Chapter Text
“Don’t leave me Vincent!”
The man turned to take one last glimpse of his wife. “Run away, Sonia,” he breathed out and despite the bomb strapped in his lower abdomen, the man tried his best to smile at his weeping wife. “Go now before the bomb explodes,” Vincent prodded as he shuffled closer to the edge of the Berlint Bridge, ready to jump.
“I can’t live without you!”
Sniff. Sniff. Sniff.
Becky Blackbell began to tear up at the sight of the couple sharing what seems to be their final moment. Noticing the emotional twelve year old, Martha handed her another set of tissues to which the little girl accepted in her grasp before she started wiping the corners of her eyes and blowing her nose.
It was another one of those weekends.
Anya Forger would often come to the Blackbell household to watch Berlint in Love after they have finished shopping. And by watch, more as though Becky would be the only one paying attention to her favorite show while the pink-haired guest would fall asleep and drool beside her.
“Oh Anya, this is definitely the most heart-wrenching episode of Berlint in Love yet!” The brunette exclaimed as the credits on the television screen rolled in. Turning her head to her best friend, she frowned as she took notice of the sleeping figure beside her. She sighed. She should have expected this honestly.
Well, this is fine. Anya’s still keeping me company and I should appreciate her for that.
Her frown slowly turned to a playful grin and she reached her hands out to cup her friend’s face.
Doesn’t mean that I can’t reprimand her for falling asleep on me again.
Martha watched in amusement as Becky gave the sleeping girl’s cheeks a hard squeeze, causing her body to jolt awake and complaining about the sudden pain. The butler couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle at the two young ladies.
“Huh? Where am I?”
Becky giggled, “you dozed off again, silly.” The girl shuffled around her seat to look for the remote, “you missed seeing the climax of today’s episode!”
The esper’s brows furrowed, a tad bit upset that she was forcefully awoken from her slumber. She was busy fighting enemies alongside her favorite character Bondman in her dreams and she was not happy that the entire experience was cut short. Anya gave her friend a look, “can we watch Spy Wars now?”
Finally have found the remote, Becky turned the television off which made the girl beside her groan.
“Oh come on, Anya. It’s getting pretty late. I promise we can watch Spy Wars next weekend. I’ll have my father buy the entire DVD set of the show.”
At the mention of that, Anya’s eyes twinkled and she jumped to Becky to give her a sudden hug, “Anya forgives you for waking her up!” Not expecting this, Becky lost balance in her seating and the two fell to the floor. It went silent for a couple of seconds until both of them shared a loud laugh.
The brunette sat right up on the floor, leaning into the edge of the sofa and pulling her knees to her chest before hugging them in comfort. Anya copied her actions and the two stared at each other, smiling.
“How come you’re the only twelve year old in our entire school that doesn’t seem to like or care about the idea of love?” Becky gave her best friend a nudge, “you’re really a strange person, Anya Forger.”
“Says the one crushing on my dad who’s like in his 30s!” Anya deadpanned, “who also has a WIFE!”
Becky giggled, “don’t worry, I ditched my plans on becoming your step mother like years ago!” She began to slap Anya’s arm as she laughed before adding, “I still think Mr. Forger is cute though.”
The esper sighed, “Anya thinks it’s weird.”
“Again, what’s strange would be a young lady like you not crushing on anyone!”
Even though a certain scion has his eyes dead set on you since we were six, you never seem to notice. What a heartbreaker you are, Anya. The brunette thought.
“Anya’s too busy saving the world for any love love stuff!”
“Love can conquer anything! Did you see Vincent and Sonia earlier? They saved a city together!” She mumbled the rest of her words in frustration, “although Vincent seems to now have a bomb strapped on him and he was just about to jump off of a bridge. And again, what a weird turn of events for Berlint in Love. I initially thought it was just about romance, I don’t know where the plot is going now at this point.”
After rambling for a while, the girl glanced to her friend in the side and to her surprise she was actually listening. The pink head was staring intensely at Becky, she can see wheels turning in Anya’s head as though she had finally come to a solution for a long time problem.
“Anya can save the world if she finds a.. boyfriend?”
Not having the energy to explain and correct her, Becky gave an awkward laugh and nodded, “I- I guess so, yeah.”
Anya’s eyes lit up and she jumped out of her seat with a determined look before raising her fist above her head, “I shall fall in love for world peace then!”
Becky shrugged and decided to brush her strange friend’s behavior and words. Not knowing the problem she might have just caused.
---
“Will you go on a playdate with Anya?”
Becky Blackball watched her best friend come up to one of the boys in their class, her jaw dropping at the confidence the pink-haired gremlin had to just go up to someone and ask that as though it was no big deal. It was a Monday morning and she had just arrived in their classroom. She was about to give her best friend a warm greeting and a hug when she stopped in her tracks upon seeing Anya talking to a boy she had never talked to before. Did she just ask that?
The boy stared at the little girl, his eyes looking as though they were about to come out of their sockets. His cheeks became tinted with pink as he began to look anywhere but the girl in front of him. “Uhm,” he swallowed.
Anya tilted her head to the side, eagerly waiting for a response. “Will you?”
Becky continued to observe the two fourth graders’ exchange and apparently every student in the classroom was doing so too. The corner of her lips turned upwards in amusement. She didn’t know whether to applaud her friend for being so brave or slam her head against the wall at Anya’s naivety to think that that’s how confessions should go. Before being given the chance to do either one, she quickly noticed that the boy’s eyes were surveying the entire room like he was searching for a certain someone.
Is he looking for a teacher? His crush maybe? No, it can’t be. He looks terrified.
Realization dawned on the brunette as a certain dark haired boy’s face popped up in her head.
Ohhh.
The esper continued to lean towards the poor boy, prompting him to look at her. “You can help Anya achieve world peace!”
His brows furrowed, staring at Anya as though she had just gained two more heads. “W-what are you talking about?” He stammered, “I can’t be seen with you or Desmond will kill me.”
Just as he said that, the mentioned scion entered the room along with his two goons.
Damian Desmond had his head turned to his friends, the three engrossed in talking about their recent study session with the dorm tutor. Everyone in the room was silent, Damian noticed that. Usually, he would hear Becky and Anya gossiping about their favorite shows while the rest of the students would welcome him before continuing to talk loudly amongst themselves. It was strange that they were greeted in silence, not to mention, he felt a strange tension in the air.
The scion’s eyes glanced around the room, curious as to why the atmosphere in Cecile Hall was different from the usual. Realizing that they were all focusing intently on something, he followed their gazes before landing upon a certain two-horned girl and some random kid who he didn’t know the name of. The kid was staring at Anya while she was leaning towards him, they were far too close to each other for Damian’s liking. He suddenly felt a strange pang in his chest when he saw that the boy was blushing profusely underneath Anya’s gaze. A reaction that he was familiar with.
“What’s going on?”
Three simple words and every student in the room turned their heads to the sound of Damian’s voice.
As soon as the boy that Anya was confronting saw the second son of the Desmond family glaring at him, he quickly pushed the girl in front of him away and she fell to the floor with a loud thud. “G-get away from me you commoner! You’ll make me catch all your weirdness!” He added, “you don’t deserve to talk to me, stubby legs!”
The boy scurried away and disappeared into the crowd of students that had formed around Anya. He wanted to escape the scene and hide away from the dark haired boy that was giving him the shivers. But he knew that he had already caught Damian’s attention and soon enough he will be cornered by the said boy and his two friends. As much as he was flattered that one of the cutest girls in his class asked him out, he was beyond mortified when she had even walked up to him. None of the male students were supposed to even look at Anya's way, nevermind share a conversation with her. Damian Desmond made sure that everyone knew that.
Anya frowned at the boy’s unoriginal insults and merely retreated to Becky’s side. The latter didn’t know what to do so she just began rubbing her friend’s back as they sat down in their respective seats.
“Was Anya just rejected?”
“Pretty much.”
“Heh.”
Everyone in class stared agape at how unaffected the commoner seemed after just having been rejected before busying themselves with other things when they heard Damian Desmond clear his throat loud enough for all of them to hear. The corner of his lips upturned downwards as his eyes continued to glare at the boy who was talking to Anya Forger a while ago.
The poor kid was fidgeting in his seat. He could feel Damian's eyes on him and he turned to his seatmate before trying to spark up a conversation and laughing awkwardly. He really did not want the second son of the Desmond family to memorize his face and be a target of their bullying.
Why would anyone want to talk with that commoner? What were they even talking about? And why the hell was he looking at her with that stupid red face of his? Damian didn’t like how his gut twisted uncomfortably inside him as he recalled how the pinkette was staring at the kid earlier as though her entire world depended on him.
He wanted Anya to look at only him with that very facial expression. Like how he's the only solution to world peace in her eyes.
"How annoying," he muttered underneath his breath.