50 days • {Nalu}

Day 30

"Lucy, are you sure you want to go through with this?" asked the scarlet haired as her armor clanked with each step she took. Lucy gazed at the Magic Council building, knowing that the person who gave her this curse was being held somewhere inside.

"According to Natsu and what he tell me earlier when we first met, I was pretty confident in my words. And as of knowing this today, I want to know why I have this damn curse."

"Man, I would love to have it. Just wipe everything about Natsu out of my brain and my life would be ten times better." Gray sighed.

"Screw you, Ice Pants!" Natsu shouted in anger at his rival.

"Uh, guys. I don't think we should be doing this in front of the Council." Wendy warned as both her and Carla sweatdropped.

"Scarlet, Dragneel, Marvell, Fullbuster and Heartfilia. Doranbolt will be here shortly to escort you." Lahar said as he approached the Fairy Tail mages.

"Why can't you take us?" Natsu whined.

"Since I agreed to have the most destructive team from Fairy Tail come to the Council, I thought it would be a great idea to have him show you around. Especially if you guys get reckless, he can just teleport you out of here."

The team just nodded in understanding. Before they knew it, Doranbolt appeared in front of them.

"Ready?" He asked to which the nodded.

Team Natsu began to follow him after bidding farewell to Lahar. Not many words were exchanged. Erza did ask how things were going and how the Council was treating him.

When they arrived where most prisoners were held, they stopped.

"Bankotsu is just on the other side of this door. Heartfilia, are you ready?" he looked over to Lucy who gave a firm nod. "Alright."

"Hey! No stripping in the Council!"

"You can't wear armor unless you're a guard!"

"Okay! Who brought cats here?" Some guards shouted, the last one sneezing.

Erza sighed, "You two go ahead. We'll wait outside."

Natsu and Lucy gave a nod as Doranbolt lead them to the cell of Bankotsu. Once they were standing in front of his cell, they saw him sitting against the wall with his eyes closed.

"You have visitors." Doranbolt told him. Bankotsu peaked an eye open and hopped up in excitement.

"Hey! It's you!" he cheered, grabbing at the bars as he approached them. "How ya been? Have you broken the curse? You must if you're both together here!"

"What the hell happened to you? You've changed since we fought." said Natsu, raising an eyebrow. Lucy just looked at him in confusion. This was the clown that placed a curse on her?

"Prison changes you, dude!"

"I'll say. And no, we didn't break the curse yet. Lucy just had some questions for you."

Bankotsu shifted his gaze back to Lucy, pouting slightly. "Man! You guys suck! I thought you'd be able to break it by know."

He plopped down on the floor of the cell, arms crossed over his chest and mumbling like a little kid. Lucy sat in front of him, nothing but the steel bars seperating them.

"Hey." she said. He looked back at her again.

"Why did you curse me?"

"I wanted to try it, since I was learning curses to use besides just my gravity magic." he stated proudly.

"What was your motive? And you were learning other curses so why choose this one?" Lucy interrogated. Her eyes bore into his, fierce with determination.

Natsu looked at the two, along with Doranbolt, who were both wanting to know the answer. Why place this curse when he was learnin others?

"I thought getting rid of you would make this guy," he thrusted a finger in Natsu's direction, "grieve more than want to fight me. I miscalculated when I forgot about the blue exceed companion that caught you."

"Happy." Lucy smiled. "Now, the curse?"

"Ah! Simple. I took a look in your mind and saw how in love you are with him. I thought 'if she survives this fall, let's at least make Natsu suffer through the pain of being forgotten.'" Bankotsu smirked proudly.

"Wait. I was in love with him?" Lucy said in shock. "And that's a total invasion of privacy, buddy!"

"Yup! And your mind was so vivid! All the times you fell deeper in love with him were so heartwarming." he stopped to wipe fake tears from his eyes.

Lucy blushed. Oh, how she wished she could remember. Just how important was Natsu to her that she had fallen so deep in love with him before? She looked up at the boy who was looking off to the side, trying to supress the grin that wanted to spread across his face at the news.

Before, he had always known he felt some sort of towards Lucy that was different than towards anyone else. Then he fell in love with her and those feelings intenesified. Now, to find out that she had been in love with him before made him feel overjoyed.

Lucy wanted to cry; she had probably caused the poor boy a lot of grief of being forgotten by her. The feeling of being forgot is not a pleasant one and she knew that. Instead, she sighed and looked back at the man behind the bars.

"Can you undo it?"

Bankotsu blinked. He began to think, his pointer finger tapping lightly against his chin.

"Nope! Sorry." he grinned like a child.

"And why not?" Doranbolt spoke. Bankotsu looked at him and grimaced.

"Why don't you fix it? Doesn't your magic do something like that?"

"I can teleport and erase memories, not bring them back. Idiot." he rolled his eyes.

"Hey! No need to be rude."

"Why won't you undo it?" Natsu spoke.

"Simply because I can't. Once a spell is cast, that's it. The only way to undo it is to break it the way I told you. I believe you only have twenty more days, right?"

Natsu groaned. He should've figured this much.

"Can we please leave?" Lucy mumbled. Doranbolt and Natsu looked down at the girl. Her gaze was fixated on the floor as she stood. She then looked at the both of them, tears pooling her eyes.

"Lucy." Natsu started. Her eyes pleaded with him to just stop, so he did. The three began to walk away.

"Bye! Make sure to visit when and if the spell is broken!" cheered the dark mage.

Once out, Doranbolt left and bid them goodbye. Natsu and Lucy began to catch up with their group in total silence.

"Lucy." Natsu said again, stopping and looking at her.

"I don't want this curse anymore. I've put you and everyone through so much pain and effort all just because I couldn't prevent it from happening. I'm sorry, Natsu." she spoke, voice cracking and tears finally falling as she looked up at him.

Natsu was shocked. He knew this visit would be painful for her, but he was not expecting this. Without a second thought, he pulled her into an embrace which allowed her to cry on his chest, or rather his scarf. At the moment, he didn't care.

"It's my fault, not yours. I couldn't protect you and that's why I am trying my hardest to break this curse. For the both of us. I love you, Lucy." he nuzzled his face into her hair and kissed the crown of her head.

Her crying calmed down and she felt at ease. And for onw split second, her heart fluttered in her chest.

______________

picture is of bankotsu, he's actually a character from inuyasha but ya know i put him in here.

thanks for reading !