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Carlos is 9 the first time he breaks a mirror. He cries and cries at the piercing glass that penetrates his skin, digging into the muscle and through each layer that protects his precious bones. It his stains his white pants red, and seeps into the leather of his boots.
It brings out his mother’s love for the color red.
He’s 11 when he discovers love for the first time. He feels an ache in his heart at the sight of the Arabian thief merely 2 years older than him. It’s more than just admiration he feels when the taller boy puts an arm around his shoulders. He doesn’t feel this way around Mal or Evie; so it must be love. That cursed word the isle forbids, so he never says it. He expresses it in gadgets and stolen items, and he thinks that Jay expresses it in protecting him.
Carlos is 13 when he shatters a mirror once more. He doesn’t cry at the pain, just watches the blood trickle down his limbs. The crimson red that decorated his neatly sewn clothing, drips down his scars and the fresh cuts on his skin. He allows himself to be swept up in Jay’s arms, moth-eaten bandages on his wounds and only a mildly bruised apple being placed in front of him.
He’s 15 when he feels genuine happiness. He curls up on silk sheets and cotton blankets, beneath the glow of the moonlight and the quiet shuffle of Auradon students rushing past the halls. It’s warm and safe; the feeling of the soft blankets unlike the prickly furs his mother kept in her fur closet. He’s gotten used to the long, fluffy and tangled brown hair that tickles his chin, and the arms wrapped around his torso.
For the next few years, Jay is there to pick up his broken mirror shards. He kisses the scars left on his skin, and brushes the tangles out of his hair. He lays with him inside the bathroom cabinets and counts the freckles on his cheeks.
Carlos is 22 when he’s alone. The glass breaks his skin, lodges deep in hus soul and he screams. It’s loud and painful, and he doesn’t register the blood dripping from his chest.
He’s alone, and slowly he learns to pick up the shards from his broken mirror.
It doesn’t last.
Carlos is 26 when he’s buried beside Jay, his mirror shards are buried with him within his bones.
It’s only Mal and Evie now, and slowly, they pick up their own shards, glue them back into place. There’s always two shards missing from spots that will never be filled.