Happy Friday! It's a double chapter day! I have to pop out to get more ingredients for dinner so I'll post it when I get back 😂

Also I've decided to write a mini-sequel to "The Prince and the Froger" so please do check it out if you get the chance

Enjoy!

.

.

.

"Sorry I'm late, Papa!" Anya smiled apologetically at her father before she let herself into the passenger seat of the car. Her entire body fizzed with joy, and she hoped that he wouldn't notice, or wouldn't ask about -

"You seem in a good mood," said Loid, nonchalant. "Something happen with Damian?"

She yelped, feeling her face flush on its own. "How did you know? Were you watching? Papa, you said you wouldnt spy on me at school!"

"I didn't spy on you," said Loid, and his lips quirked with a smile. "It's just written all over your face."

Anya crossed her arms over her chest and hmphed, annoyed at herself for giving it away so easily.

Loid put the car into gear and moved off, but Anya could feel his gaze occasionally flicker over to her. "So? Did you make up?"

More like 'make out'. A lot.

"Um, well," she blushed. "Yeah."

"Good, I'm glad. You seemed really down yesterday," said Loid softly, and Anya winced. She hadn't thought about how her behaviour must have been worrying her parents. After kissing Damian the day before, after he left, she had been despondent all evening, wondering what was wrong with her, wondering why she couldn't just be a normal person, wondering why Damian had been so hurt.

She knew now, obviously.

Anya smiled sheepishly. She couldn't believe how much things had changed in only the span of a few days. Two days ago they had been on the school trip, and then Damian came to her house for dinner (and she kissed him), and then only the day after that did she finally figure out her feelings and confess to him, and now they were together. Things moved so fast that it blurred the days together.

"Um, Papa, I've got something to tell you," she wiped her palms on her skirt, hoping that he wouldn't notice the evidence of her anxiety.

"What is it?"

His voice was calm, gentle, but Anya heard the slight edge to it. Years of masking his true emotions as a spy sometimes showed itself in odd ways, including the special tone that Twilight used when he was trying too hard not to sound too interested.

"Well, um, actually…"

Damian is my boyfriend. We're going out together. It's official. We kissed. It was great.

She wanted to tell him. He was her father. The man who raised her, who looked after her, who put a roof over her head and gave her a family, though it was fragile for a time. Who still had a hold over her life. As her father, she knew he would be happy if he knew she was happy, but the fact that he was Twilight, and it was Damian, complicated things. Twilight still had a mission to complete, still had a goal to achieve, and though she was afraid to admit it, Damian would be affected by the outcome of Operation Strix no matter what.

Guilt crashed over her yet again. She and Damian were officially together, and she hadn't thought for even a second how that was going to affect him in the long run. Her father would be happy. She knew he liked Damian well enough as a friend of hers, as an honorary member of the family even, but none of them could change the fact that he was the son of the target of Operation Strix: Donovan Desmond.

"So? You said you had something to tell me?"

"Um-" The words constricted in her chest.

She would tell him later, she resolved. But not now.

Anya steadied her breath, and changed track. "It's about my powers. Something happened on the school trip. I think they're changing."

Loid furrowed his brow as he considered this new information, and turned into a side street. Loid often changed the route to and from school, and he preferred to take the emptier side streets if he could.

"What do you mean?"

"There was a moment when," she took a bracing breath. "Damian heard my thoughts."

"What?" Loid shouted, and in his moment of shock, swerved on the wheel.

It was lucky that the street around them was empty, because Loid didn't end up crashing into anything, but instead braked so hard that Anya thought she would fly out of her seat.

Loid whirled to face her, nostrils blaring. "What did he hear?"

"Um-" Anya wracked her brains, trying to remember. Her father's reaction made her heart beat thunderously in her ears. She didn't think he would react like that. "I'm not really sure."

"Did he hear anything suspicious? Does he know about our family?"

"I-" she stuttered. "I dont think so."

Loid closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. "Thank God."

"Papa?" Anya ventured warily.

"Sorry Anya, I'm just thinking," he creaked an eye open at her. "Don't read my mind."

"Fine," Anya pouted. She would try her best, at least.

With her growing powers it had become more and more difficult to turn it "off" exactly, but Anya often found that the widening range of thoughts and voices that she could hear didn't do a bad job of muffling other people's thoughts. So, it wasn't that she would 'switch it off', but rather that she would focus her attention on something else, another voice perhaps, to distract her from listening into her father's thoughts.

It was a long moment before Loid took the wheel again, although his grip was significantly tighter. "If you say that he didn't hear anything important, then I trust you."

He started the car again. "But we can't ignore this. If your powers are changing, we need to figure out how you can learn to control them now. If Damian found out anything else, it would be a disaster." And then another thought came to him. "Is it only Damian that could hear your thoughts?"

"Uh, I'm pretty sure it was just him. But I have a feeling it's a new power."

"Try to remember back to that time," said Loid as he started driving away again. "What was going on for you?"

The familiar rumble of the car's engine provided some comfort after the abrupt stop, and Anya let it calm her for a moment before thinking back to that time.

"I remember… I felt so guilty about the whole Plan B thing, and I really wanted to tell him about it. I just remember wanting him to know, and wanting to tell him I was sorry."

"I see," said Loid thoughtfully.

His low tone made Anya feel nervous, and she tried her best to resist diving into his thoughts, like she usually would to make herself feel better. Was he disappointed in her that she felt guilty about Plan B? That she didn't want to do it anymore? That she actually wanted to try to protect him? That she wanted to apologise?

But if they were talking about her powers… Maybe Twilight would instead try to think about the implications of that on the mission. Or he was using his analytical thinking to reach an entirely different conclusion.

"I suspect that you unintentionally projected your thoughts to Damian, given that it was something that you really wanted to tell him. It's possible that your intentions were a key factor, and that is what caused you to project your thoughts to him."

Anya let out a breath of relief. He wasn't disappointed in her after all. He was trying to help her.

Loid's voice reached her once more. "Was there anything else? Anything else that you remember?"

"Um," Anya blushed. "Well, both times, we were… holding hands…"

A long pause.

"I… see."

His tone was indiscernible. Anya pressed her lips together, afraid of giving away her other piece of news. She wasn't sure if her father was quite ready to hear it yet, and she didn't have the courage to find out.

Whatever thoughts Loid truly had about the information she had just given him, he kept it to himself - and she let him. She couldn't talk about Damian until she knew how to break it to Twilight that her new boyfriend was the son of his target. It was a conversation for later.

"Do you think you can project your thoughts over distance, or is it only through touch?"

"Um, I don't know. I haven't done it since."

Anya stilled. That was a lie.

She asked Damian to kiss her through her thoughts. She showed him the memory of when she realised that she loved him.

"I've only done it through touch so far, but I think I might be able to do it over a short distance," said Anya eventually, in a very quiet voice.

"Alright," Loid sighed. "Here's what I think. Being able to project your thoughts will be useful for you, especially if you're going to join the agency. It reduces your reliance on radio communication, but we're going to learn how to control it."

"We are?" Anya wondered.

"Of course," said Loid, as if that were obvious, and offered no further explanation.

Anya's heart warmed. She had been so used to doing things by herself, to figuring things out herself, that she had forgotten it was possible to do it as a team. Anya glanced up at her father, her mentor, the man who raised her, and had been tasked with training her to be a spy, and gratitude rushed through her. "Thank you, Papa."

Soon, she would tell her father about Damian - maybe when he wasn't driving - but she couldn't bring herself to think about Operation Strix at that moment in time, and she definitely didn't want Twilight to remind her of the fact that no matter what she or Damian did, they wouldn't be able to escape the consequences. Maybe if she kept quiet a little longer, she could give them both a bit more time. More time to be themselves, and be teenagers, and be in love, before it would all come crashing down. Until the end of the mission, she would do everything she could to keep Damian out of it, to keep him safe - and that started with the Imperial Ball. Only Imperial Scholars and their partners could attend, along with their parents and guardians. She knew - she knew - that her father was hoping that Damian would invite her, and that would be their way into meeting Donovan Desmond, but she couldn't do that to Damian. It would kill her.

But if she was an Imperial Scholar already... Maybe that would be different. Maybe it would mean that she wasn't using Damian after all. If she became an Imperial scholar before the Ball, accomplished Plan A after all these years, it could alleviate her guilt, finally. It would mean that she could help her father on her own merit instead of relying on Damian for it.

She had to, for the sake of both of them.