You’d think Cliff Marlow’s full name would be Clifford or maybe even Clifton, but it’s actually Heathcliff. His sister’s name is Catherine. Their parents were English professors at an Ivy. He doesn’t like his full name, but he doesn’t mind Heath which is what he goes by.
School was never really little Heath’s thing, which was a constant disappointment to his parents. So he threw himself into the one thing he was genuinely good at: hockey. His family had plenty of money, so they paid for the camps, equipment, travel teams, and everything else he needed. But they never really cared about sports, so while they supported his hobby, they were never particularly interested in it… at least not until he made it to the NHL and started making millions, of course.
But Cliff grows up as this kind of the stereotypical neglected rich kid. His parents weren’t especially interested in actually raising him. They could provide money, but not much attention. He’s much closer to the nanny who raised him than either of his parents.
Eventually, he gets shipped off to a hockey boarding school full of other wealthy, emotionally stunted teenagers growing up in an incredibly toxic hockey culture. So while Cliff is a genuinely good person underneath it all, he’s also kind of immature and a complete mess.
Anyway, while he’s at this school there’s already another player named Heath (what are odds?), so that’s when he started going by Cliff instead.
Naturally, Ilya is absolutely insufferable when he finds out Cliff’s real name.
“Heathcliff? What kind of name is Heathcliff?”
(This was inspired by someone saying they love how the fandom collectively decided Cliff’s full name was Clifford, and I was sitting there like… what other option was there? Then my friend jokingly said, “Heathcliff,” and somehow that spiraled into me inventing this entire backstory for him. 😭)
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