"You know, I've been thinking..."

"You always are, Sora," Riku said, smiling as he overlooked the ocean from his favorite perch on the bent branch of the palm tree that grew on their island.

Kairi leaned back, giggling, from where she sat next to Riku in order to offer Sora a hand as he scrambled up onto the branch between them. "He's right," she said, her face still crinkled up with humour. It was good to see Kairi laugh - something she didn't do quite as often as she'd used to, when they'd first planned to set out on their tiny raft Highwind. But then, she'd grown up during their travels. All three of them had.

"Seriously, guys," Sora said, showing his friends what he held in his other hand; a paopu fruit. "You remember what they say about these things, right?"

"Yeah, of course," Riku replied, with a wink. "They say that if two people share one, their lives will be intertwined by destiny. Why? Are you planning to offer it to someone?"

"Aww, come on, Riku," Sora said. Riku was always teasing him, especially about Kairi, but Sora knew he didn't mean anything meanspirited by it. Looking down at the bright yellow, star-shaped fruit in his hands, Sora went on, "Actually... yeah. I was wondering if both you guys would wanna share this with me. We've been through so much together. You guys are my best friends, and that's really important to me. There were times when I... I would've given up, you know, if it hadn't been for you guys."

"I know what you mean," Riku said softly, putting a hand on Sora's shoulder. "We've been friends as long as I can remember, even through some really dark times."

"Yeah. I don't like to think about it," Kairi said, hugging herself and shivering, though the island breeze was calmingly warm. Turning to Sora and Riku, she added, "I'm just glad I have friends like you."

"Me too," Sora agreed. "That's why I want to share this with you. I want us to always be a part of each other's lives."

"Let's do it!" Kairi agreed, that same happy giggle lighting up her whole face again.

"Yeah!" Riku agreed enthusiastically. He and Kairi reached over and all three friends broke the paopu fruit apart together. As they bit into the bright orange inside of the large, starshaped fruit, the juice ran messily down their chins and all over their hands and the front of their clothes - then, all at once, all of them were laughing with carefree abandon.

"Hey, Sora," Riku said, "you've got some on your nose."

"Who cares?" Kairi replied with a shrug. "It's all over us!"

"I'm so glad we did this, guys," Sora said, wiping the back of one hand across his face. Instead of wiping away any of the paopu juice, it just spread it around, however. Luckily, no one cared about the mess, just as Kairi had said. Sora threw an arm around each of his friends' shoulders and pulled them in close for a quick hug. "I love you guys."

"Same here," Riku agreed, and Kairi nodded enthusiastically.

The three friends watched for a while as the setting sun reflected gold and red off the waves of the sea around their small island. They would be a part of each others lives forever, no matter what.

Of course, they didn't need a piece of fruit to tell them that.