I know, I know, it's been too long! My interest in this story has been waning of late, but clearly yours hasn't, lovely readers! Perhaps it's the remake coming out that's caused the surge in this story's hits, but whatever the case may be, you've motivated me to start posting again. I have four more chapters beyond this one finished, and about four more after those that still need to be written. So, let's wrap this story up, shall we? You provide the motivation (in the form of reviews/comments/kudos/etc.), and I'll churn out the chapters. Thank you all so much!

ln( )

Chapter XXVI: Lowball

All things considered, this all could have turned out much worse. Aladdin had really thought for a minute there that he was going to end up back in the dungeon. But the princess had saved him with her testimony, so he was only being escorted and confined to his lavish guest quarters in the palace.

The whole episode still left him confused as hell though. Bitter too, though he tried not to dwell on that feeling. His anger at the situation was actually easier to focus on, though anger might be too tame a word to describe what he felt when he saw Rami and Najida in that cell.

When he realized what had happened to the children after they'd left, he'd felt like weeping and raging by turns. That they couldn't recognize him only made it worse. He'd almost revealed himself right then and there, just so he could comfort the children the way he wanted to, but that would have been a bad idea for a lot of reasons. In the end he'd just done what he could as Ali, the princely stranger.

The discovery that Jafar was the one who locked them up was hardly surprising to Aladdin. He was already well aware that Jafar was a treacherous snake of a man; he didn't need this kind of confirmation.

However, it was the princess's actions that had him befuddled. It seemed like nothing she'd done today made sense to him.

"Hold up there!"

Aladdin turned at the sound of Prince Achmed's voice, and his guards halted behind them.

"If you have more accusations to make against me, save them for someone who cares," Aladdin said, not really concerned right now that he was being rude. Surprisingly, Achmed only waved his statement away.

"Oh no, I think we got to the bottom of things in the throne room," he said. "Now that I've heard the whole story, I really do think you're telling the truth, or close enough to it. I should have seen it before. That princess has such ridiculous ideas, I guess I'm not surprised that she decided a jaunt to the dungeon would be fun." The man scowled, but soon regained his haughty expression as he eyed Aladdin once again. "Not that you should have followed her into it though. Really, I don't know what you were thinking."

"I was thinking that the princess can go wherever she wants in her own palace," Aladdin retorted. He turned and continued on his way, not keen on continuing the conversation, but Achmed kept pace with him.

"Forgive me, prince, but you don't know the princess like I do." Aladdin had to bite back a laugh at that. "She has no conception of consequences. The first time we met, she ordered her pet tiger to attack me."

"The princess has a tiger?" It was the only thing Aladdin could think to say to keep himself from laughing out loud. He would have given his left arm to see Jasmine sic a tiger on Achmed.

"Yes. The Sultan must have ordered the beast locked up, which is why we haven't seen it yet. Really though, the princess has no judgement at all. What was she thinking?" Aladdin had to bite his lip to stop himself from saying that she was probably thinking that Achmed was a pompous, entitled ass who deserved a good mauling. The prince didn't seem to notice Aladdin's amusement as he continued his rant. "Did she stop for even a moment to think what setting a tiger on me would have done to the relations between our two kingdoms?" Achmed shook his head. "If I had been injured it would have meant war."

Aladdin worked hard to keep a straight face. What a drama queen! If Achmed weren't such a melodramatic wimp he might have realized that the princess never meant to harm him in the first place.

Achmed glanced back at Aladdin's guards, who were keeping a respectful distance between themselves and the two princes. He scowled. "To be perfectly honest, I'm tempted to simply end my suit and let you have her. This nonsense with those two common children is only the latest in a series of ridiculous escapades. The girl has no sense! What will be next, taking in gutter rats? She's entirely too fond of commoners, if you know what I mean."

Aladdin heard the emphasis the prince placed on the last part of that sentence. Achmed knew something, or thought he did anyway, and Aladdin had to find out what it was. Lucky for him, it appeared that Achmed couldn't wait to dish on whatever gossip he'd heard.

"I'm sorry, Prince Achmed, I'm not sure I do," Aladdin said, glancing sidelong at the other man, brow arched—a clear sign of his curiosity and an invitation for him to continue.

"Ah, so you hadn't heard," Achmed said with a small, sly smile, apparently satisfied that he knew something Ali didn't. "Well, that's not too surprising, really. The Sultan is taking great pains to hide the truth of the matter, especially from his daughter's suitors, and I can't say I blame him. Though if she were my daughter, I'd have disowned her by now for this business."

Aladdin stayed silent, though he wished Achmed would just get on with it. He knew from experience that silence would be the surest way to draw the man out—one couldn't be friends with Kassim for long without learning that.

Sure enough, the prince continued, lowering his voice as if he were imparting some great secret. Aladdin resisted rolling his eyes. "Two years ago now, the princess, in yet another remarkable display of poor judgement, snuck out of the palace alone, unescorted and without a guard. She just walked out into the streets! Can you believe it?"

Aladdin shook his head, as though he couldn't imagine someone doing that—as though a large part of him didn't feel like doing that right now.

"Anyway, you can about guess what happened next. She ran into some vagabond thief, who took advantage of her obvious naiveté and carried her off." Achmed lowered his voice even more, so that Aladdin had to move a step closer to hear him. "She lived like that for two years before the Royal Vizier found her and brought her back. She's barely been back in the palace a month. Now her father wants to marry her off as quickly as possible before the story gets out. I mean, there are few enough men who could make her a good match that would want her now as it stands. If the truth were widely known…" Achmed shook his head in feigned pity. "I mean, who would want a woman who is no longer pure? She cannot claim she's untouched after all that."

Aladdin felt his stomach turn to ice. "You think the thief forced her?" he asked, fighting to keep his voice detached and uninterested.

Achmed only shrugged. "Forced, coerced, or simply seduced, it makes no matter. She is no longer a virgin, that much is certain. But I do know one thing," the prince continued. "The princess, softhearted girl that she is, begged her father to spare the thief's life. That does not sound like the action of a woman who was forced to me."

"What happened to the thief?"

"Most likely beheaded by now, or still in the dungeons." Achmed smirked at him. "You probably walked right past his cell on your little outing."

They had walked past his cell. Aladdin hadn't been looking for it, but he saw it all the same. The princess hadn't even glanced at it. But then, she probably didn't know it had been his. She never came to see him there, after all.

Aladdin shook off those thoughts. Now was not the time. "How do you know this story if the Sultan is so keen to keep it a secret?" he asked.

"Why, from the Royal Vizier himself," said Achmed, surprising Aladdin. "The man has a certain amount of honor and propriety. He came to me and told me what the Sultan was covering up. Said he couldn't in good conscience allow me to marry the princess without knowing the whole sordid tale."

Aladdin considered this. If it were true, then it might mean that Jafar was trying to chase off Jasmine's suitors. But why would that interest him? What would it benefit him if the princess didn't marry?

"So you are going to leave, then," said Aladdin, but Achmed only shrugged again.

"Eh, I don't know. Had I known the truth before setting off, I wouldn't have bothered coming at all. But now that I'm here… She is still a beautiful girl, the princess. And her purity doesn't matter so much to me, so long as she's not carrying some commoner's bastard in her belly. Perhaps I'll stay."

The way Achmed talked about Jasmine like she was just an object made Aladdin's stomach roil in disgust. But the mention of the possibility that Jasmine was pregnant left his head reeling. He knew that she wasn't—she couldn't be, they'd taken precautions since neither of them was ready for that yet—but to have one of his greatest desires spat out like it was something vile and shameful made something deep in his chest twist in pain. Is that how Jasmine felt about it? He didn't think so, but…there were so many things he didn't understand about her nowadays.

Aladdin swallowed his bile and narrowed his gaze at the smirking prince next to him. "Do you really think you still have a chance with her, after what just happened?"

Achmed smiled nastily at him, and Aladdin felt a shiver crawl down his back. "Let's just say that I still have a better suit than you do, old boy."

Prince Achmed took his leave with a wicked little grin long before they reached Ali's rooms, but Aladdin hardly spared him a nod. His mind was whirling.

As he entered his rooms in the palace, he noticed the Genie off in the corner, engrossed in a game of chess with Carpet. Genie was muttering something about "losing to a rug," but even Genie's plight and Carpet's self-satisfied posture couldn't bring a smile to Aladdin's face. He pulled off his turban, flung himself face-first onto the bed, and heaved a sigh.

"Girl problems?" he heard Genie ask.

"How'd you guess," Aladdin muttered.

"The melodramatic sighing and flopping around like a hooked fish kind of tipped me off. Definite signs of thwarted love."

Aladdin chuckled humorlessly. Hooked fish indeed. As maddening as the situation with Jasmine was, every time he saw her his heart pounded like he was running a race. All he wanted was to be near her, but when they were together now his heart ached. Even when he walked with her arm in arm they weren't really together, not like it had been before. He could still feel everything between them that hadn't been resolved.

Aladdin rolled over to find Genie's face about six inches from his. "So how's our little beau doing?" he asked. Carpet, who had followed him over, made a slashing motion across its body and a ripping noise. Its meaning couldn't have been clearer to Aladdin.

"Genie, I need help!" he reprimanded the blue being.

The genie donned a brimmed cap with earflaps and conjured an enormous smoking pipe. "All right, let us have the facts of the case," he intoned in a sharp, smooth accent. "And leave nothing out! The slightest detail could be of the utmost importance."

By the time Aladdin had finished telling the genie what had happened that day, he had reverted back to his usual form, but not without going through a series of jokes and increasingly dramatic changes. There were actually tears when Aladdin told him about the children in the dungeon.

"So, what do I do?" Aladdin finally asked.

"Okay, Sparky, here's the deal," the genie responded, changing his appearance yet again to make himself more angular and wearing some kind of dark lenses over his eyes. "If you wanna court the little lady then you gotta be a straight shooter, do ya got it?"

Aladdin found that advice, if that's what it was, rather unhelpful. "What?"

The genie conjured a board with words written on it, tapping each one as he said it to emphasize his point. "Tell her the truth!"

"No way!" Aladdin exclaimed, waving the board away. "She wasn't honest with Aladdin before, why should she be now?"

"When you rescued those children, you weren't thinking about acting like a prince, or trying to get one over on the princess, were you?"

"No…"

"And that's when she warmed up to you. She responded to you being…you."

To be honest, Aladdin was finding it quite a bit more difficult than he had expected to stay aloof around Princess Jasmine. He couldn't help but respond to many of her questions sincerely, much as he wished to hide his true feelings from her.

"We were in the dungeons today, Genie," Aladdin reminded his friend. "She thinks that I'm serving a life sentence there. If she still wanted me, why didn't she try to see me? When Rami asked her about Aladdin, she just changed the subject." Did she feel shame about her former lover? Why else would she avoid him like that?

Genie transformed into a teenage girl twirling her long, blonde hair around her painted fingernails. "Well, y'know. It's always kinda awkward when you're with your new boyfriend and you, like, run into your ex," he pointed out in an annoying, nasal accent.

True. Jasmine didn't know that Prince Ali was really Aladdin. How was she supposed to explain all this to a suitor she just met?

Speaking of which, why was she meeting princes at all? It looked like Jasmine really was willingly picking out a husband from any prince that happened to come to court her—including Achmed, vile as he was. The princess was actually being polite to him, which was so not like the Jasmine Aladdin knew. Yasmin would have had that slimy prick out on his ear by now. But as far as Aladdin could see, she was actually considering marrying the guy. This was the same woman who ran away from home and spent two years wandering around the desert to escape a marriage to someone she didn't like. Aladdin was pretty sure she didn't like Achmed, so what had changed?

Aladdin found the whole situation confusing and disheartening. So Jasmine would marry a jerk of a prince whom she didn't care about and who didn't care about her, but she would reject the love of her life? Maybe…she had enjoyed being with Aladdin, but she didn't see herself spending the rest of her life with him. Maybe he just wasn't enough for her.

To be fair, Aladdin could readily admit that she really did deserve more than just poor, nomadic living. He had tried to give her everything he could, but what he had to give was pitiful compared to her old life. He did not doubt that she meant every word she said when she told him she'd rather live the life of a thief with him than go back home and marry a prince, but that was how she felt in that moment, at that time. Two years had gone by since their escape from Agrabah. She might have changed her mind.

She didn't even go to see him in the dungeon. Was she being prevented? Or did she feel guilty and was avoiding him? Surely she knew that he would want to see her anyway… Or maybe—he just wasn't worthy.

Aladdin looked up to see the genie watching him, a rare seriousness in his expression.

"Al, all joking aside, you really oughta be yourself," he said.

Aladdin's heart felt as heavy as stone. "That's the last thing I wanna be," he murmured. He didn't look up. He didn't want to see the pity on Genie's face. Instead he cleared his throat and donned his turban again. "Okay. I need answers, and the sooner I get them, the sooner I can get out of here and get out of her hair. I'm gonna go see her. I just gotta be smooth, cool, confident." He paused, then asked, "How do I look?"

"Like…a prince," the genie sighed, but Aladdin hardly heard him. He was already up and away, and more than ready to find out the truth and put all this speculation behind him.

Aladdin thought better of his plan to talk to the princess when he found himself face to face with a pair of angry, yellow eyes and a snarling mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

So the princess really did have a pet tiger, and it apparently did not appreciate suitors trying to invade its mistress's apartments via the balcony.

"Down, kitty," Aladdin murmured, trying to make his voice as soothing as possible while backing up onto the balustrade, as far away from the big cat's fangs as he could get without falling to his death.

"Rajah, who's there?"

Princess Jasmine's voice preceded her onto the balcony, and Aladdin probably shouldn't have been surprised that she came out with a gilded candelabra raised in both hands like a club. Of course she would come out to deal with the intruder herself, rather than call for the guards that were undoubtedly posted just outside her door. That's Yas—Jasmine, all right.

When she saw Ali ineffectually trying to shoo away her tiger, she relaxed her grip on her makeshift weapon. "Prince Ali? What are you doing here?"

Aladdin huffed a nervous laugh, not taking his eyes off the tiger. "Trying not to get eaten by this savage beast." The big cat's growling increased in volume. "I mean, this magnificent, fearsome specimen of a tiger. Better?" The cat's growl faded to a rumble as it raised its head regally and finally backed away, to Aladdin's immense relief.

When Aladdin looked up, he saw Jasmine's lips pursed the way they always did when she was trying not to smile. An ache formed in his chest at the expression, so familiar. "I think Rajah likes you," she said, stroking the tiger's head. The beast in question only glared at him.

Aladdin chuckled as he stood, a little too breathlessly to maintain the illusion of being totally unafraid. "Like to eat me, maybe."

"What are you doing here, Prince Ali?"

"I thought I'd drop by," Aladdin said as he pushed away from the parapet. He was trying for casual after his recent nerve-wracking experience, but when Jasmine raised one eyebrow at him he knew she wasn't buying it.

"You thought you'd drop by my balcony, which is fifty feet off the ground, when you're supposed to be confined to your quarters on the other side of the palace?"

Aladdin sighed and cast his eyes down briefly. So much for small talk. He evaded answering the obvious question that Jasmine was driving at, and changed the topic. "I wanted to know how the children were doing."

Jasmine's shoulders relaxed and she finally put down the candelabra. "They're doing fine. The physician says that with rest and good food, they'll be healthy again in no time."

Aladdin closed his eyes as he felt relief wash through him at her words. He had feared the worst for the children when he saw the raw wounds under their manacles. Razoul and two other guards had beaten Aladdin the very first day he spent in the dungeon, and he dreaded the thought that Najida and Rami had suffered the same torture. He thought briefly about asking to see them, but discarded the idea when he realized it might seem like he was too interested in them.

He opened his eyes again to find Jasmine regarding him with a searching gaze. "Did I thank you for helping me free the children?"

"Yes princess, you did," Aladdin answered.

"Then allow me to thank you again, Prince Ali. I truly appreciate what you did for Najida and Rami…and for me as well. You faced grave consequences for your unselfish actions today."

Her words almost made Aladdin blush. "Thanks are unnecessary, your highness. To be honest, I wasn't even thinking of the consequences at the time."

"You still helped, and that is more than many others would have done." Her eyes on him were still searching, evaluating. Aladdin drew himself up under her gaze.

"I couldn't have just left two innocents to rot in the dungeon. What would that make me? I'd be no better than a criminal myself."

He had meant his statement to be a subtle condemnation of what the princess had done to him by abandoning him to a life of imprisonment, but his words did not have the intended effect on her. Though he searched her face for any trace of guilt, he found only satisfaction, as though he were the one who had passed her test. He swallowed hard to keep his resentment from clawing its way up his throat.

Though he managed to reign in his temper, Aladdin still wanted to see the sanctimonious princess squirm, so he asked another, more difficult question.

"It was hard to miss that you and the children knew one another, your highness," he said, and took satisfaction in the way the princess's face froze. "Tell me, how did you…meet?"

Jasmine's face went blank. She glanced away for a moment before speaking again, slow and halting this time.

"I met the children in the city, a couple of years ago. I…did my best to help them, at the time. I haven't seen them in nearly two years though."

Aladdin nodded with false understanding as he casually leaned back against the balustrade. "It's been a while. Perhaps that's why they got your name wrong."

"Yes, perhaps," Jasmine said, shooting him a narrow-eyed glance that was clearly a warning. Aladdin decided to back off a bit. It wouldn't do to get her back up so soon into the conversation.

"It's too bad that you aren't able to keep them," he said. "I think they could use someone like you in their lives, princess."

Jasmine raised her eyebrows. "Someone like me?" she echoed, sounding a little confused.

"Yes, you. They need someone who cares about them." Aladdin held her eyes as he allowed his sincerity to color his voice.

Jasmine's face softened at his words. "They need more than that, the poor dears," she said. "I wish I could be the one to give it to them, but I don't have time to change my father's mind."

"Why not? Surely you can get the Sultan to reconsider once he's had time to cool off."

"My father is not the one I need to convince," she said.

"Who then?"

The princess fixed him with an expectant look. "My future husband."

"Oh," said Aladdin, taken aback. He'd thought that the Sultan, being the Sultan, would have the ultimate authority in this regard, but apparently not.

"Yes," said Jasmine, answering his unasked question. "My father would never overturn my husband's wishes in this matter. He'd never presume to make such decisions for another man's family."

"So, if your husband agrees to let you keep the children, then they're all yours?" Aladdin pushed away from the balustrade, taking a step towards her.

Jasmine nodded. "All mine," she said, and there was such wistfulness in her expression that Aladdin couldn't help himself. He closed the distance between them and reached out to caress her face. The skin of her cheek was just as soft as he remembered, and Aladdin felt a tingling in his fingers where they touched.

The girl looked up at him, her dark, brown eyes wide and fathomless. "Would you?" she asked. "If you were my husband, would you let me keep them and raise them as my own?"

The beginnings of a smile tugged at Aladdin's lips. "How could I refuse you, when you look at me like that?" he murmured. "Yes, princess, I would welcome them."

Aladdin caught the spark of hope that lit Jasmine's eyes just before she lifted her face to his and kissed him.

He was utterly lost. Her touch, her taste, so wonderfully familiar that he thought his heart would burst at the sensation. He cupped her cheek with one hand as the other came to rest on her hip. When she opened her mouth to him, the stroke of his tongue against hers drew a faint whimper from her throat, a sound that he did not think he had ever heard her make before. It made his blood race so that he had to draw away before he wanted to so as not to embarrass himself.

Jasmine's face was flushed as she looked up at him, lips still parted. She smiled a little at him and glanced down, suddenly shy as she took a step back. Aladdin reluctantly let go of her to give her space, but she didn't go far.

"I see that you are a generous and compassionate man, my lord. I need such a man by my side, now more than ever." The princess's eyes brimmed with emotion as she looked up at him. "Prince Ali Ababwa, will you do me the honor of becoming my husband?"

Aladdin almost forgot to breathe. She'd asked him to marry her! Then a fist clenched hard around his heart, dousing the passion that had flared to life at their kiss. No, she'd asked Prince Ali to marry her. Aladdin she had already rejected.

But weren't they one and the same? There was no Prince Ali without Aladdin. Prince Ali was Aladdin.

But Aladdin was not Prince Ali. Prince Ali was royalty, ruler of a faraway land, powerful, wealthy, important. Aladdin was a street rat, a thief, riff-raff, scoundrel, orphan, common as they come.

Worthless.

How else could he explain Jasmine's desire to marry Prince Ali but not Aladdin? He knew that material wealth was not important to her, nor was power. A good man is what she wanted, and at the end of the day, Aladdin just…wasn't good enough for her.

Standing here before the princess, seeing her framed in the light from the ornate palace, her whole person seeming to glow, Aladdin could see more than ever how far above him she was, in every way. Her deep, dark eyes were fixed on him, a shy smile on her lips, waiting for an answer to her question.

He couldn't say yes. She wanted to marry a person who did not exist. He couldn't say no, either, or he'd push her away.

"You honor me with your proposal, Princess Jasmine," he said with a low bow. He used the gesture to hide his face for an instant so he could compose himself and become the aloof prince that he was supposed to be. "I am humbled that you feel you have come to know me enough to marry me." He straightened his spine as he looked the princess in the eye. "However, I am not sure I yet know you well enough to accept your hand in marriage."

Aladdin watched as the spark of hope in Jasmine's eyes died. Her face became blank and she took a step back from him.

"I see," she said, her voice so cold Aladdin flinched to hear it. "Did you come here to marry me, prince? Or only to humiliate me?"

Aladdin's eyes widened in surprise. "No, princess, never! You misunderstand—"

"What have I misunderstood, Prince Ali? Your intentions?" She raised her chin haughtily, a sure sign that she was angry and a posture that Aladdin had always hated the few times it had been directed at him. "I certainly have. I thought your intention in coming here was to win my hand, not reject me after I opened myself to you."

Frustrated anger burned Aladdin's heart once again. "You speak as though only your feelings should be taken into account, your highness," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Yet I have feelings too. I came here to find a wife, not win your hand. A subtle distinction, but an important one. Do you think I want a wife who would hide her past and keep secrets from her husband?"

The frozen expression on the princess's face did not thaw. "I think it's time you returned to your chambers, Prince Ali. You're not supposed to be here anyway," she said, and took another step back from him.

Aladdin immediately regretted his angry outburst. He had tried to be diplomatic but ended up alienating her anyway. Now he may never get the answers he needed. He could not retract what he'd said though, so he would have to try to make it up to her. He sighed and dropped his arms to his sides. "I apologize, princess. I should not have said those things to you. I am sorry for offending you. It was never my intention."

Jasmine did not move, but it seemed that her hard expression softened, just a bit. Aladdin bowed low once more, then stepped back onto the balustrade. "Good night, princess," he said, then jumped down to where Carpet was waiting for him.

"No!"

The fear in Jasmine's voice caused Aladdin to bring Carpet back up in a panic. "What? What is it?"

Jasmine's eyes were wide with surprise. "How—how are you doing that?"

That's when Aladdin realized how it must have looked to Jasmine, him stepping off the edge of the balcony into thin air. He smiled, his mischievous side responding to her confusion.

"It's a magic carpet," he answered her, guiding Carpet up over to balcony to give her a better look.

The wonder in the princess's eyes was worth it. "It's marvelous," she murmured, holding out her hand to touch it. Carpet took her hand and caressed it, as though imitating a kiss.

That's when inspiration struck, and Aladdin decided to act on it before Jasmine could remember that she hated him right now. "You don't want to go for a ride, do you?" he asked. Jasmine eyed him with hesitation. "We could get out of the palace, see the world…" He was sure she wouldn't be able to resist that offer. She had to be sick of this place and all its problems by now, after weeks of being cooped up in it. Aladdin knew he was, and he'd only been here for two days.

Jasmine examined the carpet again, her expression torn. She was definitely tempted. "Is it safe?"

Aladdin nodded, but she still seemed uncertain. "Do you trust me?" he murmured, and held out his hand to her.

She looked up at him, catching his gaze. Her hesitation faded from her expression and something more akin to the hope he'd seen before entered her eyes.

"Yes," she said softly, and put her hand in his.