Finding your soulmate isn't easy. In fact, it isn't uncommon for some people to go their whole lives without ever meeting their other half. Actually realizing that your life is bound to another's by Fate is something else entirely.
Two soulmates could be neighbors for years and never realize it. Two best friends could be fated for each other but never know and carry on with their lives as though nothing were amiss.
That's just the way things are. Because in this world, the only way to find your soulmate is by sharing a kiss with them.
"Holy shit, I'm climbing that tree," Luffy said, his face the picture of awe and anticipation as he jogged off toward the giant magnolia tree in the middle of City Park.
Zoro and Sanji ambled behind him, not really surprised at their friend's sudden impulse to go vertical.
It certainly was an impressive tree. Probably one of the largest magnolias Zoro had ever seen. And it definitely looked like it would be fun to climb.
Don't even think about it, an annoyingly familiar voice said in his head. I know as well as you do that you still haven't finished healing from that bar fight.
Zoro side-eyed the man that voice belonged to and raised his eyebrows.
Even after all these years, this whole 'soulmate' thing still caught him off-guard every now and then. Especially after finding out that Sanji, of all people, was his "other half" or whatever the hell people liked to call it.
It had all been kind of an accident. Well, not kind of. It had been very much an accident.
See, there'd been this party after the last week of high school at their friend Nami's house. It had been absolutely wild, complete with hordes of people and underage drinking. The night ended with a game of Spin the Bottle when the masses departed and things had finally started to settle down.
Real cliché stuff.
Sanji had spun the bottle. The bottle had landed on Zoro.
Not wanting to look like a couple of wusses in front of their friends, they ended up pecking each other on the lips, and...
The rest is history.
Now they had a constant link to each other's minds and it was annoying as all hell. Zoro could control which thoughts the cook actually heard, which was a small miracle, at least.
It wasn't like a mind-reading thing, thankfully. They just kind of… sent thoughts each other's way.
And what if I do, huh? Zoro answered back, unimpressed with his friend's attempt at corralling him. He turned away. I mean, it's not like you own me...
Sanji narrowed his eyes.
Alright, you know what-
"Guys, quit talking with your brains and get over here!" Luffy yelled from his perch a quarter of the way up the tree. "I wanna race to the top!"
Zoro chuckled as he started walking, fully intending to keep both of his feet planted firmly on the ground while Sanji muttered under his breath.
"How old are we, fucking five?"
As they stepped under the shade of the enormous tree, Zoro called upwards.
"You go ahead, Luffy, I think we're just gonna chill down here. Mom over here's worried I'll get my church clothes dirty."
Luffy barked out a laugh and began climbing again, looking a bit too much like an actual monkey as he made his way up from branch to branch.
Once Luffy was out of eyesight, Zoro turned back to his other best friend and grinned at the homicidal look he was giving him.
"Yes, Mom?"
"You're lucky we're in a public place with witnesses around, swamp head," Sanji said, rolling his eyes and patting himself down for a cigarette.
"Whatever, you couldn't hurt me if you tried," Zoro's grin got wider. You're too attached, Cook.
Sanji's head snapped up. "Pardon?"
Zoro opened his mouth to add gasoline to that fire, but before he could, rustling leaves and a cracking noise drew his attention upward.
By the time he could tell what was going on, Luffy had already fallen halfway down, hitting what seemed like every branch he could hit along the way. As he tried to grab onto each one, the force of his fall ended up breaking the branches, leaving deep cuts and scrapes along his skin.
Zoro was frozen in place, unable to do anything as he felt like time was slowing to a halt.
At one point near the end, Luffy seemed to pass out, no longer attempting to salvage his quick and violent descent.
HOLY SHIT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! CATCH HIM!
Sanji's panicked thought hit Zoro like a shock of lightning, and before his mind could catch up, his legs were already moving to the spot where Luffy was falling.
The force of Luffy's body slamming into his chest and arms knocked the air out of him for a second as his legs gave out and he hit the ground, effectively breaking Luffy's fall.
Sanji was at his side in an instant, carefully moving Luffy off of him and laying him on his back on the grass. During this time, a few other people had gathered around, having seen Luffy's fall from the tree.
"Oh my god, is he okay?"
"Did you see that? He just…"
"Has anyone called an ambulance? I'm calling an ambulance."
"NO!" Sanji yelled at the well-meaning man. "No ambulance! Please."
Zoro, you know what to do.
Zoro nodded slightly, already getting up and pulling his phone out of his pocket.
The stranger laughed nervously.
"What do you mean, no ambulance? Your friend here just took a swan dive off the top of that tree," he pushed back, apparently gaining confidence with each word. "He needs medical attention!"
Sanji sighed and stubbed his long-forgotten cigarette out on the bottom of his shoe. He shoved his shaking hands in his pockets and stepped over toward the stranger.
"Look, man. Do you know how much an ambulance ride costs?" Sanji asked, barely able to keep the irritation out of his voice. "Upwards of a grand, if not more. And our buddy doesn't have health insurance, you understand me?"
The benevolent bastard scoffed and turned away.
"If he doesn't have insurance, that's his own fault. I'm calling the damn ambulance."
Sanji was just about to jump the guy and stomp his face into the ground when Zoro stopped him.
Forget about him. Law's on his way right now.
When Luffy woke up, the first and only thing he knew was pain.
Pain was everywhere. His legs, his arms, his back, his head. Parts of his body he didn't even know existed hurt. Even some of his most brutal fights never did this to him.
He groaned as he tried to lift his head up to see where he was, but an even sharper wave of pain coursed through his body, rendering him immobile.
"Luffy, don't move," ordered a smooth voice to his right, and he immediately relaxed back against the bed at the sound of it.
Okay. He was in good hands. Law would never let him die.
"You know the drill by now, Lu," Law's voice spoke up again. "No moving until I say it's alright and no talking for now."
He paused for a second. "And no eating until I say so, either."
Normally Luffy would smile and huff and roll his eyes, but he was too afraid even that would hurt, so he stayed quiet.
He could hear Law rummaging around a few feet away from him, but he couldn't bring himself to turn his head and look.
"I've patched you up as well as I could, and with your abnormal healing rate, you should be good to go in no time. No broken bones, somehow. I don't even know how. I'd give it a couple weeks before you're back to your reckless ways again."
Of course he would be better in no time. Law was one of the best doctors Luffy knew, if not the best. And as a guy who had broken bones more often than not, Luffy had seen plenty of doctors in his past.
Finally, Law leaned over the bed so Luffy could see the utterly disappointed look on his face. Luffy's chest warmed at the sight, and he was almost able to crack a smile before Law spoke again.
"You're a goddamn lucky son of a bitch, you know that, Lu?"
The doctor sighed and lowered his gaze to Luffy's chest where a large scar peeked out through the bandages. It was an old wound that he himself had stitched back together years ago.
"How do you keep getting yourself in these situations?"
Luffy made a soft "I don't know" sound with his throat which caused the corner of Law's mouth to twitch up.
He rested his head on the edge of the bed, careful not to bump into Luffy.
"You keep getting yourself hurt," Law mumbled, turning his head slowly toward his friend, "and I just keep running in to patch you back up."
"Mm." Luffy closed his eyes as that statement washed over him.
It was definitely true. After every fight, every mishap, every sticky situation he might have found himself in, Law was always the one he called to stitch him back up again. He even trusted him to bring him back from the brink of death.
And every time he called, no matter what, Law was always there.
Luffy had never really questioned it in the past. He thought that was just one of those things friends do for each other.
But after all this time and all the lengths Law has gone to for him, Luffy has begun to wonder lately if there wasn't something more to it.
He moved his hand over just an inch so that his pinky rested on Law's and with that, he saw the tension fall from the other man's shoulders like he'd just set down a heavy weight. Luffy tapped Law's hand twice.
In return, he got a look brimming with absolute fondness.
"Yes, Lu, I'll permit you to talk now. I doubt the tree did any irreversible damage to your vocal cords."
Luffy took a deep breath and winced at the soreness in his ribs before rasping out.
"Sanji... Zoro?"
"They called me when you fell. Right now, they're in the other room no doubt screaming in each other's heads. At least, that's how they were last I saw."
When Luffy gave him an inquisitive look, Law just sighed and scratched his head.
"No telling what's going on with those two, but if it's gotten to the point where even I've noticed, then it's definitely no small thing."
Law liked to stay all the way out of other people's business so there wasn't really much to go on from what he said. But Luffy could make an educated guess on what they were probably arguing about.
"Well," Law patted the bed before standing up. "You should get some rest. And I need to make sure those two aren't mentally murdering each other."
Luffy reached out his hand to grab Law's only to cry out at the pain it caused and a flash of panic shot across Law's face.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa, I said don't move, what are you-"
"Stay," Luffy whispered through the pain. "Please?"
For a second, Law looked utterly torn, but then he nodded gently and sat back down next to Luffy's bed.
"Okay," he said, sliding his warm hand over Luffy's. "Okay, but you still need to go to sleep. I'll stay right here."
And at that, Luffy let himself sink into unconsciousness with a small smile on his lips.
One week later, Law visited Luffy's apartment to see how he was healing. Luffy had been expecting he would.
It started out under the pretense of a quick, professional, 10-minute checkup to make sure his limbs were still functioning as they should. Or to make sure Luffy had no internal bleeding. Or to make sure he was resting enough.
Whatever excuse Law had given, Luffy didn't care. He was just happy his favorite person was here with him. Just to see him.
Then, the 10-minute checkup turned into 30 minutes. And then an hour. Then by the time they reached four hours, Law and Luffy were just sitting around talking and watching movies.
Luffy sat back against the couch as the credits rolled and leaned his head against Law's shoulder. He grinned as he felt the other man tense up a bit.
"Traf?"
"Yeah, Lu?" Law hummed, trying to relax a bit.
"'M really happy."
He felt Law's shoulder move as he chuckled.
"Why's that?"
"You're here," Luffy said as he reached out and grabbed Law's hand, sliding the doctor's fingers in between his own calloused ones.
He couldn't see his face, but he could practically feel the heat rolling off of Law in waves from how hard he was blushing.
Yeah. Poor guy's got it bad.
"Y'know..." Luffy started, a devilish idea forming in his mind. "I still haven't paid you back for fixing me up the other day."
"When have you ever paid me back for anything?" Law scoffed at that. Though his words were scathing, his tone was anything but.
"Hmmm, that's a good point," Luffy conceded. "How about I start paying you back now?"
"Wh-"
Before Law could even ask how he intended to do that, Luffy twisted around and shifted himself until he was sitting in Law's lap with his hands behind his neck, arms hanging loosely off of his shoulders.
He winced a little as his legs and torso were still fairly sore from his swim through the foliage last week, but then quickly forgot about that once he looked back at his friend.
Law was frozen in place, eyes wide and hands hovering a good six inches above Luffy's waist. He was speechless, but not at all unhappy with this turn of events, if his face was anything to go by.
Luffy couldn't help but snicker at his reaction. It was way too freaking cute.
"So I was thinking..." Luffy started playing with the hair at the back of Law's head, running his fingers through it.
"Uh-huh," was Law's eloquent reply, unable to take his eyes off the man in his lap.
Luffy could feel through Law's shirt how his heart was hammering in his chest.
"Maybe I can pay you back with a kiss? Or, I dunno, maybe one for every dollar I owe you?"
"W-" Law paused to clear the hoarseness from his throat and take a deep breath. "We'd be here for an absurdly long time if that were the case."
Luffy grinned before leaning in, only to stop a hair's breadth away from Law's lips.
"That's the point, Traf."
Luffy wasn't able to pay Law back in full before someone started pounding on his apartment door. He did get pretty far, though.
Then, Law only had about a second or two to fix his rumpled appearance before Sanji just let himself in, bearing the delicious gift of homemade soup.
Zoro trailed in behind him, but according to them, that really was only because they had both wanted to see how Luffy was doing and Sanji "couldn't trust the swamp head to find his way out of a damn wet paper bag."
Which... Yeah, that was believable.
But either way, the soup was delicious and when every last spoonful of it was gone, the four friends sat around, chatting and letting their stomachs settle a bit.
The 'resting' portion of the meal was necessary, because anyone who's ever eaten Sanji's food would end up nearly in a food coma by the time their plate was clean.
"Well, I'd better get going," Law said with a yawn, stretching both of his arms back behind him. "Thank you for the soup Sanji, it was great as always."
Sanji smiled at him, always happy to hear compliments about his cooking.
"My pleasure, Law. You stay safe out there."
Then, for some reason, Sanji snapped his head over to glare at Zoro, who just rolled his eyes and looked away.
Luffy isn't sure why, exactly, but he assumes it's because Zoro said something in Sanji's head that Sanji didn't like.
It was something Luffy had gotten used to. Been this way for years. He quit asking them to let him in on their conversations a long time ago.
Anyways, there were more important things to worry about, namely, why was Law leaving when Luffy didn't want him to go yet? They had just gotten started repaying his debt, after all.
"You can stay a little bit longer, can't you?" Luffy asked, leaning over to lay his head on the back of the couch. Maybe the puppy dog eyes would work this time.
Sure enough, the look that came over Law's face was one of tortured reluctance and it seemed like he was about to give in when he shook his head and sighed.
"I really can't... I have a shift at four in the morning and I'm in dire need of some sleep."
That was a little disappointing, but Luffy understood completely. If anyone in the world needed to get more sleep in general, it was Law.
After saying goodbye and watching Law walk out the door, he turned back around to see Sanji and Zoro staring at him, both nodding their heads, somehow already in agreement with one another.
"What," asked Luffy.
"Why don't you tell us," said Zoro.
"And don't even try to lie, because we all know you're shit at it," added Sanji.
Luffy furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the coffee table in front of him. It's not like he even had anything to lie about. Maybe Sanji would feel the need to hide if he were in a similar situation, but Luffy had no such reservations about this sort of thing.
Luffy's always been one for honesty. Always worn his heart on his sleeve and he didn't intend to change that about himself any time soon, so he shrugged and answered truthfully, from the bottom of his heart.
"Alright. I love him."
There was silence in the room for a moment.
Sanji was very obviously completely thrown for a loop by that revelation, but Zoro only let out a chuckle that quickly bubbled up into a full-blown laughing fit.
"San- Sanji-" he gasped between hee-ing and haw-ing in his now-annoyed soulmate's face. "I fuckin- I fucking told you it'd be like that."
With all his rolling around and howling, Zoro ended up with his head in Sanji's lap. Sanji, beet-red for some reason, shoved Zoro back to his side of the couch before rounding on Luffy.
"Wait, wait, wait. You love him. As in he's all you can ever think about and you want to spend the rest of your life with him, love him?" Sanji challenged, and Zoro went quiet. "Not just 'like' but love?"
"Yeah." Luffy didn't even have to think about it. He'd done enough of that already over the years, anyway. Now he was sure, and he knew Law felt the same.
"But what if he's not... you know..." Sanji said quietly, eyes now watching his own hand as it picked at the upholstery of the couch. He didn't say explicitly, but Luffy still knew what he meant.
"Oh, he isn't," Luffy said simply. "But I don't care about any of that."
"So- You know for sure he isn't?" Sanji asked, incredulously.
"Nope! I mean, yep! He for sure isn't."
Curiously, Sanji's face lost a bit of its expressiveness, but he quickly recovered and looked back up at his injured friend. Luffy really just wanted to ask what the hell was going on with him, but he wasn't done talking yet.
"And you know Traf. He doesn't care about Fate and all that stuff either. 'Only what I can see with my eyes and touch with my hands,' is what he told me." Luffy was grinning again.
Talking about Law for any period of time always got him like this.
"Besides, even though we aren't soulmates, I definitely don't plan on kissing anyone else ever again. Just him. So it's not like it's ever gonna matter or anything."
Luffy glanced up at Zoro, who had been quiet for some time, only to find his green-haired friend discreetly stealing glances at Sanji, who wasn't reacting to the attention at all.
The blond wouldn't know what Zoro was thinking if Zoro didn't want him to, and Luffy could only assume that's what was going on at the moment.
Finally, Zoro tore his eyes away from Sanji and looked back at Luffy.
"I'm really happy for you, man."
"Yeah. Same here," Sanji said, distantly.
Luffy looked between his two best friends and smiled. Whatever it is, they'll work it out. They always do.
The drive back to his apartment was the most awkward car ride Zoro had been in since the day he was adopted by his uncle. He kept watching Sanji out of the corner of his eye, trying to get a glimpse of what he could possibly be thinking, but it was like the guy had battened down the hatches and locked himself inside.
Zoro might actually have to talk to the idiot for once. Verbally. With words.
He sighed.
"Look-"
"I don't know if I can do this anymore."
Something that felt like a cold lump dropped into Zoro's gut and he snapped his head up to look at Sanji fully. The blond's face was set, eyes hard, still staring at the road in front of him.
"Do what..." Zoro's voice was barely shaking but the tremor was still there. Why? What was he so scared of?
Sanji pulled into a parking spot in front of Zoro's apartment building and turned the car off, but still kept his eyes carefully facing forward.
"This," Sanji sighed, leaning his head forward against the steering wheel. He turned slightly to look in Zoro's general direction, but not directly at him. "Domestic stuff. And all the time we spend together like we're a couple or something, even though-" He stopped himself and grit his teeth, nostrils flaring before he continued. "Even though you've made it clear you don't want that."
Zoro scoffed.
"I never said-"
"Yeah, you did. You might as well have, at least," Sanji snapped, sounding much more hurt than he probably intended to. "Everything you said that day when Luffy fell; everything you thought."
He sat back roughly and glared straight ahead out the windshield again.
"It was almost exactly how Luffy said he feels about soul bonds. You don't care about it. You don't want it." Sanji closed his eyes and took a shaky breath. "Thing is, though, I do. I do, okay? And that's why I don't think I can be around you so casually anymore. It's just- it's too hard."
The last part came out in a whisper, Sanji's eyelashes wetter than they should've been. Zoro felt his chest clench.
He was absolutely dumbfounded. He had no idea where to even begin with this convoluted clusterfuck.
How could one person be so right, yet so wrong at the same time? Sanji had understood what he meant when he said he didn't care about the soul bond, sure, but then he'd completely misunderstood nearly everything else at the same time.
How in the ever-living hell was it possible for two people to have a literal constant link to each other's minds yet still end up misreading their own stupid situation?
Only with Sanji, huh. Figures.
Zoro decided to step in before things got any worse and he ended up having to chase this man across the damn planet.
"Look at me," he requested.
Sanji kept his eyes closed and didn't move a single, stubborn muscle.
"Sanji." Zoro leaned over and slid his hand across the blond's cheek, gently yet forcefully turning his face toward him.
The cook cracked his eyes open warily and Zoro could see they were already a little red.
Enough of this.
"You want to know how I really feel?" Zoro asked, leaning closer. "Take a look. We've done it before, remember?"
Once. On accident when they were about 18 or so. The two had bumped their heads together and had immediately been overwhelmed by a wave of thoughts; a huge, unfiltered hurricane of perception from one another.
They had learned things about each other at that moment that neither of them would have ever said aloud to anyone under any possible circumstance.
And now Zoro wanted to open those same floodgates again so that Sanji could see. So that there wouldn't be anything left to hide from each other. Because this was never meant to be a struggle in the first place.
And Zoro promised himself he would never let it get this far again.
Sanji hesitated at first, but then whispered a quiet "okay" as he leaned forward the rest of the way and, continuing to stare into the other man's dark eyes, lightly bumped his forehead on Zoro's.
The familiar rush was back. He could feel the thoughts barreling toward him like a steam train and he opened his mind to them, accepting them, and expecting to be overwhelmed. Only this time was more controlled than their accidental first.
Instead of a violent monsoon, it was more like the strong flow of a river.
The first thought that hit him was a memory. One that he himself had no particular recollection of.
He could see himself, through Zoro's eyes, sitting in the window seat at his old house. Zeff's house.
They must've been studying or something together, but the main thing Sanji realized was this was before their accidental kiss. Before they even knew they were soulmates.
Sanji could see how the afternoon sun was shining on him, painting his yellow hair golden in the light. That room had absolutely magnificent lighting, he remembered.
Then past-Zoro saw past-Sanji look over at him and the only thing Sanji could hear in his mind was a constant chant of holy shit, he's incredible, gorgeous, beautiful-
The scene swirled and changed and suddenly they were sitting on a dingy couch in Zoro's crappy first apartment. Still in the past but older by a few years, the two were sharing drinks and sharing stories like they used to do, before... Before what?
Why did they stop doing that?
Zoro gently coaxed Sanji back into the memory so that he could look at his past self again. Only, this time the lighting was awful. The wall behind him was filthy and the couch he was sitting on wasn't much better at all. No telling what some of those stains were from.
Past-Sanji was laughing so hard he was snorting and his cheeks were flushed red from the wine and heat since Zoro's old apartment didn't have a working air conditioner. Not to mention his hair, which was all kinds of messy.
But still, Sanji could hear that constant thrum of thought. That endless echo in past-Zoro's mind of beautiful, amazing, wonderful- but there was something else swirling around in his head with it too.
God, I just want to kiss him. He looks so fucking gorgeous right now, and it's so hard. So difficult not to just pin him to the couch and kiss him senseless. He'd kick me through the fucking wall for even trying, but damn, I just want-
The memory swirled again and he was looking at himself from a few days ago when Luffy had his fall. They were at Law's place. Arguing.
This time, though, he wasn't just hearing the words and thoughts Zoro had sent his way at the time.
He was hearing everything.
What do you mean by that? Sanji had asked, in thought.
I meant exactly what I said. All this soulmate crap doesn't matter, anyway, Zoro answered.
Because it's not like I ever needed to know you were my soulmate to fall in love with you in the first place.
It doesn't matter, huh? This doesn't matter to you at all? Sanji had bit back, gesturing between the two, as he hadn't exactly been let in on the latter part of Zoro's declaration.
Of course this matters, dumbass, you're everything to me. Everything.
But instead, how Zoro responded was, Look, all I'm saying is I don't need Fate or whatever other bullshit to tell me who I'm supposed to be with. I can figure all that out for myself.
And I have, but I'm still not sure how to tell you that yet. How am I supposed to tell you that you're the best thing that's ever happened to me? That you're all I ever think about? That you're the only one I ever want to be with for the rest of my life, when you've never even hinted at feeling the same way about me?
The scene faded out and Sanji was left with one stream of thought.
Do you get it now, idiot? Do you get that I love you? Can you see that I've loved you for so long that this soul bond we have isn't even a damn factor in it? I don't care about the bond because even without it, I'd still just want you.
"I love you."
Sanji pulled his head back and broke the connection as tears threatened to stream unbidden down his face. How could he have not known?
All this time, Sanji thought. All this time and we never said a goddamn word to each other. We're idiots.
Zoro almost lost it at that thought. But instead of laughing, he pulled Sanji back in and lightly tangled his fingers in the hair at the back of his head.
Yeah, we really are. But that's just the way it is with us, isn't it?
Sanji smiled back and leaned in the rest of the way.
Hey, Zoro?
Mm?
Just in case we have another misunderstanding... "I love you too."
This time, the kiss they shared was definitely not an accident.
Later that night, Luffy heard a light knocking on his apartment door, and opened it up to see Law standing outside with another full-blown magenta blush on his face.
"Knew you'd be back," Luffy laughed as he pulled Law in by his shirt and locked the door behind him.