A/N This is my first story I've had planned for a little while now. It will focus mainly on Ryan and Marissa and is a future fic that will start off with the four in college where they all miraculously end up in Berkeley. I've take some liberties of changing a little bit of the past, such as Ryan and Marissa never breaking up over the Johnny situation, but it pretty much starts off on a different tangent which hopefully won't need to much explanation as I don't go on much about the things that have happened in the past on the show. I'm also not from the U.S. so forgive me if my descriptions of anything are a little off. Please read and review. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks.

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"Roommate wanted. Two bedroom apartment; fully furnished; applicant must be non-smoker, non-ugly, and female". Ryan looks up at Marissa clearly unimpressed.

"Hey two out of three isn't bad", she replied optimistically as she mindlessly drank her earl grey tea and read the latest Vogue.

It was a beautiful autumn day and the pair was sitting down at a local café just outside of the campus just enjoying each others company. Ryan was in the middle of searching for a new place to live while Marissa caught up on the season's trends.

Ryan continued to browse through the apartment listings. "My current room-mate has tendencies to have neurotic outbursts combined with loud music that seems to stem from Satan. There are no other dorm-rooms available for God knows how long. I'm really going to go crazy. Is there no screening process for dorm applicants?" He verbalized his frustration.

Marissa looked up amused, "Like, non neurotic-non satanic?" she said with a slight giggle taking another sip of her beverage.

"Very funny, Cooper."

"I'd go find a place with you and go halves, but I can't afford anything but the dorms really…" she smiled. "What about Seth and Summer's?" Marissa offering up another suggestion as a waiter comes past to clear their plates.

Ryan continued to cross off listings with his red marker, "I don't want impose, nor do I want to hear any sex reverberating through the walls. Plus, I think I've lived with him long enough." Ryan smiled slightly.

"Well my roommate is going out of town for a couple weeks, some family stuff, so you can crash on the futon if you want. It may help 'til you find something more permanent." Marissa kindly offered, setting down her magazine. She looked up raising her eyebrows awaiting a response.

Ryan looked up, considering for a moment, "Uh yeah that'd be really great. Thanks." He smiled. "Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Of course not. Ooh! You know what I'm thinking?" Marissa said excitedly.

Ryan, returning his focus back to the newspaper, obvious to what's about to follow. "The answer is No."

"You haven't even heard what I was going to say!" she expressed with slight offence.

Ryan inclined his head to one side looking up at her. "I know what you're already thinking Riss." 'Me staying over means movie night, means The Notebook…and then I skipped ahead and said no.' He stated bluntly.

Marissa opened her mouth in attempts to give her rebuttal. "It wasn't The Notebook necessarily."

He looked at her, "It was The Notebook", and looked back down again.

"Okay, it was, but it's something you can watch over and over…Come on Ryan", she said sweetly.

"Maybe", he said in hopes his answer will suffice.

"Good enough." She took one last sip of her tea and packed her magazine away in her bag. "I better go. I need to get to the library. Just drop by later okay."

"Yep, I'll see you later."

She grabbed her belongings and left some money on the table. "Bye". She said as she leant over to him and gave him a peck on the forehead.

While to an onlooker they may seem like a well-balanced couple, the truth is, Ryan and Marissa broke up after high school. They both decided that they would take some time apart, not because their love for each other was fading, but rather just a mutual decision where they understood that they needed to try and be independent for a while as they attempt to grasp themselves around college. Leaving their relationship open-ended, it was an unspoken agreement that meant they may see other people, they may get back together, but they also may not. Only time will tell. For now they remain the closest of friends with the greatest respect for each other.

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Meanwhile, in a quaint apartment by the heart of San Francisco, Seth and Summer were scattered across their lounge room attempting to assemble an entertainment unit for their place.

Summer was doing most of the assembly work and she had been constructing away hidden amongst the boards and shelving. "Cohen! Ninety-degree corner clamp stat." She called out from behind.

Seth looks to the floor where a plethora of tools are sprawled, examining each tool with a vacant expression. "I can't find it."

She quickly pops her head out then in quickly, "It's there next to the T-Bevel."

Seth steps carefully trying to find the right object. He looks to the instruction manual hoping to decipher some answers from the abbreviated language. He takes a shot and picks up the first thing he sees and hands it to Summer.

"Cohen, that's a C-Clamp", and she hands it back.

Attempt number two, he again picks up another random item.

"That's the vice grip. I said the Ninety-degree corner clamp." She shifts her position and forces herself to get up and retrieve the item herself. "Seth you pansy, it's right here."

Sarcastically, Seth refutes, "See I thought you wanted the Eighty-nine-degree corner clamp, that's a different story".

"Oh by the way we're doing movie night at Marissa's, she called earlier and Ryan will be there too."

"Ooh, a little tribute to Marvel and maybe afterwards a little Goonies."

Summer came out from behind their three dimensional project and grabbed a level to make sure it was all straight. "I've finished!" she exclaimed triumphantly.

"Now, now Summer, there's no 'I' in 'Team'". He said whilst sitting down on the couch and patting the spot next to him inviting her to sit.

"No, but there's a 'U' in 'Useless'", she obliged taking a seat as he wrapped his arms around her. "It's okay Cohen, I'm sure I can find some painting for you to do." She looked up at him and smiled as he kissed her lightly, and they sat admiring Summer's work.

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Marissa made her trip to the library short as she figured she should tidy the place up a bit before Ryan got there. She didn't really know what she was trying to hide or prove to him, because he's seen her place at its worst before, but felt the need to make an effort this time. She dropped her keys on the stand by the door and scanned her dorm in its entirety. Feeling slightly overwhelmed she thought about where to start first, and she began with the main living area. For the next hour she sifted through the mess and threw out her garbage, she sorted magazines, and looked for sheets and other linens for Ryan to sleep. The hour after, she spent washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, and then ensured the bathroom was orderly.

She walked past her bedroom then immediately took a step back, looking at her room thinking if there's anything she needed to do with it. Not that she thought Ryan would have any need to go in there, but in the event he might by some off chance, she entered her room and took a quick glance as she remembered her shelves that contained a large collection of photographs.

Walking over to them she browsed the images and noted the ones with just Ryan and her when they had been dating. She contemplated over leaving them up or taking them down. She doesn't really recall why she had put them up in the first place, when she had done so after they already decided to take a break. Marissa didn't want to deny that he held a special place in her heart and would always, but she thought maybe leaving them up would seem kind of pathetic, and by the off chance he did see them, he would think she couldn't move on like they had planned to.

Marissa decided, and began to take the photos of her and Ryan off her shelf. Carefully setting them down she sat on the edge of her bed and bent down to pick up a photo album that lay on the very bottom shelf. She grabbed a set of random photos that contained her and Summer, or of their little quartet, some with her parents, and began sliding each photo out with Ryan one by one out of its respective frame; slowly replacing it with another.

Placing the photo frames back in their place with its new residing images, she didn't know if she should even put back the photos of Ryan and her back into the photo album. Not that it meant nothing to her, but was it appropriate for their relationship status now? She walked to her closet and grabbed a small box from the top, deciding that she would leave the photos here for the time being; not disregarding it completely, but setting it aside until a time may come that it would be appropriate for her to publicly display the love they had for each other once again.

A knock came at the door disrupting her thoughts. She took a deep breath and placed the lid over an image of two people that were smiling at each other as they looked deep into the others' eyes. "Coming." She called out, as she propped the box back into place on her way out.

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Marissa made her way to answer the door and found Ryan carrying a large bag and a few textbooks in hand.

"Hey! Wasn't expecting you so soon", Marissa said as she offered a warm smile that he also returned.

"Hey, just brought a few things to get by on, anything else I need I'll just go back up, but as long as I'm not spending copious amounts of time trying to live there, I'll be ok."

She stepped back to give him enough space to come in. "Oh, you can just go through to Kyle's room, I asked if you could stay in her room and she's totally cool with it; Beats crashing on a futon". Marissa grabbed the books off his hands and followed him. "Try not to move a lot of stuff around, she can be a little pedantic".

Upon opening the door to Kyle's room he was taken slightly aback. It looked remarkably like Summer's old room, but ten times more feminine.

"Yeah, I know it's girly" Marissa smiled.

"Yeah just a little, but its fine, thanks", he gave a small laugh.

Marissa walked over to Kyle's systematic study table and set his books down. "I'm gonna order some Thai for dinner, any requests? Seth and Summer are also coming over by the way."

"No, whatever you get is fine. Seth and Summer? He queried as he began taking his belongings out of the bag.

"Yeah I invited them – movie night, remember?"

"Hey wait I thought that was a maybe."

"Maybe – Yes. What's the difference?" She asked innocently and proceeded out the door, leaving him to get settled.

Ryan shook his head and just smiled to himself. Watching her walk out the door he thought about whether or not this would become awkward. It would only be a couple weeks he thought, but the whole point of their time apart was to be apart, and now it feels like he sees her just as much, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. He shrugged it off.

A short while later Seth and Summer arrived, casually letting themselves in without any intention of knocking. Ryan walked out into the living area having just had a shower, and Marissa was preparing the take-out onto plates in the kitchen.

"Don't you guys knock?" Ryan questioned them.

Summer brushed it off like it was a pointless question, "Why? It's not like anyone would be having sex here."

Seth looked over at Marissa preparing dinner, "Wow Marissa, nothing says Movie night like Beef Rendang and Pad Thai. Ever heard of Pizza?" Seth said sarcastically as he took a spot on the sofa; Summer following his lead.

Marissa looked up not amused, "Ever heard of 'No dinner for you?'"

That night they ran through The Notebook, The Hulk, and The Goonies. Most of that time, Seth and Summer had been making out on the three-seater, while Marissa and Ryan sat on single armchairs at opposite ends of the relentless couple. Ryan and Marissa would occasionally stare at them in disgust and clearing their throats in attempts to make it stop.

Ryan cleared his throat once again, and Seth quickly came up for air "Marissa, go make out with Ryan he's feeling left out", and as quickly as he came up for air, he went under again.

Ryan didn't know whether he was red out of embarrassment or anger. For Marissa, she was definitely red out of embarrassment.

After the last movie, Seth and Ryan made their way outside to the trash chute to throw out the take-out containers.

Seth thought to himself about how to approach Ryan about the endless situations that may derive from Ryan staying with Marissa. He was in a flighty mood and was really only looking to put Ryan on the spot for fun.

"Let me paint you a picture." Seth began with a smile

Ryan turned his head around to see what he was going on about. "What is it Seth?"

"She's alone, in bed, sleeping, suddenly she wakes up from an awful dream. 'What should I do' she thinks to herself. She gets up and heads for your room, 'Ryan will know what to do' she says"

Ryan proceeds to shove down the garbage finding himself become more irritated by Seth's rambling.

Seth continues, "…then you say…" putting his best attempts at a more masculine voice "Marissa, what's wrong, are you okay baby?"

Now tweaking his voice to sound like Marissa "Oh no Ryan, I had a… I had a terrible dream!"

Attempting again to become Ryan, "Its okay Marissa, you can sleep with me tonight, Ryan will make it better, you just need something to take your mind off it". Seth returning to his normal voice as Ryan is just staring waiting for his little story to end. "You stare into each other's eyes, her hand brushes up against your leg, you feel a sensation, you like it, she likes it, the room begins to heat up. Ryan and Marissa make love and live happily ever after. The End."

"Firstly, I don't refer to myself in the third person, secondly…" he walks past Seth shoving him along the way.

Seth calls out after him "Hey don't take it out on me, this is just like the early morning kitchen rendezvous of '05. It could happen."

Ryan continued walking, while Seth threw out the one container he even bothered to hold and ran to catch up with Ryan.

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While the boys were taking out the garbage, Summer took her queue to prod Marissa for some answers. Marissa began to dry dishes as Summer put them back in its rightful place.

"Coop, what is this?" Summer posed her rhetorical question.

Marissa turned away from what she'd been doing to look at her. "umm…can opener?" she said plainly.

Summer narrowed her eyebrows in confusion and shook her head, "No, I meant this –" she said with hand gestures to match signaling the entire room.

Marissa looked at her vacantly.

"The situation; what's with Ryan staying here? What are you trying to do to yourself?"

Marissa rolled her eyes knowing very well where this conversation was heading. "We've been doing great as friends for the past couple of months, you guys are the only one's that think we can't do it, but we're doing it aren't we?"

"We all know you guys will find some way to get together, so why don't you just save yourselves the time?"

"We didn't say we'd necessarily get back together, we're just taking time apart and seeing how things go."

Summer questioned, "By him staying over a couple weeks is time apart?"

Marissa knew it sounded stupid, but she just wanted to help him out as friends. On a subconscious level, was she doing this for other reasons? Was she silently hoping something would come of it to undo what they did those months ago?

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Marissa began to doubt she made the right decision in inviting him. The more she thought about it, the more she felt uncomfortable. Normally she would casually strut around and inadvertently flirt with him without it meaning anything to her; these couple of weeks were meant to be a breeze, but she felt it was anything but.

Marissa came back to her place after having a long Monday with lecturers pounding information into her, turning Marissa into a drone by the end of the day.

In the last year of high school, Marissa didn't really know what she wanted to do with herself. She had no idea what she was passionate about, nothing really stood out to make a career out of it. She took a chance and adopted a communications degree in advertising and editorial, sub majoring in design; she even had a class that she shared with Seth surprisingly. While Marissa loved fashion she didn't feel keen on designing it or that wearing it down a runway was for her. She thought one day she may like to work in the art department for a fashion magazine, so she went with this.

She grabbed her mail on the way at the base of her building and made her way up the lifts. Tired, she lazily walked in straight to the kitchen and put the kettle to boil, walked to her room taking her jacket off and setting her things down.

She grabbed a change of clothes and soon after came out in comfortable shorts and a tank and headed for the bathroom to freshen up.

"AAAaahhhh!" she shrieked as her instincts told her to cover her eyes immediately.

Ryan stood naked in the shower with the curtain only halfway drawn, going with his gut reaction to cover himself with the first thing he grabbed, which was the sponge. "Riss! Shut the door!"

She shut it immediately, leant up against the door and smacked herself on the forehead. She felt flushed and wanted to crawl into a corner.

Marissa made her way back to the kitchen and continued with her initial plan to make coffee. If she thought things weren't awkward yet, they were now.

Ryan came out ten minutes later, now fully clothed. He walked to the main living area trying not to make eye contact. The air was thick with silence so Marissa took the first step.

"Look about… that" while trying to avoid his gaze, and not to mention his crotch.

"Look it's okay, it's an honest mistake" he said in attempts to waiver it off.

She nodded quietly and silence began to fill the air again.

"Oh guess what… I think I found a place." Ryan began.

Marissa's jaw dropped the tiniest ounce.

He continued, "Yeah I'm going to go check it out tomorrow, I called ahead and they said to come by in the evening, they must work in the day or whatever. It's not that far away, I checked on the map, Francisco street not too far from Seth and Summer's, and it's only half an hour from the campus, minus any traffic of course."

"That's great" she said with a smile, she was a little torn with a few emotions, happy she'll be comfortable in her own space once again, happy he might have found the right place for him, a little sad he won't be there aside from the awkwardness his presence created for her.

She kept a smile plastered for his benefit. "Coffee?"

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After his last class, Ryan drove that evening to find his prospective new home. He pulled up to a sand brick building about five storey high. He walked up the floor-boarded flights of stairs stopping on the fourth floor. He surveyed the numbers on each door, turning round the corner following a short hallway and came to number 24.

He knocked on the door twice and awaited a response. After a few moments he tried again. Checking his watch to see it was only 5:40, he thought he'd just go visit Seth to waste time and try again later.

He approached apartment 10b and could hear Seth and Summer bickering about what sounded like the two trying to fix a disaster in the kitchen. As they did last week entering Marissa's without knocking, he allowed them the same courtesy and walked on in.

"Hey!" Summer howled, "You're meant to knock Chino!"

He had a smirk on his face "there's no sex going on here"

"Seth could've been naked", Summer refuted.

Ryan narrowed his eyebrows, and set his focus to the dead bird that sat burnt on a platter. "Like burning a chicken naked, what is this The Crucible?"

"Yes Goodie Proctor, that's exactly what it could've been" Seth spoke out. "What are you doing here anyway, we weren't expecting you."

Ryan took a seat on the stool by the counter-top, "Yeah I know, I'm going to go check out this new place I found a few blocks away actually. The person's not there yet, I was a little early, I'll try again in a bit."

"This chicken has had it, we're going to have to order in." Summer said as she left for the other room to make the call.

"Want me to come with you?" Seth offering to Ryan

"Why?" Ryan asked, unsure.

"You may need me"

"For..?"

Seth kept on whilst attempting to scrape the burnt pieces off the oven tray, "…protection. For all you know they could just put these ads out there to lure naïve people like yourself and bring you in to beat you up and take your money. Like a Von Doom of some sort." He persisted with his Fantastic Four reference.

Ryan looked up at Seth, "And…you're going to…protect me?" he finished slowly.

"Hey, next to you I'm the next best thing"

Ryan squinted his eyes and thought for a moment, "Actually, the next best thing is Summer."

Seth shook his head a realized he's not getting anywhere with this. "Fine, how about I'm bored and I just want to come okay."

"You could've just said that to begin with."

Summer soon walked back out, "Seth, can you go pick up the Chinese I ordered later, about 20 minutes."

"Yeah I'll pick it up on the way back after I go with Ryan to check out the place", Seth said.

Summer nodded slowly, "Why?"

"…Because I'm a sheltered little boy who needs to get out and play."

Ryan just shook his head.

Summer just ignored his last comment, "here's the money for the food", she said while taking a fifty out of her wallet. "I ordered extra. Ryan you're welcome to have dinner here."

"Thanks", Ryan grabbed his keys as he and Seth headed out the door.

Ryan pulled up once again to the sand brick apartment building. Seth gave it a once over. "Cozy."

For the second time he approached number 24 and knocked on the door as Seth waited in the background with his hands in his pockets staring at the ceiling light.

The door opened revealing a young woman about their age, shamelessly wearing nothing but her pink laced boy-leg underwear and a bra to match. She stood at 5"7' with her golden brown hair tied in a pony tail. Her sun-kissed skin, porcelain face, and toned figure made Ryan and Seth stand in awe. Eyes wide open and Seth's mouth slightly ajar, they were pleasantly shocked to see the girl who answered the door.

"Hi, I'm Sarah, sorry I just got off work and I was about to get changed." She smiled which shifted to a puzzled expression when the guys hadn't said anything.

"Definitely not Von Doom", said Ryan under his breath.

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