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In the wake of the Casita collapsing, Miguel went right to help out with the reconstruction. It wasn’t easy, considering just how big the casita was, but it was a task that needed to be done. After all, the Madrigals had done so much for the village and its residents, it was only fair that they do something in return for them.
It was a little difficult for him though, not because he didn’t want to help them, he absolutely did…it was just that the whole reconstruction was making him think about Bruno…
It had been 10 years since Miguel last saw Bruno. One day he was there, the next day he wasn’t, it was as simple as that. Some people said he was chased out of town, others said he left to create his own rat army. But, Miguel knew differently. He knew that he had left due in some part to all the stress he had felt as a result of the townspeople distrusting him and his family pressuring him. The Madrigals weren’t terrible people, but they just couldn’t see that Bruno was struggling to keep himself together.
And Miguel always felt like he had something to do with him leaving. Was it something he said or did? Did he push Bruno too hard? Was he not enough for Bruno? After all, he left without saying anything, not even to Miguel, who he even said was his best friend. Had that just meant nothing to Bruno?
So, Miguel kept his grief, anger and confusion to himself for the next decade. He became the town carpenter and took pride in his work. He never married, never really seeing the point in it. Rumors quickly spread that Miguel was a “confirmed bachelor”, which was actually true. In the 6 years after “he” left, Miguel came out as a homosexual, which was remarkably well received by the townspeople.
Miguel thought he was doing rather well for himself, he had a job that he loved, a quaint little house, and a few good friends. He had almost forgotten about the pain he felt when “he” had left him.
Which was why, when Miguel spotted Bruno at the construction site, he stopped dead in his tracks, feeling as if he had just walked into one of Pepa’s snowstorms. He felt the bucket he was carrying slip out of his hands and fall to the ground with a loud, hollow crash.
“This can’t be real, this has to be a dream”, he kept telling himself, but there he was, the man who he called his friend, who had left him all those years ago, laying down bricks as if he hadn’t just come back from God-knows-where.
Then, Bruno looked up and saw him, and his large, beautiful (wait, where did that come from?) eyes grew ten times as big. That’s when Miguel turned around and marched out of there, his emotions in a whirlwind.
For the next two days, Miguel was feeling all sorts of things. Relief that Bruno was still alive and not dead, left to be picked off by buzzards, confusion as to why Bruno suddenly had come back to the Encanto.
And anger.
Anger as to why Bruno thought he could come back as if he hadn’t just left him for ten years.
The next time he saw Bruno, this time again at the construction site, he did the exact same thing as he did before, feeling that he just could not face Bruno yet. Maybe not ever.
But this time, Bruno followed him.
As he was making his way to his house, desperately wanting to take a nap, he could hear him.
‘Miguel! Miguel, wait, please!
“Don’t look back, don’t look back, don’t look back”, the voice in his head kept telling him.
“Miguel, please, I’m sor-”
That did it. Miguel turned around and looked the short and timid man in the eye.
“No, no you don’t get to apologize, Bruno! You don’t get to just come back, from wherever you had been for the last 10 years and act as if nothing is wrong!”
“B-but Miguel, that’s not what I’m-”
“Stop, stop, just stop please”, Miguel begged him, noticing that there was a break in his voice towards the end of it. Bruno looked ashamedly down at his feet, which just broke Miguel’s heart even more.
“10 years, Bruno. 10. Fucking. Years. 10 years where I had thought that something had happened to you, that you had died or-”, Miguel momentarily stopped, trying to stifle the sob that was threatening to escape him, as tears were streaming down his face.
“I felt so helpless and alone, We were best friends, and you didn’t leave me a damn thing! Nothing as to where you went or what was going on, nada! I felt like I had done something to you! I thought that you had left because of me!”
Bruno just stood there in shock, tears also streaming down his face.
“I never left, though.”
That took Miguel by surprise.
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I’ve actually been here the whole time…”
Miguel was so confused, what does he mean that he’s been here all along?
“...O-ok, maybe let’s come into my house so that we can talk about this…”, he offered.
And so, Bruno told him everything, about Alma asking him to do a vision, seeing Mirabel’s prophecy, and feeling that he had no choice but to leave. Miguel felt his heart break as Bruno described to him the years he spent inside the walls of the casita, so close, yet so far from his family.
“So, you’ve been here…all this time?”, he asked, sitting across from Bruno at his kitchen table.
“I couldn’t leave them altogether, Miguel. That would’ve been far too hard. I just…I had to get out of their way, I didn’t want to be blamed for something out of my control again.”
“But I would’ve defended you, Bruno! I would’ve done anything for you, I would go down there and let your mother have it! And you knew that”, Miguel said.
Bruno was silent for a few moments.
“I know, but…I didn’t want to pull you into something that only involved me. I know you would have done anything to defend me, Miguel, but I just…”, Bruno trailed off, at a loss at how to explain his reasoning.
Miguel knew that Bruno had not told him to protect him, but he just wished that Bruno could really see how much he cared about him.
“So…why are you back then? Why are you back if you felt like you had to be away from everyone?”
“Well…Mirabel convinced me to come back, and it’s actually been going pretty well. They’re all being really nice to me, Mamá is even trying to understand me better, which I never thought would happen”.
“Well, I’m glad. I’m glad that they are treating you better, and that Mirabel brought you back.”
“Yeah, she is a lot like her mother. I’m scared she might even grow up to become just like her.”
That made Miguel laugh out loud, which in turn made Bruno laugh too.
“I’m sorry that I got mad at you, I was just so overwhelmed by so many emotions when I saw you had come back.”
“It’s fine, I understand why you would be upset. I’m sorry too, that I left without telling you.”
Miguel smiled at Bruno, feeling so happy to have the person he cared so much about back.
“Are we still friends?”, Bruno asked sheepishly.
Miguel reached across the table and took Bruno’s hand.
“Always.”