is it cool to ask for bruno watching his kid (say he got married and his wife birthed his kid a few days before mirabell’s ceremony and after mirabell’s ceremony he left) receive their gift? also i love your writing and i’m so eagerly waiting for more with the seer and the baker on here & ao3
i got a bit carried away, but something tells me no one is going to mind lol, and thank you so much! I love it when people enjoy my stuff!
Now to the story
SEEING YOU AGAIN
Words: 2.1k
Read it on AO3!
-
Casita was bustling with activity, everyone decorating, cooking, and setting everything up for the party that night as another Madrigal child receives their gift.
The whole thing was a very bittersweet affair. There was the usual excitement that came with a gift ceremony, but this time there was pressure to make sure everything went perfectly. The last ceremony had gone terribly, no gift was received and everyone could feel the grief and uncertainty settling in the crowd. There had been no party that night and poor Mirabel was stuck in the nursery, crying.
And then, to make things worse, Bruno had disappeared. His wife had noticed immediately. They spent a whole week searching before giving up and admitting defeat. She had looked two weeks more before giving up as well. The night she did she held their infant close to her chest and cried, mourning the loss of her beloved husband.
On the other side of the wall, Bruno cried with her, a hand over her mouth to stifle the sobs that wanted to escape. He had been tempted to return then, just so he could hold her and comfort her and wipe her tears away.
But he didn’t. He couldn’t. It was best for everyone if he just disappeared, even for his wife and newborn daughter. Especially for them. He would not drag them down with him.
So when the time came for his daughter to receive her own gift, he was forced to watch behind the walls. He watched the preparations, murmuring to his rats. What would her gift be? Perhaps she would be able to control animals, or maybe she would control the elements. He spent his day trying to guess her gift before it was given to her, but he knew he would never actually be able to guess.
Their gifts, he had noticed, tended to be a combination of who they were and what was needed. It was ultimately impossible to tell what gift they would receive. Only the miracle knew.
Still, he needed something to do, something that would take his mind off of … everything, anything.
But then he went to the nursery, looking through a crack in the wall to the brightly colored room beyond. He couldn’t help the smile that spread over his face when he saw her, his little Rosa, all dressed in white and sitting on her bed while her mother carefully worked on her hair. He settled in to watch them, his beautiful girls, and if he tried hard enough he could pretend he was in the room with them.
“ … and then Mirabel helped me make a little bed for them! We got blankets and put them in a box. The mamí kitty even put her babies in it!”
“That’s amazing, corazón! How very sweet of you.” Her mother praised, giving her a kiss on the forehead, making her giggle.
“Do you think I could keep one of the kittens?”
Her mother hummed.
“I’m not sure. I’ll ask Abuela for you later tonight, how about that?”
That got the girl excited, bouncing around in her mothers lap before forcing herself to sit still once more. She went on for quite some time about the kittens. Bruno felt his heart swell with love and pride. He wanted so desperately to hug the little girl, to tell her how proud he was of her.
The girl went quiet for a moment, a thoughtful little frown on her face.
“Mamí?”
“Yes, Rosita?”
She fidgeted, playing with her skirts.
“Do you think … Do you think Papí might come?”
For a moment, everything was deathly quiet. The comb in her hair stopped moving, her mother frozen. Bruno could swear he could hear his own heart break.
“ … oh cariño.” She eventually said with a sigh, wrapping her arms around the girl. “... I don’t think so. But I’m sure wherever he is, he’s thinking about you. And he’d be so proud of the little girl you grew into.”
The girl deflated, but nodded.
“I just wish …”
“I know. Me too.”
Bruno had to leave. If he stayed any longer he may have done something stupid. He may have left the walls for them, to let them know he was right there, that he was watching, that he still loved them with everything he had.
He didn’t stop walking till he had reached his room, sitting down in his chair with a huff. For a moment, he sat in the silence, let himself feel the aching loneliness. But only for a moment.
“Dolores,” he whispered into the emptiness. “I need a favor …”
-
Rosa stood in front of the crowd, her little hands balling up her skirts as she glanced around the faces nervously. She gulped and took a big breath before walking along the red path Casita had set for her and up the stairs. It felt like the door was forever away, the gazes of the town weighing down on her. She had still hoped with all her heart that her Papi would show up somehow.
The family didn’t talk about her Papí a lot. It was just her Mamí who would bring him up, telling her all sorts of things, anything she could remember. Ever since she could remember she had wanted to meet him. Her Mamí would say maybe someday, but whenever anything important happened he hadn’t been there. She would look, she would always look, but it had always left her feeling upset afterwards. She tried not to show it, but her Mamí could always tell.
Which was why she still looked through the crowd. She didn’t even know what he looked like outside of the few paintings she had seen of him, but for some reason she was sure she would know him when she saw him. Still, she saw nothing.
She reached the top of the stairs, looking around at the family members that were there before focusing on her Abuela. She barely paid attention to what the woman said, the only thing she heard as she put her hands on the candle being her own heartbeat. When the older woman nodded she took her hands off the candle, looking to her door, the one the shone and swirled with golden magic, waiting for her. The whole assembly held their breath in anticipation. She looked to the doorknob, the one with an “R” inscribed into it just for her and she gently rested her hand on it.
As she did she was filled with warmth, flowing into her from the door, and she saw things.
She saw the house being made, saw her Abuela as a young woman with three little babies, saw the babies grow up into her Tía’s and Papí, saw them fall in love, saw her Mamí and Papí dancing in the courtyard, laughing together. She saw all her prima’s and primo’s as babies, saw all the gift ceremonies. In an instant she saw the entire life of the house and all those who had lived in it.
And, for less than a second, she saw a man, alone in the dark spaces between the walls.
She let go of the doorknob with a gasp, stumbling back. She hardly noticed the door taking shape in front of her or the cheer of the crowd. Her mind was struggling to make sense of all the information.
-
Bruno smiled at the girl from his spot in the shadows, blending into the crowd with the dark colored ruana, hood pulled over his head. Overwhelming pride washed over him as he watched his little girl receive her gift. He clapped with everyone else when the door appeared, but he could tell something was off. The girl was staring at the door before quickly bringing her eyes to the crowd. For a split moment his heart stopped as her eyes met his.
It felt like time stopped, everything frozen until a smile pulled at the girl’s lips. He smiled back.
Then she was being swept up in her mothers arms, the family congratulating the girl and drawing her attention away.
He took the opportunity to slip away, while everyone was distracted. He made a mental note to find some way to thank Dolores for the ruana, but that could wait till later.
-
Her room was dark now, the party long over. She was supposed to be falling asleep after a long night, but she couldn’t. She tossed and turned in her new bed, messing up the blankets, before giving up. She sat up, shoving the blankets away. Like Casita already knew what she was thinking, a light turned on and she looked around her new room.
It was a round room, the walls lined with shelves made of light wood except for where the door was, all empty and waiting to be filled. She had always liked collecting random things and was excited to find she had somewhere to put it all where she could see it! In the middle of the room was her round bed, piled high with blankets, pillows and stuffies. Above her wasn’t a ceiling but a dome made out of glass, the stars twinkling away in the night sky. She loved her room. It was everything she could want! But she couldn’t really pay it much attention now.
Because she couldn’t stop thinking about the man in the crowd. He tried to hide away, but she had seen him all the same. It was the same man she saw in between the walls, the same man who had been dancing with her Mami.
Her Papí had shown up! Just for her and her ceremony! It was what she wanted, wasn’t it? But she didn’t understand. Why was he hiding away? She knew he was, she had seen him go into the walls herself when she saw all those things.
There was a creak of wood and she looked up from her thinking, glancing around.
She let out a little gasp when she saw that a bookshelf had opened up from the wall, revealing an opening in the wall. The bookshelf moved back and forth like a door, beckoning her closer.
She gulped and climbed out of her bed, Casita nudging her with her slippers to make sure she put them on before continuing.
It looked like there was a passageway, just like the ones she had seen her Papí living in. She smiled and giggled, happily entering. The bookshelf closed behind her, leaving her in the dark. But that was okay, her eyes adjusted soon enough and she could start her exploration.
She let her hand graze the wall, images of the past flashing across her mind, and just like that she knew where to go, carefully picking her way across the wooden floors.
-
Bruno sighed in his chair, watching the rats as they ate the food he had brought them. There were plenty of leftovers after the party and he had been able to steal a bit more than usual tonight. He took a bite of his own food, pulling his legs up onto the chair with him. He should probably pull out the hammock soon and make an attempt at sleeping. He wasn’t sure how well that would work, but he needed to try.
He frowned.
Footsteps.
It wasn’t an unusual sound on its own. There were plenty of people walking through the house, even sometimes in the middle of the night.
But they weren’t coming from the other side of the wall. His head whipped over to his little, barely hanging-on door just as there was a tiny knock and it creaked open.
Big brown eyes stared at him from the doorway and he felt himself freeze up. The little girl smiled.
“I found you!” She said, jumping in place and giggling the most adorable giggle.
She rushed forward, jumping into his lap and giving him the biggest hug she could manage. She was already talking a mile a minute, explaining everything about her gift and her room and how she found him. He hardly heard a word she said, taken aback by her sudden appearance.
“And then the bookcase opened up and there was a secret passage! And it looked just like where I saw you, so I knew I could find you! So I went through and - mmf!”
She was interrupted when he drew her into his chest, arms wrapped around her tight.
“Pa?”
A sob escaped him, though he had tried not to. He held her tighter.
“I’m sorry,” She said. “I promise I didn’t tell anyone!”
He shook his head.
“You’re okay, I’m not mad at you, I promise.”
“But you’re crying.” She sounded confused and he gave a watery chuckle.
“Yeah, I am. I’m just … I’m just so happy to see you, coriño. I love you so much. I’m so sorry.”
She fidgeted in his arms, doing her best to get in a good position to hug him back.
“I love you, too, Papí.”
