"Good morning, Ananias," Robin said as the two casually crossed paths for the first time that day.

Ananias nodded his head, accepting Robin's polite greeting as earnestly as he could, despite his inability to properly emote what he usually wanted, and sometimes needed, to convey. "Good morning to you too, Robin." As the two men passed by each other, Ananias suddenly stopped and thought a certain idea over for a bit before looking back at Robin and stealthily kicking the tactician behind a knee, causing the Shepherds' tactician to uncontrollably stumble forward and release a surprising yelp before catching himself by placing his other foot forward and steadying himself with the foot.

After Robin regained his footing, and taking a deep breath to calm himself down from the experience, he turned around to find out just who in the camp had the audacity to do such a thing unprovoked. When he found out that it was, in fact, Ananias, he looked to him as calmly as he could and stoically asked, "Whatever was that for?"

Ananias nodded his head approvingly, though due to his inability to emote, he looked anything but. "To test you," he explained. He held out his hand for Robin to shake. "You pass."

Robin raised an eyebrow in mild surprise as he suspiciously accepted Ananias' offer. "That's it?" he asked, as calmly and as passively as he could, just in case his teacher was setting up a trap for him to fall into if he were not careful.

Ananias nodded. "That's it." He then shrugged, before nonchalantly adding, "I mean, what else am I supposed to do, you know? Drop a crate on your head and see if you can keep your cool after that?" He shook his head. "Now that'd just be pushing it. And besides, I've learned a long time ago that what I do isn't exactly normal, so I can't exactly go around expecting someone who's actually normal to be able to do it perfectly, you know? Just take what you can get, yeah?"

Robin smirked as he let out a small chuckle. "No kidding. For such a simple-looking talent, it's a surprisingly difficult talent to master."

"Not difficult enough apparently," Ananias said. "You mastered it as humanly possible in no time." Ananias let out an exasperated sigh. "To know that my seemingly incredible talent can be so easily imitated… it's truly intimidating in its own way."

"Yeah, well, only because I was lucky enough to have such a great teacher," Robin said. "If you hadn't told me that bit about pride and how it could get in the way, I might've never found a way to satisfyingly achieve such a state of calmness."

Ananias nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders as he nodded his head understandingly. "Yeah, well, it's something I think everybody struggles with, you know? Like, you can't sell anything if you have too much of an ego, you know? The ego's got to be on the customer, yeah?"

"Ah, so some of your mother's family HAS rubbed off on you, has it?" Robin asked, a small smirk appearing on his face as he crossed his arms knowingly.

Ananias nodded his head as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, well, that and knowing that I don't have any other real talents. Knowing that has really kept me humble, you know?"

Robin nodded his head understandingly. "I understand, but," he frowned, "don't you think that type of thinking is somewhat… degrading?"

Ananias innocently frowned. "But it's true, isn't it?"

Robin shook his head and smile reassuringly at his red-clad comrade. "Not as much as you might think," he answered. "While I give you my thanks on calling me out on my pride and self-entitlement, I must point out that a bit of self-respect for one's self can prove to be quite healthy." He walked up to his friend and put a comforting hand on one of Ananias' shoulders and giving it an equally comforting squeeze. "While many of your feats can certainly be easily imitated, that still doesn't change the fact that you do quite a lot for this army, so please, raise your head up high every once in a while. It'll make me just a tad bit less worried about you if you do."

Ananias' eyes widened slightly in surprise. "You've been worrying about me?" he asked. "Since when?"

"Since the day you pointed out my pride and self-entitlement to me," Robin answered. "Let's just say I put two and two together," he explained after seeing that his answer had earned him a fairly confused look from the male trickster. "You explaining that your state of calmness was due to your lack of pride and self-entitlement, and the fact that you seem to always be fairly calm, made me question how little you thought of yourself, and after what you have just said to me today, I'd like to think that some of my worries were at least partially justified."

Ananias pondered over Robin's words for a bit, before saying, "So you want me to raise my head every once and a while, huh?"

Robin smiled and nodded. "Yes, and I doubt that there's anyone in this army who would object to the fact that you have most certainly earned it."

Ananias sighed as he crossed his arms wearily. "I'd like to, but…," he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "that's easier said than done, I'm afraid."

Robin chuckled. "Then how about I teach you how to be a bit more self-entitled then?" He lightly nudged his elbow jokingly against the side of one of the trickster's arms. "I'll even test you and everything."

Ananias contemplated on the offer before shrugging his shoulders and answering, "I'll think about it, but I make no promises." He smiled a bit, before explaining, "After what we've done to each other just to make sure you learn how to properly imitate me, I'm a bit hesitant to accept your offer."

Robin smiled. "I guess I shouldn't have expected anything less from you."


Author's Note #1: And there ends Ananias' supports with Male Robin. It's been fun, but now it's time for someone else to have a turn, and surprise surprise, due to your votes, Tenk, another original character for this story, the son of Tiki, will be supporting with Ananias next! How exciting! This will be the first time two original characters will be supporting with each other! I hope to make Tenk just as interesting as some of you have described Ananias!

Author's Note #2: After Tenk, the next characters to support with Ananias will be Father, Tan'bay, Lucina, Gerome, Nah, Cynthia, Noire, Kjelle, Zephyra, Lumaria, Yarne, Laurent, and then Brady.