La carta de amor (Encanto fanfic) ON HOLD

A dress for Camilo

When Hernando came back, Rebecca was sitting at the table having breakfast with her little brother Raul.
“Oh papa. Your back. Why are you so red?”
Hernando looked into the mirror hanging in their hallway. His reflection looked back at him, surprised. A blush tainted his face red, and his eyes were blown wide. Quickly he rubbed his eyes, trying to make them go back to normal. When he was satisfied, he turned back to Rebecca.
“Oh. It’s nothing. Just a bit warm outside, isn’t it?”
Rebecca just shrugged not wanting to hear any more details. She was sure that this had something to do with Bruno and she did not want to know what it was, because her father would not stop talking for at least half an hour and she had to leave soon.
“Okay then. I’m going to Mirabel’s soon. I kind of have a gift for her. And she asked me to help her with something.”
Hernando looked at her incredulously. Why had he gone to Casita then? She could have brought Mirabel’s bag with her and the whole panic mode Bruno had conjured up in him wouldn’t have happened.
“Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” Rebecca grinned. She knew that the bag was not necessary,” but the bag was necessary. There was something in there that Mirabel seriously needs.”
There wasn’t. She had just given her father a little nudge in the right direction. Otherwise, he would never be able to ask Bruno out on a date. If she just made them see each other as much as possible, maybe he would finally get the courage to do it.
--
“Well. I’ll be off then.” she said, grabbing her back.
“To your little girlfriend.” Hernando smirked, which made her blush. “I think it’s getting hot in here.”
Rebecca chuckled pointing to the kitchen. “I think that’s the bread burning in the oven.” 
“Oh shit!” Hernando yelled, jumping up to grab his oven mittens. His mother shouted back from upstairs: “Don’t fucking use that shitty language when your standing right in front of your kids, stupido!”
“You’re one to talk!”
“I am!”
He quickly grabbed the bread out of the oven. It was completely black. He really wasn’t good at baking. Seems like he had to visit the bakery again today. At least he was friends with Loretta. She would not judge him for his incompetence. Well, maybe a bit, but it would all be friendly banter.
“Have fun on your date, mija.” He shouted out of the window when Rebecca had already gone on her way.
“Not a date! We’re just hanging out.” She waved goodbye to her father, hurrying on her way. She wanted to see her girlfriend as quickly as possible, already missing her, although they had last seen each other not even 12 hours ago.
“Hanging out. With her girlfriend. Yeah right. That’s my daughter.”
“And I’m your son!” Raul smiled brightly.
“That’s right, Chiquito. That’s why you get some orange juice now.”
Raul cheered. Hernando chuckled, pouring himself and Raul a glass of juice. Then he looked back at his bread. That was definitely not digestible anymore. His eyes wrinkled in disappointment.
“Why can’t you be like the other breads?”
“I don’t think the bread will answer you Papá.” Raul stated, shoving some cereal into his face, while trying to solve the riddle on the back of the box.
“I know Raul.”
--
Rebecca made her way to Mirabel’s room. She struggled to get the door open, masses of fabric laying in front of it. In the middle of the mess stood Mirabel fixated on her sewing machine.
“Watcha doing, amor?” Rebecca asked.
“Dress.” Mirabel said, almost intelligible, because she was holding some pinning needles in the corner of her mouth, biting through some string on the other side.
“Wow.” Rebecca plucked a piece of string from her hair, kissing her forehead,” You’re a mess.”
Mirabel nodded. She couldn’t even deny it. But her and Camilo’s birthday was in a few days and when he told her that he sometimes did not feel like a boy, but a girl she immediately had the idea of a beautiful dress manifesting in her mind. So, before she could forget it, she had quickly drawn it on a piece of paper and immediately sat down, starting to assemble the fabric.
“You wanna help?” she asked, after she had pulled the needles from her mouth, pinning the sleeves into place.
“Sure. But first,” Rebecca rumbled around in her pant pockets to reveal a small box, wrapped in colourful paper with a blue bow on top.
Mirabel chuckled when she turned around, seeing Rebecca hold the box as if it was an engagement ring. If she had been on her knees, she would have thought it to be one. But they were way to young for that.
“My birthday is tomorrow?”
“I know. It’s a present for… for our one-week anniversary.”
“Oh!” Mirabel smiled. “What is it?”
“I can’t tell you. That would spoil the surprise! Just open it.” she said, pressing the little box into Mirabel’s hands, excitedly.
“Okay okay. Relax.”
But Rebecca could not relax. She wanted to see Mirabel’s reaction. Would she like it? She spent a lot of time on it, and it would crush her if she did not like it.
Carefully Mirabel opens the package, revealing a canvas. Drawn on it was a forest, a river flowing through the trees. There were butterflies surrounding it. If she did not know better, she would have thought that it was a photograph, but it was in fact, hand drawn by Rebecca herself. Suddenly Mirabel saw that it is not just some river, it’s the river where she and Abuela finally made up, her favourite place since that day.
Immediately she blushes, little tears forming in her eyes.
“Rebecca. That is so beautiful. How do you even know that that is my favourite place in the Encanto?”
She had never shown it to Rebecca and most people did not even dare to cross the mountains in front of this beautiful place, so there should be no way that she even knew about it.
“What can I say? I just know my girlfriend very well.” when Mirabel wrapped her in a tight hug, she added in a whisper: “And I asked your Tío.”
Mirabel laughed. Of course, she had asked Tío Bruno. He loved to help, especially when it came to his sobrina and making her happy.
She kissed the blush on Rebecca’s cheek, thanking her for the super awesome gift. It made Rebecca blush even more. “De nada.”
Then suddenly Mirabel pushed her away, gasping. Rebecca grabbed her hands, before she could turn around.
“I’m sorry.” Mirabel said, looking at the floor. “I-“
“You feel bad, because you don’t have a gift for me?”
Mirabel only nodded. She did not even have to tell Rebecca. She was good at reading people, even without them saying anything. It was obvious that she already knew before Mirabel could even say anything. It still embarrassed her a bit. She had not even noticed that it had already been a week since Rebecca’s confession and them getting together.
“Hey. It’s fine.” Rebecca said, stroking her cheek lovingly, “I don’t need a gift. I mean not like I never would like one itwouldbeniceformybirthdayorsomething but-“
“Woah woah woah. Calm down, Becca. The gift is awesome, and I love you very much.” She kissed her once more, this time a quick peck on the lips.
It immediately shut Rebecca up. But after a while, when she had pulled herself together again, she eyed Mirabel suspiciously.
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Nope. Not really.” She admitted.
Mirabel thought for a second, before an evil smile appeared on her face.
“Well, there is only one thing that can make you feel better.”
Rebecca gasped, trying to wring her hands free from where Mirabel was still holding them.
“Oh no. Please!”
“Oh yes. There is no escape, Rebecca.”
They both looked to the door, which Casita was slowly closing, already knowing what Mirabel was planning.
“No please.”

“Too late.” Then Mirabel pounced on her, tickling her sides. Rebecca shrieked, laughing, and tried to turn them around, but Mirabel was stronger than her.
“Amor. Stop. Please!”
“Never!”
--
There was a knock on the door. Quickly Mirabel stopped showering Rebecca’s face in kisses and threw herself onto the dress fabric as naturally as possible. It did, in fact, not look very natural at all. Rebecca stood before her grabbing Mirabel’s blanket and draped it around herself like a cape, spreading it, so Mirabel and the fabric were barely visible.
The door opened.
“Ho-la…?” Mariano stopped in his tracks, a look of puzzlement crossing his face. His eyes wandered from Rebecca to Mirabel on the floor and back.
“Are you okay? I heard screaming and thought I should check on you I guess.”
Mirabel and Rebecca sighed in relief.
“Oh, thank God. It’s just you Mariano.”
Mariano scoffed, whipping his hair back. “Just me? I believe I am worth more than that.” He smiled, clearly meaning it as a joke. Mirabel returned the smile finally standing up. She punched his shoulder in a friendly way.
“Of course, you are, you big dumb hunk!” Mariano ruffled her hair for that, which made her laugh.
“Thank you. I worked hard to get this body.”
All the while Rebecca was watching them. Their relationship reminded her so much of her and her little brother. She could see that Mariano loved being a part of la Familia Madrigal. Rebecca did not really know what had happened with Mariano’s family, she had never asked. The only thing that she did know was that he lived alone with his grandmother. Isabela had told her and Mirabel once that he was a pretty sad kid, when she had first met him.
She couldn’t imagine that. Mariano was always smiling, always happy. Imagining him looking down seemed impossible.
Mirabel shook her head. He really saw everything as a compliment (Not that she wanted to insult him).
“I’m actually glad that you are here. Could you maybe help me with something.”
Mariano’s eyes lit up. He loved helping others. Immediately he agreed, asking what she needed help with. He hoped it wasn’t math.
He was really bad at math. Always had been. His teachers had talked to his grandmother, believing that he just didn’t want to participate in class and that he just needed to try harder. Soon after he found out that he had dyscalculia and then it all made sense. His grandmother had immediately called the school, screaming at the teacher for being a bad teacher and actually drove him to resign.
“Sorry,” he asked, snapping out of his thoughts, when Rebecca snapped her fingers in front of his face,” What should I help with? Anything for my favourite almost cousin!”
“O-kay. Calm down there. You and Dolores have been together for what? Like a month?” Rebecca asked.
“That’s longer than you.” Mariano stated, to which Rebecca put up her hands in a “Calm down” gesture.
“Yo. No need to get defensive, bro.”
Mirabel stopped their quarrelling when she held up the dress now with the sleeves attached neatly.
“I need you to wear this dress.” she said as serious as possible. “It’s for Camilo.”
Mariano shrugged, eyeing the dress.
“Sure. But don’t you think it might be a bit to small? I am not really Camilo’s body type.”
“True.” Rebecca smirked, “you’re only his type.” She wiggled her eyebrows, which earned her a slap to the shoulder by Mirabel, as well as a confused look by Mariano.
“Rebecca, don’t.” Mirabel scolded. Then she turned towards Mariano, elaborating on her request.
“Bruno is too slim. And I would have asked Hernando, but he is… well Hernando is too beefy.”
Rebecca turned towards her, uncomfortable. “That’s fine,” she shrugged helplessly, “My girlfriend just called my dad beefy!”
“Well, he is. And I chose you not your dad.”
“It would be really weird if you had. Not just for me…”
Mirabel chuckled, kissing her cheek in apology.
Suddenly they heard a sniffle. It came from Mariano. He had pressed his hands to his heart, trying to force down the tears in his eyes. Still, he was smiling. Rebecca and Mirabel had absolutely no idea what had made Mariano cry like that.
He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, blowing his nose.
“What happened to him?” Mirabel asked.
Rebecca shrugged. “Allergies?”
“No,” Mariano admitted, still sniffling, “it’s just,” he gestured towards them,” your love. It’s so pure and beautifu-u-ul.” he broke off with a loud sob.
Rebecca was a bit overwhelmed. “Thank you? I think.”
--
When Mariano had calmed down a bit he agreed once more to wear the dress, taking the dress with him to change. Being a gentleman, he of course did not get changed in front of his 15-year-old almost cousin and her girlfriend.
He came back a few minutes later, this time knocking and waiting until they told him to come in and struck a pose.
“Wow.” Rebecca said, “it looks great. Even though it’s a bit tight on Mariano.”
“I didn’t get the zipper up.”
“That’s okay.” Mirabel reassured him. He asked if he could show it to Dolores and Mirabel did not have a reason to disagree. So, he ran over to Dolores door.
She stared at him, after she had opened the door, to stunned to speak. She needed a moment before she raised an eyebrow, asking: “Mariano. You- What are you wearing?”
“It’s a dress,” he explained, to which Dolores could only shake her head. She knew what a dress was of course, she was wearing one herself. What she did not quite understand was, why Mariano was wearing one – and one that was way to small for him.
“Isn’t it pretty? Mirabel made it. She asked me to model for her.”
Dolores smiled, looking him up and down. He looked so happy, and she couldn’t help but brighten as well.
“Yes. It’s very pretty, amor,” she sighed, “She did pretty well.”
“Pretty well?!” Mariano gasped, “that is SUCH an understatement. ¡Es un vestido muy fabuloso! I. Love. It!”
Mirabel smiled, slightly uncomfortable from the praise. She did her best, she explained this as well, but she did not think it looked that great. Rebecca disagreed, reassuring her that she did an amazing job.
“Gosh you sound like my dad.” Dolores said. Mariano now stood behind her, hugging her waist, his head placed on her shoulder.
“Well. I like your dad. I want to be like your dad. He’s cool.”
“Rebecca. Stop.” Mirabel begged.
“You said my dad was beefy, but I can’t say your Tío is cool?”
“Yeah. I heard that,” Dolores shuddered, “I wish I didn’t.”
Sometimes her cousin really was something else. Especially when she got excited and couldn’t keep her voice down. This happened more frequently when she was younger and annoyed Dolores to no end. Because having super sensitive hearing meant that she heard people speaking normally when they whispered. So, when Mirabel started shouting, it was as if a jet plane was starting right next to her ear.
She had shouted at Mirabel many times because of it. She wished she hadn’t. It severely destroyed their relationship. Sometimes she thought she was the cause of Mirabel not getting as excited as she used to anymore.
“Anyways,” Rebecca said, showing them a sketch on a piece of paper.” Look. I made this pattern for the dress.”
The pattern consisted of Chameleons, lined up with white flowers in between the animals.
“Do you think your brother will like it?” She turned her gaze onto Dolores, who clutched the hem of her top in relief. It was for Camilo not Mariano.
“Yeah. He’ll like it very much.”
Of course, Mariano had seen the gesture she had made, immediately assuming that she did not like the sight of Mariano in a dress. He pouted, telling her that she could tell him if she didn’t want him to wear dresses in front of her.
“No. It’s not that, amor!” she said, caressing his cheek, “The dress is just… a bit small. And your so… big and strong.”
“But I like the dress too!”
That was when Mirabel barged into their conversation.
“I can make you one as well if you want Mariano.”
Mariano gasped, wiggling in excitement. “You would?”
“Of course.” Mariano beamed at the prospect of getting his own dress. Mirabel’s dresses were always so pretty, and he liked how they did not restrict his movements as much as the tight pants his Abuela always bought him. She said they accentuated his legs, but he just wanted to be comfortable.
He thanked Mirabel, then turned back to Dolores.
“You’re right. This dress doesn’t really fit me. But I think you would look stunning in it.” he kissed her cheek right on top of the blush that was building on them.
Suddenly they heard the rattle of a doorhandle being pushed down. Dolores knew that it was Camilo’s door.
“It’s Camilo.”
Mirabel panicked, looking around for a place to hide Mariano. The easiest solution would have probably been her own room, or Dolores’. But she certainly had not thought of them when she opened the portrait leading into the foundations of Casita, and pushed Mariano in.
He fell backwards, landing on something with a loud crack. Frightened he jumped up, not quite able to tell what he had fallen on and promptly banged his head on the ceiling. When the something groaned painfully, he knew. It was Bruno.
Camilo, who was now standing next to the picture, furrowed his brows. He eyed the wall.
“What was that?”
“Probably the rats.” Mirabel explained, shoving her body between Camilo and the picture with an awkward smile.
Inside the walls, Bruno had finally gotten up with the help of Mariano.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. He had no idea how Mariano had managed to find the hidden entrance. There were only two people who knew about it. He and… Mirabel. She had probably told him about it. This family really was not the best at keeping secrets.
“Mirabel kind of… threw me in here.” He gestured vaguely to the back of the painting, then throughout the corridor. His eyes started to get used to the darkness and he looked around. He had never thought that the room in between some walls could be big enough to accommodate two grown men. Well, one grown man and a small, thin Bruno.
Bruno looked him up and down.
“Is that a dress your wearing?”
“Yep.” Mariano kept his voice down even more, knowing that Camilo would hear him if he talked louder than necessary. But it was hard because he was so excited about the dress.
“It’s for.” He didn’t want to say his name in fear of the boy hearing, so he signed it. To his surprise, Bruno understood.
“Good. That really isn’t your colour.”
“You’re one to talk. You have salt everywhere.” he moved his hand in a circle over Bruno’s ruana.
“Touché.” Bruno said. Then he remembered how Mariano had signed Camilo’s name instead of saying it.
“How do you know sign language?”
“When I was younger, I sometimes just wasn’t able to talk. It was like my voice was not working anymore. But my Abuela still wanted to talk to me and because my Abuelo couldn’t here that well he knew sign language and taught it to me. So, every time I couldn’t talk my Abuela would ask me questions and I would sign the answer to her. That made everything so much easier. I don’t have that as much today, but it’s still helpful in some situations. Like, when Dolores is so overwhelmed with sounds that she snaps if anyone talks. Then I can just sign to her. Although few people understand it. So why can you?”
Bruno chuckled awkwardly.
“Well. Initially I learned it for Dolores. But it also helped when I ‘left’. Living in the walls ten years, you can’t really talk cause then my family would have gotten suspicious. So sometimes, when I wanted to talk to my rats, but knew that I couldn’t really say things aloud because the others would here, I would just sign it to them.”
On the other sight of the painting Dolores had pressed her lips to a thin line. She could hear every word they said. “God. Please stop talking.” she thought and knocked a small knock on the wall to get their attention. Unfortunately, Camilo had heard the voices as well.
“Did the picture just… talk?”
“No!” Rebecca and Mirabel shouted, telling him that they had no idea what he was talking about, he was probably imagining things.
Camilo eyed them, suspicious.
“Okay…” He knew they wouldn’t tell him, even if he asked, so he just shrugged it off. “I’m going to Felipe’s now. Do you need anything from Jorge?”
Mirabel shook her head, the awkward smile still plastered on her face. “No gracias.”
“Your loss. Bye.” with that he sauntered down the stairs, waving goodbye.
When they heard the front door shut everyone breathed a sigh of relieve. That was close.
The picture opened slowly, Mariano peaking outside. “Is he gone?”
“Yeah. You can come out.”
--
Camilo opened the door to Felipe’s room. As always, he had just let himself into the house. The door was never locked. He didn’t really know how they had never been robbed before, but he also did not want to question it. It would probably be something like: “Oh yeah. We just give Juancho coffee and then he can play guard dog.” It wouldn’t surprise him if that really was the case.
When Camilo came into the room, Felipe was sitting on his desk staring towards the other side of the room, where his broken TV stood. He had a marker in his hand, drawing onto his opposite arm. Camilo was sure that he was at least a little high.
“Felipe. What are you doing?”
Felipe did not even look at him. His eyes were fixed on his arm.
“I’m looking at the stars.”
“It’s not even dark outside.”
Now Felipe looked up, showing him his arm. It was full of star shapes, some smaller, some bigger. They were all precisely in the right shape. No one knew how he was so good at drawing them. Not even Rebecca could do it.
“Look. It’s the milky way. Well, more like the cocoa way.” he giggled, almost falling of the desk with how much he was shaking from laughing.
Camilo just sighed, catching him when he really did fall of the desk.
“How high are you?”
“Like 5’9’’, why?”
Slowly he pushed Felipe towards the bed, on which he promptly fell. Where were the others? Luciano and Tomás were supposed to be here as well. They could help him with whatever happened to Felipe. But no. He had to do it all by himself. Sometimes he really questioned how Felipe and he became best friends. He asked where their friends were.
Felipe just gazed at him seriously. “My dad ate them.”
“What?”
“Yeah.” he swayed, his head falling onto Camilo’s shoulder. Then he slid of the bed.
“I saw it with my own ears!”
“Felipe.” He did not even know what to say to that. He was fairly sure that Jorge had not eaten their friends, although the possibility was always there. He wanted to help Felipe, but if he didn’t know what was wrong, he couldn’t. The best solution was probably sleeping.
“You need to take a nap.”
“No…” he pouted, “I’m not-“ He couldn’t even finish his sentence, promptly falling asleep.
With another sigh, Camilo shifted into Jorge and grabbed Felipe, pushing him onto the bed once more. Thankfully, Jorge was strong. Camilo would never have gotten Felipe up in his normal form.
Suddenly the door opened. He hoped it was one of his friends. Unfortunately, it was Jorge. The man screamed in surprise.
“Oh my god it’s me! What is happening?”
“Jorge, calm down.” Camilo said, shifting back into himself, holding his hands up. “It’s me. Camilo. Your friendly neighbourhood shapeshifter.”
Jorge sighed in relief. “Oh, thank God. I thought I was going insane.”
Camilo chuckled. “You? Going insane? I couldn’t imagine.”
“I know! Me neither!” Jorge said, finally looking towards his son.
“What happened to him?”
“I have no idea.”
Jorge shrugged. Knowing Felipe, this was pretty normal behaviour for him. He pushed a blanket over Felipe’s body, then turned back to Camilo, asking him if he would like some cookies.
“Don’t worry. I did not bake them myself. They’re from the bakery.”
Camilo, who had been suspicious at first, knowing that Jorge wasn’t the greatest cook, agreed, relieved that they would probably not kill him.