Chapter Text
Bad luck Bruno. That’s what he had always been called ever since he got his gift. He remembered getting his gift. He remembers how Pepa started creating rainbows and Julieta’s cooking healed someone who had slipped and cut their forehead. But after Bruno got a sudden vision in the middle of the hallway. All attention was on him, he didn’t really have control and sand had appeared from nowhere. When the tablet apeared and the sand Al lay down, he looked at it, his door lighting up and showing the design it has always had. The future.
They all cheered but when Alma looked at the tablet and saw it wasn’t a good one, she put the tablet aside. They tried to have fun for the rest of the night but people stared wanting Bruno to do visions for them. He didn’t really have a choice as his mama wanted him to do it for the people. They were going okay, some good and some bad, but after he saw someone’s parents pass in his vision and started getting yelled at saying it was his fault. He was pulled from the situation and sent to his room. Climbing those hundreds of steps for the very first time and sitting in his new room until his mama came up to punish him for it. That moment was not a moment Julieta could here with any amount of food.
It only got worse from there. With the more visions people wanted him to do, the more bad ones that came up, and the worse of a reputation he got. And with every bad vision he was punished as if it was his fault. The one time he tried to stand up for himself he only got punished worse. People stoped asking for visions and he never bothered with them, he started to hate his ‘gift’ as if it could be called that. And he had stopped using it too.
It was rare for him to have a sudden vision, but when he was at the dinner table with his mama and hermana’s, one came on sudden and by the time it ended Pepa had a cloud and wasn’t happy, Alma starting to give him into trouble but he had passed out before she could say anything, a jade tablet lying on the table glowing brightly. A consequence for purposely putting off his visions.
Things got worse as he got older. He never made friends and never found love as he got older, not like his sisters. He remembered Pepa’s wedding, how he had ruined it and she just screamed at him for hours afterwards. Julieta’s wasn’t as bad. He had learned from pepa’s and only said a small word or two, too worried to ruin Julieta’s wedding so left pretty soon. But yet given into trouble by his mama for not being there.
His final strike was the night Mirabel didn’t get her gift. The only time Abuela had asked him to use his gift since he first got it. He agreed after a while and took the long treck up to his vision cave. When he saw the vision he had no words. The only thing he could do was smash it and run away. He grabbed a few personal belongings and walked out his room, watching the door’s glow fade away before going down to the kitchen to get food, before running away into a hide out in the walls.
Casita had made him a small cozy room right next to the dining room and he could look into it without them seeing him. He set down his things and his food and sat in the chair that was there and cried. He cried himself to sleep that night. Being woken up by yelling the next morning. Sniffling and walking over to the crack and looking out, watching his mama argue with his hermana’s and his prima’s/primo about so many things.
He heard his name and started crying again. They didn’t care about him. They were saying more bad things about him for leaving like that, Abuela wasn’t happy that she didn’t get an answer either which just made him scared to ever go back. He felt a little rat nudge him and he picks it up, letting the rat nestle into his poncho and sleep. He watched his family, to upset and ashamed of himself to try eat something.
He sat in his chair for several days. Sketching on some paper the few happy memories he had and his small rats. He didn’t smile for a few weeks, cried himself to sleep every night and rarely ate. He’s pretty sure the rats are more than him, the rats often brining him small bits of food trying to get him to eat and he sometimes did. He soon moved to explore the walls. Exploring his where about and he realised casita had made many peek holes for him to see his family from. He could see them whenever he wanted and it put a small smile on his face, soon followed by tears.
He slowly made his way back to his small room, happy that is wasn’t hundreds of stairs at least, he sat on his chair and cried. He wasn’t sure how long he cried for but he soon started hearing his name, he looks up and thought he was hearing things. But it was clear Dolores was saying his name.
“Tío Bruno…?” She gently knocks on the family tree in the dining room, he gets up and walks over. Of course she could hear him with her gift. Nobody else was in the room.
“Sobrina, please don’t talk to me. I don’t want you to get caught up in this. I needed to leave they can’t know…please keep this a secret Dolores?”
She looks at the painting and nods, “okay Tío. Just please be okay. Mama and tía miss you a lot” with that she left to go to her room.
Bruno stared out for a minute, they missed him? No they didn’t, surely they didn’t. He sat back in his chair and cried himself to sleep again, trying to keep quiet. The next day he got up and tried to do things, he realised he barely ate one meal a day, he was a mess, looking the one small mirror he had in his room. He was such a mess he had to look twice at himself to realise it was him. He didn’t have much to do. Mostly sitting in the chair, crying sleeping or talking to the rats all day, getting up to explore the walls every so often.
He realised there was no food after a while and tried to sneak out to go get food. He climbed onto the counter and allowed his eyes to glow a little so he could see, the rats sitting on his shoulders.
Camilo walked out and looks at Bruno, Bruno looking over and saying camilo’s name and watches Camilo pass out, panicking and picking up Camilo and putting him to bed quickly, grabbing more food and running back to his room in the walls. He didn’t come out his room for a month or so after that, making the food he had last and rarely ate unless he was really hungry.
He listened to night off arguing and happy nights of fun and laughter. He listened and felt a pang in his chest whenever he heard them having fun without him. He knew it was for the best and he knew they were happier without him. But it didn’t change the fact that it still hurt. No amount of Julieta’s food would heal the pain he felt. He didn’t like being isolated but he wasn’t sure he had any other option.