Blanca and Roberto, “You are what’s important now.”
So this takes places when Roberto and Blanca are older teenagers-young adults and aren't dating yet
Roberto was kicking the ball at full speed. Ten meters. Five meters. Two. He jumped, but instead of reaching the hoop he felt the ground come closer and a sharp scream force its way out of his chest as he fell.
"Roberto!"
He pulled his right leg to his chest, closed his eyes shut and pursed his lips to stop another scream of pain.
"Roberto are you okay?" He felt a hand on his arm and slowly opened his eyes.
"Blanca?" He wheezed through gritted teeth. "I had no idea you're in Avalor City?"
"And I had no idea your ankle has healed already." There was a reproach hidden behind her eyes and in her voice that made Roberto's gaze fall to the ground.
"It was better," he mumbled, knowing there was no fooling her.
"Oh so you decided to make it worse again?" She snapped.
Roberto didn't answer. Blanca sighed.
"Can you stand up?"
Roberto hesitated.
"Sure I can, I just... need to catch my breath. I'll be right up. And back to the training," he said finally, not looking her in the eye.
Blanca shook her head.
"Stay here - and don't move." She shot him a warning glance and ran out of the stadium.
Roberto waited a moment and once he was sure she couldn't see or hear him anymore, he let out a loud groan and fell to his back. He was still clutching his ankle and he could already feel it swelling up. He let out another shaky breath and wanted to shout in pain and frustration - but the only words coming to his mind weren't ones he wanted to risk Blanca hearing.
Suddenly he perked up, hearing her come back, and tried to stand up.
"Wait!" She called, runnimg up to him. She gave him her hand to help him catch his balance and then gave him a long, thick branch. "Here, I know it's no crutches but it should do for now."
"Thanks." Roberto sent her a smile.
"Now come on, I'll walk you home," she continued.
"But-" Roberto wanted to argue but Blance had already picked up her bag, she dropped earlier to help him, and started towards the gate. He shook his head and sighed (to hide his smile). He picked up his ball and as quickly as he could, limped her way - he knew any resistance was pointless anyway.
Once he caught up to her, Blanca slowed down, so he wouldn't strain his leg even more, and for a long while they walked in silence. Finally she spoke up again.
"So are you going to tell me why did you suddenly become so stupid or do you want me to guess?" She kept her gaze locked on the road before them, but Roberto could feel that she was irritated.
He chuckled to let the edge down a little.
"Ouch, stupid, really?" He tried to take on his best pained expression - although it's not like he wasn't actually in pain. "You know an olaball player must always keep in shape."
"In shape?!" Blanca stopped and faced him. "And what shape is that? One legged cripple?!"
Alright, maybe she was more than irritated.
"Oh come on, there's a match in a few months, I just wanted to practice a few new tricks."
Blanca didn't answer but her eyes were saying more than she would dare to say out loud, and he, for one, was glad she didn't.
Roberto looked at the ground.
"Come on Blanca, you know I can't let down my team..." he added quietly.
"And you think you'll be of much help if you won't be able to even walk?" There was still an edge in her voice but it had regained some of its usual softness. "Who cares about the match," she put a hand to his chest. "You're what's important now."
She quickly took her hand back when she noticed a bright red blush on Roberto's face - probably equal to her own.
"Your team would probably say the same," she said adjusting her bag on her shoulder. "Now come on, we need to take you home"
Roberto stood frozen for a moment more before shaking his head and picking up his limping pace to keep up with her.
"Hmm you know I'll probably need some first aid too..." he said with a wide grin.
I won't lie, that was difficult XD But I think it came out quite well and I might even have a little better idea for their relationship now...
Gabe/ Naomi - Coronation and Chancellor Ceremony (Voiceover Special)
Because of a longer part with the original audio I am uploading the full video on my Google Drive account: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eDZYxPpkcdXpqn-0l53sFuIDWKBtu4dK/view?usp=sharing
PLOT:
Chloe realizese that Gabe is in love with Naomi and not with her and wants to make him happy, reminding Gabe to see the Norberg Lights with someone special. This spurts Gabe's memory of Naomi singing by the harbor, dreaming of rising from her humble roots, just like him.
Then Naomi's mother wants to move back to Norberg and Gabe tries to convince Scarlet to let the Turners stay. Upon their departure Naomi realizes how much Gabe means to her, which does not go unnoticed by her parents Scarlet and Daniel. Scarlet tells her daughter to follow her heart and openly supports the relationship.
When Naomi returns from her journes, she finally admits her feelings to Gabe, who returns the sentiment wholeheartedly and they share a kiss in the Council Chamber.
At Elena's Coronation Party, Elena appoints Naomi the new Chancellor and after a reassuring look to Gabe she accepts. Gabe quickly asks the new Chancellor to dance. Daniel tells Gabe's mother Blanca how much he likes her son. Even Roberto can be won over by Scarlet's praise and begrudgingly realizes that although both Gabe and Naomi have high position now, they are not going to forget their family legacy.
Then the big day is here: Naomi is officially appointed the Chancellor of Avalor by Elena and she spends the night dancing with Gabe, who would not change their adventerous and busy life together for anything.
Here’s another headcanons post of mine, one that I’d say fills quite an important gap in my headcanons posts.
Namely, the fact that out of the four main characters in the series, Gabe was the only one I never posted any headcanons on.
I’m not really sure what to say to that, other than that I simply kept letting him slip by as other characters took more of my attention.
I hope any Gabe fans reading this enjoy what I have come up with.
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Note: A tidbit from this is inspired by a post from @pizzansunshine on Gabe, namely the element that Blanca would tell Gabe stories about knights when he was younger.
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Note 2: I tried my best to portray the element of Gabe having a crush on Elena in a respectful manner. As I don’t ship this couple, I’m not entirely sure I succeeded, so I apologize in advance for any failure on that front.
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With that out of the way, please click below if you would like to see the rest.
Roberto Nuñez
For much of his life, Roberto Nuñez would be very much involved with Avalor’s olaball team, whether as a member or as an avid fan. But to the surprise of more than a few, he actually had not been born in Avalor, or even lived there until he was an adult.
Instead, he was born in the relatively distant kingdom of Neuquena, to Jairo and Berta, a fairly ordinary couple with a fairly ordinary background. Both of them were bakers, and owned a bakery they had set up together after getting married, a very much difficult undertaking in a kingdom as fraught with problems of all sorts as Neuquena.
One of the few kingdoms in the Ever Realm where magic practitioners hadn’t existed in recent history, Neuquena as a country was still recovering from a very ugly civil war that hadn’t ended all that many years before Roberto’s birth. Economy amounted to a huge mess, the king tried to have so much of an iron grip on his kingdom that he toed the line between harsh ruler and dictator, and much of the population only hanging on by a thread.
Though his family was not one of those in the worst conditions, Roberto did feel the toll of growing up in such a place, with parents too overworked to give him much attention and having to earn his keep from a young age, and constantly arguing about all sorts of things.
The best thing that could be said was that, unlike others, his parents at least made it a point to give him a basic education.
Still, it was far from paradise, and like many children in such conditions, Robert sought an escape, and in his case, said escape was olaball.
All the kids in his village played it, and when his father would let him off work, Roberto threw himself into punching and kicking the ball about and focusing on throwing it through the hoop. When he played, he could focus on something other than his home life.
But he always had to go back there, and while he had learned to value baking and cooking in general, he still did not like his parents’ constant arguments. Whenever they argued, he would get his hands on newspapers or magazines he found in the streets and seek out anything about olaball to distract himself.
Through that, he learned about the Avaloran olaball team, said to be the best in the realm, apparently viewed as so good that they had a whole squad of guards and a magic wielder specifically for their own protection whenever they played abroad.
For years, he dreamed of moving to Avalor and become an actual Avaloran citizen only so he could be part of such a team.
His parents called it a foolish dream, but Roberto was nothing if not stubborn, and he vowed to get there eventually.
Unfortunately, he was not the only such aspirant to olaball, and he would often get defeated by some better players.
And it was after one such defeat that he had a meeting that would change his life.
Blanca
In her adult life, she would enjoy living in Avalor, at least after Shuriki’s downfall, but like her future husband, Blanca Nuñez (née Silva) was born in Neuquena. Her father was Carlos, one of the king’s guards, and her mother was Margarida, a housewife who sometimes did mending and cleaning jobs to help those who needed the services and could afford them.
Her father’s job had a decent pay, but the fact he had to use his salary to provide for three children (of which Blanca was the oldest) and to provide for his crippled brother, sick sister-in-law, and young nephew, made it rather meager in comparison.
Somewhat as a consequence of that, Blanca started helping out around the house from a very young age, whether by looking after her sister Marta and her brother Eloy or by doing some simpler tasks to free up time for her mother.
But her parents did care enough about her future to at least give her a basic education. And unlike Roberto’s, her parents clearly loved each other and all their children a great deal, and while they had their share of disagreements, they never had shouting matches.
Story time was a favorite of the whole family, and when their father was home the children would gather around him and listen to his tales of heroes and heroines from foreign kingdoms who helped improve the life of those around them. Her father’s favorite stories to tell were about heroic male knights, but he would also tell stories about female knights and sorceresses and even brave princesses, which his daughters preferred, and about heroic wizards, which were his son’s favorites.
When she got older, Blanca came to learn that her father’s preference for stories on heroic knights was because that was what he wished to be, rather than someone who had to enforce a borderline repressive regime, no matter how necessarily, and still wished that somehow he would be able to do that.
As unlikely as it could seem, Blanca hoped he would get his wish.
But when she was nineteen, her hopes were dashed, when one day, two of the king’s guards came to their home, stating that her father had died in a nasty confrontation with a citizen unwilling to pay the taxes that Neuquena’s king kept charging.
Unlike many other kings, who charged hefty taxes just to fund themselves, Neuquena’s ruler actually used the heavy taxes he charged for everything he said they were for, to the point he was known as ‘the poorest King in the Ever Realm’. He did not live like a beggar per se, but he certainly looked like one when compared to other royals. All the same, or perhaps because of that, there were those too unwilling to pay taxes, and sometimes royal guards had to be sent to take them.
That often resulted in confrontations. And the one Carlos went through on that particular day was vicious enough that there were deaths on both sides. Carlos’ was one of them.
The whole family was heartbroken.
But in addition to the heartbreak, they also had to face their financial issues. Carlos had been the main breadwinner for all eight of them. Without him, they would be in trouble.
Blanca and her mother did her their best to keep everyone at least alive, if not ideally healthy, but it managed to strain both her physical resilience and emotional reserves, and Blanca would often find herself overwhelmed, especially as her mother started growing more and more depressed with her father’s absence and thus ever more unable to make a contribution. She loved her family without any question, but there was no getting around the fact that providing for so many people on a near single-handed basis took a toll on her.
Sometimes, she would cope by cooking, but on the times she just couldn’t take it any longer, she would take a walk to her favorite fountain and make a wish for things to improve on the worn and dilapidated nymph statues on it.
And in a roundabout, temporary way, one of her wishes came true.
Rainstorm to flash flood
It had been an off day for both of them. Blanca had again been feeling the strain of being the primary breadwinner. And Roberto had just been defeated at olaball by a rival team after a very close game.
By sheer coincidence, they happened to meet at the same fountain, where they had both gone to make a wish, and noticed one another. Neither was particularly taken by the other’s physical attractiveness, but upon noticing each other’s eyes, both Robert and Blanca felt a connection… and Roberto decided to take the initiative and talk.
They ended up spending the whole afternoon talking, and promised to meet again. And as further meetings happened, they eventually started going out. Not very much, because both were busy with plenty of things in their day to day lives, but they snuck in every available bit they could to spend time together.
Neither of the families was particularly supportive. Roberto’s father scowled at the fact his son was wasting time chasing a skirt instead of working in the bakery or improving his olaball skills, and his mother simply had no opinion on the matter as long as he stayed out of her hair. As for Blanca’s family, her mother and siblings would rather she didn’t date the son of a man as bad tempered as Jairo, and her aunt thought she should try to go for someone with a bit more status and wealth rather than someone who had as little to offer as Roberto.
Nevertheless, they both knew they liked one another, and despite the struggles with their family, they did end up getting married, in a small quiet ceremony at a small church attended only by a select few. At that point, the family had no choice but to accept even as they grumbled about how little Roberto had to offer.
By chance, Robert turned out to have quite a bit to offer, when one day, the Avalor olaball team came to Neuquena for a game, as the king attempted both to generate profit and to provide something that cheered up the nation. To make arrangements for that, he put an olaball team together for Neuquena (the first that had existed since the end of the civil war) and Roberto was picked to be a part of it.
Neuquena’s team ended up losing the game, but Roberto saw that everything he had heard about Avalor’s olaball team was true. Not only were they incredible players, but they also had a squad of guards and a magic wielder for protection. Roberto realized that that was his chance, and went to talk to the head guard responsible for the unit to know what he would need to do to become part of Avalor’s olaball team.
He realized there were a lot of documents to be approved if he wanted to achieve such a goal, including the naturalization process, and of course he would have to move to Avalor. But Roberto was determined. From the conversations he had with the players from the team (who were a surprisingly humble bunch despite their talent) it would be worth it, as not only their pay was excellent, but they played plenty of games with teams from many places in the world.
He talked with Blanca afterwards, and she too was relatively excited at the prospect, so, after the months required to get the paperwork (apparently, queen Shuriki was rather picky when it came to naturalizing foreigners) the two of them moved to Avalor, promising to send money from Roberto’s winnings at olaball to their families.
At first, it was paradise. Roberto was doing the thing he loved the most every day, and he no longer had the money woes that plagued his family. He had even managed to use some winnings to open a bakery, which Blanca ran due to her taste for cooking. They were happier than they had ever been.
But over time, they started noticing strange things about their kingdom. The prohibition of music and dancing in particular jumped out, but the lack of public festivals also became too obvious to ignore eventually.
And when they saw a man being whipped for a supposed transgression against the queen (apparently, he’d made a less than complimentary remark about her) they realized just what kind of ruler they had ended up under.
Like they used to say at Neuquena, they had escaped the rainstorm only to run into the flashflood.
While Roberto briefly considered writing home to Neuquena about Queen Shuriki, but Blanca dissuaded him from the goal. Someone like her was bound to have eyes and ears everywhere, and if they tried to warn people back home, not only would their families be the ones paying for it, but a kingdom like Neuquena simply did not have the means for a war against Shuriki.
Though stubborn, Roberto agreed with his wife’s reasoning, and in the end, they ended up staying in Avalor and doing their best to enjoy whatever happiness they could get from their jobs and life, without a specific plan.
Said lack of planning might be the reason why they’d eventually get another source of happiness.
Gabe
Years after their arrival to Avalor, Roberto and Blanca became parents to their only child, a boy named Gabriel Nuñez, known as Gabe to most.
By Avaloran standards, Gabe had a better start in life than most kids. More than one kid Gabe knew had one parents who was either dead or lost to any of Shuriki’s slave camps. Gabe still had both of them with him and he actually had a living enviable by villager standards. Not only did his father have a job that enabled them to not go hungry, but he was actually a fairly popular sort thanks to being an olaball player.
But a perfect life is something that does not exist, and Gabe’s had its rough spots. While both his parents loved him, and his mother generally seemed to prefer to just raise him right and with love and letting him make his own choices, his father was not the same. From the time Gabe was a baby, his father had started visualizing a whole future for his boy, to the point he renamed his bakery ‘Nuñez and Son’ and very much looked forward to teach him olaball.
Gabe started learning both as soon as he was old enough, but while he was more than decent at baking - even if he did not enjoy it all that much - he was an absolute mess at olaball. No matter how much his father tried to teach him, Gabe seemed unable to copy the moves, even as his father started growing bulkier as age caught up to him.
Thanks to his little knack for olaball, he had some problems fitting in at school, as olaball was the main sport the other kids played and no one ever wanted him in their team. His social status and companionship weren’t helped by his not taking part in socially outcasting those of an even lower status than him, namely kids whose parents had done something to draw Shuriki’s attention.
Neither of Gabe’s parents ever joined a resistance movement, and they did not teach Gabe anything special about the Avalor of old - fitting, given that they were not Avalorans. But Gabe ended up learning some of it after noticing the patterns to the things punished by Shuriki, and his parents did share with him some of what they had learned about Avalor, while always instilling into him the importance of not drawing attention to himself.
Needless to say, neither were thrilled to see that, the older Gabe got, the more he wanted to do more than lie low and pray for a miracle. He wanted to somehow be able to make Avalor better. Blanca would later blame herself a bit for telling him so many stories about heroes of all sorts when he was younger. But again, while his mother did her best to support the idea even as she quailed at the thought of the many horrors that could befall him, his father always had to make his opinion known, and as a result, that lead to even more friction between him and Gabe.
But Gabe was as stubborn as his father when he wanted to, and he got his chance when he reached the age of sixteen and, just like every other able-bodied boy, had to do a three-year long stint at Shuriki’s guard. Though he was apprehensive at the kind of things he could end up seeing - and, God forbid, help bring about - he was as determined as ever to somehow help make Avalor a better place.
After finishing basic training, he joined guard duty, and did all he could to help soften the effects of Shuriki’s reign on the kingdom. As a lowly private, he was not able to do much, but his sense of caution combined with his keen eye for tactics had Captain Sandoval promoting him to corporal after a year of service.
Publicly, Gabe would do what he was told and obey the orders that came from higher about. In private, he always pretended not to see many things and accidentally dropped many things that he hoped would help someone.
But he knew doing such things would not be enough to bring down Shuriki. Something greater had to happen.
When Gabe was eighteen, said something happened.
On a day that seemingly had been like any other, besides the fact that a foreign royal family was in town, Captain Sandoval gathered some guards personally selected by himself, of all ages and ranks. The gathered men could only look about as Captain Sandoval paced like a caged animal, his eyes sinking into them as if he wanted to impale them with his mere gaze.
Then, he told them two simple sentences.
“The time to bring her to an end has come, men. Are you with me?”
Gabe was the first to answer, “Yes, sir!”
All the other guards Captain Sandoval had gathered joined him.
And when singing rose from the whole town for the first time in over four decades, they took action.
Between them, they managed to overwhelm those who were on Shuriki’s side and hadn’t decided to simply flee the approaching mass, and Gabe ended up having quite an important role in the battle, with an apparently natural knack for knowing where to direct some of the guards and the best moves to defeat those he fought. The act earned him a promotion directly to Lieutenant soon after Avalor’s true flag was hoisted, when Captain Sandoval reshuffled the guards he felt could stay and brought in new recruits (all voluntary this time). Three other guards (Rico Villalobos, Miguel Leon, and Andres Sousa) received the same promotion, as Captain Sandoval distinguished them as the four guards who best acquitted themselves in battle.
But while Gabe’s mother was proud of him, his father was of the opinion that, with Princess Elena now back on the throne, Gabe could simply leave the guard and come help run the bakery. Or better yet, they could just pack up and leave for Neuquena. He had a great disappointment, as Gabe was now surer than ever that he had found his true calling. While he did not boast or brag, he was proud to have helped release the kingdom from the tyrant who had hurt them so much.
With Blanca’s help, Roberto ended up relenting, and thus Gabe stayed on the Royal Guard; some days later, he would tell Princess Elena upon first meeting her that it was his first day in the Royal Guard, as he did not think Shuriki’s travesty of a force was the true Royal Guard by any stretch of the imagination. However, he would not be lying about it being his first day on the palace, as he had never been one of the guards assigned to guard it.
He also would have to struggle a bit with his crush on Princess Elena, which seemed to hit him like a lightning strike from the moment he saw her.
But over time, even as his crush seemed to not completely fade, for the time being at least, he would learn to greatly value his friendship with her and the blessings it brought to his life.
Maybe “I didn't mean it like that!” for Gabe and Roberto if you don’t mind it, please?
The sound of cutlery clinking against the plates was the only thing holding the unforgivable silence, that had overtaken the Nuñez household, at bay. They were eating dinner without lifting their gazes from the food, the same way they had eaten breakfast that morning. And the supper the previous evening. The last dinner too. In fact, it had been the norm for the past few months. The giant oven in the bakery was the only warm thing in their home... ever since Gabriel revealed he had applied to join the royal guard.
A knife scratched the ceramics and they all flinched.
"I have to tell you something." Gabriel put his fork down. "It's something good!" He quickly assured them seeing the terrified look on his mother's face.
"I have passed the last test..." Roberto scoffed which threw Gabe off for a moment, but soon he picked up again. "This weekend there will be the big ceremony, you know, with the pledge and we'll get the swords and- and everything," Gabe stuttered and fell silent. His gaze dropped back to the table and he clenched his teeth trying to compose himself.
"That's fantastic, Gabriel" his mother sent him a smile from across the table.
Gabe took a deep breath.
"What I'm trying to say is that there will be a big celebration and all the recruits' families are invited..." he looked back up at his parents "And I was hoping you'll come too?"
"Oh, mijo, of course we'll-"
Roberto loudly pushed his chair away and stomped out of the dining room.
Gabriel and Blanca both looked after him for a moment, before Gabe jumped from his seat too.
"Papá, wait!"
He caught him in the kitchen and put a hand on his arm, so Roberto had to turn around.
"Please, I know you didn't want me to join the guard but-"
"And I still don't want to," Roberto said through gritted teeth. "I couldn't stop you but I won't go and join this... charade!"
"Papá, everyone's parents will be there, it's..." Gabe pursed his lips. "It's really important to me, you could at least..."
"Oh so that's what's important to you now?!" Roberto blew up. "Your future and your family suddenly don't count?"
"Of course I care about our family!" Gabe defended himself and clenched his fists. "I just don't want to be a baker, you know that."
"Our family is this bakery, Gabriel." Roberto flailed his arms around to emphasize his words. "It's called Nuñez and Son, so if you're my son..."
"Oh so I'm not your son now? Just because I don't want to be a stupid baker for the rest of my life?" All the anger he was trying to keep in control, now blew up and his words flowed before he could even think about them.
"Gabriel..." There was an edge in Roberto's voice, but Gabe couldn't hear it over his own anger.
"No, because you know what? Maybe I don't care about this family because you never cared about me?!" He threw his hands to point at the house in general and at himself. "All you," here he almost stabbed Roberto in the chest with his finger. "All you ever cared about was olaball and this dumb bakery..."
"Gabriel, do not speak to me..." Roberto started but Gabe wasn't finished yet.
"...so once it was obviously I can't do either, Nuñez and Son suddenly turned into Nuñez and a giant disappointment..."
"...you do not speak to me like that in my own house! Shut your mouth and..." They were now both yelling over each other.
"But you now what?! Sometimes I wish I didn't have a father like you either or that you weren't my father at all!"
Silence crashed onto them like a lightning bolt in the apogeum of the storm. They both froze. Their arms raised halfway through angry gestures. They were looking at each other. Gabe's eyes grew the size of platters.
"I... I didn't mean it like that...!" he finally wheezed out.
Roberto remained silent for another long moment, stretching into an infinity. Only his clenched fists and gritted teeth were an indicator that he hasn't turned into stone.
"Please, papá..." Gabriel started again but Roberto didn't even try to to listen this time.
"Get out," he said pointing out of the kitchen. "Go to your royal guard since that's the family you just chose."
Gabriel opened his mouth to say something again but quickly closed it. He pursed his lips and his brows fell to cloud his eyes. Without a word more, not sparing even a glance to his mother when he passed her, he left the house.
Gaaaaah it is finished! Sorry it took ages.
Don't worry, they later reconciled (although Roberto still probably didn't come to the ceremony), Gabe apologized again and Roberto said that once he realizes he wants to leave the guard he can always come back home. I'm not sure it's much better tho.
This is one of the oldest fanfiction ideas I had in mind and I finally wrote it. This is extremely short, so I thought I could share it directly on Tumblr. You can also read it on AO3 and Wattpad. Anyway, I hope you like it!
***
The light sparkling snowflakes were swirling in the air, slowly falling on the ground and forming a dense snow cover. It was Nochebuena, the time when the city streets were brightly decorated and illuminated with candles. When the sounds of the carols and children's laughter spread across the whole kingdom, helping people enjoy the festive atmosphere even more. Navidad is a special day of the year when every family in Avalor can share the warmth of love with each other and spend the priceless time together. However, not everyone could feel that same way on the day before Navidad.
Blanca Nuñez was standing behind the counter at the bakery "Nuñez and Son" and kneading the dough, sprinkling it with the flour for the Navidad buñuelos. Every few minutes she raised her head from the worktop and pointed her gaze towards the front door, hoping to hear the bell ringing, meaning that the somebody she was waiting for would finally arrive. She flinched when the door was finally opened and a slight smile appeared on her face. She dusted the flour off her hands on her apron and was about to approach the door, but when she saw who it was, she stayed in place with a disappointed sigh.
"Good day, Señora Nuñez!" A man covered with snow from his head to his toes came into the bakery and approached the counter. "There is such unbelievable weather today, right? It's snowing in Avalor! Can you imagine that!"
Blanca forced a smile and nodded. "Yes, you're right." She said, "What would you like, Señor Martinez?"
"Anything warm would be handy!" He chuckled. "Your empanadas work perfectly."
Blanca handed a few packed baked goods to the man and said: "Thank you for coming. I hope you will like it."
"I sure will!" Señor Martinez exclaimed. "¡Feliz Navidad! I hope you're having a fun day with your family!"
He headed to the exit door and as soon as he left the bakery, the welcoming smile vanished from Blanca's face and she got back to her work. She was rolling out the dough on the table, and suddenly memories flashed through her mind and she saw a little boy six years old. Her son Gabriel. He was carefully pouring flour into the bowl, and mixing it with water to knead the dough. The boy was struggling with that, but soon, he felt the warm and gentle touch of somebody's hands. He raised his head, and upon looking at his mother's kind face, he smiled and giggled, returning to the work with a greater enthusiasm.
As they were cooking together, the kitchen was filled with ringing laughter and Gabriel with his hands covered with flour peeked at his mother. She was slowly removing the dough from the bowl to the table to start rolling it out, but before she could even take the rolling pin in her hand, the tip of her nose was in the flour. She turned her gaze at giggling Gabriel, but his laughter quickly quieted down when Blanca touched his nose. He opened his eyes and saw his mother, covering her mouth with her hand. He snuggled up to her, and Blanca wrapped her arms around him, stroking his hair and hearing Gabriel's voice: "I love you, mami."
"I love you, too, mijo…" Blanca whispered, slowly running the rolling pin over the dough, as she still was captured by those memories.
A few hours passed by, and soon, Blanca approached the door, flipping the sign from "open" to "closed". She took her seat at the table to have dinner, but couldn't, as the only thing on her mind was whether Gabriel was safe during his guard mission now. However, her thoughts were interrupted soon, as the door to the bakery opened, and she saw Roberto who had just returned from the market on the threshold. She got up from the table to greet her husband and help him to take the bags to the cellar.
"I'm sorry I'm so late." Roberto said, as he kept dusting snow off his clothes. "Everything was fine on the way to the market, but then, there was such a strong snow storm. Snow . I still can't believe it."
"That's okay. The main thing is that you're safe." Blanca replied, and they headed to the kitchen.
Blanca put a mug of Ponche Navideño in front of Roberto to keep him warm and took her seat. Roberto was about to pick it up, but stopped when he looked at Blanca who was just sitting at the table, thoughtful and worried. "Blanca, did something happen?" She shook her head, and Roberto looked around. "Hasn't Gabriel returned yet?" He asked.
Blanca shook her head again. "And I don't know when he will. I don't know if he will at all." A slow tear rolled down her cheek, and she swiftly wiped it away. "I've been thinking about him for the whole day, Roberto, and I'm so scared that something might happen to him."
Roberto took her hand. "Blanca…" He said. "Do you remember how Gabriel saved princess Isabel and princess Caterina during the Peace Festival?" Blanca raised her head. "He was ready to risk his life without a second thought to protect them, and that's when I could see something in him that I had never noticed before. He's a true hero. And now, when he's on his guard mission, he's doing it to protect his kingdom. And us." Roberto squeezed her hand tightly yet gently and continued: "I'm worried about him. A lot. But I don't doubt he will be back. And I know that when he's back, we'll be proud of him even more than we are now."
Blanca smiled slightly, thanking him for those words with a glance, and placed her hand over his. Roberto was looking at her fondly and suddenly turned his gaze towards the window. He got up from the table to see what was happening outside and saw the clouds clear away to reveal an orange sky. The storm was over. Blanca approached the window and snuggled up to Roberto, resting her head on his shoulder, and together they watched the sunset, awaiting their son's arrival whenever it would happen.
***
The sparkling flames were illuminating the dark cave and warming up the guards and jaquins who were in the midst of the snow storm. Gabe was looking at Miguel and Andres and handed them a few more crackers from his backpack to pass the waiting time and cheer them up on Nochebuena.
It was Gabe's first Navidad he spent far away from his family, which was making him feel a bit empty and lonely inside. He couldn't stop thinking that his parents and friends might be worried about him, but watching Miguel and Andres reminded him what he left Avalor for, and the thoughts about people he loved and his kingdom were a true source of strength for him, especially now.
Gabe smiled, taking a canteen of water into his hand, and suddenly heard Migs' voice behind his back. "Captain Nuñez! The storm is over!"
Gabe turned his head to Miguel and Andres, not believing his ears at first, and got up from the ground, heading out of the cave. Looking around, he sighed with relief and ordered the immediate resumption of their mission. The jaquins flapped their wings, soaring into the sky, and Gabe glanced at every member of his troop with a soft peaceful smile.
