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]

Xie snorts - he doesn't mean to sound so mocking, it just comes out.

"She's not that stupid"

It's not like his best friend is exactly squeaky clean - he doesn't know how much they know about her crimes, and he isn't about to give them any details. He knows saying that probably reveals she's a criminal, but he doesn't have any non-criminal friends.

...well, he didn't. Now he guesses maybe he sort of does?

[weird_cop]

Kevin shrugs. "It was the easiest option, worth a try."

Although, Xie's implication, while not exactly a surprise, does bring a background question into sharper focus.

"What would she make of me?"

Part of him wants to laugh, the negotiations at the beginning of a new relationship, it's like, well... a new relationship.

[xie_er]

The obvious answer is the explanation that was on his mind about why Du Pusa wouldn't want to go to a police station - she just doesn't trust police - but it actually takes a second or two to occur to him. What actually comes to mind first is that it depends entirely on how he responds to her - she's a bitchy mean girl in the best way and if Kevin tried to be too nice or couldn't stand up to her snark, she'd have nothing but disdain for him. Xie knows, however, that Kevin could absolutely handle her, and she'd probably quite like him.

The cop aspect occurs to him after, and he realises that might significantly colour her attitude.

That said, he's not sure she was ever Yifu's biggest fan, so maybe that will win points in his favour.

"I think she'd take some time to warm up to you," he says eventually "but she would warm up to you."

[weird_cop]

"I can handle that," Kevin decides.

Sometimes friends take a while, that's okay.

"At least you've met all of my friends."

Except for Sarah Quill and Peter Lofthouse, which will probably be weirder.

[xie_er]

He isn't really surprised to find Kevin doesn't have any friends outside of work - though technically neither does he - because it's not like he's really had a chance to make any between undercover and living in the safe house, but it's a little weird to actually think that he's met most (if not all) of the important people in Kevin's life, when Kevin...

Well. He's obviously met the (formerly) most important person in Xie's life, and it's not like Xie has a lot of friends outside of that, but Kevin hasn't really met any of them.

It shouldn't be weird, considering the situation, but it still feels a little odd. It takes Xie a minute to realise why - it's weird to think that somebody who is now probably the most important person to him hasn't met anybody else he considers important.

"Some of them even like me" He says drily - mostly joking - "Or I think they do, anyway."

[weird_cop]

Kevin smirks quietly to himself for a second, and then decides to answer that implied question with an anecdote.

"Lemme tell you something about my team.

"The first few years of working together, Lisa didn't meet us in person once. She's the intelligence analyst, Tone and I are UCOs, she doesn't know anything about us except the data and what's in our reports.

"And I'm doing my best, you know? I'm being professional and diplomatic in what I submit. Just the facts. Nothing about what how my Lead UC is acting, no speculation about what he might be doing off the books, every time he says 'no need to put that in the report, right, mate?' I don't. And she still figures out that he's a little shit.

"So when she tell him this after knowing him in person for a couple of weeks, he asks her what she thinks now, and you know what she says?"

He doesn't need to pause to put popcorn in his mouth, he just likes the dramatic beat.

"'You're our shit.'"

[xie_er]

Xie smiles slightly at the story, because every time Kevin tells a story about Lisa it always makes him smile, but then he actually stops to consider what Kevin is trying to say by sharing that now.

He thinks the point is that he might be a messed-up, bitchy, vicious little murderer... but he's their messed-up, bitchy, vicious little murderer.

He probably shouldn't phrase it exactly like that...

"So what you're trying to say is that I'm the team's pet criminal and, actually, they do like me?" He offers with a wry smirk

[weird_cop]

Kevin tries to laugh, winces and scowls at Xie for making him laugh.

"I'm saying that whether they like you or not is irrelevant. The pet criminal bit is not really the words I'd use but... I can't think of better ones. Anyway, you're stuck with them, sorry.."

[xie_er]

Xie manages to read between the lines to get what Kevin is actually saying, or he thinks he does - he's stuck with them because they're stuck with him, because he's Kevin's Familiar and he's going to stay that way.

(He's Kevin's pet criminal, but he thinks getting more specific about that joke is going to make Kevin uncomfortable)

"Because you can't get rid of them so neither can I?" He says, the tinge of amusement in his tone confirming he's joking - he knows Kevin wouldn't want to get rid of them, not at this point.

[weird_cop]

"And that they've got your back," Kevin explains.

"We all do, even those of us who are assholes."

But yeah, because he can't get rid of them.

[xie_er]

Xie considers this and realises it's true - he doesn't get on with Tony at all, but if he had to trust Tony to watch his back... he actually probably would? Which is a novelty, for him. There are a lot of people he considers friends, but he knows they'd serve their own self-interests first. He doesn't blame them, it's just.. the world they all lived in.

He wouldn't trust Tony as much as he'd trust, say, Lisa, and he only trusts him as much as he trusts his desire to not disappoint or upset Kevin, but still, it's there.

Even Quill, who he feels like he barely knows, clearly doesn't just view him as dangerous prisoner on the left, if they're ambulance conversation was anything to go by.

"I'd have their back, too." He says, like he's just realised that - which, he has. It's sort of because he doesn't want to disappoint or upset Kevin, but he'd do it.

[weird_cop]

Kevin smirks again at the realisation.

"Yeah, they get you like that."

He reaches over with his more healed hand and nudges Xie lightly in his shoulder, falling quiet for a while to finish watching the show.

[xie_er]

Xie just rolls his eyes, but it's obviously more amused than actually irritated.

He quiets as well, settles to watch the show and occasionally reaching over to grab some popcorn. It feels like finally resting after everything that's happened, and something in him just... settles.

He didn't get much sleep at the hospital, though, so somewhere during the next episode his eyelids start getting heavy and he starts dozing - eventually migrating sideways enough that he's leaning on Kevin's shoulder.

[weird_cop]

Kevin glances at him when he does that, and is suddenly struck by the overwhelming desire to shift and put his arm around him, but the need to decided if that is appropriate or not is put off by the fact that doing so would probably hurt a bit too much.

So he leans back and sits like that for a while, comfortable enough to let it go, until eventually he realises that it wouldn't be good for either of them to fall asleep here. If nothing else, Kevin needs to be slow and patient with himself getting into bed.

But... he really likes sitting here, with Xie's head on his shoulder, and the smell of his hair product just dominating the popcorn. So after turning the TV off he allows himself just a minute of enjoying this feeling.

Then.

"Hey, sleepyhead. I have to get upstairs."

[xie_er]

Xie stirs with a grumpy little pout that soothes as soon as he's awake enough to be aware what is face is doing. He fights back a yawn and lifts his head, a moment later realising exactly where his head has been resting and feeling a flash of awkwardness.

"Sorry." Even his mental voice is almost a mumble, sheepish and sleepy in equal measure. He grabs the popcorn bowl and sets it back on the tray along with the mugs, grabbing them as he stands.

"Do you need any help?" He asks then, glancing back at Kevin, unsure how much his injuries will impact his night-time routine.

[weird_cop]

There's a pause as Kevin contemplates the act of dragging himself upstairs, pulling his clothes off and collapsing into bed, and which bits of that he can do on his own versus which bits he can't ask for help with. There's not a lot left in the middle.

Eventually he shakes his head.

"No, I got this. Thanks. If I do need you, then you'll probably hear screaming first."

He manages it, in fact, but not without making a mental list of reasons he needs both arms back at full use before he finishes with his gut wound.

And then he lies awake for a few hours, remembering what it felt like to deliberately kill a man.

[xie_er]

Xie nods, takes the tray to the kitchen and leaves it by the sink to deal with later before following Kevin upstairs.

He's entirely ready to just curl up and fall back asleep, but there's something at the edge of his mind that keeps him from drifting off. He doesn't know quite how to interpret the emotions he's picking up on, but it's clearly something bothering Kevin enough to keep him from sleeping. He could probably ignore it with a little effort, but instead he rolls over, facing towards Kevin despite being in different rooms, and reaches out through the link.

"What's bothering you, do you want to talk about it?"

[weird_cop]

When he realises he's been keeping Xie awake Kevin feels guilty more than anything else. He turns his head - his injuries keeping him on his back - to face the wall between them.

"No, it's okay. I'm sorr..."

He stops, sighs. He feels like he owes Xie honesty but isn't sure I feel guilty for killing your lover is really something that should be about Kevin's feelings. So it takes a second to work out.

"I've been responsible for death, before. But this was the first time I actually made the decision to aim."

It sounds like a silly thing to confess to a man who has been committing murder since he was 16.

[xie_er]

Xie may have been committing murder since he was 16, but he does remember how he felt the first time, how long it had taken him to come to terms with it. Those feelings are nothing more than a memory, now, and in his darker moments he scoffs at his naivety, but he still thinks maybe he can draw on them to try and help, here.

"It sits with you for a while, the first time." He admits softly "and maybe it should. It's no small thing."

Maybe if he hadn't become so desensitised, hadn't buried those feelings in alcohol and sex and then killed so much more that they became pointless to hang on to, maybe....

Maybe Yifu would have killed him a lot sooner because he was no longer useful. Maybe he would have driven himself mad. Xie did what he needed to in order to survive and it's hard for him to regret it. Killing people made him feel as powerful as everybody claimed he was...

"You did it to save me, though. You did it because he wouldn't have stopped, otherwise. I know I'm more practical about life and death than a lot of people, but truthfully the world is better without him in it."

It still hurts to say that, still stings to betray the man he loved for so long, but that doesn't make him think it any less true.

[weird_cop]

"I know. It was the right choice, and I'd do it again, only before he even got to you next time."

Part of Kevin has wanted to kill Zhao for what he was doing to Xie, before he even knew the extent of it.

"I'm just processing."

[xie_er]

Xie nods slightly to himself in the dark - it's good, he thinks, that Kevin isn't wringing his hands with guilt over it, Yifu doesn't deserve his guilt.

"Do you want me to just leave you alone?" He doesn't say it unkindly, he just isn't sure if talking helps or not. Now that he knows what's bothering Kevin, he can safely ignore those feelings at the edge of his mind and go to sleep - but he also doesn't mind listening if he wants to talk.

[weird_cop]

Kevin reaches a head towards the wall, not quite able to touch it.

What he wants is the physical sensation of someone holding him, grounding him, as he works through it. What he has is a link through which he can draw magic. It's not the same.

"I'm okay," he tells Xie. But he draws a small sliver of that power into himself, lacing threads of it through his injuries so he can concentrate on the sensation.

"Get some sleep. Thank you."

[xie_er]

Xie feels that little draw of power and wonders at it, there's something about it that feels like... like Kevin's almost trying to draw him closer. Is he imagining that? Is it some kind of wishful thinking?

Not that he wants...

He doesn't know what he wants. He doesn't know what Kevin wants.

He sighs to himself, indecision warring for a moment before he gives up trying to figure it out and just closes his eyes, gives Kevin a quiet good night through the link and tries to get some sleep.

[weird_cop]

Kevin eventually sleeps, and wakes later than usual to a quiet house. He lies in bed at first, using his own power to work on his arms enough that he can face the prospect of dressing himself.

He doesn't reach for Xie's power yet, wanting to wait for him to wake, so as soon as he has sweatpants and a T shirt on he makes his way downstairs.

They need to go make a statement today but they have time.

[xie_er]

When Xie does wake and everything is so quiet, it feels oddly disorienting for a moment - he's so used to there being other people in the house by this point, it throws him off a little bit when there isn't.

He rises slowly, says good morning to Kevin through the link without even thinking about it and then goes to have an extremely long shower. Between the warehouse and hospital and injuries he feels grubby as hell and wants nothing more than to be clean again.

Finally he comes downstairs, clean and dressed and hair fully braided, and only then does he wonder if he should have offered to help with breakfast before he showered, if Kevin was able to do it with his injuries or if he's just been waiting.