AN: Hello, everyone! Thank you for all the comments and for adding Telling Tales to your story alerts list. I'm putting up two chapters today and I hope you like them both. -BNQ

-5-

"Merlin's receiving outside help," Morgana said as she shut the door to Arthur's office behind her.

"I should hope so," Arthur said as he tidied up his desk for the evening. "He has an entire research team at his beck and call. I don't expect him to do everything by himself."

The brunette rolled her eyes and sat down in a chair opposite her brother. "Not with that," she said. "With the story."

"Are you two still going on with that silly dare?" Arthur couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew had tunnel vision when it comes to goals, but this was just ridiculous. "How many weeks has it been and you're still quibbling?

"Six weeks, it's not silly, and it's not a bet," Morgana raised an elegantly arched eyebrow at her brother who had his own eyebrow raised. "It's a," she paused to find the right word. "It's a challenge and we both intend to win it."

"Win against whom?" Arthur's voice rose along with his disbelief. "Certainly against each other. I thought you two were in cahoots."

"Oh not against each other," Morgana inspected her perfectly manicured hands. "We intend to win against you." Morgana smiled but her expression was unreadable.

"Morgana," Arthur said as he leaned back in his chair, pausing in the tidying up of his desk. "Don't you think that you're carrying this a bit too far?"

"Nope," she answered. "I will take any opportunity to come out on top."

Now it was Arthur's turn to roll his eyes. "You are a drama queen," his voice was dry as he spoke. "And what's this about Merlin cheating? If you're hell-bent on 'winning' shouldn't you be happy that Merlin's taking this seriously as well?"

"Then why isn't he coming to me for help?" Morgana's voice rose, exposing her frustration. "I write for a living, I could help him! Instead he's having coffee dates with...some woman from a bookstore." The corners of her mouth turned down in disdain.

Both of Arthur's eyebrows shot into orbit. Somehow he didn't think that Morgana's outburst was because of their little "challenge."

"You're jealous," he said slowly. "You're jealous that Merlin's spending a lot of time with a woman who is not you."

"I am not jealous," Morgana huffed.

"Yes you are," Arthur's tone was gleeful as he began teasing his sister. "Oh my god, you're in love with Merlin."

"I'm not in love with Merlin!" Morgana yelled. "I...like him a lot, but I'm not jealous. Please, why would I be jealous of any woman?"

Arthur wasn't done ribbing Morgana. "So what's she like?" he fully intended to make his sister as uncomfortable as possible.

"She works in a bookstore," Morgana said. "She's literate, at least. And Merlin has been spending the last week having coffee with her after he leaves work." Morgana's voice turned from disdainful to sad.

"Have you asked him about her?" Arthur was more cautious in his questioning now. He didn't want to make Morgana more upset than she already was.

She nodded. "He said she was a friend who was helping him write my story," she looked at her younger brother in the eye and it felt like she was daring him to laugh.

Arthur smiled at Morgana's obvious distress. "It's just coffee, Morgana," he soothed. "Next time, just ask if you can tag along."

"You're right," she said. "Assess my enemy. Find out her weakness." She stood up suddenly. "I have to go."

"Where?" Arthur asked as Morgana quickly made her way to the door.

"Shopping," she paused, her hand on the doorknob. "I need the perfect outfit to meet this...Gwen tomorrow. 'Bye!"

Arthur raised a hand to weakly wave at his sister. How quickly she turned from morose to predatory was amazing to watch. He sighed. Only Morgana.

He waited in his seat until he was absolutely sure that his sister was gone. Then he stood up, locked the door and walked back to his desk. Arthur then pulled up his personal e-mail account and saw that he had received a new e-mail. From LadyInLavender. He smiled.

He had sent his first message to her with caution, not wanting to be discovered by her or anyone else. Her story had been compelling and Arthur found himself drawn into the make-believe world she created around a fictional version of him. He received a reply the next day, a mere "Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it." And that started it all.

They had sent each other notes through the fanfiction site's messaging system until Arthur had gotten tired of having to hide every time he received notification of a message from her. He'd offered to converse via e-mail-a risky move, but she had agreed and so far, he had yet to receive unwanted correspondence from her.

He opened the latest e-mail and smiled when he read what she wrote: "Hi, A.P.! So nice to hear from you again. I can't believe you're still reading the story, although I must say that it's good for my ego. As for your question, I still don't know if Prince Arthur and Jane are going to end up with a happily ever after, and even if I did, there's no way I would let you know. That would be telling. Anyway, I will be putting up a new chapter soon and I hope that it doesn't disappoint. Cheers! LadyInLavender."

Jane was the name she had given to Prince Arthur's love interest. And for the life of him, Arthur couldn't begin to rationalize how involved he became in their story. He thrilled at his alter-ego's exploits to win over his lady love, and found himself looking forward to more of their time together just as much as he wondered what other adventures he would be taking as the story progressed.

Arthur had stopped asking himself if it was normal to be this interested in something like this-he wasn't sure he was ready to hear the answer, anyway. However, he was still concerned about whether or not this was the height of narcissism and just how Morgana and Merlin would rip into him if they ever found out. That's why he preferred to correspond with LadyInLavender via e-mail. It was easier to check messages from his phone. For the same reason, he had chosen to keep himself updated on the story through his mobile.

With each e-mail, Arthur felt himself being more and more drawn to this LadyInLavender. Just...something about her intrigued him. And that's saying a lot as he didn't even know her name much less what she looked like. But he did know that she was clever, funny, had a vivid imagination, and kind. After all, she had put up with his questions and e-mails, right? But Arthur wanted to know more.

He took a deep breath as he started to compose his reply. "Nice to hear from you again, LadyInLavender. As always I look forward to reading what the next chapters. Although I must admit I am curious about you as well. Can you give me your real name, at least? Let me know." Another deep breath accompanied his clicking "send."

It didn't take long for Arthur to receive a response. "Hey, AP," the e-mail said. "I'm afraid I can't give you that, that would be telling. But to give you a hint, I can tell you that it starts with the letter G." A wink ended the e-mail. Arthur should have felt disappointed, but he wasn't. He actually felt giddy. "G," he said aloud. "Well, that's a start. Hello, G. Nice to meet you."