Encanto: The Inevitable (AU)

Reunion

Mirabel and Antonio managed to sneak past the kitchen and get out of the house. Neither Mirabel's parents nor Dolores had noticed them slipping away.

"Where should we go first?" Antonio asked.
"I'm not sure..." Mirabel hadn't thought of that yet. The forest is big, and they were only two people.

Mirabel looked in the direction she last saw her tío. The side of the house he bust out of. She knew he probably wasn't around there anymore, but they had to start somewhere.

"Come on let's go over here." She took her little cousin by the hand and they started looking for Bruno.

They walked through the forest calling their tío's name, but he hadn't shown up yet. He probably wasn't near that area.

After a while, they went to sit and have a quick breather.
"He could really be anywhere, huh," Mirabel mumbled as she looked around.
"I wish I could get the animals to look for him too." Said Antonio, as he was watching some ants crawling in and out of their nest.

"Did we take any food with us?" He looked up from the anthill. "I'm a little hungry."
Mirabel shook her head. She didn't think of bringing any with her, but it'd be pretty tricky too because they'd have to walk into the kitchen — where her parents were — to get it.

All of a sudden she started hearing faint voices coming from somewhere in the woods. They were calling Bruno's name.

"Hey, aren't those your sisters?" Antonio noticed. "They sound a lot like them anyways."
Mirabel listened closely. The voices did indeed belong to Isabela and Luisa.

It felt like so long ago since she's last seen them, but at the same time, it feels like a short amount of time. They kept coming closer to Mirabel and Antonio.

Eventually, Luisa popped out from between some big leaves. She looked from her sister to her cousin, and back to her sister again. Isa appeared a few seconds after.

"Luisa? Why are we-" she interrupted herself with a sudden silence. It took both Mirabel's sisters a while to process this moment.
"Heyyy..." Mirabel started awkwardly. "It's been a while, huh?"

Luisa came running up to her and gave her the same tight hug from after her song. Mirabel was completely squished but didn't dare to tell her it actually really hurt. She didn't need to anyway, because Luisa immediately put her down after realizing.

"Oh gosh that probably hurt, I'm so sorry." She apologized, fixing Mirabel's glasses. "Are you okay? How did you end up here?"
Before Mirabel had time to explain she got a hug from Isabela too.

'Wow, lots of hugs today.' she thought, smiling to herself.

Mirabel noticed Isa was still wearing her stained dress. The stains had faded a lot, probably after washing it a few times.

"Yeah, why are you here?" She questioned Mirabel further. "Shouldn't you be back at the casita?"
Mirabel started explaining how she and Antonio were out looking for Bruno, and that she didn't want to wait until she recovered.

"But you're in a horrible state," Isabela said. "How do you walk around like this without having to sit down every five minutes?"

Mirabel knew her sister had a point, but she wanted to bring her uncle back. To be frank, she was ignoring the pain. The only thing she couldn't properly use was her right arm — which was broken during Casita's fall — but she could walk just fine.

"We should bring you back home," Luisa concluded. Isabela agreed with her, nodding her head.

"What? No! I'm not going back until I find tío Bruno!" Mirabel struggled against Luisa's firm, but surprisingly gentle hold. Isabela led Antonio along. "Vamos," she said to him. "We'll take you two home."