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Mirabel was quite happy with keeping her bisexual identity a secret, she had a rainbow patch on her dress she had sewn on a while back, not that anyone noticed, and if they did they never mentioned it. If questioned she would admit she liked both boys and girls, she wasn’t bothered who, love was love to her, and she wasn’t bothered who she fell in love with or who loved her.
When Bruno came back, one of the noticeable things he would to to talk to Mirabel would be to bring up her embroidered patches on her dress, he would point to one and say something nice about it or ask about it, and they would sit for a whole wherever they were to talk about it and he was honestly interested. He had never asked about the rainbow one before, well not until now.
She was helping out with stuff down in the village, helping the locals. Taking a short break to get a drink, Bruno walking up to her, she knew he would talk about another one of her patches but she couldn’t think which one, wait the only one left was-
“I like your little rainbow patch, nice colours” he smiles a little, he knew what he was doing.
“We can talk later Tío Bruno, I need to get back to helping the others” she smiles a little.
“Okay then, I’ll see you later. Also, bi, nice, bye kid” he walks off with his hands in his pockets, from the corner of his eyes he saw her face drop when she realised what he said, she went pale white. “H-how did you- what-“
With that he held up his hands, what? She didn’t know what he was doing…a white ring on his middle left finger, and a black ring on his middle black finger…why is that impor—wait…
“TÍO BRUNO HET BACK HERE NOW!” She wanted to chase after him, but she had to get back to work, she watched him smirk a little and walk back to Casita with his hands in his pockets, she whispered an apology to Dolores for shouting incase it hurt her ears. And helping out the locals felt like forever, she wanted to ask her Tío about it all but she was working for a while longer.
—
She didn’t get back until dinner, going in and sitting down and relaxes, watching as her Tío sat down across from her at the table, she looks at his hands and he still had the rings on, “you ran away earlier! I wanted to know ab—“ she was cut off by her mama
“Mirabel calm down, dinners ready”
Mirabel sits down, looking at the smug smile on Bruno’s face, her Abuela spike before they all ate and it was a lovely meal as always.
After dinner bruno put his plate in the sink and goes up to his room, Mirabel went to run and follow but she was stoped as tonight it was her turn to help do dishes, she groans and sighs as she helps out, eager to talk to her Tío, she wasn’t focused on the dishes and did end up breaking a few, thankfully none of them were to special thankfully.
After dinner she washed her hands off and dried them before sunning up Bruno‘a tower, forgetting how many stairs there were and was nearly crawling up the last steps, she looked up and saw Bruno at the top waiting for her, an amused look on his face. He looks at her for a minute before helping her up and taking her to his room, giving her a seat, putting his rats in their play area’s which Casita had build in when the house got rebuilt.
She catches her breath and looks at her Tío, “the rings”
He looks at her and smiles a little, taking them off and putting them on a small stand next to his bed and leans against the wall.
“What about them sobrina?” He knew what she was talking about but was messing with her
“Aren’t they- you know-“
“I know what you think they are, but let’s continue the conversation about the patch, that’s the last one I have to question right?” He asks her and she slowly nods.
“Well then…I can see it, you with a girl or a guy. And even if you didn’t tell me directly, you wear your colours proudly like that, and I’m proud of you for having the courage to do that.” he smiles softly, and a proudly to.
She looks at him, not quite sure what to say. She thought she knew what the rings stood for but actually hearing him validate her, she ran over to him and hugs him, she chuckles softly and hugs back.
“And the rings do stand for what you thought, you were right, and I’m surprised you knew that, anyone else I know who was part of it never knew what they were for.”
She nods and lets go, “so, I guess that makes sense why your the only triplet that doesn’t have your own family”
He laughs a bit at the remark, “yeah, plus the fact most people in the Encanto hated me for my gift. But the idea of…/that/…stuff just send shivers down me, hate them idea of it. And the romantic stuff, I could never see myself feeling that way about anyone, only love I’ve ever felt is for my family.”
She nods and sits back down, playing with the bi-rainbow patch, he sits across from her, “you know, your mama and tía would be fully supportive of you told them, their supportive of me and if they weren’t well, I would be going at them, they know how strongly I believe in these things. Plus, don’t tell Pepa this, but a female friend I had as a kid had a crush on Pepa, Pepa knew and their still friends. But it didn’t go anywhere though”
Mirabel looked at her Tío in shock, but she was thankful that her family was safe to tell.
“Thanks”
“For what Mirabel?”
“For bringing this all up, I knew you would end up asking about that patch and I was honestly scared to have to explain it, but I’m glad you already knew” she hugs him again and smiles. He pets her head a little, “well, atleast it can be our little secret, I don’t care if you talk to my hermana’s about me and this stuff, but nobody else okay?” She nods and she soon lets go, getting up and going to head downstairs.
“You know, there’s other people like us in the village, and if I remember correctly, they’re having a meet up tonight down by the river, I can take you if you want”
Mirabel stops and looks at her Tío, other people like them? She would find people who accept her, make friends. Was it safe? Surely he wouldn’t take her somewhere that wasn’t safe, plus he would protect her right? She gave a nod and a smile.
“Okay then, meet you at the door’s in 15?”
Another nod, she smiles and runs down, fixing her hair up and waiting at the door.
Bruno soon came down, the rings back on, and had tied his hair back to keep it out his face, saying him and Mirabel were going for a walk before the pair walk out together. The walk was mostly quiet, apart from Bruno’s mumbling which Mirabel was used to. She got more nervous the closer they got, and when people came into sight she tended up, Bruno ruffles her hair and gave a reassuring smile.
The pair walk up to them, the others going quiet and looking at them. “Two madrigals? The gift less and the one that left? Okay this just got interesting” one of the teams spoke and chuckled a bit, but then the same teen noticed the bi rainbow on her top, pointing to it and she nods a bit, looking to her Tío for reassurance, he nods and quietly encourages her to talk to them, which she does.
Soon they all end up sitting together by the river, learning about eachother. “So Mirabel, bisexual and what pronouns?”
“Pronouns…?” She knew little about these things, looking over at her Tío.
“Like what do you use to be referred to. Some people use things like he/him, others she/her. And some people preferred to be referred to as gender neutral terms like they/them. What ones do you want to be used for you”
She nods and takes in the new information, “she/her I guess, I’m new to this stuff…is it okay if I change them in the future?” She gets nods and replies, she smiles and then the same question gets asked to Bruno and she looks over at him.
He sighs and leans back a little and looks at the sky, “well I’ve been called a lot, so many different names so it’s gotten to a point that I’ll just respond to anything, any pronouns or stupid names, I’m not so keen on the more feminine things though. And sorry if that brought to mood down any-what” he looks at them and gave a small crooked smile. Mirabel hugs him and soon lets go.
“Okay so do any of us want to play match maker?!” One of the more bored teens suggests, Bruno was one of the oldest, but there were other adults there, ones he remembered from when he was Mirabel’s age.
“Oh no, not me I’m out, I don’t do that stuff” he holds up his hands to wave as a sense of saying no, more a less forgetting about the rings until one of the other adults points them out.
“Aahhhh that makes sense why you denied so many girls when your mama tried to get you to marry” in response Bruno nods, then having to explain the purpose of them to the teens, he watches the others have fun, watched Mirabel make new friends and possibly a future partner.
The next day Mirabel runs up to Bruno after breakfast, showing him little patchwork designs she had made, they sit down and he asks her about them, turns out she had made little designs for those of the group, but she made two different ones, one design for the people part of the group, and another design for the ally’s. She sewed the retrospective ones onto her and her Tío’s outfits, and then the ally one onto her mama and tía’a outfits. Soon enough the full group had their little design embroidered onto their clothes and they’re friend had the ally ones on it. But there were a few more ally’s in the town than originally though, not many, but definitely a few.
And it was their fun little secret.