Disclaimer: I own all characters you do not recognize. The ones you do though…NOT mine :'(
"Well, Al, it's just…I never-"
"I know Genie, I never told anyone because…well I don't know, I guess it just hurt too much to talk about. I don't even know if she's alive" Aladdin confessed.
"Don't worry Al, it's okay" Genie said, optimistically, trying to find the right words, and placing his big arm around Aladdin's shoulder. Aladdin slightly shrugged Genie's arm off of him and walked towards the balcony, he often went to for a little bit of comfort.
"I wish it was" He said, looking out to the city of Agrabah once again, his to-be-city. He thought of his sister, how she never got to look at the city from such a place.
Aladdin was sitting next to one of the walls of his hovel, getting a little too excited to eat an orange he was peeling. His sister was sitting on the ledge to what could have been a window, but instead was just a large, rough, opening in the wall. She had her knees curled up to her chest, her orange in her hand and was staring out at the palace before her. She looked below to the city and saw a young girl, maybe six or so, walking inside a lit home, where a mother and father were welcoming her in. She began peeling her orange and threw the peelings down to the already dirty streets of Agrabah's inner city.
Aladdin noticed his sister looking out at the city and palace; and took a seat opposite her on the ledge, swinging one of his feet inside of their home.
"You know, one day we'll be rich, live in a palace of our own, and look at the city from our window instead of the Sultan's palace."
His sister looked at him and smiled.
"And it'll be a real window…not some hole in the wall, covered by a piece of cloth." He explained, smiling up at his little sister. She laughed at his words…and their unfortunate living space.
"What's her name?" Genie asked the thinking Aladdin.
"Senna…" Aladdin said with a sigh.
"I wish I knew where she was" He continued in wonder, more to himself than Genie at that point.
A young girl had run a few feet away from her partner in a thieving plight. Although she wasn't the one who had the bread they had stolen, she was still being just as pursued as if she was. One of the bigger guards of the city was running after her, but she was ducking and sliding her way around him, which caused her to leave her partner's sight for a while. That slightly worried the seventeen year old but he knew she was completely capable of taking care of herself….even if that wasn't an ideal case.
She looked back and the guard was just a few feet away from her heels, so she quickly turned a corner. She breathed heavily and leaned against the wall of the alleyway for support when suddenly two guards came from the other end of the alley. She tried to run out of the area when the other guard stopped her. On that man's orders the other two grabbed her arm in a matter of seconds and she knew then and there that she was a dead woman. The men started to hurt her in order to make her stay down…something she refused to do-if she could possibly find a way out of this situation, she would find it. Mid, yelling at the guards she noticed her "partner" creep into the alleyway to save her. She couldn't have him get caught as well; the two of them had always said they would put their own lives in danger to save the other.
"Go, run Aladdin!"
"But"
"Just go!"
Senna opened her eyes wide, gasping for breath, still lying on her back. She woke to find her friend, Kamal hovering over her, one of his eyebrows raised up in confusion.
"You okay?" He asked her, still hovering, eyebrow still up.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine" She said getting up and rubbing her eyes and head, causing Kamal to have to move away from his position.
Now sitting next to her, Kamal looked at Senna worriedly. She had been having nightmares about her brother, the so called "Aladdin" for quite some time now. And during that time Kamal had wondered what her brother could have been like. She always told him, that Aladdin was a great, wonderful, sweet brother; but she never once told Kamal what her nightmares contained. If he really was all that great what could her brain possibly play out at night that was so horrible about him that she woke up like this every morning?
There was a long pause while Kamal was thinking and Senna was regaining her consciousness from the night, but Kamal realized and broke the silence between the two.
"So, uh…you want to go get breakfast?"
"Do we have to?" She asked knowing the answer
"Well, you could not eat and I could get myself some food. Hey if you want to starve, that's fine by me" Kamal said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Ugh…you know you're an ass" She told him, getting up herself and brushing the dirt off of her clothes.
"Why thank you miss proper" Kamal responded with a slight bow, laughing.
"Let's go" She said, walking out of their home and rolling her eyes at her extremely immature friend.
As the two left, Kamal nudged Senna with his hip; she did the same and they both laughed as they walked into the streets.
Things hadn't really changed for Senna since she had been sent here from Agrabah. She still lived in a hovel…with a boy, and she still stole to survive. That was basically her life back at home.
Senna and Kamal managed their way to the marketplace and looked around for a vendor to steal from that day. Kamal spotted a new apple cart. The man owning the cart looked young, about twenty and as if he'd never owned a cart in his life, let alone had anyone steal from a cart of his.
Senna was looking in the total opposite direction, at a young woman about nineteen, who was walking to the man Kamal was looking at. Kamal and Senna's eyes met at the same place…the cart. The man kissed the woman, and gave her an apple. They were probably married, both the young kids thought to themselves.
Senna was thinking of how romantic it was. But all Kamal was thinking about was how unfair that some people can just get food for free, but no not him!
"This'll be easy" Kamal said eying the cart.
Senna knew he wanted to steal from the cart the woman was at with her husband so she went along with him, even though she felt bad stealing from the cute couple.
They both walked up to the cart casually and started to look around, feeling apples, seeing if they were ripe…things like that. Finally Kamal nodded to Senna, and she bobbed her head back at him. The young man had been looking away. They slowly took one apple each all the while looking at the man. But suddenly he turned around and saw them.
"Hey!" The man said surprised. Apparently he didn't know much about thieves…yet.
In an instant Senna and Kamal made a mad dash for the crowd in the midst of the marketplace. The cart owner began following them. He didn't know exactly what to do; he only followed his instinct to run after the thieves. But it only took him a few seconds to realize to call for help,
"Guards!" He yelled.
"Oh great…" Kamal said sarcastically, Senna laughed and ran in front of him.
"You're falling behind there Kamal!" She said over her shoulder, passing him.
They got out of the crowd, now two guards behind them and getting closer. A pile of barrels was just ahead of them. They jumped to the top, pushing some of the barrels to the ground, crushing the guards.
"Wow, two apples and they go crazy!" Kamal said.
The two turned to leave but there were three more guards behind them. Senna looked around for some way of escape. Taking up mere milliseconds she looked at Kamal and motioned under the guards' legs. The two slid down, underneath the guards and ran as fast as their legs could take them, to the outskirts of the marketplace.
"They got away, again!" One of the guards thought aloud.
"Next time" The head of them said, almost like he was sure he would get them next time. But now what they all knew was that they would have to tell the bad news to the cart vendor.
The young man was told, and returned back to his cart and wife.
"Those poor kids..." The women said
"...they have to steal to eat" She concluded.
Kamal and Senna got home. Senna looked around their hovel; it brought back so many memories of Aladdin. She sighed, tried to forget about it, and started to eat. They wouldn't go back out until dark.
"I do!" Genie said as a light bulb appeared over his head, after thinking for a while.
"You do?"
"Well, I don't, but… wouldn't the Sultan?"
"No Genie, I've thought about it, but…I've looked in the palace prisons, I went through all of the cells the week I became prince; how would the Sultan know?"
"Well Al…if you don't ask, you'll never find out is he knows or not" Genie explained to his friend, as he put a reassuring blue arm around Aladdin's shoulder.
So with that Aladdin left his room only to find Jasmine pacing the floor right outside of their chambers. When her husband opened the doors her head shot up towards him instinctively. Her face had a look of utter confusion, when she saw Aladdin taking great strides out of the room. But a large smile was plastered on his face, which made Jasmine feel much better, no matter how confused she truly felt and smiled back at him.
"Come on" He said pulling her hand along with him towards the main room where the Sultan dealt with all royal business during the course of the day.
"Come on where?" She asked playfully, wondering what made him so happy all of a sudden. But she followed him nonetheless until they stopped at the doors that led to the throne room. Aladdin continued to hold onto his wife's hand but turned his attention to Genie now.
"What if she's…?" He started as a lump formed in his throat making him unable to finish his question, which made the situation all the better, considering he didn't even want to ask the question that had plagued his mind since the day he had lost his sister.
"What if she's not?" Genie asked in return and opened the door with his magical abilities for Aladdin and pushed him toward the Sultan.
"What if who," Jasmine asked, now extremely confused looking at Aladdin, who simply did not answer her back. Instead he walked up to the Sultan and bowed his head before the ruler of Agrabah.
"Oh come now boy, no need to be so formal, we've been family for so long now" The Sultan said, laughing at Aladdin's courtesy and proper manners.
"Sultan I have a question to ask you"
Jasmine looked at Genie for some answers about all of this. What could he possibly want so badly from the Sultan…and does this all have to do with his dreams? She thought to herself. But Genie only nodded at her and so she continued to watch the scene that took place between her father and her husband.
"Of course boy, what do you wish?" The Sultan asked him, smiling through his words.
"Sultan, three years ago, a girl was caught stealing by the guards and probably brought for sentencing"
"Yes Aladdin, I'm sure it is true"
"If it is alright, I would like to know what happened to her" Aladdin asked of his father-in-law.
The Sultan snapped his fingers and a man appeared. After a few words of whisper the man brought a scroll and showed it to the Sultan who looked through the parchment with the man who had brought it. The man soon pointed to a section of the document.
"Prince Aladdin, can you please describe the details of the day?" The man asked
"The girl's name was Senna, she had stolen her whole life and the guards had been looking for her for many years"
Jasmine still looked on in what could have very possibly been the most confusing moments of her life. The man ran his finger down the scroll and finally stopped at a point mid page. The Sultan nodded and looked closely at the words, reading what they had of the old case.
"Well it says in the royal sentencing documents that a case you have described did in fact occur and the girl was sent to the prison in Afar" Aladdin sighed as he closed his eyes and smiled to himself. A tear formed in his eye but he pushed it back and thanked the Sultan generously.
"Dear boy, may I ask why you wish to know such information?"
"Sultan…my intention is not to disturb you…but the girl in those documents…she was…my sister"
The Sultan gasped in horror. Jasmine gasped in disbelief. Aladdin hung his head, facing the ground in slight shame.
"Aladdin, had I but known"
"Sultan, don't be upset…you couldn't have possibly known, it was a long time before you met me"
Aladdin bowed his head again and left the Sultan, out of his throne room. Jasmine waited for a few moments as he left and then after some time she gathered herself up and followed him.
"So that's what your dreams were about, your...your...sister" Jasmine said in realization and what was becoming anger.
"How come you never told me? I thought we promised each other no more lies!" She yelled at him. He hadn't turned to face her until now.
"It wasn't a lie Jasmine" He said softly
"Or secrets!" she yelled again at him
"I'm sorry Jasmine; I figured if I didn't talk about her, I wouldn't think so much about what she was going through"
Jasmine just looked at him angrily, but her visage softened slightly as she heard his argument.
"She must have been such a part of your life…you should have told me"
"You don't know what they do to people in prison…if I said the words out loud, t would only make the fact that she was rotting in a prison more true, it's not something you can understand…I'm sorry Jasmine, it just… it hurt too much" He said, with a sigh and a drop of his head. Jasmine finally softened completely and felt bad for her husband.
"No I understand completely"
The two embraced and Jasmine opened the door to their room.
"I'll go tomorrow" Aladdin said.
Jasmine sighed.
"It'll only be a few days" He assured her.
They sat on the bed, pulled the covers over themselves, and kissed goodnight.
"Goodnight Aladdin"
"Goodnight Jasmine" Aladdin said falling asleep
