Bride of the Fire God

The bride

Story Name: Bride of the Fire God
Rating: 'M' for violence, adventure, future lemons, very suggestive themes, cursing, etc.
Parings: Main pairing is NALU (NatsuxLucy), Gruvia (GrayxJuvia), Jerza (JellalxErza), Gale (GajeelxLevy) and other pairings
Summary: A bride had to be sacrificed so the Fire god would stop burning away their lands. Lucy Heartfilia is sold to be the bride of sacrifice after her father went bankrupt. Accepting her fate, she goes, but rather than burning in the volcano she is saved by the fire god himself who rather than a monster was a gorgeous man with a fiery look in his eyes and a painful past. NALU NatsuxLucy

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FAIRY TAIL

Warning: the characters will be out of character than they usually are in the manga/anime, but will normalize in later chapters.

The Bride

Lucy's POV

These days weren't easy. The sun was yet again proving to us that the gods were furious. Mostly the fire god was making it clear he was the one that was mostly angry. If you knew what poverty was, it was surrounding us. Well, I guess you could say my family deserved it. My father, a wealthy man, raised a monopoly simply by using the lands greedily to grow food to selfishly sell at extremely high prices. Many people perished by my dad's lack of sympathy. I tried my best to sneak food with my mother to every house we could feed with what we'd snuck out.

The smiles of gratitude warmed my heart as children looked at me as a savior, but I could only assure them that I was merely doing what was right. The tears they shed for finally having food after weeks were enough to bring me such sadness. I could never bring myself to speak against my father, and yet again the gods punished me by taking my mother away. She became ill when I was ten years old. My father could care less as he worked on building his empire thinking it was simply a cold.

One night, she called me in to her room. I remember it so vividly it causes my heart to ache.

Flashback

"Mommy, you called me?" a young girl with long ash blonde hair and big chocolate colored eyes came in with an expensive looking gown on. She neared a bed with the finest silk sheets and a canopy high in the ceiling. It was softly illuminated by the light of candles. A woman lay weakly at the bed, an exact face as the girl. Layla Heartfilia, a soul so pure and gentle. "Lucy... child. I am afraid that I won't make it much longer. I will not make it to sunrise", she spoke softly as if already comforting her child. Lucy blinked and began to shake her head, tears easily slipping from her eyes.

"Don't say that m-mommy. You'll be okay. You have had cold before", Lucy began to sniffle. Layla smiled sadly as her own tears slipped down her cheeks. "I can no longer continue, Lucy. As much as my heart yearns to stay by your side to protect you from the cruel world, I cannot. Lucy, you have a shine of promise. You don't understand this yet, but there's something you are fated to do. You are so innocent, gentle, and so pure that no other child has possessed...I", Layla continued before a coughing fit interrupted her.

Lucy held tightly onto her mother's hand in despair. "Lucy, do not cry. You are too beautiful to cry. Those tears must only be shed in joy. Please, my child, guide your father in my absence and always remember that you are the star of my eyes. I will always love you. I will always be protecting you wherever I may be. My darling Lucy, grow stronger for my sake. I...love...you", Layla trembled pulling herself up as much as she could to kiss Lucy's forehead and lay down.

Lucy only looked at her mother with wide eyes as she was given a last sad smile. Her mother slowly closed her eyes as her hand in Lucy's went limp. Lucy's trembled in realization. "No! Mommy...no...wake up...MOMMY!" She yelled at the top of her lungs lunging herself on top of Layla. She grabbed her face tears sprinkling at Layla's peaceful face. "Don't leave me! You can't leave me alone! Mommy!" Lucy cried with so much anguish and slipped down to her knees on the cold floor.