Encanto One-Shots

Tell Me About Ma (Bruno)

Prompt: You are Bruno's young child and you ask him about your mom who died when you were younger. She died when you were three, and in this story you're seven, and your gift is telepathy.

Per original movie storyline, this will take place before Camilo and Mirabel have their ceremonies. Camilo and Mirabel are four in this.

I'll be using she/her pronouns, but feel free to use whatever pronouns you wish when reading it.

...

You loved your family. There was no doubt about that. You ran around with your cousins-- specifically Luisa-- and did your chores and wasted no time cracking jokes at the dinner table. Sometimes it was hard for anyone on the outside to believe that you were the prophets child. Your personalities were nearly polar opposites.

You loved your family. The only thing, at your young age, about your family that saddened you was seeing your cousins with both of their parents. It was something you envied. You only had one memory of your mother and it was beginning to fade, which troubled you and your dad could tell.

To Bruno, you were an open book. There wasn't anything you could really hide from your dad unless he wasn't looking.

He was always looking.

His anxiety as a single father had him hyper-focused on you and sometimes it would be embarrassing when he thought something was catastrophically wrong with you when everything was just fine.

You loved your dad, and knew that he did a lot to protect you from what he perceived (accurately or inaccurately) as threats. He would leap out of his shell if you needed him. He was there when you had nightmares, when you fell while rough-housing with Luisa. He was there when you were about ready to swing at Camilo after he wouldn't stop bothering you, him and Felix separating the two of you for the time being. The point is, Bruno went above and beyond for you. His sisters and mother would say that you brought out a side of him that they hadn't seen in years.

Because he was always hyper-focused on you, he knew that you somewhat envied your cousins for having both parents alive and around. He wasn't blind to that, so it didn't exactly catch him off guard when you came up to him one evening after dinner and asked him about your mother.

He looked down when he felt a tugging on his pantleg, smiling at you and ruffling your curly (y/h/c) hair. 

"Hola, mi sol."

You giggled and playfully swatted at your dad's hand, "fixing" your hair afterwards. He was helping Pepa and the older kids clear off the table while the younger kids were out in the open room running around with Félix. He picked up one of the bowls and went to walk, stopping when he noticed you were still holding on to his leg. He looked down and raised a brow curiously.

"What is it, (y/n)?"

You motioned for him to kneel down, like you wanted to tell him a secret (you were always terrible at whispering), so he obliged and the question you asked him made his heart pound briefly against his chest and the air to be caught in his throat for a moment.

"Papá, why don't I have a mom?"

Julieta had been cleaning up the dishes she had used to make the food for dinner, and she and Pepa's heads shot up when you asked the question. Isabela and Luisa were curious as to what was going on but Dolores, having heard you loud and clear, motioned for them to just keep picking up dishes.

Bruno looked over at you and was frozen where he knelt. He obviously knew this question would come up eventually, but he never could have been prepared to answer it.