Hello, everypony!

The long-awaited re-emergence of hspar's golden story is here! Now that this project is in my hands, I'm going to be tackling it head on and updating as fast as possible. This is merely a minuscule taste of what is to come.

It is exceedingly important that you review. My recent stories haven't been getting much feedback, so at least review for hspar's sake. Both he and I need to see how this story is received.

I'll stop blathering so that you guys can move on. Without further ado, I present... Next To You: The Story Continues!

Chapter 1: The Return

It was shortly after sunrise when Blu and I had woken up. He then begged me to teach him more Portuguese, and I agreed, as his skill in pronouncing the accented words had increased.

He and I had been practicing for over thirty minutes before our stomachs had made their need for food known. I was getting ready to wrap up the session, but wanted to hear Blu say a few extra lines.

"Alright, Blu, say, 'As borboletas estão em toda parte. That means, 'The butterflies are everywhere.' "

He nodded and repeated, "As borboletas estão em toda parte."

I cracked a warm smile as Blu turned smug, obviously pleased by his improvement.

"Excelente trabalho! I'm impressed, Blu! You've come so far since we moved here." {Great job!}

A shade of crimson exploded onto his face, accompanied by a sheepish grin as he replied, "Thanks, Jewel. I think my intelligence has something to do with my accelerated learning. Not to sound boastful, though."

I hopped closer to him and pecked him on the cheek, causing his face to redden to an even brighter shade.

"You might be right, Blu," I said, chuckling.

It was times like these that reminded me of the male I had pledged my love to. I wouldn't quite describe him so derogatorily as a "nerd bird," but rather, a shy, gifted male with a brain larger than his beak. The way he acted so intelligent, and yet so adorable… that was what amused me and inexplicably drew me closer to him.

It's confusingly crazy that my heart was captured by an eccentric bird like him.

Had some feathered prophet told me in the past that I was going to become mates with a socially-challenged, bookish bird, I would have scoffed in his face. But it was moments like these, short moments of bondage with Blu, that were the ones I treasured most.

My thoughts were interrupted when a grumble issued from the belly of my mate, the third – and loudest – one we had heard so far. He leaned down and poked it with his wing, and then faced me.

"Ummm… I think we need to head out and eat breakfast, Jewel. My stomach isn't going to shut up until we do."

You got that right, mister!

"Sure thing, Blu. But there's one more thing I want you to tell me. In Portuguese."

"What's that, Jewel?"

I cocked my head, thinking for a bit.

"Hmmm… something sweet. Something from your heart."

Blu shut his eyes tight for a few seconds, deep in concentration.

He popped them back open and, with a huge grin, said, "Eu te amo com todo meu coração e alma, e eu nunca vou deixar você ir. Eu prometo." {I love you with all my heart and soul, and I'll never let you go. I promise.}

Oh my… that was lovely…

Those words melted me inside, as they had always done. I pulled Blu into a tender hug, staring right at his creamy hazel irises.

"Blu… that was perfect. Thanks for making me feel so… treasured."

"Think nothing of it, Jewel. You're my jewel, a precious sapphire, and I'll never let you slip away."

My beak trembled with joy as I said, "I love you, Blu. I love you so much."

"As do I, beautiful. And may that never change."

I leaned in for a kiss, but my own stomach decided to butt in and growl unceremoniously.

Ugh… way to ruin the moment there, greedy stomach of mine… I thought crudely.

I stopped short, hearing a chuckle escape from Blu's beak.

"Let's jet, beautiful. You're awfully hungry. How about we eat first, and kiss later?"

"Now that's an offer I have no trouble accepting," I replied, my humorous tone masking my shame.

"After you," I added, extending my left wing in the direction of the exit.

I trailed him closely as he made for the rim, taking off seconds after he did. I realized how starved I truly was as I sped up and drifted in on Blu's right side. I felt drained, as if I hadn't slept in a week.

Man, I need to start eating earlier! I can't stand this… sluggishness!

Sourly, I said, "Blu, do we have to fly very far? I don't have very much energy right now."

Blu turned to me and frowned as he noted my less-than-pleased expression.

"There's a starfruit tree about two minutes away. Is that close enough, or should we look for something closer?"

"No, that's fine. I'll manage."

Hopefully I don't drop before we get there…

"Alright," he replied.

He flew by my side the whole way, traveling at a steady pace. I imitated him when he changed directions, but the path we took was mostly straight.

If I happened to lose the ability to fly, at least he would be there to catch me.

Eventually, before my fatigue got the better of me, we came upon the tree in question. Its branches were loaded with bright yellow fruit, which were arranged in tight clusters along each leafy limb. That tree was but one of several growing next to a lazy river, and the water's gentle gurgling was soothing to our ears.

Blu and I landed on a branch halfway up and scooted in closer to the trunk, spying a cluster of neon packages dangling overhead. My beak watered heavily as I studied them, and I licked my sturdy beak in anticipation.

Mmmm, I can't wait to stuff my face! I thought gleefully.

Since he was closer to them than I was, I asked, "Blu, could you pick one for me?"

Kindly, he replied, "Sure, Jewel."

He stretched himself upwards, balancing carefully on his feet. He grabbed a starfruit in his beak and lowered himself down, the stem giving way with a sharp snap.

I shot my wings out to steady Blu, as he looked like he was on the verge of toppling backwards.

Yikes! Careful there, handsome!

"Whoa," he mumbled through his clenched beak as he recovered.

He then turned towards me, and I refolded my wings. He removed the fruit from his beak with his foot and held it out to me.

"Here you go, Jewel. Thanks for bracing me, or my clumsiness might have sent me to the ground!"

"You're welcome. In return, thanks for the food."

"No problem."

I raised the firm object to my beak, my desire to bite into it and taste the juices nearly irresistible. But I decided to wait until Blu had picked one for himself, so that we could kick off our meal together.

I lowered my foot back down, taking extra care not to smash the fruit against the bark. I kept my wing muscles tense in case he unbalanced himself. Once Blu had grabbed a fruit, I held mine inches in front of my beak.

Blu saw that I hadn't bitten it yet and asked, "Aren't you gonna eat?"

"Not without you, handsome."

"Oh. That's sweet of you, Jewel. Let's get down to business, then."

He and I chomped down on our breakfast at the same time, causing small spurts of juice to squirt out. The delicious pulp in my beak drove me crazy, and it seemed as though this starfruit tasted one thousand times better than all the others I had eaten.

I couldn't help but squawk, "Wow… this ish… sho good! Mmm!"

I closed my eyes as I chewed greedily, swallowing my first chunk and then shoving the rest in my beak. Blu must have seen my dreamy expression as I gobbled it down, as I heard him giggle in that tenor voice of his.

"I'm starting to think you're a hungry tiger, Jewel, not a hungry macaw. Don't make yourself choke!"

I forced down the rest of the pulp and smacked my beak.

"It's kind of hard to be careful when the food is so heavenly! It's a good thing you're here though, so that you can rescue me in case I do choke."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," he warned smoothly, and then nabbed a second starfruit for me.

Thankfully, I consumed it without incident, my once-empty stomach now nearly full. As I waited for Blu to finish so that I could ask him for a third, a patch of movement two trees down on my right side caught my attention.

It seemed as if the leaves were alive, and were way bigger than usual. And not only that, they were dark blue.

What in the world? I thought sharply.

Hold on… is that… Ronaldo? It is! What a coincidence!

Without hesitation, I opened my beak and called out, "Ronaldo! Hey, Ronaldo! It's me, Jewel!"

The navy blob of color whirled around in a half-turn, and two turquoise eyes locked onto mine. He rocketed over and landed on my chosen branch, causing it to shake.

"Good morning, sister! I didn't expect to see you here!"

The jollity in his tone was infectious, and I beamed a rich smile.

"Neither did I!"

"Where's my cunhado?" he asked cheerfully, searching momentarily by swiveling his head.

"I'm right here," Blu said cordially, touching down on my left.

"Good morning, cunhado! How have you and Jewel been lately?"

"Muito bom, na verdade," Blu replied, shaking Ronaldo's wing. {Very good, actually.}

"I see that Jewel's been teaching you Portuguese. You sure can speak it well. I'm proud of you."

"Heh, thanks, Ronaldo. She's a wonderful teacher, so she deserves plenty of credit too."

Blu looked my way and winked, and I felt my cheeks swell with warmth.

"What about you, brother? How have you been feeling?" I asked.

"Pretty good. Lisa's still troubling me, though. I can't get my mind off of her and how she acted."

Ronaldo sighed and shook his head in disapproval.

"She hasn't even apologized to me yet. I don't know why she refuses to respect my choice. I don't hate her, but… oh, I don't know. I wish she could confront me face to face and accept the fact that she made a huge mistake."

My smile dimmed, as did the positivity lacing the air.

Oh boy… no wonder his mood changed so fast, I mused. I suddenly remembered the fiasco that happened between the two, which Blu had revealed to me the day before, less than ten minutes after it had happened.

Lisa was probably still traumatized and frightfully angry, unwilling to make amends with her "friend."

And here was Ronaldo, the victim rather than the criminal, and very much upset by the lack of action on her part. He obviously wasn't planning on seeking her out, and I began to wonder how long she would keep away from him.

"Maybe I could go and talk to her, see if I can clear her head," I stated flatly.

"Blu tried his best, but I think Lisa and I need to have a female-to-female conversation. That just might do the trick," I concluded.

"I… don't see the point in that, Jewel," Ronaldo advised.

"Um, why not?" I queried.

He straightened up and replied calmly, "You know how stubborn she is. I doubt you'll be able to convince her that she was the one who did wrong. I don't mean to sound rude, but you'd be wasting your time. And I don't even know where on Earth she is."

The truth in his words hit me hard, and I believed he was right. I could spew out advice until I was blue in the face – pardon the pun – but I would get nowhere unless she was ready to heed it.

If Blu's retelling of the verbal brawl between her and Ronaldo was anything to go by, I doubted she wanted to absorb any sort of relationship counsel.

"I guess you're right. Do you think she'll ever speak to you again?" I asked sternly.

Ronaldo shrugged and replied, "Only time will tell if she comes to her senses. If she chooses to make things right, then so be it. If not, well, that's on her shoulders, not mine. Surely she won't throw away our friendship just because I don't want to be her lover."

"That would be awfully cruel of her, I have to admit," Blu put in.

"Exactly, cunhado. I guess all I can do is play the waiting game."

Ronaldo let out another sigh, this one longer and more downcast than the first. An unsteady silence persisted, none of us uttering a word.

Blu eventually broke it, much to my relief.

"So… is there anything else you would like to talk about? Preferably something that isn't so depressing?"

Ronaldo blinked and said, "Truthfully, Blu, no."

"Oh," he replied unemotionally.

"Have you already had your breakfast?"

"Yes, Blu. I must have been so distracted, both physically and mentally, that I didn't see you two."

"It's alright. Well, is there anything you wanted to do today? Jewel and I could spend the day in the city with you, or-"

Blu clacked his beak shut and spun his head to the left, away from me and Ronaldo.

Startled, I asked, "Blu? What was that?"

He drummed his wing on his beak and said, "I swore I saw something white in the tree next to us. Hmmm…"

"I don't know what it could've been. The only colors around are yellow, green, and blue."

Blu shot a puzzled look at me, but dropped it rather quickly.

"Eh. It's whatever."

He then locked his eyes with our other male visitor and quipped, "As I was saying…"

"Oh, right. Well, I don't see the harm in that. I kind of wanted to go back home and sleep, but if you'd rather accompany me to the city, I wouldn't mind."

"Are you sure? I'm not trying to force you to go or anything," Blu said meekly.

"I think need a break from this jungle, and Lisa, for that matter. That might be the break I need."

"Should we leave now, or what?"

"Sure thing, Jewel. Just let me... take care of some business real quick."

Ronaldo hurried off into the trees, leaving Blu and I alone.

I tapped my foot idly on the wood, watching as Blu did the same. Was it weird of me to think Blu's feet were… cute? The way his left one bobbed up and down, his claws clicking ever so softly against the bark… it was amusing.

Oh a whim, I decided to find out.

"Hey, Blu?"

"Hmmm?" he hummed, his eyes locking with mine.

"I think your feet are… cute. Does that make me strange?"

Blu blinked a few times, perplexed by my random question. A vivid blush ensued on hi facial area immediately afterwards.

"It's… odd, but it has nothing to do with your character. You can call them whatever upbeat adjectives you wish."

Both satisfied and relieved, I replied, "I'll be sure to do that."

Three taps later, I felt something slam into my side out of nowhere, launching me off the branch.

What the hell!

I fought back the soreness and tried to open my wings, but I felt my right one hit a limb.

A painful ache consumed it, and as the leaves and branches spun around me, I realized I was falling.

Oh no… I can't… fly! This isn't going to end well!

I heard Blu yell, "Jewel!" from somewhere up above, his voice laden with shock and fear.

Two seconds later, my plummet came to an agonizing stop. My back exploded in pain as it hit the ground, a shrill screech erupting from my beak as tears pooled in my eyes.

"Ahh! Ow! Ow ow ow!"

For a short while, I thought my spine was broken, and I could not physically move. My blurred gaze was pointed upwards, my wings splayed out on either side of me.

Blu… a little help here! God… my back!

That was when a white blur of motion appeared, and my muscles clenched with dread as it dove right for me. The creature slowed its descent with its wings, but it still landed absurdly hard on my plump stomach, causing my eyes to squeeze shut.

Who… is doing this to me?

I felt like I was going to puke, even more so when I heard a string of fateful words: "Hello, pretty bird. I believe we've met before."

The contempt in them was obvious, and I recognized their owner in a split second.

Oh no… it's Nigel…

Don't forget...

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