"Hey, Noire," Ananias greeted as he and Noire just happened to cross paths.

"O-Oh," Noire said, fidgeting nervously and averting Ananias' gaze. "H-Hello, Ananias. How are you today?"

Ananias gave Noire a nonchalant shrug. "Alright." He then crossed his arms, leaned forward a bit, and quietly asked, "So, how's it going with those good luck charms of yours? Are you doing okay, or…?" He then gave Noire a shrug of uncertainty.

Noire quickly shook her head and gave Ananias a sheepishly reassuring smile in response. "No, don't worry! Everything is going along just fine. I've finally removed all of the names from the good luck charms! Now all I need to do is learn how to spell everyone's name and I'll be good to go!"

"Yeah, about that…." Ananias then reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He then handed it to Noire. "Here."

Noire gave both Ananias and the piece of paper in his hands a curious and confused look before slowly taking the piece of paper away from him and asking, "W-What is it?"

As Noire began unfolding the piece of paper, Ananias calmly explained, "I got everyone in the army to sign their names for me, so now you'll be able to know how to spell their names when you start rewriting all of them onto their charms."

Noire let out a tiny gasp of surprise. "R-Really? Y-You did all of that… for me?"

Ananias simply shrugged. "Well, it's not like you could ask them, right? I mean, if you did, you'd probably accidentally give away your surprise. When you really think about it, me asking everyone was the safer bet, you know?"

Noire gave Ananias a sheepish, but happy, smile as she nodded her head in agreement. "Yes, I guess it was!" She then looked down, shamefaced, before averting her eyes to the side, fidgeting nervously, and saying, "A-Ananias?"

"Yeah?"

"I just… wanted to apologize for getting so mad at you last time," Noire said. "It was wrong of me to, but I was so embarrassed about misspelling so many names that I accidentally took it out on you instead. I'm really sorry."

Ananias shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he monotonously replied. "Looking back, I really was sort of insensitive about it. I got too carried away trying to help you out that it didn't occur to me how you'd react if I laid it all out on you like that. It was as much my fault as it was yours." He then held out his hand and asked, "Truce?"

Noire let out a small sigh of relief before happily accepting Ananias' hand and shaking it. "Truce!" After they had finished their handshake, Noire then added, "And to make it up to you, how about we finish all of the charms together?"

Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "A-Are you sure? I doubt I'd be very good at it."

Noire gave Ananias a small smile and shook her head. "Don't worry! I'll show you how it's done, then all you'd have to do is copy how I did it, and we should be able to get them done in half the time!"

Ananias thought it over for a bit before shrugging his shoulders and saying, "Sure, why not? With you showing me the ropes, it probably won't be as bad as it probably could be otherwise."

Noire giggled. "That's the idea." She then looked down at the contents of the list of names Ananias had collected for her and analyzed it for a moment before an anxious frown appeared on her face. "Um… Ananias," she squeaked.

Ananias raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Hmm?"

Noire handed Ananias back his list so that Ananias could bear witness to the problem himself. "I can't read half of the names on this list."

Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "Huh?" He then began looking over the names he had collected and gulped nervously upon realizing what Noire had meant. "Oh no…."

Noire looked over his shoulder and pointed to a name on the list. "A-Are those two 'n's or an 'm'?"

Ananias shook his head. "Um… I can't really tell," he answered honestly.

Noire then pointed to another name on the list. "Are those 'c's, or are they just poorly written 'e's or 'i's without the dots over them?"

"Aren't those dots though?" Ananias asked, pointing at what might or might not have been blots already on the paper or dots made by those who had written their names onto it.

Noire shook her head. "I don't know! Literally half of this list is full of illegibly written names!"

Ananias shook his head in despair. "I never realized how bad the handwriting was in this army," he muttered.

Realizing that Ananias might've felt bad about what might've been considered a wasted effort and wanting desperately to salvage his hard work, Noire thought for a moment before saying, "Oh!" She then pointed and indicated throughout the list before asking, "This list looks pretty organized!" She gave Ananias a sheepishly hopeful smile. "M-Maybe you remember the order in which these names were written? Maybe then we could narrow the spelling down, just a bit?"

Ananias shook his head. "I don't. And even if I did, we still can't read most of this, so we would be trying our luck if we tried anyway!" He then let out a long and exasperated sigh before burying his face into his hands somberly. "How did I manage to mess up something as easy as this so hard?"

"D-Don't be like, Ananias!" Noire cried, surprising Ananias a bit, causing him to look up from his hands a bit to look at Noire. "Your plan may have failed, but it's the thought that counts, r-right?"

Ananias simply shook his head sadly. "The thought doesn't help pay for rent, Noire." He then let out another exasperated and crestfallen sigh before combing his hands through his hair and asking, "Well, now what are we going to do?"

"I-It's alright!" Noire said. "We'll just ask Robin to give us a list of every member of the army and -" She then stopped herself, eyes widening upon realizing what she had just said and turned to Ananias. "Robin… has a list… of every member of the army."

Ananias once again let out another exasperated sigh before saying, "Yeah, this was pretty much a fail all around."

Author's Note: Illegible hand writing is the worst. You SHOULD be able to read it just fine, but you don't because... reasons. Welp, until next time!