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]

He takes the card and tucks it in his pocket, thanking her.

As soon as he's alone he texts Du Pusa to update her on what's happening and where he is - hopefully the trail is enough, but he can add a few details that might help them navigate all the same. Then he moves to the bathroom to tend to his wounds, minor as they are.

(In the car, Du Pusa reports on Xie's texts, and replies that they're on their way)

Then, he realises, the only thing he can do is wait. He still has one knife but there's little he can do with it, and he has no magical ability of his own to deal with the situation, he just has to sit here and hope that rescue is on its way.

This is his least favourite part of the plan. If it can even be called a plan.

[weird_cop]

At this very moment, Kevin is finally telling Du Pusa what his least favourite of the plan is.

"You know," he says conversationally, "I'm outside of London, I don't have my bond, and that ritual sucked out nearly all of my personal power. I may or may not be fucked, here."

But Xie told hm to come get him, so. He's coming to get him.

He calls the Thames Valley Police on the way, tells them he's from a specialist Met unit about to conduct a specialist operation and they are to be ready for clean up and not interfere. He tells them to call Detective Superintendent Lofthouse to complain.

And as he hangs up he turns into the driveway, the knife on his dowsing pendulum swinging wildly, and uses the handbrake to stop.

He gives Du Pusa a nervous I'm sure this will be fine smile, and walks up to knock at the door of the house.

[xie_er]

"You have me, and Da Wang can do a lot of damage even without magic, that's not nothing." She offers. Admittedly, his power is in service to someone else, but she's trying out optimism.

"This must be it." She says, looking up at the place. She spots the spots of blood on the drive as they walk up to the door, and decides not to bring Kevin's attention to them.

When Xie hears the knock on the door he just knows, which is stupid because it's not as though there's any kind of link or magic telling him that it's Kevin and not any of her allies, but he does. It's not magic, it's... trust. Faith. Love.

So he stands, leaves the guest room and moves to the top of the stairs, waiting. Resisting the urge to answer it himself.

[weird_cop]

It's not nothing, and Kevin himself can still swing a punch without magic, but he's aware of what he's facing.

The door is answered by the valet from earlier: a red-headed young woman in her early twenties, who was clearly expecting an Amazon delivery or something, and looks confused when Kevin is not actually carrying anything. Lucy, appearing at the top of the stairs at around the same time as Xie, looks just as confused.

"Hey," Kevin says, brightly, smiling disarmingly. "I'm looking for my boyfriend, is he here?"

[xie_er]

Had they coordinated better ahead of time, Xie probably would have suggested some kind of subterfuge, but he has to admit that the utter confusion Kevin managed to course with a single sentence is kind of worth it.

He also hadn't expected the warmth that flooded through him at hearing those words and knowing that, if nothing else, Kevin had his memories back. He knew that already, but there's a difference between knowing it and knowing it.

He makes for the stairs, strolling down them casually as much as he wants to run.

"Took you long enough."

[weird_cop]

Lucy stands up straighter, staring at Xie, and then starts down behind him, staying behind him as she moves, her heels clicking sharply on the stairs.

Kevin has used sheer force of personality to gain entry by a step, and he looks up to see Xie comes downstairs. His face lights up, the first time he's seen that face since remembering how much he loves it. There's no way he could suppress that adequately if he was going to try for some sort of undercover story.

"We stopped at Beaconsfield for a cheeky Nando's," he lies.

He's fighting an urge to rush forward and kiss his boyfriend, but this is when Mina appears from a ground floor door, and she and Kevin immediately recognise each other.

"Boyfriend?" she says sharply, incredulously.

[xie_er]

Xie rolls his eyes in fond exasperation, but he can't help the swell of love he feels - both for Kevin's terrible joke and the way he looks at him. It's stupid, probably, to have missed him as much as he has, but nevertheless he's missed him.

Xie steps closer, intending to kiss him as well, but that's when Mina interrupts.

"Oh," he drawls casually, glancing over at her with an innocent expression "didn't I mention that?"

[weird_cop]

"You didn't tell her?" Kevin sounds shocked. And to drive home the point, he does grab Xie by the hand, pulls him to him and kisses him, hard, like he's been wanting to for days but didn't want to until he could feel this again.

"You stupid..." he stops kissing Xie when he remembers he can't kiss and talk at the same time, giving just enough space so he can lean his foreheads on Xie's and finish his sentence.

"...self destructive idiot. I love you."

Mina's face contorts from a look of fury into a mocking smirk.

"How sweet," she says, and raises her voice to include everyone in the room, pointing at Kevin.

"Kill that police officer."

One thing she does know is how to put magic into an order.

[xie_er]

Xie just shrugs, a smug smile on his face - a hint of a laugh escaping as he's pulled in, before it's swallowed up in the kiss.

"I love you too." He murmurs back, squeezing the hand holding his. The world feels a little bit more right to have him there, even without the bond.

(And that, in itself, is comforting, to know that their love still exists even without the magic)

Then, suddenly, nothing is right at all.

Kill that police officer

It's an order, it's direct, and it has emphasis behind it, and Xie's switchblade is in his hand before he can even stop himself. Du Pusa grabs hold of Kevin and yanks him back just before Xie's hand slices towards him.

Xie's expression is horrified, but he lifts the blade ready to throw it instead.

"Which ones do you want me to handle?" Du Pusa asks - does he want her between him and Xie, before he does something he'll never forgive himself for, or does he want her to take on the lackeys so he can focus.

[weird_cop]

Kevin is not completely unsurprised - it's either copper instinct or she just gave that vibes, but he lets go of Xie and pushes him away even as he's yanked back.

He points Du Pusa at the redhead, who has unfurled a whip from her back, and at Lucy, who has materialised a glowing golden trident out of thin air, and is leveling it at Kevin.

Kevin looks at Xie, horrified but more sad than angry, and nods to him.

He understands. He's going to make it right.

But he also spent months preparing for this exact fight, and now he only has a more intimate knowledge of how Xie's body moves.

He steps backwards and spins in sync with Xie's throwing arm, letting the knife pass within an inch of his torso, but switches his focus to Mina, at whom he lashes out one of his magical laser blasts.

"You are so under arrest," he tells her.

[xie_er]

Du Pusa grins and practically dances towards the two other women. She spins out of the way of the redhead's whip and distracts Lucy with a kick to the head that she somehow manages to make look effortless.

She dives in closer to the redhead and blows her a kiss - a kiss, along with a cloud of glittering purple dust that has her swaying on her feet.

Xie, meanwhile, is grateful that he dropped most of his knives en-route because it means he's suddenly without a weapon. He can't tell if Kevin is trusting or stupid or both when he turns his attention to Mina instead, especially when it gives him a chance to dive after his fallen knife.

Except, with everybody else distracted, it gives him a second to pause. He picks up the knife as planned, but he doesn't immediately move for Kevin, doesn't lift it to throw right away - instead his arm moves slowly, shaking with the effort of stopping himself. He can resist the order, he has to.

[weird_cop]

"I don't think I am, actually," Mina tells Kevin.

She draws on the apparently bottomless well of magic now available to her and throws up a shield to divert his magic, before holding her hand out in front of her and using the same magical construction that Lucy used to weave together first a round orb, and then dropping it into a huge staff, from which she sends a powerful bolt at him.

Kevin ducks out of the way, but at the same time he darts towards Xie, grabbing for the wrist holding the knife.

"Xiexie," he mutters, when he sees the effort going into not stabbing him.

[xie_er]

He thinks, actually, that this might have been one of the stupidest choices he's made. Kevin had always seemed to be able to handle himself when he refused to draw on Xie's power, he thought it would be safe...

He never should have lead Kevin here, he should have just let him be with his memories.

"Stay away from me, please." He murmurs back, strained. He forces trembling fingers to open, lets the knife drop, but the order is still there in his head, still pushing him to try something else.

Despite his best efforts, his free hand snaps out, curls around Kevin's throat. Starts to squeeze.

[weird_cop]

"You know I can't," Kevin manages to breathe out.

Maybe if Xie hadn't told him to follow then, he'd have waited, made a plan, reconstituted and come after him with his power intact. But he would have come. Hell or high water, he would have come for him.

Then there is a hand around his throat and he chokes, eyes snapping wide.

He steps back onto a soft, and brings up the opposite arm to jam his fist into the crook of Xie's elbow.

At the same time he's trying to move, keep aware of the space, and to maneuvre so Xie is between himself and Mina.

But as long as Xie looks like he's winning, Mina is content to watch.

[xie_er]

Xie lets go with a gasp, forces himself to stumble back. His eyes are pleading with Kevin, begging for forgiveness even as he fails to find the words.

He steps back again, once again shaking with the effort of it, the need to put distance between himself and Kevin. His gaze drops to the fallen knife and his every muscle screams at him to grab it, but he pushes back.

"No" He grits out, clenching his fists, turning to Mina.

"I won't do it."

[weird_cop]

"You will!" She snaps at him, furious but concentrating on pouring her power into it. She throws another bolt at magic at Kevin, but he's already moving.

He takes advantage of Xie taking a stand to move behind him, grabbing one wrist and writing it up while he throws his opposite arm around his throat.

The magic burns past his shoulder, but he tightens his grip, temporarily using Xie as a human shield.

"Gege," he mutters, slipping into Mandarin. "Remember Shifu in the warehouse. You can control the flow."

He's banking on Mina not wanting to kill her familiar, but when he sees her readying another attack, he pushes him away sharply, out of range. He yells sharply when his hip is caught.

She called his bluff, he realises, and it worked.

[xie_er]

It's a good job that Kevin is moving, because the force of will behind those words were almost enough to have him diving for the knife again. Kevin gets him in a hold before he can, and though he struggles against it he doesn't break free.

He knows what Kevin is talking about but can he? Really? Pushing it through the link it's meant to flow through is one thing, but withholding it? Stopping her from taking it? Is it really possible?

He stumbles as he's shoved aside, spins ungracefully at the sound of the yell and almost loses his footing, too focused on making sure that Kevin hasn't been hurt.

The knife is out of his reach now, his hands the only weapon, but just as he starts towards Kevin again he suddenly feels arms wrapping around him from behind, holding him tight. Du Pusa - the other two minions are out cold on the floor and she's using all her strength to hold him back from getting to Kevin.

He whispers a thank you, a plea to keep holding even as he fights against her, and he closes his eyes, stops trying to fight the command but also stops thinking about it, instead he focuses all his energy, all his willpower on the link, on turning off the proverbial tap.

[weird_cop]

Mina is smiling imperious down at Kevin as her magic hits home. She's won; even with Xie fighting her, even with both her employees down. The great Shadow Police Witch is already on his knees, and the woman will be easy to take down when he's dead.

Mina draws another flood of her magic into her staff, prepares to let fly, only to have it splutter, spit magic, and then wink out.

She shouts wordlessly in anger and fury, and tries again, but the staff flashes in and out of existence, will not form anything useful.

Kevin takes a deep breath and surges forward.

He struggles back to his feet, pulling his power into his hands as he rushes her. She manages one blast at his chest, but it's weak compared to the twin lightning he directs at her - the heart, and the core. Just like before.

He watches her body fall before the adrenaline suddenly deserts him and he crumples into unconsciousness.

[xie_er]

The effort of holding back his power is so much that he's almost dizzy with it, but he watches her magic sputter and fail with grim satisfaction.

What follows is a pain that would drive him to his knees if Du Pusa wasn't still holding him. It's not dissimilar to the pain of the bond being stolen, which makes sense because the bond - however new, however unpleasant - is being snapped. This time, however, it is accompanied by the unsettling feeling of death and followed by a sudden, yawning emptiness.

It dawns on him, then, that he hasn't actually been unbonded since he was a teenager, and he doesn't know if it's because it's because he's forgotten how bad it really felt, or because the circumstances of it all has exacerbated the feeling, but it's crushing.

He's pulling against Du Pusa's hold again but this time she lets him go and he moves so fast he stumbles but doesn't stop, dropping to his knees at Kevin's side, yelling - screaming, really - for him to please wake up.

Du Pusa decides now is probably the time to call an ambulance because she knows shit all about healing magic.

[weird_cop]

The 999 operator gets enough details from Du Pusa to be able to link the call to the police, who connect it to the call earlier and have already contacted Superintendent Lofthouse. The upshot of it all is that armed police accompany the ambulances the arrive, but following her instruction, they don't treat anyone still conscious as aggressive. They just make sure that the unconscious suspects are treated as potential threats should they wake.

Paramedics rush to Kevin's side, fussing over him when they see the burns, but even through their attentions, he doesn't regain consciousness. They're still prepping him for transport when Xie's phone starts ringing.

It's Lisa.

[xie_er]

Xie has managed to calm down enough to be pushed aside and let the paramedics do their work - but it took some negotiating to pry Kevin's hand from his grip and he's sitting as close as he can without being in the way and looking more than a little wild-eyed as he watches them work.

Du Pusa has only minor injuries so once she's been given the standard once-over she moves to sit beside him. When his phone rings he takes it out and stares at it for a moment before she helpfully leans over and hits the answer button, putting it on speaker.

"What is it?" Xie manages to get out.

[weird_cop]

"Xie?" She says, the worry clear in her tone.

"Are you okay? We're on our way."

She's been told that ambulances were called out, one fatality and three casualties, and enough to figure out that Kevin's one of them.

[xie_er]

Xie opens his mouth, closes it again and shakes his head, holding the phone towards Du Pusa.

"The bitch is dead, her two little minions are unconscious, Kevin's out cold but being looked after." Du Pusa reports, side-eyeing Xie as she does so.

"Xie is... physically he's fine." The paramedics who checked him over confirmed that much at least. Beyond that, she has no idea what's going on with him.

[weird_cop]

"Oh, Xie."

It's not as pitying as it might once have sounded from her. Empathy, sympathy. Worry, mostly.

There's a moment when she talks to someone away from the phone and then she's back.

"Lofthouse is going to make sure they let you go with Kev. Hang in there, okay? Text me when you're sure which hospital."

[xie_er]

"Hao." Xie says, soft and almost distracted. His gaze has strayed back to Kevin and he's watching him intently.

"He says okay." Du Pusa clarifies. "I'll stay with him if I can and I'll keep you updated."

She'd much rather slip off into the shadows and try and avoid any difficult questions, though at least she didn't kill anybody so really she's done well, but she's also worried about Xie and doesn't really want to leave him on his own.