A Marriage of Convenience: A Bruno Madrigal Encanto Fanfic

Chapter 3

She was running through the orphanage, cackles and taunts following her. The familiar halls would usually be calming, but instead they were dark and shadows moved on the walls.

"You'll never be anything perrita!"

"You should just give up perrita!"

The nickname repeated and repeated and repeated. It seemed to be getting louder and louder and tears began to stream down her face. The voices were all right. She was nothing. Then she turned a corner and ran into Senor Rojas. She hit the floor with a thunk and looked up with eyes full of fear.

"Aye perrita you shouldn't have done that," he raised his hand and she flinched back.

"Claudia?"

"Please, please no sir," she begged.

"Claudia."

"I didn't mean to senor, please not again. PLEASE!"

"Claudia!"

And she opened her eyes and bolted up. Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them back. They didn't help anyways, they hadn't done a thing since she was little. Wait, where was she? This wasn't her room. Where was-

"Claudia, are you-are you ok?"

That's right, she had gotten married, and of course she had woken her new husband with her nightmare. She quickly brushed the unshed tears and smiled, before turning to look at Bruno. 

"Yea, I'm fine. I'm good. Nothing but a little nightmare." 

Bruno didn't seem reassured. In fact he seemed a bit worried, which surely couldn't be the case. After all, waking someone up was more of a nuisance than anything else.

"You sure? Cause you were talking in your sleep and well-".

He awkwardly laid a hand on her back causing her to flinch back. He quickly removed his hand, but not before feeling the bandages underneath her nightgown through the fabric.

"Are you ok? Do you need some of Julieta's cooking? Because I can run to the kitchen. It just seemed like maybe you needed to talk cause it sounded like you were begging someone not to hurt you. But it seems like you're already hurt and now I'm rambling and-"

Claudia cut him off. "Please,  just….just ignore it. I don't wanna talk about it right now. I don't really wanna talk about it ever. You dont...you don't have to pretend to care because we got married, ok? I'm sorry for waking you."

She turned to the side of the bed where he couldn't see her face.

"I wasn't pretending-"

"Please just forget it alright?"

".....alright."

They both laid back down, but Bruno's mind raced. What had happened to her? Maybe, just maybe if he had kept pushing he could have helped. Or was she too afraid of him like everyone else was? He took a quick peek at her. He had sworn he had felt bandages, but the Rojas hadn't mentioned her being hurt or they definitely would have moved the wedding back.

 All these thoughts spun inside of his head until he eventually fell back asleep. 

*****

Claudia awoke early as usual. She quickly snuck out of the bedroom and into the main room. Her clothing was still in boxes, so she chose the first dress on top. She tied her hair into her usual tight braid bun. Then she headed out of the tower and to the kitchen, and was surprised to see she wasn't the only one up.

"Oh Claudia, I didn't expect you to be awake yet. What are you doing up already?"

"I came down to help make breakfast but if you want some time alone then-"