Roy walked back into his room after eating breakfast. He fiddled with his uniform a bit and then reached for his suitcase, flipping it open and yanking out his toothbrush and toothpaste.
Although he had moved all his other belongings into either the closet or the cupboards, he kept his toiletries in his suitcase because the bathrooms were public and there was nowhere to keep his stuff there.
"I hate you." Davis mumbled, stumbling into the room and glaring at Roy.
"I know." Roy grinned.
Rex and Cloud walked in then, each going to their own bags to get their stuff. Davis grumbled to himself as he began getting ready for what he had to do that day, wishing he could wander around doing nothing like Roy would.
"What am I supposed to do?" Roy asked suddenly.
"Anything!" Rex suggested, grinning.
"Anything?" Roy frowned.
Rex shrugged and headed for the door, dragging Cloud with him. Davis glanced at them before hurriedly grabbing his toothbrush and following. With a sigh, Roy kicked his suitcase shut and walked out after them.
The infantrymen from this year and the ones from previous years were all making their way to the public bathrooms to do their teeth or just simply go.
Roy headed straight to a sink when he got in, quickly cleaning his teeth, rinsing, and getting out of there. He didn't even bother waiting for his friends in his rush to get back to his room.
"Roy Peters," He froze, listening intently to the voice on the intercom which had been installed throughout the building. It was useful to find someone no matter where they were. "Please report to the front desk immediately."
This is it. Say goodbye, Roy.
Hanging his head slightly, Roy began walking where he had been told to go. Davis poked his head out of the bathrooms in time to see him walk past and hissed something like 'serves you right'. Roy couldn't help but chuckle at that.
He'd miss his friends.
Upon arriving at the front desk, Roy's jaw dropped open and he promptly forgot how to use his limbs. He stared ahead at the person looking at him, refusing to believe it could be real.
Before he lost his entire mind and ended up screaming like a girl, he shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut, opening them again.
"Gemma!" he called out, grinning.
"Roy!" Gemma ran at him, flinging her arms around him in a hug. "You got in! I told you you would!"
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Visiting you! And believe me, you have no idea how hard it was to organise. But I did it!" Gemma hopped up and down a bit, then stopped and giggled. "Seen any cute guys?"
"You should probably ask me later..." Roy said nervously, glancing around.
"Oh, yeah! Sorry!" Gemma laughed.
"Anyway, you said you organised this earlier?" Roy asked. Gemma nodded cheekily and giggled, very pleased with herself. "So that's why I've got the day off!" Roy exclaimed, chuckling.
"So what do you want to do? Are you allowed to leave the building?" Gemma asked.
"Yeah, I think so." Roy shrugged. "But hang on, I'll just go grab some stuff." Gemma nodded and sat down on a chair to wait.
With a huge grin, Roy went back to his room to grab his stuff. It just so happened that at that moment Davis was complaining to Rex and Cloud about what he had to do that day.
"…an elevator! I mean, don't they pay people to come in and do that stuff? Roy! What did they want you for?" As soon as Davis saw him he'd changed the topic and walked over to him.
"Oh, one of my old friends came to see me." Roy shrugged, trying to brush it off. "What were you saying about an elevator?" His plan worked and Davis threw his hands up in exasperation.
"I have to fix an elevator! Have you ever done that before? Have you? I didn't think so!" Davis grumbled some other words under his breath and went back to getting the things he needed.
"Well, I'll see you guys later. Have fun." Roy said, having picked up what he needed and heading for the door again.
"Wait, what's your friends name?" Davis asked.
"Uh, Gemma." Roy said cautiously.
"Oh my gosh you've got a girlfriend!" Rex exclaimed. "No way! Can we meet her? I've got ten minutes before I've gotta go anywhere."
"Heck, yes! Same! I'm coming!" Davis said, his eyes lighting up for a change.
"Can I come?" Cloud asked awkwardly.
"Dude, we wouldn't let you not!" Rex laughed, dragging him over to the door. Roy sighed but grinned, shaking his head at his friends antics.
"Just so you know, she's not my girlfriend. She's just a close friend." Roy said.
"So she's single?" Davis asked excitedly as they walked.
"Um. Yeah." Roy muttered, trying not to burst out laughing.
"D'ya like her?" Rex probed.
"Not like that." Roy shook his head.
"Score! Dibs if she's hot!" Rex roared, laughing and shoving Davis to the side. Davis shoved him back and Roy considered running off and leaving them by themselves.
When they reached the front desk, Gemma stood up and her eyes widened in shock. She hadn't been expecting Roy to bring his friends.
"Mine." Rex growled to Davis under his breath.
"Hey, Gemma? These are my friends. Davis, Rex and Cloud." Roy introduced them. "Guys, this is Gemma."
"Pretty name for a pretty girl." Rex said, reaching out a hand. Gemma giggled and shook it, then shaking Davis and Cloud's hands also.
"Well guys, you'd better get back to your jobs." Roy then said, stepping beside Gemma and turning back to face them.
"You rat bag! Stop rubbing it in!" Davis snapped.
"Just wait 'til it's your turn." Roy chuckled in reply. Davis laughed and grinned at that, nodding.
"You bet. When it's my turn you'll never hear the end of it." Davis said. "See you later, then."
"Bye, Gemma." Rex said, winking. Cloud hung back slightly, waiting for Davis and Rex to get away a bit before looking up at Roy.
"When are you gonna get back?" he asked nervously, glancing at Gemma.
"Uh, not sure. Probably this afternoon." Roy looked over at Gemma to confirm and then turned back to Cloud, grinning. "You'll survive without me." He reached over and ruffled the spiky blonde hair and laughed when Cloud ducked away slightly, going red.
"Bye." Cloud said, looking at Gemma once more before following after Rex and Davis quickly.
"Oh my gosh they're all so cute!" Gemma exclaimed once they were out of ear shot. Roy laughed and grabbed her hand, leading her outside into the sunlight.
"Come on, I have got to find a bathroom." Roy said, already searching with his eyes.
"Couldn't you use one in there?" Gemma asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Not if you want to talk to Kayli." Roy said, walking off to the left. Gemma muttered 'oh' and quickly followed.
"How are you going to get into the girls bathroom for starters?" Gemma asked. Roy stopped walking and turned back to her, his eyes narrowed.
"I didn't think of that." he admitted.
"Well it's a good thing you've got me!" Gemma laughed. "C'mon, I don't mind hanging out with Roy for a day."
"You sure?" Roy asked, frowning in concern.
"Relax, I'm positive!" Gemma laughed. Roy grinned and rolled his eyes and the two of them walked off to find something to do.
That afternoon Roy walked back into his room to find it empty. He glanced at his watch and figured everyone else must still be finishing up with their last tasks of the day, so he sat on his bed and pulled out a mirror to quickly re-check his appearance before anyone else arrived.
Satisfied that he still looked good, he put his mirror away and had a look at his schedule for tomorrow. In the morning he would be helping a SOLDIER move some office supplies from its current residence in the back of a truck to various office's through the ShinRa building.
Wait, what?
Roy read back over the description of his task for the morning of the next day and almost fainted. He was going to be helping a SOLDIER.
He was going to be helping a SOLDIER.
The door to the room opened and Davis walked in, heading straight to his bed and flopping down in exhaustion. He let out a strangled sound that might have been a groan, and Roy came out of his shock to look over.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Fine." Davis waved a floppy hand in Roy's direction, not even looking to make sure he got it right. "Tired from a full day, that's all."
"Oh. What stuff did you do?" Roy questioned, wondering if infantrymen often helped out other SOLDIERs and him being chosen to work with one the next day was nothing special.
"Fixed an elevator. Polished guns." Davis groaned loudly and pushed himself to a sitting position. "You have no idea how hard it is to fix an elevator. They had someone there to show me the ropes and stuff, but I kept stuffing it up and the dude got real angry."
"Serious? They make us fix elevators?" Roy asked, eyebrows raised.
"Yeah. So that took half the day and then I had to polish all those guns we saw yesterday. And guess who was supervising me? Our instructor! I swear he wants to get me kicked out. He was yelling at me the entire time telling me I was doing it wrong. And then he started asking me questions about what type of guns they were and got even angrier when I was getting them all right!" Davis sighed and leant his head in one hand.
"So that's all you did today? What have you got tomorrow?" Roy stood up and went back over to his bag to shove his schedule in.
"Uh, can't remember." Davis shrugged. "But how was your day off? Any fun?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." Roy grinned. "We hung out at the shops pretty much all day. Gemma loves that kind of stuff."
"You sure you two ain't dating?" Davis asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Positive." Roy chuckled. "What about you? Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Nah." Davis shook his head. "Haven't gotten that lucky yet."
Rex and Cloud walked in then, and Rex was at Roy's side in an instant. His eyes had a mischievous glint to them and Roy backed up slightly, frowning in confusion.
"Did you talk about me?" Rex asked.
"What?" Roy's frown deepened.
"To Gemma! Did you talk about me?" Rex repeated his question.
"Oh," Roy rolled his eyes with a grin. "No." Rex's jaw dropped open and he feigned a hurt expression.
"How could you!?" he exclaimed melodramatically.
"Sorry." Roy grinned.
"As if." Rex snapped teasingly. "Be sure to tell her all about me next time though, okay?" Roy laughed but nodded, agreeing. Rex then walked back over to Cloud and ruffled his hair, gaining the same response that everyone got when they did that.
"What did you guys do today?" Roy asked.
"Oh yeah! That's what I was going to tell you." Rex said, spinning back around to look at both Roy and Davis. "We moved furniture!"
Davis looked over at Roy and Roy looked over at Davis. They both burst out laughing at the same time.
"What?" Davis spluttered. "You moved furniture? You've got to be pulling my leg, here!"
"I'm not joking! Cloud and I were paired together to move furniture. But not just any furniture, mind you. We moved the President's furniture." Rex grinned smugly and put his hands on his hips, looking proud of himself.
"You moved the President's furniture?" Roy asked.
"Yes."
"That's boring." Roy turned away to hide a smile and Rex made stuttering noises.
"You're just jealous!" Rex snapped, but also couldn't keep the humour from his own voice. Cloud sat down on his bed and let out a sigh, stretching.
"It wasn't actually that interesting." he muttered.
"Traitor!" Rex yelled, covering his face with one hand and turning away. Cloud chuckled and rolled his eyes. Roy and Davis exchanged another look, both with one eyebrow raised. They then shook their heads slowly, as if disappointed in Rex.
"Stop doing that!" Rex snapped.
"What?" Davis and Roy asked at the same time.
"That! You look at each other at the same time, raise the same eyebrows, shake your heads at exactly the same time and even speak at the same time saying the same thing!" Rex explained, throwing his hands up.
"That's interesting." Roy said.
"That's very interesting." Davis agreed, smirking. Roy grinned and sat down on his bed, beginning to pull his shoes off.
"It is pretty freaky." Cloud said quietly.
"You'll get over it." Davis laughed, pulling out his schedule to look at what he had the next day. "No way!"
"What? What have you got?" Roy asked, shoving his shoes aside and coming to stand next to him. Davis jabbed a finger at his schedule and made squeaking noises as if he couldn't get the actual words out.
"Dude, say it! Stop acting like a fish." Rex said. Davis closed his mouth and glared over at Rex before turning back to his schedule again.
"It says I'm gonna be cleaning those stupid guns again! That can't be right! I already cleaned them today." Davis groaned.
"Maybe they're being used tonight?" Roy suggested, shrugging.
"That's so stupid." Davis growled. "And then we've got the guns class right after that, which sucks. Then we've got our first lesson in... in... in swimming!? They're making us take swimming lessons?"
"Gosh, Davis. You're acting like it's the end of the world or something." Roy laughed, shoving him in the shoulder.
"Swimming, Roy! Swimming!" Davis said, turning to face him properly. "I've never learnt how to swim before! I'll look like a fool!"
As he was talking, something in Roy's face changed. Roy stared at him, eyes slowly widening and mouth falling open in shock.
"Swimming..." he mumbled.
"Roy? Do you get me now?" Davis asked.
"No way!" Roy dashed over to his bag, pulling his schedule out to double check. And there it was, written neatly after his task for the morning. Swimming.
"Dude, you guys are going psycho for no reason." Rex commented. Roy straightened up, his schedule still in one hand.
"Did you guys bring swimming gear?" he asked slowly.
"I didn't!" Davis shouted, obviously wanting to be heard loud and clear.
"I did, just in case we'd have to or something." Rex shrugged. Roy turned to Cloud and the blonde boy shrank back slightly at the look of desperation on his face.
"I... I didn't." Cloud mumbled.
"Me neither! What are we gonna do?" Roy looked as if he was going to die if a solution wasn't found, and Davis slowly forget his problem with not being able to swim. Was Roy seriously this upset because he didn't have board shorts?
"Don't you have some old shorts you can wear?" Rex asked.
"No!" Roy snapped. "Of course I don't!"
"Then you can borrow some of mi-"
"No! Stop! Let me think!" Roy sat down on the edge of his bed and put his head in his hands, gently rocking back and forth as he tried to think. The other three boys stayed silent, waiting for what was going to happen next.
Roy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He brought his head out of his hands and looked up at Davis. He seemed more confident now and less like the entire world was falling apart around him.
"I have a fear of water." Roy said.
"Oh. Why didn't you say that before?" Rex asked.
"Yeah!" Davis agreed, nodding. "And hey, this way we can both look stupid! You because you're terrified of water and me because I don't know how to swim!"
"Don't you get it? I have a fear of water! I can't go in water!" Roy said angrily, trying to make them understand.
"Why can't you go in?" Davis asked, frowning.
"Because it freaks me out!" Roy growled. "Isn't there anything you're terrified of? That you would never do no matter what?"
"There's nothing I wouldn't do to be a SOLDIER." Davis said.
Roy and Davis stared at each other, Roy glaring angrily and Davis trying to be understanding. Roy stood up from his bed again and folded his arms, not breaking the eye contact.
"Fine. I guess people like you will just never be able to understand." Roy said bluntly.
"Roy, come on-"
"Whatever! I don't care! End of subject." Roy turned and busied himself with rummaging through his bag. Davis sighed and sat down on his bed, shoving his schedule away and then looking over at Rex to shrug helplessly.
The clock struck one o'clock and Roy rolled out of bed silently, being stealthy so he wouldn't wake up anyone else. He slipped on a pair of shoes, grabbing some from his bag and snuck out of his room.
Breathing slowly to keep himself calm, Roy finally made his way to the door marked 'STAIRS' and quietly slipped inside, walking up them. He didn't know what he would do if he encountered someone else on the stairs as well, but he just hoped everyone else would use the elevator now that it was fixed.
Roy walked for a long time before finally reaching a door that said 'EXIT' instead of one of the floor numbers. He turned the handle and stepped out onto a small balcony, closing the door behind him.
"Come on, Gem..." he muttered, flipping open his phone and typing in her number. It was quite a few rings before she answered.
"Er.. Kayli?" Gemma asked groggily. She had obviously been sleeping.
"Gemma I need your help. I've got a swimming class!" Roy hissed.
There was silence from the other end for a moment and Roy tried to be patient as he waited for her to say something. He then heard Gemma sigh and turn on a light.
"Sounds like you're in a bit of a fix." Gemma said.
"Yeah. I've told my friends I've got a fear of water but I don't know if that's enough to get out of it. If it's not, what do I do?" Roy asked, glancing back at the door to make sure no one was about to walk through.
"Fear of water. Um, hopefully that will work. If it doesn't I have no idea, sorry." Gemma said sadly.
"Great." Roy muttered.
"I'm sorry." Gemma repeated.
"I know, I know. I just... I can't let a stupid little thing like a swimming lesson stand between me and SOLDIER." Roy explained.
"I know." Gemma said. "For now just put all your effort into the fear-of-water plan and see if it works."
"Okay." Roy sighed and nodded although Gemma couldn't see. "I should be getting back then."
"Yeah, and try not to ever call me at one-thirty ever again." Gemma growled jokingly.
"Ha, okay." Roy grinned. "See you later then."
They both hung up and Roy gently eased the door open again, heading back down the stairs the way he'd come. Please let them believe I have a fear of water and not force me to try and overcome it.