THE BET | NALU

Chapter 22

W-What?" Natsu stuttered and took a step back. This man...he..he was so familiar. The frown, the greed in his blue eyes, and that mustache. The mustache that haunted his dreams..

Everything came crashing onto him at once.

This room..he's stood in it before. He's faced this man before. He's loved Lucy before. He's..he couldn't remember it though. Not all of it. There were fragments of it, and just things that he knew. Nothing complete.

Was there ever anything complete in his world?

No..with Lucy he was complete. At least that's what he thought. But now, now he felt empty. Completely and utterly empty.

"Speak up, I don't have all day." The older man scoffed loudly before his eyes trailed back down to his paperwork, completely ignoring Natsu now. Natsu slumped backwards, leaning on the frame of the doorway, trying to sort everything out in his head. But he couldn't. He couldn't in the slightest. Because it hurt too much. To try and think. It was painful.

Emotionally and physically.

"If you aren't going to speak then I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The man stated without even looking up from whatever he was doing. Natsu couldn't speak though. He didn't want to.

He felt like any word he said would be the wrong one.

"Natsu...Natsu..."

He jerked his head up at the voice, it was Lucy's voice. Not his Lucy. A..A younger Lucy. Not that young. Thirteen, fourteen maybe?

"You're so brave..yet so stupid.."

A hospital..this conversation was taking place in a hospital. It wasn't a conversation though, Natsu wasn't speaking. Lucy was. Natsu was pretending to be asleep though. He didn't know the woman then though, but her words were comforting.

They were familiar.

"I love you Natsu...I always will..but you shouldn't love me..I only bring you pain."

No..he wanted to deny it then. He wanted to tell her that wasn't true. But he couldn't. His throat wouldn't work, and he didn't remember the girl anyways. But there was just something about her.

Something that he needed.

Then everything just stopped. His whole life stopped, and he woke up completely in the medical room days later, forgetting the voice completely.

But now Natsu could remember it. He could remember that day in the hospital room.

And he was starting to remember what happened before.

"Jude Heartfilia?" a pink haired boy asked curiously, poking his head into a room. An office. There was a blonde haired man at the desk in the back, in front of a large window. The man looked up slightly and gave the boy a curious look before looking back down, as if he decided the boy wasn't worth his time.

The boy didn't take too kindly to that.

"Jude Heartfilia." He said more sternly and more demanding, the man didn't raise his eyes again though. The boy stayed where he was though, backing down didn't even cross his mind "I'm here to talk about Lucy's wedding."

That didn't make him look up either.

Now the boy was getting ticked off. He slammed his fist into the wall beside him, not hard enough to break it, but there was definitely a dent in it then "I WANT TO TALK ABOUT LUCY'S WEDDING!"

"You've made that quite clear, boy." Jude said, his fingers tracing along the piles of paper in front of him, but he still did not look up. The pink haired boy was clearly not worth his time.

"Then talk to me." The boy snapped, glaring at Jude. The goat-like servant that had been beside Jude stayed silent, but even through his sunglasses you could see that he was shocked. For no one talked that way to Jude. No one that still wanted to live.

It wasn't that Jude himself was scary, but it was that he knew people. That he was powerful in this world full of money. For he had the most.

"Why should I?" He looked up slightly this time, only to glare back at the pink haired boy "You're only a child."

"And you're an old man." The boy retorted without hesitation. The man raised an eyebrow at it, but let it go quickly.

"Why are you doing this?" He sighed, looking back at his paperwork.

"Because I love her." The boy confessed, unaware of the blonde haired girl that had been listening in on the conversation.

"I don't particularly care."

"Well you should, because if you keep treating her this way, I'll bring the press in." He threatened "I'll tell them how you treat her and your reputation will be ruined."

The man looked up, a bit shocked by what the boy threatened but he didn't show it much. The other servant showed it much more. "You're threatening me?" The man laughed, a cold laugh that chilled the boy "You know who I am, don't you boy?"

"I do. You're Lucy's dad, that's why I'm doing this." The boy stated, standing tall despite the glare that he was receiving from Jude now. The glare itself wasn't scary, no, it was how confident he was. How confident Jude was about what was going to happen. That the boy wasn't winning this.

"You think you're brave, boy, but you're just stupid." He laughed as he two figures emerged from the shadows.

"Natsu!" A girlish voice cried from outside, her voice pained as she saw the figures before he could.

And then everything went black.

Sorry for the short chapter :( I feel bad.

But ooooooooooh :O What's going on? Where's Lucy? Who's the goat man?

Will anyone ever guess who the goat man is?