Young Writers Society

"It's okay," Maahes said, gaze dropping to the ground. He settled into an uncomfortable silence. It wasn't just that James' suspicion had hurt. It had, but it was more than that. He wasn't stupid. He had known many, many humans during his time wandering Earth, and he could read Cameron like an open book right now. Cameron - his leader, his teammate, his friend - distrusted him. Maybe not fully, but enough that he could pick up on it.

Neither one of them would have hurt as much on their own, but the combination of the two's suspicion felt like a knife made of silver and covered in rosemary had been plunged right into his essence.

Cameron awkwardly cleared his throat.

Maahes raised his head back up.

"We should probably get going now, right?" Cameron said. He was already in the middle of putting his belongings away, and had grabbed his gun from the spot it had been laying on the ground earlier. "The sooner we get me some clothing, the sooner we can find this Mickey guy that Leo mentioned."

James willingly sat in the awkward silence that ensued until Cameron broke it. He nodded, getting up, folding the blanket and walking over to Cameron. He handed it to him.

"Yes," he said simply. "Thank you for this, by the way."

Cameron smiled as he took the blanket back. "You're welcome."

Hoisting his bag and his gun's strap onto his shoulders, he began to head towards the front of the cave - only to abruptly stop right before setting foot outside. He looked back at Maahes and James. "You two should probably be in the front," he said, "since you're the ones who have been to Nye before."

Maahes wanted to give an almost broken laugh at the comment because that was more than ten thousand years ago, and he knew as little about Nye's geography as Cameron did.

James looked back at Maahes with a little grin he couldn't hide.

"I'll lead the way," he said with a confidence he didn't actually have. It was convincing of course, even to himself. They were in the middle of the forest, and though he'd obsessively kept track of where he was in relation to everything else, there was always the chance he had gotten something wrong. Or at the very least... it would take him a little bit to get his bearings. But they wouldn't know that, and they couldn't do anything about it either. And he didn't want to have to explain to Cameron why that was. So he just nodded, and stepped ahead of the two. It was just himself and the clothes on his back, after all. He didn't have to worry about carrying anything.

They spent the next couple of hours walking through the forests, Maahes lingering behind James and Cameron lingering behind Maahes. Cameron kept his hand on his gun the entire time; Maahes felt more comfortable with his hand hanging over the pocket that had his zat'nik'tel in it. They'd try to engage in some sort of small talk, but it wasn't easy - everyone was suspicious of everyone else for something. And even if that something was minor - like, as Maahes had realized when they left cave, he didn't know why James was being hunted in the first place - it still was hard to ignore that one persistent question that was nagging them from the back of their mind.

So things, to say the least, were awkward.

James was used to silence. He liked silence - at least, in any other situation, he would like silence. But Maahes was his... friend? And Maahes wasn't talking at all? He occasionally sent a few glances back at Maahes in their walk, hoping he looked as friendly as he was intending, but he was going to try and not overthink it. Mostly because Cameron was there and Cameron - well - he wasn't terrible by any means. He was rather kind, actually. He just... well...

he reminded James too much of himself five years ago. A better version of the person he was five years ago.

Whatever.

It was a few long hours of walking, but they eventually made it to a path, and from there to a town. Or - the outskirts of a town - which he hesitated to enter. But through the thick of the trees, they could see it down below. The hill they were standing on cut off on the slope, and seemingly carved into the side was a town relatively large by Nye and human standards. Meaning that, from their point of view, it actually spread out pretty far and was actually dense with buildings. There were people, and it was busy, and bustling with life.

He looked back at Maahes and Cameron, unsure of what they were used to seeing. He had a feeling that Nye was much more humble than what they were used to, and probably seemed to be a rather... undeveloped world. The kind that Cameron would explore. And whatever else his job involved.

"Maahes and I could go in and get you something, but as it stands, it might be best for you to wait out here..." he looked Cameron up and down. "...Seeing as you'd still stand out." He then looked over to Maahes, as if asking for confirmation, but directed his next question at Cameron. "You'll be fine waiting here, right? You'll keep your head low?"

"Of course," Cameron said with a smile. He rested his pack down beside one of the trees, and joined it there several seconds later.

Maahes opened his mouth to protest that it was safer for James to stay behind as well, due to him being wanted and in the middle of changing his identity - something that hadn't been said, but something that he had understood - but closed it once he realized he didn't know what it was like in this town. He needed James to help him out with interacting with people from Nye, at least until he had interacted with them a few times.

He turned to Cameron to give a temporary goodbye, but stopped once again when he remembered that he still needed to change his own clothing so he wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. So, instead, he turned to James.

"James?" he questioned. "What should I wear so I don't stand out?"

James stared at Maahes blankly for a moment. “Uh...” he paused, looking down at himself. “I mean... you’ve seen stuff I’ve worn before, right? Excluding the masquerade, honestly anything simple like this would work. Just uh...” he gave himself another look up an down. “-less... dirty. And nicer.”

Cameron blinked, then looked rather confused as he glanced between Maahes and James. Maahes suddenly recalled that he hadn't specifically mentioned how they had met in the past; the only one that had been worth mentioning was his last time in Nye. "You went to a masquerade together?"

Maahes nodded. "A goddess brought us there."

"A what-"

"I'll explain later," Maahes hurriedly said, and left it at that. Explaining the masquerade would mean explaining what he had been doing before the masquerade, and he still wasn't sure how he was going to handle that particular discussion.

He studied his guise for a few seconds, thought of what looked similar to James' outfit, and settled with a tunic, trousers and worn-out boots. The change happened in an instant. After a moment of hesitation, however, he added another change to his guise - he made it look like the Scarlet Lord, rather than Leonardo Cartwright. He fiddled with his ponytail for a second before heading over to where James was. He didn't look back. He didn't want to see the look on Cameron's face when he noticed he had used that guise again, and didn't want to deal with the aftermath of something like that.

"Let's go," he said, slipping back into the voice he always used for this guise. "We'll be back soon."

"Okay," Cameron said, and left it at that.

James wasn't done. He hadn't asked Cameron what his measurements were, yet. But there Maahes was, just... leaving, apparently in some kind of hurry to get away from Cameron, not that he could blame him. There was an obvious unspoken tension between the two, probably because Maahes wasn't sharing many details. Not that he could blame him. He wasn't sharing many details either.

He followed hurriedly after Maahes, keeping his posture unassuming as he walked beside his friend.

Maahes didn't exactly stand out. But he did make James feel small, especially since he looked like he'd just rolled out of a dirt pit and had no money.

So he began to lead the way through the town, making vaguely friendly grins to passerby who gave him the same.

Maahes silently followed James, his mind swarming with fear and worry as he thought about how much Cameron must have disliked him from that single comment. They had obviously been somewhat close before this, but now Cameron had started to learn the truth and Maahes was sure that it was going to be end of their friendship as he knew it. Maybe even the end of his time at the SGC-

His guise's eyes grew moist at the thought, and he frantically tried to blink away tears that could never actually fall.

Taking a deep breath that ultimately amounted to nothing, he hurried to bridge the gap between him and James and fell into step beside him. "What name should I use for you here?" he asked, keeping his voice as low as he possibly could.

James thought for a moment. He hadn't yet settled on a name, but he had a few of them floating around in his head. He was thinking of sticking with something that sounded like it came out of the deserts.

"Matt should be fine," he said lowly.

Maahes nodded. He went to pull away, only to stop midway and turn back to James. He needed a name to use for himself here. There was Ramses, but Ramses looked nothing like he did now, and he really didn't want to return to act like that. There was Leonardo Cartwright, but he didn't look like Leo right now. The only name he could think of was the one he had always associated with this guise - Maahes.

He whispered, "Would Maahes be too unusual of a name?"

James smirked slightly. "No, that's just fine. Sounds like you could be from up north. I like it."

He smiled.

"That's good," he said, finally pulling away from James and giving him some more space as his friend led him through the streets. "For once, I just want to be myself."