FANFICTION

SPY X FAMILY

Guiding Star

CHAPTER II : Sunlight and Butterflies

A few days ago, in a dark alley of Berlint '

Two figures dressed in trench coats and wearing wide hats stood in a dimly lit alley. The one that just arrived took out a file from inside his coat and handed it out to the other man.

'This is your new target. Our client is adamant that the target must be captured alive and well. You will find further details and instructions in the file. '

The tall and sturdy man opened the file. He didn 't show any emotion, any shock when he saw the photograph of his next target. But when he read the short summary of information, the slightest tremble took over his hand.

'What sort of ' ' he mumbled.

'You must confirm that this is the right child before taking any action. It 's essential that you confirm it before anything is done. '

' 'Very well. It might take a while before I can take the next step. '

'Do whatever is necessary. Our client can be patient. They even provided tools to help you for your mission. '

'Understood. '

***

Eden Academy, on a bright September day '

The voice of the teacher had faded as background noise as Anya got distracted. Chin resting on her palm, she was watching the birds ' nest in the nearest tree of their foreign language classroom. If their professor had noticed her distraction, he didn 't say anything. It was barely the first week of high-school and she was already bored out of her mind, and so were her classmates if the thoughts she occasionally captured from them was any indication.

The birds were chirping. The sky was blue. The sun was bright. War had been avoided and peace had never been easier. Everything was fine, right?

So why did she feel like an imminent disaster was about to turn her life upside down?

A shiver ran along her spine, and she instinctively turned her attention towards the intense thoughts that were plaguing her. Her eyes met Damian Desmond 's. Caught staring at her, he immediately turned away, a light flush on his cheeks. Her own face heated up at the attention. Worse, she felt a surge of annoyance within her when he frowned to himself and focused all his mind on taking notes. Notes that he needed to take

that many

notes. He was an Imperial Scholar, after all.

Anya turned back towards the blackboard, feeling the heavy weight of the eight Stella Stars on her chest. As proud as she was, most of her Stella stars had not been earned from scholar accomplishments. Professors kept repeating she was too easily distracted and she had potential she hadn 't met yet ' She blamed it on her powers of Esper. As useful as they were, more often than not, they had become a real plague when puberty had hit ' not only her powers got stronger, but in addition to her hormones, it made life in Eden a daily struggle. At the beginning, she would hear

so many

thoughts, so many

dirty

thoughts, so

loud

, that she became overly sensitive. There was a point when almost daily, she would collapse, have a nosebleed, or in the best-case scenario have a sensory overload. For the first time in her life, she felt more relief than panic when she was shutting her powers down, although learning to control that little trick had required more practice than she would have expected.

She had stopped relying on others ' thoughts for her own exams many, many years ago, but she still had the bad habit of checking into others ' minds. Just to make sure she was right of course, but it wasn 't cheating, not really. Right?

After several years of re-learning to control her powers and developing her skills, she had a near-perfect control of her mind-reading abilities. The only times she still felt

titillated

was when someone she was close to had very strong feelings or thoughts, about anything really, and it happened often with Becky, her parents, or other friends, but there was only

one person

who, no matter how well her mind-reading abilities were shut down, he would always catch her attention. She guessed it was a testimony to how strong

his

emotions were towards

her

.

Not that she let it distract her from her goal. Just like he didn 't let his feelings distract himself from his own objectives, quite different from hers. Really, it was almost funny that after so many years, their paths, so aligned, had almost diverted so often but they were always brought back together no matter what.

The alarm rang and all the students stood up to go on a well-deserved lunch break, ignoring more than ever their teacher 's desperate plea to read the next chapter by next week. The call of food was far stronger than their teacher 's voice.

'Anya-chan, wait for me! ' Becky called, still sitting at her desk.

Anya turned around and bumped into a tall figure. She gasped and stepped backwards, flushing lightly, although she couldn 't tell if it was out of embarrassment or annoyance. Damian looked down at her.

'Watch out where you go, ' he mumbled, hurrying past her.

His lackeys followed him with cocky grins. She glared at them over her shoulder, then rolled her eyes when they were out of sight.

'What happened between you two? ' Becky asked when she reached her friend, 'You still haven 't told me why the two of you are bickering so much more since we started high-school. '

'

Nothing

happened, he just started glaring at me out of nowhere! ' she exclaimed as they slowly made their way to the cafeteria.

Becky stared at her, unimpressed, pressuring Anya into giving an answer. She tried to ignore her best friend 's eyes, barely surviving the burning in it.

'I really don 't know what I did to him! ' Anya exclaimed, throwing her hands to the ceiling.

'Then, if it 's so frustrating for you, why don 't you just confront him about it? It 's not like you to let things slide like that ' '

'I ' he 's avoiding me ' ' she mumbled.

Although, if she were entirely honest with Becky, she would also add that she hadn 't really tried to go after Damian to figure out why he was avoiding her in such a determined fashion. And if she were entirely honest with

herself

, Damian 's whole demeanour probably had something to do with the last time they had been alone together, just a few months ago '

'It 's just strange, it seemed like you two had gotten much closer last year. And then we come back, and he acts like you have the plague. ' Becky continued.

'I might as well have ' ' Anya mumbled, glancing down at her shoes.

'Mm? What was that? '

'Nothing, just muttering to myself. '

'Not very elegant, Miss Forger, ' Becky said with a bad imitation of Pr Henderson.

Anya immediately started laughing, loud and exuberant as always. Many students turned around to watch her, eyes wide at such an unlady-like behaviour. Becky smiled to herself, proud to see her friend smiling again.

'Should we have lunch in the courtyard? The weather is still so nice at this time of year! ' Anya asked.

'What a brilliant idea! '

After they got their lunches, the two young women made their way to the courtyard where, despite being early September, the weather was still deliciously warm. Many students had decided to do the same, sitting on benches or sprawling on the grass and enjoying the sunlight. They were still standing in the shadowed arched hallway that gave directly on the courtyard.

'Look who 's here now! '

Anya and Becky turned their heads to see Damian, Emile and Ewen who had apparently decided to go outside as well.

Damian and Anya exchanged a quick glance, and he quickly avoided his gaze to look forward.

'The weather looks like it 's getting gloomy. Let 's go back to the dorm, ' he said.

'Uh? What are you saying, boss-man? ' Ewen asked, blinking as he watched the bright blue sky.

'There 's enough space for all of us, Sy-on boy, ' Anya intervened with a (slightly forced) smile but no one but Damian caught on it.

He gave her a suspicious glance.

'It 'd be a shame to escape inside, when we already spend so much time in the building! Look at that wonderful sun! ' she exclaimed, jumping off the hallway stone into the grass, stepping backwards to talk while still facing her friends.

She spun around, her skirt lifting a little at the movement. She spread her arms, taking a deep breath.

'This is such a beautiful day to be alive! '

A dead man suddenly fell heavily at her feet.

Anya gasped, stumbling backwards.

Becky hissed in shock. Then she screamed. And all the other students followed suite when they saw the broken corpse on the grass. Ewen and Emile quickly ran away in one direction, half-dragging Damian with them. All the students screeched, going away from the sunlight, the grass, the courtyard now tainted with blood and broken bones.

Anya could only stare, wide-eyed, at the body that was laying in all the wrong angles at her feet. Blood was seeping into the grass, into the dirt, into her shoes, but she couldn 't move, frozen by shock.

He must have fallen from the roof.

She looked up but she was blinded by the sun and couldn 't see anything but the red tiles of the rooftop. No window was open, no figure was seen. A few butterflies flew around, ignorant of the horrible event that just took place. There was nothing that could indicate that anything was wrong in the world ' but then why was there a dead man at her feet?

'Anya! Anya!! '

She jumped when someone grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away from what could be a potential crime scene. She looked over her shoulder, somehow even more shaken to see Damian Desmond pulling her away from the corpse, rather than looking at the corpse itself. He grabbed her arm and pulled her, further and further away from that horrifying scene.

Panicked professors just started rushing out of the building to see what had happened.

'Professor Henderson! Professor! ' Damian called when they noticed the flabbergasted Head of Cecil House standing at the edge of the scene.

'Miss Forger! Oh, you poor thing! Are you injured? ' the professor asked, looking her up and down quickly.

'I 'm fine, ' she answered automatically, blinking at the sudden mid-darkness of the hallway after being so long in the sunlight.

'I 'll take her to the infirmary, ' Damian decided.

'Yes, please, do that, my boy. I 'll be here very soon! '

Professor Henderson hurried to one of his colleagues to quickly discuss the disaster that had just occurred.

And just like that, Damian 's hold on her arm became both softer and firmer. He didn 't look at her, but he guided her inside the hallways, ignoring completely the hushed and shocked voices of the students who barely noticed them, morbidly fascinated by the death scene just a few meters away.

Anya looked down. Her blood-soaked shoes were leaving traces on the pristine marble floor. A memory flooded to her before she could control herself. She looked up and for a short moment, she was much shorter, much younger, and the person taking her away was much taller, with much larger shoulders, with blond hair.

And just like so many years ago, Anya shrieked and pulled away from the man 's hold. She fell into herself, as round and tight as a ball, incapable of looking up, incapable of seeing anything but the blood under her feet that was following her, sticking to her, haunting her.

'Anya! '

Damian 's voice was faraway and foggy. She had no right to see him, to hear him, to stand anywhere near him when the blood under her feet was his '

'Anya! '

Damian grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently enough that she woke up from her dreadful memories. She looked up, eyes wide, breathing a little short and uneasy. She blinked. The blond hair and blue eyes faded to muddy brown hair and forest green eyes.

Her breathing relaxed.

'Sy-on boy ' '

'Are you okay? That was ' you 're in shock. ' He said, matter-of-factly.

He swallowed, and she perceived a hint of worry and distress on his face. She was tempted to listen to his thoughts, to cocoon into it, but she knew what images would haunt his mind, what sounds would repeat themselves, again and again. She knew what she 'd hear, and she couldn 't bear to have double the vision that was already haunting her.

She didn 't listen to his thoughts, but before she could say anything, or find any control of herself back, Damian scooped her up in his arms. She gasped, holding onto his shoulders and blushing.

He had barely hesitated, he barely trembled as he carried her the entire way towards the school nurse. She could feel the weight of his arm behind her back, the grip of his hands. One against her ribs, just under her breasts, the other against her thigh.

Her heart was beating fast and strong as a drum. The first reminder that she was alive and well, after all. And if she focused, she could almost sense his heartbeat, as frenetic, vibrating from his chest into her entire body.

It was the closest they had ever been, the most touched she had ever been. And not for the first time in her life, she cursed puberty and those distracting hormones for disturbing her so much in presence of Damian Desmond. Pressed against Damian Desmond.

In the arms

of Damian Desmond, more precisely.

And before she knew it, could think of it, could feel anything but shock, warmth, and giddy happiness (terrible timing for that last one to make a way into her heart, she had just seen a man die!), they had arrived at the infirmary.

The nurses must have heard what had happened in the courtyard because they immediately checked on Anya, pulling white curtains to cut her view from Damian, sweating a little from his effort, while another nurse took the young man into another bed for a check-up of his own.

The nurse took her pulse and Anya was painfully aware that it was still far too quick to be normal or healthy, but thank goodness, the nurse attributed it to the shock of what the young and innocent girl had just witnessed (if only they knew what else she had seen in her life). Anya knew all too well that the reason for this unnatural heartbeat was standing just on the other side of the curtain.

Stop it, stupid heart, be more mindful of what happened today. You shouldn 't be so happy! She

thought to herself.