10 years of solitude made you think a lot about certain things. Knowing how to socialize with people were not one of them, unless talking to your mother at least once per week counts as an experience.

Then again, what else could you do? You're not allowed to leave your dark red-orange colored brick tower unless you were being called by abuela and no one's even allowed to get inside because of your gift.

Speaking of your gift, you'd think that you are finally able to summon fire by will and not just have them burst out of the palms of your hand randomly...

No, nothing's improved at all.

If anything, you evolved backwards.

Calming yourself down isn't just enough to extinguish your fire anymore. Sure, it stops the fire sometimes but most of the time, it just doesn't stop and you specifically have to drown your hands in a bucket of water.

It kinda stings, but the pain goes away for a while so it's a little inconvenience that you had to endure.

Maybe that's because your room just has a small spring of water at the corner of the room. You always ran towards it when you couldn't extinguish the fire from your hands just by calming yourself down. It was an odd choice for your room, but it did give you comfort knowing that there was something nearby that can help you control your gift.

Thankfully, since the walls of your tower are made out of bricks, you haven't burnt it down and the rest of the house during your first week of staying with the Madrigals. You would've ran away from Encanto if you did.

Besides, the entire tower is completely fire-resistant. Everything inside it was made so that it will never catch fire. You still had to keep watch of your clothes and other stuff that you brought along with your though; they weren't made by Casita so they'll just burn if fire came in contact with them.

You don't even mind having burn marks around your body ever since Julieta fed you her delicious arepa con queso every meals that she brings over to your room. Yes, you weren't allowed to eat with everyone else. Your marks would disappear completely as if there were no traces of you getting hurt by your gift when you eat Julieta's food.

Only, it didn't seem to heal the first burn marks you've ever had. The one you had when you were five years old. The first time where fire sprouted from your hands and almost burned Casita down during Mirabel's ceremony.

You didn't know why it was stuck with you, but you chose to shrug it off. Maybe it was the constant reminder that you'll most likely never get your old life back; being good friends with Mirabel and Camilo, being in good terms with everyone else in the family.

Speaking of Mirabel and Camilo, you've only seen them briefly when you were out of your room, which depends on how many times every month but usually when abuela is checking your progress of being able to control your gift or when your mother comes visit. You haven't talked to them since you moved in their house, which was to be expected since abuela probably told them to stay away from you.

You've gotten used to it by now. The Madrigals are now nothing more than just strangers to you. You're just living with them because they want to keep an eye on you and make sure you're not causing trouble for everyone.

However, today was a bit different.

You were now fifteen years old, which meant that Mirabel and Camilo are fifteen already as well. You tended to wake up at around 12 PM since there's really nothing else for you to do, unlike the Madrigals who help out in Encanto almost every single day.

So when you heard a knock on your door as early as 9 AM, you were confused and surprised. Dragging your feet to the door, you softly yawned and scratched your hair. "Tia Julieta? Is that you?" You asked, your voice small.

"It's um... It's Mirabel, actually." Once those words entered your ears, you blinked and your brain began to process if you heard her correctly or not. After all, Mirabel's never been inside your tower before. Were you just dreaming?

"Uh... Abuela said I need to bring you over to the town...?" Mirabel's voice squeaked nervously from the other side of the door, and when you realized that you weren't dreaming anymore, you let out a loud gasp and almost stumbled back in surprise.

'Mirabel!? That's actually Mirabel!?' You screamed inside your mind as you felt your hands burning again. 'W-Why is she here!? She's not supposed to be in- ah!' Snapping out of your thoughts, you immediately scrambled over to the small spring of water on the corner of your room and placed your flaming hands inside.

The sizzling sound of the fire being extinguished in the water echoed around your room, causing you to wince a bit at the small twinge of pain. "(Y/N), are- are you okay?" You heard Mirabel ask.

"I-I'm fine! Just give me a minute!" You responded before sighing silently to yourself. This was completely unexpected; Mirabel hasn't been inside your tower ever since you arrived here. The only person who's ever been inside your tower was abuela and Julieta.

'Oh no, oh no, oh no...' You started panicking. You've never been to town for ten years now. What if you mess things up?

The more you thought about it, the worse you felt. Maybe you could come up with an excuse that you were sick and couldn't go? No, that would be impossible. One bite from Julieta's food would be enough to get you back on track and disobeying abuela is the last thing you'd want to do.

Leaving yourself no choice, you frantically went over to your wardrobe and changed your pajamas into your casual clothing. It wasn't anything special - you wore a long orange-colored skirt with frills inside that reached down below your knees. You wore a white long-sleeved blouse and a pair of brown sandals that your mother gave you for your fourteenth birthday.

You didn't need to wear long-sleeves anymore since you didn't have anything to hide, but you've just grown used to using them. Besides, they're the only clothes you have in your wardrobe.

You took a few deep breaths to calm yourself down while repeating yourself that you'll be fine as you anxiously walked over to the door. You bit your lip before gathering up all of your courage and swung it open, revealing yourself in front of Mirabel.

"O-Oh!" Her shoulders jumped from surprise. "Good... Good morning, (Y/N)!" greeted Mirabel as she scanned you from toe to head. You could've sworn you saw her eyes flash as if she was remembering something just now, but it must've been your imagination.

"Good morning, um... Mirabel." You greeted back, only quieter. Then it got silent. It's been such a long time since you actually talked to her. Both of you felt so awkward. Since Mirabel couldn't think of other topics to talk about, she immediately tried to lighten up the mood with a forced grin.

"Well, let's go to the town!" She said and walked away from you. The way she walked looked a bit exaggerated and you knew that she was just as nervous as you were. Sighing, you followed your friend out of your tower and into the town, not before waving Casita goodbye.

Casita looked empty so you assumed that everyone was in town already. Though, you did notice that the house looked especially clean and decorative today. Then you remembered that it was Antonio's ceremony today. He was Dolores and Camilo's younger brother.

You smiled to yourself. Camilo is now a big brother and you could already imagine how doting he is to Antonio; you did hear from Julieta that he's very good with kids in the town.

"Today is um... Antonio's ceremony, right?" You asked Mirabel to try and relieve the tension between you two. She didn't expect you to strike up a conversation all of a sudden, but gave you a small smile.

"Yeah, it is." She replied.

"What kind of gift you think he'll get?"

"Well," Mirabel looked up thoughtfully then giggled. "He likes animals so it might be related to that."

"Oh, that's... nice." You said then looked down at the ground sadly. You suddenly remembered what happened in Mirabel's ceremony.

When you two were five years old and before her ceremony, you always talked about what kind of gift Mirabel would get and what her door would be like.

The female Madrigal noticed your saddened gaze and slowly placed a comforting hand on your shoulder. Lifting your head up, you turned to look at Mirabel. "It's nice to hear your voice again, (Y/N)." She said.

You stared at her for a moment before giving her a small smile. "Thanks, Mirabel." You said and continued to walk to the town while striking up a few small conversations with your best friend.

In the busy town of Encanto, a certain shapeshifting boy who was currently shapeshifted into a tall woman was carrying a small baby in his arms. The baby in question was tucked in a green blanket and it was happily reaching up to him with their tiny chubby hands, laughing at the different faces he shapeshifted to.

"Reminds me of when Antonio was just a baby." muttered Camilo as he lightly chuckled to himself. As he cradled the infant in his arms, he looked over to his older sister, who's suddenly gotten all quiet.

When Dolores was quiet, it could only mean that she's trying to focus on listening to something or someone.

"Hey, sis. Who're you trying to listen to?" asked Camilo, ready to tease his sister if her reaction after that was her blushing or just her being very surprised.

"Mirabel and (Y/N)." answered Dolores briefly, her hand cupped on her ear to try and listen to the two girls better. "Abuela just asked me if they were on their way yet."

"Ah yes, Mirabel and-" Camilo stopped cradling the baby in his arms and almost flung himself towards Dolores when he heard your name come out of her lips.

"(Y-Y/N)!? What do you mean? She's coming to town with Mirabel!?" exclaimed Camilo then began to shapeshift into many different people, including Mirabel, Felix, and abuela. The amount of distorted faces he shifted into made the baby cry.

"Camilo, please. I can't focus with too many noises at once." said Dolores as she tried to walk away from her brother. However, Camilo wouldn't just let her sister go. Especially when she mentioned that you were on your way here in town.

The boy sloppily shushed the baby and handed it back to its mother, who was horrifically confused at Camilo's sudden leave and could only watch as he rushed towards Dolores.

"Dolo- Dolores!" shouted Camilo as he was almost out of breath from trying to catch up to his sister. When he finally did, he placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from going anywhere else. "You walk fast..." He breathlessly commented before catching his breath and regaining his composure.

"So- So, (Y/N) left her room? Is she finally allowed to leave her room anytime?" asked Camilo but Dolores only sighed and looked down at her brother.

"Abuela asked her to go to town today because one of the townspeople couldn't seem to light up these special lanterns that were supposed to be used tonight in Antonio's ceremony." replied Dolores. "I don't think this means she's allowed to leave her room anytime."

Camilo's face became crestfallen, but it immediately lightened up when he figured that at least you're going to town today. That's a huge step in progress since you've never left your room before. Hearing Dolores say that you're with Mirabel too made him think that you two are most likely talking again.

Maybe he could do that too.

"Gracias, mi bonita hermana!" Enthusiastic, Camilo thanked his sister with a wave, which caught Dolores off guard. Hearing Camilo compliment her like that is odd, but then again, he might just be joking; he tends to do that a lot after all. Shrugging, Dolores walked over to where abuela was to tell her that you and Mirabel are near.

As Camilo followed the road that led to La Casa Madrigal, he eventually stopped when he saw two figures walking towards the town with a smile. When they got closer, Camilo immediately laid his eyes on you.

It was obvious that you haven't brushed your hair when you came here because your hair was kind of messy; the lines in the middle of your hair were all over the place and some strands were sticking out.

It also looked like you hastily put on your clothes like you were running late, but honestly? Camilo didn't mind. He was just happy to see you outside of your room and outside of the house, basking in the warm sun like you were supposed to be.

Even though Camilo was happy to see you, he didn't really seem to think about your 'reunion' too well. Sure, he usually wouldn't have problems striking up a conversation with people; he does that a lot with the townspeople. However, this is a friend that he hasn't properly talked to since he was five - it'd feel very awkward just going up to you all of a sudden and he's nervous about things going wrong.

Feeling nervous, Camilo's shapeshifting ability glitched once more, turning him into an array of people's faces that he knew. Once he got himself out of control and that you two were getting nearer, he shifted into one of the random townspeople and acted as if he was looking for something. 

"...and wouldn't you know it, Luisa really can lift every single one of us with one hand." said Mirabel as she walked closer and closer with you beside her. You let out a small laugh while imagining fifteen year old Luisa carrying every single Madrigal. If only you were there to see it.

"That's great, Mirabel." You said then eventually glanced up at the first villager you saw, which was actually just Camilo who shapeshifted. The shapeshifter's eyes followed the two of you as you walked past him, making you a little nervous while you tore your eyes away from him. You wondered if the townspeople still remembered you, but probably not since they last saw you when you were five years old.

When your back was finally turned against Camilo, he shifted back into his original form and hid behind an alley, watching you and Mirabel. It felt a bit odd to see you wear clothes other than an oversized pajamas that you most likely kept wearing for three days whenever your mother came visit, but it was nice seeing you wearing a skirt.

And when Camilo saw you let out a small laugh, he was reminded of how much you used to smile and laugh when the two of you were children. If you could only be like the cheerful child you used to be when you were younger...

Sighing, Camilo began to follow the two of you to your destination from behind.

As you and Mirabel finally reached a house you've never seen before, you gave your friend a nervous look. A lot of things in the town changed so much since you were five that it just overwhelmed you a bit. You even wondered if it was the same Encanto that you were living in these past fifteen years.

The town was beautiful was ever and the amount of townspeople seemed to double over the years. This only meant that the Madrigals did their very best to help the town grow with their gifts, which made you smile.

"Don't worry, you'll be okay." reassured Mirabel. It didn't calm your nerves at all, but you forced yourself to give her a small smile as you entered the house and scanned the room for abuela.

When your eyes finally saw the familiar old woman that visits your room once every month, you silently approached her while nervously playing with your fingers. Beside abuela was Dolores, Camilo's older sister. You don't seen her a lot when you're out of your room to talk to your mother, but her iconic large red ribbon that held her hair up in place was enough for you to know that it was her.

"Abuela, she's here." said Dolores quietly to abuela, making the older woman turn around to face you. Your shoulders slightly jumped nervously and you can feel your hands getting warmer and warmer, but you constantly told your mind to calm down and not start a fire in a random person's house.

This wasn't your tower - everything isn't fire proof.

"Good morning, (Y/N)." greeted abuela briefly then beckoned to follow her further into the room. As you followed abuela, the windows from the living room opened, revealing Mirabel and Camilo. Dolores turned to look at her brother and her cousin, knowing that they were already going to open it.

"If abuela sees you two, you're going to get in trouble." said Dolores with a small smile. She knew that they were just looking out for you since this is your first time going out to town in ten years.

"Come on, sis. You won't snitch on your brother and your cousin now, will you?" said Camilo while putting up an innocent look on his face. Dolores playfully scoffed before following you and abuela further into the room.

"Just make sure abuela doesn't see you and I won't say I heard anything." said Dolores. Camilo silently fist pumped and began to shapeshift into one of the townspeople just for precaution as he walked around the side of the house to see where you could be.

"You know, you really have a way around with Dolores." commented Mirabel as she stealthily followed behind Camilo. "But I guess it's because she's your older sister."

"Eh, I wouldn't say that. She usually doesn't do favors for me so today is a bit of a shock, I guess." said Camilo as he peeked on a window.

"Your 'favors' usually consist of you getting other people in trouble so it's understandable why Dolores wouldn't do that." deadpanned Mirabel, making the shapeshifter turn his head to give his cousin a look before continuing to peek through the windows.

As the two young Madrigals finally saw you, abuela, and Dolores together in a room with a man placing a bundle of lanterns on the wooden floor, they made sure that the older woman couldn't see them from the window.

Dolores' eyes shifted towards the window where Camilo and Mirabel were, smiling a bit before placing her attention to abuela and you.

"Oh, is that (Y/N)?" said the man gleefully, much to your surprise. "When I last saw you, you were so small! Hermina told me that you're doing fine and I guess she wasn't lying!"

'I didn't know mama talked about me to other people... Maybe that's why they still recognize me.' You thought while flashing the man an awkward chuckle since you didn't know how to respond to him and lightly bowing respectfully.

"Abuela here says that you can help me light these lanterns up with your magic. I'm supposed to send these up to la casa Madrigal for Antonio's ceremony tonight but when I tried to light them up with fire for one last check, they couldn't seem light up. They just... fade after a while." explained the man and gestured over to the bundles of unlit lanterns, each patterned with flowers and other symbols that you weren't familiar with.

"I figured that if the fire they're using is powerful enough, it'll finally be able to work again." He added. You look troubled; you weren't sure how you were going to help him when you yourself can't even control your own magic.

"Um... What makes you think my fire would be any different from the others...?" You quietly asked the man, who snorted at your question.

"Well, your fire is obviously made from magic. That's enough of a difference from a fire being lit by using a match." The man shrugged. "You can maybe amplify how strong your flames would be until it just starts working."

"Maybe the lanterns are just broken...? That's why they're not being lit up properly?" You said with a frown.

"If it was broken, the lantern wouldn't be able to light up at all." sighed the man. "Like I said, the fire just fades out after a while. Probably because they're not strong enough to hold. I don't want all of my hard work to go to waste either; scrapping these lanterns that took me almost a week to make just means that I lost the materials to make it for nothing."

You didn't reply to the man, and instead looked over to abuela to see what she's going to say. She brought you here to help the man with his lanterns, but you knew that she also wasn't sure if you could help him because she also knows that you could probably burn this entire house down if something bad happened.

You silently hoped that maybe she had faith in you now. Maybe she knew that you really can help him if you tried.

Abuela didn't say anything but only gave you a stern look, making you gulp a bit. You knew that she was being really serious if she gave you that look. She's basically saying that if you messed up even the tiniest bit, you might not even be able to see the light of the day ever again.

It seems a bit over exaggerated, but it just felt like it.

Taking deep breaths, you continually told yourself that you can do this without losing control. It's your first time intentionally wanting to use your gift, since you've always been wanting to suppress it and make sure it's just sleeping inside you for the rest of the day.

Best case scenario, you only get one burn mark in one day, which has happened only once per month.

"You can do this, (Y/N)." whispered Dolores from beside you with a smile, startling you for a moment. "I can hear your heartbeat. It's fast."

You stared at her for a second before giving her an appreciative smile and crouching down to one of the lanterns. From the windows, Camilo and Mirabel watched attentively as you gently lifted your hands over to the lantern.

Exhaling some tension out of your body, you focused on the center from the inside of the unlit lantern. Your fingertips tickled for a second as a small fire came to life from the inside of the lantern, where you focused on. Exhaling for the second time, you focused on the fire this time.

You can feel your mind and shoulders slowly getting light when you thought about how you wanted the fire to grow. It almost felt like it was just natural for you to do, which was really odd.

Suspicious of your sudden comfort of making your fire grow bigger, you started to get anxious. The flame flickered dangerously as if it warned you that if you continue to lose any more focus, the results you'd never want to happen would happen.

Abuela and Dolores frowned when they saw that you were getting trouble controlling your powers again. "(Y/N), calm down." You heard abuela say behind you, which made you realize that you were slowly losing control again, making you more anxious.

Until your eyes caught two familiar Madrigals watching you from the window of the room.

Mirabel's lips thinned nervously as she watched you from the window. She still had hopes that you'd be able to do it and hope that abuela's thoughts about your gift would change for once. The young girl always heard abuela talk to Julieta about you, saying that your gift couldn't benefit the encanto because the only thing fires can do is cause destruction.

Camilo's grip on the windowsill tightened nervously when he saw that you were slowly losing control of your power. He hasn't seen you used it until now, but he's heard bits from the conversation between you and your mother.

You two sometimes talked about the progress of you being able to control your gift, indicating that you were never been able to get used to using it all the time, unlike the other Madrigals who use it everyday.

His heart tightened when he saw visible burn marks from your hands too. He figuree that they were either; never been able to get healed by his tia Julieta's gift or you just got them from this morning.

Either way, it made him sad that you've been all alone this time by yourself without anyone else to talk to besides your mother. He was sure that you weren't allowed to use your gift outside of your room either.

He hasn't been able to talk to you properly for ten years. You two are basically strangers again at this point, but Camilo still wanted to believe that maybe you two could be friends again. That you two can go back to the days where you were able to smile, laugh, and visit him and Mirabel freely.

And he believes in you. The thing you needed more than anything right now was support.

Gulping, Camilo's grip loosened on the windowsill as he turned his nervous expression into an encouraging one as he nodded to you. "You can do this." He mouthed slowly to make sure you could understand him.

And you did.

You haven't seen Camilo lately until today, but your heart almost leapt out of your chest when the first thing he did after not being able to see you for a while was encourage you and support you, telling you that you can do it.

Even Mirabel, who was right beside him, looked like she was waiting for you to succeed.

Seeing your two best friends again after a long time and then seeing them believe in you made you close your eyes to focus on yourself. You then began to visualize the raging fire that's slowly beginning to creep out of its cage being tamed and slowly beginning to look steady and calm.

Exhaling again, you opened your eyes and focused on the flame once more. It took you a few seconds, but you eventually managed to calm it down. You let the fire dance around the lantern for a little bit as if you were trying to make it comfortable inside its new little zone.

As you fluttered your fingers, the fire stopped dancing and settled itself at the center of the lantern, trusting you and waiting for you to tell it what to do. Gently waving your hand up, the fire began to burn brighter and brighter until it was beginning to show off a calming yellow glow, just like the color of the miracle candle back at la casa Madrigal.

You felt your instincts tell you that it should be enough, making you loosen up and close your hands into a fist. The lantern's fire didn't seem to fade away any longer, indicating that it worked.

"That..." The man spoke after a few seconds of silence. "That was amazing, (Y/N)!" He exclaimed and began to take a closer look at the lit lantern, observing it from every angle possible.

"How- How did you make the fire move like that? And how did you make it have this yellow glow? I didn't expect it to turn out this well!" He said while hugging the lantern close to his chest. "If all the lanterns looked like this, Antonio's ceremony would look wonderful!"

You knew what he was asking of you, and honestly, you also didn't expect yourself to be able to pull off something like that. Nodding, you gave the man a small smile. "I'll do my best." You said quietly.

"Thank you, (Y/N)!" He thanked and walked over towards the next room, not before excusing himself from abuela and Dolores too. The older woman could only watch in light surprise and huge relief as you crouched down again and began to light up the rest of the lanterns with your gift.

Abuela's expression was unreadable, but Dolores already knew what she was thinking about. Nonetheless, Dolores was proud of you for being able to pull off something like that. You were actually capable of creating something beautiful with fire.

As you began to light up the next lantern, you stole a glance over to the window and saw Camilo sighing in relief and Mirabel smiling from your success. She wished she could've done the same thing as you did.

Sighing comfortably from her nose, Mirabel nudged Camilo as she walked away. "Let's go." The shapeshifter wanted to stay for a while and watch you, but knew that abuela will soon find out that they're watching from the window.

Camilo reminded himself to try and talk to you later during Antonio's ceremony. That is, if you were allowed to attend it at all.

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