*A/N- Guess who finally updated their fic! This girl! Sorry for the super long wait, I had to step back from fanfic to manage to pass high school, (I did but barely) and now I am a college student with a little time on my hands. I'd love to be able to promise regular updates, but I can't, but I can promise to do my best!
X x x x
"I still don't understand," Mavis sighed, rocking back in her seat discontentedly.
"It's alright," Zeref encouraged, "don't get frustrated. Here, let me explain it a different way." He pulled the book closer to himself, Mavis scooted closer to see better.
"See this is the atomic number, and you have to multiply it here by this number to convert it into the form you need."
"And it's the same always?" She asked, her brow furrowed. Zeref glanced up at her face, her eyes focused critically on the text.
"Yes, every time you want to convert something from this form to this form you multiply by that number."
"Why?"
"It's the difference in mass." Mavis nodded, then pulled her notebook closer to herself and worked out the equation. Once she finished she looked up at him quizzically. Zeref, ignoring their proximity, leaned over to look over her work. He smiled when he saw that it was right.
"See? I told you you could get it!"
"Yay!" Mavis cheered, throwing her hands in the air. Zeref chuckled, he loved her energy, even if he found it hard to keep up with at times.
"Okay, there's something in the next chapter I didn't understand," she said, changing subjects suddenly. She seized the book and pulled it closer to her, flipping pages. Zeref furrowed his brow as she turned the pages, noticing the organization of the book.
"Hey, hold on, can I see that?" Mavis glanced back up at him, then nodded. Her green eyes filled the corner of his vision as she watched him examine the book. He flipped a few pages, then turned back to the table of contents, reading through the chapter order and contents. "Interesting. Your book is organized differently than the one we used at my high school. I actually think I like yours better."
"Really?" Mavis asked. Zeref nodded. "That's interesting."
"'O ow're 'ings at work, eref?" Yury asked, spraying crumbs everywhere.
"Um, what?" Zeref asked, while Warrod scolded Yury for talking with his mouth full.
"He asked how your day at work was," Mavis clarified.
"Oh, uh," he said. When he made up the lie about working in retail he hadn't realized that they would care enough to ask him about his day.
He thought hard about how to answer, he needed to make up a lie that he would be able to remember later, which meant it needed to be close to the truth. What would he have been doing if he hadn't wandered off? It was the eighth, which meant there was a massive arms shipment coming in that his people were annually hired to escort. The September shipment was the biggest of the year, no doubt Invel was stressing about it right now. Not to mention now that he thought of it, it was about time for them to start fencing the paintings that some of his had stolen last month. On top of all that Zeref had disappeared again.
Having Zeref gone certainly wasn't the end of the world. Invel was extremely loyal, not to mention cool and analytical under pressure. He could run things on his own while Zeref was gone. Zeref trusted him to do that and not try to takeover the business, which was great for Zeref because it meant he could go wherever he wanted whenever he wanted.
"Zeref, you still with us?" Mavis asked, raising her eyebrows. He shook himself, then nodded.
"Yeah, sorry. It's just been, hectic. We are expecting the largest shipment of merchandise of the year, and we have to fen- I mean sell what we have right now to clear up space. There's also a lot of security concerns that come with getting deliveries of new merchandise. We have to guard our store, and the shipment, and be sure that the delivery time remains secret or else someone might try to ambush the trucks."
"It sounds like your store sells some pretty high value merchandise," Precht said.
"You could say that," Zeref replied.
"What sort of stuff do you sell?" Warrod asked.
"Oh, um, it's seasonal, kinda. The stock changes pretty frequently."
"Seasonal? Like Christmas?" Precht rolled his eyes at Yury.
"No, not Christmas," Zeref laughed. "The stock just rotates frequently."
"That's interesting," Mavis said. "What's in the delivery you're about to accept?" Damn it, all these specific questions.
"I'm not really supposed to talk about it," he said nervously, hoping they wouldn't ask any more.
"Really?" Yury asked, "why not?"
"It's pretty valuable." Zeref replied. At least that wasn't a lie.
"Ohhh, how cool," Mavis said.
"If your job is so important do they pay you a lot?" Precht asked. Zeref's mind drifted to his incredibly large overseas bank account.
"A good bit," he answered vaguely.
"So then why are you tutoring for seven jewel an hour?" Yury asked.
"Um…" Zeref said nervously, glancing at Mavis. The real reason is that he'd lost sight of reason when Mavis had asked him. The glow of her green eyes was entirely too magnetic. All three grown men laughed like they knew what he was thinking.
"Don't worry kid," Yury laughed, "it happens to the best of us."
"Wait, what?" Mavis asked. "Did I miss something?"
Miraculously, that was the end of his interrogation. They seemed satisfied with the explanation that he just couldn't say no to Mavis. It happens to the best of us, Yury had said.
x x x
"What do you think of Zeref?" She asked, speaking for the first time on her and ZEra's walk to school.
"He seems nice, he's quiet, and smart. Why?" She glanced over at Mavis. "Uh-oh, I recognize that face. What do you think of him?"
"At first I thought he was just reserved, and a private person, but now I'm not so sure."
"So what's your evidence?"
"He dodges questions, and not the sort of questions that would suggest a dark past, they're the kind of questions that make me think he has a dark present."
"Such as?"
"He's very vague about his job. He said he worked retail, but there was a flash of something in his face when he said it, and he said he isn't supposed to talk about the stock he gets, and that it's seasonal. He never told us what store he works at, only that he's paid a good amount and he does a lot of coordination and security."
"If he's paid well why does he need to tutor on the side?"
"Yury asked him last night, but just laughed and said 'happens to the best of us' when he didn't respond."
"Weird, but if Yury doesn't think it's suspicious, let's move past it."
"Agreed. So what kind of retail store requires a lot of security, has valuable and seasonal merchandise, and wouldn't want his employees to discuss its contents."
"Diamonds and art come to mind," Zera suggested. "Both of those would be valuable enough to warrant security and wouldn't want people to know the exact transfer schedule, and could have stock that rotates frequently."
"When Yury asked if it was a holiday store Zeref did say it was frequently rotating, so maybe he misused the word."
"And jewelry stores do run specials for holidays sometimes," Zera put in.
"You're right, and it wouldn't be outlandish for an art gallery to do similar promotions, and they would both have high turn over, but I can't imagine why they would want their employees to be secretive about what they sell."
"Maybe it's like a country club store, some of those have private memberships."
"Maybe, but it could also be a cover," Mavis said darkly.
"Do you think he's a criminal? A fence, maybe? That would make retail only a half lie, maybe he panicked."
"I think it's worth looking into. I hope I'm just being paranoid but…"
"But you're rarely wrong," Zera finished. "So how do you want to do this?"
"I'm not sure, but I'll figure it out."
"Are you going to tell the guys?"
"Not yet, not until I have something concrete."
x
They spent their breaks plotting out their plan of action. They obviously couldn't confront him, if he was not guilty then they would only hurt his feelings and drive him away, leaving her tutor less, but if he was guilty it would let him know they were on to him and he would flee, or hurt them. Neither of those two things were ideal.
"What are we going to do if we find out he's a criminal?" Zera asked once, while Mavis was taking notes.
"...I'm not sure," she said, "but I have to know." Zera nodded solemnly. "I guess we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it."
"And hope it doesn't collapse beneath us," Zera replied darkly. Mavis nodded. They were in dark waters, she just hoped they didn't drown.
x
"Subtlety is the best course of action, we need to go on as if nothing were wrong, and we don't suspect anything" Mavis said. She and Zera were in the library, looking over a wide range of books, from detective novels to articles on real crimes, and they were taking notes furiously. The plan was for Zera to keep them at her place, lest Zeref find them and discover what they were up too. Luckily she hadn't planned on seeing him tonight so she didn't need to come up with an excuse to get out of it.
"That shouldn't be too hard. He barely knows us, so even if we are acting strange he wouldn't know it," Zera commented. She was flipping through the biography of a real life detective, taking notes from the chapters on his undercover work.
"You have a point," Mavis agreed.
"Look at this," Zera said, sliding her book over in front of Mavis, her finger marking the place she wanted Mavis to read. "He says here he made a habit of asking questions that weren't about what he wanted to know, but related enough the answer might accidentally give context he needed."
"That's a good idea." Mavis said, making a mental note.
"Plus, you're inquisitive by nature, so if you start asking a lot of questions he probably wouldn't second guess your intentions." Mavis nodded.
"We need to make a list of questions we should ask him, staggered and not all at once of course, and take note of what he says." Zera nodded.
"We shouldn't consider tailing him, I think," Zera said, "if he's a criminal he would be better at it and notice us."
"You're right, though it would be useful to know where he lives, I agree it would be to risky."
"I bet his phone is passcode protected, so we can't find incriminating evidence there."
"Not to mention if he caught me snooping I'd lose his trust forever, and probably a tutor if he's innocent."
"So let's go over what we know," Zera said, pulling out a list. "He's vague, possibly because he's a private person. possibly because he's hiding something."
"He claims he works in retail, with valuable and secret merchandise, maybe a cover as a fence."
"We need to know more about how he spends his free time, maybe ask him if he has a hobby?" Mavis nodded.
"That's a good, safe question. Maybe I could bring up one of my hobbies, offer up information about myself so he's less suspicious." Zera nodded, making a note of something. "However,' Mavis continued, "if he is dangerous and I give him too much information about himself then that could lead to problems, so I'll need to be careful."
"He already knows where you live and the names and faces of everyone you love," Zera reminded her, "telling him you like chess will be pretty much meaningless if he wants to hurt you."
Mavis grimaced, glancing sidelong at Zera. She could have just put her into danger by introducing her to Zeref and bringing her into this, but she also couldn't deny that she needed Zera and a second opinion.
"We need to make note of what we know about his personality as well, the strange way he acts and things, those could provide clues as well."
"Well you know more about him than I do," Zera said, turning to a blank piece of paper in the journal she'd designated for this investigation, "so let's go."
"He's lonely," she said on impulse, remembering that night on the street. "He told me so the first time we met. I believe him because I don't think he meant to. He looked just as surprised as I did." Zera noted this.
"He also graduated early, that should be easy enough to check in his school's record, but we'd have to find a way to break in, or at least lie our way in." Zera nodded.
"It shouldn't be too hard for us to get our hands on one of their school uniforms, they might even be similar to ours." Mavis nodded.
"I'll have to find out which school he went too, he's actually mentioned it once, but not by name. It's an innocent enough question. He said he was supposed to be in the grade above us, and I don't see why he would lie about that." Zera took a note of his possible age and grade.
"I think the age he gave you is real too, he looks too much like a teenager to be much older."
"We don't know anything about his friends," Mavis said, "I can try and get that information out of him as well."
"If they have criminal records that should be useful," Zera replied. "Unless they're minors too and their records are sealed."
"Hmm," Mavis said. "We don't have much to go on here. But we should look into recent criminal activity in our city and take note of anything that looks relevant."
"Agreed."
By the time they were finished they had filled up the first few pages of Zera's journal and printed out a few news articles on recent criminal activity. Apparently the mob had been restless recently, and cops were investigating. It was possible, given Zeref's young age, he was operating as part of a team and not a solo player.
Mavis's next scheduled time to see Zeref was tomorrow, and they were both waiting with baited breath to see what happened.
x x x
He knew he shouldn't be tutoring her, and he knew he shouldn't be spending time with her, but he couldn't help it. He needed something normal in his life. Eating dinner with Mavis and her family was like his crutch, the thing he used to get through his daily life. He didn't deserve it, and he certainly didn't belong there, and yet he came every time Mavis called. A little voice in his head was saying what harm could it do, so long as he didn't do any harm. Studying and dinner a few times a week couldn't kill her, could it? It's not as if he were being followed, he'd know if he were, so really if he interacted with girls his age on his break he wasn't putting them into danger, right?
But there was another voice in his head, one that spoke out of darkness and pain, that told him everything around him was doomed to destruction. It reminded him of his family, and his friends, every single subordinate that had ever died until he'd fallen so far he could no longer feel, and he'd operated in a haze, until one day a pair of bright green eyes had cleared the fog, and he was thinking clearly, but not, for the first time in years.
Everything he'd ever seen, and everything he'd ever been through were conflicting stories of what he should do, clamoring and playing in his mind so loud he could hardly stand it, the only time the maelstrom was quiet was when he was with her, the only time he was at peace was when she was around.
He just hoped his peace wouldn't come at the cost of hers.
