Entering their room, Rex and Roy tried to act like nothing was different. Roy managed to put his make-up bag back under his bed without anyone asking what it was and breathed a sigh of relief as he sat on his bed.

"Are you guys okay, now?" Alec asked, glancing between Rex and Roy.

"Oh, yeah." Rex nodded.

"That's good, it would have been weird if there was still tension." Alec commented. Roy couldn't help but twitch nervously. Even as Kayli, he had never spent much time with Alec and it was weird to be doing so now.

Suddenly, his phone rang.

"Uh, um, hang on." Roy mumbled, grabbing his phone and then dashing out of the room like a bullet. How embarrassing. His phone hadn't rung at all since he'd been here, so who on earth could it be?

Well, duh. Gemma.

"What?" Kayli snapped.

"My brother left!" Gemma exclaimed. "He left a note for my parents saying that he wanted to get out and see the world. What if something bad's happened to him? I'm sorry, I know this doesn't really concern you but-"

"Um, actually, he's here at ShinRa." Kayli murmured.

"What!?" Gemma screamed.

"He joined ShinRa. He's even staying in my room, actually." Kayli explained with a shrug that her friend couldn't see.

"Oh my gosh. Does he know it's you?" Gemma asked.

"Funny story, see..." Kayli then proceeded to tell her friend all about what had happened including how they had first seen each other.

"Are you serious? I can't believe Sephiroth actually did as you asked! He sounds so nice but he's always portrayed as emotionless in the media." Gemma said.

"He's probably planning on killing me." Kayli sighed.

"That's a shame. It was nice knowing you, then." Gemma said sadly.

"What?" Kayli gasped in fake horror.

"Well, if it's Sephiroth he's not going to fail. Once he puts his mind to something... I shudder to think about what could happen." Gemma giggled.

"Sadly, that's true." Kayli joined in her friends amusement.

"But whoa, Alec is there? Do I tell-"

"Hang on," Kayli said, turning and heading back to her room. "Becoming Roy for a second."

"Oh, weird. Okay." Gemma snorted with a roll of her eyes.

Seeing as the people in her room knew that Gemma was Roy's friend, it wouldn't be weird if she announced who had called her. It would then be easier to talk to Alec about it.

Roy walked in and gestured to Alec.

"Gem? He's right here." Roy said. Alec's eyes widened.

"Hey! No, stop! I can't believe you told her I was here!" Alec said, stumbling backwards and waving his hands in front of himself frantically.

"Well, she just called saying she was really worried about what had happened to you and didn't even know if you were still alive, so what was I supposed to say? Here, you can talk to her for a minute." Roy shoved the phone at Alec, who hesitated before taking it and walking out of the room.

"Where's Cloud?" Rex asked randomly.

"Who knows? He ran off before when we were arguing." Roy said, moving over to his bed and sitting down.

"Are you gonna tell him?" Rex pressed, moving to sit next to him.

"Just because I've actually told someone by choice now doesn't mean I have to continue going around telling people." Roy said with narrowed eyes, folding his arms.

"I know, but he's our friend too and I think he deserves to know. I'd hate it if I found out I was the only one in our group who didn't know. Tell him today and it's not so bad, because I only just found out as well." Rex reasoned with a shrug and an innocent grin.

"Why do you want him to know?" Roy asked with a frown.

"I just want to see his face when he realises you're not actually gay."

"I'm sure it won't be too exciting. He'll probably just say something like, 'oh okay, that makes sense'." Roy said stubbornly.

"I highly doubt that, actually." Rex continued. "Let's go find him!"

"Can I please just have some time to get used to you knowing? It'll be too much if someone else finds out right away." Roy groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "Besides, I have to figure out what I'm going to do about Alec."

"What do you mean? Act normally." Rex shrugged.

"But he'll be expecting to still see Kayli sometimes, so how am I supposed to arrange that? And won't he start questioning things if he never sees Kayli and I together at one time?" Roy asked, looking up with his eyebrows drawn together in worry.

"Don't worry," Rex said calmly. "I'll help you out with that."

"That doesn't mean he won't ask questions." Roy said.

"Well, if you told Cloud I'm sure he'd help you too! But since you don't want to tell him, you're stuck with only me. Oh, and Sephiroth." Rex shrugged.

"Give it a rest, Rex," Roy finally laughed. "I'm not telling Cloud and you can't either!"

With a loud sigh, Rex flopped back on the bed and said, "Fine."

Mr Taison was standing in the back of his shop, occasionally glancing up to see whether his brother was still doing a good job on the front desk. Mr Taison would have preferred to be up there with him, but seeing as the phone had rung he had to answer it.

"I don't know what you're getting at," he said with a frown. "Davis is at home and now has nothing to do with ShinRa. He never will again."

"But Sir, please listen," the other voice said quickly. "When Davis was here he showed himself to possess amazing abilities and I'm positive he would make an excellent SOLDIER if you just allowed him to-"

"You want me to send my son back to you? Never! He has to stay here and help me with the shop." Mr Taison said angrily.

"Is he helping you right now?"

"What? No, he's at home getting some rest and recovering from what you made him do at ShinRa." Mr Taison spat.

"FROM WHAT WE MADE HIM-!?!?"

"Hello, Mr Taison? I'm sorry about my friend Zack, he gets a bit excited sometimes."

Mr Taison frowned as a new voice came on the phone.

"My name is Reno and I'm from the Turk department of ShinRa. I understand you don't want to send your son back here to try and become a SOLDIER, but we have reason to believe that he would be a useful asset to us. Don't get me wrong, you will not be left empty handed should you choose to send him back. In exchange you will receive... payment. I believe your shop could benefit from our considerable donation?"

Mr Taison stayed silent for a moment as the words of this man sunk into him and he realised just what was being offered. They were going to pay to have Davis go back to them? Why? What was so good about the boy that would make them pay a lot of money just so they could get him back?

Glancing up at the room around him, Mr Taison sighed and then closed his eyes. "How much exactly are we talking?"

Alec walked back into the room after a while and handed Roy his phone.

"Sorry about that," Alec said nervously. "I didn't actually tell them where I was going."

"Don't worry, I understand." Roy said with a sympathetic smile.

"So, why'd you leave?" Rex asked curiously.

"I just wanted to get out and do something for myself, I guess. It was really selfish, I know." Alec said softly. "At least my parents aren't worrying any more. Gemma told them where I was and thankfully they were cool with it. After giving a bit of a yell, of course."

Alec cracked a grin then and the awkwardness of the situation disappeared.

"Well I sure hope Davis manages to convince his dad ShinRa's good so he can come back." Rex groaned.

"Davis?" Alec asked.

"Yeah, he used to room with us but his dad found out he was here and came to take him home. This place seems so quiet without him around."

"I'm sure he'll get back here one way or another." Roy said with a smile.

"If he doesn't, we'll just have to use your powers of persuasion to get Sephiroth to give us a mission in my home town." Rex chuckled.

"Do you live in the same town as him?" Alec questioned.

"Yeah."

"Cool. So, what's this about Roy's powers of persuasion?" Alec turned to Roy with a grin and a raised eyebrow.

"He's being stupid. I don't have any powers of-"

"Sephiroth does pretty much anything Roy asks him to." Rex cut in with a smile.

"How come?" Alec asked with a frown.

"He does not. And this is the end of that conversation, thank you very much." Roy said angrily. There Rex went again with his stupid jokes about Roy's true identity. Rex loved the fact that he could joke about so much without giving anything away.

"Come on, I was just being silly." Rex said with a whine in his voice.

"Go be silly somewhere else." Roy snapped, moving to sit on his bed and pulling out the book about guns they had been given a while ago. It would be a good idea to try and at least learn something about guns before they were tested on them.

"Am I missing something?" Alec asked.

Rex snorted. "A brain?"

"Hey!"

Roy sighed in relief as the two began to banter between themselves, forgetting about Rex's previous jibe concerning Sephiroth. Roy really didn't need Alec wondering about the Sephiroth situation.

Just then, Cloud came back into the room, walking as if he was in a daze. Actually, he looked like he had just been scarred to tell the truth.

"Spike?" Roy asked before he could stop himself. Calling the blond by that nickname had finally rubbed off on him.

"Mm?" Cloud asked quietly.

"Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Oh, no," Cloud shook his head and the strange look dissipated. "I just... Zack found me."

"And you're alive?" Roy gasped sarcastically. Cloud laughed.

"It wasn't actually Zack that had me all freaked out. He just ran up and started asking me about how I was doing and asked me for my name because he forgot and was just calling me Spiky. But then Angeal, a 1st Class, came over and yelled at him for wasting time. So he ran back to a Turk he'd been talking to and who was on the phone."

"Wow. What happened then?" Roy asked.

"Angeal gave me the honour talk."

"Oh my gosh! Isn't it terrifying? I've gone through that too." Roy said enthusiastically, nodding his head.

"Yeah, it was really weird." Cloud agreed, then leant in closer. "So, who's the new guy?"

"Oh! C'mere." Roy grabbed Cloud's arm and dragged him over to Rex and Alec, who were still bantering.

"Nu-uh!" Rex said to Alec.

"Guys. Shush." Roy said loudly to grab their attention. "Alec, this is Cloud. Cloud, meet Alec. We're now all room-mates."

"Nice to meet you." Alec said, extending a hand to shake Cloud's.

"You too." Cloud said.

"Hey Roy, do you think I should call Davis to see if he's heard anything else from Zack yet?" Rex asked suddenly.

"Um, it's been like, ten minutes." Roy said with a frown.

"Half an hour!" Rex corrected.

"Whatever, look Rex, I don't think we'll get any more news until tomorrow at least." Roy said with a sigh.

"Fine, I was just asking." Rex said, holding his hands up in surrender.

"News on what?" Cloud asked curiously.

So Roy and Rex explained that Zack was apparently working on trying to get Davis back at ShinRa.

"Hey, that must be what was going on when Zack found me! Reno was talking about a lot of gil on the phone... do you think they're trying to bribe Davis' dad?" Cloud asked.

"I hope so!" Rex snapped. "It's probably the only thing that'll work."

Roy stayed silent, his eyes narrowed in thought slightly. He didn't understand why Sephiroth was helping him hide his identity, or why Sephiroth had decided to ask Zack to try and get Davis back. Usually no one at ShinRa cared if a grunt or two dropped out, or were even taken back by their parents.

So what was the difference with this situation?

"Are you alright?" Rex asked, a smirk on his lips as Roy came out of his thoughts.

"Uh, yeah." Roy nodded.

"Sure?" Rex teased.

"I think we need to talk."

And suddenly Roy was dragging Rex to the door and down the corridor before finally stopping and turning to stare at him. Rex actually looked frightened now and Roy chuckled.

"I just want you to stop with all the teasing, okay?" Roy said.

"As if! I can't do that, how will I be able to have fun?" Rex asked with a groan.

"Rex, you're going to make them ask more questions than necessary!" Roy protested in annoyance, but he could tell Rex wasn't going to let up.

"I don't see why you're so worried about this."

"Because if they start asking questions I'll probably end up having to tell them as well!" Roy snapped angrily. "At this rate, the whole of ShinRa is going to end up finding out and I'll be sent home by Lazard!"

"Roy, I didn't-"

"Ooh, are you two talking about a secret?"

Roy and Rex turned, startled, to see Jinx walking up with wide and excited eyes. He had a friend beside him, Jensen Bailey, who had midnight blue hair that was heavily layered on the top with a longer layer on the bottom, reaching to just below his shoulders.

"Of course not." Roy said.

"Really? I've heard a lot of things about you, Peters. Davis seemed to think you had a secret as well. But at that time Rance was asking to know... so did you tell him?" Jinx asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Roy began walking back to his room, hoping Rex would follow, but Jinx didn't seem very eager to give up so soon.

"If you don't tell me I'll ask Reno. He knows your secret." Jinx taunted.

"Go ahead and see if he'll tell you." Roy called over his shoulder, deciding not to think about the possibility that the Turk could disregard the orders from Sephiroth to keep it a secret.

"You sound confident that he won't tell." Jinx said.

"That's because there's nothing to tell." Roy sighed.

"Then why are we talking about this?" Jinx asked with a frown, putting his hands on his hips.

Roy looked over at Rex in exasperation, who snorted in amusement.

"Come on Jinx, leave them alone." Jensen spoke up, trying to get his friends attention again. The boy with blue hair had never spoken much to Roy, Davis, Rex or Cloud because his last name began with a B and the grunts were split into two main classes according to their last names.

"Yeah, fine. I'll find out Roy's secret eventually anyway."

Jinx lingered a moment longer before turning and walking with Jensen around a corner and out of sight, allowing Rex and Roy to enter their room peacefully again.

Alec was staring at Roy strangely when they walked in before quickly looking away and trying to pretend he hadn't been staring at all. He then glanced over at Cloud, who shrugged before glancing at Roy and then turning away.

Roy felt like a deer caught in headlights. What were the looks for? What was going on? Did Alec think Roy was a girl and had told Cloud of his thoughts?

"Is everything okay?" Roy finally asked, finding his voice.

"Yeah, absolutely." Alec said a bit too quickly.

"No, really, what's up?" Roy asked more firmly.

"Yeah guys, even I saw those looks!" Rex agreed, folding his arms and raising his eyebrows.

"It's nothing!" Alec said desperately. "Cloud just... filled me in on something I wasn't aware of."

"Which was?" Rex asked as Roy squeaked in horror.

Cloud knows!?

"Uh-" Alec floundered and swallowed a few times nervously, starting to wring his hands together. What was his problem?

"Spit it out or I'll be forced to torture it out of you." Rex cracked his fingers.

Thankfully no one believed him.

Unfortunately that meant Alec was no closer to telling.

"It's really not important." Cloud spoke up, trying to come to Alec's rescue. Well of course, he was in on it!

"If it's not important, why won't you just tell?" Roy asked angrily. He was confused, because he thought that if Alec believed he was actually a girl that he wouldn't have hidden it and would have acted differently. So if it wasn't that... what on earth could it be?

"Fine!" Alec groaned. "We just started talking about Davis because I wanted to know more about who he was, and Cloud warned me that he's your boyfriend. That's it. I'm sorry, I guess he just wanted me to know so I wasn't weirded out if he came back and... yeah."

Rex burst out laughing while Roy stared in horror at his best friends brother, who now believed him to be gay.

What a depressing situation.

"Cloud, may I have a word with you outside?" Roy hissed in an almost whisper.

"I was wondering when it would be my turn." Cloud mumbled jokingly, trying to hide a smile as he walked out of the room.

Roy clenched his hands into fists and then walked out as well, shutting the door firmly behind him and staring at Cloud.

"I'm sorry." Cloud said.

"What did I tell you?" Roy asked.

"Um, that you didn't know what I was talking about? Come on Roy, I'm not stupid. I know you two like each other." Cloud folded his arms stubbornly and Roy was momentarily annoyed that the blond had gotten so comfortable around him that he wasn't as intimidated any more.

"That doesn't give you the right to tell Alec lies." Roy said.

"So it is a lie?" Cloud asked. "You're not actually going out with Davis?"

Roy opened his mouth to speak and then stopped, glaring angrily at Cloud. He didn't want to lie... but would it really be lying? Roy wasn't going out with Davis, Kayli was. So it wouldn't be a lie, right?

"No, I'm not." Roy finally said.

"Okay. Then again, I'm sorry."

"Promise me you'll drop this?" Roy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I promise. I just feel like you hide so much from me all the time." Cloud murmured with a small shrug of his shoulders, making Roy feel guilty immediately.

What would the blond do when he found out Roy was actually Kayli?

And that Davis, Rex, Sephiroth, along with countless others, already knew?

Deciding not to think about that possibility, Roy nodded at Cloud and then walked back into their room.

Thankfully things became semi-normal after that and Roy was able to relax a bit. Flopping down on his bed, he rolled over to see where he had placed his phone down on his pillow. It slipped down the pillow and rested against his nose, allowing him to see the screen.

A vibration interrupted his peacefulness and he saw an envelope begin flashing on the screen to show he'd received a message. Sitting up, he grabbed the phone and clicked to open the message, reading it quickly before suddenly paling and drawing in a sharp breath.

Leaving for work now, but had to tell you. Just heard my parents talking. Dad saw Liam in Wutai on his last business trip.

Quickly deleting the message so that no one else would possibly find it, Roy swallowed and wrote a reply.

What was Liam doing in Wutai?

Roy waited nervously for a few moments, holding his phone tightly in his hand. Finally, another message flashed.

He's joined the rebel army.