Chapter Text
Seven year old Mirabel was hiding in the fabric shop.
Lianna was nice. She let Mirabel hide no questions asked.
And she pretended not to hear Mirabel's sniffles.
"Hola."
"Hola Mano." Lianna said. "What? No Javi today?"
"Javier is helping his mother. I wanted to ask if you could make a dress for Valentina for her birthday..."
Jorge stopped talking when he heard a sniffle.
He brushed aside the fabric and saw Mirabel.
"Hey..." He kept his voice soft, the way he had learned to talk to Bruno.
"What's up?"
"Nothing."
"Yeah I get it. Sometimes nothing makes me cry too."
Mirabel rubbed her nose on her wrist and Jorge cringed. "here." he untied his scarf and handed it to her. "It's a little cleaner than you're arm."
Mirabel wiped her eyes.
He waited.
Since the day after her ceremony where he stood up for her, Mirabel was basically his daughter. He had Javi, but after all the miscarriages, Valentina and him had agreed that they were not going to try to have another. Jorge wanted a big family though so when a little girl needed fatherly comfort and had no sign of her actual father, he stepped in.
(And maybe it was a little selfish on his part. He was trying to do with her what he failed to do with Bruno.)
"Senor Ozvaldo says M'like....like Bruno. Do you think I am?"
Jorge was the perfect man to answer that question.
"Well...where it counts."
"Que?"
"You're curious. Like Bruno. You're clever. Like Bruno. You're creative. Like Bruno. You're loving. Like Bruno."
"He was all those things?" Jorge had a longer list but seven year olds had short attention spans.
"Si."
"All I hear about is he was bad." Mirabel admitted.
Jorge mentally cursed out every villager but smiled at Mirabel. "Well when you want to hear about how he really was, I'll tell you."
Mirabel nodded. He held a hand out to help her up and she paused. "What happened to your hand?"
The scar. It would always be there but it faded over the years.
Jorge clenched his fist to hide it. "Sorry, I'm not ready to tell you about that."
"Okay."
"Hey Mirabel. Want to learn how to sew a dress?" Lianna said in a bright voice.
Mirabel nodded.