Hi guys! Let me briefly set the scene. This takes place BEFORE KH3. Kairi is figuring out how to unlock her powers as a Keybearer on the Islands. Apologies if this doesn't line up with the official Kingdom Hearts timeline. I haven't played every single in-between game. I'm just trying to write some good fluff, people! Hope you like.

For someone who had recently been recognized as a worthy Keyblade wielder, Kairi felt like she was failing at every turn. The joy she'd felt at first summoning Destiny's Embrace-actually feeling the weight of the weapon that could help her and her friends turn the tide of this awful war-was such a reward. In the beginning it was all celebration and congratulations from her friends. Finally she had gone from the girl who needed saving to someone who could be capable of saving herself. In the beginning, it had been so easy.

Then the celebrating had come to a close and it was time for her to officially begin her training. She'd gone in optimistic-who wouldn't?-and eager to do what she'd seen Sora and Riku doing for years. The sidelines were no longer her place. And the place to start was with baby steps, focusing hard on the Light inside herself to get that Keyblade in her hand.

Training took place on the beach, before the sun kissed the sand with its scorching lips. Kairi got up before the dawn-scarfing down something nutritious and sipping on a piping hot herbal tea that King Mickey had recommended to calm the nerves-as if. Then she slipped into her training clothes (quickly, because she had overslept again and her body did not like being up at 5 AM even after months of it, damn it) and out the door, to sit on the beach for an hour of meditation.

This was her favorite. The hush of the sleeping world around her (no one else crazy enough to be awake). The inhale and exhale of every ocean wave. The light mist on her skin. She couldn't say that her mind was ever as clear as Mickey or Riku wanted it to be, but it brought the most peace she ever got during training days.

Around 6 AM, she heard the sound of footsteps crunching over sand to where she sat. Unafraid, Kairi corrected her position, back going ramrod straight and her breathing mimicking a perfect rhythm. I am a perfect student. I am a perfect student. The steps got nearer and nearer until they halted just inches from her seated pose, and she could hear him breathing. Still she pretended as if she was so deep in her zen that she hadn't sensed her teacher's approach-until he jammed his Keyblade into her shoulder.

"Riku!"

"See, Kairi. If your mind was truly clear, you wouldn't have felt a thing," he teased.

It hadn't hurt, but she still shot him a glare as she scrambled to her feet. If she failed meditation, then they would spar. Which she had. So they would. Every day.

Riku looked at her expectantly, and Kairi knew by now that her main point of focus should be summoning her own Keyblade so the fight could commence. If she couldn't within five minutes, then she worked on her evasion tactics while Riku came at her with various blows. Honestly, at this point she would rather go straight to evasion. She could sprint, duck, bob, weave, you name it. The only problem? Riku was just as fast. They could play cat and mouse until the sun sat comfortably at the top of the sky, signalling noon.

"Okay, yeah, got it," she sighed. Breathing deeply, Kairi began to focus on summoning Destiny's Embrace. Lately it had only gotten more difficult. For Masters like Riku, it took only a matter of seconds. For her...sometimes not at all. They'd told her to focus on something that made her happy. Something that gave her hope. To hold that memory close so that bringing forth the Keyblade would soon be as easy as a flick of the wrist.

"Don't overthink the happy thought," Riku had told her at one of their first training sessions. "Usually your first instinct is your best instinct."

Yeah, she knew what made her happy. Or rather, who. There were a million, second-long clips playing in her head of him. Sora grinning. Sora laughing. Sora looking at her when he thought she couldn't see, his eyes all soft in a way that made her want to cry or kiss him. Sora looking so much older now, the muscles in his arms and the lightest of peach fuzz on his lip and the scent of him, all ocean and pine and something so him that she couldn't give it a name. Sora promising to protect her. The heat of his body both a comfort and and the world's worst frustration.

If she could just hold that in her mind, she'd have no trouble. And at first, summoning the Keyblade had been easy. Then as training had gotten progressively difficult, taking a harder toll on her, doubt had crept in.

The seven of them, standing at the final battle. Her, not being strong enough to help. Not even able to summon the Keyblade. Riku, looking at her with disgust. Someone telling her to get out of the way. To be on the sidelines again so she wouldn't get hurt. Her friends falling all around her. Standing there, completely helpless. Sora, gone. Gone.

This five minutes was almost always as exhausting as she knew the rest of the day would be. And her time was up.

Expecting the training to go as it normally did, Kairi braced herself for Riku to summon his Keyblade and begin evasive tactics. Instead, he just chewed his lip, not looking at her. Dread swelled deep in her stomach at the breach in routine. This was it. This was the moment he told her that her training as a Keybearer had all been a stupid mistake. A thick silence had fallen, and Kairi prepared for the worst. Only the ocean made a sound.

"How about we get some breakfast?" Riku said at last.

"Uh-?" The noise that came out of her was part confusion, part sob, part relief. He hadn't said, You aren't cut out for this.

Riku only trekked up the beach, gesturing for her to follow. With trembling legs, Kairi did her best to keep up.

Kairi understood that Riku liked to keep to himself sometimes. He was the calm, quiet one to Sora's excited chatter. (She liked to think that she was the happy medium.) So she was okay with the silence that persisted as he led her back to his run-down little 'bachelor's pad' not far from where the sand turned to struggling grass. He'd inherited it from his grandfather, and bunked there when he wasn't away on Keyblade Master business. Kairi had only been inside once to see it, but now Riku was holding the torn screen door aside for her and letting her in.

Their dynamic was so different without Sora. Subdued. There were still jokes and things that could be said without having to actually say them, but God, it could be too quiet sometimes. Especially now, swinging her legs at his kitchen bar, wondering whether or not 'breakfast' was code for 'I quit, Kairi. You're untrainable.' Kairi adored Riku and hoped that her failures hadn't put a strain on their friendship. A big part of her wished that she had never been chosen for this. That they could all go back to being kids, playing on the beach all day, way before Heartless and the Keyblade War and the evil that was hiding just below the surface of it all.

She was so busy staring dejectedly at the countertop that it startled her when Riku slid a plate into her view. Kairi's eyes widened instantly in delight. A croissant...drizzled with chocolate syrup and a scoop of vanilla ice cream? No. She was dreaming. She'd overslept and was dreaming of what she wanted to have for breakfast. Dessert for breakfast was her favorite guilty pleasure meal, courtesy of her sweet tooth. For her, indulgence could be anything sweet. For Sora, it was chocolate anything. Riku was weird and didn't like sweets at all.

Kairi looked from the croissant to Riku and then back again, not sure what to say.

"A peace offering. Go ahead."

Not needing any more prompting, Kairi dug in. Compared to the protein shake and egg she'd gulped down hastily earlier, this was pure heaven. Riku stood leaning with his forearms on the counter across from her, watching with an amused look on his face.

"Takes a while to get used to it, right?" he said.

Mouth full of mouthwatering pastry goodness, Kairi just nodded. What did he mean by "it"? The getting up at 5 AM? The excruciating physical exertion, day in, day out? The terrifying expectations that everyone suddenly had for you? The fear that you were letting everyone that you knew down, permanently?

"All of it, yeah." Riku could read her mind sometimes. A beat passed where they both said nothing, and Riku let out a heavy sigh. "Guess I owe you an apology."

Good that she had finished her breakfast-dessert, or she may have choked on it in surprise. "Why?"

He blinked back at her like she was crazy. "Well-the way we're training-it's not working. I'm not helping you."

She'd never, not for a moment, thought of her failures as Riku's fault. Or as anyone's fault but her own. Honestly, this was just like him to do; to think that he was to blame when in reality he had nothing to do with her problem. She was just...full of doubt. Fear. Insecurities.

"No! No. I mean, Riku...I just suck at this." Kairi ran a finger through a remaining chocolate drizzle on her plate to try and avoid the stare he was giving her, popping the digit into her mouth. "I find out I can summon a Keyblade and everyone loses it, thinking I can help turn the tide of the war. But I'm not cut out for it." She was trying hard to keep her tone casual, but saying all of it out loud was causing the dam to burst in her chest.

"Kai, don't be like that." Swiftly, Riku had rounded the counter and was standing beside her, looking conflicted. "It's not like any of us got this down in a month. Really." He placed a hand on her arm and thankfully said nothing when tears started to course silently down her cheeks. Almost shyly (it had been so long since they were kids, unafraid of who hugged who and what it could mean), Kairi turned and leaned her face into Riku's shoulder, still sobbing without a sound. He placed his other hand on the top of her head and left it there, sturdy as a cliff face in a storm, ready to wait it out with her.

When she had finally hiccupped herself into some semblance of calm, sunrise was starting to peek in through the kitchen window. Sensing that she was ready to pull herself together, Riku took a step back, taking the dirty plate to the sink.

"Thanks, Riku. I feel a lot better," Kairi sniffed, rubbing her eye. "And... sorry."

He only shook his head, smirking. "You worry way too much. And I might have been too harsh of a teacher."

Kairi began to protest, but he put up a hand to stop her. "No, we both know it was wearing on you. You don't have to say anything to the contrary." She shut her mouth, and Riku chuckled softly. "That's what I thought."

"So...what now?"

The plate clean, Riku placed it facedown on a ragged towel near the sink. His eyes drifted to the strengthening sunrise, lingering on the ocean for so long that Kairi thought that he hadn't heard her question. "Maybe it's time you had someone new to help with your training. I have a great candidate in mind."

He hadn't said a name, but still Kairi's heart skipped with hope-Sora?-and damn it if Riku didn't miss a thing. Was she really so easy to read? That trademark wolftooth grin broke out on his face, and she felt her face reddening to compete with her hair.

"See you later, Kai. Take the day off."

So she said goodbye, thanking him again for the croissant and the good cry and the day off. The walk home was spent in an endless cycle of wondering and hoping and hoping and wondering...and more than a little self-indulgent day-dreaming. When she finally made it back to the sweet embrace of bed, she fell into a sleep that smelled like ocean and pine and something indescribable.

I like the idea that Riku is a good friend. I like Riku. He's a good guy. He'll microwave you a croissant (c'mon, he did NOT make that croissant) and let you cry on his shoulder. I wanted to explore the dynamic of the trio's friendship more through writing, and felt like Riku and Kairi were a good place to start. Especially since a lot of people ship Riku and Kairi...I just don't see it! They're buds. Let me know what you thought! :)