June 2nd, 1891 — a small seaside dock near Hastings, Sussex

He really shouldn't have been nervous, after everything, but he was. He told himself that was silly, and overly sentimental, and in the abstract he knew it was — but still, practically, he felt as though there was a weight on his shoulders — the weight of getting this right, every single detail, because it might matter.

After some planning behind the scenes, he'd gotten Katia Meadowes as his accomplice for the afternoon. She was the right person — she believed in romance, and she'd known him in Hogwarts when he was gangly and awkward but generally normal, so she didn't dislike him as much as some of Zelda's siblings still seemed to. He didn't know what pretense Katia had used to get Zelda out of the house with her, but when he caught sight of them approaching the dock it was obvious that she hadn't let on to Zelda that she ought to expect to see Alfred today.

He was smiling, of course; he couldn't see her and not smile, these days. He was sitting at the edge of the dock, perched atop a chest with unused lines and fishing tackle — this was the rural sort of dock that was mainly used for little fishing boats. He was sitting on his hands, because if he wasn't he would have moved to touch her already, and he didn't want to push his luck with Katia. As innocent as it might seem to him to hold her hand or touch her waist, a romantic but still vaguely protective big sister might disagree.

"Hi," he said brightly, when they were close enough to hear him over the gentle noise of the sea beyond. "I've got something to show you."

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

Zelda didn’t really understand why they were in Sussex today, but sometimes with Katia’s flights of fancy it was better not to ask. Also, it meant that she didn’t have to loiter around Hogsmeade or Irvingly today, so — they could go to Hastings and run whatever weird Katia errand Katia wanted to run, and that would be more than enough fun for her.

Of course, once they made it down from the floo point to the dock, Zelda spotted a familiar mop of curly hair and realized that the reason she didn’t understand the errand was that Katia had made it up in the first place. She grinned at Alfred, and then at her sister, and she wanted to speed up their approach to the dock but didn’t want Katia to call her out on it.

”Hi,” Zelda said, grinning at him. She was excited enough to see him that she was trying to keep from bouncing on the balls of her feet, but it still showed on her face and in all of her body language. (Katia, to her credit, mostly looked bemused.) Whenever she saw Alfred these days, it was impossible to not look stupidly happy — all because of the secret wedding. ”What is it?”

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred grinned at her question, but didn’t answer right away. Instead, he reached to take her hand and started leading her down the nearby dock (nearly pulling her, if he was honest, because he was too excited to take measured steps that fit with her shorter stride). They were nearly at the end of the dock, Katia trailing them by at least half a dozen yards, when he stopped. “This one,” he announced, eyes alight, as he gestured towards a sailboat.

She was the largest boat on the dock, but only because this dock was mostly used for tiny fishing vessels; at twenty-two feet she was not a large boat by any means. There was a border of handsome polished cedar along the deck, then a hollowed-out space that took about a third of the length of the vessel to provide space for two long bench seats, and the till to steer her by. It was the sort of ship that could sail with one experienced hand, but was easier to handle with two. At the fore end of the seating area was a short door, angled so that when it was thrown open there was enough room to descend a little three-foot ladder to the area below. At the bottom was a small cabin — hardly enough room for two people to move around each other in, but somehow managing to include a bed, toilet and kitchen in the small space, along with a fair bit of storage. It was helped a bit by a magical enlargement charm, but not by much; it would certainly be cozy, but he didn’t think she’d mind.

“What do you think?” he asked hastily. He had an urge to climb aboard and start pointing out features, but bit the inside of his lip to prevent himself from talking too much before she’d had a chance to even really see it.

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

She probably could have guessed that she would be looking at a boat, because Alfred was directing her towards the end of the dock and there was a short list of things one would find attached to docks, but she still grinned at him when he stopped and indicated the sailboat.

It was bigger than the fishing boats attached to the dock, and Zelda stood on her toes to get a better view of everything that was in the sailboat. The sailboat seemed large here, but she had a feeling that it would look smaller if it was actually out — and if it wasn’t next to these tiny fishing boats.

”It’s —” Zelda stopped, remembering that boats were gendered and women, for whatever reason. She corrected herself: ”She’s beautiful.” She wished she understood a little more of what she was looking at, because she had only gotten so far as this is a sailboat — but even so she could say honestly that she thought the sailboat was beautiful.

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   J. Alfred Darrow

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred grinned, too pleased with her reaction to even consider whether or not it was genuine, and how much of what she was looking at she actually understood. Explaining the boat didn’t really occur to him at first, or at least not the aspects that he considered obvious, so he started in on the less obvious. “She has a chronometer and a sextant tucked in to the front panel here,” he said, letting go of her hand so that he could move down the little dock and point out where they were stored. “Everything you need to navigate. She’s not big enough to take across the Atlantic, really — not comfortably, anyway; she’d have a rough time with some of the swells that far out. But she could take the English channel, no problem. Then down along the coastline. Through the Mediterranean Sea, maybe,” he continued, glancing back at Zelda to see whether she was following where he was going with this. “Depending on how much time you want to take with it.”

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

Zelda didn’t know what chronometer or sextant meant, but she didn’t want to say that when Alfred was so obviously excited. And he was explaining, those things were for navigation, and this boat couldn’t go across the Atlantic, but the English channel. The Meditteranean sea. She didn’t quite get it until he said you, although she was grinning at him — a little obliviously, but grinning at him — and then it clicked. ”Do you mean —” she said, face lighting up as she went through the words ”— that we could go down the coastline in this? The English channel? The Meditteranean Sea?” She was grinning now, the corners of her eyes crinkling up with it — they could go places on this boat.

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred's grin widened. She was following, then, which meant she was starting to piece it together. "Yeah," he agreed, stepping onto the little boat and moving back towards her and offering a hand to help her across. "But, you know, a trip like that, it'd take weeks to do it properly. Your father would never agree to it," he said, but he was smiling wide and mischievous, as though this were the set up to a joke rather than a real obstacle. With his eyes meeting hers, Alfred continued very deliberately, "— we'd have to get married first."

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   Zelda Darrow

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

Zelda took his hand and stepped onto the boat, feeling a little jolt of nervousness at the feel of the deck underneath her. Alfred was talking about Brannon now, but not using an exasperated tone — instead, it sounded like he had some other cards up his sleeves.

We’d have to get married first.

If they had been alone she would have quipped something about their secret marriage, but they weren’t alone, Katia was here — which meant this might be real. It had to be real, because Katia was here, which meant — Zelda smiled at him, wide, and bit her tongue to keep from blurting anything out. ”We would, wouldn’t we?” she managed, excitement leaking into her tone. This could be real. This might be real. Alfred had proposed before, they were already married, but — talking about marriage with her sister watching meant he probably wasn’t about to ask her to elope again.

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   J. Alfred Darrow

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AMAZING set by MJ

"We would," he agreed with a wide grin, reaching to take both of her hands in his and steadying her as the boat swayed gently beneath them. "September is a good month to go sailing," he continued in a leading way. Marrying by August would be a short turn-around, but he didn't want to wait any longer than was strictly necessary, and he doubted Zelda would be much inclined to delay in order to have a bigger to-do at the event itself. The wedding wasn’t the important thing, obviously; the important thing was getting everyone else to recognize what the two of them already knew.

“Miss Zelda Fisk,” he said finally. “How would you like to start introducing yourself as Mrs. Zelda Darrow?”

This seemed a little less silly than asking her will you marry me, given that she already had.

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   Evander Darrow, Zelda Darrow

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

September, if they were going sailing in September then they would be official by September, which meant they would marry this summer. Zelda squeezed his hands. She was still trying to keep herself from blurting anything too soon, and so she was trying to focus on holding his gaze, her own wide grin stuck on her face.

(Katia, an eternal romantic, was surely loving this.)

”Yes,” she blurted, as soon as he actually asked, except that didn’t make sense in response to the question, so — she grinned again and added, ”I mean — I would like that very much. Yes.”

If he was asking in front of Katia, then that meant he had gotten Brannon’s permission, and Zelda — frankly had no idea how he’d done it. But he had, and so she was just — too ecstatic to even manage to ask, at least right now. Zelda Darrow. She squeezed his hands again, because she wanted to kiss him, but — Katia.

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   Ari Fisk, J. Alfred Darrow

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred grinned wide and had to resist the urge to laugh when she answered. He leaned in and kissed her forehead, because while he was trying to be on his best behavior in front of Katia he also couldn’t let that go without kissing her at least a little.

“I’ve got a house on the Sanditon Terrace for us to live in,” he told her, his grin remaining but turning a little sheepish; he was honestly surprised that he’d been able to keep it a secret so long, when his initial plan had been to propose sometime in the middle of April. Unless Ari had let it slip, though, this ought to be news to her, and he was waiting with bated breath to see if she seemed pleased by it. “And a job at the resort for the summers. So the only thing left to do is for you to name the boat,” he teased lightly.

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   Zelda Darrow

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

Zelda grinned again. She was getting so much information at once that it was a lot to process, but the Sanditon Terrace sounded great — it was on the water and it was close enough to everything that she could still get wherever she needed to, but it wasn’t the city. And it was on a beach, and there were boardwalks and there were people, and — she thought she’d like it. She was grinning.

And he was going to be there for the summers, and that was enough that she would have agreed to live almost anywhere, even if she didn’t already like it. Zelda squeezed his hands. ”I love you,” she said, because she couldn’t think of anything else to say — never mind the boat, and never mind her sister, he was here and he was proposing and they were going to get married. (Well — again.) She glanced at the sail above her before looking back at him. ”How do I — how do people usually pick a name for a boat?”

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred laughed lightly at the question. He hadn't expected her to ask, so he didn't have a ready answer. How did people pick names for pets, or for children? Probably a dozen different ways, with no one method objectively right or wrong. He did, of course, have opinions on the names of boats, but he wasn't sure she really wanted to hear him complain about the types of people who owned pleasure craft they only took out once or twice a year and gave them names in French.

"It's like naming anything else. Pick something that you think fits, and maybe she'll grow into it a little if she's not there yet," he said, letting go of Zelda's hands to turn his attention back to the boat. After a pause for consideration, he added, "You name a boat for the future. For all the things you want her to be." The Voyager had been rechristened before the expedition to Avalon, and that was a fine name for the ship of an explorer.

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

Alfred's suggestion was both very helpful and very unhelpful; it did not tell her what to name the boat, but did give her a direction.

Zelda's mind jumped to fiction; unsurprising, given her own middle name.

There was the Nautilus, in Twenty Thousand Leagues; or Covenant, from Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. But she wasn't sure she wanted to steal a name from a fictional boat, that something bad had happened to already. (This was why she'd ruled the HISPANIOLA out.) She'd named Yorick from Hamlet, but that was a tragedy — and anything from a tragedy felt risky when they were going to be on a boat, and Zelda couldn't swim.

She was visibly thinking about it; her hands were on her hips, and she was working her lip back and forth between her teeth.

"Something with adventure," she said. But not the Voyager, obviously. Her next thought was Crusader, but with all the other meanings, she didn't love it. Hm. "Is The Wanderer too much like the Voyager?"

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AMAZING set by MJ

Something with adventure. Alfred's heart was full to bursting. Another girl might have tended towards the sentimental here. She could have chosen a name like eternal love or heart's endurance or something like that. After having gone through the process of proving himself thrice over to her father before he'd been granted the permission to propose to her, Alfred's head was so embroiled in logistics of caring and providing that he'd half expected that. Her response was a reminder that the emphasis on comfort and security had never come from her, but rather from her family. When Zelda looked ahead towards the future, she wanted adventure, and that was how they'd gotten here in the first place. Alfred couldn't have fallen in love with anyone who didn't want adventure in their future — and even if he had, they probably would have known better than to love him back. He had a reputation, after all.

"I think it's perfect," he said, and meant it. It was similar, but to Alfred that seemed less like a derivative and more like she wanted to honor his ship by the association. It had the right feeling, too — less purposeful than the Voyager, more meandering. A go wherever the wind takes us sort of boat. It was exactly the right name. Exactly the right tone to set for their honeymoon, and for their life together.

"We'll have to have some serious sailing lessons between now and then," he teased lightly. "I can't call you my captain unless you know what you're doing."

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   Zelda Darrow

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

Zelda flushed when he said my captain; captaincy was so tied to everything about Alfred that the thought of him calling her captain was distinctly flattering, even if it was just of this boat and mostly for jokes. The Wanderer. They would be able to go everywhere they wanted on her — and Zelda had never really been outside of Britain. She was excited about the engagement, obviously, but nearly as much about this — the prospect of adventuring, and seeing what happened, and learning how to sail.

Which — oh. She looked up at him and her mouth twisted with some embarrassment before she said, "Maybe swimming lessons, too." It was silly that she didn't know yet — and perhaps dangerous that she didn't know yet — but she certainly couldn't sail very far without learning, or they were really inviting disaster.

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   J. Alfred Darrow

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AMAZING set by MJ