"Brady!" Ananias cried, alerting the thuggish-looking priest of his presence as he jogged toward him. "Hey, Brady!"
Brady let out an exasperated sigh before stopping where he stood and reluctantly turning his attention to the friend who had been so verbally critical and venomous to him the past few days. "What the heck do you want?" he asked.
"Nothing," Ananias said as he shook his head. "It's just that, I heard that you actually took a guy down all by yourself out there today. Is it true?"
"Ha! Liked you'd believe me if I told you!"
Brady cried. He then lightly blushed and sheepishly smiled as he averted his eyes to the side. "But yeah. That's what happened."
Ananias raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Really?" he asked, genuinely impressed by Brady's supposed feat.
Brady nodded. "Yeah. An enemy tried to take my staff away from me, but I guess all of that training finally paid off, 'cause I was able to shake him off and give him a good wack on the head. Ha! You should've seen the look in his face! Didn't expect a priest like me to hit him as hard as I did, I bet! And man, did he run afterwards! He ran with his tail between his legs! If I wasn't in the middle of a friggin battlefield with so many people to heal and whatnot, I probably would've chased after him a bit, you know? Give him a little bit of a scare so that he could tell his buddies that ole Brady ain't someone who they could pick on anymore! Either that or celebrate." He shrugged. "One of the two."
Ananias smiled. "Wow, that really is something. I guess you've proved me wrong then, huh?"
Brady let out a laugh. "Yeah, that's right! You'd better believe it! No one will be lookin' down in ole Brady now! It's only a matter of time before I start carrying' a sword into a battle and fight alongside the rest of you all!"
Ananias raised an eyebrow is surprise. "Huh? You don't want to start fighting now? Why not? I would've thought that you'd jump at the first chance you got when it came to fighting alongside everyone else."
Brady sheepishly grinned. "Yeah, about that. After our little... spat last time, I realized that you sorta had a point. I can't go around doin' whatever I want, you know? I've still got a long way to go before I go around waving a sword around, but I'm getting there. I may not be able to do it tomorrow, or maybe even next week, but I will someday, and that's good enough for me. Just gotta keep at it at my own pace until then." Just as Ananias smiled, however, Brady quickly added, "And speaking of knowin' one's limits, you've gotta realize that you ain't that good of an actor."
Ananias let out a tiny gasp of surprise. "W-What's that supposed to mean?"
"You know as well as I do what I mean!" Brady cried, giving Ananias a small shove as he did. "I mean, sure, you're pretty good at lying and all, but when it comes to believable emotional manipulation, man, do you really need some help!"
Realizing that the jig was up, Ananias let out a disappointed sigh, and monotonously said, "So, I was that obvious, huh?"
To his surprise, Brady shook his head. "Not at first. That was my fault though. Gotta stop thinking with my heart so much and start thinking with my head more. But after what you said to me in the infirmary, and after I calmed myself down enough to actually listen, I realize that your sudden hate for me and actually showing that hate didn't really make a whole lick of sense, especially with the history we've got." He gave Ananias a knowing smirk. "You really had me going there for a bit, but now, it's kind of embarrassingly obvious that you were stringing me along the entire time."
Ananias blushed as sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and averted his eyes away from him. "Geez."
"Still," Brady said with a frown, "did you really have to be so mean about it? Some of that stuff you said was pretty hurtful!"
Ananias simply shrugged. "I kind of had to. Like I said, you've got a history of going on and off about the whole 'getting stronger' thing. I just thought that if I got you mad enough, it would actually motivate you to stick with it this time around."
Brady nodded understandingly before letting out a chuckle. "Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. But still," he shook his head, "I never thought that you had that in you! Color me impressed! Next time I want to put someone in their place, I'll bring you along. We'll smack talk them like there's no tomorrow."
"Um, yeah, about that," Ananias weakly pointed out. "That... might've just been a one time thing."
Brady cocked an eyebrow curiously. "Hmm? And why's that?"
"Well, the thing is," Ananias sighed and hung his head shamefully, "the stuff that I said to you... might've not been all made up on the spot."
Brady's eyes widened in surprise. "Huh?"
"It's just, whenever someone told you that you couldn't do something, you always went out of their way to prove them wrong. As for me, I sort of gave that up a long time ago, so seeing you constantly try to get stronger, no matter how on and off you could be at it at times... I couldn't help but feel a bit bitter and envious of you over it, you know? So I guess you can say that everything that I said to you was just a bit of that pent up jealousy and bitterness finally coming out a little. Sorry." When Brady didn't say anything for a while, Ananias averted his eyes to the side and suggested, "If you want, you could say something mean to me back to even things out a bit. I don't mind, I kind of deserve it."
"Now why the heck would I do that?" Brady said, earning a surprised gasp from the scarlet trickster. "The way I see it, I had a friend who was willing to pull out all of the stops in order to help me out. Doesn't seem something worth badmouthing, even if it did hurt a little. You were just looking out for me is all." He then gave Ananias a reassuring smile. "So forget about it. There's no beef between us. Heck, if anything, I've gotta find a way to pay you back."
"You don't have to," Ananias said, raising his hands to reassure him that such a gesture wasn't necessary. "Knowing that you're happy is more than enough for me."
Brady shook his head. "No, no, I insist."
"Well, I insist that you don't."
"Well, I insist that you do."
"Well... I insist that your insistence is unnecessary."
"And I say that your insistence that my insistence is unnecessary is a bunch of malarkey!"
"It isn't!"
"Come on, man! You're always like this! Just let me repay ya' and then we can put this entire thing behind us!"
"It's already behind us!"
"No it ain't! And I'm gonna keep badgering you until I get you to admit that!"
"Oh, so you're going to try emotionally manipulating ME now, huh? Well, good luck with that, you thug faced moron!"
"Oh, you want to play, pretty boy?! Then let's play!"
"Sorry, I don't play with slouchers!"
"Oh yeah, well I don't feel comfortable playing around with somebody who probably got dressed up by all of his sisters, cousins, and aunts back in the day!"
"Oh, you're going to bring that up now, are you?!"
"You bet your teddy bear I did!"
"Don't you bring teddy bears into this, fountain face! Crying over every little thing! Makes me roll my eyes more every time!"
"Same goes for your constantly being 'okay' with everything! What the hell is that even supposed to mean?!"
"You know what, I've had enough of this!" Ananias said, turning around to make his leave. "This discussion is over!"
"Hey!" Brady cried, running after him. "Don't you walk away from me! I'm not done with you yet!"
Author's Note #1: And that's that! Not only are Brady's supports finished, but so are the supports of all of the Awakening characters! Next time, it will be a paralogue that will allow the player to recruit Ananias, and then after that, Fates supports! For those who have forgotten, the Fates characters that I will allow Ananias to support with (as I will consider him a glorified DLC character in this) will be:
Nohr:
Female Corrin
Xander
Camilla
Leo
Elise
Arthur
Effie
(Fates) Anna
Soleil
Ophelia
Kanna (if he/she is a daughter/son of Laslow, Odin, and Selena)
Revelations/Hoshido:
Rinkah
Setsuna
Subaki
Kaze
Leave a review as to who you want to see Ananias support with next. The same rules apply for the Awakening supports as they do here. First come, first serve!
Author's Note #2: Question: Should Ananias be able to S-Support with Soleil and Ophelia? My gut says he shouldn't, but I would like to hear what you guys think. Well, see you next time!
