Charlie seems a little surprised, but acquiesces without quizzing him about his motives.

On the proper Sunday Adarin shows up via portal jump (to get the mana cost down for distance traveled) and a quick teleportation. He knocks on the Swan residence's door. While he's here, he can find an easy method to spend time with Ranata and do much the same thing he's planning to do with Charlie. If this works out, anyway.

Charlie answers the door. There's a tackle box and a fishing rod and a spare fishing rod by the door where Kesathi's sitting. "Hullo," he says.

"I'll show you how it works," Charlie assures him, and he heaves up the tackle box. Kesathi nods at Vern, then picks up the fishing rods in her mouth and trots after her human to his car. Once everything's packed up and both people are in, Charlie starts it up and off they go.

It's a bit of a drive. In the backseat Kesathi flumphs across the spare space - the car's built with plenty of room for most non-ridiculous daemons at the driver's feet even with the pedals, but it's still cramped - and noses in vaguely desulatory affection at Vern.

Vernaia trills happily back! She scoots to Kesathi and flops next to her, happy to share the space.

"Probably won't catch anything worth keeping, first time out," Charlie warns him when they approach the relevant river.

"I figured. That's all right, hopefully I'll enjoy it anyway."

Yep, not a talky kind of thing. Charlie seems to be paying at least as much attention to the scenery as he is to the possibility of fish in the water.

It is some pretty scenery. It's kind of nice to just - not have a huge to-do list that perpetually is added to. Mind you, he loves his huge to-do list and thinks it's great to have, but not having it for a little while is nice, too. He can just think about things. While fishing. If he catches a fish he will be so pleased with himself!

"Up to her, isn't it?" says Charlie.

"It is," he nods, "but I'm checking first, because I respect both you and Ranata and don't want to put any strain on your family."

"Now where've I heard idealism an' practicality fighting over the same sentence that hard before?"

"Why wouldn't we?" asks Kesathi, giving Vern a sort of one-pawed hug.

"If Isabella's happy we're happy," says Charlie. "She's very happy."

Adarin grins. "I like seeing her happy."

"Wouldn't be nearly so pleased about this idea," Charlie gestures at the box, "if it seemed you didn't."

"You going to talk to Ranata too, sounded like?"

"Yeah. I didn't have as obvious a way of talking to her, though. You had already invited me to come fishing, I don't know what I could do with her aside from just walking up and telling her."

"Offer to take her out to lunch," suggests Charlie, "when we get back."

"Can't imagine why she'd object. She thinks you're cute together."

"Maybe my sister had been telling her horrible stories about me. I hardly know."

"There horrible stories to tell?"

Adarin snorts. "No. Well - some of them might be embarrassing, but that's not exactly horrible."

"She the sort to tell lies, then?"

"Nope. Not in this case, anyway - she thinks Isabella and I are cute."

"Well, then, you do hardly know, don't you?"

"Fair point," laughs Adarin.

"There you are then."

"Yeah. Thanks. I'll still let her know, though, even if she's not going to react badly or anything."

"'Course."

The precious, precious little box goes safely back into his jacket, then it's back to fishing. It's nice.

Charlie eventually nabs one big enough to keep.

Adarin congratulates him sincerely! They won't be coming back empty handed.

And soon enough it is time to go back home and put the fish in the freezer.

"That was fun," says Adarin, on the way to the Swan home. "I don't think I'll come fishing every Sunday, but every now and then I think I would like to."

"Wouldn't mind having you."

Ranata is indeed attempting to teach herself the cello. Castarilan is perched on her makeshift music stand peering at the étude she's working on. "Oh, hello, Adarin," she says when he comes in.

"Hello," he replies brightly. "Would you like to have lunch? I don't know Forks very well and I don't know good places to eat."

"Ooh, I was just thinking, I'm sort of in the mood for Mexican, do you want to go to the taqueria?"

"All right then." Castarilan flies into her hair, she puts the cello on the bed, and follows him out. "What brings you here, though?"

"I went fishing with your husband," informs Adarin. "It was nice, I'll probably do it again."

"Did you catch anything? Here, hop on -" She has her cloudpine set up.

Onto the cloudpine! He's quite used to them, by now. "I caught a little tiny fish, and felt quite accomplished - but it wasn't big enough to eat."

They get a table! Ranata has apparently earned a string of visits to this taqueria by doing some thing some time in the past. She starts hmmmming at her menu while Castarilan zooms around her head.

Ranata wants flautas! They come with rice and beans. Everything comes with rice and beans, including Adarin's chile relleno.

"I borrowed a friend's cello - she's pregnant and finds playing it awkward while she's so huge, so I've got it for a few months to decide if I want my own - and I've been messing around with that. I went to Vancouver last weekend and saw a play but it wasn't very good."

She tells him the title, and her opinions of exactly why it wasn't very good and how much nicer it would have been if only they would have replaced this character with a Greek chorus.

"You're adorable, did you have any doubt of it?"

"Well, no," he laughs. "But I was trying to segue into something else."

"Oh?"

He smiles, then says, "I have been thinking about asking Isabella to marry me."

The high-pitched high-volume squeal this elicits is enough to turn several heads.

That makes Adarin laugh. "I see you're supportive of the idea."

"Of course! It will be lovely, I'm sure she'll say yes, she loves you so very much."

"I love her, too. Very, very much. I've bought a ring - would you like to see it?"

"Oooh, yes."

Out comes the box, and Ranata-ward it goes. The ring is pretty.

"Oh, this is beautiful. You picked it yourself?"

"I did," he says, smiling. "A little expensive, but Isabella and I are planning to get absurdly rich and we're well on our way there. So, I can justify it."

"It's gorgeous. Not a diamond, you got a bit more creative."

"A diamond wouldn't have fit the color scheme unless I got an ice-blue one. Which I was tempted to do, but emeralds are pretty, anyway."

"The emerald's perfect."

Ranata is pretty happy too! She orders a flan when the waiter comes by and recommends the tres leches to Adarin.

"It's no trouble. My fingers don't hold up to cello-ing that well yet, I'll need to develop the right callusses, so I'm done for the day on that."

"Makes sense. It's very kind of you, thank you."

It's really not! Ranata is very kind to take him.

And she hugs him when they've reached the Seattle portal. "I will be so happy to have you as a son-in-law," she tells him. "You'd better ask her quick, she'll be annoyed if she finds out I knew for long before she did!"

Hug. Adarin laughs. "I'm pretty sure she already suspects it."

"All the more reason to be quick, then. You do not have a patient girlfriend."

"Yes, ma'am," snickers Adarin.

"Now you go home and tell her I said hello."

"Of course," he agrees. "Thank you for everything, Ranata."

"You're welcome."

Here she is, on the phone with the insurance company, something about figuring out the value of a policy on property that's witch-warded. Path flutters up to nuzzle Vern when she and Adarin come in.

"Catch anything?" asks Path.

"A little tiny fish. Not worth bringing back, but Adarin caught it."

"Hi! Did fishing bore you to tears? Do I need to comfort you?"

He snickers. "No, I actually enjoyed it. I wouldn't go every Sunday, but every now and then, it would be fun. But feel free to comfort me anyway."

"C'mere," laughs Isabella, holding out her arms.

Cuddles! "I love you," he tells her, affectionately. "Have I mentioned it lately?"

"Nooooo, that doesn't sound familiar."

"Not even a little? What a pity. Would it help if I gave you something to remind you?"

"Maybe."

"Hmmm. Should I make sure the reminder does something helpful... Or just remind you? Because I am magic, you realize."

"You are pretty magic!"

"You have something in mind, don't you."

"Of course I do."

"What cool thing will my reminder do?"

"A mirror spell, miniaturized. So we don't have to worry about mirrors shattering."

"Ooh. But the reminder is not, itself, a mirror?"

"Am I supposed to guess?"

"Do you want it to be a surprise or do you just want it now?" he asks, amused.

"I don't know! How am I supposed to decide when I don't know what it is?"

"Well, you can have it now, but I will need to borrow it to put a spell on it, or you can wait a little while and get it later and it will already be enchanted."

"But how long is a little while? I need full information to make good choices."

"Yes." She kisses him and then holds out her hand for the ring.

"It's not like it would be out of character for you to have another sort of present for me..."

"True," he laughs, cuddling her. "But I thought I was being incredibly obvious about the whole affair."

"Just a little bit. Charlie didn't threaten to shoot you when you brought it up or anything, I imagine, or you wouldn't be so sanguine, you'd be all brooding about whether you've somehow been deficient or been giving off bad signals."

"He was quite supportive, actually. It was nice. Ranata was, too, she made an 'eeeee' sound."

"I can see her doing that."

Adarin giggles. "Charlie asked a few questions, thought about it for a little while, and then was completely fine with it and wished us the best."

"Good old Charlie." Kiss! "So now we are engaged. Do you wanna just sort of bask in that for a while or make plans now?"

Kiss! "Whichever one you prefer, my dear. Either way I am currently on the moon with happiness."

"Over the moon, love. Over it." Snuggle. "Well, I have approximately no wedding ideas, which speaks either in favor of putting it off until some materialize or in favor of getting on the plans now in case none ever do."

"I was close, it counts," he insists, laughing. Snuggle. "We'll put it off, then. I'll think of something eventually. Probably." Kiss.

"I love you too," she murmurs back.

Yay, bird gluing! Path is making soft happy noises and participating in the gluing happily.

Preen, preen, soft happy bird noises. "We hope she likes the ring."

"She loves the ring. She thinks it's gorgeous," he assures her.

"Eeee!" says Vern, and then Path gets extra snuggled. Preen, preen, soft bird noises.

Preen preen snuggle snuggle bird noises! Also various human activities.

So many snuggles. And various human activities.

"You're sure?"

Yaaaaaaaaaay. Isabella is reasonably boneless-with-happiness herself, for all that she's more used to the sensation than Adarin is. Snuggle. Pet, pet, pet.

Snuggle, nuzzle. Adarin pets Path's soft, soft feathers, and continues to be a puddle. Speech is a little beyond him, right now, but he can snuggle her just fine. With occasional nuzzles and some incoherent mumbles that sound vaguely similar to 'I love you.'

"Loooooove you." Nuzzle.

It really isn't. That's okay. Adarin's really not going to worry about it, they will figure it out if it seems like they should be done. Maybe if they get hungry or something.

Right now Isabella is not hungry. She just wants to pet Vern and melt against Adarin and make soft sighing noises.

Adarin isn't, either. He wants to pet Path and be a very nuzzly puddle. Food is extremely low priority, right now, puddlehood.

Adarin opens an eye, takes a little bit to string together reasoning for why he should not be a puddle, and then starts working on trying to remove his hand from Path's feathers. Motor function is one of the first things to go, for him.

"Mm-hm." Nuzzle.

Nuzzle. He'll just be here for a little while, snuggling his fiancée, while he sorts his head back to normal functionality.

"I'm starving," she mumbles into his shoulder, collecting her owl to put him on her shoulder.

"Me, too," he says, catching himself by surprise with the revelation. He didn't know he was hungry. "... Want me to make dinner? Or whatever - meal is appropriate at this time? I have no idea how long we were - busy."

"Mmm -" Isabella checks the time on her phone. "Four and a half hours, ish, I'm not sure exactly when we started, damn. So yes, it would certainly be dinner, maybe past time for it, what can you make that's fast?"

"Four and a half hours? I can't tell if that feels like far too long or far too short. Um. Sandwiches?"

"Goddesses yes, I would love sandwiches, make me sandwiches, I love you."

"I love you, too," Adarin laughs. He kisses her, then extracts himself and goes to make sandwiches. He makes four, because he's extremely hungry and is pretty certain Isabella's the same. Sandwiches are brought to Isabella, and Adarin flops down next to her to eat his own.

Isabella devours her first sandwich in about a minute and then is a bit slower about the other. "So apparently we probably shouldn't both be petting each other's birds unless we have an entire afternoon to kill, but when we do have afternoons to spare it was so nice," she sighs.

Adarin eats his sandwiches a bit more sedately than Isabella, at a steady pace. "So very, very nice. I don't think I'd want to do that all the time, because my head is still not completely sorted out even now, but I would like to do it again."

"Yeah. Very much a downtime thing. I wonder if we could fall asleep like that?"

"Maybe. It was incredibly soothing, so I imagine that if it's possible I can manage it."

"And we are generally already not doing much when it is time to fall asleep, so that seems worth trying, best of all worlds."

"Agreed." He scoots closer, and then snuggles a little.

Snuggle!