Something Strange

(A/N: Gah! I promised that I wouldn't leave it very long and I did! I'm so sorry, but I had huge author's block over the weeks and this chapter has been murder to write. It's probably the hardest one so far, so if it sucks, forgive me, lol. I had so many people thanking me on the last chapter! Thanks so much!)

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Maybe I should apologise first.

That was the first thought that Ginger awoke to the next morning, as the sun rose over the island holding a new day in his wake. Since the meeting involving Azul had ended sometime when the moon was full last night, and without Ginger's permission to departure everyone had just scattered and left for their own beds, knowing that the argument between her and Rocky still remained the same.

Stubborn as always, both had refused to speak to each other. Ginger knew that they were acting like children, but she just couldn't bring herself to break first. Rocky had been the one who had started it; he was the one who had been so rowdy! All that Ginger had ever wanted was for Azul to have a chance.

Which reminded her…

Ginger stood up and stepped to the window, looking out at the island before her. It was all so empty now; due to the late night many had preferred to stay in bed. It had been rude of both of them, leaving without saying so and letting Azul handle the crowd on his own. She had been told the story of his life earlier that morning, by one excited hen who wanted to know if she'd seen him around.

I never knew. was the thought inside her head. Azul had lost so much. She just hoped that he would feel welcome here. She had to admit, not even herself had made her most promising effort. She had been trying to deal with Rocky.

In surprise, Ginger found tears threatening. She forced them back, trying to think. She hated it when she fought with him; their arguments never got them anywhere. It was times like this when she knew that she loved him so much, it hurt her to not be speaking with him. She had been thinking of children again, and wondered how much it would damage her to make things up with him.

Sighing, she tore her eyes from the sight outside and made a move to turn. But before she could even take a step, she felt a comforting pressure on her shoulders, halting her still. With a gasp, she spun her head and stared in shock.

Rocky. He was standing there with his wings on her own, offering her a soft smile. His brown eyes showed a sense of confession, and his face lit up in warmth. "Hey," he said quietly; even his voice sounding soothing. "Morning."

Ginger didn't know what to say. She gulped, "Listen, Rocky…I - "

"No, let me, Ginge," he answered back. His words full of meaning, he grinned down at her with a friendly tone. "I'm sorry."

Ginger almost gasped out loud. He was apologising? But…when did Rocky normally offer an apology before anyone else unless he was talked into it? It was a shock to Ginger, but a pleasant shock. She found a slow smile creeping across her face. "You're…sorry?"

"Yeah," he said again, his eyes scrunching up a little. "I didn't mean to act so dumb. I was being stupid – c'mon, we both knew that. I did some thinking last night too, and I saw how annoying I was being, going on like that. I guess I didn't really warm up to that Azul guy much, either."

Trying not to laugh, Ginger held back her comments. "Well, he was worried that you wanted to remain a stranger with him for the rest of his life," she smiled. "Especially after everything that's happened to him, he needs some people to talk to." Here she paused, uncertain if Rocky knew what she was talking about.

"You…do know what's happened to him, don't you?"

"Yeah, I know," Rocky sighed. "That kinda makes me feel worse. I heard that chick telling ya at the door this morning. I felt so guilty I thought I was gonna pop. You were right, Ginge. I was being a jealous fool, I was just worried that…well, that ya preferred 'blue-eyes' over me, that's all."

Blue-eyes?

Ginger almost gasped again. He thought that…that she was beginning to get feelings for Azul! It had never occurred to her how much attention she had been giving him since he had arrived; no wonder Rocky was reading all of the wrong signs!

"You think…you thought that…I…" She was so much of a fluster that she could barely breathe. Poor Rocky, she had never even given that a thought. Trying not to let out a relieved giggle, she stared back up at him. "Oh, Rocky!"

"What?"

"I never thought no such thing!" she laughed now, her laughter harmonious. "I was just being friendly! You should have told me, I thought that you were afraid that he was going to soak up all of the attention, or something."

Rocky couldn't believe it. All the time that Azul had been here, Ginger had gotten so interested in him, and she hadn't an ounce of what he had expected her to have. Friends was fine…he had only worried that it was developing into something more. At least it wasn't, now maybe he could relax a little more.

He grinned back at her. "So, you don't love the guy?"

"No!" Ginger protested, sounding elated. "Of course not. There's only one space for a special rooster in my life, and he's not going to budge, I'm certain. And his handsome brown eyes work wonders for me, anyway." She smiled at him again.

Rocky smirked cheekily. "Handsome?"

"Oh, I'm sorry too," Ginger said defeated. "I was being rather direct. I should have let you explain a little better; I was getting into my own conclusions and not letting yours in. I hope you accept my sincerity as much as I've accepted yours."

There was a brief silence, which was broken only by a rich and deep laugh, belonging to Rocky. It was smooth, and filled the awkwardness with comfort. "Geez, Ginge, in America we just say the word!" he chuckled, but then added with a lighter tone to his voice, "But, I could get used to your way."

For the first time since that night on the hill, Rocky and Ginger shared one of their true kisses. It was filled with as much strength as they held between them, as they embraced their fears away. Ginger couldn't contain how much better it made her feel, knowing that Rocky's doubts were free and ready to travel now.

Rocky, there's something we need to talk about…

In her hug, rather frighteningly, her own confidence startled her. She had only just realised what she had been trying to say in her head. Every time, she just wanted to bring up the subject on children but something had always stopped her. Now, she wanted to say it more than ever but there was still too much going on. She snuggled deeper into Rocky's chest and fought the thoughts away.

Later, she reminded herself. Not long now, but soon.

"You need to talk to him," she told Rocky a few moments later. "Alone, both of you. You need to see that you can both be friends." She waited a while, letting Rocky's thoughts handle themselves. "Will you?" she quietly asked.

After a few uncomfortable seconds of pause, she heard his mellow voice speak. "I, um…I suppose so. Yeah, O.K." He sounded a lot confident than if she had asked him days ago. It made her feel better hearing it like that.

"I'll find him for you, then," she told him straight. "Today. I'll tell him that you've agreed to talk to him and get all of this tension removed between you. It might make things easier, and he'll know that others aren't against him for intruding."

She felt a light kiss on her head, just above her eyes, followed by the sweet, soft sound of Rocky's smile in his tone. "That would be great."

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Azul wiped perspiration off his forehead as the hot morning sun beat down. Though he was thankful to warm weather, there was a gentle frozen breeze of the dew, which heightened his spirits and made him feel cooler during his hard work. He was still fixing up his raft, and making rather a good job of it. He always had been a handyman, dare he say the right word.

It wouldn't take him very long to fix it now, just a while longer. Azul wondered where he would go once it was built to proper again. Off to somewhere new?

His heart pounded at the thought of returning back home. He really didn't want to. If Strega found him again, she would only bring more hard times, and he just wanted to get away from everything. It would cause the pain to become fresh. He really liked it here…everyone had welcomed him, well, almost everyone, and he had made so many new friends.

Everyone here was so nice. Especially Ginger.

"Azul!"

Quite startled, he straightened up and spun around, his sight landing on Ginger, making her way towards him. He hurriedly put away his rafting gear and turned to face her, hopefully a decent smile on his face. He brushed a little sweat from his eyes.

"Morning, Miss Ginger!" he greeted back, his voice high and ringing once again. He sounded so much cheerful, maybe it had felt good for him to spill his feelings in front of everyone. He forced back a laugh at her surprised expression.

"Gosh, what have you been doing?" she questioned.

Azul brushed down a few feathers as he thumbed the attention towards his raft. "Just fixing her up," he said briskly. "Thought I should get started on it, I've left the task undone for a while."

Ginger looked around him to see how it was coming along. It was a little beaten down, but she could see that he was making progress with it. She felt happy that he was back to doing what he loved most, and she turned back to him with a brightness in her smile.

"You're doing a very good job," she commented politely.

"Why, thank you," Azul laughed back. "Sometimes I don't know half of what to say to you, Miss Ginger…you're always ready to hand out compliments." His heart grinned to itself inside of him as he saw a blush of modesty spread over her face. Somehow he loved making her do that, it made him smile.

Laughing, Ginger faced him properly. "You can just call me Ginger, if you want," she said quietly. "All of this 'Miss' makes me sound like I'm someone special!" She didn't really feel like someone to earn such respect. Besides, he never called anyone else with another name in front. She often wondered why.

Azul could only chuckle. "Very well, Ginger." He pulled a somewhat strange face at this, trying to hide his embarrassment. "I'm going to have to get used to that."

"Oh, I suppose you will," she replied back, hopefully. Thinking back to where she had ventured from to approach him, she brought up the subject that she had wanted to say since that first morning he had arrived. "Um…" she mumbled.

Frowning, Azul spoke up. "Ginger? You look troubled. Is something wrong?"

"No, no…not troubled," Ginger cut in, wanting to correct the error quickly. "I just wanted to know if you…" She really didn't like to bring it up, often she wondered if she were meddling in their affairs and should let them sort it out for themselves. But they were ready to agree…well, Rocky was anyway.

"If you had any hard feelings on the matter of Rocky's attitude lately. He's been giving you quite the cold shoulder," she finished, hoping that she wasn't sounding too quick and precise. She really didn't like to talk about others like this, but Azul had to know, and Rocky wasn't even around to hear anyway. It should be all right.

Azul's face lowered at this, and he seemed to be thinking quite hard about something, Ginger couldn't tell what. She was surprised at his voice, she was waiting for it to sound as harsh as it had before the meeting, but instead, it was warm and quiet. "I was wondering that myself, too," he told her. "I haven't really been friendly, have I?"

"Oh, well…" This wasn't going as she had hoped.

"I really want to make things up between us," Azul prompted in. "But I'm not sure if he'll want to talk. I keep getting this feeling like he has something against me. It's the sort of feeling which makes you feel like an outsider; a stranger." He grinned at Ginger, taking in the comforting feel of her smile.

Ginger could hardly thank someone for anything more. It had been so much easier to think the question than actually say it. Thank goodness Azul wanted to be friends with Rocky too, now maybe this whole episode would be cleared up for good.

"That's brilliant!" Ginger exclaimed. "He wanted to patch things up with you, too!"

"Really?" Azul sounded a little unsure.

"Yes, we were just talking about it, actually. He said that he'd been feeling somewhat jealous lately, and he wanted to start again, turn over a new leaf. He's always happy to make new friends, I just think that you got off on the wrong foot." Ginger was even happier to see that Azul was nodding in agreement.

Azul's voice sounded friendlier already, and his eyes shone out with appreciation. "Anytime he's willing to talk, I'll be ready to start again," he said to her with his eyes fixed on her own. "Thank you for stopping by, Ginger."

The conversation had gone rather smoothly, for Ginger's opinion, and all in all it pleased her to know that there would be no disagreements towards anyone else on the island. That was what she had wanted from the start, as long as Rocky and Azul were ready to break their shells and come out as friends, it suited her fine.

Azul went back to his raft, feeling better already. He really didn't want to be hated on the sanctuary by anybody; it was a feeling that he wasn't prepared for. At least he had Ginger to thank for talking Rocky into his senses, maybe things would be a little easier now.

Besides…he thought as he wound some more rope around the wood joints, Green eyes are a bit of a refreshing change from chocolate brown…

To be continued

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(A/N: Uh-oh. What have I done? I hated writing this chapter, and I say sorry again if it's not as good as you all wanted it to be! I promise that in future there will be better ones. I hope this pleases some anyway! Please R&R!)