La carta de amor (Encanto fanfic) ON HOLD

Rebuilding Casita

(This is an in-between chapter for kind of understanding the dynamics and the relationship between the kids and their uncle)

Pepa and Julieta had hugged Bruno when he stepped through the broken door. He did not expect this to happen. He thought they would yell at him, be scared, angry - anything but welcoming. But Bruno was wrong. So very wrong. Even though his sister Pepa had never wanted to talk about him with anyone and told the people he had ruined her wedding, she was holding him in her arms sighing and mumbling that she was so happy he had come back.

He wanted to apologize for so much, for ruining everyone's life, but he started with Pepa's wedding. However, when he was twirling her around the ruins of their old home, he felt a push and stumbled away. It was Camilo.

"No stop it! Get away from my family!"

Not only Bruno was startled by Camilo's sudden behaviour. Pepa tried to calm him, make him believe that everything was fine, he was just his Tío Bruno. But he did not want to hear it. His mother had shed so many tears because of this man. She had been angry, desperate, because of this man. Whenever Camilo had helped her calm herself, she had told him all about his uncle. And the things she told him weren't positive. He did not understand how she could just... hug her tormentor like that.

"Camilo everything is fine." Pepa told him again.

"But he's an evil, soul eating rat man."

Everyone was stunned by this statement. They looked at Bruno, anxiously fidgeting with his ruana, while a rat was affectionately nibbling on his ear. Well at least Camilo got one thing right.

"What are you talking about, Camilo?" Félix asked. He could see Camilo was angry but there was something else hiding behind his eyes. It was fear.

"I saw! I saw him back in the kitchen a few years ago. He was glowing. And he was so tall. Then he... he called my name and suddenly everything went dark. You can't tell me he isn't evil. He made me faint!"

Bruno hesitated, chuckling nervously, while everyone was still staring at him. Pepa looked devastated. Félix was angry while the others just looked confused.

"Well. You did pass out when you saw me. But I didn't do anything. I think it was the shock. I brought you to your room and gave you all the arepa's I was going to steal from the kitchen. Most of them at least.

Pepa gasped. "That was you? I always thought Camilo had stolen all of them in the night but fell asleep before he could finish them. I grounded him for a week."

Camilo remembered. He had tried to explain that it wasn't him, that Bruno had come, and he tried to protect the house. (It was not quite true. He did plan to steal those arepas, but his mother did not need to know.) But every time he said his name a cloud would appear over her head and she began thundering. After a while she had been so angry that she sent him to his room and told him he was not allowed to go outside again that week. He had hated her for that.

"Yeah. That was...me?" Bruno's voice was almost a squeak. He was shrugging his shoulders awkwardly.

"No one ever believed me! And you never said anything. You could've just come out and told her. But you didn't."

"Camilo. It wasn't that easy. I couldn't have just confronted your mother. She thought I had disappeared, left the family for good. You can't just come back and expect everyone to act normal." Bruno told him.

"Well. That is exactly what's happening right now, isn't it?"

Camilo looked around. Finally, the adults had noticed their behaviour, too. Good. Maybe they would finally see that Bruno was the bad guy now.