"So, you've tried nothing, and none of it is working," Leor said.
This was close enough to correct: Tessawyn had attempted to talk, one-on-one, outside of the classroom, with Julian no less than nine times in the two weeks since classes had begun, but not a single one of those attempts had led even vaguely in the direction of a conversation. Several, Julian had ignored - she'd chalk it up to distraction or simply not hearing her, were it not for his immense magical powers that should render him fully aware of any environment he occupied. One or two he'd assumed were inquiries related to classroom incidents with his Wards - he'd addressed what he'd thought Tessawyn's concerns were, saying something like "They'll get along in due time" before walking off, leaving her no opportunity to respond. And the remainder, situations where he'd responded with a simple "Yes?", prompting Tessawyn for further elaboration as to why she needed his attention, had, as far as Tess had been concerned, reiterated that Julian expected more out of her than she had. They'd been so close, damn it, and he acted so distant now! Clearly, she'd made a mistake somewhere. Even with a few more words between them, Julian maintained his distance, a distance that didn't belong with her memories of their student days.
Tessawyn forced a smile. "Yes."
Leor paced his way over to the sliding door that led to the balcony of Tessawyn's apartment, made a dramatic motion to throw it wide open, and step into fresh air - and stopped. He didn't need anyone to see that he was meeting so frequently with the Guardian of two of his students. Really, he could think of Tess as one of "his" Guardians, but while he applied that kind of thinking to the others, it felt wrong in the context of his dear friend. He wasn't sure of the precise nature of social dynamics probably dating back to their days as students at Arcadia that led to him feeling that way, but he was sure enough of them to never, ever think of her that way.
He stopped, grabbed the dangling stick that could draw shut the Venetian blinds to cover the sliding door, and did so, realizing that if someone was spying on them, that'd look truly suspicious - a Paired male and a widowed female aggressively seeking privacy during the academic portion of the school day, while their students / Wards were away, but if someone really wanted to accuse him of that, they'd have a hard time assailing his character. And it was probably better for someone to suspect that than what they were actually doing.
"We're screwed, aren't we?" Leor said. He'd at least had the authoritative position of being the teacher of Julian's Wards, and to a lesser extent, the Guardians, and thus, Julian - in a way. After the demonstration of unwarranted violence by one of Julian's Wards, Leor knew that he had both the responsibility and opportunity to open discussion. He even had managed to come up with a short speech to give to Julian - on the spot! - and delivered it - something along the lines of "Your Ward pushed things too far there - I suspect that she might need some tempering of her competitive nature, or some general psychological counseling. If you need any advice-"
And that was as far as he'd gotten. Julian had cut him off with a curt "Thank you," and walked off.
"If you haven't managed to say anything, and I haven't managed to say anything, this just looks like treason, and for all we know, it is. Julian-" he winced, like saying the name could bring his attention down upon them - "Might have cracked, sure, but in what direction? Is he still chasing the Plan? Is he-"
Tessawyn, thinking on her feet, interrupted him. "Citrus or floral blend today?" she asked, rifling through a kitchen cabinet she'd explicitly labeled as off-limits to Tabbitha and Maxwell. As much as she wanted to be a hands-on, sympathetic Guardian to her Wards, there was no way they were messing with her tea collection.
Leor blinked, metaphorically and literally. "Uh, I'm feeling something... Mandarin. Got anything "zesty" in there?"
"I've got just the thing," Tessawyn said, grabbed a glass jar of ingredients to be steeped, and set to work.
"You know," Leor said, "I thought you were just doing this to humor me. It'd just take a little research and resource allocation to break the ice, but I'm starting to think that you've actually got a tea collection." It had always been his hobby, and he could still remember the days where he had to figure out some way of explaining to Tessawyn why in God's name that he was devoting such effort to such a trivial thing while stationed in the Nail of Tibet.
Tessawyn smiled. Even though she was facing away from him, from working so closely with her both as students and as Angels, he could tell. "It's nice."
"I thought you thought it was stupid," Leor said.
"I did," Tessawyn said, bringing a whole kettle-ful of water to a boil near-instantaneously. "But after Nathan died... Well, I'd have asked you for advice, but you were gone. I'd ask Julian or Eliza, but, well... You know. Maybe I got too insistent on self-reliance? Anyway, I remembered you saying that tea calmed you, helped you relax. So," she said, using her magic to speed up the steeping process, "I started taking it seriously."
"There's things you don't take seriously?" Leor said.
"Shush," Tessawyn said. The jab was more appropriate to their school days, anyway. She teased him back, and their conversation devolved into the sort of affectionate antagonism born of a long friendship. By the time their plays and counterplays had stopped, along with their laughter, their tea was ready. Tessawyn waited for Leor to lift his cup to his lips before she tasted her blend. It wasn't the best brew she'd made from it, but it was satisfactory. From the pleased sigh Leor gave, he thought so too, at the very least. She let him enjoy it for a moment before she asked the question that'd been sitting in her head.
"So, uh, you're the smart one here. What do we do with Julian?" she asked.
Leor looked at her, sipped his tea, and gave it the best think he possibly could. "We could just be direct about it."
Tessawyn hardened her mouth and throat, and shotgunned the entire mug of scalding tea. She wasn't even entirely sure why she did it, but the emphasis felt necessary. "Direct?" she asked, incredulously. "How would that even work?" Her face scrunched up, processing more emotions than it had room for. "What would we even ask him?"
Leor sighed, and sipped, and sighed, and sipped. He tried to formulate something intelligent, and gave up. Just thinking about it all spun a roulette wheel of emotions, but this time, as it often did, he landed on "anger". "How about "Why didn't you try to get back in touch with any of us?" What could he possibly say to that?"
Tessawyn towered over Leor, but the degree to which she deflated almost closed the gap.
"... I can't just ask that," she said, quietly.
Leor, too, shrunk. He could feel that he'd hurt his friend, and he felt deeply ashamed. He wanted to apologize, but-
"Can you?" Tessawyn asked.
Leor sunk back into the couch, and drank his tea.
"... No."