Chapter Text
"Camilo! I hope you're not heading to the kitchen! I told you not to eat right before lunch!" yelled Pepa from the top of the stairs as Camilo was skipping down, to go and do exactly what his mother said not to.
Camilo stopped in his tracks, turned around and smiled at his mother. He was going to see if there were any leftover arepas from breakfast. Now he had to come up with something.
Without much time to think, he said the first thing that came to his mind: "No Mami, I was heading down to the bookstore"
He mentally scolded himself for saying this, but it wasn't totally unbelievable. He liked reading and from time to time he did like to go to the store to look around.
He hoped his mother wouldn't see through the lie. Pepa eyed him for a few seconds. Camilo held the eye contact with a sheepish smile on his face.
Then Pepa smiled, and Camilo let out a breath he didn't notice he was holding in. He hated lying to his mother, but he also didn't want to argue with her.
"The bookstore? You haven't been there in ages, Señora Quintero will be so happy to see you! Tell her I said hi!" and with that she went back running around the house, looking for something.
Just before he was out the front door, Pepa called after him: "Oh and Camilo, could you please tell Luisa and Isa to come home soon, lunch is almost ready! Thank you Querido!"
"Will do! Bye!" with that he was walking down on the road to the town.
- - -
He figured that he would actually go to the bookstore, that was what he told his mother after all.
On the way he walked into a group of kids, so naturally he stopped to play with them. That always made them laugh, when he used his gift to shapeshift. And that was one of his favorite things to do. Make people laugh.
He stayed there for a few minutes playing with them, and then he continued his way to the store. When he stepped inside and closed the door behind himself, Señora Quintero looked up from behind a counter. She recognised him immediately.
"Long time no see Niño! Can I help you with anything?"
He smiled back at the lady and shook his head."No thank you, I just wanted to look around." He started walking between the shelfs, reading the book titles.
He heard the door opening. A lady walked in with her daughter. The little girl was pouting, clearly not happy to come here and wait while her mother is looking for books. Camilo recognised the girl, her name was Cecilia. She was a good friend of his. Cecilia after looking at her shoes for a few minutes looked around the shop.
That's when she noticed Camilo. Her expression quickly changed, a big smile grew on her face. She let go of her mother's hand and ran towards Camilo, who kneeled down to be on eye level with her. She jumped into his arms and huged him tightly.
"Hi Camilo! Thank god you're here, I'm so bored. Mom wanted me to come with her to buy a book for my dad, his birthday is next week." she said in a hushed tone so her mother wouldn't hear.
Camilo knew exactly what to do. He stood up, took a step back, and a second later he was laughing at Cecilia's expression as she was watching him impersonating her. She wouldn't get tired of it, even though she asked him to do it hundreds of times.
They were having fun, Camilo now trying to imitate Cecilia's voice, when he noticed a figure standing not so far away, watching them.
A girl stood in front of them, eyes wild. Camilo has seen her a few times while he was walking in town.
For 10 seconds everyone was quiet. They all stared at each other, Cecilia and Camilo at the girl, while her eyes darted between him and Cecilia.
Then he realised he still looked like Cecilia, so he shifted back into his own form.
That's when the girl let out a breath, and brought up her hand to her chest as she exhaled. She started smiling, then laughing.
Camilo found himself smiling as well, even though he didn't know what she was laughing at.
"Dios mío, you scared me! I thought somehow I didn't know Cecilia had a twin sister or something!" she said after she finsihed laughing, her smile still reached her ears.
"It didn't occure to me that it could be you, I've never seen you in this shop before."
Before Camilo could have said anything, Cecilia rushed to the girl and embraced her. "Kyra!" she yelled excitedly.
So that's her name. Kyra. It's a rather pretty name, thought Camilo.
"I haven't seen you in ages, you finally got better!" said the little girl, still hugging Kyra.
"Yes I did, but you're going to suffocate me if you keep squeezing me!" At that she finally let go of her.
"Oh have you been ill?" asked Camilo. Now that he thinks back, he can't remember seeing her at the fountain where she usually sits.
"Yeah I was, I couldn't leave our house for two weeks, " Kyra said with a sad smile on her face. "but now I finally feel better and get to go outside!" Camilo could hear the excitement in her voice.
"Cecilia! Come on deary, we have to go home now." Cecilia's mom stood by the door, her hand extended forward for her daughter to take. "I'm coming Mamá!" She gave one last big hug to both of them and took her mother's hand.
Before they stepped outside, she turned back to wave one last goodbye. Camilo waved back laughing. Cecilia always says her goodbyes like they wouldn't meet again for a long time, which isn't true, she always comes up to him when she notices him in town, almost every day. Camilo found it endearing.
Looking out the glass wall, smiling at Cecilia's retreating form, he remembered that Kyra was still next to him. He turned to continue the conversation, but Kyra was next to another shelf, few meters away from him, reading a summary of a book.
Camilo didn't know what to do. Should he go talk to her? Their conversation didn't have a proper end. Now that he thinks of it, they didn't even have a proper conversation.
He should at least introduce himself. Yeah, that's what he's gonna do. But does he just go over there? What if he bothers her? Does he even need to introduce himself? From the 'conversation' they had, it looks like she knows who he is.
"Oh come on, pull yourself together" mumbled Camilo to himself as he made his way to the shelf Kyra was standing next to.
He didn't look at her, didn't even face her. He came to a stop next to her, facing the shelf. He started looking at the books.
After a minute of silently standing next to her, he said: "I umm, I'm sorry I startled you. Sometimes I forget that seeing two of the same person can be weird." he said, with a little laugh.
"You really don't need to apologise, it was rather funny."
When he looked at her he could see her staring in front of herself, probably thinking back at the memory, smiling a little.
Then she turned to him, and it was the first time Camilo could get a good look of her: eyes dark brown, just like her wavy hair, that brushed her shoulder. She was the same hight as Camilo, probably the same age too. She wore a long sage green skirt, with little flower embroidery on it.
"I'm Kyra by the way. Kyra Orosio." said Kyra and extended her hand for a handshake. He took her hand and shook it.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Camilo Madrigal"
She smiled at him and said with a laugh: "Yeah, I know."
There was a little silence, and before Camilo could attempt to fill it, she said: "I've read that one, it's really good" Kyra said suddnely.
When she saw Camilo's confused expression she chuckled and pointed at the book he was holding.
"Then I should definitely read it, if you say so" said Camilo with a smirk.
She was going to say something when they heard a quiet "Kyra?" from behind a shelf.