"Ta-da!" Peri cried upon presenting Ananias with his specially made breakfast for the morning.
Ananias looked down at it and nodded approvingly. When he had first met Peri, he knew that she was probably a lot of things, but he had been pleasantly surprised when he found out that being a fantastic chef was one of them. "Pancakes, huh?" he noted.
Peri nodded happily. "Yep! Peri's very own super special recipe! You're going to love it!" She then let out a tiny gasp. "Oh my gosh! I almost forgot!" She gently placed Ananias' pancakes in front of him and, after running off and rummaging through the mess hall's kitchen multitude of cabinets, ran back to him with a jar in hand, pried it open, scooped a big chunk of it out, and drenched it all over them. "There you go!" Peri said with a carefree and satisfactory smile on her face. "Nothing beats having pancakes with lots of strawberry jam on top!"
One of Ananias' eyes twitched upon watching the unfortunately colored spread soak itself into his freshly made pancakes. "Strawberry jam…," he muttered. He looked up at Peri and gave her the most natural smile he could muster, but being Ananias, the cringe on his face just became that much more obvious. "Is that your favorite type of jam?" he asked.
Peri nodded, oblivious to the obvious discomfort that Ananias was currently displaying in front of her. "Uh-huh! It's just so sweet and tasty, and it look just like blood, don'tcha think?"
Ananias awkwardly laughed and nodded. "It… it sure does," he admitted. "It really, really does."
"Well, don't just sit there! Dig in! Before it gets cold!"
"Right. We… we wouldn't want that now, would we?"
Peri shook her head. "Nope, definitely not!"
Ananias slowly grabbed his utensils and began to cut into his meal. As he did this, the jam that had seeped into the pancakes was slowly beginning to leak out of them. Ananias weakly chuckled. "Heh heh. It almost looks like they're bleeding."
Peri sighed dreamily as she watched him cut into them. "I know, right? Isn't it just lovely?"
Ananias tilted his head to the side as he gave her a half a shrug. "Well, it's definitely something," he muttered. Once he finally cut himself a decent piece, he stabbed his fork into it and slowly raised it up to his mouth. "Bon appetit." He placed the food into his mouth and slowly began to chew it.
Peri leaned forward expectantly. "So? How was it?"
Ananias nodded his head as he continued to chew. "It's good. You were right. The strawberry jam really is sweet and tasty."
Peri giggled bashfully. "Aw. Well, I'm glad you liked it. It's the least Peri could do to thank you for going bandit hunting with her. Now eat up, so that you and Peri can go out hunting again later today too!"
Ananias almost choked on his food upon hearing this. "W-What? What do you mean 'by later today'?"
Peri innocently tilted her head to the side. "Um, like, a few hours from now?"
Ananias unintentionally dropped one of his utensils. "In… in a few hours?" he repeated with a gulp, his voice getting unusually higher as he spoke.
Peri nodded. "Uh-huh." She then frowned. "Why? Is something the matter?" She then gasped. "Does Ananias have plans later today? Because Peri would totally understand if he did! Ananias is usually pretty busy with all his chores and stuff."
Ananias was tempted to lie about it, but unfortunately, his conscience wouldn't exactly allow him to. He shook his head. "No, I just… you didn't mention this before, so it sort of caught me off guard."
Peri let out a small sigh of relief. "Well," she gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, "Peri's mentioning it now, right? So eat up and get yourself ready for another hunt of a lifetime!"
"O-Okay, fine, but if we're going to do this, can we at least set up some ground rules?"
Peri frowned. "Ground rules? Like what?"
"Well," Ananias began, racking his brain to figure out where it was best to start, "can we at least agree that if there are hostages this time, we would be more careful to avoid hitting them this time?"
Peri pouted. "Aw! But they keep getting in the way!" She smiled. "It's just so much easier to just cut through them to get to the baddies!"
"Yeah, that's kind of where I draw the line," Ananias said. "Peri, we can't just mow everyone down who just happens to get in the way of you fighting the bad guys. They're hostages. It's not their fault that they're there to begin with."
"But it IS their fault if they keep getting in the way," Peri argued. "They should know better than to just sit there and let their kidnappers use them as human shields."
"Okay, fine, I'll give you that, but the whole reason we can even get away with this kind of stuff is because we're hunting down the bad guys. What if we accidentally killed one of the hostages and their family alerts Lord Xander about it? He'd be furious, wouldn't he?"
Peri frowned. "Yeah, I guess…."
"So can we at least agree to be extra careful if there are innocents around?" When Peri didn't immediately answer, Ananias added, "Please? It was a miracle that we were able to manage to keep all of them alive at the rate you were going."
"But it's no fun when people keep getting in the way like that."
Ananias sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll focus on keeping everyone safe, while you take care of the bandits. How does that sound? That way, you'll have all of the fun to yourself."
"What? No! Then that wouldn't be fair to you, Ananias! And if it's not fair, then it won't be any fun for Peri!"
"Alright, fine, I'll keep an eye out for innocents AND I'll slice and dice the bad guys with you. I'll pull double duty. That way, everyone wins. How's that?"
Peri tilted her head to the side curiously. "So… like last time?"
Ananias let out another exasperated sigh. "Yeah, like last time."
"Oh boy!" Peri gushed. "And last time was so much fun too! Peri just can't wait!" Peri then ran towards the door and waved back at him excitedly. "See you later, alligator!"
Ananias slowly waved back. "In a while… crocodile." When Peri had left, Ananias looked down at his pancakes and tossed and turned them for a bit, before taking another bite and muttering, "These really are good though. Maybe it was just a coincidence that it looked like blood." A pause. "Then again, maybe I should start getting into tomato juice, just in case…."
Author's Note: Next supports after Peri will be Felicia, Jakob, Lana, Kaze, Nyx, Charlotte, Niles, Effie, Female Corrin, Benny, Anna, Ophelia, Camilla, Gunther, Setsuna, Kanna, Selena, Beruka, Xander, Azura, Flora, and Odin. Got someone you want to support with Ananias? Request it. Remember, all Nohr first generation characters, Soliel, Ophelia, Anna, Kanna, Rinkah, Subaki, and Setsuna are allowed to support with him as well and it is a first come, first serve system.
