Hey, I'm back with a brand new family genre for an all new fic-type! This is dedicated especially to a dear partner and follower, John2851, who brought up the idea for this! I have always been a fan of Rio and this is my appreciation!
Now, let's get started!
Rio de Janeiro has always been a place full of beauty, wondrous surprises and adventurous fun. And no one's found that out the hard way better than one Linda Gunderson, now, as of almost a month ago, Linda Monterio.
Rio had always seemed like a faraway dream, getaway for her; an ideal place to go to get away from troubles at home, but was just out of her reach. The kind of idea that was plenty of fun to entertain and Linda would be lying if she said that she hadn't daydreamed what it be like to go there at least one for a sparring week, if even, but she had never, in all her life thought she would actually go, much less move and get married there.
Yet, it had happened. And it had all begun when the most bizarre, yet the most awkwardly cute man enter her life when he almost skated/slid right into her bookstore. One Dr. Tulio Monterio had traveled to her original store with the sole purpose of bringing her long-time friend and almost brother-figure, Blu the Blue Sphinx Macaw, back with him to Rio to mate with a female Blue Sphinx Macaw named Jewel, to ultimately save their species, since there had been no other blue Macaw birds seen anywhere in Rio. Linda hadn't been entirely onboard with the whole idea, mostly because she's never really gone very far from home before and she was afraid it would mean saying goodbye to Blu for good, but in the end, she agreed, after catching Blu attempting to teach himself how to fly, she figured actually interacting with Jewel would do him some good.
Everything was actually rather nice at first, even if the pre-celebration of Carnival did catch her a little off guard, seeing the aviary for the first time was an experience Linda didn't plan to forget. It still amazed her to see so many different birds in one place, of different sizes and almost every color of the rainbow. She had been hesitant in leaving Blu alone with Jewel, but they seemed to get along and she loved getting to know Rio cuisine, even if the service did throw her off a bit.
Plus, it gave her a chance to really get to know Tulio, he was cut in that awkward, but down-to-earth, science-y kind of way and his passion for birds was admirable and it take her a moment to catch on to his type of jokes, but all together it was rather nice. But things took a turn when they received news that Blu and Jewel…had been stolen.
They had been stolen by a boy, no older than possibly eight or nine named Fernando, a local, who tried in vain to make amends by bringing them to where he had taken them, only to discover the poachers' hideaway barren and empty save a few feathers on the floor of a side room. Linda couldn't bring herself to stay mad at him, especially after seeing how guilty he really was that his actions could lead to both birds getting seriously hurt or worse.
They didn't get the birds back and it broke Linda's heart to think she would never see her Blu again, until she saw him flying. Her Big Brave Boy was flying! And had carried Jewel carefully in his talons, who had injured her wing in their escape, as well as a white cockatoo named Nigel on his back, who seemed to also have injured his wings.
She had wanted to go home, but she saw how worried and protective Blu seemed to be of Jewel and realized her Big Brave Boy…had found love…and she didn't have the heart to separate him from her, even if it did mean saying goodbye. But imagine her surprise when Tulio mentioned seeing a place near the aviary that was almost literally identical to her store back home that was for sale and knew a few places that had spare books they could donate, including himself and she almost knocked him over with a squeal, knowing if she bought the place and moved her store up here, then she wouldn't have to say goodbye.
This, of course, led to her spending just as much time in the aviary as she did preparing her new store, which meant lots of time with Tulio, which in turn lead to maybe a couple more dates…or a lot more. She also saw much more of Fernando, who was volunteering as much time as he possibly could to work in the aviary with Tulio, caring for the birds. Linda wasn't sure if it was from guilty conscious or he simply had a curiosity for birds in general, but she found watching Tulio answer and explain whatever questions Fernando had adorable, so she didn't complain.
It wasn't until a full year had passed that Tulio had finally popped that big questioned and he had gone all out in both the way he was going to do it as well as the mood. He had originally wanted to do that big public display of it being written out on a game board, but Fernando, shockingly, turned him away from, saying it was something she wouldn't have wanted. So, instead, he went with every romantic cliché he could think of; wine, flower petals, candle-light, soft music, her favorite meal, he even presented her with a bouquet of her favourite flower; white callas when he picked her up at the store. When he finally showed her the ring and asked, she really did tackle him this time around, crying and saying yes so many times her face almost turned as blue as, well, Blu.
Then day itself was just as perfect, since both Tulio and her mother refused to give her any less than the best. Her mother had tailored her own wedding dress so Linda could live out her childhood dream of getting married in her mother's dress, yet gave it a few touches, like ruffling the sleeves so it looked like swan wings, like out of the Swan Princess, to give it some personality to better suit Linda.
Fernando had, apparently, somehow talked every bird in the aviary to take part in the ceremony, don't ask her or Tulio how, but as she walked down the aisle to the man of her dreams, near countless of birds were twirling elegantly above, either dropping pink petals around her as she went or weaving long darker pink and white ribbons through the air in a magnificent aerial display. And as for the icing on the cake, Blu and Jewel led it all as every bird present sang as one in one big, beautiful symphony of 'Here Comes the Bride', Rio-version. As for the actual cake, her favourite, vanilla with cream-cheese frosting that was dyed blue with icing callas. It was all like something out of a fairy-tale.
And truth be told, Linda wouldn't have had it any other way. Just as, despite all that would happen, she wouldn't have changed anything that happened that helped bring her to this moment in her life. Which was what led up to this moment right now.
It had, in truth, started out like any other day, she had Fernando's attention for the day and he was being nothing but a delight with either helping organize the books or doing inventory or just tidying things up. Yet, as the day had worn on, Linda began to notice some things as she watched Fernando. It finally dawned on her that he would always be around even late into the night when most children would sound at home under their parents' watchful gazes, yet Fernando made every excuse both in and not in the book to prolong his stay either here in the store or at the aviary. At first she and Tulio both thought it had to do with the debt he felt he owed for taking Blu and Jewel in the first place, but lately, she felt that there might have been more to it and now that she thought on it, she couldn't quite recall Fernando ever mentioning his parents, heck she couldn't even remember ever seeing them at her wedding with the boy or ever meeting them.
So, with it now dark out, Linda and Tulio, who had finished his duties at the aviary early to spend time with his wife and young friend, were trying to convince Fernando to let Tulio drive him home.
"I'm stronger than I look!" Fernando protested once more. "We both know that, Fernando, really," Linda tried to console, "But there are a lot of bad people out there."
"And we'd both feel a lot better knowing one of actually saw you reach your door safe and sound," Tulio added with as much concern as he could show, not wanting to scare Fernando, "Fernando, the last thing Linda or I want is to wake up tomorrow to discover you missing and I'm sure its the last thing your parents would want."
Neither of them missed how Fernando flinched and looked away a little, a shine of guilt passing over his face for a moment before twisting back into his facade of persistence and annoyance. A thought crossed Linda's mind, a thought that gave her an almost sickening feeling in her stomach, but she still asked, "Fernando...how do your parents feel about you spending so much time here with us?"
Fernando froze up at this question, looking much like a deer caught in a car's headlights. This just amplified the feeling in Linda's stomach and it started to fester in Tulio, who said, "Fernando...you did tell your parents about this...didn't you?" But Fernando didn't response, looking very panicked as Tulio stressed, "Fernando?"
After a long moment, Fernando hung his head and finally admitted in a low voice, "No."
Linda's face, despite the cold, icy feeling in her stomach, pinched with confusion, "Why ever not? Did you even tell them how to contact you if they needed you?"
Fernando shocked them both when his face sudden morphed into a dark scowl as he muttered, mostly to himself, "Kinda hard for them to care when they're not-" But he seemed to remember where he was because he once again looked like a deer caught in the headlights and could only look at them with both horror and fear as they stared back now even more confused and even more concerned.
"Now what?" Linda questioned though she had a pretty good idea and she could tell that the pieces were starting to fit for Tulio too, but she had to hear him say it, so she pressed, "They're what, Fernando?"
"Nothing!" Fernando shook his head, answering rather quickly, too quickly, "Its nothing important!"
"No, its not nothing," Linda persisted. "Linda-" Tulio tried to warn, but Linda wouldn't listen. "What is it?" Linda pushed, "Are they alright? Are they sick?"
"No..." Fernando shook his head again. "Are they in the hospital? Who's watching out for you at home?" Linda pursued and Tulio could tell it was starting to get to Fernando.
"Linda, I really don't..." Tulio tried again. "I said its nothing!" Fernando insisted, "Just forget it!"
"Fernando, I'm worried about you," Linda tried to console, "If there's something wrong at home-"
"NO!" Fernando finally exploded, "THERE'S NOTHING WRONG OKAY, I DON'T HAVE ANY PARENTS, ALRIGHT? SO JUST STOP!" But his brain caught up with his mouth and his eyes widened in horror as Tulio and Linda stared back in shock, Fernando then bolted out the door, ignoring their shouts to come back.
Since then, Fernando's been avoiding them. It took a while for them to figure out what was going on with him, mostly it was them following him to his little tree-house to discover he was, more or less, homeless. A social worker had come by with food and would talk to him for a while and then would leave with a disappointed and concerned expression. It didn't taken them long to come to a decision about the situation, which was led them to where they were now, sitting in the office of the very social worker that had visited Fernando.
The woman was a little shorter than Linda with the typical Rio complexion of a life-long resident with equally dark hair that had been pulled back into a elegant, if a little messy and fuzzy, bun. She wore a smile on her face, a smile that reached her soft green eyes, full of sincerity and a friendly, yet professional nature. She wore a long sleeved, white button up blouse under a dark, navy blue, buttoned up blouse and black pencil skirt. This, coupled with her white stockings and black ankle boots, created a rather nice professional look that seemed to fit her and her job.
"Mr. and Mrs. Monterio," She, a quick glance at her name plaque allowed Linda to quickly re-learn her name as Lusia Flores, smiled on as she straightened out a few trinkets on her desk, before motioning to the plush, stylish chairs in front of her desk, "Please, sit."
Linda relaxed a little at the friendly attitude already being shown as she and Tulio sat in the surprisingly comfortable chairs. "Now," Lusia continued once satisfied with the condition of her desk, looked at the couple properly, smile still in place, "How can I help you two on this beautiful day?"
"Well, Miss Flores-" Tulio began politely. "Mrs, actually," Lusia interrupted smile not once wavering, a fondness crossing her eyes. "Mrs. Flores, apologizes," Tulio corrected himself, flushing.
"No harm, common assumption," Lusia assured tone warm. "Well, Mrs. Flores, my wife and I wish to adopt a child under your care, a boy named Fernando," Tulio explained their reason for being here, making Lusia stiffen for a moment, eyes wide in surprise, before standing, making a quick trip to her file cabinet to retrieve a file.
When she returned she opened it and took out a picture. When she placed it on the table, she slid it towards them. Linda and Tulio leaned forward a bit to see it was a picture of their young companion, hopefully soon to be son, he was standing with a group of other children, most likely other orphans. He was smiling, but it wasn't a smile that reached his eyes. To them, it looked...false.
"Is...this the boy you wish to adopt?" Lusia asked in a careful tone, as if trying not to get her hopes up. "Yes," Linda said without any hesitation, a smile on her face as she remembered all the times she watched Fernando bombard Tulio with questions and managed to pull the man away from his duties long enough to play a little quick game of football (soccer, not actual football) with him, "This is him."
"Oh thank you God!" Lusia sighed heavily in relief, much to their confusion, "I'm sorry, I've just been waiting so long for that boy to finally get the family he deserves."
"What...what happened to his parents exactly?" Tulio dared himself to ask, making Lusia sigh. She only took a number of papers that had been paper-clipped together and slid it to them as she said, "As much as it isn't my place to say, you do deserve to know if you are going to take him in."
Confused, Tulio and Linda looked at the first paper and were confused to find it to be a report, a police report. A report of arson. A feeling of dread welled up in both of them as they looked for certain details. Uncertain points of origin, at least three possibilities; the fireplace, the kitchen stove and a corner where an outlet was located in the den. Accelerant was used, gasoline. The entire house was up in flames by the time the fire department got there. A neighbor had seen the flames and a person in a hood exiting the back door and jumping the fence, and had gotten Fernando, who had to have been only two at the time, out before the flames could trap them in. Two bodies with bullet wounds had been recovered from the wreck. Fernando was the only survivor.
By the time they had looked the whole report over, Linda and Tulio were both in shock and devastated, Linda had tears falling down her cheeks and Tulio, startlingly, looked murderous that Fernando had been put through such a tramatizing event so early in life and lost his parents. But the next paper had them both gasping. It was a newspaper article with a picture of a house up in boiling hot flames as a few firemen tried desperately to put it out as a few neighbors only watched on in horror as it burned. The headline read 'couple killed and arson rises suspicion', it read that Fernando's mother was an ordinary housewife and his father a lawyer, who had apparent crossed a couple of bad people, for both good and bad reasons and many theories were made that it had been a gang hit, particularly, the main suspect had been a client Fernando's father had recently failed to get an acquittal for and was now serving a long sentence.
But the next paper, another article, had Linda bawling in horror and sadness. One picture showed an elderly man with a striking resemblance to Fernando being led away in cuffs. The other a severely beaten five year old Fernando in a hospital bed, heavily banged, including his left eye and one leg was in a cast and was being held up in a sling. He was clearly asleep, else the reporter wouldn't have gotten such a picture in the first place. Put it was the headline that had Tulio look ready to storm out. It read 'grandfather arrested for abusing five-year-old grandson', describing below that Fernando had been given to his only living relative, his maternal grandfather, who seemed to have lost his marbles and blamed his daughter's death on Fernando himself to point of physically attacking the boy.
"Please tell the monster's dead," Tulio demanded the social worker once he found his voice, which came out in a growl, a very rare display of anger. Lusia wasn't the least bit surprised as she answered, "Unfortunately, no, but thankfully, still in prison, where he'll be rotting for the rest of his days, away from Fernando."
Tulio and Linda both sighed, "Good."
"He talks about you two a lot, you know," Lusia decided to change the subject, surprising the two as Linda slowly managed to calm down, "I've never seen Fernando warm up so quickly to an adult aside from me, much less two, like he was with you two. I think you two taking him in would do him a lot of good." Tulio and Linda smiled a little at this, glad she had such faith in them.
It took around an hour, but the wait was worth it. With an initial screening and printing up the paperwork, it took little time to fill the forums out and with a smile, Lusia had told them, "Congratulations, Fernando's all yours."
Linda, with renewed energy and determination to give Fernando the home he deserved, rushed for the store to retrieve what she needed to make Fernando's welcoming party a success. Together with Tulio, she whipped up a chocolate decorated with white icing.
Just as Fernando walked through the door, just as Lusia had assured them that he would when they had expressed concerned about him coming to them after explaining what helped them discover his situation, he was surprised to find the store was dark. But the lights were switched on to reveal a smiling Linda and Tulio, who were holding the cake for him to see the writing:
Welcome home, Fernando!
"Wait, so..." Fernando blinked in surprise, before becoming timid and unsure, "You're not...m-mad?"
Linda's heart broke at how afraid he seemed to be of them, but managed to keep her smile in place as she assured, "Of course not, sweetie, we can never be mad at you, if anything, I shouldn't have pushed you."
Tulio smiled and nodded in agreement as they set the cake down. "We really missed you kiddo, so did Blu, Jewel and Nigel, and the others at the aviary," Tulio said as they sat around the table.
"I-I-I'm sorry..." Fernando said both still a little frightened and guilt-ridden, "I...I just thought...you wouldn't want me around anymore...I'll make it up to you, really I will!"
"No, honey, why would ever think that, we'll always want you around!" Linda assured her maternal instincts kicking in, "And believe me, you don't have to do anything to show your sorry, we're just happy you're alright and you're back."
Fernando calmed down at the reassurance, but the words on the cake finally fully processed in his mind, "Wait, what do you mean 'welcome ho-" He cut himself off as he stared at them as they shared a happy smile.
They then placed a paper on the table and Linda slid it over to him. Hesitant, Fernando gingerly picked the paper up and looked at and nearly dropped up in shock. It was an adoption paper, for him!
He looked at them with uncertain, yet hopeful eyes that almost shone with tears as he asked, "R-Really?" They nodded, smiles never wavering despite how tears prickled at their own eyes at his reaction, "Y-You really..." They nodded once more.
Fernando, unable to contain himself, tossed the paper, ran around the table as the two stood and threw himself at them, wrapping his arms around them as best he could, crying tears of long repressed stress, sorrow as well as newly formed happiness. Smiling, the newly made parents hugged their new son back, silently vowing to craft new, better, happier memories, for both themselves and Fernando.
But when they pulled back, they realized Fernando had cried himself into exhaustion and shared another smile, a more sad, yet relieved one. Tulio frowned momentarily at how easily he was able to lift Fernando into his arms as he carried the boy upstairs into the guest room he and Linda were already planning to convert into Fernando's very own bedroom, to tuck him in, while Linda put the cake into a container to save for tomorrow.
He didn't know how, but he knew, tomorrow was the start of a whole new life. For all three of them. And Tulio couldn't wait for it to start.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd DONE! I think I gave myself blisters. Can you give yourself blisters typing so many words nonstop? Or is that cramps? Either way, my fingers hurt.
Well, John, I hope you like this chapter and to the rest of you Rio fans (assuming there are any left still interest to find and read this) I hope I didn't tread to far down a dark-ish path to make it too antsy or dramatic for anyone's taste. I just felt Fernando's past needed to be clarified, you know, give his parents' absence a sensible, if maybe a bit of mysterious and maybe a bit cliched explanation.
Don't worry John, there will lots of humor in the next chapter, I promise! I just feel the best way to start any good family genre, especially one of adoption is to get certain details like this out of the way as quick as possible.
Please, let me know what you all think in the reviews, I really like hearing what people honestly thinking. Makes me a better writer I guess.
Now, I'm going to stop typing before my fingers break. See you in the next chapter!
Oh and before I forget, Merry Christmas all!