·12·

"A Spark of Hope"

Camilo was found in his Mami and Papi's room, comforting his little brother, Antonio, trying to explain the situation and telling him not to worry about it.

"It was probably nothing. Tio Bruno took that vision a long time ago, maybe it changed over the years." He shrugged and smiled reassuringly at his brother, as the two of them sat on the sofa.

"Right, Dolores?" He asked, turning to his sister for support. "Hm? Oh," Dolores let out, giving the two of them a small smile, even though she was quite distressed herself, she needed to make sure to protect and care for her younger siblings first. "Mhm, it's nothing to worry about, Toñito." She says, giving both her brothers a tight hug of assurance, even planting both their foreheads with a kiss.

"Hm, here comes Mami and Papi." She mentioned, causing their heads to turn to the door, a few seconds before it even opened.

Their mother's face still showed clear distress and anxiousness as Felix holds her hands, trying to calm her down.

Felix tends to his youngest son, who was also looking very anxious next to his sister. While Camilo was already pouring tea for his lovely mother, headed towards a chair to try relaxing.

"It's okay, Mami. Deep breath in, deep breath out." Camilo said and smiled in an attempt to help calm her down, but in the end gets zapped in the face with a mini lightning bolt from her mother's cloud as she yelped in surprise, getting startled by a loud thud she heard coming from the walls.

Dolores winced at the sudden sound of thunder while Camilo couldn't help but yelp in pain from the lightning that struck his face, which also caused his ass to harshly kiss the drawer, even turning into multiple people in their family in the process.

Pepa gasped and cradled her son's face, "Lo Siento, Lo Siento, Mi Sol." She apologized, attacking Camilo's face with kisses.

He chuckled and hugged his mother back, trying to shoo away the cloud on top of her head with his Papi's help. "It's okay, Mami."

★  ★  ★

It's been a rough day for the familia Madrigal – most of them are stressing out about the candle and Mirabel. No one saw her since last night after dinner, and she didn't show up for breakfast earlier today either.

Though you wouldn't think that behind Camilo's cheerful and zesty personality, he'd almost be as much as a worrywart Estella is.

A question keeps popping up in his mind every single day, whenever he looks at himself in the mirror.

"Who am I?"

He's been asking himself that for a long time, not knowing who he really is and who he's meant to be. Who he wants to be. 

Everyone sees him as an entertainer, a boy who can shapeshift into you or anyone he wants, sometimes a troublemaker who likes pulling pranks and scaring the little children, or just another lucky Madrigal with a good gift.

Without his gift, he doesn't know who he is.

Without his gift, he thinks he'll just be another boy in their village.

Because in his eyes, he can only help when he's not himself.

The candle wasn't really helping him out either. If anything, it's been making him worse; more anxious, more nervous, and more questions. Not to mention the fact that it's making his powers go bonkers and he'd randomly find himself turning into different people.

Especially when he hiccups.

Sometimes when he's being idle, he'd just stare at his reflection or the palm of his hands, and it would feel like something was fading and that would scare him – make him worry. But that doesn't mean he wants his family to worry too.

If he's sure of one thing, that's the love for his family. Because just like Mirabel, deep down, he just wants to make them proud.

Camilo sighs as he exits his room. They've been trying to find Mirabel since this morning, and it's already starting to get more chaotic in their house.

"Hey, Casita. Do you know where Mirabel went?" He asked their house, brushing his hands on the railings of their staircase as he makes his way down. Casita moved the tiles on the floor up and down, trying to communicate with the boy, telling him that she was with their Tio Bruno. Unfortunately, Camilo couldn't make up what Casita was trying to say, since. . . he just couldn't.

Casita, if they were human, would've sighed and facepalmed at this, but they aren't. So they settled for dropping down their raised tiles in frustration.

Camilo smacks his lips and shrugs."Oh well," He simply said before yelling out Mirabel's name in hopes of her response, getting a little irritated when he felt a hiccup surface from his throat, making his powers act up again and turning his head into an infant child's.

Groaning in annoyance, after finally looking like himself again, he exits Casita and watches the people in the village who were doing what they usually do, his eyes automatically searching for her already.

It's not only the fact that he's that head over heels for her but also the fact that he just feels like he was complete for once whenever he's with her. It's like she completes what he thinks is missing, which was himself.

Estella always knew what to say when anyone was feeling down; She'd talk to you, ask if something was wrong, and patiently waits for you to open up. She'd help everyone in town, play with the children, and do her chores, but still make time for her family and him.

He loves it when she scolds him or when she gets grumpy, and how she turns red like a tomato when she's about to pop even though he's only seen her get that mad once.

Camilo couldn't help but smile at himself as his brain replays all the different moments he had with her. Only making him yearn for her presence more.

He happily skips towards the town, just the idea of seeing her already lifting up his mood, unaware of the figure watching him from inside Casita.

"There he goes again," Dolores sighed as she smiled at her hopeless brother as he gets more obvious about his crush each day, making it much more difficult for her to keep it a secret as a promise from before.

Shaking her head, she walks up the stairs to head up to her room while trying to tune in on the latest gossip in town.

No one can blame her though, she just can't help it. She couldn't stop listening even if she wanted to.

Dolores heard every conversation happening in town all at once, searching for voices to focus on when she heard two loud and familiar ones yelling at each other.

"...You can still marry that big, dumb hunk!" She heard Mirabel say.

"I never wanted to marry him! I was doing it for the family!"

Dolores almost tripped on nothing as soon as she heard those words. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. It was like a spark of hope.

Now all she gotta do is grab the opportunity to be with the man of her dreams.

About to burst with mixed, raging, mostly excited emotions, Dolores quickly tries catching up with her brother. Eager to tell him about what she just heard since she was always comfortable telling him these kinds of things.