A/N: I know it has been a really long time and I am terribly sorry for the long wait! But I am still alive and I'm ready to write! But on a good note I sent in a short story I wrote into a contest for a young writer's book and it got published! So I'm ecstatic about that! And I might even receive a cash prize for being in the top group! So that just made my day! And congrats to Howl of the Wolves too, because she got her story published too!

And thank you so much for all the reviews! It is very much appreciated especially to Howl of the Wolves , Angel of Randomosity, Hotaru-The-Firefly, Seven, Angel Protectress, Whatever Girl and Panic!

Disclaimer: I don't own! I'm pretty sure that you have figured it out by now.

Chapter 7

So Close, But Still So Far

Third Person

"So what are we going to do about this your Highness?" Razoul, Aladdin, Jasmine and the sultan were in one of the side rooms of the palace. Razoul, captain of the guard, had made a very disturbing discovery in an alleyway by the market place.

A girl, around thirteen years-old was found murdered, all her blood drained from a large severed wound that stretched across her throat. No blood was found on the site, indicating that she was killed in a different place from that which she was found and all her belongings and clothing we missing as well. Razoul and three other guards found her while on their routine walk through the market place. Immediately they took her body to the palace to inform the Sultan and the "street rat" (as Razoul put it) about the situation.

"I do not believe that there is anything that we can do." The sultan said obviously disturbed by the situation. "Just give girl a proper funeral, there is not much we can do."

"Did anybody know her?" Aladdin asked the captain.

"She was an orphan as far as we know. The women who knew her said that her mother just recently passed on, the girl was going in-between houses for food and shelter." The beginnings of a street rat Razoul thought bitterly in the back of his mind.

"So young, so sad." The Sultan said with his hand rubbing his temples.

"There is nothing that can be done; we have no evidence pointing the murder to anyone. I suggest that we increase the patrols and how many soldiers go out during them. This could be nothing, but I don't want to chance it becoming into something." Aladdin said

Razoul nodded in reluctant agreement. But he knew that what the street rat said was right; security needed to be stepped up.

"Should we let Asha and Dria know?" Jasmine said, speaking for the first time since the girl's body was brought in. "Dria likes to wander around the market place and I don't want anything to happen to either of them."

"I think its best not to let them know. This could be nothing, so I don't want them to panic and worry. We also have the diplomats from Achmed visiting in two days time and we can't have panic." Aladdin reasoned.

"Yeah I guess you're right." Jasmine replied, going to hold Aladdin's arm. "But we need to give her a proper burial."

All of them nodded in agreement, and the girl was buried in the graveyard later that same day.

Dria POV

With several diplomats visiting the Sultan and the Royal family playing host to them, there was not much to do other then wander around and explore. Myself and Asha have been at the palace for nearly two weeks now and both of us knew our way around the palace fairly well. Asha could always be found in the library, our shared room, or very recently with Genie.

I wonder how that happened. I thought. Asha's friendship with Genie was nothing I was worried about, Genie himself was very nice and funny, but Asha had been very quiet about how it started and what was going on between them. I'll ask her about it later tonight. I decided.

"Dria, are you ready to go to the market?" Hakartir, one of the kitchen cooks asked me.

I had met Hakartir near the end of our first week in the palace. I had managed to get myself good and lost and somehow stumbled into the kitchen when Hakartir was preparing dinner for later that night.

"Can I help with anything?" I asked, hoping to ebb myself from boredom.

"Oh no, my lady, you are a guest and should be treated as such!" The man said, almost knocking over the spice rack behind him.

"No really, I'm at my wits end trying to find something to do, and I would really like to help. I cook a lot at home," I went and took a bowl from his hand which was bound to fall off at any slight movement. "And besides, it looks like you need my help." I said with a smile.

He smiled back, and it was then that I noticed what he looked like. The cook had black hair, but was not nearly tan as many of the people who live in Agrabah. His eyes reflected a chestnut brown and were slightly almond shaped in nature, along with his gorgeous smile; he was a very good looking man.

"Well then I thank you very much. As well it is nice to have some company while I'm cooking! My name is Hakartir, and yours?" He put out his hand, and I took it gladly.

"My name is Dria, pleasure to meet you."

"I've got the list for the market, so do you want to go now?" Hakartir asked me, already having his cloak put on.

"Give me one minute, I'll ask Asha if she needs anything."

"Okay, I'll be waiting here." Hakartir replied as he sat down on a cushion.

I didn't want to keep Hakartir waiting long, so I just went to check the obvious places where she would be. Our shared room was empty, as well as the library and I had no idea where Genie would be at this time of day. So I just went back to our room, wrote a small note for Asha telling her where I would be (I learnt my lesson the last time I didn't leave a note. Never face the wrath of Asha when she's angry) and ran to the main area and went with Hakartir to the market place.

Asha POV

I was currently in the gardens of the palace. The rich lush greenery that surrounded me made it impossible to imagine that this oasis was in the middle of a desert. I went over to a blooming rose bush and picked a beautifully bloomed white rose. I suddenly wished that I had my guitar with me because my muses hit me all at once for a perfect song, but instead I had to settle on writing the words on the ground with a stick, and trying to remember the melody I was beginning to hum.

"So here is where you have been!" A voice which I have become very accustomed to the past few days exclaimed behind me. "I couldn't find you anywhere!"

"I didn't know that I was hiding." I stated to Genie giving a small smile of acknowledgement.

Genie gave a small rich laugh to my comment, allowing me to hear the strong and deep timber in his voice. I didn't know what it was, but since that day in the library we have become much closer. We were both very good friends, but I couldn't help but feel that it was turning into something more... no, none of that, not after last time! I mentally scolded myself.

"So what are you doing out here?" Genie asked, sitting down on his smoke tail next to me.

I just shrugged my shoulders. "Nothing really, just wandering around and I stopped here." I wrote down more lyrics for the song on the ground.

We both lapsed into a comfortable silence. That's one of the things that I loved about Genie; we didn't need to have constant conversation when we are together. I fingered the rose in my hands again, careful about the thorns on the stem.

"It's beautiful." Genie said.

"I know" I said dreamily while touching the delicate petals.

"I wasn't talking about the rose, don't get me wrong the rose is beautiful too, but I was talking about what you have written in the ground here." His blue finger pointed to my song. "I didn't know you were a song writer."

I could feel my cheeks redden. " It's nothing, just a hobby if anything. Besides I'll forget it in an hour anyway, I don't have any paper with me."

Genie scratched his head in contemplation, then with the snap of his fingers, a piece of paper floated in front of my face with all the words I had written on the ground printed upon it.

"I wouldn't want you to forget it. It is too good a song to forget." He said sincerely as he was looking straight at me, my green eyes reflected in his black orbs.

My stomach started to flip, and my face felt like it was on fire, but I couldn't look away from him. For the past two weeks he had been the ultimate conundrum, when I came near him it was like my powers never existed. I never felt any desires, no constant pull on my heart or the headache that would usually result. I felt... normal when I was with him. But that wasn't the only reason why I liked him; he has this wise old soul but yet is still childlike and funny in his own way. His personality made me feel like all the pain that I have had to deal with about my powers never happened.

But of course he doesn't know anything about my powers. None of them do except for Dria. The lie that we told the Sultan was still (ironically) the truth that kept us here. Aladdin did have some of the guards do a search for our families that "we were separated from" and of course nothing was found, but this worried me to a great extent because the lie just grew bigger and bigger. Not to mention that Mozenrath character who sent us here in the first place.

Genie inched closer to me and never once broke eye contact, and in response I did the same. Suddenly we were so close that I could feel his breath upon my face, so close that all either of us needed to do was to move just a millimetre closer... So close... But the only thing holding me back was the lies.

So I pulled away from him.

"Th-thank you, for this." I pointed to the paper. He gave an awkward laugh in response and rubbed the back of his neck.

"No problem! I wouldn't want you to forget it now would I?"

I nervously played with my hair while he spoke. "You said that you were looking for me earlier?"

Genie's eyebrows shot up. "Oh yeah! I came to tell you that the diplomats from Achmed would like you and Dria to accompany them at dinner tonight. Something about meeting the people of Agrahba... yada, yada, yada. Just a political ploy if you ask me." He gave me a comical suspicious look.

I laughed at his expression, the awkward silence was gone for now. "Well I guess I should get ready for dinner..." I said reluctant to leave him.

"I can escort you to your room Madame!" Genie said as he turned into a British squire.

"I would love that." I said, taking his arm, as he turned back to his blue self.

It took a little while, but finally we managed to get to my room, and once again I was reluctant to leave his side.

What's wrong with me? My inner voice told me. You can't be selfish! This cannot happen! If you desire him, then you are becoming like the first Donno ab Desire! You can't want or Desire, and if you do you are stuck with the curse forever!

And just as if it was poison, I jerked away from his arm. The look I received made me regret my decision immediately. Pain, sadness, confusion and for once I didn't need my abilities to know the emotions that passed by his glazed eyes.

"Thank you for bringing me to my room." I said almost too fast. "Are you coming to dinner too?"

"Most likely, yes." He said, blunt and out of character. "Well then I will just leave you to get ready." And just like that he poofed away, blue smoke lingering to show that a presence was once where he stood.

I backed up against the door and banged my head against it. "I'm such an idiot!"

Suddenly the door opened and I fell straight to the floor, facing an upside down, smirking, Dria.

"Well now I will have to agree with you on that one. You are an idiot." Dria said as she dragged me into our room and pushed me onto the bed. "You have this awesome guy, who obviously likes you, doting on you hand and foot and you basically reject him! YOU. ARE. AN. IDIOT!"

"I don't think he likes me."

"Are you kidding me? The guy basically has a neon sign saying 'I like Asha Bruch' over his head!" Dria used wild arm motions to prove her point. "AND YOU JUST REJECT HIM?"

"I have a very good reason thank you very much!" I said getting a little defensive. "It could never work, because: one, I lied to him! Almost everything he knows about me is a lie, and he doesn't even know about my powers! This brings me to my next point. Two, I can't be selfish! I can't want, or have desires. If I want something or desire it, I will never learn the lesson and I will never get rid of this curse!" I let myself fall back on the bed. This went too far too fast, and I didn't want anybody hurt because of me, especially Genie.

"Do you love him?"

"What?" I asked, startled about the question.

"Do you love him?" she asked again.

"I... Um... I really like him... I don't know if I love him, I barely know the guy!"

"It's written clear across your face, you have a thing for Genie. Whether its love or something else, well, only you know that. But if you really like this guy...genie... whatever, then you need to tell him the truth." She said sternly.

"I can't do that; we will be kicked out of the palace!" I was panicking about her idea now... and possibly her sanity.

"Well, you can tell him about your powers at least. Look Asha, allowing yourself to be selfish one time isn't going to stop the curse from going away. You can't stop yourself from wanting stuff, it's not possible. It's human nature to want, and I don't want to see you denying yourself happiness because of this ability." She sat down next to me on the bed. "Now how does he make you feel?"

My face reddened again. "I don't know what it is, but I feel... happy when I'm with him, it's almost like my powers don't exist and... it's just me again."

"Didn't you say that you couldn't feel any desires from him?" Dria asked.

"No I can't, and it's the strangest thing, I have read several books about genies and djinns and the like and what I think is happening is that because a genie is bound to a lamp and is forced to grant the wishes of others, it is much like my situation of granting desires. A genie when bound to the lamp can only be set free by his master, so basically they have desires, but are not allowed to have them... I don't think that I'm saying this right..."

"No I think I get it." Dria told me. "Because a Genie is a magical being bound to magical forces, they basically have some magically ability to hide their desires from people. And because you are so similar to a genie, with a few exceptions, you have the same magical ability too and are able to hide your desires from him, just as he is able to hide them from you."

"Well I guess that is one way to put it... with a lot of use of the word magical." I started to laugh. "Your right though. I'm going to tell him the truth, well at least about my powers."

"Good for you! My little Asha is growing up!" Dria faked crying.

"Melodramatic much?" I asked.

"You know you love my humour." She stated. "Now what about this dinner?"

"Oh yeah, we need to go to dinner with the diplomats from Achmed, because they want to talk to the little people of Agrahba." I said off-handily as I went to get appropriate dinner clothes.

"Is that how they worded it to? 'The little people of Agrahba'?" Dria asked, scrunching up her face.

"No, but that is basically what it is. I never liked politicians."

"Yeah, me neither, they are too close to salesmen on the slime scale." Dria went to get her dinner outfit ready as well. "So is this dinner a big deal?"

"No I don't think so, I just think that we need to be polite," I put the emphasis on polite. "And answer their questions. Simple." I said, even though in my heart I knew that it was not going to be that easy. Something was going to go wrong, and I just knew it.

A/N: omg its done! I stayed up till 1 am writing so I hope that you like this chapter! Please review and tell me how I did! I always love your feedback!

As always,

Ifbookswerefood-I'dbefat.