43. Chapter 43

Things started to fall into a routine for Bruno.

For someone who lived inside of the walls his daily routine was surprisingly strict, he would always rise when his family did.

He would always clean himself up before sitting down for breakfast at the same time his family did.

The day's work would come after breakfast. Always. The work varied a bit.

It always started with an inspection where Bruno would inspect the places he already knew had cracks to see if more had formed.

He hadn't explored all the long hallways and stairs yet. But Bruno was determined to map it all out so he wouldn't get lost.

What was funny though was how surprisingly long these crooks and halls went on from, they would warp themselves and go both up and down creating a massive labyrinth that was definitely a lot bigger than what the house looked like from the outside.

But then also… Pepa's room looked like a giant field. Bruno's room was a tower and when you were inside of it the stairs were impossibly tall. But when you stood outside and looked at Casita there was no tower nearly that tall.

And so it went on with the magical rooms and Bruno could only imagine that these halls were actually circling themselves around the magic rooms being the space between the rooms and regular casita.

But yes…. First was the inspection of the spots Bruno was already aware of.

Then if a new crack had formed he would fix it. If not Bruno would have something else to do.

Clean his clothes, sweep his room, or explore further while working on his map.

Cleaning clothes and himself had now become possible as Bruno had found a pipe very close to his room and Casita had provided him with a vale so Bruno now had direct access to water.

Sadly the only thing he had to contain the water right now was his spackle bucket. So he had to clean that one as well as he could, before filling it with water and washing his dirty clothes in it.

Then clean himself as well as he could with a sponge and the soap he had stolen from the family's supply closet…. Borrowed. He had borrowed it.

No okay, he had stolen it. Like he was stealing food and blankets…. Bruno sighed as he covered his face.

Also, he only had access to cold water… Bruno was not going to complain. It was unlimited water! He needed it.

But it did become rather pitiful as he was sitting there in his least dirty shirt and tried to scrub the rest of his clothes to the best of his ability in ice cold water.

But Bruno had been raised to always keep himself clean! Always make sure you are washed before you start eating! Keep your clothes neat and tidy. It was imprinted unto Bruno now and he couldn't even bear the thought of letting himself become too dirty. Just imagining Alma's disappointed face was enough to make Bruno scrub his ruana a little harder until it was clean.

So he would wash his clothes. About once a week. He only had three sets of clothes he had taken with him and the one Ruana. So he would keep them clean.

If there was any time left after whatever work Bruno had done that day, he would sleep until dinner.

The time after dinner, he considered his time to relax and he would try to listen in on his family or follow their movements when he could.

He would wait until they had all gone to sleep and then it was time for food and item scavenging.

He had started to check the trash cans too. Felix had decided to throw out his old shoes, Bruno though knew that shoes made for excellent rat beds. So he carefully fished them up to bring them back to his room where two rats immediately claimed ownership.

Old toothbrushes were good for dusting off the cracks probably before applying any spackle so it wouldn't become loose.

Finally, Bruno was lucky enough to find a chipped cup! That was like Alma, if something was chipped just a little bit she would throw it out at once and replace it.

No luck in regards to plates though… But still, a cup was nice. Bruno had something to drink out of at breakfast and dinner that wasn't a bottle.

Then of course one night… It had to happen sooner or later. One of the doors out at the entrance opened up… Bruno heard it the moment the door opened and at once Bruno swept the food he had found into his Rurana and rushed the other way, into the dining room and from there into the living room and then pressed himself up against the wall while pressing a hand against his mouth and fighting… Fighting more than he ever had done in his life to not knock on the door frame right next to him.

The person as predicted moved to the kitchen and then a big groan. "Seriously?" It was Isabela. "I thought there were a couple of Empanadas left!"

Bruno noted the bulge in his pocket and knew…. There had only been one Empanada. Looked like someone else had eaten extras too before going to bed.

Then Isabela kept rummaging through the kitchen grumbling annoyed, and then finally… She left. And Bruno sighed deeply as he deflated. And then knocked three times on his own head, afraid that if he went for the wood it would be too loud and someone would hear it.

And all that… For one Empanada and half a papaya. Not a good catch this night.

It was all right… Other nights there would be more. Bruno just had to eat the papaya for breakfast. Save half of the Empanada for dinner and the other half was of course for the rats. It was fine…

And so Bruno snuck himself back to get some sleep before morning and breakfast.