"Annie-Bear!" Zephyra cheerfully cried, running over to him before she somehow managed to lose him. She grinned. "Just the man I wanted to see!"

Ananias cocked an eyebrow in mild surprise. "Really?" he asked incredulously. "Because no offense, but after what happened last time, I kind of thought that I was going to be the last person you wanted to see for a while."

Zephyra laughed as if what Ananias had just said was the silliest thing in the world. "Oh, Annie-Bear, do you really think me to be that heartless? Do you really think that I would be so self-absorbed as to care only for my own needs and not the needs of others?"

Ananias blinked in confusion. "Um... what?"

"Well, you'd be wrong if you did!" Zephyra continued. "Because look at what I've got here!" She took out a roll of parchment from her pocket and displayed it for him.

Ananias looked at it in confusion for a moment before asking, "Um, what is it?"

Zephyra grinned proudly at him before unwrapping by letting the roll drop to the ground as she held up one end of it and explained, "It's a 'To Do' list!"

Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "A 'To Do' list?"

Zephyra nodded before excitedly looking through the contents of the list. "Yep! There's a festival in town today, we're going to visit every single attraction!"

"Every single attraction?" he repeated incredulously. "How long exactly is that going to take?"

"Oh, just about the whole day," Zephyra nonchalantly answered. "Doesn't that just sound great?!"

Ananias shook his head. "Not really," he answered. "We're supposed to be doing chores today, aren't we? We can't just NOT do them, you know?"

"Oh, Annie-Bear," Zephyra said, "of course we can! We just leave when no one is watching, and then boom! We've officially not done our chores! Simple!"

Ananias sighed. "That's not what I meant."

"And besides," Zephyra continued on, "aren't the chores you choose to do for yourself more important than the chores someone else tells you to you?"

Ananias gave her a mildly funny look. "Not really."

"Well, I think that they are!" Zephyra cried. "And I've decided to make it my personal mission to teach you how to have fun, even if I have to take you to every fun place in the world to do it!"

Ananias thought about the proposal for a moment before asking, "No offense, but it just sounds like an excuse to let yourself have more fun than you already have."

Zephyra thought about it for a moment before giving him an acknowledging nod and admitting, "Okay, yeah, it kind of does, but I really mean it when I say that I want to teach you how to have fun!" She gave him a genuinely concerned look. "Seriously Annie-Bear, having fun should be like, second nature! The fact that you seem incapable of having it is a serious problem!"

Ananias simply shrugged. "Well, if it should be so second nature to people, then maybe I'm just having fun in a way that's not so easily recognizable to normal people?"

Zephyra tilted her head to the side curiously. "How's that supposed to help your case?"

Ananias rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well, maybe it's because I just like helping people."

Zephyra cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "Hmm?"

"Maybe that's just the way I get my kicks," Ananias suggested.

Zephyra gave him an angry pout. "Yeah? Well then that just means you should step out of your comfort zone and try having fun a different way for once! And I'm just the gal to do it!"

Ananias sighed. "I don't know," he said uncertainly.

Zephyra sighed. "Look," she said gently, "think of this as a way to broaden both of our horizons a little bit. I could introduce you to the way I have fun, while you let me experience the way you have fun. It's a win-win for both of us, don't ya' think?" When Ananias still seemed hesitant about the whole thing, she added, "Annie-Bear, let me help you out for once. Let me help you realize that you can do something completely selfish and that everything will still be A-okay!"

Ananias stared at her blankly for a while before folding his arms suspiciously and asking, "… Why?"

"Hmm?"

"Why go through all of this trouble for me? And why now?"

Zephyra let out a tiny gasp of surprise before taking a moment to recompose herself and sadly explain, "Because up until just recently, I just thought that you were the boring one of the group, you know? But now, I've realized just WHY you're so boring! You're boring because you're constantly doing something for someone else and never for yourself! You've dedicated your entire life to this, and for what? So that everyone else around you can be happy? That's terrible!"

Ananias' eyes widened slightly in mild surprise. "What's so bad about making everyone else around me happy?"

Zephyra shook her head. "There's nothing wrong with it! It's just, you've got to make time for yourself too! Otherwise, you'll only grow up bitter and resentful of the people you're constantly trying to keep happy." She hung her head dejectedly. "Take it from somebody who knows," she added quietly.

Ananias' expression softened upon hearing the last part. "Zephyra, I'm so sorry," he said.

Zephyra shook her head. "No, don't be! It was my own fault for not realizing that there was no room left in my parents' lives for me to be in them!"

"I don't think that's true," Ananias gently argued.

"Well, it is!" Zephyra insisted. She wrapped herself up in her arms. "I wasted so many years trying to be the perfect little girl for them! Never causing trouble and always trying to help my father take care of my mentally ill mother, only for them to die and make me realize that I should've been looking out for number one from the very start!"

Ananias nodded understandingly. "I guess I see your point," he quietly admitted. "But… do you really regret having helped your mother and father out the way you did? Didn't you at least feel even the tiniest bit of happiness whenever you did?"

Zephyra shook her head defiantly. "Well, yeah, but who cares?! In the end, it didn't get me anything! It didn't get me the one-on-one time with my dad that I always longed for! It didn't get me the mother that I wanted cured of her amnesia for so long! It didn't pay me back those years I could've had going out, making friends, and making memories! Instead, all I got was years full of regret to look back on, dead parents, and the rest of my life robbed by an apocalypse that we couldn't even stop!" There were unshed tears in her eyes as her voice continued to grow louder and louder as she went on. "In fact, I'm glad that they died! Their deaths finally freed me from the chains that I put on myself, the same chains that are weighing you down now! And once you've been freed from them, you can finally start enjoying your life from now on instead of relying on the happiness of other people to satisfy you and nothing else! You'll finally be able to tell people what you really think about them, you'll finally be able to do whatever you want, whenever you want, you'll finally be able to laugh, and smile, and hug people like there's no tomorrow, and… and… and," she held her hands up and attempted to wipe away the tears that were uncontrollably falling down her face, "I just want you to be happy, okay?! Is that so much to ask for?"

Ananias let out a tiny gasp of surprise before looking down bashfully and saying, "Yeah, well, seeing you so upset doesn't really help."

"Then let's ditch this place!" Zephyra pleaded. "Let's go to the festival and do whatever you want! Let's enter you into a game and get you whatever prize you want after finally winning it! Anything! Just…," she sniffled, "just anything that can make you truly happy!"

Ananias stared at Zephyra in awe for a moment before contemplating over her offer for a moment and asking, "Will it make you happy?"

Realizing that she would have to take what she could get with him, Zephyra nodded and answered, "Yes."

Ananias let out a weary sigh before giving Zephyra a small smile. "Alright then." He slowly grabbed her hand. "Why don't you lead the way? You seem to know more about this festival than I do, so you should know where it is, right?"

Zephyra let out a gasp of surprise before smiling happily and dragging him to the festival as quickly as she could, earning her a surprised yelp from the stoic red-head. "Don't you worry! I'm definitely not going to make you regret this!"


Author's Note: Just came back from vacation! Here's an overdue A-Support with Zephyra! Hope you liked it! See you at the S-Support!