Chapter Four

Dinner that night was more than awkward, it was downright uncomfortable. Aladdin and Jasmine told Mozenrath stories and jokes at nauseam, over and over in attempts to jog a memory that was never their to begin with. While he did find many stories to be informative and worthwhile knowledge, most were simply discarded as useless garbage he didn't need and wasted breaths on their part. It was incredible to learn about a man that he had never known and to discover that it was not only him, but also the man he would have become given the correct environment to evolve and flourish in.

He felt his old, wicked side trying to plot ways to destroy and take over the city, but he quickly smothered those impure thoughts and tried to focus on starting over. Still, over dinner he had a hard time lifting his stare from Jasmine and filtering out his lustful thoughts. She was always attractive in his opinion, but only recently could he enjoy her breathtaking beauty and savor the fact that she was his and not Aladdin's. Mozenrath had to agree with the old man in one aspect, irony did work in nice ways sometimes.

Mozenrath broke from his trance suddenly when he noticed no one was talking and they were all staring at him. "Sorry, I spaced out."

"Aladdin just asked if you recalled anything." Jasmine repeated, her eyes full of hope after hours upon hours after suffering in worry about whether or not he'd ever remember anything of their past. Mozenrath shook his head and sighed as if frustrated. "Will you help me get something in the kitchen?" Jasmine requested gently, glancing from Moze to Aladdin and then back to Moze again. Her worry was evident to them both, but Aladdin smiled at her reassuringly and gave her a small sliver of hope. Mozenrath nodded and rose to join her in the other room. Once inside, she stopped and turned towards him. "Look at me, Moze." He obliged her request, uncertain what she was doing. "I mean really look at me." She demanded, anger and defeat seeping through her words.

"I am." He answered honestly, looking her up and down and enjoying the trip both ways. "What am I looking for?"

"No, you're not looking at me the way you used to." A tear gathered in her eye. "You're eyes . . . they're different. You're different. More has changed with you than just your memory." She began, the tear slipping from her eye and running down her cheek. In a gesture that surprised Mozenrath, he moved to wipe the tear off her skin, tenderly and gently. Then, purely going with instinct and what felt right, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her softly and with all his heart in order to comfort her, a way he had never kissed anyone before.

"Jasmine," He whispered, their mouths only breaths apart, his lips still tingling as he savored the taste of her. "I love you." The shockwaves rippled through him as he murmured the words, completely stunning him even as they left his lips and became voiced. She smiled and returned the sediment, but he barely heard her reply. He had never loved anyone his entire life and yet he uttered the words without a second thought, and even after they were said, he began to discover the words were true. He did love her. He, Mozenrath, once lord of the Land of the Black Sands, was falling in love with the Princess Jasmine; a girl he had always had an undiscovered attraction to but never thought it was anything more than lust. It took a complete reality change, name alteration and forged alliances with old enemies to discover what had always been hidden deep within his heat. His head was spinning and the earth was moving beneath him at this breakthrough, while his heart pounded harshly in his rib cage. So much to accept in one day, so much to take in about a life he had never lived and never knew existed.

"Moze?" Jasmine cried out in worry as his balance began to waver and his face paled. "Are you all right?" She moved to support him, putting one of his arms over her shoulder. "Aladdin!" She screamed as Mozenrath began to lose consciousness and his weight overcame her's and threatened to take them both to the floor. When the darkness overcame him, his last sight was Aladdin rushing into the kitchen, worry and fear across his face and Jasmine's panicked voice ringing in the air with his final thoughts before he passed out playing over his last previous words, 'Jasmine, I love you.'

"Moze decided to go home, he said he was really tired. I think it was all too much for him to take in within a few hours. Jasmine, are you okay?" Aladdin found her sitting by the peacock fountain an hour after Moze passed out in the kitchen, simply dangling her hand in the water and letting the fish tease her fingertips. Her anguish was easily read and Aladdin's heart was nearly as heavy as her's. Her thoughts wandered with no direction yet they always led back to Moze's lost expression and the sheer and undeniable fact that he didn't remember anything that happened between them, it was almost as if he was a completely different man. The moments before he passed out scared her beyond belief, it was then she totally believed she was looking into the eyes of a stranger. A hollowed shell of the man she once believed to know like the back of her own hand.

She didn't answer him, but gave him a sorrowful, withering expression that broke his heart. Jasmine had always been the sweetest person to him and he never doubted for a moment that his brother was the luckiest man on the world for being engaged to such a wonderful woman. "He'll remember eventually, Jas." He consoled, sitting next to her on the fountain once again, his gaze locking with her's.

"Thank you Aladdin." She sighed. "It just feels like the Moze I know is gone." She paused and collected her thoughts. "I know this doesn't make any sense, but he's totally different from the person that said good night to me yesterday. I know it's probably because of his sudden amnesia, but still . . . so many things are different." She turned to him. "How can so many things disappear from him overnight?"

"I don't know, but I do understand what you mean."

"How is even possible that this happened so fast? What brought this on?" Again, Aladdin shook his head in bewilderment. "He knew who we were, he knew who he was, but had no memories. Like someone just wiped them away."

"This morning he looked at me in a way he's never done before. It was like his mind was throwing him in a thousand directions and he didn't know which way to go. I have never seen him like that before, the way his eyes were and just . . . just the way he looked at me." He stressed, his eyes wandering off into the distance as he recalled that morning, a short but painful experience he wished to erase from his own memory.

"How did he look at you?" She questioned delicately.

"With anger." He answered quickly, the burn from the earlier regard still within his mind and afflicting his heart. "With contempt. With loathing." Aladdin sighed and closed his fists, hands clenched tightly. "No matter how much we've ever fought over the years and been mad at each other, it was always a brotherly type feud or twenty minute bout. You know, something that we both knew was basically meaningless, and would be over and forgotten about an hour later. He's never looked at me with that kind of dangerous expression . . . there's always been love behind the anger. This time there wasn't, but there was almost this sense that he . . ."

"That he what?"

"I know this sounds crazy, but . . . it was like he wanted to - to hurt me . . . to kill me." Jasmine covered her mouth with her hand to smother a startled gasp that threatened to escape. Aladdin relaxed his hands and forced his stressed muscles to ease, not just for his welfare, but Jasmine's as well. "Maybe I'm just overreacting." He played with the idea in his head, but it didn't quite add up correctly.

"Or maybe you're not." Jasmine muttered, her thoughts and eyes drifting off, becoming lost within a sea of doubt and uncertainty.

"Either way, we're going to have to adjust. We don't know what caused this sudden change in him and we may never discover the truth or find the explanation. Who knows how long this could last . . . he may never remember. He may never go back." He said gently, feeling just as saddened by his words as Jasmine did.

"I know." She brushed a stray tear away and approached him. "No matter what happens I want to thank you for everything. Everything that's ever happened between me and Moze, I always knew I could turn to you for comfort. You've always been so sweet and caring towards me, even though I seem to have stolen your brother from you." She added with a small, devious smile.

He smiled as well, and closed the small distance between them, his heart skipping a beat and pounding in his ear. "You can steal anything from me." His voice was low, nearly a whisper. He could smell the soap off her skin, permeating from her hair and felt his insides tighten. It was so hard to fight his control, to fight his heart. His eyes were half closed, enjoying the feeling of her presence, the slight warmth he could feel from her body. "I think you already have."

"What do you mean?" She asked him, looking deep within his soft, brown eyes. Her voice was soft as well, barely a whisper and nearly a murmur. As long as she had known Moze since the day in the market place, she had known Aladdin and for some reason unknown to her, she had been drawn to him even as she fell in love with his brother. Aladdin always seemed to hold back, to keep from moments alone with her such as this and now that they finally had a stolen instant in privacy between the two of them, she cherished it unconditionedly.

His breath was tingling her skin, his hands rested mere inches from her own, yearning to hold them. His gaze never wavered from her own, keeping them locked within his and exposing his most treasured secrets. The moment was perfect; the moon gave them a milky glow and the sounds of the night surrounded them while the gentle patter of water from the fountain whispered to them, almost urging them to listen to their hearts and answer their own wishes.

Aladdin inhaled slowly and deeply, deciding over his words and whether to utter them, to let them pass over his lips. She had been on his mind every night since the day he spotted her in the market place, handing an apple to a small boy. He had been taken away by her, his breath gone from his chest and his eyes glued on her unique innocence. Yet, his brother was the one jump in and save her, to take her back to their place, to win her heart, free the genie, save the city from evil and ruin. . . to steal her away. "Nothing." He said suddenly, turning away from her and making his way back inside the palace.

She stood in wonder and somewhat hurt, watching him quickly hurry up the stairs towards the throne room. "Aladdin!" She cried out before she could hold her tongue. He stopped himself and turned, waiting as she ran to him, holding on desperately to the small bit of control that still remained within him.

When she reached the stair he was on, she paused and stared at him, a loss for words. "What?" He prompted, an eyebrow raised.

"I just . . ." Her mind was racing in a search for words. "I love your brother." She began, her voice wavering slightly. "But I just . . ." She grabbed him suddenly and pulled his lips onto her's in a fast and frenzied kiss that elevated the both of them, creating a deeper sense of longing either had ever known. The heat burned between them as both hearts pumped wildly in synchronization, the blood flowing through them like fire and thrilling their senses. When they broke, the world around them was a blurred, distant land that neither recognized, nor focused on. Both became lost within the other's eyes once again - a habit that was getting more and more measured each time they attempted it. And yet within their eyes, they were taken away by the sudden impulsive affection and infatuation that was becoming dauntingly clear.

"Jasmine." Aladdin sighed, closing his eyes and resting his forehead on her's while he attempted to catch his breath. "Jasmine . . ." He repeated, merely for the feeling and taste of her name in his mouth and the beautiful ring it made in his ear. "Jasmine, I have to tell you, I . . ." She stopped him, placing her finger over his lips to silence him.

"I love your brother." She reiterated. "No matter what I can or do feel for you, or what is blooming between us, I made him a promise. A promise of my love for him and our future that I can't break." She began to climb the stairs, leaving him to stare at her in bewilderment. Jasmine turned when she reached the top, looking at him tearfully. "I'm sorry, Aladdin." When he was gone from sight, her pace broke in to a sprint as she ran to her room, collapsing on the bed in a fit of tears and sobs. Her emotions ripped her in two and her guilt threatened to get the better of her. 'Oh Allah,' She thought brokenly. 'What if I made the wrong choice? Would it be unfair to my heart to live the rest of my life unhappily? What if Moze is not my true love . . . my soul mate?' She looked up and outside her window onto the balcony, thinking over tender, loving moments with Moze and then treasured, small moments with Aladdin that meant nearly as much. And now, that day brought on a certain clarity of the man that Moze somehow turned into and turned her away. 'I promised myself to him. I accepted his proposal.' Her mind recalled. 'You love him! You know you do. Just because Moze acted differently for a day does not mean his feelings have changed. Just because you feel a little spark between Aladdin and yourself does not make you immediate and definate soul mates.' Everything seemed to be spinning out of control and she had no where to go, nowhere to escape.'Even if that small spark is now developing into a wild fire.' The tears began to flow again as she buried her face within her pillow and sobbed. 'Allah, please guide me. What do I do? How can I love two men?'

To Be Continued . . .

Please R/R!