Chapter Text
Bruno finds himself hanging from the ceiling, the breath knocked out of him as cold water is thrown on him, causing him to thrash and sputter regardless of the pain. Even doing so, the chains rattle along with him, and his gasps echo in the interrogation room.
“You’re up. Good. Maybe you’ll actually answer something for once.”
He notices he’s bandaged up where he was shot, though they didn’t give him anything for the pain. Like hell they would have anyways. He took so many of their soldiers for putting him in this predicament, he is surprised he isn’t more injured besides the killer headache making his head spin.
“Why did you come here and what were your mission details?” The man asks, green eyes locked with his own.
The porous ground has more character than his captor, and he has no intention in building any rapport. “Bruno Stenberg, USAF, ID number 052148656. As far as your next question is concerned, I am not interested in answering it.”
Just as he thinks it can’t get worse, a fist comes across on his face, the man snarling in retaliation. “Try again. Go on.” Something from his voice tells him that he should probably listen and give him what he wants.
Nah. It ain’t that easy.
“I’m sorry. You’re deaf. Bruno Stenberg, United States Air Force, ID number 052148656.” There’s a bloody smirk on his own face and he tilts his chin up in defiance. “I tried again, like you said.”
There’s rage behind the man’s eyes and he grabs a fistful of Bruno’s hair, getting right in his face. “You think this is some kind of joke, but I’m through playing nice.” He drives a fist into his side where the gunshot wound is.
The amount of agony and pain that shattered his world forces a struggled, pained gasp, his knees buckling and forcing Bruno to solely hang from his shackled wrists. He bites his cheek from the inside to keep himself from screaming, and he feels the sweat building up at his brow from the exertion.
The man looks pleased and keeps a hand in Bruno’s hair, patting his cheek. “You can scream, dog. Go ahead.” There was this smarmy ass look that Bruno hated, so he did the one thing he knew to do when in a predicament like this.
He headbutted the man just right, his forehead connecting with the man’s nose. An audible crunch is heard in the interrogation room followed by a scream. It is a small victory for Bruno, watching the man pull back to hold his broken, bloody nose. “You got to earn my screams, fucker.”
The man looks to the right of him and nods, forcing Bruno to fall on his hands and knees. But before he can have a chance to realize what’s going to happen, a swift kick is dealt right to his stomach, dropping him to his side. The captain grits his teeth and groans loudly, but he refuses to scream. They are going to work for it.
“I’ll take over,” a female calls out, and Bruno recognizes her as the woman who knocked him unconscious when he was first taken.
The man with the bloody nose curses in another language and huffs, “I’m going to get him back for this, Katerina.”
“Manolo, go clean your face. Blood doesn’t suit you like this one. And don’t worry-” she forces her boot over Bruno’s head-“I’ll handle him.” His head is then slammed into the floor, and he can taste blood and feel his nose already bleeding from the impact. Wonderful.
“You think you’re clever, but we have all the time in the world. You should be terrified,” she snarls down at him.
Bruno forces a laugh and swallows back some blood. Better keep some in his body than lose it, he thinks to himself. I’m terrified to see how ugly I look now. If I cracked mirrors before, then I would probably turn people to stone at this point.
He looks up at the woman, trying to get a good read on her. “I’m not clever. I’m just an idiot that manages to get the kill each time. I’m not going to be scared of you because that’s not something I am capable of. So go ahead. Make me bleed. Make me scream. Make. Me. Suffer.” He forces himself to stand up, staring her down while he can hear the guards behind him aim at him. The pain is radiating throughout his body, but he doesn’t care. They will see what kind of a military man Bruno is.
She is clapping her hands and laughs in his face. “Oh, I am going to remember those words. You want to suffer, bleed, and scream? Fine. We can do just that.“
It doesn’t take even a few moments to get one of the guards to pass her a crowbar, the woman’s smile a gleaming reminder that she’s a sadistic captor. Before Bruno can even brace himself, she swings and catches him at his side where the wound is. He falls to his knees from the shock of the hit, biting down on his hand to keep him from screaming. He can taste his own blood and his eyes lock with the woman’s silver eyes just as she goes for another swing.
This one connects to his ribs and he bites down harder when there’s a snap, tears springing to his eyes and already falling when he can’t breathe in. There’s so much pain and he doesn’t realize he’s on the floor because she struck him in the back. His cheek is against the concrete, eyes now focused on the tiniest ant a few inches away.
It’s like he’s suffocating now, waiting for his body to let him take air in, and when he does, he whimpers so softly into his bitten hand, not letting go. They want his screams? They are gonna earn them.
"Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim…” (“Endure and be strong; this pain will be useful to you someday…”) He replays his mantra in his head over and over just as the crowbar comes down on him again and again.
He refuses to give in so quickly, and they haven’t gotten him to scream, even when the woman is tired and everyone leaves him on the floor, bruised, bloodied, and weak. He didn’t scream once, but the Captain never promised her he wouldn’t cry. And so he did while he thought of his teammates back home.