23. THE MEDALLION AND THE RAIN.

The following day, Aurora and Killian talked about everything. Although it was quite hard to tell each other about all the bad moments they'd lived when they'd been separated, it was also a relieve and something that they had to do, for themselves.

They were in the bedroom, their voices accompanied by the sound of the raindrops hitting the windows on that October afternoon.

The conversation had lasted for a bit more than an hour and there was really nothing more to tell about the subject when they heard a knock on the door. It was Jour, who, as the king he was, had spent the whole morning in their kingdom. Aurora got up to hug her brother and Killian approached to greet him too.

"Jour, is everything fine?" she asked.

"Yes, David has done a great job." he smiled "Everything's under control. How have you been?"

"Much better" she answered.

"Well, I have to go, I've just come to check on you. David, Snow and I are preparing an assembly."

"Why?" she asked, although she could imagine what it would be about.

"William" he simply answered. Exactly what Aurora was thinking about. "You'll know when we have everything organized. I hope you join us" he said to Killian.

"Of course" he answered.

Suddenly, they heard another knock on the door. That time it was Mulan.

"Hi. Am I interrupting something?" she asked when she saw Jour.

"Nothing at all." Aurora answered. The warrior closed the door behind her.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to leave" she said, direct as usual. "Now that things are calm here and you're finally safe, I have to go to see my people and... well... I miss Shang."

The princess felt quite sad for having to separate from her friend, but she understood. Of course she did.

"When are you leaving?" she asked.

"As soon as this weather improves. I'll come to say goodbye."

"I'll miss you."

"Hey, hey. Do you think I'm going to leave you alone with these two?" she said referring to Jour and Hook, who tried to complain. "I'll be back before the baby's born... Now I have to go and arrange the journey." she said goodbye to the group and went out of the room.

.

Mulan said them goodbye the following morning. The sky was still cloudy but at least it wasn't going to rain in hours. The two friends hugged and Aurora thanked the warrior for staying with her during all that time. With a gesture, Mulan said that it didn't matter and that she didn't want to hear the princess thanking her for anything anymore.

Finally, she hugged Snow and said goodbye to David, Killian (who she reminded the 'deal' they'd done) and Jour.

"You know what I think about that issue" she said to the blond, referring to King William. He nodded and the warrior got on her horse.

In a couple of minutes she couldn't be seen anymore. Part of the group returned inside the castle, with the exception of Killian, Jour and Aurora, who wanted to take advantage of the weather to go for a walk before it started to rain again.

The walk lasted until it was time to eat and the group headed to the dinning room. The first time he'd been there, after leaving Rumplestiltskin's home, Hook had been quite impressed because of the large dinning room the Charmings had in their castle. He'd seen others before, of course, but it was simply the best. One could feel himself part of a royal family just for eating on it a couple of times. Well, technically, he could be considered part of one of those families then. Anyway, he'd better not think about that for the moment.

They reunited with Snow and David and entered the big room. Minutes later, the smell of the food filled every corner and the conversations started to appear.

"Hubert has sent his answer" Charming said to Jour, referring to the meeting they'd been preparing and that would take place in that castle.

"Can't you talk about it in another moment?" Snow asked "We're eating, not working."

"Just a moment, Snow" her husband replied "He's not going to come because his son knows more about the issue than him, so he's sending him."

"Phillip's going to come?" Aurora asked with excitement in her eyes.

"Yes" the king confirmed, making the princess smile.

As David had promised his wife, that was the only think they said about the assembly. From that moment on, the group only spoke about unimportant stuff or things that had nothing to do with politics or contained the name 'William'.

When the lunch had ended and everyone had stood up, Snow took a couple of seconds to observe how Killian hugged Aurora with his right arm on their way to the exit. She thought that they definitely made a nice couple.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked them.

"I think I'll take a nap" Aurora answered "Unless the little pirate doesn't let me sleep."

"Huh! You've said it" said a proud Killian. The princess shook her head, quite annoyed.

"One time, I've just said it once" she complained "And I'm not going to say it again." the former pirate smiled.

"We shall see" she shoved him slightly.

"Well, I think there's something here that I'm missing" Snow said.

"It's nothing really" the princess was the one who answered again. "It comes from the confusion we have with the baby's sex."

"In two days it's been a girl fourteen or fifteen times and, another fourteen or fifteen, it's been a boy." Hook continued. Snow seemed to be thinking about something while Aurora continued talking.

"I hope we don't end up completely crazy before the day comes" she commented.

"You don't have to." the queen said mysteriously. "I knew I was having a girl even before being pregnant with Emma." The couple looked at her puzzled. "Wait for me in your bedroom and I'll tell you how." Right after saying this, she disappeared in a corridor. The couple's faces didn't change, but they obeyed Snow White and led to their room.

Aurora and Killian didn't have to wait for much time when they heard a knock on the door. The captain opened it and, after greeting her, leaded Snow to the armchair where the princess was sitting, looking at the dark clouds that were starting to appear again. Once they were sitting close to each other, the queen started to talk.

"Where do I begin?" she thought for a couple of seconds "Before my mother-in-law died, she gave me this" she took a kind of medallion out of her pocket. "This amulet is magical. It predicts if your firstborn is going to be a boy or a girl... and, believe me, it works."

"How?" he asked.

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to." the queen said. The couple looked at each other in the eyes for a moment.

"Let's give it a try" Aurora said.

"Alright. Give me your hand" Snow said to her, placing the pendant above it "It depends on which direction it moves." they saw how the medallion started to move, describing straight lines "What direction is it, captain?" she asked him.

"North to south..." he answered. Snow nodded "What does that mean?"

The queen took some time to answer.

"It means that you should start thinking about boy names" she finally said. Before Aurora could react, Killian did it for her.

"Yessssss!" he shouted triumphally, marking it by closing the only hand he could move and shaking it. Aurora looked at him open-mouthed.

"I thought that, since you'd dreamt about a girl, you weren't so... involved in your 'boy cause'" she said.

"Not so involved, but still in it." he answered with a proud smile. She surrendered with a sigh.

"Well, I think you've won" she said smiling. He kissed her passionately, forgetting that Snow was there, but the queen decided to give them some privacy and looked through the window. When the couple finally separated from each other, the queen found the moment to say goodbye.

"I'll leave you alone before you start kissing again" she joked and, after the corresponding words of farewell, she closed the door behind her.

Once Snow had disappeared, Killian spoke again. The smile on his face hadn't faded away yet.

"How are you?" he asked, taking her hand.

"Fine" she simply answered. Although she was smiling, he could see the tiredness on her expression.

"Do you need something?" she shook his head, pronouncing a soft 'no'.

"Sure? I can take you to the bed, go to steal some food for you... a lot of things." he made her laugh. He'd been always looking after her since they'd reunited, but he hadn't reached that levels. Taking her to the bed? Bringing her food when they'd just eaten? What more?

"Has the fact that we're going to have a boy anything to do with you being so attentive?" she asked.

"I'd do the same if it were a girl. Nothing is enough for this lad and his beautiful mum."

"Idiot" she said rolling her eyes. He and his compliments... After a little pause, she kept talking "Seriously, I'm fine." she smiled and changed the subject "So, now that we know it, we should listen to Snow and think about how we're going to name our son." his smile widened.

"Don't worry about that, I told you that I'd think about a name and that's what I did." he winked at her.

"And...?"

"I'm not telling you. It's a surprise."

"What?" she asked offended "I've got the right to know it. What if I don't like it?"

"I know you will" he answered very confident.

"You're so vain." she said, shaking her head "But I... I can convince you" she said.

"Try it." he challenged her. She rolled her eyes again and sighed, feeling too tired to start an 'argument'.

"Not now, I'm going to sleep before he wakes up and spoils my nap" she stood up and walked towards the bed. Killian took her hand, stopping her.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" he asked before kissing her again. "I was just teasing you."

"I know." she said softly. "We'll talk about it later, alright?" he nodded and let her lie on the bed. Once she was there, he approached her and whispered on her ear.

"His name's Allan."

"Allan Jones?... It's perfect." she smiled.

"I knew you'd say that" he said proudly, winking at her. She shook her head again and yawned. When she woke up, she would reply to that, but then she needed to get her strength back.

.

The night fell after an afternoon in which the only remarkable thing that happened was that Jour had left to spend a couple of days in his kingdom, before the assembly started.
Killian had already turned off the lights and joined Aurora on the bed with the only light of the full moon to guide him when the rain appeared again, stronger than never. The princess sighed, fed up with the damn rain, but the captain seemed to be having fun because he couldn't contain a little laugh.

"What's so funny?" she asked and he answered with another question.

"Do you remember Neverland?" he looked at her, putting his fake hand on her waist.

"Of course." it was impossible to forget that time.

"And that night when the rain caught us in the middle of our way to the Hangman's tree?" he asked again with a naughty smile. Aurora giggled a little.

"We ran so much" she commented, remembering the episode. "I couldn't stop laughing when we arrived the tree." she made a pause "And then..."

"What happened then?" he asked with that seductive voice of him. The memories of that night were putting him in quite a 'good' mood.

"Do you really need me to remind you" she whispered before kissing him. But he didn't want to finish with the kiss, his lips moving from hers to her jaw, kissing her skin.

"Killian..." she moaned.

He stopped with the kisses and looked her in the eyes.

"Should I stop?"

She shook her head, biting her lower lip.

"No" she said, letting him kiss her again where he'd left it. After that, he continued to her neck, making her moan again.

She put her hands on the back of his neck, her fingers among his dark hair.

"So" he whispered "What happened that night?" his lips were now going over her shoulder, which his good hand had removed the nightgown's strap from. She giggled again.

"Shut up" she told him, lying on her back, without moving her hands from his hair. Being very cautious, he approached her as much as he could and kissed her on her lips again, his good hand stroking her leg. Without stopping kissing him, she moved one of her hands to his back, under his shirt. When he noticed it, he separated from her and took it off.

"Better?" he asked. She nodded and he returned to his previous position, kissing her more intensely than before and, after some minutes, his lips went down to kiss her other shoulder, getting rid of the nightgown definitely with her help. She hugged him, putting one of her hands on the back of his neck again.

Outdoors, the rain had started to pour.

.

When Aurora woke up the following day the rain was still hitting the windows. Killian was still asleep, apparently not noticing any sound or movement. She couldn't help smiling when she remembered what'd happened the night before.

Without knowing why, she started to think about the assembly that the kings were preparing. They'd soon have to go out of their little world and start to face the problems from the outside. She knew that maybe Killian would have to take part in whatever they decided to do with King William, but that was something they would deal with when the moment came. After all, she couldn't claim to have him by her side day after day. The man who was sleeping beside her wasn't precisely calm.