"Hmm. Hmm. Hmmm." Bruno was humming to himself. A little tune, it was a happy one. As his hand was moving up and down, pulling needle and thread with it to close up some holes.

Today was a good day, an excellent day. The hammock that had been hanging in the backyard of casita for years had now been deemed too worn out for Alma's taste.

Which meant it had been thrown out. Which meant Bruno was free to fish it out of the trash!

It was true, the hammock was very worn out from the winds and weather. The colors that had once been bright were now all washed out and there were several holes where the cloth had simply been worn thin.

But it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with a good needle and thread!

If Bruno was allowed to say so himself. He had become really good at fixing things over the years! All kinds of things, and it really gave Bruno a new appreciation for these items otherwise deemed unworthy and just thrown away for no reason.

These items were fine! Perfectly usable.

Yeah, the kitchen tub had a hole in it. But put some spackle on that too and let it dry. There done! Bruno could now wash his cups and spoons in a tub rather than a bucket. It was great!

A chair had broken, awesome! He could use the wood to build a little ramp for his rats they could climb up and down from. To get to the collection of worn out shoes that also doubled for amazing rat beds and hiding holes. And worn out toothbrushes he could rinse and clean probably so the rats had something to groom themselves with. They really enjoyed rubbing their little bodies against those brushes.

And there were sooo many socks with holes in them. Of course, cold nights at the Encanto were not very common. But when they came, socks were a god's send.

Bruno could put them on his feet and his hands! Keeping him warm! Learning how to fix socks had taken a little while but he had figured it out soon enough.

And old socks were also his best source of thread and yarn. He could just unravel one sock to fix the other sock or use the yarn he got out of the unraveled sock for other things such as tying his papers together or fixing this hammock.

Finally, Bruno made a final knot with his thread and held it up. Then bit through the thread, still lacking scissors and all.

"Not bad huh!" Bruno beamed as he held up the old hammock. "Let's hang it up then!" Bruno halted… Then walked to his crack and checked outside. The dining room was empty.

Then he walked to the right wall and pressed his ear against it… Didn't sound like there was anyone in the kitchen either. Julieta hadn't started on dinner yet.

Great! And then Bruno walked over to his desk to pull out hooks and a hammer.

Of course the hooks were just long nails he had bent at the tip. And the hammer was… A rock... He had tried lending the house hammer once. Hadn't gone well.

But it worked! And so Bruno as quietly as he could. Knocked in his homemade hooks, and hung up the hammock.

"Looks good." Bruno smiled proudly. "Okay then. Let's test it out," he said as he stepped towards it and halted. But then, crawled up in the hammock, only to yell in surprise as the wall complained a little in a creek and Bruno fell down on the floor in a big thud.

For a moment Bruno laid there as he groaned. "Auw." then he looked up, the hammock was still hanging tough. It looked fine and Bruno stood up, then slowly, a little more carefully laid down in it again.

And then he laid there, the hammock gently swinging a little back and forth. But it held. And Bruno smiled just as a rat came running over the rope and settled on Bruno's shoulder.

"Nice huh?" Bruno asked. "And you know the best thing about hammocks? It's so easy to make your bed! You just take it down. Done! We'll have our room back. And when it's time to sleep we just hang it up. Done!" he smiled. He moved his body weight a bit to make the hammock swing back and forth.

Then Bruno looked towards his little room behind the wall and noted how much this room had truly become home.

When he had first moved in, it was bare and sad. But now it was warm and familiar. It felt like a real home.

Then Bruno's heart faltered… This really was his home now. His true home. It felt so much more like home than his tower had done before he went away.

The pink chair standing facing towards his little rat stage, homemade shelves with the items he used, his desk with his writings, his master pieces laying in neat piles and carefully tied together with strings.

His dining table standing right at the crack going towards the dining room where he would eat every single day.

This really was… Home.

Bruno swallowed. Yup, it was his home now. He actually felt more at home here than he had in his own tower before he left… The tower had just been. A poor place to hide but he hadn't really been able to relax in there. At least not in his last years there where the endless stairs just continued forever above him, threatening to tilt and fall down. And yet even with the stairs so tall his seers' room still seemed far too close for his own liking.

It was funny really… Bruno had not had a single vision since the one about Mirabel.

He had not made any big visions that looked years into the future and would leave a glowing slab.

But neither had he had any small visions. He knew the light of his own door had gone out… Bruno had yelled loudly that he didn't want it anymore. No more visions.

And his wish had been granted… No visions. No magic… And good riddance.

His gift had been the most useless gift ever! Worse than useless in fact! …. It hurt people. It even hurt his own family.

Bruno still remembered the look on little Dolores's face when she had seen the man of her dreams propose to another.

And Bruno didn't even want to imagine how Mirabel would look if she ever saw that damned prophecy about herself.

She didn't deserve it… She was still such a kind girl. Now more than happy to look after her little cousin. Always asking if she could help around the house. And never complain when asked to set the table, wash the dishes, sweep the floors.

No… Mirabel did so with a smile on her face. She was making different tasks her own. Setting the table for breakfast for instance. Mirabel had made that her task to always set the table and so she would be the first one up from bed now. Just occasionally beaten by Julieta.

Even so Mirabel would always be smiling as she caught plates that Casita threw at her. Laughing as she was setting the table making it into a game.

And Bruno was so glad she didn't know and didn't have to be burdened with the knowledge of what the future might hold.

Bruno hoped that his work behind the walls, fixing the cracks. Was doing… something. But if he was to be honest with himself… didn't really look like it.

The cracks were still spreading, throughout the entire house. They were even becoming visible through the spackle mass at the places where Bruno had already covered them up. Forcing Bruno to put on multiple layers of spackle in a hopeless attempt to cover it all up.

But they were still there… The cracks weren't going away.

They just kept growing… and growing… And growing….

There were two ways the future could go. Either the cracks would consume Casita and then the entire Encanto. Or they would be healed somehow… vanish.

But the outcome was not up to him. It was her! It was Mirabel! She was the only one who could actually fix these cracks… but how?

Bruno had no idea. He wished he did! So he could tell them all what to do. So he could do something good for the family and Encanto for once in his life.

But he didn't know… All he could do was free Mirabel from the burden. For however long they had… As the cracks mercilessly continued to spread.