"Severa?" Ananias cautiously called out as he just as cautiously entered the said girl's fashion studio, careful not to be too forceful upon his entry after the afternoon that had just transpired for the two of them. "Are you okay?" Immediately after he said that, he saw that Severa with one arm wrapped around her chest and one hand covering her mouth vigorously, hanging her head as she quickly paced around in circles.
Severa nodded, determined both not to look Ananias in the eye and to let up the pace she was going at in the slightest. "Of course I'm okay," Severa answered, though Ananias easily detected the upset crack in her voice. "Why wouldn't I be okay?!"
By the mere sound of her voice and the way she was acting, Ananias knew that he would have to tread carefully. "It's just that," Ananias began, as gently as he could, though with how monotonous and deadpan his voice usually was, it probably sounded anything but, "you were really proud of this dress," he pulled the ends of the dress he was wearing to better indicate what he was talking about, "and when it didn't get a lot of positive reviews, you just sort of, ran off." He then rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and added, "I'm just concerned is all."
Severa stopped pacing around to properly face her cross-dressing assistant. For a long moment, the two just stared at each other, with Severa staring intently at Ananias and Ananias staring awkwardly at Severa, until, much to Ananias' shock, Severa completely broke down in front of him. "Wah!" she wailed, running up to Ananias and burying her face into his chest.
Ananias, too flabbergasted by the distressed Severa and too uncomfortable by just how personal this particular incident was becoming, was unable to immediately comfort the distraught mercenary. "Um…," was all he could say as Severa sobbed into his chest and inadvertently onto her newly made dress.
Severa lifted her head out of his chest and shook her head indignantly. "They hated it!" she sniffed sadly. "Everybody hated it!"
After he had waited a substantial amount of time for Severa to calm down a bit, Ananias gently pointed out, in an attempt to comfort the designer-in-progress, "Well, not everybody, right? Lucina loved it, didn't she?"
"Wah!" Severa wailed, much to Ananias' shock. "That's even worse!"
After her sadness and grief had subsided a bit, Ananias carefully said, "Well, at least it's just the first attempt, right? I mean, no one's going to make a masterpiece on their first go, you know?"
"Yeah, well what happens if I'm not skilled enough to make that 'masterpiece', huh?!" Severa angrily questioned. She shook her head sadly. "You were right Ananias," she said. "What was I thinking, making my own clothes from scratch?! Gawds, I'm such an idiot!"
Ananias shook his head. "Hey, don't say that, that's not healthy," Ananias said, placing his hands gently on Severa's shoulders, giving them a soft and reassuring squeeze as he brought his face closer to Severa's in the attempt to get better eye contact with her despite her miserable state keeping her gaze away from his. "Look, there's nothing wrong with trying new things and making a few mistakes as you go. If anything, that just shows how much you aren't an idiot, because only idiots give up on things before they even try to do them, because going through life without trying anything in fear of making mistakes is a rotten way to live."
Severa wiped away a few unshed tears and sniffled a bit before finally meeting Ananias' gaze and asking, "Really? You really think I'm not an idiot for," she gestured around her entire fashion studio, "spending all of my gold at once to fund a hobby I didn't even know I was good at in the first place?"
Ananias pondered over Severa's words for a moment before giving her an acknowledgeable nod, and answering, "Well, maybe that first part."
Severa gasped before narrowing her eyes dangerously. "Excuse me?!"
Ananias quickly took his hands off of Severa's shoulders and raised them up in an attempt to calm the short-tempered girl down. "But I completely agree with that second part!" Once Severa's features softened a bit, Ananias gently added, "You set your sights on something and you gave it a shot." He indicated towards the dress he was still wearing and nonchalantly shrugged. "Who cares if your first attempt didn't go so well? At least you attempted it, you know? And that's more than what I can say for a lot of people. Myself included."
Severa let out a small and astonished gasp. "Do you…," she averted her eyes to the side as she blushed lightly, "do you really mean that?"
Ananias shrugged unconcernedly. "Well, it's either that or I'm just being a faithful assistant like you wanted me to be, so…."
Severa shot Ananias a disapproving frown before letting out an exasperated sigh and rubbing her temples in annoyance. "I'll just pretend like I didn't just hear that," she grumbled. After she was done with that, she looked back at Ananias, who was simply standing there, shot him another disapproving frown, and said, "Um… so how much longer do you plan on staying in that dress Ananias? Well?"
Looking down at himself, and realizing that he was indeed still unnecessarily wearing Severa's first handmade dress, Ananias simply nodded obediently, and said, "I guess I'll start changing now."
As Ananias' walked past her in order to change back to his usual attire, Severa let out an exasperated huff and said, "Gawds Ananias! Are you telling me that you need someone else's permission in order to get dressed?!"
Ananias simply shrugged as he tried, in vain, to reach the strings on the back of the dress. "What if, for some reason, you wanted me to keep it on?" When Severa still did not look convinced, Ananias simply added, "What? It was better than me assuming that you were okay with me taking it off."
Severa sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose in exasperation. "Gawds, you really are this dense." But just as Ananias had turned around in a better attempt to reach the strings keeping the dress together on his back, Severa smiled to herself, and softly added, "But I guess that just adds to your charm, doesn't it?"
Author's Note #1: No in-depth description on what Severa's dress actually looks like, but Ananias did say that Lucina loved it, so...
Author's Note #2: The next supports will be Anna, Female Robin, Male Robin, Father, Tan'bay, Lucina, Gerome, Nah, Cynthia, Noire, Kjelle, Zephyra, Lumaria, Yarne, Laurent, and then Brady.
