"... and as soon as we're finished with dinner, it's time to get back to all your chores." Abuela finished, reminding Pepa of something, "remember you have to watch out for the Hernández kids, Camilo, you cannot be late again." She pointed at him with a serious look on her face. She was done with him always forgetting his chores.
"Can I join you? I want to become closer with the townspeople here and I think this might be a good opportunity for me. If that's okay?" I asked him.
"Sure! I'd love for you to join me!" He smiled happily at me. "Plus I could use the help, these kids are quite a handful." He whispered in my ear, making me giggle. "I'll do my best" I mumbled back, smiling at him.
- 30 minutes later -
We arrived at the big red house with a little drawing of six children, a pregnant mom, a dad and a dog framed and hanging on the front door. I was more nervous than ever. I started to feel sweat evolve into my palms, Camilo's hand wrapped around mine wasn't exactly helping on the heat. I could feel the anxiety rise inside me, my heart was racing and I forgot how to breath right. I got so nervous about making a good first impression, that I didn't realize Camilo had already ringed on the doorbell.
A beautiful woman in a long indigo colored dress opened the door with a baby in her arms. Her eye bags were deep and her hair was messy. She clearly had no time for herself, due to having to care for 7 children in total. A relieved smile turned up on her face, sighing at the thought of finally getting a break from all of it.
"Hello mrs Hernándes! Do you mind if I bring a friend over to help me?" He smiled at the exhausted lady, gently swinging the baby up and down in her arms.
"Of course not. What's your name, querida?" She smiled warmly at me. "Y/n. Uh, pleasure to meet you." I stuttered, feeling my hand getting clammy against Camilo's palm.
"The pleasure is on my side. Please, come in." She showed us the way inside the colorful little house.
"I'm assuming you will present your girlfriend to the kids by yourself?" She looked at Camilo, a little blush covering his face. We immediately separated our hands. "Oh she's not- I mean we're not like.." He mumbled, while shaking his hands in denial. "Yea, it's not like that, it's just uhh... a misunderstanding that's all!" I joined in. We started to shout random denying and stuttering at the same time, making the poor lady giggle a bit at how loud we got at the misunderstood statement.
"Alrighty then. I'll trust that you two will handle things just fine. There is ice cream in the freezer in case you need it. Oh my, I really need to go before I'm late to work." She handed Camilo the baby and put a shawl over her shoulders before waving goodbye at us while Camilo was holding the baby's hand up to wave back at her.
"She seems nice." I thought out loud, he nodded in agreement. "She is. I've been watching her kids for two years now every day from 8-2 pm. Now, don't let yourself get scared by these little devils, I know they can be a bit overwhelmi-"
"IT'S MINE!" A little girl chased a younger girl down the hall, grabbing her braid to stop her in the act and reach for the doll in her hands.
"NO! FINDERS, KEEPERS GABRIELA!" She smacked the girl on the cheek, making her shriek in pain. "YOU LITTLE JERK" she chased after the girl, not looking ahead of her and bumping right into my legs. I picked the little girl up. "What's your name?" I rested her body on my side. "Rosálina." She gave me a pair of innocent eyes. "And you're Gabriela?" I asked the little scowling girl in front of me. "Yes." She mumbled under her breath.
"Alright, where did you find the doll Rosálina? Be honest."
She hesitated before answering, "...in Gabi's closet." She muttered, avoiding eye contact. The older girl gasped at that, "you stole it from me!" She raged. "Calm down Gabriela." I said calmly, making her even more annoyed, "you're not the boss of me, I don't even know you! And give me back my doll or I'll kick you right where it hurts, puta!" She screamed at me.
"Gabriela-" Camilo started, but I interrupted him, "I got this." I put my arm in front of his chest to show him I meant for him to step back. I got down on my knees to look the girl in the eyes without looking down on her.
"Listen Gabriela, my name is y/n and I don't want to be your enemy here. All I want for you is to get on better terms with your sister, okay?" I put Rosálina down.
"okay..." she muttered.
"Good, now Rosálina, come over here." I pointed at the ground in front of her sister and the little girl followed to the tip of my finger.
"Repeat after me." I took her little hand in mine to show comfort instead of threat.
"I'm sorry I took your doll...", I looked at Rosálina.
"...I'm sorry I took your doll." She slowly repeated.
"And It won't happen again." My voice pitched a bit.
"And it won't happen again." She muttered sadly.
"And I love you and I don't want to fight because you're my sister."
She repeated my words and I turned to look at Gabriela.
"Now it's your turn."
She scoffed at me, "I don't need your stupid guiding for apologizing I can do it perfectly myself." She turned her nose to the sky and crossed her arms in protest.
"I don't believe you. Prove it." I crossed my arms back at her.
"Gladly." She gave me a winning look.
"Listen, im sorry that I kicked you and pulled your hair and I'm sorry for yelling at you. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings and I just wanted my doll back. I'm sorry for calling you names, Rosálina. I hope you can forgive me. You're the only friend I really have..." she looked down to her feet.
"Of course I can forgive you! Can you forgive me?" Rosálina leaned forward with a smile, waiting for her answer.
"I forgive you Rosá." She smiled at her little sister.
"Now hug on it to confirm your friendship." I suggested and the two little girls hugged and started giggling while running away again hand in hand.
"Damn, I didn't know you were good with kids, y/n." Camilo confidently smirked at me. I blushed at that, "oh, I used to babysit a lot back in ciudad de rosas."
"Wait your hometown is called 'City Of Roses'?" His eyes widened.
"Ciroda, for short." I grinned.
"That's pretty cool actually... hey you gotta meet the rest of the kids!" He pushed me into the living room next to the kitchen, two boys sitting on the floor and playing with legos.
"That's Alejandro and Andrés." He pointed at each of them, the little boy with a tooth gap and dreadlocks rushing over to embrace Camilo's legs. "Camiloooo!" He yelled. "What's up Andrés? What are you building?"
Andrés showed him the little green creation of random blocks stacked on each other. "It's a dinosaur!" Camilo took the "dinosaur" into his hands and spectated it for a good second, struggling to hold the baby in his other arm. "Impressive." He slowly nodded his head, searching for where the head is supposed to be. I laughed and took the baby into my hands. "Thanks" he mumbled.
"Oh yeah, boys, this is y/n, she's gonna help me rule over you little brats, ain't that right?" He puffed me in the side.
"That's right, we're the dictators and you're under my control now." I played along. "And when we have abused you to your limits, we're gonna eat you!" I acted like I was eating the little baby's tummy, making it scream of laughter. I giggled along and watched the baby in awe as it grinned back at me.
"No, don't eat me!" Andrés shrieked and ran across the living room, Camilo immediately chasing after him, shape-shifted into the hysterically laughing little boy.
I strolled over to Alejandro, quietly building a tower of legos by himself. I sat down beside the boy and handed him a blue brick. "Alejandro, right?", he nodded, while taking the lego from my hand. "I like your glasses." I pointed out. "Thanks." He mumbled. "What are we building here?" I smiled at him and soon enough we began to talk about all sorts of things, school, space, bullies, he even opened up to me at some point. I guess I really am a natural with kids.
YOU ARE READING
Cat eyes (Camilo Madrigal x reader)
Fanfiction"she's awake!" My dad ran out of the room, as I slowly came to my senses. I looked around. I didn't recognize this place. I was stranded in an unfamiliar room, filled with colors and drawings of models with dresses on the walls. A little sewing mach...
