Author's note:

For those who have read my main story, "The Illusion that cannot be Captured", I'm sure that you might have a clue on who my OC is. As for those who don't, well... you can still enjoy this story without reading my main story. Enjoy reading! :D

"I would rather have a short life than live a long life full of regrets."

Those were her words, forever etched in his mind.

Shamal first met her when she took care of him, having collapsed somewhere in the countryside because of fatigue (he didn't sleep for a week because a queen he flirted with a few days ago sent almost half of her kingdom's army to chase and catch him so she could bring him to his death). When he first saw her, his time seemed to stop. It was not love at first sight, rather it was more of a nightmare that came back to haunt him.

Her name was Amelia. She had long brown hair, fair skin and big, emerald green eyes with long lashes. She looked exactly like his Lavina, except for the hair color.

Gokudera Lavina was his childhood friend and his first love. They grew up together and knew everything about each other. Lavina dreamt of becoming a famous pianist while he dreamt of becoming a doctor. He knew that she was sick with an incurable disease, but that didn't stop her from grasping her dreams. She became his inspiration to become a successful doctor.

She was already close to achieving her dreams but it was all ruined when she had an affair with a mafia boss and gave birth to a son. And because of some Mafia laws, they took her son away from her, only allowing her to see him during a certain period of each year.

Lavina decided to restart her career in playing the piano, but as a piano teacher instead of a pianist. Even so, she felt contentment.

Each day, as he visited her, he would always notice that her sickness growing worse, but that still didn't take away her beautiful smile from her face. That made him more determined to find a cure for her disease. He would not let a stupid disease take away his precious Lavina. But as tragic and cliché it may sound, he didn't make it in time and Lavina died on her son's third birthday.

He always regretted it. He tried to erase his guilt by becoming the mentor of her son, but he failed. He failed to make Gokudera Hayato see his own life. And the only one who did so was the Vongola Decimo.

He introduced himself to her in the name of Sergio, a freelance doctor who would travel across the countryside to help the poor, sick people. She bought that lie immediately and even insisted he stay in her house for a few months so that he could help the sick people in the village since there were no skilled doctors in there. Unable to turn down her offer, he stayed.

He did his work like usual: he only treated the ladies while the sick men were rejected (he only treated men when Amelia was around, seeing as he needed to be true to his cover story). He did flirt with girls, even sneaking a few touches on their assets only to end up with a scolding and a slap from Amelia. It seemed like the villagers quickly grasped that Amelia was his weakness.

Every time he saw Amelia, he was reminded of Lavina. His love for Lavina was so great that he never flirted with Amelia out of respect. He knew that they were two different people (Amelia was a bit tomboyish while Lavina was elegant) but he still couldn't help but mistake one for the other. (Especially whenever he would see Amelia's smile which was very identical to Lavina's. He coudn't tell how much he longed to see that smile again. That was why he nearly had a heart attack the first time Amelia smiled at him.)

Days quickly passed as he stayed with her. He started to do some of the hard work (like farming) since the sick villagers had already healed and he was left with nothing to do. Aside from the farming, he would also helping Amelia do her chores (he was still living with her, and living alone with a young woman like her was hard. He had to do the complicated job that was restraining himself from doing something to her. He was a man after all, and there were his needs. But he couldn't afford to betray the trust she had given to him).

He knew that somewhere deep in his heart he began to enjoy the simplicity of life he was living in the village. That was the kind of life he had always wanted to live together with Lavina.

Shamal was always keeping an eye on Amelia. He noticed that Amelia was way too good of a person. She never turned down a request for help and always tried to help everyone.

It was like she was putting everyone before herself.

Helping others was a good thing, but in Amelia's case it was almost becoming a bad thing. For example, when a little boy came to her, asking her to climb the tree to help him get his kite, she immediately did what he asked. She climbed the tree without second thoughts, not caring if she fell down from the height, and took the kite. When the little boy left, he noticed that Amelia still hadn't gotten down from the tree only to discover that she couldn't come down on her own because she was scared. In the end, she chose to jump down recklessly. It was a good thing that he was watching at that time, since he was the one who caught her and saved her from having an injured leg.

He began to take notice of the attachment he was forming to Amelia. This is bad. She will be placed in danger if my enemies find about her existence.

He was already planning to leave when a little girl came to him saying that Amelia had collapsed. Those thoughts immediately disappeared from his mind as he rushed towards Amelia's location.

He found Amelia lying on the ground with a basket of fruit scattered beside her. He picked her up, brought her back to her house, laid her down on her bed and did a check-up on her.

After he finished his check-up, his eyes only widened with shock. Damn. It's happening all over again.

She caught the same disease Lavina had.

Amelia regained consciousness after a few hours. She was surprised to see Shamal sitting beside her bed and looking after her.

"Doctor Sergio?" she weakly asked as she looked around her surroundings. "I see; I collapsed again."

"'Again?'" Shamal coldly asked her as she tried to sit. "So you knew you were sick. Why didn't you tell me that you had a disease?"

She answered his question with a question. "Why did I have to tell you?"

Shamal gritted his teeth. "You're the one who invited me to stay so that I could treat the sick people. And of course, if you're sick that includes you!"

Amelia waited for a few minutes to pass by before answering Shamal's question. "My disease... It's incurable. I've already asked for the opinion of many doctors in the city and they all said the same thing."

"Of course not," Shamal countered her, "All diseases have a cure."

"Maybe," Amelia replied nonchalantly, "But even I know that my end is near."

Shamal decided to use a different approach. "That's right. You've got twelve years remaining at most."

Amelia tensed when she heard this. Afterwards, she gave him a sad smile. "I see. Twelve years left, huh?"

"You're not gonna cry or something?" Shamal hesitantly asked.

"Why would I cry?" Amelia asked with a small hint of teasing in her voice, "You told me my time limit, and I'm grateful for that."

Damn it. So she also couldn't see it?

I never knew a day would come where I'd refuse to treat a girl.

As a doctor, Shamal remained faithful to his one and only philosophy: he wouldn't treat anyone who couldn't see the importance of their life. His policy of treating only women was nothing but a joke if compared to it. He would treat someone, man or woman, if he deemed them worthy of having a second chance in life.

Amelia obviously didn't see the value of her life. She didn't care if she would just end up dead someday. She didn't know how hard it was to accept the death of someone dear to you. If he just healed her, he was sure that she would only end up throwing it away.

He decided to stay for a little longer, to see if Amelia was going to change her attitude or not. Days had passed when another accident happened. Someone accidentally left a candle burning in their house which started a large fire. A baby was left inside the burning house.

Everyone was outside the burning house and busy stopping the hysterical mother from going inside the house to save her baby. They said that it was no use since it would be a matter of minutes before the house would collapse. Only the mother's loud screams of grief were heard after that.

Amelia, who was standing near the mother, couldn't take it. She poured a bucket of water on herself and quickly rushed inside the burning house. Her actions made everyone shocked. Just as everyone was saying, the burning house collapsed a few seconds after Amelia went inside.

Everyone was crying at the thought of what happened when suddenly, they heard a breaking noise. On the side of the house, they saw Amelia lying on ground. She escaped by breaking the window and jumping out of it. On her arms, she tightly held the baby wrapped in a blanket.

The whole village rejoiced. Amelia only smiled as she gave the baby back to the mother.

"Why did you save the baby?" Shamal asked as he treated her burns.

"Why, you ask?" Amelia answered his question with a question "Isn't only natural to help others?"

"But you could have died back then!" Shamal scolded harshly. "Did you not think of your safety first?"

"I will die anyway," Amelia defended, "It's better to use my remaining life span to help the people."

"Look, you are only given one chance to live, so treasure your life…"

Amelia cut him off before he could finish his sentence. "You don't get it," she hissed, "You think I don't treasure my life? What a joke! You can say all those things because you don't know how I feel! I've been sick all my life and all I get is pity. I never wanted pity; all I wanted was for people to rely on me. I wanted to be useful to them. I don't want to be a burden. When I die, I don't want to regret that I never did a single thing to help others. I would rather have short life than live a long life full of regrets."

Hearing her angry outburst made Shamal deep in thought, seriously considering her every word. I see... I was wrong, she can see it after all. Much clearer than anyone else, she can see her own life...

Shamal spoke when he felt Amelia calmed down, "What if I told you I can cure your disease?"

"Of course you can't. Don't give me false hopes, Doctor," she said, clearly still angry.

"I'm not. I'm stating a fact: I can heal you," Shamal asserted, his voice laced with seriousness.

Hearing his rare serious voice made her silent. "Why?" Amelia quietly questioned him, "If that is indeed true, why would you only tell me that right now?"

Shamal scratched his head. "I'll admit, at first, I didn't want to heal you because I thought you couldn't see the importance of your life. But because of your statement earlier, I figured out I was wrong: you can see your life and decided to live it in a way that would make you leave no regrets after you die. Besides, I really wanted you to live."

Amelia averted her eyes. She stared down at the blanket as she tightly grasped it. "But... But I thought you hated me."

"What?" Shamal was surprised at her question. "Why would you think that?"

Amelia turned her face around. "Because you never flirted with me. You never harassed me like the other girls. You treated me differently from them."

That caught Shamal in surprise. "You want me to flirt with you?"

"Of course not! I just wanted to be treated the same as everyone!" Amelia shouted with scarlet cheeks that she also quickly hid from his sight.

Shamal didn't know what to do so instead, he gently patted her head and kissed her on her forehead.

"Wha-What are you doing?!" Amelia stuttered as she tried to distance herself from Shamal.

Shamal only smiled in a gentle and sincere manner, unlike his usual flirty smile. "Treating you like a princess."

"What?!"

Five years later...

"Amelia, I'm going. When I'm back, we'll get married, okay?"

Amelia smiled and kissed Shamal on his cheek. "Of course, I'll be right here waiting for you."

Shamal patted her head. "Take care of yourself while I'm gone. Don't talk to strangers, especially if it's a man."

"I'm not a kid!" Amelia pouted. "How about you? Don't go flirting with the other women while I'm not on your side."

"Of course." Shamal kissed her for the last time and walked away.

After Shamal had successfully cured Amelia's disease five years ago, the two of them began to have feelings for each other. It took them a year for them to realize their feelings and confess to each other. They became lovers and started dating. A month ago, Shamal had finally proposed to Amelia and she gladly answered him with a 'yes'.

"Hmph. I never thought that you, Trident Shamal, the genius assassin, would withdraw from the mafia because of a woman," Reborn remarked with a smirk on his face.

"Reborn, don't tease Doctor Shamal like that," Tsuna said with a sigh.

The sound of a gun being loaded was heard. "Are you scolding me, Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn asked with a hint of danger in his voice.

"O-Of course not!" Tsuna defended. Damn it! After all these years, I'm still afraid of this baby! That's so lame!

Reborn, who could read Tsuna's mind like and open book, aimed his gun dangerously near Tsuna's head. Their never ending antics began again.

Shamal cleared his throat, effectively gaining their attention back (and stopping them for a moment). "Well, that's the only reason why I came here: to tell you that Trident Shamal will be gone from the mafia. Since my business here is already finished, I'll take my leave now." Shamal turned around and walked towards the exit.

"Doctor Shamal!" Tsuna shouted, stopping him in his tracks.

"What is it?" he asked as he turned around.

Tsuna bowed. "Thank you for all the work you've done for the Family."

"Raise your head, kid. I only take gratitude from women," he coolly said. "Ciao."

The End.