"Alright," Ananias said, "now, are you ready to begin your training?" He then shrugged. "Or, you know, do you want to cancel or postpone this? Either way is fine, I guess. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, neither of us are in that big of a rush to do this, you know?"
Felicia shook her head with a determined look on her face. "No!" she said in her usual strong yet somehow still faltering and uncertain way. "I'm ready! L-Let's do this!"
Noticing the slight hesitation in her voice, Ananias cocked an eyebrow and asked, "Um, are you sure?"
Felicia nodded. "Yeah! I'm definitely sure!"
"Like, for sure-sure, or for maybe-sure?"
Felicia frowned, uncertain as to how to answer that particular question, both in the sense that was honest for her and in the way that would convince Ananias that she was, in fact, ready for this. "Um, honestly? A bit more maybe-sure than sure-sure. But," her face was once again looked determined, "I definitely want to improve, so I've got that going for me!"
Ananias stared at her for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and saying, "Eh, good enough, I guess." He took one of the plates off of the many stacks of plates behind him and handed it over to her. "Okay, first thing's first, hold this plate, walk down the room, and then walk back."
Felicia slowly took the plate and frowned. "You... honestly don't think that I can handle holding just ONE plate all by myself without breaking it? Am I seriously that bad?"
Ananias simply shrugged. "Not sure, but at least with this we can make absolutely sure what you can and can't do this way. We'll just add more plates the more you can prove that you can handle the previous amount."
Felicia nodded understandingly. "I guess that makes sense." She then straightened her back, took a deep breath, and muttered, "Okay, here goes nothing." She strutted down the room as confidently and as properly as a maid should. She smiled to herself as she turned her heels and began to make her way back to Ananias. "Alright, so far, so good! I mean, even somebody as clumsy as me wouldn't be able to mess something as simple as this up! Now, as long as we add one plate each time, I should be a pro at this in no time!" It was then that she felt a familiar feeling down at her feet, and she immediately began to panic. "Or... not!"
"Felicia!"
"Eek!"
What followed was a loud crash as Ananias, in an attempt to catch a tripped up and practically tumbling Felicia, fall into the table holding the numerous stacks of plates, accidentally knocking it and the stacks of plates over and shattering nearly all of them, causing both Felicia and Ananias to hold their breaths, drop their jaws, and stare in shock at the horrible incident that had just transpired. Felicia was the first to speak after Ananias swallowed in an anxious gulp to prevent himself from freaking out. "Ananias, all your plates... I am SO sorry."
Ananias slowly nodded, his eyes not leaving the shattered pieces of the plates before him for a second. "It's... it's alright, Felicia. W-When you really think about it, there was no real way we could've prepared for something like that."
Feeling more and more horrible by the second, Felicia decided to break the tension by telling a lighthearted joke. She held up the plate that she had been holding, the only one that had managed to stay intact out of all of them, wiggled it around, and said, "Well, at least this one survived. That's got to account for something, right?" It was then that the plates slipped away from her grip, fell down onto the floor and broke instantly. "Eep!" Felicia cried. The two of them awkwardly stared at the newly broken plate for a moment before Felicia sheepishly lowered her head and muttered, "S-Sorry. Butterfingers."
Ananias hung his head and let out an exasperated sigh. "Yeah." The two of them sat where they were in silence for a bit before Ananias wearily asked, "So, what happened?"
Felicia raised her head up a bit. "Huh?"
Ananias nonchalantly shrugged. "What happened?" he calmly repeated. "I mean, you were doing so well up until the point where you tripped. What was it that got you so distracted?"
Felicia thought it over for a bit before shaking her head and answering, "I don't know! All I was thinking about at the time was how easy it was and how, if we kept it up, I'd be able to be a pro at this in no time! I wasn't thinking about anything else except being a better maid, honest!" She hung her head sadly as Ananias took a moment to process what he had just heard. "Maybe I'm just not meant for this after all."
"Or," Ananias began to suggest, "it could just prove that you want it all too much."
Felicia raised her head again out of curiosity. "Huh?"
"Well, think about it," Ananias explained. "I'm really good at being boring, right?"
"Um," Felicia gave him a funny look, "yeah, I guess."
"But just because I'm good at it, doesn't mean that I'm making that much of an effort to be, you know?"
Felicia raised an eyebrow at this before nodding her head and saying, "Right?"
Ananias sighed. "Look, being a maid is a full time job," he said. "You can't be determined to be the best maid you can be one hundred percent of the time. So you've just got to be good at it even when you're not trying."
"But that's the point!" Felicia argued. "I'm not good at this!"
"Yes, you are," Ananias calmly argued back. "It's just that you're so into it that when something takes you out of it, it causes you to crash and burn when it happens." As Felicia was taking in all that he was saying, he added, "It's alright that you want to be the best maid you can be, but you just got to keep it all in here is all," while tapping to his heart. "You understand what I'm trying to say, right?"
"I think so," Felicia said. "I guess that's the reason why Jakob and Flora always looked so bored and professional-looking while doing their chores when compared to me. They were just being passionate about what they were doing on the inside instead of the outside!"
"I... wouldn't go that far with those two, but sure, yeah, we'll go with that."
"Okay then! So all I've got to do is work on my not-caring-as-much-on-the-outside, and I should be good!"
"It's probably more complicated than that, but yeah, that's probably the gist of it. And we should probably work on your balance too, just in case."
Felicia laughed. "Right! Well, what are we waiting for? Let's do this!"
"Can we clean up all of these broken plates first though? I don't think this'll be safe if we just leave them all here."
"Hey, that's a great idea! Let's clean up this mess, unpassionately!"
Ananias couldn't help but let out an amused chuckle. "Sure, alright, let's do that."
Author's Note: Next supports will be Jakob followed by Lana, Kaze, Nyx, Charlotte, Niles, Effie, Female Corrin, Benny, Anna, Ophelia, Camilla, Gunther, Setsuna, Kanna, Selena, Beruka, Xander, Azura, Flora, Odin, and Laslow. 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.
