What's up my readers! Before we begin, I got some good news and some bad news…

First, bad news…

Allergy season is once again present… And I'm no exception to this… No wonder why I have a sore throat…

And this story is almost done… Three or four more chapters left… Depends if I decide to use a certain chapter…

And this story is going to be put on hold next week because of reasons…

Good news is that the reasons why I am putting this story is because as you Rio fans know, April 11th and 15th marks the anniversaries of the two movies! As well as the birthday of someone important to me on the 13th…

And lastly, I would like to thank T8E. CR34TOR for making me one of his first favorite authors!

Now I'll shut up!

Chapter 20: Reunited Lovebirds

The day has finally come for Lily's fate to be forever determined by the macaw tribe leaders and Lily was prepared to hear their decision. Alex was not back home yet and Lily felt the worse has happened to him, at least now she would share the same supposedly same fate he did and they will eventually meet each other up in the skies.

Lily put a wing on her belly and stroked it softly while tearing up a little. Jewel, along with Blu, Roberto, and Liz came and landed down in front of her to get her for the final decision. Lily only asked one thing to them.

"Is he back?"

The four that Lily spoke to only lowered their heads in sadness, not saying anything, indicating that Alex has not come back. Lily sighed and surprisingly bottled up her anger, in fact she only felt sadness fill up.

"It's okay, I'm ready to be banished from the tribe, I want to rest in peace alone, like he did." Lily answered.

"I'm very sorry Lily, he loved you so much." Jewel said while coming up and putting a wing on her back.

"I know." Lily replied, closing her eyes to suppress the tears.

"We have to go, the tribe leaders are not very patient, especially Maria." Blu informed the two females.

"Right, come on Lily." Jewel said and Lily took a deep breath and with the four flew off to the trial area.

As soon as they got there, Lily was made to stand in front of all the tribe leaders alone, like she did before, only this time the decision was final of course. Lily put on her bravest face as she walked slowly through the crowd watching the trial, macaws looking at her as she passed by, some of them whispering to each other. Lily just ignored them and thought about Alex to block out the talking and staring. When she got to where she needed to stand, there was a moment of silence before Maria came up to deliver the tribes' final decision.

"Today, we are here to deliver our final decision on whether or not to banish this female Blue macaw for mating with my son, Alex. And after much talking along the leaders and arguing for days, most of us." Maria paused to look at Blu, who stood a couple of leaders next to her.

Blu stayed by his decision, he promised himself he would do anything in his power to help his brother and Lily, but eventually the majority won over him. Blu simply just stared back at Maria with anger before Maria continued.

"Have reached our decision about this issue and we all agree to banish…" Maria was about to finish only for a loud voice to shout….

"STOP!" The voice shouted out and everyone looked to the back, in astonishment and shock at the macaw who shouted it out.

"It can't be…" Maria softly and slowly spoke as she also stared at the macaw.

"Alex…" Lily could barely say as she laid eyes on her loved one.

The macaw was indeed Alex and he had a very annoyed, angry face on as he heard was where about to become of Lily. Alex was on top of a branch of a tree in the back and with some difficulty, since his wing was still healing, he flew down to the ground, Tomada and his family with him as well.

Alex's family quickly ran up to hug him and greet him back home, all the other macaws standing back, not that they didn't like Alex, but they were scared of Tomada, since he was a predatory bird after all. However Alex's family didn't care and just launched themselves on Alex.

Alex changed his angry expression to a happy one as he put on a smile and opened his wings, Bia, Carla, Tiago, and Lisa coming in with shouts of "Uncle Alex" for the three Blue chicks and "Big brother!" for Lisa and hugged Alex while Alex put his wings on their backs.

"I missed you little ones so much." Alex cried. "I'm sorry Bia, Carla, and Tiago that your uncle had to leave and Lisa, I'm more sorry to leave you both father and brother less again."

"It's okay, we understand." The four replied in unison.

Alex looked up to see Blu, Jewel, and Liz standing in front of him and after Alex finished hugging the little ones, he hugged his older sister, Jewel, and Blu, in that order, with, "I'm sorry", replies of "It's okay," following after.

While Alex was hugging his adoptive brother, he looked up to see the one he regretted most leaving behind, the one he loves with all of his heart, Lily. Blu released the hug so the two can share their moment together. Lily slowly walked froward, each step like Lily had a ton weight on her talons holding her down as she stared at Alex, emotion filling her up and controlling her as she finally got inside Alex's wings to hug her.

Lily only cried as she buried her head in Alex's red feathers while Alex softly stroked her back. Alex let her cry and felt his chest become extremely wet from all the tears as Lily let it out, Alex trying to hold back his tears as he softly spoke to Lily in comfort.

"It's okay, I'm here now and I'm never going to run away again." Alex comforted Lily, who was still crying.

"I… thought… you… were… dead…" Lily struggled to say between sobs.

"I know, I'm so sorry to put you though all the pain, but I'm here now." Alex replied.

Lily took a moment to relax, but saw the bandages placed on Alex's belly, making her scared of what happened to him while he was gone.

"What happened?" Lily asked, starting to cry more now.

"Well I almost got killed by a Harpy Eagle, luckily Tomada was there to save me." Alex looked at Tomada, Lily following to look at the Peregrine Falcon.

"Thank you." Lily softly thanked Tomada.

"You're very welcome, your boyfriend here is quite the determined one." Tomada smiled.

Lily found the need to chuckle which she did, trying to wipe the tears away, Alex helping her. Lily came froward and going very close to Alex's ear, whispered something.

"I have to tell you something."

"What?" Alex replied, curious.

"I'm…" Lily began, but was disrupted by Maria.

"I hate to spoil the moment, but son, I was just about to deliver the decision." Maria said sternly.

Alex gave a glare at his mother, before looking at Lily right in the eyes.

"I'll be right back, okay? It's time I end this once and for all." Alex said, determined.

Maria got back to her position along the tribe leaders, while Alex took Lily's original place in front of the leaders. There he would make his own statement.

"I know many of you probably will not change your minds and that's okay. But I do have something to say. I love Lily, more than everything else on this earth, and the sky, she is my everything, every day I wake up feeling so happy to see her smile and to share lovely kisses and hugs with her. She is unlike any other macaw, and certainly does not compare to any female Scarlet macaws I have met, she is what I love and find perfect to have in a mate. So what if she is of a different colored feather from me? To me, love does not depend on your colors, but your heart and it's fate that we met and fell in love with each other. That's all I have to say."

And Alex just turned around and began walking back to Lily. Everyone was stunned and was silence at first, but slowly clapping began, followed by more and more until everyone in the crowd watching was clapping, most of them with tears in their eyes from the little emotional speech Alex made.

As Alex came back to Lily they both shared another hug before Alex turned to his family and new friends.

"We would like to be alone now." Alex said which Blu replied.

"Of course big brother, you two enjoy the rest of the day, we can take it from here."

"Thanks." Alex thanked Blu and with Lily, flew off, the two heading to Lily's hollow to have some alone time.

As soon as they got there, Lily laid down on the hollow floor, Alex joining her and both of them wrapped their wings around each other, providing warmth and comfort which they did not have for so long.

"I missed this so much." Lily said, smiling.

"Me too, my sweet Lily." And Alex came froward with his beak and placed a loving kiss on Lily's beak.

The two enjoyed each other's love until Lily broke the kiss, remembering that she would tell Alex the big news.

"Alex." Lily began.

"Yes?" Alex smiled.

"I have some big news, I'm pregnant with two eggs." Lily happily said, Alex in complete shock.

"What… I'm going to be a father and you're going to be a…" Alex struggled to say, but Lily finished for him.

"Yes, a mother." Lily cried tears of joy and happiness, while Alex was still trying to process it.

"I'm going to be a father." Alex repeated, Lily giggling at Alex's reaction.

"Do I have to say it again?" Lily chuckled.

"No, I'm just happy, I always wanted to be a father." Alex smiled and gave another kiss. "I love you."

"Love you too." Lily replied, finally at complete happiness. "Now can we get some sleep, I think we both need some rest from our wounds."

"Sure thing, my sweet flower." Alex replied.

The two closed their eyes, still holding onto each other for warmth and comfort as they laid down in peace for the day and onto the night. For tomorrow on, only happiness would come to their lives, along with shocking surprises and some singing put in there as well…

So I decided to put in the additional chapter as well in the end, because we need some music towards the ending, don't we?

Anyway… I'll see in the next update!