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 is already planning to call Du Pusa, which reminds him that Kevin wanted to meet her and that probably won't happen until they've got this sorted out, which reminds him that they were also planning a date that probably won't happen until they've got this sorted out, and his vaguely buoyed, productive mood starts to sink again.

The potion feels even more like busy work now they have a separate lead about the cause of the memory loss, but he tries to tell himself that an antidote to the soup of oblivion is a useful thing to have anyway and it's not like he has anything else helpful to do.

"I'd offer, but I don't actually know where it is." He admits

[weird_cop]

"How do you feel about driving?" Lofthouse offers. "We'll take my car back to yours and if you drives okay n the way there I'll leave you the directions for your SatNav and you can take your time."

[xie_er]

"I'll leave the equipment here for now, until I can get the ingredients I need," Xie adds, eyeing up the things and considering the available space at the safe house "I think I'm going to need somewhere to work, our kitchen isn't big enough."

Which means he'll be happy to come with Kevin to the lock up - if he wants - or to help him go through all the notebooks some more.

[weird_cop]

Lofthouse agrees with that; "let us know if you need any help with sourcing those. But I do think Kevin will be glad of the company."

Kevin nods firmly, grateful to Xie for staying with him.

He gets in Lofthouse's car, unsure at first, but discovers it is just muscle memory like spells and frying eggs. She gives him the address and he follows the satnav, talking to Xie through the link.

"I'm sorry for freaking out."

[xie_er]

"You don't have to be. I know scorpions are unsettling to a lot of people, I forgot you didn't know" Xie replies evenly.

It had hurt, but he got it, he know that his other form creeped people out - it's his own fault, he thinks, for forgetting that Kevin didn't remember what it was, or that it even existed.

[weird_cop]

Kevin makes an uncertain noise. He's not unsettled by scorpions - he thinks - he was surprised. But he's also still annoyed at himself; he knows Xie had been hurt by it and he wishes he could fix that.

He wants to tell Xie that he's sorry this is happening, that he knows this whole thing must be hard, but he's so sure he'll be told that he's got nothing to apologise, that he's the one who needs support, that he doesn't know what to say.

So he's quiet until they get to their place, Lofthouse confirms that he cab arrive adequately, and gives him directions to the lockup, while he unpacks all his notebooks into their living room.

[xie_er]

He's right, that's exactly the kind of thing Xie would tell him, and he'll believe it too - he doesn't have anything to apologise for, but also Xie doesn't feel like it's fair for him to be struggling when he's not the one missing a huge chunk of himself.

(Maybe he'll talk to his therapist about it. Maybe he won't. He probably won't.)

Once the notebooks are all unpacked and Lofthouse has left, Xie looks over to Kevin.

"Do you want to get stuck in, go to the lock up, or take a break?" He asks, using the link automatically even though they're alone now.

[weird_cop]

Kevin looks at the size of the boxes, and part of him does want to get stuck back in, ro devour everything and go through it again to get it all in his brain. But he shakes his head. The more pressing thing is the chunk of himself that's missing; he wants to find that.

"Lock-up," he says.

"Why do I even have a lock-up? It's not like this place is bursting at the seams."

[xie_er]

"Well it's not really ours" Xie admits, realising that he hasn't actually explained that part.

He motions for Kevin to follow him back to the car, reasoning he can probably explain on the way.

"It's a safe house, or it was, that's relaxed a bit now that the trial and everything is over. Some of the stuff here is ours but the furniture isn't. I think your lockup is everything you had before you went undercover, and since we didn't know how long we'd be here it didn't make sense to bring most of it out"

[weird_cop]

"Oh."

Actually that makes sense. But Kevin is struck once again by how complicated his life is, how much he's constantly on the back foot just trying to figure out what his normal is. It's not like he really felt like this place as his home, but now he knows it wasn't, really.

"And we met while I was undercover, right? So you haven't seen this stuff either?"

He can't decide if that's not actually a good thing - Xie will have the same fresh eyes as Kevin. He won't be able to explain everything, but he also won't accidentally assume Kevin knows a thing.

[xie_er]

Xie nods.

"That's right. You've been to the lockup a couple of times to get things, but this is the first time I've gone with you"

He doesn't really think about it being another thing that Kevin 'kept' from Xie, because he doesn't see it that way.

[weird_cop]

Kevin takes a second, as he's been doing a lot the past 24 hours, to look at the SatNav directions, notice that it rings no bells at all, and then pulls out of their driveway.

At least there's a muscle memory to this car that feels different to Lofthouse's.

"We'll get to explore it together," he says, sharing his thoughts now. "So at least we'll know as little as each other."

[xie_er]

Xie smiles slightly, glancing over at him with a nod.

"That's true" He agrees. It does mean he won't be able to answer any questions, probably, although he might know some things from stories that Kevin's told him.

"Would that help? Until we get your memories back, to do more things that's new to both of us?"

[weird_cop]

"I don't know."

Of course Kevin interprets 'help' to mean 'help solve the problem' not 'help Kevin feel better,' because he doesn't think like that.

"Can't be any worse than me just knowing anything."

[xie_er]

Xie doesn't realise the misunderstanding, since the response still makes sense.

"I suppose we can just try it and see. When we're done for the day." He suggests with a shrug.

It's a tiny bit selfish, if he's being honest with himself, because it might be nice to just... experience new things without feeling self conscious that he hasn't encountered them before. He's not going to get weird looks for never having seen a certain movie if Kevin doesn't know if he's seen it either.

[weird_cop]

One thing is for sure, Kevin might be a bit more sympathetic to this plight once the shoe is back on the other foot.

"Yes," he agrees, distracted as he pulls into the parking lot of a self storage facility. "Let's try it."

He parks and checks the details Lofthouse gave him, pointing in the right direction.

"Apparently it's this way."

The unit is... not actually that big. He's not sure why, but he expected the entire life history of a man his age to amount to more than this.

The shelves that were emptied by Quill stand out, on shared units of other boxes labelled, helpfully, London shit.

There's no furniture.
An Xbox, with two controllers and games that are all more than a couple of years old. Boxes of kitchenware. Cookbooks.

There are more boxes at the back, but Kevin is drawn, obviously, to the 'London' boxes near the front.

[xie_er]

Xie is a little surprised at the size of it as well, but he at least has a little knowledge about how much time Kevin has spent undercover, and suspects that's got something to do with it.

He knows that the London stuff is probably where they'll find answers, if there are to be found, but since Kevin is already looking at that he finds himself poking around the rest of the place, trying to find the things that speak of who Kevin is - partly for his own curiosity, partly to help Kevin unlock some of his own missing knowledge.

[weird_cop]

If one was to get an impression of Kevin Sefton based on this storage unit, one might conclude that, despite the nature of his magical speciality, he wasn't someone who attached much sentimentality to physical objects, but had more trouble figuring out what to discard when it came to paper.

Books include the full works of Neil Gaiman (annotated); the complete Sherlock Holmes (annotated) and history books about London. Right at the back is box that reveals Kevin is the kind to keep hold of all his notebooks from school (he did A Levels in English Lit, History and Philosophy).

A clothing rail has a disparate raneg of outifts, from a buisiness suit through tattered jeans and an old T shirt, but really only one complete outfit for each style. There's a box of football shirts, and someone with the right knowledge might be able to determine in which year Kevin has pretended to support which team. A handful of old Chelsea shirts are all un-personalised, generic from JD Sports.

One box has photos of his family, documents from his police training, a well loved blue teddy bear, birthday and Christmas cards from his grandmother and parents, and other vaguely sentimental things.

And then at the very back there are four boxes of Joe. Two of them are filled with hardback and paperback books, some of which are signed by the author. The others have been used as repositories for everything too worn out to donate, not wanted by his family, or too sentimental for Kevin to let go of. None of which have been sorted or folded with any great effort. Unwashed T Shirts. A cuddly toy octopus in a rainbow scarf. A framed photo of the two of them from Joe's sister's wedding.
The order of service from his funeral.

[xie_er]

Xie rifles through everything with care, putting each thing back neatly where he finds it once he's looked (in some cases neater than it was before) - he doesn't spend a lot of time looking at each thing, just using the items to get an overall impression, and maybe just a little bit making mental notes for future gifts and the like.

The boy of family photos and sentimental items is set aside once he realises what it is, he doesn't want to snoop too much without Kevin knowing, but he also thinks it might be something Kevin would like to look through himself.

The first two boxes of Joe's stuff he doesn't really realise that's what they are, they just seem like more books and he doesn't give them more than a cursory glance. The other boxes seem random, until he finds the picture, and the order of service, and he realises why these things are separate to the others. He finds himself standing, looking at the picture for a long moment. It doesn't feel right, for this all to be hidden away in the back corner of a storage locker, unremembered... Xie isn't sure how to feel about the ghost of the man who had Kevin before, but this still feels wrong. He thinks that's probably a cultural thing, though.

[weird_cop]

Kevin got instantly distracted at the first box - his attention stolen immediately by the way thse boxes scream out to his through his Sight, and then the items inside all having complex emotions attached to them. Thrown togther like this - maybe he previously thought he could just sort out everything just his own knowledge, but now it's loud and confusing.

"I don't know why Jimmy didn't bring all this back the first time," he complains, unaware that he's just a little more attuned to each of these things and can pick up complex noise where Jimmy just felt a box of Significant Things. He grabs all the London boxes to sort out at home, then stands up to join Xie at the back.

"What have you found?"

Than he sees the picture, and stops.

"Who's that?"

Well it's obvious who it is, even without a name.

[xie_er]

He glances up when Kevin approaches, wondering if he should try and hide the picture before deciding that it's unfair, they're Kevin's things, Kevin's memories, and he should be allowed to see them.

"His name was Joe. He died, before you went undercover with Yifu" He explains softly, holding the picture out so that Kevin can get a better look.

"This is some of his stuff"

[weird_cop]

"Oh."

He should be sad, shouldn't he? Someone should be sad. Kevin takes the picture, looks at it as if trying to memorise Joe's face, then looks past it to the Order of Service.

Apparently he did a reading. Third on the running order. It had been a secular service, and the family had asked for donations to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

He does feel sad, but mostly he feels sad that this man now has one fewer person mourning for him.

He puts the photo and the programme back into the box and pushes it away.

"Sorry that you had to find that."

[xie_er]

Xie shakes his head slightly.

"It's okay, you've told me about him" He explains - his feelings are mixed, but that doesn't mean he wants to ignore that Joe ever existed. That isn't fair.

"There's some family photos and things in that box," He adds, indicating the box in question "if you wanted to look."

He isn't sure if it would help or not, so he doesn't push it, just lets Kevin know the things are there if he wants them.

[weird_cop]

"Thanks."

Kevin takes that box, and sits with it on the floor before opening it and peering in.

The documents and certificates are interesting, the teddy bear just tells him he grew up supporting Chelsea. The photos - well, he can recognise his own face.

But there's nothing. No connection, no emotion. Not even when he's staring at a weirdly coloured old wedding photo of a couple who both look so much like him they have to be his parents. Not even the birthday cards - one from 'nana,' one from both parents, one from just his dad - all at different ages. If he was being logical, he'd think maybe they were the last card each of them gave him.

He must have kept these things because they meant something, but now they mean nothing. The man in these photos is a stranger that looks like him.

It opens out in front of him suddenly - the distance he's been feeling between himself and this 'Kevin,' the man everyone sees when they look at him. He'd been relying on that distance as a sort of protection, thinking that this whole thing is just something that happened to a different person that he can help recover. He had hoped, that maybe he'd get information here that would help him solve the mystery of who this man was. He's been treating him, he realises, like a victim he can help.

But now he sees this gulf between him and the man in these photos, the man who loved these people, and it feels insurmountable. He's a trespasser in someone else's life, and there is no one left for whom this stuff has meaning.

He's been staring at the stuff for too long. Now he throws the photo in his hands back in the box and shoves the whole thing away from himself violently, with a wordless cry of frustration.

[xie_er]

Xie just stands back while he sorts through it, giving him at least the illusion of privacy. He pokes through some of the books again instead, then moves on to looking at the London stuff to see if any of it means anything to him.

It doesn't.

Well, that's not strictly true, there's at least things he can recognise, things that he knows are magical even without the Sight, but nothing that will be useful to them in the situation they have right now.

At the back of his mind, he can feel the emotion creeping in, he isn't sure how to name it, really, but it's not a happy feeling. He's beginning to regret showing him the box, now.

He moves over when Kevin shoves the box away, hesitating for just a moment before dropping down to sit across from him.

"I'm sorry." He starts. Only then he isn't sure what else to say.