steven stood at the small coffee table. it wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but his mum was out of country this year. and he wasn’t about to brave contacting the rest of the extended family.
maybe she made it to the holy land, marc joked in his head. despite himself, steven chuckled. he couldn’t shake the feeling that marc knew more than he was letting on about his mum… their mum? steven was still getting used to the whole system thing.
“okay, i’m a bit rusty but here we go, ey? 'hi erev vay'hi voker yom hashishi,” steven was reading out of his old haggadah, a gift from an aunt for his bar mitzvah - on all nights except these two nights it spent gathering dust on his highest shelf - and impressed himself with how well he could still read ancient hebrew.
then his focus was broken. mid baruch atah, khonshu had taken notice and suddenly appeared opposite steven, doubled over in the apartment.
“what is this, worm? you wish to disrespect me?” his booming voice made steven flinch, vaguely wondering if the neighbours could hear him and if they’d submit a noise complaint. he didn’t fancy attempting to explain his complicated living situation to the cops.
steven i can deal with him, give me control. he waved away marc’s concern, he’d become somewhat used to the god’s presence in the past few months.
“this, pigeon man, is seder, the passover meal. if your pantheon exists, why can’t mine? not that i’m even totally sure of my belief in all that still.” the last part he mumbled under his breath. he felt khonshu’s searing glare over the seder plate, even though the expression of the bird skull didn’t change. “just… give us a time out, yeah? let us have our religion, it doesn’t undermine marc’s… servitude.” he cut the god off mid sentence when he started to argue again. “just because we don’t worship you doesn’t mean we’re not your hand of justice anymore. hathor’s avatar is native american, you think she worships the egyptian gods or her own?”
begrudgingly, khonshu stopped arguing, but he sat at the other end of the table watching his avatar with equal parts gently simmering anger and curiosity. marc was silently impressed, he’d never been able to make khonshu quite so quiet before.
“cheers,” steven said after a pause, “now, if you don’t mind… Baruch atah, Adonai, eloheinu, melech haolam, asher bachar banu mikol am v'rom'manu mikol lashon v'kid'shanu b'mitzvotav…”