The Damianya Anthology 2 - Damianya Week 2023

Chapter 2: Surprise gift (Peanuts)

A happy childhood is the best gift you can give to a child.

But Anya's case had been very curious. She had gone through many traumatic experiences in that testing lab where she had been treated like a lab rat. Horrible experiences with extreme study supervision, and a place where she had no time to have fun or talk to anyone. She escaped to try to find a quiet childhood, unsuccessfully and being rejected by many families until she found Loid and Yor. But even so, her life was chaotic and having a spy and an assassin for parents was far from easy after being a kidnap victim and a hostage in a terrorist operation.

Anya always doubted whether she would be able to live a normal life with her family and at her school. All she wanted was a day where she could smile in a more genuine way, be the center of attention and have her parents live happily and embrace her wholeheartedly. For her friends to celebrate with her and play all day long, those were her heart's desires. She just wanted those two things in one day to be considered a perfect day.

Until finally, a day came that she was sure could bring a smile to her face. Her birthday.

Her first birthday within the Forger family. She knew her parents were going to buy her a cake and go for a walk with her because she had read their minds days before, she knew she was going to celebrate her day like a normal girl. Or at least that's what she thought, it depended on a lot if some terrorist group didn't make an attack that day.

But Anya couldn't get one thought out of her head. A lie that did make her feel bad. She was currently going to be 5 years old, not 7 according to public records. She knew that her age was a lie, but she couldn't say anything because she didn't want her family to have a problem with it, plus at that moment on the orphanage, she wanted Loid to adopt her. And the funny thing was that she didn't even know if that day she had said was her birthday. She just said a random day to Loid, and he thought that day was the right one to celebrate with her.

And it made sense. Throughout her life in the lab, she'd never had the opportunity to celebrate a birthday party. Not until that moment, at least. That made Anya noted that day to remember in her school notebook, knowing that she might be wrong. Still, she wanted to be optimistic. It was a day where she was going to party and be happy.

Her day started off beautifully. As soon as she woke up, Yor greeted her with a hug, saying how nice it was to have her in the family and mentioning how proud she was of her accomplishments. Although it was a bit of a tight hug that almost broke her ribs, Anya was happy that her mother greeted her the first minute she got out of bed. Then Loid arrived to give her a hug and tell her how happy he was to have her by his side; mentioning how nice it was to have her as a member of the Forger family. She greeted them both with the same reaction; an innocent smile and jumping excitedly on her bed.

Bond just jumped on Anya and licked her face as a way of saying "happy birthday", which Anya accepted warmly. Once she brushed her teeth and put on new clothes, the family gathered for a special breakfast. Peanuts with jam, a combination the girl enjoyed eating early. The day had started well for her, no interruptions, just enjoying their family time.

But she had spoken too quickly. An hour later, Loid was called in to receive a new side mission. The spy knew he couldn't leave the place without some clear excuse, especially knowing that he had promised Anya that he would be by her side on the day. But he knew that, if he didn't go out to fulfill that mission, world peace would be at risk. So, he did what he did best. Lie.

He told Yor and Anya that the cake he had ordered was already there to be just picked up from the bakery, but the place was a bit far from home. He said it was the biggest cake in the world for the girl to enjoy on her birthday, and that was enough for both to believe him and know that he had to leave for a moment. With that taken care of, he could go out without worrying them too much, plus, it was a target observation mission. No fighting, so he wasn't going to leave any trace of what he was going to do.