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]

"Yes, yes, let me see." Kexing says, flicking his fan shut and sitting up abruptly, moving from his lounging chair to the unoccupied side of the table and reaching out to take Kevin's hand.

He studies it for a little while, moving it this way and that, then starts asking Kevin to do certain things, asking about his movement and strength and residual pain.

Eventually, he nods.

"Yes, it does seem to be healing well," he agrees "I should think another two weeks of daily sessions will do it. If there's anything still lingering after that it should heal on its own, I don't expect you'll encounter any lasting damage."

[weird_cop]

"Great," Kevin says happily, pleased at the prognosis. Two weeks is a hell of a long time but he can think of worse ways to spend it.

"Thanks for this, mates," Tony pipes up. "We'll pay you back by really making that fucker pay."

[xie_er]

Kexing grins at him.

"Music to my ears." He says cheerfully "I don't suppose you could call me when you get to arrest him, I'd pay money to watch him being led away in cuffs..."

Zishu just smiles slightly at his husband's delight

[weird_cop]

"As lucrative as that might be as a business, I think there's probably a law against it," Kevin replies, and Tony agrees - reluctantly.

"We're doing our best," he says. "Though he probably knows we've got stuff on him now, we just hope he doesn't skip the country before we can find him."

[xie_er]

"There's laws against everything fun." Kexing laments.

"You're not supposed to say things like that to police officers, Lao Wen." Zishu tells him, but he just laughs.

"They can't prove anything." He says cheerfully, eyes sparkling with amusement.

Zishu gives them another apologetic look.

"Did you actually convince Xie to give anything up on him?" He asks curiously, deciding to change the subject before his husband got himself arrested.

[weird_cop]

Tony and Kevin make eye contact, trying not to laugh. They clearly don't have any intention of arresting anyone right now.

"Didn't convince him of anything," Kevin says. "He gave up the information of his own free will. He just needed some distance to realise who his old witch really was."

[xie_er]

Zishu's eyebrows climb in surprise and Kexing barks out a laugh.

"Something had to give eventually. A bad witch can't hold on to a good Familiar forever." He says, gaze drifting to his husband with a faint smile "They'll lose them one way or the other."

"I don't think the other is really something to be encouraged." Zishu says after a moment.

"Sometimes circumstances are extreme."

"And sometimes they're not anymore." Zishu's final comment is pointed, his own eyes moving back to Kevin.

"You'll have to forgive A-Xu," Kexing says breezily "he likes to pretend he isn't, but he's very protective of other Familiars."

[weird_cop]

Kevin meets Zishu's eyes for a good second, looking for an explanation as to what the pointedness of the comment means.

He understands being protective, but he gets the distinct feeling he's missing something.

"...what are you getting at?" he asks.

Tony says nothing, just drinks his tea.

[xie_er]

"When I mentioned to Xie that the ritual would break his ability to bond with another witch after you, he said that's what you-" he waves a hand at both of them to indicate he meant a more general 'you' than just Kevin "- would prefer. Is that true?"

He should probably at least establish that before he got grumpy - it's not that he thinks they should be stopping Xie, he can make his own decisions, but they didn't even seem like they wanted to discourage him.

[weird_cop]

Kevin and Tony share a slightly confused look.

"Yeah?" Kevin ventures, cautiously, like he's suddenly become aware that's the wrong answer.

It matters less now the necklace is destroyed, now he's not actually at risk of Zhao claiming him back and killing him. But yes, both of them are assuming it's better for people to be free agents than bonding.

So why is Zishu looking at them like that?

[xie_er]

Zishu looks unimpressed at that answer, but before he can say anything he looks sharply back at his husband - who is looking at the two of them thoughtfully and clearly just said something though their shared link.

There's a moment of quiet while they apparently have a conversation, before Zishu turns back to Kevin.

"What do you know about unbonded Familiars?"

[weird_cop]

"Wish we could do that," Tony mutters, and Kevin smirks. It's convenient with Xie, but he understands Tony feeling left out.

At the direct question, he breaks eye contact with Tony and stares at Zishu for a second, then sighs heavily, rubbing a hands against his forehead.

"Okay," he says. "What hasn't he been telling me?"

[xie_er]

Zishu's anger at Kevin dissipates immediately - it's replaced by frustration with Xie, but since he's not here to take it out on he just mutters something unflattering in Chinese and then sighs.

"Familiars are meant to be bonded," he explains "That's not some archaic tradition or hyperbole, it's simple necessity, as much a part of us as the power we carry. It starts around puberty, when our power begins to reach its peak, being unbonded feels... wrong. It's like missing a part of yourself. Imagine the most unbearable loneliness you've ever felt and then double it. Now imagine that feeling being constant."

Kexing is giving his husband a soft look - he understands the need for the explanation, but he still hates that his A-Xu was going through that and never letting on.

"A child can usually withstand it for 2 or 3 years after it starts, but I've never seen an adult Familiar make it past one without going mad."

[weird_cop]

Both police officers take a second to take this in.

"Oh you are fucking kidding me," Tony mutters, angry at the world more than at any particular individual.

Kevin glances at him in absolute agreement, but on top of his frustrated anger is a layer of stricken distress.

Just when it wasn't getting complicated.

"So you're saying - Xie is willingly going to put himself through that because... he thinks I want him to?"

[xie_er]

"Honestly, who can really say why the little idiot is willing to put himself through it," Zishu says plainly "but I would guess it's less about what you want and more about what you don't want. I assume you've made no secret of the fact you intended for the bond to be broken?"

[weird_cop]

Tony stares at his tea like he wishes it was was alcoholic. Kevin finds this completely unhelpful.

"Well," he says, "yeah, I'm not into..."

He waves a hand briefly between the two of them, trying to explain without actually offending them.

"You're a couple. That's different. I don't want him to be... bonded to anyone he doesn't want to be."

He says 'bonded' and it has a different weight. Like he hates having it in his mouth.

[xie_er]

Kexing raises an amused eyebrow, lips pursing like he's trying not to laugh. Zishu actually does look slightly offended.

"It seems as though the impression he's got is that you don't want him to be bonded to anybody at all." He remarks, though he knows that's unfair - Kevin didn't know.

"The bond doesn't have to be a chain. It doesn't even have to be romantic. It's a kind of partnership, that's all. It's just one that a Familiar needs to have." He shrugs "Look, maybe I'm wrong, maybe he hates being bonded to you so much that he'd rather torture himself than stay that way, I'm just telling you about it because you seem like the type to blame yourself if you found out too late. If he still wants to do it, fine, he's only hurting himself - but you said earlier that you care, and if you meant it, you're probably going to want to at least find out why he's willing to go through with it."

[weird_cop]

Tony is looking at him, and Kevin isn't sure how to interpret that look. It could be you're not fucking thinking of keeping this, are you? or it could be rather you than me, mate.

Kevin sighs. Zishu is right - of course he doesn't want Xie to be bonded to anyone at all. Because he came into this looking at Zhao as the only witch he knew with a familar, that was what he thought it was.

"Okay," he says. "I'll talk to him. Thanks for telling me."





Meanwhile. While Kevin and Tony were conducting their medical check-up, Jimmy and Lisa had been tasked with grocery shopping - a task that has become more and more complicated as Kevin has dug in with his cookery experimentation and asked for more and more ingredients that couldn't just be picked up from Tesco Click N Collect. They'd hauled crates into the basement, and Jimmy had called out Xie's name experimentally, but with no answer.

"Probably got his headphones on," Lisa says as she hauls one box into the kitchen. "Unless you've got a telepathic link with him you'll never break his concentration."

[xie_er]

Xie does, actually, have his headphones on, and it's not his fault somebody bought him surprisingly effective noise-cancelling ones. It's probably bad that somebody could have broken into the house without him even noticing, but in his defence he's used to having Kevin around to react to anything that's happening so he doesn't have to.

And there is perhaps a tiny, tiny part of him that thinks it would serve them all right for leaving him here on his own if somebody broke in and tried to kidnap or kill him.

(He doesn't think they would manage it, he thinks the cops would just have a body to clean up)

He does catch a faint noise in between songs, though, so he pulls the headphones off to listen, putting his guitar aside for a moment.

From upstairs, he can just hear the sounds of movement, so he slips silently off the bed, automatically avoid the floorboards he knows are creaky, and moves towards the hallway. All pettiness aside, if somebody did have a way to get into the house to come after him, now would be the time to do it, so he doesn't want to alert whoever is in the house until he has established who 'whoever' is.

So he creeps silently down the stairs, listening out for the sound of voices.

[weird_cop]

They are not particularly quiet voices - partly because they have no reaosn to be, but also with a subconscious knowledge that if Xie did hear them, he should know it was them, and not get scared and stab them or anything.

Unfortunately, if they intended to be heard, they could have chosen their subject more tactfully.

"So this witch-familiar couple, that they've decided to list as a shared CHIS for some reason," Quill is asking, "they're an actual married couple?"

"That's what Tony says."

"Is that... normal?"

[xie_er]

Xie pauses on the stairs, relaxing when he realises it's just Quill and Lisa and trying to decide whether to go and say hello or whether to go back up to his guitar, until the conversation catches his attention.

He doesn't mean to eavesdrop, and he doesn't even know what stops him going through and offering the explanation as their resident expert on Familiars (look, he has two uses here, knowing about Familiars and knowing about Yifu, he'll make the most of them when he can), but he just finds himself pausing to listen, curious about where the question is coming from.

[weird_cop]

His curiosity is exactly what Lisa has in her next question:

"Normal how, exactly?"

"Not in that way, not 'normal,' I mean - usual, I guess. Look, everything we know about this kind of magic comes from Kevin, and he didn't even realise familiars were human. I mean, is coupling up part of this 'bond,' should we be aware of that?"

Lisa puts down the bag of rice she was unpacking and gives Jimmy a flat look.

[xie_er]

Aware of it? What the fuck does that mean?

Xie moves another step down, considers interrupting again but then thinks that maybe this is the kind of conversation they wouldn't want to have with him, and maybe he should listen a little longer, just to see what they say...

It's a flimsy excuse but he doesn't care

[weird_cop]

"Jimmy," Lisa says finally, trying to add humour to the situation, "are you suggesting that Kevin can't control himself around an attractive young man?"

Quill waves a finger at her. "Oh no, you can't catch me saying that. I just want to know if this is part of the magic."

"You think that the bond might cause romantic feelings?"

"I'm not thinking anything, I'm wondering what we don't know. Look, the last time we stumbled blindly into Things Wot Man Woz Not Meant To Know, we almost got ourselves killed. A lot. And no small part of that was Constable Sefton choosing the Fuck Around and Find Out method of policing."

[xie_er]

If this is part of the magic? What this? Is that a general this or a specific this? Has he noticed something?

Also who has he been fucking around with...

Okay, so, actually, Xie sort of knew the answer to that question, and he also knows how it ended, and under those circumstances it's probably not fair to call it fucking around. Not that he cares anyway because why would he care who Kevin has slept with.

Also why are they so worried about Kevin and his feelings, like Xie is the one causing any hypothetical magically influenced romance, it was Kevin who made this bond happen maybe they should be worried about him seducing Xie not the other way round.

Not that Xie is being seduced.

(He's not even intentionally listening in anymore, he just still hasn't moved because he's processing what he just heard)