dollymixtures | Oh, oh, oh it's magic (Xie and Kevin)

xie_er posting in

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...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

xie_er

Spot just raises an eyebrow at him until he corrects himself, and he thinks it's kind of weird until Ezra admits he's just learning and now Spot is the one putting things together because who else is going to be teaching Ezra magic?

Maybe if that wasn't the case he'd be more cautious, lie about Kevin's presence, but if he's going to go teaching somebody magic right under Spot's nose without even telling him, Spot's not going to trouble to keep his cover. He nods.

"So how come he started teaching you?" If this is their solution to his little problem he swears to God...

From:

weird_cop

Ezra, unaware that there even is a problem, lifts a shoulder sheepishly.

"I kind of... blackmailed him," he offers, sounding more guilty than he wouldn't be if this wasn't his friend's police protection he was messing with.

"I mean, I caught him doing magic and asked if he'd teach me. I wouldn't really have blown his cover, especially not if I'd known they was here for you. They didn't tell me nothing about you, I promise."

From:

xie_er

"....well, obviously they didn't." Spot says after a long moment, because it's clear that Ezra didn't know anything about him, and they didn't tell him about Ezra either...

He isn't sure what to say for a long moment but eventually a corner of his mouth twitches.

"What kinda cop lets himself get blackmailed by a teenager..." he says. He's joking, mostly, because he does trust that Kevin and Xie can keep him safe, he wouldn't still be here if he didn't, but it is funny.

From:

weird_cop

Ezra jumps on the chance to laugh, shaking his head in companionable mocking of Kevin.

"Maybe he skipped that part of cop training cause he was learning to be a witch, I don't know."

Ezra's not stupid, he's pretty sure that Kevin is teaching him magic because he thinks it's good for the troubled teen, but he's not complaining.

His mouth twitches again, fighting back questions about shapeshifting and all the things that he's never asked or been told about Xie (or Spot), but doesn't want to press a painful subject.

Instead he pushes himself into a position to stand up, and holds a hand out to Spot. "Help me up? We should go back before they start asking questions."

From:

xie_er

Spot snorts, nodding his agreement. He's quiet for a moment, contemplating his own questions and whether or not he actually wants to ask them, knowing they'll invite other questions in return. It's not that he minds talking about being a familiar, but if Ezra hasn't already figured it out maybe it would be nice to be something like friends with a witch who wasn't only looking for his power.

"Sure." he nods, holding a hand out and bracing himself to haul Ezra to his feet, keeping a careful eye on him as he stands in case the injured knee has any trouble supporting his weight.

From:

weird_cop

Ezra doesn't bother to pretend he's less hurt than he is; he stands up gingerly with Spot's help and holds on to his hand as he gently tests his weight on his leg.

It hurts, but he still grins.

"Hey, that's much better than it was. I did pretty good with that."

From:

xie_er

"Yea it was kinda impressive." Spot agrees. He doesn't know how hard healing magic is, he just knows his dad can't do it, but he still thinks it's cool that Ezra has managed to learn it in only a few weeks.

He's a bit jealous, admittedly, since he has all this power and he can't do anything with it. The shape-shifting is awesome, obviously, but he'd rather be able to do actual magic. Maybe one day when he has a proper bond he'll find something else actually worth liking about being a familiar. Maybe.

"You okay to walk back?"

From:

weird_cop

"Yeah," Ezra says, testing it again and taking a few steps.

"Let's not go to the nurse or anything. I want to show Kev tomorrow."

It makes sense to him - he wants to show off how far he's come, and he wants to be told he did it right, and he also semi hopes that Kevin will just finish it off for him.

"Is it okay if I tell him I know about you? I'm not gonna ask for any of your secrets or anything."

From:

xie_er

Spot raises an eyebrow but he doesn't protest - he isn't going to tell somebody to go to the nurse if they don't want to, and it's Ezra's leg, if he wants to show it off he can do that. Kevin'll be in tomorrow anyway so it's not like it's going to do much harm not getting it looked at. Probably.

"I don't think he'd give them if you did." He shrugs. As much as he might joke about Kevin being easily blackmailed, he knows he wouldn't actually tell Ezra anything about Spot that Spot didn't want him to.

"But yea I don't mind. Means they don't have to waste their time trying to hide us from each other and can focus on more important stuff." Like actually doing their job, or teaching Ezra more magic.

From:

weird_cop

"I wondered why I hadn't seen Xie around that much," Ezra muses. "I figured he was avoiding me after I got mad, but I guess he's been hanging out with you, right? Shapeshifter stuff?"

He hopes that's not prying too much.

From:

xie_er

Shapeshifter stuff... so they haven't told him about Spot, but they also haven't even told him what Xie is.

"Something like that." He agrees. He'd explain, but when it's not just himself he's talking about it feels like he probably shouldn't. Not that he thinks Xie's status as a Familiar is a secret, as such, but there might be a reason they didn't say anything.

"But yea, I guess they wanted to get me out the way so I didn't spot your lessons..."

He hopes that wasn't all it was...

From:

weird_cop

"More like stopping me from seeing you hanging around and asking too many questions," Ezra puts in. Spot is the one under protection, after all.

Except it makes him think. In the evening, when Kevin's not here, who is protecting this place? Spot saw magic and immediately thought it was his dad, so presumably his dad is also a witch. If he were to find them at night, would Ezra be the only witch here?

He's quiet for a bit longer than he intended, breaking his silence only with an occasional pained his when he walks wrong.

From:

xie_er

That's a slightly more reassuring take, and it does sort of make sense, so maybe Ezra's right...

He makes a vague noise of agreement and lets the silence fall, occasionally glancing over in concern when Ezra makes a noise. It's a while before he realises just how long it's been since either of them said anything, they're almost all the way home.

"So what kind of thing has Kevin been teaching you?"

From:

weird_cop

"Oh, um..."

Ezra pulls a face before answering, because the answer is really not much.

"How to gather magic, mostly. It's a lot of meditation and movement and crap like that. But we did healing 'cause that's what I saw him do, and I figure he's probably not going to teach me any of the stuff he uses as a cop."

He's asked, a couple of times, what 'stuff' that was, and Kevin did mention about electricity, and protective circles and forced entries, but he declined to tell Ezra how. It makes sense, he's just being a grown up about it.

"Oh but I can do this."

He makes a fist, opens his fingers, and lets a small ball of dim light hover in his palm. It glows for a second before vanishing.

"It's usually more impressive than that, sorry."

From:

xie_er

It's not really familiar to Spot, since his dad uses magic a different way, and it's not like he was really all that knowledgeable about that either, but he nods along with the explanation all the same. Maybe that's foundation stuff, things he needs to know before he can do the proper spells. Or something.

He glances over to watch the flickering ball, impressed despite the weakness of the light.

"Well you did just heal your leg too." He points out "It was still pretty cool."

From:

weird_cop

Ezra nods.

"Kev says it's like a battery, I need to let it charge up or something."

He grins when told it's cool though, and the smile is flattered and happy.

"Not as cool as turning into a cat, though."

From:

xie_er

"Yea that makes sense." Spot nods - it ties in to what he knows about magic as well. Witches have their own battery and Familiars are like a power bank they can plug into...

He shrugs at the returned compliment, casual and a little dismissive... or trying to be, anyway, he can't help looking a little pleased. Being a Familiar might sometimes be more trouble than it's worth, but it's still nice to have somebody think it's cool.

"Not like I learned how to do that, I just can." He offers, thinking Ezra should be proud of the effort he's put in.

From:

weird_cop

"Yeah, I know."

That's how it is with Xie, he knows. You can't teach it, you just can. He wonders about the telepathy as well - is that because they're a couple, is it Kevin's magic, is it just a thing that is? But Kevin just said he wasnt' ready to learn it yet.

"It's still cool. Do you pick the cat breed? Or is it just what you get?"

From:

xie_er

So they've told him that much, probably about Xie, since he's pretty sure Ezra would have asked if he could learn to shapeshift before anything else. He can't help but be curious about what else they've said, but he doesn't want to give too much away.

"It's just what you get." He shrugs "Xie says it's possible to learn other shapes like he can, but it's really hard and not everybody can do it."

From:

weird_cop

"I bet you could," Ezra says, with the certainty of a teenager who happens to think his friend is pretty cool.

"If you wanted to. Would you want to?"

From:

xie_er

Spot has to duck his head a little to hide his smile, flattered by Ezra's certainty.

"Yea.. it would probably be cool..." he admits "Xie says it can be kind of uncomfortable to stay in the wrong shape for too long, but it can be pretty useful too. I don't know what other shape I'd try for though."

From:

weird_cop

Uncomfortable in the wrong shape ties in with how grouchy that man seems whenever he comes to be human in Kevin's office. Maybe he's not like that all the time, he's just not usually a cat.

Which raises the not-that-important question of what Xie's 'right' shape is.

"Yeah, I mean a cat is cool," he agrees. 2I bet you can get all sorts of places and no one really care 'cause cats get everywhere."

But the sound of evening birdsong catches his attention and he presents that option like it's a no-brainer.

"But if you were a bird, you could fly."

From:

xie_er

Spot has taken Ezra's lack of comment to mean that he knows Xie can do more than one shape, which means he isn't going to clarify... but it also means he doesn't think it's a secret what Xie's other shape is, so Ezra only has to wait for it to come out in conversation, which is always a possibility.

"Yea it's pretty useful for that." Spot agrees. Especially when he was on his own on the streets for a bit, much easier to find safe places to sleep in fur.

His eyes widen at the suggestion, he's not really seriously considered another shape before but now Ezra has officially caught his attention.

"Yea okay, that would be awesome."

From:

weird_cop

"Wouldn't it?"

He's not sure why he suggested it, except that Spot seemed to think that it was somehow better to learn to do something, like magic, than to just be naturally gifted at it, like shapeshifting. So he offered it up like something that he could learn while Ezra was learning magic, and be proud of it as an acheivement.

"At least if you're no good at flying, you'll land on your feet."