"Ananias!" Cythnia cried out as she quickly made her way towards man who was currently more concerned with finishing his lunch than anything else at the moment.

Ananias raised his head to acknowledge Cynthia's call to him and gave her a small, acknowledging nod before focusing most of his attention back to his lunch. "Hey," he greeted dully. He picked at his food for a bit before asking, "What up?"

Cynthia took a moment to catch her breath before clasping her hands together, giving Ananias an apologetic bow and an apologetic look immediately after, and saying, "Oh, nothing much, really. I just really wanted to apologize for accidentally getting you into so much trouble last time." She let out an embarrassing chuckle as she scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "In hindsight, asking you to yell for help during a time of war really wasn't one of my best ideas. And it doesn't help that you tried to warn me beforehand too. I'm really sorry! If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, just say the word, and I'll have it done in a heartbeat!" She clenched her fists enthusiastically and gave Ananias an equally enthusiastic smile. "Hero's honor!"

Ananias took a moment to consider Cynthia's offer before going back to focusing on his food and nonchalantly asking, "Did you ever end up doing that hero entrance that we spent so much time practicing on?"

Cynthia let out a tiny gasp of surprise at Ananias' unexpected question before cheerfully nodding her head and answering, "Uh huh! Thanks to you, I was able to pull it off without a hitch! The villagers and the soldiers couldn't help but compliment me on how heroic I looked at that very moment!"

Ananias nodded his head understandingly. "I see," he said. "Well, as long as everything worked out in the end, then I'm satisfied. So don't worry. You don't need to do a thing."

Cynthia let out another gasp of surprise. "B-But, I can't possibly do that!" she exclaimed. "You got into so much trouble because of me! A hero can't just let a debt to unpaid! She needs to properly repay it to truly show her appreciation!"

Ananias sighed. "Well, I can't think of anything," he said, "so why don't you think of something?"

"A-Are you sure?" Cynthia asked, somewhat concerned. "What if you don't like how I repay you?"

Ananias took a moment to think over the possibility. He nonchalantly shrugged. "Well, it's the thought that counts, right? In all honesty, I don't really let a lot of people return many favors for me, so just you doing it will be something special, you know?"

Cynthia's eyes lit up upon hearing this. "Really?"

Ananias nodded his head. "Yeah."

A look of determination spread across Cynthia's face. "Alrighty then." She held her chin as she thought long and hard about how exactly she was going to repay her friend for all the trouble she had inadvertently caused him. Once a good enough idea came to mind, she snapped her fingers triumphantly and cried, "I've got it!" before flashing Ananias one of her signature carefree grins.

"Do you now?" Ananias dully humored.

Cynthia nodded her head excitedly. "Uh huh! Sure do! Come on, Ananias! Let's get started!"

Ananias raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "Started? Started with what?"

Cynthia flashed Ananias a cheerful grin before matter-of-factly answering, "Your acting lessons, silly!"

Ananias' eyes grew wide out of shock. "Acting lessons?" he repeated incredulously.

Cynthia nodded. "Yep! You're always talking about how hard it is for you to emote, so I figured that giving you acting lessons will help make it easier for you!"

Ananias took a moment to consider the logic behind Cynthia's decision. He gave her a small, acknowledging nod. "Um, yeah, sure, I guess that makes sense."

Cynthia happily nodded her head. "I know, right?! So, let's start with a simple smile." She demonstrated what a "simple smile" was by giving Ananias a smile of her own. "See?" she asked, through gritted teeth, as she pointed at the smile was giving him. "Like this!" She let go of the smile. "Now you try!"

Ananias awkwardly gave it his best shot, resulting in giving Cynthia a cringe-worthy smile that paled in comparison to hers in practically every way. "Like this?" he asked nervously through gritted teeth.

Cynthia cringed uncomfortably at the sight of Ananias' obviously forced smile. In a way, the fact that he was really trying and his natural attractiveness actually made it somewhat cute, but objectively speaking, Ananias' smile definitely needed work. "Um… it looks, a little forced," Cynthia commented truthfully. She then smiled reassuringly and added, "You know, it'd help a lot more if you thought happy thoughts while you did it."

"Happy thoughts?" Ananias muttered to himself. He shook his head solemnly. "That's going to be a problem."

"Huh?" Cynthia asked, a hint of concern evident in her voice. "W-What's that supposed to mean? That you never feel happy?"

Ananias shook his head and raised his hands up to calm the obviously slowly panicking Cynthia down. "It's not that I'm never happy, it's just that, well," he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he thought of the right words to describe his plight, "with a family as crazy as mine, not a lot of things impress you anymore, you know? So it's not that I'm never happy, it's just that I feel a little bit more indifferent and unimpressed with everything that happens around me, you know?"

Cynthia nodded her head understandingly. "Y-Yeah. I guess with all the strange things your family does, it'd be hard to find a lot of things to be impressed and think fondly back to, huh? And all your other memories are probably bad ones, so we can't use those." She thought long and hard over what their next course of action was going to be. "Hmm." She frowned. "Aw man! I've got nothing!"

Ananias sighed as he gave Cynthia a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "It's alright, Cynthia. Thanks for trying."

"Whoa, hey now!" Cynthia cried, a look of pure determination on her face. "I'm not saying I'm giving up! And frankly, neither should you, mister!" She gave Ananias a big, comforting grin. "We're going to figure this out, even if it kills us!"

Ananias averted his eyes to the side. "Well, that's not very reassuring either," he muttered.

Author's Note: Have you ever felt indifference over something, but were expected to feel and express something else (like happiness)? It's times like that when you start to wonder whether there's something wrong with you or not. Ananias would probably be seriously depressed if he wasn't already so upfront about it though, so don't worry, he's probably still mostly healthy and sane, though the fact that he already considers himself a bit abnormal probably doesn't help matters. Best of luck to you, Cynthia!