Notes & Disclaimers:

• Rio is Blue Sky Studios IP.

(Please leave a comment and enjoy.)

Chapter Six: Caged Together

It was the middle of night, Tulio's father had left the aviary, all of the birds were safe and asleep, as were the two last blue spix macaws on earth. Blu and Jewel were both still sleeping in the aviary's artificial jungle in their newly made nests. Or nest, because on Blu's left side, Jewel's nest was there and on a tiny hill that was a little higher than where Blu's was, and while they were sleeping, Jewel's nest slid down to Blu's while she was still on it. Jewel ended up with having her nest stuck to Blu's, and having her head lying on Blu's shoulder.

That was how it was going on for another full hour. Later, Blu turned his head, and felt something (Jewel's head feathers) tickling his nose. Blu woke up, turned his head to sneeze. After he did, Jewel woke up in a flash with her head up. They both turned to each other, and stopped when they saw that they were so close…that their beaks touched. It wasn't a kiss but more like a nuzzle, and from that motion, they would've jumped away but were frozen from the shock and embarrassment.

They both had their thoughts on.

"W-Wow."

"What is she doing?"

"What is he doing?"

"I-I can't move. S-Should I move?"

Their beaks were still touching, and not only that, by looking down without moving their heads, their wings were touching too, feeling very close. Blu and Jewel were both having mixed feelings, and before things could heat up even further, Blu wanted to speak. "J-Jewel, d-do you wanna scoot over, please?"

Jewel gently moved away, even though a part of her and a part of Blu didn't want that scene to end.

"Oh I'm sorry, Blu." Jewel said. "My nest must've slid into yours, and now it's stuck."

Blu kindly responded, "That's okay. I'm just glad we woke up without a bothe…uh…because if your nest was on the other side, I would've woken up with a painful push." He finished sheepishly. Jewel looked at his right wing, and remembered the accident last night. She then looked down in shame and shed a tear, and Blu gave her a good pat on the back when he noticed. "Jewel, what's wrong?"

"Blu…I-I-I'm so sorry. It's my fault that we're stuck here and most of all that your wing is broken."

"What? Oh come on, Jewel. It was my fault. I was the one who suggested we leave our homes and go racing for the day. I was the one who chose to save your life, and who chose to trust these humans." Blu replied. "I was the one who made it a dramatic day for you. I should be the one who's sorry." From that, Jewel stopped crying and was in great surprise. Since the two met, they had always liked each other, and seen the goodness in one another, but Jewel had never seen so much selflessness from Blu like that before.

Jewel noticed Blu's good wing was still on her shoulder, and blushed when she turned back to his eyes. "B-Blu?"

"Yeah?"

"You're the best." She kept blushing but used all her courage to move closer and cuddled her head to Blu's neck. Blu felt like he was in a dream, but it was indeed real. He was at a loss for words and felt like he was gonna pass out until Jewel said one more thing. "Blu? Is it wrong for a couple of one year old chicks to fall in love this young?"

Blu smiled, "Oh I don't know. We're both pretty smart and mature, and I think rules like that only work for humans. B-But why?"

Jewel smiled and had her eyes half closed, and stared straight at Blu. "Blu…I love you." She then snuggled to him again. In all the things that made Blu nervous since he fell from his tree, that was the number one thing to change him. He turned red again, felt his heart beating, and felt sweat going down. But being the experienced survivor he was, he used his courage to say his best words. "Jewel…I love you too."

From there, Jewel smiled gratefully and continued snuggling Blu until he fell on his back onto their fused nest.

"Ooh sorry." Jewel said.

"Don't be. Feels kinda cozy." Blu said getting up, and Jewel giggled saying, "Yeah that's what nests are for."

"Oh, I wasn't talking about the nest…beautiful." Jewel blushed again, and smiled while she laid her head on Blu's shoulder.

"Goodnight my handsome hero."

"Goodnight my young angel."

So they slept, somewhat separate but with their nests still together, and dreamt of what they just did, as to remember what they've been doing together since they first met.

More Notes & Disclaimers:

• "aviary": Locked and completely secured, of course.

• "the experienced survivor he was": In this universe anyway.

Earlier this week, I created my actual Blu & Jewel playlist on YouTube, and you can find it just by searching its title, "Blu & Jewel's Romantic Soundtrack." I hope you enjoy it.

(April 2022) In case you haven't noticed it, I changed the name to "CC: Blu & Jewel's Songs" and divided the whole thing into four separate volumes.