enjoying a nice, relaxed dinner inside and hasn't noticed anything out of the ordinary.

stands at the front door and knocks.

sets her fork down and goes to answer the door. She stares at the Norwegian for a moment. "Is there a concert tonight, or have you started taking style tips from Sweden?"

holds up a few nursing home brochures. "I figure that it would be appropriate to discuss plans for you future."

stares.

"Since you are so old now."

"Does that mean I get to quit working and have other people feed me?"

...."Not anytime soon."

huffs. "Then what is the point of going to a nursing home?"

"You have to when you are old."

"But if you're giving me brochures for them now, that means I'm old enough... And I think I am well above their minimum age requirement."

..."You are going to the one where you still have to work and make your own food."

"... So I'm just staying at home."

..."You're old."

"You're older."

"Yes, but today you are one year older than you were yesterday."

"I don't think that is how it works." She scoffs quietly.

sighs quietly. "...Happy birthday."

smiles faintly. "Are you coming out with me tonight?"

nods. "If you want me to."

can't help but smile a bit broader at that. "Really??"

...hides a smile behind her hand. She was so cute when she smiled... "Yes."

had a hard time hiding her excitement. "Do you want to eat some dinner first?"

nods slowly. "Would you like me to take you out for dinner?"

slowly shakes her head. "I already have dinner cooking..."

blinks. "Ah, that will be fine to." She supposes she should have gone over earlier.

"I made enough for you, too..."

glances at her and smiles faintly. "Thank you, I'm sure I will enjoy it."

looks away and moves aside to let her in. "You look pretty when you smile."

steps in and manages to avoid blushing. "Thank you."

checks the boiling pasta on the stove and glances to a half-eaten piece of cake on the table. "You can have some cake if you want. The raviolis aren't done yet."

steps over to the table and sets a bag down. "I think I'll save my appetite for dinner."

shrugs and goes back to nibbling on the chocolate cake. "Suit yourself."

"Do you want your real present now or do you want to wait?"

looks up from the cake. "You mean the brochures weren't my present?"

shakes her head. "They were not."

"... oh... What did you get me then?"

...passes the bag to her.

sets her fork down and leans closer to the bag. "What is it?"

"Open it."

cautiously pokes at it before opening it, looking as though she was afraid it may attack at any moment.

had gotten her a diamond necklace and a matching pair of earrings.

finally pulls out the gift, and stares at the jewelry with a slightly confused and bewildered expression.

glances away from her, showing some embarrassment for once.

glances back up at the Norwegian. "... What is this?"

"Your birthday present..."

"It's... jewelry..."

nods. "If... if you don't like it, I can take it back."

shakes her head slowly. "I... no. It's pretty..." She was just confused by it; it was too pretty.

used to big reactions from Thora and didn't know what to think now. "I... I will not be upset if you do not like it."

a little too shocked to give a big reaction... she had thought that the brochures were her present.

meant the brochures as a joke...

hadn't expected to receive a gift like this...

didn't really have any other ideas and thought she might like getting something nice.

used to getting things like food... or weird clothes... not... fancy jewelry.

had planned on taking her out to a fancy restaurant, too...

too busy staring at the jewelry and the dinner she had been making may have been burning now...

smells the food and frowns. "I'll get that..."

looks up suddenly, her cheeks tinging. "... oh..."

moves to the oven and starts trying to rescue the food.

the jewelry one last glance before standing up to look over Gjertrud's shoulder at the ruined food.

frowns, feeling even worse now. "I'm sorry, I probably should have waited until after dinner for the present..."

sighs, more upset that her kitchen now smelled bad. "It's fine. I already ate cake."

hesitates before looking over at her. "We could go out for dinner."

shrugs. "If you want."

glances over at her. "Do you want to?"

shrugs again.

"I made reservations... if you want..."

blinks. "... Okay..."

tilts her head. "So... is that a yes or no?"

shrugs. "I guess we could."

nods. "It's a nice restaurant... So you might want to dress up."

groans loudly as she drags her feet towards the bedroom.

frowns a little. "Or we could go somewhere else..."

nothing as she disappears in to the bedroom to dig out a dress.

sighs quietly and rubs the back of her head, feeling like this wasn't going as well as she expected...

stares in the closet for a few seconds before pulling out a decent blue dress. She started undressing a little too quickly and fell to the ground with a loud thud.

stares in the direction of the noise, raising an eyebrow.

hobbles back up and quickly gets dressed. Luckily for both of them, she had ironed the dress earlier that day to go out drinking tonight to celebrate. She appears momentarily before disappearing in to the_

bathroom.

blinks at her, glad the the thud didn't prove detrimental to Thora.

tougher than that!!! She hastily brushed her hair and put on a bit of make-up, at least half-trying to look presentable.

walks back to the kitchen and glances at the necklace, still feeling like she had messed something up...

emerges from the bathroom nearly 20 minutes later looking almost the exact same as when she went in, the only real change being that she now had mascara on. "I nearly poked my eye out with that stupid eyeliner"

sighs quietly. "You don't need to wear eyeliner if you don't want to."

scoffs. "I know that. I had thought it might look nice... instead, I now look like I have pink-eye."

"I think you look nice. I can't even tell."

huffs. "Well that's a relief."

hums under her breath. "You look very nice..."

grumbles. "You have to say that."

shakes her head. "I don't have to. I wouldn't lie to you, if I thought you didn't look nice, I just wouldn't say anything."

"That's comforting."

hides a smile behind her hand. "You really do look beautiful, though."

scoffs and goes off to find shoes. "Yeah yeah."

grabs the necklace off the table and walks over to Thora.

glances up at her curiously, then looks back down at the necklace.

moves to put the necklace on Thora.

sits motionless, still a bit afraid to wear something so nice.

fastens the necklace and steps back to look at her.

runs a hand through her hair to straighten it out, her fingers trailing over the necklace. "... Thanks."

fidgets. "Do you like it?"

pauses awkwardly. "Yeah.... It's nice..."

blinks at her before looking away. "We should get going to the restaurant..."

nods quietly in agreement.

starts walking to the door, holding it open for Thora.

shuffles after her, feeling a little self-conscious about this all.

leads the way to her car, feeling a little guilty and thinking that she had somehow made Thora upset.