Encanto concept fic, fix it fic
not pairing specific, but pre-movie (bc basically rewriting the past bc nobody should have family trauma, starting with abuela)
the reader is at the age of the triplets and it's set a couple years before Bruno disappears into the walls, only Camilo and Isabela having been born yet
Reader comes to the Encanto alone, marvels at the gifts of the madrigal family (obviously), quickly integrates into the community
after some months there's a celebration at the madrigal house (triplet birthday?)
but while the entire town celebrates, there's an earthquake which accidently knocks over the miracle candle...
... right into your hands. And the candle burns brighter than ever, much to the confusion of everyone. There are gasps around and as you look up, there's the conflicted gaze of Alma, who doesn't understand what it means because this was the miracle that was for her family, and her family alone?
So she struggles with the situation, meanwhile there are whispers in the background, and Reader gets self-concious and places it back but the harm has been done
Then, a hushed "Dios mio!" as people look up at the casita, and see a new brightly lit outline of a possible door, the doorknob waiting to be touched to manifest into a physical door.
The Madrigals are simply too stunned to speak but the town quickly decide that it's your right to be there and get your own miracle.
Neither Alma nor the triplets make a move to stop you, so you touch the handle and open the door that has now your name engraved in it.
Your gift... is about the arts? Maybe being extraordinarily blessed in producing arts: crafting statues, painting pictures and people, writing poems, maybe even giving speeches. it simply seems to always hit the mark when you produce it, but it's a gift that doesn't seem to have the same use like the madrigal kids' ones (they're war kids, so all their powers could be used in a fight or a war against the enemy: seeing into the future, healing their own troops and changing the weather to make it harder for them to attack)
So when all is said and done nobody knows how to deal with it, and you just go home, and decide not to loiter in the Madrigal's home.
There's a small riot in the community, too, after the incident. Some people demand to have access to the Miracle candle as well, and after long discussions and weeks of nerve-wracking nights, Alma opens the doors to her home again and lets everyone try and get a gift. Nobody else is blessed, no new door appears, no sudden magic happens, and Alma is secretly relieved, having to deal with only one new person in her house that is decidedly not family, but who is at least friendly enough.
Obviously the situation needs addressing, so over the course of the story you have the Reader interacting with the kids, understanding them, even befriending them.
Even Alma warms up the the Reader.
One summer evening you're telling another night story to the kids (at this point just isabela and camilo) about love and hardships.
It's an old story that your mother used to tell before she died. The story is titled Dos Oroguitas, and is about a couple who is meant to be together, but encounter hardships and keep fighting for their love. In the end they have to decide between fighting an evil witch that is specifically hunting the couple down, or running til the end of their lives, always in fear of being found again. They know the risks, but together they fight the witch, and a spell hits them. They have a split second, looking at each other, bittersweet smile painting their lips, reliving their lives together, how they met, happy memories, watching their kids grow older, all while holding onto their loved one's hand for their life.
Their love for another protects them from the fatal blow that was intended, and instead transforms them into Dos Oroguitas; stunned at the failed spell the witch can get killed by another person. The kids, teenagers and young adults actually, have a hard time dealing with the new reality, and carefully try to keep the two caterpillars - their parents - alive. One day they cocoon and the kids know they will have to let go of them, and when two beautiful butterflies erupt, they tearfully say their goodbyes to their parents. Almost in synchronism, the two butterflies sit down on both cheeks of the kids, lazily beating their colourful wings softly against them before moving onto the next kid, giving them hope that somewhere deep down their parents' love for them has survived. So they let them go and watch them fly away into the sunset together.
As the Madrigal kids listen to your story intently, they calm down but don't get sleepy like they usually do, and instead watch you with big eyes, moved by the story.
Something you hadn't noticed was the Madrigal elder, who had slipped into the children's room when she had coincidentally picked up on the name of your story, and a compulsion had led her to listen your night time story.
A barely muffled sob escapes Abuela, and you startle from your own trance while telling the story, only to soften your gaze as you take in the constant stream of tears on the woman's face.
Somehow you wrangle the two kids to sleep, and you notice Abuela seems a lot softer around you.
That night Abuela asks you to join her for a drink, and she explains her reaction to the story - how her husband had always called her his Oroguita, and how the story just seemed to hit very close to home with the war, and fleeing.
You talk about your time before the Encanto, and how your mother used to tell you this story, and that she used to be a great storyteller, too. You tell her of the couple that had inspired the Oroguita story, and through more intense talk, you actually figure out that Alma and Pedro are the couple that inspired your mother to come up with the story.
After a long night of talking, Alma finally softly welcomes you to the family and her home, but you part ways since you still don't live at the casita.
Back at your house you go through your mother's old diaries and find some entries that give hints that your mother used to be friends with Pedro before he left town to be with the woman he fell in love with.
You give Alma the diaries, certain that these stories would mean more to her than they would ever mean to you. She seems reluctant at first, doesn't want to intrude on a dead person's life and secrets that she will have undoubtedly put down in those books. To convince her you read a passage about Pedro, and how he used to make the fishermen of his hometown laugh and play pranks on them.
Abuela tears up at the story, never having heard of it before but remembering some details about the love of her life that she thought were long forgotten.
In the end she reads through all of the entries. She grows quieter during those weeks but emerges more loving and caring for her family, mourning for her lost lover but cherishing her family more than she ever.
She gets more defensive about her children's powers, openly picks fights with the villagers if they talk badly about Bruno, or if the moan about bad weather and how Pepa "can't seem to control herself".
She slows down Julieta, who has been cooking until late at night for the next day, always worried she doesn't make enough food for all the possible injuries.
She makes her kids, and their kids, understand that nothing will ever change how much she loves them, even if they produce bad prophesies (she looks at Bruno), bad weather (looks at Pepa), doesn't heal paper cut of one of the kids (looks at Julieta) or has a gift that doesn't seem as powerful or useful to the community (looks at the Reader).
She puts her family first, finally.
