A/N: Just under 1000 views and 20 reviews? I don't deserve you guys. All my thanks.
All aboard the angst train! (woo woo!) Sing it with me now! - It's gonna get worse before it gets better.
Olivia: "I can sense some serious angst approaching. I have never been more, or less, ready for this!" Well, girl, you better strap in. The next two chapters are gonna be rough.
Upon entering the palace, a line of people were waiting for them. Something deflated in Aladdin's chest when he saw the retinue standing on the steps in the Great Hall. It had been too much to hope that Jasmine and him might be able to steal away for a while.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness," Hakim saluted to them. "We were surprised by your early return. Was there an incident at the dedication?"
Before Jasmine could lie for him, Aladdin made his excuses. "It was my fault, Hakim. She was worried about me. I'm not feeling well." From his periphery he could see the face she was making towards him — she thought it was unnecessary to need to explain himself. It didn't matter. The blame for returning rested squarely on his shoulders, and he was willing to carry it. "I don't have the fortitude of our Sultana for public events with so many people."
"Should I fetch the physician, Your Highness?" Maryam asked next to Hakim, a hint of guilt on her face for the remark earlier in the morning.
"Thank you, but no. I'll be fine. I just need to settle my nerves."
"Your Majesty," spoke Nasreen, Jasmine's new handmaiden, stepping forward with a bow. "The Vizier requested an audience with you when you returned. Shall I inform — "
The volume of Jasmine's sigh was loud enough for the entire hall the hear her disapproval. "I'll attend to the Vizier shortly. The prince and I — "
"It's fine." He said out the side of his mouth.
Pleading at him with warm brown eyes, Aladdin refused to be a distraction from something important. Perhaps they had news on whether or not the rumors had been true? Hooking her finger with one of his, Aladdin tugged gently, giving her a look that said she was being ridiculous. Still visibly annoyed at the interruption to their plans, she straightened her posture, lifting her gaze towards her handmaiden.
"Thank you, Nasreen. Inform the Vizier I've returned." She said without a hint of willingness behind her words. The handmaiden disappeared down the side hall, and she added, "I will make arrangements for a private dinner in our suite tonight, and that upon pain of death, unless there is anything less than a state emergency, we are not to be disturbed."
"State emergency, huh?" He grinned. "Is that your way of warning me to stay out of trouble?"
"Well, that would just be a waste of breath, now wouldn't it?"
Pulling her in for a quick kiss on the cheek, he said, "I'll be in the gardens. If you get out early, and I'm not there, I guess you'll just have to come find me." He winked.
Seeing her reluctance to leave him only reminded him of exactly why he needed to be stronger, to avoid making his problems her own. The duty of a Sultana never stopped. It was a responsibility from which she could never take a break or put aside in lieu of other concerns. Agrabah always came first, even above the needs of her husband, even if he was coming apart at the seams.
Though it pained him to do so, he smiled as convincingly as he could, flicking his head in the direction of the administrative wing of the palace. "Go."
Taking a moment to watch her walk away, Aladdin spun around and headed towards the gardens. In one big push he tried force everything down. The feeling was visceral — it felt like a rope wrapped around him, constricting his chest. Distracted by his own anxiety, it took him a minute to realize that Maryam was chasing after him.
"Your Highness, please, wait! I had a message for you as well."
Coming to a dead stop in the middle of the passage, the servant slid past him trying to come to a stop, stumbling a bit on her feet. Instinctively, he reached to steady her, catching her by the shoulders and letting her find her balance.
"Yes?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Your presence has been requested as well. Shiekh Sunil has returned."
At this he wasn't particularly upset. In fact, the news was a relief. Rather than overburden his wife, he would much rather talk this over with his best friend.
"Thank you, Maryam. Tell him to meet me in the royal gardens."
"How 'bout you tell him yourself 'cause he's already here?"
Approaching from behind, Sunil sidled up next to the prince. Hopping from him to Aladdin, Abu chittered excitedly and settled on his shoulder.
"Glad to see you're back safe, Sunil." Aladdin clapped his friend on the shoulder.
Even after all this time, the name still felt strange. Upon becoming mortal, the Genie had reverted back to using his given name — the one he had been known by as a free djinn, long before a powerful sorcerer had enslaved him and trapped him in the lamp. Aladdin understood that it was respectful to use his real name — it gave him identity, helped him feel human. While Aladdin had never had to make the adjustment from phenomenally cosmic being to your average mortal, he assumed that something as simple as being called by your real name went a long way to making the transition easier. Dismissing Maryam, the pair fell into step with each other as they made their way to the gardens in relatively silence.
"One might assume," his companion began as they entered, taking seats on the lounges under the shaded part of the garden just out of the midday sun, "that from that forlorn face of yours, today was a smashing success?"
Leaping from his shoulder to the back of the lounge, Abu raced down the arm, across the tiled wall of the plant bed, and curled up on another lounge to nap in the sun.
Dragging his hands down over his face, dropping onto the edge of the seat, he groaned through his hands, "It was a disaster."
"Please, for the love of Allah," Sunil raised one of his hands towards the heavens and closed his eyes, "tell you me you didn't try to improvise a speech?"
The singe of embarrassment from his first meeting with Jasmine as Prince Ali would forever be an open wound into which the world kept insisting on throwing salt. He was never going to live that moment down.
"No!" He exclaimed, making an X with his arms as if to banish the memory from existence or the idea of repeating it. " I'll leave the public speaking engagements to Jasmine for the rest of forever."
"So, do I wanna know then, or is this gonna be another scrape with near death by second hand embarrassment?"
"Nobody wis more embarrassed than me — trust me on that."
"I'm gonna need to get comfortable for this, aren't I?" Leaning back, stretching out his legs and crossing his feet at the ankles, Sunil propped his arms behind his head. "Alright, lay it on me, kid."
"Honestly, I don't even know what happened… one second, Jasmine and I are talking to the headmaster, and then he mentions there are rumors of plague in the city — "
"Plague?" Sunil leaned forward, eyes wide. "I think you buried the lead here."
Dismissing it out of hand with a wave, he continued, "I don't even know if the rumors are true… but just the possibility of sickness… with Jasmine being there… I just…"
Shooting up from the seat, Aladdin kicked at the leg of a table with the side of his pointed boot. Abu jumped up with an indignant chirp.
"You panicked."
"Yeah." Aladdin heaved out a breath, dropping his shoulders and letting his head fall backwards. "He knew there was a chance, and he didn't even warn us. Next thing I know, my hands are at his throat, accusing hims of endangering the princess, and Jasmine is shouting."
"You were scared. It happens, kid. We all make mistakes when we aren't thinking right."
Falling onto the rim of the fountain, Aladdin ran his fingers through the water absently.
Coming to sit next to him after a long moment of silence, Sunil asked. "Everything okay with the temperature of that water?"
Frustrated at his own inability to even express said frustration, he jerked his hand out of the water, elbows on his knees, hands hanging limply between them.
"It was like I wasn't even in control anymore. All I could think about was the image of my mother covered in black sores, dying in misery while I survived, and I couldn't let that happen to my wife."
Sensing the tension hanging in the air, Abu slinked over to Aladdin, and sat between his parted feet. Aladdin scratched his fingers over the little monkey's head.
"Genie?" Falling back on the comfort of the past, he used the only name he had known back then for being who had managed to show him the depth of his own strength, courage, to believe himself even the slightest bit worthy of deserving something good for just being himself. "I turned down your magic. I set you free, and walked away. As long as she was safe, as long as she was happy, I didn't care about being a street rat and leaving her to live her life. But… she came after me. She chose me, willingly. The only reason I am here now and not on the streets again is because of her and that choice. I don't know if I could make that choice again, not after having her. If Jasmine ever — " The fear polluting his wild imagination restricted his throat, strangling the words. His voice was so small. "What happens to me then?"
"Kid..." Sunil squatted down in front of the last man he would ever call master, and the first master he would ever call friend. "As long as I have breath in this chest," he smacked firmly with his palm for emphasis, "you will never be on your own again.
Looking up at the man in front of him, something inside broke and came crashing down. Every emotion from the miasma inside him came flooding to the surface. The words were meant to be comforting, a promise. But, Aladdin couldn't overlook the reason the Sunil had been gone the last few days — he was making plans and arranging for supplies. The boat Jasmine had commissioned as their wedding gift had been under construction for months. It was a matter of time.
"Oh yeah?" A bitter taste flooded his mouth as he said it. "How are you going to do that from the middle of the ocean?"
Mouth parted in shock, Sunil just stared forward like he'd taken an arrow in the chest and Aladdin had wielded the bow. "Kid, It's not — Look, I promise — "
"I have a headache. I'm going to go lie down."
Pushing past Sunil, he wouldn't look back no matter how many times his friend called his name. Not even at the painful way his voice broke on the word, Kid. Making his way back inside the palace, Aladdin knew it was unfair to treat his best friend like this. He owed the man his life. But, that man, just like everyone else he had ever loved, was leaving. All the good intentions and promises in the cosmos couldn't change the fact that Sunil and Dalia wanted a different life, one that would take them away from Agrabah. He lived in the fear of losing Jasmine, but there was nothing he could do to stop from losing Genie. After a life spent in the forced servitude of others, of people who had stolen his freedom and personhood, how could he deny him his dream? Jasmine had become his dream, and he was willing to do anything to keep her. But, Jasmine he still had — Sunil, Genie, was leaving. Better to push him away now, and get used to the permanent empty feeling it would create inside his heart.
He'd have one less person in the world he could count on, and one more reason to believe that it was impossible for him to hold onto anything good. For as long as he could remember, he'd been on his own with nothing to his name but a loyal monkey accomplice. Becoming part of a family should have meant that now he had somewhere to belong, but really, it only meant now he had everything to lose.
A/N: I have always been upset by the fact the Genie was never given a proper name. From what I know about djinn lore, they were a race of beings created by god from fire in between creating Angels (light) and man (clay). There are various stories about how humans were able to trap them with iron and enslaved them to to do their bidding. So, in my head cannon, Genie was a free djinn who was trapped, who would have had a name and a life before that happened. And, while I know that the name Sunil comes from Sanskrit rather than Arabic, but thanks to Krishna, there are a lot of names that mean blue. I thought that was somewhat appropriate.
Sunil - From Sanskrit सु (su) meaning "good, very" combined with नील (nila) meaning "dark blue". () A name that means good and blue? Tell me that isn't perfect!