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On many occasions, Anya considered her powers to be a blessing of sorts. While they brought about a lot of tough times for the young girl, they also helped her in numerous ways. Cheat on any test you want? Done. Know exactly what people want at any given time? Easy.
She even used it to convince her papa to choose her, and to keep her at that. Then came along her mama, with the exciting prospect of a spy and assassin under one roof. And just through her powers she was able to push them into each other’s lives, and in turn her own.
So yes, she found them to be a blessing. But that didn’t mean they didn’t have some drawbacks. Excessive use was one, whether it was too many peoples minds being read, or too many negative emotions to deal with, it had an effect on her. Times such as the political rally, which she was thankful for her mama and papa for getting her away.
And times like today. It had been a normal day at Eden, until a fire alarm went off. There was no proposed drill today, and she’d known straight away from the panicked thoughts of her teacher. If that didn’t stress her out at first, then the waves upon waves of panicking students minds certainly did. And it was way too much way too fast, she had passed out right there on the schools grounds.
She came to in the arms of her papa while they walked home, and one confused question of where they where later he had told her to get some rest again. Anya hadn’t argued either, the headache she had seemed to lessen with her eyes closed.
After a couple of dreams later, mainly including her side by side with papa as they infiltrated the enemies base with their silenced pistols, she found herself leaving the dream state to the feeling of soft and warm blankets. A stuffed animal was placed beside her on top of the covers and she caught a peek at the ball of white fur sitting beside her bed.
Blinking some of the fatigue from her eyes, she took note of her surroundings briefly. Finding there was still some faint light coming through the curtains of her room, but the pink haired girl was glad they were closed, no doubt that light would still hurt her senses.
After sitting up for a few moments to reorient, Anya heard some faint murmurs from the other side of her door. Likely just her Mama and Papa talking in the living room, she felt a faint smile grow on her face, even she wasn’t blind to how nervous and funny they acted around each other. Becky had mentioned something about why they would, apparently she’d seen it on one of her TV shows, but Anya couldn’t exactly remember what it was.
Furrowing her brow she concentrated a little harder on the direction of the noise, trying to activate her powers slightly. It hurt her head, and it was very fuzzy. She could pick up faint residuals of thoughts, but it was so vague and difficult to hear it blended with the regular conversation. It made it too hard to decipher which was which.
She shrugged her shoulder and lifted herself from the bed. Grabbing a blanket to go along with her which she wrapped herself in, stepping quietly towards the door. It creaked slickly opening but didn’t draw any attention, she she plodded towards the voices of her parents.
“… happened before didn’t it? At the rally?” ‘I wonder if she has a brain problem’.
“Yes, she was okay after a bit of rest though.” ‘I hope she’s okay again now’.
It was still very difficult to separate the thoughts from the speech, they blended with the haze in her mind. She stepped forward towards the sofas anyway, making her presence known with slightly heavier footsteps.
“Anya! Is everything okay? How do you feel?” ‘She looks to be okay, we’ll need to check further’.
“Anya! It’s so good to see you up!” ‘I always love seeing how caring Loid is towards Anya’.
Anya started to giggle at her unsuspecting Mama, she never got tired of hearing them flirt in their minds.
“I feel okay, Mama, Papa. I-I’m sorry for causing so much trouble.” She dropped her head slightly with a dejected look on her face.
“N-no Anya! It’s okay! We just want to see you healthy is all.” ‘She looks so cute wrapped up in her blanket like that!’
“I feel all better Mama! And you can check me further if you like Papa!”
Anya noticed the pause in her parents thoughts for the briefest moment, and the slight confused face of her Mama. It confused the little girl at first too, but her heart began to race when she turned to see her Papa’s face. A mix of shock and a questioning gaze on his features. And then the thoughts came flooding through.
‘I didn’t say that out loud did I? She just said what I was thinking! It… it’s a funny coincidence? I guess?’
“Uhm, of course Anya. I can check on you more later, you can get some more rest if you’d like, I’ll call you when the foods ready.”
The telepathic girl tried to call her frayed nerves at the realisation of her slip up. It’s lucky that the idea of her having powers was far fetched, no one seems to believe the things right in front of them. She nodded and faced back at her Mama who was smiling at her with a soothing warmth, she’d just have to avoid that type of confrontation from now on.
That was, until, a surprise caught her slightly off guard.
‘You can’t understand me, can you Anya? Look this way if you can... Well, I guess it was a long shot-‘
Loid paused his intentional train of thought as he eyed his daughter. The blanket she had wrapped around her was being gripped unnecessarily tight, her eyes seemed to be securely on Yor with an anxiety about looking elsewhere. She seemed skittish, and Yor picked it up too.
“Anya, are you okay? Are you feeling any problems again?” The girl in question looked at her Mama and shook her head, unsure of her voice at the moment, afraid of this train of thought her papa was on-
“You heard, didn’t you Anya?”
She turned sharply to her Papa who was staring at her inquisitively. Papa’s a spy! Of course he knew I was lying! She needed to deflect, change the subject, she didn’t want to risk them giving her up if she was found out again.
“Heard what, Loid? What’s going on?” ‘They’re both acting very strange right now’
Loid stared into his daughters eyes as she stared right back. It was troubling, she seemed to be afraid. It was confirmation enough that his hypothesis was correct, she knew what he was thinking. But why is she so afraid? So unsure of herself and unwilling to admit it?
“Yor, I believe Anya can read our minds.”
A very awkward silence hung over the three for numerous seconds as information seeped into everyone’s minds. With Yor’s face changing from confusion to shock and straight back to confusion.
“Wha-? Loid, a-are you okay?! What do you mean-“ Yor was halted in her tracks as she heard a small whimper from the pink haired girl beside them. Looking to see the wobbling lips and tears forming in her large eyes. Clear signs of distress and fear in her as she shrunk in on herself. “Anya?! W-what’s wrong?”
“P-please, -hic-, d-don’t get rid of me! I-I can stop! I can not use them any more, please! I don’t want to leave!”
The full on cry that followed had her parents both crouch to her level and envelop her in a tight hug. Yor rubbing soothing circles in her back as Loid gently stroked her hair.
“D-does this mean…?” Yor trailed off with her question and Loid nodded at her. And in the silence that followed as the two adults comforted their child, a rush of realisations came to their heads.
Mind reading. All this time? My secret, she knows…?
Both the parents eyes went wide as they clicked onto the truth at the same time. Their daughter, the entire time she’d been here, had known about their true job? And more importantly, she didn’t care? And she kept the secret this whole time…
“I know your secrets.” The little girl said so nonchalantly, and wasn’t prepared for the overwhelming flow of thoughts that followed from the adults. Concern and panic, countless questions about what exactly and what the other persons secret was. Anya realised she may have screwed up, hinting they both had a big secret. She needed to cover both her and their tracks as soon as possible.
“You know?” Loid leaned back with his eyebrow raised, carefully eyeing Yor and Anya with trepidation.
Yor seemed on edge too, with her train of thought running a similar course around the consequences of her secret being leaked.
And Anya decided she needed to fix this. Pretend she was talking about another secret? But it would have to be true, or they’d know she was avoiding the answer. But what could she say… That’s it!
“Yes, Papa and Mama are in love.”
Despite some tears still flowing and the slight fear in her heart, Anya couldn’t help but feel both humour and joy at seeing both her parents reel back like they’d just been burned. Faces flushed and thoughts running crazy with ways they could lie and hide. Mama took a quick look to the side and made contact with Papa, just to shoot her eyes away again.
“I, uhh.”
“W-well, uhm.”
She could hear both adults brains working overtime to find an excuse or a way out of this situation, and she was just glad they’d let go of the assassin and spy problem already. A whole minute passed with no one speaking while Anya glanced between her Mama and Papa, and her Papa finally spoke.
“W-what was that earlier? About you not wanting to given away?”
Mama nodded along with Papa, in agreement of his sentiment. “You know we’d never give you away right? We both love you!”
The fear still lingered in her mind, but Anya found some of her scared tears to be replaced by tears of joy. A wobbly smile replacing the sad expression she’d held.
“B-but, what about you not being able to keep secrets! O-or, aren’t you afraid of me?”
The smile on her parents faces was reassuring, they were warm and inviting, they felt like home.
“Of course not Anya. You’re a little angel! We know you’d never use your powers for anything bad!”
“Hey.” She turned to see her Papa as he wiped the tear from her cheek, smiling down at her. “You’ve been nothing shy of perfect for us both. Powers or not, you’re a part of this family.” He paused and intertwined his fingers with Mama’s beside him. Which made Anya chuckle as she squeaked before relaxing into the touch. “We’ll never leave you, no matter what.”
Anya started to cry again and hopped into her parents embrace. All this time, the hiding, careful secret keeping, all of it was over. She could finally relax and embrace who she truly was. A Forger.
That’s right, even with drawbacks.
These powers are a blessing.