I still own nothing.


Nerris and Harrison were both thinking the exact same thing.

"I really don't want to do this."

There was palpable tension in the air. David was sitting with Harrison at one side of a table, and Gwen was on the other side with Nerris.

Nerris had a bit of a pensive look on her face, mixed with annoyance.

Meanwhile, Harrison sat there, quietly, looking down at the table with a slightly upset look on his face.

"Alright you two, we're not leaving this table until we figure out how to make you friends." David said with his trademark over-enthusiasm.

"Or at least get you to not stab each other; whichever one works." Cut in Gwen.

David shot Gwen a quick look of uneasiness. "I'd prefer we end this in a positive way; you two really need to work out your differences, it's just silly that you can't seem to be in the same room with each other for too long without an argument starting."

Nerris quietly said, "Maybe if Harrison would stop being so annoying I wouldn't argue with him so much."

"Come on, Nerris. Nobody can be that annoying." David said with a bit of skepticism.

"Except you."

"Alright, first of all, I feel like we should start with what happened at breakfast."

At this, Nerris and Harrison felt two distinctly different things. One was extreme annoyance and a sudden urge to leap over the table and start swinging, and the other was dejection, and remorse.

I'll let you guess who's who.

Harrison started self-conciously wringing his gloved hands together in his lap.

Nerris quickly jumped up, pointing at Harrison. "He set me on fire!"

Harrison noticably cringed at this accusation.

"Yes he did, and while that was a very rude thing to do, Harrison," David pointedly said Harrison's name, acknowledging his part in the blame, and causing Harrison to curl into himself slightly, "from what I heard, Nerris, he wasn't exactly unprovoked."

Nerris stiffened at this; she was really hoping this would just fall on Harrison.

Nerris stopped and breathed deeply, trying to calm herself down. She'd almost forgotten she actually needed to do this for Preston. She had to try and make this work.

"While I'm not entirely sure what you said, I can only assume it had to be something pretty bad."

Gwen decided to help David out. "She said Harrison's parents didn't love him."

Nerris' eyes widened, and David quickly gasped while looking at Nerris in shock.

Nerris was quick to interject, "No I didn't! I said his parents didn't like him."

"What's the difference, Nerris?" David had his arms crossed, disappointment evident on his face.

Nerris had a museful look on her face while she was glancing off to the side, before looking at David again, "Well, I mean, I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't like my sorcery and quests, but she still loves me."

"Nerris, while I'm sure you didn't mean anything too harsh by it, to other people that can be taken out of context and be very hurtful." David had a serious but caring, explanatory tone to his voice.

"Seriously though, kid, that's a bitchy thing to say."

"Language, but exactly Gwen, so, I think the first step to getting you two to be friends is to have the both of you apologize. Harrison, apologize for setting Nerris on fire."

"I'm sorry." Harrison's voice was sheepish, and he was gazing down at his still fidgeting hands.

"Ok, good. Now, Nerris, apologize to Harrison."

Nerris was quiet for a second, before sighing and mumbling, "Sorry, Harrison."

David's stern expression quickly shifted to giddiness once again.

"Great, now, onto stage two. I think the only way to get you two to get a long with each other, is to get you to hang out as much as possible."

Gwen face contorted slightly, "Uhhh, David, I'm not so sure that's the best idea."

"You're right, Gwen. It IS the best idea. Thanks for agreeing with me."

Gwen let out a deep sigh, and went back to her usual sulkiness about having to deal with this situation in the first place.

"Now, we'll come up with a schedule on when to hang out at what times and for how long, as well as what you'll be doing when you hang out, excluding camp activities. If there is a need for partners during an activity, you two will be partners. That will be sorted out later. This will continue until I think it's no longer necessary. Do you two agree to this?"

Harrison expected Nerris to curtly reject the idea, and he prepared a retort of equal snarkiness.

"Sure."

Harrison's brain short curcuited. That was not expected. Nerris was never the first one to try and be friends, it was usually either him or Preston that had to initiate, and then Nerris would either shut it down immediately, or begrudgingly go along with it for a while, before it would inevitably fall apart.

"Harrison?"

Harrison realized he had been sitting in shock for roughly ten second, and David along with the rest of the table was staring at him expectantly.

"Oh, uhhh, okay."

"Grrrrrreat! Now, I was thinking that we'd have alternating days. Basically, one day we have you two do something one of you wants, then the next day we have you two do something the other wants. After a while, I'm sure you two will be the best of friends!"

Nerris and Harrison were a bit reluctant.

Harrison spoke up without being prompted for the first time since they had sat down, raising a finger. "Uh, but, neither of us really like what the other likes."

"Have you two ever tried to like what the other likes?"

They both were quiet after that, opting instead to see what David had to say next.

"So, we'll start tomorrow, but who would like to have their day first? If you two can't decide, then we'll play rock paper scissors."

"Harrison can go first." Nerris said with a slightly strained expression on her face.

Once again Harrison was stunned. This really didn't seem like Nerris. He thought Nerris would do something like claim that his was the stupid magic, and thus she should go first. Maybe she really did want to try and be friends?

David had a big proud smile on his face.

"Wow, Nerris, way to take the initiative! Well, Harrison, seems like you've got someone to entertain tomorrow. If I were you, I'd spend a while working out how to go about doing so. The both of you come to me after breakfast, just to let me know that you two are getting started, and I'll let you know how long you two should be together."

With that, Harrison and Nerris were sent to their own devices.

For the rest of the day, Nerris ignored Harrison and played DnD by herself up in her secluded tower. The way she saw it, she wouldn't spend any more time with him than was required. She was really not looking forward to having to sit through his magic demonstrations for a day.

Nerris was nervous; if it wasn't convincing then she'd lose Preston. But Harrison was so annoying; she was seriously doubting her ability to go through with this.

Meanwhile, Harrison was in his spot in the forest, practicing some of his newer material. He wasn't really expecting this, but he was actually kind of excited. He wasn't sure if he could change her mind about his magic in one day though.

As Harrison and Nerris were both doing their own thing, they were thinking the same thing.

"I'll give it my best shot."


Well, I feel kind of weird about that. When I read it back it doesn't sound so bad, but when I was initially writing it I felt like my brain wasn't working to full capacity. I think it might have been something to do with me not being as interested in this chapter as I was for the others. Oh well though, I got it out.

While this is mainly just a bit of a transitionary chapter to get into the actual story bits, there is some stuff hidden in here that you can either try to figure out now, or just wait and maybe it'll come to you later when more is revealed.

I should say that every time a new episode is about to be released, I get nervous that it's gonna be the episode that resolves Nerris and Harrison's conflict. I'll be happy but sad at the same time; bittersweet, if you will. No matter what though, I am going to do this fanfic. It might not be good, and it might be a bit OOC or AU, but I'll do it.

Next chapter, it's the first day.

Read and review please.