Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Anya! Are you listening to me?" A voice called her beside her , Anya was 97% sure that the owner of that voice was Becky Blackbell, her best friend. "Anya? What is it?"

She sounded worried, Anya didn’t want Becky to worry about her so with all the strength she could muster at the time she turned around so she could answer her questions and give her a smile to assure her that she was okay.

That was the plan, until another wave of thoughts came in her head overwhelming her.

Why did everyone have to be so... loud?

Before Anya could say anything to her friend, a dizziness got the pink haired girl making her stop in her tracks in the middle of the corridor that was full of people.

It seemed that all the people were coming from different directions, and with each passing second more and more were entering the place, realizing that there was little space to walk without bumping into someone.

"What’s the matter, shrimp? Now you forgot how to walk too?" a very familiar voice laughed at her, that was Ewen... or maybe Emile?

Even so, Anya couldn't confirm it since her vision was clouded, every second she passed her head hurt more than before, it felt like someone was trying to squeeze her brain out of her head with a hammer or similar... Did Uncle Yuri feel that way when Mom accidentally hit him a few years ago?

and .... Why were the walls of Eden spinning? A few hours ago the lockers were on the left side of the corridor, not in the front... And who moves them so fast? Because now they’re on the right... on the left again... now they’re gone.

And who moved Mr Evans' class from place? She could bet 20 bags of peanuts that the class was somewhere else the day before.

Anya blinked trying to focus, trying to keep moving forward. She had to get out of that place.

She needed a quiet place, the library? or maybe a bathroom.

She needed a place where she could be alone... if only the people around her would shut up for two minutes, just two minutes.

Two minutes are enough to be able to escape and find a place where she could be alone for an hour or two to prepare herself and go out again.

But that didn't happen.

Now, the thoughts seemed much stronger, almost like they were panicking about something she couldn’t identify and adding to the heated discussion a group was having around her about something that probably didn’t matter.

Two minutes to escape, that’s what she wanted.

"Get away from her! Let her breathe," exclaimed another male voice suspiciously similar to Damian’s, his voice was more authoritative but she still could identify some ... fear? Anger? in his words. "Shrimp, you’re scaring me... what’s wrong?... Anya, please look at me" asked again the voice this time in a calmer and softer tone, now he was addressing her.

«Cute boys in football uniform or cute boys in baseball uniform? How am I supposed to choose one?»

«Agh I have to do the math homework of Mr Miller but I want to go to that party... Well,it can't be that bad to not deliver a task, nothing will happen, right?»

«Is the arithmetic exam on Thursday or Friday of next week?»

«I need to go buy that beautiful designer bag that I saw at the mall yesterday, it will look amazing with the dress I bought the week before for my date with Simon.»

«So many exams to grade and I am sure that everyone failed…again.»

«Why is this place so big? How is it that the students of Eden don´t get lost here?»

«Why does Eden have to be the host of this stupid tournament? Agh, why can’t it be anywhere else as usual?»

«What is happening to her? She is horribly pale..is she ignoring us? Why isn't she answering?»

«I hope there are still places on the basketball court for the game, I heard that Demetrius Desmond is going to play and I will not miss it»

"Make them stop... please" whispered Anya putting her trembling hands to her ears trying to block all the noise but it was useless. "There are... many people... noisy…I can't"

«I am sure that that cute boy from the lacrosse team was flirting with me, I hope he will invite me soon on a date.»

«I´m so hungry right now…but the cafeteria was too full and I hate waiting...»

«.... if I want a good place to see Demetrius I have...»

«.... we do not need a teacher to follow us to every game, we are grown ups now....»

«.... practice tomorrow...»

«....something is wrong with her...»

«.... 4 days of this is a nightmare!....»

Anya felt something strange in her nose just to realize a seconds later that a liquid was coming down her face making her uniform dirty, blood.

This was bad.

A lot of blood had started coming out of her nose at the time, but it was the last thing Anya cared about.

All she wanted was to be able to get out there. Her head was about to explode, there was almost no air around her and her vision was blurred.

Soon she heard alarmed screams around her, with all the strength she could muster she took a step to finally be able to leave the place and then... everything turned black.

—--------------------------------------minutes before the incident—------------------------------

Damian was very excited.

The day was just amazing. He had finished all his homework the day before so he could sleep early and get enough rest, the weather was perfect, in the cafeteria they served his favorite breakfast, They only had a few hours of classes where they were left with a few tasks that could easily be completed that same night and the "Royal Games of Ostania" sports tournament was about to begin.

Yes, it wasn't the best name but still the event was still one of the best sporting events in the country.

It was the moment that everyone had been waiting for. Several weeks ago Mr Henderson had told them that soon the sport tournament would begin among the 3 most exclusive schools of Ostania and that that year it was the turn of the Eden academy to be the host of the games.

It was a long-standing tradition and was celebrated every 4 years to maintain a "friendly" relationship between academies and create a "healthy" spirit of competition among students, although of course everyone knew well that it was only a reason to show which of all the schools was the best and brag until the next games.

Damian was proud to say that the Eden Academy had won the last few years accumulating a total of 54 consecutive victories, although it was to be expected.

After all, his school was superior to the others.

The games were another way to confirm what everyone already knew and this year wouldn't be the exception; especially since he was going to be one of the reasons why the Eden academy would take the victory once again.

As the captain of his school’s soccer team, Damian Desmond was determined to lead his team to victory so they had been training even more during the last few weeks to achieve it.

They would win the tournament without problems and his father would be proud of him when he found out that he had won, placing the name "Desmond" on top, as usual; the school would be supporting him and congratulating him for weeks.

and he could also impress a certain pink haired girl with his incredible abilities…

¡No! What was he thinking? As if he wanted to impress Anya Forger in some way, he wasn’t even interested in whether or not she would show up for his soccer match or whatever... if his heart beat hard all morning after hearing Anya saying that she was going with Becky to his soccer match the next day, well... no one else had to know.

«Anya... shouting my name, with pompoms in her hands and supporting the team... supporting me... running towards me when I lift the trophy... Her beautiful green eyes staring at me and then I could...NO! Stop there Damian, what the fuck are you thinking? as if it mattered that she is going to see the game in the first place, it’s not as if I wanted her to be there when I win for her to see how great I am and fall in love with me and...Ok maybe I do care about it but it's not a big deal, really»

"Damian, are you ready to go?" said the voice of Ewen beside him, almost making his soul leave his body.

"Yeah, come on," replied Damian shaking his head a bit, images of a beautiful pink haired girl with green eyes holding a banner that read "SY-ON BOY WILL WIN" as she shouted cheers for him from the stands began to fade from his mind quickly.

Pff, it’s not like he’s been imagining scenarios like that all morning. No, sir.

After leaving his things in their bedrooms he decided to go out with his friends, Ewen and Emile, to go to the academy courts to see some of the matches that would happen that day.

They were 17 now (and imperial schoolars), so they could go to any of the matches they wanted without the supervision of their Homeroom Teacher, so they started walking and talking trying to decide which one they wanted to go first; before they had to leave for their last training for tomorrow’s game.

Damian knew very well which one he had to go to first, the basketball game of his older brother, Demetrius.

He wasn’t very enthusiastic about the idea but he knew he had to go see and support his older brother, after all, if he didn’t he would leave a terrible image of the Desmonds (specifically him) so he warned his friends that he would go to that one first and then he could see the rest, of course Emile and Ewen accepted to go with him immediately claiming that "if he was going, they were going too".

With a plan in mind, they decided that the best thing would be to shorten the path through the corridors near the cafeteria and thus avoid the majority of people who were at school so as not to be delayed or trapped in the crowd. After all, the students from the other schools had started arriving the previous day and now there were so many that they managed to fill the school considerably.

Unfortunately, many had the same idea and the hall was packed with students from Eden and even students from the other schools who wanted to get to the courts to watch the games of the day.

«Great... why can’t they walk faster at least? »

The second heir of the Desmonds sighed somewhat irritated when, for the second time, someone almost threw him to the ground for not noticing where they were going. He was about to suggest to Emile and Ewen that they turn around to take the long way when a long pink hair a few meters from him caught his attention, and a smile appeared on his face without him being able to stop it. It didn't take long for his friends to notice his expression and just laughed and began to tease him about it after seeing the girl that had caught his attention.

For many years (since the day he entered Eden) Damian had been in love with Anya Forger, and everyone in the academy knew it... Well, everyone but Anya.

Damian denied his love for her in many ways and even acted like a jerk with her, throwing different insults along with his friends... Over the years, the brown haired boy matured and changed his attitude a little with both Anya and Becky, Emile and Ewen also changed their behavior with them making everyone friends, even though they still did things to irritate each other most of the time.

Still, no matter how many years had passed, Damian still liked Anya Forger... you could even say that he was in love with her... even though he still didn’t fully accept it because of his pride.

«Will Anya also go to the basketball game? or will she go to another game? maybe I should ask her... just out of curiosity, of course, nothing more... and if she goes to basketball maybe we could watch the game together, not because I want us to be together... sitting next to each other, very close... Anya... close to me... and I could take her hand... just so she doesn't get lost among so many people, after all she is still very short and could get lost... yep, that’s why and as a gentleman I can’t allow that, right?. It’s just kindness...»

Damian´s  face took on a red hue (the one that always appeared when thinking of the Forger girl) when imagining how he and Anya Forger would walk holding hands towards the game and how he could still hold her hand after sitting…

And no , Damian definitely didn’t speed up his pace to reach her and definitely he didn’t dodge and almost bump a couple of people just to keep track of her.

As he was about to reach Anya his smile quickly turned into a frown at the scene in front of him.

The pink haired girl seemed to be frozen in place with her eyes open wide and she was incredibly pale. They were in the middle of the hallway and Becky Blackbell was by her side trying to get her to walk but Anya didn’t seem to react.

"What’s the matter, shrimp? Now you forget how to walk, too?" said Ewen’s voice at his side watching the scene and teasing the girl although he was quickly silenced by the murderous look that Becky and Damian directed at him.

"Hey Blackbell, what’s the matter?" Damian asked as he tried to sound as casual and relaxed as he could as he pointed his head at Anya who looked paler and now seemed to be shaking. No matter how hard he tried, the concern in his voice was as clear as the glass.

"I have no idea, she seemed fine a minute ago but she stopped walking and now she doesn’t answer me, she doesn’t react," said Becky watching her best friend with worry as she took her by the shoulders to move her a little, preventing a boy from throwing her to the ground.

"She looks very pale, she looks like a ghost... Did she get her scores on something or similar?" Emile asked beside her, seeing Anya with a small teasing grin earning a hit in the back of his head, courtesy of Damian.  “Auch! I was just asking” shout Emile glaring at his best friend.

"No idiot, she just got like that and I don’t understand why" Becky growled at Emile’s stupid question. Everyone quickly approached Anya to wake her up from the trance she was in but nothing seemed to work, Ewen touched Anya’s shoulder again when she staggered and banged herself against another student who just hurled insults at Anya... and, she didn’t even look at him.

They soon caught the attention of many people who stopped to see the scene, the boy only said another insult before leaving due to the threatening look on Damian´s face (Emile and Ewen were trying to stop him from doing something stupid) and because Anya was not even paying attention.

Although the "fight" ended, many people remained watching with curiosity and confusion at Anya who now was pulling her hair pretty hard even though her hands were shaking. Soon they began to gather more and more around them until they were surrounded by people who surely wanted to know what was happening to talk about it later with the people who missed it.

Damian saw them in anger and then stood in front of the girl hiding from the looks of the rest, trying to be like a shield for her.

"Stand back! Let her breathe," Damian exclaimed with a scowl and his hands closed to form fists. "You have nothing to do here, keep walking and mind your own business!" the boy practically shouted, getting everyone to keep walking. After this he turned quickly to see the girl.

She was burying her fingers in her long, soft pink hair over her ears with her eyes shut. 

After taking a breath he came over to grab her shoulders and talk to her. "Shrimp, you’re scaring me... what is it?... Anya, look at me please" the boy asked this time speaking softly to the girl in an attempt to convince her, when he did not receive an answer he put a finger on her chin to lift her face.

Damian could swear his heart broke into a thousand pieces at the sight of the grimace of pain painted on Anya’s face, she trembled like a leaf while she was so, oh so, pale that she could compete with a sheet of paper.

"Make them stop... please" whispered Anya at last leaving him confused, he would´t have been able to hear her if she weren't so close now. "There are... many people... noisy…I can't"

He opened his mouth to ask what she was talking about when Anya's nose began to spill a considerable amount of blood out of nowhere, making his heart beat faster because of the fear of seeing her in that state.

«What the fuck? Why is her nose bleeding like that?»

Of course, the blood called everyone’s attention again... and Betty’s dramatic scream from across the room didn't help in the situation.

"We have to get her to the infirmary! Now!" Becky said, worried about her friend.

"The infirmary is on the other side of the school and we won’t be able to get through so many people!” Emile growled at her side although his face also showed that he was worried about the pink haired girl.

Before anyone could say anything else Anya stepped forward before her eyes turned white and fainted in front of them, scaring everyone present.

Anya was lucky that Damian was very close to her, so he quickly wrapped her in his arms avoiding an ugly fall.

Three teenagers screamed in fear of what had just happened to their friend as Damian quickly took her in his arms to carry her princess-style feeling a void in the bottom of his stomach, fear had flooded his senses as he watched Anya lose consciousness in front of him.

"I don’t give a shit if the infirmary is halfway across the country, she has to go now," exclaimed Damian starting to run at full speed with the girl in his arms as he screamed to the people he had bumped into. “GET OUT OF THE WAY!”

While Becky, Emile and Ewen screamed "Excuse me! Emergency!" behind him to.

Damian had never run so fast in his life as he did now, his heart beating faster by the minute as he squeezed the girl lightly against his chest to make sure not to dump her and hurt her on their way to the infirmary.

In other circumstances the young boy would have gone nuts and turned in a blushing mess at the thought of him with Anya Forger in his arms but at that moment all he could feel was fear and worry.

« I can freak out about this later, the important thing now is to get her to the infirmary and make sure she is okay... Damn Anya, of all the things you could do, you decide to scare the shit out of me.»

Trying to catch his breath when he finally reached the door of the infirmary, Damian was sure he had just broken a record by running the entire campus in a matter of seconds.

Without stopping a second he walked to the door and frowned slightly when he saw that it was closed, so he hit the door a little with his foot not wanting to let go of the girl who was in his arms still unconscious.

...1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... . 7 ... 8 ... 9...Why no one is answering?

Damian knocked on the door again, this time a little louder in an attempt to get the nurse’s attention but no one answered, he was about to knock a third time and shout when the sound of several steps and gasps caught his attention so he turned his face slightly to meet his 3 friends entering clumsily to the hallway leading to the infirmary.

Emile and Ewen put  their hands on their knees as they regained their breath as Becky approached him quickly as she noticed that they were still outside the infirmary and Anya was in the same state.

"What are you still doing here? I thought you’d be with the nurse by now," Becky said with some difficulty as she was still trying to catch her breath after running after him.

"The nurse is gone, maybe she’s helping the rest on the courts... although I’m sure one was staying here for any emergency," Damian said with some difficulty from shortness of breath and his chest burned too much, although he was quite sure that what he felt had nothing to do with the tiredness of the race to the infirmary.

No, the reason for his current state was still unconscious in his arms.

"I’ll go see if she  isn´t in the other rooms looking for supplies or if there’s anyone who can help us," said Emile finally getting up and starting to walk quickly with Ewen by his side, both disappeared down a long hallway starting to look for someone who could help them.

Damian could only stare at the girl in his arms once more as the knot in his throat seemed to refuse to disappear and let him breathe properly, his heart was beating painfully in his chest and the hole in his stomach that had appeared as soon as Anya lost consciousness in front of him became deeper and deeper.

His eyes examined the girl’s face once more, having her so close to him it was impossible not to observe each of her factions writing each one in his memory... It’s not like he spent so much time watching her, of course not.

ok, he does but you couldn't blame him. She was just so gorgeous and so…Anya. It was impossible for him to tear his gaze appart when when she walked in a room.

Unfortunately, he was hoping that if he ever had the chance to get Anya this close (to have her in his arms) it  would be in a completely different situation.

She was so small and so soft…

Anya’s face was in front of him, so he could see (rather, confirm) that she has small freckles strewn across her forehead and cheeks, like constellations of stars. Her beautiful green eyes were still closed and her eyelashes... had they always been this long?

Damian kept looking at her face, practically studying her and memorizing every little detail he could , until something made him stop and frown, something was wrong.

Blood.

He had completely forgotten that Anya’s nose had started bleeding seconds before she fainted, luckily the bleeding seemed to have stopped but had left a long path from her nose to her chin.

He quickly knelt down taking care not to throw Anya and accommodated her in a different position this time, leaving her sitting on his lap, one of his hands firmly wrapped around the girl shoulders to hold her close to him as his free hand searched in his pockets for a handkerchief to wipe the blood from her face.

«Damn, I forgot again... of all the days when I had to leave it in my room... I promised myself that this wouldn't happen again after that tonitrus in first grade and still…»

"Here, use these," said a voice in front of him, extending a small packet of pink fabric with a handkerchief showing from an opening in the middle. Becky.

Shit, he forgot that Becky stayed with him.

"Thanks" muttered Damian taking one of the handkerchiefs to start, gently, wiping the blood off the girl’s face, praying internally that Becky haven't noticed the way he was seeing Anya a few seconds ago.

Becky noticed, obviously. It wasn’t a secret to her (or anyone except Anya, honestly that girl could be as dense as a rock sometimes) that Damian has been in love with her best friend since they met, so she wasn’t surprised to see how Damian Desmond had taken Anya Forger in his arms and then rushed off to the infirmary as if his life depended on it.

Nor was it a surprise for her that the brown haired boy was still carrying her best friend, holding her in a protective embrace and looking at her as if she had hung the moon and the stars.

She may not have said it out loud, but Becky really supported Anya and Damian’s relationship. She was hoping to see the day when they would finally tell each other the truth and start dating.

It was painful to see them running in circles because of their feelings, and even though Damian was not her favorite person (sometimes he could be a complete jerk, seriously). She knew that he loved Anya and Anya loved him, even if they didn't admit it.

If her friend was happy, then so was she…even with that jerk in the equation

"What happened to her? she seemed fine when we got out of class," Damian muttered to himself as he finished wiping the blood off Anya’s face.

"I have no idea, we wanted to go see one of the games when out of nowhere Anya seemed very disoriented, she became pale and then ….Well, you saw the rest," said Becky, sighing, looking at her best friend, the concern never leaving her face.

Damian was silent for a few minutes, when he was finally going to say something else the voices of Emile and Ewen were heard accompanied by someone else.

"Here she is!" Emile said, finally appearing beside Emile and a blonde lady, perhaps in her 30s, carrying a briefcase. The school nurse, Miss Ainsworth.

"Oh God," Miss Ainsworth said as she saw Anya. The lady just kept walking to the door to open it. "Come in, come in, put her on the stretcher over there please," said the woman to Damian who nodded. He stood up again with Anya in his arms like a princess in the arms of his prince in fairy tales and rushed in behind her.

Damian made a beeline to the stretcher, leaving Anya with all the care in the world, and reluctantly took a step back away from her so that the nurse could work.

Becky, Ewen and Emile also walked in, but they were a few steps behind.

They started answering the nurse’s questions about Anya, telling her everything that happened in the hallway.

"Well, it looks like she just got low on sugar... she probably skipped breakfast or she has been under a lot of stress lately. It may take her a few minutes to wake up, but she’ll be fine." The nurse reassured them with a smile, earning a sigh of relief from the 4 teenagers.

"Thank you very much, Miss Ainsworth," Becky said to the nurse who only smiled and nodded.

"I will come in a few minutes to check it again, now I'll call her parents to come and pick her up, it is best that she rest for today," said the nurse turning around and leaving while closing the curtain behind her.

"Well, it’s a relief to know that it wasn’t really serious," Emile said after a few minutes in silence. It was uncomfortable being silent for so long. “although the blood and her reaction were…odd”

"Yes...anyway, maybe we should go and let her rest," Ewen said beside him. "The nurse said she needed that, didn’t she?"

“Next time I’ll make sure that girl eats her size in food before leaving her house," Becky whispered, shaking her head and sighed. "You can leave if you want, I’ll stay with her”

Emile and Ewen nodded and turned to see their best friend but Damian had only placed himself next to Anya, the concern and fondness of his gaze being the clear answer that he had no intention of moving from the girl’s side.

“Boss-man... you coming? your brother’s match is about to start" Emile tried again to get his friend's attention but Damian only shook his head without taking his eyes off the pink haired girl.

"No... You go without me, maybe I’ll catch up with you later," said Damian, simply getting Emile, Ewen and Becky to look at each other with knowing smiles on their faces... Okay, Becky was smiling too much and she was doing everything that she could to stop herself and not squeal with happiness at that moment.

This was like watching an episode of "Berlint in Love"!

"All right... we’ll save you a place," Ewen said nodding and then leaving with Emile. A few minutes later Becky followed them.

"Wait for me!" She calls them from behind. The boys could only look at her with surprise.

"I thought you’d stay with stubby-legs, Blackbell," Emile said, raising an eyebrow at the girl, though she started walking a little slower so she could reach them.

"Don´t call her that, you morons”  growled the girl hitting two of them on the back of their heads. “besides that stupid nickname no longer applies to her, you know that”

“¡Auch! But it was Emile who said it! Why do I get a hit in the head too?” complained Ewen, rubbing his head and pouting.

“Because I feel like it” Becky said with a shrug, earning a glare from the boys. “And answering your question, I was going to stay with her but... I felt like I was interrupting something more important by doing it," Becky said,a sly smile spreading in her face.

The boys at her side only laughed in understanding of what she meant. "oh, the things I do for romance," said the girl, putting the back of her hand on her forehead and letting out an exaggerated sigh.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After another 20 minutes, Anya woke up again, She start moving slightly on the stretcher and complaining about the headache that was still present.

«God, at last there is silence... but where am I?.. I manage to leave the corridor? I don't remember leaving the hallway... and.. Why am I in something soft?»

Anya sighed as she began to regain consciousness, slowly opened her eyes to find... everything covered in white, why is everything white? And why did it smell like....A HOSPITAL?!7

The pink-haired girl rose up scared trying to see where she was but the sudden movement only managed to make her dizzy once more by sending her back to the stretcher on which she had been asleep minutes earlier.

«Agh, it hurts so much... no, you have to get out of here as soon as possible... How did I get here? Did they find me? Am I in the lab with them again?...No, Anya breathe. That's impossible. Just Breathe.»

She began to hyperventilate as the panic began to take hold of her until two hands took her shoulders firmly but kindly. She was about to scream for help, or push the person and run until she found a pair of brown eyes... No, a pair of golden eyes looking at her with concern. Damian.

"Breathe, you’re just in the infirmary," Damian said in an attempt to calm her, he had seen her wake up but before he could talk to her Anya sat down and then started looking around scared, as if she was trapped or something. "you fainted, you shouldn’t make such abrupt movements when you just woke up"

"Sy-on boy?" asked Anya, a little more relaxed to hear him speak. " I thought…nevermind, I Fainted? but..."

"You did,  you were in the hallway. Then you turned very pale and then you fainted," the boy whispered, starting to move his thumbs on the girl’s shoulder in a soothing way. "I’ll call the nurse, don’t move"

"No! please, D-Don’t Go"  said Anya holding his hand when he stood up trying to stop him from leaving.  The boy just blushed again and stuttered something she couldn’t understand at first.

"I’ll just go get the nurse, dummy" said the boy when he managed to calm down a little and cleared his throat, giving a soft squeeze to the girl’s hand looking her in the eye. "I promise I’ll be back in a few seconds".

"...all right," Anya whispered, releasing the boy’s hand so he could leave. As he had promised, Damian was back with the nurse in less than a minute 

"Hello Anya, I’m Miss Ainsworth, the nurse of Edén academy," said the woman approaching Anya to check on her. "How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts…a lot," the girl admitted, sighing and closing her eyes again. The nurse only nodded with a small smile of understanding as she finished her examination, took some pills and a glass of water to approach her again.

"Can you sit down? As slow as you can, okay?" The nurse spoke to her sweetly as she helped her sit, then gave her the pills and the glass so she could swallow them. "I called your parents a while ago but no one answered, is there anyone who can come to take you home?"

Anya just sighed, shaking her head, she had completely forgotten that. That morning she had read the thoughts of her parents and discovered that they both had missions that day so surely both were busy at the time.

"Hmmm... well, I’ll try to get in touch with them again," said the nurse, smiling sympathetically. "Get some rest, okay? Let the pills do their work, I’ll close the blinds a little so you can rest a little bit more."

"Thank you very much," said Anya, nodding with a small smile though it looked more like a grimace.

“Oh you don't have to thank me sweetie, it is my job after all…but, I think there are other people who deserve those words... your boyfriend over there brought you here with your friends, they were all very worried and your boyfriend hasn’t moved from your side since he brought you here" the nurse whispered with complicity to the girl who, at the nurse’s words she couldn't help but blush so hard that she was darker than her hair.

"he...I´m not…we aren´t..." the girl tried to say but the nurse had already left the curtain closed again on her way out.

An awkward silence flooded the room, Anya decided to lean back again, closing her eyes waiting for the pills to make an effect while Damian stood by with his hands in his pockets, not knowing what to do.

«Should I go? It's uncomfortable to be here without saying anything... and she already woke  up and soon they will come to bring her... No, the nurse said she hadn’t been able to get in touch with Mr Forger or Mrs Forger yet... I don’t want to leave but maybe she wants to be alone and...»

"Sy-On boy?" Anya’s voice said, surprising him a little.

"Yes?” said Damian, waiting for her to say something , Anya just moved awkwardly and bit her lip wondering whether or not to say whatever she was thinking at the time. Still, the boy just waited patiently for the girl to speak only to be frozen in his place at her words.

"Can you stay with me? please" whispered the girl in a shy manner, the second heir of the Desmonds didn´t know whether to be more surprised by the question or to see for the first time Anya Forger, the most determined, confident and reckless girl he had ever met in his life, speaking so timidly and insecure.

He was so shocked that he didn't notice that he hadn't said anything and was only staring at her with wide open eyes and another blush, until he heard her speak again.

"Yo-You don’t have to if you don’t want to... you can go see the games, it’s probably more fun and I heard your brother was playing so..." Anya  started saying as she played with her fingers nervously.

"NO!" shouted the boy, he felt guilty instantly as he noticed the girl making a wince of pain once again from the noise. "I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry... I meant yes, I.... I’ll stay with you, not because I want to be alone with you... It’s just that you’re my responsibility, I brought you here after all," said the boy shaking his head, before he could say anything else he heard the girl giggle and he decided that the sound of her laugh was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.

"Thank you Damian" said the girl turning her head to look him in the eyes and at that moment Damian was sure that he was dead and had gone to heaven because Anya Forger had just said his name.

HIS NAME. 

She didn’t say "Sy-on boy" or "jerk” or “meanie”, no.

She said his name.

She said his name.

She said his name.

He definitely was in heaven.

Damian could swear that he had never heard anything more beautiful because of her voice... God, her voice made his name sound like a symphony... and. Who raised the temperature of the place? Why was the place so hot all of a sudden?

"Y-you d-don’t need to thank me for anything dwarf, I’m just doing what a gentleman should do," muttered the boy frowning trying to avoid the girl’s green eyes, although his face was completely red and his heart had begun to beat so fast that Damian suspected that his heart wanted to imitate a whole tango dance on his chest.

"Come on! Don’t just stand there…sit here” Anya said, pointing to the chair near her stretcher, so Damian nodded and sat beside her without thinking twice, if the pink haired noticed how he had pulled his chair closer to be right beside her, she said nothing.

"You scared the hell out of me... you know?" Damian admitted after a few minutes in silence and sighed. He looked up to meet the green eyes of the girl that was already staring at him, and it took all of his willpower to not look away embarrassed. "and Becky, Emile and Ewen were scared too".

"I’m sorry..." Anya whispered, guilt flooding her gaze and she looked away sighing. "I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to worry you…i didn't want to worry any of you" the girl whispered as tears began to flood her eyes.

"Hey... hey, you don’t have to apologize for that... the important thing is that you’re okay now, right?" whispered Damian holding the girl’s hand, surprising her in the act and getting her to look back at him. "We were just worried for you... Next time make sure you have a good breakfast when you leave your house or we are going to get mad at you idiot" said the boy with a mocking smile trying to annoy her as usual, he just want to try to make her feel better even though that went flying out the window when he saw some tears slip by the pink haired girl’s cheeks.

"I’m still sorry... I... I didn’t faint because I didn’t eat a good breakfast or anything like that," the girl admitted as tears flooded her eyes once again, making the heart of the boy hurt even more at the sight. "I just..."

"Hey... shhh, don’t cry.. you know I can’t stand seeing you cry, shrimp" Damian said shaking his head, though he still came closer and unaware of what he was doing he brought one of his hands to Anya’s cheeks to gently wipe the tears that had escaped from her beautiful green eyes by drawing little circles with his thumb. "... you don’t have to blame yourself for anything, tell me... what happened?"

"I... Damian... I" said Anya hesitating a little about telling the truth, she was interrupted by the boy’s hand on her cheek and his little caresses, unable to help but leaned a little more towards the boy’s soft touch as she closed her eyes for a moment, sighing as her cheeks became redder than before. "I... don’t do very well when I’m in crowds, I get overwhelmed and I wasn’t ready to be surrounded by so many people in such a small space today."

"I see..." Damian whispered, without stopping a second with his caresses on her cheek. "silly, you should have gone the other way"

"Becky wanted to get to the courts fast to get good seats and I didn’t realize until it was too late," Anya admitted embarrassed, gaining a sigh and a smile from the boy in front of her.

"Next time take the other corridor, okay? Or wait for me and so... And so I can take you to a place where there aren’t that many people" offered the boy who kept giving little strokes with his thumb absently.

"Really?" whispered Anya, surprised and smiled slightly as the boy nodded in shame. "Thank you Sy-On boy"

"I... Don’t think I’m doing it for you, I just don’t want to have to carry you back here if you faint again," said the boy with the frown.

«I don’t want to see you like that again, I don't think that I´ll be able to bear it... you scared me to death Anya.»

"If you say so, Sy-On Boy" Anya said with a small mocking grin causing the boy to roll his eyes, before Damian could say anything else he finally noticed that his hand was on the girl’s cheek and their faces were close. Very close.

«I want to kiss her...»

"Anya... I.." whispered Damian, seeing the pair of green eyes he adored. She is beautiful. Why couldn’t he speak again? Why did his mouth feel so dry?

"yes, Damian?" Anya murmured, feeling her blushing again because of the boy’s thoughts and leaned forward a little, feeling more anxious and excited knowing that the boy wanted to kiss her. Because she wanted the same thing.

"I... I am..." said the boy again leaning a little further, feeling the girl’s breath mingling with his, their lips were about to touch when another voice made them jump out of their skin.

"I’m Loid Forger, Anya’s father. Someone called me saying something had happened to my daughter, she’s here? Is she okay? What happened?" The voice of Anya’s father was heard as he entered the infirmary, and in less than 2 minutes he entered the room with the nurse, finding two teenagers of a red color that shouldn't be humanly possible and looking in different directions.

Seeing the odd behavior of the teens, Loid could only squint his eyes scanning the room, his gaze stared at the young Desmond who seemed even more nervous with every passing second.

Taking pity on the boy, Loid decided not to say anything about it and approached the stretcher on which his daughter was, his blue look instantly softened when he saw her.

"Hello papa," Anya whispered as she saw her father approaching her, his face showing how concerned he was about her well-being.

"Sorry it took so long to get here, my little peanut, I had... a problem with a difficult patient and I didn't receive the call until recently" the man apologized to his daughter while giving him a pat on her head. "How are you feeling now?”

"I feel better, papa... I’m sorry I scared you," the girl whispered feeling guilty again, not only had she frightened her friends... She had also frightened her father, probably her mother when she found out and her younger brother if he understood what had happened.

"She needs to eat something before she goes to bed,better if she eats some fruit with her lunch " said the nurse behind him, she took some pills out the pocket of her uniform and handed them to Loid. “If her head hurts again, you can give her one of these pills every 5 hours.”

"Thank you very much, miss," Loid said, nodding to the woman as he took off her hat, while he was writing down mentally what she had said to him.

"It’s nothing, and don’t worry, I’m sure your daughter will feel alright once again in the morning," the nurse said, smiling as she blushed slightly at how handsome the man in front of her was.

«It is a pity that he is already married...».

The nurse gave him a slight nod and then sighed out of the place as she mumbled something suspiciously similar to "why are all the handsome men never single?", leaving the two teenagers with the man.

"Damian Desmond" said the man to the teenager giving another nod towards him and reaching out his hand to greet him.

"Hey pops.. I mean, Hello Mr Forger," said Damian somewhat awkwardly, still reaching out his hand to shake it with the man’s as he nodded as well.

"The nurse told me that you brought my daughter here and that you were taking care of her," the blond man said without letting go of the boy’s hand, squinting his eyes a little, making the teenager squirm a little, suddenly feeling threatened by the kind man.

"I.. Yeah, well... I was with her when it happened and I couldn’t leave her like that," the boy said, clearing his throat and responding as best he could, in an attempt to hide his nerves.

spoiler: it didn’t work.

"Anyway, you brought her here and stay with her until I get here so thank you for taking care of my daughter," said Loid, smiling kindly as he squeezed the boy’s hand again (maybe a little to hard) and then let go.

«What are your intentions with my daughter?... Why were you so nervous when I arrived?... You better not be trying anything with my daughter, Anya is still too young to have a boyfriend».

"Don’t worry Mr Forger, I’m glad Anya’s better now," replied Damian nodding as he kept his hands in his pockets not knowing what to do with them, his palms were sweaty and he felt like a test rat in a lab at the calculating look the man was giving him.

«Did he notice that I almost kissed Anya?... impossible, he entered minutes after that... Oh God, what if he realized I like his daughter? What if he doesn’t give me his blessing when Anya and I start dating?... well, if we start dating... but what if he doesn’t like me? I can’t not be on the bad side of my future father-in-law.»

A small squeal drew both men from their thoughts and they quickly turned to see Anya holding her hands over her face in an attempt to hide it although they could tell how red the tips of her ears were.

"Anya! Are you okay? What’s wrong?" asked the two men at the same time approaching the girl in a matter of seconds, Damian had to retain the urge to squirm in place as he noticed the way Loid raised an eyebrow towards him and then how he narrowed his eyes when the teenager blushed.

«I thought pops liked me... I guess I’ll have to find a way to win over my future father-in-law.»

"I’m fine!" replied Anya with a voice a little bit too high. She uncovered her face showing a red color so strong that it could make a tomato jealous.

"Are you sure? You’re very red, do you have a fever?" asked Loid, looking at his daughter with concern. He took off one of his gloves to place his hand on her forehead trying to check her temperature.

"I’m fine, dad, don’t worry," Anya said, shaking her head and smiling as best she could towards her father without being able to look directly at Damian who was next to her. "Can we go home? I would like to sleep"

"Sure?...come on," the man nodded, helping his daughter stand up, grabbed her backpack and smiled at the boy. "Thanks again for your help, Damian."

"You don’t have to thank me, Mr Forger," Damian nodded with a small smile at the gentleman, even slightly flushed when he saw the girl. "Goodbye Anya, take good care and...I hope you feel better tomorrow."

"Tha-Thank you Damian" said Anya, still blushing up to her ears, giving him a little smile before leaving with her father.

Damian just sighed looking where the girl had gone.

After another 5 minutes he looked at the clock that was hanging on one of the walls of the infirmary, remembering again the basketball match of his older brother.

If he hurried he could see the last minutes and the award ceremony, so he ran after saying goodbye to the nurse.

ok, there was a high probability that he´ll get in trouble for being late.

Did he care?

Not really, the only thing he cared about was the only thing in his head at the moment.

He almost kissed Anya.

And the moment repeated in his mind over and over again.

«If her father had´t entered at that moment... would she have allowed me to kiss her?»

A huge and silly smile made his way on the face of the second heir of the Desmond´s as he ran to the basketball court remembering the feeling of having Anya so close to him, at the thought of how she had´t refused his touch and as how 20 minutes ago he was about to do what he had wanted for many years (since he was 9).

He almost kiss Anya Forger.

Chapter Text

«She isn't coming...»

Damian sighed looking back at the bleachers, there were many people filling the seats ... but there wasn't a sign of the only person he was interested in seeing.

Anya Forger.

After their near-kiss in the infirmary, the Desmonds' second heir felt like he was walking in the clouds and couldn´t stop repeating it over and over again earning a strange look from his friends by the lovestruck smile that he could not erase for the rest of the day.

Many of his days are filled with many different thoughts about her, but now each of his thoughts were directed exclusively to her, imagining what would have happened if her father hadn´t entered at that time…

Will her lips be as soft as he imagines them to be?

He was dying to find it out…

Scanning the bleachers once again, he could not help but to be surprised to see a familiar face, that of his brother Demetrius.

Why was his presence a surprise? Well..

You see, after leaving the infirmary, he ran as fast as he could to get to the basketball courts in time; even so, when he made it to the game, it was already in the last minutes.

So he quickly searched in the crowd to find his friends who had gotten seats in the front row (he didn't understand yet how they had accomplished that and he supposed it would remain a mystery to him) so he approached them and sat quietly in the middle of Emile and Becky.

Praying internally that Demetrius had´t noticed his absence.

"Hi Bossman! How is Shri…I mean, Anya? How is Anya doing? Is she okay now?" Ewen corrected himself by seeing Becky raising her hand ready to give him another blow to the head if he insulted her best friend one more time.

Jeez... since when was Becky so strong? He didn’t know that carrying so many bags of clothes after "an afternoon to eliminate stress" at the mall could give you so much strength.

Ewen was sure that he would soon have a bruise or have the head twice its size after so much blow so this time he decided to save himself the pain and not receive one more.

"Yeah, is the little shrimp up yet? or is she still just as knocked out?" asked Emile, who apparently had not yet learned the lesson so in a matter of seconds he earned another hit from Becky on the back of the neck. "Auch! stop doing that!"

"Stop insulting Anya and I’ll stop," Becky said simply as she shrugged before turning all her attention to Damian, her gaze quickly shifting from anger to worry. "How is she? Did anyone pick her up to take her home?”

"I could tell you if  all of you just shut up for a second," Damian said, rolling his eyes and nodded. "Yes, Anya woke up about 20 minutes after all of you left, the nurse called Mr Forger and they already went home, the nurse thought it would be a good idea to let Anya rest for today but she ensures that tomorrow  Anya will be as good as new"

Becky relaxed visibly at his words and nodded while smiling a little, the other two teenagers also relaxed to hear what Damian said (although they would rather accompany Becky to a "quick shopping afternoon" in bargain season than accept that they were just as concerned as her about the pink haired girl´s health).

"I’ll call her as soon as I get home... or if it’s not too late, I’ll go visit her," said Becky calmer to what Damian only nodded to then return his sight to his brother’s basketball game , of course, the silly smile he had moments ago soon reappeared in his face without him being able to stop it and sighed, his mind full of a girl with green eyes, long pink hair staring at him, smiling at him, saying his name or eating peanuts as rose petals fell on her and angels sang the opening melody of “SpyxWars” that she always seemed to be singing when she was happy .

God, he was completely and enterly fucked…

His friends soon noticed but the boy continued to see the game in front of him, purposely ignoring the expectant looks of his friends... or at least he tried to do it until he felt a sharp pain in his right arm that made him jump in his seat.

"Auch! Why did you do that? you stupid forhead girl! '' Damian complained, caressing the burning point of his arm as he threw daggers at Becky.

"Don’t play dumb with me, Desmond," Becky said as if she hadn’t given him the strongest pinch of his life with her long fake nails a few seconds before. "What happened while you two were alone? It took you a looong time to get back even though she woke up 20 minutes later," the girl said as a sly smile appeared on her face.

"NOTHING! Nothing happened," the boy replied quickly, too quickly for the delight of the brown haired girl who only widened her smile while his other two friends smiled at the scene before them and the trouble he had gotten himself into.

«Traitors…»

"Oh?... ohh I see, you took the role of Prince Charming seriously and woke up Princess Anya with a kiss of true love" replied Becky dramatically without erasing the smile, getting Damian to blush slightly and Emile and Ewen to quickly cover up their laughter by pretending to cough, although that didn’t do a great job, after all, their laughter was more than obvious.

"O-OF COURSE NOT!" shouted Damian, internally thanking to be in the middle of a crowd that screamed distracted by the team playing in front of them without paying any attention to what he was saying. ”You know I would never kiss her without her consent...I MEAN I WOULD NEVER KISS HER IN ANY WAY." He corrected quickly as his blush deepened before the looks of his friends and his words, now Ewen and Emile didn't even hide how funny the situation seemed to them and the two were about to fall from their seats of how much they were laughing, "I just stayed with her until Mr Forger arrived... that’s it, nobody kissed anyone and nobody did anything".

"mmm... I see," Becky said as she could not stop smiling ,Damian was as subtle with his love for her best friend as a hippo tap dancing in the middle of a library could be. "I was just kidding, you don’t have to take it so literally... unless you really want to kiss her."

"You... You’re " began Damian, seeing her in rage when the sound of the whistle was heard loudly and the bleachers burst into shouts of celebration and applause causing everyone to turn to see the game that had just ended, of course, the Eden academy had won once again.

The 4 teenagers stopped their fight to cheer along with the others and Damian used every gram of his willpower to not roll his eyes when they all started chanting his older brother’s name when he was given the trophy.

They were about to leave when one of his brother’s friends approached him to tell him that Demetrius wanted to talk to him so he gave an apologetic look to his friends who just smiled at him and told him that they would wait for him on the way out.

Yep, he certainly was in trouble for being late…

"Demetrius" he greeted his brother with a nod as they stood face to face in a secluded place. A room reserved for imperial students near the gym when they wanted to change after their recreational activities or just rest for a few minutes.

“Damian" said his older brother as he stood idly by, after that both of them plunged into an awkward silence.

"Err... congratulations, for winning the game," said Damian feeling a little strange not knowing what else to say.

"Thank you, though I’m surprised you know about it... considering how late you were," Demetrius said, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I’m sorry I was late for your game, something happened and it wasn’t something I could delay or anything like that," Damian sighed and folded his arms as well, refusing to give in to the major’s gaze. "Anyway, I did my best to be on time".

Sure, the last part was a huge lie... but Demetrius didn’t need to know that now.

"And what was it? What was so important that it couldn’t wait until after the game? Have you forgotten who we are? The Desmonds are never late, it’s part of keeping our image spotless," Demetrius said, angering his younger brother, who just kept quiet. "Do you know how embarrassing it is that my little brother was late to see my game? As if it were something secondary, tell me Damian... What was the "important thing" in your busy schedule that took you so long?”

Damian could only stare at his brother angrily. His hands clenched in a fist and he squeezed them so tightly that now his knuckles were white.

The boy did not know whether to tell the truth, what would his brother say if he answered that he was helping a commoner?

"Well? What was so important?" Demetrius said, moving one of his shoes up and down impatiently. "I don’t have all day to wait for your answer".

"I was helping someone," Damian said at last, teeth clenched. "She passed out on the way here and I took her to the infirmary."

Damian hoped that would be enough for his older brother to leave him alone and go find Ewen, Emile and Becky.

But, as always, his words weren't enough and his brother just kept going as if what he had just said to him seconds before was nothing but nonsense.

"That’s it? Why didn’t you just drop her off at the infirmary and come here? I would understand if it took you about 10 or 15 minutes to take her and then come here," Demetrius said, waving his hand dismissively. "That’s not a valid excuse."

«Calm down Damian... remember, inhale and exhale... inhale … and exhale..think of good things…think of something else…stop thinking about hitting his stupid stupid face…Come on Damian, just count to 100…no! count to 1000 to calm down»

"And how do you know it wasn´t just a sham? That she didn't fake it? Believe me, I’ve seen that a million times. Some girl pretends to faint so that one of the Desmonds can help them and take advantage, create rumors about us and then blackmail us or pretend to have some kind of connection with us...I thought you were smarter than this Damian, tell me, who was the gold digger this time?” Scoffed Demetrius raising an eyebrow.

And with that hell broke loose.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! roared Damian glaring at his brother, he was not only angry... oh no, he was fucking livid. "How dare you? How dare you insinuate something like that? You weren’t even there to begin with..no! The real questions are, how dare you insinuate something like that about her ? To talk about her like that?"

"How dare I? How dare you talk to me like that? Don’t forget who you’re talking to," said Demetrius, looking at his younger brother angrily although the surprise he felt at the time was much bigger as it was the first time that Damián reacted like this... or raised his voice to someone.

To him.

"I don’t give a shit if I’m talking to the director of Edén, to father or to you," replied Damian angrily and pointed at his brother accusingly. "You have no right to talk about a matter as serious as that. Did you see everything that happened? NO! You weren’t there to say it was a sham, to imply that she faked it or that she was doing it to seek fortune or whatever." Damian exclaimed as he clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dig into the palms of his hands painfully, though the boy paid no attention to that.

The anger in his brother’s eyes caught Demetrius off guard and he took a step back. What the hell was wrong with Damian? And who the hell was that girl or whatever to cause such a reaction?

"You know Demetrius? For how smart you presume to be, you just said the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in this life... Since you’re so worried about the family’s reputation, I’ll explain how a reaction like that could have caused more damage than my stupid late arrival at your game...She was in the middle of the hallway having a panic attack, her nose started bleeding horribly and she passed out in front of me , what would it look like if I had left her there in that state or just left her alone in the infirmary? Huh? Even if she hadn’t been in front of me, leaving her like this and not helping wouldn’t have been the right thing to do... So tell me, brother, what would people have said if Damian Desmond had a chance to help and had done nothing about it?” Damian said ignoring the look of his brother who changed from one of anger to one of surprise in seconds.

For the first time in his life, Demetrius didn´t know how to answer, he had no words. It was the first time anyone had raised their voice to him, the first time Damian dared to challenge him, to contradict him…

"And even if I hadn’t been around or I hadn’t been there, I would have run to see her without hesitation... but as you see, she didn’t fake anything, it was something that happened and already, if you didn’t know Demetrius, humans suffer from things like that... She’s one of my friends, I wasn’t gonna leave her there, let alone leave her stranded in the infirmary after what I saw." Damian folded his arms in an attempt to curb his desire to hit Demetrius. "She would never pretend about something, much less something like that, because she is the most honest and sweet person you could find in your fucking life, she may sometimes be a pain in the ass but she is still the bravest, most determined and strongest person I know... God, she doesn’t even care that I’m a Desmond, you know that? She’s never been interested in how much money I have or the power I have or whatever... What’s more, I think she doesn’t give a shit ; and if you ever hint at anything bad about her again... If you ever talk about her again, I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks, you’re gonna pay me dearly, you understand?"

Damian ended up beating his brother’s chest with his index finger without ceasing to see him with his eyes narrowed and his face red with anger, defying his older brother to contradict him.

While Demetrius could only see him with his eyes wide open and his jaw almost touching the ground, did Damian just threaten him?...

When Demetrius came out of the shock, anger returned quickly….all this fuss over a girl ?... Well, if she was influencing his younger brother like that, he had to find out who she was and take action on the matter right away.

"Tell Father what you want about this, I don’t care.. he doesn't care about me anyway...but go ahead and tell him after all that’s all you know how to do, complain to him and obey what he says," said Damian turning around, started walking away but then stopped to see him over his shoulder, addressing his older brother in a cold tone. "oh... and if you try to hurt any of my friends for revenge... especially if you try to hurt her... Believe me, I’ll make you regret it for the rest of your life because I don’t give a shit about dragging the Desmond´s name down and you and father with it."

With that last threat Damian left the place without looking back to meet his friends.

Damian felt so….weird.

It was the first time he’d done something like that, he usually kept quiet, kept his head down and obeyed but something inside of him snapped when Demetrius started insulting Anya like that... insinuating that she had faked something as horrible as that and calling her a “gold digger”? to imply that she was no one worth the trouble or that she was no one worth his time?

That was enough for him to see all red and he couldn’t stop.

Damian would lie if he said he was not somewhat terrified, despite what he said, his father’s fury was not something he wanted to face and he knew very well that his brother was now fuming through his ears (imitating a teapot) of how angry he must be.

What made the whole situation weird is that, despite knowing this... He wasn’t embarrassed by what he said, he was satisfied that his older brother was angry, that he was the first to make Demetrius Desmond speechless.

Of course, he knew his older brother very well and what he could do, so Damian had to make a slight threat before leaving, with the one thing he knew that mattered more to Demetrius than his father’s approval, the reputation of his family.

It was risky but necessary, after all, the fight was between the two of them and his friends or Anya would not pay the price for it.

Anya…

Who knew the first time he raised his voice to Demetrius would have been to defend a commoner? and not just any commoner... He raised his voice to defend Anya Forger.

If someone had told him 6 years ago that he would threaten Demetrius to defend Anya, he probably would have laughed hard or he would have flatly denied it (insulting the girl in the process).

But there was no point in denying it any longer.

Damian Desmond was completely and ridiculously in love with Anya Forger.

He loves Anya Froger.

He always has, he was just too proud to admit it.

With a small smile on his face, Damian approached his friends to find another game in the tournament to attend before leaving for his last training before the competition.

After all, he was determined that he would finally do something about his crush and to fulfill what was left unfinished in the infirmary ... . He’d kiss Anya Forger, ask her out, and then... if she accepted, they’d be an official couple.

After all, he already wasted 10 years denying what he felt for her and he wasn’t willing to lose any more….

—---------The day after the incident, minutes before the game. ------------

«Blackbell said that she wasn't sure that Anya would come but... no! focus on the game Damian, you must win the game... then you can think of her... and how much you want to see her... maybe I could visit her to make sure she’s okay, I could also bring some gifts for Mr and Mrs Forger, talk to them to ask for their blessing and.... and not! get your head in the game, damnit! ».

That day, Damian had woken up much earlier than usual and hadn´t rested very well due to lack of sleep, the events of the previous day had not left him for even a second, both the almost kiss and the fight with his brother were enough to leave him awake for several hours and the fact that he had not yet received a letter or call from his father to scold him for his behavior made him even more anxious.

Why hadn’t he been scolded or punished? So little did his father care that not even a lack of respect for Demetrius would make him see in his direction?...

Damian shook his head to prevent his thoughts from going to that subject again, after all that was not what should be on his mind that day.

The only thing that must be in his head at the time was the football game that would start soon.

His team counted on him to win, his family counted on him to win, the school counted on him to win.

You know, no pressure…

He knew he had to concentrate, he knew he had to be careful because all eyes would be on him the moment the whistle of the referee blew ... but his mind always seemed to disobey and his eyes always returned to the crowd, hoping to see a flash of pink hair between them.

"Ready for the game, Boss-man?" said Emile by his side after finishing the warm-up.

"pff, I’m always ready," Damian said with fake confidence as he turned to see his friends. "we will be able to win, we only have to follow the strategy that we made after watching the games of the other academy and the trophy will be ours, simple."

"Well, let’s hope it works... Anyway our team is excellent, Ewen is an incredible central defender, I am the goalkeeper and you are our best striker, there is no way that... boss-man, are you.. listening?" asks Emile when he sees that his friend’s gaze was fixed on the bleachers again.

“What?... oh yes yes, you’re right," Damian said absently, still looking for a pink haired girl in the crowd.

"So, are you okay with me and Emile doing a tango routine during halftime to distract the Green Valley Academy team?" asked Ewen, this time raising an eyebrow, trying to confirm that the mind of one of his best friends was not with them.

"Yes, yes, yes... I find it excellent, you are right" replied Damian without paying attention, Emile and Ewen looked at each other having a silent conversation.

Damian may not have told them exactly what happened in the infirmary the day before, but after years of being friends with the Desmonds' second heir, they knew him almost as well as the palms of their hands and they could bet their allowance that something had happened between his best friend and the Forger girl when they were left alone.

And judging by the smile Damian had when he came back, it must have been a very good thing.

At first, neither had suspected Damian’s infatuation for Anya until a few years later... Of course, he blushed and stammered when she was near but they attributed more to anger or frustration rather than a crush.... until  they were 11.

When they were 11, Damian threw himself like a beast on a group of children a few years older than them (all from Malcom Hall), threatening them and even hitting one of them straight in the face, winning his first Tonitrus ever, after finding Anya sobbing in the arms of Becky Blackbell with her backpack soaked in some viscous substance (to this day, none of them knew what that substance was), all her new books destroyed and with missing pages, and her new Mother’s Day art work shattered to pieces after they attacked her days after she won her fifth Stella for her community service.

The same guys came an hour after class with flowers, books and a new designer backpack (one of the guys had a black eye), asking Anya to forgive them for what they had done to her and every time she walked near them, they looked in any other direction or even hid somewhere else.

Not to mention how he threatened George Glooman after the kid developed a little crush on her when they were 13.

Or not to mention that, last year Damian had been sad and looked like a kicked puppy after Anya became seriously ill for 4 days and won’t make it to class for almost the whole week. He spent the week completely focused on class (even more than he always was, of course) and he almost looked like a robot copying every word and breath the teachers gave during lessons, and then he would disappear the whole afternoon after the last bell chimed indicating the end of classes (of course, Emile and Ewen found out later that Damian’s attitude and disappearances were because he had been writing everything down for Anya to then take that and some gifts to the Forgers house during those days, all in "secret"...at least it was until suspiciously, Damian got sick of the same flu as Anya a few days later).

After that and many other things, it was not very difficult for them to add 2 + 2 so that it turned out that Damian was more than in love with Anya Forger.

They were both happy for their friend... Well, they might not be very happy at first, but in the end, the heart wants what it wants, and if it makes his friend happy... then they support him.

Of course, someone has to catch them dead first before they accept the fact that they were happy that their friend’s crush was on the Forger girl and not someone who wanted to take advantage of him.

Anya may not have been one of their favorite people at first but over time they had learned that she was not so bad. In fact, it didn’t take long for them to get attached to the girl and consider her a very good friend (almost like a little sister) even if they didn't say it out loud.

Okay, maybe she isn't the best student in Eden but she was a good person. And they knew that she wouldn’t take advantage of their best friend in any way and that the last thing she cared about was his status or his money, compared to many girls in her class (except Becky, of course).

That’s why they both support Damian´s crush on the girl….but at that exact moment, that crush was doing nothing but worrying them.

They needed their captain to be fully focused on the game so they had a real chance against Green Valley academy, and Damian could seriously hurt himself if he wasn’t focused on what he was doing.

"Perfect, so when we win the game we will give you your tutu to receive the prize next to us, it is already in the locker room with matching tights," said Emile following Ewen’s game with a teasing smirk.

"Yeah, I agr…..wait, tights?" Damian said, finally reacting and seeing his friends who were now laughing out loud. "I... I’m sorry, I…I wasn't paying attention.”

"We noticed, Boss-Man but don’t worry, we know what's keeping you distracted... or should I say who?" said Ewen, the teasing smile never leaving his face as he patted the embarrassed brown haired boy on the back.

"Relax, Damian... Becky said Anya looked better yesterday when she went to visit her," said Emile smiling sideways.

"I know but... but I thought..." Damian began and then sighed looking the other way.

"Come on... maybe her parents decided she should get some more rest," Ewen said quickly. "After all, yesterday was a bit…difficult for her."

"It’s true... listen Bossman, we understand what’s going on but you have to be focused... And if you win, you can tell Forger everything and impress her with the trophy," Emile said, nodding, after a few minutes they watched his friend’s gaze shift from one of sadness to one of determination.

"You are right, we are going to win this," said Damian with his usual smug smile back on his face so that seconds later they heard the scream of their coach.

It was time to start the game.

«Ewen and Emile are right, maybe Mr and Mrs Forger decided that Anya should rest longer and I really don’t want her to get sick again... Besides, I must concentrate and win... after all, it’s not a bad idea to visit her with the trophy in my hands to impress her».

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2- 1

¡2-1!

The Eden´s soccer team was losing by one point and they didn't seem to be able to score another goal. They were now at halftime, so they had 15 minutes to find a new strategy to score another goal and prevent the other team from scoring more.

Damian was playing terribly, he knew it and the looks of his peers and their coach also seemed to shout in agreement with his thoughts.

What was happening to him?

He was about to talk with the team when the coach asked him to talk a little away from them, making the brown haired boy sigh, he was going to get scolded.

But he deserved no less.

After all, he couldn't concentrate, he had kicked the ball in the wrong direction, had bumped into some players by accident and had not been able to score a single goal.

“ I don’t know what the hell is happening to you, Desmond, but you better start playing for real or I’m gonna be forced to leave you on the bench," said the coach, looking at him sternly, and the teen just dropped his shoulders and hung his head in shame. "Okay.... Listen, take five minutes, go get some water and relax a little if it's necessary…but when you get back there, I hope you’ll be the player we know you are again," the coach told him to then leave him and approach the rest of the team leaving him alone, so he walked to the bench to take a breath and drink some water.

The coach was right.

He needed to put himself together because he needed to win this, he couldn’t afford to be benched…

Or maybe he should let George go in his place... after all, Glooman couldn’t play any worse than he already has.

«I will ask the coach to change me, it is better than being humiliated on the field because I make my team lose and... ».

"Boss-man! Look!" Ewen shouted a few meters away while pointing something on the direction of the bleachers as he began to walk towards them, confused Damian turned around to see the crowd once again.

To Damian´s surprise, the students of Eden began to sing a song to encourage them to win, which made him feel something better about it.

At least the academy still hoped they would win. 

At least they hoped that he would lead the team to another victory, which made him feel somewhat guilty about what he would do…

Or what he planned to do until seconds before he start walking back to the team once again, he found something that made his heart dance a whole tango routine on his chest.

«but...wait, what?»

The boy blinked, one, two and three times before rubbing the palm of his hands over his eyes and then looking back at the bleachers unable to believe what he was seeing.

He was dreaming.

This has to be a dream because in front of him, on one side somewhat apart from the crowd was a girl with pink hair and green eyes shaking a sign from top to bottom while shouting the same song as the rest of the students.

Damian’s face lit up instantly with a huge smile and he quickly approached the girl he had been waiting to see since he saw her leaving the infirmary with her father the day before.

"Sy-On Boy!" Anya said with a huge smile as she saw him reach where she was, the girl was about to say something else but was interrupted by two strong arms that embraced her lifting her from the ground before spinning, making her giggle.

"You came," Damian said in her ear as he hugged her tightly when they stopped spinning.

Damian smiles while closing his eyes for a moment and finally feeling how a weight left his shoulders.

"Did you really think I’d miss your game? That hurts Sy-On boy, don´t you trust me just a little? " tease the pink haired girl as she hugs him back, a few seconds later she steps back from him (just enough to see his whole face) and tilt her head to one side. "What is happening on the field? You told me you were one of the best players on the team...Or were you lying?"

"Of course I didn't lie! I am the best player on the team!" Damian said as he folded his arms and frowned slightly at her although he was struggling to hide the smile that wanted to reappear. "And of course I thought you wouldn’t come, dummy... yesterday you were sick and you took a long time to come"

"I feel much better now, yesterday the crowd caught me off guard, that’s all," said the girl shrugging and smiling sideways. "I’m sorry it took me so long to come...but I needed that all the people were here so I knew where to sit and I could prepare myself so that what happened yesterday would not happen again".

The words the girl said to him the day before came back to Damian’s mind, making him feel a little bit guilty. Right! He had completely forgotten that the reason she fainted was because she was locked in the crowd. How could he be so selfish as to wish that she would get to see him sooner when she had to mentally prepare herself to be in a similar crowd again?

«Shit! I forgot about that! Good job Damian! stupid! stupid! stupid!»

It must have been scary for her to be back in that situation…And yet, she decided to come and support him in his game... well, the team but he was part of the team anyway.

Just the thought that she had done that despite what happened the day before, managed to spread a pleasant warmth in his chest, making Damian smile and blush once again.

"You idiot! You know that if you feel bad, you shouldn't stay," Damian said, seeing the girl in front of him with fondness.

"I’ll be fine, I know my limits," Anya said as a small blush appeared on her cheeks, and it was at that moment that he noticed that on her right cheek she had a number drawn with makeup and glitter

God…she had drawn his favorite number. The one he wore on his team t-shirt.

Damian’s heart started beating much faster when he saw it and an intense red appeared on his cheeks.

"A-Anyway... I don’t want you to take any risks, I don’t want to have to carry you back to the infirmary, shrimp," said Damian, a little nervous, and he almost hit his forehead for calling her back by that nickname.

Old habits die hard.

Still Anya just laughed and crossed her arms defiantly.

"You don’t think you can be strong enough to carry me, Desmond?" Anya replied with a smug smile and pulled her hip to one side while leaning on one leg, getting his brain to short-circuit.

«Shit... it should be illegal to be so cute and so... sexy at the same time.».

"Pff, please, that’s a piece of cake," exclaimed Damian rolling his eyes, and in the distance he could see his coach beckoning him to hurry. "I have to get back to the team."

"All right, good luck... show that Eden has the best players on his team," the girl said, nodding without erasing her smug smile, the same smile that made him feel so angry but at the same time made his heart flip. "or..I’m afraid I must have stayed up all night making this sign for nothing"

Confused, Damian directed his gaze towards the poster that the girl raised for him to see.

It was a poster with several drawings of soccer balls, his team t-shirt and in capital letters, full of glitter was the phrase «Sy-On Boy is the best!».

God, that girl was going to be the end of him.

"Of course you didn’t do it for nothing,dummy! We’ll win. You’ll see," Damian snorted as his cheeks burned intensely, glanced away for a few seconds, and then turned his gaze to the young woman’s emerald eyes. "Thank you Anya…”.

«It's now or never...».

The boy approached the short girl once more,  Anya only looked at him stupefied as he took one of her hands and then leaned towards her.

Ready to get the kiss he wanted so badly…

Or at least that's what he tried until a whistle was heard near them, getting them to separate in one jump.

"Desmond! You can talk to your little girlfriend all you want when the game is over! Come here immediately or I’ll leave you on the bench" threatened the coach who had approached them and crossed arms, impatient.

"We’re not... we’re just…." started both at the same time with matching blushes on their faces, the coach just raised an eyebrow with a frown.

"Just go or you’ll get in trouble," Anya said with a smile, moving her head toward the field.

"I’ll see you later," promised Damian, smiling and turned to leave when a hand held him back for a moment.

He was going to ask what was happening until he felt something soft and warm against his cheek. It took a few seconds before she realized it was about the girl’s lips so when she stepped back, he just looked at her baffled.

"For good luck," said Anya  with a shy smile before switching it to a smug one, her cheeks still blushing.

Without saying anything else she turned around and returned to her place next to Becky who was jumping excited in her seat, she also held a sign similar to Anya’s only that hers did not have his shirt and said instead «Edén Academy will win!».

He could only stay a few moments in the same place, the hand on the cheek that Anya had just kissed, was still warm and seemed to tickle in a  pleasant way.

"We don’t have all day Desmond!" called the coach again, this time angrily what managed to get him out of his trance.

With renewed energy, Damian rushed back to his team with a huge smile on his face to give them quick indications of a new move.

«No one will stop me from taking that trophy home...».

Let's just say...the other team never stood a chance.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anya screamed and cheered beside Becky as they watched their friends celebrate in a circle, Damian was in the middle raising the trophy over them with a huge smile of pride on his face, his golden eyes shining with happiness making her heart do small somersaults.

"I have to accept it, for a moment I thought they wouldn’t win," Becky said in a whisper to which Anya could only laugh and shake her head.

"They were in trouble for a while but after that, they played amazing!" Anya said with excitement. "Damian managed to score so many goals!"

"I know, I have to admit... the boy plays well," Becky said, nodding, then a sly smile appeared on his face. "Although I think that "good luck kiss" you gave him had something to do with it," the brown haired girl teased, nudging her friend, winning a squeal and a deep blush from the pink haired girl.

"Becky!" Anya scolded her although the smile on her face didn't disappear. "I just took your advice...Do you think he liked it?"

"Like it? Didn’t you see his face? I think you broke him for a few minutes," Becky said laughing. “He totally loved it!”

"It seems so, doesn’t it?" Anya said laughing beside her, somewhat relieved.

"Come on, we should go with them now that the people are starting to leave," said Becky rising from her seat.

Anya suddenly got nervous, what would she say to Damian? Would he say anything to her about the kiss on the cheek?... Will he finally confess?.

God, she hoped so.

However, she didn’t have much time to think about it when she felt someone touch her shoulder in an attempt to get her attention.

The butterflies in her stomach began to flutter once more at the thought that it would be Damian... so she turned to confirm it.

You can imagine how huge her surprise was when one of the senior students was in front of her. He was blond and brown-eyed, a frown on his face as he stared at her.

"Are you Miss Anya Forger?" the boy said, seeing her, further confusing her.

"Yes, it’s me... is something wrong?" the girl said, tilting her head as she frowned a little.

"I need you to come with me, please," the blonde said simply and turned around to walk.

"Wow! Wait... I can’t, I have to find my friends first," Anya said as she folded her arms and repeatedly shook her head. “besides, I don't even know you”

"Miss, you need to come with me. I won’t be able to leave until you do.," the boy said again, His attitude reminded Anya of the robot that appeared on the new episode of SpyxWars. Did she do something wrong? Did she get in trouble?

"She already told you she doesn’t want to go! I have to write it down for you to understand?" said Becky shielding her best friend.

“It is important that she come with me, I promise that nothing bad will happen to her but she has to come now” said the boy with annoyance.

Anya doesn’t get it, she did not get into trouble long ago…and she hasn't done anything wrong…

Besides the kid was a stranger, why would she go with him?

«Why does she take so long to answer? Mr. Desmond does not like to wait...».

Mr Desmond... why would Mr...?

Oh.

Oh,

By "Mr Desmond" the boy meant Damian, not his father, Mr Donovan Desmond.

Well... if Damian was looking for her like that, it was probably because he wanted them to meet somewhere more private.

She looked around to confirm and...yes, Sy-On Boy was nowhere to be seen.

“It's okay Becky, I'll go...I'll catch up with you later” said Anya, giving Becky a look to calm her down, she signaled her to go ahead and look for Emile and Ewen.

Becky only nodded at her cue, though she stared at the older boy with some caution for a few seconds before turning around and leaving.

Later.

She would tell Becky what Sy-On Boy had planned later.

They walked in a somewhat awkward silence, at least for the girl, until they arrived back at the halls of the academy where he guided her, taking her down a road where (thank God) there were not many people until they reached a fairly familiar room.

The rest room for the imperial students, she had already been there many times so she entered quietly... Okay, when she had been there, there were usually more people around... now the room was empty.

"Please wait here," the boy said, nodding to her  and then leaving, closing the door behind him.

Anya took the minutes to straighten her hair up and let go a sigh she didn’t know she was holding. What would she say to Damian when she saw him? This would be the first time she was alone after their almost kiss in the infirmary (and the soccer field).

«Why are my hands sweating like this?... Remember what Becky said, "calm, flirtatious and confident"...everything will be fine Anya, Becky said that he already likes you...».

The sound of the door opening caught her attention and she turned again with a huge smile... only to be erased seconds later when you see who it was.

Anya didn´t know what to do, she was frozen in place and her mouth was surely open (a few centimeters from touching the ground) by surprise as in front of her was one of the Desmond´s heirs….But it wasn’t the one that she wanted to see because in front of her, seeing her from head to toe, making her feel like an experiment once again; there was Demetrius Desmond.

"Miss Forger, it is a pleasure to meet you at last," Demetrius said with a small nod in her direction as a greeting. "I imagine you know why we are here"

"I’m sorry... s-mr Desmond, but I’m afraid I don’t know why," Anya said, seeing him even more confused, what was this about?

Was this some kind of joke?

"Let me... explain, Miss Forger," Demetrius said with a nod. "We are here because I'm about to make a deal with you".

“¿A deal? ¿With me?” exclaimed Anya in shock.

"Yes, a deal... you see, Miss Forger... my brother has always been very obedient and had never dared to raise his voice to anyone, much less to me," said the boy, like he was explaining the whole situation to a baby.

"I’m sorry, Mr Desmond, but Anya still doesn't understand what that has to do with her," replied Anya, raising an eyebrow a little offended by the way he was talking to her.

"It has a lot to do with you, Miss Forger... as I was saying, Damian had never raised his voice to me... until yesterday, and I’m afraid it was your influence," Demetrius said, seeing the pink haired girl, getting her to open her eyes bewildered by listening to what he was saying. The boy just ignored her reaction and saw her sternly "Since you started spending time with me, my brother seems to have forgotten what’s important and what’s his position".

Anya could only look at him in shock, she had no words.

She? Was she a bad influence for Damian?

As If!

Damian was way too stubborn to even think about taking one of her incredible advices. So none of this made any sense... Well, she may not be the best student in Eden but that didn’t mean she was a bad influence or troublemaker, 

Come one! She was even an imperial scholar!...for community service but that didn’t make her any less than the other Imperial scholars!

"Which brings me to my offer," Demetrius said, still speaking calmly, regardless of the girl’s expressions. "You will stay away from my younger brother, you will not look for him and you will not speak to him any more... and in return, I will give you 3000 dalc.... a generous proposal, as you can see, if we consider your position as a commoner."

Okay, what the fuck is going on?

Anya was now sure that all of this must be one of Damian’s jokes, it has to be. Still, to be sure, she decided to read Demetrius’s thoughts in an attempt to find out if what he said was real or a joke, sadly his mind was blank except for one thing, which added to the frown on Demetrius' face, showed that everything he said was serious.

«I have to unmask this commoner ... . sure a few Dalcs can do the job, after all, only a fool would reject this deal.»

That made her blood boil, as the urge to hit him in the face increased considerably.

How dare he offer something like that? How dare he think of offering something like that... no! How dare he think that she could accept something like that?

And for once, can someone in Eden be more creative with insults? They were always about her being a commoner and things like that.

Can someone be creative for once?

Instead of saying all of those things out loud, she just took a deep breath and looked him in the eye.

“Excuse me Mr Demetrius but I´ll have to reject that offer," Anya said, shaking her head. When she saw him open his mouth again, she stepped forward. "No matter how much money you try to offer me, I will not accept it".

"Don’t you want money? So what do you prefer to get away from my brother once and for all?" said Demetrius raising an eyebrow, his gaze overflowing with disdain.

Anya for her part so she stood a little straighter in place, counting up to 10 once more to not punch him in that instant.

Why did the Desmond brothers have to push her over the edge? Do the Desmond brothers like to get punched in the face?

"I don't want anything, Mr Desmond," the girl said as she folded her arms and frowned once more.

"You must want something, Miss Forger," Demetrius said, stepping forward, surely to intimidate her. "It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, what? don’t you know who I am? Getting an offer from the Desmonds is a privilege very few have."

« God give me patience because if you give me strength I will...The Desmond brothers do not know what else to say? Agh!... The Desmond this, the Desmond that, Desmond, Desmond, Desmond... Maybe I should tell Dad to give them some lessons so they learn to threaten with more than their name...» 

"I’m sure, Mr Desmond," Anya replied, seconds later a naughty glow appeared in the girl’s green eyes. "You know? thinking it over...there is something I want"

« Ha! I knew it!... It was to be expected... well, once I give her what she wants, I won’t have to worry about her anymore »

"Oh... tell me Miss Forger, what do you want?" said Demetrius, his face now showing a smug smile that was much like the one Damian had shown her for years so Anya could barely contain the urge to roll her eyes.

"What I want... is to keep talking to Damian, to remain her friend as I have been for years; without money, without prizes, without anything ... only him" Anya said simply. "As for your deal... If you want, you can keep the 3000 thousand Dalcs, any other idea or threat you have and put it deep in your ass or where it fits you better, i'll leave the choice up to you. "

Anya had to use all her willpower to hide her smug smile as Demetrius' jaw nearly touched the ground and his eyes almost came out of his face at her words.

"I will never leave Damian and if he raises his voice to defend himself from you, well,  I am glad because he will be the only one who can tell you all of that without suffering any punishment... As for me I’ll tell you what I think whether you get me in trouble or not."  Anya said confidently as she took another step forward.

"Watch your words, Miss Forger, don’t forget you’re talking to -" Demetrius began but was interrupted by Anya who moved one of her hands dismissively, downplaying the matter.

"Yeah yeah, with a Desmond... believe me, I could not forget it with all the times that you and your brother repeat it," answered the pink haired girl calmly. "I’m aware of who you are... I’m just deciding not to make a big deal of it."

For the second time in two days, Demetrius couldn´t hide his astonishment even if he wanted to. In all of his years of life,  no one had dared to say something like that, at least not to his face.

Who the hell is  this girl?

"Anya has no idea how you came to the conclusion that she is a bad influence on Damian just because he has responded to you after so many years," Anya continued as she shrugged. "but I do know that if you knew your younger brother as good as you presume, then you wouldn’t have gotten to me in the first place. For starters, Sy-On boy is the most stubborn kid in the world and believe me, no matter how hard I try to get him to let go a little, it’s practically impossible. He’s always studying, he’s always trying hard, he’s always doing his best to make his family proud... I knew he was trying to impress someone like you and..."

"Miss Forger! I won’t tell you again, Watch your words or..." began Demetrius, who seemed to be two seconds away from exploding because of how red his face was.

Anya was pretty sure that she could fry an egg over his head at the moment.

If she only had the ingredients, damn it. She was very hungry.

Meh…anyway, Where was she?...oh yes!

"You Desmonds can’t do anything but threaten everyone and everything when you just feel like it?" Huffing the pink haired girl, crossing her arms once more and locked her gaze directly to the eyes of the boy in front of her. "Tell me, Mr Desmond, have you ever heard anything other than the sound of your own voice?"

Anya just waited for her words to take effect, minutes later she could see how she had achieved her goal when the boy quietly stepped back. The boy seemed to think about it for a moment and then sigh and make a move with his hand indicating to her to keep talking.

«I’m sorry papa... but someone has to tell him...»

"Damian and I may not have gotten along at the beginning, but with the years that have passed... I can say that he is an amazing guy. He’s dedicated, he’s too smart... He has a huge heart though he sometimes tries to hide it," Anya said once again, this time a softer smile appeared and her eyes were filled with affection thinking of Desmond's second heir. "He doesn’t act without first thinking about things at least 3 times, so if you get that reaction from him... It was because you must have done something bad enough to piss him off. But I shouldn’t be telling you all this, because it’s something you should know if you would just take the time to talk to him even once... I am aware that after this you will send me to the dungeon of your mansion or similar, you will surely punish me or seek to expel me from Eden... but that would be the result no matter what I told you today, wouldn’t it?...the only thing that is left to say...please take the time to meet Damian, spend time with him because when you finally decide to do it, it’ll be too late..."

Anya waited for the boy’s reaction, for him to yell at her more or to snap his fingers so that two huge bodyguards would take her to the door of the academy so as not to allow her entry anymore or maybe with a swing of his hand, make a hole appear under her  to get her out of the country and she’d have to change her name again and then start a penguin farm far away from Ostania...but nothing happened...Demetrius had just remained silent, watching her with a blank expression although his mind seemed scrambled.

The only clear thought that she could hear without problems was…

«hmmm... so this is why you like her so much... now I understand...»

Anya looked at him confused once again. What did Demetrius mean by that? What was he talking about?.

The pink haired girl was about to follow her little internal debate until Demetrius cleared his throat to get her attention once more.

«Penguin Farm, here I go…Will I be able to go get Dad, Mom, Bond and Ethan before he sends me to another country? That way we can all be together»

Here comes the inevitable scolding, the expulsion she and her papa had worked so hard to avoid all these years and now...

"You were wrong about one thing, Miss Forger," Demetrius said, shaking his head a little bit from side to side. "You won't be in trouble for any of this and don’t worry... youre place at the Eden Academy is not in danger”.

Now it was Anya’s turn to look at him in shock with her mouth wide open.

What?

"However, I advise you that in the future...please,  control your temper a little better, after all, not all will be as considerate as me." said Demetrius looking right into her eyes. "That said... you can leave, I don’t see the point of staying here any longer when you’ve made it clear that you won’t accept any of my offers... I can only ask you not to mention anything to my brother about this meeting."

Anya only nodded, still confused, then made a small nod to the boy as a farewell to leave the room, taking a deep breath of air as she was far enough from the room to relax once more.

How long ago did she start holding her breath? She didn’t know, all she knew was that she was happy to have left that place in one piece…

«The penguin farm will have to be plan B…but now, I need 2...no, I need 6 bags of peanuts after that... I think I have earned them.».

With that Anya went straight to the cafeteria to get the bags of peanuts she deserved, with them in her arms she started walking to the soccer fields to look for her friends (this time, she decided to take the long way). She was relieved that she wasn't being expelled from the Eden Academy for speaking to Demetrius Desmond in the way she did.

Unbeknownst to the pink haired girl, her words had caused a small conflict in the mind of Desmond's eldest son.

Several minutes later, Demetrius left the room, the answers he needed had already been found, he had come to a conclusion and with it, he had a new plan in mind…

His little brother and the Forger girl wouldn’t even know what hit  them until it was too late….

Chapter Text

He wasn’t nervous.

The Damian Desmond definitely wasn’t nervous.

Why should he be nervous?

After winning the game, he felt elated. He couldn’t help but jump in and hug his friends, Emile and Ewen, as they screamed along with the rest of the team and the students from the Eden academy who had gone to see their match.

Of course, after scoring the winning goal the team asked him to climb the podium to receive the trophy on behalf of the team at the award ceremony and he couldn't say no.

Lifting the trophy he couldn´t stop his eyes from going into the crowd once more, only this time he already knew where he had to look to find the person he wanted.

He already knew where he had to look to find her.

Anya was right next to Becky screaming and jumping in her place, celebrating as she watched him lift the trophy proudly. Seeing her so happy for him made his heart beat even faster than it had done after running all over the field during the game (If that was possible).

Seeing her jumping and shouting his name…well his nickname but still.

Just seeing her smiling that way because of him? because she was happy for him? 

It made him feel over the moon. 

It made him much happier than the trophy he had in his hands.

It made him feel invincible, it made him feel like he could do anything.

And he was sure he could do anything, if she was by his side.

Good Lord, he's got it bad.

He came down again wanting to go with her but he knew that first, he should go with his team so he went to meet them between shouts of victories and slaps in the back, as was to be expected, his teammates and many people from the crowd soon surrounded him to congratulate him on having led his team to victory.

When people finally seemed to disappear, he took a few steps forward. He was about to go look for the pink-haired girl when he noticed something that made him stay in place.

He was sweating like crazy, he probably smelled terrible and he was most likely covered in dirt.

He couldn’t get close to Anya sweating and looking…like that!

How could he approach her in that state and expect her to kiss him without repulsing the smell or mock him for what he looked like?

He lifted his shirt to his nose to check that and…yes, he smelled worse than Ewen’s lucky socks (which he hadn’t washed for 4 years because otherwise they “would lose their magic”).

Holding the urge to gag and grimacing he turned around, giving a signal to Emile and Ewen and retreated to the dressing rooms so that everyone could get ready.

"You were great, Boss-Man! That last goal was amazing," said Emile, punching Damian on the shoulder, a big smile on his face.

"Thank you Emile... but I wasn’t the only one, you were amazing as our goalkeeper today and Ewen, your work as our central defender was simply amazing," Damian said with a smile as he took the necessary things from his locker to take a good shower, without noticing how his friends watched him without being able to believe what they heard.

During the years that they had been friends with Damian, it was very rare for him to praise someone... at least sincerely and out of the blue.

"Thanks Boss-man" said the two at the same time with a wide smile.

You don't look a gift horse in the mouth afterall.

After an hour and a half, Damian was in front of one of the mirrors in the dressing rooms while he was fixing his hair that was still slightly wet from the long shower he had taken to make sure to remove the strong smell of sweat he had at the end of the game while his friends were sitting on a bench in the middle of the big changing room.

"I already want to go to the party tonight, it’s going to be epic," said Emile, trying to make some conversation while they waited for their best friend.

"Oh yes! Bossman, are the rumors true? that you hired a whole team of acrobats and dancers for entertainment?" asked Ewen, unable to hide his curiosity as he turned to see the boy that was applying a little more lotion on his neck in front of the mirror.

"I can neither confirm it, nor deny it," Damian said by simply glancing at his friend through the mirror.

Demetrius had decided several days ago that they would throw a big party at one of the most luxurious hotels in Ostania, of course a couple of calls were enough to book the hotel’s largest and most exclusive event hall.

He knew that his brother had planned it to celebrate his victory in the basketball game but had insisted that it was also to celebrate his victory in soccer. Damian had just nodded his head to play along, he knew the only reason he included him was because both would be being watched and what would people say if they only celebrated just one brother’s victory?

Honestly, Damian did not know very well what his brother had planned for the party, he had just ordered some things for the party and then received the invitations and distributed them to people who he wanted to see that night (mostly his friends and a bunch of kids that were part of the most important families in Ostania).

But if he was completely honest, he was only interested in his friends being there.

It would make things much more interesting and entertaining…which reminded him of…

"I’m ready" announced Damian turning and looking at his friends while taking his suitcase with his uniform and the trophy.

Letting his friends walk before him to leave, he began to mentally prepare to see Anya once more and plan what he would say when his friends left them alone once more (because they were going to leave them alone, he had made sure of that after all).

He had to confirm once more that Anya would attend the party that night, even though she had assured him several times that she would go at the time he gave her the invitation.

But this was different, this time he didn’t just need to know if she’d go or not...He needed to know if she’d want to go to the party with him as his date.

"Hey Blackbell!" said Emile, approaching Becky who was talking to a group of girls a few feets away and Damian couldn't help but frown when he realized Anya was not with her.

Where could she be? The nerves lodged again at the bottom of his stomach making him dizzy.

«She left?... but I told her that we would see each other after the game... Did I take too long in the shower that she got bored and decided to leave?...mmm no, she waited 2 hours outside the dorms a few years ago when she thought that I was mad at her and she wanted to apologize... oh no, what if being among so many people made her sick again?»

Now the nerves at the bottom of his stomach became a deep fear as his brain reproduced yesterday’s incident; images of Anya’s bleeding nose and then how she passed out in seconds started to flash before his eyes and he had the urge to suppress a shudder.

What if the same thing of yesterday had happened to her? What if she had fainted again in one of the corridors or in the field and he hadn't noticed?

«Stop being ridiculous Damian! Come on! Pull yourself together! For starters Blackbell would not be so calm if that were the case...»

"Aren’t you going to congratulate us? " Ewen said, smiling arrogantly at Becky now in front of them. “because in front of you are the best soccer players of the Eden Academy.”

"I was going to do it but your ego is as big as the amount of gel in your hair already, so no," Becky said, rolling her eyes at Ewen.

“Oh come one…not even a kiss on the cheek for the champions? We saw your banner” teased Emile, earning a sarcastic smile and a middle finger from Becky making them laugh.

“Over my rich hot dead body” said Becky with a scowl, although her cheeks had a slight pink color.  Her gaze turned to the brown haired boy that was strangely quiet considering his victory but it didn't take long to find the reason for his silence. His golden eyes were looking in every direction, and it wasn’t necessary to be a genius to understand who he was trying to find. “Relax Romeo, She's fine”.

"I…I…I never...What makes you think I’m looking for Anya?" said Damian returning to his normal self, a blush on his cheeks and a frown on his face.

"I never said that you were looking for Anya," Becky replied with a shit-eating grin on her face causing the second heir of the Desmond to just glare daggers at her. "but it’s nice to know you have her in mind all the time"

"You!.... you are a.." said Damian with clenched fists, red as a tomato and about to burst of anger when Becky only waved one finger from side to side in front of his face making him even more frustrated so he just pushed her hand away with a light punch.

“¡Hey! Be gentle you jerk” said Becky with a frown on her face. She stared at him for a few seconds, then she placed her hands on her hips while raising an eyebrow towards him with her usual cocky smile in place. "or don’t you want to know where she is?".

"I... of course not, why would I want to know where she is? when... I... well, just tell me where she is, will you?" said Damian rolling his eyes and trying to ignore the smile on Blackbell’s face that only managed to frustrate him more.

“Mmmm…I don´t know…Maybe if you ask me nicely, I’ll tell you,” said Becky shrugging.

That little brat…

“Tell me where is Anya…p–please” he said the last word with all his effort.

The words tasted bitter on his tongue.

“Mm…I don´t know if that's enough…Oh! Kneel down and ask for it like this "Oh Becky, my savior, please tell me where my beloved Anya is right now" “ said Becky doing a lousy imitation of him at the end.

“Fuck you! I would rather die before doing something like that for you” shout Damian clenching his hands, his face red with anger. “You know what? Forget it, I’ll go look for her myself”.

"Jeez, Desmond…relax I was just kidding…you fucking asshole” said Becky with a frown, he was about to yell at her more but she just kept talking while looking at her fake nails. “Anya left like an hour ago, a boy wanted to talk to her in private and they left a few minutes after the game, if you ask me it was a little strange because..." Becky started saying but Damian’s brain stopped paying attention when he heard the words “Anya” "boy" and “private” in the same sentence.

«ANYA WITH A BOY? IN PRIVATE?! OH HELL NO!..... WAIT... DID SHE SAY AN HOUR AGO?»

"Who was the boy?" Damian said, interrupting Becky’s explanation.

"Oh... it was Simon Kimmel, he’s a senior…he is in the same class as your brother," Becky said, ignoring the importance and severity of the situation with a move of her hand and continuing with the story. “As I was saying, I don't understand what happened but she is so lucky because he is one of the hotties of the seniors, ya’ know? and he insisted on talking to her in private…”

"Why the hell did Simon Kimmel want to talk to Anya?" Damian said, trying to hide his anger that was quickly becoming something else.

Obviously, his friends noticed and sighed, fearing what he would do next.

He felt a pang in his chest and his stomach writhing painfully.

Of course he knows the meaning and the cause of his current state because all were the same symptoms that appeared when Anya talked about her crush (Bondman) or when the boys looked at her for too long and whisper or when he found out two years ago that George Glooman was thinking of asking Anya on a date and she might have said yes because they were friends.

He knew very well what that pang was, he tried to deny what it was for years but now?

Now it didn’t make sense to keep denying it.

No when he had finally accepted his fate.

It was..jea..jeal…he was feeling…

ARGH!

It was jealousy.

There! He say it!

He was jealous.

He was fucking jealous, how could he not be? Upon hearing the name of the person that was with Anya in God knows where, thousands of different scenarios, all horrible, flooded his mind (many of them were about a pink haired girl with beautiful emerald eyes holding the hand of Simon Kimmel through the corridors of Eden while looking very lovey-dovey, then how they were walking together in another place but in that scenario she was wearing a beautiful white dress and a veil while that stupid brat boy was wearing a tuxedo and a smug smile while glaring at him like saying “She´s mine now and there is nothing you could do about it Desmond, we are going to have 10 kinds and live in a large house on a hill.”.).

Ok ok, maybe he was being a little bit dramatic.

But please understand him. Although Damian would never admit it out loud, he knew very well that Simon Kimmel was somewhat…good looking (at least he fell into the standards to be considered as such) and had a large number of girls behind him, plus he was the son of Brandon and Adelia Kimmel, owners of Kimmel insurance companies. He also knew from good sources that he was very competitive and did not give up easily so if he had fixed his eyes on Anya…

No. Just no.

Damian was not going to stand back and watch how Kimmel (or anyone) swept Anya off her feet.

Not now, not never.

Now that he had accepted his feelings for the girl, he was not going to let her go so easily.

Not after he's been in love with her since he was 6. (and denied it for almost 9 years but those are just details).

"I don’t know... he just came to ask her to talk and then..." Becky started again until another voice, this time a female, interrupted them.

"¡Hey guys!" called a voice behind them, all turned their faces to find Anya eating cheerfully from a bag of peanuts in her hands as she approached them.

Upon seeing her, Damian let out the air he did not know he had been holding until now. He relaxed a little…until fear took hold again with new scenarios.

Now he could see that stupid Simon Kimmel declaring his love to Anya with a bag of peanuts. 

The bag she had in her tiny hands.

«Oh no! Was it too late? She had accepted Kimmel’s confession? This is a disaster! Now the two will be married and they will have a large house on a hill!....No! no no no, like hell I´ll let that happen! I would fight for her if necessary and I´ll win, obviously. A Desmond always gets what he wants, after all.»

Damian was so caught up in his little mental turmoil that he almost jumped out of his skin when the voice of one of his friends interrupted his thoughts.

"Hey shrimpy" smiled Emile, greeting her and dodging one of Becky’s punches. "it’s a miracle, with what happened yesterday I doubted that we would see you again in the world of the living".

"Hey! You´ll need much more to knock me down, thank you very much," Anya said, pouting at them while puffing her cheeks and Damian had to resist the urge to pinch her cheeks. 

She was way too adorable for her own good.

«God…she's so so cute…I want to pinch her cheeks, how can someone be that adorable even with peanut crumbs all over her face and uniform? »

Second later, Anya just ran her hand across her face and uniform brushing off the crumbs.

Was she blushing?

"Anyway...Congratulations for winning the game!" The excited Pink-haired girl screamed jumping up to hug Emile and Ewen who pretended to look disgusted and complain about it even though they returned her hug with identical smiles on their faces.

"Agh, now we’ll have your commoner germs all over our clothes," said Ewen rolling her eyes, to which Anya only laughed before turning all her attention to the brown haired boy.

"Congratulations for winning the game Sy-On Boy! You were... You were amazing," said Anya, a pretty blush adorning her round cheeks and showing a smile so bright it could make the sun feel ashamed.

"Thank you..." said Damian somewhat distant, still feeling his stomach writhing painfully from the jealousy that seemed to refuse to disappear.

He needed to know what Anya and Simon had talked about. What was so important that she was gone for so long with…with him? He really was declaring his undying love for her?

«What are you doing, you idiot? Don’t treat her like that or you’ll never get a chance with her... idiot, idiot, idiot!... but I need to know what intentions Kimmel had with her... agh! What the fuck is wrong with you Desmond? get yourself together for God's sake!»

"You know? I’m suuuper thirsty, I’ll go get some water... Tweedledee and Tweedledum, help me because we are getting water for everybody," Becky said, watching the scene in front of her as she pulled Ewen and Emile out of their shirt sleeves, in an attempt to leave the two lovebirds alone.

"What? But you are the one who is thirsty, why don’t you go alone?" Emile said, scowling.

"Yeah! Why would we have to help you with that?” Ewen supported his friend as Becky watched them as if she was about to strangle them.

"Because I need help with the bottles, now be gentlemens and help me" growled Beck with clenched teeth throwing them a murderous look that made them swallow audibly in fear.

If looks could kill, the two would be 10 feet underground…or worse.

She could be really scary when she wanted to, courtesy of the training Yor kept giving her even after so many years.

"All right, all right... God, just relax," said Ewen rolling his eyes and then following Becky, Ewen at his side as usual.

"Wait a minute. Did you just call us Tweedledee and Tweedledum?" Ewen’s voice was heard before they all disappeared around the corner causing Anya to start laughing at the comment.

«She’s so beautiful when she laughs. Her laugh is my favorite sound in the whole world... I would give anything I have, just to hear that sound every day for the rest of my life.».

Suddenly, Anya stopped laughing and her cheeks again acquired a blush and then looked at him a little nervous so Damian only raised an eyebrow confused by her sudden strange behavior.

«Why is she looking at me like that?....OH NO! I didn't say all of those things out loud, right? Because if I did…agh! Just kill me already, please. This. is. so. fucking. embarrassing.».

Both remained silent without knowing what to say until the question that Damian had been trying to stop just blurted out from his mouth without him being able to stop it.

"Do you like Simon Kimmel?" Damian said, taking the girl by surprise.

 "What?" Anya said, looking at him confused.

"What?" Damian repeated, pretending that he just hadn't blurted out one of his recent fears in front of her, before the girl’s gaze he could only sigh and look away after a few minutes (actually, it was only a few seconds).  "It’s... Do you like Simon Kimmel?"

"Who is Simon Kimmel?" Anya said, tilting her head to the left, imitating a lost puppy as Damian looked at her in disbelief.

"It’s not funny shrimp, I’m serious" huffed Damian a little angry, was the girl teasing him or something?

"Me too, Sy-On Boy," Anya said, crossing her arms and frowning a little defensively. She couldn´t understand why the boy was suddenly so angry and frustrated at her.

"Agh! I know you’re slow sometimes but this is too much," Damian said as he rolled his eyes causing Anya to trew imaginary daggers at him with her eyes. "Becky told us you left an hour ago to talk to him in “private”! You don’t have to lie to me.”

"Lie to you? But I'm not..." Anya started saying, still confused about his words, but then her look changed from confused to recognition. "Ohh.. Was that the boy’s name?"

"You’ve been talking to him for an hour without knowing his name?!” said Damian looking at her stupefied, of course only Anya Forger could engage in a conversation with a person and end it without even knowing it´s name.

"I..." Anya began and then froze. She shook her head starting at her feet, starting to move one against the ground playing with a rock.

That was the answer the dark haired boy needed to confirm that the girl didn't know who she was talking to in private for an hour.

Little did he know that Anya wasn’t actually talking to Simon Kimmel during that hour. Instead she had been talking (rather fighting) with her older brother, Demetrius.

"Only you could engage in such a long conversation with the son of one of the largest insurers in Ostania without knowing it," Damian replied with a sigh while looking at her fondly, after a few seconds he took his left hand to the back of his head to scratch it and looked away feeling a little bashful. "So....Just to be clear, you don’t actually like him, right?".

"What? Of course not, I didn’t even know him before today," Anya said, shaking her head side to side repeatedly .

Damian released a breath of relief that he didn't  know he had been holding back (again), feeling how the stiffness of his shoulders faded until he saw the smug smile that irritated him (and made him feel dizzy) appearing on Anya’s face.

"Sy-On boy... are you jealous?" the girl said, approaching the boy a little closer, her smug smile still in place.

"WHAAAAAT? JEALOUS? ME? HOW DARE YOU?" shouted Damian as his face flushed a cherry red because of the shame he was feeling. "Like I’m gonna be jealous for... for... for... just shut up, will you?"

"What if I don’t want to shut up, Sy-On Boy?" challenged Anya without erasing the mocking smile, the dark haired boy looked at her with a frown (his blush still present) until an idea came to his mind.

"If that’s the case... I will have to punish you" said Damian, approaching her while changing his frown to an arrogant smile as he leaned a little closer to the girl’s face, in a matter of seconds Anya looked at him with wide open eyes, her smug smile was gone and a deep blush appeared on her cheeks while she was gaping at him like a fish out of water. "What's up shrimp? Cat got your tongue?" joked the boy, raising an eyebrow.

The girl swallowed audibly and then glared at him.

"Aww, I know that that’s what you want Sy-On Boy…and I would love to see you try." said Anya placing a finger under his chin while getting a little closer to him, now it was the boy’s turn to blush as he realized how close they were and how sexy she look acting in that way.

They just looked each other in the eye without saying anything for a few seconds... or maybe minutes... Damian couldn't say for sure how long they stayed in that position, as he could only pay attention to the beautiful emerald green eyes in front of him, his gaze wandered across the girl’s face once more until it stopped on her plumped lips.

«She is perfect... and those lips... why are they so pink?.... God, if I don’t go away now I don’t think I can... resist kissing her and...»

"Sy-On boy..." Anya whispered, getting the boy to return his sight to her eyes

"Anya... I am...I…" whispered Damian looking into her eyes, his heart was beating so fast that it couldn't be considered healthy; he was about to separate when her soft tiny hand made contact with his cheek.

The Desmond´s second heir was about to melt at that exact time and place, everything was too much for his poor heart so instead of saying what he wanted, he decided to bend down even more for the purpose of finally crashing  his lips with Anya’s.

He closed his eyes when she did, he was about to kiss her at last…

Or so he thought until his lips collided with a hard surface instead of soft, which made him open his eyes confused to find in front of him the cover of a book so he quickly jumped back. Noticing that on the other side of the book was Anya equally confused.

"Miss Forger and Mr Desmond, this is not a place to demonstrate such displays of affection," said a raspy voice and both turned around to meet face to face with Professor Miller, one of the arithmetic teachers of Eden Academy, He taught classes to the students of Specter Hall although he had taught sometimes to the students of Cecile when their teacher had fallen ill for a week a year ago. "I would expect much more from imperial scholars, do you want to earn a tonitrus bolt or two, perhaps?"

«Shit, shit, shit!... I totally forgot that we are still in the academy... oh shit, think Desmond, think!... we have to find a way out of this without a tonitrus for each other.»

"Please excuse us Mr Miller, we didn't want to do such a thing and we are ashamed... as imperial scholars, it is our duty to set an example and not to break the rules or disrespect the school." said Damian bowing in front of the teacher, praying internally that it work to dissipate some of his anger towards them.

On the other hand, Anya seemed to have been frightened at first but now she was looking at Mr Miller with half-closed eyes and a frown.

"You both are lucky that I’m in a good mood today and since it’s your first…incident of this nature, I’ll let it slip; just this once... but you will have to keep a considerable distance between yourselves," said Mr Miller nodding as he folded his arms and then placed one of his hands on Damian’s shoulder to make him take several steps away from Anya.

"Don’t worry, Mr Miller, we won’t show affection like that... at least not here," said Anya, arms crossed, nearly giving the poor teenager a heart attack for her choice of words.

"What do you mean with "at least not here," Miss Forger?" said Mr Miller tightening his grip on Damian’s shoulder causing him to squirm a little. Since when did a 65-year-old man have such strength? "You’re not thinking of doing inappropriate things somewhere else in Eden, are you?"

"I would never suggest such a thing, Mr Miller ," Anya remarked her last words while glaring at the professor. "But what we do with our private lives outside the academy is nobody's business, If I may say so."

"A-Anya! Please" hissed Damian, an intense red color adorned his neck, face and ears at the words of the pink haired girl. 

Was she trying to kill him or get them in trouble?, perhaps both.

“Don’t be insolent, Miss Forger," said Mr Miller, tightening the grip on Damian’s shoulder with every word, pulling out a small whimper of pain from the teenager, which caused the adult to remove his hand from his shoulder. "I’m sorry, Mr Desmond, I sometimes forget my own strength," the old man apologized, although his blue gaze seemed to be throwing daggers in his direction, which managed to make him even more nervous than he already was.

"It’s okay, Mr Miller," Damian said in a high-pitched voice. He cleared his throat in an attempt to return his voice to normal and not sound like he was going through a second puberty. "I didn’t get hurt, and I know it was an accident."

The man only nodded as he muttered something that sounded suspiciously similar to "yeah, right an accident” and “silenced pistol” under his breath and then turned his attention to Anya once again.

"You’d better behave, Miss Forger, you won’t want to risk getting another Tonitrus bolt," said Mr Miller, looking at the girl sternly, to both’s surprise she just smiled and folded her arms in an almost defying way.

"I wasn’t trying to be insolent, Mr Miller... I was just trying to explain my point of view, to avoid misunderstandings," said Anya, smiling almost mockingly and Damian could only stare at her with open eyes and mouth so wide that it was about to touch the ground.

«“What the fuck?! What does she think she is doing?! Is she really that…that reckless to challenge a teacher?! And not just any teacher, one of the strictest in the academy... Does she really want to get another tonitrus or worse?».

"As I said, you’re lucky I’m in a very good mood today so you won’t get a tonitrus bolt…this time," said Mr Miller with a frown while glaring at her. "However, I believe you will need a little punishment, so you could learn to speak properly to your teachers...You are going to help me search for some books I need from the library and then you are going to help me by bringing them to my classroom."

"Mr... I could help you too if you like, it would be faster and..." Damian began to say when he listened to the professor although he remained silent as soon as he saw the way the professor was looking at him or rather glaring at him... If Damian didn’t know better, he could swear that Mr Miller was thinking of different ways to murder him or something similar.

But that was ridiculous...right?

"I admire your enthusiasm , Mr. Desmond but I’m afraid this punishment is only for Miss Forger," Mr Miller said with a tone of voice that implied that the conversation was over and he had made his decision. "It’s time to go, Miss Forger, the punishment will begin immediately".

Anya only glared at the old man but nodded, then she turned around and saw Damian with a small smile.

"See you later, Sy-On Boy," the pink-haired girl said with a smile turning to Mr Miller, but then she turned around again and briefly kissed the boy’s cheek.

She just winked at him and then walked away quietly as the boy and the old man watched her leave, both paralyzed in place with stunned expressions (and almost having an aneurysm) for different reasons until the teacher seemed to react and went after the girl whispering things under his breath... something very similar to "kill the boy” and “she will be punished until college" although possibly it was just his imagination.

Damian only sighed and began to walk to look for his friends once more, although he was still blushing because the other kiss on the girl’s cheek was confused.

When Damian finally reacted, neither the teacher nor the girl were in sight. He distractedly carried his fingers to the spot the girl had kissed on his cheek, the spot was hot and tingling.

A goofy smile appeared on his face and he began to walk to look for his friends although he could not help raising his hand and punched the air in victory.

He would never wash his cheek again...though he might not have to worry about it if he could get Anya to kiss him more…

He could barely commit the urge to laugh even though he had a little more swagger in his steps because Anya Forger just kissed him.

In the cheek but it was a kiss.

The best kiss on the cheek he had ever had in his life, thank you very much.

But something kept bothering him, that conversation with Professor Miller had left him confused.

What had been all that? Why had Anya risked so much?

It looked like the girl was almost begging the teacher to give her that tonitrus bolt.

«I think I will never understand that girl...»

Well, he shouldn’t be too surprised, after all Anya Forger was a trouble magnet…

But something was still out of place in all the situation, Professor Miller’s glances at him made him shudder... It seemed that the teacher hated him although the last time they spoke they seemed on very good terms.

«Why now it seems that adults who liked me a while ago, have something against me?... and ... wait a moment.... I could swear that Mr Miller’s eyes were dark brown the last time I saw him…but now they’re blue?»

Damian kept thinking about it and it wasn’t until he was watching a rugby match with his friends that he remembered something important. 

Shit!

With all that happened he forgot to invite Anya as his date for the party that night.

Holding back a groan, he takes his hands to his hair, somewhat frustrated with himself. Now he couldn’t do anything because he wasn’t sure if he could see Anya after her punishment with Mr Miller, which meant that he would have to wait until the party to see her…

«I just had to do ONE thing and I blew it!...AGH! idiot! idiot! idiot! idiot!»

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Anya, stay still or I’ll never finish your makeup," complained Becky as she tried to curl her best friend’s eyelashes, again.

At the time, the two friends were at the Forger residence, specifically in Anya’s room to finish getting ready and go to the party together, as they had agreed on the day they were given invitations (and Anya obtained permission from her parents to attend alone ).

"I’m sorry, I’m just a little nervous, that’s all..." admitted Anya, sighing and staying as still as she could so Becky could finish her makeup.

"Oh believe me, I know and the cause of that begins with D and ends with amian," mocked Becky as her best friend pouted as a slight blush spread across her cheeks.

She wouldn't admit it out loud, her pride would not allow it but…

Becky was totally right.

Anya was incredibly nervous and it was all because she was a few hours away from being in front of Damian Desmond again.

You see, after "Mr Miller" walked with her for a few minutes, he said that she had just remembered that he had a meeting and that he should leave, that this time he would lift her punishment by saying that she would talk to her later about her attitude and blah blah blah.

Of course, Anya knew that all this was a big fat lie.

At first, she had been frightened that a teacher had trapped them in that way, she did not know how severe the Eden Academy was with such cases although she had already seen several couples form over the years so she didn't think they were doing anything wrong.

Of course, being afraid of the possible punishment she would be given or the possibility of having her fifth tonitrus bolt, she decided to use her power to read the teacher’s mind and discover how serious the problem was.

Anya was expecting to hear how he planned a punishment or how he planned to accuse them with Mr Herdenson, even how he would give them a tonitrus or two…

What she didn’t expect to hear was a million of different and colorful insults directed at Damian, comments that she was still very young and plans on how to kidnap Damian and interrogate him with help from her Uncle Scruffy and Uncle Yuri to make sure to get a place where they could not be easily tracked and maybe put his hands on an electric chair.

The pink haired knew that her parents were worried about her health after what happened the day before, she had already told them about her ability to read minds and how she got it in the first place (of course, her parents were not happy to hear what happened when she was just a child and planned thousands of ways to track down and annihilate the remaining scientists).

And when she left that morning, she didn’t have to read her parents minds to know that they weren’t too happy with the idea of her going back to the academy with all those people around but she convinced them that she would only go to matches that didn’t have many people watching and now that she knew how many people there were, she could control her ability much better to not repeat the day before.

Of course, her father, being a big worrywart, had followed her to Eden and had disguised himself as one of his teachers.

To spy on her.

So of course, when he caught her with Damian about to kiss he decided to interrupt them instantly.

Since there were many people around, Anya knew that she could not say anything to her father while he was disguised because they could discover that he was a spy and could risk his identity and his family so she decided she would do nothing...well, nothing too serious at least.

Just defying him a little, he’d interrupted her and Damian, and scared the hell out of her while he was doing it.

Be that as it may, after her father dropped her off again in one of the corridors where there weren’t many people. She decided to go back and talk to Damian about what was going on between them but before she had the chance, Becky got to where she was asking about the punishment they put him saying that Damian had told them (another lie since he knew that Ewen, Emile and she were hiding behind a column spying on them but she didn’t want to fight with her and she wanted to save herself from having to explain how she knew).

Anya only told her the same story as her father minutes earlier to reassure her, Becky celebrated the news to grab her, drag her to her limo and take her to the mall to find "the perfect dress" for the Desmond party at the "Skycastle" hotel since they were too busy to go to the mall before (thanks to homework guides of 25 pages each for the classes that they would lose because of the tournament).

After trying on what looked like a million dresses, they both decided to go to the Forger house to get something to eat and get ready, as they had agreed a week earlier when they were given the invitation and Anya obtained permission from her parents to attend.

That’s why Anya´s room was currently a mess and could be considered a war zone.

"And...I've finished!" Becky said with a smile stepping back to appreciate her work, smiling at herself and nodding. "No doubt, I’m amazing," the brown haired said with satisfaction as she took a mirror and showed her friend how her makeup looked.

Anya looked at her reflection surprised.

Becky had done a good job with her makeup. Her best friend knew that she was not a big fan of elaborate makeup (especially for the amount of time she had to sit around doing nothing and agh...too boring) so she had only applied a base on her face and blush on her cheeks, her eyes stand out much more with the eyeliner and thanks to the mascara hier eyelashes looked much longer than normal. 

The final touch? Her lips were painted with a beautiful pink, almost red.

"Thank you Becky! I love it!" squeals Anya hugging her best friend who laughed by patting her on the back.

"I’m so glad Anya... well, now it’s my turn to do my makeup. Then we can get changed and get our hair done so we can go," Becky said, taking the place where Anya had been sitting minutes earlier to start putting on her makeup.

Both fell into a comfortable silence, Anya looked amazed as Becky masterfully handled the brushes and shadow palettes of her long makeup collection. 

How did she make it look so easy and have so much patience to do all that?

The first time Anya had tried to make up without her mother’s or Becky´s help, it had ended up in a disaster, so she preferred to let them help her when needed rather than stress out by being afraid to poke out an eye with the eyeliner.

Seeing herself in the mirror of her room once again, Anya could not stop her mind wandering once more to the golden-eyed boy who had completely changed her life.

At first, the only reason Anya wanted to get close to him was to help her papa with his mission but after a couple of years of meeting him, she realized that he was not bad... Just a little bit smug but that didn’t erase the big heart he had.

When Operation Strix came to an end, the Forgers had the opportunity to stick together because Loid Forger’s connections were very valuable sources of information for WISE, of course, both her father, mother and she were delighted to be able to stay together (after all, her parents had truly fallen in love and adored her, they were already a real family).

Of course, once the mission was over she had no reason to try to be Damian’s friend.

It turned out that the week she had decided to stop going after him, it was the same week that he had decided that he wanted to be friends with Anya and Becky.

Sy-On boy was very nice when he wanted to and his change of attitude made her realize that he wasn’t so bad after all and if they kept on like that, they could be friends (without Strix as the reason to do so) even Ewen and Emile were trying to be nicer to her.

That’s why from the age of 10, the 5 teenagers began to spend more time together, Damian had even agreed to be his tutor for several classes as long as she would help him understand classical language.

It was a year ago that she realized that her affection for him had changed from being a simple friendship to something deeper, of course... It had been a little difficult for her to decipher why her heart seemed to leap in her chest when he was near her, or how she would feel really excited when he was thinking about her and calling her beautiful in his thoughts, how she feel an immense joy when she knew he would be there, always beside her.

Always with favorite peanut bags pretending they were for him even if he only ate a few before giving it to her when she was craving it, how he was always ready to help her or make her feel better if she was sad or how he always seemed to look at her as if she was the most precious thing in the world.

That and many other things over the years made her fall in love with him.

It was inevitable.

She had fallen completely in love with him and that was the same reason that made her feel guilty for a while.

Because...how could she fall in love with him after she had only approached him for his father’s mission in the beginning?

What right did she have to fall in love with him when she was nothing but a simple commoner?

Doubts kept her up at night for a long time, guilt was her partner for almost a whole year…

Until she finally understood that yes, she had approached with a mission at first but that was what had led them to meet, to see a new side of him.

Without Operation STRIXX, she would have never met her family or Becky and she would have never met Damian the way she does now.

Operation STRIXX led them to that moment.

And she would never regret that.

She wouldn’t change that for anything in the world, not even for a year of free peanuts or the chance to meet Bondman in flesh.

And now with the proof that he really felt the same way about her, and that he saw her as more than “just a friend”, she couldn’t turn back.

She had obtained the confirmation she had been waiting for since she discovered her feelings for the young Desmond.

You´ll see, like anyone else in this planet Anya expected her love to be reciprocated but the thoughts of the Desmond’s second heir were somewhat confusing to understand as well as his behavior since, although they all became friends, the heavy jokes and small debates were always present so Damian kept telling her different nicknames and fought with her while her mind seemed to scream that she was adorable and beautiful…

Being an esper wasn't a guarantee when the mind of the other person was a total mess every time she tried to understand him.

He could be as complicated to understand as the equations of the mathematics class.

So no, Anya was never sure that he liked her as more than a friend, or that he was ready to admit it at least...Until the day before when she had heard him say that he liked her as well and almost kissed her.

Of course, that made her immensely happy and she began planning how to propose to the boy since he was quite shy and she doubted that he would take the first step.

He was too proud and too stubborn, after all it was the third time in two days in which he had thought about proposing and did nothing... Maybe it was more times, Becky insists that Damian has felt something for her since she hit him in the face when they met.

So Anya decided to take matters into her own hands.

It was like a new mission!

She made a plan and that's how she had spent the night before, after a long nap when she got back from the fainting incident, preparing a poster to cheer Damian in his soccer game.

In the morning, she had painted his player number on her cheeks...Becky insisted that’s what girls in her novels did when they went to see boys who liked to play.

She was going to show her that she cared and she was going to tell him her true feelings at the party, she was sure of that.

At least she was for a few hours.

Now she could only see the clock in her room which seemed to take away her confidence every time a minute passed.

What if she misunderstood the boy’s thoughts and he really didn’t want anything serious with her? or what if he didn’t declare himself because he would never agree to go out with her because she was a "commoner"?

Oh! And what if…

“Anya!” A scream was heard in her ear and made her jump from her bed and fall to the ground with a loud “thud!”.

"auch... Becky, was that necessary?" Anya growled from the ground as she rubbed her head. She sighed at her friend, taking the hand that she stretched out to help her up.

"I am sorry, but I had already called you five times and you were still in Damiland," Becky said, shaking her head with amusement.

"I’m sorry, Becky... what were you saying?" Anya said, ignoring the words of her friend that made her blush a little.

"I wanted to tell you that it’s time for you to put on your dress or we’ll be late... Come on, I’ll help you," said Becky walking into Anya’s closet and taking out the dress they had bought a few hours earlier.

"Oh...oh! yeah, you’re right," Anya said with a nod and quickly approached her friend to take the dress and start changing.

"I could bet my entire inheritance that when Damian sees you in that dress he’ll look at you like a fool and blush like a tomato, he won’t be able to take his eyes off you all night." Becky said excitedly as she helped her button the back of her dress and then gave her the matching gloves that come with it.

"Do you really think so?" Anya said, blushing even more as she imagined the scene.

She had to bite her lip to keep a small giggle from escaping by imagining a Damian looking at her completely red and then stammering in each of his words.

She saw herself in the mirror once more and smiled.

The dress code for the party was formal so by this time, Anya had decided on something simple but elegant (or at least that’s what Becky said about her dress when they chose it). It was an olive green envasé dress, the dress wrapped her waist perfectly and then fell into a flared skirt that fell down a few centimeters below her knees. She had a high collar of lace and cold shoulder sleeves of the same color as the dress so that the skin of her shoulders was somewhat exposed, in addition the dress included short gloves of fabric of a lighter tone than her dress that fit slightly on her wrists. To finish her look, she put on black shoes with a medium heel (for comfort).

The full outfit with the makeup and hairstyle that Becky had made for her, Anya felt like a princess.

She looked…beautiful.

"Ohhh girls!" said a voice behind them so both teenagers turned to meet Yor Forger seeing them with a beaming smile. "Girls, you look beautiful!!"

"Mama!" Anya said smiling and approached her mother to hug her as she had just returned from work.

"Oh honey, you look gorgeous," Yor said, smiling and kissing her head.

"Thank you mama, Becky helped me!" Anya said with a huge happy smile at her mother’s compliments and pointing to her best friend.

"Thank you for helping Anya, Becky," Yor said, smiling affectionately at the brown haired girl. "Oh but look at you! You look beautiful too!"

"Thank you very much, Yor-san," Becky bowed, smiling proudly at the woman who was her teacher and who she considered as a second mother.

"Oh! I almost forgot! Martha is here and said she’s ready to take you to the party," Yor said, her soft smile always in place.

"Oh! Thank you! We’re ready, so we can go now," Becky said as she nodded.

"Oh but let us take some pictures before you leave please! Loid is setting the camera in the living room," the black haired woman said, clapping her hands  with a bright smile to which neither of the two girls could refuse.

The three girls headed to the room where Loid was with the camera talking with Martha as a small boy with blond hair and red eyes looked fascinatedly at the device in his father’s hands while a large old white dog slept peacefully beside him.

"Sissy! Edy!" shouted the little boy raising his little chubby hands in the air as he saw the two girls enter the room which caught the attention of the rest of the adults in the room.

"Good evening Miss Becky, Miss Forger... The car is ready to go as soon as you say, Miss Becky," Martha said, looking fondly at the brown haired girl who only smiled at her before thanking her and twirling in front of her butler so she could see her dress.

"Hello papa..." Anya greeted her father, after what happened a few hours ago she didn´t know if he was upset with her.

They hadn't been able to speak on the matter and although she had been angry with him at first for spying on her, she knew that he was only protecting her in his own way.

"Hello my little peanut... You look beautiful," Loid said, looking at his daughter smiling fondly and nostalgically at seeing her.

Sometimes he could forget that she was no longer the little girl he adopted a few years ago, though to him it seemed like it was only yesterday when she was six and came running to cling to his leg every time he walked through the door of the house.

How did time pass so fast?

"Sissy! Looks like a pwincess!" said the little boy, Ethan,  staring at his sister with a wide smile and his little hands up, Anya just laughed and then patted his blonde hair.

“Thank you, agent Sunrise," said Anya with an affectionate smile, she kissed his forehead and then she turned to see her father.

"Are you sure you want to go? You can stay here with us watching a SpyxWars marathon instead of going to a boring party with guys who are going to want to take advantage of you and..." his father said in a final attempt to convince her but he stopped as soon as his wife looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

To say that Loid wasn’t happy that his daughter was going to that party was an understatement, in fact he wasn’t to combust with anger after what was about to happen a few hours ago. He was using all his strength not to take the first costume he could get his hands on, stop the party and send Damian Desmond as a hostage to some foreign country where he could never get close to his little daughter ever again.

But he had promised that he was not going to spy on his daughter again, and if his wife found out about the little incident a few hours ago...let’s say sleeping on the couch would be the least of his problems.

"I want to go dad" said Anya with a nod.  "I’ll be fine, I know the rules and if anything happens I’ll call right away"

"All right...just…be careful, okay?" sigh Loid a few seconds later, he knows that this time he could not get away with it, after all his wife will not allow him to reach the door to follow her to the party. 

After all, they had given Anya their word that she would go all alone for the first time to that party, without disguises, infiltrations, secret microphones, etc.

«Papa is such a worrywart.... but is the best worrywart in the world!»

Although she was sometimes embarrassed by her parents' extreme measures to take care of her, she knew that they both did it because they wanted her to be safe.

After all, she was still the daughter of the best spy and the best assassin in the world, and the niece of an SSS agent, an informant and the Fullmetal Lady.

So Anya just smiled and nodded at her father’s words to then give him a big hug that the adult reciprocated while giving her a  kiss on her hair.

"Let’s take their pictures! Come on!" Yor mood with a smile so both teens stood in front of the camera where different photos were taken in different poses, then they took a few ones with Anya’s younger brother who also wanted to participate.

"Well, we’d better get going or instead of arriving fashionably late, we’ll be incredibly late," said Becky, smiling and walking to the door. She said goodbye to the forgers before leaving with Martha to go to the car.

Anya stayed behind to kiss her parents' cheeks and her brother’s head, pat Bond’s head and reassure them not to worry for her safety and leave quickly to go to Becky’s limo before any of them could change their minds.

"Hey... why did you get to bring your coat and I couldn’t bring mine?" said Anya, staring at her friend who had put a fancy coat over her dress as they were on their way to the hotel.

"Because it goes with my dress, plus it’s not that cold and you won’t need one because we are going to be indoors... It would completely ruin your outfit and didn´t spent hours on it so you can ruin it with a coat " said Becky, waving her hand at her best friend who only frowned but nodded, after all it was true, although it wasn’t hot there wasn’t enough cold to need a coat so the pink-haired girl drop the subject.

Anya looked out the window on the way to the hotel, the nerves returned once more and stayed at the bottom of her stomach when she remembered once again that she would see Damian once again in just a few minutes.

Between her worry and nerves, she didn't notice the mischievous smile widening in Becky’s face and the knowing smirk on Martha’s.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everything was amazing.

The hotel where the party would be held was the most luxurious in Ostania, the Desmond heirs had booked two of the largest event halls in the hotel that connected to each other, there were ice statues, chandelier´s that looked like made of pure gold and diamonds, live music from one of the most famous bands of the moment, a table with thousands of different snacks, a dance floor big enough that everyone could dance without bumping into each other or standing in the way of someone else and adding to that, the living rooms were connected with a large private garden, full of different flowers and lanterns adorning the place.

The more you looked, the more things you could find.

Of course, as it was a party where the children of some of the most powerful men and women in the country met, there was a guard in every corner to make sure that everyone was well protected.

Damian had to accept it, his brother Demetrius had outdone himself with the party organization although he assumed that this should not come as a big surprise.

After all, his brother always had to do everything right.

"Wow, Boss-Man…this is awesome" said Ewen by his side, looking at the whole room with wide eyes.

The party had already begun and the room was full of students from Eden and the other academies who were friends of Demetrius, Damian or the childrens of one of his father’s associates.

"I know..." said Damian absently as he looked at the room once more, with a sigh he shoved his hands in his pockets.

«Why hasn’t she arrived yet?... Maybe she got lost on her way here…but it can’t be, she told me several days ago that Blackbell was going to bring her in her limo...»

Damian sighs, turning around  to call a waiter who was passing to ask for a glass of water. He stayed silent staring at one of the paintings hanging in the room.

"Oh…wow..." Emile said suddenly looking in a different direction, his head pointing towards the door as he whistled.

"Impossible..." Ewen said dumbfounded,a few seconds later he touched Damian’s shoulder as he continued to look at the picture absently. "Boss-man... I think you want to see this.".

"Ewen, I told you I don’t care how Audrey Davidson tries to put candy in her bag and bra to sell to..." began Damian rolling his eyes as he turned to see whatever his friends where trying to show him, but as soon as he turn around the sentence died on his lips because of what was in front of him.

«Oh... holy shit...»

Damian was frozen in place and he couldn’t look away, even if he wanted to, he couldn’t…

He couldn’t because in front of him was the most beautiful thing his eyes had ever seen.

Anya Forger.

It was no secret to Damian that Anya Forger was beautiful in every sense of the word and more, he knew from the moment he saw her so many years ago and as always, Every time he saw her, his heart started beating so fast that it seemed his heart had decided to do somersaults in his chest.

Now? Damian was sure that at the time, his heart had decided to do a whole damn rhythmic gymnastics routine on his chest with how fast it was beating... Maybe it would have been a good idea to have a defibrillator nearby since at that rate, he was about to have a seizure.

His cause of death? Overload of beauty and adorability, all thanks to a beautiful pink haired girl that was the bane of his existence and the light of his days since he was six.

Because Anya Forger seemed like an illusion, a type of Goddess who had granted him the honor of seeing her.

She was... gorgeous... no... that word didn’t do justice to describe her.

Anya was wearing an olive green dress that seemed to highlight even more her beautiful emerald eyes and beautiful pale skin that made her look like a porcelain doll. The dress was perfectly molded to her figure making Damian’s legs buckle, almost making him fall to the ground.

From where Damian was, he could see that she had put on makeup but not in an exaggerated way... no, in fact the makeup only highlighted her natural beauty, her long pink hair (which was normally loose) was tied on a tall ponytail making her long pink curls fall on her back almost touching her waist, two other locks of her hair that were a little shorter were framing her face and the two hair clips (with which he used to tease her by saying that they looked like horns) and that he knew well that they were her favorites, were still on her head completing her style.

She was so ... . She’s so…

"Perfect..." whispered Damian, looking at the pink haired girl with what was surely a lovesick smile until his eyes met hers and she showed him a smile so bright that he almost had a nosebleed on the spot.

When he saw her walking towards him, the candlestick chandelier's lights enveloped her in such a way that it seemed that a kind of halo surrounded her completely.

and... she was walking in slow motion or was it just his imagination?

Damian had to run his hands through his pants to dry them, his palms were sweaty and he also had to loosen his shirt collar a little to get some air.

Did someone close all the windows or something?

"Boss-man... are you okay?... your face is very red," Ewen said standing beside him and Damian had a little deja vu, a little memory of the same girl in front of him asking for forgiveness in tears while he could not even speak came to his mind.

"I´M FINE!....I’m fine, it’s nothing," Damian said after clearing his throat a few times, and trying to calm down. He looked back at the girl and he felt like his heart skipped a few beats again when he saw her just a few steps away from him.

Shit, he was fucked... totally and utterly fucked.

"Hi guys!" said Anya as she was in front of the three friends and Damian had to wait a few minutes for his voice to work again.

"Hey Shorty... Wow, who would say? You can look presentable" joked Emile earning a "discreet" pinch from Becky.

"Be nice you jerks, can’t either of you give a compliment?" Becky said, waving her hands  frustrated causing the two boys to laugh.

"All right... All right... you both look very pretty today, I mean it," Ewen said, smiling at the girls and nodding at them. "Becky, you look absolutely stunning and Anya, you left me speechless because you look really beautiful tonight”.

"Thank you Emile... You also look very handsome, although it is awkward to see you two so formal" Anya laughed to then fix her eyes on the brown haired boy in front of her who could only look everywhere nervously. "Hey Sy-On Boy"

"H-Hi Shorty" said Damian and he had to stop himself from shrinking because of how pitch his voice sounded.

"What a coincidence, you two are matching tonight," Becky said, suddenly interrupting what Anya was going to say, both teenagers were confused and then blushing again when they noticed that in fact, their outfits match.

Damian was wearing a black coat just like his vest but his shirt also had an olive green color and his tie was a darker green color, one very similar to the eyes of…

"Wow! That’s a coincidence," laughed Anya, surprised as Damian finally looked at the girl at the sound of her laugh.

"Well... I want to dance, Ewen, Emile help me find the table where we’re going to sit so I can drop my stuff and go to the dance floor," said Becky trying to leave Anya and Damian alone once more.

Before Emile and Ewen could protest, she grabbed them from their ties and dragged them to a distant table.

The two teenagers were alone once more without knowing what to say at the moment.

«Come on Damian... say something, don’t keep your mouth shut like an idiot... agh! why can’t I tell her how beautiful she looks now?... pff, what am I saying? she looks beautiful all the time...»

A small gasp caught the attention of Damian and he fixed his attention again on the girl in front of him.

"Is something wrong? Are you all right?" Damian said worried, she seemed to be very red at the moment.

Did he say something wrong?

"y-yes.. I mean no! I mean yes!... I mean..." Anya stuttered and then took a deep breath and smiled again. "It’s okay, I’m fine."

"If you feel bad, just say it, okay?" Damian said, still a little worried as the girl nodded at his words.

"Okay... thank you for worrying about me, Sy-On Boy," Anya said, causing the pink color still present on Damian’s cheeks to darken.

"Not that I’m worried about you... it’s just... that... that it would be embarrassing for me if you fainted in front of everyone again, that’s all," Damian said with a nod as he frowned a little.

Yep, old habits die hard.

"Whatever you say, Sy-On Boy," the girl said with a smug smile causing the boy to roll his eyes even though he was smiling fondly at her. "This place is... wow... it’s beautiful"

"It's not as beautiful as you," Damian said without noticing, until a few seconds later when Anya saw him with open eyes and an "o" shaped mouth and a deep blush on her cheeks.

Fuck.

“Did…I…I..Did I say it…?” stutterd Damian praying to all the deities he knew to open a hole at his feet and swallow him whole.

'`You did” Anya said, nodding, “Thank you Sy-On... you also look very handsome," she said while playing with the hem of her skirt and smiling softly at him.

"Of course I look handsome... After all, I’m not the most attractive guy in our grade for nothing, shrimp" huffed Damian although his chest swelled with pride for her compliment making her giggle.

The music changed to a familiar song and Anya began humming absently as she watched the room once more.

«Come on Damian! you can do it...»

Damian closed his hands in fists as a look of determination appeared on his face, taking a deep breath he took a step closer to the girl stretching one of his hands towards her.

"Anya... May I have this..?" Damian began to say until someone touched his shoulder from behind to get his attention.

You have to be kidding.

Really? Again?

A little bit frustrated he turned around and to see who interrupted him this time.

Jeeves.

"Master Damian, Master Demetrius wishes to speak with you," his butler said after making a small bow to him.

"Now?" whimpered said Damian.

"I’m afraid so, Master Damian," Jeeves said with an apologetic look.

"...well" sighed Damian, even if he was angry with his brother he could not refuse this time at his request, at least not at a party with many important people as guests. Releasing a pitiful sight he turned to Anya with an apologetic look. "I’m sorry... I’ll have to leave for a few minutes''.

"Don’t worry, Sy-On Boy, I’ll be dancing with Becky over there," Anya said, giving him a carefree smile as she pointed with her thumb at the direction her friend had gone.

The boy nodded but stopped for a moment to then lean to her in a moment of courage and this time, deposited a soft kiss on the girl’s cheek, very close to her lips.

"Save a dance for me, will you?" Damian whispered in the girl’s ear and then separated. He didn't wait for her answer as he just turned around to leave with Jevees on his tail.

He need to found out that it was so important that it couldn't wait for few minutes so he can dance with Anya.

«Relax... you know you can´t make a fuss here... besides, it can't be something so serious, I´ ll get out of this in a few minutes...»

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anya was bored…

At that moment she was alone at the table watching the people on the dance floor as Becky, Emile and Ewen had disappeared 20 minutes earlier and she couldn´t find them in the immense room.

Sighing she turned to rest her elbow on the table and then placed her chin in the palm of her hand.

It had been 3 hours since Damian had left after asking her for a dance, of course she accepted... or at least that’s what she was going to do, but this time it was Sy-On Boy who took her by surprise and kissed her on the cheek and her brain couldn´t work out until the boy disappeared quickly with his butler behind him.

She had tried to approach him whenever she could spot him in the crowd but he seemed to talk to important and very boring  people, and for what she could hear from their thoughts they were all bad persons, so she decided to wait until he was alone but when at last he seemed to walk away from them, he disappear again just to appear a few minutes later elsewhere talking with another group of people.

«He’s avoiding me?... mm I don’t think so, and I don’t think he was making fun of me either about the dance...».

Anya had received different invitations to dance throughout the night from different guys, many were older than her but when she thought about accepting the invitation, the boys' thoughts seemed to say unpleasant or perverted things about her or how they would make fun of Damian when he saw them dancing with his "girlfriend" so she ended up rejecting them at the end.

Girlfriend, huh?.... Did everyone really think of them as a couple?

A heat spread on her chest as a soft pink spread across her cheeks as she thought about it.

It wasn’t true, of course... although she hoped at some point it was... if she could just spend time with him without anyone interrupting them, then she could-

"Anya!" said a voice drawing her from her thoughts and the pink haired girl looked up to meet her best friend approaching her.

"Becky!... Where were you?!" Anya said with a slight frown as her friend seemed to tense up for a second and then relax and show her a carefree smile.

"Oh... I was just fighting with the chef, I didn’t like something and I had to talk to him about it because... because I was outraged that they would serve something like that to all of us," Becky grinned, further confusing her best friend.

“...okay?" said Anya, still confused but decided not to ask any more about the subject, after so many years of being friends she knew very well that Becky was only going to avoid the subject until it would be forgotten, and her thoughts did not reveal anything anyway.

"Oh! I’m a little tired now and I’d love to get some air," said Becky, smiling so big that it looked like she was trying to imitate the Cheshire cat. " I´m going to the gardens, do you want to come?"

"Sure! Let´s go!" Anya said, thrilled to be able to leave the room for a moment and get away from all people’s thoughts, she might be learning how to block their power but using them for so long still caused her some headache.

Both friends headed into the garden as they talked about trivial things, being so caught up in the conversation and relieved to get away from the crowd they ended up in secluded area in the garden that was surrounded by bushes with red and pink roses, white camellias and other flowers from which she couldn´t remember the name at the time, also carefully stylized trees to look like different types of figures or animals and there were several hanging lanterns allowing anyone that was in the place to see the road without difficulty but the light was soft enough to make it relaxing.

The place was beautiful, and they decided to stay.

For a few minutes they walked in circles around the place admiring everything until Becky seemed to slow down and Anya saw at her confused.

"I have to go back to the party... I'm really really thirsty and I would kill for some apple cider," said Becky walking backwards, ready to leave and get back to the party.

"Oh... I’ll go with you if you want," Anya told her friend with a little smile, although she really wanted to stay in the garden.

"NO!.. I mean, I-It is not necessary... I also want to go to the bathroom beforehand. I will go quickly and I will bring something to drink for the two of us... I also know how much you wanted to come to the garden earlier so... You wait here," Becky said, shaking her hand to downplay the issue and then turning around and walking until she turned around and gestured to her best friend with one finger. "Don’t move from here Anya... seriously, stay here or...or I could lose you in this place and I don’t want that ... . I will come soon, understood?"

"Okey dokey" Anya said as she made a sort of military salute to which Becky just smiled and then quickly left the place.

The pink haired girl shrugged and started walking around the place noticing that there were only a couple of people there enjoying the tranquility. She smiled sideways as she brushed her fingers delicately over the flowers waiting for her best friend to return, sighing and hugging herself when there was a gust of wind that made her feel a little bit cold.

«Why did I listen to Becky?... God, it’s cold here... I should have brought my sweater, now I´ll freeze while I wait for Becky to return...».

The girl sighed again, moving her hands up and down in her arms trying to gain some warmth, until something soft and warm landed on her shoulders making her hands stop.

"You shouldn’t be here without a coat, you know?" called a voice behind her taking her by surprise. She turned to see the person and...

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of all the possible nights, Damian didn´t understand why his older brother had decided this one to be a pain in his ass.

You see, the reason Demetrius had called him was because he wanted to introduce him to the children of one of his father’s associates, apparently from another country and they were visiting for a few months.

His initial plan was to establish a quick and friendly chat with them to return to Anya’s side as soon as possible, but of course, his luck was so good that his brother beat him at it claiming that "he should talk to someone else but would return to them later" leaving him alone to start a conversation with two people who didn’t seem to want to shut up.

When he was finally able to get rid of the two of them and planned to go back to Anya, Jeeves touched his shoulder telling him that Demetrius was once again looking for him and of course, the same thing as the previous conversation was repeated.

Over and over and over and over and over again…

Was this his brother´s way of getting back at him for raising his voice the other day?

Yet he tried to stay as calm as possible, not giving his brother the satisfaction of seeing him irritated.

Although he would lie if he said that his gaze sometimes didn´t wander through the crowded room in an attempt to locate Anya’s pink hair, when he found her a small smile appeared on his face remembering that soon he would dance with her…

«This is the last person and I will be able to go...Where did Demetrius get all these people anyway? I thought he would want to celebrate his victory, not talk with his possible future business associates....»

The talks with the guests kept going for a long 3 hours and Damian felt mentally exhausted, he had never been bothered to talk to so many people before... But with the promise of dancing with Anya and a possible kiss along the way, talking to all those people was now kind of torture.

When he said goodbye to the last person with whom he had to talk, Damian felt the need to shout with joy and hit his fist in the air but held back and began to walk willing to find Anya once more.

At least that’s what he wanted to do until he felt someone touch his shoulder again to get his attention, sighing he turned to meet Jeeves again.

"Master Damian, your brother requested your presence in the gardens as soon as you had finished speaking with your guests," Jeeves said, bowing and Damian felt a sudden desire to cry out in frustration.

«Yes, he is totally taking revenge on me.... stupid Demetrius».

"Okay..." sighed Damian, he would have to talk to his brother or apologize.

Whatever it takes for his brother to finally leave him alone so he could dance with Anya in peace.

Following Jeeves' directions, Damian walked towards the place thinking about how to apologize to his brother and ask him to leave him alone, without damaging his dignity... and he couldn’t come up with one.

When he arrived at the place he started looking for his older brother but he couldn't find him, instead he just found a few couples talking and...Anya!

His heart pounded in his chest at the sight of her.

She was there! She was watching the flowers attentively, while her hair seemed to move a bit thanks to the breeze and hummed the SpyxWars opening tune.

Looking back at the place to make sure his brother was nowhere to be seen, he quickly approached the girl who was moving a little in place while hugging herself. Standing behind her, he could see that the pink haired girl was actually shaking from the cold and rubbing her gloved hands in her arms, probably to warm herself.

In silence, Damian removed his jacket to place it delicately on the girl’s bare shoulders.

"You shouldn’t be here without a coat, you know?" Damian said softly behind her, noticing how the girl tense for a moment to then turn and look at him directly in the eye. "You could get sick, dummy.... You should be more careful".

"I... I didn’t think it would be too cold tonight and...and I didn’t bring a coat,"  Anya said, muttering the last part, though the boy could hear it clearly.

"Then keep my coat, I don’t want you to get sick... my shirt has long sleeves anyway," said Damian shrugging as the blush that always appeared on his face when she was near him appeared again on his cheeks. At the surprise look on the girl´s face, he looked away. "Anyway I was getting hot with the coat, so... Wear it, you need it more than I do and…just keep it, ok?”

"Thank you, Sy-On Boy" smiled Anya, tucking her arms into the sleeves of the jacket.

Of course, she was much smaller than he was, so the jacket looked considerably big on  her (making her look even more adorable).

«It is unfair that someone can look that good with everything... and oh my God, she looks beautiful with my jacket on and...I didn’t know I needed to see her with some of my clothes until now...It's just my jacket but still.»

"I thought I’d never see you again tonight, Sy-On Boy," joked Anya, looking at the boy with a teasing smile.  "You practically disappeared..."

"I know... I’m sorry, Demetrius has kept me busy moving around like I’m his servant," said Damian rolling his eyes and then looking at the girl bashfully. "I tried to come back to you earlier but... I couldn’t leave the people like that and-"

"I was just teasing you, Sy-On Boy... I know you were busy," Anya said, smiling at him so beautifully that his heart skipped a beat.

"Were you... Were you waiting for me to come back?" asked the boy trying to sound carefree though he couldn´t stop some hope from seeping in his voice.

"...yes" Anya admitted after a few seconds in silence as she watched one of the nearby rose bushes. "I was waiting for you to come back so we could dance and...and I was hoping that we could spend some time together" she said and Damian couldn’t help but smile like a fool for her words.

"I... also wanted to come back so I could dance with you,"  Damian also admitted with a shy smile as he held one of his hands to the back of his neck. " and I was also hoping to spend time with you...just you and me."

The boy heard the music coming from the party, although they were a little far from the living room the song that was beginning to sound was heard with sufficient clarity.

A beautiful but slow song, perfect for dancing with a partner.

Damian bit his lip considering his next move. Apparently his brother was not going to arrive in a good while and the garden, for some strange reason, now seemed to be empty.

In fact, only the two of them were left in place so with some new courage he raised one of his hands towards the girl while the other one was on his back as he bowed a little in front of her like the gentleman he was.

For the first time in his life, he was going to do something he really wanted to do and Demetrius could go to hell, he didn’t care.

For the first time in his life he would be selfish and do what he wanted, not what all people seemed to expect from him.

Not what his father wanted, not what Demetrius wanted, not what anyone in Eden wanted…

It was what he had wanted to do for a long time and now that he had the chance, he wouldn't miss it for anything.

Not again.

"May I have this dance?" asked Damian, extending his hand towards Anya who turned to see him surprised, her green and beautiful eyes were open as well as her mouth because of the surprise. After what seemed like an eternity, Anya placed her tiny hand over his larger one.

"Yes, Sy-On Boy," Anya said with a small nod as she smiled brightly at him.

Damian took Anya’s hand tighter between his to walk to the center of the garden area they were in, although his hand was much larger than hers they seemed to fit perfectly.

With an agile movement, Damian placed his free hand on Anya’s small waist to bring her closer to him, after which the girl’s free hand ended up on his shoulder.

The two teenagers began to move smoothly following the rhythm of the music without saying anything, yet they did not mind as they both felt comfortable in that silence simply enjoying each other’s company.

Damian fixed his gaze on Anya again, this time scanning her face the same way he had done the day before when she was unconscious and had to wait for the nurse.

At last he held her in his arms the way he always imagined and hoped, she was so close to him and even though he felt nervous he couldn’t help but feel like he was floating.

He was floating because Anya Forger was in his arms, dancing with him and giving him the most beautiful smile he had ever seen on her face.

She was smiling at him and only him.

His breath stuck in his throat when his eyes met hers again, apparently Anya had also been watching him closely.

He started to lean a little closer to her and she raised on her tiptoes without looking away for a second.

«This is the moment you were waiting for, Damian...Don’t ruin it... tell her how you feel!».

"Anya... I... I wanted to tell you that... I” Damian began to say, nervous. Her face was getting closer and the words didn't seem to leave his throat. “I..”

"Damian..." called Anya’s voice in a whisper as she put one of her fingers in his lips to silence him for a moment. "Just kiss me already”.

Damian obeyed her request without thinking twice, and he connected his lips with hers in a gentle kiss making the remaining centimeters between them disappear. It wasn’t anything passionate or similar, it was actually a rather slow and soft kiss, even a bit awkward because they bumped their noses and their teeths had tapped at the beginning.

But considering it was the first kiss, he wouldn’t change anything about it.

Because holy shit, he was kissing Anya Forger.

He was kissing Anya Forger and Anya Forger was kissing him back.

She had asked him to kiss her .

My God, Damian might even say that he wasn’t sure he could live without being able to kiss Anya Forger again from now on.

No, he was totally certain that he couldn't live anymore without being able to kiss Anya Forger.

Her lips were incredibly soft and her mouth had a slight peanut and chocolate flavor, probably the result of eating the peanut candies on the party menu.

Still, tasting that flavor from Anya’s lips? It was the best thing he had ever tasted.

No dessert in the world could beat that flavor from her lips and he was more than willing to try it again and again without getting bored or satisfied.

They separated a few centimeters just for a few seconds and then they kissed again.

His lips moved slowly with hers getting lost in the moment, experimenting a little though their kiss remained sweet and slow. The hand that had been at her waist had now traveled to her cheek to bring her closer as he left soft strokes with his thumb on it, their hands were still attached only that their fingers were intertwined now.

Soon they both needed air again and Damian could do nothing but hate it.

Who needed air? Why breathe when he could be kissing Anya Forger instead?

If he died for that reason, then he would die as the happiest man on the face of the earth.

Likewise, if heaven really existed, Damian was sure that entering it would feel just like being able to kiss Anya’s lips.

Unfortunately his lungs didn't seem to agree with him and they began to burn for the lack of air so he (reluctantly) separated their lips, but he wasn't ready to let her go.

That she was no longer in his arms seemed a horrible idea to him.

That she wouldn’t be there with him anymore if it turned out to be just another dream... so he gently leaned his forehead against hers, not before leaving a quick and short kiss on the girl’s lips.

"I like you..." whispered Damian with his eyes still closed, daring to say the words that had been chasing him since he was 9. Now that he had accepted it he could not stop the words, they came out of his mouth quickly because they had been trapped in the bottom of his throat for so long but they remained a whisper for fear of breaking the moment they were having. 

"I like you so much, Anya... I have like you for a long time... you have no idea how much I like you, I like everything about you... how your beautiful eyes shine when you think something is exciting, how you smile when you’re proud of having achieved something, how you jump excited when it’s time for lunch, I like how you seem to shine when you talk about your family or the people you love. I like the way you defend that the Bondman series is amazing when the manga is clearly better... shit, I even like that smug smile you always make when you’re about to say something to piss me off... I know I haven’t treated you in the right way for many years. I was an idiot most of our childhood but... It was just a stupid, childish way of denying my feelings because I was so stupid to even try to deny how I really felt about you, I was so stupid thinking that I could hide that I’m in love with you... I understand if you don’t like me back, after all I behaved very badly with you for years and..." Said Damias as he began to babble without being able to stop.

"Damian" called the girl softly, her voice interrupting what had probably gone from a confession to a series of babbling thanks to nerves at the possibility that she would not like him back. "Damian... look at me, please" asked Anya’s voice once more.

Damian kept his eyes closed, probably because he was afraid to find the rejection written in the green eyes that drove him completely crazy every time he looked at them.

The brown haired boy felt something soft on his cheek, and it didn’t take long to recognize that soft thing was actually Anya’s hand, so he took a deep breath as he open his eyes expecting a rejection...

A rejection that never came.

Damian was surprised to find the eyes of the girl filled with tears but they didn't seem to be from contempt or sadness; instead they seemed to be of joy.

"Damian, you idiot... I like you too," Anya said with a smile, the words got Damian’s heart beating really fast again and his eyes opened in surprise causing a laugh from the pink haired girl.

"Yeah... maybe you were a total jerk at first and I admit that I didn’t like you at all when we were kids... but then I met you, I met the real you... I met the big heart that you have. The same one you try to hide from the rest so as not to get hurt... and I couldn’t help but fall in love too when you let me see that side of you, the side that was always there for me, the way you started being a real friend for me since we were twelve, the way you look at me or smile at me all the time, the way you laugh when Emile or Ewen do something stupid. The way you’re always there when I need you even if it's just to tease me... I’m not as good with words as you Damian and I may not have been in love with you as long as you love me but that doesn’t make my feelings any less sincere... and I don’t want you to have any doubts about this because... because I like you so much.” Anya said while some tears fell from her eyes, but her happy smile never disappeared.

This was the second time that night that Damian felt like he was about to cry, the first had been out of frustration but this time?

This time he wanted to cry of the joy and relief that overwhelmed him completely because Anya Forger loved him too.

He just kissed Anya Forger and she had confessed to him that she felt the same way as him.

She loved him too.

«God, please…I beg you! Do not allow this to be just another dream.».

"I love you, Anya Forger... I love you, I love you, I love you" whispered Damian hugging Anya tightly, a huge smile on his face that now he was sure it wouldn't disappear while he was alive because holy shit, Anya Forger was in love with him.

She loved him.

"I love you too, Damian Desmond," Anya whispered in his ear as she returned his hug, minutes later the brown haired boy loosened his grip long enough to see her eyes again.

"So... Would you go on a date with me?" Damian asked with a smile, one of his hands stretched out to caress her cheeks gently to clean the tears that had fallen from her eyes.

Although the boy wished at the time to ask her to be his girlfriend, he needed to do better.

He needed to ask her parents' blessing to court her, invite her on a proper date, and then ask her if she would give him the honor of being her boyfriend.

After all, Anya Forger deserved nothing less than the best.

"I would love to," Anya replied, nodding with a wide smile as her green eyes seemed to glow even brighter under the moonlight and the lanterns surrounding them.

Damian wished at that moment to kiss her once more... And he did, gently hollowing out the girl’s face with his hands and approached her to kiss her lips once more.

This time, the kiss was a little bit more passionate than before but it did not lose the sweetness and affection that both tried to show the other through it.

Anya tilted her head slightly, deepening the kiss a little more and Damian saw fireworks,... although he could swear that he actually could hear them in the distance too, but that wasn’t really important.

The important thing was that Anya Forger liked him.

The important thing was that he would have a date with Anya Forger and soon he could call her his girlfriend.

The important thing was that Anya Forger was in his arms.

The important thing was that he was finally kissing Anya Forger and he wouldn’t let her go because she was his and he was hers.

And that was all that mattered.

Chapter Text

Unbeknown to the young couple that had just declared their love after so long, many meters away from them were 4 teenagers watching the scene in front of them from the security of a balcony. 

3 boys and a girl.

The boy who was clearly a few years older than the rest watched the scene with folded arms and a small smile of pride on his lips.

The other two boys, a pair of blondes, were quietly celebrating the success of their best friend with the girl he had liked since elementary school. Big identical smiles drawn on their faces.

As for the brown haired girl, she seemed about to faint from the excitement. She made small jumps in her place with a smile so big that it covered her entire face with her eyes filled with tears, happy to see her best friend with the boy she liked for a long time.

The girl took a small box from her pocket and pressed a button making several fireworks burst over their heads.

"When did you take this?" the older boy asked, snatching the box from her hands with a frown.

"When one of the managers was not watching," the girl said with a smile and a shrug. "Calm down, I ordered more fireworks an hour ago with the money from my allowance and surely they are already on the way".

"Did you spend your allowance on fireworks? Just so you could burn these when they won’t even notice because they are busy with their tongues in each other's throats?" said one of the blonds looking at the brown haired in disbelief.

"What? The fireworks were the cherry on the cake for this moment," the girl said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world to then sigh dramatically . She put the back of her hand on her forehead leaning back a little bit. "Oh... the things I do for love"

“When I thought she’d already lost her mind, she does things like this…” whispered one of the blonds earning a glare from the brown haired girl.

“It's called romance, you morons. If I can´t hear what they are saying at least I can imagine and add a little magic touch to the scene.” huffed the girl. “It's a little help”

“I think we helped them enough, we helped them to be in a private place and they did the rest. We couldn’t just sit back and listen to whatever they are saying right now…They will kill us if they discover us anyway” Said the tallest blonde at the girl, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, plus this plan was a lot better than the one we had about locking them in the janitor’s closet of the Academy” shrugged the other blonde,backing up his best friend.

“The other plans would also have worked if your friend had the balls to do something before” said the girl frowning, causing the two blonds to glare at her and almost start fighting again until another voice interrupted them.

“Just shut up, you three!” Said sternly the older one of them, making them shut their mouths. “It doesn't matter what happened with the other plans, this one worked out pretty well if I may say so. They just needed to stay alone to finally talk about their feelings. Now, I´m pretty sure that I don’t have to remind you that this has to remain a secret, right?”

“Yeah…” said the three friends. They were a little bit ashamed of the way they were bickering just a moment ago and a little bit scared of the brown haired boy gaze.

"Perfect, now come on... We better get to the party, the show of the team of acrobats and dancers is about to start and…I think they deserve to be completely alone for a while," said the older, his gaze softening once more and a small amused grin on his lips. Without another word he turns over his heels and starts walking back to the party.

"I knew there would be acrobats!" said one of the blondes as they walked back to the party earning a groan from the others.

The older boy stopped for a moment to talk to one of the guards at the party.

"Make sure that no one disturb them, I don’t want anyone to come out into the garden until Miss Forger and my brother come back in... understood?" said the brown haired boy, looking at the bodyguard sternly.

"Understood Master Desmond, no one will go to the garden until they return" said the guard firmly as he bowed before him and then began to give orders to the rest of the guards guarding the hotel garden.

The brown haired boy only nodded and with one last look into the garden where his younger brother and his future sister-in-law were, he turned around and walked quietly towards his friends as if nothing had happened.