Wahh thank you all so much for the kind words regarding this fic! It really means a lot! I hope you all like this chapter!

XOXOX

Being with Mavis was like breathing air for the first time. If there was a word to describe her, it was vibrant. If there was a color, it was rainbow. She was an array of colors that made Zeref's world change one by one.

"This place is beautiful," breathed Mavis, gazing at the pink Sakura petals that rained around them like tiny fairies. "Definitely the home of fairies."

"But there aren't any fairies," Zeref dumbly pointed out, titling his head at Mavis as if it would help him grasp a better understanding of this bizarre girl.

"That's because they can sense you're a non-believer," she said, leering suspiciously.

"Probably," he said, a small smile touched his lips. "Everything's my fault."

"Everything?" Mavis mused, eyeing him carefully. "Like even world hunger?"

"Well—"

"War?"

"I—"

"That time I broke my arm climbing a tree when I was 5 years old?"

Zeref faltered.

"Shame on you, Zeref! It took me forever to heal!" chided Mavis sternly, although Zeref could see the slight twitch on her lips letting him know she was fighting off a smile.

He chuckled, eyeing the strange girl carefully. Her green eyes were so hypnotizing and her blonde hair twirled in the light breeze, decorating her hair with the pink Sakura petals. Zeref leaned over and brushed a hand through her hair. It was as silky as it looked.

"W-What are you…?"

"The petals keep falling in your hair," he murmured, pulling a petal out and twirling it distractedly between his index finger and thumb.

Mavis' cheeks were pink like the petal. "Y-You have petals in your hair as well!"

"Do I?" Zeref reached up to run a hand through his hair, but a small hand encircled his wrist, pulling his arm back down.

"Don't!" she said, her cheeks darkening from the light Sakura pink to the shade of a red rose. "It makes you look like a prince."

"A prince?"

"A prince of the fairies!—A spriggan!" Although Zeref had no idea if a spriggan was a fairy prince or not, Mavis' smile was so dazzling that he smiled back and for the first time he was happy that he was responsible for something—that something was Mavis' smile.

When Zeref went home that evening, he found himself desperately wanting to go back to school the next day. Falling asleep was next to impossible. His mind was still flowing from all the information that he and Mavis had shared with one another.

He never told anyone about his love for magic out of fear of judgment and Mavis seemed to think that was the coolest thing ever. And in return, Mavis told him about her love for anime and how she was raised in abusive household (which followed to Zeref's own tragic past about how his parents died). It was stuff he never thought he would ever share and stuff he thought no one would ever care about. And someone, for the brief time they talked, she made him feel important, like his existence was more than being just a mere parasite on this Earth. It was like he had a purpose.

He touched a hand over his rapidly beating heart. Was this warmth inside his chest the feeling of friendship, he wondered. And instead of sleeping, he found himself painting a picture he titled the 'Fairy and the Sparggin' that featured a boy smothered in darkness entranced by a beautiful fairy girl bathing in a golden light.

XOXOX

The following day, almost everyone noticed a change in Zeref's attitude and they were somewhat weirded out by this. Natsu made a joke about the ugly look on his face—which Lucy reprimanded him for and told Zeref how cute he looks when he smiles (Natsu wasn't too happy about that).

Zeref brought his painting to school and carried it to his art class, wanting to show it to Mavis. He was so proud of it. Probably one of the best paintings he's ever made. Of course that was his personal opinion. He sat down at his art table, placing the painting down carefully to study it as he eagerly awaited Mavis' arrival.

However class started and Mavis still hadn't shown up.

People walked over and complimented the drawing. They told him that it had a different feel than his other paintings. That the mood and the passion in it was lovely to look at. Zeref smiled weakly. Of course they would tell him they liked his art. They were just being nice.

Like a whirlpool in the ocean, Zeref's thought started get sucked into his negativity. How could he possibly think this painting was good? Maybe he was getting too arrogant—something he had always dreaded. He never wanted to be full of himself, but to the contrary, that's what he envied most about his brother. Natsu was able to be arrogant and cocky no matter what the situation is. Why couldn't Zeref be like that? Why was he so contradictive?

And what about Mavis—What if she hated it? What if she thought he was creepy for drawing them together after they had only just met?

This was a really bad idea and he thanked his lucky stars that Mavis hadn't shown up today. He gathered up his painting and left class because it wasn't like his presence would be missed as his fellow classmates painted and joked with one another, as per usual, leaving Zeref out.

Zeref held the painting tightly in hands with great contempt. He wanted to rip it to shreds or set it on fire. It was so ugly—so horrible—so—

"Can I please go to class now?" a small, pretty voice asked.

Zeref jolted to a stop in the middle of the empty hallway. His head snapped to the left to look into the school infirmary. Mavis was there, seated on one of the school beds. She had tubes in her nose.

"Are you feeling up to it?" the nurse asked.

"Yes!" beamed Mavis, fist bumping the air. "Never felt better!"

"Alright," the nurse chuckled lightly. "I guess I can let you go back, but if you start to feel—"

"I know, I know," said Mavis, brushing the nurse off as she ripped the tubes from out of her nose and grabbed her bag from off the floor. She turned towards the door and froze, her catlike eyes landed directly on Zeref. His stomach coiled and this strange fluttering sensation overcame his heart.

Her face lit up like the morning sun. "Zeref!" She raced out of the room. "What a surprise to see you! Where are you going? Shouldn't you be in class—you're not cutting, are you?"

"I—"

Mavis' grin turned devilish as she looked side-to-side. "Let's cut together." She grabbed Zeref's hand in her tiny one and they broke into a run to their secret spot under the Sakura tree.

To Zeref's chagrin, he never did find time to dispose of his ugly art piece and Mavis didn't even hesitate to look at it.

"Whoaaa," Mavis awed, "this is…this is…"

Zeref ducked his head, waiting for what she was going to say. She was nice, so she would tell him it looked good and then she would probably make up some excuse to leave—

"This is the most beautiful painting I think I have ever seen! The wings look lovely and oh! You even drew a tail! And it's so accurate—I mean look how negative you drew yourself! I think we need to change that—Can I keep this?"

"I-If you really want it," said Zeref, stunned.

She hugged the picture to her chest. The action made his heart swell with both pride and elatedness. But his smile fell slightly from his face because of something nagging in the back of his head. "Hey about the oxygen tubes you were wearing—"

"Oh I got lightheaded earlier," Mavis said, her face pulling into a tight smile and then she abruptly broke eye contact.

Zeref frowned, reading the sudden change in the girl's attitude. She had given him a fake smile—the type of smile Zeref usually sported on his face and he didn't like that at all. So standing up, Zeref held his hand out and said, "Want to leave school?"

Mavis gasped, her pale cheeks tinting pink like they did the day before. She timidly put her hand in his and said, "Go where?"

"On an adventure to find the fairies!" Zeref grinned.

A real smile broke out on her astonished face and while Zeref knew they wouldn't find real fairies, he made sure to take her to his favorite magic shop where they sold fairy wands and stones (objects believed to be channelers of fairies), knowing how much that would make Mavis smile.

And before either of them realized it, they were falling in love like a petal falling from the Sakura Tree, wildly captured by the wind as it slowly—yet swiftly fell to the ground.

XOXOX

Hope this chapter turned out okay! It's really strange writing a different pairing :0 I get so nervous lol

And my waifu Nanakoblaze made the cover image, you can see a better version on her tumblr:

nanakoblaze (.com)/post/145912139241/zervis-random-background-practice-read-the

THANKS FOR READING!