Bruno Madrigal x Reader: Para el Futuro

XVIII: Alone

"I thought I had lost my mind when he ignored me for 4 months, but now I must have really lost it," you think to yourself as you wake up.  Over the last 10 years, you've seen him everywhere, heard him everywhere.  Every waking thought, those pushed out of the way and those that shoved their way back in, has been about Bruno.  It didn't help that so many things kept happening to remind you of him, and they were all so strange that you just can't seem to stop thinking about them: Camillo "seeing" him in the kitchen and the knocking near the counter right after, the strange conversation where it was pretty obvious Dolores wasn't telling you the whole truth, the night you wore his ruana and thought you saw him next to you in your room.  The worst of all was on his birthday when you had went to go to bed after having your fair share of crying and had found a little package on your bed.  You opened it to find the glass vision, the one of you and him hugging that he had had years ago, carved and cleaned and placed into a small bronze locket.  No note or anything, just the locket.  You had really wanted to cry then and you wished you hadn't wasted your tears earlier because now you needed them and didn't have them.  You tried to cry but it was just pain.  Around the second month that Bruno had been gone, you had smashed that vision by throwing it out your window.  You hadn't even looked to see if it had been cleaned up or not.  And yet it was here in a locket in your hands.  You never took off that locket ever again.

What a way to start a morning.  It's a good thing that you didn't have Pepa's powers or else you might have rained so much to flood the whole Encanto.  You get cleaned up, get dressed and go downstairs.  On your way down you pass Bruno's little hallway and  see the empty shadows of pictures that were once there: him at his Gift ceremony, him and the family on multiple occasions, the first time he had used his gift.

The first time he had used his gift.  That's when it all began really.  He had been 5, a few months till 6 years old, and it had been a super rare occasion that you weren't feeling ill and came over to play.  After having some fun baking with Julieta and playing cloud formations with Pepa, you had decided to see what Bruno was doing. When you went into his room, he was just lying on the floor staring up at the seemingly never-ending ceiling.
"Hola, Bruno."
You had been talking super quietly, but he had jumped up anyway.
"O-OH! H-hi, y/n! What are you doing here?"
"I came to see if you wanted to play."
"Play? W-with me?"
"Mhmm"
"U-uhhmm y-yeah s-sure," he turned a bit pink.  "W-what do you wanna play?"
"Umm..." seeing all the sand had given you an idea.  "I'll be right back."
You went to find Pepa and pulled her into Bruno's room, both looking super confused.  You asked Pepa to make it rain in the corner of the sand pile until a little pool filled up.  As she did that, you ran outside to grab a few buckets and some cups from the kitchen.  Julieta saw you as you ran back upstairs and followed to see what you were going to do with all those cups.  You went inside Bruno's room.
"So why did I have to make it rain in here?" Pepa asked, slightly annoyed.
"So we can make sand castles!" you say as you hand Bruno a bucket and get to work.  Julieta walked in and for the rest of that afternoon, you all laughed and played together and built the biggest sand castle you possibly could (which, considering you were all small, wasn't that big but still).  Afterwards, you were all covered in sand and regaining energy on the floor.
"You have sad all over your hair, Bruno!" you giggled as he shook to try to get it out.
"Yeah I have it everywhere," he untucked his shirt and sand poured out, making everyone laugh.
"You're so sandy! I should start calling you 'Arenito'" you laughed as you went over to him to help him dust off the sand.
Maybe it was just all the hard work, but he had turned even pinker than before.  And then, not a few seconds after, boom.  His eyes turned a bright green and the sand began spinning and spinning.  You had been terrified but just from shock.  Julieta and Pepa looked shocked too as the dome of sand grew.  Suddenly, images started forming through the sand, super grainy (hah get it?, sorry) and blurry images but you could make out the vague outline of Alma hugging Bruno.  Then the green glitched and the sand dome fell to the floor.  Bruno's eyes were still a bit green, but it was a calmer green than the bright soul-piercing shade before.  Alma walked in.
"BRUNO JUST USED HIS GIFT!" Pepa exclaimed.
"Brunito? Is this true?"
"Y-yeah, I think it is."
Alma rushed over and hugged him.  "I'm so proud of you, mijo! Good job! What did you see?"
"H-he saw this," you said still in awe.  "He saw you hugging him."
"Well, Brunito, maybe if you practice more like Julieta practices her cooking then you can see further into the future."
"Yeah maybe."

How could this have been so long ago? About 42 years? Wow.  Your mood now thoroughly soured, you make it downstairs to see Maribel setting the table while talking to some kids from the village.  That's right!  Antonio's gift ceremony was today!
She breaks into song as she wakes up the rest of the family, and they all head out to help around town.  You decide to tag along because why not? What else are you going to do alone all day?  She sings to the children about each of the family members powers, but when she gets to Bruno's part, the townspeople stop her from trying to say anything.  You go to interrupt her to explain, but she's moved on already.  You stand in front of the mural on the wall.  It's honestly a miracle that they haven't painted over Bruno's face by now.  You don't really have anything you can do to help out so you just follow different family members around until you reach Mirabel again.  As she is about to leave, the kids rope her back into another song, encouraged by some other villagers, about her own powers.  This makes your blood boil because they knew full well that Mirabel didn't have any powers, and here they were egging the kids on to push Mira into telling them.  You follow the little train of children back to Casita just in time to hear Dolores say, "Oh, Mirabel didn't get one," and peep.  And if that wasn't bad enough, Osvaldo walks up with a gift basket and hands it to Mirabel.
"I gave you the special since you're the only Madrigal kid with no gift.  I call it the 'Not Special' Special since you have no gift! Oh, and tell Antonio good luck! Last gift ceremony was a bummer...last one being yours that didn't work."
Díos mio! The audacity of this man!  Ya know what? He deserved to get fat.  Mirabel was too nice to say anything to him or the children about how much it hurt her.  But you can tell, the look in her eyes says it all.

"Don't worry, Tía. I'm fine," she says to you as you enter the house together.  So many people are in the house moving things around, getting ready for the party.  The walls are draped in floral décor, made by Isabella of course.  Louisa is running around at Alma's beck and call to help move the heavy things. Random towns folk meander through the halls assumedly helping but it's hard to tell.  Mirabel tries to dodge them all as she heads towards the kitchen.  And you look to the second floor next to Julieta's room and on the floor sit a semi-blurred,  half- blocked little figure in a green ruana.

Wait.

What?

You stop in the middle of the floor and rub your eyes.  No one there.  T-that's funny because you think you just saw...
"Mirabel, did you see that?"
"See what, Tía?"
"N-nevermind."

Casita forms the main stairwell and you see Camillo help hang up a sign for Antonio above his room.  Pepa begins to have an anxiety tornado when Félix calms her down and Isabella shows up to fix the flowers.  She's a bit rude to Mirabel, but what can you do.  Sibling love.  You head to the kitchen where Julieta is cooking.  Mirabel starts unpacking the gift basket when Julieta tells her that she doesn't have anything to prove and that she doesn't have to work so hard.  Agustín walks in, swollen from another bee sting fiasco, to which Julieta gives an exasperated sigh and feeds him a dough ball to heal him.
You feel bad listening to Julieta and Agustín try to prove to Mirabel that she is worth just as much as everyone else because you know, in your heart, that no one would act on it.  Of course her parents love her no matter what because she is their daughter, but in the end, with Alma in charge, nothing will change.

As you go to follow Mirabel out of the kitchen, you hear a thud come from the dining room.  You go in to check around.  Maybe something fell off the table?  Hmm, nothing there. Odd.

When you make it outside, you see Alma talking to Maribel.  As you get closer, you hear, "...best way for some of us to help is to step aside.  Let the rest of the family do what they do best, okay?"  Maribel agrees and walks dejectedly over to her room.
"Pepa! You have a cloud!" Alma says.
"I KNOW MAMÁN! BUT NOW I CAN'T FIND ANTONIO! WHAT DO YOU WANR FROM ME?!!"

Oh no! Antonio is missing?  He's probably feeling stressed out because he has to get a gift tonight or else... poor kid.

As you head back downstairs to look around for Antonio, you pass by Bruno's little stairway again.

"Aye, mí amor, 10 years.  Can you believe it?  10 long years you've been gone.  For your sake and his, I hope Antonio gets his gift tonight.  Poor Mira must be so sad, but she keeps a happy face all the time.  I wish you were here."  You give a sad smile to what is left of the faded dark outline of his face, carved by magic into his door, and continue your way downstairs.  Hearing that Antonio was found with Mirabel in her room, you continue to help around the house with decorating and candle-lighting and other things until guests start arriving.

Time for another Gift cermony!