Bwahaha! My plan is coming along perfectly.

"Meliera, I've loved you for a long time now, and I can't deny my feelings. And if you don't feel the same way, then-"

"Natsu, just shut up." Her voice was shaking. He was crushed. He loved her and she didn't care for him at all. "Natsu, just… just shut up and…

"Natsu, just shut up and kiss me already." What?

"What?" he whispered.

"I said, shut up and kiss me already." He gently touched the side of her face as he felt so happy he thought he would burst. Tentatively, he leaned down and very gently pressed his mouth against hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. They stood there, enjoying each other's presence and the kiss, until a voice rang out, "Well, it took you long enough!" They both looked up in surprise to see the guild standing there watching them.

"What?" he started to say. Meliera touched his face, pointing it back. Knowing what she was intending, he said softly, "You know they're watching, right?"

"Is that supposed to bother me?" she laughed. Then she kissed him long and hard, right in front of the guild. They were whooping up a storm, but they ignored them. After a few minutes of being a spectacle, Meliera raised an ice wall between them and the others. Natsu just chuckled at her.

"I thought you didn't mind being a spectacle," he murmured.

"Not for extended periods of time," she whispered back, kissing him gently.

Present Day

Lucy stared at the picture Mira had taken of them that both looked so happy, it seemed like she was intruding on them through time.

"Well, what happened between them?" she asked.

"Pardon?"

"Why aren't they still together? Did she leave the guild or something?" Mira sighed.

"Just… don't tell Natsu that we talked about her."

"Why not?"

"He's still very torn up about it."

"About what?"

"Well, you see, Meliera-"

Master Makarov yelled for Mira from upstairs. "A little help with this, Mira?"

"Yes, of course!" she yelled back. To Lucy she said, "I'll tell you later."

After Mira left, she leafed through the albums some more. As she picked up another one, a small book fell. Its title read The Diary of Meliera Kane. In smaller letters, there was Stay Out Gray!, which made her chuckle. Hesitating a moment, she put the book in her bag to read at home.

As soon as she got home and kicked Natsu and Happy out, she sat down on her bed to read the diary.

Dear Diary,

I have a boyfriend! His name's Natsu. He is very kind to me, and so funny! Only today, he got in a fight with Gray, and Erza had to separate them, and Natsu stuck his tongue out at her. Erza beat him up, but not too badly. She never does any permanent damage - usually. Just kidding!

Meliera seemed like a very nice person, often noting interesting things about Natsu that Lucy wasn't aware of. Her insights helped her understand the others a bit better too.

The last entry unsettled her, because of its morbidness.

Dear Diary,

I am going to die.

No one except me knows yet, but they will soon. They say all Rift Children know when their end is near, and mine is approaching. I can feel it.

Oh, what am I going to tell Natsu? I love him so much it hurts. He loves me too, and I can't do this to him. But if I don't do this to him, I have to let him die. Neither is very appealing. I don't know how I'm going to die, but that it involves Natsu. I don't want this. I want to settle down and have a family with Natsu. Oh, Natsu, my love, if you're reading this, I want you to know that I love you so much. I love you so very much.

Lucy put the book down. Meliera died? Neither Natsu nor Gray had ever shown any signs of grief since she had joined Fairy Tail. So did she really die? Then again, she had never seen the woman around the guild. What had happened?

"Hey, Levy, what's up?" The next day, Lucy had caught up with the blue-haired mage to ask her some questions about Meliera. After talking about books they read lately, she brought up the subject of Meliera. "What happened to her? Mira never finished telling me." Levy's face visibly darkened. "I know that you were good friends, so if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine," she hastily added.

"No, it's fine," Levy said. "It's just… we've all missed Meliera." She glanced around, then murmured, "Meliera went missing about a year before you joined, and we haven't heard anything about her. Officially, I suppose, she's dead, if she ever officially existed in the first place. But… we have hope that she's still alive."

"Oh," Lucy whispered. "I never knew. What about Natsu? Does he know how she vanished?"

"He was with her when she vanished, actually. If he knows what happened, he's not telling."

"Levy, what happened? Does Happy know?" She was already shaking her head.

"All Natsu would say that she left immediately after the job was finished and he never saw her again. Her disappearance hurt him more than any of us ever realized. It still hurts him, I think. When he thinks no one is looking, or they won't notice, he gets this look on his face, and you know he's thinking about her."

"But doesn't Happy know what happened?"

"No," Levy replied, "he doesn't. He didn't go with them. Natsu had asked him to stay behind this job for some reason. After they left, we didn't see either of them for five months."

"What!" Lucy exclaimed. "Five months? Didn't Natsu send a note or something?"

Levy shook her head. "The first month we thought that something might have gone wrong, and Erza started looking for them. The second month we were forced to pronounce them dead. The next three months were miserable. I think even Gray missed Natsu.

"Then one day, five months after they left, a hooded figure appeared on our doorstep. All the person wanted was to see Erza. When she asked him what he wanted, he just said, "Kill me" and collapsed."

"It was Natsu, wasn't it?" Lucy asked after a moment. Levy nodded sadly.

"He was sick, exhausted, wounded, and starving. It was a wonder he survived at all. He was really sick. He was burning up with a fever…" She sighed and shook herself. "He had walked nearly three hundred miles to return to Fairy Tail, and had gotten in a fight on the way back, in which he was wounded pretty badly."

"I've never seen a scar," Lucy pondered.

"He healed surprisingly well."

"Ah. What about Meliera?"

"He just said that she left. He refused to say anything else, not even when Gray threatened to beat him up." Levy sighed. "Natsu was so torn up about it he just told him, 'Do it.' He just didn't care anymore."

"Did he?"

"Until Erza pulled them apart. He didn't fight back at all."

"How do you think he would react if I asked him about it?" Levy's eyes widened in alarm.

"Don't do that!" she exclaimed. "For his sake, if not for anything else. He loved her more than life itself, and it still hurts him." They were both silent for a moment, then their conversation turned to other, less important things.

Yeah. NaLu and NaLi fans, sorry. Oh well. There is hope for one of those ships, however. Keep reading to find out. I can see that being silent isn't really working, so please review!