(Author's Note: Hello there my readers, and here we are with another chapter! The last chapter was a bit dark, so here's something more on the lighter side.

I don't want to spoil anything in this chapter, so we'll just get right into it.

Hope you guys enjoy:)

Chapter Seven: Love?

Concept: After having spent ten years within the walls of Casita, Bruno couldn't be happier to be out and with his family again (even if they are, technically, homeless). One thing he forgot during his decade period of isolation? Just how annoying they could really be.

"Hey Tio! I know how you've been in the walls and everything, but do you know about Camilo and the mixing bowl?"

"MIRABEL!" The (former) shape-shifter yelled at his prima, his face burning red. His and Mirabel's siblings laughed around him, which only caused his blush to darken. When Mirabel turned to whisper into Bruno's ear, Camilo tackled her to the ground to shut her up.

Bruno couldn't help but chuckle as he watched the two cousins wrestle one another on the ground. "You already know about that particular story, don't you?" Bruno turned to Isabela with a smile.

"Sheer self-control was the only reason everyone didn't hear me laughing that day," his smile only grew at the other kids' laughter.

It had been almost two weeks since the reconstruction of Casita had begun, and the Madrigals' new home was nearly complete (1). After Mirabel had opened her eyes (and the magic had disappeared, but that's besides the point), Alma had begun to focus more on her family as opposed to what they could do.

The road has been a tad rocky, though. After all, no matter how remorseful she may feel, Alma couldn't just erase years (or, in some cases, decades) of pain with a snap of her fingers. But Alma understood this, and ensured that she would work to prove her commitment instead of just saying the words.

It has been slow process…but that's better than no process. The first step was ensuring that everyone had more breaks and time to themselves, which is what brings us here.

Bruno has chosen to keep his distance from his family, not quite knowing how to…be with them. He may have been around them just as usual (technically, with the walls and whatnot), but they hadn't spoken to or even seen him in over a decade. He loved his family and wanted nothing more than to be with them like normal (especially when you consider his ten years of near-isolation and the fact that his family was finally growing closer again), but he just didn't know how to do any of that.

That's how today happened. When Bruno had told to take a break by his hermanas, they had (literally) pushed him towards where their children were resting and talking. Any and all of Bruno's protests died on his tongue when he saw the bright eyes and smiling faces of his sobrinos and sobrinas when Julieta and Pepa had told them that Bruno was going to hang out with them while they all rested.

Bruno was an absolute sucker for his sisters' kids, and he will never deny that.

Bruno chuckled as he watched Mirabel and Camilo's wrestled on the ground, the initial cause for their fighting (her mischievousness and his embarrassment) having quickly being forgotten as they began laughing. He took a bite of his arepa, enjoying the peace and laughter all around him.

"Bruno Madrigal. So, I see that people weren't exaggerating when they said that they saw you." Of course, that sense of "peace" could never last (especially for the Madrigal family seer). Bruno and all of the kids turned around to see a dark-skinned woman standing behind them, a hand on her hip and an eyebrow raised (with an…unreadable expression on her face), "To think that el presagio de la fatalidad returns to the Encanto after all this time." All of the grandkids (even little Antonio) were now glaring at the woman, teeth gritted and hands clenching against the ground. How DARE she speak to their beloved Tio that way!

Before any of them could tell her off or started yelling, however…

"Osma Pezmuerto," Bruno spoke up, confusing the kids by how…calm he sounded (especially since he usually was far more timid when people talked to him like that), "Its been a long time. Although, I must admit, I'm a little surprised to see you here. I thought for sure you'd be in the lake with the other crocodiles." The heads of ALL of Bruno's sobrinos and sobrinas suddenly turned towards him, their eyes widened to the point where it looked like they were about to pop clean out of their skulls.

Since when did Bruno Madrigal speak to anyone like that?!

Osma, however, didn't even flinch at Bruno's words, "I'm surprised to see you here, too. Did Hades find another dog to guard the gates of the Underworld?"

"Can't you just ask him yourself? You ARE spawned from him, after all."

"Hahaha…that was SO funny, I forgot how to laugh," Osma, arms now crossed, deadpanned.

"Oh, well…that should be fine. I'm pretty sure that crocodiles evolved to be unable to do that anyway. Part of the whole "savage, bloodthirsty carnivore" thing."

The grandkids' heads darted back and forth between the two adults before Camilo, ever the blunt one, eventually spoke up, "Okay, WHAT'S going on here exactly?!"

"Oh," Bruno looked over to the kids with a bit of an embarrassed smile, almost as if he'd forgotten that they were there, "Nothing major." When he turned back to face Osma, his slightly embarrassed smile turned into a more annoyed frown, "Osma here has just has a very tiny brain inside that thick dome she calls a skull." Dolores let a gasp slip through as she covered her mouth with both hands while Luisa's jaw dropped so low that it was practically about to fall off.

"At least I HAVE something in my skull, Madrigal," Osma shot back.

"Yeah," Bruno agreed with a scratch on his chin, "Fungus, children's tears, and demon blood."

"You think you're REALLY funny, don't you?"

"If you must know, I happen to think I'm quite hilarious."

"Yeah, and I'm sure that Pepa REALLY enjoyed how "hilarious" you were when she got married."

"Okay, I'll admit that I could have chosen a better time for a joke like that, but the joke itself was funny and I will NOT take that back! The woman who controls the weather sweating? "Looks like rain"? That is funny!"

"Not as much as you seem to think."

"Well sure, NOW it doesn't sound funny since you made me explain it! You ruined the joke, Osma!" The heads of the Madrigal grandchildren were zipping back and forth between the two middle-aged adults, absolutely none of them understanding exactly what was happening here.

Just then (not that anyone noticed), Julieta and Pepa had walked over to where they had left their brother and the children. Initially only going to see how they were going, they were caught (slightly) off-guard by the sight of Bruno and Osma screaming at one another with the poor children looking completely confused.

"Hola, niños," Julieta waved as she and her sister stepped to their children (the two arguing adults not noticing the two new members of their audience), "I imagine that it's safe to assume that you all had a nice break with your Tio Bruno?" All of the grandchildren looked towards Julieta with varying degrees of shock.

"Are you NOT seeing what's happening here?!" Isabela threw his arms out towards the (still) feuding adults, looking at her mother and aunt like they each had two heads.

"Oh yeah, just Bruno and Osma arguing with each other," Pepa casually responded, taking Antonio up in her arms.

Mirabel looked between the two women, before the dots slowly began connecting in her head, "Is this…a regular occurrence?!"

"Well, not RECENTLY-," Julieta replied, running a hand through her youngest's hair, "-but it happened plenty of times…before." It took a great deal of willpower from both Julieta and Pepa to keep themselves from flinching at the mention that they had been without their little brother for over a decade. In moments like this, it was probably for the best that Pepa was currently without her Gift.

"They've been playing this game since we were kids," Pepa stepped to answer (leaning against her sister's side), a devious smirk on her face as she looked towards them again, "It's always amusing to see them FLIRTING with one another!" In an instant, Bruno and Osma suddenly stopped talking (eyes wide and bodies still).

But that only lasted for about three seconds before both of their gazes turned towards Pepa, their fiery glares now directed at the tall redhead, "I AM NOT FLIRTING WITH HER/HIM!" While the grandchildren shared gazes of either confusion or shock, both of Bruno's hermanas shared a look that made their thoughts clear (especially to Bruno and Osma).

Yeah right.

"There's no need to be so defensive," although Julieta's tone may have sounded kind and sincere, Bruno recognized the look in Julieta's eyes (no one ever believed Bruno or Pepa when they said that their hermana was evil), "We fully understand it. You two haven't seen each other in over a decade. It only makes sense that you two would immediately gravitate towards one another as soon as possible. You don't have to be so embarrassed about it. It just makes sense," the eldest Madrigal triplet finished her sentence with a sweet smile that just looked so…diabolical. Osma's glare was fiery and intense, especially when compared to the cold look in Bruno's narrowed eyes.

"You. Are. Not. Funny. Julieta."

"Why hermano, I have no idea what you mean. I wasn't trying to be funny, after all." By this point, Pepa buried her face into Antonio's hair to hide her laughter.

"Don't you all have something else you could be doing?!" Osma yelled out to the gathered family, arms crossed and eyes narrowed (smug smirks being her replies from Bruno's hermanas).

"You…are quite right. Come along, niños," Pepa called out as she spun around, that smirk still plastered on her face, "It's time for us to get back to work." With final smirks (and a wiggle of the eyebrows from Pepa), the two Madrigal women began walking back towards the area where the new Casita would be built. After a few moments, all of the remaining grandchildren soon followed their mothers.

"I hate them," Bruno muttered after he and Osma had been left alone.

"That's one of the FEW things we agree on," Osma spoke with crossed arms, before turning towards Bruno with a glare and a finger in his face, "Don't you go getting any stupid ideas either, Madrigal! I have NO interest in you whatsoever!"

Bruno rolled his eyes, "Oh dear, how EVER will I continue on with my life? Oh, wait," he moved Osma's finger out of his face, "That's right...QUITE easily! And don't flatter yourself, Pezmuerto. I'd sooner kiss a rattlesnake before I get involved with you."

Osma rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "Good. Just so long as we're on the same page." The woman turned around and began walking away from the area (likely to return to her business)…before she suddenly stopped, "I'm glad you're not dead, by the way."

As he turned to walk away, Bruno suddenly stopped at Osma's words (his previous annoyance being replaced by confusion), "W-What?"

"You just up and disappeared one day, and no one wanted to even say your name. I thought you were dead, and I'm glad you're not," Osma didn't even turn to face Bruno, simply keeping her back to him and her arms crossed.

Truth be told, Bruno didn't really know how to respond to that. Over the last ten years, Bruno had only been around his familia (excluding any parties or special events, of course). More often than not, no one talked about him. And, when they did, it was usually something negative. Bruno believed that his family still cared for him (even though he questioned that belief hundreds if not THOUSANDS of times throughout the last ten years), but he had NEVER once thought that anyone in town would have honestly cared about him being gone. Even overlooking how badly his reputation had deteriorated throughout the decades, he was never the most social man to begin with.

Hell, it wouldn't surprise Bruno if he found out that it took more than a week for some people in town to even realize he had disappeared in the first place.

He and Osma were…not exactly close, nor would he call them "friends" (it was complicated). But they, at least, had a better understanding of each other than most. He'd thought of her with frustration and even slight amusement over the last decade, but he never really gave much thought into exactly how she would have felt about his disappearance.

"O-Oh. Uh…thanks," he muttered, picking at the edge of his ruana (he didn't exactly know how to act in this situation).

"No problem," Osma muttered. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Osma turned out and glared at Bruno, "And don't you go talking to my fish, you…bane you!"

Now, Bruno couldn't help himself from rolling his eyes, "I have no intention of going near you fish, Osma. How about you put this one in a clean bowl?!" With narrowed eyes and clenched fists, Osma glared at Bruno for a few more moments…before suddenly spinning around and marching away.


When Bruno had returned to his family, he was immediately met with the smirks of his hermanas. Bruno simply shot them with a glare, "Not. One. Word. From either of you."

"Mi hermanito," Pepa all but "materialized" at Bruno's side, grabbing his arm, "You really shouldn't be so embarrassed about your own feelings. Isn't that the very lesson you've wanted ME to learn throughout our lives?"

"That's different, and you know it!" Agustin, Felix, and Alma (hearing Bruno's yell) all came over to where the rest of the family was.

"What's going on?" Agustin asked, looking in-between his siblings-in-law in confusion.

"Tio is annoyed because Mama and Tia keep saying there's something between him and Señora Pezmuerto," Dolores answered her (other) Tio, "Hmph!" The eyes of the other three adults widened in surprise. However, a big smile soon took its place on Felix's face.

"What? You mean we missed the reunion?" Felix took his place on Bruno's other side, throwing an arm around his shoulders, "Why didn't you say anything sooner, cuñado?"

Bruno's eye twitched before quickly disengaging himself from the two, "Because there's NOTHING worth telling in the first place! All that happened was that I had to deal with the woman that's been an annoyance to me since we were children!"

"Exactly!" Felix appeared behind Bruno, grabbing his shoulders, "A love blossomed since childhood!"

"I DO NOT LOVE HER! I HATE HER!"

"A love forged from bitterly rivalry then! Even better! Come on bro, you love that kind of stuff!"

"In stories! Or, to go a step further, at least between two people who ACTUALLY have something between them! Which, let me reiterate, is NOT Osma and I! So stop SAYING that before people start BELIEVING it!"

"Oh, we're WAY past that point Brunito," Julieta spoke up, wearing a smirk so similar to her sister that they looked like identical twins, "This may come as a shock to you, but there are already COUNTLESS people in the village who were aware that the two of you have…interest in one another, and are just too afraid to say it."

Agustin chuckled as he put an arm around his wife, "You know, if my memory serves me correctly, there was even a small group of people who had a little bet going as to both when and how you two would get together."

Bruno looked at Agustin like he had just said that the sky was purple, "WHAT?! Are you KIDDING me?!" The (former) seer sighed at Agustin's shaking head, running a hand through his hair, "Ay dios mío. Do people have ANYTHING better to do with their time then gossip?!" Pepa, Dolores, AND Isabela scoffed, "At least tell me that none of you participate in that, right?" Pepa, Julieta, Felix, AND Agustin all coincidentally looked anywhere BUT at Bruno (Agustin even whistling while Felix ran a hand through his hair), "Oh COME ON!"

Alma (to the surprise of her grandchildren) couldn't help but laugh, walking over to her son and patting his shoulder, "You know that your hermanas and cuñados are only joking, mijo." Although she understood that the pain she caused (even if unintentional) for so long couldn't just be swept under the rug, she was trying. To her surprise, Bruno was actually one of the ones who warmed up to her the quickest. Even though he was the one who'd (arguably) been the most affected by Alma's actions, he also had a big heart and a forgiving nature. He also loved his mother a great deal.

His hermanas always said that he was a mama's boy (2).

"Yeah…I guess," Bruno muttered. Just then, the grandchildren noticed a mischievous spark glint in their abuela's eyes.

"You know, you two have been adorable since you were children. I always thought that the two of you would make a wonderful couple."

Bruno quickly pulled his arm away from his mother, "No, no, NO! I am NOT going to hear this from you too!"

The grandchildren sat away from the adults, staring at the squabbling/teasing group with…varying emotions.

"I wouldn't have thought Tio Bruno would have any type of relationship with someone like that," Camilo commented, just before his hermana smacked him in the back of the head, "OW! What?! I'm not being rude, I'm just saying! You can't exactly say that Tio Bruno is the first one who'd think of in this situation."

"I wouldn't be judging if I were you," Isabela spoke up, "You're not exactly a prize yourself."

"YOU're not exACTly a PRIZE yoursELF!" Camilo mimicked, quickly scooting away as Isabela tried to hit him.

"Is Señora Pezmuerto gonna be our new Tia?" Antonio, the innocent mind he was, asked his cousins and siblings. Camilo, Mirabel, AND Isabela burst out laughing at Antonio's question. Dolores quietly giggled while Luisa tried (and failed) to hide her own amused smile.

"I…don't think so, Tonito," Luisa replied, running a hand through her youngest primo's fluffy hair.

"Oh, I don't know about THAT Lulu," everyone turned towards Mirabel, a devious grin plastered on the face of the Madrigal butterfly. She adjusted her glasses, "I mean, the adults all seem PRETTY sure that there's something between. If they ALL think that, there must be SOME reason behind it…right?"

Just then, Camilo's eyes widened a bit…before his face took on a similar smirk as Mirabel's (really making them look like the twins they've claimed to be since childhood).

"And why, exactly, are you two smirking?" Isabela asked with a raised eyebrow and her hands on her hips.

"I'm just SAYING," Mirabel replied, examining her nails, "If ALL of the other adults are SO convinced that there was (or even IS) something between Tio Bruno and Señora Pezmuerto…maybe there IS something there. And if that's true…MAYBE it could be worth "looking into"?"

Luisa raised an eyebrow, "What's with that…Mirabel, what are you planning?"

"You don't have to worry about it, Lu," Mirabel waved off her sister's concerns, before throwing her arm over Camilo's shoulders, "I just need Camilo to help me with…something. What do you say Milo, up for leading a hand?"

"Of course, Mira. Why wouldn't I want to help mi gemela?" Camilo threw his arm around Mirabel's shoulders as well, wearing in all but identical smirk on his face.

(Despite their own feelings, Isabela and Dolores couldn't help but feel nostalgic at the sight of the two's mischievous smirks)

"Can I help?" Although Antonio didn't understand why his prima and hermano were smiling like that, he always loved to be apart of...whatever ttheydid together. Mirabel and Camilo were definitely the "funnest" members of the family, especially when they came together.

"Of course you can, hombrecito," Mirabel scooped Antonio up in her arms, kissing his cheek while Camilo ruffled his hair, "How could we turn down the BEST little helper in the Encanto?!"

"What are you planning, anyway?" Isabela asked, an eyebrow raised as she watched the "twins" and the giggling Antonio. Mirabel picked her head up to look at the three eldest grandchildren. Isabela had a suspicious look on her face, Dolores wore a grin not unlike Camilo (likely already knowing what they were planning), and Luisa just looked concerned by what was happening.

She certainly COULD use some extra hands and minds in what she had planned.

"Well…here's what I'm thinking-."

(Author's Note: Annnnnnnnd scene!

(1): I've read a lot of fanfics that run with the idea that it took months to rebuild Casita, but I just don't buy that. Logically I understand that not everyone in the Encanto worked on the reconstruction EVERY second of EVERY day, but there would still have to be dozens of people (if not well over one hundred total) working all day everyday. I just do not see how it could take MONTHS to rebuild that house. The absolute maximum time-frame that I give is three weeks, and even that's giving everyone a solid week of cleaning and planning. I know that building a house (especially one of Casita's size and shape) can't be done "quickly", but I think that a LOT of people in this fandom underestimate how quickly work can be done when you have that many people working all day everyday.

(2): Remember that scene during "Dos Oruguitas" where Alma was walking past Bruno, Isabela, and Luisa? The look that Bruno gave Alma was CLEARLY one that desired admiration and approval (which I'm sure was caused by his deteriorating reputation in the village). I headcanon Bruno as a total mama's boy. I'm also one of the fans who headcanon Bruno as being the "Camilo" of his generation, being quite mischievous (and kind of a little shit) in his youth. I like the idea of both of them being mama's boys, adding another layer of connection between them.

*I was excited to write this chapter, so I REALLY hope that it turned out alright. I'm sure that everyone within this fandom has had a good laugh at Osma Pezmuerto's expense over her fish. I had NEVER shipped her and Bruno together, but then I read two interesting stories: "El fuego en sus ojos" and "Throwing Salt and Accusations", both written by "Aenlu" on Archive Of Our Own. Those stories didn't ship Bruno and Osma (she had a husband and I think he was written as "Aromatic/Asexual"), but their dynamic was HILARIOUS! Seriously, I loved it so much.

But those stories were only one half of this chapter's inspiration. The other half came from the dynamic between Raymond Holt and Madeline Wuntch on the TV show "Brooklyn Nine-Nine". For those of you in "the know", I don't have to say anything else.

For those of you not in "the know", I'll briefly explain: "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is a comedy show (not a sitcom), focusing on the police officers of the 99 precinct. Raymond Holt is the captain of the precinct, whereas Madeline Wuntch is his longtime rival. Their interactions are amazing and they're among the greatest rivalries in television history (seriously, just watch it on YouTube. You will NOT be disappointed).

Now, I don't believe that I've captured a similar type of banter as Aenlu's stories or the show itself, but I think it's a nice starting point.

I want to do some more banter between Bruno and Osma, so I'll definitely be coming back to this later on (and those grandchildren are certainly planning something, aren't they?;))

Constructive criticism ONLY…no flames please.

Review, Favorite, Follow, and I'll see you guys next time:)