A/N: I welcome all forms of reviews and comments on my stories, critical or otherwise. But please be polite, whatever you have to say. I'm more inclined to return the favor if you are. (And many thanks to my first two reviewers for their encouraging comments—you know who you are!)

Aladdin sighed and let his head fall back against the narrow alley wall behind him. Why had he even come to the market this early? The merchants were only just setting up their stalls, and they would surely see him if he tried to steal anything. He would have to wait for the market to be busier, when they would be distracted by legitimate customers. He usually wasn't even awake yet. However, there was one thing to be said for the empty streets: they were quiet. And maybe Aladdin had some thinking to do.

Aladdin had no idea what he'd been thinking last night. What was he doing with this girl? She had needed help, yes, that much was clear, and she was pretty—no, beautiful—no doubt about that. But she was way out of his league! Judging by the way she had acted in the market yesterday (and by the size of her gold earrings), it was pretty clear to Aladdin that she came from money. And therein lay the inherent danger of the situation. Aladdin was already a petty thief who was pretty strongly disliked by most of the guards. Imagine if he were caught with this girl! Her evidently wealthy and overbearing father would probably have him executed.

However, he had meant what he said last night. He really did want to help her, and not just because she was beautiful. She needed help; she was in trouble! And her situation must be pretty severe to send her out into the streets without even money. But as dire as the situation may be, it was pretty clear that she had no idea what life on the streets entailed. Aladdin had no way of providing her with even the most basic of comforts she would have enjoyed at home. She would probably tire of such hardship sooner or later and return to where she had come from. Aladdin certainly wouldn't blame her. He just wished that it wouldn't have to come to that, for her sake. And of course, he'd like her to stay with him too…

He shook his head to clear his mind, running his fingers through his shaggy hair. He really shouldn't let himself get carried away with thinking of her. One way or the other, she wouldn't be around for long. The customers were finally beginning to appear, so maybe he should get his head on straight and find them some breakfast…

"Good morning."

"Whoa!" Aladdin jumped and spun around to see who had just sneaked up on him, only to find her standing there, smiling. He smiled back. "Don't you know it's not nice to sneak up on people like that?"

She raised one eyebrow, still smiling. "Just making sure you're not letting your guard down."

"Well, you got me there. How'd you find me?"

"I followed him," she said, indicating above her head. Abu was perched on a windowsill one story up, clearly still sulking.

"Abu, let's go get some breakfast." Abu just cast Aladdin a malevolent glare and turned his back firmly upon him. "C'mon Abu, don't be that way. We'll get bananas, your favorite!"

As soon as Aladdin mentioned bananas, Abu sprang up, shrieking with delight, and was down on Aladdin's shoulder quick as lightning. He pulled impatiently at Aladdin's vest, trying to get him to move faster toward the banana cart.

"All right, I'm going, be patient!" Aladdin looked at the girl, who was trying to hold back her laughter. "Wait for us here; we'll be right back with breakfast."

Jasmine walked beside the boy who had befriended her with his monkey sitting on her shoulder and eating a banana. Abu had warmed up to her after she had found that he loved being scratched behind the ears and the boy had made a suitable show of repentance by letting him have all the bananas he wanted.

"Are you sure that Abu can eat all those bananas?" She eyed the bunch that the boy was carrying.

"Oh, I'm sure someone will eat them," he replied. He broke another banana off the bunch and offered it to her.

"No thank you, I can't eat another bite," she said. Abu grabbed the proffered fruit instead, even though he'd already had four. "What's the plan for today?"

"Oh, well, we can do whatever you want. The city is our playground." He grinned.

Jasmine thought about it. "Hmm. Well, I haven't actually seen that much of the city yet. Any suggestions?"

"Hah, I could give you the full tour! But it would take days to see all of Agrabah."

She smiled. "Well, I have to start somewhere, don't I? And I'm not in any rush."

The boy's grin widened. "In that case, we'd better get started."

"Sounds perfect," Jasmine said.

The boy launched into an explanation of the layout of the city—as if Jasmine hadn't seen the birds'-eye view of it from the palace. She liked hearing him talk though. He was very animated in his willingness to help her get to know the city. And she did learn a few new things, mostly about the people. The boy was able to tell her what kind of people inhabited the various portions of the city, which is hard to tell from the distance of a palace tower.

While they were wandering, they passed by an old, crippled beggar man whom the boy greeted as a friend and gave a couple of bananas. The man cackled his appreciation as he began gnawing on one with his few remaining teeth. "Good, this! Soft food for a soft old mouth." His eyes turned to Jasmine and he winked. "And a lady that's easy on these old eyes! You're too good to me, boy!" He cackled again as she flushed.

The boy grinned sheepishly at her. "Don't mind that old cripple. He never learned any manners. And it's no use trying to teach him any either."

"Old dogs can't learn new tricks; don't you know that, boy?" The beggar turned back to Jasmine. "You hang on to this one and don't let him get away, you hear? He may not look like much, but he'll make you happy." He leered and winked again, and this time it was the boy's turn to blush.

"All right now, old man, if you can't keep a civil tongue in your head in the presence of a lady, we'll be moving on," the boy said as he steered Jasmine away, though his tone was still light.

"I'm just telling it like it is. You know me, boy—I'm too old to be much good at keeping my thoughts to myself."

"You're too old to be much good at anything!" the boy called back over his shoulder, still teasing. Jasmine could hear the beggar chuckling to himself as she and her new friend continued down the side street they were on.

They continued their leisurely tour of the city, but it wasn't long before they found themselves down another alley. The boy was telling a rather amusing story about the last time Abu had tried to steal bananas and had almost lost his tail, but he stopped mid-sentence and a complicated look crossed his face. He had recognized something, but…could it also be mixed with sadness? She followed his gaze and felt her mouth fall open and eyes widen in shock.

There in the shadows were two little urchins picking through the trash. The little girl could not have been more than six, and the boy was even younger. Their clothes were ragged and their bare feet and legs were filthy. As she watched, the boy found a piece of bread mostly covered in mold and brought it to the girl. She examined it, then shook her head and threw it away. The little boy sighed and they both turned to go. That's when the two children noticed they were being observed. At first they looked frightened, but when Jasmine's rescuer stepped forward, they seemed to recognize him and smiled. They let him come close to them, so Jasmine followed. Her friend handed the remainder of the bananas to the little girl, but instead of taking them, she hesitantly touched his right forearm, looking sad.

Jasmine had already noticed the half-healed weal that circled his forearm several times. She had asked him what had happened, but he'd shrugged it off. "I had a run-in with a horse's rear-end," he'd laughed.

Now he just smiled at the girl in that reassuring way of his. "Don't worry about it. It doesn't even hurt." He tried to hand her the bananas again, but she hesitated. "Go on, take them. We can't eat all these by ourselves. Abu doesn't even like bananas."

At this, Abu let out an indignant squawk and gave him a dirty look, but the monkey was too full by this time to properly chastise his master. The children giggled, and Jasmine smiled. Aladdin continued. "You see this pretty lady here? You'll make her very happy if you take these bananas off our hands for us." The children looked to Jasmine, who nodded and smiled.

Finally, the girl accepted the food. "Thank you," she whispered, "for everything." She looked like she might cry. The little boy launched himself forward and attacked his hero's leg in a hug.

The older boy was surprised at first, then he laughed. "Hey, don't mention it. That guy was a real jerk." He ruffled the child's hair and grinned down at him. The little boy smiled back and released the leg he had attached himself to.

Jasmine's new friend took her hand and began to lead her away. "You two take care, all right?" he called back, giving them that winning smile once again. The children waved, and he and Jasmine waved back.

Once they had turned the corner though, Jasmine's curiosity got the better of her. "So how did that really happen?" she asked, indicating the wound on his arm.

The boy sighed. "Those two kids were playing—not really paying attention to where they were going—and they ran out into the street right in front of this rich jerk riding a horse. Well, the horse was startled and reared, and the man got mad. He brought up his whip and shouted, 'Out of my way, filthy brats!' Can you believe that? He was actually going to use a horsewhip on two innocent little kids!"

"That's awful!"

"Yeah, he was a real piece of work. Anyway, I ran out to stop him but only got there in time to catch the whip around my forearm. It stung pretty good, but at least I was in the perfect position then to yank that whip out of his hands."

"What did you do then?"

"I said, 'If I were as rich as you, I could afford some manners,' and I threw the whip back at him."

"I bet he didn't take that well."

"You could say that. He said, 'I'll teach you some manners!' and then he kicked me into a mud puddle. So as he rode away, I shouted, 'Hey, look at that, Abu! It's not every day you see a horse with two rear ends.'"

Jasmine smiled. "I bet that didn't go over too well either."

"Heh, not at all."

"What did he say then?"

"Well, I won't repeat that. It wasn't the sort of language you'd use in polite conversation." He paused. "Y'know, I overheard one of the bystanders say that that pompous windbag was a prince. They said he was a suitor come to see the princess. Heh, I hope the princess has enough sense to reject that one. Imagine him as the future Sultan! We'd all be doomed!"

Jasmine forced herself to laugh along with the boy. So Prince Achmed had threatened to whip helpless children and kicked this boy down in the mud! She'd been right about him after all. In fact, she may have underestimated his nastiness. By all accounts, Prince Achmed more than deserved everything she and Rajah had put him through.

"Was it the truth you told the children? That it doesn't hurt?" she had to ask.

"Eh, close enough," the boy replied.

The rest of the day was spent wandering more or less aimlessly. Jasmine didn't even notice she was hungry until Abu disappeared and came back with a few coins, which the boy used to buy bread. They took this with them back to the boy's home, where the three of them ate it and watched the sun set. Jasmine had to admit, it was spectacular. The fading light reflected off the gold of the palace walls, turning them pink and red. But her attention was focused inward rather than out.

She had learned so much in these two days outside the palace walls. She had learned about the city—from the broad main streets to the twisting alleys. She had learned much more about life in it, from rich to poor. She had seen poverty firsthand, and it wasn't pretty.

Most of all, she had learned that this boy that she'd fallen in with was an uncommon person. Despite his obvious poverty, he maintained a positive and sunny disposition. He seemed to bear no hard feelings towards the guards that chased him or the people that had named him a thief. Poor as he was, he gave what little he could to those who were even less fortunate and stood by those who needed help. Jasmine had never met anyone like him. Granted, she hadn't met very many people while locked up in the palace, but she still suspected that people like this boy were rare.

However, there was one thing about him that she had not yet learned, but wanted to. She turned her face from the gorgeous sunset to look at him. She saw the fading gold light reflected in his eyes.

"It is really ridiculous that I've spent the last two days with you, but I don't even know your name."

He blinked in surprise, the realization crossing his face, and then laughed. "I don't know your name either! Tell you mine if you tell me yours," he grinned.

She smiled and took a breath to reply, but hesitated for just an instant before answering. "My name is Yasmin." She wasn't quite ready to tell her new friend who she really was yet. Besides, Yasmin was close enough to her real name.

The boy's eyes widened. "Wow. That really suits you."

She raised one eyebrow. "You think so?"

"Yeah. You couldn't find a more perfect name if you tried."

Jasmine blushed. "And what about you?"

"I'm Aladdin."