Lumaria let out a dejected sigh, something that Ananias immediately took notice of as he just so happened to be passing by. He stopped where he was and turned towards her before dully, though gently asking, "Um... is everything alright?" He scratched the side of her neck for a moment, before adding, "Because you don't really seem like yourself."

"Oh, hey there, Ananias," Lumaria sadly replied. She then reassuringly waved off his concern with her hand. "Don't worry. It's nothing too serious. It's just..." She let the sentence trail off a bit as she let out another dispirited sigh.

Ananias raised an eyebrow slightly. "It's just... what?" he asked.

Lumaria shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I'm just a bit hung up about what you said last time. About how my gut feeling can be wrong sometimes?"

Ananias nodded his head understandingly. "Yeah, what about it?"

"It's just... stuff like that, it really makes me wonder if I was ever cut out for the whole khan thing, you know?"

Ananias let out a small and concerned gasp of surprise. "Lumaria..."

"I mean," Lumaria explained, "a khan should be able to make good gut decisions just as much as they can make good, calculated decisions, right? And what kind of khan would I have been if I had a crummy reputation of making bad gut decisions, huh?"

"Come on," Ananias comforted gently. "You shouldn't talk like that. That won't do anyone any good."

"It's better than not admitting that there isn't even a problem to begin with," Lumaria glumly countered. "You know, I always wondered how Lucina did it. Taking the lead of our ragtag group of survivors and managing to take us as far as she did, but now, I see it. It's no wonder I wasn't able to save Regna Ferox. People like me just aren't fit to rule a country, much less save one from absolute destruction."

"Okay, seriously, you need to stop talking like that," Ananias said. "You did the best that you could under the circumstances, and things were getting pretty crazy back then. It's only natural that you'd lose some people along the way. We all did."

"Some more than others," Lumaria argued. "Lucina and my mother would've never made the same mistakes I did back then." She hung her head. "Maybe what happened back in our timeline, maybe it was just a blessing in disguise."

"... What?"

Lumaria gave him a small, dejected smile. "Think about it. Better to lose Regna Ferox than to grind it into the ground with my poor leadership, right?"

Ananias was stunned silent for a moment before shaking his head and softly saying, "You don't mean that."

Lumaria shook her head. "I'm not saying that I do," she clarified, "but sometimes, you just need to accept facts. I was never leader material like Chrom, or Lucina, or even my mother or Basilio! Out of all the royals and rulers, I'm definitely the weakest."

"So what if you are?" Ananias gently argued. "The worst of the best is still pretty good, isn't it?"

"But I'm not one of the best!" Lumaria said. "Compared to my mother, I'm just not strong enough!"

"Obviously," Ananias nonchalantly replied. "But that's why you're strong in your own way."

Lumaria let out a tiny and surprised gasp. "Huh?"

"You're very considerate about the people around you, and you're willing to follow if you think it's for the best," Ananias explained. "And even if those aren't the traits of a true leader, then so what? There's no real way of knowing if you're a good leader or not. You just sort of have to do your own thing and hope that nothing terrible happens along the way."

"But something terrible DID happen to me along the way!"

"And that's normal too. If Ragna Ferox didn't fall under your lead, then it was going to fall eventually. That's just the hard truth of the matter. You did your best and everyone knows it. There's nothing more you could've hoped for. It's great that you realize your shortcomings, but beating yourself up and not learning from them isn't going to help make things any better. And if you think that it's hopeless for you to change, then you've just got to pick yourself up and move forward. That's all you can do."

Lumaria contemplated over Ananias' words for a moment before nodding her head slowly and saying, "I guess, but..." Her voice trailed off with a hint of uncertainty still evident in her voice.

Realizing that it was going to take a little bit of extra motivation to get Lumaria out of the emotional hole that she was in, Ananias let out an exasperated sigh before rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly and saying, "And... if it still makes any difference to you, your gut feeling about me wasn't exactly wrong. Now that I think about it, I guess that I sort of DO have a bit of a lying problem."

Lumaria's eyes widened in surprise. "Hmm?"

Ananias lightly blushed as he averted his eyes to the side, shamefaced. "I wouldn't call myself that big of a liar," he murmured. "I'm just a bit dishonest about how I really feel about things, is all."

Lumaria leaned in closer and asked, "Really? And why is that?" She had said this rather expectantly, but Ananias was a bit too embarrassed to have noticed.

Ananias shrugged. "I don't know," he muttered. "I guess I would much rather do nothing than do as much as I let myself agree to all the time, you know? But I hate the fact that I can't contribute more around here, so I just agree to it and say that it's fine and that I've got no problems with it. I know that I can be taken advantage of at times, but since I don't really do that much around here, I just bear with it, yeah?"

Lumaria quickly nodded. "Of course! It makes perfect sense!" Lumaria smiled warmly at him. "Wow! I'm honestly impressed with just how introspective you can be on your own, Ananias!" She then gave Ananias a nod of reassuring determination. "At this rate, we'll set you straight in no time!"

Ananias instinctively nodded. "Yeah." His eyes then widened in surprise upon realizing what he had just agreed to. "W-Wait, what?"

Lumaria smiled. "Heh, I guess the jig is up."

"What 'jig'?" Ananias asked, dumbfounded.

Lumaria giggled. "Well, let's just say that I figured out that you admitting that you had a problem was going to take a little bit of... convincing."

Realizing what she meant, Ananias let out an exasperated sigh, and said, "And I fell for it hook, line, and sinker, huh?"

Lumaria nodded and smiled apologetically. "Sorry! But it wasn't like you were going to admit it yourself!"

"So that whole thing about you losing confidence in yourself, that was all just an act?"

Lumaria shook her head and gave him a reassuringly sad smile. "I'm afraid not," she answered.

Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "Huh?"

Lumaria sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck as she explained, "I'm not that much of an actress, and I figured that you knew me a bit too well for any kind of facade to work, but I DID know that you're always willing to help someone who's feeling down, even at the expense of yourself if you needed to; so I spoke from the heart and hoped that you would be willing to confess your own shortcomings to me in order to cheer me up!"

Ananias stared at her in awe. "Geez, that's some plan you cooked up. A mind like that, and you STILL feel insecure about yourself?"

Lumaria chuckled sadly. "Let's just say that my mother and Lucina cast a pretty big shadow over me. Or, at least, it feels like one's been cast over me, you know?"

Ananias followed suit. "Yeah, I can definitely relate."


Author's Note: Welp, here it is, sorry if this was a bit later than usual, but I guess that this should come as a little bit of a warning that, with my personal life making me really busy and all nowadays, updates for this story won't be as consistent as they previously have been. I'll still try to update, these supports aren't very long after all, but just don't expect them as consistently for a while. On another note, writing supports for Ananias with original characters is always tricky. You've got to find ways to get the audience to know about them while still making it a legitimate interaction, you know? Ah well, just one more support until we get back to canon characters. Be patient until then, alright? See you guys next time!