The Heart of Camilo (A Camilo Madrigal x Reader Fem Y/N Story)

Promise

*Y/N*

I took Camilo's hand and let him lead me away from the house. The sunset looked beautiful, painting the sky all different colours. As soon as we were out of eyeshot from the house as we turned down the path, he grabbed me and pulled me close, kissing me again. I closed my eyes and had the familiar sensation I'd had all day - that this wasn't real, that I wasn't allowed to just simply be this happy. I pulled back, pushing the hair out of his eyes and he grinned at me.

"I like this new ... kissing thing we do," he joked.

"Change is great," I imitated him, laughing, elbowing him in the side as I continued down the path. He laughed and followed behind me, grabbing my hand again.

"It'll be dark soon, let's just go to the garden," he said. We turned off the path, settling down amongst the flowers, watching the butterflies flying around.

I smiled, looking at him while he watched two butterflies flying together not far from us, dancing and whirling in the air above the flowers. "Look, it's us," he said, looking over at me and grinning, and then turning back to watch them. 

He seemed so happy, everything was so calm and peaceful - but I knew how much he had been through the last two weeks. I looked at his arm, healed now, but I wouldn't ever forget his scream when Gabriella had grabbed him, burning him, seeing Javier hit him across the face, turn him to gold. He had searched for a week for me in the woods, thinking I was dead, watched me basically commit suicide in front of him not even 24 hours ago. I thought about my mother... who knows where she was now. I felt a lot of rage every time I thought of her ... but also a small part of me felt a pang of longing. The mother had I wished for every day since I was a baby, had been out there all along. She had cared more about gifts and power than me ... I didn't know if her dead or this reality was worse. I thought about my father - I didn't know where he was, either. I had a sudden memory of when I was very young and he had shown me how to make an egg for the first time, laughing as I had slipped and broken one on the floor before successfully cracking it on the edge of the pan. I had felt like such a big kid. So few memories like that existed, where I thought on him fondly. I winced as I remembered the attack, him throwing me around. If he hadn't treated my mother like that, would my mom have even ever wanted a gift? Would our life have been enough for her?

Camilo seemed to have sensed I was lost in thought because he didn't say anything, even after turning his attention from the dancing butterflies back to me. I looked at him and smiled sadly. "Do you think we'll be okay?" I asked him.

He understood what I was talking about and sighed. "Sometimes, it feels like it's so much... like I'm drowning," he said. "When I sleep, all I see is your face and him closing the door in my face that night he attacked you, have nightmares of being in the forest and looking for you, thinking you were dead. It's like when I'm awake I have to look at you as much as possible just to convince myself you're okay." He paused, looking at me. "Whenever you left the room today, all I saw was her shooting the fire at you. It made me panic, even when you just left to wash your hands."

I nodded. "I feel like that, too, just keep replaying it, when he grabbed you, seeing you in the river, knowing your heart wasn't beating ..." I shook my head. "It's like I'm only okay when I'm looking right at you."

He pulled me close. "We might not be okay, but we will be. It's been ... a lot."

"I've been thinking about what you said about your Tio Bruno," I said. "The prophecy about me."

"Well, warning me didn't help us much," Camilo said. "Who could have known us in a fire between the two families meant that you were going to ..."

"We knew something was coming," I said. "Do you think he'll come see you again?"

"Who knows?" Camilo said, shrugging. "Part of me hopes he does and part of me hopes he doesn't."

"I hope he does," I said. "I want to meet him someday. He cared enough about you to try and show you."

"No, no, no more prophecies about us," he said, laughing, leaning and putting his head on my shoulder. "Hopefully, next time he comes just to give some gifted-uncle advice about how to handle Abuela. Although, if he knew how to do that, I don't think he would have left."

Abuela. I touched the cheek where I knew she had hit him. There was still so much. But he was right - we would get through it together.

"What did my father say to you when we had come back inside after ... everything?" Camilo asked me.

I smiled. "He said that he's never seen anyone so brave and that he'll be proud to call me daughter-in-law one day."

Camilo's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Are you serious?" he asked. "Well, in that case..." He got up onto one knee and pretended to dig around in his pocket. "Hold on, I've got the ring here somewhere."

I pushed him over, sending petals and pollen flying where he landed in the flowers. "You are so ridiculous," I laughed.

"Yeah ... I may have heard that from you before," he grinned, moving back over to me and sitting cross-legged in front of me. I reached up and brushed the petals out of his curls. He grabbed a small flower and twisted it around to make a circle out of the stem, taking my hand and putting the makeshift ring on my finger.

"I'm staying sitting down because I'm not crazy enough to propose before I even turn 16," he laughed. "But this is my promise to always love you, to never hesitate to follow you wherever you go, and to try and somehow live up to the insanely high bar you set by literally dying for me."

I burst out laughing, wiped my eyes, and then pulled him to me by the collar of his shirt, kissing him again. His hand found the side of my face and he leaned into me, deepening the kiss for a few seconds before shifting to hug me again, burying his face in my hair. We wrapped our arms around each other, each knowing why we needed to hold on so tightly. We stayed like that for a long time before the darkness overtook the sky, and we reluctantly found our way to our feet to make the walk back home.