Four days after Valeria's baptism there was a knock on the front door. Since it was the middle of the day it couldn't be Bruno. It was much too loud to be him, as well, but she hadn't been expecting anyone else. She stepped away from the beadwork she had been doing, while keeping an eye on her pequeños, and hesitantly opened the door. Out of everyone it could have been, he was who she least expected. Well, third least.

It was the youngest of her hermanos, Bernardino.

He was much taller than her and built wide too, taking after their padre's side of the familia, so he blocked out most of the sun standing over her like he was. His height might have been intimidating to someone who didn't know him, if not for his round boyish face. It was pulled into a nervous expression just then. He cleared his throat when she said nothing, only raising a single eyebrow at him and putting a hand on her hip.

"Florrie..." He sighed, his shoulders slumping at her stoniness. "I, err. How are you?"

"Wonderful." She gave a snappy answer.

What was he doing here? After all this time pretending she didn't exist, why was he here now? Whatever the reason, she wasn't going to just let him in like nothing had happened. Like she hadn't been kicked out of her childhood home one night and been forced to beg the church for help. Like he hadn't turned from her not a few months ago when he saw her at the market as she struggled with her bags and her belly. Like she hadn't been refused an invitation to her eldest hermano's wedding, a little over a year ago. She didn't know if it had been Santiago's doing, Mariella's, her once best friend now cuñada, or if their Padre had put his foot down, but either way, she hadn't been allowed to attend the ceremony nor the reception after.

"I heard you had a little girl. Valeria Sofia?" He rubbed the back of his hand against his head. "You named her after Mamá?"

"I did."

There was no point denying that. Sofia Velasco Fernández, their Madre, had been a kind woman who had died when Florencia was nine, Bernardino was eleven and Santiago and Sebastian had been fourteen. One of the grain bins had burst while she had been checking it over. She had suffocated by the time they found her and dug her out. It had been a tragedy that had had the whole town rallying around the bereaved family and a lose Florencia had felt distinctly over the years, as a girl growing up without a mother. It had felt right to honour her by naming her first daughter after her. Bruno had quickly agreed, wrapping himself around her and soothing away the old grief that had risen when she spoke of her.

"That's erm, really nice." He scuffled his sandal against the ground. "Can I come in?"

He sounded hopeful as he said it, tipping his head to the side. She pulled the door closer to her, blocking more of his view into her casa. She was still too angry. And hurt. She wasn't letting him in. Then she heard the sound of little feet running towards her and felt her hijo collide with her legs. She looked down at him, sensing her hermano do the same.

"Mamá?" His little face looked up questioningly, pressing into her skirts, before turning to their visitor. "Hola, who're you?"

She sighed, closing her eyes, trying to decide what to do. She could easily lie; say he was no one and shoo him back into the house. He was too young to understand and wouldn't miss his Tio's presence, just as he didn't know to miss her other hermanos nor Bruno's hermanas. They were just fine on their own and they didn't need him or whatever he was there for.

"Look, Padre doesn't know I'm here." Bernardino leant in, a pleading note entering his voice. "I just want to meet mi sobrino y sobrina."

He looked at her then with the same face he used to use as he begged her not to tell on him, for one reason or another. To their Padre or their hermanos mayores. It was a stupid expression. He made his eyes too wide and pulled the edges of his lips too far down, it was as comical as it was pathetic. It was her estúpido hermano's stupid face. She sighed again, before leaning down to hike Dante up on to her hip. She kicked the door open as she turned from him.

"It's Tio Berny." She explained to her hijo, before calling over her shoulder, sounding a little more exasperated than she actually felt. "Come on then."

She heard as his heavy footsteps followed her and the door closed behind them. She settled her hijo back among his toys, motioning for her hermano to sit on the sofa. Dante didn't stay where she had put him though. He quickly jumped to his feet and clambered on to the sofa next to his Tio, looking up at the large man with interest.

"Coffee?"

She watched him with her hijo from the kitchen, listening as Dante babbled on. Bernardino nodded along even though only about two-thirds of what he said was understandable, probably less for someone who didn't listen to everything her mijo had to say every day. He took the cup she handed him with a shy smile and a nod of thanks. She perched on the sofa, sipping her drink and waiting for her hermano to direct his attention back to her. Dante slid off the chair before long, going back to his toys, probably looking for something to show their guest.

"Where's the bebita?" He asked.

"Upstairs having a nap. She'll probably be waking up soon." She informed him.

Silence sat heavy between them as they both drank their coffee, interrupted sporadically by her hijo bringing Bernardino this and that, and him making interested noises when he did.

"You know, I think he looks a little like 'Bastian. Around the chin." He gestured to his own face.

She nodded. He honestly took mostly after Bruno, but there was something of her own Hermanos about the bottom half of his face; his chin, the fullness and shape of his lips, the way that he smiled. Her Padre had had a beard for as long as she could remember and did so even in the wedding photos they had, so she couldn't be sure if it was a trait they all shared with him or not. It wasn't their Mamá's. She'd been more willowy than any of her children had turned out to be, with a long sort of face. Florencia had gotten her Madre's height, unlike her honestly freakishly tall hermanos, and her Abuela (on her Padre's side)'s wider, curvier figure. Valeria had inherited her and her Mamá's colouring, but it was hard to tell who she really looked like in the face, not yet. She was about to say so, when she heard her hija beginning to make a fuss. She quickly excused herself and climbed to her feet.

Her pequeña princesa was red-faced by the time she got there, squalling up a storm and kicking her little feet, but she quietened down once she was in her Mamá's arms. Berny was talking with Dante when she came back down, and he didn't look her way until she had almost reached them to sit. When he did turn to them, her hijo turned with him, giving a happy squeal at seeing his sister. He'd been quite put out that she slept so much but was still enamoured with her. Thankfully

"Val!" He exclaimed, getting on his knees beside her so he could get a better view.

"Carefully," She reminded him for the thousandth time when he reached for her. "Remember what I said. Gently, gently."

He kept his hands soft as he patted at her round little belly. She was so proud of him. He was a good hermano mayor. Her own hermano mayor was watching on, his attention focused on the bebita in her arms, a look of stunned awe on his face.

"She beautiful. She's even got you and mamá's hair." He told her as he met her eyes. "Lo siento mucho, Florrie. I should have said something, ages ago, but Padre, he..."

"Dante will be two in two months. Why has it taken you so long to come to this conclusion?" She interrupted him. "No, don't answer that. It doesn't matter. I need you to know that we're just fine on our own. We don't need Padre and we don't need your help. I've got a job, a good one. Señora Rivera has been teaching me dressmaking and she says I'll be good enough soon to start taking orders of my own. We're fine."

He looked a little taken back by her diatribe but only bit his lips when she was done, looking into his cup like it held the answers. She wasn't surprised that he was stunned. She'd never been so outspoken before. She never raised her voice or disagreed with anything her Padre or Hermanos said when she lived at home. But that was then, and this was now. She was all she had most of the time. Bruno couldn't stand up for her against the townspeople or chase away teenagers as they shouted lewd offers at her in the market. She had to do that sort of thing for herself. Herself and her children.

"I can see that you're fine." He began after an awkward moment of silence, gesturing around at the little home she had built. "I just- I just wanted to apologise and see if I could... I don't know. I just miss mi hermana."

She sighed for a third time since he had darkened her doorstep and felt as Dante leant into her side. He was being conspicuously quiet as the adults talked over the top of his head. He was probably getting tired. The two of them had had lunch a little over an hour ago so he was due his midday nap.

"Here, hold her. Come on, mijo. Nap time." She got up and handed her hija over. "And when I come back, you'll tell me all about the wedding I was so rudely excluded from."

She picked up Dante, who hardly whined or struggled at all, and carried him up to bed. Her hermano stayed for almost three hours after that, sipping coffee, asking about his sobrinos and playing with Dante when he came back down. She was sort of glad he had come by the time he left. The twins had had each other, but her and Bernardino had always been close. It still smarted though. She wasn't just going to go back to how things used to be. She couldn't.

Bruno appeared that night with his familiar knock knock knock, knock knock. He smiled at her when she let him, obviously having had a good day. He'd been having more bad days as of late. His and his hermana's birthday had just passed and it had made him morose and weepy. It was great that he greeted her with a kiss and a hug, spinning her for a moment. She laughed, his mood improving her own.

"Hola, mi amor." He greeted, kissing her again.

"What's gotten into you?"

He only shrugged, a somewhat goofy smile lighting up his face. She didn't press, not wanting to spoil it. Instead, she enjoyed sitting on the sofa with him, making out like they were teenagers with all the time in the world. When they parted, they just looked into each other's eyes, basking in the content feeling that surrounded them. They only moved upstairs because Valeria was due a feed and she didn't want her waking up Dante if she could help it. Once the three of them had settled into bed and their hija had begun to suckle, she told him about Bernardino's visit. His face was full of sympathy, and he shuffled closer to her the moment she said his name.

"Well, that was good, wasn't it?" He asked tentatively when she finished telling him everything that had passed between her and her hermano.

"It's stupid it took him so long to come round. That it took him hearing our hija's name, to think about our mamá, for him to put his big boy pants on and come see me. Is he really so scared of what Padre would think? If it had been the other way around, I would have been sneaking about behind Papá's back since the moment he left."

It was harsh but true.

"I remember when I was twenty-ish, mi mamá was pushing me to court Carina Guzmán. She's married to Juan Ruiz now." Bruno began. "Anyway, our parents had talked and decided what a good match the two of us would make, but when Mamá suggested her, all I could think about was the time she tore up my drawings because I told her her madre was having a bebé and not a bebita. We'd only been about seven at the time, but it was one of those moments that really stuck with me, you know. Still, I agreed to court her because I knew it was what mi madre wanted. Even when it became clearer and clearer that she didn't really like me at all. She couldn't stand listening to me talk about my story ideas or my art. All she wanted to talk about was so-and-so's dress and this-person's hair and I don't know, stuff I could barely pretend to have an interest in. I think she mostly liked the idea of being Señora Madrigal Guzmán, so put up with me for a while."

He sighed, leaning in to nuzzle under her chin.

"I probably would have gone through with it, if she hadn't asked me for a vision of her wedding day." He continued with an unnecessary apologetic note to his voice, before he snorted at some remembrance. "She said it like that too, her wedding day. I think she'd fallen for Juan by then but wanted to check that he'd actually ask her before breaking off our... arrangement. I was so relieved, but I pretended to be upset. Because mamá was upset. And embarrassed. And I'd disappointed her again. Which was, you know, actually upsetting. I hate it every time I let her down. It's one of the worst feelings in the world."

She, unfortunately, knew what he meant. She thought the look of disappointment and disgust on her Padre's face when he found out she was pregnant with Dante was something that would stick with her forever. But she had to push that away if she was going to live her life. Once she was pregnant there had been no going back and undoing it. She couldn't marry Bruno and she wasn't marrying anyone else either, not to save her reputation. And when Bruno had come back to her, she had decided to continue their affair and had given him a daughter, another child born out of wedlock to 'bring shame to her familia'. She knew she couldn't live the life she wanted and bow to her Padre's wishes, so she long ago started pushing aside how his displeasure at her made her feel.

Knowing all that, understanding it, didn't make it any easier to forgive Bernardino though.

"It all went a bit downhill after that, when it came to the fairer sex." Bruno chuckled, not sounding all that sad about it. "After a few years I all but gave up on ever finding someone. Of ever having a pequeño familia all of my very own. Until I met you, mi amor. Mi vida. Now look at us."

He kissed the edge of her mouth and she turned into him to reciprocate. Soon after, Valeria finished her midnight meal and was burped, changed and put to bed. Bruno followed her around as she did it, stopping by Dante's bed and pulling his blankets back up over his shoulders. When they retired to bed, he slid over, so his front was pressed to her back, wrapping his arms around her and laying a chaste kiss to the back of her neck.

"Are you still sore, mi vida?" He whispered, his finger tracing slow patterns on her arms.

It had been almost three months since the birth of their hija, long enough for her to recover. She turned over in his arms enthusiastically at his subtle suggestion, kissing him and slipping her hand up to grasp the back of his neck.

"I can't get pregnant again. Not yet." She insisted against his lips, unwilling to pull away too far as he began gathering her nightgown in his hands, pulling it up around her hips.

"Nothing that can get you pregnant. Understood." He quickly agreed with a moan as she pressed her palm to his rapidly hardening member.

He stayed the night, as he had been doing more and more frequently as time went on and made breakfast while she saw to the niños. He told her all about the conversation he had overheard a couple days before in regard to plans for his sobrina Luísa's twelfth birthday. It seemed they planned to invite most of the town to come and celebrate. Julieta would probably stop by eventually to invite her, since she'd been invited to nearly every celebration hosted by the Madrigals ever since she had dropped off a present for her hijo's first birthday. And she would have to make her excuses, again.

She didn't want to risk stepping foot in the Casita, and she wanted her bebés there even less. She didn't know how the miracle worked. No one did, not really. But she did know that the Candle, and the house it had built around itself, was the epicentre of the magic. And without knowing what would happen if she went, if she brought her niños, she felt she couldn't tempt fate.

"I can't help but feel a little sorry for her though." Bruno continued, covering the bottom half of his face as he spoke with his mouth full, much to Florencia's annoyance. "I mean Luísa's tall for girl and sort of... Wide? I mean, you must have seen her. She's got broad shoulders and, you know, biceps that make most of the macho guys 'round here jealous. And I think it's only partially because her gift as well. It's probably got more to do with all the running around she does every day, lifting this and carrying that. All that exercise is bound to bulk her up, you know?"

He shovelled another spoonful of cereal in his mouth, gestured encouragingly for Dante to do the same. He had been slowly mastering the spoon, but sometimes needed reminding that it was for putting food in his mouth and not anything else, such as brushing his hair.

"And while it doesn't matter to me, she'll always be mi sobrina perfecta, I heard her telling Agustin and Julieta that the girls at school make fun of her. You should have heard her when she told them. They were asking who she'd want to invite and she started listing a whole bunch of grown-ups from town. People she helps a lot, I expect. But then they asked about other children, and, and, and- She pretended it didn't matter but it was obvious she was really broken up about it. She wouldn't talk about it when Agustin tried to press, just ran up to her room and wouldn't come out until Mamá asked her to help round up the donkeys."

He got more and more agitated and more animated as he went on. Part of wanted to say something, soothe him in some way. But when Bruno got like this, it was usually better to let him get all his thoughts out until he lost steam. She was the only person he talked to most of the time, isolated like he was, and she did her best to just listen to him when she thought he needed it.

"It's just not fair." He lamented, sighing and looking down at his almost empty bowl, his spoon limb in his hand.

"It's not." She agreed, stretching a leg out under the table to rest against his, her hands being somewhat busy feeding their wiggly hija.

He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. "That's just being a Madrigal, I suppose. Just our fate. You get these gifts, but they're as much of a curse as a blessing."

She made a noise of encouragement in the back of her throat but otherwise said nothing. He talked about his own gift being a curse quite often. He called himself Bad-Luck Bruno when he got caught up anxiously muttering to himself and she was having a hard time breaking him of the habit. She understood it too, after a lifetime of people blaming him for what he saw, it wasn't really a surprise he had absorbed their animosity and turned it on himself. But she had never heard him speak as if his Familia were similarly cursed.

"I mean, Mamá started teaching Julieta to cook almost as soon as we got our gifts. I didn't think anything of it at the time, you know, but looking back, she was only five. By time we were- i don't know, eleven, twelve? -She was pretty much handling all the cooking. And it's so much work. I didn't notice how much time she spends in the kitchen before I left, but it seems like the only time she's anywhere else is when she's asleep or handing food out in town." He stood up from the table, taking his and Dante's bowls to the sink. "And Pepa! Poor Pepa has always struggled. Her gift's so connected to her emotions. She has to summon up so much negative emotion whenever the farmers need it to rain over such a large are. And then it's 'ay, not so hard or we'll lose half the harvest' or 'Ay, just another three centimetres'. Then, just day-to-day, if she's happy it's all blue skies and rainbows floating overhead, but the second she's upset or angry or stressed... Well, I'm sure you remember the day of her and Felix's wedding?"

"I do."

The hurricane had come on so suddenly, winds whipping up out of nowhere. She distinctly remembered being suddenly picked up by her Padre and bouncing uncomfortably on his shoulder as he ran inside. He'd shouted at her to get in the tub and stay with Berny, while him and her two oldest hermanos helped get what animals they could into the barn. A barn that had almost lost its roof by the time the winds died down again.

"Were you there?" Bruno asked. "At the wedding, I mean. You would have been, what, thirteen?"

"No, I wasn't there." They hadn't gone to any weddings, birthdays or holiday parties for years after her Madre had died. "And I was eleven, querido."

"Ay! Don't say that. Makes me feel old." He grimaced, making her giggle. "Probably a good thing. You not being at mi hermana's wedding, I mean! The whole wedding party got soaked and the strong winds knocked quite a few people over. Nothing serious. Scrapes and bruises. Julieta had everyone right as rain in no time. My fault. I made this stupid joke and-. Anyway, erm, what's the plan for today?"

He shrugged it off, but she could tell his nonchalance was fake by the way he quickly changed the subject. Part of her wanted to poke, to question him as to what had actually happened, but he gave her an imploring look as he asked so she decided to let it go for now. That didn't mean she wouldn't bring it up at a later date. There was obviously hurt feelings there.

Dante chose that moment to bang his fists against his highchair and demand he be let 'out!' Bruno turned to him and was already reaching for a towel to dry his hands on.

"That's not how we ask for help, is it?" She raised her voice a just a little, holding up a hand to stall her amante. "We say 'can you help me out, please Papá.'"

"Out now p'eas Papi." He whined flapping his arms at his Padre.

Good enough she supposed. Bruno, after looking to her to check it was fine, got him out and set him on his feet. He made a b-line for the living room, probably aiming to dive straight into his toybox. She gave an amused huff as she watched him go.

"Nothing much." She hefted Valeria on to her hip as she stood and reached to clear the rest of the table, answering his previous question. "I was going to go to the market, but it's nothing that can't wait for tomorrow."

"Oh. Are you sure? I don't mind waiting if you need go get some things." He insisted, his expression bashful.

She stepped closer to him, cupping his check in her palm. "You're here now. Like I said, it can wait."

She left him to finish the dishes, taking her hija into the living room and putting her down with her own toys a little way from where Dante had sat. Seeing as she seemed quite happy there, Florencia got out the book she had been reading and curled up on the sofa. It didn't take long for Bruno to join them, and they all settled in for a lazy day in one another's company.

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By the time Valeria's first birthday came round, Bernardino had visited half a dozen times to see his sobrinos and hermanita. Often enough that Florencia had sort-of forgiven him and invited him to attend the small event. He brought the cumpleañera a set of wooden, intricately carved animals, all brightly painted and varnished. She'd thanked her hermano, but quickly put them aside before her hija could stick one in her mouth and stab herself on the bull's horns or any of the birds brightly painted beaks. Thankfully, the other guests brought more age-appropriate gifts. Señora Rivera had made a set of cute little dresses and Señora 'call me Carla, dear' Gacia had gifted her a soft doll with dark red, wool hair. Señora Gacia also brought her youngest grandchildren, so there was much laughter and merriment too.

The only person missing was Valeria's Papá.

He would be there by nightfall, but it made her think of all the things he missed as she watched their hija unwrap her presents, with a little help from her hermano. He missed Valeria's first word and Dante's first steps. He could never be at their birthday parties or their first day of school. Still, he came as much as he was able. And he was so good with them when he did. He was gentle and loving and easily affectionate in ways her own Padre had never been.

Everyone left before dinner, giving her plenty of time to tidy up. Her hija nearly fell asleep in her chuleta valluna, but Dante was chatting away about the things he was going to tell his Papá when he got there. It was a minor miracle he hadn't mentioned him during the party. Or well, her hijo was an intuitive little soul. It was possible he was beginning to sense how unwelcome talk of his Padre was when they weren't alone.

It worried her. What would happen as their niños got older and began to notice something was amiss? When they began school and heard about other familia's, other Mamá's and Papá's. When they began asking questions. What would she tell them? How could she tell them in a way they would understand? How would they feel when she did? It was a conversation she would one day, soon, have to have with Bruno, but not yet. There was no point stressing him out over something that didn't matter quite yet. It wouldn't do him any good.

Their hija was already fast asleep, tucked up in her crib, by the time her amante arrived. He looked tired when he did. The dark circles under his eyes standing out against the paleness of his skin. She noted that the hem of his ruana was getting frayed too. But as worn as he was beginning to look, he was obviously pleased to be there with them. He kissed her joyously in greeting and quickly moved to lift Dante into his arms as the toddler ran to him. He was a little resigned when she told him Val was already asleep, but he popped upstairs to see her and leave her present next to the crib with a smile.

After he sat with their hijo for almost an hour, listening to him describe the party and the gifts and the things he had gotten up to since he last saw his Papá. Then it was time for him to go to bed too. He wanted Bruno's help getting ready, so she left them to it, giving downstairs one last tidy up before going to bed herself. She left the candle lit as she waited, listening to their quiet muffled voices as they tried not to wake Valeria.

"Was everything alright?" He asked as he slipped in beside her.

"The party? Yeah, it was fine." She answered with a stifled yawn, laying her head on his shoulder. "She seemed to have a lovely time."

"Good. Good."

He said nothing else, so she settled in, throwing an arm over him as he wrapped his own around her waist. She had almost drifted off when he spoke again.

"Reni?" He whispered.

"Hmmm?"

"Are you awake?"

She cracked an eye open, tilting her head so she was facing him more directly, even if all she could see was his neck and the underside of his chin.

"Do you... Do you think I'm a good Padre?"

She was immediately more awake, shifting so she could lean on her elbow and look down at his face. He was visible only due to the thin orange line of lamplight that crept passed the shutters and bounced off the white walls of her bedroom. His large eyes were imploring but focused on the ceiling as if he couldn't bring himself to look at her. She brought her hand up from his chest to his chin, gently nudging it towards her. As soon as their eyes met, she answered him.

"Yes." She stated firmly, hoping her surety would sink into his whirlwind mind and find root there somehow.

"Dante will be three in December. Will he- Do you think he'll be old enough to ask why I can't come to his party? W,why I won't be there for Christmas day?" He stammered and she felt his fingers flex anxiously against her waist.

She sighed, sinking into him and covering as much of his body as she could with her own. His arms wrapped around her, crossing over her back.

"I've been thinking the same thing." She wove her fingers into his hair, tugging gently at the short curls that grew at the base of his skull. "I thought he might ask where you were today. We'll just have to explain-"

"You'll have to explain." Bruno interrupted her. "I probably won't be here when he asks."

"I'll have to explain as best I can." She corrected herself.

She was about to say more but the words died on her tongue. What would she tell him, and Val when she got older? Once he asked after his Padre's absence, he would clearly have some sort of understanding of the situation, but how much? How simply could she put all of this?

"I'll tell him that you saw-" She began before cutting herself off. "No, it's better not to mention your gift at all. We don't need him going around telling people his Padre can see the future. I'll tell him... You're on a mission."

"A mission?" Bruno snorted, disbelief warring with amusement.

"Yes, a mission, like a spy or something. That's why no one can know you're here." Her voice becoming firmer the more she thought about it. "I'll tell him you come to see us as often as you can. Because you love us and don't want to be apart from us. That's the important bit. That's the truth, a truth he can understand."

"I'm not on a mission though." He sighed.

"Aren't you?" She disagreed. "It's one you appointed yourself, but since the moment you saw whatever you saw, you've been determined to stay away. And you told me you were doing it to protect your familia."

He lived in the walls of the Casita. He sacrificed almost every aspect of his life that couldn't fit in the thin corridors he described. He didn't interact with his familia, the people that meant the whole world to him. He didn't see her or their niños for days at a time. When he did, it was usually the middle of the night, so he saw more of Dante and Valeria asleep than he did awake. As far as she knew, he hadn't been in direct sunlight in more than three years.

"It's what we can risk telling him, at least until he's-, they're older." She insisted when his silence began to grow.

He said no more on the subject, and she hoped she had set his mind at ease. At least a little bit. She felt a bit better now she had a plan.

The following morning began with Valeria unwrapping her Papá's gift. It was a colour sketch of the four of them, curled around each other in a group hug. It was beautiful. She hung it on the wall over her hija's crib, opposite the three Bruno had gifted Dante for birthdays and Christmas over the years. Then they ate breakfast, and she picked up her embroidery while her amante settled on the floor with their niños.

"Have you got any paper?" Bruno asked a little after lunch, pulling her attention from her work.

"Erm, yeah. Over in the drawers." She pointed. "Why?"

"Dante wants to do some drawing." He explained with a wide smile.

He was so obviously pleased his hijo wanted to share his hobby. Valeria partook for a while, scribbling away, but she soon lost interest and demanded to be let out of her highchair. But the two of them spent the rest of the day like that, sitting at the kitchen table, drawing all kind of things. When Bruno left that night he took half of Dante's drawings with him, to 'brighten up the walls'.

Drawing quickly became her hijo's favourite thing to do and she soon had colourful bits of paper stuck to almost every wall of the house. There were drawings of flowers, animals, their house, the church and all the people who ever came to the house, including Señora Gacia, who wore an extremely large, feathered hat in her portrait, one she had never worn before. There was even one that was clearly supposed to be Julieta Madrigal handing out food from her stall, standing next to a little boy with a bloody knee. It turned out to be true to life, and the little boy was Dante's friend, Señora Gacia Grandson Lando. He'd supposedly fallen over and grazed his knee. He was obviously good-as-new once he had one of Julieta's arepas but had still seen the need to tell Dante all about it.

She was sure the inner walls of the Casita were filling up just as quickly. Every time he left, he took a handful of pictures with him, much to Dante's delight. He mostly took the drawings of himself, neither of them wanting to risk leaving them floating about for anyone to see. But usually, Bruno wasn't portrayed alone; he was with them, sometimes holding their strange little spikey hands and sometimes standing behind them with really long arms like he was giving them a hug. Dante said it was a hug, at least.

He was getting so big. And so much like his Padre. Watching the two of them sitting at the kitchen table, side by side, their heads bent over as they worked, sticking their tongues out in identical expressions of concentration, they looked like two peas in a pod. Bruno Madrigal and his mini-me. Their hijo's hair was even starting to hang around his shoulders in loose curls, like his Padre's does. Valeria, although still a bebe and not quite toddler just yet, looked much more like her, but her eyes had finally settled into a dark green colour all her Padre's.

Another quiet year passed them by as quickly as the last. Dante drew and Valeria grew until she joined her hermano in toddling around the house and covering the wall of their house in colourful pictures. She didn't share her brother's obsession with drawing but she was happy to spend an hour for two at the kitchen table with him, before dragging him away to play dress up with her. Hanks to Florencia's job, there was always something to wrap around themselves and call an outfit.

Then in October of '39, Bruno ran up the stairs, having assumedly climbed in though the window, and cut through his daughter's tantrum, exclaiming that Pepa was pregnant. That he was to be a Tio again. She congratulated him and once Valeria was calmed down and put to bed, she even opened the bottle of rum she kept in the high cupboard and they both treated themselves to a glass. Her hija had been weened for almost a year, after all, and her milk had log since dried up.

She didn't know if it was the high of the moment or if the rum had really gone to both there heads, but they ended up stumbling back up the stairs, clinging to each others as they kissed every second step. Florencia wound his curls around her fingers, unwillingly to let his face stray to far from her own. She just wanted to kiss him and kiss and kiss and they were falling into bed with a giggle.

"Hmmm, mi vida, you are so lovely and so beautiful and so... Unng, your breasts." He grumbled against her neck as he groped her through her dress.

"Ay, Bruno." She moaned, quickly undoing his buttons and ripping his shirt open so she could run her hands over his chest.

Soon they were both naked and clumsily wrapped around on another, huffing out laughs as they went. They didn't usually go all the way, but she needed him indie her that night. Straddling his hips, she reached for him, enjoying the look on his face as he entered her and she began rocking above him. She was almost there when he clasped her hips and began lifting her off of him. She must have made a disappointed sound because he was apologising as he took himself in hand and came into his fist. He turned to her almost immediately, slipping down the bed and setting to work with his tongue. It wasn't long before they were both laying there, sweaty and sated.

"Do you... Do you ever think about having another one?" Bruno panted, reaching for his shirt to wipe his face on.

"Another bebe?" She asked, staying at the ceiling with unseeing eyes.

"Hmm." He hummed in agreement.

She took a moment to think about it and he let her, turning into her side and resting his head just below her collarbone. She had, in an idle sort of way. But did she want another bebe? Dante was almost four and Valeria was two and a bit. Would another one be too much, especially since she was mostly on her own? Would it even matter if she said no, she didn't. They both knew (now at least) that pulling out wouldn't stop them from having another niño, only make it slightly less likely. She'd heard putting a sponge soaked in vinegar might work, but she'd always been too worried about losing it to even try. They could carry on as they were and she might fall within the year. Tonight's dalliance might bare fruit. So did she want to try?

"Give me a few days to think about it." She told him in the end.

He kissed her gently, before murmuring about joining him in a shower, which she happily obliged.

She put it out of her mind while he was there, but once Bruno had slipped back into the lamplit street the following night, it was suddenly all she could think about. Making breakfast for her niños; bebe. Talking with Señora Rivera about the latest orders; bebe. Taping Dante's newest masterpiece to the wall of the nursery; bebe. By the time her amante returned a few days later, she only had one answer for hm.

"Yes." She said as she pressed her lips against his the second the door was closed behind him.

"Yes?" He chuckled, his face lighting up with joy.

"Si, si, pon un bebe en mi."

They had to be quiet as they passed the nursery but thy could barely contain their joyous laughter as they set about creating a new hermano or hermana for Dante and Valeria. He came almost every night after that, making love to her with a frequency and passion she had never encountered before in all their time together. It was like the thought of getting her pregnant unleashed in him a virility he had been hiding all along. It was amazing and arousing and she felt like she was walking on clouds.

Until she came on her period, and then came on again the next month. Dante's birthday and Christmas passed and a new year turned over. But in January it didn't come and she held her breath, waiting and hoping for a sign. Were her breast more tender than usual? Did those pickles smell extra vinegary? It wasn't until she threw up on the sixth of February that she let herself believe this might actually be it.

Bruno was ecstatic, even as she told him nothing was confirmed. He danced around the room, before pulling her to join him, spinning her round.

"Dios, you're so silly, mi amor." She laughed, slightly breathless.

"Silly in love." He corrected, spinning her around some more.

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Edit 16/01/23

I did the math, then I did the math again and it still came to the same number so I uploaded it anyway. Then I sat there and looked at the little timeline I have in my notes and said 'you idiot, can't you add'. So here's the edit.