"Even if they were with Al-thamen, you didn't have to kill them!" Ja'far said to you, upset that they'd now lost a way to gain more information. He glared at you for a few seconds, but then sighed and let it go. He couldn't stay mad at a child like you for too long. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he felt that you both had something similar, which was why he couldn't keep himself from having a soft spot when it came to you, even if it had been only a few weeks, almost a month, since you came to Sindria on behalf of Kou.

He remembered the way you glared at everything the day you arrived. Everything was so different to you, and if it wasn't for him and Sinbad being unafraid to approach you, you probably would've stayed the same. You felt hostile against everyone here because of what you've heard from Judal, your teacher back at Kou. Being the nothing you are from the slums, you never expected to be anywhere near him or any other member of the high part of society, let alone have a mission that included sailing to another country. You thought you were going to die with nothing, because you were never going to leave the wretched place. But he came along, and saw you in the streets of Balbadd, deeming you a worthy apprentice. What did he even mean by apprentice anyway? It's not like you can see rukh, so you're most definitely not a magician. Although, your brother and mother was, and maybe Judal noticed as soon as his crimson eyes looked your way for the first time.

"Well, at least that's one threat aside." the general said beside you, putting your thoughts back in line.

You nod as you picked up the dolls. Although they disintegrated in your hands, leaving nothing but black dust, that also disappeared soon later. You watched them fade away slowly one by one with empty eyes.

'You didn't really kill them.' You try thinking to yourself. 'No blood was shed, they were just puppets. Don't let it get to you. This is no different than that time.'

"Let's go back, (Y/N)." Ja'far said, joining his hands together under his sleeves. "Sinbad is probably waiting for us."

"Right." You say, walking behind him.

"Ah, welcome back, (Y/N)!" a familiar voice says across the hall.

It was Aladdin, the blue-haired magi that was currently staying here with two of his other friends, one of them being Prince Alibaba, another member of high society you most definetly never thought you were going to see again.

"Hello, Aladdin." You say, bowing down to him slightly.

His face flushed as he waved his hands. "N-no need to bow! I'm not an important person or anything..!"

'Not an important person' he says. That's very funny. It should be only natural to want to pay your respects to—

Solomon's incarnation

Yeah, exactly, Solomon's—Wait what.

You got up suddenly, turning around with your eye darting all over. What the hell was that?

"Uhm, are you alright?" Aladdin asks, worry quickly spreading over his face.

"I-I'm fine. Sorry.. I just thought I heard something." You say, turning back to him. "Maybe the weather is getting to me."

"The weather? It hasn't been too hot or too cold though…"

"No, I meant that it changes when the night comes down." You rephrased. "It may as well be because I'm not used to it."

"Oh right, you came from Balbadd after all."

"How do you know that?" you said, surprised.
Aladdin giggled to your widened eyes, it was rare to see your collected self express anything at all.

"Alibaba-kun told me."

"He… He did?"

Aladdin's smile seemed to grow brighter. As if he was having fun bringing out emotions from you with his simple, yet strong words. "He remembers you from the slums."

Your eyes widened again. He remembers you? Even though you've changed so much? You were pretty sure that he didn't remember you though… No wait.. He did seem pretty tense when he greeted you on the first day you arrived here, along his friends.

"He said you had a brother too, that got along well with his mother." Aladdin continued, suddenly bringing a memory up. Your hand clenched to the mention of your sibling, your teeth as well, but the little magi didn't notice, and kept talking.

Eventually, he drifted off to another subject, one where you just had to listen and nod from time to time. You didn't really remember what he said, you just glanced his way occasionally to make it as if you were listening. You bid him good night as you excused yourself to your room, as you noticed that it was getting late.

As you closed the door, you let out a sigh, falling to your knees. No one's mentioned your brother in forever, so that caught you off guard. Like a spear in the heart or whatever people say that's poetic and that reflects what can be tragic, heart-throbbing, and yet beautifully nostalgic at the same time. You lower your head, bangs that were pushed back behind you ear a little while ago falling down and caressing your cheeks softly. You closed your eyes, letting your head fall on the door. You heard a little internal bang, you figured that it wasn't much, and let your consciousness slip from you. Until something came to break you out of your trance again.

"What are you doing, lazing around on the floor like that?" a voice calls behind you, grabbing you by the waist and lifting you up. "I know I've taught you to at least sleep properly on a bed."

"J-Judal-sama!" you let out in a small voice, surprised to see him here. Although your surprise was quickly overwhelmed by worry. He spun you around, watching your surprised face with satisfaction. Aladdin wasn't the only one to seem satisfied when an emotion was shown from you it seems.

"What are you doing here?" you asked in a loud whisper. "If anyone saw you they'd-!"

"They'd understand because I'm also from Kou, and to not start an all out war they can't do anything to me." He said cutting you off. "Relax. If I actually walked in here on any other kind of business I'd do it by the front door, with fireworks and a fuck ton of black rukh." He grinned to you.

"Right." You say, eyeing him with a raised eyebrow, even though his dumb humor always managed to pull on the sides of your mouth. "And you didn't do that tonight because..?"

"Because it's too much work." He says, dragging you over to the bed, making you sit between his legs. "Big people like me need their own time, yknow?"

"Sure, sure. Not let me go." You say, putting a hand on the multiple gold bracelets he had around his wrist. He had one arm around your waist, the other around your neck, pulling you closer by the second, his head slowly going down to your shoulder.

"I don't feel like it."

"What do you mean you don't feel like it? Let me go, Judal-sama." You said again, slapping his arm lightly.
"Mmmmmhh.."

You sigh, and then let your hand fall on your now lifted knees. His legs were folded around you, so it's not like you could be in another position anyways.
He feel his hair on your neck, his forehead hidden somewhere with the rest of his face.
"You still haven't answered me, Judal-sama." You say, a little softer. Maybe he's tired? It takes a while to come here by boat, and if he teleported himself here it must've tired him. But why go through all that trouble? What was there that was something so important that Judal, the procrastinating, complaining, extremely lazy magi had to tire himself for?
"Mmh?"
"Why did you come here tonight?"

"I was bored…." He whines to your neck, his head turning. The bridge of his nose came to touch your skin, which sent you a shiver down your spine. You almost flinched, but you managed to just lift your shoulders slightly to the surprise.
"Oh?" he hums out, his eyes suddenly sparkling.

Shit.

He rubs his nose against your neck again, making you squirm in his embrace. Your face burns up, and you bite your lip to contain yourself. You try to fight yourself away from him, but the legs closing around yours aren't helping at all. No matter how you moved, it only seemed to make things worse but you couldn't help it.
With the arm around your waist, he manages to poke your side which makes you flinch to the side, only making his face collide harder with your neck. You let out a muffled laughter which makes him pull away in victory.
He grins down at you, still refusing to let you go.
"Oh, you were biting your lips." He says, a little disappointed.

"J-just let me go, please." You say, flustered and embarrassed.
He laughs. "No way, this is hilarious."
He hugs you tighter and tries to bury his face in your neck again, but your arms stop him before he can make it.
"Answer me first.. Judal-sama."
"I phold fhou, phi was boredddddd." You remove your hands from his face to let him continue.
"It's no fun when you're not there to torture someone (with me to watch, of course) or I can't mess with you."
"What are you, a kid missing his toy?" you snap at him, before sighing and relaxing suddenly onto his chest. Oh right, you were tired…

He laughed, but sighed as well, his grip on you loosening and becoming gentle.
"Maybe. You don't know." He grinned.
Your legs unfolded, stretching out and dropping on his lap. "Whatever. You can't travel to another country and tire yourself out because you're bored, Judal."

"Says the one who's falling asleep."

"I'm not." You say, even though your eyes were closed.
You hated how you always let your guard down when you were with this man. It irritated you to no end. Why did he have to be so warm to you? Why did he bother looking your way that day? Why did he say he'd take you in? Just.. Why'd he have to choose you?

You managed to open your eyes, glancing up to him.
"What?" he says, looking back down at you.
"Are you staying here for tonight?"

"Yeah. Why?"
You shift your head inwards to him, your face breathing in the scent of the white fabric he always wore.
"Just wanted to know."
"Hey I just got here, I can't leave just yet."
"Says the one that traveled all the way here to destroy the barrier, give a fake moving speech and leave."
"Shut up." He said, poking your side.
"Ah-"
Hr grins down to you, the spark returning in his eyes and telling you of how doomed you were. Your eyes widened in horror.
"N-no.. Judal- s-sama.. St- Aaaah!"

He flipped over on top of you, poking your sides and burying his face onto your neck again. Tired and unprepared for this, you burst out in laughter as you squirmed around under him. Your legs shot up, but were held down by his pants. (They're so puffy and huge, you wonder why you don't cut the people you see wearing them sometimes. Like, how do you even wear those? How do they work?)

He pulled back eventually to look at you, seeing you laugh for the first time ever since he took you in. If he'd known about you being ticklish earlier, he'd be doing it so much more often.
After a short while, his body crashed on yours, your laughter stopped by a grunt.
"J-Judal-sama, you're heavy."
"Bear with it."
"B-but I can't breathe.."

"Mmmmmpphh.."
You tried lifting his body over yours, but he'd fall back down and only hurt your binded chest even more, earning a groan from you.
"That's what you get." He said, his face buried in the pillow below your heads. You couldn't see his face, but you were sure that he was grinning again.

After two seconds, he turned to your side, leaving an arm under and over your waist as he stared at you. You stared back, wanting to say something, but he beat you to it.

"Is your cover okay?"

Your mouth closed to the question.
Right. You were here on the behalf of those damn geezers from Al-thamen. And of Kou, but now that Gyokuen is the emperor it's pretty much ruled by that shitty organization. You needed information on Sinbad, and his generals. But mostly, you needed to know more about the trio of Aladdin, Alibaba and Morgiana, before they become anymore of a stronger threat to the organisation's plans.

"It's fine. Don't worry about that."

"Are you sure? Because I saw that you were pretty friendly with the little chibi." He grinned.
Unsure of if he was saying that for fun, or if he was actually mocking you, or for something else, you simply lifted an eyebrow.
"I have to, I don't have a choice."

"Mh."
he shrugged and hugged you closer, like you were the life-sized pillow he usually sleeps with. He used to this often, when you a smaller child (and he was more immature than he was now) but for some reason he suddenly stopped.
It's been a while, but you didn't hate it. His embrace was as warm as your remember it.
"Hey.."
Responding to his voice, you open your eyes slowly, his red orbs meeting yours.
"You're coming back to Kou soon, right?"
"I should… Or at least.. That's what I heard the plan was…" you mumble softly, your eyelids deciding to weight 1390847391 pounds.
"Oh wow, that's convincing." He chuckled softly, before throwing a blanket over both your bodies.

(◉Θ◉)

Oh my lord this was longer than in my memory.
Thank you for reading the first JudalxReader chapter.