"Have you ever been on a train before, Chibi?" Judal looked at him as they headed out, the boy's face practically glued to their surroundings as they headed away from the station. The boy seemed delighted with the movement, the surroundings. His hands were pressed against the glass, making Judal snort a bit.

"I've been on lots of trains and planes before, but it never gets old. It's so much fun to travel!" Aladdin smiled at him. "So where are we going exactly?"

Judal pulled the tickets over from nearby in the seat, pointing at the names on the tickets. "We're going to Cologne, then from there we will take another train and head to Paris."

"Oh! I love Paris!" Aladdin was beaming. "They have this really good ice cream place right near um.. Sacred something… I can't remember the name all that-"

"Sacré-Cœur*." Judal yawned a bit before nodding. "Yeah, we're going to Paris, but from there we're going to take the TGV south."

Aladdin nodded, not really paying that much attention to everything. He was more preoccupied with the idea of being able to travel more. There were no paparazzi watching them, no cameras, no people hoarding outside the door. He didn't have to hide around with Judal. They were just roaming around and having a good time. Then they would make a bunch of music and things would be even more exciting.

Judal pulled his guitar out, making Aladdin look over at him. He watched as the perched man began to pluck at a string here and there, tuning it by ear perhaps? Aladdin found himself turning away from the window to watch him. Judal's eyes were shut, his focus seeming to be entirely on what he was doing. The thing looked strange, but he found himself wondering what the other did with that forty some string one.

"Chibi, it's hard to focus with you staring at me."

"How many guitars do you have?"

"Six," Judal replied easily. "This one is my favorite though."

"How come?" Aladdin slipped out of his seat, going to sit next to Judal and look at the instrument. It did look a little bit different from other guitars. The body of the guitar looked almost entirely wooden, although the edges were black and a large white area encompassed a part of the body. It wasn't an acoustic guitar for sure. It had a couple of those knob things on it as well. It was a little hard to be able to describe. He reached out and plucked at a string, listening to it for a moment as the other stared at him.

"Stop moving around so much," Judal chastised before answering. "It's a Fender Broadcaster. That's why I like it."

"I don't really know the brands all that well," Aladdin admitted, scratching the back of his head a bit.

"It's an expensive guitar that produces amazing sound," Judal explained before shaking his head. He didn't have much time to be disgusted by Aladdin's lack of knowledge, the boy was plucking at the strings more, making him pull the guitar away. "What are you doing?"

"I want to see it." Aladdin smiled at him as though it had been obvious. "Is it hard to play?"

"Guitar is always hard to play when you first get started. It takes practice." Judal rolled his eyes as the boy reached for the guitar again. "What are you doing?"

"I want to just try, just for a minute. You have me interested."

"You think you can just pick up a guitar and play as well as you sing?"

"No, but if you show me, I might be able to know what to do to be able to do something with a guitar. Come on, please?"

Judal watched the kid begging. Those blue eyes of his looked up at him, begging him as he leaned closer. There was suddenly that much less space in their compartment. He found himself wondering what would happen if he bargained some kind of deal with the kid. Aladdin's hand brushed against his thigh though, making him hand over his beloved instrument just to stop himself from tossing the thing aside to jump him. He couldn't do anything if the guitar was there. "Fine, I'll teach you something."

Aladdin shifted the guitar around in his hands, automatically going into a guitar playing position. The boy's fingers went over the C major chord, making Judal pause.

"How do you know that?"

"Hmm?" Aladdin looked up, "What do you mean?"

"How do you know what strings to have your fingers on?"

"This is usually what my friends do before they start playing." Aladdin smiled a bit more. "Does that mean I'm doing this right?"

"Well strum brat. Let's see what you know without me telling you."

Aladdin looked down, his back immediately hunching over as he strummed the strings and winced. The discordant sound rang through the apartment, making both males shut their eyes. Judal slid closer, shaking his head as he wrapped his arms around the boy and pressed his leg against the boy's back, forcing him to sit up.

"You're all screwed up," Judal told him. "First off, stop hunching over. You aren't fucking my guitar, stop trying to drool over it. Secondly," he pushed Aladdin's fingers down, making him press down on the strings, "when your fingers are on the fingerboard to play, you have to press down hard or things sound bad… and don't play the sixth string."

The boy's face was heating up, his eyes averted as he nodded. "A-alright."

"Hmm," Judal looked over at him, a slow smile coming to his features as he watched the boy blush slightly. What a fine opportunity. He pressed his leg against the boy's back a bit more, forcing him to sit up more. He slipped his other hand around Aladdin's, strumming the boy's hand along the strings. "Doesn't that sound better," he purred quietly into the boy's ear.

"Yeah, it does, but the strings are hurting my hands."

"They'll do that. Music is a pain in the ass like that," Judal found himself almost grinning from ear to ear as he murmured to the kid. "Love always tends to make people suffer."

The boy's face was turning a brighter pink, those eyes looking over at him before Judal moved away, yawning. His hold on the boy was released as he slipped off the seat and onto the one on the other side.

"Do it again, brat. Let's see if you can make those sounds without me."

Over and over, he forced the boy to strum, to pluck the individual strings of the chord. He explained and forced the boy to explain what they were back to him. The scenery outside forgotten, Judal found himself trying to train the boy how to play the simplest of chords. Aladdin tried to follow along, wincing whenever he didn't press down hard enough. The sound would become wrong, making Judal move closer again, those hands lingering on his own, making him blush as Judal would tell him to press down harder. It hurt though.

He was happy when the train hit the station, Judal taking the instrument from him and putting it back in its case before they grabbed their tickets and climbed off. A few moments after departing the train, Judal was leading him towards another. "From Cologne to Paris, brat," he declared proudly, pushing him up the small steps of the train.

Aladdin rubbed his fingers together; noting that his thumb looked like it was getting callous on it while his other hand looked like it had been pressing down on the strings too hard. He moved quickly through the train, finding a seat near the back and sitting down. This train was more open than the last, making him sigh a bit before he found the guitar placed back in his hands.

Judal smirked at him. "You've started. It's too late to turn back now. Show me what a C major chord looks like and tell me the notes again."

The boy was almost whining as the train left the station.

His fingers were going to fall off, he thought dismally as the other forced him to play the notes again and again. He couldn't help but to try not to press down on them so hard. He wasn't used to this kind of thing. He didn't even know that someone could press too hard on something like this and be in pain. He looked up at Judal only to find the other shutting his eyes, listening carefully.

"I think I know this chord," he told the other, making Judal grin a bit.

"Time for a closed chord since you have the open one down."

Pinky finger on the fifth string, fourth fret, third finger on the fourth string fourth fret, second finger on the third string third fret; Aladdin felt confused by the directions until Judal was once more getting too close, forcing his fingers to take the position on the fingerboard of the guitar. He winced as his fingers were pushed into a new position, making the reddened areas of his fingers press down in a slightly different way.

"Judal, I don't think I can play this," he complained. "My thumb hurts from plucking and my fingers-"

Judal reached into his pocket and held up a pick, grinning. "I can take care of the thumb problem, but your other hand will have to get used to it. If you want to be any good, you have to suck it up because the pain lessens the more times you do it."

"Are you sure?" Aladdin looked over at him and Judal shook his head.

"Keep practicing, Chibi."

By the time they reached Paris, Aladdin had given the guitar back to Judal, finally having pleased him enough to be able to stop playing. He had wrapped his fingers around a cold can of pop while Judal strummed away idly. Sometimes it would almost sound like he was playing one of Aladdin's songs. When that would happen, Aladdin would look over at him, surprised, but the other would slip into another melody, making him shrug it off as just happenstance. He had been listening to one of his albums early that morning, it was only fair that he would be playing such things.

They climbed off the train and Aladdin looked around only to feel a bit more at home. He had been here before. Unlike in Germany, he at least knew a little bit of the language. Sinbad had been really eager to teach him it when they had been around the area together with the others. He had been really good according to the man.

Judal was playing with his phone, shaking his head as he reached over and took Aladdin's hand. He led the other from the building and looked around. "Damn."

"What's wrong?" Aladdin looked up at him, wondering what could be the matter.

"It looks like the trains aren't running this late." Judal slipped his phone away and looked around the city. "Looks like we have to stay in Paris tonight."

"Are you sure? It's only six in the afternoon."

"Do you want to go check in person and waste time that we could be spending doing something else?" Judal looked down at him and Aladdin shook his head.

"No. Not really, but…" They didn't have reservations to anywhere or someone to stay with. He hadn't expected to be stuck somewhere like this for the night. His mind went to the thought of calling Ja'far or someone. They were good at setting up places to stay-

"Come on, Chibi." Judal took his hand again, leading him along the city streets. Aladdin's eyes went around the city, looking at the statues and things that were around. His eyes went to the old buildings, marveling at the designs. "Want to get that ice cream," Judal asked, making him look over at him in surprise.

"What?"

"That ice cream you were talking about earlier, do you want to get some?"

Aladdin grinned, "Sure!"

So they went to the metro, getting their tickets and taking it to the furthest edges of the city, climbing up the hill to the cathedral. Judal let the boy lead him from there, Aladdin's bright smile practically parting people as he led Judal through the small artist's square next to the sacred place. The boy led him down a curving street to a small shop, pushing him inside before he was running up to the counter.

"Bon soir,¹" he greeted eagerly. "Je voudrais crème glacée au chocolat s'il vous plait!²"

The women behind the counter giggled, fulfilling his request before Judal went over to join him. "vanille,³" he said simply, making the women nod before getting him some as well. Judal paid, leading the boy out into the streets once more. A few people looked at them, frowning a bit as they looked between the two, but the famous two musicians were supposedly in Germany, not France.

"Stop," he told Aladdin, grabbing his braid before the boy began to descend the many steps towards the city. He pulled the boy to him, sitting him down on the top step before he sat down next to him. The two of them remained there, watching the sun set over the cityscape, eating their ice cream. Judal's side was pressed a bit against Aladdin's. He looked down at him and shook his head. "I should have gotten you some napkins."

"Hmm?" Aladdin looked up at him in confusion, practically wearing some of the ice cream on his face. Judal tilted his head up, leaning down to lick the chocolate ice cream away. The boy blushed hard, shaking a bit under his touch. Those red eyes looked at him, watching him as he went about licking at the ice cream. When he pulled back, Aladdin was setting his small cup to the side.

"Not hungry anymore?"

"Yeah…" Aladdin blushed harder though, making Judal laugh.

"Damn you're just a brat. What am I doing?" He sighed as he ate another bite of his own food.

"What do you mean?" Aladdin stared at him. "We're going to make an album together and make a lot of people really happy."

"Is that all you care about?"

"What do you mean?" Aladdin shook his head. "There's so much we can do to make other people really happy. We write so much good music-"

"Don't you have other goals?" Judal stared down at him. "Do you even have a damn home?"

"I kind of do," Aladdin replied with a sheepish smile. "I tend to just stay in hotels all the time though. The place that is my home is actually my friend Ugo's. I just share the address with him."

"What about your parents?"

"I don't know." Aladdin shook his head before his eyes lit up. He pointed towards the city and grinned. "Look! The tower is lighting up!"

Judal watched him smile, shoving another bit of ice cream into his mouth as he thought to himself.


A/N:

Bon soir¹ - (French) Good evening

Je voudrais crème glacée au chocolat s'il vous plait!² - (French) I would like chocolate ice cream please!

vanille³ - (French) vanilla

*Sacré-Cœur is a cathedral in Paris. It's on the top of a hill with a great view of the city. The Eiffel Tower is a bit hard to see from some points in front of the place, but at night the view of both the cathedral itself and the city are gorgeous.