On the fourth day of the festival, Mirabel walks around town with Pepa, Félix, and little Antontio, who was riding his leopard.
"Oh I don't know why, but this wonderful festival makes me feel young again." Pepa clasps her hands together, a dreamy look in her eyes as a rainbow forms above her head. Félix smiles at his wife, the only thing mattering to him being her happiness.
"Antonio, please try to keep your Leopard from jumping on people. You're scaring them." He begs, causing Antonio to bring it back over to the group.
"Sorry, papá. I'll do my best!" He grins, laughing and petting the leopard's head. Mirabel smiles at the little boy softly, ruffling his puffy black hair.
"Let's go into town and find something we can do." She offers. "You know, so Toñito doesn't go too wild."
Pepa smiles, grabbing at the skirts of her dress and flapping them around dramatically. "Oh that sounds wonderful! Buena idea, sobrina."
The four walk up to a small clearing with other people gathered around. In the middle is a couple of teenagers dancing against each other. One in particular looks very familiar to Mirabel.
"Wait, is that…?" She tries to look over the taller people in front of her. Pepa confirms her suspicions by gasping. A cloud forms over her head, thundering softly beneath the sounds of the people around them.
"Camilo is out there, having a dance battle?" She looks at Mirabel incredulously. "As soon as this round is over, you go show him what's what. Take Antonio too." She hisses, looking back up as the dance battle ends. Camilo comes out on top thanks to his shapeshifting abilities, wooing the crowd with his humor. Mirabel grins, picking up Antonio from the leopard's back and pushing through the crowd.
"Who wants to have a piece of me next?!" Camilo taunts, a cocky smirk on his face. As Mirabel emerges from the crowd with Antonio, Camilo's expression quickly changes to surprise.
"Camilo, what are you doing?" Mirabel asks, her eyes half-lidded in dull unamusement.
"Uh, just having some friendly competition. Why, you wanna join in?" He puts his hands on his hips, leaning over Mirabel with a sly chuckle. Annoyed by his ridiculous attitude, she grabs him by his yellow ruana, putting Antonio down.
"You're on, primo." Her eyes bore into him before she shoves him away forcefully.
"Bring it on!" He growls, a smirk on his face. Mirabel ruffles Antonio's hair, grinning at him.
"You ready to show your brother what's what?" He nods with a big grin on his face, a small fire dancing in his pupils. "Then let the dance battle begin!"
By the time the dance battle ends, all three of the Madrigal kids are sweating and panting, staring at each other with mischievous glints in their eyes. Camilo takes a few steps forward, standing directly in front of Mirabel. He turns to ruffle his little brother's hair before hugging Mirabel.
"Heh, not bad, primita. I still think I won though." He teases, his voice barely above a whisper. She groans, returning the hug begrudgingly.
"You smell like a boy's gym locker room." She hisses, wrinkling up her nose at him.
"You're not much better, for your info." He replies, breaking the hug before picking up his little brother and hugging him tightly.
"So how'd you find me anyway?" He asks, but never gets an answer as Pepa comes out of the crowd, her storm cloud having gotten worse.
"Camilo Madrigal!" She yells, causing him to flinch and hide behind Mirabel.
"Uh oh…." He mutters, his hair frizzy and his eyes wild.
"Hijo, what have I told you about auctioning yourself like this?!" Lighting strikes around her as she growls at him.
"What?" Mirabel turns to her cousin, thoroughly confused. "What did you do?!" He shrugs slightly, giggling.
"Well, I may or may not have been encouraging people to bet on the dance battles. She's mad cause this isn't the first time and she's told me not to before. What's wrong with a little fun though?" He asks innocently, running his fingers through his frizzy curls anxiously.
"What's wrong with a little fun?! She literally told you not to do it before! You need to listen to her!" She shoves him angrily, causing him to fall to the ground. He looks up at her, fear lighting his gaze for a split second before boiling into anger. She sighs, holding out her hand to him. "I'm sorry, Camilo, but your mom's right. This is not a good idea. Sorry for pushing you."
He takes her hand begrudgingly, giving her a steady glare. "You're lucky we're best friends. I don't like being shoved around by someone who thinks they're better than me."
Her brows furrow sadly as she takes off her glasses. She uses her skirt to clean them, but it's mostly an excuse to keep her eyes away from him. "I'm gonna go home. Don't bother coming after me." He growls, the crowd letting him get through with fear in their gazes as he stomps away.
They eventually disperse, leaving the four Madrigal members left on their own. Pepa approaches Mirabel, putting her hands on her shoulders.
"Mira, did he hurt you at all?" She asks with concern, worried because of what had just happened.
"No, he never hurt me, tía. He never will either…" Mirabel sighs, putting her glasses back on her round face. "That boy's too sweet to ever actually hurt someone. You don't have to worry about that at least, Pepa."
She smiles and stands up straight, looking over to her family as Antonio hops back on his leopard.
"There's still some time for some family bonding if you want to, sobrina." Mirabel smiles, but shakes her head, looking at the twilight sky.
"I would love to, but I'd like to visit Bruno before the day ends. It's kinda become a running thing for me since he's gotten sick." Pepa glances worriedly at her husband, returning her gaze to Mirabel.
"Are you sure you should go home with Camilo this angry? What if he does end up hurting you because he thinks you were following him?" She asks, a storm cloud forming above her head as she frets over her niece.
"I'll be fine, tía, I promise. I'll just leave him alone. Simple as that!" She smiles, hugging Pepa before turning to head back to the house. The others wave goodbye as she skips away.
By the time she gets home, she hears a slamming of a door upstairs. She sighs, thinking about how mad Camilo must be. She feels herself getting pushed, and the next thing she knows, she's laying on the floor with her back to a pillar, her head hurting and her ears ringing. Her glasses are gone, so she's unable to see her attacker. She feels around in a blind panic, her hand eventually landing on her glasses. She shakily puts them on, looking up into the angry face of her primo Camilo.
"What did I say about not coming after me?!" He growls, grabbing the ruffles of her top and pulling her to her feet. Still feeling dazed, she leans on him so that she can stay standing.
"What are you doing, Camilo?!" An angry, tired voice calls from the stairs. The cousins turn to look, seeing Bruno standing there with a hand on the railing.
"Bruno…" Mirabel feels hot tears start to run down her face, wanting to run to him, but being unable to.
"Lots of things happened today. I'm feeling extremely stressed out. Plus, Mirabel followed me home after I told her not to!" Camilo growls, but Bruno's furrowed brows know better than that.
"You're delusional. It's become a normal thing for Mirabel to come home around twilight. It's not her fault that you decided to come back around twilight as well." Camilo lets go of her, causing her knees to buckle. She falls to the floor as Camilo takes a few steps towards Bruno.
"Oh yeah? And how do you figure that?!" He yells in his face, his frizzy hair puffed up even more than usual. Bruno gets in his face, glaring through the young boy.
"Because every time she comes home around that time, she always comes to visit me."
Camilo, with nothing else to get angry about, just storms up to his room, slamming the door as he walks in. Bruno shakes his head and walks over to Mirabel, crouching down in front of her. "He got you good, didn't he? You have a big lump on your head now."
He gently holds the sides of her head, inspecting the damage done. "Ask your mom for an arepa in the morning. Do not tell her anything about what happened tonight, Camilo did not do this, and I especially did not get out of bed." He winks at the last part, helping her stand up as she regains her composure.
"What do I tell her then when I show up to breakfast with a huge bump on my head?" He hums a moment, running a hand through his black and silver curls.
"Hopefully the swelling will go down enough to where it just looks like you accidentally bumped your head. That's what you'll tell her, you bumped your head that morning." She shrugs slightly.
"Okay… I guess I'll tell her that, but I doubt she'll believe it." He smiles, ruffling her hair, but being careful not to touch her injury.
"Hey, you never know until you try right? It's getting kind of late, so maybe we should get you to bed, okay?"
As Mirabel steps into her bedroom, she gets dressed quickly and lets him know he can enter. The door opens cautiously as Bruno steps in, giving her a soft smile. All of a sudden, Mirabel feels tears come to her eyes as she thinks about Camilo and what he had done. Bruno walks closer in alarm, his hands on her shoulders.
"Mirabel, what's going on? What's wrong?" Her sudden tears worry him immensely.
"Camilo… he's never laid a hand on me before. Why now…?" She asks, her voice getting quieter as she speaks. As he pulls her into a soft embrace, she buries her face in his ruana, letting herself cry. He stays silent as he rubs soothing circles into her back.
Eventually she starts to calm down, her excessive sobbing turning to soft hiccuping as she wipes her tears away. "Thank you for letting me just cry like that, so many people try to cheer me up faster when sometimes I just want to let it all out…" He smiles sadly at her, a look of empathy in his eyes.
"Sometimes a good cry is all you need." Is all he says in response. Despite herself, Mirabel lets out a big yawn, causing Bruno to laugh a bit. "Okay, maybe you should get to sleep. You're all tired out from all that's happened today." He lifts her up into his arms, tossing blankets aside to lay her down gently in the bed. He takes off her glasses and sets them on her nightstand, pulling the covers over her and tucking her into bed. "I hope you have a great time at the festival tomorrow. I hope I'll get to go now that I'm feeling better again."
He leaves a light kiss on her forehead before heading towards the door. "I hope you can come too." Mirabel calls to him from her bed, causing him to pause as he grabs the handle.
"Yeah… that would be a lot of fun." He mutters, opening the door and leaving her room.
