The Past's Future

by Aeera_Writes

Summary:

He shut his eyes, hugging the tablet to his chest once more, this time much gentler.

“Por favor…Please, future, hurry up…”

His eyes opened again, just in time to see the light of the candle burn brighter.

And brighter.

Until all he could see was the bright light of the flame.

Notes:

All Spanish is from DeepL and/or Google Translate, so I apologize in advance if anything is wrong! Please let me know if something is so that I can fix it!

Anyway, absolutely love Encanto and have total rat-man brain rot, so I decided to write this to give me something to do.

Chapter 1

The future, so to say, was something that was always complicated. Multiple different available paths or steps that one could take could lead to multiple different outcomes and possibilities in their lives. Or all steps could lead to a single, set-in-stone outcome that was bound to happen no matter how hard one would try.

Bruno learned that the hard way when it came to applying his gift to the community, doing his active duty and right by them as his mamá had always told him and his sisters. He was only seven when he learned that the death of one of the townspeople was unavoidable.

He was nine when he learned that Señor Rodriguez’s donkeys’ escape could have been avoided if he had just kept them active enough or built a stronger fence to keep them at bay.

The worst thing about his gift was that he was never sure which path it would end up taking, what type of future it was. That’s why he had always avoided looking into his own.

The thoughts of what could be in the context of him were terrifying. What if he saw his own death? Or some traumatic event that he would inevitably have to relive without meaning to? What if he saw the deaths of his own family?

Those thoughts always plagued him when the question of his future came to light, popping into his head like a parasite, digging away at his curiosity until he caved in and gave it a little thought. Bruno always swore to himself that he would never actually look, that he would never entertain the thought itself.

Until he got tired of the question at the ripe age of fifteen and decided to simply put an end to it, to either ease his troubles or make them worse.

Bruno looked around the dark cave that his room had come with, just for his visions, going through the list within his head to make sure that everything was set up correctly.

If it wasn’t correct, then he couldn’t focus, and if he couldn’t focus, then who knows what would happen, and if whatever happened were to, say, be a bad thing that happened then it would be his fault and when it’s his fault-

He gulped, already knowing his nerves were setting his own head ablaze. He reached into his pocket, taking a pinch of salt and throwing it over his shoulder before he sat down within the circle of sand, crossing his legs.

“I can do this, I can do this…” Bruno muttered to himself reassuringly, checking one last time that everything was the way it was supposed to be.

The sand was in a decent circle, the door to the room was closed so no sand left the room, no rats were in the room, only him.

“Okay, no more stalling.”

He rested his hands in his lap, closing his eyes.

The sand surrounding him began to shift, starting in a slow-motion before picking up speed, each grain moving faster and faster before forming a dome around him.

His eyes opened, bright, glowing green as he stared at the images that began to form.

The first to show was the inside of the Casita, a much larger family in the center gathered around one another. They looked like they were posing for a picture. None of the faces were clear enough for him to know who the people were, making him frown gently.

He focused harder, forcing the sand to form the next image.

This image was of three people, one man, and two women. All three were sitting outside of the Casita on the front steps, food in their hands looking like they were having the time of their lives together. The more he focused, the more clear the faces were. The man was him. He was certainly thinner, more…tired-looking? But it was no doubt him.

The other two with him no doubt would be his own sisters! One of the two even wore the same braid he had seen his hermana Pepa wearing! All three of them were there even when they were older, and they were all happy.

It excited Bruno so much that the vision ended right then and there with him eagerly grabbing the jade tablet, barely giving it enough time to fully form, and rushing out of the room. Both of his sisters were out doing their chores, but he could at least show his own mamá what he had seen.

He rushed over to the kitchen where he knew his mamá was making her morning coffee.

“M-Mamá,” Bruno said breathlessly, “Mamá, look!”

Alma turned, concern in her features at how out of breath her son sounded, but as soon as her eyes landed on the green-colored tablet, her expression fell. As quickly as it had fallen, it had fixed itself into a strained smile.

“Brunito, as much as I would love to see, I have to stay focused. You don’t want me to burn myself, do you?” She said gently, motioning slightly to the brewing pot of water.

“I-It would only take a second, I promise! I looked into the future, my future, a-and-”

“Bruno,” Alma cut off more sternly this time, her voice slightly wavering, “Please, not right now, okay?”

“But mamá!” He protested, “It isn’t bad!”

“Enough!”

Bruno flinched immediately, hugging the vision close to his chest as he stared up at his mother wide-eyed. Alma sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, turning away from him to collect herself.

“Enough,” She quietly repeated, “Señorita Castillo’s roof had collapsed just last night and I need to go into the town to check up on her, I can not handle a vision right now Bruno, do you understand?”

“I-I…” He swallowed, clutching the tablet tighter, “I understand mamá…lo siento, mamá.”

Alma didn’t respond, which was his immediate cue to leave the room to let her calm down. How had he managed to mess up again? When he finally has good news he screws it up and angers his own mother!

He stopped in the center of the Casita, the image of the family gathered together coming back to him. He looked down at the tablet in his hands, at the image of him and his sisters together, happy, smiling, eating together.

Bruno sighed gently, a frown tugging at his lips. He wished that the future was already there, that he was already sitting there on those steps with his hermanas, that he was already older so he wouldn’t have to deal with so many of mamá’s scoldings, so that he could be with all those other people that surely love him enough to spend time with him.

He shut his eyes, hugging the tablet to his chest once more, this time much gentler.

“Por favor…Please, future, hurry up…”

His eyes opened again, just in time to see the light of the candle burn brighter.

And brighter.

Until all he could see was the bright light of the flame.

Chapter 2

Summary:

Young Bruno meets Camilo and Mirabel!

Notes:

So when we first see the triplets opening their doors, they were totally in a hallway together, and since the Casita can expand and move doors the more the family grows, I figured that Young Bruno's room would remain in the hallway until more kids were born and he grew more distant. So the room itself didn't move until he was in his 20s maybe.

“Camilo! Get back here! You’re not allowed in the kitchen!”

“No chance, my dearest prima! I’m starving!”

Bruno blinked a couple of times, his vision slowly returning to him. What had happened? His vision, he realized, was missing even though it was in his hands just moments before. Where had it gone?

Looking around, he could see he was still in the center of the Casita, which was definitely a good thing, but something felt off to him, something he couldn’t put a finger on. The sound of feet rushing down the stairs startled him, forcing him to run and hide behind the closest thing to him. They weren’t feet that he recognized at all. Pepa had much heavier steps, and Julieta had lighter ones. It definitely wasn’t his mamá either because he had just seen her in the kitchen.

“Tía Pepa will kill you if she finds out you stole more food,” A girl shouted, appearing from the staircase behind another boy with a bright grin on his face, both looking the same age as him.

Tía Pepa? As in his Pepa? Bruno’s brows furrowed as he stared at the two from his spot.

“Which is why she won’t find out! Come on Mirabel, por favor, you know I need food to keep going for the day!” The boy begged dramatically, turning to face the girl, Mirabel, as he continued his path towards the kitchen, though now walking backward.

“Everyone will already know it was you, Camilo,” Mirabel huffed, fixing the glasses on her face, “You’ve been doing this since we were five and you get scolded for it every time!”

Despite her protests, Camilo shrugs, disappearing behind the kitchen doorway with Mirabel in tow, still trying to get him to leave whatever food was over there alone.

Surely his mamá would see them and question who they were, wouldn’t she? He knows for sure that she hadn’t left yet, so she still had to be in the kitchen. Yet, all he could hear were the other two kids bickering with one another.

Slowly, Bruno emerged from his spot, looking towards the stairs from which they came from. He let his eyes wander to the second floor, eyes widening as he took in the sight.

There were five more magical doors, each with images of people he had never met nor knew existed before. He glanced towards the kitchen doorway, chewing at his bottom lip gently before he quietly moved towards the stairs, climbing each one as silently as he could manage.

Once he reached the top of the steps, he rushed towards the first door he saw.

This one showed a girl surrounded by multiple flowers, the name Isabella written in neat cursive within the wood of the door. He turned his head to look at another, this one with the name Luisa on it, featuring a muscular girl lifting weights.

There were more doors, these ones named Antonio, Dolores, and Camilo. That didn’t make any sense. Camilo was the boy still inside the house. If he had a gift, the boy would have been in town right then helping the people. What was he doing at home?

He stepped back, taking in the sight around him.

A name was still missing and that confused him. Where was Mirabel's door, the other girl in the house? Bruno looked around once more, where was his door? Two doors were missing.

He gulped, turning around to head back to the stairs before freezing in his place, two sets of eyes stared back at him in shock.

“I-I…uh…” Bruno gulped, growing nervous, “I…H-Hello?”

Mirabel and Camilo said nothing, only breaking their eye contact with him to share a look with each other.

“There’s…uh, I just wanted to point out that, uh,” He motioned towards the glowing doors, “There’s…There are two doors missing, right?”

“Who are you?” Camilo asked instead, crossing his arms over his chest and placing himself slightly in front of Mirabel, “I mean- I get being a big fan of us, but you’re kind of breaking in. If you need Abuela, she isn't here, so…You gotta go.”

“Fan?” Bruno repeated, confused.

“What else would you be? We’re the Madrigals and you’re a complete stranger,” Camilo explained before he squinted, “And what are you doing with that ruana? That isn’t yours!”

“Camilo, calm down,” Mirabel spoke up, pulling the boy back by his own ruana.

“I-It is mine! My mamá made this for me!” He defended, clutching the green fabric rightly in his hands.

“Okay, okay, we believe you,” Mirabel said calmly, putting her attention back on him, offering him a small smile, “What’s your name? Mine is Mirabel, and this is my primo Camilo.”

Bruno looked at her hesitantly, “There are two doors missing,” He repeated, “Where’s your door? Where’s mine?”

“We aren’t missing any doors,” Camilo answered, “And don’t ignore her!”

Mirabel went silent, staring at him again but this time studying him. After a few seconds, her eyes brightened, recognition flashing across her face.

“Oh. Oh!” She reached out, her hand wrapping around Bruno’s wrist, “I’ll show you, okay? Come on.”

Camilo eyed his cousin suspiciously, but ultimately followed behind them once Mirabel began dragging Bruno away. They weren’t walking for long, reaching the door of- the nursery?

“This is the nursery,” Bruno said, looking at Mirabel, “Why did you take me here?”

“Welcome to my room,” Mirabel said simply, pushing open the door and letting Bruno look inside, “I didn’t get a door- but that’s okay! I like my room, especially since I get to decorate it however I want now!”

“B-But no door means-”

“No gift either,” Mirabel finished for him.

“You don’t have a gift,” He whispered, “Mamá wouldn’t like that. Ohh no, mamá wouldn’t have liked that at all!” He panicked, “I didn’t do anything, did I?”

“You just got here, how could you have done anything?” Camilo pointed out.

Mirabel rolled her eyes, leaning closer to her cousin to whisper something into his ear. Camilo’s expression changed immediately.

“Ohhh…” He responded sheepishly, “That…That makes sense.”

“W-What about my door? Is it…It’s still here, right?” Bruno then asked fearfully, “My room used to be out here, where is it?”

He wrung his hands before reaching out towards the door in front of him, quickly knocking on it. He couldn’t help it, he was freaking out. He reached into his pocket next, grabbing a pinch of salt again to throw over his shoulder.

“Yeah, I can definitely see it now,” Camilo piped up.

“Don’t worry, come on, we’ll go there next,” Mirabel, who never let go of his wrist, began to drag him away again, Camilo still behind them.

They soon found themselves in front of a few sets of stairs, leading up to his door that connected to the large tower of the house. The image on his door was different, he looked happier than the image he remembered his door having.

“This is my room?” Bruno asked, even though he could read the name at the top of the door clear as day, “Are you sure?”

“Unless you know another Bruno- ow!” Camilo huffed, rubbing his arm where Mirabel elbowed him, “What? I can’t say that? Do you know another Bruno that I don’t?”

“How did you know this was-”

“Yours? Honestly, the ruana was a hint, but you look just the same as you do now, just…more well-rested,” Mirabel answered, placing a hand on his shoulder, “We can’t go in there right now though, because our Bruno is in town with the others and won’t be back until later.”

“Why is he here?” Bruno then asked, his confusion getting the best of him as he pointed to Camilo, “Mamá always said that we had to be in town helping people since we have gifts, shouldn’t he be with them?”

“Rude,” Camilo scoffed, rolling his eyes, “And it's my day off, Mirabel’s orders.”

Bruno frowned. His mamá never gave them days off unless it was absolutely necessary for their health and Camilo looked completely fine. His mamá would also never let someone else dictate their schedule, and, as nicely as he could put it, wouldn’t let someone without a gift dictate it either, even if they were family.

“How did you even get here?” Mirabel questioned curiously.

“I don’t know,” He answered honestly.

“Great, what if he’s stuck with us?”

“Camilo!”

“What?”

“Don’t be rude!” Mirabel said sternly, “We’ll just have to wait until everyone comes back, Abuela would have to have an answer. In the meantime,” She looked back at Bruno, “Are you hungry? Or…Or thirsty?”

“A little hungry,” Bruno replied meekly. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was actually hungry or if it was because he was nervous and didn’t know what else to do.

“Come on, there are some arepas in the kitchen!”

Chapter 3

Summary:

Bonding

It was strange, to say the least, being around two Madrigal children that wouldn’t be around for him for many more years to come. There was also heavy disappointment. While Mirabel made sure Bruno was fed the promised arepas, both she and Camilo started explaining to him the rest of their family.

As it turned out, he wouldn’t have any kids of his own. Which wasn’t too terrible if it wasn’t for the fact that had at least hoped Mirabel would turn out to be his. She was nice, funny, and most likely giftless because of him. It just made sense in his head that she would be his daughter. But, the more thought he had given it, it also made sense that she was Julieta’s daughter. And if the stories about her papá were true, it also made sense that she wasn’t his. For one, she was definitely clumsy, almost dropping the plate of arepas from their place on the counter. If it wasn’t for Casita helping her regain her balance, they would have been all over the floor.

There was also the fact that she had glasses, and the only other person in the current Madrigal household with them as well was Agustín, her papá.

Still, he felt disappointed, but he made sure not to let it show on his face.

“Ay, we still have so much time until they come back,” Camilo complained, letting his head fall onto the table they were all sitting at, “What else should we do?”

Which led them to now, just outside of the Casita, a ball in Camilo’s hands. Though, Bruno’s attention was elsewhere.

“Where did that come from?” Bruno found himself asking, pointing to the glowing image of the entire family on the front door. It wasn’t like anything he had ever seen, much less something he could explain.

Mirabel was on this door, front and center, with everyone else behind her. Bruno noticed that he was in the back, but also in the center, directly behind Mirabel.

“What does this even mean?” He continued.

He turned to look back at Camilo and Mirabel, seeing the conflict in their faces.

“I’m not sure we should tell you that before everyone else gets back,” Mirabel said after a moment, “It’s…Kind of a long story, and some parts you might not like.”

“Did…Did something bad happen?”

“Kind of…?” Camilo winced, “I mean, everything is fixed and much better! But…”

“Dios mio,” Bruno muttered softly, “Was it-”

“It wasn’t because of you Tío, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Mirabel immediately cut him off, “So don’t worry about it, okay?”

“Yeah, we’re supposed to be having fun till everyone comes back. Let’s save the adult talk for later,” Camilo grinned, letting the ball fall to the ground before he kicked it over to Bruno, “Come on, let’s see what you can do!”

He looked down at the ball now at his feet, “I-Is there a goal to the game?”

“Nope,” Camilo responded, popping the ‘p’, “We just kick it around. Unless you want there to be a goal?”

“How about Keep-Ball?”

“Keep-Ball?” Mirabel repeated.

Bruno nodded, “A game I made with my hermanas when we were younger. Two people are on a team trying to keep the ball away from the third person. If the third person gets the ball, they get to pick who to keep on their team, and whoever they don’t pick has to try and get the ball next, fácil y sencillo.”

Camilo shrugged his shoulders, “Alright,” He said, looking at Mirabel before returning his gaze to Bruno, “You have the ball, so you pick first.”

Bruno looked between the two of them before deciding, “Mirabel? Will you be my teammate?”

“Of course,” Mirabel responded with a smile.

He couldn’t help but smile back, “Bien, and Camilo, no cheating either.”

“Fine,” The boy pouted, “When do we start?”

“Now,” Bruno grinned, kicking the ball over to Mirabel who immediately started running with it to get away from Camilo.

“Oh, it’s on!” Camilo shouted, rushing after her.

Bruno ran after him, not wanting to leave Mirabel to defend the ball by herself.

Camilo ended up getting the ball, picking Bruno to stay as his teammate. After some more running around, Mirabel managed to get the ball back, picking Camilo to stay, leaving Bruno to run after them.

It was fun, something he would never hold back admitting. It had been a while that he and his hermanas could play like he was now, the other two always being busy with the town, doing something good while he was stuck at home, giving visions that he never wanted and getting blamed for them.

He almost forgot what it was like to mess around.

Shaking his head gently, he put his focus back into their current round. It was him and Mirabel on a team again against Camilo, Mirabel on the other side of him as Camilo guarded the middle, his eyes solely trained on Bruno who unfortunately had the ball.

He glanced over Camilo’s shoulder to look at Mirabel, trying to read her expression as her face scrunched up in concentration. Should he forfeit and just kick the ball to her with the risk of Camilo getting it?

It seemed like his only option left.

He huffed gently, “Mirabel!” He called to grab her attention, pulling his foot back before kicking the ball as hard as he could, “Catch!”

“How am I supposed to catch that?” Both Camilo and Mirabel said at the same time, though Camilo’s was more in dramatic and playful frustration.

Mirabel trailed after the ball, as it hit the ground away from them, Camilo and Bruno right behind her. Unfortunately, the ball was just out of reach of her, continuing to roll until someone else had stopped it with their foot.

“Mirabel? Mirabel, did you get it?” Bruno asked breathlessly, jogging up to the other two without noticing the others. He stopped, looking at the foot who now held the ball in place, letting his eyes follow up the limb until his eyes met the face of the person it belonged to, “Oh.”

Bruno gulped, ducking behind Mirabel and Camilo immediately, hoping to avoid the many eyes staring at him.

“I…” The older woman at the front of the group began, her eyes trained on him especially, “Who…How is he...?”

Looking at all the others, the woman was the oldest of them, meaning that this was the abuela Camilo and Mirabel spoke of, meaning she was- he immediately focused back on the others with her. The younger adults were in the back, while- his eyes widened at the sight of his two hermanas, much older, and at the sight of another him, multiple emotions on his face as he began to hide his face behind the hood of his ruana.

“Mamá?” He questioned hesitantly, looking back to the older woman, “Is that really you?” He paused, looking at his two hermanas, “A-And Julieta? Pepa?”

“It’s a weird story,” Mirabel answered sheepishly.

“But we swear we found him, we didn’t do anything!” Camilo added defensively, “He was looking at all the doors upstairs and started freaking out.”

“I couldn’t find my door!” Bruno huffed, “Or Mirabel’s! How else was I supposed to act?”

“We also gave him some arepas,” Mirabel piped up, looking at Julieta apologetically, “Sorry, má.”

Julieta said nothing, only giving an absent-minded not before glancing at the much older Bruno beside her, Pepa doing the same.

“So was anyone going to tell me Tío Bruno was always so small or was I only supposed to find out now?” Someone spoke up from the back. He recognized her as Luisa from the picture on her door.

Alma pinched the bridge of her nose gently, something he remembered her doing just hours before with him in the kitchen. He faltered slightly, hiding more behind Mirabel. Alma must have noticed as she quickly put her hand down, a guilty look on her face.

“How about we all head inside?” Alma suggested lightly, “And Bruno-” She stopped when both Brunos looked over towards her. She hesitated, “Uh, Brunito-” She stopped again before shaking her head, continuing, “You can explain all of this over dinner, alright?”

“Alright, mamá,” He said quietly.

After a minute of no one moving, Mirabel took his wrist, gently tugging to get his attention, “Come on.”

He nodded his head, following behind her as she walked him back into the house, the sound of everyone else following behind them.

Notes:

Me trying to figure out how to make it easier to tell which Bruno is talking in future chapters

Chapter 4

Summary:

Dinner time!

Notes:

Thanks for the suggestions everyone who commented on the last chapter!

Everything was a blur after stepping back inside the Casita. All the kids were ushered to another part of the house in order to give room to the adults for the time being.

“Stay with me? Por favor?” He whispered to Mirabel, glancing towards the other kids that were also with them, “I-I don’t know what to do…”

“They won’t bite,” Mirabel reassured him, “I’ll introduce you, okay?”

She kept her promise well enough, introducing him to the smallest of the group first, a little boy named Antonio. He was the one surrounded by animals on his door, Bruno remembered.

After that, it was Dolores, then Isabella, then Luisa. They were all so nice, though Luisa did startle him when his feet were no longer on the ground and he found himself hanging in the air instead in a bone-crushing hug.

“And you already know Camilo,” Mirabel finished.

“Ay, so many to keep track of,” Bruno rubbed his arm gently, “How do you manage?”

Mirabel shrugged, “I grew up with it.”

“Fair enough.”

“Abuela says dinner is ready,” Dolores suddenly spoke up, a small ‘hm!’ following after.

“How do you think it’s going to go?” Camilo asked, walking up to Bruno and Mirabel, “I don’t know about you two, but I don’t think it’ll turn out well.”

“Why not?” Mirabel asked curiously.

Camilo motioned towards Bruno, “No offense Tío, but you’re from a time where abuela wasn’t exactly the nicest,” He looks at Mirabel then, “Do you really think that won’t bring old memories back?”

“I’m not saying it won’t,” Mirabel sighed, “But that doesn’t mean it has to end badly, does it?”

“I-If it’s too much trouble I can just stay out here?” Bruno quietly offered.

“No way!”

He jumped slightly at Camilo’s sudden outburst.

“We aren’t going to leave you out here, no way,” Camilo repeated, quieter this time, “Come on, you can sit with Mirabel and me.”

He didn’t get much more of a choice as he was being pulled again.

The three of them entered the dining area, all eyes already at the table were on them again. Bruno did his best to shrink back, eyes darting to look around for anything he could knock on. When he found nothing, that left the table as the only option.

Camilo dragged him to the three empty seats, sitting him down in the middle as both he and Mirabel took a seat on both sides of him. Without making eye contact with anyone, he shakily knocked on the table, hoping nothing bad would happen now that he did.

Bruno cautiously looked up towards his mamá, but upon seeing the guilty look on her face again, he quickly looked back down, focusing on the plate that was placed in front of him. He didn’t remember grabbing anything.

“I got you a little bit of everything,” Camilo whispered to him, easing his troubles slightly, “That way you can compliment Tía Julieta much more efficiently.”

He couldn’t help the small snort that escaped him.

“Gracias, Camilo,” He replied softly.

Someone cleared their throat, causing everyone to look up. Alma tore her eyes from Bruno, looking to his older version before looking back, “Brunito, would you…explain how you got here?”

A frown tugged at his lips.

“I’m not sure mamá,” He answered, hands fiddling with the fabric of his ruana, “One minute I was in the center of the Casita after I upset you, the next I’m here. I don’t know what I did besides make one silly little wish that the future would hurry up. Lo siento mamá…”

“It’s fine Brunito,” Alma sighed, “Bruno, what do you think?”

“I…I don’t know mamá, this is…still,” The older Bruno took a deep breath, “Still very weird for me,” He paused for a minute, “But if it was a wish, can’t he just wish to go back?”

“What if it doesn’t work?” Pepa asked, a frown on her face, “What if it doesn’t work and he’s stuck here? What would happen to our Bruno? What if he-” She cut herself off, noticing the shadow of the cloud above her head.

“Clear skies?” Bruno offered his…older? Sister.

Pepa’s eyes snapped towards him, chewing at her bottom lip, “Y-yes, yes, clear skies…”

A smile grew on his face, any other time he would have gotten snapped at, but this time he didn’t.

“Eat Brunito, eat,” Alma motioned to his plate, “Bruno, you too,” She added.

“Well, if all it takes is a wish, we can try after dinner?” Isabella offered, “It seems simple enough to me.”

“C-Can’t I stay here a little longer?” Bruno asked quickly, “I…I haven’t gotten to know everything yet, or how everything turned out, or why my room moved, or, or-”

“Jeez, calm down little man,” Luisa said worriedly.

“So many things are different!” He complained, “I need to know so I can tell mamá! If…If she knows then whatever bad thing happened won’t happen!”

“We shouldn’t tell him,” HIs older self immediately said, “Who knows what could happen if he changed what we know as the past.”

Bruno looked at himself with betrayal, “That- That’s not fair! You know it's something I have to tell mamá, you’re me!”

“And what happens if someone doesn’t exist because you told her?” His older self countered, immediately knocking on the table once it left his mouth as others looked at him in surprise, “What if Camilo isn’t born? O-Or Mirabel? Can’t you see why we can’t tell you?”

“Mamá wouldn’t do that!” He defended.

The table grew quiet. Bruno looked at the others who avoided his gaze.

“She…She wouldn’t do that,” He repeated weakly, looking at Alma, “You wouldn’t do that, right mamá?”

Alma opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn’t find any words to say. She tried again to say something but was promptly cut off by Julieta.

“Maybe dinner wasn’t the best place to speak about this,” She said gently, looking at him, “Why don’t you eat up? You’ll need the energy.”

“I’m not hungry anymore…”

“Please, Brunito? For me?”

He hated the way that he couldn’t say no to her.

“Just as I remember when we were little,” Pepa said, looking over to his older self, “Julieta always got you to eat, no matter what.”

“Would you say no to her?” The older Bruno said, eyes trained on his plate, “I always felt bad if I did and would end up eating anyway.”

“And the game they were playing earlier,” Pepa whispered, “I had almost forgotten it…” She turned to him, “Brunito, what was the game called again?”

“Keep-Ball,” He answered, taking a bite of the arepa in his hand, “When mamá still let us have breaks in the morning we would play it all the time. Julieta wasn’t the best at getting the ball.”

“We always let her get the ball eventually,” His older self added, surprising him, “When it was clear she was getting upset. Me sentí mal.”

Julieta’s face flushed in embarrassment, causing Bruno to snicker lightly. Things calmed down after that, everyone eventually relaxing enough to start conversations at the table.

“I can’t believe Julieta ended up marrying him,” He found himself whispering to Mirabel.

“My pá?” She questioned, a giggle following after, “I’m sure abuela couldn’t believe it either when it happened.”

“Pepa used to call him chico de las abejas,” He glanced over at said sister before returning his look to Mirabel, “But that was before she met Félix, who Julieta would call chico del sol just to make her turn red.”

Mirabel snorted, quickly covering her mouth to try and prevent any more from escaping her, in turn causing Bruno himself to start laughing just the same.

“Are you two telling jokes without me?” Camilo leaned in, a pout on his face.

So, Bruno leaned close to his ear, whispering the same thing he had told Mirabel to him. Camilo’s eyes widened, a mischievous look on his face.

“Oh you’ve done it now,” Mirabel commented, clearly amused.

A small ‘hm!’ was heard again, causing him to make eye contact with Dolores who looked like she was holding back a laugh too. He turned his head back to Camilo, who was already leaning away from him, whispering something into Isabella’s ear.

“W-What is he doing?” He asked, looking back to Mirabel with slight confusion.

“You’ll see,” Was all Mirabel answered.

Turning his attention back on the others, he saw Isabella whispering to Luisa, and Dolores was whispering to Antonio, making the young boy giggle.

“What are you all whispering about down there?” Alma spoke up from her seat at the table, brows gently furrowed, eyeing them suspiciously.

“Nothing, abuela,” Isabella said with a smile, “Luisa just dropped some crumbs on her skirt, so I was just letting her know.”

“And I was only telling Antonio something funny,” Dolores added.

“Would you like to share what she said, Tonito?”

Camilo looked over to his younger brother, nodding his head to him.

“Papá used to be called chico del sol,” Antonio said simply, leaning a little forward to look at his mother with an innocent smile, “And Tío Agustín used to be called chico de las abejas!”

Both Pepa’s and Julieta’s faces' turned pink, turning darker when both of their husbands looked at them.

“W-Who told you that Tonito?” Pepa asked.

“Dolores!”

“And who told her?”

“Camilo.”

“Not even a little hesitation, hermana?” Camilo complained, slumping in his chair.

“Camilo?” Pepa pointedly questioned.

Camilo said nothing, only pointing to Bruno.

“What was that about hesitation?” He immediately questioned as he pulled up the hood of his ruana to hide behind.

“Brunito!” Pepa cried, “Don’t tell them such embarrassing things!

“Sorry Pepa,” He responded sheepishly, “I’ll try not to. I didn’t know he was going to tell everyone!”

“A little Camilo 101 for you,” Luisa piped up, catching his attention, “Lesson one: if it’s gossip he’ll most likely tell everyone.”

“Not true!”

“Now, now, let’s just finish eating.”

Chapter 5

Summary:

Going home...? No?

If it wasn’t for the hand on his shoulder, he would have never known that members of the family had left the table. Following the hand, it was his older self looking down at him, a strange expression on his face. His mother, Pepa, and Julieta were the only other ones still around besides Camilo and Mirabel, who had been waiting on him to finish eating.

“Come on, kid,” The man said, nodding towards the door, “We gotta get you back home.”

Bruno felt the immediate frown on his face, “But…”

The other only shook his head.

He looked to both Camilo and Mirabel who now stood from their seats.

“We’ll be there with you to say goodbye,” Mirabel reassured him, offering him a smile.

“What kind of-” Camilo paused, brows furrowing, “Friends?” He looked to Mirabel for confirmation, “No, family. What kind of family would we be if we didn’t?”

Bruno sighed, pushing himself to stand before following behind the group that walked out with him to the center of the Casita. His eyes wandered up towards the candle, standing proudly, flickering like any other candle.

“It was nice getting to know you,” Mirabel spoke up.

“And getting to see you when you’re not so old.”

“Camilo Madrigal, what on earth is that supposed to mean?” Pepa questioned sternly.

“Ay, I forgot they were triplets,” Camilo winced, “Sorry mami, b-but that wasn’t about you! O-Or Tía!”

Bruno’s older self only rolled his eyes before nudging him forward and closer to the candle.

He huffed lightly, turning to look at all of them, “It was nice seeing you all,” He said softly, “I didn’t think this family would get so big.”

“Well, you certainly have something to look forward to then, Brunito,” Alma replied, a sort of smile he’s never seen on her face before.

“I guess so, mamá,” Bruno nodded, “Well…this is goodbye,” He then added.

Turning back around, his eyes met once more with the candle, looking just the same as it had before for him. He took a deep breath, counted to three, before letting it out.

His eyes shut, fingers gripping at the fabric of his ruana before he quietly spoke.

“I wish I was back home.”

Bruno waited, and waited, and slowly opened his eyes, looking around to only be met with the confused looks of everyone else that was still there.

“It didn’t work,” Pepa said nervously.

“Try it again,” His older self said.

And he did. Twice more, in fact.

“I suppose he’ll be here a little longer,” Alma said after the third time in slight defeat, “Until we can figure out what exactly we need to do to get him back.”

“Sweet!” Camilo piped up.

“I’ll get to work on it, mamá,” The other Bruno promised.

“Tomorrow, Bruno,” Alma said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, “For now just rest, you already worked hard today in town, I won’t ask more of you today.”

“Mamá, where will Brunito sleep? We don’t have another room for him,” Julieta spoke up gently.

“He can stay with me in my room?” Mirabel offered, “It won’t be hard getting the extra bed we have back in.”

“Are you sure, Mirabel?” Alma questioned with a small frown, “You don’t have to share it anymore, the room is yours.”

Mirabel only smiled at her, nodding her head, “I’m sure, abuela, I don’t mind at all, I promise,” She turned to look at Bruno, “Plus, it’ll be more like a sleepover than actually sharing my room.”

He couldn’t help but look confused about the context of the conversation but nodded his head in agreement anyway. His mamá hesitated before giving in with a soft sigh.

“Why don’t you go ask Luisa where the bed is? I’m sure she was the one who took it out during rebuilding,” Alma froze for a moment, clearing her throat, “During cleaning, I mean.”

Before Bruno could open his mouth to ask about what she meant by ‘rebuilding’, Mirabel had already grabbed him and promptly dragged him away. All he could do was watch helplessly as Camilo waved goodbye to him cheerfully.

Stumbling over the stairs as Mirabel barely gave him any time to collect himself, they were soon in front of Luisa’s glowing door. Using her free hand, Mirabel knocked loudly on the door, stepping back just a little. It wasn’t long after that the door opened, Luisa peeking her head out to see who was there before fully opening it with a smile on her face.

“Hey, you two! What’s up?”

“Bruno- I mean Brunito, will be sleeping in my room tonight since there are no other rooms available and we were wondering if you knew where the extra bed was,” Mirabel explained to her older sister.

“I thought abuela said-”

“I offered, don’t worry,” Mirabel said calmly.

Luisa huffed lightly before nodding her head, “The old bed should still be somewhere in the cellar. I’ll go get it for you.”

“Oh, you don’t have to-”

“It’s alright, sis,” Luisa reassured with amusement, “You can have the fun of putting it back when this is all over if you want, though.”

“Seems fair,” Mirabel grinned, “Gracias, Luisa!”

“No problem,” Luisa replied, closing the door to her room behind her, “You should start clearing a space for it.”

“On it,” Mirabel nodded, once again pulling Bruno away, but this time towards her room.

Once at the door, she finally had let him go, opening the door and stepping inside.

“We won’t have to move around much,” She said, her back facing towards him as she bent down to pick something up from the floor, “Just some fabrics that I haven’t put away yet, really, and maybe some other smaller things I can tuck away for now.”

Standing at the doorway, he took a moment to look around at the inside of the room, something he never really did when she had let him look in earlier. A part of him felt relieved to finally see a normal bedroom. No extra stairs, no sand, no- maybe he was just relieved to see a room that wasn’t his own.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel guilty. Guilty that she couldn’t have a cool, magic room to herself. Guilty that she had to share her room again apparently with him. From the way his mamá spoke about it, and with how old Antonio was, she probably only just got this room to herself again, only for him to take it away.

“-uno? Bruno? Are you okay?”

He blinked a few times, realizing that Mirabel was in front of him, a look of concern on her face.

“L-Lo siento,” He said immediately, gulping, “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

“It’s the room, isn’t it?” Mirabel asked.

“W-What?”

“The room,” She repeated, “I…I know it isn’t a magic room like you’re used to, if you don’t want to stay here for the night we can just-”

“No, no!” Bruno said quickly, his hands shooting out to her shoulders, “I’m very grateful! I am! Muchas gracias Mirabel, really!”

She stared at him with wide eyes, causing him to remove his hands to grip his ruana nervously.

“Lo siento, lo siento,” He muttered.

“Then what’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing is,” Turning his eyes away, he decided to focus on something random in the room to try and calm himself, “I just…I just…” He frowned, looking down at his feet instead, “I just…feel bad. I wish you had a door too.”

There was a strange silence between them as soon as the words left his mouth. He waited for her to say something, anything, really, but nothing came.

Just as he was about to open his mouth again to apologize, Mirabel finally spoke up.

“You know, Antonio told me the same thing the night of his gift ceremony,” Despite the silence from before, she spoke in a light, amused tone, “Now come on, help me move stuff.”

He was almost startled at how she acted like nothing was wrong after that strange moment but nonetheless stepped into the room to help her put away whatever she had given him at that time.

It didn’t take long for a space to be created with the both of them working together. Eventually, Luisa came into the room with the bed, placing it in its designated spot before wishing the both of them goodnight.

Mirabel dug around in her closet before pulling out some old sheets and blankets for them to put onto the bed. Even though dark blue wasn’t really his color, he liked how it looked. He turned, ready to thank Mirabel again but was interrupted when a pillow was placed into his hands instead. He looked down at it, noticing the patterned stitching along the edges of the pillow, small golden butterflies appearing every now and then. He looked back to Mirabel, who almost looked sheepish.

“It’s something I made when I was younger, but it’s the only other pillow I have in here, so…” She began to explain.

“You made this yourself?” Bruno asked.

“Yeah,” Mirabel answered, “Yeah, I did. It’s no gift, but it is a me thing,” She motioned towards the drawers that held the fabrics they previously put away, “Hence all of those.”

Looking back down at the pillow, he found himself smiling.

“This is awesome!” He exclaimed, holding the pillow up to get a better look at it, “Are you sure you want me to use it?”

“You need something to rest your head on, don’t you?”

“I guess so,” He answered, moving to his bed to place the pillow down in its rightful place, “There, now I have the perfect bed for the night, don’t you think?”

Mirabel laughed lightly, moving to sit on her own bed, “I think so too. Let’s go to sleep then, we’ll need the rest.”

“Goodnight, Mirabel.”

“Goodnight, Brunito.”

“...I don’t have anything to sleep in.”

“Oh…Let’s go see if Camilo has anything that fits you.”

Chapter 6

Summary:

Comfort

Notes:

I better not see any incest shippers because of this chapter, I'll personally smack any I see.

The first thing he heard was the soft sound of crickets chirping outside just beneath the window of Mirabel’s room. The second was the gentle sound of the nightly wind blowing. Was the outside always this peaceful at nighttime? If it was, he was certainly missing out with how his room was set up compared to this one.

Bruno shifted to lay on his side, settling down before his eyes fell onto Mirabel’s bed, surprisingly met with an empty one. He sat up quickly, looking around the room to hopefully see any sign of her still being somewhere in the room he couldn’t see.

But she wasn’t there.

Maybe she stepped out for the bathroom? That seemed reasonable enough to him, if anything he’ll just wait for her, and if questioned, he’ll just answer honestly.

As time went on though and still no sign of Mirabel, he started to grow nervous, wondering if he somehow chased her out of her own room with something he might have said to her. So, after throwing his legs over the side of the bed, he pushed himself to stand, slipping his feet into his sandals before making his way to the door of the room, pushing it open to peek outside. The outside was just as devoid of Mirabel as the inside of the room was.

A frown tugged at his lips as he stepped through the door, letting it shut as quietly as he could make it behind him.

“Mirabel?” He quietly called out, “Where did you go?”

“Brunito!” A sharp whisper came from his left.

Looking over, he was met with Dolores peeking out from her door, motioning him over. He hurried over, and Dolores leaned in close.

“Why are you looking for Mirabel?”

“W-Well she wasn’t in the room when I woke up, a-and then I waited for a little bit because I thought she had just gone to the bathroom, but she still hasn’t come back,” He explained, rubbing his arm, “Do you know where she is?”

Dolores hesitated for a moment before pointing a finger up at the roof just above Mirabel’s room. There was the girl herself, knees held against her chest as she stared off towards the rest of the Encanto.

“She has moments like those now and again,” Dolores said sadly, “It’s best if you just let her be for now.”

“And just leave her up there like that?”

Dolores shook her head, “Trust me, Brunito, I’ve tried to speak with her before. Nothing I did worked, she wouldn’t even speak with me, and whenever I tried to bring it up in the morning, she would pretend nothing happened.”

“W-Why does she get like that?” He then asked.

“Between you and me, Brunito,” Dolores said after glancing around, “Ten years of feeling like nothing doesn’t go away in one day like she insists it does. But no one else is up at this time nor hears everything as I do, so just you and I know about this right now.”

“You haven’t tried telling anyone else?” His brows furrowed gently, “This seems like a family matter, no?”

“I would if I didn’t think it’d do more harm than good right now,” She answered simply, “Instead of helping they might just overwhelm her instead, and I wouldn’t want that for her.”

He turned to look back towards Mirabel. It didn’t sit right with him to just leave her alone up there for the night.

“Just head back to bed, okay? She doesn’t stay up there for long,” Dolores tried to reassure him, “I promise.”

“Alright…” He said after a moment, “Goodnight, Dolores.”

“Goodnight, Brunito,” She replied, a small ‘Hm!’ sneaking through before the door to her room shut.

He stood there for a few seconds before turning on his heel, looking around to find a path that would lead up to the roof. The stairs certainly wouldn’t lead that way, and there wasn’t anything out where he was that he could climb up…

A tile clicked behind him, causing him to turn around quickly.

“Casita?” He questioned cautiously.

Another click, and he relaxed.

“Don’t scare me like that,” He whispered, “But you wouldn’t happen to know a way up there, would you?”

There was one click before more followed in a path leading him to another part of the house. He followed without complaint, stopping only when he was brought to a tiled wall. Within seconds, some tiles popped out of place, allowing him a path to climb up.

“This won’t break under me, will it?”

The only response he got was the tiles under his feet nudging him forward. He gulped, crossing his fingers and holding his breath before letting go, reaching forward to climb up. Thankfully the wall wasn’t long, and he was able to get up with ease, pulling himself up onto the roof.

“Thank you, Casita,” He made sure to say before carefully making his way over to Mirabel.

She was, thankfully, still in the same spot as before, so he easily plopped himself down right beside her, looking out towards the Encanto as well.

“I would have never gotten a view like this in my room,” He says, immediately trying to lighten up the mood. Mirabel doesn’t respond, but that’s okay for him. Until she tells him otherwise, he’ll speak for both of them, “A-And can I just say that your room is awesome? Not a speck of sand anywhere! No matter how clean anything in my room was, there was always sand, you know? But look! No sand anywhere to be seen!”

Mirabel shifted slightly, turning her head away from him and more so into her arms.

He didn’t falter, though.

“Pepa always hated coming into my room because of that. She would be nowhere near the sand and still get some into her clothing. One day, it was so bad that she ended up raining in my room, and let me tell you that sand and water do not get along. We were getting rid of muddied sand the entire day because she couldn’t stop!”

There was a sniffle, and he immediately stopped.

“Dios mio, I’m making this worse aren’t I?” Bruno frowned, “Lo siento, Mirabel, I…I didn’t mean to. I’ll just…go back to bed…I’m sorry…”

Before he could even stand, the sleeve of his shirt was tightly gripped, making it hard for him to move anywhere.

“M-Mirabel?”

“Don’t…” Her tired voice trembled slightly, “Don’t go.”

It shocked and hurt him at the same time to hear her.

“It’s hard, isn’t it?” He asked, “Being around people who seem like they can do so much better than you?”

Comforting her without sounding hypocritical was harder than he thought, especially since she knows full well who he is by now since his older self is around. He wouldn’t even be able to hide anything from her.

“I get it, in a way,” Bruno continued, “But you don’t need to compare yourself like that, Mirabel. You’re just as special, y’know?”

“Y-You don’t even know me…”

“I know you like to sew, right?” He questioned with a grin, “Who else in the Casita can do that?”

“Abuela-”

“She isn’t young anymore, Mirabel, her hands won’t let her,” He didn’t mean to interrupt her, but it was best he did before she discredited herself, “So that leaves you as the only one who can do it. You decorated your own dress with all of those,” He added, motioning towards the sewn pictures, “And you made the pillow I use! Could you imagine Camilo doing all that?”

Mirabel snorted lightly, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“He w-wouldn’t even know how t-to attach the t-thread…”

“Exactly,” He nodded, reaching over to place a hand on her shoulder, “See? There’s something you can do that your family can’t. You are just as important as everyone else in the family because you know how to fix things when they can’t. They’ll come to you when there’s a tear in their clothing, or if they want something new added to something they already own.”

“I-I guess so…”

“I know so,” Bruno insisted.

“And how do you know?”

“Because,” He answered, “I was hoping you would add something onto my ruana for me.”

Mirabel finally turned her head to look at him. Her eyes were red, cheeks stained with old tears previously shed, looking at him in disbelief.

“You were?”

“Sí! Something on the inside so that mamá doesn’t freak out.”
Mirabel chewed the inside of her cheek, “W-What were you thinking?”

“You’ll have to come back to the room with me,” He replied, standing before holding a hand out towards her, “So I can show you.”

He watched as Mirabel hesitated, throwing one last look out towards the Encanto before taking his hand, letting him pull her up onto her feet. He couldn’t help but feel accomplished.

Slowly they made their way down from the roof and back to Mirabel’s room, the door shutting behind them. By that point, Mirabel had calmed down, left only with the occasional sniffles. He walked over to his bed, picking up the pillow Mirabel had given to him earlier that evening.

“So…What did you want on your ruana?” She asked again behind him.

Turning around, he held out the pillow, pointing to one of the small golden butterflies along the edges of it.

“I want one of these, but bigger,” He explained, “But on the inside just left from the center where my chest would be.”

Mirabel went silent for a moment.

“That’s where your heart would be.”

“Yeah!” Bruno nodded quickly, “I want it there. Would you be able to do that?” He then asked sheepishly.

Mirabel stared at the pillow in his hands, tears welling back into her eyes for the second time that night.

“O-Oh,” Bruno stuttered out, startled at the reaction, “Oh lo siento, p-please don’t cry-”

The pillow slipped from his hands when he was suddenly pulled into a tight hug. Mirabel buried her face into his neck, hands gripping the back of his shirt, letting out a small sob. He gulped, letting his arms slowly wrap around her to return the hug.

“T-Thank you…” She whispered.

He squeezed her a little tighter.

“You don’t have to thank me. I meant every word, okay?” He pulled away slightly to look at her, “You’re just as special, don’t ever question that.”

“R-Right,” She agreed lightly, wiping once more at her eyes, “S-Sorry to keep you up…”

“Anytime Mirabel,” He said immediately, “But it is getting late…”

“Yeah, yeah it is…” She responded, sighing as she pulled away from the hug, “We should go back to sleep.”

“Why don’t we push our beds together?” Bruno suggested, “So you don’t have to be alone? I-If you want to, that is.”

Mirabel glanced between the two beds before nodding her head. So, they both pushed his bed against hers before climbing in, settling under their own blankets.

“All better?” He asked hopefully, laying his head down on his pillow.

“Mhm,” Mirabal hummed, a small smile now on her face.

“Good, good,” Bruno smiled in return.

He hesitated for a moment before reaching out and grabbing her hand to hold in his. When she looked at him in confusion his smile only grew.

“Whenever I got sad, Julieta and Pepa would hold my hand just like this,” He shrugged, “They said it was a promise that they wouldn’t leave. So, this is my promise to you for the night.”

“You’re going to make me cry again!” Mirabel complained, but she didn’t pull her hand away from him.

“I’m sorry!” He laughed.

“No, you aren’t!”

Eventually, their laughter settled down, the room once again silent.

“Goodnight, Bruno,” She said softly.

“I thought it was Brunito?”

“Tío isn’t here right now, so I think you know who I’m talking to,” She snorted.

He smiled, “Goodnight, Mirabel.”

Bruno found it much easier to sleep that night.

Chapter 7

Summary:

A little more emotion, and a small one-on-one between the Brunos.

Bruno could honestly sleep like a rock if he was able to, perfectly content to stay in bed all day if life would let him. Alas, it seemed like the morning had different plans for him when someone gently shaking him woke him up.

He could barely get a sense of his surroundings when he opened his eyes, rubbing them with his hand once he realized Mirabel was still holding onto his other one. Speaking of– He turned his head to look at her, relieved to see a relaxed and comfortable look on her face. If she wasn’t even up yet, then who was the one who woke him?

Looking over he was met with Julieta herself.

“O-Oh,” He started, a little startled to see her, “Buenos días, Julieta!”

“Good morning, Brunito,” She responded softly before looking over to Mirabel with slight concern on her face, “What happened?”

“Nothing happened,” He responded, surprised that he was able to say that with such confidence, “I, uh, had a nightmare, and she helped me. I’m sorry for keeping her up.”

A small frown found its way onto Julieta’s face, “Brunito…”

“Okay, okay, maybe I didn’t,” He broke slightly, “And maybe it was her not having a good night, b-but it's okay now! She just needed some reassurance, that’s all, I promise.”

“Brunito-”

“And I know I should have told you but Dolores said that-”

“Brunito,” Julieta said once again, interrupting him with a hug, “It’s okay,” She added, “Thank you for staying with her.”

“O-Of course!” Bruno stuttered, “But don’t tell anyone else, please hermana. Dolores said they might just overwhelm her.”

“I wish that weren’t true,” Julieta sighed, pulling away from him, “I just don’t know what else to do for her.”

Bruno pursed his lips, looking down at the ground before he perked up.

It all started the day she didn’t get a door, getting worse over the years because she had to stay in the nursery, so why don’t they just make her her own door? Or at least better the one that she already has?

“What if we paint her door?” He suggested, “To look like all the others?”

Julieta took a moment to think on it before nodding her head lightly, “That…might work,” She glanced over to the girl in question, “She’ll need to be out of the house, though, and what would we even put on her door?”

“Why don’t you and mamá take her to town? Maybe Pepa could go too?” He offered, “As for her door, we can put things she likes on it.”

“But what would we do in town?” His sister asked worriedly, “We don’t have any reason to go in today. We have plenty of food, no one needs any new clothing, nothing.”

Bruno thought a little before grinning, “I asked her to make me something, I could hide what she would need and you could take her to town to get her more! After that, just try to distract her with other things in town that you would all have fun together with. You would just have to tell mamá and Pepa about it, but only them!”

“Ay, Brunito are you sure?”

“I am,” He nodded, “I want to do something good for once! I’m- I’m confident in this!”

Quickly he reached over to knock on the wood of his bed frame. He didn’t want to jinx anything before they could start.

“For once?” Julieta repeated.

Before she could continue Mirabel stirred, a yawn escaping from her.

“Mirabel?” Bruno questioned, looking over to her, “Buenos días, Mirabel! We have to get up, everyone probably ate already.”

Mirabel groaned, only opening one eye to peek over at him before both opened when she saw Julieta standing there as well.

“Did we sleep in?” She asked, sitting up in bed as well, letting go of Bruno’s hand.

“Only by a few minutes querida, don’t worry so much, you only just woke up,” Julieta reassured, “Come on, I’m sure everyone is waiting for us at the table.”

Mirabel got up from her bed, making sure to grab her glasses and set them on her face as Julieta left the room to allow them to get themselves ready for the day.

“How come your glasses are green?” Bruno found himself asking as he settled his foot into his sandal, “I noticed that Julieta’s side of the family wears blue, and Pepa’s wears yellow, but you have green too. Well,” He decides to correct himself, “You have a little bit of everyone on you.”

“That’s exactly why,” She responds to him, grabbing her bag from her closet to settle it around her shoulders, “I have something for everyone. Even you and Tío, even though I didn’t remember the reason why at first.”

He stopped, his sandal almost slipping from between his fingers. She had a place for everyone. Even if he didn’t have a place in the Casita, he did with her.

A smile was on his face before he could even really notice as he picked up his ruana.

“Where do you want me to put this?” He asked, holding it up for her to look at.

“You can leave it on top of the drawer there. I’ll get to it after breakfast,” Mirabel said, opening the bedroom door, “We have to hurry if we don’t want Camilo eating everything.”

“You go ahead,” He said over his shoulder, folding up the ruana to place onto the drawer, “I’ll catch up.”

“I’ll try to save you something,” She mused, walking out of the room.

As soon as the door shut, he immediately dug into the drawers, looking for the yellow thread he knew she would need. Once he found it he shoved it into his pants pocket, looking around just to make sure she didn’t have any extras hiding away somewhere.

Once he was satisfied, he left the room, hurrying to join the others at the table. There was an empty seat left between Camilo and Mirabel again, so he sat himself down. From the other side of the table, he could see Dolores fixing him with a knowing look, to which he could only smile sheepishly in return.

Breakfast went by easily enough, something that relieved him to no end. Eventually, people began leaving the table once their plate was cleaned.

“Brunito, if you could stay behind, I’d like to speak with you,” Alma said.

“I can go start on my project,” Mirabel flashed a smile towards Bruno, pushing her seat back before standing.

“I’ll go up later then to watch,” Bruno said.

Mirabel nodded before leaving the room, leaving him with his mother, sisters, and his older self. They waited until Mirabel would be out of earshot before looking at one another.

“Brunito,” Alma began, making sure she had his attention, “There should be extra paint in the closet on the second floor, along with some brushes. You can use those.”

Bruno brightened, “Thank you mamá! I’ll try not to use all of it.”

“You can use as much as you want, Brunito. We won’t need it,” Alma replied gently, “And Bruno here has offered to help you.”

“He did?”

“Yes, and maybe together you both could come up with a way to get you back home,” Pepa spoke up, her fingers gently threading through the strands of her hair, “As nice as it is to see you so young again Brunito, we can’t keep you.”

“I…See,” He said quietly. He looked down at the table before pushing his seat back, standing, “Well, I’ll…have to make the most of my time then.”

“Má!” A voice shouted from upstairs. He couldn’t help but grin a little, his plan was already being put into place.

“Yes, Mirabel?” Julieta called out.

“I ran out of some thread that I need, I’ll be heading into town!”

“Oh, actually, Mirabel!” Julieta glanced towards the others, “Will you wait for us? We’ll go with you!”

“Us?”

“Sí, me, your Tía, and abuela!”

There was a pause.

“Oh, okay!”

Bruno nodded to the three women, “Remember, you have to keep her distracted once you get the thread.”

“When should we come back?”

Bruno looked at his older self, trying to estimate how much time they would need.

“Why don’t you keep her out there until lunch?” The older man suggested, “We should be done by then.”

Alma nodded her head, glancing at Julieta and Pepa before the three of them made their way out of the dining room.

Silence immediately filled the room, something uncomfortable that made him shift in his spot. He had never had a chance to talk more with his older self since the night before, let alone be left alone with him.

“Let’s get the paint, we don’t want to waste time here,” The other spoke before he even had a chance to think about doing so. He only graced him with a glance before leaving the room to head upstairs.

Hurriedly, he scurried after the man, making sure to keep a good distance between them- not because he had any distrust in him, but more so because he made him nervous. He was sure that his other self disliked the fact that he was around.

Once they made it to the second floor, the older man told him to go wait by Mirabel’s door while he went to get the paint. All he could really do was just listen to him.

“Casita, is there any way you could help us speed up the process?” He asked curiously after a minute or two of waiting by the door.

A tile next to his foot clicked in response.

“Not even a carving or-”

“What are you doing?”

He jumped, his head immediately snapping towards his older self.

“I-I was just asking if Casita could help with the door,” Bruno quickly explained, “I-If it could at least carve out her picture. I don’t know about you but I’m not exactly an artist, not in the drawing sense at least.”

A scratching on the door caught both of their attention, leaving them to watch as lines and curves were carved onto the door by none other than Casita itself. After a little while, they were left with the carved image of Mirabel with a sewing machine in her hands and a smile on her face.

“Ay, gracias Casita!” Bruno said excitedly, “We just have to paint the door the same color and then fill in the lines!”

“And we have to add the outline decorations,” His other self added.

“Sí, sí, we do,” He nodded in agreement, taking a paintbrush from the other’s hands, “We have to get started now!”

Setting down the paints, his older self picked out a paintbrush of his own, one of the bigger ones to cover more area of the door.

No conversation was made between them as they took care of painting the right shade of brown for the door. A part of him was relieved that he didn’t have to make an awkward conversation with himself. What would they even talk about besides the obvious in which he didn’t want to talk about?

His older self had taken the top half of the door while he had taken the bottom, the plan being to meet in the middle. However, and curse the larger size of the brush, the older man finished his half first.

“Tell me more about how you got here in the first place,” It wasn’t even a question, “I think it’ll help me out more.”

He sighed, “I had a vision that I wanted to show mamá, but she told me to leave her be and I did. When I left I made a wish that the future would hurry up and suddenly I was here. My story won’t change.”

“What was the vision about?”

“It was me, Pepa, and Julieta sitting together outside the Casita, the same age as you all are now, smiling and eating together.”

His older self hummed, “And why did you wish for the future to hurry up?”

“Because I wanted to see the vision come true,” He frowned, “I wanted to experience it myself.”

“You should have specified,” The other said, “Because that vision already happened a week ago.”

“A week?” Bruno almost screeched, “So why am I here instead?”

“The miracle wanted you to see something, I guess,” Was his answer, “But we have to get you back home regardless.”

“I don’t want to leave,” He admitted, “I don’t want to go, everyone is so nice here and mamá is much nicer!”

“You already wasted a night here,” The man reminded him, “A night away from your familia.”

“They’re my family too, we’re the same person!”

“But they aren’t yours, not yet at least. Your family is your mamá and your two fifteen-year-old sisters. My family is the one you see now.”

“But what’s waiting for me that I can’t have here?” Bruno huffed, using a much rougher paint stroke than he wanted.

“The experiences,” His older self said simply, “You’d miss out on so many good experiences if you stay here instead of witnessing them.”

“And how many bad experiences will there be that I won’t miss?” He found himself asking, almost bitterly, “You’re my future, so tell me, how much of the bad will there be?”

He watched as the other bit his lip, staring at the door in front of them.

“I won’t lie to you kid, it’ll get much worse before it gets anywhere close to better,” The man eventually said, “And you’ll have to do something that keeps you away from the family for a long while to protect someone, and then something will happen that you can’t control, but after that? After that, it gets better, so much better,” He tore his eyes away from the door to look back at him, “And you can’t honestly tell me that you’d rather stay here and miss out on the majority of your hermanas’ lives. You would miss them getting married, having their kids, being an uncle. I’m sorry but if you want this,” He motions around them, “You’ll have to go back home.”

“But...But what about Mirabel?” He whispered, “Will she be okay?”

“Of course,” His older self responded, “She’ll have you looking out for her the entire time.”

Bruno felt his shoulders slump, having long been finished with his half of the door by now.

“I-I…” He began lightly.

“You don’t have to leave just yet,” The other interrupted, “You can stay until it's dark.”

He nodded his head in response, not even sure what he was going to say in the first place.

“Now let’s finish this door, okay?”

Notes:

This chapter is definitely my longest one I think. Anywho, the next one will most likely be Mirabel's reaction and Bruno actually leaving. At the same time, I may cut it into two different chapters! Who knows? I'll have to decide when I get there lol.

Chapter 8

Summary:

Mirabel and her Door

“Maybe we overdid it a little with the butterflies,” Bruno finds himself saying, standing away from the door to look at their finished project.

“Tonterías,” His older self insists, staring at the door with a reminiscing look, “I think we made just the right amount.”

He was surprised to see how big of a smile his older self had on his face, unable to remember if he had ever seen the man smile during the time he had been with them.

Shaking his head lightly, he turned to look back at the door, admiring the work the both of them- and Casita- managed to accomplish.

The image of Mirabel in the center of the door, though it didn’t glow, stood out well amongst the darker color of the wood. Surrounding her they had painted fabric shapes and spools of thread, and to match what Bruno remembered to be on her skirt, painted the small images for each family member at the bottom of the door. He remembered how Casita made sure to carve in the hourglass shape so he wouldn’t leave himself out of it or try to get rid of it.

Surrounding the outer rim of the door were all the butterflies they had painted, much to his older helper’s recommendation. When the suggestion came up, he was all for it, agreeing that some butterflies wouldn’t hurt and would fit well with the decorative theme. But then his older self kept adding more. He had asked about it, curious as to why the other insisted that they needed more butterflies on the door.

“Because, pequeño yo,” His older self had turned to look at him, halfway through painting another butterfly on his side of the door, “These butterflies, they…” He turned away from him, going back to finishing the wings of the insect, “They match her so well.”

After that, he didn’t argue, just set out to add just as many so both sides of the door would match.

“How much time do we have left?” Bruno asked, bending down to pick up the paint can and ultimately not being able to do so due to Casita taking care of the cleaning process itself.

“I’m not sure,” The other admitted, looking around the Casita, “But whenever they get back, we’ll have to be there.”

“Right,” He agreed.

And so they waited. It seemed like everyone that didn’t leave the house all collectively decided to stay in their rooms for the day, even Félix or Agustín were nowhere to be seen, and that was an odd sight in itself.

A part of him believed that Dolores had something to do with it.

Both he and his older self sat by the door, his knees tucked close to his chest while the other had his head resting against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. They waited, and they waited. Eventually, he heard snores coming from beside him, his older double was now asleep. He thought about waking him up but decided against it, the man looking tired enough.

More time passed before he had finally heard the doors of the Casita opening and the familiar voices of his hermanas, mamá, and Mirabel.

He scrambled over to the railing, peeking down to confirm that it was indeed them before moving away and back to the older man with him, grabbing his arm and shaking it.

“They’re here,” He whispered, “Wake up, they’re back!”

His older self startled awake, pulling his arm away from his hands. He ignored it, jumping to his feet to once again look over the railing.

“You guys are back!” He called out, an excited grin on his face, “How was town?”

Mirabel looked up, a little surprised to see him so excited before she held up the basket filled with things he couldn’t really recognize from his position.

“I got everything I needed,” She replied to him, “And some more.”

“Ay, my feet are tired,” Pepa complained from beside her, “I think I’ve danced enough to last a lifetime.”

“You guys went dancing?” His older self suddenly said, now beside him at the railing.

“Sí, Bruno,” Their mamá spoke, a small smile on her own face, “You should come next time.”

“Next time?” The other inquired, looking surprised.

“Yeah!” Mirabel piped up, “Abuela wants us to go again sometime soon with everyone, it’ll be fun!”

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, hermano,” Julieta added quickly, making sure he understood he wasn’t going to be forced.

“No, no,” The older man immediately said, body relaxing as he held a proud expression on his face, “I’ll, uh, I-I’ll come.”
Both Julieta and Pepa’s faces brightened at the news, Alma looking equally pleased. A moment of silence passed between them all before he cleared his throat, looking to Mirabel.

“So, uh, we have something to show you,” He said, glancing at the man beside him before looking back to her, “You’ll have to come up here to see it, though.”

“What is it?” She asked curiously.

“You’ll have to come up here,” He repeated, his hands going to fiddle with his ruana before he remembered that he didn’t have it with him, “It’s a good something, I promise.”

Mirabel turned to look towards her mother, who only motioned for her to go. She complied, making her way towards the stairs, the other three women following behind her, also wanting to see what the two Brunos had done.

He was starting to have his doubts by the time she reached the top of the stairs, a gasp escaping her as she stood there, staring at her door.

His hands twitched, and quickly, he reached out towards the railing to knock, pausing when he saw his older self going to do the same. They looked at each other before sharing a nervous laugh, promptly taking their hands back towards themselves.

“S-So what do you think?” He managed to ask, “I…I know it isn’t an actual m-magic door and everything, but I thought- we thought- y-you should have a door like everyone else anyway.”

She didn’t move from her spot, so Casita used the tiles beneath her to bring her closer, placing her right in front of the door.

“If you don’t like it we can take it off,” His older self started adding in, “W-Well…Not the picture of you, Casita did that, not us, so we can’t get rid of that, but the point still stands, if you want us to put it back how it was before we can, I don’t mind doing it if it makes you feel better-”

The older man was interrupted when Mirabel flung herself at him, arms tightly wrapped around him. He watched as the man froze with wide eyes, looking at him as if he had the answer for what he should do. The only thing his look did was remind Mirabel that he was there too, resulting in her grabbing him and pulling him into the hug as well, now holding two frozen Brunos.

He was the first to unfreeze, slowly letting himself hug the girl back. After a few more seconds, his older self did the same.

“M-Mirabel?” He questioned.

“Thank you,” Mirabel said instead, “I…I-I…” She sniffled, “Thank you…Thank you, thank you…”

“No need to thank us, we- we wanted to do this,” He explained, watching as Mirabel pulled away, lifting her glasses with one hand to wipe away tears with the other.

A nudge caught his attention. He looked to see that it belonged to his older self who nodded towards Mirabel.

He frowned.

“And think of it as my goodbye gift,” He said softly, “I…had some time to think, and I’ll…I’ll be leaving once it’s dark out, or, at least, I hope to leave.”

Mirabel’s face fell slightly, but a small smile soon replaced it, “I guess I should work on my departing gift then? So it’ll be ready when you leave.”

He nodded his head, “Yeah, I guess so.”

A tile clicked nearby before more followed. Turning their heads to look at what Casita wanted only to see that the house had brought a camera upstairs, eagerly bouncing it with its tiles.

“It seems Casita wants a picture,” Alma said with a smile, walking up to Mirabel to place a hand on her shoulder, “So that you can be added with the rest.”

“D-Do I just stand in front of my door?” She asked, looking to Alma for help.

Alma gently moved Mirabel into position, letting the girl decide how she wanted to pose for it before stepping out of frame.

“Wait,” Mirabel reached out, grabbing her abuela’s hand, “You’re in all their pictures, so you should be in mine too.”

Alma looked shocked for a moment, allowing the girl to pull her back next to her. The older woman hesitated before adjusting so that her one hand was on Mirabel’s farther shoulder, and that her free hand was holding Mirabel’s hand once more. Both looked at the camera with smiles on their faces as the older Bruno stepped behind it, taking the picture for them.

“That’s one for the wall,” The man said with a small grin, pulling the picture from the camera to give it to Alma.

“Once this is ready, I’ll have it hung up,” Alma said, stepping away from the group, “If you’ll excuse me.”

As she left, Julieta and Pepa moved closer to them.

“The door looks amazing mi hermanos,” Julieta praised, “You both did great,” She added, pressing a kiss to both of their foreheads.

“Sí,” Pepa agreed, reaching out to ruffle their hair, “It fits in perfectly.”

Julieta leaned down closer to Bruno, whispering to him.

“And thank you, hermanito,” She chuckled, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen mamá have so much fun like she did today. You did good.”

He couldn’t help but smile ear to ear with her words.

“Brunito,” Mirabel called, “You said you wanted to watch me work, right?”

“S-Sí!” Bruno said quickly, looking over to Mirabel who held her door open for him, “I’m coming!”

Julieta leaned back up, nodding her head for him to go follow her. He gave a quick, short wave as he hurried to follow after Mirabel, who closed the door behind him once he was inside the room, leaving the three triplets outside to continue speaking.

“Now, let’s make you this butterfly!”

Notes:

After some consideration, I have decided to split the chapters. The next one will be Bruno going back home! There will be another chapter after this one however of Bruno going through some main events within the family such as Pepa's wedding, Camilo's evil Bruno origin story, Mirabel's birth and ceremony, etc. I can't believe it's almost the end!

Chapter 9

Summary:

Goodbyes

Bruno knew his time was running out, as morbid as that statement may seem. He knew that the more time passed, the closer it got for him to finally go back home, and as much as he wanted to see his hermanas again, he didn’t want to have to wait years worth of time to see the rest of the Madrigal family. He wasn’t sure if he could find himself being that patient.

Going through some of the numbers in his head, Mirabel and Camilo were tied as second to last of the entire clan despite the few months difference in age, with Antonio being the absolute youngest at five. He wouldn’t see either of them until he was much, much older, which was unfortunate.

He pulled his knees up closer to his chest as he stared across the room from his bed at Mirabel. She was off in another world as she worked on his ruana, golden thread and needle disappearing and reappearing with every new motion and turn in design. It seemed like she was almost finished.

Neither of them spoke much, seeing as Mirabel needed the quiet to focus, and he needed it to think.

His older self’s words echoed in his mind. About things getting worse before they get better, about how he’ll have to disappear for a while, about how he does so to protect someone, how another bad thing will happen before he has any chance of getting anything good again.

How much worse did the older man mean? How much worse could things get that he wasn’t already dealing with back home? And to disappear for who knows how long? And for another bad thing to happen soon after?

And who was he even supposed to protect? He wasn’t widely known for his ability to do such, more so known for his lack of ability to do so. But if his future self says he does, then he has no other option other than to believe him. But who would it even be?

A frown made its way onto his face. If he needed to protect someone then he really would need to go home. Not for himself, but for whoever the person is or will be.

But again…

The sound of a bed creaking startled him out of his thoughts. Mirabel leaned back on her bed, holding up his ruana in front of her as if inspecting it. Her hands fell, the ruana crumpling into her lap as a smile broke out on her face.

“Finished!” She said cheerily, jumping to her feet and making her way over to him, turning the ruana around to show him the stitching she had done.

Just like he had requested, the golden butterfly was sewn on the inside of the fabric at the front, keeping it close to his heart no matter how many times he’d wear it.

He took the ruana from her, studying it more closely before a smile was on his face as well. He turned it away from him to properly put the ruana back on, a strange form of comfort washing over him.

“Gracias, Mira,” He says, happy to see that whenever he glanced down he was able to see the insect, “It’s perfect!” He immediately threw his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug.

The hug was returned as soon as his arms were around her, Mirabel almost burying her face into his shoulder.

“It was nice getting to know you,” She whispered, “And as weird as it might sound, I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too,” Bruno admitted, “I don’t want to have to wait to see you again, any of you. Especially when you’re all here already.”

Mirabel pulled away from the hug, offering a small, sad smile, “I don’t want you to go back either,” It felt like there was more meaning behind her words, like she knew something he didn’t and felt guilty about it, “But I guess if we want this place to stay the same, you’ll have to.”

“Yeah,” He agreed softly, fingers comfortably finding themselves wrapped at the hem of his ruana, “Yeah…”

A small silence brewed between them, but for once he didn’t find it awkward, instead, it felt more like an understanding silence. However, he knew that they couldn’t just stand there forever.

“Why don’t we go do something?” He suggested.

“Like what?”

“I’m not sure,” He huffed a small laugh, “Anything works for me right now.”

“Mira!” A small voice called out from behind the door, “Mira are you there?”

Mirabel turned away from him to move to the door, opening it just a bit to look outside.

“Tonio?” Mirabel questioned, “What is it?”

Antonio smiled brightly at his prima, “Tío said that he was going to tell us another story before dinner! He wanted to know if you and little Tío wanted to join!”

Mirabel glanced back towards him, to which he responded with a thumbs up. Mirabel then nodded her head, reaching out to pat Antonio’s head gently.

“Sure thing, hombrecito, we’ll be down in a minute.”

Antonio nodded his head eagerly before scurrying off from wherever he came from.

“I didn’t know storytime was so exciting,” He spoke up, moving closer to the door.

“Well, your stories are a bit different,” Mirabel giggled, opening the door wider as she motioned for him to follow, “C’mon, let’s go see what the story is today.”

Leaving the room, they made their way downstairs, Casita’s tiles clicking happily along their footsteps. From where they were he could hear the light chatter, multiple different voices blending in to the point where he couldn’t tell what they were saying.

Entering the room where the voices were coming from, he was met with the sight of all the Madrigal children crowded around one another. Were the stories he told really that interesting to them?

“There you two are,” His older self grinned, looking at them with a bucket in his hands.

“What’s that for?” He asked curiously, pointing to the item.

Someone gasped from the small crowd of children.

“You don’t know Jorge?”

Looking into the crowd, he could tell the question came from none other than Camilo.

“Jorge?” He repeated, confused.

“Jorge didn’t exist for me at this age yet,” His older self stepped in, “It was only me and Hernando.”

He brightened at his character’s name. A part of him was excited to hear that he would gain another character though. Jorge. He would have to remember that.

“Sit, sit,” The older man ushered, but quickly placed his hand on his shoulder to stop him, “Not you though, kid.”

“H-Huh?”

The man smiled at him, “You’re going to help me out.”

His eyes widened slightly but he nodded his head nonetheless. The man leaned in close to him, whispering what story they were going to tell. He would be Hernando, while the other would be Jorge.

The story would start out simple, according to the other. Hernando is ordered by a far away Queen to go save a princess because of his fearlessness and Jorge, the man who kidnapped the girl in the first place, would try to stop him. He would, of course, have the freedom to take the story any which way he wanted in order to make it interesting for the others. Something new, something original.

He was nervous though, the last time he had done any storytelling of the sorts was before his reputation back home began. He was sure to be rusty. But there was a show to be made, and who was he to stop it?

Reaching back, he pulled the hood of his ruana over his head, essentially covering his face as his older self simply placed the bucket he had in his hands over his head.

He took a deep breath, and before he knew it the story began.
Uneasy at first, he slowly began to get more comfortable, loudly exclaiming some parts during his mocking dialogue towards Jorge, even reaching the point where he moved his body more dramatically, swinging his arms and spinning around wildly.

Gasps and shouts emitted from the group of children. Antonio hiding his face in hermana’s arms, or Isabela scoffing at some of the things Jorge says to Hernando. It was relieving, so to say, which made it all the more fun.

And, for a moment, he could have sworn he caught a glimpse of his mamá standing at the doorway, listening in, but when he had the chance to look, there was no sign of her.

Some time had passed, and their story came to an end.

“Defeated by the one and only Hernando,” His older self complained, a hand draped over his eyes as he laid back, free hand clutching the front of his ruana, “I will have my revenge!”

He grinned, making a stabbing motion towards Jorge, “Revenge is no longer an option as evil has now been destroyed!”

“Jorge, no!” Camilo cried.

“Jorge was the villain!” Antonio quickly reminded him, brows furrowed in confusion as to why his brother would like someone like that.

“But he was a cool one!” Camilo then defended, “If he hadn’t fallen for Hernando’s trick at the beginning, he would have totally won the fight.”

“With what? His fists?” Luisa mused from her spot, “Hernando had the sword, there was no way Jorge would have won.”

“Obviously Jorge could have tricked Hernando into dropping the sword, which he would then use for the fight to win,” Camilo explained, exasperated, “Am I the only one who sees how he could have won?”

“You should probably write it out,” Mirabel suggested, “Like an essay explaining it?”

“That’s work, though,” The boy whined, draping himself over his cousin despite her complaints.

“He totally gets it from us, somehow,” He commented, glancing towards his older self, “I can just tell.”

“Which is strange in itself,” The man gently responded, shaking his head with a small smile on his face.

“Todos! Dinner is ready!” Julieta suddenly shouted from the kitchen.

Everything was quickly moving once more. Camilo stood up first, sprinting over towards the dining room, probably to try and grab more food before anyone else had the chance. As soon as everyone else realized what he was doing, they followed after, shouting at him to leave the food alone and to let everyone else get their share first.

“Come on,” His older self said, clearly amused, “Before he really does eat everything.”

When they entered the room, he realized the seating of everyone had changed from the last time. Antonio sat between Camilo and Isabela with Dolores, Mirabel, and Luisa across the table from them. Agustín sat at the end of the table next to Antonio, and Félix sat at the front besides Alma. His hermanas and older self sat in the center of the table, Pepa and the man on one side, and Julieta and an empty seat on the other.

He was surprised to see that designated seats weren’t a thing. At home, it was always the triplets on one side in the order of Julieta, Bruno, and Pepa, with their mamá across from them.

Hesitating for only a moment, he finally went forward, placing himself in the seat. Julieta was quick to flash him a smile. He offered a lopsided one in return.

Julieta then leaned in close, “Eat up hermanito,” She whispered, “I don’t want you returning home hungry.”

“Right,” He agreed sheepishly, looking at the plate of food in front of him before picking up a spoon to begin eating.

“Brunito, since you’re leaving tonight,” Dolores started before having to pause as the other kids either gasped or began to complain, “Do you have any other stories of mamá and Tía Julieta?”

“Hermano don’t you dare,” Pepa seemed immediately embarrassed, cheeks turned a shade of pink.

Bruno had to think for a moment. He had already told them about their game of keep-ball and the nicknames of their husbands. What else could he possibly tell?

“There was this one time we went into town,” He began, scratching gently at his cheek, “We were all finished with our chores for the day so we met up at the square where usually there would be some people playing their instruments, guitars, accordions, and so on. On any other day, we would sit off to the side and talk about how our mornings went, the usual.”

“So what was so different about that day?” Antonio asked from his seat.

“Ay, I think I know this one,” Pepa quickly covered her face.

“Well, this day there was a new performer. I don’t remember what instrument he was playing as I wasn’t really paying attention, but Pepa couldn’t keep her eyes off of him!” He grinned brightly seeing Félix’s attention quickly turn to him, “Her attention would always wander no matter what we did. We try to talk to her? She would only nod! So I, tired of her just sitting there and doing nothing, stood up and went over to the guy.”

Félix’s expression soon softened, recognition in his features.

“I introduced myself first,” Something Alma had always told them to do, “And then I pointed out Pepa to the guy and told him that ‘I could see a future of them together' and suggested he go talk to her. Now I can proudly say that without me, Pepa and Félix would have never gotten married!”

“I thought that was a prophecy!” Félix laughed loudly from his seat, “I guess I really do have you to thank, bro!”

“Félix!” Pepa cried.

“I would have been amazed if I could have done a vision in that short amount of time,” His older self snorted.

“So we wouldn’t have even existed if not for Tío getting annoyed at mami not paying attention to him?” Camilo asked, disbelief in his voice, “Are you serious?”

“Sorry for you to find out this way, sobrino,” His other self chuckled.

“Did you do the same for Tía?” Dolores then asked.

“Actually, no,” He admitted, “The most I did for her was have a vision to reassure her that Agustín wouldn’t get himself killed any time soon. They aren’t even together yet in my time.”

“Amor, you cared that much for me?” Agustín asked, a smitten look already on his face.

“Or she couldn’t trust you enough to stay alive,” Pepa added with a huff.

“Or both,” Mirabel added helpfully.

Bruno only shrugged, “I’m not really big into looking into relationships anyway, especially when the visions show them turning for the worst,” He paused to eat some more food before he continued, “So I hope I don’t have to offer relationship advice or anything close to it to either of you when I get back."

“They’re going to ask you to look into the future for when they’re pregnant,” His older self said simply, “It makes it easier for them to buy clothes and toys for the kids.”

His face scrunched, making Pepa snort.

“Is that so wrong of a thing to ask?” Julieta questioned, slightly embarrassed.

“I just don’t think mamá would consider it a good use of my gift,” Bruno answered, oblivious to the slight tensing of the triplets and Alma, “But if it helps I guess I’d be happy to do it to make sure the kids get good toys, clothes, and all that.”

He glanced up from his plate, taking notice of his older self sharing a look with Alma, having a silent conversation with her, before the man shook his head and her body slumped slightly in resignation.

“What about you, Brunito?” Isabela asked, “Tell us some stories about you. Our Tío here doesn’t like to talk much about himself.”

“You want to hear about me?” He couldn’t help the surprise in his voice, “W-What would you even want to know?”

“What are some things you like?”

“I-I don’t think you’d find anything about me interesting,” He said weakly, setting his spoon back down onto the table.

“Talk about deja vu,” Camilo snorted.

“Come on,” Mirabel offered him a smile, “We won’t laugh at you.”

Bruno gulped, rubbing his arm gently, “W-Well, I like rats. They’re really neat, and they’re very clean too! You could teach them tricks, anything you want really. Back home I managed to teach one to play dead!”

“I knew I wasn’t making up the rat thing!” Camilo announced proudly.

“Sorry you lost most of us at ‘seven-foot frame’,” Mirabel commented.

“H-Huh?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Mirabel waved off, “But the rats are still around today, right Tío?”

“Sure,” The man nodded.

“I, uh, also really like hanging out with my hermanas,” He continued after his moment of confusion, “And making up stories to tell them.”

A silence followed as if they expected him to tell more.

“You don’t like…hang out with any other kids?” Luisa hesitantly asked.

“O-Oh no, no,” He answered quickly, “I’m grateful for what I have, really. I don’t think it’d be right if I asked for more.”

It looked like his mamá was about to say something with how quickly she had opened her mouth, but his older self cut her off before any words managed to leave her.

“Tonito, why don’t you tell your mamá about the story we told earlier? I’m sure she’d love to hear it.”

Alma narrowed her eyes at his older self, who only looked back with a warning in his eyes. But thankfully, Antonio listened and began retelling the entire story to those who would listen. By the time he was finished, the majority of the plates were cleared of their food.

Taking a glance outside through the window, he could tell that he was to be leaving, the dark sky being his telltale sign. Everyone else seemed to realize this as well, the mood turning more somber.

Alma cleared her throat from her seat at the table, quickly composing herself.

“Sadly, our Brunito has to go back home,” She looked over at him, “To his time. We will all be there to say goodbye.”

There didn’t seem to be any complaints there, yet no one seemed to want to move.

He gulped slightly, pushing his chair back before standing, giving a weak, lopsided smile to everyone else.

“Come on, you guys won’t leave me hanging, verdad?” He questioned.

Everyone shared looks before Mirabel stood from her seat, Camilo quickly doing the same.

“Right,” She answered, moving to stand beside him.

Slowly, each member of the family got up and then followed him outside to the center of Casita, the candle once again greeting him.
He turned, looking at each and every one of them, doing his best to ingrain their faces into his mind so he wouldn’t ever forget them. Hesitantly, he opened his arms, offering a hug to whoever wanted one.

What he didn’t expect was for everyone to want one.

The first to give him a hug was Antonio, who could only hug his leg from his height. After that, it was Isabela and Dolores, followed by Luisa (Who once again almost crushed him). Camilo gave him a hug and made sure to mess up his hair after. Mirabel hugged him tightly, whispering another grateful thanks to him before she pulled away, fixing the green frames on her face.

Pepa and Julieta both hugged him at the same time, and for a moment he thought he could hear sniffling from one of them (Most likely Julieta since Pepa only had a dark cloud above her head and wasn’t drizzling).

His mamá was the only one who hesitated, taking slow, cautious steps towards him as if he were a frightened animal, which greatly confused him. When she was finally in front of him, she reached out, cupping his face gently in her hands. He could see plenty of different emotions in her eyes as she stared at him before she closed them, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead.

She opened her mouth to say something, before simply shaking her head, opting to hug him instead. She then pulled away completely, stepping away as his older self stepped forward.

He watched as the man crouched down in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“You’re going to be just fine, kid,” The man reassured him, “You have a lot to look forward to, I promise.”

Bruno nodded his head, accepting the fact that if anyone in this house would know, it would be the older version of him. He took a step back, turning to look up at the candle.

“It…was really nice getting to see all of you,” He slowly said, “I’ll miss you guys, but I guess I’ll see you all again eventually.”

He closed his eyes, feeling a tear slip down his cheek. He didn’t even know he was crying in the first place.

“I wish I was back home.”

He didn’t know if he was truly relieved to feel the familiar bright warmth of the candle again.

He still couldn’t tell when he opened his eyes again and he was alone.

No, he wasn’t alone. He could hear someone sniffling.

Looking around, there was no one in the immediate area. Judging by the time, Pepa and Julieta were probably already asleep, which would mean that if anyone was awake right then, it would be his mamá.

He listened closely to where the sniffling came from, walking towards the sound of it, which led him to none other than the kitchen where he had last seen his mother.

There, standing in front of the kitchen counter, was his mamá, tissues in hand as she stared down at one of his green vision tablets. He moved a little closer, immediately noticing how it had been previously shattered before being put back together. Had he dropped it when the candle took him?

“M-mamá?” He questioned nervously.

Alma gasped, clearly startled by his voice as her head snapped towards him. He could practically see the relief dripping out of her expression as she quickly rushed over to him, dropping to her knees as she began immediately checking him for any signs of injury.

“A-Ay Brunito!” She stumbled over her words as a small sob broke through her, “Where have you been? You made me so worried! W-We looked all over for you and then we couldn’t find you, and-”

“Mamá, I’m fine, I promise,” Bruno pulled his arms away from her, surprised at how worried she was, “I wasn’t hurt at all.”

“Brunito, don’t do that again, okay? Don’t do that again,” She insisted, ignoring him pulling his arms away as she pulled him into a tight hug, “Lo siento, Bruno, it was a good vision, I should have looked when you told me and I am so proud of you for it, lo siento.”

He wrapped his arms around his mother, resting his head on her shoulder as he stared at the floor behind her. Closing his eyes, he squeezed himself tighter against her. If what his future self said was true, he would certainly have to enjoy his good moments while they still last.

“I promise mamá, I won’t run away again.”

Notes:

Sorry this one took so long! I just didn't know what to have them do before their goodbyes, so i just settled on story time so Bruno could do something small with everyone.

Chapter 10

Summary:

Epilogue

In hindsight, which was irony in itself, Bruno should have known better.

Or maybe he shouldn’t have, he couldn’t quite tell yet if he was being completely honest.

It was Pepa’s wedding day, the second of the triplets to get married in fact. Julieta had gotten married earlier that year already, much to their relief after the universe decided to send an escaped cow after Agustín, which took half the day to catch and another hour to find where the man had hidden from the animal’s unwarranted fury.

Because of this, he could understand why his mamá wanted Pepa’s wedding to be perfect. Not only because she didn’t want anything ruining it, but she also didn’t want Pepa ruining it. He hated thinking about it, but he knew that if Pepa got too emotional, well, he wasn’t sure what weather they would be dealing with, but either way, he knew that his mother would get upset because of it despite her not being the one getting married.

So really, he should have known better, at least, on behalf of his mother. Yet, he still did what he did anyway.

He knew Pepa was stressed out about the wedding, which was normal, weddings are stressful. Julieta had been stressed just the same when it was hers. So, he sought out his sister to try and offer something to ease her mind.

So, he started his search. He checked the Casita first, and when his hermana was nowhere to be seen there, he checked some of the other places he thought she could be in. Eventually, he managed to find both of his hermanas near the town square, Julieta guiding their sister to sit down and relax. Pepa had a strained smile on her face, and he could practically hear her chanting ‘clear skies’ without her actually saying anything. With her bottling up those emotions of hers, she was bound to explode during the wedding. That just wouldn’t do, not for his hermana at least.

He glanced around, noticing the other townspeople rushing around to get everything in place. He could see his mother off in the distance speaking with the priest, probably about the ceremony. Félix was nowhere to be seen, which was kind of expected. However, he was the only one of them who was best at calming Pepa down. Which didn’t help Bruno at all in his case.

Taking a deep breath, he reached behind him, gripping the hood of his ruana to pull it over his head and cover his eyes. He could talk to Pepa and offer her comfort no problem. He may be no Félix, but he was her brother!

“I’m Hernando and I’m scared of nothing,” He whispered to himself as he made his way over to the two women, “I’m Hernando and I’m scared of nothing…”

Julieta was the first to notice him, watching him with a questioning gaze as he stopped in front of them. He did his best not to focus too hard on her, instead looking at Pepa and offering a lopsided grin as his hands fiddled with the bottom of his ruana.

“Looks like rain, Pepa,” He lightly joked, “Honestly, you have nothing to worry about hermana.”

“What did you say?” Pepa’s head snapped up, staring at him with wide, almost angered eyes.

He gulped, but only slightly, “It looks like rain?”

…He really should have known better.

Because one minute he was standing in front of his sisters on a nice, clear, sunny day. The next? The next he was standing in the middle of a hurricane on the sidelines with his mother and Julieta, not only holding on for dear life but also watching as Pepa and Félix exchanged their vows.

Every minute he was thankful that Félix was the man that he was because he knew very well that if he had completely ruined Pepa’s wedding by making the groom run away because of her emotions, he was not going to live for much longer, and that his mother was not going to save him either.

Maybe when his future self said that he was going to leave to protect someone, he meant he was going to leave to protect himself.

From his sister’s fury of course.

-

It was finally over.

After long hours of watching his sister in pain, watching Agustín pass out because he smacked his head on the ground due to tripping after running to try and get his wife more water, and after watching his mamá leave the room with an exhausted expression on her face, it was over.

Of course, Bruno had to wait even still after all of it, because he needed to allow Julieta and Agustín to have time for themselves and their newborn daughter. But afterward? Afterward he made sure to enter the room after asking permission to be let in.

“Feeling better now, hermana?” He questioned, slipping into the room and making sure the door shut behind him.

“Much,” She replied, eyes reflecting her tiredness, “I’m just glad that she’s okay.”

“We all are,” He agreed.

Creeping closer, hands gripping his ruana, he leaned closer to look at the bundle wrapped lovingly in her arms.

He couldn’t help the smile on his face as he looked at the little girl. Dark, yet short, curls framed her small face nicely, her eyes closed as she slept soundly in the arms of her mother.

“Would you like to hold her?” Julieta asked, breaking him away from his thoughts.

“She’s sleeping,” He pointed out, “It may not be a good idea for me-”

“Nonsense,” His sister interrupted, “It’ll be fine.”

His eyes traveled to hers, hesitance clear in his expression, “Are you sure, Juli?”

The expression on her face was enough to convince him to stop talking and just take the child from her.

“You go on and rest,” He told her, “I can watch her for a little.”

His sister nodded her head, closing her eyes as she settled herself further into her bed.

He waited until he was sure she was sound asleep before turning to look at the child in his arms, a larger, goofier grin on his face.

“Hola, Mirabel, mi mariposa!” He whispered excitedly, “Your primo beat you by a few months, didn’t he? But from what I remember of you both, he is just the same as he was- or, well, as he will be, ever the mischievous one, right?”

The little girl didn’t respond, but that was alright, he could talk for the both of them.

“We only have one more to wait for, don’t we? Little Antonio,” Bruno hummed lightly, looking around before moving to a nearby seat to sit down comfortably, “But that won’t be for another ten years, so you and the others will have to entertain us all till he comes…I’m joking, by the way,” He made sure to quickly say, not wanting the small child to somehow feel offended, “And I’m sure me, you, and your primo Camilo will be good friends again,” He paused, “No, not friends. Good family. That’s what Camilo said the day I left.”

He sighed gently, closing his eyes as he leaned his head back against the head of his chair.

“You know, it’s been hard without you guys,” He whispered, “I know we only knew each other for two days, but it meant a lot, I miss you guys. The townspeople don’t like me all that much anymore, but I suppose it's only fair. I know older me told me it’d get like this, but I don’t know if I can actually handle it.”

The little bundle in his arms shifted in his hold, making his eyes snap open and him panic for a moment as he watched Mirabel’s eyes open wide.

To his surprise, however, she didn’t start crying at the sight of him. Instead, she gave him a weird, gummed-up smile, reaching out with her small hand (Somehow freeing it from her swaddle) to grab his nose.

His eyes widened, staring at her in amazement, “Oh,” He breathed out, reaching up gently to make her grab his finger instead of his nose, “You’re going to just do wonders, aren’t you Mirabel Madrigal?” He leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead, glee filling his chest at her small gasp.

“No wonder you get no gift, you don’t need one.”

-

Midnight snacks were never unusual for him, as it wasn’t only for him. He made sure to grab enough for him and his rats, something he’s done ever since they took a fancy for him.

Who knew feeding one would lead to others? Which then led to him adopting them all as pets?

He slipped into the kitchen, the start of a vision migraine making itself clear and two of his rats clinging to his shoulders as he made his way over to the plate of arepas that Julieta had left out on the counter earlier that evening. He wasn’t completely sure why she always had a full plate left out, but he didn’t complain much because as long as there was a plate out, his rats were always fed their snacks.

Reaching out, he plucked an arepa from the top of the stack, splitting it into three pieces, one for each rat and one for him.

He held up the pieces for the rats, waiting for them to take them into their tiny hands before even thinking about shoveling his piece into his mouth. Before he could even think to chew, however, the small vision made itself apparent. Nothing too big, to his relief, and nothing bad either. The flowers the shopkeep in town owned had finally bloomed and she’ll make a profit with the others by selling them. Maybe he’ll even tell her about it.

A gasp, that very much wasn’t a part of the vision, caught his attention.

With a sharp turn, he stared eye to eye with a five-year-old Camilo who looked absolutely terrified of him. Tears were welled up in his eyes as the young boy gripped his nightshirt tightly, unable to tear his eyes away from him.

“Camilo?” He questioned nervously, “You should be asleep, sobrino.”

The boy didn’t respond, only flinching at the sound of his name.

“C-Camilo?” Bruno asked again, taking a step forward, reaching out to him, “Are you alright? It’s just me, kiddo.”

The boy’s response? Passing out.

Bruno almost yelled, rushing forward to grab the boy before he hit the ground.

“Ay, Camilo? Camilo!” He gently shook him, hating that there was no response, “Oh dios mio, your mami will kill me!”

He gulped, pulling the boy tighter against his chest as he stood, looking around the kitchen before rushing to the upstairs of the house and to Camilo’s room.

“This is fine, this is fine,” He muttered to himself, opening the door and making an immediate bee-line to the bed, setting the boy down and tucking him back in, “Please believe it was a bad dream, please.”

He quickly rushed out, shutting the door behind him before sprinting to his own room.

He should have never left it in the first place.

-

Knowing that the gift ceremony would fail and experiencing it were two, very, very, different things.

It was horrible.

To see absolute horror in pain in a five-year-old’s face was something he never wanted to see. To see Mirabel helplessly looking to his mother for help only to get a returning look of anger and fear hurt.

Why wasn’t she helping her?

All he could think of doing at that moment was to run to her, and he did. He ran up the steps, and grabbed her, tucking her head into his shoulder as he rushed off to the nursery, the door slamming shut behind him.

He went over to the bed, setting her down before crouching in front of her.

She was crying, there were so many tears streaming down his face that he almost froze, not knowing what to do.

“Mirabel,” He said, surprised that he could even speak, “Mirabel, look at me, por favor, please.”

“W-Why didn’t it work?” Mirabel asked him, a sob wracking throughout her tiny body, “Why didn’t it work? D-Did I do something w-wrong? A-Abuela hates me! She hates me!”

“No, no, no,” He quickly reassured, reaching out to hold her hands in his own, “No, you listen to me Mirabel, okay? You are a wonder, you don’t need a gift, no matter what abuela says, okay? You did nothing wrong. So don’t you ever, ever think that, okay?”

Mirabel opened her mouth to speak, but a knock on the door interrupted her. Julieta and Agustín then rushed in, immediately crowding their daughter as he stepped back and away. He turned his head, noticing that his mother was there, looking at him. He knew what that look meant.

And he was right.

She wanted a vision from him. She wanted a vision to the point where she begged him to do it despite his clear distaste of doing them.

And for some reason, he left the room to go do one, his little man-made ceremony and all.

He regretted it almost immediately. As soon as he saw the cracks in the house he knew. As soon as he saw Mirabel, however, he knew.

Even when the sand fell around him and the glass tablet of the young girl stared back at him, he knew.

“So that’s what he meant,” He muttered mournfully to himself, “To leave to protect someone…Why did it have to be her?”

He looked around his room, brows furrowed.

“First no gift and now this?” He held up the tablet to no one in particular, “Can’t the girl get a break? Has she not been through enough already?”

His arms slowly fell back to his sides, a deep frown settling on his face.

After a moment of silent thinking to himself, he raised the tablet before throwing it to the ground over a rock, watching as it shattered and the pieces scattered. It was for the best.

With a small sigh, he made his way down the many stairs of his room, stopping to grab a small wrapped box he had left by the door earlier that day.

Once in his arms, he left his room and down the small steps, only turning to look back at it sadly before he made his way to the nursery.

Plenty of time had passed since he had first left, Julieta and Agustín had already left for bed, and when he opened the door to peek in, Mirabel was clearly asleep as well. Opening the door further to step inside, he could see the tear stains on the young girl’s face as she clutched her blankets tightly in her sleep.

He hated the sight of it.

He took a deep breath, walking over to the drawer beside her bed to place the box down. He reached into his pants pocket, pulling out the spool of golden thread he had taken with him by mistake all those years ago. He had always meant to give it back to Mirabel before he had left them, but this was as good an opportunity as he was going to get to do so. He placed the spool beside the box, stepping away from it.

Taking one last look at the small girl, he hesitated before moving closer, leaning down to press a small kiss to her head.

“I’m sorry, Mirabel,” He whispered to her before standing, walking over to the door to the room.

He turned to look back one last time, doing his best to remember her in her happier moments, a bright smile on her face, before he left the room.

Spotting the suddenly opened painting towards his left with the gaping hole behind it, he knew.

And he hated knowing.

-

She was there. Right in front of him, she was right there.

She looked just as he remembered from his dream- no, was it a dream?

His mind immediately paused as he looked for an answer. It had to have been a dream, there- there was no way, was there? Or maybe it was real, it felt real, it had to be real, he wanted it to be real- Why couldn’t he remember?

It had to have been real because the whole reason he left in the first place was that his older self had told him so, but the more time he spent in the walls, the more time he thought about it and counted the years as they passed by, he couldn’t tell the difference, and it scared him. Why couldn’t he remember if it was real?

Regardless, it had been ten years since he had last seen her. She grew up so quickly.

Much taller, hair longer, a dress that matched her with the rest of Julieta’s family. And those green glasses on her face.
No, it had to be real, he remembered. The green was for him, that was what she told him.

…right?

He stared at her as he held her wrist tightly in his hand, trying to think of something to say as his thoughts and mind ran a mile a minute in his head. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and opened it again.

He could tell her that she shouldn’t be there, which she wasn’t. She wasn’t supposed to find him at all, nor was she supposed to see any of the cracks before he could fix them. So he could tell her that and tell her that she should go despite how much he’s missed her. It would be for the best, anything to keep her safe.

So he found some courage in him without Hernando, and found the voice he needed to tell her to leave once he’s pulled her back up.

“You’re very sweaty,”

-

“She didn’t do this!” He yelled out, fearfully holding onto the reins of the horse for his life as it leaped through the bushes and roughly landed into the clearing in front of his mother and Mirabel, “She didn’t do this!”

Carefully, he slid himself off of the horse, one foot on the ground while the other was still on the horse.

“I gave her a vision,” He said loudly, hands on his hips as he looked at his mother.

The horse stepped to the side, causing him to fall face-first into the ground. It was fine, though! He quickly recovered, jumping up to stand.

“I was like go! And she was like pshhhh!” Bruno continued, moving as much as he could to try and keep the attention on him and not Mirabel so he could get yelled at instead. The last thing he wanted was for his sobrina to get blamed once again for something out of her control, “She only wanted to help!”

He made sure to emphasize it, hoping that it would get through to his mamá. He shook himself slightly to encourage himself more. He needed to be brave as Bruno for once.

“I don’t care what you think of me!” He began, walking towards them, “But if you’re too stubborn to-”

Arms wrapping around him immediately stopped him in his tracks as he stared down wide-eyed at his mother who only nestled closer to him, whispering the old nickname of his that he hadn’t heard in decades.

“I feel like I missed something important…” He said dumbly.

“Come on,” Mirabel said smugly, an amused look on her face as she made her way over to the horse, climbing on top.

His mamá pulled away from him, reaching up to cup his face into her hands and pressing a kiss to his cheek before taking his hand and pulling him along.

Both he and his mamá climbed onto the horse, but he was still so confused as no one bothered to tell him anything.

“What…What’s happening?” He asked, “Where are we going?”

“Home,” Was Mirabel’s only answer before she snapped the reins of the horse.

-

Bruno sighed gently as he sat himself down onto the front steps of the Casita, looking out at the town ahead of him. It had been a long few months of building, but the Casita was finally completed, and the magic was returned to them by none other than Mirabel.

The image on the door had struck a deep memory in him, to the point where what he remembers was probably a vision, which eased his mind a little when he could at least confirm what he knew wasn’t just a dream.

“What are you doing out here, hermano?”

He startled slightly, turning quickly to be met with slightly concerned looks from not one sister, but two.

“N-Nothing,” He stuttered out, “I just needed some fresh air, that’s all, I promise.”

Julieta hummed gently in response as she carefully sat down beside him, Pepa doing the same by sitting on his other side.

“Mind if we join you?”

“You didn’t leave much choice,” He responded dryly, a small smile on his face.

“Here,” Pepa then said, holding out an arepa for him, “You need to eat more, you’re so pequeño! You’ll starve at this rate!”

Bruno didn’t tell her that he was used to not eating much in the walls, knowing how much that would upset her, so he took the arepa with no argument.

“So why did you come out here?” He asked curiously.

“To check on you, idiota,” Pepa answered, bringing her knees closer to her chest as she looked ahead of them, “You disappeared without telling anyone anything. We were…worried.”

“Worried that I’d leave again?” Bruno asked, watching as both sisters flinched. He looked down at the arepa in his hands, taking a moment before lifting it to his mouth and taking a bite of it.

“Maybe,” Julieta answered truthfully.

He swallowed the piece of arepa in his mouth, still staring at the ground before he lifted his eyes, a grin now on his face, “Lo siento, mi hermanas, but now that I’m back, I’m not leaving again. You’re unfortunately stuck with me, now.”

That earned a relieved laugh from Pepa.

“Plus, Mirabel would have my head if I disappeared again,” He added, “And she would, without a doubt, find me again and let me hear all about it.”

“She sure is something, isn’t she?” Julieta asked, a hint of pride in her voice, “Mi pequeña maravilla.”

“She sure is,” He replies.

A small silence envelops them, the only sounds being that of nature around them.

“Bruno,” Pepa began hesitantly.

“If you’re about to apologize-”

“No!” She interrupted, “Well, I should, and I want to, but it can’t be a simple one, not for me,” She added on, “I just…”

She stopped speaking, a frown on her face as a dark cloud began to form above her head.

“How are you so calm about everything?” She whispered, “If it were me, I- I just don’t think I could handle everything suddenly going back to normal, as if nothing was wrong. Why don’t you hate us?”

Bruno turned to Julieta to ask for help, but upon seeing her looking away from him he could tell she wanted the same answer as Pepa. Gently, he placed the half-eaten arepa down onto his lap, moving his hands to fiddle with the neck of his ruana.

“How could I ever hate mi familia?” He asked quietly, “I won’t lie to you and say it didn’t hurt but…I knew you guys still loved me somewhere inside. I’m calm because I held on to that, to the knowledge that it’ll get better, and for once I really believe it will.”

He turned his head to look at Pepa once he heard the sound of gentle rain beside him. Despite it, he could see the tears on her face.

“That makes it worse!” Pepa insisted, “We treated you horribly! The town treated you horribly! You should be angry! You should be yelling and- and hating us! Y-You…you…”

“Ay, Pepa,” He frowned, “Why do you want me to yell? I don’t want to do that.”

“I want you to be angry with me!” She snapped, “You being so nice after everything makes me feel worse!”

Bruno blinked in surprise, staring at his sister before shaking his head.

“I don’t want to do that,” He repeated, “I don’t want to be angry with you, I don’t want to yell at you, or anyone for that matter,” Reaching over, he wrapped an arm around Pepa, a part of him happy that her rain was at least warm. He pulled her against him, hugging her tightly, “There may have been a time where I wanted to, but I don’t want to anymore. I love you both too much to do that,” He reached over to his other side to pull Julieta into the hug too, a goofy grin on his face.

“And we love you just as much,” Julieta made sure to remind him, a soft expression on her face as she held onto him tightly, “Don’t you ever forget that.”

“Sí,” Pepa sniffled, “Don’t you ever.”

Bruno laughed, “I never did!”

Julieta leaned her head on his shoulder, a sigh escaping her.

“When you said you knew it would get better, did you look into the future for that?”

“I think so,” He answered.

“You think?” Pepa questioned.

He smiled sheepishly as he closed his eyes, holding back a small yawn, “Ay, I’m getting old, Pepi, It’s hard to remember.”

“We’re the same age!”

-

Climbing onto the roof of the Casita proved to be much harder than Bruno remembered, even with the aid the house gave him to get him up there. His time away from the walls was starting to show.

Once he was up there, he immediately stretched, grunting at the small pop within his back before he made his way forward.

“If your mamá found out you come up here at night I think she’d have a heart attack,” He mused, settling himself to sit right beside the girl he knew would be there, “You know how she gets.”

“It’s not like I’d be in any danger,” The girl responded, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes.

“No, but your mother will worry about you anyway,” He rested his hands in his lap, for once not feeling the urge to fiddle with the bottom of his ruana.

Ever since he watched the departure of his younger self just hours before, his mind felt a little clearer, especially knowing for sure that what he went through as a kid was real, that it really was set in stone that things would get better.

“I’m fine,” The girl insisted.

“Mirabel-”

“I’m fine,” She repeated, pulling her knees to her chest to rest her head.

“You don’t have to pretend with me, sobrina,” Bruno sighed gently, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder.

He took time to study her face from what he could see. She hadn’t been crying, which relieved him to an extent, but he could still see that something was bothering her.

“C’mon, tell me what’s wrong,” He shifted himself to sit closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder to pull her in closer to him for a side-hug, “I won’t tell your mamá.”

Mirabel glanced at him for a moment before relenting, her shoulders slumping as she curled around herself tighter.

“I feel bad that he- you had to go back,” She whispered, “Knowing what would happen and still sending you back feels…wrong.”

“But it has to happen,” He pointed out, “As bad as it is, it has to happen if we want what we know now to stay as it is. Don’t start blaming yourself for the past you aren’t a part of.”

“I…I know, but…Would it have really been bad to let him stay?”

“Who said he ever left?” He inquired curiously, “That was the past me, remember?”

He watched as Mirabel’s eyebrows furrowed in thought before her eyes widened, looking at him fully. A lopsided grin quickly appeared on his face.

“We’re one in the same kiddo,” Bruno stated, reaching for the collar of his ruana before flipping it inside out for her to see. There, although worn with age, was the golden butterfly she had sewn for him all those years ago.

Mirabel’s mood seemed to improve significantly once the insect met with her eyes. She looked at him again, a bright smile on her face which eased his troubles as well. She didn’t hesitate to lunge forward to fully hug him, almost knocking them both off the roof, not that either of them cared, simply laughing it off.

“I never really left in the first place!”

Notes:

Sooooo sorry that this chapter took so long. School is a real pain in the ass!!