Work Text:
Dolores woke up one morning with the distinct feeling that she was hearing something new.
This was a rare occurrence for the woman, especially since she’d had her gift for almost twenty years. She’d long learned what nearly everything sounded like, from snoring chickens to…certain activities that she’d had to ask her papá to explain; she’d asked her mamá, but the resulting thunderstorm had left her ears ringing for hours.
So the idea of a new sound left her rather excited, if mildly cautious.
Dolores contemplated the sound through her morning routine, leaving her husband to gently snore in their bed for a while longer.
It wasn’t a harsh sound, like the snapping of bone (Dios did she hate that one, no matter how quickly her tía could put it to rights), nor was it particularly heavy like the roll of a full barrel.
Dolores quietly hummed as she exited her room and made her way downstairs, her hand trailing along the banister, tapping intermittently.
She paused on the steps and considered her hand. She experimented for a moment, tapping it with one finger.
“Hoo,” she smiled. That was it! Well- close at least. She tapped her finger again, comparing it to the noise that hadn’t ceased since she’d noticed it. It was similar, but the noise she heard had a beat to it, a kind of rhythm. She continued tapping as she finished making her way downstairs and to the kitchen to help set the table.
“Morning, Dolores,” Mirabel called, already putting down the plates.
“Buenas,” Dolores hummed distractedly, grabbing the utensils and setting them along the plates, tapping whenever she had a free hand. Mirabel eyed her prima, noting the odd behavior.
“Everything okay?”
“Hm?” the elder prima squeaked.
“The tapping,” Mira gestured with a plate, chuckling lightly. “You’re reminding me of Tío Bruno.”
“What’s reminding you of me?” Bruno said mid-yawn as he shambled into the room.
“My tapping. Good morning tío,” Dolores smiled, still thrilled after all this time that she could say that loudly after a decade of having to whisper to the wall and hoping he heard.
“Morning, tío!” Mirabel grinned, surprised to see her uncle before breakfast was ready. “You’re up early.”
“Uh- yup!” Bruno started, smiling widely, “Just- uh -really felt like getting a jump on the day for once, yanno?”
“He never went to sleep. Hmp,” Dolores threw out, not looking up from her latest attempt to match the sound.
“Dolores,” Bruno weakly pouted at one sobrina while the other finished placing the plates and was now staring him down with her arms akimbo.
“Bruno! We’ve talked about this,” Mirabel scolded.
“Ay, you sound like your Mamá,” Bruno groaned goodnaturedly. “Kinda look like her, too.”
“I heard that!” Julieta yelled from the kitchen. “And my mija is right!”
“Gracias, Mamá,” Mira yelled back before wincing. “Ooh- discuple, Dolores.”
“Hm?” Dolores looked up confused, too focused on her tapping to even notice the yelling.
“Alright, seriously,” Mirabel said, forgetting her tío for the moment, who used the distraction to slip into the kitchen unnoticed. “What is up with the tapping?”
“Hm- oh! Nothing. I’m just trying to figure out what this sound is,” Dolores explained as she finally finished setting the table.
“What sound?”
“I don’t know,” Dolores tilted her head with a small smile. “I just started hearing it when I woke up this morning.” Mira tilted her head as well, but couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary and soon gave up. She doubted she could have heard it anyway.
“Huh. But you don’t know what it is?” Dolores' smile grew into a grin.
“No, I don’t, and honestly? I’m a little excited!”
“Oh?”
“Mhm,” Dolores nodded, the pair moving to the kitchen to grab more things. “It’s been a while since I’ve had to figure out a new sound. It feels like I’m playing detective!”
“Really! Could I help?” Mirabel asked, grabbing a pitcher of juice.
“Mija, you’re already helping,” Julieta pointed out with a tease, absently smacking her brother’s hand when he tried to sneak a taste of what she had on the stove.
“She meant help me, tía,” Dolores replied, “And sure Mira, I could use a hand.” She began filling a tray with glasses to take back to the table.
“Oh; help with what?” Julieta asked.
“Lore heard a new sound and is trying to figure out what it is,” Mirabel explained.
“Oh yeah?” Bruno hummed from where he stood by the stove. “What’s it sound like- ow!”
“Quit trying to taste test, you’ll burn your tongue,” Julieta teased, waving the spoon she’d just smacked his hand with at him.
“Oh, so bruising my hand is better?” Bruno shot back with a grin.
“Yes. Bruises are not as bad as burns. That’s a fact. We’ve gone over this, hermanito.”
“Ah, but! Bruises can last longer than burns! Therefore they are worse!”
“Wha- burns last just as long as bruises! Plus bruises only hurt when you push on them and they hurt less by the day! With burns you get scabs which are itchy and-”
The primas promptly turned and left the kitchen, leaving the siblings to continue a friendly argument they’d had on and off for years.
“As tío was saying before that happened,” Mira tilted her head back at the sound of the childish argument, “What does the sound…well, sound like?” Dolores chuckled and put the tray on the table.
“It sounds sorta like this,” she tapped the tabletop twice, quickly, with the pad of her finger. “But also not quite.”
“Whatdya mean?” Dolores hummed, trying to explain what her ears were catching, her finger still tapping the same beat.
“I’m not sure… It’s like, there’s sometimes more or less of it?”
“Hmm,” Mirabel frowned as she watched her prima’s finger. Putting down the jug of juice, she started tapping the table too, trying to copy Dolores. It took her a few seconds but she knew the second she got it because Dolores squeaked with a grin.
“Two!” she gasped, watching their fingers tapping together. “It’s two beats! Similar but one’s just slightly off from the other so they fall in and out of sync! Prima, you’re brilliant!” Dolores stopped tapping and pulled Mirabel in for a one-armed hug that she quickly returned.
“De nada, Lore! Happy to help,” Mira grinned. “By the way, where’s the sound coming from?”
“...you know I’m not sure?”
“Qué quieres decir ‘you’re not sure’?” Dolores let go with a shrug and started putting out the glasses. “You can tell where everyone is in the Encanto, but you can’t tell where this sound is coming from?”
“Sé, it’s weird,” Dolores tilted her head this way and that, a slight furrow to her brow. “It’s like it’s coming from nowhere but also…everywhere? And it’s actually really quiet to me; I can only just hear it.”
“Everywhere and nowhere?” Mirabel cocked an eyebrow before both primas jumped at a loud commotion emanating from the kitchen.
“Ay ay- haha! Discuple! Haha - mercy! Mercy por favor!” Bruno’s voice squealed as he laughed hysterically. His sobrinas poked their heads into the kitchen to find Julieta holding Bruno with one arm and tickling him mercilessly with the other.
“Should we help him?” Dolores asked, though she made no move to step in.
“Nah,” Mira shrugged. “Not unless his squealing is bothering you. Besides, he makes a great breakfast bell.”
“I- pwahaha -I-I heard that- haha - Mira!”
The answer Dolores had been pondering all morning would come to her in the very middle of breakfast.
She had been about to take a bite of her food when she squeaked– loudly –and her spoon fell to her bowl with a clatter as both hands flew to cover her mouth.
“Mi amor?!” Mariano called in surprise, breaking out of the conversation he’d been having with Camilo. “What’s wrong?!”
Dolores ignored him, sitting frozen for several moments, before pulling her hands away and focusing on them intently as she curled her fingers down one by one until she had two closed fists. She made a face and started again, quicker this time.
“Mija, are you alright?” Pepa asked, a small cloud forming.
“Dolores?” Mira stared at her prima’s actions curiously; it almost looked like she was counting something.
“Mi vida?” Mariano called again, gently laying a hand on his wife’s shoulder. He, and the rest of the perplexed table, jumped as Dolores broke out into a wide grin with a long squeak, tears starting to fill her eyes.
Whirling to her husband she took his hands and chirped, “Heartbeats!”
“Qué?” Mariano blinked, confused. Dolores smiled as a tear ran down her cheek and around her blinding smile.
“What I’ve been hearing all morning! Heartbeats! Twin heartbeats!”
“Hearing heartbeats-wha? Whose?” her husband asked as Mirabel stood rapidly from the table, only Casita keeping her chair from falling over as it flew backwards from her movement.
“De verdad?!” she asked excitedly, putting together what Dolores had been doing only moments before. “Are you serious?!”
“Serious about what?” Mariano’s head whipped towards his in-law in a panic before a hand gently brought his gaze back to Dolores. With more tears streaming down her face, she took one of his hands and pulled it flat, palm first, against her stomach.
Mariano looked at his hand, then at his wife’s face, bouncing back and forth between the two until finally settling on her with a look of pure awe.
“...Really?” he asked, so quietly that almost no one would have understood him if they hadn’t seen his mouth move. Dolores nodded, biting her lip, her eyes overflowing with joy alongside her tears.
“I’m pregnant.”
Silence reigned for but a moment in the Casa de Madrigal before the room exploded with cheers, exclamations, and the clattering of chairs. Mariano scooped Dolores up with a barely restrained whoop, spinning them both around.
“My wife is pregnant!” He crowed, muffling his words in Dolores’ shoulder to mind her ears. “I’m gonna be a papá!”
“We’re gonna be uncles?!” Antonio gasped, already vibrating with excitement, the animals he’d snucked to breakfast under his seat scattering.
“Yeah we are!” Camilo smirked, messing with his brother’s hair before their brow furrowed. “Espere; Lore did you say twins?!” Mariano ceased his spinning at Camilo’s words, throwing them a shocked look before looking at Dolores for confirmation. She squeaked and nodded again.
“We’re having twins! Ay, I love you so much!” he blubbered, bringing his wife back down on the ground only to hug her even tighter, swaying them back and forth as he whispered sweet nonsense to her.
Dolores hugged him back just as fiercely; all around her was the chaos only her family could achieve as people sounded congratulations, made bets on what the babies were going to be, called for drinks to celebrate, and even started making plans for a new nursery. Normally her ears would be ringing from all of the noise so close to her, but Dolores couldn’t care less.
All she could hear was Mariano and the tiny beats sheltered between them.