"...and she built her own nuclear accelerator when she was four." Cidney sat back with a satisfied glance around the table. The others nodded approvingly. Luna – Game Adjudicator for this session – nodded and with a hint of a pained smile turned, at last, to her.
"Claudia? Let's... let's have it."
Impossible not to notice the various winces around the table. Somehow she never got the hang of this, never understood what distinguished her attempts from the others. Claudia licked her lips and sat up straighter. She could do this. "Okay." Leaning forward she moved her hands, the impression of grandeur and performance. "I will be playing an astro-navigator from the far off world of LV-427. I have green skin and tusks and-"
"-and your name?" Luna raised one eyebrow. Gentiana, Cidney and Iris stared at her.
"Her name is, ah-" Seemed so good when she had drawn up the character sheet. So right, so fitting. But now- The name was odd. Felt odd. Strange out of place amongst the fantastical notions the others had offered. John Smith – amazing. Carole Jones – spectacular. Bettie Matthews – fired the imagination. And here she was with: "-Garnet Til Alexandros."
Luna raised her other eyebrow. "That all?"
Why bother trying? "The seventeenth." Claudia scrambled for her dice and character sheets as Gentiana and Iris cackled.
"Claudia, come back." Luna sounded half-hearted.
"Yeah." Cidney called as she headed for the door. "But make sure you have a name that's not so dull!"
Claudia paused outside Luna's house. Not crying. Not this time. Fourteen was too old to let something like this make her cry.
What was it about names to give her so much trouble? Her characters for the roleplaying games always seemed to fit with expectations or be not too far removed from the same concepts others used. But people tended to get hung up on her names. Always strangely mundane.
Not as if this was new exactly. Her first cat's name? Yzma. Amazing, adorable, fluffy. Until a monster ate her. Inconsolable for almost a year. Mom bought her a lizard after – far less risk of a monster getting hold of it. And none had. Claudia named it Gizmaluke and doted on him. Time had taught her to not admit any pet names to her friends. Now her sci-fi names caused issues in Planets & Aliens too.
The too familiar prickle of tears. No. Claudia hurried on, unsure where to go- "Hey." A familiar voice, but not exactly wanted. Hubert lounged on top of the water tower, smoking cigarette dangling out of his mouth.
"Oh. Hi."
"You okay?" He exhaled a cloud of smoke, his height above her enough to spare her the unpleasantries.
"I'm fine." She carried on.
"Don't look fine." A scuffling behind her, an impact- Hubert was walking beside her. "Seriously, are you okay?"
Hubert; one of the lost causes of Nibelheim. Forever in trouble for all manner of things. Paid little attention to curfew, with a different girl every other day. Generally assumed to be shoplifting. Smoked. Somehow this was a bigger issue than innumerable adults who smoked. For years people advised Claudia steer clear of the boy – and she had.
Hubert did not lack appeal; far from it. So handsome, and so easy to lose time staring into those blue eyes. But he was no good, rebellious and at current trajectory unlikely to escape a job at the mines. Good honest work, but not him. Not with his styled hair, his good looks. The kind of person who might make it in film or television. If he could make the effort to leave the town and head East. Not be content to let his parents support him while he skipped out on anything boring to him.
"I am." Claudia pushed stray thoughts away and swallowed her sorrow.
"Luna giving her stick about your names again?"
Heart-skip. "What?" She spluttered. "No." She had come to a halt not far from the town's main gate.
Hubert stepped past her, appraising the trail leading back down the mountain. He shrugged. "Sure? Because I hear them a lot." Hubert stared into her eyes. "I thought your names were good."
"You- What- I mean- What?" Claudia struggled.
"Your characters. No one I know plays P&A, but that lot seem to have fun. Kinda think you're meant to be having fun too. And would – if they didn't keep picking on your name. What's a name anyway?"
Claudia fought back a smile. "Not sure you get to say that. Not with yours."
A different smile from Hubert this time and he brushed back his hair. "Yeah. Yeah. My folks... They're not into P&A but they are big on space-lit. Bit embarrassing stuck with Hubert." Main character of the previous series of Space Trek.
"I-" What on the Planet was she doing? "-I like it." Her face prickled with heat.
"Why thank you. Yours is good too." He glanced around, missing the increased heat in her cheeks. "You got plans for the rest of the day?"
Sulking at home, writing some more of her space-fic, not typing up the ones she wanted to submit to the fanzine, feeding Gizmaluke and hoping reception was good enough to catch tonight's Space Trek- All important, but somehow- "Nothing particular."
"Cool." Another of Hubert's smiles. "I want to know more about your characters."
And he did. Hours and hours of patiently listening to her describe characters, plots, her difficulty naming people, places, devices and foods. The bad boy of Nibelheim was less abrasive than his reputation. Didn't smoke the entire time. She relaxed.
The next week she didn't bother going to Luna's for the next try at starting a new campaign. Instead she and Hubert clambered onto the water tower and watched the town move around them. They hiked a short way up the Mount Nibel trail, a short way down the path to the open wilds of the rest of the Planet. All absolutely scandalous. All gaining her notoriety and ostracization from the P&A group.
Claudia missed some of it. She could talk to Hubert about her ideas all she wanted, but it was different playing the game with others. And there was a lack of other potential players within the town. No one else with the patience and temperament to play. None of Hubert's associates ("Can't call them friends. Idiots to the last. But when you've got no one else-") were the type to take to the game either. A nuisance. And not as if she could play P&A with Hubert alone – if he managed to grasp dice rolls.
Other games were fine; a selection of board and card games. And kissing. Kissing was good too.
And oh, so scandalous the first time. Her parents naturally begged her to reconsider. Soon after it became increasingly plaintive and forced her to defend him. Hubert wasn't like they thought he was. He cared. The time they spent together was oh so amazing. Impossible to stop kissing Hubert. To spend more time with him. To go further.
Visiting the town's pharmacy was the kind of mortifying notion Claudia couldn't cope with. Hubert was flippantly uncaring. They could be careful. And somehow it all made sense. And it worked; a breath of relief each month for Claudia. And perhaps it might have been a better plan to make sure nothing unplanned could occur. Swallow fear, stare back at those who would judge her for buying contraceptives. Or maybe holding off until the doctor visited the town in three month's time.
But once they started, the experience was too good to put off. The wonderful warmth of skin on skin, lying within the circle of Hubert's arms, his lips on her neck, their bodies entwined. They were careful and nothing came of it.
Until it did.
Claudia's period was late. Took time to realise, a careful count on her fingers of when the last one came. A count of how many nights she spent with Hubert. And all the fears. She should find out. But if the thought of buying contraceptives was mortifying, buying a pregnancy test was worse- and would see the town find out this secret in minutes.
Hubert took the potential news astonishingly well. "I'm going to get a job."
"You're-"
"Unless you don't want it?" He nodded at her abdomen.
Claudia clasped her hands over her stomach. Did she want the child? Not something she had stopped to think about. Theoretically the doctor could help when he came. They were bound to confidentiality right? "I... I don't know."
Hubert smiled. "So. Might be a no. Could be a yes." He sighed. "I'll sign up for the mine work. Start earning. Get us a place. Get you a ring."
The ground almost swayed from under Claudia's feet. "Are you-"
"Yeah." Serious Hubert, his eyes staring into hers. "I'm asking if you'll marry me."
Marriage. One of those little ideas she had entertained for so long with Hubert. No expectation a proposal could come so soon. No expectation she could be in her current situation. "But what if I don't want the baby?"
Hubert shrugged. "I still want to be with you."
A struggle to breathe. "Then, yes!"
No decision on the baby needed yet. A month until the doctor arrived and she would need to choose.
Of course the marriage idea was absurd. Mom and Dad upset but at least supportive. None of her former friends wanted anything more to do with her.
Hubert started working in the mines; long hours deep below ground. He came out coated with sweat and dirt, exhausted. It paid well enough. A house for them both; they moved in to the small but spacious home.
Her first home. Able to sleep beside Hubert all night; he curled around her and kept her warm in the night until he left in the early hours of the morning for his shift.
A slight delay in the wedding; carving the materia ring took time and each day in the mine took almost everything Hubert had. Not anything like Claudia had intended for her life. But this was- Hubert made her happy. And the thought of a child; unexpectedly pleasing. At some point they would need to consider names.
Everything was happy. The doctor came and went. Confirmed she was pregnant. And Claudia told him she was keeping the baby. Life was perfect.
Until it all went wrong.
Until the bad news rocked the town. Until the rescue efforts stopped. Until there was no one to curl around Claudia in the night. No one but her and Gizmaluke in the house. No friends. Sympathies from the neighbours. Distant sympathy from her parents who begged her to come with them when they moved away from the town. No. Her house – her home was here.
Further afield there was the distant sympathy around her of those glad it was not them. So tragic to lose her future husband. The revelation she was pregnant did not help as mental calculations confirmed she must have been with Hubert long before the proposal.
Rinoa Lockhart – her neighbour – was at least sympathetic, or more so than her husband. Friendly and not long off giving birth either. She had enough medical skill to help Claudia in the absence of the doctor. Knew enough to be her midwife. Enough to come and visit her regularly. And somewhere in all the sorrow, all the complications – swollen ankles, bigger boobs, back aches, the inability to lie or sit comfortably, strange food cravings – the thought of the child's name escaped her.
Until he was there. Until Rinoa passed him, screaming and new into her arms. "What did you want to call him?"
So many possibilities. A dramatic name like his father? No; the child would not be Hubert. Would never know his father. There would be far too many expectations of him based on his father already. Something else. Something more down to earth. Something like Squall or Zidane or Tidus. None of them suited. "I-" She smiled at the thought. "I almost want to do the junior thing?"
"Junior?" Rinoa quirked an eyebrow. " You mean Hu-"
"No." Claudia shook her head. "He can have my name."
Rinoa frowned. "But you'd need to change it. Something like Claudy? No. So you're Claudia, and he's-"
"Cloud." She cut Rinoa off. "His name is Cloud." The baby in her arms stirred at his name. "Hi Cloud. You'll go on to do great things..."