Chapter Text
Camilo’s life was going great.
All the powers were back, casita was rebuilt, and everything had gone back to normal. Well, almost everything. There was the case that Mirabel could find everyone and everything effortlessly now. The miracle had finally blessed her with a gift, at the expense of everyone else (read: Camilo) being unable to hide from her sappy pep talks.
And there was the new addition to the family.
Well, Camilo wasn’t sure if it was fair to call him a new addition. Technically he was an old addition that had left and come back. But it probably wasn’t fair to say he’d left and come back, now was it? Because he never really left. He’d just lived in the walls and talked to rats and Dolores. Which was creepy. And weird. The whole situation felt weird and creepy. And yet, none of the rest of the family was sketched out by the weird, reclusive, nightmare uncle that had come into their lives after watching them from the walls for ten whole years.
Okay, maybe Camilo was exaggerating. He’d always been scared of his Tio Bruno though. As a kid he’d seen him doing prophecies for people and almost cried at the way his eyes glowed. But could you blame him? Eyes that glowed like that were bone chilling, especially to five year old-
“AUGH!” Camilo jumped back as he turned a corner, making eye contact with the person at the end of the hall. “Fucking hell Mirabel.” He breathed.
“Sorry Camilo! I’m trying to find Isabela to give her her cactus back, but she keeps moving around and trying to avoid me.” Mirabel said, before rushing off.
Camilo shook the goosebumps off his arms and went to sit down in the sitting room. Even though it had been a good few months, Camilo still wasn’t used to Mirabel’s gift. Whenever she used it, her eyes glowed like Tio Bruno’s, which was significantly less creepy since they glowed a nice amber color. But it was still horribly unsettling, especially since her eyes would flicker like a dying lamp. In other words, Mirabel standing at the end of the hall with a potted cactus in her hands was like something out of Camilo’s nightmares. At least his Tio Bruno didn’t use his gift as much as Mirabel did. Camilo doesn’t know what he’d do if he had to enter a room where someone he didn’t quite understand was giving nightmare fuel.
Okay, Camilo knew that that was also probably a rude thing to say. But Camilo never talked to his tio, so he didn’t have anything to base him off of other than nightmares. Not to say Camilo was avoiding his tio entirely. They were just never really in the same room at the same time. Tio Bruno always ate meals after everyone else, and he didn’t seek anyone out to talk to them unless they were Mirabel, Dolores, Antonio, Tia Julieta, or Mama. Everyone else seemed like they sought him out to talk to him. Something Camilo wasn’t interested in doing. Camilo wasn’t in tune enough with Bruno’s habits to talk to him properly. He couldn’t impersonate his tio convincingly, and that was weird to Camilo.
Camilo was drawn from his analysis about Tio Bruno by the weight of a person hitting the couch. He should’ve expected someone else to be down here since it wasn’t a very busy day, but still. Looking over at who’d come and placed themselves by him, Camilo had to do a mental double take. Tio Bruno had sat himself on the couch, which meant that Camilo either hadn’t noticed his tios knocking on wood ritual, or Bruno just hadn’t done it. There was a short pause, where Camilo was just staring at Bruno while Bruno stared anxiously in front of himself.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” Camilo replied. This was super weird. His tio had never tried to talk to him before, and Camilo didn’t even know what he’d talk to Bruno about. The silence between them after they’d greeted each other was weird. Even if it only lasted a couple seconds.
“Bye.” Bruno stood up and quickly left, leaving Camilo bewildered.
Whatever, Camilo shrugged. His attention was quickly drawn away from the weird conversation, since Antonio came out of nowhere demanding Camilo come play with him and the kids in the town until it was time for them to go eat dinner.
That day was the first day that Bruno joined the rest of the family at the dinner table.
Camilo fell asleep with his thoughts plagued by his uncle’s weird behaviors.