"Well, you probably should," he pointed out, needlessly. She knew that, and if she hadn't before this conversation he'd essentially said the same thing earlier. He could tell what her look meant, too, and was reminded that her love life wasn't really any of his business. He certainly didn't want to get into any details of how things were going with Zelda, and not just because of the fallout of the luncheon earlier this month.

"Sorry," he said, putting his hands up in a mock gesture of surrender. "Your life, not mine."

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"Obviously." Jo said with a roll of her eyes. There was a laundry list of things she should do but wouldn't. She was a selfish creature by heart, unwilling and unable to compromise her values for anyone or anything. And, in some ways, perhaps it was just one more thing that made her a poor Gryffindor. Only cowards avoided confronting their problems — or, in her case, popping her happy domestic bubble. They would talk, eventually, even if doing so would likely lead to their inevitable breakup.

She nodded. "Thank you." Alfred wasn't sorry for sharing his opinions, she knew, but sorry that things were once again heading in a tense direction. "How long are courtships meant to last, anyway? It's been months now, right?"

  

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beautiful set by mj

Well, that was just mean, but maybe he deserved it. He was poking his nose into things that weren't his business, and now she was doing the same, just to prove a point. Her question, however, could not possibly have been asked in good faith. His grip on the glass tightened.

"Eight months next week," he said with a frown. "And no, before you say something snippy, they're not supposed to last that long."

Fucking Evander was engaged before him, which, aside from being terribly unfair, said everything anyone needed to know about the timeline.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

This time it was her turn to raise her hands in surrender. "Wasn't going to say anything snippy." She truly wasn't, either. The courtship was obviously a touchy subject and her question was ill timed. "You forget I know next to nothing about the whole process." Jo added in an attempt to mock herself, lest he think she was trying to mock him.

"So why eight months?" She then asked a bit hesitantly.

  

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beautiful set by mj

Alfred sighed. He polished off his glass — no feat, as it was nearly empty already — and moved to pour himself another.

"Her family won't let me marry her," he said, which was true but also didn't really get in to the whole lengthy explanation of how their courtship had originated in the first place. "And she cares what they think too much to elope with me."

He took a drink, then added, in case it wasn't clear, "I've asked." On several occasions.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Well, that sucked. Jo knew only a minimal amount of the inner workings of the Fisk family, but what she knew was that they were rather close knit. Kind of like the Smith's were before the majority of her siblings reached adulthood. It made sense that Zelda wouldn't want to abandon her family.

"You asked her or her father?" Regardless of her family, Zelda wouldn't outright deny a proposal from Alfred, would she? That seemed ludicrous, especially after the events of the past week.

  

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beautiful set by mj

No, actually, he hadn't, but he didn't really need to ask in order to know what the answer would be. He couldn't even have a conversation with Brannon Fisk. The man seemed to have decided that if he just pretended Alfred didn't exist long enough, he eventually wouldn't. On the rare occasions that they did end up at the same events, Brannon Fisk didn't spare him so much as a glance, so it was hard to imagine he'd made any progress in the realm of endearing himself to the man. And Zelda's siblings were more obvious about their disapproval (most of them, anyway).

"He's made his feelings on the matter abundantly clear," he said with a shrug. Brannon Fisk didn't even seem to have warmed up to the idea of them courting, much less marrying. Alfred was still not allowed visits in the parlor, which was standard fare even before a formal courtship.

"We wouldn't be courting in the first place except that she's too stubborn to let it go," he added, with a slight smile as he turned his attention back to his glass.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Jo's brows furrowed. Mr. Fisk didn't approve of Alfred (which, fair, not many parents would be fond of a formerly shipwrecked ship captain as a son-in-law) but that didn't inherently mean they couldn't just ... ask for forgiveness. Hadn't he spent the better half of her visit thus far talking about how the only rules they had to follow were their own? The Fisks were close knit, after all, which meant they would miss and forgive Zelda.

"Since when do you abide by all the rules? You're just going to wait them out? If her father is as stubborn as Zelda you'll be waiting forever." Jo said pointedly as she poured herself another glass.

  

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beautiful set by mj

"So I'll wait forever," he said flippantly, but immediately wished he hadn't. It wasn't true. He loved Zelda, and did not intend to give up on a future with her, but he'd already starting broaching the what if they never approve subject with her at Christmas. He'd been tired of it then — of never seeing her, of not really getting to talk to her, of never being able to touch her. And that was before news that Evander was getting married before he was, and before this whole debacle with the luncheon and the letters. He hated this. He hated courting. He couldn't do this forever, and Jo probably knew him well enough to call him on his bullshit statement.

"What's the alternative?" he asked with a shrug, focusing on his drink again. "Kidnap her? Get her pregnant and hope they'd prefer a hasty marriage over murdering me?" (He was almost certain they would prefer the latter, and nevermind that Zelda wasn't particularly inclined to participate in any of the activities that might lead them there in the first place — particularly lately).

He took a drink, then threw out one last alternative. It was the obvious one, though his tone made clear he thought it just as ridiculous as trying to kidnap her. "Leave?"

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Jo openly scoffed into her drink. Waiting forever wasn't plausible, not for people like them that lived for the constant freedom of travel. Being forced to endure the horrors of courting, stealing whatever stolen moments they could for nothing was a surefire way to fall out of love. Jo had broken enough entanglements to know when an affair had lost its luster, when the thrill of the chase was diminished by the effort required. A lifetime of this would kill any spark they had.

"You have to do something," she insisted. Elope was the most obvious, but also apparently off the table because of Reasons. "Go to her like Romeo, sneak her a hidden note to meet you on a ship for a night. Something to tell you this won't be forever. That you'll figure out a way because this-" she gestured to the two of them drinking at the table "-isn't going to make you happy."

  

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beautiful set by mj

Alfred opened his mouth to protest, but he didn't know what to say. What she was suggesting wasn't far off from what he'd done over Christmas, not that he was going to share the details of it with Jo. Being able to have a few hours alone with Zelda and having a chance to hold her was what had kept him going to past two months. He thought about it all the time. It might have been enough to keep him content until summer, honestly, had things not happened in the meantime. It was hard to keep in mind how nice it was to be alone with her when Evander was engaged, and he wasn't, and her last letter to him had included all of three terse words.

"I'm not exactly Romeo," he pointed out eventually, and took another drink. They were working their way through this bottle at a decent clip. Expected, he supposed, when so far they'd mostly been discussing how each of their love lives were fucked in their own unique ways.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"Are you always this dense?" Romeo wasn't Romeo until he was climbing the trellis and promising Juliet a lifetime together. It wasn't the eloquence that mattered, but the act of a grand gesture itself. That was why proposals and weddings were always so exciting (supposedly, anyway) because it was a public declaration. An act that proved to the world that their feelings were valid and real.

"More of the same won't get you any acceptance in this century. And I'm one to talk, I know, but there's a key difference here: you want to get married. You want her and the house and the life together. Make your own rules and tell her that, make sure she knows because you're not going to accomplish anything sitting here drinking with me."

  

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beautiful set by mj

"I'm accomplishing a great deal sitting around drinking with you," he countered, raising his glass at her in the same way someone might wag a finger reprovingly. "You're not being weird about talking to me any more, so that's something."

That had been his whole goal with tonight, really, so he was doing very well for himself. And, yes, he was mostly vocalizing it solely to distract her from berating him about Zelda.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"Yeah, well." She shrugged. Alcohol had a habit of loosening her up, likely just as he intended it to. "I'm still not entirely convinced Zelda is okay with us being friends. Or that we will still be friends in the long term." Jo admitted without a hint of a smile. Just as she was determined to enjoy her relationship with Zach while it lasted she was now the same with Alfred. "I'll understand when it comes to that, too. Just so you know."

  

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beautiful set by mj

"It won't," he said confidently, a little annoyed that she wasn't convinced yet. "And I won't be alright with it if it does."

They could get into hypotheticals about being forced to choose between Jo and Zelda if they wanted, but since Zelda had quite pointedly not asked him to choose he saw no reason why they ought to go down that road. Life had enough doom and gloom without them manufacturing any more of it in their own minds.

"Just don't send her any more letters telling her how much you'd like to sleep with me," he teased, raising his eyebrows at her with a suggestive but playful look.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"Alright, alright." Jo mock surrendered, raising her glass as if to drink to his sentiment. Whatever he said now wouldn't make much of a difference when it all came to a head.

Had she something on hand to playfully toss at him she would have. (Or, if she was still capable of friendly jinxes she might've done that as well.) "For the record, I said you were handsome. Not that I wanted to sleep with you." She had wanted to, once, but that was so long ago now that she didn't even consider it a possibility anymore. It didn't help, though, that she hadn't had sex since Greece. Perhaps that was her issue of wanting to flee — perhaps she just couldn't handle Zach treating her like glass anymore.

"Besides, you would have to want to sleep with me for it to even be a cause for concern. And seeing as you've seen me naked with no reaction ..." That fact alone was why Jo was convinced the magic in the cookies wasn't based upon physical attraction.

  

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beautiful set by mj