A/N: This chapter came from SkyDreamer12 who said, "I personally would love to see Aladdin trying (and failing) to keep their kid out of a council meeting or something." I kind of took this in a little bit of a different direction than I'd originally planned. I feel like I ended up making this more about Jasmine and the council rather than Amina, but that's the way the words came out. Oh well, it be like that sometimes.
A/N 2: Also, everything about Agrabah's government and how it functions is completely made up and I'm winging it to make it fit the story. I know that basically none of what I write is historically accurate to the Middle East in any way, but you know what? That's why it's called "fiction".
"They have encroached upon our territory for the sixth time in half as many weeks," a councilman shouted, pounding his fist on the table. "That is an act of war!"
Jasmine could've rolled her eyes at Faizan's theatrics. Sometimes, he was nearly as bad as Jafar had been. Why were men so eager for war when there were other ways of handling things? Ways that would spare countless lives from unnecessarily being spent.
"Kashar is simply doing some military exercises," another replied. "They are no threat to us."
"Then they can do their so called 'exercises' on their side of the border!" Faizan fired back, the venom dripping from his voice. "Those inbred rats—"
"Councilman," Jasmine snapped, "you will keep a civil tongue in this room or I will have my guards remove it for you." Just because she was against war if it could be avoided, didn't mean that she was about to let chaos run amok in her own court. Faizan had never respected her, even when she wasn't Sultana. The only way to reign him in was to match fire with fire.
The man's lips twitched as he failed to keep a sneer off his face. "My sincerest apologies, my lady."
Jasmine let the subtle hit at her title slide for the time being. She was the ruler of Agrabah. And as such, she was to be addressed by either "Sultana" or "Your Majesty." The only people she allowed to call her by the more informal "my lady" were her handmaidens and Hakim, yet even he rarely did so.
"However, my point still stands," Faizan continued. "Kashar need to be put in their place. They're intentionally crossing the border to see how we'll respond. We must send our soldiers up there to—"
"To what?" Jasmine interrupted. "To start a war? To die?"
"To send a message. And yes, should it come to it: to die. Because that's what soldiers do."
Before Jasmine could respond to his ludicrous statement, they heard the door to the council chambers creak open. She frowned in confusion when she saw nobody enter. That is, until a light tug on her sleeve caused her to look to her left. A smile crept up on her face as she stared down at her daughter.
"Now how did you find your way in here?" she asked, picking the girl up and sitting her on her lap.
"I hide from Baba," Amina giggled.
"You're hiding from Baba? So I take it he doesn't know you're here?"
The little girl shook her head, feeling ever so proud of herself as she grinned from ear to ear.
Jasmine chuckled. There was no denying that Amina was every bit their child. She had Jasmine's wit and insatiable appetite for curiosity along with Aladdin's humor and deceptive cleverness. And she was only three years old. They were certainly in for a wild ride when she got older, but Jasmine wasn't allowing herself to focus on that now.
Remembering where she was, Jasmine's attention snapped back to the waiting council. A few didn't seem to mind the interruption, even going so far as to smile with amusement at the Princess when she waved "hello" to them. Others, like Faizan, weren't as impressed.
Ignoring the disapproving glares, Jasmine smoothed down her daughter's hair and addressed the men before her.
"This, gentlemen, this is why I refuse to go to war. Especially over something so trivial. You may think that sending soldiers to the border—to Kashar—is no big deal. But the soldiers you send—the soldiers that I send? They're fathers. Brothers. Sons and uncles." She swallowed and thought of Aladdin. "Husbands. They have families in Agrabah. And for me to ask them to go to war with a country that has never shown an ounce of malice towards us in the last two decades…That, to me, is unimaginable."
Jasmine pressed a kiss to Amina's temple. "And even if some of those men have no families. Even if they're all alone and they that no one's left to care about them. Well they'd be wrong. Because I care about them. Those are my people. When I took the throne after my father, I swore to do everything in my power to protect and serve them. Yet here some of you sit, asking that I declare war.
"Councilman Faizan, you say that dying is what soldiers are meant to do. But it's not what they have to do. Not if I can prevent it."
Jasmine put her arms around her daughter and stood from her chair. She had everyone's eyes trained on her with rapt attention. "I will not go to war if this can be resolved peacefully. I will not see my people needlessly die." She cleared her throat and went on.
"Have a message sent to Kashar and inform them that we are aware they've entered our territory. We will allow them one week from when the message is delivered to pull all of their men back across the border. If they have not complied by the deadline, then we will arrange a meeting between their King and I where we can discuss and settle this matter once and for all."
"And if that still doesn't work?" Ilyas, another councilman, prodded.
She paused and shifted Amina in her arms. "We'll cross that bridge if we get to it. Now that we've found a reasonable answer for this problem, I believe we can—"
"Jasmine!" Aladdin came rushing through the doors, his eyes wild and frantic. "I can't find Amina! She was here one minute and then the next thing I knew she wasn't. She—" He stopped when he finally noticed the child sitting calmly in his wife's arms. His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "But…how did…?"
Jasmine bit her lip to stifle her laughter and strode over to him. "She is truly your daughter. She slipped past you and the guards to get here."
"Baba!" Amina exclaimed. "I hide from you, I hide from you. I's sneaky!"
Aladdin couldn't keep the proud smile off his face as relief simultaneously washed over him. He let Jasmine transfer her to his arms and bounced her on his hip a couple times. "Yeah, you sure are! But try not to do that again, Amina. You scared Baba."
"I can't believe you were outsmarted by our three-year-old," Jasmine snorted.
Aladdin shot her a look. "How about you try to wrangle this wild child in for a day?"
"Oh, I have no problem at all with keeping track of her."
"Yeah, well, that's because you're perfect," Aladdin said sweetly, giving her that cheeky grin of his.
"Save the flattery for later, dear. I have a meeting I have to get back to."
Aladdin glanced over her shoulder and nearly winced at some of the heated looks he was getting. He had no idea how Jasmine was able to put up with these old, spiteful geezers day in and day out. He thanked his lucky stars that he didn't usually didn't have to.
"Yeah, of course. Sorry about the interruption."
"It's okay. I'll see you both later tonight for supper."
He turned to leave but stopped when she called after him.
"Oh and Aladdin? Try not to lose our daughter this time."
And just to piss off some of the councilmen who hated him for originally having been a commoner, Aladdin smirked and said, "Our Princess has street rat blood in her. I make no promises."
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Initially I'd thought this was going to be one of my more challenging chapters to do because I didn't know how writing the council would go. But it ended up flowing out of my pretty easily so thank god for that. Let me know what you think of this and as always, feel free to drop a prompt or whatever in the comments.
