Azrael

Only Fools Walk Where Angels Fear To Tread

Why were women always so....emotional? That decidedly sexist thought so managed to turn about within his mind in those moments that followed Buffy shattering that glass and causing half of that bar to turn towards them. Azrael content to eye those shards almost incredulously before reaching out for the womans hand as she all but wrapped that glass more firmly into her skin. Great. This was who they had working for them? A highly emotional wreck of a woman? He hadn't't anticipated his words to strike the nerve they had, at least, not so potently. Conversation hardly famed as one off his better attributes. In fact, the vast majority of the Council tended to warn others who had to meet with him to converse as little as possible. Was he really that bad? Maybe he was. Maybe he didn't care all to much.

Still- he hardly needed Gia taking any more time out from work then she already had because of an injured hand. Azrael reaching across to take that appendage then regardless of her opinion on the matter before he slowly unwound that haphazard bandage and worked to actually remove those glass shards before securing the binding back in place once more. Gia still appearing as irritable as before. That mention off her file prompting a veritable flinch from her then. Was she surprised he'd read it? Didn't she know the Council had files on all of them? Himself included? They were accessible to anyone, by anyone- at least, anyone on the Council itself. It was his job to know who he was working with. That file however, had clearly left out some of those finer details, at least, the kind inclined to prompt that reaction from the woman. Azrael continuing to eye her almost warily as the rest of that bar hurriedly began to look anywhere else lest they catch his gaze in turn. The barkeep himself hurrying to go back to wiping down that bench as Azrael lifted his own glass back to his lips once more. Gia herself seeming to have retreated back into her own thoughts.

Azrael allowed that silence to persist for several more moments before that utterance of the amount of meetings she'd missed seemed to prompt a roll of her eyes. Did no one else on this goddamn planet take their job seriously!? If she was refusing to commit to full time work she could at least show up at those meetings if nothing else. Gia suddenly eyeing him with equal wariness then before asking whether or not this was the reason he was here, as if he had planned to find her today. Really, he supposed, such a tactic was not beyond the council to employ and yet, this time, the meeting had purely been by chance. His own head shaking abruptly.

"Meeting you here was chance, nothing more. As for bullying you into taking more work the Council had been more than generous with you. I'm merely saying as it is, Im sorry if you don't want to hear it, but its the truth and if it didnt come from me it would come from someone else. With Kat taking time off to chase shadows and pining over her boyfriend and you off- doing whatever the hell it is you do i'm running things almost by myself. Alexander is around but they've gone and made him Captain of the Mounted Unit which im pretty fucking damn sure was a bad decision. He's going to go rogue I know it. Either way we could use your experience out in the field and if you don't want to do that at least consider mentoring a young Hunter or....something."

For all her...issues, no one could deny that Gia was a good Hunter. She was skilled, dedicated, talented- and fucking wasting it all as far as Azrael was concerned. Maybe he should be more....understanding and yet how long did someone need? Emotions never had been his strong point. Either feeling them or understanding them. Gia falling quiet once more before uttering that insistence she was trying again. That she was nearly there. Azrael exhaling softly once more, his hand running through that blond hair.

"Look I...I know alright? I know you're trying. We just don't have the liberty of time on our sides. We are under-staffed as it is. I'll give you the month, alright? I'll keep the others off your back for a month but thats all I can promise you- as long as you promise to come back full time after that. Do you need to, I don't know, talking about it? I don't do.....feelings well but I can sit here and nod while you talk if you want- that's the limit of my offer though."

He was...trying. That counted right?