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

[xie_er]

Xie just rolls his eyes, wrapping the quilt around himself. Now that the sleepiness had faded a little he was feeling self-conscious about being so bare, so he relaxes again with the quilt curled around his shoulders, pulling his legs up under it as well. Kevin mentioning the cold has alerted him to the fact that he is a little chilly after having fallen asleep with only a towel and wet hair.

"I'm fine, I just needed a break." He assures "A warm shower and some extra sleep, that's all."

[weird_cop]

"A break from what?"

He worries that the question might sound accusatory, but he is genuinely curious.

"Watching telly?"

[xie_er]

Xie gives him a look that says why on earth would he need a break from watching telly?

"From the cat form." He says "I've been spending too long in it. It's fine, I have to do this all the time when Yifu needs me to use it a lot."

He's pushed himself worse than this, until he's needed a proper break and a decent massage to deal with all the knots in his back. Mostly, though, he just makes use of the fancy spa shower in his apartment and spends the day in bed when it gets too bad.

[weird_cop]

Kevin returns that look - he doesn't know, that's why he asked!

But the actual answer, while logical from an angle, doesn't answer his question really.

"Oh," he says. "I didn't realise it took that much effort. Why do you do it, then?"

Not pushing himself for Zhao- Kevin gets that. But to watch the Fab Five do makeovers?

[xie_er]

"It's just uncomfortable. Like when you sit strangely for too long and everything feels stiff when you finally move." He says - it's more explanation than is really necessary, but it's mostly to put off answering the actual question, because there's no way to answer that without the truth, and the truth is embarassing.

He looks away, glancing over and suddenly finding a tear in the wallpaper absolutely fascinating. He shrugs.

"You wanted a cat."

[weird_cop]

"What?"

It's been a few days. Kevin frowns at him staring at the wall, and tries to figure out what he's talking about.

He remembers venting to Lida only because he remembers Xie coming in after that, and how Kevin worried he overheard what he said about Zhao.

"No," he says suddenly. "I expected a cat. The moral quandary wouldn't be the same. I didn't want you to pretend to be a cat."

[xie_er]

Xie just shrugs, though there's the faintest, faintest dash of colour, high on his cheeks.

"I just thought it would... make it easier for you."

It's not really what he means. He thought Kevin would like him better, would want to be around him, would want to keep him... but all of that is stupid. Stupid to say and stupider to even want.

He draws the quilt tighter around himself, curls his hand around the pendant of his necklace like it's a comfort to him, shrugs.

"I can stop."

[weird_cop]

"Only because it's tiring you out," Kevin says.

He can see the way Xie is drawing in on himself, can hear the words he's saying but it doesn't make sense, Xie is snarky and dry and insulting, why is he acting like a dejected kitten?

He does something very very ill advised then - he puts out a hand to touch Xie's arm. The first time he's actually touched him in any form other than scorpion.

"You don't have to do any of that for me."

[xie_er]

There's a moment where Xie leans in to the touch, a little of his tension easing, like it's actually reassuring... until he realises what he's doing and he jerks away, expression hardening.

"I know I don't." he retorts - even though it's probably the wrong thing to say, probably reveals that he wanted to do it rather than feeling like he should.

The thing is, though... he mentioned it was tiring for Xie, mentioned that he didn't have to do it... but he never said he didn't like it. That he didn't want it. Does he actually want Xie to stop or is he just trying to be nice?

"Is that all?" He asks then, usual attitude sliding into place like a shield, like he can make Kevin forget his moment of weakness.

[weird_cop]

For that moment every one of Kevin's protective instincts fire up - that 'I want to go out there and protect the world' core of him that is why he joined the police in the first place screams out to tell him to reach for Xie, reassure him somehow, give him what he clearly needs.

He just looks so vulnerable, and Kevin feels a need to keep him safe that goes beyond professional.

(It must be the bond.)

His mouth twitches when Xie snaps back, his shields back up. Kevin tells himself it's a good sign, like regaining an appetite after losing it, only this is an appetite for snark.

He asks the second question, nodding at the necklace.

"Not seen that before. Do you always wear it?"

[xie_er]

"What?" He glances down at the necklace, realises that must have been what Kevin was staring at when he woke up (of course it was, why would he have actually been looking at Xie, that would have been weird), and nods.

"Mm, I do. It's under my shirt most of the time, but I only take it off to shower. Why?"

[weird_cop]

Kevin frowns thoughtfully, once again trying to remember seeing anything like it at Zhao's.

He didn't, that was the thing. Zhao's strain of magic didn't use objects imbued with power, not the way Kevin had learned to use magic. That was why familiars were so strange - but familiars didn't show up with the Sight.

He weighs up the risks of being direct versus skirting around with other questions and decides there's no point not being honest.

"Do you know it's magical?"

[xie_er]

"It's what?" Xie looks taken aback, glancing down at the pendant again and then back up, shaking his head slowly.

"I didn't... Yifu said it was very old, and important, but he never said it was... how can you tell?"

He'd said it was good luck, that it would protect him (well, protect 'his power', but he'd just been joking, calling Xie that... or he thought he had, at the time). If it was magical... had Yifu given him some kind of protection charm?

Maybe he really did care...

[weird_cop]

"How can I tell?" Kevin repeats, almost like its a ridiculous question.

"I can see it. It's heavy with power."

He knows that the way these witches operate, they don't have need for the Sight, but it's still odd to think he has a whole sense that they lack.

[xie_er]

"You can?" Xie frowns, tugging the pendant up and holding it in front of his face like he'll somehow develop the ability to see it the way Kevin does.

Then it occurs to him that he can.

"Show me?" He asks, looking up at the other man.

[weird_cop]

Kevin frowns at him, like he doesn't know what is being asked of him - if he could just give people the Sight...

...the he realises what Xie means and nods, switching his focus of concentration.

He looks at the necklace and sends the image down the link: the solid, heavy image of it like someone has outlined it several times in black pen and lit it with its own spotlight.

He can't send the feeling of weight, the constricting nature of it with the image, but the sight should be enough.

[xie_er]

Xie looks like he's just staring into space for a long moment as he studies the mental image. It's almost bizarre to see it like that, to see something so obvious when it's just... his necklace. The pendant that Yifu gave him.

There's nothing about the image that gives him any clue, however, to what the point of it was, and after a while he blinks a few times and looks back up at Kevin.

"Can you tell anything about it? Or just that it's magical?"

[weird_cop]

"Can I touch it?" Kevin asks, and with Xie's permission he touches two fingers to the pendant.

And immediately wants to jerk them back when he feels the weight. Literal weight, not just power or age or importance: it feels heavy and restrictive and pulls the cord down, like a chain around Xie's neck. Kevin's eyes widen and for a moment he finds it hard to breathe.

Then he brings his fingers back.

He's not sure what to say: he's seen and felt worse, and this might be nothing deliberate, sometimes people are drawn to objects whether they can see them or not.
But for some reason this really hits Kevin, really seems monstrous, and he doesn't want to say the thing out loud.

"It's a collar"

[xie_er]

Xie nods, assuming that the touch will help him learn more and his curiosity is getting the better of him.

The reaction is... startling. Whatever he saw or felt when he touched it seems to have overwhelmed him briefly, and there's a moment where Xie feels the worry creep in, the fear.

Then the words echo into his head and it's really not what he was expecting. He doesn't even know what that means but for some reason he can't help himself. He laughs.

It's just so... Yifu. Something so possessive. But it's more than that, too. A collar is a claim, and that's something that Yifu always shied away from. If he could have kept Xie hidden away from everybody he would have. He never wanted anybody knowing their business, never wanted Xie to be too needy, too clingy, too obvious.

And then he turns around and puts a collar on him?

Maybe he shouldn't read too much into it, it's not like anybody else knows what it is, not like anybody else ever even sees it, and yet...

"I thought you were going to say something serious." He comments, rolling his eyes and dropping the pendant back, feeling the familiar weight of it settle comfortably against his chest.

[weird_cop]

Kevin frowns for a moment more, trying to figure out if he could put into words that Xie could understand that this isn't a cute bdsm thing or a possessive lover thing but a mark of ownership, of captivity.

Maybe even that couldn't get across to Xie, not without the feeling itself.

He glances at the pendant again, committing the ordinary details to memory.

"Zhao gave it to you? When?"

[xie_er]

Xie just takes his frown as judgement and is even more amused. He suspects that Kevin knows about the real nature of his relationship with Yifu, because for all the man's care it was hard to live in that house for any length of time and miss it, but he knows people are weird about it, and apparently thinking about collars just makes them even weirder.

"A few months ago, it was a birthday present." he says, a pleased note creeping into his voice "He said he'd spent a long time trying to track it down for me."

[weird_cop]

Kevin casts his mind back. A few months ago would have been when Zhao started seriously looking at the ritual. He didn't mention it to his apprentice then; not even the hints of soon I will have even more power, but it was very possibly one of the first things he got in place once he'd found it.

It could, again, be a coincidence. But not if he was tracking it down.

"Weird," he says. "It's not the sort of magic he cultivates. I wonder if he even knew."

[xie_er]

It doesn't seem like the kind of thing Yifu would have put effort into tracking down if he didn't know, but maybe it had some other significance that Yifu wanted it for, or it was linked to some story that had a magical side that he hadn't known about... it seems unlikely, to Xie, but not impossible.

"He knew it was special." He says with a shrug.

[weird_cop]

Kevin mirrors the shrug, and rolls his shoulders back. He's not sure talking about it any further would necessarily help, and it probably wouldn't convince Xie about Zhao's malevolence.

"Okay," he says. "Don't forget to eat before you go to bed."

He is going to bed now.

[xie_er]

Xie just rolls his eyes, but he nods all the same and, once Kevin leaves, he throws on some boxers so he can go downstairs and eat as requested.

He fidgets with the necklace while he eats, thinking about what he's learned and what it might mean. He realises after a while that the only way of really knowing would be to ask Yifu, and that's not exactly an option right now.

Eventually he puts it out of his mind, for now, and goes back upstairs to bed.