A/N: I don't understand why people don't write this. It was canon, right? And if you read the series, even if you just start from "Budding Star", you'll notice that the foundations are already being set for the final scene.

Okay, plot: During "Budding Star", Mel is still curious about who the mysterious person is who Reuben claims to be in love with. There was a reason he didn't want to tell her...Reuben/Mel – just some fluff, reflection on how things happened, ever since they became friends.

Oh, and disclaimer: I do not own Mel, Reuben, or any of their friends. I don't own "Budding Star", either – all rights go to Annie Dalton.

"You never told me you'd been in love!"

I couldn't help it. My voice went all defensive when I answered Mel. "Who said I had?" Had she figured it out? I wasn't ready for this.

"You did, you nutcase!" Mel reminded me. "We were climbing the volcano, and you said it was just like being in love."

She'd agreed with me at the time, but I didn't remind her. I was too relieved, because I had an out for her reasoning. "Oh, that! That was the phoenix vibes talking. I didn't know what I was saying."

"You little devil!" Mel teased. "You don't want me to know who it is."

Okay, I could deal with this. Except, I didn't want to deal with it while on a mission in Limbo to help a damaged soul. I wasn't ready for that. Couldn't I deal with it back in Heaven, while we weren't on a major mission?

But I didn't say this to Mel. All I did was tell her that she was right and to just drop the subject. Then I quickly changed it back to the mission.

I'll admit that I don't completely understand everything about Earth – although I understand more than I used to since Mel and Lola helped me pass Earth Skills finally – but one thing that's the same is being in love.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all love at first sight and romantic torment like you see in movies and all. I guess it started when I got paired up with Mel during martial arts. After a while, she and Lola and I just started hanging out together. Like I said, they helped me with Earth Skills and introduced me to some seriously cool Earth music and the light stuff. You know, culture and that...

And it was fine, we were all great mates – we were almost always in a group. Lola used to call us the Three Cosmic Musketeers, ever since we started out going on missions together.

I'm not sure when things changed. It wasn't during the mission in Elizabethan London, or during the time-travel scam. Maybe it was when I was on my first GA mission. During the mission, everyone got brought back. And I don't know why, but something just felt...different, when the three of us were back together and swapping stories about the humans we'd been looking out for. And while I'd missed both girls...something just felt different with Mel, like I hadn't realized how much I'd been missing her until we met up. But the thing was, I could still be casual.

It wasn't until the mission in Ancient Rome when things got really strong. We were both on the mission, posing as slaves. The thing was, half the time when I was supposed to be looking out for Aurelia, our human, I had Mel on my mind too. She was always there, constantly. I think that was the moment I recognized what it was.

I still didn't really understand what it was about Mel that got my attention. Maybe it was because she was such a sweet person. She wasn't always in the best headspace, but she had so much passion for troubleshooting and helping people. In addition, every time it was just me and Mel together, I felt like we were complementing each other. Like on this mission – Mel was pretty down on herself sometimes, because she didn't always catch on to the vibes first. I picked up on that kind of thing because I grew up in Heaven and so knew about it from the start of my existence. But I would never have been able to work out what the system in Limbo was. Mel was the one who realized that this Limbo was like a computer game – I didn't even know what computer games were.

But I was sure Mel didn't know anything about how I felt. At the start of this mission, she'd said that the reason she liked me was that there were no boy-girl complications. "You're, like, the ultimate star brother!"

I don't know if she noticed the slight slip in my composure. I covered it up quickly, and she'd accepted it.

But now, I was torn. I wasn't ready to tell her how I felt yet, but then again, I didn't want her thinking I was hopelessly devoted to someone else (okay, so I've seen film musicals from Earth's twentieth century – the song in that just stuck in my mind).

As a matter of fact, seconds later, Mel actually hit on the exact reason why we were in a cosmic game – we were on a mission for pop star Tsubomi Hoshi, which is why we'd gone to Limbo in the first place – to find her soul. We were talking about how the PODS hadn't appeared at all, and then Mel said "For all I know, Tsubomi's creating this whole scene from her hospital bed."

We stared at each other for a moment.

"Omigosh." whispered Mel, as she realized what she'd just said.

"We have to tell her." I said.

"We can't!"

"But she thinks this is all real."
"Exactly! It would be like waking a sleepwalker."

I really couldn't articulate the reasons why I felt something as intense as I did for Melanie Beeby. I had too much else on my mind. Even just being Mel's friend took up some energy, because I my heart and mind were at constant battle. I knew what Lola would have said if she'd known.

"Just tell her! Seriously, what have you got to lose?"

But if Mel knew the way I felt, and didn't feel the same way, I knew things would get awkward between us. Even though I wanted something more from the relationship, I liked the easy close friendship we had now. I didn't want to lose it – I wanted to be able to express my true feelings without losing that.

But for now, I wasn't ready to say anything. And for now, I was just going to wait, and keep our friendship intact.

I couldn't explain what it was about Mel that made me that way. But what I could explain, was that she was the only angel girl for me.

Yeah, I kind of echoed "Living The Dream" there at the end, when Reubs basically says "There's only one angel girl for me. If I can't have her, I won't have anyone."

So what did you think? Please review!