Students slowly trickled down to the breakfast hall, and soon it buzzed with chatter and gossip (mostly about Damian and Anya, but it was all speculative of course). It was obvious who had snuck out the night before, and which students had stayed in their beds. Under eye dark circles seemed to be the new accessory. The only exceptions to this really, were Damian, Becky, and Anya, all for their own reasons.

Anya's nightmares plagued her as they usually did. Nightmares of the Director, of being experimented on, being exposed, and of being ostracised and isolated for her weird powers. The cast changed, but the overall scenes usually remained the same. This time, she also had the unusual addition of Damian's own face scowling at her, completely shocked that she would betray him and spy on him. When she woke up remembering what had happened the day before, it did little to assuage her anxiety, and in fact only made her feel more guilty.

Damian, understandably, was sick with worry. His sleep was fraught with nerves about what was going to happen the next day, how he was going to face Anya, or any of his classmates, and overall he had concluded that the easiest thing to do would be to run away, or just die on the spot - but obviously he wasn't going to do that. He was a man for crying out loud, he could face up to his own actions! (And besides, he didn't want to be expelled.)

And then there was Becky, who had shot out of bed with such glee that it had startled Anya awake. "Good morning!" she called in a sing-song voice, and a bright smile. As far as Becky was concerned, she had had a great night, and had slept extremely well because of it.

Because of Becky's crazy energy, she and Anya were among the first to arrive in the dining hall for breakfast, and Becky used that time to fill Anya in on what had happened with Bill the night before.

"Oh my god, Anya, it was so cute!" she gushed, and even though Anya felt sluggish and sleep-deprived, she also wanted to be there for her best friend, so she did her best to listen attentively. "Bill was just such a gentleman, it was so romantic, I just - ahh! - I just can't!" she squealed with joy.

Even though it had been a good few months since Anya had watched any episode of Berlint in Love, and had a patchy concept of romance at the best of times, she had to agree with Becky that it sounded like she had a lovely time. It turned out that Anya's hunch about Becky being suspiciously missing from her bed the night before was right - Bill had apparently sought Becky out, and taken her on a midnight walk in the gardens, before they both became less enamoured with the moon and more with each other.

Anya smiled and nodded with Becky as she regaled the (thankfully sanitised) details of the previous night, until she caught the golden eyes of a certain scion.

It wasn't unusual for the five of them to dine together, and actually since Anya and Damian became friends, they all ate together more and more often. But the moment they made eye contact, a deep blush rose in both of them, and Damian turned away, with Emile and Ewen in tow to move to another table.

"Oh, that was weird," Becky muttered. "Did something happen between you guys?"

Anya opened her mouth, half-wanting to tell her, but she gave it a second thought. It was too much too soon, utterly overwhelming, and far too humiliating. It was so stupid of her to not have noticed it before, and if she mentioned it to Becky at that moment, she would never hear the end of it. In the end, Anya knew that she would turn to Becky when she was ready, after she had some time to herself to think.

"Nope!" Anya squeaked, and stuffed her mouth with toast before Becky could further her interrogation.

Ever loyal friends to Damian, Ewen and Emile were adept at picking up their bossman's signals. It wasn't hard to put two and two together as soon as Damian prickled at Anya's presence and suddenly spun in the opposite direction. His shoulders stiffened, and his grip tightened on his satchel. The boys waited until they had all sat down before they dared to say anything.

"Hey, boss…" Emile and Ewen looked at each other uneasily. "Did something happen with you and Forger?"

Damian's hands clenched into fists. "WHAT? No!" Damian forced out, and he looked so red that steam could have hissed from his ears. "Why would you say that! We are normal! We are totally normal!"

They didn't believe it for a second. The two shared a glance, which rattled Damian even more, and his chair scraped back as he reached across the table and grabbed them both by their shirt collars, eyes widened in madness.

"What do you know? Who told you?"

"Relax, Boss!" Ewen raised his palms in surrender, while Emile gulped. "Nobody said anything!"

It was half-true. Nobody had said anything, but everybody was thinking it.

As swiftly as their school trip began, the students of Cecile and Wald Halls suddenly found that their time in rural Jortmund had come to an end.

Just as all the students lined up to get back on to the school bus, Becky beckoned Damian forward, and his mouth went unexpectedly dry. If Becky was motioning him forward, it would only be for one reason. He cast his eyes around for Anya, Becky's infamous other half, but he couldn't spot her anywhere, and the panic rose in him even worse than before.

So it was definitely for that reason.

Not having the energy to do anything else, Damian simply glared at her, and made a show of turning his back on her, but Becky's precise laser vision cut into his back, and truthfully, it made him sweat.

Becky loomed closer, and Damian resigned himself to the thought that he wasn't going to be able to escape from this conversation. "What do you want?" he said gruffly.

"As if that is how you speak to a lady!" Becky exclaimed, pretending to be shocked. "Honestly Damian, you need to work on your manners."

Damian rolled his eyes. He was not in the mood to entertain his begrudging rivalry with Becky Blackbell. "The question still stands, I'm afraid."

"Alright, fine, be that way," she blew a lock of hair out of her face. "Since you've been so busy mooning at my best friend, I thought I would take it upon myself to remind you that it's almost the end of the calendar year."

Damian scowled at her. "So?"

Becky, ever the showman, lowered her voice, and forced Damian to lean closer to her.

"So, that means that the Imperial Ball is only a few weeks away."

Damian's blood turned to ice. He did not like where this was going.

"... and well, I happen to know a certain someone that might enjoy going," she winked at Damian. "You did say before that the dance needed to be more fun."

Ordinarily, this would be Damian's cue to turn into a blushing mess, stammer out a "W-what are you talking about?", and embarrass himself further somehow, so it surprised both of them when he shoved his hands in his pockets, and sighed wearily, like the fight in him had somehow crumbled to dust. "Yeah, okay. Maybe."

Becky took a step back, and carefully appraised him, half-impressed by his nonchalance, and half-worried about what it could mean. "I'm right! Something did happen between you two!"

Damian huffed out a breath, and shoved his shoulder in the space between them in his effort to turn away. "No offence Becky, but even if that was true, you're not the person I would talk about it with."

"Alright, fair point, but my suggestion still stands," she said, brisk and business-like, her earlier worry forgotten, and climbed onto the bus before him. "So don't say I'm not trying to help you out."

Damian bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from saying anything. Not that he would actually insult her straight up, but he could imagine there was something to be said about staying out of his damn business.

So when Damian grabbed the railing and pulled himself up, he realised with dread that he was the last one on the bus. Again.

He had been played.

Panic crept up his throat, and he made agitated eye contact with a very smug Becky, who had already managed to steal a seat next to Bazooka Bill.

That utter witch. The conniving, deceitful snake in the fucking grass. Did she hold him back on purpose?

Eyes of the students of Cecile and Wald Halls stared at him, many with knowing looks, and a trickle of whispers reached his ears. As Damian feared, there was only one empty seat, and it was next to the girl who knew his ultimate secret. Damian had so many urges at once: run away, scream, throw himself out of the bus, maybe into oncoming traffic - any of those would be better than his current option of surrendering to this nightmare. Instead, Damian swallowed nervously, and, as if wading into a roaring sea, pushed himself forward.

One agonising step in front of the other, all the while knowing that every student in the class watched him, waited for him to do the inevitable, because they had clearly conspired together to make sure that there was only one seat.

He found her gorgeous green eyes staring at him with the same dread that flooded through him.

He braced himself. "Is this seat taken?"

Anya pinched her lips together, and pressed herself a little further into the window. "You can sit here," she conceded.

"Right. Thanks."

Such simple words, and yet they felt far too heavy on his tongue. Every word, every breath was fraught with tension, and Damian wondered if he would ever get out of this alive.

With every student accounted for, the bus rolled away, sealing his doom.

In a desperate effort to not touch her, Damian perched uncomfortably on the edge of the seat. The side of his body closest to her felt like it could have caught fire at any moment, just from the proximity of her body that ignited all of his senses.

For a while, they were stoically, painfully, awkwardly silent, and Damian honestly couldn't think of what he had done to deserve this kind of punishment.

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Sorry for the angst :') It will get better! Trust the process!