Hey everyone. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, If it seemed drawn out and slow-moving, I apologize, but I wanted to dive into the details surrounding what happened in Rio 2 and expand upon it, which hopefully laid a good foundation for the rest of this story.

I appreciate all of the reviews, its nice to be getting a lot of feedback.

Reply to vadimsmash1: I understand where you are comimg from, but I don't think Jewel is in a position to criticize her father and Roberto for how they treated Blu, considering that she treated him just as poorly. That doesn't mean those wrongdoings won't get called out though. I can't reveal any more of what I have planned or that would spoil it.

Chapter 2: Confrontation

It was evening in the Amazon rainforest. The sun was slowly slipping below the horizon, illuminating the sky with a spectacular array of colors. A soft evening breeze rippled its way through the air, seeming to push apart the thick clouds that so often blanketed the region. This particular evening was far from ordinary, however. Living high up in the treetops, the last tribe of Spix macaws on Earth had reason to celebrate.

Just a stone's throw away, the vast clearing the loggers had left served as a grim reminder of just how close the tribe had been to losing everything. Had it not been for the actions of the very bird they had previously written off as useless and pathetic, many of them would have surely been killed or left without a home.

One would surely think that after having performed such a heroic act, this said bird would have been feeling happy with himself without a care in the world. But this was far from the case for Blu.

He stood in the opening of the tree hollow, staring straight ahead. Behind him in the hollow stood Jewel, who was busy trying to fend off the endless bombardment of questions that came from her kids.

"What's wrong with Dad?" pressed Tiago, full of an innocent concern that seemed to stab at Jewel's heart.

"He's been like this all afternoon!" Carla said, peering around her mother and observing her dad with concern.

Jewel sighed. She couldn't possibly find it in her to begin to explain her and Blu's fight to her kids. It would surely take serious time and effort to work it out, and she couldn't bear to see her kids suffer as a result of the instability in their family. It was largely her fault, after all, and she would never be able to forgive herself for it.

"Dad's had a long day," she finally said, forcing a smile as she did so. "I think he just needs some alone time," she finished, hoping that her answer, which held a lot of truth, would be sufficient.

"A long day" was the understatement of the century, and Jewel cringed the moment those words came out of her mouth, hoping that Blu was aware that she realized it was more than that.

She could tell that the kids were smart enough to realize something was up. It was clear that if she wasn't able to fix things between herself and Blu, it could cause serious damage to their family. But would Blu ever forgive her? She knew the responsibility of fixing the situation rested on her.

A commotion arose outside of the hollow. The sound of laughter and shouting, accompanied by the noise of dozens of wings flapping through the air. There was a buzz in the air, the distant voices of the dozens of macaws that approached brimming with excitement.

"Come on, get out here!" Shrieked a familiar bird as she deviated from the group and dive-bombed down toward the hollow before clumsily screeching to a halt and hovering in front of the opening.

"Aunt Mimi!" exclaimed Jewel and the kids in unison as they rushed towards her, joining Blu at the entrance of the hollow.

Blu seemed to snap out of his trance-like state. He looked down at his kids, who stood between Jewel and himself, and faked a smile before turning his attention to Aunt Mimi.

"Come on, what are you waiting for?" She continued. Everyone's gathering to celebrate, remember?" she said excitedly before noticing the not-so-enthusiastic look on everyone's face. An awkward silence fell over the family of macaws for a brief moment. "What's the matter?"

"Dad's acting upset about something," Bia blurted out.

Jewel cringed slightly. So it really is that obvious to them, isn't it? She thought.

"Upset about what??? You just saved everyone here! Did someone die or something?" Aunt Mimi questioned sarcastically, eyeing Blu with an air of humorous concern.

Blu sighed and did everything he could to prevent himself from glancing in Jewel's direction, even though he so desperately wanted to. He instead looked at the ground. He could feel the eyes of everyone in the hollow staring at him.

"I'm not upset, I'm fine," he said, with a tone that suggested he was trying to convince himself it was true. "I'm just tired, it's been a..." he trailed off, feeling his anger building up within. Blu could feel color rising in his cheeks. He was almost trembling, but he took a moment to contain this rush of emotion.

Blu looked up at Jewel and stared straight at her. "I've... I've just had a long day," he said blankly, without the slightest hint of irony in his voice.

Another awkward silence. Jewel's beak opened as if she wanted to say something, but she remained silent, a look of shock on her face. Aunt Mimi glanced back and forth between the two birds, clearly confused. She cleared her throat.

Jewel felt sick. Not only did Blu seem to be unreconcilably angry with her, but he had no problem expressing it in front of everyone else.

"Why don't you and the kids go along, we'll follow you there in a little bit," she said to Aunt Mimi in a hushed tone, who gave a knowing nod before taking flight and beckoning the kids to follow her.

Bia, Carla, and Tiago glanced worriedly back at their parents before following Aunt Mimi out of the hollow and towards the rest of the flock, whose voices were fading as they grew further away. Before long, silence had fallen over the jungle once more.

Jewel turned to face her mate, who stood slightly turned away from her, his eyes once again staring straight ahead.

Blu already regretted giving Jewel attitude. His emotions had gotten the best of him, and now he would have to deal with the consequences. He wasn't even sure that he wanted Jewel to know how he was feeling, and he certainly hadn't wanted to make her aware of what he was going through in the way that he had.

He hoped he hadn't come across as angry with her, even though he knew he had. Blu half expected Jewel to return the aggression and press him to find out just exactly what it was that he was trying to say with his earlier sarcastic remark. But to his relief, the bird that was now speaking to him seemed more like the old Jewel than the Jewel he had put up with over the past few days.

"Blu?" She said cautiously, taking half a step towards him before deciding to retreat and remain where she was.

Blu turned his head slightly to the side and glanced at her for a moment before letting his gaze fall to the ground. He felt a wave of guilt wash over him. Every time he began to feel angry with Jewel or blame her for the divide that had formed between them, he found himself immediately regretting it. It felt wrong to admit that she was the root of the problem, even if it was the truth.

"Look, Blu, I'm... I'm sorry about that. She didn't know," Jewel said, tilting her head to the side slightly in an attempt to meet Blu's eyes.

"She didn't know about what?" Blu questioned, still refusing to look back at her. His voice was shaky, as if he was holding back tears.

Jewel swallowed. She had never seen Blu like this before. Throughout their entire time together, he had always been open and trusting with her. He had never hidden anything from her, whenever he was dealing with something, she was the first to know.

"You know, Blu..." she said, trailing off, not sure what words to use.

"I don't know, Jewel," he said, still looking away from her. "Everything's fine"

A silence fell over them. Jewel didn't know what to say. Blu would never voice his grievances with her. She knew she would have to be the one to initiate any sort of conversation about what had happened between them. But she wasn't sure if she was prepared to do so.

She closed the distance between them, sliding along the lower rim of the opening in the tree until she stood next to him. Blu seemed to take notice of this, but he didn't react. He awkwardly repositioned his feet as he continued to keep himself turned away from her. While he didn't intend it to appear so, it came across as very deliberate.

Jewel couldn't leave him there like this. She knew she had to say something to address the elephant in the room.

"No, everything isn't fine, Blu, and we both know it," she started to say, nervous to see how he would react. Did he want to talk about their relationship right now? Or did he want to be left alone?

"We can't keep going like this," she continued slowly, struggling to find the right words as she spoke. "Look, Blu, I understand. I..." Jewel trailed off as she watched him slowly turn to face her. He looked up and met her gaze. She thought she could see tears starting to form in his eyes.

Jewel was so angry at herself for ever hurting a bird as kind and good as Blu. She could tell he was waiting for her to say something, and she had a good idea as to what it was. But Jewel just couldn't do it. It was too much for her.

"I... I'll give you space, Blu," she finally said, her heart aching as she did so.

The look of hope that Blu wore quickly vanished as his face fell. He looked away from her again and didn't reply.

Jewel felt horrible. She wished that she could have found the courage to attempt to resolve things, but she just wasn't ready. And now it appeared she had hurt him even more.

"I shouldn't keep them waiting," she said, stepping away from him. "Please think about joining us, Blu. It wouldn't be the same without you there," she finished.

Blu acted as if he hadn't heard her. Jewel hesitated for a moment and looked over at him again before spreading her wings and taking flight. As she glided away from the hollow, a tear slipped from her eye and ran down her cheek.

Blu watched her fade away into the distance. It was hard for him to stay mad at her for long. His anger was now replaced with an overwhelming feeling of loneliness and sadness as he stood by himself in the hollow.

She seemed to still care about him, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, she had shown some concern for the way he was feeling. Part of him wanted to join her and the rest of the tribe. But the other half of him just wanted to shrink as far away from everyone and everything as possible.

He didn't know if he would be able to face the others after everything they had done to him. He assumed that, after his heroic actions, he would be accepted into the flock. But he was still scarred from all the mistreatment. He was especially dreading having to face Jewel's father, Eduardo. He dreaded the thought of having to witness more of Roberto's seemingly unending advances towards Jewel. He dreaded having to pretend like everything was fine in front of his kids, having to push everything that was troubling him deeper inside.

He sighed. He looked out over the jungle before him for a minute before spreading his wings and taking flight. He ascended until he was above the treetops, where he hesitated for a moment, hovering in the air.

Blu finally turned and started to fly again. His wings flapped harder and harder, fueled by all the emotion that had been building up within him over the previous days. He could feel the hopeless void growing within him as each passing second carried him further and further away from the hollow, in the opposite direction Jewel had flown.

I figured that was probably a good stopping point for chapter 2. I didn't mean to leave a bit of a cliffhanger there, but oh well...