Aurora chuckled, "That's okay then." she said, grinning. "Not sure about hexing them... unless you don't mind leaving burn marks on the board." she added. Hmm... now, hexes she knew about... but she couldn't think of any to make the discs move.
"Alright... so what are the other squares for?" she asked, gesturing to the white ones. Then she picked up a counter (C3) and moved it diagonally (to B4). "Like that?" she asked.

Her eyes lit up a little, "Yeah, I don't know about your other friends, but I'm here for you." she said, immediately regretting it. Honestly Aurora, just because you... er... liked someone, didn't mean you had to start being mushy and nice all of a sudden.

"Yeah, all the time. My brother once blew up the greenhouse. And my uncle works in Environmental at the ministry so there was a bunch of important plants in it." she said. Then she looked down, a little bashful. "Not a school... no." she muttered, biting the edge of her lip. "So, life was rough at home?" she asked, "I mean, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." It was then that she realised she was still holding his hand... she took it away quickly and tucked a strand of her long, red hair behind her ear. Then she noticed he was blushing, why did he have to keep doing that? It made her want to grab him, cuddle him and never let go! She shook herself a little. Just don't look at him when he blushes...

Aurora glanced up as she heard a ruffle of feathers and there was Sage, standing tall, right in the middle of the checkers board - his talons having not disturbed even one counter - holding out his leg. She untied the letter and fished in her pocket, locating an owl treat and tossing it to him. He caught it in mid air and immediately took wing and flew off to the owlery. She was going to put it in her pocket to read later but it was a pretty fat letter and.. ”One moment, Kennedy, that’s my Mother’s hand writing.” she said, looking at the front of the letter, honestly, her Mother had only written a few days ago, what could be so important?. She tore it open and three pieces of paper fell out - three different styles of hand writing - three different languages. A sharp, italic script in German - her Mother. A dainty french letter - her sister, Tiff, and a shaky English letter... from who..? She couldn’t identify the handwriting so she put it aside for now, she’d read it last. She glanced over her Mother’s quickly, reading a word or so every couple of sentences... dull... dull... dull... new healer for Krys... different treatment... blah blah blah... something about Rufin... dull. Dull. Dull. She’d probably hear it all anyway... She couldn’t be bothered with German right now so she didn’t read it properly before folding it and putting it in her pocket.

Tiff’s letter... Oh... it was December... that meant... She unfolded the letter, her hands shaking with excitement. ”Oh, my sister had the babies!” she squealed. She was officially... ”Aunty Ra-Ra..?” she whispered in disbelief. ”She’s going to make them call me Aunty Ra-Ra?” She pointed to the curly french words at the top of the page, forgetting Kennedy probably didn’t speak it...

Now for the shaky writing... Aurora glanced down to the bottom of the letter... KRYSPIN! That was... Krys could write! That meant he was getting better! She scanned over it... wait... that meant. ”Kennedy! My brother is getting better! Everything is going to be okay!” She looked up at him, her green eyes bright and glistening with happiness. She threw her arms around him. ”Finally, he’s alright! I’m just so happy!” It was brilliant! It was wonderful! She grinned and, in the spur of the moment, kissed Kennedy on the cheek.

Wait... oops. O____o

She gasped a little and it was one of those incredibly rare moments when Aurora’s cheeks flushed a little pink. "I err... sorry." she said, biting her lip. "I’m just kind of excited..." Oh no... You weren't supposed to actually do that, Aurora.