Never Alone
The Sole Survivor
A Couple of One-Shots

One-Shot # 1

Blu awkwardly cleared his throat and shuffled uneasily. Jewel glanced up at him, uncertainty in her beautiful eyes and he quickly made a conscious effort to look away. They continued to sit that way for quite some time.

Not that there wasn't anything better to do, like sleep or at the very least talk about something to make it not so unsettling, but a situation to this magnitude required somelevel of concentration and serious thought.

After that magical adventure with the bird smugglers, the trek across Rio de Janeiro that nearly cost them their lives - which also ironically made them fall in love - and the dramatic rescue from the falling plane that gave Jewel the inspiration and love to supply Blu with the courage to fly - it all came down to this. Of course it had been leading up to this the entire time, but neither of them could afford to think about it while they'd been chased, captured, caged, and then falling out of a plane over the rushing waters.

But now that they could, it had become something they didn't want to approach just yet. Their relationship had just begun and as such in the early stages of love, there were boundaries. There was something still so innocent about the love they shared despite the huge decision weighing over their heads.

The point of the matter being was that even though they loved each other, thinking about having kids so soon seemed like too big a step. It was rushing things and overstepping some imaginary line they weren't meant to cross just yet. With all these thoughts racing through their minds, they had become as still as statues. The two of them were sitting inside their new home, which was incidently a hole in a tree that overlooked the entire jungle. A beautiful view, really, in Blu's opinion. But despite the excitement that took place the day before and their new relationship, as soon as they'd gotten comfortable, they came to the same realization at the exact same time..

An epiphany, if you will.

Their breath had caught almost painfully in their throats. As Blu slowly faced Jewel, and she in turn doing the same, they had gazed wide-eyed at each other and if it had been biologically possible, they'd be beat-red in the face.

"U - um..." That was all that he could get out at the time.

"Blu..." She'd breathed and Blu swallowed thickly in response. He couldn't quite identify the emotion coloring her tone and it bugged him to no end. But somehow her breathless whisper needed no other explanation; they were both thinking the same thing. Being of the last two blue Spix macaws in existance, they now had the opportunity to save their species.

Blu gulped and shivered.

It was the whole reason to their introduction, the beginning to the whole ordeal, the fiasco that started the entire mess to begin with. Now it was riding heavily on their shoulders. It seemed as soon as they'd retired for the night, the awkwardness had set in just when it had occurrred to them just what exactly they had to do - what they could do now that they had the privacy.

Despite all these correct assumptions, they each found themselves at opposite corners of the tree, looking very nearly like they were avoiding contact unless absolutely necessary. Blu felt like his heart was about to explode out of his chest - he was breathing way too fast.

In, out, in, out, in, out - oh no, was he hyperventilating?

He needed to calm himself, maybe then he wouldn't seem like a big doofus in front of her. In fact, he wished he would pass out so he could avoid this whole thing. He knew he was overreacting. He knew he'd feel silly after it was all over with, but he felt more nervous now than he did when he tried to kiss her when they first met.

And even then, he'd been an anxious, babbling wreck.

Blu knew he was in love with Jewel. He loved her with every fiber of his being. And since it was her who let him, "feel the rhythm of his heart," as Rafael had said, and gave him the courage to open his wings and fly, he loved her even more for that. Jewel gave him something that he could've never gotten on his own. She was beautiful, one of the most gorgeous birds he'd ever met and he was determined to prove that to her. He just didn't know how.

He swallowed and kept his wide eyes firmly locked onto his quivering feet. He sat with his back flat against the bark inside their nest, his wings curled in front of him and an anxious frown on his beak.

'What do I do now?' He screamed at himself, almost disgusted that he was reduced to a quivering mess in front of his future mate.

A soft sigh made him glance up.

Jewel, who was sitting silently across from him and was no more than two inches away, stared at him, a mixture of emotions on her face. She was mirroring his exact posture, and without even knowing it, quite possibly his own emotions. She had no idea what to do. She'd never been good at the whole "mating" thing. So many emotions were churning inside her at the moment, she didn't know whether she was excited, depressed, nervous, or embarrassed. Maybe an odd combination of all of the above. She knew, just as well as he did, what they needed to do. Everytime she thought about it, it caused her mind to race and her pulse to quicken. A strange warmth settled in the pit of her stomach and made her shiver.

Her crystal clear eyes roamed over his face, nearly screaming for him to look at her with his enchanting brown eyes, just once, and tell her they would get through this together. She took in every detail of his feathered face, even counting how many scratches he'd accumulated on his beak over the years. Before she could stop herself, she found her gaze slipping from his eyes, his curved beak (which was set in the most adorable pout she'd ever witnessed), and his slim and rapidly inhaling chest until she saw his feet that peeked out from the feathers on his wings.

She swallowed and a small shiver ran up her spine.

Despite his nervous, shy, naive, and otherwise endearing, personality, she found Blu to be quite the handsome macaw. Very cute too, if she had to admit. Ever since laying that fateful kiss on him, she'd been wanting to do it again, certain that once she did, the awkward feeling of being alone with him would disappear. Every time he looked at her, smiled, or even spoke to her in his gentle, nervous voice, she melted. She felt butterflies in her stomach as she gazed at him and she finally opened her beak to speak.

"So, Blu..." Jewel nearly winced at how wrong it sounded in the deafening silence and quickly averted her eyes. Blu, not having expected it, almost jumped clear out of his feathers. His lungs and heart kicked into overdrive as his eyes flew up to her face. She was looking down at the feathers on her wings, inspecting them with a great deal amount of concentration as if she'd never seen them before in her life. He took in a deep breath to attempt to calm his raging nerves and be somewhat collected.

"So..." He echoed softly back at her and grimaced when his voice cracked like a human preteen going through puberty. He quickly cleared his throat. He lifted his wing to rub it over his head. This wasn't going the way he planned. The advice that Nico and Pedro gave him seemed like his only salvation - ("You make the first move. Brazillian ladies respond to confidence.") and ("It's all about swagger. You gotta puff out that chest, swing that tail - eyes narrow, like some kind of crazy love hawk.") But now that he was faced with the opportunity to be suave and the kind of bird he knew she deserved, he was frozen with his own fears and awkward tendencies. He swallowed thickly, nearly choking in the process, and scratched at the feathers on his neck with his claws in a nervous gesture.

"Um, well... I, eh...I, I bet Rafael's laughing it up right about now." He laughed awkwardly as he looked away. He cleared his throat again. Jewel quickly shifted her wide eyes to him as he continued to try and make small talk. "I - I mean, he was right. Technically. About you and... m-me being..." Blu trailed off with wide eyes and quickly shifted topics. "Should we... I - I think we should probably, you know, get to...uh, sleep and get it over with." Blu mumbled softly as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. When Jewel's eyes widened in shock and mild surprise, Blu immediately backpedaled. Waving his wings in a massively defensive gesture, he rambled nervously, nearly feeling like he was going to throw up.

"NO! N-no, no no no no! I didn't mean that! I just... I - I mean, I was just talking about going to sleep since it is pretty late and we've been up for quite a while and you know what they say, we need our sleep and we wouldn't want to be tired tomorr -" Blu snapped his beak shut and groaned under his breath. Jewel carefully observed him. "I'll um... I'm just - I mean, I'll just go to bed now, so um, goodnight." He mumbled in embarrassment, feeling more and more like a fool.

He faced the bark and scooted close to it, curling up in his feathers as deep as he could and closing his eyes tight. He drew in on himself and tried to disappear from her, and while he was at it, maybe the whole world. Mumbling under his breath, he berated himself, "How could I be so stupid? I probably just messed everything up. I'm such an idiot, she probably won't have anything to do with me now. That was stupid - stupid, stupid, stupid..."

The female Spix macaw watched this display dryly before she grinned in amusement. "Oh, Blu..." Jewel whispered as she listened to his scolding himself. She rolled her eyes and decided to get ready for bed herself. Might as well since her future 'mate-to-be' was having a mental breakdown and couldn't possibly handle something this intense in one night. Just as she curled up to go to sleep, she heard his voice pipe up softly in the darkness.

"Hey, Jewel?" He called hesitantly, and when she lifted her head to look at him, she saw him beating his head against the wood, repeating, "Aggh, no, no, no, why did I just -" Jewel raised an eyebrow.

"Um... hey, Blu?" He froze instantly and nervously cut his eyes to her. Jewel felt her heart lodge itself in her throat and she swallowed thickly, trying hard not to let him see her anxious behavior at having his attention. His brown eyes, while also wide, held so many conflicting emotions at that moment, she couldn't bare to let him be by himself. Besides, she had decided in a split second that she wanted Blu's company by her side. His warmth.

She stared into his eyes for a few seconds.

"Blu, come here."

"...W-what?" His head rose a few more inches in disbelief. She might as well have spoken Portuguese. Jewel tilted her head and raised a metaphorical eyebrow. His worried eyes nearly doubled in size and he was instantly on his feet and sliding away, almost resembling a cornered animal.

"Oh, um, well see, I kind of figured that you'd need your space, or something similar to that. I - I mean, it's okay if I sleep here and you, you know, over there -" Jewel merely watched this display in amusement. He caught the look and his eyes narrowed. "Oh come on, Jewel, this isn't funny! This is... this is nerve-wracking! I don't even know what to do! Or how to go about doing it! I'm not good at this whole 'save-the-species' thing, I've never had to do it before!"

"Whoa, whoa, easy there big boy. Easy," Jewel frowned at his sudden confession. So he was just as worried about it as she was.

Good. Great, even. Maybe she would use that to her advantage.

She got to her feet and shuffled toward him slowly, never once breaking eye contact with the panicking macaw and began in a soothing voice. "It's fine, it's all going to be okay. I promise you. We'll figure this out. Together. Just like your flying phobia, we'll conquer this one too." She reassured him as gently as she could. When she was finally close enough, she smiled softly and grabbed one of his wings in her own. "Now, come on, let's get some sleep."

Blu gulped and couldn't seem to break eye contact. He managed to mumble, "Oh, okay, sure. That sounds... that sounds like a great idea." Jewel grinned and manually pushed him into a relaxed position, ignoring his curious and cautious expression. Once he was seemingly comfortable against the bark, she settled in tightly beside him, shoving him even more closely to the corner. Almost as soon as she stopped moving, she felt it. That unbelievable warmth that radiated from him made her shudder.

One-Shot # 2

A sound - the most pitiful, heartbreaking whimper - cut through her consciousness.

Jewel twitched. She cracked open an eye and raised her head, blinking wearily in the darkness. She ruffled her feathers slightly and struggled to keep her eyes open long enough to concentrate. She paused for a second, and, after hearing nothing else, shrugged and curled up to get back to sleep.

Then, before she could drift back into the comfortable darkness of her dreams, the same murmur came again, just a smidge louder this time. Frowning slightly, she cracked open an eye with a sigh. She lifted her front half up enough to look at one of the eggs she was resting on curiously. That sound couldn't have come from them, could it? She didn't think they were that old yet, nor would they have such a developed voice.

The soft, almost desperate, mumbling continued and the female macaw sighed and turned her head in the direction of her silly, awkward, but still wonderfully sweet mate, Blu. Since they'd been together, she grew to love him more and more as she learned about and appreciated who he was. He was, oddly enough, lying flat on his back with his feet sticking up and clawing at some imaginary force. His wings were open and twitching as if he were trying to keep from falling and every now and then they would tense up. She raised an eyebrow at the almost comical display but then frowned when she noticed his nearly terrified, scrunched up expression.

He must be having a nightmare, she mused. Jewel smiled slightly and shook her head. Even though Blu, herself, and their offspring were safe inside their nest, she often times found the poor guy peering over the edge of the tree with a fearful spark in his eyes when he thought she wasn't looking. She figured it was because he still had anxiety issues when it came to heights despite learning how to fly.

"Oh, Blu..." Jewel smiled affectionately and shuffled over to his side, watching his sleeping expression with a hint of worry. Blu was in a deep sleep, but since he was having such unpleasant dreams, his breathing was labored. After quickly checking on their eggs, she switched her gaze back to Blu and began shaking him.

"AAH!" Blu's startled yelp made her wince. The moment her wing grazed the feathers on his chest, his eyes snapped open and a raspy gasp sprang from his open mouth. He scrambled to put himself into a sitting position and looked wildly around in a barely restrained panic. Surprised, she watched as he crawled to the eggs, peering at them closely before he relaxed.

Jewel reached out hesitantly. "Whoa, whoa, easy. Calm down, it's okay, it's just me," Jewel gently shushed him before he managed to have a heart attack. After checking to make sure the three little eggs were still nestled safely where they were, she turned back to Blu and felt her heart break.

Blu had his beak buried in his wings, holding his mouth shut while a few tears leaked down the side of his cheeks with an absolutely devastated expression marring his usually sweet face. Jewel opened and closed her beak a few times to work out some words, but none would come to her after seeing him in such an emotional display.

"Blu..." She murmured in a choked whimper and stood helplessly beside him as a waterfall of tears poured from his beautiful brown eyes. Blu seemed to realize he was being watched and quickly caught Jewel's gaze. He took in a shuddering breath and averted his eyes. She instead merely scooted closer to him and wrapped her wings around him snugly. She pulled him flush against her and pressed his head under hers to cuddle him. She heard his sharp intake of breath and tightened her wings carefully.

"Blu, what's wrong?" She whispered tenderly, feeling tears prickling her eyes at just imagining what her mate could have possibly been dreaming about to make him so upset. Blu blinked in her embrace before he melted into her, burying his face in her neck and groaning miserably.

He took in a breath and leaned back far enough so he could look into her eyes with glistening amber orbs. "Jewel? Did... did one of the babies fall out of the tree?"

The female macaw blinked in confusion and tilted her head. "Blu, what are you talking about? You've been asleep this whole time. We all have." She reminded him. He closed his eyes and lowered his head until the tip of his beak was resting against the base of her throat. Feeling her rhythmic heart beating, he was able to calm his erratic breathing and focus on not panicking. He'd been trying his best not to act like a total loon around his kids but it was hard when, even though he knew he could fly, he felt like he was going to forget his whole reason for wanting to soar and plummet from the tree like a rock of fluffy blue feathers.

Despite his efforts, he felt the panic seize his heart again.

YUP. I've decided to write for the Rio community. Problem is, I can't seem to finish what I started. These two somehow go together, but I can't make them fit. They seem to alike and in which case I can't find the motivation, nay, the inspiration to finish them.

Alas, they are going to be merely one-shots. BUT. It doesn't have to be this way! YOU, the reader, can adopt these horrible contributions to this community and fix 'em up, add to 'em, or you know, rip them of whatever dignity they even had. Thats right. Free of charge. However, I must ask a teeny favor. Just that you mention where you got it from. Would mean a BUNCH. Or, if you prefer, they can stay one-shots because you believe them to be outright terrible. That's fine too. Just LET ME KNOW.

Also, word of the wise, I may add to this. JSYK. Thank you for your time. LOVE RIO BTW.