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Chapter Text

Mirabel didn’t really know what it felt like to be on the receiving end of someone’s romantic affections. Nor has she ever heard of rumors that other families wanted to marry into the Madrigals through her. 

Such a thing was more for Isabela or Dolores. Mirabel still had clear memories of some guys in Encanto trampling over themselves to look ‘cool’ or ‘worthy’ in front of them, but only succeeding in making the girls uncomfortable. Some in Encanto were intimidated by Luisa’s strength, despite her sweet nature, but she also had some potential suitors as well. Even Camilo was a fan favorite amongst Encanto, many parents trying to get their girls to look ‘presentable’ around him, or so she heard from whispered rumors. 

She’s not exactly sure why she was so ignored when it came to these things. She was still rather beloved in Encanto, so she didn’t think it was something in her personality that drove people away.

Am I hard to be around? Am I not pretty enough? 

Is it because I don’t have a gift?

In the early years of her adolescence, these questions would plague her nights, adding on to the pile of insecurities she already had. The then 12-year-old Mirabel would often go to sleep crying at intrusive thoughts of never being loved, neither by her family nor by a lover, as she felt no one would want to marry her. But Mirabel taught herself how to ignore these thoughts and keep her feelings hidden, frequently bottling up and distracting herself with tasks and labor.

She was already working hard to find a place in her family, she could not devote too much time to thoughts of being romanced by one who’d love her passionately as she is, gift or no gift. So, she learned to not be too affected by a lack of romantic advancements or early proposals to her family or talks by the women in Encanto about how much they’d love for their sons to be married off to Isabela or Dolores or Luisa but never mention her.

And now that Casita was a field of wreckage instead of the once lively home that housed the Madrigals, such thoughts were the least amongst her worries. The tiles and walls that held years upon years of memories of the Madrigal family were in ruins. Casita seemed like one of her only companions on the days she felt more lonely.

Mirabel couldn’t care less about petty crushes right now.

Or so she thought.

Mirabel clutched a proposal letter written in pretty, cursive letters and bordered with illustrations of roses. 

And more importantly, started off with, “Dear Mirabel Madrigal…”

Mirabel’s breath hitched, brimming with excitement amidst all her grief. 

The letter was by no means a formal one. It seemed to be meant for her eyes only, rather than addressed to her Abuela, whom serious proposal letters usually went to if a family wanted to marry into the Madrigals. Also, rather than being penned by a head of a family to discuss marriage with one of their children, it was written by the one interested in her instead. 

She had found the letter in her satchel, someone must have slipped it in at a point where she might have dropped the bag for a while, though she wondered how they managed to do that without her noticing.

The girl giggled at the romance of it all, it felt like a scene straight out of the novels she’d try to read in the little free time she’d allow herself to have.

“What are you laughing at?” 

Mirabel jumped and almost dropped the letter before she quickly clutched it tight against her front, facing the back of the letter towards Dolores, hoping the paper wasn’t translucent enough for the words to be easily made out. 

“Oh! Oh, nothing! Just…” Mirabel awkwardly trailed off, “…stuff.”

Genius.

Dolores’s face remained neutral, which made Mirabel slightly more nervous. It was then that Mirabel realized Camilo was also there, a little ways away behind his sister. He was focused on the letter adorned with roses in her hands, with an eyebrow raised, though she couldn’t tell if it was inquisitive or suspicious. 

The girl hastily stuffed the letter in her satchel, hoping her cousins wouldn’t inquire about it, and then faced the two all in one motion. “So…anything you needed me for?”

Dolores took awhile to answer, her eyes scanning Mirabel’s facial expressions and body language. “Abuela asked us to come get you, it’s dinner time.” The girl squeaked, and continued in her low voice. “She also wants to have a meeting.” 

Mirabel mouthed an ‘Oh’ in surprise. Usually, their Abuela preferred to have any family meetings hours after dinner time so the family was more focused on her words, but if she wanted to have a discussion close to the mealtime instead, whatever she had to say must have been urgent enough. “Well, we better get going then!”

And with that, Mirabel followed her two cousins towards the rather cramped room the family would be dining in. Shortly after Casita collapsed, the town’s village had arrived to help pick up the pieces, but rebuilding a large family house that basically collapsed in all its entirety was a lengthy, grueling process that would take weeks, if not months. Fortunately, one of the families offered their spare lodging for the Madrigals to take shelter in as they needed a place to stay in the meantime.

Mirabel sat in one of the empty chairs at the dining table. Camilo walked around to the other side of the table and took the seat across from her, and Dolores took the only remaining chair next to Mirabel. 

As she ate, Mirabel thought back to her letter.

Whoever sent it had asked her to meet up at one of the village cafés a bit of a walk away from her house. Apparently, they wanted to discuss the potentials of courting her before they would reach out to her Abuela, even giving a time and date for when they’d be waiting for her at the café. She wasn’t used to such direct invitations, but then again, she wasn’t all that used to things like this in general. 

That being said, it’s not as if Mirabel didn’t have at least an ounce of caution surrounding this whole letter situation—years and years of being romantically ignored and now some secret letter from someone who didn’t even bother to add their name just sprung up? It was a little suspicious, especially when said person didn’t seem to want her family involved before they met up in private, at a café far from where most of her family would be and at a time when they’d be busy with the rebuilding. To make it a bit safer though, she might ask Luisa to tag along and be at standby far enough to not be detected but close enough to intervene if need be. Powers or not, her sister was still a force to be reckoned with. 

Giddiness over someone looking at her in a romantic light took over again. She would for sure go and meet the potential suitor at the café, at the very least, she was curious about who it was that penned the letter, in case she needed to know that information in the future. 

Abuela clearing her throat brought Mirabel out of her thoughts, and the whole family guided their attention towards the elderly woman. She put down her glass after taking a few sips of her drink, and surveyed the table to make sure everyone had finished their meal. “As you all may know, I would like to discuss a few key things affecting our family and how we may approach them.” Abuela sighed. “For starters, despite our hard work and enthusiasm in rebuilding Casita, I have been informed it may still take at least half of a month before completion.”

That announcement had sent a despondent wave throughout the family, some of them groaning. They were all so eager to get their home back. With the grief of having lost their powers, the current rebuilding process of Casita had been a boost in morale for the Madrigals. Knowing that it would take even longer to wait on top of the lengthy time they have already spent without a home was not an easy pill to swallow, especially for Mirabel.

“But some things are starting to look up,” Abuela continued, “we’re on relatively stable financial grounds again after many of us took up odd jobs throughout the town.”

It was one of Agustín’s ideas, for the family to use whatever normal talent they had picked up while using their powers as a way to fund themselves. The idea struck him while watching Julieta bake some bread for the family during the first week at the lodging, wondering if she ever wanted to own a bakery. For once, Abuela had liked one of Agustín’s suggestions and found it quite smart—not that she’d tell him that—and proposed it to her family, who quickly agreed.  To keep things on track, Abuela managed the finances earned from this and delegated a weekly schedule for her family. Having learned a few things from the collapse of Casita, she didn’t want to pack on too many things on her family, especially during their loss, and spaced out their work days to prevent burnout and pressure. To know that the family was financially stable, and they didn’t have to worry about having enough money for food and clothes was a relief. But that aura of relief didn’t last long.

Alma sighed again, with much more frustration than the last one. “But despite this triumph of ours, I’m afraid to say it seems even bigger problems are starting to arise. One I probably should have seen coming.” The woman closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, eyebrows furrowing. “The Cordobas seem to be taking much glee in our misfortune. And it seems they’re taking our power loss as an opportunity to ‘dethrone us’ as they love to say.”

If the first announcement had soured the mood of the Madrigal family, it was nowhere near as effective in doing that as this announcement had. Almost the entire family stiffened at the mention of the Cordobas. If their powers were still here, a blanket of clouds might have taken up much of the room.

A cough could be heard. “Uh…sorry,” Bruno started, “the who ?”

It was only reasonable for Bruno to not have heard of the Cordobas, since they only managed to move in to Encanto shortly after he left, though how he hasn’t heard at least something about them in the walls is kind of odd , Mirabel thought. She wondered if her Tío was ever too engrossed in any of his own telenovelas to pay attention to any talks on the hostile family.

“The Cordobas,” Abuela got right to it, “are a family that managed to find Encanto a little after you disappeared. They came in struggling and with barely anything on their backs to carry. Apparently, they were escaping some kind of enemy group before they managed to somehow stumble into the Encanto, so we all took them in, helped them get settled.”

“Oh!” Bruno said, “Well, that’s great! Why are they a problem?”

“And then they turned on us.”

“Oh.”

Abuela cleared her throat, continuing, “they’re quite an influential bunch, quickly gaining a network and standing amongst the more affluent families in our village. It seems they’re quite good at gaining power. But apparently, simple affluence wasn’t enough. They want to be the most powerful family in our village and take control, I suppose.” Alma took a sip of her drink again. “And, while I honor that we used our gifts more for service than power, I think we can all agree they helped us to be as influential as we are now.

“Anyway, Brunito , they’re a rather nasty bunch that would spread slander and rumors to complicate our affairs, as well as making our duties harder to work on by involving themselves with the village people.” Alma chose not to mention how Bruno’s disappearance and the surrounding rumors was a point of interest for the Cordobas to poke at and get any villagers they could at least a little suspicious of the Madrigals.

Bruno didn’t really know what to say, somehow he managed to miss all that. “Yikes.”

“But, Mama, what new problems are they causing now?” Julieta asked.

“For starters, Mija, they’ve started a campaign to get the villagers to consider us ‘worthless’ now that we’ve all lost our gifts. That we don’t deserve the amount of help we’ve been getting now that we no longer have them to service the community.”

The entire family recoiled, but Mirabel especially felt hot pricks of indignation running through her. How many songs about not needing a gift did she have to sing?

Alma continued, “And essentially trying to get the village to divert their attention and affairs to the Cordobas themselves, instead. It just seems like another tactic to gain power and control over the village.” 

There were numerous affluent families in Encanto, it wasn’t a point of concern for the Madrigals who rose or lost in power, they were more concerned about keeping their own family stable and thriving. But, the Cordobas were different, the family was hostile to theirs, so how they would fare if the Cordobas were to ever gain power over them was a point of worry. And generally, the Cordobas could not be trusted to keep the village safe, prosperous, and wholesome.

“I’m not sure what to do about this now, we have enough problems on our plate already.”

“It’s alright, Mama,” Julieta placed a comforting hand on her mother’s, “we can think up a few solutions next time, now we’re all tired from working throughout the day, and it’s best to not think of such things at this time.”

Mirabel watched as Abuela hummed lightly while laying a thinking hand on her chin. After a few seconds of seeming contemplation, she cleared her throat, and adjourned the meeting, letting the rest of the family go as she got up and made her way to her room.

The rest of the family got to the task of cleaning up after themselves. Mirabel washed the set of dishes donated to them and Antonio helped dry them.

Soon the Madrigals finished their cleanup, and each slowly started to head for bed until the entire family cleared out the dining area. 

Mirabel plopped down onto her temporary bed, mind preoccupied on coming up with a game plan on how she’d approach Luisa and how her older sister would react, though she trusted Luisa to be able to keep a level head. These thoughts circulated in her head until slowing to a lull and sleep finally took over.

A few days rolled by until it was one day before the date of Mirabel’s ‘appointment’. 

She’s long decided she would take up the mystery guy’s offer and go see them, but she was having trouble deciding whether she wanted to actually get Luisa involved in the first place. 

I mean, sure, Luisa isn’t the type to overreact, but she didn’t know how her older sister would fare at the thought of Mirabel having a potential suitor asking for her hand. Would she become overprotective and demand to be right by her side the entire meeting, thus scaring them off? Or would she get giddy at the prospect and promptly try to tell everyone else in her enthusiasm?

Mirabel shook her head. None of that sounded like Luisa, if anything, the former was definitely Isabela’s style of doing things, and if Dolores didn’t think it would cause any harm, she’d probably do the latter.

She was taken out of her thoughts when she noticed Luisa walking by not too far from her. Well, it was now or never. 

“Heeeeey, Luisa!” 

This slightly startled Luisa until she noticed it was just her sister. “Oh, Hi Mirabel. Did you need anything?”

“Oh! Uh, well…” Mirabel had no idea how to go about this. Actually, she had a lot of ideas on how to go about this, but she couldn’t decide on which one. Taking a few seconds in silence to think about it, Mirabel decided to treat it like a band-aid needing to be ripped off and hesitantly retrieved the letter out of her satchel. 

Luisa took the offered letter and combed through the contents. Mirabel watched with anticipation as a multitude of emotions flashed across Luisa’s face. Curiosity, surprise, shock, suspicion, worry, and confusion. All in that order.

Her elder sister finally turned towards her after minutes of staring at the letter. “Mirabel, you’re not planning on just going alone to this, are you?”

“That’s where you come into play!” Mirabel enthusiastically gestured her arms towards her, trying to reassure her sister, though it only made her more confused.

“Huh?”

Mirabel walked around until she was facing Luisa instead of staying at her side. “See, it is a little suspicious, right? So… you can come with me, as extra safety!”

Luisa stared at her younger sister as if she grew another head. “Or, we can just not go at all? I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

“No!” Mirabel exclaimed a little too loudly, and then cleared her throat in embarrassment at Luisa’s surprise. “I mean, no. This is the first time I’m being asked something like this, Luisa, and it’s got me really curious! I mean, you and Isabela get flooded with these kinds of things, but that’s never happened to me before! Until now!”

Luisa was slightly taken aback by this. She never really concerned herself with Mirabel’s love life other than sisterly protectiveness, it wasn’t exactly a point of interest or worry when she was so busy trying to corral donkeys on a daily basis. Despite that, though, she would have assumed her sister would have been a point of romantic interest at least a couple of times, especially since the village viewed any Madrigal as a sort of celebrity. She wondered what that was all about.

Redirecting her attention back to her younger sister, she took note of Mirabel’s giddiness and curiosity. With the amount of excitement Mirabel was visibly expressing, she started to feel bad at the idea of saying no. Besides, it’s not as if Mirabel is planning to go about this alone and unsupervised. 

The letter may be a bit suspicious, but it should probably be fine if it was a public café and if she was around at the very least. 

The elder of the two sighed, “Okay. How do you wanna go about this?”

It was finally the day Mirabel would go to find out which person was behind the letter, and if she possibly wanted to reciprocate their affections.

She checked for any lint or dirt on her skirt, and patted it down to make it more neat and uniform. Luisa had gone ahead to try and find an inconspicuous spot outside the café that was close enough to hear for any trouble. As Luisa was probably there by now, Mirabel rushed out of the lodging, and checked the letter one more time, making sure she got the location and time right. Folding the letter and putting it back inside, Mirabel gets ready to set off for the café.

Or, she would have if she wasn’t stopped in her tracks by a very familiar voice calling out to her.

“Hey Mirabel!” Camilo said. “Mind if I tag along?”

Chapter Text

“You…want to come along?” Mirabel asked hesitantly.

“Well, yeah!” Camilo said as if it was obvious. “I mean I’m not busy for now and you look pretty excited! Don’t just not invite me to anything fun, Mirabel!”

Truth be told, Mirabel didn’t know how to take Camilo’s insistence to join her. She couldn’t remember the last time the two had interacted longer than five minutes. Perhaps when they were kids?

Mirabel’s eyes darted towards the direction of the cafe. “Uhh, I don’t know, Camilo, I’m kind of on the way to something important, ya know,” she chuckles awkwardly, “Busy, busy times!”

Mirabel felt slightly guilty when his smile faltered. Camilo was a cool guy to be around, she knew that. She just really didn’t want anyone else in the family to know what she was up to today, preferring only Luisa for her more reserved nature and the added security that came with her. 

And she really couldn’t help the sinking feeling that she should really keep this from Camilo, whatever reason that may be. But when she thought about it, as her male cousin who’d obviously have an interest in the affairs and wellbeing of the Madrigal family, he might try to get too involved, at least out of curiosity if not brotherly protectiveness.

“Busy, busy times, huh?” Camilo slightly chuckled. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with, I don’t know…a guy?”

At this, Mirabel’s eyes widened and she gaped at him for a few seconds. “W-what, what? What?! How did you…?! Who told you?!”

“Well, you just did! Right now!” He smiled cheekily. 

Mirabel was flabbergasted. She slapped her face and dragged it down with both hands, groaning in frustration.

“Well, I kept this as private to myself as I could except with Luisa.” She played with her fingers. “Were you…eavesdropping?”

Camilo lifted his hands towards her placatingly, “No, no, definitely not. I was just passing by and couldn’t help but overhear, is all.” Mirabel still didn’t look convinced so he sighed. “C’mon Mirabel, how much more private are you gonna get with talking about it in public,” he lightly threw his hands up, “in the middle of the village, no less.”

“I…but…I mean…” Mirabel stammered, and eventually just sighed. Darn it, Camilo always had to have a point. 

“Besides,” he began, “I was already curious about that letter you had. Usually, something with a bunch of roses on it isn’t your Monday morning newsletter.” He put both hands on his hips. “And you didn’t actually say anything about a guy to Luisa out loud, but that whole ‘this is a you and Isabela thing’ and the fancy looking letter kind of gave it away.” He let out a light snicker. “That and your reaction just now.”

Mirabel’s eyes darted away while she lightly played with the strap of her satchel. Had Camilo always been this observant? She remembered him being the ‘unconcerned with his environment’ type unless something had caught his interest. 

“Well…no point hiding it from you if you’ve pretty much figured it out, I guess.” 

A beat went on without Camilo saying anything. She cleared her throat. “A-and I think it could be a pretty good thing, ya know. I mean, sure it was a little bit of an out of the blue kind of thing.” She nervously chuckled, throwing a hand up. “But, the letter was pretty, it made me feel prett—I mean…I think, I think it’d be fun…um…” Mirabel realized she was rambling and trailed off. A few seconds of silence passed between the two as she played with her fingers and avoided looking at him. 

Camilo also began to play with his fingers. “You’re really excited about this, aren’t you?” Camilo asked, avoiding eye contact.

"Oh, yeah, you know it's…" Mirabel rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, not used to talking with him this much. "...new, I guess."

He slowly nodded, lips in a tight line for a shadow of a second before it disappeared in his usual charming smile. “I hope it goes well, really. C’mon, let me size this guy up for you, see if he’s good enough for our Mirabel.”

She paused at that for a bit before slowly smiling, letting out a bashful scoff. And here she was wondering if she’d be good enough for said guy herself, hoping he wouldn’t realize he didn’t like her just from talking with her. 

Camilo put both hands behind his head and started walking away. 

Mirabel watched him with a raised eyebrow before realizing he was heading for the café. She supposed this was actually happening and acquiesced to his wanting to come with her, eventually following behind him. 

They didn’t walk much before Mirabel grew confused. “Wait, Camilo, how do you know where the cafe is?”

“Hmm? It’s the biggest café in the village, isn’t it? Just makes sense for it to be there. If I was going the wrong direction you would’ve told me already.”

Mirabel slowly nodded to herself, supposing it did make sense. 

A few minutes of silence passed by as they walked along until said silence was broken by a voice calling out to Camilo. Mirabel watched as her Tío Felix rushed up to Camilo, laying a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Camilo! Where have you been? It’s not your day off! The kids are waiting for you!”

Mirabel raised an eyebrow. Among the regular jobs the family took to fund themselves, Camilo continued on with his babysitting services. But in order to make some money off of it, he offered to take care of the kids for much longer hours. “Didn’t you say you weren’t busy?”

“I-I wasn’t busy at the moment,” he then turned to his father, “but Pa, I was supposed to take Cecilia later in the day, not now!”

“I know, mijo, but something came up and her mother’s asking for earlier hours. Your Abuela thinks it’s nothing you can’t handle, now c’mon.”

Camilo’s shoulders visibly deflate as he’s guided along by Felix, the two trailing away as her Tío’s optimistic words on how Camilo can now get home earlier and catch his Tío Bruno’s telenovela muffles into the distance. 

Mirabel lets out a breath in relief, swiveling around towards the café, and sets off.

Mirabel arrived at the entranceway of the café and takes a deep breath to steel her nerves. She took a brief moment to look around for Luisa, but her sister must have found quite the inconspicuous place to stand by since Mirabel could not spot her anywhere. 

Mirabel stood a few seconds, rocking back and forth slightly, before she finally collected her nerves and stepped into the café.

Mirabel looked for the booth described in the letter. “In the back. Off to the side. Mostly red. And having a tear down the fabric,” she whispered to herself.

Mirabel tried to wade through the large crowd in the café, today being a particularly busy day, looking every which way as she tried to reach the back. Excitement coursed through her as she got on her tippy toes, trying to look over the taller heads and even bumping into a few people in her focused pursuit. She smiled sheepishly in apology at the few scowls directed at her. 

Managing to come out of the area where many of the café patrons were concentrated to get their drinks, Mirabel was now somewhat in the back end. She headed for the right half of the café.

Her eyes continued to survey the area, excitedly on the lookout for the torn, red booth. 

Or at least until her eyes met a sight she definitely did not want to have to deal with. 

Sitting near the back was none other than Diego Cordoba, similar in age and the occasional perpetrator in any of the childhood bullying she had to face. 

Her eyes barely took in his sight, spotting him from afar in the corner of her eye, and she almost immediately looked away as soon as she registered it was him. It’s been years since she properly interacted with the boy, and she preferred to keep it that way as her hand shot up to hide her face. She hunched over, swiveled around to hide in a crowd in front of her, and continued the search on the left side instead, hoping her potential beau was nowhere near the Cordoba boy. 

Try as she might, she was having difficulty finding anything that would look out of the ordinary, like a handsome man looking around as eagerly as she was, barely contained in his seat. 

She did spot several red booths, but each was filled with a group of people and looked too pristine to have a tear. She slumped. Something in the back of her head proposed the idea she was being pranked. She shook her head before the thought could gain any traction and smiled optimistically. 

I mean, I did just ditch an entire half of the café, maybe they’re there. She thought as she noted the lack of single people on the left side of the café lounge area.

Cautiously returning towards the right half of the café, she started where the crowd of people waiting to order ended and the lines of booths started. It was also the opposite corner from where Diego sat, all the way at the end by his lonesome. 

Again, she spotted a few red booths, but they were in the same condition as the booths she combed through on the other side. 

A growing disappointment filled Mirabel as she already passed by the entire front half of the booths.

She then became distressed as she got closer and closer to the very back of the café.

And as she stood next to the two empty booths that were the only things separating her from the last, her stomach churned in dread.

Diego Cordoba turned to face her person, taking a sip of his coffee. 

“Took you long enough.”

A large gash that almost looked knifed in stretched across the side of the booth. There was no mistaking it. 

“...Diego?” She crosses her arms in discomfort. “Why are you here?”

“What do you mean why am I here? You read the letter, didn’t you? That’s why you’re here, aren’t you?”

Whatever sliver of hope she had for her letter vanished. 

She immediately turned away and tried to head for the exit of the café. She felt a hand grip the back of her blouse. 

“Woah, woah, where are you going? Why are you leaving?” 

Mirabel freed herself from his grip but the boy had got up out of his seat and blocked her path. Mirabel gulped. “Okay, you got me. Your prank worked. Please let me go now.”

“This isn’t a prank! I’m serious!”

Incredulity flashed in her eyes. “You can’t really expect me to believe that, can you?” Mirabel’s eyes searched for Luisa. “You used to pick on me and your entire family hates mine so if getting me to believe this any further was part of your trick, it isn’t all that well thought out.”

“How many times do I have to tell you this isn’t a trick?”

“If it wasn’t a trick, why on Earth are you doing this?”

The boy’s eyebrows furrow, voice slightly rising. “I think you’re pretty and there’s not enough eligible guys in this place so you might as well marry me anyways.”

Mirabel didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry. “I’m sorry Diego, but that’s not a good enough reason to marry someone. I have to go.” She tried to walk around him. He blocked her path again. 

“Wait, you’re not seriously rejecting me, are you?”

Mirabel’s eyebrows furrowed in indignance. “Yes. Now let me leave.” Mirabel’s eyes frantically searched for Luisa. Where was Luisa?

He stepped into her personal space and she tried to back away. “Why don’t you want to marry me?”

“Why do you think I should? Why would your family even agree to that?”

He tenses, but scoffs. “Who cares what they think?”

Mirabel gripped her satchel with both hands. “You…literally used to bully me, and your family has been harassing mine for years already.”

He sneered. “So? Those are childhood things, it’s in the past, let it go. And again, who cares what they think? And look, I’ve changed okay? I haven’t picked on you for years. I’m handsome, I have money, I have power, I could give you a good life.”

Mirabel didn’t think he knew anything about what a good life would mean for her. 

As he ranted about his prestige, Mirabel noticed he was distracted enough and an opening in the crowd led an easy path towards the entrance of the café, so without looking back, she ran towards it. 

She could hear angered shouting calling after her, but Mirabel ran as fast as she could until she was out of the building. Not looking where she was going, until Mirabel ran straight into Luisa.

Luisa stumbled a little as she tried to catch Mirabel. Her eyes darted towards Diego who had just exited the café. He kept his gaze on Mirabel but as he saw Luisa, his expressions soured and he stalked off in a direction away from them. 

Her eyes trailed him and then took in Mirabel’s disheveled state, her sister heaving to collect her breath. Luisa put two and two together and her eyes widened. 

Luisa put a hand on Mirabel’s hunched back and called out tentatively, “Mirabel?”

Mirabel looked up at her sister.

“I…you, you were right. This wasn’t a good idea.” She grabbed her sister’s hand and gripped it tightly. “Let’s go home. Please.”

Mirabel rushed into the temporary room she’s been sharing with Isabela and Luisa, and headed towards her bed. 

Sitting down, the girl stared silently at the floorboards for a few seconds. 

“Okay. It’s okay. Not a big deal.” Mirabel repeated to herself. “Not a big deal.”

Her grip on the comforter tightened as tears pricked her eyes. 

She had been so excited.

She really thought that letter would bring something good with it.

She really thought she’d had a chance at love. 

Falling back onto the mattress, Mirabel escaped under the covers to turn away from the world, even for just a little bit. 

Chapter Text

A sharp knock at the door stirred Mirabel out of her sleep. She tried to ignore it, turning over and attempting to drift back into slumber—which she would have succeeded at if it wasn’t for the second, louder knock that came seconds after. 

With a disgruntled groan, Mirabel pushed herself out of bed, stumbling towards the door and swinging it open.

“Mirabel—” Luisa called out before noticing her sister’s bed head, “sorry, did I wake you?”

“Huh?” Mirabel tried to stifle a yawn with her hand, her eyes barely registering her sister in their sleep-laden state, “Oh, it’s okay, no biggie. Did you need anything?”

“I wanted to see if you were okay.”

“Hmm,” Mirabel leaned against the door frame, eyes closed and arms slouched at her sides, “what for?”

“Well,” Luisa held both hands close to her front, “I didn’t want to say anything when we were walking back home since you looked so upset, but did Diego—”

Mirabel’s eyes shot wide open, frantically waving her hands at Luisa. “Shh! Shh! Luisa, shh!” Mirabel held a finger tight against her own lips.

Upon confirming there was no one else around as she checked, Mirabel dragged her sister into their shared room and closed the door shut before turning towards her.

“Um,” Luisa started, “do you want to tell me what happened?”

Mirabel wrinkled her nose, cringing at the memory of what had transpired and at the thought of having to recount it. “Oh…it’s-it’s nothing, ya know. Just…” Mirabel started to rub the side of her neck before noticing how worried Luisa looked.

She dropped her hand to her side and kept her eyes on the ground. “I guess Diego has a thing for me now…and I…I rejected him, obviously, but” She crossed her arms, “…he didn’t take it too well.”

“I’m so sorry, Mirabel.” Luisa said. “This is all my fault. I should’ve stayed somewhere closer. I was on my way to check inside the café just in case, but if I wasn’t so late with it…”

Mirabel shook her head at her sister’s blaming herself. “Woah, woah, Luisa! It wasn’t your fault at all! I was the one who asked you to stay outside the café anyway! It’s a good thing he didn’t, but even if Diego tried to drag me away kicking and screaming, there’s no way the people at the café would just let it happen, right?” 

Luisa didn’t know how to address Mirabel’s optimism at such a thing. 

“I guess, but,” She began to inspect her sister for any injuries, “are you hurt? Did he hurt you?”

“Not really, I kind of just hightailed out of there before he could actually touch me,” Mirabel said before pausing a bit, “…it was pretty unexpected, though. I guess I was a little caught off guard about it all. But a little nap helped me get back on track!” She sent a smile to Luisa, hoping it would placate her, ignoring her elder sister’s ‘I’m not buying that’ look.

“Oh! Speaking of naps, how long was I out for?” Mirabel asked.

“Uh, just a couple of hours.”

At that, a new worry bubbled in Mirabel. Luisa was likely around much of their family in that amount of time.

“You didn’t tell anyone anything, did you?” Mirabel asked while wringing her hands. 

“No, I was waiting for you to wake up first. Do you want to do that now? I think mom’s in the kitchen if you’d like to tell her.”

“Oh…um…well, you see, it might be a bit embarrassing to—”

“Does it bother you to talk about it?” Luisa headed for the door. “I could tell her for you if you’d like.”

“No!” Mirabel shouted, grabbing Luisa’s hand before it could reach the doorknob. Composing herself, Mirabel loosened the tight grip she had on her sister’s hand before letting go altogether. “I know you’re worried, Luisa, but maybe we could just forget about this whole thing and not tell the family.”

“But shouldn’t you let them know?”

“No way, at least not now.” Mirabel crossed her hands. “If Abuela finds out I went secretly to the café for a proposal, and it ended up being from a Cordoba she’s going to kill me! Plus, we already have a boatload of problems…” She rubbed her arm and tightened her lips. “…that I think I just added to.”

Before Luisa could say anything, Mirabel interrupted her once more. “Or not! Or not. Maybe it’s not a problem, maybe it’ll just fade away, and we can forget about it. I mean, how many times do I have to say no to Diego before he gets it? And there’s no way his family is going to push for it. We barely even see them in general these days!”

Luisa stared at her with furrowed eyebrows, unsure of her sister’s placating, but eventually she relented. 

With Luisa’s hesitant “Okay”, Mirabel sighed in relief. If she didn’t want to involve her family when she received the letter, she didn’t want to involve them about whatever disillusioned her about it.

Mirabel figured Diego wouldn’t want to bring any attention to his proposal stunt if it meant saving his ego. Letting everyone know he was rejected wouldn’t be the most praiseworthy thing. With that considered, Mirabel hoped this whole thing could quietly blow over, and she could avoid a big mess.

“Well, now that you’re up, why don’t you try to get some food?” Luisa suggested. 

Mirabel nodded at that idea, and followed her sister towards the kitchen. 

When they were halfway there, Luisa slightly turned towards her. “But, you should really consider telling everyone soon, Mirabel. It’s still a pretty big deal.”

“Yeah…I’ll think about it.”

Truthfully, with the political burdens that could fall on her family just from knowing about the proposal and the possible backlash she could face, Mirabel did not think she could honor her sister’s request. 

She really, really hoped Diego would be too embarrassed by the rejection to make a fuss about it.

Mirabel entered the kitchen with Luisa, who quickly grabbed a plate before heading towards the dining room. 

As her sister previously mentioned, her mother was still toiling away in the kitchen, though she looked to be wrapping up whatever chores she was doing before she noticed her youngest. “Mirabel!” She turned to greet her before worry overtook her features. “You look pale! Mi amor, is something wrong?”

“Huh? Oh, no, no, nothing’s wrong!” Mirabel let out a high-pitched chuckle, “I just woke up not too long ago, so, I think a glass of water might help!” 

Her mother nodded and prepared a glass before promptly handing it to her daughter.

Mirabel thanked her and started to take a few sips, her eyes looking every which way except her mother, who seemed to be trying to read her expression. It was then Mirabel realized Camilo was also in the kitchen, a little ways away from them. It looked like he’d been watching them until her eyes met his and he quickly glanced away. 

Oh no. She almost completely forgot that Camilo knew about the proposal letter. She’d had the chance to get Luisa to keep it a secret for her, but she didn’t know if Camilo would have agreed to secrecy even if she begged him for it. Would he mention anything with her mother around?

“Make sure to eat too, maybe you’re just low in energy. Was breakfast the last time you ate?” Her mother’s fretting over her brought Mirabel out of her thoughts. 

She assured her mother she was fine and allowed herself to be led away by Julieta towards one section of the counter, piling food upon a plate for her. While her mother continued decorating the dishware with various food items, Mirabel peered over at Camilo. He had his back turned towards them, searching through some drawers. Perhaps he was more engrossed in getting something to eat and wasn’t too concerned about how her proposal meeting went, at least she hoped. 

“Okay, mi vida,” her mother started after fixing Mirabel’s plate, “do you want anythin—” 

She was interrupted by Pepa’s voice calling out to her. Hurrying to rush towards her sister’s anxiety tinged tone, Julieta took one last look at Mirabel. “Make sure you eat okay!” Mirabel nodded to her mother as the elderly woman headed out of the kitchen and towards the dining room. 

She laid down the glass she was finished with on the counter and went to look for a fork. She'd probably be in a more relaxed mood right now if it wasn’t for the fact she was now alone in the kitchen with Camilo. She tensed and slightly looked over at him. 

Panic began to swell inside Mirabel as she saw Camilo begin to approach her with raised eyebrows and a smile. Was he going to ask how the meeting went? She didn’t think she’d be able to hide anything from the former shapeshifter, as keen on body language as he is.

She immediately twirled around and launched herself at the opposite counter, stuffing her mouth with the snacks her mother prepared for her as an excuse to not speak. As she looked back, however, she realized he was only headed for the plate of arepas that were near where she had been. 

If he wasn’t as concerned with her as she just thought he was, he definitely was now, raising an eyebrow at her rapid movements.

She gave him a sheepish look before walking briskly past him, heading out of the kitchen. 

A sudden hand on her shoulder surprised her as said shoulders tensed and she swallowed in reflex. She began to hack up a coughing fit as she pounded her chest, unprepared for the sudden and painful intake of a large amount of food at once. Worried she’d have to face Camilo’s prodding, she hesitantly began to turn to him. 

Or her. Mirabel inwardly sighed through her coughing, relieved it was just her Tía Pepa. Her aunt looked frantic, though that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. “Mirabel, have you seen Antonio? It’s been an hour and I still can’t find him!”

As her coughing finally subsided, Mirabel fully turned towards her Tía and cleared her throat, “Oh, um, sorry Tía, I haven’t seen him around either.”

Not waiting for any additional response from the girl, her aunt rushed past her to look elsewhere.

Now that she came to think of it, Mirabel hadn’t seen much of Antonio ever since the morning either. That was rather troubling, Antonio wasn’t one to hide as much unless something bothered him. 

As she saw Camilo finally coming out of the kitchen with his plate of stacked arepas, she decided it’d be better to join her Tía’s search for Antonio rather than risk the potentially uncomfortable conversation with her cousin, rushing away before he saw her.

After doing a once-over of the other two rooms and coming up short, Mirabel finally entered hers. 

Crouching, she peered under her bed, and lo and behold, her baby cousin was huddled up, clutching his plush jaguar.

“Mirabel?” The boy slightly squeaked, “How’d you find me?”

Mirabel smiled affectionately at the boy, offering a hand towards him. “You didn’t think I wouldn’t know my favorite cousin’s favorite hiding spot, now did you?”

Antonio grabbed her hand and shuffled out from beneath the bed, the two then sitting on top of the bed instead. 

“Is something on your mind, Antonio?”

The boy fiddled with his fingers for a while before scooting closer to Mirabel. “I saw something kind of scary in the village today.”

Mirabel laid a hand on her cousin’s shoulder. “What did you see?”

“I think it was Diego,” the hand on his shoulder slightly tensed, “he was kind of shouting about how the Madrigals would pay…it was really weird.”

Mirabel felt her throat slightly tighten. “When…when was this?”

“I think about an hour ago, I’m not sure, I didn’t really check any of the clocks,” the boy turned towards Mirabel contemplatively, “It was just his shouting about us that was pretty scary…do we owe him anything? Why do we have to pay him?”

Mirabel’s expression was blank for a few seconds before she ran a hand through her hair and put a smile on her face. She ruffled Antonio’s hair. “We don’t owe him anything, don’t worry. He might have just misremembered which family had a debt with his. I think we’ll be okay.” She felt her own shoulders relax slightly in tandem with Antonio’s, but her fists remained clenched. 

A couple seconds passed by in silence, with the younger cousin resting his head on the elder as his nerves slowly soothed in her presence. 

“How are you feeling now, kiddo?”

He smiled at her. “Better!” He snuggled slightly into her. “Thanks, Mirabel.”

She hugged him. “Anytime, Antonio. You know to come find me if you’re upset.” Then she led them off the bed and stood up. “We should probably find your mom now, though. You’re lucky she doesn’t have her powers or we might have been flooded by now.”

Mirabel walked into the dining room with Antonio in tow.

Noticing her youngest son, Pepa ran up to Antonio and began to pepper kisses all over his cheeks, cooing at how worried she’d been as the little boy giggled. Mirabel smiled at the sight before taking in what the rest of the family were doing. 

Dolores, Luisa, her Tío Felix, and her father were sitting around as her Tío Bruno played out one of his telenovelas to them, rats and all, though Dolores seemed to be the only one paying attention. Her mother handed a broom to Camilo, who began to sweep at her request. 

Sans Isabela and Abuela, there wasn’t a single person missing in the dining room, almost making it cramped. The lodging wasn’t exactly the biggest place on Encanto, and definitely nowhere near as big as Casita used to be. It was a relatively modest dwelling designed for small families or couples on honeymoons, so other than the kitchen, the single bathroom, and the three guest rooms, there wasn’t much to hang around in. And as the dining room was the largest of all the rooms, the family tended to spend time there together.

The sound of a door opening redirected Mirabel’s attention.

Her Abuela walked in, staring wide-eyed at a piece of paper crinkled in her hands, until she stood at the center of the living room, and consequently the center of all the family surrounding her.

Her eyes continued to scan the paper until they slowly rolled up to Mirabel.

Mirabel clutched her skirt, her eyebrows slightly raised in concern and confusion at the way her grandmother was looking at her. The paper in her grandmother’s hand suddenly looked a lot more ominous. 

Before her grandmother could speak, a fuming Isabela with hunched shoulders and clenched fists burst into the room. 

“Why is one of those dumb Cordoba girls telling everyone I attacked Diego and Mirabel?!”

Everyone’s attention was now on Isabela, Julieta approaching to lay a hand on her furious daughter’s shoulder, attempting to comfort her. 

Abuela visibly tightened her lips, as her eyes darted away from Isabela to the paper again. “Because apparently,” she turned the contents of the paper towards her family, revealing that it was a letter, “the Cordobas wanted to give us a taste of what would happen… if our Mirabel,” she then directed her gaze towards Mirabel, “doesn’t accept the marriage proposal of Diego Cordoba.”

The entire room was in silence for seconds until a loud clatter of a broom hitting the ground shattered it. “What?!” Camilo shouted.

That shout acted as a catalyst as not even a second after, the entire room burst into a cacophony of sound as Mirabel’s family directed strings of ‘What?’s and ‘Why?’s at the girl. 

Mirabel gulped. 

Apparently, ‘Operation: Keep This from the Family’ was doomed to fail anyway.

Chapter Text

“Mija, what’s going on?”

Mirabel felt fingers delicately lift her chin up as she faced her mother, concern and confusion contorted Julieta’s expression. She also noticed her father was now by her side as well; Agustin laid a steady hand on his daughter’s shoulder. As she scanned her surroundings, most of the family was staring at her wide-eyed, sharing the same question. Luisa wrung her hands, lips tight and eyes brimming with worry for her sister. Mirabel wondered if taking up Luisa’s suggestion earlier would have been better than having to be stuck in the spotlight like this. 

“Um…” She slightly bit her lip, her mouth dry. “So, uh, turns out…Diego apparently likes me enough to want to marry me.”

“Mirabel…” Her Abuela started. “Did you know about this already?”

Mirabel swallowed nervously. Of all people she wanted to hide this from, her Abuela was at the top of the list. 

“I…” her eyes darted away. She didn’t want to let the family know she kept this from them, but she knew lying about this would put her further in hot water. Besides, no lie she could make would be believable, the evidence was stacked up against her and her expressions would give it away. “…yes, I did.”

“Has he approached you at all before this?” Julieta asked softly.

“Well…see, I was at a café, and he was there too, you know, and just decided to spring a proposal on me.” She threw her hands up.

“Wait! Wait, wait! The guy! From the letter?! Was that Diego?!” Camilo asked her. Her eyes widened and she gripped her satchel tightly. Camilo immediately flinched at the sight of her expression, his eyebrows furrowing with hers.

Dolores gasped. “The letter! It was a proposal?”

Mirabel cringed as Abuela’s head snapped towards her. “What letter? Mirabel?”

“Miraboo?” Agustin called out to her, also wanting an answer.

“So…funny story…um,” She nervously laughed, “he…asked me to meet him at the café.” Her eyes immediately widened, and she waved both hands placatingly. “Anonymously! Anonymously! I didn’t know it was him! And I…I went to visit him.”

A beat of a second passed by before Abuela, Julieta, and Agustin cried in unison, “What?!” 

Abuela stared at her for a few seconds before pinching the bridge of her nose. “Mirabel, why have you kept this to yourself? What made you think that was any bit of a good idea?”

Mirabel rubbed one side of her jaw. “I didn’t want to worry you guys! I…I really thought this would blow over!”

Abuela dropped her hand and stared at Mirabel wide-eyed. “Blow over? Mirabel, the family that wants nothing but the worst for us suddenly wants to join us! Of course, it wasn’t going to blow over! What were you thinking?”

“Abuela, please! We were already drowning in so many problems, the last thing I wanted to do was to put more on our plate!”

“Well, now it’s on our plates anyway! Do you know how dangerous that was? Mirabel, what if that Cordoba boy had done more than just talk? How can any of them be trusted?”

“No, Abuela! See, I knew there was a reason for suspicion, so I brought Luisa—” 

“Luisa?!”  

Mirabel shut her mouth, immediately regretting mentioning her sister. All eyes were now on Luisa, the girl trying to make herself smaller.

“Luisa? You knew about this as well?” Abuela asked her.

“Yes…” she started softly, gripping her arm, “I wanted to make sure Mirabel was safe.”

Abuela sighed, her exasperation visible to all in the room. “But you kept it a secret too…” She laid a hand at the base of her nose.

She dropped her hand at her side after a few seconds. “Well?” Abuela looked around at each and every family member, gesturing around with her hands. “Any more secrets I should know about? Huh? Anymore?”

Various family members fidgeted, seemingly unappreciative of being put on the spot. Dolores grabbed her arm, her former gift had done her little favors. Camilo’s face was blank. 

“Secrets…” Abuela muttered, “Casita is destroyed, and we’re all squished together in a small lodging, yet we’re keeping secrets from each other.” The elderly woman turned to leave.

“Mama! Where are you going?” Julieta asked.

“For paper and something to write with! Who do those Cordobas think they are, threatening us like that? How foolish do they think we are? All that Cordoba boy will be getting is a rejection letter.” Abuela’s anger-tinged words faded slightly into the distance as she walked away.

Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, the Cordobas sent their response to Abuela’s rejection letter. 

In the form of spreading the same rumor against Isabela even further, this time claiming if Mirabel had not stopped her, she might have made Diego bleed.

Really, the rumor was ridiculous to the Madrigals. No one in the village would have regarded such false claims with any significance.

Or so they thought. It was hard to ignore the slight way eyes would leer at Isabela when she walked through town or how others would step back from her. 

“Ugh! This is ridiculous!” Isabela exclaimed. “I can’t believe people are actually buying that load of—”

“Isabela!” Pepa reprimanded, covering Antonio’s ears.

“Oh…sorry Tía.” Isabela then groaned in exasperation. “Why are they so desperate to get that kid of theirs married off they resort to ruining our lives?!”

“I don’t know, mija,” Julieta started while taking her seat at the dining table, “but hopefully, if we ignore them long enough, they’ll get the message and leave us alone.”

“Well, they should’ve gotten the message the first time Mirabel rejected that guy.” She snorted in contempt. “Why are they even terrorizing us for? We’re not the ones he propos—” Luisa nudged her softly with her elbow, asking her to mind her words and nodded towards Mirabel.

Mirabel had hardly eaten, slightly moving her food around with her fork. She hardly slept the previous night either, plagued with the idea that she really had pulled her family farther down in hot waters. She should’ve told Abuela about the letter from the beginning. In fact, she should’ve just chucked the letter out the window the minute she read it. Who was she fooling expecting her grandeurs of romantic delusion to even come true for a person like her?

She couldn’t look her family in the eyes, finding it difficult to speak a word to them either. They were doing so well after Casita’s collapse, trying hard to be a more understanding family. Now that she was at the center of this storm, she didn’t want to risk finding out if she had been plunged back into a time before she had run after the candle, before her and Abuela embraced at the river. She wondered if they saw her as a troublemaker, as if her presence was a harbinger for more pain.

She just wanted to see if there was a love for her out there, without any interruptions. She didn’t think it would have spiraled into this mess.

A hand clasping her free one shook Mirabel out of her coil of anxiety. “Hey,” Dolores whispered, then pointed to Mirabel’s plate with her mouth. “You should eat.”

Her Tío Bruno, who was sitting next to her nodded. “Yeah, kid, it’s gonna get cold.” 

Mirabel nodded back. “Oh! Yeah, sorry, I got distracted.” She said softly, chuckling nervously, then began to lethargically shovel food in her mouth.

A few seconds passed by filled with sounds of dishes being passed around and mild chatter across the table before Abuela cleared her throat, catching the family’s attention. “A few days have already passed by and we may be ever closer to finishing Casita’s completion, let’s redirect our focus to that. The rumors are a nuisance but Julieta may be correct, this may simply just be a show for attention by the Cordobas. Isabela,” she gestured towards her granddaughter, “we will try to find a way to dispel the rumors, but for now, I want you all prepared for tomorrow. We’re going to head to the construction site again to speed up the process. Whoever has any work scheduled tomorrow is excused from their jobs and should help with Casita. The sooner we have our home back, the sooner we’ll have stable grounds to fix our other problems from.”

Words of agreement rang through the table. Casita was amongst the family’s main priorities right now. The reminder of it released some of the tension built up over the past week as it gave the Madrigals another purpose to strive for and meet. They may not have their powers anymore, but a stable home they don’t have to risk losing was a blessing they hoped for. That, and the ever coming situation where they couldn’t keep the lodging for too long, at least not for free. 

Señor Felipe was the owner of the lodging, and he had given the Madrigals free shelter under its roof with the impression that the rebuilding time for Casita would only take a few months, at least that is what most of them assumed. It wouldn’t be wise to push their luck and extend their stay any further. 

It wasn’t too much of a concern, however, as it was expected the Madrigals would only have to wait two week’s more time before Casita could be completely reconstructed. This quelled the worried atmosphere in the dining room, and the Madrigals set to finish their dinner and sleep early to wake early. 

The extra efforts to fix up Casita would be worth it. 

The next morning found the Madrigals quick to visit Casita’s construction site, some of the neighboring villagers already there to offer aid if need be. 

Getting to work, Luisa helped some of the men, including Agustin and Felix, pick up a few drywall sheets. Dolores, Isabela, and Pepa shifted through the rubble for any of their belongings caught in the collapse. Julieta and Bruno helped with picking up and discarding any remaining broken and ragged pieces of Casita to clear up space for easy access to the soil, which Mirabel and Camilo promptly dug through around the footing to ease the flooring process.

And Antonio? Well, he was there for moral support.

Abuela stood by to supervise, waiting for a shipment of important parts they managed to order with their funds. It was an expensive package from one of the outside cities, and a very foreign one at that. They had ordered such a shipment a month ago, and only in the past few days did they receive word that a group on donkeys was approaching in a week’s time. 

That shipment would be the finishing pieces to the plumbing and roofing, tying the structure of the house and completing the entire frame. In addition, there was recently developed technology meant to be in that package that could make the crude building process go a lot smoother. And quicker, more importantly. 

Which is why she seemed quite happy at the moment, as if she could see Casita up and proud already. The Madrigals had also chipped in to reserve an inventory of furniture that would take even longer to arrive, though furniture was less urgent than a roof to sleep under, so the family was content. 

To bide her time, she had a newspaper at hand, currently reading an article about a newlywed couple having fled their hometown after eloping. After a few hours at the construction site, the sound of slow trotting could be heard approaching. 

Abuela’s face lit up in a smile at the sight of one of the foreign parcel delivery men, only for said smile to drop at the sight of the lack of any parcels with said man. In fact, there had been an order for multiple things of hefty quantity, why would there only be one man around?

“Señora Alma, I presume?” The delivery man greeted her. 

“Where are the shipments?” Abuela asked almost immediately, forgoing pleasantries. The family members nearby enough paused their work to tune in, including Mirabel, Camilo, Julieta, and Bruno. 

The delivery man took off his hat and held it across his chest in sympathy, “I’m sorry, but a group of bandits intercepted my men and hauled off with all of the goods.” 

Mirabel and Camilo dropped their shovels, and Bruno almost lost his foot from the sharp, broken pipe he let loose from his hands.

Abuela was stunned for a few seconds. “What?” She whispered.

“I’m so sorry, Señora. We couldn’t do much to preserve the shipment out of our own safety. My men are taking shelter in a nearby town’s hospital. I’m the least injured so I was sent to send the message.”

Abuela slightly shook her head. She turned towards her family who mirrored her devastated expression. 

“And the inventory? What is the status of that?” Julieta asked.

“I’m sorry, there’s currently no reserved inventory.”

“Impossible!” Abuela exclaimed, on the verge of shouting. “We bought a reservation on furniture months back! How can there possibly be no inventory? Especially one under our name?”

The delivery man rested a hand on his jaw, “There was a single inventory reservation running for a couple months, but it was sold away a mere few days ago.”

Julieta approached the man from her spot in the rubble, the commotion having brought the attention of the rest of the Madrigals. “I don’t understand, Señor. The point of a reservation is to keep the items from being sold off. How can this be possible?”

The man sighed. “It’s very rare so it isn’t well known, but the rules in the company do allow a reservation to be sold off to another if the offered price is at least twice that of the original.”

“What?” Abuela hissed again. 

This time, Agustin approached the man and lifted a finger defiantly, “Señor, this is basically robbery! How can we trust a reservation to be reserved if it can be pawned off so quickly?”

The man lifted his hands up, “I’m just the delivery man, it’s not my call.” At that, Agustin dropped his finger and redirected his hands to run through his hair, not knowing how to react to that. 

“Señor,” Abuela began, “who could have possibly bought off our inventory?” Perhaps, if they knew the group or the individual, they could reason with them and mention their situation. 

The man walked back to his donkey to retrieve a satchel, unfolding parchment paper from the inside of it. His eyes scanned the paper until his eyes stopped at what they were probably asking for. 

“A group called the Cordobas.”

The stunned silence pervaded amongst the Madrigals until a “You’ve got to be kidding me” came from Camilo. 

“Of course.” Isabela muttered. 

“No, no, no,” Abuela began to pace around, “this is too much. This is too much . How can we possibly get Casita done without the shipments? Let us forget the furniture, but the construction pieces? Bandits?” Her eyes then widened. “The Cordobas bought off our furniture. Did they send the bandits as well?”

The implication sent a shiver up their spines. Just what are the Cordobas capable of?

Abuela’s eyes widened again and she scurried towards one of the construction men. “Señor, if the shipment we were waiting for would not arrive anytime soon, how would that impact the build?”

The construction man slightly moved back at her frantic questioning. He then paused to consider what she was asking. “If that were true, then I’m sorry, the build would have to take an additional two months.”

“Two months?!”  Pepa exclaimed.

Mirabel was on the verge of tears. They were almost done. That shipment might have finalized everything in two weeks tops. And now they had to wait two more months?

“Drop…drop everything.” Abuela said. The family looked at her confused. “Just…drop your tools. Forget it. We must go back to the lodging at this instant. We need to have a discussion about this. This has gone too far.”

Abuela began to walk off, not waiting for anybody. Julieta was the first to break out of her trance and ran after her mother. “Mama!” At that, the rest of the family followed. 

Chapter Text

Upon reaching the lodging, Abuela urged everyone to sit at the dinner table as she frantically began to lock the windows and doors. The elders followed her in doing so.

By the time the last window was locked, the entire family was seated.

“This is starting to get out of control,” Abuela started. “It’s one thing to start rumors but to ruin our progress with Casita?” She sighed. “It’s not as if the Cordobas haven’t been a nuisance to us before but it looks like they’re emboldened by our loss of gifts. What other possible reason could they be pushing the proposal other than to use it against us somehow?”

“What do you mean?” Bruno asked. 

“Perhaps they’re trying to get into our family to cause damage from the inside.” 

“Should we threaten them back? Maybe that’ll get them off our backs.” Isabela offered.

“I considered it briefly.” Abuela stroked her chin. “But it would not suit the image of the Madrigals to do what the Cordobas do. The people of Encanto have always loved us more than feared us. It would do us more harm than good to lose our current reputation.”

“Doesn’t look like they’re stopping anytime soon, though,” Bruno said.

“No, it doesn’t seem so.” She then stared at Mirabel, who began to rub at the back of her neck. “They’re actively harassing us to get to Mirabel.”

Julieta slightly tightened her clasp on her daughter’s hand. “Mama, it’s not Mirabel’s faul—”

“Julieta, I am not saying it’s Mirabel’s fault, but she is unfortunately at the center of this.”

Mirabel withered in her seat, tightly holding her arm with her free hand. Abuela’s eyes seemed to soften at this and she sighed. “Did I not just say it wasn’t your fault, Mirabel? Of course, it was foolish to have met up with that boy against our knowledge, but it’s not as if you goaded the Cordobas to be like this.”

“...Yeah,” Mirabel said softly and nodded, but she could not meet her grandmother’s eyes.

“Mirabel,” Abuela started again, “you are in a position of danger, do you understand? In fact, we’re all in some form of danger so long as the Cordobas think Mirabel is still accessible.” Abuela paused slightly, her eyes flickering to the left, “At the very least, if we can make her unavailable, perhaps they’ll give up.”

Julieta stiffened slightly and Agustin furrowed his brows. “What are you suggesting, exactly?” Agustin asked tentatively. 

“Maybe,” Abuela began, “we should consider sending Mirabel away.”

Mirabel felt her parents’ hands on her shoulders tighten immediately. If she was hearing correctly, someone drew in a sharp breath behind her. Her own eyes widened and she clutched her mother’s arm.

"Absolutely not!" Agustin interjected. "How can we even think of just shipping her off somewhere?" 

Abuela raised an eyebrow. "And have you come up with another solution? Look around!" She gestured at the dining room. "Almost two months in, we're still stuck in a cramped lodging and now," she clenched her fists at her side, "we're looking at the possibility of having to stay here for two more months! "

"But Mama—" Julieta protested. " — She's just a young girl, how can we just send her away alone? How can we keep her away from us for so long?"

"Julieta, this would be temporary, just long enough until that Cordoba boy loses interest."

"And if he doesn't?" Agustin said. "If their family tries to find her while she's all alone without us? It's not like that family isn't tricky enough."

Abuela slightly balked. "Well, I suppose there is that."

Bruno spoke up. "It's notoriously difficult to get inside and outside Encanto. I couldn't even leave past the mountains. There's hardly a chance that boy and his family wouldn't notice us trying to get Mirabel out of here." 

Surprisingly, Pepa spoke up as well. "Mama, it's also hard to get a message across in time to and from Encanto. If Mirabel gets hurt or falls into trouble, we wouldn't know in time."

"See?" Agustin said. "It's just a bad idea all around."

Abuela sighed. "It's just a suggestion. It isn’t as if I want to just ship my granddaughter away. But some distance from this trouble would probably do her more good." She then turned towards Mirabel. "Wouldn't you agree, Mirabel?"

Mirabel fidgeted. She didn't want to even think about turning tail and leaving her family for months, if not years. She didn't even take the opportunity to run away after Casita's collapse, the idea had crossed her mind only for a split second before guilt racked her. How could she leave now that she was more comfortable with her family? But she was partly responsible for this mess, wasn’t she? Could leaving really be a possible solution? The girl gulped. “I’m…not sure, Abuela. I…would miss you guys a lot.”

“See, Mama? She doesn’t want to go. Let’s just drop this idea, I’m sure we can come up with something else,” Julieta said almost desperately.

Abuela pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fine. But it is still an option. It’s on the table. If Mirabel prefers it later, maybe we can go ahead with it.”

Agustin loosened his hold on his daughter, but his shoulders seemed tense. However, Julieta’s shoulders relaxed immediately. “Thank you, Mama.”

The woman sighed again and gestured away at her family. “This meeting is dismissed. I’m sure we’re all tired from today’s…events. Rest up so we can start working again. We may need money more than ever now if we want to buy the shipment again.”

With anxiety pooling the air, the family cleared the dining room, and called it an early night.

The start of the next week arrived and the family quickly took to their jobs again, working more hours than usual to save up for another shipment of construction material.

Mirabel was perched on her bed, stitching embroidery on an almost finished skirt. Her way of making money for the family was to take up commissions by the other villagers for tailor work.

She was halfway done circling the hem with lace when the door to the room opened, revealing Luisa.

"Oh, Luisa! Hey!" Mirabel started, slightly pausing on her stitch work.

"Hi, Mirabel," Luisa greeted back softly. "Abuela asked for you."

“Oh…” Mirabel’s grip on the skirt tightened ever so slightly. Were they going to talk about the ‘let’s send Mirabel away’ idea again?

Perhaps sensing her sister’s worry, Luisa softly waved her hand placatingly. "I think it's just about our jobs, Mirabel. Mama told me Abuela’s been busy worrying about that all morning."

"Ah, got it, got it." Mirabel let out a soft, nervous chuckle before clearing her throat. "Well, let's go, then!"

She tossed the skirt aside and followed her sister out of the room, trailing behind her as they engaged in casual chatter.

Halfway to Abuela’s room, Mirabel shifted the conversation to discuss something that hadn't settled on her mind well. "Hey, Luisa? I'm sorry for putting you on the spot the other afternoon. I didn't mean to, I was just rambling and didn't even think ahead."

"Oh…it's alright, Mirabel." Luisa rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't think it was right for you to have kept that a secret, but it also wouldn’t have been right for me to just tell others when you asked me not to. I think Abuela was just really stressed." 

"Yeah…" Mirabel slightly nodded, "But, I mean, it was my fault for getting you involved in all this, you shouldn't have gotten dragged in like that."

Luisa softly smiled. "It's okay, little sis. I'd rather you involve me than getting into that mess without anyone around."

Mirabel smiled back. "Thanks, Luisa." 

The two then returned to talking about their day, their favorite books, and the newest accident their father had gotten into before they were already at the room Abuela was in, which was the same room she shared with Pepa, Julieta, Dolores, and Antonio. It helped that it was the biggest bedroom in the entire lodging. Unfortunately, the men of the family—Agustin, Felix, Bruno, and Camilo—all shared the smallest room. 

At Mirabel's knock, Abuela opened the door, a pen in her hand. "Oh, good, you're both here. Come in."

Entering the room, Abuela sat down and penned a piece of paper, which Mirabel guessed, from the few words she could see, was an itinerary on all their jobs. The sisters stood a little away from their grandmother. "Did you need me for something, Abuela?" Mirabel asked tentatively, not sure what her grandmother's mood was towards her following the day of the confession. 

"Yes, I do," Abuela answered, scribbling down a few more things before capping the pen and turning towards the girls. "Luisa, I wanted to ask you to consider working today. I know it's your day off, but I think it'd be useful in earning enough money for a new shipment. I'm sure you can—" Abuela cleared her throat, "—I mean, do you think you can handle that?"

"Oh, yeah, I think I can do that, Abuela," Luisa replied softly. 

"Thank you, mija," Abuela smiled softly in return, "you're free to go now." 

She called out again as Luisa began to leave the room. "Oh, Luisa, before you leave the house, take some of your mother's baked bread to Señor Felipe."

"On it, Abuela!" Luisa called back before completely leaving. 

Abuela then directed her attention to Mirabel. "Mirabel, I want you to pause your tailoring for today." 

Mirabel slightly raised her eyebrows. "Oh! Is something wrong?"

Abuela slightly waved her hand at her as she picked up the paper and scanned it. "No, no, nothing’s wrong with your work. But, although it may bring in a hefty pay, tailoring is expected to take time and I'm sure one day's delay won't hurt." She put the paper back on the desk but her eyes lingered at one section of it, lightly scratching her chin. "It seems Camilo's having a bit of trouble. He's been making less and less money the past two weeks. I don't know if he's slacking off or if he's not finding enough parents willing to pay, so I'd like you to help him out today. Either take over if he gets too tired or see if you can bring in more customers with him."

"Oh! Yeah! I can do that, Abuela," Mirabel agreed enthusiastically. Truth be told, Mirabel was a bit tired from emotional burnout following the events of the past few weeks, she really didn't feel like going out and working, content on the rather relaxing work of tailoring. However, she inwardly winced at the thought of her grandmother once again being disappointed with her, and didn't want to risk getting on her bad side anymore. 

Mirabel slightly tightened her lips. Abuela had not spoken much with her since the confession day other than to direct her to work or anything important. And even now, she had hardly made eye contact with the girl, studying the piece of paper. 

She lightly swung her arms by her side. "Well…I'll be off then." Mirabel turned towards the door and prepared to leave before her grandmother called out to her. 

She beckoned her granddaughter to her side before placing something in Mirabel's palm and closing her hand into a fist. "Here, go have some ice cream. Get something for Camilo, too," her grandmother said, hardly taking her eyes off the paper.

"Oh, gracias, Abuela," Mirabel replied, slightly confused, before walking out of the room and lightly shutting the door behind her.

She opened her palm to find a few pieces of money, more than enough to get two people a sizable dessert. Mirabel smiled, her mood lifted considerably, and she set off to find her cousin.

She scoured the area for about twenty minutes before finding Camilo, whose back was turned towards her. Surprisingly (or, not so, considering Abuela's words), there were no children surrounding the boy. Was he slacking off? Perhaps he had a baby in his arms she couldn't see from her angle.

Stopping just a few inches from him, she called out gently, "Camilo?"

"Yes?" Camilo slightly turned to face her before his eyes widened at her sight, letting go of whatever he was holding and then fumbling to catch it for a few seconds before ultimately dropping it. His eyes scrunched shut, his shoulders hitched, and his hands fisted near his shoulders. Mirabel cringed along with him. No way did he just drop a baby. 

And well, no, he hadn't, fortunately. But he had dropped a pocket watch.

She picked up the watch and handed it to him.

"M-Mirabel!" His voice slightly cracked and his hand flew to his mouth as he cleared his throat, composing himself. "Ay, you surprised me."

Mirabel raised her eyebrow. Shouldn't the prank master of Encanto be a little bit more vigilant? Besides, he had only been surprised when he saw it was her. Did he find her hideous or something?

She inwardly chuckled at that. Her cousin could be so weird. "Abuela wanted me to help you out with babysitting. But it doesn't look like much babysitting is going on."

He stared at her for a couple seconds before letting out a sigh. "I've been running around for hours trying to find at least one kid to take care of. Either Encanto has been hit with a growth spurt pandemic or I smell."

She couldn't help but softly giggle at that. "Well, I don't think you smell. You haven't been slacking off at any point, have you? Maybe the moms think you're too irresponsible for their kids if you ditch work time." She put her hands on her hips.

The boy gasped dramatically and laid a hand on his chest. "Me? Slack off? Why, the nerve! I could never."

She giggled at his theatrics again and he laughed along with her. She’d almost forgotten how fun it was to talk with him when they played as kids. 

Too soon, however, their laughter died into a lull.

Mirabel cleared her throat and played with her satchel while Camilo fingered at his watch.

He dropped the hand holding the watch to his side, then pocketed it and rubbed his neck. "Um, no, actually. I didn't slack off. I wish I could, but how can a guy slack off if he can't even find work in the first place? I can't find anyone to take me in today!"

"Oh, really? Abuela thought that was a possibility too. She wanted me to help you find customers."

He snorted at that. "I've been at that for hours." He put his hands on his hips before a mischievous grin spread on his face. "Hey…what if I kidnap a kid and ask for ransom money, what do you think? Similar enough to babysitting?"

"Camilo! Don't joke like that!" She playfully chastised.

The boy flinched, however, nervously chuckling. "I was just playing, Mirabel." 

"Huh? Wait, no, Camilo! I'm joking too!" Ugh. She was nowhere near as good at dishing out sarcasm as he was. She looked away from him, instinctively taking two steps back. "S-sorry." She apologized softly.

A choking sound emitted from Camilo's throat.He took two steps closer to her and waved his hand placatingly. "No, no, it's okay, it's fine. I have no idea where that came from. Um." He cleared his throat. "Uh, let's go try to find some kids. We might as well knock at people's doors at this point." He sighed. “Let's keep looking for a little longer.” 

She slowly nodded at the idea, her eyes still avoiding him. "Uh, yeah! Let's do that."

At that, the two split up and looked for any available mothers or children. Twenty minutes passed by at no avail. Where could they be hiding? Mirabel was used to being hounded by the town’s children. She spotted Camilo near a large fountain and walked towards him.

"Any luck?" She asked, though him being alone should have answered her question.

The boy slumped on the edge of the fountain. "Nada. I don't know what's up with today. It was getting bad the past few weeks but today's the worst." 

She hummed contemplatively. "Let's try the knocking idea then. Couldn't hurt, right?"

He considered her words before standing up. "No, couldn't hurt. It's not like we have much of an option. Well, that or asking Mami if we could babysit Antonio for a price but that probably won't go well with Abuela." 

Mirabel let out a soft chuckle and headed towards Juancho's house, Camilo following along next to her. Juancho almost always needed to be supervised. His coffee-induced ramblings were enough to drive anyone crazy given enough hours, his parents probably no exception. 

Camilo knocked upon reaching their door, and after waiting a minute, the door swung open. "Oh! Camilo, Mirabel ¡Hola! How are you?"

A charming smile graced Camilo's lips. "We're great, Señora. Say, did you cut your hair? You're looking younger."

Juancho's mother was definitely not looking younger. The woman had bags on her bags and the circles under her eyes were visibly dark. 

Juancho's mother smiled at that. "No, but I'm sure a haircut might do wonders." The woman stepped away slightly to indicate an invitation. "Is there something you need? Would you like to come in? Oh, Juancho would have loved to play with you guys."

Mirabel clasped her hands together. "Actually, we're here for Juancho! Is he here? We wanted to offer babysitting services and give you a chance to relax!"

The woman laid a hand on her collarbone. "Oh, I'm sorry, Juancho's not home right now. He's at the daycare."

"Daycare?" Camilo asked. "What daycare?"

"The new one that opened up a few weeks ago. I'm sure Juancho would have loved to play but…the daycare is free. It doesn't seem to be staying for long though. Come back to me for babysitting in a month's time! Oh! But feel free to visit and take Juancho with you on your adventures," she offered. 

Mirabel and Camilo awkwardly smiled back at her. "Gracias, Señora," Camilo began, "we'll think about it. But we should get going now."

The woman bid her farewells and closed the door, prompting Mirabel and Camilo to walk off together in a daze.

Mirabel grabbed the handle of her satchel. "Daycare? Did we ever have one of those?"

"Uh, no." Camilo threw his hands up. "Last I checked, I was the daycare." 

"Let's go investigate that, Camilo. Maybe most of the kids are there."

The boy rubbed at the back of his head. "Yeah, who would turn down free stuff? I'd sign up for it even if I never have kids." He looked up at her with his eyes slightly widened. "N-not that I don't want kids."

Mirabel awkwardly nodded at that. "Uh, okay!” She fiddled with her fingers. “Um…oh!" The girl's eyes lit up and she fished around in her satchel. She brought out the money and held it between two fingers and gestured towards him. "Let's go get ice cream! We've been running around all day! Don’t you want to eat something sweet?" 

"Ice cream? Like, you and… me?" Camilo asked hesitantly. 

"Well, duh, who else?" Mirabel asked, not understanding why Camilo seemed so nervous. Did he not like being around her? She cast her gaze to the left. She noticed him a little hesitant around her. He wasn't very close with Luisa or Isabela either, but Mirabel doubted he was this awkward with them. "But, um, we don't have to. Let's split the money and we can get ice cream on our own later."

He stilled, studying her with wide eyes before his shoulders slumped. "Oh…alright, if that's what you want."

She huffed. Now he was confusing her. "I mean, no, that's not what I want."

His head shot up. " It isn't?"

"No, Camilo. This is a good opportunity to cool down while we search for the daycare. No need to burn ourselves out."

"Oh, well yeah, that sounds great. Let's do that." The boy laughed awkwardly and twirled a hand. "Alright, primita, lead the way."

And so she did. As she twirled around towards the direction of an ice cream cart, Camilo strode up to her side and they walked in tandem. Arriving not too long after, the pair greeted the man working the ice cream cart. 

"Strawberry ice cream, please!" Mirabel chirped. She then turned to her cousin, "What would you like, Camilo?"

"I guess I'll have strawberry, too." 

The man shook his head. "I'm sorry but most of the flavors are sold out, including the strawberry. Maybe you'd prefer vanilla? That's all that's left." 

"Oh, I guess so," Mirabel started disappointedly. "It's still morning. How did the ice cream sell out so fast?"

"The new daycare ordered a huge amount of ice cream today!"

That seemed to catch Camilo's attention. "Ah, there's that daycare again. Señor, do you happen to know more about that daycare? Where is it?"

"Not anything particular other than that it's new and it's a daycare. But I suppose it’s on the opposite side of town," he said as he handed two vanilla cones to Mirabel. 

She watched Camilo's eyebrows furrow as she grabbed the cones. They exchanged a quick goodbye with the man before trekking off in a daze. 

Mirabel slightly trailed her cousin, the boy lost in thought. She sped up to him and handed him his ice cream, tilting her head. "What are you thinking of?"

"Hmm?" The boy hummed. "Well, the daycare is on the opposite side of town."

"Yeah?" she asked, not catching his point.

"Who has been getting on our cases lately and lives on the opposite side of town?"

Mirabel took awhile to process his words before her eyes widened and her eyebrows rose in incredulity. "Do you think it's theirs? But why on Earth would the Cordobas invest their money in a daycare?" she asked. 

He sighed. "Let's go find out." He started walking towards the opposite side of town, Mirabel following him. He then abruptly stopped and turned towards her, Mirabel almost bumping into him. "Thank you for the ice cream." 

She backed away and let out a bashful scoff. "No, no, it's okay! It was Abuela's money and idea, anyway!" She looked to the ground and pulled a curl. "Besides, we're cousins, and cousins give cousins gifts…or ice cream, I guess," she rambled. 

She looked up at him as he nodded with a smile. "Alright, primita. Still, thank you. Now let's go find that daycare."

They began their trek again, this time Mirabel opted to walk next to him instead, her heart pounding from almost bumping into the boy.

Chapter Text

A bit of a silent walk later, Mirabel and Camilo found themselves facing a modestly sized building advertising itself as a daycare. There wasn't much adorning it in way of child friendly decor, but the banner strewn across the front of the building indicated that this could be what Mirabel and Camilo were looking for.

Camilo took one glance at Mirabel and began walking ahead. 

"Camilo, wait! Are you gonna go inside? What if we run into trouble?"

He slightly snorted. "At a daycare? The most we'd probably run into is caffeinated kids wanting a song." He beckoned her to follow him. "C'mon, Mirabel, I just want to check out the back for any windows and see if all the kids are in there. Just to confirm if that's where business went."

She hesitantly stepped towards him, not exactly comfortable with the idea of being around Cordoba territory now that she was more or less a main target.

The two circled the building until they were able to find a reachable window, in which Camilo slightly hoisted himself up on his tiptoes to peer into. “Well, it’s confirmed. There goes my business.” The boy kept looking through the window for a couple more seconds before dropping onto his heels and crossing his arms. “It’s like the entire village dropped off their kids, I even saw some babies!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands up. 

"Mirabel,” a voice called out, making the pair jump, “how good to see you!" 

The pair turned around to the direction of the voice, taking in the sight of a woman holding a stack of flyers. The woman kept her gaze on Mirabel, as if completely ignoring Camilo.

However, to Mirabel, that gaze felt akin to a predatory animal sizing its prey than that of a welcoming acquaintance. This woman was no ordinary woman, but one of the members of the Cordoba household. Perhaps she was an aunt or some other relative of Diego, and her presence near the daycare seemed to confirm it was the Cordobas' property. 

Mirabel grabbed the handle of her satchel with both hands. "Hola, Señora Cordoba."

“My, are you here to see our new daycare? Isn't it lovely? Our family wanted to serve the community," the woman's smile grew more saccharine by the second, "just like you Madrigals used to do!" 

Camilo cleared his throat and the woman released her vice grip of a gaze on Mirabel and directed her attention to him, though her smile grew slightly more tight-lipped. "It's an interesting initiative, Señora Cordoba. Really, a great thing to do." He crossed his arms. "Interesting timing as well."

“Oh I agree, um, what was your name again? Carlos?"

"Camilo."

"Yes, yes, well, it was a bit overdue for someone to take over and make things easier on our community’s parents and families. What with—” she gestured her finger up and down towards him, “—the marvelous Madrigals doing less and less for others now with your gifts gone and all.” She cradled her cheek with her hand. “Oh, you poor things! You must be so tired now that you have to get used to doing work like normal people!”

Mirabel's eyes widened at that and she looked to Camilo. His expression was static, the same friendly smile still plastered on. He shook his head with a dry chuckle. "Trust me, Señora Cordoba. We're all fine and good here. No need to worry. Us abnormal people eventually have to adapt, right?"

The woman returned his dry chuckle. "Now, now, it's not kind to label the Madrigal line as completely abnormal, hm? After all, you guys still have Mirabel! She's been without a gift since she was born and look at how well she fared out! She'd make a great addition to any family, wouldn't you say?" The woman sing-songed. 

Camilo's face did not change and his smile stayed put, but Mirabel's eyes still caught the quick motion of his hands clasping behind his back and tightening hard. "Of course, Señora, why wouldn't I think that way about my very own prima?"

Mirabel fidgeted, one of her legs swinging lightly back and forth. She was already discomfited by Señora Cordoba's implications, but the back and forth between the woman and her cousin was both wasting their time and treading uncomfortable territory. She stepped forward a bit past Camilo. "Um, Señora Cordoba, if it's not too much to ask, we'd like to know how long the daycare's going to be here? It's a great addition to the town, really! But things like this take a lot of maintenance and money when it comes to upkeep, ya know?" She attempted to gesture her hands persuasively. 

The woman tilted her head and tapped her chin with her finger. "Well, it really depends, Mirabel. I do wonder just how long we'd have to wait before it's time to take a break from our productivities. Maybe a month, two months, a year? Just how stubborn can someone be, hm?"

Mirabel crossed her arms behind her back, mirroring Camilo. But while he seemed to display his confidence in his posture, Mirabel slumped inward. She wished this conversation would end soon, hoping she and Camilo could be well on their way to the lodging now, far from where the Cordobas resided. Camilo spoke up, “Hard work is always a good skill to have, Señora Cordoba, I’m glad you guys are learning it. I wouldn’t call it stubbornness.” That seemed to tick off the woman a bit, her smile dropping for a shadow of a second before it was on again. 

"I should probably head out now and take care of things. Oh! But before that—" the woman handed one of the flyers to Mirabel, "—Maybe you'd like to use our services. Don't you have a little cousin? Perhaps someone's expecting? Either way, it could be an opportunity to," the woman tapped the flyer with a finger, "tag along with our family if you come visit. Oh, and aren't you and Diego the same age? Maybe if he's working on the site some days you guys can catch up and get to know each other better, doesn't that sound fun?"

Camilo crossed his arms again and tapped the fingers of one arm on the other. Mirabel slightly clenched her teeth behind her smile, now that the name she hoped the conversation would stay clear of dropped. "I'm sure it has that potential, Señora." 

The woman gave a laugh skirting on sardonic. "I'm glad you think so. Anyways, it's time for me to go. Do consider stopping by again, Mirabel and Carmelo!"

"It's Camilo."

The woman was already hastily walking away, either not hearing Camilo's response or not caring as it went on ignored. 

The teenagers watched the woman disappear into the distance before releasing heavy sighs simultaneously. Mirabel hunched forward. "¡Dios mío! I thought I'd die on the spot just now."

"You?! I thought I was going to choke on my own spit, that was terrifying!"

Mirabel then smiled excitedly. "Wow, Camilo! I mean of course I know you're great at acting and all, but, it's still a bit shocking how you managed to keep all that inside!"

“You like my acting?” Camilo responded all too quickly, his smile stretching wider. The boy then dropped his smile and reddened a bit, “I-I mean”, then he switched to a smirk and struck a pose, hands on his hips and chest slightly puffed out, “pssh, this is Camilo Madrigal you’re speaking with.” He twirled his hand around before gesturing it towards himself, “You should be used to my acting skills by now. Aren’t I the best actor in your life?” 

She lightly rolled her eyes away and walked ahead. 

“Wait, I am the best actor in your life, right? Is there someone else?” 

Mirabel lightly swung her arms by her side, though the sound of paper rustling in the wind called for her attention. Mirabel spared the flyer in her hands a mere glance before folding it and pocketing it in her satchel.

"Uhh, wouldn't you wanna throw that away instead? It's not like we have kids." Camilo's eyes then widened. "You! I mean you! You don't have kids. Not we. Or me. Or maybe me, but not now. Um…"

Mirabel just raised an eyebrow at his rambling. "Obviously it's not for me, genius. But it's evidence in a way right? We don't know the exact game the Cordobas are playing, but if we gather enough information and investigate we could figure it out!" The same excitement and thrill during her investigation of Casita's cracks now coursed through her.

"You wanna show it to someone? Abuela? If we can get a good idea at how the Cordobas are playing we might be able to figure out a safer work plan that doesn't risk losing business." Camilo scratched his chin in thought.

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea! I just hope we can figure something out before our family loses any other jobs." 

He hummed in agreement before throwing his hands up behind his head and trudging forward, indicating to Mirabel that they should head back home and talk to their Abuela. 

Their walk home was again silent, with the occasional question about something home or work related before the conversation would quickly devolve into a lull. Mirabel felt bad at not working against any awkwardness in their conversations, but her mind was too preoccupied on the problems her family was facing after Diego's proposal. She continued to ruminate before her cousin broke her train of thought again.

"Um, Mirabel," he started, "don't get pressured by the Cordobas and…end up with Diego. Or even think that'd be good for the family. It won't. It definitely wouldn't be. It's a bad idea for us to just let you go and into the arms of that guy."

Her eyes widened. She definitely had no desire to run to Diego anytime soon, but she expected this conversation from her parents or her sisters before her cousin. In fact, he usually didn't seem particularly concerned about her. Before she could respond, the boy continued, "Because it'd be really bad for the family as a whole. It's basically letting the enemy get too close, ya know?"

"I know, Camilo. You're always thinking about the family." She smiled to herself. 

"Yeah…the family," he drawled. She responded with a quick "yep" as the conversation fell into silence again.

When they were finally in front of the lodging. Camilo stopped Mirabel before she could knock on the entrance by clearing his throat. "But um, it's not just about the family, though of course that's important. You should…think about yourself, too. And your own happiness." He didn't meet her eyes, so he couldn't see Mirabel looking at him more shocked than she should be. She couldn't help it, she wasn't used to being individually considered by others outside of her parents. It was always family before the family member. The people before the person. That's just the way things ran around here.

She grabbed one of her curls, slightly twirling it. She opened her mouth but before she could say anything the door swung open, revealing an Isabela on edge. Though that wasn't always out of the ordinary for Mirabel, or at least that's how it used to be. 

"Isabela? Shouldn't you be out with Tía?"

Her elder sister huffed. "As if I could even if I wanted to. No one trusts me enough around their oh so sharp tools so now Tía and I are practically out of a job."

"Wait, what? Why?" Mirabel asked. Isabela and their Tía Pepa would work together taking up landscaping or gardening work. With the former's extensive knowledge of the land's flora and the latter's experience with irrigation help, the two made a rather productive team with agricultural or landform support and did find gigs more often than not. It was troubling to hear something was up and barring the two from working. 

"Why? Remember that dumb rumor some of the Cordoba girls spread after the proposal? Well not only are some people avoiding me, they're now scared of me holding a wheelbarrow!"

"I think they're more worried about you holding an ax than a wheelbarrow, but okay."

Isabela shot her glare at Camilo before turning to Mirabel again, crossing her arms. "Point is, Tía and I are not getting hired because of those rumors."

Camilo shook his head. "Ay yi yi, Isabela. I told you this day would come if you didn't get that temper checked."

Isabel's eyes narrowed. "Would you like those rumors to come true, Camilo?" She stepped around them and began to walk away. 

"Where are you going?" Mirabel called out to ask. 

Isabela waved her hand at her without turning around. "To find Mami and Pa and see if they need help with the bake sale. It's the least I can do now that I'm practically unemployed."

Camilo cupped his mouth and called out, "If it makes you feel any better, I'm unemployed too!"

"Why would that make me feel better?!" Isabela still didn't turn around, but this time she clenched her fists by her sides and walked away faster. 

Mirabel shook her head at her cousin's antics before making her way inside. 

"What? I was trying to make her feel better!" He followed her inside. 

"Not only are you not finding customers, Isabela and Tía aren't getting hired either, Camilo. This doesn't look good at all, how are we going to tell Abuela?"

"Tell Abuela what?" The pair jumped again to see their Abuela not too far from them. "What's going on? Did you two not find customers today?"

"Um, well, no, no we did not," Mirabel began, "we tried to but it looks like none of the parents were available. Most of our time out was just asking around to see if anyone needed babysitters! Turns out there's a daycare from the Cordobas an—" 

"Cordoba? Again?" Abuela's eyebrows furrowed. "What daycare?"

"Well apparently the Cordobas recently built a free daycare and being free and all the parents are dropping their kids there instead!" Mirabel fumbled and fished through her bag while answering before yanking out the flyer and handing it to her grandmother.

Their Abuela unfolded the flyer and scanned through its contents, her eyes widening indignantly with each passing second. "A daycare? When have those Cordobas ever cared about the children enough to build a free daycare?!" 

"Apparently now." Camilo put his hands on his hips.

Abuela shook her head in indignance while her eyes stayed glaring at the contents of the flyer. "First, Pepa and Isabela are not finding much work and now this!" She sighed and held the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "We've already lost enough money with the stolen shipment and now I'm not even sure we can make enough for another one anytime soon."

The elder then dropped her hand and folded it into the other at her front and faced the two. "I already sent Isabela off to help her parents. Camilo, go find Luisa and help her out. And Mirabel, you should go join Isabela and help out your parents."

The two nodded at her instructions and wordlessly parted ways, Camilo rounding the corner of the lodging to find Luisa and Mirabel followed the same path her sister took. 

Finding her parents at their bakery stand wasn't too hard in general. Before, it was easy to just look for a large crowd and work one’s way to the center and it was likely you'll find the husband and wife duo. 

Now it was easy to find them because of the lack of a crowd. 

Her parents stood forlornly at their stand, Isabela had her arms crossed with a foot tapping at the ground. 

Mirabel sped up towards her family. "What's going on? Why isn't there anyone around?"

Her mother sighed. "Ay mija, I wish I knew the answer to that. Barely anyone showed up the other day and now we've only had maybe ten customers since the morning."

A growing pit in Mirabel's stomach told her this might involve the Cordobas again. First Camilo, then she found out about Isabela and their Tía. She wouldn't be surprised if her parent's situation shared the Cordobas' involvement as the common factor as well. 

"Did…did the Cordobas do or say anything recently?" 

Julieta tilted her head in thought. "No, not that I remember. Why? What happened?"

"I'm sure Isabela told you guys about what happened with her," At that, Isabela nodded, "but Camilo is basically unemployed now too." Mirabel put a hand up to her chin. "I was worried you guys might have been affected as well."

Isabela uncrossed her arms. "Wait, he wasn't joking about that? Why is he unemployed?" 

"The Cordobas put up a free daycare! How else is Camilo supposed to babysit if the entire village can get the same job done for free?"

"First Isabela and now Camilo…" Juliet murmured concerned. "But I can't think of anything the Cordobas might have done to make our sales any harder." 

Agustin, however, crossed his arms. “Well, I did see some of them buying cases of yeast and flour too when I went to pick up our orders.” He gave a small smile to his daughter. “But that could just be their grocery shopping, Miraboo. So far, your mom and I are doing okay, we just hit a bit of a dry spell.” 

It wasn’t hard to follow along with her father’s optimism, herself nodding to the hope that the Cordobas would stop their threat at Camilo and Isabela, as the loss of their jobs was already a huge dent on their family income. That still didn’t take the edge off her concern. The possibility her parents might get involved soon was just too daunting to ignore it. 

Julieta reached out and rested a hand on her daughter’s head. “Don’t worry too much about the Cordobas, Mirabel. Remember, our family can handle it. You’ll run yourself sick thinking about them.” 

Mirabel responded to her mother’s attempt to comfort her with a smile and another nod. Isabela, however, side-eyed the conversation with crossed arms and tight lips. She didn’t seem to agree with her mother’s sentiment. Mirabel aligned herself more with her elder sister, even a regular grocery run felt like a promise of threats to come. 

Stationing herself behind the stand and next to her father, Mirabel prepared to assist in any way she could. The sales for the day didn’t run too short as worried, there was still a scarcity compared to most days considering the lack of the usual crowd, and it did take a bit of extra effort, but the family was still able to wrangle up a generous amount of customers. 

By the time evening rolled in, the family wrapped up their stand and arrived at the lodging shortly after. But instead of seeing the rest of the family preparing the dining area, they were met with the view of Señor Felipe sitting at the dining room across from Abuela. Various other family members gathered around the dining room, each busy with their own activity but still tuning in to whatever was being discussed at the table, eyes and ears turned towards the conversation.

“I’m sorry, Señora Alma, but I have to make a living too. It’ll be troubling for my family if I keep renting out the lodging for free.” 

“I understand Señor Felipe,” Abuela rested both her hands on her chest, “but it has been very difficult finding customers lately and I’m sure you’ve heard of the bandit incident, we had to buy another shipment. We do not have the means to pay for an entire lodging.”

Señor Felipe sighed. He scratched his head for a time, his eyes scrunched as if in deep thought, “What if I discounted the usual price? Señora Alma, you and your family have been a big help for all these years…but I must make the means to keep food on my own family’s plates. All I can do right now is rent it for a price, but hopefully low enough for you.”

Abuela began to nod, “Yes, yes. Thank you Felipe, thank you! That will do just fine!”

“Alright, I can rent out the entire lodging at the price I usually give to honeymooners asking for a single room. I will try to send the bill in a month’s time from now.”

After further discussion on the pricing and matters to do with renting out the lodging, Abuela finally bid Señor Felipe farewell. She turned to her family and her eyes took in each one of their anticipating faces. 

“It seems we’ll have to increase our efforts to fund our family. I’m sorry to say, but it looks like we’ll have to be working every day if we want to make enough for food, clothes—” she sighed, “—and now shelter.”

A series of exhausted expressions showed on each Madrigal’s face. They were already tired from the increased workload on Casita’s construction, disheartened by how much longer it may take to finish it, and the new proposal to be on their jobs every day instead of weekly only hammered it in that time to relax was slowly trickling down next to nothing. 

“First, we’re losing our jobs and now we’re risking eviction. Aren’t the Cordobas taking things too far?” Isabela asked, then muttered under her breath, “maybe threatening them back was a good option.”

“Yes. The Cordobas are, Casita seems to be even farther from our grasp.” Abuela responded, though she seemed to be distracted, her eyes on the ground and off to the side as she grasped her hands tight. Looking up, she seemed to notice Mirabel and her eyes lingered on her granddaughter. Standing up, she walked over somewhere away and picked up a newspaper. Eyeing its content, Abuela slowly nodded to herself, put down the newspaper, and faced the entirety of the family. She gestured towards Mirabel. “Come here, mija.”

Mirabel slowly entangled herself out of her mother’s hold, and made her way to her grandmother. When close enough, Abuela cupped her arm with one hand. “I have been thinking of ways for our family to resolve this situation. You understand the weight of this matter, correct?”

That struck a small lump in Mirabel’s throat, her countenance glazing in worry. “Of course, Abuela!” Mirabel exclaimed softly. Then remembering how this all started, Mirabel felt her shoulders deflate and she suddenly could not meet her grandmother’s eyes, “If I knew things were gonna get like this, I would have never responded to that letter. I mean it, Abuela, I really thought it was harmless.” She said, and then whispered, “I’m…I’m so sorry.”

Abuela lifted her chin up delicately. “It’s fine,” she sighed, “I’m upset by your willingness to have kept such a thing a secret from us…but, I’m sure the matter felt private enough to want to keep others out of your business.” She gestured around, “But this did not end up a normal situation where a simple rejection would have freed you from it, our circumstances have soured into a big ordeal now that the Cordobas are involved.” Abuela then closed her eyes tight, as if anticipating something reprehensive. “But as I’ve mentioned, I have tried to think of ways to protect ourselves from the Cordobas and get them to drop the proposal.”

“Mirabel…” Abuela started again. “I think we should look into marrying you off into another family quickly.”

Chapter Text

The idea was that if Mirabel was well married off, the Cordobas would give up and leave them be.

Of course, said idea was not a hit amongst the Madrigals. Almost immediately, a round of expressed disbelief and negation from the family met Abuela, especially from Mirabel's parents.

"Mami! How can we even do such a thing! She's still so young!"

"We're not going to try to sacrifice another daughter to a marriage she doesn't want."

Abuela snorted at that. "Mirabel was excited at an anonymous proposal and yet you think she has no interest in marriage?"

"I-it's not that I wanted to marry them right away! I just wanted to see what the guy was like or if it could become something later!"

Abuela shook her head. “Even so, you have an interest, don’t you? Wouldn’t you want to explore that at least a little bit as an option to get you out of this mess?”

"But what if we're just risking letting in some kind of pawn or decoy, huh? One set by the Cordobas?" Agustín countered. 

Camilo opened his mouth, lifting up a finger in the way he usually does when he tries to correct someone, but just as quickly, the boy stopped himself and shut his mouth. 

However, his father took up his task. 

“If it was easy for them to do that, wouldn’t they have done that already even before the proposal?”

"Felix! Are you really supporting this?"

"N-no, I'm not, I just wanted to point out why it didn't make sense." He trailed meekly. 

The parents’ attention was back on to Abuela. “No, not a chance. We made that mistake with Isabela, we are not going to repeat it with our youngest daughter.”

Abuela sighed. “I understand that, I’m not suggesting this out of the same place I arranged Isabela’s marriage. Because, unlike Isabela, Mirabel has a stronger desire to be married. She was willing to follow up with a marriage proposal, no?”

Agustín rounded towards Mirabel. “Mirabel, tell her, let her know what you really want!”

Mirabel worriedly looked at her parents’ almost desperate gazes, but she also could not ignore her grandmother’s exhaustedly expectant face. “It’s…true that I do want to be married, but…when I say I do, I mean that I want to be married in a more…” Mirabel paused before continuing in a quieter voice, her face flushed, “romantic fashion.”

Abuela sighed. “That’s what anyone wants, Mirabel. But marriage is more of a practical matter. It’s an investment, not an amusement. And we want to invest in securing you and our family from something more painful than not marrying for more conventional reasons.”

Mirabel’s voice stayed quiet. “It’s just scary to not have the option for more time and flexibility. To at least get to know a person and possibly fall in love with something about them before committing.”

At that, Abuela did widen her eyes by a fraction, and took a few seconds to study Mirabel’s face. “I see…”

“Mami, please, please don’t push for this. We have enough problems right now and the added stress over making sure Mirabel is safe with a stranger is not something we need.”

Abuela rubbed at her nose bridge. “Clearly, I’m wasting time and energy in suggesting this, since you don’t seem very willing to budge. Fine, I’ll drop it for now. But just remember that the option is still on the table.”

Relief washed over Julieta and Agustín, as well as some other family members. The topic was not brought up again anytime soon after.

But the topic of the Cordobas’ sabotage was still going strong and fresh in their minds. In fact, it was being made more apparent to them with severity.

Because not too long after that meeting, Julieta’s bakery became more devoid of customers with the opening of a new bakery. It was located almost right in the middle between the entire village, making it easier for just about anyone on low time to make a trip to. It sold imported goods and local bread made with even fresher imported goods that the Madrigal family could not even think to afford in their current state. It didn’t take much thinking to figure out who owned the bakery, the family name was loudly displayed on the building. 

One source of income was now dwindling to nothing. To compensate, the family agreed to not use any fabric they owned, leaving it solely for Mirabel’s tailoring service. 

Then came more pushback on Pepa’s work. Although Isabela was no longer trusted for the gardening work, Pepa was still able to find some jobs. But this was impacted by the introduction of a new landscaping service that offered lower prices and used more efficient and modern tools that, again, the Madrigals could not afford. After this, the family agreed to buy less food. Eating only two meals a day. They increased their work hours even more. 

Following that, Luisa was being contracted less for manual labor as the Cordobas sent their men with expensive materials that the contractor did not have to pay for. Now the family had to buy less ingredients, patiently riding out their hunger until about midday to have one big meal, eating only any of their bakery goods that have gone stale from not being sold yet. Some of the older family members had to sacrifice much of their sleep to find work for longer hours. 

As for Mirabel, more and more villagers were enjoying expensive fabrics at prices that they would have paid for whatever fabrics the Madrigals were using. 

The real kicker was the realization that none of these new services was for more profit. The Cordobas were surely putting in more cost for the bakery expenses that resulted in absurdly small profit gains, and the lower prices for the manual labor and tailor work was so low that it wasn’t enough to buy a new set of shoes for an entire year. 

The profit the Cordobas’ were looking for was not money. 

The profit they truly desired became more apparent to the Madrigals with the new, or not so new, series of events.

It wasn’t long until they could no longer afford their current rent price.

“Señora Alma, I’m here to discuss—”

“I know what you’re here for, Señor Felipe.” The woman sighed, as if too tired to negotiate right now. “Forgive me for my hastiness, Señor Felipe, but our family cannot afford our current arrangement now.” The woman handed a sheet that detailed the family’s current income trends. “Is there anything that can be done that we can afford?”

The man tightened his lips. “The only thing I can offer right now, is to just make the kitchen and one of the smaller rooms available. But I would have to rent out the other two bigger rooms and the dining room to other customers. As for the bathroom, it’s still available to you guys, but at this point it's a public restroom you’d have to share with the other customers.”

Abula grimaced. But there was almost little to be done, so she signed the contract for the new arrangement. 

And this marked the Madrigals’ new lifestyle. The family had little to no time to relax, some of them, particularly Isabela and Pepa, became more irritated with the lack of sleep, and the family became more cramped, half of them taking alternate days of sleeping in the kitchen instead—which disrupted whatever little sleep the family could get. It was no surprise that arguments became more frequent.

The topic of marrying away Mirabel suddenly became a topic of discussion again, as, although Abuela kept her promise to not speak of it again unless prompted, some family members, namely Pepa, Felix, and Dolores, had a change of heart.

Eventually, the resistance Mirabel’s parents had was worn down more and more by the day until it started to feel more like a betrayal to keep saying “no”.

And then, as the family came together at the end of the day to unload all the money they earned for that day, only for it to be revealed that not a single penny was made, Antonio began to cry. Pepa immediately came to soothe the boy, trying to promise him that it’d be alright. But the boy clutched at the front of his shirt, sobbing into his mother’s chest at how hungry he was, that they’re not going to be able to buy food anymore, that no one wanted to give them any money, that no one liked them anymore.

The boy’s sniffles continued, and Mirabel laid a hand on her parents’ enjoined ones as they looked at Antonio in something akin to a parental horror. A cold realization came crashing down upon them at the touch of their daughter, and a new kind of parental horror took hold of them. One they couldn’t find the strength to escape from any longer. 

“Abuela?”

The grandmother had her hand on her forehead, to possibly rub a headache away, but it also shielded her eyes. Though the tired “yes, Mirabel?” gave away enough. 

“I think…” Mirabel clutched her arms with opposite hands. “I think we should look into some families…to marry me off to.”

Almost at once, Abuela struck Mirabel with an astonished look, Julieta buried her head in Agustín’s chest, her sisters’ jaws were dropped open, and Camilo promptly left the room, shutting the door behind him. 

She hoped this would save her family, but Antonio’s sobbing only growing louder made the anxious hold on her heart tighten further.

Mirabel’s parents may have relented to the plan to marry Mirabel into safety instead, but they were strict on the criteria of what a marriage prospect and their family should look like. Abuela had no qualms about this, in fact, she welcomed it, and pitched in her own ideas.

There were two sets of penned criteria Abuela had to keep in mind: one from Mirabel’s parents, and one from Mirabel herself.

It was understandable what Mirabel’s parents were looking for, Abuela echoing some of the same sentiments as well: she can’t marry into a family that wants to take Mirabel too far from them—after all, they were so used to the in-laws moving in instead, the family had to be trustworthy in general—good lineage and reputation, Abuela presumed, and the family had to be one Julieta and Agustín could trust—this one confused Abuela a little. Wasn’t it the same thing as the last rule? Maybe they meant there had to be some kind of history between the parents.

As for Mirabel’s list, she more or less wanted someone kind and helpful: was nice to his family, helped others, and, if it wasn’t too hard to find, someone handsome. Something else on the list was scribbled out with a pen, however. The only readable word was “travel”. 

With that, the family began their search, as subtly as they could. At least as subtly as they could initially, as it seemed almost inevitable that word would spread fast and the Cordobas might try to sabotage their plans. They hoped to arrange something quick enough before it got too bad. 

It was mostly Mirabel’s parents and Abuela looking to find someone, Pepa and Felix occasionally helped out. Bruno didn’t seem too thrilled at the prospect of just shipping his niece off to any dude, but even he would make note of anyone especially considerate. Although Dolores would sometimes try to help in her own way by talking with Mirabel about it and try to aid in “refining” Mirabel’s criteria, her sisters didn’t seem to want anything to do with it. Even then, if Isabela or Luisa were to pass by and catch wind of Dolores’s discussions with Mirabel, they would interject with their own thoughts and opinions. 

The only two that truly, through and through, offered no help to the search was Camilo and Antonio. Antonio didn’t like the idea of Mirabel leaving to be off with some guy at all, often pouting and worried he’d never see her again. Regardless, as a child, there wasn’t much Antonio could do.

Camilo also opted out, preferring to be busy with household chores, excusing himself in the sense that he really didn’t think he’d be able to help at all. 

Alma’s eyebrow did raise at Camilo’s rather indifferent attitude to this matter. He made himself scarce with said household chores.

She did run into him once while she was walking towards the only bedroom they had left. Mirabel and her parents were in said room trying to compile a list of potential families and contacts before they officially started reaching out to others. Alma left to retrieve her phone book but on her way back caught sight of Camilo washing most of the dishes. 

It was a mundane act in itself, but to see Camilo not hesitating to take up the tasks he used to try so hard to get out of, was a sight in and of itself. 

“Camilo?” Alma called out to her grandson, slightly startling him. “Wouldn’t you rather take a break? You’ve been piling work on yourself a lot lately, mijo.”

The boy brightly chuckled, “It’s okay, Abuela. I’m doing this for the family. It’s the least I can do.”

Alma preferred to be straight to the point. “Camilo, wouldn’t you rather help us find someone for Mirabel?” It helped to catch others off guard.

Which apparently, worked well enough on Camilo, who dropped the plate he was scrubbing. The boy cringed at the sound of the plate breaking into splinters. Eventually, the boy peeked an eye open and looked at his grandmother, “Uh, sorry, Abuela. Man, I’m so clumsy these days, aren’t I?” He tried to joke and promptly went back to scrubbing the next plate as if he didn’t just break one at the mention of a simple question.

“You’re quite the friendly boy, Camilo. I’m sure you have a lot of friends that would be a good fit for Mirabel. Isn’t there anyone you’d like to see with your prima?”

Camilo didn’t turn to look at his grandmother this time, but his scrubbing sped up a tad. “Trust me, Abuela, you wouldn’t want those kinds of guys near Mirabel.”

“Oh? But I’d like my grandson to hang near those kinds of guys instead?”

The boy returned a dry chuckle. “You got me there, Abuela. What can I say? I’m a popular guy, it can be hard for me to fend off a few wild cards. They all want a piece of Camilo Madrigal.”

Alma tapped one of her crossed arms with her fingers. Camilo did not have to pitch in at all. Mirabel’s issue didn’t have to be his business at all, so really, she should just drop this and let the boy be, especially when he still tried to help out as much as he could. 

However, there was something gnawing at the elderly woman. She wasn’t particularly the best people reader around—that’d probably be more befitting of Camilo, if anything—but she’d been on this Earth long enough to witness much of the emotional intricacies of people. And Camilo’s behavior felt more out of place than it should have. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she felt the need to keep asking the boy for more answers. 

“Abuela?”

The grandmother got out of her train of thought as Camilo seemed to take a break from his dish washing to approach her and lay a towel-dried hand on her arm, a broom in the other, “You seem very tense, Abuela. I know the issue with Mirabel is a really important one, but don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find someone for her soon.” The boy then sighed. “I really mean it when I say I can’t help find someone for her. I’m sure what I think she’d like might not align with her preferences and she could do better than my friends so,” he shrugged, “I’m next to useless.”

Alma watched the boy’s expression for a while, a placating smile painted on his face, before nodding. “I understand, Camilo, I’m sorry for pressuring you. Keep doing what you’re doing.”

He returned back to his dishes as he hummed a tune, and Alma tried to head back to the dining room. She figured she was reading too much into the boy’s actions, he was most likely just tense as the rest of the family was.  

She did take note of how he still tried to make himself helpful with chores. And the waves of reassurance and kindness the boy had a knack of producing. She sighed out her relief that it may be a lot less stressful to marry off Camilo in the later years when it was his turn, especially compared to Mirabel’s circumstances now.

The first family that was reached out to were the Guzmans. With the good relations between the two families, and the soft nature that tended to be a trend with Guzman men, it was with high hopes that Mirabel may find someone she likes. 

"Oh, Alma, dear, this is such a surprise!" Señora Guzman exclaimed, eyes wide at the proposal, or pre-proposal for a better term to line with Mirabel's wishes, from the Madrigals. 

The woman had invited the four into her home after Abuela requested a talk of important matters with her. Seated at a couch, the family and Señora Guzman exchanged pleasantries before Abuela dived into the heart of the matter. And this is where the family found themselves: unfortunately, or not so unfortunate depending on who you asked, they would find out that any rumors in regards to eligible bachelors were less than true.

"But I'm afraid we're not looking for any brides right now."

After that, the family tried to contact the parents of a classmate at Mirabel's school, Fernando. She had known him for a couple years and her memories of him were tinged with a slight crush after seeing how nice he was. If she remembered correctly, he was even a decent friend of Camilo's, and was quite kind to her out of, as she assumed, her being his cousin. In general, he seemed like a good prospect, but that didn’t stop Mirabel’s parents from reeling at the idea of marrying off her so soon. But in the end, they didn’t even have the chance to deal with their reluctance because the boy’s family rejected Mirabel as well. 

They didn’t receive an in-depth reason as to why. The family gave the usual excuse of “not really looking for anyone right now”. What struck them as odd however, was how fast the family tried to get the Madrigals out of their house. Whatever resistance Mirabel’s parents might have felt at first started to shift into a different kind of worry and suspicion.

They tried to reach out to another family again as one of the fathers was a longtime friend of Felix, but to no avail. 

Now, another issue was churning in Mirabel’s stomach: why is she facing a string of rejections? 

The old age turmoil of whether there was something wrong with Mirabel was rearing its ugly head again. The way her parents’ started to look more and more worried with rejection after rejection didn’t help matters. In fact, if anything, her parents started to seem a bit more desperate: throwing their net over a wider range of families from different cuts and sizes instead of focusing on the more narrow and strict criteria they’d given Abuela. 

Again and again, family after family, Mirabel was hit with rejections. 

At one instance, all it took was one look at Mirabel and the family they visited slammed the door shut before the Madrigals could get a word out. Word got around fast.

After a week of straight rejections, old wounds reopened and insecurities that initially only slowly bubbled their way into her heart were now in full force, haunting her with how “unwanted” she apparently was. 

To add insult to injury, the family had received a call that due to traveling obstacles, another week was added to the wait time for the shipment they needed for Casita. It couldn’t be guaranteed that it couldn’t possibly take longer than that either.

Mirabel walked solemnly down a trail close to her school grounds to clear her head. The weight of the past few days hung heavy on her shoulders. 

As she reached the playfield some kids used for sports of various kinds, a rather familiar voice caught her attention. 

“Mirabel?” As she turned around, she saw Fernando approach her. 

“Fernando?” She responded hesitantly. “What’s up?”

“Hey, I felt kind of bad with the way my family kind of…snubbed you. I mean, it was kind of…unexpected getting a marriage proposal from one of my classmates out of the blue like that.”

Suddenly feeling embarrassment climbing the back of her neck, Mirabel began rubbing it with one hand and clutched her satchel’s handle with the other. “Y-Yeah, I’d imagine so.”

“But, I wanted to let you know why they really rejected you guys, like the real reason. I’m sure if it was one of your sisters or something they would’ve said yes.”

Mirabel had to hold back a scoff at that, but she didn’t stop her eyebrows furrowing from offense. “E-Excuse me? What's so wrong with me?”

“More like what’s wrong with whoever’s got their claim on you.”

At that, Mirabel loosened up in surprise, Fernando was on about something else entirely. 

“Oh?” Mirabel had a good idea where this was heading, so she gulped. “What do you mean?”

“I wasn’t planning on saying anything at first. It had my parents freaked out after you guys proposed but after hearing you didn’t just get rejected by us but a bunch of people, I figured you guys were dealing with something way bigger than some dumb drama.” Mirabel really, really didn’t like where this was going. “Look, listen, those Cordobas?” Mirabel scrunched her eyes shut and grimaced as Fernando prattled on. “They must’ve made it clear to the whole village they wanted you. You can sometimes hear people talking about it. Maybe they stop talking about it whenever you guys are around or something, but no one wants to deal with the Cordobas so you’re like officially some kind of danger zone.”

“So,” Fernando continued, “Don’t think something’s wrong with you. Camilo would kill me if he thought I hurt or insulted you or something.”

Mirabel kept her grimace for a few seconds before eventually nodding. “Uh, thanks.”

“Sorry, that was a lot of stuff I just unloaded on you. But, it was bothering me this whole week. I felt really bad for you.”

“I get it, Fernando. Thank you, really. It was very kind of you.”

“Yeah, you take care, y’hear? Them Cordobas are something so I’d keep my eyes peeled and stuff. Especially now that your family lost all their powers and stuff. The whole ‘my family rejecting you’ thing was less to do with you and more to do with that.” He scratched his cheek, “Well, that and also because Camilo’s my friend and all.”

Mirabel slightly widened her eyes at that. “Oh, wouldn’t that be a plus? I thought that was a good thing.”

“What, me being Camilo’s friend?” He then chuckled. “Yeah, no, trust me. That wouldn’t be good for me. Anyways, I gotta go, take care again, okay? Tell Camilo I said hello.” And with that, the boy headed off. 

Mirabel tilted her head in confusion at the last bit of their conversation, but the tense pit in her stomach reminded her she had bigger things to worry about.

Like how she was going to break it to Abuela that the “marry her off” idea was practically defunct at this point.

When the girl arrived home, she took note of the tense air surrounding her family. She sighed at the realization it was probably going to be tenser. It felt suffocating to be at the very center of this, she could only imagine the stress her grandmother was dealing with on her behalf. 

She tried to take in the image of her family in front of her: her sisters and Dolores discussing something together while they tried to help each other’s workload, her parents working extra hard to bake as much as they could. As Camilo’s babysitting service was no longer applicable, he opted to do all of the household duties to make it easier on the rest of the family. Pepa dropped a stack of books in his arms, asking him to drop them off in the bedroom instead. Antonio’s usual wide smile was replaced with a solemn frown. The boy looked so miserable. 

Mirabel’s eyes drooped in her own misery. What she wouldn’t do to rid her family of this pain. She even thought about just handing herself to the Cordobas to get them off their back. But as her family let her know time and time again, doing that would only make this situation worse. Only getting the family more entangled with the Cordobas’ vicious webs. 

Maybe she really should be shipped off to another town, or even country, instead. If Abuela were to recommend that again, she’d stand by it. 

The girl pushed her way through the crowd to find her grandmother, dreading the look that might befall Abuela’s face when she finds out what Fernando told her. 

Alma was almost at her wit’s end. Her family was at risk and the pile of problems the Cordobas were pushing on the Madrigals grew. 

Almost all of her proposed solutions were either shot down or broke down into failed messes. At this point, the woman’s mind was dry of ideas and she simply wanted to rest, but the urgency of the situation gnawed at Alma and until she could figure out a way to get her entire family out of this threat, she didn’t think she would sleep soundly for a while. 

She could push the idea of sending Mirabel away again, at least temporarily. It’s not as if she liked the idea of basically getting rid of her granddaughter, but there was a chance she’d be safer if they could find a nice lodging in another city or perhaps country. But that was a poorly planned out idea, as her family let her know. It would be hard enough to find a way out of the mountains, and the idea of doing so in a way that wouldn’t catch public attention or that of the Cordobas’ would be laughable. On top of that, it would be hard to keep tabs on Mirabel and whether she was safe.

The elderly woman sighed as she entered the room she shared, her eyes landing on a lounge chair. As she settled herself on the soft cushions to at least try to relax, she finally took note of the book resting on one of the arms of the chair. She must have missed it while she was mentally toiling away.

Upon closer inspection as she grabbed it, she realized it was a book Pepa had been reading for awhile while Casita was still up, though she hasn’t seen her daughter with it since the Cordobas’ proposal, perhaps too anxious to find the time to read. It must have been recovered from the wreckage.

Her curiosity was tickled at the cover art, characters that almost reminded her of herself and her Pedro in their youth. In a state of fondness at the thought, and perhaps wanting to be at least a little distracted from the ongoing issues, Alma looked around at the contents of the book hoping to find a summary.

And she did find a summary: a romantic tale featuring a tragic love between second cousins.

That’s when inspiration struck the elderly Madrigal.

Alma shot out of her seat and left the book where she found it to try to find a notebook to write down her thoughts. 

She felt almost giddy at the thought of potential relief from the anxieties that plagued her and her family, desperately grabbing a pen and notebook and proceeding to jot down a plan.

The issue with marrying off Mirabel to another one of the families at this tense moment was the fear other families had of the Cordobas. Even if a family did take in Mirabel, it would be hard to trust them completely with how influential the Cordobas were. But how could she not trust the Madrigals themselves? 

It even fit the checklist she was given.

A family to be trusted? Check.

Someone who wouldn’t take Mirabel too far from them? Check.

Someone Julieta and Agustín could trust? Check.

Someone who fits Mirabel’s criteria for a suitor? Sunny and kind? Check.

After all…

…who better a suitor than Camilo Madrigal himself?

The two had a good bond when they were children, almost inseparable. It was near comical the way Pepa and Julieta would have to spend upwards an hour in trying to get the kids to do something that would’ve interrupted their play time, Mirabel’s favorite sweets and a plate full of arepas almost essential to successfully bribe the two away from each other. If that wasn’t enough, there was the additional headache of trying to get the children to actually go to sleep instead of pretending to and then start playing minutes after their parents left the nursery room—which Dolores would help bring to the attention of the elders no matter how quiet the kids tried to play.

It was an endearing sight to see, though it didn’t last long. Shortly after Mirabel’s ceremony, the two seemed to play less and less until they basically stopped altogether. Gone were the days and nights of stocking up sweets and arepas to distract the kids or trying to get them to bed while being frustratedly sleep deprived oneself. The new distance between Mirabel and Camilo was especially apparent in the beginning but soon the family became used to it and just chalked it up to a part of growing up. 

Alma wasn’t actually sure why they grew so distant so quickly, also assuming it was a part of growing up. Looking back however, there was the possibility she might have been involved in that with the increase of Camilo’s duties. It’s not as if she had any explicit intention to keep Mirabel isolated away from the other children, but she had enough newfound self awareness after Casita’s collapse to at least acknowledge the potential that her actions might have led to that anyway.

Though the elderly Madrigal didn’t have to try too hard to shake that guilt away. The distance between the two would actually work in her favor for this arrangement. There wasn’t an increased risk of the two growing up in a too sibling-like way and then becoming too off-put by the idea of a romantic relationship. On top of that, she was sure the two had to have heard of or at least seen the few cousin couples on their duties around the Encanto.

It wasn’t as frequent an occurrence as much as she saw growing up but Alma was well aware of the current cousin marriages. If Mirabel were to marry a cousin, she would not have to be shipped off and they would not have to keep slaving away doing background research on just how involved the Cordobas were with certain families.

The more and more Alma brainstorms with this particular idea, the more it seems like the golden puzzle piece to complete the picture of the Madrigals being out of harm’s way.

There was also the added benefit of preserving the Gift line in the Madrigal blood. Though, she’d keep that thought to herself, not wanting to risk Mirabel getting anymore hurt over her lack of a Gift. Besides, there was no guarantee their family would get their Gifts again.

Now she would need to present the idea to the family and hope for the best. It would also be important to make such a decision announced to the entirety of Encanto.

She could arrange a party with all the villagers, including the Cordobas, invited. It would probably be out of place considering they were left without a house and powers, but it could be a celebration of their family being together again, after all, they gained Bruno and the family was a lot closer than they used to be—literally.

She could see at least one of the village families allowing them to use their courtyard for a celebration; the Madrigals were still rather well-loved so she hoped it would at least be free. Perhaps she could ask the Guzmans, especially now that Dolores was involved with Mariano. 

At the party, she would propose Mirabel’s hand to Camilo, and if the two accepted the proposal in front of the entirety of the village, it would be almost solidified in the eyes of Encanto that the two were planning to be together. 

And the Cordobas would have no choice but to acknowledge this and back off lest they want to be known as homewrecking people. Diego may still try to slander Mirabel’s name as he threatened to do before, but the feared outcome from that would be next to null if it was Camilo she was engaged to instead.

And if they tried to slander the other Madrigal grandchildren? Dolores was well on her way to be engaged to Mariano, who knew the Madrigals well enough to not trust the words of the Cordobas against them. There was no worry with Camilo for obvious reasons. And Antonio? It would seem more self-destructive for the Cordobas if one of their people were to spread slander about a child. 

There was still risk against Isabela and Luisa. However, Diego had made his interest in Mirabel well-known around Encanto; unlike the previous rumor spread about Isabela, if they announced the engagement between the two cousins in front of the entire village, any slander from Diego or the Cordobas could be written off as insecure ramblings from an envious man and his relatives. 

Once again Alma was delighted with how much of their problems this idea could solve. Storing the notebook away, Alma made her way out of the room and towards the kitchen where she knew some of her family were seated, finding Camilo and sending him away to gather the rest of the family from their work.

With a smile washed with a peace she hasn’t felt for a long while, the elderly woman already set to bring her plan to fruition.