Every day for the past 18 months, Cass had come to the museum. She would stay for various lengths of time. Sometimes she'd stay for hours, mindlessly wandering the halls. Sometimes she could only come in for a half hour or so. But every time she came, she sang, the song would change but she would sing. Sometimes it was a jingle she found online and other times it was a rock ballad or a show tune, she seemed to favor those.
When the exhibits came to life at night, you could always find at least one of them humming what had echoed through the halls that day. Usually it was the exhibit that saw her the most. Teddy, Jed, and even Ahkmenrah were known to hum. Larry had never figured out where they got the tune from. He knew they had to have gotten it from a guest, but which one seemed to leave such an impression on them?
One day, Larry came in early for work, he hoped to catch who was doing the singing that caused all the exhibits to hum in the night. Soon he found someone in the Egypt exhibit, she was the only one there. She was carrying a tune that he found to be familiar, Jed had been humming it just last week.
"So nice to see you here, impolite would only be beneath us, it's been ooh, what? A half a year? Like nothing ever happened in between us. I just wish you opened fire on me so I can see you still worry if I care." She sang. She had been spinning so when she saw Larry she was a bit surprised. "SHIT!" She exclaimed. Larry chuckled at her startled reaction.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that." He said. The woman gave him a sheepish smile.
"No worries, I guess I should know better than to stage a musical number in a museum, can't help it I suppose. Best acoustics in the city." She said.
"I'm sure the exhibits wouldn't mind." Larry said, not kidding. But of course, the woman took it as a joke.
"I'm Cassidy, by the way. But please, just call me Cass." She said with a grin.
"Larry, I'm the night watch."
"Oh! Am I interrupting your rounds!?" Cassidy exclaimed. She jogged over to one of the pillars to grab a slouchy bag. "Sorry, I'm an art student, I got a little wrapped up in sketching the sarcophagus." She explained. Well that explained why the origin of the tune went from exhibit to exhibit.
"Have you drawn everything here?" Larry couldn't help ask.
"Not even close, I haven't gotten to any of the animal halls and my friend says there's a Lewis and Clark hall that I haven't even found yet." Cassidy said. There was sudden noise behind them and Cassidy jumped. "What the fuck." she said.
"Well, it's after hours. How would you like to draw the mummy himself?" Larry asked. Cassidy raised her eyebrow as Larry raised the lid of the sarcophagus and a body raised from it. She had to fight every instinct that told her to run for the door. Larry then helped the body unwrap his head. The mummy turned to the girl in the room and shot her a boyish grin.
"Oh hello," he started. "And who might you be?" He asked. Cassidy paled and took a deep breath. How do you interact with a mummy? This was certainly not something you teach in any informal etiquette lesson.
"Right, okay, hi, I'm Cassidy Jones, but please call me Cass." she started. She tilted her head and stepped closer to get a better look at the man that was the mummy. "Okay, so they didn't get the cheekbones high enough, the nose is smaller than how they imagined it." She looked at the side of his face. "The jaw needed to be more defined." she continued. The mummy looked at Larry bizarrely.
"Cass, a little explanation?" Larry asked. Cass jumped back and let out a sheepish grin.
"I found an artist rendition of skull and their placement markers were off, I was seeing where they messed up." She said. Cass wandered over to her bag as the mummy got changed. When she turned around she saw the pharaoh in his royal garb. "Wow." she muttered. The mummy chuckled.
"I am Ahkmenrah fourth son of the fourth king. A pleasure to meet you Cass." He said with the boyish smile returning. Cassidy bit back the blush. "Might I ask what this artist portrayed me as?" Ahkmenrah asked.
"I'm gonna leave you two, Cass, just come find me when you want out okay?" Larry said. Cassidy nodded in acknowledgement as Ahkmenrah walked over to see Cassidy's sketchbook. She flipped through the pages with ease pulling up the page. The printing of the official rendering was next to the pencil drawing that was signed by Cassidy. He couldn't help but note that Cassidy was right when she made her comments of where they went wrong. "Would it be too much to ask to see the rest of the book?"
"Sure," she said, cautiously handing over the book. Ahkmenrah noticed her apprehension.
"Only if you're okay with it."
"Ahk, it's fine. I'm just not used to it. That sketchbook is just the drawings from around the museum or from when I was in the museum, so they should be relatively PG." She said. "Not that any of my other drawings aren't PG, just they're a tad dark." Cassidy said in a rush. Ahkmenrah chuckled, both at her response and how easily she had dropped formalities and gone straight for Ahk. He started to look through the pages. Sure enough, most of them were other exhibits, when they weren't then they were period drawings from every time period.
"These are all amazing," he said. Cassidy blushed.
"Thanks, would you mind if I draw you properly, not just an artist rendition of your skull?" She asked. Ahkmenrah blushed a little himself at the request but smiled.
"Where do you want me?" He asked. Cassidy lit up with a childlike grin. She took his wrist and dragged him toward the pedestal that his sarcophagus sat on. She sat him down and angled his face so the light was hitting it at an interesting angle. She tried to ignore how warm his skin was under her fingers, or how smooth it was, or the little shocks of electricity down her spine.
"You don't mind right? Sorry, I completely forgot to ask." She said, talking about moving his head. Ahkmenrah chuckled and shook his head.
"I'm fine with it Cass." He said. Cass blushed and went back to moving his face. Once she finally got it in a position she liked, she sat on the floor and started sketching. They sat in silence until Cass began to sing.
"You walked in and my heart went boom. Tryin' to catch your eye from the side of the ballroom, everybody's dancin' and the band's top volume. Ride to the rhythm as we wine and dine, grab a sister and whisper "Yo this one's mine."" She let out, it then faded into a hum and Ahkmenrah tried to not let his disappointment show.
"You have a beautiful voice." He said. Cass tried to not let her surprise show.
"Sorry, not used to my models talking back to me." She said. Ahkmenrah couldn't help but chuckle.
"You know, the exhibits hear your tunes, they frequently hum them in the night." He said.
"Well it's lovely to know that my ear worms can be someone else's." Cassidy said with a chuckle. She continued to draw the handsome prince and he was happily studying her out of the corner of his eyes. She was a lively person. With dark hair hiding under a hat, her jeans had splashes of paint on them and her jacket looked to be well worn. Her eyes were warm and her smile was lightning in a bottle, he wasn't sure how the heavens managed it. Cassidy looked up from her work and caught his gaze. A blush escaped before she could bite it back.
"Why were you looking at me?" She asked as she turned her attention back to the sketchbook page.
"I like admiring beautiful things, and since you are here, I'll admire you." Ahkmenrah commented confidently. Another blush escaped her.
"You're one to talk Mr. "I could probably be mistaken for a god if I stand in the right light."" She rebuttled. Cassidy then chuckled. "Well, I failed step one. That's the longest Step one has lasted." She said. Ahkmenrah tilted his head like a puppy and she almost grinned at how adorable he was.
"Might I ask what step one was?" He said.
"Step one was don't flirt with the four thousand year old mummy who doesn't look a day over 21. So I failed step one, what's next?" She asked. She looked up from the sketch and Ahkmenrah took this as an opportunity to glance at it. She was doing marvelous job.
"Then what's step two?" He asked.
"Not sure yet, probably "don't hug the dead royalty, you'll get attached and it'll be bad."" She said as if she was certain it was going to be bad. Ahkmenrah was about to rebuttal when Larry poked his head in the doorway.
"15 minute warning Ahk." He said, walking away to warn the others. Cassidy stood up and packed her sketchbook and pencils away. She swung the bag over her shoulder.
"I need to head home. I have classes in a couple of hours." She muttered. Ahkmenrah tilted his head.
"Will I see you tomorrow then?" He asked.
"If you'll have me, sure." She replied. Ahkmenrah grinned and hugged her, twirling her around as he did so.
"Failed step two." She said as she wrapped her arms around him. He released her and kissed the back of her hand.
"Until tomorrow Cass." He said.
"Until tomorrow Ahk." She replied as she walked out of the exhibit. The rest of the museum was packing up for the night, and did she see Larry putting a bone back into the T-Rex's ribcage? No matter, she'd ask him about it tomorrow.
"Thank you for this Larry." She said when she entered the foyer. Larry smiled at her.
"Jed and Octavius told me to tell to not let Ahk hog you again tomorrow night, they want to meet the songbird too." Larry said. Cassidy chuckled.
"I won't let him, I'll be back tomorrow Larry."
Oh yeah, she'd definitely be back. She needed to fail step three.