The Heart of Camilo (A Camilo Madrigal x Reader Fem Y/N Story)

Together

*Y/N*

I pulled my shoes off and let them slip into the cool water at the riverside. I had snuck out after my father fell asleep after finishing his afternoon chores. He was always out for at least an hour. I hoped Camilo would come in time before I had to head back home. The bottom of my blue dress was getting wet, but I didn't care. In fact, I started to walk in deeper - thinking about the day, about my mother, my father, the Madrigal gifts, about Camilo. I suddenly wanted to be under water to drown out all of the thoughts and feelings that I didn't want to hear, didn't want to deal with. I looked along the river and saw butterflies flapping about in the light of the sun that was edging closer and closer to the horizon. I sighed.

"Oh, my god, fancy seeing you here, like, what are the odds?" I heard behind me.

I turned, my smirk already in place on my face, knowing who it was, even though the voice was unfamiliar. I always knew when it was him.

"I know, right? Here, in the place we have been coming to since we were little kids? Here, in the place that your room is permanently shifted to because you just love all your AWESOME memories here with your most AWESOME best friend," I indulge in our ongoing joke as I turn around, just in time to see Camilo shift from a local boy into himself again. His tall, lean, freckled, curly-haired self. Have I always been so attentive to what he looked like? I blush, turn away, and look down at the water. My dress is soaked up to my knees and I laugh because I hadn't realized how deep in the water I had gone. The blue had gone so dark from the water's stain that it was almost black. I suddenly felt like crying.

"Y/N..." Camilo was suddenly right beside me. "Why shower here when you can do it at home?" he laughed, taking my hand, and pulling me towards the shore. I realized he had waded in, too.

"Oh, my god, your shoes and your pants, are you crazy?" I laughed, turning to him again.

"Um, hello, I don't think you are in any position to judge. Are we seeing if you can transform into a fish?" Camilo laughed, and then immediately stopped, realizing what he had said.

My smile faded. "No ... I know I can't be anything else..." I trailed off. Why were we so awkward today? I looked back down at my soaked dress and the water slowly moving past my legs. The light from the sun reflected back in such a beautiful array.

Camilo hadn't let go of my hand. He tugged again. "Y/N, come on, come out of the water..." he said apologetically. "Just ... come out of the water," he repeatedly, lamely. He grinned.

I let go of his hand, turned, smirked and rolled my eyes. "Fine, I'll come out of the water." I turned and began past him, and then turned and pushed him in.

"Aaaah!! Oh, no, you are DEAD!" he called as he resurfaced, shaking the water out of his curls and wiping his eyes. He stood up in a very un-graceful way and starting wading out towards me.

I screamed playfully and jumped out of the river onto the shore, starting to run through the grass away from him, just like we did when we were little. 

"Oh, so we're recreating our water monster game, now, are we?" he laughingly shouted, referencing a game we played as kids where we pretend if we fell in the river that a monster would eat us up. He was out of the water now and running to catch up, his wet clothes hanging off of him in a comical way. He took off his poncho, heavy with water, and threw it on the ground before continuing his chase.

I dodged into the trees and began to climb one of our favourites - the best climbing tree in the forest. I had made it onto the first branch when my dress snagged on a stump and I faltered for a second to pull it free. Camilo used that time to catch up and jumped up and grabbed my foot. I grinned. I loved that he didn't shape-shift with me, even to use other's features to his advantage the way he normally would when he was helping the town. He would jump and struggle before shifting to someone taller. He was only ever himself with me. I kicked my foot free of his grasp, but in doing so, lost my balance and began to fall. I reached out frantically, to hold a branch but it was too thin and snapped free.

"Y/N!" Camilo yelled as I fell down towards him. CRASH. He had attempted to catch me, but it was a poor effort and I had just taken him out with me. The long grass was tall and soft, so we weren't injured, but I had knocked him clear off his feet. We lay there in the grass and laughed until tears were coming from our eyes. When we finally got a hold of ourselves, Camilo rolled over to face me on his side. It was only then, seeing his face quite up-close, that I saw the bruise obscuring the freckles under his right eye.

"Camilo!" I sat up abruptly, pulling him up with me. "What happened?"

He waved me off after sitting up. "It's nothing."

I leaned in close to examine it. "It's not nothing!" Instinctively, I reached out and touched his face below where the bruise was. I suddenly felt a jolt when I realized how intimate the pose was but didn't move, and I saw in his eyes a similar thought had crossed his mind. He didn't move, either. After a few seconds, he put his hand over mine where it rested on his cheek and leaned into it, closing his eyes. My heart exploded and my stomach felt like it was doing summersaults. What were we doing? 

I felt wetness on my hand and realized he had begun to cry. "My Abuela," he whispered. "She was upset." He coughed and sat up straighter, pulling away. I moved in closer again.

"Camilo..." I whispered, not knowing what to say, but wishing with everything I had that I had a power, anything that would help, make things better. But who was I to help with family issues? God knows I had enough of my own that I couldn't solve. I helplessly looked at him, my eyes welling up at the thought of someone hurting him. "Camilo?"

He looked at me. He sighed and then pulled me in and hugged me. I started at the shock - we have never hugged like THIS before. But I allowed myself to relax and hugged him fiercely. "We need to talk to your mom, Camilo, this is not okay! She can't just hit you when you aren't behaving like you're a dog!"

"Can we just... not talk about it. I just want to forget it," Camillo mumbled, muffled because his face was buried in my shoulder.

I hugged him tighter. I knew that wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to walk right down and scream at Abuela to never touch him again, to leave him alone, to just let him be a kid...

He suddenly pulled away and looked at me really intensely. "Y/N, why don't we just -"

CRASH. A horse had leaped its way through the trees and into the meadow by the river. Mirabel was riding it and she guided the horse over to us hastily.

"Guys! Where have you been? Abuela is upset! The party has started and Camilo, you were supposed to be there to help greet the family with the new baby!" Mirabel called, worry seeping from her voice. As she got closer, her expression changed to something mixed that was hard to read. "Umm... why are you guys soaking wet?"

Camilo and I both struggled to our feet, stammering about falling in the river. Camilo began shifting around to various people. I stopped to stare - I had never seen that happen before when he wasn't intending to. He landed on me. I laughed. It was quite a bizarre thing to see yourself standing next to yourself. Camilo, as me, laughed, as well, and then clasped his hands over his face for a minute, taking a deep breath. As he took his hands down, he shifted into himself again.

"Okay... well, anyway, we should go, get on, guys!" Mirabel said, gesturing to get on the horse with her.

Camilo grinned. "Party face ON," he said loudly, grinning. I smiled my half smile, knowing he was putting his face back on. He shifted into someone tall and easily climbed onto the horse, and then pulled me up behind him. Mirabel clucked at the horse, who took off in a gallop, back towards town and the party ... and the family.