"Aunt Anna?" Ananias called, knocking tentatively against the door of said Anna's quarters as he did. "Aunt Anna, are you okay in there? Because people are saying that you've locked yourself in here for hours now and, well," he sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "I've had to look over the shop while you were gone. I'm pretty sure I'm not doing a very good job at it, so unless you want to start losing a lot of customers, you might want to come out and tend to them yourself."
"Oh, what's the point?!" he heard Anna wail from the other side of the door. "I'm a failure as an Anna! I'll probably just lose all of them out to all of the other Annas anyway!"
Ananias sighed wearily. "You're not a failure as an Anna," he softly reassured her.
"Yes, I am!" Anna cried, before Ananias heard her blow her nose loudly into a handkerchief. "I couldn't even remember what my fellow Annas are selling! How can I compete if I can't even remember what my competition even specializes with?!"
"A competitor who focuses on their own business and tries to better it independent of what other people are doing," Ananias calmly answered.
"Yeah," Anna sniffed, "that may work well for just any old run-of-the-mill business, but that's not good enough for an Anna! Annas need to adapt!"
"Right," Ananias muttered, rolling his eyes, "because Annas haven't already proven that they can adapt to even the strangest of scenarios."
"I know, right?!" Anna wailed. "What kind of Anna am I if I can't even adapt to the competition of the other Annas?!" Another obnoxiously loud blowing of the nose could be heard from Ananias' side of the door before Anna said, "Maybe I should just quit while I'm ahead. I mean, I've had a pretty good run, right? Maybe I should just settle down and retire. Find a nice boy... get married...," she began to whimper again, "teach my children about the cold, harsh reality of failure."
"Okay, that's enough of that," Ananias said. "You're being way too dramatic. So you made a few bad business decisions, so what? Since when has that stopped any Anna from bouncing right back up and completely killing it the next day or two?" When Anna didn't say anything to retort, Ananias sighed and said, "Look, it's not like you ended up turning into me, alright? I was bad at the whole business thing from the get-go. You? You made your own business. You came to this world and you've got yourself a brand and shop that anyone around would trust in a heartbeat. You can turn all of these losses around and get back on top again. You're an Anna, whether you like it or not, so it's not a matter of will for you, it's just a matter of when."
Silence once again came between the two before Ananias heard the door unlock an Anna meekly opening it an peaking at him from the small opening she had allowed. "Do you really mean that?" she asked.
"Of course I do. I've seen it time and time again. This time won't be any different, trust me."
Anna folded her arms anxiously and defensively before giving him a slow and relenting nod. "I guess." She then gave him a pleading look and asked, "But what about my Annaness compared to everyone else's Annaness? How can I face them knowing that I'm an inferior Anna?"
Ananias simply shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't you just... use that to your advantage or something? I mean, me not being much of an Anna has done a few wonders for me, you know?"
At this, Anna simply stared at him in silence for a moment before Ananias could've honestly sworn that he saw a literal spark of inspiration flash within her eyes. "Oh my gosh!" Anna cried out excitedly. "That's it!"
Ananias raised an eyebrow in surprise and confusion. "What's it?"
"That'll be my pitch! I can see it now!" Anna raised her hand and moved it across the air as she read off from the imaginary sign that could only be seen in her imagination. "'Come Buy the Best! This Anna's Less of an Anna than the Rest!'" She then clenched her fists in anticipation. "I'll focus on the fact that I'm not as business savvy as the other Annas, creating an air of sympathy, but also an air of originality! How refreshing will it be for others to see many an Anna and then finally meet an Anna that isn't quite the same as the rest and is a little bit more of her own person! And if I play my cards right, I'll end up gaining customers that will be regulars for life!"
"That seems like a lot of lying," Ananias casually pointed out.
"Ah ah ah," Anna said, smiling and wagging her finger playfully at him, "we prefer the term 'providing-the-intended-services', or in the other words, 'acting'! And as we both know..."
Ananias sighed. "There's nothing wrong with acting," he monotonously recited.
Anna snapped her fingers and gave him a playful wink. "Exactly! Now, are you gonna help me with the rebranding or what?"
"I'll help, I'll help," Ananias wearily reassured her. "Besides, with the way things are going, you'd probably end up getting into another crying fit and call it quits all over again."
Anna simply rolled her eyes and waved his remark off. "Oh, please!" She gave him another playful wink and placed her finger against her cheek. "If that ever happened, then it'd just be like you said. I'll just pick myself back up again and come back twice as strong, right?"
Ananias couldn't help but chuckle and nod in response. "Of course you would. Whatever was I thinking, doubting you?"
"Probably not about how all of us Annas have the sweetest little nephew in the world! But don't feel too bad about it, he's a bit easy to forget about sometimes."
"Is he now?"
"Yep! The most forgettable person you could ever think of! That's him!"
"Well then, I won't bother wasting my time with him then. I mean, a guy as forgettable as him must be pretty boring, right?"
Anna laughed. "Now you're catching on!"
Author's Note: Welp, there ends Anna's supports with Ananias. Consider these a belated New Year's present. I hope you liked them! Sadly, these will be the last entire set I post. From this point on, it's back to one support at a time. Sorry about that. Next will be Ophelia, followed by Camilla, Gunther, Setsuna, Kanna, Selena, Beruka, Xander, Azura, Flora, Odin, Laslow, Rinkah, Arthur, Silas, and Leo. Got someone else you want to support with Ananias that isn't on this list yet? Request it. Remember, all Nohr first generation characters, Soliel, Ophelia, Anna, Kanna, Rinkah, Subaki, and Setsuna are allowed to support with him as well and it is a first come, first serve system.
