When a Butterfly Flaps its Wings | Encanto Fanfic

Bruno

Bruno couldn’t take his eyes off the crack. It was large and ugly, spanning the entire room and breaking it into two. From the corner of his eye, he could see Mirabel pacing back and forth. Closer and closer together until, suddenly, she stopped and took a deep breath.

“Okay. Okay.” Mirabel mumbled under her breath, barely audible in the silent room. She turned to him, giving him a desperate look. “What do we do? How do we fix this?”

Bruno, finally looking away from the crack, turned from Mirabel’s gaze and started pacing himself. As frustrating as it could be at times, Bruno was used to being the one everyone looked to for answers. As if seeing the future meant you knew everything.

“What can we do? What can we do?” Bruno muttered trying to rake his brain for an idea, feeling like he was grasping at straws. He stopped pacing, hunching inwards. “I’m sorry Mirabel… I don’t know.”

“No,” Mirabel said, sitting on her bed dejectedly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t put so much pressure on you. I just wish we could just magically fix the cracks, the magic, everything.”

Fix the cracks.

“I have a really dumb idea.” Bruno said, looking down at the crack as if it could reveal all the answers. Could it really be that simple?

Mirabel gasped, looking at him hopefully. “Any idea is better than nothing!”

Bruno faltered, suddenly self-conscious, “What if… What if we filled in the cracks, with um… spackle?”

Mirabel blinked, contemplative for a second, before brightening up. “Bruno, you are a genius! That just might work. Wait here. I’ll be right back!”

Mirabel out of the room, presumably getting some spackle. Bruno was left alone, in the suffocatingly silent room that left just enough room for intrusive thoughts about visions and dreams and memories. He took a deep breath, collapsing onto Antonio’s old bed.

This is all your fault.

Stop thinking about it, he scolded himself. Instead, he turned his attention to the Casita who was much more important anyway. He watched the crack for a while before realizing that the crack seemed… smaller somehow. Almost half an hour later, when Mirabel trudged back into the room with a bucket of spackle and two taping knives, the crack had all but disappeared.

He turned to look at Mirabel who wore a matching shocked expression.

“It… it just started shrinking.” Bruno said, feeling almost as if he had to defend himself.

“Oh.” Mirabel said despondently, looking down at the bucket. “I guess we don’t need this anymore.”

Bruno paused, biting his lip hesitantly before he took the bucket from Mirabel’s hands. “Not… necessarily.”

Mirabel gave him a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“I… Just follow me.”

He led her to the portrait Casita had shown him yesterday. He gently grabbed the frame and pulled it off the wall. Bruno could hear Mirabel’s shocked gasp at the large hole in the wall.

“Bruno?” Mirabel said, horror across her face. “How long has this been here?”

Bruno shrugged looking back towards the hole. “I don’t know. Casita showed it to me yesterday.”

He hesitantly stepped in, offering his hand to help Mirabel through as well. The two of them stood silently for a moment, taking in the multitude of cracks, old and new.

“It’s worse than before.” Bruno said, feeling faint at the observation.

“Oh no… Casita.” Mirabel whispered sadly, kneeling down beside a large and familiar crack. He had seen it earlier, in Mirabel's room. “The cracks didn’t just disappear. You hid them.”