Hello everyone, and welcome to the first chapter of "Reunion". This first chapter rather serves as a pilot-chapter, so don't expect too much. I'll be trying to update as fast as possible and remeber, reviews help me to improve the upcoming chapters. (Give feedback, please!)
The story may not always line up with the plot of 'Rio 2' and I will probably change the narrative perspective in later chapters, just so you know.
Well, I have nothing more to say so enjoy! ...or not.
Three weeks had passed since the plane crash. The sun rose, rendering Rio de Janeiro in an orange-yellowish gloom, thus slowly animating the jungle inhabitants to emerge from their precious slumbers as its life-giving light rays began to curl their way through the dense arrangement of vegetation.
No diurnal avian being dared to loft into the air before the arise of this periodical-yet-important event...
...except one certain Spix's Macaw.
Blu was already up and soaring through the air, an hour before this marking of a new day in paradise had the possibility to take place, and just like pretty much every morning, he was on his way to pay a visit to Tulio's bird-conservation center. The reason for his restless visits was also the one that rendered him into countless of sleepless nights the past weeks; his female counterpart, who'd managed to get stuck in his mind with no prospect of ever letting go. Be it day or night, he couldn't and didn't want to stop thinking about her.
After reaching his destination, perfectly timed with the start of an orange orb, known as sun, rising over the horizon, he began to eagerly observe the treatment room of the conservation center through a half-opened window.
After Jewel's wing got fractured and Blu literally saved her from falling into the vast nothingness of death, Tulio brought Jewel here, where she was isolated from the outside world, including Blu, while she recovered from her wing injury. Blu's longing for her grew exponentially with each passing day, and with three weeks past the date of their separation, his craving for her reached dangerous amounts.
During this time, Blu tried to adapt to the wildlife to some extent, which he partly managed to do. He explored the jungles of Rio during the day and established some basic sense of survival, but still spent much time with Linda in her new apartment, because he didn't like the idea of spending nights alone in the jungle, not at all. Linda still fed him frequently, which he wasn't proud of, but what could he have done? To face the truth: Yes, he was domesticated, anxious and couldn't independently survive in the jungle; but in his defense, he had no one to teach him. However, in the near future, that may change.
A faint smile carved his beak at the imagination of him living his life together with Jewel; even though if that meant living in the jungle, it still would be a dream coming true for him.
Speaking of her, Jewel was kept in one of the conservation center's aviaries. In fact, it was the same aviary in which he first met her on his first day in Rio, and as back then, it had metal walls and didn't have any windows, making completely isolated from the outside.
Blu glanced at Jewel's aviary, and his smile faded as quickly as it had formed. He' often imagined how Jewel felt, being isolated from the outside world, and recalled how unhappy she was in this 'cage' when he met her. But this though, she was in there for over a month now, with a broken wing and completely alone. Guilt was an all-to-present side effect plaguing Blu, given that he wasn't with her and thus didn't really help her through this tough time.
But there wasn't much he could do. Tulio insisted that Blu shouldn't have contact with her during her recovery; he always asserted that it would be better for Jewel and her health, but Blu didn't understand why Tulio would think like that. Blu knew that she needed someone in there, but it appeared like Tulio just couldn't figure that out. It was deeply frustrating, but deep inside he knew that Tulio only wanted the best for both of them.
A voice of human origin pulled him out of his thoughts, it directed from the inside of the bird sanctuary.
"Tulio, I have some amazing news!"
"Oh really? What happened?" Tulio asked in a faithful tone.
"We should go in the office, come on."
The two men walked into the office, closing the door behind them.
It was fairly rare for any of these 'news' to be even halfway interesting, but still, Blu decided to listen to them, they could be related to Jewel after all and she was the reason he was here in the first place.
Blu took off, he flew to the other side of the complex, where the office was located. His flying skills improved tremendously during the last month, making him able to softly land in front of one of the office's windows. Luckily for him, the window was tilted slightly, therefore he was able to hear them speaking. The surgeon handed Tulio some kind of document, but Blu couldn't quite make out what was on it.
The surgeon pointed on the document and started talking with a bright smile.
"Bones and ligaments are in good condition. For me, this is surprising after such an injury and so little time to heal. I think she's ready to get out of quarantine and it should be safe for her to get released back into the wild.
Blu flinched when these sounds hit his eardrums, and was almost certain that they were talking about Jewel. Just to go for sure, he stared at the document, trying to decipher what was on it, which wasn't easy from that distance and with a window in between. But after some more unscrambling, he recognized that it was an X-Ray of a wing. A left wing. Jewel's left wing got injured.
He felt how his heart started pounding in his chest and the throbbing in his skull, he began to shiver, his whole body was filling up with a tingling ecstasy. It was impossible to describe how he felt, the adrenaline entering his bloodstream was mixing with the incredible joy, an effect of the generous release of dopamine in his brain, granting him a feeling he never felt before. The fact that his long-awaited, and still short-lived dream was about to become reality literally stunned him, his mind needed time to process.
Tulio's reaction was similar to his. Blu could tell that Tulio's mood improved dramatically and he let out a cheerful howl.
"Finally! You were right, that's some amazing news! You can bring her to the treatment room, I'll be waiting there. When do you think you can bring her over?"
"I guess she will be ready in an hour, but ...do you really think that it's a good idea to release her into the wild already? She will need someone to take care of her."
"I do in fact have someone in mind for that, don't worry." Tulio answered delighted. "Thanks again Doctor Santos!"
"No problem, just remember to take care of her and everything should be fine. She should not be alone for the next days."
She will never be, I promise, was a noble oath he pledged in his head.
After recovering from the shock-like state, he began imagining Jewel and him meeting again after this long, making him spiral down into the vast valley of daydreaming.
By playing through every possible outcome of their reunion, he inevitably had to face the first doubts arising.
He wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to savor the jungle life as much as Jewel did it, and even worse, there was no guarantee that Jewel really wanted to live her life with her. In the brief time he'd spent with her, Blu learned that there was nothing that she admired more than her freedom, and he was afraid that he would limit her once endless and responsibility-free felt anxiety build up in him, but a loud growl, directing from his stomach, lead to the collapse of this dream-like state of his. He concluded it beneficial to fill up his stomach before meeting Jewel again.
Linda wasn't home at the moment, so he had to fly into the jungle to search for food. He regularly grabbed himself some snacks from there, so he supposed that it shouldn't take too long to find something edible, but damn he was wrong. The sun was resting fairly high in the sky by now, which meant that all the jungle dwellers already had their breakfast.
After a four degree turn of earth's axis and sixteen minutes of flown by time, Blu eventually spotted a Brazil nut tree with several of its nutritious treats hanging from its branches. The only problem was that he never opened one before, he used to eat them with the shell removed when Linda fed him. Common sense and his regressed instincts were the only guidance he could rely on; his chances of success weren't exactly promising.
He attempted the most obvious strategy to begin with: Cracking the nut with his beak. He sandwiched the nut between his upper and lower mandible and applied all the force his muscles could provide, but the nut remained untouched. When that didn't work, he tried to peel the Nut with his claws, which only caused a few scratches on the shell.
He wanted to open the nut so badly and to satisfy his ego, he kept trying, causing him to forget about everything around him. After spending plenty of minutes, fighting against a nut, he finally managed to somehow open it.
"There... you go... you stupid... nut!" he shouted out of breath.
After completing his mission, he regained his senses and noticed that much time had passed. Oh no... Jewel! Was the only thing that flashed through his mind as he realized that he probably missed Jewel's release.
He instinctively dropped the nut and shoot into the air with maximum force, accelerating towards the sanctuary as if his live depended on it. He couldn't accept missing the release of Jewel, he had to find her.
He closed his eyes and increased his speed even more.
Please, this can't be happening to me. Jewel could have flown anywhere. I have to catch her in time, or I may never see her again! Why does this have to happen to me?
Again, Blu got pulled out of his thoughts, but this time his whole mind was close to slip out of his skull; he collided with something or someone who was coincidentally flying in the exact opposite direction.
A burning pain raced through his spine, periodically travelling throughout his body. His body met the ground in a far-from-soft manner, he was on the abyss of passing out, and he thanked his biological hardwiring for preventing this by a hair's breadth.
He felt additional weight resting on his back, his head throbbed in pain and felt as if it was about to fall off. He was just about to slip away from the not-too-heavy load that strained his back, but froze as he detected a familiar voice.
"I'm... sorry. That's... my.. bad, I wasn't... paying attention." the bird he collided with moaned.
Blu didn't know if the collision was enough to get him hallucinating, but he could swear that the Bird sounded just like...
He slowly opened his eyes, his vision still blurry due to the immense impact, he glanced at the bird lying on him and the azure veil he was able to perceive confirmed his assumption...
"...JEWEL" he squawked as loud as ever as incredible amounts of pure glee bubbled up in his soul and intoxicated his system.
The female Spix's Macaw slowly turned her head, a teal shimmer emerged as she exposed her eyes and peered at the mixture of navy and cerulean that were their feathers. Blu could pretty much feel the outburst of thrill that traveled along her as this sheer goddess of a bird slowly let her gazed wander up his body.
"Bl- Blu...? BLU!" she exclaimed, and stood up in no time, grabbing his wings as she did so, lifting him up with ease.
She hugged him with extreme force, causing his spine to, once again, send a sharp pain throughout his body, but his joy-filled state managed to keep any negative influence far away from his consciousness. The tight embrace irritated him at first, but after a few seconds of getting used to it
"Blu what are you doing here? Are you okay?... Say something."
Blu lost his gaze in her half-worried, half-overjoyed, and yet beautiful face. He wasn't able to react to her question as the innumerable details of her face overstrained his mind. Her pure aura of beauty had the ability to amaze him over and over again, all his worries faded having her wings wrapped around his back.
"Blu why aren't you answering? A-are you okay?" she repeated in a concerned timbre and loosened her embrace.
"Y-yes Jewel, I'm... fine." he responded in a half-daze. "Jewel... I'm sorry." he continued and lowered his gaze. "I wanted to be... with you when you got released, b-but I wasn't fast enough."
"Aww Blu... don't worry, you found me now, didn't you?" she whispered soothingly and tightened her hug once again. His head lay on Jewel's left shoulder as she performed this confirmation of affection, and it helped Blu to forget all his bothers for the minute time it lasted.
In the softly-warm, intoxicating envelope that was her embrace, it was impossible for him to hold onto any thought, and it took the fading of this marvelous moment, for his mind to find its rightful place in his body again.
When he regained his senses, his at the time only concern managed to reappear and agonize him.
"W-Wait Jewel, are you okay? In particular, is your wing okay?" he asked, directing his gaze onto the just mentioned.
"I'm okay Blu, but you seem a bit agitated" she answered, flashing him a warm smirk.
"R-Really? I mean y-yeah maybe... Look, I didn't see you... for such a long time and now... you are here, all of the sudden. I-I don't really know... w-what... to say or do now. I've been longing for this moment since we've been separated, and I have... so much to tell... to y-you and-", he paused for a moment, "-and I don't know... if you re-really want to be...-", his breathing quickened slightly, "... I don't know if you even want to be with me. Bu-But the only thing... I know... is that it was such... a hard time not being ab-able... to see you and how you are doing. It wa-" he paused again, a glassy layer of water was forming in his eyes, "It was the darkest time... in my whole life. Not knowing... how you are doing and when... I wi-will see you again." he finished, small droplets of liquid were forming, and under gravity's attraction, dropping from his eyes and shattering on the ground.
Jewel didn't respond at first. She gazed at Blu with an overwhelmed expression carved into her face, and it took quite a while for her to form words.
"Blu... how could I ever leave you? Were chained-to-each-other birds remember?" she answered in a tender timbre.
She draped her wings onto his shoulders and gazed into his hazel eyes.
"It also was... a hard time without you.", she continued. "And I never want to be... separated from you again, ever."
She closed her eyes and leaned forward, softly locking their beaks together; they shared a passionate kiss. Jewel pressed Blu back, who eventually stumbled over a root and landed on his back, and Jewel consequently ended up squarely on top of him, her wings pinning his to the ground – a position easily described as suggestive.
It didn't seem to have bothered Jewel, but speaking of Blu, he had to struggle with a huge amount of unease flooding his mind. Still, he didn't dare to break the kiss, because if he did, he'd probably have to face an outburst of her choleric temper, so it was by far the better option.
Time seemed to slow and after a few seconds of getting used to the sensation, Blu began to increasingly savor the flavor of Jewel's sweet-aromatic tongue.
Kissing her definitely turned out to be the better choice, given that the pleasure he gained from it grew with every bit of time passing, thus almost instantly driving him crazy.
While seconds were passing in Rio, millennials did so in their own microcosm, making them able to savor the moment to its max. Still, both birds had to pull away for oxygen's sake eventually.
"Jewel... that was... amazing." Blu began, the afterglow of the ecstasy still had its effect on him.
"Yes, it was.", she added in agreement, "You are amazing, Blu."
Blu was sure that he'd blushed beneath his feathers, but it didn't stop him from gazing at her with a slightly sheepish, but mostly exhilaration-filled expression.
A small, but significant detail he couldn't let go off caught his eye as Jewel's head hovered above his; two faint, white-tainted lines, which stretched from both her eyes to the end of her cheeks.
This combined with her glazed eyes lead to the most logical explanation arising, but he thought it best to ask before making assumptions.
"J-Jewel?" Blu asked after a minute of magical silence.
"Yeah?" she replied simply.
"U-um this may be a bit out of context, but, did anything like... bad happen to you in the aviary?" he asked, concerned-yet-curiously.
"Uhh... nothing that I can think of apart from being isolated and not able to fly of course. Tulio actually treated me really well for a human, why do you ask?"
"Umm it's just that you look like... you've been crying recently."
"O-oh... yeah, I did actually." she said, her mood appeared untouched. "...and it had to do with you." she added.
"W-What? B-But I nev-" he started perplexed, but got cut off by Jewel as she situated the two outermost primaries of her right wing on his beak.
"Shh... let me explain, will you?", she requested, but Blu wasn't even able to speak, with the sweet perfume of hers floating off her primaries and flowing into his nostrils with every inhalation he executed.
Still laying on his body, Jewel started explaining.
"See, after Tulio told me that I'd get released today, I longed to see you more than ever and looked forward to hugging you as powerful as I possibly could. I was sure that you'd be there when I got released, but as you know, that wasn't quiet the case, so I waited and waited, and after quite a while imagined, now that I think about it, ridiculous things, like that you left Brazil and didn't care about me anymore.", she paused for a second, "One thing led to another and I got a bit... carried away. I flew towards the jungle when you didn't show up, and you know the rest of the story."
Blu needed time to process what he'd just heard. The fact that Jewel had the exact same thoughts as he had them before her release seemed surreal to him, and he saw that Jewel shared the same affection towards him after all. All the doubts that were agonizing him evaporated as this epiphany struck him, and a massive relief travelled throughout his system, relaxing his every part of body.
He had never found himself capable of expressing his feelings for her, and the one time he was about to do, a damn petal messed it up. But now, driven by this realization, his deepest feelings for her managed to unfold in his mind once again, and as never before, he was able to express them to their fullest.
"Jewel, I should've told you this a long time ago," he took a deep breath and gazed into her astonishing eyes.
"Jewel, I love you."
Jewel seemed to be lost in thought after these stupendous three words had been spoken, and Blu probably would've fainted if she'd take only a nanosecond longer, but fortunately for him, she responded, a heartwarming smile lay on her beak.
"I love you too, Blu."
I'm planning to write more chapters, so please review and tell me what you think. The more reviews the faster a new chapter will be finished.
