"Why Anna, that ribbon looks simply marvelous on you!" Falchion said.

Anna shook herself bashfully as she demurely turned away from Falchion's gaze. "D-Do you really think so?" she asked, a part of her unable to contain herself from the joy Falchion's words gave her, but cautious as to not let herself be too easily overly excited and gullible as a result of receiving such a compliment.

Falchion nodded himself insistently. "Of course! Whatever reason would I have to lie to you, my fair maiden?"

Anna sheepishly shook herself. "I-It's just… you're such a gentleman, Falchion! No doubt you only say such things because it is the polite and gentleman-like thing to say!"

Falchion shook himself. "Absolutely not! My dear Anna, how could you think so lowly of me? I give you these compliments, not just because they are the right thing to say, but because I truly feel that you are the most beautiful sword in this entire army and that the ribbon you are now wearing only enhances that beauty to the point where I can no longer stay silent about it!"

Anna turned herself back to face Falchion. "Falchion…."

"In fact," Falchion grandiosely continued, "your beauty today is so breathtaking that it has inspired me to finally come to you and confess my love and attraction for you, my dearest Anna!"

Anna let out a gasp of surprise. "Falchion!"

Falchion moved himself closer to Anna. "My dearest Anna, we have fought in so many battles together, survived the centuries while other swords retire from battle, fall, or are left forgotten! Up until now, it seemed as if we'd watch over and protect humanity's legacy all by ourselves, but I've finally realized that it doesn't have to be that way! We can watch over humanity and survive the centuries together! What do you say? You and me, Falchion and Anna, guardians of the human race? How does that sound?"

For a moment, it looked as if Anna would consider Falchion's offer, but to Falchion's surprise, Anna shook herself, turned her back to Falchion, and softly said, "I'm sorry, Falchion, but right now, I'm afraid that that is impossible."

Falchion could not believe what he was hearing. "Impossible?" he repeated incredulously. "But Anna, why?! Why is it impossible?!" When Anna did not immediately answer, he sadly added, "I at least deserve to know."

After taking a moment to contemplate on whether she would tell Falchion or not and after resolving herself to and admitting that Falchion did, in fact, deserve that much, Anna let out a sad, dejected sigh, and answered, "It is because," she shook herself, "it is because… I am in love with your younger self from the past!"

Falchion gasped dramatically. "My younger self?!" He shook with anger. "How could he?! He knows that I have known you for far longer than he does! What game could he possibly be playing?!"

"He's not playing any game, Falchion!" Anna cried, turning herself around, angry at how poorly Falchion was reacting and how insulting Falchion's words were to his younger self. "And neither am I!" Anna turned herself around again as she let out an angry huff. "Your younger self is far gentler when compared to the sword you have become! I'd rather be with him than be with you!"

"That traitor!" Falchion cried out vehemently. "I will have his head for this!"

Anna gasped. "No!" she cried out in horror. "You can't! What about the timeline? What will happen to it if you kill your younger self?!"

"I don't care!" Falchion cried. "My younger self will pay for taking away the love of my life from me!"

"Oh Falchion, how far you've fallen!" Anna wailed as Falchion hopped away.

Lucina let out a satisfied and content sigh. "Well, if that's not an appropriate cliffhanger, then I don't know what is."

Ananias released an exasperated sigh as he untied the pink ribbon off of "Anna". "I still can't believe you talked me into this."

"Oh, come now!" Lucina said, with a big smile on her face as she gave Ananias' shoulder a light and good-natured shove. "Even you have to admit that there's a certain, irresistible charm to all of this."

Ananias took a moment to consider what Lucina said before indifferently shrugging his shoulders and saying, "I guess. But in that case, why don't I just get us some dolls so we'd be able to do this properly?"

Lucina frowned as she pondered over Ananias' question before innocently shrugging her shoulders, smiling at him, and answering, "I'm not quite so sure." She then looked down at her sword and thoughtfully added, "Perhaps because of our swords' sentimental value?"

Ananias looked down at his own sword that had been passed down to him from a previous generation and looked at it thoughtfully for a moment before giving Lucina's statement a small shrug and saying, "Maybe." He then looked up towards Lucina. "Or maybe our little battle hardened princess from the future doesn't want to admit that she still likes to play with dolls?"

It was a good-natured joke on Ananias' part, but sadly, as per usual, his innate monotone tone of voice and his blank expression would have made most people think otherwise. Luckily for him, Lucina wasn't most people, as she blushed as a result of Ananias' light jab at her and sheepishly admitted, "Perhaps." She then quickly recomposed herself, turned to Ananias, smiled, and said, "But the more I think about it, the more I think I should start asking people to stop referring to me by that title. My days of being a princess stopped the moment we were sent to this timeline. As it is now, with the other me being brought into this world, I am no more than just another warrior on the battlefield. I have no more social standing than that of a regular merchant on the streets."

Ananias heaved out a sigh. "Hey," he said, giving Lucina a light nudge with his elbow, "is that supposed to be jab at merchants or something?"

Lucina shook her head. "Not at all! If anything, I have nothing but respect for the occupation! To be able to satisfy all those who come to them!" Lucina let out a dreamy and thoughtful sigh. "It's such an inspiring way of life, is it not?"

Ananias furrowed his brow as he muttered, "And now you're just giving merchants too much credit." He leaned back, supporting himself with his hands. "Merchants are in it for themselves. The fact that they help people is a coincidence, at best."

Lucina's eyes glowed. "Even better! That way, everyone wins!"

Ananias let out an amused chuckle at Lucina's sudden admiration to the job. "Well, I guess if you put it that way, then yeah, being a merchant is pretty cool." His face then went expressionless again. "But where'd this sudden admiration for merchants come from all of a sudden? I don't seem to recall you ever mentioning the occupation before. What's exactly brought all of this up?"

Lucina let out a tiny gasp before looking down at her sword sheepishly and answering, "Well, it's just, after the battle is over, after we have completed our mission, as I have said, I can no longer be the princess anymore, so I must find another path for myself; and after narrowing it down for quite some time," she looked up towards Ananias and gave him an innocent shrug, "I have decided that becoming a merchant would be a definite possibility."

"With you looking the way you do?" Ananias questioned. "No offense, but wouldn't that cause people to ask too many questions?"

Lucina's face fell as she realized that her red-clad friend had a point. "Perhaps," she said slowly, "but if I ever plan on retiring from the battlefield, then I'd have to find an occupation that plays to my interests."

Ananias let out an amused chuckle. "And you're interested in helping people? You know, despite all of this dropping-the-title stuff, it seems like all of this selfless princess stuff is in the blood."

Lucina simply shrugged. "Perhaps." She then smirked. "But by that logic, then you practically belong to a royal family of your own then, correct?"

Ananias contemplated over that particular remark for a moment before giving Lucina an acknowledging nod and saying, "Well, when you put it that way…."

Lucina chuckled. "Perhaps it's finally time for the royal ruling house and the royal merchant house to properly bind themselves to one another then?"

Ananias took a moment to consider what Lucina had just said for a moment. "You mean like an alliance?" he asked. He nodded his head. "Sure, if there's anything you want to know about the business, then I could probably hook you up."

Lucina frowned. "That's… not exactly what I meant."

Ananais raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "It wasn't?" he asked. He took a moment to reconsider what Lucina had truly meant with her previous proposal. "You mean like, a literal alliance? Like, Exalt and merchants working together for the economy and whatnot?"

"Gods, this is taking too long," Lucina murmured to herself before taking a hold of Ananias' hands and looking intently into his eyes, something that somewhat shocked the usually stoic trickster. "Ananias," she began, "do you think it possible that, maybe, we could be join our two houses by… getting married ourselves?"

Ananias' eyes widened in evident surprise, which was unusual for him, but considering what he had just heard, no one would've really blamed him. "O-Oh, t-that's what you meant." He took a moment to recover from his initial shock before asking, "Um, I'm flattered and all, but… are you sure about this? I mean, I'm not exactly ideal husband material, you know?"

Lucina nodded, a reassuring smile on her face as she did so. "I'm absolutely positive," she calmly answered. "Despite all of our 'princess' talk, you've never really treated me as such. You've given me no special treatment, treating me like you would any other person. You don't know how truly grateful I am for that. That, along with these past few instances with you, have made me realized how much I value my time with you."

Ananias lightly blushed as he averted his eyes sheepishly to the side. "R-Really?"

Lucina nodded. "Really. Being with you, not just whenever we are divulging our troubles to one another, it relaxes me; I feel so comfortable around you that I am willing to 'play dolls' with you without feeling the slightest hint of embarrassment over it; and whenever I am with you, my worries are noticeable set a bit more at ease. I've… I've honestly never felt this way around anyone or anything in the longest time. I've… I've grown quite fond of it."

Ananias nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, same here."

Lucina leaned closer in anticipation. "Enough to… accept my proposal?"

Ananias nodded his head almost immediately. "Of course," he said matter-of-factly. "You're a once in a lifetime girl Lucina. Add that to all of our heart-to-hearts and it'd honestly be really weird if I didn't accept your marriage proposal!"

Lucina frowned. "Then, what has gotten you so nervous then?"

Ananias heaved out a weary sigh before rubbing the bridge of his nose and answering, "It's just… how am I going to explain this to the rest of the family without them getting all overly excited over the fact that one of their own has somehow finally found a way to marry into a rich, royal family?" Ananias shook his head in imminent exasperation. "It's going to be so awkward at our wedding."

Realizing that Ananias was indeed agreeing to her proposal, Lucina let out a cheery laugh, both out of happiness over the reciprocated love and out of relief over the fact that Ananias' hesitation wasn't over anything too important. "Then I guess we'll just have to endure then, shouldn't we? Besides, I've always sort of wanted to meet your entire family."

Ananias smiled at Lucina's enthusiasm over the whole thing. "They probably want to meet yours too. Your family on the other hand…." He then chuckled before grabbing Lucina's hand, giving it a warm squeeze, smiling, and saying, "Ah, what the heck, like you said, we'll endure it, then, after the wedding's over, we'll complain about how embarrassing our families were at the event on our honeymoon."

Lucina smiled. "Ooo, complaining about how embarrassing our families are," she said playfully. "I can't remember the last time I've done that!"

Ananias shook his head, the smile still on his face. "Nah, it's easy," he joked along with her. "You've just got to remember all of the things that annoy you about them and forget all of their better parts and just let yourself go, you know?"

"Ananias!" Lucina playfully chided, giving Ananias a light slap on his shoulder for his advice. "You act as if you've done it all the time!"

"Have you met my family? It's so easy to forget that they love me sometimes. With all of their jokes and apparent love for money and all."

"Well," Lucina said, placing her finger on her chin as she thought about what she could complain about about her family, "I did hear this one embarrassing story about my father once…."

"Nope!" Ananias cried, covering his ears. "I'm not listening to this! We're not married yet! It's technically not safe for me to hear this yet!"

Lucina laughed as she tried to pry Ananias' hands away from his ears. "As your fiancé, I demand that you do!"

"Ah!" Ananias cried. "No fiancé is worth this much trouble! Is it not too late to back out?"

"Yes, yes it is!" Lucina cried.

"Well then, I'll just have to tell everyone about how much Anna loves past Falchion then!"

Lucina gasped. "You wouldn't dare!"

Ananias laughed. "As your fiancé, I think I've got the right to embarrass you every once and a while!" He then began to make a break for it.

"Then I'll tell everyone how you named your sword after your mother!" Lucina cried as she laughed chased after her friend.

"I can live with that!"

"In a few moments, you won't be alive at all!"

"Says Ms. Chivalry!"

"Chivalry has nothing to do with this!"

Ending: Ananias and Lucina

Ananias became the official messenger between the multitudes of Annas. While neither he nor his wife, Lucina, were very good at selling anything, they were said to be absolutely adored by their families, as well as their respective customers, which raised sales for whichever business they were visiting at the time ever so slightly.

Author's Note: Well, that's the end of Lucina's supports. It's been fun, especially since this is the first time in a while where I had to write a specific ending for a couple. What did you guys think of it? Next up will be Gerome, and then it's Nah, Cynthia, Noire, Kjelle, Zephyra, Lumaria, Yarne, Laurent, and then Brady.