A/N: Hey! Thanks for clicking into my first FFVII fanfiction. I've never written a fanfic for this fandom before, but I have seen fanfictions here before that have original characters and I see that they're quite popular among some. Maybe this is because so many people want to be of Gaia?

So here I am anyhow - This story centres around Claudia J. Freeman, who is a delivery girl in the Shinra Electric Power Company. It goes through the events of Final Fantasy VII from Claudia's point of view, as well as Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus too.

Note: This story is strictly no-pairings between Claudia and the FFVII characters.

This story is also a writing practice on my part and I construct most of the chapters as I write them, so you'll probably see my style getting stronger along the way.

06.09.07 Edit: Ugh. Just realised a plot err. Tatty-Red-Cloak-Man should still be in his coffin, there's no way he could be in Midgar. ... Oh well. :/

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII. :(


Chapter 1: Oh! For a Cup of Tea


Hello. My name is Claudia J. Freeman and I am 17 years old. I have brown hair and brown eyes, am a little under average height (and weight) and I work as a Delivery Girl in the Shinra Electric Power Company.

Hm. Well that was boring. Well, I don't know if there's all too much to say about me. I was born on March 7, and I'm half Wutai. My father - Ken'ichi Morita - is Wutai, and my mother - Terese Freeman, who died when I was ten, and whose surname I have, came from Midgar.

Don't get me wrong. My father and I are very close, and my parents were together until the very end. I don't know why I have my mother's surname, but I guess that's just one of the things that are.

I'll try not to bore you, but it's hard, when you're just telling bald facts. Forgive me?
Well, I lived in Wutai until about maybe about a month or so after I turned 17, and then I decided that I wanted to go and live in Midgar, and get a job. I didn't take a lot when I left Wutai - just the usual necessities, clothes, money, phone. I left everything at home with my father - Poor lonely father. I still write him often though.

Father quoted things a lot. One of my favourite quotes of his was a line from one of my favourite songs that was mostly in Wutai, but partly in English.
"Oh, manukena lonely man!" ("Oh, a foolish lonely man!"). The way my father used to sing the song it in his low, melancholy tenor voice was wonderful.

I can a bit of a dizzy daydream sometimes, I suppose. Don't really think about what I'm doing and wander around while I'm up with the fairies somewhere. But I do my job well - I'm quick, and I make sure that the delivery is, well, delivered safely to the person (or their secretary), instead of dashing off to make the next job.

Mostly I try and take the stairs, but sometimes if I'm really tired I take the elevator. Once, on the third day, I was stuck in the elevator when it broke down. It was going to be down for a while, and so I decided to open the ceiling hatch, and climb up the elevator shaft. Yes, I know that's probably one of the stupidest things you've ever heard, and it was only the third day! But if I waited, I'd be sure to have many many more jobs, and an involuntary overtime.

So, with the package hanging from my teeth, I climbed up, out of the elevator and started climbing up. It was only when I got halfway to my destination that I realised that I wouldn't be able to open the doors. I was not a happy chappy. I had to climb all the way back down that damn ladder and back into the elevator.
Thankfully, and somewhat annoyingly, they were okay to move again about a minute after I got in, and I was free to move. Since then, I've redeveloped a kind of acute claustrophobia from since when I was a child. Stairs are now my friends.

I'd been to Midgar a few times before, and I remember initially being shocked at the vast difference that there was between them. There were buildings everywhere, everything seemed so tall and strong - and the fact that shocked me most of all was that there were barely any flowers.

I'd been to Nibelheim, once, before it became ashes. It was nice - If it hadn't been burnt to the ground then I could've gone and lived there.

That's one of the things on my list of regrets on leaving Wutai. 'Number one - There are no flowers here'.
A couple of days after I arrived in Midgar, I found a small apartment in a nice Sector. Sure, the air conditioning was broke, but it was enough for me. About a week later, I got my job at the Shinra Company.

It's actually quite fun, being a Delivery Girl. Well, I can't say it's fun with 70 floors to the top, and occasionally having the elevators break down. Yes, how ironic. My point is though, even though I barely speak a word while performing my regular duties, I get to learn about many people in the company, mostly by observation. That's the fun part.

I observe well, and I also use deduction. I can think quickly, and learn quickly, so I learnt quite a lot about people in just three days. Mainly because there were many, many, many packages to deliver to lots of different people.

I might not know their names, but that's what nametags are for, right? For instance - see that man there with the brown eyes and the short blond hair? I don't know his name, but I know that he works in the Department of Space Exploration and that he has a smoking problem. Also, he wears odd socks and hardly ever gets his paperwork done on time. I know because when I delivered something to Mr. Palmer, he was complaining about how the boy with the odd socks wasn't on time, again.

Sometimes when I'm on my rounds, I see the Turks. We may work in the same company, albeit for different reasons, but I'm still somewhat scared of them. You would too, if you knew that they could kill you in a split second if they wanted to. They're probably very nice, and the ones that have talked to me are (although when they do start talking, it leaves me catatonic), but I'm still scared of them.

And here's a little secret for you - I might not agree with his ideals, but I have... a crush, I guess you could say, on Vice President Shinra. There, I said it. Don't tell him I did. But he's very good looking, you have to admit.
I'll probably never pluck up the courage to say it to his face, but who would? It's more like a... 'celebrity' crush, if you will.

It's been a further week since I got my job - four days since I decided to climb up an elevator shaft. So I'll recap those four days for you, and then we can move on.


I woke up at six-thirty. I think it might have been a Wednesday, or a Thursday. One of them. I work six days a week, Monday through to Saturday. The hours are actually really long - from about seven to five, but I don't have anyone that I come home to, so I guess that's okay. I live about a fifteen-minute walk away from the Shinra Electric Power Company, but I walk pretty fast. It doesn't take me too long to get ready in the mornings, and I never leave the house without breakfast (even if it's just something simple).

Anyway, I got up, got dressed and ready, then had time to have breakfast before I grabbed my satchel (very handy for holding deliveries) and left. I had a Not-So-Average day that day. Almost like when you feel slightly feverish but you're actually fine.

First as I was walking to work, I thought I saw a man in a tattered red cloak. Keyword - thought. Right after that I blinked and he was gone. So I assume that it must've been my imagination... or even a fragment of memory. (I'm sure I've seen that shade of Crimson somewhere before). But anyway - what caught my eye about my imaginary Man-In-A-Tattered-Red-Cloak was the colour - a lot of people in Midgar don't wear bright colours like reds and that. Another thing on my list of regrets on leaving Wutai. 'Number two - Not enough colour here!'.

Then secondly, I was walking around with my head in the clouds so that I almost walked right past the main entrance. I'm still not quite sure how that happened. I may have been immersed in my own thoughts.

Well, anyway. I walked in, trying to shake myself out of my reverie, and gave Melissa a good morning. Melissa Constantine is about four years older than me, and she's the receptionist of the main lobby. She's the one who takes the packages, then gives them to me. In a way, she's almost like my boss. (She loves baking, by the way.)

"Morning, you," she said good-humouredly, handing me two packages. "This one's for Jayden Murray in Weapons Development, and this one's for Christian Fallon in Urban Development."

I inspected the pink sticky-notes stuck on the tops of the packages.

"Mm… 26 and... is that a 47?"

"Yep."

"Lovely," I sighed. I'm not too fond of going to the higher offices in the mornings. Anything above 35 is a bit much for my morning self. Once I get past seven-thirty though, I'm all set for the day.

Melissa winked at me and gave me a thumbs-up.

"Go get them, Tiger."

I gave smiled weakly in return. Happy days.

To wake myself up, I decided to take the stairs. Even to the forty-seventh floor. Melissa doesn't half think I'm crazy when I do that. So, here I am, clomping noisily up the metal steps loud enough to wake the dead at about a seven o'clock in the morning. To all the people that were there and that heard me, I am so sorry if you heard my clamouring.

Anyway, here's another Not-Normal-For-Me thing or two that happened to me.

The packages were safely stored in my satchel, which was bouncing on my hip as I stamped my way on up the non-main stairs. Now these stairs were the kind of metal stairs that had the tiny little edge sticking out over the vertical axis. And I can't believe this happened (well, okay. Maybe I can.) But as I was starting on the second set of stairs to the nineteenth floor, the tip of my shoe caught on the edge of the seventh step and I tripped over. Clang!

Well, maybe it's not so abnormal after all. People trip upstairs, right?

I didn't hurt myself badly - I mean, I got a bruise on my knee, but that's no obstacle. But out of sheer boredom, I rolled over onto my back (no easy feat when you're on the stairs) and just stared up at the... many many more stairs that stretched on up above me. The rule is generally to never think about how many stairs you have to climb, but once you think about that rule, your legs start to hurt. So I didn't. There were eight more steps up to the nineteenth floor.

I think I was lying there for about two minutes. Sometimes two minute isn't that long, but sometimes it is.

"'Ame no hi wa ureshii kedo No Thank You!'" I bellowed up at the stairs in Wutai. The walls took up my shout and echoed it, and I could hear it ricocheting all the way up the building. I couldn't help but listen to it and smile. Here's the Not-Normal-For-Me bit.

"Heh."

I tilted my head back at the voice, frowning slightly, before hurriedly scrambling to my feet and brushing off my skirt.

Crap!

It was a Turk! Inwardly, I was terrified, and usually I can hide it, but not this time. God was I embarrassed!

I could tell it was a Turk, even though he looked sloppy and unprofessional. It looked like he'd slept in his uniform. He had long messy red hair that had been tied back into a ponytail and goggles on his forehead.

Oh - I remember now. I'd seen him around before. I couldn't tell if he looks either a little older or a little younger than Melissa. Still can't. But he's at least three years older than me.

The first time I saw him was on the first day. He was smoking out front (which probably isn't a good first impression), but I haven't seen him smoking since. Which probably means he's quit, hopefully. Smoking is bad for you. Remember that.

This guy was somewhat dishevelled, uncouth, had a peculiar style of speech and wasn't what you'd expect from a normal Turk - but from what I'd heard, he was pretty lethal. I just stood there, petrified. I couldn't even say anything. Seeing most Turks or coming into a five-metre radius of one usually left me catatonic.

He was slouching against the area next to the door with his arms crossed. Evidentially, he'd just come out of the nineteenth floor. The worst part of it all was the fact that he'd heard me singing.

The Turk's grin widened.

"Scared?"

After a few seconds, I managed a weak nod. He threw back his head and laughed, that - like my song - echoed up the stairwell. Terrified as I was, I couldn't help but think it was a rather nice laugh. He pushed himself off the wall and walked down the stairs and stood two steps in front of me, arms still crossed. I stood frozen where I was, my mind suddenly blank of all thought again.

He'd leaned forwards with his hands now on his hips, reached out and tweaked me on the nose. I blinked a few times.

"I don't think I've ever seen a reaction like yours before." he said, and he was still grinning.

He started walking down the steps and I let out a short, quick breath. As he walked past me, he patted me somewhat fondly on the head.

"Don't be scared, yo." he said, and he winked.

"You have a nice day now!" he waved to me as he continued down the stairs.

Out of instinct, I let out a small "You do too, sir."

The red-haired Turk laughed again as he continued on down, passing the eighteenth floor and keeping on walking down.

"You can breathe now if you want to!" he shouted up.

It wasn't until he'd actually pointed it out that I realised that I'd been holding my breath. In fact, my chest was hurting from lack of oxygen. I took in a big, deep, gulping breaths of air.

"Thank y' kindly, sir," I'd said in the same, small voice as before. I'm not sure if he heard me, but I think I heard a snigger.

That was the first time I'd ever spoken to a Turk. I made a note to myself to try not to make it a big thing. I also mentally noted down that I was not to sing in the corridors and stairwells unless I was absolutely sure that no-one was there.

Checking my satchel and patting the delivery packages, I continued my way on up the stairs to the twenty-sixth floor.


A/N: So there's the first chapter done. What did you think?

The two lines of song that were used in this chapter were from 'Ame no hi wa No Thank You'. Oh, and a bit of trivia for you - The person who voices Roy Mustang is Ookawa Toru - the same person who voices Rufus Shinra in Japan. :)

'Til later!