Chapter Text
Prologue:
"Daddy, what's a soulmate?"
"A soulmate?
Hmmmm.... You know, a soulmate that's kind of like your best friend.
But much more than that.
A soulmate, he's always there for you.
He understands you, he supports you.
He is someone who catches you when you fall down.
Someone who comforts you when you're sad or laughs with you when you're happy.
A soulmate is the one person you can say anything to.
Or don't have to say anything at all, because he just senses how you are and what you need.
Someone who makes you a better person.
Someone who inspires you and believes in you.
Long before anyone else does and even when no one else would.
And in doing so, helps you rise above yourself.
To believe in yourself.
A Soulmate is the perfect person for you.
In every situation, in every place.
And when you have found him, you will never want to give him away again.
And he will never want to give you away again.
Because you are made for each other.
Bonded by something so much more than friendship and so much deeper than love."
"A soulmate is that great?"
"Even more awesome than that."
"Then I'm dying to find mine!"
Part I - Found?
The perfect smell. So perfect that it could tickle the nose like sunshine. That it could calm down when stress became too much or sadness overpowered the thoughts. That it could give strength or peace, contentment, love... That it would seemingly always be there, in every moment of a life.
Wasn't that what everyone wished for? That one person who smelled perfect? What he would be like?
The partner who smelled perfect only for him? How long had he been dreaming of him? His whole life long?
At least since his childhood. Ever since he had encountered that perfect smell at the time....
He remembered it as if it were only yesterday, although the images had long since blurred into a formless mush of unity and the sounds of that moment had long since faded away. Yet from that one moment, the smell of that person stood out as clearly as bright sunshine did on a clear day in midsummer. So unmistakable and memorable, so beguiling and beautiful.
Luffy could still remember that moment when he had visited here with his adoptive parents when he was 6 years old and they had walked through the large marketplace and he had paused in amazement. That smell, that whiff of another human being that had captivated him. Confused, he had looked up at the redhead who had smiled gently at him, his husband on his other hand, and asked him if anything was wrong.
"It smells so good," he had said in his ignorance, and both Shanks and Mihawk had promised him that one day he would find that smell again.
Today he was here again. Thirteen years had passed. Luffy had grown up and had set his sights on finding his Alpha after school. To be able to live up to his destiny as an Omega and to be to his other half what he had dreamed of all his life - the perfect mate.
He took a deep breath as he finally stood again in the place where he had caught that whiff of perfect smell so many years ago. He associated so many memories with this place. Slowly, he spun around, taking in the houses around him. The paved ground beneath his feet was dry, little stones crunching under his sandals. Warmth crept up his bare calves. He wore only half-length pants and a red T-shirt with them, as he almost always did. On his black hair he wore the straw hat that Shanks had given him years ago. To better perceive the smells, he closed his large, dark eyes and paused for a moment just like that. In the middle of the town square, where there had been so much activity back then. Today the square was almost empty. A few passersby hurried through the late afternoon sun, but no one was interested in the young adult who stood there wordlessly, eyes closed, simply doing nothing. But Luffy knew better. He took a deep breath, sharpened his ears, and listened for anything he could hear. The square was enclosed by houses almost in a circle, a few narrow alleys led onto the wide main street and to the large stores. Around him were only a few sidewalk cafes and somewhere he heard the bell of a small ice cream truck. He smelled the dry summer wind blowing pleasantly across the square, a hint of rose fragrance in it. At the other end of the square was a large flower store. From the café to his left he smelled fresh coffee and suddenly a dominant smell of vanilla and earth overrode everything else. He heard footsteps and wrinkled his nose. An alpha. Definitely. The smell came closer and Luffy felt the breeze as someone walked unnecessarily close to him. Even though there were hardly any people around him, this Alpha absolutely had to walk by so close. Of course. Alphas could be strange creatures. He had learned that years ago. To his great luck he had not had any really negative experiences until today. Probably that's why he could still think so positively and just look forward to the meeting with his alpha.
The stranger disappeared and his scent vanished in the next breeze. Luffy opened his eyes again. Disappointed, he sighed. It would have been too easy to just stand here in the square and wait for him to show up again.
Shanks and Mihawk had tried to explain to him that it wouldn't do any good at all if he came back here. No one knew who his alpha was. No name, no face. And whether he lived here in the city at all, or whether he had simply been here for a visit, as they had been at that time, he didn't know either. But that was his only clue so far. And he had a very sunny disposition.
And so he nodded to himself spontaneously, grabbed the next free chair in the café to his left and ordered himself a green tea. And waited.
Hour after hour passed and he did nothing but sit here, sipping his long cold tea, which had never tasted good to him, and hoping that this wonderful smell would suddenly appear... In vain, of course. Even he couldn't be that lucky!
But that didn't mean a Monkey D Luffy was going to let that upset him, or even discourage him. No way. On the contrary, he decided to simply spend the following day here again. And the following day as well.
After all, he firmly believed that his soulmate was here. Very close to him. And he could hardly wait to finally see him. To finally see a face to that wonderful smell and hear a voice that would touch him to his core. Eyes that would look down to the bottom of his soul, hands that would caress him gently... He bit his tongue hard to stop the reverie. What was he actually thinking? He almost choked on the sundae he was indulging in by now. His cheeks warmed as he realized he was drifting into indecent reverie in broad daylight, surrounded by strangers in a public square. Shaking his head, he rubbed his right hand over his face and took a deep breath. No, no, it couldn't go like this! What would his alpha think when he finally found him and then that would be the first thing he smelled on him? Lust?
No way!
Even though at nineteen he had every right to crave sex, to crave the touch of his alpha. For his perfect partner, with whom he naturally wanted to experience everything his adoptive parents surely shared! Which his parents surely did - after all, he wouldn't exist otherwise!
Luffy had never been the smartest, but he was also anything but stupid. He called a wonderful naive nature his own, which could sometimes border on stupidity, but mostly it was simply due to the fact that he did not want to deal with complicated issues. Rather, he accepted everything as it was. Often enough he could not change anything about basic situations, so why get upset about it? He made his own picture and then decided whether or to what extent he wanted to act. And this time the decision had been very easy for him. Luffy wanted to find his soulmate. He longed to finally meet his alpha. So he returned to the place where he had sensed his scent before.
Days passed. Days of memorizing the place, of exploring all the cafes, of ordering up and down the menus, of slowly memorizing the passersby. But none of them smelled like the perfect smell in his memory. Not even close. After a week and a half, a quiet voice in his head slowly began to nag him about whether he should perhaps consider another way to search. Even if he still had no idea what this might look like. After all, he couldn't very well put an ad in the newspaper with a call like "Hello Alpha, after 13 years I'm back. Come and meet me where we first smelled each other".
That sounded absolutely stupid even in his head and there was one thing Luffy couldn't forget:
Just because he had smelled the alpha back then didn't mean he had perceived him.
The thought made him sad, but melancholy didn't look good on him, so he hurriedly shook off his head and all thoughts in that direction.
But maybe he really should think of another method. Or ask someone for help. He didn't know anyone here yet, because he had been looking exclusively for his alpha for the past few days, not even wanting to allow conversation for fear that he might then miss him, but he had never had any problems getting to know anyone. But what good would it do to make friends with people here? What if his alpha really didn't live in the city? What if he had only been here by chance after all? What if he had moved away in the meantime? He couldn't very well search the entire registry!
Luffy swallowed hard as something else occurred to him.
What if his alpha wasn't even alive anymore?
Shocked by the idea, he slapped his hands over his mouth, accidentally tipped his chair backwards a bit, and almost hit the ground ungently when everything happened very quickly.
Strange hands held his chair and prevented him from falling. A soft, surprised squeak stole through his fingers, which were still on his open lips. And a wonderful smell rose to his mouth and nose through the narrow crevices in his fingers, making him turn his head in amazement.
His throat dried up at the same moment as he caught sight of the creature standing there behind him.
At least one meter ninety, he estimated on impulse as he looked up. Black hair framed a beautiful face in silky strands.
And that scent!
Luffy didn't even manage to look at the figure further because that incredibly wonderful smell was there, and everything inside him reacted to it.
He smelled fir trees in the summer rain. A hint of lemon... And... irritated, he paused. Well?
In his memory, there had clearly been a hint of coffee. But now he smelled a gentle hint of roses. Roses? But how could that be? It smelled so insanely good... Was that really...?
Skeptically, he arched his eyebrows.
Wide eyes returned his gaze speechlessly. Full lips twisted into a cautious smile.
"Good day," a soft voice sounded, and very slowly Luffy's chair tilted back until all four legs touched solid ground again.
It took him a few heartbeats to collect himself enough to react. The wide eyes waited patiently.
"Gu-good... day," he returned, hurrying to bite his tongue to finally get himself back under control.
"Sorry," the tall woman whispered, taking her hands off the back of the seat.
"Don't... don't. Thank you... so much," he mumbled and he couldn't explain why, but his cheeks grew warm and he blushed. His heart was also pounding much louder and faster in his chest all at once, and it seemed to get worse as the stranger walked around his chair and the table, eyeing him questioningly as she gripped the back of a chair. He could still hear the clack of her shoes, though the sound had long since faded. Her questioning gaze lingered for a few more hard thumping heartbeats until he finally managed to nod slowly at her. And suddenly, instead of none at all, he had way too much saliva in his mouth, hurrying to swallow it down so he wouldn't accidentally start drooling.
"You're welcome. I couldn't let you get hurt after all."
And with a fluid motion, the black-haired beauty slid onto the chair, brushed the strands of her hair behind her ear with her right hand, and looked at him with a dazzling look in her eyes.
"You smell amazing, do you know that?" her voice echoed in his head and Luffy felt as if he would lose his grip and fall. A fresh wave of her aroma clouded his head and made sure he was barely able to answer her. So he only returned the look of her big, shining eyes and barely managed a nod.
"Y-y-you... too..." he finally gasped, and an unmistakable glint spread through those dark eyes.
Luffy's heart did another leap in his chest.
He had found her! He had really found her!
His counterpart, his alpha! His soulmate!
He wanted to scream with happiness.