"Hey, Alex. Can we talk to you?"
Alex freezes before plastering a fake smile on his face and turning around. "Sure, I guess. Why? Something wrong?"
"Not-not really." Fox has that strange I'm-going-to-attempt-to-be-a-parent tone in his voice, one that last time landed Alex with having to talk his way out of the sex discussion. Alex is pretty sure he knows what they want to talk about, and he's not interested.
"Okay. Yeah. I'm just...I'm just going to use the loo."
Before Ben can even nod, Alex has run into the bathroom and slammed the door. He ignores the twinge of pain from his left wrist as he puts his hands on his face and takes several deep breaths in an attempt at preparation.
If nothing else, this should give him a chance to practice his mask.
"Wolf, relax. He's coming. He's not going to jump out the window or anything." Fox crosses his legs and leans back. "I mean, I don't doubt that he could, but I don't think he will."
Wolf mutters something that Ben doesn't quite catch, but that sounds suspiciously like, "He might."
Despite their leader's concern, Alex comes down a couple of minutes later, a suitably confused but not overly worried look on his face. "What's this about, anyway?"
"Sit," Wolf orders.
After a moment's hesitation, Alex perches on the nearest chair, fingers tapping nervously. "You didn't answer my question," he notes.
"We're worried about you," Ben explains.
"You're always worried about me."
"Well, we're really worried about you." Eagle puts his feet up on the coffee table and ignores the hiss of protest that he gets from Wolf in return. "Specifically, your recent lack of self-preservation."
Alex just stares. "You're kidding."
"No, we're not," Snake sighs. "You've been really reckless lately. I mean, you-"
"Jumped off a building? Yeah, I did. But I knew there was a net. I'm fine." Alex waves his left hand dismissively, then winces slightly, pain flashing briefly in his eyes. Before Fox is even sure that he saw it, Alex's face is back to normal. "I'm not going to go kill myself or anything."
"That's not really what we're worried about," Fox says in only slight frustration.
"Well, what are you worried about?"
"That you'll do something stupid and get yourself killed!"
Alex's tapping increases in speed. "I'm not going to get myself killed."
"Alex," Ben says warningly, but the teen just smiles.
"I'm good, guys, but thanks." Alex jumps up off the chair and heads for the stairs. At this point, Alex's avoidance of anything involving talking about him is commonplace, but Ben still wishes they could make progress. The kid obviously isn't okay. "Nice talk, though."
K-Unit stares after him for a second before Snake opens his mouth to call him back, but Fox shoots him a look that clearly says he isn't going to listen. Snake sighs and nods. "Well, that went well."
"This really isn't going according to plan," Snake comments as he ducks a bullet and fires two in response in one smooth motion.
"You think?" Wolf growls. He winces as he stretches his injured shoulder a little too far for comfort. "You know, I still think Cub shouldn't have come."
"Shut up, Wolf." Cub has a slightly blank-eyed look of intense concentration on his face, the look he usually gets during combat. "I'm here. Deal with it."
Wolf scowls. "Cub-"
"Will you both shut up and shoot?" Fox demands. "Eagle, get that door open!"
"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Eagle exclaims. "This is really complicated circuitry, you know."
"You know what's not complicated? There are people shooting at us!"
"I almost have it, okay? Deep breaths. Watch your blood pressure."
With a audible click, the door unlocks. "Got it!"
"Finally." Wolf shifts his gun to his other hand to provide better cover and gestures at the rest of the unit. "Go!"
Snake and Fox get through quickly, followed almost immediately by Eagle. Only Cub and Wolf remain, but Cub doesn't look like he's going to go anywhere.
"Go, Cub, leave!" Wolf snaps.
"The files!" Cub objects, gazing at the briefcase laying in the center of the hallway not ten meters away. Somehow, even distracted, the kid can still shoot amazingly. Not for the first time, Wolf wishes he knew why.
"I think they'd rather lose the files than lose us. This mission isn't that high-priority, remember?" He probably does. Wolf suspects that the only reason Cub agreed to come along is the fact that millions of lives aren't hanging in the balance.
"I can get to it," Alex insists.
"You are going to go out that door and that is an order, Cub!"
But he already knows it's hopeless. Cub has made up his mind-he can see it in the teen's eyes.
"You should go catch up with the others," Cub suggests.
Wolf scowls again. Now he's giving orders? "Cub-"
"I'll be fine. Go."
Before Wolf can raise any more objections, Cub is gone.
"Are you just going to stand there all day?" comes Fox's voice from behind him, followed shortly by a suspicious, "Where's Alex?"
"He's getting the case," Wolf explains, watching in both anger and disbelief as Cub lies on the ground and starts...
Rolling?
Judging by the sudden absence of gunfire coming from the other side, they're as confused as Wolf is. It's not until Cub is right by the briefcase that the shooting resumes. But Alex snags the case, barely, and starts sprinting back to Wolf before they can change their aim. He stumbles slightly as a bullet grazes his right arm, but other than that he returns unscathed.
"I...I can't believe that worked," Ben says in wonder.
"Honestly, neither can I," Alex replies brightly. "I guess I'm on a roll."
Fox snorts, but Wolf just glares. "That was stupid, kid."
"Ah, I'm fine," Alex says dismissively. "Let's go."
"Cub, you are going to talk to me about what you did and you do not have a choice about it," Wolf snaps, dropping his bag on the floor.
"What I did was salvage the mission," Alex returns.
"Whether or not you succeeded is not the issue in question!"
"Well, what is?"
"Don't pretend you don't know!" Wolf can feel himself getting more and more angry with Cub's total ignorance of his problems. All of this would be so much easier if the kid would just acknowledge his issues. But he seems bent on totally disregarding them, on pretending they don't even exist.
Alex practically throws his own duffel to the ground. "Ah, yes, my recklessness. Well, you know what? I'm perfectly alright. So-"
"You got shot in the arm," Snake points out mildly.
"Stay out of this," Alex says angrily.
Snake frowns. "Alex, do you even know how many symptoms of depression you've been exhibiting?"
"I said stay out of this!"
"Alex, we're raising valid concerns. You could have been killed," Fox says.
Alex stares right at Fox, eyes filled with anger, and says, "So?"
That word, those two small letters, feels like a punch in the stomach for Wolf. Alex honestly doesn't care if he dies.
The shocked silence continues for several more seconds. Alex picks up his bag with his left arm, the supposedly uninjured one, but winces anyway. Wolf frowns.
"I thought you got shot in your right arm," he says suspiciously.
"I did," Alex says in what appears to be confusion. "Why, are you going to question that, too?"
"Cub, is your left arm hurt or not?"
Alex slumps a little. "I sprained my wrist when I fell. Not badly. It's mostly fine now."
Snake suddenly looks up. "You didn't tell me?"
"No. I didn't. It's fine. Can I go upstairs now, or are you going to interrogate me some more?"
Eagle sighs. "Look, Alex, you need to chill. Just a bit."
Alex hesitates for a second but picks up his bag and heads for the stairs. "I'm fine," he repeats, more subdued than before.
"Cub?" Wolf says just before the teen gets to the stairs.
"Leave me alone, Wolf," he mutters, but stops.
"Just try to be more careful, okay?" Wolf shifts awkwardly. Here he is breaking his whole tough guy routine, in front of his unit, and it's all because of a teenager. "I don't...we don't want you to die."
Alex doesn't respond, but Wolf thinks he sees a hint of a smile.
With this chapter, ff is now caught up with what I have on ao3. I'll try to update every 1-2 weeks, but I make no promises.
I always appreciate comments/reviews/nice things/whatever the heck you want to say to me