The sun was setting, casting soft light onto the luxury cruise liner, the rippling waves glittering like jewels. Ocean stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction, not a single disturbance on the still waters.
And despite this stillness, one passenger was very much not enjoying the peace and tranquillity.
"I hate you all."
The only one not grinning was Nico, and that was mostly because he was doing everything in his power to refrain. Ali and Tia had no such restraint.
That is not to say however, that they all thought his being seasick amusing, but more the way he had decided to handle the situation.
That is to say, insulting them all.
Admittedly not very well.
"No seriously," he murmured, leaning against the railing, "you all suck, hugely, I should throw you all off the edge right this second."
"Hun, you know we're birds right?" Tia said, rubbing soothing circles into his back.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"You throw us off, we'll just fly," she explained, trying not to smirk.
"Still be satisfying."
Nico snorted, a smile finally breaking through. "Alright, I think he's been through enough taunting."
"You're new to this whole sibling thing aren't you?" Ali asked with a teasing grin.
"Girl, I've had ten times the experience you have," Nico said with a sidelong glance, "but there's only so much mocking you can do when someone's sick."
With a sigh and a soft smile, Ali backed down. "Fair enough," she said, "tell you what though," she linked her wing through Tia's "I'm not sure if I can hold off, so why don't we take turns looking after him; you can start Nico."
This earned her a glare. Which she pointedly ignored.
"We," she continued, giving Tia a look, "are going to have a girls night."
Without waiting for a reply and with a shared glance that made Nico narrow his eyes with suspicion, the two girls took off and out flew out of sight.
There was a moment of almost silence, the only sound was Tony once again throwing up over the edge. Nico stood staring at the spot where his sister and her best friend had disappeared.
"What's going on with those two?" he asked, turning back to Tony.
"What do you mean? They're just friends."
Nico sat down next to him, shaking his head, mulling over the looks he knows he's been seeing on Ali's face whenever she looked at Tia. He's seen the very same look before, but he couldn't place exactly where.
"Yeah," he sighed, shaking the feeling off as he glanced back. He could have just be imagining it. Turning back to his brother, he smiled and said, "feeling any better?"
"I don't think there's anything left to throw up, so that's one positive," Tony mumbled, "only three days to go," he said bitterly.
"You can do it," Nico said supportively, patting him lightly on the back.
"Ah, Panama! Sweet, sweet land," Tony cried dramatically, rocketing off the ship the moment they hit land a few days later, landing and practically kissing the ground.
"Ah," Tia breathed in as she landed next to him, "I can smell adventure," she grinned, looking around the busy dock. Nico landed next to her, his expression one of unbelief and exasperation.
"I don't know about you, but I think I've had enough adventure for one life time thank you very much," he said, rolling his eyes.
"So what now?" Ali asked, possibly the only one keeping her head in the game and focusing on what to do next. That may, of course, have something to do with the fact that she had a slightly heavy pack on her back holding a few small items she had insisted on bringing from her workshop.
The three looked at her, wide eyed, like they hadn't actually thought that far ahead.
"Well," Nico started, looking behind him at the slowly sinking sun, "I think Tony needs a few hours to get his head together and get over his seasickness, so I would suggest we set up camp here somewhere and then in the morning, start flying."
"Do you know the way?" Tia asked, tilting her head a little.
"Do I look like I've done this before?" Nico asked dryly, raising an eyebrow. He rolled his eyes, "no, honestly I don't know the way, but can it be really that hard to work out? I've seen maps, I know the general direction."
Ali just shook her head, "or you could do the simple thing and ask for directions," she suggested, pointing out the obvious. Tony and Nico just looked at her like she was insane, for which they received a glare, a tut and a murmur of "boys."
With a smile and roll of his eyes, Nico looked around, scouting for somewhere to hole up for a day. Tony was not in the best of shapes, and a full day's flight probably wouldn't be the best thing. However, one thing did catch his attention as he was glancing around.
"Uh oh," he murmured, heart suddenly pounding as he caught a glimpse of a certain colourful parakeet and her eagle 'friend'. "Guys, move," he said quickly, grabbing both Ali and Tony's wings and pulling them behind a nearby wooden box. Tia looked confused for a moment, but quickly caught on and dived after them when she followed his line of sight.
"Well, at least we know she's not that far ahead of us," Tony murmured, leaning against the wood.
"They were probably on the same ship," Tia said, "I'm actually surprised we didn't see them earlier."
"Or she's just taking it slow," Nico put in, "she thinks I'm dead, she's hardly got any reason to get back in a hurry."
Silence fell over the group of birds, each lost in their own thoughts. After a few moments, Nico took a deep breath, calming his frazzled nerves and slightly erratic breathing, and turned to the others. "Right," he said with an air of finality, "we can't just sit here, we need a plan."
"How are you to fly for a bit Tony?" Ali asked her brother, looking at him with concerned eyes. Made all the more surprising considering she was teasing him not half an hour before.
"I could go for a bit, flying doesn't seem too bad now we're on land," Tony shrugged, smiling, "I just need to eat something first."
"What about you Nico?" Ali said, looking at her other brother.
"What about me?"
"Well, considering two weeks ago you weren't even conscious, do you feel up to this? It's several thousand miles, we're talking, like, three weeks here. Minimum."
"If we fly for at least twelve hours a day," Tia said grimly.
Tony and Nico shared a look, conveying all they wanted say in that one glance.
"Better get started then."
They followed their plan to a T, flying as far as they could each day, usually until one of them dropped from exhaustion and they had to stop, or it just started to get dark and it simply wasn't safe to fly. After their brief scare in Panama City, they didn't see Liana or Frank again. This gave them all mixed feelings of reassurance and terror. It could mean several things, they were ahead, had gone a different route or were somewhere behind them.
They reached the border to Brazil in a little over two weeks.
"I can't go on!"
"Tony, stop being a baby," Ali sneered, dropping down next to where he had collapsed on a branch.
"No, he's right," Tia panted, sitting down heavily on her other side, "I'm exhausted, we're not even halfway there and I'm pretty sure I pulled a wing." She held up a limp left wing, looking at it like it had died.
Nico landed next to her, shaking his head with the tiniest of smiles. "Come on guys, we've only been flying a few hours today, let's at least get to midday."
"But that's, like, hours away," Tony whined, turning his head to look up at Nico, who just gave him a dry look.
"Yeah," Tia continued, "and I don't think I'm built for this whole, you know, effort thing."
"Don't make me guilt trip you," Nico said, narrowing his eyes at the pair.
That was when Ali decided to step in and diffuse what could have been a monumental argument. "Alright, look, we're all a little tired, and the fact that even Tia's looking run down means we've all gone past our breaking point. Nico, I know how badly you want to get home, believe me I do, but you're gonna run yourself into the ground if you don't take it easy for a day or two. And don't try to tell me you're fine, I can see how much you're shaking."
"But-"
"No but's!" Ali cut him off, holding his beak closed. "Look, there's a town over there, let's find something to eat, and then sleep off the exhaustion until we feel ready to do the rest."
"Seconded," Tony cheered, lazily raising a wing in support. Tia just 'mmm'ed in agreement.
Nico sighed, nodding reluctantly. They were getting so close, he was in the right country at least, and closer than he had ever been since this whole thing began. He just wanted to be there now, back with his family, back with Pedro.
But, as much as he loathed to admit it, she had a point. He was beginning to feel shaky, both from lack of sleep and low blood sugar. He needed to eat and he needed to sleep.
"Alright, let's rest up," he said, "you're right, we can't go on like this."
"Hallelujah," Tony murmured, sitting up and smiling triumphantly.
Two days later, they were flying again, properly rested, far more awake and well fed. Despite this, there were some mixed emotions within the team.
"I cannot believe we slept for two days," Nico muttered as they flew, "two days! That's got to be some sort of record."
"Especially for Tia," Ali said with a smirk and a sideway's glance at her best friend, "I honestly didn't think it was possible for you to sleep for more than four hours at a time."
"We're probably miles behind her now," Nico continued, as if he hadn't heard her at all, "she's got an eagle!"
"Dude!" Tia exclaimed, flying up so she was next to him, "you're meant to be Mr Positivity, Ali's the miserable one." This earned her an annoyed 'hey!' from somewhere below, which she pointedly ignored. "Come on now, at least we're not dead tired anymore."
Nico stayed silent, watching the forest fly by below them as they soared overhead. Two days could put them behind significantly, Nico knew that, but he also knew there was nothing that could be done about it now, there was no point sulking about it. At least they weren't about to drop from sheer exhaustion.
"Come on, cheer up, just a little," Tia carried on, poking him in the side, "think about how close we are."
A tiny smile appeared at the thought and Tia grinned.
"Look," Tony said, dropping down to his other side, "you said it yourself, she doesn't want to hurt anyone you know, at least not physically. The worst that could happen is she's a few day's ahead and tells them the 'news'" he made air quotes around 'news', "next day, you show up, we kick Liana's butt and everything goes back to normal."
"I know you don't want them ever thinking that you're dead," Ali put in, grimacing at the thought, "and I understand, god knows I wouldn't want to hear that about any of you, but that's worst case scenario."
"Best case, we beat her and are there waiting for her at the finish line," Tia said with a wink.
There was a moment of silence.
"Is that when I get to punch her?" Ali asked, her voice filled with childish innocence and honest curiosity.
Nico snorted, dropping slightly as laughter bubbled up and he tried to stifle it.
"Yes, Ali," he said after a few moments, "please do."
A/N: Just a little one this time. I apologize for the lack of updates recently, I have a sort of excuse, in that I started a new job, which has just been crazy. I mean, manic. It's a new restaurant, and I don't think anyone thought it would be quite this popular so early on. Which is great, but it does mean I've been exhausted. So exhausted, my muse decided to pack her bags and go on holiday.
So there's that, and there's also the fact that I have about six different endings for this, and I still don't know which one I want to go for. So I got this far, and since it's been so long, and NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow and I have my own novel I want to get started this year, I thought I would post this now, hopefully it will get you through until December, where I promise I will get this finished :)
Anyway, you know the drill, please do review :) Thank you to all who have done already, you're just my favourite people ever :D Keep it up, I love hearing what you think.