Distantly, Jo realized a lover had once before traced her tattoos much as he was now. Would this be how she recalled the alternate reality in which they now lived? Fleeting moments of distant memories? Not for the first time since that morning, Jo focused intently on trying to remember where the tattoos originated. Though, like always, she came up with nothing.

"Perhaps." She agreed despite knowing otherwise. There was something to it. The vines and flowers weren't inked permanently onto her skin for vanity's purposes. It simply wasn't like her. "The same, I would hope. Just without the tattoos." Jo could hardly remember her body without the dark ink, so she couldn't much tell the difference. "The flowers are all different from what I can tell. My mirror at home is rather small, so I'm sure I've missed some details."

  

"It doesn't look the same at all," he argued, despite as he'd pointed out only a moment ago having never seen her undressed without the presence of the tattoos. "It's like the difference between a window and stained glass."

(He liked them, he supposed was what he was trying to say).

Alfred said nothing for a moment, letting his eyes and his fingertips wander over the vine path. He stopped his hand before it moved over the top of her corset, but his gaze and his imagination continued to wander for a second longer. "I'd like to see the rest of them," he said quietly. "If that's alright."

  

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

"You think so?" Part of her reluctance to share her tattoos with anyone else was the fear of refection. They were well out of the realm of God's vision, and most would be utterly scandalized by their presence. But, to be compared to the glorious windows she'd seen in churches was enough to make her grin. The tattoos were beautiful, if one were able to step outside the conventional realm of beauty.

Jo relaxed into his touch. It'd been too long since her last tryst — too long since she'd last been touched. "It's only fair, seeing as you showed me yours." The lacings were going to be a bitch to remove without the aid of magic, and her wand was foolishly left behind in her bag. "Would you help me?"

  

Alfred nodded, and moved closer on the bed so that he could get to the knot in the back. His fingers felt clumsier than they should have, given how experienced he was with knots — but to be fair, he wasn't typically working with tiny satin strings like this. That was probably all it was, because, oddly enough, he wasn't nervous about getting her undressed. Part of that thing about her, he supposed, that made him comfortable saying all sorts of things he didn't normally say.

He was sitting behind her on the bed when the corset came off, and he was in no particular rush to see her breasts. This was less about sex and more about intimacy — the tenderness and richness of this moment. He traced the vines on her back with light touches from both hands. There was a dahlia on her side, and his hand lingered there for a moment.

"This one's edible, in case you ever needed to know," he joked lightly.

  

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

She breathed deeply as the corset's restrictions were released. The boned bodice allowed her a more feminine figure (the only reason why she continued to wear them) but did little for her lung capacity. With it gone, she quickly shed the chemise as well. The thin fabric hid the majority of her tattoos, and that was the point of this all wasn't it?

The light touch on her back surprised her. "Are there more back there?" It shouldn't have been so shocking that there were parts of the tattoo she hadn't yet noticed, but it was all the same.

She glanced down to where his hand rest on her side. The dahlia was larger than the rest, taking up a considerable amount of space. "You've seen them in bloom, then?" This shouldn't have been a surprise, either. After all, Alfred had spent more time than she in her favorite part of the world.

  

"Mmhm," he mumbled, an amused response to both questions. In elaboration of her first question, he gently pointed them out by placing his hands on each of them. "Here — here, and — here." He only had one mirror in his room, or else he would have offered to show her. For now, she'd just have to take his word on it.

He was finished exploring her back, but rather than move so that he could see the whole front of her at once he leaned in and glanced over one shoulder, at the flower that had been only just visible at the top of her corset when she'd been dressed. It was quite elaborate, by comparison, and not one that Alfred thought he'd seen before. Most of these flowers were familiar, even if he didn't know their names, so that was a bit surprising.

"Do you know anything about them? The actual flowers, I mean," he said, reaching one hand around her shoulder to lightly brush his fingertips against the flower he was looking at, and in the process sort of half-hugging her to him.

  

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

Merlin. How expansive were these tattoos? Jo craned her neck back as though she would be able to see the spots he pointed to. Tomorrow, perhaps, she would borrow Mother's mirror and investigate fully. It seemed insane to have parts of her body wholly unknown to her.

She held his hand to where it was on her chest and rested against him. "This one is the Queen of the Night." It blooms for only one night a year and is gone by morning." Witnessing that bloom was perhaps one of the highlights of her life, and Jo still remained resolute in her hatred of herbology. She then drew his hand across her chest and slightly below her breast. "This one is a Butterfly Weed. They're brilliant to see in bloom, this shocking red. They always reminded me of the Gryffindor tower."

  

"Of course you were a Gryffindor," Alfred said with a grin. He shifted the way he was sitting so that he could put one leg on either side of her, more or less cradling her against him. It just seemed more natural, since she'd drawn his arm around her like that. Without really paying much attention to what he was doing, he wrapped his other arm loosely around her waist, right where her skin disappeared into the pool of fabric from her dress.

"I was, too," he added, as though it really needed to be said.

  

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

"The only right fit." She laughed. The hat had barely been placed upon her head before it screamed Gryffindor. And to think she had been so fearful up until that moment of being a hat stall. "It's a shame we weren't there at the same time. I was constantly roaming the castle, it would've been nice to have a fellow adventurer as a companion."

It would've been nice to have met sooner, if only so that they had more than a month to get to know one another.

Before she allowed herself to voice such tragedy, Jo turned her attention back to her tattoos. Taking his hand and trailing his hand at her waist to just above her navel. "This bunch here are orchids. They're an exceptionally tricky breed. From what I understand, they're hard to keep in captivity." He likely couldn't see the flowers she was speaking of from his vantage point, though she made no move to reposition them.

  

"Oh, no," Alfred said with a laugh. "If you were at Hogwarts with me, you'd be old." He didn't think of himself as old, particularly, but the truth was that there was a different standard in place for women. Alfred could waste time sailing around the world and ignoring society until he was well into his forties without much notice, and even then he might only be labeled as eccentric. A woman, on the other hand, could only get as far as twenty- five or so before the civilized world gave her up for good.

"You'd be married," he joked. Or maybe not — but either way, the dynamic would be different, he thought. "Or, at least, you might not be quite so willing to come over and show off your tattoos."

  

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

Marriage was an institution old as time itself. Two people found themselves in one another and bound themselves together until death. Which was great, in theory. A partner to journey together with was commendable only as far as their happiness. Sooner or later one outgrew the marriage or became discontent, and then what? They were still bound, still trapped. Jo knew what she was refusing when such an offer was proposed to her, and she would still refuse today.

"Not me. I have no wish to marry." She replied with a small shrug. "I'm happy as I am. Happy to travel and live freely. Happy to be here showing you my tattoos at my leisure. Marriage is for some, Earth for example, but not me."

  

Alfred nodded along as she explained, but wondered if she'd feel the same way in a year or two, or ten. A lot of women changed their minds about things like this as they got older— which wasn't to say that she would, only that she might.

"Well, in any case, I'm happy you're here," he said pleasantly, with his hands still resting where she'd placed them. "Though now I do feel a bit overdressed for the occasion."

  

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

Despite being nearly nude in his arms, Jo still felt a flash of reluctance for him to undress as well. There was a line between them — one she typically never considered. Once they crossed that line there was no easy way to uncross it, not without remaining friends at the end. Jo didn't like attachments for the same reason she despised marriage. Crossing this line with Alfred felt undoubtedly like an attachment.

But, his chest was firm against her back and his hands were warm on her skin. And he was most likely going to die. How attached could she become if he was dead?

She turned her head to look at him and smiled. "You know I'll never turn down an opportunity to see your tattoos."

  

Alfred chuckled, then shifted his position a bit behind her so that he could slip his shirt off. If she was trying to see his tattoos again, though, she'd be disappointed, because as soon as he'd discarded it he went right back to holding her up against his chest. The feeling of her warm skin against his was comforting, and for the moment the only thing he wanted to do was just to sit like this, holding her and enjoying the warmth of her skin and the calm of the air around them.

  

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