A/N: Hi! Sorry, lots of Halloween preparations and mounds of homework.

Right now, I'm listening to Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" as I write, so that might have some kind of influence. Angsty songs…eh. Yeah. Also, really drastically different songs FROM Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Anyways, everybody knows that long author's notes are just used to take up space and help the writer cheat by making the chapter look long ;). Well, without further ado…

Disclaimer: Aladdin would kill me (and himself) if I owned him, I swear. Haillie would kill me too, if I didn't give her credit for her /excellent/ plot bunnies, so here it is, Fluffy-credit where it's rightfully due  And thank you, Jafarcrazy, for your wonderfully long reviews.

Chapter 27

Finally Forever

(Laddie)

I was in a bubble.

I don't mean like a bath type of bubble. That would be neat, and rather odd, but I wasn't in a bath bubble.

It was more an invisible bubble that kept me out of all the turmoil that was going on all around me, since the Sultana's mysterious disappearance. It might have had a tad to do with the fact of my extremely non-royal origins, but I failed to be worked up to the point of hysteria over the whole thing.

The sound of my bare feet clunking on the cold tile of the hallway leading to me and Jasmine's quarters echoed disturbingly into the odd silence. My black, mid-day shadow stretched eerily behind me, nearly to the end of the hallway as I kept walking, the cold of the tiles seeping into the soles of my callused feet.

I stopped in front of Jasmine's doorway, suddenly unsure of what I was about to do.

Was it me, or did everyone seem like they couldn't care less about the Sultana's kidnapping, and yet felt like they had an obligation to worry until their hair turned gray? Even Jasmine and Sorrah seemed oddly calm about the entire thing.

Was our ruler such a dull person that she had just slipped between our values and vanished sometime during the last few days? I shuddered. When I was Sultan, would that someday happen to me?

The door pulled back, and Jasmine was standing there in her usual clothes. She looked mildly surprised to see me. I smiled slightly at her. "Aladdin?" Her voice sounded worried. "Aren't you supposed to be with Jafar and the press?"

I shuddered. "Not for long." She chuckled, still having that undertone of worry.

That was when I remembered why I was there. Nervously, I fingered the small ringlet of silver in my sash, tucked in securely. I stumbled in through her door. Jasmine had her forehead wrinkled now, and sat down on the bed.

Good. She was sitting. I took out the ring to her, got down on one knee, and said, "Jasmine, will you marry me? For real this time?"

…………………….

I knew that I was technically obligated to marry her. But it suddenly occurred to me that I had never actually told Jasmine that I /wanted/ to marry her. It just, well, never happened. And I wanted her so badly to know that I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life, that I wanted her to be with me forever and a day.

I lay back on my bed, feeling extremely proud of myself. Genie floated by, looking extremely smug, with his eyebrows raised cockily and blowing out of a pipe that he had probably stolen from Jafar. The smoke formed shapes…the normal ones that Genie always made. Rubber ducky, genie with a lot of muscles, monkey…HAILLIE?

I choked, and watched as the smoke formed a pink genie.

Genie started and the pipe flew into the air. It flew through the amazingly realistic smoke Haillie, and it disappeared.

"Oh, no. You wouldn't," I muttered at Genie. Genie was bright red. "Al, listen to me." I shook my head and grinned, making kissing noises with my hands. Genie huffed and vanished to who-knows-where.

………………………..

A few hours later, Genie was back.

"Look, Al. I don't like Jafarty, or whatever his name is, no matter what you and Jasmine might say. I need to save Haillie from him, alright? Even if Jala is human now, for who knows what reason, I need to save Haillie. Because…because, er, she's my girl."

I smirked at him. "Well, it's not like she KNOWS she's my girl," Genie added defensively. This was so unlike him that I wanted to laugh. But I didn't. The statistics were that Genie had magical powers and I didn't.

"You look like you could use some lady help yourself," said Genie, vying to change the subject. I blushed eight shades of red and 10 shades of pink.

"None of your business," I shot back.

Genie's answer was only a chuckle.

A/N: I know, such a slow update and it was basically a filler.  Life has been difficult.