A Slow Burning Candle *Main story completed, additional scenes to be added*

Chapter 17: Hola

She was in his dreams again. He still could never tell if they were prophecies or not, but these ones, he didn't care.

They were kinder to him now, perhaps as the stress of his former life faded away. In this last one, it was just him and Luz, sitting together in the sunshine, talking like in the old days.

As he lay there, staring up at the ceiling, he realized how much he both felt the years that had passed, and that it seemed like it was only a few days ago that he'd had a chance with her. A chance that he was sure had long passed.

Turning on his side, he felt down under his mattress where he'd secreted away the book she gave him. Its spine bent and broken, pages dog-eared, and yellowed with age. That couple had managed to be together at the end, even if it was still tragic, but the man hadn't disappeared on the woman for such a long period of time.

His mind had been cruel to him when he first went into the walls. Scenes from the book, replaced by himself and Luz had played out in his dreams while he slept and woken him at fairly inconvenient times. Sometimes he couldn't coax his body back to bed for hours afterward, he found himself so worked up.

She'd been the only woman who had done that to him, and he'd sent her away.

If he'd known about the trick Mirabel showed him, he would have seen how the vision ended, and that could have changed everything.

Or would it have? That was a question that he found hard to answer at times. Certainly, his mother would have ended up firing Luz, and maybe she would have left and it would never have come to pass in the first place.

No, he wouldn't have let her flee the Encanto, that much he knew; and as awkward as it might have ended up being... having Alma and Luz in the same house under those conditions, he would have asked for her hand.

The idea had been running around in his mind for awhile before the unpleasantness between them had happened, but he kept going back and forth between his wants and his excuses.

They had only known each other for a few months, but Pepa had only known Félix for a week before she was certain he was the one for her, and that was true. Julieta of the long engagement would have approved in a heartbeat.

He could tell that she had affection for him, but knew that she was holding back somewhat for the sake of propriety and her job; maybe he was just reading too far into it?

She had all but confessed to him that night that she was more than willing to go with him, but he couldn't let himself believe it would truly make her happy in the long run.

There was nothing he could want that he would let himself have.

"I wish you wouldn't think of yourself so meanly." Her heard her past words to him in his ear, and if he focused on them, he swore he could feel her soft lips brush him.

She was the one person that he did truly owe an apology too. His prophecy had done some real damage, he'd surmised, and even if she wouldn't have him back, he needed to tell her that he was sorry for stepping out on her.

Getting up, he dressed himself for the day and went to combo out his long shaggy hair. He wasn't terribly fond of how the years had treated him either, though the bags under his eyes were starting to dissipate with some better sleep. Bruno thought he looked old, even if he really wasn't.

Knocking on his dresser for luck, he went downstairs to eat with his family.

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After Carlos returned the previous day, still a bit smarting from embarrassment, Josefa had hugged Luz tight and asked her how it felt to be a free woman.