silent movies || encanto X female reader

37. being treated like a decent human being

"Fear not, humble lad!" Camilo jumps between the two of them on the bench, bowing grandiloquently. "I am here to protect you from that... Very scary man!"

He makes some kind of weird martial arts pose in front of a puzzled Bruno, who was not up for some real fighting.

You watch as the children laugh or gasp, perfectly entertained by the story you, your uncle and cousins had quickly made up.

They seemed to enjoy Bruno's character a lot, which made both you and your uncle happy. They were scared of him at first, because of all the stories about him. Some also looked at you weirdly at first, but it went away soon after you began narrating the story in a grave voice, their apprehension being replaced with admiration for your skills.

A tap on your shoulder surprises you as Camilo trips when he tries to high kick towards Bruno and provokes laughter among the children and the few amused passers-by.

It was Mirabel, who just gave you a tired smile, and you understood. She needed a break. You nodded and let her take over the narrating, walking away from the small crowd of children that had grown around your bench to see where you could help on the worksite.

"Oh, let me help you carry that." You take one of the handles of a heavy bag of tools from a woman that seemed to be struggling. She smiles at first, before seeing it was you that was helping her. You couldn't help but notice how the corner of her lips twitched a bit. You ignored it and smiled in return.

"Thank you." She answered quietly, tensing up.

"No problem at all. It's my house we're rebuilding, after all."

There's an awkward silence during which you walk towards where she was supposed to drop the bag off. When you reach it, you simply thank her and walk away, hurrying towards your aunt who was having trouble with some tiles.

The woman watched you evolve around the house, just doing your things and not being as horrible as the rumors said. You seemed like a nice girl, when looking more closely. Maybe a little awkward, but with nothing but good intentions.

Maybe (Y/n) Madrigal isn't that bad, after all.

That is what lots of people thought during the afternoon you spent running around and helping everyone. You liked to be useful so much, you forgot the townspeople thought you were a monster and didn't hesitate to offer your help.

And you had so much fun, and got so much happiness from seeing them begin to talk to you as if you were a normal person, you didn't even realize how exhausted you were.

"Hey, (Y/n)." Leta, with whom you were nailing some studs. "You should take a break. Or just stop, it's almost the end of the day."

You were about to protest when you noticed how hard it was for you to raise your arms above your head to hold a stud in place.

"Okay. Good idea." You drop your tools and wave Leta goodbye. "Thank you, Leta. See you tomorrow, I guess."

"See you!" Your friend smiles at you briefly before focusing back on her work. You walk down the stairs and see Bruno already sitting on the doorway's stairs.

"Hola." You say as you take place next to him. He jumps for a second, then realizes it's you and relaxes.

"Hola, niña." He chuckles at his own alertness. "I've seen you work hard today."

You sigh and lean your head over his shoulder, smiling in satisfaction. The familiar rugginess of his ruana against your cheek felt comfortable.

"Yeah. I think people are beginning to think I'm a decent person!"