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 manages some praise of his own, though he's still got that hint of blush in his cheeks even after hearing this regularly over the last few weeks. The shine of somebody actually wanting to praise him so much hasn't worn off and he's still hungry for it.

It helps his resolve, too, if Kevin wants him this much, gives him this much, can't Xie give him this in return? He knows he can, knows he can make it good and convincing and...

It's just harder, somehow, the thought of faking it with Kevin. Is he just being selfish? Isn't this what Kevin wants?

He pushes it away, focuses on the now, works to get Kevin's shirt off as well, gets his trousers undone and a hand shoved inside - a little quick, overeager.

[weird_cop]

Kevin is perfectly happy for Xie to be overeager. He's a little taken himself with his needs. But when Xie gets his trousers undone a little too rushed despite Kevin's hardness, he moves his hands down. One hand tugs on Xie's shoulder to bring him up a kiss, the other guides his hand back around to Kevin's ass, as his hips rise up to press into him.

"I want you so badly, Xie. I want you inside me."

[xie_er]

Xie lets himself be guided, as much as there's a part of him that just wants to get it over with, or wants to distract him with hands and mouth and anything else, he is still trying to make this good for Kevin, make him happy, and if he wants Xie to slow down of course he's going to.

He stops, startled, drawing back a little to look at Kevin with wide eyes. He knows he's said it before, was surprised then, too, but he hadn't really thought he meant it.

"Really? You really want that?" He asks, sounding a little stunned.

[weird_cop]

Kevin whines slightly when Xie pulls back, when the contact lessens, but he smiles up at his confusion, reaching up with one hand (the one that's not gripping Xie's waistband ready to get it off) to cup his face.

"Are you kidding? Of course I want it. I've wanted it for weeks."

He pauses, and the tenderness in his expression is touched by a hint of confusion of his own.

"Do you not want it?"

[xie_er]

Yes, of course I do, if you want it, I want to make you happy...

It should be easy, natural, he should just want to do what Kevin wants, but he literally just promised a god that he would look after Kevin and how is this looking after him? Even if he wants it?

Does he just think Xie wants it? Is he just trying to make Xie happy?

"You don't have to. I don't need- I like doing what we do together. I don't need you to.. you don't have to do that for me."

[weird_cop]

Kevin's hand eventually drops from Xie's trousers, stops fighting to be patient, and slides up, to wrap around Xie's back and hold him.

"Xie," he says out loud, softly.

"What's going on?"

[xie_er]

Xie sighs softly, angry at himself.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything, it's fine."

He doesn't want to ruin this, doesn't want to spoil the mood. He presses in for a kiss, like he can make Kevin forget about it.

[weird_cop]

Kevin kisses back, but only for a second- long enough to prove that he's not mad, he doesn't not want to kiss Xie. But then he places a finger gently between their faces, and rolls on to his side so he can hold Xie in his arms properly.

"Don't apologise. Especially don't apologise for saying something."

Xie's turned in on himself again, and it kills Kevin to see it. It's like watching him in the first few days, trying to figure out unspoken rules, work his way around tripwires that hadn't been set.

And he's doing this in bed, and Kevin just led him into it.

He can practically feel his erection declining.

"You can talk to me. I want you to talk to me."

[xie_er]

Kevin being so tender and caring about it only makes him feel more wretched - just because he couldn't do this one thing for him, he's messed up what was a perfect evening, a perfect moment, and Kevin is so fucking understanding.

At the same time, though, it makes it even harder - how can he do that to Kevin? How can Kevin want it?

He reaches for the right response, the way to fix it, but eventually he just sighs, burying his head in Kevin's shoulder.

"I don't want to hurt you"

[weird_cop]

Kevin automatically wraps his arms tighter around Xie, holding him into his shoulder, and bites back on the first impulse to make a joke about his wide experience making it hard to hurt him.

Instead he processes the implications in the confession, what it really means.

"...has it always hurt, for you?"

He should have expected this, in hindsight. But they'd been having so much fun he forgot that there was still so much to unpack.

[xie_er]

What kind of question is that? Of course it does...

"I suppose not.. sometimes it was just uncomfortable... sometimes it started to feel okay, towards the end...." He's glad he doesn't have to look at Kevin because it's vaguely humiliating to have to talk about this.

[weird_cop]

Kevin huffs into Xie's hair, kissing him gently.

"It's not supposed to just 'feel okay towards the end.' Not if you're doing it right."

He knows, of course, that no one in Xie's past really cared about doing it right, or about his pleasure at all, but it still takes some mental readjustment to realise that Xie would think it would always be like that.

"But we don't have to."

[xie_er]

Xie knew they were ways for him to feel pleasure, things he would enjoy - had figured that out himself, at least -he just hadn't known that was supposed to be one of them.

"It isn't?" He feels a little stupid, because why would Kevin want it, if it was just unpleasant? Just to make Xie happy?

"It can feel good?"

[weird_cop]

"Not just good," Kevin tries to keep the amusement out of his mental voice, because yes, he probably would 'put up' with discomfort for Xie's sake - like kneeling on the shower floor, for example. But this isn't it.

"Amazing. If you do it right."

[xie_er]

"Amazing?" Xie repeats disbelievingly, lifting his head to give Kevin an incredulous look "That good? Really?"

He really doesn't think Kevin would lie to him about that, though, he just can't quite wrap his head around something that he's always put up with being something that could be described as 'amazing'.

[weird_cop]

Kevin almost laughs again at how cute he looks, pulling that face. He lifts his own head to kiss him briefly.

"Tell me, have you ever explored by yourself? With like, toys or a finger?"

Man, he shouldn't have just popped into the pharmacy. He should have picked up anal beads.

[xie_er]

"A couple of times.. it was okay, better than being with someone, but still kind of uncomfortable..."

He'd gone too fast, used to impatient lovers who wanted him to be ready quickly, so he hadn't really taken the time even by himself.

[weird_cop]

Unsure how to say maybe you did it wrong, Kevin takes a moment to kiss Xie again and think.

"So hopefully at least you found the prostate? You know it's there."

[xie_er]

"The what?"

Kevin is so matter of fact about the question that Xie just knows he's stupid for asking, but he also doesn't have any way of answering that won't give away that he doesn't know, so he may as well just admit to it.

[weird_cop]

Well.

That explains a lot.

Kevin kisses him again, no hunger in it, just because he wants to alleviate any worries Xie has of thinking himself stupid.

"I'm going to actually find some proper sexual health information for you," he promises.

"For now, you'll have to trust me when I tell you that's a spot in your ass that feels really good when treated right. You just need to approach it in the right way.

"But, that doesn't mean you have to do anything you're unsure about."

He means this, and it's important he gets it across. So he wraps his arms around Xie, holding him tight.

"You were going to do something you didn't want to, because you thought I wanted to, weren't you?"

[xie_er]

"I do trust you." He says honestly - he trusts that he's telling the truth, but beyond that he trusts him enough to let him prove it, to let Kevin show him what he's been missing.

He's already done a lot of that, after all.

He sighs softly, wrapping his arms around Kevin and snuggling into his embrace.

"After everything you've done for me, I thought I should be able to do this for you..."

[weird_cop]

Kevin pulls a face that Xie can't see, but for the effect anyway.

"Do me a favour, and next time you find yourself thinking you should put up with something you hate for me, let me know you hate it."

He strokes Xie's back for a few seconds and adds:

"Except football, its too late for that."

[xie_er]

"I do hate football, but I really don't mind putting up with it, for you." He admits with a soft laugh. He looks up again, leans in for another kiss.

"I promise, I'll tell you."

[weird_cop]

"That's what's so perfect about you. Putting up with football."

Kevin pulls Xie up a little, shuffles down so their faces are level on the bed and he can kiss him properly.

"I promise I don't want to do anything that you don't enjoy. If you're not having fun, I'm not having fun."

[xie_er]

Xie huffs a soft laugh, but he relaxes into the kiss.

"I always enjoy myself with you." He confirms softly "I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about it."

He's still getting used to being able to do that.