Chapter Text
Patty's arm has writing on it. It's thick, big words in raised welts down the length of his right arm. Reddened and tantalizing to look at. “Your spelling sucks! It's Tertiary not Tershiary!”
Someone giggles and Patty is blushing. “Shut up, man! We were talking about fossils, yeah? She's just got accepted into a master's degree program!”
“Ooo, Mr. Fancy prints is paired to a genius!”
“Shows fate’s got a sense of humor! A piss poor cook and a scientific genius… Well, at least you're pretty, eh?”
Patty rolls his eyes. “At least I didn't have a dick drawn on my face all of yesterday!”
“Would both of you shut up!” Zeff snarls as he makes his way through the kitchen. “We're working here! Keep your love notes to yourselves!”
The old man bumps into Sanji as the boy is coming out of the pantry with a flat of strawberries.
Sanji doesn't like all the chatter, all the giggling and sneaking off to run a quick message into the skin of their forearms.
All of his coworkers tell him,“You’ll get it when you’re older.”
The only one who gets it is Zeff. Zeff with his steely eyes and a scar that says “I'm sorry.” across his left wrist. They're the only two in the whole place who aren't constantly sprouting words on their skin, or twiddling styluses while they thought of something important or mundane to share with their soul mates however far away.
Zeff’s first mate had died not very long before the old man had met the boy with the hollow eyes and the pale scar on his chest. Zeff knew it wasn't a normal scar the first time he'd seen it. Normal scars were more than just the top layers of skin. Normal scars weren't smooth and perfect. The eight year old boy he'd shared that rock with for 85 days had been severed, so young, too young to lose one's soul mate. There were no words in it, just something broad and stark. He'd never seen anything like it. Not on someone who wasn't even physically mature enough to have made their first contact.
It had taken years before Sanji had told him. That someone had hurt him as a child, some operation, and it had cut off whatever it was that allowed people, soul mates, to communicate so effortlessly. Someone had ruined him.
It had been a short conversation. Short and tragic, Sanjis voice cracked as sobs broke out and Zeff hadn't believed it at first, not until Sanji was sixteen and there hadn't been so much as a dot or a dream of his other half's voice or face.
Just that scar, and pale smooth skin.
For a while Sanji had been adamant that he didn't need a soul mate. That it was fine, it meant he could flirt with anyone he wanted, kiss anyone who let him, and fall in love without some unknowable “Fate” butting in to tell him who he was supposed to love.
If that was true, it was hard to get anybody to kiss him when people were so attached to the partners that fate brought them. People used him, at best, for something temporary. Ignoring the reality of Sanji's life- that a decision most people made willingly had been made for him.
Regardless, he argued it loudly if anyone noticed his arms were bare and he caught them staring and decided to offer sympathy and assurance that it's possible to have more than one! Really, don't give up hope.
But Sanji never said anything about the fact that for him, there was no hope. There was nothing there for him to connect with. Sanji never told anyone else. Laughed and pretended it didn't bother him, but Zeff heard him scream himself awake a few times. Saw the bloody scratches on his ribs.
Hello? Please. I don't want to be alone.
The ghost of pain from any attempts to make contact serves as a reminder of his failure.
There was a part of his life that someone had taken away from him without his consent, he would tell himself that he couldn’t miss a part of his life that never existed. But, at night when he was alone in his room, he would feel the disgusting ache of the scar over his chest. And the pain of something he’d never have.
What’s done is done: hoping for something to be different just made the pain of it worse.
–
Monkey D. Luffy had been told he was a late bloomer in a lot of areas, for one, his brother got both his period and his soul contact first, which was expected, even then it wasn’t until he was fifteen that he got what he’d been wishing for for years.
When Ace had first gotten his contact it had scared him half to death, and then left him with a burning rage. He hated this idea of destiny and fate, and it left Luffy bewildered.
It was hard to explain, Luffy didn’t feel like there was a destiny that couldn’t be determined out there for him, that having soulmates didn’t really mean you couldn’t change anything. Maybe changing things is a part of destiny.
But he didn’t know how to explain it to Ace, so he didn’t.
It was explained by Dedan that not every soulmate had to be a romantic one, that one could have multiple soulmates- Luffy had tuned the explanation out by the second sentence but it seemed to calm Ace down.
Later, Ace would learn that he already had met his platonic soulmate and Sabo became their third brother. Ace looked relieved when they realized- it was convenient, too.
The joy of already knowing your soulmate, the convenience of having a way to communicate with Sabo even when he wasn’t around them. Luffy didn’t understand the specifics, but he liked the idea of having people that were his. Even after Sabo got taken from them, that want never really left him. It was easier not to think about the hard stuff, Ace crying while holding Luffy in his arms, the feeling of a thousand petals on a rose dying all at once. It was easier not to think about, so Luffy didn’t.
Ace promised, after that, to stay until Luffy's first contact happened. Until he could be sure his brother wasn't going to be lonely in the meantime, so Luffy could have something solid to lean on after he left.
So when he woke up one morning and found Luffy snoring on the floor where he'd fallen asleep after dinner, and there was a simple word scrawled on his left cheek, under his scar. It was exciting for more than just the obvious reasons.
The skin is raised and bright pink. “Hello!”
And as he watched, across Luffy's arms appeared the words: “Is this actually happening?”
“This is so exciting!”
“It itches.”
“Who drew a smiley face on their crotch! You are so gross! Stop it!”
“Sorry.”
“Wait, there's more than one of you?”
Ace crouched and gave Luffy's shoulder a rough shake, pride welling in his chest. Just those few words were enough, the silliness was clear. The care was clear.
“Hey, wake up! It's a big day, bro!”
Luffy sat up abruptly, eyes unfocused, body limp and wobbly like a jello. “‘wasn't me.” He mumbled in confusion and rubbed fitfully at his eye. Then, a strange expression drained the color from his face, eyes widening when he noticed the letters on his wrist and the sensation of raised skin on his cheek. He traced the spot below his eye with shaking fingers, mouth opening in shock.
For a few seconds he just sat there stunned, brain working a mile a minute to fully comprehend what he was feeling. Then he met Ace's eyes and said. “It really itches.”
“It will, until you read it.”
Luffy stared at each word, the multiple different handwritings, stunned. “There's so many!”
Ace ruffled his hair, smiling fondly, and excited on his little brother's behalf. “Well don't just sit there, say Hi! Introduce yourself!”
Luffy fumbled toward the fire pit for a stick, rubbed the charred end off onto a stone and curled in on himself in focus. Tongue poking out the corner of his mouth as he hesitantly sketched the words “I'm Monkey D. Luffy, who the hell are you?” into the back of his right hand. The words lingered only seconds, bright pink on his skin, then they seemed to melt away into nothing.
“You never told me you can feel it!” Luffy's eyes widened. The warmth of the connection was like butterflies in his stomach, like he could feel the people at the other end of his tethers as if they were sitting in the room with him. Little colorful blobs in his mind's eye all vibrating excitedly, urgently.
He could feel the replies starting to form even before his skin prickled into the shape of them. A little electric current of the rounded points of phantom styluses.
“D!?! ARE YOU SHITTING ME!”
“Hi.”
The “crotch scribbler ”, as Ace had decided to call them, drew a little grinning face with a prominent nose on Luffy's abdomen.
Luffy yanked off his shirt and stared at it, then in shock pulled his pants away from his body and peered down into his shorts with his eyes open wide.
“Oh. Someone's an artist…” Ace snorted.
There was another smaller face just above Luffy's public bone and the inscription “Usopp was here.”
Luffy cackled and rubbed the spot, the image quickly fading under the friction of his fingers.
“No, you weren't.” was appearing just above the spot. In all caps.
Luffy replied, upside down. “But I was!”
Then in a quick dragging scrawl with what was likely a fingertip across his belly, also upside down. “Can we do this later? I'm fighting for my life!”
Small words above and below, “Sorry.”
Luffy wrapped his rubbery arms around himself tightly, laughing, tears rolling down his face. It hit him all at once, the tethers connecting like electric plugs suddenly and rapidly connecting to a socket. Immediately buzzing with life.
Jolting him awake, fully, even though he had just got up a moment ago.
It was a complicated feeling, Ace knew from experience. At one time you instantly loved them, but it was also overwhelming. The connection, or connections tugged from something deep in your core. You could feel them all- strings of all colors conveying emotion along them, the intent and tone of the words, and if you focused on it, the emotions of your partners. Their longings and joys and sorrows became your own.
It could be terrifying, but also joyous because you weren't ever alone.
“There's four!” Luffy beamed.
Ace took his brother's wrist and turned his arm, counting the different sets of handwriting. “Three.”
And a strange look came over Luffy's face, concentration, concern, but at the same time confident in his assessment. “No, definitely four… I can feel them.”
“Hm.” Ace wasn't so sure, he'd never really been able to put a number to his own. He was just able to tell who was trying to talk. It felt amorphous, almost unfinished. Maybe there were more people waiting for him, but he had to experience life, and grow before they would connect. But Luffy seemed so confident in his number, like Dedan was about her own, or that Sabo had been so sure he only had two and one was Ace.
“Maybe someone's asleep?” Ace suggested.
But, Luffy scowled. “No… It-it feels weird, hazy… Like a-” His hand went to his chest, fingers tracing that jagged mark above his heart. He was so tanned it was hard to see sometimes, but when the sun hit it just right you could tell, could sense the wrongness of it. “-It's like being constipated.”
Ace snorted, rolled onto his back trying to hold in his laughter. He wanted to push further, try to explain to the younger boy what a severed connection felt like, but Luffy didn't like talking about it. Adamantly refused to. Because then he would have to admit that the scar on his chest that had appeared amid screams of agony and tears when Luffy had been barely four, meant he had been robbed of something so innate, so deeply human, that it left a mark more than a decade before his first contact was established.
Ace sighed, and decided that he would stay quiet. Luffy was so confident all the time, his experience was different than Aces’, sure. But he wasn’t Ace. Who was he to tell his brother how to feel about something? Today was a special day and he wasn't going to rub salt in any wounds. He had already messed up that specific interaction countless times as kids. The boy hadn't listened before, he wasn't going to do it now. It’s not like he can blame him, Ace would be just as stubborn in his position.
“I'm happy for you.” Ace reached out and patted his brother's knee.
“Does this mean you're gonna leave now?”
Luffy was staring at his feet, expression unreadable.
“I'm not going to run off today, it will take me a while to get ready, but… I've got some awesome people to meet. And it looks like you do too!”
Luffy flopped, sprawling himself over Ace's chest. “Thank you.”
Ace chuckled and patted his back. “Okay, okay… Now go show off to Dedan. I know you wanna.”
Luffy laughed and sprang to his feet. Started screaming as he ran: “Dedan! Look! LOOK! I DID IT!”
“LUFFY! PULL YOUR PANTS UP! WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS!”
He just laughed.
–
There were three introductions on Luffy’s body, after the chaotic nature of the discovery had settled down. Usopp, the artist who had claimed his stake right above their pelvic bone, had to introduce himself first.
“It’s only fair! If you’re childish enough to do that you have to formally introduce yourself first. I’m not letting that be my first impression of you!”
Luffy felt an orange string tug taught at the words on his arm. And felt all the strings connected to him and the orange one move closer.
“I’m Captain Usopp! Great warrior of the seas!” A yellow string gets all tangled. To Luffy, it feels like there’s a weird texture in his mouth he doesn’t like. It’s awful, and so stark it’s hard to focus on anything else.
“Stop messing around.” A green string does the same as the orange did, pulls itself taught and closer, detangling the yellow string with it. Luffy can almost close his eyes and be completely consumed by the feeling.
“I’m Usopp! I’m a boy who Iives in a village in the east blue! Syrup Village!”
“You draw often?” In the same handwriting that told him to stop messing around.
“Oh hell yes!” Little flowers sprung up around the text. Not nearly as crude as the first drawing, Luffy was a bit disappointed. But he watched the flowers appear anyways, shifting and swirling around his body.
“Keep the flowers in places easily covered by clothes.”
Curiosity burned at Luffy. Why? A little long nosed guy gives a thumbs up. “Got it! You can always rub them off though.”
“Who wants to go next?”
“My name is Nami! Now someone else. Go.”
“You’re impatient.”
“Don’t be dumb! I’m just efficient.”
“Why can’t we write on places that aren’t easily covered by clothes?” Luffy asked.
“Tough to get into, okay? We’ll do that eventually. Just not now.” A reassuring little heart.
He poked at the orange tether in his mind. It didn’t feel like a lie, not necessarily . Luffy wanted to ask more questions of the orange flame at the end of this connection. Out of curiosity if nothing else.
“Roronoa Zoro.” A little drawing of 3 swords. Usopp incorporated them into another drawing, drawing a samurai with 3 little swords on his belt.
“Wait! You were fighting for your life? What?”
“I’m a bounty hunter because I got lost on my way back home- originally from Shimotsuki Village.”
“You got LOST? Lost? Like you couldn’t find your way back home? Like a poor little puppy?”
“Shut up! I won the battle, alright? Honestly, this guy keeps judging me for writing to uh… all of you when he’s tied up. I don’t care about him.”
He’s happy.
He’s happy he’s getting flowers drawn on him, he’s happy he can feel the strings and where they intersect and the connection between them and it feels so alive and organic like the pictures of planets Sabo used to bring home as a kid, all circling around each other all at once in perfect harmony. But he still feels it. A weird disconnect where it seems to end, like a string cut off- maybe not cut off. Buried? It feels a little bit like the weakness that water submerges him in. Like a piece of him was constantly buried underwater.
“I can count how many of us there are. But there’s one missing.” Acknowledging it made his brain twist in knots. He didn’t want to think about it but he had to. Luffy was nothing if not greedy, and he hated the feeling of being cut off when the universe owed him this.
“Yeah! I was going to say something about that before I got distracted. What the fuck is that about?”
“The facts: Weird scar. Sometimes I experience panic attacks when I shouldn’t- is that everybody else too? It could be just me.”
“YES! Yes! That happens to me too! Not always but a lot of the time!” He felt relief that he wasn’t alone. Someone else was concerned too!
“I thought it was my anxiety at first. But then the scar started hurting- I have scars but none of them look like that, you know? It’s weird! I really don’t want to find out something happened. But it seems like something did and I just keep imagining the worst, but”
“They’re not dead. Whoever they are.”
“Yeah, we can feel their heartbeat. I”
There’s a pause before she finishes her sentence. Luffy imagines Nami must be thinking, it sure feels like that.
“I don’t want anything to happen to one of us. I’m afraid, but I’m also pretty afraid for myself on a daily basis? It’s a lot.”
“Are you okay?” No punctuation, Zoro’s handwriting is smooth and proper and he got this out as fast as he could, he didn’t care about how it looked. Luffy decides that this is his first favorite thing about Zoro.
“We will always be here for you! I swear no matter what.” Luffy will get his soulmates to cooperate with this. Even if they don’t want to.
“I’m”
Nami takes a moment and her string gets tangled. Not in the same way Usopp’s did, falling to the ground dramatically to get itself tangled. But hers is pulling against a knot nobody realized was there.
“It’s complicated. I just met you guys alright? Give a girl some space.”
They pause, Usopp speaking up again.
“How old are you all? How long until we can meet?”
Luffy had been thinking that same thing, but Usopp said it first, his string vibrating in a lonely kind of urgency.
“15.” Luffy scrawled.
“16.”
Zoro's string buzzed in amusement. “17. If Usopp says 18 I'm rolling.”
“Nah, I just turned 15. Are we all from the East Blue? If Zoro can’t come home it might be a good idea to get him to stay with one of us? Like Nami said, I don't want anything to happen!”
“Whatever happened to the other person wasn’t normal, I don’t think. But I get it, I could come to one of you?”
“Not it! You’d get lost wouldn’t you? And cause more trouble than he’s worth. Unless you’d like being a bodyguard?”
“I think I would.”
“Okayyy, but you did get lost! Nami’s right.”
“I get lost a lot too!” Luffy sympathetically patted his own arm. Could Zoro feel that?
“Oh god, how are we all going to meet? It’s going to be a nightmare. Nevermind finding whoever is lost.” Namis tether was strung tight.
“I’m worried for them. It feels awful! Shitty is an understatement.” Luffy replied. He didn’t often feel like this, and it was even less often that he could admit it.
“I know. What do you guys plan to do in the future?” He could feel Zoro prodding at him, it was an odd feeling, for someone else to use your tether to get to you. He didn’t mind it. Let the feeling wash over him as a distraction.
“In general, or about Us?” Nami's tether got tight again. Luffy wants to hug her, to have her relax. He doesn’t know what she looks like, so he just imagines a girl with orange eyes and hair. He wonders what orange hair would smell like. Maybe oranges? Or some kind of fancy shampoo that he wouldn’t know the name of but would probably make her smell delicious anyways. Maybe she had long hair! Or short hair, and it was fluffy? Kind of like Luffy's own. He feels her tether soften a bit.
“In general.” Luffy wondered about Zoro, too. Did green tether mean green hair? That would be weird.
Usopp started a rambling tale, “It really depends on what you guys want. You're welcome to all come here. I have a house, it's not very big, but there's plenty of light and it's warm. Syrup Village is really awesome. There's the Maple Grove, and the orchards, and the people are nice. I could introduce you to-”
Luffy was grinning like a maniac, “When I turn 17, I'm getting my own boat and I'm going to find you guys and the rest of my crew. We'll sail to the grand line and then I'm going to be king of the pirates!”
“What do you mean ‘rest of your crew?’ WE are NOT a crew!” Nami was back to vibrating anxiously.
“You do realize I hunt pirates, right? That's what a bounty hunter is.”
“Don't worry, I'll be a great captain!” Usopp drew his little long nosed face again with crossed bones behind it.
Luffy snarled and rubbed the image out. “I'm the captain!”
“I'm not becoming a damned pirate!”
“Okay, okay, all those in favor of Captain Usopp make your mark here!” he drew a hatch mark under his name then surreptitiously drew another from another angle.
“Cut it out!” Luffy scratched out the marks furiously.
Usopp scribbled the words “Captain Usopp Was Here!” High across his chest.
“ENOUGH!” Zoro's wide finger sketched letters splattered across their stomachs. “Neither of you assholes have a ship so it's pointless to argue.”
“Yeah!” Luffy underlined Zoro's words. “First one to get a ship is the captain!”
“You're on!” Usopp drew a boat with five little figures on it, all saluting a bushy haired figure with a prominent nose.
“I hate pirates! I'm not becoming a pirate! I don't care who you are or what you have to say! I hate them!” Nami underlined the word again and again until it stung, almost as if she were scratching into her own skin.
“Nami, stop!” Usopp quickly drew a flower over her words, and another when she continued. Kept adding leaves and petals and little stars until her tether seemed to relax, still vibrating against that hidden knot.
Luffy tapped his stick a few times against his forehead. He could feel the disquiet in her. A pained bubbling. He drew a lopsided cat face with big eyes and cute paws.
And Zoro did something unexpected.
He didn't draw, not really, nor write, but broad thick lines appeared on Luffy's left wrist. Finger marks, deep sweeping lines up and down the muscles of his wrist and forearm.
It was a peculiar feeling, like a massage, and he wondered what kind of extreme pressure Zoro had to be exerting on his own hand to transfer it like this.
Eventually Nami returned, her thread loose and calmer. “Thanks.”
Zoro's massaging stopped, and he drew a strange symbol. Interlocking rings. Five of them, like a flower, then circled it.
A few seconds later Usopp drew a scalloped lacy looking decoration around it, and compelled, Luffy then finished it, encompassing everything in a wobbly heart shape.