I'm back! I made it by the skin of my teeth, with the longest chapter ever 😂 Thank you all so much for your patience, hopefully this chapter will make up for it. It was unbelievably difficult to write, so I don't mind if you have any critiques to share, but I wanted to write a quick note on what's about to happen...
I wanted to accelerate the plot, but I also kinda missed my older style of writing funny moments and "crack-treated-seriously", so there will be a bit of that, including some absolute DRAMA that made me laugh in my head but I have no idea how its translated onto the page 😂 Good luck I guess.
In any case, you can dive in knowing that it's going to be an absolute fucking disaster. x
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"Anya!" called Yor through the door. "Are you ready? It's almost time!"
"Just a second!" Anya called, her head half-way through her shirt.
Despite being on the receiving end of Becky's (unsolicited) fashion advice over the years, Anya had spent an unusually long time fussing on the age-old question of what to wear. Although the temperature outside had dropped significantly in recent weeks, it was still warm inside the moderately-sized apartment, so Anya pulled on a pair of warm burgundy tights, with a cream corduroy mini skirt, and a striped top neatly tucked in. She thought she looked casual, but nice, and so very much herself that Damian would definitely think that she looked cute. She didn't know anything about hair and makeup beyond Becky's enthusiastic interventions, so she just did her usual and kept her hair loose and flowing (the way she knew he liked it) and brushed on a tiny bit of mascara.
It was a casual family dinner, but it would be the first time Damian would be invited to the house "officially" as her boyfriend, and the first time that Yuri was going to meet him. She wanted everything to go as smoothly as possible, especially since the last week had been… odd.
Anya's guilt overwhelmed her, but she tried as hard as she could to squash it down around him, and hoped that he wouldn't notice that anything was amiss. Damian had also been strangely busy all week, with more Imperial Scholar duties than normal, and having to take his lunch at different hours. It had left her wondering if there was something wrong, or if something had happened.
Multiple times throughout the week she had been tempted to peer into his mind to see what had been troubling him, but Anya was already guilty enough from using Damian for the mission, and becoming a real spy, and lying to his face constantly, so if she wanted to be able to look him in the eyes, reading his mind was out of the question. (Even though she had to convince herself that it was all for the greater good, that it was all for the best, just like her father taught her, because she didn't know what else to do.) She hoped that Damian would confide in her eventually, or his Imperial Scholar duties would quieten down - whichever came first. She would be happy to spend more time with her boyfriend either way.
Thankfully, she had been able to get him alone a few times during the week, and give him a hug or a quick kiss, but too often it was over too quickly, and Damian would give her a small smile before extricating himself from her and heading back to his duties, his Imperial Scholar's cloak fluttering on the wind behind him - the last thing she would see of him as he walked away.
The smile shouldn't have worried her, but it did. It was the same kind of smile he gave to teachers when he was hiding something, that he gave to people on the Imperial Scholar's committee when he wanted something to be done, that he gave to people in his class when he wanted them to go away quickly.
The doorbell rang, earlier than she thought it would, jolting her out of her thoughts, and beyond the closed door of her room, she heard Damian and her father talking. His voice was muffled through the walls, but she could recognise it anywhere.
Anya gave herself a final once-over in the mirror, and patted her cheeks with revived motivation. If Damian's extra duties were causing him stress, then she would do her best to distract him and make him forget all about it, just like a good girlfriend would.
Besides, it was just a family dinner. It's not like it could go wrong.
Anya waited until Loid had wandered over to the kitchen, before she gathered herself and her courage and opened the door to her room, coming face to face with a flustered Damian.
"Hey," she breathed, her heart fluttering in her chest.
"Hey," said Damian in response.
He had taken the time to dress nicely as well, with dark coloured trousers and a storm grey sweater over a shirt. The colours suited him so well, but remembering her parents' presence, Anya held herself back from grabbing his collar and pulling him in for a kiss. Instead, both of her parents had bustled them into the main room with good-natured excitement and energy, and suddenly Anya was caught up in the societal ritual of accepting Damian's gifts on behalf of her family (flowers and a bottle of wine), and letting her parents direct the small talk for the next few minutes, all the while trying to keep the jitters at bay.
As much as she had been looking forward to this all week, Anya couldn't help but wonder how much of it was an act. Twilight benefitted from her involvement with Damian, but Loid was happy for her that she was with a boy that she loved. Did Twilight invalidate Loid, or was it the other way round? Was Twilight acting as the friendly father he was required to be, or was Loid putting aside thoughts of his mission for the happiness of his daughter? How would she ever be able to tell?
Anya tried to focus on her father's mind, to see what he was thinking, but Loid's thoughts shifted too fast for her to understand, like a deck of cards in a magician's hand.
Damian's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
"I'm sorry we didn't get to see each other much this week," Damian rubbed the back of his neck, looking genuinely apologetic. "Things have been so hectic, with finalising arrangements for the Imperial Ball, and exams coming up, and-"
"It's okay. I understand," Anya smiled gently at him, and interlaced her fingers with his. She would never tire of how warm his hands were, how they seemed to fit perfectly with hers. "I'm just happy you're here."
"Me too," said Damian, and the corners of his eyes crinkled into a warm smile. "I missed you," he whispered as he leaned down to kiss the top of her hair.
"I saw you every day at school," Anya giggled at his touch.
She felt Damian shake his head while he towered above her. "It's not enough," he huffed, and the heat of his breath skimmed over the top of her head.
Even though Anya had been actively trying not to read his mind, Damian's emotions spilled into her, and the warmth of it made her heart flip in place. There was a yearning there, for her warmth and her eyes, and the simplicity of it was refreshing to witness - especially after all the complexities of her current life.
Anya tilted her head up to Damian's with a sly smile. "I could always, you know, sneak in…"
Damian was only confused for a second before he understood. "As much as I would love that, I am not getting a Tonitrus Bolt just because you can't stay away from me," and he gave her an audacious smile.
"I hope you're hungry!" Yor called through to both of them, and they instinctively stepped back from each other to put some totally-not-suspicious space between them. "We've got chicken satay today."
Anya's eyes lit up. "Oh, I love satay!"
Damian rolled his eyes. "You just love the peanut dipping sauce," he teased her, but as a smile played on his face. "You're not that cultured, Forger."
"Hey!" she laughed, and elbowed him as they both walked towards the main kitchen. "I'm more cultured than you think! I even eat the vegetables!"
"Do you?" Damian raised a knowing eyebrow. "Or do you just eat one and turn the rest to mush?"
"Alright you two," Loid's laughter carried from the kitchen, before he emerged carrying a steaming bowl of coconut ginger rice in one hand, and another bowl of colourful crunchy slaw, which he set down next to the platter of glistening sticks of satay. "Enough dawdling, it's time to eat!"
Anya had not even waited for everyone to sit down before she had poured approximately half of the peanut dipping sauce on her own plate.
Damian hesitated before he seated himself at the table, but he couldn't hide the look of confusion on his face. "Is your uncle not coming?"
Yor took the bowl from Anya, and carefully wiped away the dripping peanut sauce from its lip before she answered. "Yuri said to start without him, since he has to work late today."
"Oh no, what a shame," said Loid, indifferent, but he laughed when Yor admonished him with an under-the-table kick.
"Hey! He's still my brother!" Yor clipped him with her words, but she couldn't hide the smile emerging on her own face. She knew that her husband and her brother didn't exactly have the best relationship, and it had been a source of tension (and amusement) for the last twelve years.
"Papa and Uncle Yuri don't like each other," Anya pretended to whisper to Damian, but she smirked at Loid the entire time. "They only tolerate each other because they both love Mama."
Damian didn't know what to make of this. So did other families hate each other, too?
"Love is about making sacrifices," Loid said seriously as he speared his fork through the meat.
"That's right!" Yor joined in enthusiastically, raising her glass of wine. "If you love someone you have to be willing to sacrifice someone for them!"
"That is not what I said-," Loid said emphatically, but Yor didn't hear him.
"Especially if they have enemies," Yor continued happily, oblivious to Loid's warning tone.
Anya leaned closer to Damian, and faux-whispered "She's joking!" in his ear, before she glared at her mother. "Right, Mama?"
"What?" Yor said innocently, and her wide eyes could have looked harmless if they weren't so red. "Killing as a last resort can be an act of-"
"Mama!" Anya exclaimed, panicked. "Nobody said anything about killing!" And to emphasise her point, she slammed her palm down on the table, a move that made the glasses rattle sonorously.
"Oh!" Yor held her hand to her heart, her eyes flicking nervously between Damian and the other Forgers. "Please excuse me, of course that was… a very bad joke…"
Damian paused, a forkful of rice halfway to his mouth. He cleared his throat, and turned his attention to Anya's father, much in the same way that a practised politician would smoothly ignore any untimely interruption. Better not to address uncomfortable questions, and change the subject if possible.
"Dr Forger," Damian started, and then gathered himself to ask the question that he had been pondering all week. "I've been thinking about our conversation of you both teaching me self-defence. I think I'd like to take you up on the offer."
"Oh really?" Loid raised his eyebrow, a singular sleek curve that could look professional and aloof, but Anya knew the truth. Her father was impressed. He waited for Damian to continue.
"I've been finding Mrs Forger's lessons rewarding, and I think it's important to learn. Not just to protect myself, but also…" and he gave Anya a sideways glance. "If you get taken by the lab again, I don't want to be useless like I was last time."
"You weren't useless!" said Yor immediately, and the strength of her words had him taken aback. "You figured out who was the spy in your school and gathered the intelligence needed to track him down. If it weren't for you we would have never learned about who took Anya!"
Damian looked away, a blush high on his cheeks. "It was nothing. I just didn't want Anya to get hurt."
"Of course you didn't-" Yor smiled at him, possibly about to encourage him for his investigative skills, but Loid interrupted her.
"You figured out he was the spy?"
Damian felt Anya stiffen beside him, and he felt the inexplicable urge to reach for her hand, reassure her in some way - but he didn't know what for.
"Uh," said Damian, lifting his eyes to Loid. "Yeah, I did."
Loid leaned on the table and folded his hands in front of him. "I'd be interested to hear how you did it."
"Papa," Anya said in a warning tone, and narrowed her eyes on him. "We're having dinner. Maybe we should talk about something else?" The end of her sentence betrayed her nerves, and Anya left it on a much higher pitch than she meant to.
Loid waved her away, his eyes focused on Damian. "Go on," he nodded encouragingly at Damian, who swallowed under Loid's intense stare, all the while he could feel his girlfriend clenching her entire body beside him, clearly nervous.
Damian felt that he was missing some important piece of information, but all he could do was clear his throat and answer the question, all the while trying to maintain even eye contact.
"I figured that it would have to be someone who needed to get close to Anya, but I thought that a generic position was too broad. Housekeeping staff like cooks and cleaners can move through the school easily, but they wouldn't be able to get close to her for any good length of time. I had wondered if it could be a teacher, or a parent, but we didn't have any new teachers for a while and there aren't enough day pupils at the school for a parent to justify making contact with Anya.
"The best way that a parent at the school could keep an eye on another child is if they send their kid into the same year, but that would mean taking the entrance exams at the same time since it's rare that we get additional students coming in through the other school years. We only had one new student enter into our year and they came into Cecile Hall, so he seemed like the obvious suspect."
Damian said back, and wiped his hands on his trousers. All that talking under Loid's discerning gaze had made him sweaty, and it was difficult to parse where the tension in the room had suddenly come from. He couldn't quite escape the feeling that he was under some sort of examination.
"After that, it just made sense…" Damian's voice petered out as he said it, and he reached for the glass of wine in front of him, not because he was thirsty, but he needed something else to look at, something to distract himself with.
So it was a relief when Loid next spoke. "It takes talent to use your intelligence flexibly like this. You seem to have a knack for investigation." Although the words were complimentary, Damian couldn't dismiss the feeling that they contained a hidden edge.
Damian swallowed a mouthful of wine, and let the complex taste coat his tongue. He didn't know how to follow up on that conversation, and he sensed from Anya's discomfort that it would be wise for him to change the topic, so he cast his mind back to an unfinished question from earlier. "So uh, about that shooting lesson…"
"Oh yes, we did agree that we would make time for something like that, didn't we?" Loid dabbed at his mouth with the napkin. "Then how about tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow works," Damian nodded eagerly, and he felt Anya's body sag with relief. He briefly wondered why her parents seemed to stress her out so much at times, since he had only ever seen them joking together, or acting like how he imagined a normal family would act, but he thought back to how he had seen Ewen and Emile act with their parents on occasion. Maybe it was normal to be stressed?
After that, conversation seemed to flow a lot more easily - much to Anya and Damian's relief, and it wasn't long before they had emptied their plates. Damian was always surprised by how good the Forger's food was, especially since he was so used to fine dining from an early age. Somehow, theirs was always better.
Damian joined in the efforts to clean the place, and while Yor and Loid put the leftovers away, Damian brought plates and dishes to the sink, while Anya collected the last remaining glasses from the table.
Throughout the entirety of dinner, Bond had been quiet in the corner of the living room, but he padded over to Anya and pawed at her legs.
"What is it boy?" she smiled as she scruffed his ear fondly, and Bond barked, as he had done all her life when he was about to have a vision. Without even thinking - as instinctive as breathing - Anya automatically tuned into his mind.
Yuri, his face contorted with the special kind of distaste that he saved only for Loid Forger,
"You're my sweet sister! You would never hurt anyone!"
He turned to Loid and whipped out his pistol, aiming right at Loid's face.
"You put her up to this, didn't you? You did because you're a fucking spy!"
He didn't wait for Loid to answer before he pulled the trigger.
Crash!
Shards of glass shattered across the floor, jolting Anya from the vision. She stared numbly at her empty hand, where she had held her glass until just a moment ago.
Time stood still as both of her parents stared at her with open concern, and as they bustled around her to clean up the pieces with careful hands and reassuring smiles, Anya realised something so crucial that she kicked herself for not addressing it before:
She forgot to tell them about Bond.
"Anya, are you okay?" said Damian, his hand already on her shaking shoulders, trying to steady her. "You kinda spaced out there for a bit."
"I'm-" her mouth went completely dry, and she glanced between Damian and her father, trying to decide what to do. She didn't need to read minds to hear the question in theirs. "I'm fine," she said, but her wobbling voice betrayed her.
She just watched Yuri try to shoot her father. There was no way that she would let that happen, but she couldn't exactly warn her father about what she saw while Damian stood by, maybe if she could get him alone before Yuri arrived -
She jerked up her gaze to her mother, who had finished sweeping the glass away. "When did you say Uncle Yuri would be here?"
But almost as soon as the words left her mouth, a familiar presence registered in the corners of Anya's mind, and all the moisture vanished from her mouth.
Knock knock knock.
"Oh!" exclaimed Yor as she tidied away the dishes. "That should be him now! Anya, can you get the door?"
"S-sure," Anya's voice trembled, and so did every muscle in her body.
Another knock at the door, and Anya swallowed as she closed her hand around the doorknob and pulled it slowly open.
"Hi, Uncle Yuri-" she said as the door swung inwards, and then her eyes blew wide like saucers when she uncovered the full scene before her.
Yuri wasn't alone.
Anya bared her teeth. "You."
Anya heard the sound coming out of her mouth, but it didn't sound like her - far too deadpan, like all the emotion had been sucked out of her, and at the same time, she couldn't move, or blink, or tear her eyes away from the boy standing with Yuri.
Of course she couldn't hear him coming.
"Uh, hello," Adrian gulped, unable to meet her eyes, and he gripped the strap of his satchel with both hands as Yuri unceremoniously pushed him inside, and closed the door behind him.
"Do you two know each other?" Yuri's eyes darted between the two in clear confusion, but Anya couldn't hear a single noise over the roar of her blood rushing in her ears, crashing through her like a tidal wave, and the pressure built, higher and higher until it snapped.
"YOU!" she screeched, and she lunged.
Her fist collided with Adrian's face, knocking him to the floor, and he spun on impact. In one second he had gone from standing rod-straight before her, anxious and sweating, to pressing his hand to his aching jaw as he lay flat on his back.
"Anya, no!" Somebody shouted, and she honestly couldn't tell who it was, but she had stopped caring. She was on the warpath. Anya geared herself up for another attack when two arms looped through hers from behind, holding her in place.
"Anya, stop! He helped us!"
"You bastard!" Anya screamed again, and she twisted against Damian's hold, but he held her secure. "Let me go! I'm gonna make him pay for what he did to me!"
"Adrian?" Yor gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"Who is Adrian? Another cousin?" wondered Loid.
"Uh-"
"What is happening?" Yuri exclaimed, and in a blunderous attempt to regain understanding of the situation, he blurted out the only thing he could think of that had his teenage niece so riled up. "Did Damian cheat on you or something?"
"Wh-what! No! I would never-" Damian spluttered, his face already red, and Anya took that moment while he was distracted to break out of his hold.
But, she didn't aim for Adrian again, and instead she met the shocked stares of everyone around her as she whirled to face everyone in turn, understanding slowly seeping through her. Her father, her mother, Adrian, and now even Yuri…
Embarrassment flooded over her. "Did everyone know Damian likes me except for me?"
A group of collectively guilty faces looked back at her, while Damian's face reddened. "Was I that obvious?" he mumbled more to himself, but when no-one replied straight away, Anya's embarrassment only escalated.
"Seriously?"
Too much had occurred in too short a space of time for everyone to process what had just happened, and as the silence stretched on for a moment too long, Adrian was the first one to speak, blurting out the first thing that came to mind.
"You didn't know?" he gasped, rubbing the spot on his cheek where Anya punched him, and he slowly stood to face her, his face frozen with incredulity.
Yuri's calculating gaze ricocheted between his niece, and his assistant, clearly still trying to assess how the two could possibly know each other (on apparently such personal terms), and then his gaze landed on the very confused Damian.
"Oh, did you finally confess?" he concluded. "Good for you, man. Honestly we weren't sure if you ever would!" and he slapped Damian heartily on the back for good measure.
"Um," Damian squeaked, and the flush rose higher in his cheeks, deepening in colour. "Actually, she… figured it out. About three weeks ago."
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Adrian shouted and threw his hands in the air, clearly so incensed that he had obviously forgotten that he was a guest in someone else's house. "You only figured it out three weeks ago? After twelve years?!"
"Oh, what is it now?" Anya scowled at him, not bothering to hold back her resentment. "First you send me back to the lab, and then you turn up at my house with my uncle, of all people! What are you playing at? What do you want from me?!"
Adrian gaped at her, his irritation rising by the second. How could a seasoned telepath be so oblivious? It was almost insulting. "How could you not know that he is in love with you? He's obsessed with you! He only thought about you ALL THE TIME!"
"Um-" Damian tried to interrupt, but it was too late. There was nothing that he could say to undo the damage to his (accurate) reputation.
"Well not around me!" Anya exploded, sick of Adrian's interference and visible judgement. "His thoughts are too confusing! How was I supposed to know unless he would just think clearly for once or even better, say it out loud?!"
And as soon as the words left her mouth, all the air vanished from her lungs. After twelve years of being so careful, hiding the truth about herself for so long, she had made a terrible, irrevocable mistake.
"You can read minds, too?"
Loid and Yuri met each other's eyes, not sure who spoke first.
"You know about that?!" they both blurted, and then paled as one, as the consequences rattled through both of their minds at the same time:
If Adrian can read minds, then he could find out I'm a -
If Anya can read minds, then she could find out I'm in the -
Yuri's brows drew together as he puzzled something out in his mind. "Hold on a second, if you can read minds too, then that means…"
Both Adrian and Anya froze. Uh oh…
Yuri dragged his gaze up to Anya, and it clicked into place. "You're the missing file! You're Test Subject 007!"
A wash of cold flooded over Anya, freezing her into place, and her chest tightened with the effort to breathe. How could it be that after twelve years of keeping it a secret, her Uncle had figured it all out in an instant?
This was bad. This was really, really bad. In all the commotion, Anya had almost forgotten about Bond's vision, but if the unravelling of secrets continued, it could lead to the scene she saw earlier on that evening, it could lead to the moment when Yuri would reveal Loid was a spy, when he would pull out his gun and destroy everything in an instant.
And yet, how could she stop it? What could she possibly do to stop the snowball from rolling and destroying everything in its path?
This wasn't what was supposed to happen. None of this was -
Loid held his hands up as if in surrender, a careful movement to appear non-threatening and unassuming. "Now, now, let's all just take a step back-"
Yuri's expression twisted into a snarling smile, and in half a second he had taken a powerful stride closer to his oldest enemy. "Oh ho ho, I knew there was something fishy about you! If Anya is Test Subject 007, then that means she isn't your biological daughter, and that means that this whole time you've been lying to my beloved sister!" He pointed a slim finger, experiencing a premature rush of victory as intoxicating as the opened wine. "What did you need to adopt a child for, hmm? Mister 'I'm a normal family man with a daughter look at me I'm a better man than you ever will be!'"
"Now, that's taking it too far," Loid's hands stayed up, and he kept a smile on his face, but even Anya could see that it was strained and slipping. "We're jumping to conclusions here, I would never-"
And somehow, Damian had broken from his state of frozen shock, and was the next one to interrupt the verbal car crash unfolding.
"Wait a minute," he said more to himself, but he had accidentally captured the attention of everyone in the room. "The files from the lab are classified, they were taken after the incident by the SSS, and if you know about it, then -"
Damian's whole body had turned to lead, almost too heavy to move, but he managed to stay standing as he regarded Anya's uncle, who had frozen in plain fear, and the realisation that he had been compromised.
Damian's words tore through Yuri's secret like a bullet.
"Are you in the SSS?!"
Now it was Yuri's turn to sweat, as his eyes darted nervously between every living being in the room, completely caught off guard at being found out so soon, and so quickly. "Who, me? Uhh, n-no-"
"You're in the SSS?"
That voice.
No-one could stand up to that voice. A voice made hairs stand on end, sent a chill running through spines, and strangled the air in the vice-like grip. That voice was the culmination of millions of years of evolution, reminding all within earshot that they were only made of flesh and bone, and that if a predator chose to hunt them down, then they wouldn't stand a chance.
All turned as one to Yor Forger.
She had spent the first half of the chaotic exchange watching helplessly, wondering how such an unprecedented level of chaos had happened in such a short space of time. How could this be happening? Her brother was supposed to be there for dinner, it was supposed to be a normal family affair, and then he had called to say he would be late, and then he had brought a child with him -
Not just any child. Adrian. Who knew that she was an assassin, who had both condemned Anya to the lab, and helped to rescue her from it.
And clearly, Yuri knew about Adrian's telepathic abilities, and if what Damian said was true, then it meant that her own brother was -
Rage leaked out of her voice, paralysing all who heard her. "You dare accuse Loid of lying to me, when you've been doing the same thing this whole time because you're in the SSS?!"
Then it was Loid's turn to feel smug, and the tiniest corner of his lip curled upwards in a victorious smirk. If the spotlight was off him, then all the better…
If Yuri was considered pale before, he whitened completely as all blood drained from his face. Combined with his red eyes, it gave him an almost vampiric appearance - but instead of looking haughty, or arrogant, or vicious, or dominating, Yuri looked like he had just been slapped across the face.
"I'm sorry, sis!" He bawled. "I didn't mean to hide it from you! I just - I'm just so grateful for what you did for me growing up and I just wanted to hide this dirty work from you because I just wanted to make this world better for you and I didn't want you to ever know!"
Yuri's earnest admission stunned her, and for the first time in her life, she saw her little brother through a different perspective. She had tried her best to raise him, to provide for him, to look after him, and all this time, he had been hiding his true self, just like she had been hiding hers.
Truly, they were Briar siblings.
Tears rose to her eyes and Yor took a step forward, clearly moved, and no one could take their eyes off her as they waited for her reaction. Noone would dare to interrupt in any case: Damian had no idea what to say but he wanted to find out what was going on, Loid didn't want to draw any attention to himself, and Anya felt paralysed to the floor, horrified at the thought that Bond's vision could be coming closer and closer and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"What would that matter to me?" Yor exclaimed, genuinely confused. "If you did dirty work, then so did I! I only wanted to raise you as best as I could!"
At that, Yuri burst into tears.
"You're just the best big sister ever! I can't tell you how much I appreciate everything you did for me, I know about the massage parlour, and I don't blame you-"
Yor turned as red as her jumper. "M-m-m-massage parlour?! Is that what you think I did?"
Damian turned as red as Yor. What on earth was happening? And why did he feel as if he was watching a train crash?
Meanwhile, Yor appraised her family in front of her, the people that she cared most about in the world. After twelve years, Loid had finally learned of her deepest secret, and he didn't judge her for it. More than that, he respected her, admired her even, and Yor's love for him had only grown. Anya knew what Yor was from the beginning, and she chose her as her mother, chose to bring her into this family, and for that Yor would be forever grateful.
And then there was Adrian - who knew about her past, and didn't let it decide what he thought about her. He worked together with her to rescue her daughter, and respected her desire to keep it a secret.
Yor's gaze finally travelled to Damian, who stood appalled and speechless, and unsure of what to do, and she softened. Didn't she already decide that she wanted to tell him her story? Didn't she promise him that she would do her best to welcome him into the family?
It was her story, her secret, hers to share.
And in that moment, Yor made her decision.
"Actually, Yuri, I wasn't talking about working in a massage parlour."
After twelve years of marriage, Loid recognised his wife's signs, and at her determined tone he jumped instinctively forward, his arm outstretched. "Yor, no-"
Yor gathered herself in height and in confidence, and stood proud as a lion, solid as a bear, graceful and deliberate as a serpent.
"I meant as an assassin!"
In the wake of her admission, Anya couldn't help but feel a surge of pride at her mother. She knew from experience how much courage it took to admit a secret so huge, that it was a core part of your identity, in the same way that she knew how much weight was lifted to have that kind of secret revealed after being imprisoned for so long.
Gratitude rushed through her, for her mother revealing this secret of her own will, so she had one less thing to hide from Damian -
Anya froze.
Damian.
Would he believe her? Would it change his love for her? Would he hate her for keeping it from her? Would he ever be able to look at her parents again? Would he break up with her?
"WHAT?"
Damian and Yuri made surprised eye contact, both as shocked as each other, both feeling like the ground had crumbled beneath them, but while Yuri's brain felt like it had stopped working, Damian's was working overtime to try to piece everything together: If Mrs Forger is an assassin, then is Dr Forger-
"Please excuse my wife!" Loid finally bustled himself into the foreground, and started to manoeuvre Yor to a sitting position. "She's had a bit too much to drink, and is getting very worked up, so why don't we all-"
"I haven't had any alcohol!" Yor declared, and swatted at Loid's hands on her shoulders, firmly shooing him away.
"Yor, what are you doing?" he hissed at her, and though he sounded angry, in that moment Damian could see Loid for exactly what he was.
Scared.
A light flush rose in Yor's cheeks, perhaps the only outward sign of embarrassment, but she held her stance strong. "Oh, calm down! Three people in this room already know, including you!"
Damian had never seen Dr Forger at a clear loss for words before, but it wasn't like he was any better. All of a sudden, nothing made sense, and the world had changed around him, shaking him to his core.
Loid's voice was desperate. "Yor, please, let's talk about this-"
"No!" The word burst out of Yor like a shockwave, so strong that it silenced every person in the room. "Anya's not the only one in this family who is sick of keeping secrets! Damian is part of this family now, and he deserves to know!" She glared at her husband meaningfully, a secret message between them, and a light burned behind her red eyes, intensified by her passionate outburst.
"What about me?" said Yuri. "Were you ever going to tell me?"
Yuri had intended to get his sister talking, telling him the truth that he now so desperately wanted, but when Yor rounded on him, Yuri quickly learned that regaining her attention was, in fact, not a good thing.
"Oh, like you were going to tell me about being in the SSS?" Yor snarled, and he took a quick step back, but the look of fear on his face gave her pause.
Her brother, whom she had raised, had wanted to protect, had grown up without her, had found his own path without her help or guidance, and while both of them took on difficult jobs to protect the ones they loved most, they knew it was far too heavy a burden to place on the other.
It was much easier to keep going, keep it all a secret, than admit the truth.
"I was scared!" it burst out of her, and in that moment, everything that Yor had held back for almost her entire life came flooding forward.
Yes, she was telling the truth when she said that she was sick of keeping secrets. Secrets had been weighing on Loid, on Anya, on the entire family, and Yor already wondered if they were all starting to crack from the pressure of it. Secrets were like poison, and if Yor knew anything from her assassin training, it was that poisons needed to be expunged.
Although, she never imagined that she would reveal herself like this. Even though she had already told Damian that she wanted him to know her story, she had never pictured telling Yuri, because his approval meant everything to her. But if she could get it all out, expunge the poison, then maybe it could be better for all of them - even if Loid disapproved.
Yor dropped her voice low, and let the truth flow out of her.
"You were so young," she started, her eyes glazed in remembrance, "and I didn't know what to do when our parents died. I used what little they had left us to buy food, but it wasn't enough, and because I couldn't keep up with the tuition, the rent, the bills, we were going to lose everything. I already had to drop out of school to keep costs low, but I couldn't do that to you. You were my responsibility, and I had to do what I could. So when the Garden approached me…"
Yuri staggered on his feet. His sister was an assassin for the Garden?
"I couldn't say no. It was too good of an opportunity, and I already promised myself that I would do whatever I could to raise you properly and to keep you in school, so that you could grow up with better chances. You could have a different path to me, but I decided that I would bloody my hands so that you would never have to, that you would forget what it was like to be at war…" A memory passed over her like a shadow, and Yor shuddered from it.
It looked like she wanted to say more, but Yor's entire body shook from the fear of revealing herself for the first time, and she swallowed a sob.
The air had been sucked out of the room, and all struggled to breathe after Yor's powerful statement.
A sniffle broke the silence.
Yuri stared at his sister, his eyes wide and watery, and dragged the back of his hands across his eyes, trying to wipe away the never ending tears. "All this time," he sniffed, "you did all that for me?" He bawled even harder. "You were fighting so hard for me, and I never knew! You were really looking out for me because you're my…" he hiccuped. "You're my…"
Yor patted him awkwardly on the head, and Yuri fell into his sister's arms with a loud sob.
Twilight wondered if he had escaped his turn under the microscope.
Anya let out a huge breath of relief. If Yor could tame Yuri like that, maybe it wouldn't lead to an awful disaster like she feared. Maybe she would be able to relax.
Damian had never seen a grown man cry like that before, and he wondered if he should be embarrassed to have witnessed it.
Yor patted her brother on the back while he sobbed into her shoulder, and she gave a small smile to the shocked (and clearly still afraid) Adrian, who had backed up against the wall behind him. "I have to thank you as well, for keeping my secret, and for not telling anyone about me."
Just as fast as Yuri had begun crying, he spun out of his sister's arms and directed his wrath towards Adrian with laser focus.
"You knew?!"
"Uh…" Adrian gulped, and beads of sweat slid down his forehead. "Well, er, it's not like I ever, um-"
"You KNEW and you didn't TELL ME?"
"It seemed unconnected! I didn't think it was important to mention!" Adrian snapped. "I didn't know that she was your sister!"
Yuri looked as though he had been slapped in the face. "My… sister…"
And while his eyes glazed over with something that looked like disbelief, Anya felt her muscles tense once more, and she readied herself for what could come next. Was it happening? Was Bond's vision going to come true?
"You're right. My sister…" said Yuri distantly, and he slumped forward, exhausted, his eyes so vacant that he could have looked like a shell of himself.
It reminded Damian of a horror movie, the moment before a demon's possession.
In the following silence, Loid felt that he should take control of the situation - but he made the mistake of speaking. "It's been a hard time for all of us, why don't we just-"
And then Yuri's shoulders started to shake as a breathy laugh escaped him, and both Anya and Damian froze from the fear that gripped them. Yuri's laughter grew in volume and distortion, until a maniacal laugh had all but possessed him.
"OF COURSE!" Yuri covered his eyes as he laughed. "How could I have been so blind? You're my sweet sister, you would never hurt anyone, so how could you be an assassin? This is all just a practical joke, right?"
Even Yor started to look afraid. "Yuri-"
"You're my sweet sister… so you would never hurt anyone!"
"Uncle Yuri, no!" Anya screamed, but she had acted too late.
Yuri's gun appeared in his hands, too fast for even Damian to see how it got there, and he aimed it directly at Loid, already cocked and ready to fire at any second.
Nobody moved. Nobody dared.
"You put her up to this, didn't you?" Yuri seethed, his face contorted with rage despite the tears that flowed freely from him. "You did because you're a -"
Anya knew she had to do something. Knew she should have prepared. A real spy should always be prepared.
Instead, she completely panicked.
"Bond can see the future!"
Everyone whirled to Anya and reacted at the same time. "WHAT?!"
And as Yuri turned, distracted, his finger slipped.
BANG!
If the dramatic family confrontation caused the air to splinter, the gunshot shattered it, and nobody spoke a word in its' aftermath, all breathing heavily and staring wide-eyed at Yuri, who stared at his own hand in horror, as if in disbelief that it went off without his permission - or realistically, while he was too stressed and distracted to have full control over it.
Anya's distraction was enough that it had pulled Yuri's attention temporarily away from Loid, and his aim followed suit. Loid stood alive, unharmed, but the hole in the wall behind him smoked ominously.
Anya quietly took stock of the scene before her. Yor had bravely positioned herself to stand between Yuri and Loid, while Damian had taken a step back from the scene and moved closer to the door, in horror at what he had just witnessed and heard from everyone in the room. Meanwhile, Adrian had cowered behind Yuri, covering his face with one hand, presumably still in pain from Anya's punch to his face.
It was exactly at that moment that there was another knock on the door.
"It's Mrs Merkel," Anya whispered, and the Forger's froze, unsure how to handle the situation with their nosiest neighbour.
Loid cursed out loud. Mrs Merkel was the only neighbour that he couldn't easily charm in twelve years of living at the apartment, and his confidence in smoothing over her suspicions after a literal gunshot sounding was at an all time low. His usual smooth charm and pleasantries were usually met with stiff gruffness and highly intrusive questions, so he had spent most of the time trying to avoid a conversation at all costs.
In short: he saw no way that this was going to end well. But Loid was the master of the house, so to speak, and the host of the Forger family dinner, so it was his responsibility to -
Damian held his palms together over his nose and took a deep, transformative breath. "And SCENE!" he shouted, loud enough to be heard from outside, stomped the short way over to the front door, and swung it wildly open, startling the old woman on the other side of it.
"Yes, can I help you?"
Mrs Merkel blinked rapidly behind magnifying eyeglasses, making her look quite owlish and with very large eyes. On a good day, when she wasn't wearing her heeled boots, she would reach Anya's shoulders, only because she would lean so far forward as she peered into your eyes to interrogate you, but faced with the shining scion of the Desmond family, she found that the sheer glow of this beautiful young man made her reel backwards in awe.
Her mouth open and closed a few times before she was able to speak: "Actually, I was wondering, er, if you needed help at all, because, er, there are some awfully loud noises coming from-"
"My apologies," said Damian smoothly. "But it's difficult to get some practice done when the actors don't know their lines!"
Damian turned to look over his shoulders and fired everyone a look which said something along the lines of 'everybody shut up I'm handling this and if you say a word outside of the script I am giving you then we are all absolutely fucked, and the pressure behind his gaze was so intense that everyone else swallowed down their discomfort and allowed him to take the lead in cleaning up the mess that they themselves had laid out.
Damian sighed dramatically and flicked his hair, unaware that Mrs Merkel had just been hit by a wave of invisible sparkles, and redirected his full attention to the adults in question.
"I mean," he started and gestured to Yor. "You delivered your lines with emotion and meaning, but you need to work on your timing!" And then he turned to Loid. "Stop trying to slink into the background! You think I don't see you?"
And finally, he pinched his nose in a dramatic huff, before he pointed out Yuri. "And YOU! Do you expect me to believe your performance? Far too melodramatic! This character is meant to be emotional but not a literal child! Honestly!" He flicked his hair back with a flourish, unintentionally sending more invisible sparkles to the dazzled neighbour.
A small voice piped up from behind Yuri. "What about me?" said Adrian, clearly wanting to be included.
Damian pressed his lips together, his patience started to break. "I just don't like your face!"
There wasn't enough air in the room for Anya to suck in a breath to laugh.
Just then, loud footsteps echoed up the stairwell, accompanied by the resonant voice of Hugh: "Master Desmond! I heard a gunshot, are you-"
He rounded the corner with a gun in his hands, ready for action at all times, only to be met with a withering stare from Damian himself - fiery enough to silence Hugh immediately, and force him to slow his steps.
"It wasn't a gunshot," Damian forced his voice to sound even while his mind buzzed, trying to think of some reasonable excuse. "It was a, er-"
A melodic voice in his mind supplied a quick answer. A prop!
"A prop," Damian said confidently. "The replica noise is very effective."
While Hugh did not look very convinced, Mrs Merkel took an appreciative step back to consider the story presented to her.
"That's quite interesting, I've never heard of something like that before," she said thoughtfully. "What's the name of the play?"
"Er," said Damian, and his brain whirred frantically to come up with another lie.
A family of spies!
"A family of spies," Damian mindlessly repeated, and only actually processed the words once he said them out loud. He sent a panicked glare to Anya over his shoulder. That's the worst name ever!
"Well, it sounds very interesting," said the neighbour earnestly. "I'd love to come and see it when it's ready?"
It was an effort to remember his theatrical persona (how did people do this?), and Damian threw his hair back dramatically to maximise the distraction. "At this rate, there won't be a play!" He cried out in something resembling a strangled sob, fanning himself theatrically. (Anya had turned her face away, red from holding in her laughter.)
After some time, Damian managed to successfully usher the neighbour away (and reassure Hugh in the process), and he leaned against the back of the door with a heavy sigh, the resonant click of the door being the only sound in the shockingly silent apartment.
Hurricanes had torn through cities with more grace, and left fewer casualties than what was left in the Forger residence. Every person except for Anya stayed frozen in shock, drenched in adrenaline, eyes wide open and jaws dropped in various shades of admiration and revelation, all staring at Damian. If he had the power to read minds, he would have heard the collective murmur of approval at managing to dismiss the neighbour and protect them all in the same breath. Anya heard all of this, and a swell of pride burst in her chest.
That being said, the members of the Forger-Briar family alliance also had a collective fear that pulsed through the air and swirled in an invisible vortex: what is he going to do?
What will happen to them now?
He could destroy them. Not just because he was a Desmond, the name carrying power that he didn't even know he had, but because they had unwittingly given him the ammunition to do so. Damian Desmond, Imperial Scholar and scion of the Desmond dynasty, held the fate of every Forger in his hands.
Damian had no idea what had just happened, and he would probably try to process it all later, but a small voice in his mind told him that every person in the room waited for him, that he needed to make a decision of some sort.
He marched towards the table, and everyone reactively pulled back as one, but Damian swept past Loid and aimed straight for the drink in front of him. He swiped the neat whisky and downed the entire contents in one gulp, not even reacting to the burning fumes at the back of his throat, set it down with a solid clunk, and leaned both hands on the back of the chair.
"Alright," he started, his voice ragged from stress and the burning alcohol. Suddenly the stunned silence of the apartment suffocated him, and he knew that it was time to get some air. "I'm going for a walk," he huffed, and turned sharply away, striding towards the door.
Anya was the first one to break out of her frozen state. "I'll go with him," she declared, and shoved on her shoes and coat, not even bothering to fumble with the zips and laces, and she swung the front door open.
She was halfway through it, before reversing quickly back into the room. "You better sort yourselves out by the time I get back!"
The door slammed shut behind her, leaving behind the remaining survivors of the disaster.
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The planning for this chapter was so complex that I needed an actual DIAGRAM to keep track of everything, those who follow me on Twitter might have seen me post about it back in March... (I would link it but FFN doesnt allow that!)
I've planned the next chapter but I havent started writing it yet, so my update might be on Sunday instead! I have a busy week ahead, but if I have it ready earlier then I will post it 💕
ALSO. I know you've been dying to know. I had a fantastic holiday. I went to a Celtic music festival with my friends in the West of Scotland and my partner of 6 years proposed to me on the edge of a cliff and I said YES anyway I am now currently ENGAGED so expect me to never shut up about it