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

Chapter fifty: Steady heartbeat

I looked down at my hands and realized that I wasn’t holding any invitations anymore. I must’ve given them all out as Antonio and I talked without realising it. I looked at Antonio’s hands and saw that he didn't have any invitations either so I guess it was time to go and meet up with Camilo. For some reason, my heart fluttered at the thought of seeing him again. I guess I missed him or something. 

Antonio’s hand wrapped around my own, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked down to see Antonio smiling up at me. He led me through town, probably to wherever the “Madrigal Mural” was. 

“Are you taking me to the Madrigal mural now, Antonio?” I asked. 

“Mhm!” Antonio replied. 

Eventually, I spotted Camilo ahead of the two of us, leaning against a wall, his hair covering a bit of his face. I giggled at the fact that the vibe that Camilo was giving off right now reminded me of Miguel in all his emo glory. 

“Took you guys long enough,” Camilo said, once he noticed that we were walking towards him “Did you give all of the invitations out?”

“Yup!” I replied. 

Camilo glanced at Antonio and his eyes widened. 

“Hey, have you been crying?” Camilo asked, behind down and holding his younger brother’s face. 

“I was just talking about what happened last summer,” Antonio replied. 

Camilo gave him a sad smile as he stood up. 

“Since we’re done giving out the invitations, we should head back to Casita” I said, trying to change the topic. 

Camilo nodded and Antonio hummed in agreement. We all made our way towards Casita when I felt someone staring into the back of my skull. I whipped my head around to see if anyone was looking at me. Just as I was turning my head back around to face forward, I saw June in the corner of my eye. I looked to where I had seen her but now, nobody was there. 

I felt Camilo’s hand brush against mine as he gave me the look that I knew meant that he wanted to hold hands. We made eye contact for a bit so he knew that I saw what look he was giving me. But I ignored and pretended that I didn’t notice him because I was afraid that June was here and she might see. Maybe she wouldn’t try to hurt me in the middle of the street in broad daylight but she stabbed me with a broken bottle and put me into a coma at a crowded party so who knows what she was capable of. 

I saw Camilo give me a frown before facing forwards towards Casita. I felt bad but I didn’t need to put all of us in danger just to hold hands. I didn’t look at him at all until we finally made it to Casita. Mirabel opened the door for us and before she could say anything, Marcos ran out the door. Camilo caught him before he could run too far. 

“Ugh! Let me go!” Marcos screamed. 

“Where the heck are you off to?” Camilo said, trying to hold Marcos despite his squirming. 

“Ugh, he’s been trying to run away the whole day” Mirabel said, sounding tired. 

“Are you okay, Mirabel?” Antonio asked “You sound tired, do you need some time to rest?”

“No. No! I’m good, a hundred percent fine!” Mirabel said, giving a tired smile. 

“Why have you been trying to run away, Marcos?” I asked, giving him a stern look as he squirmed in Camilo’s arms. 

“Ay, he doesn’t want to rehearse but if he doesn’t then he isn’t going to know where to go during the gift ceremony…” Mirabel said with a short yawn. 

I took Marcos from Camilo’s hands and he stopped squirming so much. 

“Marcos, you should listen to Mirabel!” I said “Or else-”

“Or else something might go wrong during the ceremony!” Marcos groaned, completing the sentence “Blah, blah blah, I don’t want to! It’s boring!”

“I didn’t like all of the rehearsals either but at least Mirabel isn’t as strict as Abuela was” Antonio said, giggling. 

“Marcos, we’ll just have to postpone your gift ceremony until you rehearse enough that you’ll know what to do” I said “If you don’t rehearse at all, then the gift ceremony just won’t happen and you won’t get a gift.”

Marcos thought for a moment, furrowing his eyebrows as he did. He leapt from my arms and went back inside Casita. 

“Fine! But only because I want a gift” Marcos said. 

We all followed him inside. 

“Don’t you think that was a little harsh? Telling him that he just wouldn’t get a gift?” Camilo asked. 

“Nah, I don’t think so” I replied, casually “I mean, it worked, didn’t it?”

Camilo nodded. 

“You’re an evil older sibling dude,” Camilo said, jokingly. 

“You speak from experience?” I asked. 

“No, but Dolores definitely can” Camilo said “Do you know how hard it was for me to grow up with an older sister that could hear everything that I ever said or did?”

I laughed and shook my head in response.

“Well, you’re lucky that you don’t, it was horrible!” Camilo exclaimed with a shudder.

“Dude, how did your parents even conceive you and Antonio with a daughter that could hear everything” I asked, jokingly. 

“Blegh! Why would you make me think about that?!” Camilo asked, obviously disgusted. 

Mirabel looked at the two of us, a stern look on her face. 

“You guys should go upstairs” Mirabel said, her voice equally as serious as her face “You know, away from the place we’re rehearsing in?”

Camilo saluted at Mirabel. I laughed and went upstairs, Camilo right behind me. I walked past my room and stopped in front of Camilo’s and opened the door. 

“Oh, so we’re hanging out in my room, then?” Camilo asked. 

“If you don’t mind,” I replied. 

Camilo closed the door gently behind us and the two of us walked over to his bed. I sat on the bed and Camilo fell backwards onto it and just barely missed me. We stayed there, quiet for a while. I enjoyed the comfortable silence. 

“I have a question for you,” I said. 

“Shoot,” Camilo replied. 

“Antonio told me that you wonder about what’s outside Encanto a lot” I said “Is that true?”

“Yeah, I like to think about it” Camilo answered. “I would wonder if there were other families like ours, having similar...issues to ours. To mine, really.”

I gave him a sad smile. It must’ve been kind of hard having all of this pressure and not having anyone who can understand your problems. 

“Lucky for me, you guys moved here and now I don’t have to wonder about it too much anymore,” Camilo said. 

He shifted on the bed and gently laid his head on my lap. I ran my hand through his hair the way that he likes and left my free hand resting on his chest, feeling his steady heartbeat.

-----

Oki, so in case anyone was wondering, I finished the cover of the next Camilo Madrigal x reader book that I'm planning to write. I also have a title and a general idea of how the main character will be like.

I also finally have an idea for what the ending to this book will be like! I have no idea if that ending will come sooner than later but you know, I'll figure it out.

Fun fact, this story was supposed to be a joke between me and my friend Janna and it was suppose ot have like twelve chapters at most! Yeah, that's definetly not how it turned out!

Okay, thank you for all the support and stuff and keeping up with the literal fifty chapters in this thing! Bye bye!

-Kolour