at some point i was considering Rail and Nikki getting together but theyre just great friends and also cousins/technically brother and sister.
okay, Nicole's great granddad, Heinrich, had a brother, who had a son, who had another son, who is Claudia's cousin. At some point that cousin (aka white boy extrordinaire) traveled to India, fell in love with a girl there, and promised her an literal eternal honeymoon. But then, she got pregnant with Rail!! And most young folks don't honeymoon with children. So as soon as Rail was three mr. cousin dumped him on the nearest relatives that probably wouldn't complain, that being Claudia and her mother, even tho Claudia was still a teenager with a child of her own.....
Rail's mom sends him a lot of letters so while he's only seen her a few times theyre pretty close. His dad likes to pretend he doesn't exist tho.

Nicole's dad also likes pretending she doesn't exist, but he sends her birthday presents every year. I never noticed that similarity between them, hah!!!

also.....in story, while Rail and Niki are doing all this inteedimensional travel, Claudia has no clue where they are! At some point theyre gone for a long while, and Claudia gets a call from Rail's mom asking why he hasn't been responding to her letters! At that point Claudia can't really keep the fact that theyre kinda missing a secret, ane Rail's mom ends up high tailing out of wherever her and her husband are to their home. A couple minutes after they arrive, Nikki and Rail teleport back there. And of course their parents (and by "parents" i mean Claudia and Mama Crossing) are a combination of angry and relieved!! but when they start quizzing 'em Nikki and Rail take off!! And Claudia races after them with Rail's parents right behind her! When they get into a certain part of the forest of palm trees on the island Claudia catches up to them and grabs Nicole's arm riiiight as her and Rail are teleporting, which takes her to Suneya's dimension with them!!

Rail's parents witness the whole things and theyre the emotional and vocal equivalent of "O-O" aaaand that's how the Earth parents start figuring out about their kids interdimensional travel.

oh no they're adorable >3<

did Claudia used to be called Claudette? because I found a picture of a Claudette in the #ruw tag but no Claudia...

Theyre are!!
also, Claudia was her name in 2012 and Claudette is her current name but I'll altetnate between names just 'cause I forget sometimes.....