The next thing Nico remembered after blacking out for a brief moment, was waking up with what felt like a stick poking into his back, stars in his vision and a rather heavy body on top of his. Blinking a few times, he managed to clear his still quite blurred vision, just in time for another bird to come into his line of vision.

"Hey! Tony!" the bird poked the body on top of his. She was a greenish blue with specks of a whole spectrum of colours running through her feathers, and a rather odd smile on her beak as she glanced at him.

"Ow," the other bird moaned.

"I'm so sorry this happened," the girl gushed, looking at him properly as she helped her friend off of him, "someone," she hissed, giving a pointed look at the other bird, "never pays attention when he's flying."

Nico pushed himself up into a sitting position, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment in an attempt to stop his world spinning.

"Tia?" another female voice sounded, "please tell me you're seeing what I'm seeing."

"Girl, I'm probably seeing more than you, it's uncanny," Tia giggled.

Cracking one eye open, Nico looked up, and had stop his beak dropping open. He didn't even notice he had landed in a bush. Standing in front of him, next to 'Tia', were two very similar looking canaries. The only difference between them was the eye colour, the girl had brown, the boy had blue and a very dark brown patch of feathers over his right eye. But there something about the both of them that was awfully familiar. Something he couldn't quite place.

"Hey, you alright kid?"

"y-yeah," Nico said, "um, sorry, my fault too, I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Nah, it was probably Tony," Tia grinned, "he's a bit of a clutz," she mock whispered, winking obviously. She laughed at his blank expression, offering a wing to help him stand up.

"I'm Tony by the way," the boy said, "though I'm sure that much was obvious," he chuckled nervously, "this is my little sis-"

"Older, thank you very much," the girl cut him off with a glare.

"Whatever," Tony rolled his eyes, smirking slightly and turned back to Nico, "this is my sister Ali, we're twins, if you haven't noticed; and this," he pointed to the third member of their group, "is Tia."

"I'm Nico," he introduced himself, narrowing his eyes suspiciously as three pairs of eyebrows raised in shock, "what?"

"Nothing, nothing," Tia waved it off with a nervous grin, "so, Nico, I don't think I've seen you around before, what brings you to our lovely island?"

"Trying to get to South America," he explained, "don't suppose you know about getting a ship across?"

The trio looked at each other, seeming to communicate without words. Tony and Tia clearly agreed on something, Ali seemed to be against the idea, whatever it was. The other two birds smirked at her, clearly the vote was won.

"There's another commercial ship in three days," Tony explained, "anything smaller, and we simply won't know without spending a lot of time hanging around the docks."

"But in the meantime," Tia added, "you are more than welcome to come and stay with us."

Ali raised her eyes heavenward, scowling slightly. "Oh sure, offer our home to a complete stranger," she muttered, crossing her wings tightly across her chest and scowling at the ground.

"Oh come on Al," Tony reasoned, "it's only for a few days, what harm could he do?"

She gave him a dry look, shaking her head as if he should know why and what, before turning away and taking off. The three left on the ground watched her fly away, one confused, the other two exasperated.

"Oh here we go again," Tia sighed, her look surprisingly understanding, fond even, but with a hint of annoyance.

Nico blinked, still a little shell shocked at the sudden disappearance. "Did.. um... what?"

"Don't worry," Tony explained with a half smile, "she does that."

There was a brief moment where Nico had to wonder just what the heck he had gotten himself into this time. But he shrugged it off; he spent a week with the twins, he could handle three days with these guys. It couldn't be that life changing.

"Come on," Tia grinned, "I'll deal with Ali later, let's find you a bed."

"What happened back there?"

An hour later they had reached their rather spacious hollow and had given him the grand tour of the area, all the while shooting questions at him; all of which he answered with an amused smile. He had explained why he was in Hawaii, where he was going (which once again elicited some raised eyebrows and a very obvious glance at each other), and a little bit about his life in Rio. If he suspected they were being a bit too inquisitive and specific, he didn't say anything.

"With Ali?" Tony said, "she does that a lot, I'm not entirely sure about the reasoning for today, though I have my suspicions."

"What?"

"I wouldn't go there," Tia explained with a grimace, "it's a bit of a touchy subject," she sighed, "I should go talk to her."

Tony stood up from where he was bent over tidying their spare nest. He had a strange look on his face, like he was torn between two choices and didn't know which one to choose. "I know you love her and all Ti, but I think it'll be best if I go, family matters and all." With a nod from Tia, he took off out the hollow and into the sunset sky.

Nico watched him go with a look of confusion and slight guilt.

"Ya know, I kinda feel like I'm intruding on something here," he said, looking to Tia.

"Nah, don't worry," she said, waving a wing, "this happens, the drama in this family is ridiculous," she smiled at him, "besides, we could hardly leave you out there alone now could we?"

The sun had almost set by the time Tony had found Ali, sat on the end of the tiny pier not too far from their shared hollow. She leant against a post, staring at the waves lapping against the wood below, her eyes unseeing and vacant as she fiddled with a small metal flower in her wings.

"Hey," Tony said softly, landing behind her, "now I know what you're going to say, but-"

"It's not him Tony," she cut him, "I know how much you want to believe it, but it's impossible."

Tony sighed, sitting down next to her. He reached over and took flower away and placed it next to him, taking her wings in his so she had nothing to distract herself with. "Al, we don't know what happened, everything matches, looks, name, everything."

Ali tried to pull away, avoiding his gaze. "He was two weeks old, and sick, how could he have survived on his own?" she yanked her wings out of his grasp and turned away, "I want to believe that's my baby brother! I wantto believe that's our Nico, but it's not! He died Tony!" She choked up, tears forming in her eyes. Tony didn't hesitate in pulling her into a tight hug, stroking her feathers softly, letting her cry.

A few minutes passed in silence, only the sounds of soft sobs and the odd hiccup breaking it.

"Ali," Tony spoke up once the sobs had subsided to hiccups, "we don't know what happened," he said, "and I'm not saying that guy is our brother, and until we get all the facts I'm not going to say anything for certain, but so far, everything matches up. Think about it, he's the right age, at least, he looks the right age; he looks almost identical to us, he's got your eyes."

"Dad's eyes," Ali put in with a sideways glance.

"Yours, we don't talk about them," Tony sighed, "and he's from Rio. So far everything fits. What's to say someone didn't find him and take him in?"

"It would take a miracle for-"

"And maybe we got that miracle," Tony said, letting her draw away and look at him with an uncertain expression, "maybe."

"I just don't want to be disappointed," Ali muttered, "it would be like losing him all over again."

Tony stood up, helping her up. "Let's go find out. And if it's not, then we'll just get through it, but I'm not one to miss an opportunity like this."

Nico was just beginning to doze off when they reappeared, looking anxious and a little bit excited. Tia immediately darted over, throwing her wings around Ali in a tight hug. The canary just rolled her eyes in an attempt to cover her real emotions and patted the girl on the back.

"Everything's alright Ti, just had some issues we needed to work out."

"Issues? Like- you know-" she not-so-subtly gestured to Nico, who was sat up blearily watching them. He raised an eyebrow as the three birds looked at him.

"Yeah, can we not?" Tony said, looking away, "this needs to be handled... delicately."

Blinking sleepily at the three of them, Nico sat up, looking rather confused at the conversation. He was still quite confused about the whole situation he had once again ended up in. Ali and Tony seemed somewhat familiar. Like he had seen them before, known them before.

But he couldn't think where from.

He couldn't help but think that they looked a lot like... like... well, like him.

And that wasn't just because they were canaries too. It was almost like looking in a mirror.

It may just be coincidence, but then, he never knew his real family.

He shook his head, clearing his mind. There was no use thinking about that, the chances of just happening upon them was impossibly low.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Ali looked at him properly, narrowing her eyes in thought and a bit of doubt. "It's nothing," she said, her expression morphing into something resembling neutral, "listen, there's that thing going on at the beach, you guys want to come?"

"Is it me, or does she not like me very much?"

Tia snorted, turning to Nico with a small smile. "Don't worry, she's a hard one to please," she said, "got a bit of hard shell, but it's nothing you did. She just has trouble warming up to others."

Nico looked across the campfire that had been made. The whole event was a monthly gathering, just for some of the birds to spend a bit of time together. They built a fire on a deserted beach and had a relaxing evening chatting, sometimes with a bit of music too. Someone had even swiped a bag of marshmallows.

Ali and Tony were sat across the fire pit, deep in conversation. Though the more he looked, the more it looked like an argument, at least by the scowl of Ali's face and the way she was waving her wings about. Tony just looked nervous.

Though about what, he couldn't say.

"She's got trust issues," Tia went on, "and she can get pissed off really easily. It's the reason she got into metalwork, gets the frustrations out."

"Metalwork?" Nico asked, tearing his eyes away from the siblings.

"Yeah, when the two first arrived in Hawaii, she was fascinated by the blacksmith's in town. Spent almost all her time just watching. So we helped her build a workshop. She's gotten pretty good."

Nico gave low whistle, "that's impressive."

"Yeah," Tia chuckled, "whatever you do, don't piss her off, she has a whole arsenal of weapons at her disposal."

"Noted," he laughed, though there was a nervous hint in his voice.

They sat and chatted for a while, Tia telling him all about her life. She was born in Spain, and left when she met Ali and Tony, and together they decided to travel for a while, before settling in Hawaii. They were originally going to live in town, before they discovered the perfect hollow over-looking a private beach. Palm trees, white sand, a little pier, it had everything.

"Nico?"

The bird in question looked up, seeing Tony standing in front of him, looking incredibly nervous.

"Hey, what's up?"

He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Listen, this is kinda sudden, but can we talk to you?"

"Um, sure," Nico nodded.

"Privately?"

Nico looked at Tia, who was grinning like an idiot. With a shrug, he got up and took to the air after Tony. They flew to a quiet part of the beach, where they found Ali, sat on the sand and watching the dark waves lap against the beach.

"So, what's going on?"

Both birds were silent for a moment, Ali unable to take her eyes away from the ocean, seeming refusing to say anything, and Tony didn't know where to look, or what to say.

"You know, we used to have a little brother," Tony began after a long silence. Nico raised an eyebrow, wondering where he was going with this. "We used to be pets for some family, a long time ago. Anyway, he was sick, right from day one, and our parents," he sighed, and a small growl was heard from Ali, "they didn't know how to deal. Me and Al, we loved him more than you can possibly imagine, and we looked after him as best we could."

"What are you saying?" Nico asked, swallowing hard. Tony held up a wing.

"Let me finish."

Nico shut up.

"Our parents couldn't deal with the illness, so they did the worst thing possible, they threw him out."

'Tony!'

Nico started at the flash of something in his mind, like a far off memory. He swallowed thickly, focusing back on what Tony was saying.

"He was two weeks old, we tried to get out to get to him, but they held us back. There was absolutely nothing we could do but watch him get smaller and smaller as we were taken away, put in a plane and taken far away."

'Let me go!'

'No!'

It couldn't be... Nico tried to silence the sharp intake of breath and calm his suddenly wildly beating heart. Images he had long since repressed flickered in his mind like an old movie and he suddenly realised where Tony was taking this.

It was a dream, a fantasy he had made up when he was a kid, of a family he never had, a reason that he was left alone and that maybe someone still loved him. It was something he bottled up a long, long time ago, and never told anyone, not even Pedro. For years he even forgot he ever had that dream.

But that's all they were; a dream. They couldn't be...

"Fun fact, our parents insisted on only using our full names, Antonio and Aleka, but he-"

'NICO!'

"Couldn't say it," Nico finished for him, trying to steady his breathing.

There was a sharp intake of breath from Ali, making him turn and look at her. She was looking at him with wide eyes, like she couldn't quite believe what she was hearing.

To be really honest, Nico didn't quite believe what he was saying. But somehow, the words wouldn't stop.

"I could barely talk, couldn't pronounce your names," he said, unable to take his eyes off Ali as she stood up and took a few steps towards him. "At least not properly, but they hated it. They were so proper." He chuckled, a bit wobbly, memories seeping back, little by little.

Ali reached out, gently touching his cheek, very clearly trying not to tear up, her eyes searching his face for any sign that this wasn't the truth, that he was somehow messing with them.

"It's you?" she whispered, her voice barely audible above the waves, "you're our Nico?"

"It would appear so," he said, smiling.

Ali didn't say another word, apparently that was enough and the next thing Nico knew he was wrapped in an almost suffocating hug. Tony joined them seconds later, wrapping his wings around them both and laughing joyfully.

The moment was perfect.

Then:

"I told you so."

"Shut up Tony."

A/N: This may be the first chapter I've written completely from scratch (with the exception of stealing a few lines right at the very end). Those of you have read the original will notice the very obvious changes, and those of you who liked Nico and Ali together, I'm sorry, I've decided to go a whole different path with the romance's in this version :) This will soon become clear, at least for Ali. I'm still debating on whether Nico should even have a romance story in this, or whether he should just keep flying solo. Let me know what you think :)

In other news, I finally got a new job! It's a waitressing job, which isn't exactly the job I wanted (Air Stewardess) but it's full time and pays better than my current job. It'll get me by until I can get into an airline.