Pepa knew that of her three siblings she was the most adventurous. Which seemed rather odd considering her powers were controlled by her emotions and thus she needed to be calm to keep herself and others safe. But the fact remained that she was the one willing to take the biggest risks out of the three of them, to the point that Julieta had often joked when they were younger that her gift should have been indestructibility. When they had been children she had been the one to push them during their free time to explore outside of the casita despite the warnings of their mother. As she had grown older she had been the first to get married, as Julieta and Agustin had engaged in a more typical romance while her and Felix had been a whirlwind (sometimes literally). She was just braver than her siblings.

Or, at least, she had been. Now Bruno seemed to hold that title thanks to his decade of adventuring.

Case in point… watching as Mirabel and Luisa, without a second thought, striped completely naked and slipped into the steaming warm waters of the massive underground bath.

"Bruno does this?" Julieta asked as she played with the buttons of her blouse.

"Well, in the guy's bath," Mirabel said as she sunk down into the water so that only her head was visible. The water was slightly tinted purple, which Luisa had earlier told them made for the sweet scent of fresh lavender but also helped make it harder to see that the 15 year old's nude form. That didn't help when Luisa began to float on her back, eyes shut and a blissful smile on her face. "There is no way he'd be allowed in here. Gahoole would tan his hide… and mine if I tried to sneak into the guy's. Which I wouldn't because-" She crinkled her nose.

"But Bruno bathes with other men?" Julieta asked, clearly trying to wrap her mind around her shy little hermano being so bold.

"I guess. None of them ever teased him for wearing swim trunks."

Isabella shook her head, taking another step back from the water and clutching at her dress like she thought they were going to rip it off of her. "I am NOT doing this!"

"You can sit on the benches," Mirabel offered as she began to slowly swim through the water. Honestly, calling it a bath was so ridiculous when it was just a square pool! "Sometimes I like to just dip my toes in the water. That's relaxing too."

"In that purple ooze?" Isabella complained. "It might dye my skin!"

Luisa laughed at that. "It won't! I go in here every morning and it doesn't stick to my skin! It just makes the water smell nice, eases tension, and lets me float better!"

Isabella shook her head. "This is just ridiculous! What if someone saw you two?"

"Who would see them… or me?" Isabella (and Pepa) turned to see that Dolores had shucked off her clothing save for her scarf, padding over to the water and carefully slipping in. The moment she was submerged she let out a little squeak before a smile blossomed on her face. "Oh… oh this is so nice!" she began to walk through the water, eyes half closed. "All my muscles…"

"Isn't it great?" Luisa said before diving into the water, coming up a few moments later, her normally tightly tied hair now loose and falling down the back of her neck. She swam over and began to help Dolores remove the pins from her hair, letting the curly locks tumble down. "I can go for a run and feel like I am dying but after I dip I am ready to tackle any chore!"

Mirabel nodded. "Oh yeah, that's the entire point!" She moved to the edge and touched some writing which glowed and steam began to rise up from the water, filling the room with a fog. "We always go and hit the bathhouse after a hard adventure… sometimes you are dragging yourself into the Bureau feeling more like a slime monster than a person but a bit of time in here and you are back to normal."

Pepa looked over at her sister and then back at the kids who weren't batting an eye at each other's state of undress. Nothing sexual. Nothing perverted. Just young women enjoying the water together. Luisa had gotten the last of the pins from Dolores' hair and was now showing her how to float while Mirabel went over to the opposite side and grabbed a basket that she placed in the water; it floated and was filled with different bottles and bars of soap.

"It… does look rather nice," Julieta said before fanning herself.

"And it is getting warm in here," Pepa said before she set her jaw and began to slip out of her own clothing.

A few minutes later she carefully eased herself into the waters, Julieta joining her. The moment she did she nearly stumbled until Luisa showed her a small step on the side of the bath that she could sit on. She needed it because she could feel her muscles turning into butter. The warm water seemed to be going right through her skin and finding every knot, every tense spot, every ache she had and gently kneading them away. She heard Julieta groan and saw her sitting on her own bench, only her head visible as she shut her eyes and just basked in the feeling.

"I told you this was great!" Mirabel said, passing her mother a floating bath pillow to wrap around her neck. "You should see about getting one of these for casita."

"You, I'm sure mama would LOVE this," Pepa said sarcastically.

"I bet she would!" Mirabel said cheerfully. "Gahoole swears by it. Says that it has taken 10 years back for her and she's as old as abuela."

"I want one for my room!" Luisa declared.

"If you had one you'd never leave!" Mirabel teased.

Pepa looked over at Dolores as she floated by, Luisa and Mirabel playfully joking with each other while Julieta tried to get Isabella to at least approach the edge. "How are you doing?"

"mmmm," Dolores said with a happy little smile.

"This isn't too loud for you?"

Dolores gave a tiny shake of her head, raising a hand to touch her scarf. "I… didn't get a chance to tell you. Mirabel fixed my gift."

"She what?!" Isabella exclaimed.

"Isa! Shhh!" Julieta hissed.

But to Pepa's surprise Dolores merely kept floating there, a blissful look on her face.

"…how?" Pepa whispered.

"My scarf," Dolores said before launching into an explanation of the discs Mirabel had made that let her control her hearing. Pepa just shook her head in shock in amazement.

"That… that is amazing."

"It's just magic," Mirabel said.

"…I am beginning to understand how the villagers feel when I say that," Pepa stated, looking over at Julieta.

"Mirabel," her hermana said, "do you have any… non violent stories you can tell us?"

"Oh, absolutely!" Mirabel said happily. "So to begin I need to explain a bit about gnomes…"

As Mirabel talked Pepa looked at Dolores. "These discs… they really helped?"

"They did… they do mama." She opened her eyes and a tear fell even as she smiled. "I was able to sing, mama. In the forest me and Mirabel sang at the top of our lungs. It… it was wonderful!"

Pepa smiled at that as well. "I am so happy for you."

And as Dolores pushed off to get closer so she could hear Mirabel's story Pepa was struck by the fact that… well… she'd just had that entire conversation while in a bath with her family, without a stitch of clothing, and hadn't found it strange or unusual at all. She knew her mama would have been aghast at that, declaring they were heathens or indecent… but it had just been relaxing. Peaceful. She glanced up and saw that Isabella had even, when no one was looking, taken off her dress and wrapped herself in a towel in order to deal with the heat. She looked nervous but… it was a start. She was shying away from the water but she'd at least sat down on one of the stone benches.

Pepa leaned back and listened as Mirabel told them about a trope of gnomes who had decided that they wanted to open a restaurant and how her group had been hired to act as waiters for opening night… and wondered if it might not be wise to make this a regular thing?

~MC~GF~MC~GF~

Camilo looked down at his swim trunks and found it so very odd that while he KNEW he should have been glad to have them… he kind of wanted to get rid of them. Because he felt like he was missing out on something having them on.

"Careful, hijo!" papa said as Antonio scurried to climb down into the tub, or rather tha massive pool that Bruno called a tub. "The water is very deep."

Antonio was the reason Bruno had asked the Bureau and Casita to bring them all their trunks at the last minute. Camilo knew if he hadn't been there or if he had been older his tio most likely would have striped right there and went right into the bath without a second thought.

Honestly Camilo wouldn't have minded. He supposed other boys in the village might have thought it odd to bathe with your family but… well… when you could transform into anyone… and had a curious mind like he did… you quickly got used to nudity. At this point he was sure thanks to all his practicing there wasn't a single person in the valley he hadn't 'seen' naked.

"Its fine!" Bruno assured papa, sitting on a sunken step with his arms stretched out. "Its enchanted water."

Tio Agustin, who looked awkward even in his pale green swim trunks, looked at the purple water he was currently only knee deep in. "Enchanted?"

"You can't drown in this. You dive down and it pushes you right back up. You have to WILL yourself to go down otherwise you bob!" He glanced over at papa. "Give it a try!"

Papa, who had been holding Antonio in the water, slowly let go… and Camilo watched as his brother bobbed up and down like a rubber duck, laughing in delight. Even when he fell onto his side the water seemed to roll him so he was on his back.

"This is amazing!" Antonio declared.

"Remember you can only do that in the Bureau!" Bruno warned. "Don't do it in a lake, okay?"

"Okay Tio Bruno!" Antonio promised as he began to kick.

That was another thing Camilo noticed as he slid into the water; no matter how hard his hermano kicked he didn't send water spraying all over. It splashed out… but only an inch or two before falling back into the tub.

"Enchanted water…" Agustin said softly as he settled into the tub. "Ernesto has been holding out on me."

"To be fair it took him a while to get all this. We pooled a lot of our money to help upgrade the Bureau."

"Ha!" papa laughed at the pun.

"How does that work exactly?" Camilo asked. "You said that you guys get paid to… go explore things?"

Bruno laughed. "You make it sound easy!" he paused. "Well, sometimes it's easy. A lot of times its fun. We wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun. Though… not like the fun you guys are used to. Not like playing a boardgame." He paused. "Felix, Agustin. I call for amnestance."

"A… what now?" Papa said, brow screwed up.

"I think I said that right." Bruno scratched at his chin. "Amnesty? Nothing said here can be held against someone?"

"Ah," Agustin said. "Yes, I see no problem with that."

Papa looked at Camilo, clearly realizing what was being offered, before finally sighing. "He'll do enough to get in trouble anyway, don't need to wait for more."

"I'm good with whatever it is!" Antonio said, having far too much fun swimming about.

Tio Bruno nodded and looked back at Camilo. "Think back to your last prank. And I mean a big one."

Camilo instantly had one come to his head. It had involved being utterly silent, multiple form changes, and two days of planning, and a lot of prep work but he'd been able to switch Isabella's panties for ones that were a size too small and get her dresses redone so that the waist and back were brought in. A few well placed comments and she'd actually thought she'd gained 30 pounds all on that "perfect" rump of hers, throwing her into a dieting fit. Then she'd gotten the bras that were 2 cups too big and been reduced to wailing that all her curves were going to her ass.

That's what she got for insulting Luisa after she'd dared to ask for seconds ONE time.

"There were times where you were scared, weren't there? Maybe even terrified? Questioned why you were doing what you were doing and declaring that you'd never do anything like that ever again?"

Camilo nodded. Oh yes… there had been plenty of times where he'd thought just that, fearing what would happen if he were caught.

"But," his tio continued, "you also loved the thrill, didn't you? It was an adrenaline rush. Almost… addictive." He nodded again. "Yeah… that's what adventuring is like. I've been in situations that I can't talk about to any of you because honestly I don't want you to have nightmares. But I wouldn't trade it for the world because the thrill when things finally go right and you take care of a problem? Nothing like that in the world."

Papa smiles at that. "Like dancing with Pepa. I know that I might suddenly get hit by hail or by lightning but that makes it all the more exciting."

"Same with the bees," Agustin admitted.

"Or when I put the mud in your shoes, papa!" Antonio said.

"Yes, just like-wait, what?" Papa looked at Antonio and glowered as he remembered he couldn't actually do anything about what he'd just admitted.

Bruno chuckled as he stretched. "But we were talking about loot. So when we pick up a contract or find someone that needs our help we determine what they can give us. Sometimes they can give us gold or jewels and we take those and pool it all together in order to buy supplies, make repairs, so on. If they can trade for a skill, like magic one of us can't do, we get it written up and cash it in later. Maybe it's a barter." He shrugged. "And sometimes they can't pay at all. Ernesto tends to be the one that picks those as he is always trying to help the helpless. For those we just pillage whatever we can."

"Pillage?" Felix asked.

"Yes, its stealing but it's from necromancers or warlords that enslave their people. That makes it fine. They are horrible people so what does it matter if I take their bedsheets?"

Papa considered that. "…yes, I see your point there."

"So what do you do to keep someone from taking more than their share?" Camilo asked.

Bruno frowned. "They wouldn't do that."

"But they could."

"But they wouldn't," Tio Bruno insisted. "When you have been through as much as we have… its like family, Camilo. You know your family isn't out to hurt you. That you can rely on them."

He shared a look with his uncle and wondered… did he really believe that? Or was it that he wished if he said that just enough… it might come true.