"Ananias, may I speak with you privately for a moment?" Silas asked.

Ananias let out an irritated sigh. "Does this have anything to do with increasing you or your horse's presence?"

Silas sheepishly chuckled. "No, definitely not. You've made your thoughts on the matter quite clear the last time we spoke, and you should be happy to hear that your opinion was duly noted."

"You don't have to listen to me if you don't want to."

"Er, yes, well… I'm not necessarily saying that I am, just that I will put your thoughts into consideration."

"Oh."

"…."

"…."

"…."

"… Is that all?"

"O-oh! My apologies! I thought that you were going to say something else, so I… -"

"Yeah."

"I mean -"

"It's alright."

"I just -"

"Get on with it," Ananias chided. "Is there something that you need help with?"

"W-well, no. Not exactly."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"W-well, I just… wanted to have a talk with you, that's all."

Ananias sighed. "So this is you trying to initiate some form of small talk with me?"

"Is that so wrong?" Silas innocently asked.

Ananias crossed his arms defensively. "I think I've made my thoughts on small talk pretty clear."

"Well, yes, but… should that really stop us from getting to know each other better?"

"I'm not averse to learning more about someone. I just don't see the point in forcing it, which is exactly what you were doing before and what you're doing now."

Silas gave Ananias a disappointed frown. "I don't understand. Did I perhaps do something to offend you?"

Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "Offend me? No, of course not. What makes you think that?"

"Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but… you seem to have a much harder time talking to me than to anyone else here. Why is that? I don't just want to be your trusted ally, I want to be your friend, but every time I try you always seem to either place a wall around yourself or you get irritated and walk away. Please Ananias, tell me! What can I do to strengthen the bond between us?"

Ananias thought for a moment before bowing his head and admitting quietly, "I don't know if there's anything you can do."

Silas let out a small gasp of surprise before giving Ananias a determined look. "Do you really expect me to believe that?

"You can believe whatever you want," Ananias said. "But in all honesty, the problem is me, not you."

"I'm sorry, but the more you say stuff like that, the more I start to believe that that isn't true."

"Well, it is," Ananias insisted.

"Then can you at least explain why?" Silas exasperatedly cried. "Don't you think that I at least deserve that much?"

Ananias sighed before forcing himself to say, "I just, don't like you that much, alright?"

Silas let out a hurt gasp. "You… don't like me? But why? What is it that I have done to embitter you towards me?"

"I already told you, you haven't done anything to warrant my feelings towards you."

"Then is it my character? My morals?"

Ananias let out a frustrated grunt. "No… well, kind of."

"Kind of?" Silas repeated. "What do you mean? Is there something about my character that you personally disagree with?"

"No, of course not! You're the picture-perfect example of a knight. What is there to disagree with?"

"Well there must be something!" Silas cried, growing continually frustrated over Ananias' inability to spit his reason for disliking him out. "You keep saying that I'm the ideal knight, yet you also admit to disliking me! Surely you see the contradiction here!"

"There isn't!" Ananias exasperatedly cried, his discomfort for this conversation having finally reached its boiling point. "Yes, you're the perfect example of the ideal knight! And yes, I do hate you for it! I hate you and your perfect little face!"

Needless to say, Silas was taken aback by Ananias' sudden outburst and the raw honesty of it. "Ananias…."

"There! I said it! You happy now?" Ananias turned around and bowed his head in a combination of anger and shame.

Silas placed a comforting hand on one of Ananias' shoulders. "How can I, when one of my friends is suffering right in front of me?"

"Stop that!" Ananias hissed, swatting Silas' hand off of his shoulder. "Don't you ever get tired of being so perfect all the time?"

"But I'm not," Silas gently said. "And I believe that, even in your anger, even in your frustration, you know this."

"I know! My brain tells me that all the time, and yet," Ananias shook his head, "I can't help myself from hating that stupid face of yours!"

"Or maybe, you hate yourself?" Silas suggested.

Ananias let out a tiny gasp of surprise. "What?"

Silas gave him a small and somewhat guilty smile. "My apologies, but when you made it clear that you wouldn't talk to me, I decided to ask around about you from people you did talk to. And after what you've just told me, I think it's all starting to make sense now. You spent most of your youth wishing and wanting to be something that you unfortunately could never be, and when you look at me, a man who wishes to become the best knight he can possibly be, and believing that he has all of the tools he needs to do just that, without any faults in sight, it only kept reminding you of how much of a failure you believe yourself to be."

"Humph. That's a pretty long-winded way of saying that I'm jealous of you."

Silas chuckled. "Yes, it certainly is, isn't it? Maybe it's a flaw worth noting?"

Ananias shook his head. "Not really."

"Well, how about this then?" Silas stood besides Ananias and, without looking at him, said, "The reason why I was so persistent in becoming your friend? It was because I think you and I are very much alike."

"Yeah, right," Ananias scoffed incredulously.

"Oh, but it's true."

"Helping everyone around us doesn't make us 'very much alike'."

"That's not what I was referring to when I said that. And even if I was, why not? Isn't that enough?" Ananias let out a conceding grunt. "But no, when I said that we were very much alike, I was referring to the fact that you remind myself of me. Or, at least, a past version of me anyway."

Ananias looked at Silas, the knight's words piquing his curiosity. "What do you mean by that?"

Silas smiled knowingly at him. "You're not much of a socialite, are you, Ananias?"

"Do you really have to ask?"

"Well, neither was I, once upon a time. I was a pretty lonely kid back in the day. Not that I felt particularly lonely at the time, but alone was what I certainly was… until the day I met Corrin. Everything changed ever since that day. And I assume that that's more or less what happened with you. You were lonely once, but a particular event happened in your life that made your more into the person that you are today, for better or for worse."

Ananias thought it over for a moment before saying, "A lot of people could fall into that group."

Silas nodded. "True, but isn't that a good thing? The fact that there are more people just like us, that just means that we're never truly alone, no matter how much we may feel we are."

Ananias stared at the optimistic look on Silas' face before letting out a small chuckle and asking, "Did you just come up with all of that, or were you just sitting on that this entire time?"

Silas simply shrugged. "Would you even believe me if I told you?"

"No. I don't think I would."

"Well," Silas said, slapping his hand against one of Ananias' shoulders, "for what it's worth, in a lot of ways, I think you're quite 'perfect' yourself."

"Yeah, now you're just lying through your teeth."

"I'm not."

"Sure you're not."

"Well then, that just means I'm not as perfect as you think I am, doesn't it?"

Ananias bowed and shook his head before laughing and saying, "I really want to punch you in your perfect little face right now."

"Well then, come and spar with me sometimes. I must say, I wouldn't mind punching you in the face either. I've got a lot of pent up self-hate that I'd like to let out too, you know."

"Sure, like I'd have any chance of beating you in a fist fight."

Silas chuckled. "Come on, I'll go easy on you."

"Well, that's just plain counterproductive," Ananias muttered.


Author's Note #1: And therein ends Silas' supports with Ananias. I hope you liked them. The next supports will be Leo, followed by Keaton, Subaki, and Mozu. Then, I'll finally be able to get to the Warriors supports.

Author's Note #2: The Fire Emblem Warriors poll is up on my profile. Vote for which five characters you want for Ananias to support with from that game the most and, in the end, ten characters will be selected for Ananias to support with, so make your voices heard. Happy voting!

Author's Note #3: As Ananias has no real connection to the Three Houses cast and has no real reason to be there anyway, there will be no Three Houses supports for him. I know that an Anna is in Three Houses, but if we went by that logic, Ananias would have to support with every Fire Emblem character that has ever existed, which would be unrealistic to do, at least for one person. If any of you want to do that yourselves, however, then you have my blessing, it's just that I won't be the one doing it. Sorry.