A/N: I am soooooo sorry about the delay! I had really bad writers block for a while there! Anyway, at least there's a new chapter now for you all to enjoy :) And I hope you do enjoy it, even though most of it is a flashback. The following chapters after this should hopefully be a bit more interesting... lol!

Anyway, I decided to write this because quite a few people wanted to know how it all began. How what began? You'll know. Trust me, when you read this, you'll know. =]

The trees rustled in the gentle breeze and Kayli shifted her grip on her sword slightly, her eyes darting around nervously. Davis was squatting beside her in the cover of the overgrown bushes and had his gun clenched tightly in his hands, his expression one of total concentration.

They were out on their first proper mission as 3rd Class SOLDIERs and couldn't afford to mess up. Sure, they were only dealing with a couple of monsters, but these were the kinds of monsters that only SOLDIERs were allowed to fight and as such new SOLDIERs neither Kayli nor Davis had ever faced anything like it.

A slight crunch of dead leaves sounded in the distance and Kayli bit her lip, fixing her eyes on the approximate position where she thought the noise had come from. Any second the monster would be close enough to see.

Kayli tried to keep her breathing quiet as they waited, her eyes never leaving the spot where she had heard the sound of the monster moving around.

There! She could make out the dark shape which told of a monster hiding amongst the trees but didn't need to tell Davis – he had seen it too. He began standing up slowly, raising his gun to aim at the beast and then wait for the right moment to shoot. Kayli was about to hiss at Davis to get back down when there was a loud grunt and the monster came leaping out from its hiding place, racing towards them.

Davis fired a shot which slammed into the beasts shoulder before reaching down to grab Kayli, pulling her up onto her feet and spinning her around, shoving her.

"Get out of here!" he yelled, shooting again at the monster which was still running at them, ignoring the wound it had already obtained. Kayli stumbled over her feet and clenched her teeth together, trying not to get too angry at Davis for wanting her out of the way. He was just worried about her, she knew, but this was her mission as well!

Hearing Davis' heavy breathing behind her, she risked a glance back.

The monster was almost upon them. Davis was firing bullets into it as quickly as he could as he tried to run backwards at the same time and Kayli knew he couldn't succeed on his own. So, ignoring Davis' yells of protest as he saw what she was doing, she spun around with her sword held out in front of her, crying out and lunging at the monster.

"Kayli, be careful!" Davis called out fearfully. As Kayli plunged her sword into the monsters flesh and ducked its sharp claws, she rolled her eyes. Why on earth would she want to be careful? Thanks Davis, she never would have been able to think of that on her own.

A few very tense minutes later Kayli stood back from the crumpled form of the monster. Davis had pitched in to help by shooting it again and again from close range as Kayli stabbed whatever she could reach and together they had finally defeated it.

"Good work," Rames, a 1st Class SOLDIER who had been assigned to oversee their mission along with 2nd Class Nareau, spoke as he walked over to them. Nareau wasn't far behind him and Kayli and Davis turned to face their superiors.

Kayli smiled faintly, glad that Rames was pleased. Hopefully he wouldn't-

"You okay, Peters? That was a dangerous thing you did there. You should have let Taison handle it," Rames continued, putting his hands on his hips casually. "Be a bit more careful next time, alright?"

Ever since her gender had been revealed Kayli had been receiving special treatment. She wasn't just 'one of the boys' any more as squad leaders gave her preferences for missions and constantly asked if she was okay while performing tasks. She was sick of it. She was here in Roy's place and didn't want to be treated any differently to anyone else.

"With all due respect, Sir," Kayli said, her eyes dark with annoyance. "There was no way we were going to succeed if I didn't act when I did."

"It was good thinking and it worked," Rames agreed. "Just be sure to never do anything you're not positive you can handle, yeah?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kayli asked with a frown.

"Nothing," Rames said awkwardly, confused as to why Kayli seemed to be getting defensive.

Kayli didn't say anything else then and Rames glanced back at Nareau, shrugging helplessly. Announcing that they were to head back then, Rames walked off.

"Are you okay?" Davis asked quietly as they began following Rames at a distance.

"Yeah," Kayli sighed, folding her arms. She wasn't entirely happy with Davis at the moment either, as he seemed to be doing exactly the same thing as everyone else.

"Really," Davis probed. "What's on your mind?"

"I'm just sick of being treated like a girl," Kayli groaned. "It's not like I'm going to break if I get hit too hard! I can handle anything you can."

"Well yeah, of course," Davis said thoughtfully. "But you are a girl."

"Excuse me?" Kayli asked. "What are you trying to say?"

"Just that, well, did you honestly not expect this?" Davis queried. "I mean, with everyone finding out you're a girl they were bound to start treating you like one. And I think it's kind of good, in a way."

"How exactly is it good?" Kayli snapped.

"Well you're a girl so you should be treated like one," Davis shrugged.

"But I'm a SOLDIER," Kayli pointed out. "Why can't I be treated like that?"

"You're a female SOLDIER..." Davis trailed off.

"Argh!" Kayli exclaimed, throwing her hands up and walking faster to get away from him. Rames was already in the truck they'd be travelling in to get back to ShinRa and Kayli quickly jumped in the back.

Davis was about to join her when Nareau stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"You can sit in the front," he said gently, his eyes staring into Davis' own and making it impossible to disagree with his suggestion. Davis glanced at Kayli and then slid into the passenger seat as Nareau climbed in the back.

The first half of the drive back was silent. Finally, Nareau decided to try and find out what was wrong and spoke to Kayli.

"You did a good job out there," he started. "You'll make a good 1st Class SOLDIER one day."

"Thanks," Kayli said softly.

"Do you mind if I ask what you and Taison were arguing about before?" Nareau asked carefully, not wanting to offend but knowing it was best to find out so that he could try and prevent future arguments which may affect their missions.

"Something stupid," Kayli sighed.

"So tell me," Nareau pushed.

Closing her eyes briefly, Kayli steeled herself. "I'm just sick of everyone treating me differently. I know I'm a girl but I'm also a SOLDIER and I just want to be treated like one. Who cares what gender I am?"

"I understand," Nareau nodded slowly.

"Heh, really?" Kayli mumbled. She reached a hand up to tuck some of her hair behind her ear and momentarily mused on how it had grown so quickly the past year. Now that her gender was revealed she hadn't felt the need to keep it so short any more and it had reached her shoulders again.

"However," Nareau continued. "I think it's partly your own responsibility not to let it get to you. If they treat you differently, ignore it. Now that you are a SOLDIER you can't spend time obsessing over how other people are treating you."

"Yeah, I know-"

"Seriously Kayli," Nareau interrupted her. "You're here to get to 1st Class, right?"

"Yeah," Kayli nodded, slightly confused as to why he had suddenly called her Kayli instead of Peters.

"So you shouldn't be worrying about anything else," Nareau said firmly. "Can you promise me you'll try to be more focused on that from now on?"

"I am focused on that," Kayli laughed. "It's all I think about!"

"Well," Nareau smiled slightly. "I'll see about having a word with some people then to try and get them to stop making you feel so girly."

Kayli shook her head in amusement but smiled a thank you at Nareau. They soon arrived at ShinRa then got out of the truck, walking in through the back doors of the building. They'd have to report to Lazard before going anywhere else.

On the way to the Director's office Davis and Kayli fell into step beside each other while Nareau and Rames walked slightly ahead of them. Davis kept glancing at Kayli every few steps and finally she turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"What?"

"Just wondering if you're okay," Davis shrugged.

"I'm fine," Kayli sighed. "I guess I just feel like it would be so much easier continuing as a SOLDIER if everyone thought I was a guy again."

"What? No! It's good that everyone knows you're a girl now!" Davis exclaimed. "Why would you want to go back to pretending all the time?"

"Well I wouldn't have to worry about being treated differently, for a start," Kayli shrugged.

"You honestly don't like being treated like a girl? Kayli... don't you think that maybe all your previous pretending to be Roy has gotten to your head a bit much? You have been seeing you counsellor, haven't-"

"Davis, shut up," Kayli snapped. "This has nothing to do with Roy."

"We both know that's not true," Davis said adamantly. "You wouldn't be acting like this if you hadn't pretended to be him in the first-"

"I wouldn't even be here if I hadn't done that!" Kayli yelled, ceasing walking to fully turn and face him, her eyes narrowed angrily. "What are you trying to say?"

"Nothing!" Davis exclaimed, rolling his eyes and running a hand through his hair. "Just chill out, alright? I didn't mean anything about it. I'm just worried about you."

"Yeah," Kayli scoffed. "Worried about me because you think I've lost my mind. I don't actually believe that I'm Roy, if that's why you're going nuts!"

"I know that, Kayli-"

"Wait a minute, are you just worried about people thinking you're gay? If I went back to pretending a guy you'd want to hide our relationship again wouldn't you? Come on Davis, I never said I was going to go back to doing that! It wouldn't work anyway, since everyone knows I'm a girl now."

"Kayli, why are you making this into such a big thing?" Davis asked with a shake of his head.

"Me? You're the one who can't seem to understand how I feel right now! I was just trying to explain but you kept being so... so stupid! And you know what? If you can't understand how I feel about this whole thing then this isn't worth it," Kayli folded her arms and looked down at the floor. She would give him one last chance to say something and make it up to her before making her final decision.

"What's not worth it? Kayli, seriously, what are you talking about?" Davis asked, thoroughly confused.

"That's it," Kayli threw her hands up and took a step back, shaking her head slowly. "If we're just gonna keep arguing then I don't want to do this any more."

"Do what?" Davis asked.

"Be your girlfriend," Kayli said quietly.

"What? Kayli, I don't-"

"You don't understand! I get it! Because you're too thick to realise what I'm feeling and what I'm trying to say!" Kayli yelled at him angrily. "Forget it, Davis. I can't go out with someone who won't even try to see things from my perspective."

"I am trying!" Davis retorted heatedly.

"Yeah? So you'll help me get people to treat me like a normal SOLDIER, then?" Kayli asked.

"What? You're still going on about that?" Davis asked.

Raising an eyebrow, Kayli turned and stormed away from him without a backwards glance. Davis ran after her and tried to get her to explain what was wrong but she remained silent until they reached Lazard's office.

After the debriefing, Kayli disappeared quickly and Davis was left to wonder what on earth he'd done to put her in such a bad mood. He didn't understand it at all.

Oh well. He'd try to get through to her again tomorrow.

Kayli knocked on the door of Naruea's shared apartment gently, a smile on her face as she waited in anticipation for him to come and answer. Since they both didn't have anything scheduled for the night they had planned to have dinner together and Nareau had invited her over to his small apartment as it was a lot better than the one she shared with other 3rd Classes. The quality of the apartment that SOLDIERs stayed in improved as the ranking went up.

Finally, the door opened.

"Oh, hey Kayli!" Kunsel greeted with a smile. "I'm just heading out, so don't mind me. You two have fun!"

With a coat over one arm, Kunsel brushed past her and walked down the corridor casually. He was Nareau's flat-mate.

Nareau had had the apartment to himself for a while after Camon's death, but when Zack was promoted to 1st Class he and Kunsel were shoved together to free up more rooms for up-and-coming future SOLDIERs.

Stepping inside and shutting the door behind her, Kayli smiled over at Nareau. He was setting two plates of food that looked a lot better than what was served in the cafeteria down on a small table positioned in front of the couch.

"You brought the movie?" Nareau asked. There was also a TV in the apartment, across from the couch, although it wasn't very good quality. It would do.

"Yeah," Kayli nodded, patting her bag before setting it down on the floor beside the couch. "Ready to eat?"

"You arrived at the perfect time," Nareau said with a nod and a grin.

Sitting down on the couch together and gently pulling the table closer towards them, they began to eat the food that Nareau had prepared for them. Kayli couldn't help feeling cheerful as she thought about the fact that she was on a date.

"There's something I need to tell you," Nareau said cautiously after a moment.

"Sure, what is it?" Kayli asked, looking over at him encouragingly.

"Well, the thing is," Nareau began and then decided to simply spit the rest out without beating around the bush. "I've been recommended for 1st Class."

Kayli was silent for a moment as the words sunk in. "Are you serious?" she then exclaimed. "That's amazing! Congratulations!"

Nareau smiled in thanks and Kayli giggled before reached a hand out to brush some of his white hair away from his face. She thought it was adorable how he now kept his hair up in a pony-tail, but his shorter layers always stuck out still.

"I'm so proud of you," Kayli sighed happily.

"You'll get there one day, you know," Nareau told her. "I'm sure you will."

"I hope so," Kayli grinned. "I'll just have to wait and see if I've really got what it takes to be a 1st Class SOLDIER."

"Just keep doing what you're doing," Nareau advised.

Kayli shook her head slightly, still smiling, and went back to eating her food. She felt incredibly lucky to have a boyfriend who could cook as it meant she didn't have to eat as much cafeteria food – which, honestly, wasn't that great.

When they'd both finished eating and Nareau had taken their plates over to the sink, Kayli got up to put the movie in. She'd brought a chick flick as Nareau had specifically stated he didn't care what they watched.

Turning the TV on and sitting back down on the couch, Kayli waited for Nareau to come back. When he did, he moved the small table out of the way as well and then sat down beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders casually so that she was able to lean against him.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Go ahead."

Smiling, Kayli pressed play and then put the controllers aside. The movie began.

It was a fair way through when the main character was going through a particularly stressful situation that Kayli sighed and said, "Isn't that terrible? What's she gonna do?"

When she heard no answer, Kayli turned her head to look at Nareau. He still had his arm around her shoulders but his head had fallen back against the couch and his eyes were closed. He was asleep.

Her eyebrows going up, Kayli murmured, "Awh!" before snuggling further against him and sighing contentedly. She didn't mind if he fell asleep during their movie – it was a chick flick after all – as she could use the opportunity to snuggle with him.

He wasn't a very snuggly person normally, so Kayli was not about to let this opportunity pass her by.

Besides, she was sure he wouldn't mind.