Disclaimer: I do not own Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

A/N: This is for the Magi Secret Santa. Hope ya'll enjoy! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sand picked up at her feet as Toto made her routine walk amongst the yard of the gladiator training grounds with basin and clothe in hand. Toto barely noticed as the small bits of rubble caressed her ankles, continuing on her way to check Alibaba's injuries and tend to them if necessary. It had been but five days ago since the legendary fight between beast and man, which still causes retellings to fall from the lips of commoners who were fortunate enough to have witnessed the grand spectacle firsthand. She would be lying to say she wasn't quite impressed by the man's—boy's performance that day, though she would never say as much to the person in question.

After crossing the main grounds where many a gladiator had trained in the past and where few now stood refining their skills with one another, Toto climbed a small set of stairs before turning and opening the door to a small suite. Upon entering she dropped the bowl and clothe she had been carrying to the floor with a clacker at the sight before her. A large and unexpected guest was currently hovering over the blonde she had come to treat, who kept cleaning his blade as if nothing was amiss.

Alibaba's head turned up slightly at the noise only to see Toto gaping in disbelief and pointing her finger insistently in alarm at the large ape crouching just behind him. Seeing the look of pure shock on here face, Alibaba began to calmly explain to her that he had chosen to take the creature in by purchasing him with some of the prize money from the earlier fight, as he continued to clean his sword without pause. The blonde then went on to say that, "If it was 'him' he would've done the same thing."

Without elaborating further on whom he was actually referring to, Alibaba gently pulled a cigar from a small wooden box that was sitting beside him on his bed. The wood on the outside appeared to have been carefully carved by hand with symbols unlike anything Toto had ever seen. It must have been from his home country, or any country but Laem for she had seen nothing like it in all her years.

When Alibaba's fingers closed around one tightly wrapped roll of tobacco he looked somewhat reminiscent, but the expression passed over his face as quickly as it had appeared. Toto could not help but watch in fascination as Alibaba placed the cigar between his lips with the ease and the grace of one who smoked often. He then proceeded to light it just as smoothly by placing the flame of an oil lamp, which had been sitting on a small side table nearby previously, beneath the far end of the cigar. From the one act alone Alibaba appeared to have morphed into a completely different person, one who commanded respect and loyalty without asking for such things and Toto continued to gaze upon the blonde with unexplainable admiration before he took his first inhale of smoke.

Well, more like his attempt to inhale.

Alibaba began to cough uncontrollably until he fell to his knees from the bed into nothing more than a heap on the floor, dropping the cigar in the process. As Toto began to help him to his feet after his coughing fit had somewhat settled, Shambal entered the room with a box of bandages to redress Alibaba's wounds. Less than impressed eyes fell upon the blonde as Toto helped him to a seat in front of her master while letting out a heavy sigh of disappointment.

As Shambal went about the task of unwrapping and rewrapping, Toto went to the floor to clean up the broken shards of the basin from earlier and the water that had consequently spilled out. Scrubbing the floor with some vigor, Toto heard bits and pieces of the conversation conspiring between her master and Alibaba about what had happened in the Colosseum less than a week ago. Something about the "identity of his second magoi" slipped to her ears before the blonde became eerily quiet. She glanced up at the extended pause to see her master staring intently at the boy.

Clenching his fists to the point that they began to shake, Alibaba's thoughts went to Balbadd and its people who were suffering as he explained to his new teacher that there was indeed a country he was unable to protect and that he had given Alibaba his power for a reason, with absolutely no doubt in his voice.

"What I have to do is take back that country that I lost with my own hands. And to do that I'm going to need even more power," Alibaba proclaimed with every ounce of muster he possessed. He then bowed before Shambal.

"Please continue to train me."

After Shambal acknowledged the boy's gratitude with a slight hum, Alibaba watched as he and Toto left his suite. He then started walking back over to his bed only too see the cigar that had fallen during his struggle to smoke the damn thing for the second time in his life. As he made to reach for it, Alibaba couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

Standing in the doorway of his makeshift home, Cassim looked more than displeased at finding Alibaba rifling through his things as if they were his own. Though the house only contained one small room, it was more than enough space for one person. Cassim was fully content just to have a roof over his head and a warm bed to sleep in at night for it was far more than he had possessed before forming the Fog Troupe.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Alibaba sat crouched beside the other boy's bed with the box filled with cigars Cassim kept under his bed for safe keeping open, one of which was placed between two of the blonde's pale fingers as if he was about to bring it to his lips to take a puff. When the sound of the Cassim's voice reached the blonde's ears he flinched, which then caused him to drop the stolen cigar with a less than manly shriek.

Cassim began to shake his head slowly as he made his way further into the room now noticing the blonde had let his very expensive, high quality, hand-rolled cigar fall unceremoniously to the ground below without as much as an attempt at its retrieval. This is why Cassim never let Alibaba handle nice things.

Alibaba might be a prince of Balbadd, but god knows he certainly doesn't have the manners of a royal.

With a look of pure mortification still plastered on his face, Alibaba stood unmoving from where Cassim had first spotted him, though now he stood with one less cigar between his fingers as his mouth opened and closed soundlessly.

"I swear the second you get bored you start getting into things you got no business gettin' into! You know we are attacking that mansion later tonight, right?" Cassim couldn't help but raise his voice in frustration as the blonde stared back at him with pleading apologetic eyes.

"What are you looking at me for? Don't just leave it there! Pick it up!"

Alibaba scrabbled to obey Cassim's orders, snatching the cigar up as quickly as he could before he could give the other boy a chance to yell at him again. Long moments ticked by in silence as Alibaba contemplated his next course of action. Should he give the cigar to Cassim or put it back in the box?

Not able to stomach the silence any longer, Alibaba went with his gut and softly lowered his hand, which contained the dropped cigar, to the intricately covered wooden box that still remained innocently open under Cassim's bed.

"Don't put it back in the box! That was literally just on the ground! How often you think I have time to clean this place?"

Alibaba slowly brought his hovering hand away from the box in question with the contaminated cigar still in hand and began to stare at it curiously. Another series of long moments passed before Cassim crossed over to his bed and shoved his heel into the blonde's bum and gave it a shove for good measure.

This in turn caused the prince to squawk with rage at being pushed to the ground roughly before glaring at Cassim over his shoulder.

"What was that for?" Alibaba couldn't keep the blatant irritation out of his voice.

Instead of an answer to his very reasonable question, Alibaba was met with a satisfied smirk as Cassim sat upon his bed with a content sigh, still appraising the blonde where he was now on all fours with the cigar once again on the floor. As Alibaba went to pick up the cigar again as well as himself, he slowly sank down on the bed beside Cassim before pocketing the cigar with a huff.

Watching the blonde's movements, Cassim couldn't help the quizzical stare that came over his face.

"Don't you wanna smoke?"

"Yeah, of course I do!" Alibaba averted his gaze as he attempted to think of any excuse he could use to reassure the other boy of his strange behavior, "it's just, I thought I'd save this one for the later, you know?"

A disbelieving brow arched at the blonde's words.

"You've never smoked before."

"Well . . ."

"Didn't you live in a palace?"

"Yeah, when I was like twelve, they generally don't let princes smoke that young in most countries, well at least not in Balbadd."

Cassim can't help but scoff, "Man, and I was jealous of you."

Alibaba is expecting a long-winded argument to follow about their pasts and upbringings and how they are still too different, but is pleasantly surprised when instead Cassim snatches the cigar from his pocket with a grin.

"Well you've been missing out my friend and I am not about to let you waste this, these don't come cheap especially around these parts. Here I'll get it started for you."

Sitting completely stunned into silence, Alibaba watched as Cassim brought the cigar to his lips and leaned over the edge of the bed to reach a set of matches sitting inside a smaller compartment within the wooden box. Cassim ripped a match from the set and struck it to flame effortlessly. With the cigar still nestled firmly between his lips, Cassim brought the lit match to the tip of the cigar with practiced ease as he lightly puffed a few times until smoke began swirling from the end. He then took a large inhale and held it for a moment before slowly blowing it out.

After Cassim repeating the process a few more times, Alibaba was confident he could replicate the same method himself. Cassim noticed the sparkle that quickly formed in the blonde's eye as he lightly tapped the lower half of the cigar to remove some of the ash that had collected at the tip before he begrudgingly handed it over to Alibaba.

"Alright, here ya go. Just breath in, hold it for a bit, then out, it's as simple as that."

Nodding enthusiastically, Alibaba attempted to mimic Cassim's posture and movements before carefully bringing the slightly damp end of the cigar to his lips. Alibaba hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath and hastily wrapping his mouth more than a third of the way up the cigar before quickly inhaling.

Seconds passed as Alibaba attempted to keep the smoke in his lungs just as Cassim had instructed, but the urge to cough was too strong and soon he was sputtering and hacking violently with his head between his thighs.

Once he regained his bearings, Alibaba heard Cassim's laughter over his sniffling and peeked out from between his legs to watch in astonishment. He couldn't remember the last time he had see the boy truly laugh and he was unable to stop himself from chuckling along with him between bouts of coughing.

"You should've seen you're face!"

Cassim continued to snicker until he snatched the cigar from Alibaba's fingers and took another puff.

Still coughing fairly frequently, the blonde was incapable of containing his smile for he knew he had witnessed something few had ever seen before. Alibaba was quickly brought out of his musing when Cassim addressed him again.

"You know some people would call that an indirect kiss."

The statement hung in the air for a moment or two before understanding washed over Alibaba's face and a bright pink blush stole over the his cheeks not a second later. He attempted to stutter a reply, but before he could Cassim decided his next exhale should be directed right into his face, which induced another series of coughing fits.

Heaving a deep sigh from the fond memory, Alibaba went to finally pick up the discarded cigar. He rolled it between his fingers, taking in the texture and the feel of the cigar with the very tips of his fingers like a treasure. Lifting the cigar to his nose, Alibaba lightly sniffed only to quickly recognize that unique smell of tobacco he only associated with one person. He then attempted to smoke it one more time just for old times sake and ending up coughing just as hard, if not harder, then the first time.