"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Ananias awkwardly cleared his throat. "Look, let's just... forget whatever happened last time and just move on, yeah?"
Subaki shamefully nodded. "Please do. To have reduced myself to chasing after you like that," he shuddered, "whatever was I thinking?"
Ananias sighed. "You were thinking about getting things done... which was the exact opposite of what you were supposed to be doing."
Subaki hung his head. "Yes. At this point, it is undeniable. I seem to be incapable of resting, even for a moment."
"Well, I doubt you're incapable. You just... won't allow yourself to, that's all."
"And why ever would I not? Rest is necessary. Even a workaholic such as yourself would know that."
"Huh. Yeah, you've got a point. I'm no expert on resting either. Though, I suppose, compared to you, I'm a bit more willing to take a break when I'm told to, so there's that."
Subaki nodded. "Yes. I suspect that Lady Sakura saw the similarity between us and decided that you would be the perfect teacher because of it."
"Maybe. But that still doesn't clear things up on how I should go about doing that."
Subaki held his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm. Perhaps it would be best to dissect this little habit of ours."
"Dissect it... how?"
"Well, I suppose if I were the teacher in this scenario, I would ask WHY you go around doing what you do. Why exactly do you offer your services whenever possible? Why exactly do you rarely ever refuse to help someone in need? Why exactly do you allow yourself so much grief even though you could easily just walk away?"
Ananias held his chin. "Why, huh?" He silently ruminated for a while before answering, "I guess I do it because it's the only thing I know. Growing up, I thought of myself as just one giant mistake, you know? Like, I get that my family isn't perfect, but it was clearly a family with a very consistent standard. Everybody special in my family was more or less the same. The same looks, the same personalities, the same skillsets, the same mastery of said skillsets. I thought that by not meeting those standards that I was doing something wrong or that maybe there was something wrong with me. And if there's one thing kid me learned, being surrounded by merchants and all, it was that defective products either need to be thrown away or fixed." Ananias looked down. "So for a long time, I tried to fix myself. I did everything I could to try and meet the standards I thought I needed to meet. But for one reason or another, I just couldn't. I kept trying and trying, hoping and hoping, but I always ended up just missing the mark in one way or another. Then, one day, it dawned on me. I couldn't be 'fixed'. And if I couldn't be fixed, then I was probably useless. And useless was the last thing I wanted to be, so I began to help everybody out. I did it as best as I could, exactly how they wanted me to, without a single complaint. And it seemed to work. It looked like I was no longer 'damaged goods' or whatever... but you know what? Now that I say it out loud, maybe it wasn't because I didn't want to be useless. Maybe I just did all of it to give people a reason to like me."
"A reason to like you, hmm?" Subaki mused.
Ananias nodded. "Yeah. Deep down, I guess I was afraid that everybody hated me, and that being useless or in the way sort of justified that hate. But... I realize now that that couldn't be further from the truth. That hate, that disappointment, all of it, that was all in my head. Just demons of my own making. The reality was that my family loved me. I mean, sure, they were a little disappointed that I couldn't keep the family tradition alive, and yeah, it was probably a bit scary to raise a son after raising so many daughters, but they took having a son, an uncle, a nephew, a cousin, and a grandson in stride. I had nothing to worry about. I'm honestly one of the luckiest guys in the world, it just took me a long time to realize that." The two of them stood silently for a moment before Ananias asked, "So, what about you? Why do you do the things that you do?"
"...I suppose for more or less the same reasons you do. To be useful. To be admired and liked."
"Well, mission accomplished then, right? I doubt that there's anyone else around who is more useful, admirable, and likable than you."
"Yes... I suppose you're right."
"So if you reached it, then why do you act like you haven't? Like, I get that a good reputation is hard to build and easy to destroy, but you freak out over every little thing like it's the end of the world or something. You're already considered one of the best guys here. What more is there for you to prove?"
"...I suppose the question isn't, 'What more is there to prove?', but rather, 'Whom do you need to prove it to?'"
Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "Hmm?"
Subaki smiled. "I envy you, Ananias. Your family seems to have been nothing but supportive of you as you were growing up. As for mine, however, I'm afraid that that is not the case."
"Held you to a really high standard, did they?"
Subaki nodded. "In a manner of speaking, yes. They raised me, groomed me, drilled into me the need to be absolutely perfect in every way. To be anything less, in their eyes, was unacceptable."
"I'm sorry to hear that. As similar as we may be, I can't imagine what it must've been like to live with that type of pressure on you."
"It is suffocating, I'll admit, but as you've said, it is the only thing I know. After all these years, one becomes accustomed to it."
"Yeah, I'll bet. But still, you've been away from your parents for a while now, haven't you? Fighting and living alongside us, hasn't that challenged what you and your parents believed in any way?"
"I... I never gave it much thought, really. I had just assumed that... well -"
"We were all accustomed to mediocrity?"
Subaki blushed. "Well, when you put it like that..."
"Look, with your upbringing and all, I don't blame you for thinking that. But on the flip side, maybe you and your parents have just been, I don't know, unrealistically hard on you? That maybe the world we live in doesn't conform with the version your parents described?"
Subaki shook his head. "As much as I'd like to believe that, I'm not so sure that that is the case. This world... it is far from forgiving. One mistake could cost you more than you know."
Ananias shrugged. "Maybe, but like I told you that one time, I don't really pay too much attention to what you do, and that's not because I don't care about you or anything. It's just that I already know how great you are and I just assume that you're going to do great regardless of whether I'm paying attention or not. And I get the feeling that a lot of people around here share that same sentiment."
Subaki's eyes widened in surprise. "R-really? You all have absolute faith in my abilities?"
Ananias nodded. "Yeah, we do. So much so that we'll forgive you for making a mistake every now and again. Heck, we'd all might even welcome it. It'd certainly humanize you a bit."
Subaki chuckled. "If that's true, then I suppose having demons of our own making is another similarity that we share."
"Yeah, I guess so."
"So I suppose that means that we can hold each other accountable if we start listening to our inner-demons a bit too much then?"
"Sure. I'll call you out whenever you go overboard and need to take a break -"
"And I'll warn you whenever you may be feeling too useless or undesirable."
Ananias smiled. "Sounds like a plan."
Subaki nodded. "A perfect plan."
Author's Note #1: And with that, Subaki's supports with Ananias have officially ended. The next supports will be Mozu's and then I'll finally be able to get to the Warriors supports.
Author's Note #2: The Fire Emblem Warriors poll is up on my profile. Vote for which five characters you want for Ananias to support with from that game the most and, in the end, ten characters will be selected for Ananias to support with, so make your voices heard. Happy voting!
Author's Note #3: I've been asked about Three Houses supports a lot, and recently I was asked about potential Heroes supports, so I might as well address future plans for the story after I've completed the Warriors supports. Basically, I plan to do ten short stories/chapters with Ananias as the focus after the Warriors supports as a way to send off the character and this particular story, since this story has been around for quite a while now. These short stories can range from actual backstory stuff to just plain fun, but I will definitely only limit myself to ten, regardless of what types of stories they end up being. As many have asked for Three Houses and Heroes, I will definitely devote one chapter/story to each, but obviously they won't be full on supports with specific characters like the rest of this story has been. That means that'll leave eight stories left for me to do with this character besides those two, which will then officially close the book on his (and this) story. I hope that that works for all of you.
Author's Note #4: I do plan on making "The Lost Children" stories/supports with Lumaria, Tan'bay, Zephyra, Tenk, and Lana (as Lana is the only child character of the OC characters). While getting through all of one character's supports took a lot of time, the saving grace would be that the other characters wouldn't have as much justification to cross over into other games (the only reason why I did it with Ananias was that he was part of the Anna family and that Inigo, Severa, and Owain crossed over and became retainers to the Nohrian royals, with Elise being the odd one out), so they would just support with characters from their game and then it'll just end there. Tan'bay, Tenk, Zephyra, and Lumaria would support with the Awakening kids, their parents, and the avatar, while Lana would support with the Nohrian kids, her parents, the avatar, and a few exceptions from Hoshido (as per how the games did it). I don't plan on making new supports for the characters and Ananias. I'll just re-edit the supports Ananias already had with them and use those.
