The sun was hot as always. It seemed to be 35 degrees and it was in the morning. Justin and Trace were already up and walked through the market.
"What do you want to eat today?" Justin looked at Trace.
Trace made some noises and showed Justin the melon a merchant was showing.
"Fresh melons, fresh and juicy!"
"Good choice!" Justin smiled at Trace and jupmed from the top of the market stalls on the one with the melons.
Trace distracted the merchant, while Justin stole a big melon.
Together, they were eating it.
***
Joshua was up again too. He looked all around the palace and it seemed like no one was up. He took a brown unobtrusive garment and hid himself in it. He ran through the palace to the backyard, when one of the servants ran into him.
"I'm sorry my Prince."
"No, ehmm... it's ok." Joshua mumbled and kept going. At the palace walls he looked around. When nobody was there and Joshua was sure that no one would see him, he climbed on a tree next to the wall.
Right before he could make his first step, something held him back. He turned around and saw Autumn dragging at his garment.
Joshua smiled and came down the tree, stroking Autumn's head. "I know you want me to stay, but I can't..." Joshua looked at Autumn's sad eyes as he kept stroking her head. "I'll miss you..." He kissed Autumn's head and climbed on the tree again.
Autumn whimpered, but let Joshua go. Sadly, she laid down next to the tree and watched Joshua disappearing.
Joshua made his way to the market, looking around while he walked down the market, hearing the sellers promoting their products.
Trace finished his part and saw that Justin was distracted. He stole Justin's half of the melon and started eating. When he recognized that Justin didn't pay attention, he jupmed on Justin's head to see what distracted Justin this way.
Justin stared at Joshua as he stopped at a fruit stand. Joshua looked around, making sure no one was watching him, and then he grabbed and apple and was going to keep it in his pocket when the seller grabbed his hand.
Justin looked up, knowing Joshua was in trouble. He jupmed down and ran at both men.
He grabbed the apple Joshua took and rubbed it at his pants.
"That is so prudent that you want to try the qualities of that apple for me. But we already bought some this morning, did you forget that?" Justin patted Joshua's head and gave the apple back to the seller.
The seller was confused, but turned around again, watching for purchaser. Meanwhile, Trace took some apple with him and waited a few meters away for both.
Justin laid an arm around Joshua's shoulder and pulled Josh with him. In a whisper, Justin asked: "You can't steal so obviously... you have to be handier."
"You seem to be pretty used to steal... thanks for helping me, by the way." Joshua whispered back.
"No problem." Justin looked back. "Ok, we are save." Now, he started to speak in a normal voice again. "So, where are you from and why does a guy who wears a golden necklace try to steal an apple when he has obviously enough money?"
"I ran away from my place and I didn't bring any money with me. I didn't eat anything since last night, so that's why I tried to steal that apple..."
"Oh... and why did you run away? I mean, nothing can be as bad as living on the street..."
"When you've been staying there forever, without going out and meeting other people or seeing other places... the only thing you want is to run away..."
"Wait... your parents never let you out? Poor guy... how about I show you Agrabah?"
"I'd love that." Joshua replied, smiling at Justin.
Justin wrapped his arm around Joshua hip and took Joshua with him. Trace jupmed on Justin's shoulder and Justin took one of the apples. Justin gave the apple to Josh and asked: "Hungry?"
Josh grabbed the apple and smiled at Justin, taking a bite of the fruit. "¿So you have no home?"
"I have... it's not what you call a palace, but it's enough... so tell me something about you."
"What do you want to know about me?" Josh asked, taking another bite of the apple.
"How old are you? Were did you live before you ran away? Are you already married? I mean... you seem to be old enough to be..."
"I'm 17, I can't exactly tell you where I lived, and I'm not married... yet."
"Yet? Did you run away because your bride wasn't the right one? I mean, next to the other stuff?"
"No, um... I can't seem to find the perfect bride yet... and I didn't run away because of that. I ran away so I could finally be free..."
"Ok... let's change topic..."
***
Justin went up some stairs, which were outside the rotund house. "Follow me," he said, chuckling, at Joshua, jumping on the roof of the building.
Joshua looked at him for a moment and then smiled, jumping on the roof of the building too, standing by his side. "You thought I couldn't jump or what?" He said, chuckling.
"No, it just seemed like you were glued on the ground." Justin grinned and jupmed from one to the other rood, as he already did when he escaped. On the other side, he grabbed a wooden beam and build a bridge between the houses for Joshua.
Joshua grabbed one of the wooden beams from the bridge Justin built and used it to jump to the other rood, staying next to Justin. "I'm not that girly, you know?"
"Wow..." Justin whispered to Trace. Trace just rolled his eyes. Justin jupmed over several roofs, until he came to a real high building. Both jupmed into the empty apartment and went up. The apartments were all empty, but there was lying still so much stuff that it was hard for both to come through. When both arrived the stairs, Justin gave Josh his hand to help him through all the things, which were lying between the apartment and the stairs.
Josh held Justin's hand so he could go through all the stuff. "You live here?" He asked, following him upstairs.
"A little bit? I know it's not the best, but it's still better than living on the street." Justin arrived his apartment and helped Joshua up. "This is my place." Trace jumped from Justin's shoulder and laid down on his pillow.
"Hey, it's not that bad..." Joshua looked around the apartment, approaching the big window next to Justin's bed. "You've got beautiful views from up here..."
Justin pulled the tapestry away and showed Joshua the beautiful view. From this position, both could see the market, the houses and at the end of the city the big palace shined in the setting sun.
"Isn't it beautiful?"
"Why shouldn't I? You know, I'm sure is awesome to live there. No worries, no hunger... you don't have to steal and you live the perfect life... it's just perfect."
"If you think so..." Josh mumbled, as he watched the palace in the distance. "I don't think it's so perfect to lvie there... I'm sure there's some worries too..."
Justin smiled at Joshua. He sat right next to him, stroking his cheek. "You know, yo are really beautiful..."
Joshua blushed and looked at Justin, looking at his eyes. "You really think so?"
"Yeah," Justin replied in a whisper and leaned forward, closing his eyes slowly.
Joshua leaned forward too, closing his eyes before pressing his lips tenderly against Justin's.
At the same time in palace, the sultan was searching for his son. When he couldn't find him, he began to ask all servants. Desperately, all tried to find Joshua. The looked in every room of the entire palace, but no one could find him.
Chris sat back on his throne, his face buried into his hands, not knowing what to do. Lance stood right next to him, stroking the sultan's back. "Don't despair, my majetsy. We will find Prince Joshua. That's a promise."
"But we looked everywhere!"
"I will find a way..."
"Oh Lance, what would I do without you?"
Lance smiled and left the room. "How do you think you will find our little spoiled Prince?" Michael asked Lance, annoyed.
"Be patient... we still have the hourglass... I'm sure we will find our little Prince."
When Lance wanted to enter his secret room, one of the servants came. Shocked Lance turned around.
"Ehmm... Great Vizier Lance, I thought I should tell you that I met Prince Joshua Today, before he disappeared. He was dressed as a normal citizen and was in a hurry."
"That is... interesting." Lance mumbled. "You can go now."
When the servant was gone, Lance entered the room.
"What do you plan to do now? We don't know where we went!" Michael said, still annoyed.
"We still have our diamond... look, we will watch out for our little Prince and when we know where he is, we can save him. The sultan will be so thankful that he may think of the idea again, making me the next sultan and not that spoiled little kid."
"Then, you better start searching for him!"
Lance shooed Michael away from his shoulder and started searching for Joshua. Suddelny, he started laughing hard.
"What is it now? Why are you laughing?" Michael asked, flying to Lance's shoulder again.
Lance looked at the hourglass again. "Look who is with our dear Prince... the rough diamond I was searching for... we just have to watch out where he is going and we can catch both of them at the same time..."
"Then catch them now! They're together and they're not far from the palace!"
"No... they are too fast... we wait until they stay at one place and THEN we will catch them..."
"I'm sure they won't go too far... the Prince can't survive out of the palace, not even a day..."
"But this street rat can. Why do you want to hurry? I want to enjoy my victory."
"I want to hurry 'cause I wanna enjoy the victory as soon as possible."
"Be patient... we will catch them... soon."
***
Justin broke the kiss looking dreamily into Joshua's eyes. Before one of them could even say something, someone screamed: "There did the little street rat hide! Catch them!" Shocked Justin looked up. "Fuck, we are in trouble..."
"What can we do now?" Joshua asked, looking around nervously.
"I... I have no idea..." The soldiers caught both of them and brought them down. "Like Lance said, one of them is Prince Joshua."
"Prince?!" Justin looked shocked at Joshua.
Joshua looked away, ashamed, as the soldiers took him away.
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