Wolf carefully listened to Cub's response - rather, his lack of it. Fox had just asked Cub what sex was, much to everyone's embarrassment. "No way. I'm done. I'm leaving," Cub replied.

It was understandable. When Wolf had been a teenager, he'd been equally if not more reluctant to talk about sex with his parents - forget telling strangers or other older men about what he knew or didn't know. His parents had sat him down one day and told him everything they could. Wolf had not enjoyed the experience, but now he had to know what Cub knew.

"Don't let him go - not until we're certain he knows what rape is and the forms it can take," Wolf ordered Fox. Dutifully, Fox relayed the orders.

Cub was desperate to escape this questioning. It was obvious in his continual avoidance of the question. He told Fox off repeatedly. Then Fox did something that no one in the room suggested: emotional manipulation.

Wolf watched in something near awe as Fox removed his blank mask for the first time that evening. 'Concerned' was the only way to describe his expression; Wolf couldn't tell if it was real.

Sure, Fox had been professional in training, but he didn't strike Wolf as a particularly deep or empathetic character. He'd been kind. He'd been easy to work with. But he'd never shown any of his teammates direct concern. That's why Wolf found the expression difficult to read: it was alien.

His train of thought crashed as he listened to Fox's manipulative words. "Is it because you're afraid of what you'll hear? I think you know what I'm getting at." Fox was making non-answers reflect cowardice. For most people, such an accusation would force them to answer.

Perhaps that was why he was in MI6.

Eagle spoke softly, covering the microphone with one hand. He, like Wolf had noticed Fox's unusual display. "Is he... really...?"

Wolf shrugged.

Snake drew a hand up to his chin, staring at Fox pensively. He nodded. "I think so. I don't think he could fake that."

Wolf had only half-listened, hearing Cub's correct response. At raised eyebrows, Eagle dropped his hand and Wolf fed the next question. "Ask if he knows what rape is."

The topic having been broached, the answer came far more easily. "Alternative sex," Wolf prompted.

"Did you know there are different forms of sex?"

Wolf watched Cub like a hawk would a mouse. He covered his face, but not before Wolf caught his expression.

Faintly fearful embarrassment.

"If I answer your questions, will you let me go?"

Fox answered affirmatively. Cub stalled. He even faced the door as he answered in the affirmative - that he did know other forms of sex existed.

Snake commented, "He doesn't have a clue. It's obvious."

"Yeah," Eagle agreed.

Wolf glanced at Fox's face. He could see now that the concern from before had been genuine. He looked pained at the backroom's comments. Strangely, Wolf felt a nostalgic cloud surround him at Fox's face. It reminded him of when his parents had heard about his being bullied long ago. Fox mirrored his father. He surmised that Fox must feel fatherly towards Cub. Still, he had a job - and it wasn't to deduce relationships.

"Ask Cub about oral sex," Wolf said simply. "Then anal." It matched the evidence.

"Move the camera," Eagle suggested. "Get Cub's face."

Snake nodded and moved to the controls. He moved the camera in the ceiling so that Cub's face was magnified. Cub's agitation was increasingly apparent. "Sex that's spoken." Then, "Anal sex is when the partners are really precise about it."

Wolf would have laughed at Cub's guesses if the situation hadn't been so grave.

"Tell him he's wrong," Eagle ordered. Clear and straightforward as always.

Instantly, Snake disagreed. "No, wait - he won't believe you. We can't just tell him he's wrong - we need proof."

Eagle snorted. "What do you want Fox to do? Rape him?"

"Of course not!"

"Then we need to just tell him what they actually are. He must know he just made it up."

Snake sighed. "That doesn't matter. He'll defend his answers to protect himself - both his reputation and his mental state. He doesn't know he was raped, Eagle." He paused. "Actually, he doesn't need to know, does he? We've got his answers on tape. MI6 will know he was tricked into it."

"Fox?" Wolf asked. "We forgetting anything? Don't say anything if we are." Then he remembered it was one way communications.

Silence. Fox nodded.

Right - Cub wasn't looking at him.

"Damn," Snake muttered. "We have to make him prove he was raped, right?" Fox nodded. "So we do have to tell him what rape is."

Wolf thought carefully. An unusual idea leaped into his head - he could force Cub to deduce it on his own. If Cub sort-of taught himself, then he would believe it for sure.

"We should talk about gay sex."

For a moment, no one said anything. Out of context, realised Wolf with a jolt, that statement could carry a number of underlying meanings. Of all the times to swallow my foot whole, Wolf thought unhappily.

Although Eagle smirked, he understood what Wolf was getting at. Much more articulately, he elaborated, "What Wolf-man means is that Cub will be forced to realise what gay sex is. Then he'll have to deduce that that other guy had sex with him and come to the conclusion that he was raped. Or we hope so." Once Fox heard the explanation and began talking, Eagle added, "You're welcome."

"Thanks," Wolf muttered grudgingly. Eagle had surgically removed Wolf's foot from his mouth. It left a foul taste anyway.

Shaking his head slightly, Wolf tuned into the audio as Cub became increasingly agitated. From the speakers came a young voice's crescendo. "No. No way. Ben, what did Tarel do to me? What did he do to me?" Cub whipped around look at Fox for the answers. Surprisingly, he continued with an unexpected question in an unexpectedly quiet whisper. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Alex, I-"

"No! You're lying to me! You - you're tricking me!" Fox stood, hands up almost as if he were being held at gunpoint. His gesticulating failed to calm down Cub.

Snake and Eagle were looking at each other, as if to ask for directions. While orders came, it wasn't from each other. "Stop!" Cub shouted. Fox looked like he was trying to console him somehow, but Cub had none of it. "Stop!" Cub nearly screamed. He was desperate. Snake's chair squealed as he stood. Cub moved towards Fox as he demanded, "Tell me you're lying!"

"Oh, shit," Wolf muttered as he raced for the door. Cub had just tackled Fox and knocked over Fox's chair. That would bruise one or both of them, most certainly.

Snake glanced meaningfully at Wolf as Eagle ripped open the door before tearing through it. "The questioning pushed him over the edge."

Always a mediator and simultaneously an instigator, Eagle dutifully noted from ahead that the only reason Wolf suggested manipulative questioning was because Snake didn't like Eagle's blunt tell-him-straight-up suggestion.

They burst into the interrogation room, ready to restrain Cub. The door clattered against the wall, but Cub didn't release Fox. He did, however, stop shouting frantically at the agent at the sound. Cub's ankles were hooked on the chair, and he was resting on his spread knees and hands, which were holding Fox down in a near-choke hold. Yet the grasp was only on the older man's collar, not his throat.

Not yet on his throat, anyway.

Then Cub glanced over at them. His face was stricken with grief until he recognised them.

"Wolf?" he choked out painfully. He rolled off Fox and stood slowly.

Wolf didn't really want to fight the kid. He didn't want to make Cub the victim of a second crime. "Cub," he acknowledged quietly. "Please calm down."

The child agent before him went completely white. He opened his mouth to reply, then snapped it shut and looked at the floor. "Sorry, Ben," he murmured quietly.

Wolf was surprised. Very rarely did people calm down when instructed to do so.

Then Cub brushed past him toward the door. "Wait!" Fox called from the floor as he stood. Eagle seized Cub's arm, and Snake grabbed the other quickly and used his free hand to close the door to the interrogation room. Cub didn't resist. He stumbled for a moment, but then he stood stock still. "There's only one more question, Alex," he said soothingly. "With your new knowledge, can you tell us that you were raped?"

Cub didn't answer. After a pause, he twisted futilely, trying to escape Eagle and Snake's grip. The captors held tighter, and dragged him backwards toward his chair. They sat him down in it.

"Alex?" Fox asked quietly. The recipient did not answer. "Can you tell me what you're thinking, at least?"

Wolf felt some sort of pain when Cub spoke. Youthful voices should not be so heartbroken. "I- I want it back."

"What do you want back, Alex?"

"My-" the kid started. Then he stopped, as if he didn't know what he wanted. Wolf would not have been surprised. He seemed mentally unprepared for this scenario - scratch that, they all were. Though, admittedly, Fox was handling it well. "My ignorance."

"I'm sorry, but I can't erase your memory," Fox replied sincerely. Wolf realised suddenly that Fox was trying to keep the kid calm.

Cub looked up at Fox. He looked scared at his own question. "Am I still a virgin?"

"No," Fox answered softly.

Wolf looked between the two. Cub had a look of intense sorrowful contemplation, and Fox was waiting for another question.

"Does your virginity mean a lot to you?" Wolf asked gently to his own surprise.

Cub looked up at him, startled by the new voice. "Should it?"

That was a perplexing question. Should virginity matter? Wolf wasn't sure. Fox didn't look like he had an answer either.

"I don't know," Wolf said.

"Can I have it back?"

"No," Fox answered.

Cub looked like he was trying not to cry. His forehead was creased and his fists were clenched. Tendons were clearly visible in his neck, revealing his muscular tension.

Despite what Fox said, Wolf wasn't sure he agreed. Then Cub asked again. "Please?"

Before Fox got a chance to answer, Wolf interrupted, "I think it's a matter of opinion."

AN: Hey, just so y'all know, I did not experience "The Talk" while being restrained. Sure, it was (and still is) awkward, but no where near this fic's awkwardness. Or its dark situation. I'm just a normal person here. No one special.

If you wanna be special to me, though, drop a review to drop your anonymity!