Circus Life:

Mirabel frowned as she peered onto the stage from the back, looking at the crowd that was making its way into the stands. This was her first performance back after giving birth to her daughter, Juliana, it was also the first performance she and her sister had done inside Colombia ever.
"You okay, sis?" Isabela asked, peering over her sister's shoulder.

"Does homesickness cause hallucinations?" Mirabel asked, tipping her head as she scanned the stands.

"Not that I've ever heard of, why?"

"Either I'm hallucinating, or that's Luisa in the crowd."

"Where?"

"Straight ahead, top of the bleachers," Mirabel said, pointing towards where she had thought she had seen their sister.

Isabela followed her finger, "That isn't Luisa," she insisted, turning to Mirabel, "That's the whole Familia, plus some!"

"What do you mean plus some?" Mirabel demanded.

"Well, Luisa's at the end of the row," Isabela said, "And I have no idea who that is sitting next to her, but they both have kids on their laps, you probably missed them because Luisa hadn't sat down and pulled them up on her lap yet, but on the other side of the man is Mama y Papa."

"Mama and Papa," Mirabel echoed, she had been so shocked at seeing Luisa, or at least thinking that she had seen Luisa, that she hadn't noticed her parents with her, but as she looked at where Luisa was, sure enough, she had a child on her lap and was talking softly to the man next to her with another child, a girl by the looks of things, but she couldn't be sure, sitting on his lap, with their parents sitting next to them, first Papa and then Mama, who was sitting by a strange man in a green rauna, who was sitting next to their Tia Pepa. Whoever the man was between the sisters, they were talking to him softly, obviously, even from this great distance, they knew each other and were comfortable with him.

Tonito sat between his parents, with Dolores sitting on the other side of Felix, "Does Dolores look pregnant to you?" Isabela asked, suddenly as their Prima stood up suddenly and started to make her way down the row, pass Mariano, who was holding a little boy in his lap, more of the 'plus some' that Isabela had mentioned, pass Camilo and a young woman that looked like it might be Francisca or maybe Guadelupe, they were twins that Camilo had taken an interest in before she had left, but for the life of her, she couldn't tell them apart, especially at this distance.

"Dolores is obviously pregnant," Mirabel agreed, "The only one not here is Abuela," she announced, scanning the row of family once again.

"Well, I don't really think that she's the type of person that will go to the circus," Isabela said before she paled, "Mira, Lolo's gift!" she hissed.

Mirabel frowned, "Your gift is gone, and Tia doesn't have a cloud over her head right now, so… Maybe their gift stopped working when they left the Encanto as well?"

Isabela shook her head, "No," she insisted, "My gift didn't disappear until I left Colombia," she insisted.

"But is your gift back?"

"No, but maybe I need to return to Encanto for it to come back? We don't know how the magic works."

"True," Mirabel muttered, humming softly to herself as their ringmaster ran out onto the stage, starting the show.

The two sisters took one last glance at their family before slipping back into the backstage area, waiting for their part of the show to start.

Finally, they watched as Mirabel's boyfriend, Carlos, rode out onto the stage with his horse and the rest of the trick riders. She was up next. She nodded to Isabela, acknowledging the fact that they needed to get in position, before making her way up a tall ladder, higher and higher, up to the very top of the tent. It was a good thing that she loved heights as much as she did, or she would have hated her job. Then again, if she hadn't been goofing off with the trapezes with Isabela after reuniting with her nine months after she had run away, and seven months after Isabela had thought she had given up her entire family when she chose to escape her arranged marriage, she wouldn't have had this job anyway.

With that thought, Mirabel glanced out to the audience, just in time to see a maroon figure leaving the end of the row that her family was sitting on and making her way to the entrance. She couldn't see the details of the face, even with her contacts, the distance was too far, but she had an eerie feeling that that was Abuela leaving the show.

She wished that she could ask Isabela if she saw her too, but the hand signals that they knew only covered the basics of what they had to discuss to make sure that their timing was spot on, and there was no talking allowed on stage unless it was scripted.

Down below the last of the horses rode back through the back entrance, clearing the stage as the ringmaster raced back onto the stage, hands high in the air as he called everyone's attention to him. This was it, just have to wait for her cue.

"Turn your eyes skyward for the flight of the Butterfly Sisters," he called out, gesturing up toward them. That was the cue. Mirabel adjusted her grip on her trapeze and leaped off the platform, feeling the rush of adrenaline as she went hurtling towards the stage below her before swinging her weight sending her forward, before finally, she let go, soaring through the air, she tucked herself up into a tight ball. She felt gravity grab her, and felt herself falling down toward the stage below, she straightened up, full out, arms reached out above her and toes pointed towards the ground.

Down below she heard several gasps of disbelief as a sudden jolt stopped her fall, as a warm hand grabbed her wrist, tightening around it at the same time that she tightened hers around a wrist as well. Mirabel grinned up at her sister before they swung in perfect unison as if they were one body instead of two until finally they let go of each other and sent Mirabel flying into the air before she flipped right as she started to fall again, catching hold of her trapeze with her knees.

Now Isabela was swinging towards her, repeating the trick in reverse, with Isabela flying through the air and Mirabel catching before returning her to her own trapeze. The crowd below went wild with applause, as Mirabel and Isabela moved as one to sit on the trapezes. They had a second rest, allowing the crowd to cheer, and for the same maroon-clad woman to return to sit down next to the girl who was sitting next to Camilo, it was Abuela, she was sure of it.

Then they were flipping, over and over their trapezes, jumping into the space between, twirling around each other grabbing the other trapeze and repeating, over and over again, back and forth, right side up, and upside down, at one point they shared a quick hug mid-air as they leaped past each other, grabbing the trapeze the other had just abandoned.

After what felt like an eternity at the same time it felt like a blink of an eye the routine was over, and both of them were back on their platforms slowly climbing back down into the backstage area.

"You were great," the lion tamer, Diego said, offering them towels and bottles of water, which they accepted gracefully as the clowns goofed around onstage.

"Thanks," Isabela said, swiping the sweat from her brow.

Mirabel smirked slightly as she saw the smear of makeup come off before downing her water bottle and wiping the sweat from her brow as well, they would both need to hit up Makeup before the curtain call, "I'm going to go check on Juli, then hit Makeup, you coming, Isa?"

"I want to watch Diego's performance, then I'll meet you at Makeup, okay?"

Antonio sat on the edge of his seat, watching as the Ringmaster run back on stage, "Well, Folks that's the end of the show," he announced, "Thank you all for coming."

"Mami," he announced as everyone started to get up and gather their things together, "I want to go down and meet the man who had the lion."

Pepa frowned, as she looked around, several other families had moved onto the stage and were talking to the performers, who were mingling around the stage, "I suppose we can try to, but don't be too upset if we can't okay Tonito."

"Okay!"


Isabela made her way through the crowd of performers and audience members, stopping every once in a while to sign an autograph or pose for a picture, before finally making her way over to Diego. Now that the show was over with they didn't have to worry about a script, and they could just mingle with the audience and each other.

"Hey, Diego," she called out, resting one of her arms on top of his shoulder, "You were really great tonight."

"Thank you, so were you," Diego said before arching an eyebrow, "Where's your sister, usually you're the one that bows out of the meet and greet session."

"Well, that might be true, but Mirabel was missing her baby and had to go fetch her," Isabela said as Antonio raced up to Diego.

"You were amazing," he said happily, bouncing in place the same way that Mirabel did when she was excited.

Isabela smirked, "Well, I'll leave you to your fan," she said, "Catch you later Diego."

"Yeah, later Isa," Diego said absently, waving at her with one hand as he took the pen and paper Antonio was holding with the other.

Isabela turned to leave only to find a pair of green eyes staring down at her, a pair of green eyes accompanied by graying red hair and a yellow dress.

"Oh, pardon me," Isabela said politely, hoping that her dyed hair and sparkly leotard would be enough of a disguise to throw her tia off.


Pepa led Antonio down to the stage, after stopping by Mama, who gave Antonio a piece of paper and a pen to get an autograph. As they approached the lion tamer, they saw him talking to one of the trapeze artists whose long black hair was so streaked with different colors that you had to look closely to see the natural black hair underneath.

As Antonio spoke to the Lion Tamer, the acrobat excused herself and turned to leave. There was something familiar about her voice.

When she accidentally ran into her, there was something familiar about her face as well, "Oh, pardon me," she spoke, that familiar voice again, combined with that familiar face, and there was only one person this could be.

"Isabela?" she asked softly, not wanting to believe her eyes and ears.

Isabela grimaced, "Guilty as charged," she admitted, "So how did you enjoy the show, Tia?"

Pepa gave Isabela a look that normally would have been accompanied by thunder, but there was none, "Seriously, you've been missing for five years, and that's what you've got to say for yourself? I should drag you back myself."

"First off, Tia, dragging me home would be considered kidnapping as I am an adult and I don't want to go with you. Second, I'm on contract right now, and breaking that contract will cause a whole lot of trouble. Third, I can't really go with you tonight, I promised Mirabel that I'll help cook dinner."

"Mirabel's here too!" Pepa exclaimed, "Okay that's it," she announced, placing a hand on Isabela's shoulder, "Antonio, I need you to fetch the rest of the family. Tell them that I have Isabela, and she can tell us where Mirabel is."

Isabela groaned as she felt her tia put a hand on her shoulder. She now had two choices, deal with the family or break free from her tia, possibly hurting her, and make a run for it. She couldn't hurt her tia though, and honestly, she kind of wanted to see her parents, wanted to show them what she had become. Show them that she wasn't just some pretty face.

Mirabel was going to hate her.