They finish their hot chocolate, and Bruno retreats to the nursery once again, Brunito in tow. Mirabel follows, thinking she can work on her sewing while she keeps an eye on the two of them. Antonio comes with them as well, tagging along quietly.
Bruno settles the two of them back on the bed so their backs are against the wall, Brunito tucked into his side. Antonio waits for a moment before carefully climbing up to nestle into his uncle's other side. Brunito doesn't seem to mind, and Bruno wraps an arm around each of them.
After a moment he starts a story, another not-particularly-exciting story of his own design, this one about a capybara going for a walk. It mostly involves Bruno describing in excruciating detail all the things the animal sees along its walk, but again Brunito listens with rapt attention, and if the story is less exciting than the ones Bruno usually makes up, Antonio doesn't seem to mind.
Brunito is still holding Antonio's stuffed animal. That, combined with the fact that he's still more or less bundled up in Bruno's ruana, makes him look absolutely adorable as he stares up at Bruno with wide eyes, his tiny mouth partially open as he listens.
Mirabel is falling a little bit more in love with this kid with every passing hour.
She does find it odd, however, the passive way in which he seems to view the world, watching and listening rather than interacting with it. While something like that might be more accepted now, it would not have been encouraged when Mirabel was younger, and she cannot imagine that things would have been any different when her parents were kids.
It's possible he's only acting that way because he's with Bruno, and Bruno is allowing it-possibly encouraging it, by carrying him around and putting him in his lap and telling him stories instead of doing anything productive. She's not sure whether or not that's a good thing, but figures her uncle knows what he's doing.
Bruno has been droning on for about an hour about the various plants and animals and rocks the capybara sees as it walks, and Mirabel thinks the story would be more than a little tedious if his voice weren't so soothing. She's yawned a few times herself, and Antonio and Brunito both seem to be getting sleepier by the minute.
Brunito abruptly starts whimpering, moving away from his older self, and starts rocking back and forth a little, hands wrapped around his knees, eyes tightly closed.
Bruno sees it but keeps on with his story, turning to watch the boy out of the corner of his eye. Mirabel's not sure, but she thinks he looks worried.
Antonio looks over at the other boy. "What's wrong with him, Tío?" he asks, concern written plainly across his young face, and Bruno falters.
Brunito stills, the whimpering going silent just as suddenly as it started, but remains in the same position.
"No luche, mijo," Bruno murmurs, looking down. "Sabes que tienes miedo." Mirabel realizes his eyes are starting to glow, just a little bit.
I know you're afraid.
The boy shakes his head as tears leak out from beneath tightly closed eyelids.
Antonio looks up at his tío. "Is he having a vision?" he asks, his voice hushed, as if he's not sure he's allowed to ask.
Bruno nods.
The three of them watch as the boy gets more and more upset, the tears falling freely now. His entire body is shaking as he buries his face in his knees.
A moment later he jerks, and falls sideways, his eyes flying open, glowing bright green as he bears witness to the future.
It feels like an eternity has passed though in reality it is only a few minutes before the glow fades and Brunito's small body goes limp. He lays on his side, staring at nothing, taking in tiny gasping breaths of air as tears continue to fall.
Bruno waits another minute or two before reaching out, setting a trembling hand on the boy's arm. He doesn't say anything. Doesn't offer any comfort, doesn't try to tell the child it's okay.
He doesn't move at all, until Brunito suddenly flings himself at his chest, sobbing. Then he wraps his arms around the boy, hugging him tightly, whispering in his ear so softly that neither Mirabel nor Antonio can tell what he's saying.
The boy cries himself to sleep fairly quickly, exhausted by his vision. Bruno shifts him into a more comfortable position for both of them, and only then does he seem to realize he has an audience.
Antonio is watching with wide eyes, and Mirabel realizes that this is probably the first time he's seen a vision-other than the one Bruno intentionally had in his room, back before they rebuilt Casita and rekindled the miracle. They've all been extremely careful, up until now, to keep him away from Bruno while he's having them.
Antonio has tear tracks down the sides of his own face, and Mirabel wishes she had thought to get him out of the room. But the kid just looks at the stuffed jaguar, forgotten and cast aside at the edge of the bed, picks it up, and ever so gently tucks it into Brunito's arms.
The older boy shifts, hugging the stuffed animal close. Antonio smiles at him, then looks up at Bruno.
"Is it okay if I stay? I'll be quiet." Bruno nods, and Antonio cuddles up against him once more. "Maybe you could finish your story, if you want to? It's different, but I like it."
Bruno smiles and clears his throat. A moment later he continues his story as if he never stopped, picking right back up in the middle of describing the moss on the side of a particularly large rock along the capybara's journey.
Bruno dozes off too, eventually, and Antonio leaves only to return shortly with paper and two paint sets. He usually tries to get Bruno to paint with him, and the man goes along with it more often than not, but Mirabel suspects he's hoping to get Brunito to play with him, whenever he wakes up.
She's not sure he understands what's really going on. Whether he realizes that Brunito is Bruno from the past. She's still not entirely sure she understands it, so she can only imagine how confusing something like this might be for a five-year-old.
Brunito seems to be warming up to him, though, and Antonio seems to like him, so Mirabel figures it'll be all right, even if Antonio thinks the kid is some long-lost cousin or something.
To be fair, he did have a long-lost uncle appear out of the walls shortly after getting his gift, so for all he knows, it might be a normal occurrence to have new family members appear out of nowhere every once in a while.
Brunito wakes up eventually, wriggling carefully out of Bruno's lap and somehow managing not to wake him in the process. He doesn't leave the bed immediately, however. For a while he sits against the wall, watching Mirabel sew.
Antonio almost spills his paint, catching it with a soft "oops," that startles the other boy, and then Brunito shifts onto his belly, crawling forward until his head barely peeks over the edge, watching Antonio.
Antonio finishes his current painting of what Mirabel thinks is a toucan sitting on a tree before looking up and smiling at him. "Wanna paint?" he asks.
Brunito doesn't immediately respond, but studies Antonio carefully for a long moment before finally nodding. He climbs down from the bed a bit clumsily, nearly tripping over Bruno's over-sized ruana.
Mirabel is relieved when he takes it off before joining Antonio, setting it safely back on the bed.
Antonio offers him paper, and one of the paint sets, and soon the two are working away, Antonio happily, Brunito with a solemness that seems to be very much a part of the small eight-year-old.
It all seems to be going well until Antonio looks over at Brunito's paper. "Scary," he says, and Brunito nods, but continues layering red paint over what he's already put down.
He's using a lot of red paint, Mirabel realizes. And it's odd, because she knows for a fact that Bruno has an aversion to the color that would be almost comical were it not for his explanation: the color red reminds him of blood.
He still refuses to let Isabella paint his nails any shade of red.
Mirabel frowns at the picture-she can't quite figure out what's happening. There's a lot of green, a lot of red, and a lot of brown. "Whatcha making there, Brunito?" she asks.
He looks up at her, a serious expression on his face, and points at a brown shape on the left side of the paper. Mirabel has no idea what it's supposed to be.
"Yeah?" she asks, encouragingly, hoping for more.
Brunito sets his current work aside and reaches for another sheet of paper.
He's got about four finished pieces, each set carefully aside to dry, and is working on a fifth when Bruno starts to stir. Mirabel is sitting on the floor with both boys by this time, still trying to decipher Brunito's paintings, because the truth is, they are a little scary, even if she can't figure out what they're supposed to be of.
"We're painting," Antonio says without looking up, and Mirabel can only assume he's talking to their uncle. "Brunito's pictures are scary."
"Scary?" Bruno scoots to sit on the edge of the bed. "What makes you say that?"
"Look," Antonio points at the finished portraits. Bruno follows his gaze, his brow furrowed in confusion, until his eyes light on the pictures. Frowning he stands and walks over to them, coming to kneel in front of them so he can study them better.
He picks one up, carefully, then another, squinting at each in turn. Then he sets them down. Carefully he starts moving them around, and Mirabel gets the feeling he's trying to put them in a specific order, as if they were a puzzle to be solved.
He rocks backward suddenly as if he's been forcefully shoved. She watches as all the color drains out of his face, leaving behind a gray tinge. A hand flies up to cover his mouth, and in the next second he looks as if he's going to be sick.
"Perdon-perdoname," he manages as he scrambles hastily to his feet, all but dashing out the door. Mirabel wonders if she should follow, but she's also pretty sure she shouldn't leave Brunito alone with only Antonio to keep an eye on him.
Brunito looks up in time to see Bruno disappear. He stares at the empty door frame for a moment before turning to look at Mirabel, his expression unreadable.
He goes back to painting without saying a word.
Antonio is also looking at Mirabel, and the boy looks scared. "Is he okay?" he asks. "He wasn't having a vision, so why did he look sick?"
Mirabel shakes her head. "I don't know, Toñito," she says. She feels more than a bit helpless.
Antonio frowns for a moment, thinking, then carefully sets aside his paints. "I'm going to go find Tía Julieta. Maybe she'll be able to help."
Brunito's shaking his head as the other boy leaves, but doesn't offer to explain.
Author's Note: Where am I going with all this? Not even I know. Just relax and enjoy the ride, kids.
Disclaimer: Disney's Encanto does not belong to me.