Camilo x Reader

The Family Madrigal

Encanto; said to be a beautiful village hidden away behind mountains. People speak of it with such wonder and enthusiasm that you can't help but feel enthralled without even understanding their reasoning behind such emotion.

My family: my mami, papi and I, were arriving there today. After years of my tio begging us to move, my parents finally caved and we took the tedious, tiring trip through the hills and the valleys just to please my tio.

Personally, I don't understand what all the fuss is about, every traveler, citizen, and individual within a hundred-mile radius speaks highly of these suburbs - not that I wasn't used to living in the villages, just not one so difficult to access-  without ever explaining why. I suppose I'm going to discover that today.

It was early afternoon when we reached the outskirts of the town, having spent the better half of a day scaling mountainsides. My ankles were sore and swollen and an unearthly noise emerged from my stomach; I couldn't bring myself to care much for formalities or sight-seeing but as strangers we had a duty to be polite.

While I was fazed by hunger, I wasn't blind and upon seeing the village I thought I finally understood the hype; each house, although average in height and not dissimilar in shape to most countryside homes, were saturated with color, a huge contrast to the rustic browns and greys of my past location.

Every single house wore a different coat of paint, the whole town contained all the colors of the rainbow. Despite the cinnamon colored, tiles of the overhanging roof casting shadows over buildings,  scintillating cerulean, sharp chartreuses, chromatic corals, mottled mauves still broadcasted their ethereality to by-passers greedy eyes.

Along the walls crawled bushes of roses -each petal perfectly symmetrical, not a thorn in sight-  bundles of orchids and thick, lush-green vines suffocating the surfaces yet not a crack in sight. The flowers bloomed all shades known to man, and more, each bud as fresh as if they'd just blossomed yesterday. I didn't understand how they could work like that.

It was a lot to take in. A new home, beautiful village and a sense of excitement for the future - and we were only on the outskirts. My frown quite literally turned upside down, I gained a newfound spring in my step, and by the looks of it my parents did too. Suddenly I was ready for formalities and sight-seeing - especially the sight-seeing part.

We padded across even cobble, warm with the blazing sun, yet not too hot as to scald through our limp soles. Some unfamiliar faces passed us by and greeted us with a smile and an 'hola', none of which seemed out of the ordinary yet their cheerfulness was infectious and beyond that of any average villager; I felt welcomed, like I would fit in very soon.

Soon the hustle and bustle of the central crowd could be heard echoing above houses, distinct joy seeping through. I had completely disregarded the ache in my lower legs and sprinted  beyond my parents, navigating the open street eager to uncover the source of commotion.

"Y/N, wait up." by the sound of brisk footsteps from behind me, I could tell my parents were chasing after me but struggling to keep up, "You don't know where your tio's house is."

With that I abruptly turned on my heels and nearly face-planted the ground, swinging my arms around to secure balance and stumbling on my toes. They were right; I didn't know where my tio lived and couldn't explore by myself due to risk of getting lost, albeit this seemed like the perfect village, you never know what dangers lurked round the corner.

"Sorry papi, but you hear it too, right? The excitement in their voices, of people who already live here." I didn't know whether I was panting because of elation or because I just ran more than I'd ever cared to.

"Yes we hear it too," My papi was smiling through the heaves of his chest, leaning over with his hands resting on his thighs, "don't you worry, we'll be greeting everyone in the village later today but we've got to find my brother first."