Warning: mention of self-harm.

Mirabel fought down the flashback of her own gift ceremony as she lead Antonio to his door, climbing the stairs with him. Soon they were in front of Abuela who hissed softly at Mirabel to get out of the way, and that she would deal with her later. She should have known that walking Antonio to his door would get her in trouble, she thought as she tried to weave her way to the back of the crowd of family, ignoring the hisses and disappointed looks of her family that she had allowed herself to be seen interacting with them in front of the villagers. She was in so much trouble. Hopefully, Antonio will get such an amazing gift that they'll forget about her.

"Will you use your gift to honor our miracle? Will you serve this community and strengthen our home?" Alma asked.

Antonio looked nervously at his mother, who was trying to keep a cloud from forming over her head, to Isabela with her fake smile, and Dolores who had a pained look on her face due to the large crowd murmuring with excitement down below. Then he looked at Mirabel, who was already making her way unseen back to the nursery. Nobody else noticed that she was leaving, nobody else cared. No one with gifts cared about Mirabel. They didn't care when she was sick, or when she was so lonely that her arms started to bleed. What if he forgot Mirabel like the others had? What if having his own gift meant that he had to forget Mirabel?

"Tonito," Alma said softly, "Will you use your gift for the good of the community?"

Good of the community, Dolores was stuck with a headache most of the time because of the good of the community. Isabela was never truly happy, Luisa was always working, and his mother was always so stressed trying to please everyone in the community.

"Tonito, you need to say yes," Alma prompted.

"No," Antonio announced, causing a uniform gasp to form through the crowd.

"What?" Alma asked, "Why won't you use your gift to help?" she demanded.

"I don't want a gift," Antonio insisted, "I'm happy just the way I am."

Alma glanced over at her oldest daughter, she should have forced her to send Mirabel away when Antonio was a baby, this was obviously all her fault.

"Why don't you want a gift Tonito," Pepa asked, a cloud popping up over her head.

"Because if I have a gift I'll be unhappy like you and everyone else," Antonio insisted, "And I'll either totally ignore Mirabel, or I'll start acting mean to her, like Isabela! I don't want to be mean like Isabela! Not to Mirabel! She's my best friend. She needs me. If I'm not around she gets so lonely that her arms bleed, I've seen them bleed myself. Therefore I don't want a gift."

Mirabel had paused when Antonio said No, a chill traveling down her spine, there was no way that Abuela was going to let this slide, and no way that she wasn't going to blame her for this. It was time for her to leave the Encanto. She knew that this day was going to come, she just hadn't thought that this day would come so soon. It was a good thing that she kept her bag packed at all times and on her, she didn't have time to pack. She had to leave now.

She raced as fast as she could to the back staircase next to Dolores's room, down beneath her there was a stirring of people, her name hanging in the air, she was out of time, she needed to hide now!

Casita clicked her tiles at her as she swung open a picture next to Dolores's door, a large hole appearing behind it. Mirabel didn't even stop to think where the hole came from and why it was in the wall, she dived in head first, slamming the painting shut behind her as the roar of the party reached her. This was bad, this was very very bad, she was stuck. If she stayed in the walls, Dolores would hear her, if she leaves the walls then Abuela was going to kill her.

Bruno had been lurking just inside the entrance to his hidden room in the walls, wanting to hear Antonio get his gift. He heard Antonio say no and heard the panicked footsteps coming towards his hiding place, heard Casita click her tiles, and watched as Mirabel dove into his hiding place, landing on his feet, literally.

It took her a couple of minutes, hand pressed against her chest, breathing heavily, to compose herself.

Finally, Mirabel seemed to catch her breath and started to look around her hiding spot, her eyes widening as she noticed the feet she was laying on, looking upward until she met large green eyes, "What?" she asked.

"Not here," Bruno insisted, offering her a hand up, "If someone besides Dolores hears us…" he trailed off, "Follow me."

...

Alma was trying to salvage this, how could Mirabel do this to her, to the family? She knew how important this gift ceremony was to them. Why did she have to convince Antonio that he didn't want to have a gift?

She sighed as her familia carefully escorted everyone else out of Casita, just like what happened after Mirabel's gift ceremony. She was going to be busy for the next few weeks, cleaning up this mess Mirabel had caused.

Speaking of Mirabel, where had that girl disappeared to? She glanced around, before spotting Dolores, Mirabel had been there when Antonio had told her that he didn't want a gift, so she couldn't have gotten far, still well within Dolores's hearing range.

"Dolores, where is Mirabel?"

"I don't know," Dolores insisted.

"Well, listen for her, she can't have gotten far."

Dolores tipped her head to the side, listening carefully.

"Abuela is going to kill me."

"Trust me, Kid, I understand."

Mirabel was with Tio Bruno, hiding in the wall, and she promised Tio that she'll keep his location secret…

"I can't hear her," she insisted.

"How in the world? She can't have gotten out of your hearing range yet?" Alma's eyes narrowed, "I don't appreciate being lied to Dolores, now where is Mirabel?"

"I can't tell you," Dolores insisted, "I promised that I wouldn't tell."

"Enough Dolores!" Alma snapped, causing Dolores to cover her ears, "Tell me where Mirabel is!" she shouted, grabbing her shoulders.

Dolores whimpered, "She's hiding from you," she whispered, "She's afraid that you're going to kill her," she admitted, causing Alma to gasp, loosening her grip on Dolores, allowing the younger woman to break free and flee to her bedroom.

Julieta had no idea where her youngest had disappeared to. She had escorted Antonio to his door, but then she had disappeared. Had she instructed Antonio to tell Mama no about the gift? Had she told him that if he had a gift he would forget about her, ignore her, or even be rude to her? Why had he singled out Isabela as being cruel to Mirabel? And what did he mean that Mirabel would get so lonely that her arms would bleed? She never heard of anything like that before. Part of her wondered if perhaps Mirabel was self-harming herself and Antonio had walked in on her once, and that's where that had come from, but another part of her rebelled against that idea. Surely she would have noticed that Mirabel was harming herself? Right?

She needed to talk to Mirabel, but to do that she had to talk to Dolores. Mirabel couldn't possibly have gone out of Dolores's hearing range yet. She had been there right before Antonio said no.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one who was interested in talking to Dolores about Mirabel's whereabouts, her mother was… manhandling Dolores and demanding answers. She pursed her lips, as Dolores explained that Mirabel was hiding from her because she was scared that she would harm her, and then Dolores fled to her room, no doubt locking her door as she did.

Alma turned around after Dolores had fled, only to find Julieta giving her a dirty look with her hands on her hip, "You should be lucky that I was the one who saw you manhandling Dolores, and not Pepa because I wouldn't be surprised if Pepa had struck you with lightning for that."

"What?" Alma asked, confused.

"You just attacked Dolores!" Julieta exclaimed, "She ran away from you so that you wouldn't hurt her more. Mirabel is hiding somewhere to avoid you. And Antonio, are we just going to ignore what he said, because I have a feeling that he was being honest."

"He was just saying what Mirabel told him to say," Alma insisted.

"No, Mama, I don't think so," Julieta insisted, "I think Antonio is just telling us what he has observed. If Mirabel had instructed him to say that, either she wouldn't be hiding now, or she would have left sooner and gotten out of Dolores's hearing range."

"Come on, you know that it isn't true, you're happy, aren't you?"

"I can't truly be happy if my children aren't," Julieta insisted, "And I know for a fact that my children aren't happy. The five-year-old can pick up on that, why can't you?" she asked.

"Juli…" Alma started but Julieta rose her hand up in the air, cutting her off.

"Don't think that I'm not telling Pepa about what you just did to Dolores," Julieta insisted.

"It was just a misunderstanding," Alma insisted.

"Misunderstanding? Mama, I heard you yell at her. I watched her flee from her, this was no misunderstanding."

"Well, what do you want from me?"

"At the moment I don't know, and until I know, I want you to stay away from me and my children, and I'm sure Pepa's going to say the same thing."

Mirabel curled up in Tio Bruno's armchair, "This is really, really bad," she insisted, "I had nothing to do with this, I promise Tio Bruno."

"I know," Bruno said as the room lit up by lightning, and a loud crash of thunder.

"Mama did what!" Pepa's voice filtered through the crack in the wall.

"She physically attacked Dolores because she refused to tell her where Mirabel is," Julieta insisted, "Apparently she's nearby, hiding from Mama, because she's afraid that she'll physically harm her, and after what I saw with Dolores, I don't blame Mirabel."

Thunder crackled in the air, rain pouring down, drenching the two women in the dining room. Pepa muttered something too low for the two eavesdroppers to hear, and Julieta answered, "I really don't know, the first thing I need to do is make sure that Mirabel is okay. I need to get Dolores to trust me enough to tell me where she is."