AUTHOR'S NOTE: Next chapterrrrrr! Glad everyone liked seeing Ven in the last chapter :-D I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone's reaction is to this chapter. We've got some more people showing up!

Sorry that this took so long by the way. I had so many essays due for university but they're all in now thankfully!

Thank you to The ninja of anime3, Silverbird22, relena soulheart, Queen Micky, Kasagai-chan, FanFictionWriter123, Anne Onimus, Jagaimo-san, NINA, Riley and Nme for reviewing the last chapter! And in response to Anne Onimus's review, it wasn't on purpose that Ventus came back in chapter 13 but I really wish I had thought that through like that cause it was a pretty good coincidence! :-D

(You Guest people are mad! Thank you so much for reviewing every chapter since the beginning! Your support means the world to me!)

Hope you all enjoy! Please revieeeeeew!

This chapter is dedicated to unicorn1000 and IceAurora.

DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix and Disney. I own my OCs Hana, Chizu, Machi, Mariko, Hisano, Yukiko and Hainoki.

Chapter 14 – A Thousand Winds

~Hana's POV~

Unlike with Aqua, we didn't have to get Ven caught up with everything he missed since he knew it all already having heard the whole thing when we told Sora originally. The whole concept of Ven being there the entire time in reality was a bit hard for Mariko and Machi to understand but Hisano and Chizu just went with it. By this point everyone had sort of just established that a lot of things here didn't make much sense.

Everyone seemed to like Ventus, and with good reason. He was very sweet and funny and, as I had pointed out to Hisano multiple times in the past, he was pretty much Roxas without the anger management issues.

Chizu was still oblivious to the fact that Ven seemed to have a thing for her. Hisano and I had clued in Machi, Mariko and Riku and we all found it rather funny how Ven could talk to any of us perfectly normally but as soon as he tried to talk to Chizu he started to trip over his words and his face turned red.

Chizu wasn't stupid however, and she had noticed that Ven was acting different around her than he was around the rest of us. We'd been back from Castle Oblivion for a few hours and we'd pretty much just been talking when Chizu grabbed my arm and dragged me down to the shoreline.

"What's wrong?" I asked the shorter girl who was frowning down at her feet.

She looked back over at the main group where Ven and Aqua were laughing with Mariko before she sighed and looked back up at me. "Does Ven hate me for some reason?"

Despite the serious look on her face I couldn't stop myself from laughing. "Nope. He definitely does not hate you. That much I do promise you."

"Well then why is he so weird around me?" she grumbled. "It's like when you first met Riku!"

I didn't say anything in response and just stared at her waiting for her to realise what she'd just said. Slowly her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open slightly. "Hold on. Ven…does he…?"

She gestured wildly with her hands so nobody else would have understood. Luckily I knew Chizu well enough that I knew what those hand flails meant.

"Yes Chizu, he likes you," I smiled as I watched her face flare up.

"But…but why? He only just met me today. That isn't how it works!" she spoke very quickly and very high pitched.

"Cause you were flirting with Sora and it sorta affected Ven by accident."

Chizu blinked. "Wait, what?"

~Hisano's POV~

"So she's in the cave now?"

Hana nodded. "She felt really bad about the whole situation so she wanted some time to think."

I frowned. "What's she got to feel bad about?"

"She feels bad that Ven likes her in that way and she didn't realise she was making him feel that way," Hana explained.

I still didn't get it. "But it's not like she realised she was doing it. She's got no reason to feel bad if she wasn't doing it on purpose to hurt him or anything."

Hana sighed. "Look, she feels bad. Just let her come round in her own time."

I rolled my eyes but I didn't push it. Hana knew Chizu much better than I did so she'd know how to deal with her.

We were sitting on a log watching Kairi and Machi spar. Neither Ven nor Aqua had seen any of us fight yet and they'd been curious to see where we were in our training. Machi and Mariko had already had their turn, then it had been me and Hana. Kairi had planned to spar Chizu but that was when we realised she wasn't there anymore so Machi volunteered in Chizu's place.

Sora called time on Machi and Kairi's match and they both dismissed their keyblades before high-fiving each other. The puffball that Machi had named Rin bounded up to her as if to congratulate her too. I smiled slightly; I really don't like cats but the puffball was growing on me.

"That was really good girls," Sora smiled as Kairi sat down next to him before they attempted to hide the fact they were now holding hands. I shook my head and Hana laughed. They were stupid for trying to hide it; we all knew they were pretty much together by this point.

"You're all really good," Aqua smiled, "although Hana and Hisano seemed to have a more natural talent for the keyblade."

"We playing the video games a lot more than the others," Hana explained, "so technically we have more experience. Mariko is much better at magic than us though, and Machi has Rin to help her."

Aqua held her hand out towards the Dream Eater and he shuffled forward to sniff it before allowed Aqua to pet him. She smiled. "He is very cute. I've never seen these things before."

"They popped up during mine and Sora's Mark of Mastery exam," Riku explained.

"Sounds like your exam was a lot more exciting than mine and Terra's," Aqua snorted. "We just had to fight some balls of light and then spar against each other."

"Lucky…" Sora muttered, at which Kairi lightly slapped his arm.

"It wasn't as easy as it sounds," Aqua admitted. "Master Xehanort interfered and made the balls of light trickier to destroy. Plus they became more violent. Ven had to help us despite our protests."

We all laughed and expected Ven to say something in retort but he didn't. When I glanced over he was just staring at the ground with a frown on his face. I locked eyes with Hana and she nodded. We agreed: he was probably thinking about Chizu.

Wanting to spare him any embarrassment Hana quickly changed the subject to divert attention away from him. "So the plan is that we're going to rescue Yukiko and Terra at the same time, right?"

Riku nodded. "Yes, but we're not going to attempt to attack Xehanort; we're not strong enough for that yet. There's obviously a very big chance that we'll have to fight while we're rescuing them so we'll have to be tactical about it."

"I think we can help with that."

Everyone's head whipped around to see Lea standing there with a huge grin on his face. Behind him stood six very familiar faces who were – with the exception of a certain brunette and blonde – also grinning.

"Leon! Guys!" Sora cried, jumping up and running over to the Hollow Bastion crew.

Leon smiled and high fived Sora before Yuffie practically jumped on him.

"How yah been Sora?" the young ninja asked, ruffling his hair. "How'd your exam go?"

Sora shook her off but his grin didn't fade. "Well, some stuff happened and I didn't pass. Riku did though! He's a fully-fledged master now!"

As soon as those words left Sora's mouth everyone crowded around Riku congratulating him. He looked very embarrassed and mumbled his thanks before slipping out of the crowd and sitting down next to Hana with his face beet-red.

"So are these the girls Lea told us about?" Aerith asked, smiling at all of us.

"Yep!" Sora nodded. "Girls, this is Leon, Yuffie, Cloud, Aerith, Cid and Tifa. Everyone, this is Machi, Mariko, Hisano and Hana. Chizu should be here…"

"She's in the cave," Hana said quickly. "She didn't feel too good. She'll be back in a bit."

Ven's head shot up at the mention of Chizu and Hana grinned when she noticed.

"So, Lea here told us you needed our help," Cid said with his arms folded across his chest and an eyebrow raised.

"We'd appreciate if you could," Riku said plainly, standing up again. He quickly introduced Aqua and Ventus before explaining our plan to rescue Terra and Yukiko. "We didn't want to ask you to actually take on the 13 darknesses, but there will probably be heartless and potentially dusks and unversed to deal with as well."

Cloud nodded without Riku saying another word. "Of course we'll help. Leon, Tifa, Yuffie and I can take out the heartless while the rest of you deal with Xehanort's goons."

"We won't be fighting to destroy Xehanort," Hana clarified. "This is purely a rescue mission."

"Well when you do go to fight Xehanort for real, we'll be there to help," Leon promised, and everyone else nodded.

Sora smiled. "Thank you everyone."

"Where are Donald and Goofy?" Kairi asked. "I thought they were taking the Gummi Ship to get people to help us."

"Yeah, they came to get us along with Lea," Leon said. "They said they were going to other worlds to try and get more people to help."

"But we were planning on going to get Terra and Yukiko tomorrow," Mariko frowned. "They won't get here in time, will they?"

"Probably not," Riku agreed, "but they'll hopefully be able to help us when we fight Xehanort for real."

"Xehanort hopefully won't be expecting us tomorrow," Machi pointed out, "but when we go back to fight them properly he'll be much more prepared so we'll need the extra help."

Everyone nodded in agreement as Yuffie plopped herself down next to Machi. "The teeny one's right. Their help'll be more useful when we go to fight them for real."

"Hey!" Machi protested. "I'm not teeny!"

"You are rather teeny Machi," I pointed out.

"No, you'll all just too tall," Machi grumbled, pouting.

Everyone laughed as her face turned red. Yuffie bonked her lightly on the head. "Sorry, Machi right? Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."

Machi smiled and shook her head. "Don't worry, it's fine. I'm used to it from these guys."

"Yeah, we do bully her a lot," Mariko agreed.

"Hey guys?" Lea spoke up suddenly. "Where's Ventus?"

~Chizu's POV~

I rested my head on my knees, my back up against the cool stone wall of the cave. It was completely silent except for the occasional cicada chirping. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly to try and clear my head.

I felt awful, I couldn't help it. I'd always liked Sora but I knew he wasn't going to like me back in the same way we were all pretty sure Riku liked Hana. Even so apparently I'd still been flirting without realising it; honestly, I wasn't aware that I'd been flirting. I didn't even think I was any good at flirting but apparently it had worked, just not on the intended person.

A smile pricked at the corners of my mouth as I thought about Ventus. He really was lovely, and he was pretty cute. I just felt guilty that I'd been apparently flirting with him and not realising it.

"Um…Chizu?"

My head snapped up and I locked eyes with Ventus. A blush rapidly spread over my cheeks and I looked down again. "Um…hey."

Ven looked around nervously. "Is it…is it okay if I sit down?"

I smiled shyly and nodded. "Of course it is."

Ven awkwardly shuffled over next to me and sat down before he looked at the wall behind him. "Are these all Sora and Kairi's drawings?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so," I nodded. "I feel kinda bad being in here since it was their special place but…" I trailed off, not really knowing how to finish that sentence.

I heard Ven swallow before he turned to look at me. "Hana said you weren't feeling too good. I just wanted to check that you were okay."

I looked up at him and saw the honest concern in his eyes. My heart skipped a beat. He really was such a sweet guy. He'd barely known me five minutes and he was concerned about me. I smiled properly and nodded. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I just needed some time to think stuff over."

Ven nodded slowly before he squeezed his eyes shut, his hands clenching into fists as he took a deep breath. "Please don't hate me for this…"

I frowned. "Hate you for wha-"

My sentence was cut off when Ven suddenly pressed his lips against mine.

I was frozen in shock until Ven leaned away from me and dropped his gaze to the ground. "I…I'm really sorry. I just…I couldn't stop myself anymore. I've wanted to do that ever since Sora first saw you…"

My face probably looked like a tomato by this point and I was really grateful that the cave was dark enough that he wouldn't be able to tell. "W…why?" I managed to splutter out.

Ven laughed slightly. "I don't know in all honesty. Well, other than the fact that you're really kind and funny and loyal. Plus you're really pretty…" his voice trailed off in embarrassment as he buried his face in his hands. "I'm sorry, I know how sudden that must have seen. To you it must be like we only met a couple of hours ago but I've known you ever since you were introduced to Sora."

Before I could argue he spoke again. "And…I know that you liked Sora. But since he's in love with Kairi he never noticed, but I did and the things you were doing to try and get Sora to notice you ended up attracting my attention. I know all that and I still kissed you…" Ven now sounded angry at himself as he looked away from me. "I'm such a selfish idiot…"

In the spur of the moment in an attempt to stop Ven from being angry at himself I reached out and squeezed his hand. He jerked up as if he'd been shocked by a thunder spell and stared at me in confusion.

"You're not a selfish idiot," I mumbled quietly. "I'm the idiot. I'm sorry I didn't realise what I was doing to you…"

Ven squeezed my hand back, relaxing slightly. "You're not an idiot Chizu," he said softly causing a shiver to go up my spine. "You had no way of knowing what was going on."

"I know but still…" I tried to protest.

"No Chizu," Ven interrupted. "You're not in the wrong here."

I disagreed but I didn't say anything, very aware that Ven was still holding my hand but I didn't mind in the slightest.

"So…um…" Ven started nervously, "if I promise not to randomly kiss you again, are we okay?"

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, we're okay."

Ven stood up, still holding my hand, and gently pulled me up. He smiled before leaning towards me and gently kissing my forehead. I blushed again but smiled and when Ven saw that he also smiled.

"Maybe the kissing you randomly still stands," he murmured before leading me out of the cave. My face must have now been every shade of red under the sun, but oddly I didn't mind.

Ven rarely let go of my hand for the rest of the day and Hisano – weirdly – couldn't stop smiling.

The couple of times I looked up at Hana though, she seemed to be glaring at me.

AN: Oooooo…potential drama! Coming up next: the rescue mission! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!