broken | camilo madrigal

Preparations

✿

PRESENT DAY

Luna stirred in her sleep and opened her eyes, yawning and stretching her arms out preparing for the day ahead. It was her little brother's gift ceremony today and in preparation of the occasion, every family member was assigned a task.

She figured she had awoken a bit earlier than the rest of her family — so she used this as an advantage to scare her twin brother with illusions. Her and Camilo were known as the pranksters among their family but that didn't stop them from using their gifts against each other, whether it be for fun or out of boredom. She concentrated long enough on where she wanted to place herself in his bedroom — preferably by the door so she could a make a quick escape if necessary — closing her eyes the brunette raised her hands as she focused on what it was she wanted to do. Upon opening her eyes, Luna knew that she had successfully made it into her brothers room.

As the brunette searched Camilo's room for something she could playfully hit him with, she soon noticed a yellow bouncy ball perched on one of his shelves, quietly picking it up with no avail. Her aim wasn't terrible but it wasn't necessarily good either so when she threw the ball and accidentally hit her brother on the head, her hand flew to her mouth to suppress the laugh that wanted to escape.

Camilo stirred in his sleep, his eyes opening to meet hers, "Really Luna?" he grumbled.

Luna simply laughed at her brother, "Yes. Now get up, we have Antonio's gift ceremony to prepare for."

Camilo played with the yellow ball that his sister had ruthlessly thrown at him as he contemplated her words. It was indeed his little brother's ceremony and he gathered it would be nothing but Abuela putting pressure on him along with every other one of his family members.

A smug smile crept onto his face as he prepared to throw the ball back at his sister but as he did, the ball simply went straight through her and Camilo had put up with it long enough to know it was one of her illusions. "Oh just you wait sis," he called out, knowing his sister would hear as their rooms were next to each other.

Back in her own room, Luna had finished getting ready, heading downstairs to grab something to eat before she began working. As she neared the kitchen she heard her aunt's voice, "Whoah. Mi vida (My life), you okay? You don't have to overdo it."

Luna heard Mirabel sigh, "I know mamá, I just want to do my part like the rest of the family."

The brunette frowned and moved away from the kitchen. Despite herself having powers, she really felt for Mirabel and knew that tonight would be very hard for her. Luna made a mental note to have a word with her before the ceremony as she stopped in the courtyard, the casita creating stairs. She made her way up and was greeted by the sound of her grandmother's voice, her attention on the man who was struggling to place a banner above what was soon to be Antonio's door, "Lift it higher. Higher."

She watched as her brother smirked which unfortunately didn't go unnoticed by Alma, "Camilo, we need another José."

"José!" Camilo sang as he shape-shifted into the guy opposite of him to help raise the banner.

"Luisa, the piano goes upstairs." Alma called.

"I'm on it," Luisa replied as she ran off, nearly knocking over her sister Mirabel in the process.

Strong gusts of winds suddenly appeared throughout the house and Luna looked over the balcony at her mother who was nervously pacing, "My baby's night has to be perfect and it's not perfect and people are going to be coming and nothings ready, the whole town will be here-"

"Pepi, Pepi, Pepita!" Her father Félix exclaimed, "You're tornadoing the flowers! Watch the flowers!"

"Did somebody say...flowers?" Luna watched on as Isabela descended above Mirabel on a flowering vine, flowers blooming all around her like an angel.

"Our angel, our angel." Félix praised whilst beginning to clap.

"Please, don't clap."

"Thank you." Pepa smiled.

"Oh it's nothing," Isabela gave her aunt and uncle one last smile before walking away, knocking into someone. That someone being her sister.

Luna watched the exchange with narrowed eyes, "A little sisterly advice, if you weren't always trying so hard, you wouldn't be in the way."

"Actually Isa, this is called helping and I'm not in the way, you are — oof—"

The brunette let out a little chuckle before retreating back down the stairs to help out her cousin. "Hey cous, need any help?"

Mirabel turned around to face her, a smile creeping onto her face, "Yes if you don't mind of course."

"Oh no, not at all."

Luna watched as Mirabel grabbed whatever essentials she needed and followed her to the upper balcony, it finally being cleared of family members as they had all finished their tasks. Mirabel then started to arrange a bunch of candles around the second floor, lighting them and placing them in their holders on a flower decoration. She had one for each member of the family, all of them different colours and Luna knew that Mirabel had worked incredibly hard on them.

"One hour." The voice of their grandmother startled them both, causing Mirabel to drop the candle which set the decoration on fire.

"No, no." Mirabel muttered as she tried to put the fire out.

"Maybe you should leave the decorations to someone else?"

Mirabel glanced at her cousin briefly, Luna suddenly coming to the brunette's defence, "No she made them for you as a surprise."

"Look. I know you want to help Mirabel but tonight must go perfectly. The whole town relies on our family, on our gifts. So the best way for...some of us to help is to...let the rest of the family do what they do best. Okay?" Alma sighed.

Luna watched as her cousins face dropped, sympathy running through her veins as she couldn't imagine being in Mirabel's position. Before anyone else could say anything — a gust of wind blew past the three.

"Pepa, you have a cloud." Alma called out.

Pepa was visibly stressed to reasons unknown to the three standing on the balcony, "I know Mamá but now I can't find Antonio. What do you want from me?!" Pepa then stormed off, Luna grabbing Mirabel quickly before their grandmother could lecture them anymore.

As they entered Mirabel's room, Luna could overhear her aunt's conversation with Alma, "Mamá, be nice to Mirabel okay. You know tonight will be hard for her."

"If the gift ceremony doesn't go well this time, it'll be hard for all of us." Alma remarked.

Luna simply rolled her eyes and shut the door, taking a seat next to her cousin on the bed. The words she wanted to say were there in her head, but how to say them was what was dragging out the long silence that nestled between the two.

The brunette sighed, "Look, I know you've probably heard it constantly but tonight will be hard for you there's no doubt about that but I just wanted you to know that I'm here if you need anything, no matter how big or small it is. I may not understand exactly how you feel but what I do know is that it's not a very nice feeling so if you wanna talk, I'm here okay?"

Mirabel simply looked at her cousin, tears welling up in her eyes as she embraced her, thankful for the kind words she had spoken. Out of her cousins, she was closest to Luna despite her and Camilo having very similar personalities. The foil between the two siblings was that whilst Luna had discovered who she was, Camilo was the complete opposite and was still searching for who he was.

"Thank you so much Lu." Mirabel sniffed as she wiped her face free of tears.

Luna simply smiled at her cousin, "It's okay. I'll leave you to deal with...." she pointed to the bottom of the bed, Mirabel registering what she meant and she nodded her head, watching as her cousin left the room.