This hadn't been as fun as she'd been led to believe.
Oh, sure, it was technically the opportunity of a lifetime for her, studying an ancient Egyptian ruin, second to acclaimed archaeologist Castiel Novak. But she hadn't thought this through, obviously.
For one thing, how dare he hire the most freaking gorgeous man she'd ever seen, Dean Winchester, to be their guide? With perfectly tan skin stretched tight over taut muscles, short sandy hair that walked the line between blonde and brown, and the man practically had actual emeralds instead of eyes. How was she supposed to be focused on the lost city of Hamunaptra?
Secondly, there was another group of archaeologists that had been fighting them from day one of the expedition, claiming it was theirs, all the while making lewd comments at her, the one woman on either team. Kevin Tran, Novak's other assistant and an amazing linguist, had started to pull her away from the group when Dean had simply walked by, reloading his beautiful, pearl-handled weapon. He had said some choice words about the men at the table and what would happen to them if they didn't shut up, and then there was silence.
Thirdly, upon arriving in the desert, after a long camel ride that wasn't nearly as smooth as she'd been led to believe in movies, they city had been beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, the the group of four Englishmen that made up the group of asshat adventurers had found the Book of the Dead, alongside beautiful, amazing canopic jars. They had then spent the rest of the day loudly boasting about their find, already setting prices on their treasure.
So, really, how was it her fault that she had to go to their camp in the dead of night to steal the Book? And, well, she's an archaeologist (in training), and who could blame her for waking up Kevin and making him read the book to her?
And, really, how was she supposed to know that that would resurrect some guy who was living out his own, skewed version of Romeo & Juliet and was simultaneously a mass murderer?
So, here she was, hiding in her hotel room back in the main city, her back against the door that separated the main room from the bedroom, as though that would stop the three-thousand year old sorcerer from entering.
She heard shouting, screaming from several sources, and she immediately recognized the deep, husky voice that had been haunting her dreams for the week and a half since she'd met him.
There was a great load of shouting, then the screech of a very perturbed cat, followed by terrifying silence. Y/N waited a few moments on baited breath, afraid to do anything.
Then the banging on her door began anew, though English was shouted through the door instead of Ancient Egyptian. "Y/N?! Are you in there?!"
She scrambled to her feet and threw open the door.
On the other side of the door was Dean, standing there, panting and looking more worried than she'd ever seen and clutching his trusty gun in his right hand; Kevin, who was standing in the doorway leading into her hotel room, his face bleached of all color; and Professor Novak, who's crystal blue eyes weren't trained on her, but rather on the emaciated corpse dressed in the clothes of the final Englishman who'd opened the box of canopic jars.
Without thinking, she ran up and threw her arms around Dean's shoulders, crushing him to her. His left arm wrapped around her waist, holding her up before he dragged her back down. "Oh my god, I could kiss you right now," she mumbled into his neck.
He chuckled, and she pulled back a little to watch a boyish smirk cross his face. "Well, sweetheart, don't stop on my account."
She grinned, laughing a little before leaning up and pressing a kiss to his cheek, much to his surprise. "Thank you, Dean." She fell back onto her heels, rather reluctantly releasing the man from her grip.
She saw a flicker of disappointment flash across his face, but, though that might torment her on any other day, this day had the corpse of someone she had just told off earlier that day.
"Was…That's, uh…" Y/N gulped, unable to form words.
A high-pitched "uh-huh" sounded from the linguist in the other doorway.
"Well, that's the last of them. All four sacrifices have been made," Professor Novak frowned, standing up from the corpse. "Imhotep will have returned to full power."
"So…so we're all dead," Kevin stated, his voice broken.
"What plague are we on?" Y/N asked quietly.
"Too damn many," Dean grumbled, walking up to Y/N's side and not moving.
"We have to stop him," she stated.
"Great idea, princess. Got a plan hidden in your bag there? Or maybe Kevin can read you anothersection to summon something to fight him, Godzilla vs. Mothra style?" Dean ran his hand over his face in frustration.
Y/N's eyes widened, and she turned to her boss. "Professor Novak, if…we found the Book of the Dead."
His head cocked to the side. "Yes."
"If the Book of the Dead exists, that means the Book of the Living might as well."
He nodded solemnly. "It seems reasonable."
"So, if the Book of the Dead brought him back to life, maybe the Book of the Living can kill him," she reasoned.
"Wait, the dead book brings this guy back to life, and the living book kills him? Who names these things?" Dean grumbled.
"Well," Kevin began. "It's simple."
"And can be explained on our way back to Hamunaptra," Y/N interrupted, grabbing Dean's hand and heading out the door. "C'mon!"
"Wait, how are we gonna get out there quickly?" Professor Novak frowned, trying to bring some sense back into things.
There was a beat of silence where Dean shuffled awkwardly. She turned to him to see him getting a bit pale. "I…might know a guy."
"Can't you read faster?!" Dean shouted across the abyss. He was currently fighting with Imhotep after stopping the ritual to revive Anck-Su-Namun, the mummy's long-dead lover. The boys had saved her in the nick of time after she gave herself up to Imhotep to save the city.
Before going, however, she'd smashed her lips to Dean's and told him in a harsh whisper, "Y'all better fucking save me."
Now, there was chaos under the city of Hamunaptra. Dean had taken over the boss (alongisde a few of the priests), fighting him hand to hand in an effort to prevent him from doing anything to stop them. However, in a bid to try and prevent the three-thousand year-old mummy from doing anything else, Kevin had read the front of the Book of Amun-Ra, accidentally summoning several undead priests to fight against them as well.
So, Professor Novak was fighting off most of them off with a sword he'd taken off one of the statues.
Kevin was on the other side of the room, holding in his hands the golden Book of the Dead. He was reading aloud slowly, trying desperately to gain control over the minion horde he had summoned. Unfortunately, he was frequently interrupted by said minions trying to stab him. Y/N was nearby, trying to fight off the animated corpse of Anck-Su-Namun with a purloined staff and protect herself as much as an untrained archaeology student with no self-defense training could.
"You wanna take over, Winchester?!" she growled, yelping as she fought off another one of the mummified priests.
Before he could answer, they watched as Professor Novak was knocked down onto the ground. The priests he had been fighting then turned their attention to the two students in the corner.
"Fuck," Dean swore, barely audible over the din of the fight, too busy with his own fight to help.
"Kevin, read faster!" Y/N shouted.
"You're not helping!" Kevin's voice was high enough to almost be heard only by dogs. "There's just…there's this one symbol I can't figure out. It just looks like a bird!"
"A bird?!" she shouted, shoving against another priest.
At that, Professor Novak pushed himself to his feet. "What kind of bird?!" he shouted.
Kevin shrugged, anxiety lowering his intelligence. "A, uh…a stork?"
"Oh, I know this one!" Y/N grinned, letting her guard down in a moment of overconfidence. She fell to the ground hard enough to bruise her tailbone. She started pushing herself away on the floor, and began screaming out. "Ahmenophus! Ahmenophus!"
Kevin looked back down and facepalmed. "Ah, of course…" he grumbled before resuming reading.
Y/N only knew the incantation was finished when the four priests standing above her didn't stab her. She opened her eyes to see Anck-Su-Namun standing off to the side, looking as confused as a three-thousand year old, still-wrapped mummy with no face could look confused.
"Kevin," Professor Novak spoke quickly. "You…stop Anck-Su-Namun!"
Kevin nodded and shouted out another, thankfully shorter, incantation, siccing the priests onto the lover of their enemy.
Imhotep understood what was about to happen but, with no other targets to distract him, Dean was completely dominating the fight. In fact, he only had time to see the priests destroy his lover. Something snapped in him then, and he became even deadlier.
Professor Novak and Y/N scrambled to their feet, ripping open the Book of the Living and searching desperately for how to destroy their enemy.
Y/N was quickly distracted, however, by the sounds of Dean grunting and shouting. She watched as he was knocked to the ground, and sighed heavily, her decision made. "Keep reading," she ordered, turning back to her colleagues. She then ran towards Dean and Imhotep, picking up the staff as she did.
She almost heard the shouts of Novak and Kevin, begging her to stop.
Without thinking, she rose her staff up high and cracked it right against the back of Imhotep's skull.
Of course, it did nothing, but it made him stop stalking towards their guide.
Dean's jade green eyes locked onto her, confusion and terror marring his perfect features. She smiled awkwardly, shrugging, trying to silently tell him, What was I supposed to do?
Imhotep whirled around on her, rage oozing out of every pore.
She laughed humorlessly, holding the broken staff in front of her like it could be of any use now, searching for anything to get her out of this truly terrible situation.
Then, she heard Kevin shout a short incantation, and everything was silenced by the ghostly chariot coming from the top of the stairs.
Imhotep completely forgot about the rest of the people in the room, his eyes wide with fear. He began shouting, pleading for his life, to please leave him be, but the chariot paid him no mind. It rolled towards him furiously before finally barrelling right into him, pushing him into the small pool where he had pulled Anck-Su-Namun's soul from.
Y/N ran over to Dean, falling to her knees to hug Dean. He wrapped his arms around her as the skeletons wrapped their arms around Imhotep in the pool, turning him back into his mummified self and pulling him under, never to be seen again.
There was a moment of silence, where they were all afraid to breathe. However, not a ripple appeared in the pool, eerily still after destroying someone.
"Is…is he dead? I mean…dead-er?" Kevin stuttered out.
Everyone else shrugged, unsure, but hopeful.
The room chose that moment to begin shaking, dust falling from the ceiling. Dean practically lept to his feet, still clutching Y/N's hand, and shouted, "RUN!"
Y/N and Dean were cuddled together on the couch in their rather posh apartment, paid for with all the money they'd made from selling some bits and bobs that had survived the sinking of the fabled City of the Dead. That fateful time had been three months back and, yes, perhaps Dean and Y/N were moving too quickly; that being said, life-and-death situations could bring people together.
Y/N laid between his legs with her back to his chest and her head resting under his chin. His left arm was wrapped around her waist and she laid her arm over that too. His free hand held the remote, and they were flipping through the channels, looking for anything to watch.
They landed on The Mummy with Boris Karloff, and Y/N nearly smacked Dean trying to grab the remote from him. "No!"
"Oh come on, don't be such a little wuss!" Dean grinned, laughing.
"I never wanna see another mummy as long as I live, Winchester," she grumbled, crossing her arms in frustration.
"Well, you have to admit," Dean turned the TV off, putting the remote on the coffee table. "We'd never have met without him and his stupid city."
She shrugged, grumbling out an acquiescence. "Yeah, maybe we could even name our firstborn Hamunaptra."
He stiffened a bit. "You want kids?"
She flushed, refusing to meet his gaze. "I can't believe that's what you pulled out of that."
He grinned, leaning down to press a kiss right behind her ear, nuzzling into her. "You haven't even met my family yet. You don't want that kind of crazy."
"I wouldn't mind, as long as they're your kind of crazy."
He smiled, sitting up a little bit more and wrapping his free arm around her. "You love me."
"Shut up."
"You love me."
She whirled around in his arms, slanting her lips over his. She felt him smile into their kiss as her hands twined around his neck, one hand playing with the soft, short hairs at the nape of his neck. "Shut up."
"If it helps, I love you too," he muttered. He hadn't said the words as often as she had, but she had never doubted his affection. She knew it took a lot for those words to go from his brain and out into the ether like that.
Her hands ran up the back of his skull, her nails slightly scraping his scalp. He closed his beautiful eyes in content, smiling softly at the sensation.
"You better," she whispered. "Not many girls would save your ass from a mummy."
"If I recall," he said without opening his eyes. "I saved you first."
She shrugged, leaning down to kiss him once more. "Details, Winchester. Details."