InsaneJournal

WHO: Shesmu & Sekhmet
WHEN: Tuesday morning
WHERE: Hathor and Sekhmet's apartment
WARNINGS: likely not much more than mentions of bloodlust. This is fluff.

Shesmu had had to go south for a few days to check on his vineyard and being away from Sekhmet this late in the pregnancy made him uncomfortable and jumpy, made him snap at everyone too easily as he thought about all the things that could be happening back home. Sekhmet was the Eye of Ra and she could take care of herself, but she was right now delicate as well. The child inside her was delicate.

But this morning he let himself back into the apartment quietly and to the bedroom, slowly sliding under the sheets next to his lioness. "Morning," he whispered against her neck.

She hadn't particularly liked it when Shesmu had left, but in the end she'd understood. Mostly because now she was in the last days everyone hovered over her like she would go into labor at any moment. While they weren't wrong she had made her own preparations. She'd called Tawaret and two of the goddesses own statues stood dutifully on her nightstands, and she'd called Isis as well. Everything was as ready as it could be, now it was waiting.

Sekhmet did not think it would be long. She was a healer-goddess. She knew her body and she knew the sings. This week or the next, she knew she would greet her child.

Rest was something she got more often then usual. Every bit of her energy she was storing for when she'd need it. But she was still a warrior so the movement had woken her. The sound of Shesmu's voice made her smile and turn her head to look at him. "Morning. You have good timing."

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[info]divinebutcher
2011-08-03 12:09 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
"Do I?" he asked her, still nuzzling against her throat, cat-like and human-like all at once. He raised his head to smile at her. "As long as I haven't missed the big day."

Not that he was going to know what to do then other than stand around, preferably five rooms away. He ran his hand across her swollen stomach gently. Shemu still didn't know if he would love this child - could he really love anything like that? In some paternal way? - but he knew he loved Sekhmet and that he'd kill anything that tried to hurt their child.

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[info]powerfulfemale
2011-08-03 06:05 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
He didn't need to worry so. It would hardly be normal, their little family, but normal had never been in the books for her. With how willing he was to go after the Desert Lord she hardly doubted the girl would lack in love from her father.

Gently she set her fingers on his cheek, "no. Trust me I'd have found a way to get you here, even if you were in your vineyards. This week or the next. Isis is already here, and I've called Tawaret. All there's left is more waiting." At least her bloodlust had been curbed for the moment. If anything she knew she'd be able to wrangle what ever bloody cuts of meat out of her Mirror-Self and Shesmu after she'd delivered the child.

With a smile she curled her fingers through his hair, "when she is two, take her to Duat. She needs to become used to it from a young age." The girl would be a child of two worlds in more ways then the obvious and Sekhmet would ensure that she was balanced.

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[info]divinebutcher
2011-08-04 09:52 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Two seemed a bit late to Shesmu, but he didn't have much of a handle for the time spans of mortals. He'd always been so completely apart from any of them except after they were dead so it was hard to keep track. But is Sekhmet said two, then two was probably the right age then. "I'll teach her to make the wine," Shesmu agreed with a short nod.

He watched her stomach as though if by doing that it might make the baby come shooting out. "I hate waiting," he grumbled.

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[info]powerfulfemale
2011-08-04 08:33 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
"Teach her everything you like," she smiled at him before laughing at his look and comment. "Says the one who isn't having to carry her. This week or the next, then she will be here. Maybe she'll name herself then." Sekhmet hadn't been too bothered with finding names. She had favorites but she believed the girl would name herself when she arrived.

"I won't think ill of you if you decide not to be in the same room," he had never experienced a birth. She half wondered if it would be too strange for him, and Ra knew she'd curse him to his bones. "Invite your dead Lord. Mirror-self and Isis will be with me, and I expect no complications with the birth."

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[info]divinebutcher
2011-08-05 05:44 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Naming herself seemed right. Shesmu wouldn't know where to start with that either. (The further this went along, the more and more Shesmu realised he was in no way cut out for the whole idea of fatherhood.)

"I watched some old movies," Shesmu said. "The fathers are supposed to be outside with cigars. I don't smoke cigars but I would like to be outside." Blood he was okay with, but the rest of it? With babies coming out of women and all the rest of that? Not as much.

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[info]powerfulfemale
2011-08-05 06:13 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
She knew she shouldn't laugh, so she just smiled. He didn't know. That was hardly his fault. "Do not learn from Hollywood. But as you wish." She understood how he worked, or at least how he thought.

She would continue to prod him along for as long as he let her. She wasn't the conventional mother either but it hardly bothered her. Her girl would have everything she couldn't give from her Mirror-self anyway. "I do look forward to going hunting. I was not made for being so restful."

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[info]divinebutcher
2011-08-05 06:16 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
"Not long now," Shesmu promised, his lips meeting hers. "And then you'll be my free lioness again. The world will be yours."

His hand had been resting on her stomach as he kissed Sekhmet but now he yanked it away as though he'd been shocked, the movement of the baby catching him off guard even though he'd felt it before. "I'm still not used to that," he apologised.

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[info]powerfulfemale
2011-08-05 10:21 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
She'd smiled into the kiss before hiding the rest of it in her pillows as he yanked his hand back. "It's fine. Try feeling it inside. Had it not been so long I would still be startled. At least she is calmer now." Not long indeed. She knew that when the girl was truly calm she could start preparing for birth.

"And kind as that is, the world is not mine. Others share it." Some she was alright with, some she wasn't. It wasn't for her to decide right from wrong, only punish the wrong.

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[info]divinebutcher
2011-08-06 06:20 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
If it was in Shesmu's power he'd make the world hers again. He'd remake it for all of them the way that it was. He hated that he was no longer the one to carry out the justice of Osiris and destroy the evildoers. Without that role Shesmu knew he was nothing at all, just a relic. So he just grunted to Sekhmet's words instead of saying any of that.

Now that he was thinking about the old world other thoughts were coming to mind, the sort of thoughts he tried to keep silent most of the time. But it seemed after his days away and so close to the birth of their child together, Shesmu couldn't stay silent.

"You found Tawaret," he began, watching Sekhmet's stomach and not her face, his hand returning to touch it. "She's remembered but not so well as some others. My own name is near-forgotten... but there are some of our kind still missing who the humans haven't forgotten. That means they must be here in this country and they'll join as one day, maybe very soon."

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[info]powerfulfemale
2011-08-06 06:36 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
She smiled at him. She'd been a Queen once, part of a Holy Triad and happy with her son and husband. In Karnak and Memphis, old memories of old Gods still haunted the rooms, but here she had a temple and pagans under her name. She wasn't a conquerer.

Even though she'd like to put the Greeks in their place. She had no issues with the Christians. Greeks were a different matter.

Gently she set her hand on his, "my Lord of Blood." Smiling she traced her free hand along his features. "I would not let your name be forgotten. Progress is always slow amongst mortals." Smiling she kissed him, "I've had my own women whisper your name." Then she gave a shrug, "perhaps. Perhaps not. We have no one to rally under beloved. Until my Lord-Father returns to us, we have no banner. And I cannot, will not, go under the banner of the Dead King. The Sun must come back to us. Then, perhaps, we can think about coming together as one."

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[info]divinebutcher
2011-08-06 06:53 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Shesmu had not thought that Sekhmet would be using those that worshiped her to strengthen him. The idea had never even occurred to him, but it was a good thing. More strength was always a good thing.

He didn't want to say the next part, but he'd already began so he had to go on. He kissed her hand in his and then said, "among those who must surely be near... Among them will be Ptah."

Shesmu had always known that Sekhmet was married and to there had always been a slight uneasiness in their relationship for him because of that. Shesmu was a dead thing, a demon of Duat who had no family at all: no mother, no father, no wife. He had always been only himself under the command of Osiris, but Sekhmet had been more than that. Shesmu had overseen punishments of those who partook in adultery and that he did so now made him feel he'd fallen even further from his role.

But he didn't want to lose Sekhmet. "What happens when your husband comes?" he asked her quietly.

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[info]powerfulfemale
2011-08-06 07:06 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
She knew Ptah would come one way or the other. She'd looked forward to that. But then she'd grown closer to Shesmu, someone she felt understood her bloodlust better then Ptah had ever done. He'd always given her a sad look when she returned, stained with blood. Shesmu was right beside her in those moments, covered in just as much blood.

"Then he comes," she took his hand, "my marriage to Ptah is old and sacred. We are part of a Holy Triad. That can never change, nor can I change that part of my heart is always his. He was my first, and we had a good marriage. He gave me my Nefertem. I cannot judge his mind, his actions. If he comes, I will be honest and say that my heart now lays with you. If he cannot understand that, he cannot understand me." She set her fingers on her stomach, "and he is the Builder. Creation. He won't harm the child, nor will I allow him to harm you. He won't stop me from doing as I like, to being with you."

"I am an Eye of Ra and a Queen, I know my rights Shesmu. Both in our law and in the mortal's laws. He's never pressed me on who I share my heart with. In that, he understands me."

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[info]divinebutcher
2011-08-06 07:15 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Shesmu wished that he shared the lioness' confidence in this matter. "I have no doubt that you will do as you wish," he said with a small smile as he touched Sekhmet's cheek. "You've got a stronger will than anyone I've ever known. It's one of the reasons that I fell in love with you."

Madly and completely. Her skin was soft beneath his fingers.

"But just as you know your place, I know mine," he said a little sadly. "I am not king, I am only a servant to the laws of our people, as forgotten as they are by the people here. I can't stray from them, not without losing myself. Sekhmet," he whispered, "my Queen, my blood-stained lioness. If Ptah returns, I can't continue to be with you."

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[info]powerfulfemale
2011-08-06 07:29 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
She didn't want to hear that. She loved him. For the first time in her long life she didn't want Ptah to return. Not if it cost her this happiness. "I could order you." She was an Eye of Ra. She had certain privileges that came with that tile, along with having ruled Memphis.

"I do not want to lose this. You understand me. You make me happy." Suddenly angry she sat up and winced. "But I wouldn't. I would do a great many things, but not that." She sighed, "Strange you abide by rules not even your Dead Lord does. Even he Desert Lord flaunts them. The Dead Lord has a son outside his marriage, as well as his heir. The Desert Lord...well all of us are grateful he's incapable of having offspring." She folded her hands across her stomach. "It would not stop me from loving you Shesmu, but now I don't want him to return." She smiled at him, setting her fingers on his cheek. "But we have now. Let me have this." In the mean time she'd just send her own message to her absent husband, calling in favors long forgotten. When she wanted something, she assured she had it. She was much like her Father in that way.

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[info]divinebutcher
2011-08-08 10:01 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
"If I don't hold to our laws," Shesmu explained, "then I am nothing. I can't go against myself."

He had never worried that Sekhmet would order him. He knew that her affection for him was true and not something she would taint like that. "I don't want to leave you, or our baby. So I selfishly hope your husband keeps away."

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[info]powerfulfemale
2011-08-08 04:10 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
"I know." She looked back to him and smiled, "I know." She took his hand, "we can both hold to that desire. There is no wrong there." Calmly, quietly, she was making plans.

"But he isn't here now, and I don't want him to be a shadow. I cannot predict the future. Each sunrise is a new beginning." Smiling she laid back down, knowing if she overexerted herself her daughter would arrive too quickly. "However, if he does return, I wouldn't let you keep him from our girl. You know that, right?" She looked to him, "he could make me stay with him, and be faithful," more for Shesmu's sake then her own, "but he will not keep the father of my child from his daughter. You will be allowed to be near her and teach her as you will. No one can take that from you. Not even Ra."