Disclaimer: I do not own Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji or any of its characters. They belong to Yana Toboso. This story is inspired by a segment from Yana Toboso's Book of Murder Side Story, and is based on the Middle Eastern folk tale Aladdin.

Author's Note: Hello, I hope you will enjoy this story! Sorry, I know I have other stories in need of an update, and I will update them. This term has been busy with studying and deadlines, and when I find I do have time... I tend to have writer's block. In the meantime, I hope you like this too.

This story is dedicated to Robin Mask, a brilliant writer, thorough beta reader and amazing friend :) Meanwhile, many thanks to the beta reader of this story, Soren Shinigami.

Once, in India, there was a young prince who had everything except what he truly wanted.

He had riches of the kind that the commoner would be lucky to set eyes on. Hunger was never an issue for him. His social status saved his neck on many an occasion. However, while from the outset he appeared to have everything one could desire, from the inside, he was not at all happy.

When he was younger, he craved attention, but seldom received it. His father was a stern, busy man, too self-orientated and focused on his role as the Raja of Bengal to care for any of his children, let alone his twenty-sixth child, the family pest. The Raja's solution to giving the boy 'attention' was to give him a young nursemaid to look after him and have done with it. Meanwhile, the boy's mother craved the Raja's attention just as desperately, fruitlessly vying for his heart. She too didn't have time for her son, for to her, it was not possible to give the attention he wished for when she herself received so little.

The prince grew up resenting how little time his parents spared him, but at the same time, he kept trying to gain their attention. He tried everything: being good, being funny, being naughty… at one point, being naughty became his overriding quality, because this gained the most attention. When he reached his teenaged years, however, his desires shifted: he wanted affection now. Unfortunately, this was a dream that was even less likely to come true. He wasn't noticed unless he acted out, but no one warmed to him when he did.

The unfortunate truth prevailed: no one that he loved could love him back. By the time he reached his late teens, he had started to wonder if there was any chance of this changing...

The young prince glanced round the pillar he hid behind. He smiled as he spotted his target. Mina, his maid, knelt by a pail of water, wringing a cloth. She eyed her reflection critically in the pail. The prince wondered what imperfection she could possibly see. Mina was perfect in every way.

He crept up behind her, suppressing his laughter at how he had come ridiculously close to her without her being aware. Just as she placed her rag down, his arms encircled her from behind.

"Good morning, Mina!"

Mina shrieked as the prince lifted her off the ground and spun her around. He laughed as she flailed her arms and legs in a manner far from her usual composure. Then with his usual grace he stumbled back into the pail, lost his balance and brought her down on top of him. She scrambled out of his arms like an annoyed tiger cub.

"Prince Soma, for crying out loud!" Mina indignantly dusted off her arms as she looked down at the spilled pail.

"Sorry!" Soma said with a sheepish grin. He sprang to his feet to embrace her. "I was just so excited to see you!"

"Right. Lovely."

The prince pulled her close to him and rubbed his cheek on her head, with the enthusiasm of a deer sharpening his antlers on a tree.

"How are you today?"

"Fine – yes, okay, thank you!" Mina manoeuvred her way free of him. She pushed aside a stray lock of her dark hair. "Personal space, alright? You don't have to pick me up to greet me, as I've told you before."

"Aw, but it's fun!" Soma winked. "You're tiny and I can sweep you off your feet easily!"

"Can you now?" Mina muttered. Soma pretended to ignore her and flexed his muscles.

"I may not be as tall as some of my brothers, but I'm getting strong, don't you think? Soon I'll need a really powerful sparring partner to practice on. Where do you think I could find one?"

"I don't know, Highness, but please don't practice on me in the meantime!" Mina knelt down to pick up the knocked over pail. She looked up at him with a pained smile. "Us servants have few enough rights as it is. Just… please at least leave me the right to stand on my feet."

Soma nodded.

"Sorry Mina, I didn't know you were bothered by it. In future, feel free to let me know if you're bothered by anything else I do either."

A look Soma didn't recognise crossed Mina's face, but it was replaced by a smile a moment later.

"I'm not sure I can do that, Highness, but it's a nice consideration." She stood up. "Anything else, Prince? I have a lot of work to do today. Like any other day," she added quietly.

Soma beamed.

"Yes! I have a present for you – it's of my own making!"

"Please tell me it isn't going to be like your poem. The one where you spelt my name M-E-A-N-E-R."

"This is much better!" Soma insisted. "Besides, I was only a kid when I wrote that. How did it even go?"

"I think it's burned on my mind eternally: 'To the beautiful Meaner' – beautiful spelt B-Y-O-O-T-Y-F-U-L..."

"Like I said, I wrote that a long time ago!" said Soma, turning a little pink.

"'You are the bestest cleaner,'" Mina recited. "How did the rest go? Oh, I remember:

'Why are you called Meaner?

Because you are really nice.

Like my favourite spice' –"

"I've improved my artistic skills immensely since then!"

"I haven't even got to the bit where you asked me for my hand in marriage," Mina mused. "I had to consult the other maids to find a nice way of phrasing that love doesn't actually know no boundaries."

"Right," Soma smiled weakly. His bravado returned to him as he remembered the evidence of his artistic improvement. "Yes, my gift for you! Prepare yourself for…" He pulled a rolled-up piece of paper from out of his sleeve and unrolled it dramatically. "This!"

Mina took the piece of paper from him and frowned.

"Er… who is it supposed to be?"

Soma blinked.

"You, of course. Can't you tell it's you? I think I drew you very well."

"My eyes are looking in two different directions and – wait, why have you drawn me naked?"

"What?" Soma looked over her shoulder. "Have I?"

Mina eyed him disapprovingly.

"Prince Soma, you know about how I feel about being sketched nude! I don't like it. You must draw me clothed, or not at all. I wish you would respect my wishes -"

"No, I honestly wasn't trying to…" Soma couldn't stop himself from laughing when Mina pointed at the lack of sleeves on 'her'. "I was drawing your face, and didn't pay much attention to the clothes." He held up his palms when Mina sighed. "You may add clothes if you wish."

"Thank you." Mina looked around. The pair were alone. She cupped a hand to her ear.

"What's that I hear? It sounds like your family is calling you."

"Hmm?" Soma frowned. "I don't hear anything."

"I can. Yes, it's your mother – she's calling you. You had better head off to see her." She steered him to the direction of the palace hall. "Off you go now."

"Oh, okay…" He turned his head to grin at her. "You'll play with me later, Mina. I won't let you spend the whole day cleaning again. My most beautiful servant needs to be let out into the sunshine once in a while."

"Yes, because here in Bengal we are all left quite short of sunshine." Mina giggled and gave him a push. "Go!"

Soma's smile remained fixed in place until he turned the corner, where he let out a sigh. He had to assume Mina was mishearing things, because there was no chance that his mother was calling for him. Still, he figured it couldn't hurt to find her and perhaps catch a conversation with her if he got a chance.

The prince walked barefoot across the hot sandy ground of the vast palace courtyard. Over in a roped-off area, two of his elder half-brothers were sparring one of the male servants. He watched for a moment in amusement; the servant was thrashing his brothers single-handedly. Soma scratched his neck as he thought about how many servants his brothers had. He hadn't felt the need to hire a new one, up until his realisation that he needed his own sparring partner – for sadly, his brothers were not inclined to share their servants. The only personal servant he had was Mina.

Yet Mina was enough for him.

His spirits lifted as he thought of his maid. Yes, she would play with him later. Mina, his salvation from loneliness. He walked on, smiling dreamily to himself. How lucky he was to have such a kind and patient handmaiden. She was beyond beautiful too – dainty, doe-eyed, with such a lovely face. She turned heads at the palace, but fortunately for the prince, she worked only for him.

Attention and affection from Mina, Soma decided to himself, was worth far more than anything else the palace had to offer. There was just one problem: while he was confident that Mina loved him, he wasn't sure that Mina loved him in the way he loved her. It did not help that he was younger than her by quite a few years, or that he was a prince that she waited on, or that he sometimes annoyed her. The fact that she had watched him grow up, and as a result possibly saw him for the child he was, perhaps didn't help either.

He paced into the palace hall. To his surprise, his father came storming down the stairs. Soma raised his eyebrows. He hadn't glimpsed his father in at least two weeks. He was always in business meetings.

"Father -?" The Raja held up his palm to signal, 'not right now.' Soma's mouth tightened with dejection as his father strode past him. "As usual," he muttered.

The sound of sobbing attracted his attention. He followed it up the stairs. Realising it was his mother crying, he broke into a run. He crashed through the beaded curtain to her room.

"Mother, are you alright?!" he demanded.

His mother – a youthful woman, far younger than his father – shook her head and kept her face buried in her hands. Soma jumped down next to her and laid a hand on her arm.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

His mother dragged her sleeve across her face. When she met her son's gaze, Soma could see her red face.

"Did you get into a fight with Father? He looked very cross a second ago."

"Your father is taking a… a trip to England," his mother choked in response. "And he's not… he's not taking me with him."

Soma felt a chill brush down his neck, despite the smouldering day. He didn't understand the significance, but judging by his mother's misery, this was not good news.

"I don't understand what that means," he said meekly.

His mother didn't answer. Instead, she hung her head and whispered some unintelligible words. Soma tried to remember what his court tutors had taught him about England.

"Is it because of the 'snow' that we don't get here? Would you like to see it, Mother? Is that why you're upset?"

"Please, my son… you mean well, but you're not helping."

"It seems awfully mean of Father to not take you with him. He could easily afford to -"

"Soma, please!"

"…Okay." Soma sighed. He clenched a fist as he was struck by determination. "One day, I'll show you snow, you wait and see." His mother shot him an exasperated look.

"How about you go and play with your maid?" she suggested, as if he was seven rather than seventeen. "Keep yourself occupied."

"She just directed me here, but I'll leave now."

"Thank you."

Soma trailed down the stairs. He wondered if his father was secretly an amazing person, as surely he had some virtues for his mother to want his attention so badly. What these virtues could be was anyone's guess. All Soma knew was that he couldn't make up for the lost company to his mother. This thought caused him to trip on the last step and land on his knees. He got back to his feet and looked around. No one had seen him. The palace hall was empty as usual.

He wondered what he should do for the rest of the morning. Mina had directed him to his mother and his mother had redirected him to Mina. He decided to take his mother's words as an invitation to pester Mina and hurried back to where he had left her.

Mina had vanished – presumably to move on to clean another area. Soma was about to search for her when he trod on a piece of paper. He knelt, turned it over and saw Mina's sketched face smiling up at him. He figured she had accidentally left it behind and rolled it back up his sleeve. Still, he suspected that she hadn't liked his present as much as he thought she would.

The prince wandered towards the palace gates. Perhaps he could start his search for that sparring partner he wanted.