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 smiles, kissing him again and then heading out in search of food and friends. When he sees Lisa, he smiles, nodding. He knows he still looks a mess - no sleep, no food and still wearing yesterday's clothes - but he also knows he looks like a human who hasn't slept rather than some kind of feral creature.

"It did, the bond is back in place, so he's going to be able to heal some more and get out of here soon. For now, though, we're both hungry, so I came to see if I could get some food."

[weird_cop]

Lisa can look past all of that, anyway. She's also still in her clothes from the auction.

"Alright, go back in and I'll go get you both something from the canteen. Tell him not to get carried away, we want him discharged, not logged as some sort of medical anomaly."

She shuts her laptop and tucks it away, smiling happily at him. "I'm glad you're both okay."

[xie_er]

Xie huffs, and then relays all of that to Kevin through the link just because he can. It feels good to use it again, even after only a day.

"Thank you." He tells her - for the offer of food and the the expressed emotion.

"I'm glad we are too."

[weird_cop]

"Fine," Kevin grouches, but he's happy to take enough so he can sit up, at least.

Lisa gets two hot boxes of hospital canteen food, which she dutifully brings to the room, expresses her pleasure directly to Kevin about seeing him well, and refuses to talk work yet.

"We're going you have a lot to talk about when you are back though," she says.

[xie_er]

There is another bed in this room, but it is not close enough to Kevin, so Xie has once again set up camp in the chair beside his bed - only this time he looks a lot less haggard about it and he's blinking normally.

He is in favour of this no-shop-talk rule, even though he can tell it's frustrating Kevin, but he can't help but ask one question.

"Am I going to have to try and get Du Pusa to come and give a statement?"

[weird_cop]

"It would help," Kevin says, but he'd understand if she didn't want to.

"You do have to get her to come over for dinner. She's awesome, by the way."

[xie_er]

"I'll see what I can do." He says out loud, then smiles over at him for the second comment.

"I'm glad you like her. I'm sure she'll come for dinner"

[weird_cop]

Lisa glances between them, her eyes narrowed in amused suspicion.

"You know you're doing that, don't you?"

Kevin huffs a laugh and smiles sheepishly at her.

"It's nothing weird. We're just planning a social engagement which you're not invited to."

This makes her raise her eyebrows in mock offence, and Kevin is unapologetic.

"Sometimes we don't want a bunch of cops at our affairs."

Lisa's eyebrows stay up.

[xie_er]

Xie's smile isn't sheepish at all, it's smug and pleased and happy because yes, they do know they're doing it, and they can do it again. It may have only been a day but he still missed having Kevin in his head, he's delighted to have that back.

"He gets special permission to be the only cop allowed because he's cute." Xie adds with a smirk.

[weird_cop]

Lisa smirks at him, looks at Kevin, and he supplies:

"Yes you count as a cop."

"Fine," she says, in a mock huff. "I can see you two are doing fine, so give one of us a call when you want a lift back from the hospital. Your car is at home."

She hugs Kevin goodbye, offers the same to Xie, still not sure enough to just hug him without offering first, and leaves them to each other.

"I want to have dinner with Du Pusa," Kevin repeats. "And go back to the Jade Dragon. And I want that date."

With his memories surging back, they've encountered a lot of the fresh viewpoints he's been forming, and the result is that he has plans.

[xie_er]

Xie accepts the hug, gives her a smile and a friendly goodbye, and reflects for a moment on how much has changed since the first time they met.

Not nearly as much as things have changed since the first time he met Kevin, though.

He turns back to his boyfriend when she leaves and smiles, reaching out to take his hand.

"I want all of that too."

[weird_cop]

Kevin squeezes his hand back, lacing their fingers together affectionately.

"And I want to clear out all that stuff in the storage unit," he adds. It doesn't do to just let that stuff stay in limbo really. Especially some of the memories he's just been ignoring.

Which raises the next question.

"How do you feel about getting out of the safe house?"

[xie_er]

"I've actually been thinking about that" Xie admits "I've been waiting to talk to you about it"

The last week was, obviously, not exactly the right time to have that conversation.

"I think we should start looking for a place"

[weird_cop]

After all this time, despite having telepathy, it's still amazing how in sync they are. Kevin knows that this isn't just the bond, it just makes the bond better.

He brings Xie's hand to his mouth and kisses his knuckles.

"Can it be near a gym? Can it have a gym? I really need to work on my fighting skills if this is going to be my life from now on."

It's odd - they've been living together for months at this point, been sleeping in the same bed since they moved into their current place. And yet - it feels like a step. Not a difficult one, but a significant one, anyway.

[xie_er]

"We could have a gym, we could have anything you want" Xie says without hesitation - he guesses that they'll default to not going over the top, but they certainly don't need to skimp either, once the manor sells they can buy whatever the hell they like.

"It'll need a big kitchen, and a garden, and enough space for hosting all your friends." He says, mostly thinking 'out loud' but also checking that Kevin is thinking the same as him.

Mostly, he doesn't care as long as he gets to choose the decor.

[weird_cop]

"Of course," Kevin replies, loving how enthusiastic Xie is being. "Anything you want."

Because Xie being happy makes Kevin happy.

"We should probably talk about money, at some point."

While they've been living rent free, Kevin's been paying for most things from his own money. And Xie - well he's willing to bet Xie has never managed a household budget in his life.

[xie_er]

"What about it? We'll have plenty..."

He's right that Xie has never managed a household budget himself, but he's also had enough experience of Zhao's funds that he didn't need to even think about the money he was spending, so he's sort of expecting to just... go back to that.

He also doesn't even think twice about sharing that money with Kevin.

[weird_cop]

"You have plenty," Kevin corrects.

"Not that I object to being your kept man, you understand."

[xie_er]

"I suppose, but I want to use it to buy us the perfect house" He shrugs "And anything else you might want"

Maybe they should talk about bills or expenses but honestly Xie is happy to cover it all and Kevin can spend his money how he wants. He quite likes the idea of using Yifu's money to pay for their lives together.

[weird_cop]

"Of course."

Well, if Xie wants to use it for that, he absolutely can. Kevin's just aware that sometimes money complicates things, especially when it's this uneven.

"You can buy what you want with it. Including lots of presents for me."

[xie_er]

"Presents for you is agiven" he says with a soft smile "but honestly... I really don't need that much. As long as I have enough to live comfortably, I'm happy."

It's a bit of a revelation, really, he'd always sort of believed Yifu when he called Xie spoiled, but mybe he isn't all that spoiled after all. Sure, he'll want to keep buying his expensive hair and skincare products, and he wants to buy them a nice house, but all that designer gear and the latest tech? He doesn't really care about any of that.

"Maybe I'll give some of it to charity" He muses - there's more than enough of it, and maybe it'll go some way to making up for the wrongs Yifu did, and that Xie did for him.

[weird_cop]

"That would be sweet of you," Kevin agrees. He's never really considered Xie spoiled, really. He saw the presents as forms of manipulation and control, and even when he didn't like Xie, Kevin didn't apply the word 'spoiled' in the classic sense.

And Kevin's just happy to be with him.

"But yes. Let's get a house, that's ours. You can have space to do potions and a garden, and I can have a kitchen and a dojo."

[xie_er]

"We should start looking when we get home" Xie says firmly, starting to get a little excited by the idea now that they were actually talking about it - he's been thinking about it for a while, but now it feels like the start of making it a reality.

"Do you have any ideas about where you'd want it to be?" He asks, wondering if Kevin would mind looking for somewhere near his current apartment - not because he has any particular ties to the apartment, but because it's near the Jade Dragon. It might be a silly reason to choose a location, but visiting them the other day has reminded him how much he likes that old couple.

[weird_cop]

"Inside the M25," Kevin answers immediately. He's not willing to live somewhere he can't tap into the city if he needs it.

"And nowhere too haunted." Though he knows Xie won't really be able to avoid that without his input. "No prisons, psychiatric institutions or hospitals, current or historical."

Other than that, he's easy.

[xie_er]

"No arguments here" Xie says about the M25 - he'd much rather stay closer to the city than out of it.

The other comment, though, has him laughing slightly - mostly the 'current' part, as if he's going to go and buy a hospital for them to live in.

"I promise to check the history of every building I find"