𝒮𝑒𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝓇 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 <<Bruno Madrigal>>>

Chapter 10

"Last push, Pepa. You're almost there," Haidi encourages the woman laid out on the bed. "Carina, the towel and basin."

"Here, mamá," she hands out the required materials then sits down beside Pepa to hold her hand. Haidi's main job in the village is a midwife, this is the first time she brought Carina along since she insisted it herself.

"GET THIS THING OUT OF ME!!!"

Both women flinches at the flash of lightning and thunder resonating just outside the window. The storm had been raging on for hours now ever since Pepa's labor, eight hours to be exact. While the men had been busy helping casita from inside out, Julieta and Alma are making dishes to replenish everyone's energy after all of this is over. It's basically the hardest task everyone has ever gotten.

Carina's job here is to be a doula to her friend. Even after pregnancy, she's going to help take care of the baby, just as she did for Julieta. The woman's got a lot of free time, and it's also a way for her to get to see Bruno almost every day. The woman just confessed her feelings without getting a proper answer. He just keeps on avoiding the topic, and would be out most of the time without anyone knowing where he went off to. It's now a prey versus predator type of feeling between the two, and it's been going on for ten months that Carina became accustomed to giving him cold shoulders every now and then.

"Oh, the little darling!" Haidi cooed as she now fully held the new born. Carina felt Pepa's hold on her loosen, just as the sky had calmed outside.

Agústin, Félix, and Bruno sighed in relief, letting go of buckets, linens and mops. Some roofs were already missing, which was the cause of the flood inside the casita. Thankfully, fixing it won't be much of a problem later on with the help of the house itself.

Bruno flinches at the sudden flash of vision, holding his head from the migraine. "It's a girl."

Félix glances at him, groans and lies down on the wet floor, "Bro, you just spoiled the surprise."

He looks to him apologetically, "Sorry."

Agústin pats the man's arm, "Get ready for a whole lot of sleepless nights and stinky baby poops."

"Man, don't make me see the downside before I even hold my own child. I'm sure we can manage with that. Hand over some tips for me, will ya?"

Alma and Julieta comes out of the kitchen, careful not to slip and drop the tray of bowled sancochos. "Dinner, everyone," says Alma.

"That smells great," Julieta's husband comes over to take one.

Bruno wrings his polo that's completely wet from the storm, sighing from how exhausting his day had been. He probably should check out on the lad up the mountain, the storm could've reached him there.

It's not as if he's fond of Angelo, not even after a year that he last visited at Pepa's wedding. Bruno couldn't seem to see any vision out of him, which was totally weird. And it just so happens that he suddenly pops out yesterday, hiding near Carina's house to sneak around the village. It's like he's observing every person in Encanto. Whether the man's trying to see whether others have some kind of ability is what he doesn't know, but Angelo is definitely up to something.

It's a wonder whether Carina had already met him yesterday or not, because Bruno was the first to confront him and make him go back out to the mountain. If Alma and the others find out about the trespasser, it may end up with Angelo getting hurt and chased out with torches and pitchforks.

....Okay, that may be an exaggerated thought coming from Bruno, but he can't help but imagine things to end that way.

Carina walks out of the room, wiping her hands clean. She have let her mother do the rest to see what had happened outside and can't help but worry about her younger brother who was left to tend to their house alone. "The baby's born safe and healthy," she says to Alma.

"Thank you, Carina. You may take a rest."

The woman nods, glancing towards Bruno before taking a soup from Julieta. "How's Isabela?"

"She's slept through the storm," the woman laughs.

"She's as strong minded as you, I suppose."

"Seems like it. By the way, I heard Carlos and his padre are coming over to your house tomorrow. Is it officially your time now?"

Carina stops midway from eating the sancocho from the spoon, wondering if she heard that one right. "Carlos?"

"He isn't quite the looker now, but I think it'd be good for you to try and get to know him."

"How did you even find out about that?"

"You know how tia Haidi's going through every family to see potential suitors for you, right?" Julieta raises her brow. Even Bruno knew of that, but the fact that he doesn't show any reaction made her feel even worse. The man now quietly eats his soup on the corner, unnoticeably accompanied by two wet rats behind his back.

"Actually..." Carina looks back to her with a shrug, "I'm kind of considering it now. After all, I'm not getting any younger here. And mamá surely wants grandchildren now."

Bruno suddenly yelps, though it wasn't because of what he overheard, but because of the rat that bit his poor finger.

Julio hikes up the mountain, panting heavily. Despite fending the house from the terrible weather earlier, he needed to come up there and keep an eye on the same intruder. This man isn't skilled in hiding as he thought he was, Julio picked out some fruits when he spotted him trying to sneak around near the village.

When his sister said that this Angelo meant no harm, of course he wouldn't fully believe it. Magic isn't present outside Encanto, that much he knows from what the elders taught everyone. If word goes out that this place even exists, the tragedy that his mother and all the villagers faced before the founding of Encanto might get repeated. He wouldn't know why Carina and Bruno would be nice to this guy in the first place, Julio doesn't have the heart to chase him away either because of one thing.

"Hey, trespasser. Are you still there?" Julio peeks out from the crevice.

"Yes, yes. I'm perfectly alive," Angelo rolls his eyes and goes back to reading a book that he found lying around near the village's entrance. He bet it had flown all the way here by the strange hurricane earlier.

He crosses his arms, staring accusingly at him, "Why are you back here again? What intentions do you have?"

"I'm peacefully coexisting here in the mountain while waiting for something to change back to where I belong. I also just want to see your stepsister so I come here to check on her."

Julio was about to give a retort to that when he suddenly realizes something. His brows furrows in confusion, arms falling to the side, "...How....did you know she's my stepsister?"

Angelo gives him a blank stare, then closes the book with a smile.