-the college AU I didn't even want but hey here you go-

|||College AU|||

"You know," her roommate says, slowly, in a whisper, "I always thought they were brothers, the way you talked about them."

Kairi looks up from her unpacking at Sora and Riku, the latter of whom was currently threatening to dangle Sora out the fourth floor window next to them if he didn't shut up. They certainly didn't look like brothers, she smiled at the thought, not with Riku's silver hair and Sora's brown spikes, the way Riku constantly held himself up and taunted how much taller he was, the . "They might as well be," Kairi says, still grinning. They'd accompanied her in lieu of her adoptive parents to start her second year of college, seeing as they hadn't made it the first year—Sora too busy with surfing nationals, and Riku trying to decide which Ivy League he was going to. But this year, Sora had busted his knee and was outed from the tournament (he didn't complain at all) and Riku's school started later than hers, so they'd made the four hour drive up the coast with her to drop her off.

Something inside her burns brightly—a satisfaction, a joy—that the three of them were still together. Most of her childhood friends—Wakka, Selphie, Olette—had faded from her life after high school, and though she'll still call Selphie and catch up every once in a while, it's not the friendship she craves. And as great as her new friends at college are, it's a relief, a sanctuary, to know that she can always call up Sora and complain about the newest drama and have him listen like he knows the names she spouts off, that she can always text Riku for help in science and have him explain the hardest concepts in her book like it is the easiest thing in the world. They're her boys, hers, no matter how many miles separate them, no matter the arguments that spring up between them. Nothing can separate them, not permanently. She wants to ascribe this to the paopu fruit they'd shared as kids, or maybe to the sentimental wayfinders Kairi had made for them all those years ago.

"Kai?" She's snapped out of her thoughts by Sora's voice, and she looks up to see that he's currently upside-down, face slowly turning red under his tan, Riku having somehow lifted him off the ground by his feet. He looks concerned for her, even with himself powerless against Riku's grip. Kairi's roommate's mouth is hanging open in shock. "You had your I'm-thinking-too-hard look on," Sora finishes, and Riku is looking at her too, an eyebrow quirked, forgetting his argument with Sora for the second. She doesn't remember what they'd been arguing about in the first place.

But she just laughs, and shakes her head. "Can you guys do something productive, other than try to impress Hayley?" Riku immediately drops Sora onto the floor, from where he groans and swears revenge, and her roommate snaps her mouth closed, turning her eyes resolutely away from where Sora's shirt had slipped up to reveal his rather-toned abs, from Riku's sleeveless arms. Kairi suppresses a grin. "They're always like this," she admits.

Hayley looks at her like she's trying to piece her together. "I thought I knew you pretty well after last year, but you just keep surprising me," she says eventually, and Kairi rolls her eyes; Hayley finds her whole amnesiac/adopted/honor student background incredibly fascinating, like those mystery novels she devours, but Kairi doesn't see anything that special about it. Sora and Riku are just that: Sora, and Riku. They're opposites in most things, identical in others, silly and serious and protective and temperamental and everything in-between. She wouldn't trade them for anything. And she doesn't know why Hayley thinks they're so weird. "But knowing exactly what these two are like…" Her eyes drift back to the boys, now arguing over who gets to carry the minifridge up, "I'm even more intrigued by you. How exactly did you guys become friends?"

Kairi can imagine what prompts the question. They don't exactly scream compatible best friends forever. Sora and Riku don't seem like they should get along—the competitive, carefree surfer with a history of saving both drowning people and kittens from trees alike, and the overachieving A-student with the angry eyes but the kind heart—and she knows their bickering only reinforces the split. Sora's parents were sailors; Riku's, a nurse and a police officer. To anyone who didn't pry, Sora seemed the stereotypical surfer; Riku, the usual Ivy League college kid.

But Kairi had seen them grow up together. Had seen them pick each other up. Pull each other down, then apologize when the heat of the moment faded. Keep each other on track, push each other harder. It had been Riku who had first introduced Sora to surfing. Sora had been the one to convince Riku's parents that he could go to a University that wasn't on the islands.

No one would think them inseparable—brothers, even. No one would think that Kairi couldn't think of one without the other, that they relied on each other more than anyone could ever know.

No one else had been there the day a few weeks before when Sora had gone out on the waves and been taken down by one of those squalls common to the islands—here one second, gone the next. She remembers how the sky had darkened while she and Riku had been busy debating the pros and cons of Kairi's tentative major, and by the time they'd realized, and realized that Sora was still out there, the waves were almost as big as the day she'd been found on shore.

They'd run out onto the sand, suddenly frantic, knowing they had to hunker down in the shack to weather out the storm, and Kairi was the only one who'd seen that Riku's face had a flash of unadulterated fear when he couldn't see Sora paddling back to them. He'd gotten caught up in the waves, somewhere, and Riku and Kairi knew that men died in storms like these.

Kairi had been the only one to see how Riku, heedless of his own safety, plunged straight into those ten-foot waves when he caught sight of Sora's board, how they'd both disappeared under the waves for so long that Kairi had nearly despaired for either of them, how when they finally came up, it was Riku leading the way and, knowing it was Sora's pride and joy, making sure to tug the board behind them despite the dangers of having it to disrupt their swim. Kairi had helped them back up on the beach, Sora hacking and coughing and unable to move his leg, his knee swelling, and Riku disregarding his own sopping wet clothes and panting breath to make sure Sora was okay. She was the only one to see that Sora pushed Riku away, making the older boy catch his own breath, that Sora refused to acknowledge how badly his knee was screwed up so he could row them back to the mainland.

No, Riku and Sora's friendship didn't surprise her. Their bond is evident—had been evident, since the day the two of them had found her on the beach. She relies on it, on them, and loves them all the more for their dysfunctionality. They might as well be brothers, indeed, Kairi thinks. They were brothers in every way that mattered. And she was, too—a part of that little family. The little family she had; her adoptive parents, Sora's and Riku's parents, and then them and her. She didn't need anyone else. Didn't need to remember her past. Didn't need anything but them. "They're not perfect," she said, Hayley perking up, though she's not even answering the question.

From the way Sora glanced at her, flashing one of his thousand-watt grins, and how Riku rolled his eyes to meet her own with that rare glance of open, unshielded love, they were thinking the same thing.

So Kairi smiled at her roommate, and finished, "But they're mine."

~fin~

...

A/N: is the title catchy and satisfactorily vague? yeah? maybe?

Hey so I'm back, with yet another drabble that I shouldn't have been working on given my overwhelming school load and two other multichapters in progress (plus the one I haven't published yet yay)! What a surprise!

.

Thank you all for reading, I do appreciate every one of you who reads/reviews/kudos, thank you for supporting me in my writing even though I'm so sporadic and bad at updating.

For those of you waiting for an update for another story-they're coming, promise. Eventually. Drabbles are just easier and require less editing and less panic on my part

Hope your day has been amazing! God bless