Darkness filled his world as he awoke. He felt groggy, tired, hungry and as consciousness crept up on him more and more, confused. For reasons beyond his current understanding, he didn't remember falling asleep, and he certainly did not remember being in any sort of pain. At least, not the kind of pain that was slowly coming to light in his left wing.

The longer he lay there, the dull ache became more apparent with every passing second, dragging him from consciousness. He began to remember more details of how he got into this mess.

Whatever this mess was.

He remembered flying. Honestly it was all he could remember of the last few days. He flew for as long as he could after leaving London, taking short breaks where he could and longer ones at night, finding anywhere that was even remotely warmer than outside. It took a week and a half to reach Paris. The details beyond reaching the outskirts of the city were a little fuzzy, but he remembered a fog, or maybe it was low lying cloud. Either way, he couldn't see where he was going. The next thing he knew, before he could make the decision to land, a shape loomed out of the mist, and that was all he could remember.

He must of hit it. Somehow. The fact that he was still alive and fairly warm meant that someone must have found him and taken him in.

Finding out who meant mustering up the energy to open his eyes, and if he was being honest, he was still feeling too tired and lazy to do even that. The warmth and darkness just seemed like too good a combination to ruin.

However with the pain becoming more prominent in his wing, going back to sleep was completely out of the question. Instead he focused more on what he could hear, maybe he could figure out where he was based on that.

There was the faint sound of music somewhere. Not the kind of thing he was used to, it sounded more like a choir, something that might be heard in a church. And it certainly wasn't a language he knew.

There was also the sound of someone moving around fairly close by, quietly humming along to the music.

He thought for a minute he could ignore it, but eventually the curiosity got too much.

Mustering all the energy he could, he cracked an eye open, testing the light. Coming to the conclusion it was dim enough not to blind him, he blinked both eyes open. He stared at the ceiling for a few moments, trying to focus his vision.

When everything cleared, wooden rafters filled his vision, a warm light flickering somewhere to his left.

"Eh bien, bonjour, il est agréable de voir que vous réveiller."

He almost jumped at the high-pitched, cheery voice from his left, turning his head, with surprising difficulty, to see who had spoken. Standing by a wide candle with a warm smile was a middle-aged sparrow holding a roll of bandages and a cup of water.

"Comment vous sentez-vous amoureux?" she asked softly.

Nico just blinked comically at her for a moment, a blank expression on his face. He didn't have even the slightest clue what she had just said.

The bird raised an eyebrow, clearly waiting for a response, before realisation dawned in her eyes.

"Oh! Um... English?" She asked, looking hopeful.

Nico opened his beak to answer, but no noise came out. His throat tickled and he was overcame with the need to cough. He nodded, trying to get rid of the tickle at the back of his throat.

"Alright," the bird stepped close and slipped a wing under his shoulders, carefully helping him sit up without jolting his wing too much. Once he was sat up against a pile of pillows she held a cup of water to his beak, "drink zis." Nico tried not to moan at the feeling of the cool water down his throat, drinking thirstily.

"Better?"

"Thanks," Nico said, his voice a little hoarse, but he smiled gratefully, "what happened? Where- where am I?" He lifted his good wing, rubbing his eyes as a yawn made itself heard. He had no idea how he was so tired, he'd apparently been unconscious for who knew how long. All he knew was that he was starving and wanted eat several times his body weight in food then sleep for a week.

"Vell, zat's an interesting story, maybe ve should start vith introductions?" She said, raising a eyebrow and smiling warmly. Nico just nodded, looking a little sheepish. "My name is Cosette, a friend of mine found you about a veek ago, unconscious in the snow, and found a note in your, um, bag and brought you to me. You must be ze the bird Alistair sent zis way." Her English was very good, even if she had to stop and think of the right word every now and again, and her accent was a little hard to understand at moments.

"Ah, yeah, I'm Nico," the canary said, smiling, even though he was screaming inside. He'd been unconscious for a week. A whole week wasted, and even longer if his wing was as badly damaged as it felt. He resisted the urge to groan in frustration. At least he was still alive, he didn't want to sound ungrateful. "What happened to me?"

"I cannot tell you for certain," Cosette said regretfully, "but as far as ve can tell you, vell..." she trailed off, looking rather uncomfortable about giving him the news, "you, vell, you flew into the Eiffel tower."

Nico didn't reply immediately. Instead he just stared at her for a few moments, beak dropped open in shock.

"Uh.. I... I what now?"

"Luckily you didn't fall too far, but ze impact knocked you out and broke your ving in two places. Nothing severe, but still broken. And by ze time someone found you, you 'ad pretty severe 'ypothermia. Ve almost lost you a few times."

Nico barely heard her, still trying to get over the fact that he had flown into the Eiffel Tower of all things. The biggest thing in Paris, not exactly difficult to miss. This was one story he was going to very much not tell when he got back home.

However some of what she said got through his shock-addled brain.

"Wait, broken wing?"

"Oui," Cosette confirmed, nodding, "it could 'ave been vorse, but I'm afraid you won't be flying for a while."

Nico groaned, dropping his head back against the pillows. "How long?"

"A month at least," Cosette told him, "I'm sorry, I'm going to 'ave to keep watch on it to make sure it 'eals properly. You can stay 'ere for as long as you need."

"Thanks," Nico said, lifting his head and giving her a grateful smile, "so where is this place?"

"An old attic in the centre of Paris, abandoned, no 'uman 'as lived 'ere for years so I just took over," she smiled, standing up and moving to fill up the empty cup once more, "I run an orphanage of sorts, chicks who have lost zeir parents."

She turned around to see Nico staring at her in awe. "Vhat?"

He started, closing his beak and clearing his throat, looking a little embarrassed. "Sorry, it's just, well, I never knew my parents, at least, not my real ones," he smiled, "Rafael and Eva took me in when I was about a week old. How many do you have?"

"At the moment, nine, it changes regularly though, more coming in, others getting adopted," she explained, "sounds like you vill get along vell with ze children."

"Well, I'm here for a while, I hope so," Nico grinned, a gesture that was quickly cut off with a wide yawn. Cosette chuckled, placing the cup of water next to his nest.

"Get some rest okay, you're going to need it," she told him, moving to leave the small room.

"Wait!" Nico called, suddenly noticing something missing, "bit of a long shot, but did your friend find a, well, a bottlecap nearby when they found me?"

He'd had that specific cap for over six years, he wasn't going to lose it now. Even if he had to go out and look for it.

"By ze bed," Cosette said, smiling as Nico pushed himself up to look over the edge of the nest, his face lighting up as he caught sight of the shiny disk, "we didn't know if it was yours or it just fell on your head after the fall, but it seemed a little unlikely for it to be all the way up there, so ve bought it back just in case."

"Thank you," Nico said, relief clear in his voice. He had that cap for so long, he was not going to lose it. Cosette just smiled, leaving the room, and leaving him in silence.

And unfortunately silence meant he had nothing to distract him from his thoughts.

So he had a minor setback. It just meant that when he got out he would just have to push harder to get home as quickly as possible.

Home.

It had been nearly three weeks, and the feeling of homesickness just wouldn't go away. He couldn't help but wonder why this happened to him, or at least, why it was just him, why he had to do this on his own. At this point, he didn't care who it was, just so long as he wasn't alone.

His mind constantly repeated the what ifs, over and over.

What if he had gotten up when Pedro asked him to? What if neither of them had gone to the beach? What if Pedro had never found him? Would they know what had happened? And how long would it take for them to notice he was missing?

Not that any of that mattered, what happened, happened, and there was nothing he could do to change that, however much he wished he could. He just had to make sure he got back to them as fast as he possibly could, against all the problems the universe seemed to be throwing in his path.

He wondered how they were coping.

Blu and Jewel would be worried, yes, but it wouldn't be life changing. It was the kids they had to worry about. The blue bundles of pure energy that adored it whenever he and Pedro would come and visit. Though he never did quite get over the fact that they were bigger than him from the moment they hatched. He loved them regardless, and the sentiment was returned tenfold. He was definitely glad he didn't have to be the one to explain what had happened, and he certainly hoped they understood he would be back soon. They were growing up so fast and he did not want to miss that.

He knew exactly how Rafael would cope. He'd act strong on the outside, making sure everyone else was alright, dealing with their problems, anything to stop himself from over thinking things and worrying. But that's exactly what he would be doing. Worrying. Constantly. The canary was the oldest of his children, not necessarily by blood, but his son none the less. He could look after himself well enough, and Rafael knew this, but this wasn't Rio. The world was unforgiving and hard, especially in climates he wasn't used to, and even he knew that being a tiny bird in the big wide world wouldn't always play out to his advantage. He knew the toucan would have absolute belief in what he could do and the fact that he was smart enough to look after himself, even out here, but that wouldn't stop him from worrying.

Though it probably wouldn't be half as bad as Pedro.

He burrowed down further into the several blankets thrown over him at the thought of his best friend. He still couldn't get the memory of the last time he saw him out of his mind.

What was he doing right now?

The funny thing was, Nico couldn't think of anything. They spent every waking moment together, it was hard to imagine doing anything without Pedro, the past few weeks had been hell. After spending most of your life with someone else, suddenly being on your own was like being thrown in the deep end without a float. He was almost certain the cardinal felt the same way. It was probably worse on that end. There were very few birds in Rio who could put up with some of Pedro's more eccentric sides for too long. Nico had once been told he had the patience of a saint for sticking with him all the time. He had just snorted, the bird was clearly new.

Eccentricities aside, Pedro had always been a little protective over his smaller friend, and there were times when Nico was thankful for this. This was not one of those times. He knew the older bird would be freaking out, constantly worrying and completely unfocused on anything. The first time he got sick after moving in together, Rafael had to physically throw him out for getting too stressed. Nico remembered none of this, but Rafael had filled him in after he was better and they pretended he did, and it was always a fun story to tell, if only for his reactions. Pedro, to this day, still has no idea. But now, the older bird couldn't look after him, no matter how much he may want to, and there was more than just a angry toucan separating them. He could only imagine how he had reacted once that plane was well out of reach, and every day since.

It felt like a piece of himself was missing. Like there was a very empty space right next to him that just could not be ignored.

They had known each other for six years, and despite the rather rocky start to their friendship, had been the best of friends since the beginning. When they first met, they got on well enough, and there was definitely potential for a good friendship. But that night was the night of one of the biggest singing competitions in Rio, which Pedro had entered and was fairly confident about (perhaps a little over-confident). Nico, never having sung on a stage in his life, hadn't. However, a spot opened up halfway through the evening and the young bird was quite literally thrown onto the stage with five minutes warning and no preparation. Neither of them won, but Nico still beat Pedro, and even though it was by a feathers breadth, the older bird didn't exactly take it well. He had explained later that it was more about the lack of preparation and practice than actually beating him. Either way, they didn't talk for several days after that, both a little hurt, and Rafael ended up doing some peace-keeping between them.

Long story short, there was a hysterical collision, followed shortly by Rafael throwing them on stage together with only an hour's notice, and both discovering that maybe, just maybe, they were better together than they ever could be on their own.

Nico sighed, rolling onto his side and curling up.

Maybe in a few days he could get out and maybe explore a little bit of the city, just to take his mind off his own home for a short while.

"Bonjour, un autre jour de neige je crains."

"Huh?" Nico blinked sleepily as the rather cheery sparrow breezed into the room. He resisted the urge to dive back under the blankets as she yanked back the cloth covering a small window, letting blinding sunlight stream into the small space. Instead he just blocked it with his wing, blinking stars out of his vision.

"Oh, pardon," Cosette chuckled, realising her mistake, "Good morning," she corrected, "more snow today I'm afraid, and power cut out two days ago, ve need to make sure the candles stay lit or it's going to get very cold."

"Oh joy," Nico murmured sarcastically, yawning, "more cold, just what I wanted."

"'ow are you feeling?"

"Better," Nico said, smiling sleepily. He was still tired, but nowhere near as groggy as he had been after waking up the night before. He'd slept better last night than he had in weeks.

"C'est bien," Cosette smiled, placing the back of her wing against his forehead, "fever's completely gone, merveilleux."

She busied herself with cleaning up for a moment while Nico woke himself up a bit, crawling out from under the covers. A action he immediately regretted when his body was met with freezing air. He really hoped it warmed up soon, he really didn't like the cold.

"Do you think you might be alright to meet the chicks today?" Cosette asked, "zey've been dying to meet you."

"I don't know," Nico said, looking a little sceptical at the idea, "Isn't there going to be a bit of a problem with language? I don't know any french."

"Several of zem don't even know 'ow to talk yet, don't worry," Cosette smiled reassuringly, "I'll be zere to translate if you need it."

(SEVERAL HOURS LATER)

"I think I prefer the toucans."

Nico almost collapsed into his nest, resisting only because of his injured wing. Instead he gingerly sat down on the edge, exhausted. Cosette laughed from just outside the door, where she was cleaning up. The younger birds had been put down for their nap, the slightly older ones quietly talking in the far corner of their shared room.

"They can be a bit of a 'andful at times," she said, "but you did vell, considering."

"Heh, thanks, maybe I should learn at least a bit of French though," Nico said, looking thoughtful, "do you think you could teach me?"

"I would be 'appy- Hold on," Cosette paused, and Nico could hear a frantic knocking from the other side of the attic. The canary pushed himself back up, walking out into the main room, where Cosette had hurried to the door-slash-window pulled it open, a flurry of snow and cold air blowing in. She ushered someone else in, and even from his distance, Nico could see the squirming bundle in the strange bird's wings.

"Oh mon dieu, Gwen, ce qui s'est passé?" Cosette asked, pushing the door shut with some difficulty against the wind, "ce qui s'est passé?"

The bird, a smallish bird with red and brown feathers, said something in very fast French, looking very apologetic as she handed the bundle over. She carried on talking as she backed towards the door.

"C'est très bien, assurez-vous que vous arrivez à la maison en toute sécurité," Cosette said, helping the bird with the door. Once closed, she hurried over, muttering to herself.

Much to Nico's surprise, she deposited the bundle in his good wing before fluttering up to a drawer, rummaging around inside.

Nico looked down, adjusting his hold. All brain processes stopped as he saw the tiny face surrounded by a blanket, yawning and trying to nuzzle into him. It was the tiniest bird he had ever seen, with fluffy blue, white and black feathers. How could anyone want to give this up?

"What happened?" he asked as Cosette landed next to him, extra blankets and a small box. She ushered them into the small room he had been staying in, her expression set with grim determination.

"Ve need to get 'er warm, quickly now," she said, taking the spare blanket and wrapping it around the tiny body, "she was left out in the cold by 'er parents," she explained, "Gwen found 'er on 'er way home, brought 'er 'ere."

Nico said nothing, he simply stared down at the chick, who couldn't be more than a few days old, a week at most. He couldn't help but think of the day Rafael had found him. True, he didn't remember it exactly, he was only a week old himself, but the situations had their similarities, and it definitely got him thinking.

"Why?"

"I don't know," Cosette breathed, "it could have been anything, they couldn't look after her, or there's something wrong with her, or they're just horrible birds."

The girl yawned, snuggling down in her blankets and drifting off to sleep.

"Come on," Cosette said, taking the tiny bundle, "we don't want to wake 'er, she seems to be alright, but I'll keep an eye on her tonight, we can sort this out when she wakes up." She took her into the adjoining room, murmuring soft words in French under her breath. Nico however, simply sat where he was with legs stretched out in front of him, staring at his feet blankly.

"Vhat are you thinking mon cherie?"

He started when a comforting wing fell around his shoulders, looking up to see Cosette sat close, a worried smile on her beak.

"I just... it's just, I don't understand why anyone would..." he trailed off, sighing deeply and glancing back at the room.

"Do you ever vish things 'ad turned out differently?" Cosette asked, "vith your family?"

Nico didn't even have to think about it, "no, definitely not, I can't imagine my life without Pedro, or Rafael, or the macaws and the kids, but I wouldn't mind knowing why, ya' know? Why they thought, 'week year old chick, let's just abandon him on a random beach in Rio'."

Cosette pulled him closer, stroking his head gently. "Maybe it's better you don't know," she told him, "just because someone's related by blood doesn't make zem family, 'onestly it sounds like you got the better deal."

"I know," Nico sighed, smiling a little, thinking back to growing up, "thanks, just, please don't stop doing what you do."

"Je ne voudrais pas décevoir," Cosette smirked when Nico looked up blankly at her, "you said you wanted to learn French, shall we start?"

"Rafael!"

The toucan in question almost jumped out of his seat at the loud shout of his name echoing through the hollow. Thankfully, Eva had taken the kids out, saving him the trouble of calming them back down and saving Blu, who had just appeared at the entrance to the hollow, from being tackled to the ground by half a dozen over-excited baby toucans.

"Yes?" He replied with mock enthusiasm, one eyebrow raised.

"I have news," Blu panted, "not entirely sure if it's good or bad, but some bird called Rita just showed up, she was one of the ones taken the other week, knows something about Nico!"

"What?" Rafael shot up like a bullet. It had been almost three weeks with no news, anything on the little canary was an absolute godsend at this point, even bad news. He just wanted to know. "Where is she?"

"Come on, I'll take you, her mother won't let her out of her sight."

Ten minutes later they were at the parakeet's hollow, sitting the rather nervous bird down, Rafael trying to be as calm as possible.

"What do you know?" he asked, a strong sense of urgency in his voice, "tell me everything."

"I don't know that much," she said quietly, fidgeting in her seat, "I was in the cage above him in the plane, he was great, he really was, he kept everyone's spirits up when the negativity set in, and he was the one who got us all out. There was no way out of the plane while the plane was still in the air, so we had to wait for it to land, then we all flew out when it landed. That was when I lost track of him," she flinched away from Rafael's disappointed eyes. Her mother placed a wing around her shoulder.

"Leave her be would you?" she scolded the toucan, "she's had a traumatic experience."

"I know I just-"

"It's okay," Rita cut in, giving a small smile, "I'm sorry Rafael, I thought he was right behind me, but when I turned around he wasn't anywhere, and the humans had closed the hatch on the plane. That was when the snowstorm hit hard, very few birds survived through it," she said sadly, "I hid away from the cold and came out when it stopped snowing, I went to look for him, I looked everywhere, but I couldn't look forever, I needed to get home. I figured if he was okay, then he'd found a place to hide out and would be alright, and if not...well..." she trailed off, staring at the floor.

"You did the right thing," Rafael reassured her, smiling gently, "thank you, and thank you for telling me."

She gave him a tiny smile, accepting her mother's hug, not noticing the glare she was giving the toucan.

"You couldn't have given her a few days to settle in?" the older parakeet told him, tightening her grip protectively around her daughter.

"Look I-"

"I went to him," Rita cut him off again, pulling away from her mother, "not the other way round."

"I know darling, I've just been so worried about you, I'm sorry."

"I'm worried too," Rafael said gently, "I don't have the luxury of knowing my child is safe yet, and any news on him is the most incredible thing in the world right now." The mother had the decency to look a little bit ashamed. "Thank you again Rita, but can you do one more thing for me?" She nodded, "don't tell Pedro. He knows birds got out, he's got hope, as fragile as it is, and until we know for definite what happened to Nico, I don't want him to lose that," he smiled, "and don't you give up hope either, no news isn't always bad news."

She smiled, nodding.

"What happens if we never find out?" Blu asked quietly as they prepared to leave, Rita and her mother well out of earshot.

Rafael sighed shakily, "I don't know, I suppose we'll just have to assume the worst."

The next few weeks went surprisingly fast, so much happened that time was flying by. The little girl Cosette had taken in settled in quickly, the older chicks cooing over her at every opportunity. The tiny bird loved every minute of it, babbling and waving her wings. It had taken a while to settle on a name, everyone throwing in suggestions and yet no one could come to a decision. Eventually they made up their minds.

Marie.

Little Marie who very quickly took to Nico.

After she woke up the day she was found, Cosette did a check up, discovering one very clear reason the girl had been given up. She had been born with just one foot, her left leg ending at the ankle. Her parents clearly didn't want to look after a child that wasn't perfect. In the wild, any sort of disability can leave a bird very vulnerable to attack from a larger bird. But as she grew, learning to walk and talk, she barely even noticed, wobbling along the floor. She knew something was wrong, she knew she walked a little funny, but she always laughed, not caring.

Then again, she very rarely spent any time with her feet on the ground.

"She's still climbing huh?"

Nico glanced upwards, a wry smile on his beak. "Kid just wants to fly, at the moment this is as close as she's gonna ge- ow!" He flinched as his hat fell over his eyes, followed quickly by a giggling blue tit who fell into his lap. "I don't know if it's gonna be worse when she can fly, I'm probably gonna get tackled to the ground every time she's in the room."

"Don't vorry, it's just a phase," Cosette chuckled, watching the small bird climb back up the canary, who simply sat with utmost patience, barely reacting. After two weeks, he was starting to get used to it.

"'ow's the French coming?"

"Très bien, je pense que," Nico replied, grinning with confidence. He had picked the language up fairly quickly. They both pegged it down to the language being fairly similar to Portuguese, at least in comparison to English. Cosette was surprised and impressed at the speed he picked it up.

"Vell, you've got enough to get you out of France at any rate," the sparrow smiled, moving to detach Marie from Nico's head and placing her on the ground, laughing when she simply climbed back up. "Écouter, I was talking to a friend the other day, I didn't want to say anything just in case, but it turns out 'e 'as a brother who lives in Rio," Nico's face lit up, "not sure 'ow likely it is that it would get to your family, but we might be able to get a message out there."

Silence filled the room, Nico staring at her like Christmas had come early, opening and closing his beak like a goldfish with no sound coming out.

"Nico?"

"Really?"

"It may be likely you beat it there, but there's always the chance, right?"

"Rafael knows everybody, I'm sure it'll get to them eventually."

Cosette smiled, "I'll take a look at zat wing zis afternoon, if all is going well, you should be flying again by the end of ze week."

Instead of early, Nico looked at her like all of his Christmases had come at once.

"And then ve'll go and see Francis, est-ce que ça va?"

"Say, Rafael?"

The toucan turned away from the kids playing with Pedro in the sand, to face Jewel, who was still watching the sandcastle building competition, though her expression had changed from peaceful to thoughtful.

"Yes?"

"This might be weird question," she said, turning towards him, "I've been wondering ever since Pedro moved in, now I know he and Nico are close, any idiot can see that, but what exactly is their..." she waved her wing, "you know? Relationship? I mean, are they friends, are they more than friends? Brothers? I just can't tell."

Rafael opened his beak to reply, before immediately shutting it and frowning, a contemplative expression passing over his face.

"Honestly, your guess is as good as mine," he said after thinking about it for a few moments.

"Really?" Blu piped up from the other side of Jewel, "you don't know?"

The toucan shook his head, "no one knows," he said, "it's one of the biggest mysteries in Rio, there are bets!"

Stunned silence followed his statement, both macaws staring at him, torn between laughing and shocked gasps.

"Are you serious?"

Rafael just laughed, grinning wide, "oh yeah, the wagers are getting pretty high."

"I don't know whether to be horrified or find that completely hilarious," Jewel said, a hint of an amused smile appearing on her beak, "do they know?"

The toucan shrugged, "it would surprise me if they didn't," he laughed, "personally, I think they know everything and are playing it to their advantage, keeping everyone guessing and constantly raising the stakes."

"Wow, that's...that's just..." Blu trailed off, chuckling.

"They're both a lot smarter than most birds will give them credit for, but most don't know it, and they keep it that way," Rafael chuckled, watching Pedro get tackled to the ground by half a dozen chicks who then proceeded to bury him in the sand.

"Who would've thought..." Jewel muttered, smiling as she turned to the scene in front of her, "have you put any bets in?"

Rafael was conspicuously silent at this, and both macaws turned to see him looking anywhere but them, pointedly not meeting their eyes.

"Alright, yes," he blurted out, dropping his head into his wing with a grimace, "I won't tell you what and I can assure you I'm not proud of it, but yeah, I sorta did."

Jewel smirked, "well at least you have the decency to look ashamed," she nudged him lightly, grinning, "don't worry, we won't tell."

Rafael just smiled gratefully, turning back to watch the kids once more. They were silent for a while, content to just sit a watch their respective children have their fun. Even Pedro seemed to have let go and was laughing and having a good time. For the first time in nearly two months Rafael could see through the exterior and see that this wasn't just an act. There was still pain in his eyes, still a sense of loss and the struggle not to notice the very obvious gap next to him, but things were getting easier.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Jewel asked softly, breaking the quiet.

Rafael sighed, "he'll make it through," he said, "it'll get worse as time goes on though, especially if... especially if..."

"He doesn't come back," Jewel finished for him, placing a comforting wing on his shoulder.

"I can't afford to think like that yet," the toucan continued, "but I do need to prepare for that possibility, both for myself and for my family, but especially for Pedro. Those two, well, whatever their relationship actually is, it doesn't change the fact that they love each other more than anything else in the world, they quite literally need each other to survive. At the moment Pedro's running on the hope that he will come back, and I still believe he will, but if the worst happens, well, he's really going to need all of us to make it through to the other side, and we all need to prepare ourselves for that, even if it never comes to it."

He sighed, raggedly running a wing down his face, "but for now he's alright, and hey, for all we know, Nico will turn up tomorrow and this will all be over."

"One can only hope right?" Blu said, a small smile on his beak.

Rafael gave a short laugh and a smile, which very quickly faded, "yeah, that's all we can do."

So yeah, new character. Little baby Marie. She'll have a bigger part later on, for now she's just there for the cute factor :) Anyway, hope you enjoyed, please, please, please leave a review. I don't care if you hated it, just let me know why, I'm always trying to improve.