Ten million years later, I have the first chapter written and published. Be proud of me and read on, lovelies.

I am neither a French man nor a rich white man. Thus I neither own Aladdin or MLB. Tragic about the not owning it, but I'm not too heartbroken about not being an adult man.

~o0o~

As the sun slowly began to drop behind the golden sand dunes, the city of Agrabah caught on fire. The white and tan buildings glistened in the fading light, and the reflection from the golden roofs increased the temperature of the city by a dozen degrees, even as it made the city look gilded. Below the horizon and the skyline, the city was full of Agrabahian citizens, rushing to complete their daily tasks before night fell and they had to return to their domicles. The streets were noisy, filled with the sound of merchants peddling their wares, musicians using strange flutes and pipes to add to the cacophony, and voices rising above the crowd in conversation. The din of noise was deafening, but a practiced ear could pick out each individual sound. Particularly those of interest.

And of interest to this story, our story, was one sound: the calls of a furious city guard as they pursued a simple thief through these beautiful crowded streets.

The city guards gave out angry cries as she jumped over the small wall around the roof-top balcony with practiced skill and slid down the tiled roof, far out of their grasp unless they were ballsy enough to attempt to follow her. Her long, midnight-blue hair whipped behind her, coming out of its braids as she dropped the 10 feet to the ground and rolled, trying to save herself from injury through her ankles smarted at the huge distance. Wincing, she paused for a moment to take a breath, but the crashing that accompanied the city guards rushing down the stairs through the civilian's house made her groan. Clearly she didn't have any time to take a breather, and true-to-form as she glanced behind her she saw her least favorite city guard, a tall and fast brute named Kim, throw open the doors.

"Stop right there, you thief!"

Pulling on an unsuspecting merchant's cart, causing it to roll into the path of Kim, the thief began to run again. She muttered an apology to the merchant, feeling genuinely bad for sending his wares rolling everywhere, but to her surprise the old man just winked at her, nudging his cart of oils forward enough that the pathway was completely blocked before Kim could squeeze by.

" Go." He whispered.

She froze for a moment, totally puzzled, but Kim's cry of anger and profuse cussing startled her back into action. Nodding at the old man and finding her rhythm again, she scrambled towards another building and pulled herself up a drainage pipe onto an unoccupied balcony, crouching low behind the wall. For a few moments she panted, rubbing her ankle to try and ditch the tenderness, and waited to see if the guards had managed to follow her.

Peeking over the edge, she examined the street she had just left. The old man was still scrambling to pick up his wares, but consistently dropped them back into the path of the guards. Kim was waving his hands furiously as he yelled at the merchant, trying to avoid the canisters of oil as they rolled around his feet, and was futilely trying to push against the cart with his hip. She wasn't sure how, but it must have become stuck in the cobblestones because even Kim's strength was proving useless and the cart wasn't very heavy when she moved it.

Kim glanced up, pausing in his efforts to move the cart, and his eyes locked on her position. With a slight eep! she dropped back behind the wall, but within seconds her curiosity won out and she looked back over the edge. Behind Kim, the rest of his guards had finally made their way down from the roof and were surrounding Kim on all sides, trying to help move the cart. It still wasn't budging, and when Kim pointed her position out to them, clearly having recognized her moments before, she felt confident that the cart would hold for long enough for her to truly escape. She popped up from behind the wall, fully revealing herself with a sassy hip cock and all of the guards let out a chorus of furious cries. She knew she was firmly out of their grasp now, so she let herself gloat for a moment, waving the two huge loaves of bread she had stolen in the air.

"Nice try, Le Chien! See you next week, buddy, and I hope you don't have better luck next time!"

"You stupid, good-for-nothing street urchin!"

She let out a snort of laughter and gave him a slightly mocking salute with one of the loaves of bread. "Don't say such things to me, Kim, or I'll think you like me!"

The rest of his team, who was irrelevant enough that she didn't know their names, let out more furious shouts and called her a plethora of inappropriate names, but she just laughed again. Pausing, she froze and locked eyes with the merchant, picking up the last of his jars and gave him what she hoped was a subtle nod of appreciation. She would have liked to watch for a few moments more, but as she glanced at the lowering sun, she realized she was running late to her very important commitment. So, tucking the loaves of bread into a handsome pouch across her soldiers- one she had made, thank you very much, not stolen- she took back off across the roofs of Agrabah.

~o0o~

The thief took a few bounding steps before launching herself off the edge of the roof with a partial summersault, the sun catching her hair and her satchel as they twisted behind her. As she plunged towards the ground her hand shot out and she easily grabbed a multicolored banner strung up between the two buildings. Just as she had expected, one end of the banner ripped from where it had been tied and she let out a pleased whoop! as she held tightly to it and swung across the amber-toned skies towards her destination. The adrenaline rush of escaping from the guards still hadn't worn off, and for a moment she felt slightly guilty for her exuberant attitude. After all, she didn't steal because she enjoyed it (even though she obviously had some kind of dangerous addiction to being in medium-speed rooftop chases) or because she was genuinely a good-for-nothing. She had real reasons to steal. Although, especially lately, she wondered if she enjoyed the amoral path she was on a little bit too much, and a nagging voice that sounded a little bit like her parents used to would ask her if she was sure she was doing the right thing.

She just ignored those voices to the best of her ability. She knew she was doing the right thing, and as she finally reached the end of her swing and touched down on the ground in the small-plaza-like area, she saw the real reason- the reason why she knew she wasn't completely morally bankrupt yet.

"Marinette!"

"Mari is back!"

"Mawinette!"

She grinned as the swarm of children surrounded her, their dirt-streaked faces looking at her in utter adoration. A little girl, one with the biggest doll eyes she had ever seen tackled her in a hug before scrambling up her like a rat climbing a drainage pipe to sit on her shoulders. Holding onto her hair as if they were handles, the little girl kicked her legs and giggled with glee.

"Marinette, Marinette, Marinette! Did you bring me a toy?" Marinette laughed and lifted the girl off her shoulders and back onto the ground.

"Did I bring you a toy? I don't know, Manon. Did you ask me to bring you a toy?"

Manon crossed her arms and frowned, blocking the other children who were trying to push closer to Marinette for their own reasons. Sticking out her lip, Manon fixed Marinette with the biggest and sweetest pout she could muster and Marinette instantly felt her fortitude crumble. With a grin, she pulled out the small doll she had spent nearly the entire night making from scraps she had collected from various clotheslines throughout the city.

"This is you, Manon! Whenever you're sad, she will always be there for you."

Manon grabbed the doll from her hand and hugged it so hard that Marinette was momentarily concerned the doll would suffocate before remembering that it was only a doll. Grinning up at her, Manon tucked the doll under her arm before tackling Marinette in another hug. Seconds later, the dam broke, and the other dozen children completely swarmed over Marinette and she fell to the ground in a pile of hugs and calls of "Mari! What did you bring me this time?"

Good thing Marinette had collected or made something special for every child in the orphanage.

Minutes later, the children were sitting calmly around her feet as she sat perched on the edge of a long-dry fountain in the tiny plaza the orphanage owned. They were quiet now, and were fixated on their new toys- dolls, broken pieces of once-sparkly jewelry, wooden animals she had attempted to carve (and looked more like blobs) and other things. Each had been given a sizable chunk of bread from the loaves she had stolen, and had just as quickly devoured them. If she had more, Marinette would have given it to them in a heartbeat, but as she glanced down at the quarter-loaf she was left with her stomach sank. And growled slightly.

"Girl, when was the last time you ate?"

Marinette rolled her eyes and let herself fall backwards so she was instead laying across the fountain. "I ate before I came over here, Alya. You don't have to sound so concerned all the time."

Alya just raised an eyebrow and cocked her hip to the side. "Mhm. Sure you did. And we both know that if I didn't worry about you, no one would." Marinette just shrugged. Alya's blunt words weren't untrue, and they hardly stung at this point. Alya gestured for Marinette to sit up, and so Marinette did. Reclining to their usual position, Alya sat down on the part of the fountain where Marinette's head had just been, and the bluenette laid her head in her red-headed best friend's lap. Combing her fingers delicately through the knotted dark tresses Alya gave another small hum.

"What now, Alya?"

"I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to say anything," Marinette practically groaned and Alya gave a snort of laughter.

"I just worry about you, Mari. It's not safe to be running around on these streets and you're always stealing things and almost getting caught by the guards. Do you know what they do to thieves if you get caught?"

"They-" Alya didn't let her finish.

"They cut off their hands! What would we do if your hands got cut off?"

"What would you do if I didn't steal enough bread for us to survive?" As if to prove her point, Alya's stomach gave a small rumble and Marinette ripped off three quarters of the remaining piece of bread and passed it to Alya.

Alya just sighed and nibbled on the bread. "I just don't want you to get hurt. I wish things weren't like this for us."

Marinette stared at the chunk of bread in her hand for a moment. She started to lift it to her lips, but then caught the eye of a little boy staring at her with visible desperation. "Do you want it?" He shook his head furiously, but his eyes remained fixated on the piece of bread. "It's okay, I'm not hungry. If you don't want it, then I guess I'll just give it to the birds."

The little boy nearly fell over as he rushed towards her and grabbed the piece of bread, shoving it into his mouth as if it would disappear if he waited too long. He swallowed thickly before pressing a small kiss to Marinette's forehead. "Tank you, Mawinette." Marinette smiled as he ran off, before glancing up to Alya who had stopped untangling her hair.

"I know, Alya, I know. I wish things were different too. All I can do is make sure we survive right now and hope to keep outmaneuvering Kim Le Chien. But if it makes you feel better, I'll look for a more honorable way to find bread tomorrow. Maybe I'll find a wealthy husband." She gave Alya a very serious look before bursting into giggles. Alya laughed too. "By the way, speaking of Le Chien, you should have seen the way I lost him today in the market!"

Alya snorted. "All right, Marinette, whatever you say. Now tell me about your encounter with Kim. Did you manage to send him falling into the pig sty again?"

Marinette laughed and started to regale Alya with her mischievous encounters and adventures of the day. Internally, she made herself a small promise.

Tomorrow would be a new day. Tomorrow, she would do her best to find a way to provide for the children and take care of the people she cared about without risking her life. Tomorrow, she promised herself, everything would change.

On the other side of Agrabah, far from the giggling girls and playing children, a girl with glinting green eyes stroked the image on the book in front of her. Soon, she promised herself. Soon I will find that which I so desperately seek.

Both promises would be fulfilled very, very soon, but only time would tell if that would be a good thing.

~o0o~

"For the record, it would be."

"PLAGG!"

~o0o~

Next time on "Beneath Arabian Moons"... three beloved female characters (arguably) meet, and one dies. Sorry, not sorry? Oh... also out beloved main characters meet. Yay!

I've been feeling exceptionally unmotivated to write, and I hate to feel like I'm bribing y'all but I'm being entirely honest when I swear that receiving reviews- especially those that don't just say "update please" brings so much inspiration and fuels my desire to write. All criticism is appreciated so share your thoughts :)

XOXO Fred