A/N: Review time!

Strawberrysoul; I'm glad that you like my first gen fics! They're not really characters who get fic time (probably because they're fairly new) so whenever someone says they like my stories it makes me more confident in writing them :) This chapter does a 180 from the other chapters towards the end, so you probably won't be laughing this time...

edwardlee418; you'll find out in this chapter ;)

tetsuryu; thank you! I find it fun to think about how they would interact with each other, although it gets a little tricky because I want to stay as close to their canon personalities as possible, which is the tricky part because we've only really seen them in five chapters so far T_T

Characters belong to Hiro Mashima

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."
― Edith Sitwell

day 04 - books

One thing Mavis had insisted on was a library. When they had reached their final decision to build a guildhall and start a mage guild, she had fervently insisted on travelling back to Tenrou Island and salvaging all the books from the library there. It had taken some persuading and compromising (they wouldn't take them all at once and would return for more if there was room), but finally the construction was finished and they could move all the books onto the shelves. Their progress was delayed, however, by guild business and the vast majority of the tomes still sat in their crates around the room. Mavis stood in the entrance to the library with her hands on her hips. She surveyed the mess, made a noise of disapproval, turned on her heel and made her way to the main part of the guildhall.

"What are you doing today?" She asked the trio as she entered the dining hall. Yuriy was sprawled out on a chair, head thrown back as he took a break from the paperwork strewn about the table in front of him. Precht was slouched forward on another table, lazily watching Warrod bounce a rubber ball into a cup at the other end of the table.

"Yuriy's on desk duty," Precht told her, nodding at where the other man was squinting at a document in frustration. Mavis watched him mouth the words on the paper, scribble something down, and throw his pencil on the table in frustration.

"Can't say I envy him," she mused while Warrod and Precht voiced their agreement. "Anyway," Mavis began, turning towards them. "Since you two obviously don't have very much to do, we're going to organize the library!" She clapped her hands together and looked at them expectantly.

Warrod bounced the ball into cup and rose from his seat, stretching his arms above his head. "Sounds like a plan. Precht isn't good company to talk to, he just sits there and stares, and we can't distract Yuriy."

Mavis smiled gratefully at him and turned her gaze on Precht. "Oh no," he started, able to predict where the conversation was going. "I didn't want anything to do with those books to begin with. You're the one who charmed dumb and dumber into bringing them back here. You guys can take of it."

"But Precht," Mavis looked at him pleadingly as she spoke. "Yuriy's busy; and besides, you haven't got anything better to do today, have you?" Her voice was desperate, but a malicious undertone was laced through her words.

The two stared at each other, both refusing to back down. Finally Precht sighed and stood up. Mavis broke into a grin and cheered, Warrod whispered "Sucker," and the trio made their way past Yuriy to the library. As the walked by the other man Precht clapped a hand to his back.

"Hang in there," he snickered as Yuriy let out another growl of frustration.

"I'll trade you," Yuriy offered. He took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. "The fine print is killing me. I think I'm starting to see things."

Precht peered over his shoulder at the documents. He grimaced and followed Mavis and Warrod once more.

"I'll pass on that one. Organizing books beats official paperwork any day." He faintly heard Yuriy mutter "ass" as he went back to his task.

Mavis already had the contents of one crate scattered about the floor. A small fire was slowly heating up the room and Warrod fed it more wood to hasten the process.

"Okay, boss," Precht drawled. "Where do we start?"

Waving a hand at the books on the floor, Mavis said; "These got all mixed up when we took them from Tenrou, so they need to be put in alphabetical order. That'll make things easier when we put them on the shelves. Oh, and go by the title, a lot of the books don't have an author."

Taking a seat on the floor, Precht grabbed a stack of books and began sifting through them. Little piles grew around him and he was vaguely aware of Warrod picking them up every now and then to put on the shelves. Mavis opened more crates as time went on, keeping a steady line of books for Precht to alphabetize. Absorbed as he was in his work, Precht hardly noticed the hours tick by.

He finally looked up as a small noise reached his ears. He winced as he lifted his head and stretched it from side to side in an attempt to alieve the knot in his neck. Standing up and stretching, he took note of Warrod's absence from the room. I hope he's making dinner, Precht thought.

The silence was broken again and he remembered why had lost his focus originally. Precht weaves through the aisles and shelves, following the sound until he stumbled upon a sight that tugged at his heart.

Mavis sat with her head bowed over a book on her lap, shoulders shaking visibly. As he moved closer Precht saw that unlike most of the other books, the one she clutched was for children, a compilation of fairy tales. She looked up as he approached, face red and puffy and stained with tears. Unused to such sad and raw emotion from her, Precht dropped down next to her.

"What's up, Mave?" He asked gently, looking at her with concern.

With a shaky hand, Mavis pointed at the book. "I always read this w-with Zeira," she hiccuped. "And, and I just, I just remembered that she was never r-real. N-not after that day, when Blue Sk-skull destroyed my village and-" she broke off, taking a deep to compose herself. "And killed everyone but me." Her voice trailed off at the end and was barely audible; if Precht wasn't listening to her intently he wouldn't have heard her at all.

"W-why was I the only one to s-survive? I sh-should've died with Zeira and the rest, but instead I spent seven alone with someone who w-wasn't r-real." She was taking gasping breaths as she spoke, causing her words to become short and choppy. A sob wrenched itself from her throat and a fresh wave of tears sprung into her eyes. "And if I h-hadn't told you three about Blue Skull, you wouldn't be w-wearing that eyepatch. If I hadn't insisted on leaving the island, I wouldn't have endangered the mission by t-trying to save a fi...a figment of my imagination." Mavis's words had taken on a hollow tone, and it was clear to Precht that she blamed herself for the events that had happened that day with Blue Skull - just like another blond he knew.

"Hey," Precht said sharply, causing Mavis to look up at him. "You were just a kid when Tenrou Village was attacked. You did what any kid would do in that situation; you created a person to spend time with. Yeah, Zeira's gone, but she was always there for you right?"

"But I made her that way," Mavis objected.

"But she was real to you for those seven years, wasn't she? Am I wrong?"

Mavis was quiet for a moment, then nodded slowly.

"And even if you did make her that way, and she was your projection the entire time, then aren't you really Zeira? I hate to say it, as cheesy as it sounds, but she'll be with you forever," Precht grimaced as he spoke, but he didn't know any other way to word it. He wasn't the best at consoling people to being with, and comforting a young girl about her friend who never existed outside of her imagination was territory he never thought he'd tread into.

"Because she's me," Mavis said softly. "And she's just a mix of everything I needed when I was alone seven years ago. She was a friend, a sister, and a guardian. She always kept me on task, you know. Well, I guess I kept myself on task. But the part of me that kept the rest of me on task was just in the form of another person." A small and tentative smile tugged at her lips and her hand brushed over the cover of the book fondly. She sniffed and wiped at her eyes, and the tears stopped for the time being.

"You're a pretty good counselor, Precht, even if you say otherwise," she said lightly, nudging him with her elbow. "And, um, you're not going to tell the others about this, are you?"

Precht glanced sideways at the younger girl, then smirked and ruffled her hair. "Your secret's safe with me, kid." She yelped in protest and Precht released her with a chuckle.

"So," he began, nodding towards her book. "You going to read me something or what?"

Eyes lighting up, Mavis paged through the book. "Here, this one's my favorite! It takes place in the north, so there's a lot of snow there too. Once upon a time there was a poor peasant who…."

A/N: Some Precht-Mavis bonding time this chapter. For more reasons than one, I believe in the theory that Zeira as we know her is just an illusion Mavis subconsciously created during the seven years she was alone on Tenrou. As usual, comments and reviews are appreciated!

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