Chapter 2
Not many birds came to the club, but a good amount still did. Blossom, Maria and Vermelho kept light on their toes serving drink, food and kept various songs playing on the large radio behind the stage where Maria and blossom at one point performed.
"At the wrong time..." Maria added in her thoughts as Pedro's wing once again slid over her shoulder.
"Seriously, girl... You got some singing voice! You an' Blossom!" Maria sighed in irritation. She had honestly hoped not to see Pedro again after this morning, but couldn't he have maybe come AFTER they had stopped singing?
She kept her wings crossed and feet firm to the ground as Pedro tried pulling her body closer, grinning down at her like an idiot, with his classic 'love hawk' expression.
'Nothing about him say's 'love hawk', the fat pigeon...' She spat in her head as Pedro continued to talk.
"I bet you could become as famous as me an' Nico..." He smiled. Both of his wings slid, snake like, over her waist as he leaned forward, pressing the tip of his beak against hers, his warm breath tickling her burning cheeks. "You two could even join us... hmm... the famous cardinal and tyrant couple of Rio... Sounds wonderful, eh my lill' hot wing?"
Her eyes narrowed dangerously as fire once again burned in her eyes. She growled, tempted to punch the over stuffed chicken square in the face with all her might. If she did she might cause some sort of commotion and no one would come back to the club. On top of that, she had promised Blossom she'd try to control her temper more.
So instead, she harshly grabbed his wings, ripped them off her hip and pushed him, growling at him dangerously, her chest and shoulder feathers rose as an act of defence to make her appear fiercer.
"Listen, Pedro." She snarled, prodding him in the chest with one claw, "I didn't fly here from California JUST to get hit on by the likes of YOU. I only came here because Blossom wanted to come here. SHE has always wanted to live in Rio, so me and Vermelho decided to throw our lives away for her before-"
She stopped, her eyes widened slightly as she seemed to stare off into space. Pedro frowned.
"...Maria...?"
No response. The pied water tyrant simply stared down at the floor, looking as though a ghost had walked through her. Pedro's expression turned into that of a concerned person. No sign of cockiness or his usual flirty expression, in fact, it was unlike him at all to show such concern near her, with him trying to impress her all the time. He gently held her shoulders and lightly shook her.
"Yo, Maria? C'mon girl, what's up?" She snapped out of her little episode and stared up, her eyes deeply lined with fear and shock. Pedro frowned, "You alright there, sweetie-pie?"
Her eyes narrowed as she growled and grabbed him by the neck with her claws in a tight, bone-crushing grip. Pedro gagged slightly as she brought his head close to her hot red face, her every word dripping with a defensive venom.
"Never. EVER. Call. Me. Sweetie pie!" She pushed him back and turned with a huff of irritation as she walked away.
Pedro regained his balance and watched her leave, making regaining his balance almost pointless as he nearly crashed to the floor watching her leave with a love-struck expression. He watched and her feather's bounced slightly as the tips gleamed in the edge of the pink spot light. Pedro couldn't help but grin, even when she had disappeared into the crowd.
"At least she's back to normal..." He said with a sigh before managing to tear his thoughts from her and into the party.
"So you two grew up together, eh?"
Blossom nodded, smiling. Both she and Nico were sat at the bar; Nico sat one side, caressing a thimble full of water in his wing tips as Blossom stood the other side, filling different thimbles with different contents of liquid and serving them. She and Nico had been talking for a little while and, and being honest with herself, she didn't mind one bit. Sure his cheeky lines once in a while made her a little uncomfortable, but not to the stage where she was crept out, but overall, he was actually really nice and a great guy to talk too.
She continued her line, "Yup... Me and Maria grew up together like sisters back in California. Our owner was a woman named Amelia, though, we never really thought of her as an owner, more like... well, a mother to be honest."
Nico nodded, "Hmm... So, where does Vermelho come in?"
Blossom smiled. "Well, he was a neighbour of ours. At first, Maria didn't like him as they never really share the same opinion, but I guess she saw the good in him and they soon warmed up to being friends. Now we're all best friends, and I'm glad I know them." She chuckled, "I mean if I never knew Maria and Vermelho, I never would have come to Rio."
"That reminds me, why did you want to come to Rio? Carnival? Samba?"
"Well, to be honest, I had always felt like I didn't belong back in California and then here..." She scoffed, smiling, "I-It just feels more like home..."
Nico smiled warmly, "Well, it's a good thing you came here; 'else I would have never met the most beautiful Canary in the world." He gave a small wink at her. Blossom giggled and blushed, trying to hide her cheeks and beak in her sunny wingtips.
"Ooh, Nico!" She said, giddily, her voice smooth and bubbly. She only lost her blush when she heard a voice which, to be honest, she had expected to arouse at some point that night.
"Blossom!" The pied-water tyrant stormed her way over. Nico knew better than to stick about when Maria seemed ticked off, especially if it's at some she hated. It's amazing what you can learn about people with-in a few days...
He quickly faced Blossom; "I'll see ya around, Blos'" He gave a small wink and flapped up, discarding his drink, and hopped off. Most likely to find Pedro, who had, Blossom presumed, most likely ticked Maria off.
With a huff of frustration, Maria slumped down on the seat Nico was just sat in and faced Blossom with furious dark green eyes. "I truly hate that guy!" She seethed. Blossom thought she could see the steam seeping out of her ears, she looked so hot red, but her mind seemed in another place.
"Who, Nico...?" Maria rolled her eyes, resting her one of her cheeks on the balled up wing tips of her right wing.
"Pedro!" She said dully, her voice still stained with irritation. Blossom 'ooh'-ed in realisation and gave a quick little nod of understanding.
Maria shook her head. "I mean, seriously! He's no better than Cracker..." Blossom faced her with full attention.
"Cracker? Cracker Tyler? You're ex?" Maria gave a brief nod and a sigh of slight remorse.
"Yup, that's the one... The twat that just left me with no rhyme or reason!" She strained to keep the anger in her voice suppressed, but wasn't succeeding well.
Blossom sighed, remembering the Cassin's Finch well. Thinking harder now, Pedro actually seemed to remind her of Cracker. Both had a familiar red feathered head, and both were rather puffy birds. The only difference was that Cracker had dark brown wings, tail, and back feathers, plus a creamy color which outlined his Dark blue eyes. Cracker, If she remembered correctly, was also quite egotistical, but not to the point where he'd be bullying others, only as a tiny joke. His kindness, humor, jester like ways and laid back attitude had somehow won Maria over.
Then that one argument came on that rainy night.
Maria never actually told Blossom what had happened or what they had fought about. All she knew was that it was enough to enrage Maria enough to literally punch Cracker out of the open window and slam it shut, before flying off into the house, crying. Blossom had simply looked out the window, and seeing Cracker was already walking away, head hung low, she found her top priority was to check on her sister.
They never saw him again.
"I can't believe he'd leave California just because we fought... I mean, no 'I'm sorry'-s or anything!" Blossom sighed, both relieved that Maria was calming down, but also upset to see she was growing sad through the memory of her ex.
"Well... He may have not left California... I mean we left there for Rio after about two weeks. Maybe he just decided to let you cool off? It's not like he had an owner to get back too, being a wild bird..."
Maria simply shook her head, "Yeah, but two weeks! TWO! Seriously, blossom, when we ever did fight, we were back together in a day or two..." They were both silent for a moment, before Maria stood up, puffing out her chest in a noble and tough pose, crossing her wings as she did so, "Besides, it's his problem if he didn't want to come back. I-I don't need him." Her posture began to loosen, but she simply huffed and began to step away. We're closing in a while. Ya may as well announce the final song for tonight..." Before Blossom could protest or respond in any manner, the pied water tyrant was gone.
With a sigh she collected up the empty drinks and carried them into the back room, where she dumped them into the water filled yoghurt case and began to hop back out. 'I'll clean them up when everyone's gone' She thought as she moved towards the back of the stage where Vermelho stood, just about too pick out a CD from the pile.
"Vermelho, wait!" The scarlet macaw turned to her, his expression neutral.
"Yeah?" He simply chirped.
Blossom stood by him, looking up at the larger bird. "Um, Maria say's this is the last song of the night. She's feeling a little bit blue." Vermelho nodded.
"Understood. What song should we play?"
"Something to calm the mood a bit I guess..." She hopped over to the pile of CD's and shuffled a few of the cases about before letting out a gasp of joy as she found what she was apparently looking for. She gently dragged the CD over to Vermelho.
"Here. I think this'll calm everyone a bit..." She claimed, turning the case over and pointing to a specific song.
Vermelho took the CD from her and looked down at it, frowning slightly.
"Hmm... I guess it'll do." He put the case down as the last song ended. He pressed the 'eject' button with the tip of his beak and took the other CD out, before pushing it back into the open, empty CD case. He then flicked open the case Blossom had chosen.
"By the way," He began as Blossom had begun to walk away, "Is there any reason why, Maria's sad?" Blossom nodded turning to face the Scarlet macaw who didn't once look up at her.
"Yeah... She's having a few memories of Cracker, You know, her ex?" He nodded, his expression still neutral, as he placed the new disk into the Radio and pressed the same button a numerous amount of times, searching for the right song.
"Yes, I remember well. Why would she want to remember him? He upset her and broke her heart."
"She still loved him..." Blossom countered gently, only getting a huff out of the larger bird.
"I'd go annoyance that this is the last song. You know, give them a warning it's nearly time to leave." Blossom gave a brief nod and hopped away, onto the stage.
Vermelho was still focused on finding the song as Blossom annoyance it as the last song, ending her announcement just in time for him to find the song.
He frowned and stepped away from the radio as the tune began, a strong female voice almost silenced out the crowd for the red bird.
"There's a fire,
Starting in my heart,
Reaching a fever pitch it's bringing me out the dark,
Finally, I can see you crystal clear,
Go ahead and sell me out,
I'll lay you're ship there"
Vermelho allowed him foot to tap along with the drum beat as it began to play.
"See how I'll leave with every piece of you,
Don't underestimate the things that I will do,
There's a fire,
Burning in my heart,
Reaching a fever pitch it's bringing me out the dark,"
He peered around the corner of the stage to see any other commotion in the club. Most of the birds were near the dance area, while other's sat down were chatting away. He saw Blossom by the bar, gently swinging her hips to the beat, her beak lip-syncing with the words of the song.
"The scars of your love,
Remind me of us,
They keep me thinkin' that we almost had it all,"
His head scanned the club. He quickly noticed, Maria and not far from her was Pedro, gazing over at her unknowingly. He almost looked sad to be such a distance from her, but then he probably didn't want his eyes gorged out by the fire-tempered bird, so he simply watched her as she sat at a table of far end of the club, gently singing along.
"The scars of your love,
They leave me breathless,
I can't help thinkin',
We could have had it all,
Rollin' in the deep,
You had my heart and soul,
And you played it, too the beat."
It was only then Vermelho realised that Nico was by Blossom's side again. No doubt back to chat her up. Well, she didn't seem to mind it. More or less, he held a little more concern for Maria's current thoughts. He gulped, moving further into the shadows of the back stage area.
Cracker deserved what he got. Why should he feel guilty for protecting his sister from him? Besides, if he had come back to Maria, he would have only broken her heart again.
And as long as no one else hurt his only family remaining, he'd be safe from his lust for the taste of the crimson red nectar of death.
