Disclaimer: I do NOT own Nico or Pedro as they are in the film Rio and belong to 20th Century Fox and Blue Skies Studios. I do own, however, Nando the Parakeet and he is ONLY in this story.

Info: This is just an origin story of Nico and Pedro and the story centres on Nico.

Origin of Nico and Pedro.


"I wanna party, I wanna Samba! I wanna party, I wanna Samba! I wanna party and live my life!"

Nico sang as Pedro added next in a lower pitch then the yellow Canary's voice "My life" Nico resumed singing as he spread his little wings and flew upwards and spun in the circle, gaining awe from the crowd of birds in front "I wanna party-" Pedro sang in the same tone of voice and fly up with Nico "Party!" Nico and Pedro now sang a duet "And flyyyyy!"

With that, some drums played aloud, causing a lot of birds to sing with the Rhythm and Nico and Pedro landed sang the finishing lyrics "I wanna Samba!" With that, more drums played and that marked the finish of the song and the millions of birds that gathered in the Samba club all cheered and whistled and clapped their wings in an encore and Nico spoke aloud, his fine voice echoing throughout the whole club "G'night, Rio!"

With that one sentence, the curtains closed over the musical duo and Nico and Pedro both made their way into their room and Pedro asked in a hyper-active way "Was that cool or what!?"

Nico nodded with a smile on his beak before he removed his bottle cap hat and held it tight in his wings but he looked down to the floor and frowned sadly as Pedro opened the cardboard made door "After you, my compadre."

When Pedro noticed his slender friend's silence and expression, he asked with his own frown marring his grey, bill-like beak "Hey. What's shakin' you're cocoanuts?" The Red-crested Cardinal spread his wings and fluttered over to the canary before landing beside him. Pedro rested a grey wing upon Nico's shoulder and Nico asked "Y'all do remember what today day is right?"

Pedro looked down and sighed before nodding admittedly, the fiery flames of hopefulness in his heart being extinguished at the thought of this days event. The two birds knew that it was the day their adoptive father, Nando the green Parakeet, had been captured and smuggled out of the country.

The two remembered this like it had happened yesterday.

Pedro looked to his friend "Y'mean its Nando's day?" He asked with a solemn tone of voice.

Nico nodded sadly before the two let out some heavy sighs and laid down on their backs in a nest of straw that was their bed and stared up at the ceiling that had a clear view of the night skies.

Pedro eyed the young Canary before he looked back up at the sky "Do ya think that Nando would be proud o'us?" He asked.

Nico shrugged as he looked up at the starry skies "I dunno, Ped. I dunno." He spoke and soon both he and Pedro shut their eyes and drifted off to a deep sleep.


Little Nico was just 2 weeks old as he was in a nest with 4 other siblings. Most of them had a lot of meat on their stomachs and torsos but he was the runt and the most scrawny. He would get teased for this and nobody wanted to play with a runt. Nobody knew this fact as well as Nico did.

The small Canary currently sat in the corner of his nest as his brother's and sister played with each other. He watched in loneliness as he hugged his skinny legs and eyed his brother's and sister completely ignoring him. They were jealous since Nico was given a lot more food than the others in order to help him along and despite this, he remained in bad body weight.

It was then that Nico had decided what to do. He was going to pluck up the courage and ask his older siblings to play with him. He stood up and walked slowly towards his siblings before asking with his adorable high pitched voice in an innocent squeak "Why won't you play with me?"

The others glared coldly at Nico before the oldest stood up and marched towards Nico before squeaking meanly "You don't belong here, squirt! Why don't you just fly away and leave?!"

Nico was taken back. He never thought he'd hear his brother say this and he told him dryly "We can't fly yet, Antonio. Ya know that."

But Antonio just stomped a foot on his baby brother's chest to pin him down and hold him as he watched him struggle. An evil smirk appeared on his beak "Well, short stuff. Our nest ain't big enough for the 5 of us." He looked over his shoulder behind him to face his younger siblings "Am I right?"

The others nodded in agreement with their own evil smirks as they glared at Nico coldly. Nico gulped in fear as the shadows of his in coming siblings washed over him and he hid himself in his small wings in order to shield himself from his incoming siblings "Mama and papa won't be happy!"

Antonio just snickered and told Nico before picking him up strongly in his wings and holding him above his head as he made his way to the hole of the tree where there was no padding "Oh, our parents will never miss you!"

Nico gasped as Antonio dropped him and he smacked into a lot of branches that broke his fall before, while he was flapping his wings in a fruitless attempt, he fell face first into the ground below. He stood up and looked up tearfully at his brother's and sister whom all blew raspberries at him and Nico sadly limped away as his leg was pretty sore from the impact.

Antonio's words were still fresh in his mind and he soon realised that...he was right.

Ever since he had hatched, his parents doted on his every needs and they seemed awfully tired. Maybe he was being a burden to them without knowing it, he never thought of it like that before.

Maybe he was stupid and weak...

Never had the young Canary been so sad as he exited the jungle with tears streaming from his eyes and he looked to the ground the whole way and before he knew it, he found himself wondering in the cold, heavy rain that numbed his whole body so he couldn't feel a thing, except his injuries.

Little Nico limped helplessly on the cold, concrete ground.

He also felt wet and the Canary chick's whole body was weighing heavily with dejection and depression. He never expected a huge gust of wind to pick him up and he was blown with the wind into a nearby alley way and he spread his wings to the side in order to parachute himself from the wind and he glided in a battered soup can that laid against a few boxes.

The skies were grey and rumbled with thunder. Lightning occasionally clapped and frightened the little bundle of yellow feathers and he sniffed, his eyes welling up with tears.

Nico was cold and hungry as he wrapped his tiny wings against his own puffed out chest and he shivered from the cold and he shut his eyes to try and sleep, but due to the freezing weather; he couldn't do such a thing.

As he cried to himself, nestling his little head against his soaking wet pair of wings, he heard someone speaking. He didn't know if it was to him because he felt like he was invisible to the world around him. He kept his eyes closed while he gained a hold of his sobbing form.

The young Canary gasped when he felt a warm, gentle wing placed upon his thin shoulder blade and he opened his eyes and looked up to see a grown up Parakeet who had the finest jungle green feathers and he had lighter green spots under his eyes. The parakeet gave the softest smile he could, brightening the dark atmosphere as he did.

Nico wiped a wing across his big eyes and asked tearfully "Wha? Who are you?" the little canary tried to sheild himself from the big drops of rain that dripped from the round rim of the open can.

The Green Parakeet grinned at the sight of the little Canary.

It was very endearing to see such a young creature but worrying that he looked like a wreck...and orphaned.

Looking around with a frown, the adult macaw queried with his wise head on one side "Nevermind that, little guy, where are you're parents?"

Nico whimpered. Should he tell the parakeet that his siblings had kicked him out of the nest? Should he even be opening up to a stranger? He didn't bother to shake himself dry since he felt useless to the world and wanted to drown in the big fat raindrops accumulating around his body.

Eventually, after an encouraging look from the big bird, Nico decided to spill the beans and told the parakeet everything.

The green parrot listened without inturrupting although the rain hammering in the background didn't really make the scene altogether quiet. He had seated himself beside the little Canary chick and wrapped a comforting wing around him to shelter him from the cold of the evening.

Whence Nico finished his story, he wailed as he collapsed against the adult bird.

The bird frowned sympathetically as he hesitated in wrapping his wings around the little chick but he could totally understand the little guy's plight and his reasons for why he had not just stayed at home. His siblings would probably slaughter him otherwise...

"Shhh...it's alright, kid, I've gotcha." The parakeet soothed, rubbing the crying Canary's little back.

Nico buried his face in the green plumage covering the parrot's chest.

Eventually the little yellow Canary cried himself to sleep against the parakeet's chest, still curled in his wings. The bird eventually hoisted the little one up on to his back as he decided to get the little fellow out of the rain and make sure he didn't catch cold.

He took flight immediately and took to the skies, avoiding the lightening that lit up the dark skyline as he carried the little chick on his back. He couldn't help but notice the bone-thin features of this brave little yellow Canary and he strongly felt pity because of this.

It took what felt like an eternity of flying but he eventually reached an abandoned warehouse where a certain other little one was awaiting his arrival.

"Yo, Nando!" A chubby little Red crested cardinal greeted with his big eyes shining in excitement, softly flapping his little wings as he circled a pillar supporting the house before meeting the green parakeet halfway before stopping in midair and frowning innocently when he saw a little thing curled up on his adoptive father's back.

Pointing his wing at the yellow ball, little Pedro took instant note of the object when the parakeet, named Nando, perched himself on a nearby support beam while shaking his feathers dry from the droplets of rain soaking him to the skin.

Pedro inquisitively perched next to the adult.

"Nando, what's that thing?"

Nando picked up the Canary in his beak before plopping him down in front of Pedro. Pedro peered in close to the little bird and furrowed an eye ridge at him with a curious frown. He noticed that the little guy looked rather roughed up from the journey.

"Darn, dude..." Pedro gasped, stroking the little Canary on the head "...what happened to him?"

Nando replied with a shake of the head "Found the poor lil' guy crying in a soup can in an alleyway. His siblings kinda roughed him up and he looks like he's got a broken leg."

Pedro looked sympathetic to the little yellow featherball's situation. He didn't know the concept of having any siblings since Nando had began looking after him after his own father died and he was an only child before then. However, should he have had any siblings, he would have most definitely loved them.

Looking back up, Pedro asked in a squeaky childish voice "..What're we gonna do, Nando?"

Nando looked thoughtful for a few minutes. What could he do? He certainly couldn't go back home and he really should speak with the little one's parents before thinking on a different course of action.

So, with a hopeful smirk, Nando looked down at Pedro "Tell ya what, Pedro, if things go right then we might just end up with another addition to our group."

Pedro's eyes lit up like fireworks upon hearing that. His heart felt like it was going to burst as he felt really happy that he was probably going to have a brother to call his own! He sung joyfully "I'm gonna have a bro, I'm gonna have a bro, I'm gonna have a bro~"

Nando chuckled with a smile. Pedro was a delightful little guy whom found joy in everything despite being an orphan and he could not help but find the kid's musical talents quite amazing too. He felt proud and he couldn't help but find the two kids cute when he pictured the two of them together in a singing group.

He placed a happy wing on Pedro to calm him down while they both looked at how scrapped up he had become and then the two proceeded to get him somewhere to lie down before wrapping up his broken leg.

They really hoped that Nico would join their family.


A/N: Thats the first chapter.

Poor Nico.

I thought that it would make sense if Nico started out like that because he is rather thin and does look like the sort of bird to be a runt. Plus he's very special so its likely he was treated badly when he was young because of his thin.

Anyways, please review.

-Chloemcg