23. Campaign 3- Quinceañera Guests

"You honestly thought the party was for Senorita Perfecta?" Camilo teased Mirabel as he danced with her. It a fast dance, the two not touching each other but instead dancing across from each other… if it could even be called dancing. It was more them bobbing back and forth in time with the music. Most of the older villagers had settled in chairs to chat and complain about young people not understanding what REAL music was… except for his mama and papa who continued to dance up a (not literal) storm.

"Be nice," Mirabel told him. "Isabella was… well she was rather frustrated with me and I'm not sure why know but she still did keep me occupied and never let the secret slip."

"I suppose at bare minimum…" Camilo said and Mirabel chuckled as the song ended. "Want to do another one?"

"no… unlike your parents I'm not built for dancing for hours." Mirabel winced as she stepped off the dance floor and headed towards some chairs, flopping down in one as best she could in her dress. "These shoes are lovely but I much prefer my boots. I never got blisters with them!"

"Ugh, tell me about it," Camilo complained as he sat down next to his prima. "I can't shapeshift away blisters, found that out the hard way when I changed into Senorita Gomez and found out she purposely wears shoes two sizes too small." He leaned in and whispered, "she has feet like a clown."

Mirabel snickered at that. "We'll just have to get some of mama's cooking then."

"Only if someone can bring it to us." Camilo looked over at Antonio who was half asleep, leaning on Luisa who was gently rubbing his back. "if he had a bit more pep we could make him get us some."

"Come on!" Mirabel said, pulling him up.

"You want me to die, don't you?" Camilo said, wincing as he hobbled over to the food table. "Seriously, we were dancing only a few minutes ago how do my feet suddenly hurt this bad?"

"Its amazing what you can ignore when you are focused on other things," Mirabel said as the cousins made their way over to one of the many dessert tables. She picked up a knife and cut two slices of Torta De Tres Leches for each of them, Camilo taking his plate and nearly inhaling it before Mirabel shot him a look.

"What?"

"Could you wait until we are sitting down?"

"Come on, it hurts!" he whined.

"And it will be healed in a few moments and you can avoid looking like a savage."

"Yes abuela," Camilo taunted but did as she asked, limping back to their chairs.

Mirabel scoffed. "But seriously, the human body is amazing. There was this one time when we had this big misunderstanding with this demi god-"

"A… what now?"

Mirabel waved her hand. "Basically human that lives longer and far more durable in this case. No big deal."

"It's no big deal you met… half a Christ?"

"He wasn't Christ." Mirabel snickered as she cut into her slice. "Jesus wasn't as fat as Maui. Anyway, there was this big misunderstanding, we end up fighting in the Realm of Monsters and then had to escape… we get back to the surface and Maui begins screaming and I look down and there is a spear through my shoulder."

Camilo had nearly taken a bite of his cake only to set it down at that. "You… were impaled?"

"Yeah," Mirabel said with a fond smile. "That was… not fun."

"Are you sure you are okay? Because 'not fun' isn't the word I'd use for being impaled!"

"Oh, it was horrible when it happened but I got over it. A few healing potions, a deal with a skinmender, and I don't even have a scar."

"…you and I?" Camilo said, waving his hand between the two of them. "We don't live similar lives."

"Believe me, I know," Mirabel said with a chuckle. She looked over all the people that had attended the festivities. "Thank you for the party."

"You deserve it," Camilo said, his own eyes scanning the crowd before he noticed their abuela sitting in her chair, chatting with Senora Guzman, most likely using Mirabel's party as an excuse to further Isabella's marriage. "You know that abuela was against this, right?"

"Yeah, I got that," Mirabel admitted. "It's fine though… abuela has this vision of me and-"

"Its not fine," Camilo said, cutting her off.

"Huh?"

"It's not fine. How she treats you… me… all of us. It isn't fine." He shook his head. "I know I said how horrible it was, how everyone forgot about you? But… at least you escaped. You have… no idea what it's been like under her rule, Mira. And I do mean rule. We aren't family… we're subjects."

"Camilo-"

But he shook his head, quickly eating his cake and feeling his blisters disappear. "Forget it, we can discuss it later. Tonight is supposed to be fun and despite what she's tried I won't let her ruin it for you."

Mirabel could only quietly nod before accepting his offer for another dance.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Now THAT was a good raid!" Ulika declared, running a rag over the truly massive long sword she had been using as her weapon of choice for the last two years. It had a wonderful frostbite enchantment on it that sapped her foe's strength and ensured that any blood she split instantly turned to ice crystals the moment the blade connected. Made for less messes.

"Shhh!" Ernesto said as he pulled off his helm, shaking his long hair. "Didn't you see the warning Bureau left for us? Mirabel and Bruno are here."

"So?" Fibonacci asked, setting down the crate of gems he'd volunteered to carry in. "It will be good to see them again."

"Weren't they supposed to be gone for a few months?" Anton asked as he rolled his shoulders; that last run out of the Granite King's Palace had not been easy and he had been dealing with a tightness in his shoulder blades for the last week, desperate for a soak.

Gahoole let out a snort. "Exactly! If they are here now that means something bad happened!"

"All the more reason to wake them up," Ulika commented. "We can find out what went wrong and comfort them."

"And hurt the ones that harmed them," Fibonocci chimed in.

Saharah sighed as she entered, reaching up and rubbing her forehead. "It was their family, Nocci, so I doubt they want us to harm them." She very lightly strummed her lute and several small statues popped out of her bag and became as tall as her in seconds, moving to take the crate to the vault for safe keeping.

"You never know," Anton said with a smirk as he lightly tapped his staff with his hand. "There are plenty of family members I'd like to deal other than hugging them."

The last of the group, Prince Dryft, frowned at that as he entered, the Bureau adjust the door so he didn't have to duck. "You mean like kissing them?"

"…no," Anton told the young prince. He glanced at Ernesto who merely mouthed, "Be. Nice." Which caused Anton to roll his eyes.

"I'll explain later, young one, while you check me over tomorrow," Gahoole told Dryft, the prince nodding and accepting her offer as she reached high up to pat his cheek; she had a soft spot for the poor lad who had lived such a sheltered life with a loving family. Even after all these years he was still far too innocent. "Now, it is very late and I think it best we all just go to bed."

Ernesto nodded in agreement. "Plenty of time for us to catch up with Mirabel and Bruno later. I for one-" he covered a yawn, "want to go to sleep."

"Getting worn down, old man?" Anton taunted, always enjoying it when he could needle the paladin.

"But you're the same age as him," Dryft pointed out as he held out his hand to Gahoole, who accepted his offer to help her to her room.

Ulika chuckled at that, already undoing the straps on her armor. "He has you there."

"I am not as old as him!" Anton complained but already the others were making their way towards their rooms. "Leaving only means you're admitting I'm right!"

The party merely waved him off and finally Anton scoffed and went to his own private domain, shutting the door behind him.

Two hours past.

The Bureau was quiet, rather pleased that everyone was within him again. It always worried about his family when they were gone and if he had his way they'd never leave. But they were now tucked safely away… which meant he was able to focus his attention on casita. Yes, the house was currently resting herself, the last party guest having left hours ago, but that didn't mean Bureau couldn't be… sneaky. After all casita was only 50 years old… he had so much to teach her.

So focused on educating the other sentient dwelling on how she could expand her rooms better to provide for her family Bureau didn't notice Ulika's door open. Unlike the others she hadn't been able to go to bed right away, wanting to make sure that her armor was taken care off now that she knew Mirabel was back. The young Articifer would worry herself sick if she saw that Ulika's armor was damaged and honestly if things HAD gone bad with her family Ulika didn't want to add to her worries by having damaged armor. While Mirabel might want to hide from what had happened by throwing herself into her work Ulika knew that wasn't healthy (she had done that herself in her youth and it was only Ernesto and the others that had gotten her to see how bad that was).

'And that doesn't make me sound old,' the 28 year old thought with a roll of her eyes.

The problem was that checking over the armor (which was fine) had left her hungry and she simply couldn't go to bed with her stomach growling. As such Ulika stumbled out of her room, blinking her eyes. Okay, maybe she COULD go to sleep but she didn't want to without a snack.

So it was, the duel desires of food and sleep warring within her, that Ulika dragged herself through the Bureau. And it was because of the Bureau being distracted teaching casita how she could make new furniture that always stayed clean that he didn't notice Ulika go through the door that led to casita itself rather than to the kitchen.

Ulika honestly didn't notice. Later she would blame it on her sleepy state but in the end the fact remained that somehow she managed to get down the stairs and walk to the kitchen without even going 'Huh, taking longer than normal'.

She had just stuck her head in the refrigerator to select some leftovers when she heard the sound of footsteps. Pulling out with half a spicy pulled pork sandwich in her hand Ulika looked down at the skinny boy who was staring at her with wide eyes.

"Uh… hi?"

And Camilo Madrigal, seeing his first orc… screamed in terror.