A/N: This oneshot is based off of the Ana's Request mission with Reve and the avatar. However, it has a little bit afterwards and is under different circumstances. My avatar, Katy, is a HUmarl and has the blonde braid and the first costume, with all the blue and pink. She always has a Grasiza+40 and a sky blue Chato for a Mag. Oh, by the way, I may or may not be extremely random. See, folks, this is why my friends like me. You will discover why near the end of this chapter. I have given you fair warning.

Disclaimer: I don't own Phantasy Star 0.

Phantasy Star 0: A Change of Heart.

I tap my foot impatiently. This is taking far too long for my liking. If I'm supposed to have a partner in this job, then why are they taking so long?

Wait, I see someone walking over here. Oh, it can't possibly be—

"Hey, Reve! Are you the only other one who signed up for this quest?"

And it is. It's Katy, the human—sorry, girl—who helped me defeat Mother Trinity. I went along with Katy, Sarisa, and Ogi, but of all of them, Katy always made me feel useless. She usually goes on quests swinging around her Grasiza+40, destroying every hostile we come across almost effortlessly. She's not invincible, though. Sarisa usually heals all of us, but the grunt probably isn't coming this time. Luckily, Sarisa isn't the only one who knows healing spells. Not that I enjoy casting healing spells, I can, and Katy isn't shabby with techniques herself. Half of her techniques are already level 9.

Whatever the case, I don't want to go on a quest with Katy when I know she'll just stab through everything and make me feel like a rag doll, especially when I can handle this mission by myself.

"Reve?" Katy inquires, waving a hand in front of my face playfully.

"Yes, I am the only other one who signed up for this quest. Any more questions?" I snap.

Katy jumps back. "Er, no."

"Oh, good, you're both here!" The CAST, Lindow, approaches us with a smile. How giant hunks of metal smile beats me, but her smile sure seems genuine. "I'm sure you understand this quest?"

"Yeah. It's something about the guardian robot acting up again, right?" Katy recalls.

Lindow nods. "Yes, this mission is restricted to only the best of hunters. Apparently, this robot has been malfunctioning for quite a while. It attacks whoever enters without mercy, instead of protecting the ruins. We need you to destroy it once and for all."

"Got it."

"Let's go, Katy," I say, walking quickly towards the teleporter. She follows right behind me—in fact, so close behind me that she's breathing on the back of my neck. "Will you stop that?"

"Stop what?" she asks innocently. She must not realize how close she's standing.

I sigh. "You're breathing on my neck. Can you just walk beside me?"

"Oh. Sorry, Reve." She laughs nervously, stepping to my side as we enter the Arca Plant.

Right away, some hostiles appear. Among them is an Arkzein, one of the large robots with a cannon and homing missiles. Another reason Katy makes me feel useless here is because she can withstand at least three of those homing missiles, while I can take two at most. Gah, level forties...

We fight through those hostiles with some difficulty, me swinging my saber and Katy with her freaking awesome Grasiza+40...You tell anyone about this and I shall hunt you down, torture you, and feed you to the giant octopus in the marshlands.

I notice that Katy is limping slightly. I glance in her direction, and she seems to feel my eyes on her, because she turns to look at me and asks, "What?"

"You're hurt," I reply. "Let's rest for a bit."

She starts to protest, but my glare must be convincing enough, as she sits down and begins healing her leg, even though she grumbles quite a bit about it.

After a few minutes I begin to feel impatient, but choose not to say anything, as it will break her concentration and take longer in the end. And yet, Katy talks instead, still managing to concentrate on healing. "Are you uncomfortable around others?"

I instinctively reply, "What?"

"Are you uncomfortable around others?" she repeats, somewhat irritated.

I frown, then decide to reply. "No, it's not that. I just don't see anything wrong with silence. It is not a painful thing to keep silent to me, so I try not to speak unless necessary."

"Oh," she replies, standing up and stretching her legs. "Shall we go?"

I nod, and we head for the next area. As usual, a group of hostiles appears. We fight them off with ease, considering it's simply an Akorse and some Korses. The trick with those is to destroy the Akorse; then the Korses all explode shortly thereafter.

"You know, I've always wondered why no one else ever seems to want the stuff in the treasure box after we fight something," Katy says as she picks up the stuff from the ground.

"It's because we get paid more than you do at the end of the quest," I reply as she picks up the last of the Meseta, our currency.

She looks startled. "Well, that's unfair..."

"No, I'm kidding. We actually get less than you. It's just that we don't constantly upgrade our weapons and armor, because we have you on our team, and we know that you'll always be stronger than the rest of us, no matter what we do."

"You? Kidding? Have I somehow disrupted your brain cells from their usual 'gloom and doom'?"

I roll my eyes and continue walking. "Keep up, or I'll abandon you."

"Ah, there's the Reve we all know and love. Give him a hand, guys!" Katy claps somewhat hysterically.

And suddenly Sarisa, Ogi, and Kai are all clapping beside her. Either I'm hallucinating, or they seriously did that just to terrify me.

I shake my head and continue walking. Katy begins walking closely and breathing on my neck again. This time I'm sure she's doing it on purpose. I shoot another glare at her. "Really?"

"Really what?"

I shoo her away. "You're getting really annoying, Katy. Don't be sure I won't ditch you."

"Like you would. You said yourself that you can never hope to get tougher than me," Katy replies, smacking an Akorse in the head and killing it instantly.

I sigh.

Eventually we make it to the room the giant robot is residing in, but there is no sign of it.

"Finally, our mission is almost over," I mutter in what could only be labelled as relief. "It's not that I don't enjoy being around people, but like I said before, silence isn't painful for me, and people looking over my shoulder and breathing down my neck are not high on my 'likes' list."

"You have a likes list?" Katy wonders.

"Not really. Now where could that robot be...?"

"Um, Reve?"

I glare back at her. "What?"

"You do realize that it could be anywhere in this Plant, right?"

"Of course I do. Why do you ask?"

"Uh, no reason. Just...er...watch where you're stepping. Once, I followed Ogi in here, and I set off the security system..." She blushes in embarrassment. "It was not good."

"I'll be sure to watch my step," I reply gruffly.

And then Katy yells, "Didn't I tell you to look out?!" She dashes over and hurls herself behind me just as a large blade swipes down from above.

My eyes widen. "Katy!" I cry as she lands roughly to the side.

The paneled floor doesn't seem so blue anymore.

Katy winces, and I begin to dash over to her, but the giant robot shoots a red beam at me. I grit my teeth and dodge to the side.

Katy, you'll have to wait. I'm sorry.

I draw my saber and begin attacking the robot. Lucky for me, I've gotten stronger, since I train more and go on more quests. Otherwise this battle would be impossible.

With rare worry driving me on, I attack quickly and ferociously, and the battle is over before I know it, although it feels like hours to me. I might have even taken hours. This will never be known to me, as the only thing I really care about right now is getting Katy back as fast as possible.

I don't bother to get anything from the treasure box—I run towards Katy. Her face is too pale to be good for her, and she seems to be unconscious. "Katy?" I ask. "Katy, can you hear me?"

When no reply comes, I heave a sigh, slide my arms under her, and pick her up, carrying her to the teleporter, trying to ignore the trail of blood following us.

We soon arrive back at the guild, and the first thing I do is yell for help.

Sarisa's voice calls up the steps. "Reve? Is that you?" She arrives at the top and her eyes fill with tears. "No way...this can't have happened. It never happens."

"Believe it, Sarisa, because if we don't hurry..." I think I actually trailed off, and I must look terrified, because Sarisa calms down.

"Okay, Reve. I'll get on it. You need to go heal, too, though. It's not good if two of our best hunters are down at the same time," she says.

"You'll make sure she's safe?" I question.

At this point Sarisa looks offended. "Of course I will! You can count on us, you know, Reve."

I sigh lightly. "Yes, I know. Thank you, Sarisa. I leave Katy in your hands."

With that said, I walk towards the quest counter, accept my reward, and decide to look around the city.

~Three Days Later~

"Katy? Are you awake? Katy?"

I hear Sarisa's voice repeatedly in my head. All the pain from before is gone. Does this mean I'm dead?

No...I can feel myself breathing, and someone is...breathing down my neck? No, that's just me imagining things, isn't it?

"Katy? I'm sure you're awake now. Katy, get up. You're starting to worry me. Katy, please open your eyes."

I open my eyes slowly to find a bright light shining in my face. "Oh, geez, Sarisa, you didn't need to stick the light on me!"

"Katy!" The newman hugs me tightly. "I was starting to think you'd never wake up!" Suddenly Sarisa gets a naughty look on her face. "So what happened between you and Reve over there?"

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"He's been checking in on you every day, asking if you're all right." Sarisa drops her voice in an attempt to imitate Reve. "'Sarisa, how's she doing?' 'She doesn't look any better to me.' 'Sarisa, are you sure it's even working?'" The pink-haired newman giggles. "He's got it bad, sweetie."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I mutter. I seriously mean it. I don't know exactly what happened back in the Arca Plant. All I know is that Reve activated the security system and I saved him. It's nothing big, really; I'm a hunter. I'm going to do my job, and my job is not only defeating hostiles, but protecting my allies.

"Sarisa, are you sure she's even alive? I swear, at this rate I'm going to go murder a few more robots..."

"Reve?"

Reve opens the door, curiosity drawn all over his face. "Katy?!" he exclaims. And then, suddenly, he's completely sheepish. "Um...I just...wanted to say that I'm sorry. It was my fault you got hurt, and because of it you almost died..."

"Reve, seriously. I'm a hunter. It's my job to kill hostiles and try not to die, remember? It was my fault for getting injured, not yours," I reply with a frown.

He forces a small smile. "Well, yes, but I was the one who turned on the security system..."

"Reve, it wasn't your fault that I got hurt, you hear me?" I practically yell at him.

Some murmuring comes from outside the door, and Kai and Ogi come in.

"Oh, aside from Reve coming in every day, they were too." Sarisa says. "But they weren't getting all up in my face and going, 'I swear, at this rate I'm going to go murder a few more robots...'"

Kai licks Reve's face, and Ogi eats his gun. Other than that, Sarisa whispers, "Um, you might wanna look that way..." She points to my right.

In the corner sits a little box of chocolates and a bouquet of flowers, among other things. A note attached to the box of chocolates says, "Guess who."

I pick up the box of chocolates and glance over at a certain newman with a very vivid blush on his face. His blush grows even redder when he notices I'm looking at him.

"You know, Reve, your face is red as a cherry. Which must mean...Kai sent the flowers and chocolate!"

Kai and Reve both look extremely confused. "Um, actually, Katy—"

"What, you thought I didn't know?" I laugh. "Thank you for the gifts. I appreciate it, Reve."

If possible, his face grows so red I think he may explode.

If only to ease the tension, Sarisa says, "Ogi, please stop eating your gun."

As the sun sets that night, I sit outside and stare up at the stars. Footsteps approach, and a tall shadow falls over me.

"Stars don't look the same from the moon."

I look up above my head to see Reve standing there, staring up at the moon he came from.

"They don't?" I ask quietly.

"No, they're much brighter up there, and there are more of them," he replies. "We can even see some of the planets sometimes."

He looks unusually calm right now, as if seeing the night sky soothes him.

I then look back up at the stars and the battle-worn moon. "Oh," is all I say.

"I was really worried, you know," he admits. "We had to send in a few people to make sure the robot was actually dead, and all the while you were just...laying there, completely motionless, as if you were dead."

"I felt like I was dead," I reply, looking back up at him. "It was terrible, not knowing how bad it was or what was going to happen." I shudder. "It was scary."

Reve glances down at me for the first time, and I can see that he actually looks sad.

"It's not your fault," I say for what feels like the millionth time. The worst part about it, though, is that part of me feels like it was his fault. Part of me wants to accuse him for activating the security system, for booting up the giant robot. I sigh quietly.

"Then why do I feel so guilty?" Reve murmurs.

It takes me a while to come up with an answer. "Everyone feels guilty for something they can't prevent, even if they understand that it's just a part of life."

He smiles that tiny little smile of his. "I guess so." Finally, as the moon reaches the peak of its arc, I stand up to stretch.

"Do you have to head back? You know, to get back to work as Ana's right-hand man?" I ask suddenly.

"Yes. Considering we've been so busy on the moon recently, Ana has been busier than all of us. And being such an important figure now, I have to be available whenever she needs me," Reve replies.

"Oh," I say again.

He stares at me for a while. Finally, the silence is broken by a light sigh. "I guess I'll see you later?"

I stay silent for a while. I finally turn towards Reve, lean forward, and give him a kiss.

He looks utterly shocked when I pull away. "Katy...?"

"Bye, Reve! See you later!" I call, running back to the guild, my face feeling so hot it could melt.

I run all the way up into my room, close the door, and plop down on my bed before what I did finally occurs to me.

"I just kissed Reve," I murmur quietly.

No matter how content I may feel, I still feel guilty. But who's ever heard of it? A human who fell in love with a newman...

...I guess it has a nice ring to it...