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

Chapter eighty: Sound of the river

Camilo and I made our way downstairs holding hands the whole way down. I had gotten used to feeling the warmth from his hands on mine. We had been holding hands so much that we had even learned that if one of us holds their hand out or brushes their hand against the other's, we know that it's a silent offer to hold hands.

"We'll be out until about an hour before the dance," Camilo said just as we were about to walk out the door.

I stopped in my tracks. My parents would never allow me to be out after it turned dark, the multiple incidents with June had made them paranoid.

"Oh, Camilo, I don't think my parents will be happy with me staying out for that long!" I told him, a worried look on my face.

Camilo simply smiled sweetly.

"Don't worry, I've already told them where we're going and convinced them to let you stay out for a pretty long time!" Camilo said.

I gave him a confused look. My parents were never easily convinced, especially with letting me outside of the house.

"How did you manage to do that?" I asked, tilted my head.

"I can be very persuasive," Camilo replied, winking at me.

"Yes, but what exactly did you say?" I asked.

"Well, I mostly tried to prove to them that I was a responsible enough guardian to look after you," Camilo said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"And they believed that?" I asked, teasingly "You? Responsible?"

"Hey! I can be responsible!" Camilo exclaimed.

I let out a laugh at how offended he was.

"Whatever, let's just go, Cami!" I exclaimed.

"Wait!" Camilo exclaimed.

I watched him disappear into the kitchen and then reappear holding a picnic basket and a simple white blanket. I assumed we were going to have another picnic by the river, which got me excited.

"Sorry, I nearly forgot something" Camilo said "Now we can go!"

The two of us finally stepped foot outside of Casita, the entire time we were just awkwardly standing at the door frame. The two of us walked quickly to the edge of town and stopped right in front of the forest.

I turned to look at Camilo. I was expecting to see him with a look of worry or fear on his face, like he did last time. But I was surprised to see that he didn't look afraid at all. He was simply staring into the forest with an excited expression.

"Well, I don't know how to get through the forest" Camilo said, turning to me "Lead the way!"

I nodded and pulled him into the forest. I swatted away bugs, leaves and hanging vines out of the way. Eventually, the two of us made it to the curtain of vines that hid the river. I pulled back the curtain and stepped to the side so that Camilo could walk through first.

Camilo closed his eyes, tilted his head to the sky and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he smiled at the scenery around him. The rushing, shimmering water, the tall grass that was covered with pink and purple wildflowers, the glowing butterflies fluttering all around us.

Camilo set down the picnic blanket and sat on it, then placed the basket in the centre of it. He reached into the basket and pulled out some arepas, way too many to share between just two people. Then he pulled out some strawberries, there weren't any strawberry bushes anywhere near town so I couldn't help but ask.

"Camilo, where did you get strawberries?" I asked, "I haven't seen any strawberry bushes around town at all."

"Oh, there aren't any in town and you can't buy them from anywhere in the market but I got some strawberry seeds from Isabela and I planted them near the edge of town, behind Casita" Camilo answered.

"How long did it take for you to actually get strawberries from the bushes?" I asked.

"About a month and two weeks?" Camilo answered, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Why didn't you just let Isabela grow you some strawberries?" I asked "You took a month and two whole weeks to do what Isabela could've done in five seconds!"

"Because I wanted to do it myself!" Camilo exclaimed "And I didn't really want to tell Isabela why I needed them..."

I laughed at his answer.

"Well then, why did you decide to put it at the edge of town?" I asked.

"Okay, this is gonna sound really stupid" Camilo said "i just...Wanted an excuse to go near the edge of town!"

"Why?" I asked, curiously.

"Because I think about what's beyond Encanto a lot" Camilo answered "Actually, I worry about what's beyond Encanto a lot."

"Worry about it?" I said.

"Well, I think about how there might be other families out there that are like ours!" Camilo exclaimed "But...Last summer, the Madrigal family broke under the pressure of our miracle and I wonder about how there might be other families out there dealing with the same thing."

He slouched a little more and bit into a strawberry.

"I hate how I can't do anything to help them," Camilo said, still chewing, "But...I'm too scared to leave Encanto so..."

I gave him a sad smile. Then I sat down on the blanket next to him.

"What am I doing?" Camilo asked himself "This is supposed be a fun date between you and I and I'm talking about dumb scary things."

He let out a calm chuckle and looked at me, his eyes reflecting the rushing water of the river.

"Yeah, let's talk about something else" I said, closing my eyes to listen to the sound of the river.

-----

Can you tell I have a thing for picnic dates?

-Kolour