PLEASE READ THIS WARNING: I do not own Rio, Jewel, or any character or theme used in the Rio film. They belong solely to Blue Sky Films and 20th Century Fox.

...keep reading...

"Hello, meu amor," I greeted cheerily, the same smile plastered onto my face, as I slipped into the room through a crack in the open door. She still lay by the window, resting her aged body and regenerating health via sleep. I couldn't blame her- birds like me and her were never designed for such strenuous physical activities... keeping alive, even, it was one of the most onerous tasks to accomplish.

Of course, that's exactly what reality wanted us to do.

Outside I could espy the sky turn azure, the dawn of evening, the blanket of the sky announcing the approaching end of day, and the transition into dusk. A large part of me grunted, stomping on the floor with much force in stymie- I had depleted such precious time in the process of preparation, that the actual execution was spared with such scarce time... it would be roughly 5 hours until the day came to a curtain close, and by then it would be far too late to compensate for anything. To think of the possibility of Jewel forgiving me was equivalent to a sin- I had but only a few precious moments to utilise, to pour out all my love to her in the commemoration of February the 14th.

Of course, I wore a masquerade of a smile, concealing all my concerns and frustrations from my mate. This was the day where, regardless of all the circumstances that reality lobbed at you like icy snowballs, regardless of all the thorns that have pricked you, regardless of the hopelessness that may seem to engulf you... you could show your emotions and offer all your love, unbridled and pure to your mate. Of course, such method to express the truest of love should never be restricted to one single day of the year... but the truth was, there are loves out there, loves so diluted that you could take one glimpse at them and classify them as enemies on first glance. To restrict it all one day, sometimes, packs the punch, gathering all the emotions in one compact, saturated area before exploding in full force.

Sometimes buffer exists, the empty space that enveloped one, in order to prepare for the right moment for all emotions to burst out in one full flurry. It need not represent what would occur in the future... but rather, it could be a complete, opposite contrast, a hopelessness enshrouding completion and everlasting joy and love. 364 days of stale relationship foreshadowing the final day of true love exposed raw to one another.

I perched myself next to my mate, her body to my right and the basket to my left. Immediately the joy that was contained within me expanded, the moment my eyes fell to Jewel... she looked so serene, as if she were part of nature's architecture than part of reality. Of course, she had been detached from this world- she was merely asleep. That was what sleep could do- keep you peaceful regardless of the horrors of reality, restrict you into slumber-land and blanketed you from concerns and frustrations... where you could be safe.

I remembered at some point, millenniums ago beyond the stars of distant memories, back when we were newly-mates, she had once jokingly commented on my over-stretched sleeping periods, and how uphill the task of arousing me from my deep slumber had been. Sometimes we'd concoct ludicrous –which now, though, seem not so absurd anymore- conjectures that we were designed to reside in the world of sleep, not in the world of reality. After all... sleep was our final, penultimate destination, where it was more eternal than life could ever dream to be.

I reached into my basket, and gingerly extricated the six roses with my beak, despite the pricking agony it inflicted against my beak as I carried it over to my mate's side, despite the exhaustion that imprisoned me and leeched the energy from my body to perform even the simplest of physical activities now. The fact was, I didn't care one iota for the pain whatsoever- that was the effect of love, when you sacrifice everything that buckled under the cruel circumstances of reality just for the sake of your mate, to offer it all to the one you loved with no questions asked, no regard to the things around you... and you keep fighting till the end. All for the sake of your mate.

Carefully I laid the roses by my mate's side, letting the stem jut outwards such that the thorns did not prick her, as if her body emitted beams of green and of light pink thistles... but was outlined with small spheres of crimson around her. The petal globes seemed to revolve around her, or rather, it seemed to be almost like glittering red light that bled out of her... as if all the flowers' life centred around her, as if without her existence they would wither away and disintegrate into nothingness.

As if I were those flowers.

"Here, Jewel..." I said, my tone as comfortable as she was. "These roses are for you... they're lovely, don't you think? Beautiful ...just like you."

Without missing a beat, I tipped the basket over, not caring how unceremonious it would be perceived to be, and the fruits spilled out in the space between us the wall in front of us. I gingerly held up an orange, turning to my right towards my mate to offer it to her. When she did not respond, I exhaled in relent, and proceeded to peel the orange, unravelling the first, inedible layer to reveal its tangy interior.

I extracted a small portion of the orange, laying it by her side, before lunging for a beak-full of the fruit, savouring the sweet and fresh, tangy taste that overwhelmed my taste buds before swallowing it contentedly. The fruit' quality was only a fraction of that of Rio's selection of treats... but it satisfied, nonetheless.

"You should try this, Jewel..." I commented, turning to her after I scarfed down another bite wholesomely. Jewel ... she remained asleep... the roses still diverging towards her, and the portion of orange remaining uneaten. I retained my smile- I didn't bother that she would ignore me like this and decide not to follow me, since she was asleep. Additionally, I wouldn't have bothered if she ranted about the sorcery or horror of oranges in my face before throwing it out of the window, or did a less exaggerated version of said action... since she was my mate. I remembered at one point, back in Rio, I had basically done the equivalent of flaming Brazilian culture with my anti-samba rants- and in retrospect, I realised that I should have been reprimanded, or condemned from the community of Rio forever. But Jewel... not only did she restrain from fuming at me, she accepted my opinion... as if it wasn't a thorn in the rose, as if it didn't hurt her feelings whatsoever.

As I completely wolfed down the rest of the fruit, I espied that the sky was now a brilliant orange, the sun having nearly accomplished its task for the day as it begun to conceal itself. Dusk was imminent- the golden sphere that once gloriously hung over all the earth was now ending its journey, a minor sector hanging on the horizon over the west.

The sunset was often as beautiful and marvellous as sunrises- the light spilling out over the edge of the horizon rather than completely illuminating the whole place. It gave a rather dazzling, orangey hue that shone in the atmosphere, as if adding a warm, comfortable temperature to the place. Crimson and cerulean tints streaked in the clouds, and they radiated amongst the haunting darkness hovering above Minnesota. When you looked past the buildings and their squares of artificial lighting, the sky was a magnificent piece of nature's art, one that was mostly ignored by civilisation. Sometimes when the darkness enveloped you, but with a form of light peeking around its edges... it almost seemed brilliant, gorgeous even.

"The sunset is beautiful, don't you think Jewel? ..." I asked, once again whirling my head to the right. The moment I laid my eyes on my mate, with the rosy spheres outlining her divine shape, one that refused to leave its alluring curves even through the weathering of age, and with her face so serene and so gorgeous even after all these years... suddenly the sunset that leaked out for all to see seemed to pale in comparison with the very bird right next to me.

"Of course... it's hardly as beautiful as you, meu amor..." I whispered huskily as an afterthought, bending down to whisper the words in her ear. I remembered then, back when we were half our current age and possessing less maturity as compared to now, we would often hold one another in our wings' embrace, our faces in such utter proximity that our titillating mix of breaths could almost be eaten, and we would croon in each other's ears sweet lovers' professions.

I remembered once when for some reason my memory obstructs to rein in, I had been a mood fouler than any fog of pollution any factory could emit, and by the time I had slept, the grudges and sourness enveloping my very being. Jewel... of course, she laid down next to me, wrapped me in her wings and began to whisper huskily in my ear sweet nothings- except they weren't 'nothings', but rather promises of love. That she would love me forever, stay by me no matter what, and always be next to me till death do us part. And instantly all my infuriation and grief dissipated, vanished into thin air, and in its place were thoughts of my mate and my love for her. And it was that point where I realised how much we loved each other... how inseparable we would be regardless of the circumstances.

I knew that the sun would disappear from the sky, no matter how much the world desired for it to remain and hang over all of us permanently, no matter what sort of ritual we would perform that 'would' prevent it from setting. These were irrevocable facts, and they would never ever waver. But sometimes, we wouldn't want to change a thing. There are things in this world, that we never ever to buckle over under different conditions, or suddenly morph into something else. Sunsets this dazzling, for example- who would ever desire for such a gorgeous picture of nature to never exist?

The same could be said for our love. It could never waver or weather away over age... it remained as sure and steadfast as the sun's rising and setting- it remained to exist.

I wrapped my wings around her without thinking, longing to feel her touch against mine, and I buried my face into the back of her neck. The roses had been displaced, but I didn't bother in the least. Her familiar aroma still lingered around her body, but it had weakened slightly, as if dropping proportionally to her increased age. She was slightly cold to the touch as well, although it had nothing to do with the mild cold that the remnant of snow emitted, since the walls were heatproof. But nevertheless, just the mere touch of Jewel... it was enough to remind me of how much we loved each other, how we would always stay together, and how much I longed to stay in her wings forever... till death do us part.

"Happy Valentines' Day, Jewel..." I muttered into her ear, my tone slightly exhausted and hoarse with age, but all the while assuring and overflowing with love. "I love you... I always will..."

She remained motionless.

I inhaled deeply, greedily sucking in the aroma that I knew I would never experience for a long time, yet was so rich and intoxicating that even after all these years, it had served something quite close to drugs for me. I hugged the cold, near-lifeless body of my mate tighter towards mine, such that they fit perfectly, the familiar curves and shapes blending into their familiar places, and suddenly we became one entity.

There was a silence, save for my rhythmic, inerratic breathing, along with my heart echoing against my chest against hers, as if knocking on the other side for an unreturned answer. The soft breeze that bled through a crevice of the window pricked against my back, one that was not interfered by any synthetic forces, one that was free to move along wherever it wished to go without the world holding it back.

My eyes drooped down, to my chest where my heart boomed, as if multiple bombs detonated consecutively on the wasteland, and I scrunched my face up in confusion. Jewel... I had been in her wings far too many times for even my sharp mind back then to track, and my heart would have been too weak by now to even beat so fast... there should be no reason behind this phenomenon to exist.

Ba-dump.

"Blu..."

Ba-dump.

"Blu..."

For a moment my heart nearly skipped the next beat, almost breaking the synchrony of which it thumped. I exhaled in relent... it seemed that my heart, it had been so attached to Jewel. It seemed that my love for her... it never died, but instead, it resounded through the night and day, as if creating a prologue of a tattoo before the main instruments to dominate the rest.

It seemed that every time my heart knocked against my rib-cage, the thought of my mate would re-enter my mind.

I remember once, when we had performed one of the infamous mating rituals, when we were young lovers, we had laid together with our bodies touching, our feathers tangling into one another's and our hearts thumping against our chests. They beat rhythmically, like two snare drums synchronising with each other to boost the volume of love, as if they were just as connected as us. It always seemed like my heart reached out to Jewel- be it with her around or not- and it never failed to thump against my chest, as if desiring to escape from the prison of the body and try to locate the sole reason it even beat.

That was, of course, before it was swallowed up in the bottomless abyss of cruel reality, never to be seen ever again.

Now, of course, my heart kept knocking against her chest, but all was in vain- it was but a solo percussion, the only thing left to keep us going.

Outside I could glimpse the sky had officially turned azure, and that there was but an illuminated golden speck left dangling over the edge of the atmosphere. The blue tint that dominated the sky seemed to be reminiscent of Jewel- and I remembered I used to croon about it all night long- how she was like a part of nature, and how beautiful she was, and even though I had been terribly and romantically cliché, she still blushed and rewarded me with kisses every time.

I gazed upon the peaceful face of my mate. I had been so used to being greeted with her sapphire eyes, and her angelic voice injected into the simplistic yet potent words 'I love you', and her wings that naturally coiled around my body, along with the taste and waltzing of her beak and tongue against mine. It had been so vividly etched into me that once I was no longer exposed to it, it left a hollow feeling in me, as if a part of me had been ripped out of me.

In a sort of experimentation I pressed my beak against my mates, in the full knowledge that it would not reciprocated, that I wouldn't –and would never- feel her hungrily accelerate the pace and added more force into it, as if it were necessary to express the full extent of her love every time we were together. I could still detect the faint taste of her against my beak, that oh-so-titillating experience that used to send me on a rollercoaster of ecstasy and lust, but now was so diluted that it failed to deliver any effect to me at all.

I pulled away, and I looked into the eyes of the body of my mate. The way her body failed to emit and form of warmth to me, the fact that she would never be able to hear my words and vows to her, the fact that I would never feel the shudders rippling down my spine every time I could feel Jewel's breath mixed with sweet everythings against my neck, the fact that I could never look into her eyes ever again and see our future ever again... there were so many things I would never be able access anymore, so many things that I had lost along with Jewel.

Jewel, the one I loved so much, the one that I had spent my whole life with... my mate, my love, my everything. I had none of these now- and it wasn't either of our faults.

Here was her body, the shell that had used to contain her soul and her emotions, her very inner feelings about me... but by itself, as if quarantined from her soul for being a burden of the world, it was as if it were a mere piece of matter. I could have easily been kissing a corpse.

Of course, that was exactly what I had been doing.

"Jewel..." I moaned involuntarily, as if the announcement of her name could possibly resurrect her, as if I were performing my own secret ceremonial. It wasn't until my whole body started to tremble uncontrollably and that my eyes felt an injection of heat that I realised I was crying, and that the sorrow that I had bottled up ever since Jewel had left me the day before was overflowing and bleeding out of me. I buried my face against the back of my mate's neck, pouring all my emotions out for all to see, as if I hadn't already exposed my heart for the world to judge. I felt my tears trickle down Jewel's back and my wings tightening its grip around her body, as if I could magically activate the life back into her.

I must admit that I am a terribly cynical person. I blindly criticise emotions that distort reality and the way feelings taint the very notion of logic and makes everything be perceived to be completely warped and nonsensical. Why should one wear such a temporal sheet of happiness, strutting through life as if he could make it, as if the abyss of death never awaited him at the end of the journey of life? Why should one say to one another 'Have a nice day' or 'you're the best', when clearly the notion of a pleasant time in reality is nonexistent, and that there would always be someone better than you? Clearly people are way too optimistic about life and are blinded by their own emotions to ever see the truth- that life will never waver from its own substance of harsh cruelty.

But back in Rio, Jewel and I had rode out the storm for nearly the whole of our lives- and all we ever needed to be motivated to live was ourselves. All we had was to look into each others' eyes, or feel the embrace of each others' wings, or to have our beaks dance and wrestle with each other to remind ourselves that even if the stars burn out or if the whole world was against us... we still had each other. And sometimes love was all you needed to supply a reason to even exist in the first place- we, as mates, and cherishing the duty that was attached to love, would stay by ourselves regardless of the circumstances that got in our way.

I remember hearing once somewhere that marriage in the human world, in the reality that was partially segregated from the animal paradise, marriage was represented by nothing but a mere certificate. To be husband and wives was the equivalent to trudging around with a title, one that supposedly showed your love to one another but was held together by nothing but legal terms- which could, in turn, be neutralized by a divorce certificate. In a nutshell- marriage is hardly significant.

According to the Bible, however, marriage was so much more. Marriage was a bond, a seal between two mates, a responsibility to never sway from each other and stay by their sides forever. Marriage vows- these golden words were the seal that intertwined two lovers' destinies together. It was somewhat applicable to Jewel and I's love, I suppose, that we might be loyal to one another and always remain right next to each other for the rest of our lives. The Book of Common Prayer states that as mates we held duties to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish... till death do us part.

Of course, nobody ever talked about death... about death creating chasm impossible to cross once it struck unprecedentedly, about death separating even the closest of mates with just one blow, about death completely negating the years of love and emotion that had been built between mates. Death was powerful- it completely and perpetually engulfed one, and shut her off from the rest of the world, vanishing without a single spiritual trace. That was the end of the story.

Once death struck, no matter what you attempted to do, no matter how much you loved that one, no matter how much you pled with or cursed at fate... you could do nothing to reverse the situation.

But what about her mate? What about the one bird who unconditionally and irrevocably loved that mate, the one bird who would never desert her despite the circumstances, the one bird who had devoted his whole life, soul and love to her, only to have it all go into futility?

Of course, the world pretends that such tremendous effects were never attached to the arrival of death. The world pretends that the falling of one person out of its seven billion (and that excludes animals and plants and other living organisms) never occurred, pretends that the aftermath of one's disappearance did not ripple through the earth, pretends that it hadn't been the cause- direct or indirect- of the death that plagued its inhabitants and broke the hearts of millions.

And if not millions, the heart of the one bird that had been offered up to his mate, only to have it stamped on and crushed by reality.

Death only thieved the soul of one's body, but it might as well have thieved the world of the ones around her. It already had been traumatizing to have the lives of Linda and Tulio snatched away mercilessly... but when old age had let Jewel succumb, I remembered not being able to feel anything. It had left a numb, dizzying ring to reverberate through my body, but by right, the sorrow should have been overwhelming and crushed me as if the weight of the world had doubled itself upon my shoulders. I should've been where I was right now, hugging the carcass of my mate and the twin waterfalls from my eyes attempting to wash away the burdens of the world on me. But I was devoid of that from the beginning I found out that I had lost the one last being that loved me more than I loved myself.

It was as if I had been hollow... as if along with my love and joy, my capacity to emote sadness, infuriation, indignation and remorse was taken from me.

No matter how much I pretended that Jewel was here, in my wings and loving me, I had to face the reality- the reality that Jewel was forever gone, and that death had done us part.

Suddenly, I sniffed, when the trickling moisture from my eyes had decelerated to a considerable rate, and I gazed upon the face of my lover once more. A tidal wave of memories poured down upon me, a frenzy of vivid recollections of me and Jewel, the moments that were stereotypically trivial yet cherished as gold and silver to me. The times Jewel had taken care of me when I fell ill, the flights that Jewel and I shared as we seared through the Brazilian rainforest atmosphere, the sort of dates Jewel and I had in the romantic bask of the night, as if we could love each other freely, secret from the rest of the world... every little, subtle moment that we shared, the little remnants of my heart that laid scattered on the ground.

One abruptly, supremely important memory appeared in my mind, one that had been engraved into my mind the day it occurred. It was one of those infrequent occasions where gloom and an ominous sense had seeped into the perfect realm that was shared by me and Jewel, when one of our random conversations of who-knows-what had suddenly ignited the topic of death. Initially we just laid there, stunned in paralysis, and we merely stared into each others' eyes wondering what we had been thinking, what notions and objectives swam in the ocean of the great mind. Death was taboo, death should not be spoken of, death should never ever be mentioned unless you fancied the notion fervently. Nobody ever thinks of death- and if they did, they would enter its realm in no time at all.

Then suddenly, after an unbearable, deafening silence, Jewel smiled. It was that type of smile that one wore after her first kiss, or when her to-be-husband said 'I do', or when looking into the eyes of her first newborn child. She embraced me gently, and planted her beak on mine, and suddenly I was engulfed in her once again, my sense completely dominated by her touch and kiss. She pulled away and, placing her head right next to mine, she whispered lustrously in my ear. "Blu..." she said, her tone clearly indicating that she had deciphered my thoughts, as if she were telepathically unified. "We will never be apart. We'll always be together, right next to each other... remember? I promise, that no matter what... I'll always stay by you, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in death...

"...even after death do us part."

Needless to say, I reciprocated her promise... and needless to say, I knew that that promise alone was enough to carry us through the storm of reality. Even when the toughest of times had came by.

As the tears began bleeding out of my eyes, the corners of my beak began to curve upwards once more. I had seen Jewel's face countless times- and had been in such proximity with it that I could practically sculpt a bust of it blindfolded- and I could see beauty, divinity, and love written all over her face in Edwardian script. Now, when an outsider viewed her face, he might comment that it was devoid of anything, like it was a blank slate, like it had been erased of any life in her and left no emotional trace.

Of course, when I see Jewel's face, I could envision her cerulean eyes that gleamed when I had gotten her a sapphire pendant, that one portion on her beak that always made her moan loudly in pleasure when I kissed it, that one spot of her cheek that often was splattered with mango juice and had to be cleaned off with a mate's tongue bath. I knew that I would never see her eyes, or succumb to her breath titillating me, or feel her kiss synchronise naturally with mine. But I did know that, as far as my tired old mind could recall, the beholder of this body, this shell used to possess the life that I loved and spent my whole life with, and also contained the sweet memories we as mates shared.

I knew that once birds died, their carcasses, suffering from the absence of life residing in them, decomposed over time and disintegrated into nothingness. But all I ever needed was to cherish the memories we had, to remind myself how I had managed to come here at this point of life, to remind myself that I had a reason to keep on going- all for the sake of love.

I didn't care that Jewel was gone. I would still love her forever, even after the storm of life, even after we were eternally separated, even after death had done us part. I would never leave her side... if not physically, I would always remain ethereally connected to her, and always keep her spirit in mine.

Death will never be able to keep two lovers apart. Love prevails on- and love meant never leaving the side of your mate.

And so, gently planting a kiss on her cold, frigid beak, I laid her down gingerly onto the counter-top, and laying the roses on top of her body. I reached out for a cluster of grapes that had been scattered aside from me, plucking out each violet sphere before savouring each one, cherishing every single piece of the cluster. I plucked out a few and laid it next to the uneaten orange, a sacrificial offering to my mate, a last gift to my loving mate.

I watched as the sky turned black, as if devoid of any vibrant colour, a process as inevitable as death. Above us a circle of light loomed over the sky, its pale light illuminating the countertop, as well as Jewel's body. The night sky was beautiful and serene, devoid of any human life but rather of natural peace, but of course, it could not compare to Jewel, whose body lay in sleep in eternal serenity. Her beauty refused to be weathered away by age... and her facial features, along with the curves of her body, and the texture of feathers, and the shape of her head and tail feathers; these features, along with the rest of my collection of memories shared with my beloved mate, they were all etched in my mind. How could I forget them and let death take away what I treasured the most? I would hold everything that constituted of Jewel forever, never letting them go, and would cherish them for as long as I live... and beyond...

I took one fleeting look at the night sky once more- constellations of white glitter sparkled in the atmosphere, the little fragments that constituted lines that created pictures so beautiful and mesmerizing to mankind. And then I looked at Jewel, smiled once again, and laid my body next to her. I knew that my owner would eventually find Jewel dead and bury her, and I knew that this Valentines' Night will never last for eternity, as death did. But to be honest, I didn't care. All I could think of was this night, this night where I could cherish our first Day of Love together, where I would always treasure this moment forever. All I could think of was me and Jewel together back in Rio, me and Jewel flying in the jungle freely, me and Jewel crooning in each others' ears with our breaths mixing like the night sky blended with the stars, me and Jewel living our lives.

And even if our lives came to an end... love never did.

All I could think of was how much I loved Jewel and would stay by her, never leaving her side.

Even after death had done us part... but not really made us apart.

~The End~

I really really hope I don't get flamed for this... gah.

Anyway, here you are folks. A little (ok, not so little) fic I cooked for ya'll. So, um... yeah. I have no idea what to say... since I have no idea how this will turn out. I think I worked too hard trying to make this fic good... so I have no idea if I failed, or what.

I tried to keep the little twist at the end hidden from the start, but I don't know how many of you guessed it. If you did... just proves how bad a suspense author I am. But oh well. I write because I love writing...

So yeah. Please review! xD I know it's rather long, but still. You got all the way here. Please?

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