An Unconventional Love: Yakoub & Da'ouda

"Praise to Thoth-Ra, the lamb of Osiris! Praise to the moon goddess Nut!" Yakoub cried. He danced in the street, his wavy brown hair whipping around him and his robes flapping wildly behind him. I could just see his face peeking out from under his robe, grinning like a fool.

I rolled my eyes, turning away from the window. "Yakoub is such an ass." I said aloud, looking at my reflection in the mirror.

"Mmm." My husband agreed with me. His voice was muffled by my backside. "You're right, Abya." He said as he rose to his feet. His hands were caressing my thighs, sending shivers up my spine that made me forget about Yakoub's annoying sense of joy. "He is loud and obnoxious." He whispered in my ear before nibbling on it gently. "And you are so much better than him." He moved his hands up to cup my breasts, letting out a content moan as he did so.

"You flatter me too much." I teased as I felt myself get wetter and wetter for him.

He sighed and pulled away from me, giving me a disappointed look when I gave him a pouty look in return. "Come now, you know what we have to do." He said sternly as he walked over to the bed where his golden mask was laying in wait for him. Picking it up, he held it out for me to wear as I slowly approached him. Taking it from him slowly, I placed it over his face carefully before beginning to tie the silken cords around his neck securely. "You can't let yourself get distracted so easily; this is important." He reminded me sternly as if I didn't know that already. "You can't let yourself be swept up in emotion or sentimentality." As if I hadn't heard those words a million times before today alone! Yakoub wasn't exactly known for being the most subtle man in Egypt but he had been especially annoying today and I was starting to get tired of hearing it!

"Yes yes, I know all that!" I snapped at him as I finished tying the last cord around his neck tightly enough that no one could pull it off without cutting into his throat first! There was nothing worse than having your husband's mask fall off during a ceremony! That's how you start rumors about what went on behind closed doors! Well, that's how people start rumors about everything about us anyway! But that wasn't going to happen today! Not while Yakoub was screaming out loud about how wonderful we were all the time! They say all politics are local but they don't say anything about how annoying those local politicians can be!

"Good, now stop complaining and try to enjoy today like everyone else will." He said softly as he grabbed my hand and led me towards our private balcony where our two children were waiting patiently for us, their masks already on their faces and their robes held tightly in their fists at their sides. Our daughter Aneesa was looking quite prim and proper next her brother Ismail, her eyes trained on her father's face with admiration for all he had done for our country over the past few years. Her little brother looked positively terrified even though he tried hard not to show it on his face for fear of disappointing us but he couldn't hide it from his body language either; his shoulders were hunched forward slightly and he kept shifting from foot to foot nervously as if he wanted nothing but to run away from all this pomp and circumstance surrounding us today but I knew better than to expect any less from Ismail; there wasn't much that could scare or intimidate him after everything we had put him through during training sessions together except maybe…