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Who: Åsa and Siiri
What: Candlelit romantic dinner for two totally not a date at all what made you think that
When: Friday 3rd October
Warnings: Two idiots. Shouldn't be anything else.

Standing outside Siiri's door, Åsa takes a deep breath and straightens out her skirt again before knocking. She has keys, she could let herself in, but that's not how it works, is it? Not on a date. Which this is. She asked Siiri out for dinner and she said yes so it's a date! A proper one! Maybe Killian and Floweregg were right about this. There's certainly nervous butterflies in the pit of Åsa's stomach, which she can't work out. Is it a good thing or not? But she is sure that this is the right thing to do at least, the battle against refined shell at least made her certain of that. They can't be sure of what will happen next, so why are they wasting time?

So, date. And no backing out no matter what the butterflies say. She just has to hope she doesn't look a complete mess and doesn't trip over herself too much. Åsa knocks on the door and takes a step back, waiting for Siiri to answer. Hopefully she's ready. They still have plenty of time to walk to their booking, but Åsa's not sure she's ready to deal with much more hanging around getting nervous.

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It takes a moment for Siiri to answer the door, mostly because her nerves are quite frayed (she's gotten better with them where Åsa is involved, which is nice, but new situations... and so far they've only been out to the park and activities at the church. this is different and she's never been to a nice restaurant in America and WHAT IF SHE'S NOT CORRECTLY DRESSED) and she had to check over her make-up and clothes twice before running to the door and opening it for Åsa.

"I'm ready."

She is dressed quite sharply, though also clearly not for work, and Åsa might notice that the skirt is new. and the shirt is accompanied by a fine silver necklace. Hopefully this won't be too much, but she also wanted to look nice... and Åsa is always so cute and prettily dressed, she wants to look nice for her too. Even though they'll never be anything but friends.

Åsa is the type of person to notice the skirt and she does - or at least realises that she's not seen Siiri in it before, and a second glance tells her that it looks new. But mostly that's buried over trying not to look like she's obviously checking Siiri out because when did she get so tall and slim and elegant and beautiful and Åsa probably looks so dumpy and messy in comparison, but that's okay because,

"Wow, Siiri. You look really pretty!" What's a brain to mouth filter and why does she need one?

No scratch that, she needs one, about ten seconds ago. She was already blushing, but now it's noticable, as she resists the urge to cover her mouth - but then again why should she? It's true. Siiri is beautiful. "What a nice necklace! And your skirt, is that new?" Åsa's glad that she at least tried to dress up, her dress flowery and her shawl white to match her beret. Shame she can't pull it off as well as her friend, but never mind.

She offers her her hand, and a smile through her blush. "Did you find someone to look after Floweregg?"

Oh, she was complimented! React to that - she has to react right, but - but how do you react to compliments what do

just let her stare for a moment and then nod. At least talking about the necklace and skirt is easy enough while she tries to find away to answer to the compliment. "The necklace's my grandmother's. Family property." Breathe, Siiri. "Skirt's new. Got it yesterday." Specifically for this dinner, but that is an awkward thing to say, how would she justify it, what if she's asked why...

And Floweregg is a safe topic too. "The neighbour's watching her." Luckily, she has an old lady next door who doesn't think that a numbered puppy could be dangerous and is willing to help her keep the pretense that she really gave Floweregg away.

"I'm glad there's someone taking care of her. I miss her! It seems ages since we all got to go out together. I'll be glad when all of this blows over." But this is not what she wanted to talk about on her date. She needs to step back on the word babble but how can she stop herself when she needs something to take her mind off how pretty Siiri looks and they're going on a date.

Taking a step back, she gets out of the way so Siiri can close and lock the door and they can be on their way. "How's your project at university been going? Is it still all going well?" There. That should be safe, right? They can talk about normal people things for a while.

"She misses you too." There is a long pause in which she looks at Åsa, and then finally takes her hand again after pocketing the keys, very tentatively and carefully - is this okay? Not too forward? After all it's often seen as couple-behaviour in Western cultures, or like something that parents and child would do, and she doesn't want Åsa to feel like she thinks of her as a child just because she's short (and so cute, it should be illegal, really, just look at her and those rosy cheeks and her style is so nice and her hair is so soft and maybe she can talk Åsa into letting her cut it so she can touch it sometimes...).

"Uni's fine. Nothing new, but professor West is gone. How's your work?"

Curling her fingers around Siiri's, Åsa relaxes a little into her. The physical touch is reassuring, sating the need for it in the way that only Siiri's touch does. Then again, Siiri is the only one who will touch her like this here, so that hardly helps. Maybe later on tonight they'll go home together and curl up together and she can get some hugs too...

But later. Focus on now. "Busy! Things have finally started to pick up again and I think we're just about recovered from the damage from earlier on in the year now. I keep waiting for someone to mention my eyes, but no one seems to have noticed. That or they don't care, I suppose, which is good for me! Especially with everything that's happening. I hope nothing more obvious happens, but I don't know what would happen if it did. Maybe my boss would be nice? He is nice, I'm sure he wouldn't mind too much."

"Your eyes are cute." ~~Siiri is obviously great at small talk.~~ But it's relevant! After all maybe people just like her eyes so much that they don't mind. Or they just like Åsa that much, that could be too - after all she's the most lovely person in the city and maybe the universe.

"And you do good work." So maybe he will keep her anyway, even if more happens.... "Any echoes lately?"

Oh! A compliment! How does she respond to that? Aside from blushing? She can't help that one. "They're still weird, though! But it could be worse, they're mostly not noticeable! So I think I'll be all right. And I don't think I remember us being that weird. Different - I mean, we must have been different, but we were still mostly human, right?" Or something like it. Still, if they were weird would she think of them that way in her memories?

She shakes her head at the question of echoes and looks at Siiri questioningly. "Have you?"

She shakes her head. No, she hasn't had any echoes lately, and that is more than a little bit strange. It'd be disconcerting if not for her still remembering everything network related perfectly clearly...

And it is safer. Who knows what the next echo might bring? "I wonder why."

"Well, we both have lots to do. Work, and you have uni work to do as well. We don't have time to go poking around in things like other people!" Which can be a good thing and a bad thing. It's clearly safer, and has allowed them to go under the radar so far, but at the same time... She squeezes Siiri's hand without really noticing it as she thinks.

"Are there things you want to know about who we are? It still seems to me that every time we learn something it throws up more questions. It sort of makes me want to go and poke my nose around."

"The teleporter causes pulses." If they want one... but what if it turns them in obvious ways? Or worse, alters their minds in a way that is bad for them - that would make her be mean to Floweregg or Åsa or someone else?

And she'll ponder that that question for a good long while, while holding Åsa's hand and walking. It's so nice to hold her hand, really, she could do that all day... "What we were." Being apparently immortal aside.

"I did think about going to Las Vegas... Do you think if we go through it thinking of something in particular we'll get an echo based off that? That way I might be able to find out what we were for you! I'd like to know too. I'm kind of sad that we weren't actually awesome lesbian vikings, but I guess we were - or something like it - for a while and that's good because it means we got to be all kinds of things! It means there's lots of memories to come across, though." And that is worrying, because what might have happened to them later?

Still, there's time to think about that later, because they're at the restaurant now. Åsa frees her hand from Siiri's to open the door, holding it for her with a smile and following her inside. It's nicely done up on the inside - not over the top fancy, but with the care and attention to detail that speaks of money. Åsa hopes the food has the same care and attention paid to it. She's not actually come here before, but one of her coworkers mentioned it, and someone else had been as well, and they both recommended it for a date, so she took the chance. It's out of the range that she'd normally spend on herself, but she doesn't mind treating Siiri. "I have a table for two booked under Åsa Oxenstierna?" She tells the greeter, who takes a moment checking the bookings and struggling with her name before he works it out and nods.

"Welcome! We've got a table set aside for you. This way." He takes two menus and leads them back to a secluded table at the back, softly lit by candle light, on one of the higher levels so they can look out onto the rest of the restaurant, or out onto the street. Laying down the menus, he pulls out the chairs for them as he continues, "your waiter will be by in a moment to introduce themselves and take your drinks orders, but if you have any questions please feel free to call someone over. Enjoy your evening!"

There is a lot of talk here, and Siiri just listens, trying to follow - to not get distracted just by how cute Åsa is, how nice her voice sounds, how well she expresses herself...

Wait what did she say just now? Oh. They arrived. She follows with and sits down, and then looks around, suddenly self-conscious (more than normal, anyway). Should she have dressed nicer? Are there any dirty spots in her clothes, shouldn't she...

She looks over at Åsa and concentrates on her to shut out all the people around them. "It'sa nice place." But it is really nice. How costly might it be...?

Smiling as she looks back at her across the table, Åsa nods enthusiastically. "Isn't it? I'm glad I was recommended it! I wanted to treat you, so I hope the food matches up to the place! After all, you've probably had a hard week. You work really hard!"

She picks up the menu and turns it over so she can look at the drinks. "What do you want to drink? If you want wine I might have a glass - we should get a bottle, if that's what you want." She'd normally rather drink vodka, but not when she's trying to impress someone, and besides, it's probably not ideal in a posh place like this.

"Wine's good." That is what you drink in places like this, right? And a bottle sounds about as economical as alcohol at a restaurant can get. She takes the menu and gives the wine a glance... reading from right to left as she's used to. After a bit, she picks one that sounds good and is among the least pricey.

She pushes the menu over, her finger on the item. "This?

...And you work hard, too."

"I don't have to deal with work and uni, though!" Åsa points out as she leans in to have a look at the wine that Siiri's selected. Not that she really knows too much about wine, but if it's what Siiri wants then she's happy to get it for them to share. "That looks good to me! And I'll ask for some water for us as well."

Setting the drinks menu down she turns her attention to the food. "There's so much choice and it all looks so good!" She exclaims happily after a moment, looking up at Siiri. "I hope you're not too hungry because this might take a while!"

"We can order different ones and split." It seems like the logical option, really - that way they'll both get to taste more.

She'll make sure that Åsa still gets the best bites, of course.

"That's a good idea, but if there's something you want in particular then it's okay! I could just get one of the specials and then maybe I'll come here again one day and I can have something else then." Admittedly she's not likely to come back soon because it is more than she'd rather spend on herself - but then again maybe Siiri will agree to come out with her again after this and she can bring her back.

"Ooh! Or, look, there's a sharing platter. We could try that?" She suggests, pointing out one that has lots of small plates designed to be shared.

"Maybe I can treat you to it next time." And her face is kind of frozen with tension at that because she would really like to but at the same time American universities are ridiculous towards their PhD students (even calling them students is so weird to her still). One day.

"Looks good."

Åsa smiles at Siiri fondly. Not that she doesn't appreciate the offer (her heart skips a beat at it, maybe Killian's right, maybe this is working), but Siiri should be spending the money that she has on herself. "When you can." She tells her, as she sets down the menu and reaches out to take her hand. "There's no point you paying for things when I have money sitting around that you don't."

Their waiter takes this moment to appear, and Åsa blushes as she untangles her hand from Siiri's, looking up at her as she introduces herself. "Actually, I think we're ready to order." She says, glancing at Siiri questioningly. "Unless you want something to start with, and if you're happy with that?"

She's glad for the waiter's appearance, because she... she does not want to seem like she's mooching off Åsa. She doesn't want to be a burden, doesn't want to seem anything but honest about her wish to just spend time with Åsa, and this is nice even though it is nerve-wrecking (and s
he just hopes that she's behaving as expected, that Åsa likes it here with her, so that they can do it again - what does that answer mean?).

Because her smile is the most beautiful thing in the world.

"It's fine." Anything would be fine, really, she's not even quite sure if she got the question, she's not going to prolong this interruption or make things complicated.

"Okay! Then can we have a bottle of this wine, and the sharing platter for two?" She turns her smile back to the waiter. "Oh, and some water as well, please." Best to have some water as well if they're to be drinking. The waiter writes it down with a smile and then heads off, leaving Åsa to Siiri again.

"Are you going to try and get home for Christmas this year?" She asks, looking back at her friend.

"I couldn't take Floweregg along." So it wouldn't really be possible unless she can find a place for the puppy to stay for over a week. Though... though. She would like to bring Åsa along and introduce her to her parents, but what will they say? What will they think? She is out to them, but has the feeling that her father tries to ignore that knowledge, but then Åsa also isn't like that (and why would she be interested in becoming that, she must have so many better options and Siiri is hardly a good pick anyway, she's just glad that they are friends) so it would complicate things. Do you bring people home who are "just" friends? She doesn't know, she has no actual experience with this.

"Oh no! That's not fair!" Floweregg's a member of the family, it's not fair if she doesn't get to join in on Christmas too. Her first Christmas as well! "Maybe we should have our own Christmas together." But she doesn't sound entirely sure about it. It does sound nice - really nice - but she was also hoping to go home this year, a stab of homesickness hitting every time she thinks of it. Home. She misses home, and her family.

"I need to find out if I can go home or not - if I can't I can take her." It doesn't feel right to be going home if Siiri isn't, though. What to do? Åsa chews on her lip, torn up by such a hard decision.

"We can have an early or late Christmas together with Floweregg." She reaches out and brushes a few strands of hair out of Åsa's face before she lets her hand travel further and over the back and side of the other woman's hair, trying to reassure her (and, well, enjoying the feeling of it. She can't deny that). "She'll understand that you want to see your family."

Åsa didn't expect Siiri to reach out to her like that and her cheeks light up, not sure how to respond. It's nice - really nice - but what does it mean? And is this the right place for it? Especially as Siiri's hand start to travel. For once she's lost for words, but being Åsa that doesn't actually stop her from talking. "But you're family too, you and Floweregg." She babbles, not really focusing on what she's saying.

Her embarrassment only grows when the waiter returns with their wine and she quickly untangles herself from Siiri's hand. She tries to hide her face in her hair a little, praying that she won't stay to pour their wine. Of course she does, and there's an awkward, drawn out moment while Åsa studies the table intently.

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