Guest Review Responses:
Fanfiction guy: Surprise! You never know whats going to happen next. A new adventure is always around the corner, you know? Well, I hope you didn't fall off your chair from siting on the edge. lol. Yeah, bad joke. Anyway, thanks again. I'm glad you are liking my story as much as you are! See you later man!
Fanfiction Gal: You don't know how hard it is to capture magic nowadays. Happy to hear you appreciate my magic catching skills. ;) Seriously, I'm really glad you are enjoying my story. Thanks!
The lanky ornithologist was running down the aviary hallway, hoping that Linda would be at the Aviary entrance. The last time he saw her, she was happily leaving to prepare for their date. Fortunately for Tulio, he managed to find Linda pacing around in the vestibule of the Aviary.
"Linda!" Tulio called out to her.
Hoever, she didn't seem receptive at the moment. What puzzled Tulio even farther was that the Minnesotan didn't look like she was 'ready' for a date. In fact, Linda looked exactly the same as when Tulio last saw her. Tulio walked up next to Linda and attempted communicating again.
"Uh, Linda?" He repeated while holding his left hand on the back of his neck, somewhat uncertain as he didn't know how his date was going to react.
Linda looked up at the bird doctor with her big eyes.
"T-Tulio. I, I can't find Fernando!" She said in fear.
"What? I thought I left him with Sylvio." Tulio responded in disbelief.
"You left him with Sylvio!? Why didn't you tell me!?" Linda exclaimed, now aggravated with Tulio complete lack of forethought.
"Don't you remember what happened last time we left someone important with him?" She continued while intimidatingly encroaching on Tulio's personal space, and getting in his face.
Tulio briefly was lost in Linda's eyes seeing how attractive they looked, despite the fact she was furious.
"B-but he's the best in the business! Last time was just an isolated event. I'm sure they're fine." He nervously explained.
"Come on, let's go check on them." He offered and signaled for Linda to follow.
The two bird lovers headed towards the security room, where they could hear a faint sobbing emanating from behind the door.
"It must have been a really traumatizing past few days for him." Tulio commented and reached for the door knob. As the door opened they saw a dancing Fernando, and a pouting Sylvio. They both had game controllers in their hands. Sylvio, oblivious to his boss's presence, complained.
"I can't believe you beat my high score! It took me 3 weeks of…"
Sylvio finally noticed Tulio standing at the entrance with his arms crossed, apparently upset.
"…of, um, hard security work so I could, um…" The guard tried his best to fudge the truth.
He glanced up and noticed the tv was still showing the game. He quickly grabbed a remote and changed it to the security monitors.
"Listen, I can explain…" He started, but was stopped by Tulio who extended his hand (like a police officer manually directing traffic, and signaling for you to stop).
"I don't want to know." Tulio said and then sighed while lowering his hand.
"Wait." Fernando interjected. The boy walked up to Tulio and looked up at him.
"Dr. Mon-monteiro. Don't be mad at him. I'm the one who saw the console and asked to play. It's not his fault." Fernando explained.
Tulio's expression softened as he kneeled down to Fernando.
"It's ok kid. I told him to take care of you." The ornithologist looked up sternly at Sylvio.
"Just don't use the aviary's equipment when you do." Tulio reverted back to his previous tone and looked at Fernando.
"And you can call me Tulio." He smirked as he ruffled the kid's head.
Linda had to admit, she was impressed with how Tulio managed the situation. That still didn't change the fact that he was still in his lab coat despite the fact that they had a date.
"Ok, you two stay safe." Tulio said while closing the door.
Sylvio just smiled nervously, while Fernando said goodbye.
"Bye Linda, Bye Tulio."
Tulio chuckled as he closed the door. As he turned his head away from the door he saw Linda, who appeared to have an aggravated expression.
"So Tulio, do you mind telling me why you aren't ready for our date?" Linda inquired with her hands on her hips.
"Oh, well you see there was a snake in the checkup room. I don't know where it came from, but it almost ate Jewel."
Linda gasped, cutting off Tulio.
"What? Is she ok?" She nervously queried.
"Yes, she is fine. She and Blu are in their room right now. I actually think Blu saved her somehow, but I'm not sure."
"That's my big brave boy." Linda said. She was relieved that everything was ok.
"Yeah. So do you forgive me? I'm really sorry Linda." Tulio apologized while looking at his love with a sincere face.
"Ok, fine." Linda sighed and looked at a nearby clock.
"Hmmm. It's too late now, but tomorrow you owe me a date. And try not be in that old labcoat. Be sure to wear a new one for me. Ok?" Linda giggled.
Tulio just smiled in response.
"Anything for you Linda."
Meanwhile, a certain macaw was sitting on the right arm of the Christ the Redeemer statue, looking out over Rio de Janeiro. This macaw was none other than Paris, and he was sorting though some resurrected emotions. He sighed.
"Why doesn't Blu see it? Whoever this Jewel bird is, she's leading him into a void. Yeah sure for now it's all nice and fun, but he'll see. Blu is going to suffer if someone doesn't stop him." Paris thought to himself as he moon gazed. It would have been a beautiful night if it weren't for the dark clouds moving in on the city.
"Some say it's better to have love and lost than to never have loved at all. It's not true. It's absolutely not true. I wish that stubborn blue macaw would see what I see." Then Paris changed his expression from a contemplative one, to a determined one.
"Don't worry Blu. I'll save you." He said to himself as he took flight into the sky. It was too late to do anything now, but tomorrow was another day.
The next morning inside the Aviary, a special Blue macaw couple were resting inside an artificial tree hollow inside a man-made jungle. Blu and Jewel were sleeping perpendicular to each other. That meant that Jewel was using Blu's stomach as a warm and feathery pillow. She unconsciously nuzzled her head into his feathers, enjoying the warmth. Blu felt the tickling sensation and slowly woke up. He looked down to see his angel smiling in her sleep. For the first time in a while, Blu felt completely content. This was not the same feeling he got when he was living with Linda. It was different in so many ways. Both feelings were great. He loved being with Linda, but he loved being with Jewel so much more. The female macaw opened her eyes and looked up at Blu, who was merely taking in her beauty.
"Good morning Blu." Jewel greeted.
"Good morning Jewel." Blu replied.
After a brief pause, Jewel broke the silence.
"I'm going to be honest Blu. We need a bath." She said while still resting on Blu's soft belly, but had her eyes directed at Blu.
"Yeah, I guess so. I'll ask Linda to clean us next time I see her." Blu said calmly, believing he had just provided a simple answer to their small predicament.
"Uh, Blu? You don't clean yourself?" Jewel inquired.
Blu put a wingtip to his chin, trying to think.
"Well, I did use the bird bath in the summer. But it was more for fun than cleaning." Blu explained and shrugged a little.
"I guess I never learned how." He concluded.
Jewel smirked a little and moved over to her lovehawk. She grabbed his wing in her good one, and looked at him with a kind face.
"I'll show you then."
Blu's eyes dilated when he heard this.
"Uh, n-now? You know, I-I think I should get more practice flying. Yeah, I still need to prepare your surprise." Blu started inching his way towards the hollow entrance, but Jewel still had a firm grip on his wing.
"Oh no you don't Blu. We are going to get clean, and you are gonna learn one way or another." Jewel insisted as she put on a stern face.
Blu rubbed his neck with his free wing.
"B-but Jewel. You can't let water get on your wing. You can run the risk of infection that way." Blu countered in his typical nerdy fashion.
"Oh come on Blu, do you really think they would give us dirty water." She countered.
"I'm just going to show you how to touch up the feathers on your wings. The rest should come naturally. Your days of being pampered are over." She mandated while pulling the unwilling Blu down the wooden plank towards the artificial stream.
"Ohhhhh." Blu moaned as they reached the water.
"What is it now?" Jewel asked, now irritated at Blu's constant flow of problems.
"It looks cold." He whined while shuddering at the sight of the water.
"And it doesn't have any bubbles." He added.
"Oh Blu. You have a lot to learn before we head back into the wild." Jewel sighed.
She walked up the water's edge.
"Now, watch what I do." Jewel instructed while pointing to herself.
She leaned down and scooped some water up in her beak. The blue macaw then proceeded to pour it over her good wing to demonstrate proper cleaning. After that, she looked up at Blu.
"Now you just need to preen yourself. It's easy. Just run your beak over your feathers, and the rest should come naturally." Jewel said before continuing to preen herself.
After she was done, Jewel looked back at Blu.
"Done. See how nice it looks?" She inquired while showing off her freshly preened wing to Blu.
Blu had to admit, it did look nice. And the way her feathers shined made Jewel look even more beautiful. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.
"Your turn Blu." Jewel said while stepping out of the way and extending her wing towards the stream.
"Ok, I think I got it." Blu replied and put on a determined face.
Blu walked over to the water and looked down at his reflection.
"Ok Blu, you can do this. It's easy. If you can lean aerodynamics, then you can-"
"You know I can hear you, right?" Jewel interjected.
"Oh, hehe." Blu nervously chuckled.
"Just a little positive reinforcement. That's all." He explained.
"Blu, you don't need reinforcement. It's just pouring water over your feathers." Jewel replied with her wings at her hips.
Blu turned back to the water and dipped his beak into the stream. He then continued to pour the water over his right wing.
"This is freezing!" Blu said and shivered a little.
"How come you aren't cold?" He whined to Jewel.
"Blu." Jewel said sternly.
Blu sighed and proceeded to attempt to preen himself. He clumsily rubbed the side of his beak over his feathers, but was stopped by Jewels voice.
"No Blu, you're doing it wrong." She cut in and walked over to Blu.
"I thought you said this would be natural. So far it's really really hard, and freezing cold." He complained.
Jewel just sighed and shook her head.
"Here, let me show you."
Jewel continued to preen Blu's wing for him.
"See?" Jewel asked, but looked up only to see Blu laughing.
"Hahaha that tickles Jewel!" Blu laughed.
Jewel stopped, but then noticed there was in interesting flavor in her mouth.
She licked her beak and took in the taste.
"Hey Blu, you taste…sweet." She giggled.
"Oh, well I think I dropped some blackberry on my wing when I met up with Nico and Pedro." Blu explained.
He gazed into Jewel's beautiful eyes.
"You know, I could go for some more. It was a really good berry." Blu said without loosing eye contact.
"Well, I don't want to be selfish." Jewel replied.
The two lovebirds leaned in to a kiss for a minute.
Blu leaned back and licked his beak after they had finished.
"Yum." He said with his eyes closed.
"Does the blackberry taste as good the second time?" Jewel giggled.
Blu opened his eyes and smiled while looking at Jewel.
"I actually couldn't taste it. No flavor in the world is strong enough to overcome you Jewel." Blu happily answered.
"Awwww." Jewel cooed as they went in for another kiss.
Later that day, Blu decided to go out and leave Jewel to fully clean herself while he set up the surprise for her. Blu, using his intelligence, managed to pry open the vent Jewel was working on when her first met her using a sturdy stick (artificial of course) and leverage. He managed to find the external vent to the aviary, and swung it open. It was all rusty and decrepit.
"Man, this place is OSHA's worst nightmare. I'm glad Linda gave me a tetanus vaccine." Blu said to himself.
Blu took off through the vent, headed towards the samba club.
After a few minutes of flying, he arrived at the samba club to find Rafael, Nico, and Pedro right where he left them the previous day. Rafael was leaning on a crate with a drink in his wing, while Nico and Pedro were over at the bar. This time, Pedro was bar-tending.
"Don't they go anywhere else?" Blu thought to himself, but didn't really mind as it made finding them very easy.
"Hey Blu!" Rafael greeted while waving to his amigo.
"Yo, what up bird?" Pedro added.
"Hey Blu. How's things going?" Nico asked as he spun his bottle cap on his right wing. He continued to roll along his wing up to his shoulder, where he bumped it into midair. The bottle cap landed perfectly on his head.
"Hey guys. I'm doing fine." Blu replied as he made it to the three amigos.
"You look like you need something. What can we do you for?" Nico queried while leaning against the bar.
"Well actually, remember when you said I should set up a dinner for Jewel?" Blu asked with the feathers around his right eye arched.
"Yeah, what about it?" Pedro replied, quite engrossed in creating the perfect juice drink mix.
"Oh, come on amigo. Blu needs some help." Rafael said like it was obvious as he walked over to Nico and Pedro.
"You know, to woo the lady?" He added and nudged Nico.
The two birds started chuckling.
Blu was a little uncomfortable, but decided to intervene before anything escalated.
"So, can you?" Blu asked while nervously twiddling his wingtips.
The three samba birds merely looked at each other and nodded at the same time. Rafael then looked at Blu and smiled.
"Of course we can amigo. Did you have anything special in mind?" The toucan inquired.
Blu smiled as he knew exactly what he wanted in order to make the perfect surprise for his precious Jewel.
And that's a wrap! As usual, thanks for reading and reviewing! This part actually became so long, I had to split it up into two separate entities. As a result, a new chapter was born. So the Double Date chapter is going to have to wait until next time. Thank you for your support. Without you guys, I wouldn't be as far as I am now. Until next update, EgilMaster out!