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His children always asked him how they had met.
When the children were young, Felix had come up with some convoluted story about a princess and a dragon. They were entertained but his wife was not amused.
When the children had grown, Felix would shrug and tell them they had met as children and things had progressed when they were adults. Pepa had only given him a questioning look when he told them that version, but didn’t say anything.
It wasn’t a complete lie. He knew who Pepa Madrigal was- the entire Encanto knew who she was. Pepa might have said a word or two to him throughout the years.
They might have met as children but they didn’t know each other until years later.
Felix would proclaim his love for Pepa off the highest peak in the Encanto if he could (and he had- in the early days of their marriage- much to Pepa’s chagrin.) Yet, sharing how they had found each other felt wrong. It was something intimate, a moment that was theirs and theirs alone.
The world knew of their love but the tender thoughts and moments belonged to him and Pepa Madrigal alone.
He had heard her voice first. Felix didn’t know who it belonged to, but the hums had him captivated.
Felix narrowly avoided being spotted by Pepa Madrigal as he circled the fields, in search of the owner of that beautiful voice. He hadn’t personally seen anything but Pepa was infamous for her temper and tempests. He didn’t want to find out if the rumours were true.
It took him his third round of the fields to realize that the voice belonged to Pepa Madrigal.
Originally, Felix was going to compliment the girl on her singing. When he had learnt it was Pepa, though, he hesitated and stayed hidden. He was about to leave when Pepa came into view again.
It was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.
The sunlight that enveloped her made it seem as if she had descended from the heavens. As she twirled her dress the air around her sparkled with droplets of water. Her smile rivalled that of the sun, and it only grew as she laughed and talked and sang to the plants. Even the rainbows sprouting around her didn’t do justice to her radiant beauty.
He had watched the scene for a few more moments and as she slipped out of view again, Felix turned to leave.
Felix purposely slowed down when he walked by the fields after that day, and he always lingered whenever he saw Pepa Madrigal.
She didn’t always dance or sing, but she was always wrapped in the sun’s warm embrace. He thought she seemed to grow more beautiful by the day, and he thought he was falling more and more in love with her.
He never approached her. Felix wasn’t afraid of her- how could he fear that gentle smile? But he was afraid of her rejection. So, he thought himself doomed to unrequited love.
The stars seemed to align a week after that fateful day. He had just moved to leave the fields when he felt a slight wind (Pepa had sworn that it hadn’t been her so they had agreed it must have been fate.) It was enough to cause him to lose his balance and to fall backwards from his hiding spot.
Felix found himself staring up at Pepa Madrigal.
Felix stuttered apologies as he got to his feet but Pepa said nothing and only gave him a curious look.
“You. I know your name...” She gestured with her hands, as if to reach for a name.
“Felix.” He whispered.
“Felix. What do you want?”
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
“I’ve seen you walk by the fields for the past week as if you’re looking for something. What do you want?”
He doesn’t have the courage to say exactly what he was looking for. Pepa’s expression was guarded and he can’t tell what she thought of him.
“I... I was hoping I could watch you work.”
She was confused now. “You want to watch me stand in a field all day? I don’t do anything special.”
Felix held back the urge to tell her that everything she did in the fields was magical.
“I was hoping you'd like the company.”
She only raised her eyebrows at this. “Company?”
He said nothing. Time seemed to halt as she considered the idea.
Then, she shrugged. “You’re only going to bore yourself. I’m done for the day but you can come tomorrow.”
The words had registered in his head when she turned around and walked in the direction of her home.
She hadn’t twirled or sung while Felix was with her. He didn’t mind. Just being able to talk to her was enough for him. She didn’t have much to say but he can tell she had warmed up to him over the course of the month. The sun seemed to be slightly brighter when they talked.
Today, she was scowling at the sky as she tugged at her braid.
“It’s not working.” She muttered.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m supposed to make it rain today.” She gestured to the sky. “I’ve tried angry thoughts and sad thoughts but nothing is working!”
“Maybe there’s another way?”
She shrugged. “I suppose if I laughed hard enough that tears start to come out, that could work. No one has really done that before, though.”
Pepa gave him a pointed look. “Don’t even think about tickling. I hate tickling.”
“I was thinking about the laughter part.”
Her lips twitched. “You think you can make me laugh?”
“I’ve already made you smile. I think I can manage.”
She chuckled, and Felix took the opportunity to make a joke. Then, another. Then, the next one.
It wasn’t long until it started to rain. Pepa laughed again as she turned back to him.
Felix thought her laughter was even more wonderful than her singing.
It had been three months. He was finally going to tell her how he really felt about her.
He could see the clouds from the village, and as Pepa came into view, he saw the frown upon her face. He felt the words that he had rehearsed all night being erased from his brain.
Pepa turned when she heard his footsteps. As soon as their eyes meet, the frown slipped away, replaced by a bright smile.
He was speechless when she ran to meet him and took his hands.
“I’ve been waiting for you. I’m glad you’re here.”
“R-rainbows...”
Pepa looked around at the rainbows surrounding them with an amused expression. There was a teasing tone to her voice now.
“Yes. Rainbows. I wonder how that might have happened...”
They were dancing by the next month and she looked just as radiant when she danced with a partner.
As she slipped away from him and spun around him, he found himself thinking about their earlier conversation.
He had told her that she was the sun. She had liked that.
“If I’m the sun, then what does that make you?”
He shrugged and her brows furrowed as she pondered the question.
“I’m the sun and you’re the.... moon. No... that doesn’t sound right.”
It seemed right to Felix. She lived like the sun and he loved like the moon, always drawn to her, never wanting her out of his sight.
“Something wrong?” Pepa stopped and he shook his head.
She smiled and twirled around him. The sun and the moon came back into his mind and he thought it was odd that his sun chose to spin around the moon today.
The harvest would soon be upon them and that meant Pepa wouldn’t be coming to the fields anymore.
“Oh, Felix. I wish there was another way we could be together.”
Nobody else knew. Pepa didn’t want to deal with her mother’s doubts that any man who came for her didn’t have any nefarious intentions. Felix didn’t want to deal with the others pulling him aside as they warned him about her “moods.”
He wanted the world to know. There wasn’t a thing anybody could say or do that could make them doubt their love.
He knew Pepa felt the same. Nobody could come close to understanding the bond they shared.
Felix took Pepa’s hand.
“Marry me, Pepa. Then, we'll always be together.
The sunlight had brightened in intensity, and he was blinded as she laughed and wrapped her arms around him.
“You can call this off. I won’t blame you or hold it against you.” She yelled over the howling wind.
He thought she had looked nervous when she had arrived for the ceremony. He couldn’t blame her; he was nervous too. Who wasn’t nervous on their wedding day?
Nobody could have predicted the hurricane though. Except for her brother. Pepa cried harder when she saw that her mother had brought umbrellas to the reception.
She was trying to hold the tears back now but Felix saw the fear in her eyes. The floor around them was starting to frost.
“Do you still want to get married?” Not marrying her was out of the question.
“Of course, I do! But why would you want to get married to this?! ” She gestured to the disaster around them.
The hurricane was an anomaly. Pepa was always sunshine and rainbows when she was with him. They could get through the occasional drizzle.
The wind got warmer as he extended his hand out towards her.
“Rain or shine, Pepa Madrigal, I’ll always be by your side.”
They all told Felix he had made a mistake by taking the Madrigal name. That he was young and merely in love with the idea of love. They told him he would regret going through with it when the honeymoon phase ended.
(He had recently told Pepa this, expecting her to laugh it off with him. He’s surprised when she bit her lip and the cloud appeared above her head.)
The first few months were pure marital bliss.
They spent almost every waking moment together. Sunlight livened up every corner of the room and their faces would be sore from all laughter and smiling. Even her mother wasn’t a problem; he had won her over with his devotion to Pepa.
They were happy and in love. It was perfect.
Until they learnt that there was more to marriage than being happy and in love.
(Felix didn’t like to think when the problems had started. Neither of them liked to think about those days)
The sunlight and rainbows gradually started to be replaced by clouds as a tired Pepa would come home. He’d be tired from the day too and when he mentioned the cloud one day, the fighting had started.
The fights became more frequent. He’d complain about the rain and wind. She’d snap that he was too suffocating. They’re both disappointed that they had married a different person than the one they had met in the fields.
Disappointment turned into misery. They didn’t admit to the others, though, at least not publicly. They put on an act and they had everybody fooled. The masks would come off as the door closed, and the smiles would turn into scowls as they both went into their separate corners of their bedroom.
Both of them were too proud to be the first one to quit. They were afraid of the gossips that would follow them. They were afraid of their parents’ disapproval.
They were afraid to admit to themselves that they may have made a mistake.
He let out an annoyed sigh when he walked into their room to find himself in the middle of the tempest.
Felix expected to find Pepa tugging at her braid while muttering that annoying saying of hers.
Instead, she’s sobbing on the bed. The storms got more violent when she saw him.
He wanted nothing more than to turn around and not have to deal with her outburst. His day went better when he ignored them. But she had never cried like this, so he decided to stay.
“I’m so sorry, Felix. I’m sorry. It was an accident.” Pepa sobbed as he sat next to her.
“What happened?”
“M-my wedding ring. I can’t find it anywhere- it must have slipped out of my finger. I spent all day in the fields looking for it, b-but it’s g-gone!” She bawled as she buried her face in her hands.
Felix sighed and patted her shoulder. “We’ll get through this, Pepa. But I need you take a nice, deep breath.”
She looked up at him, and took a deep breath. The storm started to calm, and she grabbed his hand as she took the next few breaths.
He spoke again when the storm passed. “Alright, Pepa. I’m not upset.” Felix tried to speak as slowly and calmly as he could. “I’ll look for it in the room but it’s alright if we don’t find it. I can get you a better one.”
“ Better?!” The clouds were back and she looked at him, hurt. “It isn’t about that. I was crying because you gave it to me.”
He felt horrible as he left to find the ring and found it, an hour later, in a slit in the floorboard. The wind must have blown it there.
Pepa doesn’t say anything when he slipped the ring back on. Felix started to apologize when she cut him off.
“You could have made me a ring out of a blade of grass and I would have been just as upset.” She muttered.
That night, she accepted his apology.
He asked if she’d like to try again. A fresh start.
There’s a pause and then she agreed.
He smiled and offered his hand. “Hello, beautiful lady. My name is Felix Madrigal.”
She laughed as she accepted the handshake. “My name is Pepa Madrigal. It’s nice to meet you.”
The second time around, they try to understand each other.
The grandiose gestures and speeches are replaced with smiles and gentle words. They were memorable than the showy displays they had done before.
They’re both removed from the pedestals they had been placed upon before; they’re relieved that the other accepted them, despite their flaws.
The flaws are almost non-existent compared to the little things they would come to love about each other. That little snort she made when she laughed. That bright-eyed look he gave her in the morning.
They still have their arguments but they’re less passionate and there weren’t any storms. At the end of the day, they’d find their way back to each other as they remembered those little things.
The second time around, Felix fell in love with all of her weather, not just the sunshine and rainbows.
He had realized this when Pepa had burst into tears as she watched the sunrise one morning.
She looked just as beautiful in the rain as she did in the sun.
“You should go, Felix. If you don’t catch my cold, you’ll definitely get sick from all the rain and snow,” At this, she sneezed and a fresh flurry of snow fell upon them.
“Out of the question, Pepi. I’m here with you, rain or shine.”
Felix got sick the following week. If Pepa wasn’t sitting by his side, she would be singing and twirling around the room, making sure the sun shone on him by just the right amount.
He woke up one night to find that their blanket covered with frost. Pepa would cause snow when she was slightly spooked, but she rarely frosted. Frost meant dread, and the only time he had seen it was on during their wedding and after the occasional nightmare. It never stayed for long, especially when Felix was nearby.
This time, he watched as the frost slowly spread throughout the rest of their bed.
Her hands were cold when he reached for them.
“Will I be a good mother?”
“A terrific mother.”
“But my weather...I don’t want to hurt or scare them.”
“You won’t hurt them. We’ll get through this, Pepi. We always do.”
She leaned against him. “The baby will be so lucky to have a father as wonderful as you.”
Everyone wondered what Felix Madrigal saw in Pepa. To them, she was an irritable woman; a mismatch for the more easy-going Felix.
They would know the answer if they looked at Pepa when she was with the children. She loved them with her entire being and it wasn’t only reserved for their children. She had the same love for her nieces.
When she had first held them in her arms, they all had to take turns holding an umbrella over her head as she alternated between laughing and crying. The sky would start weeping if she heard one of them cry. She was overcome with emotion at every milestone: first words, first birthday, first step.
Everyone (including Pepa) praised him for being a wonderful father. He thought he didn’t do anything noteworthy.
Instead, he thought Pepa deserved the praise as he watched her look at the children with affectionate eyes, her arms reaching to hug yet another child.
He had thought the hurricane was an anomaly. He was wrong. The world wasn’t right if Pepa didn’t show any signs of the weather.
It had started when Mirabel’s ceremony had failed and her brother had left. It rained in their room for weeks as they all went looking for him while trying to figure out what happened with Mirabel.
One day, he came into their room to find it eerily quiet. Pepa sat there with blank expression on her face.
The others didn’t notice a change but as the days went on and Pepa’s blank expression never went away, he started to get scared. She refused to tell him anything, insisting that she was fine.
She couldn’t make it rain or bring out the sun anymore. That didn’t change when her mother had taken her aside and told her that the entire Encanto relied on her. Pepa had only listened, that blank expression never leaving her face.
He tried a gentler approach. Felix tried to distract her and talk to her. Sometimes, she’d talk to him and sometimes she would only nod, lost in her thoughts. He always made sure to tell her that he loved her. Sometimes, she’d smile at that and the sunlight would get brighter for just a moment.
The weather slowly started to come back as the months go on. Though, he noticed that she spoke more about their wedding day. How he had ruined it.
He would go along with it, most of the time. If they had to sour their memory of their wedding so that Pepa would be herself again, then so be it.
He’d do anything so that his sun was never extinguished again.
There was a fog in the mornings now.
Pepa would hide away in the mist as she would stare in the mirror. Sometimes, she would bemoan at the fact that she was getting old.
He would try to talk to her through the mist and tell her that she was still beautiful. She never believed him because the fog only thickened.
He wished that there was a miracle that let Pepa see the world through his eyes. Then, when she’d look in the mirror, she would understand him.
Instead of the aging woman she saw in the mirror, Pepa would see a graceful and confident woman. One who moved with a poise that only came with age. Instead of fretting over crow’s feet, she could finally see that proud spark she would get in her eyes when she talked about herself and her family.
He wished Pepa would see that reflection in the mirror someday.
The droplets began to fall gently from the sky and he instinctively looked towards Pepa.
She gave him a small smile and shook her head. “Not anymore, Felix.”
They didn’t run for shelter or reach for an umbrella. They just stood and let the rain fall around them.
It was different than Pepa’s rain. It wasn’t heavy or cold like hers had been; it was cooler, almost playful. Pepa must have noticed too because she’s staring at the droplets in her hand with a frown.
“This....feels nice. I never thought I’d ever get to enjoy rain.” Pepa turned to him. “It’s strange but I can’t help remember those days. Remember? In the fields, when we used to...”
“Dance.” He finished. “I remember. We always used to wait until the weather was perfect.”
“Mm. The weather isn’t perfect but I want to do nothing other than dance the day away.”
Felix smiled and extended his hand towards her. “Shall we?”
The sun spun around the moon again that day. Even after all these years, he can’t believe himself so lucky as to witness such a sight.
They were searching for Pepa’s bridal veil for Dolores’ wedding when she had told him about that hurricane.
She doesn’t look at him, only fingered the lace gently. “When I told Mama about you, she told me that I wasn’t actually in love. When I started arguing, she told it was just an...”
“Infatuation?” They had told him the same thing.
“Yes. She told me I was stuck in some dream and someday I would wake up and realize what I had done. Mama obviously came around by the time we got married, but the whole day...I was so scared that I would wake up and everything we had would be gone. I thought I had lost it when the hurricane hit.”
“And did you wake up?”
“I did.” He doesn’t know what to think.
There was a pause before Pepa finally looked up at him. There was a loving look in her eyes.
“I’m glad I did wake up, Felix. How would you have shown me what love was, otherwise?”