Friends For Life... And Death. - A Coco Fiction

Better When I'm Dancing

Over the year, Kat and Héctor play music to try and get some money. Kat's technically too young to work, and Héctor has virtually nothing, so they do the best they can. Then Día de los Muertos comes around again. The pair approach the bridge, but Héctor hangs back. Kat looks at him.

"I can't cross over." He admits, clearly upset and shameful that he can't. "Nobody's ever put up my photo."

"Well, it's worth a shot, right?" Kat offers, gesturing for him to come up. He reluctantly follows.

"Go on ahead." The lady says cheerily. Kat and Héctor start to go, the latter looking surprised, but the woman stops him. "Not you. I was talking to the girl."

"What?" Both tío and sobrina ask at the same time. The lady gives them both a sympathetic look.

"Lo siento, but nobody put your photo up." She apologizes. She gestures to Kat with a smile. "Her photo is up on her family's and her tía's ofrendas."

"But-" Héctor starts in an upset tone. Kat quickly walks over to him and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"It's fine, Héctor. I can go, and I'll tell you what's up when I get back. I'm sure there's just some mistake." She tells him. He sighs, then nods and goes to wait on a bench. She reluctantly goes to the bridge, then takes a step on it. Quetzalcoatl Yanks her dress collar, then lets go and flies further over the bridge. She follows him to the other side, and steps back on solid ground.

She walks around, then finds her house. There's an ofrenda in one of the rooms, and Kat spots the mother of the household setting a basket of fruit next to her photo. She goes in to the house, and takes a nectarine from the pile. A ghostly version of it enters her hand. She grabs a peach and plum as well before leaving. As she walks out of the house, she tosses the plum to Quetzalcoatl. The bat snatches it up and flies off. Her next stop is at the Rivera house. In the ofrenda room, Imelda prepares offerings for her family. The woman leaves, and Socorro runs in. She quickly replaces the photo of Katrina with another familiar one. Kat recognizes the picture of her and Héctor after that performance.

She follows the little girl to an attic-like space, where she's setting up her own little ofrenda. She puts the picture of Kat on it, then puts a plate of street tacos next to the photo. She runs off again, and comes back with the second photo that has Héctor in it.

"Very clever, Socorro." Kat remarks, grinning. She realizes what this means and quickly leaves.

Kat races through town, over the bridge, and quickly shows the person at the desk her offerings before running up to Héctor. Without a word, she drags him to his feet and to the desk again. The lady from before checks her book again, then smiles and gestures for them to go.

"H-hurry up, before someone takes down your photo!" Kat pants, dragging Héctor onto the bridge.

As soon as they reach it, Kat goes on top of the petals and Héctor goes through. She notices, but keeps going. She has to see what's going on.

She walks down the street, some spirits staring at the angry young girl. Quetzalcoatl follows closely, looking back at the bridge. Kat ignores his whimpers. When she reaches the Rivera house, she sees Coco running up to Imelda, who's washing clothes. Curiously, she goes to listen.

"Mamá?" Coco asks innocently. Imelda looks back with a smile, and Coco looks at the ground. "When will Papá be home?"

Imelda doesn't answer, but turns away angrily. The little girl doesn't catch on, and tugs at her mother's dress.

"Do you think he'll be sad when he finds out about Kat?" Socorro continues wonderingly. Both Imelda and Katrina cringe at the question. "When is he coming home?"