Abrir Los Ojos/With Open Eyes

Disclaimer: This story is not for profit. I do not own Encanto.

Author's Notes

1. Abrir los ojos is a Spanish figure of speech that means to become aware of a situation. In English it's basically the same figure of speech. It means to open your eyes. Sometimes we will also describe something as "eye-opening" in the same sense as this figure of speech.

2. This is the sequel to After the House Fell.

3. I will be using Spanish, Colombian Spanish whenever possible, that is verified to the best of my ability.

Prologue

November 18th

3:00 am

Mirabel

The magic surged through Mirabel, and answering magic surged out of the door, exploding through the house and covering her with a fine dust of golden magic. At the same time, her image appeared on the door. She stood straight and confident, eyes open, hands on her glasses on either side, a small smile on her lips. Mirabel felt the magic settle deeply inside her. The feeling that dwelled inside her was profound.

I'm home. Finally, she was like her family. Finally, she had a Gift, too. Finally, she could live inside Casita and not feel like a fraud, not feel like she had anything to prove.

As Mirabel touched the new Gift with her mind, it stirred up, tickling. She turned to Antonio with a grin that made her facial muscles creak from all the smiling she'd done in the last 24 hours. "You're right. It does tickle."

Antonio tackled her in a hug, and everyone else followed. Her parents wept silently, Luisa bawled, and Tío Bruno said, "I knew you could do it. I knew you'd get a Gift someday. You had to." Luckily, they gave her some breathing room before they accidentally smothered her.

Má gasped. "Your glasses!"

Pá's jaw hung open.

"My glasses?" Mirabel was confused. "What about them?"

"They're glowing," Luisa said.

Tío Bruno looked a little spooked. "Now that you mention it…"

Mirabel took off her glasses to look at them, but they were just an ordinary pair of glasses. She tilted them in the light, but nothing happened. "Glowing? Glowing how?"

This caused a new round of gasps from the family.

Mirabel froze. I can see. I can see my glasses without using my glasses! She felt at her face, but her fingertips didn't detect anything. "What's going on?" She looked at her shocked family. "I can see you. I can see you all. But I'm holding my glasses right here!" She waved her glasses.

Casita's wall rippled, bringing over a mirror. Casita's floor tiles tapped out, Look at yourself, mi vida.

Mirabel faced the mirror and took an instinctive step back. She wore a glowing green outline of her glasses frames. A little shimmer appeared and disappeared in front of her eyes like ghostly lenses. "Magic glasses?"

"I guess you won't be losing your glasses anymore," Camilo said.

"I haven't lost my glasses in years," Mirabel grumbled, cheeks growing hot as she remembered the time when she was 8 years old and Casita had to practically turn herself inside out to find those glasses again.

Camilo grinned. "Well, now they're stuck to your face. No more worries."

Mirabel suddenly noticed the loose threads hanging from Camilo's yellow poncho. "Your poncho's starting to fray from all the use."

"Huh?" Camilo looked down at himself and felt the hem of the poncho that felt along the sleeves of his white shirt. "Oh…I guess so."

Mirabel smiled lopsidedly. "Don't worry about it. Ponchos are really easy. I could probably finish a new one for you in a few days."

Camilo looked flustered. "Thanks."

Mirabel turned to face the door of her new room. "That is, if I have a sewing machine in my room. Casita?"

Casita's floor tiles tapped proudly. Your room has everything you need.

Antonio took Mirabel's hand and beamed at her. "I want to see your room. I bet it's the coolest."

Mirabel chuckled. "I don't know how cool it's going to be compared to a whole rainforest, but let's look!" She opened her door, and everyone gathered around her and Antonio.

She couldn't help but be taken aback and awed. Her room was round in shape, with a central spiral staircase leading up to another floor. On the entry level floor was her bedroom, with a bed like a grander version of her bed in the Nursery, and wallpaper reminiscent of the wallpaper Mirabel had hand-painted in the Nursery in her spare time. The difference was that there were now golden butterflies in the wallpaper as well. Her wardrobe of clothes, a clothes basket for dirty laundry, a full length mirror, her favorite rug, and other familiar things were all here.

Mirabel walked into the room with Antonio and felt a wave of relief as the magic inside of her synced with the magic in this room. I'm home, she thought again.

"Let's see what's upstairs!" Antonio excitedly tugged her in the direction of the spiral staircase.

Mirabel laughed at his enthusiasm. "Okay, okay, okay."

They walked upstairs together and discovered a second floor that was all windows containing a sewing workshop. There were dressmaking dummies of different heights and body sizes, a sewing table with a sewing machine and a basket of thread and yarn and needles, including knitting needles for croqueting, and a display of bolts of cloth. "Wow, this is amazing," Mirabel murmured.

"The stairs keep going up!" Antonio exclaimed.

They climbed the stairs one more time and ended up in another room of all windows. This place was smaller and had a domed roof. "We're so high up," Mirabel said with awe. "I could see anything I wanted to from here. The whole Encanto."

Tío Bruno joined them. "I bet that's the point. This is a lookout tower."

"It's incredible," Mirabel said.

He smiled. "Yeah. Just like you. No matter what, I want you to remember that you're the real Gift. Your worth doesn't come from some magical ability. It's great, and you deserve it, but it's not what's worthwhile about you. You saved me with no Miracle to back you up, remember?" He hugged her.

A golden flash went off as they hugged, and Mirabel felt a rush of lightness. "I think you just used your Gift."

Tío Bruno let out a startled chuckle. "I guess I did kind of say a blessing over you." He hugged Antonio. "Your turn. I bless you to always remember that you're the real Gift, not some magic you possess. Just you." The golden flash went off again.

Antonio beamed and hugged Bruno in return. "Gracias, tío!"

Bruno ran back downstairs, calling, "I've discovered something I can do with my Gift!"

Mirabel laughed with joy. I've never seen him so excited. This is the best day ever. Well...technically it's the best early morning when we should all really be asleep ever. She and Antonio followed him downstairs to the ground floor. "There's a tower up there," she informed Má and the others.

"I thought Tío would get the tower room," Camilo said.

Bruno shrugged. "Meh. Mirabel will put it to better use than I can. Besides, I'm sick of stairs."

Má and Tía Julieta hugged him. "Yes, you never have to go so far away from the family again," Má said.

He smiled softly and hugged them in return.

Abuela clapped her hands together. "And now, it is time for bed."

"Aw, I want to see everyone's rooms," Antonio said, crestfallen.

"In the morning," Abuela said. "Or…should I say…the afternoon? It is now very, very late, Toñito."

"I guess so," Antonio said.

Tía Pepa laughed and picked him up, hugging him. "Yes, it is. Off to bed with you. I'll tuck you in." She kissed his forehead.

Mirabel wished everyone good night as they filed out of her new room. As she shut her door, she breathed deeply and spun in a slow circle, taking in everything that she could. All mine. A room of my own. She had her own bathroom now, too. They all did. No more fighting over a communal space while Isabela was doing her hair, Dolores was doing her makeup, Tía Pepa was giving Antonio a bath, and Camilo was pounding on the door because he needed to pee. Just because only having one bathroom in a house was traditional didn't make it good. Mirabel treated herself to a hot herbal soak in her new bathtub, toweled off, rubbed coconut oil through her hair, rummaged through the chest at the foot of her new bed for which nightgown she wanted, got dressed, and snuggled herself deep in the folds of her familiar looking, but much softer and more luxurious, bed. "Good night, Casita."

Casita's floorboards pattered out a soft response. Good night, mi vida.

With the new magic humming inside of her, Mirabel fell asleep.