10. THE SEA AGAIN.

There had been ages since the last time they'd woken up so early, but that day was the one they'd decided to go searching for Eric's love, Ariel, the mermaid. They were still lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling of their cabin.

"Repeat me why we agreed to go on this particular adventure" he demanded.

"Because you were desiring for doing it, and don't deny it. Moreover, that poor girl must be suffering, as I did when I was under the sleeping curse. We can't leave her like that."

It had taken a while to decide if they'd help Eric or not. If Killian had been alone, he would have accepted the prince's offer almost immediately. Even if he'd been with Milah, the result would have been the same. But with Aurora by his side, things were different. Althought she'd changed a lot since the day he'd left her in Rumplestiltskin's cell with the other three women, she was still so fragile and vulnerable... she'd been the one to convince him after listening to Eric's story:

"Before the curse was cast I used to sail on one of my father's ships. I love the sea." started the prince.

"I know that feeling. Continue." said Killian.

"Well, one night I was some miles from the shore, celebrating my birthday when the weather became really awful and a lightning reached the ship, starting a fire. I fell to the water and that's the last thing I remembered before waking up on the beach. She was there. She'd saved me. I was only able to see her face during two seconds, then she escaped, but her voice... it was so beautiful that got stuck on my mind from that moment on. I looked for her everywhere in the kingdom, but it was as if she didn't exist. And then the curse came"

"And after it..."

"I found her… well, she found me. We were really made for each other. But that 'woman' found her too and kidnapped her. I looked for her in Storybrooke, but I managed to discover that she'd taken her to this land, to her 'house'"

"Ursula?" The prince nodded "Why would she want her?"

"Because my love, Ariel, used to be a mermaid" a couple of silent seconds followed that sentence. "Yes, that's the reason why she saved me that night and I was unable to find her after that. But she made a deal" Hook stared at him wide-eyed, knowing exactly who she had made a deal with, but, at the same time, praying for being wrong "...with that man called Rumplestiltskin" 'Damn it' thought the captain "He'd give her legs in exchange of..."

"A favour" completed Hook.

"Yes. And she did it, she got the ink he needed from Ursula and gained her legs, but when she had just arrived my kingdom, the curse came."

"Just a quick question, why don't you build your own ship and go looking for her with part of your army or something like that?"

"Because they think I'm crazy. Some people don't want me to risk my life for a mermaid and some other have doubts about the existence of that mermaid."

That story had reminded Aurora of hers so much that, in spite of the dangers and not being very good at facing them, she'd managed to convince Killian to help Eric.

And there they were that morning. Everything they needed had been stored on the ship and Hook had found a small crew, whose members knew exactly where they were going, but they didn't know that Eric was the mysterious 'sponsor' of the adventure.

So, after getting prepared, they three met at the quarter deck, ready to give the first instructions to the crew, who were standing and waiting for them. When Eric showed his face, some of them couldn't believe it. They could see many mouths wide open, many pairs of eyes staring straight at the prince and a continuous murmuring was heard. Eric spoke at last:

"Good morning. Now that you know who I am and why we're here, I'll give you the last chance to leave before we depart." nobody moved or spoke "Well, thanks everyone for coming with me in my quest. You all know Captain Jones" he made a gesture with his hand referring to Killian "he's the one who's going to give the orders and..."

"And her?" asked one of the sailors.

"She's coming with me" answered Hook "And I want to make something clear before we start: if anyone of you tries to harm her, even if you look at her with second intentions I'll lock you without eating for an entire week... But I hope not to come to that situation." the crew remained silent. Eric continued talking:

"So, we'd better cast off before my father knows what I'm doing. Listen to the captain, please."

Hook walked towards the crew and started assigning the tasks and giving the first instructions. Aurora watched him from the quarterdeck, she'd never seen him so authoritarian, so... in captain 'mode', and that didn't annoy her because he was firm, but not scary at all. Eric approached her.

"I still can't believe you prefer this instead of your kingdom. It's not like I'm judging you, just look at me and my weird relationship" He hadn't recognized her the first time they'd met until he'd heard her name, althought he'd known he'd met her anywhere. "But I thought you were a... you know..." he was unable to find the fitting words.

"A spoiled princess?" she helped him, smiling at his surprised look and continued "I've been through a lot. My priorities have changed." She turned to watch Killian again "By the way, my kingdom probably doesn't exist anymore."

"It does" she looked at him surprised. "It has very few people but there it is."

"And do you know who's ruling over them?" she asked with a real need to know it. The fact that some of her people had survived somehow made her suddenly think about returning there after rescuing Ariel, to help on its restorage. But, would she want to stay there forever as she'd wanted when she'd been with Phillip?

"Yes, I know there's a man on charge, but I don't know who he is or anything else." Aurora felt quite disappointed for not knowing who was taking care of her kingdom's people. A feeling of responsibility was growin inside her, but she decided not to think about it for that moment and focus on the tasks of the present. In her mind, she hoped that unknown man was a good person and a good ruler. 'He must be' she thought 'they wouldn't trusted him if he werent'... they...

"Do you know anything about Prince Phillip?" she asked.

"I saw him in Storybrooke. He reunited with his father" answered Eric. Aurora smiled, Phillip deserved to be happy after everything he'd been through "When the group arrived there about a month before, everyone was very surprised to see him alone, I mean, without you. He didn't seem very willing to talk about the subject." Aurora looked at the floor, remembering the argument they'd had before she and Killian had left. "But we don't have to talk about him now." added the prince guessing her humour. Aurora looked up again and changed the subject, her eyes quite wet.

"So they went to Storybrooke and organized this land's recovery" Eric nodded.

"With the remaining kings, yes."

"And they participated in the assignations of new ones..."

"Yes."

In that moment, Killian appeared by her side, smiling widely. She smiled back at him althought she couldn't pretend she was happy, and he noticed that.

"Is anything wrong?" he asked, his smile fading.

"No, no, it's just... he was telling me about Storybrooke and..." Aurora managed to speak. He didn't need to hear anything more. "Doesn't matter, I'm fine... let's change the subject" She didn't want to repeat the situation in which she was the sad one and he the one who consoled her. "I guess you're excited about this."

"Excited? I'm thrilled!" his smile reappeared "It's like travelling back in time! An adventure, a proper crew... you..." he suddenly caught her by her arms and kissed her lips with enthusiasm.

"Hey! Get a bedroom" said Eric trying not to laugh. Killian released the princess and, with the same smile she'd seen moments before he said:

"I have to go. This ship needs its captain" and disappeared from their sigh.

"Stupid pirate" she mumbled, shaking her head but smiling at the same time.

.

Days passed without any remarkable news. For Aurora, everything was new: the routines, the atmosphere aboard the ship... There were many aspects she was happy with, but some of them, like the crew's attitude and manners annoyed her sometimes. They generally respected her, but she was a princess after all... A princess who hated to be useless, wanted to know as much as possible about sailing and was learning sword fighting. As they didn't know how Ursula would fight them when they arrived her territory, they'd agreed that she'd need to learn how to defend herself. After many, many sessions of frustrated training ('I'm not made for this, Killian'), she managed to 'defeat' Hook at last. She couldn't believe it at first: "I've done it" she said as if she were unable to believe it. "I've done it! Can you believe it?" she added after a couple of seconds and hugged the captain with the same enthusiasm that he'd showed when he'd kissed her the first day on the quarterdeck.

Another new experience were the parties. The sailors sometimes brought a barrel of rum to the deck (with the captain's permission, of course) and played their instruments while singing songs which were usually quite vulgar and performing a kind of dances that Aurora hadn't seen before, since she was used to another kind of balls. During that parties, Killian didn't separate from Aurora just in case the drunken crew took into account that she was the only woman aboard, among another reasons. She eventually started to enjoy the parties, but she just couldn't stand the songs.

.

Almost a month since the Jolly Roger had started its journey, they arrived to the right place. There was something in the atmosphere that made everyone think immediately about a battlefield, which was what that area was after all, since Ursula had been increasing her powers in order to defeat King Triton (Ariel's father) and become the absolute ruler of the oceans. The war between them two had lasted about a year so far.

"Are you fine?" Hook asked Aurora.

"Yes." she answered, althought she was scared.

In the situation they were, the crew had been allowed to leave their tasks and have some fun, but without drinking. Most of them were playing cards or dice games (without betting money, as it was forbidden) and another ones were playing music and singing. Killian and Aurora were together, staring at the landscape on the deck.

"Storm clouds" she commented, referring to the sky they could see.

"Yeah, she must have seen us coming." he answered.

"Are you saying she's sending us this storm?"

"Surely... Everything will be fine" he said, not knowing if he was trying to comfort Aurora or himself.

A voice draw their attention.

"Hey, princess!" said one of the sailors "Do you think he's lying or not?" he pointed at one of his mates. They were part of a group who was playing Liar's poker.

"Lying?" she answered. The player who'd asked turned up the cards. And yes, he was lying.

"Huh! You're smart, princess." said the winner. Of course, the crew had guessed her true identity during the first days of living together. "Why don't you join us?"

"I'm not very good at it" she said.

"Don't worry, I'll help you" offered Killian with a kind smile. She agreed. Some of the men rolled their eyes... those two.

They'd been playing for some minutes when the first thunders and the rain appeared.

"Here she is" commented Killian. "The break is over!"

Hi again! Here's the 10th chapter. Maybe it's quite boring but if I added more scenes it would become quite long.

Thanks for all the views, followings, reviews... and sorry for the language mistakes. I'll try to update as soon as possible.