Zelda was coming back inside, and although it wasn't really as though there was anything good about this situation Alfred felt at least a little relieved that it appeared to be over. He didn't want Jo out alone in the snow, but he'd realized there wasn't anything he could do to stop her, if she really wanted to go, and if she was going to leave it was better if she left now than hours from now when things might only be worse (both with the weather and with her — staying in his flat and being smothered by this tension between the two of them clearly hadn't been good for her mental health so far today, if she was willing to risk an actual blizzard just to avoid him).

But it was over now. Jo was going to go, and hopefully she'd be fine, and Zelda was back inside and looking a little dazed, as though she had just been the one nearly on the receiving end of the stunning spell. Alfred let go of her arm once she was inside, but frowned at her as he waited for the door to swing shut, mildly concerned. Hopefully she didn't think this was her fault, somehow. She hadn't done anything wrong at all, and actually she'd gone rather above and beyond the call of duty, because no one reasonably could have expected her to step in and try to save Jo from her own stupid decisions when Alfred had just given up. It would have been ridiculous to ask that of her, but she'd done it anyway, so quickly that she didn't even appear to have thought about it first.

"Hey," he said gently, as if trying to nudge her back to the present moment. "Thank you for trying." He flashed a shadow of a smile at her — more of a gesture than a real show of emotion, because it didn't reach his eyes and was a little too quick. He should have just left it at that, because despite having just tried to keep Jo out of the snow she was probably still angry with him, and probably the last thing in the world she wanted was for him to try and do something cute or sweet, but — well, seeing her with that faraway look in her eye and that white-knuckle grip on her wand made him want to wrap her in his arms and squeeze her tightly for at least ten minutes. So, really, she was getting off pretty lightly when all he did was lean in to quickly kiss her forehead.

He froze for half a second afterwards, as though the possible consequences of this action had not really caught up with him until just that moment. He sort of wanted to touch her again — push her hair back behind her ear, maybe, and stroke her cheek with his thumb — but she was almost certainly at least a little angry with him, so that probably wasn't the best idea.

"Did you find the tea?" he called instead, turning to walk into the kitchen, which by now was buzzing with the noise of sizzling oil and boiling water and all the rest of the things he'd forgotten whilst trying to fight Jo in the entryway.