Koschei's excitement about the trap was strangely contagious, and so Clara Oswin grinned too, despite the danger.

"Okay, how do we get around it?"

Koschei pulled a ball out of his pocket and rolled it gently across the floor in front of them. A piece of the floor slid open, and Clara Oswin gasped as the ball fell into it. Koschei inched forward to look down into where the ball had fallen. Spikes had met the ball's fall about twelve feet down. Clara Oswin came and looked too. She shrieked a little when she saw it. Koschei smiled at her reassuringly before speaking.

"We've got to hop over the expanse," he said.

Clara Oswin looked at him as if he were crazy. "That's got to be a six foot jump!" she exclaimed.

Koschei blinked at her. "So?"

"So, I can't jump that far."

He scoffed. "Sure you can. Six feet is nothing."

She raised her eyebrows. "Maybe if you're a space alien, but I'm just a human."

Koschei's breath caught at her words. He shut his eyes for a moment, remembering, remembering her words from so long ago, on that day they visited a planet and accidentally ran into the Second Doctor. He had wanted to mess with him. Clara had been rather insistent they didn't.

"I don't take orders from humans. You can stay back if you like," he told her, beginning to turn around.

Hands on her hips, she stood her ground. "Who says I'm just a human?"

"Your genetic makeup. Don't be an idiot." The Master rolled his eyes.

Clara glared at him. "Now you just wait for one moment. I have been torn apart by time winds and put back together. I got computer know-how downloaded. One of my echoes was a Time Lady. Another became a Dalek," she informed him, her voice tight, "I'm more than just my genetic makeup, so don't you bloody underestimate me!"

He had been so impressed with her that day, not that he had let it show, but he had loved how bold she was in standing up to him, in telling him how much she was not just a human. And now, her echo stood before him, saying that she was "just a human." The contrast was jarring...

Clara Oswin watched her boyfriend, concerned. He'd spaced out, and though he was staring at her, she could tell he was lost in thought, far far away. Eventually she waved a hand in front of his face. "Koschei? Are you … are you okay?"

He blinked, brought back to reality by the gorgeous woman standing in front of him, the woman so like Clara but so different. The woman whom he had grown to love. "Yeah, yeah, sorry," he said faintly.

"Where did you go?"

He gaped at her for a moment, not sure how to explain, not really wanting to explain. "Uhm, just … nowhere. I don't know. Somewhere. Memories."

Clara Oswin looked confused, but grabbed his hand anyway. "Don't worry about it." She smiled up at him.

He smiled back at her, and then turned to the gaping hole in the floor, thinking. "Okay, how about I jump across first, and then you take a running jump at it. I'll be on there other side to catch you if you don't completely make it."

Clara Oswin looked scared, but she didn't want to turn back. "O-okay," she said nervously.

He smiled at her reassuringly, then backed up a few steps before easily jumping over the gap. "C'mon! That wasn't so bad!" He held out his arms to catch her.

She smiled at him despite herself, and then backed up a fair distance. She took off running and jumped. She shrieked as she sailed through the air, safely landing in Koschei's arms and causing him to fall over with her on top of him. Her heart was racing, and she felt high with the adrenaline. "That was incredible," she said, her face an inch above Koschei's.

He grinned at her. The fall had hurt a little bit, but that was okay, because of the girl who had pinned him to the ground. He stared into her eyes, completely taken in. He could feel himself falling deeper in love with Clara Oswin as he pulled her in closer to kiss him. Her kiss was so sweet and innocent and full of joy, and for perhaps the first time ever, he truly saw and thought of her and her alone, her as her own complete and individual person. Not just a human. Not just an echo. Her. Clara Oswin.

Narrowly avoiding a few more traps and almost depths, the couple finally reached the Pharoah's Chamber. Glittering gold and jewels and designs filled the room, and in its center, elevated on a pedestal, lay the sarcophagus.

Clara Oswin gaped at it, her eyes full of wonder. Koschei looked around too, but his eyes kept falling on Clara Oswin and her childlike joy.

"This is…" she said, at a loss for more words.

"Incredible?" He smirked at her, using the word she seemed to like so much.

She giggled, shaking her head. "Nah. More than that."

He grinned, wrapping his arms around her from behind. "I love you," he whispered in her ear.

"I love you too," she whispered back, giving him a quick kiss before squirming out of his grasp so that she could look at everything more closely.

They spent twenty minutes perusing the room, taking it all in.

"You could take something if you like," Koschei said, picking up an elaborately jeweled necklace.

Her eyes grew wide at the idea. "Oh no. No, no. That would be stealing! That would make us tantamount to common grave robbers!"

Koschei couldn't help but snort. "He isn't using any of it, and I can tell how much you like all this stuff. It really wouldn't hurt to take a few things. It's not like we're stripping the place."

Clara Oswin looked uncertain, coming round to him and grabbing both of his hands with hers. "We simply can't."

He sighed. Koschei may have been sort of reformed, but he wasn't above stealing. However, he could tell that Clara Oswin wasn't going to go for it. He thought for a moment. "What if… what if we leave something behind in return?" he suggested.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Like what?"

Koschei dug around in his pockets. He couldn't find anything particularly valuable, so he pulled out a pen and a scrap of paper.

This time it was Clara Oswin's turn to snort. "Seriously?"

"We could, erm… write a thank you note…" he said weakly.

She laughed, shook her head, and continued to look around. After a while, she found an ornate necklace with a blue amulet that was shaped to look like a bird. Her heart stirred, and Koschei came up to look at it too.

"It wouldn't hurt to try it on," he said softly.

She nodded, handing the necklace to him, and he put it on her. They walked over to a piece of polished silver that worked as a mirror. She gasped. It was beautiful, and she couldn't bear to part with it. Getting a bit teary eyed, she looked up at Koschei. "Maybe that thank-you note would be okay after all?"

He grinned, grabbing the pen and paper out of his pocket.

Clara Oswin took it and wrote:

"Dear Pharoah,

Thank you for the beautiful necklace. I'm sorry that I took it without permission, but to be honest, I don't think it would look very nice on you anyways. I promise to keep it and cherish it forever.

Yours truly,

Clara Oswin Oswald."

Koschei read the paper and chuckled. "Lovely letter," he said, kissing her on the cheek.

She took his hand, and they walked together out of the chamber, back through the hallways where they carefully avoiding the traps, and out into the fading Egyptian sunset. They sat and admired the sun setting over the other pyramids.

"Thank you for today," Clara Oswin said sleepily, leaning against him as they walked back to the TARDIS.

He smiled at her, happier than he had ever been while trying to master the universe.

"No. Thank you."