Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Her ears were ringing. It was deafening. It’s funny actually, she didn’t think that she might die in vain for the very place that was supposed to protect her. Hell, the people there were supposed to protect her. Sure, she would really benefit from that if she was one of the townsfolk. But the universe loves to egg on her so it made her one of the ‘beloved’ family members of the “Perfecta Familia”, as eloquently quoted by the residents of the Encanto.

Mirabel Valentina Rojas Madrigal was nothing but the doorstep of her beloved family. Someone to push away and ignore. Someone to belittle, have flowers eject her way and be forced to babysit a newborn baby 25/8. That was her life from the past 10 years and that all stemmed from what happened on that day. Her 5th birthday. 

In the wondrous Madrigal family, magic, also known more as gifts, was the only thing that is exclusively given to anyone with the family’s blood flowing through their veins. When you turn 5 on your birthday, a magical door hums, waiting for the blessed family member to open it. A ceremony is held for it with the whole town invited just to see a 5 year old open their door, have their magic flow within them and party all night. 

That was supposed to happen for young Mirabel. She was supposed to walk up the steps of their sentient house Casita, and twist the doorknob open so that she receives her gift. Unfortunately, like I, the author, mentioned, the universe loves to egg on her. So her door faded into nothing. Silencing her, her beloved familia, prompting the oh-so wonderful gossiping townsfolk, and having the first glimpse of the cracking mask that her precious ‘Abuela’ wore.

From then on, she swore to make herself useful. An angel, that Mirabel is. Rather than sitting back and doing nothing. She wants to help and prove herself to her family and her community. To show them that despite being the Giftless Madrigal, she was more than that. So shoving the murmurs aside, she put herself to work. Asking around if anyone needed her help, anyone at all. But all she got was dismissive responses and when she was unlucky, toxic words would be tossed her way.

“How about letting your more competent family handle this, null ”, they would say to 6 year-old Mirabel.

The townsfolk were quite a variety of people, they all had mixed reactions towards her. Most pity, but some, they question the magic. If the girl didn’t receive her magic, would future blood also not receive any? Had she somehow tainted their blood for future generations? Null, incompetent, soiled, giftless, curse of the Madrigals, hollow . Those were some of the acid that some people had tossed to 7 year-old Mirabel. Discreetly at first, whispering whenever they see her within earshot, or told her passive aggressively. But as she got older, the more people got away with and so the amount of people that took pity on her swindled down to single digits. That was only from the adults, from the children however, was a different story.

Like all children, they’re much more awed at the family for their magical abilities that they possess and would mostly surround her primo, Camilo. Those two inseparable when they were younger before her birthday. Ever since then, Camilo would drift apart from her. Disappearing straight after breakfast to hang with the other kids or trying to sneak away from Mirabel whenever she was around. That’s more painful to her compared to what those kids did to her. Some of the kids would feel bad for her, like their parents, but some would take advantage of this. First it started off with mild name calling. That soon escalated to the acts of  ‘accidentally’ tripping her, spilling their drinks on her, or stomping too hard in the mud near her newly embroidered garments. ‘It’s okay, everything is fine!..’ Was all 8 year-old Mirabel would repeat. 

Whenever she would try to tell her teachers or any of her family, none would believe her. Of course, who would? They were just playing around and it got too rough, and plus who would purposely harm a ‘precious’ family member of the Madrigals? Boom, end of story. She tried to plead to her father but he was far too busy, her mother is always tending to some injured person that she could barely have a solid conversation with her daughter, Luisa was too busy with moving fatass-ed donkeys, and ‘Senorita Perfecta’ was busy spreading her ‘pollen of preciousness’ around. Her Abuela would do her usual ‘push aside Mirabel whenever she’s in the way’ routine. This results in having 9 year-old Mirabel sneak in every night with new cuts and bruises to heal with the stashed arepas that Casita managed to swipe for her. 

“Be helpful to us Mirabel and take care of him for us.” Abuela butted in, prompting a storm cloud to brew above their heads. “Oh for dios sakes Pepa, you have a cloud!” Waving her hand at the cloud to stop it from forming even further.

“I know! But Mama, she is just a child! She isn’t qualified to take care of him!” Pepa yelled over the thunder that would softly crackle in the arms of Felix, who was soothing her to calm her. 

“She’s right Alma, Mira is just 10. She isn’t eligible to take care of a child. Much less a newborn. Please see some reason over this” Felix would add in, looking pitiful at Mirabel who was standing there numbly, twiddling her thumbs. 

“That’s fine, I was 10 when I started to take care of the house myself. She’ll be fine. She can finally be helpful like she’s been wanting.” Alma waves off, walking away with Felix and Pepa trailing after her. To any child, they wouldn’t think much of it. But Mirabel wasn’t like any child, so she understood the complications this would be and her irritation was slowly boiling. Over the fences of the cot, cooing sounds were heard, which poked the curiosity of Mirabel. Inside, there lay newborn baby Antonio gurgling his own spit.

“Hehe gross..hola primo” She whispered, gently poking his chubby cheek and the inside of his hand. She felt pressure clench around her finger as she saw Antonio had held onto her finger. ‘It was so small’, she thought. “Welcome to the world Antonio..” Her boiling irritation simmered into nothing as she watched her baby cousin make happy little noises. Later she would assure Tia and Tio about taking care of Antonio, promising to herself to protect him from the harsh world outside. To keep loving him despite him having a gift or no gift after the eventual gift ceremony. 

She was 15 when the time finally came around. Everyone had gathered in front of her in Antonio’s room after he opened it. She was happy for him! Why wouldn’t she? That’s her precious primo, dare she say, her precious son. Even if he has a gift, it doesn't mean she’d treat him differently. Though, part of her was relieved that he wouldn’t experience the same things as she did, another part of her was angry . Not at him but at everything else. Why didn’t the candle give her a gift? Why didn’t the candle give her her own room? Why was it that  no matter how much she tried to help people and stay nice, she was never properly appreciated and was just pushed away? Why was she the stain of the family? Seeing her family crowded for a photo with no one looking for her was the final snap. So instead of weeping in front of so many people that would ignore her, she drifted out into the courtyard of Casita, stopping when she felt cracking around her. There she felt the familiar embrace of panic and took off back inside of Antonio’s room. 

Laughter. Laughter was what she got in return. After what happened she rushed back in the room rendering the party to a pause when she had worriedly told Abuela about the cracks. Not only was she scolded for spreading lies and trying to spoil the fun of the party, Abuela had also accused her of consuming alcohol. The audacity. Mirabel would never do anything to spoil her precious primo’s birthday and he understands why if she even were to. To anyone that actually knew her, which could be counted on her 5 fingers, would not buy into the half-assed excuse that the demented old hag gave because first, why would she consume alcohol? She was underaged and secondly, why would there be alcohol there in the first place? It’s a child’s party for dios sake, bringing and consuming alcohol in a party for children is just plain stupid. And for people to believe that, has their head shoved far up their ass. With how red she was, she ignored the way her mother worryingly looked at her and stepped outside, accidentally stepping on a scuttering mouse’s tail. 

It’s Tio Bruno. La hostia , it’s her Tio Bruno! With rats..and rags. Oh my god, was this where he was living during all these years? Behind the walls of Casita? She had so many questions she wanted to ask him but where to start. She could start with how he got there or how he turned out this way because even under all those layers, she could see his sunken-in cheekbones and how thin his wrist is. Has he been eating right? Most likely not seeing that he looks like..that. 

Giving a quick glance at his living condition, it was even more concerning. Since he was living behind the walls, only part of the wall was somewhat insulated but since Casita is made out of brick and wood it should be okay during the daytime. Night time is another thing, since in the evening the temperature drops, it doesn’t matter how hot it was during the morning, at night is when it sometimes gets biting cold, but that’s on a rare occasion wherever Tia Pepa would cause snowstorms. “Is..this where you have gone Tio..?” She hesitantly asked as she looked around more at the place. 

She could only pinpoint a chair that looked far too worn, a little milk crate that looked like a..stage(?) on top of a barrel, a small table with one chair tilted diagonally between the legs, some hanging pots of plants, used brushes, a bunch of candles, pictures, and rats. Not to mention the hanging clothes at the back, if you can call it clothes that is. It looked basically worn out to the point where she could see each individual thread sticking out of the pattern. And mierda the stench. It was dusty and there was that old smell to everything. How long was he behind the wall? He doesn’t even have a bed of any kind, as if a bed there could fit there but still. Had he been using that chair to sleep in for 10 years?

Turning to her uncle, she could see him sink into himself, awkwardly smiling at her as if he wasn’t trying to raise any more red flags. “I don’t understand why you left..but didn’t leave.” She looked at him worryingly. 

Trying to give off a nonchalant answer, he sat in his chair before waving his hand in dismissal “Oh, well, because, you know the mountains around the Encanto are pretty tall y’know, and plus there’s free food.” To emphasise his point, he pulled out an arepa which looked like one of her mama’s arepa’s that she made last night, and took a bite out of it so that he wouldn’t be able to answer more. “And I’ve got entertainment-” He gestured towards the rats on the stage. “What d’ya like? Sports? Game shows? Telenovelas?” He dramatically said, before the rats jumped to him, squeaking towards the crumbs on his ruana. “Ngaw, of course you guys could have some..” He cooed at the rats before turning his back to Mirabel to attend to his friends.

Mirabel processed the whole interaction, a pool of dread filling in her stomach. In her peripheral, a source of light brighter than the candles shone through the room caught her attention. She made her way towards it and peeked through the crack where the light shined through. There a small gasp was released from her. Through this crack she could see the dining area. Be right behind it. Looking to the side, she could clearly see the table properly. On top of it, there was a roughly faded coloured drawing of what looked like a plate and utensils with the word ‘BRUNO’ painted on the plate. Touching the drawing, a lump had thickly formed in her throat. 

“Yeah, well my gift wasn’t helping the family..” He murmured, fiddling with the remaining pieces of the arepa. “But, uh, I love my family..y’know?” He worked up a weak smile towards her before sitting back down on the chair, clanking something over the side. This brought Mirabel’s attention and Bruno’s panicked expression towards the sound. There facing Mirabel was a dulled green glass slightly glowing with..her..in front of Casita, facing the front towards the onlookers. Before she could get a closer look, Bruno snatched up the glass plate to try and hide it from his sobrina which was a miserable attempt because surprise surprise, the glass plate slipped from his hands and broke it’s own landing with a discarded old blanket on the floor. Next to Mirabel. ‘Hijo de puta’ He silently cursed as he saw her pick it up with hesitation.

Looking at the glass plate more closely, Mirabel could plainly herself clear as day in front of Casita with cracks. This greatly alarmed her and before she could make any conclusions, her tio had rushed to her side quickly grabbing the plate to be in his hands. “Before you say anything! Take a look.” He gestured back to the plate. 

Going along to what he said, Mirabel looked back to the plate. Once she saw the image of Casita cracked, Bruno then tilted it, causing the image to change to a Casita remaining intact. Huh. That’s peculiar. 

Seeing the confusion clearly written on her face he took the opportunity to elaborate on what it means. 

“When Abuela worried about the magic during the night after your..ceremony. She begged me to look into the future.” He murmured. Seeing how she slightly deflated at the mention of said ceremony, he hurriedly moved on to tell the rest of the story. “To see what it meant. And I saw the magic in danger. Our house breaking.” Fully facing her, he saw her hand slightly tremble. “And then, and then, I saw you.” He looked directly into her eyes. “But the vision was different this time, it..it would change. And there was no clear answer. No clear fate. Like your future was undecided.” Seeing the tremble in her hand slightly calmed down, he continued, his expression slightly shadowed with emotion. “But I knew how it was gonna look. I knew what everyone was gonna think because I’m Bruno, and everyone assumes the worst so…I took the vision and..” He trailed off, looking down into the vision before slumping back down into the seat. 

“So..you left. To protect me?” Her words coated with emotion before looking down at him with such guilt. ‘I caused this? I’m..’ She thought. Before she would have spiralled down, she was cut off.

“Yeah..I didn’t want you to go through how I did, something that happens in the future shouldn’t be blamed on a child and please don’t think or feel like it's your fault Mirabel. I did it to protect you.” Bruno clarified, looking up at her, clasping her hands. 

She teared up because no one aside from her mother had cared about her that much. And to find out that her own uncle bombed his own lifestyle just so he wouldn’t want to cause her more pain on top of the other burdens that was thrown at her, had caused her to almost cry then and there. But now that she’s here, maybe she could use the time to spend it with her tio after all these years of intentional separation. As much as it pains her deeply, which will haunt the back of her mind, she really wanted to rekindle her bond with him after so many years.

Hours go by and after they both talked about a variety of topics that ranged from her work-in-progress pieces of garments to the storylines of some of Bruno’s telenovelas, she realised that it was lights out, meaning it was past midnight. Sad to leave him, he reassured her that she could visit him anytime she wanted but to make sure she doesn’t get caught. After a very tight hug, she reluctantly left, passing the kitchen to snatch something from the leftovers of the party. 

Before doing so, she ran into the family’s ear, who was also munching on some leftovers. Both got startled with each other’s presence since no one was supposed to be out of their room after lights out, which made Mirabel start feeling suspicious of Dolores. She didn’t know if she heard anything behind the walls, or Bruno in general, or to just ignore it entirely. So she tried to feel it out. Sending her an eyebrow raise and squinted eyes. With dimmed lights, it was hard to make out what was happening but Mirabel got an answer that she was poking for. A nod of confirmation and her hand hovering above her mouth, doing a zipping and locking motion. 

‘Well I guess that explains some things’ She thought, rethinking back to some of the random times where her prima would laugh at the air or squeak at nothing while scuttling away from a painting. At least she knows now that her cousin is able to keep this a secret realising that she’s been doing this for ages. Even with how thin our relationship is, she at least had the decency to keep to herself. The mere thought earned a small bit of respect towards her quiet prima. With a nod back towards Dolores’s direction, she headed back into her ‘room’ where hopefully she could spend some time to unpack everything before starting tomorrow. 

‘I think everything might work out after all’, Mirabel thinks. After she left for Bruno’s, she stumbled upon Luisa who was having a meltdown at the corner of the house. Luckily no one was there to hear her. Soothing down her hyperventilating sister, she asked what was wrong. Mirabel was thinking all kinds of things as to why Luisa, the strongest person she knows, was having a meltdown at the peak of the afternoon in Casita. Her thoughts got cut off as Luisa cried into her baby sister’s arms, saying all the stuff about pressure and how she’s supposed to be the strongest person, so why was she feeling signs of weakness. Mirabel never knew her sister felt like this and came to the decision of having Luisa hang with her for a break in her schedule. Naturally that resulted in an argument between Mirabel and Alma who chased after Luisa because she was ‘neglecting’ those said duties. It blew off when Luisa just told Mirabel that, “Everything will be fine, I’ll just do them quickly and take a quick break. Okay?” 

“Are you sure?” Mirabel asks worryingly.

“Yeah, I’ll be back.” And that’s that. Not wanting to be around Abuela anymore, she turns to walk in the opposite direction. 

“Luisa, you know I’ll always be here to talk right? To talk or hang, whatever you want. I’m here.” That’s all she said before Luisa gave her a strong nod and walked away. 

After that clusterstorm, Mirabel’s temper was boiling, threatening to spill out, and with amazing timing. Standing there in the courtyard was Señorita Perfecta, all arms crossed with her perfect threaded eyebrows frowning at her. “Mirabel! What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m sorry Isa, but can we not right now?” Mirabel, having none of it, tried to walk past her sister without blowing off at her. And surprise surprise, Isabela chose to poke more into the bursting anger bubble. Sprouting a rose plant in front of her face, getting a face full of thorns poking her.

“What do you mean ‘not right now’, we’re doing this right now! Tonight is the engagement dinner and I don’t want you, hollow , to ruin everything!” She hissed at her. 

Hollow . Snap. That is it. 

“Shut up Isabela! You have done nothing but blabber about your engagement party and pretty princess problems and I’ve had enough!” She seethed. “You always try to put me down, always try to push me away and for what reason? Is it because of my tendency to try and help? My efforts in trying to help you? No, I bet it’s because I’m a null ! And you feel ashamed being my eldest sister, I bet you wished Luisa was your only sibling.” Out of breath and full of rage, she finally caught a glimpse of Isabela’s face. Shocked was mostly the emotion but there was something else there that Mirabel can’t pinpoint. That quickly washed away with the familiar emotion of rage that she’s feeling herself being displayed.

“Dios mio! Are you really stupid?! It’s none of those, ‘To help me?’ You don’t need to! I’ve been stuck being perfect my whole entire life! And literally the only thing you’ve done to me is mess things up!”

“Nothing is even messed up! You could still marry that big dumb hunk.” Mirabel shuddered at the word.

“I never wanted to marry him! I was doing it for the family!” Pop. Was all Mirabel heard, following Isabela’s gaze. She saw a..cactus? That’s new.. Up until now she had never seen her sister grow any other plants than flor so seeing something that is exotic was new to her. Apparently the same goes for her sister. 

“The Miracle is dying, because of you!” Mirabel spat to her face. Shell-shocked was the only thing Abuela showed her before everything came crashing down. Literally.

The ground shook and a big crack tore open the earth at the middle of where Mirabel and Abuela were standing. In the distance a crack sound could be heard from a mile away. Casita shook, visibly vibrating. All her tiles kept falling off the roof and eventually the whole house was shaking from tremors. 

A gasp was heard, “The candle.” Whoever said that had snapped the other family members awake.

All pairs of eyes darted towards the candle, they watched the candle bounce off of its platform before the situation fully sunk into anyone. Mirabel was the first to shake the feeling off and darted towards the candle. 

“Casita! Get me up there.” Quickly hopping onto the ladder that Casita had provided for her, she raced towards the candle. She was up against time and she needed to push herself to beat it. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Isabela and Camilo trying to get up to take her out, but for a brief moment she saw the moment when their gifts malfunctioned. 

Before she could gasp in horror, she was relieved that Casita was able to safely help them from falling from the great height. Another crack she heard before she focused all her attention into grabbing the candle. She felt her muscles strain as she quickly climbed to the top of the ladder, when she was at the top she scurried her way towards the candle. Only to hear a massive crash which made her take a pause to process her surroundings, to her right she saw Bruno sprawled onto the grass with pieces of concrete around him. Wasting no time, she fumbled her way to the perch of the candle which was laying there with its wick at the shortest point. She heard shouts of her family, yelling for her to leave the candle but she won’t do it. As much as she thinks the candle had betrayed her, it was her family’s light of hope and safety. A warm blanket to keep them and the town safe. Even if it didn’t do the same for her. Also she came all this way there, why would she go back now.

Her fingertip glazes over the candle before firmly securing the candle in her grasp, not caring about the searing heat that came from her left hand. She scanned for a way down only to hear the sound of crack brick that came from the direction of Bruno’s tower. Panicked, she slid to the bottom using the tiles with the help of Casita, the light from the main door darken from the falling debris above. It took her a brief moment of understanding before Casita had used the last of her magic to shield her before everything went dark. 

Her ears were ringing. It was deafening. It’s funny actually, she didn’t think that she could’ve died in vain for the very place that was supposed to love her. Coughing was her first instinct before her head throbbed in pain. Down in her hands is the candle, at the very last threads of the wick and blobs of wax. “Thank you Casita..” She croaked out before pushing away the furniture that the house had protected her with. Variety of voices could be heard far away, all calling out for her name. 

In a daze, she tore her eyes back at the candle, staying still for a moment before placing it down on the ground and turned to walk further into the thick dust. She swayed her way around the debris surrounding her, occasionally tripping over pieces of wood or brick. Not long after she made it into a clearing where fortunately for her, she found Bruno laying on the ground. She would’ve rushed to his side but she was stalled by a very young silhouette making it out into the clearing. “Mira?..” Stammers out young Antonio. Oh boy. 

“Tonito..why aren’t you with the rest of the family?” She whispered to him, afraid to break their atmosphere. Waving her hands through his curls, picking our small pieces of rubble from his curls.

“Why aren’t you?” He looked up at her, eyes threatening to spill tears. Antonio, as much as he’s a child, is much more mature than his peers. He understands situations on a more mature level, even if he’s 5 years-old, he'd much rather be by himself if he wanted to. Oh she’s going to miss him the most.

“Tonito, I..have to go..I need to go.” She finally slipped. Kneeling down to his level to embrace him before pulling him away to look at him. A part of her wanted to take her sentence back, to go with Antonio and bring Bruno back, and reunite with the rest of the family. I mean, they just started to heal and build the foundations of the broken bridges. But...what if that was all for naught and everything went back to how it was before. Her Abuela would somehow manipulate the situation to make her be the reason for the collapse. Her family may protest against that but everyone knew that she would always win like she always does. 

Everything will go back to how it was. The words, the whispers, the back-handed compliments. Thinking more about it, it’s not safe anymore. For either of them anymore.  She’s not happy and tio Bruno is deathly anxious about the village. They love their family but their family never showed to love them back. No matter if it was too late or not. 

“Do you have to?” He looks at her quietly, pleading for her to stay. Her heart throbs in pain in telling him the honest truth. Nodding, she quickly embraced him tighter, feeling his hands grip onto her shirt. “I don’t understand right now, but if this is that  important to you..” he murmured into her shirt, tears staining her shirt. “I’ll miss you Mira..I love you forever.. Mami ..” He whispered, looking up at her to see tears streaking down her face. 

“I love you too Tonito, forever and ever.” Embracing him after the nth time. She looked down at him when they broke off. Movement caught his attention before seeing a butterfly that was part of her upper blouse and one of her earrings being given to him. “To remember me.” She said with a teary smile, sending him off into the other direction towards the other family members. Her heart breaks as she watches him walk away from her, even if the possibility of reuniting was high, she still aches for him. 

Now she has someone else to be worried about. 

With a lump shoved down her throat, she rushed to his side, checking if he was alive or not and thank goodness he was. She looked back towards the direction of Antonio and back at Bruno who seemed to stir out of unconsciousness. 

“Mirabel? ..What, happened?” He said with a groan. When he didn’t get a response, he turned towards her and saw that she was bruised and bleeding. “Mirabel you’re bleeding..” He stumbled towards her, not taking account of his own injuries. ‘I must’ve gotten hit by some debris when getting out..’ he thought before tripping over his own feet. ‘Oh damn it–’

Mirabel, barely focusing, had managed to catch Bruno who fell forward barely unconscious. Which Mirabel was trying her damndest to not fall into as well. “Tio *cough* We have to leave… I don’t..” She stammered out, hearing the yells of her family in the back. 

He stirred for a bit, taking deep breaths in and out, fully understanding what her intentions were. “Okay.” That’s all he said before going back limp, fully taken over by exhaustion and bodily functions.

Mirabel gripped her tio’s arm before heaving him onto her back, even after observing some of his physical features, it still worried her how alarmingly light he was but for now she was thankful that he was so light. With him on the back of the girl, she groggily limped into the jungle towards the direction of the mountain where she saw the crack when she was on the roof of Casita. It didn’t matter how injured she was, she needed them to get out of there and this was their only chance. Sure in some other universe they’d stay, but in this one, she’s sure as hell leaving with Bruno on her back. 

Taking one last look behind her, she could see the sun peek out for a bit with the chirps of birds singing in the far. The Encanto was a dream to live in. With its warming people and sunny weather. It’s a dream to live there, that is if you were a townsfolk. 

Because if you were a Madrigal, it’s a nightmare to.

Chapter Text

“Mirabel!” 

“Mira!”

“Has anyone seen Mirabel?”

“Mariposa!” 

Various voices could be heard echoing throughout the Encanto. So the word of Mirabel missing quickly spread around like fire to wood. Many of the family members set off in other directions to look for her and many of them came back with nothing but an increased look of misery. Accompanied by the voices that try to find way towards Mirabel were cries that can be heard coming out of the eldest triplet of the Madrigal family. Julieta could be found sitting on top of a collapsed tower block weeping in the arms of her spouse who was trying his hardest to sooth his beloved.

It was a hard situation to grasp, her daughters out there in the jungle in search of their youngest sister. Her precious youngest. Oh how her heart hurts. How the pain conjures up and tries to devour her alive. She could barely process what was happening before she and the rest of the family were ushered out by Casita, safe for Mirabel. Who’s heart was too big to contain, rushed head on towards the direction of that damn candle. Only for her daughter to disappear after the collapse. Her brain would’ve told her to look for her or that she’s alive but once she caught a glimpse of blood, her heart took the reins instead and her screams could be heard throughout the whole Encanto. 

That was 30 minutes ago and right now she would’ve cried harder if it wasn't for the rawness of her throat and how dry her eyes were. All she can do is sit and watch the rest of her family trying to salvage what they can from the rubble. ‘Why isn’t anyone helping us..’, is all she can think of. Why haven't any of the townsfolk launched any rescue parties? Are we supposed to do that too? Apart from her two older daughters and her niece and nephews, no one else had reached out to try and help them. And some of them have the audacity to ask what happened and crowd around the base of the hill like sitting ducks? Riddled with oncoming rage she got up from Agustín’s arms to go to the front of the gathering crowd. “Is this some kind of show to you? Is our suffering something to entertain you?!” She screamed, not caring if her voice was cracking, silencing the crowd at the Madrigal. Aghast that the mellowest of the Madrigals snapped. 

“ ‘What happened?’, ‘Why did Casita collapse?’, ‘What’s going to happen to us now?’ Us?! What in dios do you mean ‘us’?! Because the only people that should be questioning that should be mi familia! And yet you have the audacity to stroll here to our home to not help us, but to chismes? To hell with you puta madres! My family is hurting and you choose to be selfish and worry about yourselves. Dumping all your responsibilities to my family and the children since day one! Be ashamed of yourselves, you’re all the adults with proper professions and yet you all have your heads shoved so far up your asses that you don’t know how to pull it out. If you came here do anything but help us then get the hell out. If not…” Her face that was curled up in a snarl had eased itself to an exhausted expression. “...thank you so much..you aren’t as heartless as these people.” Snapping her gaze to the people that gossiped the most before walking back to help aid her family. 

A stunned silence washed over them as the words of the healer sank into all of them. Not wanting to earn the rage of the woman, half of the crowd had walked away, and the other half followed her to help the family that had aided them from the beginning. 

Hearing their mother’s screams echo to the forest almost had them sprint back to Casita. As much as they wanted to go and comfort their mother, they both had to keep looking for their youngest. It hurts them to hear their mother’s heart break and not feel their baby sister’s presence around them. Isabela felt the most of it, recently making up with her youngest, even if she wasn’t forgiven, she still had so much to prove her hermana. Only for her to have the world’s worst magic trick get thrown at her face and make her sister disappear after the collapse. 

“I think..this is my karma Luisa..” She heaved out while weaving through the bush of the jungle ahead of her. Only stopping when she heard the steps of her other sister stopping, prompting her to turn around. She was met with her sister’s teary eyes. “I’ve only recently been able to apologise to her…laugh with our sister and make a start into mending our relationship.. As soon as that happens, she’s gone. Ripped away from me unwillingly and I haven’t even proven to her anything. I..” She exasperated, kneeling down, trying her hardest not to sob then and there. “I’m an awful sister aren’t I?” Chuckling bitterly. She could hear leaves crunch next to her as Luisa kneeled down, hearing her silently sob.

“You..you’re not the only one. I was offered one chance to go and relax with her and I couldn’t do it.” She sniffled through her sobbing. “I mean I’ve always been busy, so why couldn’t I take one-” Isabela looked up at her when she stood up, curious about her sudden movement. “Small-” Luisa then strode to one of the thickest trees that Isabela had seen and- “-BREAK!” All she heard was a boom and crack as the usual gentle giant punched the bark.

With concern, she shot up to go and check on her younger sister who was kneeling down, clutching her fist. Looking down, Luisa's fist was bleeding with her knuckles split open. It was raging in red and covered with splinters before turning her head towards the leaning tree as it was cracking down. It took a couple of seconds of silence before the tree snapped and fell, scaring multiple birds away from their nest. The fallen tree rendered her silent, looking back to Luisa who was crying uncontrollably. 

Not wanting to fail a sister again, she tried to comfort her to the best of her abilities. Stroking her hair, and talking to her, if she was able to cry with her at some point, that’s between her and Luisa. By the time they emerged from the forest was when Camilo came to fetch them as it was already dusk. They weren’t able to talk to each other for the rest of the night, and had managed to stay up to watch the stars under the makeshift hut that was constructed when they were away. 

Neither one tried to start a conversation and they both sat in silence with the sombre comfort of their presence. They both knew that they were awful sisters but they made  a promise to each other that once they find Mirabel. They’d seize the moment with her and earn forgiveness from their neglected hermana minor, to try and mend together their loose threads of their relationship. To properly do their duty as older sisters that they swore to fulfil when they were younger. 

The next day didn’t fare much better for anyone as they were woken up by the sound of yelling from outside of the huts. These moments were one of the reasons why her gift not functioning properly gave much relief to Dolores’s ears. After 16 years of dealing with the stampede of noises that would bash her skull inwards, she finally feels at peace. Despite her room being sound-proof, it didn’t give her much room to think as it did now. All it did was muffle the noises to a static which gets on her nerves from time to time. But now? Well it’s still a muffle but it only lingers in the background and she’s finally able to control how intense the sounds could be. Though she finds that she’s only able to project her hearing within the village, so she wasn’t able to help hear Mirabel out during the search, much to her dismay. 

Focusing her hearing to outside she could hear the voices of Tía Julieta and Abuela, both increasing in volume as they both carry on their conversation.  She should tune them out and go back to sleep before starting a day full of labour, many years of being able to hear everything unwillingly would make a woman do that. But she had a feeling that this particular screaming match was important and needed her full attention. So pushing the cloth of the front cover aside, she sneaked a peek outside. She was met with two women at each other’s throats at a standoff, one equipped with an exasperated expression and the other with an otherworldly snarl. 

“How dare you blame my daughter, your nieta, for what had happened! Were your eyes covered with dust during the collapse to not see her run towards that dios forsaken candle!” Julieta had spat at her mother’s face, not caring the offensive look that overtook her face. Man, if only Dolores had access to a snack of some sorts right now, it’d be a breakfast and a show. The face that Abuela shows is absolutely photo worthy.

“Do not! Curse our miracle like that! You should know better Julieta, I raised you better!” Abuela retorted.

“You raised me, afraid of resting if I ever thought of taking a day off from work! For what? For..For helping our community? The whole family is basically slaves to the whole dios forsaken town!” Tía Julieta huffed out. 

“We have a duty to this town! We have to protect them and do our roles properly! It’s why we were given the miracle! Please don’t tell me you reject your own Papá’s sacrifice and throw it all away for..a day off chores?! We are the Madrigals! We don’t know such a thing, we are strong and resilient enough so we can protect our town!”

Julieta was baffled, literally feeling like she was slapped by her own mother’s delusions. “Are-Are you serious Mamá?! Do you not hear yourself?! All this time you’ve never let us rest, just because we have these ‘gifts’?! Do you not think how messed up that is?!” All this time, all this time, all of what they’ve been programmed to do for their whole lives was summed up by the delusions of their own? “Mamá! It’s been decades since any danger was ever prominent in this town, we don’t need to do service to them anymore! Do you not see that?”

“There was no danger because we protected this town! What more can I not see Julieta? Everything was alright until Mirabel started to get in the way by distracting everyone!” 

“She was just trying to help patch these cracks up! We didn’t even know what each other’s actual problems were until Mirabel started asking around and helping us like she’s the adult! And you say that she doesn’t love this family? She was only trying to help like what she’s been trying to do for years!” Julieta was nearing the end of her patience with the woman, and with her spitting venom towards her daughter was greatly speeding things up.

“I’ve seen her try Julieta! I have for years! Every time she does, she just messes everything up. Hurting us and all of our achievements. I have no idea why the candle didn’t give her a gift but it’s no excuse for her to hurt this family!”

Sizzle. Hiss. And.. there goes her patience. 

“Mamá! I know for a fact that she would never hurt us, everyone does, because everyone sees that she adores this family. You are the only one who doesn’t see that! All these years you have been kissing the asses of the whole town! Making us creaking machines, doing everyone's labour all day and everyday! Honouring Papá? If he was all so sacrificing to our family, why on earth would he let us slave ourselves for a town that he probably doesn’t even care about? If anything, you’re the one sacrificing us to the village! I bet Papá would rather have us be giftless if he knew his sacrifice would be wasted like this and it escalated to this for us to see that…” She finally dwindled to a steady end, not hearing anymore of her delusional mother’s nonsensical words, she stormed away from her and went past towards the other family members who were most likely trying to make another effort of searching for Mirabel. 

That seemed to stun the old woman to silence, mouth hanging agape, eyes flashing with a mixture of emotions.

‘ Well, that’s that…Tia did make a good point.’ The eldest warm-coloured family member thought before laying back down to stew over the argument that ended with a resounding, Julieta: 1 | Abuela: -0

Suddenly, she has a feeling that this won’t be the last time that an argument like this would break out. 

…

Well, she better be prepared with snacks next time. 

Chapter Text

‘Aw man, aw man, aw man!’ Mirabel huffed as she sprinted through the thick bush of the jungle, swatting at every fern and branch that she could see in front of her. On top of a likely-head-injury-and-body-injury, she would have to deal with battered and aching legs later but for now her gear has been stuck into overdrive. The reason for that matter? A jaguar cub that wandered far too close near the uncle and niece duo with its mother close by. Just their luck. 

“Mirabel, I think you need to take a rest..” Bruno told her from his position on her back. He could see her stagger her way through the forest, along with her practically having him as her backpack, she also had her own injuries dragging her down. Not to mention, she never complained or showed any signs of pain. Which really concerned him because if she is able to still move after sustaining an injury like what she has, how much could her pain tolerance take. And how much pain did she endured for her to become used to it. 

“It’s okay tío, we’re almost near the base of the mountain, I'll rest ‘till then.” She said in assurance. Though she doubted this would’ve soothed her anxious uncle. Sweat started to pool near her collarbone by how humid the forest floor was. Judging by where the sun was shining through the canopy, it was around midnoon. ‘Okay, as long as we make it to the mouth before dusk, it’ll be fine.’ She thought, conserving some of her strength to use during the second half of the hike.

A few hours goes by before they finally make it to the foot of the mouth. Looking up, she could see the massive crack split down the mountain dwindling to and end around 20 metres from where she was. In front of her was just solid rock and as soon as she was faced with the situation, she started to spiral. Only to be interrupted by Bruno, who did so by coughing on her back which prompted her to sit him down on a nearby rock. “I don’t understand tío..There was a passage here I swear..” She slumped next to him, ignoring the throbbing pain that pulsed through her body. 

“It’s okay Mira, we can think about more when…” He trailed off, looking to the side. Mirabel, curious, looked as to what caused Bruno to trail off like that, caught the fluttering of a golden butterfly. 

Both of them were quite entranced by it, the butterfly seemed to leave faint speckles of gold trailing behind it but they’d argue that it was the odd angle of light. They watched it dance and flutter near the foot of the mountain, all before they covered their eyes, shielding it from a painful golden light. It took them a few moments to collect themselves before they opened their eyes to only be face to face with the entrance of a tunnel. A tunnel that went through the whole mountain and out the otherside. ‘Oookay…that’s kind of weird.’ Bruno thought cautiously as he watched the seemingly-gold butterfly flutter away in a choreographed dance. He turned to look at his niece to see an awed and bewildered look plastered on her face. Huh. 

The tunnel matter was a whole ‘nother thing on its own, but the golden butterfly is what really got her thinking. Looking back on it now, the candle always had a golden butterfly emblem engraved in the wax. It was even on her skirt, but she did because of said candle and…Abue- Alma. That then brought her to the memories of her passing her Abuelo’s painting. Painted on his portrait, if you looked closely, you could see golden butterflies in the background of the portrait. Call her delusional or whatever, but all she could think about was her Abuelo. ‘Maybe he really was watching..’ She solemnly thought as she watched the butterfly bat its wings up into the sky and out of her view. Suddenly feeling a major weight on her lift off, she turned towards him, startling the man.

“Come on tío, let’s go.” Before the man could protest with injuring her furthermore, she heaved him onto her back and walked straight through the carved out tunnel. 

Even with both gravy injured, they pushed the pain away as soon as they emerged to the other side which had greeted them both with a big gust of wind. There in front of them was a vast jungle, it looked quite the same as the jungle out in the Encanto but this…It was something surreal. The sun felt natural, something that wasn’t influenced by someone’s emotions. The birds and animals could be heard echo throughout the possibly vast land. It all felt real. It felt right. 

To her right, there was a creek nearby. There crouched a jaguar cub drinking at the creek, and from the looks of it. It wasn’t aware of the two human presence near it. ‘It looks so peaceful…weird how it’s by itself.’ Mirabel thought as she made her way away from the occupied cub.

Trudging along the left, she started to wonder out loud to her somewhat conscious uncle, “Hey tío Bruno, cubs like that. Aren’t they supposed to-”

“Mirabel, don't finish that sentence!” Bruno suddenly yelped beside her ear, startling the girl from finishing said sentence. 

“Dios mio tío! Please don’t yell directly near my ear por favor.” She hastily complained to him. 

“I’m sorry Mira, it’s just, with what you were about to say, I wouldn’t want you to jinx it. Especially when we aren’t in best condition.” He eyed the cub out that was at their distant view anxiously. 

“Jinx what? I’m sure there isn’t-”

“Mira-!” 

Snap. The sound of a twig snapping had quickly grabbed the unlucky duo’s attention. Lo and behold, to Bruno’s fear spiked up, crouched on all fours, growling, was an adult jaguar. With the cub situated minding its own business on their right. 

It was its mother. 

Mierda. Both thought in unison. 

Bruno slid off Mirabel slowly and cautiously to prevent any sudden movements that could provoke the very pissed off mother. At stand off, the duo slowly tip-toed away from the mother and her child, and towards another direction that isn’t remotely close to any of them. 

After what felt like minutes that had excruciatingly gone by, it seemed like they barely made out of the mother’s clawed grasp. Not long before the wonderful body function of clumsiness had decided to act up when it came to Bruno and the rock next to him. He fell down with a big oomf, startling the cub in the distance which sadly invoked the ire of its mother. 

“Really.” Bruno deadpanned before Mirabel pushed him out of the way of the leaping jaguar, stumbling down a hill, skidding to a stop at the bottom. From the top they could hear the jaguar’s roar that had punctured through a tub of adrenaline. 

“We’ve got to go.” Mirabel stated, grabbing her tío by his wrist and sprinted into the bush, not wanting to risk anything. 

She didn’t even know where to lead them but regardless all she knew was to pick a direction and gun for it. She was pushing her way through the foliage, not caring if she slightly stumbled, with Bruno not that far behind her who was clearly out of shape. Which was most likely due to the fact that he was cooped up in the walls for 10 years, despite the agility he possessed when it came to navigating down the long hallways, it wasn’t anything to compare with in comparison the lush bush of the jungle. It also didn’t help that he was also practically limping due to injuries, hooray for him. 

Looking behind, he didn’t see anything nor did he hear any more sounds that indicated the jaguar right behind them. That glimmer of hope was snuffed out when to their left, came a blur that popped out in front of them, forcefully separating the two. 

“Aw come on! We don’t want to hurt your baby I swear!” Mirabel pleaded with the mother, crouching low and backing away slowly. 

The jaguar stilled for a second, sniffing out the girl, before tilting its head in the direction of Bruno. Most likely sniffing him out too. However this time it didn’t look too friendly after getting a whiff of him causing the animal to bare her fangs at him, stalking its way towards the poor seer. 

“Uhm..do I smell that bad? I bathe often, I don't-” Was all he said before out of nowhere a net came flying from behind the jaguar, interrupting the man’s sad attempt of diffusing the frazzled animal and causing the yelp that it roared out. 

This paled both of them as they didn’t know who or what shot that. But oh were they thankful that they did. Hearing footsteps that came from the net’s direction, snapped their attention towards it, both squinting to see what emerged from the thick plants of the jungle. 

As the footsteps got louder and louder, they could hear the sound of a blade slicing through to get to them, the silhouette of the figure slowly got clearer the closer it got. The final thwack of the blade cleared out the last of the ferns that was in front of them, causing both to flinch back in shock. 

There standing in front of them was a very tall and broad man, who seemed to be at least a few centimetres taller than Luisa. His skin was slightly tanned and littered with scars that were exposed in the limited area of skin that was covered up by a tan, long sleeved shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was wearing some sort of hat that covered his foreign coloured hair with grey that streaked through it, and he had strange glasses that were propped behind his head with the legs of the glasses wedged between his ears. 

‘What a strange way to wear them.’ She thought. Before flinching back a bit when the man stepped suddenly towards the thrashing jaguar. Mirabel took the opportunity to analyse the strange man some more trying to make sense of who he might be. 

Looking down, he was wearing some sort of loose pants with a lot of pockets, straps and buckles that had things hanging off of them. For his shoes, which was..strange. She had never seen any footwear like it before, it seems similar to some boots that some of the men in the town would wear but nothing like this. It was fully brown leather, with brown shoe strings intricately tied into uniform standard. On the side there was an imprinted logo but it wasn’t anything she saw from the limited books she looked through as a child. In all honesty, whatever he was wearing didn’t look like anything that was from the books she read. 

On his back was an oddly shaped case that was propped open by the man, who took out a strange looking metal barrel before squeezing his finger on one of the components of the item. She jumped back slightly when she heard a pop that came from the odd metal object. Looking down towards the supposed retaliating mother jaguar, Mirabel could see that the animal had stopped moving. Her eyes widened, ‘Is it dead…?’, she thought anxiously. Before she could jump to any conclusions, a twitch that came from the jaguar quickly deterred any possibility that the man could possibly, potentially, kill them. ‘Welp..We’re not screwed…yet.’

As she had a closer inspection, she could see that it was limp but it looked like it was still breathing. Looking around the lower back region,  she could see a metal needle of sorts that had pink puffy threads at the end of it. How peculiar.

A gruff voice answered the lingering question in her mind while simultaneously making her uncle flinch next to her. “It’s just a tranquiliser dart, mama’s only knocked out.” Judging by the voice, she’d say that he was around his mid-50’s? She looked up to him only to see him peer down at the both of them, light brown eyes, freckled face and stubble on display. A part of his right eyebrow was slitted with a scar that ended just above the eye. When he was moving to carefully restrain the jaguar, something shined against the sun which caught her attention. She looked to where it might’ve come from and came to a shock when she found a ball of metal resting on his ear lobe. Pierced.

Now that was even weirder. Don’t get her wrong but even though she would see the women of the village with pierced ears, it was a common thing. But specifically men with pierced ears? That was something else. She had never heard of such a thing or seen it, so being able to right now at this moment baffled her a bit. Turning to look at her uncle, he looked like he thought of the same thing.

“Alright, mama will wake up in about 20 minutes or so, so we’ll have time to get a move on away from her.” The man turned to face them, and it might just be the sun but with how bright the background must be and how tall the man was, he looked like he was a knight in shining armour like the ones in the stories her parents used to tell her. Hearing a slump to her side, she looked only to see Bruno laying on the forest floor, most likely having succumbed to unconsciousness now that the adrenaline had worn off. 

Now that she thought about it, she was feeling kind of…- . Darkness had overcome her vision, blacking out and suffering with the same fate before fainting only to be caught by the man, who was staring at the situation that fell into his hands.

“Ay, hostia puta..” The man grumbled. 

Muffling was all Bruno heard before his vision cleared as he gained consciousness. He was a bit doozy at first before bits and pieces of memories flashed, from meeting Mirabel behind the walls, to crashing out of said-walls during the collapse, to being carried by his 15-year-old niece, to being chased by a jaguar, to- 

His eyes snapped open, body jolting, he quickly sat up from where he was laying down, only to be met by a crashing wave of nausea and a pounding head. Groaning, he dug his fingers on his forehead to try and relieve the pain that his head was going through. With how painful his head, scratch that, his whole body is, he almost didn’t register the person that was trying to talk to him.

“¡Oiya! Don’t sit up too fast! I don’t want you to throw up on my floor boards.” The voice reprimanded him. Normally he’d be a stuttering mess but right now, his situation is a bit headache-y. While he did swallow a bit of his throw up, he cracked open a bit one of his eyes to try and see where he was at. 

The light was a bit blinding to say the least, but he did try to look around and get used to the light. All he could make out was the silhouette in front of him which was blurred until he tried to re-adjust his focus to the best of his abilities. In front of him sitting was a woman who looked to be around his age who sported a frown that could be seen with mothers that were scolding their children. She had darker skin and her lighter brown hair was cut short with bangs that framed her face. He could see that she has light brown eyes with freckles. Too busy staring, he failed to notice her once again reprimanding him.

“Ay, I swear, if you don’t lie back down, so help me I won’t be able to stop myself from whacking you.” She huffed out which jolted him to gently lie back down on the bed. Oh my god, was this bed the most comfortable thing ever. He swears that even before in the bed he used to sleep in, it was nothing to compare in terms of comfort to this bag of clouds. It indeed has been years since he slept in one and he could see why there were days where he missed laying in one. All wrapped up in comfort he suddenly remembered Mirabel, and not wanting to invoke the woman’s wrath, he gruffly asked the woman.

“L-Lo siento Señorita, but can I know where my sobrina is..?” He asked, which actually hurt to say due to his headache and the way his face feels. He thinks that there must be something on his face that makes it hard to make any facial expressions. ‘Probably injured from the collapse..’ He solemnly thought. 

“Oh..she’s..resting.” She hesitantly said, her voice suddenly tighter than before. “Ah disculpe, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Antonia. Antonia Guerrero.” Antonia apologetically said with a bashful expression. “My husband was the one who stumbled upon you two which was lucky since that mama jaguar would've mauled you when she could.” 

He nodded his head, vaguely remembering the man who saved them from the pissed off jaguar. “Muchas gracias to you both, My name is…Bruno.” He weakly smiled, hoping she wouldn’t question him not saying his family name. 

“It was nothing, it took only an okay-length drive so it wasn’t anything he could handle.” 

‘Drive? Like riding a horse or something?’ He questionaly thought before it got interrupted by Antonia.

“Speaking of, what in god’s green earth were you two doing so deep in the jungle? You two didn’t even look prepared and you both were practically bleeding to death when my husband hurriedly brought you back here.” She worryingly asked as she crossed her arms. Now that he took a closer look, she was wearing…pants?! But..that isn’t..

“I..uhm..well..” Was all he croaked out, mostly due to his aching throat and partially from the sudden shock of Antonia’s choice of clothing. 

Taking his hesitation as a hint for his uncomfortability, she quickly changed the subject. “Well I did the best I could when patching you both up, it’s quite a miracle that both you and your niece survived those severe injuries Bruno.” 

“All I could say is that you have the ‘less’ severe of the injuries, don’t be alarmed but…your niece..” Which startled him as she trailed off on her sentence. She looked alarmed when he met her eyes. 

“What happened to her..” He panickedly asked, tempted to jump out of bed despite his ever painful-everything.

“Well, her injuries were much worse. To mellow it down, she sustained a concussion with a few cuts and open wounds to the face, and around her upper body. Not to mention the severely twisted ankle which was most likely ignored by the adrenaline when running from the jaguar.” She pointedly laid out, slightly frowning at the brief mention of said injuries. Which also caused his anxiety and panic to spike up to the max. 

“Knock, knock, knock on wood..” He mumbled out shockingly before using his free finger to knock the wooden bed frame. Oh dio mio, why did he even let her carry him in the first place, he frustratingly brushed his hair out of his face. 

“..And because of the intensity of her injuries, my husband had to rush her to the ICU in the nearest town and was transferred to the hospital here. She’s unfortunately in a comatose state which she should wake out of in a few weeks give and take. Don’t worry about no one supervising her, my husband and my daughter are with her right now.” She tightly said, her hands went out and gripped his tightly in assurance. Which kind of helped with his anxiety about the current situation for her. Despite the unknown terms that she said, he could tell that they were bad. A knot just formed tightly in his stomach. 

ICU? Comatose? Oddly shaped metal object? Now looking around, the interior style of the house is much different to the other houses in the Encanto. He might’ve been isolated but he wasn’t ignorant. He had never heard or seen any of these things he sees and no book had ever mentioned anything of the sorts. It was clear that something was up and he needs to find out what..after he gets better because, oh my god the pain his body feels right now. 

Antonia reads his facial expression and goes to reassure him. “Don’t worry, when I deem you better, we’ll visit your niece in the hospital while she is in a coma. For now, I’ll leave you to get some rest.” She smiled before getting up from the chair and leaving through the door. 

Once hearing the door click shut, he finally let his shoulders relax and let his tears quietly flow as his emotions took the lead. ‘We always had Julieta and her food so we never had to worry about severe injuries like this…why Mirabel of all people’ He sobbed. ‘I should be the one in the hospital, not her, she doesn’t deserve all this happening to her.’ Ignoring the constant banging of his headache, he pushed it aside to sob about his comatosed niece who was laying in bed unconscious, most likely in pain. 

‘Everything is so different..why is that..’ He agitatedly thought. Wherever he looks, outside the window or around the room. Everything is different from what he was used to and it isn’t just because he was in someone else’s house but everything is different. It doesn’t even seem like he was in Columbia anymore. Thinking about this made his head hurt even more. 

For now, he’ll have to think about this later and somewhat rationally. To do so, he needs rest. Shutting his eyes, he dived into a sleep that he didn’t even know he needed. He’ll be all anxious later, but for now. Sleep.

Chapter Text

Cracking open her eyes, she was first assaulted by the blinding lights of the sun. She tried to get up but Mirabel felt heavy resting on the bed so instead of panicking first, she opted to look around at her surroundings. She first noticed that she was in a room of sorts which echoed with some beeping uniformly. She looked to her right and saw a cube thing which was the source of the beeping. With the machine, her eyes trailed the long rope? which was attached to her finger. ‘How odd- Wait. What the hell is this?!’ She panicked after seeing a cup with rope on her face. How did she not notice it, it was so uncomfortable. 

In the cause of her sudden panicked state, the cube started to beep faster which made her more scared of what was happening. Suddenly the door quickly opened and three people in weird clothing tried to talk with her but all she could hear was muffles. Quickly as it came, she calmed down, wondering what just happened, she looked at the woman closest to her who was sporting a white coat. 

“Good morning, Señorita. We just gave you a mellow dose of anti-anxiety medication which should’ve calmed you down as panicking wouldn’t have done you or us any good.” She calmly stated. 

“My name is Dr. Rodríguez, the doctor that looked after you during the duration of your time here. I get how your surroundings are a bit disorientating but don’t worry. Just follow the way I breathe okay?” Dr. Rodríguez warmly smiled at her. 

After going through the process of the breathing routine, she started to feel more calm and more adjusted to the sensations of the ropes that were around her. The doctor? then gently asked her any questions.

 “What’s your name?” She asked.

“Mirabel.” Mirabel roughly answered. Her response came out raspy as it seemed as she hadn’t used her voice in a while. 

“Well, Mirabel, what day of the week do you think today is?” 

Scouring her memories for a bit, the last time she could remember was..Sunday? Monday? 

“Sunday or Monday..I think.” She hesitantly answered. 

Dr. Rodríguez nodded her head before firing off the next question. “I see, well could you remember the events prior to you fainting Mirabel?”

Now that was a tough one. She could vaguely remember something about leaving the Encanto, her family, a jaguar, a man, and tío Bruno fainting but that was just about it. She tried to remember anything but nothing came to stick, only those things.  “I’m sorry but all I can remember was something with a jaguar and man and my tio.” She sadly responded, purposely leaving bits about the Encanto.

“Oh don’t apologise for that, you’ve remembered most things which is a good thing, don’t worry about it.” The doctor said with a reassuring smile. “Before I leave, would you want your tio to come in? He’s just right outside.”

With the mention of him, she lightened up. Ignoring the slightly throbbing sensation in her head, she nodded excitedly. 

“Well alright then. Mr. Madrigal, you can come in now.” She beckoned, noticing the slight flinch of Mirabel at the mentioned name. ‘Hmm..’ She silently put a tab on that for later before getting up to open the door for the sweet girl’s uncle.

When the door slid open, in came a weirdly dressed Bruno. His face was still patched and his left arm was in an odd looking cast, despite that, his anxious look was overwritten with relief and affection when his eyes met Mirabel’s. He quickly hurried to her side, gripping the arms of the bed as he quickly gave the doctor a sharp nod, which Dr. Rodriguez, along with the other two people, took as their que to leave the two alone.

“Ay, Mira. I’m so glad.” Bruno tearfully said to her. She didn’t understand what was worth tearing up over? It should be her crying for him, he’s in a cast for goodness sake. 

“Mirabel, I know what you are thinking and before I tell you anything. Please be calm and if you need something to ground you, just grab onto my hand and breathe with me okay?” He calmly stated, which irked her because she hadn’t heard him say anything in this type of tone. Nevertheless, she nodded, slightly worried with what he might say to her.

“Mirabel, remember how we left the Encanto and travelled out into the deeper jungle?” He asked her to which she nodded. “And how we were chased by a mad mama jaguar?” Which prompted another nod from the girl. “And the man?” He raised his brow in question and once again Mirabel nodded to it. 

“Well when we fainted we were rescued by the man who’s name is Julio Guerrero and you brought to where he temporarily stayed. I was treated by his wife, Antonia, who broke down the situation for me during my time of recovery.” He gulped as if there was something that was weighing down on him. Bruno then looked at her in the eye and reached to hold her hand in his before proceeding with his following sentences.

“Both of us sustained injuries, however your’s were more severe compared to mine. So you were transferred here. A better hospital. A place for hurting people. You, Mirabel, were badly hurt. The collapse of Casita, on top of carrying me, which by the way, you shouldn’t have done and insisted on, as well as that chase from the jaguar. That had caused you to go into a deep sleep. A coma, some would say, which lasted for around a month and half or so until now.” He paused to let her process the information, giving her hand uniformed squeezes just in case. 

Seeing her expression had definitely kept him from continuing until she was ready for him to tell the rest. 

‘What.’ Was all she could come up with when she crunched down the information. Taking deep breaths like Dr. Rodríguez taught her, she soon calmed down, insinuating for Bruno to continue. 

“During that time, my recovery only lasted me in bed rest for a week and during that time I got to know the Guerrero’s more. I won’t say much about them since you’ll meet them too as we are staying with them for the time being but they’re great people.” He smiled at her. “And during the time out of bed rest, I came to find that…the time we are in or known of, is not 1952 Columbia. It’s 2014..Modern Columbia.” He took another necessary pause. 

…

“...P-Pérdon..? Wha..what do you mean 2014?” Mirabel confusingly asked as her mind was going through the workout of thinking as how could that be possible.

“Well I theorise that with the magic and the protection of the Encanto, it also came in with its effects.” He started. “With how the mountains isolated us, it cut us off from any communications from the outside world and vise-versa. That kept us from making any technological advancements of any kind. So we were stuck in the 1900’s to 1950’s era with no signs of changing. We even feel like time didn’t go by as fast as it should've.” Bruno pointed out, to which Mirabel gaped at. 

“And on top of it, your mother’s healing food was also something that helped with it. We were able to live healthier than most people and look younger while at it. Plus, with Pepa’s gift of the weather, that made the days longer and more complicated in comparison to here. That skewed our perception of time and day, and our body systems adapted to it.” He stopped, letting her form her opinions on the revelation that dawned on her. 

…

“So...we are in the ‘modern’ times, yes?” She asked, to which he nervously nodded. Huh. 

Much to Bruno’s surprise, his hands flinched at the sudden drop of tears that came from her. He quickly stood up wrapping his arms around her to sooth the girl who was shaking in tears. Bruno then grabbed her hands and told her to go through the breathing routine.

Once she was calm, she smiled. “We can actually have our own fresh start tío.” She said which left Bruno with his mouth agape. He thought she might be more distraught with this information but this reaction? He can’t help but be suspicious of it. He knows that she’s always so happy-go-lucky all the time but he also knows that she always bottles up her actual thoughts, opinions, and actual emotions inside. Not talking to anyone about it. He’s been behind the walls long enough to know and if he’s being honest. With what Antonia had warned him about this being a possible outcome, he might need to talk to her about this some other time. For now, he’ll just be by her side until she gets discharged. 

As Julio drove them from the hospital in his ‘SUV’?, Mirabel couldn’t help but stare in awe at the buildings that go past at speeds she never thought she could get to. Everywhere she saw, it was like nothing she had ever seen. It is so different and new and unique to her in comparison to what she was used to in the Encanto. For example, when she was ‘discharged’, if she could recall correctly, the man who saved them, Julio, came to bring them back to his house in a metal box with weird looking wheels. 

Bruno explained that the metal box was called an automobile, a car, is the more simpler term, and it was one of the main means of transportation in the modern world. She was at first a bit anxious about the way the ‘car’ sounded, it was like a metal beast of some sorts but as soon as they left the hospital, she couldn't help but feel excited as she felt the wind blow past her as they drove? to Julio’s house.

During the ride even after many stops, she noticed that there was no sign of horses or carts around. Apparently as the technology advanced, horses started to not be used as a mode of transport and cars became the norm. There were also things like motorbikes? and bigger cars if she could remember what Bruno told her. The buildings as well were something else, in comparison to the houses that they have in the village. The buildings here that are for merchants or business owners, had buildings that went up to the sky with oddly shaped structures. The roads weren’t stone bricks or dirt but solid stone with coloured decoration painted on it, and the people around wore clothes that wouldn’t exist in the Encanto. I mean come on, there’s women wearing pants and men with more revealing skin for dios sake! It was fascinating. 

She was awe-struck with the way the garments look and she stored a plan in the back of her mind that when she’s all able to move, she’d go out and look for a shop that sells clothes like the sorts. It’s just the clothes that the people were wearing were so stylish and fresh! Even her tío Bruno is wearing something different, well everything else but his tattered ruana, which she made a mental note to make him a new one later. 

When she poked her head back inside, she kept inspecting the interior of the car. The inside was lined in a neutral grey fabric with black leather chairs that were of such a quality that it didn’t look to be in any hard-worned condition. At the front where Julio was driving, the middle part had all sorts of circular discs and horizontal grates. Above that was a rectangle that had pictures on it which could change whenever he would touch it. It was oh so fascinating and she would love to learn more about it. 

During the final minutes that she spent watching the outside go by, she failed to register that they had arrived at his home. The house itself didn’t look like anything she was used to. The shape of the house was long and wide with the walls made out of light tanned stone. The entrance door was a big wooden square door that had a black handle to it. Hearing a beep behind her, she turned and saw that Julio clicked something on the small object in his hand that he had pointed towards the car before he made his way towards the door. 

“Welcome to our home. Feel free to stay as long as you want as you figure out what to do.” Julio said, addressing the two politely as he held the handle of the door.

Pulling the door to the left, Mirabel was left in awe as the door slid into a hidden pocket that was in the wall. She quickly turned to tío Bruno and he shrugged at her clearly with an amused expression laced on his face. As Julio led them inside, she was checking the house out. Along the wooden path that they were walking on, the side was a section of water that was on display and a head of them showed what seemed to be some sort of entertainment area. 

To her right, there was a door leading to someplace else that she might learn later but as they were taken to the centre of the house, she had a better view of the mountains in the distance. What got her attention the most was an area with long chairs that were sitting on a wooden platform at the side of a body of water. The area was lined with green and blue tiles with sources of lights underwater that were glowing slightly due to the setting sun. ‘Is it for decorative purposes? This swimming area is way different from ours..’ Mirabel wondered. 

“That’s the pool, if at any time you want to, you’re allowed to swim there.” Julio informed her which sprouted an excited look on her face, when she turned to her tío he responded with a slight nod of his head, curls bouncing slightly. 

“Down the hall at the left is where the bedrooms are located which your tío could show to you later.” He pointed to the direction on the left. “The bedrooms already have their own individual bathrooms so don’t worry about walking through the long halls to get to one.” He gently smiled at her, seeing the expression on her face that she flashed out. 

“On the right is where the cocina and laundry room is located. So if you need to put clothes in the washer, feel free to do so and if you’re ever feeling hungry, just make yourself something with anything that’s available to you. Though I doubt you’d have to do that since my esposa will feed you full.” He gruffly huffed as a way to mask his laugh about his wife. That stung for a bit since the brief description of his wife was similar to what her mamá would do. 

“My esposa y hija should be back soon since it’s almost dinner time, and since your tío here is already familiar with the house, I’ll leave you two at it. If you ever need me, I’ll be around so call out for me” He smiled at her, slight wrinkles crinkled at the action before heading into a different direction.

She felt her tío’s hand on her shoulder, gesturing for her to follow him to the left hallway. She can’t help but still be fascinated with how the house looks. It looked nothing like any of the houses of the village and it looked nothing like Casita. Maybe it’s because the house makes room for the big family that they are but still. Interrupting her thoughts, Bruno stopped in front of a door with the door open.

“Come in, this is my room for now” Bruno said before gesturing to the door right across. “And that one should be yours.” He smiled. 

“I’m sure you want to talk about things, so let’s discuss it in my room for now okay Mira?” Bruno softly said to her. Mirabel nodded, making her way inside and sitting in the chair that was parallel to the bed. 

Silence went by without either of the two saying anything before Mirabel decided to break the silence. 

“How are you tío? I know you were hurting badly.” She somberly looked down at the cast, to Bruno’s explanation, looking up back at him. 

“Oh this is fine, it’d probably take a few more weeks until I get it off. Otherwise my recovery is good.” He waved his arm, doing gestures to prove his point. His expression turned serious when he turned to her. “However, how are you Mirabel?” He worriedly asked her, taking notice of a flash of something across her face.

“I-..This is a good start..for us! I’m feeling great about it.” She said with hesitance laced in her voice which didn’t relieve the nipping feeling that pooled in his stomach for his sobrina. 

“Mirabel…it’s okay. It’s just us, what do you truly feel..?” He softly asked her, watching her for anything. Seconds passed before he could see tears swell up in her eyes. 

Oh Mariposa .

Without saying anything, he wrapped her in his arms as she began to weep into his arms, mumbling jumbled sentences but he could only make out: “I was so scared”, “W-What if I didn’t wake up..?”, “You got hurt because of me!”, “I miss mamá!”, “Why did it have to be like this!”. 

That breaks the man's heart because as much as she was happy to leave the Encanto. It was the only place that she knew and she loves her family with her whole heart, especially when they just started to patch things up with her. So doing the only thing he knew how to do well was to comfort her in his arms, smoothing her back in circles to try and calm down the weeping girl. 

To be fair, he was also, pardon his language, shitting his own pants as well. He was not only out from the walls but out from the safety of the mountains that protected their home, ex-home?, and he had no one else to rely on but his sobrina; who was just a child that sacrificed too much for her own good. For him to act as secure as he was for her right now, it took him the weeks he spent in recovery to figure out what to say and how to say. From this step, he doesn't know what to do in terms of trying to form a plan or anything that comes with this new environment.

Hell, the Guerrero’s didn’t even know what their story was and he’s still contemplating whether to tell them or not. He met all of them and they’re all lovely, he’s sure that Mirabel and the Guerrero's hija would get along very well. But that’s something that he’ll need to talk with Mirabel later when she’s more settled in. So right now, he’ll have to hold the girl in his arms, shielding her from the hurt that shadows the warm-hearted girl.

Chapter Text

Everything feels dull without Mirabel around and many of the family members felt that, especially to their youngest. Antonio, having just parted with his practical-mother, caused him to cry relentlessly for hours. Even his parents weren’t able to calm down, only after the efforts of his hermana he was able to be deduced into sniffles and hiccups. 

All of them felt nothing but sorrow for him as they understood how much she meant to him. With him holding the hand-made jaguar plush that Mirabel made him had only made their hearts squeeze tighter. The boy was hurting and no one could provide him enough comfort, so the next weeks it was filled with the young boy sniffling and teary eyed. The arguments that would start between his Abuela and his tías didn’t help either and usually any other family member would have to bring him away from the screaming match. 

At least he was still able to talk to his animals. 

Sniffle… Hang on. 

Antonio sat in silence as his hermana who sat across him on a bench napping at a distance away from the construction site, until his brain started to turn to generate an idea to the best of his abilities. With a twinge of hope he called out to his birds.

“Emi!” He called out, hoping to not scare his sister. Seeing that she didn’t flinch must mean that she turned off her hearing for a while. He can’t help but feel bad for her whenever the adults would ‘talk’ with each other as he could see how she would often block her ears. 

A few moments later, a brightly coloured-beak toucan had perched beside him along with other birds. He scratched the feathers of the bird before he asked a question to it. “Emi, do you think you could carry things… outside the Encanto? ” He whispered. The bird responded with an enthusiastic squawk which got the boy smiling for the first time in days. 

“O-okay! Even if I won’t be able to talk to you?” He asked again and was met with a confirmation when the bird chirped delightfully. He quickly fumbled around his pant pocket before pulling out a scruffed fabric-shaped butterfly, presenting it to the bird.

“Are you able to track the smell of this Emi?” Antonio once again asked the toucan with hope that was twisted with nervousness. Emi hopped closer and extended its beak towards the butterfly fabric trying to smell the scent on it. After a few agonising moments the bird hoped back and squawked happily to Antonio’s delight. 

He was about to squeal in excitement before he stopped himself, suddenly aware of his hermana that, thankfully still has her hearing turned off, was near him. The animal lover had become suddenly aware that he may only have the one possible way to communicate with his favourite family member and knowing how much it meant for her to leave their home. He can not let anyone find out about this. No one can know and if he wants to do this, he would need to be very careful and keep his lips tightly lipped. 

It’d be hard but if he played his cards right, he might be able to still talk with Mirabel and not lose her completely. So before he wanted to head off and make a start on his plan, he obviously had to let his hermana know that he wants to be out. Skipping towards Dolores, he poked her arm until she woke up, letting her turn on her hearing before talking to her.

“..Antonio? What’s up hermano?” She leaned down and smiled sleepily at him. He always loved his hermana and hermano because they’re always nice to him and Mirabel. So he likes them better compared to the others. 

“Can I go and draw something? I’m kind of bored and Parce is somewhere in the jungle right now” He politely asked and put on a fake pout to emphasise his last statement. 

“Okay Toñito, let’s go and find you some paper and pencils yeah?” She stood up, holding her hand out in invitation to which he grabbed with delight. Nodding, the siblings then made their way into town in search to buy some of the items they needed. 

Inside the small hut that the boy sleeps in, in front of him was a small table with paper and different kinds of pencils scattered on top. On the paper was a lettering that could remind you of a loon’s writing but it was in fact the 5-year-old’s handwriting. With a body of text with the sender’s name and the receiver's name written, there were also pictures that had accompanied it. 

Once he was satisfied, he folded the linen bag into it's reasonable size and tied a string around it before calling Emi back near him. He tied the string with the bag around the bird’s ankle before having the toucan smell the scent of the sewn butterfly and setting her free. He watched the bird fly in a direction that headed towards the cracked part of the mountain. Holding the jaguar plush tight against him he can’t help but slightly tear up, hoping that his plan would work. But for now, he’ll have to be patient and as much as how grown-up others might think himself to be. The boy may not have enough of it to wait for a long time.

Chapter Text

Mirabel woke up feeling well rested for the first time in ages. Glimpsing around her surroundings she came quickly to realise as to why. The bed she was currently in beats the bed that was in the nursery and the hospital bed. Even after a few weeks, that talk between her and tío Bruno really drained her as well as meeting the rest of the Guerrero family. They were great people honestly, but seeing them together really made her miss her own family. That hurt a lot more as she realised that her family never functioned like theirs and even if they started to patch things up, it would take a long time of healing and hurting to have a happily functionable family.

She huffed before slowly getting up from bed, her curls in a manic mess and walked over to the wooden shutters. Mirabel grabbed the handle before sliding it open, letting a flood of sunrise light light up the room. She could never get over the view from ‘her room’. Looking out from the platform, she could see the trees rustle in the distance. The sun rose from its slumber, letting its rays reach to the areas that it could see. She could hear the birds sing their morning song. She slightly slumped solemnly as it reminded her of Antonio’s birds back in the jungle.

As she smiled at the memory of the young boy running around with animals, she breathed in the morning air, relishing at how fresh it was. She could never get used to waking up like this and how peaceful it was. After all this time, she came to realise that responsibility of waking up her..familia..at exactly 6 on the dot and how exhausting that was. When Antonia found out about an accidental slip of the mouth, she scolded her gently and reminded her of the importance of taking care of her body especially when she was a growing teenager. Mirabel huffed a laugh when she heard Antonia curse the adults of the family who should be waking up by themselves instead of the reliance of the girl.

Mirabel really liked the woman. She had an edge to her but she was as gentle as she was fiery. Always scolding her or tío Bruno whenever they would do something that they’d do normally in the Encanto, and after hearing their whole story from both perspectives she almost stormed right into the jungle then and there. Now, she basically took the tío and sobrina duo under her wing and taught them things that they would need to know in the modern world. She even gave them phones! It was something that interested Mirabel and to the delight of the woman’s daughter, Ronnie-Anne.

Ronnie-Anne was kind of a mix of Julio and Antonia. She was kind, gentle and energetic like her mother but was cunningly smart like her father. For someone that was older than her, the 20-year-old really meshed well with Mirabel. She was shy at first, nervous about meeting someone outside of town who didn’t look down on her at first glance. After all, being giftless was the reason why kids around her age were the reason behind her cuts and bruises, and why she befriended some of the younger children.

Like Antonia, she was also infuriated when she heard their story and was close to storming out the door with her mother. But also like Antonia, she was gentle with her and hugged her with such tightness that it somehow forced the tears out of her eyes.

From then on, Annie, Ronnie-Anne, would bring the girl with her whenever she would go to the city and go shopping with her. Mirabel tried to deny the gifts and doting but the young adult shut her down, saying that she never had younger siblings so she could never spoil anything on anyone, sans her family and friends. From morning ‘till dusk, both of the girls walked in, both hands carrying bags and bags of things that Mirabel even took a slight interest in and things she needed.

Much to Antonia’s delight and Julio’s despair. Needless to say, the girl got a 5-minute scolding from her father and a head pat from her mother.

The near empty room that she resided in suddenly had a boom of decoration with modern items. From a desk that had a laptop on top, new sheets, fairy lights, a bunch of modern clothes, to books. Even in the bathroom, there were a bunch of bottles that vary in scented shampoos and body washes, styling creams, facial washes, feminine care-products and the sorts. That resulted into a hour and a half of a lecture on how to use all the products and how to take care of herself.

Mirabel was overwhelmed at first but she soon came to understand and got what the older girl told her. It was like they were both sisters and were just spending time together. At the mere thought, Mirabel got silent for a bit, remembering both of her hermana mayors which Ronnie-Anne caught and silently embraced the girl in a hug.

“I know you miss them chica, but I’m sure they’ll understand why you left if they ever knew.” She gently told her while running her fingers through the girl’s curls. Mirabel, not wanting to cry, just took a deep breath and told her to continue but they were interrupted by Julio for dinner.

Julio was the total opposite of his girls. He was calm, gruff and logical. She was first wary of the man when she first met him but over the weeks of their stay there, she came to really think nicely of the guy. He was quiet, sure, but the way he acted made up for that with gentle smiles and warm actions. Whenever she needed help with something and no one was around to help her, he would be quick to assist her with no words exchanged. Him and his time with her tio had reinforced her positive opinion of him.

Both were often found in discussion of teaching about modern technology and art as Julio taught Bruno whatever he was curious about. Because of that, Bruno had to learn modern mathematics and sciences that had to start from the 5th grade. Seeing as she also had prior to no knowledge of basic mathematics due to her basically being stuck with chores too, Julio also had made her learn too.

Instead of just focusing on mathematics and sciences, she also was able to learn: foreign languages of her choosing, art studies, social studies, and literature. Not to mention other types of hands-on education that she was interested in. Though she had to start with the basics instead of jumping straight into the more complicated stuff first.

Ronnie-Anne kept asking her if doing this much work-load would be too overwhelming for her, but she found it to be really fun. Learning all sorts of things was challenging for her but she managing to overcome the little gaps of knowledge was quite satisfying. The older girl laughed at the response and tousled Mirabel’s hair affectionately and told her that if she needed some things to be broken down in more simpler terms, just reach out for help. To which Mirabel simply nodded cheerfully before making notes on the basic algebra methods that Julio had taught her.

Foreign language and arts studies were her favourite subjects to learn as she chose her chosen languages to be English and Japanese, which was initially something she never really heard of, but after watching those foreign shows with Ronnie-Anne, it had got her super intrigued in the languages. And if she manages to learn well with those languages, she might be able to pick up another one.

Art was something she clearly thrived in. Be it painting, sculpting or textiles and fabrics, she showed skills that can be on par with professionals. This was noted down by Julio and Antonia as they reviewed the pieces of either canvas, pots or garments. Unlike in the Encanto, they held her and her creations in high regard, calling her artistic talent a gift. Hearing this from them slowly healed something that was rooted deep into her heart . She merely smiled wide and continued to aim higher and improve in her talents.

When it came to learning knowledge wise, it was easier for her compared to tío Bruno, who was struggling with learning some of the maths and physics that Julio set up for him. After hearing from Antonia that one of the best ways to learn things quickly was to teach it to someone to the best of her abilities. So taking that advice she offered him some help, much to his delight. That became the start of their joint-study sessions that also worked as bonding time whenever they would need to study.

Another way that they had been doing to bond was hunting with Julio. This was something different entirely as they are able to go to the forest and learn the skills that the man knew. That varied from catching fish and birds, to hunting for small mammals like boar and deer, as well as making make-shift shelter and basic bush-skills. It was a nice change of pace and worked out as a way to release Mirabel’s pent-up anger that sometimes prickles her skin. She was suggested to go on hunts after Bruno had seen how she would be irritated with mentions of his madre whenever he got back from his outdoor sessions with Julio. He asked the man if he could bring her and he agreed after much contemplating.

And that became somewhat of a weekly tradition that the three of them would indulge in to release any frustrations that were built-up through-out the week. Sometimes Julio’s hija would join them whenever she was able to.

Needless to say, the Guerrero’s really changed their life for the better. It had been 9 and a half months since they’ve settled in, and it really felt more of a home than it ever did back in the Encanto. The family had taken both her and her tío in without any demands back and only helped them further. This warmed her heart the most as she watched her tio be treated like he was a brother to Antonia and had managed to make a friend out of Julio.

The couple had also basically treated her like another hija and their own hija had also accepted her as her own hermana. They were basically family and she would never forget them and the things that they’ve done for her.

Looking back on it now, she’d seen how much she had changed. Even if she had a bit of anger towards Alma and the bullshit that happened to her in the Encanto, she could see that she managed to let some of that go. However whenever the old woman would be remembered, her anger would be quick to light. Thinking about it now still pissed her off. Taking a deep breath she managed to calm her anger down to a bubble and looked over to her bedside table.

She stared at the multiple letters that were stacked neatly in a pile. The doodles that were scrawled on the recent one had made her smile. It was around 8 and half months ago when she was startled by a toucan that had perched outside her window. She was first confused at how a bird like this was far from the thick jungle that it should be at until she saw a parchment of paper that was tied to its foot.

She immediately had an idea and nervously untied the knot and opened the letter. Reading the contents of the letter, it had brought her to tears, to much unfortunate timing to Ronnie-Anne opening her door in panic. Seeing the girl on the ground, the older girl had merely hugged her tightly as Mirabel sobbed, holding the paper gently so as to not crumple it.

Bruno entered her room next, a few minutes after her sob session. He looked at the toucan who was still perched outside comfortably before taking a seat on the other side of Mirabel. Giving her a look, she gave him a piece of paper that had writing written on it.

As soon as he read the top header, his eyes widened and looked back to Mirabel who nodded. To no one’s surprise he had also shed a few tears quietly and laughed before going towards the toucan and hugging it in delight. The toucan on the other hand was not happy with the way the man had squished its feathers and had peaked on his head repeatedly until Bruno released it. The display had Mirabel and Ronnie-Anne in laughter which Bruno smiled at.

“Hey Mir, tío Bruno, how about we write a letter back yeah? Cuz it seems like our bird friend isn’t leaving until we give it a letter.” Ronnie-Anne had suggested and that had gotten the two’s mood to lighten up. So grabbing a few pieces of paper, pens and coloured pencils, both of them got to work in writing a letter back filled with updates and drawings.

After both were done, they folded the paper up and tied it to the ankle of the bird. They looked at each other for a moment and sent the bird back flying to its owner, hoping that the bird would make it safe with its journey.

A week and half after, they had received another letter and repeated the same process, sending the bird back. From then on, letter exchanges with the youngest member became part of their routine.

Sometimes the letters contained something positive about things, and others were the opposite. One time Mirabel was close to ripping a piece of paper after reading a passage about Alma’s pathetic attempts of back-handed, ignorant apologies to the family. Some letters that contained things about Julieta and Augustin, mostly her mother, were kept close to her and were often read at night before she went to sleep.

Other letters made her laugh at some of the antics her sisters were up to and sometimes she teared up as she was missing the things that her family was doing. Defending her name was one of them and kicking the townsfolk’s asses was another. It was mostly the fact that they all chose to change and break their self-destructive cycles, even if it took losing Mirabel over it.

These letters had a dedicated container for them and she basically had collected them ‘till now. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her door.

“Mariposa? Want to come to the living room, there’s something I want to talk with you about.” Her tio’s voice spoke behind the door. Curious, she opened the door and made her way to the u-shaped couch and sat next to him.

“What’s up tío?” She asked him.

“Well, I’ve briefly talked about this with Antonia and Julio but never thoroughly.” He started, which got Mirabel a bit suspicious.

“It’s been almost 10 months, practically a year, since we’ve arrived here. And seeing as we have pretty much settled into the modern world, I had considered to us…moving outside of Colombia..” He levelled, staring directly towards her.

‘Oh..’ She thought. Processing what he told her, she motioned him to continue.

“Julio had informed me about our studies a few days ago and you have completed your education that was geared towards the senior grade here. Seeing how you were able to understand most things, he suggested that you could socialise with kids your age, outside Ronnie-Anne and her friends, at a proper school.” He simply said.

‘Ohhh that makes sense.’ She nodded slightly at the point that he made. Despite hanging out with the older girl and her friends as well as talking to a couple of online friends she made through games, she basically never had to socialise with other kids her age.

“The schools here are able to take you in, but the education here may not be flexible with your learning style.” He stated which caused the girl to droop a little bit. Bruno had quickly hurried to his next statement before she deflated even more.

“However, Antonia is still in contact with one of her old students, who is a principal, and their system allows you to be flexible with how you work.” He clarified which Mirabel perked back up.

“Seeing as if you attend the school, you’ll be completing the 12th year there. The principal had seen your work and was really impressed with what she saw, she immediately approved of your attendance there. That is if we decide to attend there.” As he told her that, she saw him twiddle his thumbs a bit which made her question what got him so nervous about.

“Tío, where’s this school at?” She slowly asked him. A few moments passed and he looked up from his lap and hesitantly opened his mouth.

“In São Paulo, Brazil. Julio’s brother, who lives there, is planning to move to Canada in 2017. And he offered him his place before it could go up on the market.” Bruno stopped for a moment, watching the girl for her reaction. Seeing her nod for him to continue, he did.

“Julio didn’t really need the place but he remembered our situation and my thoughts of our possible relocation. When he mentioned it to his brother, he was pretty cool with letting us take the place instead.” He concluded. “I know this is a big change for us, seeing after we settled here nicely with a routine and everything, but I just want to see how you feel about this.”

To be fair that’s something to think about. She loves it here in Villera with the Guerrero’s and she is able to go out to the jungle or city whenever she pleases. But… some nights when she lays in bed awake at night. She feels like this is what she’s restricted to do. After learning that there’s a big world outside of Colombia and the war that she knew about was over decades ago, she has the need to explore. Take risks and pursue what she’s passionate about. To break out of the cocoon that the valleys of the Encanto had secluded her in.

However, doing so, means leaving the place that had accepted her and her tio without any judgement or discrimination in zero hesitation. Away from the family that she managed to be with ever since the day they emerged from the jungle.

This was something that she needed some time to think about and answer as it wasn’t an easy decision. “Tío, can I think about this for longer?” She questioned.

“Of course Mariposa, take all the time you need. I’m just telling you this opportunity for us and it’s definitely alright if we don’t accept it. The Guerrero’s would understand, they don’t want to let us go anytime soon anyways. And plus we only have at least 2 years to get our visas and prepare.” He warmly smiled at her, patted her on the forearm before he got up and walked towards the study room, most likely where Julio was at.

‘Hmm…’ Mirabel ran her fingers through her curls as she contemplated. Whatever decision she comes to, she’s sure that Bruno would be there too, and she has people in her corner after all.

She’s loved by multiple people now, who appreciate her and her talents despite being giftless.

“Giftless? That’s rubbish. You, pequińa mariposa, have so much talent that you overflow with it. You are not giftless, not one bit dear.” Antonia says to her as she was making the dough for the pasta, streaking flour on her cheek, smiling at her with the warmest smile that she always gives.

“You are exemptionary Mirabel. Don’t forget that. For your age, you practically have much more potential for greatness in comparison to those around that doubt you.” Julio firmly stated as he adjusted the reading glasses perched on his nose.

“Ay, Mir, you are always the coolest and most lovable little hermana that I wished I had. Hermana or not, you will always be loved by me. Plus Talía and Franchesca love you so clear your plans for today sí?” Ronnie-Anne teased her while she sat on her ottoman curling her lashes.

“Mariposa, you are always the one that holds us up. You are strong and have so much love to share. Never lose that okay? Te amo mucho Mirabel, don’t forget that.” Tío Bruno told her as he was sitting by the edge of the pool, looking out fondly to the distance.

That’s right. She was loved and whatever she decides to do, she would be supported at every step of the way. Without another day needed, she walked confidently towards the study.

Grabbing their luggage off the conveyor belt, 17 year-old Mirabel felt the wisps of heated wind. Beside her was a sleepy Bruno. Finally after 2 years, she feels that she’s making steps to explore the vast world that the modern world has to offer. An emotion of bittersweetness panged when she briefly thought about the Guerrero family but she quickly shook it off. She has all their numbers and Skype IDs anyways, so they’ll be able to keep in touch later.

‘This is so exciting’ She thought excitedly.

“Vamos! Let’s hurry!” She exclaimed, grabbing her tío’s hand before making her way to the exit of the airport. This is a new chapter to her life out there, and with the people that love her beside her.

The butterfly is ready to flutter her wings and explore what the world has in store for her.

8 years later.

“Ring. Ring. Ring.”

Slam! “Argh-!” A voice rang through the room.

“And that’s a tap, break!” Another set of ringing rang out a few minutes after the takedown. “Alright, take 15. コスッタ! , your phone has been ringing off the hook. それを披露.”

A tan woman stood up after helping her downed partner up from the padded floor. “悪くないね、和虎？じゃあ、待ったね.” After exchanging a hand shake, she jogged over to her duffle bag. Fishing out the phone from the front of the pocket, she hastily picked up the last caller.

“もしもし？” She called out.

Shutting the door behind her in a hurry, she quickly made her way towards her bedroom, where inside, there was another person that occupied their shared bed space.

“ミラベル?” The person spoke.

She stood by the entrance, silent at first, then spoke of words that she never thought she would say in over a decade.

“We need to go back. Back to Colombia.”

Chapter Text

A Jeep Wrangler winds down through the scenic roads of Colombia. It had been a week before 25-year-old Mirabel had finally taken a plane back to Colombia since she had to sort out her on-going projects and substitutes for certain things in her studio, as well as make the decision to pause the progress of the opening in New York. But it needed to be done if she didn’t want to be swamped with paperwork and avoid troublesome situations that would find her during and after her trip. 

Easing on the breaks, she pulled up to the house that picked up the pieces of her broken self. She turned her keys for the engine off before taking a deep breath in order to compose herself. Mirabel felt a hand hold hers in reassurance and that brought her back down and settled. She turned and smiled before nodding as she opened the door and hopped out of the car. 

She was met with the fresh wind and heat that was only available in a jungle-densed country. Listening to all the sounds around her, she identified an out of place noise that came from the front door of the house opening. 

“Miraaa!” The grown figure of a 30-year-old Ronnie-Anne ran out and tackled her in a hug. Luckily all those years of necessary activities managed to hold up against the sheer force of the latina hugging her. Mirabel heard a small laughter beside her and that perked up Ronnie-Anne’s attention.

“Kyōka! How’s Mira treating you?” She asked in a teasing tone, her face getting squished in retaliation of the remark in mention. 

Kyōka only huffed out a laugh as she saw the antics between the two and held Mirabel back from mauling Ronnie-Anne when she released her. Smoothing out her attire, picking out non-existent dirt, she kissed the cheek on the roughed-up woman. 

“Well you know, same same, it’s just typical work.” She merely laughed as she went to the back of the car, unpacking their luggage from the trip. “あなた、ここで私を助けてくれませんか？” Kyōka asked as she peeked her head from behind the vehicle.

“Oh, sorry love. I’m coming.” Mirabel sheepishly answered, quickly making her way to the back.

“C’mon, it’s not just ‘typical’ work you’re doing. Surgeon work is taxing and you lot tend to neglect yourselves.” Ronnie-Anne said as she leaned on the side of the Jeep. 

“Yeah you’re right about that, literally whenever I close the studio down for the day,  she’s still working even if she’s off-duty.” Mirabel pointedly said, earning an elbow to the ribs from her lover. “Ow!”

“You’re such a hypocrite you know? You literally stay up so much more than me just to finish bits for your on-going garments.” She flatly said and huffed out as she loaded off one of her cases. “Bel, which one of these is yours again?”

“Oh that one there, I got it.” Mirabel said as she moved further down to the car. 

“Anyways, it’s not just work I want to ask from you two.” Ronnie-Anne spoke beside them as she took up some luggage in her hands. “How’s the ‘planning’ coming along?” She wiggled her eyebrows in a teasing manner.

Both women blushed a bit at the action and Mirabel only grumbled and heaved up most of the luggage before walking towards the inside of the house. Ronnie-Anne only rolled her eyes and Kyōka had merely huffed a laugh at her significant other’s antics. 

As Kyōka got the last remaining luggage, she closed the trunk door and made her way into the house with Ronnie-Anne in tow. “It’s actually going fine so far. We rescheduled the venue viewing since it was supposed to happen like this week but because..you know..anyways, we already have the cake commissioned and have the list of entertainment. Not sure yet what to put for the guests.” She answered.

“I know we have a big budget since our jobs pay a lot but we just wanna spend our money on the right things and for stuff that only the guests and us could enjoy. It is going to be small anyways.” She added on, walking along the path towards the centre room. 

In the livingroom of Guerrero’s house there was the scene of Antonia giving Mirabel her signature ‘death hug’, most likely cracking a few of the woman’s uncracked bones. Ronnie-Anne just laughed at her as she went to go and place the luggage in Mirabel’s old room. 

She walked back out to see Kyōka in the same manner and Mirabel holding her hip as if she was actually injured while she struck up a tired conversation with Julio. Ignoring Kyōka’s pleas for help, she just picked up the dropped luggage off the floor and went ahead to place them in the room. 

Looking around the pre-occupied space, it had been some time since Mirabel’s last visit and during that time there wasn't much change to the room. There’s still the fairy lights that they both hung up together as well as the glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to the top. Her desk was cleared out with only a stuffed shark sitting in the tucked chair, placed there from the last time Mirabel came over. That was when she just finished high school if the older woman remembers correctly.  

Not wanting to shed a tear, she made her way back to the living room, grabbing a cup of tea on top of the counter nearby in the kitchen. She saw practically everyone there sitting in the spacious u-shaped couch as they made light conversation before making way for the main topic. 

As she sat in a vacant spot, her mama asked her a question. “Ronnie, where’s Luca?” Antonia questioned.

“He’s tucking Sunny and So in since I didn’t want either of them to be out here.” She said fondly as she spared a glance towards the hallway to where her sons were.  

“Mhm, okay, well I think we should discuss what we are all actually here for. Bruno, if you please.” Her papá cut through the light conversation, getting straight to the point. 

‘Ay, papá, never the one to beat the bush huh.’ She thought, imagining rolling her eyes. 

“Gracias Julio, Mirabel. When I called you, I mentioned only briefly why you needed to be here” He started as he patted his pockets for something. 

“2 weeks ago, I was doing my usual routine with Amira when Emi bursted through the window in a hurried manner.” He started, only to have a comment thrown in by the brown-haired woman next to him. 

“Much to Bruno’s poor heart and my worrying over the bird.” She said which earned a deadpan stare from him, she merely laughed and motioned him to continue as she sipped from her cup.

“As I was saying, the bird seemed shaken and the letters tied to her foot looked to be crumpled in a haste. Which is worrying since, y’know, the bird loves to show up refined and all.” The ex-seer mumbled as he pulled out the said papers, placing it down on the coffee table for everyone to see.  

“If you read the letters properly, both Antonio and Dolores had thoroughly explained the situation and suggested a follow-up if possible.” He said as the letters got passed around, getting a read from each person in the room. 

Mirabel got the letter last and she quickly read and digested the contents of the page as her eyes grew wider and wider. Gulping the lump in her throat, she looked back towards her tio, who gave her a silent nod in confirmation. She looked down towards the ground, shutting her eyes tightly in the attempt to try and hold back her tears. Only feeling the sensation of Kyōka’s arms wrapped around her. 

“Mariposa…I’m all for what you decide on but it’s you who needs to make a decision.” Bruno gently told her, breaking her out of her train of thoughts. 

She looked down back onto the paper and re-reading just to make sure her eyes weren’t playing a cruel joke on her. 

“Hola Tío & Mirabel! Lo siento, you have to receive this in a hurry. I tried to send Emi to you as fast as I could, so hopefully it didn’t take that long. 

But what happened right now is something that shouldn’t have time wasted on it. Mirabel. Tía Julieta is in trouble. During one of her walks around the skirts of town. One of the loose linings of the buildings came apart and hit her badly. She was mostly conscious when she was taken to Dr. Cruz’s clinic and she ate one of her healing foods. 

Thankfully, that saved her from the most severe injuries of the accident. The problem however, is that because of how hard she got hit by the debris, it injured the area around her chest area to the point that if she didn’t get proper treatment for the next few weeks, she would…it wouldn’t end well. We also found out that there was something bad happening to her lungs and chest. That should explain why she was having a hard time walking around without taking a lot of stops for breaths. 

Dr. Cruz is Encanto's only doctor if you exclude tía. And he said that there wasn’t a study or a procedure that could help her in any of the books that he had, so the possibility of tia getting better is getting slimmer by the day. That’s when Dolores remembered that Kyōka is a surgeon of some kind right? Maybe she could help. 

I know this is hard for you to come back but…you might have to. If Kyōka isn’t able to do anything then…you guys might as well be here before she… But both of us do understand if you don’t want to step into this stupid town again. Just please write back, and make sure to visit her at some point without getting caught if you chose that option..

-Your Toñito and favourite sobrina/prima”

As Mirabel finished the letter once again, she was sure that the words weren’t Loki’s pawns and let out a shaky breath. Looking back up, she was met with the stares of her loved ones.

“Mariposa, it’s okay if you don’t want to go back.” Her tío reassured her even though he had tears in his eyes. As she glanced at every person there, he wasn’t the only one with the same expression. Well she thought that’s what she saw before her own tears broke out and ran down her face. 

She cried silently on the shoulder of her lover as she processed what possibly could happen to her mama if she didn’t go. The guilt that would eat her up if she never showed. The last paragraph kept repeating over and over, yes she knows Kyōka is able to do a procedure and be successful but at the risk of exposing Bruno and herself to everyone? At the risk of potentially being thrown into the wolves again? She doesn’t want to go back to the place that gave her the nightmares and fears that she had in the first place. Back to the place that caused her tremendous pain. Back to the catalyst of the nasty thoughts that occasionally plagued her mind.

However, her family is in urgent need. Even if she wasn’t part of it, she still loved them in the end. Especially her mama. The one who tried to put the time and effort into not making her feel worthless, despite being busy herself. The one who showered her with love and affection. The one who was never too hard on her whenever she would slip up more than once. 

If she was being honest. The only sole reason why she was so torn about going back to that wretched town is her mother. She was her only reason for considering the possibility of going back. Her thoughts were interrupted by Kyōka’s voice. 

“If what Antonio suggested is possible, I am okay with it.” She assured her with a warm smile and kiss on the forehead. “I support you with whatever your decision is, my love. Anything you want to do, I’m right behind you.” She added. 

“Plus, I already have all the equipment I need in my bags.” She lightly added to try and ease up the tension of the room. 

…

“I…I think- We need to go back.” Mirabel hesitantly said, breaking the silence as she announced her decision. Bruno only looked at her in a worrisome expression along with similar emotion on everyone else’s face. 

“I think, I’m sure. I’ve been gone for far too long..and I think..I need to face them again.” She firmly said, with the whole intention of reassuring herself. ‘Even if I really don’t want to.’ She thought.

“I have you guys now right?” She meekly added, hoping that that would lift her own spirits up. Which surprisingly, it did as she saw the nods from the people around her. 

“It’ll be okay Mariposa. Alright, now that we have a decision, it’s time for our plan. Now, corazón, Amira, if you please.” Antonia clapped her hands, scaring the poor souls near her. And at the mention of the last sentence, two figures stood up from the couch. One belonging to Julio and one belonging to the woman sitting next to Bruno. 

“Since I found you guys in the jungle near the valley, we need to make the trip down there.” Julio started, crossing his arms as he said. 

“It’s a jungle, filled with animals that we need to be worried about. Like what Bruno told me before, there was a jaguar there at one point, so we need to pack the things that are necessary for the trip.” The woman picked up, asserting her authoritative-like manner towards the seated people.

“Sí, Amira is right. Especially since you, Kyōka, would have to come with us for the possible operation, you’ll need to carry your equipment with you. If you need help carrying it, I could lend you a hand.” Julio points out, to which Kyōka cringes at the thought of lugging around her heavy  equipment through the thick jungle. Oh boy.

“I have a safe house of sorts near the valley, so when we get there, we’ll be able to set up things that we need for the Encanto.” Julio continued. “One of my buddies there can lend us a jeep to use for transportation until we come across the treeline, then onwards we hike towards the direction of the path that I found Bruno and Mirabel.” He finished, letting everyone take a moment to process the plan.

“All we need to decide is who’s going to come along, excluding these two, for the trip and there has to be a valid reason as to why.” Amira said as she pointed out to her esposo and sobrina. 

Silence hung around the room for a bit before Kyōka said her case. “Well for one thing, I think that Amira and I should come since we are their significant other and Amira is the one with more survival experience between the four of us if we exclude Julio. Not only that but I would have to be there to consult Mirabel’s mamá.” She said, getting nods in approval. ‘My soon to be suegra…I can’t fail her.’ She nervously thought.

“I mean I could come? But I doubt I have any other use other than being there to comfort Mira.” Ronnie-Anne added. “And I doubt they have any of our modern technology there anyways, and even then you have Amira to help you with that.”

“Actually, you being there will help a lot since there’s a high chance that Kyōka will be with my mama for a while. Honestly, I’m not really against everyone coming..” Mirabel mumbled as she fiddled with her thumbs.

…

“Alright. I think we can all go, except for the boys since someone does have to stay and take care of the house while we are gone.” Julio decided alongside the approval nod from Amira. “And I haven’t informed you guys about this, but from the moment I found you guys stumbling in the jungle, I was able to set up a cabin near the area. So the trek from the cabin to the entrance of the mountain is much easier and less time consuming. It was to see if any more of you guys would come out from the bushes but no one came by the looks of it. Only lost merchants.”

Once Julio had finished informing the two, they both broke into smiles at the thoughtful action of the older man. 

“Afterall, we are behind you two like we always say. This includes this one.” Amira gleamed. Smiling warmly at her husband and niece. Mirabel returned the gesture and broke out into a grin, smiling at everyone.

“Thank you everyone, and I mean thank you for everything.” Bruno said genuinely.

“Yeah what tío said.” Mirabel added. “We honestly wouldn’t be where we are without any of you guys. I mean it.” She sniffled. 

“Well I think we should sleep this off, recover for a bit and then head into action tomorrow, sí?” Antonia spoke up, earning a variety of agreement from each person. “We'll see each other in the morning, buenas noches.”

Translation(s) (Roughly):

“あなた、ここで私を助けてくれませんか？ ” | “Dear, could you help me here please?”