Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

What the fuck? 

Mirabel stared up at the ceiling blankly, the coldness of the floor beneath her quite possibly the only thing keeping her from melting into it. 

That was fine though. She didn't need to melt into the floor to lie there. She could just stay there forever. It wasn't like she had the will to get up again. 

What the fucking fuck? 

Her brain was spinning with variations of the same sentence, and honestly, she didn't have the energy to think any thoughts more complex than that. 

Ending up spread-eagled on the floor of a secret superhero lair was not what Mirabel had expected when she fell down the concealed trapdoor at the bottom of her closet - much less a superhero lair that apparently belonged to her family. 

The Madrigals had always been a little strange, a little removed from wider society and the norms that usually came with. Their house in the relatively rich white neighbourhood of New York had received a lot of odd looks and turned up noses from the rich white neighbours, sticking out like a sore thumb with all its brimming colourfulness and architectural eccentricity, amidst the columns of dignified, elegant, boring houses on their street. Their loud, chaotic family with such distinctly different personalities and weird quirks generally got strong opinions, either intriguing people and making some lifelong friends in an odd scattering of places in the city, or making people wary of them and avoid them. The rumours of the missing son of the family, mysteriously disappeared, a whispered name of Bruno, really just completed the whole eclectic picture of unusualness the Madrigals project. 

But when Abuela had told four-year-old Mira about the magic of Casita and the gifts of the family, Mirabel hadn't thought she meant that literally! 

But no, apparently her family was involved in weird shit. Of fucking course they were. 

Without me. She can't help but think bitterly. 

Mirabel was pretty hyper-aware of the rift between her and the rest of her family. She only fully realized it last year, when her friend Lilo ended up triggering some self awareness in her, but once she learned to spot it, Mira reeled with the revelation that not only was that rift there, but it had been there for a long time now, so long she'd gotten used to it. Hell, it was probably the reason she usually ended up feeling so terrible around her family most of the time; all the rolled eyes and apologetic shrugs and dismissive brushing-offs weren't her imagination, she wasn't reading too deep into the offhanded comments and making herself out to be the victim. It was all real, it was all there, and the hurt Mira felt on realizing she was at the bottom of the pecking order in her family was all real. 

The room she lived in wasn't even hers. 

Mirabel hadn't gotten her own room at age five like the rest of her family. For some strange reason beyond her comprehension, even though they had dozens of unused spare rooms and blank doors in their veritable mansion of a house, her parents had come up with a bunch of excuses to explain why she still had to share the nursery with the new baby when Antonio came along. Mirabel loved Antonio, loved him since the moment she saw him, that hadn't been a problem. The problem had arisen six months ago, when Antonio got to move out of the nursery and into his own room when he turned five.

Mirabel had been confused, a little hurt, and rightfully furious as her friends assured her. She'd demanded her own room with an unusual display of stubbornness and aggression, citing the fact that they had even more rooms vacant now that Isabela had left for college and Dolores was following a semester late. Abuela had seemed mildly irritated at her insistence and Mami and Papi had been shocked and sheepish, and finally Mirabel had been allowed to move into Isabela's old room. 

Mira supposed it was consolation that Isa's room looked nothing like hers anymore without her literal greenhouse of plants overflowing in it, and set up shop with her sewing materials and books, and with her messiness and chaos taking over, there was soon no proof left that the room had ever belonged to anyone else. 

No proof but the trapdoor she took a month to crack open, the trapdoor that led her here, that is. 

Here, to a hidden-away lair humming with a mix of advanced tech and magical energy, where Casita itself seemed to come alive and welcome her in a way her own sisters and cousins hadn't in a long time, where there was a whole family tree mural stretched across the floor of a clear underground lake, detailing the names of all the Milagros del Encanto. 

A family tree where every single one of her hermanas, her prima and primo and Tía, Abuela, and even a fresh-looking mural of Antonio! The only people not featured are her father and Tío Félix, but they never got the same treatment she did, and her Tío Bruno, his mural charred off here as every sign of him seemed to be in their lives. 

It just seemed like the next step in a long line of 'not including Mirabel in family stuff' trend, and it wouldn't even be the first time. 

Mirabel blinked sudden tears out her eyes, and abruptly sat up. Fuck wallowing, she was going to observe and learn as much as she could here.

Contrary to what her family seemed to think, Mira was a pretty smart girl, actually, and it didn't take a lot of detective work to figure out that her family was the famous and beloved superhero vigilante group Encanto (basically the real life equivalent of the Avengers). With all the gratuitous branding superheroes seemed to be into, it would be hard not to figure it out. There were literal murals and a lake and a logo and supersuits hanging here to dry, for crying out loud. 

Come to think of it, it would actually make sense for her family to have some kind of superpowers. It had always been uncanny how the weather seemed to mirror Tía Pepa's mood, and while Mirabel wasn't a superhero fan like Miguel and some guys at school, she was fairly sure there was an Encanto with weather control powers and red hair. Isa had too much of green thumb and Dolores always seemed to know everything too, and there were those two heroes, what were their names - Rose-omething and Soundwave? Wavelength? Eh - who looked about their age and build. Luisa never knew her own strength, handling the world like it was made of cardboard, and while she couldn't place Camilo in the group, there was a new young Encanto being reported to have the power of communicating with animals, about Antonio's age! And everyone knew the mysterious disappearance of Sandstorm decades ago, and that an invisible matriarch in maroon pulled all the strings. 

In retrospect, Mirabel had really been blind. 

"I should've known." She whispers softly, sinking into the white sand around the shallow indoor lake and staring at the sparkling mural. She turns and rakes her gaze slowly over the bright, cartoonishly cool-looking contraptions, multiple screens lining a wall, plush seats and a corkboard of victories and goofy pictures at different crime scenes. 

"I should've known." Mirabel says quietly, and Casita - it seems so much more fitting that their house has a name now that she knows it's alive, although that's objectively even weirder - rattles pebbles across the lake and causes ripples in sympathy. 

Suddenly, Mira is filled with rage. 

"No. I shouldn't have known. They should have told me."

They should have told her about this, included her in it. It was clear that most of her family had some superpower, and she very obviously didn't, but that didn't mean they got to leave her out and treat her like an outsider without even telling her why. 

Every night she spent crying over the way she never seemed to be able to earn her place in the family rushed into Mirabel's mind suddenly, fire in her veins. 

They should have told her, but they didn't. 

Her family didn't want her to be a lackluster hero with them? Fine. Mirabel didn't need them. 

She'd be the best fucking villain instead. 

Chapter Text

"There are two wolves inside you," Lilo had said one afternoon, famously, as the three of them sat on the public library lawn, slurping piraguas.

"Why is it always wolves?" Mirabel interrupted absently, picking at the moss as she perched on Maximilian the Stone Lion.

"There are one Stitch and one Dante inside you." Lilo corrected without batting an eye. Mira loved that about her friend, the fact that she just accepted every stray question she threw.

"Ooh, Dante, you're in Lilo's story!" Miguel called, and the mangy dog looked up from his roughhousing with Stitch and bounded over. Stitch groused but followed, and promptly began trying to dislodge Mirabel from atop Maximilian and take her spot.

"Oh, shit, oh fuck, my hand was all sticky." Miguel groaned in dismay, and Dante started twisting madly to try and lick the top of his own head where Miguel had been petting him. "Dante, buddy, no, don't -"

"Get your blue furry butt outta here, this is my spot you asshole!" Mirabel stuck her tongue out at Stitch, who bared his teeth and babbled at her. She loved Lilo's dog, she really did, but she loved the nice sun-warmed stone of the big lion statue more and she was willing to fight for it.

"There are one Stitch and one Dante inside you," Lilo continued unfazed, draped across Maximilian's front paws "Stitch wants to inflict violence upon anyone who hurts him, hurts someone he loves, is a jerk, or just happens to be in his line of sight when he's bored. Dante believes all his life goals will be achieved and problems solved through the power of aggressive cuddles and affection. They are both equally powerful, and there is always a time and place for each of them."

Mirabel thinks for a moment, then nods sagely and adds,

"Also they're entangled in a fierce custody battle between your last two brain cells, are holding your emotional stability hostage at gunpoint, and fuel their little feral bastard bodies with caffeine and spite."

"Perfect."

"I love the true tumblr shitpost energy of this interaction," Miguel said gleefully, now stuck between being smothered by an excitable Dante, and being used as a jungle gym by Stitch as the blue menace tried to make Mirabel budge.

Mira and Lilo shared a Look and burst into laughter.

Eventually, Mirabel yanked Stitch up next to her, and he vibrated so violently in delight that he toppled over and fell off. Lilo laughed so hard she rolled away onto the grass, and of course, Mira and Miguel just had to follow her in solidarity, leaving their mostly-melted piraguas to the mercy of New York pigeons and a very happy Dante.

That was months ago now, but Mira remembers that conversation very vividly.

She's always felt torn, between her love and devotion for her family and her sorrow and irritation for the shit they put her through, between her self-loathing, approval-seeking criticism and self-righteous, convention-shunning anger. Between her obligation to her Madrigal name, and her obligation to herself.

Lilo's words, like they so often do, had led her down a thought spiral that, although it didn't have any conclusion, helped her accept and articulate those feelings.

But now Mirabel remembers that conversation for a very different reason.

Because part of her, the "Stitch" half, wants revenge. Her heart is burning with rage and hurt and agony, wants to burn everything to the ground along with it. She wants to hear screams and pleas for mercy until they match the pained chaos inside her, she wants to watch her family be brought down from their stupid pedestal and grovel for her forgiveness like she's grovelled for their love and attention her entire. Fucking. Life. All fifteen, almost-sixteen years of it.

Hell, they hadn't even remembered her quinceñaera! She'd spent the whole day wondering if there was some surprise party waiting for her, she'd made her own dress because she'd wanted to show off how far she'd come in her sewing, and she wanted to make her family proud of her for something and none of her sisters had done that yet.
But the day had passed and nothing had happened. All she got was a joyful wish and gift - a handmade necklace she wears everyday - from Antonio, after she swore him to secrecy out of some masochistic notion of martyrdom.

And of course, Lilo and Miguel, who took her paintballing and shopping and eating various foods the entire day and kept up a determined stream of chatter. They even stole an industrial-sized supply cart at the mall and drove Mira around in it, all three of them screaming and cackling, until some authorities came to retrieve it (and even they were struggling not to laugh at the sight).

She knows her parents finally remembered halfway through the year, and that her family is planning to make it up to her under the guise of a "sweet sixteen" party, she knows because of Isa and Dolores' whispers and Luisa and Mama's strained smiles and because Camilo couldn't keep a secret for the life of them, but it's too late now.

Mirabel had always felt hurt by her family, but that was the first time she'd truly felt pain.

And she wants them to know what it feels like.

But there's also the "Dante" half. The half that's just as hurt but sad about it instead, the half that wants her family to see her pain and include her, the half that wants answers. The half of her that's still doggedly holding out for her family's affection, for Abuela's approval and her sisters' friendship, to spend time with her parents and Tía and Tío, to have her primo's inseparable company again.

The half that doesn't want to see them in the pain they've put her through, ever, because that neglect has hurt and she's still shaking with it. The half that doesn't want to hurt anyone.

All in all, Mirabel is in a conundrum.

She fidgets angrily with the pastel blue infinity cube that she and Lilo co-own, and huff.

Supposedly, the mature thing to do would be to give up the childish, butthurt first-instinct idea that she wanted to be a villain to spite her family. Logically, Mirabel knows being a villain means hurting people, a lot of innocent people who are not her family and don't deserve it, one way or another. Logically she knows there are kids who have gone through much worse than not having the attention on them all the time, and her complaint far pales in comparison.

But Mirabel also knows she wants to do it. She needs to do it, she's allowed to be petty and spiteful. And anyhow, her great fucking family of Encantos, heroes that they are, should be able to handle the result of their actions.

Besides, the Alchemist (wow, such a creative name, mama) always heals civilians after every battle, it's part of her job description.

Mirabel looks down at the list she's made. It's a list of all the identities she's figured out - Casita had very helpfully pointed her around, almost looking proud of itself - for her family with their superhero aliases.

Alchemist - Julieta
Hurricane - Pepa
Soundwave - Dolores
Chameleo - Camilo
Flower bitch - Isa
Her-cules - Luisa
Purrpeteer - Antonio
The Matriarch - Abuela
Sandstorm - Bruno (gone)
??? nothing apparently - Augustín and Félix

Well, she decides finally, Mirabel's definitely angry and she definitely, definitely wants to be a villain.

The no-powers thing shouldn't be too much of a problem, in theory; from what Mira understands, villainy is usually based more off the use of brain and resources than superpowers, and she's plenty smart and has all of Casita at her disposal, who seems pretty happy to help her so far, and her family certainly won't suspect the newest villain is based in their own home.

But there's the very real problem that Mirabel doesn't know how to do this. Where does she start? What does she do that's big enough to cause damage and get her family's attention, but isn't as inane and run-of-the-mill as say, a bank robbery? And there's the little thing about hurting innocent people that she still can't quite shake off guilt about...

And the branding, fuck.

To quote the iconic Megamind, the difference between a villain and supervillain is presentation. All the super-stuff basically works on branding, on your pizazz and how you present yourself. Mirabel will need a modus operandi, she'll need some calling card, some signature look. 

She'll need a supervillain name.

That would be fun to work on if it wasn't so much to do.

BLEERP. BLEERP. BLEERP. BLEERP.

"Ay, mierocles!" Mirabel hisses, slamming a hand on her alarm clock. The damned thing is the only thing loud enough to wake her up in the morning, and she loathes it with a passion.

Mira sighs as she looks at the time. She's been up all night, scheming and plotting and stewing in her emotions, and she's tired. But it's time to get ready for school, a thankless task that waits for no one and an institution that she will one day see destroyed.

Hmm. Maybe that'll be my first target as a villain.

A text lights up her phone; Miguel's daily cheery good morning in their group chat to make sure she and Lilo are up.

Mirabel smiles. At least she'll see her friends at school. That ought to cheer her up.

And besides, they always have a helpful knack of making her think about things in a way she hadn't before.

Chapter Text

"Is she dead, do you think?"

"She's just tired, let her be."

"Okay, but is she dead?"

"Do you want to be?"

"Breaking news, everyone, Mirabel's dead! Fucking told you it would be this year, you owe me five dollars -"

"Shut up, I'm not giving you shit -"

"I'm not dead, you jerks." Mirabel groans as she props her head up on her hands, rubbing her face tiredly, "I just didn't get any sleep last night, what, is it illegal to be sleepy or something?"

"No, just weird." Lilo supplies readily, "I mean, you're usually the one jumping around like you're hopped up on caffeine, forcing me to wake up when all I want is five minutes of shut-the-fuck-up."

"Things change." Mira yawns, then adds somewhat bitterly, "people change."

"This is what happens when you don't sleep at the time I text you to." Miguel says, more cheerfully than anyone has any business being at this time in the morning, in Mirabel's opinion.

"You." she squints at him disapprovingly, "I don't like you."

"Too bad you can't do anything about it when you're half asleep." Is his smug response.

"What were you even doing last night? You're never this sleepy even when you've been up all night." Lilo frowns.

Mirabel considers, genuinely, for a minute, telling them what she's discovered, considers trusting them with this new information in a way no one's bothered to trust her. They would understand, she knows, they'd believe her and understand her fury and her turmoil and wouldn't belittle or mock her. They might even help her plan her revenge, or offer clarity on whether or not it's even worth it. Lilo and Miguel have always been her best friends, and if she can't trust them, then she really can't trust anyone.

But at the same time, Mira doesn't want them to comfort and prod her. She doesn't want them walking on eggshells around her or questioning her shaky decision. Weird as it is, this anger is hers, and she wants to stew in it alone before she can find the words to share it with anyone else.

"I dunno, just a bit of an emotional night." She says diplomatically, at last.

"Ah." Miguel winces, "Abuela do something?"

"Sort of."

"Dye all her red dresses purple." Lilo says at once.

"... Where would I get that much purple dye?"

"Spray paint them, then."

"Bleach them pink."

"Steal all her hairclips."

"Challenge her to a duel to the death, then show up late to spite her."

"Wow, you're all violent today." Mirabel chuckles.

"PRIMA!" A very familiar voice screeches from the front of the classroom, saving her from deciding. Mirabel blinks, groans, then raises her hand so Camilo can see her and won't spend too much time terrorizing innocent classmates.

"Mirabel!" Camilo bounds up and lands on her table with a crash that has her worrying for its structural integrity.

"Cami." She says, too tired to respond any more energetically and still a little (lot) pissed at them.

"My dearest prima, my beloved bestie, my wonderful -"

"Whatever it is, the answer is no."

"But I'll fail math!"

"Good! Join the club." Mirabel pats them on the shoulder, "Now, shoo. Off with you, Cami."

Camilo pouts and tries their puppy dog eyes on her. Mirabel raises an eyebrow. Not today.

Eventually, Camilo offers her a confused glance, an offer to talk if she's feeling down, a hug, and then they're gone.

"They left." Mirabel tells Lilo and Miguel, who finally break their stone-facedness.

"Gods, I don't like your cousin." Lilo mutters, which is true. Neither her nor Miguel are particularly huge fans of the Madrigals for the way they treat Mirabel, and they consider Camilo a hypocrite for acting like Mirabel's friend when they do nothing to take a stand against her treatment. Honestly, at the moment she isn't too fond of them either, and in no mood to defend them to her friends.

"We had math homework yesterday?" Mirabel asks, rubbing her eyes.

"I think so?" Lilo shrugs, "I dunno, I don't have time to bother being anxious about math, of all things."

"What would you two do without me?" Miguel sighs dramatically, plonking his finished math notes on the desk before them, "Oh, well, I guess this one time I can show you both some mercy, it's not a fair death on anyone to go from math, and -"

"This equation is wrong." Lilo deadpans, pointing at the first answer, "And this one. And this one. And... You know what, it'll be faster if I point out what's right."

Miguel squawks, scandalized, and Mirabel cracks a smile, feeling some energy return to her body.

Class begins in the background, and Lilo surreptitiously slides her completed math notebook over to her.

Vandalism is a bit juvenile, Mirabel knows, but she needs to grab their attention, and what better calling card than a literal calling card?

She drops the can of spray paint to the ground and stands back to appreciate her work.

Encantos, the huge letters on the wall of the school building read in neon blue, I doubt it would be polite to begin my reign of terror without formally meeting the so-called "heroes" I will be against. Meet me at Times Square, at sundown tomorrow, if you dare.

 - Sombra Monarch

Satisfied, Mirabel chucks the can into the nearest dustbin - what, she may be scheming to cost millions in property damage, but she still has manners thank you very much - and looks up at the sky. The moon is hiding tonight, but the stars are bright even through the light pollution of the city that never sleeps.

Her cape swishes around her ankles like the skirt she wears to special events sometimes, billowing out behind her in a cloud of dark blue.

Her outfit was the most fun part of this whole setup, honestly. Sewing has always been one of her special interests, something she's been doing since she was a child and has never let go of, not even as her ADHD brain rapidly goes through new hobbies and discards them in a week or two. Plus, with Casita, who seemed ecstatic to be helping her, Mirabel had the perfect resources to finish her new outfit in less than two days.

A midnight blue cloak laced with sparkling, golden embroidery in the shape of butterflies and fire and spirals covers her entirely, complete with a hood, and hides the all-black ensemble of jumpsuit and knee-high gold-embroidered leather boots underneath. A mask in the shape of butterfly wings sits on her face, black in colour and lacked with more sparkling gold patterns.

Mirabel's honestly quite proud of it. Damn, if only she could show it off.

Well, there will be a lot of attention on it soon enough. She'll make sure of that.

She wonders if her family will appreciate the irony of the name she's chosen for herself.

Sombra Monarch. Dark butterfly.

"Ay, mi mariposa, we love you so much. Nothing could ever change that." Julieta had exclaimed as a four year old Mirabel trembled and sobbed next to a broken vase.

"Well yeah, but chameleons are way cooler than butterflies." Nine-year-old Camilo stuck their tongue out at her as they argued, laughing.

"Gracias, mariposa." "You did amazing, mariposa." Luisa and Dolores used to ruffle her hair when they were all younger.

"Tell mariposa to go flit around somewhere else." Abuela said dismissively as they celebrated Antonio's birthday and Mira accidentally talked too much again.

"Mariposa, could you help your sister with her bags?" Tía Pepa had called as Isabela fruitlessly lugged her hundred-something suitcases to her new college dorm room, Luisa absent that day.

Oh well. The past is in the past.

Mira swipes at the wetness gathering in her eyes, and swiftly hikes herself over the wide window into the school chemistry lab.

Without an eagle-eyed teacher observing her every move and with the amount of materials she's brought from home, it should be easy enough to craft an explosion that looks like a lab accident at first glance.

Until they find her message, that is.

Besides, for her first act as a villain, she really wants to cancel school for a day (maybe even two days, if they're lucky).

Fuck school, man.

The Madrigals seem normal as ever the next morning, and it's grating on Mirabel's nerves until her fingers tighten white-knuckled around her glass of orange juice and she grits her teeth to stop any noise from escaping.

It's not that they haven't seen her message. She knows they have, because it appeared on the news and they all stared at it for like, thirty seconds, and all stopped whispering whenever she stepped into a room later.

But they seem so supremely unbothered by it, it's infuriating.

They don't know you yet, she reminds herself as she scrubs her breakfast dishes clean methodically, they haven't met Sombra Monarch, they don't know how much of a threat she is yet. For all you know, they might think it's a prank.

The only person who seems remotely different is little Antonio, and Mira has the jarring realization that he's going to be unfairly affected by all this.

He's only five. He's a five-year-old child being dragged into the mess his family made, a mess he has nothing to do with, just because he happened to have superpowers like the rest of them. Whatever choices they make, whatever fucked up things happen in this family, happen to Mirabel, none of it is his fault. He's a child, her five-year-old cousin, who's going to be taken into an active conflict zone.

Gods, she hates her family for doing this.

I won't let it happen. She decides, I'll find a way to keep Tonito safe.

School is indeed cancelled that day because of the "terrorist explosion", and Antonio, Camilo and Luisa all cheer. Dolores is in the thick of getting into college and Isa is already halfway through her first year, so they're unaffected, but Dolores hums in amusement and scurries off.

Abuela retires to her room as usual, although this time her daughters go with her, and Mirabel watches her Mama and Tía leave with sharp eyes.

Papa and Tío Félix suggest a game of hide-and-seek. Mirabel agrees, lets everyone hide, then immediately finds Antonio in his classic hiding spot under the bed and takes him with her as she goes to meet her friends.

A bit mean, but a little hiding won't kill the rest of them. Luisa might even get a break for once.

Lilo and Miguel are delighted by Antonio's arrival. Like Mira, they also love and dote on the little kid, and the four of them celebrate "the downfall of school" by going out to get ice cream. Lilo's wearing her headphones, which tells Mirabel it's one of her Loud Days, but Antonio's a well-behaved, sensitive kid who's met her enough to know how to have fun without making her sensory issues worse, and Mirabel passes Lilo their shared infinity cube. Stitch and Dante are there too, of course, but they run off to rough-and-tumble the second they hit the park, Antonio making puppy eyes at Mirabel until she lets him go with them. That kid loves animals, and these ones sure love him.

She tries not to blush when Lilo rises on tip toes to plant a kiss on her forehead in thanks, but judging by Miguel's cackling, she wasn't very successful. Lilo's thankfully oblivious and rests her head on Mira's shoulder, both of them swinging their feet in tandem, as they sit on a bench.

It's then that Mirabel notices that her family may not have been acting different at all, but her best friends sure were. Miguel's unusually quiet, and Lilo's body is tense beside her, instead of relaxed as the girl usually is.

"What's wrong?" Mirabel asks, poking Miguel with her shoe, where he's sitting on the ground.

"De nada." He says immediately, too quickly, before pausing and adding, "Why do you think anything's wrong?"

"You're both tense today."

"Well that tends to happen when one's school gets blown up, don't you think?" Lilo sighs, the waspishness of the words overshadowed by her tired, worried tone.

"I'm sure they'll handle it." Miguel soothes quickly, as if sensing Mirabel's anxiety spike, "And the Encantos, man, they're not gonna stand for this. They'll get the punk who did it, just you wait!"

"You have more faith in them than I do." Lilo mutters against Mira's t-shirt.

"You underestimate their awesomeness." Miguel counters. Mirabel rolls her eyes.

"Once again, dumb conversation, I'm staying out of it." She says, staring across the grass at her brother and her friends' pets roughhousing together, Stitch visibly being nicer than he usually is. Her friends melt into their normal superhero-centric argument around her, and she lets herself relax into the things that are familiar, knowing everything is about to change.

She's perched on the roof a building, staring down from her vantage point, as twilight paints the iconic skyline. Times Square seems to be holding its breath along with her, the usual traffic far reduced but cameras and crews by various media channels set up to capture whatever goes down.

They won't come.

Yes they will.

They won't.

They will.

They think you're just a stupid prankster.

They can't ignore a direct invitation.

Won't.

Will.

The two halves fight inside of her as Mirabel waits, fidgeting impatiently. She's definitely stealing their cube back from Lilo when she gets the chance, these things are far too stressful.

A shadow moves in the corner of her eye. Mirabel swivels toward it at once, but there's nothing there. Just a raccoon, probably.

"I guess it was all for nothing, then." She sighs as nothing happens for what feels like hours. She's about to turn and leave, when a familiar, well-known sound reaches her ears.

The whirring of a hurricane.

She whips around, stunned, but her expression quickly morphs into glee as the small tornado rolls into the square, and dispels, revealing the Alchemist, Hurricane, Soundwave, Her-cules, Flower-Bitch (yes she's well aware that Isabela's actual name is Venus, but she refuses to call her that) and Chameleo.

Antonio's not here - he mysteriously got a minor stomach bug, probably from subpar ice cream he had today.

Who knows where Augustin and Félix are, certainly not Mirabel, but The Matriarch is no doubt watching from the sidelines and whispering instructions in their ear.

Let's give her a good show.

Mirabel smiles to herself, and casually walks off the edge of the roof.

Yeet.

Chapter Text

Dolores' ear twitches, and she pivots to catch the source of the first faint sound she's caught in almost an hour that could possibly mean anything except dumpster diving raccoons. She winces at the soreness as she shifts, cramped limbs protesting, and her annoyance is only doubled when she realises that it was in fact a dumpster diving pigeon that made that noise.

"Where's this bitch then? I'm missing out on a date with Mari for this shit - and he was gonna take me to watch a movie today." Isabela grumbles, fidgeting impatiently, and Dolores has to suppress the not-uncommon urge to slap her for several, several reasons.

"I fu - I mean, I forking told you it's a hoax." Mama mutters, and Tía Julieta responds evenly, "I know, Pepi, but Mama was insitent we had to check this one out. You know how important our image is, and this is a direct challenge."

"Well, can we wrap this up and go home already, I have a ton of math homework left to do that Mirabel isn't helping me with." Camilo groans, flopping down on the tarmac with a noise that sounds painful, his short yellow cloak fluttering dramatically.

"You can do it, mi tesoros, don't lose patience now!" Tío Augustín encourages from the other end of their earpieces,which Dolores can hear without having an earpiece of her own.

"Well, to be fair, this is pretty rude. I wouldn't blame you for a lightning bolt or two, Pep." Papa's voice comes out just slightly more staticky.

Luisa's the only one not talking, but even her eye is twitching.

All that, combined with the the background noise of possibly the loudest city in the world, the new stress of keeping up with college academics and social life, and her own impatience, serves to make Dolores anxious and jittery. She's already on edge, and she feels like she's going to fucking scream.

Don't melt down, don't melt down, don't melt down...

She repeats over and over in her head.

Don't melt down, don't melt down, don't -

"Soundwave, you hear anything, mi vida?"

"Not a single fucking thing apart from all of your incessant bitching and moaning, no!" Dolores snaps out acridly before she can stop herself.

Her gaze zeroes in on Isabela as she smirks under her mask, her poison-pink lipstick shimmering in the flickering streetlight, as the rest of her family makes scandalized sounds of outrage. Rather than feeling guilty, she wants to rip that smug look of her prima's face.

"Dolores!" Mama gasps.

Dolores has never spoken like this to any of them before.

Least of all on a mission.

"Wha - was - at?" Papa's voice breaks through their earpieces, almost unrecognizable, and Dolores thanks the poor connection that he didn't hear her swear. Not her papa. "- ol - res? Pe - a?"

" - oing on? H - lo? - e - o?" Tío Augustín's voice is in even worse shape. Dolores can barely make out anything but buzzing static.

The streetlights start flickering violently, and the beginnings of something like dread stir up in Dolores' stomach.

"Papa? Tío Félix?" Luisa's worried voice is all that makes it through, before Dolores doubles over in pain, stifling a small scream as their earpieces make an awful, sharp sound before cutting out completely. Even the static that follows feels louder and higher and more horrible than usual.

A cry of alarm goes up from either side of her at the same time. Dolores sees why when she manages to straighten up again, her ears ringing.

It's pitch black. Not even the faint light of the street lamps or billboards is there anymore.

Dolores looks down. She can't even see her own hands.

For a moment, she's almost relieved. The background noise of thrumming electrical lines is gone, everyone's gone quiet like they're holding their breath in a game of hide and seek. It's the most peaceful she's been in weeks.

Then she hears it.

Click. Click. Click.

It's a sound she's heard a hundred times before from some third-rate villain trying to put on a show, but right now it sends chills up her spine like never before.

Click. Click. Click.

The confident walk of someone wearing boots.

Click. Click.

Silence.

Dolores strains to hear something, anything, her heart in her mouth.

"Hola, Encantos."

Isabela doesn't snarl, exactly, but her lip curls automatically, baring her teeth, as a single streetlight flickers on. It shines down on a short, midnight-blue cloaked figure standing in the middle of the road, arms outstretched dramatically.

"Hola." Camilo says, because God forbid that boy ever shut up when it's needed. "How's your day been? Damaged any property lately?"

She wants to slap a hand over his mouth. Literally everyone else is tense as a bowstring, bodies drawn in combat positions, and Isa can practically see the sharp emotions radiating off of them for being snuck up on like this.

Not her, of course. She's perfectly fine, as always. A little jump-scare isn't going to rattle her.

Abuela didn't put her faith in a coward, after all.

"You tell me. Isn't it your job to look after stuff like that? Or aren't you just the self appointed janitors of this city?"

The figure - some pipsqueak little girl, couldn't be older than 15 judging by her height - says. She's clearly using a voice modulator or something. No one's voice is that smoky and dark naturally. It sounds almost musical.

Of course, her words are irritating enough to ruin any beauty the voice may have held.

Isabela's hand twitches as she feels the roots of the grass and weeds under the tarmac, and she focuses on the energy they have so she doesn't ruin anything.

Half of this job, Isa has learnt, is a waiting game of who makes the first move. And this bitch - Sombra Monarch, was it? Pathetic - hasn't done shit yet.

Literally.

"I must say, I'm surprised you had the decency to show up. Didn't really expect much from people whose existence is basically a cheap rip-off of a Marvel comic."

"And what are you, exactly, the professional five-year-old throwing a temper tantrum on New York schools?" Isa chimes in, her irritation finally bubbling over,"And late to your own party too. Didn't they teach you how to tell the time yet, widdle baby boo boo?"

The bitch pauses, then throws back her head and laughs. Isa can make out a glint of gold under the hem of her shadowy hood.

Dolores is unnaturally still in her periphery, and Isabela grits her teeth in frustration. Why the fuck isn't Dolores doing anything? They're clearly using a well-worn tactic of stall-and-attack, the woman should be looking for weak links and giving them a signal. Instead she looks wide eyed and barely breathing.

Isa pushes down a flutter concern in favour of more irritation.

"Wow, that was bad. Has anyone told you how pathetic your attempt at a baby voice is before, or -"

"That's it!" Isabela finally hisses as she lashes out.

Thorny tendrils burst out from under the road, sending bits of tarmac flying, and whip at the figure standing there. They're thick and strong and ugly, more powerful than they should be for the suppressed plants that they were before, and for a moment, as they curve down towards their target, Isabela thinks they actually stand a chance of killing the girl.

She doesn't know if the sharp flash of emotion through her is terror or something else.

Sombra Monarch just stands there though, unfazed, not even lowering her arms. She winks at Isa before she -

Dissolves?

Isabela stares at the spot where the figure had stood not even a second ago. There's nothing there now except a tangle of prickly brambles, quickly drying out like they can sense the cold feeling seeping through her.

"Illusion." Dolores whispers.

Oh.

A billboard flickers to life above them. It's blank and white and it illuminates the silhouette there, sitting casually with her chin propped on her hand, elbow on her knee, on the roof before it.

"Oh, come on." Camilo groans.

Isabela can do nothing but stare.

The girl's hood is down now, and she has short, curly hair streaming in the wind behind her. It reminds Isa of someone, she's not exactly sure who, but she resolutely doesn't think about it. Focuses instead on the butterfly shaped mask across the girl's nose, dark and glittering with gold patterns.

"Well done, Venus. I'm almost impressed with all your -" she pretends to check her watch " - twenty six seconds of self restraint! Bravo!"

"Okay, kid, how about you come down here and we talk about this?" Luisa calls up, and Isa can tell there's genuine bemusement and care in her voice and it annoys her no end.

Even that irritating kid looks at her with pity.

"Oh, Her-cules, you poor naive child." she fiddles with something that immediately makes Isa want to aim something at it, "Talking isn't gonna solve shit."

And then she flicks her hand, a flash of golden in it.

And then they're surrounded by a mass of small, fluttering somethings, and Isabela shrieks.

Luisa can fight her way out of any situation. She's fought literal giants, evil geniuses' contraptions, and mutated animals.

But how the fuck is she supposed to fight a swarm of butterflies?

Their dark wings are cover her vision with inky blackness, and her family's yells of confusion and fear make panic spike in her heart.

She was supposed to prevent those sounds.

Luisa flails her arms in a vain attempt to do something, and the kid - she's so young, she looks like she could be Camilo's age, or Mirabel's even, she shouldn't be down a villainous path - just laughs.

Just as suddenly, they're gone. They've left Mama and Camilo sputtering, Tía Pepa's tolerance quickly waning, Isabela livid, and Dolores humming to soothe herself.

Luisa blinks.

None of them are wounded - at least, not physically.

What the hell?

Nothing about this night has gone as expected.

The villain with the calling card didn't show up till hours, leaving them all deteriorating into an arguing, high-strung mess. Their usual attack move was nearly sidestepped by a trick, leaving them unmoored. The part of the fight where the attacks are supposed to start was replaced by - what, a butterfly ambush?

Luisa feels like someone ripped pages out of a book she's read a million times, leaving her floundering, looking for the right chapter.

"Oops. I'm sorry, I'm meeting you all for the first time, I've just got butterflies."

Sombra Monarch's unsettling voice is right next to them now, even though her silhouette is still by the billboard.

Or is it?

It dissolves too, and it seems that does it.

"Alright, kid, no more Nice Encantos for you." Tia Pepa growls, and lightning forks across the sky. Telltale cold wind of a hurricane starts swirling around them, sure to drag the Sombra out of wherever she's hidden and trap her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The voice is coming from beside her, and Luisa jerks her elbow -

Spiderwebs. That's all she can think of.

That's what it feels like, the thin, fine thread her arm is caught in, except it's so much stronger.

Luisa can't move her hand.

They're on her arms, her legs, her shoulders, her back - the strings are everywhere suddenly, and the sounds of shock from the rest of her family tell her she's not the only one.

And then they're pulling, and Luisa yelps embarrassingly as she's pulled along with it.

It's a net, she realises belatedly, as the fine threads, so fine she can barely see the lines of blue and gold, hold her above the ground, hanging from a point she can't see. Isabela's foot is digging into her shoulder, Camilo's hair is in her face, Tía Pepa's pressed up right next to her.

She stops struggling immediately. She can't afford to hurt anyone.

The others don't, and Isabela gets at least twelve good kicks in before they collectively realise that sturggling will only make it worse, entangle them even more.

And so will a storm. The storm that's still brewing around them, that Tía Pepa's face is screwed up in concentration trying to will away.

"Ah well. This is quite a mess."

A smiling face appears right next to Luisa's then, brown eyes twinkling behind the butterfly mask. Luisa would've thought the spark in them playful if she couldn't see the rage.

Then the second realization hits.

Sombra Monarch is floating.

She's hovering a good three feet above the ground, her cloak billowing around her like dark butterfly wings.

Or is it another illusion? Well, her eyes sure look real.

They glint maliciously as she shrugs.

"Ah well. I'm sure someone will come along and help you by morning. That is when you scheduled the press interviews, isn't it?"

The girl runs her fingers along the fine thread of her net, either testing or admiring her work.

"Ah well. I've got places to be. Property to damage. Stuff to steal. I guess I'll see you around?" she winks at them. "Hang in there, Encantos."

Chapter Text

'ENCANTOS OUTGUNNED, OUTMANNED?

'WHO'S THE HORROR HUMILIATING OUR HEROES?'

'WORLD RENOWNED SUPERHEROES OUTNUMBERED! OUTPLANNED!'

'ALL-POWERFUL ENCANTOS BITE DUST TO MYSTERIOUS NEW ADVERSARY'

'ENCANTOS DEFEATED BY ROOKIE VILLAIN?'

Tempers are running high in the Madrigal household, as Mirabel turns up the volume of the news channel, pretending to watch in fascination like it's actually news to her. She has to hide a smug smile as she practically hears Abuela's teeth grit, already having asked her to change the channel twice and not being able to do so more without causing a fuss.

 Mama and Tía Pepa are having a furious whispered conversation, cutting onions with unnecessary violence as they cook, and Papa hangs anxiously in the background, ready to prevent a possible murder. Tío Félix tries to keep the mood up at the breakfast table with idle chatter, Luisa forcing herself to respond cheerily like it's hiding her anxiety at all. Camilo is nowhere to be seen. Only Antonio looks openly confused and concerned, head swivelling as he looks from one Madrigal to the other to Mirabel to the TV.

Mirabel rolls him the orange she usually takes to school as a silent apology, and watches his eyes light up (the kid really loves them, huh?) with no small satisfaction.

In fact, satisfaction seems to be the theme for the day, with Mirabel essentially walking on clouds as she waltzes into class and plops herself down next to Miguel, who's fidgeting a little anxiously but smiles when he sees her.

"Hey!" She chirps brightly.

"Hey!" Miguel laughs, "What's got you so happy?"

"Nothing much." Mira shrugs, "Hey, did you see the news this morning?"

"Oh - oh that, yeah, the Encanto thing, right?" she can't help but notice he seems more nervous and clammed up when talking about them. She bites her lip as she realises.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't - I mean, I know you love them. This must be bad news for you, huh?"

"What?" Miguel blinks, "No, I mean, it's fine and all. They're still my idols and everything! Defeat happens eventually, right? It's just like if my favourite football team lost a match."

"Sí, I see." There's a bitter taste in Mira's mouth when Miguel calls them his idols, but she swallows it down and looks around.

"Hey, where's Lilo? Why are you sitting alone?"

"She went out a while ago? Said she wanted to be alone, so I didn't follow. She seemed a bit panicky, I'm worried actually but I'm trying to stay put in case she comes back and can't find me while I go off looking for her."

"Oh!" Miguel's worry makes a lot more sense now, and Mira feels her own concern spike, "I'll go! After all, she didn't say anything to me, and I made no promises not to follow. Which way did she...?"

"I love you, I adore you, she went that way, ve rapido por favor!"

"Gracias!"

Mirabel takes off in the direction he points, narrowly avoiding their incoming history teacher as she goes and scuttling away before the woman notices her.

She almost runs past Lilo before she notices her, and stops short in her tracks.

"Lilo?"

Her friend doesn't seem to hear her, her hair covering her face as she aggressively picks at the denim of her bright red dungaree dress. She's curled into a ball in the corner between the lockers and wall, and as Mira moves closer carefully, it becomes obvious she's shaking.

Shaking really fucking badly, actually, and panic siezes her throat as Mirabel crouches next to her best friend.

"Lilo? Cariño, what's wrong?"

Lilo doesn't respond, and Mira knows she doesn't take kindly to being touched when she's having a Moment, so she lowers herself onto the ground next to her and decides to wait it out, pulling out their infinity cube and fidgeting with it.

She can hear her friend's rapid gasping breathing slowing down, evening out slowly, and her fingers get less harsh on her clothes, but it's not until Lilo sighs and leans her head on her shoulder that Mirabel reaches up to stroke her hair.

"Hey."

"Hey."

She can feel Lilo's intense gaze on the movement of the pastel cube, and hands it over without complaint when her friend reaches for it.

Lilo ignores the cube, and holds her hand instead. Mirabel ignores the dumb fluttery feeling in her chest that she's used to suppressing, and leans into Lilo.

"Nani got a job offer in Santa Cruz." She says finally. Mira hums for her to go on.

"It's as a restaurant manager of a pretty popular Tiki Bar, and it's pretty well paying. Better than working two waitressing jobs, anyway. And it's right near the beaches, which means she could finally take up surfing again."

Mirabel's brain finally processes what Lilo said.

"That's on the other side of the country."

Lilo tightens her grip on her hand.

"Yeah. I just found out yesterday, but the emails were almost a week ago. Nani's responded and everything, asking for more information and stuff. She's gotta be considering it. She never told me."

"Does she know you know?" Mirabel asks neutrally, not entirely sure if this means what she's starting to dread it does.

"No."

"Does this mean..."

"I don't know!" Lilo groans, vibrating in agitation, "I don't fucking know. I just know that I - I don't want to leave the routine, the life I have here. Not the New York noise and trash and bullies and assholes in this school, but I have things I love. You! Maximilian the Stone Lion! The public librarian! The piragua guy! New York pigeons!"

"You forgot Miguel."

"Eh, he'll live." As if she's not more distraught at the thought.

"But...?" Mira can tell that's not all on her mind.

"But!" Lilo raises her head and gets more upset, "At the same time, I love Nani too! And I want her to be happy, more than I want a lot of the things on that list! I can live without fucking free piraguas and stone lions if she gets to be happy, if it means she'll be less overworked and anxious, and get to actually spend time with David and me like she wants! I'll do most anything to bring her closer to her dream, to the life she deserves, and if this is what she wants then - then - I mean, she dedicated her life to raising and taking care of me! What kind of sister would I be if I kept her from hers? She gave up so much for me. I'm not going to be a bitch about this!"

And Lilo's apparently running out of steam, because she sighs and flops back onto Mira's shoulder.

"And it hurts that she didn't tell me this. Didn't she trust me enough to tell me about this big decision she needs to make? Did she think I wouldn't support her? But then again, I'm not being properly supportive... So just... I don't fucking know, I'm just overwhelmed, and everyone was being dumb and noisy and talking about last night's news in such a fricking loud high pitched voice that I just.... I couldn't take it. I'm... I'm sorry I worried you."

"You don't have to be sorry for existing, and having people care about you." Mira tells her matter of factly. There's a sinking feeling in her chest at the very thought of Lilo, one of her best friends for years, her port in the storm, someone she loves, just going so far where she can't follow. She ignores it. Lilo's upset right now, she needs her more.

"I don't know what to do!" Lilo huffs, scowling at the hair falling in her eyes, and Mirabel stops her hand from going up and yanking on them. She nudges her friend's head forward, and deftly starts braiding her hair. This has the bonus effect of soothing her too.

"Maybe talk to Nani about it?" She suggests.

"But she clearly didn't want me knowing! I just - I'm going to support her, of course, I just don't know how to - to deal with this. I don't want to leave you."

They both sit in the silence of that statement for a bit.

"Me neither." Mira says eventually, and keeps braiding.

Her triumph is dulled by the revelation for most of the day, but she, Lilo and Miguel eventually find themselves lying under their favourite tree during lunch, each of them pretending like everything's normal. It's scarily easy to do. Even though Miguel keeps sniffling unsubtly, has been since they broke the news to him.

"This is depressing." Lilo declares finally, sitting up violently. Stitch - who is super not supposed to be on school property, but always makes it in somehow, much to Dante's chagrin - rawrs in agreement, hopping up and down like a demented rabbit. "Let's do something fun!"

"Like what?" Miguel sniffs, rolling onto his stomach.

"Arson."

"Snort coffee grounds."

Lilo and Mirabel say instantly. They look judgily at each other.

"Two types of people." Mira grins, and they burst into laughter.

They decide to skip their next class - chemistry, and since the lab is currently non-existent, they'd be wasting time on something else anyway - and wander around, because why not. Dante joins them, tongue lolling out happily. Stitch immediately decides to antagonize him, and they end up happily trotting together somehow. Don't ask.

Unsurprisingly, Lilo and Miguel end up arguing about the whole Encantos debacle, and Mira listens with longsuffering amusement disguising her interest.

"Look, I've been saying it, and I'll say it again, they had it a long time coming! You can't just self appoint yourself vigilante justice and then decide you're the only infallible authority worth listening to that can dictate everyone else, and then be mad when someone proves you're not infallible!"

"So you'd rather our city be rampant with villains as we're all defenseless, unprotected by the heroes who can save us from threats normal defense can't handle?"

"I'd rather we get to put some fucking accountability and limits on them. They're just protecting their image, not us people, or else why would they be so mad about this?"

"The Encantos saved us from The Prophet." Miguel says more quietly and seriously, "One of them died saving us from that supervillain. Sandstorm didn't sacrifice himself so we could all claim he - and the Encantos - don't care about us at all."

"Their image is so carefully curated, we have no way of knowing what Sandstorm would have wanted."

Oh.

Mirabel falters in her step a little, but disguises it quickly.

She'd never really thought about that before.

The Sacrifice of Sandstorm is common knowledge. One of the Encantos, blessed with the power of manipulating sand and creating things out of glass from it, died ten years ago, protecting not just the city, but the world, from The Prophet, a supervillain who could see the future and control its strings to cause the evil devastations he wanted. Everyone knew this.

But it's not until now that realisation hits Mirabel.

Tío Bruno. The one Madrigal they're never supposed to talk about, never bring up, who she only has a few hazy memories of.

The one who disappeared without a trace.

She lost her uncle to their family secret. Not just the fact that he died, he probably knew what he was getting into, but the fact that the secret took his memory with it.

She never got to grieve him. Never knew what a noble, stupid thing he did, the fact that he fucking died protecting them all. He was, still is, treated like a family disgrace, like a shameful secret, she'd always assumed he just ran away, eloped or came out or something.

New fury licks at her insides.

You'll get your vindication, she promises herself, and tunes back into the conversation her friends are having about pretzels (??) now.

Night falls, and finds Mirabel slipping into her supersuit. She's really very proud of it, it took a lot of time and energy and her hyperfocus mode meant she didn't sleep or eat for quite a while making it.

Casita helped her make the fabric, imbued with magic (she has several theories on how this works, but she still needs to fully understand it) and nanobot fibres, which allow her to levitate and turn invisible. It's fitting, she thinks, since she's invisible to her family anyway. She sewed and embroidered it herself, of course, and everything she used she had to make with Casita's help - the same illusion magitech that made her invisible, fabricates illusion butterflies, and she's already pretty good at manipulating thread for all purposes, she just needs to craft the right kind. Like thread fine enough to be invisible and strong enough to hold six superheroes.

"Now," she mutters to herself, putting her mask on, "The question is, do I wait for their invitation, or go out and have fun anyway?"

The sound of an alarm and a couple police sirens in the distance decides for her.

"Let's go check out the city." Her eyes sparkle as she clambers out of her window and takes off with a parting friendly pat to Casita.

Chapter Text

Mirabel is being followed.

She's not sure why, or by who, but she knows that every night she takes to the city as Sombra Monarch, there are eyes on her. A shadow just out of the edges of her vision, a soundless step matching her own.

It doesn't matter if she flies to shake them off, they take to the skies right after her, a flash of scarlet rippling now and then, the only thing that convinces her she's not dreaming. It doesn't matter if she turns invisible, a wisp of golden mist still follows her, curling just out of sight.

It's driving her just slightly insane.

"Who is it?!" She'd called out one night, standing atop a building, far enough from the bustling life below that she'd surely be able to hear a stray footstep, "I know you're following me."

No response, just silence apart from the distant city noises.

"Show yourself now, and I'll give you this free Kit Kat." She'd tried, waving around the Kit Kat she keeps in her pocket for emergencies.

Still no response.

After that, she'd concluded that either she was going crazy, or whoever was following her was. What sane person refuses a free Kit Kat?

The Encantos, on the other hand, seem to be avoiding her rigorously. It's been a week since Mirabel humiliated them - and a pang of guilt shoots through her at the thought of doing that to her family, but she hardens her resolve - and she hasn't seen them once outside the walls of Casita.

And logically, she knows a week isn't that long a time. But it is very odd that the Encantos are conspicuously never patrolling in the same areas as she is every night; and the one time she did run into some of them fighting the small-time vagabond villains Shrek and Donkey, she had to take over because they virtually fled the scene, leaving the villains to freely destroy the chain of onion supply in New York.

(Mirabel only stopped them because she, personally, quite likes onions.)

She's not sure what they're planning. If she had to guess, it's going to be some big, dramatic take-down of Sombra Monarch to restore their honour and reputation. But the fact that they've not done anything yet... Frankly, she's growing impatient.

She's busied herself causing small acts of mayhem, just to keep the city on its toes, things like spray painting "FUCK ADVERTISEMENTS" and "FUCK CAPITALISM" on the Times Square billboards, and getting some of the city's regular villains to fight each other instead of wreaking havoc and then netting them too.

Part of it is strategic, of course. The Encantos can't justify not fighting her for long if she's up to no good, or just straight up doing their job for them.

Even so, Mirabel's starting to get bored of waiting.

"Hey, Mira."

"Hmm?" Mirabel looks up from her elaborate sketching for a new dress design, down at her friend.

Lilo's head is resting on her leg, and Mira can feel the silky locks of her hair, soft and pretty, on her bare skin thanks to her denim shorts. Her best friend squints up adorably, looking at Mirabel with an expression she can't quite understand.

The sunlight falls on them both in a checkered pattern from the tree they're under, and Lilo's a comforting weight on her, and Stitch is napping in the tree somewhere while Miguel's gone to get his lunch (his class ended late today, while Mira and Lilo are already done eating). It's a pretty good moment. Even the background noise of other kids playing and shouting and laughing in the school lawn really don't bother as much as entertain her today.

"I love you."

Lilo says softly.

Mirabel smiles fondly.

"I love you too." She replies, although her heart gives a queer little ache at the knowledge that no matter how many times she and her two best friends exchange those words honestly, Lilo will never mean them the same way she does.

Her friend gives her a searching look for another moment, before nodding in satisfaction and sitting up. Mira only has a moment to feel the loss of the warmth before Lilo's draping herself over her side.

"I haaaate the chemistry homework." She bemoans.

After two weeks, the school finally just gave up on trying to rebuild the chemistry lab and started holding classes in the biology and physics labs instead. And also started giving them double the homework to make up for the missed classes.

"Sa -"

A shrill rendition of Macarena interrupts her, and they both look down at the phone ringing accusatorily at Mirabel.

"It's Miguel." She notes, picking it up and answering it.

"Hola, Miguel, what's taking so long? You just went to get lunch."

"Mira, Mira, thank god you answered, listen." Her friend's voice is anxious and urgent, and Mirabel sits up straighter just hearing it.

"Miguel, what's wrong?"

"I - I need to leave school now, my cousins came to collect me, i - it's my Mama Coco, her health suddenly got worse, we need to be at the hospital just in case - you know." He sounds close to tears at the last part. Mira sucks in a breath, and Lilo looks at her questioningly, only able to hear half the conversation.

"Shit, I'm so sorry. What do you need me to do, cariño? Do you want me to help get your books and bag?"

"No, no, can you - could you just get my notebook from Ms. Ramirez, please, so I can do whatever work she gives today and tomorrow? Just in case I stay out of school longer this time?"

"Si, of course Miguel. You just wait, okay, I'll be right there."

"Gracias, thank you so much!"

Lilo looks worried when Mirabel jumps to her feet, and follows her automatically as she sets off to look for their history teacher.

"What was -"

"It's Mama Coco." Mira says shortly, and Lilo curses under her breath.

"That's the fifth time this month, Miguel must be -"

"I know."

"Where are we going?"

"Ms. Ramirez has Miguel's notebook, he needs it."

"He'll be gone longer this time?"

"He doesn't know either."

Mira's body goes through the motions without her focus, as her mind wanders in different, anxious directions. She distantly watches herself find Ms. Ramirez and sees Lilo explain the situation, while she holds unusually still and frets about Miguel.

This is far from the first time he's had to leave school for his great-grandmother. Mama Coco has lived a full 98 years, and she's one of the sweetest people Mirabel knows. She's lost her sight and a lot of her hearing by now, and is bound to her wheelchair, but she hasn't lost her serne smile, her odd sense of humour, and her affinity for old 60s Mexican music.

Even though Mama Coco's health has been deteriorating for years, she stubbornly refuses to stay in a hospital. Instead, whenever she gets an unpredictable fever, or can't seem to breathe, or can't wake up after 20 hours of sleep, she's taken to a small hospital near the Rivera house and on the other side of the city from school. It's the only hospital they seem to trust with her.

Miguel gives both her and Lilo a crushing hug, as much a plea for support as a thanks, when they meet him at the school gate with his notebook. He's gone before Mirabel realizes it.

"Part of me just wishes it would get over with." Lilo says quietly, then "Gods, I'm horrible for even saying that. I don't mean - I want her to be okay, I need her to be okay, but I can't - it's just - it's been this way for a year now. Maybe more. It's eating on him, and it hurts every time. I don't want her to die, I adore Mama Coco, she's been like a grandmother to me for half my life, but it just - I can't do anything except watch Miguel hurt, and wait for the news. And I keep waiting for the worst."

"I know what you mean." Mira sighs, "I wish there was something more we could do."

"Why can't there be some kind of permanent fix that means she can be okay forever? I don't want her to leave him - to leave any of us."

"I know."

Miguel comes back two days later, looking tired, but relieved, and overall not much worse for wear.

"Good morning." Mira offers him one of her Mama's arepas from her lunch, and his whole body seems to relax a little as he bites into it. Lilo leans her head on his shoulder in silence, and Miguel smiles at them.

"Mama Coco's okay. It was just another - well, it was a close call, but we got an extra oxygen tank at home and she's fine - well, for now."

"That's good." she says cautiously. Miguel shrugs noncommittally, and looks at Lilo.

"What about you? Weren't you going to talk to Nani yesterday?"

Lilo looks away, pursing her lips, and shakes her head. They'd agreed she would talk to Nani if her sister didn't tell her about the job opportunity in a week. That was yesterday.

Mirabel forgot about that, and she feels guilt wash over her when she realises her best friends definitely hadn't.

God, this week is geared to be a disaster. Mirabel can't help the impeding sense of doom in her chest, dreading.

Lilo's fingers fidget restlessly with her notebook, and she abruptly slides it over to Miguel.

"I completed the homework and took a bunch of notes while you were gone. You can use them."

"You didn't have to -"

"But I did, so there."

"But it's your work -"

"And I don't care, I'm too autistic for this bullshit anyway. I didn't even understand a thing in class, I'll just study it later if I feel like it anyway."

"Won't they still be useful -"

"Oh for fuck's sake -"

Mira just munches on an arepa as she watches their drama play out.

"Hola, Sombra Monarch."

Mirabel jerks around, not having heard anyone approach.

The pigeon in her hands chooses that moment to escape, fluttering off to join the rest of its escaped brethren in the billboard perches of Times Square.

She frowns and sighs dramatically at the pair of green eyes that glow at her from the dark.

"Mierda! See what you did? I was right in the middle of training them to poop on the Encantos' billboard."

"My apologies, Señorita, but you see... those pigeons are my target." A saber glints as the speaker unsheaths it. Mira raises an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Really? Well, you snooze you lose, gato."

The shadow chuckles, and the familiar orange figure of the villain Puss in Boots steps out into the light.

"You've heard of me? Then you know what I have to say to the likes of you."

"You're bigger in the wanted posters."

The cat hisses, now properly offended.

"Fear me, if you dare!" He takes a running leap at her, saber drawn. Mira braces with her nanofiber stringballs in hand to trap and yank him about like a puppet, and -

A flash of bright red blurs across her field of vision, blinding her for a moment.

Mirabel stumbles back with a yelp.

When she gets her bearings again, she stares at the sight before her.

A girl in red is holding the cat at an arm's length, and Puss hisses as he tries to stab at her.

"Keep random strangers out of our little fued, would you, Puss?" She admonishes.

"It is none of your business if I challenge someone to a fight! Sombra Monarch was simply entangled in my next heist, it's not my fault you are invested in her -"

"Oh really, a heist? I guess you don't mind if I invite Kitty to join us, then, right? After all, you both work together so well -"

Puss's eyes widen comically, and he yowls, sheathing his saber and holding his paws up.

"No, no, no Señora Surfer, it was a mistake! I shall bid you adios!"

"That's what I thought."

And just like that, the orange cat has sprinted into the shadows, and Mirabel is face to face with a very interesting figure indeed.

The girl's round face is covered with a plain red mask on the top half, her inquisitive dark eyes trained on Mira. She's short and chunky, her long black hair tied in a ponytail, and regards her with her arms crossed. She's outfitted in a bright red belted tunic and kee-length shorts made of some glossy, leather-like material that nonetheless looks soft and moves in the breeze, while her bare legs are covered in a red mesh, and her feet with nothing at all. It's then that Mira notices the red and yellow flowered surfboard under the girl's feet, hovering in mid-air and making her seem taller than Mira.

"I like your outfit." Mirabel says. The girl blinks, then cocks her head to the side, still regarding her silently.

The red of her outfit is familiar, get Mira could swear she's never seen it before. Maybe because of the moonlight...?

Oh.

"You're the one who's been following me." She realizes.

The girl nods slowly.

"I guess there's no point denying it." There's something of an accent to her voice, a sort of Spanish lilt that sounds exaggerated and a little faked, if she's honest. Different from the voice she talked to Puss in.

"Why? Who are you? And -" Mira recalls the strange golden mist she'd caught out of the corner of her eye, "You weren't the only one, were you?"

The girl sighs, more than a little irritated.

"I'm Scarlet Surfer. I'm a vigilante justice, I guess you could call me. Not a famous hero, like the Encantos, but I deal with small villains and crooks they consider beneath their notice. I keep the communities safe that they wouldn't get publicity from protecting. Me and my - colleague, I guess - have been keeping tabs on you. No biggie."

"You think I'm a threat." Mirabel says slowly.

"Aren't you?" Scarlet Surfer moves, and suddenly she's hovering barely a foot in front of Mirabel. "So far, all you've done is show up the city's beloved heroes, and vandalize public property. Nothing truly malicious. But you still managed to take down some of the most powerful heroes we know, and you're publicly declared a villain, or at least a menace."

"Fair enough." She concedes, "Although I'm a bit insulted that you think I couldn't handle protecting myself from an angry cat."

"Oh, Puss was trying to get a rise out of me, not you. He was probably just nosing about, since we've been following you instead of him for a while. And if that cabrona I'm working with hadn't left you unattended, for some godforsaken reason, this wouldn't even have been a problem." The girl sighs dramatically. "And now my cover's blown."

"Well, it's either blowing your cover or getting on my bad side, and between the two of us, you took the better choice." Mira shrugs.

"I don't know." Scarlet Surfer hovers father away, perched just on the edge of the roof now. "I've yet to see you deal some proper damage."

"Excuse me? Are you challenging me?"

"Maybe." She flashes a smile, and jumps. The surfboard follows her feet, and she spins it expertly. Mirabel actually can't help an awed laugh, as the girl surfs away through the air in a red streak, gone before her brain can even register it.

Well. This job just got more interesting.

Chapter Text

Antonio doesn't understand much, and he's fully aware of that fact. 

It used to bug him a lot more when he was small. Abuela and Dolores and Mama usually explain it away with "everything will make sense when you're older", and while Mirabel never seems to like that saying, her explanations are usually a bit too simple to seem entirely true. 

He's much older now - five whole years of age! - and sure enough, a lot more things make sense. 

For example, Antonio understands why people told him to stop playing pretend when he tried to explain that he could hear what animals were saying for the past few months. He sort of understands why he can speak to animals in the first place, too. He understands why all his older primas and hermano seem so busy all the time, some of what the secret looks and jokes they share mean, he's part of their group now!

And he kind of understands why Mirabel is always left out of things, now that he's part of the Encantos and he knows all the secrets and adventures she doesn't. There's a heavy, guilty feeling in his chest when he thinks about how he'd been as left out as her until his fifth birthday, until he showed his Gift to Abuela and Mama. 
If he wasn't able to talk to animals, Antonio would still be on the outside of the family with Mirabel, still by her side as everyone forgot about her Quincenaéra but him. Mirabel is still left out, and now that he's been separated from her, she's on her own. Antonio can still go to the park with her and her friends, still spend hours colouring with her (if he's not busy with a mission), but there's still that separation between them. 

Something about it feels unfair, mean, but Mama and Abuela and Dolores and Camilo seem to think it's the right thing to do, so it must be. 

There's still a lot Antonio doesn't understand, though. In fact, now that he knows so many more things, there's a lot more that confuses him than before.

Like why Mirabel is so quiet lately. He knows her well enough to recognise the angry set of her mouth when she looks at her sisters or Abuela, but he doesn't know what caused it, and Mira doesn't talk to him anymore. 

There's also the whole adventure the Encantos had with Sombra Monarch. Antonio personally doesn't see why the family can't just talk to her nicely, share their lunch and apologize to each other until they become friends, like Ms. Elle makes them do at school,  but that's just another thing he doesn't understand. 

He wasn't there to see what happened, anyway, he was stuck at home with an upset stomach. But everyone seemed really upset by it. Mama had been fuming all the next day, this close to bursting into a hurricane in front of everyone, and even gentle Tía Julieta had been tired and irritable. Dolores and Luisa had both taken him aside and told him to avoid Abuela that day, and he'd obeyed them diligently.

The next Encanto meeting had included big words like "publicity" and "press conference" and "power dynamics" that he didn't really know the meaning of, but the one after that - an emergency meeting that Papa picked him up from school for - he tried his best to focus in, ad finally (finally!) understands what they were talking about.

The Prophet is back, and it is a problem.

... It would probably help if Antonio had any idea who the Prophet is it and why it is a problem, but he draws a blank at that point. Even Mira had never explained that story to him.

It must be someone really big and bad to have the whole family upset like this, though. Abuela, Mama and Tía were having a big argument one night, and Antonio's heart skipped a beat as he recognised the word "Bruno", which Mama always said they were never to talk about. 

The next morning, Abuela declared grimly that there were to be no Encantos on the streets until they were "prepared". No patrolling, no designated missions, no superhero work of any kind. If any of the other villains started getting a little too restless, that was a problem for later.

Antonio stomachs this new change in routine with the same bright-eyed, easy obedience that he'd shown when he was first introduced to Encantos work. Even though it makes his head spin a bit to have his days change so quickly from school, to fighting and shenanigans that have him struggling to stay awake the next day, back to school, he can deal with it. He's a Madrigal after all. And he's five! Isabela says that's practically all grown up!

Antonio may not understand things, but that doesn't mean he can't be good. Mira always says what matters is giving his best!

Of course, Mira always gives her best, but that doesn't seem to help with Abuela or the family... 

Sometimes, it just seems like everything depends on luck, and Antonio has yet to find a point in trying to understand the intricacies of that.

Still, he wishes he was smarter, more grown-up. Then maybe he could understand why Mirabel seems so distant lately. She barely talks to him, or anyone in the family anymore - she hasn't been very close with the rest of the family for years now, but it hurts that she doesn't spend any time with him now either. He knows part of it is his fault for leaving her alone and going off with the Encantos, but there's no way she could know that. Could she?

"Hey, Tonito!" Mira waves as she appears at the top of the stairs, "Look who I found prowling around my room!"

"Parce!" Antonio squeals, delighted, as his prima holds up the work jaguar plushie like a trophy, "You found him!"

"He was hiding under the bed, practicing his spy mission." She whisper-shouts conspiratorially, "He's gotta learn skydiving now - think fast!"

He squares up to catch Parce like they usually do, but Abuela appears at the bottom of the stairs.

"What is all the commotion about? Antonio, what are you doing?"

"Abuela!" Antonio stands at attention immediately, ramrod straight with his hands clasped behind his back politely, "Nothing, we just... Found Parce..."

Said plushie lands with a thwump on the floor, flopping sadly onto its belly. He winces in sympathy, willing himself not to run to Parce's side.

Abuela follows his gaze, and then looks up at Mirabel. Her lips purse, and her disappointed gaze seems to convey everything she's said a million times.

Instead of shrinking back, Mirabel meets her look with an icy glare of her own, an eyebrow cocked, unimpressed. They stare at each other intensely, daring the other two back down first. They only finally break it off when Antonio inches forward and picks up Parce. Abuela sniffs, nods her head once in his direction and sweeps off.

Mirabel smiles thinly after her.

The human brain generally has one primary function. Unfortunately, Camilo's has decided not to perform that function.

Brain is not braining.

Well, Camilo thinks as xe stares blankly at their equally blank answer sheet, technically, do they even count as human anymore? He hadn't shapeshifted into an animal before, but zey could probably do it if she tried... Or maybe not. But being able to shapeshift into other people has some inhuman implications, right? 

"Why can't my brain work for the actual test the way it does for everything except the test?" Camilo mutters to xirself. 

They're stupid as fuck when it comes to academics. It's not entirely his fault, Camilo will argue; with all the superhero work, there's never really time to study at home, and zey're no Isabela, they can't juggle everything and still get perfect grades. 

Mirabel usually helps them with schoolwork, but she's been giving him the cold shoulder lately. Camilo isn't sure why, but honestly, she can't say xe blames her. Camilo hasn't exactly been the best friend to Mira in a long, long time.

It's such a shame, really. He overhead Mama and Tía Julieta say that once. They and Mirabel used to be so close, best friends, when they were little. Practically inseparable. People looked at them and legitimately thought they were twins.

But by the time they were eleven years old, Camilo had committed herself fully to superhero work, doing the best he could to help everyone and solve every problem before it became a bigger one. Luisa and Camilo usually take patrols together for that exact reason; they both want to lighten the load for everyone else. Especially because they've seen what it's done to Isabela and Dolores, and keep trying to prove to Abuela that they can handle more, that it's safe to let their older sisters have a break and focus on college and careers and all the baggage that brings.

(It never quite seems to work, and Camilo watches Dolores with worried eyes as she smiles, strained, noise-cancelling headphones firmly on, and soldiers through her day.)

They're sixteen now and it's been a long time since he and Mira last had a full, friendly conversation. 

Now, Mirabel mostly hangs out with that Rivera dude and the scary Pelekai girl with her weird looking dog. Those two don't seem to like xem much, which is fine, because the feeling is mutual. Camilo has to swallow down a pang of jealousy whenever she sees them with Mirabel, so close and comfortable with each other, unburdened by secrets and sleepless nights. Camilo has people either depending on him or entertained by zem, not friends.

They'd actually hung out with the trio for about a week, in a bid to be close with xir prima again, and ended up oversharing and also coming out as non-binary to them. Mira was surprised but supportive, and for that Cami was grateful. She was the only one zey could tell, anyway. The rest of the family wasn't going to understand their weird relationship with gender, even despite their shapeshifting ability, and Abuela would definitely not approve of them collecting pronouns like Pokemon cards.

Then she fucked up, hurt Mira by putting some Encanto stuff first, and apparently her new friends were less tolerant of that than Mirabel has always been. Honestly, good for her. She deserves good friends, at least.

But they do talk at least once in a while, when Mirabel helps them with zir homework and grades. Except apparently she's no longer doing that.

Camilo's hurt, but he gets it.

A violent rustle brings Camilo back to earth as the test paper is snatched from under their face.

Crap. That's another one xe's gonna fail.

Oh well. 

Camilo heaves himself up and pours out of the room with the others as they all finish and leave. Zey're quickly surrounded by clamouring classmates, all of them loudly laughing and discussing the paper, and she slips effortlessly into their role of the class clown and charmer, the center of attention with their jokes and commentary. 

It's not until that night that Camilo finally gets to breathe.

It's not until that night, when familiar orange petals blow into his room on a gust of wind, that Camilo finally has something to smile about. 

Sneaking around has never been Camilo's strong suit. They used to be in the school theater club once upon a time for fuck's sake, he's a drama queen through and through; stealth is the antithesis of xir whole deal. And with Dolores as a sister, it's not like she's had a lot of chances to practice sneaking around.

That hasn't stopped them from sneaking out through zir window twice in the past week, and it isn't going to now. 

The dangers of getting caught are very real - Camilo can just about picture how furious Abuela will be if she ever finds out xe blatantly disobeyed her ban on superhero stuff. She'd said it was  for everyone's own safety, but honestly, her wrath was the most terrifying threat Cami saw in the near future. Even more than The Prophet or that new villain, Sombra Monarch.

Still, he needs to be in their superhero form for this, and honestly she's been restless and itching to get out and make sure everything is still fine. Xe's not forgotten the Shrek and Donkey onion heist that fucking Sombra Monarch had stopped instead of them. The Encantos' nemesis, doing work they should be doing - how could everyone else just stand by? Did they not feel humiliated?

Whatever. They're not just out to patrol, anyway. 

Camilo smiles in anticipation as she reaches the inconspicuous billboard - or as inconspicuous as billboards can get - where the blak-and-red figure is already sitting, strumming his guitar. The usual wisps of gold mist curl around him, giving him an ethereal glow, and the patterned white skull-shaped mask gleams in the moonlight under his shadowy sombrero.

If Cami didn't already know him, the Mariachi de los Muertos would look petrifying. 

As it is, they whistle cheerfully, and the boy's head snaps up to look at xem. The smile that splits across his face is bright and infectious.

"Hola, Mari!" Cami clambers up next to him, stretching out languidly, something in their chest relaxing.

"Chameleo, I wasn't sure if you were going to come, hombre! It's been too long."

"It's only been like, four days."

"Semantics." Mariachi shrugs, propping his guitar - the same old, painted white as his mask - to the side, and leans more comfortably towards them.

"Missed me that much?"

"My heart cannot go on without you."

"Every waking moment, you think only of me."

"And when I sleep, you haunt my dreams too."

They both hold their gaze for a minute, before bursting into laughter. 

Mariachi de los Muertos is one of the few vigilante justices left in New York, stamping out small crime and looking after the margins of the community while the Encantos handle the big fry. In fact, Camilo's fairly certain he's the only one left - well, him and the "partner" he works with, whom he speaks of with an irritated pout whenever the subject comes up.  Camilo hasn't met her, but according to him, the Scarlet Surfer, whoever she is, is really, really annoying. 

("If she's got to fake accents for whatever stupid "safety precautions" she keeps talking about, she could at least do it well!" Camilo has his friend's stock complaints memorized, "I never know if I'm going to have to deal with a stupid, overdone Southern accent, a complete butchering of Spanish, or a monstrous love child of a British and Canadian accent when I run into her!" "She's got this little blue fucko of a menace, who would be cute if he didn't keep trying to chew my sombrero! I swear, that critter has it in for me specifically!" "I am going to go loco if she runs into a fight with zero sense of her own safety again, that idiot -")

How Camilo became friends with Mariachi, neither of them remembers. Just that they met a year ago when tackling the same enemy (fricking Puss in Boots, renowned nuisance), the Encantos don't know the vigilante or his partner exist to compete with their hero work, and Cami works to keep it that way. 

At first they just ran into each other on missions - an Encanto who can disguise themself as anyone isn't the easiest person to avoid, after all - but now they meet up here, by the Calvin Klein billboard, regularly to hang out and just talk. It's rare, but Camilo always finds himself grinning like an idiot whenever it happens. 

It really doesn't help that Mariachi is really, really cool, and really, REALLY cute. His energy is adorable, and he sings really well, and Cami swears he can make a song out of anything, and he's funny, and sometimes it's hard to tell if their cheesy flirting is all a joke anymore, and -

Well, this might become a problem, but it's not like anyone else needs to know about it. And anyway, Mari's their only friend. Xe's not going to ruin that.

It's a good night, tonight. The air is sharp and clean - as clean as it ever gets in this city, at least - and their laughter rings out clearly into the midnight sky. There's nothing to worry about right now. No new mission, no Sombra Monarch, no Prophet. Nobody breathing down their neck, telling them what they should do and who they should be.

Even as Mariachi scrambles up, yelping that he completely forgot about his shift shadowing the target he and Scarlet are supposed to be watching, Camilo only chuckles and waves him off. Watches him leave, skimming just over the rooftops, strumming his guitar to keep the gold mist under him that lets him slide just above solid ground, a trail of stray orange petals scattered to the wind behind him. 

Camilo stays put even after he's gone, sitting, admiring the night and the view, not worried about anything for once. Everything is good tonight.

There's a vague sense of impeding doom in his gut, but that's tomorrow's problem. 

There's room to breathe. Just for now.

Chapter Text

Bestie Trio Fanart

Chapter Text

It's not long before Mirabel decides that something interesting needs to happen on the villain front, fast, or she will resort to violence.

The Encantos have vanished from public life entirely. Mirabel can't fathom why - surely Sombra Monarch can't have rattled them that badly? Why haven't they retaliated yet? Nothing she does seems to bait them out - and she's committed random acts of 'invitation' all month. And everyone at home seems fine, too, if unusually pent-up and tense, but she assumes that’s because of being cooped up too long.

Scarlet Surfer has remained something of an anomaly, flitting in now and again to chat and then vanishing, and not even tailing Mira anymore. But even though Sombra Monarch's apparently been established as Not A Threat™ in the other girl's eyes - slightly insulting, and Mira had caused a good deal of property damage to the police station one night to rectify that - she's clearly still trying to keep her distance and secrets to herself. Over the past three weeks with exactly fourteen conversations, Mirabel has gathered a grand total of five facts about Scarlet Surfer:

1) she really likes Elvis (Lilo would have loved her)

2) she constantly changes accents and dialects really clumsily and it's hilarious every time

3) she gets annoyed when Mira calls her Short Elmo

4) she makes a lot of colourful threats when she's annoyed but won't actually do anything so it's safe to keep calling her Short Elmo

5) and she finds her mysterious vigilante colleague really, really annoying.

Also she has a feral pet alien with four arms, an annoying voice, and absolutely zero chill. Scarlet had only introduced them once, when they were fighting Megamind (Mira was actually there to cheer the villain on, but then he got annoying), and the blue creature had handled the situation so aggressively that the two girls had spent the whole time watching and eating popcorn Mira stole from a movie theater.

That had been a good night.

Most nights it's just the occasional check-in from Scarlet, though, and usually not even that.

All Sombra Monarch does is cause minor mayhem, retaliate against people and institutions who piss her off, and fight some of the genuinely malicious villains of the city because the so-called heroes won't. To her chagrin, some people have even started labelling her a hero and the New York Times headlined her the 'Neo-Encanto: taking the place of our favourite superheroes'. She'd replaced the water in their sprinkler system with ketchup and set a small fire in their office building in retribution for that.

It's one night when she's considering using her nets to sling rotten eggs through the windows of some publicly acclaimed transphobes, and maybe hunting catcallers for sport, that something finally breaks the monotony.

They’re not immediately recognizable, what with the way they keep shifting into different people and blending into the crowds and shadows, but it’s a pretty dead giveaway when they randomly decide to parkour across rooftops and balconies. Mirabel doesn’t even have to catch a glimpse of their stupid yellow cape to know who it is.

Chameleo.

“What are you doing out and about after all this time, Cami?” she mutters to herself, more curious than annoyed. It’s been more than a month since any of the Encantos have been spotted anywhere, and even if she’s been holding her breath for it, finding one singular Encanto – her once-closest primo, no less – at large all alone isn’t what she’d been expecting.

She follows them. Obviously.

Chameleo doesn’t seem to be hurrying anywhere, if she’s honest. They’re just chilling, flitting around like a canary hopped up on ungodly amounts of caffeine, practically dancing across the streets even with all their discreet shapeshifting. And they’re not blasting “All Star” or “Barbie Girl” on their crappy pocket Bluetooth speaker as their “intro music” tonight, like they do whenever Soundwave isn’t around. This right here must count as their ‘stealth mode’, then.

They’re headed in the general direction of Casita, Mira realizes. Which, absolutely not. This is the first good entertainment she’s had in ages, she’s not letting an Encanto slip through her hands.

Chameleo seems a little pathetic on their own, though. It feels mean to ambush them, and she’s not even particularly irritated right now, just intrigued.

Well, she might as well try a new approach, then. For the plot.

“Hola, Chameleo! Que pasa?” she calls, letting her voice carry on the wind. She takes some satisfaction in watching them freeze, holding their breath, before they turn around slowly. She waves, floating casually on the wrong side of a roof’s ledge, a hundred feet above the ground, and leaning on the ledge.

“Hola, Sombra Monarch!” Chameleo calls back, remarkably cheerfully. They smile at Mira, the perfect, cocky grin they always give to the tabloids, and she understands in that moment why Cami’s such a crowd favourite. “I’m alright, having a bit of fun. How’s your night going?”

“Oh, I’m just a bit bored. The past month has been a little uneventful, y’know, with how my main adversaries just evidently vanished off the face of the earth and all.” She shrugs. Chameleo chuckles, and has the decency to look sheepish.

“Ah, lo siento, señorita, we’ve just been a little… busy, lately.”

“Oh? You don’t seem awfully busy to me. Honestly, I don’t even know what you seem like to me.”

“I’m just a teenager celebrating their freedom, just a bit of fun.”

“So what I’m hearing is, it’s less of a vacation, and more of a house arrest situation for you Encantos, si?”

“It’s a long story, for sure.”

Chameleo seems more at ease, at least outwardly, but Mira knows them well enough to recognize the forced cheeriness and strain of the act.

“Come sit with me. Let’s chat.” She grins, not particularly evil but it must look menacing from the way the hero twitches. She hoists herself out of the air and onto the roof ledge in one swift motion, and gestures for them to join her.

Mirabel can practically see the gears whirring in their brain as they consider their options. They both know the Chameleo’s power set, on their own, isn’t suited to this type of situation or combat – what are they gonna do, shapeshift into the piragua guy so Mira gets distracted? Meanwhile, Sombra Monarch’s a wild card, the hero doesn’t know her powers well enough to formulate a plan, if they even had the attention span for it.

“Sure, why not? We can be friends!” Chameleo hops across the rooftop and plonks themselves next to her brightly.

“Don’t push it.” She tells them.

“Yes ma’am.”

“So, why have New York’s bravest heroes been in hiding for a month? Not out to beat big bad villains like me anymore?”

“It’s complicated.” They’re so tense it’d be worrying if it wasn’t kind of hilarious, “You see, there was this pack of Oreos at home, and Venus and Soundwave were fighting over it, and I mean intense, like, call the Public Works Department because there’s no way the building is gonna stay intact level of fighting. And then they started making the rest of us take sides, and obviously I took Soundwave’s, because Venus is always setting off my pollen allergies, and the Matriarch said we can go out in the field once the whole thing gets solved ‘cause we’d be totalling skyscrapers otherwise, but it never got solved and I don’t think it ever wi –”

“You ever considered having a stand-up comic act?” Mira barks a laugh, startling Cami, “Dios mio, you definitely talk enough for it, you’re practically the joker of the Encantos already. You could be charging money for all the attention your family never gave you that you keep trying to get out of the rest of us, y’know.”

Her words are sharper, bitter at the end, a lighthearted observation that somehow devolved into a barb, and for a second Chameleo looks genuinely taken aback by them. There’s a pained glint in their eye that’s gone as soon as she notices it, but it makes guilt spike up in her chest anyway.

“S – sorry, that was too much.” She mumbles, and that seems to shock Cami even more. Mira wants to slap herself for being so impulsive and sentimental.

“It’s weird of you to apologize after everything.” They note honestly.

“Don’t mention it.”

“Aww, it was kinda sweet –”

“Ever.”

Chameleo looks at her as if they’re seeing her for the first time, wide-eyed and curious. Then, most surprising of all, they smile and settle more comfortably next to her, and Mira hadn’t even realized how tense they still were until they relaxed at her side.

Her heart flutters warmly for a split second. It’s been so long since her and her primo sat like this. And Cami doesn’t even know it’s her right now.

And that’s their own fault.

The anger rises like acid in her throat again. She reconsiders stabbing them lightly. Emphasis on lightly.

“Your outfit is really cool, by the way. I know I’m not supposed to encourage you and all, but… you did a good job.”

“Thanks. Yours is dumb, it looks like a five-year-old designed it.” She deadpans.

“Well, I designed it when I was five, so, makes sense.” Cami laughs, and Mira actually pauses at the implication of that, “Didn’t exactly have the best design skills then.”

“They won’t let you upgrade into a better one now?” she asks absently, considering. She’d almost forgotten the Madrigals join the Encantos when they’re five. Antonio has technically started too, even if the Purrpeteer hasn’t been seen in physical altercations yet. Is that why her hermanas and Dolores have had their heads stuck so far up their own asses for most of their lives?

“Well, see –”

They never do get to finish the rest of that conversation. They're interrupted by the rooftop literally exploding in their faces.

"UM." Chameleo shouts as they're launched high into the air, "C'MON, GUYS, THAT'S REALLY RUDE!"

"Hola, Po!" Mirabel laughs as the force of the explosion tosses her up too.

"Oh, hey Sombra!" Po waves excitedly as the Furious Five burst onto the scene, "Guys, look, it's

Sombra Monarch! How's it going? I'm a huge fan of your work, ma'am, I just -"

"So sorry, we didn't realize there were people up here!" Viper leaps up at Mira, "Let me help -"

"It's fine, I can fly." Mirabel shrugs, fanning her cloak out and letting it float her down, "Get Chameleo, he can't."

"Got him!" Crane yells, clutching Chameleo with his feet and depositing them safely on the next rooftop, "There you go."

"Thanks, dude." Cami grins, dusting themselves off as the Five assume a fighting stance, "Now, I do assume you're not up to anything good, and I do have to fight you."

"An unwise choice." Tigress growls.

"You should listen to her." Po nods sagely, "She's scary for a reason."

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Mira heckles cheerfully. They ignore her, but they also do begin to fight, so it's a win-win really.

Personally, Mirabel rather likes the Dragon Warrior and Furious Five. They're funny and awesome and she sees no reason to involve herself between the hero and villains.

So she hangs out at the edges of the altercation, cheering and oohing and ahhing as Chameleo and the kung-fu warriors battle. Chameleo's vastly outnumbered and outmatched, especially compared to the martial arts skill of the others, but they're holding their own pretty well by shapeshifting into one of the Five randomly and confusing them.

"No way!" Po gasps as Chameleo transforms into a perfect copy of him.

"You look exactly like me! Guys, how cool is this?" Chameleo - wait, Po? Squeals.

"Oh, not him again!" Monkey groans. "This took us an hour to sort out last time."

"No it didn't!" Po and Po yell at the same time. "Woah, awesome, you sound just like me!"

Mirabel cackles.

"We'll just have to fight them and figure out who's who." Tigress says grimly.

"Are you sure that's a good -" Mantis begins, as both the pandas look terrified and take awkward fighting stances at the same time, but Tigress is already swinging at them, "- idea."

"Oi, Chameleo, call for backup!" Mirabel hollers. Chameleo is either really dedicated to being Po, or they just don't hear her, because they don't even react. Shame.

… or maybe the Encantos aren't accessible right now, for whatever reason.

Mirabel perks up as she considers the thought. It would certainly explain a lot about their demeanour…

"Guys, we've got to move fast, we're going to lose track of the Jombies!" Viper yelps.

"Jombies?" Mira mutters, "What the hell is a…"

"Jade zombies!" the memory of Miguel's excited gasp flashes in front of her suddenly.

Right, there was something about some rival kung-fu villain who'd stolen something-or-other and the Dragon Warrior needed to… fight them? Free them? In order to unlock the power to control life and death. Or something definitely vaguely menacing and green.

Well well, consider her curiosity piqued.

Mirabel casts one last look at the fight - the two Pos are now having some kind of dance battle and the rest of the Five look as confused as she feels - and figures she might as well make sure they're occupied for a while. She tosses out some sparkly-net-bombs (name still being workshopped) that she'd been inventing in her spare time at them, and flies off.

Mira hovers at a patrol-height through the city, her ears abuzz and smile bright with purpose. Finally, something interesting to do, and it's surprisingly refreshing to have a goal not obsessing over the Encantos for once! The city feels bright with possibility as she scans it. And there's a weird, fluttering feeling in her gut that something big is about to happen.

She hums impatiently, fiddling absently with her hair as she perches on the tallest building and looks around.

Hot-dog cart, bank, buildings, floating mariachi, dog, bachelorette party, another dog…

There!

She zips off towards the flash of green that catches her eye. It was tucked between some buildings, somewhere in the maze of the city's roads, and she falters, floating above the general vicinity she'd seen it. Where exactly…?

There, right there!

It's a bright emerald green flash, unmistakable, almost like it's guiding her to find it. Mira lands gracefully in the alleyway where it was before she can have the time to doubt herself, and peers around with her hands on her hips, ready for a fight or some friendly banter, whichever comes first.

What comes is… nothing.

There's nothing there.

"What the…"

Did she get the wrong alleyway? No, she could've sworn it was right here.

"Hey Jombies, come out wherever you are!" she calls out lightly, "C'mon, I'm not going to fight you!"

Yet. She adds in her head.

There's nothing but complete silence and stillness answering her.

She's just about to fly off again, make sure she's got the right place, when -

A distinct shuffle catches her attention at the very end of the alley. She freezes, a sudden wave of apprehension washing over her, chilling to her very bones.

What? You don't just exist as a young Latina girl in New York and not learn to be wary of dark alleys. People are monsters more often than villains are.

"Well this sucks." she murmurs under her breath, then shakes off the hesitation, "Mierda, you're better than this, come on!"

Mira forces herself to walk towards the disturbance. Turns herself invisible, just to be on the safe side.

It came from that dumpster over there, so…

"Probably a rat…" she breathes, but then freezes as something flashes in her periphery, "Holy shit, definitely not a rat."

Something - wait no, multiple somethings - green and glowy are left among trash in the dumpster, like someone had carelessly thrown in away. Or in a hurry.

Excitement spikes in her chest, and it's a battle not to squeal and clap loudly as Mira realizes she's got something way more weird than a Jombie at hand. Regular trash doesn't glow green, even in New York.

The only thing holding her back is…

"The smell, oh my fucking -" Mira gags, immediately backing away as the waft of stink reaches her like a tidal wave of toxic fumes, "I think my nose hairs burned away, fuck."

It's a herculean task but she does it, vowing to herself that she'll invent something for this kind of thing as she gingerly fishes out the green things.

She sanitizes them with her pocket hand sanitizer - you don't just be friends with Miguel and not learn to carry around The Basics - before examining them curiously.

They're shards of green glass, and judging from the shape and thickness she'd say they were pieces of some kind of glass slab. They glow bright when she touches them, and… woah, are those pictures inside of them? Do they form some kind of image?

"Why would someone want to get rid of this?" she mutters, trying to make sense of it all. Two of the glass shards have aligning cracks, and she fits them together. The face that looks back at her is… too familiar.

That's -

"Ah ha!" she whirls around at the light step behind her, fingers pointed accusatorily, "There you are!"

"Um." the person standing there, all deer-in-headlights with his hands up, is… not a Jombie. "Who's there?" He asks, looking around the alley wildly. It's then that Mira remembers she's still invisible, and lets her visibilty flicker back on.

"Who are you?" Mirabel demands, scanning the figure up and down.

It seems to be a boy, around her age if she had to guess, wearing a red-and-black mariachi outfit and painted skull-mask. He's holding a guitar aloft in one of his hands, that's… vaguely familiar…

"Why are you covered in orange petals?" she adds, and more petals seem to swirl around him as the dude visibly panics.

"No hablo ingles?" he squeaks.

"Quién eres tu?" she says without skipping a beat.

"FUCK." Mariachi dude panics even more, "UM. BYE."

"You can't just -"

But apparently he can, because with a poof and a small explosion of orange petals, the boy is gone. Vanished, like he never existed.

Or maybe invisible like her?

She stomps around the place he was standing to check that theory. Nope, he's gone.

"Weird."

That appears to be the theme of the night, for sure.

Mirabel's holed up in her room. Has been for the whole weekend.

See, usually Mira can't pay attention to one thing at a time for shit. But when something finally tickles her brain enough that she focuses, well…

She focuses, and the whole world melts away around her, no biological need for food or rest or possibly even a natural disaster enough to rouse her from it. She's gone four days in that mode at the longest before collapsing of sleep deprivation, but no matter how much she tries to space herself, that's just the way her brain seems to work. She either has no focus, or too much of it.

So it's no surprise that she completely loses track of time while she's wrapped up on the mysterious glass shards, trying to figure them out. Her phone had been pinging for a while, but she'd tuned it out after her Spotify playlist ran out, and it's probably a discharged brick lying somewhere on her bed now.

The progress so far:

• Mirabel has assembled most of the glass shards into one square-ish tablet
• There's a missing piece of the puzzle
• Said tablet has some holograph-y picture on it
• The picture is actually two different pictures, and changes when you look at it from different angles
• Both of those pictures feature someone who looks dangerously like her, standing in the center
• The cracks make it hard to tell, but that's her family, as the Encantos, standing with her, right? They look… hurt, in the picture that flashes when she looks at it from the right. She's pretty sure Isabela is crying. But they're all smiling. It’s creepy, and she's pretty sure that's Casita crumbling behind them
• They're farther away in the other image, but they seem happier. Happy, but so far away from her, almost  in the background. Two other figures stand next to her, laughing and holding her hands, people who look exactly like Lilo and Miguel. She's smiling, but she looks so tired in that picture
• There's someone in the second picture, standing next to her on the very side, in the middle ground between her and her family
• The missing piece is that person's face
• She's crying.

Mira blinks as she realizes the last fact.

There are tears on her face, her cheeks cold with them, and she pushes herself away from her desk with a gasp.

She proceeds to cough violently, and tries to take stock of the emotions swirling inside her chest.

Anxiety. So much anxiety. Confusion. Dread. A weird… sadness. Curiosity? Burning curiosity, more specifically.

The tears are form shock, she rationalizes. Calms herself down methodically. Breathe in, breathe out.

"Is this some kind of fucked up fanart or something?" she frowns, turning her gaze back on the glass tablet. She has so many questions. Why are Lilo and Miguel in a picture of her and her family as superheroes? Who the fuck connected her with the Encantos? Why was this just lying around for anyone to find? And the Mariachi guy in the alley, is he somehow involved in -

There's a series of quick, insistent knocks on her door. Mira startles out of her spiral, wide-eyed as she turns to look.

"Mirabel?" Luisa's perpetually worried-sounding voice calls. Mira takes a deep breath, and her voice is steady as she answers. "You there, hermanita?"

"Yeah? What's up?"

"There's a girl here? She says she's your friend." her sister's voice answers, and Mirabel is launching herself at the door before Luisa even adds, "She's crying."

"I'm coming!" Mira yanks the door open. Luisa's large, muscular frame looks small and worried in her doorway. She sighs in relief, gesturing downstairs. Mirabel blinks, slams the door shut in her face, rushes to her desk and tosses the glass tablet into her sewing drawer with a muffled thunk, and then opens the door again to a significantly more startled Luisa.

"Sorry about that." she says hurriedly, before pushing past her unceremoniously and racing down the stairs.

While there aren't exactly a lot of girls matching the description of 'Mirabel's friend' to choose from, it's still something of a shock to find Lilo hunched over on their living room sofa, her shoulders shaking as she sobs silently. Mama can be heard moving in the kitchen, probably acquiring comfort food, while Isabela, who's home for the weekend, is sitting nervously next to Lilo, holding out an untouched cup of herbal tea and looking like she'd rather be anywhere else.

Mirabel only has eyes for her best friend.

"Lilo! Dios mio, what happened, babe?" she vaults over the back of the sofa, and feels her sister sigh in relief. She ignores her in favour of scooting as close to Lilo as she can. "Can I touch you?"

Lilo nods imperceptibly, and that's all the incentive Mira needs to wrap her arms around her. The girl melts into her touch immediately, hugging her back tightly.

Isabela sets down the tea and leaves. Mama comes and puts a plate of arepas and whispers to tell her if they need anything, before leaving too. Mira just holds Lilo, stroking her hair, until her friend's sobs slow down, and finally stop.

"Sorry." Lilo whispers into her shoulder.

"Don't be." Mira tells her.

Lilo breathes deeply once, and pulls away, sitting up straight. She sniffs, and there are still some tears running down her cheeks, and she swipes at them angrily.

"Fuck, I didn't mean to be having a meltdown like this, I hate when this happens. And I came all the way here, I'm so sorry -"

"Hey, don't be sorry." Mira frowns, and pushes the plate of food at her. Lilo quietly picks up an arepa to nibble at, and she seems less shaky when it's over. "What's wrong, querida?"

"I talked to Nani." Lilo sighs, "About the… job thing, the moving to Santa Cruz. It… kind of became a fight. We both said things. Not nice things."

Mirabel shifts closer, and Lilo sways into her slightly, picking furiously at her T-shirt hem (which, side note: definitely too thin for the cold, she's got to be put in warm blankets ASAP).

"I called her selfish and… a liar. I told her she was a horrible big sister for not even asking me." Lilo's whole body shudders with another round of tears, "She said… she told me I was… stealing her life. That she wanted to do something for herself for once."

"Oh, Lilo…"

"It's true." Lilo cracks, crying softly, "It's true though, I am. I keep being such a - a burden on her, I'm all she has and I can't even make it easy for her, I've got to be so weird and - not normal - and a problem and she always deals with it well but now I'm being a bitch about this and… I can't keep doing this to her, but I'm also so furious at her right now!"

"What are you most upset about?" Mira asks gently.

"I don't know! No, I do know! It's that she didn't trust me!" Lilo says, "It's that - that she thought I'd react badly and be an ass about it, and she was right! I am! I'm holding her back again, and it's not fair!"

"Did she say that?"

"N - no…" her friend sighs, "But she meant it. I can just tell."

"Don't trust your telling so much. We overthink things like this, right?" Mira admonishes, earning a chuckle, "Neurodivergent girlies. Come on. You know you can't just go on an impression. You two need to talk, without yelling at each other and basing your communication off of fight-or-flight."

"Maybe. But she is still mad at me." Lilo shrinks into herself, and it makes Mirabel's heart twist.

"Stay here the night then. Talk to her tomorrow." she suggests, "Come on, we'll take these arepas up to my room, and I'll call Miguel. We'll make it a sleepover!"

"Are you sure? I don't want to be a bother." the words are stiff, and she hates to say it, but Mira can understand the apprehension. Lilo and Miguel have only been to her house a handful of times, and they've never been made to feel the most welcome. Abuela especially, seems hell bent on patronizing them just because they're associated with Mira.

"You're not a bother to me." she tells her firmly, and Lilo smiles. It's watery, but it's a smile.

"I'll just text Nani that I'm fine, I'm at your place." she says.

They raid the kitchen for more arepas, and end up making way too much noise in the process. The sound wakes up Dolores, and Mirabel and Lilo hide under the kitchen counter, trying hard not to giggle and give themselves away, as they wait for her to leave, muttering irritably.

They then proceed to race up the stairs, holding two plates of food each, and almost crack a rib trying not to laugh as Mira slips on her socks and almost drops everything. By the time they make it to her room, it's all they can do not to burst into hysterics loud enough to alarm the entire block.

"This - isn't fair -" Lilo gasps, crying with quiet laughter, "Why does the funniest - shit - happen when - when it's illegal to laugh - about it?!"

"It wasn't funny!" Mira gasps, dropping onto her bed, the exhaustion of the previous days suddenly catching up to her, "We're just - stupid and sleep deprived!"

"When was the last time you slept?" Lilo eyes her suspiciously, taking in her days-old clothes and probably-greasy hair.

"When was the last time you slept?" Mira fires back, and Lilo surrenders, falling on top of her with a tired chuckle.

"Oof! I'll burst if you drop on me like that, I'm full of arepas, Lilo!"

"I should take some arepas for Stitch," Lilo mutters guiltily, "I left him there with Nani, and you know she'll only give him dog food. He's gonna be mad I ate without him."

"Does the blue cretin need a reason to be mad?" Mira squints.

"Mean, Mirabel Madrigal!"

"I'm the one who's mean? You're the one who's mean - mean dog owner - mean arepa thief!"

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"Yes it does!"

"No it doesn't!"

"It does if you're an arepa farmer!"

"What the fuck is an arepa farmer?"

"I don't know!"

They're laughing way too loud, Isa in the next room is definitely going to be woken up. All the more reason to laugh louder, honestly.

Lilo's face scrunches up adorably as she laughs, her eyes sparkling. Her hair is coming loose from its sloppy bun, fanning across Mirabel's floral blue bedspread and tangled over her shoulders, and her body is warm and soft against her. She knees Mira in the thigh playfully, and cackles at Mira's exaggerated gasp of betrayal. The lamplight is dim and yellow and doing her all its favours, making her skin almost glow and the shadows on are like artwork as she curls closer and -

And it's then that Mirabel realizes how close together they are, lying pressed up together, hair and limbs and breaths tangled together. One of Lilo's hands is on Mira's waist, tracing shapes into the skin absently, and she suppresses a shiver. It's not unusual for them, they've been comfortable with each other for years now, btu something feels… different. More vulnerable. Like there's something hanging in the air that they both never let show when they're normal and guarded.

Their faces are so close, Mira could count each of Lilo's long eyelashes as they flutter against her cheek. Her eyes are dark and oh-so-pretty and Mirabel can't fathom how she gets insecure about her chubby cheeks or her soft jaw or her nose when it's so perfect and her, and her smile is so genuine and sweet, and Mirabel kind of sort of wonders how it tastes.

Her gaze lingers too long on Lilo's lips, and she looks back up to her eyes, swallowing nervously, only to find her looking at her just as nervously. Is it just her, or is her room to hot suddenly?

Lilo traces what she's pretty sure is a heart on her waist.

Can I kiss you? She wants to ask.

She wants Lilo to say yes.

Please don't let her be blushing as obviously as she thinks she is.

Lilo bites her lip, her eyes wide. She's not the only one holding her breath.

"Lilo?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I -"

Mirabel's door slams open with a resounding crash that she can feel in her damn bones.

"HOLA HOT MESSES! NEVER FEAR, MIGUEL IS HERE!"

Both of them sit up, jumping five feet apart (and totally not gay), blinking at the figure gatecrashing Mira's room, laden with what looks like a whole bodega's worth of junk food.

"YES, I KNOW, YOUR SAVIOUR IS HERE, AND I COME BEARING GIFTS! PLEASE HOLD YORU APPLAUSE -"

"Miguel, shut the fuck up!" Lilo hisses at the same time that Mira whisper-shouts, "Yell louder, I'm sure they can't hear you in Timbuktu yet!"

Miguel blinks at the both.

"I got the whole Barbie movie box set."

"You can be as loud as you like." Mirabel concedes instantly, making room for him on her bed and totally not feeling a pang of regret as she and Lilo shift to opposite ends.

"I'm so sorry, I hope I didn't wake anyone up -"

"Is Dante going to try to climb in through Mirabel's window?" Lilo asks pragmatically.

"Probably."

"I'll unlock it for him."