A.N. This author note will be a small history lesson, you're not required to read it, but you may understand this story better if you do.

Alright, so I live in a country that got independence from Soviet Russia 25 years ago, I'm younger than that, but nevertheless growing up I got influenced from what we call 'the old days' (a.k.a. Russia). One of such things was what we call 'Old Animation' basically those are VERY old animated movies from Russia. I grew up with those animations and DBZ, so that should tell something about me… :D Back to the topic – Russia is a huge country and that led to it having countless legends, those animated movies mostly told those legends, I don't know if any of you have ever heard of the legend, so bear with me if you had.

Basically the animated movie I'm going to use as a lose base for this story was about a boy who fought a dragon that terrorized his village - I may be a bit far from the plot, but it's been a while since I saw this – and he managed to kill the dragon, but after seeing the gold that dragon has been guarding the boy became the dragon himself. It's a curse of greed and it went on and on. End of the story.

This story was born from Imagine Dragons song 'Gold' (and I'm quite surprised I didn't see any song fics with their songs, because damn, I could probably write a LawLu fic with every single one of them…) and the animation I just told you about, hope you enjoy this weird piece. ^-^

Warnings: shounen ai, AU, LawLu, kind of angst-y? Might be out of character…

Summary: Law was a fierce, bitter dragon, living alone in a mountain on a pile of gold. Luffy was a common knight traveling through faraway lands looking for adventure. Battling a dragon seemed like a perfect adventure, right?

Words: 1 416

Gold

First comes the blessing of all that you've dreamed

But then comes the curses of diamonds and rings.

Only at first did it have its appeal, but now you can't tell the false from the real.

Luffy stood in front of the opening to a cave and wondered how a dragon could ever fit through such entrance, the width of the hole was maybe two meters and the height of five. Shrugging Luffy took off his rucksack and put it down by the rock, if he was lucky he will be able to come back and get it later.

Shrugging the young hero lit up a torch and with sword in his other hand walked into the cave. The stone walls were covered in moss and vines and the further he went in - the wider tunnel became. It wasn't long before he came upon wide space. There, on a pile of golden jewelry, money and many other shinning things laid a dragon.

The dragon was approximately the same size as an elephant, which left Luffy quite disappointed, he expected something bigger. The dragon was longer than any elephant and his skin was covered in dark blue scales, his tail was covered in spikes and on the middle of his back there also were a row of sharp, black spikes. What surprised the young hero the most were the two huge eyes of the dragon.

They were a pair of golden eyes, with black slits in the middle. Those eyes stared right into Luffy with somewhat sentient gaze making the brunet feel uncomfortable. The walls of the cave were emitting some sort of soft glow, giving the young knight all the light he needed to fight, so he threw his torch on the ground and charged.

Who can you trust

(Who can you trust)

Law used to be a traveling doctor, he used to be a member of a respected community and had his markings on his body to prove that he was truly a member of said community. He used to be a scholar, talked five languages, could dance and knew how to play a violin.

It all ended when he reached the village of Raftel. There were legends about that place that Law hadn't believed when he heard, so he came to the village himself to find proof to deny or believe it. The legends spoke about fierce red dragon that lived in the mountain, the legends said that the dragon would come out every once in a while and steal anything valuable and shiny.

Law, as a person of science, had to see such creature in person, observe, examine everything he could. Once he saw the beast he could not believe his eyes, he just had to, had to get his hands on that dragon and see how it worked. Trafalgar's scientific brain simply craved to bury his hands in the flesh of the dragon and see how it all worked from the inside.

Hiring some angry men to go with him to the mountain of Poneglyph was easy, taking out his sword and joining said men in slaying the dragon goes without saying.

What he didn't take into account was that the dragon was stronger than he imagined. His men fell one after another to the fierce claws and fire tongues of the red dragon. In the end it was him and the wounded dragon, everything after that was a blur, the next thing Law knew he was kneeling in dragon guts, hands wrapped around the heart.

Trafalgar dropped it on the ground as soon as he realized it was human heart he was holding, the next thing that happened was the last one he was deliberately aware off – the dragon's body turned into a bulky red haired human and nothing mattered to him after that.

When everything, everything, everything you touch turns to gold, gold, gold.

When everything, everything, everything you touch turns to gold, gold

Law was now a bitter, deep blue colored dragon. He lived upon the feeling of greed and the amount of gold he possessed. His pile of gold was his treasure and he had to keep it safe, so Law scared the villagers and slept on his pile, he growled and rumbled, he emitted hatred and anger. Law hated his own existence and the nature he had come to possess, Law hated how he was unable to do anything about it.

No matter how much he tried his will was not enough to be freed from the dragon that seemed to possess him.

(Ooh, gold, woah

Ooh, gold, woah

Ooh, gold, woah

Ooh, gold, woah)

Statues and empires are all at your hands,

Water to wine and the finest of sands.

Luffy didn't know what was happening and he didn't like it. Everything seemed like a haze, his senses were sharper than ever before, determination to live stronger. Meanwhile the dragon itself looked more like a cloud of smoke, an illusion, than an actual beast. Nevertheless, Luffy slashed and swung his sword trying to hit a vital part that would hurt the beast.

For a moment the haze cleared and in the place of the dragon he saw just a moment ago there stood a tall man with confused expression. The only thing Luffy managed to register before his sword inevitably pierced the man's chest were the tattoos going up the tanned hands and the resigned expression on the man's face. The moment Luffy's sword went through the man's chest the haze cleared instantly and the young knight felt warmth returning to his limbs even if he didn't notice his arms going cold before.

The man fell backwards and Luffy fell on his knees with him. Devastation wrecked him as he stared at the man's fluttering eyes. "I'm so sorry!"

The dark haired man chuckled and a sad grin came on his lips. "There was no-nothing you could-" The man coughed up some blood and closed his eyes, with his final breath he breathed out his last word. "change…"

When all that you have's turnin stale and its cold,

Oh you'll no longer fear when your heart's turned to gold.

Who can you trust

(Who can you trust)

Luffy couldn't take his eyes of the innocent man he just killed for quite a while forgetting the dragon completely. When sudden realization struck him that he could not hear, see or feel the dragon the young brunet scrambled on his feet looking around frantically for his mystical foe. No one was there, there was no giant lizard, no winged monster, there was only a mountain of gold and the man he just killed.

Brown eyes fell on the tattooed man once again kneeling next to the man. Holding his breath, hands shaking Luffy slowly raised his hands to the man's face and slowly lifted his eyelid only to scramble backwards once he saw the color. It was undoubtedly gold. Gold as dragon's eyes, without slit of course, but the shade was the same.

Luffy's breathing became even more shaky as his whole body trembled, it didn't help that it was starting to heat up more than naturally possible. Something in his body shifted and twisted piercing Luffy with pain, he collapsed on all fours and as pain struck him once more he lost consciousness.

I'm dying to feel again,

Oh anything at all,

But oh I feel nothin', nothin', nothin', nothin'

Luffy could feel himself standing and slightly swinging with his eyes closed. Opening his eyes abruptly Luffy was greeted with a sight of a thick black mist rolling around so thickly that he couldn't see anything in front of him. A feeling of loneliness and painful solitary entered his chest making Luffy shudder and realize he was wearing no clothes. Wrapping arms around himself Luffy stepped a foot forward, tears welling in his eyes when a warmth embraced him from behind.

A pair of arms enveloped Luffy and tugged him backwards. Confused and startled he fell backwards only to suddenly find himself lying on his stomach, eyes closed. Slowly opening them Luffy tried to stand up only to find himself on all fours. Gaze sliding to his limbs he only saw scaled claws and gold gleaming beneath him, shining and reflected the sight of a grand, brown eyed dragon standing on top of it.

He opened his mouth to shout, but only a mighty roar left his throat. Luffy scrambled backwards further from the pile of gold looking around, trying to understand his surroundings. Slowly he could feel his brain get covered in the same haze as when he was fighting a dragon and no matter how much Luffy tried he could not manage to keep his head clear.

Suddenly the warmth from the black mist was back and arms were circling around Luffy once again, seeping warmth into Luffy. A flash of golden eyes went through the now dragon's mind and a voice whispered into his ear. "It will be okay, I promise."

Then all Luffy could feel was possessiveness and a human shaped body pressed to his human shaped body and the view he had seen before when his body was a dragon set before him as through a window. "I will keep you sane."

And then there was nothing, but the feeling of warmth.

A.N. I didn't intend to this to have four direct speech lines, I didn't, really.

There are many legends with gold and greed, there are tales of men wishing for ability to turn everything to gold or finding magical creature that could produce gold, all of them ended unhappily for the person with the greed wish. I twisted this tale quite a lot, but I still hopped everyone enjoyed this. :}

P.S. Luffy and Law lived happily ever after in their spirit forms until Luffy's dragon form was killed.