"What to do, what to do," Owain murmured to himself as he looked down, held his chin, paced in a small, secluded circle, pondered anxiously on how he should properly handle his current predicament with Ananias. "Surely I have the option to play along, but… his imagination… it's just so… uninspired!"

"What's so uninspired?" a familiarly monotonous voice asked.

Owain yelped as he jumped up in surprise. He turned frantically around to unfortunately realize that Ananias had somehow managed to sneak up on him without him noticing. Whether it was due to the fact that Owain had been too deep in thought to notice or if Ananias was simply skilled enough to achieve such stealth, Owain didn't know. Owain, too shocked to move a muscle, but panic-stricken enough for his eyes to dart nervously from one side to the other, asked, "Huh?"

Ananias crossed his arms and gave Owain a stern look. "You were talking to yourself again. Said something about something being uninspired."

Realizing that Ananias wasn't simply going to easily let that particular subject go, Owain's mind raced furiously to come up with a believable excuse to avoid truthfully answering Ananias' question. Once his mind had finally produced a satisfactory resolution, Owain quickly recomposed himself as best he could, cleared his throat, smiled as confidently as he could, nodded, crossed his arms, and said, "Ah, yes that." He gave Ananias a look that feigned smugness. "You see my friend, I have just been busy creating new names worthy for my attacks, when all of a sudden, I came across a name that was so," he clenched his fist, closed his eyes, and shook his head dramatically, "unbelievably uninspired!" He looked back at Ananias. "I could not allow such a name to tarnish one of my attack's reputations! I had no choice but to discard it!"

Much to Owain's relief, Ananias seemed to believe his borderline ridiculous answer. Then again, this was Owain they were talking about. What was usually ridiculous was considered normal when concerning him. Ananias nodded understandingly. "So that's it," he mused disinterestedly.

Despite Owain's relief that his lie had worked, it had unfortunately left the two awkwardly standing where they were in awkward silence. Owain rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably as Ananias sheepishly looked at the ground, a light blush spreading across his face. Ananias had always had the bad habit of ending a conversation awkwardly, since he was never usually the one to incite one, and Owain had been so preoccupied devising a believable lie to satisfy Ananias' curiosity that he had never considered what they would talk about after that particular hurdle had been jumped, so for a long time, the two just stood there, awkwardly looking around them, hoping either that one would leave or that one would bring up another subject worth discussing.

Once Owain laid eyes on Ananias' sword, he, admittedly without really thinking it through, asked, "So…," he pointed towards Ananias' sword, "how's Anna's love life?" Both men cringed at the mere sound of such a question, Owain due to the fact that he had asked a question that had forced him into the very situation he had previously had no idea how to handle, and Ananias due to the fact that his poorly chosen name for his sword had made it sound like Owain was asking about his mother's, or any of his female relatives', love lives.

Despite the initial disgust, Ananias recomposed himself, gave Owain a small smile, and answered, "It's going pretty well actually." He looked down at his sheathed sword and gave it a small, proud pat. "Turns out they both had feelings for each other, but were too shy to admit them, so you can imagine how happy Falchion was when Anna finally came clean to him. It was actually kind of cute."

Owain laughed awkwardly in an attempt to hide the fact that he had practically cringed the entire time Ananias had been relaying the story to him. It wasn't just the fact that this particular story was bad, it was the fact that this entire concept alone was absolutely cringe-worthy. Despite this however, Owain did his best to bite his tongue and feign joy and interest. "I-Is that so?" Owain asked, practically through gritted teeth.

Ananias nodded. "Yeah." He took out his sword to reveal the fact that not only was his sword adorned with a teddy bear, but it was also adorned with a newly attached pink ribbon around the hilt. "You like it?" Ananias asked, oblivious to the fact that Owain's mouth was hanging agape in shock. "Falchion apparently thought that pink would look really good on Anna, so she wanted me to get her something pink to wear. I'm not much of a fashion expert though, so I don't really know if it looks good on her or not, and she's too nervous to decide for herself." He brought his sword's hilt closer to Owain's face. "What do you think?"

"I think… I think…," Owain bit his lip nervously, "I think…." Owain shook his head. "I can't do it!" he cried.

Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "What?" he asked.

Owain shook his head in dismay. "I can't do it man! I can't! I tried playing along with your fantasies just as much as you've played along with mine, but… your imagination is just… so…terrible! I mean… swords falling in love?! Seriously?!"

Ananias's eyes widened even further as his surprise grew larger. "You always knew that I was just playing along with all of your pretending?"

Owain nodded. "I overheard your inauguration to becoming the 'Owain Guy'. And besides, I'm not stupid! I know for a fact that no one could ever truly stomach one my stories!" He averted his eyes to the side, blushed slightly, and muttered, "Any normal person anyway."

"So you always knew, huh?" Ananias let out a dejected sigh as he slowly put his sword away. "I guess I failed before I even got a chance to succeed, huh?"

"Ah, don't say that," Owain said reassuringly, giving Ananias a firm pat on the back. "In all honesty, I really appreciated how dedicated you were to the whole thing. I've always wanted someone to listen to all of my jabber, and if it had to be anyone, I was really glad that it was you."

Ananias' eyes widened skeptically. "Really?" he asked in disbelief.

Owain quickly nodded. "Yeah! I mean, I know I just said that no one could really stomach any of my stories, but you seem to pretend to do it pretty well! And whenever you question something about them, you never sound like you're patronizing me, you know? You actually sound like you're taking them seriously and whatnot!"

"Well, somebody has to."

Owain frowned. "I'll just… pretend like I didn't hear that."

"No, seriously," Ananias said. "Truth be told, listening to your stories every time you have them gets grating after a while, especially when you seem to have a new story every time I see you, but seeing how happy they make you and how happy you were knowing that you had someone who was willing to listen to it all," Ananias nonchalantly shrugged, "I don't know, all of a sudden, being the 'Owain Guy' seemed like something worth being, you know?"

Owain released a small, surprised gasp. "Wow." He crossed his arms and took a moment to ponder over Ananias' words. "You really mean that?"

Ananias nodded, and, to Owain's surprise, gave him a small, reassuring smile. "Yeah." His smile faded, as he asked, "And when you said that you were glad that it was me listening to all of your stories?"

Owain nodded and gave Ananias a reassuring smile of his own. "Yeah, I meant every word."

Ananias smiled. "Then I'm honored." Another long and awkward silence. Ananias blushed slightly as the two of them once again racked their brains in the hopes of finding a new subject to talk about, internally cursing himself for being so bad at holding a conversation. "So…," he said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head as he averted his eyes to the side, "do you have any new stories you want to share with me?"

Much to Ananias' surprise, Owain shook his head. "After the story YOU'VE told me? I'm all storied out for one day." After another awkward silence, Owain sighed, placed his hands on his hips, gave Ananias a funny look, and asked, "Dating swords? Really?"

Ananias crossed his arms stubbornly. "Well, Lucina and I think it was cute." He then took a moment to think over what he had just said. "Speaking of Lucina, I probably have to go tell her that the jig is up."

Owain raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Seriously? You dragged Lucina into your sword's pretend romantic journey?"

Ananias shrugged. "I had to cover all of my bases." He placed his hands on his hips and let out an exhausted sigh. "And in my defense," he looked around and prompted Owain to come closer so that he could whisper what he was about to say next into Owain's ear, "I think she's actually gone in too deep." He crossed his arms, shook his head, and sighed. "Birds of a feather, huh?"

Owain blushed slightly upon the mention of his cousin's strange behavior, which, despite how sporadically she displayed it, could sometimes rival and surpass his own. "In my defense," he mumbled, "I don't think we'd be classified in the same category."


Author's Note: I've got to admit, I was a little worried about writing Owain's supports with Ananias, but truth be told, despite how challenging they could be at times, I still had a lot of fun writing them! Sadly, this is the last of Owain's supports with Ananias, so hopefully his supports with Ananias ended on a high note. Next up: Inigo! Followed by:

Severa

Anna

Female Robin

Male Robin

Father

Tan'bay

Lucina

Gerome

Nah

Cynthia

Noire

Kjelle

Zephyra

Is the character you want to see Ananias support with not on the list yet? Check the list of possible supports on chapter one/paralogue and request them! And remember, there is an OC there too, so whoever's willing to give that character a chance, go ahead and request them! Nothing's stopping you! Supports are chosen from a first come first serve basis.