Unspoken whispers

Week Long Secrets- XI

Today marks the end of your first week in the village. It was great really. You found that you had more fun here, perhaps even more than your old home. The ominous dreams never came to visit, and your friendship with the other madrigals blossomed.

Your parents regarded you with more trepidation. Frustrating. You warned them in hopes for some answers except all you got were more questions. It heavily tempted to involve Camilo, hopefully he could join you in investigating. You also thought about taking the box under your parents floorboard, but it felt as if one of them was always in their room.

Camilo still hasn't changed his behavior a single bit. At this point everytime you're with him, he has some sort of mission to fluster you at least once. You, are never getting used to him.

He hasn't stopped pestering you about what Dolores said either. Some days you only laugh while sometimes you don't even reply. The male is joking in his approach, and should he feel like he had overstepped, he's quick to apologize. Speaking of which, he was with you now, still asking.

"cmonnn," he whines dramatically pulling on your arm like a child. Dolores was right, he should lose some weight."I won't pester you anymore Hermosa, so just tell meeee!"

You regard him with a poker face as he pouts. The two of you were sat in the kitchen, Julieta cooking in the background. Camilo was helping and you offered to keep him company. Which roped you into now cutting vegetables with the male.

" I'm cutting," Julieta agrees with that and ushers her nephew to calm down. Pepa entered the room, seemingly looking for someone.

"you cheater-"
"Camilo! Did you see your brother Antonio?" he's is immediately cut off my his mother, quite literally thundering about. Her lips are pressed in a thin line, voice sharp. "His gift ceremony is tomorrow mijo and I can't find him-"

"I do not know mama-"
"What?!" Poor Camilo puts his hands up in defense gesturing to you to show that he'd been in the kitchen all along. "Try Mirabel maybe-?"

He's cut off again when she walks off angrily. You just stood there, watching as Camilo continued chopping with tense shoulders.

"what's, what's a gift ceremony?" Even Julieta looks appaled that you haven't heard about it yet.

"don't you hear the people, querido?"
You nod.
"Then surely you know what a gift ceremony is?" Camilo looks like he's about to lose his sanity as he watches you. You wonder if he's trying to forget about the harsh tone his mother spoke to him with.

It may have been a slight waver in emotion but he looked slightly hurt when his mother yelled. It's scary how quick he's able to smile it off though.

"Hermosa~" Camilo cooed, putting heavy emphasis on every syllable. "a gift ceremony is where we get our awesomely amazing powers."

He shapeshifts into your father to demonstrate, ruffling your hair and laughing loudly. The reassemblance is uncanny.

"okay, and?"
"what do you mean 'and'?" You flinch while he immediately turns back into himself. "it's only the most exciting celebration of all celebrations!"

The two of you end up bickering on end, Julieta watching the two of you with amusement. She had changed your jobs midway into one that would have no casualties if Camilo had decided to start getting physical with his teasing.

"Ah, young love. You know, Sobrino, back when your tio Agustine and I were young,"

A squeak makes it was past your lips and you cover your face in a hurry. It reminded Camilo of when you first met. His ears too burned. You both decided to carry on with mixing your own bowls of batter quietly while Julieta reminiscenced on her teenage days.

It isn't long before Julieta excuses the both of you, Camilo leading you up to his room. You'd never seen it until now. Taking a closer look at the door, you notice a gremlin looking Camilo and it made you giggle. He only gasped in pure horror.

"The betrayal! Are you laughing at my dashing portrait Hermosa?" he feins disappointment and sulks, sublty transforming into a duplicate of the gremlin.

"Pfft- you- you-" Camilo smiles as you doubled over in laughter. You'd been doing so much of that recently, nearly too much. "you look- you look-"

"Why of course!" His change in tone has you weak. You're on the floor and wheezing, desperately tried to stifle your giggles. "this is my true form!"

It's the final blow. Tears are streaming down your face while you shake in pure, unbridled hysterics. Camilo is getting concerned now as he turns back into his normal self, awkwardly rubbing your back.

"Y/N? You still need to breathe-" The poor boy is cut off by your snort while you wiggle away from him. "cmon it wasn't that funny-"

He's frowning with his arms crossed while he watches you, a hand pulling up at his poncho. Camilo looks down to see Antonio, who like him was staring at you.

"I think I broke her... " it's a comically fearful whisper, until he realizes who's standing next to him. "Wait! Antonio?"

"hi?" The little boy waves at his older brother. Your laughing has died down now, and you get up, wiping the remaining tears off of your cheeks.

"Dios mio Hermosa, I'm never making you laugh again," deep down, he's lying. Watching you so happy, Camilo promised himself that he'd make you smile like that for as long as he lived.

You sheepishly look down at Antonio, gently patting his hair.

"Hi Antonio," The little boy brightens up and he beams at you.

"You said my name!"
"I did,"

Just like before in Isabella's room, his heart squeezed itself watching you all over his baby brother. Until he realized how stupid that was. Your conversation with Antonio was disturbed by Camilo slapping himself.

"Camilo-?"

"Ah! Right! Mama was looking for you all day! Just where did you hide you little Bribon?"

His face is red as he shoots you a flustered smile, leaving you in front of an unopened room you would have liked to see.