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Julieta's POV
I stared at the mondongo soup, empanadas, buñuelos, and arepas. Biting my lip, I glanced around the kitchen, wondering if I should make something else to add to the meal. Unfortunately, I'd run out of quite a few ingredients, which meant if I did want to cook something, my options were extremely limited.
"Woah, Mamá!" Mirabel walked in, immediately noticing the pile of food. "Why did you make so much?! You know we'll never eat all of that." She laughed, before taking a second glance at the arepas.
Smirking, she hurried to amend herself. "Though, knowing Camilo, those will not see daylight."
"Do you really think so, Nena?" I asked hesitantly. "It's just, its our first meal together since we fixed up the Casita and since Bruno--well, I just want everything to be perfect." I admitted, sighing.
Mirabel grabbed my hands, giving me a warm smile. "And it will be. Everyone loves your cooking! Trust me, it'll all be completely fine."
I smiled back at her, pulling her into my arms. "Ay, Mija, what would I do without you?"
She gave me a tight squeeze. "You would have to carry all of this food to the table by yourself." She joked, letting go of me and grabbing the platter of buñuelos.
I laughed, picking up the mondongo soup and following after her. Hearing Luisa, Dolores, and Bruno walking in through the front door, we rushed to set out plates and cups, along with the rest of the food.
Soon enough, everyone was eating, and multiple conversations could be heard taking place around the room. Biting into an empanada, I happily watched Bruno ramble on and on to Antonio about his rats, showing them off to the boy and letting them introduce themselves. Antonio seemed to be picking up the names very quickly, though how he was able to tell them apart, I had no clue, because they certainly all looked the same to me.
However, I frowned upon noticing Bruno's plate. "Brunito, eat, eat!" I called over to him, motioning to the empty dish. "You can talk more after dinner, don't worry."
"I did eat! I'm so full right now I couldn't take another bite!" Bruno exclaimed.
Antonio tilted his head. "But Tío Bruno, all you had was an arepa and a buñuelo." The youngest Madrigal piped up, finishing off his second empanada.
At his words, the other conversations seemed to die down, as everyone looked between Bruno and his plate. Bruno, oblivious to this fact, gave Antonio a big grin, nodding his head.
"And they tasted amazing! You really outdid yourself Hermanita!" Bruno beamed, giving me two thumbs up.
He pivoted back to his nephew, continuing to talk about his pets, completely missing all of the horrified stares he was receiving from the rest of the family. Pepa opened her mouth, but I hurried to kick her leg before she could say anything. Immediately, she whipped her head around, her expression indignant.
Looking between her and our brother, I pursed my lips. She seemed to understand what I was telling her, because she huffed, going back to her meal. Satisfied that at least there wasn't a thundercloud above her head, I cleared my throat, getting everyone's attention.
"Bruno, since you and Antonio are done with your meal, who don't you go and see all of his other animals?" I proposed.
"Yeah! You have to see my room!" Antonio declared, grabbing his tío's hand. Bruno laughed, letting himself be dragged away. The room was completely noiseless, all of us waiting to hear the sound of Antonio's door closing.
Slam.
Instantly, chaos broke out around the room as everyone started asking questions and demanding answers that none of us actually had. I blinked, unsure what had just happened, but knowing that it probably had something to do with Bruno being gone for the last ten years.
"Quiet!" Abuela finally yelled, creating instant silence. "Now, I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation for what we just saw."
"How can there be a 'reasonable explanation' for Bruno starving himself?!" Pepa stormed, quite literally.
"Maybe he ate before dinner," Isa commented.
Luisa shook her head. "We were out out exploring the rainforest since dawn, and all I saw him have was a maracuyá. I tried to get him to eat something else, but he told me he wanted to save room for dinner!"
Everyone gaped at that, and I could hear a few muttered curses coming from the adults in the room. Noticing movement out of the corner of my eye, I turned.
"Mirabel, do you know something?" I questioned my youngest daughter, who looked particularly distraught.
"Well, I don't actually know anything," she admitted with a wince. "But, it just occurred to me--how much food did Bruno actually have? When he was living in the walls, I mean."
"I...I don't know." I frowned. "I never noticed that there was food missing, so he couldn't have taken that much."
"And, knowing Bruno, he probably gave a lot of what food he did take to his rats." Pepa pointed out, causing many of us to nod in agreement.
Everyone was quiet, none of us wanting to say what we were thinking. I stared at my plate, feeling slightly nauseous at the picture that was being painted in my brain, one of Bruno watching through the crack in the tapestry as we stuffed ourselves on birthdays and holidays, while he went hungry.
"Then, for the past ten years, Bruno has probably been starving himself to the point that he's not used to eating a healthy amount of food anymore." My husband finally surmised, slumping in his chair.
"What--what should we do?" Mirabel asked hesitantly, glancing between Agustín and I.
"I'm not sure." I sighed. "I don't think we should tell Bruno about his...his eating problem, though. If we do, he might just pretend to eat more to make us happy, which doesn't solve anything. Or, he'll eat too much, and end up making himself sick." I hypothesized, rubbing my forehead.
"Perhaps we should try to gradually get him to eat more." Abuela suggested hopefully.
"That could work! Especially if we make sure he gets more snacks outside of meals." Félix agreed enthusiastically.
"Yeah! Whoever hangs out with Tío Bruno just has to pack extra food for him." Luisa added with a grin.
I smiled, listening to everyone chip in about how they were going to help make sure Bruno ate more.
Hermanito, you are never going to go hungry again.
Third Person POV
A few days later, Bruno found himself being dragged by his mice to Antonio's room. Confused, Bruno asked Antonio to translate, as he had no idea what had his rats so riled up.
Antonio listened carefully while Julio, the chattiest of Bruno's mice, squeaked on and on, before finally finishing. Antonio smiled down at the rat, petting him with two of his fingers.
"Julio says that he and the other rats love you a lot, and that he appreciates you always taking good care of them. He also says that he enjoys doing fútbol scenes more than drama scenes, so he'd prefer if you could have him play Rincón more often, because he thinks that makes him look cooler in the eyes of the other rats."
Chuckling, Bruno agreed to take Julio's preferences into account the next time they were doing a skit.
Squeak squeak squeak. Squeak.
Antonio frowned. "He also says you should eat more, and that the rats don't need quite so many arepas. And that you haven't eaten yet today, even though it's almost lunch time."
Bruno rolled his eyes, glaring at the empanada that Antonio handed to him. "Not you too! Over the past three days, I've eaten more than I usually do in a week! First it was Luisa, with an arepa de juevo, then Félix and Agustín gave me buñuelos. At that point, I thought maybe randomly giving people food had become a new tradition around here that I just missed!" Bruno rambled, waving the empanada around.
"But then Isa literally tossed me a pitaya, Abuela filled my pockets with patacones, Pepa stuffed a pandebono down my throat, and Mirabel and Julieta keep having me taste test everything they make! Even Camilo hit me in the head yesterday with an arepa--and I know for a fact that he loves arepas!" Bruno crossed his arms.
"What is going on?!" He exclaimed.
Antonio blinked at his tío in surprise, before sighing and letting Julio down. "We're just worried about you, Tío Bruno. We want you to eat a lot, and be healthy, but everyone agreed that it would probably be best not to be so...open, about it." Antonio admitted, hugging his uncle.
Bruno stared down at his nephew. Suddenly, he seemed to relax, his lips tilting upwards slightly. Slowly, he lifted his arms up around el niño, holding him close.
"It's alright, sobrinito. I--I think I understand now, maybe." He whispered.
Antonio looked up. "Please don't tell la familia I said anything. You weren't supposed to find out!" He pleaded.
Holding back a laugh at the five-year-old's expression, Bruno ruffled his sobrinito's hair. "Alright, I won't tell anyone. But you have to convince them to stop giving me quite so much! Otherwise soon, my pants won't fit!" He complained.
"Okay, I'll try." Antonio smiled. "Just so long as you keep trying to eat more."
Bruno grinned back at him.
"Deal."
•~•
Antonio was able to convince la familia to be a little less obvious. From that point on, Bruno only received one or two snacks a day, which he actually seemed to look forward to. Perhaps because, in his eyes, it was a daily reminder of how much his relatives cared for him.
Eventually, Bruno started to eat more at meals, and the snack-giving died down a bit. At least until la familia realized that, if Bruno doesn't have something to eat before or after a vision, he tends to faint. Once they figured that out, it was quite common to see Bruno and a family member eating together in the kitchen outside of mealtimes, with Bruno being watched like a toucan to ensure that he ate every last bite.
However, if you were to ask Bruno what the worst part of the last ten years he spent in the walls was, he wouldn't tell you it was the constant time spent indoors, or having to sneak about, or even eating very little food. He'd frown and, in a heartbeat, say that it was missing his family.
"After all," he'd wink at you, and give you a small smile. "Making your stomach full is great, but... having a full heart? That's what matters most."