dull expression, his mismatched eyes and his wild, curly hair flaring around him, he doesn't look all the way normal just then.
"I guess," Elijah says, after a brief pause.
He doesn't seem too interested in talking, but Khemu tries to justify to himself that he also doesn't seem uninterested in talking, exactly, and maybe Khemu's just not as good with his new English words as he thinks he is. "Wanna play?" he asks, levering himself up from cross legged to crouching.
"Why?" Elijah asks, and Khemu huffs in exasperation. He doesn't have enough words to explain, so he just grabs Elijah's hand and walks backwards out from under the table, dragging the reluctant Sage out with him. When they're both out and standing, Khemu thinks hard for a second, trying to remember the words, then says, "Let's play."
"I don't play," Elijah says, and Khemu rolls his eyes so hard they almost hurt. He's just been sitting around under a table for the whole time he's been here, and he must be bored stiff right now.
"Play," he insists.
Elijah frowns. "I don't play," he says again.
"Please?" Khemu asks, bouncing a little on the soles of his feet. He wishes desperately that he spoke better English, or that Elijah knew Egyptian—he could be so much more convincing if they could have a real conversation. So, since he doesn't have words, he reaches out and taps Elijah on the shoulder. "Tag," he says, and takes off running, hoping Elijah will get it—he doesn't know the English word for the game, or even if kids in the future play tag, so he'd just blurted out the Egyptian word and gone running off.
He hears footsteps behind him (Elijah? He hopes?) and runs faster, rounding a corner and thundering up the stairs into the mostly empty upstairs hallway. He's maybe halfway down it when someone falls into him, and he tumbles to the floor.
Elijah lands next to him.
"Tag," the other boy says, breathing hard, and Khemu is a little surprised to hear him echo the Egyptian word Khemu himself had used. He's even more surprised when the boy says, in fluent (if still) Egyptian, "What language is this?"
Khemu turns his head, and finds himself face to face with Elijah, only a few inches away. "Egyptian," he says. "How do you speak it if you don't even know what it is?"
"Sometimes I just know things," Elijah says. "I don't always get to know why."
"But who taught you?" Khemu insists. "You must have learned it somewhere."
"No," Elijah says. "I just know."
Khemu makes a face as he tries to wrap his mind around that. People don't just learn how to speak other languages without trying, and if they do then that's not fair, because Khemu worked really hard on Greek for his mom, and he's still bad at it. Then he shrugs, shoulders rubbing up against the floor, and reaches over to tap Elijah on the shoulder. "Tag!" he says, and scrambles away. For a second, he thinks Elijah isn't going to follow.
And then he hears footsteps behind him again, and grins because maybe Elijah knows languages but he knows how to make a friend.
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Please let me know what you think, if you want to see more of Khemu and Elijah, or whatever else. :)