She gave Tapendra a sharp look and put her hands on her hips in a sassy manner. “That boy is troubled.” She said, “Things were going well, but then ‘e got paranoid.” Mai covered her mouth dramatically, silently cursing the alcohol. Oh, she would have simply changed the subject, but alcohol seemed to erase the filter between her brain and her mouth.  She narrowed her eyes at Tappy as if it was all his fault that she had broken confidentiality (even if she hadn’t revealed anything that the professors probably didn’t already know.)

“It is not your business who I keep an eye on.” Mai said coldly, “That kid needs to eat—I feed ‘im. I’m not making ‘im worse. Impossible. Sasha’s perceptions of reality are warped.” When she spoke, she spoke with gentle concern and shook her head. It took a few more seconds for her to process what she had just said. She covered her mouth again and turned her back to Tappy defiantly, not wanting to look at him until the subject was changed.

Something didn’t feel right. Her eyes shifted from Aileen to Tapendra suspiciously.

“You don’t seem like the type to be on a first name basis with a student.” She commented. Come to think of it, Tapendra was constantly correcting himself to call Sasha by his last name.

“Merde, you two don’t want to adopt ‘im, do you?!”

Of course he was protective - the boy needed his help! Could they blame him?

Still, Tapendra sipped his drink as the two women spoke, frowning even as his lips folded around the lip of the glass. The counselor's words, however, made him slam his glass down, annoyed. His response was quick, flustered.

"Yes!" He snapped, then realized what he'd said, and stuttered. "I mean, not with Aileen - just sort of - he needs-"

He rubbed the bridge of his nose. Would he adopt Sasha, given the chance? Yes. That was...well, yes. But Kronos was an issue, to put it mildly. He couldn't make his affection for the boy too obvious, especially with having kids himself. If Kronos did something...

Tappy ran a hand down his face and spoke, much more soberly. "You're following him around and stressing him out, Maiko. He was very adamant about that. Called you some...colorful things, which is...to put it mildly...very, very unlike him." He glanced at Aileen, looking for her to confirm this as being out of character.  "If you want him to eat, I'll take care of it. He spends most of the free hours in my tower anyhow."

She turned around and looked at Tapendra sharply. “Monsieur Schlagenweit is not the only student I keep an eye on.” She said stubbornly, annoyed that he was pushing this subject. She didn’t want to talk about this while she wasn’t completely sober. “I am convinced that ‘e is ‘iding something that is potentially dangerous to ‘imself.” Mai looked him directly in the eye, which was quite a feat considering their height difference. His sister knew nothing about him—Jacoba hardly knew who her own brother was anymore. The events of the past year had hurt him in some way, and his personal family history was not exactly favorable.

“It doesn’t sound unlike ‘im to me.” She said simply, "When people are under surmountable amounts of stress, it is not unusual for them to 'ave outbursts or behave out of character." Mai wasn't concerned about the fact he had called her some very colorful words. It wouldn't have been the first time it had happened, and she didn't take it personally. She couldn't take it personally when it came from someone who was so obviously, deeply troubled.

“The student is paranoid and doesn’t want to let me in.:” She paused and her expression became gentle, “If you get too emotionally involved, I need to be more careful when listening to your opinion regarding ‘im.” Maiko said softly, “You care about ‘im too much. You are biased. It’s only messier for me.” She pushed her bangs out of her face and sighed. For a moment, she looked much older than she really was, silently aggravated and deeply tired, though not physically.  “Thank you for your concern. Talk to me about this when I’m not drinking. Please. I've already said more than I wanted to.”

 

“No!” She exclaimed at the same time a resounding ‘yes’ came from Tapendra. Aileen whipped her head around to gape at the deluded man, when he cleared up the reason for his outburst.

She glanced between the two of them, first silently agreeing that Sasha name-calling anyone was extremely uncharacteristic, and then realizing that yes, Tapendra was too attached to the boy, going above and beyond the concern he showed for other students. At the moment, hearing it put into words somewhat overshadowed the fact that Maiko was following Sasha around and making him crazy.

Aileen liked to think she was immune. She didn’t wring her hands during the tournament or follow Sasha around with scones, so clearly she was an expert at keeping students at a distance.

“Though I'm sure the barkeep finds our conversation fascinating, we should save it for a more appropriate place,” she agreed, glancing away from Maiko’s weary expression.

“Tapendra,” she said suddenly. “Are you stuck chaperoning the Halloween dance this year? Because I might have been recruited,” Aileen took a long sip of her drink.

If her poor luck couldn't distract him, she didn't know what would.

Tapendra would happily have argued with Maiko well into the night, so it was perhaps for the best that Aileen spoke up and shushed the both of them. Tapendra glanced at her and frowned - but he was, thankfully, sober enough to realize she was correct. This was not the time, or the place. Tomorrow would be. Post-hangover, anyway. Yes. Arguing without alcohol was always better.

He scowled into his drink. "We'll discuss it in the morning," he said with a defeated mutter, and took a long pull. Aileen's question made him pause, thinking for a moment of the commission he'd asked of Darian. The bill would probably be terrifying, but if he was lucky, they result would be good. He held his glass in his long fingers, twirling the drink gently.

"Yes, they got me too," he confessed. "Though I hope they have more than the two of us. The school plus the Tournament students is going to be..." He trailed off, snapping his fingers as he sought a word. "Nightmarish. A fracas, perhaps?"

Maiko gave Aileen a grateful smile, so thankful that the woman atgreed that this conversation was best suited for a different time and a different setting. She hadn’t completely bounced back-- Tappy’s blatantly obvious favoritism and attachment towards Sasha had made Maiko certain that she needed to have distance from the professor in order to make sure that her own thoughts and opinions about the situation remained clear. Leaving the bar now wouild have left things awkward, and she did not want that either. For now, she would continue drinking-- but after tonight, she did not want to be on any non-professional terms with Professor Trishna. At least, not until things with Sasha had cleared up some.

She had to treat Tapendra almost as if he was Sasha’s parent, or brother-- or some sort of family member. Not his teacher. Mai felt she could listen to Aileen’s opinion reliably, though she would still trust her own judgement before anybody else’s. Besides, she was certain that Aileen wouldn’t have the audacity to tell Maiko how to do her job-- neither of those two were her bosses. They were her collegues. She was certain it would be rude and unwelcome of her to tell Aileen how to teach runes or Tapendra how to teach Astronomy. It wasn’t like she was stalking Sasha now, in fact she had backed off and given him plenty of space-- only stopping to drop off food and leave. Mai trusted that he would see her when and if he chose to.

Either way, now was not the time to discuss this. Under the influence of alcohol, she knew she could word things horribly.

“Where are you two getting your costumes? I do not think I ‘ave been recruited yet, but you never know.” Darian was going to be throwing a party, and she was fairly excited to attend it at the end of the month if she wasn’t chaperoning.