Chapter 3

Introducing and containing Jasmine, Aladdin, Giselle, Robert, Morgan, Ariel, Eric, Kidakagash, Rapunzel and Tiana.

Here's third chapter. I hope you readers will enjoy it. I would love to get reviews and suggestions as to which characters I should include later on in the next chapters. So if you have a favorite that has not been mentioned yet, just get in touch (:

Hey Dad, it's Jasmine.. I'm sorry I haven't been in touch lately, but I have had an awful lot to do. You see, I've met this guy. He's really nice, lots better than the last one, I swear. He's kind and attentive and - What he does? Oh, he used to pick-pocket down at Trafalgar Square along with his monkey. Oh no, don't worry, he let go of that a long while ago (I think), and now he sells carpets. The monkey? No, of course it's legal!... Whether Aladdin and I have a serious relationship? Well.. No, of course we aren't going to move in together, not before you've met him.. Eh.

Jasmine groaned pitifully and hid her face in her folded arms. In her left hand rested a phone, which bottoms her fingers were hovering indecisively above, and which she for the last hour unsuccessfully had tried to take contact to her father with. It wasn't that he hadn't picked up; more that she couldn't get herself to actually dial his number. What would she tell him, really? The truth? That she had found an intoxicated young man in the midst of pickpocketing her when out shopping and that she, after accidentally having knocked him out with an upper-cut, had brought him home to sleep it off on her couch? Oh yes, that would do wonderfully, and make Aladdin seem like quite the catch. How could she explain to her father, who had only ever given her all that money could buy and had made sure she attended the best schools so that she could obtain her dream of becoming a police woman, that she had fallen in love and was moving in with a former overgrown street urchin? She couldn't. She would just have to keep her boyfriend a secret from her father. Hide him in the closet whenever Daddy came for tea. Yes, that would work. She let out another drawn-out sigh, before putting away the phone altogether and instead starting to sort through the items in her purse in pursue of her car keys. She had to get out of the apartment, it felt cramped up and strangling, she needed fresh air, to breathe – "Jas, I'm home!"

She put the keys back. So much for that outing. She shouldn't go out anyway; she had a lot of work to finish up on. "In here, Honey." She said, forcing her voice to sound cheerful. She loved Aladdin, and could not bear to see him sad or worried about anything. When that happened he looked like a lost puppy and she felt like she had just kicked said puppy, which made her feel even worse than she already did. So therefore she did not want to let on that anything was wrong. "Did you get the vet to take a look at him?" She asked instead, and turned to face him as he walked into the kitchen. He nodded in confirmation and sent her a loop-sided smile, which couldn't quite hide the embarrassment he was feeling from Jasmine. He put down his bag, opened it and carefully lifted his sleeping pet from inside of it. Abu was curled into a fetal-like ball and was purring like a cat in drowsy contentment. Jasmine scratched him gently behind an ear, careful not to wake the monkey. She tossed a glance at Aladdin, who was fondling a lock of his own dark hair in a nervous movement. "Anything the matter?"
Actually she very well knew what the matter was, but she needed to hear him say it.
"I'm sorry"
"For what?" She turned her attention back to the animal, which was now leaning into the touch with something looking like a smile on its tiny lips.
"For letting him eat all the fruit"
"Oh, no, don't be sorry about that." She felt a hard and icy edge creeping into her voice, "It's not your fault that your pet doesn't have any self-restraint left from his days as a thief"

Aladdin stiffened and his mouth tightened into a pale line, but he didn't say anything to defend Abu. Jasmine softened on the inside and hesitantly caressed his arm across the table. Sweet, patient, good-natured Aladdin. Aladdin who would never hurt anyone on purpose, but who still ended up causing trouble simply by having a past he could not help. "Look, I'm sorry." She said, "I've had a rough day, 's all"
He saw trough her as if she were carved in glass and squeezed her hand as he asked in a hopeful voice: "You spoke to your father?"
"I.." so easy to lie. That would make him happy. "I couldn't" She admitted, and felt deep regret as she saw his cheek redden and his eyes darting towards the door. When faced with something he couldn't handle, Aladdin's instincts told him to flee, like a frightened animal. She knew that he was hurting everyday by knowing that she could not bring herself to tell her father about their relationship. He never said what he felt, just accepted her decision, that it was just the way things had to be. But Jasmine could see that he was breaking a little bit every time she told the truth instead of just lying. And she felt like the worse sort of scum for causing this breaking. "Look" she whispered, brushing his cheek with a thumb to make him look at her, "You know I love you, right?"
There was no hesitation; "Yes."
"I just need a little more time."
"I know."

The sadness in his voice was clutching at her heart, but he forced a smile as he twisted one of her black strands of hair between his fingers. He knew that he couldn't fool her. He never could, Aladdin was as easy to read as an open book. "Is there anything I can do to make this better for you?" she asked, enjoying the touch of his smooth fingers running across her cheekbones, but still maintaining eye contact.
"I.." he started hesitantly, scratching the back of his neck once more in thought. Then his eyes, which had moments before been dull and sad, lit up and sparkled like obsidian. "Let me take you to the teashop down at Harrods!" His mouth spread into a wide smile, "It will be my treat, I promise"
Jasmine tossed at glance at the stack of unfinished paperwork resting tauntingly on the tabletop. "I can't" she said and hated to watch his happy expression fall a little, "I have to finish up these cases and – "
She stopped when she saw his eyes. He hadn't said anything, but there was a silent plead in them, begging of her to let him make things better, for him to help her enjoy the sunshine of a lovely day without letting worries bother her.

He had said that he would pay, but Jasmine was sure that she would end up doing it anyway. It was always like that, but she never mentioned it to him. She knew that he was sick and tired of always being unable to afford anything except paying the rent and getting the most necessary for Abu and himself. He wanted to take her nice place and buy expensive stuff for her. She just wanted him to be her Aladdin. Always bright and cheerful and so very kind. There hadn't been much room for those sorts of feelings lately, and suddenly, all thoughts of files were pushed aside.

"Okay, Al. I'll race you for the stairs!"
It was too nice a day to be wasted on work, anyway.

-

Busy morning. Always very busy. They woke up at 06:40 sharp and then a very tight schedule was expected to be followed. 10 minutes to shower and become pretty. It wasn't much, not at all like the 45 minutes to an hour Giselle was used to back home in Canada. But then again, she had had neither a job nor anything even remotely looking like responsibilities, since a rich uncle of hers had died and left her an awful lot of money. She had tried to explain that to Robert when he insisted that she couldn't use such a long time on fixing her hair and taking showers – not only for being clean, but for relaxation as well.
"But I've got money! Lots! I can just call my – "
"Giselle, you don't get it. What you need is a lesson on living in the real world, without a wealthy long-passed benefactor"
So job and early rising it was. Twenty minutes for eating breakfast, for Robert to read the newspaper, for them both to get ready for work and Morgan for school. Then he would catch a cab at 7:30, and Giselle and Morgan would leave fifteen minutes later. It had become a nice morning routine.

It wasn't that she didn't like her work, or anything. She loved it. Making clothes, especially dresses, had always been her passion, and she lived for the almost animated happiness in the girls' eyes when she presented before them the dresses of their dreams. She made good money at doing one of the things she enjoyed the most, and she had even expanded her field so that she was now also making clothes for grown-up women. Very carefully she had also begun to dabble in the art of wedding dresses and accessories to go along with them. It was a delightful task and the more elaborate and decorated the dresses were, the better. The opening of Andalasia had been like a dream come true.
However, she so missed sleeping in, and always looked forward to the weekends where she could just lie in bed with Robert until midday, cuddling like love-stuck teenagers and watching foolish sitcoms on his television.

But, as mentioned before, today was not one of those days.
"Giselle!" a clearly stressed Robert yelled from behind the bathroom door, "You almost done in there?"
She sighed and twisted her hair into a tight bundle to press the water out of it, then answered, voice very calm: "Almost. Just a moment, Love"
"You said a moment ago that you only needed a moment!"
"Then I need another one"
"I'll be late!"
Giselle burst open the door, almost knocking her husband off of his feet, and walked out into the hallway in a pink dressing gown. She gave him a once-over, noticing his slightly crumbled suit and halfway knotted tie.
"Want me to help you with that?"
"No thank you, I think I can handle a clothing-crisis by myself" he snapped at her, then quickly back-paddled at this statement, "I mean –"
He fumbled even harder with the piece of cloth around his neck, but his motions were nervous, his fingers shaking, and Giselle took pity on him. She touched his shoulder gently before removing his hands and starting to tie the fabric. Robert moved restlessly on the spot, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, from toes to heel, and she had to grip his arms and force him to stand still. "Stop it, you're fidgeting."
He obeyed her, but only for long enough for her to straighten out his shirt, then he raced into the bathroom and embarked on the task of forcing a comb through his unruly dark hair. She followed him and leaned nonchalantly against the doorframe with crossed arms. "Honey, relax. You will do fine at this meeting, I know you will"
"Yes, but it's just such a big deal, I can't screw this up"
"You are a great attorney, Robert, I have no idea why this one gets you so riled up. So it's an important thing, but you will manage. You always do". At the last three words her voice turned soft and kind, and once having noticed this, the deep frown in Robert's forehead smoothed out and he looked more at ease. He pushed the last few strands of hair into his neat hairdo and then turned to smile at her. "I do, don't I?" he asked, and she nodded before kissing his cheek affectionately. "You do. Now I'll go wake up Morgan while you whip up some breakfast, okay?"
"I'll make pancakes"
Robert wasn't a man for expressing feelings through words, but he had his own way of showing them through small well-meant gestures.
"That sounds great!"

Singing the tune of an evergreen ("That's how you know" had been on every radio's top list these last few weeks) she danced into Morgan's pink-themed bedroom and pulled aside the curtains with a flourish worthy of a fairy. "Rise and shine, Princess!" she sang and pushed open the window, letting the relatively fresh city air in and the last traces of sleep out. Morgan moved a little about and muttered something unintelligible, but did not show any sign of willingness to leave the cozy covers of her bed. But by the urging of Giselle ("Pancakes!") she miraculously found the required strength to get up. Getting dressed, eating breakfast, Giselle kissing Robert goodbye while whispering calming endearments into his ear, and then the girls were out the door.

"Mrs. Philip?"
Giselle had a hard time answering, her mouth being kept at bay by a handful of needles dangerously caught between her pursed lips. "Yhesh?" she inquired through clenched teeth, entirely focused on the task at hand, namely adjusting a bow at the front of a dress. Blue and silky to the touch it was to be one of the pieces of her treasured Diamond-collection. "Was to be" seeming to be the keywords since people seemed to come interrupting her in an endless stream. Truthfully it annoyed the living daylight out of her, though she would never admit it. Giselle didn't at all care for feelings like frustration and anger. Of course, one could easily imagine that no one actually did, but Giselle thought it different for her. Her upbringing had been full of happiness and bright days only. Her parents had treated her like royalty and loved her to pieces, given her everything she asked for. When she moved away from home and they had left for a cruise to the pacific, she still had the money inherited from her uncle to serve as a security blanket. Some would say that she had been spoiled rotten, but though Giselle was a dreamer, she had always considered herself a sensible young woman. But, as Robert so gracefully had put it, she had never had the chance to encounter "the real world", having had all she needed without having to work for it. She had never had life going against her, had never faced hard times or troubles, and so she had never felt anything but contentment and cheerfulness. Now there were a whole bunch of emotions, like brand new and shiny colors on an artist's palette, and though they unnerved her, she had learned that they were part of life.

She looked briefly at the girl, Amanda, standing behind her with a slightly bemused expression on her face. Giselle slowly stood, making sure that the fabrics where securely fastened to the soft surface of the mannequin, before spitting out the sharp objects into the palm of her hand. "What is it, Sweetie?" she asked, and her assistant turned a tad red, but smiled nonetheless. Amanda and her colleagues had (almost) gotten used to their boss' casual use of pet names, and some of them even thought it endearing.
"It's.. There's a young woman waiting to speak to you"
"Tell her I'm busy right now and get her phone number so I can contact her and make arrangements for a dress fitting" Giselle muttered, waved her off and started to move the sleeves of the dress around to achieve the right effect.
"But Mrs." Amanda said hesitantly, looking slightly uncomfortable. Giselle frowned. This person must have made an impression on the girl, or she wouldn't be questioning her boss' orders like this "She says she doesn't want a dress fitting and that she knows you personally" She was quiet, then courageously said: "I think she's nice"
Giselle couldn't help smiling at that. "Did you catch her name?"
"No, but she seemed quite … energetic"
The smile widened to the extreme, showing two perfect roves of white teeth. "Oh, then I know perfectly well who she is." She tossed everything aside and ran for the door separating the storefront from the back premises. On the way she grabbed poor Amanda by the hand and twirled her around in a gleeful dance, the hem of their dresses twirling around their legs and their hair flaying wildly in the air. Giselle let go of the girl, who almost lost her footing, and with a laugh she left the room, leaving behind a thoroughly bewildered and breathless Amanda.

"Ariel! So good to see you!" she squealed, attracting the attentions of all the present costumers as well as the before mentioned girl, but Giselle didn't care. She threw her arms around the redhead before Ariel even got a chance to get up from the chair, and then babbled on lividly with a thousand miles an hour: "What are you doing here? Back home from Spain, I see! Oh my, you've got some color, it looks so lovely, how's Eric?"
She held her friend at arm's length in front of her, studying her sweet face and healthily tanned skin, and then threw a glance at the dress Ariel was wearing. Simple, white with a print of green flowers scattered across the smooth surface. The colors complimented Ariel's eyes and underlined the unique color of natural red hair, which Giselle had always admired. The first time she had meet the girl, she had bluntly proclaimed that she was in possession of "mermaid-locks". They had all laughed at that and then Tiana had pulled out the alcohol from the cabinet in her living room and had proceeded to create perfectly rainbow-colored sleep-over cocktails. Giselle smiled to herself. That had been a nice night. When she arrived in London she'd had no friends what-so-ever, and she had run into Ariel at the street. They had figured out that they had a lot in common; they both possessed free, carefree and bubbly personalities. Therefore it was clear that they hit it off immediately, and a couple of days later Giselle had received an invitation to a "girls' night" from the redhead. That was where, in a blast of pink pillows and comforters, cozy jammies, strawberry icecream and Patrick Swayze in "Dirty Dancing", she had met some of Ariel's friends; enthusiastic and energetic Rapunzel, tough and stubborn Tiana, calm and sweet Cindy and resourceful, fierce Kidakagash (nicknamed Kida, which Giselle with great relief picked up on). The girls had "adopted" Giselle into her midst and she was thankful for this. From being "Divorce attorney Philip's wife and Morgan's stepmother" she became "Successful businesswoman with a wonderful family and a great social life", and it was easy to get used to this change.

Once Giselle had stationed Amanda by the cash register with a promise to be back "soon-ish", she dragged her friend by the arm into the break room, where she made Ariel a cup of blueberry tea and poured herself some coffee – strong, dark, zero milk and sugar, she needed the energy for a long day in the shop. The other young woman smiled at this and bit into a chocolate muffin which Giselle had heated in the microwave. She chewed with great enjoyment before passing judgment on the dainty little pastry: "You have absolutely outdone yourself, Elle"
"Thank you!" Giselle said, and curtsied with an exaggerated flourish, "Thank you, I love you too, Baby!" She flung her arms wildly into space like a superstar. Ariel slapped her arm and giggled, "Oh, stop it. You know I'm crazy about your cakes. We all are"
"I am so very multitalented"
"Yet you still such at horseback riding. What kind of Canadian are you?"
Giselle pursed her lips, doing her best to appear miffed about these words.
"Okay, first: I resent your prejudices about my people. And second: I see no point in putting my life in.. Between the hooves of a 300 kilogram creature when I am perfectly capable of walking, driving a car or make use of public transportation"
Ariel smiled, blue eyes gleaming like gemstones. "You don't know how to drive for shit"
"Your language, Ariel! I – "
"- Resent that"
They both doubled over in a fit of laughter, which only stopped when Ariel straightened up with a suddenly serious expression. The mood changed entirely, from gleeful to gloomy in a second. Giselle frowned at the other, and didn't at all care for the turn this has taken. "What's the matter? I guess you didn't come here to make chitchat?"
"I think I might have done something stupid." Ariel flumped down onto the couch by the window overlooking the busy London street outside Andalasia. Giselle sat beside her and laid a comforting hand on her upper-arm. "I'm sure it isn't that bad, Love"
A deep breath was taken as to steady herself and then Ariel blurted out: "I'm pregnant"
Giselle sat in stunned silence, staring at the blushing girl who looked down at her folded hands. "But.." she stammered, "You're what, 22?"
"23 next month" Ariel corrected, like this fact made everything so much better.
"I see.. It's a little soon, but you and Eric have wanted children for quite a while now, right? Won't it work out?"
"That's not the problem" Ariel shook her hair in despair, red locks flickering about like flames in a fireplace, before locking her gaze at a painting of a flower which Rapunzel had made Giselle for her birthday, "I'm not sure whether Eric's the father or not"

-
Explanations – where do these characters belong?

Jasmine Saleh, Aladdin Syed and Abu (Aladdin)
Morgan, Giselle and Robert Philip (Enchanted)
Ariel Marion and Eric Collins (The little Mermaid)
Kidakagash Nedakh (Atlantis)
Cinderella Rosenberg (Cinderella)
Rapunzel Grunwald (Tangled)
Tiana Evans (Princess and the frog)

These versions of the characters belong to Disney.