"Ugh... man that stings!" Brady hissed as he tenderly clutched his freshly bandaged ankle as he sat in a bed in the Shepherd's infirmary. He then gave his ankle an irritable pout. "You just HAD to go and fail on me, didn't you?" He then let out a disappointed sigh. "Great, just great. How's a man supposed to keep on trainin' if he's gone and sprained his ankle?"

"You're not supposed to."

"Gah!" Brady cried, startled by the sudden realization of Ananias' presence beside him and giving him a disapproving glare upon regaining his usual grumpy composure. "Hey! What's the matter with you?! Doesn't anybody knock first?!"

"But this is the infirmary," Ananias monotonously pointed out.

"Yeah, so?!" Brady defensively demanded. "Doesn't mean you just go up to a guy and scare him like that!"

"But I wasn't trying to scare you. I literally just walked right in."

"Agh, you know what I mean!" Brady cried before crossing his arms and grumpily turning his head away from him.

Ananias let out an exasperated sigh before eyeing the newly bandaged ankle, nodding towards it, and asking, "So, how's the ankle? Is it anything serious, or...?"

Brady looked back at his injury and shook his head. "Nah. Just sprained it is all. Thanks to the healers, it should be as good as new by tomorrow."

Ananias nodded understandingly. "That's good." There was an awkward silence between the two before Ananias rubbed the back of his neck and asked, "So... um... just how exactly did you sprain it in the first place? You seemed perfectly fine earlier today."

Brady then blushed and averted his eyes away from Ananias' gaze. "I'd... rather not talk about it."

A look of concern appeared on Ananias' face. "Why?"

Brady shrugged. "I just... don't wanna, that's all."

Ananias gave him a mildly suspicious look. "You don't want to, huh?"

"Y-Yeah. What, a guy can't NOT want to tell people how he sprained his ankle around here? We gotta share everything about us around here or something?"

"You're digging your own hole here, Brady," Ananias warned.

"I ain't diggin' nothin'!" Brady stubbornly retorted.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Ananias' eyes widened slightly upon realizing just what had caused Brady's unfortunate injury. "Oh gods," Ananias groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he did, "you hurt yourself while training, didn't you?"

Brady let out a gasp of surprise. "How in the heck did you know?!"

He sighed. "Because, Brady," Ananias emotionlessly explained, "we've been through this before. We've ALL been through this with you before. You always complain about how useless you feel in battle and you always try to better yourself because of it, only to get yourself injured and feeling sorry for yourself again and repeating the cycle all over again." Ananias' eyes narrowed sternly. "Wake up, Brady. You're not a warrior... and you're never going to be."

Brady let out another gasp of surprise upon hearing his friend's unusual hard words. "Hey, why've you got to be like that, huh?!"

Ananias mildly cocked an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"All unsupportive of me and whatnot!" Brady cried. "You don't treat anyone else like this, so why do you always pick on me?! You really do think of me as your own personal punching bag, don't you?!"

"No, I don't," Ananias answered truthfully. "I just find your self-inflicted cycle of self-deprecation appallingly pathetic."

Brady's mouth hung agape upon hearing Ananias' harsh words. "What'd you say?!"

"Yeah, I said it, I think you're pathetic," Ananias answered. He gave Brady a surprisingly piercing glare. "How long has it been, huh? How many times do you have to subjugate yourself to the same humiliating dance before you realize that you can never be the one thing you want to be?"

"Huh! If you're asking when I'm gonna give up, then forget about it! Giving up's for chumps, and Brady ain't no chump!"

"Yes, you are, Brady," Ananias calmly and coldly argued, clenching and shaking his fist bitterly as he did. "You are a chump. A delusional chump." He then turned around and began to make his leave.

"Hey!" Brady cried. "Why don't you come over here and say that again, huh?! You say that again and see what happens, you pretty boy punk!"

Ananias stopped at the tent flap, looked over his shoulder, and said, "No. Why don't YOU come over here instead?"

"Maybe I will!" Brady roared, jumping off of his bed and immediately regretting it once his feet hit the floor. "Agh!" Brady cried, crumpling down to the floor as his knees buckled from the pain. "Damn it!"

Ananias slowly and calmly walked up to him as he tenderly held his ankle and grumbled in frustration on the ground. "You see, Brady? This is precisely why you're a grade 'A' chump. You just don't understand your own limitations. You think you can do something, but the fact is, you just can't."

Brady gritted his teeth and glared up at him. "That's a load of malarkey and you know it!" he hissed.

Ananias simply shook his head. "No, it isn't." He then went back to making his leave. "Get some rest, Brady. Your ankle needs it."

"You don't need to tell me what my ankle needs and doesn't need!" Brady cried as Ananias seemed to ignore him. Once he was gone, Brady eyed his ankle bitterly and muttered, "Damn it! Just... damn it!"