"Ananias!" Lumaria called out, causing said man to stop where he was and acknowledge her incoming and determined presence.

"Yeah?" Ananias asked dully.

Lumaria folded her arms sternly. "We need to have a serious talk about that lying problem of yours!"

Ananias let out an exasperated sigh. "You're still going on about that?"

"Well, how can I not?" Lumaria argued. "If there's a problem, then we need to fix it, and the problem just so happens to be the fact that one of my friends has such a low opinion of himself that he constantly lies about his true feelings to make others feel better just so that, in turn, he can feel some semblance of self-worth for himself! And while I may not be a healer, I don't think it really takes one to realize that that line of thinking isn't healthy!" She nodded her head with a determined and encouraging look on her face. "Don't worry, Ananias. We'll definitely find some way to deal with that lying problem of yours! That's a promise!"

Ananias wearily sighed. "Great," he deadpanned. It would've been bad enough if anyone else had made that particular type of promise with him, but this was Lumaria, daughter of Khan Flavia and temporarily a former Khan herself after her mother had fallen in battle back in their timeline, which meant that whenever she made a promise, she was going to follow through with it, even if it was going to kill her.

Lumaria's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh?" She smiled excitedly. "Does that mean that you admit that you have a problem in the first place? Because I'm pretty sure that that's the very first step for dealing with these types of destructive habits!" She grabbed Ananias' hands and squeezed them warmly. "Good job, Ananias! You truly are taking the very first steps towards real healing!"

"Thanks," Ananias replied monotonously. There was no way out of this particular situation, that was for sure. He would just have to play along until Lumaria was satisfied.

Much to his chagrin, Lumaria eyed him suspiciously after that. "Hmm," she said as she got a closer look at him, staring directly into his eyes as she did. "Ananias, you wouldn't happen to be lying to me just to get out of all of this, are you?"

Ananias shook his head. "No," he lied.

Lumaria glared at him. "Lucky for me, I don't believe you." She brought her face dangerously closer to his. "Alright, if you're not lying, then say it directly to my face."

"I'm not lying about admitting the fact that I'm a compulsive liar," Ananias said, completely stone-faced.

The two of them stared at each for a long while, neither of them even blinking for a time before Lumaria flung her hands up in frustration and cried, "Gah! It's impossible to tell with you!"

Ananias cocked an eyebrow in surprise at this. "Then why would you accuse me of being a compulsive liar then?" he asked.

"I don't know!" Lumaria answered. "It's just a gut feeling!"

Ananias sighed. "You do realize that a gut feeling can be wrong every once and a while, right? I mean, there's never really any real reason to believe them."

"Yeah," Lumaria admitted sadly, "but I know you! And the more I think about it, the more I feel that you're just the type of person to lie to people even when it's at your own expense, and I don't want you to live that kind of life anymore!"

"Well then, you have nothing to worry about," Ananias said, "because I was never living that type of life to begin with. Look, I appreciate you looking out for me, really, I do, but can I go now? I've got stuff I've got to do."

Lumaria sighed. "Yeah, sure, go ahead." After Ananias had left however, she dejectedly murmured, "You really are a stubborn one, aren't you?"


Author's Note: Short, but sweet (hopefully)! Hope you liked this one! Oh, and by the way, Tifer drew me of Ananias! It's on Tifer's Tumblr page (where Tifer goes by Jeneryl). I plan on making it the cover image of this story as soon as I possibly can (I can't do it right now for reasons). You should be able to find it pretty easily by typing jeneryl into Tumblr and looking through their archive. Well, see you next time!