Time seemed slower in the dreary, sterile waiting room outside the ShinRa 'doctors offices' – aka the labs. The bare little room was always just a bit too cold for comfort, especially since you were only allowed to wear those horrible paper robes to facilitate the upcoming examinations. Those things were itchy, rustled when you moved and were really walking a thin line to provide modesty for a grown man. Angeal fought the urge to pull the hem of his paper robe with pure will power; being taller and broader than most ShinRa employees, the robes were uncomfortably short on him. But pulling it would only rip it and *that* would do nothing to preserve any shred of dignity. He sighed and flipped once more through the year-old gossip magazine that had been provided as a time killer. Most of it was about ShinRa Soldiers, Turks or executives and most of it, Angeal knew, was dead wrong. 'Vice president Rufus latest show girl scandal' 'The Turks ditch Armani costumes in favor of D&G' 'Soldiers new 2:5 diet tips' ' Reeve Tuesti's cat nip addiction' all fake, all wrong and not one of them hitting even close to target. *If the gossip mongers had the faintest idea of what was really going on here….* Angeal knew for a fact that the Turks had planted the 'scandal' of Rufus and the show girls to cover up the boy's affiliations with an anti-ShinRa organization, the Turk suits were spcially manufactured to not show blood stains, Soldier metabolisms were infamous in the cafeteria and Reeve Tuesti…well, the magazine might be on to something there. It was an amusing thought and he chuckled quietly to himself.
The sound made the other man in the room jerk his head up like a nervous racing chocobo. He was younger than Angeal and smaller – the paper robe covered him almost to the knee – but obviously very much more nervous. He wasn't even trying to distract himself with magazines but had kept his head down and his eyes fixed on his hands since he got here as if trying to keep from biting his nails.
"Are you alright there?" Angeal asked, taking pity on the youngster.
"Y..yeah. I'm just nervous. It's my first checkup." He fiddled with the slim file in front of him; the handwritten text on it said Cloud Strife. "My first check up to see how I'm reacting to mako shots. Sir."
Angeal nodded. His own file was at least a foot thick and heavily stamped with red Classified marks. Being a First Class Soldier meant he had to go through this at least twice a month and he was still the First Classer who got away easiest. Genesis had to report to Hollander once a week since the incident in the training room and Sephiroth had to report to Hojo every evening when he wasn't away on missions. No wonder the Silver General had dragged out the Wutai war for as long as he possibly could.
"You're getting Hojo then. He always does the first check-ups himself."
The young man – Cloud – paled a little at that, but nodded affirmative. He cleared his throat repeatedly and a small blush crept up his cheeks.
"Sir….Could I ask about the checkup….there are rumors about, you know." He blushed more fiercely but pressed on, unable to meet Angeal's eyes. "A..a…a..probing. In the…you know." He waved at his back which was, due to the paper robe's fasteners (no more than useless little strips of papers you were supposed to tie together behind your own back – not even mako made you that agile. You'd need tentacles to pull that off.) open all along the spine and butt. Angeal, being more broad shouldered than most, had given up on it all together and just let it hang on his front. Genesis, being who he was, had given up on it all together and went to his checkups stark naked. The gossip press would have had a field day if they knew.
Angeal made a face. Someone really should put the Turks to finding out who spread all these rumors amongst troopers and cadets. Then again, it probably was the Turks who spread them in the first place. It was just the sort of thing they thought was funny as Hell. No honor at all.
"As far as I can recall, the basic checkups are pure standard. Height, weight, sight and hearing, levels of mako radiation, a few blood tests and a urinal sample." He could understand the fear though. The thought of having Hojo's bony cold fingers anywhere around your private parts were nightmare inducing. "You'll be in and out of there in less than half an hour unless something is off."
Cloud looked better, some of the colour returning to his face. But then he caught sight of Angeal's huge file and frowned.
"And what about you, sir?"
Angeal glanced at his medical file, wishing for the umph-teenth time that he could just let it fry to a crisp in a Fire materia related 'accident'. But that would have been dishonorable. Inside it laid all the secrets of his body and powers, secrets he didn't understand in didn't much want to know about. All he wanted to know, all that was important, was how to use that power to help. To be a hero.
Angeal closed his eyes. His own checkups included tissue samples, teeth samples, bone marrow samples, cold and heat resistance, pain endurance, extensive psychological evaluations and those were just the once that were not classified. He shuddered to think of the rest of them. It was difficult to feel pity for someone who had to pee in a cup while Hojo looked on while you yourself would have a piece of your retina cut out for study without anesthesia by a fat man who would do anything, anything at all to his test subjects to try to push them to Sephiroth and Hojo's levels. Of course none of it would be visible for long. Mako and Jenova cells made sure the body recovered in every way, going so far as to regrow teeth and bone. The mind on the other hand was subject to human frailty. *If the gossip magazines knew….about the human experiments, the alien cellular implants, the cloning, the effects of mako….*
"Sir?" A hand grabbed his shoulder, warm and firm through the paper robe. "Are you alright?"
He looked up into Cloud's concerned young face.
"Yes. My apologize for scaring you. Testing days are…difficult for First Classers. And they take all day." The grip on his shoulder felt nice, anchoring him to the real world.
"How do you get through them?" Cloud asked quietly. This close Angeal could see the spark in his eyes, a teeny tiny mako spark, glimmering like hope. Like hell fire, if the youngster ever made it to First Class.
"I try to focus on something positive. Hold on to something to look forward to." Angeal knew his own eyes burned with the same mako glow a hundred times stronger, but Cloud didn't look away.
"Like what?"
Angeal smiled. You needed strength to become a First Class Soldier, and intelligence and skill and endurance and a hundred other traits. But most of all you needed courage, to face enemies and professors and yourself.
"Like perhaps an upcoming date tonight?"
Cloud startled again, but then he smiled.
"I'd like that." He started to say something else, but was interrupted by a hoarse old voice.
"Cadet Strife? In here, if you please."
Cloud spun and paled once more in view of the greasy smile on professor Hojo watching them. Angeal felt himself freeze as the other door was opened and Hollander came out, throwing hateful glances at Hojo who ignored them. He felt Cloud's hand tremble slightly on his shoulder and squeezed it back for courage.
"I'll pick you up at seven," he whispered and Cloud nodded, finding something to hold on to.
"Mr. Hewley we must start." Hollander bounced his clipboard impatiently against his leg and Angeal got up, sending a wink and a glance along at Cloud; the paper robe had slipped open in the back over his slim frame and Angeal couldn't help letting his eyes linger a bit. Then his eyes caught the headline of the old gossip magazine he'd been reading 'Angeal Hewley – what kind of woman could catch the ShinRa good boy?' He chuckled again. *If they only knew…*