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

[weird_cop]

Ezra breathes in and, still glaring at Xie, breathes out slowly.

"Okay," he says, a little sulkily. He turns to Kevin instead and tilts his head, asking a pointed question.

"Come talk to me at lunch tomorrow," he says. "I'll have figured out how to start my then."

[xie_er]

Xie isn't entirely sure what he did wrong, but he suspects there isn't anything he could have done right under the circumstances, so he just lets the kid be mad at him and hopes he'll get over it.

At least he doesn't have to teach him anything.

[weird_cop]

Ezra agrees finally, nodding quietly but telling Kevin he'd better teach him magic or else, then the bell rings for the end of lunch and he has to head off.

Kevin reaches out to Xie, just to touch him lightly on the arm.

"You okay?"

[xie_er]

Xie smiles slightly, stepping in to give him a quick kiss.

"I'm fine, I'm just not good with kids" he says with a shrug "Are you okay? This isn't going to cause you any problems, is it?"

He still feels like this is his fault - he was the one who made Ezra suspicious, he was the one who needed to shift without thinking about the window...

[weird_cop]

"I don't think so," Kevin admits. "I hope not. Quill might be mad, but I'm not going to teach him how to make blood sacrifice to the power of London. Just some of the basic techniques Shifu started with. A bit of meditation and mindfulness might be good for him."

He wraps his hand around Xie's back to hold him for a second.

"You're not bad with kids. There's always a bit of betrayal when they find out you're a UC."

[xie_er]

"I've found meditation can be quite useful even without the magical benefit" Xie admits - he doesn't do it often, but it's still nice to do every now and again.

He leans in to Kevin's embrace, just enjoying the quiet moment before he knows he'll need to change back again for the rest of the day.

"I didn't feel betrayed. I felt annoyed I hadn't been able to work it out and use it against you" He admits, his tone joking even though he's absolutely telling the truth. He's very glad he never did work it out, or things would have been very different. He'd probably be dead, actually.

"Not sure how to feel about the kid working it out" He adds with a faint smile.

[weird_cop]

"You weren't the person I betrayed. You didn't trust me to start with," Kevin points out mildly. He's glad of a lot of things in the long chain of events that led to him standing here with Xie in his arms.

"That's a smart kid. I lived under your paws for months and never realised you weren't a cat."

He realised he was a Familiar, though. And it's easy to dismiss uncat-like behaviour if you know it's a magic cat.

[xie_er]

"I trust you now." Xie says, soft and genuine. He knows Kevin knows that, but likes to say it anyway.

He laughs lightly at the comment about not realising he wasn't just a cat.

"Ah, so it's your fault I thought I was convincing..." He teases

[weird_cop]

Kevin laughs, kissing Xie's forehead.

"How often did you have to sit and take a petting as a cat?"

Kevin certainly never did. He didn't even talked to him - maybe stroked his head once.

[xie_er]

"Not that often," Xie admits "Yifu didn't really regularly meet with the kind of people who petted cats..."

Even his non-magical clients were often more serious business types. Though once or twice when entertaining there were others around who were more inclined towards animals.

[weird_cop]

"Then it's not you, it's a smart kid who likes animals and pays attention," Kevin assures him.

"And possibly me being sloppy because our lives aren't in constant danger. Frigging embarrassing, though."

Kevin leans back to get a better look at Xie's face, stroking his hair affectuonately.

"How's your leg? Wanna call it a day?"

[xie_er]

Xie nods, reassured, and laughs slightly at Kevin thinking he might be to blame.

"But it's nice to not be in danger for a while" He says, amused. It is embarrassing, for both of them, but it's also not really the end of the world.

"It's fine now, nothing a hot shower and an early night won't fix I'm sure." He's tempted to stay home tomorrow, but he sort of wants to be there to see what happens with Ezra. "We don't have to leave if you need to stay"

[weird_cop]

Kevin runs his tongue over his teeth for a second, trying to decide how to interpret the words. He's pretty sure that the best thing would be to let Xie be human for the rest of the day and see how he feels in the morning.

"Hey, do you want to call that estate agent, see if they can bring that viewing forward to this afternoon? Give us an excuse to get out early. You can scorpion in the carrier."

[xie_er]

Xie loves Kevin so much sometimes. He smiles, leaning in for a quick kiss before he nods his agreement.

"Sounds good, I'll give them a call" He says, reluctantly pulling away so he can pull out his phone and call the estate agent - who is more than happy to move the viewing to this afternoon. Xie isn't very surprised, the house he's looking at is on the expensive side, the estate agent fees are probably pretty hefty so no wonder they're eager to get it sold.

[weird_cop]

Kevin drops Beth a message to let her know the same before shutting his computer down, and holding the carrier out for Xie. He's careful to avoid anyone on the way out who might look in on Xie while he's in there.

As he pulls out he muses: "We can't tell Spot that Ezra knows, and we definitely can't tell Ezra about Spot. That could be a problem."

[xie_er]

Xie thanks the estate agent and hangs up, shifting into scorpion form and climbing into the carrier.

"Agreed" He says, still waiting to come out from the carrier and shift back until they're further out of sight "If they tell each other that's one thing, but we can't give away their secrets"

[weird_cop]

"They're friends so they might still tell each other," Kevin says. "But I hope they don't, they're both supposed to be keeping it a secret."

[xie_er]

Xie, privately, wonders if them being friends and Ezra being a witch might actually work out, but he doesn't voice that thought yet.

"It might be easier if they do tell each other, but you're right that they shouldn't" He agrees as he crawls over into the front seat and shifts back.

He reaches over to programme the satnav with the location of the house, which is in the same neighbourhood as his old apartment but a few streets away, in a tree-lined boulevard with a number of detached properties with their own little walled gardens. The gate is open when they arrive so it's easy enough to turn in and park in the driveway.

It's a decent sized house, a little larger than all of their previous safehouses, an old victorian building with an ivy-covered front.

The estate agent is standing at the door with a leather document folder tucked under her arm and a professional smile on her face, she gives them a cheerful wave as they pull in.

[weird_cop]

"I'm underdressed for a house like this," Kevin says as they pull up, aware that he's been wearing the same pair of jeans for a week. "Is it really the whole building, and not a flat inside?"

He gets out of the car and smiles warmly at the estate agent, before looking the building up and down. "Passes the initial vibe check."

That means he doesn't want to run screaming from it. It's a good sign.

[xie_er]

"It's really the whole building" Xie confirms, and though he sounds amused he's a tiny bit self-conscious that he might have chosen poorly. It soothes a bit when Kevin makes his 'vibe check' comment, though.

"Mr Zhao?" the estate agent looks to Xie, stepping forward with a hand outstretched. If she recognised him from the papers she was doing a great job not showing it, so that's something, even if he is making a mental note to change his name because it took everything in him not to flinch when she said that.

"Louise, right?" He says, taking the offered hand and shaking it "Call me Xie, please, and this is my partner Kevin."

"Lovely to meet you," Louise says, holding her hand out to Kevin as well "shall we go inside?"

[weird_cop]

Kevin adopts the persona of a confident man who can definitely afford and belongs in a place like this, and shakes her hand.

"Nice to meet you."

He's registered the flinch, and makes his own mental note to suggest to Zie what he's already thinking.

"I like the ivy."

[xie_er]

"Mm, I thought it looked nice." Xie agrees. Louise agrees as well, talking about how it gave the house character as she shows them towards the front door.

Inside the house is spacious, the decor neutral if a little dated (Xie already has ideas to change all of it anyway). She suggests they start at the top of the house, where the loft has been converted into a currently empty room she suggests would be good as home-office space.

"I thought it might be useful, like the basement before, if we need to use the house for anything work related again" Xie offers as they look around.

The upstairs features three bedrooms - one with an en-suite - and Xie suggests the third might be a good place for storing Kevin's notebooks and other work things, like a study or library. The room with the en-suite also features a small balcony, because Xie liked the one they already had.

The bottom floor has a spacious living room, a dining room that is - according to Louise - ideal for entertaining, and, most important to Xie, a large kitchen. Like the rest of the house it's somewhat dated, but Xie suggests that if it needs redoing anyway, they may as well kit it out to Kevin's specifications.

Lastly, the garden - big, but a little overgrown and in need of some TLC, much like the rest of the house. Xie doesn't want a house that's perfectly ready to move into, Xie wants a house he can make theirs.

[weird_cop]

Kevin is going through a mental list of things the Lofthouses had told him to look at in a house - check for insulation, signs of damp, etc, but mostly he's enjoying the tour, and delighting in Xie's plans as he makes them.

The study suggestion he moves into the loft, as if they need to have an ops room at home, he says, thenn the notebooks might be useful.

"We can soundproof the third bedroom" he suggests instead. "studio space for your guitars."

Or anything else they want to do with it.

He grins at the kitchen idea, taking a minute to imagine what a good kitchen would look like, and says that the fridge and dishwasher are in entirely the wrong spaces and need to be moved. That's not a no, though.

He's vaguely aware Louise is being made to feel awkward at the way they say so little out loud, but he still forgets to open his mouth.

"I like it," he says at the end. "Big, but I think we could fill it up."

[xie_er]

The fact that Kevin suggests they use the third room for him gives him a little glow of pleasure, because it's just not something he's used to - he's getting better at asking for the things he wants, at choosing the house that suits them both, but Kevin taking it a step further and actually offering things that are purely for Xie is new, and nice, and he clings to it every time it happens.

(And stubbornly ignores the little voice in his head that says it's just because Kevin doesn't want to listen to him play, wants him out of sight and out of mind, because he knows that voice is wrong)

"I like it too" Xie agrees, smiling at him.

"I can give you two a moment to talk, if you like?" Louise offers "I'll just be in the living room if you have any questions."

[weird_cop]

"Sure," Kevin agrees out loud, but it's only to get her out of the kitchen so he can kiss Xie.

"Do you have any questions? It looks like there's a lot of work involved."