"Lucina!" Ananias uncharacteristically cried, immediately catching both Lucina's and everyone else within hearing distance's attention and causing everyone to give the red-clad trickster looks of complete and utter shock in his general direction. Upon receiving Lucina's attention, Ananias frantically pointed towards his tent and cried, "You! Me! Tent! Now!" before making a mad dash towards his tent and disappearing inside.

After taking a moment to stare and gawk at Ananias' tent and perform a couple of blinks of confusion, Lucina shook her head in an attempt to recompose herself and recover from her shock, turned around, gave everyone a warm, reassuring smile, and proceeded to quickly walk towards Ananias' tent and enter it after everyone had eventually gone back to minding their own business.

After she had entered Ananias' tent, her eyes widened in surprise as she saw that Ananias' strange behavior had not at all stopped in the slightest upon returning to the privacy of his own quarters; if anything, it had only gotten worse, with Ananias jumping up and down in place in a manner that resembled an infant who really wanted to go to the bathroom and was desperately trying to hold it in, the look on his face and the beads of sweat that were running down on it only adding to that particular analogy. Lucina, once again taken aback by the strange and alien behavior Ananias was displaying before her, paused for a moment to take it all in and to recompose herself before asking, in a concerned tone of voice, "Ananias? What's the matter? Is everything alright?"

Continuing to jump up and down in place where he stood, Ananias nodded, his face having reverted a bit more to the look Lucina and everyone else in the Shepherds were used to seeing on Ananias' face, though the nervousness and anxiety Ananias felt was still noticeably apparent, which was a clear sign that something was amiss if you asked Lucina (this was Ananias after all, even if he were worried, it should always be somewhat hard to tell, at the very least just by looking at him), before answering, as calmly as he could, "Pretty much."

Lucina slowly nodded as she worryingly stared at Ananias, her head following Ananias' movements as he continued to hop up and down. "I see," she said, though she sounded far from convinced. She shook her head to quickly rid herself of whatever little shock she could rid herself of at the moment before she said, "Look, before we have…," she took a moment to find the right words, "whatever conversation you wish to have with me, I would just like to apologize for what happened last time." She blushed a bit as she bowed her head and twiddled her feet a bit in embarrassment. "It was wrong of me to impose myself into your problems, especially when, when you really think about it, the only reason I did it was to rid myself of a debt that I had placed upon myself." She shook her head again in shame. "It was selfish of me, forcing you and pressuring you to open up to me for my own sake, especially considering the fact that my father noticed what we were doing and put you in such a strange and embarrassing position." She raised her head and gave Ananias a firm nod. "You can rest assured that it will never happen again."

Ananias nodded his head absentmindedly. "Yeah, sure, got it," he said, as he continued to hop up and down, the loss of breath from continuing to perform such an activity becoming apparent in his voice. "So are you done yet or what?"

Lucina's eyes widened in surprise at the trickster's surprising and uncharacteristic response to her apology. "Um, excuse me?" she asked incredulously.

Ananias let out an exasperated sigh before hastily explaining, "Look, you were right. I need to open up to someone about my problems, even if I don't like to. People shouldn't carry so much unnecessary weight on them, and you're living proof that sharing some of that weight can do wonders for a person." Ananias placed his hands on his chest as he continued to jump up and down. "The problem wasn't you, it was me. I was too concerned with what might happen if I shared all of my darkest problems and secrets with someone whose opinions and favor I cherished and I was so scared that their opinion of me would change for the worse after hearing all of it that I just sort of ran away, you know?" Ananias held his head down as he continued to jump up and down in place, only more vigorously this time, swinging his arms to and fro for extra measure. "But not this time," he said as he kept his head down. "If my problem is that I think too much, then I'll just have to make sure that I just do it without thinking too much about anything else then!"

Realizing what Ananias was trying to achieve, but still somewhat freaked out by exactly how he was trying to achieve it, Lucina nodded her head slowly in understanding. "I see." But then again, she supposed she had to make sure. "Is this why you're doing all of… this then?" she asked, pointing at Ananias' feet as she asked this.

Ananias let out an angry grumble before answering, "Obviously. You don't think I know just how ridiculous I look right now?" He shook his head in frustration. "Now just… shut up so that I can spit it out, alright?!"

Lucina nodded her head obediently and waited patiently with the resolve that whatever dark secrets Ananias was about to share with her, she was going to do her best to be as supportive and helpful as she possibly could, or, at the very least, return the same amount of support and helpfulness Ananias had displayed towards her when she had opened herself up to him. However, as a bit too much time went by, Lucina started to wonder if maybe it was too late, that second thoughts had already begun to creep into Ananias' mind by the time she had properly allowed him the opportunity to open himself up to her. "Ananias?" she asked, her voice full of concern, hoping desperately that they were not too late.

Ananias let out another frustrated growl as he shook his head with equal frustration. "I know, I know! Just…," he stopped hopping and crouched down, letting out an angry and passionate war-cry which surprised Lucina to the point where her eyes widened in surprise as she took a fearful and surprised step back and lifted one of her arms as if to defend and shield herself from an incoming attack. "Agh!" he cried before standing back up and blurting out, "I'm a mistake!" before quickly covering his mouth and immediately freezing in place where he stood with a shocked look on his face.

Lucina's eyes went tender upon hearing her friend's blunt confession. "You… think yourself as… a mistake?" she asked incredulously, a part of her unable to believe that her friend could have possibly harbored such a deep and dark opinion of himself.

Ananias slowly lowered his hands from his mouth as he lightly and sheepishly shrugged and mumbled, "Well, I mean, n-not all the…." He then clenched one of his hands into a fist and proceeded to bang it against his forehead as he let out a few more frustrated, incoherent grumbles before crying out, "All the time!" He then placed both hands into his hair and began to scratch if furiously as he turned his back away from Lucina and began to pace around in a small circle in front of her. "I just… gah!" He knocked himself on the forehead once more. "Everything about me feels like a mistake, you know?!" he cried, his voice cracking a bit as tears welled up at the corners of his eyes. "I was born into a family that I've got nothing in common with! And even if that didn't matter, as my own, separate person, I've got nothing, you know?! I've got no special skills, I've got no social skills, I've got no reputation, I've got no one who's just like me, I've… I've got nothing! And what little I do have, it's completely useless! 'Oh, Ananias, you're always so calm! I wish I was as calm as you!' Who cares! I've got the emotional range of a rock! No one knows what I'm feeling! No one knows how I'm feeling! And I hate talking about my feelings, so even though I hate it when people don't know how I'm feeling, I'm not exactly going to take any steps to rectify that, so I've pretty much doomed myself to this perpetual cycle of misery no matter where I go, because the problem is obviously me and only me, not anyone else! 'Oh, Ananias, you're so handsome!' A lot of good that helps me in the apocalypse! A lot of good that helps me in finding a wife or friends when I've got no social skills! 'Oh, Ananias, don't worry, we need all the help we can get!' I've seen people more talented and more important than me fall on the battlefield whereas I, for some godsforsaken reason, somehow stay alive through it all, even though I contribute absolutely nothing special to our effort or the Shepherds whatsoever! I feel like a cheat, like I'm somehow taking spots away from more deserving people or something! 'Oh, but Ananias, you can pick locks and stuff, right?!' Just freaking break the lock or door down! You don't need me! No one does!"

Once Ananias had finally finished his uncontrollable ranting and raving, he stopped dead in his tracks, hung his head down in shame, let his hands fall limply to his sides, and emotionlessly murmured, "I'm terrible," before making his way to his bed and dejectedly sitting himself down with a look on his face that looked even more emotionless and blank than usual, which only made it all the more disturbing. After wiping away the tears that were falling down his face, Ananias sniffled a bit, before muttering, "This is why I don't like talking about myself. Because I know that if I ever did, it would always turn out like… like this." He shook his head as he hung his head down even further down in shame. "I'm sorry you had to listen to all of that."

Lucina's eyes went tender as she slowly made her way to her friend, sat down next to him, wrapped her arms around him, gave him the best and most reassuring hug she could possibly give him considering their positions, and whispered, "And I'm sorry too, for forcing my friend, whom I cherish, to suffer through having to say that all out loud, but," she released him from her hug and softly said, "if it makes any difference to you, I think that you give yourself far too little credit." When Ananias didn't respond to her reply, Lucina softly continued, "I cannot speak for everyone, but when you say that you have no true role amongst our ranks, I must have to respectfully disagree, because it was clear to me, from the very beginning, that out of all of us, you were the strongest when it came to controlling your emotions, you were the strongest when it came to supporting our comrades when they were ready to give up or whenever they were too distressed or emotional to think straight, you were the best when it came to reaching out your hand to others to take and pull them out of the abyss that they were so close to sinking into and never coming out of." She gulped down a sad lump in her throat and recomposed herself a bit before ending with, "And I know this, because I have experienced your kindness, your loyalty, your dutifulness first hand." At this, Ananias lifted his head up ever so slightly, his eyes and face still looking hauntingly emotionless, though this time, Lucina noticed that his expression had softened a bit. Lucina gulped down another lump of sadness before cautiously adding, "And… I feel that… if anything were to happen to you…," she sniffled a bit as she wiped a few tears that were threatening to fall down her face, "everyone here would," her voice was cracking at this point, "mourn for you… just as much as they would mourn a war hero, a general, or a great mage." At this, Ananias lifted his head up a bit further and turned to look at Lucina, witnessing firsthand the tears that she was trying to, in vain, keep from falling and the sad and reassuring smile she tried to give him in whatever little glory someone in her state could muster. "Of that, I am sure."

She then laughed, wiping a few more tears forming at the corners of her eyes and said, "Would you look at us? We must look like such a mess right now."

Ananias nodded his head slowly in agreement, before turning his head towards the ground again, and mumbling, "Yeah. Who knew that we were such sensitive crybabies?"

Lucina shrugged. "No one, apparently. We're pretty good at hiding it."

Ananias nodded. "Yeah." A brief silence came between the two of them before Ananias added, "It feels nice, knowing that there's one more crybaby on this team other than just me."

Lucina nodded, a grateful smile on her face. "It is, isn't it?" She placed a hand on one of Ananias' shoulders and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Now, whenever we feel like throwing a temper tantrum, or if we ever feel like crying our eyes out and sharing our feelings in private, we can just go to each other. After all, we crybabies have to stick together, right?"

Ananias heaved a heavy, exasperated, and weary sigh, before answering, "Yeah," pausing for a moment, and adding, "but can we stop calling ourselves crybabies though? The term just has so many negative connotations and everything, you know?"

Lucina smiled. "Of course." She thought for a moment before suggesting, "How about sissies then?" She looked up and recited, "We sissies must stick together." She then shook her head, a disapproving frown appearing on her face. "No, that doesn't sound too good either." She thought for a moment. "How about wimps? Or losers? Or overly sensitive people? Or -"

Ananias chuckled, a small smile appearing on his face as he did so. "On second thought, let's just stick with crybabies."


Author's Note: Sometimes you just got to get it over with, you know? Though, you probably wouldn't want to get it over with like Ananias did. Speaking of 'over with', Christmas may be over, but consider this your belated Christmas present from me to all of those who like this story. Merry belated Christmas! Hope the rest of your holiday is filled with happiness despite how sad this chapter may be for some. Lucina and Ananias' S Support will be next, so at least you'll have that to look forward to if you want something a bit more cheerful than what you got here. See you then!