Sorry I took so long to update. I had a bit of trouble with this one, and my OCD wouldn't let me just work on something else and post that instead. Nooo, it has to be in /order/.
I kept from mentioning Wolf's real name on purpose, by the way. Just for the record. It's meant to be that way. And this one's a bit longer than the others. Apparently, Wolf has a lot to say about Alex. :P
Jacuzzin (anonymous review reply): Glad you seem to like it so far. :P Thanks for reviewing!
Wolf had absolutely no idea what to make of Cub.
When he'd first met him, though, his feelings about the kid were definitely easy to discern. He hadn't hated Cub, just strongly disliked him. He and the rest of K-Unit were one of the best units of the SAS; they didn't need a teenager dragging them down. They didn't need to be the laughingstock of Brecon Beacons.
And for what? Just because some greedy old man—probably the kind who thought he could buy the world with the right amount of money, power, and influence—had decided he wanted his spoiled, snobby son to get a "real experience" of the elite SAS or something?
Wolf wouldn't stand for it… but he'd had to. Cub's father must have had a lot of influence, because the sergeant informed K-Unit that higher-ups in intelligence had ordered Cub there. K-Unit would just have to suffer, to grin and bear it—wasn't that what they were doing all along?
Wolf had not liked his first impression of Cub at all. The kid had tousled blond hair and an impressive enough (well-toned, in shape) body for a civilian; therefore, Wolf concluded, not only was he spoiled and snobby, he probably got a lot of girls, too. He probably thought he was better than the SAS, just because his daddy had a big wallet and the girls came flocking to him. Well, Wolf had seethed, upon catching sight of the boy's indifferent face, we'll show him.
If there was one thing Wolf did not like, it was being proven wrong. He hated being wrong. He was the leader of K-Unit; what he said was the final word. He had absolute authority with his team; his judgment was relied upon. He knew what was best.
That had always been the case, until he'd met Cub. (Apparently, Cub liked to prove him wrong a lot.)
The kid didn't get teary-eyed and weepy when the rest of K-Unit bombarded him with insults and unflattering names (Double O Nothing, they called him… because intelligence had sent him there, so he had to be a spy, a bad one. At least, that was what K-Unit jeered). He didn't break down sobbing after the first unarmed combat class he went to. He didn't collapse on his bed, groaning from soreness or pain, after miraculously (in Wolf's opinion) completing the assault course. Wolf had been incredulous when he hadn't gotten in "trouble" for the stunt he'd pulled in the Killing House; he'd thought Cub was a whiny tattletale and would have "told on him." And when Cub tossed them the matches he'd obviously swiped from the sergeant after that forty-kilometer hike, Wolf had begun to feel a few grudging trickles of respect for the boy.
It wasn't until the day Cub literally kicked his arse out of that plane, though, did Wolf let himself admit (only to himself, though; Eagle would never let him hear the end of it if he found out) just how wrong he'd been about the kid. Maybe he'd never find out why Cub had gone to Brecon Beacons, but one thing was for sure: Cub was not the whiny, incompetent, spoiled rich kid Wolf had thought he was.
It took a lot for Wolf to admit he'd been wrong, even to himself, and confessing that to the kid (not in as many words, thank God) was practically torture. But Wolf had a strongly honed sense of right and wrong, and as much as he hated to do it, he would do it, because it was right. He'd been wrong enough in the past eleven days; it was time to start being right again.
Wolf didn't dwell too much on Cub after that. Sometimes he thought about the boy, wondering yet again just why, exactly, Cub had come to Brecon Beacons for only eleven days, and why he'd helped Wolf on the plane when Wolf hadn't done anything to deserve it. But for the most part, Wolf didn't think about it too much.
Then, one day, he was brought in by MI6 on a mission in the French Alps, to save some kids and an intelligence agent from a psycho at a school there or something. The last thing he'd expected was to see Cub again, but there the kid was, right in the thick of things—the agent Wolf and the rest of the rescue team were supposed to save. There the kid was, pulling some seriously fantastical stunts on a makeshift snowboard, managing to elude snowmobiles on his tail. There the kid was, seriously injured, but alive… and working for MI6…
At least there was some consolation to Wolf for his being wrong yet again about Cub; at least he'd been right about being wrong about Cub… right?
So it turned out that SAS training hadn't been just for the experience, after all.
Wolf didn't want to be, but he was amazed at how much change the kid had gone through. He'd been quiet and determined at Brecon Beacons, but at least he'd still been a kid; now he was a hardened spy. Not Double O Nothing at all: more like Double O Seven.
Wolf was rather chagrined; he'd preferred Double O Nothing. (It just so figured that intelligence was sending teenagers to do their dirty work for them.) But Cub had grown up since his SAS training at Brecon Beacons, and MI6 sent him back to the school he'd been fleeing from in the first place.
The mission was a success. The agent and the other children were saved. Wolf woke up in the hospital feeling rather conflicted.
Not all was behind them; he'd been downright unpleasant to Cub during his training and there was no going back on that. But he'd taken a bullet for the kid…
After much thought, Wolf decided that the whole situation was rather awkward, and left it at that.
He didn't hear from Cub again for quite a while after that. At one point, he was told that the boy was in the hospital with appendicitis, and after much deliberation, he'd written the kid a card. Not until Fox got back from an MI6 mission, though, months later, did he actually find out some more about Cub. Fox told the rest of K-Unit he'd worked with the Australians, and Cub had been there.
Wolf, Eagle, and Snake (particularly Eagle) pestered Fox for details, but all he'd say was "it's confidential, sorry." However, he did share one interesting tidbit of information with them, and it was about Cub's file. "His name's Alex Rider," Fox said, "and his parents are dead. Have been, for quite a while. And his file… it's disturbingly vague. And empty. A lot of stuff was taken out."
That was all Wolf (and Eagle, and Snake) could get out of him, but it got Wolf thinking. Cub, Alex Rider… he hadn't been sent to Brecon Beacons by a rich, snobby father after all (obviously). Wolf wondered how MI6 had gotten a hold of the boy, but Fox hadn't revealed anything about that aspect of Cub's past…
Clearly, there was a lot more to Cub than Wolf had first thought, a lot more to Cub than he'd ever expected.
He'd come to have no expectations where Cub was concerned. Except for being wrong, of course.
