Nothing to your Everything

Nothing

Soulmates.

A stupid word. A stupid, stupid, word. He hated it, more than mornings, more than his boss, more than anything.

He wishes it didn't exist.

Of course, everyone else thought they were the whole package. They swooned at the thought of them, so full of false hope that they had gone stupid with it. They had built them up so much that they envisioned them as all they ever needed, as if everything would be perfect as soon as they met them.

It all seemed like a weird complex to him.

He'd never seen how just meeting someone would supposedly fix all the problems in your life. Every time his friends would rant on and on about how they envisioned they'd meet their soulmates, what they would be like, what they would name their third kid and dog, Luffy just kinda didn't get it. 

Basically, you're supposed to be born with a word imprinted somewhere on your body. What that word was depended fully on your soulmate. It's meant to be what they love most about you, their very favorite thing.

But it's a flawed system.

The Creators of this world had a mistake in their code. That or they were just sadistic bastards.

Because not everyone was born with soulmates. It was impossible for everyone to have a true love. Some people were left behind, watching as others cheered over all they could of had.

Even then, some people were cursed to simply glance at theirs while walking down the street, the first thing popping into their head forever marking itself on the others skin. He knew a girl once with 'ass' printed on her ankle.

Haha, right? Hilarious? It's not so funny once you realize that that's what the person who was supposed to love her more than anything else picked above the rest. That it's what was supposedly the best fact about her.

Comedy gold.

So, there's the mark less. The cursed ones. You see, how can someone have a favorite thing about you, much more love you, if you've never even met? 15% of the human race was mark less, destined to be alone and empty for the rest of their lives. They were shunned over the simple fact that they had been born unlucky. Cursed because of some messed up rule.

And then you have him.

Luffy, was an anomaly. A disaster. A mistake. There was something terribly wrong with him, something not right. The world screwed up when it created him.

Don't believe him? Well, just ask his parents. Or his teachers. Or anyone.

Luffy was universally screwed. He doesn't know if someone up stairs had thought it would be funny, or if maybe he really was just that broken, but Luffy was screwed.

Because on his wrist, it read in vivid, black, condemning text,

'Nothing'

...

His soulmate loved nothing about him. His soulmate- Nothing. They- they loved nothing about him.

Was there something wrong with him? Was it how he looked, or his voice, or how he walked? What did he do wrong? What did he do to make the universe hate him? To make it so Luffy would have a soulmate, so he knew that there was someone out there meant for him...but they hated him.

They words had branded Luffy. They left a smudge on his soul, sentencing him to a life lived in dread of meeting the supposedly "perfect match".

He had never understood soulmates.

Because, despite having one for himself, he knew that sometimes, soulmates didn't love each other. So what was all the hype about? What was with all the fantasizing and idolizing?

What was the point?

My names Monkey D. Luffy, and at the start of this story I'm 19, working with minimum wage at a coffee shop, and leading the crappiest life possible.

I hate soulmates.

And that's never going to change.

Part one- Complete