Notes & Disclaimers:

• Rio is Blue Sky Studios property.

(Please leave a comment and enjoy.)

Chapter Twenty Four: Surprise for this Boring Day

As Mikka and Leo were swaying through their morning and before they went over their new plan, the blue couple, Blu woke up. He felt the sun gleaming, and so he stood up and stretched a little. But before he knew it, he fully opened his eyes…and saw Jewel standing in front of him.

"Good morning, handsome." Jewel chuckled.

Blu blushed, but smiled while standing up, saying, "Oh, good morning, meu pequeno anjo do mundo."

He made his tone sound attractive, making Jewel chuckle again and reply, "Oh Blu. Você sempre sabe como me lisonjear em qualquer idioma." They teased each other and had another cuddle session while staring at the morning sky.

"Wow." Jewel said.

One of the things they both liked to do with each other even before they became a couple.

Blu replied, "Yeah. Jewel? Does it ever make you wonder how the sky really goes? I understand the science to it a little bit, but…I mean like the way it looks."

"How so?"

"Well, well…it's like this. You know that big statue of the man on the far side of the city?"

"Yeah?"

"From what I heard from the humans, it symbolizes a real human being who was and still is known as the creator of this planet."

"Really?"

"Yep. And every time I think about that I keep seeing this beautiful sky as a painting."

"You know what? You're right. A painting of nature. Probably the best yet as it moves on its own and changes color by the hours."

"Hmm…no doubt." Blu pulled Jewel closer to him, and she chuckled. Yesterday she was nervous to be around Blu because of his handsome appearance but after what happened last night she got used to it…almost. Blu was still quite an appealing fella and wanted to make Jewel feel comfortable, and it was working as he was holding her and it made her want to make kissy faces.

She kissed him on the cheeks. "Haha! Aw, come here, blue boy."

"Haha! Stop, stop that."

"Stop hugging me and I will."

"No."

"Then. There's no. Stopping-" she stopped as Blu accidentally kissed her after turning his head to her. They froze but then continued kissing. It was a slow and enjoyable kiss, then they released it slowly.

"Y-You're always…" Jewel breathed nervously. "…full of surprises, Blu."

"And yet you're the one who likes to have fun with it."

They smiled like anime lovers to each other, and before they were about to share another kiss, they heard an "Aw!" Then they turned straight to the nest's entrance to see Mikka smiling. Blu and Jewel blushed and hugged each other tighter.

"Oh please, don't mind me." Mikka laughed.

Blu chuckled. "M-M-Morning, Mikka. Can we help you?"

"Yes. Guys, I'm sorry to stop you but Jewel? Do you mind if I speak to Blu in private, please?"

"N-Not at all. In fact, I should be getting back to Eva. So Blu, thank you for a wonderful time as always. I loved it." She kissed his cheek and whispered, "I'll be back here before sunset, okay?" Blu nodded to that and Jewel walked out. "Bye guys."

"Oh wait, Jewel."

"Yeah, Mikka?" Mikka then came to her and whispered something to her. Not her plan for Blu but something else that made Jewel want to laugh out loud.

"Oh okay. Can't wait. Bye!" Then she flew off back home to Carlos and Sophia's hollow. Blu felt awkward about this as Mikka came and sat next to him.

"So what do you want to talk to me about?" He asked.

"Well Blu, you, me, and Leo have been friends for quite a while, so I was wondering if we could hang out today. Just the three of us."

"Just us? Well okay. I'd like that."

"Good. Me and Leo will be out and come with you to wherever you wanna go."

"Alright, because I think I got the perfect place in mind."

After that conversation, Mikka came to Leo and all of them were ready together. Mikka and Leo were holding their wings and stood by Blu outside of his nest.

"So Blu, where do you wanna go?" Leo asked.

"I was thinking we could take a ride on the trolley. We've never done that before."

"The trolley? I like that. When does the next one come by?" Mikka asked.

Blu turned to the area at the edge of the jungle to the closest spot connected to the tracks. "Not too far. Follow me." He ran and they followed. At their speed of running, it only took a few minutes to reach the tracks. Since none of them flew, they just had to run. Once they made it, Blu helped the couple climb up the poles, the structure, and made it on top of one of the trollies.

"Whoa." Mikka said, feeling like she came up too fast.

Leo held her and the ride started moving as the three were finally on. They sat down and looked at an entire view of the whole city. For them, it felt like a scene from a movie where the characters would go on a real ride around town. They were awed by the amazing structures that the humans built. So many buildings, streets, cars, shops, and food places. Mikka and Leo have only been to the city a few times in a month but now they felt like it was their first time actually looking at a whole new world.

Leo complimented, "Blu, I gotta hand it to you, you really know how to surprise your fellow birds."

Then Mikka, "Boy, I'll say."

Blu, "Thanks guys. You know if you like this so much, then maybe I can take you to the bookstore next."

"What's a bookstore?" Leo asked.

"It's this place where humans hang out to relax and read some entertaining books. I hung out there a lot, even before I met Jewel."

Mikka smiled. "Okay, sweetie. I'd like to go there."

"Good."

So they waited a little longer and Blu helped them drop down to a close ground. They made it to the direction of the bookstore.

"Follow me." He said as they were at the building. The couple followed him as he climbed on the walls and walked into the air vents.

"So…you say you've been in here before? Multiple times?" Leo asked, feeling cramped walking through the vent since he was bigger than Blu and Mikka.

"Yep." Blu replied. "Only through some of the weeks though. It's one of the only things that occupies my time. Everything else is Jewel, you two, and the rest of the gang, and exercising in the jungle."

"Oh yeah how's that going, by the way?" Mikka asked.

"Great. Never have any issues with it. Trying to keep myself in shape, find more fresh food, and learn how to defend yourself."

"I'm sorry, defend yourself?"

"Yeah. Even though I have you guys and others I still try to survive in the jungle by myself. But don't worry I've never encountered or fought anything alive and dangerous…so far, hehehe. Unless you count those toucans from last night."

Mikka and Leo turned back to each other and thought their plan would be really good to bring up to Blu. Until he signaled them with, "Here we are! Come on!" The two came to him and they were all sounding an open vent that led to a tall bookshelf.

"Here we go." Blu jumped into it and safely landed on the top of the bookshelf, and Mikka and Leo did the same thing together. "Here we are. An entire bookstore all to ourselves."

"Where are all the humans?" Mikka asked because the human-made store was indeed empty, but did have only a few lights on.

"Oh, this place doesn't open until the afternoon, which means from now to later, we can read whatever we like."

Mikka and Leo, of course, did not know how to read, so when Blu carefully led them down the shelf, he dropped down a few books and taught each other how to read just a bit.

Blu gave Mikka, "Go Jane Go."

Blu gave Leo, "The Cat in the Hat."

So through their little time, Blu gave each of them a new book to look at and taught them very slowly on how to sound each letter and pronounce each word. Mikka thought all the childrens books were adorable and Leo loved the comic books, especially this X-Men collection. So for the past hour and a half, the three have had fun. They read together, walked, looked at pictures, and got to understand things a little more (Mikka and Leo, meaning). Though when Mikka and Leo accidentally found some life books, they quickly threw them away before Blu could notice them and were grateful he never read them before.

So their time was quite enjoyable. To Blu, it was a friends day-out sort of thing, but to Mikka it was much more than that. And Leo felt the same way. Which was why they thought it was time to Blu what they want.

"Are you sure now's the time, Mikka?"

"Yes. I just hope he'll be okay with this like we are. You are okay with this, aren't you?"

"Of course. I care about Blu the same way you do and if this is something you wanna do for him, then I'm all for it."

"Thank you, Loveo." Mikka hugged Leo, and then they noticed Blu walking by while reading a small map book. "Hey Blu, can we talk to you, please?" Blu heard Mikka so he put the book down and ran to the two.

"Yeah. What's up, guys?"

"Nothing. We just wanted to mention something important to you."

"Okay. Shoot."

The three sat down, and Mikka and Leo each took a turn talking to him and got a good response from Blu.

"You see, Blu," Leo started. "I know the three of us have only been friends for about a month."

"Yeah, and they've been good to me too, guys."

"That's good to hear you say." Mikka said. "And you know that through all the times we've spent with you and the others, you know that we like you and are grateful for every good thing you did for us, right?"

"Absolutely. I like you guys too and I wanted to help you since it seemed like the right thing to do for my friends."

Leo, "Glad to hear that too. Which is why…Mikka and I have been talking about it for a bit and we wanted to confess something."

"Confess what? Is it something bad?"

"No, no." Mikka said to him softly. "It's actually something good. You see, Blu, we wanted to tell you today that…"

There was a little bit of silence, as Blu wanted to hear her confession but she seemed scared until Leo held her wing. Mikka took a moment, but finally let her emotions out. "…Blu, we love you and we want to adopt you as our son." Those words came out from her, and Blu felt like a bomb just exploded in front of him as he had his eyes wide open and didn't know how to respond to this.

More Notes & Disclaimers:

• "good morning": In case you guys didn't understand that, they were flirting with each other by speaking in Portuguese. They don't do that everyday but they still do it for fun. Also, forgive me if the words are inaccurate since I used Google Translate for that.

• "sky as a painting": That's kind of how I see it too.

Another cliffhanger. What do you guys think will happen next?

And on a totally new note I wanna mention, if you wonder what Mikka, Leo, Carlos, and Sophia's voices are like, then here's a good thought.

Tara Strong as Mikka

James Marsden as Leo

Ewan McGregor as Carlos

Julia Sawalha as Sophia