#Luisa has super-strength and is surrounded by people smaller than she is

[thebrownssociety]

Good To Talk

Hey! So this one-shot is based of off an ask about if Luisa would be scared to pet any of Antonio’s animals. I have left the original version of the fic, reblogged from the original post,er - @toaverse up. Decided to post it separately because when I searched for it on Tumblr, it didn’t seem to come up and I didn’t understand why.

Anyway - enjoy!

Of course Antonio’s gift would involve animals, Luisa thought to herself as she watched the young child talk to his animal friends, excitedly. Like she didn’t have enough problems already, she now had to worry about accidently Mutilación* tiny animals.

Antonio was happily telling his family about the journey that his new friend, the toucan, had been on and Luisa was trying to look interested, while nervously looking around for any small animals that might have appeared around her without her realising.

“Look!” Luisa started slightly and looked down to where the voice had come from. Antonio was smiling widely and stroking his new pet jaguer. “You can stroke him if you want!” Her youngest cousin beamed, eyes sparkling.

Luisa felt rather like an animal herself at that moment, backed into something of a corner with all her family looking at her, and she knew why. She was the only one so far to not hold/pet/stroke ANY of Antonio’s new ‘friends’. Even abuela had petted a few, though she’d obviously not enjoyed it.  

It wasn’t that Luisa didn’t want to pet the animals. Or that she was scared of petting them. [She had been assured time and time again that - due to Antonio’s gift - the animals who got drawn to him were friendly and didn’t mind being stroked and petted.]  It was the fact that she was so aware that all it would take was for her to slightly misjudge it and - bam! - dead jaguar.  No, she couldn’t risk it.

She smiled down at Antonio and said, as warmly as she could. “No, gracias, Antionio*-”

Antonio’s bottom lip wobbled and his eyes seemed to get bigger. “Why? He won’t hurt you!”

“Antonio.” Felix said, gently, kneeling down next to his youngest son and hugging him, reassuringly. “She said no. Maybe some other time-”

“¡Siempre es otro momento*!“ Antonio whined, stamping his foot in frustration. “Mis amigos están empezando a pensar que no te gustan!*.“ The young child said, accusingly.

“Antonio, that’s enough.” Felix said, firmly, as he gently picked Antonio up.  

Antonio buried his face in Felix’s shoulder and started crying a little. The jaguer gave Luisa a look as if to say ‘Oh, well done,’ before flicking its tail in the air and following its master.

The strong women sighed deeply before turning on her heel and walking off, muttering under her breath, rapidly. Apparently you were meant to count when annoyed in order to calm down? Luisa was willing to try anything to get rid of the bubble of emotion she was feeling deep inside her chest.

She went to her room, as she always felt happy and safe there, and sat on the bed for a few minutes doing deep breathing to try and calm down.

There was a knock at the door. “¡Ahora no*!” Luisa snapped, feeling her nerves spike.

“It’s Camilo.”

Luisa gave an exasperated sigh and ran her hands through her hair. Great, Just what she needed, Camilo joking around with her.

Another knock at the door. “Can I come in?”

“Sí.” Luisa said, after a moment.

Camilo opened the door and smiled at her. “You wanna talk?” He asked.

“Not particularly.” His older cousin said, somewhat bluntly. He saw her eye twitch again and she rubbed her other eye tiredly. “Sorry. That was harsher than I meant. Look, I’m not being funny, can I just have some time on my-”

Camillo took the opportunity to butt in before his older cousin shut him out completely. “-You’re not going to hurt them, you know.”

Luisa looked at him in surprise, and Camillo pressed on with: “You can control your strength. I’ve seen it. You can hug people without crushing them. Just apply the same with the animals.”

His cousin gave a short laugh and folded her arms. “Sí, gracias, Camillo. I hadn’t thought of that.” She said, with a sarcastic edge that wasn’t usually there.

Camillo frowned slightly and held his arms out. “¿Qué es entonces? C'mon, Luisa, háblame*.”

“Do you know?” She suddenly burst out. “How long it took me to learn to control my strength!? Years! I spent most of my childhood terrified I was going to break someone! You-” She pointed at her cousin. “-And Mirabel were about 18 months old when I got my gift! I didn’t hug either of you until I was eight! And only then it was because Mirabel wouldn’t leave me alone! It’s taken me years - years! - to get control of my strength, so no, I’m not going to risk killing Antonio’s small furry animal friends, because then he’ll hate me and I can’t deal with that-!” She caught her breath, sharply. “-I just can’t.” She flopped back onto the bed and covered her eyes with her hands.

There was quite a long silence while Camillo absorbed his cousins outburst, and a million thoughts - none of which were good - raced round Luisa’s head.

“Sorry.” Luisa said, softly, still not removing her hands from her eyes. “Sorry. Don’t know where that came from.”

Camillo shrugged - not that Luisa could see it - and perched awkwardly on the end of his cousins bed. He nearly fell of it actually, but managed to steady himself just in time. “You may not know where it comes from, but…you know. It obviously needed to come out.” Another pause. “I didn’t know you felt like that.”

Luisa flapped a hand dismissively. “Not your fault. You were 4-”

“-I’m not any more though, am I?” He shook his head. “We should’ve noticed. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” His cousin said, sitting up slowly. “I chose to keep it in, no one made me. I just…” She sighed. “…At the time it seemed sensible. I was just trying to get through the day, you know? And it never seemed an appropriate time to bring it up…” She sighed again and rested her head in her hands. “…In retrospectiva* it was a stupid idea. But-” She shrugged and stretched, feeling satisfaction as she felt her shoulders pop slightly. “-That’s the past.”

Camillo smiled and gave her a quick hug. “And you know-” He said, in an attempt to make her smile. “If it’s any help, I don’t think even you could break a jaguar.”

Luisa laughed - a loud, genuine laugh - and hugged him back, rustling his hair affectionally.

Camillo made a show of complaining and lightly swatted her away, but he was laughing to.

Sometimes it was good to talk.

*Maiming

*No thank you, Antonio

*It’s always some other time!

*My friends are beginning to think you don’t like them!

*Not now!

*What is it then? C’mon, Luisa, talk to me.

*Hindsight