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]

Sefton knows a couple of things about assumptions. He files some of his impressions away as 'Xie is just like this,' which he already knew, and feels a little bit more comfortable about the idea that he might be controlling him somehow.

Lisa laughs.

"He's got you there, Kev."

"Hey, I'm polite as fuck, me."

[xie_er]

"Politest kidnapper I've ever had." Xie says drily.

Technically, that's true. People have tried to take Xie before - targetting him either as Familiar or son.

It has not ended well for them. At least one of his would-be abductors is probably somewhere on that list of crimes Lisa showed him.

[weird_cop]

It's a barb, and it hurts, but it's a justified one so Kevin just gestures at him as if to say see?

She shrugs, accepting her implicit guilt as party to kidnapping. But also she hopes this means Kevin will relax a little - the bond is still there, but any weirdness isn't from it. It's not, at least in an explicit sense, Kevin's fault.

"Well, thanks for answering my questions, Xie," she says. "Do you want me to bring you anything next time I come?"

[xie_er]

Xie just shrugs slightly - he doesn't mind answering those kinds of questions and there wasn't much point refusing to, and who knows, maybe it will help clear things up or prevent misunderstandings, if there was anything in what he said that they didn't already know, anyway.

The question gives him pause and he does actually give it some proper consideration, but after a moment he shakes his head. There isn't anything he can think of that he really feels comfortable actually asking for, and it's enough that she brought the guitar. The boardgames, too, though he might take some coaxing to actually agree to playing them, despite the conversation from the day before.

"Wait, actually," he says, realisation hitting him - he'd only been thinking in terms of entertainment, not anything else "I could do with some more clothes..."

He's literally just got the jeans he's wearing and a couple of t-shirts, he's only been here two days and already needs to do laundry, even with the things he shoved into his backpack when they went to his apartment.

[weird_cop]

Kevin grimaces in guilt - there were clothes already here for him and he promised Xie he'd get some, then clean forgot.

Lisa nods and opens a notebook to write things down.

"What size are you? What do you like? Is it okay if I just send a uniform into Top Man and grab you some things? What about toiletries?"

A lot of it will just be doubling the things they stocked the house with when only one man was supposed to live there.

[xie_er]

Xie doesn't notice the grimace, but he also hasn't even thought about the fact he was told they'd get more - he doesn't really have any expectation of being given anything, and he really would have just washed the clothes he had and made do, but she asked.

He gives her his sizes, some idea of styles and colours (it's not all black, though that shouldn't be a surprise to Kevin - he'll have seen Xie in much preppier, lighter colours more often than the more goth look he favoured when left to his own devices. Yifu's influence, of course), confirms that he doesn't really mind where it's from (even though his entire wardrobe at home is designer).

The one thing he is sad about is the fact that his extremely expensive haircare products are running low, and he's pretty sure he can't convince them to buy more of that.

He does ask for some toiletries, though, asking if she can at least get women's shampoo and conditioner because it's better, even if it isn't his usual brand.

"You don't get hair like this by using all in one." He adds, flicking a braid over his shoulder.

[weird_cop]

Kevin touches his own head in a way that says I don't get hair like that, but Lisa ignores him and laughs.

"There's an officer I see around who has amazing hair, I'll ask what she uses."

She herself uses supermarket branded separates: she expects it won't do.

[xie_er]

Xie nods approvingly, it's something at least.

It's funny, really, he thought he'd become used to the finer things in life, thought he'd struggle without his couture and products and expensive things, but it seems like there's only some parts he misses, that it's surprisingly easy to slip back into the easy acceptance of his situation and make the best of everything else, knowing it's not even close to the worst he's put up with.

Maybe he is still a little barbarian at heart, impossible to civilise.

"... thank you." He says belatedly. He did just make a point of saying he had manners after all.

[weird_cop]

Lisa waves away the apology in a thoroughly British manner, gathering up all paperwork as she stands - they leave nothing behind for Sefton except notes relevant to his specific operational objective: figure out how to break this bond with limited injury to himself and suspect. Even one of his notebooks has all the pages torn out to go with her.

On her way out she touches Kevin's hand and squeezes it reassuringly, then smiles at Xie.

"I'll be back for our chess game if you still want it."

[xie_er]

He tries to catch glimpses of the papers she's taking with her, watching them out the corner of his eye, but it's hard to do it subtly so he gives up and flicks his gaze to the notes she's leaving behind instead.

It's easier to catch enough of those to realise what they are and he's surprised, honestly, at the sting of rejection he feels. It's fine, he reasons, they both want the same thing, and it'll be easier to slip their captivity without the bond holding him back.

But he remembers, too, what it feels like to be unbonded. Lost, untethered, like there's something missing in his soul. Familiars aren't supposed to be like that.

What if they break the bond and he can't escape? What if he spends the rest of his life in prison without one?

Her words startle him out of his thoughts and he offers a weak smile in turn.

"Mm." He nods, it's something like an agreement, even if not a very enthusiastic one.

[weird_cop]

She nods to both of them and slips back upstairs, leaving Kevin standing a little awkwardly, not sure what to make of the expression on Xie's face.

So he gives up and decides to take a leaf out of Lisa's book and be direct:

"Something wrong?"

[xie_er]

"No." Xie lies easily. He nods towards the notes still on the table "So your plan is to break the bond then? Not many witches would give up on that kind of power so easily."

He isn't sure why he's poking at it, but it's like a scab, or having a tooth removed, you just can't help yourself. Besides, it's the easiest way to cover up how he's feeling, right? If he really was being pathetic and clingy he wouldn't want to talk about it, so he must be fine.

Maybe he can even convince himself.

[weird_cop]

That's not as effective lie as he thinks it is, but Kevin does frown - Xie hates him, surely he'd want to be rid of him.

"I have my own sources of power," he says, referring both to what he's cultivated himself under Zhao and his ability to tap into the power of the world in general.

"And I don't like having all this power that's not mine."

He doesn't like feeling it, at the edge of his own core: this big reservoir just waiting for a dam to be burst. Its even worse now he's recovering from the ritual and his own reserves are returning; like the boundary between what's his and what's not is getting weaker.

[xie_er]

But that's what it's there for.

It's on the tip of his tongue but he doesn't say it. What's the point of power he can't use? He's made to give that power to someone else.

He doesn't know if that's Yifu speaking or his own feelings, he really doesn't, and it feels stupid to just offer himself up like that, anyway. Desperate.

Luckily, the thoughts manifest themselves on his face as confusion, and that still applies even without taking that into account - he's spent most of his life surrounded by people obsessed with power, with clinging to every speck of it they can find. For someone to reject a source that's literally been handed to them just doesn't make sense to Xie in the slightest.

"What happens when you do? You might not want that power but plenty of other people do."

[weird_cop]

"Man, good question."

Kevin sighs and sits at the table, staring at the books.

"I guess I thought that it would be easier to just... break it. But if someone could just bond with you again that kind of defeats the point."

Easier ethically, he means. Easier to wipe his hands of the burden.

He frowns, realising what that sounds like.

[xie_er]

Xie doesn't know if that means it would be better to stay bonded to Kevin or better to find some way of preventing anybody else bonding with him.

He's a little afraid they're going to decide the latter, but he can't bring himself to explain how much he needs this.

He's angry, too, he thinks, that they didn't think about this. That they barrelled ahead with their little plan before they had any idea what they were going to do next. Why is he only researching this now? He remembers, vaguely, Kevin saying something about things having to be moved up. What was so important they didn't care about shoving him into this situation with no option to get out of it?

Maybe he should be more understanding, they did think he was a cat. Would have preferred him to be a cat.

That doesn't make him any less angry.

"I'm sorry I'm not so easy to get rid of." He says coolly

[weird_cop]

Kevin glares up at him, annoyed mostly because he's right, it's unacceptable to be thinking of a person like this, it's unacceptable to be treating him like a problem to be solved.

But he is.

He sighs.

"What do you think I should do?" He says, trying very hard to make it sound like a reasonable question and not an argument in the making.

[xie_er]

There's a moment where Xie stares at him. It's not the kind of thing he's used to being asked - well, it's not strictly true, he has people of his own and he is more than capable of taking charge of them, but Kevin's in the same position that Yifu used to be and...

Yifu would only ever ask something like that if he was being pointed or sarcastic, not because he actually wants to know. It takes Xie a moment to decide if this is one of those cases. He doesn't think it is.

"Do what you're already doing." He says, as calmly as he can manage "You don't want me... you don't want this bond, I mean, so break it. Whatever happens afterwards... you don't have to be involved, it doesn't matter."

It hurts, and he's pathetic, but he'll be damned if he's going to beg to keep a bond with someone who doesn't want it.

[weird_cop]

"And leave you vulnerable to the next person who wants to use you?" Kevin asks.

"The next person who sees you as a source of power rather than a person?"

He's not even angry, he finds. He's just genuinely curious if that's how Xie sees himself.

[xie_er]

At least they'd want me

"They'd have to be quite powerful themselves if they wanted to force a bond." Xie observes, which doesn't entirely answer the question about how Xie sees himself.

He's not even entirely sure, but he's well aware that it's how plenty of witches see him.

"And I'm not as vulnerable as you think." He adds, though he's smart enough not to voice the thought that follows - Witches die if you stab them, just the same as anybody else.

[weird_cop]

Kevin looks at him long and hard, mulling over what he said, and what he might not be saying.

If he wants this, why is he being such a brat about it?

That's just how he is.

"Okay," he says. "I'll figure it out. Then you can be free of me."

It really is the easy answer.

[xie_er]

"Can't wait." He says, a little shorter than he means it to be, and puts down his empty tea cup.

"I'm going back upstairs." He adds, and at least that comes out (mostly) as casual as he intends, before he shoves himself up from the table and goes back up to his room.

With any luck he can recapture the peace he'd managed to find that morning, put the headphones on and let the guitar drown out everything else.

[weird_cop]

Honestly you'd think he was being dumped. Though given what Kevin knows of him and Zhao, maybe that's what is going through his head.

He sighs.

"I'll leave you some lunch for when you're hungry," he says, because at least meals are something he can do.

[xie_er]

He makes a noise of acknowledgement, and later he does come down to retrieve the food - though he goes straight back upstairs with it too.

He finds it difficult to quite get back to that same level of calm, but having the guitar helps. At least, it does until he starts to think about the fact that Kevin asked them to get it for him. Why would he do something like that if he doesn't even want Xie around?

Maybe he's just trying to butter him up. Playing good cop so he can get Xie to talk. That's about the only angle that makes sense to him, and he decides it's not going to work... but he's still going to keep the guitar, and play it, because there's no sense driving himself crazy just to spite Kevin.

Any more than he already is, anyway.

[weird_cop]

Kevin makes no progress, nothing has been put down about how to free familiars, because everything they can find is written from the point of view that a witch wouldn't want to do that, it's all about keeping them and using the bond.

So he starts making notes about techniques witches would put in place to prevent the bond from being broken, on the basis that if that's there maybe familiars have tried it in the past.

And then he finds a heap of stuff about rituals to drain power, and about using artefacts to trap familiars, and that starts filling up his notebooks.

By the time he's ready to call it a night, his brain is buzzing, and it takes dinner and finally settling in front of the TV to try and calm it down.