I know, I know, I'm sorry for torturing you all. It won't last long!

Thank you so much to everyone who commented and showed their excitement, I will happily donate to your therapy fund 😂

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For the first time since the beginning of the school year, Damian didn't wait for her at the school gates.

She tried not to let the disappointment show on her face as she waved her Papa goodbye, and continued to walk into school with her head held high. Maybe she could do it. She could get through the day without having to think about Damian, or what it felt like kissing him, or the heat of his body on top of hers…

She shook the thought out of her head.

As she took her seat with Becky, goosebumps flared all over her skin, and Anya whipped round to see that Damian had been openly staring at her. The kiss flared in her mind, and her mouth went dry. How were they supposed to pretend that nothing happened when he was so obvious?

His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously, and Damian hurriedly looked away, his face becoming ever more red by the second.

Was he thinking about it, too?

Once class had started, Anya could barely concentrate. She did everything in her power to shut off her mind, to actually try to pay attention to the teacher for once, but his gaze bore into her back, and for a brief moment she pictured being actually set on fire from the intensity of it.

What was worse, was that the class had not forgotten what happened on the school trip. Waves of curious thoughts thrashed her mind, almost like it was a coordinated assault: Are they together yet? Did they kiss or something? Damian looks even redder than usual. Anya is really acting strange today. Just hurry up already!

Anya bit her lip, and clenched her pen even tighter, and she had never willed so hard in her life for the day to just be over. She hadn't even managed to take any notes, and the blank notebook taunted her.

How did everybody know except for her? It was so embarrassing. She had really thought that she knew better than Becky, better than everyone, but they were all right, and it agonised her. How would she ever be a good spy if she didn't pick up obvious clues like that?

Anya replayed the kiss in her mind. Damian's breath was hot against hers, his hair soft in her hands, and his body so warm she just wanted to pull him closer to her. Her hands slowly mapped out his face, his neck, his shoulders, she thought just the heat of him would burn her, and she wanted to absorb as much of it as she could. Even with her eyes closed, she could picture the way his golden eyes had stared into hers with so much wonder that she didn't know what to do with it.

And then she could see herself, the way he saw her, her hair spread like a halo and heat rose in her as she realised that Damian was thinking about it, too. In an effort to hold herself back from staring at him, she gripped her pen even harder, close to breaking point.

The bell rang, jolting Anya out of the memory, and her pen slipped out of her grasp and tumbled to the floor, rolling away under another students' desk. Nobody saw it, or stopped on the way down the stairs, and she stayed in her seat, unable to hear anything except for her deafening heartbeat.

She waited until the blur of people dissipated, before she numbly left her seat, intending to pick it up, but Damian had beat her to it. He straightened quickly, and his ears pinkened, and he deliberately avoided her eyes while he thrust it gracelessly back out to her - like he was a gawky boy offering a flower to his first crush. "You dropped this."

While he was too busy staring at the walls, Anya found that she couldn't tear her eyes away from him, and she was momentarily distracted by his perfect golden eyes. Anya poorly misjudged her reach for the pen, and accidentally grabbed his outstretched hand.

Electricity surged through her, and it was like they couldn't pull away from each other fast enough. The pen clattered back to the floor and both teens froze, mortified, when the sound reverberated around the near-empty classroom.

"It's okay, I got it -"

"No, let me -"

Their foreheads collided on the way down, and Damian leapt away, pen now in his hands.

"Oh for god's sake, Forger, just take it!" He thumped it onto her desk and stormed off before anything else embarrassing could happen.

Becky watched all of this with interest, leaning her chin on one hand, and she could barely conceal her cocky grin.

Anya huffed, rubbed her bruised forehead, and shot a venomous glare at her best friend. "Not. One. Word."

It wasn't any better in the library.

Even though they usually studied together as a group of five, Damian had deliberately avoided their table, and instead led Ewen and Emile to a far corner of the room. Anya pretended not to notice that Becky and the boys had shrugged at each other, before leaning back down into their textbooks.

Their study period mainly passed by with Anya chewing furiously on her pencil (she refused to look at her pen right now), and trying not to look his way.

"You lovebirds really need to get a room," said Becky under breath. "This is unbearable."

Anya didn't even bother to dignify that with a response, and instead covered her face with her textbook, and tried her best to do some work before the next period.

Anya walked in silence with Becky on their way back from the library. She had decided that if she couldn't say anything without Becky smirking and making fun of her, then she wasn't going to say anything at all. Meanwhile, Becky was perfectly content letting Anya sit with the discomfort of the day, even humming with barely-concealed happiness.

In another effort to take her mind off of Damian and that kiss, Anya tried to run through a mental list of everything that she would need for P.E. She walked to the next class with Becky, opting to take the route through the main school building, since it had started to get much colder outside.

Anya just happened to glance out of the window.

Damian stood in the courtyard, his Imperial Scholar's cape billowing gently in the near-winter breeze, and she would have stopped and stared, if it weren't for the fact that he was alone with a girl.

Her body moved without permission, and she immediately flattened her back against the wall, hoping with all her heart that he hadn't spotted her through the window.

Unfortunately, for Anya, Becky remained standing where she was, and totally unimpressed at Anya's strange antics. "What are you doing - " she started to sound frustrated, but then she caught the view from the window, and she smirked. "Oh, this is interesting." She peered closer, apparently uncaring if they happened to spot her. "What's Alice doing?"

"It's Alice?" Anya squeaked. What was she doing with Damian?

"Oh my god, Alice is confessing to Damian!" Becky gasped, at the same time that Anya dragged her to the wall, hiding her from view.

"What?" Anya felt like she had been set on fire.

At Becky's infuriating smile, Anya pressed her lips together and stayed silent, straining to hear their conversation.

Their voices floated towards her.

"... so that's why," Alice took a deep breath. "I wanted to tell you that I like you!"

A beat, and Anya felt like she was going to throw up. What was happening? Why was this happening?

It dawned on her that Alice had remained fairly aloof with her on the field trip. Becky and Charlotte gushed about boys, Charlotte more so than Becky, even if they were both shy about it, but Alice had been… distant. Anya realised with dread that Alice had probably liked Damian the entire time, but she just hadn't said anything because Anya was there, because everyone knew that she and Damian were close friends. She remembered Emile's and Ewen's strange reaction in the morning, when they had held back from mentioning that Alice had been asking them things about Damian, and Anya honestly thought she was going to be sick.

Again, she should have seen this coming. What was the point of being a telepath if she was useless at using it?

Please say no. Please say no. Please say no. The traitorous thoughts were in her mind before she could stop them.

A dark part of her wanted to interrupt, to tell Alice to go away and leave him alone, but she viciously squashed it down. It wasn't fair of her, she knew. It wasn't any of her business. Damian could speak to anyone he wanted to. He deserved to be with someone that could make him happy. It wasn't like he belonged to anyone. And besides, Damian had already confessed to her, and she didn't do a thing about it, didn't even give him an answer, so didn't he have a right to talk to other people? More than that, Anya did genuinely want Damian to be happy, and if he thought that she had already rejected him, why would he reject Alice's confession? He could accept it, could decide that he had waited long enough for Anya, that he wanted a girl with fewer secrets, fewer problems, maybe a girl who wasn't a mess like she was. A girl that wasn't so afraid of loving him back.

"Okay," said Damian, and he sounded utterly nonplussed. "Thanks."

Anya crashed back into herself, and she was surprised to feel her eyes pricking with relieved tears. 'Thanks'? That's it?

"Sorry, but I'm not interested," said Damian calmly, and Anya could have choked from the strength of the emotions that surged within her.

She didn't want to look, really didn't want to look, but she couldn't physically stop her hand from gripping the edge of the window, and peeking through it, all the while hiding as much of her body from view as she could.

Alice clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward with a smile. "Something must have happened with Forger, huh?"

"Huh?" Surprise seeped through his voice and Damian took a physical step back. "Wha- no! Everything's normal!"

Alice stared at her shoes. "You know, I was really afraid that you would shoot me down, but I think this is the first time you let someone down gently."

Damian didn't say anything, clearly too lost for words.

"Well, anyway," Alice shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Thanks for being nice about it. Good luck with Forger! I hope you two are happy together."

How does she know? Damian's panicked thoughts radiated from him, and Anya nodded in agreement. How was it that everyone seemed to know, except for her?

Alice jogged away, leaving Damian behind, and Anya turned around, and slid down the wall of the corridor, landing with a bump on her rear.

"Anya?" Becky leaned down. "Is something wrong?"

Anya frowned, her body completely numb. She recalled something that Alice said: this is the first time you've let someone down gently.

"Becky," she said carefully, as she pulled her knees to her chest, "do people confess to Damian a lot?"

Becky stared at her, incredulous, before she facepalmed. "You didn't know?"

Anya huffed, blowing a lock of hair out of her face. Why did people keep saying that to her?

Becky sighed, sensing Anya's pensive state, and appeared to decide to go easy on her for once. "Damian gets a confession like once a week, I'm surprised you never noticed before."

Anya pursed her lips. "And he always rejects them?"

"He's too loyal," Becky muttered, and she turned back towards the window with a thoughtful look of her own. "In a way it's so romantic. He would never betray you."

Something dark settled in Anya's stomach.

He would never betray you.

He had been in love with her the whole time, and even though he had no idea if she loved him back, he never said yes when another girl confessed. It started to dawn on Anya then, just how deep his adoration ran.

And she never knew.

But she couldn't promise the same. If he ever found out about Plan B for real…

Would he stop loving her then?

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I am so sorry for yet more angst! Bear with it for just a bit longer!

If you need something cute as a pick-me-up, you are welcome to check out my other story "The Prince and the Froger", which is a Damianya Princess and the Frog AU (Damian is a prince, Anya is the frog ). It's completed, it's only 15 chapters, and its VERY cute, I promise

That's enough of a self plug for me today lol but see you in the next chapter!