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 shakes his head. No tech, the only thing he had was jewellery, and most of that was either not from Yifu or had been left back at the house anyway. Except for the one thing that he's fairly certain doesn't have any kind of tracking device in it - it would be hard to manage, given that the pendant looked like frosted glass.

He also can't bring himself to admit that he still has it on, so he's mostly just really hoping it isn't that.

At Lisa's gasp he raises an eyebrow, confused.

"Planned for what...?"

[weird_cop]

She looks up at Kevin, a faint look of horror on her face as she tries to avoid looking Xie in the eye.

"We were expecting a cat."

He stares, and if anything the horror is greater, similar to when he first touched the collar. Kevin stands up suddenly, sending his chair flying behind him.

"Get me a scanner now."

[xie_er]

For fuck's sake will they stop mentioning that they were hoping for a cat for five -

Well.

That was... a reaction.

Xie leans away at the sudden movement, giving Kevin a look like he's gone crazy. Scanner? Scanner for-

Oh.

They don't think the tracking device is in a piece of technology. They think the tracking device is in him.

[weird_cop]

Kevin gives Xie a look that is part pity, part apology, mostly fury at what has been done to him.

As Quill wordlessly puts a small device in his good hand, he tightens his lips and brings the end towards the back of his shoulder.

...where it beeps cheerfully.

[xie_er]

When Xie was 15 he got appendicitis.

It was maybe six months after Yifu had brought him to the UK and he'd been in the middle of an English lesson when the pain started, racing across his stomach until he was struggling to concentrate. The tutor had accused him of faking it and demanded Xie continue with the lesson. Xie told him to go fuck himself and threw up on his shoes.

It was all a blur after that, he ended up in hospital, trying to explain in hesitant, broken English where the pain was. They'd taken him into surgery.

When he woke up, he was at home, with a scar on his stomach and Yifu sitting by his bed. And an ache, in his shoulder.

When he asked about it, later, Yifu told him he'd tried to get out of bed at the hospital, still out of it from the anaesthetic, and he'd fallen. That was why Yifu had brought him home to recover there.

It's strange, to remember that so clearly all of a sudden, but how can he not? When the scanner is hovering over the faded white line of a scar he'd been told was from hitting the edge of a dresser in the hospital.

He tries to tell himself that it was just Yifu trying to keep him safe, he really does, but it's really hard to believe that's all it is when Yifu lied to him about it, never told him it was there.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

"Well." he says, fighting to keep his voice steady "That answers that question."

[weird_cop]

The rest of the room is silent as Kevin adjusts the settings on the scanner in his hand, and holds it close again, where it makes another noise, this one an even more unbearably cheerful jangle as the device is deactivated.

"Is that all, Superintendent?" He asks, not taking his eyes off Xie.

"Yes," she decides. "We'll finish the debrief tomorrow."

[xie_er]

Xie doesn't actually know that the noise means he's deactivated the chip, but he can make an educated guess. He almost wishes it wasn't so simple. That it wasn't still there.

His hand twitches, the familiar movement that should have a blade dropping into his palm. If he had even one of his knives right now he'd be digging it into his own shoulder without a second thought.

They're in another safe house, though. The kitchen will have knives. How long until he can slip away and get one?

Not too long, apparently, since they seem content to finish now. He can feel their eyes on him. Feel the horror and the pity like it's a physical thing dragging over his skin.

"Where's the bathroom?" he asks, like he wants to throw up. Maybe he does. But he wants to get this thing out of him first.

[weird_cop]

Kevin had turned away to usher everyone out of the portal, so he doesn't see the movement of Xie's hands. But he turns when Xie asks, and indicates the stairs.

"Up there, I guess."

"First on the left," Quill says helpfully.

TW for knife stuff I guess lol

[xie_er]

Xie makes a noise that might have been a thank you and disappears up the stairs. It takes him a moment to locate the kitchen, and a little longer to find a knife. It's not very sharp, but he's willing to make do.

There's a mirror in the hallway, so he doesn't even bother to go and find the bathroom, just yanks his shirt off and twists - it's awkward as fuck but he manages to slice into his shoulder, using the old scar as a guide and gritting his teeth against the pain. Blood trickles down his back as he pulls the knife out and uses the mirror to try and look into the wound and find the chip.

It's deeper than he expected when he spots it, and he has to grit his teeth again and dig the point of the knife back into his shoulder to pry it out.

[weird_cop]

Kevin gave him a moment - giving Lisa a full description of both assassins, confirming with Jimmy that he really is okay and doesn't need medical attention. And only when they're gone and the portal is dismantled does he head up to the main house.

The first thing he sees is the blood.
The second thing he sees is the necklace, shining out of the mess as if screaming for attention.

"What the fuck?"

[xie_er]

Despite the fact that not ten minutes ago Xie had been solely focused on the necklace and praying it wasn't what Yifu was using to track him, it isn't even remotely on his mind in that moment when all he wanted to do was get the stupid chip out of his shoulder.

So when Kevin steps into the hallway just a few short moments after he's finally dug it out and is clutching it in bloody fingers, reeling ever so slightly from the wave of dizziness that's just hit him (pain or blood loss, he isn't entirely sure. He's not bleeding that badly, he thinks, so it's probably the former), he turns towards him and the only thing that registers is that Kevin has just walked in on him, knife in hand, having slightly mutilated his own shoulder.

"I needed it out." He says, as if it's that simple.

[weird_cop]

Kevin takes a second to stop staring at the necklace, to realise that Xie has something else on his mind and there is something more pressing.

He's still angry as all hell though, and that fuels him as he strides across the hall and snatches the chip from Xie's fingers, smashing it against the wall, where he grinds it with the heel of his hand until it falls apart.

His other hand, the burned one, rests on Xie's shoulder.

[xie_er]

It's when Kevin's gaze shifts to the chip that Xie realises what he was looking at, and the sudden rush of guilt has him frozen in place for a moment - long enough for the chip to be grabbed before he can even really react.

It's strangely satisfying, though, to watch Kevin destroy it. More satisfying than he would have thought, in fact, given that he was being robbed of the chance to destroy it himself.

The hand resting on his shoulder, though, reminds him that Kevin has a reason to hate the chip too. Xie's hatred is visceral, a twisting something in his gut that he doesn't know how to name or even face, but not so all-encompassing that he can't recognise that Yifu being able to track the chip is the reason Kevin was attacked, the reason he was injured.

He wonders if Kevin wishes he could smash him against the wall as well.

[weird_cop]

It is indeed deeply satisfying to destroy it, to have something physical in his hand that he can destroy, that isn't magical or psychological or otherwise intangible. He stares at his hand on the wall, wishing that it had made him feel better.

"There," he says. "Now he can't find you."

But there's that doubt. The one he hadn't even contemplated until seeing that pendant.

Does Xie still want to be found?

[xie_er]

It's the phrasing that does it, that makes his thoughts echo Kevin's and brings him back to that same circular argument.

When he's thinking about Yifu finding them it seems simple, obvious. Of course he shouldn't. He's trying to kill them. Xie knows the condition of his return, Du Pusa said as much; he breaks the bond and goes back himself.

Now he knows how to break the bond, but the horrible, realistic part of him that he doesn't want to listen to knows full well that if he showed up unable to form another, his power locked away from Yifu for good, what use would that be? Yifu would never put himself through the ritual to get it back even if he could convince Zhou Zishu to tell him how they did it.

The only other way to break the bond, short of Yifu finding the power to do the transference spell himself (unlikely), is for Kevin to die. Xie can't do it himself, and for all that Costain suspected him of orchestrating their little outing, there's no way he'd actually be able to pull something like that off, especially not now.

There's a part of him, stubborn and foolish and desperate to be loved, that does want Yifu to find him. Wants him to raze this place to the ground and take Xie back. But that part wants him to come personally, wants him to actually care about Xie enough to come for him.

Except when he thinks about either option - about managing to get Kevin killed or Yifu coming to do it himself - the thought of it actually happening is... painful. Unpleasant. He spent months wanting to kill the man himself and now the thought of anybody else doing it is suddenly objectionable.

It's the bond, he thinks. He just needs to break it, and he'll deal with the consequences after, once he can escape. Maybe he can still be useful to Yifu, even without it. Maybe he can just leave them all behind and go live on a mountain, let himself go crazy because it's going to happen anyway.

It's a long, long moment before he swallows, nodding slightly. He looks down at his bloodied hands, the knife he's still holding.

"I should clean up."

[weird_cop]

That grounds him. Gives him something to think about, something to do, as tangible as smashing the chip. Kevin falls back into his protective instincts, his first aid training coming back.

Kevin nods, and his eyes shift down, narrowing as they pass the pendant, but falling on the knife, his hand softly closing on it, pulling it gently away from Xie.

"Come on."

He's pretty sure there'll be a first aid kit in the bathroom.

[xie_er]

He takes the knife away first.

He takes the knife away even though Xie physically can't hurt him, the first priority is to remove the weapon from the suspect.

(It's not a fair thought, it isn't, there's completely logical reasons to take a knife off of someone who just used it to dig a tracking chip out of their own shoulder that have nothing to do with him being a criminal)

Xie lets it go, turns to follow him. For a moment, his eyes catch on the smear of blood on the wallpaper, the spot where Kevin crushed the chip. There's probably more on the carpet. He wonders if they'll be able to clean it up, if Kevin will have to explain to the others why Xie bled all over their safe house.

He trails after Kevin into the bathroom, moves to the sink to start washing his hands, already making a plan in his head. Wash his hands first, use one of the towels to wipe up the excess blood from his shoulder. Work out if he's going to need stitches. It's going to be hell to stitch up his own shoulder but he's done more awkward places. He doesn't expect Kevin to help, he did this to himself.

[weird_cop]

Leaving the knife on the hall table, where it can further smear blood into the polish, Kevin opens the door for Xie to enter the bathroom. But then, when Xie is in front of the sink, Kevin pushes him out of the way so he can get there instead.

He soaks a washcloth first and presses it gently against the wound, intending to ask Xie to hold it. But then he spies the necklace again and realises he can't do this with that in place.

"Take that off," he says bluntly.

[xie_er]

Xie allows himself to be pushed with a faint frown of confusion, like he isn't sure why Kevin is stopping him. Even as he's wetting the cloth, it doesn't quite register what's going on - not until he's pressing the cloth to his shoulder, anyway. Then it clicks.

He hisses slightly at the contact, the adrenaline dulled slightly and the pain starting to make itself known, but he doesn't pull away.

"You don't have-" he starts, but it's cut off by the sharp instruction and his hands fly up to the cord to lift it before he's even really fully consciously processed what's been said. The movement sends a red-hot spike of pain through his throbbing shoulder and his hand spasms and drops it before he can even get it off.

He pauses, breathing heavily, his mind a whirlwind of uncertainty. In that moment he's too confused and guilty and pained to even begin to summon the will to resist the order, though, so he tries again - this time only lifting his good arm, gripping the pendant and pulling it over his head. It still tugs at the wound a little when he has to untangle it from his hair, but not as badly.

When he's done, he clutches the pendant in his hand and struggles to try and find the words. Some part of him wants to apologise, most of him at least wants Kevin to understand why he disobeyed.

"I just... couldn't..." he starts slowly "I couldn't leave it..."

[weird_cop]

Kevin, having already winced with each spasm of pain, now shakes head head to try and stop the apology and excuse and explanation. He doesn't want to hear them. The feeling of betrayal and guilt are too strong and he wants to push through, get on with what he needs to do.

"Hold this. Apply pressure."

This so he can open the medicine cabinet, find disinfectant, basic dressings.

He knows he's not only mad at Xie, not by a long shot. Not even really mad at him. He's more mad at himself for getting hurt, at nearly failing his job, for missing the chip that nearly got them killed, and for dealing with it just now that got Xie like this.

Mostly He's furious at the man who abused him so badly, got so far into his head, that he's clutching his collar in his hand even after finding the real tag in his body.

"You don't belong to him anymore. Do you understand?"

[xie_er]

There's a momentary fumble where he has to figure out what to do, since in order to do as he's told he needs to move the pendant from his good hand, and he's still in no place to be disobeying. He works it out, though, shifting it to his other hand because he can't quite bring himself to put it down.

He presses his hand against the cloth, applying as much pressure as he can stand... and perhaps a little more, punishing himself with the sting of it, trying to make that wretched feeling go away. It doesn't work.

You don't belong to him anymore

Is that true? Will that ever be true? Yifu certainly seemed to think it was a risk, didn't he? Bonds and chips and necklaces... stupid, really, when some part of Xie's soul has belonged to him for years now, given over willingly. He wanted to belong to Yifu, but not like a possession or a pet, wanted them to belong to each other...

No. Not some part of his soul. His heart.

Had Yifu even wanted that? Had he even cared? Or did he just want to possess Xie's power, had he just played along for the sake of keeping him close?

It's not like it's the first time he's thought like that; doubted Yifu's love even while scrambling to keep it. It's even harder now, when he isn't there to reassure him, to laugh and call him foolish for doubting, or give him that sad look and ask how his Xie-er can be so ungrateful, after everything he's done...

"You don't understand." He says eventually, quietly "He gave me everything... I was... I was nothing, before him."

[weird_cop]

Kevin washes his own hands quickly and gets another cloth ready, prepping it with the antiseptic before he's ready to get on with cleaning.

It's hard work - he can use both hands but diesnt have full mobility with his burned one, so can't hold anything too small or too tight.

Now he uses that hand to touch Xie's, ask him to move the first so Kevin can see and clean the wound.

"You've never been nothing, Xie."

He's gentle, trying not to hurt Xie too much, but firm, knowing the sting of the disinfectant is just something he'll have to get through.

"He took way more from you than he gave. Would have kept on taking."

The wound is gaping, he realises. So mich for an expert knife man, Xie has hacked his own flesh away like the world's worst butcher.

And that thought hits Kevin sideways - Xie the master assassin, the beautiful lithe cat of a man, might have seriously damaged his ability to use that shoulder again. Something else Zhao has taken from him.

[xie_er]

Xie drops the hand holding the cloth, glad that Kevin is working on his shoulder so he doesn't have to look at him.

He doesn't understand. Kevin is angry, he knows he is, at Yifu, but also at him. Xie disobeyed, continues to cling to the necklace and all it represents, he must be furious... and yet he's still taking care of Xie's injury. Still being gentle, trying to minimise the pain.

Xie has had a lot of injuries over the years, he's never had anybody take such care over treating one. Even Du Pusa, the few times when Xie has admitted he needed a second pair of hands, has never been this gentle. Gentle is not really her forte, admittedly. Mostly, he's just dealt with them himself.

He's being nice too. It stings almost as badly as the disinfectant. He doesn't deserve nice.

"He never took anything I didn't willingly give him."

[weird_cop]

That makes Kevin pull a face, but Xie is not the only person glad that they're not looking at each others faces right now.

"You can't 'willingly' give anything to a man who sees you as property," he says. "Or who has made you think you are."

He pauses to rinse out blood and disinfectant from his cloth, studying the wound again even while reaching into the first aid kit. There's a tube of superglue in there, and a pair of latex free gloves, and eases one over his bad hand.

Insteaf of gloving up his good hand though, he lays it next to the wound, skin to skin.

"Hold still," he says and thinks.

Actually it's a fairly simple application of the principles Kexing taught him that afternoon: just direct the energy outwards instead, let it slip into Xie's flesh instead of his own.

He doesn't have much energy, only that which he'd started to replenish in the car, but it's enough to get started, to remind the muscle there what shape it's got to be in.

[xie_er]

He doesn't get it, Xie knows he doesn't. Maybe Yifu does see him as property, cares for him like a possession rather than a person, but at least he cares at all.

Someone was always going to want to use him. That's just the nature of being a Familiar. At least Yifu was kind about it, most of the time...

People like to think that witches and Familiars are like Kexing and Zishu, equal partners working together, but they're very much the exception rather than the rule, from what Xie has seen.

He isn't sure how to put any of that into words, but then there's a warm hand pressed against his shoulder and the instruction to stay still and he does, he goes so still he's barely moving with his breaths.

Then, when he feels the whisper of energy seeping into him, the power undoing the damage he caused, he's held fast enough that he doesn't immediately jerk out of Kevin's touch.

He does frown though, the stillness becoming tension.

"What the fuck are you doing?"