CHAPTER FOUR:
A FAMILIAR PLACE
THE TOWN OF Agrabah seemed to calm down just a bit more when Aladdin, Jasmin and Y/n had been able to slip away without being seen by the guards. The sun was still high up, but it was slowly going down every second that passed. With Abu on his shoulder, Aladdin led Y/n and Jasmin down an alley, hopping onto some barrels before he stepped onto a rope, holding the top tightly.
Jasmin and Y/n watched as the rope lowered when he stepped onto it, wooden pillars appearing from the side of the brick wall, revealing it to be almost like a set of stairs. Abu hops onto one of the barrels before climbing his way up, knowing the three humans would follow him in a second. Placing his foot onto the sandy ground, Aladdin's eyes casted over to Y/n, who was staring at the makeshift stairs with a look of familiarity in her e/c eyes.
She's seen this before. She remembers this perfectly. Glancing to the boy in the small red hat, she saw he was already looking at her with squinted eyes, almost as if he was trying to see through her. Looking away and grabbing Jasmin's hand, the girl began climbing up the stairs, pulling Jasmin with her with Aladdin trailing behind them. He let Y/n open the door before leading them to the tower-like building he and Abu lived in.
He took notice that it almost seemed like Y/n knew exactly where to go since she had also kind of led the way as well. Pulling a lever, he glances to the two and watches as they watch the large fabric piece he had hung above that was on the floor before it rose up when he pulled the lever.
Both Jasmin and Y/n stepped forward, glancing around while the prince jogged outside and onto the balcony, staring down at Agrabah below him and all the civilians he wished he could see if his father would let him outside the castle.
Meanwhile, Y/n stayed inside, glancing at the place that used to be... her home. To her, it was as clear as day where she was and who this boy was. After years of the queen helping her look for her older brother and always failing to find him so as she grew older, she lived in the castle where she could be living as a street rat with her brother and run away from the palace guards and steal things for food and just something that caught her interest.
Jasmin spins around, walking back inside. "I can't believe we did that. That I did that. That we're alive! With the chase. Jumping buildings. That was incredible."
"Tea?" Aladdin asks, glancing between both of them.
Jasmin nods. "Thank you. And thank you for getting us out of there. Aladdin, isn't it?"
"Uh, you're welcome..." Aladdin begins, trailing off as he waited for them to say their names.
"I'm... I'm Jack." Jasmin lies, gulping. "Yeah, Jack... that's my name."
"And I'm... Dalia." Y/n adds through a lie, remembering her and Jasmin's best friend back at the palace.
"Dalia. And Jake." Aladdin repeats in confirmation, looking right at her. "From the palace."
Y/n eyes widen. "How could you tell?"
"Well, only someone from the palace could afford a bracelet like that. And that silk lining is imported, too. It comes from the merchant boats, straight to the palace. But not to servants. At least, not most servants, which means you two are handmaids to the prince." Aladdin rambles, making the two share a look.
"Impressive." Jasmin comments.
Aladdin shrugs. "You think that's impressive, you should see the city from up there."
Seeing the slight balcony above, Jasmin brings Y/n with him as they climb the stairs and look at Agrabah below them, the palace just being seen ahead, Jasmin's father and the only people they've seen most likely inside. Luckily, Dalia, the handmaid for Jasmin, was able to try and figure out a way to make sure the Sultan wouldn't find out they had left and went into town for a little bit.
"Agrabah. It's so beautiful." Jasmin breathes out. "I should get out more."
"You should tell the prince to get out more. The people haven't seen him in years." Aladdin calls as he pours some tea.
Jasmin frowns, feeling Y/n squeeze his hand. "They won't let him. Ever since my-- The queen was killed, the sultan's been afraid. So he's kept locked away."
"Seems everyone's been afraid since then." Aladdin points out. "But the people of Agrabah had nothing to do with that. The people loved her."
"They did, didn't they?" Jasmin agrees with a smile.
Just then, a loud crash filled the boys ears, making their heads snap over to the sound of Y/n frantically picking up a guitar that had been leaning against the wall. Jasmin couldn't help but chuckle at her clumsiness.
Aladdin also tried to hold in his laugh as he glanced at her, watching as she held the guitar near her chest, looking down at it. The sound had caused Abu to sit straight up from his nap that he had started taking ever since they had gotten back and away from the palace guards.
"Is this yours?" Y/n questions.
"It's kind of borrowed." Aladdin replies, giving her a knowing look.
Humming in reply, she places her foot on a box as she holds the guitar, strumming her fingers to the music, causing Aladdin to perk up at the sound. Jasmin had turned his back to them to look back at his home, wishing he could see more and more of it. Slowly, hearing the all too familiar song his mother use to play to him and his sister, Aladdin's brown eyes look back over to the e/c eyed girl.
"My mother taught me that song." Aladdin tells her.
Y/n frowns, looking down at the guitar. "Mine too."
"It's all I remember of her." Aladdin admits, thinking of her and his sister.
"And what about your father?" Y/n asks as she places the guitar down, wanting to know if her suspicions were correct and this wasn't some random person with the same name as her brother.
"I lost them both when I was young. And then I... lost my sister a few years after. Been on my own ever since." Aladdin informs, walking to her. "It's alright, it's just... It's a little sad. Having a monkey as the only parental authority in your life. We get by. Every day I just think things will be different... but it never seems to change. It's just sometimes, I feel like I'm--"
"Trapped." Y/n interrupts, nodding. "Like you can't escape what you were born into?" Aladdin nods in response, looking right at her. "I was really young when I lost both my parents, too. And then I was still young when my older brother and I... got separated. We were in a market, running away from some people and I got stuck in a crowd. I've been trying to look for him for years, but I... I haven't found him."
Just then, Abu came crawling over, jumping up and getting onto her shoulder, making her jump a bit. Noticing something fall onto the floor and out of her pocket, Aladdin kneels down just as she does the same as they both go to pick it up. However, Aladdin had gotten it first and he froze at the sight of his younger self on the ripped up picture.
His brown eyes look up at the e/c eyes already looking at him and a look of realization on his face was quick to replace his frozen one. He had his suspicions but now they were confirmed. Before either one of them could say anything, a loud horn filled the air, followed by Jasmin rushing over, claiming him and Y/n needed to get back to the palace.
Snatching the paper out of Aladdin's hands, Y/n was quick to follow her best friend, both of them leaving the place hand in hand with Aladdin trailing behind him. He had just found her and he needed to say something before she left and he never saw her again. The loud drums continued blaring through the air as a new princess to court the prince of Agrabah.
Y/n and Jasmin remember that the princesses always seemed very desperate to try and win the prince of Agrabah's heart since he had been the most handsome prince they've seen, but his heart always belonged to the girl that his mother ran into when they were at the market and wasn't born a princess.
"It's just another princess coming to court the prince." Aladdin calls to the two just as they catch sight of the said princess in her carriage.
Jasmin nods. "Yes, and we have to get him ready."
"Oh! Do you have my bracelet?" Y/n quickly questions before they could leave.
Nodding in reply, Aladdin reaches near his pockets in hopes in search of her bracelet. However, he tenses when he didn't feel it in his pockets at all, only feeling the, now, two pieces of paper, one of them he had gotten from her pocket.
"I'm sure I put it in here. Somewhere." Aladdin assures, looking to his monkey friend that hopped off his shoulder. "Abu, did you take it?"
"My brother got that bracelet for me." Y/n blurts out with a frown, the tone in her voice being serious as to show that the bracelet meant a lot to her.
"Yes. It's beautiful." Aladdin compliments. He knew that bracelet like the back of his hand.
Jasmin narrows his eyes on the street rat. "You are a thief."
As he stammers out a response, both turned around and quickly pushed by the crowd in the direction of the palace. Aladdin tried to follow her... his sister, but she had been too deep into the crowd for him to get to her. Just like the last time he had seen her.
Noticing a guard riding his horse and stopping near a little girl, who screamed as the horse rose it's front hooves, the street rat was quick to push the girl back near the crowd as he stood in front of her, the street rat and the guard glaring at one another.
"Street rat, get out of the way!" The guard demands.
Aladdin narrows his eyes on him. "Who do you think you're calling a street rat?"
"Are you talking back to me? You were born worthless and you will die worthless. And only your fleas will mourn you." The guard sneers, making him frown before he rides off.
Feeling Abu hop onto his shoulder, the boy goes through the crowd and makes his way back to his home. It didn't take too long for him to get home as he soon climbed up the stairs, looking at all the treasures he'd stolen over the years and some his sister had stolen as well before they were separated.
"Riffraff, street rat.
I don't buy that.
If only they'd look closer,
Would they see a poor boy?
No, siree."
Slowly making his way to the stairs, holding onto the rail as he glanced around his home with a frown on his face, Aladdin bends his knees as he seats himself down on the steps, resting his elbows on his knees. Looking out at the broken wall beside him like a window, his brown eyes stare at the palace ahead, knowing his little sister was in there.
"They'd find out
There's so much more to me."
Just then, the sound of Abu squeaking caught his attention, making him look over to see his monkey friend hanging from something as he held an all too familiar bracelet in his small furry paws.
Aladdin sighs, taking the bracelet. "Abu. There's a time that we do steal, and a time we don't. This was definitely a don't."
With a frown, the monkey climbs up just as Aladdin stares at the bracelet in his hand. A small smile comes onto his face as an idea comes to his mind.
Remembering the two pieces of a ripped picture in his pocket, he stood up, walking to the table and placing the bracelet down before digging into his pocket, grabbing his own ripped piece of the picture and the one he had stolen from Y/n's pocket when he followed her and Jasmin in the direction of the palace once a new princess came to try and marry the prince of Agrabah.
"Abu, I need tape!" Aladdin calls.
Hopping onto the table, Abu holds out some tape for him, to which the dark haired boy takes a piece and begins putting the pieces of the picture together. After putting them together, his smile that he had brightened on his face as he held up the piece of paper. On one side, the one that he kept with him, was a picture of his little sister when she was younger.
And on the other side, the one Y/n had, was of himself when he was younger. Their arms had been around one another in the picture but it had been cut off when it was ripped. However, it was put back together when Aladdin put the tape, almost as if the siblings were finding each other.
Aladdin shakes his head with a smile, remembering when she lied to him about who she was. "That little liar."