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 settles himself at the kitchen table while he cooks, watching him work and enjoying the familiar comfort of it while they make plans - or rather, while he talks about his plans with Kevin. Tomorrow he thinks he'll have time to work on the potion, so he'll need to go and find a space to do that, and then the day after is the auction.

He's glad when Kevin comes to bed at a reasonable hour - glad enough to say he doesn't mind having the light on so Kevin can keep reading, even as he curls up to go to sleep.

[weird_cop]

There's not even any inappropriate cuddling - at least not from Kevin. Though when he wakes in the middle of the night, and finally turns the reading light off, Kevin rolls over in bed and watches Xie sleep for a while. He thinks that he wishes he did feel that cuddling was appropriate, and that he wouldn't mind cuddling him a bit more.

He thinks he can understand why he loves Xie, a little. Thinks that maybe he's falling for him anyway.

He drifts off to sleep soon enough, feeling loved and as comfortable as he can, while still having that sense of loss that he's had as long as he can remember.

[xie_er]

The inappropriate cuddling comes in the morning, as usual, from Xie drifting towards him during the night. He's a lot less self-conscious about it now, though, he thinks Kevin understands why it keeps happening and he seems to accept it without too much awkwardness. He's grateful for that, because it's not like he can stop himself doing it, and Kevin gently extricating himself in the morning is normal enough that it doesn't mean he has to start the day already on a bad foot.

After their usual breakfast, Xie heads to the station - he asks Kevin if he wants to come or stay with his books, and he privately hopes he does want to come along, because the idea of going to the station on his own is a little bit weird.

When they get there he reports what they heard from his 'source' and they discuss the plan of action for the auction before he decides to get started on the potion. After some back and forth about available space he decides the most obvious choice is for them to load up the equipment and ingredients he has and take them to his apartment. He barely used the kitchen there but it is a good size, and he doesn't really care if anything goes wrong and he accidentally does some damage.

[weird_cop]

Kevin, predictably, tags along, partly to keep Xie company, partly to touch base with the others, find out what progress they've been making and also, of course, as designated driver. He's curious about the auction, and a little frustrated when it's agreed that he needs to not be present.

But he comes along to Xie's place, curious to see what the apartment looks like, and although he does bring a notebook to read while Xie works, he can't suppress his curiosity at all, especially when he sees how nice the neighbourhood is.

[xie_er]

Xie leads him up to the apartment, this time slipping the key into the lock and leading him inside. It has the musty smell of a place left unoccupied and he can see a stack of mail on the side table where someone - Lisa, at a guess - has at least picked it up from the mat. It's weird, honestly, being back here, because apart from the extra dust and the faint evidence of police rifling through his things (tromping through his place without taking their shoes off, no doubt) it looks exactly as he remembers it.

He's pretty sure anything illegal has been removed, and obviously he knows that his guitar and hair products have already been taken, but otherwise it's just... his apartment.

"Make yourself comfortable wherever..." He tells Kevin, slipping off his shoes on autopilot and switching to a pair of house slippers still sitting by the mat before heading through to the kitchen.

[weird_cop]

Kevin follows suit, kicking off his own shoes and trailing after Xie. The urge to start rifling through his stuff is almost overwhelming, but he can't figure out a way of making that remotely acceptable. So he contents himself by admiring the size of the kitchen.

"Oh, this is a nice place," he says, and finally gives in, opening the fridge to get a good look inside.

It's criminally empty.

[xie_er]

Xie nods, because it is - of course it is. It's a nice place, all the things in it are nice, because Yifu cared about appearances more than he cared about Xie. Even though barely anybody would ever actually see it, everything was top of the line, the best that money could buy.

It's a good job the fridge is so empty, really, given how long it's been since he was actually living here.

"I mostly lived on takeout," he admits with a shrug, guessing more than sensing what Kevin was thinking "or whatever Yifu's chef was making at the manor."

The cupboards are much the same, there's a few condiments here and there and some out of date snacks, but otherwise not so much as a bag of rice. Other cupboards contain blatantly unused cookware.

[weird_cop]

After looking in the fridge, Kevin relaxes enough to give in and start looking through the cupboards, under the guise at first of finding something that might need to be used up.

What happens is a pile of out of date snacks starts to form by the kitchen bin, and a singular bottle of a sauce that passes the taste test is put on the kitchen table by the box Xie's potion equipment came in.

"Can we take this back?"

It's not the sauce he's asking about. It's an unused rice cooker, much more expensive than the old one he's seen in their kitchen. But he's also eying up some of the pans as well.

"Would that be weird?"

[xie_er]

Xie is busy unpacking the equipment onto the kitchen island while Kevin rifles through the cupboards, and he glances back at the question to see what Kevin's asking about. He nods.

"If you want to," he agrees easily "it wouldn't be weird. This is all my stuff, so it may as well see some actual use."

There are some things here that have too many memories, things - like the apartment itself - that he just wants to get rid off and start again. Unused appliances are not one of those things. Actually, he thinks, it's sort of nice to take the things he never had a use for before and make new memories around them.

[weird_cop]

That was pretty much what Kevin was thinking. He thinks that this is probably a very good, very expensive model, and that it has never seen food. So he decides he's going to put it to thee use it was meant for.

"It's a lot of stuff that you never seemed to use," he remarks. There's no implied judgement, just a curiosity. A fully stocked kitchen, but somehow he doubts Xie was the one who stocked it.

[xie_er]

Xie starts setting up a maze of twisting glass tubes and considers the statement for a moment, then shrugs.

"Like I say, I mostly lived on takeout. Yifu bought a lot of things when he bought the apartment, made sure I had everything..."

Or, more accurately, he got someone else to make sure he had everything. Paid for some professional shopper to stock the place like a showhome. Xie had put his own touches on the decor, later, when he got the chance, but that had been more artwork and soft furnishings than full interior design the way he would have wanted to.

[weird_cop]

It's just so... clinical, really. Kevin's heart aches for Xie that he had this life with no real attachment, an apartment he didn't treat like home... and also was being coerced into Killing people.

He stops going through the kitchen then and sits at the island, resting his chin on one hand as he watches the apparatus being set up.

"Can I help with anything?"

[xie_er]

Xie, of course, had just been getting on with setting things up without even thinking to ask for help - he's practiced, and doesn't seem to be struggling, but there's some parts that are obviously awkward to do with one set of hands. When the offer comes, he pauses for a moment - not quite surprise, because of course Kevin is offering, but just taking a second to remind himself that he really doesn't have to do everything by himself, anymore.

"Could you hold this while I tighten the screws?" He asks

[weird_cop]

Kevin, happy to be useful, does exactly as he's told, coming around to hold the parts in place and watch Xie's expert hands at work.

"Complicated chemistry set," he observes, "though whether or not I've actually ever done chemistry with a kit like this I couldn't tell you."

[xie_er]

"I suppose it is a bit." Xie agrees. He'd probably call it alchemy rather than chemistry, but that's mostly because magic likes its old fashioned terms.

And old fashioned items, too, since despite a lot of the equipment being modern looking tubes and instruments, the next thing he pulls out of the box is an actual cast-iron cauldron. It's relatively small, but there's no mistaking that's what it is.

It doesn't take him much longer to get the equipment set up, especially with help, so then he moves on to sorting through the ingredients that Du Pusa managed to get him.

[weird_cop]

Kevin snorts in amusement when he sees the cauldron, but sits back to watch Xie sorting through the ingredients.

He's ready to move and help, fetch anything, help if he's told, but he's also content to sit down, leaning forward across the island, and watch the whole process.

He doesn't know if he's supposed to be an expert in this part of magic, but he's fascinated to just watch an expert at work.

[xie_er]

Before long, Xie gets into the flow of working, experimenting with different things and moving things around the equipment with practiced ease.

Occasionally, he remembers Kevin's presence and asks him to fetch something or help with grinding or mixing ingredients when he needs to do something else at the same time, but mostly he just gets on with it, finding comfort in the familiarity, in doing something he knows he's good at.

[weird_cop]

Kevin doesn't look at his notebook the whole time. He just watches Xie with interest - he doesn't know or remember anything about it, but he can tell that Xie is good at it, tell that he's confident in it, and he really enjoys seeing that.

It doesn't help him not to fall a little bit more in love with him, but he doesn't resist that anyway.

If Xie does look up at him at any point, he just smiles warmly and continues to enjoy watching.

Although at some point he does eventually get up and stretch, asking where the loo is. This is because he needs it, but he can't resist the opportunity to have a snoop, either.

Must be copper instincts still at work.

[xie_er]

Xie points him to the bathroom a little distractedly, concentrating on measuring out one of the ingredients. He's definitely absorbed enough to not really notice how long Kevin takes.

The bathroom has more signs of use than the kitchen, but it's still neat and tidy - largely thanks to the counter being bare of all the products that now live in the safe house. Across from the bathroom there's another open door that leads to the bedroom, which is much more obviously Xie. There's artwork on the walls, the duvet and curtains match, there's a vanity still scattered with hair ornaments and ties and a couple of different hairbrushes and combs, some odds and ends of makeup and cologne as well.

The wardrobe is full of expensive designer clothes and shoes - everything here is expensive, but at least it looks more lived in than the rest of the apartment. There would be knives stashed in various places, too, but those are among the confiscated items.

[weird_cop]

Kevin doesn't quite have the knowledge to realise what's missing, but he finds it interesting that he can tell when something seems missing - finds evidence something was taped on the side of a bedside table, sees a space in a drawer.

And of course there's the mark in the carpet where a guitar stand once stood.

But then he mostly takes his time in the wardrobe, thinking more about what the clothes tell him about Xie than anything else - he touches some of the fabrics, and thinks that these are some of the only things that look like Xie actually chose them.

He wonders what Xie looks like wearing them, and ignores the voice that asks what someone who cares about clothes this much is doing with Kevin, of all people.

Then he finally feels like he shouldn't be doing this and returns to the kitchen.

[xie_er]

Xie has the cauldron over the stove when he returns, and he's stirring the bubbling mixture slowly, watching it carefully and occasionally using a pipette to add small drops of an opalescent liquid that, he told Kevin earlier, is extracted from the venom of a particular type of snake.

He glances up with a soft smile when he appears, though only for a moment before he looks back to the mixture he's working on.

"It's nearly done, then I'll need to leave it to cool."

[weird_cop]

Kevin is surprised to find that he has a visceral reaction to the idea of snake venom. Not a big one, bit enough of a distaste when he sees the liquid being added.

"And then I what?" He asks. "Drink it? Rub it on my temples? I hope it's not a suppository."

He's joking, obviously. Mostly.

[xie_er]

Xie snorts, shaking his head slightly.

"It's a variation on something that I'd normally make into an incense," he explains "I think that's still going to be the best way."

It might end up a little more oily than the usual mix, so he'll need to use some kind of diffuser or even make a candle, but either way it will be something for Kevin to breathe in.

[weird_cop]

"Oh, okay."

That's a way he hadn't considered, but logically it must be a perfectly fine way of intaking a magic potion

He leans forward to peer at the cauldron, sniffing curiously to see if it's giving off any fumes yet.

"I hope it smells good at least."

[xie_er]

He doesn't mention that the concoction it's a variation of is deliberately designed to confuse and disorient people by getting them lost in their own memories, so it makes perfect sense to make it into an incense - it's difficult to get people to ingest a liquid, but breathing in incense? By the time they realise there's anything wrong it's too late.

In this instance, he's sticking with incense because it's a very gentle way of easing into it - there's a lot of memories to bring back, for one thing, and if there's any adverse effects it's very easy to take him out of the room and away from the smoke.

"It will smell good, yes." He confirms, nudging him away from the cauldron "when it's done."