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It had started with a princess.
Princess Aleida of Aurelius to be exact.
Princess Aleida was an incredible girl who fought with dragons, dined with goblins, and had tea with fairies.
And she was your absolute favourite fairytale character.
Which was why when you saw the entire set of your favourite childhood heroine novels being sold by The Serpentine Bookstore, you simply had to buy it.
Obviously.
It had taken you an entire day to read through the collection. You sat yourself at the counter of the shop and only stopped your indulging when a patron entered.
Not that it was hard. They were written for six-year-olds, after all.
After reading them all, you had chosen to banish them to the storage room where you kept all of your old books. The Monstrumologist Series, The Southern Vampires Mysteries, even your collection of Murder, She Wrote novels were in there.
Reminiscing about how much joy those books once gave you—and about how much dust they were now collecting—you got a brilliant idea.
The next morning, patrons walked in to find a book exchange in the back corner of your shop.
You had half a mind to build one outside, but Linkon foot traffic meant that there was never any extra sidewalk space. You thought the safer option was to have it inside lest someone bump into it and injure themself.
Take a book, leave a book, the sign said. And for those who can't leave one, give the book to someone else once you’ve finished with it.
You had books on philosophy, history, and poetry. Of course, you had love stories. Even mysteries ranging from grand theft to even—gasp!—murder!
You had books of all kinds in your collection.
At first, people were plenty interested in the exchange. Many patrons were eager to see what types of books a hunter would have in their collection. But, unfortunately, after finding nothing of real value—no spellbooks, sadly—most, if not all, chose to ignore it.
That was, of course, all but one.
Xavier had found your book exchange two days after it had been installed. The two of you had made a habit of going to weekly strolls around Linkon. Sometimes you discovered hidden gems—as was the shop that sold flowers of every colour—and sometimes you found lovely treasures—as was the shop that sold pearls and other oddities from the sea.
Tonight was a strolling night.
As you were bouncing around the shop trying to find your scarf that you were sure a mouse had stolen and hidden somewhere, Xavier did a walkthrough as well, eager to help you in your search.
When he came across the book exchange, he paused, scanned through the titles, and picked up one called “Dead as a Doornail.”
He read to sign then looked to you. His eyes did the talking for him, as they so often did.
“You're more than welcome to take it, if you'd like,” you said. A bit winded from your search.
You could tell that he was going to say that he didn't have anyone to give it to once he was done with it, but you beat him to it.
“When you're done you can just bring it back here and swap it with another! Or you can keep it and come pick up another. Or twenty. I really don't mind, I just want to get rid of them.” Your voice was coming from under the countertop. Not that you thought your scarf would be there, but you wouldn't put it past the mouse.
“Alright,” he said, and went to tuck the book into his cloak.
“Although—ow! That's the fifth in the series. You might want to start with... this one!” You handed him a purple covered novel with an image of a vampire biting into a... blonde haired waitress?
“It’s a mystery turned romance. It’s not too heavy, but there are a few murders I should warn you about. Nothing graphic though. You should try it out! Let me know what you think. I have a lot of strong opinions about the series...” You trailed off. As you often did.
You were just about to give up your search for your scarf when Xavier wrapped the soft fabric around your neck, startling you.
“It was tucked in between the books,” he said. He tied the scarf as he knew you liked it and moved to put your hat on you. Once bundled to Xavier's liking, he grabbed your hand—insisting that he didn't want you to get lost in the snowfall—and the two of you set off.
It was a wonderful evening. A magical evening. The snow lit up the world and it made you feel as though you were walking through a cloud.
You tried a few new street vendors, you went inside a few shops to take shelter when the wind picked up. Everything was perfect.
When you invited Xavier to stay the night—he couldn't possibly walk back home in the snow—he shook his head. He wanted to check on his houseplants and to see if he had adopted a few mice of his own. When you offered to walk him to his apartment, he also refused. He told you that he had his new book to keep him company on the walk back home.
He bent down and kissed your forehead to signal goodbye.
You wrapped your green scarf around his neck, tied it, and sent him off.
He would return tomorrow to exchange his book for a new one and to share plenty of opinions with you.
Now he finally had an excuse to increase the frequency of your evening walks; the two of you simply had to talk about the books he read, after all.
Xavier would go on to become your most frequent book exchange user.