4"Aladdin, you don't seem to understand. Being with someone like Judar gives you a bad reputation." Solomon tried to point out gently but the teenager would have none of it.
"No you don't understand Dad. I don't care about what people say about me, you should know that by now but being with Judar makes me happy. You don't see him like I do, you don't see the kind person he hides under his bad boy act, no all you want to see is a someone who pushes grannies around for shits and giggles."
"Aladdin, watch your language!" Solomon barked. "Seriously where did my sweet girl go? She would never act like this and I must say I dislike what you've become." Solomon huffed in anger.
Aladdin was taken aback. "Excuse me?!"
"Ever since getting involved with Judar, your are barely home, your grades have slipped and all you do is hang around with him and when you do come home you smell like cigarettes and alcohol and sweat." He paused. "You don't hang around Alibaba and Morgiana anymore and quite frankly I'm getting sick and tired of getting phone calls from them asking to for you to hang out and me having to tell them you're busy."
"That was one time and that was only because Judar's brother was hosting a party, someone spilled their beer on me and people were smoking and as for my grades, they dropped because I sat in the hospital for 4 goddamn weeks watching Mom slowly slip away. Jesus, Dad ever since you came back you've been a pain in the ass. You're the one that's never home and you work such long hours now that I don't even bother coming home most days because I know all that waits for me is a empty house." Aladdin's voice wobbled at the end, still not use to being all alone in a normally loving home.
"Don't you dare bring your mother into this." Solomon growled between pressed lips.
Aladdin crossed their arms in defiance. "Why not? I bet she'd be appalled by your actions." And mine.
He sighed. "Aladdin, ever since your mother." He swallowed. "Ever since your mother died, you've been….. Despondent and that is when I noticed you hanging around with that….. With Judar. I want you to stop hanging around him and get your act together, I don't want your life to change just because of that boy." Closing his blue eyes, Solomon pinched the bridge of his nose.
Looking away from their Dad, Aladdin uttered something they regretted the moment it left their mouth. "It's your fault Mom died."
Solomon's eyes slapped open and Aladdin's hands flew to their mouth, tears began forming in their clear blue orbs. "I'm. I'm sorry Dad. I didn't mean it. It- it just flew out and." They paused rubbing at the water running down their face. "I'm sorry." they whispered, broken.
It took an enormous amount of willpower not to yell at his child, instead with a great amount of authority and without meeting their eyes, he told Aladdin to go to their room and stay there until he came and got them. They complied, running out of the room and up the stairs.
In turn Solomon turned on his heels and walked to his office. He plopped down on his plush chair and leaned back. Letting the tears fall when he covered his eyes with his arm. Torrents ran down his face and neck and seeped into his dress shirt. He knew there was nothing he could have done to save his wife, Sheba. Afterall, Sheba hid her symptoms from them for as long as she could. Solomon only found out after she collapsed. One day when he wasn't home, the day the two of them had a major fight and he stormed off angrily, not returning for weeks afterwards. He regretted leaving that day, leaving Aladdin too come home and find their mother unconscious and bleeding on the kitchen floor. He regretted not being there for his wife and child when they needed him but most of all, he regretted not being there when his wife took her last breath.
When he came back -a bouquet of roses and a bunch of chocolate- he wasn't expecting an empty house or a bunch of phone calls from Ugo, Aladdin, Arba and the hospital even his father, David tried to get ahold of him. He wasn't expecting Aladdin to be staying with Ugo, the former refused to even look at him let alone talk, a rift had grown and now months later, was still apparent, but the one thing he never ever ever anticipated was his wife, his world, to be dead.
Sitting up in the chair, Solomon opened up the bottom drawer of his desk and grabbed the two six of Jack Daniels and a glass.
Aladdin sat curled up in front of their door. They felt like crap.
Their phone sat buzzing on the bedside table. Probably Judar seeing as they were suppose to go for dinner and then a movie. Aladdin was braiding their hair when their Dad called them, when they got down the stairs and into the living room, he asked them where they were going and when they responded with going out with Judar, things escalated and now Aladdin wishes they made something up rather than tell the truth.
So wrapped in their brooding they didn't hear the little plinks coming from the window. A loud bang echoed and their head shot up in fright. Getting too their feet, Aladdin marched to the window. Throwing it open they ducked as something came flying at their face. Behind them sat a rock.
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your golden hair." Confused Aladdin looked outside. Directly across from their window stood Judar. Ducking down Aladdin bit their lip as tears threatened to surface once again.
Rapunzel?" Came Judars worried voice.
Sniffling Aladdin popped up, elbow on the windowsill. "My hair is blue and my name isn't Rapunzel." They deadpanned.
Judar scoffed and crossed his arms with a pout. "I was trying to be romantic, Chibi"
Aladdin shot him a look thus ensuing a staring match. "Fine." They could barely see the smile Judal had on. "Oh Chibi, Chibi let down your blue hair."
Laughter bubbled up in their throat. "Try again."
"Really?! Fuck fine. Aladdin, Aladdin let down your blue hair."
"There ya go but how about a bed sheet chain instead? You using my hair as a rope sounds painful."
"Whatever just get to it."
Chuckling quietly to themself, Aladdin went to grab the chain. Their parents didn't know but Aladdin and Judar have been together for over a year and he would sneak in quite often. Finding their prize, Aladdin threw one end out the window and tied the other end to the heaviest thing they owned. Reinforcing the tied end they felt the pull of Judars ascent. Getting to the frame, Judar fell more than climbed through.
Once he caught his breath Judar smiled. "Yo Chibi."
"Hey Jugemu."
"Ready to go?" He asked them.
They didn't answer. "Chibi?"
"I can't tonight."
"Common we had the whole night planned. Your old man givin' you a hard time?"
"Something like that." Judar narrowed his ruby eyes.
"Chibi, have you been crying?" Now that he had a proper look at Aladdin, he noticed the red tinged, puffy blue eyes.
"Uh yea." they responded knowing they couldn't hide it. "Dad and I got into a fight." They laughed a little but it was hollow sounding even to their own ears.
Judar stood up. "Fuck him then. Let's go." He extended a hand to help them too their feet but they didn't take it.
"I'm sorry Judar, I know we had plans but I really can't go with you tonight."
"Chibi." He whined in annoyance.
"Please don't make me repeat myself, Judar."
Judar groaned. "Fine, I'll go but at least tell me what happened."
Aladdin looked up, blue met red and they looked down again, fingers playing with a loose string on their jeans. "Okay."
'Good' though Judar as he plopped himself back on the floor sitting cross-legged.
"Dad thinks being with you is bad for me and he brought up my grades, Alibaba and Mor and that I'm never home anymore. He thinks you're a bad person and I said something I really shouldn't have said, alot of things actually."
His hand was holding up his chin now. "What does he think of me?"
"Pretty much that you are changing me for the worse. Letting me smoke and drink, my grades are slipping because of you and I am pretty sure he thinks that you take advantage of me on a regular basis. Oh lets not forget you knock down grannies for shits and giggles and keep me away from my friends."
Judar started laughing and pulled Aladdin onto his lap. "Oh really now. I can't imagine what he would think if you told him we haven't done anything besides kiss and cuddle. Yet." He added with a smile.
Aladdin reached back and slapped him playfully. "I don't think he would believe that."
He sighed. "Killjoy."
For more than five minutes a relaxed silence settled between the two.
"What did you say to him?"
Aladdin tensed in Judar's arms. He looked down and saw the melancholy expression on his lover's face. " What did you tell him it's his fault your Mom died?"
Their expression morphed into one of horror. "Chibi, please tell me you didn't" Judar's head fell onto the thin shoulder in front of him.
A hesitant nod was his answer. "He doesn't understand." Aladdin whispered.
"What was that?" He peaked an eye out.
"He doesn't understand what it was like to watch Mom slowly slip away like she did. He didn't have too watch her go through her final days in pain. He didn't have too see how lonely she was with out him by her side. He didn't have to watch the light leave her eyes and he wasn't there when we needed him the most. He was off galavanting the fucking country side instead. I needed him and he wasn't there!" Aladdins voice grew louder and louder with anger. Pulling up their knees, Aladdin's head fell. "He wasn't there." They cried.
Judar didn't know what to do, he had never seen Aladdin act like this before but he knew the pain of losing someone you loved. So he just sat there, arms winding around his lover's waist.
The only sound in the silence was Aladdin's soft cries. "I miss her so much."
"I know."
"And he wasn't there."
"I know."
"She wanted him."
Judar closed his eyes, face resting against their back. "I know."
"It feels like something was ripped out of your chest and you feel cold, don't you. Chibi?"
"Uh-huh. Does it get better?"
"Over time."
Aladdin's cries turned into sniffles. Turning around in their boyfriends lap, Aladdin laid their head on Judars chest. Fingers drawing patterns on the tight fabric. Judar, for his part, scooched back so that he was leaning against the wall a pale hand coming up and petting her hair.
Later when Solomon walked into Aladdin's bedroom that was how he found the two. Aladdin cuddled in Judars arms looking utterly peaceful in their sleep. Judar, asleep as well, had an arm wound loosely around Aladdin's side, hand tangled in the blue braid and his head laid on their shoulder.
A/N: I am so freakin' scared to post this. I just want to say that I am sorry if I offended anyone with my attempt at portraying a gender neutral character, please tell me what you think! Tokyo10 is outta here