Julieta Madrigal x reader

He loved her first

warning: angst.

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You knew something was wrong when you heard the door of your house open and close quickly. Your visitor's footsteps were quick and erratic and in just a few seconds, an agitated Julieta Madrigal appeared in front of you. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears.

You quickly abandoned your job and ran to your best friend. The brunette was trembling and her hands were cold. She worried you to death.

"Not again" you whispered

"I-I'm sorry"

"Julieta, you promised you wouldn't let this happen again" you scolded softly.

"I know, I just...had to help" she sighed "I had to because-"

"For the people. For Encanto" you interrupted.

Julieta shivered a bit at your tone of voice, but she just nodded. You knew that speech backward and forward, it was a terrible speech, worn out, empty, and full of lies.

Carefully, you guided the older woman to a chair and hurried to get a blanket. You hated when this happened.

It was no secret to anyone that one of the most useful gifts of the Madrigal family was Julieta's. She could heal with food, for God's sake! Of course people would take full advantage of this! Even after the whole thing with the candle, even after seeing the stress they put the whole family through, even after agreeing not to rely on them so much, Julieta was still the most used.

It was a miracle within a miracle. The woman who could cure all ills, big or small. Alma's golden daughter, the perfect girl, the one who was always smiling, the one who never reproached anything, the one who always had open arms and accepted everything.

But you could see through her mask. You could see the pain and fear in her eyes, the weariness in her walk. You could hear her heart cry out, pleading, begging for a break. "Make them stop, please"

Because something that no one else knew, was the counterpart of her powers. Julieta could heal anything, yes, but the pain is part of being human, something natural that everyone has to go through from time to time. Every time she healed someone, she interrupted that natural cycle, and the pain just wouldn't go away, it had to go somewhere.

Naturally, it was going to end in Julieta.

Every time she healed someone, she absorbed their pain. And she had been healing hundreds of people every day, for years. Her bones were already rotten, her veins no longer ran blood but fear. And you couldn't do anything but try to relieve some of that, while your heart broke to see her smile, pretending that everything was fine and knowing that she was dying inside.

"Drink this," you said softly, pushing a cup of tea into her trembling hands, "it will help you."

Julieta simply nodded, enjoying the heat emanating from the cup. For you, it had been nearly impossible to hold it as it was so hot, but you knew it was the only way she could get any heat. By now, she couldn't even feel the temperatures well anymore. Her hands almost didn't distinguish between hot or cold, so her wrists had more and more burn marks. She couldn't feel it when she burned herself with the frying pan.

"I don't want to die, Y/N" she sobbed, snapping you out of your thoughts

"You won't" you said quickly, taking her in your arms "you'll be fine"

"How?" she asked "what power do you have to stop this?"

You tried to think of a good answer, but you knew she was right. You couldn't do anything to stop an entire village. You had begged her to speak, to tell all the pain she felt, perhaps that way they would understand, but she had been afraid of disappointing her family, and then, by the time the change of heart had occurred, she had already begun to lose sensitivity, for which no longer saw the case. It was already too late.