On her lunch break on Thursday, Nah was sitting in her office scrolling through her phone when she heard a knock at the door. Typically it meant that someone needed urgent services and that she needed to swallow down her current bite and hope that her food would still be warm when she got back to it, but when she looked at the in-door window and saw that it was one of the other special education teachers, she got up and let them in without question. It was only when she opened the door that she noticed the teacher was holding an envelope out at her, brows furrowed as she looked for explanation.

"This is from the board," the other teacher said, pushing it down at Nah, "but it's obviously not a piece of official mail. Who on the board are you getting personal cards from, and how did you make this happen?"

It didn't take any thought at all to know who the culprit behind this mystery mail was, and the fact that the envelope was pink and sealed on the back with a lacy sticker told Nah all she needed to know. "Uh, the mom of one of my close friends serves on the board, she's like president or something? I don't know why she's sent me mail here of all places, it's not like she doesn't know where I live."

"Is that even legal, for her to have your address for personal reasons?" Nah shrugged because she didn't know the answer to that question, and the other teacher accepted that, coming inside the office and pulling out her own lunch. "Whatever, as long as we don't lose you over it. The kids here really like you; they're responding well to your focus on their education and I've been seeing a lot of growth in some of them."

"Thanks for that, I'm glad to hear it," Nah said with a smile, pulling the office door shut as she went back to her seat with her envelope in hand. The last thing she wanted was mail from Maribelle, of all people, but she supposed she shouldn't have been too surprised that she was receiving something from her delivered to her workplace. As she sat back down, she considered simply throwing the envelope in the trash without opening it, but she knew that it would find its way back to her somehow and she couldn't just go without acknowledging that she'd been sent something personal by someone in a position of power over her.

So, naturally, she sat there and neglected eating her lunch just to open the thing and see what kind of nonsense Maribelle was sending her. The fact that she opened it to reveal a handmade invitation elicited a gasp from her, as she glanced from the paper she was holding over to the other teacher and back. "I've been invited to something by her," she explained, the other teacher gasping as well, clutching her chest at the news. "What it is, I don't know. This kind of feels like, uh, a baby shower invitation? Maybe a birthday party for a small child? But I know for a fact that she wouldn't be inviting me to either of those things."

"Open the invite up, you've got a curious mind sitting here waiting!" her coworker called, a smile growing on her face. "I've never been present for something this bizarre happening to someone, and that's really saying something!"

She understood that this poor teacher had no idea what kinds of things this could be an invitation for, but Nah respected the enthusiasm and couldn't help but crack a smile along with it. "Right, okay," she started, before opening the little card and being inundated with a bunch of carefully-penned words that no one else but Maribelle could have possibly put into the card. "It, uh, it says a lot of things so let me read it before I start telling you anything about it."

It started with a couple of low blow insults that Nah fully expected to receive, about how she was ungrateful and a horrid person and how she didn't deserve a lick of kindness or respect, and not a word of that was worth reading out loud. "Oh, okay, it's inviting me to a function where some of the board members are going to be," she said as she continued reading, the truth being that she'd spoken only part of the story. There was indeed a function where a couple of the board members would be present, but it wasn't anything more than a birthday party that Nah was invited to.

A birthday party taking place that night, no less.

With her mouth open slightly as she continued reading, Nah found herself unable to properly represent what she was reading to someone who had no idea what her relationship with these people was like. This envelope, addressed from the board and delivered to Nah's workplace instead of her house, was Maribelle's way of inviting her to a surprise birthday party for Brady taking place that evening. "I don't get why she did it this way, but I guess I've got to show up to this function and try to impress some people who are on the board, maybe to get some extra funding for special education programs in the district? I don't know what the reason is, she didn't exactly say anything about it."

"That's super sketchy, what if she's going to use this party as a way to get you fired for rubbing elbows with the board at a private function?" The other teacher's excitement and curiosity had diminished to nothing, as she went to focusing on eating her lunch. "We can't afford to lose you and your dedication to the job, Dinah."

Nah winced at her name being used, especially by someone she'd been working on building a good relationship with, but she didn't mention a thing about it. "Right, and I totally get that, but I think I don't have much of a choice but to go to this thing. There's got to be some reason why it's me and no one else being invited, and I think she knows that."

Of course there was a reason it was only Nah being invited, because Nah was the only one who knew Brady and it wouldn't make sense for a bunch of strangers to be brought in to his surprise party. "I'll be hoping for the best with you, girl," the other teacher said, leaving Nah to thank her quietly and go back to eating her own lunch as well.

The rest of the day dragged on, which Nah was thankful for as it meant that she had plenty of time still to figure out what she was going to do about the birthday party she didn't have much of a choice about attending. It was a no-brainer that she would be going, given that if she didn't, she would certainly be talked negatively about to Brady and she didn't want him spending his birthday hearing that sort of thing. Besides, he'd made it clear already that he cared about her, and she wanted to be able to show him that the same worked in reverse. When the end of the day hit, Nah did her final tasks of the job and headed out the door as fast as she could, stopping by the store to grab a birthday card and a small gift card that she figured Brady could get some use out of, before heading home to change and get ready for the night's events.

Nowi was waiting by the door when Nah got home, arms crossed and a sour look on her face. "Did Maribelle's invitation get to you?" she asked before Nah even had a chance to speak a greeting to her mother. "She came into the office this morning losing her mind that you haven't responded per the RSVP request in the card and I told her that I wasn't the person she needed to be asking but here we are anyway."

"I just got it today at lunch, since she sent it to the school I'm only at on Thursdays. I hope she remembers that about my job and doesn't hold it against me, because I'm going to this party whether she's expecting me or not." Nah wasn't even slightly surprised that things had turned out the way they did, given that Maribelle was always insistent on things going according to her plans and to no one else's. "The second I saw it was a surprise party I knew exactly where she's having it."

"Yeah, I popped by the church earlier to check and make sure she had everything sorted out for the night and she's really made a lot out of nothing. I told her that if she ever wants to use a place that's actually meant for gatherings, she's welcome to look into renting rooms from the manaketes, but she didn't seem super interested in that." Nowi shrugged, as if she was signaling that she understood it was someone else's loss. "Anyway, bet you want to get on your way here soon so I'll just…go find something to do with my night."

"Is Dad not here?" Something about the way that last statement had been delivered was sending red flags up in Nah's mind. "I didn't realize he had a new job that he needed to be at so late on a weeknight."

After wavering a bit on how to answer, Nowi took in a deep breath before saying, "It was a super sudden sort of deal, he found out last night that he was needed on this job but it's going to have him away for a couple of weeks. Maybe a month at most. Nothing too crazy."

"Maybe a month? You mean I'm going to have to put up with you being lonely and sad that he's not here for that long? Naga help me on that one." Nah had to expertly dodge a hand batting at her for that comment, but she felt that she was well within her right to call out her mother's somewhat clingy behavior. "I'd invite you along with me tonight but I'm sure you got a whole earful about how this party's a private event and all that, so you already know that's not even an option. I'm sure you'll be able to find something to do on your own, though, you usually do."

"It's feeling like a 'curl on the couch and watch sappy movies' kind of night, if we're being honest. If you get home later and that's not where I am, check the bedroom and make sure I didn't fall asleep with snacks in the sheets. Totally embarrassing when that happens." Laughing herself off into the heart of the house, Nowi seemed to have decided that it was best to leave Nah alone to her own devices, and Nah was thankful for it.

One quick shower and an outfit change later and Nah was already back out the door, ready to subject herself to whatever nonsense this party had to offer. She got as far as driving down the road before realizing that she didn't really want to go, but couldn't bring herself to turn back around and go home for the night, and so the majority of the drive to the old church that had been renovated for these purposes was spent battling with herself over what was a better use of her time. Based solely on the number of cars in the parking lot outside of the church when she got there, staying home would have been the correct choice.

She went inside carrying the card she'd bought in her hand, heading down a dark and empty hallway to the single entertaining room in the back of the church, a place she'd been to plenty of parties and social gatherings in the past. When she got to the doorway she peered inside and was met with Maribelle and only Maribelle, who was sitting in a folding chair with her legs crossed in front of her. "You're surprisingly early, Dinah," she said, before reaching up to cover her mouth at her usage of the technically incorrect name. "Please tell me you properly read the invitation before deciding to show up."

"I mean, of course I read it, and I'm not that early, not even half an hour. I kind of figured it'd take me longer to get ready than it did, but you know what? I'm here and your son isn't, so I think you should be grateful I'm not just turning and walking out." Plastering a fake smile on her face as she came into the room, Nah was prepared to have to square up with Maribelle if needed. "Now do you want to tell me why you sent my invitation to the school or do I need to guess it for myself?"

"I knew you wouldn't receive it before today, and therefore would have little chance of ruining the surprise for my sweet Brady. I did the same thing with everyone else I've invited to our little soiree, which…" Maribelle trailed off, before standing slowly from the chair she'd drawn for herself. "Since you're here, you can make yourself useful and assist me in setting up for the occasion."

"And that's why I try to show up early when I can, so I can be people's workhorse," Nah dryly replied, setting the card down on the very chair Maribelle had vacated before waiting for directions on what to do. It turned out that she needed help on getting a table put together for the meal that they'd be enjoying at the party, but in setting that up it came to Nah's attention that they were only setting up for a grand total of five people. "Some party this is going to be, if it's this small," she remarked, catching a side-eye from Maribelle for the comment. "Well, it's true."

"I understand that it seems a bit…small for the occasion, but it was something that was planned out of love and I couldn't bear to spend more time than necessary figuring out who to invite to dinner. Brady simply has so many friends—an issue that I understand personally, given my own social prowess—and I had to pick which ones he considers his closest companions." Maribelle gestured to the table and its five place settings. "And on that note, I could only decide on two friends."

Nah pointed at herself, confused. "You think I'm one of his closest friends? Have you ever heard him talk about the stuff he gets up with some of the others?"

"Oh, of course, the gaming and the playing and the things that I'd rather him not be doing, I'm very well aware of those activities. While I understand that his closeness with you has only grown since you started playing that game every Tuesday, he has indeed considered you someone he's fond of since far before that arrangement began. The same cannot be said for most of the others that you meet with." Maribelle's eyes rolled before she happened to look down at what had been her chair and turned right back to Nah, looking for an explanation as to what was sitting there.

"Birthday gift, because I'm not some uncivilized animal that shows up to a party without one," Nah said, an answer that Maribelle deemed acceptable, before she went on to start tackling the rest of what had been said. "I feel flattered that he's considered me close for a while, because I feel the same about him. He's honestly my second-closest friend at this point, behind someone I've been close with since we were in all the same classes in school, so he's pretty high up there."

"That's very sweet of you to say, but I'd prefer to know that you hold my son in such high regard that—" There was clearly more to what Maribelle was trying to say, but a crashing sound from out in the hallway cut her off, and she charged toward the doorway to investigate, Nah deciding it wouldn't hurt to follow. When they both got to where they could see the culprit behind the noise, they were met with the visual of a bunch of oversized balloons clogging the hallway, as well as a broken light fixture shattered on the floor.

"I heard the footsteps," they both heard Owain call, "and I understand that this looks fairly concerning, but I assure you that I have all of it under control. Mostly. Mrs. Maribelle, can you come help me with this because I might've gotten glass in my sock?"

The corners of Maribelle's mouth firmly tilted downward into a deep frown as she looked down the hall, before accepting her fate. "Anything for you, Owain," she said, motioning for Nah to stay where she was as she went to meet Owain and the balloons down the hall.

Now that she knew what had caused the interruption, Nah honestly didn't care about seeing it come to a resolution, so she went back into the room and took a seat in the same folding chair from before, crossing her legs exactly as Maribelle had been doing previously. "I'm going to take it that Owain's here because he's the second person Maribelle thinks Brady is close to, which…yeah, I get it. I'd make that same assumption, especially since all of Owain's other close friends have abandoned him for various reasons."

Scrunching her nose as she thought about one friend in particular, Nah inhaled deeply before exhaling all of the negative feelings she had on the matter. "It's a good riddance that he's stuck back in his home country and isn't around here bugging everyone about things he doesn't have any business talking about."

"Ooh, by chance are you referring to Niles?" Owain's voice was a lot less welcomed that time, and Nah just about fell out of the chair hearing it, not realizing he and the bundle of balloons had made it into the room until he'd spoken. "I miss that guy, hope he's doing well back in Nohr. One of these days, I hope to make the treacherous journey to meet with him and resume our daily shenanigans, but there's a lot standing between me and making that happen. First and foremost it would require separating from my parents and their loving care, and I don't quite think that I can bring myself to shatter my mother's heart like that."

"But you certainly could shatter one of the antique fixtures on the wall out there," Maribelle coldly replied, all pretenses of pretending she was happy about things dropped on the floor. "I cannot replace that without paying a small fortune, and this place simply is not worth that type of money. Would you be willing to pay for it instead?"

"No way! My money's getting saved up for two things, a trip to Nohr and a new game system because I haven't gotten one in years and I'm itching to play new things." Owain let go of the balloons, them promptly staying nearly in place because of the weight tied to the end of the bundle that fell to the floor and kept them locked together. "Maybe you can ask my uncle if he can hook you up? He's always got money to share with people who need it."

Her face reddening, Maribelle's eyes narrowed at Owain. "I would never ask for money from someone as well-off as your uncle is, for many reasons. That would be like asking for money from an older brother figure, and I couldn't bring myself to do that even if I was on death's door and needed money to survive."

"Kind of dramatic, don't you think?"

"Coming from the king of drama, I feel that's more of a compliment than anything." In traditional Maribelle fashion, she turned up her nose and took her attention away from Owain, who seemed ignorant to why she was so bothered by his suggestion. That didn't mean she looked anywhere near Nah, though, and that was perfectly fine by the young woman, who was more annoyed that asking someone for money was something that these people considered okay to do.

They stood around for a few minutes in awkward silence, before Owain realized he could talk to Nah about things that were happier and on better terms for them both. "So, I know the last session went pretty rough for you, but are you feeling better about things? Going to be able to make it next week when we hopefully conquer the dungeon?"

"I don't know what came over me to make me act like that," Nah lied, hoping that Owain was too wrapped up in his own life and thoughts to pick up on her deception. "I should be perfectly good to go when we meet next week, but I'll keep you posted."

"I'm just saying, it would be horrific for team morale if we made it this far into the dungeon just to lose our cleric to…whatever's bothering you." Owain seemed to be serious about this, and Nah appreciated it, even though she knew she couldn't ever tell him the specifics of what was bothering her simply because it was so ridiculous that she felt bad about it. "At any rate, if you do need to step away, I think the definitely not-Aunt Robin dragon will be a good replacement yet again. Morgan was thinking hard when he came up with that character to include, and I applaud him for it."

"Your aunt has gotten dragged into playing your little pretend game?" Maribelle asked, having overheard only that part of what Owain was saying and deeming it interesting enough to be worth replying to. "I feel for her and what remains of her sanity if she feels that's a worthy use of her time."

"She's not playing, Morgan just made a character based on her because Nah and Noire both didn't play last week and we couldn't go into the dungeon down two players. I'm surprised that Brady hasn't kept you up to speed on this stuff, Mrs. Maribelle. It's not that hard to keep track of." With a huff, Owain walked over to the doorway and looked down the hall, before turning around and shaking his head. "When's he getting here, anyway?"

Maribelle pulled her phone out and checked the time on the screen, before tucking it back into her purse. "They should be on their way right now. I encouraged usage of the front door, since we would all be parked behind the church, but I already know that when they pull up outside, Brady is going to use that brilliant mind of his to piece together why he's here. I'm hopeful that he doesn't figure out who all is invited, make that the true surprise of the evening."

"Owain, please move out of the doorway, these bags are heavy and you are a much better door than a passageway." It seemed that, in the short amount of time between Owain checking the hall and him getting the answer of when people would arrive, the very people they'd been talking about had shown up, as Brady's father was standing there with his arms holding two large delivery-style bags of food. Once he'd realized that he was indeed in the way and making things difficult, Owain stepped aside and allowed the night's meal to be brought in, followed by the man of the hour coming inside as well.

Predictably, Brady didn't look too thrilled with the gathering, but he was quick to count how many people were actually there. "Uh, Ma, did you invite others that just didn't show, or is this really all the people you think I'm friends with?"

"I did some deep thinking and picked the people I assumed you were closest with, rather than invite the scores of friends you have and expect them to attend with all of their baggage they'd be bringing with them." Waving off the mere idea that her guest list not be perfectly curated, Maribelle took dainty steps toward her son, greeting him with open arms that he stared at for several seconds before meeting for a hug. "Happy birthday, my dear. You are lucky to find yourself surrounded with the people who care about you most tonight."

"I'd say I'd be luckier if I had more of my friends here, but I get what you're tryin' to do with this limited invite list. Guess I can't be too upset that you did get it right with who you asked to come." While he was hugging his mother, Brady looked at Owain and winked at him, before glancing at Nah and staring her down until the hug was over and he could find himself looking at other things. "So I'm takin' it that we're doing dinner and then going our separate ways tonight?"

Brushing herself off from the extended hug, Maribelle looked toward her husband, who was setting their meal up at the poor excuse for a party table. "That's something we still need to discuss, is it not, Frederick?"

"I assumed you would come up with those plans and inform me of them once you had them," he replied, not breaking his focus from serving food on paper plates he'd had to fish out of one of the bags. "When you said nothing else on the matter, it came across as this being the extent of the plans for the evening."

"Well that just will not do," she said, tutting a little as she watched the meal preparation for a moment, then went back to looking at her son. "I'll tell you what, while we eat I will think about what else there is we can do tonight to celebrate you, but for now we'll consider your surprise birthday party nothing more than an unexpected dinner. Does that sound fair enough to you, dear?"

"Ma, no matter how I answer that, you're gonna do exactly what you planned on doin' anyway, so…yeah, it sounds fair enough to me." The second his mother turned away from him, Brady gave a big shrug that both Owain and Nah had to resist chuckling at. He followed that up with a quizzing glance, as if asking the two of them what they knew about being there, but neither of them responded in any way. It was far easier to maintain the idea that they'd been invited out of nowhere with little in the way of explanation than to say that they'd had any indication that there was going to be something resembling a party.

Without much fanfare, they all sat down around the table and Maribelle looked at everyone else with a big, content smile on her face, until she reached her hands out to signal that everyone else needed to do the same. While she was easily able to get three of the other four on board with the pre-meal prayer, Nah didn't budge even when poked in the arm by both people on her sides. "What's all this for?" she asked, feigning ignorance about why people would be linking hands before eating. "Wasn't aware we did a campfire routine before we got to eat anything."

"Dinah, this is called a prayer, and I know for a fact from your mother that you at least attended church devoutly for some amount of time, so you should be familiar with this sort of blessing before dining." Maribelle's words were spoken with venom behind them, as if she was going to die on the hill of forcing everyone there to take part in her prayer. "Now take their hands and at least pretend that you answer to Naga above, or else…"

As she trailed off, Maribelle's gaze hardened into a glare fixated entirely on Nah, who was trying her best to keep calm at what had just been said to her. As dramatically as she could manage, Nah huffed before grabbing both hands and squeezing them tightly, both Owain and Brady telling her to loosen up a little before she broke their hands. "There, I'm doing it, are you happy?"

"Absolutely pleased, thank you for not causing a scene about this, Dinah." Breaking into a standard prayer, Maribelle completely missed the disgusted look that Nah shot her over the second use of her real name in such a short amount of time. In fact, Nah maintained that look until she saw Maribelle was about to look in her direction again, at which point she stopped and acted like she'd been praying along. The problem Nah had with the whole scene was not anything to do with the religion being practiced, given that they'd all attended the same church back when she'd gone (even though she'd attended the sessions that were meant specifically for manaketes and Maribelle obviously didn't go to those). It was, rather, a problem with her own relationship with the church and how the group she'd been a part of had become so smothering that she couldn't handle it.

Not like praying before eating was a mandatory action, and not like ignoring it to just sit there and make nasty faces wasn't permissible if she wasn't caught doing it. By the time they were all eating, the food was clearly cold in places, and Nah wanted to blame the fact that they'd spent time praying, despite her knowing that there were several other reasons for why that was the case. "It would have been much better had we been able to dine in the restaurant this evening, but the reservation book for tonight was closed when I called over there last week and I could not bring myself to chance waiting upon arrival," Maribelle explained, twirling her fork in the air as she spoke. "Thankfully, they were taking orders for pickup so I placed one for what I assumed would be enough food for the five of us."

"We could've gone somewhere else for dinner, Ma, I wouldn't have minded if we'd had a different place this year," Brady replied, his eyes looking down at his plate instead of toward his mother. "I know that this is kinda the tradition you've had for my birthday since I could eat real food, but missin' out on it one year because we're celebratin' with friends isn't the end of the world."

"I already made the sacrifice of ordering pickup food, I wasn't changing plans any further than that." With a haughty hmph, Maribelle's fork fell to the table with a small clatter as she turned to look away from everyone else. "This feels uncivilized, I had to be assured that it is socially acceptable to dine like this before I made it happen."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Maribelle, it isn't like we don't eat like this all the time on our own," Owain said, him trying his best to keep things from going off the rails. "Mom always says that eating your favorite food at home is so, so much better than eating it at the restaurant, because you don't have to act all uptight and proper and stuff."

Making a similar sound to what she'd done before, Maribelle turned to focus her attention on Owain this time. "Yes, of course, because your mother has the best opinion on this matter. I love my sweet Lissa dearly, but she married a farming man, I highly doubt that her opinions on classy matters actually, well, matter!"

"Maribelle, calm yourself and focus on your meal instead of speaking ill of others, you are using your time rather foolishly right now." With a stern voice, even though he didn't look like he was trying to be stern at all, Frederick only gave his wife a single glance before he was looking over at the three younger adults, trying to make them understand that, as far as he was concerned, everything was perfectly fine and normal there at the dinner table.

For someone like Nah, who had parents that were complete goofballs with each other and never forced themselves to act so pretentious, even in the presence of others, it was clear that what they considered normal was far from it. She knew that she was already in hot water for how she'd acted about the prayer, though, so she merely kept her head down and pretended like she wasn't picking up on the awful vibes coming from the others at the table. Next to her, Owain had been stunned silent by what had been said about his family and wasn't talking even to himself, which was a huge warning that something was wrong, and on her other side Brady had been just about silent since sitting down and nothing seemed like it was going to change that fact.

For being intended as a birthday dinner, it sure was far from celebratory and one of the most painful experiences of Nah's life, and she was grateful to see it come to an end on Maribelle's terms instead of anyone else making the decision. After all, no one else was really eating the food they'd been given, and she was the only one who'd forced herself through what she'd been served, so when she said they were all done eating, it was like a queen dictating the decision to her subjects. "I hope no one was saving room for dessert, because we may have neglected to provide anything of that nature here," she said with a laugh, before her eyes fell onto her son. "We do have something for you waiting back at the house, but that is for you and you alone, Brady."

"Kinda figured that much if it's at home. Like hell you'd invite these guys over there on short notice. Even though it's a surprise that you're invitin' me over when…you know, you're always treatin' me like a guest these days." Brady couldn't meet his mother's eyes, although he clearly knew where she was and how she was looking at him, because he kept shifting where he was focusing to avoid her entirely. "But it's good that you're gonna let me come over for birthday treats after this."

"I would do nothing but the best for my dearest son," Maribelle told him, which was met with an unfriendly smirk by the aforementioned dearest son, offending her to the point of pretending to clutch invisible pearls around her neck. "I beg your pardon? What was that expression for?"

"Ma, we all know that you actin' like you give me the best is just an act you're puttin' on because I've got friends here. That, and because it's my birthday and you're always pretendin' that you're great to me on my birthday." Brady's eyes finally looked at his mother, who was staring back at him with complete shock across her face. "Sorry to break it to ya like this, Ma, but your act isn't gonna get bought tonight."

Before Maribelle had a chance to get her thoughts out in any sort of words, Frederick interjected to try and squash any animosity before it could begin bubbling over further. "Brady, you know that your mother has high standards for the life she leads and that sometimes she expresses her feelings in ways that seem harsh on the outside, but she truly does care underneath. How she treats you is one such situation."

"Right, because it's normal for a guy to get told he's a complete loser by his ma on the regular, forgot all about that." Standing up and leaning down onto his chair, Brady looked more physically imposing than he had while he'd been sitting at the same level as everyone else. "This is definitely the kind of conversation I wanna be havin' on my birthday, though, definitely makes it feel like a true family experience."

"You could come home with me tonight," Nah blurted out, not realizing what she'd said until the words had left her mouth, and the horrified gasp that Maribelle gave upon hearing them was almost musical to her ears. "N-not to stay, Mom would have a heart attack if I invited a second guy over for the night this month, but she's home alone and I bet she could make your birthday a real good one if we let her."

"Mrs. Nowi does have some fun ideas of what to do when you give her the chance," Owain agreed, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "One time, she came to help my parents with some farm things and she turned wrangling the animals into a game that…I think Dad won? But I don't remember, I was just a kid when it happened. Mom and Dad still play it every year, though. Got a scoreboard for it and everything."

His eyebrows furrowing as he looked over at Nah, Brady said, "I don't know why you'd think I wanna go over to your house to spend my birthday chillin' with your mom, of all people, but I appreciate the offer. It'd definitely be better than what this has turned into."

"What this has—Brady! This has turned into a nightmare simply because of you being an ungrateful son despite everything I have ever done for you!" The redness in Maribelle's cheeks was growing deeper with every second that passed, to the point that she was quickly turning to the color of pure red paint. "If you wanted to spend the night with your girlfriend and her mother, I would be happier for it!"

"Girlfriend?" both Nah and Brady repeated, neither of them happy to hear that being the modifier she'd been given in that sentence. He was the one that continued to speak after the fact, though, saying, "Ma, I don't know how many times I've gotta tell you this, but Nah's just a friend and that's not changin' any time soon."

"That's what they always say, so until you find someone else to date I'm going to believe that I am the one that's right in this situation." Maribelle paused, looking between them both. "That does apply to the two of you, not just one or the other."

"Because I need you dictating my romantic life for me, totally," Nah said, grumbling. "Thanks but I'm perfectly fine with staying single until I find the right person for me, and if that means waiting until I'm in my thirties to do it like my mom, then so be it."

There was a quick twitch to Maribelle's eye at that statement, before she turned her focus entirely to Brady. "Fine then, I'll be waiting for you to bring someone worth your time home to me, and when it's inevitably Dinah…"

"I don't plan on makin' any dating decisions anytime soon, Ma, we've been over this." Brady stood back to his full height before stepping away from the table, walking over to the bundle of balloons floating idly away from them all. "And why in the world do you insist on callin' Nah anything but the name she likes? If you're so insistent you're right about me and her gettin' together someday, you better get better about callin' her the right name."

Without being invited to comment on the topic at hand, Owain sagely remarked, "You see, I think Mrs. Maribelle would have a better time referring to Nah as such if it was a cooler name to say. We might need to workshop a title into it or something to make it better."

"I'm not changing my name more than I already have, Owain. But thanks for looking out for me there, I guess?"

"Any time, Nah, protector of dragons and slayer of idiotic religious practices." He heard her grumble at the added parts to her name, which he met with a gentle pat on her back. "I know, you're stunned by how genius it is."

"Ahem, names and potential dating issues aside, this is a gathering for a birthday and we should treat it as such, even if some people among us want to do otherwise." Ever the level head in a situation, Frederick tried his best to get everyone back on the same page, and he succeeded just long enough to get a rather lifeless rendition of a birthday song out in the open, before Brady decided he was done with the party and requested to be taken anywhere but where he currently was.

Within three minutes of that request being made, he and Owain were leaving together and Nah was running out behind them, if only to make sure that Brady got the card she'd bought him and that it didn't end up being possessed by Maribelle of all people. They got outside at the same time, barraged by the cold air and the even colder wind, and when Nah tried to hand the card over, Brady rejected it at first, his fingers curled up as he struggled to zip his jacket to provide himself with warmth. "No way, that's gotta be somethin' Ma put together and I don't want any more to do with her nonsense tonight."

"Actually, this is from me," Nah chattered, her teeth hitting each other ridiculously hard as she waited for her friend to take the gift. "Swear on my life that I bought it without consulting with your mother about it."

"If you insist. Thanks for this, Nah." She only waited as long as it took for him to be holding the card in his hands before she was running to her car to get home, listening to him call out another thank you followed by Owain giving a much more dramatic one.

Nah sat in the car for a few moments before turning it on, her breath thick with how frigid the temperatures were, and when she did turn the key in the ignition and listened to her car's engine sputter to life, she had second thoughts about actually leaving right then. Maribelle was in a position of power over her and her job, and her deciding to abandon the party before it was technically over could come back to bite her in some way. But then she thought about Brady, and how done with his mother he was, and she decided that sticking with her friend was more important than trying to kiss up to a member of the school board.

She drove away without a single regret on how the night had gone, and only one pressing concern that kept floating back into her mind. She'd just been called out for having some sort of attraction to one of her closest friends, and he'd been called out for having the same about her, and they'd reacted by denying everything. Now, Nah knew that she did actually feel something for Brady, but she didn't want to think that it was to the level of needing to try out dating him; did that mean the same went the other way as well?

Based on how she got a text from him later that night calling her the greatest friend he could ever have, the jury was out on that.

If there was any chance of Maribelle's meddling affecting Nah's job, it was going to have to wait until the next school board meeting at the earliest, so she was able to wake up the next morning without the fear of facing consequences about what had happened. It was Friday, sure, but Nah remembered that she was going to be losing her free Fridays going forward, so she needed to make the current one count as much as possible. There was nothing she needed to get done related to work, and she didn't have any errands that needed completing, which did make her consider just heading over to Ribbon's school and making herself available already, but an idea struck her before she even left the house.

She went into the kitchen to find that it was spotless and there were no signs of her mother having been in it before she'd headed to work, a good sign because it meant that there was a chance Nowi wasn't actually at work after all. Instead of creep back upstairs and check her parents' bedroom for any sign of her mother, Nah simply collapsed into the couch and called her mother's phone, listening for any ringing. When there was none, her enthusiasm faded slightly but she didn't let her spirits fall too far at the possibility that her mother was truly at work. Instead, she tried calling again and again until she finally heard the tell-tale sign that Nowi was still at home. "Nah, you're getting so annoying," Nowi called from upstairs, knowing that the culprit for all the phone calls was predictably downstairs. "You're not getting anything from me doing that."

"Sorry, but I needed to know if you were still here or not," Nah yelled back in return, setting her phone aside and waiting for Nowi to join her down on the couch, looking like she'd just rolled out of bed compared to her daughter being fully put together already. "I'm even a bit sorry if I woke you up doing that."

"If it were a normal Friday I totally wouldn't be here, but I've got today off because of your father leaving and not wanting to drag myself into work after being up all night watching sappy movies without him." Stretching her arms dramatically, Nowi reached over and wrapped one over Nah's shoulders, pulling her in closer. "And since it's Friday, I know that you've got nothing going on yourself, so maybe we can do some mother-daughter bonding and get back to that movie marathon I started last night?"

"I appreciate the offer, Mom, but you know that's not really my thing." Nah scrunched her nose at the mere idea of having to sit there watching tissue-worthy romance movies with her mother, who would eat them up like they were the best movies in existence. "I did have an idea of something better we could do, if you were free and up to it."

Nowi's eyes widened, making her look even more youthful than she already did. "Is it something that your father would approve of if he was here?"

"Uh…" Nah had to think about the answer to that, before deciding that yes, Gregor would absolutely approve of the idea if he was around to hear about it. "I think he would think it's pretty fun and wish he could be a part of it himself, but he's not here so we'll have to do it with just the two of us. Only if you're down for it, that is."

"You haven't even given me a hint about what it might be and you're already wondering if I'm going to be down for it." Giving a soft hum as she thought about how she would respond to the offer, Nowi scrambled to her feet and stared down at Nah with a smile. "I'm not used to having days off like this, so it'd be pretty fun to get to go wild with you and do whatever you do for fun. As long as it's not playing that silly game of yours."

"Trust me, Mom, that's only on Tuesdays." Smiling back at her mother, Nah waited a few moments before she elaborated on what she thought they could do together. "So, uh, last night I might've done one of those things you've tried to teach me not to do. Might've spent a bit too much time talking back to Maribelle about things that she was saying. And it's not like she didn't deserve it, and it's not like I was alone in doing it, but I know how she gets and I know you're going to get a whole earful about it the next time you see her."

"Thanks for being aware of that, because it's true." Nowi shook her head, her face falling into a particularly neutral expression. "I'm pretty sure that I'm one of the top people she vents to these days, which is really weird to me. Who comes into the human services offices just to talk to one of the people working to give people the help they need, and they're not someone who's looking for help? Clearly she does."

"Her and a bunch of others, from what you tell me, but that's not important. What is important, though, is that you have a little apology gift from me on hand to give her when she starts trying to pick a fight. I already know she's going to come in swinging with the ungrateful comments and the nasty child comments and everything else under the sun like that, so…we've got to make it good." There wasn't anything particularly compelling to make Nah think that this course of action was a good one to take, but she didn't want to subject her mother to that drama when she hadn't done a thing to deserve it.

Nowi seemed to think about what Nah was suggesting at her, slowly backing away from the couch and pacing around the room with her fingers running through her unruly, un-brushed hair. "I don't know about this one, Dinah," she said with a serious tone, her use of Nah's proper name a sign that she meant business. "It feels like you'd be rewarding Maribelle for acting like a diva at me, which is only going to make her do it more often. I think if this is the route you want to take on this one, you've got to seriously limit your time interacting with her son going forward."

"That's not happening, Brady's one of my best friends and we have far too much fun together for me to cut him out of my life over his mother's behavior. I'm not thinking of getting her anything big, or expensive, just something that'll prove to her that I'm not all that bad." It was going to be a tall order to make that happen without something going catastrophically wrong, but Nah wanted to give it her best shot. "And once I've bought it, whatever it is, I need you to give it to her when she starts coming at you to complain about me."

"Like, I get that and all, but it's not going to work. Maribelle's a different kind of person, one that you've been really lucky not to have to deal with up until now. But I spent a lot of my life before you were born dealing with people like this and…all you're going to do is feed her complex that she's right and that you need to be groveling at her feet for forgiveness." Shaking her head, Nowi took a second to look around the room before her eyes fell on Nah once more. "I don't want you being trapped in that loop with this woman, no matter how much you think you'll be able to change her mind with this action."

Nah, still sitting on the couch watching her mother's thinking stance grow more and more agitated, began to doubt herself and her ability to solve the problem she'd come into, but she couldn't go down without a fight. "Mom, you and Dad taught me that no matter what others think or do, I need to do my own thing. Forge my own path. Do you remember that?"

"Of course I do, like you said we taught you that." Nowi tilted her head slightly to one side. "Why do you bring that up now?"

"Because I'm invoking that right this second. I'm forging my own path on this one, regardless of what you think is going to happen. I'm getting her an apology gift and you're giving it to her for me, and that's that."

Taking in a deep breath, Nowi's nostrils visibly flared as she accepted that she'd just been played with her own words. "I suppose if your father was here, he'd be clasping on me the back and saying something like, 'Great job, Nowi, you taught her how to be forceful and make good decisions' and I'd be like, 'But Gregor, this is a horrible decision' and we'd go back and forth for a while before I admitted defeat. So we're going to skip those theatrics and I'm just going to admit defeat now. You get your way this time, Dinah, but it won't work as well as you hope it will."

"That's fine, I've got to learn how to cope with making mistakes sometime, don't I?" Laughing, Nah stood up and met her mother in the middle of the room, grabbing her in a surprise hug that had Nowi gasping at the sudden physical contact. "I'm thinking we can head to the mall for this one, since it shouldn't be too busy with it being a weekday and all."

"Nah. The mall doesn't open until noon on Fridays."

That was a realization that Nah hadn't had until Nowi pointed it out, and she glanced toward the oversized clock hanging above the room, its metal face illuminated by the daylight coming in through the windows. "Right, forgot about that fact. Guess we can go do breakfast before we hit the mall? It's been a long time since we've done that."

"Ooh, Gregor is going to be so upset that I'm getting this sort of quality time with you while he's not around to get some for himself," Nowi said with a soft giggle, pulling Nah's arms off of her so that she could head to the stairs. "I'll take a quick shower and get ready, then we can head out to breakfast. And, since you suggested it, I'm expecting it to be your treat."

"I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't expect that to be the case," Nah replied, winking at her mother as she began her way up the stairs. The moment she was alone downstairs, she fell back into the couch, cursing her lack of time awareness because she didn't exactly have the money to be buying breakfast and a gift of the quality that Maribelle would need to be appeased even a little bit.

For the entire hour or so that Nowi was getting ready, Nah was on the couch using her phone to do a bit of pre-shopping, trying to figure out what she could possibly get that would work in any way, shape, or form. There were a lot of potential ideas that were bouncing through her mind, but most of them were put to rest simply because no store at the mall sold anything that would make them work, and several others were dismissed due to their cost. By the time Nowi was downstairs and ready to go, the list of gift ideas was around eight possibilities that were all feasible, and it was going to come down to which one Nah liked most when she saw it. "So, uh, where do you want to go for breakfast?" Nah asked her mother, who was getting her shoes and jacket on while humming a soft tune to herself. "I'm not a huge breakfast gal, you know this."

"I was thinking we could do coffee and donuts, like we used to do in the mornings before you'd go to school. Do you remember those days, Nah?" Nowi sounded like she'd been doing some remembering of her own to call back to that particular brand of memory, but Nah nodded that she did in fact remember it herself. "You would always get the donut and take it to school, but you sure drank the coffee sitting there with me."

"Most of those donuts got eaten by Noire or Owain, whichever one of them got to me first, but sometimes they were part of my lunch," Nah recalled, thinking about the way those two would congregate around her searching for her unwanted breakfast every single day. "I think there may have even been a time or two when someone else got to it before they did, but it was usually those two."

"See, those two asking for handouts is fine, I know they've both always had some complex family situations and needing breakfast in the morning might never have been something that was never on their minds. Brady, on the other hand…" Nowi trailed off, muttering some choice words under her breath before perking back up. "If he ever begged anyone for something, that is simply uncalled for, given how haughty his mother is about her money and her status in the world. That's all."

Nah's eyes narrowed and shifted from side to side as she tried to think back specifically about how Brady handled interacting with her in the mornings, but she failed to recall anything at all. "I think he was always in the band room for violin practice before school started, I can't remember ever seeing him around before classes. That, and he was a year ahead of me so I didn't always run into him because of that, too."

"How could I forget that he wasn't in your grade level? That's kind of embarrassing to admit, but it did slip my mind there that he's older than you by an entire year." Pausing, Nowi grabbed her purse and pulled out her wallet from inside, opening it to reveal a faded picture of herself and Gregor she carried within it. "Imagine having that sort of age gap between yourself and someone dear to you."

"Mom, you're seriously how many years older than Dad, saying things like that?" Then it was Nah's turn to pause as the implications hit her. "And hold on, why are you saying it like me and Brady like each other? His mom was doing the same thing yesterday and it's seriously ridiculous. We're just friends. Promise."

"'Just' friends sounds pretty rich, coming from the girl who's going to be buying his mother a gift as an apology for tearing her down verbally," Nowi teased, which made Nah wish that she hadn't already asked for breakfast before shopping because she was no longer feeling generous with her time and money. "But I get it, you don't want people making assumptions just because you're a girl and he's a guy and you've been making lovey-dovey eyes at each other since the first time you met back when you were kids."

"And to think that you were acting like you didn't know who he was back when Morgan got stuck over here and was talking to you about him." Nah shook her head, as she finally got around to getting her own shoes on to head out the door. "Sometimes you act as immature as a teenager, Mom, and that's not a compliment."

Nowi reached over and gently flicked the side of Nah's head, the younger woman flinching at the contact. "I'd take looking and acting like a teenager over being mistaken for a woman my actual age," she said, her voice lowering. "And since I know that people have mistaken me for you before, I wonder if it works going the opposite way as well?"

The mere idea of being mistaken for a woman more than double her age made the hair on the back of Nah's neck stand on end, and she grimaced at the prospect of that actually happening. "I've never been asked if I'm an older woman, and I highly doubt it would happen even with us side by side," she said slowly, deliberately choosing her words to cause the least offense. "I definitely don't look that much older than you, and I think most people know that I'm your daughter when I'm next to you."

"I guess we'll just have to see if that stays true today!" Nowi sounded so chipper and so eager to be mistaken for someone decades younger than her, that it almost seemed rude to point out how unlikely it was to happen. Still, Nah hoped that no one would even bat an eyelash at the two of them, and if anyone did say something she hoped that it would be confusing them for being sisters instead of switching which one was the older of the two.

There were moments on the drive over to the café they'd spent all those mornings at back in the day that had Nah wishing she could just turn around and forget she'd ever suggested leaving in the first place. At one point, she skidded through an intersection with a police officer sitting across the road from her, and her whole chest tightened as she feared she was about to receive the first ticket of the year for herself, but nothing ever came of the whole ordeal and she was able to breathe easy. Another point that came up was her realizing a bit too late that the particular shop they were going to had been mentioned to her earlier that week. "Mom, is there any way we can go somewhere else for breakfast?" she asked, hands on the wheel twitching to turn and go a different direction. "This place has at least one other location somewhere in town, right?"

"Nah, you were perfectly okay with this before we left, did something happen that made you realize you don't want donuts after all?" Nowi asked in return, looking over at Nah to see her shake her head. "Then what gives?"

"I…don't want to run into any of my friends while spending time out with you, and there's a very real possibility that I could do exactly that if we go there. You know that Laurent's mom is finally getting her 'magic' store open, don't you?" Nah didn't actually wait for an answer before she continued talking, her worries beginning to get the best of her. "It's literally right down the road from where we're going, and they're always sending people down to get donuts for the construction crew. Wait, why am I saying sending people, it's one person in particular and I know if I see her, I'm going to spend all my time talking to her instead of you."

Nowi nodded in understanding, but when she replied she didn't seem bothered by what she'd heard in the slightest. "Look, if it's Noire you're talking about, you know that I love that girl as much as I love you. I'd gladly let her sit with us and enjoy some donuts and maybe a drink or two before she gets back to whatever job they've got her working."

"She doesn't do coffee, Mom, it messes too much with her medication and she doesn't like when her medication isn't at full strength." While that was probably a piece of information that didn't need to be shared, Nah knew it was something that Nowi had heard about many times previously, given how close she'd been with Noire since they were little kids. "But I bet she'd appreciate some time to not have to be around all the construction guys. Laurent doesn't get how much she hates being ogled by them, but he's not even doing anything that involves them, it's all book work at this point."

"If I'm fine with Noire spending time with us, and you're fine with Noire spending time with us, then I see no reason for us to go somewhere else and prevent her from getting to spend time with us. The plans stay exactly as they are." Nowi smiled at Nah, who took a second to accept that she was getting her mind all in a tizzy for nothing. "Besides, this place doesn't have any other locations and I'm not picking subpar breakfast foods that cost more over some of the best donuts in town."

She wasn't kidding that they were some of the best in town, and the crowded parking lot and long, winding drive-thru line was proof of it. Nah was able to get a parking spot near the building, even if it was probably not an actual spot that cars should have been parking in, and the pair walked inside to be greeted with the longest line imaginable for a Friday morning looking for coffee and donuts. "I'm rethinking listening to you after all," she whispered toward Nowi, who shrugged and told her to just get in line and wait.

It was fifteen minutes before they got up to the counter, and the employees on the other side were predictably frazzled and stressed at how busy they were, but the two were kind and patient with being told there were going to be waits on fresh coffee and the selection of donuts was thin for the moment. "It's that construction happening up the road," the cashier explained to them as they finished their order with what was available. "Every morning when we open they come in and somehow manage to order more donuts than they did the day before. Doesn't help that there's another construction group that orders a bunch several times a day, too."

"Yeah, we're familiar with one of those groups," Nah told the man, before elaborating so he didn't think they were associated with them. "My best friend is the donut runner for the group building the natural goods shop, she's got brownish hair and is kind of tall and—"

"Oh! I know who you're talking about, she was just in here not that long ago. That's a big part of why we're so backed up right now, she came and bought up the majority of our basic flavors when she was here." The cashier looked down at the register, then over at Nah with a shake of his head. "I wish we could turn away that sort of business when it means that people like you are stuck here waiting forever, but it is what it is."

"Don't worry, we're super fine with waiting," Nowi jumped in with, winking at the cashier. "We're on a mother-daughter breakfast date, and I bet you can't guess which one of us is the mother and which is the daughter."

"Ma'am, I don't want to offend you, but I can tell without hesitation that you're quite a bit older than her."

"…Wow, okay, way to break a woman's heart." Fake sniffling, Nowi stepped away and went to secure a table while Nah apologized for her behavior over paying for what they'd ordered.

When she found where Nowi had gone to sit, she noticed that her mother was covering her face completely with her arms, as if she was trying to obscure herself for some reason. "Come on, Mom, what he said was the truth, and it's not like he called you an old broad or anything. He just said he could tell you're older than me."

"It's the wording he chose to do it that hurt me," Nowi replied, her arms muffling her voice slightly. "Quite a bit older than you? At most I look, like, ten years older than you."

"If people can be believed and I look to be in my late teens at the oldest, that would put you as looking in your late twenties and there's no way anyone would fall for that. Maybe late thirties at the youngest, but you're not quite as deceiving as you pretend to be." Since she'd grown up around her, Nah was completely aware of her mother's actual age and was also aware of the realistic guesses that could be made for how old she was, but they were things that Nowi herself didn't want to hear. As such, Nowi stayed there with her face buried in her arms until they had their breakfast in front of them, and even after it had been served she was still trying to hide herself as much as she could.

While they were sitting there eating, the shop slowly cleared out until there wasn't any line to speak of, and the drive-thru was able to whittle itself down to just a couple of cars left. The employees inside seemed to enjoy getting the chance to collect themselves and catch up with what needed to be done inside the store, but another wave came trickling in soon enough, not nearly as bad as what had been there before but still fairly crowded. It was around the time they'd finished what they wanted to eat and were getting ready to leave that Nah looked outside and saw the congregation of construction workers standing just beyond the doors, discussing something between themselves. "Uh, Mom, we should go before we can't walk out of this place," she said abruptly, pointing toward what she could see, but Nowi wasn't paying her any attention and had gone back to covering her face. "Mom, seriously? Get over it, he didn't mean to offend you and you're acting childish."

"I'm acting as young as I want to feel, thank you very much."

"Okay, well, if you're going to act like that, then I'm leaving you here. I'll see you around later or something." Standing up, Nah made her way toward the door, looking over her shoulder to see that Nowi wasn't budging from the table. She sighed, considering turning back to fetch her mother, but decided that it wasn't worth it and that getting out of the less-than-legal parking spot she'd picked was far more important.

After getting to the car and turning it on, Nah waited a few minutes to see if she was ever going to be joined by her mother, or if she was going to make it over to the mall by herself now that it was closer to the time the place opened. Right as she'd decided that she was going to leave, the passenger's side door opened and Nowi slid into her seat, looking far more happy than she'd been the last time they'd seen each other. "Guess what happened after you so rudely left me," she started, a statement Nah didn't even want to touch. "One of the burly construction guys came in and asked me if I was looking for a job, because they're hiring cute little front desk workers at the place they're building."

"Mom, that didn't happen."

"Yeah, you're right, he asked if he could have my table, but he did thank me and told me I look cute, so there's that." Nowi's smile seemed to radiate her happiness, even if it was clear she was mostly deluding herself into thinking she'd received a compliment where one had never been made. "Let's get over to the mall and see if we can keep this momentum going, shall we?"

Without answering, Nah made her decision clear by backing out of her spot and driving away, passing by the construction site where she knew that Laurent and probably Noire were both working. While she wished she could have seen one or both of them while going by, she did get to see the finished exterior of the building, a place that had only existed on paper that time a year prior. The progress was pretty impressive, even though there had been plenty of empty buildings nearby that could've served the purpose just as well as building an entirely new one could, but Nah knew that it was a choice made by Laurent's mother to build something new for her vision. "Hey Mom, do a lot of people come into your office looking for money to build things like that?" she asked after they'd passed the new construction and were well on their way to the mall. "Or is that something that the people you deal with don't even try?"

"You know, I'd be a pretty rich woman if I had money for every time someone's come into the office searching for some handouts when they aren't in need of them, but I can't say that anyone's come in looking for money to build an entire store with." Nowi tapped her fingers against the car window, thinking about some of the stories she could've told, but she shook the whole train of thought off. "I'd rather think of the silly and stupid stuff like that than the really sad stories I get to see on the regular."

Pulling her eyes off of the road for a second to look at her mother, Nah was struck with the realization that her calling to be a special education teacher for the school district came from a similar place as her mother wanting to work for human services for the city. They were both filled with the need to help others in some way, and while their methods were different, ultimately they came from the same place within their hearts. "Mom, if you weren't working for the city all these years, do you think you would've gotten into teaching?"

"What? Of course not, I'm not qualified to teach!" Laughing, Nowi made a face at Nah, who shouldn't have been looking to see it but saw it anyway. "But seriously, I probably wouldn't have gotten those sorts of qualifications, but I could've easily gotten into administration with some of the qualifications I do have. Just don't have the right types of degrees to be a teacher around here."

"I should've seen that answer coming, yeah." Nah nodded in acceptance of what she'd heard, even though their conversation was one that was ultimately just filling the time to get to the mall. Once they were there, it'd be buried and forgotten about, something that neither of them would probably acknowledge again as long as they lived.

The mall was freshly opened when they pulled up, Nah getting a front row parking spot to the entrance of her choosing that was actually a parking spot that time. They got out of the car and headed for the door as quickly as they could, Nowi wanting to get the shopping trip over and done with quickly and Nah wanting to avoid running into anyone she knew so gladly doing the same. She'd come up with a rough outline of where she wanted to go to search for the gifts she'd thrown onto the consideration list, and right inside the entrance they were going through was the first of the shops they needed to visit.

"Don't you think this place is a little outside your budget?" Nowi asked when she saw Nah making motions to go inside that first collectables store. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's plenty in there that Maribelle would love to receive from someone, but it's going to be pretty pricey."

"That's why I'm just looking, then if all else fails I can come back here and get what I find. I'm kind of hoping that some of the other things I'm looking for will be cheaper somewhere else, but who knows what's going to happen here." Nah's optimism was unusual, but she had a good feeling that she wasn't going to need to get something inside that overpriced store and she wanted to ride that positivity as long as she could.

As it turned out, she was misguided in what she was getting optimistic about, because while there was ultimately nothing in that store that was affordable and within Maribelle's interests, there was something else that Nah knew someone would like. And given that the particular someone she was thinking of was someone doing something decently big for her, she almost felt obligated to buy the statue when she saw it. The only reason she didn't (at least, not right then), was Nowi looking at the statue of the deep purple and black dragon with a dice embedded in its hand and scowling at it. "You know what this reminds me of?" she said, loud enough that anyone in the store could hear her. "It reminds me of the anti-Naga propaganda certain manaketes would bring by the church to try and convince others to join their cult."

"Really? I don't see that at all," Nah replied, getting a closer look at the dragon and how bright its eyes shined in the store's light. "I see a cool dragon like the ones the books Morgan uses have all over their covers. I really think he'd like this if someone got it for him."

"Sounds like he's beginning to slip into the teachings of that wretched aunt of his, then."

"…Whatever then, I won't buy my friend the dragon statue." It was a bit more money than Nah would've liked to spend on Morgan out of the blue, so it wasn't a huge problem to have to turn her back on the piece, even if it did linger in her mind as they went down the mall corridor to the next store on her list.

Between jewelry shops, a clothing store for a high-end brand, and several other collectable stores, it seemed that everything that Maribelle might've liked receiving was either too expensive or simply not in stock. Nah's list was in shambles, and she was beginning to suspect that the universe had seen her trying to do something good for someone she did not like and decided to smite her for it, but she wasn't going to give up all hope without a fight. That was led her and her mother to one of the strangest stores in the mall, a place that catered to older women who were insecure about their lives, and came across a gift so out of left field that Nah had no choice but to buy it.

"I mean, it's technically a gift certificate, so if she brings it she can pick what she gets with it in the end, but it's…a doozy of a certificate to receive," Nah said after having picked out the box that she'd decided made the best present. "But I don't really get why people are buying these things and giving them to others, then expecting them to come here and cash them in for some shady spa services."

"You couldn't pay me enough to get me to do it, but I don't need any of their 'youthful regeneration' packages so I don't think I'm the target audience here." Nowi stopped walking for a second, snickered to herself, and then caught back up to Nah like nothing had happened. "That reminds me of some videos I watched the other day…"

"Mom, you're not talking to me about any videos you watch on that stupid app, I already hear enough about them from Ribbon and the kids at the schools. If you're not the right audience for older women spa days, then you're definitely not the right audience for that sort of content." That was enough to get Nowi to laugh about it, which was enough to make Nah smile at how jubilant her mother sounded, and they were able to leave the mall with the so-called "blood roller" package firmly in tow and a plan for how it was going to be presented to its recipient without causing any problems.

On the way home, Nah nearly blew through another stop and caught herself at the last possible second, slamming on her brakes and sending both herself and her mother forward, almost into the dashboard and steering wheel. They were both fine, if not just a bit breathless at the suddenness of the stop and the whiplash they'd received from it, but in resuming normal driving Nah realized that something had gotten under her foot when she'd stopped. "Do you think you can reach down there and get whatever I'm stomping on?" she asked Nowi, who looked at her like the question was completely out of line. "Seriously, Mom, I think the present has slid under my seat and down to the pedals and—"

"One, the present is over here under my feet, and two, whatever's down there will have to stay down there because there's no way I can reach under there with these short little arms of mine." To illustrate her point that mattered, Nowi reached down and grabbed the box from the spa, holding it up so that Nah could see it, then set it back down carefully. "I bet it's, like, a water bottle or a piece of trash or something. Your car is pretty messy, after all."

"I guess that makes sense," Nah replied, shaking off the idea that she was stepping on something that was worth the effort of grabbing it. However, the truth made a whole lot less sense than her mother's idea, and when she got home to find out what had gotten lodged underneath the pedal area she was stunned into a deep silence that she didn't know how to react to. "I…don't recall having this?" she mumbled as she grabbed the offending material, pulling it out and staring it down. "And I definitely don't recall buying it."

It was a dragon almost identical to the one that she'd seen at the collectables shop, the one her mother had claimed was an anti-Naga piece. The major differences between what she'd seen there and what she held now were the size and the fact that this one held two dice in its hands, one showing a five and the other showing a three, rather than the twenty that the one at the store had been displaying. "I wonder how this even got in here, I swear I've never seen this thing before in my life."

At once, a chill went down her spine that had her suspecting the worst in the situation. She recalled the night she'd driven out of town to pick Morgan up, and what he'd been doing before he'd ended up abandoned on the side of a farm road. It didn't seem logical, but the chances of this belonging to him and having been given to him by that anti-Naga aunt of his weren't exactly zero. If he'd left this behind to try and forget he'd run into her in the first place, then it would make sense, but to leave it in the car of someone who, at one point, had been a devout worshipper of Naga was a bit…questionable.

"What was tripping you up down there, Nah?" Nowi called from the front door to the house, her cradling Maribelle's gift under her arm like she cared about its safety. "I told you it was a water bottle and I was right, wasn't I?"

"You sure were," Nah lied in return, not wanting to address what she really had seen with her mother after their previous conversation at the collectable store. "I guess I should've just listened to you from the start instead of letting my mind run wild about what it could've been. Let me just…" She trailed off as she threw the dragon down in the passenger's seat of the car and slammed the door, intending on giving that back to Morgan when she saw him next. "I'm heading in, go on without me and I'll catch up!"

"Sounds like a plan, I'll set this on the table and get a movie started." For once, it seemed that Nowi didn't suspect a thing when it came to Nah's lack of truthfulness, and that came as a surprise given that this was a rare moment where she would've been justified in prying for further details on the matter.

The fact that she hadn't been called out on her deception stunned Nah temporarily, but she shook it off when she accepted that she'd rather be believed than be drilled on what she was just looking at inside her car. "I'll have to ask Morgan about that next time I see him," she decided with a firm shake of her head. "He'll probably have some weird answer I won't fully understand, but any answer's better than just thinking that the damn thing appeared in my car out of nowhere."