Hello all! This was written for day four of the Movie Week AU's event hosted by lukacouffaineappreciationmonth on Tumblr.

My ETERNAL gratitude to my lovely co-mother nottesilhouette for betaing this. She takes my writing and makes it soo shiny!

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"Okay, don't freak out," Marinette says from her place beside the massive red and black speckled nadder.

"Oh my gods, oh my fucking gods," Luka breathes, stumbling back against the rock wall he had just snuck through.

Marinette takes a step toward him and raises her hands in a placating gesture. "I said don't freak out."

"I'm not freaking out." The words fall flat as they leave his mouth and he can hear the edge of hysteria creeping in.

Apparently, the dragon must be able to hear his impending breakdown as well because it lets out a low hiss, narrows its eyes, and goes to move forward. Marinette extends one arm out, placing it on the nadder's head and halting its progression toward Luka. It bucks and chirps, and thankfully stays back.

"Luka." Marinette's voice is lost somewhere in the sea of self-denial Luka is liberally trying to pour over his brain because there is no way, none whatsoever that Marinette has really been hiding a dragon just a few miles away from the village this whole time.

Marinette is a lot of things and subtle is not one of them.

"Really, I'm good." He stands up a bit straighter, dusts his pants off and takes a singular step forward. "I'm very firmly not freaking out."

He reaches out to Marinette but drops his hand quickly back when the dragon lets out an ear-splitting roar, ducking around Marinette's outstretched hand and rushing forward with its head lowered to the ground and spikes furled up.

He has never been happier for Marinette's quick reflexes because she is nose to nose with him in less than a second, throwing her arms out behind her and holding the irritated creature back. For all that the dragon is still thrashing and wild, it doesn't cross the barrier Marinette has created with her body. Instead, it raises its head again and screams with all its might. The writhing is short lived and subsides a bit as the dragon relaxes back behind Marinette, its spikes still clearly on display.

Luka stumbles back once again and presses against the wall trying to make himself smaller in the vain hope that the dragon who clearly is not his biggest fan will let him leave and live to see another day. "Yup, this is fine. Perfectly fine!" He winces at the way his voice cracks and pitches high at the end.

"Luka!" Marinette's voice breaks the carefully constructed paper wall that has previously been holding back the panic Luka is very firmly trying to avoid.

"Okay, I'm freaking out. Kill me, Marinette, but there's a fucking dragon behind you, come on!"

"You shouldn't have followed me." Marinette has a point. He really shouldn't have invaded her privacy and followed after her without her knowledge.

But Marinette has been disappearing from the village for months now and what was previously just being written off as another one of her strange quirks was now raising eyebrows. People were starting to talk especially as winter drew ever closer and her absences not showing any signs of slowing down.

Several rumors have already been spreading around the village. It didn't take anyone especially clever to hear them and after his first time stumbling into a conversation about his best friend, Luka has made a point to listen. He's heard any number of different tales at this point. And while the majority of them are harmless, the most popular being speculations of a hidden romance, there are those that will be dangerous if left unchecked.

His name has cropped up a number of times amongst various circles and is far from the only one. Felix and Adrien are both popular contenders. Kagami's name has even been mentioned once in dark whispers and disapproving tones. Luka's heart always feels a sharp jagged pang go through it whenever he happens to overhear such talk.

Because he would like to think that Marinette has been his friend long enough to realize that he would support her in anything regardless of who she chose. His friendship isn't conditional. No matter what her decision is, he would stand by her side in support.

"Oh, well, forgive me for worrying about you," Luka says and his voice is loud and angry and upset. He has been worrying for so long, months, and to be denied the right feels like a punch to the stomach.

Marinette is just as angry and she all but spits, "What did you expect to find when you followed me?!"

"Not fucking this, that's for sure," he says, as he gestures vaguely in front of him. Toward Marinette and the dragon. Toward the entire mess they have found themselves in. At this point he isn't picky. "I thought you were hiding like a secret boyfriend, not a secret dragon!"

A secret relationship was one thing. It was hardly the worst thing he has heard whispered about her, and while he did his best to protect Marinette and has gotten into more fights than she would ever know of over it, he can only do so much.

Lila works unspeakably quickly and efficiently. She has been whispering in the ears of anyone that would listen about how Marinette was courting bad fortune for weeks. She has spun tales of Marinette making deals with witches and inviting hoards of dragons down on them. And while Luka has never been one to put much stock in anything that comes out of her mouth, the same could not be said for everyone else.

It had been a bad year for them all, dragon raids had been frequent and brutal. Most of the cattle had been carted off and the lakes were already showing signs of running sparse. It promised to be a harsh winter with small rations, a winter that the more superstitious amongst them are eager to pin on Marinette.

There are those that whisper of banishment.

Worse yet, there are those that will call for a trial.

And Luka knows that if Lila is given her way, if Marinette is taken before the elders and tried for witchcraft, she will be convicted and banishment will be the last thing she is sentenced with.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous this is," Luka yells, he's not referring to the massive reptile behind her but the situation as a whole.

He knows that Marinette has hardly been around the village. He barely sees her outside of her parent's bakery and can honestly not remember the last time they bumped into each other at the market. With such little time spent interacting with anyone, it's hardly surprising that Marinette is ignorant of the rumors going around.

"I know what I'm doing!"

Luka has little doubt that Marinette knows what she's doing with the dragon. It's plain to see to anyone looking that the nadder trusts her and more than that respects her authority. He has every confidence that between the two of them Marinette is the only one with even a shred of hope of leaving this encounter with all limbs attached.

No, the dragon isn't what Luka is scared of.

He knows that monsters aren't the creatures just trying to survive. Real monsters are far more ruthless.

Luka would take his chances entrusting his life to Marinette's dragon before he would turn his back to Lila.

"Honestly, Mari, the dragon eating us is the least of our worries," he sighs.

"Tikki would never," Marinette huffs, her voice indignant.

"Oh no," Luka moans and doesn't even try and resist the urge to bury his face in his hands. "Oh, no."

"Luka, what's-"

He cuts her off and gives her the blandest look he can muster. "You named it."

Just like that, all Luka's hope of the situation magically fixing itself disappears.

Marinette has a big heart. She always has, and always will. It's what Luka loves most about her. Nevertheless, he can't help but wish that it wasn't big enough to fit an entire dragon. You have to draw the line somewhere, and Luka would like to think it should have been drawn at large predator who can bite you in half without even trying.

Of all Lila's stories to be true, it just had to be the one that would get them killed for treason.

"And that's so bad because…" Marinette wonders, her voice trailing off and confusion clouding her eyes.

"Once you name it, you get attached to it. Everyone knows that!"

Hell, Luka still remembers trying to hide Whiskers and his many many relatives when he and Marinette were eight. He thinks some of the offspring are still living in his family's storeroom. If she's named it, she's adopted it and Luka isn't entirely sure how he feels about a nadder in the family.

No one could convince her to get rid of her pet rats. He highly doubts he could convince her to get rid of her pet dragon.

"People are starting to get suspicious, Mari, we need a plan." He takes a moment to look into her eyes and strengthen his resolve. This is by far the craziest thing he's ever done. The craziest thing they have ever done. "If the elders find out, we'll be lucky to be banished. It's more than likely we'll be burned or hung."

"We?"

"You don't actually expect me to leave you to deal with this all on your own, do you?"

The smile that lights up Marinette's face is blinding as she throws herself at him and squeezes for all that she is worth. Luka may be a fool but at least he's a fool in love. He would do anything, he realizes as he tightens his grip on her and feels Tikki come to sniff his hair, absolutely anything to make her face light up like that.

He would help her hide a hundred pet dragons all to see that smile permanently etched onto her face.

She pushes away a moment later, taking a step back into the dragon's chest, keeping her hands on his shoulders and holding him at arm's length. Tikki backs up with her, letting out chirps and coos as she inspects him.

Tikki must find something she likes because she lets out a happy trill and rubs her head against Marinette's back. Luka has never thought a dragon could be gentle but can hardly find another word to describe her. Marinette doesn't budge an inch and shows no signs of the horns having hurt her.

"Luka." Marinette grabs his hand and looks him in the eye. "Do you trust me?"

"With my life." Luka means it with every ounce of his being.

She nods in acknowledgment, and that one action has more confidence in it than anything Luka has ever seen from Marinette before.

"Luka, I would like you to officially meet Tikki." Her movements are slow and precise as she carefully places their conjoined hands down onto Tikki's snout just between her eyes. Luka is hypnotized by the pair of large slitted eyes that stare back into his own and hardly registers Marinette slipping her hand away and angling herself toward the dragon. "Tikki, this is Luka."