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 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.

[xie_er]

Xie tenses slightly as he approaches, still clutching the shattered lamp - until Kevin shows him the pendant now, the magic gone, and then it tumbles from his hand, probably breaking a little more as it hits the table but he doesn't care.

It doesn't feel satisfying enough, the fact that it's broken is good but he wants to grind it to powder. Wants to mail it to Yifu and imagine him pouring it out the envelope and knowing what Xie has stolen from him. Wants to put it in his food and watch him choke on it

When those arms wrap around him, though, he sags like all the rage and energy is sapped out of him at once. It's probably pity, and he hates it, but he can't bring himself to pull away, not right now.

"Tell your boss..." he says slowly, quietly "I'd like to make a statement."

Yifu wanted to destroy him? Two can play at that game.

[weird_cop]

Kevin nods, his head moving against Xie's so the gesture is transmitted through movement rather than having to pull back to show him.

They won't be able to tell Lofthouse until she comes over tomorrow but the moment she does...

He holds him tight for a few more seconds, at a slightly awkward angle to protect his shoulder, only moving when he realises he can smell blood.

Oh.
...oh.

"Do you need help washing your hair?" He asks suddenly.

[xie_er]

He's expecting questions, feels a rush of relief when all he gets is a nod, a simple acceptance. Now he just had to deal with the size of the decision he's just made... and actually process the news he's just learned.

Or he could just not think about it and finally get that fucking blood out of his hair.

"...yes." He's still reluctant to admit needing help, but it's nothing in the face of everything else he's dealing with right now.

[weird_cop]

Kevin lets go only slowly, pulling him gently so they're both sitting on the bed, Xies back turned towards him.

"This might take a while," he says with a small self-deprecating laugh as he starts by unwrapping the dressing on his hand before reaching for the first braid, trying to figure out the right approach with his hands as they are.

[xie_er]

Xie lets himself be steered, settling on the bed. It's strange how Kevin seems to have chosen the perfect distraction - it doesn't require him to do much, or even look at the other man, he can just relax into it and not think about anything, and at the end of the process he'll have clean hair.

Xie tells himself that Kevin doesn't care, that even telling him about this was just a means to an end, and he should really stop trying to see affection where it didn't exist, that's how he ended up in this position in the first place.

But right now he'd just like to pretend for a little while.

"Take the ties out the end and just comb it out with your fingers, bottom to top. You can do it with one hand that way" He offers, using the link slightly less effort than actually speaking. it's how he'd planned to undo the braids with one hand himself, he just hadn't bothered because he wouldn't have been able to wash it anyway, but between the two of them they should manage that part.

Neither of them are going to be able to braid it back up, but he'll work that out later.

[weird_cop]

"Got it," Kevin says, following instructions carefully. He loops each braid over his bad hand to see better and does the work with his other.

"Crap, we should have done this downstairs in front of the telly."

They don't need to really. He falls into a rhythm, being careful and gentle with each braid. The intimacy shouldn't really be surprising, but he finds that he likes it; the chance to do something real, that isn't shattering anyone's world view or fighting with his best friend. For once, he can feel close to the man he's been living with for so long, without blaming the magic rope between them.

It's been a long long time since he touched someone like this. Even Lisa's hugs feel like favours, something she does because he's a hugger.

[xie_er]

Xie just snorts softly, but he doesn't offer to move, doesn't want to move once Kevin gets into the flow of it, not when it feels like he's combing the tension out of him with every braid worked loose. Even when he tugs because of the dried blood or where his hair's just gotten tangled, it doesn't really detract from how relaxing it is.

Has anyone ever touched him like this? Has he ever let them? Yifu's sure as hell never done anything so... giving. Kevin could be doing a million other things right now, even if he'd agreed to help do the washing Xie could have gotten the braids out by himself, but he's sitting here just... looking after him.

It's almost heartbreaking how easy it is to pretend the care is real, how much he wants to convince himself it is.

[weird_cop]

It takes a long time, but it still feels like not long enough, that by time the final braid falls free Kevin could keep going.

He realises slowly that he's been meditating, that his core has swelled up some through the repetitive motion, and his hand doesn't feel too bad.

Now he reluctantly breaks that in order to stand, his hand brushing Xie's good shoulder.

"Shirt off."

Trousers can stay on, at least.

[xie_er]

Xie doesn't really get the same benefits of meditation that witches do, though he still knows how to do it and can use it to replenish his power when Yifu has used a lot of it, but the less magical benefits? Those he can manage, and the gentle, repetitive stroking of Kevin's fingers through his hair definitely had that effect.

So much so that he seems a little dazed again, but this time in a relaxed, soporific sort of way, and he turns his head to blink lazily at Kevin for a second before the words actually process.

He nods slowly, coming out of it a little as he unbuttons his shirt and slides it carefully off his shoulders, trying not to catch the dressing or move in a way that's going to cause any more pain. He drops it onto the bed and stands up, waiting until Kevin starts moving before he heads into the bathroom.

[weird_cop]

Kevin has to resist the urge to reach for that dressing. With the power rising up in him it would be so easy to top up, make a bigger difference for quickly than with his magical burn. But he knows how frustrated it would make Xie and doesn't want to ruin this.

This. What the fuck is this?

He indicates the bath, which thankfully has a shower head on a hose that he can use without them having to get in the shower together.

"You want to lean forward? It'll make it easier to keep the dressing dry."

[xie_er]

Xie nods, considering the most comfortable option for a moment before kneeling next to the bath and leaning over, using his good arm to sweep his hair forward.

"Are we going to have to do this together, like the cooking?" He asks, faintly amused. He's not sure how much use Kevin's injured hand will be, if one of them will need to hold the shower head while the other does the actual washing.

"Wait." He tips his head up "Is the conditioner here?" He knows they already brought some things, but did they bring his shampoo and conditioner or was somebody getting stabbed?

(He probably wouldn't actually stab someone for that)

(Probably)

[weird_cop]

"No, just something called Head and Shoulders two in one, that's fine, right?"

He says this deadpan but waves the bottle of expensive conditioner so Xie can see it.

He runs the bathtap for a while, testing it with his good hand for temperature before switching to the shower head.

"Let's see how it goes, you can help if I start messing up."

[xie_er]

"Don't even joke." Xie says with a vaguely appalled expression, but with the proof of his actual hair product he looks mollified, leaning over the tub again and letting his hair fall forward.

He murmurs a quiet assent, getting himself comfortable. It probably won't be as easy to zone out here as it was sitting on the bed getting his braids undone, but he's still expecting it to be pleasant... which is probably weird, given that he's leaning semi-awkwardly over a bath while his arresting officer and unwillingly bonded witch washes blood out of his hair, but apparently this is the life he lives.

[weird_cop]

"Tell me if it's too hot or cold."

Kevin finds it just easier to use the link over the sound of the water, and gets to work soaking the full length of Xie's hair, marvelling at the silliness of it.

"I guess the conditioner is worth it if this is the result.."

[xie_er]

"It's fine" He confirms, relaxing into the feel of it.

"It used to be awful. When I started using proper products I couldn't believe the difference it made, so I never wanted to stop"

It wasn't until the words were already thought that he realised he didn't even really mean to share something like that. It's barely anything, but it's still more than he ever really shared with anybody - he just didn't talk about his past, barely even alluded to it if he could help it. Yifu would bring it up a lot, though almost never when anybody could hear, and usually only when he wanted to be insulting. Maybe that's why Xie's so ashamed of it...

Maybe he should stop thinking about Yifu.

Probably why his thoughts drifted to his childhood, on reflection; it's the only period of his life Yifu had no impact on, other than ending it.

[weird_cop]

"No wonder you take such good care of it now."

Intel on Zhao hadn't really revealed much about where his adopted son had come from. When Kevin moved in and realised part of the actual nature of their relationship he wondered about it, but hadn't joined the dots.

"And the braiding doesn't hurt it?"

[xie_er]

"Not really. It keeps me from having to mess with it too much, I suppose, but even if they did I'd still do them."

This time he actually thinks about it before he says it, makes the conscious choice to reveal more. It's a little bit to spite Yifu, he thinks, and a little bit a test, just to see how it feels, how Kevin reacts.

"They're kind of a traditional thing, in Nanjiang."

[weird_cop]

"That's where you're from?"

Obviously, he thinks. But he asks to let Xie know he doesn't already know this. That anything Xie shares is up to him.

He hands Xie the shampoo bottle, holds his good hand out to receive the right amount, and then starts applying, just about able to use his burned hand to help massage it into his hair and scalp.