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acewithapaintbrush · 2 years

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Here is my "El Raton Perez" One-shot. For everyone who did not see the post: apparently in Colombia the tooth fairy is a mouse (sometimes a rat!). I saw that, had a desperate need for more cute Bruno and Antonio interaction, and here we are. Enjoy!

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It's happening. It's really happening.

Antonio clutches the blanket tight to his chest. The spot in his mouth where his tooth is missing still aches a little, but that pain was pretty much forgotten the moment he heard the little squeaks coming from under his bed.

When Mirabel had pulled a crying Antonio into her lap and had told him about El Raton Perez, the little boy with one tooth missing had immediately believed her. If there is anything he knows for sure, it's that his favorite prima would never lie to him.

Mirabel is nice. The nicest! She sometimes teases, but only in a funny way. Not like Camilo, who is also nice and funny, but whose jokes sometimes are only funny for himself.

Antonio believes Mirabel, he really does, but a rat that takes your tooth home and gives you money in return also kinda sounds too good to be true.

Well, El Raton Perez will probably bring Antonio candy, since money has long since lost its value here in the Encanto. But even better! The old coins Abuela sometimes gives Antonio so he can play with them are nice to look at and they make funny noises when you shake them in your fist, but Antonio usually gets bored of them rather quickly.

Candy is much better.

"Some think El Raton Perez is a mouse and some think he's a rat." Mirabel had told him just that afternoon. "I think it's a rat here in Encanto. We have a lot of rats, don't you think?"

While Antonio had believed her, he'd thought that she may have been… what does his Papi always call it? Bamboozled. Tricked.

Mira is the best, but she always thinks the best of everyone else as well. If someone had told her a lie about El Raton Perez, she would have believed them. She is not as mature as Antonio, with his four and a half years. That's why he has to look out for her. Like a big boy!

But she was telling the truth! There is definitely a rat under his bed.

The room is dark and he is alone in the nursery. Tia Julieta has forced Mira to have a sleepover with Isabela and Luisa to "strengthen their sisterly bonds.".

Whatever that means, Mira hadn't seemed too happy about it, which is weird. Antonio loves his monthly sleepovers with Camilo. His older brother always declares that they will stay up all night, only to be the first one to fall asleep every time. It's always really funny.

Antonio has no problems sleeping alone from time to time. Casita always watches over them, so there is nothing to be afraid of. But no matter his initial excitement about El Raton Perez, the scratching and squeaking from under his bed are a bit scary in the dark.

He wants to see Senor Perez, but at the same time he kinda wishes the rat would hurry up and leave.

Suddenly there is a weird sound outside his room. Some kind of hissing sound. Antonio bites his lips and pulls the cover higher up so only his eyes peek out. He wonders if he should call out for his Mama, when Casita opens his door a little.

The hissing, which Antonio now realizes hadn't actually been hissing, but a voice going "psst psst psst" immediately stops.

"He's in there, Casita?"

Antonio doesn't recognize the voice, but Casita swings his door a little as if she's nodding. Whoever it is, Casita knows him. Antonio immediately relaxes. Casita loves them a lot. She would never let any harm come to them.

"Miercoles." The voice mutters. After a short pause, someone creeps into the room. It's a man wearing a ruana with the hood up. Antonio can't see his face, only the mouth, which is pressed into a thin, displeased line. The stranger peeks at Mira's bed and then turns to Antonio's side of the room. The little boy closes his eyes and pretends to sleep. After a few seconds, Antonio can hear the man kneel down on the floor. He reopens his eyes into slits and observes the man pressing his cheek against the floor to peer under Antonio's bed. He looks kinda small and scrawny and Casita still doesn't ring any alarms, so he must be okay.

Antonio sits up silently and leans over the side of his bed to get a better look. The man doesn't notice.

"Pssst. Perry." The man whispers. "Bad rat, get out of there! I told you guys a million times that you are not allowed in the kids rooms."

A big, grey rat shimmies out from under Antonio's bed. The man sits up and the rat jumps on his lap. He is frowning down at it and pokes it in the side. Antonio's curious eyes still go unnoticed.

"No cheese for you for a week, young man."

The rat squeaks sadly and Antonio can't take it anymore.

"Oh, please no! He only wanted my tooth."

The man almost jumps out of his skin. He scrambles backwards, still sitting on the floor, limbs flying everywhere. It looks so funny and Antonio can't help but giggle when the man bumps into the dresser and hits his head on it with a quiet "Ay!"

Mama would scold him for laughing, but Mama is not here.

The man clutches his heart and his breathing sounds ragged. "Dios Mio! Don't do that!"

"Sorry."

The hood is still obscuring the face, but Antonio can't help but think that something about the stranger looks familiar.

"Who are you?"

The man freezes. Mira always praises him for his instincts and empathy. Antonio thinks that the man looks scared.

"I… Uhm…"

The rat squeaks again. It had held on to the ruana during the man's mad backwards scramble and is now climbing onto a narrow shoulder. Antonio looks at it, then at the man, then back at the rat.

"Oh! Are you El Raton Perez's helper?" Mira hadn't said anything about a helper, but who else could the man be?

"Am I… Huh?"

"His helper!" Antonio pulls the tooth out from under his pillow and shows it off. "My tooth fell out. El Raton Perez came to get it."

The man slowly stands up. He hunches in on himself and steps closer to Antonio's bed. Maybe Antonio should feel intimidated by a stranger standing over him in the middle of the night, but the man is so careful, so hesitant. He supports the rat very tenderly while he walks and strokes a single finger over its little head. Something about the man makes Antonio trust him immediately.

"Your first tooth already? Time flies, huh?" He sounds wistful and sad as he stares at the tooth in Antonio's palm. Antonio didn't mean to make him sad.

But then the man seems to shake himself out of his sad mood and puts his hands on his hips. "But uhm, yeah! Exactly. I'm El Raton Perez's little helper. Good job figuring that out, Antonio."

The little boy gasps. "You know my name?"

"Oh well, of course. I.. I am his helper. I need to know our clients."

"But why does he need a helper?"

"He is very small. He can't open doors very well on his own. And someone needs to carry the teeth for him."

"Oh…that makes sense." Antonio holds out his own tooth. "Here!"

The man holds up his hands and shakes his head. "Oh no, I can't."

"But that's why you are here."

"I… darn it." He slaps his own forehead. The hood shifts a little and just for a second Antonio can see green, kind eyes, before nervous hands pull it back down again. "I forgot the candy. Sorry."

Antonio lowers his hand. He is a big boy. He is not gonna cry. "So I get no candy?"

"I'm sure you will. Later? Probably?"

He will not cry, he will not cry, he will not cry.

"Hey hey hey." The man sounds like he is about to cry himself, which makes Antonio feel a bit better about his own childish sniffles. He gingerly sits down on Antonio's bed. For a second it looks like he wants to hug the boy, but then he just hugs himself. "Don't cry, Tonito. You'll get your candy. Just later. How about… how about you hold on to that tooth for now and I… I will tell you a story instead. To tide you over?"

Antonio perks up immediately. He loves stories. Almost as much as candy. "You will?"

"Sure kid. A short one, okay?" Perez's helper wrings his hands and looks towards the door. "Casita, you will warn me if someone-" He shoots Antonio a quick look. "You will warn me when it's time to go, right?"

Casita waves soundlessly with the door.

"Alright. Lay back, Tonito. There, that's good. Have you ever heard the story of the princess and the frog?"

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Antonio falls asleep to the sound of a rumbling voice talking about adventure and love. Perez's helper is a very good storyteller. He makes different voices and he uses El Raton Perez himself to act out some scenes. He even allows Antonio to pet the rat.

Just before he's completely asleep, Antonio thinks he feels the man pull up the blanket and tuck him in. Just like Mama and Papa always do.

And then he's gone.

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The next morning his tooth is gone and in its place is a piece of candy. It's nice, but the story was even better.

When he tells his Mama and Papa about Perez's helper, the two of them exchange that weird, grown up look they get sometimes, indulgent and amused. They praise his colorful imagination.

"But my tooth is gone. He must have come back later!"

And again that weird, amused, look. Like they know something he doesn't.

He is in a bad mood, because no one will listen to him, until Dolores finds him in the garden and hugs him tight so she can whisper into his ears.

"Perez's Helper is a secret, hermanito. The adults can't know."

"You know about him too?"

"Sure I do. How did you like the story about the princess and the frog? That was always my favorite."

"I loved it!" Antonio cheers. He grows somber really quick though. "I wanted to hear more. Do you think he will tell me another one when I lose my next tooth?"

"Who knows." For some reason, Dolores looks towards Tio Bruno's tower, the one Antonio is not allowed near. "If we are lucky, you won't even have to wait that long for a new story."

Antonio is not quite sure what she means, but he hopes she is right.

He already misses El Raton Perez and his helper.

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I'll probably upload this to ao3 next week. Will let you know when that happens

#This turned a little angsty #But still 90% fluff and I'm very proud of that #bruno madrigal #encanto #encanto fanfic #bruno my beloved #Bruno madrigal is a good tio #antonio madrigal #Bruno madrigal and Antonio madrigal #dolores madrigal #El raton perez

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nyx-lyris · 1 year

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my encanto analysis/headcanon that no one asked for

so, i was just looking through some encanto fanart and headcanons and came across this piece (artist: https://mobile.twitter.com/ye_enc):

abuela had triplets - julieta, pepa, and bruno. both julieta and pepa had three kids - isabella, luisa, and mirabel for julieta, and dolores, camilo, and antonio for pepa.

what i noticed is that for each batch of three, each individual falls under a certain category, and it seems to follow by age.

julieta was, as this lovely fanart shows, likely depended on quite frequently for her ability to heal via her cooking. her gift would have been the most useful and therefore she likely would have been praised the most as “the perfect one”.

this, of course, next falls to isabella, who we see this with the most frequently. abuela very clearly is living the life she wished she could have lived through isabella, and is viewed as the perfect golden child by everyone around her.

dolores is a little different, but i believe she still fits the trope. she is basically the physical embodiment of “seen but not heard.” she keeps quiet on the things she knows would upset her family and doesn’t make herself heard, even when she is in pain, whether physical or emotional. she doesn’t tell anyone that she knows bruno has been living in the walls for the ten years he’s been missing; she doesn’t tell anyone about her feelings for mariano, because she knows that will upset abuela and her cousin’s “perfect for the encanto” arrangement; and one can only imagine how loud certain things are to her, that are endurable for us (fireworks, for example).

next are the middle children: pepa, luisa, and camilo. all of them have some kind of pressure on their shoulders. (and - just a fun thing i noticed - while luisa’s literal pressure is the many things she carries, pepa’s pressure is atmospheric pressure, because she controls the weather. but anyway, lol).

all three of these characters are told in one way or another to bottle up their emotions and keep them buried inside. with pepa, we see this very directly as she is constantly told by the other characters (especially abuela) to, as the fanart above shows, calm down and essentially turn off her emotions because of the damage she can cause with her weather powers. this kind of reminds me of the “conceal, don’t feel” thing that elsa had with her gloves. both pepa and elsa demonstrate the same growth throughout their movies, too - learning to accept themselves and their abilities and thus being able to control them instead of being controlled by them - but, i digress.

luisa, by contrast, is indirectly told to keep her emotions at bay. she is treated as something of a useful tool, both by the town and by abuela, and seen in a very masculine light despite her relatively feminine personality. because of this treatment and the expectation that she will always be strong that comes with it, she falls into the same category as pepa.

camilo, like dolores, is a little different, but still fits. we don’t see much of him in the movie, but i imagine he is depended on as being the funny one. if anyone reading this is into k-pop or bts, think of camilo as like the j-hope or the jin of the group. he’s always expected to be funny and smiling, lifting everyone else’s spirits - but who lifts his spirits?

and lastly, we have the youngest siblings - bruno, mirabel, and antonio. they fit into the roll, of course, of the scapegoat, of family disappointments.

bruno was rejected by the town and by his family, seen as a harbinger of chaos and horror, a bad omen - all because he can see the future, something that he obviously cannot control. but, of course, it’s easier to simply blame someone else than accept the truth or take responsibility for your own actions.

mirabel, of course, is treated in much the same way. she is seen as a bad omen, as well, and is quite literally feared to be the one who will destroy the family and the encanto, because of bruno’s vision.

antonio does not quite fit into this category, but i think if he had not gotten a gift, he would have been shunned in much the same way as bruno or mirabel. it can also be argued that his gift isn’t really very useful, and we can see abuela struggle for a moment to think of how they could put his gift to use at the breakfast at the beginning of the movie (”i told them to warm up your seat”).

anyway - this is all to say that each of the siblings in each of the batches of three appears to fill (or almost fill) the same rolls. i’m sure someone else has already noticed this and i’m just late to the party - but i thought it was cool.

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