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Her name is Jasmine, she says, and when he asks in wonder, "Like the Princess?" she laughs and blushes but doesn't actually answer.
They kiss for the first time that night, watching the sunset, tentative and delicate and warm. When he asks again where she is from, she says that it doesn't matter, because it was in the past. She would rather be here now, she says.
Of course, he asks her to stay.
He lets her have the pillows that night, and the better blanket, and though there's this look on her face like she isn't sure, she thanks him all the same and takes off her shoes and curls up beneath the blanket. He sleeps on the floor, and he doesn't mind because he's done it before, and because by the moonlight from the window he can just see her face, all soft and pretty in sleep.
The next morning she sleeps late, and complains that the floor is hard. He laughs at first, then she gets all offended and he stops, slightly wonderingly and slightly upset himself. After a moment she apologises, and says that she misses her father a little, but refuses to say anything further. He produces a loaf of bread that he has stolen from the market, and splits it three ways so that he, she and Abu can eat breakfast, looking down over the hustle and bustle of the streets below. Softly, she says that it is beautiful. When he replies, "Yes, beyond words," he is looking at her.
They sneak out into the market again, where she is still captivated by the sounds and sights and smells. In return the stallholders are captivated by her, and Aladdin's light fingers find themselves almost struggling to take the opportunities offered to them as the men behind the stalls stare, or blush if she catches their eyes, or offer her free samples of their food, some grapes or an apple or a smell of sweet spices, and Aladdin marvels until he realises that she was not deliverately distracting them. She seems quite shocked when he reveals that evening that he has stolen so much for them, that he has stolen at all, and he finds himself arguing with her.
"I have to steal to survive! There is no choice!" he shouts.
"Then there should be a choice," she replies, so viciously that it shocks him, and then she bursts into tears at the injustice of it all and instead of fighting, he ends up holding her to his chest until the tears pass.
Bitterness creeps into her voice as she says, "I bet they live in luxury at the palace," and compares the life she imagines them to have there with what she has seen on the streets. Aladdin listens and cannot help but agree, and then she reaches into the folds of her tunic and presses into his hand a beautiful blue-green jewel, set in a band.
"Here," she says. "Sell this, then you won't have to steal."
He asks what it is, refuses, says that it is too beautiful for him to sell and then asks what it is all over again.
"It is who I used to be," she replies, and curls his hand around it.
The next morning he goes and sells it to a jewellery salesman on the marketplace, and his jaw drops with the amount that he receives.
Jasmine comes to understand why he steals, and eventually will even dabble in it herself, deft fingers lifting a piece of fruit here, a bread roll there, dried meat from right beneath the merchant's nose. But she always feels a little more guilty about it than Aladdin, and finds it easier to turn a blind eye and do the distracting for him instead. At night they will sit and watch the sun set over the Palace, and she will curl into his arms and sometimes turn her head away, and after a while they take to sleeping curled beside each other, chastely and more for comfort than anything else.
She becomes more used to his touch, reaching for him at times as if she has not felt the touch of another human being in years. To twine their fingers together or lay her head on his shoulder or feel his arms around her seems to leave her in a place of sublime gratitude, and he is grateful as well, so grateful, for what they have found together. And eventually, as their kisses become more heated and his hands come to know the shape of her body beneath her clothes, she whispers, "I am ready," and he knows without asking what she means.
They explore each other that night, uncertain and gentle and giggling at times because that touch tickles or they don't quite know how to lie in order to not get in each others' way. And it's a bit sticky and messy, and a little bit uncomfortable at times, and sometimes they seem to have too many elbows, but it's warm and loving and afterwards they fall asleep curled up in each others' arms, and Jasmine doesn't complain too much in the morning about the mess that they've made on the sheets.
Weeks pass, and they become comfortable. He finds that sometimes she looks wistfully of the Palace, and occasionally cries and talks about her father, but she does not speak of it too much. They become more distant in time, as well, though she will still panic far more than he at the sight of the guards, and it is something that she learns only slowly to overcome.
She is as tender as he when it comes to the children, and eventually as the winter becomes cold and they see again and again an orphan girl on the streets, shivering and in rags, she turns to him and says, "Let her stay with us."
He agrees in a heartbeat, and the girl weeps with joy when they offer her a place to stay for the night, and food, and then ask her if she wants to stay with them for good. She says that her name is Najmah, and that she lost her parents to illness, and that night she sleeps between them in their pillows and blankets, and smiles in her dreams.
As time passes, Aladdin cannot believe that they could be so happy, that he could have done so well, and he says that he wishes his parents could have lived to see this day. Mutedly, Jasmine says the same.
It is she who suggests that they marry. It catches him by surprise, as they have been so comfortable together and Najmah is so happy with them, but the thought of it fills him with such nigh-unbearable joy that he says it is a quite marvellous idea. They have friends among their neighbours who act as witnesses to the contract, which Jasmine has written and read out to him word by word, though he cannot understand a letter she has drawn, and in place of a father or mother to act as Jasmine's family, Najmah does so instead, with a solemn look on her face for all of five seconds before she starts giggling and hugs them both.
He weaves her a bracelet of multicoloured threads and presents it to her as a sign of their marriage. Jasmine kisses him, over and over again, and promises never to remove it from her wrist.
As winter turns to spring, a rumour whispers through Agrabah that the Sultan has been taken ill. When it reaches Jasmine's ears, Aladdin is shocked to see her pale, and run from the street with tears in her eyes.
He finds her sitting at the window, looking out across the city to the Palace once again. "What is it?" he asks, softly, but as he lays one hand on her shoulder she flinches.
"I think..." Jasmine says, "I need to go home."
He doesn't understand at first, until she rises to her feet and takes his hands in hers and looks at him with a darkness and a wisdom in her eyes.
"Long ago, you compared me to the Princess. I... I am so sorry."
"Princess...?" the word comes out a whisper.
Tears roll down her cheeks. "I told you that I would not go back. But now... I must. My father needs me."
He does not know what to say, does not know what words could possibly do for a reply. Stumbling, he turns and runs from her, from this place, out into the streets, to where he can sit and think, and wonder how she could possibly have given up that life for him.
He is not sure that he finds an answer, not sure that he needs one. All that he can be sure of is that he loves her too much to lose her, and he returns just after sunset to find her still seated at the window.
She turns to him fearfully. "I thought you had left," she whispers.
"I would never leave you." He takes her hands, and kisses her on the forehead, and finally she manages a smile for him.
"I need to go back to the Palace," she says, this time with a little more surety in her words. "My father is ill..."
"I understand," he says, and tries to let it be true.
The next morning they pack up what few things they have in the house, and tell Najmah that they are going somewhere special. At first Aladdin thinks that they are going to sneak into the Palace, but to his shock she marches up to the front gates and removes the scarf from her face right before the guards.
"Put down your weapons," she says, with every note of imperiousness in her voice. "In the name of the Princes."
"The Princess is long gone," replies one of the guards, a sneer in his voice.
Aladdin lets his eyes linger on Jasmine's face, now a little more golden and a little sharper than it had been, but her eyes just the same, warm and smart and beautiful. It has been a long time since she rid herself of the blue-green clothes she had once worn, by which point they had been all but rags, and now she wears the clothes of a peasant. He stands at her side, and there is a child in his arms, and the guards laugh in their faces.
"Bring Rajah to me," she says finally. "He will know."
This only makes them laugh harder, but finally one of them gives a nod. "If you want to take your chances with the tiger," he replies, "be my guest."
She looks round to Aladdin with a moment of fear in her eyes, and he reaches across to squeeze her hand. There is a snarling from inside the gates, and then they fly open and a great tiger bursts through, claws spread, eyes wild. Najmah screams and Aladdin shies back, but a smile comes to Jasmine's face and she walks towards the tiger. Two men are attempting to hold it back, and even as Jasmine drops to her knees in front of him, they try to warn her back.
"Rajah," she says softly. "It's me."
She extends one hand towards him, palm up. The tiger pauses, sniffs at her hand, then the snarl disappears. In one bound, he breaks free of the men who are trying to restrain him, and Aladdin's heart jumps into her throat as he pins Jasmine to the floor, only to give her one rough lick on the cheek. Jasmine gives a squeal of laughter and runs her hands through the tiger's soft fur, with her smile softening on her face.
"Hello, old friend," she says, caressing his ears. "Come on, now, let me up." She brushes the sand from her knees as she straightens up again, then turns to the guards with a harder look in her eyes. "Now do you believe me?"
"Your Highness," whispers one of them with a bow, and the other follows suit.
"Rajah," she says, "take me to my father."
She holds out one hand for Aladdin to take, and leads him through the halls of the Palace as the tiger leads the way, bounding ahead and then turning back to nudge at her thighs with something that Aladdin imagines must be the equivalent of a smile. She tells him to hurry, and after a while bursts into a run down the last couple of corridors, bursting into one of the rooms at the end.
"Father!" she cries, and Aladdin hurries after her at the words.
The Sultan sits up with a gasp of surprise as she enters, throwing herself into his arms. "Jasmine," he says softly, and folds her to his chest. "You... you are alive!"
"I'm so sorry, father." She buries her face in his chest. "I'm so sorry that I left." Tears streak her face by the time that she looks up again, still with her arms wrapped tightly around him. "But I'm back. I promise that I'm back."
"What has happened to you?" He strokes her cheek, her hair now rougher than the silk it has once been, plucks at the rough dress that she wears.
"I have found myself," she replies. She looks round, gestures for Aladdin to come closer, Najmah still in his arm. Finally she sits up, and her father looks round to see them both, surprise crossing his features.
"A-and who is this?"
"This is Aladdin. Father, I told you that I would marry for love." Jasmine smiles softly. "And I have."
"Jasmine--"
She shakes her head. "No, father. Rest now, and we will talk when I am well again." Again, the wisdom appears in her eyes, what she has gained from her years of raw life in the real world and the streets, and she bends to kiss him on the forehead. "Things will be different now that I am back."
Finally she reaches out, and Aladdin takes her hand across the distance. Namjah jumps down out of his arms, and runs to Jasmine instead, resting her head in her adoptive mother's lap. With a smile, Jasmine simply strokes her hair, and this time she catches Aladdin's eye as she says, "Things will be different now."