About Madremonte au When will you do teh oneshots of Luisa and Julietta pov of Mira and Isa living away and visiting? And can you include a Isa x Juli x Luisa bonding time fluff on it?
One Shot based on the Encanto Madremonte AU by the lovely @c-rose2081
This specific oneshot is their initial return to Casita after their resurrection from the statues and one of the visits afterwards. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Memories Remembered and Made
Julieta remembered when her oldest, her little sunflower, was still young enough to need her and deny needing that motherly help. Isabela had always been an independent child, always running in the fields her aunt had watered and constantly getting underfoot when given the chance to go into town with her mother. However, she could not have predicted just how independent she would become in the few short years after Luisa, her then youngest, was born.
She could still remember her sister racing down the street towards her, the dark cloud above her head mirroring the increasingly overcast sky, feet pounding on the stone road. She remembered the way the blood drained out of her face and the mask of worry transformed into one of sheer terror as Pepa took her arm and said, "You need to come home, Julieta! Isabela is gone and her door has dimmed!"
It didn't matter that she had left Luisa with Senora Ortiz or that she had skinned the length of her arm when she had slipped onto Casita's tiles as she flew through the front door. All that Julieta could think was that her oldest was gone and not behind the protective walls of their home. That she had let her mother keep her oldest caged, like the birds that were sold at the market, their feathers untidy and clipped to keep them from flying away; that her baby had flown away despite her wings being clipped and her very own gift seemingly turning against her. After that, all efforts to bring her sunflower home blurred together.
They searched for a long time, days bleeding into weeks, which bled into months. The entirety of the able bodied adult Madrigals and the rest of the Encanto, all of them looked for Isabela. Julieta and Agustin calling out in a daze for their wayward daughter, their calls turning into wails and screams as one by one they went unanswered. The only reason Julieta even stayed home was because she'd found out she was with child once more. Slowly, the search parties dwindled, until one day, almost a year after the fact, a cartographer found her daughters favorite blue dress. It was half buried, torn, and covered in blood.
When Alma Madrigal called her children, sat her oldest down, and mournfully presented the dress? Well, all Julieta remembered was hitting the floor and hearing a keening wail she would later know was ripped from her throat.
The years flew past, only marginally slowing down when Mirabel was born and becoming more terror induced as the patches of stone began to appear, fear causing her to isolate her family from the rest. Luisa, her little mountain, took over the main care of her sister as her mother became more and more frail looking in the wheelchair she frequently used. Rules were set, enforced, and ignored, Mirabel quickly growing and rising above the cages, looking more and more like the sister she never knew.
So when Casita crumbled to the ground and the faces of her youngest and oldest were carved into the statues within the hollow of that tree, she began to think that maybe it was cruel fate that her daughters would be ripped away from her loving embrace in the end.
Only, that wasn't how their story ended.
When Isa and Mirabel emerged from their would be tomb, it took all that Julieta was not to collapse into her wheelchair and sob. Her children had returned! After years and months of 'what if's' and 'if only's', all of her babies were together once more. But then Isa had looked at them and her heart began to sink.
Where once had been eyes that had mirrored her own, there were irises made of dim gold filled with wariness and desperation. Where ears had ended in rounded edges, tapered ends moved by their own volition, twitching at every sound they registered. Sharp fangs barred to all who stepped closer, plant life that had grown on her body stood on end making her seem larger than what her impressive height was. When Alma had tried to come towards them, a rumbling growl erupted from deep within Isabela's chest as she pushed a mildly dazed Mirabel behind her.
And that when it hit her; Isabela was protecting her sister from her family. No sooner that she had finished the train of thought, Isabela swung her sister onto her back, scaled the walls of Casita, the tiles trying to keep them inside, but it was no use. Julieta's voice, which had never gone beyond a low murmur in the past 15 years, strained itself hoarse and Luisa cried for the first time since she realized her Isa had gone missing. Their family tried to comfort them, but it was slow in effect and quick to draw their ire. What use was comfort when their missing and dead family fled from home, away from them? Did they not care? For days afterwards, they would burst into tears, ones a mixture of relief and worry. The other's, ones of fear, shame and happiness.
And then, against all perceived odds, they came home.
It had been close to dusk, the last hour of sun burning off in the horizon line. She had been at the counter making the dough for the bread, soft orange light filtering in through the open window. Head down, she hadn't expected the light to be blocked and least of all to look up into the apprehensive eyes of her sunflower as she hung down from Casita's walls with Mirabel on her back.
"Dios mío!"
Julieta couldn't believe it. Was this some cruel dream? One meant to torture her with wishes she never thought would come true? But no, her daughters didn't disappear or turn back into the statues her nightmares had forced her to witness. Isabela's eyes began to fill with mild discomfort and irritation, her body shifting to release the tension in her muscles. The quick patter of multiple pairs bare feet on tile approached and she only had time to hold out her hand to stop Isabela from fleeing.
"Julieta?!? Que paso? What's wrong? Let me- Isabela? Mirabel?" Her husbands voice, her clumsy husband who she loved, but wished at that moment would shut his mouth. Julieta turned her face slightly to address him never taking her eyes off the children fully, "I'm okay, Amor. Nothing's wrong, but please be a little more quiet?" Please stay calm. Don't move or come closer, is what she wanted to say, but with her girls so close she didn't dare say it so obviously if Isabela decided it sounded too much like threat.
She turned back to face them fully, "Would you like to come in?" Please don't leave me! Don't disappear again! Isa seemed to scan the family behind her, and at Mirabel's nudge of encouragement, she sharply nodded in assent and moved forward, further through the open window. Julieta moved her chair back, giving them room to climb inside and suddenly they were in front of her. Isa was taller than most of the family, seeing eye to eye with her other sister who trembled in the doorway, looking at them with tears in her eyes. Mirabel, who normally had her patches of stone in well hidden areas, had them dotting her body in scale like patterns, mirroring the way Isa's gift had sprouted on her own body. Everything that they had been, had changed and Julieta couldn't will herself to care at all. Her children were here and that was all that mattered.
During her inspection of them, her daughters had faced her fully, Mirabel having climbed down from her sister's back and moving forward to stand in front Isabela a hesitant look in her green eyes. Well, then. That wouldn't stand to stay. So with great dread, Julieta asked "Mirabel? Que paso?"
Mirabel, eyes filling with determination, proceeded to explain their presence. They needed food, anything that wouldn't rot away out in the Wilds and could last them as least a week. They didn't intend to stay, she thought with dismay, they were going to leave. But, hadn't they survived so long away from her motherly gaze? Had her oldest not beat the odds and survived out in the jungle thought to have claimed her life? And had her youngest not essentially raised herself away from the arms that should have protected her? Mirabel hadn't fought to stay when Isabela picked her up and fled, and she certainly hadn't come back sooner. Was this house even home for them? Did Isabela remember them? Deep in her aching, weeping soul, Julieta knew the answer to all those questions.
Turning so she faced the counter once more, where the cabinets filled with dried meat and non-perishable food was stored in the cabinets above and below, she asked, "How long do you think you can wait for me to pack up the food, bebe?" How long do you plan to stay after?
Mirabel's brief glance towards Luisa inching closer and Isabelas curling lip revealing her fangs was answer enough, "We can wait for you to pack it up and be on our way, Mami." Not any longer than we have to.
And so, Julieta got to work putting together the healing food that would hopefully keep her daughters safe, the rest of the Madrigals crowding in the doorway. The sound of cabinets opening and closing, the thumps of wrapped food dropping into the wicker basket she used to carry food, and the shifting of fabric were the only sounds accompanying her actions, that is, until she got to the sweets in the cabinets above. As she moved to stand, Luisa came forward an almost desperate expression on her face.
"Déjame ayudarte Mama! I'll get the conchas." Those had been Isabela's favorite, was left unsaid amongst those in the family who remembered the girl sneaking to swipe the pan dulce from the platters her mother made.
As Luisa moved closer, Isa pulled her youngest closer to her body, seeming to curl around her in a way that took her breath from her lungs. They look so much like the statues, she thought with no small measure of pain in her heart. When Luisa had carefully handed the bundle of pan dulce to her mother she turned from her, to her sisters looking like she might lunge for them at any moment.
Julieta put her hand on her daughters arm to still her movement and closed the basket. She smiled at them and handed it to them carefully, watching Mirabel give it Isabela who grew vines to keep it closed for the journey home, wherever that place was. Julieta watched as her mariposa climbed her sunflower and teared up as they looked at her. Golden eyes relieved to leave with no recognition of who she was in front of and green eyes sad, but filling with eagerness to do the same.
As they climbed out the window and off into the darkened jungle, their family exploded into cries calling them back. Everyone trying to talk over one another about what they could have done to convince them to stay, but Julieta just stared out after them, a small but sad smile playing on her lips.
A week later they returned, with the same request and the same time frame of stay. They came near dusk, asked for food, and left after their business was done. Then came the next week, and then the next, they returned to Casita, always through the kitchen window and always when Julieta was alone in the kitchen.
And then one day, they came during the early morning, when Julieta and Luisa were the only ones up. The sun was barely peaking through the mountain when a tap at the window drew their attention. They were hanging there waiting patiently for the window to open and when it did they climbed through, landing less than two feet away from Julieta.
"Hola, mami!"
She watched fondly as her mariposita climbed down her sister, her sunflower, who huffed as her fingers pulled a little too forcefully at her hair, "Hola, mis amores. What are you doing here so early?"
Her daughter grinned and quickly untied a bag that hung next to the basket, "We came back to get some more clothes and food! The clothes I took got dirty quickly and I need something clean to wear while I wash the rest." Isabela gave her a look leading to Mirabel sheepishly ducking her head, "And I might have accidentally used up all of our food. In my defense, I didn't think exploring near the river was that dangerous!"
And so, she sighed and let Mirabel go up to wash her clothes, leaving Isabela to stand in the kitchen inspecting the room around her. It had been the first time Luisa and her mother had been alone with Isa since she had come back and the girl-no, woman seemed the most at ease she had been during their visits; Maybe it was because the entire family wasn't there.
Turning back to the breakfast she steadfastly continued to make the meal, nudging Luisa who had her excitement and want to speak Isa barely veiled behind nonchalance. For a few minutes it was quiet, until a quiet rattle sounded close to her. At her side was Isa, closer than she had ever been before, crouching, and intently looking at the pattern of her apron. Lightly tracing the small embroidered image of a sunflower, she looked up and tilted her head and made a small sound of inquiry.
Luisa's breath hitched next to her, and Julieta put a hand on her own, "Do you like the sunflowers?" A nod of affirmation was all that answered her question and she smiled, but when she turned away in hidden disappointment a voice continued.
"Favoritos."
Luisa's eyes widened and Julieta almost jumped in surprise, but all other options as to who it could have been were all asleep. Isa had returned her gaze to the flowers, but it was clear it had been her. Isabelas voice, which was slightly deeper and rattled slightly, was the one who spoke, though her ears twitched in what appeared to be slight nervousness. She had stepped away from them in the time it took to register what she had said.
Julieta smiled, leaned forward slightly, and softly said, "They're one of my favorites too."
"And mine!" was Luisa's more exuberant response, though she softened it after Isabela pinned her ears back and her expression became a little more wary.
After a moment, her eyes softened and her lips twitched up for a second before she resumed inspection of the slowly lightening room. It became quiet once more and the two women in blue returned to making breakfast, Luisa glancing at her sister as though she wanted to say more but refrained form doing so.
As the sun climbed the sky and the rest of the household shifted in their sleep, Julieta couldn't help but think that maybe fate was being kind.
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