"Alright then," Nah said. "How about you try, I don't know, growing you hair out?"
Ananias gave Nah a funny look. "Why?" he asked.
"Well," Nah explained, "if you grew your hair out and then held it up with a ponytail then wouldn't you look a little bit more like your relatives?"
Ananias shrugged. "I don't know. I guess?"
Nah smiled triumphantly. "Well then there! Problem solved! If you did that, then everyone would definitely know that you were an Anna!"
"Or," Ananias calmly pointed out, "they would think that I was some sort of loony fan of them or something and call the authorities on the guy who's cross-dressing like the Annas and claiming to be related to the Annas."
Nah grimaced. "Oh," she said. "Right, I guess that would seem kind of weird, huh?"
"I'm getting weirded out just thinking about it," Ananias deadpanned.
Nah held her chin as she continued to brainstorm for other solutions for either of their unfortunate predicaments. "Okay then," she said slowly. She then snapped her fingers as her face lit up excitably. "Okay, how about this? How about… I start wearing stilts?"
Ananias' eyes widened a bit in mild surprise. "Stilts?"
Nah nodded. "Yeah, stilts. I could just walk around in stilts all day and everyone would treat me the way I should be treated because I'm actually at the height normal people are supposed to be at my age."
Ananias let out an exasperated sigh. "No one's going to treat you any differently if all they see is a little girl walking around on stilts and asking people to treat her like an adult."
"Well duh!" Nah said matter-of-factly. "That's why I'm going to wear a large cloak to conceal the fact that I'm wearing stilts!"
Ananias wearily rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That doesn't stop the fact that your face, hand, and arms are physically like that of a child's. And even if you did take the time to learn how to stilt, which can't exactly be easy, what would happen if there was some type of emergency? Would you honestly be able to move effectively on stilts during a battle?"
Nah glared at Ananias. "Do I have to remind you that I can transform into a humongous, fire-breathing dragon?"
"Which will either destroy the stilts or at least reveal to everyone that you were wearing them in the first place," Ananias calmly argued.
Nah gasped before bowing her head down sheepishly. "Y-Yeah, I guess you're right." She then began fidgeting nervously before averting her eyes to the side and quietly and dejectedly saying, "This isn't working, isn't it?"
Ananias looked at Nah with a mild look of surprise on his face. "Hm?"
Nah shook her head crestfallenly. "This whole 'Raising Awareness' thing, it was a stupid idea from the start, wasn't it?"
Realizing that he might've bit too hard on Nah and a bit too unsupportive of the whole thing, and hearing how hurt and crestfallen Nah was, Ananias' eyes softened a bit as he let out a small and barely audible gasp of surprise. "Whoa, hey, what are you saying?" Ananias asked as gently and as comfortingly as he could. "Of course it's a good idea."
"Don't lie to me Ananias," Nah sternly chided. She lowered her head in an attempt to hide the unshed tears that were beginning to form at the corners of her eyes. "You were right. This was a complete waste of time!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Ananias said as he quickly made his way to Nah's side. "Come on Nah, I never said that."
"Well you might've as well!" Nah angrily countered.
Realizing that this wasn't the time to be arguing specifics, Ananias placed his hands comfortingly on Nah's shoulders and frantically said, "Okay, you're right, I wasn't very supportive, and in a way, I'm still not, but… so what?"
Nah wiped away her tears with the edge of her wrist before giving Ananias a curious and inquisitive look. "Huh?"
Ananias blushed slightly as he sheepishly averted his eyes to the side a bit. "I… I never had the courage to say this to you face to face, but… no matter how much I might disagree with you from time to time, I would always sort of admire that independent and confident spirit of yours. Y-You…," Ananias sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, "you were never afraid to be yourself and speak your mind, which is more than I can say for myself."
Nah let out a small, surprised gasp. "Ananias…."
Ananias looked sheepishly back at Nah. "I'd be really disappointed in myself if my constant pessimism was what made you lose that indomitable spirit of yours. So, you know, just… stop listening to me, you know? I'm nothing but a negative influence on you."
"What?" Nah cried out incredulously. "What are you talking about?"
Ananias gave Nah a mild look of surprise. "Huh?"
Nah gave Ananias a grateful smile. "How can someone who's just looking out for me be a bad influence?"
Ananias blushed. "Um… well…."
Nah gave Ananias a playful punch on the arm. "You dolt," she said good-naturedly. "All you've been doing was looking out for me, whether it be making sure I didn't go along with plans that would totally embarrass myself or trying to stop me from even starting all together! You didn't even have to agree with meeting with me, but here we are!" She placed a hand reassuringly onto one of Ananias' arms and gave it a soft squeeze. "I'm sorry for getting overly emotional just now. I just…," she shook her head dejectedly, "I'm just so frustrated over how long it's taking us to come up with a solution! I mean, honestly! We're two relatively smart individuals, aren't we? Why haven't we come up with anything good yet?"
Ananias simply shrugged. "I don't know, maybe you're just thinking about it too hard."
Nah frowned. "Thinking about it too hard?"
Ananias nodded. "Yeah. I mean, you're trying to find a way to get everyone to know who you truly are, but that's a bit impossible, you know? Sometimes the simple but still annoying and less convenient solutions are still the best, yeah?"
Nah sighed. "I guess," she admitted dejectedly. "So what, are you saying that even though it can get annoying at times, correcting people when they make the mistake is our only way to go?"
Ananias nonchalantly shrugged. "If that's how you want to put it. Do you have any ideas on how to improve on that?"
Nah held her chin as she thought about it for a moment. She then snapped her fingers as her face lit up excitedly. "Well, we can at least lessen the burden a bit for each other."
Ananias raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Hm?"
"Okay, so here's the plan," Nah explained. "Say that someone comes up to me and they bring you up in the conversation, I'll say, 'Ananias, the son of Anna, the merchant?' Then they'll know of your relation without having to ask you!"
"Hm," Ananias said as he took a moment to consider the plan that Nah was proposing, "that actually sounds like a pretty decent plan. So if someone brings you up in a conversation, I'll ask, 'Nah, the manakete?'"
"Exactly!"
"Heh," Ananias said, a small, satisfied grin forming on his face. "Deal."
