Thoughts ahead about Damian and Anya
anyway. the more i think about it, the less sense it makes for Anya to ever reciprocate Damian's feelings. at least, for what we've seen in the show and manga, he does not register as "a boy" or "someone to be romantically involved with"
One, for the obvious reason that she's like 4-5yo.
Two, for the fact that Damian has been mean to her (with moments of sincerity sprinkled in between). overall her impression of him is not good, but because she knows he's important, she'll continue pursuing his friendship, to the misunderstanding of all those around her.
okay hold on, i had a thought that is redeeming Damianya in my mind.
If their current state of affairs continues, Anya will continue to have no reason to like him, even as she matures and starts being able to have romantic feelings for people.
Because, for starters, Damian is mean to her and is prone to over-reacting when Anya does something that makes his heart race. overcompensating the fluffy feelings with verbal negativity. So even if Anya could read his mind, his thoughts and his words are complete opposites. Which would confuse her.
And you might think, "why would they confuse her? Loid thinks different things than what he says all the time and she gets it!"
the thing with Loid is that Loud is purposeful in his actions. so even when he verbally lies, he knows he is lying which lets Anya know that he is lying.
i think Damian, because he wants to doubt and deny his feelings, his actions are sincere reactions to his thoughts. he's conflicted and confused about his thoughts, so Anya is confused about his thoughts.
Not to mention that we dont know, as an audience, if Anya can "read" people's emotions as they come to them. We only know for sure that she can read their thoughts.
So though Damian's emotions feel positively tiward Anya, his thoughts-in those moments-definitely do not.
for sure, Anya is highly emotionally intelligent. we've seen her read people's minds and deduce how theyre feeling, often offering them pats to soothe them. but this onky shows that she can understand people's emotions through their thoughts. does that make sense?
anyway, the only possible way that Anya could reciprocate Damian's feelings (if he ever comes around to admitting them to himself before he simply Gets Over them) is through the power of proximity.
People tend to develop crushes on those that they spend a lot of time with.
Alternatively, i can imagine Becky trying to describe Love to Anya, and telling her that "you know youre in love when you think about them all the time!"
And Anya being shocked because she thinks about Damian all the time (for the sake of the mission in becoming his friend) so is she in love with him? and then confusingly going along with the notion that maybe she is in love with him (even if she's not) simply because of that one thing.
Then, because she has it in her head that she's in love with Damian, eventually she actually falls in love with him.
Truthfully, i still dont ship Anya/Damian (Anya/Ken my beloved) but their relationship IS a very interesting dynamic.