Chapter Text
Seven foot frame, rats along his back
Bruno Madrigal, a Madrigal with the gift of future sight, had been missing for a year to protect his niece. An unexpected side affect of Tío Bruno going into hiding was all the run ins with the Madrigal grandkids. The first grandkid he ran into was the shapeshifter, Camilo.
It was 2:56 AM in Encanto, the house of Madrigal was silent. Well, mostly silent. The only sound that early in the morning was the tapping of Bruno’s feet as he shuffled through the kitchen, taking handfuls of his sister’s healing treats and shoving them into his poncho. The tired man had spent all night waiting for the kids to finally fall asleep, since they spent all night playing hide and seek. Bruno was about to leave the kitchen when he reached into his pocket and realized he was out of his salt, so he turned back around into the kitchen to grab more salt, however, he remembered that his sister, Julieta, keeps her salt on the shelf, which is just out of Bruno’s reach, so however embarrassed the fortune teller was, he climbed himself onto counter. As he looked around the cupboard in the dark to find the salt, he felt his rats hop up on his back, a couple helping him look for the salt.
“Tío Bruno?”
Bruno felt his blood freeze at the voice of a small child. His head turned slowly, his long scraggly hair slightly straining his vision. He continued turning until he made eye contact with the small almost 7 year old. Bruno wanted so badly to wrap his tightly curled curled sobrino in the biggest hug he hasn’t had in over a year, and he was about to do just that when a flash of lightning appeared outside the window. Hermana must be having a nightmare . But the flash of lightning along with seeing sis missing Tío must have frightened the boy just a little too much. When Bruno looked back to the child, the boy was already falling over.
“CAMILO!!!” Bruno called, forgetting for a moment that everyone was supposed to be asleep. He stumbled off the counter and rushed over to his sobrino, tapping the sides of his face to see if he would wake, but the boy was knocked out cold. Bruno knew that it was probably best to just put the kid back to bed so that he might think this was all just a bad dream.
While carrying his nephew up to his room, Bruno was careful not to step on any cracks, to walk backwards through the doorways, holding his breath each time, and to tip-toe as to not wake up his sobrina, because Dios no lo quiera he has another child find him. Dolores was a brilliantly amazing sobrina, but she had a habit of using her powers as gossip.
Entering Camilo’s room was… odd. There were mirrors on every wall, and each piece of furniture seemed different the last time he’d been in there, maybe a month ago when one of his rats, Jesús, wandered in. Bruno remembered hearing something from Alma about Camilo’s room changing to fit the owner’s needs, so as Bruno set his sobrino down into his bed, it changed from a simple twin that he had probably just spent his time reading on, into a soft-yellow colored bed that rocked back and forth, like a cradle.
Bruno struggled to pull back the covers and then lay the boy down, but he managed. The covers tucked themselves over Camilo, and Bruno watched his sobrino’s face shift into a big smile, feeling much more comfortable in bed than on the kitchen floor. Bruno paused for a moment, staring down at the boy with a smile all too similar to his own. Sometimes he forgets that he’s a member of the Madrigal family, feeling more like one of the rats living in the walls, but looking down at his sobrino, standing inside the casita and not hiding in it, he finally felt at home. He felt his nose tingle and his throat tighten, before wiping away his tears that haven’t fallen yet.
“Well, buenas noches, niño,” Bruno whispered, staring at the boy for a second longer before scurrying out of the room, his rats following behind him.
Bruno pulled back the painting that led to his room, letting the rats climb up first, before turning back to look at Camilo’s door, showing the young boy and two other frames behind him, he watches it glow a bright yellow, the only thing illuminating the casita. Then Bruno turns to his own door, no longer bright, no longer glowing, showing how he’s abandoned his family. No matter how much Bruno wanted to return, to be able to hug his mamá again, to joke with his hermanas, to give his sobrinas and sobrino paseos a cuestas again, hell, a simple hug would suffice for the man.
Bruno turned back to look at the other room with no light, the nursery, where he knows the sobrina with no gift slept. He’s heard the girl cry many times in that room, the room that wasn’t hers, he knew how it must have hurt to have such a special family and to be seen as a failure. He wanted her to know that he didn’t leave because of her not having a gift, that he loved her so much, and it would only hurt her if he stayed. He loved his family more than he loved himself, so he would stay in the walls even if it killed him, because he knows he wouldn’t be able to leave this world if he still might have a chance to help them, whether he’s using his gift or not.
“Buenas noches, Mirabel, you’re the real gift of this family.”
He held his breath as he fell backwards into the walls.
When he calls your name it all fades to black.
Translations:
Hermana - sister
Sobrino - nephew
Sobrina - niece
Buenas noches, niño - goodnight, kid
paseos a cuestas - piggyback rides
I’m sorry, I don’t know Spanish, so I’m using google translate for this, please correct me if I’m wrong.