#Julieta is a top and we all know this
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Hey look what it is! Its the birthday smut I was going to post on Sunday! I managed to write the rest of it while staying the night at my partners apartment. She was asleep, I don’t need her or people irl to know I write smut lol
#suddenly smut!#suddenfics#here you go#happy birthday Agustin#Julieta is a top and we all know this#She ain't no pillow princess
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November: Mourning Moon
A Conversations with Dead People Companion
This one probably does require reading the original fic; you can find it here
FRANKIE MORALES X F!READER with Holly
W/C 1400ish
WARNING: angsty, dead wife, ghost, that's about it.
A/N Welcome to my very late November installment for @yearofcreation2023 (a fantastic notion by @oonajaeadira.)
Frankie climbs the steps of the 400-year-old cemetery, this time with his daughter, Julieta. Snow has been falling for a good twenty minutes, and last night's snow crunches underfoot. It’s not unheard of to have snow in November in the Northeast, even if it’s becoming more rare. It’s been a little more than a year since Frankie’s first visit with Holly. It only takes a moment before she falls into silent step with them. Slipping between them, as they seem to have left space for her, she takes each of their gloved hands in her bare ones.
“I'm so glad to see you, my loves.”
“Holly,” Frankie sighs. “Missed you, babe.”
“Mama!”
“Oh jellybean, I'm so glad you came," Holly brings her daughter's hand to her cold cheek, then turns to her husband, “You came.”
“Yeah.”
“But not just to say hello.”
“Yeah,” Frankie looks at his wife, looking just as she did in life. This isn't going to be easy. “I've- I-”
Holly smiles, right up to her eyes -
“You've met someone.”
Frankie just gives a tight smile, she always makes things easier, he should have remembered. His eyes go bright, and he rubs his face with his free hand.
“Darling, that's truly wonderful. You deserve it, Frankie. And you deserve a mama.”
“I only have one mama, but I like her,” Julieta says.
as they reach the top of Burial Hill the wind kicks up, snow swirling unable to decide which way is down. They are alone, no dog walkers, no couples taking in the view. It's beautiful but cold.
“We just wanted to tell you that. I don’t know, I couldn't just… not without your blessing.”
“You know my answer,” Holly says, giving Frankie a chilly kiss on the cheek, he shivers and smiles. “Tell me all about her.”
Frankie tells Holly where you are from, what you do… how he feels when he's with you. Julieta shares stories of the first time you came to her soccer game, and how you make the best hot chocolate- with a quick apology, meaning no offense to Holly’s cocoa. To which Holly gifts them with the hearty laugh they love so well.
“You aren't offending me, jellybean, it comes from a box! But watch out, I hear the Swiss Miss gets migh-ty jealous!”
“We told her all about you. She wants to come and visit,” Julieta says, swinging Holly's arm as they walk and hold hands.
Holly looks at Frankie, then at Julieta-
“Me me? Or my -” Holly nods at the white gravestone a few paces away.
“I told her I talk to you a lot, and about that time last fall…”
“You did?”
“Yeah, and she wasn't weirded out at all. She doesn't expect you to come to her- make yourself um… known. She just wants to put a wreath on your grave, pay her respects.”
You sat in the little coffee place on the main street, mindlessly stirring your tea, watching the windows for Frankie and Julieta. The wreath you made of blue spruce, juniper berries, pine cones, and of course, holly, a wide white grosgrain ribbon tied in a single fluffy bow sits on the seat next to you. You don't expect to see Holly. No. But you figure she'll hear you… you thought about all the things you wanted to tell her, trying to imagine being at the receiving end of it. As if you are the one who lost her life, the love of her life, and the apple of her eye… you close your eyes, a small tear slips down.
Are you being weird? Performative?
Just then you see the two most important people to come into your life, saving you from spiraling.
They wave. Frankie gives Julieta some money and kisses her head, then comes to your table while his daughter goes to the counter. He kisses your forehead and sits, “Jules is ordering us a warm-up. It's freezing up the hill. The wind.”
You nod, and another sneaky tear rolls down.
“Hey,” Frankie's brows knit together, “are you- did something happen?”
Frankie looks around for the culprit. You huff a smile at his protectiveness. You found yourself a bulldog, complete with soft, sad brown eyes, who loves his belly rubbed.
“I'm just- it's an emotional day. I guess.”
“I guess it is,” Frankie nods.
After hot chocolate and coffee (and the cookie the size of Jules' face), everyone is warmed up and bundles up to climb back up the hill.
Holly keeps her distance this time, watching the three of you reach the crest of the hill. Frankie puts his hand on your lower back, guiding you on the snow-covered brick path toward Holly’s stone. Holly pines for that hand, warm and solid on the small of her back, just one more time. Pearly tears spill over. She isn't jealous, well, that's not true. Holly is envious of you; she's just not angry with you. She feels swindled, but not by you. You are again bringing joy to her husband and child, love and care that Holly can not provide anymore. She's grateful for you, just incredibly sad for herself.
Holly pops over to the stone, their destination, and continues observing you. You have kind eyes, carrying a rueful smile. At least now it is, understandably, but Holly can see the shadow of crinkles around your eyes and laugh lines. You have a lovely wreath. If Holly had to picking one out of a million for herself, she would have chosen that one.
You look at Jules and kiss her brown curls; they look at Frankie like you're looking for some help. He gives your hand a squeeze.
“It's a beautiful stone,” you murmur. Frankie puts a little rod, like a shepherd's hook, in the ground before it. Since it’s so early in the season, the ground isn't frozen hard despite the snow. Then, you hang the wreath on it.
“Thank you for your family,” you say, and then cringe a little; Frankie kneels next to you, taking your hand in his. He nods.
“I'm…” you look at them with pleading eyes.
Julieta takes your other hand and introduces you. You kiss a thank you on her temple.
“I just wanted to come and give my respects, to um, tell you that I love your husband, and your kid here is a delight. By the photos all over the house, I can see she is the perfect combination of the two of you. I just wanted t-to assure you that they will be cared for, I hope nearly so well as when they were with you. Because, I can see your love everywhere in that house. The nursery room mural you painted full belly pregnant with Jules here, Frankie's shown me photos of your gardens. And the recipe book you put together b-before… everything, so Frankie could make all his and Julieta’s favorites. I can't replace you, of course, no one can. But I hope - well, I just-”
You look up at the white stone, your knees cold in the snow but your face hot, trying to find the words.
Holly moves to stand behind the headstone, looking down at your worried face, and puts out her hand. You blink. A graceful hand suddenly appears before her stone, right between the carved words wife and mother. Your eyes slowly follow the wrist, then arm, to the face of Holly Morales.
After a small gasp, you take her outstretched hand and stand. Frankie and Jules slowly follow.
“Thank you for loving my family,” Holly says, placing her other hand over yours. You can feel the seeping cold through your glove, but you feel no reason to shiver. Her eyes are so full of love and gratitude and grace. “I am entrusting them in your care.”
“I do,” you say, “I mean, am, I will love and care for them with all my heart.”
“and let them care for you, and love you,” Holly so wisely adds.
Tears prick the corners of your eyes.
“I will.”
Holly looks at Jules, hand grazing her cheek. Her eyes travel to Frankie's, his tears falling freely. Unnoticed, the snow had stopped falling, and sunshine fought its way past the clouds. Only noticed now when a shaft brightened the hill, causing a swirl of snow caught on the wind to sparkle like diamonds. And in that shimmer of snow and light, Holly is gone.
Frankie presses a kiss to your temple.
“She likes you.”
THANKS FOR READING! 💚
Year of Creation: the Wheel of the Year Masterlist
MAIN MASTERLIST
If you care to be tagged for any of my works, my taglist form can be found here! I've added my Year of Themed Creations Series
#wheel of the year#year of creation#frankie morales#frankie catfish morales#frankie morales x f!reader#pedro pascal characters#pedro pascal character fanfic#pedro pascal fanfiction#conversations with dead people
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The second wip of the Reincarnation AU series; Isabela’s death.
Featuring another sketch at the end.
Time skip of fourteen years. What happened between Mirabel and Isabela’s deaths? You’ll never know.
Comments are always appreciated.
Warning, sensitive topics below: murder and character death.
~~~~~~
So Much Hides Behind My Smile
“Knock, knock? Mi flor? Are you in there?” Someone asks, opening the door.
Isabela is sat at her vanity, carefully taking out the flowers she’d woven into her hair that morning. From the mirror’s reflection, she can see Milagro stood in the doorway, her family going about minding their own business just behind.
It had been a busy day, of course. Her perfect, albeit long awaited, wedding.
“Of course, mi vida. Did you need something?”
“I just came to see you,” he answered, shutting the door behind him. He laughed, walking over to her, just about to set a hand on her shoulder. “Well, it’s been a long day but we’ve finally made it to the wedding night—”
“Get the fuck out of my room.” Isabela snarls.
Milagro blanks for a minute. “Um… where else am I meant to sleep?”
“I don’t care. It’s not my problem.” She seethes, turning back to the mirror.
“In case the rest of the day didn’t clue you in, mi flor, we are unfortunately husband and wife now. It very much is your problem. And from what I understand, the sooner you have a baby, the happier your Abuela will be. Which you’ll have a hard time achieving if you don’t want me here.”
“If you so much as touch my shoulder, I will rip your penis off and feed it to my carnivorous plants.”
Neither says anything more.
But it takes exactly two seconds for them to act.
Milagro goes to charge his entire body into hers but is yanked onto the floor by throned vines, as Isabela throws herself straight onto him.
“How dare you treat me like this!?”
“How dare you!? This is my room and don’t you forget it!”
“Just because you’re a Madrigal doesn’t mean you can get away with everything, princesa!”
They scratch and hiss and hit like wild jaguars, fighting over the last scrap of meat.
It just keeps going.
Not only does he deserve it and worse, she can let out all the steam that’s been building inside her.
~~~~~~
“A perfect match,” Alma hummed, as Bruno poured them all another round of wine. “Isabela deserves the best and that is what she has. They will both bring so much good to the Encanto.”
“I can’t believe it. Where has the time gone?” Bruno added.
Pepa nodded, still drying her hair. “It feels like just yesterday Isabela was born and now she’s married and going to have babies of her own.”
“That will be our Lolita soon,” Félix smiled.
“I’m too young to have grandchildren! We’re too young to have grandchildren! No offence, Mama.”
Alma was in too good a mood to even remotely care.
“Is it really Dolores’ wedding next?” Bruno asked, teasing. “Because I had a little peek into the future and I saw—”
“NO! DON’T YOU DARE RUIN IT! I DON’T WANT TO KNOW!” Pepa shrieked.
Bruno held his hands up in surrender as his sister began a play fight with him, Félix laughed riotously.
“Hey, I was only kidding!”
“Well, I don’t believe you!”
Alma chuckled too, before getting up. “I am going to check on Julieta and Agustín.”
“You do that,” Félix said. “I’ll keep an eye on these two.”
The rest of the grandkids, all of whom were drunk, were out in the courtyard, hyper as anything.
Camilo, Antonio and a variety of animals were dancing while Dolores played some lively tune on her bandola; Luisa singing a completely different song over the top.
Honestly, you wouldn’t know they were adults.
On any other day, she would probably have scolded them and sent them to bed. For now though, she is happy enough to just leave them. They aren’t hurting anyone or causing any trouble, to be fair.
Agustín and Julieta were sat quietly in another room, without the wine. Julieta has been in an odd state for the past few years with seemingly new cure, and Agustín has always preferred to keep some distance from his mother-in-law when he can help it.
But they should be together right now. This is Isabela’s day and they have all been her biggest supporters.
“They certainly make the happy couple,” Alma said, taking a seat beside them.
“Indeed.” Agustín agrees. “I had my doubts about this match, but I’m glad that I’ve been proved wrong.”
“So long as my girls are happy, then I’m happy.” Julieta declares.
“Well, mija, I can attest that Luisa is definitely happy.” She paused, trying to get the pair to hear the carryon happening outside. “And trying to make herself a soprano, apparently.”
After some wonky, forced long note from Luisa, they broke into laughter.
“It’s nice to see the kids are still enjoying life and spending time together,” Agustín remarked, smiling fondly.
Julieta’s smile drops.
“Not all of them.”
~~~~~~
Long after Milagro is gone and her temper has cooled, Isabela heads downstairs.
It’s late now.
The rest of the family is in bed. Or at least in their rooms.
She doesn’t know where Milagro went after she kicked him out, probably the guest bedroom, but she doesn’t care enough to check. He can sleep outside for all she cares.
She heard some footsteps on the way to the kitchen, but brushed them off.
One of Antonio’s animals, no doubt.
In the kitchen, she makes her way over to the coffee pot. It’s half full, just needs to be reheated - no doubt Luisa has beaten her to their usual midnight drinks.
Casita takes over, sliding her signature cup along to her.
“What do you think of all this, Casita?”
A few tiles clink.
“Mirabel? I’d be lectured for at least two hours about failed marriages in history or something if she was still alive.” Isabela glanced to the side. “Can’t imagine how she’d take this… knowing I just went back.”
More clinking.
“Well, what was I meant to do? I couldn’t say no.”
A cupboard smacks her shoulder, lightly.
She chuckled. Taking off the wedding ring.
“Haha, good point. You know, I always thought getting out of the Guzmán engagement would make me happy, and now I’m about two seconds away from committing murder.”
The beams squeak supportively.
“It’s nice to know someone’s got my back.”
The coffee pot, ready, is tilted over Isabela’s cup, filling it to the brim.
“Maybe I’ll let it happen. Let the family see he’s awful and then I’ll be free.”
It smells as good as usual, there’s an underlying hint of something that isn’t coffee though. She shrugs, and drinks it anyways.
Luisa’s been drunk since the ceremony ended, who knows what she’s put in here since. It’s probably alcohol - that she’s added in some spark of creativity. And Isabela isn’t too against the idea of alcohol in her coffee at all - it’s an idea she’ll try later, when she isn’t about to go to bed.
It doesn’t taste any different though.
She lets Casita dispose of the ring.
She returns to her room steadily, not paying much attention to the beautiful decorations that have been hanging since this morning.
It’s one of the odd times where she wasn’t the one to decorate Casita in her flora - it was her day. Abuela had made it very clear that she didn’t want Isabela to lift a finger.
She never really got a chance to admire them this morning either. She’s spent most of the day outside of Casita and when they have been home, she was in her room, getting ready with Dolores, her maid of honour.
Ah well.
They will still be there tomorrow.
All that matters now is that she’s alone, out of that hideous wedding dress and can sleep off her frustration with a drink.
She doesn’t bother switching on the light, just clambers into bed and setting the cup on her bedside table.
The café con leche is as inviting as always.
[Note reads, not in Isabela’s handwriting:
Dear family,
This is not about you, this is about me. I can’t cope with the pressure of being the perfect Madrigal any longer. I was not made to be a wife and mother - my most sincere apologies to Milagro, mi vida. I tried. You should not blame yourselves. I hope whatever is is next is better than this.
— Isabela]
#encanto#encanto reincarnation au#isabela madrigal#alma madrigal#julieta madrigal#agustín madrigal#pepa madrigal#félix madrigal#bruno madrigal#luisa madrigal#dolores madrigal#camilo madrigal#antonio madrigal#mirabel madrigal#my writing#my art#encanto fanart
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Happy birthday! Can i get some encanto continuiation? 💝
a continuation of 1 2 3
"I'm bored," Bruno says.
It's been almost twenty years, but Augustin knows exactly what that means. "We can't just - we're old men! We'll fall and trip and die!"
"You said that when we were kids too," Bruno says, unrepentant. "And look, we're perfectly fine."
Because Julieta had healed all manor of injuries they'd gotten. They were lucky they hadn't fallen and broke their fool necks.
"We can bring the kids," Bruno encourages, "it'll be fun!"
"Julieta will kill me," he says, instead of admitting that it does, in fact, sound very fun.
Bruno just shrugs. Julieta has been threatening to kill him his whole life, so it doesn't hold the same kind of threat that it does as Augustin.
"Please don't tell your mother," he begs as looks up at sheer rock face, his three daughters eagerly bouncing in place at the idea of climbing to the very top this way instead of taking the long, winding path to the best view in the village.
None of them answer him. Traitors.
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Ballet au thoughts and ideas
Yes, they do have a big dance studio and a record player to play some classical vinyl records on a gramophone record player. Most of the music is from Alma’s time, gramophones were invented in 1887 so I think Alma would have one.
Alma isn’t hard on her if Mira makes a mistake. Alma, of all people, knows that mistakes happen and you can’t be mad or upset at them. Just get up and try again. Neither does she tell Mirabel to watch her weight, she’s seen all body types doing ballet back in her day so she would never say anything of the sort.
She also likes sharing stories of her past ballet experiences with Mira. She does sometimes get a little choked up about it but pushes through to tell the story.
Also, Alma told her all about the famous stories ballet dancers danced to such as swan lake, the nutcracker, la bayadère, Giselle, and the sugar plum fairy.
I have a feeling that the sugar plum fairy is her favorite story because 1. It’s a good story and 2. She was in a play about it when she was little.
And yes, Alma is on a nostalgia kick and pressures Mirabel to do it more. And doing ballet with instruments is not the “perfect” way to go. But I believe Mira isn’t as stressed out as the others, she just feels like she is being a little forced to limit herself (don’t worry, she dances with instruments when Alma isn’t around)
Bruno doesn’t really mind though, he sees a new side to his mother that he rarely ever saw so he’s happy for both of them.
You know how everyone headcanons that there’s a big stage in Camilo’s room? Well Mirabel’s is a little bit bigger than his, like dis
That was by Alma’s request as well
When Mira’s in the mood for it, she’ll do a couple shows inviting the whole village to watch. When it comes to shows, she sometimes does solo ones, shows with alma, or with the village ballet dancers. And if she can, she’ll sing in them, which is 90% of the time.
Casita often helps with the props or FX just to make things a little more magical, and they're kind of like a built-in stage hand too.
Angst section, you don't need to take it seriously, but I needed to put these thoughts somewhere:
For angst, everyone thinks Alma’s playing favoritism (like in the werewolf au). But no one talks about it. We all know she isn’t but y’know.
On top of that, Imagine how flabbergasted the triplets (yes, Bruno stayed) are when they see Alma doing ballet. They do know what it is, they’ve seen the small ballet class in the village. But they didn’t know Alma knew it, you gotta know how hurt they felt knowing that they’re mother didn’t let them know something that their sabrina/daughter knows.
I would be a little upset, how you gon let my child/niece know something that I never knew about you? And TEACH it to her?!
Julieta and Pepa however, feel there is some favoritism going on.
Bruno doesn’t really mind though, he sees a new side to his mother that he rarely ever saw so he’s happy for both of them.
More angst tehe; for some “odd reason” most of her family, ( except bruno, antonio, luisa, agustin, and felix) can’t come to her shows. They're either “too busy” or “too tired” or “ it’s too loud”. All of those things are lies, of course. Pepa, Julieta, Isabela, Camilo, and Dolores are never that tired, or that busy, and Mirabel made Dolores ear muffs just so she can watch the show.
You best believe Alma isn’t pleased with this behavior and sometimes has to force them to come.
“You can’t be that tired to miss your prima/daughter/sister’s show. You have missed them for the fifth time and I’m tired of it. I expect you to be there on time or else, and I’m NOT taking no for an answer”
And of course, they are blown away by Mirabel’s flawless work of ballet. But they won’t admit that they’re too pressed.
RAHHHHH❗❗
Nice to see there's a company. Can't really get behind the family for their excuses tho like. Seriously, why are you so pressed, shouldn't you be happy??? I mean it's not like she just acquired the skills through magic, she has to work hard everyday to get that good. Like stop being so salty and just admit that she's good 😭 pride isn't a good color <33
Shootout to Bruno for staying and going to the performances❗❗❗ And the other family members who go to the performances as well. Major W's on their parts <33
Funny little idea. A suggestion. Luisa absolutely ADORES watching Mirabel and loves going to her shows and watching them. Like Luisa is arguably one of, if not the busiest Madrigal, and she still will straight up drop whatever she's doing (or rather finish up whatever she's doing) and go straight to wherever Mirabel's preforming. And if she's doing a public performance in like the plaza or whatever, she'll just. Stand there and watch. She'll have whole donkey's on her shoulder and just stand there and watch.
Luisa ties the ribbons on her shoes so they look like pointe shoe ribbon and. She helps Mirabels tie her bun when she goes to practice. I think Luisa would peek in on Mirabel's practice when she's at Casita.
Luisa trying not to scream out and throw flowers at Mirabel while she's performing:
Just an idea of course <333
#my asks#my asks are open#encanto#encanto au#au#encanto mirabel#encanto alma#encanto luisa#ballet au#ballerina mirabel au
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Encantober Day 27: Grave
So...I know it's almost March and Encantober ended months ago, but I promised myself I'd finish it, and here it is. I had more ideas for this prompt, but I lost my outline so I'll add them in once I post it to AO3. @encantober-official
Dewdrops clung to the grass as Alma made the habitual walk to where her Pedro lay. There was a slight chill in the early morning air; she pulled her shawl more tightly around her shoulders. She loved the stillness of those early hours before the town awoke.
A misty haze hung in the air, blurring the outlines of the headstones lining the graveyard. As she approached, the headstones grew clearer. The one marking Pedro’s grave was large and ornate; intricate designs carved around the edges. After the funeral, after the burial, after she’d had time to process the tragedy, she had insisted that the spot where he lay be marked with something truly special.
“Hola, Pedro,” she said simply, resting her hand along the top of the headstone. A caress meant for his cheek, given to cold damp stone. She smiled wistfully, taking in the familiar sight. Alma tried to visit regularly, but today was different. Today marked the anniversary of when her Pedro sacrificed himself to give her and their children the chance for a better life. Technically, it might have been yesterday. She wasn’t entirely sure. They couldn’t exactly check their pocket watches while they were fleeing for their lives. But she liked to think it happened after midnight. The oppressive darkness surrounding them sure made it feel like it was the middle of the night, and that was good enough for Alma. She couldn’t bear the thought that lives so important to her could enter and leave the world on the same day, brushing past each other like a breeze blowing by a candle flame.
So, as a family, they chose to commemorate it on October 18th. That way, the children could celebrate their birthday unmarred by the tragedy. It was better that way.
“Ay, Pedro…” Tears spilled down her cheek. “We had quite the year. Antonio got his gift. He can speak to animals. Isn’t that wonderful? You loved animals so much. I remember the adventures we had with those horses. With Toñito’s gift, it’s like part of you lives on inside him.” She shook her head, the corners of her lips tugging up into a smile. “But I’m sure you already knew that. No doubt you had a say in his gift.” It wasn’t an opinion she had ever dared to voice to anyone else, but Alma had a sneaking suspicion that Pedro had lived on in the house that had mysteriously sprung up in the valley across the river. Their Casita.
Clearing her throat, she continued. “We lost our gifts and got them back again. Mirabel…she saved us all. You would be so proud of her, Pedro. She’s just like you. Thanks to her, our magic is stronger than ever.” She sniffled, wiping the tears from her eyes. “And Brunito came home. We are all together again. Well…” she choked back a sob, “not all of us.”
She pulled a candle out of her pocket. It wasn’t the magical candle that had sustained them for all those years. Instead, it was an ordinary candle; one you could pass by a thousand times and not throw a second glance. But love had a way of turning the ordinary into something extraordinary, and it had been their love of candles that had first brought them together. Carefully, she lit the candle and placed it near the headstone. She closed her eyes, murmuring a quick prayer.
The sun climbed slowly up the horizon, streaking a brilliant yellow through the gray. Alma traced the letters on the headstone, bargaining with herself for more time. Couldn’t she stay just a little while longer? But in her heart, she knew she couldn’t. Giving the headstone one last lingering look, she nodded stiffly and turned to head back home.
The sun was higher in the sky than Julieta would have liked by the time she made it to her papá’s grave. Despite her best efforts, she just hadn’t been able to finish cooking all the food any earlier. Between tending to injuries and checking on her children, it had taken her far longer than anticipated to prepare the foods she wanted to bring with her. Over the years, through some clever sleuthing, she had learned what had been some of her papá’s favorite dishes. Every year, without fail, she had prepared them for him on today’s date. Although she knew the occasion they were marking, she preferred to think of it as saving him leftovers from their birthday, because that thought didn’t make her want to burst into tears.
Agustín accompanied her on her trek, both for moral support, and to help her carry the sheer amount of food she had prepared. “I, uh, think your papá will be really happy to get all this food.” He winced, hefting the basket higher on his arm to alleviate the soreness of the weight.
“Ay, Agustín, is the basket too heavy?” Julieta studied him concernedly. “Maybe I should have asked Luisa to help…”
“No!” His face turned red from exertion. “Let her rest, mi amor. She’s been working so hard lately. Ever since you got your gifts back, it’s like everyone forgot how to get by without them again.”
Julieta pressed her lips together, guarding her tongue. She knew he was right, but now wasn’t the time to fight that fight. Now she wanted to honor her papá and show him how much she loved him the best way she knew: through food.
Finally, they reached the graveyard. Agustín placed the basket on the ground with a heavy thud. It was filled to the brim with the foods Pedro had enjoyed most, both sweet and savory. His stomach gave an involuntary gurgle.
Julieta chuckled at the sound. “Is someone hungry?” She teased.
“No…” Agustín lied.
“I told you; you should have eaten before we came up here.” Julieta tutted, shaking her head good-naturedly.
“But I wasn’t hungry then!” He argued.
“So you are hungry now?” An amused smile played on her lips.
“Yes! I mean, no! I can’t think,” he complained, rubbing his temples.
“I’ll feed you as soon as we get home, how’s that?” She patted his cheek playfully. “But don’t even think about touching this food. It’s all for papá.”
“I would never!” He insisted, horrified at the assumption.
But Julieta had moved on from the banter, spreading out the various dishes in a cluster around the candle she saw tucked into the corner. Mamá must have been here already. Her candle was still burning brightly, she noted with a smile. Hopefully it would make it through the day.
Once she’d arranged everything to her liking, she addressed her papá. “Papá…we never got to know you growing up, but it was your sacrifice that allowed us to have such a good life.” The words came easily to her, having heard her mamá repeat them time and time again. “I know it’s not enough of a thank you, but I made all your favorites. It would have been better if you could taste them for real, if they could have helped you stay with us, but this will have to do.”
Agustín wrapped his arm around her shoulder, giving her a nod of approval. They stood there for a few minutes, basking in the faint warmth of the morning sun before Julieta bid her papá farewell and they headed back.
#alma madrigal#pedro madrigal#julieta madrigal#agustin madrigal#julieta x agustín#alma x pedro#encantober#encantober 2023#foreveranevilregal writes#writing encanto#to the two of you who will read this: thank you#i just want to finish this and be done with it
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Never A Dull Moment - One Shot
[Synopsis: There has never been a dull moment in the Madrigal household and the morning of Dolores' wedding is no exception. With Isa and Dolores driving Mira up the wall, Pepa going out of her mind and Agustin being...well...Agustin, Julieta is slowly giving up hope of getting anything done. She can't find it in her to complain though. After all, it is probably the most fun she has ever had.]
Read on AO3 or under the cut!
“Get that thing away from me! Mamá! Mamá!”
Julieta sighed under her breath and moved away from the counter at the sound of thundering feet and her daughter shouting at the top of her lungs, wiping her hands on her apron and palming a curl from her face seconds before she came racing into la cocina with Isa and Dolores hot on her heels. She had little time to work out what was going on before Mira moved behind her, using her as a human shield, and she laughed when the two elder girls halted in front of her. “Ay, I already know I’ll regret this,” She pinched the bridge of her nose before looking back and forth between the girls. “But what’s going on?”
“Only a game, Tía.” Dolores smiled, smoothing her hands down the front of her dressing gown.
“Mamá, I don’t know what that thing is or what it does,” Mirabel waved her hand in the direction of Isa who was holding up her mascara applicator. “But you can tell them to keep it away from me because I have no interest in finding out.”
“Ugh, I am just trying to make you look beautiful!” Isa snapped.
“Excuse me, I am already beautiful!” Mira retorted. “Mamá, tell them I don’t need any of that stuff.”
Julieta glanced over her shoulder at her, reaching to stroke her face. “You are muy hermosa, mi vida.”
“And that is why you’re my favourite.” Mira leaned in to peck her cheek.
“But…”
“Wha? No, no, no. No buts!”
“But amor, today is a special occasion,” Julieta pointed out, laughing when her daughter gawped at her before turning back to the elder girls and seeing the smirks on their faces. “I think you should give her a ten-second head start. The poor girl deserves a chance.”
They glanced at each other and shared a knowing look before turning back to Mira.
“Diez, nueve, ocho…”
“Oh, you are so not my favourite anymore.” Mirabel grumbled, moving from behind her and fleeing la cocina.
Julieta crossed her arms and chuckled when Isa and Dolores gave up counting and ran after her again, Dolores with one hand on her head to keep the pins in place and Isa clinging to her mascara, and she shook her head when Pepa walked in. “Lolita, please…” She watched her reach out to take her daughter by the arm, but it was too late and there was a scowl on her face when she turned to her once her girl was out of sight. “You did this! You!”
“Me?” She brought a hand to her chest, feigning shock. “I have no idea what gave you that impression, but you are absolutely right.”
“Do you have any idea how long I have been trying to get her to sit still for?” Pepa asked. “You are not helping, hermana!”
“Ay...Casita, help me out here,” She rolled her eyes before the house moved a chair towards them and made Pepa sit down. “Pep, calm down. Remember what happened the last time you got worked up on a wedding day? It was not pretty. You gave me the flu!”
Her hermana sighed and raked a hand through her hair. “Lo siento. I…I want it to be perfect for her.”
Taking a buñuelo from the plate on the counter and sprinkling some powdered sugar onto it, she let Pepa take it from her and watched her take a bite. “It will be, I promise. I know you want everything to be done as fast as possible, but we have time before she needs to be at the church. Besides, she is the novia which means she has the right to be slightly late. She also has the right to a little fun before the anxiety takes over. Remember us in the hours before Gus and I got married? Chasing Bruno around the sitting room, trying to force him to wear that stupid tie? Mamá was so annoyed, but we had some fun.”
“You two had fun. I was strangled. You know; still not convinced you weren’t trying to get rid of me.”
They looked at each other for a second after Bruno poked his head into the room purely to make that comment, their laughter taking over when he vanished again as Pepa ate the last of her buñuelo before wiping the crumbs from her mouth. “It has been nice to hear her laughing,” Pepa admitted. “She does deserve to have some fun, you’re right.”
“Do you think I could get that in writing? You say it so little…” She teased.
All she earned herself was an eye roll in response as Pepa stood up. “I needed that. Gracias hermana.”
“De nada,” She shrugged before watching her leave la cocina and turning back to the counter to go on wiping it down, the corner of her mouth twitching into a smirk when a pair of arms snaked around her waist and her husband kissed her on the neck. “I may have to accept the fact that I am never going to get this counter clean again,” She feigned annoyance, leaning back against him. “So many distractions.”
“I think you’ll find you are the distraction here, amor, not me,” He replied, tucking his head gently into her neck and grazing the dip there with his nose the way he knew made her shiver. “I only came in to see if you’d seen my tie, but now I hope we never find it.”
Setting the rag down and turning in his arms, bringing her hands to his chest and taking a moment to admire him in his suit, she smirked as his hands moved to her waist. “And why would you hope such a thing on a day like this, Señor?”
“Because…” He stepped further into her. “Until we find it, I can’t get dressed and that means I can stay here with you.”
She hummed in response, pretending to think about what he said while her gaze moved back and forth between his and his lips. “I have had better excuses from you in our many years of marriage, but I may be able to accept that one,” She admitted. “Just about.”
“Good. I mean, I would have regardless, but I like knowing you and I are on the same page.” He smiled.
“So, are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Going to stop talking at some point and kiss me? Else, this is turning out to be muy anticlimactic.”
Chuckling under his breath, he took a hand from her waist and brought it to the side of her neck under her curtain of hair before using his thumb beneath her chin to tilt her head back. He let his nose graze hers for a second, revelling in the way her eyes fell closed at the contact, and captured her lips with his in a soft kiss. She went up onto her tiptoes as the kiss lingered and he felt her arms circle his neck, her fingers teasing the hairs at the nape as they slowly gave in to one another. It was little wonder neither of them heard their daughter approaching the kitchen until it was too late.
“Ay, Mamá!”
Mira’s outcry prompted them to pull apart and turn to look at her, but their initial shock at her finding them like that passed quickly and they struggled to mask their amusement at her standing there with her hands covering her face.
“Mira, look at me.” Julieta told her.
“Nope.”
“Mira…”
“How could you let them do this to me?” Mirabel dropped her hands to reveal herself completely done up, mascara on her lashes and her lips a subtle shade of red. Her cheeks had even been patted with a little rouge by one of the girls. “I stopped running because they stopped counting, but then they both jumped on me. I think Isabela stabbed me in the eye with that stick thing and now I can’t see out of it.”
Agustín chuckled. “Miraboo, you couldn’t see much before. I don’t think you can blame Isa entirely.”
“Pa, I need you on my side.” She whined before he walked over and put an arm around her shoulders.
“Lo siento, but you really do look beautiful, mi vida.” Julieta shook her head, her hands on her hips.
She pouted. “I do not. I look like Isa threw up on me and yes, it feels as gross as it sounds.”
“Okay, okay, okay,” Julieta made her way over and cupped her face in her hands. “If I help you sort this, will you forgive me?”
“Potentially,” She hummed. “I might forgive you a little faster if you give me a buñuelo after.”
Julieta nodded before taking her by the hand and walking her towards the exit of the kitchen, she and her husband sharing a smile when she stopped for a second to look over her shoulder at him. “Back in un momenta. Do not eat all those buñuelos, I beg you.”
“Promise. Uh, I really do need to know where my tie is though.”
“Bread bin.”
“Wha…”
“Amor, your guess is as good as mine.”
Standing there thoroughly confused, he watched his wife and daughter leave the kitchen together and frowned with a shake of his head. He had no idea what had gone on – it had been an insane morning already – but he was sure of one thing.
There really was never a dull moment in this house.
#julieta madrigal#mirabel madrigal#isabela madrigal#dolores madrigal#agustin madrigal#pepa madrigal#bruno madrigal#isabela and dolores#isabela and julieta#isabela and mirabel#mirabel and julieta#mirable and isabela#mirabel and dolores#agustin x julieta#agustin and julieta#julieta and agustin#julieta x agustin#julistin#julieta and pepa#pepa and julieta#julieta and bruno#bruno and pepa#encanto#encanto fanfic#encanto fic#encanto fanfiction#encanto julieta#encanto mirabel#encanto isabela#encanto dolores
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Encantober 2023 Day 21: Age
Tomorrow was Alma’s birthday, and since this was her first birthday since the miracle was restored and her first in ten years with her only son with her again, Because of this, Bruno wanted to make his mother’s birthday extra special this year. He asked his sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces, and nephews about ideas to make Alma’s birthday extra special.
“Well, we know that she doesn’t really like anything over-the-top, so inviting the entire village doesn’t sound like a good idea,” Julieta explained.
“We should also not use sparklers because of what happened on your fiftieth birthday,” Agustin added.
“What happened on our fiftieth?” Bruno asked.
“Agustin thought it was a good idea to put sparklers in the cake instead of candles, and it exploded in their faces before they could blow them out,” Felix explained.
“That was a lesson learned; we are never using any dangerous explosives on anything ever again,” Agustin added.
“Even if you did suggest that, you have more than just me to convince you that it’s a bad idea, and you have to listen to all of us.”
“Maybe we can do something on the creative side? Make her something that we can all pitch in with?” Mirabel suggested.
The rest of the Madrigals smiled at the idea of making her something they all could contribute to. Mirabel has had a creative mind since she was a toddler, and some of her best ideas were about letting everyone get involved.
“We know that she loves hats, maybe we could buy a hat from the village square and we can each make something to put on it.”
The rest of the Madrigals liked the idea, they could each make something that represented them and could put it on a hat for Alma.
“We can go into the village square later this afternoon, and while we’re there, you all can make your contribution to the hat,” Julieta suggested.
“That sounds good, or maybe we can go now before all the best ones are sold out,” Pepa added.
“I like that better.”
“I’ll go get some art supplies from my room,” Mirabel said before she made her way upstairs.
Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno got up from the couch and made their way out the door as the rest of the Madrigal family made their way into the kitchen. They felt safer making their trinkets in the kitchen since it can get a little bit messy and Casita would much rather help clean up the kitchen than any other room in the house.
Mirabel came back downstairs with construction paper, scissors, glue, markers, and colored pencils, and found the rest of the family in the kitchen. She put her arts supplies on the table and spread them out for her family.
“I got every color of construction paper I could find in my room, so you can take whatever color you need for your trinket,” Mirabel explained.
The Madrigal family grabbed a piece of construction paper each to begin making their trinkets to put on Alma’s hat. They wanted to make something that Alma would associate with them so she could have a piece of her family with that hat. The family also talked about what they wanted to make.
The family spent a couple of hours making their trinkets until the triplets came back from the store with the hat they wanted to give to Alma. They came into the kitchen to see their family making their construction paper trinkets and the kitchen island covered in cut-up construction paper.
“Hola, mami, you found the hat you wanted?” Mirabel asked.
“Si, we found this hat that we think she would love to wear for church,” Julieta replied.
The triplets showed the rest of the family a big, magenta hat that matched Alma’s outfits. They decided that the hat itself could represent Alma. being the base of the trinkets. The hat would represent herself being the backbone of the Madrigal family, and the trinkets would represent each family member and how Alma held the family together.
“Do you want to show us what you made for the hat while we make our trinkets?” Pepa asked.
“Sure; can I go first?” Isabela asked.
“Sure, sobrina,” Bruno answered.
Isabela showed her creation, which was a flower made with lavender and dark purple construction paper, made in several three dimensional layers. “Since Abuela always called me her little flower, even before my gift ceremony, I thought this was perfect.”
Isabela pinned the flower on the hat, and Dolores showed off her creation. It was a red and yellow vinyl record with tiny music notes coming out of it. “I wanted Abuela’s hat to have something music related, since she always used to say how I brought music into her life.”
Dolores pinned her vinyl on the hat once Luisa showed her trinket. Hers was of a small donkey carrying two weights. “I thought of something simple since Abuela knows how much I love the donkeys in town.”
Luisa pinned the paper trinket on the hat and Camilo showed his trinket to the family. “I made a chameleon, since that was how Abuela always saw me.” He pinned his creation on the hat and Antonio decided to go next.
“I made a little paper Parce since I know Abuela loves being with Parce and he calms her down sometimes,” Antonio explained.
Once Antonio pinned his trinket on the hat, Agustin showed a little bee he made. “Alma knew since we were young how much of a bee magnet I’ve been, so I thought of putting this one next to Julieta’s when she’s done with hers.”
Felix showed his trinket after Agustin was done pinning his. “I made a little umbrella to show how I helped sheltered her daughter from her storms and gave her a welcoming home within myself.”
“Those are all such great creations. We just finished ours; I’ll go first,” Julieta said as she held up a paper arepa. “Since Mama always loved my arepas since I started making them, I decided to make one of the construction papers.”
Julieta pinned her trinket to the hat next to Agustin’s, and Pepa showed hers off. “I made a sun for her, since Sunshine was my nickname she gave me since I was a toddler and she always said how much I filled her life with sunshine.”
Pepa pinned her trinket next to Felix’s, and Bruno showed off a little green hourglass. “Since Mama always associated the hourglass with me, I thought it made sense to make one,” he said as he pinned the hourglass right between Julieta’s arepa and Pepa’s sun.
“Mirabel, are you finished with yours? You’ve been making yours for quite a while even after we got back,” Julieta pointed out.
“I have, but that’s because I wanted mine to include more than just me, but I’m finished now.” Mirabel then showed the family an aquamarine butterfly with multiple designs on it, similar to the one on her skirt. There were flowers, musical notes, a dumbbell weight, a chameleon, a jaguar, an arepa with a bee flying towards it, a sun with an umbrella underneath it, an hourglass, and a candle in the middle.
“I didn’t want to just have something that represented me, I wanted mine to represent everyone in the family. Since I know each of us are aging everyday and Abuela won’t be around for much longer, I will one day become the family matriarch and I did save the miracle and all of you when Casita fell.”
The rest of the family hugged Mirabel before she pinned her trinket in the middle of the hat. She wanted hers to be in the center, since hers has the candle on it, she wanted to make sure Alma’s sign was right in the middle.
“I think Mama will love this hat. I’ll keep in my room on the dresser until tomorrow,” Julieta said, as the family made their way upstairs with the hat.
-------------------------------------------
The next day was a day of Alma spending time with the family for her birthday. They just had a special dinner together, but right before they wanted to bring in the cake, they wanted to bring in the hat to show Alma.
“Wait here, mama, we all chipped in for a present for you together,” Julieta said as she made her way upstairs to find the hat. Once she got back downstairs, she presented her mother with the hat they made the day before.
“We wanted to make something that represented us so you can always have a piece of us everywhere you go,” Pepa explained.
Alma shed a tear when she examined the hat and noticed all the trinkets, representing each of her children, grandchildren, and sons-in-law. She cried tears of joy for several more minutes before gathering her words together.
“This is the best gift I ever got for my birthday. It shows how much my children and grandchildren care so much for me and want me to have pieces of them everywhere I go. Gracias, mijos.”
“We figured that since you have been the backbone of this family since the miracle found us, we would give you a hat that represented yourself and the decorations representing each of us. Since we know that another year is going by and you won’t be around for much longer, we wanted to show our appreciation for you by making something you know you’d love,” Mirabel explained.
Alma cried some more before saying what she wanted to say. “And I do love it. I’ll be wearing this hat to church every Sunday now. All of you know how to make each of my birthdays better than the last.”
The family spent the rest of the day celebrating by eating the cake Julieta made for them and looking back on old memories of Alma. Knowing that she is a year older was a bittersweet feeling for everyone, but they would not trade any of her birthdays for the world.
#encanto#disney#disney encanto#disney's encanto#encantober#encantober 2023#day 21#age#abuela alma madrigal#julieta madrigal#agustin madrigal#pepa madrigal#felix madrigal#bruno madrigal#isabela madrigal#dolores madrigal#luisa madrigal#camilo madrigal#mirabel madrigal#antonio madrigal#birthday#hat#present#la familia madrigal
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For the valentines prompts: “see, this is the true meaning of valentine’s day.” “box wine and enough candy to kill a horse?!” “you heard me.” Encanto: Brunos and his sisters being aroace Allies by celebrating happy to be single day with him
Bruno can hear footsteps outside of his hiding place and heaves a deep and long suffering sigh. It was to be expected, after all.
"Alright, alright", he mutters as the door of the closet slowly opens and a beam of light hits his face. He doesn't look up. "Please spare me your disappointed frown, Mama. I wasn't hiding. I was just… looking for something and -"
He is interrupted by what feels like hundreds of small projectiles raining down on top of him. Bruno flinches and holds his arms up to cover his head, but it's more out of surprise than pain. When the attack is over he opens his eyes and sees dozens of small candies wrapped in colorful paper scattered around his crouched form. There are also some chocolates.
When he looks up it's not his mother but his two sisters who are standing in the doorway. Pepa is holding a basket upside down over his head, probably the same basket that had contained all the candy, and regards him with a wide grin. Julieta stands behind her and is holding two bottles of wine, also smiling.
"Make room, loser." Pepa commands and immediately squeezes herself into the closet. Bruno scoots backwards, crushing chocolate and candy beneath his butt on the way. Julieta wedges herself inside on his other side and pulls the door closed behind her. Pepa has a small sun hovering over her head, a clear sign of her good mood. It allows Bruno to stare into their faces and actually see them stare back.
"What do you want?"
"What do you mean, what do we want?" Pepa snarks back.
Julieta giggles and opens one of the bottles of wine. There are no cups, but no matter how well Alma has raised them, they have never really needed cups when it came to alcohol. Prim and proper Julieta takes a large sip right from the bottle before passing it on to her brother.
"We are here to show you the true meaning of Valentine's day."
Bruno winces at the mention of today's date. But where his mother has hounded him with demands to give chocolates to pretty much all the girls in hopes of one of them accepting them (and him), he knows that his sisters understand why he can't and doesn't want to do that.
He takes a mouthful of the wine and absent-mindedly notices that it's his favorite before passing it back to Juli. What did he do to deserve such wonderful sisters?
"So the true meaning is wine and enough candy to kill a horse?"
"I said what I said." Julieta leans around him and nudges Pepa. "Little miss popular got so much candy and chocolate, if she ate it all herself she would explode."
Pepa preens. Bruno picks one of the candies up and throws it into her hair. "So I'm getting your leftovers? Harsh!" He notices a small heart-shaped box that she holds on her lap and tries to snatch it away. Pepa lifts it out of his reach. "What about those?"
"No! Those are not for sharing. Those are mine!"
Julieta swings the bottle in an arch. Bruno has a feeling that it's not the first one she's started today. "Those are from Feeee-liiiiix", she sing-songs in a mocking tone.
Pepa snatches the bottle out of her hand. "Shut it, Juli! Don't think I didn't notice you squirreling away the pot of honey Gus gave you."
Bruno unwraps one of the candies and watches his sisters bicker back and forth. When he puts it into his mouth the taste is very sweet.
The true meaning of Valentine's day, huh? Despite everything, he thinks he can get behind that one.
********
Ahhhh aroace Bruno my beloved! Thanks for this wonderful prompt
I'm accepting prompts until February 14th💕
#encanto#encanto fanfic#encanto prompts#encanto triplets#encanto bruno madrigal#Encanto Pepa madrigal#Encanto Julieta madrigal#Aroace Bruno Madrigal#Aro Bruno madrigal#disney encanto#answered ask
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L & F: Poorly Hidden Gems
Oneshot Preview: Leandra stopped moving, her hand hovering over the open desk drawer. Sitting on top of the scrap paper was a dusty black ring box.
She looked at it for a long time, then looked at the tent’s entrance. She looked back at the ring box.
She shouldn’t.
Main Story CH 1 Master List
Leandra hummed as she walked into Casita, wearing the shawl Bruno had gotten her for their fourth anniversary. He hadn’t proposed yet, but he had made the wait bearable by being the sweetest boyfriend anyone had ever had in the history of ever.
For their first anniversary he had put together a scavenger hunt with a different small gift to accompany every clue. For their second he had taken her out stargazing and surprised her with a bangle engraved with her favorite constellation, something she had mentioned once in passing the night before he’d accidentally confessed his love. For their third he had tried to make her portrait with dried flowers, based off of something they had seen in one of his visions, but dried flowers turned out to be a tricky medium to work with; as a last minute substitute he took her for a picnic and tried to serenade her. And for their fourth, he had set up a “ball” in his room, using a record of waltz music to set the mood, and giving her a dress and shawl that did indeed make her feel like a princess.
Bruno could take all the time he needed to propose, it’s not like she didn’t know he loved her.
She kind of wished the rest of the town would shut their traps about the subject, but she had known when they got together that being with Bruno would mean being the subject of town gossip. Generally if somebody said something snide to her she could just brag about whatever piece of jewelry she was wearing that Bruno had gotten for her. Kind of hard for people to imply he wasn’t committed to her when he’d dropped what must have been a ridiculous amount of money to commission one of his vision tablets to be turned into an emerald necklace for her.
Although, considering how many times they had re-watched the moon landing, she suspected he had made a good chunk of change selling shattered visions to the town’s merchants. Leandra would have to ask.
If he wasn’t already doing that, it was something to consider before adopting kids.
There was nobody in Casita’s courtyard so Leandra didn’t pause on her way up the stairs. She heard snoring coming out of the nursery, and when she passed by she saw Félix conked out in the rocking chair, with both Isabela and Dolores sleeping in his lap.
Leandra smiled. She had planned to go straight to Bruno’s room, but it was worth it to pause and see if she could find somebody to enjoy this adorable scene with.
On nearly silent feet, she hurried back down the stairs and into the kitchen. Julieta was there, prepping food for tomorrow, holding her belly with one hand and stirring a pot with the other.
“Where’s Pepa?” Leandra asked.
“Visiting with Rosalie and Felípe, por que?”
“Because somebody has got to see how adorable Félix and the girls are right now!”
Julieta glanced at the pot, nibbling her lip, “Could you…?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Leandra subbed in and took over stirring what turned out to be chocolate, “try not to wake them.”
Julieta nodded, and waddled off as quickly and quietly as a heavily pregnant woman could. Leandra waited, stirring steadily until Julieta came back with a warm smile and a hand pressed to her chest.
“You think the flash would wake them if we took a picture?”
Leandra bit back a giggle, “I think it’s worth a shot.”
“Here, I’ll take over, see if you can find the camera. It should be in the closet by the laundry room,” Julieta took the spoon back and shooed Leandra off in search of the camera.
Leandra found it easily, she paused briefly in the kitchen to get the folding camera out of its bag and set to the right focal length, then carried it up the stairs. Funnily enough, the flash woke neither the toddlers, nor the tired father/uncle they were sleeping upon.
She grinned and quietly retreated before going to wind the film to the next exposure, then grinned even bigger.
“Looks like this roll is ready to be developed,” Leandra said, entering the kitchen and putting the camera down on the table, “if I go drop it off with Señor Cortez now we could have this photo in the album by the end of the week.”
Julieta shared her smile, then asked, “Do you want me to let Bruno know you stopped by if he finishes his visions before you get back?”
“Nah, I’ll just leave him a note,” she shrugged, putting the roll of film in a canister and replacing it with a new roll. Once she had the camera put back in its bag, and the bag back in the closet, Leandra went back upstairs and straight to Bruno’s room.
He had taken to doing vision requests Monday and Wednesday, each of them had to be scheduled at least a week in advance, and he made it very clear he would give priority to questions involving somebody’s health, safety, or livelihood over questions about somebody’s personal life. And she even got him to refuse to do visions for people whose question boiled down to “Will I get older?”.
Leandra had actually been able to convince Señora Alma it was what was best for the village. She had pointed out that Bruno pushing himself to fulfill any and every request left him exhausted, which might potentially make it harder for him to detect emergencies. On the other hand, if Bruno focused on visions that came naturally to him, he still found useful information, but he also had more energy to investigate potential danger.
With that in mind, Alma had happily taken on the brunt of convincing the village. Nobody could argue with “We need to be prepared for famines and floods, not disappointing Birthday gifts”.
On top of that, whenever a kid asked to see something cool, like the Mars robot, or the World Cup, Bruno was usually able to fit that vision in during his down time. People assumed it was the kid, and not the easy vision itself, that Bruno was willing to bend the rules for. As such, his reputation as “Tío Bruno”, uncle to all children, was coming along quite nicely.
Leandra grinned to herself, thinking of how adorable Bruno looked with the village children piled all over him while he explained the future/history of the Space Race.
Today he was doing a vision for one of the merchants, who wanted to know if coffee or wine would sell better in the city this year. After that, he was going to check what the weather would be like during the Church’s blanket drive, so Padré would know whether or not he needed to ask Pepa for help. Then, if he still had the energy, he would check to see if the Guzmans were going to have another son, or a baby girl.
Leandra greeted one of the rats when she entered the cave, either Arepa or Squash, she couldn’t tell. The other rat could be seen in the open chicken coop, running in the little wheel Bruno had made for them. That was probably Squash, she was usually the more energetic of the twins.
Bruno’s tent was in its usual state of organized chaos, although it had become slightly less chaotic the longer they’d dated. Over time, he had explained the reason for every mess in his room, and they had come up with ways to make the mess less messy.
He had another set of drawers, and multiple laundry baskets now, to make it easier for him to separate his clothes by degree of dirtiness. There was an old crate next to his cushion pile for him to put the books he planned to read next in, and another crate for him to put the books he’d just finished. There wasn’t much she could do about him having to weigh down the blankets on the bed so he could see if there were rats under there, but she’d made some little rat statues out of clay for him to use. They were pretty rough, and one of them looked more like a potato with ears than a rat, but he loved them all the same.
She crossed to his desk, ignoring the blank pieces of paper sitting on top of it. If the paper was out Bruno had already decided what he would write on it, and moving it would make him feel like he couldn’t write that story. He’d never been able to put into words why he felt that way, but it was easy enough to open the drawer and get out a new piece of paper, so she’d let it go.
She grabbed one of the pens off the desk, moving those around was alright, and opened the drawer.
Leandra stopped moving, her hand hovering over the open desk drawer. Sitting on top of the scrap paper was a dusty black ring box.
She looked at it for a long time, then looked at the tent’s entrance. She looked back at the ring box.
She shouldn’t.
Leandra bit her lip.
She really shouldn’t.
Leandra closed the desk drawer. She would just ask Juli to let him know she stopped by after all. Or, she could leave her shawl on his pillow, that would let him know she was there and planning to come back soon.
Yeah, that’s what she would do.
If she were a saint.
Leandra opened the desk drawer, pulled out the ring box, and opened it. Unsurprisingly, it held a ring. An expensive looking ring with two emeralds either side an actual diamond. The band was silver, and engraved with little hour glasses.
“Whoa,” she said, out loud, then, “this better be an engagement ring or I’m going to have to talk to him about his spending habits.”
He couldn’t go around dropping this sort of money on her on regular occasions, especially when they had kids. Even if he was selling his surplus visions as emerald jewelry.
Fortunately, there was a folded up piece of paper crammed into the lid of the ring box. Since she’d already snooped this much, she pulled the note out, carefully put the box down, then unfolded the worn paper.
Bruno’s handwriting greeted her, most of it was written with black ink, but every few lines he’d crossed something out with a blue pen and written something else. The most edited sentence was the very first one.
It read, “Leandra, we have been together for a year, two, three, four years now.”
Leandra stopped reading. She stopped breathing too. When the implications were done setting in, she took a deep breath, picked up the ring box, and carried it over to the cushion pile. She sat down gingerly, braced herself, then kept reading.
“Everyday we spend together is the happiest day of my life. I can never put into words how lucky I feel to be with you. I’ve tried going into detail how beautiful you are, but only ended up saying ‘your blank is really pretty’ fifty times in a row. I’ve tried explaining how much happier I am when we’re together, but, because I was trying to avoid the mistake I made when I tried describing how beautiful you are, I ended up sounding like I swallowed a thesaurus. I’ve tried bringing as much joy and light into your life as you’ve brought into mine, but no amount of flowers or jewelry could ever compare to the love you’ve given me. I want to tell you I could spend hours lying next to you, looking for constellations in your freckles, I could go years listening to you laugh in place of music, I could spend eternity in your arms and never grow restless. But every time I try, the words come out stuttered and stilted. Even now, I know I’m not saying this right. In short, I have failed over and over to express how much I love you, but if you’ll let me, I’ll spend everyday for the rest of my life trying again and again. Reina, will you marry me?”
Leandra pressed a hand to her mouth, tears streaming down her face. Then she giggled happily to herself. Well, that proposal would certainly be worth the wait.
If he ever got up the nerve, that is.
Leandra glanced at the ring box in her lap, and the sparkling ring. Again, she knew she shouldn’t do the thing she was thinking of doing…
But…
Bruno had had the ring and the proposal ready to go for three years now. Sure, there was a tiny thorn of insecurity, telling her he hadn’t proposed because he didn’t want to marry her; however, there was no way that was true. Bruno was blunter than a club to the back of the head, any thought that passed through his head had a fifty/fifty shot of coming out his mouth before he’d thought better of it.
He had once asked her to wear “that shirt that makes your breasts look twice as large” on their next date. While they were having dinner with his family.
To be fair to him, the reason he’d wanted her to wear that shirt was not for the aesthetic, it was because she’d wanted to try painting so he’d gone out and bought a bunch of art supplies. He had wanted to surprise her, and knew she wasn’t attached to that shirt, that she wouldn’t be too sad if she got paint on it. So, he figured he wouldn’t have to tell her what he had planned so long as she knew to wear that shirt.
Unfortunately for him, however, the most distinguishing feature of that particular blouse was indeed that it made her chest look several sizes bigger. Bruno had just failed to consider how his words would sound out loud, until he’d already said them.
The look of instantaneous regret on his face was so pitiable that his mother had just pretended not to have heard him.
Pepa had not been as merciful. When she had seen the shirt in question she had joyfully turned to Julieta and declared, “He was right!” then had called out for Félix and asked him if he thought she could pull off that shade of green. When he had said “Of course mi vida”, Pepa had asked to borrow the top. Meanwhile, Bruno stood next to Leandra, blushing so hard Leandra worried he’d pass out from blood loss and looking miserable.
Needless to say, Leandra had not leant her the shirt.
The point was, if Bruno wasn’t in love with her anymore, he would not have been able to hide it. If he didn’t want to marry her, he probably would have accidentally said so by now.
She didn’t waste another second thinking about it, as far as she cared, Bruno had hesitated enough for the both of them.
Leandra pulled the ring out of the box, she paused long enough to read the inscription on the inside of the band, “Mi Reina”, then slipped it on the ring finger of her right hand. Hopefully, Bruno intended to follow the tradition of using the same ring as both the engagement ring and the wedding band, and just switching the ring from the right hand to the left at the wedding. If he planned to follow the new trend of getting a diamond ring for the engagement and a separate band for the wedding she really was going to have to talk to him about making a budget going forward.
Next, she carefully folded up his prepared speech, tucked it back into the lid of the ring box, then put the box in her pocket. Eventually, she’d have it framed, but for now it would be safe in the box.
Finally she stood and left her shawl on his pillow like she’d intended, then left Casita as if nothing had changed.
A few people noticed the ring on her hand as she walked through town, and various eyebrows were raised, but nobody said anything. When she dropped her roll of film with Señor Cortez, along with some money for his trouble, he paused to stare at the ring wide eyed, then looked at her with a question in his gaze.
Leandra smiled politely back, “I’m actually thinking we might surprise Félix and Pepa with the last picture on the roll, so don’t mention that you’re developing the pictures to either of them.”
“Right,” he said slowly, “you got it.”
“Gracias Señor,” she called, walking away.
Instead of returning to Casita, she walked up the mountain to her home. There was something she needed to grab before heading back.
Meanwhile, Bruno handed the young Guzman couple their vision. They cooed over the baby girl sleeping in Mariano’s old crib, then thanked him. Bruno smiled tiredly at them.
“Ay, we should go, you probably need some rest,” Señor Guzman said.
“Sí, but thank you for this. Truly, we appreciate it,” Señora Guzman agreed.
“My pleasure,” Bruno said, although his voice came out sounding a bit rough with exhaustion, “this- uh, after watching trade deals get negotiated a-and the weather, this was actually really nice. B-babies are cute.”
The Guzmans smiled at him and thanked him some more, as he walked them to his door. Señor Guzman shaking his hand just before they left.
Bruno had been practicing telling people what he liked or didn’t like in his visions. Leandra continued to insist people would love him, warts and all, if they just knew him a little better. She had figured telling people when their vision was pleasant, or cute, or exciting, might help them to see what a “sweet, gentle, warm, compassionate man you are”. And telling them when the vision made him sad would show he wasn’t a sadist getting off on their misfortune.
So far, it was working out well. Actually, last week he had seen the librarian’s death when his son came in asking about his father’s illness. Leandra had been there when he had the vision and she had insisted Bruno tell the other man how important the librarian was to him.
He had expected the guy to get angry, but instead the man had stared at the glowing tablet for a while, then he had broken down crying. Leandra helped Bruno comfort him and when the man left, he gave Bruno a sad smile and thanked him for talking him through it.
Maybe Bruno should leave Encanto and head to Hollywood, Leandra would make a great agent.
He chuckled at the idea as he entered his tent.
The shawl he had gotten her was resting on his pillow, neatly folded up. She must have finished her chores and stopped by while he was working.
He picked it up and collapsed onto the bed, content to doze until she came back.
Another anniversary had gone by with the ring he’d had made for her burning a hole in his pocket. A part of him wondered how Leandra was still putting up with his lack of proposal. She had certainly thrown herself into the role of wife without any hesitation.
He told her why his room was such a mess, and instead of telling him how weird he was, she had worked with him to find better solutions. She had started translating conversations between him and his mother, since she understood both of them better than they understood each other. Any time somebody spoke poorly of him, she jumped to his defense without a second thought, and had poured so much time and energy into making sure he had some friends. Or at least some people who didn’t think he was a brujo.
He thought fondly of their anniversary date, when he, upset that he still couldn’t work up the nerve to propose, had asked her if the fact he was an awkward mess bothered her.
“Of course not,” she laughed as if the idea was ridiculous, “come on Bruno, you’re already kind, witty, brave, and a good kisser. You gotta save some perfect for the rest of us.”
Then she had kissed him and tacked on, “To be honest, I think the awkward just makes you more charming, if that makes sense.”
“It doesn’t,” he’d told her.
She had shrugged, “I don’t know, it’s just, sometimes you’ll be fumbling over your words and it’ll make me want to drag you off and do dirty things to you.”
“Wow,” he’d smirked at her a little, “you-, sounds like you’re some sorta weirdo.”
Leandra had giggled and the conversation had devolved into flirting, and despite his disappointment with himself, Bruno had had an excellent anniversary. How could he not? He was spending it with her.
He napped off the post vision exhaustion for an unknowable amount of time, falling from pleasant thoughts to pleasant dreams and back again. At some point he was vaguely aware of one of his rats snuggling up to the crook between his neck and shoulder. At another he dreamt he was reading an instruction manual about programming your DVR to Isabela.
Then his door opened and closed, and light booted feet started clicking their way down his stone steps. He yawned and rubbed at his eyes.
“Hey,” he murmured when Leandra entered his tent.
“Hola, how you feeling?” Her voice was cautious and quiet.
“Fine, no headaches today, just needed a nap,” he said, reaching up to gently pet whichever one of the twins was resting against his shoulder.
“Ah, bien. Give me your right hand,” she sat next to him on the bed.
Bruno didn’t question it, he handed her his right hand and closed his eyes again, feeling content. Something cool and metal slipped onto his ring finger.
“Just to let you know,” Leandra started, voice light.
“Mm-hm?” he asked, through a yawn.
“We’re engaged now.”
Bruno’s eyes popped open.
Still sitting over him, Leandra held up his right hand so he could see the golden band on his ring finger, “It’s my birth father’s ring, it’s one of the few things I have left of my birth parents, but if you want something as fancy as the one you got me-.”
She cut herself off when he made a choked sound in the back of his throat. He pulled his hand out of hers so he could grab her right wrist. Sure enough, she was wearing the ring he’d been struggling to give her for years now.
He stared at it in horror.
“Bruno?”
“I am so sorry.”
“What?” Leandra’s confusion only lasted a split second, before she gave him a slightly exasperated look, “Why? What do you think you’ve done wrong this time?”
“What do you mean-? You-? I didn’t propose!”
“Details,” Leandra shrugged.
“No it’s not?! I-, you’ve been so patient, s-so good to me, the least I could do is, is, y’know, actually propose to you!”
Leandra opened her mouth, judging by the stubborn glint in her eye she was planning to argue, but then she sighed and instead said, “To be honest, yeah, it would have been great if you’d actually proposed. But, I’m not upset about the fact that you didn’t. I know you Bruno, I have seen the way your anxiety paralyzes you when it comes to things like this. I don’t… when it matters, when somebody you love needs help, you’re one hundred percent ready to be the hero. So, it’s ok if you struggle with these-. Well, ok, I wish you didn’t feel like you can’t ask for what you want. But so long as I can count on you to be brave when it’s important, you can count on me to be brave for stuff like this.”
Bruno stared at her, slowly he sat up.
She smiled quietly at him.
He sighed through his nose, kissed her, then whispered, “You deserved a good proposal.”
“I deserve a good man,” Leandra corrected him, “and I have one. The rest would just be icing.”
“Let me-. Saturday, let’s go on a date, r-really, I have a speech ready and-.” He stopped talking, if she’d found the ring, that means she’d probably found the speech he’d prepared as well, “I-I can write another speech, a better one!”
“Don’t you dare!” Leandra huffed at him, “The speech you already wrote brought me to tears, I’m going to have it framed and put it on my nightstand.”
“W-well then I can edit it, make it look nicer.”
“No. I am framing it as is. That way, if I ever wonder whether or not you love me, I can look at your proposal and remind myself that you spent three years wanting to ask me to marry you.”
“I am so, so, so sorry.”
“I’m not,” Leandra kissed the tip of his nose, “it’s actually really romantic, in a ‘my fiancé is so shy but loves me deeply’ sort of way.”
“I-I do, love you, very deeply,” Bruno leaned his forehead against hers. The tension was beginning to leak out of his shoulders. He would propose to her officially on Saturday, but until then, at least she wasn’t upset.
“I love you deeply too.”
He took deep breaths, holding her hand and leaning his forehead against hers, until the guilt and nerves settled. Then he stared down at their joined hands, silver and gold rings sitting side by side on their interlaced fingers.
“We’re engaged now,” he whispered.
“We are.”
Then he frowned, a worrisome thought occurred to him, “H-how did you find the ring? Did you uh- did you find the vows too?”
“You’ve written your own vows?” Leandra sat up straight, face beaming with excitement.
“N-nevermind, forget I said that,” Bruno chuckled nervously, “vows? What vows? I-I can’t even write!”
Obviously not fooled, she giggled and pressed her fond grin against his embarrassed frown, “I went into your desk drawer for some fresh paper and the ring was just sitting on top.”
“Oh. Right. Oops.”
“I’ll have to get started on my own vows then.”
Bruno’s face burned, but he smiled, “You don’t have to, j-just because I’m doing it.”
“No, no, I want to,” she squeezed his hand, “I love you guapo, and I don’t ever want anyone to doubt that. Especially not you.”
He chuckled, grinning now, and gave her a lingering kiss. When he pulled back, he examined her face for any sign she was just indulging him, but all he saw was love.
So he said, “I love you too, Reina.”
A/N: This is currently the last Leandra focused fic I have planned. I want to explore how Mirabel’s story changes if Bruno is hanging around with a wife and kids, so I’m technically going to do a little more with this universe, but I don’t have any other stories about Leandra I want to write. So I’ll be a little sad when this escapes my queue, it’s not the end of her story, but after this she makes the transition from plucky protagonist to loyal mentor. This is my first time building an OC from scratch so I wasn’t ready to feel like my kid is running off to college :(
#bruno madrigal#bruno madrigal x female oc#bruno madrigal x oc#bruno encanto#love and fury#bruno madrigal fanfic#fanfic#encanto#foggy writes
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Mi Hija, Mi Flor
Agustín rubbed his eyes as he headed down the upper balcony to bed. Antonio’s party had lasted long into the night, despite the guest of honor having been put to bed hours ago. His fingers ached from the amount of piano playing he had done and he had even filled in for one of the tiple players after they had too much to drink. Music was one of his greatest passions, but the downside was that he had only had a single dance with his wife. Mirabel’s interruption aside, everything had gone smoothly enough and Alma had seemed pleased enough, albeit chilly towards himself and Julieta at the end of the night. He tried not to take it too personally. He wasn’t quite sure what Mirabel had seen himself, but when he had knocked on her door, she had only asked to be left alone to sleep, so he figured he’d try again early tomorrow.
Besides, he had one more thing weighing on his mind and that was the plan for his eldest’s engagement. It was set to take place very soon and something was nagging at him about it. There was no harm in trying to investigate whether it was a father’s instinct or simply nothing.
Stopping at Isabela’s door, he gave a knock and a “come in” greeted him from inside.
“Hola, mi flor,” Agustín smiled, carefully stepping inside to avoid crushing any growing roses beneath his shoes.
“Papi!” Isabela was now a young woman, but he never tired of the way her eyes lit up when he was near her. He wanted to know that she still needed him even after all these years. She smiled and flung her arms around him. They hadn’t had much time that night to talk. Noticing that his flower was slightly wilted from the heat of the day, Isabela waved her hand over it, immediately refreshing it. Agustín smiled.
“Much better. It should be good to wear even tomorrow.”
“I have a new one for you already growing,” Isabela remarked motioning towards one of her favorite garden patches.
“Ah, my amazing garden girl! You’ve always got something wonderful planned.
Isabela blushed at her father’s praise. “I know you like zinnias, so I’ve been trying to grow more of them.”
“You know I like anything you grow.” Agustín kissed the top of his daughter’s head and pulled her tightly to him in a side embrace as he looked with wonder at her rose covered room. And not a bee in sight. Perfect.
“I need to talk to you about something,” Agustín said, his tone turning serious as he turned to look at Isabela. She rolled her eyes and sat down at her vanity to brush her hair before bed.
“Don’t ask me,” she huffed. “I don’t know what Mirabel’s problem is. She was acting ridiculous as usual if you ask me.”
“I didn’t ask you.” Agustín said, in a chiding voice. “And you will not speak of your sister like that.”
Seeing how his eldest daughter immediately hung her head, he softened his voice.
“Try to be understanding, mi flor. I’m not sure what Mira saw today, but we know she has a good heart and loves Antonio. Tonight was stressful and hard for her and she needs us to know that, despite how she might have acted.”
Slightly abashed, Isabela nodded. Agustín was a gentle disciplinarian, but his scoldings always made her shrink a bit, like they did when she was little.
“Lo siento, papí”
“It’s okay, but…” her father continued sitting on a chair opposite her, “I’m not here to talk about Mirabel. I’m here to talk about you.”
“About what?” Isabela asked, although she partially knew already. She evaded his eyes and pretended to get a stubborn snarl out of her glossy locks.
“About your upcoming engagement with Mariano.”
“What about it?” Isabela flipped her hair in a show of confidence, but Agustín wasn’t fooled.
“Do you really want to marry him?”
“Of course I do, he’s perfect!”
She spoke sincerely, but so suddenly and Agustín was caught off guard. He had barely finished speaking when she answered and, although others would have accepted her answer without question, Agustín knew his daughter too well. The slight raise in her voice and stiffening of her posture. She was trying too hard. She was always trying too hard and now she was trying too hard to lie to her own father. Agustín frowned slightly and scooted the chair closer. He lowered his head just a bit more so their eyes met directly.
“Really? You do?”
Isabela was silent for an uncomfortably long time, effectively answering her fathers question.
“Why…why wouldn’t I?”
In a movement reminiscent of her mother, Isa clasped her hands in front of her. Her fingers twisting together so hard that her knuckles turned white was not lost on Agustín and he sighed inwardly.
“That wasn’t my question.” At this last statement, Isabela’s face regained the same scowl she had had with Mirabel earlier that evening. Her fingers tightened around her silver hairbrush and the heat curled in her stomach.
“Papí, I don’t know what you want me to say. Abuela is happy about the match and you and mama like Mariano.”
“I didn’t ask about Abuela’s opinion and I didn’t ask what you thought your mother and I want,” Agustín pressed. Inwardly, he felt terrible. Isabela was clearly not interested in answering him directly and that told him everything he needed to know. He hated pushing her like this, but he needed her to know she didn’t have to do anything. A terrible feeling weighed on him that she hid more than she admitted. He would know. She was so like her mother
“Furthermore,” Agustín continued, resting his hand on Isabelas vanity. “Your mother and I only care about your happiness and well being.”
“I am happy!”
“Isa…”
“You couldn’t ask for a better son in law!”
“Yes, I could actually. I could ask for one that my daughter actually loves and wants to marry. I have nothing against Mariano or his family. They are wonderful people, but if he isn’t wonderful for you then quite frankly I don’t want him as your husband.”
Isabela sat as stiff as a statue and stared at her reflection. She wanted to run into Agustin’s arms and cry, begging him to free her from this horrid arrangement that brought a pit to her stomach every time she thought about it. She liked Mariano well enough— as a friend. She didn’t want to marry him at all, but family duty came first and she knew that her father would be on board if he thought it was what she actually wanted. She knew he was excited about the prospect of his daughters weddings and would hate to disappoint him too. She would hate to disappoint.
Would hate to disappoint…
“Isa, are you okay? I didn’t mean to upset you.” Her father reached his hand out and placed it on hers and something started to crack. “I just want you to be happy.”
Isa started feeling odd. She felt her body relax and slump forward as she hugged Agustín. She fought it as hard as she could, but a tear escapes her eye and soaked into his collar. Then another. Suddenly the flower he wore began to change. It went from pink to green and suddenly blue and gold hues streaked through it. The petels lengthened and curled at the ends and small vines emerged from the bottom. Startled, Agustín’s eyes grew wide and Isabela gasped when she saw it.
“Whoa, look at that!” Agustín stared in wonder. He had never seen such a thing before and gaped at his daughter, who seemed equally stunned.
As fast as it had started, it stopped. Isabela took a breath, regaining her composure, and the flower changed back into Agustins favorite pink Zinnia.
“Papi! What was that?”
“I don’t know, but it was amazing! What did you do?”
“I have no idea…” Isabela looked at the flower with a furrowed brow. “I…don’t know.”
“Well you must be even more talented than people already think. And I know everyone thinks you’re amazing and they are right. Truly. But Isa, i just want you to be happy. More than anything else.”
“I’m fine. I’m happy. Papi, you told me from the very beginning that I could decide and I want to marry him. I mean it. Please…just be there for me. I need you to be.”
Agustín looked at his eldest for what seemed like an uncomfortably long time.
“Please!” Isa continued. “Be there like you’re always there for me…you know…when you put your party pants on?” She wiggled her hips in an imitation of his ridiculous dance and when he laughed, she swore she saw his flower flash gold again.
“If you say so.” Agustín said. “You’re a grown woman and I’ll take you on your word. But Isa, i promise you can back out anytime you want and I will support you. Your choice. This is serious. If you want me at the dinner tomorrow smiling alongside you, then I will do it…”
“Yes, that’s what I do want!” Isa said, crossing her arms defiantly.
“Alright, alright. I just said I would.” Agustín took both her arms in his hands and, although desperate for her to hear him, kept his voice calm. “ I need you to listen to me for a minute. If you back out tomorrow, fine. If you back out next week, no harm done. If I’m walking you down the aisle at the wedding and you change your mind then, just pull on my arm and tell me. I promise you that what will happen next will be me walking with you straight out of the church.”
Isabela stared at her father, wide eyed. “What? Then…no wedding?”
“Not that day anyway.” Agustín looked completely serious. She had not been expecting him to say that. She couldn’t help but ask.
“Well…then what?”
“What do you think?” Agustín shrugged. “Then we run.”
Isabela giggled and her heart soared in excitement at the thought. It might have been her imagination again, but the flower on her fathers vest turned green and gold at the edges. “Papí, you are ridiculous.”
“Guilty as charged.”
“Abuela would be SO mad.”
“She’d be fine. I’ll tell her it was my fault. She can yell at me all she wants. Wouldn’t be the first time. Won’t be the last.”
“But…all the guests!”
“We can still have a party”
“Papi!”
“What? I’m not backing out on a party. It can be your un-wedding day.”
Isabela couldn’t help but laugh giddily at the slightly scandalous thought of walking out on her own wedding and then still celebrating that night.
“And what about mamí?”
“I have my ways of calming your mother.”
Isa cringed. Ewww, she thought. Spare me.
Agustín blushed slightly and chuckled. “That’s not what I meant, but…”
“Please stop,” his daughter said, laughing and making gagging noises at the same time . “I don’t want any nightmares.”
“Alright, well. Speaking of nightmares, it’s probably time to sleep. I know you’re all fancy and grown up, but get some rest at least for your old papi’s sake, okay?”
Isabela nodded and tried to pretend she hadn’t heard this from him and Julieta half a million times.
“Okay. Deal.”
“Remember what I said. I meant every word of it. If you aren’t happy and comfortable, nothing else will matter.”
“I’ll try.” Isabela linked her arm with his and walked him towards the door. “I will.”
Agustín rested his hand on the knob and kissed her forehead. “Good. I love you, Isabela.”
“I love you too, Papí. Buenes noches.”
“Buenes noches, mi flor.”
After Agustín had left, Isabela stood for a long time facing her door. At the the image on it of her perfectly posing and creating symmetrical roses and maintaining a placid face, always in agreement with those around her. Never breaking. Always perfect. After what seemed like hours, she finally went to bed but found it hard to fall asleep.
When she finally did, she dreamt of her father’s zinnia, flashing gold, blue and green.
Dedicated to @allofasudden00 and @ginnyweatherby. Happiest of birthdays and here’s to many, many more.
🌸
#encanto fandom#agustin madrigal#isabela madrigal#father daughter moments#Agustín loves his daughters#he knows#Isabela and Agustín have a moment
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Now that I think about it, Alma would be utterly petrified of the outside once she learns that there's a whole war going on.
To me, her first reaction would be to tell everyone (mainly her family) to stay within the Encanto. Just as a trauma response of sorts? I mean, the last time she dealt with a war her husband (and probably many others) died. (And I could be wrong but, were the people raiding Alma's town apart of a war? if not, let me know.)
So, her reaction would be to keep her family safe. But my question is, how do you think the madrigals would react to her doing this?
On one hand, I think some would be compliant because it's there a war going on and people can die from those. Staying somewhere safe is the best option.
But on the other hand, I think most of them would be like "I want to see what else is out there"
Also, personally, how do you think she would react?
And I had this idea where Isabela (and possibly the rest of the family) wants to go out and see the world and Mirabel kind of feels like "We just started bonding as a family and now you want to leave?!". Bonus if Alma feels that way too.
But that's just what I think.
Completely agree!
Alma would be terrified but, considering her character growth, I don’t think she’d want to place a foot down so hard. She wouldn’t want to stop anyone from leaving, in risk of limiting/controlling the family again.
Julieta, being the healer and the one exposed to horrific injuries, I imagine would have similar views to her mother. She probably would try to subtly try to convince people not to do so.
Mirabel as well. She’d absolutely take it awfully. And, she’s clearly one of the biggest homebodies in the family - I don’t think she could comprehend staying a night out of Casita at a friend’s house, let alone leaving Encanto. Like, what the heck, Isa?
The rest of the family, Isabela being at the top of the list, would all have a desire to see the outside world. While the others probably only leave for a short time to the closest towns/cities, Isabela would be going for months at a time and wouldn’t limit herself to just the local Colombian cities.
After a few trips with no harm, Julieta would cool off and could possibly be tempted to leave as well. Alma would be relieved and more comfortable letting her family go, but that underlying trauma of losing Pedro would still be there. Mirabel would never really back down the same way - her and Isa’s relationship definitely strained during the height of Isabela’s travel years. (They are okay again now, they worked through it).
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I think if I had to sum up my analysis regarding the story of the family and Bruno, it would be simply that BOTH parties should have been there for each other, and yet at one point….they weren’t, and that’s the sad reality. So…..while we don’t know the full story of course, it always felt to me that Bruno’s sisters, his brothers in law, and even his mother cared for him, and tried their best to support him. We see that his sisters clearly missed him when he was gone, Félix and Agustín are nothing but supportive guys, and even his mother cared for him, which is one of the reasons why I personally think she was so torn when he left, because she thought he didn’t care about them. It seems like over time however, as his reputation with the village got harder and harder, that’s when he isolated himself, becoming distant from the family like Jared had said. Not only was he an introvert who was already uncomfortable around some people, but the burden and stress of things not going his way to help the family, his reputation of being a bad omen, someone who brought nothing but negativity to a family and village that wanted to feel safe….all took a really heavy toll on him. At the same time, it must have been frustrating for the family as well. Dolores described them as “fumbling” in her verse, not really understanding of his prophecies and constantly on edge because of it. They love one another and probably wanted to help him out, but at the same time it was difficult, because he brought negative prophecy after negative prophecy in their eyes, and it wasn’t helping anyone.
I can see some of the members trying to reach out to Bruno, to help and try to works things out, not just for themselves, but for all of them as a family. Sadly, there was probably a point where nobody was getting anywhere, Bruno was distancing himself, and the family meanwhile wanted everything to be good, for everyone to feel safe and happy (which includes Bruno of course.) It also doesn’t help that at the time, Pepa and Julieta were probably under pressure because of their gifts, and even Félix and Agustín, being new additions to the family and all. I definitely see while characters like Isabela and Dolores were around, the relationship between Bruno and his sisters became a little strained, not just because of Pepa’s wedding fiasco, but because they’re genuinely trying to reach to him, and yet he keeps pushing himself away. I see him coming out occasionally to interact with his family as well as of course give Dolores and Isabela their visions, yet when that’s all done, he goes back to his tower, much to his family’s dismay. This would eventually cause a lot of frustrations and lack of communications within the family, because they’re all going through their own things, yet at the same time want to please each other, and on TOP of that, they want to please the village. The family trying their best to love and help each other, but not really understand someone like Bruno at the same time is what sparks the obstacles for this family. It’s one of the reasons why I felt Julieta had told Mirabel that Bruno “lost his way in the family”- because in her eyes they tried to come together, it didn’t end up working, and then he left, without anyone knowing why, and resenting him for doing so. I personally think one of the reasons they were so upset is that they felt they could have FIXED things with him. Even if they didn’t know how, they could have fixed this one way or another, in a normal functional family’s case, talking things out would be the best alternative, and yet instead of doing so, Bruno left, because in his eyes there WAS no alternative, or maybe he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.
I had remembered a time when a question I was dying to know was if Bruno’s sisters or any other members tried to stand up for him when the village spoke badly of him (and this would be before he left). Luckily, someone at one point asked Jared exactly that, and this is what he responded with:
And he’s absolutely correct. Family dynamics ARE complicated, just like people are complicated, they’re layered. Again, we don’t know the full story, but ONE thing is clear, the family did care for Bruno.
And so….circling back to what I said above, the reason why I said that both parties weren’t there for one another as time went on, is because it has to do with the point of Encanto, the point of the movie that I’ve been saying a lot over time. That point being, the Madrigals are a family that love each other, but over time they lost sight of what was important. They were so focused on keeping their miracle and pleasing the village as well as others, that they forgot to be there for one another, and it didn’t help that they had their OWN struggles as well. With the family, I’ll say that they could have tried to clear his name (and this would be BEFORE he left not after), or tried to understand his prophecies, but they didn’t, and with Bruno, he could have TALKED to his family, but he didn’t as well. Which I have to say real quick for the Bruno lovers that yes, we ALL love Bruno, and he had the best intentions when he left the family, but people need to keep in mind that at the same time, what he did was wrong. He shouldn’t have blocked himself off, he should have tried to fix things, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it because of the fear of what would happen. Both sides care for one another, but they don’t know what to do, they lack communication skills, they’re stumped. And once Bruno DID leave, things took a toll for the worst. Not only did the family from their perspective have NO idea why he did it, but once Mirabel didn’t get her gift the same day, the fear in Alma changed her, causing her to be more stern and strict on the family, growing her toxic facade we see in the film. She didn’t think that he cared about the family, and from that the family stopped talking about Bruno. Any pent up anger, sadness, frustration, all of that needed to be hidden in the adult Madrigals, because they had to keep their perfect facade, not let the other sides to them show, and not break down. Jared had confirmed that the cracks started when Bruno left, so it really DID take an emotional toll on everyone, as well as Abuela’s expectations raising….and of course while all of THIS was going on, Bruno was secretly behind the walls, patching the cracks.
And so, we come to the ending, where the family reunited with him. I’ve seen a lot of people want the family to apologize to him for quote “talking shit behind his back” (even though they all had a right to resent him and even not really consider him family after leaving for 10 YEARS GASP unpopular opinion I guess because people seem to forget that they didn’t know why he left in their eyes, and they had stopped talking about him) but I wanted the family to apologize to him just for everything he’s been through, and assure him that things will be better, and that he won’t feel alone. And when you think about it, that’s exactly what we got in the movie. For starters, some people think that Bruno was apologizing for no reason, or that he didn’t need to, and that’s not true. He was apologizing for a lot of things, but mainly for leaving, as well as Pepa’s wedding. A lot of people seem to overlook the lyrics to “All of You”, because you have Alma who tells him to his face that the miracle isn’t a gift, its HIM, and his sisters who tell him the words “No matter what happens, we’re going to find our way”, which is obviously implying that they’re going to get through this, and no matter what is broken, it’s nothing they can’t fix. Even though Bruno was apologizing, you could tell that none of the members cared anymore, they were just freaking HAPPY to have him back, happy to know that he was alive and well, and with them. The family (and I mean EVERY member) was all under pressure and while they didnt act the best, they now know that they can work to grow and better themselves and their relationships in a better way— hence why they had to work together to rebuild Casita brick by brick, which is symbolizing them rebuilding the family. There could have been tears, hardships, make-ups, and apologies for all we know during that time the house was built, but most importantly, you SEE how happy everyone was to see Bruno, they truly did miss him, it was just the lack of communication, the hidden feelings and expectations that got in the way. Even if the ending was rushed you could say, you can tell that the family is working to be better, talking things out now, knowing that they’re not alone and that they can fix what’s broken over time.
To get to the bottom of it, people always fight over which side is in the wrong, people blame the family, and some blame Bruno. The way I see I see it, BOTH sides are in the wrong, because not everything is black and white. The story of Bruno and the family is certainly something that’s complex, deep, layered, and complicated, but the overall message in my eyes is that Bruno could have talked things out, and so could the family. They both are in the wrong, but that doesn’t mean they’re horrible people, or didn’t care for one another. The lesson to be learned is that communication is the key, don’t hide yourself, talk with your family members, open up about things, even if it could be messy. But…to quote Bruno……“OOOOR….MAYBE I’M WRONG! It’s a mystery!” So yeah…keep in mind that almost….almost EVERYTHING I said was speculation and interpretation. I just wanted to try to deep dive into the family and Bruno for a bit, and discuss MY personal thoughts on what I thought went down with the events that we didn’t get to see. So this post was mainly my two personal cents, so if you disagree with me, that’s perfectly okay! You’re opinions are valid, and I would love to know y’all’s thoughts and what you think went down with Bruno and the family. This is definitely why we need a series, I really hope to see more explorations and all, but for now, enjoy my theories and all! Thank you for reading! 💚
#encanto#disney’s encanto#walt disney animation studios#jared bush#disney animation#walt disney#family madrigal#mirabel madrigal#alma madrigal#bryon Howard#charise castro smith#disney analysis#encanto analysis#encanto theory#encanto themes#pedro madrigal#pepa madrigal#julieta madrigal#bruno madrigal#luisa magridal#isabela madrigal#dolores madrigal#antonio madrigal#camilo madrigal#felix madrigal#agustín madrigal#encanto movie#long post#la familia madrigal
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I am excited to see more about the spider verse au
OH WORD❓❗
Well. Lucky you. I have content. Also!!! The au isn't mine, it belongs to @queenofthespiderverse ❓❗ but yeah. I did need to sumn for this au. More love <33
BUT YEAHHH. MIRABEL AND CAMILO...THE SILLIES...
lea get it
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Mirabel climbed on the wall, moving slowly. She didn't want to slip and fall. Sure, there were no obstacles, but she was still getting a hold of these new powers she had. Thankfully she wasn't afraid of heights, so being high up wasn't a problem for her.
Down below, Camilo was making sure the floor was covered in blankets and pillows. Just in case Mirabel fell. The last thing they needed was her having a bruise or some other injury. It'd be rather hard to explain to Julieta. But Casita was also there to catch if push came to shove, so so far they were in the clear.
"You got it?" Camilo asked, and Mirabel nodded. She moved to the ceiling, squatting as she looked above her. Or rather, below her.
"Yeah!" Mirabel smiled, looking at Camilo. "This is so cool!" She giggled.
"Can you stand up?" Camilo asked and Mirabel shrugged. She could try. The few times she had been doing this, she had essentially been crawling but...maybe she could stand.
Mirabel slowly but surely stood, holding her hands out to balance herself. And she was standing. On the ceiling. Camilo laughed, reaching up. "I wanna come up there!"
"Ok! Let me try to pick you up," Mirabel reached down, grabbing Camilo's hands. She grunted as she pulled him up. But she did it! Camilo clung to her as they stood on the ceiling.
"You're gift is so cool! It's too bad you don't have a room though," Camilo said, a pout on his lips.
"It's fine!" Mirabel shrugged. "I still got a cool power, and besides, you're here. And Lola knows too, so it's all good!"
"How come you don't wanna tell the family? Why just me and Lola?" Camilo asked and Mirabel shrugged.
"I don't know. I just feel like I need to keep it a secret," Mirabel shrugged. Camilo shrugged as well.
"Well, I'll keep your secret, and so will Dolores," Camilo smiled and Mirabel nodded. But before she could say anything more, footsteps were heard. And they were coming towards the nursery. Camilo dropped down, Casita catching him and landing him on the pile of soft things. Mirabel desperately tried to unstick, but it was clear it wasn't working.
"Stop sticking, stop sticking!" Mirabel whispered and shouted and Camilo tried pulling her down. Just before the door opened, she dropped down, landing on top of Camilo. The door opened, and the two stood up, surrounded by pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals. The person who walked through the door was Félix.
"What are you guys doing? Why's all this stuff on the floor?" He asked, visibly confused. Camilo and Mirabel stole nervous glances before Dolores came around the corner, startling them all.
"They were building a fort. But it flopped and they didn't want to tell you because they thought they'd get in trouble," Dolores said in rapid-fire before humming and walking off. Félix looked at the two, confused.
"Is that true?" He asked and Camilo and Mirabel nodded eagerly, just rolling with Dolores. Thank God they covered for her. "Oh, well that's fine! I can help you build one but after lunch. Go wash up," he said before heading back downstairs.
Mirabel and Camilo let out breaths they didn't know they were holding, giggling as they walked out of the room. Casita pushed the materials they left on the ground aside, and the two headed to the bathroom.
"That was close," Camilo laughed. "Too close."
"Yeah. If it wasn't for Dolores, I don't know what would've happened." Mirabel sighed. "Thanks, Lola," she said out loud, knowing her prima heard her. Thank God Dolores was there.
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WELL....do we like.
No but, I did wanna write something with Mirabel experimenting with her powers and Camilo thinking it's the coolest thing ever. Idk i just like the idea of their dynamic.
IT'S SPIDERMAN❗❗ SPIDERMAN, SPIDERMAN, IT'S SPIDERMAN❗❗
My followers when I actually give an au decent content:
#my asks#my asks are open#encanto#encanto au#au#encanto mirabel#encanto Camilo#encanto dolores#encanto felix#across the spiderverse#spiderverse au#spiderwoman au
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Bad Luck Birthday
Bruno knew what he wanted his birthday to look like. Him and his family, with maybe a few extra friends, enjoying cake and spending quality time together while having fun. A nice, small, calm celebration. Yet no matter how tight he kept his fingers, how long he held his breath, or how much wood he knocked on, his wish never came true.
Ever since he could really remember, his and his sisters birthdays were not just a family celebration- but also the whole town's. The "few extra friends" always turned out to be the ever growing population of Encanto, all crammed into the rather overworked Casita.
He hated it.
Bruno knew it wasn't the best that he had come to hate his own birthday, but he couldn't help it. Like everyday of his life it seemed, it was a show. Julieta spent the upcoming days making enough food for the whole town, Pepa had to focus to keep the skies as clear as they could be. And he… well, he didn't really do anything. Anymore at least.
To that, due to some terrible luck or cursed irony, every year something bad managed to happen, and it was all because of him. Whether it was him helping Julieta cook and almost burning the kitchen down, or mixing up what was the juice and what was the wine- he never seemed to be very lucky on that day.
Bruno sighed. All this worrying and it wasn't the day of the event. No, instead here he was, pacing around the room at… he squinted his eyes. 2:30 in the morning.
Great.
It didn't help that his friend of many years, recently made novia, Sandra wasn't allowed to come to the celebration. Not that she ever was, with her father being one of the few who saw the Madrigals gifts as 'unnatural', but the ever increasing trouble she got in by coming to his birthdays (or just seeing him anyways-), meant that the day before he assured her that he would be fine and that she shouldn't come to it.
"So you're saying I shouldn't come to your own birthday?!".
To say that Sandra wasn't too eager about what he said would've been an understatement. He had been trying to reason with her for a good solid 10 minutes now.
"No, no! Of course you can come, it's just we both know you'll get into trouble for it!" Bruno said.
She scoffed. "I don't care if I get into trouble, I always seem too get into it anyway, but there is no way I'm missing your birthday!".
He sighed. "Look its not even that much of birthday, its just some boring formalities in front of the whole town- Last time it took me a full hour to find you! So lets just- we can just celebrate it the day after, that way we can do what we actually want.".
"But-"
"Sandy please" he cut off her protests, taking her hands and looking up at her with puppy dog eyes. ""I've done this before- 22 times to be exact" he weakly chuckled. "I'll be fine".
Oh how wrong he was.
After managing to get a few hours of sleep, Bruno's day started like the days years earlier. He got up, already tired from the lack of sleep the night before, and got dressed into the most formal attire he had, a fancy white shirt with a neat pair of trousers, topped with a green vest bearing his signature hourglass symbol.
Not that anyone would really see his formal attire anyway, he thought, putting his rather oversized ruana on.
As he combed his raven hair Bruno frowned, already seeing a few silver strands. He honestly hoped he didn't go grey by 30, remembering a vision he’d done for a now upset townsperson.
He'd probably see that person today. And everyone else he managed to spite.
He gulped.
Bruno reached to open the door but found he was frozen in place. He could almost hear his heart pounding against his chest. Miercoles. He wasn't even out of the door and he could barely breathe?!
Taking a step back, he sighed before springing into action almost like it was automatic. Fingers crossed, deep breath in, and 3 knocks on the door. He was ready to go.
Once downstairs (he could swear they were getting longer everyday-) he followed the smell of fresh foods into the kitchen.
"Woah!"
Even if this wasn't a common sight for Bruno, he'd be lying if he weren't impressed at not only the variety of food his sister made but also how much of it. The table was lined with full plates of all sorts of foods, but his eyes wandered over to the cakes. Torta Negra, the vibrant red of rollo rojo de guayaba, the silky cream on top of the torta de tres leches and more- it was enough to make his mouth water.
Humming a song to himself, his hand reached for a tasty looking tortita negra only for it to be smacked away.
"Uh- hey!" He looked up to see Julieta.
"These are for the later, when the guests arrive"."
"Aww come on, I can't even have cake on my own birthday?!" He whined in protest, still eyeing the cakes and trying to grab one whenever Julieta looked away.
"Of course you can, just not these and not yet! mamá wants everything to be perfect for when the guests arrive!" Julieta replied while organizing the kitchen counter.
With her back turned, his hand moved to swipe a piece.
'Clink clink clink'
The Casita moved its tiles, alerting Julieta who swatted Bruno's hand away, again.
"Gracias, Casita"
Bruno just looked shocked. Did the Casita really just snitch on him?
Realizing that he wouldn't be able to snatch it, he turned to phase 2;-pleading with her.
"Oh Julie please, you have no idea how hungry I am!"
"Well then you shouldn't have skipped breakfast!" Julieta replied, unphased.
He groaned, getting right in front of her, doing the best puppy eyes he could. "Please Julie?-Think about it, for your hermanito?"
While Julieta fully knew that he only used the 'hermanito' card to get what he wanted (usually arguing that a few minutes didn't make him the 'little' sibling), partly because she had a soft spot- and to get him out of the kitchen, she gave in.
"Fine, you can have one, of course I can't say no to my little Brunito!' She cooed teasingly, squishing his cheeks as he squirmed away from her, taking the tortita negra and eating it with a satisfied smile.
"Mmm, those cakes look delicious!" Pepa walked in, instantly eyeing the display of food, Julieta audibly groaning.
"You can have one, then please- get out!" Julieta said, Pepa and Bruno giggling. Even as adults they'd be lying if they said they didn't enjoy annoying each other.
"Gracias, Julie!" Pepa said, grabbing one. Then two. Bruno pocketed some for his rats.
"Ay, I said GET out!" Julieta took a rolling pin, chasing the two giggling thieves out the kitchen, Casita making sure to close the door on them.
"Ah, I'm sure she'll forgive us," Bruno said before bursting into laughter with Pepa. For a short, sweet moment, Bruno didn't worry about the party and the expectations on his shoulders, he felt just like he did when they were kids, running around and causing mischief-together. However, it was short lived, as Pepa saw Felix enter the Casita.
"Felix!" With a sudden rainbow above her head, she instantly ran over to him, leaving Bruno alone awkwardly holding too many pastries.
"Hola mi amor!" He twirled her around before giving her a kiss. "Are you ready for your big day?"
"Oh yes! You should see the decorations Casita has around, and the food..."
Their voices faded in the distance as Bruno sighed, walking away and sitting on the steps of the stairs. He watched them two from afar, seeing just how happy Felix made her (as always), and couldn't help but wish that Sandra was by his side. Of course, he and everyone realized that Felix was always allowed over so much so that mamá didn't have to worry about the weather, but Bruno still missed her company, anyone's company really. The scared and spiteful townspeople didn't count. He was alone for his own birthday.
'Squeak!'
Well, not entirely.
Bruno couldn't help but smile as he looked down. "Hola, Bonita," He said quietly, petting the curious rat behind her ear. Two others scuttered out from his ruana, one sitting on his shoulder and the other grooming itself on his lap.
"At least I can always count on you." he weakly chuckled, breaking off pieces of the ponque and giving them to the rats who ate them quickly before looking up at him expectantly for more.
"Heh, always hungry, never satisfied." He mumbled in between bites of his piece of torta negra, letting the rats have the rest.
"Bruno! Pepa!"
His rats perked up, immediately hiding back inside the ruana (something he had totally not taught them).
"Ah, there you are!" Alma huffed as she walked over, hands together like- they always were when she meant business. "Where is your sister- PEPA!" She called out.
Bruno sat on the step, pretending that he didn't have a mouth full of the cake that he-totally-wasnt-supposed-to-be-eating-or-anything.
"Coming mama, coming!" Pepa called back a little wearily, but she couldn't help smiling giddily with Felix by her side.
With the three there, Alma cleared her throat before speaking. "The guests will start arriving shortly, as always I want you to be there to welcome them inside. Make them feel at home here..."
Bruno gulped quietly while listening to her. Even if the whole town didn't seem to hate, him it was still awkward and nerve wracking for him. Make them feel at home? How was he supposed to do that? Just tell them they could nap anywhere and let them use his toothbrush?!
"Bruno."
His attention was brought back as he realized, in his worry, he hadn't been exactly focusing on what his mamá was saying.
Alma sighed. "As I was saying, Pepa and Felix will wait outside to welcome our guests, you.." she evidently faltered. He wasn't exactly a people-person to begin with, and with his negative visions, the townspeople were either scared of him, angry, or both.
She smiled, so obviously forced that even Bruno could tell. "Bruno, y-you can go and greet them with Julieta when she's finished in the kitchen.".His stomach fell a little as he felt conflicting emotions. On one hand he was scared of greeting the guests that disliked him so, but on the other he could feel his mother's disappointment in him, knowing she told him to wait for Julieta in case any of the guests acted out.
"What are you waiting for? Get a move on!" Alma clapped her hands. "And remember, we're la familia Madrigal!"
"La familia Madrigal!" Pepa and Bruno said, Pepa walking off with her novio and Bruno getting up from the steps, walking down, and eyeing his mother a little wearily as he passed her to get to the kitchen.
"Bruno-"- Mierda, what was it this time?
"Si mamá?..." he turned to face her with a rather nervous smile.
"Why are you wearing your ruana, no -one can see your nice clothes under it!" She put her hands on his shoulders, looking at the admittedly slightly worn and rat chewed ruana.
"Eheh, I- I like it mama! It's comfy..." he trailed off in a nervous chuckle. The last thing he wanted on his birthday was an argument with his mamá, something that was happening more often these days. Yet the thought of taking his ruana off...he just couldn't. He knew he'd sound crazy trying to explain, but he -needed- it. He could hide his rats in there to keep him company, fiddle with the little tussles and material when he was overwhelmed or bored, and hide his scrawny body from others, and himself.
"But it’s not what you should be wearing for your own birthday! The whole town is going to be there, you have to represent the Madrigals." Alma said firmly, looking at him to make sure he'd actually do it.
Bruno really didn't have the energy to argue right now, and every word from his mamá just reminded him of the expectations he had to uphold- ones he often failed to do.
"Si mamá-" he smiled weakly, trailing off and looking down. Alma smiled, glad that he agreed to it.
"Go to Julieta now, Brunito, you can help her with the kitchen before the guests arrive." She said, he nodded, softly saying "Si..". As soon as he turned back from her his fake smile dropped as he quietly sighed and looked down. Her words rang through his mind. 'The whole town is going to be there, you have to represent the Madrigals'. They only made him more nervous than he already was.
He took a deep breath, holding it as he knocked on the kitchen’s door frame a few times before walking in.
"Hola." He smiled awkwardly, giving a small wave to Julieta, knowing she wouldn't exactly be pleased to see him after he stole the food and was subsequently kicked from the kitchen.
"Bruno, I swear to god-" Julieta turned round, rolling pin clutched threatingly in her hand.
"Woah woah! It's okay! I'm not gonna eat more, I promise. Mamá sent me to help you clean up and then welcome the guests." he weakly chuckled, holding his hands up defensively.
"Ah alright then, Casita will still keep an eye on you though." she said, the Casita moving one of its cupboards in a gesture like it was a finger telling him off.
He just chuckled awkwardly, honestly finding himself too nervous at the moment to even eat the temptingly good cakes.
Walking over to where Julieta was, he helped her put the ingredients back to their cupboards. Julieta could tell that he was anxious, his eyebrows furrowed in worry and the complete silence from him was always an indicator something was wrong.
"Hey, it'll be okay hermanito." She smiled reassuringly, putting her hand on his shoulder. Bruno looked up at her, almost surprised at first that she had noticed so quickly, but he figured it was in her nature- and that he wasn't exactly the most subtle..
"Heh, thanks Julie." He smiled back weakly, really more to reassure her that he'd be okay. Secretly he doubted it.
She smiled, looking into his eyes reassuringly. She had always had a motherly instinct towards others.
"Let's go and welcome the guests inside, okay?" She said, looking at him partly as if he were about to make a run for it- something he admittedly felt like doing.
"Si.." he trailed off, following Julieta out of the kitchen and to the entrance of the casita. Just walking through the empty house that would so soon be filled to the brim gave him shivers. The roar of their distant chatter grew louder and louder as they approached the entrance, and for a moment Bruno found himself frozen, just staring ahead and trying to breathe. Already it seemed so loud, so much. Was it more than before? Of course, it always was. Maybe he could just go back up to his room and hide? Maybe nobody would notice-
"Bruno?"
He snapped back into reality, seeing Julieta right in front of the entrance, looking at him with a mix of concern and confusion.
Bruno held his breath and crossed his fingers. Uno…dos…tres …4…5…6…and exhale, he knocked on the wooden pillar lining the wall, finally walking up to Julieta.
Here he goes.
He stepped outside with her, having to go to the side of the guests that made their way indoors. Just like before, it seemed the whole town was here to celebrate. All apart from Sandra. Of course he didn't blame her, but he wished she was here, to see her face among the crowd...at this moment he'd be overjoyed.
That wasn't going to happen though.
"Welcome inside! You don't have to worry about your belongings, the casita will order them all up!" Julieta smiled as she warmly talked to the guests, and Bruno remembered that he wasn't here to sadly stare at people.
He mentally prepared himself as a couple were about to pass him. This was his chance!
"Ahem, h-hola!". He cleared his throat, greeting them with a smile obviously too wide to be natural. Then he just stood there. Go on, say something!.
They stood there, slightly startled, chuckling very awkwardly as they walked past him.
He sighed. Why did this seem to come naturally to everyone but him?.
He relegated himself to just awkwardly smile and wave at the rest of the incoming townspeople, trying his best to appear as if he didn't want to run away.
Julieta looked at him, honestly pitying her brother and his poor social skills. After a few moments of him awkwardly trying to greet guests and not look hurt at the looks they gave him, Julieta, who had been helping people sort out where to leave their donkeys, called him.
"Hey Bruno!"
Bruno turned, seeing Julieta next to some donkeys and the odd alpaca. He practically scurried over through the crowd to her, ignoring the looks people gave him as he did so.
"I was thinking you could show the Gonzalez's and Lopez's to the stables?" She smiled, trying to actively involve him into actually doing something and not just awkwardly waving at guests.
"Oh! Um yes- follow me!" He told the two families who exchanged cautious looks between each other before following him, taking their animals with them.
This was easy, just show them to the stables, there's no way he could mess it up! Bruno thought to himself, feeling the closest he'd been to confident that day.
"Here they are! You can just leave them in there and come back after." He showed them, chuckling awkwardly. Without saying much they started to gather their animals inside, Bruno just left uneasily standing there.
Deciding to push himself and actually be more helpful, he took a deep breath, gathering the courage to offer help.
"W-would you like some help?"-
The townspeople made a surprised "Hmm?" Before turning back to see him standing there, holding his arm as he often did when nervous, and in general.
"Oh!-Y-yes please, that'd be wonderful" one lady said, clearly a little hesitant at first along with the others, who exchanged skeptical glances before accepting his help.
"Here, you can hold Francesca and Simone." The lady handed him the rope around the two donkeys necks.
"Ooh, could you take Carlos and Paco as well?"
"And Rafeal and Pescado!"
"Woa!-" Bruno didn't even have time to comprehend that someone named their alpaca "fish" when he found himself holding the ropes around the majority of the animals.
"Uh alright, okay." he said more to himself, untangling the ropes. "This is fine, you can do this- I can do this" he quietly muttered to himself.
The first family began to sort out their remaining animals, not long after though they turned their heads back at the sound of music, the party was really starting to get raging.
The family members looked at each other, all seeming to contemplate whether or not to ask Bruno to sort the rest out while they went to the party.
Bruno however didn't notice this, trying to keep 2 donkeys from kicking each other, while awkwardly avoiding eye contact with a rather menacing alpaca, Pescado.
It loomed over him, ominously, looking at him as if the two were long greatest enemies. Bruno just looked down, not wanting to fight an alpaca. Why did it seem to be so filled with hatred towards him? He was confused, making people angry was something he had gotten used to, but admittedly he never thought he'd find himself being loathed by an alpaca.
"Ahem."
His attention was brought back as he looked at the family. "We, were wondering if you could maybe organise the rest of them while we went to the party? -It's just, some of our friends are waiting for us there, that's all!" The woman awkwardly chuckled, wearing a slightly overly sweet smile, as if she knew making the person whose birthday they were celebrating do work while they partied was a little morally ambiguous to say the least.
"Oh! Sure." Bruno however didn't mind at all, this meant he didn't have to be at the party earlier, but he also remembered what his mamá would say. 'It is your job as a Madrigal to help the people of Encanto'.
"Great! Gracias." the people left, leaving him with the donkeys and rather murderous alpaca.
He wasn't concerned though, instead just turning to the animals. "Well I guess it's just you and me, ay amigos?" He sighed, in that moment narrowly missing a hurtling ball of spit from none other than Pescado.
"Wow". Bruno just blinked his now wide eyes in surprise. "I think I'll put you in first."-
He nervously chuckled as he approached the at least 7 foot tall creature, taking the rope and leading the tall hateful creature into the stable.
He wasn't concerned though, instead just turning to the animals. "Well I guess it's just you and me, ah amigos?" He sighed, in that moment narrowly missing a hurtling ball of spit from none other than Pescado.
"Wow". Bruno just blinked his now wide eyes in surprise. "I think I'll put you in first".
He nervously chuckled as he approached the at least 7 foot tall creature, taking the rope and leading the tall hateful creature into the stable.
With quite a bit of effort, he managed to pull the alpaca inside, dodging yet another ball of spit it sent this way. "Not today amigo." he weakly chuckled, knocking on the wooden pillar before grabbing the rope to tie it around.
Huh. Why did others always make it seem so easy?- He furrowed his brows in concentration, trying "There!" He said triumphantly, chuckling in relief. Seeming to set off by his happiness the alpaca jumped towards him, making him yelp in fear as he fell back into the hay.
Bruno closed his eyes and curled into a ball, expecting the hooves of the angry alpaca next, only, that fortunately didn't come. He opened his eyes, confused. The knot seemed to have loosened, but by some miracle still held on, saving him from becoming the alpacas piñata.
"Whew" he chuckled shakily in relief, standing up, and running past Pescado as quickly as possible. "Hah!" He laughed in triumph again, this time out of range of the alpaca that eyed him with pure hatred.
"You! And me!-Not amigos!" He declared, genuinely confused as to why the creature disliked him so much. He remembered how earlier he gave a young girl a vision that her fish would die. Bruno cringed at the memory. It had been a rather big deal, another vision as usual gone bad. He began to wonder if fish in general were just bad luck to him.
"Alright, now the rest of you." he turned back to the couple of donkeys, most idly minding their own business, apart from two that kept trying to kick one another.
Bruno made a point to separate them first, bringing them by their ropes and then tying them to pillars. One by one, he sorted out each donkey, the process very quickly becoming mundane, but he preferred it over the unpredictable alpaca.
"Whew." He stopped to catch his breath, wiping sweat off of his forehead. Now he wasn't so surprised that the people were more than eager to leave them. Bruno turned around, finally! The last one.
He took the rope around the donkey, walking to the stables. "WoA-" Bruno yelped as he fell back, once again into the hay. He sat up, confused and by this point rather frustrated as he turned to the donkey that hadn't moved a muscle and was now looking at him with the same unbothered expression as before.
He sighed, leaning towards the stable and knocking on the wood, before taking a deep breath.
With his nerves somewhat settled, he got up, grabbed the rope and pulled again, at first thinking perhaps he just thought the donkey was still in place like a statue.
But as Bruno pulled and heaved the donkey didn't even budge from its place. He got behind it, trying to maybe push it to the stable, but nothing. Not even the slightest inch. The donkey had rooted itself, and had no intention of moving.
"Aurgh!" He kicked a bucket and held his face in annoyance. Of course, it seemed that there always had to be some kind of a problem.
Maybe he could bribe it?-
Bruno furrowed his brow in thought, trying to remember where the food was kept. Aha!, he smiled as he remembered they kept it in the first pen, the smile fading as he also remembered that was where he had put Pescado in.
He gulped, trying to weigh what he valued more, going to the party?- or his life?-
Bruno took a deep breath, knocking on the wooden pillar 6 times. He frowned as he thought about his mother, her and the townspeople's disappointment and anger with him when they'd find out he just let one donkey go. It seemed all he was good for was disappointment nowadays.
He sighed, walking over a little to the stable containing the potentially murderous alpaca in it. The food wasn't so far away. Yet Bruno knew he couldn't do it, he wasn't brave enough to even dare to. But Hernando was.
With a swift motion, Bruno put his hood up, 'becoming' Hernando. He walked towards the stable with a confident gait. It was almost as if he could hear western music, at a stand off with his arch nemesis, Pescado.
‘Hernando’ took a deep breath before sprinting quicker than he had in his life and grabbing the carrot from a bucket, narrowly avoiding yet another ball of spit hurtling his way.
"HA!" He yelled triumphantly, hood falling down as he jumped up, adrenaline still coursing through his veins. By now the knot had loosened even more, but was still enough to contain the ferocious creature. Bruno knew for sure he wasn't going to go back and redo the knot anyway.
The carrot seemed to do the trick, the donkey following him back into the stable where he promptly tied the rope into a knot. There! Now after avoiding near death he was faced with an even bigger, much scarier challenge- the party.
After picking out some of the hay in his hair and straightening his ruana, he ran back to the casita, knowing that at any time now his mamá would be making her announcement, and oh boy, she wouldn't like it if he was late.
Bruno went through the side of the house, avoiding the people out in the courtyard as he stopped to catch his breath, honestly worn out from trying to arrange the animals into their stables.
"There you are!"
Bruno turned around to see Julieta running over to him. "We've been looking for you for ages! Have you any idea how worried mamá is?!"
Bruno gulped, imagining his mamá’s angry face. "L-lo siento, just had a little run in with the donkeys.." He chuckled wearily, Julieta just rolling her eyes, regretting giving him the task in the first place.
"Come, mamá's about to start!" she said, and he couldn't help but quietly gulp again, nodding and following her up the stairs.
As he walked out to stand by his mother, Pepa already waiting there, he looked down at the people below. There were hundreds at least, all of them staring at his sister, and him. 'You're alright, this is fine-' Bruno tried to calm himself down, now uncomfortably sweating.
On top of that, he could feel his mama's disapproving gaze when she saw he was still wearing his ruana, despite of what she had said.
Not wanting to mention it aloud in public though, Alma didn't comment, instead turning to the crowd of people below, her disapproving expression turning into one of warmth and friendliness in an uncannily short amount of time.
"Everyone!" She began, the crowd of people quieting down. "I am so glad that so many of you made it here on this very special day". Her gaze visibly saddened, as she took a deep breath. "23 years ago, we all had to run away from our homes, looking for a safe place to take refuge in. As you all know, my husband Pedro… gave his life to protect us, giving us this miracle, the Encanto" she smiled sadly, clearly deep in thought.
Bruno couldn't help but look at his mamá with a frown at the mention of his papá, Pedro. He had no recollection of the events, him and his hermanas too young to remember, but everyone knew what had happened. How his papá gave his life for them. He was a hero.
Bruno looked down, unable to think to himself what his papá would think of him. He wanted to imagine that he'd be proud, but it seemed he could only disappoint.
Bruno subconsciously clenched his fists. Why couldn't he be better?
"With the Encanto and the Casita came another miracle, my children's gifts". Bruno looked down again, unable to look at the townspeople, knowing how many he had managed to anger.
"Because of the miracle, me and my children all swear to serve this community, to show how thankful we all are for our amazing gifts.."
Thankful? Bruno couldn't help but think to himself, by each sentence he managed to feel worse and worse. He couldn't help but feel guilt creep up on him, his papá had died for this, and he wasn't even grateful for his gift?
"And as every year passes we grow to help this community more and more, as our gifts grow with us, to help the people of Encanto" Alma smiled, the people below cheering and clapping.
"Now, let the celebrations begin!" She finished her announcement, immediately the music began to play as the casitas tiles moved enthusiastically. Everyone cheered, everyone but Bruno.
The celebrations were supposed to be the fun part, and yet it never felt that way anymore. Slowly Bruno slid through the crowd, keeping his head low as to avoid eye contact.
Everyone was conversing with one another, leaving him awkwardly standing there as he couldn't integrate to any conversation.
"Hey!" He saw someone smile and wave in his direction. Bruno wondered if he knew them, about to greet them when they walked past him, having been addressing the person behind him.
He frowned, deciding the best way to spend his time would be if he sat at good tables, and ate Julie's food. A grin grew on his face as he once again saw the cakes, taking some on his plate and sitting down in one of the few empty spaces.
Bruno ate the food, at least able to enjoy his hermana’s cooking as he hummed to himself. All seemed to be going well, until he looked down, seeing the rats he bought peeking their heads out, smelling the opportunity in front of them.
Two squeaked at each other, already fighting over the crumbs on his lap. "Shh! No, get back!" He whispered hastily, not noticing the few odd looks he got from the unknowing townspeople, now internally questioning why he was talking to and covering his lap.
As he focused on stopping the two from making too much noise, unbeknownst to him, one was already on the table.
Once he looked up he gasped, immediately snatching the rat back into his ruana before it could be seen. Seeing the weird looks people gave him he chuckled uneasily, deciding with the rats it would be best if he kept away from the food.
"This is absolutely ridiculous" he quietly reprimanded his rats as he walked through the crowd, eventually making it to one of the casita’s walls which he leaned on, pretty disinterested but glad that no one was paying attention to him
Before he knew it, it was now Bruno's least favourite part of the entire celebration. He had always thought of this part as a sort of "showcase" of their gifts. Julieta handed out food to people, Pepa made a rainbow, and he…just sort of stood there, away from them as if he wasn't even invited to the party.
"Woo!" He heard the cheer of people, Felìx as always ever so supportive of Pepa, and a now injured Agustin back with Julieta, who just rolled her eyes before stuffing an arepa into his mouth.
Bruno frowned and sighed. He thought about the fact that he was basically being ignored at what was partly his own birthday party, he supposed it was better that way, the painful memory of what had happened when he was 15 flashing in his mind.
He was doing visions for people, sat out on the floor with his equipment and a bucket of sand. When he had been younger this had been seen as the 'main event', and Bruno could see why.
The dramatic twirl of the sand, the bright glow of his eyes, and before you knew it, an emerald tablet in his hands. It was the quite the spectacle.
It seemed as time passed on though the visions only seemed to get worse, and who was to blame in their minds but him?
15 year old Bruno sat down, doing a vision for another person in the formed line. The glow of his eyes, the small dome of sand, and it was done. He didn't even have time to process what was on the vision tablet when he felt a fist hit nose, hard.
Gasps, followed by the angry man being pulled away, angrily yelling obscenities at the now bloody teenager. He sat on the floor, eyes wide in shock as he looked down at his bloody hands that had been instinctively over his broken nose. "Bruno are you okay?!" Said Julieta's voice, he didn't answer.
"Bruno!'
"Ah!" He yelped and jumped up a little, seeing Julie in front of him. He realised he had been so deep in thought that he didn't see her walk over to him, now looking at him with concern as he didn't answer her question.
"Oh!, oh yes!-hehe sorry…yea, I'm fine" Bruno chuckled weakly in an attempt to reassure her, yet her eyes were still filled with concern. Before she could say anything though, a loud crash was heard through the casita.
Everyone went silent, looking up at where the noise had come from.
They heard an ever so long scream, growing louder as a terrified and incredibly disheveled man ran into the courtyard.
"PESCADO- PESCADO HAS ESCAPED!".
Most people looked at eachother, incredibly confused. "Fish?" A few people muttered, others shrugging it off.
Bruno held his breath. Had the knot finally slipped loose?
In that moment though, the aforementioned Pescado had arrived, in the same place the screaming man was seconds ago, and with a murderous intent, charged towards the crowd.
Chaos erupted as people screamed, trying to get as far away from the four legged towering creature of rage as it rampaged around the courtyard.
Bruno was among the people, more than eager to escape, fearing what Pescado would do when he recognised him.
In a matter of seconds, a crowd had formed of people trying to squeeze through the doors of the Casita, and Bruno was stuck near the end of it. Pepa's weather didn't entirely calm anyone's nerves, a rain cloud surrounding her and drenching the guests as she quietly apologised, brushing her hair with her hands in an attempt to calm down.
He turned back to see how close Pescado was, seeing him fling over an unlucky bystander. That's when he noticed something. Strangely, it wasn't everyone who got to feel Pescados wrath, and as he looked over at the people the enraged alpaca targeted, he realised something. They were all wearing green.
"Huh.." Bruno said at the realisation, yelping as he got pushed forward by the people desperately trying to escape. He didn't really know why, perhaps in an attempt to fix his wrong, but with unnatural courageousness he ran back to the courtyard, calling everybody's attention.
"Hey! Everybody!" He yelled at the top of his voice, the people glancing back at him, clearly questioning his sanity. "Bruno get away from here!" Julieta yelled at him, he however ignored her.
"It's alright you can come back, it's green- he hates the colour green!" He gestured to the group of injured people by Julieta, all indeed wearing some form of green.
His voice had called the alpacas attention, as it turned to him, eyes like fiery coals. Bruno gulped, figuring there was a way to test out his feeling, but moreover knowing that running was futile.
He took off his ruana, the rats scurrying away from him. Bruno kissed his ruana, muttering a quiet "sorry" to his beloved garment.
Like a bull, the alpaca charged at him. He threw his ruana as far as he could, still closing his eyes in fear of impact, it however, didn't come. He opened his eyes, seeing Pescado had followed the green item of clothing, now angrily stomping at it.
He chuckled in disbelief, for once amazed at his luck. "Hehe… see! We can put him back in the stables now- just probably don't come out if you're wearing green..".
The people look at eachother, all nodding in agreement. In that moment, a little girl who had been hiding behind a wrecked table jumped out, crying out "mamá!" As she began to run back to the crowd.
The problem was, she was wearing a green dress. The crowd immediately gasped, her mamá’s far cry of horror as she realised what was happening. Pescado turned, charging at the little girl who just stood there, paralysed in fear.
Without thinking twice, Bruno threw himself in her direction, putting his arms around her, covering her with his body. He closed his eyes, expecting to feel the hard hooves of the alpaca, but he didn't.
"Huh?" Bruno dared to open his eyes. He couldn't believe it. Pescado was just…there. Standing there with a disinterested expression, like a completely normal alpaca. He figured with the child out of view, the alpaca simply just gave up.
Within seconds a group of men (not wearing green) threw new rope around the alpaca, swiftly taking it away from the courtyard.
It was over.
Bruno let out a short sigh of disbelief, uncovering the girl. He turned, hearing the mother running over to her child, grabbing her and holding her, crying from the overwhelming emotions.
Bruno stood up, not really minding that the she didn't seem to acknowledge his presence.
As people gradually started to refill the courtyard, Bruno went over to his now, very, wrecked ruana, putting it on purely out of need for comfort.
"How did the alpaca manage to get out in the first place?!" Asked a voice.
"Yea!-aren't the animals supposed to be tied up?" Said another.
Bruno gulped, quietly and subtly tried to get through the crowd of people, something that was taking very long due to the size of it.
A few questions later his heart sunk as he heard. "Who dealt with the animals anyway?"
A moment later and he froze as he heard the answer.
"I left him and the others with Bruno!" Said Pescados owner, the crowd now talking amongst themselves. "Us too!"-
"He said he'd deal with it all fine and look what happened!"
-"Uh, what did you expect- since when does anything good happen when it's Bruno?"-
They slowly ganged up as the people around Bruno stepped away, leaving him in singled out of the crowd.
He laughed, very nervously, feeling as if his heart would explode. He would honestly pick Pescado anytime over this.
"Hehe…everyone, it was an accident" Bruno said, instinctively shrinking away from the eyes on him.
"Oh, just an accident, like that time you saw my business would close down?" A voice sneered, followed by murmurs of agreement.
"Or perhaps that time a cat ate all my chickens!".
By this point Bruno was terrified, his whole body trembling as his eyes looked like those of a prey about to get caught.
"Why are you laughing?, do you think this is funny matón?".
"Yea! A little girl could have died because of you!".
Bruno’s quiet response, more of a murmur really, that he "laughed when nervous" was unheard, the crowd of people turning into a mob as they expressed their anger.
"You can't just blame him for everything! He didn't mean for this to happen, it isn't his fault!" Julieta spoke up in defense of him, feeling guilty for the whole situation as it was her who told him to help with the animals in the first place. "Right mamá?" She turned to her for support. If the crowd would listen to anyone, that someone was Alma.
Alma opened her mouth to say something but didn't say anything, she looked at him conflicted before frowning and looking away.
Bruno had enough. Of this party, of the people treating him like a curse, and most of all his mamá’s disappointment in him.
Wiping his tears with his tattered sleeve he ran off, the people parting for him, watching as he disappeared from view. No one went after him.
After going up the stairs, Bruno slammed the door to his bedroom. He slowly slid down until he was sitting, bringing up his knees to his face as he sobbed. Why did he even try to make things different?! Of course it was going to end this way, it always did.
The three rats he fed before came to his side, bruxing with concern as they could tell something was very wrong. One jumped up onto his knee, burying its face through his locks of hair before tilting his head at him worriedly.
"Hola Bonita" Bruno quietly croaked, petting the rat as it licked the tears off his cheek. He chuckled, unable to not smile a little. "I'm afraid not even you can make this day any good".
As if on cue he heard a loud smack against the window, jumping and ever so slightly fearing for his life again when he squinted his eyes, seeing a face and the oh so familiar red hair. Sandra!
Wait.
"SANDRA?!" His eyes widened as he ran over to the window, immediately opening it for her. What in the world was she doing outside his window?!
"Ah, thank you" she said breathlessly as she went inside, making sure to throw in the box she had been holding, adrenaline still coursing through her veins.
"What- what are you doing here?..." he asked in genuine puzzlement, still looking at her with wide eyes as he recovered from the shock. Even if it weren't for her entrance he was still shocked to see her, how did she manage to leave the shop? And hadn't he told her not to come?
"Oh!, erm, too many people outside hehe- and inside, so I took a shortcut-" she chuckled, thinking he was just referencing the window. Before she even got to finish her sentence however, Bruno had wrapped his arms around her in a tight, affectionate hug.
She looked a little surprised at first, before hugging him back.
"I'm so, so glad you're here" Bruno weakly chuckled, but meant it more than anything. Despite his words and effort to convince her to stay away, he wanted nothing more than for her to be here with him.
"Of course, mi amor" she smiled, speaking ever so softly. Sandra pulled away, not fully, just enough to see his face. Her smile turned visibly sad as she gently wiped a tear under his eye. "I'm so, so sorry". She was beyond heartbroken to see him like this, cheeks stained with tears, beloved ruana tattered almost beyond recognition.
Bruno sniffled, smiling back sadly. "Wait" he began, puzzled. "How did you know?...". Not only did she seem not surprised to find him in such a miserable state, but also knew exactly where to go- or in this case, climb.
"I saw everything…" She weakly chuckled. "I was going to come later anyway, it took me like, a full hour to get close enough to see the courtyard, and then suddenly everyone was trying to leave!, b-but…I managed to stay close enough to see the alpaca, and you, and what happened after…"
Bruno looked down and frowned. "Nothing can just seem to go right, can it?" He let out air through his nose almost as a sort of snort.
She looked at him, with concern. "Well I mean…I did manage to scale the Casita without falling to my death so…that's a plus?" She chuckled, trying to find her eyes and at least get a smirk out of him.
That didn't happen though, as he eyes remained on the floor, clearly in thought. "Do you think…my papá…would be disappointed with me?" He asked quietly, looking up at her with sad defeated eyes.
"What?!" Sandra's eyes widened a little, shocked by the question. "A-a-are you kidding me? Of course not! First you went out and bull-fought that alpaca, and then, then you jumped to save that little girl!, risking your own life!"
She held his hands, bringing them up as she looked into eyes. "Your papá would be so proud of you, no, he is so proud of you!, an-and I don't care what your mamá says!, you risked your life to save that small child, is that not giving back to the community?”
He looked up at her, taken aback and at a loss for words.
"Listen to me, they are the problem. They ask for more and never stop to appreciate what you already give! You are a hero, Bruno".
Bruno’s eyes widened even more, a small blush forming on his cheeks. "Hehe, I wouldn't say that.." He chuckled quietly, scratching the back of his head.
"But you are! You're like the great heroes you write in your telenovelas, I mean- that alpaca was terrifying…" she chuckled weakly.
"Yea… Pescado definitely is something else, I'll give you that" Bruno weakly chuckled, looking back at Sandra whose lips curled upwards as she tried not to laugh.
He sighed and she burst out in laughter, not able to hold back. "I-I'm sorry…but, Pescado?" She looked up at him.
"Look I don't know, that's what the guy said-" now that Bruno thought of it it was a very amusing name for an alpaca, unable to not laugh himself.
"That's like something out of a telenovela!" She wiped the tears of laughter under eyes.
"Pfft- I ought to write a story about it now" Bruno chuckled at the realisation.
"Please do, I'd like to watch it very much- ooh!, which reminds me-" Sandra perked up, looking over at the box on the floor.
She took it, sitting down on the bed and gesturing for Bruno to sit down with her, which he did. "Oh Sandy, you didn't have to.." Already he couldn't help but smile as he awaited her present with excitement.
"Shh! I didn't even open it yet!" She chuckled, jokingly pressing her finger against his lips. "Alright, close your eyes".
Bruno did as she said, unable to not giggle like a small child from the excitement.
"Alright, you can open them".
Bruno’s eyes dilated like a cat. His mouth was wide open, yet he was lost for words.
"MY RUANA?!" He asked in disbelief. In front of him Sandra held a perfect replica of it, just new and untouched- unlike the one he had on. She handed it to him and he buried his face in the material. "Oh my god" he muttered. It was so soft.
After a few moments of just holding it to his face he discarded his old destroyed ruana on the floor, putting the new one on. Making rainbows was part of his sister's gift, but in that moment he looked like he exuded them.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you-" He hugged her again, speaking rapidly from excitement but genuinely grateful.
He pulled away, looking down at it. "I just- woo" his arms automatically waved a little from happiness, making Sandra chuckle.
His rats instantly climbed onto the bed, eagerly going in the strangely familiar but also new garment of clothing.
For the first time today, Bruno was beyond overjoyed. His hands felt the softness of the fabric as he basked in its glory. "S-so what do you think Sandy?, do I look good?" He asked excitedly.
"You always look good, Bruno" Sandra softly chuckled, earnest in her words as his cheeks heated up.
"Hehe, thank you, you too" he quietly mumbled, shyly leaning forward to leave a small but loving kiss on her lips.
One of his rats popped its head out of his new ruana, and Sandra who had been caught up in the moment as well, remembered that there was more in the box.
"That's not all! I doubt it'll make you as insanely happy as this, but still.." she chuckled, handing him over the box.
He looked inside curiously, eyes lighting up once more as he saw the contents. "Sets and prompts for my telenovelas! Thank you" he smiled, taking them out.
The backdrops were painted in painstaking detail, many from recent books he had read and particularly enjoyed. As for the props, small household items were reused and remade to look real, pencil shavings made to look like fancy headpiece and more.
Bruno noticed one more item on the bottom, gasping a little as he took out a well crafted leather bound notebook.
"You mentioned your other ones getting full, so I thought why not?-" Sandra chuckled, once again unable to finish her sentence as Bruno hugged her, her hugging him back.
"Thank you" he smiled gratefully.
"O-of course" Sandra smiled back, happy that he was happy, especially after the days unfortunate events.
Her fingers stroked through his hair and she chuckled quietly from amusement. "Mi amor, you have hay in your hair" Sandra carefully took them out.
"Ah yes, fell into a lot of hay when I dealt with Pescado.." Bruno chuckled, content in just sitting there on his bed. After the unpredictable day he was happy to have some normal piece with the woman he loved.
Well, almost everyday peace.
"Sandy?"
"Hmm?"
"Please just use the stairs the next time-"
"...Alright".
#encanto#encanto bruno#bruno madrigal#encanto fic#angst and fluff#BrunoxSandra#hurt/comfort#encanto big bang#encantobigbang#encantobigbang2022
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One More Time (Julieta x Fem!Reader) Pt 18
As always I am not a native Spanish speaker, so if I butchered a sentence or word let me know so I may correct it.
This one ended up being super long so I hope it’s something you all find worth reading.
Part 18 of 20
Pt 19
I did not make the gif.
Things to note: Julieta is a widow. Reader is 30. Talks about depression early on.
Please don’t tear it apart too harshly!
It wasn’t unusual for Julieta to be up before the sun. She had to make sure she had everything prepared for the village. Today she was preparing but would not be distributing, she had already decided she’d be by your side today.
It wasn’t unusual for Julieta to be up before the sun but it was unusual for anyone else to be up as well. Julieta heard the soft creak of the stairs so she lowered the heat and went to investigate. She caught the back half of you exiting the house. Julieta frowned at your departure.
“Casita, keep an eye on the food. You know what to do.”
The clicking of tiles told her that the house understood and she quickly slipped on shoes and out she followed.
The sun was barely peaking over the horizon when you stopped in front of your store. It wasn’t a cruel nightmare, it had really happened. Palabras Suaves was really gone.
“Y/N?”
You turned to see Julieta slowly approaching you.
“What are you doing up so early?” You asked quietly.
“I’m always up this early.”
You noticed her hands were pale with flour and her apron stained. She had been cooking. You looked away from her and back at the rubble before you approached the ruins.
You paused when Julieta’s hand slipped into yours. Your first instinct was to pull away. You didn’t want the poison of your sorrow to seep into the woman. As if reading your mind she squeezed tightly and walked with you into the ash.
The two of you dug through the rubble and as suspected not much was able to be saved. Your cash register had done a well enough job protecting the money inside so you slipped what little remained into your bag.
Every family photo that your mother had put on the walls was destroyed. You found one that had been of the three of you when you were a child. The top half had been burned and all that remained was your toothy grin and the legs of your parents. In your opinion the most valuable part of the picture was gone so you tossed it back down.
Julieta watched your interaction with the photo and she was quick to pick up the smiling girl. She pocketed the photo and went back to searching.
In the end the only things saved were the money, a book or two, and the mugs you and Julieta often shared. Mirabel and Camilo had joined in your hunt at some point but in your daze you couldn’t recall when they arrived. Like you and Julieta they didn’t find much of anything.
You sadly stared at the ruined chairs that you and Julieta spent hours in.
“Lo siento.” You mumbled to the woman.
“Whatever for?”
“Your safe place is gone. Dolores’ quiet place is gone. Everyone’s favorite parts of this place are gone because of me.” Your eyes were glassy as you kicked a piece of wood.
“Y/N Y/L/N do not apologize to us.” Julieta said firmly.
“This isn’t about me or Dolores or any of us. That vile man took something precious from you and it’s no one’s fault but his.” She said and stepped in front of you trying to catch your eye.
“If I had just given him the deed it simply would have been sold. I could have begged the new owner to let me work for them. Earn enough to buy it back. You would still have a place to go if you were having a hard day!”
“Y/N, I think it would have hurt you more to see someone else take it and turn it into something it wasn’t.” Julieta said softly and reached up to wipe away your stray tears with her thumbs.
You dropped your head. You knew she was right. You knew there was no way for you to win in this situation.
“I don’t think there is much left here we can do. Let’s go back to casita and you can rest properly.”
You sighed and nodded and followed behind the woman as she rounded up the two teenagers. The walk was quiet, despite Mirabel and Camilo's attempts to cheer you up. The two teens quickly departed when they reached the glowing door, leaving you and Julieta.
“Come with me.” Julieta said and led you up the stairs. Instead of the guest room she led you to her own.
The last time you were there it was dark and dreary. This time the sunlight shone through and if you hadn’t been so wrapped up in your own thoughts you would have noticed the fireplace crackling. You would have noticed the soft chairs and the connected kitchen. You would have noticed all the books and the art hanging on the wall, but you didn’t notice a thing. You were simply guided to the woman’s bed.
Julieta pulled back the covers for you and you obediently laid down. Her bed was soft and her covers were warm.
“I'm going to go make you something to eat.” She stated, cooking has always been her way of showing affection and she wanted nothing more than to shower you with all the affection in the world; but her name on your lips stopped her.
“Julieta…will you lay with me?”
Julieta turned back to see your large eyes pleading with her to stay. She decided you didn’t need food, you needed comfort. You needed touch. You needed to feel safe.
“Of course.” She replied and crawled into the bed with you.
Immediately you curled up into her, craving her warmth. The woman’s arms wrapped around you and she held you close until she heard your soft breathing. You were asleep, finally resting and Julieta was thankful for it. She ran her fingers through your hair and sighed, she was at a loss at what to do. Magical food couldn’t fix this, she needed a plan.
——
You were quiet for days. You’d leave well before breakfast and sometimes you wouldn’t return at all that night. Most of the time you were digging through the rubble in silence. All the Madrigal’s were worried, but none more so than Julieta.
“She’s just so lost.” She said one evening as she sat with her siblings.
“That store was her everything. It was in her family for generations. She was raised in it. The last connection she had to her parents is gone.” Julieta explained.
“Maybe a kiss from our Julieta would brighten her day.” Pepa teased. Like the children she wasn’t blind, she just had more tact and chose to tease in private.
“No it didn’t work.” Julieta replied so casually that Pepa thought she misheard.
“Wait WHAT?!” Pepa shouted as she grabbed Bruno’s ruana.
“Did you know about this?!”
“Well I did have a vision that they would.” The man said as he worked to get Pepa to release him.
“When did this development happen?!”
“Well the first time I-“ Julieta was immediately cut off.
“FIRST TIME?! How many times have you kissed her?!”
“Pepa please! You are focusing on the wrong thing here. What can we do to help her?”
“We will be returning to this conversation at a later date.” The red head said, Julieta simply rolled her eyes.
The triplets discussed and bickered before deciding on a plan. Julieta was sure it would work after they tweaked all the fine details. It wouldn’t be easy but with the proper help she was sure they could pull it off.
#julieta madrigal#julieta madrigal x reader#julieta x fem reader#julieta x reader#reader insert#One More Time
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