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“Okay, this really isn’t as funny as you think it is, Anubis,” Seth said as he looked around the child’s apparently empty bedroom in the palace in Heliopolis.
It was early in the day, and Nephthys had gone on a trip with Isis to one of Isis’ more distant temples the previous afternoon, so Seth and Anubis were left on their own.
Apparently Anubis had dodged the servants who attempted to dress him for the morning, and said servants had fetched his father for help.
Which led to Seth standing in the middle of Anubis’ bedroom, holding the tiny child’s shendyt and neck string and looking around with a grimace for the rambunctious creature.
He heard giggling from somewhere behind a curtain, but didn’t visibly react to it, and then walked casually at an angle – but not towards the sound. “Just imagine if your mother saw you like this. She’d probably be very upset.”
The giggling stopped, and Seth darted in to where it came from.
But Anubis had already escaped his hiding place and ran – quite naked – out the open door.
Seth darted after him. “Anubis!”
Seth chased the giggling child around corners of the palace, passing startled servants and a couple surprised lesser gods.
Seth sighed and dissolved into sand, easily catching up with the child and surrounding him – gently – reforming into himself with his arms wrapped around Anubis.
Anubis laughed, clapping his hands, “Do it again, Daddy!”
Seth snorted, failing to keep a smile off his face. “We can play in the sand after you put your clothes on.”
A sand arm dropped the shendyt and neck string into Seth’s free hand and he quickly wrapped the shendyt around the gleeful child, and then he tied the neck string, checking that the fit wasn’t too tight.
Anubis then grinned up at him and grabbed hold of the white cloth of Seth’s headdress. “You promised!”
Seth shook his head with a smile. “All right, all right. Come on.”
They went out to a courtyard where Seth could make any number of animals for Anubis to play with out of sand, without getting in the way of other people. Anubis giggled as he pet small sand crocodiles, lithe sand sha, and tall ibis. Seth placed him on the back of a sand lion, and they wandered around the outside of the palace.
Anubis bounced on the lion’s back and sometimes chattered about his lessons, with Seth smiling and nodding along, and sometimes asking him about what he’d learned.
Seth pulled Anubis onto his shoulders and turned his own legs into a sand tornado to ride up the side of part of the palace so that they could sit on the roof together, their legs hanging off, Seth’s left arm wrapped around Anubis’ tiny shoulders, watching over the city. Seth pointed out different areas, explaining what they were to Anubis.
Anubis had an awed expression at every little thing.
When Anubis finally yawned, Seth carried them both back down to get some lunch.
Nephthys found them in the dining room when she came back, after asking a servant. She was surprised to find Anubis gleefully mashing the food on his plate together while sitting in his father’s lap, while Seth leaned against a pillar, sleeping, his left hand resting near Anubis’ hip.
“Anubis?” Nephthys said quietly, walking over.
Anubis looked up and grinned, dropping his plate and running over to her.
She picked him up and cleaned off his dirty cheeks, then walked over to Seth, sitting down nearby.
“Missed you, Mommy,” Anubis said, hugging her neck.
She smiled. “Missed you, too, baby.” She looked at Seth, who was still asleep, and a shadow seemed to pass over her expression, but she leaned next to him and held Anubis close.
Anubis settled down against Nephthys’ chest, reached out one tiny hand to rest on Seth’s nearby right arm, and shut his eyes for a nap.