Yandere Toons x Reader: An Anthology of Headcanons and Scenarios

A Night in the Vision Cave (Drabble with Bruno Madrigal)

TW: Implied Kidnapping, Toxic Mindsets.

A.N. - This was written for a fan who said they had a dream about Bruno reuniting with them in his vision cave.

As your last thought was diving into the sheets of your bed and chasing the lure of sleep, waking to a cave laden with sand and no memory of your journey stirred deep unrest in your stomach. Faces locked in pain were carved out of stone sculptures lining the walls, which stood as little more than towers of sand. A middle-aged man in a green ruana and sandals had helped you off the ground, and it was not until he greeted you - eyes darting back and forth with a tentative smile - that his identity struck you.

"It's been a while, huh?" Bruno's voice was shaky but supported by an eagerness not to abandon the conversation. "Ten years and five months tomorrow, to be exact." He began to tap his fingers against one another when you chose to examine the cave in sweeping looks rather than respond, ducking his head and flinging a handful of salt behind his back.

"Uh, a lot's happened!" The seer dashed to a hole in the wall near the floor and crouched with his hand outstretched, and a mischief of rats scurried forth to sit across his slightly raised arms and shoulders. "I made friends!" He rose and looked at you as if presenting his happiest achievement. After allowing a moment to admire the thick fur and tiny noses of the creatures, Bruno shuffled his feet in a burst of enthusiasm.

"Oh! Mi sobrino Antonio taught me their names." As he nodded at every rat perched on his body, each one squeaked once their name was called. "Gabrio, Maximo, Karla and Dulce." The seer leaned forward with excitable momentum and whispered as though he were divulging a secret, "Karla ate Dulce's cheese last week." The two rats on his left arm confronted each other with sharp turns of their heads.

"This isn't all of them. The rest are rehearsing for the season finale tonight." Bruno watched absentmindedly as the rats jumped down and scampered back into their nest in the walls, realizing that his feet were on a crack in the floor and lurching away from it. He brushed the palms of his hands together to shed a few specks of sand, and his mood lifted to one of anticipation. "So, what do you think?"

With earnest hope filling his voice, Bruno could not hold your gaze for longer than a couple of seconds before his eyes dropped to the sandy floor once again. "It's okay," he confessed as if you had admitted some great truth through your silent confusion. "I don't blame you if you forgot about me." Despite his assurance of otherwise, the sullen droop in his tone and his downcast gaze suggested that, if you had, the fact would haunt him for the rest of his days.

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Extended/alternate ending where the reader plays along:

* * *

Burying the initial fear in a crevice of your mind to explore later, you looked upon your old friend like a shivering animal feeling the first gusts of warm spring wind. "I thought you had gone forever." Bruno shook with a nervous chuckle at this as if he had believed it himself for a time. He fiddled with his hands - pushing them together and pulling them apart again - in repetitive movements that slowed to a timid curiosity as you began to approach him.

Your steps were even and purposeful, carrying no hostility and instead conveying a reluctant sense of nostalgia. "After you didn't come back, I started to think it was something I did."

Bruno opened his mouth in shocked amusement and found the idea so ludicrous that he failed to suppress a laugh of relief. "No, no!" He raised a hand to his arm and rubbed the limb up and down while averting his gaze, the loose sleeve of his ruana rising and falling with the path of his hand. "Just-" years of isolation and wondering if he deserved a place in the world struggled to leave his lips "-family drama."

The misery that came with repeating those words carried far too much weight to be kept from leaking into his voice. For a brief moment, the thin veil of indifference and joy that he fought to uphold crumbled like the walls of an ancient home left to rot. The chuckle that slipped out of him seconds after was a plea for you not to notice the tightness in his smile, but as your hand rested on his shoulder, what little confidence he had mustered was destroyed.

The seer glanced at you a few times from the corner of his eye before turning his head in a mixture of uncertainty and excitement. "I'm glad you're here," you declared, and it was as if you had answered the oldest and greatest question he had. Bruno observed you with the awe of someone beholding a gift so splendid it was hardly real, his arms slowly extending outwards. In an explosion of joy, the Madrigal embraced you and clung to the peace it spawned amid the doubt plaguing his being.

As Bruno enjoyed the contact, you peered around the vision cave with a hint of unease. "Just ask me the next time you want to talk, okay?"

He retreated with haste, acquiring the look of a child caught in a lie. Gradually, his face traded the surprise and apprehension for anxious contentment. "Yeah, yeah!" The shakiness in his breath returned at the fright of having his unsavoury deed exposed, and he wrung his hands together in front of his chest with a quick tilt of his head. "Sorry about that."