If you're wondering how I imagine a female Merlin. Well... She's either Emma Watson (now with her short do) or Keira Knightley (because of her small chest and the fact that she is always mistaken for a guy!). Usually it's Emma though, since I am really attached to her character Hermione Granger.

But more importantly- Special thanks to those who reviewed, fav'ed, subscribed, and/or C2d this story! I LOVE YOU GUYS!

DISCLAIMER: I WISH I own Merlin

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CHAPTER VI: Pride and Fall

CAMELOT, 5TH C.A.D.

Merlin opened her eyes and found out that she was in a rat infested dungeon. She frowned and cursed the prat that brought her to such situation. She decided to lie down in order to calm herself with the help of sleep, but she was immediately woken up by an unfamiliar voice.

'Merlin…' it called and she looked around and placed her ears here and there in an attempt to find out its source. It was weird, anywhere she went the voice was at the same volume as before… it was as if it was replaying over and over again in her head.

Her silent search was interrupted by the sound of the gate opening—It revealed a deeply worried Gaius.

"Gaius!" She exclaimed getting herself a sad smile from him. Her smile disappeared immediately after noticing this and gave out an apology as well as thanks. He didn't say anything until they arrived at their quarters.

Who would have thought, though, that he would explode. Literally.

"You're a girl, Merlin!" He yelled, fuming. Merlin thought just a little more provocation and his face would go 'Boom!'. "Or have you forgotten? How could you have gotten into a fight?"

Gaius was not a sexist, but the way he stated her gender somewhat felt like he was hiding something from her—that he stopped himself from saying something she had yet to know. She blinked for several moments, shrugged the thoughts away, and then composed herself for a reply.

"I did not get into a physical fight! Is that what you heard?"

"…"

"Is it what you assumed?" She asked incredulously and added, "You get mad in me getting into a fist fight like a normal person, but how could you assume that I got into one?"

"I don't know… Thinking of you and the Prince together made me assume such things." He muttered to himself. He was a youngin' himself before and he was expecting both of them to be incredibly proud – even Merlin, because of the gift she had.

"Our personalities clash by that much, huh? No surprise there…" She uttered seeing his smug face on a thought cloud and punched it to satisfy her growing hunger for revenge. Gaius chuckled at the gesture but warned her.

"You know him now; better not get to his bad side." She scoffed at his statement.

"Merlin." He called her warily.

"Okay. Okay." She mumbled, with not much will power.

...

Not even a day later, though, she was getting punished again.

She got into another fight with the prat, but this time it was definitely physical. She frowned and bowed her head in remorse... Gaius looked so disappointed at her.

"AH!" She exclaimed to no one in particular as she felt a tomato hit her, she was not in the position to feel all sad just yet.

But, by the gods—

Every time she remembered—she definitely wanted to strangle that prat.

She was walking nonchalantly at the market, not noticing the admiring stares of several people around her. They were staring at her for two reasons: one was because of her little brave front against the prince, and second was simply because (according to a random old woman) she was actually quite a sight. Women have some weird thing about cute feminine-looking young boys.

"Well, well… how was the dungeons?" An annoyingly familiar voice asked haughtily from behind her, she decided to ignore him at first but then came a lot of insults like her being deaf.

"I wasn't lying when I told you were a prat," She spat. "I just didn't know you were a royal one."

A few others sneered silently and the prat all but self-combusted, but he managed to keep it cool and challenge him to a duel.

Being raised as a boy simply wasn't helping her in such a situation. She took his challenge head on to the point she wanted to take her sweater off so that she could move better but decided against it. It would be incredibly annoying if he found out she was a girl.

And so their little fight begun, but she was not much of a fighter so all she did was dodge. And with the help of a little magic she managed to humiliate him several times.

The sight of her guardian's frown distracted her giving the prat a chance to hit her.

"Ow!" She shouted massaging her head. She heard Arthur stopping his guard to taking her brutally to the dungeons saying that she was an idiot… but at least she was a brave one.

"There's something about you, Merlin. But I can't quite put a finger on it." He stated getting her to gape at him. He flinched at her stare but didn't really show it. Gaius slowly came forward.

"I am so sorry your highness. Let me punish him. He needs to be disciplined."

"I'd be glad to, Gaius." He smirked and looked at her smugly making her eye twitch."You heard that, right?"

"Bloody prat." She mumbled making sure he heard, he opened his mouth in retort but saw that she was already being walking away.

She did not even want to think of how she could feel his stare behind her.

…

One, two, three, four…

She counted how many people come and go to throw food at her. This was her punishment: To be the recipient of Camelot's exhibition of how abundant they were of food.

Gaius was willing himself not to laugh out loud.

'Darn you old man!' She cursed and he shrugged, turning away. But he teasingly whipped his head towards her direction and mouthed:

"It was your fault."

And walked away.

It was then that she noticed a pretty girl with dark skin watching her circumstance with a mix of pity and amusement. The girl came forward during the little 'break' with admiring eyes already too familiar to her and introduced herself as Guinevere or simply 'Gwen'.

She said that the townsfolk thought she was a hero and she said her thanks (though Merlin would've added the town sure liked to throw tomatoes at their 'heroes', but a fruit ended up on her mouth). Gwen walked away when they noticed that another wave of flying tomatoes was coming at them.

"See you later, Merlin." She smiled awkwardly, and then proceeded to closing her eyes at the advent of a tomato hitting her face.

'How is this admiration?'

…

*The next day*

A feast was on its way and the King invited Lady Helen – the best singer in his domain. Merlin felt something weird the first time she saw her but decided to ignore it. She was accompanying Gaius in her welcoming, but she definitely wanted to refuse. The sight of that prat's annoying face made her loathe going there.

When she caught him looking at her, she reflexively glared at him getting one his eyebrows to rise. He replied to her intimidating glare with a glower of the same intensity. If they were in some animation, people could definitely see thunder and lightning surrounding the two of them.

Their dagger-throwing was interrupted by the King calling his son for him to give a compliment to the singer and he just muttered. "Yeah."

"Yeah?" She repeated silently with a smirk. The king frowned at his son who had no idea what his father wanted him to say. He was saying something like '… one of the most beautiful women in the kingdom….' And for some reason he nodded.

"I agree with you, father." He muttered, repeating himself. The king just nodded and shifted his gaze back to the singer and had another conversation with her.

Arthur involuntarily looked at a certain servant boy who was trying his best not to laugh. He muffled a smirk that was slowly creeping up to his face. His embarrassment seemed to have been blown away by the boy's smile.

He blinked.

What did he just think about?

Nothing appropriate, that's for certain.

.

Well, that was what he told himself.

But Arthur's interest in the boy who went against him was roused to a whole new level when he saved his life.

And what was intriguing was the sadness in his eyes at the woman's final breath. He knew it was pity, getting him even more puzzled as to why one of the people who practically hated him would save his life. He froze the moment he looked at him with an unnerving stare.

Then she turned to a direction, apparently listening to someone talk (though Arthur barely registered his father's voice. The boy was confused, he could tell, and for some reason Arthur had an impulse to blow the boy's befuddlement away.

"…Arthur's manservant" was the next thing he heard. He saw the boy's eye twitch in despair, and he knew immediately what his father meant.

He smirked.

'Well, this is going to be interesting…'

...

Bradley was woken up by his phone ringing loudly. He did not feel annoyed, as he usually would have for someone disrupting his precious sleep since he knew that the ringtone was reserved for someone in particular.

"Hello?" He asked making sure he does not sound tired.

"Bradley? I had a dream…" She mumbled meekly. Bradley thought it was adorable that he wanted to fly there and hug her.

Not that they'd actually do it. That would be inappropriate.

"Me too…" was all he said.

"It ended with Uther's statement that I become your manservant."

"Mine ended with my feeling of amusement on getting myself an interesting new servant."

"You prat. I saved your life and I become your servant? How is that fair?"

He chuckled heartily, glad they could chat like this and could still remember how they interacted prior to the memories. "It was probably one of the things that made us fall for each other though."

"How can you tell?" She asked curiously and he blinked in response. Back then, he was sure he had no idea he was already falling for her. He went against him and told him things that made him realized so many facts about himself. She was courageous and charming at the same time. He ignored the fact that he had no idea the boy was actually a girl, as well.

"I just knew…."

"Oh come on, Bradley. From what I saw you look pretty dense to me."

"How rude."

"It's true!"

"…" he remained silent and he heard a sigh.

"Anyway, I called because I saw something weird in my dream…"

"What was it?"

"A dragon called me several times and told me some odd things…"

"A dragon?" He voiced out. He had no memory of a dragon. "What did he say?"

"…"

"Merlin?"

"…"

"Oi."

"He said our destinies are entwined together. That we are sides of the same coin…

"...and that it was my destiny to make sure you become the great king you were destined to be…" she said with confusion evident in her voice.

"We're like 'soul mates' then?" He commented quite amused at her statements, hoping it would lighten up her mood. She scoffed on the other side and he grinned at the fact that he just knew she was blushing on the other line.

"Y-Yeah. But from the various versions of what I read, you failed as a king in the end and your kingdom fell." She said almost whispering. He never read a story about his past life, but he certainly did hear about some stories about the 'Fall of Camelot'. He didn't say anything and waited for her speak.

"We know that these stories have some basis, especially now that we know Camelot did exist. Bradley… doesn't that mean that I.." She whispered disheartened.

"…failed...?"

...

Bradley smiled at the sound of her soft snoring. She fell asleep as she told him about the things the dragon told her, and he still couldn't help but feel amazed and incredulous about the fact that she could use magic. He didn't think about the other things the dragon said. For now, he was just content being with the girl and wait to see how they fell for each other.

Or rather, how he made her fall for him.

He continued to listen to her for a while, and soon enough… he fell asleep himself.

...

CAMELOT, 5TH C.A.D.

It was the day of tournaments. A huge amount of money and great honor would be rewarded to the champion. And as always, he was pressured by his father to make him proud.

Arthur flinched when he felt his armor was put on him while he was on a daze. He heard a silent sneer. And from who else but his annoyingly arrogant servant…?

"You're nervous?" She stated, smiling at herself for stating the obvious.

"I do not get nervous."

"Really?"

"Of course – Now, could you just keep quiet!"

"It's so noisy outside, my little voice shouldn't do much change."

"You have such a loud voice."

"Your temperature had reached its all-time low…and you're shivering! Now… why would that be?" Arthur's eye twitched.

"Oh shut—It's cold, obviously."

"Right. And everyone just sprinkled water to themselves and say the liquid is sweat."

"Shut up, Merlin." He retorted, getting Merlin to smirk from behind him. He calmed down for a bit now.

"You seem especially irritable today, too." She commented pushing for a little bit more.

"That's because you're there."

"I make you nervous?" She joked, and she didn't expect his eyes to widen. He frowned and immediately replied in his usual haughty tone of voice.

"The tournaments do, you dolt. Don't get too full of yourself." He responded in a serious manner. Merlin raised a brow. 'What is he getting so serious about? I guess the tournament's really getting to him…'

She shrugged and decided to annoy him... even more.

"So you admit you get nervous, then?"

"…"

"Anxiety isn't always a bad thing, you know… It's actually bad not to have even the tiniest bit of it."

"You're an idiot, Merlin. Of course it's bad. I'm going to be king one day and I have to be completely calm at all times- even when facing a deadly situation."

"I stand by my statement, your royal pratness."

"Like I said. Idiot."

She sighed. "One of the reasons it's good to be a little worried is that it would make sure you truly understand the urgency of a situation." He scoffed mockingly, hiding the fact that he did agree with her to some degree.

"I don't see how that'll help in fights to the death. It'll only get you killed."

"You will understand that your own life is important." She said as she polished certain parts of his armor. He froze at the realization of their proximity but he quickly composed himself but wasn't able to say anything anyway.

"You'll appreciate that you won and remained alive. Like everyone else who did not want you dead. It's not fair that everyone else but you have to feel relieved. Besides, relief is a pretty good feeling to have."

"Is there anything you want to say?"

"I'm saying that you have to survive no matter what."

"A—"

"I'll be jobless if you die, after all. And we both know I'm not particularly fond of your father." She lied. She hated to admit it but she definitely saw much good in Arthur, despite his incredibly annoying ways…

"You're fond of me?" He asked somewhat sceptically. But he shivered at the thought that he might as well be flirting with him.

"No. You're just a tad less annoying." She answered. He sneered.

"Whatever you say."

…

PRINCE's CHAMBERS
An Hour later

"Get out."

"But-"

"I said, GET OUT!"

"I-"

"NOW!"

SLAM!

He had won his first fight, as did many others. But just before the start of another round... Merlin told him that Valiant, a participating knight from the north, was using magic.

He decided to trust him and he confronted this Valiant in front of his father and his courts.

Who would have though he would end up in his room, cursing every bloody minute afterwards?

He could not describe the twinge of pain he felt when he fired her. The look of despair in his face when he told him he needed a servant he could trust. And he did trust him… in fact he still did. But he needed someone to bend all the anger of being humiliated in front of his father and the people of Camelot to someone. And he was the only choice – he regretted it immediately.

But regardless, he won all of his matches. He did not know just how much the fights became an activity for venting as much as a fight for his pride as a prince.

Then the final fight came. With Valiant.

It had been a tough fight, he recalled, and he couldn't help but feel angry at him for more than one reason. It was then that the snakes suddenly appeared to come out of his shield.

Just as Merlin said it did.

And the elation that surged through him was so overwhelming that it confusing. She was telling the truth, everyone knew that now. That mere fact made him happy to the point that he didn't care that he no longer had any weapon to fight the poisonous snake.

But the moment he realized that he had to compose himself that he couldn't die, he immediately backed away. Morgana yelled at him and threw him a sword. The next thing after that, his father was congratulating him for becoming the champion again.

At the festival, he had a little disagreement with Morgana. She was saying some blasphemy that she saved his life by giving him the sword. He refused to accept the truth in it, of course. He could have won on his own.

But less than a minute later, he found himself wanting to go to the servant he just sacked.

As soon as he approached the boy, though, he immediately asked, "Had a disagreement with Morgana?"

"She told me she saved my life when clearly I didn't need it."

"But she did save your life." The boy stated in a way that made Arthur instantaneously want to admit it. But being a proud young lad, he refused to do so.

"No she did not." He replied stubbornly.

"As hard-headed as always." She commented arrogantly.

'Great. Now how am I supposed to apologize?' He mused irritably. Under normal circumstances, there should definitely be no way he would apologize. But if he didn't, Merlin would not want to be his servant again.

And he did not like that fact.

"I made a mistake."

"What?" the boy responded with eyes opening slightly in anticipation and amusement. Where did his pride go all of a sudden?

"I apologize."

"Okay…" She muttered but was looking at him expecting something. He cleared his throat.

"Make sure you polish my clothes and weapons properly." He just replied haughtily, hiding his deepening blush well.

The boy gave out a knowing smile.

"Very well," she laughed, "Your pratness."

.
.

END OF CHAPTER V

Coming soon:
CHAPTER VI: Odd little Green-eyed Monster
A monstrous plague attacks the city, and something similar attacks Arthur's gut.

REPLIES TO ANGELS

Princess Falling Star - Ahahaha. Yeah, he will. Eventually... I wanna make him suffer for a little while first. *sadist mode* Thanks for the comment~!

ariah23 - Thank you so much for the review~!

_ - Hey~ (Whoever you are) Thanks so much for the comments~! Ghahahaaa~

Fannie - Thanks for the comment!

cheekysorcerer - No, Thank you for reading and reviewing!

TheScarletIbis - Thanks for the review~! And I don't think I'll quit this story^^

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