Blu woke up still feeling depressed about the night before. He wondered how he'd feel at this moment if he had mated with Jewel. He'd probably feel worse, because of regret... "Regret": That seemed like too harsh a word for Blu. He imagined he wouldn't regret it, but rather he'd... He didn't know.

He started listing off people who could possibly cheer him up. Antonio: no, Blu didn't really know him that well. Rafael: no, his advice always seemed to backfire. Nico and Pedro: no, they were probably too busy partying. Besides, how could they possibly help? Scarla: no, the fact that she was female would probably remind him too much of Jewel. Linda, Tulio, Fernando: no, they were all humans, and he really didn't feel like writing.

He looked over at Jewel, who was still sleeping, and sighed sadly. She was his first and only love. He loved her with all his heart, but why wasn't he able to take that leap? He had always imagined it easy for lovers. However, it was more complicated than he'd ever thought.

He had to make it up to her. But what could he possibly do? He couldn't just mate with her; you can't fix a problem with the problem. Take her to the club? No, he definitely wasn't in the mood. He guessed the best he could do was a mango. He looked out of their tree and saw a tree full of them right across from him. Huh, he hadn't even noticed it when they were "house"-hunting. He flew over to it and clipped a perfectly ripe mango from it. He carried it in his talons back to the hollow and set it down carefully to not wake Jewel. He slowly tore the mango open with his talons and dug in.

He had never felt this sluggish in the morning. He hadn't thought that turning down something that you half-wanted could make you feel so awful. He was so caught up in his depression that he didn't even notice Jewel eating with him for about a minute. He was hoping to give her a piece of the mango himself, but oh well. He just hoped this offering was enough.

Still eating, he moved his eye to look at her. Her beautiful face was tainted with sorrow. He decided to say something: "Good morning, Jewel." He failed to cover up his sad tone.

"Good morning," she replied in an identical tone. Jewel thought about last night. For the first time ever, she actually wished that Túlio was here to convince Blu to mate with her.

The two ate awkwardly side by side. Neither of them decided to speak until they'd both finished eating. Blu told her, "Jewel. I'm... I'm sorry about last night.

Jewel hesitated to reply. When she decided to, she sighed. "It's... it's okay, Blu." Blu took note of the insincerity of her voice.

He looked at the floor sadly. Maybe they could just go out for a bit. The beach sounded good at the moment. He'd never actually gone to the beach—not counting the hang glider incident during their time chained together. Perhaps the new experience could cheer him up. Not now, though. He still felt incredibly tired from depression.

Blu and Jewel both just lied back down where they slept last night. Neither of them could find the energy to get up and do anything.

...

At what felt like seven o' clock in the afternoon, Blu got up, finally having found the energy and built up the courage to ask her. "Jewel, would you... Would you like to go to the beach?"

Jewel may have given a quick, faint smile before saying, "Sure."

They both flew out of the hollow. The entire flight, they didn't say anything to each other. Neither of them had the guts to say anything, even Jewel, the tougher of the pair.

...

They landed on the soft sand of the beach about five minutes later. There were no people in the area of the beach they were. They didn't really know what to do now that they were there; they just walked. Ugh, this was a stupid idea. What would we even do here? Stupid, stupid, stupid, Blu thought to himself. Caught up in his self-insults, he didn't immediately notice Jewel stop walking. He stopped too and looked back. Jewel was looking out into the sea. She sat down right at the edge of where the waves wouldn't reach. He cautiously walked back and sat down next to her.

The sound of the waves was very relaxing. It made him really tired, though. He slowly nodded as he dozed off and woke up repeatedly. He finally managed to stay awake when he heard Jewel say something. "Beautiful sunset, isn't it Blu?"

"Huh? Oh, uh... yeah."

There was a long, awkward silence. The sunset was indeed beautiful, but not as beautiful as Jewel, he thought. He looked at her and thought back to last night. How could he turn her down? He was all she had left. He was the only one who could cheer her up, but at the same time the only one who could hurt her as bad as he did. He began to doubt whether he deserved her love. Perhaps it was best to let her go. That very thought tore at his heart. The pain brought tears to his eyes. He sniffled.

Noticing, Jewel asked, "Blu, what's... what's wrong?"

In between sniffles and gasps for air, Blu said, "Jewel, if you don't want to be with me anymore, I understand." He started to cry harder. He tried to stop the tears with his wings, but what good would that do?

These words shocked Jewel. How could he think like that? She wanted to smack his head for how stupid he was being, but figured that would make things worse. In a soothing voice, she said, "Blu, don't say that. Why would I leave you because of that? Last night isn't any reason for me to do that. I still love you, Blu. Nothing can change that." She put on a smile for him.

Blu smiled a little. He quickly calmed down and wiped tears from his eyes. He moved a little closer to her. He already felt a little better. "Is there any way that I can make it up to you? Aside from that?"

She averted her eyes to the sand they sat on for a few seconds. She looked back up at him and said, "I want you to say it."

"Huh?" Blu asked. He honestly didn't know what she meant.

"Say you love me. That's it."

Blu blushed for the first time in twenty-four-plus hours—that's a new record. "Anything other than that?" He knew he couldn't weasel his way out of this one, but he gave it a shot.

Jewel shook her head, smiling at his escape attempt.

Blu closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Jewel, I... I l... I lo..."

Jewel giggled. "You know, you're pretty cute when you're nervous, which is always."

Blu blushed harder. He knew that she thought he couldn't say it, but he wanted to prove her wrong. "Jewel, I love you," he said calmly.

Jewel's face showed shock at that moment. Wow, he actually said it. She had to hear it again. "Say it again."

"Jewel, I love you. I love you so much." He was blushing visibly (somehow), but spoke calmly. He was smiling now too, something Jewel was glad to see. She also noticed that he had moved his face closer to hers, so that their beaks were almost touching; this was an interesting development. If one was to witness them in front of the sunset, the sight was rather artistic.

"I love you too, Blu," she said softly, before slowly planting her beak onto his.

Blu was half-surprised by the kiss, as he half-intended for it to happen. What really surprised him was that Jewel slid her tongue slowly into his mouth. He accepted and wrapped his wings around her. He carefully slid his tongue into her mouth, so as not to break their most passionate kiss to date (which was over a period of two weeks).

As their tongues slid past and over each other, Blu and Jewel thought the same things: One, who knew that something as sad as last night could bring them closer like this? Two, the other was really good at this.

Jewel fell onto her back, so that Blu was on top of her for a change. She wasn't worried about getting sand on her back; it was dry sand, so it would easily shake out.

They both felt so much better now. Jewel, because she'd practically forgotten about last night; she wasn't even bothered that they wouldn't be mating tonight either. And Blu, because he'd been forgiven.

As much as they were enjoying the obscenely long kiss, they had to stop when they heard Pedro's voice. "Woah, now, you two. I don't think it's a good idea to do it on the beach, no matter how romantic it seems," he said sarcastically. Blu and Jewel shot him and Nico annoyed looks, to which they both flinched at. Nico and Pedro flew down from the nearby dock whilst Blu got off of Jewel and helped her up.

"Pedro's right, Blu. You should save that for the tree," Nico agreed. "But, that's not what we're here for. Look, we need you two to come down to the club. Some newbies want to see you two dance."

Jewel quickly thought of a way out of the situation. "Actually, we were... we were uh... just about to go back home." She looked at Blu. "Right, Blu?" Blu nodded.

"Aw, I see. Gonna get some"—he put up air-quotes—"'alone time?' That's alright."

"No, that's not it. We were just going to go, be-because um... it's getting kind of late," Blu defended.

"Sure ya'll are," Nico said. "See ya," he said before flying off.

Pedro gave an unnecessary lovehawk squawk and followed him. "Yo, Nico. Don't you think they'll..." His voice faded away as they flew.

Blu and Jewel looked at each other and chuckled. "So are we really going home?" Blu asked.

"Yeah, I guess. I've never really been a big fan of staying out late anyway."

With that, the healed couple flew back home.

...

As they walked into their tree, Jewel said, "Don't worry, Blu. I won't try tonight. Take as much time as you need." She pecked him on the beak afterwards.

Blu smiled as he lied down on one side of the hollow. "Thank you for understanding and forgiving me, Jewel."

"Of course, Blu. How could I not? We're chained-to-each-other birds, remember?" Jewel said as she cuddled with him for his warmth.

Blu blushed at the fact that she had used his phrase on him."Good night, Jewel."

"Good night, Blu."

The two lovebirds were glad to have been able to make it up to each other. With the other in their wings, they dreamt of each other that night. It was a great relief after the previous night.

...

Jewel woke up around three o' clock in the morning and looked at Blu for a minute. Had he been awake, he would have seen the seductive glint in her eyes. She went back to sleep, vowing that she'd do anything she could to mate with him tomorrow.

To Zero2o1o: This kind of comment is also acceptable, people, because... um... he's disagreeing with a character's actions, so it's like a discussion thing. *awkward silence* Just read the comment and you'll understand.

To Ghostofinu: Glad that you felt something in it. That was my intention in that chapter, but it still doesn't compare to what I felt for Blu in your story, "Tested Love". You're favorite chapter, really? Oh... P.S. I looked at the category of "Tested Love"; humor, WTF? I feel that I have to LOL at that, even though that's a horrible thing to do, considering the content of that story.

To C.A.M.z: No, I don't think I'll make an M-rated story or chapter or anything like that. Sorry. :P

To SmartA55esUnite: I have all the current-gen consoles. I got the Wii first, so that one has the most games. My favorite is the PS3, though. I spend the most time on that. I also have a 3DS, N64, SNES, Gamecube (But I have a wii, so that's kinda useless.), and GBA SP. I got Portal and Team Fortress 2 on the Mac for free, so I guess I have PC(Mac) too.

To BluJet The MacawHawk: Thank you, that was the full intention.

To Sierra strike: This kind of comment is also okay, people.

To NoRemorse81: I would feel the same way. Here was your chapter. Hope you enjoyed.

To Zero2o1o: I shall remain silent on this topic to avoid any possible spoilers.

To Lunyk: Yeah, I know that. But still, even with just lyrics, I suck. In biology, I had to write a rap (I am not kidding.) about a cell movement. It was one of the worst things I have ever written.