Claudia stood behind the counter gazing at the guest speechless. His bright blond hair and ice blue eyes captured hers, his robust features were busting out of his clothes, and he carried a large backpack with a huge axe. Once he approached the front desk, all of his features became more accented distracting her even more. "Who is this young man?" she thought.
"Um... hello, are you open?" the young man inquired.
"Oh I'm sorry, y-yes"
"I need a room for the week, is that possible?"
"A week... I mean, yes..."
"Great, I'm with Shinra so they'll be paying for my room and board"
"Ok, just sign the log in book here and I'll get your key... it will be the last room down the hall on the second floor" she said turning to find the key for his room.
"This place is a backwater town, nothing to do at night huh?" the young man sighed.
"Afraid not... I grow tired of this place too" Claudia found the key and handed it to him.
"Hmph... thanks and have a good night" the young man winked and took his leave.
Claudia smiled but couldn't respond. She quickly shook herself and began straightening and cleaning the lobby preparing for the next morning. Then she prepared to lock up and return home, but first she would check the logs to see who this mysterious young man was. She opened the guest book and thumbed through the pages to the present day. The last name was "Glenn Lodbrok"
She has never heard of that surname before, but she burned it into her mind, locked up, and quickly returned home. When she returned home she could hear her father snoring with her mom sitting downstairs sitting in front of the fireplace drinking her late night sleepy tea.
"Can't sleep?"
"I forgot to have my tea, it helps me sleep" Claudia's mother sighed holding her tea cup adorned with flowers.
"Mom, how old were you when you met dad?" Claudia asked joining her mother by the fireplace.
"Aren't you spry tonight, what brought that question on?" her mother said raising an eyebrow.
"I don't know..." Claudia shrugged gazing at the fire.
"You met a boy this evening" her mother replied without missing a beat.
"No... that's not it... um... well yea" Claudia was always taken aback by how insightful her mother was.
"Sixteen years old, it was a cool summer night" she said taking off her yellow bonnet revealing her long fiery red hair tied in a bun. Claudia sat silently listening.
"Your dad was a hulking boy, he could do it all, farming, mining, brawler, and he was a tinkerer"
"Did you ever just and papa ever just want to leave, go somewhere else and start over?"
"The thought crossed my mind for a moment, but the following year everything changed. I became a cook, gardener, housekeeper, and then a mother..." she trailed off.
"Sounds like it was love at first sight"
"Not exactly, I played hard to get" she stops and chuckles.
"I see... well I guess I'm going to bed I have to be up at the Shinra manor tomorrow in the morning to help serve breakfast" Claudia rose from her chair.
"Don't be hasty, all in due time" her mother said as Claudia wandered to her room.
Claudia put on her nightgown and jumped into her bed looking out the window at the starry sky, soon she drifted off to sleep dreaming of finding someone and leaving. The next day came bright and early as Claudia was always very punctual. The people at the manor weren't too bad considering she worked in the kitchen with food prep. As she was helping bring a buffet styled breakfast in the dining area, she couldn't help to notice she did not see the young man who got a room the other night. There were a bunch of staff members and there was a crew of shinra grunts sitting at a table outside. She couldn't recognize any of them since they wore helmets.
Claudia looked around at the other guests who were arriving, but none of them was who she was hoping to see. She ran back inside to grab some trays from the kitchen with some of the other wait staff. The kitchen wasn't as big as a commercial area for preparing food for a manor this size was. It was only her and two other girls from the village that were serving the food. The chef and most of the cooks were from Midgar. Pancakes, sausage, eggs, bacon, and strawberry scones were being served with orange juice or coffee. The smell of the food made her mouth water.
"Hurry hurry please! I don't want any shinra complaints!" the chef prodded them.
"Claudia, you alright? Let's go!" one of the other serving girls prompted Claudia as she seemed to be zoning out.
"Sorry" Claudia took her tray of food following her neighbor's daughter who was only slightly older than her, but she was already with child. She was a bit more petite with golden flaxen hair with green eyes. Like Claudia, she too worked at the inn as a housekeeper and receptionist. She and Claudia had been friends growing up, but once she began going steady with one of the village boys, she seemed only to have time for him. Their relationship consisted of seeing each other at work or incidental shopping. Between her work, and helping her parents with house chores, the rest of the time went to her boyfriend whom she was now engaged to.
"If we keep doing a good job perhaps they'll give us a raise, or..."
"Or what Melanie?"
"I don't know... a better position?" Melanie said meekly as they arrived at the tables outside placing the food down in intervals where everyone could have access.
"Took you long enough" one of the grunts laughed as Melanie, Claudia and the other girl were placing the food up and down the table in a buffet style.
"Sorry..." Claudia said sincerely as she sat the tray of eggs and bacon down.
"If you're going to work for Shinra, you got to be faster than this" the grunt continued to chastise with a nasal sounding voice.
"You're cute, do you have a boyfriend?" another laughed at Melanie.
"I'm sorry... I'm spoken for" Melanie said showing her ring on her hand after she sat the pancakes and syrup tray down.
"How about you?" another grunt laughed looking at the third serving girl who was a brunette and like Melanie was petite but slightly bigger.
"I am too I'm afraid" the other girl said holding up her hand as she and Melanie quickly began to scurry away to get the rest of the food.
"Wait!" the nasal sounding grunt almost yelled. Claudia stopped nervously and looked back as she was about to return to the kitchen.
"You're not taken!"
"Um... I'm seeing... someone" Claudia responded almost dreamily.
"What country bumpkin could that be?" he laughed getting a couple chuckles out of some of his fellow grunts.
"That's not important, please let the young woman do her job!" another grunt tired of the charade finally spoke up as he took off his helmet preparing to eat. As Claudia looked back at her defender, it was none other than the bright blue eyed blond haired young man. Claudia blushed and quickly returned to the kitchen to go get the second tray of eggs and bacon. When Claudia returned, the soldiers were sitting up straight and had their helmets on saluting what seemed to be an important person. He was actually kind of dashing too, bright blond hair and blue eyes with a thin mustache, but couldn't have been much older. He wore a fancy dark red tuxedo and perfectly shining black dress shoes. He was escorted by a couple of young men in dark suits. One with pure black hair and the other a shorter dark brown well cut.
"Don't stare dear, that's the president!" Melanie whispered as she passed by motioning her to move along.
