Englishman in the Encanto

Bruno Madrigal had been trying to find the courage to approach his mother and tell her about his feelings for Sirius for a while now.

He’d only realised that he couldn’t waste much time only when the British wizards had stepped foot into the Encanto. He knew people like him were common in the wizarding world, Sirius and Remus both told him so, but it hadn’t occurred to him how much till he’d met Hagrid, the Weasleys and the Tonkses. It was something so normal for them that Bruno couldn’t even blame them if they ended up spilling the tea about it by accident.

This was the hardest thing he’d ever had to tell his mother. He’d never doubted his mother’s love, even when she’d scorned and pushed him aside: she’d criticised him plenty, absolutely, but he knew she’d always loved him even in his darkest moments and he was sure she wouldn’t have been so strict if she hadn’t been so focused on leading the community.

He didn’t doubt his mother’s love still, but, of course, he knew this was news that could change the very way his mother saw him, even if she’d changed so much.

Bruno understood that Abuela was trying: she was an old woman who’d spent her whole life keeping a tight leash on each member of her family, making sure the entire community would rely on her family, so of course her image mattered a lot to her.

It wasn’t easy.

There were times when she slipped back in old patterns, like the time she’d berated Bruno in front of everyone because his rat Luz was on him at breakfast time, or the times when she would straighten Isabela’s posture or tell Mirabel to be quieter, but she usually noticed immediately and apologised.

This was the first time they hosted people from the outside and it was such a large group of people who came from abroad to help them. It wasn’t surprising that Abuela wanted to impress them. It had been her coping mechanism for years: her need to show how much her family was dignified and great wasn’t going to change overnight.

Except, these people were so different from any person in the Encanto Bruno had ever met. Bruno wasn’t sure if it was only actual manners or maybe the fact that they communicated through the spell Remus had used to make them understand each other, but their British guests seemed extremely polite and yet, they didn’t seem to care for appearances at all. In fact, some would say they were even quirkier than him in one way or another. Odd to think there was someone quirkier than him but still.

Bruno remembered when he’d first met Sirius, and he could easily say that his boyfriend was deeply traumatised by what he’d been through in the time they’d been separated. He’d been traumatised by being separated from Bruno, which Bruno could attest the torturous feeling of himself, and he’d been through a war and twelve years in a prison that sounded like hell on Earth from what little Bruno had gathered. Andromeda had given him more insight into Sirius’s childhood than what he could have gathered from Sirius’s reluctance on the subject or Kreacher’s tales, which usually included many words of adoration for ‘Kreacher’s Mistress Black’. Bruno didn’t even have all the details, neither Andromeda nor Kreacher had gone too deep into those conversations, but he could see why Sirius was so embittered by life and so furious at mere idea of his family.

Remus had quickly grown on Bruno. They actually shared many traits of their personalities and had bonded over being the ones who usually had to intervene before Sirius’s hot-tempered nature took over. Remus was rather tight-lipped about his own life, remembering his school years fondly when reminiscing with Sirius, but stating facts rather than actually sharing how he felt about his life in England. Moreover, he was very emotional when Bruno had expressed his bewilderment and anger at hearing about the pureblood ideology, so Bruno had caught that there was something going on there, though Sirius clearly told him that he couldn’t betray Remus’s secret when he’d asked about it.

Hagrid was a gentle giant, there was no other way to describe him. He was rather rough around the edges, with manners that made Abuela shiver sometimes, but anyone could see that his heart was in the right place. He was like an uncle to some of the children, closer to Harry and Ron than to Ginny and Fred and George, but he was great with all of them. He’d treated Bruno and the Madrigals like they were old friends from the start, and not like people he’d just met. He’d actually bonded quite well with Antonio, as it turned out he too was a huge animal lover, though he was more of an expert on magical creatures, which he could easily be found telling Bruno’s youngest nephew about.

He tackled tasks of brute strength with an ease the Madrigals had seen only from Luisa – and he was always eager to regale the children with stories about all the wizards present here. Apparently, he was just eleven years younger than Abuela, even if he didn’t look it at all, and he’d been the grounds keeper at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry for many, many years.

Andromeda, Ted and Nymphadora were rather quiet, compared to the Madrigals or the Weasleys, but they were very persistent in finding ways to reconnect with Sirius. The Tonkses and Sirius were the ones most adamant of their dismissal of any appearances, waving away Abuela’s obsessive apologies for the children’s loudness or Bruno’s quirkiness rather aggressively. Ted told Bruno that appearances were such a big thing in the Black family and Sirius and Andromeda both loathed the concept.

Andromeda and Sirius were often spotted a little further away from the others, chatting quietly about subjects no one dared to ask about, since they seemed very sensitive. Ted or Nymphadora regularly claimed Bruno’s company in those situations and dragged him in conversation. They were very adamant in welcoming Bruno in the family too. Bruno was very flattered when they insisted he chat with them. They often asked him what he thought and listened to him, genuinely interested in what he had to say and never scared or embarrassed by his awkwardness: in fact, Tonks once surprised Bruno being Hernando for Antonio and found him hilarious so much that they spent the evening improvising stories for the little boy together, Bruno doing the voices and Tonks changing her face to go along with it.
They even asked him to join in wizarding games. Bruno preferred watching them for now: Gobstones or wizarding chess he could handle but Exploding Snap was too much for his nerves.

The Weasley family were as chaotic as they come, which was something when compared to the Madrigals, an even larger family. They were all lovely people, warm and very kind to everyone, including Bruno, a real novelty to him.

With Arthur, Bill and Charlie as the more level-headed of the bunch, Fred, George, Ron and even young, extremely polite Ginny made quite the ruckus everywhere they went.
No to mention Molly, who, with the best of intentions, had more than once made Bruno jump when she would suddenly shout at her children to discipline them (Fred and George mostly, but the others weren’t exactly exempt). She’d only started paying more attention when she scolded her children, on the third time Fred and George left one of their fake wands around.

Bruno had been passing a cup of coffee to Sirius, when his boyfriend had accidentally taken the fake wand, and it had changed into a fish with a small explosion. Sirius had laughed about it, but the explosion, small as it was, had made Bruno jolt enough that the cup had slip from his hand, staining Sirius’s robes.

Sirius was quick to clean the fabric and repair the cup with a tap of his wand, but Antonio, who had been there, had approached Fred and George very politely, squeezing his jaguar’s plushie, “Perdon,” he told the twins, “Can you stop leaving things like those around? They’re funny, but my Tío has anxiety, you’re scaring him every time.”

Bruno could only melt from his nephew’s sheer cuteness, even momentarily forgetting his anxiety and embarrassment, and Molly cooed at Antonio for a while (Bruno could understand that) before starting off on her twin sons about their jokes again. For all his good intentions, Antonio had given her even more ammunition to be mad at Fred and George.

From then on, she still shouted at her children, but she minded herself now and made sure to be careful not to startle Bruno when he was around to witness it. The twins apologised and all the children were careful to be more mindful of Bruno at any time. He told them not to worry about him, but they said his anxiety had made their mother stop yelling all the time, so they were very grateful. It was sweet of all of them and Bruno appreciated it.

The only one who couldn’t manage to do it was Tonks, but she was clumsy, much worse than Agustín, so it wasn’t her fault that she kept tripping around and knocking over plates and pots any time she was anywhere near dinner. She was a true contradiction: she practiced magic effortlessly and was very proficient according to all the wizards there, but she then fell and tripped like she didn’t even know what coordination was.

By their third day there, Mrs Weasley had called upon what Mirabel had dubbed ‘the Council of Adults’ to discuss keeping Tonks out of the kitchen. It was a unanimous vote about it: among many of the reasons, Bruno wanted to keep his heart rate in check, Mrs Weasley was trying to reclaim as much control of the hearth as she could with Kreacher adamantly staying there, Abuela and Andromeda shared a sort of obsessive-compulsive terror of chaos, and Julieta, though not as fervent about it as Abuela or Andromeda, was still quite scared for the fate of her dishes, even if the wizards could repair them each time.

Mirabel could call it the ‘Council of Adults’ all she wanted, but they’d kept Tonks, Bill and Charlie out of it, and the men were easily overruled every time, what with Ted, Agustín and Félix being too smitten with their wives and Arthur being too much of a lover of peace and quiet, though Bruno couldn’t help but understand that.

Hagrid was wise to keep far away from any of that.

Since Sirius had been the last man standing in the Tonks versus the kitchen debate, finding it funny when she pranced around and knocked over half the kitchenware, they all voted to give him the job of keeping her busy at meal-prep times. Each day, Sirius would have to find a way to distract Tonks.

His smile and ‘Come, come with Uncle Sirius, Dora darling, there’s a good girl, look what Uncle Sirius has for you,’ was at first rather mocking of the way one would speak to a small child or a dog. He was rebelling against their decision, but they would take what they got and, in the end, Tonks and Sirius did love the time they spent together, discussing spell-work or playing games, so it was still a win.

Bruno still had to really click with Harry. Thing was, Harry held a huge place in Sirius’s heart and Bruno really wanted him to like him. He was already trying his hardest with his nieces and nephews who were cheerful children and very affectionate and open to reconnect with him. Harry, on the other hand, didn’t have to connect with Bruno at all if he didn’t want to, and Bruno was so very aware of that: he was familiar with Mr and Mrs Weasley, Remus had been his teacher for a year, Sirius was his godfather whom he was getting to know, and he was already close with Hagrid, Bruno didn’t know if Harry felt like getting to know him.

Harry was always polite and not at all reluctant when he was engaged in conversation, but he was a clever teenage boy, and he probably found Bruno’s efforts to try and find something to talk about rather desperate. He’d clicked with Sirius rather easily when one thought that they’d only met a few weeks before Sirius arrived in the Encanto, and they were getting to know each other. But Sirius was his godfather and Bruno, as his boyfriend, knew how ‘cool’ Sirius was, if one went by Camilo’s definition.

Bruno mostly left them to their own devices and let Harry take the initiative in approaching him if he wanted. The boy was an orphan, and it turned out he had a rather tragic past too that left him famous in the wizarding world, and Bruno knew a thing or two about it: there were a few friends of Pedro Madrigal in the Encanto, people who’d known him and had wanted to know him and his sisters. A couple had died already, others were old friends of Abuela too, and were some of the few people who didn’t shun him and were actively kind to him, like Gilberto Bastidas. He and his wife, Señora Maria Bastidas, had been quick to invite him, Pepa and Julieta for an afternoon snack to cheer them up for losing Casita once they’d learnt that Bruno was back.

He wanted to get to know Harry too, but he had spent the last ten years in his family home’s walls, he was sixteen years older than Harry’s godfather, and he’d always been awkward as hell regardless, so he didn’t know how to make his company appealing to a British teenage boy without butting in when his boyfriend was connecting with his godson. He wondered if Harry didn’t find him hanging around him and Sirius at least a little creepy and awkward, so he tried not to do that.

“Tío Bruno?”

Bruno counted it as a win when he didn’t jump, but rather turned around and found Mirabel on the doorframe.

It was the early hours of the morning, and Mirabel was already up and dressed for the day. Bruno was too, he’d been for two hours already, but it didn’t count since he and Sirius were often the last to go to bed and the first up. This time, Sirius was still asleep, he’d woken up in a sweat from a terrible nightmare in the middle of the night and it had taken Bruno a good long while to calm him down and coax him back to sleep.

“Mirabel, buenos dias,” he greeted with a small smile at his niece.

Mirabel greeted back and joined him at the window of the rectory’s living room, linking her arm with his, then looked down, “Have you been staring at Abuela watering Padre Cristian’s plants for long?”

“Uh, I’m not sure,” Bruno shrugged, looking at Abuela, down in the yard, “Probably. I need to talk to her, I know, but I don’t know how.”

“Is this about Tío Sirius?” Bruno turned sharply to her, and she gave him a look that was an obvious challenge, adding a mischievous smirk to the mix, “Don’t flatter yourself, the man did get all of us safely out of Casita, he won that title long before Dolores blabbed and confirmed everything about you two. Toñito already calls him that,” it was true, Bruno thought, Sirius had been moved almost to tears when Antonio had called him that and then asked a wizarding story, “We’re just waiting for Abuela to know, so everything is out in the open. You might want to get on with that, by the way. We’ve got a bet going, and Harry and I have stakes on you telling her sooner rather than later. We really don’t want to shave our heads.”

“S-shave your heads!?”

“Well, none of us have money to spend on bets – except Harry, actually, apparently he’s rich – so Fred, George and Camilo suggested the losers pay a penalty. You know how they are.”

Bruno nodded. Shaved heads was a penalty those three would suggest. He did know how Camilo was, and it turned out Fred and George were even worse. The three boys had only brought chaos in the rectory, within their families, for now, but they were only warming up. He shuddered at the mere thought of what had been unleashed on the Encanto.
“Yeah,” he sighed, “It’s just – it’s complicated.”

“Is it?” Mirabel said, “I think you just have to make it simple,” Bruno hesitated, and Mirabel mirrored his sigh, “Look, Tío, I understand, you know that. With everything that happened, it’s difficult for me to tell anyone things, especially Abuela. I’m too used to her just telling me to get out of the way, but all in all, we have to remember that all Abuela did, even her worst mistakes, was made out of love.”

Bruno saw her point but still shrugged, “You think I’m making too much of a deal out of telling my mother I am in love with a man, right?”

Mirabel smiled softly, “I’m saying that she loves us all, she loves you a whole lot. I mean, no one else who knows has a problem with it. Abuela taught you, Mamá and Tía, and she taught us, I think it says a lot that no one had a problem with it. And Tío Sirius has done a lot for the family, hasn’t he? I know it’s not how it’s usually done, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. It’s not like you want some random person. It probably would help that Primo Harry is very polite, Abuela likes that.”

“I guess –”

“And you don’t have much of a choice, do you, Tío Bruno?” Mirabel said, “After all, it’s not like you can check how she’s going to take it. Not anymore.”

That was true too. He just had to take the leap. Somehow, that gave him strength. Or maybe the strength came because those words came from Mirabel.

Bruno took a deep breath and looked down at his mother sweeping the rectory’s yard, “Well, I can’t make you lose your bet, can I, nena?” he gave her a side-squeeze, something he only recently felt completely at ease doing, finally certain that his nieces and nephews were comfortable with receiving affection from their recently found uncle, “No time like the present, sí?”

Mirabel actually cheered him on, “Yay, Tío! Do you want me to go with you?”

Bruno hesitated with a shiver, though he did smile wryly at her, “I appreciate the sentiment, Mirabel, it’s very sweet of you to ask. But discussing my sexuality with my mother is going to be difficult enough without my teenage niece there to witness it.”

“Right,” Mirabel made a face and then made a run for it, “I think Abuela’s gone to the kitchen now, it’s time to start breakfast.”

Once Mirabel left, Bruno licked his lips and let out a deep breath.

He walked to the door with purpose and knocked on the wooden frame three times, before holding his breath, squeezing his eyes shut, crossing his fingers and passing through, marching firmly to the rectory’s kitchen.

If a bleary-eyed Ron came out of the room he shared with Harry, Camilo, Fred and George, Bruno didn’t see him. To be fair, Ron didn’t see him either and proceeded to the bathroom with a yawn.

Abuela was indeed in the kitchen, putting away the broom, while Pepa and Julieta stared sleepily ahead as they sipped their coffee.

The three of them looked up when Bruno entered the room, holding his breath, his eyes squeezed shut and fingers crossed.

“Buenos dias, mijo,” said Abuela, reaching out to pull a lock of black hair behind his ear and kissing his cheek, “Would you like some coffee before we start preparing for breakfast?”

That simple gesture was one of the many the family had been very happy to be on the receiving hand of recently and Bruno was terrified to lose that again.

He opened his mouth to say something but then decided against it. He cleared his throat, looking away, then stood there, awkwardly, holding his left arm with his right hand. Abuela took it as a yes and went about making coffee for him.

His sisters frowned, heads cocking to the side in unison. Their sleepiness forgotten, they both shared a look and then looked back at their brother.

“Mamá,” Bruno’s throat was terribly dry in that moment and his voice came out as hoarse as if he’d swallowed all the sand in his tower, “I – huh – I wanted to talk to you.”

Abuela blinked in surprise and glanced up at him from the cup of coffee she was preparing for him, “Bruno?” she asked, “Are you alright, luciérnaga? Are you sick?”

“No, I’m – I’m fine,” Bruno said, “Can we talk?”

“Sí, mijo,” Abuela said, still very puzzled by her son’s behaviour, “Of course, but if you’re not feeling well –”

“I said I’m fine, Mamá,” Bruno insisted, “I want to talk to you. Now.”

Julieta stood from her seat, leaving her empty cup of coffee, “We should leave you alone. Come on, Pepi.”

“No! Don’t!”

Julieta and Pepa stopped in their tracks at the panic in their brother’s voice, turning to him right away. Bruno swallowed, grasping Pepa’s hand, the closest to him, “Could you – could you stay?”

It had been so long since the last time Bruno had actively asked his sisters’ help like that, they would never deny him. Pepa gripped his hand, “Alright, we’re staying with you.”

Abuela watched as her daughters immediately flanked her son, Pepa squeezing his hand and Julieta gluing herself to his side, “Go on,” Julieta nudged him gently, “Tell her.”

Now that the moment was there, Bruno hesitated, not really knowing where to begin, “It’s kind of private –”

“That’s true,” said Pepa, peering over Bruno’s head at Julieta, and nodding to how easy it would be for anyone to just come inside while their brother was telling their mother such a private thing, “Perhaps the living room is better? Anyone could come into the kitchen at any time, and we do have breakfast in the yard, so people won’t pass by the living room.”

“Ay, you’re right,” Julieta agreed, and smiled at her brother, “The living room, then?”

They all agreed, they could talk uninterrupted while the others woke up and started breakfast. They led Abuela to the living room and crossed path with Mirabel in the hallway: the girl took one look at the four of them and nodded at her mother, trotting then to the kitchen.

Once they’d all sat down on the two couches there, Abuela stared at her children. Bruno looked positively terrified, Julieta and Pepa defensive and protective, as if readying themselves for battle. She’d never seen them like that.

“Niños, you’re scaring me, what’s going on?”

Bruno looked to his left at Pepa, who nodded at him, then at Julieta, to his right, who smiled encouragingly. Their mere presence gave him strength in a way it hadn’t for years long before he went into hiding.

“Mamá,” he finally managed to choke out, “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about Sirius for a while now.”

They were surprised when she looked relieved, “Sirius? Ay, mijo, I thought you were going to tell me you had some horrible disease! Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about Sirius too.”

The triplets blinked, “You – you have?” Bruno asked, glancing at each of his sisters again, as if to make sure he’d heard right.

“Well, mijo,” Abuela continued, somehow missing the tension in the room, “He’s been staying with us for a while now, and he’s helped the family a lot, we can’t ignore what he’s done for the family –”

“Sí, Mamá,” Bruno said tentatively, “Of course, pero, that’s not what I –”

“And he’s your friend, sí? You’ve never had any – er – I mean,” Abuela hesitated, her words faltering out of her mouth, and her cheeks reddening as she admitted out loud something she’d so long denied, “I mean, many, you’ve never had many friends, and I am happy to see that you’re getting along with these people quite well.”

The triplets shared a quick look. Even if their mother was doing her best, and indeed she was, trying to mind her controlling tendencies, these episodes in which she went off on a tangent happened. With her new disposition, the best thing to do was to stop her right away and steer her back into the correct conversation.

“Mamá,” Julieta called gently but firmly enough to stop the old woman, “Can you please let Bruno speak?”

Abuela let out a small gasp, as she did when she fell into old habits and people pointed it out to her. She gathered her bearings, “Of course, perdon,” she said, and settled in a more comfortable position (even straighter than she was sitting before), “What is it you want to tell me about Sirius, Bruno?”

Bruno swallowed deeply, “Mamá, Sirius and I – we’re not friends, we –”

“Que? I thought you were,” Abuela said, “I don’t understand, mijo, all that we’ve gone through, all that Sirius has done for us, I thought he did because he cares about you, because you’re friends.”

“Well, yes, but that’s not exactly –”

“I just wanted to tell you that if you’re comfortable with it, I wanted to offer Sirius and any of our guests the chance to stay, if they want.”

Bruno blinked, “Stay?” he asked, “You mean, forever?”

Abuela nodded, “Yes, I’ve been talking to Andromeda and Ted about Sirius and his situation. They explained that he can’t go back to England without a lot of risk to himself, even if he is not guilty of the crime he’s been sent to prison for. So, after all that he’s done for our family, the least we can do is offer him a place here, where he can put roots if he wants –”

“Er – Mamá –” Julieta started.

“Maybe he’d like to get a house in the village,” Abuela continued, “He seems to like it here.”

“Mamá –” Pepa tried.

“Perhaps he could find someone sweet and caring who will look after him, and have a family –”

“Dios mio, Mamá!” Pepa cried, when Bruno literally blanched, “Stop it!”

Abuela blinked, “Que?” she asked, then she saw Bruno’s face, “Mijo, are you alright?”

“No, I’m not alright!” he cried, “You can’t say that about Sirius!”

“Que? What did I say? It was just a suggestion, mijo, he doesn’t have to stay if he doesn’t want to –” and she managed to say something even worse, making Bruno pale even more, “Don’t look so scandalised, Bruno, what’s so wrong in asking? We do have some wonderful, beautiful girls around here that he might like –”

“Oh, Dios mio, Mamá!” Pepa exploded, “Of course he’s going to be scandalised when you are already planning to throw some of the town’s bimbos to his boyfriend’s face!”

That did definitely stun Abuela into silence.

It took a moment for the triplets to register Pepa’s words.

In fact, their mother registered them much sooner than they did.

Abuela just stared at them all, gaping at her triplets with wide eyes Bruno and Pepa had inherited from her.

“Que?”

That seemed to snap the triplets out of it.

Pepa slapped both her hands on her mouth, Julieta’s eyes were as wide as saucers, and Bruno was opening and closing his mouth like a fish. Pepa freed her mouth of her hands and slapped them both on her thighs, “B-Bruno? Ay, I’m so sorry! Me and my stupid mouth!”

Bruno’s mouth was dry, but he managed to swallow enough to breathe again, “It’s – It’s alright, Pepa,” he said, when he could find his voice, “Mamá,” he paused until Abuela was looking directly at him, “That’s what I was trying to say. Sirius – he’s not my friend, he’s more – I’m in love with him and he’s in love with me. We’re together.”

“Que?”

“I never could find the words to tell you, because I wasn’t sure why I felt differently from anyone, when everyone kept telling me I would find someone. And, truth is, once I got it, I didn’t want to disappoint you,” Bruno continued, Pepa and Julieta eyeing their mother carefully from his sides, “I never wanted to marry, I never wanted to court, I never liked anyone. Like I told Sirius, I always felt like being in love should be like reaching out and touching the stars and I never found anyone who made me feel like that. Actually, I never felt there was someone like that for me. I never wanted anyone, until I met Sirius. I never felt like this for anyone other than him. I thought it was only me, that there was something wrong with me, because there had to be, since you all said I had to like someone. But Sirius, he’s like me too. He says there’s a lot of people like me, like us, women too.”

Abuela stayed silent for a good long while, just staring at her son.

Bruno wasn’t sure where this new confidence was coming from.

It was like the night of Mirabel’s ceremony, where he got the idea to break the vision and go into hiding, and went through with it without hesitation. It was like when he’d faced his family after the fall of Casita. Now that he was here, facing the situation head on, he didn’t see the point of hesitating anymore.

And there had been few times in his life that he’d thought worth of defying his mother, shocking her. It probably shouldn’t be all that surprising: as quirky as he was (and he was very aware of how quirky he was), he had never doubted his family’s love for him.

Sirius was probably starting to rub off on him and not in the physical sense (Bruno blushed at the mere thought, he probably shouldn’t go there while talking to his mother). One of Sirius’s qualities was also one of the things in which he and Bruno differed the most, in which they were polar opposites: where Bruno hesitated and worried about the consequences and rarely just did things without having gone through all the possibilities in his mind first, Sirius was headstrong and took things head on, some might say he was reckless.

Bruno didn’t exactly think he was reckless, but he didn’t exactly agree with his ‘what’s life without a little risk?’ motto either. After he’d spoken about it with Pepa and Félix, one morning, during a break from clearing the rubble of Casita, he could see the appeal of it. Pepa and Félix actually agreed with Sirius that one should just throw themself into some things sometimes, but Bruno worried too much about the future to do something without care for the consequences. Was it an occupational hazard of having had the ability to just look into the future and see what would happen for forty-five years?

Maybe it was because Bruno had lived a much more sheltered life compared to Sirius, who was sixteen years his junior and had been in a war and in prison for twelve years, but Sirius himself had admitted to him, just the other night, that maybe if he’d thought through some of his decisions, things could have gone differently.

On one thing they did agree, though: Sirius’s decision making had brought him back to Bruno, which meant they could be together, now, so they could live with that.

Now, there was a risk he couldn’t avoid anymore: his mother’s reaction to the biggest news he’d ever given her, even bigger than the fact he’d just hidden in the walls of Casita for ten years. (Somehow?)

After all, the rest of the family were fine with his chosen partner. Mirabel was right about that. Antonio already called Sirius ‘Tío’, too young to understand what it meant to the rest of his family. As Pepa said, they could hardly blame the child for it, it was quite simple to Antonio: Sirius was nice to them all, he took care of them and saved them when Casita fell, and Dolores confirmed that he and Bruno were together like his Mami and Papi. And now Mirabel had called Sirius ‘Tío’ too. Sirius’s friends knew too: his cousin, her family and Harry, whom Sirius had said to count as his only family. Only his mother was left not in the know. And now she knew.

Still, every second that went by with Abuela only staring at him wide-eyed stifled Bruno’s new confidence that he would be able to bear it no matter his mother’s reaction to the news.

He could tell that Julieta and Pepa’s hope about Abuela’s reaction was crumbling too, if he went along with the way their nails dug into his skin.

The truth was, they didn’t know much about their mother’s true nature, the nature of her personality without the fear and guilt that had gripped her for over fifty years.

She was softer now, but Bruno’s announcement certainly would be big news to anyone, let alone a woman who’d focused on the community so much that everyone in her family was brought up with strict expectations. They couldn’t get enough of her cupping their cheeks, kissing their foreheads and fuss about their appearances, Bruno was terrified of her stopping it all, stopping showing him, them all, that they mattered, that they were worth it.

“Mamá?” Julieta finally chided softly.

“You’re saying – that you’re in love with a man,” Abuela’s words came as dry as Bruno felt his throat being.

“… yes.”

“And Sirius –”

“He’s that man, yes.”

Abuela opened her mouth to ask something more, then closed it again.

“And – and you’ve always liked men?” she asked finally, seemingly finding the words again, “Is that why you didn’t want to marry?”

“Not exactly,” Bruno said, sharing a look with Pepa, who had asked that very question, whereas Julieta had just accepted that he was with Sirius without asking any details, “I’ve never liked anyone before him. He just happens to be a man.”

Abuela nodded absent-mindedly as if to say she understood but it seemed more as if she was trying to process things, which was probably just as well. Bruno was just counting his blessing that she wasn’t cursing him out of the room – maybe that would come later?

The triplets all waited with bated breath.

“Isn’t it wonderful, Mamá?” Julieta tried with a hopeful smile, after a long moment of silence, “Isn’t it wonderful that Bruno has someone too? And such a nice man too! You like Sirius, don’t you?”

“So, all those times I told you to find someone, all those times I tried to introduce someone to you –”

“I didn’t want to disappoint you more than I already was, but I never wanted any of that. I went along with it, but they were never going to work. There were a few who didn’t call me names, exactly, but none of them wanted to associate with Bad Luck Bruno, let alone marry me.”

Pepa pursed her lips at the thought, “They were never going to work, even if he was interested, Mamá, Julieta and I told you,” she said, “Those women accepted it only because you were the one asking and they didn’t want the ‘amazing Madrigals’ angry with them.”

“And marrying Bruno meant the possibility of a magical child,” Julieta said, still rather kindly, though she didn’t look any less disgusted at the thought of how those women had thought of her brother as Pepa, “Which was too appealing to refuse.”

They all watched the words sink in their mother, rather like knives, and her self-control was to be admired for a woman whose faults had been pointed out to her repeatedly for the last couple of weeks.

“I – Bruno, I just wanted you to be happy,” Abuela said finally, with a small voice.

“And I was happy,” said Bruno, putting a hand on Pepa’s hand and interrupting the argument that was sure to start after that statement from her. Julieta elbowed him when he said that, “Well, alright, maybe I wasn’t exactly happy. I mean, it wasn’t like I wanted to be married or have someone, so I was fine being alone till Camilo and Mirabel were born.”

“Que?”

“That’s when Sirius was here the first time, Mamá,” said Julieta, helpfully, “When they met.”

Abuela looked straight in Bruno’s eyes, “And you weren’t happy afterwards?”

Bruno’s jaw clenched, “Well, were you ever happy after Papá was gone?”

It was a low blow, and he regretted how harsh it sounded, like a slap. Even if he’d always dreamt of asking his mother straight up about his father, Bruno always avoided mentioning him if he could, knowing that the comparison was always there, between his hero, self-sacrificing father and himself, quirky and certainly not up to that standard for anyone else. Still, he didn’t know who else to bring to his mother’s attention to make her understand how he felt.

Abuela’s jaw clenched too and her hard stare mirrored Bruno’s eyes. They looked remarkably alike in that moment.

“It’s different,” she said, her face hard, “Your father died.”

“And Sirius went off to a war, so he could have died too,” Bruno retorted, “I thought I would never see him again.”

Abuela opened her mouth to answer, then held back, swallowing deeply.

She was silent for a long moment still, then she took a deep breath through the nose, and rose from her seat.

“I need to think about this,” she said finally.

“Mamá –” Julieta started.

Bruno touched her shoulder, “Mamá, I shouldn’t have mentioned Papá, it was uncalled for.”

“Please,” Abuela brushed Bruno’s hand off her shoulder, then raised her hand to stop them from talking, especially when Pepa rose from her seat too, “I need to think about this.”

*

For the following week, everyone was aware of Abuela suddenly knowing about Bruno and Sirius, but the triplets, at Bruno’s insistence, asked the rest of the family to wait for Abuela to say something.

This brought a layer of tension over every member of the Madrigal family, as if they were all once again hiding their issues and wants for the matriarch’s sake, and their guests were doing their best to feign ignorance about the whole thing.

Once Abuela and the triplets emerged from the rectory’s living room, the children (both the Madrigal children and the Weasley children) had pretended very badly not to have been eavesdropping. Abuela had hardly noticed them and had vanished quickly from the premises.

Antonio had actually run to Bruno, gripping on his ruana, asking in a quick whisper if they could call Sirius ‘Tío’ now, because Mirabel had told him to wait until Bruno said it was okay. With her brother at a loss for words, Pepa had swiftly pulled her son in her arms and retreated to her room. Julieta had kept her arm linked with Bruno, though she’d looked at Mirabel and nodded towards Pepa, sending all the Madrigal children to get an explanation from her.

Their guests had smelled what was cooking and were politely avoiding the topic altogether, keeping busy with the work on Casita. The Madrigal children had cornered Harry and the Weasley children right away after Pepa had updated them on the situation. Soon, everyone in the rectory knew of what had transpired but, much in Madrigal fashion, the elephant in the room went ignored.

Bruno wouldn’t be surprised if it came out that everyone else in the Encanto knew. He didn’t really care, it wasn’t as if he’d had this idyllic reputation before, but his suspicion grew once he spotted his mother walking quietly with Padre Cristian: he didn’t know what to think about it, the priest had apologised and even been proactive in trying to make amends to Bruno. Since his apology, Padre Cristian had sought him out and engaged him in a game of chess or two, or a discussion on theology. It had started awkwardly but the priest was making an effort for sure, and it was growing on Bruno, even if Sirius kept sending warning looks to Padre Cristian that promised horrible retribution if the priest were to hurt Bruno’s feelings.

As for the matter of Bruno’s relationship with Sirius now being out in the open (at least with the family and the wizards), Mirabel later confided in her uncle that she’d thought gossip spread quickly in the Encanto but according to Harry and the Weasley children it couldn’t hold a candle to the gossip spreading velocity of the rumour mill of Hogwarts. Apparently, Harry was quite the expert, being one of the students that was most gossiped about.

With the wizards all focusing on creating the wards and the Madrigals clearing the rubble of Casita with the help of their neighbours, Harry, Hagrid (who, it turned out, couldn’t do magic, but was there more as muscles) and the Weasley children, there was a lot to do even if many tasks were rendered easier and quicker by a flick of a wizard’s wand.
The wizards rotated in helping out with the manual labour, some more than others.

Bill’s work as a curse-breaker came in handy in Sirius and Remus’s project, so he was often chosen to stay behind instead of participating in the actual manual labour.

The same could be said for Andromeda, who was the only one Sirius could talk to when it came to the knowledge they’d gotten from their birth family, and who was also the only other person allowed to speak to Orion Black’s portrait (yeah, he was still there, Bruno had almost forgotten about him with all that was going on).

Molly, like Julieta, rather preferred to keep house and be treated like a wild card, bringing snacks and homemade fresh pumpkin juice to the workers one day and giving her input as potioneer another.

In addition, Molly and Andromeda had come to serve as potioneers, so they could rarely participate in the manual labour. The Madrigals weren’t sure what exactly a potioneer was, the wizards had yet to explain that, and Molly and Andromeda seemed to be concentrating on complicated calculations for now, something that went hand in hand with the work Sirius, Remus and Bill were doing.

Remus, Ted and Arthur were all more familiar with Muggle objects than the others (though Félix did still end up answering questions that would seem rather obvious to anyone else but seemed to excite Arthur all the same, like how a guitar worked).

Charlie and Tonks were often left to help handle the children at the construction site, though it mostly ended up with Charlie and the children having to save Tonks from her chronic clumsiness. She was an impressive witch and a great asset during the rebuilding, but she also tripped over nothing quite frequently.

Luckily everyone in the Encanto was extremely busy with the rebuilding of Casita, because Bruno spent the next week in a constant state of anxiety, which was saying something for someone who already had anxiety.

Even if his mother avoided him, much like she’d done before he’d left, much like she’d done with Mirabel, he tried his best to be mindful of her. He tried each day to at least say ‘good morning’ but hadn’t more than an uneasy nod and tremulous, fake smile, for now, which led him to ask Sirius to avoid even those little gestures that he desperately wanted from his boyfriend while they were among others.

Neither he nor Sirius were big in effusions in front of other people. In contrast to Félix’s frequent kissing of Pepa’s arm that Harry mentioned as looking like Gomez Addams’s behaviour (it was apparently some character from a TV show? Bruno wasn’t sure, but he wanted to hear more about it) or Agustín’s hip-bumps to Julieta, Arthur and Ted never went past a peck on their wives’ cheeks or a kiss on the hand, and Sirius and Bruno were rather like them. So, Bruno felt guilty each time he jumped away when Sirius tried to even squeeze his hand in Abuela’s presence, during that week, because he knew his boyfriend was only trying to comfort him. He knew it wasn’t fair to Sirius to avoid a quick kiss to the cheek or a hand-squeeze, not to mention a hug, but he couldn’t help but worry until the other shoe dropped. His mother was doing a marvellous job of keeping face even while blatantly avoiding her son, the same son she’d been so keen to be very affectionate to till that fateful conversation.

It really spoke to how Sirius felt about him that he had yet to actually explode to his face. Sure, Bruno tried to make it up to him when they were sure they were alone, but there was only so many times a man with an explosive temper like Sirius could take his boyfriend keeping him at a distance so blatantly. Eyerolls and furrowed brows were often sent to Bruno each time and he couldn’t help but just be ashamed of it, which meant Sirius would quickly try to make him feel better, and then huff impatiently, and even leave the room with long strides, when Bruno couldn’t help but ask him to stop again.

He had his sisters by his side, who kept checking in and tearing him away from the others for private conversations, to make sure he could vent, and they could show him their support. However, the longer Abuela kept him at a distance, the more agitated he grew and with him, Sirius, whom he’d had to stop more than once before he could go and just demand that Abuela straight up tell them why she was so insistent on hurting Bruno’s feelings.

He didn’t know what was going on with his mother, because she didn’t seem disgusted with him, nor fearful, but he was sure Sirius’s temper wouldn’t be helpful right now.

Pepa wasn’t helpful either, because once she’d stopped trying to calm herself (she still had to get over the use of her mantra of ‘clear skies’) and realised she wasn’t causing anyone harm with her emotions and it was her mother who had to get over herself, she’d tried to storm to Abuela and give her a piece of her mind, only to be saved by the return of the children from the construction site.

It wasn’t that different from before Casita fell, those hidden feelings, those fake smiles, that nervous energy and festering irritation.

Luckily, the wizards were polite and busy enough to keep away as much as possible, and Remus told Bruno that Charlie and Tonks were keeping the Madrigal and Weasley children busy, but it couldn’t go on like that for long.

He’d already seen Isabela start to stand straight every time Abuela spoke to her, and Mirabel had come to him, apologising for encouraging him, somehow feeling it was her fault for assuming Abuela would take Bruno’s news well because she’d admitted her wrongdoings to her. He’s been quick to reassure her she’d been right in encouraging him, but her smile was beginning to turn strained with the urge of pleasing her grandmother again. Luisa, Camilo and Dolores usually ran around, trying to do as much as they could and being on their best behaviour so that Abuela could be happy.

He hadn’t actually connected the dots, until Agustín and Félix cornered him and Julieta, Pepa one evening, while they were resting after clearing up the table.

“You’re doing it again,” Félix announced without beating around the bush.

The triplets gave them identical baffled looks.

“Félix and I have been talking,” Agustín said, sitting next to his wife, “Sure, what Mirabel said that night was completely true. Abuela put a lot of expectations on everyone, and it broke the Miracle. And while no one never even noticed how it could have been different if each of us – let’s leave the children aside, let’s talk about us five – did something to make it easier for all of us, we are all aware of what was wrong now. And we’re catering – you’re catering to Abuela’s comfort again.”

“You’re her children,” Félix said, uncharacteristically sternly with his hands on Pepa’s shoulders, “But you’re adults, you have a right to speak your mind. We’ve all been doing so well since Casita fell and now you’re all indulging Abuela again. Except, we don’t need to. Bruno, we all know about you and Sirius, even Abuela knows. We think you’ve given her enough space. It’s been a week, for goodness’s sake, you have a right to know what she thinks about all this, and you have a right not to have her avoid you like she is.”

Bruno nodded, rather grim in the face, “Yeah, but it’s not easy to process –”

“I’d argue that it’s more difficult to process the fact that her son lived in Casita’s walls to protect Mirabel from her, but she did that. So don’t go there,” Agustín said firmly, “Bruno, she has a right to process things, but you have a right to live your life as you see fit, and not always bend to her.”

Pepa sighed deeply, “Ay, Bruno, Agustín certainly has a point.”

“Yeah, I know, but what if –”

“You’re fifty years old and you won’t even squeeze your boyfriend’s hand in public because it could upset your mother,” Félix interrupted him right away, “If she has a problem with it, you have a right to know, and she has to deal with it.”

“Look, we’ve all messed up with the children, I’m not blaming anyone, least of all you, Bruno, when you’ve done so much just to try and spare my Mirabel,” Agustín went on, “But have you three seen the children? Mirabel and Isabela are already reverting to trying to please Abuela, and the other children flee the scene every time there’s an awkward silence. We’re just lucky that they have Harry and the Weasleys keeping them busy.”

“You’ve got nothing to hide, Bruno,” said Félix earnestly, “You didn’t do anything wrong and neither did Sirius. You two spent fifteen years apart. You put enough of your life on hold for your mother. Just kiss the man at the dinner table if you want, no one will mind. If Abuela has a problem with it, that’s on her. And if you want Abuela’s clear opinion on things, demand it, for God’s sake.”

Agustín took Julieta’s hands in his, “Juli, we both messed up our girls. Isabela felt it was her job to sacrifice her happiness and be perfect at all times just to make the family – Abuela – happy, Luisa was working herself to the ground thinking she wasn’t worth anything if she couldn’t help and Mirabel? Our Miraboo had to feel like an inconvenience and less than anyone else in the family. I love you, Juli, mi vida, but we should have said something, instead we just kept our head buried in the sand. We should have insisted. Well, I say no more. I won’t have my girls feel like they have to live their lives to please their grandmother anymore. I won’t have that when it’s got nothing to do with them but with their uncle’s love life and I won’t have that especially if you three still think that you have to put your lives on hold for your mother. So please, fix it, so we can all go on with our lives.”

Julieta smiled at her husband. Much like her, Agustín was mostly soft-spoken, preferring to keep the moral high ground, and rarely put his foot down, and the fact that he hadn’t been accepted by Abuela as quickly as Félix probably had something to do with his eagerness to finally speak his mind, now that the probability of being heard had been increased. It had stung that Abuela hadn’t thought of him enough for Julieta and, though it had made him more open to oppose her as rare as that had been. It had stung for Julieta too, of course, and she’d vowed to have everyone in her family be with the one they loved and not indulge anyone on that front. She’d failed: for all her well-intentioned purpose, her own daughter, Isabela, had been readying herself to marry a man she didn’t love ‘for the family’. The blood had chilled in her veins when she’d realised that.

Félix was easy-going and he had an even easier time of adapting to life as a Madrigal than Agustín, which meant doing Abuela’s bidding. Now, with Casita destroyed and the Miracle gone, and Mirabel’s words and Sirius’s perspective of what had happened, Félix had become much more aware of his position on the sidelines of the Madrigal family. He and Agustín were just there. In fact, Abuela rarely consulted them in matters that concerned their own children, if ever. In all fairness, it wasn’t like Abuela consulted Pepa or Julieta either. Bruno, before he left, wouldn’t even dare say a word, as if, since he was just the brother of the children’s mothers, he couldn’t give his opinion. What Abuela said, went.

They had all failed the children one way or another, they had all failed themselves. All in favour of catering to a woman they respected, loved, for all that she wanted to give to the community. Her sentiment was admirable, there was no mistake about that, and all she did was with great intentions in mind, but they’d all just buried their heads in the sand, avoided speaking up to tell her that they could do things differently. It was all very well, helping the community and all, but couldn’t Luisa get a break sometimes? Couldn’t Camilo just go play fùtbol with the other boys? Did Isabela have to get married and start popping out children just so they could be used and abused for their gifts by the community? Did Dolores really have to listen to everything that went on in the Encanto and report back like a soldier, lest someone keep a secret and have some privacy? Did Mirabel have to be shunned aside for not having a gift? Couldn’t Julieta just go out for a picnic with her husband without anyone interrupting her break to get a black eye healed? Couldn’t Pepa just be able to feel her emotions like everyone else? Couldn’t Bruno be able to take a stroll in town without someone accusing him of ruining their lives?

“There’s no question that you have a right to have a relationship with your boyfriend, bro,” Félix told his brother-in-law, “We are all fine with it and your mother will be fine with it too once she’s stopped avoiding the subject. And even if she isn’t, well that’s her business, isn’t it?”

“I know that, truly, I do,” Bruno said, “I just – things have been going so well, I hoped this would go well too. That she would just say that it was okay.”

“Sí,” said Agustín, “And you’ve waited for her to come to you. Maybe it’s time that you go to her.”

Bruno sighed and cocked his head to the side, pondering the situation. It was the only thing he kept doing these days.

He was used to knowing what was going to happen and just waiting for it to happen. Not knowing things really put him on edge.

It was like that sudden confidence with which he’d stood up to his mother and told her what Sirius meant to him had stopped there. He’d probably spent so much of his life keeping away and trying not to bother anyone that now once he’d managed to speak his mind, he couldn’t do it again. All his confidence and frustration had ended up there, consumed on the spot.

“Agustín and Félix are right, Bruno,” said Julieta, and Pepa nodded too, “It is high time that we stop doing things like we did for years.”

“It’s true,” Pepa agreed, “We all have to do better, not only Mamá.”

Bruno found himself nodding, before he even knew what he was doing. He knew it couldn’t go on for long, but this was only the second time in his life that a decision of his would so clearly affect someone else, let alone his mother. The only other time had been when he’d left after Mirabel’s ceremony. That time his decision had affected the entire family and no matter where they were now, he’d hurt each one of them, he knew that. This time too the way he handled things would affect all his loved ones. It terrified him to no end.

But that was just it. He’d always been terrified. And he didn’t have to be, right? Not when he had his sisters, his brothers-in-law, his nieces and nephews, and Sirius, and – dared he say it? – some friends too?

“So why don’t you just go and tell Mamá to talk to you?”

There was a pregnant pause.

Bruno looked up at Pepa.

“… you mean now?”

“Yes, now!” Julieta exclaimed, while Pepa threw her hands in the air, and gave a loud, frustrated sigh and a roll of the eyes.

Bruno cocked his head to the side. This was it, wasn’t it? He just had to take the leap, like he’d done a week ago, and just go find his mother and talk to her.

He took a deep sigh much like Pepa’s and threw some salt over his shoulder.

“Come on, bro!” Félix suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him up from his seat, “Come on, bro! That’s quite enough of that!” Félix insisted, “Come on, come, come, come! Vamonos!”

“What! Wait – Félix!”

When Bruno tried to free himself from Félix’s strong hold, he found Agustín blocking his path with a triumphant smile, “You might be the wise one, out of the five of us –”

“I’m wise?”

Pepa put her hands on her hips, sending her sister’s husband an offended look, “Who decided that?”

“– but you’ll agree you are the most inexperienced in matters of the heart!”

Still locked on Félix’s shoulders, Bruno glowered at Agustín, but his brother-in-law stared at him with a very serious expression, “We haven’t been very good friends to you, let alone brothers-in-law, as we should have been…”

Bruno’s irritation froze in his veins, and he felt guilty straight away, “Agustín, I don’t really blame –”

Agustín beamed at him, “… so we’re going to make up for it now!”

Pepa turned to Julieta, “Oh, that was sneaky!”

“You didn’t know he was sneaky?” Julieta asked, mirroring her expression, “The man wore Abuela down until she was fine with him marrying me.”

That was true. And much like that time, Pepa was impressed.

“Come on, Bruno!” Félix said, pushing Bruno out of the room, “You don’t need to knock on wood for this, we’re taking you to get the best luck charm!”

“What!”

“Oh! Ooohhh!” Pepa beamed, sharing a grin with Julieta, “Of course!”

“What! What are you – hey! Hey! Hey! Hey, Félix –”

Bruno thought his luck was that it was the middle of the afternoon, and everyone was still at the construction site, because Félix had a strong grip on his ruana, and he couldn’t run without it being ripped. Moreover, his brothers-in-law kept shouting Sirius’s name around the rectory.

Looking up from Buckbeak’s feathers, Sirius was rather bewildered when Félix and Agustín marched into the yard dragging Bruno like a sack of potatoes and quite literally threw him at his feet.

“Yo!” Félix grinned at Sirius’s confusion, while Agustín pulled Bruno to his feet and dusted him off, “Bro, this one needs a good old fashioned good luck charm and you’re just the man to give it to him!”

“Adios!” Agustín cried, grinning just as madly as Félix.

A moment later, Bruno was standing awkwardly in front of his boyfriend, while Sirius stared at the spot Agustín and Félix were on just a second ago, completely at a loss as to what was happening.

Now alone in the yard, Sirius looked at Bruno, and he felt guilty again. Sirius was such a confident man, but Bruno’s anxiety and avoidance of any contact in public made his boyfriend look cautious, frustrated and uncertain, as if unsure of what he could and couldn’t say or do. It wasn’t a look Bruno liked on him, he loved Sirius’s confidence, it made him feel as if he could be confident too. Instead, this time it seemed as if it was Sirius who felt as hesitant and worried as Bruno felt.

“What was that all about?” Sirius asked, “A good luck charm? There is a potion called Liquid Luck, but it’s complicated –”

Bruno threw his arms around him and squeezed him, leaning his head on Sirius’s shoulder and closing his eyes as he inhaled Sirius’s scent.

“Perdóname, mi amor,” he said quietly.

Sirius leaned his cheek on Bruno’s head and his hand went up to stroke the dark curls, “I’m sorry too, love, I know it can’t be easy.”

“I shouldn’t have pushed you away,” Bruno said guiltily, “Not because I am afraid of what my mother will say. I know you don’t care for fear –”

“Whoa! Whoa!” Sirius interrupted him right away and pushed him enough away to hold him by his shoulders, “When did I ever say I don’t care for fear? I never said one shouldn’t be afraid, it’s alright to be afraid, as long as it doesn’t stop you from doing what you need to do.”

“Yeah, but you said that guy Peter –”

Sirius frowned deeply at him, “Are you comparing being scared of telling your mother about us to selling your friends to their murderer and frame another for your crimes because you’re scared? Peter is a worthless spy, a traitor! You would never, ever do that, I know that! You up and went into hiding for ten years in complete isolation to protect your niece! How is that in any way similar? It’s not how I would have handled things, but for what it’s worth, I think what you did for Mirabel is plenty brave, so don’t you even go there!”

Bruno stared at him with wide eyes for a long moment after that tirade, but then wondered why did he think anything different of Sirius and he thought how stupid it was to compare himself to that guy Peter, someone who made even gentle Remus Lupin’s lip curl up in disgust.

“Bruno, I just don’t want you to push me away when I see that you want some comfort,” Sirius said, “It doesn’t make any sense.”

Bruno smiled, “I know,” he agreed, “I never made much sense. I’m not used to having someone on my side. There wasn’t, for a long, long time.”

“Well, get used to it because I don’t mind that you don’t make sense,” Sirius said firmly, “And I dare you to say any of that in front of Mirabel. Now that would be brave.”
Bruno laughed heartly at that, “Oh, there would be horrible retribution to pay.”

It was as if there had been no tension at all between them for the last few days. Bruno couldn’t believe he could be so in sync with someone, and someone so different from himself at that. He was not an idiot and knew that Sirius didn’t have an easy personality but somehow he and Bruno just clicked. They differences just went well together.

“So, what’s this good luck charm you need? Is it something one of the others mentioned? Like I said, there is a potion called Liquid Luck, but it’s quite complicated and I haven’t brewed in a long time. Maybe they’ve invented a new spell –”

Bruno thought he and the others should have realised that maybe a good luck charm could mean something different to wizards. He found himself grinning at Sirius’s words.

“It’s not that kind of charm. This is a charm that Muggles can do too,” he closed the distance between them again, grabbing onto the front of Sirius’s robes. Sirius frowned in confusion, “Let’s put it like this. I never had anyone who needed it from me before, and you’re the only one I will ever want it from.”

Bruno raised his eyebrows at him and tilted his chin upwards.

“Oh,” he could see the moment when what he meant hit his boyfriend, “I see,” Sirius’s eyebrows rose high, and he grinned, immediately wrapping his arms around Bruno, “Well, let’s see if this particular charm works.”

Bruno abandoned himself bonelessly in his boyfriend’s arms as Sirius kissed him. He felt lucky that he felt so content. Since he’d met Sirius, he’d sometimes felt so jealous of his sisters’ happiness, questioning why they could be with their husbands, and he couldn’t be with Sirius. Now he wondered why he had to wait for fifty years before he was allowed to be this happy, but he found he couldn’t care less about any of that now. He didn’t care about that, about his sisters and their husbands, about his mother – none of that mattered.

For now, he focused on Sirius’s lips on his own and how their unshaved chins stroked each other in the best way possible.

“Bruno!”

Bruno didn’t know how he didn’t rip Sirius’s tongue off with how quickly he turned around.

He found his mother in the yard, staring at him and Sirius with wide shocked eyes.

“Mamá, I –”

In his peripheral view, he saw Pepa and Julieta peek in the yard from a window. They frantically gestured towards their mother, encouraging their brother, when they saw that he’d noticed them there.

He felt Sirius’s fingers snake between his like a comb in his hair. He closed his mouth and inhaled deeply through the nose.

Bruno inhaled deeply again. Abuela still stared at him in shock, but a strange peace fell on him.

“I should leave –” Sirius started quietly. Bruno shook his head, tightening his grip on Sirius’s fingers.

“Actually, Mamá, I’m glad I caught you. You’ve been avoiding me since we last spoke. Well, you’re here now. I’m here now. I want you to talk to me,” Bruno swallowed deeply and squeezed Sirius’s fingers with his own, moving to stand in front of him, they linked hands very visible, “Sirius and I are in love. Just like Julieta and Agustín. Just like Pepa and Félix.”

Abuela opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again.

“Just like you and Papá.”

He watched her stiffen and look up sharply, an unreadable expression on her face.

“You had time to think about it. What do you have to say about it?”

Her jaw tightened, and she seemed to want to speak again but she still stayed silent.

“I want to know, Mamá,” he insisted, “Like I said before, I’m tired of tiptoeing around anyone’s feelings. My feelings matter too. And they are valid, I know that now. But I want to know exactly why you feel the need to avoid me and ignore me like you’ve done since I told you.”

Her face wasn’t angry.

And Bruno hoped for a moment.

At his last sentence, however, her eyes grew wide and shocked, filled with tears and she covered her face, turning around to leave.

Bruno felt as if he’d just received a punch to the gut. This was exactly what he’d been dreading, his mother hating what he was, avoiding him, going back to ignoring his existence.

He stood there as she strode the length of the yard, frozen with Sirius’s hand on his shoulder.

He hadn’t counted on his sisters.

Julieta and Pepa appeared like two ominous statues bodily blocking the only way out of the yard. Shoulders straight and legs planted firmly, his sisters looked so different but in that moment they sported matching thunderous expressions, Julieta with her arms crossed and Pepa with her hands on her hips.

It was so odd to see Pepa so angry without a black cloud, but it was odd to see her angry at someone else instead of him too, so Bruno wasn’t going to complain.

“Oh, no, no, no, Mamá!” Pepa snapped menacingly, “You’re not going to get away!”

“Pepa!” Abuela reprimanded, though her voice came out very shaky.

“Mamá,” Julieta added sternly, “We’re all tired of this. Bruno’s asking you something, answer him.”

Abuela gasped, and hesitated, turning to glance at her son behind her.

It broke Bruno that she felt so uncomfortable. It broke him that even now, without his gift, he wasn’t good enough for his mother. It had always been painful, but now? Now, when he had had a glimpse of what she could feel for him? The way she’d avoided his presence and spoken to him in the last few days, as if he was one of the townspeople and not her son – he couldn’t believe she could have made him feel even worse than usual. And why? Because she didn’t approve of whom he loved.

He probably was more like her than he thought because he’d handled his problems by running away before and it took all his strength not to run now – and Sirius’s hold on his shoulder.

Bruno swallowed, trying to act much braver than he felt. He felt the urge to pull up his hood and let Hernando handle that conversation, but despite what most people thought, Hernando and Jorge were just characters that he played, and he knew when it wasn’t the time for acting.

He stared his mother down, “I deserve to know, if my own mother is ashamed of having me as a son.”

It took a long moment for Abuela to gather her bearings now that she was forced between her children and trapped in the yard. She was actively crying, but she’d been often found crying since the fall of Casita, so the whole family found it difficult to pinpoint what exactly the reason for the crying was.

“You – you think I’m ashamed of you?” Abuela’s lower lip trembled when she finally found the strength to speak.

Bruno scoffed and wasn’t sure exactly why his emotions were so messed up these days. Or maybe he did.

“Mamá, you’ve been avoiding him since he told you,” Julieta interjected, just as incredulous as her brother.

“What’s he supposed to think?” Pepa added for good measure.

Abuela looked at them at those words, then back at her son. Bruno braced himself, unconsciously mimicking his sisters in their defiance of their mother, then poked the dragon again, “I won’t stop being with Sirius even if you disapprove, Mamá, but if I – disgust you,” he couldn’t help the gruffness in his voice at that, because to him it did matter what his mother thought of him, even if he pretended that it didn’t, “If you don’t think you can love me anymore because of this, I deserve to know if nothing else.”

He was horrified, as he usually was, when his mother burst into desperate tears, covering her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking. He was aware he was in the right because he did have a right to know his mother’s thoughts on what he’d told her. He knew it wasn’t fair that she was avoiding the conversation. Bruno saw his sisters tense with the instinct to go and comfort their mother, but they looked at him and stood still.

He felt guilty for feeling like even the tears, that terrible anguish his mother was constantly feeling for years and the horrible guilt she’d expressed to them all since she’d made aware of how she’d made them feel, even those tears now were a sort of manipulation to delay the inevitable moment that was her three grown children cornering her like a wild animal to ask her what she thought of Bruno’s announcement from a week ago.

“Ay!” Abuela cried, “Ay, Brunito!”

Bruno gaped when she engulfed him in a hug, much like she’d done when she’d seen him again. Under Pepa and Julieta’s equally stunned faces, Abuela reached out and kissed his forehead, his cheeks and the tip of his nose, her face still pale with terror, flushed with shock at Bruno’s words, and tear-stained with guilt. When she finally pulled back, she kept her hands on his face, and her voice still shook when she spoke.

“Oh, mijo, no! Why would you think such a thing!?”

“You’ve been avoiding me ever since I told you! How was I supposed to think anything different?” Bruno snapped enough that Abuela and everyone else winced. He paused, breathing deeply to gather his bearings, still not sure what to think of what was happening.

She put her hands on her heart, “Ay, Bruno,” she said. She took a couple of moments to get a hold of herself, “Padre Cristian saw that I was struggling, and he helped me sort through my feelings.”

That statement irked Bruno in a way that he’d rarely felt in his life. He wasn’t sure why. He’d come to an understanding with Padre Cristian and even – dare he say it? – a sort of friendship? The bald man was certainly trying his hardest to undo years of blaming Bruno for his hair falling out. And now he discussed his sexuality with his mother? Even if he, as the local spiritual guide, was the only one a devout person like most people in the Encanto could go to, it still felt like a betrayal when Bruno thought that his mother had gone to the priest instead of just talking to him.

His jaw clenched, but he felt Sirius’s hand tighten the grip on his fingers.

“I admit I was shocked at first when you told me. It was a struggle but not for the reason you think of. It’s got nothing to do with you – being different – that is really why you never wanted to marry, isn’t it?”

“Couldn’t that I didn’t want to marry be reason enough? It’s not that different from Isabela not telling you she didn’t want to marry Mariano Guzman.”

“Ay, niño, of course. Perdoname. I couldn’t believe that you never felt comfortable enough with me to tell me,” Abuela sighed, “But of course you wouldn’t. I knew that I did wrong and then this? You didn’t feel comfortable even to just tell me this? Like you said, it’s the same than with Isabela. Even when you tried, I didn’t listen. Worse, I didn’t want to listen. That is exactly what I’ve been struggling with.”

“Ay, Mamá –” it was Bruno’s turn to sigh, “Why couldn’t you just talk to me? Haven’t you learnt that it’s better to just talk about things?”

Abuela nodded, “That’s true,” she said, “That’s true. But – every day, since Casita fell, it seems that something else comes up that I’ve been wrong about, something that I did wrong to hurt my family.”

“That can happen,” Sirius couldn’t help but snark, “When you turn your eyes away for this long.”

“Sirius,” Bruno warned softly.

Abuela shook her head, “No, I deserve that, Brunito. He’s right,” she turned to Sirius, “I see now why you felt so strongly about all of this. I didn’t know I was talking to my son’s – boyfriend? Is that the correct word?”

Bruno’s cheeks reddened deeply. It was the word everyone in his family had used to refer to his relationship with Sirius, but it somehow felt different coming from his mother, even if a week ago Pepa had accidentally outed him to their mother with that very word.

“It is,” Sirius said with raised eyebrows, “But don’t get your hopes up, I was pissed about all this long before I realised you were all Bruno’s family. That just made things worse. Way worse.”

Abuela had the grace not to answer that, since, of course, it wasn’t the time to start on that. And to be fair, she’d been taking accountability of all her mistakes since the moment Mirabel had gone off on her, and apparently even worked through a good dose of guilt the past week when she’d realised that she’d never made herself approachable to her children and grandchildren to express their actual wants and needs.

When Pepa had brought Félix home, Abuela had been happy with her choice, excited of having a wedding in the family. Julieta had to fight her tooth and nail on behalf of Agustín and that had been what had made her understand how much her oldest child loved her then boyfriend, because Julieta tended to just go along with anything Abuela said to keep the peace, even when it went against her own wishes. That she’d been so stubborn in her want to marry Agustín made even her mother understand that there were some limits even Julieta shouldn’t be pushed through.

Bruno had indulged Abuela’s wishes when it came to meeting some women she deemed good for him, but he’d been adamant not to go past meeting them. A few had been nice enough that he’d gone on a couple of outings, apparently hoping for friendship, it turned out, but even those hadn’t amounted to anything remotely close to what Abuela wanted for her son. Once Julieta and Pepa started having children it had been a relief for Bruno, because his mother had focused on his sisters and their babies, leaving him room to breathe in that regard at least. She’d tried to get him to know more women over the years, but when he finally told her he didn’t want to get married, she relented, now distracted or at least content with the grandchildren and their gifts.

“So – so you’re really not disgusted with me?” Bruno asked hesitantly to his mother after a moment of silence.

“Ay, mijo, no, of course not,” she cupped his cheek, “To be perfectly honest, I wondered if you weren’t interested in women at all.”

Bruno did a double-take at that and even Sirius blinked, while Julieta and Pepa, who’d come closer once they’d gotten that the situation wasn’t as dire, gaped in shock.

“Que!?”

Pepa had voiced her shock chorusing with her brother, but Abuela didn’t address her, focusing on her son, “You were so insistent on not being with anyone, and I wondered if you didn’t like women and if that was why you never had a girlfriend. But you weren’t interested in men either. Then, last week, you explained, and I see it wasn’t exactly as I thought, but I wasn’t that far off. It actually explained a lot.”

“And – you’re fine with that?” Bruno asked cautiously.

“You wouldn’t be the first – different one in my life, you know,” she admitted softly, a faraway look in her eyes. She smiled at the confusion in her children’s eyes, “My Mamá’s sister, my Tía Juliana was like that. She never wanted to marry and your Abuela and Abuelo brought her in their home when they got married, and she helped them when my siblings and me. She and Tía Josefina always contributed to the household.”

“Oh, Mamá, you’ve never told us anything about your family,” Julieta sighed, “Is that another one of Abuela’s sisters?” Julieta asked innocently.

“Sí,” Abuela said slowly, raising her eyebrows at them.

She seemed to be trying to tell them something and it was only after a long moment of the triplets just staring at her blankly that Sirius pursed his lips impatiently, “They were obviously lovers.”

The triplets blinked, “Oh! Really?” Pepa grinned, “They were?”

“Of course!” Julieta breathed, “How silly of me not to realise!”

Somehow, this piece of news left Bruno calmer and quieter as he processed it. It was like all his adrenaline and anxiety over the matter had left him now that his mother had said she didn’t mind his sexuality. He shouldn’t be too surprised by it, he supposed, he wasn’t the only one in the family who had been used to leave everything, even feelings, to his mother’s whims.

Finally, he swallowed, “Leaving out the fact that I’d like to know more about this later – if you were fine with it, are you fine with Sirius as well?”

Abuela paused and she and Sirius stared at one another for a long moment, in complete silence.

Sirius hadn’t endeared himself to Abuela too much. He hadn’t wanted to, finding her flaws and her attitude towards her family something that he disapproved of greatly, to use a euphemism. Someone so rigid and insistent on things being done their way like Abuela irked Sirius’s very nature and made him go against her instinctively.

Abuela couldn’t in good conscience be too happy with Sirius’s attitude. She couldn’t find fault in the reason for his disapproval of her, but an old woman set in her ways who hadn’t been told no once in her life since she’d founded the Encanto would, of course, find herself at odds with someone who so easily and vocally went against her from the beginning, no matter if he was in the right or not.

Still, even if they’d butted heads from the start, Abuela couldn’t deny what Sirius had done for her family and the kindness and care he showed her children and grandchildren. And she couldn’t fault him when her son had chosen him.

She pursed her lips and swallowed, then raised her eyebrows, giving Sirius a long look.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m fine with Sirius, does it, Brunito? But if you want to know, I think you’ve chosen well for yourself,” she said finally, before smiling at Sirius, “We just have to get a little bit more acquainted, sí?”

Sirius snorted, “The answer of a politician,” he shrugged, “I’ll take it.”

Bruno sighed in relief and retreated to his side, leaning his head against his arm.

“Is the coast clear?”

They turned around. The whole Madrigal family was there, peeking into the yard.

Bruno grinned at Mirabel’s question, “It’s alright, Mirabel, I hope you’re still in time to win that bet.”

“Yay! Tío!” she beamed and high-fived Dolores.

They all joined the rest of the family in the yard, Mirabel in the lead who skidded to a halt in front of Bruno and Sirius, squeezing them both hard. Camilo walked forward too, grumbling and Mirabel elbowed him, “Ha! I told you!”

“Yeah, yeah, fine!” Camilo pretended to be upset but he was grinning too.

Pepa pulled Antonio in her arms, and he, now at level with the adults, turned to Sirius, “Can we call you Tío now?”

Sirius smiled softly at him, “You can call me whatever you like, poppet,” he raised his eyebrows at Mirabel, “So, treasure, what’s this I hear about a bet?”

Mirabel gave him a toothy smile and blinked innocently at him, “More importantly, can we tell Harry that he’s our primo? Cause I don’t think he got that memo.”