"your coming with me!" it had been almost 2 years since Burn had told him that. now he lived with all but one of the elementals in what they called 'the element home'. they were basically the children he never had to him, except for Shadow and Amon, who to him were like how Felix and Agustin probably would have felt to his papa.
Burn reminded him of the miracle itself, the fire within her never going out.
Moana was kind of like Julieta, motherly. except while Julieta was gentle, Moana was stubborn.
Topaz sort of reminded him of himself, not socializing with the others as much as she could. except she willingly did it, unlike him.
Lantern didn't remind him of any of the madrigals, a completely unique person, kind, confident, stubborn, mischievous. like a ball of personality in the shape of a seventeen year old.
Shadow was kind of like Camilo, mischievous and cunning. except Shadow was also quite serious and intimidating when he wanted to be.
Amon reminded him of Mirabel, sweet, gentle, but also smart and agile.
now here he was, standing in the middle of the clearing looking at his niece standing at the front door to the element home while a girl he had only seen a few times before in his life had her arm around her waist.
"Isabella?" he loudly muttered after dropping the box of stuff he was holding.
"tio Bruno?" she replied, shock and pity in her eyes.
"oh! athair! you know her?" Topaz asked, popping into view from behind Isabella.
"athair?" Isabella shrieked, turning to look at the earth elemental.
"yes, shes my niece" Bruno explained. his outfit had certainly changed over the years. he still wore his classic ruana but he now wore a light brown tunic, brown pants and tall black boots with a small piece of awfully done embroidery for each of his kids. his hair was half as long as it had been just 2 years before and was as neat and tidy as it could be, being incredibly curly and all. being the father of near heart attack inducing, hormone filled teenagers also forced him to mature a lot, subconsciously acting like Julieta sometimes.
he sighed, stopping himself from picking up the box.
"what are you doing here Isa?" he asked.
"I-I ran away with my girlfriend, Valentina" Isa said, fiddling with a strand of her hair.
Bruno gave no reaction to the girlfriend part, Lantern and Amon were basically dating by now after all.
"did you stop to think how worried the others might be?" he asked her.
"says the guy who left without even leaving a note" Burn remarked from inside.
"shut up" Bruno ordered, sounding angrier than he meant to.
"Isa, does Dolores know you left?" Bruno asked.
"I-I think so" she stuttered.
"as long as someone knows where you are, I'm fine with it" he said, walking closer to the couple.
"so what exactly are you planning to do now?" Bruno asked.
"we were planning to find somewhere for me to use my gift to make a shelter out of trees" she explained.
"we could help you build a house, and you could stay with us in the meantime" Moana offered with a smile.
"thank you, that's very kind" Valentina replied.
"oh, you look so cute with pigtails!" Moana exclaimed while finishing tying up Isabella's hair.
"I can't even remember the last time I had my hair like this" Isa said, brushing her fingers against her hair.
"you were like, five" Bruno replied before taking a sip of his coffee.
"you know, you act so differently from what I remember" Isa stated.
"yeah, well. being the father of a bunch of super powered, hormone filled teenagers changes ya" he responded.
"hey! we are not 'hormone filled teenagers'!" Burn said from beside Isa on the couch.
"says the girl who turns bright red every time shes called a bee" Bruno replied, taking another sip of his coffee.
"that's different, and he's calling me 'B' not 'bee'" Burn stated.
"whatever you say torch" Bruno responded.
"how many names do you have?" Isabella asked.
Burn lit tiny flames in the air with her finger as she counted in her head.
"like...one for every person in this room" Burn replied.
"how!?" Isa questioned.
"I was born with a long first name so I got a lot of nicknames, and then when I ran away I changed my name to Burn and now I have about two other nicknames" Burn explained.
"why did you run away? I ran away because my abuela was always forcing me to be perfect. it was suffocating" Isabella said.
"heh. that gives me flashbacks. my biological family is incredibly sexist. so sexist I didn't say my first full sentence until I was six" Burn replied, shrugging off the small laugh at the beginning.
"oh no" Isa muttered.
"worst thing is I hate stuff that they consider 'girly'. makeup, dresses, dauncing" Burn continued, equipping a british accent against her irish one at the end.
"how about you?" Isa asked, turning her head to look at Moana.
"I ended up being raised by my aunt because my parents neglected me. my little brother also died at a young age from illness" Moana explained, holding the pink hairbrush in her hand up to her face.
"I met her tia once, she's really nice and it explains why coral's such a mother hen" Bruno said, butting into the conversation.
"I am not a mother hen!" Moana replied.
"didn't you try to force feed athair sushi one time when he first came here because he was skinny?" Topaz asked.
"shut up" Moana grumbled.
"what's your trauma?" Isabella asked the earth elemental.
"my parents never let me do what I actually enjoy and forced me to do stuff like piano and the violin. plus they tried to betroth me at fourteen. but worst of all they forced me to-" she shuddered before finishing.
"socialize" Topaz said with disgust.
"my parents were really abusive to me and really neglectful to my twin sister, Luna" Shadow explained, briefly moving his fringe away from his forehead to reveal a thin long scar across the left side.
"my parents never let me explore who I was and tried to shape me into someone else. but one trait I always had and always will is stubbornness. so yeah, even when they tried to stop me from using my powers, I secretly practiced. and they also dyed my hair a lot because I didn't know how to change my hair back to normal" Lantern explained, brushing his fingers on his hair at the end.
"what about you?" Isabella asked, looking over at Amon.
"oh, my parents are actually good people. they knew what elementals are when my hair and eyes changed so they raised me to be a good person and know how to use my powers. aka, they showed me a lot of different types of plants so I could grow a huge variety. not much you can do to improve the ability to talk to animals." Amon explained, the crow still on his shoulder.