THE SOUNDS OF BANGING ON THE FRONT DOOR WOKE VALENTINA FROM HER RESTLESS SLEEP. The girl had barely slept at all last night, she was far too worried about her mother, and as she trudged down the stairs to go open the door a sinking feeling settled in her stomach.
"Hello?" Valentina asked as she opened the door, coming face to face with her brown eyed best friend, "Oh, hey Camilo."
"Did I wake you up?" Camilo said with a small frown as he looked at Valentina's night gown, "Sorry."
"Not really. Anyways, do you need something? You're here kind of early."
"We can't find Mirabel. Julieta is worried that she ran off after last night, so we're all trying to find her." Camilo sighed.
"Well she's not here." Valentina told the boy as he walked into the Marin home.
"I wasn't looking for her here, I was just going to drag you with me to look for her." Camilo smiled.
"Of course you were." Valentina rolled her eyes, "Stay here, I need to change. And be quiet please. My mom is still asleep."
"Yes ma'am." Camilo smiled as he sat back onto one the dining room chairs.
"Abuelo?" Valentina whispered as she cracked open the door to the man's room.
"Yes, Valentina?" Andres asked as he looked up from the book in his lap.
"The Madrigals can't find Mirabel and Camilo wants me to help." Valentina told him.
"Okay, just be safe." Andres said.
"I will." Valentina smiled as she placed a kiss on her abuelo's cheek before running down stairs.
"Okay, let's go find your cousin." The girl called out as she swiped her bag off of the kitchen counter.
"You look tired." Camilo said as the two walked out of the house.
"I was too worried about my mom so I couldn't sleep." Valentina sighed as she looked down at her feet.
"Why? Has she gotten worse." Camilo frowned.
"I think so. She told me to be prepared for, y'know...." The girl trailed off with a frown.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay Val." Camilo whispered as he pulled the girl into a tight hug, "I promise."
"Thank you, Camilo." Valentina smiled as she pulled away from the hug and laced her fingers through Camilo's.
"After we're done looking maybe you can finish your painting? It's up in my room right now." Camilo suggested.
"Did you look at it?" Valentina glared.
"..No."
"Camilo, I swear to god." Valentina groaned.
"HAVEN'T YOU ALREADY LOOKED IN THE CASITA?" VALENTINA ASKED AS HER AND CAMILO WALKED THROUGH THE ENTRY WAY.
"Yeah, but she could've come back here. Besides, we would've had come back for your painting anyways." Camilo shrugged.
"Let's check the kitchen first." Valentina suggested as she dragged the boy towards the kitchen.
"Mirabel?" Camilo called out, but got no answer.
"Mirabel?" Valentina yelled out as the two walked through the main hall.
"Mirabel?" Camilo echoed, before his face turned into a babies once again.
Valentina slapped a hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing at the sight of her best friend with a random babies face.
"I think that's a sign that we should stop." Valentina snickered.
"Are you going to repaint me with a baby face now?" Camilo laughed as he started to lead the girl upstairs.
"Repaint?" Valentina mumbled, "So you did look at the painting!"
"No I didn't! You've just painted me before so uh- yeah. That's what I meant." Camilo nervously smiled.
"You are terrible at lying to me, mi amor." Valentina whispered as she leaned towards the boy.
"You're just very intimidating, Valentina." Camilo blushed.
He was lying, of course, it was actually because he was head over heels for Valentina.
"Intimidating?" Valentina asked with her brows raised.
"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?" Camilo smiled as he tucked a strand of hair behind Valentina's ear.
"You have, Camilo. Many times in fact."
"Well I was wrong. You aren't beautiful." Camilo said, "Your beauty is radiant. You're gorgeous, Valentina."
"Radiant? Is tío Felix teaching you how to be romantic, Cami?" Valentina laughed as she looked away, trying to mask the heat radiating from her cheeks.
"Turning away to hide your blush doesn't work on me Valentina. We've been best friends for 15 years, I know that you do that when your blushing." Camilo smiled as he turned Valentina's face towards his, "And for the record– yes, he is teaching me how to be romantic."
"Well, for the record, it's working." Valentina mumbled as she finally leaned away from Camilo.
"What? Wh-what do you mean that it's working?" Camilo stuttered as he grabbed Valentina's shoulders, "Do you-"
"Can you two get a room— or maybe actually look for Mirabel?" Dolores asked as she looked at them with crossed arms.
"Oh! Hey Dolores!" Valentina awkwardly smiled as she looked away from Camilo.
"Just wait till I tell mom." Dolores smirked as she quickly walked away from the two teens.
Camilo and Valentina looked back towards each other, tension present in the air.
As the two looked into eachothers eyes, Camilo's flickered down to Valentina's lips.
"Can I-"
"Can we go finish my painting?" Valentina quickly interrupted once the silence started to freak her out.
"Yeah, of course." Camilo tightly smiled as he gently grabbed the girls hand.
"Sorry, were you about to say something?" Valentina frowned.
"Yeah, but I forgot. Let's go finish your painting that I totally didn't look at." Camilo laughed.
THE LOUD SOUND OF LAUGHING ROUSED VALENTINA AND CAMILO FROM HIS ROOM.
"What happened to Isabela?" Valentina whispered to Camilo as she stared at the girl who was bathed in color.
"I think we should stay up here." Camilo whispered back as he spotted his abuela angrily walking into the house.
"What is going on?" Abuela angrily exclaimed as she looked around.
"It's okay! We're gonna save the miracle. The magic..." Mirabel smiled as she looked at her abuela.
"What are you talking about?" Abuela frowned, "Look at our home! Look at your sister!"
"Please just..." Mirabel trailed off, "Isabela wasn't happy."
"Of course she isn't happy. You ruined her proposal." The older woman said.
"No, no, no. She needed me to ruin her proposal!" The young girl smiled, "And then we did all this! And the candle burned brighter and the cracks!"
"Mirabel-" Abuela said.
"That's why I'm in the vision! I'm saving the miracle!" Mirabel exclaimed.
"You have to stop, Mirabel!" Abuela yelled out, "The cracks started with you. Bruno left because of you."
Valentina gasped and held onto Camilo's arm as big cracks started to form along the casita.
"Luisa's losing her powers, Isabela's out of control, because of you!" Abuela continued as the family gathered around the scene, "I don't know why you weren't given a gift, but it is not an excuse for you to hurt this family."
"I will never be good enough for you, will I?" Mirabel whispered.
"No matter how hard I try, no matter how hard any of us tries. Luisa will never be strong enough. Isabela won't be perfect enough." The girl ranted,"Bruno left our family because you only saw the worst in him."
"Bruno didn't care about this family." Abuela denied.
"He loves this family." Mirabel firmly stated, "I love this family. We all love this family. You're the one that doesn't care."
Camilo's hold tightened on Valentina as more and more cracks began to form, the house now rumbling.
"You're the one breaking our home." Mirabel said.
"The miracle is dying, because of you."
Valentina's eyes widened as she watched a huge crack form in the ground between Mirabel and her abuelo.
The girls eyes follow the cracks as they went up to the candle.
"The candle!" Felix gasped.
"Camilo, we're the closest to the candle." Valentina called out over all the noise as she started to push the boy in the direction.
"You mean that I'm the closest to the candle." Camilo said as he turned Valentina around, "Get down there with everybody else, I don't want you to get hurt."
"But Camilo-"
"I mean it, Valentina. Listen to me just once, please." The boy pleaded before running towards the candle.
Valentina watched with wide eyes as Camilo and Isabela used their powers as they tried to get the candle but fell, as their powers stopped working.
"Valentina! Get down here!" Pepa called out.
The girl looked around in panic as the upstairs started to crumble around her. Looking towards her right she decided it was her best bet. Darting towards the nearest staircase Valentina cried out as a falling beam knocked her down, her face slamming against the tiles of the casita.
"Valentina!" Pepa gasped as she watched the girl slam down against the floor.
Camilo's eyes widened as he saw the girl he liked- no. The girl he loved struggling to get up from the shock of the fall.
Without thinking the boy ran up the stairs, quickly grabbing the girl as he slid down a rail the casita provided.
"We gotta get out of here!" Felix yelled out.
"Mirabel! Mirabel!" Julieta yelled out as she ran towards her daughter who was still trying to get to the candle.
"Mirabel! The house is going to fall!" Augustine called out as he followed his wife
"Mirabel, get out!" Julieta called out one more time before the Casita sent out a wave of tiles towards the family, effectively getting them out of the casita before it fully fell apart.
Valentina sat up with a groan as she looked around the scene before her with wide eyes.
"Valentina! Let me see how hurt you are, cariño." Pepa frantically said as she gently grabbed the girls head.
"My head hurts." The girl whispered as she looked up at the red haired woman.
"And your nose is bleeding." Pepa frowned, "Julieta, come quick!"
"Camilo, help her stand please." Pepa said as Julieta walked towards Pepa.
Valentina looked around with sad eyes as Camilo helped her up off the ground.
"Here, take my handkerchief." Camilo said as he held it out towards the girl.
"Thanks." Valentina whispered as she held the cloth up to her bloody nose.
Valentina felt like she was on autopilot as she looked around the Madrigals crumbled home. This place was almost like a second home to her. She had had every birthday here, every happy memory here. Like giving Camilo his locket and Camilo giving Valentina her ring.
Her ring.
Valentina's body flushed with panic as she looked down at her hands.
"No, no. no." She whispered to herself as she patted herself down in hopes of finding her ring.
"What? What's wrong?" Camilo asked as he looked at the girl.
"My-my ring. I took it off to paint and I didn't put in back on when we went to see what the commotion was and then all of—this—happened and now it's probably gone!" Valentina spoke quickly with wide eyes.
"Hey- hey calm down." Camilo soothed as he grabbed the girls face. "Stay here okay? We'll go look for it."
"Mamá!" Camilo called out as he ran towards his mother, leaving Valentina to stare at her feet with a throbbing in her head and a familiar sinking feeling in her stomach.
Oh. So that's what that was.
(a/n)- me? having experience in writing action-ish scenes? absolutely not !
anyways i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter lmao. i had a lot of fun writing this one because a) the ~tension~ and b) conflict
and no one talk abut the fact that this chapter has a funny gif I could seriously only find that gif from this scene
also more fanart bc kaelyn is a powerhouse