°•.˜"*°•𝓞𝓷𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓰𝓲𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓭 •°*"˜.•° (C. Madrigal X Reader)

Chapter forty nine: Good

Camilo and I decided to go separate ways so that we could cover more ground but one of us still had to keep a close eye on Antonio. Antonio said that he wanted to go with me for some reason.

"Wha- Antonio! Do you love Y/n more than your own brother now?" Camilo said when Antonio said he wanted to go with me.

"That's not what I meant! If you really want me to, I'll go with you!" Antonio said, feeling guilty "I just wanted to ask Y/n some questions but I didn't mean to make you feel left out and I can just ask them those questions later anyway so-"

"Chill, Antonio" Camilo exclaimed, dropping the act "I was just joking, you can go with Y/n. They're more responsible than I am anyway."

Camilo glanced in my direction with a smile as he said the last sentence.

"Are you sure? I really don't want to make you feel left out or anything..." Antonio asked.

Camilo chuckled before ruffling Antonio's hair.

"I'm sure" Camilo reassured him "Okay, let's go! I'll meet you guys back at the Madrigal mural!"

"Okay, see you!" Antonio said, cheerfully as he grabbed my hand and pulled me in the opposite direction.

Once we were far enough away from Camilo, Antonio stopped running but kept our hands joined. We gave out invitations to people who were walking out in town, they stopped and listened because they recognized Antonio.

"What's the 'Madrigal mural?'" I asked.

"Oh, you haven't seen it?" Antonio asked "It's this painting of my family on a wall, it's super colourful and really pretty!"

"Is that so?" I replied "I can't wait to see it for myself, then."

While we were walking and handing out the invitations, Antonio stopped to pet stray animals, which I found adorable.

"So what questions did you want to ask me?" I asked, absentmindedly handing out one of the invitations to a shop owner.

"Huh?" Antonio exclaimed.

"You told Camilo that you wanted to come with me to ask you some questions," I added.

"Oh! Right, I forgot" Antonio said, his face lighting up for a moment "Well, I have three questions."

"Shoot" I said, bluntly.

"Well, first of all, Dolores thinks that you like my brother," Antonio said. "Is that true?"

I thought for a moment. Honestly, I didn't know the answer to the question at the moment.

"Well Antonio, to be perfectly honest with you..." I said "I don't actually know."

"Huh? How do you not know whether or not you like someone?" Antonio asked with his childlike curiosity.

"Well, when you get older and you start to like people yourself, you'll start realizing that it's not always as straighforward as 'do you like them or not'" I said "Sometimes you can be confused with how you feel, especially your feelings towards a person."

I wasn't sure why I decided to try and explain that to a damn five year old or if it even made sense.

"Hm..." Antonio hummed "I didn't know that. With Dolores, she knew that she liked Mariano and Isabella knew that she didn't like him."

"I guess it's just different depending on the person," I said.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Antonio stated.

"You know, I'm surprised that you understand any of this, you're five!" I exclaimed.

"I get that alot!" Antonio said, smiling, "A lot of people say that I'm mature for my age."

"Well, they are definitely correct to say so," I said.

"My next question is why that girl hurt you at Marcos' party" Antonio said "If I remember, she is or...was Camilo's friend."

I thought for a moment. I didn't want to scare him too bad but I also wanted to warn him to stay away from June.

"Well, I guess the easiest way I can explain is because that girl REALLY likes Camilo," I replied "And June, the girl, is just willing to hurt people to get what she wants."

"That's...scary" Antionio said, looking up from the caterpillar in his hand.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you too badly!" I said "Just stay away from her for now, okay?"

Antonio nodded as he set the caterpillar down onto the side of a tree.

"And the last question?" I asked, handing out an invitation to a girl around Antonio's age.

"My last question is..." Antonio began "Do you think there are other people out there like us?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, giving a confused look.

"People with gifts, powers, magic. Y'know, other people that were blessed with miracles" Antonio replied "Do you think that there are more of us out there? Outside the Encanto?"

"The world outside Encanto is pretty big so..." I answered "I'd say yes, I think that there are other families out there with miracles!"

"Well...I hope they're okay..." Antonio said.

"How come?" I asked.

"Well, last summer, Casita was breaking and our magical candle went out and for a while, we didn't have our gift...It was hard, I can't imagine what would happen if other families were going through that..." Antonio said.

"Why did that happen anyway?" I asked, not expecting him to give an answer "I mean, it's never happened to me or mi familia so..."

"I'm not really sure myself but...I think it was because of the pressures put on our family by our Abuela" Antonio explained "There was always a pressure for us to help around town, to be useful and...perfect? It affected our miracle candle and when Abuela got angry at Mirabel, the candle eventually got put out."

I was surprised to hear about the reason for the first time. Dolores and Camilo both told me the story about what had happened last summer, about their magic candle and how their magic was temporarily gone. But I had never heard the reason as to why all of that happened.

The fact that the pressures of being a Madrigal even affected their gifts and their miracle made me feel sort of bad for them. It suddenly made sense why Camilo's gift would start...malfunctioning whenever he felt insecure. Whenever he felt the pressure of having to play his part and be a Madrigal.

"Well, if that can happen to a miracle then...You're right, I hope that those families are doing okay, if there are any" I said, nodding "Maybe when you're older, you can leave the Encanto to find them and help them!"

"I don't think so, or at least, I don't think that would be my job" Antonio said "Camilo often talks about what was outside the Encanto. He's sort of scared of leaving but he also really wants to explore the world outside."

"Really?" I asked, "I never knew."

"Yeah, he used to ask a lot of questions about what was out there and all that happened was Abuela would tell him these horror stories about what lurked beyond the mountains and the river" Antonio said "Eventually he stopped asking."

My head shot towards Antonio when I heard him sniff quietly. He had tears in his eyes. I don't know how I didn't notice before but it was probably hard for him to talk about all this stuff. It only happened last summer and he was so young.

"Hey, let's stop talking about sad stuff, yeah?" I asked, trying my best to cheer him up.

Antonio took off the scarf around his neck and used it to wipe his tears. He tried to put it back the way it was on his own but he was obviously struggling. I bent down towards him so that it would be easier for me to help him. I put it around his neck gently and tried not to make it too tight. I tied a cute little bow and gave Antonio a small smile. He gave me one back.

"Good?" I asked "Not too tight?"

"Mhm, good," Antonio replied, cheerfully.