Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Constanza shook with heavy sobs, clinging to her husband's shirt with her face buried in his chest. They had already lost one son, five years ago today, and now they'd just lost another.

Juan was also crying as he held his wife close. He had not been present six years ago when Rafael came to open up a channel of communication with the great beyond so Bridget could speak with her dead child, and Constanza was so reserved that she never spoke of it with him, so he'd had no idea what was going on when Salvador's recently departed soul appeared.

Bridget was simply frozen as she held little four-year-old Rafael's hand. She had been pretty sure ever since the day he was born that he would grow up to be the boy who could connect to the dead, and here was irrefutable proof: the boy who had been up on that balcony with a future version of herself, who had caused a being made of light to appear and speak with the voice of a dead person, was identical to the boy beside her right now.

"Mamá?" Rafael tugged on the hand that he was holding. "Did I just hear my own voice over there?" He pointed toward the place where the visitors from the future had disappeared a moment ago.

"Sí, mi vida," she answered, giving his hand a light squeeze. "That was a future version of yourself. You and I will be coming back here at some point." Rafael let go of her hand to wrap an arm around her leg and lean against her. She briefly stroked his hair before leaving her hand resting on the side of his head and just holding him close.

Angelo was sweating profusely in the wake of that experience. He wiped his face with his sleeve, only to recoil when he saw specks of red there. "Am I bleeding?" he wondered aloud as he ran his fingers over his forehead and cheeks, but has hands came away clean.

"It was your sweat," Mercedes informed him. "Your sweat looked like it had a little bit of blood in it."

"So… I was bleeding through my pores?" Angelo clarified. "How can that happen?"

"Beats me." Mercedes shrugged. "I guess you were just so distressed that you burst a blood vessel or something."

"'Distressed'?" Ephraim echoed incredulously, looking like he was going to puke. "More like disturbed. That's really fucked up, what you were thinking, Tío Angelo. How could you ever even consider that?"

Angelo's hands curled into fists. He said the 'fullest extent' of my Gift, sobrino! he thought angrily, glaring at his oldest nephew. That means do everything I can! I only have one chance, so I'm not about to cross my fingers and hope that kissing and crying will be enough! If I'm going to keep him alive in a body that's been rotting from the inside out for more than twenty-four hours, then it makes sense for me to try to get my healing magic as far inside as possible! I really don't want to do it, but it's the only way!

Do you really think it's worth that? Ephraim questioned with a grimace. He'd be traumatized!

And you think I won't be? Angelo thought back, incensed. The fact of the matter is, I would literally do anything for my family, to Hell with morals! Salvador said my doing this would save more lives than just his. I have no idea how fucking a dead child back to life is supposed to save multiple people's lives, but I'd be willing to die for that cause, so giving up my virginity by becoming a pedophilic necrophile is small potatoes in comparison as far as I'm concerned!

Ephraim gulped and backed away slowly, as though his uncle was a wild animal poised to attack. You're insane, he thought directly into Angelo's mind before breaking eye contact to watch where he was going as he fled down the stairs.

Yeah, well you're a fucking bastard asshole for judging me! he thought-shouted after him with tears in his eyes.

Angelo jumped when Mercedes laid a hand on his arm and whispered softly, "I don't know what that was about, but it seems like you've both hurt each other."

"Fuck him," Angelo sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

Mercedes was taken aback by her brother's coarse utterance, but she did her best to stay levelheaded despite everything that had happened tonight. She felt, being head of the family, that she needed to put up a good front for everyone, but she was sure once she was alone that she would most certainly break.

Angelo sniffed again, cleared his throat, then turned around and gingerly lifted Salvador's body into his arms. "Could someone please open his door?" he murmured.

Sergio, who had been watching everything silently from his place kneeling beside his dead brother, stood and reached for the knob, only to pause before he made contact. "I…" he began hesitantly, giving his head a shake as his vision was briefly obscured by a mental image. "I think he needs to be touching it too. I just saw it in my mind."

"Precognition," Mercedes commented. "That must be your Gift."

Angelo sighed and adjusted the body in his arms so its hand would touch the doorknob while Sergio turned it. The door led to an antechamber with a wider doorway across from them and two half-open doors on one side opposite a plain stretch of wall on the other.

Angelo bit his lip as he entered the room, the significance not lost on him that he was crossing the threshold with the boy's body in a bridal carry in his arms. If he needed a sign that what he was going to do was what he was supposed to do, then that would be it. He shivered as he felt a frigid breeze coming from one of the side doors. The cold temperature would help preserve the body a little bit, he realized as he approached it and peered inside.

The only light in the cold room was what shone in through the door from the antechamber. Within that pitch-darkness, there was a dais that could easily be mistaken for a bed - especially since it was made up with bedsheets and a pillow sitting atop it.

That will be where I lay him to rest, Angelo thought as he moved to look through the next door, which led from the antechamber to a bathroom. I just need to clean him up first. He entered the bathroom and tenderly laid Salvador's body on the shower floor, carefully undressing it. Once he removed the boy's soiled clothes, he washed the body clean of the feces and urine that had been released when all of the muscles went slack in death.

With the body now clean, Angelo toweled it dry before picking it back up and carrying it into the tomb room. He laid the body on the dais, setting its head on the pillow, and pulled the top sheet over it after pressing a kiss to its forehead. Leaving the body fully covered, he returned to the antechamber and realized there was nobody else there. A moment later, the door sealed itself shut behind him.

"We're in here," Dolores whispered as she emerged from the doorway opposite the one that led back to the house proper, "having a memorial service. Most of them don't believe he's coming back."

Angelo's face crumpled. "I have to believe he's coming back. I'm his only hope."

"I heard Ephraim talking to himself when he got back to his room," Dolores commented, still at a whisper. "Is it true?"

"Ephraim can't keep his mind shut," Angelo grumbled. "You find out more shit than he does and yet you keep secrets better."

"I've had more practice," she replied immediately, "and I know how devastating telling a secret can be. Ephraim hasn't learned that lesson. But he didn't actually tell anyone."

"He said it out loud so you could hear it," Angelo pointed out. "That's the same as telling you directly."

Dolores looked sad. "Maybe he wanted me to know because he knew I'd help you."

Angelo looked askance at her. "Why would you help me? There's no way you'd want to help me if you knew what I was going to do. What is it you heard Ephraim say?"

Dolores laid her hand on his arm and steered him out of the room, down the hall, and into her own room. It wasn't until she shut the door behind them that she said, "I'm not going to repeat his words exactly, but he said you were going to make love to Salvador's body."

Angelo's jaw dropped. Did she just say…? "…'make love'?"

Dolores gave a short nod. "Ephraim used a different verb, but I thought it more appropriate to use a phrase that would reflect your intent."

"Intent doesn't matter," Angelo grumbled, downcast.

"Of course it does," Dolores contradicted him. "Your Papá French kissed you when you were eight. Some people would argue that that was wrong and shouldn't have been done, but the intent was to heal his mind, which makes it perfectly acceptable as far as I'm concerned."

"That was just a kiss," Angelo stressed. "Besides, Papá was an adult-"

"While you were a child," Dolores interrupted. "Now you're the adult while the other person is the child."

"Except this is sex we're talking about here!" Angelo shouted, causing Dolores to flinch and cover her ears. He waited for her to lower her hands and then muttered, "I'm sorry."

"But you're going to be gentle and loving, not rough and careless," she countered. "That's why I refuse to refer to what you're going to do with him as 'fucking'."

Angelo shook his head. "There's no way to be gentle about something like this."

"Of course there is," she told him, going over to her bedside table and reaching into the top drawer. "You just have to prepare him."

"What… What does that even mean?" he asked as she pulled out a small tub sealed with a lid. "And what is that?"

"This is anal lube," she informed him. "It's unopened because I never got around to using it. Consider it a gift. My contribution to little Salvador's resurrection."

"Anal… lube?" Angelo frowned, baffled.

*
"Lubricant for anal sex," she explained. "Scoop out a liberal amount onto your fingers and apply it to his anus. Slowly push in one finger, wriggling around a bit to stretch it out. Carefully insert a second lubed finger alongside the first in order to widen the opening, gently scissoring your fingers apart to help get it open even wider. Depending on how thick your penis is, you might want to do the same with a third finger, but either way you'd apply the lube to your penis as well while stroking it to full hardness. It ought to slide in easily enough then, just take it slow and the discomfort will be minimal."
*

He stared at her in disbelief. "You're… You're seriously okay with this?"

Dolores walked right up to him and said quietly, "It's a medical procedure, Angelito. A lifesaving medical procedure. I'm not just okay with it, I fully endorse it." She handed him the tub of lube and asked seriously, "Do you want some practice lubing an anus before you have to do it for Salvador? I'm willing to let you practice on me."

Chapter Text

After the memorial service, Mercedes retired to her room. The moment she was through her door, she leaned back against it to push it closed and slid down it to sit. By the time her bum made contact with the floor, she was already sobbing harder than she ever had before. That Gift Ceremony was the single most terrible experience in all her twelve years of life. She hadn't even been hit this hard by the deaths of two of her parents.

Bruno had died at the ripe old age of seventy-four, and while it hurt very much, she had known deep down that her Tata wasn't going to live to see her grown up.

Although Mirabel had not been quite so old, being around forty at the time of her death, the fact that she was such a different person for the last year or so sort of softened the blow. In her case, it was almost like she had already been gone, so her actual death was only as hard as the death of a random person from town; still painful, but not personal.

Salvador, though? Salvador was five! He had barely lived at all before his life was taken away from him! And possibly the worst thing about it - the thing that set this one apart from the others - was that she had watched it happen. She had been right there next to him, almost close enough to touch him, when he died. One moment he was standing there with his hand on his doorknob, smiling excitedly as the magic of the Encanto blessed him with a Gift, and then the next second he was gone, his lifeless body falling to the floor like a sack of potatoes right in front of her eyes.

Mercedes had been six when she saw the apparition of Rocco appear and speak to Bridget the night Bruno died. There was a part of her that wished she could speak with her Tata once again too, but she knew if she did that she would just keep wishing for one more time.

The fact that Salvador's soul reappeared within minutes of his own death was mind-boggling, and the idea that he'd be able to come back to life was even more so. Mercedes didn't know whether to believe it or not.

For weeks after Bruno died, she wished that it had only been a bad dream, and every night before bed she'd pray that he would be alive when she woke up the next morning… but that never happened. He was dead, and that was just how it was. The day she let go of the hope that her Tata would be back was almost as painful as the day she had first been told of his passing. She didn't want to feel the pain of losing Salvador all over again three days later, so she would accept that he was gone for good now and try to move on.

Constanza was, understandably, inconsolable. Juan held her close throughout the memorial service, and she was leaning on him so heavily that he had to practically carry her back to their bedroom after it. She fell onto the bed fully clothed, shuddering with grief though she had no tears left to shed. Juan stroked her hair and kissed her head before undressing. When she made no move to undress herself, he dutifully did it for her before gently prising the covers out from underneath her to cover them both up as he joined her in their bed.

"Why?" she finally murmured.

Juan frowned and stroked her face. He knew she didn't expect him to answer, that she just needed to speak her mind and get everything off her chest while he provided silent comfort and support.

"Why can't we keep our children?" she asked brokenly. "First Solomon and now Salvador… How long before we lose Sergio, too?"

Juan began crying again. He hadn't thought of that.

"There wasn't even any rhyme or reason for it!" Constanza exclaimed in frustration. "Solomon was… was… We know how he died! It made sense that he'd die from that! But Salvador? He just… He just spontaneously… What even killed him? What killed him, Juan?" She gazed pleadingly into her husband's eyes.

Juan slowly shook his head. That wasn't a rhetorical question, but he had no answer to give.

"Why did we even have children?" Constanza moaned miserably.

Juan recoiled at that. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he shook her slightly and stared incredulously at her.

"I didn't mean it like that, Juan," she backpedaled. "I wanted children just as much as you did. What I meant was why did God give us children if he was just going to take them away again?"

Juan breathed a sigh of relief that it had only been a misunderstanding. They had had plenty of those, even from as far back as the moment they met. Misunderstandings never plagued them for long, however, because both of them were patient enough to wait for the other to explain.

"Do you think it's true?" Constanza asked at length.

Juan's brow furrowed and he gently lifted her head with his finger under her chin so she would see his question on his face.

"That he'll come back," she clarified. "Salvador's soul said he'd come back. Do you think it's true?"

Juan's mouth opened in surprise. Searching Constanza's face, he saw the sincerity there and knew that this was something she was truly torn about. He exhaled heavily and bit his lip, trying to come up with a way to convey his feelings. Finally, he raised a hand to tuck a bit of her hair behind her ear, then placed his hand over her heart and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Constanza laid a hand on his and sighed. "I do want to believe it, but it seems too good to be true."

Juan gave a short nod of agreement.

"And it also makes me wonder," she added, "what was the point of him dying in the first place if he was just going to be coming right back?"

Juan wrapped a leg around hers at the same time as he put his arms around her, pulling her in with both in order to give her a full body hug, which she returned.

"You're right," Constanza conceded, "we should get some sleep. Thank you for listening."

Juan's nod became a nuzzle before he lovingly gave her earlobe a firm bite.

Constanza cried out in surprise as the delicious pain sent a pleasant chill through her. She gave him a nuzzle and a gentle kiss on the cheek in return.

Despite everything that had happened that night, Constanza and Juan managed to fall asleep peacefully in each other's arms.