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]

"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."

[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.

[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.

[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...

[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.

[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?"

[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."

[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."

[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."

[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.

[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?"

[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."

[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?"

[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."

[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."

[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."

[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."

[xie_er]

Spot snorts at that.

"I'll have to ask Xie if you can switch between animals forms." He says thoughtfully, because shifting to cat mid-air would be cool as hell.

"I mean, without going back to a person in between first." he adds, to clarify.

[weird_cop]

Ezra nods to show he understood what Spot meant. "Don't fall in human shape, that would be bad," he agrees, glancing down at his own knee.

"Hey, when you change shape, do injuries heal? Or do they come with you, or what?"

[xie_er]

Spot snorts slightly, following the look to Ezra's knee and nodding his agreement.

Changing into a person mid-air would also be cool, as long as he did it close enough to the ground and smoothly enough that he could stick the landing.

"They... go away, but they don't heal." He answers "Like... if I have a broken arm, nothing is broken when I'm a cat, but when I change back it's still broken."

Broken worse, too, from the shapeshifting. He'd learned that lesson the hard way.

[weird_cop]

"Oh that sucks," Ezra says sympathetically. But he offers a shy smirk sideways and wriggles his fingers at his friend.

"At least you got me, I guess."

[xie_er]

Spot laughs, but he does nod, drifting closer to nudge Ezra with his shoulder - carefully, mindful of his injury and not wanting to knock him over.

"Yea. Next time I break something then, I'll come find you." He agrees "'long as you haven't done yourself some damage first."

[weird_cop]

Ezra gingerly nudges him back - or attempts to, the effort is there.

"I'll get better at it," he promises, meaning he'll figure out how to heal himself better and he'll learn how to do other people.

As they approach the home, he pauses, and holds a hand up to say wait, straightens up, and holds his hand out for the skateboard Spot has been carrying for him.

Than he takes a couple of steps, as straight as possible.

"Going to try not to limp too much," he explains.

[xie_er]

"'Course you will." Spot says immediately, with the progress that Ezra's made already he has no doubt whatsoever that he's only going to get better.

He looks for a moment like he's about to say something, but then hands over the skateboard. If Ezra wants to not bother with the nurse, Spot isn't going to try and tell him what to do.

Instead, he glances thoughtfully towards the doors and then back at Ezra.

"Want me to distract 'em so you can get past without being noticed?"

[weird_cop]

Ezra looks quizzically at Spot, then smiles gratefully.

"Don't get in too much trouble," he says, not wanting Spot to face any negative consequences for Ezra's own bad choices.