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silvermistanimelover · 2 years

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To Protect the Family

Okay, so I’ve fallen into the Encanto rabbit hole. Have my first fic endeavor into this new world of music and color. (Also crossposted on Ao3, so feel free to leave a kudos there if you liked it!) This is my take on how Bruno left the family.

Bruno shook as he stared at the Prophecy Table that glowed in his hands. It didn’t take a genius to see that the girl standing before the cracks in Casita was little Mirabel. It was rare to have a prophecy that was undecided—one that could change or alter like this one. But he also knew how it would look.

Because he was Bruno. And no matter what he did, people would always assume the worst. He knew that nobody could see this vision. Nobody could know. Especially not his mother. He knew she wouldn’t hurt Mirabel (he hoped she wouldn’t), but if his mother saw this, she would blame her. Fear her. And Bruno knew firsthand how much of a monster fear made people become.

Even if Mirabel wasn’t kicked out of the family, she would never be able to be part of it. Always blaming herself, always feared. He couldn’t let that happen. He wouldn’t . He had to get his mother to drop the topic of this vision.

He couldn’t lie—he was awful at it, even little Camilo was better than him—and he was about as good at keeping secrets as Delores, but if he could get his mother to understand that this was a prophecy better left unknown, then things would be fine.

The tablet in his hands stared at him mockingly. His eyes darted to the bookcase full of visions and he bit his lip. “Nobody can ever see this.” He decided, letting it slip through his fingers and shatter against a stone. He would come back later to clean it up and properly hide the pieces—maybe bury them in random locations across Encanto.

He tugged his favorite ruana around his shoulders a little more tightly as he left his Vision Cave, triggering one of his many secret passageways to enter his bedroom. It was small, but he liked tight quarters. Large spaces made him feel exposed and vulnerable. He smiled as his rats greeted him. His bed was tucked up against one corner, a small bookshelf just within arm’s reach decorated with scrapbooks of him and his sisters and their kids. Photos were strewn all across the room, and he sat heavily on his bed as he picked up one of his favorites.

He was holding Mirabel. It was taken a week before her Ceremony. She looked so happy, dressed in a smaller version of his ruana as one of Bruno’s rats stood up from her hair. He was her favorite uncle, and though he’d never tell anyone, she was his favorite sobrina. There was just something so bright about the girl that chased away all his dark thoughts. She made him feel like it was okay to be himself—to be part of the family as he was and not as who his mother wanted him to be.

“I’ll protect you, Mirabel.” He whispered. “You won’t be blamed for this. Nobody will know.”

He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders, setting the picture down before grabbing his usual salt pouch and placing it in his pocket. His knuckles rapped gently on the wooden bedframe. “Knock knock knock, knock-on-wood.”

The stairs were horrible to climb down—as usual. They seemed to grow new steps every week. It was almost like the more he resented his power, the taller they climbed. He paused for a moment by the dried up oasis at the base. When he’d first opened his door thirty-five years ago, it had been a wonderful desert oasis paradise with his Vision Cave set three steps up. There had been trees and ferns and all sorts of plants. He’d even strung up a hammock and camped out by the waters with his sisters when they were younger.

Julieta had been a little jealous, honestly. Her bedroom was something like a chef’s dream, but it certainly wasn’t as relaxing as Bruno’s was. As it used to be. But during his teenaged years, the waters started to dry up. Now they were entirely gone, and the sand had started filling in the old watering hole. Bruno felt something in his heart hurt at the scene.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, he climbed the stairs to the main entrance of his room—an hourglass shaped hole from which spilled a waterfall of sand. He pressed the hidden switch to open the sand curtains, stepping through before they could close on him. His room was full of secrets—hidden passageways and switches that he’d enjoyed discovering in his youth.

He stopped just outside his door, turning to stare at the brightly shimmering golden glow. Even his image frowned at him, now. He wondered if it always had. He turned his attention back towards his goal—his mother was waiting for him with his sisters and their husbands in the main room.

“How’s Mirabel?” He asked, eyes flitting to Julieta. He noted the way his mother zeroed in on him and his usual sandy appearance—something they knew meant he’d completed a vision.

“I’ve just put her to bed.” Julieta wrung her hands. “She hasn’t cried yet, but she’s so confused. Even Casita seemed to be sad for her.”

Pepa placed a hand on their sister’s shoulder, a small drizzle raining down on her. “It’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out. Gift or no Gift, Mirabel is still part of this family.”

“Bruno.” His mother’s voice made him stiffen. “What did you See?”

His heart pounded. He was a very non-confrontational person, but this wasn’t something he could just run away from. He had to be clear. “I… I won’t tell you.”

Movement stopped at his quiet admission. He felt his sisters’ shock as they realized he was refusing their mother’s request—something he’d never had the courage to do before. Even their mother stopped short for a moment.

“I’m sorry?”

“My Vision. It’s better left unknown.” He averted his gaze, unable to stare into those eyes full of disappointment and growing anger. “Please… don’t bring it up again.”

“Bruno, we need to know if the magic is in danger.” His mother argued, voice rising. “You have to tell me what you Saw.”

“I can’t.” He grit his teeth. “It’s better if nobody sees that.”

“Bruno?” Julieta’s soft whisper had him glancing up to her concerned gaze. He felt something pierce his heart.

“ Bruno! ” His mother’s sharp voice made him flinch. “You must tell me.”

“It’s my vision.” He argued, voice wavering with a nauseating mix of frustration, anger and anxiety. “I decide who needs to know.”

“I am your mother.” Her voice took on a flame of anger. “You will tell me.”

“I won’t!” Bruno was starting to yell now. Anger and frustration overwhelming his anxiety in a way he hadn’t experienced since he was a teenager. “You may be my mother, but I’m more than my Gift!”

“If this is about the magic, I need to know .” Beyond the anger, he could see a shine of desperation in her eyes. That same gleam that he’d seen as a child, when his mother cradled the candle in the dead of the night and sobbed to a father he’d never known. “Please, Brunito. For the family.”

Bruno felt like he’d been slapped. She knew that family was what mattered most to him. But how was he supposed to explain that this was for the family? He knew, looking into her eyes, that he couldn’t keep this secret if she kept pushing. He’d never been good at keeping secrets. None of them had.

“I won't! Nobody will see that vision!” He swallowed his anxiety as his anger settled down into a smoldering heat rather than the spitting flames it had been. “I’d sooner leave than let you see it.” His words echoed in the sudden silence of the room. It was something Bruno had never threatened before—leaving the family.

The thought of leaving the family was terrifying to him. The words had been spoken out of anger and desperation, rather than conviction. He wasn’t serious about leaving, not really, but he needed her to understand how serious he was about dropping this topic. About letting this Vision stay in the shadows of the unknown where it belonged.

But something in his mother’s eye hardened into steel. “If you leave this house, you are dead to me.”

Bruno felt the breath leave his lungs. His sisters recoiled like they’d been hit with a hailstorm, and Pepa’s thunder rumbling was the only thing that filled the silence. For a moment, Bruno felt like he was looking at the scene from someone else’s eyes. He felt detached and removed from everything.

It was, to him, the final proof of what his mother thought of him. A fear he’d had since he was young, but had never had the courage to confirm. He lowered his gaze to hide the tears shining in his eyes, a bitter scoff of disbelief falling from his lips. “Sometimes, I wish I was.” His whispered confession was almost as loud as the thunder. His darkest thoughts finally finding a voice for the first time in his life. He shot his mother an accusatory look through the fringes of his curls. “Maybe you would be happier that way.”

There was an odd satisfaction that came from seeing her flinch away, as if burned. “Bru…”

“Maybe we should take some time to cool off.” Julieta tentatively spoke up, shooting Bruno a deeply concerned look. “We can talk this over tomorrow after we’ve had some time to get our emotions in check.”

It was only now that Bruno realized that Pepa had created a small hurricane in the room. In his anger and hurt, he hadn’t noticed the frigid rain and hail that’d pelted him. He clenched his jaw and nodded, refusing to say another word as he spun around and retreated to his room, hearing the others do the same.

He shut his door, tears finally leaking out of his eyes as he leaned back against it, sliding to the floor. He was trembling like a leaf in a tornado. What happened hadn’t felt real. It was like some twisted nightmare. Never had he refused to tell his mother about a Vision when she asked, so he knew she’d be angry, but he hadn’t expected her to say that.

He pulled his knees up to his chest for a moment as he let his emotions wash over him. Her words echoing in his mind like a mocking stream. He was so lost in his thoughts he almost didn’t hear his sisters’ voices outside his door.

“Juli, maybe we should let him be.” Pepa’s soft voice was accentuated with the quiet rumble of thunder. “He looked pretty upset.”

“Pepa, you heard what he said. I… I don’t want him to be alone right now.”

Bruno pinched the bridge of his nose to stave off the headache that was pounding away. Sure, he’d said that sometimes he wished he was dead, but he wasn’t about to act on it. His sisters had every right to worry, but right now he didn’t want to see anybody.

“We’ll talk to him tomorrow.” Pepa insisted. “Let him have some time to gather his thoughts.”

“You know mama’s going to ask again.” Julieta’s words sent a spike of panic through him.

“I know.” Pepa sighed. “And as much as I hate to say it, maybe she’s right. If this vision is hurting hermanito this much, he shouldn’t keep it to himself.”

“It’s his choice.” Julieta argued.

“Come on. Let’s take this elsewhere. I don’t want someone to overhear.”

Bruno listened to the sound of retreating footsteps with a feeling of hollow devastation. Tomorrow he would be ganged up on by his mother and sisters. Maybe even his brothers-in-law. Against all of them, he would stand no chance of keeping his secret. Of protecting his sobrina.

His own words echoed in his mind. “I’d sooner leave than let you see it!”

He hadn’t meant it. He would never leave willingly, but… but to protect the family… to protect Mirabel …

Bruno set his jaw determinedly and climbed to his feet, sweeping his way up several secret passageways to his room, shoving the necessities into a bag and slinging it over his shoulder.

Something within him simultaneously hardened and shattered. As someone who could see the future, he’d become very good at predicting possible outcomes to current actions. If anyone learned about that vision, it would get back to his mother. And if she found out, Mirabel would never be treated like a member of this family again. She would be feared, perhaps even scorned or hated.

There were two options open to him now. To take Mirabel away—something he couldn’t do to his sister because it would break her heart—or to remove himself from the equation. He was the only person who knew about the Vision. If they wanted to know, they’d need Bruno. So if there was no Bruno, there was no way to get the Vision.

His Door wouldn’t let anyone in that he didn’t want in. It was something they’d discovered as teenagers. If someone tried to enter Bruno’s room when he didn’t want them to, his doorknob would turn to sand, giving them no way to grip it. Every door had a mechanism like that.

He paused just outside his bedroom door, bag slung over his shoulder. He placed a hand over the hourglass etched into the wood, making a mental list of people to keep out—Julieta, his mother, Pepa, Felix, Delores—everyone. He let his hand fall and walked to the hallway, taking one last look behind him at the golden door.

The tiles at his feet clattered softly, questioningly, as if asking him where he was going. Bruno wasn’t sure why, but he answered the house softly in a whisper. “I’m leaving. To protect them. Protect her.”

The tiles shuddered and he noticed the way the glow of his door abruptly went out . For a moment he panicked. A door had never gone dark like that. Was this… Casita’s way of acknowledging his leaving the family? The house as a whole gave an almost mournful groan.

Something heavy settled upon Bruno’s shoulders. There was no going back, now. For Mirabel. He had to stay strong. But… Where would he go? He’d never left Encanto before. He had no way to get over those towering mountains that’d kept them safe for forty years.

As if hearing his thoughts, Casita’s tiles rippled quietly, leading him to a picture frame next to Delores’ door. The frame swung out, as if on hinges, and revealed a large hole in the wall.

Bruno’s eyes widened. He didn’t have to leave. He could protect Mirabel without leaving . He carefully stepped through, eyes widening as he realized this was within the walls of Casita. He ran his fingers over the exposed wooden beams, following stairs and passageways until he came to a fair-sized room.

“Thank you, Casita.” He whispered. He would need some furniture, but that could come later. He would take what the family didn’t need—things they threw away and the like. He would watch over them from here—in the shadows. They would thrive without him, Mirabel would grow up part of the family now that his Vision wasn’t a factor in this.

And when the time came that the magic did die, he would help Mirabel however he could from the safety of his walls—unseen and unnoticed. Bruno would disappear without a trace, and the family would be fine.

He ignored the tears that fell down his cheeks as he picked up one of his rats. The family would be fine. He would manage. And so would they. Bruno’s eyes traced the cracks that’d formed on the inside of the walls. He could fix that. He would mend what he could from here. “Let’s see… how to make spackle…”

#Encanto #Fanfiction #Bruno Madrigal #Why Bruno left the family #Bruno's like a kicked puppy

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