A/N: HAH! A longer chapter, beat that short attention span!
When Prince Eric arrived at the palace he was instantly amazed at the stylistic architecture of it. He's never seen anything quite so beautiful and exotic; that is until he saw the princess. The Prince came in on a camel, another exotic thing he has never seen in person before, which he used for transportation after he got to shore. When he was coming up to the palace gates he was meet by the talkative town commoners, he instantly noted how much darker they looked than him and realized he must stick out like a sore thumb around here. Once he entered through the palace gates he was met by the big bulky guards. After a quick talk by Grimsby they let them through and that's when he saw her, the princess, right beside the stout Sultan. She was just about the most beautiful thing he's ever seen, besides his imaginary girl.
"Ah, if it isn't the European prince, Welcome your highness. I am the Sultan of Agrabah" The Sultan said gracefully with open arms. Then he looked over and nudged the princess who stood there pouting. "And his is my daughter Princess Jasmine."
Somehow with great elegance she simultaneously rolled her eyes, sighed and bowed in greeting to the prince. "It's is nice to meet you your majesty." She said with the slightest bit of spite.
"The pleasure is all mine." Eric said smoothly, the princess was not amused.
"Um Jasmine, before we discuss trading, Prince Eric must settle in. He comes from a long way you know so he has to stay here for a little while." The Sultan said, Jasmine did not look pleased. "While I show his servants where to put everything why don't you show him around the palace." The Sultan suggested as a matchmaking attempt to get his daughter married. His daughter reluctantly obliged gesturing for the prince to follow her.
She walked at an almost fast pace leading him to the yard, she spoke in a monotonous voice "That is the water fountain, that is the bird cage which is now empty since I let all the birds go and that is Rajah." She pointed to something behind him and smirked.
"What's a Rajah?" he asked as he turned around and got his answer. There was a great orange tiger before him. Eric jumped a little when he saw him but he was more astonished than scared. "Oh my god, is that a tiger!?"
"God?" Jasmine mumbled in confusion.
"Um, he's like your Allah?" He said absentmindedly as he crouched down to Rajah, "I didn't know they were kept as pets." He said as he slowly reached out to touch him and quickly pulled it back when the tiger's sharp claws snapped at him.
"They're not." She said as Rajah came straight to her side, rubbed his head against his master and purred.
Eric, still clutching the hand that he almost lost, "Well then how…?"
"She doesn't take kindly to strangers," right on cue, as soon as she said that Rajah looked dead at Eric and growled.
Eric looked startled at first because of the vicious tiger and the master that seemed to be commanding it, but then he softened and looked at her with understanding eyes.
"Let me guess, I'm the 50th gold-thirsty prince who came to you asking your hand in marriage after the first sight of you, and you feel pressured by everyone telling you that you must get married and you're sick of it." His eyes gazed down as he said that, he started to rub the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry to impose, I think they're done setting up my room we should get back and talk trading."
"Wait," Jasmine said and looked at Rajah, like his master the sassy tiger rolled his eyes and turned away. "Sorry I let Rajah snap at you, I guess you're not like the other 49 stuck up assholes that tried to marry me." Eric smiled at the complement and sat down on the side of the water fountain. "So…" She tried to keep the conversation going, "How many women have come up to and begged you to take their hand?" She said as she sat next to him.
Eric smirked flirtatiously, "51 actually."
"Oh really so I guess you think you're better than me?"
"I guess it does." Jasmine smiled at him but then looked down. "So why do you say no." It almost looked like she was searching for her own answer too.
"Same as you probably, I'm looking for love." He said looking into the sky, as if hoping his love would just fall from it.
"And you haven't yet?"
"Well," He paused thinking he'd sound stupid, "one time I thought I saw a mermaid, who saved me from a storm out at sea. She had such a beautiful voice." He said as if savoring the memory. He shook his head slightly coming back to reality. "But that would have to be some pretty big miracle, huh?"
Jasmine looked confused, "What's a mermaid? Is that another thing that's part of your world?"
Eric mentally thumped his head, of course she wouldn't know what a mermaid is, she lives out here practically in the desert. "Oh, a mermaid is a mythical being that lives in the sea; it has a human body and a fish tail."
Jasmine chuckled, "That sounds silly."
"Heh, yeah I guess it kind of does."
"Well I don't know if I believe in fish people who live in the sea, but I do believe in miracles. I'm sure one day we'll find our prince." Jasmine thought about what she just said before she corrected herself. "I mean… My prince! Your princess."
Eric couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Good one."
"So," Jasmine got up, "you ready to continue your tour?"
"Ready when you are." He got up and walked with her.
"Come on Grimsby! Let's go out and see the town! We're in a distant kingdom full of things unknown; don't you wanna see what their world is like?" Eric pleaded. It was the second day of his visit and they've mostly made the arrangements for the trade, they just needed to seal the deal and write up the peace treaty.
"You speak of it as if we are from multiple worlds, we are in fact in one world and everything is the same. There are hierarchies everywhere, you have the low ruffians and the commoners, who is what you're going to see if you go out there, and then you have the royals who don't get mixed up with the lower kind." Grimsby replied.
" 'Lower kind'? Aren't those the people we look after?"
"In Europe yes, you are more than welcome to make some guest appearances to the public back home but we're not in our territory and we will not intrude on their land."
"But Grimsby, I just wanna see the town no one will even notice."
" 'No one will even notice'? Look at you you're like a swan in a pack of ducks.
"I'll cover up, I'll wear one of those turban thingies."
"Prince Eric, I have been ordered to keep you safe and that's exactly what I'm going to do. I do not entirely trust the common people of this place and I do not want you going out there and that's final." Grimsby stated matter-of-factually. Eric looked defeated and walked away, but as soon as he was out of Grimsby's sight he headed toward the servant's entrance.
Out on the town Eric saw so many wonderful things, there were gypsies, impossibly buff men showing off their bodies, people laying on a bed of needles, coal walking, sword swallowing, people controlling snakes with instruments. It felt like a circus to Eric, he couldn't believe people spent their lives like this; it completely amazed him.
Eric saw so many exotic looking foods he just had to have one. He picked up a funny looking fruit, and tossed the seller some coins and took a bite. "Who do you think you're foolin' boy, this ain't money." The man behind the counter spat.
"It's the currency in Europe, one of those coins equals a little more than two of yours so I actually paid you more for it." Eric replied.
The cashier grabbed Eric's shirt and pulled him up to his face to look intimidating, "Do you take me for a fool!"
"N-no." Eric replied.
"Guards! Thief!" The seller yelled and instantly Eric had three guards running towards him. These guys were big and he felt like reasoning with them would be a lost cause so Eric did what anyone would do, he ran for his life.
"Stop him!" They shouted. Eric kept running, but obviously he didn't know his way around this labyrinth of a place so he could've been running in circle for all he knew. Suddenly he was trapped in a corner. With the guards closing in on him, "What should we do with him?" One of them asked putting his sword up to his chin and slowly down his chest.
Eric was breathing heavily now, "Stop, I'm the European prince!" He tried to use his power to control the guards, something he never usually did. His turban fell off while he was running so it should have been obvious.
One of them took his sword to move the prince's face left and right, "That must explain why he looks so pale."
The one in the middle got even closer, "Sorry but we don't closely affiliate ourselves with the Sultan and we don't take kindly to strangers." He said as he pushed his hand lower and lower down the Princes chest.
The guard was getting dangerously close to his personal area and Prince Eric panicked kicking the middle guy in the groin, who automatically doubled over in pain. He tried to run but he was caught by the other two guards who pinned him on the ground.
Aladdin was playing with a piece of glass he found, making the light from the sun shine on the ground for Abu to chase. He stopped suddenly when he heard "Stop thief!" He frantically looked around for guards about to chase him, even though he hadn't been doing anything at the moment. There were none but he looked for the source of the sound anyway, it was a guard who was chasing down a man in a turban. Aladdin followed behind, finding it interesting that the guards were chasing someone besides him. "Come on Abu," he motioned following the scene from behind on the rooftops.
The man's turban flew off and hit someone in the face, Aladdin could barley see the strange looking man from behind but he knew he didn't belong there because of the direction he was running. It' obvious the man didn't know where he was going because he landed right into a dead end. Aladdin was now on top of the scene and could see the people clearly, the man running was obviously different, but one of the guards looked extremely familiar. Aladdin gasped when he realized that he was the same guard that sexually harassed him yesterday.
They started saying some things but Aladdin couldn't hear, but he did notice how the guards started treating him, just like he was treated. He knew he had to do something but the experience he had the day before was stopping him. He saw the weird man kick the guard in the crotch and try and run away before he was pinned by the other two guards. Aladdin knew he had to move, "Abu get the guard on the left." He said grabbing an empty sac on the ground, "Go!"
Aladdin and Abu jumped on top on the two remaining guards; Abu shoved the guard's hat over his eyes and held on so he couldn't see. Aladdin shoved the bag over the other guards head and tied it so he couldn't get it off easily. This made both guards let go of Eric "You again!" He heard the guard doubling over in pain cry as he grabbed Aladdin's leg, "I'm not through with you!" Aladdin tried to pull away but the grip was too tight. The now freed Eric rose and roundhouse kicked him in the head knocking the guard out.
For a moment Eric looked worried he may have kicked him too hard, but was snapped back when Al said, "Come on," The one of the guards got the bag off his head and the other finally pulled Abu off and threw him onto Aladdin. "Let's go!" The two guys raced out of the dead end and Eric followed Aladdin to safety.
They must have been in some sort of abandoned building, and the Arabian boy hasn't said must except for gestures to follow him. Now the Arabian boy was staring at the white man very intently with his hand on his chin in thought; Eric was getting uncomfortable and finally broke the ice, "Yes, I'm very pale."
"You're the European prince right? The one who's s'posed to try and marry the princess"
"Yep."
Aladdin smiled and relaxed again, satisfied with himself for piecing the puzzle together. "What is it with you royalty sneaking out and getting in trouble."
"What do you mean?"
"Just the other day I saved Princess Jasmine from a greedy seller who couldn't spare an apple." Aladdin said boastfully.
"Isn't she the princess can't she just pay for it?" Eric was intrigued by this rebellious side of the princess.
"She obviously didn't know the value of money; I'm guessing you didn't either."
"Hey I knew the value of money, It's these people who don't know what a coin looks like when they see one." Eric defended.
"You tried to give them European money?" Aladdin asked incredulously, "Hah! These people are morons I could steal half their food and they wouldn't suspect a thing."
"I'll remember that next time I'm out on the town."
"I don't get you people, you have all that you want in there," He moves the rag covering a hole in the wall reveling the castle, Eric is captivated by the beauty for a second. "Why would you wanna come to the dump over here?" Eric turned to face the kid, he saw the look of longing in the kids eyes as he stared at the castle. "Where street rats roam and are forced to steal food before they starve to death..."
"I guess it's different for you, it must be hard living on your own. But it's not exactly easy to be royalty either."
"Yeah I bet it must be hard having people wait on you hand and foot." Aladdin said sarcastically.
"You don't understand," Eric knew he was ranting now, "To have people follow you around everywhere, tell you what to do all the time, when to do it, what to wear, when to wear it, what to eat, when to eat it, what to-"
"I get it, I get it, you have no freedom to do what you want, and you feel trapped, whatever." Aladdin looked up at the castle, "But I would trade places with you any day. I have all the freedom in the world, I can do what I want, say what I want, but it all just feels empty."
Eric looked up the castle reflecting on the lights of the setting sun, "You know, that feeling may not be as hard to understand as you think." He turned his head to the kid, "What's your name?"
"Aladdin." He answered, your, "And yours?"
"Eric."
"Nice to meet you prince Eric of Europe."
"Just Eric is fine."
"Alright Just Eric." Eric couldn't help but smile at the snarky boy.
A/N: Okay so not a lot of people are reading this, probably because it's a rated M crossover fic, not many people read crossovers and M is blocked by 's default setting. So if you are reading this I would really like you're feed back so I can at least get somewhere with an audience.