Shifting Allegiances (Camilo x OC)

~twelve~

TW: child abuse

Elian walked around with Verónica after work, going down to the stream to chat. Apparently the girl had finally developed a crush on Mirabel. Wonderful, despite their limited interaction Mirabel seemed nice. It was late when he was walking home to his Abuelo's house.

When he got home his Abuelo was waiting in the kitchen with a thunderous look on his face. "Elian."

"Si, Abuelo?" Shit. Shit. SHIT.

"Am I correct in saying that you have been talking to the Madrigals?" He spat the last word out like a curse.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Your Papa said he saw you talking with that awful changeling boy." Person.

"He had stolen Arepas in Papa's form. So I stole them back, to save money." They, but Elian couldn't delve into that, couldn't out Camilo without their permission.

"Yes. But apparently he saw you talking to him again on Sunday. And today. This is unacceptable. Do you know what they have done to our family?"

"Respectfully, Abuelo, it wasn't their fault the magic chose them."

Abuelo stood and walked over to Elian. "You have no idea," he said, so quiet Elian could barely hear him. "You have no idea what it's like to lose someone you love. To have your life so thoroughly destroyed, and then to watch as the ruiner of your life becomes placed so high on a pedestal, to be worshipped like royalty!" His voice had grown in volume and he shouted the last part.

Elian regarded him sadly. "You are the reason my Mama left. You are the reason I hurt myself to live. You are the reason that I grew up without a healthy family. You are the reason I can't buy empanadas myself, because she runs the stand. You are the one who didn't ask for help when I was dying.

"I don't know who I would have been if you hadn't wrecked my life so thoroughly with your pride and jealousy and anger."

Elian's Abuelo stared at him for a few seconds before slapping him across the face. "How dare you say such things to me."

"I dare, Abuelo, because it's true!" Anger replaced sadness. Abuelo had hit him. "Because you wrecked me! Because I have no idea what it's like to live freely because you have always stood behind my shoulder watching me! I don't care about your hatred for the Madrigals, their Abuela may be an ass sometimes but it's not Camilo's fault! It's not Mirabel's fault! It's not Dolores or Luisa or Isabela or Antonio's fault! And yes, I am using their names, because they are people, Abuelo, not some entity!"

"You are not going to talk to them again if I have to lock you in your FUCKING bedroom!"

Elian's tone turned flat and icy. "I'm already going to my room. Do what you want." He stormed off, then paused. "And FUCK YOU TOO, Papa. You were supposed to protect me. To raise me. But you're too much of a FUCKING COWARD. I'm lucky I only turned out how messed up I already am. I could have been so much worse with you two raising me."

He slammed the door to his room behind him. He was so FUCKING done. He started grabbing his shit and putting it into a bag. He heard his lock click, not that that would do anything in his stupid-ass run-down house. He finished grabbing his few belongings and packed all of his notebooks and some pencils. There was no fucking way he was sleeping there.

Elian literally kicked down the door to his room and flipped off his Abuelo as he walked out the front door. "You get back here--" Elian opened the front door.

A coffee mug collided with the back of his head, and he let out a cry of pain. He turned around and looked his Abuelo in the eye. He was standing at the counter, breathing heavily with one arm extended.

Elian didn't say a word as he walked out and slammed the door behind him, ignoring the ache on the back of his head.

And then he was out. He had his money, his notebooks, most of his everyday clothes (he didn't have many of them) and the one luxury he had: the orange dress. Whatever he left behind he knew his Abuelo was going to destroy, and he couldn't leave it behind. Not that he had many possessions in the first place.

He walked to Verónica's house and started pounding on the door. Her Mama opened it. "Elian! Come on in. What's up?"

"My Abuelo found out I'd been talking to Camilo, a capital offense in his book, and he hit me and tried to lock me in my room and yeah I need a place to sleep for tonight."

"Oh my goodness. Yes, feel free to stay here. Do you need dinner? We have some ajiaco left over, I can heat it up again..."

"That'd be great, thanks."

Verónica appeared in the living room. "Oh hey dude. Long time no see," she joked. They'd seen each other not ten minutes earlier.

Elian mustered a weak smile. "Yeah," he said half-heartedly

Verónica frowned. "What happened."

Elian sighed. "I finally left my house," he said. "My Abuelo found out about my chats with Camilo. He went berserk. I grabbed my shit and left."

"LANGUAGE," Verónica's mom admonished them from the stove.

"Sorry!" Elian's family didn't care if he swore, as long as it wasn't at them. Welp.

"Dude." Verónica's voice was hushed. "I'm so glad you got out."

"I know. I'm going back in the morning though."

"Why?"

"To establish myself. To make a formal break. I'll never be able to truly get away from them, we're still going to live in Encanto, so I have to make things abundantly clear with them what things will be like from now on."

"Well then, I'm coming with you."

"I was hoping you'd say that. But I wasn't gonna ask."

Verónica's mom placed the soup in front of Elian and gave her a quick hug. "You can stay here for as long as you need, cariño."

"Gracias." Elian ate his soup in silence for a few minutes. "I saved the dress," he said, breaking the quiet. "And my notebooks."

Verónica exhaled. "I didn't wanna ask, but I hoped so."

"Ha, yeah. What can I say, I look fine as hell in it. And I do love my writing."

"Wow, what a coincidence, I love your writing too!"

"Thanks bro." He smiled at his friend and cleared his place.

"Come on," Verónica said, and the two walked to her room.

Elian was safe.

A/N

Fun times, amirite?
My story takes place mostly over four days btw: Saturday, Antonio's ceremony; Sunday, the brunch with the madrigals; Monday, the thing by the stream; and today, the day the Casita falls down. There'll be more after it, but this is the majority of the plot. In the movie it's only 2 or 3 days, but I needed more time to develop the characters and their relationships.
I'm almost done with chapter 15--