Leper Messiah |Claudia|

[Eli Sterling]

Aristide may very well have told all of his people to give Eli a wide berth during his exit, which would have pissed the psychic off since Aristide had no problem chatting him up before he went to see Lucifer and hadn't mentioned this shit, but it meant that he didn't have to deal with more than an empty room while he was making his exit after being 'dismissed' by the second person in under an hour.  He wasn't a fan.

He didn't run into anyone on the street between the Lounge and his car, either, which was cool; he was irritated enough that he might not have moved out of the way, but he still shrugged deeper into his coat, a little uncomfortable with that leper feeling that was quickly growing.  It hit even harder inside his apartment building, where he leaned a little closer to the wall when people walked by (he'd just been annoyed and bluffing about not moving and letting someone run into him), and he was glad he had his hands stuffed into his jacket pockets, even with the bag of gear hanging off of his shoulder, when some kid bumped into him.  The contact was all through clothing, and nothing happened, though Eli nearly had a heart attack in that first instant.  Fuck, if he'd taken out a kid?

Now, how the hell was he supposed to tell Claudia?  It wasn't like he'd done anything to really deserve it, other than agreeing to Lucifer's terms with no questions because there was no time, but that wouldn't make it much easier.  He and his girlfriend, which the bastard kept reminding him and which he might as well admit to himself after all this time, were both taking this whole situation so very slowly and had finally both been comfortable enough that they'd moved on to sex, and now look.  He couldn't fucking touch her without killing her. 

He had to wonder if Lucifer had done it on purpose, or if it was just shitty timing and the asshole didn't care.

It could go either way with him, and working it over in his mind wouldn't do much good, but that didn't make it better.  On the contrary, he was pretty sure that Claudia would be awake by now despite him not being gone long, which meant that she would have seen his note, probably worried despite his preference that she didn't, and he didn't know where in the apartment she was.  He didn't really want to set her off as soon as he walked in the door, but he was still tempted to call out for her to keep her distance, just in case.  He didn't, but within a second or so of stepping inside and dropping the bag, he was backing nearly into the door with his covered forearm up in front of him.  It almost looked like he was trying to fend off an attack, which wasn't his favorite part about it, but if he just put up a hand, she could touch it.

"Ahh, I'll explain, I promise, just maintain a little distance for the time being, honey," he offered up, looking past his arm and trying to gauge if she was going to listen.  He was pretty confident that she would because she was smart, but people sometimes surprised him.

[Claudia Nix]

 Claudia had woken up in a state of confusion - mostly because of the drugs. She'd never been a fan of painkillers, mostly because they felt too good, and they were easy to get caught up in. Her legs already felt a little cramped at the early withdrawal symptoms, and she frowned as she sniffled a little - great. She took another one because her side still hurt like the dickens, but she knew she'd have to start cutting her doses down soon or else she'd end up with more trouble on her hands then it was truly worth. She got up, pleased to find that her clothing was still on the floor next to the bed, and listened for the sound of Eli in the apartment somewhere. When she didn't hear anything, she frowned, but gathered up the bundle of fabric and went straight to the shower all the same.

After the shower, she had to re-touch her bandages, mostly because however 'easy' they'd taken their tumble in the hay, the combination of movement and water now had made the dressing loose again (and now, wet). Since she didn't deign to sit with a damp piece of gauze half-taped to her side, she pulled the rest of it off and simply treated the stitching anew. At least she hadn't lost her touch from her medical practices. She wandered out of the bathroom, dressing in a simple tank top and a pair of yoga pants that sat low at her hips to allow the bandaging breathing room. Her wet hair was combed away from her face, but it would dry quickly enough. She went into the kitchen to get some water, feeling the dryness in her mouth from the medicine already starting to set in, and, much to her chagrin, found a note from Eli.

She read it, forgetting everything else she'd been thinking about, and leaned against the counter in the silent apartment, a frown twisted on her features. So, his debt had been called in. That certainly put a dark cloud over her afternoon, didn't it? She sighed, reading it over again, then set it on the counter and stole a bottle of water from the fridge. Oddly, she didn't feel hungry at all, anymore. She went into the living room, where she took her normal place on the couch, and stretched out, trying to determine what Lucifer could possibly have in mind for Eli. He'd told her not to worry, and she wasn't necessarily worried about his safety, but he'd bargained with virtually no chips in his pile, and that meant that Lucifer could do whatever he wanted. This was all her fault, but with the euphoria of the pills claiming her, she couldn't find it in her to stress as hard as she would have otherwise. After only a few short minutes, she fell back asleep, bottle of water on the floor next to her, forgotten.

She woke up with a jolt as the sound of the front door opening interrupted whatever dreamless state she'd been in. She sat up on the couch, watching Eli make his way inside with his bag, and then rolled off slowly and stood up. His back was still turned as he shut the door and deposited the bag out of the immediate path of their foot traffic, so by the time he turned around, she was right in front of him. One had to wonder if she'd learned the art of sneaking up on people before or after she'd been claimed as a Reaper, but suffice to say, she did a good job of it. He backed into the door almost instantly, his forearm up to stay her from getting any closer, and she dropped her outstretched hand to her side, mouth open in shock.

"Explain what?" she asked, giving him the distance he'd requested, though she obviously looked confused. "What happened? What did he want from you?" She felt very awake suddenly, but thirsty, and so she went back to where she'd abandoned the water and took a generous helping of it, before returning to her previous line of questioning. "Why are you acting like you're a leper?" she asked, carefully watching him with her dark eyes. She'd give him the distance, sure, but that didn't mean she'd like it.

[Eli Sterling]

Eli wouldn't let Claudia get too involved with the painkillers, so as long as he was around, she was good.  He just didn't want her hurting constantly, especially when a mortal's perspective on pain (and everything else) was still pretty new to her.  No sense in putting her through more hell than she had to, so as she recovered, he'd push for lessening doses.  Note that he absolutely intended to be around for that, Lucifer be damned.

Seeing her in the tank and yoga pants obviously pretty fresh from the shower wasn't much different from seeing her in his shirt, since he definitely appreciated the view (always appreciated the view), just without that very male possessiveness at her being in his clothes.  Maybe for the best, since now really wasn't the time to be thinking about her that way; there was nothing conducive about getting riled up when he couldn't touch her for fear of killing her.  Yeah, thanks for being a MASSIVE cockblock, Lucifer.  Douchebag.

At least she'd stopped in her approach, though she wasn't giving him anything in the way of space verbally.  She went off to grab her glass of water, which was a comfortable enough distance that he took off his coat, but even the long sleeves on his shirt didn't feel like much.  They weren't enough to cover his hands if he needed to, the shirt tighter fitting in case he needed the body armor; Eli wasn't the sort to risk getting shot up if he didn't have to, especially for someone else's cause.  He settled for bending forward some, hands on the back of the couch while he leaned on it and tried to find a good way to explain it all.  He was always very direct, which didn't leave much room for tact usually.  It wasn't often he cared, but with Claudia?

"I was wrong, he didn't call in the debt, he called in prep for it," he started.  It wasn't a matter of keeping things from her, since he didn't plan to do so, but more that he liked brevity.  No need for useless fluff.  Efficient.  "He made a, hopefully temporary, adjustment to what I do, so now I have the added joy of some kind of killing touch.  He thought it'd be useful on whatever battlefield he's planning on having."

Sarcasm, always a good fallback option.  He was looking at the couch as he said it, examining the pattern the fibers made in the solid color of the upholstery like it was interesting before he glanced back up; it wasn't.  Interesting, that is.  He didn't have to explain what a killing touch would combine with his usual ability to do, because he figured she was plenty smart enough to figure it out, and he didn't point out where Lucifer had gotten that from.  The bastard had told him, but Claudia would know.  Eli typically, when he allowed people around him on a more regular basis, tried to keep intelligent company, and Claudia was certainly that.  Even with the painkillers, he had faith in her abilities. 

She'd probably also come up with plenty of questions and concerns that he hadn't even come up with just yet, just due to her slightly more objective (and in other cases, very subjective) point of view.  He was still caught up on the sudden 'no sex' rule so soon after they'd taken that step, because yes, he was enough of a typical guy for that, so he hadn't considered fixing stitches or tending to her injury just yet.  He would. 

"So basically, I'm acting like a leper because the main difference right now is that I'm not rotting and disgusting.  Be glad for that, because I think that he might have done it if he'd thought of it."  There was a smile, but it was that kneejerk kind of reaction he had, that urge to be some kind of jerk during a shitty situation, though he wished that the situations would stop hitting so close to home for him already; he liked it much better when he could make comments at someone else's expense.

[Claudia Nix]

 When he told her what Lucifer had done, she didn't react right away. She just sort of sat there, blinking. The only hint she'd heard him at all was the way her expression slowly became angrier - by the time he was done speaking, one glance at her would tell him all he needed to know about what her feelings were on the matter.

She couldn't help but feel like Lucifer had taken this dig at her on purpose, somehow. Sure, that sounded a little selfish considering this had a much bigger picture feel to it, but at the same time, there were things he could have opted not to do. Like stabbing her, for one - or picking her up by her neck. If he'd just told them all in the beginning how he wanted this to go, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that they wouldn't have just made it work somehow, without all of the violence and forcing - and did I mention the stabbing? And now, now he'd taken to interfering in her life on a deeply personal level. Claudia hadn't laid eyes on a man since her marriage, and then of course, she'd been dead - Eli was the first person she'd even cared about on a romantic level in a very long time, and to have all of that turned upside down, it kind of felt like she was kicking the headstone of the grave.

"He gave you my power?" she asked finally, just making sure that was what had happened. That was the other thing. Lucifer had stripped her of her abilities, her title (through some apparent deal with Death, which she was super happy about being let in on), and then just given them to someone else? To a human? Not to be a little sensationalist about her Reaper status, but she was slightly elitist about her abilities, and despite now being human (and alive) herself, it kind of got to her that Lucifer couldn't have just had her do whatever needed to be done instead of putting her in this position.

Of course, to vocalize any of that would be bad, because she'd make it sound like she wasn't happy. Which, she was. But that didn't mean she didn't want her actual life back - it was just that asking for it meant that this, whatever this was with Eli, would probably cease to be. It put her in a very, very difficult position, whether anyone realized it or not, and it was one she couldn't talk about. With anyone.

"So what does that mean? You can't control it? He gave you the touch of death but no way to turn it on and off?" she asked, trying to clarify her understanding. "That's...  Okay, so how is this going to work?" By this, she very plainly meant, how could they possibly coexist in the space there without running into eachother. Someone was going to be sleeping in the guest room, at the very least. She sighed. "This fucking sucks," she muttered to herself.

[Eli Sterling]

One glance was all it took, but it wasn't like he was in the dark about what her feelings would be.  It was why he hadn't been looking forward to this conversation, however necessary it was.  Of course she would be angry (he sure as hell was, though he was also scared), and he wouldn't have blamed her if she'd expressed some of that anger as being because Lucifer had given her Reaper abilities to a human.  He certainly didn't think that Reapers were something more elite than a human (they were dead people, after all), but he could understand her being irritated over it. 

Hell, he could also understand her being upset about Lucifer turning her life upside-down to do it.  He didn't regret the fact that she was human and they had this chance that wouldn't have come about if she was still a Reaper, but he couldn't imagine losing his abilities entirely (though, he'd had his all his life and she'd only had hers for a few years, so maybe it wasn't as harsh of a transition; he hoped it wasn't, for her sake).  Part of it, his deeper insecurities wagered despite his rather logical attempt to persuade himself otherwise, was that she was 'settling' because she was unable to regain her powers and former state of being.  It didn't matter that he tried to tell himself that wasn't the case, because he was still damn sure that if she had the chance to take back what she had, she would.  That she clued in immediately on the fact that Lucifer had given him her power (he didn't miss the nuance there) was a point in favor of the insecurities.  Runner-up, always and forever, this time to her former position as a Reaper.  At least it wasn't another person.

"Basically?  Yeah, all of the above.  Seems like it needs direct skin contact, so it's only the bare minimum of your power.  Someone didn't take the hint when I was coming up here and bumped into me, but we managed to avoid a scene in the hallway," he offered, which was at least a relief.  He wouldn't have tested it like that on purpose, especially on a kid, but he was glad that he hadn't left a body in the hallway.  Explaining that could have been difficult.

What to do about it, though?  Ever practical, he straightened and shoved his hands in his pockets, uncomfortable and looking to cover it up with decisiveness.  "Back to the original sleeping arrangements until this blows over, I suppose.  He made it sound like everything's coming to a head, so I'm thinking we have limited time to prepare."

Prepare for what?  Putting this bastard back in his cage, that's what.  Eli hadn't forgotten the talk with Aristide in all of the excitement, though it still meant that he wasn't sure how.