Ficathon fill for the prompt "Rio punches Vector in the face."
They were only children when they first met. Their fathers had some diplomatic meeting about things they didn't really understand, but it had to be pretty important if her father didn't want the twins to interrupt it. Nasch went off somewhere, probably just sulking about how their father, who always let him attend to these meetings, forbid it this time. She was just about to start searching for him, when someone tugged her sleeve and she looked at a foreign looking, orange haired boy. He seemed to be around her age but was remarkably smaller than her. That didn't stop him from grinning widely at her, much to her annoyance. Normally nobody dared to grab her like that not to mention grin at her like that. But he didn't seem to notice or care about it and simply kept smiling.
"I heard you were little Merag, the sister of Prince Nasch."
Talk about annoying. Who of them was the small one? She nodded though, hoping it would make him start treating her like a royalty.
"It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Prince Vector."
He enthusiastically tried to take her hand, to shake it or do the hand-kiss thing, adult always did, or whatever, but she snatched it away before he could grab it, fighting the urge to yell at him or punch him. Again he didn't seem to notice, his smile getting even bigger.
She tried to calm down a little bit, remembering how angry her father would get if he found out that she slapped the prince and what it would mean to the reputation of their Kingdom if people found out about that. She took a deep breath and tried to form a small smile, convincing herself that it wasn't the boy's fault and she was just worried about Nasch.
"Nice to meet you."
When they were sixteen and her father died, he and his father visited them as a friendly gesture and, of cause, because of their kingdoms' trade connections. They would stay at the palace for some days and Nasch, who was still not comfortable with his new title as king, had plenty of meetings with various people, including Vector's father. When both of them were having a rather serious business meeting, Vector wasn't allowed to attend, he just followed Merag around, chatting about this and that, always wearing that smirk that never failed to annoy Merag. He probably knew that and intentionally tried to make her angry.
They were walking through the hallways and just reached the door to the throne room again, where Nasch and Vector's father were discussing, when Vector pointed at one of the portraits on the wall, never stopping to smile.
"That portrait of you looks really amazing. You look a lot more mature on it!"
"That's not me, but my dear mother", she rolled her eyes in annoyance, wondering how such a childish person would ever be able to rule a kingdom.
"I've never to met her" she added, shrugging.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to remind you of it." For a moment a smirk replaced the smile on his face, but when she blinked it was gone. Maybe she was only imagining things.
"Don't they say that she had some interesting powers, like being able to summon spirits, and that people used to call her a 'Witch Queen' because of these powers." Suddenly he was standing uncomfortably close next to her, so that the back of his hand brushed against hers, his orange hair covering his eyes and his voice nothing more than a playful whisper.
"Say, my lady, don't you know something about these stories? Couldn't it be that you're able do similar things?"
"Are you calling my mother and me witches, my lord? You should know that blaming members of the royal family of such things without any proof is an unforgivable crime that could end in your execution." He just chuckled in response.
"Oh come on, just tell me the truth. Both of us know that there has to be a little spark of truth in these rumours." He was now standing in front of her, put a hand in her hair and tried to pull her closer, wearing his innocent dumb little smile. She pulled his hand away immediately, pushing him away.
"Don't you dare saying such things again!", she bursted out, completely furious now, clenching her fists. Her right one met his face before she could realize what she was doing and it wasn't just slap, but a real punch in the face that could have broken his nose, if she had aimed at it. His cheek got red and she saw his smile fade away for the first time since they met, leaving a new expression on his face, something horribly darker she couldn't describe properly. He suddenly grabbed her neck and tried to push her against the wall, when the door next to them opened.