If it Never Happened

Chapter 17: The Final Confession

Roxas felt like an idiot… no she WAS an idiot. What made her think she could hold onto a guy like Terra? Her first clue should have been the fact Terra knew Vanita...if he knew her that had to mean he knew Venus. If he knew Venus why hadn't he question her about her looks, nor compare them?

The answer was simple...he didn't want her to know she was being compared to Venus.

"I'm such an idiot." Roxas sniffed and curled into Sora who stroked her hair and held her tight.

"Terra is the idiot. He should have told you upfront about his history with Vanita and Venus. We've known him for three years now and he didn't tell us anything." Sora's temper flared up and it took all her will power to keep stroking and not make a personal visit to Terra and kick his ass.

"He'll I thought at least Venus would tell us she knew him but no...innocent my butt. I've decided she and Vanita are both evil!"

"I don't blame her Sora… I don't even blame Vanita. She tried to warn me but wanted Terra to come clean on his own...and then Venus just pops out of nowhere and it all clicked together in my head."

"It didn't matter. That didn't make this right. You shouldn't have found out this way Roxas...you shouldn't-" Sora trailed off when the doorbell sound. Frowning, she stood up and cracked her knuckles ready to let out a beatdown… and blinked when she saw Aqua standing at their front door. "Aqua?!"

"Hello Sora, it's nice to see you." Aqua smiled warmly and hugged her arms to her chest. "I was hoping I could talk to Roxas for a few minutes."

Hesitant, Sora glanced back at her sister on the couch and then back at Aqua.

"Now's not really a good time. Her and Terra just-"

"I know…" Aqua threaded her hands together now and looked nervous. "That's why I wanted to talk to her. I came to apologize."

Roxas' head shot up and then slowly she got to her feet narrowing her eyes on Aqua.

"Apologize? You mean… you KNEW why Terra-"

"Yes… Terra and I were friends with Venus back in Junior High. I guess you could say Vanita was too but I never really got along with her. Terra and I both felt Vanita was isolating her too much, keeping her from making friends, so we wanted to make sure Venus at least had us." She paused and cleared her throat. "May I come inside? It's a bit awkward saying all this from the doorway.

Sora and Roxas exchanged looks, and Roxas gave Sora a go ahead nod. Sora stepped back letting her inside and Aqua looked grateful.

"Thanks…" She stepped up to Roxas. "I should have told you when we first met… but I didn't want to drag up bad memories. You see in order for us to get closer to Ven Terra dated Vanita for awhile. It made it so the four of us were always together. However, the closer Terra got to Ven… the more he realized he wanted to be more than just her friend. He was going to tell her he liked her… but Venus shut him down before he could even get the words out."

"She… what? Roxas narrowed her eyes.

~Flashback~

While Aqua kept Vanita busy with a game, Terra finally had his chance to be alone with Venus. They sat side by side together doing homework, terra's arm casually bumping on hers.

"Sorry…" he apologized when Ven jerked away startled by the contact. "You okay?"

"Y-Yeah… I just… Terra I need some advice." She set her pen down and strung her fingers together.

"Sure," he set his own pencil down and turned to face her. "What's the advice?"

"I… that is…" she played with her fingers in her normal nervous gesture. "I wanted to know how you got the courage to ask my sister out."

He tensed up at that and glanced back towards the basketball court where Aqua was keeping Vanita busy.

"That's a little difficult to explain… I guess the best way to describe it is… I wanted to, so I did."

"Just like that? Weren't you afraid she'd turn you down?" She gripped her fingers together. "Weren't you afraid she didn't have those feelings for you? That she might have them for someone else."

Terra's face fell and he lowered his eyes to those nervous hands.

"Do you have someone you like, Venus?"

Venus went bright red and she buried her face in her hands nodding slowly.

"I do… He's cool, and strong, and so handsome. I like him so much I feel like my heart is just gonna burst out of my chest." She touched her chest. The desperate look in her eyes had Terra's heart crumbling at his feet.

"You should tell him." He told her and hesitated before taking her hand in his. "If you feel things strongly for someone he deserves to know."

"I want to… I really want to but I can't… i just can't." She shut her eyes tightly. "He already has someone he likes, she likes him too and they're so good together. I couldn't possibly come between them."

"I see, then he's the fool." He stroked a thumb over the back of her hand. "There's no one who's more girlfriend worthy than you, Venus."

"Thanks, Terra…" she smiled tearily at him and slowly pulled her hand away to pick up her pencil again. "You're such a great friend. I'm so glad you and my sister started dating. She's so lucky to have a boyfriend like you."

"Yeah…" Terra turned back to his homework, pain aching in his chest that his love was shut down before he'd had a chance to say anything. "I'm lucky to have her."

"Terra!" Vanita hugged him from behind suddenly and kissed his cheek. "Miss me?"

"Yeah…" He offered her a quick smile and kiss. "Of course."

"Hey," Venus wiped her tears quickly and offered up a small smile. "How did the game turn out?"

"Naturally, I kicked Aqua's ass…" She looked between the two and frowned. "Something wrong?"

"No!" Venus held up her hands laughing nervously. "Just got dust in my eye, I think we should move the studying inside."

"Right…" Vanita narrowed her eyes on the two of them suspiciously and helped Venus carry her books inside. As Terra gathered his own things Aqua came up wiping sweat from her brow.

"How did it go?" Aqua asked. "Did you tell her."

"No… and I'm not going to." Terra told her irritably and shoved his books in his bag.

"Why not? She deserves to know."

"Maybe… but I don't deserve her." Terra slumped back down and put his head in his hands. "What had I been thinking dating Vanita to get to her? Venus will never forgive me if I tell her the truth."

"Terra…" Aqua pat his back. "You need to tell her."

"No, I don't." Terra frowned. "We're her friends, Aqua. Venus needs friends, and Vanita's a lot more open and friendly now that we're together. I'm not going to ruin all of that just because of these stupid feelings."

He shoved his backpack over his shoulder and hurried to catch up to Vanita. He wrapped an arm around her smiling and joking as if nothing was wrong… but Aqua clearly saw the strain in the smile, and wondered just how long this would last.

~End of Flashback~

"So Terra hid his feelings because Venus had feelings for someone else and he didn't want to jeopardize the friendship you four had?" Roxas held her heart. "He's hidden it this entire time?"

"It wasn't long before Vanita finally caught onto what was going on. She was livid and forbade him from coming near her or her sister again. She completely shut us out and made sure Venus did too. Not too long after that Terra and I moved here so we never got the chance to clear up things. Terra was an emotional wreck, especially after the loss of his parents. We started dating right into high school because I wanted a chance to bring the old Terra back, and to help him get over Venus… but seeing you and Sora just kept those memories in view."

Roxas sat back down on the couch her eyes wet again.

"Poor Terra."

"Poor Terra my butt!" Sora snapped and her cheeks puffed out. "Is he an idiot?"

"Sora?" Roxas turned around.

"Can't he see that the guy Venus was talking about was him? She likes him too." Sora confirmed… Aqua and Roxas stare awestruck and she held out her hands. "What? You mean you guys didn't notice? Venus didn't have much contact with other people right? Terra is the only guy she'd gotten close to, so of course she was talking about him."

"You… huh… wow." Aqua laughed. "I never made that connection. Now that you pointed it out… it is pretty obvious."

"Since when is Miss Oblivious suddenly so observant?" Roxas teased and had Sora's cheeks puffing out.

"Hey!"

"If that's the case, then I hope she and Terra tell each other how they really feel." Roxas smiled and stood up. "We can finally put a cap on all these misunderstandings."

"I agree…" Aqua walked over and hugged Roxas. "I also think you should be honest with yourself Roxas. Trust me you'll feel better for it." She pulled back smiling. "I should go… but I wanted to say I'm sorry for the part I had in this… and I hope everything works out."

"Thanks Aqua… I guess you're not as heartless as I thought." Roxas hugged her tight. "Thanks for coming."

"Anytime… let's hang out again sometime." She smiled and waved at the two before leaving. Sora waited two whole beats before looking at her sister.

"Should I tell mom you're going to be out for awhile?"

"Yeah…" Roxas immediately headed for the door. "Tell her not to wait up!" She slipped her shoes on and ran all the way to Axel's house.

~Meanwhile~

Xehanort had cleared everything up with Venus' mom to have her stay with him, Vanita and Terra. Now settled with her own room Venus took the time to wander around the big house, wide eyed and curious. During her wander she found Terra in the library. Her heart did a slow little roll in her chest at the sight of him. He really was as handsome as she remembered.

It made her sigh seeing the sad look on his face. She played with her fingers in her traditional nervous habit before stepping into the room.

"Terra?"

Terra glanced up from his book and met her eyes.

"Venus… have you settled in?"

"Yeah…" She closed the door behind her and walked to him. "I'm sorry about what happened at the docks, Terra. I don't know what happened between you two… but I can tell it upset you."

"I deserve it… trust me." He closed the book he'd been pretending to read and sighed. "I just keep making mistakes… and in the end I just hurt people I care about."

"Terra…" she lifted a hand to cup his cheek. "If there's something you need to get off your chest… you know you can tell me right?" She scoot closer to him. "I'd hoped, even after your break up with Vanita, you still consider me a friend."

"Ven…" he leaned his cheek into her hand and shut his eyes. "I was your friend, I tried so hard to be your friend… but I just can't."

Ven's expression turned pained and her hand started to slip off his cheek. He grabbed it and kept it there.

"I don't think of you as a friend… what I feel for you goes beyond any kind of friendship." He looked her in the eyes, saw the tears starting to form. "Do you understand?"

"Terra… are you saying that all this time… I'm… that I?" Her voice cracked as she let out a quick sob. She pulled back holding her mouth.

"I'm sorry if this hurts you, Ven, but Vanita is right. I can't hold it in anymore. I don't want to hurt anyone else by lying to myself." He held her face making her look at him. "I love you, Venus. I have since Junior High. I made a fool out of myself, dating your sister to get close to you, relying and using Aqua, and now Roxas just to try and get over you when you told me you had feelings for someone else. I can't do it anymore, Venus. I love you… I want-" he trailed off when she went into a mix of laughter and crying. "What's so funny?"

"My god we're both idiots…" Venus laughed and sobbed at the same time. "All this time, I thought you still had feelings for Vanita… I thought you loved her because you were so good and happy together and I just." She covered her face, happy, and embarrassed. "Terra...don't you understand? You're the one I had feelings for. It was you the whole time."

Terra's breath caught in his throat and he jerked up from the shock.

"You… what?"

"I couldn't tell you how I felt because I thought you loved my sister… and my sister had feelings for you, she was so open and happy with you, I didn't want to ruin that." She laughed more through the hysterics. "When you guys broke up, and stayed distant from each other I felt so guilty… my sister kept giving me these pained looks and i felt even more guilty. Now I know why… now I know the truth and I'm so stupidly happy."

"Ven…" he knelt in front of her cupping her face in his hands. "Do you really mean it? It's me? I'm the one you-" he cut off when she leaned right in and fixed her mouth on his. Terra's eyes popped open and his hands slipped into her hair holding on tight. When the kiss broke Venus looked up and smiled tearily at him.

"Yes… I love you, Terra."

"Ven…" Tears of his own spilled out and he held her to him. "God I should have told you ages ago… I love you. I love you so much."

"Terra… just one thing before we get too far ahead of ourselves." She pulled back smiling. "Promise miss you won't go out with anymore girls…"

"Only you Ven…" he kissed her hands and then her lips. "From now on the only girl for me is you."

~Axel~

Axel tuned his guitar, the hit on his cheek bandaged and the swelling lessoned from the ice pack. Still he'd have a nice fat bruise there, and a sore jaw. He owed Terra for that and for what he did to Roxas.

Even though things were over between her and Terra, he couldn't be as optimistic as Vanita that he and Roxas were headed for reconciliation. When you faced heartache like that, it was hard to bounce back… even harder to face the fears of rejection once again.

He sighed heavily and strummed a tune… and jerked when he saw a shadow in the doorway of his garage. His eyes narrowed against the setting sun and he set his guitar aside.

"Did you forget something, Vanita?"

"I'm not Vanita…" Roxas said her breath panting out.

"Roxas?" He stood up looking shocked at her flushed face and wild eyes.

"I did forget something though." She said and stepped towards him.

"Oh? What is it?" He met her half way and tensed up when she slid a hand over his heart, those beautiful blue eyes glittering with tears, but a smile spread on her lips.

"This… I keep leaving it behind, and walking away from it because it scares me. I'm sorry about that Axel." She gently fisted her hand in his shirt. "If you're still offering it to me, I'd like to hold onto it… and keep it for good this time."

"Roxas…" he laid his hand over hers.

"In return…" Roxas let out a small sob. "Will you hold onto this." She put his hand over her heart. "Keep it as long as you want… use it, abuse it, do whatever you want with it but just… just don't throw it away."

Emotional, relieved Axel nodded and brought her in close burying his face in her hair.

"I won't… I'll keep it as long as you want me to. I'll cherish it forever if you'd let me."

"Please do…" She cried and clung to him sobbing gratefully. "Keep it with you always."

"I will… I love you, Roxas."

"I love you too Axel…" she lifted her head up meeting his eyes. "I always have."

As the sun set and night fell, their mouths met in a kiss that would forever be branded in Roxas' memory. This time, she thought, she wouldn't take these memories or feelings for granted. She'd cherish them with every fiber of her being.

~Ask Briry~

Briry: Meant to get this posted a long time ago, but had some computer difficulties. Thanks for your patience!

Final Chapter: Epilogue