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He helped rebuild Casita, he would work long hours and expect nothing from people. He would also do more to help out people who needed it and help people get food if they were hungry. But yet he didn’t get any kindness out of it, and any kindness that was there vanished when the magic came back.
Bruno loved his family, he was happy to be back at first, happy that they accepted him back in, he thought all was well until the magic came back and things started to go back to how they used to, he didn’t do prophesies much anymore, doing more physical things.
He was walking down to town when the wind picked up and storm clouds covered the sky, everyone knew it was Pepa. He haters the rest of the things he was asked to buy and walked back up, it was completely storming now and he put things down only to get an angry Pepa in his face screaming at him for something he hadn’t even done, Pepa was convinced it was him and only backed off when asked to by her mama Alma, Pepa storming of to her room followed by Felix to try calm her down and Camilo getting her tea.
Bruno stood there speechless, not quite sure what just happened and was somewhat shaking, having a Camilo give a dirty look as he took the tea up to his mama. Bruno just putting the stuff away and walks upstairs to his room. Taking his time to climb all the stairs. He walked up them as he heard the door open and his mama shouting up at him for the same thing Pepa was, he looks at her for a second as she yells at him before walking the rest of the way up and sitting on his bed and played with his rats.
His mama soon got up and slammed to door open and yelling at him more not giving him a chance to reply before leaving. Leaving Bruno sitting there to curl up and talk to his rats. He spoke to himself and was slowly starting to loose it, gently rocking back and forth and knocking on anything he could and there was a small pile of salt in his room from throwing it over his shoulder, mumbling to himself constantly and spending most of the time like that, not coming out for dinner and Conley coming out the next day to go help out in the town.
—
He got ready and had a shower to freshen up, going down to the town and doing work as always and helping out wherever he could, going to one of the places he was helping out at.
“Look it’s bad luck Bruno helping out, now everything is going to go wrong”
He grimaced a little, “I don’t really care what you call me, I’m here to help out”
“Oh just be quiet” They look him up and down before just letting him help out. He was doing fine but stuff wasn’t going as planned and they started taking it out on Bruno, beating him and yelling and just whatever they felt like.
Bruno ended up getting back to Casita later on that night with many bruises and a few cuts from where things like rings or bracelets had caught, grabbing one of Julieta’s snacks and eating it to heal himself up, going up to his room and spending it much like how he had the day before.
Soon when it was time for dinner he made himself calm down and collected himself, making himself look like he wasn’t a mess and walks downstairs and helps outs by putting plates out and putting the food on the table. Soon enough everyone was sat down and Alma spoke to everyone before dinner as always. They all started eating and Bruno more a less spaced out.
He hadn’t heard his name until he was tapped, “Hm? Sorry I wasn’t listening” he looks over as his mama glared a little,
“Get those rats of the table it’s unhygienic Brunito”
Bruno looks at his plate and two of the rats had crawled onto the table and was eating off his plate, he moved them to his shoulder and put some food on his fork and held it up to the rats so they could still eat.
“Brunito that is still as bad, Antonio would you please tell the rats to leave”
“Mama it’s okay, I loved like this for ten years nothing will happen”
“Brunito are you talking back to me? Do as your told and get rid of them”
He nods and sighs, “yes mama” he moves the rats off his shoulder and they crawl into his pockets,
“Still being disobedient, and stop with the attitude”
Bruno stands up and put his plate to the side, letting the rats go over and eat the rest, “dinner was lovely Julieta thank you” he mumbles as he walks off and out of the house, not even up to his room. He could hear his mama and others calling on him to come back, a few locals watching and giving dirty looks as he walks off into the forest.
He sits by the river, his sandals off and his feet in the water he watches the water go bye and the moon shimmer off the water, talking to himself(🐀) and the two others, Hernando(💚) and Jorge(🪣).
💚“I am hernando and I am not scared of anything”
🐀“I know Hernando, I know, but should i have come back? Why didn’t I just run away…”
🪣”because you love your family, they mean a lot to you”
💚”even if they have treated you badly you still love them, you need to learn to stand up for yourself!”
🐀”I should never have come back, they hate me, mama said she loved me and was glad I was back but she hasn’t changed. She hasn’t changed one bit”
🪣”she really hasn’t. All that time I watched from behind the walls when patching things up she never seemed to feel anything for us”
🐀”your right, I’ll just go up to my tower. Grab some things and leave”
Bruno sighs and goes to get up, hearing a twig snap and looks round. Seeing Julieta walk over and sits next to him and hugs him. “Brunito, please don’t leave again, I understand how you feel and I’m sorry, but leaving isn’t the solution. I promise”
Bruno hugs back and holds onto her. Cuddling into her side “what if I left, but told you where I was going so you could come visit?”
“Bruno no, please don’t go. I can’t stop the beating by myself but I can heal you constantly, I am here for you and I am always a safe place for you, if you feel unsafe come find me, Agustín or any of my three kids, we won’t let you get hurt I promise”
She holds him close and doesn’t let him go. He ends up mumbling to himself. Aka having a conversation between himself, Hernando and Jorge. “Brunito why don’t you introduce me to them” she smiles softly and looks at him.
“W-what? Who are you talking about?”
“Hernando and Jorge. I’ve heard you talk about them and Mirabel mentioned them too, I would love to meet them. And if it’s okay with you maybe explain all your habits so I can understand you better?”
He looks at her then nods. Introducing his hermana to Hernando and Jorge, Julieta having conversations with both of them and she didn’t mind, she got to know more about him. And after that he told her about his little habits and why he did them, going into detail as she just stays hugging him and occasionally petting his head. She did wonder that if she had managed to stop him leaving before, would he be any different. But regardless she loves her hermana.
After a while they make their way back to Casita, she makes sure he gets to hit room and up to bed before going to her own room, bumping into her mama on the way.
“Mama your being to hard on Bruno, you said you would to better”
“Julieta, he can’t have rats at the tab-“
“Mama he’s getting beat by the towns folk. He’s offering to help and as soon as something goes wrong all blame goes to him. And your shouting at him for feeding the only company he had for ten years”
“Julieta he needs to readjust. And if they’re blaming him then he needs to do better, he decided to come back and he needs to be able to keep up”
Julieta stared at her mama in disgust, “he came back because he had no where to go and nowhere to live. Because of you not helping and all this going on he’s thinking of leaving again. And don’t get me started on the negative effect that the past ten years has had on him.” Alma went to say something but Julieta cuts her off, “because he was on his own the whole time he developed other characters in his head to keep himself company. He was on his own with nobody to go to and his mentality is so bad. I wouldn’t be surprised if-“
“Julieta that is enough, I want not another word out of you about this topic. I know he’s your hermano but you have your own children to worry about, he needs to sort himself out”
Alma walks off, Julieta watches her stunned, before walking to her own room and getting ready for bed.
Agustín Looks at her and walks over and wraps an arm around her, “hay, what’s wrong mi amor?” She looks at him and sighs, finishing getting ready for bed and laying down and cuddling into him. “It’s Bruno, he’s not okay and people seem to hate him even more now he’s back. And mama isn’t being kind to him either” she looks at him? It wasn’t often she was this worried about something, it was rare. Her husband kissed her head and holds her close.
“We’ll best we can do it be there for him, I overheard what you were saying to your mama. And I know you can heal him. But also I’ll be here for him, and I know Mirabel would pick a fight for him. And Luisa would definitely protect him”
She nods and sighs, “I just worry, he needs help. Those years in the walls messed him up badly, I mean he talks to himself and does all these little things. I’m not judging him or saying I would rather he didn’t…but it worries me. If he hadn’t left would he still be like this?”
“Hay. Julieta. Don’t say that, that’s the past, we can’t change, he is here now and we just help him, we will be there for him and he will be okay I promise” he smiles and reassured her, she nods a bit and soon enough they went to sleep.
All during this, Bruno had been listening. He was just round the corner when Julieta spoke to Alma, outside Julieta’s door when she was talking to her husband. He felt a pang in his chest from hearing it all and went back to his room, up the many stairs and grabbed a small bag he used to keep things in, putting some spare things in it like clean clothes, some bottles of water he kept in his room and a few other necessities. He gathered his rats and walks downstairs, closing his door quietly and watching the magic fade from his door once more, almost going out but not quite.
He quietly sneaks downstairs, having another spare smaller bag and starts putting food in it, food that wouldn’t spoil easily or didn’t need to be heated up, he was putting stuff in the second bag when suddenly it got snatched. He looks and see’s Camilo going through the bag of food.
“Why do you have so much food?! It’s not like you have to sneak around anymore!”
“Camilo please quiet down before someone hears you”
“No! What is it with you?! Your so different that all of us and you never seem to try fit in!!”
Bruno stared at the kid, utterly shocked at what he was hearing. He hadn’t noticed other people coming out of their rooms to see what Camilo was shouting about.
“You think I haven’t tried to fit in. You think for my entire life I haven’t tried to make a friend that wasn’t my sister. Ever since I got that so called ‘gift’ my life had been nothing but misery. I lost every friend I had on my fifth birthday and apparently my only friend now is Julieta, your mother seems to hate me as she seems to take everything out on me. And your such a mama’s boy you just side with her on everything. You have no idea how hard my life has been”
Pepa came down and takes her son away “don’t you dare speak to him that way! You leave him out of this”
“Okay the person who can’t control their own gift is talking. You blame me for all of your emotions like I’m your puppet master. Even when I was in the walls I heard you blame me for things when I wasn’t even there”
Alma came down and was trying to split things up, “Enough! Bruno put that food away right now and go back to bed. And everyone else go back to bed as well”
Bruno couldn’t help but laugh, damn he was really loosing it now, “you have no right to talk. You are the worst of it all! I’m your own son and the only time you seemed to care about me was when I came back. Since then you have treated me even worse from before I left. And this is the reason I left. Because everyone hates me. You use this family as tools, you treat them like we aren’t human and our only purpose is to help others. You don’t even have a gift yourself…and anywhere would be better than this, maybe people might actually accept me”
Alma was going to speak up but Julieta walked in and was not happy “ENOUGH! Mama just stop. Bruno’s right with everything he just said” she then looks to Bruno and her face softens into a hurtful look as she hugs him, tossing the food on the floor, “Bruno I’m not letting you leave again, I’m here for you and that’s not going to ever change. I’m sorry it’s gotten this bad. But leaving the Encanto all together won’t solve anything. We don’t even know where the closest town is to us or if there was would you even make it before something got you”
Bruno tried to push her off but her grip was tight and she wouldn’t let him go, Bruno gave up and lost it, hugging her back and just started sobbing, holding onto her and shaking, falling to the floor pulling Julieta with him, she sat down and just holds him and lets him, holding him close. Looking at her own mother, “this is a mothers duty. To take care of her kids and be there for them when they need her. Not be whatever you are” she gives her attention back to Bruno, holding him and letting him let it out, he clings onto her and refused to let go now.
Mirabel walks downstairs and over to them. Everyone watching from the top floor more a less still that wasn’t already downstairs. Mirabel goes over and hugs him too, playing with his hair a little. “Tío Bruno you need to try control your breathing, deep breaths” she stays close to him, helping him gather some control over his breathing.
Pepa starts to walk over wanting to help, but getting a rare, nasty glare from Julieta, noticing Bruno flinch and back away, curling in on himself more ever so slightly when Pepa got close.
Agustín Picks up the food from the floor and put it to the side, getting Bruno a drink and a blanket from their room, wrapping it around Bruno a bit, not that he was cold but for comfort. Agustín then makes the others go to bed, making Pepa take her son to bed. Getting Alma go back to her room and he then took care of the others. He told Isabella and Luisa that if Bruno went out that if he, Julieta or Mirabel wasn’t around for one of them to keep an eye on him to make sure the towns folk don’t hurt him. He tries to send them to bed but they are eager to help.
Bruno had calmed down a bit, Luisa walks over and kneels down. “How about we go mama’s room and all of us can have a sleepover, you won’t be alone Tío, and we can all look after you” she holds out her hand and he takes it, she picks him up, Bruno giving a small Yelp, and they walk to Julieta’s room. Julieta had a large bed and they sat Bruno on the bed, Mirabel and Isabella rushing off to go get lots of pillows and blankets. Luisa moved some furniture and Julieta and Augustín staying by Bruno’s side.
Soon enough there was a whole pillow and blanket fort set up, it looked amazing, Mirabel and Isabella had also brought snacks and some games to play if they couldn’t sleep.they all snuggle in and they all enjoyed it, they ended up playing a game it two and nibbled on the snacks, Bruno watching the rats run about also having fun. They ended up falling asleep at some point or another
——!!TW: you can leave it here as it could be complete easily here, the following contains drowning/attempting to be drowned!!——
Bruno didn’t sleep well, waking up not long before sunrise and looking around him, snuggling into his hermana and family. Staying like that for a while before noticing Mirabel wake up, “hay, kid. Im going to go for a walk to get some air and watch the sunrise. Can you let the others know so they don’t think I’ve run away?”
“Tío Bruno I’ll come with you”
Bruno shakes his head, “it’s okay kid, I just want to get some air, I’ll be walking by the river” with that he gets up and put some shoes on, Mirabel wanting to follow but staying out.
Bruno walks quietly down the river, not talking to himself for once. He takes his sandals off and puts his feet in the stream, sitting down and watching the sunrise. After a while he was going to go back up but hear some twigs snap, he looked around but couldn’t see anyone so just assumed it was an animal. But the next thing he realised was that he got pushed into the stream then black.
Julieta woke up and Mirabel told her where Bruno was. After a while when he wasn’t back, the pair got worried and Julieta woke her husband up, told him what was going on then grabbed her shoes. Julieta and Mirabel go out and start walking by the river, they walk for a bit and Mirabel soon runs up to Bruno when she saw him, he was in the water unconscious and Julieta runs up too, they pull him out the water and Julieta wraps her arms around him, telling Mirabel to go back home and get help.
Mirabel runs in, going up to her dad and hermana’s. People were up and questions her about it but she just pushed past them. She ran to her dad and told him what was going on, Luisa got up and grabbed a warm towel and goes down to where Bruno was. Julieta wraps him up and Luisa carries him back. The others back at the house getting towels and dry clothes, plus food to heal injuries, Luisa carried him back up and up to the warm room. The others that were awake and up seeing the mess Bruno was in, soaked through and not responding, cuts and scar apes from stones and other things.
Julieta and Augustín take care of Bruno, get him into warm clothes and make sure he’s wrapped up warm. Julieta cleans Bruno up since she couldn’t have him eat her food. She didn’t dare once leave his side. The others came and went but Mirabel was there the most, checking on him command making sure he was warm enough.
Other family members came in and out but Julieta wasn’t in the mood. Alma came in at one point to see what the commotion was about. Seeing her son and staring at him before leaving, knowing Julieta was glaring at her. Breakfast was tense, there wasn’t much talking and it wasn’t even as good a breakfast. Bruno didn’t wake up till closer to lunch time. Julieta checking over him before getting him to eat something, both to heal his injured and that the fact he hadn’t had breakfast.
She looked after him for days after that. Wouldn’t let him leave the house alone. Yes she knew she was being over protective, but with what happened Bruno couldn’t blame her. Plus he didn’t want to go out much anyway.
—
After lunch Mirabel stored down to the town, she was angry to say the least. “Okay WHO decided it was a good idea to try drown my Tío Bruno! I want answers because I have had it with all of you treating him like garbage!!” She definitely got everyone’s attention. Nobody was owning up, making her even more angry.
“He was given a gift just like everyone else in my family, nobody close their gift but just because you don’t like it you decide it’s okay to hurt him and take all your problems out on him! My mama said that if people are going to tread her hermano like this then she won’t use her gift for all of you! You all take advantage of everyone and use them as tools! We may help and protect you all with our gifts but if this is how you treat one of us then you don’t deserve it! My mama lost her hermano once before, and she refuses to loose him again. Pull yourself together people!”
She went off at them for longer, eventually going back up to casita and up to her Tío with a warm drink and some hot food. She played with his rats and entertained him. The next few days were tough but as Julieta said. She was not going to let her hermano be alone again, loose him again, and definitely not let him go through this all alone.
—
His relationships with others in his family definitely needed worked on, but he had part of his family there. Even if it wasn’t his own partner and his own kids. It was his hermana, his in-law, and his sonrina’s. And that’s all he needed in life, it’s not like he wanted more anyway.