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Prince Prat

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Merlin offered his sister his arm as they crossed the drawbridge and she accepted it. There were times when Merlin wasn't a complete dollophead. He could be rather sweet . . . on occasion, of course. Once they were on the dirt path again, Merlin brought them to a halt.

It seemed there was some sort of training exercise going on. Nerissa assumed the young men standing about were knights, judging from the armour they wore. They seemed to be throwing knives at a target for practice. Boys and their weapons.

When Nerissa was younger, she had once asked her mother why she couldn't carry a sword. Her mother told her it was men's work. Nerissa didn't like that explanation. She had asked Merlin to teach her, but Merlin didn't even know how to properly wield a sword or throw a knife. He had never been taught. That was probably something a father was supposed to teach their son. But neither Nerissa nor Merlin had ever met their father and their mother never talked about him. And if Nerissa ever brought him up, her mother would just say that her father would love her. She always wanted more answers.

But part of it was, she wanted to learn to protect herself. Magic wasn't much appreciated or it was illegal. And while she loved her brother and trusted that he would do whatever he could to protect her, she wanted to be able to do it for herself. What was the point of trying to be independent when one couldn't even protect themselves?

Nerissa was drawn from her reverie when Merlin elbowed her. "See something you like?" he teased.

She scoffed. She'd been so focused on wanting to learn to fight that she hadn't even seen something she liked. Besides, they were just boys being boys. Although the ring leader of the bullies, correction - knights, seemed to enjoy antagonizing the poor boy holding the target. He was making him run with the target while he was throwing knives at him.

While Nerissa was sure many-a-lady found the boy throwing knives to be quite handsome, Nerissa was purely impressed by his knife-throwing ability. Part of her hoped that he might teach her to throw like that, or at least one of the knights. Then again, what knight would teach a girl to fight? They wanted all the glory for themselves, saving damsels in distress and all. No, she best not risk asking for his help. She'd only end up embarrassing herself. Maybe Gaius knew something that could help her.

Merlin tensed beside her, balling his hands into fists.

"What's got you all hot and bothered?" Nerissa asked.

He shook his head and folded his arms across his chest watching as another knife was thrown. "What he's doing is wrong. This is plain wrong. Someone's got to teach him a lesson. He can't just do that do people simply because he feels like it."

"And that someone is you?" Nerissa arched an eyebrow.

"He's a bully, Nerissa." Merlin looked at his sister in disbelief.

"I have eyes, you know. I can see what he's doing. But Gaius said to keep out of trouble." While Nerissa wasn't overly fond of rule-following, she knew when she ought to and this definitely seemed to be one of those times. They couldn't go around getting in trouble on their first full day in Camelot otherwise they might be on their way back to Ealdor or worse. Thoughts of yesterday flashed through her mind.

The boy carrying the target fell to the ground and cowered behind it. The bully turned to his friends and then threw his head back and laughed. His fellow knights joined in the laughter.

Merlin looked at his sister rather pointedly. "Gaius said to refrain from using magic. He never said anything about talking to help someone in need." With that, Merlin left Nerissa's side and began walking toward the scene.

"Not again," Nerissa muttered.

Merlin was always getting in trouble for stuff like this back in Ealdor. It was part of the reason Mother sent him to live in Camelot with Gaius. Merlin always tried to stand up for the unfortunate, which while being rather admirable, was also rather stupid. Merlin always seemed to do or say the wrong thing which goaded the bullies on and he always always ended up using his magic. Her brother was nothing, if not predictable.

Nerissa had a feeling this would go much the same. Only he might need much more tending too afterwards. He had never gone against a real knight before. "Merlin, come on," she hissed for only her brother to hear, hoping that for once in his life he might see reason and decide against the action he was about to take. But Merlin, being Merlin - chose that opportunity to not listen to his little sister.

"Hey, come on, that's enough," Merlin told the bully

Nerissa nervously tucked her hair behind her ears and chewed her bottom lip. She folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot. The bully said something to Merlin, but the blood was beating so hard in her ears that she couldn't quite make out what he said.

"You've had your fun, my friend."

"Do I know you?" the bully, whom she assumed to be a knight, asked as he strode toward Merlin. Nerissa couldn't help but wince slightly at the knight's facial expression. Clearly, he wasn't amused by her brother.

"Err - I Merlin." Typical Merlin, he did a very Merlin thing to do and held out his hand for the knight to shake. Again, the knight didn't look very amused. Then again, Nerissa wasn't very amused by her brother's antics at the moment either.

The knight stopped in front of Merlin, refusing to accept Merlin's hand. "So, I don't know you."

"No," Merlin responded as he lowered his hand.

The knight arched an eyebrow. "Yet you called me friend."

"That was my mistake."

"Yes, I think so."

"Yeah, I'd never have a friend who could be such an ass."

Nerissa looked at her brother dumbfounded as he turned to walk back toward her. And he wondered why he always got in trouble with people when he went and said stupid things like that. But Nerissa thought herself better at reading situations than her brother.

Merlin had almost reached her when the knight spoke once more. "Or I one who could be so stupid."

Merlin stopped in his tracks. Nerissa shook her head at her brother, silently trying to persuade him to forget about the idiot goading him.

But the knight wasn't done. "Tell me, Merlin, do you know how to walk on your knees."

Her brother started to turn toward his antagonizer.

"Ignore him," Nerissa pleaded with her brother, nervously playing with her hair once more.

"No," Merlin responded.

At first, Nerissa wasn't sure to whom he was responding - her or the knight. But her question was answered when Merlin turned to completely face the knight - he was responding to both of them.

"Would you like me to help you?"

"I wouldn't if I were you."

The knight laughed. "Why? What are you going to do to me?"

"You have no idea."

By this point, Nerissa was at Merlin's side. She needed to stop him before things really got out of hand. "Ignore him, Merlin. Let's go back to Gaius."

The knight, whose armour wasn't shining, turned to look at her. He carefully scrutinised her from head to toe, but Nerissa didn't back down, having experienced such a thing plenty of times in the past. His eyes then met hers. "Who are you? His girlfriend?" the knight asked.

Nerissa snorted. "That's the stupidest thing I've heard out of your mouth yet." She meant to whisper those words, but they came out a little louder than she meant and she immediately regretted them. Perhaps she was a bit more like her brother than she cared to admit.

Quickly, to cover up her words before he could process what she had said, Nerissa explained loudly, "I happen to be his sister. Now, c'mon Merlin. Let's go before you do something else stupid." She tugged at her brother's arm.

"Sister? You take orders from your sister then, do you?" The knight threw his head back once more in laughter, the other knights joined in chorus.

"No, I don't." Merlin hissed as he pulled his arm from her sister's grasp and stood tall, nearly nose to nose with the knight. Nerissa tugged her brother back a few steps. Merlin managed to untangle himself from his sister once more.

The knight chuckled. "Are you sure? From where I'm standing, it looks like you do. What kind of man are you to need your sister to protect you?"

"Merlin. Ignore him," Nerissa said through gritted teeth with her hands on her hips."Please." Normally, he wasn't this stubborn when she told him to stop. Something about this knight seemed to rile him up."

"If you're man enough, Merlin, be my guest." The knight stood there with his arms wide open, practically begging Merlin to come at him. "Come on!"

"Don't do it," Nerissa pleaded.

"Come on!" the knight taunted her brother.

Since her words seemed to not affect her brother, Nerissa moved to stand in front of him to make eye contact with him to tell him that he'd better not try anything. But Merlin, who looked like he was trying to hold back his anger, kept his eyes on the knight.

The knight, knowing he had Merlin's attention, taunted him once more. "Come oooooon! Show me you don't take orders from a girl."

Merlin couldn't resist the final taunt. He pulled his arm back to swing at the knight. Nerissa started to move to place herself between the knight and her brother. The knight hadn't expected her to move, so he moved to block Merlin's advance, but he accidentally first struck Nerissa. His blow sent Nerissa staggering and stumbling backwards.

Nerissa twisted her ankle and tripped over the discarded target. With a scream, she fell in a heap to the ground. Tears immediately began to well in her eyes, but she refused to look weak in front of that knight. He was nothing more than a pompous and arrogant prat. But she soon found out otherwise when she looked up, holding tightly to her ankle.

Merlin's arm was pinned behind his back by the knight. "What did you do to my sister?" Merlin seethed as he tried to wiggle out of the knight's grasp.

Nerissa tried to mouth to Merlin that she was fine, despite the pain when she pressed around her ankle and in her shoulder where she had been struck...and in her bottom from landing so roughly. But she'd be fine.

"You ought to be a little more concerned with yourself, Merlin. I'll have you thrown in jail for what you just did."

Merlin scoffed. "Who do you think you are? The king?"

"No, I'm his son, Arthur." With that, Arthur jerked Merlin's arm, bringing him to his knees.

Nerissa's eyes widened in horror as tears still stung and her mouth gaped. Son of the king? That prat was the prince? Prince of Camelot? More like Prince Prat. She made eye contact with her brother once more. He looked at her rather sheepishly. He certainly had gone and made things worse, messing with the prince of all people.

"Guards!" Arthur called.

Immediately, two guards came running to Prince Arthur's side. "Take him away!" their prince ordered. With that, they each took hold of one of Merlin's arms. Merlin attempted to fight them off, but they were both much stronger than he was. They then led him toward the castle

Merlin turned and looked over his shoulder as he was being led away to see his sister, looking rather helpless on the ground. "Please see my sister gets to Gaius safely! You lot help damsels in distress, don't you? That is your thing, isn't it?" he shouted before disappearing on the other side of the drawbridge.

Arthur rolled his eyes. The other knights all dashed to be the first to her aid, but Arthur held his hand out to stop them. They immediately halted, some of them tripping into each other. All of them were quick to come to the pretty girl's aid, but Arthur, for reasons he couldn't quite explain was curious about the creature on the ground before him.

"Are you alright?" Arthur asked, crouching down in front of her. His tone seemed gentle enough, but Nerissa doubted he truly cared. He smiled at her. It was a rather charming smile, one that was sure to make most girls' hearts start beating rapidly. But Nerissa was in no state to fall for such charms.

"You have eyes, don't you? Does it look like I'm alright?" Nerissa snapped as she nursed her throbbing ankle. She paused for a moment before adding, "My lord."

Arthur scoffed to himself at her addition but chose to ignore her derision. "Your ankle?"

"And my shoulder where you struck me," Nerissa made eye contact with him and narrowed her eyes at him. "Never knew a prince to strike a girl. For all you know, I could be a lady of high standing."

"Are you?" Arthur arched an eyebrow, taking note of the simple and worn clothes in which she was dressed.

"Not that I'm aware, but still it's a principle, isn't it? You shouldn't go about striking girls, especially ones you've never met."

"I didn't strike you on purpose!" Arthur argued. "You placed yourself in that position. So really, is the fault, not yours?"

"Always that quick to blame someone other than yourself?"

Through gritted teeth, he said, "I'm trying to help you."

"Doing a really bang-up job there, aren't you?"

"You can't talk to me like this. I'm..."

"The prince. I heard. I have one thing in my defence though, pain makes me terribly crabby. My brother knows all about that. You could ask him, but you've had him carted off to jail, haven't you? It looks like you're just going to have to take my word for it." Nerissa paused babbling for a moment but then continued. "Would you really throw a girl in jail for being crabby? If you did, your jail would be awfully full of women with many monthly repeat customers would be my guess." She was much more like her brother than she ever would admit.

Arthur stood back, too stunned for words. He had never met anyone quite like this creature before him. It was almost refreshing to see someone able to talk so freely with him. Almost. It was obvious she didn't come from money, judging by her clothes, but she certainly was pretty enough. Her blue eyes were especially mesmerizing. Despite never having met her, he could have sworn he had seen her somewhere before. Something about her seemed very familiar to him, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Nerissa rolled onto her knees, rousing Arthur from his thoughts.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, furrowing his brow quizzically.

She blinked slowly at him as if it should be obvious what she was doing. "I'm trying to get up. Unless you're planning on carrying me all the way to Gaius's quarters. Which we both know you're not going to do, m'lord." She scoffed at the last sentence, knowing he would never do such a thing. Nor would she want him to. At the moment, she wanted to get as far away from this prat as she possibly could.

Arthur reached out a hand. "Let me help you."

"I'm perfectly capable of doing this myself, thank you very much." She kicked back both her feet and immediately winced at the pain radiating from her left ankle. But she refused to let such a prat as the one in front of her help her.

Taking the weight off her bad ankle, Nerissa lifted it into the air. With her good foot, she tried to hop forward on it, but her skirt got in the way. Not caring much for propriety at the moment, Nerissa finagled her skirt so that she could hop her foot forward until she was in a position to force herself into a standing position.

Once she was standing, she wobbled a little before she carefully brought her injured ankle down. Arthur looked somewhat impressed by the now-former damsel in distress. He stood up. It was then that Nerissa realised Prince Prat practically towered over her. He probably had nearly an extra foot of height on him compared to her.

"Can you walk?" Arthur asked.

Nerissa scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Of course, I can walk."

She moved to put weight on her injured ankle, but that was a terrible idea. Instead of standing tall, she buckled on the weight. She collapsed, falling forward right into Prince Arthur. Thankfully Arthur was quick and he easily caught Nerissa to keep her from falling to the ground. Nerissa's head was pressed against him and his strong arms wrapped tightly around her. She flushed. Not in excitement, but embarrassment.

"Can't have you falling for me," Arthur said with a grin on his face, clearly intending his words to be taken more than one way. It was obvious he was used to having the ladies swoon at his every word. But Nerissa wouldn't be one of them. Not after what he had just done to her and her brother.

Nerissa rolled her eyes as she was still braced against him. She then looked up at his face. "Do girls actually fall for that?"

Arthur looked at her completely baffled by her response. That should have worked. That always worked. It had never failed him yet. Why hadn't it worked on her?

"Now, if you'll release me, I'll be going," Nerissa told him. She pushed herself away from him and steadied herself, reluctantly with his help before he lowered his arms.

Arthur scoffed. "I have half a mind to just scoop you up and carry you."

"You most certainly will do no such thing."

"You can't tell me what to do," he told her with an arched eyebrow. Who did she think she was telling him what to do?

"I believe I just did sire." With her last word spoken rather acrimoniously, Nerissa began to hop away from him.

Arthur rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure why he let her act like that in front of him. Perhaps he felt the least bit bad for contributing somewhat to her injuries. Or perhaps it was because he found her rather brave. Maybe it was because she didn't fall for his charms like all the other girls. A combination, perhaps? He wasn't quite sure.

Nerissa made it no more than several yards when she hopped a little too far and her foot slipped from beneath her. She landed in a heap on the ground, her face smacking the ground rather hard. People were laughing at her expense. Nerissa groaned. Feeling something wet coming from her nose, she wiped beneath it with her hand. Blood. Great on top of everything else, now she had given herself a bloody nose.

But she refused to look back at Prince Arthur to see if he was laughing at her or not. He probably was. She wouldn't put him past such a thing. She pushed herself onto her knees and began to crawl. If she had to crawl the entire way there, she would.

Arthur had been laughing. The sight had been very funny. But after she started crawling, he had to admit he was impressed. Most girls he'd met would have given up by now and begged for help. There was certainly something about this girl that intrigued him.

Honestly, he debated just letting her crawl all the way back to where she was going. It would have been far more entertaining. But something burned inside him. He knew she would rather him leave her alone than help her and right now, he didn't want to do as she wanted. He was the prince. He did as he wanted and people didn't tell him no. So, he reached down and picked her up. He easily swung her over his shoulder, despite her protests, trying to squirm free.

"You're a tiny stubborn thing, aren't you?" he chuckled.

Nerissa attempted to wiggle free of his grasp, but it was to no avail. She was tempted to hit him until he put her down, but she didn't want to be jailed with her brother. That might be a worse fate than her current situation. Instead, she hissed at him. "Put. Me. Down."

But Arthur wasn't going to take orders from her any longer. "No."

Nerissa scowled. "Put. Me. DOWN!"

"I told you. You can't tell me what to do. Besides, you're too small to put up much of a fight."

"Put me down or-or I'll scream!"

Arthur shrugged. "Go ahead. They're not going to help you. They take their orders from me. The only one that can help you is my father, but that would require me to take you to him. Which I won't. Looks like you're stuck."

Nerissa grumbled to herself. She wiped the blood from her nose once more as she looked around. They were making quite a scene. People were laughing and pointing at them. She looked up at a castle window. At least the two girls standing there looked at her sympathetically. But that was all the sympathy she managed. Being held against her will on the prince of Camelot's shoulder was utterly embarrassing.

She sighed before she addressed him once more. "If your aim was to embarrass me, you've thoroughly accomplished that task."

While she didn't hear him chuckle, she felt something of a rumble beneath her from her spot perched on his shoulder. Arthur nodded to people as they walked as if he was carrying no more than a sack of potatoes, not that he had ever carried a sack of potatoes in his life. Nerissa still wore a scowl on her face with her cheeks aflame.

Arthur readjusted Nerissa on his shoulder. His hand got a little too close to her bottom for her comfort. "If your hand moves any farther north, my brother won't be the only one jailed," she threatened hollowly, not truly wanting to be jailed with her brother. Not that he needed to know that.

Nerissa was almost relieved when they reached the stairs to the physician's quarters. This was almost over. "How exactly were you planning on managing the stairs?" Arthur asked.

"Very carefully," Nerissa retorted, which made Arthur laugh. Arthur smiled to himself. He rarely found women amusing. But there was something about this one. Not that he'd tell her that. He was a prince after all.

Arthur didn't bother to knock on the door to Gaius's chambers. Instead, he opened the door and called for the physician. Gaius had been reading something. He quickly jumped from where he had been seated and rushed over to Arthur and Nerissa.

"What's happened?" Gaius questioned.

"Her ankle," Arthur said.

Nerissa groaned. "I'm perfectly capable of answering him myself. I am the one injured after all."

Arthur turned his head to look at her with an arched eyebrow. Gaius was also looking at her with a similar expression. She sighed. "My ankle," she mumbled.

"Where on earth is Merlin?" Gaius questioned, looking behind them out the door.

Arthur opened his mouth to speak, but Nerissa managed to answer before him. "Prince Prat here's had him jailed."

"Nerissa!" Gaius gasped, his eyes wide. "That is no way to speak to..."

Arthur held his hand out toward Gaius. "I'm sure it's the pain talking, Gaius. She's told me as much already. Isn't that right?" He patted her rump.

Nerissa scowled before she managed to get a yes out through gritted was as if he was purposely trying to do everything she told him not to. Arthur smiled at Gaius.

Gaius nodded his head. In all the years he had known him, he had never seen Arthur take an interest like this in someone before. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

After several moments of silence, Nerissa could take no more. She tried to wiggle free. "Now, if you'll just put me down, Gaius and I will see to my ankle," she told Arthur. But Arthur didn't loosen his grip on her. If anything, he tightened it as he looked at Gaius.

Gaius's expression didn't spell good news for her. "Nerissa, I can't carry you to your room. I'm not as young as I once was."

Nerissa wanted more than anything to be rid of Arthur. "I-I'll just hop or crawl. I can manage it."

"And have you hurt yourself more in the process? I think not." Gaius shook his head as he began grabbing a few things from his table that might help Nerissa. When he had finished gathering things in his arms, he motioned with his head. "This way, if you will, Arthur."

Arthur nodded his head and Nerissa groaned before they followed Gaius back to Nerissa's room. Gaius told Arthur to set her on the bed. Nerissa was surprised that Arthur didn't just throw her on the bed, but managed to set her down quite gently. Arthur then backed away and folded his arms across his chest.

Arthur then looked at Nerissa. Nerissa to Gaius. Gaius to Nerissa. Nerissa to Arthur. Arthur to Gaius. Gaius to Arthur. No one said a word. It was a bit awkward.

Gaius was the first to diffuse the tension. He cleared his throat. "Aren't you going to thank Arthur for helping you?" he asked, looking pointedly at Nerissa.

"Do I have to?" Nerissa asked her uncle with her arms folded across her chest. The look Gaius gave her told her that she'd better thank the prat, who happened to be the prince.

Nerissa sighed. She turned to look at Arthur and cleared her throat. "Thank you for returning me to Gaius, though your assistance would not have been required had you not injured me in the first place."

Gaius looked utterly horrified by his niece and was about to apologise on her behalf, but Arthur held out his hand to stop him. Arthur attempted to hide his amusement from the girl before him. He wasn't sure why he was so amused by her talking to him like this. Anyone else and he'd have them punished. He couldn't explain what it was about this girl. "I'll expect a proper thank you when you're pain-free, then."

Nerissa looked Arthur in the eyes. "Could be a long time. Years even," she told him.

Arthur scoffed to himself before he said with a small smile. "I can wait."

With that Prince Arthur of Camelot left the court physician's quarters, leaving Gaius to tend to the misfortunes of both his niece and his nephew. Both had made quite the first impression on their first full day in Camelot.

Author's Note: Another chapter! A bit later than I would have liked, but sooner than I usually would have the last few years. Haha. Oh, Nerissa! I had so much fun writing about her and Arthur! I was a little worried because I've really only imagined their sweeter moments, but aha! They make me laugh too! Even though she claims her brother causes all the trouble, Nerissa is just as bad as Merlin. Arthur is already puzzled by her appearance. Also, for those of you that know, you might have spotted some foreshadowing. :) Thanks for all the reads, follows, and favorites!