A/N: Here it is! Nico's story! Takes place after the events in Deadly Secrets. Read that first! And remember: this is a two-shot. There will be another chapter!
Bottled Up
The very first thing Nico said when he woke up was: "Are they gone?"
"Yep, they're all gone," said Pedro. "No harm done?"
"Nope." Nico pushed himself into a sitting position, wincing and hoping the cut on his chest wouldn't reopen. Today had been the day he had gotten the stitches taken out, and tomorrow, he would get to go home. He had been waiting for the stitches to come out, because they kinda freaked him out a little. Going home would be even better.
"Have they found those stupid monkeys yet?" asked Nico.
"Not yet," said Pedro. "But I guess they figure they'll turn up eventually."
"Yeah," said Nico, yawning. His vision started to blur and he got increasingly tired as some of the post-surgery medicines started to kick in. Pedro saw this and smiled.
"Don't worry Nico, I'll take care of everything," said Pedro confidently.
Nico muttered something too quiet to hear before he slipped back into a sleeping position and his tiny body relaxed, sleep overtaking him.
Pedro smiled. He picked up Nico's bottle cap, which had fallen on the floor, and set it next to him. With that, Pedro flew into the air and out of the bird sanctuary. He headed straight for the grove of trees around the pond, where he and all his friends lived.
Pedro flew around over the pond, looking for Blu or Rafael. Both of them were helping in the search for the rogue marmosets.
After flying around for a minute, Pedro spotted Blu (he was pretty hard to miss) and Rafael. They were both sitting in the tree that, a few weeks ago, had been the scene of an attempted murder. Right now, Blu had his head in the hollow of the tree, probably looking for something. Rafael was standing behind him.
"Hey, what's goin' on?" Pedro asked as he landed on the branch the other two were on.
"Hey, Pedro," said Rafael. "How's Nico?"
"He gets to come home tomorrow!" exclaimed Pedro. "So... what's goin' on here?"
"Blu and I were looking for-"
"Hey I found something!" came a voice from inside the tree. Blu sat up, not realizing he still had his head inside the tree, and whacked his head. "YOW!"
"What'd ya find?" asked Pedro.
Rubbing the back of his head with one wing, Blu reached down into the tree and grabbed something. He sat back, careful not to hit his head again, and pulled out what he found. Pedro gasped. Blu had found the two spoons and the knife. The knife still had a bit of Nico's dried blood on it.
"So... what does this mean?" asked Blu.
"It means them stupid monkeys are in for a world of hurt," growled Pedro.
xxx
Meanwhile in the Marmoset Camp
"YOU THREE ARE TOTAL IDIOTS!" shouted Mauro. "Well, I should expect you two to be stupid, but Maurice?" Mauro looked at the marmoset in the middle, the only one of the three looking Mauro in the eye. The only one with a scar on his nose. And Mauro's only brother.
"You idiots knew it was gonna storm, you knew if you got caught you would die, but you went anyways!" shouted Mauro, pacing around, continuing his psychotic rant. "I told you to wait! I told you you would have to be patient until the right time, and then you could kill him!"
"But I couldn't wait!" exclaimed Maurice. "That stupid feathered freak ruined my beautiful face! And my leg!"
"SHUT UP WHEN I AM TALKING!" shouted Mauro. The two marmosets standing on either side of Maurice, named Roberto and Miguel, cowered under their king's fury, but Maurice just crossed his arms. "Your face is not beautiful either. You've always looked like a chicken butt."
"THAT'S BECAUSE IT WAS RUINED BY THAT TINY FEATHERED FREAK!" Maurice yelled back, pointing at the scar on his face. Mauro, Miguel, and Roberto stared at him. Nobody yelled at the king. Miguel looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Roberto actually passed out.
"No, no, you were always ugly," stated Mauro calmly. He turned around to go sit back on his throne.
Maurice clenched his fists in fury. "I should have been the king," he stated. Mauro stopped dead in his tracks. Roberto, who had been repeatedly slapped by Miguel, woke up. When he heard what Maurice said, he passed out again, and Miguel went right back to slapping him.
"What did you say," said Mauro without turning around. It was more of a demand than a question.
"I said, that I should have been the king," snarled Maurice.
Mauro walked up to his throne and sat down. "You three are banished. Goodbye."
Maurice hadn't been expecting this. "What?"
"You three are banished," restated Mauro. "Wake that idiot and leave now." He pointed at Roberto, who was still being whacked even though he was already awake. Miguel stopped slapping Roberto, and Roberto punched Miguel in the face as he stood up.
"What happened?" Roberto asked Miguel, rubbing his sore face.
"We got banished," whispered Miguel, rubbing his now bruised nose.
"Yes, you three are banished as of now. If I find you anywhere near here ever again, you'll be handed over to the birds, and they won't hesitate to give you flying lessons!" exclaimed Mauro.
"Fine," whispered Maurice. He limped over to a bush a few feet away and pulled a large empty glass bottle out from under it. "I'll just take my thing and go." He started to walk away, dragging the bottle with him, but he turned back to Roberto and Miguel, still standing there, not knowing what to do.
Maurice turned back to them. "C'mon, you two are coming with me now."
With one last glance at their king, who sat staring emotionless, the two marmosets stumbled backwards and ran after Maurice, disappearing into the depths of the jungle.
xxx
"Aww, man it's good to be home," muttered Nico as he flopped down on the pile of leaves that he called his bed.
"Hey, don't get too comfy," said Pedro, on the other side of the hollow, sitting on his own bed. "You're probably gonna be ambushed by the kids."
"No way," said Nico, sitting up, wincing a little at his sore chest. "They don't even know I'm back yet."
Pedro looked kinda guilty. "Um... well..."
Nico sat up straight and looked right at Pedro. "You-"
"UNCLE NICO!" was the only warning Nico got before he was tackled to the ground by three blue-feathered little balls of energy.
"I told you he was alive!" said one of the kids. Nico thought that one sounded like Rey, but he couldn't tell if it was Rey or Javier because they were all moving around, trying to hug him at the same time.
"I already knew he was alive!"
"Uncle Pedro told us you were coming home today and I wanted to come see you!"
"No it was my idea!"
"But I got here first!"
"Would you two shut up?" That one was definitely Abelina, trying to quiet her brothers.
"Can't breathe down here!" exclaimed Nico. He honestly couldn't move, and his left wing was pinned under his back, making it sore.
"Kids, get off Nico!" exclaimed Blu from the entrance of the hollow, where he and Jewel had just arrived.
Abelina scrambled up, and her brothers eventually got up, but they got into a wrestling match. Blu tried desperately to separate them. Jewel just laughed and shook her head. Blu's attempts to separate his children just ended up in Rey and Javier jumping on him. Even Abelina jumped on.
Nico pushed himself to his feet, trying to regain circulation in his wing, and looked over at Pedro, who was laughing so hard he couldn't even stand up.
"Thanks for the help," said Nico coldly. Pedro only laughed in return, and Nico couldn't help but smile.
Jewel stepped around the pile of young Macaws, with Blu squirming underneath, and walked over to Nico. "How are you doing?" she asked in a caring, motherly tone.
"'Lot better," said Nico, picking his bottle cap up from where it fell on the floor when he was attacked.
"Good," said Jewel. She turned around. "Kids, get off your father!"
"Awwww," moaned the kids as they stood up and let Blu get to his feet.
"Why don't they listen to me like that?" Blu muttered under his breath. This comment almost sent Pedro into another laughing fit.
There was a flutter of wings as Rafael arrived at the entrance. "What's up party birds?"
"Hey, Ralfy!" exclaimed Nico.
"Hey Nico! Where you been?"
Nico shrugged. "On the ground," he said, looking at the young Macaws. All three of them looked away guiltily.
Jewel looked down at her children. "Alright kids, say goodbye to your Uncles. It's time to go."
"Aww, Mamma, why do we have to go?" moaned Javier, looking sadly up at Jewel with his large turquoise eyes.
"Because it's getting late, and you kids still need to eat dinner," said Jewel, gesturing to the orange sky and the setting sun.
"But why does Papa get to stay?" asked Rey.
"Because he can find his own dinner," said Jewel. With that, she walked to the entrance of the hollow and jumped out, gracefully gliding about 50 feet away and patiently waiting for her children to follow. When they did, they all soared back to their tree.
"So... did you guys find anything?" asked Nico, crossing his wings over his chest, hiding most of the semi-healed gash on his chest.
"Well, we found the... weapons, but we didn't find anything else. It's almost like they disappeared off the face of the earth!" exclaimed Blu.
"We can worry about those monkeys another night," said Pedro. He turned to Nico. "You in the mood for a party?"
"A party?" asked Nico.
"Yeah! Down at the Alley," said Pedro.
Nico shrugged. "Sounds cool to me. When is it?"
"Tonight."
"We don't have to perform, do we?" Nico wasn't sure his body would be able to handle singing and dancing so soon after getting back on his feet.
"No, we ain't performing," said Pedro. "Just hangin' out! Think of it as a welcome home party!"
Nico looked at Blu and Rafael. "Are you guys coming?"
Rafael nodded eagerly, but Blu looked a bit less enthusiastic.
"Well, I'll have to run it by Jewel," he said.
"C'mon Blu," said Rafael, "I don't think Jewel would mind if you took a night off."
"Y-you really don't?" asked Blu nervously. There wasn't anything that scared him more than Jewel's wrath, and nobody could blame him.
"We won't even be gone that long," said Pedro. "Just a few hours."
"I-I don't know. That's still a long time..."
"Aw, c'mon Blu, have a little fun every once in a while," said Nico.
Blu sighed. "Alright, alright, fine! But when I get home, if Jewel asks me where I was and threatens to claw my eyes out again, I am blaming all of you!"
"She threatened to claw your eyes out before?" gasped Rafael.
"Yes. The first time we met," said Blu, his eyes glazing over and a goofy smile appearing on his face.
"Yeah... anyways," said Pedro, turning to Nico. "You better party hard because this is your last night of freedom."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Nico.
"It means that tomorrow, I'm gonna start helping you get rid of your claustrophobia," said Pedro.
Nico closed his eyes and groaned. "Ugh, I forgot about that... Can't we start next week?"
"And let you chicken out? I don't think so," quoted Pedro. Nico couldn't help but smile. That was exactly what he had said to Pedro right before teaching him how to swim.
"Claustrophobia?" asked Blu.
"It's a fear of small spaces," explained Nico.
"I know what it is," snapped Blu. "But I didn't know you were claustrophobic."
"That's because I didn't want anyone to know," growled Nico. "Pedro and Ralfy were the only other ones who knew before this."
"Why? W-what happened?" asked Blu.
Rafael shook his head. "It's a really long story."
"Well, we've got time," said Blu.
Pedro and Rafael looked over to Nico, who was fiddling with his bottle cap. "Let's just tell him," Nico muttered, looking down at the ground.
"Okay... do you want me to tell it?" asked Pedro
"No," said Nico. "Let me tell the story." He took a deep breath and began.
"It happened a couple years ago, before I even got my bottle cap. Pedro and I were hanging out, trying to figure out a song we could sing at the Alley, but we couldn't agree on one. We started fighting, and I got angry, so I flew off for a while.
"The never ending battle between birds and monkeys had started about a year before, and for a young bird, flying around distracted was never really a good idea.
"It was getting kinda late, and I was tired from flying around, so I found an empty table outside a cafe and sat there for a while. I was so distracted that I didn't even hear them sneaking up on me until it was too late.
"One of them grabbed me from behind, and another one found a bottle. Back then, I was even smaller than this, so they had no trouble getting me inside. They capped the bottle and started to run off. I don't know what would have happened if Pedro and Rafael hadn't shown up..."
"I had been looking for him everywhere," continued Pedro, "and when I couldn't find him, I went to Rafael for help."
"When we got there, the monkeys already had him trapped inside the bottle, and they were dragging the bottle off towards the beach," said Rafael. He looked right at Blu. "You do the math."
Blu was stunned, but he was glad Nico didn't go into details about the fear he must have felt, being trapped in that bottle.
"How did you get him out?" asked Blu.
Pedro and Rafael looked at each other. "Well, let's just say that when you drop a bunch of rocks from high up, the do some damage," said Pedro.
"Each monkey got hit and knocked out," said Nico. "The last rock shattered the bottle." He paused for a minute as if remembering something. Then he smiled. "But that's how I got this." Nico took off his bottle cap and held it up proudly.
"You kept the bottle cap from the bottle that you could have died in?" gasped Blu, shocked. "Why?"
Nico shrugged. "Pride, I guess. I didn't want those stupid monkeys to know they scared me! I guess it's also kind of a trophy. Y'know, it's like a trophy that says 'I survived a monkey attack' or something like that. I don't know, it's too complicated to explain."
"Wait a second. What about the Alley? It's so crowded that you can't even breathe without getting a mouthful of feathers," said Blu.
"I'm cool around other birds, but if I'm in a small space alone, then I pretty much just freak out," said Nico. "Like when we were trapped in those cages, I was kinda okay because Pedro and Ralfy were in there too, but if I was alone, I would have been ramming against the door trying to get out."
"And that's why he was the first one out of the cage," said Pedro. "And when that plane hatch opened, it took me half an hour to catch up to him!"
Nico smiled evilly up at Blu. "Now you know, and you will never tell anyone unless your life depends on it. Got it?"
Blu took a nervous step back, almost falling out of the hollow. "Why do I feel threatened?" he asked nervously.
"I'll take that as a yes," said Nico. He narrowed his eyes at the opportunity to have a good laugh. Should he do it? Of course!
Nico lunged forward at Blu, making a sound he previously thought only angry dogs could make. Blu tripped backwards and fell out of the hollow. Nico stepped up to the edge just in time to see Blu splash down into the pond below.
"So that's a yes?" Nico called down. Blu just groaned as the others laughed.
xxx
About an hour later, Nico, Pedro, Rafael, and Blu arrived at the Alley. Even from outside, they could hear music and see lights coming from inside.
"Good to be home," muttered Nico, smiling.
They walked in and Blu started muttering something about 'health code violations,' but all complaints were swept away by the music and the crowd.
3 hours later
For the first time in Nico's life, he felt tired of dancing. Basically, he was just exhausted and his chest hurt, but that was enough.
Nico flew over top of the crowd until he found Pedro, right in the middle, breakdancing. The crowd around him was chanting: "Go Pedro, go Pedro, go Pedro!"
Nico laughed. He didn't want to interrupt Pedro, so instead he flew around a bit until he found Blu and Rafael near the edge of the crowd. Blu was pacing around, obviously anxious to get back to Jewel and the kids. Rafael was just laughing at him, probably telling him to relax.
Nico landed beside Rafael. "You guys having fun?" he asked.
Rafael's answer was cut off by Blu. "If by fun you mean having a panic attack and wanting to get home, then yes, I'm having loads of fun!"
"Calm down Blu," said Rafael. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're claustrophobic."
"Hey guys, when you see Pedro, can you tell him I went home?" asked Nico.
"Yeah," said Rafael. "Why are you leaving?"
Nico shrugged and crossed his wings over his chest, once again covering the cut. "Just tired."
Rafael seemed to understand. "Why don't you tell Pedro yourself? He was just here a second ago..."
Nico pointed behind him to the crowd, where the faint chants of "go Pedro, go Pedro, go Pedro," could still be heard.
"Oh. Don't worry, I'll tell him," said Rafael.
"I-I think I'm gonna go too," said Blu.
"Blu, you need to relax and have some fun!" exclaimed Rafael.
"I do have fun. I have plenty of fun... some other place."
"Blu, just stay here and have some fun," said Nico. "Tell ya what. How 'bout, on my way home, I'll stop by your place and tell Jewel where you are. Alright?"
Blu sighed, defeated. "Alright, fine. I'll stay. Happy?"
"That depends," said Nico. "Promise to try to have fun, and then I'll be happy."
"Fine, I'll try and have some fun," said Blu.
"Good," said Nico. He turned to fly off, but he heard someone calling his name.
"Nico! Hey Nico, wait up!"
Nico turned around to see Pedro flying over to him.
"Where ya goin'?" asked Pedro.
"I'm headin' home," said Nico, once again crossing his wings over his cut. Pedro had realized that whenever he did that, it meant his cut was bothering him.
"I get it," he said. "Want me to come?"
"Nah, I'm cool. Just please make sure Blu has fun," said Nico.
"Can I use-"
"NO, you can NOT use alcohol!"
Pedro slumped his shoulders. "Fine."
"I'm right here! I can hear every word you're saying!" exclaimed Blu.
Nico shook his head. "See ya later."
Nico walked over to the entrance and flew off into the night sky. The moon was exactly a week away from being full, but it was still bright enough to illuminate all of Rio.
Nico flew higher into the sky until he felt he could touch the heavens. The night was so clear that he could practically count every single star. It was a random thought, but he felt really sorry for any agoraphobic birds.
Nico closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of the wind in his feathers. It had been too long since he last flew this high. The air was thinner up here, and it was much easier to breath up here than down in the humid jungle air.
With a sigh, Nico opened his eyes. He had left the city behind and was now looking down on the jungle. As he descended, he started whistling Fly Love. The music filled the quiet night, making everything more relaxing and peaceful.
He kept whistling until he got near the tree that was the Blue Macaw residence. Keeping quiet so as not to wake the sleeping kids, he stood at the entrance. Jewel wasn't asleep, so she saw Nico instantly.
"Where are the others?" she whispered.
"At the Alley," he whispered back. "We forced Blu to go."
"Basically," admitted Nico. "I was headin' back home anyways, and he asked me to stop by and make sure you were okay."
Jewel smiled. "When he gets home I'll tell him I appreciate his concern."
Nico smiled. "G'night."
"Goodnight, Nico."
Nico let himself fall backwards through the air, flipping over and gaining lift when he only had a few feet left. He flew over the surface of the pond, barely skimming the surface. He then flew straight up into the air, doing a barrel roll every so often. However, his barrel rolls were cut short by a sharp jolt of pain in his chest, reminding him to take it easy.
Sighing, Nico flew towards his tree. He landed inside the hollow, and walked towards his bed, yawning. A good night sleep would really do him some good.
He never made it to his bed.
A strong arm wrapped around his neck from behind, choking him. He felt something sharp cut into his left shoulder, which really sucks because he's a lefty, and the hold on his neck tightened even more.
The edges of Nico's vision were turning black as he lost more air. He lurched forward, trying to break the grip of his attacker, but it was too strong. All he succeeded in doing was knocking his bottle cap off of his head and onto the ground.
His lungs were screaming for air. In a last ditch effort to escape, Nico bit the arm that was wrapped around his neck. The owner of the arm yelped and loosened his grip a little, but not enough, because before Nico could make a break for it, the arms tightened around his neck even harder than before.
Everything was turning black. Nico finally lost the ability to keep his eyes open. He finally went limp and blacked out, but not before hearing an evil laugh.
xxx
Pedro stumbled into the hollow a few hours later, dizzy from being ever so slightly intoxicated. He walked forward a bit, but his foot hit something. Looking down, Pedro picked it up. In the darkness, it looked like a sharp rock.
Pedro walked back to the entrance of the hollow and held the rock up in the moonlight. It took him a moment to realize what was on the rock: blood.
The fogginess in Pedro's mind disappeared. "Nico?" he called out, searching around the hollow. His eyes had adjusted to the light a little bit, and he could just pick out something laying on the floor. Cautiously walking forward, Pedro picked it up and instantly realized what it was: it was Nico's bottle cap.
Pedro gasped. He began to walk towards Nico's bed, but that was when he stepped in something. Pedro looked down and his heart nearly stopped. His foot was in a puddle of blood.
"NICO!" cried Pedro. He got no response.
Nico wasn't there.