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Bruno gave as genuine of a smile as he could as his mother pulled away from their hug and bid him a goodnight. He watched, keeping the smile up until she finally disappeared into her room. His sigh of relief came immediately after, leaning against his door for a moment and listening until he was sure everyone in the house had settled before he began to creep down the hall and towards the stairs.
It had become a bit of a routine at this point. The house had been rebuilt, and the magic returned. As much as he didn’t always love his gift, having it returned all that while ago when Mirabel put the finishing touch on the rebuilt home, had felt as though a part of him had been rebuilt whole, just as Casita had. It cured a certain ache in his gut that none of his sisters magical food could.
The ache of his room though, that was a different story entirely. Not to say he didn’t like his room. The sand could be a bit grating occasionally, and the older he got the less fun the stairs were (how his child self had run up and down them everyday, he couldn’t fathom). Something about being in there after all this time felt suffocating. It felt almost wrong, but despite the deep connection all magical Madrigal’s had with their rooms, he just couldn’t relax enough to sleep there. But Alma has steered him to his room that first night after the house had come back to life, after the long and wild celebration that went on for hours, and had looked at him softly, welcoming him home. She knew that connections to their room were powerful and she was sure he’d missed his. And he had, occasionally, during all those years, missed the feeling of sand between his toes and such.
But after being away for so long…
He shook the thought away, careful to creep silently down the stairs as he could, keeping Delores’s gift in mind as he found his way into the living room. With so many people in the house, the room was expansive, with several couches and chairs of various hues that could fit the whole family if needed. He didn’t fancy any of them though, lest someone pass by on their way to get a midnight snack and spot him. Casita shuffled the pillows around on the couch, seemingly inviting him towards it. If she couldn’t get him in his room, the house would at least try and get him somewhere comfortable.
But he shook his head with a fond small smile at her attempt to assist, and padded over behind the largest couch. There was a window nearby so the spot was bathed in soft moonlight, and the carpet placed there was soft under his toes. He switched his spots around regularly, to not get caught again, after the very first night when he’d been found fast asleep in some random part of the house- though he’d been able to excuse it as exhaustion from the lengthy party.
He settled down, snagging a pillow from the couch and watching the moonlight shimmer until his blinks became slower and slower and the sound nature from the open window lulled him off to sleep.
-
“He’s where?”.
Antonio was at the table for breakfast, distracted slightly with feeding a few bites of lettuce to a capybara, when one of his animal friends, a familiar Toucan, had flown in, landed on his shoulder and chirped in his ear.
“Hmm”. Antonio tilted his head to the side, confused. “That’s silly. Can you show me where he is, please?”.
Some of his family members noticed him leaving, but he assures them he’ll be right back, and they’ve grown far too used to his animal related hijinks that they don’t press for more information as he rushes out of the room after the Toucan.
It takes a few halls, some twist and turns before they get to the main living room of the house. Casita seems restless when he arrives, tiles rumbling and nudging him towards the main couch in the center of the room.
The toucan chirped again, and perched itself on the open windowsill above the couch, flapping its wings softly before nodding its beak down. Antonio cocked his head to the side again, but made his way over and his eyes widened in surprise. The toucan had been right!
His Tio Bruno was snuggled up on the rug, green ruana tugged up over his eyes to block out the sunlight beaming through the window, and as dead to the world as someone could be judging from the soft snores coming from him. One of his rats was curled up right on the middle of his chest.
Antonio giggled, trying to hide the sound behind his hands. Leaning down he shook gently at his tio’s shoulder, and startled back when Bruno shot up with a yelp, ruana hood sliding off of his face. His hand’s scrambled to clutch at his heart as he calmed down from the fright, and he startled again slightly as he noticed Antonio leaning down near him.
“Morning!”. Antonio says brightly.
Bruno blinked, surprised that his youngest nephew hadn’t begun bombarding him with questions. “.. Um, m-morning to you too”. He glances down, scooping up his rat who’d been accidentally jostled and mumbling an apology to it.
“Are you coming to breakfast?”. Antonio asks innocently, and seems to have no intention of questioning his tio’s odd sleeping habits. “Tia Julieta was asking where you were”.
Bruno pauses, but his stomach rumbling answers the question for him and he just nods, standing and sliding his rat onto his shoulder.
“If you ever get lonely, you can come and have a sleepover in my room!”. Antonio says, pausing before they can enter the dining room. “If you want?”.
Bruno smiles and lays a hand on Antonio’s shoulder. “I uh, I may take you up on that. Thank you”.
And they walk into the dining room together.
-
Louisa is quite fond of midnight snacks.
Typically after long day of work, like today had been, she slept sound as stone. But she’d accidentally skipped lunch that afternoon, busy with the laborious task of switching out the locations of two shops, due in part to the shop owners longtime rivalry, and the amount of times they’d decided to change the location.
Regardless of it all, she woke in the middle of the night and her stomach rumbled in hunger. Surely her mother had some leftovers from dinner packed away in a cabinet somewhere. Hopefully one that would take care of the small leftover ache in her hands from lifting entire buildings off their foundation.
She knows how to walk quietly enough in their house by this point in her life. Tiptoe past Delores room, skip the fifth step on the staircase that always creaked and she was in the kitchen quick as she could be. Rooting around quietly through cabinets for something to snack on, she paused, hearing a faint sound.
She almost wrote it off, as she stood there paused to hear it in the silence, as all she heard was cricket chirps and the occasional creak from Casita settling.
But then there it was again.
A clanking kind of sound, like metal scratching against metal. Which was odd, as she was alone in the kitchen and had avoided any drawers with dishes in them for that exact reason. She had kind of a ‘bull in a china shop’ situation when around fragile things like fine china or her mother’s favorite plates.
The rhythmic sound echoed softly across the kitchen and she stepped away from her search of food, and began to creep forward, ready for an altercation if need be.
The sound came again from one of the larger lower cabinets in the corner of the kitchen and she got down, eyes narrowed as she silently crept over, whisked it open and nearly had a heart attack at the sight in front of her.
Now, Louisa hadn’t gotten to know her newly reunited tio Bruno as well as say Mirabel or Antonio had. They’d shared a few short lived pleasant conversations but her memories of him before his disappearance were vague at best, and not to say she didn’t want to, it just hadn’t had a chance to happen yet.
He was a bit odd, with his superstitious nature and little army of rat friends, she supposed, but this certainly took the cake.
He was tucked in amongst the pots and pans, one clutched in his lap and the echoing sound from earlier had come from it knocking the nearest pots handle whenever he shifted in his sleep. Shoulders hunched down and his neck was craned at what looked to be a very uncomfortable angle, so she could understand why he’d be so restless. What Louisa didn’t understand was why he was sleeping there in the first place.
“Tio Bruno.” She says in a firm voice, as loud as she’s willing to go without risk of waking anyone in the rest of the house. It’s enough though, and he’s roused from his sleep, blinking his eyes open slowly. Louisa gives a small gasp at the flickering green glow that shines in the darkness of the night in their kitchen. It momentarily bathes the cabinet in a warm haze of green and as he finally seems to be fully awake, eyes focusing on her, he blinks hard until the green has disappeared.
“Mm, wha’ time is it?”. He says through a yawn. He seemingly goes to stretch but his arm is barely able to move away from him and his other hits the pan sat in his lap, and he winced. It’s only then he seems to realize where he is and he turns a sharp shade of scarlet Louisa can only see because the light in his eyes is back. It’s more faint that it had been previously but it’s there all the same.
“Tio Bruno? “. She says, unaware of how to go about asking particularly why he’d been down there, but decides to answer his question first. “It’s probably nearly morning by now. Still plenty of hours until sunrise though”. He takes in her answer with a nod, head tilted down and when he looks back up his eyes are back to normal.
“Ah. Thank you”. He moves slightly and she stands back to watch him crawl out and he nearly drops the pan. It falls out of his lap in what feels like slow motion, but she manages to snatch it out of the air before it hits the floor, just in time to avoid waking anyone else in the house and they both share an immense sigh of relief.
“So”. Louisa decides to cut straight to the point. “Do you sleep in the kitchen cabinets often?”.
Bruno twitches a little, seeming bemused, and shakes his head. “No, this is definitely a first. I’ll uh.. leave, now”. And he starts to head out of the kitchen but she stops him.
“What were you doing asleep in there?”.
“I uh, well it’s a bit complicated”. He gives an awkward sort of laugh, and fiddles with the ends of the ruana hung over his lithe frame . “I came down for something to eat, and I really wanted something warm but the pan I needed to cook with was so far back in the cabinet, and I kinda ended up crawling h-halfway in and”. Louisa watches him continue without pausing for breath. “I have this thing with tight spaces, t-they’re really cozy to me and one thing kinda lead to another but umm...”.
He seems to have noticed he’s been rambling and cuts himself off. “A-all that is to say, I got a little too comfortable and a persistent lack of sleep let’s me knock out just about anywhere”. He stops to stretch his neck. “It was a bit cramped in there still, even for my taste”.
Louisa takes a moment to absorb the information and then nods. “What were you going to make?”.
“..Arepa con queso?”.
“Alright then. I’ll help”.
Bruno seems surprised by her decision and she offers a small smile. “I came down for the same thing”. She whispers conspiratorially, as if it’s some secret for the two to share. And maybe it is.
He slowly mirrors her smile and they set to work. It doesn’t take long, and while it’s nothing near the quality of something that her mom would make, but it tastes hearty all the same.
“Did you see something earlier?”. Louisa pauses in eating to ask. At his startled glance she continues. “You’re eyes were… glowing? When I woke you up”.
He seems hesitant to say anything, and his shoulders hunch up to his ears, but he swallows his bite of food and speaks anyways. “…T-there’s going to be a landslide tomorrow by the southern border. A few h-houses will be damaged, but luckily it appears no one should be hurt”.
Louisa hums around another bite and nods. “Alright then. Thanks for the heads up. I should probably get some sleep then. Sounds like tomorrow will be a busy day”.
Bruno stumbles over himself to speak. “Y-you aren’t upset? “.
She looks at him confused. “Why would I be? I appreciate the notice, actually”. She sends him another warm smile. “I’m heading off to bed”. She nods towards upstairs. “Try to sleep somewhere that isn’t the kitchen?”.
He nods, somewhat taken aback by her positive reaction to his gift, but he manages to smile back. “Goodnight”.
He takes her advice, and falls asleep behind the couch again, warm, full, and content.
-
“Tio Bruno?”.
Isabella blinks in surprise at the sight before here. She’d been sent off to get coats from the closet, to send off Mariano and his mother home for the night. Isabella was genuinely happy for him and Delores, as she had never harbored any true romantic feelings towards him. Any lingering awkwardness had faded away pretty quickly.
The coats closet was a ways down the front hallway and she’d opened the door, Casita switching on the closet light for her, as she scanned for two familiar jackets and after gathering them in her arms the empty space had revealed a… rather peculiar sight.
Her tio Bruno, leaned against the corner of the closet, blinking sleepily up at her, squinting at the sudden light in the previously dark room. He wakes fully, and startles. His eyes glance over the small room, and she’s almost surprised he even fit in here, with his gangly legs pulled up close to his knees and several coats partially hiding him from view.
“Oh Isabella… h-hello?”.
“Hi”. She says as casually as she can, readjusting the coats in her arms. “Y’know, some of the others were wondering where you went off to after dinner”.
“Oh, were they?”. He shakes his head, standing and he has to lean to avoid bumping his head on the doorway as he exits the closet. “Sorry about that. I’m sorry. I should probably let them know I’m alright”.
“We can go together. The party is just about over”. Isabella smiles kindly, and they head back side by side.
“I uh, like your new look”. Bruno breaks the somewhat awkward silence, gesturing to her entirety; with how she’s colored her hair multiple shades of rainbow colors, and changed her outfits to be more durable as she’d been making more sturdy and rougher plants.
“Thank you!”. She tucks a strand of bright blue hair behind her ear and nearly drops the coats tucked under her arms and he moves to grab them for her before she can protest.
“It’s a-alright! I don’t mind”. And Isabella politely doesn’t comment on the little specks of sand that spills off of him and onto the jackets.
“Should I be worried about finding you sleeping in the closet?”. She asks, instinctively a bit nervous. She’s not entirely used to questioning things so casually. Being perfect meant going along with everything no questions asked. It’s an adjustment she’s still getting used to.
Bruno hurries to shake his head. “No, no I just… umm”. He flusters, eyes flickering once or twice and he gives an embarrassed sort of chuckle. “I actually don’t have an excuse this time”.
And before she can question what he means by “this time” they’ve reached the kitchen and everyone welcomes them back in, and the incident fades from the forefront of her mind.
-
Mirabel almost misses him completely as she’s striding down the hall, preparing to go out to town to give a good look around the market and see what kind of trinkets or sewing supplies she could find. She stops dead in her tracks and gives a double take.
Her tio is curled up between a large and leafy potted plant and a bench in one of the longer upstairs hallways. He was leaned back against the wall, and the green of his ruana helped conceal his presence, along with the leaves covering most of his person. She wouldn’t be surprised if half the house had walked past him this morning and hadn’t noticed at all.
She crouched down, tilting her head to get a better view of him, nearly laughing at the sight. His head was leaned against his shoulder and knees tucked up to his chest and snoozing peacefully. One of his rats was even there, fast asleep along with him and tucked deep into his hair, whiskers poking out through whispy greying strands.
“Tio Bruno”. Mirabel groaned out in a bemused tone, shaking her head with exasperation as she reached out and jostled Bruno’s leg, watching with a grin as he blinked open his eyes sleepily. She’d woken him up enough at this point to be used to the flickering emerald glow that accompanied him waking up, a vision concealed in a dream coming to a stuttery end.
It seemed to take him a moment to realize where he was and that Mirabel was crouched in front of him. He twitched slightly, disturbing the rat in his hair and earning a grumpy squeak, and apologized under his breath, eyes not leaving Mirabel.
“What is this, the third time you’ve found me this week?”. He asks dryly, raising an eyebrow, and stretching his neck, sand fluttering out when he gently shook some hair out of his face.
“Fourth actually. Found you the other day, remember?”. She got a teasing look on her face. “Never thought I’d see someone asleep in the bathroom before but-“.
He turns slightly scarlet, humming in embarrassment. “I-it wasn’t like I was using it! The bathtub w-was empty!”.
She levels him with a look. She hasn’t asked why he’s avoided sleeping in his room from as far as she can tell. She doubts he’d appreciate her prying into it, he seems quite relieved that she hasn’t questioned him about it yet. She’s not about to start now, but she can’t get the nagging question of “why?” out of her mind.
“I was going out to the market actually”. She says, nodding her head towards the front door of the house. “Care to join me?”.
He seems to think about it, before a yawn interrupts his answer. “Or I can come find you later, and you can catch up on some more sleep?”. She gestures towards his eyes, always tugged down with bags. “You seem like you might need it”.
He gives a thankful grin and settles back into place. “Thanks. Have fun”. He pauses, then says. “..If you uh, see a stand selling fine china, warn them about a possible accident happening, please?”. She nods, and he closes his eyes letting his head loll onto his shoulder.
If she hadn’t noticed him before she doubts she would’ve now. He was nearly perfectly camouflaged out of sight. She wonders, as she quietly bids him a nice nap, how often he’s done this that he knows the best spots to be unseen.
A smile comes to her face as she heads out of the house, Casita cheerily waving goodbye with a swing of the window shutters. Maybe she can help her tio Bruno out!
She’s got a plan.
-
“You comfortable?”. The snarky question pierces through the sleepy haze of his mind.
Bruno blinks open his eyes, for once not interrupting a vision, and he sighs at the familiarity of the situation. Either he’s gotten lazy with picking hiding spots to rest in, or his nieces and nephews are just exceptionally good at finding him when he happens to be comatose.
Camillo just seems unimpressed, and twirls into a copy of Bruno. “You sleep in the dirt often?”. It’s odd to see himself looking as cocky as Camillo often does. It’s uncanny, how easily a confidence he lacks spread across his face and posture.
Bruno sighs again. “Usually it’s sand, actually”.
Camillo huffs out a laugh and transforms back into himself. “Fair enough. Mind rolling over though? My mama sent me out to harvest those”.
It’s only then Bruno realizes he chose to nap in the middle of his sisters garden patch of carrots.
“Well this is just getting ridiculous”. He mutters under his breath, sitting up and hardly batting an eye as some dirt slides off of him. Not much different than his sand normally would.
“Uh, sorry about this”. He says to Camillo who has transformed into his father, using his strength to harvest the vegetables easier than he would with his scrawnier teenage body.
Camillo just shrugs, yanking out a weed without a second thought. “Not my business. Though-“. He transfers quickly into Mirabel and looks Bruno up and down and in a perfect imitation of his cousins voice. “-I doubt Mira would be okay with it. She’s probably sorting out some plan right now to fix whatever’s it is. I’m just sooo helpful like that y’know”. And he tilts her glasses in a teasing sort of manner before he’s back to being his father.
“I do have to ask though, is sleeping out here nice?”. Camillo says cheekily, but sincerely enough.
Bruno chuckles at the oddity of the question. “Well, when the suns out, it’s like a warm blanket. And the sound of nature well, it’s a lullaby too tempting to resist unfortunately”. He pulls at the hem of his ruana, embarrassed but only slightly at this occurrence happening once again. At this point he was getting entirely too used to it.
Camillo, a mischievous grin painted across his face, gestured to another empty crate nearby. “Give me an assist with the harvest, and I’ll keep my mouth shut about you snoozing with the tomatoes?”.
Bruno hardly thinks it over before he nods, already moving towards the other crate. “Deal”.
+
“Tio Bruno!”.
Bruno, looks up from where he’s drying a dish, Julieta beside him as they worked together. It’s something they did often when they were younger. Julieta washed and Bruno dried. Bruno enjoyed the straightforward nature to cleaning. The outcome was always something better than what you started with. Shiny floors and clean dishes were something that soothed him.
Maribel had skidded into the kitchen and at the sight of them, tilted her head, but shook away any questions. “I need your help with something!”.
Bruno slowed but didn’t halt in his movements, drying a plate and sliding it into a cabinet. “Can it wait? We’re almost finished”.
Julieta turned from where she was washing out a pot. “What are you up to?”. Leveling her daughter with a suspicious yet bemused look. Mirabel shifted under her gaze- a sign that she was most certainly up to something- but waved off her mothers concerns. “It’s noting serious! But it won’t take long, promise!”.
Bruno shares a look with his sister, and shrugs.
“Go. I can finish up. Sounds like something important”. Julieta says, teasingly, nodding her head towards Mirabel, who wasted no time grabbing Bruno’s arm and tugging him out of the kitchen. It’s a familiar path that leads them straight up the stairs, down the hall, and to his room.
“Uh, what are we doing here?”. He asks, a string of nervousness lacing his question as he stares up at his intimidating replicate carved into his door. The magic hums loud enough to just barely be heard.
She awkwardly toyed with her hands as she spoke in a way that was achingly familiar. “Well- and don’t freak out or anything, but me and the other kids noticed that you didn’t seem completely comfortable sleeping in your room”.
“What gives you that idea?”. Bruno asks, entirely aware of the substantial evidence that definitely supported their claims.
“Isabella found you asleep in a closet”. Mirabel deadpans and he relents.
“Alright”. He concedes without a fight” I haven’t fully gotta accustomed to it again just yet, but-“.
“We noticed!”. Mirabel interrupts him before he can make a poorly constructed excuse. “And I thought about how awful it must be to not be able to sleep in you’re own room and then I came up with an idea, honestly it was all of us, and well..”. She ceased her rambling and settled her hand on the doorknob. “It might be easier to just show you”.
She opened the door and Bruno only slightly hesitated before he walked in after her, not wincing in the slightest as they passed through the falling curtain of sprinkling magical sand that acted as a second door to his room.
“Tada!”. She thrust her hands out and his eyes widened at the sight of the rest of his nieces and nephews also there.
“We added some stuff to make your room more, well, roomy!”. She led him around, and he went with her pliantly, eyes wandering around and drinking in the new changes.
“Antonio added some spaces for your rats. And Isabella made some plants that would be able to survive with all the sand and minimal water. Louisa brought in some furniture and Camillo helped us do it all without getting caught! I hope we didn’t intrude too much, but we just couldn’t stand to see you be uncomfortable in your own home”.
It was silent for a moment until Bruno realized they were all looking at him, waiting for a reaction.
“Oh! Sorry, no no, I like what you’ve done! It’s very…nice”. And it was, he wasn’t lying. It was very nice of them to do such a thing. But…
“No more scaring the life out of us when we find you in a random spot”. Louisa said with a grin.
“And you don’t have to be afraid of sleeping in your room anymore!”. Antonio added, and the cheetah he constantly rode around on roared in agreement.
Bruno blinked, and before he could help himself, began rumbling with laughter that he could not contain.
The kids looked at him with confusion and he took a moment to calm down to address them.
“I’m not scared of sleeping in my room”. He says, and is met with a mix of surprise and doubt.
“What?”. Louisa raises an eyebrow. “But why have you been sleeping literally anywhere but your room then?”.
“It’s not that I’m afraid”. Bruno tried to explain it. “I have a special connection to my room just like all of you do. It feeds into my magic and vice versa. I couldn’t not love it”.
“But it’s -“
“Sandy, creepy, and kind of a cave?.” Bruno filled in, not offended at all. It wasn’t something most people would like, he was fully aware that his room was strange, to say the least. But then again, he wasn’t exactly like most people.
“The falling sand is peaceful to me, and it takes a bit of work to even get inside because I value my privacy”. He shrugged.
“You don’t even have a bed!”. Isabella exclaimed, wincing when Mirabel elbowed her in the side.
Bruno once again erupted in soft laughter. “Of course I have a bed. I don’t sleep on the sand”. He turned and walked in a certain direction and like it sensed his presence, something began raising out of the sand. A large canopy bed with its curtains drawn, and several plush cushions scattered about on a dark green bedspread, rose up from below, sand scattering off as it settled into place hanging slightly above the ground.
He turned back, and stifled another laugh at the shock on everyone’s faces. “I appreciate that you were all so worried, but I like my room. It’s just been.. an adjustment being back in it”. He paused to brush some sand from the beds curtain. “It felt wrong almost, like I uh, shouldn’t even be here at all”.
At that, all of his nieces and nephews seemed sad and Mirabel surged forward and wrapped him in a hug. Bruno was surprised at first, but relaxed into it.
“Group hug!”. Antonio exclaimed, and rushed over with everyone else following him to join. Everyone shouted with surprise when Louisa lifted the entire group up as she joined in the embrace.
“I do really want to thank you all”. Bruno starts once everyone’s back on the ground and separated. “It is clear that I’m wanted here. Your little touches make that obvious”. He brushes a hand over some of the plant grown by Isabella and smiles when he glances over at his rats getting comfortable in the soft areas Antonio had set out for them.
“In fact… I think I’ll actually sleep in here tonight”. He says with a firm nod.
That statement leads everyone else into cheers and another group hug, and after all was said and done, as the kids were leaving, Bruno placed a hand on Mirabel’s shoulder to stop her.
“Thank you especially Mirabel. I’m not sure if you know it but, you’re a very kind person to help me like this”. She was surprised at first but smiled. “I know it must be so hard, to not have been given a gift. But if you ask me, I think your true gift is being good with others. You help people in ways I don’t even think others notice. Better than any magic ever could”.
Mirabel gives a watery smile. “You really think so?”.
“Of course. Future vision remember?”. He winks and is taken aback by the fierce hug she gives him. He relaxes into it easily, returning it as he wraps his arms around her.
“Sleep tight!”. She says as she leaves and Bruno gives one last look around the room before striding over to his bed. Stepping up and brushing some sand away from the pillows. He paused before sitting down, and as if sensing his apprehension, some of his rats scurry over and settle themselves on the blankets. It brings a grin out of him and he yawns.
Shuffling over, he nestles under the blankets and clapped his hands, frowning as the lights went out but looking around in surprise as some of Isabella’s plants began glowing. Just bright enough to starve off total darkness but nothing that would keep him awake. With a sigh he flopped back against his bed for the first time since he’d left all those years ago.
And with a genuine smile on his face, he fell asleep, and slept peacefully through the night.