Dark crimson eyes studied the grave before him with a contemplative look, and he reached out to gently run his fingers over the old stone. It was hard beneath his touch, a reminder of what had once been and what would never be again.

His curse had created the headstone. Well, not exactly, but it had created the reason the headstone had needed to be crafted. He was hated by several because of it - not that they knew that he was the one who had done it. No one did.

But he did.

Zeref would never forget what he'd done.

He remembered when he'd first come across Mavis Vermillion. With her startled emerald eyes, her quick smiles. Her long blonde hair and her eagerness to find the fairies she'd dreamed of since she was a child.

She'd been the first one he'd loved since Natsu.

The first one to love him in return since his brother.

Zeref smiled wryly at the thought of both of them. His past wasn't a kind one. His parents and brother killed, only for him to become cursed in the process of finding out how to resurrect the brother he refused to leave behind. Igneel had taken him from him, determined to make sure the child didn't turn out like Zeref's first creation - a demon that had enjoyed slaughter so much that Zeref himself had killed it.

He remembered seeing Natsu killed in front of him, his onyx eyes terrified as he pleaded for his brother to help him just seconds before blood spattered the air.

Zeref hated the death and destruction that surrounded him on a daily basis when he was around others.

So here he was; he'd exiled himself long after returning Mavis' body to the people that had loved her as much as he had.

He hoped that it would remain like this forever, a peaceful life on an island that held only the grave of the petite girl he'd grown to love and animals. More than once he'd wished he could go back to the times when Mavis and her friends had been there, when it wasn't a lonely life he'd led.

But even he could sense the change that was coming, and he closed his eyes as he turned away from the grave.

When he opened them, they were blank.

The past was in the past.

But the future lay before him, and he was determined to remain alone on Tenrou Island.

For the sake of everyone.

For the sake of the last living loved one he held.

Maybe one day, he told himself, studying the far off ocean.

One day, we'll meet again Natsu.

A little bit different, but different is good. Right?