Chapter Text
Jewels words hurt more than Blu lets on. She catches him upset.
“I wouldn’t expect a pet to understand,” Jewel sneered as she continued to peck at the bars. Even though Blu had been called Pet before, namely by Alice and Chloe, it still hurt. He should be out in the wild, flying with the other birds. Blu exhaled quietly and buried his head under one of the leaves. He didn’t want to see Jewel. If he was really quiet, he could hear her mumbling about how useless he was and how he was a disgrace to the bird species.
Blu found he couldn’t sleep, he had too many thoughts whirling around in his head. Mostly about how he agreed with Jewel and how he hated himself. His anxiety was kicked up to 1000. Blu shook the leaf off and paced around the fake jungle. He could hear Jewel grumbling about how little use he is to bird kind and why was he bought here to see her. His talons began to ache slightly from how much he was walking, but he found the pain grounding, like he deserved it. He stood on the small log bridge and watched his reflection ripple in the water underneath. Blu could still hear Jewel flapping around and trying to pry the metal bars apart with her beak.
A sudden ripple in his reflection made Blu release the tears slowly leaking from his eyes. He sniffed and wiped them away with his left talon. They were quickly replaced with more and they just kept coming. His heart ached, he felt slightly sick from the overwhelming anxiety. Blu could hear flapping and presumed Jewel was in the hunt for another rock, so he payed no mind to her. He felt all of his recent troubles falling out of his eyes. Pet, useless, wimp, coward…
~
Jewel felt angered by Blu’s actions. What kind of macaw can’t fly? A Pet. Jewel flew around the cage in search for something she could stick in between the bars of the air vent in the hopes of breaking the bars apart and fleeing for the jungle again. She flew by near where Blu was resting to grab a rock that was there a few minutes ago, but found he wasn’t there. Jewel sighed deeply and proceeded in trying to find a rock that wasn’t already dulled down from her constantly banging it against the bars. She flew around to near her little river of sorts, as there was always a rock nearby. Stopping just before she reached it though, Jewel found herself frozen. Blu was stood on the small branch like bridge just over the water, sniffling. Jewel’s heart thumped quickly. Had she caused him to be so upset? Jewel was pissed off, sure, that Blu couldn’t fly, and they expected her to mate with him and have chicks with him, but… she never meant to make him cry! Jewel stayed just out of sight but watched as he silently cried to himself. Jewel strained her hearing and listened with a heavy heart. “I’m so stupid. What bird can’t fly? She’s right, I am a pet, and that’s all I’ll ever be.” Jewel let her eyes fall to the ground, unable to keep looking at the sad Macaw. She quietly walked away, as to not draw attention to herself. Once she was far enough away, she flew up into the air and shook herself back to her normal self. Jewel reminded herself that she wanted to escape, and she would take Blu with her. She would show him what he was missing, hopefully that would make him less sad. Jewel aggressively flew over and landed behind Blu with a small thud. The Macaw in question quickly wiped his face with his wings. “Are you done admiring your reflection? We’ve got work to do,” Jewel sniped. Blu sniffed, “I’m always ready,” He said confidently, though his voice shook slightly, indicating that of someone who has just cried. Jewel felt horrible for treating him like this, but if she suddenly stopped acting this way, he’d know she watched him cry and witnessed a really personal, vulnerable moment.
Hopefully they’d get close enough so he would openly tell her his problems…