A/N: "Hubb" means "love" in Arabic.

Disclaimer: No own. Too tired to type out the entire thing --;

Chapter 29

Hubb

(Jafar)

Delightful. Positively delightful.

Here's how it happened, unbiased by my opinion of the matter. (That version includes terms not qualified to be mentioned in the presence of civilized company. What those big words mean is, it has a lot of swear words in it.)

I was kissing Jala, and Haillie walked in.

Simple, short, and to the point.

Anyways, there we were, somewhere in the most blissful place on Cloud 9, and that accursed, pepto bismol-dipped, missing-screws sister of the most wonderful former-genie in the world walks in.

Haillie, to call her by proper name.

Her face made a sort of "I knew this would happen eventually but I was happily in denial" sort of expression, and stuck out her tongue, and ever so politely, blew a raspberry straight into my face.

"Haillie, please," Jala pleaded. Haillie harrumphed and left us in peace. She would have slammed the door, but I think she was too furious to even do that properly.

Jala sighed, put her head in her hands, and sank to the floor, apparently having taken the staircase back off of Cloud 9. I watched her, experiencing that odd feeling of watching a scene happen without actually being in it.

Before we could do much more, however, bugles were being sounded outside. Jala stood up, rather startled, and we exchanged a glance. Bugles were only used when something extremely important happened. Whatever could it be?

We rushed out of the room, nearly colliding with Jasmine, Aladdin, Genie, and Sorrah, who were also stumbling dazedly out into the corridor. Jasmine made a little beckoning hand motion. I followed as quickly as I could on the course she was leading us on.

Out in the courtyard, what seemed like a sea without end of courtiers were gathered. There was a distinct space between the average people and the press, where they were huddled in a corner. There was just a tight group of weirdos, a space, and then the rest of the courtiers. As if the press were isolated from the rest of normal society, (which they probably were).

Outside of the palace gates, there was a huge caravan of what looked like a wealthy person. In the front was the grandest carriage, with a proud-looking two-humped camel pawing the ground in front of it.

Far away on his towering spire, the Moazzen was calling for prayers. Nobody moved a muscle.

Out of the caravan stepped a man with handsomely chiseled features and a beard. "Greetings, courtiers of Agrabah!" he called in a deep voice. Silence. "My name is Raakin, son of Ra'ed, of Samarkand. I have your Sultana Kamaria. I have come to barter with you for her life."

There was a hushed murmuring now among the gathered courtiers, like a wave. Ra'ed, the name of our deceased Sultan, may Allah protect his soul.

"How do we know that you speak the truth?" called one burly man amidst the concubines that still lived at the palace. Raakin made an almost indecipherable motion to the huge man next to him, and the big man dragged a struggling Kamaria out of the carriage. There was a gasp.

She was gagged, and bound rather securely.

Raakin took her none too gently and pressed a schmitar securely against her throat. "Listen, and listen well, if you wish for her to continue living," he roared.

Jala nudged me. Her hand was trembling. I squeezed it.

Stepping forward, I replied calmly, "Stop, and do not act rashly. I am Jafar, the Grand Vizier of this palace. What do you want?" Raakin squinted at me. "Gold." "Ah, what we all would want a little more of. How much?" I drawled.

The man considered me for a moment. "Four million riyal," he finally shouted.

More gasping. I stood calmly. "Why should I grant you that?" Raakin narrowed his eyes, and pressed the schmitar harder against the Sultana's throat. A tiny trickle of blood made itself visible. I involuntarily flinched, though my robes concealed it.

"Do not forget that we are the one with the trained army," I reminded him, bluffing. Our army was pretty out of shape right now. Raakin seemed to know this. His eyes narrowed like a greedy cats. "I will give you until sundown twenty four hours from now to grant me what I want."

With that, the Sultana was yanked out of our view.

The courtiers were frantic, trampling this way and that. I hopelessly gave up trying to preserve order. Instead, I found my group, and we fled to Jasmine and Aladdin's quarters to further discuss our situation alone.

The press need not be involved.

After all, this job required brains.

A/N: A bit short, but it's not a filler, eh?

Schmitar-curved sword

Samarkand-city in Saudi Arabia

Allah-God (I hope you knew that before now.)

Moazzen-a person that calls five times a day from a tower for a Muslim to prayer

Riyal-the Saudi Arabian currency. About 4 riyal equal to 1 American dollar.

Caravan-a group of people traveling together for protection through the desert

Pepto Bismol-a pink cold medicine. That's not Arabian, but just so that you know what it is 