Raising Anya was no easy task, as she had been a strange girl from a very early age, and her teenage years weren't any easier to navigate by any means. At the best of times, Loid had very few ideas about what Anya was up to during her school days, and even less during the evenings if she was ever out. The most that he knew for certain was that Anya was likely at Becky's house, but in the last few weeks his (fake) daughter had become suspiciously secretive.

Previously, she would at least yell out to her parents when she did leave the house, something usually to the effect of: "I'll be back in a bit!" or "See you at dinner!". These days, Loid would be lucky if he got a "I'm heading out!", and usually he would just hear the door slam, and the scent of strawberry where Anya used to be.

"Anya-san has been a teenager for a while now, they all need their space when it's time to grow up a bit."

Yor was right of course, but it didn't change that Loid still worried about her. Even when he could hear Yor snoring softly beside him, one arm draped across his chest, Loid was cursed with sleeplessness, wondering where she could be.

With Anya growing into her own person and discovering herself as a teenager, Loid realised that she would be keeping more and more secrets from him. It was only natural of course, but it still terrified him. And with that realisation, Loid was beginning to fear that he didn't know Anya as well as he used to.

Loid carefully moved Yor's arm from his chest, and sat slowly up. Anya had been spending far too much time somewhere else, where he hadn't been able to keep as close of an eye on her as he would normally have liked. She usually stayed late at school, probably studying (he hoped). But there was that Friday evening a couple of weeks ago where she disappeared for the entire evening, and just as Yor was running frantic with worry, they had received a call from Becky to say that Anya was at her house. If Becky hadn't called, then…

Loid shook his head.

He didn't want to disturb his wife from her nap, so he brought a blanket over her and laid it gently over her dozing silhouette.

He checked the time. Seven forty-five, definitely a bit later than most weekdays. Loud lifted the handle of the receiver, and was about to start typing in the phone number for the school when the front door opened.

"Mama, Papa," Anya called, and closed the door behind her. "I'm home!"

"You were out late," said Loid. "Is everything okay? Is there another test coming up soon?"

"Oh no, I - uh," Anya looked away embarrassed. "Nothing's wrong, but you might want to sit down."

Immediately, Loid felt his stomach drop like a stone. "No, Anya, you didn't…"

Anya couldn't tear her eyes away from her shoes, and Loid knew.

He nearly dropped to his knees.

"You got your seventh one, didn't you," Loid groaned, a slight wobble in his voice as he passed his hand over his face.

A shameful nod. "Yeah."

He forced a sigh out of him. "What did you do this time?"

"Um," Anya fidgeted with her fingers and looked away. "I got caught in Damian's room."

Loid's hand froze over his face, certain that he had misheard.

A small thought tried to convince Loid that maybe he could pretend that he had never heard that, but the resolve in him deepened.

"You… what?"

Anya gulped. "It's not what you think, there was a party and I panicked and-"

"You were alone with Damian, in his room?"

"- there was this dare, I guess but it wasn't a good one and anyway I had a panic attack and Damian tried to calm me down and I was fine but then Professor Ronin saw us in his room and-"

"You were alone with Damian, in his room?"

"- I know what you're thinking Papa and I swear it isn't like that!"

The words 'party', 'dare', and 'Damian' seemed to only get louder in Loid's head. Loid forced himself to sigh, to breathe, to clear his mind. It would not help anyone if he got angry at his daughter.

And besides the fact that Damian was a - he shuddered - a boy, he was still the second son of Donovan Desmond, his target for over ten years. If there was anyone good to gain from this development, he had to use it to the advantage of Operation Strix.

He vaguely remembered the friendship scheme, what he had internally called 'Plan B' years ago. Of course he had never told Anya about that, it was just a coincidence that the two had started to become closer…

Anya carefully watched the change in his thoughts, and chose not to say anything.

"Since when were you and Damian friends? I seem to remember you two fighting almost constantly."

"We used to fight, that's true," Anya coughed, hoping to hide the squeak in her voice. She couldn't tell her Papa that she knew about Operation Strix, which was the whole reason why she had tried to get closer to Damian in the first place. "We started to get on this year when, uh -"

When Bill asked me out on a date, and then Damian got jealous, and said he would go to the cinema with me?

When he walked me home from school, and let me talk to him about my secrets?

When he visited me at the nurses office, and showed that he cared?

When he thought that I was beautiful, and calmed me down from having a panic attack, and let me talk to him?

She couldn't say any of that.

"When he started to help me study," was what she settled on eventually.

Loid raised an eyebrow. "You didn't tell me about any of this."

"Please Papa, I've just been trying to get better at school, so I can become an Imperial Scholar like you wanted…" Anya mumbled. "I did really well on my genealogy presentation recently, but I still have a lot of tests coming up…"

Loid didn't miss the "like you wanted", part and he was about to say something else when-

Anya peered at Loid through her eyelashes, saw his demeanour crumbling, and she smirked inwardly when he sighed and resigned himself to her. "Fine," said Loid, and waved her away. "I won't interrogate you anymore, but you have to be careful. You are this close -" he held up his fingers a centimetre apart, - "to being expelled, and you don't want all my - your hard work to go to waste!"

"No, Papa," Anya shook her head obediently. "I won't get another Tonitrus bolt, I swear."

"Good."

"And I'm sorry for getting another one today, I swear it won't happen again!"

"Okay."

Loid sighed. He hated being so hard on her, but what else was he supposed to do?

He barely saw her anymore just from how hard she studied after school hours, and then when she hung out with Becky on the weekends, and when she did her training sessions with Yor. Loid started to feel that he was being left behind, that he had barely had any chances this year to spend time with his daughter one on one.

Of course, she would only be his daughter until the end of Operation Strix, but that was a thought that Loid rarely let himself think about these days. He could not afford to let that get to him.

But what could he do with her? How could he actually get to spend some time with her together, like they used to?

They used to watch the Spy Wars cartoons together… He had thought they were silly, and was a mockery of what he did as a spy, but Anya liked them enough. He started as he realised he had seen a movie poster recently, it was outside the cinema, and seemed to be a new release of Spy Wars.

"Hey Anya," Loid called out to her just before she entered her room, and softened his voice. "There's a new Spy Wars movie out, do you want to go see it together-?"

"Ah, sorry Papa," Anya replied sweetly. "I already went to go see it with Damian!" And she closed her bedroom door behind her before he could reply.

"You -" Loid stuttered. "You did what? When?" And another, horrifying thought came to him. Could those two actually be dating? Behind his back?

Immediately: "We're not dating behind your back!" Came Anya's muffled voice through the door. "We're just friends!"

"R-right," Loid coughed. "Of course." But he wasn't convinced. Anya's proclamation was far too suspicious. It looked like he would have to tread carefully with his daughter. He wanted her to trust him, but Yor did say this kind of secrecy was normal with teenagers.

Loid could wait for her to tell him these things out of her own volition, of course, but he was beginning to suspect that if Anya's secrecy continued, he would have to resort to drastic measures…

Damian was still a boy, after all. And Loid had a daughter to protect.

—

Inside her room, Anya shuddered against her father's thoughts.

He thought they were dating? Her hand Sy-on boy Desmond? It was enough to make a girl…

To make a girl…

Tingle?

Anya pressed her hands to her heated face and muffled a squeal.

He thought we were dating?

Damian was right to some extent. Going to school early had of course affected her development - academic, social, all of it, and she knew she was a little further behind than her peers in more ways than one. Anya just got this feeling that she was missing something. Whenever she talked about Damian, or when Becky was planning one of her schemes, Anya just couldn't help but feel a little left out of the loop. What was it that everyone was getting, except for her?

It was hard enough to untangle her own feelings for Damian from Plan B - she needed the plan to work out, to finally prove herself to her Papa, but why did Damian have to start being likeable as well?

For years she had fought for his attention, not because she liked him as a person, but because she knew it would make her father happy. And now that they went to the cinema, and she started to open up to him, it all became so muddled in her mind. She felt warm around him. Her stomach felt tingly, and looking into his eyes filled her with a fire she couldn't put a name to - not even if there was a gun to her head.

She wished it didn't have to be all so confusing, but she couldn't afford to hold back on her part in Operation Strix. She would prove to her father that he made the right choice when he picked her up at the orphanage, and finally earn her place in the household.

Which meant that she had to start making progress on the mission…

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I know I havent really written from Loids perspective yet so this was a fun one for me!