Mixing Oil and Water [Erik + Jin]

Jin looked from the building to a small piece of paper held in his hand, double checking to make sure he had gotten the right address. He could hardly believe anyone had trusted him enough to remain on Earth for more than a week, knowing how irritable he could get given the right conditions. Then again, he was very inconspicuous for a demon; hardly anyone paid him any attention until he opened his mouth. That made him a perfect candidate for a long term lookout.

The place seemed a lot smaller than he was expecting, but he didn’t plan on spending too much time in it anyway so...

Nah, screw that. He still wanted something bigger; waste more want more after all~ The demon adjusted the weight of his bag and walked into the lobby, resisting the urge to gag at the overwhelming smell of human. Honestly, how could the others handle it so well? The scent was so horrifically potent. Deciding that getting into an elevator crammed with the smelly things would most likely end in disaster (for them), Jin headed for the stairs.

Erik sat by the dresser in his new apartment, neatly folding underwear into his dresser. He was fairly accustomed to living with humans, so this was just one assignment like any other assignment. The last one was Reykjavik. The one before that was Seydhisfjordhur. This one was Eden. He hadn't been outside of Iceland for quite some time, but that was alright to Erik. He would do any task given to him happily.

Once he finished getting the underwear unto the dresser, he closed it and looked around, wondering what chore he should get to next. The linens had already been laid out on the bed, and the curtains had already been put up... maybe he should wash the bathroom. The grout was an absolute mess, and the mirror was cracked and dirty in places. The toilet had strange red-orange stains on it, and the shower had no curtain. Yes, the bathroom was definitely next. He stood up and trudged toward the bathroom to get that cleaned out.

After making it up the first five flights of stairs, Jin stopped and leaned against the metal railing, glaring irritably at the next set of steps. They were totally mocking him. Stupid humans and their suffocatingly disgusting smell...if he'd taken the elevator he'd probably be up there already. But noooo...he had to be considerate and attempt to avoid another unneccessary bloodbath. Honestly, he was way too nice for what he was.

Jin jogged up the next few levels and practically kicked the floor's door open, ignoring the deafening slam that followed. When he finally reached his assigned room, the Asian fished around his jacket pockets before pulling out a silver key. The demon threw the door open impatiently and tossed his things inside before stepping in himself.

Erik poked his head out of the bathroom. He had been told by the landlord that he would have someone moving in with him due to lack of space, so whoever had just come in must be it. He had to round another corner before he could see the one who had entered. When he saw the new arrival, he paused. This guy looked like another angel, Zhou, but something about him seemed... off. "Hey, Zhou. I guess we're rooming together, then?"

Erik stared at the newcomer longer. No... something was wrong. His eyes wandered down to the other man's hands and... yeah, those were definitely claws. In fact, he had in general a very demon-y look to him. Why would Zhou look like a de--

Oh no. No. No no no no no no no. "Oh..." Erik breathed, stepping backward and away from the other new tenant. This wasn't Zhou at all.

Jin made a face when he saw the size of the actual room, completely unimpressed with its size. In fact, he was sure that once the dust was swept away, even more disappointments would be uncovered...so he’d just have to hold off on the housecleaning for a bit. As he stepped into the living room, the demon paused, encountering an oddly familiar smell. It didn’t reek, like a human, but it felt like he’d come across it before, ages ago.

...Wait, so he’d be sharing this sorry haystack with someone else? For the love of–

He heard a voice to his right, though whatever the other had said was lost as Jin tried very hard to remember where he had heard it before. The small demon turned slightly, masked brown eyes catching terrified violet. There was barely anytime for him to register who (or what) the other tenant was; it was as if his very being was reacting, violently, to this person’s sudden appearance. A low growl escaped his throat as Jin stepped closer to his new roommate, finally recalling the name of the traitor who had forced him from Heaven.

“You.”

"Y-y-yes, it's me," Erik said as he continued to back up. He wondered if angels could die. They couldn't, could they? He wasn't so certain anymore. At any rate, the wound on his wing began to hurt even more, as if it could sense the presence of the original person who had made the wound.

Should he hide? Where should he hide? There wasn't any place right now!

No, wait, stop. He was an angel. This was just another demon. He should be stronger than this! He should treat this demon as any other demon.

But this wasn't any other demon. This was a very certain specific demon. This demon made him want to run to the bathroom and hurl.

Actually, that sounded like a really good idea. He turned around and ran to the bathroom to empty the contents of his stomach.

Jin’s eyes flashed a dangerous shade of red as he watched the angel run into another room, following closely after with his claws fully extended. He stopped as soon as the door slammed abruptly before him, resisting the urge to tear the stupid thing from its hinges. But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it? He’d been waiting for this encounter for six millennia, and he was going to savour every second of Erik’s terror. It was like a game for him, a twisted, addictive little game that he could never lose.

A small smile graced the demon’s face as he dragged a hand across the bathroom door’s blemished surface, leaving deep marks into the painted wood.

“Why are you running from me?” he asked, voice echoing through the empty hall. “It’s been a long time Ice; don’t you want to see me? Don’t you want to see what you did to me?”

Erik hung his head over the toilet and began to vomit. It was rare for an angel to vomit, and it really had to be something that he had to try to do, but it seemed like the only natural response to this event. What ELSE was he supposed to do when the guy whom he'd (more or less accidentally) cast into Hell suddenly showed up after six millenia? He was pretty certain today would involve pain, and lots of it.

"No, I don't!" he said, and vomited again. Okay, that time, he hadn't really been trying. "I-I don't want to see the product of my mistake!"

That sounded horrible, didn't it? But he didn't know what else to say! He curled up beside the toilet and placed his hands in his face, feeling the weight of six millenia of guilt come crashing down upon him.

“A 'mistake'?” Jin repeated, eyes wide. “Is that all you think I am?”

There was no way in hell he was going to take that lightly. Not only did Erik cast him from Heaven against his will, but it was all his fault Jin had joined the rebellion in the first place! And now the angel was going to mark all that as a mistake? Fat fucking chance. The sheer amount of Wrath coursing through Jin’s body left him unable to keep up his human guise; large wings erupted from his back and tore through the fabric of his shirt, showering the room with pitch black feathers.

“Get out of there and look and me!” he demanded, slamming a fist against the poor door...which would probably need to be replaced. “I want you to look me in the eye and call me a mistake!”

Erik didn't really have much of a choice, did he? He crawled up to the door and opened it gingerly, feeling darkness on the other side as he did so. As soon as he saw Jin, he hid his face in his hands again, utterly terrified of looking at Jin. "I-I'm so sorry... when the commander gave the order, I couldn't disobey... I didn't even know HOW to disobey! I'm so, so sorry!"

Of course, "sorry" couldn't replace six millenia of grief and separation from God, but you know, he could try.

Annoyed that the other still refused to look at him, Jin grabbed the collar of Erik’s shirt and pulled him forward, pressing him against a wall to prevent any attempts at escape. They were practically the same size, but what Jin lacked in height he made up for in hatred.

“D’you really think ‘sorry’ is going to be good enough?” he said quietly, claws tearing into the fabric of the angel’s painfully outdated clothes. “I spent six thousand years in the dark because of you!”
He pressed his forehead against the angel’s, blood stained eyes staring unblinkingly into pools of warm violet. Jin remembered this position; they had done it before, in a loving way, back when everything was so disgustingly innocent and simple. Before he fell...before he was pushed...

Another growl rumbled from his throat as he threw the angel aside, gaining enough control to hide his wings, but not to alter his eye colour. It would be pointless to harm Erik; he would just heal himself anyway. Stupid Charity...

“Get out!”

Erik fell to the floor, using his arms to brace his fall. His elbow slid across the floor, and a sharp, burning pain hit his skin. Rug burn. This would be the second time Jin had hurt Erik. Erik kept his position on the floor for a moment, pondering everything that had just happened. When he got to the part where Jin told him to "get out," however, he shakily got to his feet, and stood and faced Jin.

"I can't do that," Erik said. "Like it or not, I've been assigned here, and I've got to follow my orders. I would get out if I could, but I can't, so we're both just going to have to live with that." He straightened himself up, hoping that he could at least save some shred of dignity. He adjusted his shirt and pulled at some of the wrinkles, and dusted off his trousers. His hair was a mess, but his hair was always in some mess or another.

Jin rolled his eyes and stifled a laugh, running his tongue over his fangs.

“Because, you know, it worked out so well the last time you chose to follow orders instead of doing what you knew was right,” he scoffed, shoving past Erik to get to the living room. Honestly, what was wrong with Angels? To think he’d once been such a brainless slave to Him…ugh.

“I’ve been assigned to live here as well, and Hell will freeze over before I let you shove me out of another home, Ice.” Jin paused, looking over his shoulder with an odd expression. “Well like, the parts that aren’t already frozen, anyway.”

Erik sighed and followed Jin. "Look, I'm not going to kick you out of here, okay? We'll just split the apartment in two. You can live on one half, and I'll live on the other half. We can even take a piece of tape and mark out half. We don't have to talk to each other. We can cohabitate, okay?"

He frowned when Jin called him "Ice." "So is that what you call me now? 'Ice'? Hmm... somehow fitting, considering all the time I've spent in Iceland."

"Don't be stupid. If we split the place in half, then only one of us will be able to use the shower and the other one will have access to that dinky little excuse for a kitchen," Jin protested, flopping onto the old sofa and carefully taking out the contents of his bag. He smiled briefly at the other's question, but didn't look up.

"It's a fitting name for someone so cold hearted, don't you think~?"

"We can make exceptions for certain things," Erik said. "But for the main living space, slice in half. You can have the half with the TV and the bed. I'll take the couch and my stack of books." He pointed to a stack of books on the ground beside the dresser. "I'll take my clothes and only occupy half of the dresser, while you can occupy the other half. We'll establish times that both of us can be in the kitchen and in the bathroom, instead of splitting them up persay. How about I get even numbered hours, and you get odd numbered hours for the bathroom. Opposite for the kitchen. The laundry room is downstairs, so I don't think we have to worry about that. And of course, we both have equal access to the door. This certainly isn't an ideal arrangement, but we have to make the best of it."

He bit his lip, trying to figure out how to respond to Jin's accusation. "I am not cold-hearted. Naive, perhaps. Maybe even a little slow. But not cold-hearted."

His eyes shone like ice at that moment as he narrowed them at Jin.

Jin let out an irate sigh as he continued to dig through his things, pulling out a stuffed panda before shoving it back into the bag.

“A schedule as rigid as that would make it even more obvious that someone else is living in the house,” he said, attempting to pile his clothes according to shades of black. “Just stay out of my face and keep your nose out of my business, and we’ll be fine~”

The demon flinched upon feeling Erik’s icy glare, looking up at the other indignantly.

“And you’re all three,” he snapped, eyes burning with hatred.

"I am not!" Erik shouted, before moving his books next to the couch. "If you'll excuse me, I was cleaning the bathroom before you got here." He turned and headed toward the bathroom, hoping that Jin would leave him alone after this. His stomach still felt absolutely terrible, and now he had to wash out the smell of vomit on top of everything else he had to do, but maybe concentrating on cleaning the bathroom would help him not to think about his horrible predicament.

Jin made no move to follow Erik as he left the room, focusing all his attention on the mess of clothes he had taken from his bag. He tossed the torn shirt aside and slipped on another before taking the rest into the apartment's only bedroom. Jin glanced at the bed and tested it's surface by bouncing on the egde a few times, letting out a short gasp when he nearly fell into its center due to massive sagging. Great...so both the couch and the bed sucked...now it was just a matter of determining which sucked less.

The small demon got to his feet and opened the provided dresser, shoving Erik's clothes out of the way to make room for his own. Of all the people he had to be stuck with...

Erik went back into the bathroom, shut the toilet lid, and sat on it for a moment as he collected himself. Okay, so he was going to be living in the same apartment as the guy whom he'd (more or less) accidentally thrown into Hell. Breathe. Breathe. He could do this. He could do this. He just had to come up with some sort of a plan, first. Unfortunately, this apartment was far too small to be able to just shut himself into a part of it so that he didn't have to deal with Jin. Maybe his wings could be put to good use, and could act as temporary walls? Then again, bending them like that might hurt, especially the wing that he kept injured.

Speaking of that wing, it was starting to look better, again. He'd have to make sure to injure it some time soon.

After a few minutes, he got up off the toilet to begin cleaning the bathroom again. He supposed that he would start with the mirrors, first, since they were absolutely filthy.

He sighed as he sprayed windex on the mirror. This would be a long, long assignment, wouldn't it?

Jin spent the next few moments attempting to calm himself down in the bedroom, though taking in deep breaths while also trying to avoid inhaling the smell of human was next to impossible. After coming close to gagging, he gave up and flopped onto the sagging bed, closing his eyes. How the hell was he going to get through this mission? He supposed he could also pass it onto someone else and just take the punishment... But that'd also make him a quitter...and was he really going to allow the one person who had ruined his life to ruin it some more?

No, nope, nuh-uh.

He rolled off the bed and gave himself another mental pep talk as he walked out of the room, stooping down to clean up the fallen feathers.

Erik continued to clean the bathroom until suddenly, he found that he had run out of windex. How?! He had had an entire bottle of windex before he ever went into the bathroom! Was it really that dirty, or was he really that much of a neat freak? Erik decided on the first, and then realized that he needed to leave the comfort of his now chemical-ridden bathroom in order to get some more windex. This meant possibly having to be in the same area where Jin was.

Gah.

He plucked up his courage and left the bathroom, suddenly realizing how fresh and non-chemical-y the air outside of the bathroom smelt. As he walked along, he went into the kitchen to go find some more windex. Well, he couldn't find anymore of that, but he did find some disinfecting wipes under the kitchen counter (which would need to be cleaned out). That would do for now. He stood up and began to walk back to the bathroom, happy that he hadn't run into Jin on the way...

... and then, he bumped into Jin, accidentally dropping the tub of disinfecting wipes.

Jin didn't dwell on how Erik somehow managed to miss seeing someone kneeling in full view; he was too busy trying not to get smacked in the face with a tub of cleaning wipes. Instead of letting the stupid thing just fall, he managed to catch it moments before it hit the floor.

"Clumsy," he scoffed, tossing the tub back at the pale angel. "Watch where you're going."

Erik bit his lip, and then knelt down to pick up the disinfecting wipes. "Uh, sorry about that," he said. As he looked at Jin, something deep down inside of him ached. He remembered the days when they would hold hands and sing songs and laugh and play... and now, those eyes that used to love so much were just filled with hatred.

It was enough to make Erik cry.

Jin caught the angel staring at him a moment longer than he would have liked and, for one reason or another, suddenly became very self conscious. Nevermind his newfound adoration for splitting skulls, he looked a lot different too, didn't he? True, he hadn't ended up as...'deformed' as some of the other Fallen, but...guh.

What pissed him off even more was that he was actually caring about any of this crap.

"Wh-What are you looking at?"