Alastor hated this, always being the one with the news that made the listener cry. It reminded him he wasn't the stoic he pretended to be. Especially when it was Marlene he was making cry. It was hard to be the stoic with the only person who could make him admit to feeling anything.
"Either that or haranguing me for not going after her," he huffed, using his thumb to gently wipe the trail of tears from Marlene's cheek. Emmeline was like him in that way, burying the emotion she didn't understand how to deal with. "It'd be easier, sometimes, if they just made logical sense. It was the fact they didn't that confounded her. Strategy and procedure are easy. If this, then that. Emotion is messy, without a formula." And completely illogical when head and heart said two different things.