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]

He wonders what that might have been like, growing up with family. Even a small one.

Maybe he would have learned to cook. Would have bonded with someone different, with his parents looking out for him, would have...

It's stupid to indulge in fantasies. He's done enough of it.

"Your boyfriend?" He asks, a little surprised. He doesn't know why, of course Kevin must have had a life outside of being undercover, outside of being here... does he still have family? Friends? People he had to leave behind the whole time he was staying at Yifu's? People he still can't go and see until it's safe again?

[weird_cop]

"Joe," says Kevin, and that quietness comes back.

"His name was Joe."

[xie_er]

"...Was?"

He probably shouldn't push, should hear that quiet tone and leave it be, but now that he's thinking about what might be waiting for Kevin, waiting for him to be done here, he can't help but poke at it. Is that was because something happened to him, or because something happened to the relationship? Is that why he agreed to such a long-term assignment?

[weird_cop]

Kevin could just confirm the tense, and not say anything else. He could, but he's just listened to Xie describe what must be all of his sexual partners, from aged 16 upwards, and what that has done for him. Maybe he owes Xie a little of himself.

"He died."

But now he finds he wants to talk about Joe. Wants to talk to someone a little outside, to get it out in a way he doesn't talk to Lisa or Tony really. To talk to someone about him the way he used to talk to him about the magic.

"But he's not in Hell, which is something I could do for him."

[xie_er]

Xie is quiet for a long moment, just focusing on chopping vegetables that don't really need more chopping. He stops himself before he ruins them completely and puts the knife down.

"It's good... that you can be sure of that." He says. It's probably the wrong thing, but he doesn't think he's ever had to comfort somebody about death before, he doesn't really know the script.

[weird_cop]

"Not because I turned him to God, or anything, you understand," Kevin adds, just in case Xie thinks he's into redeeming sinners as some sort of fucked up hobby.

"That's definitely not my thing," he adds, laughing at the very concept. "I was a militant atheist before ghosts and the afterlife turned up in my life."

He takes the board before Xie can make vegetable powder, and adds them all to the soup.

"But that was what Tony meant when he told those two about the Smiling Man. I lost Joe just as we were kicking him out of town. I guess you'd say he was a sacrifice, but I didn't make it willingly."

[xie_er]

Xie snorts slightly - he absolutely did not take it that way, he in fact assumed it was very literal after the conversation they had yesterday.

That and he'd lived side by side with Kevin long enough to be fairly certain he wasn't some religious nut.

He listens, though, nodding in something like understanding - even though he can't really relate. He knows loss, still remembers when his parents died, but that's a different kind of loss, and he was so young at the time, it doesn't really give him an appropriate frame of reference.

He pauses, though, considers what he knows about the situation, about the timing.

"...and then you went right into being undercover."

[weird_cop]

"Yeah."

Yeah, yeah okay that's a bit damning.

"UC work's what I'm good at. Well, UC and magic. Kevin the soldier's an asshole and I hate him, but at least he's simple. All he wants is power and for the boss to like him."

He turns to look at Xie, aware at what the words sounded like, hoping he doesn't take them personally. Then he brandishes the wooden spoon at him accusingly.

"It wasn't meant to get complicated."

He's attempting to smile, as he says it.

[xie_er]

"You're the one who decided to rescue the poor little kitty cat without doing his homework." Xie retorts, and then wonders what the fuck is wrong with him that he just referred to himself, even in jest, as a poor little kitty cat.

Mostly, he just thought Kevin needed to slip back into banter, to soften the blow of what he was just talking about.

It's funny, though. The comment about wanting power and for the boss to like him, that he didn't take all that personally - he knows he could have, but he gets what Kevin is actually trying to say.

The complicated comment, though, that... Because that's what he is. He's a complication. Oh, he's made himself useful, now, but that doesn't really do anything to diminish the problems he's caused. Kevin could have gotten back to his life, could be actually healing and moving on instead of stuck in this... limbo. Not quite reality but not the safe simplicity of the undercover persona, either.

[weird_cop]

Kevin laughs softly - it's slightly forced but he appreciates the meaning behind the comment and, like Xie, wants to embrace the forthcoming banter rather than dwelling on his loss.

"I did lots of homework," he objects. "I just focused on the wrong subject, that's all."

It's also, he realises, not the kind of complication he was thinking of. He was expecting a cat, and having a person made it complicated. But what he meant was - this. Xie is complicated. Him and Xie is complicated.

He's not sure when that happened.

[xie_er]

"Ah, you paid attention to Yifu and didn't realise how big a part I had to play." Xie says smoothly, a tiny smile playing about his lips "Just the way he likes it, he'd be so pleased."

Because really, if this morning's itemized list of criminal successes has shown him anything, it's that all his talk of being nothing without Yifu was completely backwards. Would Yifu have achieved even a fraction of any of his goals without Xie working in the shadows? Without his constant support, his power, his unquestioning loyalty?

Xie always wanted Yifu to need him, he just never realised how much he already did. And now he'd thrown it all away for the sake of grabbing a little bit more power.

[weird_cop]

"It wasn't that bad," Kevin says, a little defensive about his own skills. "I got a lot of information about the whole organisation - I know things about some of the operations that you didn't even mention."

He finally ladles the soup into bowls, and brings them to the table.

"I knew a lot about what you, Xie, got up to, I just didn't make the link."

[xie_er]

Xie gives him a sharp look - things he didn't even mention? Things he didn't mention were things he didn't know about.

It shouldn't sting, not after everything, to know that there was even more Yifu was keeping from him, and yet it does.

"Mm." He says, moving over to the table, lured by the soup despite himself

"I'm sure you couldn't wait for the chance to arrest me for all of it." He comments drily, then smirks lazily at him "Bet you never imagined that would involve making me soup."

[weird_cop]

"Couldn't frigging wait," Kevin agrees cheerfully.

Although, he does want to say to Xie that he knew enough, knew that it would have been complicated anyway because of their relationship, the way Zhao treated him.

Someone would probably be making him soup.

"Probably looking forward to it almost as much as you were looking forward to killing me if I put one step wrong."

[xie_er]

Xie almost says he wouldn't have even needed to put a step wrong, he was really just waiting for an opportunity to catch him without witnesses. It wouldn't be the first time he's killed someone for getting a little too much of Yifu's attention and come up with something to blame them for afterwards.

It's a little too close to the truth though, a little too sincere... and he just doesn't want Kevin to know he would have done that. He probably already knows, but he doesn't want to voice it.

He takes a sip of the soup and feels warmth spread through him.

"If I'd known you could cook like this, maybe I would have spared you."

[weird_cop]

"If you'd known I could cook like this, you might kidnap me and keep me in your apartment, and then I wouldn't be able to do my job."

[xie_er]

He'd get fat on wonton soup and Kevin probably wouldn't even mind. He'd be waiting when he was tired and lonely, sit and watch queer eye and help him undo his braids before bed...

Oh. No. That's... that's dangerous. He blinks himself out of the fantasy and shakes his head, like he's just been contemplating the idea instead of daydreaming about it.

"It'd never work," he says casually "Yifu would get jealous and put a stop to it. He was really possessive for someone who didn't mind lending me to people he wanted to blackmail or impress."

He didn't even mean to bring that up, knew it was a stupid thing to say, but he'd been so thrown off by the fantasy that he'd scrambled for the first thing he could think of and, well, that was it.

[weird_cop]

Kevin pulls a face when the tone slips, but he's not unused to this kind of thing happening in conversations, so he tries to match the casual tone.

"He wouldn't be the first to be like that," he says. "Those kinds of arseholes are far more common than they should be."

He knows it was this kind of speak that got Tony in trouble, but he doesn't know how to say it wasn't you, it was him in a way that would actually work.

[xie_er]

Luckily, Xie doesn't take it in quite the same way that he took Tony's accusations - maybe it's because it comes across more like he's just agreeing with what Xie is saying rather than arguing against him, or because it doesn't sound like he's blaming Xie for still being with him despite that.

He does recognise that he's brought the tone down, though, so he just hums in agreement and then stops talking - luckily he has the perfect distraction in the form of this really excellent soup that he'd like to focus on enjoying.

[weird_cop]

Kevin lets the subject drop, deciding they've talked enough about ex boyfriends for one day, and lets himself focus on his food.

"They dropped over some board games earlier, if you want to do that this afternoon."

[xie_er]

Xie thinks about it for a moment and then nods.

"Chess? Or would you like me to beat you at something else?" He asks - using the link because now he's started eating in earnest he's reminded both that he actually was really hungry and that this is really good and he doesn't want to interrupt it with something as trivial as talking.

[weird_cop]

"Chess is good. If youre happy to keep beating me."

He looks up at Xie, smirks lightly

"We should keep the stakes light, like who gets to choose the TV."

[xie_er]

"At least until our current injuries are healed" Xie agrees mildly.

There's a part of him that feels a flash of guilt at the reminder, that his bet resulted in him falling into an obvious trap, got Kevin hurt.

On the other hand, though, if that hadn't happened, he wouldn't have the ritual to break the bond (double edged sword that it is), and he would still have that tracker in his shoulder, Yifu would have still known roughly where they were, so maybe it was for the best, even though Kevin's hand probably didn't think so.

[weird_cop]

"At least until then," Kevin agrees. There has been a lot of things happening in the last couple of days at least that have made it hard to see the trap as a wholy bad thing, but he also doesn't want to face those assassins again like this.

"And we should change your bedsheets, with our one working pair of hands."

[xie_er]

He'd almost forgotten about the broken lamp, but he nods - good to get it done now, so he doesn't spend another night on the couch.

Once they've finished eating and changed over his sheets - only a mildly frustrating process between the two of them - the lamp is left in a careful pile of broken pieces in the kitchen, waiting to be repaired, and they return to the living room to play.

Xie wins, as before, two games in a row, but his demand for the TV is more Queer Eye, now that some more of the tapes have been brought from the other house, so he's pretty sure Kevin doesn't feel like he's lost.

Despite the heaviness of the morning, by the time he goes to sleep that night he feels content.

They settle again, over the next couple of weeks, more things being brought from the other house to make life a little more comfortable (including Xie's guitar, much to his poorly concealed delight) and both of them slowly healing, bit by bit - though Xie's hair and bedding are not the last things they find themselves needing to work together on. Xie starts helping with the cooking more, still not admitting he doesn't know what he's doing but quietly pleased with himself as he starts to learn.

It's weirdly comfortable and domestic, and despite the looming shadow of breaking the bond, of what's happening with Yifu (Xie alternates between trying to ignore what's going on when Kevin is working in the basement, and pressing him for information), Xie feels like more than just his shoulder is healing.

Kexing has been in touch to suggest an appropriate meeting point, even begrudgingly worked with them to ensure they were both happy with the warding, but the decision had been made that it wasn't safe for Xie to go with him.

Which he's sulking about, but pretending he isn't.

The meeting point turns out to be a disused martial arts studio in an industrial area that's seen better days. The glass front is papered over so the inside is dark, a pile of grubby mats and some broken training dummies pushed up against one wall. The back room, however, it well lit and comfortably decorated, completely at odds with the room outside. Kexing waits for Kevin (and whatever escort he wanted to bring) lounging in a carved wooden chair, while Zishu sits at a low table with a cup of tea.

It's fairly obvious that the furniture and decor are, if not magical in nature, at least the result of some magical intervention - even for people who can't see that kind of thing.