Day 14 in Babauta

The trip that was supposed to be helpful and to ensure Agrabah's future had started to feel like an endless lasting camp. Days passed by, a new sunrise after a long night, a new sunset following the same long night... it had become to be this non-stopping circle. Time felt like it had stopped short here in Babauta. For every day of the last week Aladdin had asked the royal couple, if they had decided what to do with the declaration of war. Every day he got the same answer: "Not yet, Prince Consort. Would you mind staying for a few more days?" Everyday Aladdin had answered with a simple sure or yes. Because what else could he do? It was his job to finish the journey successfully, to bring back peace between the two kingdoms.

He was tired all the time and couldn't get sleep at nights. Being away from home for such a long time and stressing over multiple things were too much along with the lack of energy from the tasks he did in his daily life in the foreign palace. They all seemed to be a bit exhausted for the last few days. They were supposed to be on their way back home already. Aladdin stressed about not being enough, or that the delay of the royal family's decision was his own fault. No one blamed him, but it was easy for him to think that, since they had spent far too many days in Babauta, and the soldiers were starting to look and act frustrated. It was not their fault. They all wanted home already.

Speaking of home, they were indeed going to be late. Did they like it or not, it didn't matter. It slowly but surely killed Aladdin inside. He had promised Jasmine to be away for two weeks, and no more. So, here's another broken promise. They were supposed to be home by tomorrow and they obviously weren't. They were still stuck in Babauta, waiting and waiting for the answer to the question. Are they going to cancel the declaration of war? The idea of worried Jasmine waiting for him to return didn't make him feel any better. He thought of her every day. He was completely all right, no cuts nor bruises anywhere, but how could she know. He missed her so much.

Aladdin and his guards had once again had a dinner, finished it and he was now in his room. Well, he was on the balcony. He leaned to the balcony railings and was looking at the city under him. The city was really beautiful and calm. For the entire two weeks there, the street noise hadn't bothered him just once. Behind the city view rose a few mountains. And behind them, a beautiful sunset in its light reddish colours. The wind had started to blow and made Aladdin shiver a little. Babauta was a nice country, after all. Filled with genially people and beautiful landscapes with an admiring lifestyle... Regardless of all that, he wished he could be home soon.

Nevertheless, he genuinely had enjoyed the time he had had in Babauta, he was treated well and he was thankful to be able to travel, it was something he could have only dreamed about only a few years ago.

A short moment after there came a voice behind him.

"Prince Consort?"

Aladdin jumped a little hearing the voice. Not too much, just to get him out of his thoughts. Soon he recognized the voice, it belonged to one of the soldiers they had bought along from Agrabah.

Turning around, he still rested his right hand on the balcony railing and looked up to the soldier called Samad.

"Samad, what is it?" he asked the young, brown-haired soldier.

Samad fixed his posture a little bit before answering Aladdin's question.

"They are asking you and the rest of us in the throne room."

Aladdin raised his eyebrows. Normally they would be by themselves after the dinner. Most of them went to asleep soon after. Why would they ask to meet on the throne room?

"Why? We just saw them at dinner."

"I don't know, Prince. But they said it's important."

Taking his eyes away from the young soldier, Aladdin looked on the sky. If they had asked them there to pass on bad news, he wouldn't be able to take it. He had worked so hard for the last two weeks. He had told them everything good about Agrabah, and even everything that needed a little fixing. And of course, listened and memorized everything the royals had told him.

On the other hand, if it was good news, that he and the rest would be able to go home, this day would easily turn into one of the best days of his life. With this little spark of hope on his mind, he turned to look at Samad again and nodded,

"We shall go then."

"After you, Prince."

With the new Prince's lead, he and Samad walked towards the bedroom door. Aladdin hadn't had time to change his clothes yet, so he was already ready to meet the royals, again.

They entered the corridor soon and started to walk towards the throne room. Aladdin heard Samad's footsteps right behind him.

"The rest of the soldiers are already there. They send me to get you." Samad told him reaching his side.

Aladdin turned to look at him while walking. "That's good. Thank you, Samad."

Samad bowed his head a little bit to his prince.

Turning to look in front of him again, he turned left and took the stares that lead to a floor lower, where the throne room was. The stairwell was quite dark, only a few lamps lighted the area so you wouldn't misstep the stairs.

Next thing Aladdin heard was Samad asking the question he feared he didn't have the answer to as the echo of the stairwell's repeated it a few times.

"Do you think we'll be able to return home soon?"

Aladdin felt like he had paled right in front of him, but he knew it was just a feeling. He didn't want to let his men down, but neither did he want to make a promise he wouldn't be able to keep. He was silent for awfully long, he felt Samad's eyes sticking to his back, waiting for an answer.

"I don't know, Samad."

He knew it was better for him to be honest.

With that, Samad took his eyes away from him, turning to look at the floor, he nodded a little. Aladdin saw all that from the corner of his eye as Samad had come to walk next to him again as the stairs had ended.

"Homesick?" Aladdin asked and turned to fully look at his friend.

"No, I'm just..." Samad started, but soon took a long break. Aladdin just waited for him to continue. The sentence ended in a sight, "Yes, maybe a little." he said, changing the course of his answer.

Nodding a little, he felt like he needed to say something, "I'll do what I can to get us home as soon as possible." He took a little break to think about what he was going to say next and continued, very silently and carefully, "I miss home too."

"Thank you, Prince."

Maybe Samad had felt like he needed to answer something to him, or maybe he was genuinely thankful for the work that the prince had done.

"Of course."

Not a long after, they had finally reached the doors of the throne room. Nervousness started to rise on the new Prince's nerves. Meeting the royals of Babauta always rose a little anxiety in his head. He knew he had to get everything right in front of them. Mistakes had not been allowed for the past two weeks.

Knowing his position, Samad moved to walk behind Aladdin as the guards of Babauta opened the giant golden doors for them. Aladdin took the last long breath before entering the throne room.

There everyone was, waiting for him – and there was literally everyone; the King and the Queen, of course, they were sitting on their thrones. Their children were there, too. Aladdin spotted Princess Morgan on the right side of his father's throne, as her brothers stood a bit closer to the aisle. He even saw some new guards, ones that he hadn't seen before. He shivered to the idea of him needing to make a good first impression of himself to them.

When he reached Hakim, he stopped to stand right next to him. He saw Hakim taking a few steps back, it seemed like it was needed to make sure he was on the highest position – to the new guards, he assumed.

He felt everyone's eyes land on him. He bit his tongue out of nervousness. Was everyone waiting for him to speak?

"You asked to see me and my soldiers, Your Highness." Aladdin said, with a voice so loud making sure that the king sitting on the high throne heard him. The words trembled between each other.

"Yes, Prince Consort. We have something important to tell you."

Sweat of nervousness started to get on his forehead. He carefully played with his fingers behind his back.

"We've been thinking about everything you've been telling us for the past two weeks and everything we've heard about your kingdom. It seems like you're a trustworthy Prince and we also decide to believe the words you have said about your wife."

Aladdin listened closely, losing the consciously of everything around him and focused only to the king and the words he was saying.

"I and the Queen have decided to undo the decoration of war towards your kingdom. We apologize for it and hope it will not effect on us or the relation between our kingdoms in the future."

Aladdin felt like he could faint. He had done it. He had actually been able to save Agrabah. The idea of that had seemed so distant even only a few minutes ago. He had forgotten how to breathe, but it didn't matter, he was able to learn it again at home, in the safe Agrabah. A small, almost invisible smile escaped to his lips while he tried to internalize everything that the king had said only seconds ago.

He collected his thoughts together quickly after he released it was his turn to speak.

"Thank you, Your Highness. I promise. You aren't going to regret this."

Aladdin saw the king nodding a little. A small but yet a smile had come to his face, too.

"It's a deal, then. We'll make sure that a ship to Agrabah will be ready to sail as soon as possible. You'll be able to start the journey to home by the morning."

Home. They were able to go home.

It seemed that everything had worked out the best way possible.

The next thing the young Prince Consort heard was a sword. Someone had pulled a sword from their scabbard.

And before anyone could react, before anyone was able to make a move to stop the upcoming act, the sword was on him.

I'M BACK! I'm sorry for letting you all to wait for so long, again. But chapter 13 is here now and I hope you enjoyed reading my writing after almost two months.

I hope you are still interested to read this story. We are turning towards the end of it and I will complete it since I have written it so far already. That's a promise. I hope some of you are hanging on with me till the finale. And I hope Aladdin stories are still interesting to read even tho the movie came out over six months ago.

I'm also sorry for the lack of Jasmine, but we will see her from now on on every (I hope) chapter. And also Aladdin and Jasmine are reuniting very soon! Stay tuned, two or three chapters to go. I know fanfictions that separate the main couple can sometimes get a bit hard to read, for me at least. I don't know why I decided to write it myself hahah!

Also want to point out that this chapter was so hard! It was so hard to get over the beginning and get the "writing flow". And it's a bit short. But I just had to left you with a cliffhanger there.

Thank you for reading! It means so much to me. I hope you're still enjoying my story.