#**cough**

Victoria is the first Rivera to have grown up with the infamous music ban, so even after it’s restored and her grandfather moves in with her family, she can’t help but feel aloof for awhile, trying to get used to this abrupt and unfamiliar change.

Victoria feels bad when she finds herself avoiding her Papá Héctor, who only wants a chance to bond with her. She’s not being cold, she’s just trying to get used to him being around and feels like she needs the space until then, though she really wants to start a bond with him as well.

Her abuelita has scolded her many times for this, which just makes Victoria feel guiltier.

When she goes out into the garden to figure out exactly how she’s going to start a conversation with him, Papá Héctor joins her and quietly sits on the bench, apart enough to give her as much space as possible. He understands Victoria’s quietness and just starts some idle chit-chat about the wild alebrije foxes playing in the courtyard to how beautiful the Land of the Dead’s sunsets are.

Then he tells Victoria that she is far more beautiful than all the sunsets he’s watched combined and she’s just floored. She gawks at him with a slightly slack jaw and he just responds back with a soft gaze and smile.

This man was practically a stranger to her and yet he was giving her a high compliment that she was immensely flattered by.

“After how I’ve been treating you, you’re still being nice to me?”

“Por supuesto!” Héctor exclaimed. “I know you’re not being malicious or mistrusting. You’re just…cautious. I just dropped into your life one day, disrupting any order and balance you knew, and you’re not quite sure how to deal with it it just yet. We never had the chance to know each other in life…”

Héctor’s eyes darkened and narrowed as he looked towards the ground, a tight-lipped frown on his face. His hands clenched into shaking fists. “Ernesto ruined any chance of that. He made me miss so much and I’ll never forgive him for it or everything else he’s done…almost did.”

Héctor inhaled a shaky breath, shaking himself bodily before straightening and returning his softening gaze back to his granddaughter. “But that doesn’t matter now. That’s in the past. What matters is now. I have the chance to make up for everything and I’ve been working so hard to do so. But so far…you’re the only one who I haven’t had the chance to get to really know.”

“I’m sorry,” Victoria whispered, gripping her right arm and looking away. “You’re right. I have been cautious. I was just trying to understand how to accept this change. I felt…scared by it. I don’t like change, and this is a pretty big one. My whole life I was told you were my runaway, good-for-nothing grandfather, that I was to hate you forever.

It took Miguel getting cursed, almost dying, and you being nearly forgotten for us to understand that we were all horribly wrong. If we had been told to begin with…if we had looked further into it, your afterlife wouldn’t have been as miserable as it had been. I can’t help but feel especially guilty.”

Héctor looked at her as if she had grown an extra head. “For what?”

Victoria sighed in frustration, taking off her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose, as if a headache was building-had she been alive one would have been. Stress or incredible guilt did that to her. “I take after Mamá Imelda so much. I’ve been told multiple times that I’m like her twin. Most of my mannerisms and character comes from her. I blindly follow her orders and way of life for so long, I have no personality of my own.”

Héctor opened his mouth to voice his protests but Victoria holding up a hand silenced him, telling him that she wasn’t done speaking. Fidgeting with the right knee of his sewn pants and biting the anxiousness down, he gave Victoria his full attention.

“People have been mocking me, calling me Imelda Jr. It should have been a compliment, seeing as how much Elena idolized her, but it was an insult. It just reminded me that I could have been my own person but was afraid to break out of the persona created for me.

Perhaps if I had done so earlier, I would have been able to tell that the lies passed down to us contradicted Mamá’s stories she secretly told to Elena and me when we were very young. Of course, abuelita found out and told us that Mamá was young herself and didn’t understand the severity of the situation. She and abuelita would get into heated arguments and Elena and I were forced to choose who to believe.

Naturally Elena took abuelita’s side. I wanted to take Mamá’s, but I…I was so intimidated that I…” Victoria broke off, rubbing at her eyes as tears flooded her eyes. Héctor instantly scooted over and wrapped his arms around Victoria’s shoulders, tugging her close, and cradled her head into the crook of his neck. 

He was surprised how she didn’t fight him, instead practically melting into his hold.

It was apparent that she had been holding her feelings back for so long and really needed the comfort.

“Mija,” he spoke in his deep, soothing tone. He rubbing Victoria’s back. “I do not blame you for choosing Imelda’s side over Coco’s; though it’s a shame that you had been unfairly forced to choose a side at such a tender age. It’s something no child should ever have to go through.

I know you would have helped your Mamá keep my memory alive if you could. And even if you took after your Mamá Imelda, I still see so much of Victoria.”

Victoria pushed herself back, staring at him quizzically.

Héctor smirked lopsidedly, brushing a strand of hair from her forehead, kissing it. “You’re incredibly book smart; Julio told me that you could share just about any sort of knowledge about anything that was asked, that you loved sharing anything you found out about.

 He also said you had a hidden, creative talent. I saw one of the sketchbooks he’s kept after your passing. Mija, you’re a muy fantástico artist. Had you not been a shoemaker, I’m certain you would have made quite a name for yourself, maybe even went to Paris or somewhere else to study art.”

“So I’m smart and artistic, nothing special,” Victoria snarled, pursing her lips and brushing the tears away.

“Viquita,” Héctor said, taking her hand between his, squeezing it reassuringly. “You are special, even if you don’t feel like you are. You hold so much insecurity about yourself, most likely brought on by the venom of those idiotas who made you feel such a way, that you refuse to think that there’s nothing great about you. You’re wrong, and I hope this will be the only time I have to tell you that. You just haven’t had the chance to rediscover yourself. Now that I’m here, I will be more than happy to help you do so.

I want to see the Victoria that Julio and Coco were so proud of, and still are, and see you do the things you enjoyed to do in life. Heck, you can “draw me like one of your French girls”,” Hector added with a cheesy, broad grin and a terrible British accent complete with a brow wiggle.

This made Victoria burst into loud laughter. Hector broke his impression and joined her.

“Papá Héctor, that movie came out years after your time. How did you come across that reference?”

“Oh, there were a number of fans of it in Shantytown, and that was one of the most iconic lines that I often heard be tossed around. Of course, the movie version probably wasn’t as funny as they made it sound and apparently kids today have made it into a…me-me?”

Victoria guffawed. “It’s pronounced meme, abuelito!”

Héctor held out his arms, grinning goofily. “How was I supposed to know that? It seems like new words are just made up for the heck of it!”

The two laughed some more before falling into a comfortable silence. Victoria leaned against Héctor and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, resting his head against hers.

“Victoria…just know that I will always love you, no matter who you are or what you do.”

“I love you, too, abuelito. I look forward to getting to know you more.”

“As do I…though there is one thing I am certain of.”

“And what would that be?”

“The greatest honor…is having you for a granddaughter.”

Victoria snorted. “You referencing movies is ruining the moment, tonto.”

“Who said it was just a reference?”