A/N: Hate me, kick me, punch me, slap me, shoot me, or nuke me, I deserve it all. Not posting for… far longer than I should have, I have no excuse for it. There isn't an excuse reasonable enough that's not a lie that can explain the lack of posts other than "I slacked off", and that's just pathetic. Anyway, a long overdue end to a story.

Step Ten: Proposal… Yeah Right

So, once Phoenix's "broken heart" was mended, the Bervenia Palace medics tried healing Phoenix again. Sure enough, just as the alchemist had suspected, this time around the spells had no damaging effect on our hero. So, after a few sessions of heavy healing, Phoenix was good as new. The moment he walked out the door of the Medical Room, he was mobbed by his clan members, who forced him into a group hug faster than he could say "Holy Mateus". He noticed that when Melanie gave him a small kiss on the cheek, Jullianne was glaring daggers at her. Grinning inwardly, Phoenix decided not to bring it up, and instead walked to the nearest pub with his buddies for several rounds of drinks.

For about a week afterwards, Phoenix did not help his clan in engagements. He let his teammates handle turf battles, had them go five-against-five in regular engagements, and just watched when they took missions… or waited at a city. As far as he knew, Phoenix was on very good terms with Jullianne. The Hunter was particularly pleased with his luck when he managed to get Jullianne to agree to go on walks with him now and then. On their first one, he quickly cleared up her concern about Melanie… there was nothing between Phoenix and the Assassin, and it was going to stay that was until they were all old and gray, and once they were old and decrepit, he STILL would not have any desire to have any sort of relationship with the Viera in question.

So they took walks about once a Moon, first through the Nubswood, then across Lutia Pass, then splashing around in the Ulei River, and they spent the day in Koringwood on their last one. During the walks/outings, Phoenix tried to right all the wrongs he'd done to Jullianne by spending some genuinely enjoyable time with her. Every time he made her laugh, Phoenix would grin like a madman, because he knew that she was starting to accept him for who he really was now. However, every time he thought of that, he'd roll his eyes when he realized how sappy it sounded. A lot of things in love are sappy and trite, as Phoenix quickly found out. Well, it didn't matter to him, anyway. Jullianne was all the world to Phoenix now.

A couple of times they had a few scary moments on their walks. Neither of them really had any offensive magic, so if and when they came across a Toughskin or a Bladebiter on their walks, Jullianne would poison it and Phoenix would hit its vitals in hopes of inflicting a useful status ailment, giving them enough time to get out of there. And then there was the time with the Panthers…

(FLASHBACK THINGY)

Jullianne and Phoenix were laughing at some small joke the Hunter had made during their walk through Lutia Pass. Jullianne had her arm merrily slung around Phoenix's shoulders and her head resting against his neck as they walked in sync. As they continued walking, their laughter could be heard ringing through the Pass due to Phoenix's seemingly never-ending supply of jokes and stories that he was reciting to Jullianne to pass the time.

Unfortunately for the couple, this ruckus had aroused and angered a rather large pack of Panthers with a pair of Coeurl at their head. The two leaders were rather adept at catching prey in ambushes, and they figured this instance should be no different. Using a form of silent communication, they moved into formation at a chokepoint in the pass…

Meanwhile, Phoenix and Jullianne were still ambling along, the Hunter's incessant stream of humor still flowing.

"So the Mog Knight had told the Gladiator 'Geet off mah terf b'fore I SHANK ya!'. Of course, the Gladiator was unimpressed with the Knight's poor English skills and decided to see if the illiterate Moogle would actually do something. Unfortunately for the Gladiator, the Knight actually DID shank him… with some ballet shoes."

Jullianne's sniggering stopped, and she looked at Phoenix. "Sorry buddy… but I don't quite get that one."

This caused a look of confusion to cross Phoenix's face as he stopped walking and turned to meet Jullianne's quizzical look. "Why not? It's a ballet jo- … oh… Oh yeah. It's a ballet joke. You've never done ballet before, have you?"

"Ballet? What the heck is that?"

"I see… It's something my sister did when I was still in Eur- when I was still at home. It's a form of dancing, and in ballet POINT, you go on your toes… hence the 'point' part. Apparently, there's a part of the point shoe called the Shank. Don't ask me why. My sister found it to be an endless source of amusement that there was a 'shank' in her shoe."

"I still don't get it."

Phoenix shrugged. "Ah well. Here, I'll tell you another joke to make up for it."

Jullianne sighed. "Nah, it's alright. Let's do something else. Hey… what's that Judge doing there?" She pointed a little bit off to their left where a Judge had indeed materialized.

"You have been ambushed." The Judge said simply. As if to prove his point, a unified howl of Panthers broke out as they slowly padded out from behind bushes, boulders, and trees.

"Ummm… that ain't a good thing, is it?"

"No, Phoenix. It's not. How many judge points do you have?"

"Ummm…"

"Seven." The Judge put in, apparently amused by their obviously hopeless situation.

"You wouldn't happen to know today's recommended actions would you?"

"Missiles, Hunt, and Sharpshoot. Forbidden are Poison, Time Magic, and Charm."

"Huh… that's just about the best set of laws I've seen all year. Alright… Phoenix?"

"Yeah." He was still staring wide-eyed at the group of killing machines slowly advancing on them. "Yeah, I'm here."

"I need you to get three judge points without dying. Can you do that?"

"Ummm… not sure."

"How 'bout we start now by having you shoot a bloody arrow at one of the hounds?"

"Oh… good idea."

He who hasn't sinned may cast the first stone. However, since Phoenix was firing an arrow instead of casting a silly stone, it didn't really matter whether he had sinned or not. His arrow hit one of the Panthers in the neck, killing it and awarding Phoenix with a judge point.

"Damn… too bad I don't get two points for crit shots."

"Why didn't you use Hunting first?" Jullianne hissed.

"You told me to fire an arrow… so I did."

"Well, you've effectively ticked them all off now, so I'd say we are royally screwed."

"Well, Miss Ingenuity… any more suggestions?"

"Keep firing arrows?"

"Deal. Only if you do, though."

So while the hounds sprang after them, the two started firing arrows as fast as they could. Unfortunately, because they were in a rush to get out as many missiles as they could, most of them missed. Eventually, however, Phoenix hit two more Panthers, got his Ten Judge points, and hit a Combo on one of the Coeurl.

"YOU IDIOT. Why didn't you summon a TOTEMA?"

"Oh… that would have been a better idea, wouldn't it?"

"No kidding." But at that point, a Panther took a swipe at Jullianne, so she had to break off her conversation with the Hunter and remove the offending Coerl's paw with an Aim to the Arm.

"Well, that's one guy down who can't use Blaster…"

"Kinda busy right now…" Phoenix was hitting as many panthers as he could with Sonic Boom, and doing a decent job, but it was fairly hopeless.

"Jullianne, Conceal yourself… now."

"But you don't know how to, so they'd all go after you."

"Better than all of them going after you, isn't it?"

"No, not really…"

"NOW."

For once, the sniper took orders from Phoenix and hid herself, easily escaping from the fray as all of the panthers now surged towards Phoenix. The Hunter knelt down, knowing it was hopeless to resist the panthers. He closed his eyes, hoping his death would look kinda stoic or something, but quickly opened them when he heard the sound of a summon.

He looked up, saw Madeen, and then nothing more.

"Are you that Phoenix Down you carry hasn't reached its expiration date?"

"Phoenix Downs don't HAVE an expiration date!"

"Well, he's not waking up, so I'm not sure…"

"Give it a minute…"

"We've already given it a minute."

Bleary-eyed and foggy-brained, Phoenix saw a pair of Viera, a Sniper and a Summoner, bending over him. "Given who a minute?"

Immediately, he found himself being crushed into a hug by the Sniper.

"Easy… easy."

"After you made me worry so much? Why should I go easy on you?"

His eyes bugged out. "Easy!"

"Oh… sorry." Jullianne finally let go of Phoenix, helped him to his feet, and introduced him to Nieve, the one who had summoned Madeen to kill the remaining Panthers. She was pretty cool about the whole thing, saying how it was lucky she saw what was going on, and how she felt bad she accidentally knocked out Phoenix, and fortunately she had a spare Phoenix Down that she used, and how Jullianne was saying some silly stuff in her worry over Phoenix.

Needless to say, Phoenix's solitary walk with Jullianne turned into a walk with Nieve as well. However, they all had a good time talking (not too loudly, mind you) on the remainder of their walk, and by the end, Phoenix offered the Summoner a position in his clan. She accepted, much to Phoenix's relief, because now his clan members could have rotations in regular engagements, and enjoy some R&R while they watch their clanners battle with the opposition. Besides, Nieve's Phoenix summon would come in handy a lot, he just knew it.

(END OF FLASHBACK THINGY)

So anyway, aside from a few scary moments like the Panther ambush, most of the walks were quite enjoyable, especially the ones where they went swimming in the Ulei River. Phoenix loved those outings best of all, NOT because the water caused Jullianne's clothing to cling to her body, but because it cooled them off in the afternoon. Besides, who doesn't enjoy "accidentally" pushing their friend off the bridge and into the icy waters, resulting in the pusher getting pulled in by the pushee?

Many times, Phoenix would find Jullianne holding his hand as they walked along, or leaning her head on his shoulder as they watched the sun set while they sat on Kudik Peaks, or falling asleep on his back when he was carrying her back to town. Several times, when they were saying goodnight to each other, Jullianne would reach up and give Phoenix a light kiss on the cheek before they parted ways.

Once, as a joke, Phoenix swept Jullianne off her feet, cradling her in his arms, and said, "Marry me, my love."

Much to his surprise, Jullianne had responded with, "Maybe." She then threw him a wink, jumped out of his arms, and went skipping off to her room, whistling. The fact that Jullianne would actually go skipping and whistling anywhere is amazing enough, but it was her response that had confused Phoenix. He shrugged it off, but kept it in the back of his mind as he went about his daily business.

And so this particular story concludes with Phoenix and Jullianne back on excellent terms, both Armageddon and Amor prospering as clans, and (what is hopefully) a happy ending. However, though this may be the conclusion of one story, the story of Phoenix's and Julliane's lives is far from over.

FAR from over…

A/N: Yes… I forced you to wait for… five months? Yeah, five months for the last chapter of this story… man, I hate myself for doing it. Worst yet, I had it mostly written for a while, but never got around to finishing it. Well, here it is, hopefully you enjoy it, and I'll be thinking about another plot (got a few floating around) and posting it in (hopefully) a more regular manner than this one