Chapter Text
“ Jesucristo, Adriel! I cant trust you with anything anymore, can I?”
“ Relájate, hermana. That lady was asking for it, if i’m being honest.”
Adella and Adriel. Brother and sister- twins actually. Having been exiled from their home, simply because of their gifts. Because they even had gifts. How unfortunate. It’s hard for a couple of ten-year-olds to survive on their own after being kicked out of the only place they called home. No relatives to turn to, no friends, not even a simple shopkeeper to protect them.
As modern as the world was, their village was very traditional. Very superstitious, very religious, very easily influenced. So when the twins first showed their gifts off to a few kids at their school and the town pastor found out, they were banished immediately. ‘Evil spirits’ and everything. Not even their mother wanted them there.
‘ Evil spirits, I banish thee!’
‘Get out of here, brujas malvadas!’
‘Go back to Encanto where you belong, freaks!’
Go back to Encanto.
Where you belong.
So here they were. Walking into a new town. Adella was fearful of what might happen to the two. Word tends to spread quickly among villages in a country like Colombia. She clutched onto her brothers arm, reminding herself that everyone is hostile until proven otherwise.
Adriel, on the other hand, was a little too laid back for his own good, treating it as if it were just another Sunday stroll. He sometimes envied his sister, wondering how nice it must be to be so alert and careful.
“Be careful, Adriel.” Adella whispered to her brother, letting go of his arm to fix her earring, “We don’t know what the people around here are cap- Adriel?” She asked, noticing that her brother had gone missing. Of course, the moment she lets go, he takes off. “Adriel?” She called, looking for her brother. She saw him over by what looked like a shopkeepers stand.
“It’s been having trouble lighting? That sounds rough.” Adriel said, leaning back against the counter of the stand. “I can help you though. I’m somewhat of a fire expert myself.”
“What do you know? Aren’t you ten?” The shopkeeper scoffed, “I bet you can’t even tie your own shoes.”
“Bingo, bullseye, right on the money. And I wear sandals, my good sir. Now, just turn the gas on.” Adriel instructed. The shopkeeper rolled his eyes and did as the boy said, turning the gas to his grill on.
Adriel rubbed his hands together and snapped his fingers, a small flame appearing on his index finger. He touched it to the grill and soon enough, the flame inside roared with life, leaving the shopkeeper stunned. “Voilà! Fire, my good sir!” He said, a bit too excited though, because he threw his hands up while the flame on his finger was still present causing the canopy above to catch on fire.
“Adriel! This is why I don’t take you anywhere!” Adella said, quickly conjuring a small water bubble and splashing it on the fire before it could get too big. “Put your flame away and let’s go.” She said. Adriel groaned and the flame on his finger stopped. “I’m sorry about him, he can be a lot, but we have to go now!” She said, walking off with her brother in tow. “Bye, now!” She gave an awkward chuckle as she practically ran off.
The shopkeepers stared at awe and confusion at the two children. The other nearby shopkeeps immediately turned to one another, gossiping about the two.
“Are they part of the Madrigals?”
“They can’t be, they look nothing like Julieta or Pepa.”
“Bruno doesn’t have kids, does he?”
“No, he’s nearly 50, he has no wife!”
“Does Alma know about them?”
“Someone go tell Alma.”
“We have to let Alma know.”
It wasn’t long before Alma Madrigal found out about the two children. She had sent Dolores and Luisa out to look for the two. She had to know where these children came from.
“Keep listening for them, Lolo. They could be anywhere.” Luisa said.
“Abuela said the girl had a blue dress on, and the boy had a yellow and orange poncho.” She said, still listening for two tiny voices. It took a bit of focusing, and she was about to give up before she heard,
“We need to lay low, Adriel. Stop using your gift in public!”
“Well, Adella, am I just supposed to let my powers waste away?”
“Found them. They’re in the meadow near the school.” Dolores said, dragging her younger prima to the meadow. “Try not to scare them off. All we have to do is get them to Abuela.”
After a few short minutes of chasing around two surprisingly fast kids, multiple falls and at least one scraped knee, Luisa had the kids thrown over her shoulder. “You two are..incredibly fast..”
“Well duh, how else were we supposed to survive on our own for three weeks?” Adriel hissed at the strong girl, earning him a kick in the leg from his sister.
“This is all your fault, Adriel! I told you when we got here, that you can’t use your gift!” Adella complained.
“You can’t ‘tell me’ anything! I’m older than you!”
“We’re twins, and it’s only by two minutes!”
“That still makes me your older brother.” Adriel mused, chuckling at the sight of his sister’s anger.
They soon arrived to La Casita, the door opening to allow Luisa and Dolores inside. Inside, Abuela was waiting for the two to come back. “We got them for you, Abuela. They put up a bit of a fight though.” Luisa explained, referring to the scrape on her knee.
Abuela gave her nieta a warm smile. “Thank you, niña. Put these two down, and go get a snack from your mamá for your knee.” She instructed. Luisa nodded, putting the two down, and leaving to get a snack.
“Don’t be scared, niños. My name is Alma Madrigal.” Abuela introduced, “Welcome to Encanto-“
“Yeah yeah lady, what do you want, why did you kidnap us?” Adriel blurted. Abuela was taken aback by the sudden interruption, clearing her throat.
“Welcome to Encanto.” She said, slight annoyance in her voice, “I’ve had Dolores and Luisa bring you here because i’ve heard of your gifts. I’m very intrigued.”
“My familia, we all have gifts, given to us by a miracle we were given fifty years ago. I’d like to ask, how were you given your gifts?”
“We don’t know, we just woke up one day and we had them.” Adella explained. “We were exiled from home because of them-“
“It’s whatever though.” Adriel scoffed, snapping his fingers to ignite a small flame in his hand. “Village just couldn’t handle a little heat.”
“Adriel-!” Adella started to argue. She sighed. She didn’t have the energy to argue with her brother, nor oppose this Abuela request. She took a deep breath and conjured a small water bubble.
“Like I said, we don’t know how we got our gifts. We woke up one day with our gifts and we’ve had them ever since. My gift is hydrokenesis while his is pyrokenesis.” Adella explained.
“My name is Adella, this is my twin brother, Adriel.” She spat her brother’s name as if it were a piece of rotten fruit, dropping the bubble on the flame in his hand, “His favorite thing to do is annoy me and be careless.”
“It is very nice to meet you two.” Abuela said, giving a warm smile. “Would you like to join us for dinner?”
Adella shook her head. “We’d love to, but we don’t want to intrude or anything- i mean I’m sure we’ve already interrupted your day with our arrival.” Adella explained, “plus, we still have to find a place to stay since we can’t go back home, and-“
“Nonsense!” Abuela boomed, scaring the two. “If you have no place to stay, then you are more than happy to stay here.”
“You don’t hav-“
“Casita! Take these two up to the nursery, and tell Mirabel they’ll be staying next to her.” Abuela commanded. Nothing happened at first, leaving the twins confused, but suddenly, the tiles below the two started to move, sending them upstairs to a nearby nursery.
“Woah, moving floors? This place rocks. What do you think, rodrigón?” Adriel asked, sitting on one of the nearby beds.
“I told you to stop calling me that. It’s not like you look any better, rama.” Adella sighed, sitting on the bed across from Adriel’s. “We can’t stay here, we’d be an extra burden on them. We have to find somewhere else to sta-“
“Della, hermanita, cálmate.” Adriel interrupted. “We found another place to stay, which was our mission, yes? Not only that, but it’s with people who have powers like we do! We won’t be freaks or outcasts anymore.” He chuckled. “Just let it play out.”
Adella sighed. “Fine. But please don’t cause any trouble. I don’t wanna get banished again.” She said. “And stop calling me your hermanita!” She said, hitting her brother a few times for good measure.
“Okay okay!” He laughed, “Okay, i’ll stop.”