READ FIRST! As you read the first quarter of the this chapter, don't think I'm trying to completely rip off the movie. This just seemed like a good starting place if I wanted to show the night of the last day.

The cargo door, their gateway to freedom, was taking an eternity to open as Marcel repeatedly shoved the door to the cockpit.

Come on, Come on, Blu thought. The other birds were all getting ready to take off. I hope they all make it back home, he thought to himself, knowing well that he couldn't fly. Finally, when the door stopped, he jumped from the wall and ordered every bird to jump out. "GO, GO, GO!"

"FREEDOOOOOM!" Pedro yelled and the rainbow of birds all flew out in the direction of land.

Jewel grabbed his wing and pulled him to get off the plan as quickly as possible. "Come one. Come on, we gotta get out!"

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" he said, escaping Jewel's grasp.

Jewel came to a stop just as she opened her wings. She turned around to the scared bird behind her. She walked over to him to give words of comfort. "Um, it's okay. Hey, it's okay. We'll figure this out together," she extended a wing out to him, "Right?"

Her face of concern quickly turned to horror as a laughing Nigel flew threw the door and landed on Blu's neck. "Let him go!" she yelled, jumping on to the giant cockatoo to attack. He easily threw her to the wall, knocking over a cage that landed on her wing, causing her to yell in pain.

"Jewel!" That son of a...

"My wing!" she explained through the pain.

"Oh, pity," Nigel said sarcastically, "now we have two useless flightless birds." He choked Blu harder and laughed. Blu noticed the fire extinguisher he used to open his cage right behind Nigel, so he reached for the hook and put it on Nigel's leg. "Ooh?" Nigel said, having no idea what was going on.

"Not cool man, Not cool," he said sternly to Nigel, before pulling the pin, making the extinguisher rocket him out through the cockpit window. As he gasped for air, the plane started to shake. He had no time to worry about that though, because Jewel was slipping out the plane.

"BLU!" she yelled for him. He ran over to her as quickly as he could but she fell just as he got there. Jewel screamed as she desperately flapped one wing.

Blu hesitated at the edge only to think, I have to. I'm dead anyway. He jumped with his eyes closed and screamed when he "discovered" where he was. As soon as he reached Jewel, he held her in his wings.

"Blu, you're crazy! What are you doing!" she yelled, angered by his decision to throw his life away.

He raised his head above hers and assured her, "I'm not gonna let you go! We're chained-to-each-other-birds, remember?"

Her eyes widened in shock. She looked in to his eyes as her anger diminished to nothing. She was touched that he would give up everything, just to be with her for just a few more seconds. With her eyes closed, she threw her beak to his. Blu's heart skipped a beat as he caught the surprise kiss from his crush. He closed his eyes in bliss and eased in to it. He no longer felt afraid of death, as he could die a happy bird. Something was strange, though. What was this feeling in his chest? Is this what Rafael was talking about? The rhythm of his heart? He was to busy focusing on this to realize that he was spreading his wings.

When his wings were opened at their maximum, he opened his eyes. Instinctively, as if he had done it before, he positioned himself parallel to the water and took himself by surprise when they started moving along the water rather than in to it. He flapped his wings twice to move away from the water. "Oh, wow!" he said, at a loss for words.

"Blu! You're flying!" Jewel said from underneath him, being held onto by Blu's feet.

"Yeah, woohoo! I'm flying! I'm really flying!" he exclaimed, clearly more excited than her. "You were right! I'm not an ostrich, I'm not an ostrich!"

...

After barrelrolling through cable cars to avoid death a second time, he managed to fly his way back to the airport. He could see Túlio, Linda, and Fernando sitting on a plane's wing that had been broken off from Linda's reckless driving. He started flying down to them when Linda looked up, stood, and started telling them, though it was obvious, that Blu was back and that he was flying. Blu descended to the ground as the human trio ran over to them. Linda fell to her knees to get more on their level. She was overwhelmed with joy. Túlio saw Jewel cringe in pain and noticed the state of her wing. He kneeled next to Linda and put his hands out to Jewel. Jewel scooted back in fear, but was unintentionally stopped by Blu. He put a wing on her and gave her a smile that said, "It'll be okay." She knew she could trust Blu, so if he trusted Túlio, she knew she could trust him too. Túlio picked her up carefully as she looked back at Blu.

Blu flew up to Linda's shoulder when Túlio said, "Come on we gotta get back to the Conservation Center."

...

On the taxi ride back to the Conservation Center, Fernando sighed and wondered, "I hope all the other birds are alright." This made both Linda and Túlio look over at him. There was guilt in his voice. Blu climbed over to him and tapped his arm with his claw. Blu gave Fernando an assuring nod with a smile.

Fernando's expression lightened up a bit, before Túlio commented. "I thought there would be other birds on that plane! It's good to know that they're safe."

...

When they finally got back to the Center, Túlio paid the taxi driver and briskly walked inside. Linda and Fernando walked just as fast. Everyone inside gave them weird stares. It didn't take Linda and Túlio very long to look down at themselves and realize that they were still wearing their Carnival outfits. Túlio paused for a second before taking authority. "Okay, everybody, it's a long story, but I haven't been partying. Jewel has a broken wing and I need volunteers to help me out with this. Everybody suddenly ran over to him, eager to help him. "You and you," Túlio said pointing to two random people in lab coats. Before they could leave to operate on Jewel, who looked frightened and uncertain about what they would do to her, Blu flew over to her, landing on Túlio's arm. Blu rubbed her neck with his tenderly and she rubbed back.

"Blu, I think you should go wait in the breeding room," Túlio told him. Blu agreed and flew over to the door that he was led in to on his first visit. A nearby assistant helped him in. Inside, he looked around the familiar room. He saw the tree where he first tried to kiss Jewel (he'd have tell Nico and Pedro about that). He chuckled to himself and flew up to it.

...

A metal screech woke him up from the nap he'd fallen into on accident. He quickly looked over to the metal hatch. Through it came a scared-looking Jewel. When she turned left, obviously looking for Blu, he immediately noticed the cast around her wing. For some reason he felt as if it was his fault she'd gotten it in the first place. He ignored it and flew down to her. "Jewel!" he called.

She looked up in the direction of his voice and said, "Blu!" in return. Blu landed right in front of her and she immediately pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. Although she could only use one wing, she could use it pretty well.

"It's... good... to see... that... you're... doing well..." he said in between microscopic breaths.

Realizing the amount of force she was applying, she let go of him to give him a chance at some air. "Oh Blu, I was so scared with all those humans around me!" she explained to him, before burying her face in his chest in tears.

Blu did the only thing he could to comfort her and patted her on the head and said, "It's okay, Jewel. I'm here right now."

She took her face out of his chest and said, "I know, thanks."

"How about we get some sleep? It's been a long day." Blu suggested, motioning his head toward the tree he was on earlier.

"That guy—"

"Túlio?"

"Yeah, him. He told me to sleep in the hollow until my wing gets better."

"Hollow?" Blu asked, confused.

"Here, I'll show you."

Jewel led him to the central tree and pointed to a hole in it. "Right there."

"Hm, never knew that was there. Okay," Blu said before flying behind her.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Jewel inquired.

"I thought I'd carry you up there," Blu answered, confused as to why she'd ask.

She walked a foot away and turned to him. "No thanks, Blu. I can climb up there," she said, looking over to the pegs in a tree that Blu climbed when they first met.

"Are you sure?" he asked, not confident in her disability.

"Yes," she answered in an annoyed tone.

"Okay," Blu agreed, not wanting to upset her further.

Jewel clumsily climbed up the ladder. Blu decided to climb too, as he saw no point in flying. When they reached the top, they crossed the convenient bridge of branches to the hollow. Blu was surprised to see that there was a large cushion that fitted the floor perfectly. Also, it looked new, almost as if it had never been used.

"I've never slept here, cause I didn't trust the humans. I preferred to sleep the natural way."

"How long were you here, in the Conservation Center?" Blu asked.

"Um, just a few weeks, before I met you," she replied, "and got kidnapped," she added. Blu was walking around the hollow, taking note of how much bigger it seemed on the inside.

Jewel turned around and looked out the window. The moon distinguished itself more than usual from the sea of black that was the night. What a beautiful night, she thought. Maybe we could... Jewel turned around and saw Blu lying down comfortably. I'll give him time.

She walked over to Blu and laid down next to him, just close enough to make contact. Blu blushed, but dropped it when he felt a shiver from her. He thought for a moment and decided to wrap his wing around her. His blush was back. Wanting more warmth, Jewel snuggled closer to him. In return for his kindness, she wrapped a wing around him. Was it possible for Blu to blush harder at this point?

Well, there you go. That's my first story. I've been dyeing to write this for a while, so I hope you enjoyed. If you didn't that's fine too. Please, just don't give me any flame. If you're going to comment, make sure it's something positive or constructive. Flame just wastes your time and mine as well. This the only chapter I have right now (September 13, Germany). I didn't even bother preparing some other chapters before publishing this. I can only write in my spare time, so whenever I can, I will prepare a few chapters and publish them once a week, I guess.