Daughter Of The Outcast: An Encanto Fanfiction

07: Family weirdos

"You never left..." Mirabel uttered, looking around the rat-infested room.

"Well, uh, I left my tower which, y'know, had a lot of stairs," Bruno stammered in reply, holding a piece of an arepa.
"And here, eh? Kitchen adjacent!" He continued, clicking his tongue to the rats.

"Ooh, ooh, plus, free entertainment!" Miranda went on as her father took a rat to a little table.

"So, uh, what do you like? Sports? Game shows! Telenovelas!" Bruno offered.
"I prefer the telenovela. It's amazing." Miranda whispered to her confused cousin, smiling.

"Their love could never be." She sighed.

"I don't understand.." Mirabel muttered.

"Oh, 'cause she is his aunt and she has amnesia, so she can't remember that she's his aunt, it's a very forbidden kind of-" Bruno explained, slumping down into his old armchair.

"I don't understand," Mirabel interrupted, "why you left, but...didn't leave."
Seeing that Bruno was having some trouble explaining why, Miranda cut him off.
"Well, the mountains around the Encanto are pretty tall, and, uh, about the free food and everything, so..."

Bruno gave a small thumbs up to her, thanking her for helping.

Noticing the crack in one of the wooden walls, Mirabel walked up to it and peeped outside to see the dining room, quiet and empty once again.
Looking down, she saw the small table with Bruno's plate scraped on it.

Feeling her heart shatter, she put her hand gently on the table, looking behind her to see him silently standing beside Miranda.

"Yea, um, my gift wasn't helping the family, but, uh, but I love my family, y'know?" Bruno muttered somberly.
"It's just that I don't know how to... don't know how to.."

"Shhh, papa, it's okay.." Miranda whispered, trying to comfort him by holding his hand.

"Anyways, I-I think you should go now," Bruno stuttered, sitting down on his armchair again.
"I don't really have a good reason, but if I did, you would be like 'I should go because that's a good reason..' " he trailed off with a small laugh.

Gently kneeling down beside Bruno, Mirabel looked at him and asked,

"Tio Bruno? Why were we in your vision?"
Miranda held his hand tighter while she stared at the ground, afraid to say anything.

"We just wanted to make the family proud of us.." Mirabel continued, with tears starting to form in her eyes.

Bruno looked at her, sympathizing with them.

"But if we should stop, if we're hurting the family, just tell us, Tio."

"I can't tell you." Bruno finally uttered, "Because I don't know. Mija, a little help?" He asked, turning his attention towards Miranda while putting the pieces of the vision back together.
Nodding her head, she held Mirabel's hands as the two of them got a look of the past... 10 years ago.

"I had this vision the night that Mirabel didn't get her gift." He started.

"Abuela worried about the magic, so, she begged me to look into the future, and see what it meant. Then, I saw the magic endangered. Our house, breaking. And then, and then... I saw...you two. But the vision was different, it-it would change, like your future was undecided. But I knew what everyone would think, I knew what everyone would say because I'm Bruno and everyone always assumes the worst, so..."

After Miranda's vision, the girls looked toward Bruno.

"You left...to protect us?" Mirabel asked, whispering and holding up the vision with a tray.
"I couldn't just let everyone blame you two. You both were still so young, and you still are. My precious little girls." Bruno replied, smiling slightly.
"I don't know where will it end. But my guess, the fate of Casita, the Encanto, it's all gonna come down to you both."