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

Chapter forty three: Out in town

Camilo pulled me inside by the shoulders. Once I was fully inside his room, Camilo shut the door behind me and pressed his back against it. He was shapeshifting with every breath.

"I can't- I'm so sorry!" Camilo said "It's all my fault- I'm sorry- I'm the reason that all of this is happening! I'm the reason that your family might be in danger, the reason you might be in danger!

"No, no!" I exclaimed "No, it's not your fault! This isn't your fault!"

"It is! It's all- It's all my fault, I'm so sorry! I don't deserve to be your friend, I don't deserve you-" Camilo spat in broken sentences "I ruin everything! I should just run away-"

"Camilo!" I yelled, silencing him.

He stared at me, tears streaming down his face. He was still shapeshifting with every heavy breath. I reached my hand out towards him to wipe away his tears but he moved away from my touch.

"Camilo, it's not your fault. I promise that none of this is your fault" I reassured him "I need you to calm down and I need you to stop the shapeshifting, okay?"

Camilo shook his head vigorously.

"I can't! It won't- It won't stop!" Camilo said, his hands tugging at his hair harshly "Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop-"

I swiftly guided his hands away from his hair, I was sure that if I let him continue, he would've pulled all his hair out. He kept panting.

I knew what to do in this situation. I had been in it myself many times before. It felt similar to a bad case of hiccups. I noted the people that he was morphing into.

Pepa. Julieta. Dolores. Bruno.

I held both of his hands in my own, trying to keep him still so he could calm down.

"Camilo, breathe with me" I told him "In...Out...In...Out"

He began breathing to my counts, in and out as calmly as he could. Soon, he had regulated his breathing. Though, the shapeshifting hadn't stopped or even slowed down at all.

Isabella. Felix. Antonio. Mirabel.

"Camilo, can you try to only shapeshift into people on Mirabel's side of the family?" I asked him to which he gave a jerky nod.

Luisa. Mirabel. Isabella. Augustin.

"Okay, can you just do Mirabel, Luisa, and Isabella?" I asked.

He breathed for a bit before nodding. I'm guessing he couldn't talk very well if he tried.

Isabella. Mirabel. Luisa.

"Camilo, you've done very well so far, okay?" I told him, not breaking eye contact, "Just focus on only taking the form of Mirabel."

He squeezed his eyes shut, stopping the tears from streaming out of them for the time being.

"Cami, breathe" I reminded him.

Camilo then started trying to get his breathing back to normal.

Mirabel.

"Okay, good" I said "Are you alright, Cami?"

He stared at me for a moment, breathing heavily.

"Yeah, I'm good," he said, briefly.

"Now, yourself" I said.

"What?" he asked, blinking at me dumbly.

"Become yourself again" I told him.

"Y-You mean Camilo?" he asked.

"No, yourself. Become yourself" I said.

The form of Mirabel melted away slowly. First, Camilo's brown hair, then his hazel eyes, his freckles, his white uniform shirt, and then all the way down to his sandals.

"Better?" I asked.

"Yeah..." Camilo said, nodding.

I took his hand as gently as I could. I led him to his bed and patted the area next to me, offering for him to take a seat. He sat down next to me and the bed creaked under the new weight.

"You wanna tell me why you walked out of school so suddenly?" I asked "You don't have to if you don't want to..."

"I just...I realized that all of this was happening because June was in love with me and I couldn't bear to...Be around you because I'm the reason..." Camilo said, before touching the visible bandages "For this..."

"It's not your fault, Cami" I said, smiling genuinely "I've already told you that."

"Yeah" he said, chuckling slightly.

"So you still shapeshift when you're stressed?" I asked, noticing that we were still holding hands.

"Yeah, but it's gotten a lot better since you started helping me," he said, smiling softly.

There was a comfortable silence for a bit.

"I used to uh, start smashing the mirrors in here..." Camilo said, gesturing to a corner in his room that I hadn't noticed before, a tarp over something in the corner "The smashed mirrors are under the tarp."

I glanced at the tarp. It was apparently hiding a pile of shattered mirrors sweeped into a corner. The pile was stacked pretty high. I wondered how many times this had happened before I met him.

"Mi mami and the rest of the family all knew about it, some of my friends too" Camilo said, nervous laughter bubbling in between words "Because I would come out of my room the next day with my own blood on my knuckles..."

"I wouldn't let Julieta heal me" he added "I was scared I might be tempted to do it again if the wounds healed too quickly."

I gave him a sad smile, clutching his hand tighter. I glanced at his hand, subconsciously looking for wounds or scars on his hands from breaking the mirrors. I let out a sigh of relief when I found nothing.

"Looking for the wounds?" Camilo asked, seeming to read my mind "You won't find anything."

"You're right, I didn't" I exclaimed, smiling at him.

"Yeah, that's thanks to you!" he said, smiling brightly back at me.

"Wanna get out of here?" I asked, "We're already excused from school."

His whole face lit up and I could've sworn that he was glowing, radiating all on his own.

"What do you say to a day out in town, mi vida?" Camilo asked, smirking.

------

Just an update on the second pair of character sheets, I've begun working on Emilio's and I already have an idea for what June's everyday clothes will be like.

Y'know, in case you were curious.

-Kolour