Responses
It's definitely giving forced playmates XD and it is awkward for Anya to befriend someone a year or two older than her when he's got a blatant crush on her—she clearly shows how uncomfortable she is, so seeing how their future will develop will certainly be interesting.
I feel torn rooting for Anya x Damian.
On the one hand, it's cute they're developing a strong friendship as children so that if they end up together, there will be a strong basis for their feelings (even though Damian thinks he might secretly be in love with Anya right now, his denial and overall tsundere-ness is helping him continue being relatively himself around her which is ideal for any partnership, whether it's a friendship or romance).
What I love most about this couple is that they both often see each other at their worst but at least in Damian's case, he still obviously cares about Anya afterward.
Still not 100% sure about poor Anya—she's basically forcing herself to tolerate and be kind to Damian because she thinks it's crucial for world peace or will please her father.
In that regard, Damian's love is technically more sincere... except his impressions of her courage, etc. are based predominantly on actions she made herself take in order to get recognized by him, which shouldn't sit well with most shippers.
Anya forcing herself to try to like him and get him to like her feels kinda like couples forced into an arranged marriage (making it hard to root for her getting with him).
I'll need go back and find the parts from previous chapters that Damian was thinking about during the dance scene from this latest chapter (to see if what he recalls were genuine moments of kindness, courage, etc. that Anya demonstrated vs. her trying to look tough).