"An excellent friend is a value all it's own," Peyote replied with a nod. He wasn't inclined to love, not in that sense. He'd had his relationships, but in the end he believed rather firmly that anyone was better off with a friend.
As Allegra created equations and diagrams, Peyote found himself playing along, nodding and pulling a deadly serious expression over his face. And as he did so, he wondered at her. There was no doubt; Allegra was unlike any mortal he had met so far, and for a god who spent nearly all of his time with mortals...
He watched her scribbling on the sheet, watched the waiters eyes slowly grow more and more glassy, and he wondered what on earth he'd stumbled upon...or more accurately what had fallen on him. In the end, it didn't matter; he liked her immensely.
"I've never been mathematically inclined," Peyote said with a shrug. "I've always vainly chased the universe with words instead of successfully capturing it with numbers. But that....that was a good trick."
He grinned as she swerved back into the previous subject - being with Allegra was somewhat like riding along in someone else's racecar - and listened carefully to her answer. "You know, I think people have this image of dying where you spend all of your time being very noble and...well I mean, it just isn't the case. I've sat with dying people many times, none of them ever really felt like being solemn and noble, I don't think. So he just needed a distraction and darlin', I have to say you'd be hard pressed to find a better one."