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]

Lisa and Tony are the first to arrive in the morning, and start to set up in the basement like it's their new ops room. It's Lisa who heads up first thing to put the kettle on, and stops when she's greeted by the sight of blood on the carpet and the walls, and the knife left abandoned on the table.

"Tone..." she calls back, quiet and cautious, not wanting to disturb the rest of the quiet house.

[xie_er]

Xie has gone for wrapping himself up in the sheet since it needs to be stripped from the bed anyway, and is just heading downstairs with his bloody clothes to throw them in the washer when Lisa's voice stops him with his foot on the first step.

He hesitates, thinks about going back and waiting until they're gone, until he realises that she's in the hallway. The hallway they didn't even try to clean up yesterday.

He sighs and carries on down the stairs so he can explain.

[weird_cop]

Lisa looks up when she hears him upstairs, and her eyes widen at the sight of him - the dried blood that had been too far from the wound to bother cleaning, the sheet, the bloody clothes in his hand. But she doesn't move, even when the police officer emerges from the open door behind her.

He takes everything in as well, looks directly at Xie, and then shrugs as he steps past Lisa into the apparent crimescene.

"I'm only surprised you bothered to get a knife," he says, picking it up and twirling it idly, a street thug weighing it up for a fight. Then he drops the unconscious act, holding it casually to the side.

"I would have been clawing the fucking thing out with my fingernails."

Glancing down at the shards of microchip in the carpet he glances up at Lisa . "Is this going to be any use to the tech boys?"

She follows his gaze. "I can try. Let me get an evidence bag and tweezers."

"And bleach," he adds, touching the stain of blood on the wall.

[xie_er]

Xie tries to find the words to explain, only for Tony to make it unnecessary.

For a brief, tiny moment he actually likes the guy.

"Knife was quicker." He says after a moment, coming the rest of the way down the stairs.

"If they can't get anything from it, blame Kevin, he's the one who smashed it up." He adds - not that he thinks either of them would be getting in any trouble for having done it, not really.

[weird_cop]

"Duly noted," says Tony. He steps over the mess to continue into the kitchen and finish the aborted tea run, and holds the door open - the washing machine is in there, after all.

"Pretty sure we ordered some clothes for you somewhere. Wouldn't put it past Uniform to have left both sets in the same room. Kev still sleeping?"

[xie_er]

Xie follows him into the kitchen so he can throw his ruined clothes in the machine, taking a moment to fiddle with the settings to make sure they were being washed cold.

"I think so," he says - he's definitely still in the bedroom, he can tell that much "I'll check when he wakes up."

[weird_cop]

Tony grunts acknowledgment as he puts the kettle on, then turns around to lean on the counter.

As Xie fiddles with the washer he glances at the dressing, appraising what he sees.

"He's doing okay?"

[xie_er]

Xie makes a non-committal noise and straightens up, making sure the sheet is still wrapped around him securely before turning back to Tony.

"He was pretty tired yesterday, and angry, but okay, I think."

And being a fucking idiot, but he doesn't think Tony would appreciate him saying that so he bites his tongue. For all of thirty seconds before he just finds a different way to phrase it.

"He'd be better if he just used my power to heal instead of doing it the long way."

[weird_cop]

Angry makes sense, although Tony assumes Kev is angry at Zhao, rather than anyone else. The tired - that also makes sense given how much he knows Kevin pushes himself.

The comment though: that makes him tilt his head.

"What's your point?"

Does he expect Kevin to just take his power?

[xie_er]

Xie blinks at him, staring like he doesn't understand the question. He thought he made his point..

"That he should be using my power to heal...?" He says slowly, like Tony is an idiot.

He remembers after he says it that the conversation they had about Kevin using his power, such as it was, happened through the link so he wouldn't have heard it, but that doesn't really change his reaction to the question, though it does remind him that Tony doesn't realise what his stance on the matter is.

"I don't understand why he has to be so picky about it, it's there to be used."

The more he's thought about it, the more annoyed he gets. It's just power, just because it came from Xie doesn't mean it has... crime cooties or whatever Kevin objects to.

[weird_cop]

Tony, obviously, just assumes that Kevin's stance is the obviously right one to take, given the way he scowls. It's a confused face, it's just that his confused face is also an angry one.

Also he's a bit offended that someone would think Kevin would do it.

"He didn't do this," he waves vaguely at Xie to indicate the bond or whatever, "so he could use you as some sort of magic battery. He did it to stop a dangerous criminal from doing it."

[xie_er]

"Look, I'm well aware he doesn't want to, that this is all about taking me away from Yifu, but come on." Xie protests "He's going to take weeks to heal his hand, not to mention setting his own healing back by wasting his power on me, just because he's so appalled by the idea of using mine."

At least with Yifu he could be useful.

[weird_cop]

"He's not a fucking monster, mate," Tony says, his defensiveness rising again. "He understands the concept of consent."

That last word is barely out of his mouth before what Xie says catches up to him.

"...he did what?"

Yeah that's Kevin being stupid.

[xie_er]

"I told him to use it!" Xie snaps. Isn't that consent? Does he think all witches who have Familiars are monsters? That a witch should bond with a familiar and not use their power?

He's about to say more when Tony stops him - which is probably for the best, because it would have ended up a rant anyway - and he sighs slightly, irritably.

"Yesterday. When he was fixing up my shoulder. He used some of his power to heal the worst of the damage. Probably whatever little he'd been able to recover from healing himself before, which means he'll have less when he does the meditation today, which means it'll take longer overall."

Not by much, admittedly, but it's the principle of the thing he's mad about.

[weird_cop]

Tony shakes his head at the fact that Kevin did that. Given the damage Xie must have done to himself it makes sense - he should have been rushed to A&E under normal circumstances.

"Yeah but mate," Tony points out, now trying to be more level toned as he understands Xie's point of view, "you didn't tell him to..." he pauses, looking for the word, hates his choice, "...take you in the first place. And you told Lisa it's hard for you to say no to your... witch."

He really has to deliberately choose that word.

[xie_er]

"Hard, but not impossible, to disobey a direct instruction." Xie corrects. That's different, surely, to offering his power?

(Even though he didn't so much offer it as ask why Kevin didn't take it)

You can't 'willingly' give anything to a man who sees you as property

Kevin doesn't see him that way, but that's only since they knew he was a person. Would they have done it differently, if they had? They'd planned to steal a cat...

"So as far as he's concerned I can't consent to him using my power because I didn't consent to the bond in the first place?" He's starting to realise, finally, that Kevin didn't mean what Xie thought he did when he talked about his power.

"I wonder if you'll still have this same enthusiasm for deciding I have no free will when I'm on trial." He says drily.

[weird_cop]

"I'm not the CPS," Tony replies flatly.

"Any decent defence brief though - yeah. It's gonna be a tough call, 'cause the British legal system is new to all this magic shit and I don't know how anything can be proven. But yeah, we reckon you've got a good shot at diminished responsibility. Not to mention the rings they'll run around us if they find out Kev did take advantage of you while under his protection."

He means 'we,' because they've talked about this, because while Tony doesn't really trust Xie the person, he still recognises the fucked up nature of his relationship with Zhao, still knows what coercion looks like.

"Be better if you cooperated with some more info, but that's your call."

[xie_er]

Xie just stares at him, because - what?

Diminished responsibility? Like they can at least partially blame Yifu for everything he's done? How much difference would that make, he wonders...

It's irritating, because all this talk of being taken advantage of and consent feels so... patronising? Belittling? Like he's just some naive child who can't make his own decisions. Like his choices don't matter because they aren't really his. Just sit down, Xie-er, don't worry your pretty little head about it, we'll decide what's best for you...

Isn't that familiar?

But if the courts can argue that, can believe it, that 'lock him in a cell and throw away the key' future he'd feared might not be quite so set in stone...

"If they did that... if they argued that I was... whatever," he waves a hand "that would make it worse for Yifu, though, wouldn't it?"

[weird_cop]

"Things are pretty bad for him anyway," Tony says, indifferently.

"Not that you should care what happens to that asshole."

[xie_er]

"But I do, though." Xie says, a little frustrated, a little helpless "I know what you all think of him, I know he...."

He shakes his head.

"Even with everything he's done... I owe him so much. I wouldn't be alive right now if it wasn't for him."

Maybe it's not strictly true, but Xie was losing it on his own, slowly but surely, it had only been a matter of time. Maybe some other witch would have found him, used him for his power, but Yifu was far from his worst option there - at least, that's what he's always told himself.

[weird_cop]

"You wouldn't be al..."

Tony stops himself.

"You do know what you sound like, right? We've all done uniform beats we've heard these lines all before."

[xie_er]

Xie assumes he's just echoing his words, like he can't believe what he's hearing, but even if he had thought he was saying something else he's distracted by Tony's next words. He frowns.

"What are you talking about?" He challenges "What do I sound like?"

[weird_cop]

Tony rolls his eyes.

"Oh, but Ronnie doesn't mean to hurt me," he says in a light falsetto. Its not meant to be homophobic - he's mimicking a certain kind of woman. "He loves me, you don't understand. I just make him so angry, sometimes.

"Then it's make up over the black eyes."

[xie_er]

Xie's jaw sets and his eyes blaze with fury.

He's angry to be compared to the stereotype of a helpless, battered woman because nobody wants to think of themselves as being that kind of person.

He's more angry because it's truer than he really wants to admit. Right down to the makeup.

His hand twitches for a knife and even though he doesn't have one he's already moving, launching himself towards Tony only to stumble before he even gets there, almost blacking out for a second at the sudden lancing pain from his shoulder the movement triggered. He has to brace himself on the kitchen table with his good arm, gritting his teeth until the worst of it subsides.

[weird_cop]

Tony had a feeling he was asking for it. The expression on Xie's face is just enough warning and he jerks back, out of the way.

Still, he realises that the injury saved him, and has the good sense to neither carry on nor to step forward and see to him. He just stands patiently, unrepentant.

But Kevin and Lisa enter just as Xie is bracing himself at the table, and Kevin's first reaction is to stride far enough into the room to get between them, closest to Xie, facing the DS.

"What did you do, Tony?"

Tony shrugs.