"Um, Inigo?" Ananias carefully asked, closely following behind the sniveling mercenary as they made their way back to camp. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked with his concern, guilt, and regret adding a bit of emotion to his usually monotonous and deadpan voice.
Despite all of his sniffling and whimpering, Inigo managed to nod his head and answer, "Yeah… I'll be fine. Just…," he clenched his fist and pressed it against his mouth in an attempt to hold in another pathetic whimper, "give me a sec, alright?"
Guilt-ridden over the events that had transpired back in town, Ananias wasn't satisfied with Inigo's response, and was determined to make it up to him. "Do you want me to get you anything?" Ananias asked.
At that very moment, Inigo's simple whimpers had been upgraded to full on distressed sobs. He turned around and wailed, "Not unless you can give me the last few minutes of my life back!" He sobbed uncontrollably for a moment, before angrily jabbing his index finger into Ananias' chest, and demanding, "Why didn't you tell me you were such a terrible salesman?!"
Ananias raised his hands up in an attempt to calm the emotional mercenary down and shamefacedly explained, "I'm sorry! I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen to me!" He then blushed, hung his head in embarrassment, rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and quietly added, "And I had given you my word, you know? I couldn't just back out after that, you know? And I could've at least tried to be a good wingman for you, right?"
Much to Ananias' relief, his response had apparently been enough to dissipate most of Inigo's pent up frustration and anger towards him, resulting in Inigo's countenance looking less enraged, Inigo taking his finger off of Ananias' chest, and leading him to pace around in circles as he frantically began pulling his hair in whatever feelings of frustration he had left. "I guess!" he admitted in agony. "But, I don't know, couldn't you have put your foot down or something? I mean, I know you gave me your word and all, but after what just happened, I'd think that breaking your word would've been worth it!"
"The Anna Customer Satisfaction Policy would possibly disagree with you on that," Ananias mumbled, "but," Ananias's blush deepened in hue as he shuffled his feet sheepishly and guiltily averted his eyes to the side, "yeah, that probably would've been for the best," he quietly admitted. "I'm sorry man. I ended up making us both look bad. I'll do my best to make it up to you, I swear."
Inigo stopped pacing around in circles to sigh heavily, shake his head, and say, "No, it's alright. It was my fault for putting you so on the spot in the first place. And it's like you said, you tried to tell me, but I wasn't listening. I've got no one else to blame but myself. So I guess that kind of makes us even." Inigo mustered up a big, reassuring smile for his distraught red-clad friend. "Right?"
Ananias' eyes widened in surprise at Inigo's sudden burst of maturity. As much as he was committed to mitigating the damage he had unintentionally done to Inigo's reputation and love life, he figured that if Inigo was going to go to such lengths to make him feel better, he decided that, in respect of Inigo's efforts, he'd gracefully let the subject go, at least for now. He let out a disappointed sigh. "I guess," he relented quietly. "But are you sure you're okay with all this?"
Inigo nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, surprising Ananias with just how quickly he had gotten over the issue, despite how much the opposite had been true mere moments before. "Eh, another day, another couple of rejections. It's nothing new to me." He grinned and playfully punched Ananias on the shoulder. "Honestly man, you seriously need to learn to let some stuff go."
Ananias blankly stared at the spot where Inigo had punched him for a moment before smiling amusedly and chuckling to himself softly. "Thanks. I'll work on it."
Inigo let out a chuckle of his own. "Yeah, you do that." For a long time, the two said nothing to each other, instead taking the moment to appreciate their friendship with one another. Inigo for Ananias because, as much as his quirks could get in the way of fully appreciating what admirable traits Inigo genuinely had, the ones that he had, namely his insistence on making everyone around him happy, were always much appreciated and was something everyone surprisingly relied on; and Ananias for Inigo because, as emotionless, awkward, and flawed the son of Anna was, he and everyone else who knew Ananias always appreciated how lucky they all were to have somebody like him as a friend, namely a friend who would put up with him and was always willing to help him out, even when he'd rather not.
After the moment had officially passed, Inigo frowned, crossed his arms disapprovingly and asked, "But seriously man… did you really have to tell them that I was a dancer?"
Ananias' mouth hung agape as his eyes widened in surprise at Inigo's sudden insistence on bringing back up the subject that he had assumed was all but left behind mere moments ago. "But that's what you are!" Ananias cried defensively.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you tell that to someone when you're trying to get a date with them," Inigo argued. "You didn't even tell them how good I was! And did you really need to tell them that I cry like a baby every time I get rejected by a girl? Seriously man, I was losing points faster than Chrom and Lucina take down an entire group of Risen!"
"But it's true!" Ananias cried. "You do cry like a baby every time you're rejected by a girl! And how could I tell them how great of a dancer you are if I've never seen you dance before? It'd technically be false advertising!"
Inigo gave Ananias an acknowledging nod before grinning ear to ear, and saying, "True, but everybody loves false advertisement! It just makes life all the more exciting." He then crossed his arms and gave Ananias an amused look. "And speaking of excitement, what's exactly got you so emotionally invested all of a sudden?"
Ananias blushed, averted his eyes away from Inigo's gaze, and murmured, "N-Nothing. W-Why do you ask?"
Inigo smirked as he rubbed his chin. "Hmm. Interesting." He calmly walked around Ananias until he was standing behind him. "And if I remember correctly, you were a bit jumpy when I mentioned that being somebody's wingman was like being somebody's salesman."
Ananias rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "S-So?"
Inigo grinned. "If I didn't know any better," he said, wrapping his arm around Ananias' shoulders, giving Ananias a knowing smirk, "I'd say that you're just a tad bit touchy when it comes to dealing with the fact that you're a complete and abject failure at being a salesman, especially when you come from a family full of them." He gave Ananias an amiable shake. "Am I right?"
Ananias' blush even harder as he gulped anxiously. "Please don't tell anyone," he quietly pleaded.
Inigo let out a good-natured chuckle. "And why's that, huh? Afraid it'll ruin your image or something?"
Ananias simply shook his head. "I'd just rather not have anyone else knowing is all."
Inigo laughed as he merrily slapped Ananias on the back. "Well, look what we have here! The blandest guy in the world is finally showing some personality! Looks like the trip wasn't a total waste after all!" He gave Ananias a playful wink. "Show this side of you towards the ladies more often and you might just get a date for yourself!"
"Please Inigo," Ananias calmly begged. "I'll do anything, just don't tell anyone about this and I promise you, I'll do whatever I can to help you get a date."
"No way, are you kidding me?!" Inigo cried. "I don't know what it is, but for some reason, whenever I'm next to you, girls treat ME like I'm the blandest person in the world! So no thanks. I'll take my chances fishing alone, thank you very much! And besides," he smiled again, "I'd rather you repay me by letting me dangle this information over your head as much as I want." He held out his hand with the intention to shake it with Ananias'. "Do we have a deal?" When Ananias looked hesitant to take Inigo's hand, Inigo added, "Hey, it's either that or you let me dating an Anna back on the table."
Ananias' eyes widened in shock he before quickly, though begrudgingly, took Inigo's offer, sealing the deal once and for all. "Deal, now just let me be, alright?" Ananias said.
Inigo laughed. "Sure, I've tormented you enough as it is. Go, I've had my fun." As Ananias let out a sigh of relief and slowly started making his way back to camp alone, Inigo decided to slip in one last witty remark. "See you around man! Don't go selling anything anytime soon, alright?!"
Ananias stopped dead in his tracks, clenched his fists, released an exasperated sigh, shook his head, and grumbled, "I really hate you sometimes, you know that?"
Inigo laughed. "What can I say? That's what friends are for!"
Author's Note: Friends, the only people in the world who you want to hug just as much as you want to strangle to death. And with that all said and done, Inigo's supports are officially finished! Did you like them? I sincerely hope so. Next up: Severa! And then following Severa, we'll have Anna, Female Robin, Male Robin, Father, Tan'bay, Lucina, Gerome, Nah, Cynthia, Noire, Kjelle, Zephyra, Lumaria, Yarne, Laurent, and then Brady.
