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 doesn't usually think of himself as helpless, and in truth if he didn't have Kevin to fall back on he probably would figure a way out of this situation - but the flood of relief he feels when Kevin replies is just as much his own as it is Kevin's.

"I'm blindfolded, tied to a radiator I think, lying on... feels like floorboards. There's someone else in the room but they're not doing anything, just watching me I think. I didn't see who took me."

He tries to shift - can't stay blindfolded or tied up when you've changed shape - but it doesn't work. It's like he's blocked, somehow. He goes to open his mouth, ask what the fuck, but he can't even do that.

At least that answers the question. He can't shift because he can't move. His window of opportunity was the moment he woke up, when he could still at least move his fingers, but apparently whoever is watching him decided not to take any chances after that.

[weird_cop]

"I think I know that spell," Kevin tells him. "It's breakable with effort but a lot of effort all at once and its easy to reassert. Don't waste energy fighting it if the time isn't right."

Which will be hard to gauge with a blindfold on.

"Do you feel anything? What vibes does the spell give off?"

Fear, hatred, greed. They are all clues he can work with.

And he's getting closer. Thank all the gods available that they didn't get much of a head start.

[xie_er]

"It's- wait. Door's opening."

He hears footsteps, the faint creak of a chair as his watcher turns.

"About time." A voice says - rough, familiar, used to work for Yifu he thinks, but he's having trouble placing a name. "Why'd you have me wake him up if you were gonna take this long?"

"What does it matter?" Another replies - the newcomer, it must be. It's smoother, but just as familiar. "You think he's going to do anything?"

"Wouldn't put it past him." The first says darkly.

"You took his knife, didn't you? He has no weapons, he can't shift and he's tied up, you can't tell me you're scared of him?"

"Not scared," the response is sullen, defensive "just don't trust the fucker. Is everything ready yet?"

"Almost."

"Good. I'm looking forward to watching him bleed."

[weird_cop]

Kevin listens to this exchange through the link with some interest, flipping through possibilities and ruling things out as he gathers evidence.

There's a level of don't really know what they're doing that reassures him a bit, even while deciding that he doesn't much like there way they're talking about Xie bleeding.

"Okay," he says as he turns into the residential street he knows Xie is on. "Two minutes."

Of course he knows Xie knows this, but he keeps the communication going, keeps a calm tone going.

He's been sharing his location with the team since first calling them.

[xie_er]

The spell can be broken with effort, he said. If Xie breaks out and shifts just when they arrive, the two idiots' attention will be split.

He relays this plan to Kevin, still listening with half an ear to the two holding him captive. He's remembered, now, who they are - two defectors from Ghost Valley that were working for Yifu for a while. Xie had been the go between because Yifu didn't want to be seen associating with them. When they'd done what he needed, Yifu had cut them loose. They hadn't been very happy about that, apparently they still weren't.

One of them approaches him, he isn't sure which one until he's roughly poked in the shoulder and the man speaks - it's the first one, the one who was in the room when he woke.

"You should be happy you know, you're going to help us bring your precious master back." He gloats roughly, breaking off into a nasal snigger "Not that he'll be anybody's master when we have him. And you won't be alive to see it anyway. Guess you shouldn't be happy after all." He laughs again, like he's the funniest person in the world.

[weird_cop]

"What a frigging idiot," Kevin opines.

"If he's the gloating type, he might let you speak. If you fancy a bit of improv: get scared, beg them not to hurt you, or ask them if they can save Yifu."

He's parked, but the electric vehicle made no noise that would announce his arrival, and he's taking the time to rummage through the holdall in the boot.

"I'll count down for the distraction."

[xie_er]

"I'm not begging these imbeciles for anything, and they wouldn't believe it if I did" Xie replies disdainfully.

(It's not a bad idea, in fact it's a very good one, but Xie is too stubborn and prideful to do it)

He does seem to want to hear something, though, because as Kevin predicted Xie feels the magic loosen enough for him to speak.

"Seems like a waste." He says coolly. Apparently this isn't what he wanted to hear because he gets another rough prod in his shoulder.

"A waste? What, to kill you? Zhao Jing's little pet? I've seen the papers." Another snigger

"Zhao Jing's Familiar." Xie corrects smoothly - he can't bring himself to beg them not to hurt him, but he can try and talk them into it.

"Yea, we know that. Why do you think we're using your blood to bring him back?" His captor scoffs.

"What good will he be to you? Most of his power was mine..."

[weird_cop]

"Better plan. Good thinking."

Okay.
Firstly, they know he was Zhao's Familiar.
Secondly, they think that he's still Zhao's Familiar. Which means - they think Kevin stole him, but didn't make a link? Or...
Kevin didn't recognise their voices. Is it possible they don't know who he is? Do they think Xie was at his Yifu's side up until his death?

He marches up to the door of the empty terraced house they're holed up in, and sends a blast of magic against the front door just strong enough to rattle it without blowing it off the hinges.

"I know you're in there, kitty cat!" Zhao's apprentice yells from outside. "You think I can't find my Shifu's Familiar?"

"Get ready."

[xie_er]

Xie similarly wonders if they knew he'd been taken or not - he's really hoping it's the latter, and that he might convince them that bonding with him instead of sacrificing him is the smarter option. Of course, they're going to find themselves very quickly disappointed, but by then it'll be too late.

His captor hesitates - and really that's all Xie needs.

"You'd be far more powerful than your friend over there." He murmurs temptingly, just before the slam of magic against the door.

"What the fuck was that?" The man demands, grabbing Xie's hoodies and hauling him up a little way.

"Some asshole apprentice of Yifu's." Xie reports with a long-suffering tone "He's been after me since Yifu died."

He hears the door to the room they're in open and close as the other man goes to investigate. Good, now he only has one idiot to deal with.

[weird_cop]

As soon as the door opens, the poor sap who did it is thrown back into the hall, lifted bodily and slammed against the wall. Kevin, strolling casually through the doorway, holds out his warrant card and swipes it in the air.

"Mate, you are under arrest for kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm," he states calmly, just loud enough for his guy to hear, and for Xie to hear through the link. "You do not have to say anything..."

When he struggles, tries to protest or warn his friend, Kevin swipes again and throws him against the wall again.

This time the whole house shakes, the old bricks shuddering with memory and a wave of power- not Xie's, Kevin doesn't even need Xie for this - washes through, sweeping up the magical restraint.

"Now. Try to leave him conscious."

[xie_er]

The guy still with Xie stands up abruptly, leaving his back to the bound Familiar - not that Xie knows that, yet, but he hears him move all the same and he shifts - into a cat rather than a scorpion, he doesn't want this idiot accidentally stepping on him and he can move quicker as a cat.

He can also bite rather than sting, and as soon as he's shaken free of the blindfold and the restraints he darts forward and sinks his teeth into the guy's achilles tendon. He howls in pain and Xie scampers away, already regretting the taste.

He tries the restraining spell again but Xie dives through his legs and breaks his concentration, nearly causing him to fall over. Frustrated, he grabs for him, but Xie leaps up onto his shoulder and rakes claws across his face.

He's still entirely conscious, it's just that as the fight goes on he's bleeding from more and more places...

[weird_cop]

One arrest completed, Kevin leaves his prisoner writhing against the wall, and makes his way into the front room, where he pauses for a second to enjoy the sight.

"Do you need to be saved from a pussy cat?"

It's still not quite his voice, it's still his soldier's accent, Costain's accent. But he's tempted to just let Xie at him.

[xie_er]

He gives an enraged yell and dives for Xie, who neatly slips out of his grip and runs over to Kevin, jumping up on to his shoulder and perching there, nonchalently licking the blood off his claws.

Because he's nothing if not extra.

"You! You fucking lied! He's working with you!" The guy scrambles to his feet to yell at Xie, who ignores him entirely.

"I'm going to skin that fucking cat and bleed him dry." He growls "After I've taken care of you."

[weird_cop]

Kevin turns his head to smirk at Xie, leaning into the act of powerful witch gloating with his own familiar. Which, yes, is exactly what he's doing, he supposes.

"Confident, isn't he?"

Before the kidnapper can even reply, he lifts his warrant card again.

This time, with Xie safely on his shoulders, he lets him see. Shows him how, as Kevin lifts his card, throws the weight of his job and duty behind it, it gains power, glows darkly with it. He shows him the way the house, which has stood on this spot for over a century, seen hundreds of people live and love and pray and die, how the bricks carry the memory of all of that, and turn against the man trying to spill more blood for his own gain.

Kevin swipes his Warrant Card in deliberate, practised gestures and the air itself crackles, lifts the kidnapper up and throws him against the wall, where it looks like a layer of thick film with a silver sheen, keeps him firmly in place. He tries to speak, but Kevin puts a finger to his own lips.

"You don't have to say anything," he says.

That's the moment when they hear an engine pull up outside, followed by Jimmy and Tony coming in the open front door.

"You could have told us you had it sorted," Tony complains. "I nearly caused havoc on that last red light."

[xie_er]

Xie watches with absolute fascination at the world unveiled before his mind's eye. It's more than he ever imagined, and he's a little amazed that Kevin lives with that kind of vision all the time. It's beautiful, he thinks, in a complex sort of way.

He's content, now, just to sit on Kevin's shoulder and watch him work, smugly satisfied to watch his abductor be thrown around like a ragdoll and held pinned the same way he was.

"They should have known you'd deal with it." He comments in response to Tony's complaint. He doesn't shift back even with their arrival - he doesn't have any qualms about being a cat in front of them, but rumpled workout clothes and one shoe missing? Perish the thought.

[weird_cop]

"I may have sounded a bit panicked when I called," Kevin admits. He gives the other two a quick brief, resists the temptation to shake his prisoners, and even gets his notebook out to visibly write down the threats that they send his way.

The kidnappers are searched, stripped of any magical items, and handcuffed. Tony surveys the cat scratches with a sort of reluctant approval. Quill arranges to come over and take a statement from Xie later.

Leaving Jimmy inside to watch the prisoners, Tony and Kevin go outside to wait with Lisa, and Kevin finally gives into temptation and reaches up to gather the cat on his shoulder into a more comfortable hold, even petting his head very subtly.

Not subtly enough. Tony smirks at him.

"Glad you two finally worked it out."

[xie_er]

He was worried... Xie shouldn't be surprised, but at the same time he's still coming to terms with the reality of how Kevin feels about him after so long of making excuses about why he cared or why he had Xie's back.

He snuggles into Kevin's arms a little bit - it's not so bad being a cat if he gets held like this, he thinks - and then immediately feels guilty for doing it when Tony smirks.

"Sorry." He says quietly, glaring at Tony for not being able to keep his mouth shut. Couldn't he just pretend he didn't see?

Still, it wasn't that bad a reaction, right? So it would probably be fine...

[weird_cop]

"What are you apologising for?"

It's an honest question, although Kevin maybe assumes he's apologising for being improper with the PDA.

To Tony - and Lisa, who is standing against the car the three of them came in, also smirking - he asks: "Jimmy worked it out yet?"

"Nah," says Tony. "And we won't bring it up until you're ready. Probably a good idea the the rumours don't get into too many ears right now, you know?"

That's the concern - the biggest one at this time by some margin - what will the press say if they find out the abused sex slave of the criminal CEO is entering into a relationship with his police guard? There's no way anyone comes out of that alive.

[xie_er]

"I thought... it seemed like you didn't want them to know..."

Only he's confused, now, because he seems kind of fine with it, actually, and Xie can't work out if that's an act or not.

He understands immediately what Tony is getting at - after that fucking article this morning he probably can't so much as think about even finding another person attractive around anybody else without opening a whole can of worms that will end up with somebody stabbed. He might even have to stop carrying just to resist the temptation. Except he won't, because he- Wait.

"My knife. They took it off me, did somebody find it?"

[weird_cop]

"Shit, yes," Kevin says out loud. "One sec."

He peers back into the house, and calls: "Jimmy! Did you find that switchblade?"

"Bagged and tagged!" Quill calls back. "Tell him I'm sorry, we'll get released ay-sap."

Kevin shrugs, hoping that apology will work.

"Why did... oh! No, that's just normal 'no PDA we're British.' I don't care what Lisa and Tony know. Jimmy and Rebecca can work it out in their own time."

[xie_er]

It's annoying, but at least it's been found and it will be returned to him. Maybe it is for the best that he doesn't have a weapon for a few days, given the mood he's in. Getting fucking kidnapped has not done anything to soothe his irritation.

The explanation does, at least - or rather, it's one less thing for him to be worried or grumpy about, and actually it makes him a lot, lot happier than he expected it to, knowing that Kevin doesn't want to hide him, that he isn't ashamed of being in a relationship with him.

"Okay... good." He doesn't know how to express that, though, so that's all Kevin gets in response.

[weird_cop]

"Hey Skip," Kevin says abruptly. "Can you go ask the guv if I'm done here? It'd be nice if we could get a chance to pack this time."

Costain nods, and heads inside to get Quill's approval, leaving them with Lisa, who has barely looked up from her phone as she files through all the data she's compiled since the abduction.

"I think I know how they found you," she offers. "It's not us, at least, it's the press."

"Ask Lofthouse if we can have a garden. And a detached, I don't think the neighbours liked us."

"I'll see if there's a room in Buck Pal going spare."

[xie_er]

To...pack?

Oh. Of course. They picked him up just a few streets away which means the safehouse is compromised, again.

At least Kevin's thinking ahead and he won't have to spend more time without his things while they wait for them to be ferried over.

"Fucking press." He grumbles.

Still, a detached house with a garden would be nice...

[weird_cop]

"Sorry."

Expression of shared sympathy, not an apology. Costain returns with Quill's approval and Kevin unlocks the Golf, raising a hand in goodbye to both of them.

He lets Xie onto the passenger seat and reaches out to stroke him, even as he's pulling out.

"How are you doing?"

[xie_er]

Xie pushes up into the petting, which is not something he would have ever really put up with before, but from Kevin it feels... nice.

After they've pulled away, though, he shifts back to human form - mostly so he can reach over and rest a hand on Kevin's thigh as he drives.

"I'm angry, but I'm okay." He admits "Thank you for coming for me."