justheweirdo

AU in which Bruno left six months before Mirabel’s birth, but this time he really left. He manages to go beyond the mountains and goes to live in Bogotá, changing his surname into Exposito but even out of the Encanto, Bruno Exposito isn’t that lucky. Although, he has an ordinary life, an honest job as a carpenter and a loving son to grow alone, but one day his son meets someone familiar, and this will change everything.

After the mountains split up, Mirabel is determined to find her tío Bruno and she manages to drag her family into this mission. As stubborn as she is, she finds him, but Bruno is not alone.

“W- well, I- I- I don’t know where to start… there are a lot of things to… ehm… to say,” he giggled nervously and removed his hair from his eyes

“Bruno, don’t worry, you need to stay calm,” Julieta told him gently, “We’re going to listen to you, even if it will be a little messy… it’s okay, you need to let it out, does it sound familiar to you?” she downplayed, “Follow your own advice for once, por favor…” she smiled, remembering the mantra he always told his sisters, mostly to Pepa, every time they felt stressed or anxious.

She finally managed to calm down too and not cry anymore, she didn’t want her brother to start panicking again, not now that he started to talk.

“Okay, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this,” he whispered to himself, “So, ehm… I think that my letter wasn’t enough to explain why I left… maybe, I don’t know, I barely remember what I wrote in that letter so… ehm… yep,” he let his voice fade and tried to remember what he wrote on that damn letter.

⸻

There had been some seconds of intensive staring between them until he giggled nervously, “Hehe, we are back!” he rubbed his neck.

“Sorry for having made you wait,” he apologised, “We just needed some time to ehm…” he couldn’t find the words, “to… ehm, recover! Yeah, sort of,” he smiled hesitantly while the three Madrigals kept looking behind him to catch any sight of Bruno.

Miguel entered completely the house, waiting for his dad to follow him, except that he didn’t… He looked back to be met by nothing, “Pa’,” he called and stuck out of the door to meet him and what he saw was his dad on the frame of the door, playing with his hands and when he looked up at him his eyes could start screaming at any time if only they could.

He was truly scared, “Don’t worry, come in,” Miguel told him gently to assure him, putting on a calming smile even if he was a little scared too.

⸺

And Miguel decided to act, he took a deep breath and acted like the adult he should be, and not the dramatic kid his mom always told him he was, “Listen,” he started, sitting gently next to his dad, crossing his legs and leaning his head on the wall.

“We both know how stupid I can be, maybe bringing them here without any advertising wasn’t the best way ever to let you meet them,” he explained and from a crunched Bruno came out a strangled sob at which Miguel’s heart broke.

He went on, trying to stay calm, “But I couldn’t stand seeing you missing them so much and… and…” he sighed, “The truth is that you need someone other than me in your life, you need someone better than me…” he confessed and looked down at his hands.

“I’m ready to step aside if it’s necessary…” he hesitated, not daring to look at his dad, and his voice cracked a little.

At that revelation, Bruno snapped out of his self-pity spiral of thoughts and lifted his head to look at his son as he wiped the tears from his face, “I won’t ever need you to step aside, mijo,” he said with a hoarse voice, then he cleared his throat, “You’re the best son I could ever have,” he assured, putting his feelings aside and taking softly by a chick his son’s face, caressing him with his thumb, letting his teary eyes meet his own teary eyes.

He wiped his son’s tears and gave him a weak yet lovable smile, “I’m sorry for earlier, I don’t know what got to me,” he apologized, giggling bitterly, and got closer to Miguel, putting his arm on his shoulders, squeezing and caressing him.

⸻

Between them, some pictures mostly represent a smiling kid. She didn’t observe them properly because one pic, in particular, caught her attention: a picture of his brother with the same kid on his shoulders.

Her eyes cracked open at the sight of her brother, it may be the proof that Miguel wasn’t lying and that it really was Bruno’s house. The look on her face softened immediately: her brother’s smile hadn’t changed at all, if not it was more genuine, like before they started to lose him…

Julieta stared at it so intensely that the little chat that Miguel, Agustín and mostly Mirabel were having felt distant as they were whispering.

She caught all the details from that pic, Bruno seemed to be laughing at the moment the picture had been taken and so did the little kid who was taking Bruno’s hands from his shoulders to mimic an airplane.

Looking better she noticed that maybe Bruno wasn’t the only familiar face present in that pic, that kid was familiar too… no, it couldn’t be. She looked around to see that that little kid on her brother’s shoulder was the one from the other pictures hung on the walls.

Julieta felt her breathing get faster but it was still quiet, and her heart was playing what sounded like a drums solo that only she could hear in her ears. Since the idea of him being Bruno’s son entered her head, she could not think of anything else.

⸻