Beautiful Bruises ~ Camilo Madrigal x Reader

Tears

"I want to hurt you."

His words hurt more than the betrayal of your mama ever could. At least you had already lost hope at that point, sure she would never return. But coming from Camilo...

"Hurt... me?" your words came out wobbly and confused, and you hated how weak you sounded. "I thought you..." You couldn't bring yourself to say "loved me". It would hurt too much to hear him say he didn't.

"I do love you, (Y/N)!" His words were forced, like his mouth disliked them. "I promise, I'll always love you." His voice broke, and he closed his eyes, gripping the back of his chair. "I don't know what's wrong with me, but you're mother's power did something to me. You need to stay away."

You backed up, swallowing hard to keep down the lump in your throat, and watched as he shape-shifted into Pepa and Isabela, struggling to calm down.

"What's wrong with Cami?" Antonio asked Pepa as she briskly walked over, and she sent you a worried look, pushing her youngest son into your arms. You managed to scoop him up, and he looked up at you with wide, frightened eyes. "Why is he panicking?"

"Come on," you mumbled, quickly heading over to Delores and dropping him into her arms. "You'll be safer with her, buddy."

Pepa gasped, and you glanced over to see her standing with a hand on Camilo's tense shoulder.

"How does it still have a hold on him?" Delores asked you, confused. "Your mother is dead." You flinched at the words, trying and failing to hide your reaction, and she hurriedly started to apologize.

"You're fine," you interrupted, waving her off. "I'm not sure... and I hate it." You glanced over at him, forcing yourself to remain standing and not crumple to the ground. Everything in you ached, even your very soul. "I hate this. What my mama turned him into." You bit your lip, struggling. Part of you wanted to leave and never come back, to spare Camilo this obvious suffering.

But the other half loved him too much to leave him. Not to mention, you couldn't just abandon Jude. He might have done that to you, but you would never reciprocate. He was your brother.

"It'll be ok," Delores soothed, wrapping her free arm around your shoulder as she balanced Antonio on her hip. "He'll calm down soon enough - it's probably just the aftermath messing with his head. It must be tough."

You struggled not to tense up as she calmed you, but everything had been flipped upside down. The people you couldn't trust were suddenly on your side, and the people you could trust had turned on you. You wanted to smile and lean into her shoulder and nod along. You wanted to say thank you and ask if you could spend the night in her silent sound-proof room.

But instead you settled for standing there, never taking your eyes off of Camilo, the one you called tonto.

But the real fool was you, for falling for him when you were clearly never meant to be together.

You made your way to the nursery that night, tossing and turning. The bruises on your neck made it impossible to rest comfortably, and Mirabel's loud snoring in the corner didn't help.

You almost didn't notice the person slipping in.

Camilo jumped in front of you, his dark eyes cold and cruel. A satisfied smirk crept onto his face as you froze, your hands thrown over your head in an attempt to cool off.

"Camilo?" you whispered as he drew a shiny contraption from his pocket. "Camilo, what are you doing?" He took the knife and smiled, forcing your hands down with one of his own. Disoriented and confused, you could do nothing but struggle weakly as he brought the knife to your cheek.

"So you remember me, Cariño," he snarled, the word twisted in his hateful mouth. You screamed as he painstakingly began to carve the shape of a C into your face.

You sat up in bed with a gasp, trying not to let the nightmare chase you. Your hand flew to your cheek and came away free of blood, but it still stung. When you rose your eyes, a tan hand flew over your mouth, cutting off your shout.

"Shh," Camilo whispered. You sobbed, horrified that your nightmare was about to play out in front of your eyes. "(Y/N), it's ok!" he hissed as quietly as possible, glancing over to make sure Mirabel hadn't woken up. She was still knocked out. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. I feel better now. I don't know what got into me." You managed to relax slightly, and he carefully removed his hand from your mouth. He never broke eye contact with you, as though to ensure you wouldn't alert the whole house of his presence in your makeshift room.

"Why are you here?" you finally managed to force out, trying to hide the way you shook. You shouldn't be afraid of him - he loved you. He had told you so.

"I wanted to make sure you were ok. And..." he cleared his throat softly, lowering his head. "Apologize. For all the stupid things I've done in the past 24 hours. I don't know what happened after your mother died, but..." He trailed off once again, his voice thick with emotion. "I've never been more scared of myself."

You leaned forward quickly, pulling him into a tight hug. He froze for a second, as though he didn't truly trust himself around you yet, before wrapping his arms around you. He buried his face in your shoulder, and you pretended not to feel his body shake as he cried. You forced yourself not to cry for him - it felt like all you had done was cry, cry, cry ever since you had come back to life.

Starting now, things were going to be perfect.

Starting now, you wouldn't cry again.

"I love you, tonto," you whispered with a smile, and he sniffed, wiping his tears.

"I love you most, Cariño."

You tugged him down next to you, letting his arms surround you, breathing in the comforting scent of his rauna. You finally fell asleep comfortably, playing with a lock of his beautiful hair.

You didn't care if Mirabel saw.