When I woke up the next morning and saw her sleeping on the floor, her skirt slightly up, her hair on her face, and her glasses crooked, I realized how weak I had been the night before. I had to get out of there.

I got up trying not to make any noise, changed my pants, and took off my pajama top to put on my brown shirt.

"Bruno…? Hey, why am I on the fl…? Oh."

Oh? What was happening? Why had she turned so red all of a sudden? Why was she looking at me like that?

"Were you… already… leaving?"

Oh, no. My shirt!

Realizing that it was my partial nudity that was making her react like that, I panicked, looking in all directions for a solution without being able to come up with the quickest and most logical one until, in the end, I ran to her and took off her glasses.

"Bruno, I can still see you," she informed laughing.

"You can?"

"So blind do you think I am?!" she protested taking the glasses from my hands with a mocking smile and putting them back on.

"I… I'm sorry. The shirt, I'll put on the shirt."

I ran back to the starting point, retrieved the shirt, quickly and terribly nervously pulled it on, and got ready to do up the buttons.

"Hold on!"

"Huh? What? Why?"

"Just… wait."

Mirabel approached me slowly without taking her eyes off my chest, slowly raised her hand, and placed her fingertips on the bare skin of my collarbone.

I wanted to talk; I wanted to tell her that she had to stop, that that was not right, that I had to leave. But none of my muscles responded to that false desire and I could only stay frozen in place, letting my chest rise out of sheer excitement while watching her intent, eager gaze; feeling her fingers travel down my torso until they grazed my navel.

*author's note: look for hiptoff on Tumblr or AO3 to see the extra illustration that belongs to this point.

"Mi… Mirabel…"

"So, you're not a hairy-chested man, huh?" she said then giving me a sweet and at the same time mischievous smile, as she began to close the buttons of my shirt one by one.

"Ah, no…" I foolishly chuckled. "I'm not."

Did she expect me to be? Would she have liked that? Would she have been disappointed? And, above all, weren't those the wrong questions?

"Mirabel, I…"

"Thanks for staying with me, Bruno. Good morning."

She placed a warm kiss on my cheek, much closer to my neck than ever before, and walked away, with a firm and determined step, making it clear that I was never going to find a hole deep enough to hide from her.

"Bruno, I've been for a while thinking about it…"

Since her birthday, Mirabel had returned to normal, and with her, the whole house seemed happier.

"Do you want me to…?"

"What… to what?!"

It was me the one who was not able to return to normal. I should never have agreed to sleep with her, I should never have changed my clothes in the same room she was in even though she was supposed to be asleep, and, above all, I should have run away the moment she asked me to stop dressing. Since that moment, I had never lived in peace again; my mind was on guard and my body, desperate to lock up that guard somewhere far under the sea and let Mirabel do with it what she wished.

"…to sew your ruana? The seams are getting worse…"

"Ah… Oh! Ehm…"

"It's not a bother, I promise."

Yeah… she also promised that we were only going to sleep…

I had to focus, I had to think about her, about my family, about those I love. I had to relax and be the uncle I was meant to be.

"Uh… okay. I appreciate it."

Mirabel took my ruana and began to mend sitting next to me while she delighted me with her opinions on the adventures and misadventures of her sisters. Apparently, she already knew that Isabela had been rejected.

"What with the story about the magic box with people inside? Do you believe them?"

"The TV thing? Of course."

"You already knew, didn't you?"

"May be…"

"What else have you seen in your visions that you haven't told us?"

"Uh… no… I don't like to tell things like that. That would take the excitement out of the future and…"

"Fiiine, don't tell me if you don't want to, I'll find out."

"Yes… You will."

Indeed, sooner or later she would realize what the future held for her.

"Ha…" she sighed then. "It must have been very hard for her. She's always needed the approval of others, especially Abuela's, and it must have taken her a lot of courage to be honest with that Elisa… Not even when she released her potential and tried to stop being the perfect girl did she dare stand up to Abuela. She must have really liked that woman…"

"Well, I can understand her."

"You do?"

"About… about Abuela's thing; I'm talking about Abuela's thing."

"Oh, okay… Why?"

"I guess I felt something similar. I was seeking her approval and I didn't dare to confront her… Only I didn't have her approval anyway…"

I laughed to lighten the mood and continued to repair my broken sandal.

"But you did face her, remember?"

"Oh, well… that was… thanks to you. I needed you to work up the courage to do it. In fact, you're probably the only one capable of making me stand up to Abuela."

"You were there when we argued, right? You heard what she said; that's why you seemed so hurt to see her again."

"It hurt to know she thought I didn't care about the family, but… I also heard how you stood up for me and I felt really seen by you. You gave me the courage to face her; I couldn't let her walk all over you too. Not you… But it turned out that you had already solved it and you didn't need me at all. Better this way."

"I always need you. Not for you to defend me, but for you to be with me. And… about that, I already told you some time ago, it meant a lot to me."

"Yeah… well… it was not big deal."

"Would you face her again for me?"

"Only if I thought it would do any good to you."

Mirabel sighed again and I knew she understood what I was trying to say.

"Here. Your ruana. Not like new, but it will last another season…"

"Thank you, Mirabel."

"Anytime."

Mirabel got up, gathered her things, and left accompanied by the heavy aura that my words had left her with.

What else could I do?

I sighed too and saw the overwhelming quality of the arrangements that Mirabel had made on my old ruana. Afterward, I discreetly sniffed it to once again remind her sweet scent and finally put it back on. But, something was different about it; it seemed that Mirabel had left some string on the inside.

I searched through the fabric following the patch of color I had seen and I also realized what she was saying to me. Inside my ruana, at chest height, a small embroidery tried to camouflage itself between the fabric; a small blue decoration; a small em that would always keep her glued to me.

I smiled sadly and put on my ruana. She was right: it didn't matter what the future had in store for her; she would always be in my heart.