"Alright," Noire said to herself as she made the finishing touches to the homemade good luck charm she was currently holding in her hands. "Just a little bit more and… done!" She took a moment to proudly admire her handiwork before gently placing it besides many others just like it. She let out a dreamy sigh before softly murmuring, "Just a few more and I'll be finished!"

"Hey, Noire."

Noire let out a squeak of surprise and impulsively jumped in her seat before quickly looking behind her. "O-Oh, Ananias! H-Hello there."

Ananias raised a hand to dully greet her. "Hey," he said again before lowering his hand and taking a casual look at the pile of good luck charms Noire had made. He tilted his head slightly in mild curiosity. "Hmm?" He took a step towards the carefully organized display of good-luck charms and leaned forward a bit to get a closer look at them before asking, "What's all this you got here?"

Noire lightly blushed and fidgeted nervously a bit before putting on an awkward, but proud, smile, and answering, "They're good luck charms. I thought that since the battles are only going to get tougher from here on out, I'd give one to every member of the army to boost our morale." She played with her fingers nervously before looking at Ananias sheepishly and asking, "S-So, what do you think? Do you like them?"

Ananias observed the good luck charms closely for another moment before giving Noire an acknowledging nod and shrug in response. "Sure."

The smile on Noire's face was quickly replaced with an apprehensive frown. "W-What does that mean?" she asked.

Ananias simply shrugged. "Well, I mean, it's not like I have an eye for these things, you know? Don't really know what a good luck charm's supposed to look like. I mean," he looked back down at the good luck charms, "I like them and all, but it's not like I'm an expert. My opinion doesn't really hold water."

Noire let out a sigh of relief before giving Ananias a reassuring smile. "Well, I made this for the army, not for good luck charm experts, so really, your opinion matters more than you think it does," she said.

Ananias thought it over for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and saying, "I guess," before taking one more look at the charms and asking, "So, um, where's mine?"

"O-Oh!" Noire cried out. She gave Ananias a sheepish and apologetic look before turning back towards her workplace and saying, "I haven't made it yet. S-Sorry."

Ananias simply shrugged his mild disappointment off. "It's okay," he reassured her. "That just means I'll end up appreciating it more when I finally get it, yeah?"

Noire let out a small sigh of relief upon realizing that Ananias had not taken it personally before letting out a lighthearted giggle, smiling, and replying, "Of course!"

Noire then immediately went back to work. For a long time, things were quiet between the two, with Noire's carefree humming being the only sounds to be heard as Noire made her charms and Ananias once again studied the already completed ones. Noire couldn't help but occasionally glance at Ananias from the corner of her eye as he continued to observe her handiwork. She couldn't help but feel a bit of pride every time she saw that Ananias was still there, looking at them. She had worked hard on these, so seeing someone like Ananias admiring them so much made her happy.

Sadly, for Noire, that particular happiness wouldn't last. "Um, Noire?" Ananias asked, his eyes sticking to a particular good luck charm as he did.

Noire, still overjoyed over the supposed positive reception of her good luck charms, continued working with a carefree smile on her face as she asked, "Yes?"

Ananias casually pointed towards the good luck charm that had currently caught his attention before asking, "This charm… it's for Jakob, right?"

Noire quickly glanced at the good luck charm Ananias was referring to before going back to work and answering, "Yes, that's right."

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but… I think you spelled his name wrong."

Noire stopped what she was doing and gave Ananias a surprised look. "Huh?"

Ananias picked up the good luck charm and showed it to her. "Well, it's just that, Jakob's name is spelled with a 'k' and you spelled it with a 'c'."

Noire let out a surprised and embarrassed gasp. "Oh my gosh! Is it?!" She quickly snatched the charm from Ananias' hands and looked it over before letting out a weary sigh and saying, "Aw. I guess I'll just have to do this charm over then." She then turned to Ananias, gave him a grateful, but sheepish, smile, and said, "Thank you, Ananias. If it wasn't for you, I would've given Jakob a good luck charm with his name misspelled on it, and we can't have that, can we?"

Ananias simply shook his head. "No, I guess not. But don't thank me just yet." He looked back at the display of good luck charms. "There's a lot more where that came from."

Noire's eyes widened in surprise and absolute horror. "W-What?"

"You misspelled more than just Jakob's name," Ananias innocently clarified.

Noire could feel her stomach twisting and turning to the point where she honestly thought that she was about to throw up. "O-Oh no!" she wailed. "H-How many of them did I mess up on?"

Ananias simply shrugged. "Don't know, I kind of stopped counting after the first five."

The tightening in Noire's stomach got even worse. "F-FIRST FIVE?!" she cried.

Ananias nodded. "Yeah." He picked up another good luck charm, displayed it in front of Noire, and asked, "This one's for Avah, right? Because I'm pretty sure her name ends with an 'h'." He handed the charm to a shocked Noire before repeating the process, unaware that every new good luck charm he handed off to her slowly made her more and more upset. "Same goes for Joshuah. Ethyn's name is spelled with a 'y' along with Jaymes' and Benjamyn's. Maiya's name is spelled with an 'i' before the 'y', and -"

"GAH!" Noire cried, throwing the good luck charms into the air in reckless abandon and seething in repressed rage, causing Ananias to jump up slightly in surprise. "BLOOD AND THUNDER!" She quickly picked up one of the good luck charms that needed correcting and glared at it intensely. "WHAT FOOLS WOULD SPELL THEIR OFFSPRING'S NAME IN SUCH A NONSENSICAL AND IDIOTIC MANNER?!"

Having quickly recovered from his initial shock (for Ananias has long since been used to Noire's sudden outbursts at this point in their lives), Ananias simply shrugged and commented, "I know, right? We seem to have a lot of them too." He glanced back at the collection of good luck charms, casually indicated towards them, and said, "It's almost amazing how many of these need correcting."

"GAH!" Noire cried out as she slammed the good luck charm she was currently holding violently at the ground. "AND YOU! FOOLISH FOOL! FOOL AMONG MEN! HOW DARE YOU COME HERE AND SPIT UPON ALL OF MY HARD WORK!"

Ananias thought about it for a moment before saying, "Well, I wouldn't go that far."

"OUT!" Noire bellowed as she angrily pointed towards the exit to her tent. "GET OUT THIS INSTANT! BEFORE I SMITE YOU FOR YOUR FOOLISHNESS!"

Ananias raised his hands up in an attempt to calm Noire down as he slowly sidestepped his way towards the exit. "Alright, okay, I'm going," he said blandly and monotonously. "But if you ever need any help with spelling everyone else's name -"

"OUT!"

Ananias let out an exasperated sigh before saying, "Alright, alright, I'm going," and complying with Noire's demands.


Author's Note: It's amazing how many weird spellings for common names I found. Just like Noire, I just couldn't believe that those types of spellings were actual possibilities. Also, what would a mass produced good luck charm even look like? Ah well, all that matters is that Noire's Supports have finally started. Hope you guys liked it. Until next time!