Title: Live To Tell
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Brendan Block
Fandom: Doctor Who/Secret Smile
Rating: R
Table: 5, 10_hurt_comfort
Prompt: 1, Torture
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor or Brendan Block, unfortunately. Please do not sue.

***

This couldn't be happening, Brendan told himself, squeezing his eyes shut. Of all the things that he and the Doctor could have run into, this couldn't be one of them. He was having a bad dream, that was all. A horrible dream brought on by something he'd heard.

The spasms in his bound arms did away with that thought quickly. This wasn't a dream. He was here, bound and helpless, his arms stretched above his head; the Doctor was in the same position, facing him across a few feet of space. And the man who had orchestrated this was speaking.

That voice was low and sibilant; to Brendan's ears, it was like the hiss of a snake that was coiled and ready to strike at any moment. He would never forget that voice as long as he lived; it would always strike fear into his heart.

"Did you really think that you could escape me, Doctor?" The words were spoken barely above a whisper, but Brendan could hear them clearly. "Did you really think that because you chose to be with a human, it would make you any less of my possession?"

"He doesn't belong to you!" Brendan cried, goaded beyond his endurance by those words. This man didn't own the Doctor in any way; he was nothing but an interloper on their relationship, someone who had given up any right he had to the Doctor's affections long ago.

"Oh, doesn't he?" The Master's attention turned from the Time Lord to Brendan, his eyes narrowing as they swept over his body. "He's more mine than you'll ever know, human. He was mine long before he was yours -- and I can reclaim him at any time."

"No, you can't," Brendan said, his voice sinking to a low, angry hiss. "He doesn't love you. He doesn't want you. He's proven that. Let us go and leave him alone. You forfeited any right you had to to him when you turned against him, and you know it."

"Let you go?" The Master's laughter rang out, so loudly that Brendan winced and would have covered his ears if his hands had been free. "Do you really think that will ever happen? I might let you go in theory, but I'll always have a hold on you. Both of you."

With a sinking heart, Brendan knew that the other man was right. No matter how the two of them might try to put whatever happened on this night out of their minds, they would always be haunted by the memory -- and in that respect, the Master would always be with them.

That memory would always be there to torture them. Whatever the Master chose to do to them tonight, he would make sure that it was fixed in their minds -- a torture that went on and on, far into the future, long after the actual physical pain was past.

Would they ever be the same after tonight? Brendan didn't want to think of what was going to happen; he had been told enough of the Master to have an idea of what the renegade Time Lord had planned for them. That was obvious enough from their state of undress.

He twisted his wrists in their bonds, trying desperately to loosen the ropes. But it seemed that no matter how hard he struggled, the cords around his wrists only pulled tighter, cutting into his flesh with the precision of a keen-edged knife blade.

Brendan closed his eyes, swallowing hard. What was the Master going to do to them? He wasn't sure that either one of them would come out of this alive -- particularly himself. But given what that madman had said, he was fairly sure that death wouldn't come to them yet.

"Don't close your eyes," the Master said, his voice deceptively soft. "I want you to see everything that's done to him -- everything that he's suffering because of you. This is your doing, and you should witness every moment of his pain."

Brendan's eyes snapped open when the Doctor screamed; the sound reverberated off the walls around them, slicing through him like a machete. He didn't want to watch, didn't want to see his lover suffer. But he had no doubt that he Master would carry out his threat if he didn't watch.

The Doctor's slender hips jerked forward as the Master's arm moved; Brendan winced, wanting to close his eyes again but knowing that he couldn't. If he could manage to force himself to keep his eyes open, then maybe the Master would go easy on the Time Lord.

He'd seen the size of the vibrator that the Master had in his hand; he knew that it had to be painful for the Doctor to have something that large shoved inside him with no lube and no preparation. Brendan wasn't surprised that he was screaming.

But he couldn't bear to hear those screams. Something inside him twisted and strained with each sound the Time Lord made; if he had to take much more of this, he would break into pieces and begin to scream himself. And once he did, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to stop.

"Stop! Please ...." It took Brendan a moment to realize that the voice begging the Master to stop was his own. If there was any decency hidden behind that mask of insanity and hatred, any part of him that cared for the Doctor in any way, then he would stop.

But he didn't. A slow, insidious smile spread across his features; the Doctor screamed again as the Master's wrist twisted and he lunged forward once more. The Doctor's hips jerked again, a shudder going through his body, his scream dying off into a sob.

"So you want me to stop, hmmm?" The Master's voice taunted Brendan, forcing him to meet the other man's eyes. Brendan wanted to cringe away from the utter madness he saw there, the malevolence that was directed not at the Doctor, but at himself.

"Very well. I just might stop. Because it's not him that deserves punishment. Not really. He has to be punished for turning away from me, for thinking that you could satisfy him -- but you're the one who really deserves what I was planning to give him."

Brendan couldn't suppress a shudder as the Master stepped away from the Doctor with a wolfish smile on his face and moved towards him. Now he'd done it. Whatever this insane wreck had done to the Doctor would be nothing compared to what he would do to Brendan.

He could bear any amount of torture, no matter what was done to him, if it kept the Master from hurting the Doctor. He would do anything he possibly could to spare his love any more pain -- and if that meant sacrificing himself for the Doctor, then he would gladly do so.

He wanted to close his eyes again as the Master approached him, shut out that taunting smile that he'd already grown to loathe. But if he did -- would that goad the Master into hurting him? Or worse, would it push him into hurting the Doctor more than he already had?

Brendan wasn't going to take that chance. He stood there, his muscles tightening as the Master moved closer to him, trying to steel himself for whatever torture was still to come. He only hoped that they would both survive it -- and that they wouldn't have to face anything like it again.

***