Operation 007 (SpyxFamily)

Chapter Four

Damian saw them before they saw him.

Blackbell and Forger walking together just ahead of him and his friends who kept on either side of him.

Emile talked about the next assignment and how much he already knew about the subject but Desmond only half-listened. He was watching Anya's hair shift colours in the sunlight. Like highlights of pinky-orange and orange-reds scattered perfectly along her thick locks. They blew subtly in the gentle breeze, as if they were all trying to catch the morning sun on them just right.

It wasn't that he thought it was pretty. No. Her hair was just so glaringly bright and obvious, it was hard not to look at it. It was like looking at a blank canvas with a random splotch of colour in the centre. It was hard not to see it.

And then he noticed.

Blackbell was having a conversation with Anya. Forger was nodding and chirped up occasionally to let her know she was listening, but she wasn't. Not really.

Blackbell, so fixated on whatever she was talking about, didn't catch Anya glancing up at the roof of a building. To a grove of trees. Then side to side looking for who knows what. Then to the roof again.

'What in the. . .' Damian thought, glimpsing up at it too. Seeing nothing.

Anya suddenly stiffened, spun around. Her wide eyes stopping Damian in his tracks.

"W-what?!" He stuttered, taken aback by the panic briefly flitting across her face. Gone in an instant.

She didn't answer. But she noticeably relaxed as she continued walking. Becky giving Damian a glance before joining her.

Damian bore a hole in the back of her head the rest of the way. Anya had really started to freak him out the past couple days. She always seemed to know when his attention was on her. Like the other day in class. Like just now. Other times too, now that he thought about it. But lately it's been really obvious. How does she always manage that?

And her behaviour! She's been acting funny all week. All squirrelly and jumpy, It wasn't like her. He didn't know what she could possibly be so nervous about. Not that he cared.

...

...

...

...'Was this why she had been ignoring him?' He inexplicably asked himself.

And again. As if on cue. A small hand lifted to the back of her head. Absent-mindedly as Anya cast her gaze about the grounds once more. Then froze, realizing what she was doing. Yanked her hand back down. Caught up to Becky who hadn't noticed Anya had faltered behind.

Damian's breath caught. Did she just. . .

No. He was staring at the back of her head. It wasn't strange when a person could feel someone's eyes on them.

.......'Oh. . . I suppose I do tend to look at her when I'm thinking about how annoying she is.' Damian reasoned. It explained the few times Anya caught him looking at her in class. But it was still freaky. It was unsettling. Maybe it was a sixth sense.

—————

Anya's shoulders relaxed. A breath she didn't know she was holding, released once she entered the school. Ensconced safely inside.

Feeling less vulnerable, she could turn her attention to Damian.

She hadn't even noted his presence earlier until he specifically thought words in his head, so focused was she on keeping tabs on the agents. Anya had thought one of them had taken off their device to sneak up on her. They were almost more obvious with them on. And then she remembered they would have no way of knowing that.