Chapter Text
━━━━━ ⊹⊱֎⊰⊹ ━━━━━
TO FIND YOUR
HALF-ORANGE
and other ways to hide
how much i love you
━━━━━ ⊹⊱֎⊰⊹ ━━━━━
THE FIRST TIME HE ASKS HER WHO SHE LOVES, he wasn’t exactly referring to who she was ‘in love’ with. There were so many different forms of love, platonic, familial, romantic, the list just goes on and on. They were too young to completely comprehend which was it.
The first time he asks was completely well-meaning. It was just a question; nothing too heavy. After all, they were only a pair of five-year-olds. It goes just as far as his child-like innocence lasted.
They were wholly unaware of the possibility that love can tear people apart. Not to mention, they’ve been inseparable ever since they were children—
Because before his Corazón became his cousin’s best and only friend, she also happened to be his closest companion.
Because before Mirabel Madrigal was alone, she had Camilo to share the nursery with.
Because before Camilo got his gift, ‘they’ were a band of three consisting of the two Madrigals and that one girl in the village.
The three amigos would venture the town side by side, hands intertwined while the rest of the famous Madrigals continued to do their daily endeavors in helping their small community get by.
But then Camilo receives his miracle.
And then a couple of months later, Mirabel doesn’t get hers.
All of a sudden, their group of three gets torn in half. The young maiden’s attention is suddenly divided between her two friends.
And she perfectly understands (or at least the grown-ups had their fair share of attempts to explain it to her). As the eldest in her family, she’s always been a little too perceptive for her age anyway.
The atmosphere between the two cousins had become tense and awkward. It was difficult for them to be together because although Mirabel Madrigal was the most empathetic among their family, it’s not like the child can control the jealousy gnawing inside her.
It was difficult to suppress her yearning for belongingness.
And putting aside the fact that they were months apart, to Mirabel, Camilo was like a twin. They’ve been together for years, but now it feels like she’s being left behind. She lost her closeness with him alongside the chance of obtaining a miracle.
And that’s exactly what the other girl had become to her;
A safe space.
The Chiquitita was her best friend; a person who saw them for who they were and not merely the stars the Madrigal family was made out to be.
It’s why her two friends adored her so much.
But spending more time with Mirabel meant less time for Camilo— And so, the five-year-old boy can’t really help it when he runs after the maiden who was just about to leave his family home without so much as a word to him.
“Wait! Wait!” little Camilo shouts after the young girl’s departing figure.
At the sound of his voice, his Corazón turns to her mother to ask for a bit more time. She runs to meet him as soon as the woman gives in.
“Cami—”
He beats her into speaking, a look of dismay plastered on his face as he whines, “You’re leaving already?”
“I’ve been here all day, every day, Camilo,” the fellow five-year-old gives him a pointed expression.
“Yeah. Always with Mirabel,” he groans dramatically as if his cousin didn’t deserve to hog the girl all to herself.
“But you’ve been busy helping out all over town ever since you got your gift.”
The boy frowns at her words, there’s a look of defeat that seemed to have fallen over his features.
If getting a gift means losing a friend, then he’d rather do without it—
“Don’t think that,” the maiden chides him almost immediately, perfectly aware that the boy’s cousin yearned for what he had.
Instead of dwelling on her words, Camilo’s eyebrows knit together in confusion as he asked, “You can read my mind?”
“It’s all over your face, Camilo. You're not too different from your Mamita.”
“Ah, whatever,” he rolls his eyes. “Who do you love more anyway, me or Mira—”
“Both of you,” the young girl answers in less than a beat. The smile that forms on her lips warms his heart, but he shakes his head to avoid getting distracted.
“And?” he asks, somehow coming to the conclusion that he can steal her away from Mirabel by using his powers as leverage.
“And what?”
“Who else do you love?”
“Well, my family too, of course.”
“If I look like one of them, can you stay a little longer?”
“No, I have actual brothers and sisters at home to take care of, ‘Milo.”
“Fine,” he pouts.
“But, I’ll be here waiting for you tomorrow. I’ll play with you then.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
His Corazón leaves as soon as she presses her lips against his cheek, giving him a quick peck.
The young boy stands frozen, face flushed crimson despite being fully aware that it was only a common greeting. He only watches her from afar as she laces her hand with her mother’s.
Camilo sighs, truly hoping that Mirabel won’t keep their best friend all to herself tomorrow.
The young shapeshifter only snaps out of his thoughts when his mother walks out of the house to call for him.
Pepa, who catches sight of the distant figures of the mother and daughter, can’t help but wonder, “Who were you talking to, Mijo?”
“Oh, it’s some girl from the village,” Agustín pops up from behind his sister-in-law, having caught sight of the two children earlier on. “Mirabel’s friend was it?”
“She’s not just some girl from the village, and she’s my friend too!” Camilo corrects his Tio rather haughtily before beaming at his mother.
“Well, we’re friends for now but one day I’m going to marry her, Mami.”
Although the little declaration would be adorable to anyone else, tears almost welled up from his mother’s eyes as she triggered a small hurricane.
It was like yesterday when her son was just an infant wrapped in her arms.
The temperamental woman is already rambling on and on as she gushes over her son.
“Ay, Dios Mío! Marry her? You just got a gift a few days ago! My baby’s only five and he already found his media naranja!”
At the sound of the thunder alongside Pepa’s cries, Camilo’s father is immediately by her side.
“Pepi! Deep breaths, Mi Amor,” Félix immediately rushes to soothe her, shooing the storm clouds away. The skies clear up soon enough.
“Mijo, you’re growing up too quickly,” his mother sighs, a soft smile graces her face as she wraps her arms around her son tightly.
The young shapeshifter fails to comprehend what’s making his mother act all… Well, crazy— But that aside, what he truly can’t seem to ignore were the words she had said about his dear friend.
“Media naranja? What’s that, Mami?”
“A half-orange,” his father answers for her, mirroring the expression on his wife’s face albeit a tad bit brighter. “It’s an idiom, Papito. Something you call the person you’re meant to spend the rest of your life with.”
The puzzled expression plastered on his nephew’s face causes Agustín to intercept the couple. “Since two halves make a whole and no other half can match another, they call it a half-orange. Get it?”
“Like Papi and Mami?”
Pepa pulls her son close to her as she gives him a kiss on the forehead endearingly.
“Si, si!” Félix chimes in, “Like me and your Mami.”
And at that moment he thinks, his Corazón was definitely the other half of his orange.