It wasn't quite who he had hoped it would be. Then again, Tony's grin could have meant one of two things. Either he was about to have the biggest reunion of the day, or there was about to be an epic confrontation.

As it turned out, it would be the latter.

"YOU!"

Nico grinned at the horrified screech. Once upon a time the sound of Liana's voice would have filled him with absolute terror. Now though, there was nothing more she could do, not here, not with the backup he had. She had done her worst.

"Yes?" He said, landing somewhere in the middle of the hall, several feet away from her.

"Y- y- how the hell are you still alive?" she screamed, storming up to him. He automatically leaned away when she got close, her furious face far too close to his for his liking. He smirked, shrugging noncommittally.

"Oh ya' know, stubbornness mostly, a bit of sheer dumb luck and a lot of help," he said, taking a step back, wobbling a little on his left foot.

"But- but- but Frank told me-"

"Frank lied to you," Nico said, rolling his eyes, "he's on our side, he lied to you to keep you off my back while I recovered and got home. Sure, it had some... negative outcomes, but it got me back in almost one piece."

"He wha- wait, almost one piece?" She asked once his words sunk in. Nico couldn't help but frown at the hint of glee in her voice.

"Yes," he bit out, crossing his wings, "thanks to your little stunt in Hawaii."

She frowned, giving him a once over, eyes widening when she caught sight of his foot. "Wow," she said, looking back up at his face with an impressed look, "not quite what I was hoping, but it's start."

Nico raised his eyebrows in astonishment, then narrowed his eyes a little. "You're despicable," he said, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Your point?"

"Does it matter?" Nico sighed, "look, we clearly can't be in the same town without wanting to rip each others heads off, and honestly, I'd quite like to keep mine firmly on my shoulders thank you very much, so I'm gonna propose a challenge, loser gives in."

"Gives in to what?" Liana asked, frowning.

"If you lose, I never see your face again, you leave me alone and drop this whole mission of yours. If I lose, you can keep trying. That's not to say I won't try to stop you, but you can try."

Liana was silent, mulling over the offer. "What kind of challenge?" she asked, watching him sceptically.

"Well," Nico started, "we are at a music competition. It's in two days, so we can have the stage tomorrow night, go head to head."

Liana stayed quiet, musing over the proposal.

It was in this moment of brief quiet that Nico first heard the familiar voices.

"Are you really going to do this?"

His head snapped up at Jewel's concerned voice, and he looked over at the entrance. His breath caught in his throat at the sight. They were all there. All the Macaws, Rafael and Pedro, talking to the parrot at the door. None of them looked particularly happy. The kids were slouched at the back, all looking thoroughly miserable, both adult macaws were trying to look happy and supportive while Rafael looked serious as he spoke quietly to Pedro, who had a determined yet somewhat defeated look about him.

"No deal," Liana's voice broke him out of his daze and he turned back to see her smirking at him.

Something inside just snapped.

"You honestly think I'm gon-"

That was when he hit her.

In all honesty, it all went a bit blank for a moment, and the next thing he knew, his wing hurt, Liana was on the floor rubbing her cheek and the entire hall had gone silent.

"Ow," he murmured, shaking his wing and wincing.

"I suppose I deserved that," Liana muttered bitterly, touching her most likely bruised cheek tenderly. She stood up, fixing her glare on Nico.

"Suppose?" Nico said, his voice filled with indignation. So far he had been able to keep his cool around her, but his frustration at all she had done was finally bubbling up. "Look, here's the deal, do you see back there?" he hissed, pointing over his shoulder at where his group of friends had gathered to watch the show. "Every single one of them, given the opportunity, would happily kill you in your sleep, and the only thing standing in between you and them is me! You take what I'm offering or I will stand aside and let them. If you take this deal, regardless of whether you win or lose, I will make sure they don't... well, I'll make sure they don't kill you at any rate, I can't promise none of them will at least punch you."

Liana growled quietly, clearly annoyed at the corner she had been backed into.

"Fine," she bit out, "but I have one condition."

"What?"

"He," she said, gesturing to Pedro, "is not allowed to sing with you. We can have back-up singers and the like, if you can find any at such short notice."

Nico smirked.

"But no duets," she finished.

Nico shrugged, holding out a wing so they could shake on it. "Sounds fair," he said, grinning when she shook it.

"Tomorrow night?" she asked.

"Tomorrow night," Nico confirmed.

And then she was gone, flying off into the crowd that had gathered.

Nico let out a shaky sigh, deflating a little as he buried his face in his wings. He felt someone wrap a wing around his shoulder and he looked up to see Ali looking down at him with a soft expression.

"You know," she said, moving to stand in front of him, "you really should have just let us at her."

With a roll of his eyes and a tiny smirk, Nico stood up straight, shaking his head at her. He knew what was going to happen next, he could hear the shocked whispers and gasps. He was both excited and absolutely dreading it.

He was going to cry, that much was inevitable. The tiredness was overwhelming and given the opportunity, he would probably be able to fall asleep on his feet.

"You okay?" Ali asked, putting a feather under his chin and lifting his head so she could look him in the eye, "you're shaking."

Nico took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, albeit a little shakily. He nodded. "I will be," he said, smiling wide as he turned to the entrance where he knew they were all standing. His gaze immediately found Pedro, his mood immediately changed from tired and irritated, a wave of relief washing over him. He had hold back a bout of the giggles at the look on their faces though; it was after all, a fairly solemn situation and Eva had told him (in far more detail than he needed) what they had been through for the past few months, especially the past week. The last thing he wanted was for them to think he wasn't taking any of this seriously.

Instead, he offered an anxious grin and a small wave, suddenly feeling a little nervous. Other than looks of shock and disbelief, not a single one of the group showed any sign of reacting to this clearly unexpected revelation. They had quite literally been stunned into silence.

After a few moments, Pedro took a tentative step towards him, the movement breaking them all out of their astonishment. They glanced at each other, as if to make sure they weren't the only one seeing what they were seeing, then back at him, just to make sure they weren't imagining things.

But Pedro couldn't take his eyes off the canary as he walked towards him.

And despite the fact that he couldn't stop grinning, Nico was feeling more and more anxious as the seconds ticked by, his stomach twisting into painful knots.

"Please tell me you're real," Pedro said when he got within a few inches of the smaller bird, his voice nothing more than a cracked whisper, like he hadn't spoken in days. "Tell me this isn't just another dream."

Nico felt his heart break at his voice. He had never heard his friend sound so desperate, wanting to hope, yet so scared to. So afraid of the possibility that this might not be real, that it might just be an illusion. He felt his smile falter a little, the actual reality of what they must have gone through hitting him like a ton of bricks.

"Definitely real," he said, offering a warm smile and holding out his wing so he could prove it. "I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm so, so sorry."

Pedro apparently didn't need any more convincing, closing the space between them and engulfing the smaller bird in such a tight hug, Nico couldn't move, his wings trapped at his sides. With a little wiggling he was somehow able to free his wings so he could return the hug.

"You're alive, you're really here," Pedro muttered, sounding more like he was still trying to convince himself than simply stating a fact. "This is actually happening, you're home."

And that was it. Somewhere in the background he could hear Ali and Cosette dispersing the crowds, and somewhere in the back of his mind he was thankful, but that part of his mind was completely overshadowed by the last thing Pedro had said.

'I'm home,' he thought, tears springing to his eyes as he choked back a half-sob-half-laugh, grinning wide as he hid his face in Pedro's feathers, tightening his hug. He was truly home at last.

To say that he felt like crumpling into a sobbing mess was an understatement. A very happy mess, but a mess all the same.

It took a few minutes to get his act together enough to be able to look up, peering over Pedro's shoulder at the rest of the group who were watching with wide smiles and tears in their eyes.

"Um, you're not going to let go are you?" he asked Pedro, who just sniffled a little into his shoulder and shook his head.

"Not a chance."

"Okay," Nico laughed, looking back up at the others, holding out a wing to invite them into a group hug. "Come on guys, you'll be there all day otherwise."

The kids were the first to move, all three of them darting forward and tackling the pair. Rafael was next, scooping all five smaller birds up in his large wings. Finally Blu and Jewel joined in, completing the hug.

It didn't take long for them to all be crying; even the older macaws shed a tear or two.

And in the centre of it all, were two best friends clinging to each other like their lives depended on it.

After a few moments, Nico piped up from the centre of the pile.

"Hey, love you guys and all, but it's getting a bit hard to breathe in here."

Slightly reluctantly, they all let go, pulling away and wiping the tears from their eyes. Even Pedro released his rather tight hold on the smaller bird, though he didn't move too far away.

"Sorry," Nico said, wringing his wings together nervously. The easy part was over, now he had to explain himself. And most importantly, he had to explain exactly what had happened with Liana and what happened to his foot. He didn't know what he was more afraid of, either way he was sure Pedro was going to start blaming himself. If he hadn't gotten hurt he wouldn't have this problem, there would be a little bit of self-blame, but that would be it and they'd move on. What had happened in Hawaii, there was no way around it, it was huge, and it wasn't something he could pretend didn't happen. They would notice whether he told them or not.

"Whatever for?" Jewel asked.

"Well, for taking so long," Nico went on, "for not keeping my promise," he looked at Pedro, "I really am sorry for that, I kept telling you I wouldn't be long, but I was and I'm so sorry."

"You think that matters?" Pedro said, looking astonished that he would even think that, "I don't care, what matters is you made it back in one piece."

Nico tried to smile, well aware of how forced it most likely looked. "W-well, you see, that's- um, that's not entirely true," he muttered, giving a nervous laugh and trying not to looking anyone in the eye.

Silence fell for a few moments while they all stared at him in confusion.

"Care to elaborate?" Rafael said after a few seconds.

"Well, honestly no," Nico said, "but I kinda have to, and this could take a while, so um, yeah, maybe over there." He pointed to the spot they had bagged in the far corner. "But before all that, because believe me, I am going to put this off for as long as possible, there are some birds I want you guys to meet." He actually grinned, feeling the nerves wear off a bit.

"Or," Ali's voice piped up, causing his grin to drop, "you could stop being such a baby and get it over with."

With a deep sigh he turned to give her a dry look. He opened his beak to say something, but immediately closed it when he saw the look on her face. "Love you too Al," he said, pouting, "fine, but let's at least start from the beginning so you can understand why."

"Still not getting it here," Pedro said, looking between the two canaries with a look of pure befuddlement on his face.

"Enjoy it while you can," Nico said, giving him what he hoped was a reassuring smile and patting him on the wing, "come on."

They migrated to the comfy corner (as they had dubbed it, the twins had put their sneakiness to good use and stolen a lot of cushions from the back), and settled down, all ready to hear what was looking to be a long and complicated story. Nico, sat down with his feet tucked underneath him, took a deep breath and began.

He started at the beginning, right at the beginning. The inevitable break-up, Liana's apparent descent into madness. He moved on to Paris, telling about the fire he had left out when telling the story in Tokyo (he got a few disappointed looks for this), then the almost meeting in Rome. After that he skipped right onto Hawaii. He explained about Ali and Tony, before moving on to Liana once more.

"So this is where things get a bit difficult," he said, taking a deep breath, "so she's locked us in this room, no way out, no windows, then everything goes white, and if I'm honest, I don't actually remember what happened from then, for me, the next thing I knew it was almost a month later."

"And believe me when I say you probably don't want to hear the details," Tony put in, looking grim "it's not exactly a fun story."

"But boiled down to the basics," Tia said, "he," she pointed to Nico, "broke his foot, and not in a small way."

"Oh, ouch dude," Pedro commented.

"A little more than that buddy," Nico said dryly, "from what the doctor apparently said, not a single bone was in one piece, it wouldn't have healed, at least not properly, and there was a very high chance of infection."

"What are you saying?" Jewel asked, frowning.

"I'm actually impressed none of you have noticed," Nico said, standing up and unfolding his legs from underneath him, "well done Ali," he muttered, making the girl smile proudly. He took a deep breath. "I lost my foot," he said, deciding to just put to them bluntly, no point in beating around the bush, "hence the 'not-in-one-piece' thing."

He kept his eyes firmly on the floor during this revelation, too scared to look up. Though after a few moments of silence he just had to look. Every one of them was staring at him like he had just grown another head.

"Please don't freak out," he pleaded, snapping them all out of their shocked trances, "it's honestly not as big a deal as it seems."

"You want me to not freak out?" Pedro asked, his voice becoming high pitched with alarm, "that's not something you don't freak out about!"

"I didn't," Nico said, looking at him.

"You fainted," Tony said dryly, raising an eyebrow.

Nico opened his beak to speak, then closed it again, sighing. "Alright, I'll give you that, but after that."

"No, he's right actually," Ali pointed out to Tony, before turning to her other brother, "you handled it surprisingly calmly. If anything, you looked more mildly irritated than horrified."

"Really?" Rafael asked, looking at Nico in confusion, while Pedro and the others just carried on looking shocked. Tiago just examined the prosthetic in fascination.

"Really," Nico said with a shrug, "thing is, when I woke up, it didn't hurt. At all. And Ali was amazing and made this thing," he lifted his leg to show off the new foot, "so other than it feeling a little weird, it was more of a small inconvenience than anything else."

"Still-" Pedro started, but was cut off when Nico reached over and clamped his wing over his beak.

"No," he said, looking stern, "just no, listen, I am fine. Honestly fine. Yeah, my balance is a little off, and sometimes it feels a little strange but no, it doesn't hurt, nor has it ever. And I swear to whatever higher power is up there, that if you start treating me like I'm fragile or you blaming yourself, I will actually disown you."

Pedro stared at him in astonishment, before squeaking out a high-pitched "yes sir."

"Good," Nico said with a smile and a nod, before turning to the others, "same goes for you lot. And as for Liana, I'm dealing with it, so leave her to me," he paused, looking at Ali, "especially you Al."

The canary in question spluttered in annoyance, but then sighed in resignation before spitting out a short "fine."

"Alright," Nico said, his face breaking out into a grin, "any questions?"

"Can we see it?" Tiago asked, still looking fascinated by the whole thing.

"No," Nico said bluntly, "I'm gonna give you the next couple of days to ask anything you need to about this," he gestured to his left leg, "after that I don't want to hear anything about it, okay? I just want to get back to normal as soon as possible, and I don't want you guys walking on tiptoes around me cause you're too scared to ask something. I don't care if it sounds stupid, freakin' ask."

"Sounds fair," Blu commented. Murmurs of agreement followed.

"So what was it you agreed with Liana?" Rafael asked, looking a little concerned.

Nico smiled, sitting back down. "Basically a sing-off. We're going head to head tomorrow night," he said, "unfortunately you can't help Pedro," he turned to the cardinal, who seemed to be in his own little world, but snapped out of it when he realised that last part was aimed at him.

"Huh? What?" he said, blinking and focusing on Nico.

"Are you alright?" Nico asked softly, a worried expression passing over his face. "You seem a little... um... spaced-out."

"Yeah, sorry," Pedro muttered, avoiding his eyes, "I just need, uh, can you just, I'll be back in a minute 'kay?" He didn't give any of them a chance to respond before he took off and had vanished out the front door, leaving a open-mouthed Nico behind him.

"You're gonna have to be patient," Rafael said gently, "the past few months took quite the toll on all of us, Pedro most of all. We all want things to just go back to normal, but I don't think it's going to be that easy, especially after the past week. Give him time."

"I know," Nico sighed, looking towards where he had disappeared. "I should talk to him."

"Go on," Rafael said with a small smile, "we're not going anywhere, this is more important."

Nico nodded, taking to the air. He flew outside, landing and looking around for his friend. It took a few moments, it was difficult to see anything in the dark of the evening, but he eventually found him sat on the edge of the roof. Still completely clueless as to what to actually say to him, he flew up, landing close by. And despite trying to be as quiet as possible, he still managed to make enough noise on the metal roof to catch Pedro's attention.

"Hey," Nico said softly, giving up on the subtlety, "you alright?"

Pedro looked up as the canary stepped up next to him and sat down close by, legs hanging over the edge of the roof.

"I'm not sure," he said, looking down at his feet, "I mean, yeah, I'm so happy you're here, and alive, but I'm still waiting to wake up, find out this is all just a dream."

"Fairly sure this is real," Nico said, nudging him gently.

"That's exactly what dream you would say," Pedro said with a tiny smile.

"Sorry if this is blunt, but would dream me have this thing?" Nico said, pointing to his leg.

"Fair point," Pedro commented, shrugging, "sorry, it's just, it's been so long, and after the past week, it's a lot to take in."

"You're tellin' me."

"No."

The way his voice choked up made Nico's breath catch, his head snapping up.

"You don't get it," Pedro continued, staring down at his own feet, "you just don't, you knew we would be here, you had some idea of what was happening, we didn't. Waiting for you, never knowing if you were going to make it back, not knowing where you were or even if you were still alive, it hurt. Like, really hurt."

"Pedro," Nico started, reaching out, but froze when the cardinal cut him off.

"Wait, just, this is hard okay? Please?"

Nico stayed silent, signalling for him to continue.

"It's just," Pedro carried on, still refusing to look at him, "you're my best friend; hell, you're more than that, you're the most important person in my life, and the thought of losing you... it's too much, I've gone through that too many times, it made me realise that life without you there... well, for starters it's boring as hell, but it's kinda not worth living really."

Nico stared at him in complete shock, unable to form a coherent response to this rather unexpected confession.

Eventually he spoke up.

"You would have found something else," he said quietly, "I mean, don't get me wrong, the feeling's mutual, but I think you would have moved on eventually, found something else worth living for. Everyone does. It may not feel like it at the time, but it would've gotten better. Not that it really matters now, and with any luck, won't be something we have to worry about for a long time. And by the way, you're wrong; I do get it, maybe not it the same way, but I know exactly how you felt."

"How?" Pedro asked, finally looking up, "it's not like you were stuck here waiting. You were off having some grand adventure, you had something to distract you."

Nico choked on a scoff. "Like I said, not in the same way," he said, giving him a reassuring smile, "but I had days where I thought I wasn't going to make it back, and those were just the days where I thought I was going to just drop from exhaustion. Don't tell Ali or Tony, they worry almost as much as you guys, but I do remember waking up right after the incident in Hawaii." He sighed, closing his eyes and dropping his head. "It's a bit of a haze, but I remember waking up in what was left of the building, and, somewhere in between 'holy hell my foot hurts' and 'what just happened', I remember thinking 'this is it, I'm not going to make it, I can't do it, and they're never going to know'." His voice cracked a little at the end. He had to stop to clear his throat before carrying on with a slightly clearer voice. "And then Frank showed up, told us he was going to help, tell Liana I was... well, you know, so she would give up trying to get at me. All that was going through my head was that you couldn't think that, I never wanted you to even consider it. It was the driving force behind everything; seeing you again. Honestly, if things didn't keep getting in the way I probably could've been back in a few days."

"And somehow it took over five months," Pedro said.

"Seriously?"

"You don't know how long it took?"

"Pedro, I lost track of time weeks ago, it's all just sorta blurred into one long day," he said with a grimace, "a really long day."

"Sounds like your worst nightmare."

"You have no idea," Nico muttered with a glower.

"You think we can get back to normal?" Pedro asked, concern creeping into his voice, "like, back to the way things were?"

"No," Nico said, a small smile settling on his beak at the look of horror that passed over Pedro's face, "we'll just make a new normal."

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments, both lost in their own thoughts, but both smiling.

Eventually Nico yawned, the quiet and the warmth of the evening making him sleepy, the trials of the past two days catching up to him once more. He rubbed his eyes, leaning against Pedro as he fought against another yawn. The cardinal chuckled, wrapping a wing around his shoulders.

"I really missed you," he said, looking down at the sleepy canary.

Nico smiled, "ditto, it's good to be home."

"You're not quite home yet."

"Yeah I am," Nico said, closing his eyes. He felt lighter than he had in months, like a huge weight had finally been lifted. He finally knew everything was going to be alright. "I really am."

A/N: Well... that was difficult. I had a plan for this chapter, then things just kinda ran away with me, just I just went with whatever I started typing. Hope it reads okay, but I was just about ready to give up with this one, so it's probably a bit choppy. Let me know what you think :)