"Hey sweetie!" Anna cried, greeting her son with her usual chipper and lively tone of voice. "How's my boy doing today?"

Said son simply shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "Mediocre," Ananias answered with his usual deadpan and apathetic tone of voice.

Anna frowned and raised an eyebrow in surprise and concern as she placed her hands on her hips. "Mediocre?" she repeated. "How come?"

Ananias heaved a heavy and exasperated sigh. He didn't particularly like explaining his feelings, mainly because he didn't feel he was very good at it to begin with, but whenever somebody asked, he knew that it was at least common courtesy to tough it out and try, especially when the person was somebody he knew and loved, his mother being one of the few that were at the very top of his list. He once again nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. "Well," he began, "nothing particularly good has happened to me yet, but nothing particularly bad has happened to me yet either, so I guess you can say that I'm just feeling 'okay' today, but," he stretched his aching back for a moment and grunted as the kinks in his back were finally stretched out, "I kind of woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, so the 'okay' feels more like a 'mediocre', you know?"

Ananias' mother giggled both out of relief upon realizing that the reason behind her son's current mood was nothing serious and out of amusement at her son's strange quirks as she dismissed her son's words with a wave of her hand. "Oh, you and your specifics!" she said teasingly. "Well, I hope you're not feeling so mediocre that you would turn down some exclusive mother and son bonding time."

"That depends. Do I have to pay for it?" Ananias deadpanned, crossing his arms as he patiently waited for his mother's response.

Anna cheerfully nodded. "Yes!" she answered. She then placed her index finger onto her face, and added, "But if you choose to accept this one of a kind offer, then I'll double your next allowance!"

"Since when have you ever given me an allowance?" Ananias asked.

"Since after you accept this one of a kind offer!" Anna said. She then winked playfully, and added, "And because I love my son so much, I'll even throw in a motherly kiss on the cheek, just because! See? Isn't your mother so generous?"

"Is that supposed to make me forget the fact that I have to actually pay for this special mother and son bonding time?" Ananias asked.

Anna grinned impishly. "Maybe."

After a long moment of silence, Ananias released a heavy sigh, reached into his pockets, gave Anna a moderate amount of gold, and said, "You're really sick sometimes, you know that?"

Anna happily took her son's gold and smiled cheekily. "Yeah," she then gave Ananias' shoulder a playful punch, "but you love me anyway," she said in a singsong, matter-of-fact voice.

Ananias sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, but that shouldn't stop me from calling you out on this type of stuff, you know?"

Anna placed the gold into her pocket and smiled at him triumphantly. "Aw, I love you too sweetie." She then gestured for him to follow her and he complied silently.

When it was obvious that Anna was taking Ananias to the shop, Ananias asked, "So what exactly are we going to do for our mother and son bonding time?"

Once they had finally made it to the shop, Anna turned around confidently and answered, "Sell!"

Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "Sell?" he asked incredulously. "But I've already told you that I have no talent for it."

Anna dismissed her son's argument with a simple wave of her hand and the rolling of her eyes. "Oh, talent schmalent! All Annas have to learn how to sell sooner or later! What? You think our ability to sell is coded into our DNA or something?"

"Well, no, but-"

"And you know your way around a lock pretty well, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"And how exactly do you know how to work a lock the way you do, huh, mister?" Anna asked, placing her hands on her hips and giving him a smug and knowing look.

Ananias rubbed the bridge of his nose wearily as he let out an equally weary sigh. "You taught me," he answered.

Anna smiled triumphantly. "See, nothing to it!"

"Except for the fact that you've already tried teaching me how to sell when I was younger," Ananias calmly pointed out, "and it didn't work out. Even with the lock picking lessons-"

"Ah ah ah!" Anna said, wagging her index finger as she gave Ananias a quick, disapproving look.

Realizing his mistake, Ananias quickly and awkwardly said, "Sorry, even with the locksmith lessons," Anna put her hand down and smiled innocently, "I heard how you told dad how slow I was compared to how quickly it usually takes for Annas to pick up the skill." He averted his eyes to the side shamefacedly. "I'm just not a real Anna," he said quietly.

Anna gave her son a disapproving frown. "Oh hush you!" she said, nonchalantly waving her son's worries away. "Look," she said, her voice and features softening somewhat once she saw that she had successfully gotten her son's undivided attention, "practice makes perfect, and the more you practice, the better you'll be. That's how you learned how to locksmith, right?"

"Yeah, but being a locksmith and being a merchant are two very different things," Ananias argued.

"Look, we won't know until we try, right?" Anna said. When it looked like Ananias was in need of further convincing, she placed a comforting hand on Ananias' shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. "Look, I wasn't there for you last time, but now I am. I can teach you properly this time. I can give you all of the lessons and exercises you need to become a real Anna, but I can't do that if you're going to walk out on me before we can even get started." She smiled tenderly at him. "So whaddaya say sport? You want to pick up where we left off?"

After taking a moment to consider his mother's offer, Ananias sighed before nodding his head, giving his mother a small, reassuring smile, and answering, "Yeah, sure, why not?"

Anna smiled. She could tell from the look on his face that he still had his doubts about the idea, but she was glad to see that he was at least going to give it, and her, a chance. She ran a hand through his hair and ruffled it proudly. "That's my boy," she whispered. She then clapped her hands enthusiastically and cried, "Alrighty then! Anna's School for Aspiring Merchants is now officially in session!" She made her way to the back and returned with a small jar of some sort of ointment. "First, let's see you try to sell me this ointment!" She placed the ointment on her shop's counter and slid it towards Ananias before resting her elbows onto said counter, resting her hand into her hands, and waiting expectantly.

Ananias looked at the ointment for a bit before picking it up and inspecting it thoroughly. "Well what are you waiting for?" his mother asked impatiently. "Sell it to me!"

Ananias shrugged sheepishly and asked, "Well, I would, but…," he looked at the jar of ointment that was still in his hands, "what exactly is this?"

Anna gasped upon realizing her blunder. "Oh, silly me! How could I forget?" She then took the ointment out of Ananias' hands and said, "This," she gestured towards the jar, "is an ointment that absolutely does wonders on a person's skin! Your skin will be smoother and softer before you know it!"

Ananias crossed his arms, held his chin, and nodded understandingly. "I see," he said. "And what are the statistics?"

Anna frowned. "The… statistics?"

Ananias nodded. "Yeah. What are the statistics? What's the ointment's success rate? How satisfied are customers who have tried it? What ingredients are in the ointment? What makes it any different from any other ointment that's supposed to work wonders on your skin? Does it have an expiration date? What's the rate of how fast it makes your skin smoother and softer? How much to I have to apply to get the desired effect? Where else can I buy it if you're not in town?"

As Ananias continued to pour out questions that even Anna did not have the answers to, Anna winced, held the ointment close to her chest, and murmured, "This… might be harder than I thought."


Author's Note #1: Ananias' support with his mother is finally here! Hope this first support is to your liking! Poor Ananias. He just won't sell something unless he knows everything about it, and if everything he knows about it are bad things, then that product will be fresh out of luck (remember Inigo's support?). Poor Anna's got her work cut out for her.

Author's Note #2: I voted for Anna on the Super Smash Bros. Ballot. I know she probably doesn't have much of a chance, but that's what I did.

Author's Note #3: The next supports will be Female Robin, Male Robin, Father, Tan'bay, Lucina, Gerome, Nah, Cynthia, Noire, Kjelle, Zephyra, Lumaria, Yarne, Laurent, and then Brady.