Re: deeper in a g r a b a h. [ mintie && chris_tina ]
Lounging atop the canvas of a merchant stall in the heat of the afternoon wasnt the best of ideas. But it was one of the best places to lift the freshest of the fruits out from under the merchant's noses if one were quick enough. With Apu's distraction, the girl... one of the street rats that infected the city streets, managed to lift a pair of plump juicy apples. Her teeth had just sunk into one of those apples as her partner in crime joined her on the canvas, the same moment her eyes had fallen upon the loveliest young woman she had ever seen.
Aladdin, as she was known on the streets had learned at a young age that a girl in her position was in much more dire straights than a boy. As such she had taken precautions to hiding herself... A simple cloth bound her chest, crushing her breasts tight against her body. The gentle curve of which could only be seen on closer inspection beneath her vest, the bandage flamed rumors of wounds gained at the hands of Razoul and his cohorts. Her black hair had been shorn short, barely framing a face that saw more dirt on it than the streets themselves. She'd been living as a boy for so long that she'd forgotten those simple social norms like not getting entranced by another young woman.
It was even sweet the way she gave the starving children she often looked after an apple. A beauty with a heart...
The girl's reverie, imagining the two of them alone at an oasis far from Agrabah was shattered however, the moment the angry merchant had siezed the young woman's hand. It had suddenly become clear that the beauty had no money, and Al was down from the top of the stall in a heartbeat.
"A liar and a thief!" The merchant drew his blade as he pushed the girl down on the ground, laying her hand on a cutting board still dripping with the residue of fresh cut fruits. "I'll show you what we do with thieves in Agrabah-" The hand holding the blade had begun to descend toward her wrist as Aladdin slipped smoothly in between them.
"Oh thank you sir for finding my sister..." At ease and relaxed, she'd talked her way out of worse jam's before. Her hand already easing the merchant's blade from his fingers to shake his hand. Keeping herself between the merchant and the girl as she handed the blade off behind her to the lovely young woman.
"Your sister... was stealing my apples. She said she knew the Sultan...!" Still enraged, though the heat of the moment was beginning to difuse. The young man in front of him handed him one of the shiny red aples, producing it from his vest somehow.
"I'm sure there was no harm in all of that..." Al leaned in closer to mutter. "My sister's a bit touched... She thinks the monkey is the Sultan..." She motioned toward Apu near the edge of the crowd that had begun to gather at the spectacle.