Five Plus One (Bruno Madrigal x fem!y/n)

The Fourth "Almost"

The fourth time you almost told Bruno you love him, you are pretty sure you are having one of the worst days of your life...

First off, you had not seen Bruno in a while. Bad enough. Second, your sister-in-law is about to have her baby. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but from the moment she woke up she would not. Stop. Complaining. First it was the dry air cracking her lips and hands. Then, it was too cold in her room, and she asked you to start a fire for her since your mother was doing laundry.

Turned out, about a third of your wood supply was stored improperly and growing mold. In the time it took for you to dispose of the moldy wood and bring the fire supplies up, your sister-in-law had begun to cry.

You started the fire, and asked her what she needed, to which she replied "my husband."

You groaned inwardly. If you got your brother, he would make you make up the work he missed in the forge, and he would complain to your mother that you had upset his Corazon. And then you would get in trouble. But you wouldn't be able to do anything about that, because you were the only unmarried child living in the house and therefore still lived under your parents' rules.

Which is exactly what happened.

Huffing next to your father in the forge, tears of frustration welled in your eyes, only to be eviscerated by the heat.

You wished Bruno was here, or rather, you wish you were with him, laughing with his sisters, playing with the madrigal children, or sitting on a blanket on a hill talking until the moon rose high in the sky.

You wanted your boyfriend. You wanted to be away from you mother's criticism, your father's indifference, your brother's dismissive attitude towards you now that he had a wife to take care of. You knew they loved you, but they sure had a hard time showing it.

You really were accident-prone, which is why you really needed to work on being aware of your surroundings. If you were, then you would have noticed you father adding a log to the already burning fire as you reached for the tool you needed.

You let out a cry of pain as flames licked around your exposed arm, catching on the fabric of your rolled-up sleeves.

"Ay, y/n!" you heard your father cry, grabbing the bucket of water used for emergencies and dousing your arm.

You collapsed to the ground, not looking at your arm, which was making an alarming fizzing noise.

"c'mon, I'll take you to Julieta," your father huffed, not unkindly.

You shook your head, your hair now lose from its band and falling around your face and neck.

Your house dress was sooty and now had a burned sleeve. Although your father had saved you from anything worse, you still had not forgiven him for not defending you earlier.

"I'm going alone."

To his credit, he didn't follow you.

You made your way to the town square, where Julieta had once again set up her healing cart. It was loaded with fresh arepas, pastries, and pies. You were ready to stuff one in your mouth and be rid of this burning pain in your arm; which you still refused to look at.

"You're the reason my harvest failed!" A voice to your left barked.

You turned, but paused when you saw the scene. Tomás, the most hot-tempered of the farmers, had pinned Bruno up against a wall. Your Bruno had his arms laden with a heavy basket of Julieta's baked goods; probably going from house to house to see if anyone needed anything.