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]

Kevin wouldn't blame him for that either.

"Then I'm going to have to find someone else to watch the Lionesses with," he warns. Jokingly, though. He's hoping Xie will watch it with him even if he's a dick about it.

That brings up another thought, though.

"It's lucky you won," he says. "They wouldn't have been able to clear the bystanders in a pub."

[xie_er]

Xie could say he can still watch it with Tony, it's just even more excuse for Xie to stay away, but instead he rolls his eyes and mutters, begrudgingly, that if he must watch the stupid football, he can watch the stupid football.

His mood is starting to lift a little, but it drops again at the comment. He nods slightly, expression serious.

"They wouldn't have had a plan for that setting, which would have made them sloppy," because he has no doubt they'd have still tried "easier to beat, but yes, far more chance of collateral damage."

[weird_cop]

"I don't think they know where we are here," says Kevin. "I don't know where we are, here. But there shouldn't be anyway of tracing the storage unit to anywhere else, and the entrance has been moved. No one's going to come here except through the tunnels."

Which means they can't leave even for the pub, but at least they should be safer.

He sighs, and moves to stand. "I better go get my food before it's too cold."

[xie_er]

Xie nods - he still had the tracker in him when they arrived, but if his suspicions are correct they wouldn't have been able to trace it within the wards, so they might not even know yet that it's been destroyed.

He's pretty sure they're not going on any more field trips, though.

"Yea, go ahead." He nods, moving to reach for his own plate - it will have cooled down enough now that he can, as Kevin said, eat with one hand.

He'll figure out what they've actually got here to entertain themselves after lunch. And decide what he's going to do about his hair.

[weird_cop]

Kevin stands - and his eyes flick to the necklace on the dresser as he does, it's just so prominent, it takes up the whole room. He wants to confiscate it, but there's an attachment there that he can't break; he's sure it's related to the magic of it at this point and he won't push it. He suspects Xie will have to break that voluntarily.

He hasn't told any of the others about it though.

Kevin doesn't disturb Xie the rest of the day. He eats his lunch in the kitchen, meditates again to replenish his power, and then practically meditates again, as he tries to figure out the most appropriate way of asking his old 'friends' for help.

Eventually he sits on his bedroom floor, takes one hand in the other and squeezes - not enough to harm the healing process, but enough to hurt, until the pain rises again and fills his consciousness, and then he keeps going.

He dedicates the pain to the Rat Queen - the squirming angry creature of the dark and the damp, who would bite rather than accept kindness, all hate and fear and hunger.

I don't know if he's yours, he admits. But I know you don't want Zhao to win this. Give me the strength to protect him. To fight that fucker. I dedicate this to you.

He bites down on his need to cry out in pain, but allows himself the occasional grunt as he concentrates, then presses down harder, until he cannot even form the dedication in his head, and all he can hear are the screams he's not making, the laughter of the assassin who mocked him, and his vision goes black.

He comes to in the evening, soaked in sweat and his hand throbbing, but he doesn't seem to have set his healing back.

He stumbles into the shower before he can think about dinner.

[xie_er]

When Xie knows Kevin is in his room, he wanders around the house, actually exploring the new place a little in a way he didn't get a chance to earlier. He's still shirtless but it's not like there's anybody around to care.

It doesn't take him long before he's bored, and he's almost tempted to go and bother Kevin but something stops him. Maybe it's because he isn't sure he actually wants to be around people, maybe it's because he's still, even know, figuring out where the boundaries are, what his relationship with Kevin is supposed to look like, maybe it's because he doesn't want to get yelled at for disturbing him...

Or maybe those are all excuses and some part of him can sense that there's something going on behind that closed door, something that shouldn't be interrupted.

He feels uneasy, though, for most of the afternoon. Like he's in pain but without actually being in pain, like the echo of it somewhere in the back of his mind. He can't make sense of it, so he just tries to ignore it instead, finds some shitty paperback romance book in the living room and lounges on the sofa trying to read it.

He manages to focus on it long enough to get a couple of chapters in before he senses the movement from upstairs and he pauses.

"Everything okay?" He doesn't even know what possesses him to ask, and yet...

[weird_cop]

"Yeah, good"

Kevin answers from the shower as he lets the cold water ru over him, occasionally dipping his hand in and out again when the water pressure is too much.

The answer is both automatic and true - he feels like it went well but he's not sure why Xie asked.

"Oh sugar was I loud?"

[xie_er]

Xie could blame the book for the places that question took his mind, but really how else is he supposed to interpret it other than (what he thinks is) the truth? He raises an eyebrow, glancing up at the ceiling.

"No." He replies, and there's the faintest tinge of amusement to his mental voice. He wouldn't have suspected at all, he thinks, if he hadn't asked that question.

"We all need alone time now and then" He adds pragmatically, not wanting him to get embarrassed.

[weird_cop]

There's a moment when Kevin realises what Xie means, and almost corrects him, but decides that its okay if he thinks that. The truth would just make him angry at Kevin for doing too much.

"I'll put dinner on in a sec. Can you give me a hand?"

He smirks to himself.

Literally. Then we'll have a full pair."

[xie_er]

There is a moment, a moment, where the request for a hand conjures... images.

Maybe he needs some alone time of his own if he's having those kinds of thoughts about Kevin. It's just because he's the only person around, and the one he's talking to right now, that's it.

He realises he's taken too long to reply.

"I hope you realise I'm rolling my eyes at you." He replies, hoping Kevin will think he was just groaning at the comment and not getting distracted thinking about... anything else. "Yea, I can help."

[weird_cop]

"I would expect nothing less,," says Kevin, not too naive to realise he may have committed accidental innuendo, but deciding to pretend it didn't.

"Great, I'll see you down there."

He dresses his hand, something he hasn't really been doing, but it's still throbbing and he doesn't want to risk hurting it more. Then in a fresh shirt and sweatpants he heads down to the kitchen.

Noodles are easy enough, familar enough, and don't need too much two-handed work when someone is very good with knives. But he's glad when they can sit finally, stop doing anything.

"Did you happen to check our dvd collection?"

[xie_er]

Xie eyes up the dressing on his hand and tries to resist the urge to ask about it - is it worse, or should he have been doing that the whole time? Either way he's annoyed. Between that, the refusal to use his power to heal it, and using his own power to heal Xie, he's starting to think Kevin just isn't very good at taking care of himself.

There's a part of him that wants to meddle, wants to bully him into looking after himself better if he won't let Xie do anything about it, but he stamps down on it. Kevin doesn't want his input, doesn't want him, so maybe he should just let him make his own stupid decisions and focus on himself.

There's something about making dinner that he enjoys, it makes him feel productive, useful - it also helps that they're making something so simple and he doesn't have to admit that he really doesn't know a whole lot about cooking. Cutting things is fine, easy, knives are knives, and he can make educated guesses about most things Kevin asks him to do, so he's pretty sure he gets away with it.

(Yifu has a chef, and if he ate at his own apartment it was mostly takeout, Yifu might not have been free with his affection, attention or kindness, but he was free with his money)

He drops into a chair at the kitchen table and nods.

"Not much, a couple of movies is all. I guess they didn't have time to stock it up like the last place..." He pulls a face "They'll be bringing the rest of the stuff from there, right?"

[weird_cop]

"They'll want to sweep it," Kevin says. "First our lot, checking with the Sight... and then the usual lot in case of other mundane bugs we didn't catch."

Having paused in the middle of that sentence, he explains:

"They're going to be mad about the necklace. I'll handle it."

He feels extra protective after this morning, like he doesn't want his team around Xie right now, like they can't be trusted.

[xie_er]

At first, Xie doesn't understand the pause, then he's too busy thinking about those 'other mundane bugs', he's almost glad when Kevin continues and he gets to think about something else.

Almost.

He frowns, because why would he be so willing to handle it? He's mad about the necklace, doesn't he want to see Xie get in trouble for it?

"You don't have to." He says quietly, after a moment "It wasn't your fault."

[weird_cop]

"No it wasn't."

Kevin frowns, pushing his noodles around in his bowl for a moment as he tries to put it into words.

"I'm not sure it was yours, though. I mean, it probably was to an extent, and I'm still angry at you."

He's just trying not to show it.

"But it might be there's something about the magic on it. I think it was meant to be hard to get rid of."

Of course, it might still be Xie being a stubborn arse.

"Are you wearing it now?"

[xie_er]

On the one hand, it's nice not to be blamed for things, and he's still kind of pleased that Kevin took his side with the fight against Tony.

On the other hand, 'nothing Xie does is really his fault' is getting... kind of old, at this point. It's great if it really will reduce his sentence when they actually get to the whole court part of this process, but after the 'battered wife' accusation he's kind of touchy about all of it. He doesn't want to be a victim, doesn't see himself as one, isn't ready to abandon Yifu completely, not yet, not after everything.

He pokes at his own noodles, staring down at the bowl.

It's not magic, he thinks, it's because it's from him, but he can't really explain that because he'll just get another one of those pitying looks and a lecture about how Yifu was so terrible to him.

"No." He admits - he'd thought about it, when he went to put a shirt on before dinner, had picked it up and been so, so tempted - but after everything that had happened, he knew it would only cause trouble if Kevin found out. He didn't want another argument about it, and yet here they were. He doesn't like not wearing it, his thoughts have kept straying to it all day, but he hasn't put it on.

[weird_cop]

"Good," says Kevin.

He watches Xie's reaction though: his guess was still a guess and he knows it still relies on Xie's own choices, and he is still angry about that.

Finding himself with no appetite anymore he pushes it away.

"I have to tell you something," he says. "And you're going to hate me for not telling you earlier. Costain is mad at me for not telling you."

[xie_er]

He isn't feeling particularly hungry, either, but he's working up to another bite when Kevin speaks again. He's almost grateful for the excuse to give up on trying to force himself to eat.

Almost. He can tell this is something serious, though, so he turns his attention to Kevin with a wary look.

"What is it?"

Is it something to with Yifu? It must be, he thinks, to have come up now. Has something happened to him? Has he been arrested, killed? Something like panic rises in his chest and he has to clamp down on it, make himself stay calm and not get carried away before Kevin has even spoken.

[weird_cop]

Kevin pushes his chair back to stand, steeling himself as he does so.

"When this all started, when I..." he hesitates on the word "...kidnapped you, I had to do it in a hurry, because he'd mentioned he was planning a particular ritual that would make him even more powerful."

He leads the way, into the hall and then unlocking the door to the basement (the key is in the lock he hasn't bothered locking it against Xie) and leading the way down to his new briefing room.

"My objective had been to gather information, but then it became to stop that ritual."

[xie_er]

Xie frowns as he stands, following him into the hall and wondering what ritual he's talking about - he certainly didn't know about any ritual Yifu was planning, which wasn't completely unheard of but it was still a little unusual, especially something big.

So this ritual, whatever it was, is the reason the 'timelines' got moved up? He took Xie to stop Yifu from doing it, to keep him from getting more power... it makes sense, but why is telling Xie about it now?

"...okay...?" He says slowly "What's so important about this ritual, did something happen?"

Did he attempt it without Xie's power and somehow have it backfire? Is the necklace involved, is that why he was so angry about Xie wearing it outside? They thought he'd come after it? He doesn't think he'd be angry that he hadn't been told that, just confused why they bothered to keep it from him, so it must be something more...

[weird_cop]

On the steel garage shelves, next to the boxes that make the portal tunnels, are Kevin's research notebooks. He pulls out the most recent, leafs through it and opens it out on the briefing table, showing his notes. Printouts from websites are stapled next to photocopies from books and his own notes and sketches.

"It didn't happen," he says, because I stopped it. By stealing the one thing he needed, the source of the power he wanted to absorb."

[xie_er]

Xie watches him open up the notes, frowning.

He stole something else? Maybe it is the necklace. Xie can see a sketch of it on the page. All of this drama because he accidentally has a powerful necklace?

He leans forward to look at the notes, trying to work out what he's trying to say, what's so fucking special about-

The necklace isn't the target of the ritual, but a component of it. A conduit for the power rather than the source of it. The thing through which Yifu was going to take his power. All of it. For himself.

He always had it, that's the stupid part, Xie had given his power freely and he always would, but that wasn't enough for Yifu. Couldn't bear the thought of power he didn't have complete control over. Wanted to take it from Xie so noone could take Xie from him... well joke's on him because that's exactly why someone did.

It's infuriating, and pathetic, but even then, honestly, if he'd just asked, Xie would have...

...it is impossible for the Familiar to survive the process, the power is so intrinsically linked to its life force that to drain one is to drain the other...

Xie stumbles back, like by putting distance between himself and the words he can unsee them.

How could he... after everything Xie had done for him. Xie gave himself up, body and soul, and it meant nothing to him.

He turns away, like he's in a daze, starts walking back towards the stairs.

[weird_cop]

Kevin shuts the book, and returns it, rather than leaving it out for anyone to see. He follows Xie at the distance that leaves him - not in his personal space but enough for Xie to know that he is following, that Xie does not have to be alone.

"..."

He almost communicates through the link, opens it up to start, like taking a breath he doesn't need to take.

But it feels wrong, to pluck that string between them right now. He just follows.

[xie_er]

Xie seems like he's barely aware, doesn't even really react to the fact Kevin is following him, or that he almost speaks, just walks upstairs like he's hypnotised. He goes to his room, leaves the door open behind him and heads straight for the dresser.

He picks up the necklace by the cord, lets it dangle in front of him.

"It was a birthday gift." He says, sounding a million miles away.

Yifu was going to kill him with it, and he gave him it as a gift.

He takes it over to the bedside table, sets it down with care. Then his hand darts out and he snatches up the lamp, slamming the heavy base of it down onto the necklace.

[weird_cop]

Kevin stays in the doorway to Xie's bedroom, watching the whole thing. He tenses when Xie picks up the necklace, fights every instinct to fling it away, but lets him contemplate it. He watches as Xie walks over to the bedside, relaxes when be puts it down and lifts the lamp, and watches as he smashes it down.

The lamp turns out to not be heavy enough in some respects - the ceramic base gives way and shatters into large shards which fly across the room. It leaves only a large crack across the pendant and a small chip in the side, damaging it but not a huge amount.

Kevin enters the room, approaches Xie from behind to hover behind his shoulder. As he does so, he opens up the link so Xie can see through his eyes.

The translucent jade on the table is just that. A perfectly ordinary, completely powerless rock.

"You broke it as soon as you started the downward arc."

Very hesitantly, ready to stop the instant Xie objects, he puts his arms around him.