A/N: I know this isn't what I'm supposed to be working on at all, but this idea has been around for a long while, and I really wanted to write it.

It can be read as a stand alone but it was intended to follow the events of I See Fire, the one shot I wrote quite a long time ago about END.

Enjoy!

Hymn for the Missing

A year had passed since that fateful day - one very long year. The guild hall was eerily silent, and even the weather was a grim reminder of what they had lost that day, the gray clouds never letting a single ray of light touch the ground, occasionally even dropping a dismal drizzle, making even the most colorful of buildings in the town a dull shade.

After all, who could forget the day it all went up in flames?

No one blamed Natsu of course. What had happened was no one's fault, least of all his. END was of Zeref's design, and Natsu just happened to be the unlucky vessel. 'If only I'd had more control of my magic,' he would say. But it was no one's fault, no one's at all.

Yet they all knew Natsu would forever blame himself for his best friend's death.

"I have to tell her, you know," he muttered as he sat with Lucy and Erza in the hall. "She should know."

"Natsu, you promised you wouldn't," Lucy murmured. "I know it's not fair to hide it, but it's also not fair to tell her, you know?"

"I've been sitting on this for a year. And she deserves to have the answer she was waiting for and never got."

Lucy sighed. "I suppose you might be right about that. Do you want me to come along? Help you find her?"

Natsu stood up. "Nah, that's okay. I know where she'll be anyway. See you guys later."

The walk was short between the guild hall and the cemetery, but it was enough for Natsu to sort out his thoughts. He followed the little path through the gate over to the memorial erected for his best friend. Most of the guild had already been there to pay their respects, and as such, both the stone and the ground around it were covered in flowers and gifts to the ice mage that now lay forever beneath it. He turned a corner, and as it came into view, so did the person he had been seeking. He took a deep breath, walked up behind her, and sat down just within her vision.

"Juvia had thought that Natsu-san would have been one of the first to visit."

"Yeah, I was here once already. I actually came to find you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You see, Gray had some unfinished business with you, didn't he?"

Juvia turned her head towards Natsu, blue eyes wide and bright with tears. "How did…?"

"He told me. Over a year ago." He paused. "He told me that he was going to give an answer to your feelings after we were finished with Zeref and everything, and I asked him what his answer was going to be. He told me, but I didn't say anything before now because he made me promise not to. He figured that if anything happened to him that knowing the answer would just cause you pain. So I didn't tell you. I'm sorry for that."

"Why are you telling Juvia this?"

"Because I think you deserve to know how he felt about you. It'll probably hurt, yes, but it's not fair to you to not know. So this is what he told me when I asked:

"'You know, at first, she was really annoying, and she absolutely drove me nuts with how clingy she was. I figured maybe it was just an infatuation and if I ignored it maybe she would let it drop. But she didn't. And as time went on, I saw she was truly genuine with how she felt; she just didn't know how to get that across to me without being clingy. And then Lyon started to show interest in her. At first I thought it would be a good thing if she ended up liking him back, but I found that it really irritated me instead. As it would turn out, I guess I'm just really slow.

"'When all of this is over, if we both survive this mess, I'm going to tell her the truth. If I don't survive, promise me you won't tell her, Natsu. Promise me you won't tell her that I love her.'"

Natsu paused, still staring straight ahead at the stone and the flowers surrounding it. "That's what he said. I still remember it like it was an hour ago that he was pouring out his heart to me. The look in his eyes….he was honestly scared that something was going to happen to him and you'd be hurt." He turned his head, forcing a thin smile onto his lips. "I know it's not my place to say this, but I think it would make him happy to know that Lyon is taking good care of you like he is. I know you don't love him like you loved Gray, but I know it would put his mind at ease to know you're being well taken care of. You don't have to fall in love with Lyon, but please don't be like Gray and drag it out. Give Lyon a chance, and then be forward with him. You never know what could happen, and before you realize it, it might be too late."

He turned away from her wide-eyed stare, and stood to leave. "That's all I came to say. See you later, Juvia."

"Natsu-san!"

He stopped and turned his head to see her standing, staring after him, and then she bowed low.

"Thank you for telling Juvia. It does hurt, but it also makes Juvia very happy. Thank you very much for telling me!"

Natsu nodded then turned back towards the path that would lead to the street. As he turned back onto the street, a gentle breeze blew, parting the clouds enough for a ray of light to shine through.

Natsu smiled despite himself. "Well, it's about time you let the sun shine through, Ice Princess," he muttered, staring at the sky. "It's about time."