For the past few days, the whole palace was livelier than ever before. Many people ran around to get things ready. Their chatters were heard all over the place. All that was spoken about in the great palace was of the prince's return. In responds to it all, Aladdin wasn't sure what to do except stare at everybody with bewilderment. What was so special about the heir that made everybody in the palace so excited and happy? That thought came about when he caught an odd sight of a lot of female servants whispering and giggle among themselves whenever the prince's name came up. After he caught them doing it a few times, Aladdin brought it up with his fiancée to get some answers. In responds, she rolled her eyes, told him not to worry about it then muttered something to herself that he didn't catch.

By the end of the third day, everybody was on their guards and looked ready to run towards the entrance for when the prince showed up. A little after lunch, the trumpets were heard loudly throughout the palace, announcing Prince Harith's return. Aladdin was with Jasmine and his future father-in-law at the throne room when they heard it. Almost all of the servants and guards showed up, though they hid very poorly if the sight of slightly cracked doors had anything to say about it. The ex-thief almost face palmed at their poor hiding skills.

The Sultan shouted with excitement:

"He's here!"

"I wonder how much he changed."

Jasmine commented with a small smile. After all, a year could change a person, even if it was a little bit. Aladdin's lips thinned into a line. His arms crossed over his chest as he looked over towards the front doors that opened slowly. Two figures merged from the outdoors, but the sunlight blinded their features. The trio heard one of the figures, a man they guessed due to the deep voice, voiced with clear amusements:

"I thought that you were joking about your welcoming committee."

"Laugh anymore and I'm going to hex you to the next century."

The other figure, also a man, grumbled. His responds only made the other man cough, as if he tried his best to hold back something, probably his laughter.

Finally, as the men walked further in, their figures started to form shapes and colours. In revelation, the two male individuals looked like they were in their early 20's and quite different from the norm.

One of them was a tall man that stood at the height of 6' 1'', which was taller than usual. The man had long straight black hair, which reached to his mid back but nothing held it in place. His high class traveling clothes showed a muscular but lean figure. He had one earring that was pierced into his left ear, and a red feather (that reminded Aladdin of blood) hung from a long chain. This caused the feather to brush against his shoulder in an almost teasing manner. The fancy outfit paled in comparison with two other things: The man's eyes and his scar. The scar was shaped into a lightning format, which was very strange since Aladdin had never seen such a thing before. Of course, the ex-thief saw a fair amount of scars during his days as a street rat, but none of them had a particular shape. The eyes, though, reminded the soon-to-be prince of emeralds that he saw in the market place every now and then. Aladdin never knew a human being have such unique eye color. He wondered if there were any more people out there with such eyes.

The man that stood next to the first one was tall too, but was short by 2 inches. He had long blond hair that reached the mid of his back. It was held together in a low ponytail by a blue ribbon. The hair hid the ears quite a bit, except for the ear lobes, which were pierced by aquamarine stone earrings. He wore white foreign clothes, but Aladdin didn't know of where the garments were from since he never left Agrabah. He wasn't very build like the other, as far as the clothes would let the ex-thief view, but due to his slim form, speed was definitely on his side. His eyes weren't as bright and interesting as the other man's was, but the blue pair held such wisdom and power that Aladdin had never seen a person held before.

During Aladdin's observation, he hadn't noticed that his fiancée and soon-to-be father-in-law had left his side to go greet the strangers.

"Harith, welcome back!"

Jasmine exclaimed with happiness, though there was a tone of nervousness underneath it. She wrapped her arms around the black headed man's waist and hugged him in a sisterly manner. The man, Harith, chuckled deeply. He returned the hug gladly. He said to the duo:

"Father, Jasmine, I want you to meet my best friend, Niall Lovegood." As he spoke, he waved his hand towards the blond whom gave a small bow. "He's a fellow wizard that studied with me during our school years and under the same teacher, Lady Ravenclaw." He turned towards his friend, "Niall, these are my father and younger sister, Jasmine, that I've told you about."

"Your Majesty, your Highness, it's a pleasure to finally meet you. Harith speaks highly of you two."

The blond, Niall, replied with a polite but mysterious smile. Jasmine unraveled her arms from her brother and stood in front of his best friend. She told him kindly:

"It's nice to meet you, Niall, but just call me Jasmine."

"As you wish… Jasmine."

Niall took one of her hands to place a kiss on the back of it. Aladdin threw to him a glare. He wasn't the only one.

"Niall, are you trying to flirt with my sister?"

Harith almost growled at his best friend. The blond only returned a grin that suggested nothing but everything at the same time. He replied calmly:

"Of course not, but I won't lie, your sister is quite beautiful."

The heir and ex-thief narrowed their eyes, but the former shook his head. Why did Harith bother being protective when it came with this guy? Niall had a lover back in Scotland waiting for his return. He was an honourable man, so there was nothing to worry about, unlike with the other men. His emerald eyes then landed on Aladdin, whom he finally taken notice of. Once more, his eyes narrowed, but in suspicion more than anything. He asked in a bit of a rude manner towards the oblivious individual:

"Who are you?"

The man that he addressed almost jumped a few feet into the air. Harith looked the man up and down, and noticed that he wore a commoner's clothing. What is a commoner doing here? Harith thought with a frown. He had nothing against the commoners. In fact, he respects them quite a bit. However, it was extremely rare when one was at the palace whom wasn't a worker. The stranger stood with his head held high, but from the slight sweat to the side of his forehead it indicated to the heir that he was intimidated a bit. Impressive, the heir thought.

"Harith, I want you to meet Aladdin, my… my fiancée."

Jasmine told her older brother with hesitation and courage at the same time.

The whole room's temperature dropped down in a startling rate. Nobody bothered to notice that the doors cracked a bit more open, as the people behind the doors tried to see how their prince would react to this one. Harith asked in a slow cold tone:

"Did you say fiancée?" All his sister did was a respond with a short nod. He looked from Aladdin and towards her then continued, "We'll talk about this later, but at the moment we have a guest. What kind of a host would I be if I don't show him to his room?"

"Of course, of course, you two had a long journey. Go get some rest and I'll send a servant up to you for dinner. The room that we prepared for your friend is right next to yours."

The Sultan, for the first time, spoke but with no fear but rather with calmness. His son nodded then led his best friend away, but not before he sent one last dark look towards Aladdin before he exited through the door.

Aladdin finally let himself breathe, his shoulders heaved down heavily as if a boulder was placed upon them. He walked over to the father and daughter while he spoke to his lover with a bit of shakiness in his voice:

"I thought you were exaggerating about him being scary."

"I'm sorry Aladdin for his behaviour, but as long as you be yourself and don't back down you'll be fine."

Jasmine replied gently. Her eyes soften at the sight of the slightly frightened man. She pulled his hand into hers and suggested:

"Do you want to go flying?"

"That sounds like a good idea."

Aladdin mumbled as he left with the princess, leaving behind the Sultan. The Sultan sighed. He shook his head at what he saw for the last couple of minutes. He wasn't surprised at his son's reaction. The boy was very protective over his sister, especially when it came to suitors. Not that he could blame Harith, since he too did not wish to hand his daughter to just anyone with a too high of a chance of her being thrown into a harem. However, this situation was different, as his son would soon learn. Aladdin was a good man and would take care of Jasmine and treat her well.

Now, all that was left was for his son to find out the hard way (if it came down to it). Once he figures it out, the father knew that his heir would allow Aladdin to take his place in taking care of the princess. At least, the Sultan hoped so.