#🎫 // madrigal family

[fabricated-misslieness]

pairing: platonic los primos madrigal x gn reader

req: no | wc: 1.1k

summary: The youngest Madrigals each held a heavy secret, which is unknowingly mutually shared. Now that he no longer lives within the walls, you’re free to share your secret about tío Bruno.

a/n: reader understands spanish. what does the fandom call Pepa and Julieta’s children, los primos or grandchildren? he/they pronouns for Camilo

“Hey, Camilo, remember what you said about tío Bruno? “7 foot frame, rats along his back,��” Mirabel recalls, trying to hold back her laughter, “What was that all about? He’s barely even taller than me! And he’s just about your height!”

“Well-” The shapeshifter is about to begin, but Isabela cuts him off.

“Ah, don’t tell me you were scared of him, primito.” She snickers. Everyone in town was scared of him, actually; though Camilo was often one to be a little arrogant. If he was scared of him, he wouldn’t outright admit it. “When he calls your name, it all fades to black.”?”

Camilo’s face scrunches up in annoyance –at least that’s what you think– and says, “I-I’m not scared of him!” Through their stutter, you realize it was more than annoyance. He was trying to hide his former fear for his tío too, except he failed. They clear their throat, “I have my reasons. What I said was extremely reasonable!”

Isabela quirks both her eyebrow and her head to the side, “Really?”

“Yes, absolutely.” He takes a raggedy breath and recounts the story, “It was one gloomy night a long time ago,” Ever the dramatic, that Camilo, “I was hungry. So I snuck into the kitchen, whose butterfly tiles illuminated the counters with an eerie glow-”

“Get to the point already!” Antonio demands.

The older brother rolls their eyes, “Right there, in the middle of the kitchen, was tío Bruno. I was short and I was six, okay? Tío Bruno towered over little six year old me! And then he called out my name in surprise, “Camilo!” because he had left the house- er, begun to live in the walls the year before. I wasn’t supposed to see him, y’see? Anyway, I was so scared that I…”

“You?”

He sighs, “...fainted.”

The group begins to laugh, and Camilo is left in the midst of it all with his lips smothered in a thin line. “I get it, I get it.” They continue to laugh. “It’s funny, I know.” Doesn’t seem like it’ll stop soon. “¡OKAY YA CALLENSE!” (OKAY SHUT UP ALREADY!)

“Wait, wait,” You wipe a tear from your eye that had fallen throughout your maniacal laughter, “so that’s why your house has always been a little scary? Haunted, I mean.”

Being the outsider here, you weren’t present during their little ‘So, we gonna talk about Bruno?’ family reunion. “I thought something was off every time I came over for dinner.”

“Oh,” Mirabel winces, “about that… There’s a little crack or something on the family tree painting by the dinner table, and… Bruno stares through it during dinner. It’s nothing creepy or stalkerish, I swear! He’s just always been rather lonely during his time away. He’s even got a little plate he painted for himself on the table beside the crack.”

“Oh…” This is quite the transition from all out laughter to sadness, you note. “Eso es…” (That's...)

“Muy triste.” Luisa finishes for you. “Hmm, wait, Camilo’s story got me thinking.” She begins, “I’ve also seen tío Bruno after he left. I just always assumed it was my little secret!” (Very sad.)

Realization flashes through the relatives’ minds. They all shared this one secret, they just didn’t know it. Choruses of agreeances chime throughout the room: “Same!”, “Me too!”, “I thought I was the only one!”

“I feel left out.” Antonio notes, “I knew about this too, the rats told me. I just haven’t been holding it for as long as you have!”

“You don’t want to keep such a secret for ten years.” Dolores remarks. She’s known the longest, of course, because she could hear through the walls, which meant she could hear within them too. Of all the secrets within the town, this was the one she was the most faithful in keeping. Dolores was quite the chismosa, actually; She recounted many town secrets to you often. It was surprising how she could keep this secret to herself. (quite the gossiper, actually)

Isabella nods along, “About that crack in the family portrait… I noticed it when I was younger, too. I was very interested in it, and I didn’t have full control over my powers I used too, so I spent quite some time trying to make vines small enough to fit.”

“And how much time was it?”

“Three… no, was it four? Five? It couldn’t have been a week.” She mutters to herself, then later remembers it didn’t quite matter, “Whatever. Practice takes time, so it definitely wasn’t within the day I found it.” Mirabel was delighted in the idea that Isabela wasn’t perfect from the start, but she didn’t show it.

“When I finally stuck a tiny vine through, I figured out I could make it grow bigger once it was inside. Long story short, I moved the vine from side to side and knocked over many things. I could hear them dropping, and I could also hear tío Bruno’s yelps. They were funny, but I was absolutely terrified back then. Who was this man in the walls? Then I heard him shout, “Salt!” and knew it was him.”

“Oh, that’s what that was.” Dolores giggles to herself, “I was very curious about it. Tía Julieta was very confused when I came into the kitchen asking if any pots had fallen.”

“Hmm,” Luisa rubs the back of her neck, “I feel like my story’s boring now. One time I was lifting weights, and I misjudged how light the weights would feel to carry, so I accidentally flung one past my shoulder.” She winces at the thought of it, “Huge hole in the wall, almost as big as me. Actually,” She laughs, “it wasn’t so bland. I found tío Bruno by that wall. It seemed he’d just about managed to duck before he got hit by a weight. His face,” She’s trying really hard not to laugh now, “I wish you could’ve seen it!”

“Can you imitate it?” Luisa imitates his face, and the relatives begin to laugh.

“So is the hole still there?”

She shakes her head, “No, sadly. Casita locked the door to that part of my room for a while, and then when it finally opened the hole had been patched up.”

“Bummer…”

“So you guys have been keeping your secrets for years now, and I just found out because of some stupid rats and a painting?” Mirabel’s face is painted with disbelief, and then quickly in apology when Antonio shakes his head at her. “Like, seriously, I just found out a couple days ago.”

“It was a hard secret to keep, Mirabel.” Camilo says, “Mamá and tía always get so sad on their birthday…”

“Mhm,” Dolores humms, “Los escucho después en sus cuartos, tu sabes, llorando…” Speaking of hearing people, she suddenly tilts her head as she hears something interesting. “You know what I just heard? Apparently papá y tío Agustín knew.” (I hear them afterwards in their rooms, you know, crying...)

Gasps of shock ring throughout the room. Dolores interrupts it all with, “They just called each other ‘bros’.”