"Left, left, left," Severa instructed with her brow furrowed and arms crossed and a slight edge in her voice, alerting Ananias that she was slowly becoming more and more vexed with just how long this particular task was taking. "More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More. More." It was at that moment when she angrily forced her eyes closed, stiffened her entire body, and gritted her teeth before that short-fused temper of hers finally won over. "Gah!" she cried, stamping her foot in frustration. "Gawds Ananias! Are you really this dense?! Just keep moving left until I tell you to stop!"

Ananias gave Severa a nonchalant and compliant nod. "Right." He then followed Severa's advice to the best of his ability, slowly and continuously moving to the left of the tent while carrying whatever in Naga's name Severa was making him carry to its ideal spot.

Severa watched him closely, secretly glad that Ananias was going slowly enough to the point where the chances of him going too far to the left would be less of a problem, but also secretly hoping that Ananias would pick up the pace a little bit as so they could get this tedious part of her idea over with, tapping her foot impatiently as she watched Ananias and the object he was carrying in his arms carefully as she intended to find the proper placement for the said object in this tent right the first time. When Ananias finally brought it to a satisfactory spot, she pointed excitedly at where he was currently standing and cried, "There! There! Put it right there!"

"Alright then," Ananias said, placing the object, hopefully, right where Severa wanted it, took a step back, and asked, "This alright with you?"

Severa held her chin as she surveyed the entire inside of the tent. Severa had purchased a strange assortment of things this morning, the tent included (for it was a special type of tent), and had asked (or demanded, depending on who's opinion you were asking for) Ananias to spend all morning helping her properly set them all up… whatever they all were. Ananias could honestly say that he had no clue as to what all of the said objects were, but he at least knew this for certain: if he didn't know what they all were, chances were that none of them were being sold by an Anna, or, at the very least, an Anna he knew. Severa smiled and gave the entire tent a satisfied nod as she placed her hands on her hips proudly. "Yeah, that should do. Thanks for all of the help Ananias," she then frowned, furrowed her brow, and crossed her arms angrily, "but would you mind going just a teensy bit faster next time? Honestly, I could feel myself AGE just watching you!"

Ananias gave her an obedient nod. "Efficiency. Got it. I'll make sure to work on that," he said in that usual dull and deadpan voice of his. Severa frowned even harder at that. Sure, she should have been used to it by now, but that still didn't stop it from getting on her nerves to some degree every time she heard it. "So," Ananias said, crossing his arms and taking a moment to survey his handiwork (yes, the entirety of the tent's interior was his doing), "what's all this you've got here?"

Severa smiled smugly. "Well, if you must know." She then performed a quick twirl with her arms outstretched, and announced, "Welcome… to my very own fashion studio!"

Ananias raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "Fashion studio?" he asked.

Severa frowned and gave him a disapproving look. "Yes, a fashion studio," she answered curtly. "Way to ruin the moment there. Have you gone deaf? Didn't you hear me the first time?!"

Ananias simply shrugged nonchalantly. "Sorry, it's just… when and where exactly did this idea come up?"

Severa released an exasperated huff as she placed her hands on her hips and answered, "Let's just say that I was finally tired of rummaging through multiple shops and finding nothing worth spending my gold on." She smiled arrogantly. "And what better way to find clothes that suit my liking than to make them all myself?"

Ananias thought it over for a moment. "Continue looking for clothes that suit your liking?" he innocently suggested, which earned him a glare from Severa. "You're the one who asked," Ananias said, averting his eyes away from Severa's glare as a light blush slowly spread across his face.

"It was a rhetorical question!" Severa angrily pointed out. "Gawds, you really are that dense, are you?"

Ananias simply sighed and answered, "Yeah, pretty much."

Severa's eyes widened in surprise before she quickly made her way up to Ananias, invading his personal space, got up real close and personal, narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously and angrily, and asked, "Are you trying to be smart with me?!"

Ananias calmly shook his head as he completely no-sold Severa's intimidating glare. "No. I'm agreeing with you."

After taking a long moment to observe Ananias' face for any signs of possible dishonesty and failing to find any, Severa slowly backed off, let out an angry huff, and muttered under her breath, "Well that's a hell of a way of doing that."

Ananias looked around the tent once more and a sudden question popped into his head. "No offense, but do you even know how to make clothes from scratch?"

Before Severa could tell him that she did, she caught herself, and realized that no, she didn't know how to make and design clothes from scratch. She blushed and rubbed the back of her neck anxiously. "W-Well, no, but how hard could it be, right?"

Despite Severa's best attempt to hide it, Ananias plainly saw through her little charade. He sighed, shrugged his shoulders disinterestedly, and answered, "I guess," before deciding to make his way out Severa's fashion studio. "Well, good luck with that," he said, giving Severa a small wave as he began exiting the tent.

"W-Wait!" Severa cried, prompting Ananias to stop and look at her. "You can't expect one girl to do all of the work herself, right?"

Ananias raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I thought that that was the point."

"Well it isn't okay!" Severa passionately argued. "Every designer needs a faithful assistant, right?" The smug smile returned to her face as she made her way towards the confused Ananias. "And you were such a big help carrying all of my stuff for me and bringing my studio to life like this…." Her voice trailed off as she held her hands behind her back in an attempt at feigning innocence.

Ananias once again sighed. Just like last time, Ananias could see through Severa's act, but unlike last time, he really did have to consider playing along with it or not. While the entire army had been quick to pick up on his servile nature, he still had his standards and the question was where Severa placed in those said standards. Severa had a personality that made her hard to work with, but he knew that deep down, she was a genuinely nice person, she just had trouble letting all of that niceness show (which made him sadly realize just how much he and Severa had in common in that regard), but was that really enough to justify working under her?

After a long moment of contemplation, Ananias heaved a heavy sigh before nodding his head and asking, "Severa, do you want me to be your assistant?"

Severa gasped in an attempt at simulating surprise, though it failed somewhat due to her inability to properly hide the smug and triumphant grin on her face. "Oh Ananias, how thoughtful of you! I mean, I probably could've easily found someone else to do it, but if you insist…."

Ananias sighed again as he rubbed his eyes with the fingers of one of his hands and said, "Yes, I insist."

Severa smiled as she crossed her arms victoriously. "Good. But I should warn you, being my assistant is a full-time job! And I expect the very best from you!"

"That goes without saying," Ananias said.

"Good. We start work tomorrow!" She then confidently made her way out of her fashion studio tent, leaving a somewhat stunned Ananias behind.

"Tomorrow?" Ananias asked. "Why don't we start working today?"

Severa stopped in her tracks and racked her brain for a plausible excuse. "I, um, need to borrow a book from the Shepherd's study."

Ananias raised an eyebrow in surprise. "A book? A book on what?"

When no acceptable excuse came to Severa fast enough, Severa turned around, revealing the bright red blush on her face, and angrily answered, "A book about anything I want it to be! Gawds Ananias! You're so nosy!" She then turned around with an angry, "Humph!" before quickly making her way towards the Shepherd's study, where they kept the entire collection of the Shepherd's books (or, at the very least, a good chunk of them), which were of an incredibly vast range of topics.

Ananias slowly exited the tent and watched as Severa disappeared into the study tent, before letting out an exhausted sigh, and murmuring, "And there she goes, probably going off to borrow a book on how to make clothes from scratch."


Author's Note: Do Annas sell regular clothes? I'd like to think that some of them do, but none of them actually make them from scratch. And here marks the beginning of Severa's supports with Ananias. ...Hopefully nothing especially bad will happen to him during this time. Following Severa's supports will be Anna, Female Robin, Male Robin, Father, Tan'bay, Lucina, Gerome, Nah, Cynthia, Noire, Kjelle, Zephyra, Lumaria, Yarne, Laurent, and then Brady.