When a Butterfly Flaps its Wings | Encanto Fanfic

Bruno

Bruno's lungs burned with every quick breath. His vision blurred in and out of focus as he swayed. He slammed his back against the wall and stared down the intruders. There were too many of them.

He was cornered and surrounded. Again. This time in his own home. Bruno's chest burned at the thought that the townspeople had gone after his sisters too.

What if Bruno was too late, and his sisters had already been killed?

"Brunito?" an elderly lady said to him. Bruno felt indignation flood through him, and he glared at the townswoman.

"How dare you call me that? After what you did!" He spat at the woman, who flinched away from his anger. Bruno felt a thrill of satisfaction at the response. He wouldn't be fooled by sweet nicknames or kind words. The townspeople had already shown him exactly what they would do to him if he did.

Bruno screamed and flinched away as two women launched themselves at him. His vision was obscured in a rush of blue and yellow fabric, and Bruno braced himself for pain. Pain which never came. Instead, he was being hugged by two women he had never seen before in his life. Two women who were sobbing on him.

Bruno struggled, trying to get away. "Let me go!"

He froze, as a drop of water landed on his face. And suddenly, it was drizzling. Bruno looked up to see a single rain cloud above him. Or more specifically, above the ginger-haired woman clinging to him. With wide eyes, he looked at the other woman. She smelt exactly like Julieta did after working in the kitchen all day.

They looked familiar.

Bruno felt disoriented. "Pepa...Julieta... Is that you?"

He felt them nod and his mind went blank.

"Am I... Am I having a vision?" I didn't feel like any kind of vision he's had before. But how else would he explain what were almost certainly older versions of his sisters? He had never had interactive visions before... but he certainly wasn't dreaming.

"No Bruno. This isn't a vision." Julieta whispered. Julieta, who had gray hairs. Julieta, who looked decades older than him.

Oh.

"I died then." Bruno had hoped death would be a lot less painful.

Pepa sobbed, "You're alive! You're here. How are you here? Where have you been?"

Bruno blinked, "Where... Where have I been?"

Julieta hugged him tighter. "You've been gone for thirty-five years, Bruno."

Bruno flinched back, violently shaking his head. "No. No. No. I couldn't have been gone for more than a couple of hours..."

Bruno watched with wide eyes as the old lady from before - who had to be his mother, his mother who was now old and wrinkled- knelt before him. "Bruno... Where have you been?"

His vision tinted green as forest debris whirlwinds around him. A voice, whispering to him. The candle.

"I think...I think..."

It's going to be okay. I'll protect you.

He's been missing for thirty-five years.

Bruno felt his world crumbling around him. "I think I'm in the future."

Julieta looked at him in wonder, "How?"

Bruno shook, "I... don't know. But I don't think it was me..."

"Mi hijito-" His mother cradled his face, and then gasped- "Bruno! What happened to your face?"

Pepa covered her mouth, horrified "Ay Dios mío, Bruno your neck. What happened to you?