Chapter Text
Once upon a time, an ordinary human woman, a servant of a rich family, found a genie lamp. When she received its three wishes, there was nothing she could think of that she wanted, as she was not an ambitious woman. Though the yoke of her low status was harsh and oppressive, she could not fathom anything else. Cautious by nature, the woman chose not to make her wishes right away.
The genie, free to spend time outside his lamp for the first time in over a millennia, stayed by her side. Over time, the two of them fell in love and had two children – one boy and one girl. At her beloved’s urging, the woman used up the first of her wishes to make sure all her pregnancies would be carried to term safely and the children would be born healthy.
When the son was born, he inherited his mother’s looks and his father’s chains. Desperate, the genie urged his beloved to use her second wish to make sure their son would be free and safe from those seeking to use his power to make their desires come true. For a time, the three lived together happily.
And then their happiness was shattered.
The genie was discovered and his lamp stolen from the woman, who was dismissed from her job and thrown onto the streets. In despair and heavily pregnant, she gave birth to a daughter alone, with only her small son for help. The girl also inherited her father’s chains, but rather than do what her beloved surely would’ve wanted and free her, the woman used the last of her wishes for something selfish. She chose to join her husband in his imprisonment for the rest of time, abandoning her children to their fates.
The boy was young, but his sister was younger still and had no one but him to depend on. So he grew up fast, for he had to take care of her, becoming her father and her brother both. The streets were a dangerous place, especially for those with wish-making magic running in their veins. Fortunately, the boy was smart by nature and his surroundings nurtured him into someone colder and more ruthless, so he managed.
His sister however was more reckless than him, chafing under his constant control, unaware of the true danger her half-human nature posed to her – or perhaps unwilling to believe her brother’s word. One day, she ran off by herself at a friend’s urging to find her place in the world, leaving her brother alone.
Soon after, the grand vizier came across the boy and, realising the wish-making magic he possessed, took him for an apprentice. The boy turned away from his family and chose to take the vizier’s surname as his own.
That was how one Jamil Viper came to reside within the Agrabah Royal Palace.
There was a flurry of red sparks in the air.
‘Damn it!’
Jamil scowled as he looked down at his hands.
There was a flapping of wings and the familiar figure of a bright red parrot landed on his shoulder.
‘What’s wrong, kid? Still can’t get that spell right?’
Jamil sighed and lowered his hands onto the balcony rails.
‘I’ve been trying for over a month now and I still can’t make it work. It keeps collapsing before I manage to visualise it properly.’ He gritted his teeth in frustration. ‘I don’t get what I’m doing wrong.’
Iago shook his head at him.
‘You’re thinking too much like a human again. That doesn’t work for jinn magic, remember?’
‘It’s not like I can stop doing it whenever. I am human, remember?’ Jamil said bitterly, raising up his hands for another try.
‘Not fully though.’ Iago noted.
And wasn’t that the exact problem?
Even though ever since Genie had entered his life, controlling and understanding his magic became a lot more achievable, it still wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. Jamil was mostly human after all and jinn-human relations weren’t exactly all that common, so he was the probably the only one in the entire world who had this problem. Genie had helped a lot with understanding how his magic was supposed to work, but while he was free, he was still a full jinn and couldn’t tell him how to avoid the problems his being human caused to using magic. So this was quite a common sight in the palace, as Jamil often stayed up very late to practice.
Letting out an exasperated groan, Jamil gave up and let his spell collapse for the nth time.
‘This is never going to work.’
He could do big and flashy displays of power quite well and his magic worked fine when he was in a fight – it was controlled, small magic in a calm situation that still gave him trouble.
‘Maybe you should stop trying to listen to that big blue idiot and let your magic do what it wants then,’ Iago scoffed.
He probably hadn’t intended it to be anything but an offhand remark, but those words struck a chord with Jamil and he finally turned his head to look at Iago properly.
‘That’s… a really good idea actually.’
Jamil had always been too wary of what his magic could do to truly let it loose. Not unless his life was in danger. Could that be the solution to his problem? Maybe if he stopped trying to wrest his magic into submission, he would be able to figure out what was stopping him from using it properly. It was certainly worth a try.
Iago blinked in surprise for a second, before puffing up.
‘Of course it’s a good idea.’
Jamil’s gaze landed back on his hands. His grip on the balcony rails turned white-knuckled.
‘The only problem is… I might get out of control again.’
That caused Iago to instantly quieten. The pair exchanged meaningful looks.
They were both all too familiar with the disasters Jamil caused when he let his magic get out of control. Back when he was still Jafar’s apprentice, the man often forced him to test out his powers on unfortunate criminals. The results hadn’t been pretty and Jamil had hated every second of those horrible experimentations, but he never refused. (Iago had hated it too, as the look on the kid’s face was… but he never did anything about it either. What could he have done? He was only a parrot. If he protested too much, Jafar might have just made him the test subject and then where they would have been?)
‘Hi Jamil!’
A bright voice broke through his musings and Jamil started. His fingers loosened their hold on the rails and his tensed shoulders relaxed ever so slightly.
‘Kalim? What are you doing here?’ he exclaimed.
The Prince of Agrabah was right on eye level, which would have been more surprising had he not been on Carpet.
‘You know, you could just walk? Like a normal person?’ Jamil said dryly.
On his shoulder, Iago slapped a wing to his face.
‘Oh great, now the prince is here. They’re going to be insufferable…’ Iago muttered to himself, ignoring Jamil’s glare.
Kalim grinned.
‘Well, I would have, but I was in the garden and your room is just so far away. I wanted to see you now, so Carpet gave me a ride!’ he said.
Carpet waved one of his tassels.
Jamil rolled his eyes at Kalim and waved back.
‘So why did you want to see me anyway?’ he asked.
‘Remember how last week we went to the Crystal Catacombs?’ Kalim asked.
‘And got forced to help clear out those disgusting monster-hybrid things? I don’t think anyone is going to forget that anytime soon.’ Jamil replied with a shudder.
It was an unfortunate side effect of living at the palace these days – he often got sucked in to Aladdin’s adventures. Since it seemed that said adventures wouldn’t be coming to a stop anytime soon, Jamil needed to polish up his magic, fast. Because at the rate they were going, Jasmine’s daredevil fiancé would need all the help he could get just to stay alive long enough to marry her and Jamil didn’t want his honorary big sister to be forced to bury him.
‘I actually went back there.’ Kalim admitted.
‘Do you have a death wish or something?’ Iago squawked.
‘Why?’ Jamil demanded, gaping.
‘I just… realised I forgot something really important there okay?’ Kalim looked away, flushing.
Jamil raised an eyebrow.
‘What exactly could be so important that you went back to the place where we all nearly got eaten?’
Kalim just turned even more red and avoided eye contact. Jamil furrowed his brow in confusion. The parrot on his shoulder stared between the two of them and Carpet and seemed to come to his own conclusion that he of course did not deign to share with the puzzled Jamil.
‘Oh for the love of- just get to the point already!’ Iago snapped impatiently at the strangely flustered prince.
‘Right, well, when I turned back to go return to the palace, Carpet and I got a little lost and found this really neat place! I wanted to invite you to come see it, Jamil!’
Jamil hummed thoughtfully.
‘Is it in an isolated spot?’
Kalim nodded.
Then maybe, just maybe, it could be the right place to let his magic loose a little and not worry about blowing up the most populated area of Agrabah. He’d have to see it first to know if that was a possibility though, so-
‘Take me there right now.’
Garnet eyes lit up with excitement – and what seemed oddly like relief?
‘Sure!’ Kalim looked down. ‘You don’t mind flying us there, do you Carpet?’
In response, Carpet gave a thumbs up with his tassel and flew closer to the balcony to let Jamil on. Iago made a face.
‘You two can go do that, but I’m staying right here, thanks. I have more important things to do with my time.’
Iago flew off back inside Jamil’s room, muttering something to himself that Jamil didn’t quite make out.
Jamil took a deep breath and hesitantly climbed aboard Carpet. No matter how many times he did this, it never got any less nerve-wracking, at least in the first few minutes, before he got used to the sensation again. Thankfully, Carpet was a fantastic flyer and never once dropped anybody, no matter how many death-defying stunts he performed.
‘Let’s go then.’
Kalim put an arm around Jamil’s waist. Jamil startled briefly, but didn’t move away.
‘What’s this for?’ he questioned.
‘To make sure you don’t fall off, of course,’ Kalim said with a smile, moving even closer.
Agonisingly aware of every point of contact between them, Jamil darted his gaze away, hoping like hell he wasn’t visibly blushing. No matter how often Kalim hugged or held him, he never quite managed to get used to it.
‘Right…’ he said.
Kalim was always doing things like this. Things that made it difficult to remember he likely meant nothing by it. Jamil constantly had to remind himself that it was just in the prince’s nature to be friendly, that he was too oblivious to understand how his actions might look like from the outside. That, even if he did, he would certainly not see Jamil that way, for more reasons than one. Considering everything, it was a miracle Kalim even still trusted him at all, let alone wanted to be his friend. Jamil could not afford to let himself read too much into this. Kalim was destined for some beautiful royal princess, a betrothal suitable to his station – one likely made for love as well, given his sister’s unusual engagement. Jamil would definitely be at the wedding as an honoured guest, clapping for the happy couple.
And if thinking like this made Jamil seethe with jealousy and hurt… well. Nobody had to know that. Jamil had plenty of practise in ignoring his own feelings.
‘Come on, Carpet,’ Kalim said.
Together, they flew off, the sky around them swathed in glorious shades of orange and pink as the sun began to set.