Chapter 20: Paperwork

Jafar's resignation and flight turned the palace upside down. Department after department started turning to Jasmine for guidance and soon her desk was more paper than wood.

Jasmine and I did our best to take in all the new information, but it all seemed to be bad news.

"Since when are we on bad terms with Shehrabad and Getzistan?" she asked me one day.

I shook my head. We'd negotiated trade agreements with both countries recently without any problems.

"We're understocked on food," she said to me another time. "I thought the council had allotted the funds to buy supplies weeks ago."

I just looked at her. It was a mess. Somehow Jafar had held it all together, but without him, it was falling apart.

After a week of endless work, Prince Ali showed up with a bouquet of flowers. I realized I hadn't seen him in days. Every day after Jasmine put down her quill for dinner, I just went to my bed and slept.

"Hey," he said smiling at her. "How about a break? There's this festival going on in the-"

"No thanks," Jasmine said, not looking up. She was reading about Agrabah's crime issues.

"But, Jasmine," he said, "We haven't gone out in days and then there's…" He whispered the next part, "the wedding. I want your opinion on the music."

I grimaced. Officially, with the crisis of Jafar leaving, the wedding had been postponed. Jasmine had promised we'd address my issues with the prince later and I believed her. And honestly, we had more pressing problems at the moment. Not that Prince Ali understood that.

At first, he had been furious that Jafar had in his words "escaped". The prince claimed it was the former grand vizier who tried to kill him but that was highly suspect. Prince Ali was hazy on the details behind his kidnapping. He somehow hadn't seen the faces of the ones who had dumped him into the ocean. And the prince had stubbornly said that he had no idea what Jafar might have "found". By the end of his talk with Jasmine and the sultan, even Prince Ali seemed unsure of his accusation.

And of course, he would be. Despite the former grand vizier's flaws, I could scarcely imagine Jafar murdering someone. The idea of it was a bit sickening. After all, Jafar had been the sultan's most trusted advisor for a reason. His resignation had to be a coincidence.

No. If I had to guess who the true culprit was, I'd say that it was the prince's main advisor. He and the prince had always had a strange relationship and the advisor had been missing all week because, according to Prince Ali, he had "gone home".

Because of course, it was perfectly plausible for an advisor to suddenly decide to leave and travel across the desert alone and on foot without any notice.

Regardless of my opinion of the subject, the prince insisted that the sultan and Jasmine find Jafar. They had tried, but it was clear the former grand vizier had left the city. And we didn't have the resources to track him down at the moment because again we had more pressing problems.

With Prince Ali tantruming, the court panicking, and the kingdom falling to pieces, I decided to give Jasmine a suggestion that I was still not happy about. I told Jasmine to let Prince Ali "secretly" plan their wedding.

Jasmine had been surprised by the idea, but I knew, in theory, it was a good one. Jasmine's birthday was in a few months. People were expecting a wedding. The idea of a surprise wedding kept people like the sultan off of Jasmine's back. And it also kept the people of Agrabah happy and distracted while we and the remaining viziers focused on fixing the kingdom. And most importantly to me, having people think that Prince Ali was secretly planning a wedding gave us an out in case, as I was hoping, things didn't work out. No one could complain about a canceled wedding since no one was supposed to know about it. It would just become another false rumor.

My suggestion worked well. The rumor spread around the kingdom and the court had been suitably enamored with the idea of a surprise wedding, but there was a problem. Jasmine had explained the basic plan to Prince Ali and informed him that the wedding was, in reality, being delayed indefinitely. However, he hadn't seemed to hear that second part. Instead, he acted like marrying Jasmine before her birthday was a certainty and brought up the wedding in hushed tones every time I had the misfortune of seeing him.

It was beyond annoying. I still did not like to think about how this fool could be ruling Agrabah with the princess one day. So, of course, I was less than pleased to see the prince today.

Thankfully, Jasmine was not in the mood to see him either. "Not right now Ali," she told him. "Maybe tomorrow."

"You said that last night and the night before," he said approaching her desk. "Come on, Jasmine, take a little break from all this paperwork and have some fun with your betrothed."

I growled softly. Jasmine put a hand on my head to calm me. It didn't work. Every time he said the word betrothed, I found myself wondering why I hadn't let this fool drown.

Jasmine interrupted my thoughts by saying, "I can't. Ali, you know the kingdom is in a crisis. I need to get things under control."

Prince Ali frowned at her. "You've been doing that all week and it's not even your job. The sultan should be working on this."

The sultan? Seriously? Where has this idiot prince been?

"I am the princess of Agrabah. It is my job to support my father, the sultan, in the ruling of this kingdom. I can't frolic around when Agrabah needs me," she replied.

Even the sultan was frolicking less than usual. He was not smart enough to do much, but he was doing what he could. Recently, he had taken over meal planning for the palace. The results were mixed and I did not regret missing out on smelling the dinners they served, but the effort was there.

The prince tried a different tact. "I get that you think this is important and all, but Jasmine, even royalty needs a break sometimes."

"And sometimes, royalty needs to work." She finally put her papers down to give him a pointed look.

I looked at him too. I hadn't heard Prince Ali offer to help with all this work even once.

"Hey," he said, "I've been working." He grinned and whispered, "The wedding is going to be awesome. I just found the best band. They're playing at that festival I mentioned. You should see-"

Jasmine cut him off. "Ali," the princess said in a tired voice, "I already told you I can't go. I am sure the band is great, but like I've been saying you shouldn't get carried away with the wedding planning. The wedding is on hold, remember?"

He just winked at her and said in a louder than usual voice, "Of course the wedding is on hold, Princess Jasmine."

Jasmine's mouth thinned. "This isn't a joke, Ali. Just. Stop."

"Oh, I know it's not a joke." His smile turned cocky and then he winked again.

I tried not to groan.

"Ali, really. I need to work," she said, her voice growing sharp. "I'll see you at dinner."

"But-"

"Leave," she snapped.

Ali ignored the command and stood there dumbly.

I got up. If I had to chase him out, I would.

My movement seemed to wake him up. Prince Ali looked between me and Jasmine as if he really was hoping that we were joking.

Jasmine had gone back to reading the papers in her hands.

I snarled at him.

He actually had the nerve to look hurt before he said, "Fine! Spend all day here. I'm going to go have fun." He slammed the flowers on top of one of the paper stacks and left.

Unbeknownst to him, Jasmine watched him go. When he was gone, she slammed her papers down and swore.

Poor Jasmine. The princess's hair was coming out of her hairbands. Her eyes were bloodshot from a lack of sleep, and she smelled of stress. My princess was a wreck and it was partially my fault. Ali was bringing the exact kind of drama that I had hoped to avoid with my fake secret wedding idea. It figured that the one time he needed to lie, he completely failed at it.

I stood up and I rubbed my head against Jasmine. She patted my head but her expression didn't change as she stared at Ali's abandoned flowers.

"I told him the wedding was going to be postponed because I have too much work," she began. "Anyone can see I have too much work. And yet he wants me to try and relax?" She sighed. "He just doesn't get it. I'm surrounded by people who act like they never held a quill before and I'm just one princess. I don't need a little break. I need more help!"

The princess began to cry.

I nuzzled her harder. My heart broke as I did my best to help and comfort her, but inside I knew it wasn't nearly enough.

Jasmine was overwhelmed and I couldn't blame her. The only time, she had ever been close to this busy was when she first took up her court position over four years ago. And that had been work she excelled at.

Currently, Jasmine was riddled with the type of work she struggled with: foreign relations, petty politics, and a whole sleuth of issues that involved a lot of people-pleasing. Diplomacy was my specialty and I usually helped her with this sort of thing, but it was hard conveying all my thoughts and opinions as a tiger. It took time.

And that was one of the many things we did not have.

A/N: So I feel like I should point out: Dhiren isn't perfect and not all of his ideas are winners.

I mean a fake surprise wedding has drama written all over it, right?

Just something to keep in mind as we keep going.