Work Text:
You would be shocked the number of times people tried to assassinate an 8 year old. Anya was 8 (6) when she began to hear the thoughts of people whispering about catching Damian on the way to the dorms, or to class, or just going to the bathroom. Maybe they were just trying to kidnap him for ransom. That made more sense. Or maybe they were trying to start a war without actually taking out the ones that had any sort of power. She didn’t really care. She was just walking toward her bus when she heard someone thinking about grabbing Damian and “roughing him up”.
She’d panicked, not sure what to do. So she threw herself to the ground where he could see it, screaming that was was in pain. She thought she broke her arm. Damian was the tallest of the boys who were around. He would have to carry her to the infirmary. That’s what the tallest boys always did in Becky’s TV shows. It worked too, although she’d actually scraped her elbow pretty bad so she wasn’t able to clearly read through his thoughts to see if he’d do it. She just felt him run over to her and talk to Becky for a second before lifting her up (thankfully he’d had a growth spurt over the Summer and she was still pretty small). He didn’t get very far before Mr. Henderson came and grabbed her from him, but he still followed after her. It turned out her arm wasn’t broken. He called her a bunch of mean names for being dramatic over some cuts and bruises, but he was able to go straight from the infirmary to the dorm without being in the line of sight of the bad guys.
That evening, she’d mentioned to her papa that she saw some weird dudes on campus and they gave her creepy vibes. The next day they were no longer there when they left in the afternoon, but she did hear her father’s thoughts in the hallway. He’d taken care of it just like she thought. And so this became her strategy.
When they were 10, she heard the thoughts of people wanting to kidnap Damian. He might not believe the broken arm story again, so this time she grabbed his sleeve and started crying that she was going to fail the math test. She begged him to help, and while he made fun of her for it, he did head to the library to study. The library was safe. There were grown ups there and cameras. They could be safe there. She asked to use the library’s phone to call home and tell her mama that there was a weird guy outside so she’d be staying and studying with Damian instead of getting on the bus.
The next day there were reports of enemy agitators found tied up and beaten with a housewife making a call to report them. She knew it was Mama and was satisfied with her own work. She was just like papa, saving people. After all, plan B wouldn’t work if Sy-on boy was dead or taken. That’s why she cared so much, obviously.
When they were 13, it was a little more difficult. Someone was planting bombs in the boys dorm, planning to make them go off over the break when only Damian would stay there. Everyone else went home, but Anya had pretty much realized that Damian wanted to go to his house almost as much as she did. She’d waited until the day of the plan, and got a cab while her parents were gone to the school. She had some pocket money to pay for it, though obviously not nearly as much as her friends did.
Girls weren’t allowed in the boys dorm. She knew that. So if she came to see him then he’d have to leave before they got in trouble. So that was her plan. She snuck up the second story window, making it past the dorm mother’s watchful eye. She found her way to Damian's room (it took a while, just walking through all the halls until she heard his thoughts) and knocked on the door. He opened it, confused, and she gave some lame excuse about needing help with her Summer project. They were researching a public service project and she wasn’t sure what to do for hers. He lectured her about being stupid, because of course the project was due in a week and she’d wasted her entire break. She started loudly crying to alert the dorm mother of their presence. Obviously Damian wouldn’t be crying like that. And soon enough, the woman showed up. Anya grabbed Damian’s arm and started running away, saying that she didn’t want a 4th bolt and she was just trying to do her project and it was really the dorm mother’s fault for making it so easy to get in any way.
It wasn’t two minutes after getting to the courtyard and being lectured (two bolts each–one for being in the dorm, one for running away) that the entirety of the dorm exploded. Anya hoped that she was right that it was just Damian and the dorm mother. No one else should die too and she hadn’t included them in her plan.
Either way, the bolts were forgotten in the chaos, and the reports read that there were no injuries. The reason why wasn’t printed but Anya knew it was her. She had saved Sy-on boy again. He was safe, and so was the mean lady as well. When she went home, her father helped her go and work in some community garden. She made a barely passing grade on her project and no one was ever the wiser as to her being the one who saved Damian. Everyone chalked it up to coincidence like they always did. She’d long since accepted that she wasn’t ever going to get much thanks for the things she was doing.
At 15, one of the newest students, a transfer from another school she didn’t bother remembering the name of came. He was handsome, she supposed, and nice. He seemed to be unreasonably nice to her, though she mostly just ignored it. He would stop her on her way to sit with her little pod of friends–Damian and his lackeys, Beck and her boyfriend of the week–and try to get her to sit with him instead. His thoughts were weirdly quiet which bugged her, but she didn’t think anything was dangerous. Until she overheard him at lunch, just barely discernible among the other voices. She only listened because she hadn’t heard it before.
Kill the Desmond heir. His father has to come out for his funeral at least.
And wasn’t that terrifying? She listened harder, hearing a plan of how he would bring a knife to school and stab Damian. She wanted to be able to get to his father and kill him too. He wanted to start a war between the East and West, and Damian was just a poor bystander. Anya didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t just get her parents to deal with it–after all this kid was allowed to be here. She couldn’t keep Damian away from him forever, since they were both in the same class and even lived in the same dorms.
Luckily the problem took care of itself. It seems that he decided the easiest way to get Damian alone was to grab her and use her phone to text him to meet her in a sports supply shed at the edge of campus. It seemed that most people believed they were together for a while now and that Damian would assume she wanted to make out in a shed. Even though he was wrong, as she sat there tied up, she was shocked that Damian totally agreed to come, only calling her stupid once. Who was really the stupid one here?
She could just beat the guy up and leave, but then she wouldn’t get evidence to have him expelled. She just waited, pretending to look frightened, and taking note of where the knife was. The guy was cocky, thinking that she was just a poor girl who couldn’t fight back. He would get Damian distracted with helping her and then stab him.
So when Damian came in, he saw everything that was happening. Anya waited for him to get a good eyeful for evidence, and once he pulled out the knife, she stood up and, with all the training her mama had given her, roundhouse kicked him through the door of the shed.
He was reported for having a knife on campus and sexual harassment and kidnapping of Anya and immediately arrested and expelled. Another crisis averted. At least this time Anya got to hear Damian’s thoughts, deciding that she was cool and strong. He only ever said nice things about her in his thoughts, but she still liked hearing it. He told her out loud that he could have handled it, and that now he’d have to pay for the shed’s repairs since her commoner parents probably didn’t have the money. She called him a loser and told him to untie her before her hands went numb. They had a test tomorrow and she was already always in trouble for her handwriting.
That being said, Anya was used to trying to protect Damian by the time they were on their senior trip at 19. They were touring colleges and military bases to decide what to do after graduation. Most people would be going to a business school. Some of the kids were the third or fourth son and would be expected to become military officers since there were no more branches of the company to go around. Some were going to school for law degrees to try and become senators. Anya wasn’t sure–after all, she had always just been trying to do what the mission needed. She didn’t have any goals aside from keeping her family together.
She chose to go to the colleges since that’s what all her friends were doing. Becky was excited to have a whole new pool of boys, Damian was basically deciding where his dorm would be, guaranteed to be a legacy entry, not to mention being the top of their class. She just went along with what they wanted. She knew that WISE had asked her father to consider training her–even not knowing about her powers she had been a successful agent since she was 6 (4) after all. He shut it down though. She remembered reading his thoughts the day his handler had suggested it. He’d threatened to leave the organization if they tried to recruit Anya. He wanted a world where children didn’t have to fight, he certainly wouldn’t let his daughter live the life he’d had to. She’d done enough for peace as far as he was concerned.
The night before she’d told Becky she didn’t know what she wanted to do as they sat in their hotel together. It was a 3 night trip through 3 different cities so of course she was rooming with her best friend. Becky just snorted, saying she could be Damian’s housewife. Of course she was and Eden Imperial Scholar, and she had ended up being pretty strong thanks to her mother’s training, so Becky said she could totally do whatever she wanted. But if she married Damian she wouldn’t have to. She rolled her eyes and said that, again, she and Damian weren’t together. She lied and said she was happy about it that way. His thoughts about here were chaotic, but every thing he said to her was that they were friends, and even then only barely. He thought she was stupid more than anything else. She didn’t believe that he liked her. Why would he? He was a Desmond, and she was just some freak that happened to luck out getting her parents. If 4 sets of families hadn’t wanted her why would the most wanted boy in the class?
It was when they were 19 that Anya saved Damian again. They were eating lunch in the courtyard of the university they were touring. Anya was smiling as she looked at the early childhood educator majors running after a gaggle of children. One of them started crying, and the poor teacher looked terrified, unsure what to do. Anya got up, walking over. She read the little boy’s mind, finding that he was missing his mom. He was overwhelmed with this being his first day. She bent over, reaching into the pocket of her imperial scholar robes to pull out her emergency peanuts. They were chocolate covered too, filling in her recently acquired penchant for sweets. “You know I missed my Mama when I had to go to school too.” She said, as the boy looked up at her with a little bit of shock. “But when I had peanuts, it always made me feel better. Would you like a peanut?” She held one out with the biggest kid friendly smile she could manage.
“Um…miss, I appreciate it, but Jonathan is allergic to peanuts. Please put them away.” The teacher said and the boy nodded. Anya felt the cold waters of failure wash over her, and the face she made must have been funny because the little boy started to laugh instead of cry.
“You can’t give sweets to random children, dummy!” Damian shouted, walking over.
“I hate the sound of kids crying. He looked so sad, Sy-on boy!” She argued, putting the bag away and turning to him.
“It’s the teacher’s job to calm him down. What if she thought you were some kind of weirdo and beat you up? You’re an adult now, you have to think!” He continued, looking down on the little kid. “And as for you, stop crying. Don’t you want to represent your family with dignity? Just because Stubby Legs over here has no shame doesn’t mean you have to.”
“My legs aren’t even stubby any more!” Anya argued back. “Don’t listen to him Jimmy.” She said, getting the name wrong as usual. “It’s totally okay for kids to cry when they miss their Mama. If he had cried more as a kid then maybe he wouldn’t look constipated all the time.”
The continued to bicker, even after the teacher had walked away with the kids, wondering if all the imperial scholars were like this, but when they got back to finish their lunch, Becky giggled knowingly. Both of them scowled at her.
“You know, Anya, you could totally be a teacher.” She suggested, and Anya blinked a couple times. She hadn’t thought of that before. All her friends had always talked about big high powered careers. Would it be okay if she went back to Henderson and said she wanted to do something as mundane as be a pre school teacher? Besides, she wasn’t even good with kids.
“I almost killed that boy so probably not. You can’t give kids peanuts in case they’re allergic. I’m not fit.” she replied simply, shrugging the idea off as quickly as it came. Damian's thoughts were filled with her in the same simple dress the other teacher had been wearing, holding a little boy with dark hair and green eyes while he cried. No doubt thinking how bad of a teacher she’d be. Becky was thinking about her being a teacher and getting married to a hot single dad. Yeah. Definitely not cut out to be a teacher.
Their lunch finished, and they were walking around again, going through the different buildings. They even got to see one of the business classes. It seemed hard. Lots of graphs and equations that had her feeling almost dizzy. The worst part was that, judging by the thoughts of the students in the class, they didn’t really get it either. Definitely not going to be a business major then. Damian could probably do it. He was the smartest person she knew, except maybe her papa. And even then she wasn’t sure. Damian figured stuff out really quick, and he was more fun to study with. He didn’t get as annoyed when she asked dumb questions or didn’t pay attention.
The next building was the art building. It was full of beautiful paintings and sculptures. Damian seemed a little embarrassed at the number of naked women though. And Anya couldn’t help but giggle at how little all the men’s members seemed to be, looking at Becky and giggling. Damian got red again, and she wondered if he had a little pecker too. Not that she cared. It wasn’t like she’d ever see it. It would just be funny if she could find out. To make fun of him when he called her stubby legs. Obviously.
Everything went well until it was time for them to leave. The commuter students were leaving, and the little kids were waiting to get on the bus to go home. Anya was shocked that little Jerimiah waved at her on her way out and she smiled back at him. The teacher rolled her eyes. She didn’t seem to like Anya very much, and in her thoughts she called Anya a “freak”. That one hurt. It was the one insult that actually stung, and thankfully the one Damian never really used. It was what the first four families had called her when they returned her like a toaster that wouldn’t get hot. She looked down, feeling a little sad. Damian and Becky looked at her, and Becky told her to cheer up. They’d be going to Berlint University tomorrow, and their football team had two twin brothers that were super hot. She said that she and Anya could each have one brother and if they married the twins they’d be sisters for real. Anya did snort a little laugh, but mostly at Damian’s arguing, rather than the comment itself. He insisted that Anya didn’t need to marry some jock airhead, like he himself wasn’t the school’s star football player.
Then her face went dark again as she hear another thought in the crowd.
Take the shot. They’ll be too worried about the kids to do much. EMTs won’t be here for 15 minutes. The med students went home at lunch.
Another assassination? Really? Except this time she hadn’t got the jump. She only managed to spot who it was as he was lifting his gun up. Aimed at Damian. There was no way she could get him away before anyone noticed. There was no time for a lie. She couldn’t even drag him out of the way since Becky was half behind him, gawking at some law student wearing a suit in a brand Anya didn’t recognize.
She remembered back to first grade, Damian jumping in front of the dodgeball without knowing why. He had been confused why he would do something like that. She was moving before she decided to, shoving him out of the way and tripping Becky on the way. It put her off guard. As the sound of a gunshot rang out she knew that she didn’t have enough control of her fall to get out of the way herself. It was fine. Gunshots couldn’t hurt too bad. Her parents got them often enough and just kept going on with their lives.
She was so wrong. Wow. Her parents were something special because gunshots actually hurt really a lot and she heard herself screaming with the pain. But she had to get up. Becky sucked at fighting–she’d quit training with her mama when they were 9. Damian couldn’t fight. And no one else here seemed very strong. They just started running. She couldn’t hear a desire to help in anyone’s thoughts. It was just her. Mama and Papa weren’t here, not matter how much she wished that her Papa had chosen today to follow her around. He would have fixed this with no problems.
Damian was crouching next to her, asking if she was okay. Oh no. That was bad. The man had been trying to shoot him after all. He was making himself really easy to shoot. And that was bad. Anya knew now that it hurt way more than her parents made it seem and Damian would definitely cry. He hated crying in public and he’d never get over the embarrassment.
“R-run away, Sy-on boy.” She said through gritted teeth. She’d think this was very cool later. For now she just pulled him to her chest to roll them over, avoiding another bullet. She would also think this was very cool later. She was only shot in the shoulder. Papa used to keep fighting like that. She could too. She was a grown up now, and she had to protect Sy-on boy and Becky. Not to mention the kids were crying again, their thoughts filling her head with cries of fear and wondering if they were going to die.
“You’re okay! Anya will save you!” She promised them, standing up and giving a thumbs up. The impact was probably dampened by the blood dripping down her arm but she thought she was helping.
Maybe she was lying though. Because the bad guy grabbed little Joshua and held him up by the hair. He pointed the gun at the boy and said that if she didn’t give up Damian, he’d shoot the kids. She had done throwing training with Mama. But if she threw something at the gun hand then it might make him twitch and shoot the kid. She grabbed one of the pebbles that was in the flower bed, throwing it at the hand that held the boy. It was enough that his short hair slipped through the remaining fingers. She grabbed another few pebbles as she ran at the man.
One in each eye gave her enough time to get in close. He shot randomly, and Anya felt another pain. He’d gotten her just on the skin of her rib cage. It hurt way more than Mama made it seem when she got cut there once. She kicked the gun from his hand, and just like the man who had tied her up, she put all her power into kicking the side of his head. He went flying, and landed unconscious.
Little Jamison was still crying, so she bent down, giving him a thumbs up. “Don’t worry little Jacob. Anya learned from mama and mama is super cool.” She assured him, patting him on the head. It may have been less assuring than she intended, seeing as right after she got lightheaded and fell to the side. That wasn’t cool. She was sure that Papa never did that when he got shot. Neither did Mama. No, this was really lame. She was totally scaring little Jackson. Before she could try and get up again though she passed out. Everything faded to black and her last thought was that if she died, who was going to protect Damian?
When she woke up in the hospital, she only sort of realized what was going on. There was a beeping noise that was already annoying in the 3 seconds she’d heard it. When she opened her eyes everything was too bright. When the blurriness cleared up in her vision though she saw so many people around her. Papa and Mama were on one side of her, next to the machines. They looked scared, and she thought Papa even looked like he was crying. Papa never cried. She felt guilty, realizing it was because she’d gotten hurt.
Then she looked to her other side and saw Damian, holding her left hand and looking terrible. His face was streaked with tears, his hair was all messed up, and he was missing his cloak. She frowned when she saw blood on his white undershirt. He hadn’t gotten hurt had he? She’d rescued him, right? She weakly picked up her hand, slapping it against his chest, feeling like it weighed a thousand pounds. “Wha…” She managed, before her jaw felt too hard to move too.
Of course she’d still be worried about someone else instead of herself when she nearly died. What an idiot.
Even now, Damian’s thoughts were being mean to her. She’d saved his life, he should be nice at least for a day or two. She frowned at him.
“I’m fine, stu–Anya. You took the bullet. It hit your shoulder.” He told her, holding out the part of the shirt that was bloody.
“Damian uh…acquired someone’s car. And drove you to the hospital. He picked you up to put you in the back.” Damian had offered someone to pay 50,000 dalcs for their car and put Anya in before they answered him. He’d told Becky to hold her in the back and drove like an absolute maniac to the hospital. He got there before the ambulance had made it to the university and brought her in, threatening to buy the place and fire everyone if Anya wasn’t saved.
The wounds had been non-lethal, but it turned out that Anya had pretty thin blood so she ended up passing out from blood loss. They were able to give a transfusion and she was stable before her parents had been able to get there (Loid had also driven like an absolute maniac). She’d been out a few hours, but would make a full recovery. She listened to her father explain it and again felt guilty. They weren’t even serious wounds then. She just had lame blood and had worried everyone.
She started tearing up, and looked up at her father. “I…I wanted to be strong like you and Mama. But I scared everyone instead. I’m sorry.” She said, before tears fell and she realized she didn’t have the strength to wipe them away.
Damian stood up, looking angry. Had she made him mad protecting him? Maybe he didn’t like being saved by a girl. Would he refuse to hang out with her now?
“What are you talking about, Anya? You…you were…you’re…” He couldn’t figure out what to say here and she felt too fuzzy to read his thoughts.
“But I scared little Josiah. And I made you buy someone’s car. And then I passed out even though it wasn’t serious and made you worry about me. I…please don’t hate Anya. I tried my best.” She begged, looking up at him, terrified that he was about to announce that he hated her for making such a scene. For “being dramatic” like he always said she was.
“Hate you? Anya I could never hate you, you dummy! I’ve been in love with you for 12 years!” He announced, only realizing what he said when Loid and Yor blinked up at him a few times.
They became more stressed when the heart monitor started to beep even faster, and Anya’s eyes rolled back and she passed out again from the sudden drop in blood pressure.
When she came back to, she shook her head, assuming the previous statement had all been an elaborate dream of some kind. Damian couldn’t like her, much less love her. Especially since they were kids. He’d been so mean to her until they were almost teenagers. It didn’t make sense. It had to be some sort of weird dream her brain made up.
Except when she opened her eyes they were exactly where they were before, save that Damian wasn’t holding her hand now and was staring at the floor, his face bright red. Her parents looked a little less scared too, which was nice.
“She’s awake again!” Yor announced, and she sighed. Again. That meant it was real. Damian had said he loved her for 12 years. Would she be expected to do something about that? She was still fuzzy, from what she’d later find out was morphine, so she couldn’t think too hard about what the right thing to do even was.
“My head hurts.” She complained, realizing that since she’d passed out again a throbbing headache had settled in. And then her stomach rumbled. “Hungry too.”
Yor shot up, grabbing Loid’s arm. “We’ll go get you some food from the cafeteria downstairs. That should help the headache too! Let’s go dear.” Loid looked hesitant to leave his daughter but a sharp look from his wife had him following. Give them a minute to see if she accepts the confession she heard her mother think. So yeah. It was all totally real.
What did she think about that? She had jumped in front of a bullet for Damian. So that had to count for something. And he was the only boy she even thought was cute, most of the others just seeming kind of gross honestly. He was nice to her most of the time. He helped her with her homework. And she’d long since stopped being able to find mission related reasons for all the times she hung out with him. Even though she was protecting him she just felt safe and happy when she was with him. Was that enough to call love? She wasn’t sure.
“So you like me huh, Sy-on boy?” She started with a smug smile, deciding that was more on brand. She could gather more intel by stalling.
“Sh-shut up, stubby legs. It was in the heat of the moment. It doesn’t count.” He argued, glaring at her with a bright red face. She focused on his thoughts.
Of course I love her. Who wouldn’t love her? She’s strong and smart and pretty and strong and cool and pretty and pretty and strong came the endless stream of compliments he never really said out loud.
“They say who you are when you aren’t thinking is your truest self, you know.” She pointed out, biting her lip as she thought about what to do next.
“Well then you must be your truest self all the time, since I don’t think you’ve ever thought a thought in your life!”
“That’s not true!” She frowned and looked up at him. “I thought that it would be terrible if I let you get hurt. I thought that I could save you, like you save me when we were in first grade. I just didn’t know bullets hurt so much more than dodgeballs. I thought that I had to stop that guy or he’d shoot you. And I thought that would make me really sad. And I thought about why I would be so sad and I’m thinking now it’s because maybe you’re not my friend the same way Becky is my friend.” She explained, starting to blush a little herself. The monitor started beeping faster again.
“Don’t push yourself thinking too hard. If your parents come back and you’ve passed out again there wouldn’t have been any point to taking the bullet. Your mom will kill me anyway.” He told her, grabbing her hand to try and calm her down. “You still remember something so embarrassing?”
“Mama won’t kill you. She knows I’d be sad if she did. She might maim you though. And of course I remember the dodgeball. It was the first time you were ever nice to me.” He looked shocked at that, and she just smiled. “I…like you a lot too Damian. I’m not sure if it’s love. I’ve only ever loved Mama and Papa and Bond. But maybe it is. I’ll have to think about it. But I liked it better when you were holding my hand.”
Anya wants me to hold her hand? Anya likes me too? Anya might love me? I’m gonna die!
“Don’t die Damian. I’d be sad.” She reminded him, and he looked taken aback. She’d forgotten that he hadn’t said that out loud. She hated the fuzzy feeling in her head. “You’re all red. And you were crying. Stop doing that. You’re not pretty anymore when you cry. I hate it.” She took his hand from where it rested, forcing him to let her hold it (she was pretty weak, he could have removed it.
He squeezed it, and sighed. “I guess I’ll do my best not to cry if you don’t get hurt like this again. I thought you were gonna die. It scared me.” He leaned in, about to try and kiss her forehead, when her parents came back with the food. He jumped away but still held her hand.
She ate her peanut butter sandwich and juice, and then fell asleep again. She would be alright.
When Anya was home however Loid announced that he would be training Damian to recognize and eliminate threats so that Anya would never get hurt protecting him again. He’d heard of Yor’s training. He hadn’t anticipated that Loid’s would be 10x worse. Even as he limped through most of that Summer, he hoped that it would at least work. A hurt Anya was way worse than a few bruises and a sprained ankle.