Would You Be So Kind?

Ch. 3: Panic

*3rd Person POV*

Y/N watched from the doorway as Julieta and Augustin walked across the field arm in arm. Julieta was the first to confess her feelings for her now partner, and she looked so in love it. Granted Y/N knew she would be, she already knew Augustin had feelings for Julieta too, he'd have been crazy not to. Y/N was looking for the right time to tell Pepa, but that right time just never felt right. This was Pepa, the woman she's been dreaming of for so long. Pepa deserved the world, and Y/N had to make sure if she told Pepa how she felt, that should she feel the same, Pepa remembered it as the best night of her life.

It was then that Y/n spotted the beauty with the power of the sun in her hair, picking the now ready fruits from the Madrigal garden. Suddenly, Y/N had a vision, not quite like our dear Bruno's but a vision nonetheless. The entire Encanto had been preparing for the celebration all week, this would be the prefect time!

See, every summer, as the season began its fade into fall, the Encanto held a massive celebration. There was fireworks, food around every corner, and dancing. Oh the dancing. People started at sunrise and didn't stop until the sun was well past the barriers of the Encanto and the children long asleep in their own beds.

The dancing was Pepa's favorite part. She looked forward to dancing with her familia all year long, and this year Y/N was going to make this end of season celebration her perfect moment. Y/N spent the rest of her day dreaming and planning moments in her head as she helped prepare for the fiesta approaching.

*Julieta's POV*
Pepa and I have been in the kitchen just over an hour when I decide I just can't stand this anymore.

"You cannot tell me you're really this blind."

Pepa turns toward me with a look of absolute shock. She has been helping me in la cocina to prepare part of the food for the fiesta tomorrow while Y/N was in town helping the community prepare where she could. I've been waiting day and night for Y/N to finally confess to my sister how she feels since we had our talk, but at this point, I feel like if I don't enlighten my sister we may never see them happy.

"Juli - if I've been making the Arepa's wrong this whole time we have a lot of backtracking to do!" Pepa looks panicked, clear by the cloud beginning to form, "I've been doing them just like you showed me I promise! What's wrong with them I don't - "

"Aye Pepa, the Arepa's are fine! Nothing is wrong with the Arepa's, you're doing fine! I'm talking about Y/N!"

Now Pepa looks surprised. Her eyes quickly dart around me as if you'd be standing just out of sight. "What about Y/N?" The fear I see in her eyes, as if something may have happened to you in this split moment, pushes me forward in this conversation. That and if her cloud thunders again it's going to rain over my Arepas.

"Pepa you have to be the only person in this entire Encanto who is this oblivious as to how Y/N feels about you. I mean for heaven's sake, the woman worships the ground you walk on," Pepa's blush takes over her cheeks as I continue my rant, "You really are telling me Y/N and you have been falling all over one another for all these years, and you have no idea?" At this point I'm practically yelling it from the rooftop. No one can get me this animated, not like my sister can.

Pepa's blank stare back says it all. Whoops. I think I may have said a tad too much.

"Y/N is in love with me...?" Pepa takes a few moments to process this, her eyes never leaving mine. The sky is clear and I almost wonder if she's having a stroke when, "And you think...I'm in love with her...? I'm not in love with Y/N."

"You're not? Pepa come on, the entire Encanto see's what you don't." I can't help but look at Pepa as if she's grown a second head. Not in love with Y/N? My sister really should stop suppressing her emotions so much, it's starting to blind her.

"I don't know that I've ever considered it? I don't think I've ever looked at Y/N that way. I mean- just because I love to spend time with her, or the fact that she can comfort my storms better than anyone else doesn't mean I'm in love. I mean I clearly have feelings for Y/N but feelings don't mean love."

Pepa barely breathes as she paces across the kitchen and continues her rambling thought process, "Just because I have loving feelings about the way her hand feels in mine, or the way she looks at me like she could kiss me, or the way her eyes are like an ocean you could get lost in....her hands just so soft...she's warm did you know that? Her whole body is just so warm, it- but it- it doesn't mean I'm in love with her? I mean just because I have, more mature feelings for her and I love her doesn-"

Pepa pauses her rant and pacing as she realizes what she's said. She's Seeing what the rest of us have been waiting on for years now. All I can do before she continues is raise my eyebrow and tilt my head, looking at her as though she's just discovered I'm her sister.

"Oh my god I love Y/N. How did I not see this?! Isn't love supposed to be more obvious??" Now the panic has shown to our little party, accompanied by another lovely little storm cloud above Pepa's head.

"Well it is for the rest of us here in the Encanto, I guess you missed that lesson in school." The cloud settles as Pepa focuses her frustration less on her discovered situation and more on my sisterly sarcasm.

"Juli this is serious. In less than 10 minutes I've gone from 'Y/N is my best friend' to 'Y/N is supposedly in love with me and I'm in love with her too' and I have no idea what to do now! I feel like I need to tell her but right now all that idea's doing is giving me a cloud!" Pepa grabs her braid and begins to stroke it in hopes of squelching the growing storm above.

Pepa is really starting to panic, and now I need to calm her before she ruins my Arepas by hurricane at the attention of the whole Encanto. I cross the room and grab Pepa by her shoulder, using one hand to tilt her face my way and guide her eyes to mine.

"Pepa calm down ok? You don't have to do anything right now. Listen, Y/N is still Y/N. That hasn't changed. Take some time and let this all settle in your head, then talk to her ok?"

"Ok....clear skies, clear skies.....there's just, so much I need to think about you know? I need time! It's like my whole reality has shifted, and I'm not sure how to handle this right now!"

I sighed as I tried to find a way to calm her down. Then, it hit me. Right now Pepa needed to see something other than a cloud.

"Pepa focus on me for a minute ok?" The minute I held her focus I continued. "Ok, Pepa think about that feeling you get when Y/N touches you. Holds your hand. Catches your gaze in a busy place. That warm fuzzy feeling you now see in those moments, put it above the rest."

Pepa closes her eyes and focuses on my words. I can see her breathing calm down rapidly. Even the thought of Y/N calms her storm, Pepa is in deep! The cloud formed above us dissipates, and the slightest hint of a rainbow appears above. Almost as if it were being viewed in a summer mist, not quite solid but peacefully present regardless.

"See? Keep a focus on this feeling. This is what matters right now ok? This is a big moment, you finally have become so self aware. Take the time you need to process this for yourself ok? Y/N can wait long enough for you to get a handle on what this all means for you. And I'm here for you, always."

Pepa nods, a smile starting to take over as we both begin back toward the forgotten Arepas.

Little did I know, Pepa continued to think and ponder her new found situation, coming to terms with her feelings but also finding fear mixed in. There was still quite the journey for my sister in loving Y/N.