Stars Burn - CamiloxM!Reader

Regrets - Part 24

  I followed mama’s advice and looked around Casita for anything left. I let my feet drag across the rubble and plaster, the dirt, the earth.
  I moved in slow zig zags looking for anything remaining. I placed my hand on a large piece of concrete. The cold sensation traveled up my arm causing me to jump back for a moment. I replaced my hand on the side to peer around the corner.

  To my surprise something was there. My ukulele.
Broken.

“So this is where my room fell.” I muttered before letting out a sigh.

  I grabbed the neck of my old ukulele and surveyed the damage. The body has a large break horizontal of the sound hole. Though surprisingly food where the break is, the saddle, bridge, and strings are all intact. Though I’m sure my strings are a little worse for wear at the moment.
  I removed my other hand that was still hanging onto the concrete piece to the bottom of my ukulele.

Just looking at it makes me kind of sad.

  To see it in such a state, I brought my beloved instrument to my chest and let it rest there as I continued searching.

  Piece after piece of concrete and rubble, searching for anything. Then finally I caught something out the condor of my eye, an orange piece of something.
  I walked slowly towards it. I placed my uke down, flat on the ground to dig up whatever was left in this rubble. I grasped onto the cold chunks left of our house throwing them to the side only to find Antonio’s handmade leopard?

  Looking into it’s button eyes, I could feel the tears swelling up in my eyes once more. He was so happy about getting this…from Mirabel. She made this for him. Should I give it back?

  Mirabel is missing at the moment and maybe giving him something like this would make things worse. What if she really isn’t coming back? I don’t know too much about things on the outside of the Encanto but from what I hear it isn’t great. That’s even if she’d be able to get that far.
  I continued holding the little stuffed animal before bringing it close to my chest, squeezing it tightly. Giving it a little hug.  I’m sure the poor thing was scared too. Every little detail on this thing was handcrafted by Mira.
  She always has been very good with things like this. It’s amazing to see just how much better she’s gotten since we were kids.

  I scoffed before even realizing it. I haven’t actually hung out with Mira very much since we were kids. Not enough for her to make anything, not even long enough to see her make anything for anyone else.
  What happened? I took a deep breath while shaking my head. I need to stop.
  Feeling regretful right now isn’t going to do anything.

  I need to finish looking around then i can give Toñito his stuffed animal back. I have a feeling the two of them need each other right now.
I shuffled back over to mama holding only my broken uke and Toñito’s stuffed animal in my arms. She stood up to meet me halfway, looking into my arms at what I found.
 
“Oh, I’m glad you found your ukulele! It doesn’t seem to be too badly damaged, right?”

  I just shrugged my shoulders, keeping my eyes down on the objects in my arms. I turned my gaze past my arms to see that Antonio was standing right beside mama. He was holding onto the bottom of her dress, staring up at me.
  I let a small smile rest on my lips before kneeling down so that he could see his stuffed animal. At first he was confused but when his eyes met the dusted button ones, he smiled. He grabbed onto the stuffed animal and gave it a hug the same way I did.

“Thank you.” Antonio said quietly before returning to his former spot beside mama.

  I stood back up and sat my ukulele down beside where mama was sitting before. Mama walked past me to return to her seat where Antonio sat in her lap. He sat the stuffed animal in his lap and moved the front two paws around, trying to mirror everything he was doing.

“Thank you for helping out, Camilo.” Mama chimed in, breaking me from my thoughts.

“It’s no problem.” I said with a small smile.

That’s when a different figure started towards us, holding something else.

Who?

  I squinted my eyes trying to make out who it was. I didn’t know anyone else was looking around for things but I guess someone was.
  The closer the figure got the more it was looking familiar. Was it dad or Tìo Agustin? I squinted my eyes a bit more to make out the familiar shape, that’s when I realized who it was.

Andrés.

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823 words