Roy was taking advantage of the situation while he could. After having a shower he had gone back to his room and pulled out his make-up, re-applying it quickly. Once that was done and he was satisfied with the face that stared back at him in his pocket-mirror, he pulled out his phone and called Gemma.

"Hello?"

"Gemma! I'm dead!"

"What!? Who found out? Where are you? I'll probably be about twenty minutes-"

"Gemma! Listen to me! General Sephiroth knows I wear make-up. I don't know if he knows I'm a girl though, because he didn't say anything about it or kick me out. I'm still in! But I'm treading on dangerous ground!" Roy explained.

"Wow," was all Gemma could think of to say.

"I pretended to be scared of water and all, even shaking uncontrollably and stuff, but then he was such a jerk and made me swim anyway! He told me he'd kick me out if I didn't get in the water! And then he laughed at me when I told him I had self-esteem issues!"

"That is so mean!" Gemma exclaimed.

"I know! And like, this was all before our actual lesson even started. So he made me leave when the lesson started and that's why I'm calling you. It's the only time I have really. After this they'll be back and I won't be able to talk to you any more. But what am I gonna do?"

"I have no idea." Gemma said honestly.

"Argh!" Roy sighed, and then his eyes widened as he heard lots of feet entering the corridor outside his room. "I've gotta go! Sorry. I'll write you a letter or something. Bye!"

"Bye, Roy!" Roy heard Gemma snicker and rolled his eyes as he hung up.

The door was flung open and Rex walked in first with a towel around his shoulders. Davis came in next and Cloud was at the back.

"You okay?" Rex asked, shooting Roy a slightly concerned look.

"Yeah." Roy nodded.

"What happened?" Davis asked, bending over and shaking the water out of his hair.

"Not much." Roy shrugged.

"Oh come on, give an interesting answer!" Rex laughed. "What happened when you got to the pool?"

"Well, he wanted to know what it was that scared me about water." Roy shrugged a second time. "Can we not talk about it?"

Davis exchanged a glance with Rex and then also shrugged, going to sit on his bed. "Suit yourself." he said.

"What did you guys do all lesson?" Roy asked curiously.

"Swam laps." Rex said, going over to rummage through his back for something. "He said if we hadn't done at least twenty by the end of the lesson we weren't good enough." Roy's eyes widened in shock and Rex laughed when he saw it. "It's okay, we all did it."

"Yeah, no big deal really."

Roy nodded absently as Rex continued to tell him funny stories about what happened. Davis joined in to add sound effects now and again. But Roy's mind was on Sephiroth. Did the General know? If he did, why hadn't he thrown him out?

"Roy? Are you even listening?"

"Mm hmm." Roy nodded again, staring at the ground with a slight frown on his face.

"Hey, what's up?" Davis asked. "You're out of it."

"Huh?" Roy looked up and suddenly noticed that all three of his room-mates were staring at him. "Oh, sorry..."

"Seriously, what happened at the pool?" Davis probed.

"It's not important." Roy shook his head.

"Come on, talk to us! We're your friends aren't we?" Davis gave a pout and Roy rolled his eyes, standing up.

"I'm gonna go for a walk." he said and headed for the door.

"Dodger!" Davis yelled suddenly and quite loudly. Roy stopped, turned back and raised an eyebrow.

"What?" he asked.

"Dodger! You're dodging the question!" Davis explained, giving a cheeky grin. Roy chuckled and rolled his eyes, giving in.

"Look, he basically forced me in the water with the threat that he'd kick me out if I didn't, okay?" Roy folded his arms and raised both eyebrows as he looked from Davis to Rex and then over to Cloud, who was sitting cross-legged on his bed and watching the scene before him as if he was at the movies.

"Serious?" Davis asked. "That's so cool!"

"Cool? Where the heck did your brain just go?" Rex snapped, glaring over at him. "Roy's gonna be scarred for life!"

"I didn't mean the whole getting forced into the water bit, I meant the fact that Sephiroth actually spent the time to talk to you personally about getting kicked out!" Davis said with a tone of voice that said 'duh'.

"Oh yeah, makes me feel so special." Roy said sarcastically.

"How many other people do you know that have had private swimming lessons with the General?" Davis asked.

"You're crazy. You know that?" Roy said with a small amused grin.

"Absolutely." Davis replied, smiling widely.

"Hey, we've got guns again tonight." Cloud commented suddenly. He was looking down at his schedule and his head was tilted to one side. "Do you think he'd actually...?" He trailed off and bit his lip nervously.

"Of course he won't actually shoot one of us." Roy said, walking over and sitting beside the blond. "At least, not if we're good."

"What if I do something wrong accidentally?" Cloud asked.

"You won't." said Roy encouragingly. Cloud gave a small smile of thanks.

"When are you seeing your friend again?" Rex piped up.

"Gemma?" Roy asked, standing up again.

"Yeah, her." Rex nodded. A dreamy smile had appeared on his face and he was staring off into the distance. "She's gorgeous, don't you think?"

"Um, this is my friend we're talking about." Roy said, stifling a laugh.

"Yeah but, just think about the way her golden hair swishes around in the breeze! And her blue eyes... when they glitter mischievously." Rex let out a sigh and promptly sat down on the floor right where he was standing.

"Weren't you talking just the other day about how gorgeous the secretary is?" Davis asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey! I'm allowed to like more than one girl!" Rex said defensively.

"I never said otherwise!" Davis laughed.

"Play-er." Roy sang under his breath, a teasing grin on his face as Rex shot him a glare. They were all interrupted as there was a sudden loud 'whack' against their door. Davis folded his arms and raised an eyebrow, looking over at the door as if it had just said a really lame joke that was not funny at all.

"Ow! Ow ow ow! Let go Angeal!"

"Is that Zack?" Cloud questioned from his bed.

"Probably." Roy shrugged as he bent over his bag and pulled out his schedule.

"I SURRENDER!"

"SHUT UP!"

Roy, Cloud and Rex all froze and slowly turned to stare at Davis. His arms flopped to his sides and a delighted grin broke out on his face.

"I just yelled at a SOLDIER!" he hissed in excitement.

With a slam, the door to their room swung open and Angeal stood there, his hands on his hips and a glare on his face. His eyes zeroed in on Davis and he walked over until he was towering above the boy.

"Oh, give him a break! You were being pretty loud." Zack said from the doorway. He grinned and winked at Davis.

"Apologise." Angeal ordered.

"I'm sorry." Davis obeyed.

"Good. Now follow me." Angeal turned and marched out of the room. With a quick backward glance, Davis walked after him.

"Ah! He's so screwed." Zack said in amusement as he watched them walk away. He then turned his attention to the three in the room and beamed. "What have you guys got this afternoon?"

"Guns." Roy supplied the answer.

"Oh that sucks. Do you know when you're starting with swords? 'Cause let me tell you! They're the real weapons!" Zack nodded in a knowing way, his eyes wide.

"Uh, not sure." Rex said.

"Too bad." Zack shrugged sheepishly and Rex shot Roy a glance. "You suckers will have to deal with what you've got." In the next moment, Zack was walking down the hallway with his hands behind his head, whistling very loudly and out of key.

Rex darted over to shut the door and once again began trying to figure out a lock. Roy sighed and looked down at his schedule which was still in his hand.

"We've got field practice tomorrow." he said aloud.

"What's that?" Cloud asked.

"Sounds like we'll be running." Rex's voice was slightly muffled as he was bent over the door handle.

"Well whatever they make us do, I hope it doesn't take long because the next task is at three." Roy told them.

"Three? You serious? That's awesome! We'll have like, half the day off!" He gave up on the door and walked over to his own bed, grabbing his own schedule to double check the information Roy had said.

"Yeah, seeing as running wouldn't possible take that much time." Roy grinned.

The following day Rex, Roy, Cloud and Davis all stood in the pouring rain out on the field with the others in their section. Davis had recounted his adventure the previous night to his room mates of how he had been forced to run on a treadmill for two hours straight. That was also the reason why he had turned up to guns late.

Swiping some of his hair out of his eyes, Rex glanced over at Davis. The two of them shared a look of dread before they turned back to face the front again.

Their instructor was someone they hadn't seen before; someone incredibly muscular. He had a mop of brown hair on his head and dark eyes.

"Alright! Listen up and listen good because I'm not going to repeat myself. Today you will be running all along the edge of this field until midday. Running. Not walking. Not skipping. Not doing cartwheels. Not crawling. Not sprinting because you won't be able to. If you do any one of the things I have just outlined I will keep you here until three o'clock and you will prove to me just how long you can run. AM I CLEAR!?"

"Sir, yes, Sir!" came the chant from all the boys.

"Good! Now get moving!"

The boys began moving forward, slowly merging into a tighter group. Roy was strangely thankful for all the mud that flew up from their feet as it splattered onto his face and hid his physical features even more than the blurring rain had done.

Five laps later, Rex was lagging at the back of the group with a couple other boys who looked like they were going to pass out any minute. The instructor was standing in the middle of the field, not taking his eyes off the group as they made their journey together. He had a haughty but impressed look on his face as he observed them.

Roy was at about the middle of the group, with Davis running at his side. They spared a moment to glance at each other and the same thought seemed to pass between them. How on earth is Cloud at the front?

Ten more laps later one of the boys at the back slowed to a walk, coughing and spluttering as he did so. He put a hand on his chest and collapsed to his knees, squeezing his eyes shut as his coughs used up the reserves of his energy.

Turning around, Rex jogged back over to him and dropped beside the boy. He had seen the instructor heading over and although he himself felt too weak to continue, he pulled on the boys arm and together they managed to stand up. The instructor had stopped walking and was now simply observing again. He seemed to find something about their situation amusing.

Rex and the boy he had helped struggled to begin jogging again. They were trembling all over and completely covered in mud. What's the time? Isn't it midday yet? Rex thought helplessly.

"Here! Jump on!"

Rex looked up to see Cloud in front of them, gesturing at the boy and then to his back. The boy gave another loud cough before weakly shaking his head.

"He'll... he'll keep me until..." the boy broke off as he coughed again and Cloud looked around impatiently.

"Just get on my back! He never said you couldn't do that!" Cloud snapped. The boy glanced over at the instructor through the rain again before stepping forward and climbing onto Cloud's back. Rex stared in disbelief as the scrawny, small blond kid that he had assumed was weak took off running again easily.

Roy and Davis had wondered what Cloud was doing when he did an abrupt U-turn and ran back through the group, but now that they saw him running past with a person on his back they came to the conclusion that they had been right in their first thoughts anyway. Cloud was insane.

How he managed to keep running like that without looking like he was out of breath or tired in the least was beyond their understanding. Roy was just beginning to wonder if Cloud had illegally taken mako when his foot slipped out from beneath him and he landed face first in the mud.

"Get up you slacker!" came Davis' faraway voice as he continued running. Roy was sure if he just lifted his head he would see a huge grin on his friends face, but for some reason he felt he couldn't do that.

I can't lift my head.

Roy brought his hands up closer to his head and tried pushing off the ground. With an almighty 'squelch' his face came out of the mud and he began spitting it out of his mouth. Once he was sure he'd gotten all the mud out of his mouth, he suddenly began to laugh.

Due to the amount of energy he had already used up while running, laughing just about finished him off. He rolled over onto his back and closed his eyes as he laughed up at the sky. He wasn't sure what he found funny, but he had a feeling that it had something to do with the fact that he had just face-planted.

And then he was being wrenched up by a firm hand and was staring into his instructors angry face. Pressing his lips together to try and hold his laughs in, Roy felt as if he was going to explode.

"What were you doing on the ground?" his instructor demanded.

Roy did his best. He truly did his best to stop from laughing in his instructors face. The thing which set him off, however, was the sight of the rest of his entire section hiding in the area behind his instructor all trying to recover while they were not being watched like a hawk.

Which is how he ended up saving them all from doing any more laps as his instructor dragged him inside the building to talk to General Sephiroth about a lack of respect.

"Thank you, you are dismissed."

Roy's instructor saluted and then marched out of the room. Roy suddenly became fascinated with the mud covering his shoes and refused to look up into the face of Sephiroth. The General, although slightly annoyed at being disturbed, was rather amused. He eyed Roy silently and patiently, fully prepared to wait a long time for the boy to begin to speak.

The silence in the room lasted for ten minutes before Roy's curiosity made him look up. Sephiroth's piercing stare seemed to pin him the instant their eyes connected and Roy felt his blood go cold. It was as if the prolonged wait was one of Sephiroth's techniques and it was working well. Roy felt a bit of mud slide down his cheek and gulped.

"I'm sorry, Sir," he spoke up. "It won't happen again."

The corner of Sephiroth's mouth twitched and then he let out a sigh. Clasping his hands together behind his back, he walked over to the single window in the room which was being lashed by the rain.

"I would like you to tell me, in your own words, exactly what happened during your training lesson." Sephiroth said quietly. Roy frowned slightly and, because Sephiroth was not watching, wiped as much mud off his face as he could. Then he proceeded to tell the General what had happened during the lesson, including when Cloud had gone back for the boy who wasn't strong enough and who's name Roy did not know. All the while he spoke, he tried to get the mud out of his hair and clothes.

Sephiroth turned back to him from the window and nodded to show he had heard.

"You may go."

Confused, yet not wanting to hang around for the General to change his mind, Roy saluted and walked out. He jumped in fright as he was met by a man in a long white coat, glasses and with a ponytail down his back.

"Sephiroth! You forgot to come for your check up!" the man pushed past Roy just as Roy covered his ears in horror. That voice! It was horrible!

Darting through the ShinRa halls, he finally found his way back to the shared showers and was thankful that they were empty. Everyone else must have showered while he was with Sephiroth, unless they were all still outside.

Once he had showered and gone back to his room, Roy heard the muffled voices which indicated that everyone else had been outside and were only coming back now. The voices were cut off as they went into the showers.

Pulling out his phone, Roy sent a quick text message to Gemma. Buy me a black wig that looks like my old long hair. I need to be me again!

It wasn't too long before people started emerging from the showers and Roy looked up when Rex entered the room. There was a boy beside him who was wearing glasses and Roy recognised him as the boy who Cloud had helped.

"Roy! You're alive! I thought he was gonna skin you alive!" Rex said when he saw him.

"Got lucky, I guess." Roy grinned.

"Oh, Roy this is Edvard. Edvard this is Roy." Rex introduced the two of them. Roy nodded a greeting and Edvard pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"Where is he? I'm gonna hug him so tight his guts will come out!"

Roy laughed as he heard Davis' voice and watched as Rex and Edvard were shoved out of the way for him to come through. Davis saw Roy and grinned widely, walking over and picking him up as he hugged him.

"You saved us all!" he exclaimed happily. "Oh and did you meet Eddie?"

"Yeah, I did." Roy said as Davis let go of him and turned to face Edvard. Roy was glad that no one was looking at him, as his face had turned bright red.

"Where's Cloud?" Davis asked.

"Last I saw of him he was complaining of sore leg muscles. Serves him right, I reckon. Showing off like that..." Rex muttered, but there was a teasing smile on his face.

"What's with him anyway? He's so tiny! And so timid and everything. I never expected him to be a good runner." Davis commented.

"Never in a million years!" Rex agreed.

"He's not that small..." Edvard said quietly.

"Oh right, forgot you were about the same size as him. Sorry." Davis said, trying hard to contain a chuckle.

"Davis, you're so mean!" Roy laughed.

"Ah, but that's the way you like me!" Davis allowed a chuckle to come out and then turned back to Edvard. "So, what kind of things are you interested in?"

Edvard shifted uncomfortably at being the centre of attention and then shrugged. "I've always found science fascinating I guess."

Davis let out a howl of laughter and only shut up when Roy hit him over the head. Even then he couldn't keep a smile off his face.

"Science!? You gotta be kidding! My idea of fascinating is mechanics." Rex said. Edvard shrugged again and stared down at the ground in embarrassment.

"Hey, don't let Davis get to you," Roy said to him. "He's just a big pushover, really."

"Oh yeah, like Sephiroth." Davis blabbed out, losing himself in another bout of laughter which no one else seemed to understand.