#Bruno Madrigal: Unwitting Heart Throb

[foggyfanfic]

Headcanon: Bruno's Dating History

I thought about writing this as a fic, but one, it's way too long and two the ultimate ending is sad. I'm already writing one fic with dark themes. I don't want to get a reputation or anything. So! This is what I think Bruno's dating history was like:

cw: alludes to abusive behavior

As mentioned in another list of headcanons, I think Bruno is attracted to both men and women. Honestly, if he was a modern dude who grew up with the same culture as a lot of us on this website, I'd guess his labels to be bi, nonbinary, demisexual. But, he lives in an isolated rural community before the Pride movement in his country became a mainstream topic. So who knows what labels he would use.

The main criteria for Bruno to start feeling sexually attracted to somebody is "I can be awkward and weird around them without being told I'm a freak", although there are also certain vibes he goes for. Mainly people who are confident and passionate.

His first foray into dating is when he's 15 and he gets with a girl his mother approves of. The main thing Alma likes about the girl is that she is patient and not quick to cast judgement, which also becomes one of Bruno's favorite things about her.

As far as teenage romances go, it's very sweet. The town is only just starting to get nervous about Bruno, so for the most part every where they go, the young couple gets told how cute they look together.

On her side of things, she thinks he's funny, she enjoys his unique perspective on the world around him, and she really likes his eyes. Bruno is a caring boyfriend, who enjoys doing little things to make her happy. Plus at this point she's watching her friends' boyfriends put on pressure for a physical relationship, where as Bruno is content to let her set the pace.

About a year and a half in they decide they're ready to try having a physical relationship. They work their way up to sex over a six month period. Bruno relies heavily on the little snippets of sex he's accidentally seen in visions, but this turns out to be a more thorough sexual education than she has received so most of their experimentation is Bruno going "I saw this, do you want to try it?" and her saying yes or no.

Things go wrong when she notices Bruno likes it a bit rough. Bruno thinks what she's doing is amazing, but needs her to start out gentle, then work her way up to being rough. When he tries to tell her that he gets nervous, say something that sounds bad, starts panicking, makes it worse, and before you know it he's made his girlfriend cry.

When they've calmed down he's able to explain himself, but he's never fully able to get over the guilt, and to his biased eyes it looks like she isn't able to get over the insecurities he's caused her. So they break up.

She walks away from the relationship with high standards, because whether or not he realizes it, Bruno was a really good boyfriend. Even when she falls in love with a great guy and gets married, in her pettier moments she finds herself thinking things like, "Bruno wouldn't have forgotten what my favorite flowers are".

Bruno walks away from the relationship with low standards, because the village is beginning to criticize him more and more, and in his head he hurt her much more than in reality.

His next relationship starts when he's twenty. He gives this cute guy, Alberto, a vision that ends with the two of them making out. Bruno tries to apologize for it, but Alberto tells him to only apologize if he's not planning to buy him dinner first.

Alberto is a very pretty man, again, there's no way they had all the same labels that we have today, but it's a twink 4 twink relationship. Only, Alberto is a very neat twink, where as 20 year old Bruno is borderline too scruffy to be called a twink.

It starts out very loving, albeit secret. The only other mlm they know about is Alberto's best friend Dominic, and the Bible has things to say about this sort of thing, so Alberto especially isn't willing to go public with the relationship.

Bruno makes an effort to get along with Dominic, since he's Alberto's best friend, and finds out they have a lot in common. Alberto, for some reason, insists they aren't allowed to hang out alone together.

Bruno tells his sisters about the relationship, and although it throws them for a loop, they are very happy for him. At first.

Slowly, as the village continues to become more critical of Bruno, and his self esteem continues to decline, Alberto starts to become more and more controlling. In his mind he's trying to help Bruno win back the village's approval, he does genuinely care about Bruno, and he does genuinely think Bruno is the most wonderful person ever. He thinks if Bruno could just hide some of the more awkward behaviors in public, others would see how kind and intelligent he is. He continues to not care how weird Bruno is in private.

Bruno reaches a point where he's just grateful that somebody likes him enough to want to be with him, and he let's a lot of stuff slide.

On top of that, Bruno is a great listener, resulting in him being a great lover. Alberto will often spend all day thinking about how good that thing Bruno does will feel and can't focus on anything else. Including Bruno's pleasure.

Pepa is the first to point out how toxic the relationship has become, she's had her fair share of bad boyfriends, so she notices the red flags. Bruno brushes her off.

Dominic and Alberto have some sort of falling out, the details of which Alberto refuses to share, and suddenly Bruno isn't allowed to talk to Dominic period. This makes him a lot sadder than he would have expected.

Julieta starts to notice that the relationship is no longer a source of happiness for Bruno, and jumps on the "Find Another Boyfriend" campaign Pepa has started.

Finally Alberto himself eventually realizes he's doing Bruno more harm than good. They are three years in at this point and Alberto is trying to imagine raising kids with Bruno, but doesn't like the way imaginary future him treats imaginary future Bruno. Over the next year, he tries to be better, but keeps falling back into bad habits.

Alberto ends their four year relationship, apologizes to Bruno for the way he's acted, and makes a last ditch effort to convince Bruno that he's actually pretty wonderful. It only serves to make it harder for Bruno to get over the relationship.

Alberto walks away from the relationship thoroughly ashamed of himself. He marries a woman he gets along with well enough, and does the family thing, but if he's going to be honest he never truly stops loving Bruno.

A year goes by and the Madrigals get invited to Dominic's engagement party. Bruno (25 at this point) is excited to go, and hopes to reconnect with him. At the party he asks Dominic if he would like to hang out some time and Dominic says his fiancee probably wouldn't be comfortable with that.

Bruno responds to this with confusion, because he didn't think the bride to be bought into the Bad Luck Bruno thing. Dominic confirms that she doesn't, but she does know how he's always felt about Bruno.

Cue more confusion on Bruno's part. Dominic gets this look of slowly dawning horror as he realizes that Bruno didn't know about Dominic's feelings.

Turns out, Dominic had been in love with Bruno for years, but hadn't realized Bruno was into men until he was already dating Alberto. The falling out had been over Alberto accidentally letting slip that he'd known about Dominic's feelings, when Dominic had confronted Alberto about the way he was treating Bruno.

For a second the men just stare at each other, both suddenly over come with thoughts of what might have been. Ultimately, Dominic walks away, not willing to sacrifice the great relationship he has over a daydream. He has a happy life with his wife, even if he sometimes gets a bit wistful when he thinks of Bruno.

Bruno on the other hand, never tries dating again (or at least not before canon) and spends the rest of his life wondering what could have been with Dominic.

He is completely unaware that there are three people in the village who will always be a little in love with him, and gets further and further buried under his own insecurities.