priorcommitment | she's got a smile like a flower; she looks so fine by the hour

Marriage was not an institution that Ishiah took lightly. Robin had often, over the years, made jokes about the fact that there were birds that mated for life— Ishiah had never found such jokes quite so funny. The act of binding oneself to another person was no small choice, nothing to be taken lightly, especially in a day and age when marriage was no longer considered a necessity for consummation, or as a prerequisite to sexual intercourse. He knew, of course, that not all people felt an obligation to be completely sure of themselves before taking that step. That people married for money, for face, or just on the high of emotion, happiness erasing all fears. He knew, and he'd come to accept it over the years, never judging people for their follies and sticking by his policy of accepting everyone under his roof, anyone who didn't incur deliberate and knowing harm upon others.

But when it came to his friends and family, Ishiah's standards had always been a bit skewed in the direction of expecting more. Protecting more. So when Lucy had come to him with her good news, however glad Ishiah was for the fact that she could love someone enough in that moment to say yes, he still had his reservations. And certainly, the first priority of his before the ceremony was finding Pete Campbell and getting to know the man better.

Whether or not there was a proper way to go about the matter, Ishiah wasn't sure, and as was becoming typical for him whenever the peri needed advice, he found himself on Trixa's doorstep, knuckles rapping against the door.

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Trixa laughed. Out loud and with great gusto, it was the best thing she'd heard all day. Maybe the peri was learning her brand of humor after all. Stranger things had happened and probably would again, their luck, but until then, she'd gotten Ishiah to crack a joke. And a lecherous one to boot.

Well, lecherous for him, Robin would have had a completely different comment.

"Yes, yes, you would. I may not be a puck, but I'm pretty damn good when I want to be."

Again, Ishiah found himself slightly taken aback at the strength of her reaction, laughter that might have bristled his wings back in the day. Now, however, he didn't have the strength or willpower to be angry, and was removed enough from the moment that he could see it all for what it was. The rare moment in which both Trixa and him seemed to see on the same level again. His lips curved in a small smile.

"I'll take your word for it."

He only paused briefly before looking up again, expression more serious, voice quieted. "Thank you, Trixa. My apologies for asking so many favors of you."

"That's what friends do, Ishiah, they ask favors and annoy the hell out each other." She smiled, letting him know she was perfectly content with that. It was part of the package, after all, being friends with a peri. Being friends with anyone, really: human, puck, trickster and all, each one came with baggage, each one with questions to be answered.

Wow, her Mama must be laughing her ass off somewhere with Trixa being so philosophical and all.

"I'm not going anywhere and the door's always open, understand?"

He could only wonder if it was possible to iterate a message too often. If promises grew old more quickly than a person did himself, if bowling another person over with the same promise time and time again made it lose its color somehow. With peri, it had always been easier. Being of a single mind, it didn't take promises to offer reassurance; it only required a look. But that was a level which Ishiah was fairly certain that he would never quite find with Trixa, and so he pressed his lips closed, finding words which could only just describe the way he felt.

"And mine to you as well, though I believe thus far, it's still I who am in your debt," he replied, lips barely quirked.

"Don't worry about it. I'm the one that's supernaturally equipped to know what makes people and things tick. Couldn't be what I am otherwise."

It wasn't ego if it was true. How could she possibly be what she was, do what she did, if she didn't have that innate ability to find out and understand what made people, gods, and any other being do the things it did. You can't con what you don't understand. You can't trick if you don't know that the other party really wants in life.

"But sooner or later, I'm sure I'll take you up on that."

"It's one thing to be skilled, and another to share that talent with others," Ishiah countered in turn, his own way of giving a compliment, though one muted at best— he didn't feel that it would have done much for either Trixa or himself had he prostrated himself in gratitude, their friendship too reliant on the fact that both were on solid ground, both equals in their own way, capable of helping the other, no struggling power dynamic between them.

Besides, Ishiah didn't wax poetic about just anyone, and hadn't even done so often with Robin himself.

"But I'll be waiting."

she's got a smile like a flower; she looks so fine by the hour

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