Chapter Text
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The knocks at his door were playful, but Bruno opened his eyes with a groan. The three knocks meant that Mirabel was going around waking everyone for breakfast.
Bruno did not look forward to breakfast. It was better than dinnertime, where everyone would be having lively conversations. But either way, he dreaded whenever the whole family would be gathered at the table.
At first, he had tried to wake up with the crack of dawn and would rush downstairs before anyone else would be up. He had been disappointed to find that Casita would move the chairs and tables and plates whenever he tried to eat earlier than anyone else. Avoiding breakfast wasn’t a solution either; Casita would always give away where Bruno was hiding as soon as someone would call for him. And then, he’d be dragged to the table all the same. It was always awkward in those cases because he would be the last one to arrive and the family would all go quiet. They would all look at him, but whenever Bruno’s eyes would meet theirs, they would quickly look down at their plate as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
It had taken a month after Casita had come back that Bruno figured out the best way to handle breakfast: Get out of bed after five minutes had passed, look presentable within ten minutes, and walk quickly (but not too quickly) to where everyone was sitting outside, and sit down at his usual place at the table. It worked perfectly- Bruno would arrive when most of the family would be at the table; if he arrived any earlier than he would have to deal with making awkward small talk with the early birds; any later and he would be the last one to arrive and then he’d try to deal with the annoying stares.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
“Tío Bruno,” Mirabel called out in her playful voice. “You’re going to be late.”
Bruno almost tripped as he jumped out of his bed. He needed to make the next seven minutes count- most of the family would be at the table by now, with Mirabel and Camilo being the only stragglers.
He knocked on his door frame for luck as he dashed out of the door, one foot only halfway inside the shoe.
Bruno arrived just in time. There were two other empty seats and the family was still too sleepy or too busy eating to really notice who was walking in.
He took his usual position at his mother’s right. One of his sisters would be sitting next to him, and the other would be sitting across from him. Today, it was Pepa to his left, and she was too busy rubbing the sleep from her eyes to notice him. Julieta was busy making sure that everyone had a decent helping on their plates.
He had been on the last few bites when Mamá had started assigning their tasks for the day. The arepa in his hand got smaller and smaller as she went through the entire family.
“—Dolores, you can help your mother today.” Mamá finished.
Bruno gulped down the last bit of food, and waited a few seconds before he spoke up. “What about me?”
Pepa slightly jumped and Bruno could tell that some of the children on the far end of the table were craning their necks to look at him. It had almost been a year, and some of them apparently weren’t still used to him talking.
Or me even being here, he thought.
Mamá faltered slightly as she looked around the table. “Ah, Bruno, you can…err…”
“He can help me, Mamá.” Julieta piped up. Mamá gave her a grateful look before she turned back to him.
“You can help your sister today.” Mamá finished.
Great. To be honest, it wasn’t too bad when he was saddled off with one of his sisters or brother-in-laws. None of them felt the need to force a conversation.
But when it came to his nieces and nephews, things were different. Most of them were children when he had left, and he had returned to find them almost entirely new people. He hadn’t expected talking to them to be hard, considering that he had technically heard them grow up through the walls.
He winced as he made eye contact with Isabela. She gave him a small smile, but he wondered if it was forced. It had to be forced because there’s no way she liked him, and he thought their last conversation had made it clear.
They had been walking along the path last week, and Bruno shuffled his feet whenever Isabela stopped to look at the plants. They didn’t know what to say to each other, so none of them had talked and Bruno was surprised when Isabela turned to him after staring at a grapevine.
“Hey, Tío,” Isabela had said, “how come the prophecy never told me what exactly would make me happy?” She gave a nervous chuckle before continuing, “It would have been nice to know that I could grow cacti earlier.”
Isabela hadn’t blamed him, and she didn’t mean any harm by the question. Bruno knew that the right answer was to tell Isabela that it was up to her to decide where her happiness lied. He was about to tell her that when he wondered if he had misheard and she was blaming him. He had started stuttering and fumbling with his words after that and Isabela quickly reassured him that it was fine and moved on. They didn’t talk for the rest of their walk, and the following week, Isabela had given Bruno those small, sad smiles when she passed by him.
He was jerked out of the memory when he felt a hand placed on his shoulder. Bruno looked up to find Julieta staring down at him. The rest of the seats were empty.
“Is everything alright, Bruno?” His sister asked, and when Bruno nodded, she gave a smile. “Then, we should go into town soon- we have a busy day ahead of us.”
Bruno dully watched as the man’s arm was instantly healed. The man eagerly thanked Julieta.
Then, he turned to Bruno. “Um... Thanks to you as well, Bruno.” As if Bruno was five and needed to be thanked for passing the occasional plate to his sister. He remembered being more useful to the village and the family when he was five than he was now. It was starting to get frustrating now, being passed around to one family member to another, and he never knew how to help any of them. Bruno had offered to do his visions again, albeit reluctantly.
He hadn’t expected the response he had gotten that day.
It was during one of their first dinners as a family again. They had relaxed the first few days after their powers had come back, but everyone had agreed that it was time they helped the Encanto again. Of course, they wouldn’t overdo it this time around.
It was after Antonio had piped up about he was going to help the town with his animals, that Bruno made his offer. His suggestion was met with a frigid blast of air and stares. Three of the faces still stood out to Bruno, months later: His mother and sisters had the same shocked expressions.
“No.” The three had said in unison. He was about to protest when he was met with another blast of cold air and he saw the wisps of a cloud forming above Pepa’s head. Bruno had gone quiet- he didn’t want to ruin everyone else’s mood.
Bruno felt a tug on his leg, and he was back in the town square. He looked down to the little girl.
“Is it true that you can see the future?” She asked.
He was about to nod when Julieta answered for him. “Yes. But Bruno doesn’t do visions anymore.” There was a hint of a warning to her voice and Bruno knew that it was for the other villagers’ benefit. No one ever came to him for visions- someone from his family would always chase them off.
Bruno had sworn that he would never have a vision again, all those years ago. It was to protect himself and he always admitted to him that it was selfish. When he broke that promise to help Mirabel, he had forgotten that it was also because he couldn’t stand his family’s disappointment at yet another prophecy.
He wasn’t doing visions anymore, but Bruno still didn’t stop feeling like a disappointment.
Dinner was always an exhausting affair, and no one noticed if he came late; they were all busy telling each about the exciting events that had happened during the day.
He passed by Camilo as Bruno made his way to his seat. Camilo never stopped talking, and Bruno thought he was a good, if a little, mischievous kid. He even reminded Bruno of what he had been like when he was fifteen. Too bad that Camilo always got awkward and looked for excuses to run whenever Bruno tried talking to him. But Bruno couldn’t blame his nephew- Camilo had always imagined his uncle as a creepy man with rats, and Bruno coming out of the walls certainly didn’t make a good impression.
Bruno passed by Antonio next. Sweet kid and they got along well, especially when they played with Bruno’s rats together. Then, it seemed as if Antonio was more interested in his rats than Bruno himself. He wasn’t surprised when he found his rats going to Antonio’s room long after Bruno stopped visiting. He couldn’t blame the rats either, it was probably nice for them to talk to someone rather than have the monotonous one-way conversations they had with Bruno.
Bruno quickened his walk and rushed by Mirabel, Luisa and Dolores, who were giggling over some joke. From all the children, Mirabel had tried the hardest to bond with him. He had been the one to pull away when he got the sense that Mirabel thought he was weird. Bruno didn’t need his niece to feel as if she was obligated to like him.
Luisa was always quiet. She reminded Bruno the most about Julieta, but unlike his sister, he never knew what to say to her. And he had never felt more useless than the day he had stood off to the corner and watched as she dragged the livestock all over town.
Dolores was quiet too, and Bruno always found that amusing, considering who the girl’s parents were. The amusement never lasted for long as Bruno remembered the vision he had given her. As Bruno sat down in his chair, he wondered if he could have used his powers better and come up with a more preferable prophecy. It would have saved his family a lot of grief.
Bruno ate dinner wordlessly. As he heard his sisters laughing with their husbands and the children discussing how they helped the people today, Bruno felt his loneliness grow.
There was a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to find Mamá staring at him.
“How was your day, Bruno?”
“Good, and yours?”
The hand was gone, and like always, Mamá gave him a small smile. “Mine was good too.”
And that was the extent of Bruno’s contribution to the conversation at dinner. The same routine for almost a year now, and Bruno used to tell himself that he was fine with this arrangement.
But tonight, as Bruno picked at his food while listening to the laughter, an idea started to take shape in his mind.
Bruno spent hours pacing his room, wondering whether he should go through with his plan. He would change his mind every hour.
When he went down to the kitchen, Bruno’s mind was set against not going through with it. The debate was starting in his head again when he entered the kitchen and was surprised to find his sisters. It was late- they should have been sleeping by now.
“Bruno.” Julieta said warmly. “Do you need anything?”
Pepa was staring at him, but said nothing and Bruno hurriedly reached for a glass. ”Water. Don’t worry; I’ll be out of your way.”
“We were discussing Dolores’ wedding.” Pepa said. “You can stay.”
“Yes.” Julieta added. “We were deciding what colours the flowers should be.”
Bruno was about to accept their invitation when he stopped. Pepa had told him to forget about that wedding, but Bruno still couldn’t say the word without cringing. She had never said a word to Bruno about the prophecy he had given Dolores, but he never forgot her words when she had found out.
He was in the walls, and he had heard her stomping into the dining room. Her voice had practically echoed in the walls so he knew she was talking to the family tree.
“Bru-“ There was a pause. “You- no, your prophecy! How am I supposed to help her through this? You could have at least told me what to do before you –“
A pause again, and then the banging had started.
“Why?” Thud.
“Why?” Thud.
“Why?” Pepa’s voice had cracked and she hadn’t punched the wall that time.
He was back in the kitchen, and Pepa was still staring at him. Bruno still didn’t have the answer to why the prophecy had been like that, and he looked quickly towards Julieta.
It didn’t make things better. Julieta never asked him about Mirabel’s prophecy either, and she never spoke to the walls like Pepa had. Yet, Bruno never stopped wondering if Julieta hated him for not telling her. He wondered if she thought him a coward for running away.
He looked at how close the two were standing together. Bruno used to stand in the middle, but his sisters had seemed to close the gap just fine.
“It’s…it’s alright.” Bruno said, after he gulped the water down. He slowly started to back away. “What would I know about weddings, anyways? I’ve never been married, after all.”
Even with the nervous chuckle he had thrown in, his sisters still winced.
“We can talk about something else.” Pepa quickly said as she looked towards Julieta.
“Why don’t you tell us what you do in your room all day? We barely get to see you after dinner.”
Bruno answered Julieta’s question with the first thing that came to mind. “I work on my telenovelas.”
They didn’t need to know he hadn’t done that for weeks. His heart wasn’t into it anymore.
Bruno slowly started to back away, “But I don’t want to weird you out with that.”
“Wait, no! Bruno!” Bruno had already reached the stairs by then.
When he reached his room, he decided he would go through with his plan. This time, Bruno wasn’t going to change his mind.
Breakfast was the same as always. He was supposed to go with Camilo today. It actually worked in Bruno’s favour this time.
He was about to head out the door when Pepa grabbed his hand and took him aside.
“About last night- I actually did want to hear about what you’ve been writing.” He was caught off-guard by her eager smile and the earnest tone to her voice.
“You really want to?” He felt lighter than he had when he had woken up this morning.
“Yes, I-“
“Mami.” Antonio ran in the room and was pulling on his mother’s hand.
“Not now, Tonito. I’m talking with Tío Bruno.”
“But it’s really important.” Antonio whined as he started to lead Pepa away.
Pepa rolled her eyes and gave him an apologetic smile as she left the room. “We’ll talk later. I promise.”
On his walk to town, Bruno grimaced when he realized that ‘later’ would probably never come. It wasn’t the first time his sisters were dragged away by a child. Yesterday, it had been Camilo or Mirabel. Today, it was Antonio. They would always leave by promising to join him later, and Bruno had spent years waiting for ‘later‘ to come.
By the time he went into the walls, Bruno had given up on there ever being a ‘later.’
As he entered the village, he shook his head at the childish thoughts. Of course his sisters would prioritize their children over him. He was an adult and it was up to him to find his place in the world.
When he had reached where Camilo was busy with the screaming children, Bruno looked around for any signs of Dolores. Still, to be safe, he led the town’s biggest gossip to where the children were the loudest. Even with all the noise, the woman’s eyes widened when Bruno leaned in and whispered in her ear.
“Come to the abandoned shack at the edge of town at nighttime- I’ll be doing my visions. My family shouldn’t know.”