Chapter Text
Camilo definitely wouldn’t have needed Dolores to tell him that something was wrong to figure it out himself. With a slight glance at the house, he’d been able to tell one thing- it was covered with all kinds of flowers and plants. Different colours swirling around and mixing with each other to create a beautiful messy masterpiece of vegetation.
On a slightly longer look he’d been able to tell another thing- the plants were covering up the fact that the house was cracking up and breaking down. And the longer he looked the more plants started to wither up and die, falling from the walls and the roof onto the ground- covering it with their corpses.
That was when Dolores had grabbed his wrist and told him to hurry up because something was wrong. Obviously.
As he and his sister ran toward their home Camilo noticed that the rest of his family was running along with them- or at least everyone but Luisa, Isabela, Abuela and… Mirabel. Camilo felt like he already knew what was going on and suddenly he didn’t want to get mixed up with whatever was going on inside the house. Though on the other hand he knew that he had to be there because he was Madrigal.
Just as he had predicted, Abuela and Mirabel were fighting. To him it seemed like years upon years of well-hidden tension had finally broken down as the two shot hurtful comment upon hurtful comment at each other all the while the Casita continued to break and cry out around them.
Camilo wanted to open his mouth, but jokes and comforting words were the only thing he was good at, and he had a slight feeling that neither of those would be of much use at the moment. So instead, he took a step back- standing beside his mamí and she stared at her mamá and sobrina with growing worry.
For some reason at the time Camilo hadn’t noticed that despite the clear negative emotions displaying on her face, no cloud had formed above her head.
By the time he finally made that realization- the house made its final warning to them and started to break down. The walls crumbled, dust flew around and upon his mamís shout he also noticed that the candle was starting to die down-
The candle was dying out.
Oh no no no no no nO NO NO NO NO NO!”
Camilo was already climbing up the stairs leading to the second floor before he even realized so. His legs carried him with the power of pure adrenaline and his powers were almost acting on their own as he dodged around falling debris and jumped over the rubble already laying on the floor. He couldn’t let the candle go out. He was nothing without his gift. He was no one to everyone without his gift.
His mother’s worry filled cries carried to his ears only as a small echo, the shadow of his prima Isabela only was only a multicolored mess to him. Same thing with Mirabel. The only thing all his senses were focused on was the candle because he had to get to it because he was nothing without the gift it provided him.
Camilo jumped from the edge of the second floor with the intention of grabbing on to the edge of the roof with the extended arm length he got from the form of the adult he’d imitated.
But then his hand missed the edge, in fact- his arm had suddenly shrunk in size. His ears opened and he could hear Isabela shriek with panic- but he didn’t have the time to look over. He was falling down, fast, from the roof of the third floor of their home.
Casitas last ditch attempts to save him did not go unnoticed. He could clearly see the way a fence was extended forward for him to grab, but he extended his hand- but only managed to grab onto the wood with one hand (in which several splinters impaled themselves in) but his other hand missed the target- causing his entire body to come down on that one arm with full force- unsurprisingly forcing him to let go and fall down onto the stone floor below him- his head hit the cold, hard bricks and the world went blurry.
Camilo had heard the disgusting pop-sound though. He had dislocated his other arm once when he’d fell out of a tree as a child, the horrific sound had been the cherry on top of the already traumatic experience. He could never truly forget that sound- and that’s exactly why he knew that his right arm had dislocated.
But the world was way too blurry and disoriented for him to truly even feel the indescribable pain that his arm was emitting to his nerve-system.
Pepas blood ran cold as she watched her oldest son drop down from the roof of their home, make a desperate attempt to grab onto a fence extended by Casita- only to have his full weight come down on that arm and dislocate it. Not to mention the way he’d hit his head on the brick floor.
Félix- the love of her life- was already running toward their son who was gasping for air on the floor, clearly dazed and not mentally there in the situation- but Casita stopped him and soon they were all moving out of the house. Everyone except for Mirabel who was still reaching for the candle- and Camilo who Casita most likely hadn’t dared to move in fear of worsening his injuries.
“CAMILO!” She screeched- nearly choking on her relief when her son seemed to snap into his senses. Only that relief was extremely short lived as the next thing he heard through the sounds of cracking and breaking was a blood-curdling, high pitched scream of pure and absolute agony.
His sons scream turned into sobs that mixed with more screams as he writhed around, trying to get up from the ground but not even managing to sit up. His voice cracked and broke as he sobbed and screamed and cried. His broken noises caught the attention of the rest of the family who shifted their gazes from Mirabel to Camilo- their worry and horror turning up ten levels.
“Camilo!” The next person to call out was Luisa, her voice cracked with such desperation that forced Pepa to remember that she was barely even an adult. Her daughter- her sweet, sweet Dolores was hanging onto Isabela for comfort like her life depended on it. Antonio was sobbing into her husband’s shirt and was too scared to even look in the direction of his brother’s pained cries that almost sounded like pleas for help.
Everyone else only stared in horror, even her mamá.
“SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!” She screamed, her throat begging for her to lower her voice. But her pain was nothing compared to Camilo’s, and she knew it. “The Casita will protect them, just as it has always done.” Her mama spoke up, but the usual confidence in her tone was gone. Replaced with shaking. She too was scared, scared for her grandson. As they all were.
Pepa was pulled out of her thoughts about her mama when she heard the sound of something collapsing- immediately turning her head toward where her son had just laid. But she could no longer see her son. The doorway, the only way for them to see the two 15-year-olds inside the building, had collapsed- and now they could only listen to the sounds coming from their home. Those horrible, terrible sounds of-
…Cracking.
…Crying.
…Screaming and-
“CAMILO!”
…Mirabel. That was Mirabel.
For the love of the miracle please let her sobrina save her son.
Mirabel stood up on the tips of her toes as she tried her very best to reach the candle holding her family’s miracles. She had heard both her hermana and primo fail at their attempts to get to the candle. She hadn’t turned around to see them get to the ground, she trusted Casita, she knew that it would bring them down safe and sound and without issue.
She wiggled her fingers as if that was going to extend them, she tried to poke the candle toward her little by little but that only seemed to just push it further away from her. It was like the candle itself didn’t want to be saved- or at least, not by her.
“Come on come on come on.” Mirabel chanted, the warmth of the candle tickled the tips of her fingers and yet still it was too far away for her to reach. Just as her miracle had been.
She tried to push herself up by using the windowsill as leverage, Casita tried to raise her up with the last of its power and with their combined efforts she could finally get her index finger behind the candle to push it back toward her open ar-
"AAAAKGHHH-"
A broken high-pitched shriek reached her ears and the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood up while her heart nearly leapt straight out of her throat. As Mirabel turned her head toward the source of the- familiar, she realized in horror- voice in panic she accidentally knocked the candle over the edge of the ledge and down into Abuelas now collapsed room.
But Mirabel didn’t have the time to spare even a single ounce of a thought to the now undoubtedly died out candle- because she was staring at something that would always be far more important to her than the stupid candle that had never blessed her with a gift- her primo, Camilo- who was screaming in agony.
“CAMILO!” She yelled out as she slid down the roof and climbed down the fence-ladders two steps at a time. She heard cracking and breaking all around her as she ran toward her cousin, she slid down onto her knees and gathered Camilo’s broken form into her arms, shielding his body with her own and quietly whispering a wish to their dying home- “Please Casita, protect us.
Mirabel shut her eyes tightly and waited for something to happen- she heard the house finally collapse in on itself, the sound being loud enough to drown out Camilo’s pained sobs- and then all went quiet. Mirabel allowed herself one deep breath before she opened her eyes to see-
-That Casita had protected them with the last of its power.
"M-Mirabel." A gasp from her arms snapped her out of her short-lived relief. "O-Off. N-Now, please." Another gasp was what made her start to carefully pull the both of them out of the tent-like fortress that Casita had built for them. A sob was what made her eyes water and her cheeks feel wet.
Mirabel let go of her cousin immediately once they’d exited the fortress, she helplessly watched as Camilo continued to sob without even trying to repress the sounds. She could hear something being pushed aside from where the door used to be- but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from Camilo.
Only when the familiar yellows of her tías and tíos clothes entered her field of vision did she finally turn to look at something other than her sobbing cousin, her friend.
Pepa gently gathered Camilo into her arms while chanting out a quiet string of- “Oh my sweet, sweet boy.” as she hugged him as tightly as she could without hurting him, while Fèlix hugged both his wife and his son. Tears streamed down their faces as their daughter joined in on the hug, her hand gently brushing Camilo’s hair as she sobbed with her parents.
Her own parents came soon after Camilo’s, they pulled her into a hug that was certainly a lot tighter than the one Camilo was trapped in- but Mirabel didn’t mind. She needed a hug, no matter how tight. She could still hear her tía and tío sobbing out quiet thank yous.
“We need to get to town, Camilo needs immediate medical attention. And I’m afraid our house is not a proper place to give that.” Her mamá stated with her arms still tightly around Mirabel.
Luisa had managed to get Camilo from his parents and sister once they had calmed down enough to let go of him. She might’ve lost her gift, but she was still physically stronger than anyone else. Not that tìo Fèlix wouldn’t have been able to carry Camilo under normal circumstances since the boy weighed nearly nothing- but the way his hands were currently shaking left Luisa thinking that lending Camilo to him might not be the wisest decision.
Mariano had met them halfway down the hill leading to their house- understandably upset as he had most likely witnessed the collapse of their home. It was obvious that he had tried to play it cool in front of Isabela, but that act had dropped the moment he had lain his eyes to the teen in her arms.
“What- What happened to Camilo? Did he hurt himself in the collapse? His head is bleeding!” Her mamá stepped closer to him and nodded- “Yes, Camilo needs medical attention but at the moment I have no way of providing. Does your house have any kinds of medical supplies that I could use?” She asked and after a while of deep breathing and pondering Mariano nodded and gestured for them to follow him, still eyeing Camilo with a worried gaze.
Luisa herself was nearly breaking down on the inside, because contrary to everyone else in her family- even Dolores at the moment- she was the only one who could hear the noises Camilo was doing- the tiny broken off wheezes that more often than not turned into sobs. She wished that she could cover her ears so that she wouldn’t have to listen to them anymore- but that was not an option. She had to stay strong.
Mariano led them through the town where everyone and their aunts could see just how broken they all were- figuratively for everyone but Camilo. Luisa tried her best to ignore the gazes that everyone was giving her primo and her- she did not have the energy to deal with it. She had to focus on keeping Camilo in a safe position to not further injure his arm- which was dislocated according to her mamá.
Luisa didn’t even want to think about what a dislocated arm might feel like.
Once they reached Marianos home he opened the door for them and gestured for Luisa to enter first- which she gladly did. If she had spent even one more second with that sea of stares, she would’ve broken down right then and there. Once she and Camilo had entered the house the rest of her family followed.
“Come with me-“ Mariano turned to her and her mamá “-We can put Camilo in one of the guest rooms- I’ll get the medical kit afterwards.” He then turned to the rest of the family and gave them an apologetic smile. “Could you please wait here until I return?” He asked and Abuela gave a small but definitive nod.
They began walking toward a hallway a little further away from the outside door, Mariano opened the first door on the right and gestured for them to step in. Luisa immediately laid her primo down onto the bed as carefully as she could- but he still let out a hiss of pain when his arm made contact with the bed, causing Luisa to nearly sob with guilt. But she kept her composure, she was the strong one after all.
Mariano rushed out of the room but soon returned with a medical kit that he handed to her mamá. “Do you need anything else?” Mamá shook her head- “This is good, thank you.” She said gently, but Luisa could hear a clear strain in her voice. Mariano nodded and left the room to go back to the rest of their family- leaving Luisa, her mamá and Camilo alone in the room.
Luisa was debating on whether or not she should say something- but her mamá beat her to it. “You should go with the others, I can manage on my own.” She stated without taking her eyes off Camilo. Luisa nodded- she didn’t want to see Camilo in pain any longer, or his arm being reset.
Why was it always Camilo?
Even if Isabela did not love Mariano, she had to admit that he was a good man. There was no getting around that fact. The way he had rushed to their aid without a single doubt only further proved that fact. “We have three guest rooms which you can use freely. Camilo is currently in one of them but two of them are completely empty, you’ll have to share but I doubt that’ll be an issue.” Not to mention he was now offering them all a place to stay without them even moving a single muscle to make that request.
“Thank you, Mariano.” Isabela gave the man a small smile before turning back to her family. “Perhaps we should put the children and Isabela in one room and then the adults in the other.“ Papá helpfully suggested, with mamá gone and both tía and tío too worried and mentally exhausted to act like adults it was good that at least someone was still there.
Papá then turned to Dolores and set a hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of her undoubtedly unpleasant thoughts. “Could you share a room with Camilo? I don’t think it’s wise to leave him completely alone.” Dolores nodded nearly immediately once Camilo’s name was mentioned. “No problem, tío.”
“I wanna go with Camilo too!” The youngest Madrigal suddenly whined from Pepa’s arms. Everyone turned to his tired and upset face- everyone had most likely thought that he’d been asleep for the entire exchange but apparently not. Dolores walked over to her mama and hermano and took the boy in her arms- “Of course you can, Camilo will be super happy that you’re there.”
Isabela looked over to the tired eyes of her family but kept her composure, she could not let her emotions get the better of her and show up on her face. She had to remain perfect, had to keep up the face and fame of the Madrigal family. “I think we should all get some rest, it’s been a long day.” She stated when no one else would. She did however know that no one would be getting a good rest, if any rest at all.