Archive of Our Own

The room was not very large, but it was well-appointed, with furniture made of real cedar and plush cushions layered thickly over the reed mats on the floor. The windows were high and small, but that was normal as well, catching what small breeze there was and keeping the rest of the room dark and cool.

The single door, covered with a fine linen gauze, led out to a walled courtyard. Most of the area was taken up with a pool, separated with a barrier that came to just under the water level into two distinct areas - the one for plants, and the one for people to swim in. The rest of the yard was filled with potted trees and awnings stretched to keep the sun at a bearable level.

And that was it: room, courtyard. There was no way to get out. He could clearly see the sun traversing the sky, at least once it had climbed above the level of the walls, but he strongly suspected that there was not, in any real sense of the word, an outside to get to.

It was going to make escape more difficult, but he'd spent his entire life escaping impossible situations, and did not plan to stop now. He knew there had to be a path, because three times a day, a meal would appear. It never did so where he was watching - he had quickly learned that if he wanted beer, he left the jar out of his sight. But it did so, so there was a way in. He just had to find it.

And, he thought, he could at least be assured that someone had missed him. For that matter, how he'd even been kidnapped out from under the ever-watchful eyes of Wdj't and Nekheb't was a mystery. He had no doubt who had done it, of course; the only mystery was why Set was keeping him alive.

At least, it was until Set arrived one day, with the food.

He was coming inside, sure that the food ought to have appeared right now and vaguely wondering if there would be dates, and there was Set, splayed out on the floor next to the chest on which the meal sat. He instantly had his knife out, crouched down, and only then did the fact that Set was unconscious catch up to him.

The thing was, as far as he knew, Set didn't sleep. He dozed, occasionally, in the hottest part of the day, but he never, ever slept. He'd only even seen Set so much as out of it once or twice, when Sekhmet was distracted and the battle against the Apep went poorly, and that was caused by blood loss, not - whatever this was.

He didn't put the knife away, but slowly leaned over and took the food. There was more of it, enough for two. Set didn't so much as stir, even when he took both portions and retreated to the courtyard.

In fact, it was nearly evening, the stars (and they weren't the familiar stars of Khemet, either) just beginning to show, when Set finally woke up. He did so all at once, and Horu heard it because he'd balanced a jar of beer on Set's back, which tumbled off and thudded dully when he came awake. He went to go see.

Set's reaction to him was not what he expected, either. He blinked several times, as if he did not believe what he saw, and then said, slowly, "Well. Hello, nephew."

He was, of course, still holding his knife.

"Hello, uncle. Come to gloat?"

Set blinked, again, and then understanding visibly occurred. "You think I did this?"

"Who else?" He shrugged.

" . . . I do not know." He heard the barely-restrained anger, the growl of a fighter with nothing to fight. "Do you have any idea what has been happening?"

"I can guess," said Horu, who could indeed guess. Without him, without his constant presence in the mind of the current king, there would be very nearly instant chaos. And it would, of course, be exacerbated by Set attempting to usurp the kingdom, by his father demanding his return, by his mother calling Re by his true name, by his entire family . . .

"Yes," growled set. "Re sent Sekhmet to find you first, and she got drunk and didn't show up one night and Apep very nearly won. And then he sent your mother to find you, and she searched like - well, she searched, and none of her magic found a trace. And then he told Djehuti to divine you, and all he could turn up was that I had to find you. There was a huge fight about it, too. But in the end, what else could we do? So I came to find you. And Ise came with me to bring you home."

"I notice mother isn't here," said Horu.

Set gave him a look. "When I find out who did this, I am going to disembowel him."

"You do that," said Horu. "And in the meantime, you can back up. I'm hungry, and all the food is over there by you."

"Oh for - I'm not going to hurt you!"

"I'd rather not take the chance," said Horu. "I don't think I believe this pretty story of yours."

"You don't . . . I swear to Ma'at that I am not lying!"

"Ah," said Horu. "Uncle, you don't believe in Ma'at."

"Horu-"

"Just . . . back up, all right?"

Set sighed. And backed up.

"So, what have you discovered?" asked Set.

"Mm?"

"About this place. How we are supposed to get out."

"I don't think we are," said Horu. "At least, nothing leaves."

"What about excrement?"

"This would be a vastly less pleasant experience for someone who actually had to defecate."

"You mean you have been absorbing the entire time?"

"It's only been a month," said Horu. Absorbing was like that - it felt good, and then not so good, and then became painful, but it took a long time to reach the painful stage, especially without being tied to a human. Which he didn't seem to be. At any rate, a month was still in the period where he felt mildly euphoric for some time after doing it.

"Only been . . . Horu, it's been nearly two years."

Horu choked on his beer. "It's been what? How is - I mean, what?!"

Set was looking at him, and then said, "So. We know time passes differently. What else?"

"Someone is watching."

"You're sure?"

"The beer won't appear if I'm watching the jar. The food always appears elsewhere, but the beer," he shook his head.

Set nodded. "Someone is watching. I can tell you that from the outside, this place doesn't look hidden. We were looking for hidden places. I don't even remember seeing a trap."

"But you must have sprung one," said Horu, and Set nodded.

"And it must have been a very good one, to catch you but not mother, and to be invisible to her even after she knows this place is here."

"Mm," said Set, and ate quietly for a time. Then he said, "It's really very nice, though. Wherever we are."

Horu just looked at him.

"There's only one bed."

"I'm not sleeping with you here."

"Horu-"

"No."

"You're acting like a child."

"I'm acting entirely practical, considering you keep trying to kill me!"

"I have never," hissed Set, "in your entire life, tried to kill you!"

"Oh, sure," said Horu. "And I suppose that is why I grew up in a pocket dimension in the lower lands, always guarded by the Seven? Why I must have Wdj't and Nekheb't as my guardians even now?"

"The house you grew up in was your mother's doing, not my own. Likewise, your guardians chose to protect you. But not from me; I have never - no, that is not entirely true. I did want you dead, once. I intended to kill you. I made it all the way into your nursery once."

Horu blinked. "No, you didn't."

Set chuckled. "Because if I had, you would be dead? I suppose you would think that."

" . . . what were you going to say?"

"I intended to kill you. But you were so small, and - it was the first time I had ever seen a baby before."

Horu blinked. "But - ! Inpu?"

"I could hardly fail to notice the pregnancy, but Ise delivered, and he had green eyes even in the beginning. They told me he was stillborn."

"But, as commander of the armies."

"Hah. Whores take care not to become pregnant."

"As Lord of the Twin Lands?"

Set shook his head. "Things were different then. Ise cared only for her husband, and was missing besides. Nekheb't existed, but cared for no one. Tawaret cared for her children only. Mothers hid their children from evil spirits. Ask your own mother if you do not believe me; you were the first baby I ever saw."

"And?"

"You were small and red and ugly, the sickly child of a dead father and a mother half-dead with grief and the effort of keeping you alive that long. But you opened your eyes when you heard me. I didn't know, then, that all babies have blue eyes; and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Never before or since have I seen eyes of that color."

Horu's eyes were bicolored, now. The gold like the one he'd given to Set, who needed it more, and the magic blue one that had replaced it.

"It made me pause, but didn't stop me. What stopped me was that you reached for the knife."

Horu snorted. "It must have been that it was shiny."

"Are you listening to this story, or mocking me?"

"I can't do both?"

"You reached for the knife," said Set. "Whether or not you knew what it was. And I figured Ise wouldn't let you grow up stupid. So I left."

"You chose to let me grow up because I wouldn't grow up stupid?"

"Well," he shifted uncomfortably. "Farming is well and good, is wonderful, but it will not protect you against the Apep. Some of the bronze had to be spears and axes and swords. He thought that if we could just feed it enough, it would fall asleep and be no more of a threat."

Horu stared. "There isn't enough food in the world, and even if there were - "

"I know. Not everyone wants to be a friend, however wise and strong and beautiful you might be. So," he shrugged, "I did what I had to."

"Even if that's true," said Horu, "somehow, I doubt you tried everything else first."

Set didn't say anything, but he stood up and went outside.

Horu lay down on the floor, and prepared for a long night.

Oddly, Set didn't try anything in the night. In the morning, he went out to see what he had done.

Set was attempting to unmake the wall. He looked up when he heard Horu.

"This is not a wall," he said.

Horu arched an eyebrow. "What is it, then?"

"It's the edge of this little universe, which was made to look like a wall."

"I am not," said Horu, "terribly surprised."

Set looked up at him, from where he was sitting on the ground poking at the not-wall.

"Who can make a wall strong enough to hold against a god? But," he shrugged, "allof these are. And besides, it is much simpler to prevent and escape from a cage when it's small and easy to watch."

"But we must escape. Khemet needs you; the solar barque needs me."

Horu nodded. "I tried climbing the walls before, but there's something strange there. I don't think they are scalable."

"And shifting is not allowed here, not more than halfway, at any rate. Maybe you could climb me."

Horu stared at him.

"Oh, for - you are, despite my initial misgivings, an adult. Maybe you could act like it?"

Climbing Set proved possible, to the point that they managed to get it so that he was standing on Set's shoulders. It just did nothing in terms of getting them out, since the wall was taller than the two of them together.

"I am nearly positive that it was shorter," he said, hopping down.

"I am," said Set. "You can see it if you look at the place where the wall meets the building proper. There's a place where it looks like the room is much further away than it ought to be. Whoever made this place was very good."

They tried it again, at various points along the wall, up to and including with Set standing halfway inside. Horu was actually able to feel it as the strangely constructed local space stretched and twisted to meet the needs of being exactly the same size on the inside, but much too tall on the outside. It shocked him, like touching a piece of metal on a windy day, and he fell with a yelp.

"All right," said Set, sounding weary, while his ears rang. "I think we should give this a rest, for the moment. There seems to be a meal on the table."

The meal was good, composed mostly of bread so fresh it steamed, chickpea paste, lettuce, beer, and melon.

"Well," said Horu, taking a slice of melon for himself, "we know something else now, too. Whoever did this has a sense of humor."

Set looked a question at him.

"There's lettuce."

Set rolled his eyes. "Despite what you might think, the reason I do not have children has nothing to do with semen, or a lack thereof."

"Really." Horu's voice was flat, challenging.

"Yes. Or have you forgotten - "

Horu stiffened.

" - what I said about children and warriors?" finished Set smoothly, without a hint of pause. "I could not do that to Nebt-het, and I could not do that to the proposed children."

"I grew up without a father," said Horu. "And I seem to have done well."

"Nothing like your father, though."

That shut him up. Of course he wasn't; he had never known his father. But he tried to be a good king, the kind of king who deserved it.

"Well," he said, eventually, "I can't help but think that if such a thing happened with your offspring, it would be an improvement."

Set just grinned.

What there was to do, and whoever had done this had made provision for the fact that after the first ten minutes anyone on the inside would be mind-numbingly bored, he had done weeks ago. The scrolls, such as they were, tended to be treatises on medicine or the languages of the Sea-people or, in one horrifying instance that he nevertheless could not put down, what seemed to be a description of childbirth from the point of view of a mother, as it happened. But he'd read them all, with that one exception, a dozen times now.

In retrospect, however, it was obvious that this was a prison meant for two. The senet and dogs-and-jackals board set was made for two, and the fact that there were two chests. Still, it was with some trepidation that he asked Set for a game; the last time they'd been near a board, it had ended with a flaming row. But Set simply demanded that they figure out which set of rules they were playing with first. So they did.

It turned out interesting. Set had keen tactical mind, but he had more experience. They were evenly matched until very nearly the end, when Set pulled ahead and ended up winning by one token. Then he took the second and third games, with Set taking the fourth. Neither of them really wanted to play a fifth, so instead they broke for lunch, and then spent the afternoon probing at the confines of the tiny world. At the end, the only thing they had managed to discover was that the world went down as far as the bottom of the pool, so there was an extra few feet of dirt everywhere else.

Hot, sweaty, and exhausted, they stripped and dunked themselves in the pool, pouring water over themselves until they were cool and more-or-less clean. More or less, because it was going to become unpleasant quickly if they had to bathe much.

After that, they ate.

"So," said Set, taking of bite of (perfectly cooked) duck, "are you going to snap at me again tonight if I suggest that I sleep inside?" Seeing his look, he added, "On the floor, of course."

Horu frowned. "Leave your knife outside."

"As if it would take me a knife to kill you, if I wanted to."

Horu knew that, of course. You didn't fight the Apep every night for a thousand years and more without becoming very good at killing. "Leave your knife outside."

Set grinned. "All right."

He didn't do anything that night, including, apparently, sleep. Horu knew this because he woke with a start at once point, heart beating frantically, to find Set watching him calmly, his expression flat and unreadable. Horu did not think he'd be able to sleep afterward, and waking up in the morning to Set shaking him - gently - was something of a surprise.

"Wake up, O Lord of the Twin Kingdoms," he said.

"Set," he hissed, but got up.

Breakfast was fruits - dates, figs, pomegranates, grapes, melons, and the by-now ubiquitous lettuce.

"You were watching me," he said.

"Hm?" Set seemed more interested in the pomegranates.

"Last night."

"I watch you a lot. There is not much else to look at," said Set. "Tell me, do we ever get wine?"

He blinked at the abrupt change in subject. "On occasion," he said. "Why?"

"A thought I had. Our mysterious kidnapper must have very good control, to be able to put beer in our very jars as well as food on our plates."

"Well, yes. What are you thinking?"

"I'm wondering if it is possible, even for someone with that kind of control, to build a place like this without coming inside."

"Well, there is a way to find out."

"You don't have that kind of control."

"You do."

Had they been able to see an invisible world, they could have gone there. That they couldn't spoke volumes - only made worlds didn't have that kind of natural pathway. And, of course, only made worlds could be this small and yet be stable.

Set was not, by nature, a maker. Horu wasn't, either; he didn't have the kind of mind that looked around and fitted the pieces together to make new things, but he could endlessly improve on the old. Fortunately, at least for their purposes, he had grown up in exactly that kind of made world and knew intimately how they worked.

Even so, there were . . . issues.

"I'm not sitting in your lap."

"Good," Set smirked. "You weigh a ton. But we still have to be touching for the power transfer to work."

"Can't you sit in my lap?"

"I'm bigger than you."

"All right, then how about I lie down on you?"

"That's going to be beastly hot."

"It's already going to be beastly hot."

" . . . point."

Which led to a long, hot, sticky morning of watching Set try and fail and fail again to make a world.

"No, no, no. You cannot force it to be born, any more than dropping a hatchling makes it fly."

"Would you like to do this?"

"No . . . "

"Then be quiet."

"Sorry."

But, eventually, just before he turned his head to see lunch sitting on one of the chests, Set managed something that neither fell apart immediately nor exploded in their faces. It was lumpy and misshapen and didn't appear to have an inside, or even more than one side, but it obediently floated in midair, the slight distortion of light passing around it the only thing to give it away.

"All right," said Horu. "Time for lunch."

"I think I'll stay here," said Set, still face down on the bed.

"What? I mean - don't you want to sluice off?"

"I'd love to," said Set. "Just not right now."

He was lying. Even Sekhmet, the Red Lady who had been known to bathe in blood, valued cleanliness enough to wash before collapsing in the mornings. "Set."

"Oh - fine! I'm hard, all right?"

Horu blinked, uncomprehending for a moment, and then suddenly he did. "And you - "

"I was," said Set, icily, "just going to lie here until it went away. Since you ask."

"Ah. You could . . . go outside."

"And do what, exactly? I'm not using the pool - we've no idea how long that's going to have to last us."

"There are the potted plants."

" . . . that's true."

"So I am going to turn around," said Horu.

"Thanks," said Set, dryly, as he got up and went outside.

Horu resolutely paid no attention to what he knew Set was doing a handful of steps away. He certainly was not listening for the panting breaths or the stifled, muffled groan a few minutes later.

And then he really wasn't paying attention, because the baby world had just pulsed and changed shaped and -

"Set?"

- now had distinct inside and outside and was rapidly expanding -

"Set!"

"Wha - oh."

- as it went, until with a neat little pop of pressure being released, it hit the wall of their little side universe and merged with it.

He blinked. There was now a door on a wall that had not, previously, had one. The entire facade of the wall had changed to incorporate it.

"I didn't know they could do that," said Set, into the quiet.

"They can't," said Horu.

The new room turned out to be -

Well, really, it was a storage room. They brought the lunch inside to eat it while they looked. One entire wall was covered with honeycomb-shaped niches which made sense only once one realized that most of them held scrolls. The ones that didn't, as it turned out, exactly corresponded to the scrolls that Horu had read.

Stacked wood-frame, woven-reed boxes took up another corner of the room, although there were only folded linen cloths in the very bottom one, when they checked. And last -

"I have no idea what this metal is," said Set, tapping one of the two swords appreciatively with a thumbnail. The metal was a dull gray, entirely unlike even the sharpest bronze blade or flint knife. But in addition to the swords, there were daggers, maces, throw-sticks, some of the strangest looking bows either had ever seen, and two suits of armor on individual stands, made out of the same metal. When they took them into the sun to see, both of them gasped in delight; the swords were ever so slightly blue, and waves shimmered just under the surface.

"Either someone wants us dead," said Horu, "or someone trusts us not to kill each other."

"Hmm," said Set, and then stepped sideways, testing the balance as he went through the motions of a form. "Well, I could kill you fairly easily with a blade like this. Of course, you'd kill me too, so it would be pointless."

" . . . Set."

"Mm?"

"When were you able to create that world?"

"What?"

"I mean," said Horu, blushing to his ears even under his deep tan, "were you hard before or after?"

"Oh. Bef - oh."

"So I didn't make the world."

"I don't think so. Unless you meant to make the library."

"I have never even read half the books," said Set. "And I don't even know what this metal is." He'd replaced his copper knife with the little blue one almost immediately. "So all we did, at best, was unlock it."

"All you did," corrected Horu.

They were quiet for a bit longer, both avoiding the next, obvious thought, and then Set broke the silence by clearing his throat.

"There is a slight problem."

"Of course there is."

"Horu."

He looked up; the tone was all wrong. "What?"

"I - " Set stopped, then began again. "All right. Let's start at the heart of it. I love you."

"What?"

"I love you."

"You don't."

"I do. I'd swear it, but there isn't anything I could swear on that you'd believe."

" . . . swear on the eye I gave you."

"I swear, by the Left Eye that Horu gave me, that I love Horu and only Horu and always Horu."

Horu took a deep, steadying breath. "All right. Now explain."

It turned out to be entirely more complicated than he had ever suspected, and also entirely more simple.

"So, wait, let me get this straight. You don't like women?"

Set shook his head, red braids shifting gently. "I like them well enough; but get me into bed with one and," he shrugged, "nothing."

"All right," said Horu. He'd at least heard of it before, even if he had never personally encountered it. As far as he knew. "But then go find some man to bed."

"I have tried," said Set. "It used to even work. Ask your mother sometime; whenever your father and I had an argument, I'd take off for weeks, until I found someone to take it out of me. And then there was Apep and I had invent all kinds of horrible things, like fratricide and regicide and usurpation and armies and wars, and Ise took off. I really - I had counted on her magic. She supported my faction before, had you realized?"

He had not.

"And then there were these rumors, that Ise was pregnant, that Ise had a child, that she was going to raise this baby to take the place of his gorgeous idiot father-"

"You told me this part already," pointed out Horu.

"I didn't tell you the part where I fell in love."

"With a baby?"

"What?" Set sounded horrified. "Oh, no. I watched." A wry grin. "It was not easy, with those seven scorpions and your mother watching all the time. But I did, whenever I could. I don't know when it happened, not really. It seems like it was just there one day, with the certainty that eventually you'd be adult enough to take back the Twin Lands and let me get on with fighting the Apep."

"Oh." He blinked. "But then why did you disagree at the Court, when I did come to claim my birthright?"

"Because you didn't win."

"What?"

Set was shaking, suddenly, and it took him a moment to figure out it was laughter. "You had to be enough of a leader to sway the Court before I could trust you with the Twin Lands. Even knowing that I wasn't the best - you were simply too young, yet, to do it. To know how to do it."

" . . . I see," said Horu, because he did. "All right. Then this one last question - why did you bed me? Try to bed me?"

Set didn't say anything.

"Set?"

"Because you had very nearly won, that day in the sparring pit, you could have won, and you threw the match so that I wouldn't be too weak to go against the Apep, that night. Because I'd never seen those eyes before, either. Because you were very beautiful, and you were finally the king, and I was very stupid. Because, when it comes right down to it, we drank too much."

" . . . it was never about dominance, was it?"

"No."

"Spar with me."

"What?"

"Right now."

He lost. He knew he was going to - Set was not the type to go easy on him. Set was as harsh and unforgiving as the Red Land itself, and he was parched and sweating within the first two minutes.

"Again."

He lost again, but it took longer, his body slowly remembering how to do this, even as he learned this new sword.

"Again."

The metal sang as it cut the air, clashed, parried, met again. He stopped, Set's blade - again - at his throat.

"Again."

And again, and again, and again, until they were both drenched in sweat, dancing against each other, breathing in huge gasps and aching all over and, finally, his blade stopped just over Set's wrist, where he could sever that hand and the vein there in one deadly motion.

"Again?" asked Set, an odd catch in his voice.

He turned his head, grinning, and no matter what had happened that night ages ago, blurred by the haze of alcohol-induced lust and coming down off the high of fighting Apep, this was their first kiss.

They made it to the bedroom naked, stumbling but unwilling to let go of each other long enough to walk properly. Set was licking him, nipping him, kissing him, everywhere his mouth could reach, and simply touching, stroking, worshiping him everywhere else, desperate and hard and fast and so very, very good. He hit the bed first, Set pushing at him until he sat down, and then kissing and licking and sliding down his body until-

Women had done this for him before, he thought, dully, as Set mouthed him. But they were not Set: Set who had loved him enough to fight him; Set who had always, always watched him; Set whose reasons turned out to be no more inscrutable than his own. They were not Set, who had been waiting for this while entire dynasties came and went, who was sucking him down like he was life himself and moaning, truly moaning with it. They were not Set, who looked at him like that and swallowed and - and -

The world went white.

When it came back, Set was standing above him, chest heaving; a single strand of semen, silvery-white in the dimness, trailing from his mouth. At least until he reached up and scooped it onto a finger and sucked the finger clean, and even though it was far too soon he felt himself twitch again.

Always, he thought. It was always about giving me this pleasure, and the thought made him realize that Set wasn't hard anymore, either.

"How soon can you do that again?" he asked.

"That? As soon as you can stand it. But there are other things . . . "

"Show me everything."

He heard the sharp intake of breath more that saw it, and then Set was stepping close to kiss him. This, too, was new; there was nothing of the frantic, needy desperation of moment ago, only long, slow kisses, and gentle touches, as Set explored his body.

"We should move to the floor," said Set, sometime later, in the lazy space between one kiss and the next.

"Why?"

"The bed is not big enough."

Horu had to admit the was true; for although it was a fine bed, sturdy and fragrant, they had already proven that the only way they could both fit on it at once was stacked atop each other. Besides, there were plenty of cushions. He took some as he slid himself off the bed, pummeling them until he had them comfortable.

Set went back to kissing him, soft and sweet, murmuring endearments all the while. On his mouth, yes, but also each one of his fingertips, his palms, the inside of his wrists. He decided to try it, beginning with gentle explorations, and soon found himself entirely distracted by the fact that Set was a solid mass of scars. Of course, being gods, anything short of outright removal of a limb would heal eventually, but until then there would be scars; and Set had so many.

"What are these from?" he asked, touching a series of them that looked like nothing so much as a splatter of white clay on his skin.

"Ah - venom, from Apep. I didn't dodge fast enough."

He kissed each one individually, and then licked his way up another one. "This?"

"Spine."

"These?" They were perfectly parallel, long and shallow, and they must have burned horribly when they were open.

"Sekhmet's claws." He was breathing harder now also.

" . . . this?"

"Sp-spear."

A horrible knot of scar tissue, all along on side. "This?"

"His tail is like a mace - ah, please -"

"This?" It looked like someone had taken a semi-circle or a knife and pressed it against his thigh, over and over again.

"Scales - sharp edges - ohh -"

He shifted, getting one of his legs between both of Set's, unsurprised to find him hard again. And with his other hand, he reached to tilt Set's head down, to kiss him, sucking gently on his tongue while Set thrust against him, hot and hard.

And then Set pulled away. Horu made a noise of question.

"Oil," explained Set, going straight for one of the two chests. "I need you, inside."

If he hadn't been ready, he would be now.

Set was back, holding a bottle of perfumed oil and pressed against his side, pulling the little leather stopper out. The dark, spicy scent of cassia filled the space between them, as Set dipped two fingers in and reached -

He grabbed the wrist. "Slowly," he said. "Please. I want to see."

Set made a broken, whimpering sound, deep in his throat, but obediently levered himself up and spread his legs, a flush spreading across his entire body.

"Oh," breathed Horu. He had never really paid attention to that part of himself - it was dirty, unclean - but it was apparently also, at least from the harshness of Set's breathing and the way he tensed when penetrating himself, extremely sensitive.

"Oh," said Horu again, and "May I - ?"

"I - " gasped Set. "Yes."

So he poured some oil out, rubbing it between his hands to harm it, and then -

"Take yours out?"

Set shook his head, shuddering. "Inside. With me."

"Will it fit?"

"Just - slow," gasped Set, so he did, pressing against the pink flesh, right alongside Set's finger, until it gave and he was able to push inside that heat.

Set's finger was moving, rubbing oil around, and he took that as a cue, slicking those walls and marveling at the way they moved.

"Stretch," said Set, and it took him a moment to realize it was an instruction.

"Won't that hurt?" he asked.

"An instant only. Please."

"I need more oil," he said, and pulled out to get more.

So did Set, but instead of reslicking himself he said, "Two fingers. Like this," and made a motion with his fingers like the walking man in children's stories.

"I - all right," he said, and pushed back in, made that motion, while Set trembled and took great, heaving breaths. "All right?"

"More," said Set.

"Are you sure? I mean - "

"Yes," interrupted Set.

He wasn't certain a third finger would fit, but it did, as he continued to stretch and Set continued to tremble. "It doesn't - I mean, is this good?"

Set lifted his head with visible effort, focusing on him. "It's good. Please, now - inside me?"

Horu didn't ask if he was sure, just slid his fingers out and slicked himself up and pushed forward until he felt that give, until he was inside a tightness and heat that he had never, ever felt before.

They paused there, breathing.

"Is it okay if I - I mean, I can move?"

"Yesss," hissed Set, his voice so full of want that Horu didn't wait, just moved the way his body was urging him, fast and, once he figured out the leverage, hard as well. He wouldn't have thought he'd be any good, never having done this before; but Set was pushing back to meet his thrusts, rolling his hips and leaking. And then -

Well, he wasn't sure what happened, but something forced a cry out of Set, a raw animal noise made by a body so deep in pleasure that there were no words left, and after that there was little cry for every thrust. Set was quivering so hard, and making those noises - those sounds he was fucking out of the other god - and he was hot and tight, muscles taught in pleasure, and then Set opened his eyes and looked straight at him.

He came with a strangled cry.

A little while later, Set said, "You should pull out."

"But you - " began Horu. "You are still hard."

"And you are going to be very uncomfortable soon," said Set. "It is fine. I can take care of it; this is already more than I could ever hope for."

He pulled out, because that part at least was true, and then said, "I don't want you to take care of it. I want - do that. Do that to me."

Set made a strangled, almost hurt noise, and reached down to squeeze around the base of his erection for a long moment. "Horu," he said, once he relaxed, just a little, just enough. "Horu, you shouldn't say things you don't mean."

"I don't," said Horu. "The way you looked - I want to know how that felt so good."

Set shuddered once, all over, and then said, "All right. Get on your hands and knees."

"What? No! I want to see you!"

"So do I," admitted Set. "But for someone who has never done this before, hands and knees is easiest by far."

"I - all right," he said, and then got up on his hands and knees, positioning pillows to make himself more comfortable. Then he looked back over his shoulder. "Now?"

"Spread your legs a little wider," instructed Set.

"Now?" he demanded, once he had complied.

"Now," breathed Set, and from the direction Set had to be between his legs, "now-"

He yelped, undignified, at the first wet press, and then he yelped again, for a different reason. That was no finger, oil-slick and probing; that was Set's tongue. And it felt good, licking him just there, pressing but not enough to press inside.

"Ah," he whimpered, "no."

"No?" said Set, pulling back, and Horu discovered that having him stop was worse. But -

"It's dirty," he said.

"What dirty?" asked Set. "Weren't you the one who told me you have been absorbing for a month?" Another long, slow lick. "And I know you wash, every day. There's no dirt here." A short lick and then Set bit, a small, playful nip on one of his cheeks, but still -

"S-Set . . . "

"Shh, let me," soothed Set, and he couldn't fight anymore, it felt so good, the little kisses and licks and bites. He let his head hang between his shoulders while Set laved him, worshiped him, with his tongue, pressing just a little bit harder all the time until it came as an honest surprise when he pushed enough to be inside, slick and moving. In and out, like some parody of the true act, and he was shuddering with the effort of staying still, of not thrusting in sympathy, by the time Set sat back, leaving him wet and obscenely cold. He felt himself twitching, searching for something to fill him.

"Set . . . " he protested.

"I'm just getting oil," murmured Set, and indeed, that was a finger, sliding against him, gently, teasing.

"Set!"

Set chuckled, dark and sensual, and said, "All right, my lord," and pushed in.

A finger was both longer and thinner than a tongue, and so from the first it was both not enough and too much, while Set moved it within him. Within moments, however, it had faded from 'too much' and all he wanted was -

"More!"

He felt the stretch of the second finger, a slight burn about the opening, and whimpered.

"I know," said Set, soothing. "It helps if you bear down for a moment."

So he did, able to feel every callus and knuckle as Set moved his fingers, and when he let up, the pain had faded. Set continued, slowly stretching, until he made to pull out -

He whimpered.

"Just need more oil," explained Set, and then he was back, two fingers thrusting in and out, gently, until he was pressing back to meet those fingers, filled and knowing - knowing - that this would not be enough.

"Three fingers now," said Set. "All right?"

He managed to nod his head, and then there was another finger, pressing in alongside the first two, and that hurt. Set must have known it, heard it in the way he breathed or stilled, and stopped.

"Should I - ?"

"Keep going," he gritted out.

But instead of resuming the constant motion, set just rotated the fingers, pressing, almost searching. Searching for what, he couldn't imagine, until Set touched something that turned his bones to pleasure and made him burn for more. And more he was given, Set gently rubbing that spot as the sensation drove out all the words, all ability to think, reducing him to mewling and shuddering.

By the time Set stopped, the pain had faded to something far less than a background concern and he was wet, dripping. "What - " he managed to say.

"Women are lucky," remarked Set, "It is easy for anyone with eyes to find their Flower of Pleasure. Most men do not even know it exists. Are you ready?"

"Do it," said Horu.

Set removed his fingers, and then there was something else against him. "Breathe," commanded Set, and he realized he had stopped at some point, and just as he took that breath, Set pushed.

And then waited.

"I am - go on," said Horu, when he could talk again.

Set began to move, slowly. Carefully, as if he were afraid of breaking Horu, with a measured rhythm and careful, slight change in motion each time, until he found the right angle to -

"Ah!"

Immediate stillness.

"No, don't stop, that was - "

But he seemed to have gotten it, because he resumed his motion, hitting that spot on every slow, torturous thrust. And they were agonizingly steady, not fast enough or hard enough despite the fact that he was so ready, so needy. He had to, on the next thrust, push back, and that seemed to work as a signal to speed up.

Now he could understand why Set liked this, why Set craved this of him. This feeling, of being filled, pleasured - fucked. This wonderful, lighting sensation, this heat, the hands that were going to leave bruises on his hips, this, as it drove him higher and he realized that voice crying out was his. This, only this-

He felt Set stutter in his rhythm, felt the last two thrusts and then the heat inside of him and Set slumping on him, and the gasping breath as he regained himself.

"Forgive me, my Lord," said Set.

"What for?" he asked.

"I didn't - you are needing again."

"Well," said Horu, as Set pulled out with an obscene, wet sound. "You can probably do something about that. I did tell you to show me everything."

Set groaned and rolled the both of them down onto the cushions. "Then, my lord, let me show you - "

When they made it off that floor, hours later - truly off, too, and not just to the nearest chest to get more oil, or find that food had arrived and it was time to eat, or use a linen cloth to clean up some of the worst of the mess before one or the other of them decided that they hadn't learned enough of each other's bodies and needed to rectify this - they found that their miniature world had indeed grown quite a bit. There was now a proper kitchen, and a bathing room with, thankfully, massive water jars, and even a small workshop-courtyard, although there were no supplies as of yet.

It was also apparent that the house was growing towards the front entrance, if you began with the assumption that it was a house meant for only two people at maximum and started with the innermost garden and master suite.

"Well," said Set. "The way out seems fairly simple."

"Yes," agreed Horu, but quietly.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure I truly - well. This is a very pretty trap. The only way out is to love each other and the only way to stay is to not touch each other, and I am not sure which is worse. Set, what are we going to do once we are out?"

Set stepped around, tugging gently at Horu's chin until he could look into Set's almost but not quite matched eyes. "Horu, my beloved. I could not pretend that this time didn't happen, even if I wanted to. Not after needing you for so long. And I would not let you pretend that, either."

"Set . . . don't be stupid. Of course I wouldn't."

"Well then," said Set. "You will rule the Twin Lands, and I will fight the Apep, and - " his lips quirked in a smile that Horu knew well, now; it was a smile that meant Set planned to have him screaming in the near future, " - we will not ever be alone anymore."

His lips were close enough that he could feel Set's breath, and it only took the slightest motion to bring them together.

The next day, they opened up the house enough to get to what would be, in any other building, the front room. There was a door, too, leading to another little courtyard, but this one was tiled in polished limestone, shockingly white, the walls carved in relief and painted with images of the two of them: Set, standing at the head of the solar barque and holding a spear with which to fight Apep; Horu on his throne, crook in one hand and flail in the other.

There was no other door.

"Now what?" said Horu, nonplussed.

Set let out a slight laugh. "I can see an invisible world. Exactly one."

Horu closed his eyes to see better and there was indeed a single blue-lit path away from the place where they were. "Let's go and find out."

The next world was also a made one, and the moment Set stepped out there was a clink and something small and metallic landed on the floor behind them. Horu turned to pick it up; it was about the size of a charm, but no charm he had ever seen, being a smooth black disc with a golden spiral on one side. It was not just painted on, but carved and the gold melted in.

It was also the house.

Set looked at it, uncomprehending, until he explained. They wouldn't be able to open it until they got to a world big enough to do so and unfolded it, but apparently the house was coming along.

This world was too small, being scarcely more than a large room, but they could see that it was actually, somehow, suspended inside of the Star Bridge. No one on the bridge seemed even able to see it, and there was perfect calm despite the turbulence of the bridge proper.

Set took the first step out, and he followed closely. They were practically at the very beginning, where the bridge anchored to Khemet. And the instant they stepped out, Horu was able to feel Neferka, his human counterpart and the current king. Neferka could feel him too, since his emotions swung wildly between worry, rage, and relief.

"We're back," said Set.

They were.

And it turned out that it had been a month and a half since Set had vanished. Ise at first thought Set had betrayed her, but when he didn't show up to escort the solar barque, the fact that he had also vanished was brought home. Since then, half the gods of the Twin Lands had been searching frantically while the other half had been fighting off the Apep, but neither of them had a moment to breathe, or even explain, before resuming their duties.

Neferka had not, actually, been a bad king. He might have had a few excesses, and Horu was going to have to talk to someone about the failure of the flood in the first year, but he had opened the granaries and there wasn't hunger in the land.

Sekhmet left Set with another set of scars and cooed jealously over his new sword, which was still turned by the Apep's scales but at least not bent or blunted. That night, they won tremendously over the Apep.

And then it was day, and Set was free, and he was if not free than free enough, and Re called Court to hear what had happened. Horu told his portion first, and then they took turns in the telling - Set's addition, their attempts to escape, the conversations - and the fact that they were now each other's. That caused a stir, and Ise immediately came forward.

"You let him - him! - unman you?"

"Well. If you consider it unmanning," he said, "then by now we must both be women!" This caused a ripple of laughter in the Court.

"He killed you father!"

"Mother," said Horu. "Answer me, and answer me true: if he hadn't, would there now be a Khemet for me to rule?"

Ise didn't answer, and he saw the tears in her eyes before she slapped him hard enough that he only saw the last blue feathers of her primaries as she winged away to the bridge.

Set stood behind him, embraced him, supporting.

"I couldn't apologize for love," said Horu.

"She didn't disown you," replied Set. "So I think it will be all right."

Life returned to normal. Set still fought the Apep nightly, but the strange water-metal blades ensured victory after victory until even the Apep seemed to understand and left off, sulking somewhere for weeks at a time. He still watched over the Twin Lands, riding mostly a spectator in Neferka's mind, emerging only to make the occasional necessary judgment.

And, one morning, at a place that was within sight of the Star Bridge, a place that was still the Black Land although the Red Land was only steps away, they stood together and placed the little black not-charm on the ground, where it was visible only by the gold coil, and he called their house out.

They went home.