Rex slowed to a jog as he came to the end of his tenth lap, hoping that Brawn would be too engrossed in his paperwork to notice anything different. Rex was heading straight for Roy, who he had run past seven times already. This time he was planning on stopping and talking to him to see if he was okay.
Glancing over at Brawn nervously, he dropped to his knees and gripped Roy's shoulders, shaking him gently.
"Roy, you okay?" he whispered. Roy's eyelids fluttered before opening and his eyes focused on his friend.
"Rex..." he mumbled.
"Yeah, it's me. What happened?" he asked urgently. Any second Brawn could look up and notice him.
Roy's eyebrows creased together in fear and he looked away from Rex, beginning to tremble.
"Kayli," Rex said, leaning closer slightly. "You can tell me!"
Kayli slowly shook her head, biting her lip and closing her eyes. She couldn't deal with this any more. She wanted to go home and forget any of this had happened. She wanted to forget about Liam again.
"Hey! Rance, get up."
Rex sighed and slowly stood, stepping away from Kayli while still keeping his eyes on her. She looked so frightened... but what of?
"Peters, stand up." Brawn demanded, walking over and putting his hands on his hips. Roy swallowed before pushing himself to stand, straightening his stance and opening his eyes to stare right back at Brawn.
"Sir-"
"Quiet, Rance." Brawn snapped.
Rex scowled and folded his arms, annoyed that he wasn't being allowed to speak.
"Peters, I want to know exactly what happened in there." Brawn said.
"I'm sorry, Sir," Roy said quietly. His face was pale and whether he realised it or not, he was swaying slightly. "I just-"
Roy swallowed again and his face scrunched up in disgust, his eyes closing.
"Roy?" Rex asked, stepping forward slightly and putting a hand on Roy's shoulder. Roy's body trembled again and suddenly he threw up.
On Rex.
Brawn stepped back, eyebrows raised.
"Ew!" Rex exclaimed, letting go of Roy's shoulder and stumbling back. Roy was mumbling apologies under his breath while keeping his eyes closed and still swaying.
"Rance, go get yourself cleaned up." Brawn instructed, taking control of the situation. "I want you to take Peters to the infirmary on your way."
"This is so gross!" Rex said, holding his nose as he reached over to Roy's arm to drag him out of the room.
As the two boys left slowly, Brawn couldn't help but chuckle. It was Rance's own fault for getting in the way.
Outside, Rex was trying to get Roy to the infirmary as fast as he could so that he could get out of the smelly clothes that had him feeling like he needed to throw up as well. Thankfully, they made it before he actually did.
"Please take him off me!" Rex said as soon as they walked through the doors. Quickly, some medical staff moved forward to take Roy and led him over to a bed to lie down.
Not waiting around any longer, Rex ran off. He needed to get it off him before he really did throw up as well. That would not be good. Not at all.
Spending almost an entire day in the infirmary when you're not even sick is incredibly boring, and Roy was glad to get out of there in time for his last class of the day. He'd finally managed to calm himself down and no longer wanted to turn and run every time he thought of Wutai or Liam.
Hopefully no one would ask questions.
The last class of the day was a new one, so Roy had to look around a bit before finding the room, but it was clear which room it was once he saw the other grunts hanging around outside the door. Making his way over, he joined Davis and the others silently, hoping they wouldn't say anything to him.
"Roy! Are you okay?" Davis asked immediately.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Roy nodded and spoke quietly.
"I can't believe you threw up on me." Rex said in disgust. He'd already explained what had happened to the others so they didn't look shocked when he said this now.
"I'm sorry." Roy mumbled.
"Don't say sorry! It's not your fault you were sick." Cloud spoke up, narrowing his eyebrows at Rex. "No one gets a choice of whether they get sick or not."
"Well, what if someone knew they were gonna get sick if they ran out and stayed in the rain for a while, but did it anyway? Wouldn't that be their choice?" Rex asked, putting his hands on his hips. Cloud glared at him and then turned away.
"You know what I mean." he muttered.
Davis was watching Roy carefully, not believing that it was simply 'feeling sick' which had caused him to back out of the mission. If you were feeling sick, wouldn't you just say so?
Thankfully they were let into the room then and Roy didn't have to answer any more questions. Surprisingly, it was another SOLDIER who was taking this class, but Roy hadn't met him before.
"Everybody sit down quickly and settle down," the SOLDIER instructed firmly. "My name is Kunsel, but before I explain any more I want to show you something."
All the grunts sat down quickly, keeping their mouths closed as they were thoroughly interested already. Kunsel moved to an overheard projector and pressed something on it before turning off the lights in the room. A picture of a soldier camp was now up on the front wall, showing some of the soldiers standing around.
"Study this picture closely," Kunsel instructed quietly, as if speaking loudly would interrupt their concentration. "And then I'm going to ask you a question about it."
Roy frowned as he looked at the picture, wondering what sort of questions could be asked about it and what the whole point of this was. He could see a man holding a large gun standing just outside a tent and there was a man with no weapons standing beside him, appearing to be talking to him. Two other men were seen slightly further away, holding smaller guns, and gazing out in a way which suggested they were on watch. There were a few other men dotted around here and there, but none that seemed to strike Roy as important.
"Now," Kunsel said loudly, walking to stand just beside the picture. "Any volunteers to tell me who is in charge in this picture?"
The room was silent. No one seemed particularly keen to voice their opinions.
"Maybe if I let you discuss with a partner? Come on, try and figure out amongst yourselves who is in charge in this picture. Think of it as a discussion. Feel free to talk out loud to everyone."
Kunsel folded his arms and waited, watching the dark faces of all the grunts who seemed cautious to speak up.
"Uh, is it the guy with the huge gun?"
Davis had found the courage to speak first.
"Who else agrees?" Kunsel asked.
"I do," another grunt spoke up.
"Yeah, I guess."
Kunsel nodded slowly as he gazed around at them, but then he shook his head and turned the light back on, turning off the projector.
"You're wrong. It's not the man with the big gun." he said. Flashing a huge grin not unlike Zack's, Kunsel put his hands on his hips. "So, this is the class where you'll be learning all about reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. By the end of the week, I want you all to be able to look at a picture similar to the one I just showed you and be able to tell me exactly who is in charge right away."
Rex raised his eyes in interested and leant forward slightly.
"If you ever have any questions during my lessons, you can ask as long as you're polite about it and don't interrupt people. Also, I'm trying to convince the higher-ups to let me take you out to the field so you can have some hands-on experience, because that definitely helps." Kunsel continued to grin. "First off, I want you to tell me some stuff. What do you think of Sephiroth?"
"He's weird." Davis coughed to cover up the words, smirking as he looked sideways at Roy, who rolled his eyes.
"Actually, I agree," Kunsel said seriously, looking over at Davis. "But what about him do you think is weird? Specify."
Davis shifted awkwardly in his seat, not knowing what to say. He thought Sephiroth was weird for helping Roy out, but he wasn't about to say that.
"He's so serious! All the time." Rex said.
"Why do you think that is?" Kunsel asked.
"I dunno." Rex shrugged and looked away.
Another grunt in the class then piped up, "Well he always acts like SOLDIER is everything to him and that's what inspires me to try harder. Because I wanna be a SOLDIER so I feel like I have to do the same."
"So you think he's serious because he's doing something he loves doing?" Kunsel asked, pulling up a chair and sitting on it so that he was more comfortable for their talk.
"Didn't he grow up here?" Davis asked cautiously. "Because if he did, then SOLDIER is all he knows. He'd hate to stuff it up since there's nothing else out there for him."
Kunsel shifted uncomfortably but nodded, wondering how he would be able to steer the conversation in the direction he wanted without making it seem like he was hiding something from them. "Are you all afraid of Sephiroth?"
Mumbles 'yes's reached Kunsel's ears and everyone seemed to lower their heads, but Roy just shifted down in his seat slightly and stared at his desk.
"Why are you afraid of him? No need to be shy."
"He's Sephiroth!" Cloud said, as if that answer was good enough. Everyone laughed and Kunsel nodded his head enthusiastically.
"You're absolutely right! But what is it about being 'Sephiroth' that strikes fear into people?" he asked.
"Well it's because he's so serious!" Rex shrugged, grinning. "Other than that... he just has so much authority. It's like, if you do anything wrong around him he could get you kicked out of ShinRa."
"Does everyone agree with that?" Kunsel asked, and everyone nodded their heads. "Alright, that's good. I'm very pleased with how quickly you reached that conclusion."
Kunsel paused to smile again and watched as everyone furrowed their eyebrows slightly in confusion. He loved making grunts confused.
"What conclusion? That he can kick us out?" Davis asked.
"That's part of it," Kunsel nodded. "But the main thing is that he has authority. Who do you know has more authority than him?"
"President Shinra!" Rex said in a 'duh' tone.
"Anyone else?" Kunsel asked curiously.
"Director Lazard." Davis said with a small shrug.
"So, Sephiroth's pretty high up there in terms of authority?" Kunsel asked them.
"He's the best SOLDIER, so of course he's high up!" Cloud said, sinking in his seat slightly after saying that because Kunsel looked at him.
"But does ability always mean someone's going to be at the top? I don't think President Shinra's ever done any fighting. What are your thoughts?" Kunsel asked.
"Of course it's the person with the most money who's at the top." Rex shrugged.
"Yeah, if you don't have money no one's going to listen to you because you can't bribe anyone." Davis said, then his eyes widened. "Not that I'm saying President Shinra uses bribery!"
Kunsel laughed. "I know what you're saying."
The other grunt who had spoken before spoke up again, "Money isn't everything though. Sephiroth isn't known for having money but everyone respects and fears him. So I think the two main things that get you a lot of authority are money and power."
"Nice!" Kunsel said, nodding at that grunt. "I'm glad you picked up on that."
The rest of the lesson was spent with Kunsel asking them still more questions about various people in ShinRa and making them voice aloud their opinions of who had more authority and why. By the time they were let out, they couldn't stop thinking about the subject.
"I can't wait 'til we have another lesson with him!" Rex exclaimed as they walked back to their room. "Reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. Gosh, that sounds like fun!"
"Does anyone else feel like they just wasted an hour?" Davis asked with a joking laugh. "Come on, all we did was gossip about the higher-ups. Kunsel probably uses the lessons for his own personal gain."
"Hey! He was getting our minds working so that we'd be more open to things he tells us later, I reckon!" Rex defended.
"You sure? He sounded like he only cared about knowing what we thought of Sephiroth, President Shinra and all the others." Davis shook his head lightly and shot Roy a grin. "He didn't even talk about the picture he showed us at the beginning again. It was like he completely forgot about it."
"Give the guy a break! I say he's got an awesome teaching method and you should leave him alone." Rex snapped teasingly.
"Any day now you're gonna announce you wanna be a Turk and there'll be no hope left!" Davis laughed, stepping ahead of them to enter their room. Rex abruptly stopped walking and stared in horror, while Roy's eyes widened and he glanced back at Rex in worry. Cloud walked past them nervously and disappeared into the room.
Davis walked back out again.
"Rex?"
"Sorry, uh, thought I heard something." Rex said, attempting to cover up his shock and moving to walk past Davis. But his friend wasn't accepting that and grabbed his arm to push him back again.
"You want to be a Turk, don't you?" Davis asked.
"What? Why would I want to be a Turk?" Rex laughed nervously.
"That's what I want to find out. You were always talking about joining SOLDIER." Davis said quietly. "Look, if it's what you really want then that's fine, but why didn't you tell me?"
"I'm sorry! I just..." Rex shrugged and looked down at his feet.
"Some people are better at different things." Roy spoke up. "Rex, I think you'd make a great Turk."
Rex glanced over at Roy nervously and smiled thankfully, but it was obvious he still wasn't quite comfortable again yet.
"Yeah, uh," Davis shrugged. "You'll be great."
"You're not mad?" Rex asked, eyebrows furrowed.
"Nope." Davis grinned then and Rex let out a huge sigh of relief. "Come on, I can't get mad at you! You're my best friend! So what if we both don't become SOLDIERs? We'll both be part of ShinRa at least!"
"I agree!" Roy said. "And it's better to do something you're good at than something you're only doing because you wanted to once."
Davis and Rex nodded in agreement before pausing and looking over at Roy, eyebrows raised.
"What?" Roy asked, now the nervous one.
"You sure you still wanna be a SOLDIER?" Davis teased.
"Better question is, you sure you still wanna be a male SOLDIER?" Rex asked with a grin.
"Hey! I'm planning on revealing my gender once I become a SOLDIER! The whole point of this is to prove that girls can do it too!" Roy protested.
"Right, just remember that you don't have to do this just because you wanted to once." Rex snickered and Davis covered his mouth to stop from laughing.
Roy scowled. How dare they use his words against him?
But soon enough he was smiling as well and rolled his eyes in amusement.
"Come on, let's get inside before Cloud wonders whether we've died." Roy said, pushing his friends ahead of him into the room.
Cloud and Alec were both in there and Alec was doing squats.
"Hey!" Alec said as he stood up, before bending his knees. Standing straight again, he said, "Zack said," He went down. Then came up. "That doing squats," He went down. Then came up. "Is a great way," He went down. Then came up. "To train!"
Continuing to do squats now that he'd finished speaking, he grinned at them.
"Sweet!" Davis said, moving over and beginning to do squats as well even as Rex and Roy stared at them with wide eyes that questioned their friends' sanity.
"Uh, Cloud? Which side are you on?" Rex asked, not moving his eyes from Davis and Alec.
Roy was beginning to wonder how Gemma had managed to get away with none of the weird genes Alec had.
"Hey, don't bring me into this!" Cloud said, looking up from where he had been reading a book.
"Traitor!" Alec said as he came up. Then, in-between his squats, he said, "Cloud always does them early in the morning before any of you guys have woken up! And whenever you're out of the room he does them, too."
Roy laughed. "Cloud, you're a morning person?"
"Only sometimes." Cloud mumbled, going back to his book, but then saying, "Thanks a lot, Alec. I wanted to stay on the sidelines."
"Sorry Spiky!" Alec grinned.
"It's not possible to stay on the sidelines when at ShinRa," Roy said. "Besides, Sephiroth would probably shoot you for saying that."
"Oh yeah!" Alec said suddenly, stopping his squats and looking over at Roy. "I was wondering, did you wanna go check on Kayli together? I was gonna go see her again but thought I'd wait for you. I mean, you're the one related to her."
Roy blinked, confused.
"Oh, no," Rex said, shaking his head. "Roy's really busy. He said he was going to help me find something in... the ShinRa libraries! Remember? Come on, Roy."
"M-maybe later?" Roy squeaked out.
"Okay..." Alec said slowly, watching as Rex dragged Roy out of the room.
"Weird, aren't they?" Davis laughed.
"Incredibly." Alec sighed, going back to doing squats.
Cloud stared at the door Roy and Rex had left through, his eyebrows furrowed slightly in thought. He wasn't sure... but he had an idea as to why Roy always acted so strange.