Chapter 1
I often eat alone.
Blu slowly woke, his mind still hazy from the last days events, considering whether or not it was all a dream, yet as he opened his eyes he found himself inside of the hollow they had made home the aviary, Blu knew how much Jewel still didn't trust humans even if she didn't show it, so he made it so it was out of view of any of the camera's, he wanted it to be his and Jewels secret, however Tulio and Linda had a good guess at what he was up to when they had caught Blu trying to sneak pillows from the clinic's lounge, he looked around the hollow, it was easily big enough for three or four birds, or it was until Blu had brought in some what he called "homely comforts"
The macaw looked down to his left, smiling at the sight of the sleeping sky blue bird that was Jewel, she was sleeping a short distance away, which he found odd, he was sure she was further away the when they went to sleep the night before, Not wanting to wake her, Blu gently stood up, and slinked towards the entrance of the hollow, the room was still shady and free of the ambient bird song that usually played during the day. "Tulio mustn't be up yet" Blu thought to himself in a whisper, as if he thought too loudly it would wake Jewel. He glided down to the ground and walked toward the door to the treatment room, to which Tulio had added a bird flap, allowing Blu, and Jewel to enter and exit the aviary if they wanted to, however they were told they weren't to leave the clinic without either Tulio or Linda.
Blu walked through the bird flap and into the treatment room. Although Blu had only been in this room twice before it seemed very familiar to him, The room was large with many windows, it was much brighter than the aviary, which meant Blu was blinded for a second while his eyes adjusted, the room was long, many high counters holding different medical equipment prevented Blu from seeing to the other end, however he could tell that the walls were lined with wooden cupboards filled with more equipment and bottles of medicine, or what Blu assumed to be medicine anyway. Artificial branches and which made for perches crossed the ceiling, and nest hung from every opportunity, they were crammed with sleeping birds of many shapes and sizes, some of which Blu recognised from the plane accident the day before, however Blu was sure he saw a chicken in the mist of canaries, macaws and cockatoos, and now that he thought about it, he was sure that chicken was painted blue...
Blu strolled through the treatment room, and flew up to a desk where he found Tulio deep in sleep, drooling onto what looked like a medical form. "Good morning!" greeted Blu and almost rudely waking Tulio from his sleep. "Oh good morning Blu, just the bird I've been wanting to talk to!" replied Tulio as if speaking to a person, with that he stretched and extended his arm for Blu to perch onto, leading him to what Blu assumed was a kitchen. "I've been thinking about cooking a meal for Linda, because we spend so much time in the clinic, it is sometimes too late for her have a proper meal at her apartment, of course" Tulio sheepishly explained "And I thought since no one knows Linda more than you do, you could help me pick what to cook for her" he said placing Blu down and beginning to route through a large fridge. Blu was slightly muddled as to how he could help with this matter, however they eventually settled on a fillet of some exotic Brazilian fish that Blu had never heard of, its then that Blu noticed a bowl of fruit on a table a short distance away. "Maybe I should make a meal for Jewel, she might be a bit happier with staying here until her wings healed" Blu thought to himself. He flapped over to the bowl and gave Tulio what Blu thought humans considered to be a "look!" squawk. Tulio gave a hearty laugh "oh you don't want these fruit Blu, here let me show you" and with that walked over to the door into the treatment room, holding it open for Blu to walk through, although Blu could now fly, he still felt more at ease walking around, especially indoors. In the treatment room Tulio led Blu over to a smaller fridge with a glass door, inside Blu could see a variety of exotic fruit, some which he recognised, some that he didn't. "You could use these ones if you wanted Blu, I'm sure Jewel would love them, me and Linda could help you get everything ready" to which Blu replied with a "thank you" squawk.
When Blu returned to the aviary Jewel was up and awake, she was washing herself in one the small streams that ran through the room, "hey there Bobo!" she said as he approached. "Again with the Bobo?" he replied, Bobo had been Jewels nickname for Blu since they had met Rafael, although Blu didn't particularly like the name, he much preferred it to "nerd bird" his last nickname that the geese back In Minnesota gave him. "How's the wing?" he asked, after all he got was a teasing smile from Jewel. "Broken" She answered sarcastically "It aches a bit, but I'll be fine, don't worry about it" she added giving Blu a slight nudge. Blu smiled down at her, almost becoming lost in her eyes before forcing himself to look away and loudly cough hoping that she hadn't noticed. Jewel laughed giving him a small peck on his cheek. "Coming Bobo?" she asked starting to walk back to the tree that contained their hollow, "errr, yeah.. sure" he responded in shock and followed her up into the tree and onto a branch They spent the day lazing inside the clearing as Blu explained "wanted to go 5 minutes without almost being killed" they were only disturbed by Linda when she sneaked in some strawberry ice cream, which was Blu's favourite, for the two of them. Blu also went out to discuss his plan to make Jewel a meal to Nico, Pedro and Rafael, to which they found highly surprising and impressive, as the most romantic thing they had seen Blu do was admit to Jewel that his eyes were beautiful. "You gotta have candles bro, chicks dig that sorta' thang" Pedro advised him. "And music, amigo play the right song and you'll have jewel head over heels" added Rafael.
"so you're sure it'll be okay?" jewel asked Blu, her face filled with nervousness, "oh sure" casually replied the macaw "I used to get check-up's all the time back in Minnesota, it's just to make sure that you wing is healing up okay" Jewel sheepishly smiled, at the macaws attempt at calming her nerves, nevertheless she could not see a way out of the situation, and slowly perched herself onto the arm of Tulio, who led her out into the treatment room. After the door had closed and Blu heard Tulio footsteps fade away, he moved over to the entrance hole Blu had been pushed through on his first day in Rio, he tapped the door with his beak and it instantly opened. Blu walked into the dimness of the monitoring room where Linda was waiting with two small tea plates filled with fruit and seeds, she gave a giggle at the sight of him, "oh Blu, you soppy bird", Blu did not answer, he just hoped that his blush wasn't visible through his feathers, but had a horrible feeling that It did. He hurriedly took the plates into the aviary one at a time, setting them down next to one of the streams, he also brought in a small red birthday candle which he had found earlier that day. Everything set, he thought, proudly smiling to himself.
Jewel sighed irritably. "hurry up then" she thought to herself, glaring at Tulio as he strolled through the treatment room, which annoyed jewel greatly, Tulio usually walked at a fair pace, jogging almost at times. Why now have you chosen to be so slow? Intensing her glare. Tulio checked his watch for the fourth time this minute "umm.. Okay jewel all I need to do now is to take a quick x-ray and then you can go" he said, checking his watch for a fifth time. "Finally" jewel growled as Tulio set up the x-ray machine. A minute later the x-ray had been taken and Tulio was carrying Jewel back through into the aviary, however when they got to the door he set her down on the floor and opened the door for her "in you go jewel" he said smiling. Jewel thought this was odd, she was expecting him to carry her in and over to Blu, however she didn't complain, although eyeballed him slightly as she walked through the door. She was still eyeing Tulio when she had taken a few steps into the aviary, she wasn't sure of what Tulio was planning, although she was defiantly not expecting the wink that she got as he closed the door behind her. Confused she stared at the door for a few seconds before hearing the strangest sound. The sounds of a singer, similar to the song Nico had sung on the tram rang through the aviary. She slowly turned round, but what she saw next made her beak to drop.
Blu stood next to the candle, from Jewels view he was completely silhouetted, she stood entranced, unable to piece together what she was seeing. "oh god, I'm going to have to say something" Blu thought after 10 seconds of silence had past and jewel was still stood beak dropped, "I knew you weren't very happy with staying here so long, so… so I errr…" Blu began but trialled away as jewel started to laugh "Blu you made this?" she asked, apparently out of her trance as she walked over to Blu, observing the fruit hungrily. "Yes!, well.. Tulio and Linda helped, and Pedro, oh and Raf..'" he began to explain but Jewel had put a feather to his beak, "you're meant to just say yes silly!" she giggled.
They ate the meal slowly, not souly to saviour how good it tasted, but more to make the moment last longer, to both of them it was perfect, and each lover the other, and although they hadn't confessed this yet it seemed to make it much more a perfect moment, not confined to just they're feelings, they could talk, laugh and act stupid with each other, they talked about what they were going to do after they were released into the wild, although Blu was still convinced that they would part ways. The two macaws remained at the riverside long after the food had gone and the music had stopped playing, the candle had almost burnt down to the floor, washing the aviary with long shadows and a delicate orange glow.
Blu and Jewel lay close together on the riverside, laying silently, happy with just the sound of running water and the others company. "That was amazing" beamed Jewel after letting out a hefty belch, "w-well I'm glad y-you liked it" Blu managed to slur, his heart was racing and it had no intentions of slowing, Jewel giggled and gave him a slight shove, she loved Blu, despite the fact that he can hardly string a sentence to her at times. She laid her head upon his shoulder and the two watched as the last of the candle burned away, plunging the room into darkness. The macaws both slipped away into a contented slumber.