Chapter Text
La casita Madrigal. You never thought you'd see it up this close. Even standing a few mere feet away from it, you could feel the liveliness in the walls, as its' familial aura and welcoming visage made you feel more at home than in your own little house. It was gorgeous and simplistic, yet still rustic and detailed in the most perfect ways that just showed off how cultural the family lying beneath it's outward posterior truly were.
It truly was a perfect house.
You glance at Mirabel nervously, as she awkwardly stares back at you with a confused lopsided grin. "Uh.. You okay over there?" She asks as you stare in awe at the beauty in front of you, a slight feeling of jealousy running underneath your veins as it hits you that this is the place she lives . You couldn't even imagine how homely it was just to step one foot inside. I mean, you could, you were only a couple steps from doing so, but anxiety and wonder kept you frozen in place as your jaw continues to drop.
You nod back at her after a little while and jump when she slaps your chin with the back of her hand to keep you from accidentally swallowing a bee that just so happened to be pollinating the gorgeous flowers decorating the windows. Not like you'd mind, it would simply give you another chance to eat Julieta's wonderful cooking like that one time in town square.
"You.. you live here."
"Mhm."
"Every single day you walk through these doors without having to be invited."
"Yep."
"In La Casa Madrigal."
"Well, we prefer to call it casita, but that's reserved for family members only-"
You playfully punch her arm to stop her from taking advantage of her bragging rights. Who cared if she didn't have a gift, right? Being born into a family so special most have been gift enough. Mirabel snickers in return and adjusts her glasses when her nose scrunches in laughter, before she grabs your arm and pulls weakly. "Come on," She whines, "Let's go, you're only like a footstep away from going inside, and the sun is killing me."
After a few seconds of nervous glancing and standing, you realize that maybe, yeah, she's right. Colombia could be absolutely terrible on sunny days, and you had to assume Mirabel's tia Pepa must be having a bad day because wow was it steaming hot.
You finally let your guard down and allow Mirabel to drag you inside the house, and as soon as you step foot inside you feel this absolute feeling of glorification, like the world was revolving around you, like the air was glowing, like you had just entered a dream and you did not want to leave. Everything was alive inside of La Casa Madrigal. You were definitely going to ask for sleepovers in the future, naps here must be absolutely wonderful .
In the midst of your excitement, you hear someone yell, "Mama I'm here!" and assume it must be Mirabel. She shouts something about having someone she'd like to meet, but you're so entranced by the architecture of the house you don't even notice the thumping footsteps behind you before you're lifted into the air by a pair of strong arms in an extremely tight embrace that left you quite literally breathless.
"So, this is the little friend you've been talking about, eh lil' sis?"
Ah, Luisa.
You wheeze and groan as the woman basically suffocates you in her hug with the amount of sheer strength, but at the same time you could feel appreciation and love in her vice like embrace. Mirabel notices your predicament and pulls you down from Luisa's arms and you take a huge breath, feeling as if though you had just had the air ripped from your lungs in the matter of a couple seconds. She glares up at Luisa as she bashfully rubs the back of her neck, muttering a small apology, "It's easy to forget my own strength, you know how it is."
Sure.
A smile graces your face despite your former state and you formally greet the large woman in front of you with a handshake, and introduce yourself. Something in the way she smirks and mutters your name under her breath in an attempt to remember it makes your face feel warm, but you soon forget it as a relatively soft yet pokey ring is placed on top of your head. From your peripheral vision, you can make out a soft pink and white flourish, and you soon realize that someone has placed a flower crown on your head.
Isabela, you assume, and you're proven right as you turn around to meet the culprit, and are met with quite literally one of the most gorgeous faces you have ever seen in your life. She has a wide and beautiful grin spread on her face and you can't help but reciprocate it with a thank you for the crown. "Don't mention it," She tells you, with an incredibly smooth tone of voice, "A friend of Mira is a soon to be best friend of mine." Oh. Condescending. A small bit of you doesn't like the way she worded that, but you ignore it in favor of Mirabel -who was now in the kitchen- yelling for you so you could come and greet her mother.
You tell the sisters "Gotta go, sorry!" and sprint your way throughout the house, ending up making a wrong turn and being pushed by the literal floors of the house itself in the right direction, where you end up face to face with Mirabel again. Wow. You have got to get used to that if you want to make a habit of coming over.
She giggles at your surprised face and pulls you over to the stove, where the wonderful Julieta was cooking up some arepas con queso, and the flames stopping automatically tells you that 'Casita' has alerted her of your presence. Julieta turns her head and yet again, you are met with an incredible and wonderful smile. You see where Isabela gets it from. She hugs you -much softer than her oldest did before- and greets you with shoving an already fully cooked arepa in your mouth, and immediately you are filled with warmth and happiness and you feel like every single problem in your life has melted away.
"Oh Mira, what a wonderful gift you've brought us here!" You bashfully shake your head in an attempt to assuage the fact that you were not a gift, in fact quite the opposite, but she cuts you off with a shush and a basket of fully made snacks placed carefully in your hands. "Mira has never brought anyone over before, and I want you to have the best experience possible while you're here, so hush and take these up with Mirabel into her room so the two of you can share them."
Oh, okay, well, who were you to say no, really? If the best cook in your village just gave you literally an entire basket full of freshly baked food, you weren't going to say no, would you?
You look over to Mirabel, who shrugs and grabs your arm again so you could meet the rest of the family. Abuela, la tia Pepa -who was in a bad mood, score!-, her unashamedly in love husband Felix, the adorable little bundle of joy that was Antonio, and lastly would have been the apparent Camilo, who, apparently, was nowhere to be found. (She mentions something about a tio Bruno, but apparently no one is allowed to talk about him.)
Mirabel brushes it off as another of Camilo's mischievous outings into the town, playing pranks on poor unassuming people, using his gift to just simply bring joy in odd little ways. Oh well, you'd probably see him later, or even the next time you came over, because there was no way that you would ever pass up an opportunity to visit again.
You reach Mirabel's room and she immediately shuts the door. You jump as she slams it close, and she guiltily tells you, "Sorry- I just know my family can be a lot sometimes, and I don't want you to be uncomfortable." How were you going to tell her that you were the absolute opposite of uncomfortable? You had never felt such a huge presence of love and joy in a single household, and despite their contrasting personas and ways of greeting, you felt so.. great.
"I mean-" You mumble around a mouthful of pastry, "I like them. I like it here . It's so homey."
"Yeah well, that's what happens in La Casita Madrigal huh?"
The two of you talk for a while, munching on snacks and playing around with each other's hair or nails. At one point you steal poor Mirabel's glasses and run around her room as she feebly tries to get them back in a fit of laughter that rendered both of your bodies weak. She continues to give you more exposition on her family, and takes turns mimicking her siblings and cousins, and you can't help but giggle at the way she rants about how "annoying" they all are. You can tell she's just being playful, Mirabel truly was a loving person when it came down to it.
But alas, the two of you had run out of food to binge on as you continue your conversations, and before Mirabel can even get up to ask her mom for more food, you decide that you would go down to the kitchen and ask for more. After all you may be the guest but you were you to make a Madrigal do any work. Besides, you wanted to explore more of Casita and this gave you an excuse to do so.
The two of you dramatically share goodbyes as you take the basket from the room and out into the vast corridors of the house, and you realize you don't know where you are or even where the stairs are. Welp, you feel a little regretful of not letting Mirabel get some more food herself, but you think to yourself that if you get too lost, you'll just be pushed into the right direction again. Literally.
After a while though, you think that maybe Casita does not in fact want to help you this time, and you wander aimlessly around the hallways in a small fit of panic because what if you never found the exit? What if you died in here? Obviously you were overreacting a little bit but you had a reason to.
Panic floods away from your body as you bump into someone's chest, and you sigh in relief to know that you were not, in fact, lost. You look up and expect to see someone like el tio Felix, or maybe even Luisa, but nope. In fact, you're met with a face that you hadn't seen just yet. Sure, you recognized him, but the way he stared down at you with a raised eyebrow and a smirk made your heart race. In a good or bad way, you just don't know.
Camilo Madrigal.
Wow. Okay. He was much more handsome up close. Sharp features, perfectly tan skin, gorgeous curly hair. You had seen photos and had caught his eye a couple times during ceremonies or just simply passing by the family in town, but. Wow.
"Well, hello there."
You stammer.
"I- Um- H- Hello.."
He chuckles, "Mira's friend, I assume? She did say she was bringing someone over, wasn't she?"
His voice. His laugh. His tone. His face. His hair. His everything .
And oh dear he's grabbing your hand. Oh he's bending over. Oh he's kissing your hand. Oh that kiss lasted longer than expected.
As you stare in awe and nervousness at the handsome boy bent over you, kissing the back of your hand, you think that maybe , just maybe you were having a dream.
"Oh how rude of me, I completely forgot to introduce myself. The name's Camilo, for now. Might change it later, might not. Might change it to yours so I can inspect you a bit better."
Oh.
How wonderful. Camilo Madrigal, the middle child of Pepa and Felix Madrigal, the one gifted with the power of shapeshifting, has just not only kissed your hand, but told you he'd form into you so he can continue to look at your body.
This is not a dream.
How absolutely magical.
You continue to stammer as he winks at you and brushes against you when he walks past you. You're frozen in place, from flusteredness, fear, confusion as to how you were going to explain to Mirabel why you were gone for 10 minutes, and so many other reasons that your brain just wouldn't allow you to comprehend.
And suddenly you feel yourself being pulled towards the kitchen, and it dawns on you that this was planned. This was planned by the sentient house of your best friend.
You were definitely going to visit again.