It had been well over two months, and although Pedro constantly told himself not to worry; it was after all, a long distance to cover, he found that with every day that passed since the last call from Tokyo he got more and more twitchy. Not that he showed it of course, keeping a cool persona whenever he was around others.

Though he was fairly sure Rafael had noticed, possibly Jewel too, judging by the looks they both shot him every time he fell quiet, or when his cheerful expression fell when he thought no one was looking. He ignored the looks, pretending he didn't see them. Especially when he caught Rafael not looking at him, but at the very empty space next to him. It was hard enough without being reminded every second of the day of the fact he was missing a very important part of his life.

Exactly 11 weeks and 6 days had passed (not that he was counting or anything, not at all) when they finally got the first piece of news since Tokyo.

They were down at the beach when she found them.

His old girlfriend, Liana.

Honestly, she was the last bird he was expecting to see. And she was certainly the last person anyone had expected to get any news from.

She took him aside, out of earshot. The older birds watched curiously, the look of distress on the girl's face catching their attention.

After a few moments stumbling over words, of offering apologies for an unknown crime, she finally got the news out.

She had been visiting family in Hawaii when she had bumped into him. Then there was an accident, a fire. She had barely made it out alive.

And Nico...

He didn't make it.

The moment the words left her beak, all thought processes stopped. She continued to mumble apologies and condolences, but he didn't hear her. Rafael had appeared behind him seconds later, having seen the look of pure devastation that had passed over his face. Liana explained everything to him before backing away silently, leaving them to their grief.

The news didn't really sink in until several hours later. The other birds, Rafael, Blu, Jewel, even the kids, refused to leave him on his own. And while he protested at first, when the news finally hit him, when it at last sunk in later that night, he couldn't help but be thankful for the comfort and company. There were no words he could use to accurately describe what he was feeling.

He was fairly sure his entire world had just come crumbling down around him, with no hope of ever being able to build it back up again.

"So... This is Rio..."

Nico glanced at Tony, a tiny smirk on his beak. After months of travelling, good times and bad, through struggles and laughter. All those months, and at long last, he was standing on the famous Christ the Redeemer statue, overlooking Rio De Janeiro.

His home.

And the feeling was indescribable. So many emotions flitted through his mind at the same time, almost overwhelming him. The only thing keeping him from tipping over the edge and reducing him to a watery puddle of emotion was the fact that he still had to get down there and find his family. They could be anywhere.

"Yes Tony, I heard you the first three times," he said with a laugh.

"So what now?" Ali asked, "I mean, where do we start?"

Nico thought for a moment, running over all the possible places in his head. There were several likely places, and judging by the sinking sun on the horizon, the most likely would be either down at the club or in their various hollows.

"We'll try home first," he said with an air of decisiveness, "there's always someone in at Rafy's, unless it's a special occasion, which I don't think it is." Honestly he couldn't be sure, something could have happened, and he had completely lost track of days at this point. "I don't even know what month it is, let alone the day."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Tia said with a grin, taking to the air, "lead the way."

With a bigger grin than he had ever had before and butterflies churning his stomach, he took off, diving down into the forest.

After a few twists and turns, not meeting a single soul on the way (if Nico thought it was a little strange, he didn't say anything), they arrived at Rafael and Eva's hollow ten minutes later. He stood on the branch outside for a few seconds, trying to calm his wildly beating heart. To say he was a little anxious would be a vast understatement. But somewhere underneath the flutter of nerves, a feeling of dread had settled somewhere in his stomach. Like something was wrong. He had felt it about a week ago, but brushed it off, thinking it was just nerves considering how close they were.

Now though...

He took a deep breath, hopping a little closer and sticking his head into the hollow and glancing around. There was no obvious movement or sign of life.

"Hello?"

"Who's there?" Eva's tired voice floated down from one of the higher nests in the large home. Nico grinned, feeling a little shaky as he took a tentative step inside.

"It's me," he said, swallowing the lump that had risen in his throat, "I'm... I'm home."

"Nico?" Her voice was hopeful, yet laced with doubt.

"Yeah, I made it," Nico confirmed, grinning so wide it physically hurt, "I'm back."

There was a shuffling noise, and movement from the nest and then he saw her shocked and hopeful face look down at him. "It's you," she breathed, a huge smile breaking out on her face. She flew down, landing just in front of him. "But how? We were told you were... you were..." she broke off, getting choked up, reaching out to touch him, to make sure he was real.

Nico frowned, tilting his head as the words echoed around his mind. She didn't have to finish the sentence for him to know what she meant. It was fairly obvious.

Liana had beaten them.

Before he could say anything, she drew him into a tight hug, completely engulfing him in her wings. She didn't say anything, but Nico could tell she was crying.

"How long?" he asked, wiggling up so he could breathe properly again.

"About a week," Eva said, wiping her eyes, "she told us there was a fire, that you didn't make it out."

Nico looked away, a slightly sheepish expression passing over his face. "Well, thing is... um..." he stuttered. She would find out eventually, he might as well tell her what happened. "She wasn't completely lying."

Eva's face darkened, letting him down to the ground. He wobbled a little as he landed, but managed to keep his balance.

"What do you mean?" she asked, crossing her wings.

"Well, see, there was definitely fire, and she does honestly think I'm.. well... dead. But it was the only way to keep her off my back." The look on her face promised severe consequences if he didn't go into more detail. "Long story short, she's apparently got one hell of a grudge against me, because somehow I'm the reason she and Pedro broke up. So she's spent the past few month hunting me down and essentially trying to kill me. The incident in Hawaii she's clearly scaled down, it was more of an explosion; that she caused, with me; and some others, still in the building."

Eva was silent for a moment, staring down at him with a strange look on her face.

"Are you hurt?"

Nico's stomach dropped as he realised he would actually have to explain what had happened to his foot.

"Well..." he said, dragging out the word, "um... you see, at the time... yes... but I'm alright now, all fixed up."

"Nico," Eva said, her voice stern.

"I lost my foot," he mumbled, his voice barely audible.

But Eva, with her keen mother's hearing, heard every word.

"You what?" her voice was deadly, and promised severe harm to whoever had hurt her baby. Which was in this case, Liana.

Suddenly Nico was very grateful he had her on his side.

"It was broken, and they couldn't fix it, it was this or never walk again," he quickly explained, "but look!" he lifted his leg, "all fixed and honestly, I'm fine, doesn't even hurt and I'm walking normally again."

"Sort of!" Came a shout from outside.

"Who's that?" Eva asked, looking outside curiously. Nico turned around just as three heads appeared in the entrance. He sighed, a small smile on his face.

"That's another thing," he said, "I found my family... I mean, the one's who are actually genetically related to me." He looked up to see her looking between the three canaries with an unreadable expression. "That's Ali and Tony, my older brother and sister, don't ask about the parents. Apparently they're the ones who abandoned me, we don't talk about them. And that's Tia," he pointed and Tia gave a little wave, "she's clearly not related but still part of the family."

"How did you...?" Eva trailed off, still staring in shock.

"We just bumped into each other," Tony said.

"Literally," Ali added.

"In Mid-air," Tia finished.

"It was hysterical," Ali couldn't help by say.

"Yeah, for you," Nico said dryly, "anyway, we can do proper introductions later, where's everyone else?"

"Sao Paulo," she said with a grim look on her face, "they left this afternoon, there's that big music competition over there this weekend. I'm not too fussed, so I opted to stay here with the kids, but they wanted to get Pedro out of the city for a few days, and this was the perfect excuse. Rafael and Pedro went with the Macaw family. Quite a few others too."

Nico was silent, looking at her with horror.

Sao Paulo. They weren't even in the city.

And to make matters worse, they genuinely thought he was dead.

This was definitely a problem.

"I suppose we'd better get to Sao Paulo then," he said, his voice steely and determined.

"Yay, more flying, can't wait," Tia droned sarcastically, falling dramatically backwards to lie on the bark.

Nico glared at her, "you don't have to come," he said, pouting a little.

"Oh I'll come," Tia said, not moving from the floor, "but that's not to say I won't be whining the whole way there."

Nico rolled his eyes, turning away with a sombre expression. "Speaking of Pedro and Rafael, how are they?" He almost dreaded the answer.

Eva didn't answer for a good few seconds, staring at the ground. "Not good I'm afraid. Pedro, well, he didn't take the news well, once it really hit him. Inconsolable is one way to describe it, we pretty much refused to leave him on his own the first few days, it's kind of something that shouldn't be faced alone, no matter what someone might say," she sighed sadly, "it was the same for all of us, the first few nights were difficult, the kids, both on this side and the macaws, were devastated, and Rafael put all his time into helping everyone else, you know what he's like."

Nico nodded.

"Pedro's going to be ecstatic when he finds out," Eva said with a small grin, "they all are. And it's one reaction I don't want to miss," she continued, her grin growing, "I'll find a babysitter, I'm coming with you."

"Really?" Nico exclaimed, suddenly lighting up. Then his smile dropped, a thoughtful yet worried expression replacing it. "Do you know where Liana is? Please tell me she didn't go too."

"Does it matter?" Ali asked, "she's done her worst, what more could she possibly do?"

"I don't know," Nico said, "there's something, I don't know why, other than the obvious, but I don't trust her. Especially not around Pedro."

Eva looked grim at the thought, the others falling silent.

"I," Tony started, then stopped, looking doubtful for a moment. Then he shrugged. "I suppose we better get going."

It took half an hour to find someone willing to look after the nightmares that were the younger children of Eva and Rafael. But eventually they were flying out of the city, Eva giving the smaller birds a lift in order to keep the speed up and to give the exhausted birds a rest after their long flight. Though not one of them slept, all too hyped up with adrenaline to even consider it. Eva didn't mind, using the time to get to know the three birds Nico had brought along, finally finding out after so many years how Rafael had happened across that little baby canary on that beach. They talked all night, keeping Eva awake as she flew. She and Ali got on like a house on fire, and within a few hours of flying all three of them had been officially accepted into the family.

They reached the vast city of Sao Paulo by sunrise. It took them another hour to find the venue, an old abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city. The inside was just as rusty and demolished as the outside, with holes in the roof covered haphazardly with tarpaulin, and old boxes littering the inside. But the birds organising the whole event had pushed enough boxes together at one end to create a stage, and had somehow stolen more spotlights and fairy lights than they thought possible. Blankets and sheets covered almost all the boxes in the large room, hiding the old wood and rusting nails.

Everything looked amazing.

And that was just what they could see from the entrance.

There was only one downside...

"What do you mean they aren't here?"

"Sorry dude, I see every single bird that comes through that door, there ain't been nobody who matches that description."

Nico groaned, his face adopting a sullen look as he thanked the parrot at the door and traipsed back to the waiting group. They all looked at him expectantly.

"They're not here yet," he said, confusion lacing his voice.

"We beat them?" Ali asked, her voice high pitched and squeaky with shock. "How?"

"I'm... not entirely sure," Nico said, looking up at Eva, "they did leave before us right?" She nodded. "And this is definitely where they were headed?" Another nod. "Well then, I suppose we better wait around, they can't be too far behind."

They headed back to the door.

"Sorry, only performers and their friends can come in at the moment, show's in two days," the parrot at the door said, "if you want to perform, you can sign up and we can let you in."

Nico thought for a moment, debating whether they desperately needed to be inside or whether they could just hole up somewhere close by and keep an eye out.

"Sign me up," he said eventually, coming to a decision.

"Seriously?" Tony asked, looking at him with astonishment, "you're actually going to do this?"

"Sure," Nico said with a small grin and a shrug, quickly giving details to the parrot, "why not? It's been a while, and hopefully it'll get me back in the game, I've been a bit off recently." They were let in, the five of them walking into the vast space.

"Come to think of it, we've never really heard you sing properly," Tia commented, "I mean, we've heard all about it, but you've never really sung for us."

"He's good," Eva said with a proud smile.

"You have to say that," Nico said, sticking his tongue out at her.

"No really," Eva laughed, "he's one of those types that can make up a song on the spot. No preparation, just give him a reason and he'll sing. And it's almost always amazing."

Nico blushed under his feathers, pouting a little. "Like I said though, I just haven't been on my game recently, I've just had no inspiration. The longer I've been away from home, the harder it's been to come up with anything."

"You did pretty good in Tokyo," Eva put in.

"Yeah, but I just," he paused, face going slack as he suddenly came to a surprisingly shocking revelation. "I had just seen you guys then," he finished slowly.

That was it. His inspiration, his muse. He wasn't half as good without them. Or more specifically, he thought, without Pedro. That had to be it. He knew he had some talent before they met, any idiot could see that. But he really found it once they began to sing together. Over the years he had become so used to singing with the backup of his best friend, or at least with him there, that anything else just felt wrong. Of course the skill never really left him, which was how he managed to help Stereo-Hype back in Rome. That wasn't personal, he wasn't singing himself, just putting the words in someone else's mouth and working out the music. That was basic stuff, raw talent mixed with theory.

But he knew his best work really came from working with Pedro, of having the support of his family behind him.

"They better show, or I am so screwed," he murmured, dropping his head into his wing.

"Has anyone ever told you you're a complete sap?" Ali asked with a smug grin. She caught on immediately to the meaning of the words and Nico realised this was one thing she would hold over him for the rest of his life.

Might as well just accept his fate now.

"Yeah, I suppose I am," he said with a short laugh, keeping his face hidden behind a wing.

"Nico?"

His head snapped up at the familiar voice, the thick Italian accent. He spun around to see the bird that had spoken.

"Bloody h- Ant?" He said, beak dropping open in shock, "what are you- I mean- um..."

"Hello to you too kid," Ant said with a laugh, taking a few steps towards him, "good to see you."

"No kidding, this is awesome!" Nico exclaimed, grinning wide, "dude, what're you doing here?"

Ant shrugged, smirking a little. "One of the biggest music competitions in Brazil, if you made it home we figured you'd be here."

"We?"

"Oh, I brought a few friends," Ant smirked wide, "I was speaking to this girl over in Tokyo, turns out we have something in common," he grinned down at the canary, "you."

"Miyoko?" Nico asked, eyes widening even further, "Miyoko's here?"

"Yep," Ant grinned, "there's definitely a story as to how you ended up in Tokyo by the way, which you will tell me later, but yes, Miyoko and her sisters are here. They're performing too. And Stereo-Hype, who seem to be on a bird-hunt for you actually, you still owe them a song."

"Oh, I forgot about that." Ant gave him an incredulous look. "I had a lot going on okay, I mean, you wouldn't believe."

"Anyway, unfortunately we had to bring the twins," the taller bird added with a small grimace. Nico paled at the thought, before realising this would be the perfect opportunity to yell at them for the plane incident. While good things certainly came from it, his whole family wouldn't be thinking he was dead if it didn't happen.

"We also got in touch with a lovely lady in Paris, she's here too."

Nico couldn't seem to get any words out, stunned speechless. Then he broke out in a huge grin.

"Cosette? Please tell me you mean Cosette?"

"Of course 'e does," another voice said, this time with a very thick French accent and not the best pronunciation. Nico spun around, and was immediately tackled to the ground by a tiny body latching itself around the neck.

"Hi Marie," he said without even having to look, letting out a small laugh as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. "Quoi de neuf fille?"

The tiny blue bird didn't say anything, only snuggling even closer, tucking her head in under his chin and curling up against his chest. She chirruped happily when he hugged her tightly.

"I'm so sorry," Cosette said, standing over the pair with an amused smile.

"Don't be," Nico said, grinning up at her, "it's alright. I'm used to it. I'm guessing she knows how to fly now."

"Oui," Cosette said, helping him stand up, "as soon as she learned how, she kept trying to go find you."

"Seriously?" Nico said, looking down at the small bird with a look of exasperation.

"When I got invited on this little...um, trip, I couldn't not bring her, despite everything."

"She probably would have just followed you anyway," Nico said. Ali and Tia chose that moment to appear on either side of him.

"Oh my god," Tia cooed, "she's adorable."

"So cute," Ali added as the tiny blue tit giggled, delighted at the attention she was getting.

Nico rolled his eyes, prising Marie's tight grip off of him so he could hand her over to Ali to be fawned over. Once free, he immediately threw his wings around Cosette's neck, hugging her tightly. She didn't hesitate in hugging back, wrapping her wings around him affectionately.

"Oh, je vous ai manqué ma chérie," she murmured softly. Nico didn't say anything, too scared that if he tried he would just burst into tears. He had been awake for far too long, and by this point he was far past grumpy-tired and well into emotional-tired territory.

It took a few moments to gather his wits and pull away, swallowing thickly. Before he could get a word out, he was once again tackled to the ground. This time by a purple, red and very shiny blur.

"Hey Miyoko," he gasped once he regained the use of his lungs.

"Hey loser," she replied, standing up and offering a wing to help him up, "you were meant to call me when you got home," she said with a mock glare.

"Well, considering I got home yesterday," he pointed out, "not exactly possible."

"YESTERDAY?!" Several voices cried out at once.

"But... but, it shouldn't take over three months to get here from Tokyo," Miyoko exclaimed, "It took me a week and a half. Admittedly, I got a plane to Costa Rica rather than a ship, but you get my point."

"We had a bit of trouble," Tony piped up. Several birds did a double take when they glanced over at him. Waiting to question this until the first question had been answered, they all turned back to Nico, who was feeling increasingly under pressure. He hadn't quite realised just how many times he would have to explain this.

The reactions were mixed to say the least. Miyoko was confused, she had never heard of Liana before this point, though this confusion was mixed with horror at the whole situation. Ant was just straight up horrified. And Cosette just went very, very quiet.

Marie was just excited they now matched and wanted Ali to make her a prosthetic too.

"Please tell us..."

"...She's here."

Nico tried not to groan at the two voices from behind him.

"Hello boys," he bit out without turning around, crossing his wings, "and no, not that I know of, but trust me, you'll know when she is."

"I am so looking forward to her finding out about you," Tia laughed, still cooing over Marie in Ali's wings. Nico looked back at them, raising a knowing eyebrow when the pair caught each others eye and smiled.

"There will be a lot of screaming," Ali added, grinning widely.

Nico sighed, "yeah, that's accurate," he said with a nod, "and stop looking so damn pleased about it."

Throughout the day, Nico found himself getting tackled twice more, once by all of Stereo-Hype (which was possibly the most terrifying moment of his life) and once by one of Miyoko's younger sisters. It had been a day of reunions, introductions and a lot of explaining. More than once he caught Miyoko and Tony making eyes at each other, and while he had no romantic feelings for the girl whatsoever, he couldn't help but feel a tiny bit offended considering what had happened the last time he saw her. Marie spent all of her day being fawned over by various birds who just thought she was the cutest thing to ever walk the earth.

The twins, as per usual, just wreaked chaos.

By the time evening rolled around, Nico was just about ready to drop from sheer exhaustion.

It was too noisy in the warehouse to sleep though, regardless of how tired he was. It had reached the point where just being around others was making him feel grouchy and annoyed, and the amount of birds in the room was just starting to give him a headache.

And so that's why he had snuck out through one of the holes in the ceiling and was hiding out on the roof watching the sun set over the vast city of Sao Paulo. From the slightly elevated point of the warehouse, it was the perfect spot to see almost all of the city sprawled out in from of him.

When he thought about it, it was the first time he had been alone in weeks.

But out here, he finally had time to process the past twenty four hours.

His entire family had been told he was dead. And they all believed it, not a shred of doubt or suspicion.

Liana was apparently one hell of an actress.

His mind drifted to Pedro.

Pedro, who he had spent almost all his life with, barely spending any time apart. And he thought... he thought...

Nico groaned, dropping his head into his wing. He couldn't even bear to think about it. If it was the other way around, if he was the one stood there being told his best friend was dead... he was fairly sure his entire world would just end there and then. If he had learnt anything over the past few months, it was that life was one thing he couldn't do alone.

And while he loved his family to pieces, there wasn't a single other bird in the world with whom he could spend all of his time with and not get bored or annoyed with eventually.

"Hey."

Nico physically jumped and yelped at the sudden appearance of Ali, breaking him out of his thoughts. She sat down next to him silently as he tried to catch his breath and calm his heart.

"What's a guy got to do to get a moment alone around here?" he asked once he had regained his breath.

"How about telling someone where you're going before you go sneaking off," Ali suggested, giving him a disapproving look. Nico at least had the decency to look sheepish.

"Sorry," he apologised, "I needed some air, it's a bit stuffy in there, which usually I can handle, but I'm feeling nervous enough already without that pre-show atmosphere."

"Nervous?" Ali asked curiously, cocking her head as she watched him.

"About seeing them," he said, not having to specify who 'them' was for Ali to know, "it's just, it's been so long, and all things considered, I just don't know how they'll react. I mean, other than the obvious."

"It'll all be alright," Ali said, wrapping a comforting wing around his shoulders, "don't worry, you just need something to take your mind of it for a while. Sitting out here alone probably isn't doing that."

Nico glanced away, sighing deeply. "I suppose," he said, laughing when Ali gave him a raised eyebrow that screamed 'you-suppose?-kid-you-know-I'm-right-just-say-it'. "Alright, you're right, one hundred percent. Let's talk about something else."

"Thank you," Ali grinned smugly.

"So what's going on with you and Tia?" Nico immediately asked before she could get another word in, grinning widely. Ali choked, turning to him with wide eyes and beak hanging open.

"Wha- how did you- I mean-" she spluttered, trying to find anything in her defense. Eventually she stopped, sighing as she slumped down, recognising the look he was giving her. It was the same one she dished out every time she knew she was right but no one else wanted to admit it. "How did you know?"

"Easy," Nico said, "it's the look you give each other, that look of utter devotion and love, I've seen it hundreds of times."

"Give each other?" Ali asked, disbelief clear in her tone, "boy are you deluded, she just sees me as a friend, nothing more."

Nico smiled, shaking his head, "I seriously doubt that, I've seen the way she looks at you. "

"Well, you're wrong there, but I'm just going let you think that, there's really no arguing with you sometimes."

"So not wrong," Nico grinned, "I know that look anywhere, maybe you should talk to her."

"Like that's ever going to happen," Ali said with a pout, "I'm not going to risk my best friend over something like this."

Before Nico could press the matter further, another intruder, this time Tony, loomed over them.

"You better come quick," he said, a huge grin splitting his face, "you'll never guess who just showed up at the front door."

A/N: So I suppose it was a little mean to leave it there, but it's a fairly long and wordy chapter with a lot of reunions, and the next part is fairly important, so it sort of deserves it's own chapter.

So I didn't complete NaNoWriMo, but I did (finally) start my novel and get a fairly sizable chunk done, so I'm taking a brief break from that to bring you this :) I did have a fair amount of trouble with this, but rather than plan it out, I just wrote and let the words just flow. I hope it's alright and not too disjointed.

Anyway, thanks to you lovely people who have reviewed so far. Please do review, seeing the little message pop up really does make my day, I love hearing what you think :)