Oh, oh, oh it's magic (Xie and Kevin)

[xie_er]

Zhao Jing used to be a nobody, born into influence and wealth but always in the shadow of those around him. In magical circles he was even worse, a barely-remembered witch that didn't have enough power for any familiar to even consider looking twice at him.

Somehow, though, after many years (and a few suspicious deaths), he's managed to climb his way to the CEO of Five Lakes, his power - of both kinds - growing exponentially.

The previous CEO was surrounded by some unfortunate rumorus before his death, so Zhao Jing has been focused on repairing the reputation of he company and solidifying his support, mundane and magical, which means it is far too delicate a moment for Xie to be in the spotlight, even if he was promised he'd be allowed to stop hiding when the position was in Zhao Jing's hands.

He just has to wait a little longer, that's all, and it's not like it's difficult to only appear in his animal form whenever Zhao Jing is in public, just uncomfortable, and the last thing they need is for somebody to recognise Xie for any of the things he's done to help his witch get where he is today, when his position is still so precarious...

He tells himself all the excuses he's heard from Yifu, repeats them in his head like a mantra as he sits through all the meetings and negotiations, a little black cat and Zhao Jing's feet, watching the men and women he's speaking to for anything Yifu can use. He hangs around when Zhao Jing steps out the room, listens to what they say behind his back - that's his job with normal people, to be a pair of ears they don't realise are there. Even paranoid types who scan for bugs would miss him, which he finds funny, privately, because he is a bug of a sort.

Not that he's allowed to take his original animal form - a scorpion would be out of place if anybody caught sight of him, and Yifu doesn't like the idea of him hiding in pockets or anything like that. He says it's dangerous, that something could happen to him, but Xie privately thinks he just finds the form creepy. Even around other magical people, the cat is preferred - his job with them is to be a reminder that Zhao Jing has a familiar, and a relatively powerful one at that.

It's hard for familiars to change the form they can take, but he did it, for Yifu.

He tells people the cat is called Scorpion, and that somebody else named him - which is technically true, Xie does mean scorpion, and his parents named him - and that he's vaguely embarrassed to have such a fiercely named cat.

(He doesn't tell magical people anything at all, they know Xie isn't a pet so they're less likely to ask, at most they will wonder why his familiar always stays in animal form. Zhao Jing just tells them he's shy. He isn't, he doesn't care about people seeing him, but it's easier to do the things Yifu wants him to do when nobody knows what he looks like)

Xie hadn't always known he was powerful - when Yifu had taken him in he'd been told he wasn't much, but that maybe he could be useful. Later, when some witch had made an offhand comment about it, the story had become that Yifu recognised his power and took him in before anybody else could steal him away, that he just wanted to protect Xie from the people who would use him for his power. Xie was already so far gone by that point that he accepted it, that he told himself he was lucky he had Yifu to protect him, to guide him.

It's funny how easy it is to lie to yourself.

When the meetings are over for the day he finally shifts back to human form, spending a few minutes stretching out the kinks that come from forcing himself into a form that isn't quite his, especially with how much he's had to do it over the last few weeks, and then going in search of something to eat. He could probably just head back to his own apartment since he doesn't think Yifu needs anything else from him, not today, but the outsiders have all left and everybody in Yifu's manor at least knows Xie, even if they don't know that Xie and Scorpion are one and the same, so it's safe to be around them.

He likes to spend as much time here as he can get away with, likes to remind Yifu he can be useful in other ways... and maybe he likes to keep an eye on this new apprentice Yifu has taken on. He doesn't understand why he needs anybody else when he has Xie, but the last time he'd questioned somebody new in the house Yifu hadn't spoken to him for a week, so he doesn't voice that thought out loud - he just watches the guy suspiciously every chance he gets, and wonders how easy he would be to get rid of.

He's halfway to the kitchen when something makes him stop. A tug of power, the vague echo of chanting, there's a ritual happening and something about it is drawing him close. He frowns, confused, and follows the pull...

Comments

[weird_cop]

"Sure," Kevin says.

Now that he also has a pot of rice on, he and Costain rejoin them at the table, the latter with fresh tea for everyone.

He wants to ask more personal questions of the others - check that Lisa and Tony are okay, ask about Quill's family, but he's also painfully aware of the danger of bringing up personal lives in front of people like this.

So the conversation becomes casual again. Football, the news, what the fuck is up with the weather right now, with Lisa doing most of the work of including Xie.

Kevin loves to see it, she's practically a UC.

Food, when it arrives, is a spicy West Indian stew, something Kevin never had growing up but Costain did, and something that he definitely never encountered at Zhao's.

[xie_er]

Xie is cagey after that, but Lisa manages to draw him in a little bit more - he doesn't offer too much beyond disparaging everybody else's tastes and opinions, but it almost comes across as banter, and at one point he even agrees with somebody - but, to be fair, it's a comment in favour of immigration and he'd be somehwat hypocritical to disagree.

The food isn't the kind of thing Xie is overly familiar with - either from growing up or Zhao's - but he doesn't turn his nose up at it, and in fact seems quite intrigued.

It turns out to be delicious - meaty and rich and warm and spicy, all the things he likes in a meal. He eats delicately, though, mindful of his table manners and forcing himself to take it slowly even though he doesn't want to - it's second nature by now, after years of Yifu's scolding.

[weird_cop]

It makes him one of the better mannered diners at this table. Most of the others tuck in readily, making appreciative noises and continuing to talk with each other even while eating.

Kevin stops talking only because he's wolfing his food down, finally finding his appetite after the ritual last night.

Quill notices first, and glances at the other two, and the three of them decide not to mention it.

Until Kevin looks up and frowns. "Don't look at me like that, I'm fine."

It's awkward - he knows he worries them with the physical strain of his rituals, but he also knows that's his burden - this is what he's good at.

[xie_er]

Xie isn't surprised or even particularly bothered by their manners - he's dined with plenty of people with worse table manners than him, worse table manners than any of them, too, but other people's manners are no excuse to let his own slip. That's what Yifu would say.

He watches the way they all glance at Kevin, thinking for a moment that they're judging him for his enthusiasm in eating (little barbarian, Yifu would say, if Xie was eating like that. He called Xie that a lot, sometimes it even sounded like a compliment, a pet name. Other times.. not so much).

He realises, though, with the way Kevin reacts, that they're worried about him. He huffs - disdain or envy, even he doesn't really know - and shakes his head slightly.

"Having his appetite back is a good sign." He observes.

Which probably gives away that he noticed it was lacking, last night, but he doesn't care so much if it makes them stop giving Kevin those looks.

[weird_cop]

Kevin gestures across the table at Xie, as if to say see? but he realises a little too late he probably shouldn't be agreeing with the evil scorpion assassin guy.

"Just don't choke on your food," Quill remarks. "None of us want to give you the Heimlich."

"Yeah," pipes up Costain, "and if you die the rest of us are going to be murdered before we can leave the kitchen."

[xie_er]

"Mm... some of you might make it as far as the hall." Xie says serenely, his gaze flicking to Lisa. It's actually quite the compliment, coming from him, because he isn't being self-deprecating; he's very aware of his own skills.

"I don't have any weapons, after all."

Should you joke about killing cops? Probably not, but in his defence they started it.

[weird_cop]

Lisa holds her hands up. "What am I going to do, hit you with a laptop? I just look like a boxer."

Apparently joking about killing cops is what these cops, in particular, do.

"Hey," says Costain, "you pack a mean punch with that laptop. Wouldn't be thhe first time."

[xie_er]

"It's not about strength, it's about smarts." Xie observes - he's not especially strong, but you don't need to be strong when you're quick and clever and, yes, okay, being venemous helps too.

(Whether through actual venom or something a little extra applied to his blades)

She could also do a lot of damage with a laptop if he was in scorpion form, but he would like to not joke about being squashed thank you.

He wouldn't need to shift, though, he thinks - he'd just need to make it to the kitchen knives before they do. It really is just a thought exercise more than anything, but now that he has thought about it, he doesn't feel quite so defenseless in this place without his own knives.

[weird_cop]

"I'm flattered," she replies.

There's a snort from Kevin, but he's not looking at them, but at Costain, caught in a fit of jealousy he thought he'd been hiding.

He glares at Kevin who shakes his head.

"Mate," he says, in a tone that says Costain must know how wrong the end of the stick is that he's grasping at.

Quill clears his throat and stands up, gathering empty dishes.

"Well," he says. "Thank you for the meal, Sefton. I'll get the washing up."

[xie_er]

Xie glances over at Kevin, following his gaze to Costain and raising an eyebrow. He recognises that look - he's worn it enough himself - and he smirks at the other man before turning back to Lisa.

"You should come and play chess with me sometime, see if you're as good as he says." He tells her smoothly - he's not trying to make friends, or get on her good side, he really isn't. He's purely doing it to fuck with Costain at this point.

(The fact that, actually, he'd probably quite enjoy chess against a good opponent, is neither here nor there)

[weird_cop]

With Xie's attention back on his girlfriend, Tony sneaks a glance at Kevin.

Yes, the initial jealousy - or protectiveness at least - had been real, unbidden. But if Xie hates him enough to want to be friends with Lisa to fuck with him...

Kevin says nothing.

"Maybe," Ross is saying to the offer. "Depends how soundly you beat Kevin. I don't like to lose."

[xie_er]

Xie doesn't like to lose either, but he loses against Yifu all the time. It's not because Yifu is so much better than he is, but because he doesn't try as hard to win. Sometimes he throws the game deliberately. The first time he won a game of weiqi he'd been so proud, so happy, but it had lasted all of thirty seconds before Yifu had accused him of cheating. He'd had to stay in cat form around everybody until the bruise on his cheek healed, and he hadn't been able to get Yifu to play with him again for months.

He wishes that memory had stayed buried, because thinking about it now... Yifu got that angry over a game. What's he going to do about them taking Xie?

His expression is dark for a moment, lost in thought before he pushes it away, leaning his elbow on the table and resting his chin on his hand, smiling sweetly at her.

"I could let you win, if you like."

[weird_cop]

"I wouldn't like that either," Lisa says, letting herself be carried away by the sweetness of that smile while Tony and Kevin both note the dark expression that preceded it.

And this thinks Kevin, despite being no more telepathic than the Sight allows, is why we don't tell vulnerable adults that their legal guardian slash abusive lover was planning to murder them.

He wishes, not for the first time, that their tiny unit had someone with VLO training.

"Maybe you can find a compromise where he only lets you win a little," he says. "Now some of us have work to do."

He'd invite Lisa to stay - Quill said she didn't have much to do right now - but he'd just have to watch to make sure Xie didn't hurt her, and he needs to be doing something more productive.

[xie_er]

Xie hums an acknowledgement and then glances over at Kevin, remembering himself a little bit. It was fun to place nice just to annoy the other one, and being around them was slightly more bearable when he joined in the conversation, but these people did basically kidnap him (they can say arrest all they want, it's the same result from his end) and they are his enemies, for all that they're technically keeping him safe right now.

He shouldn't forget that.

He straightens up a little in his chair, bites back a sarcastic comment about not having work to do because he's a literal prisoner and waits for them to leave, wondering how he's actually going to fill his afternoon if Kevin has to work.

Maybe he'll find the last episode of bake off and tell him who wins.

Or maybe he'll do something less pathetically petty...

[weird_cop]

They say goodbye - Lisa gives Kevin a hug and Xie a friendly nod as she gathers up her things. Tony gives his mate a hearty 'welcome back to the real world' clap on the shoulder and the disappointedly unfeline murder genie gets a much colder nod.

Quill dries his hands on a tea towel and shakes Kevin by the hand. "Take it easy, Kev."

It's an operational directive, not a casual goodbye. From him, Xie receives a narrow-eyed look and yet another nod.

"Try not to cause any trouble."

Once they've retired to the loft, locking the door behind them, Kevin turns to see if Xie has any smart remarks to make about them.

[xie_er]

Lisa gets a nod, albeit a slightly more neutral one, but the others just get stared down. The comment about causing trouble has him quirking an eyebrow, but he doesn't say anything.

He stands as they leave, not quite following them but moving to the doorway to watch them go. When Kevin turns back to him he just gives him an impassive look.

"Are they going to be here a lot?" Is his only comment.

[weird_cop]

"Afraid so," Kevin says, faking exaggerated reluctance about it. "Otherwise it'd just be you and me, and even my delightful company can get tiring after a while."

[xie_er]

Xie rolls his eyes.

"I'm tired of all of you already." He retorts

It's less true than he thinks it should be. There were moments this afternoon where he was almost, almost tolerating them, and that feels wrong.

[weird_cop]

"Me too," says Kevin neutrally.

He stretches his arms around his head to work out some kinks, and turns back to the pile of books and papers his team left for him on the counter.

"Feel free to go make your own entertainment. Or make the tea, if you're staying in here."

[xie_er]

Xie hesitates, pausing in the doorway for a moment.

Feel free to go make your own entertainment was absolutely code for go away and leave me alone, but make the tea if you're staying here... Does he want him to stay and make tea, or go and leave him to his work?

It's not like he wants to be obedient, not like he is with Yifu, but he'd at least like to know if he's getting things right or not. Kevin seems content to put up with all of Xie's pushback and insults without retaliation, though he's wary that it might only be a matter of time before it comes.

After a long moment, he sighs.

"Do you want tea?" That seems like the safest question, it's casual enough to not sound totally weird and it means he can get more information and figure out what he actually wants.

[weird_cop]

Kevin, who was halfway to sitting, and wearily eying the first book in his pile, says off handedly:

"Yeah if you're making..."

Then he stops, realises what's going on and looks up at Xie seriously.

"Look, if you want a cup of tea, then yes, please make two cups. If you don't want tea, don't make any. If you want to go in the next room and move all the discs into the wrong cases to fuck with me, I'm not going to punish you. If you want to go upstairs and pound out out, fine.

"If you want to stay here and goad me by mocking my ignorance while I try and learn magic, then I'm not going to stop you. But if you do that, it'd be nice if there's a cuppa involved.

"But..."

Kevin takes a breath. Kevin the magic-apprentice didn't make speeches, and he's trying to remember who he is, still.

"...please don't take everything I say as an order. That's going to get very old very quickly."

[xie_er]

He's already stepping towards the kettle when Kevin trails off, but he freezes when he starts again, his expression wary and a little confused.

It is, he thinks, probably the most he's ever heard the other man say in one go outside of reading him his rights. It's also frustratingly knowing, like he's looked right through Xie and made some kind of judgement that was, admittedly, probably entirely correct.

He opens his mouth to argue, closes it again and stops, instead, to think for a moment.

No, he thinks, it's not an order. It was never an order from Yifu, either, it was... an expectation. It wasn't about telling Xie what to do, it was about Xie being able to anticipate what he wanted, read into his words, understand what he wanted. That was what a good familiar did, wasn't it?

Exept apparently Kevin didn't want a familiar who anticipated his wants, he wanted a familiar who... what? Did what they wanted? Or maybe he just wanted it to seem that way.

Xie is giving himself a headache. He sighs, mumbles "fine" and turns on his heel, disappearing upstairs to lie on his bed and try and sort through the mess of complicated thoughts in his brain.

What did he care what kind of familiar Kevin wanted anyway? He didn't choose this.

[weird_cop]

Kevin stares helplessly at him as he goes, thinking again how poorly he's handling this situation, and how easier it would be if he could just give an order. Help me figure out how to free you and also I order you to be a mentally healthy member of a civilised society who poses little to no threat to yourself or others.

But it's never that easy, and he doesn't get to fantasise about it being that easy.

This would have been so much easier if he'd just got a cat.

So he makes himself a cup of tea, and he gets out a highlighter, and he starts on the books.

There has to be something in here about how to break the bond, right?

He spends most of the afternoon hunched over that work, and getting entirely nowhere except halfway through the custard creams.

[xie_er]

Xie spends most of the afternoon driving himself a little bit crazy. He doesn't want to go back downstairs, he doesn't have a phone or a book or anything to occupy himself. After a little while he unpacks his backpack just for something to do. It takes about three minutes.

He rearranges things a couple of times, then starts rearranging the furniture because he decides the way the room is set up already is stupid.

That doesn't kill much time either.

(If Kevin hears the thumping and comes to investigate, he'll tell him he's making the room look better but not much more than that).

He wonders if he could ask for something, anything so that he can personalise the space, but then he realises they probably won't even be here that long. It's a safe house, for fuck's sake. They're here until they're not in danger and then he'll probably get put on trial for his crimes and spend the rest of his life in prison or something.

By the evening he's starting to get hungry, but he doesn't want to go downstairs again.

[weird_cop]

Kevin eventually decides he's getting nowhere and he is getting a headache, so when he starts to get hungry he puts his books away and starts on dinner. It takes him a moment to decide what to cook, but figures that if it's just the two of them he wants something easy to cook, that's familiar enough to Xie that it won't be yet another aggravation, and that he, Kevin, can eat from a laptray in front of the telly.

So he whips up a quick noodle dish, and if the sound and smell of the cooking aren't enough to entice his housemate down, he brings a bowl up, rapping on the door with the back of his knuckles.