"… And then, you sew it up like this."

Ananias nodded. "I see."

Noire finished her demonstration and gave him the finished product. "And that's it." She smiled as Ananias inspected it. "See? Not as hard as you thought, right?"

Ananias simply shrugged. "I guess not. Not much of a sewer though."

"T-This isn't a job, you know," Noire softly reassured. "I'm not going to get mad if you're not making them fast enough." She let out a small giggle. "And besides, I've got enough experience for the both of us! If you're going twice as slow, then someone like me should be going twice as fast, right?"

Ananias contemplated over Noire's words for a moment before nodding his head. "Yeah, I guess you've got a point there." He then gave Noire a small smile (or, at least, as much as a smile as he could muster) and said, "Thanks… for being so patient with me and all. I know that I can be pretty slow sometimes, so I was kind of scared that you'd yell at me after a while."

Noire blushed as she averted her eyes away from Ananias' gaze. "C-Come on! Don't tease me like that! You know how embarrassed I get whenever I do that!" She then lowered her eyes and muttered, "You must really hate it whenever I do that, don't you?"

Ananias nodded. "Yeah, I kind of do."

Noire quickly turned to Ananias. "W-What?!"

"Well, I mean," Ananias nonchalantly folded his arms, "I don't exactly like it, you know?"

Noire simply stared at Ananias in stunned silence for a bit before nodding her head sadly and lowering her gaze. "O-Oh, I see."

"But," Ananias continued, "it's a part of who you are, so I don't mind it as much."

Noire let out a tiny gasp before sheepishly raising her head. "R-Really?" she asked.

Ananias nodded. "Sure. I mean," he shrugged, "I really enjoy my time with this side of you, and if I have to put up with the parts that I don't like about you just to get to the parts that I DO like about you, and I think that they're worth it, then yeah, the other side doesn't affect me that much. And besides, I've known you for too long now. I SHOULD be getting used to you getting overly angry at times."

Upon processing exactly what Ananias was saying, Noire slowly smiled before letting out an embarrassed giggle, stroking the side of her hair a bit, and saying, "Ananias… thanks. And for what it's worth, I think that a lot of people could say the same about you too."

Ananias cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "Really?" he asked dully.

Noire nodded. "Yes, really!" Noire began to fiddle with her fingers. "A lot of people may find you dull, weird, or a bit of a ditz, and sometimes, you really can be -"

Ananias sighed as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, that sounds fair."

"But if they even bothered to scratch the surface, then they would be able to see just how great of a guy you really are, just like me!" She then reached into the pile of good-luck charms, rummaged through it a bit, and pulled a specific one out before handing it over to Ananias. "Here," she said. "This one's yours." Ananias gave Noire a dumbfounded look before looking down at the charm in her hands and slowly taking it. As Ananias inspected it, Noire played with her hands a bit before saying, "Unlike everyone else's name in the army, I'm pretty sure I know how to spell yours." She tilted her head to the side. "D-Do you like it?"

Ananias nodded, unable to take his eyes off of it. "Yeah, it's nice." After a long and awkward moment of silence between the two, Ananias cleared his throat and added, "I'm sorry, that was lame. Um…." He looked back at the good-luck charm, intent on finding anything noteworthy and specific to compliment about it. It was then that he noticed something particularly interesting. He eyes darted between his and all of the other charms before asking, "Noire...," he pointed at his charm, "is mine… different from everyone else's?"

Noire lightly blushed before giving Ananias a small nod. "Y-Yes. It's just… you've always been such a good friend to me, you know? No matter how many times I've unfairly snapped at you, how many times I cried over spilled milk, or how many times I held the team down, you were always so patient with me."

"Well, I mean, you're kind of exaggerating a bit there."

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, but the fact is, I value my friendship with you, Ananias. I…," her face got pinker and pinker with each passing second, "I guess I just wanted to finally show you how much I truly valued it." Another awkward silence came became the two before Noire quickly added, "D-Don't take it the wrong way or anything! It's just a sign of our friendship, okay? N-Nothing more!"

Ananias pondered over what Noire said before nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders and saying, "Well, if you say so," before standing up and wrapping Noire in a stiff and awkward hug.

"Eep!" Noire squeaked. "A-Ananias, what are you -"

Ananias released his grasp on her before stepping back and rubbing the back of his neck with a small blush on his face and said, "Giving you an actual sign of appreciation. I value the friendship I have with you too, Noire. That's why if you're going to give me this," Ananias held up the good-luck charm, "then I've at least got to put a little bit more effort into thanking you, right?"

Noire stared at Ananias in shock for a long moment before slowly giving Ananias a great, big smile and saying, "R-Right!" She then looked back down at the unfinished pile of good-luck charms sitting beside them, nodding her head towards them, and asking, "I guess we should get these finished so that everyone else will know how much we value them too, right?"

Ananias smiled before giving Noire a small smile and answering, "Right."

Author's Note: What's the best thing you've ever done for your friend? It's probably not as sweet as giving out their own, personal good-luck charm, but eh, it's still noteworthy in a way, right?