AN: Your comments and notes give me life :) Thank you for sticking by Telling Tales this long. There are only a few chapters after this, but I do have another story written up that I hope you'll enjoy as well. As always, I'd love to know what you think about this chapter. - BNQ

-13-

"All right, you two," Arthur growled at Merlin and Morgana. "Who is she?"

Morgana and Merlin looked too pleased with themselves and this was driving Arthur up the wall.

"She introduced herself, right?" Morgana's voice was nonchalant, but there was mischief in her eyes. "Her name's Gwen-"

"Guinevere," Arthur was still growling. "Her name is Guinevere."

"All right, Guinevere," Morgana mimicked the way Arthur said her friend's name and all but collapsed in giggles.

"Who is she Morgana?" Arthur's voice was quiet.

Morgana stopped laughing and looked at her brother. He was dead serious. Morgana decided that she liked this development because if this is how Arthur was after 10 minutes with Gwen-pardon, Guinevere-she can just imagine how he'll be after an entire evening with her.

"Why?" there was a needling quality to her voice that got to Arthur.

"Are you going to tell me or not?"

"No, seriously Arthur," Morgana crossed her arms over her chest. "Why do you need to know? She already gave you her name."

Arthur swore under his breath. How was he going to explain to his sister that it took him all of 15 seconds after meeting Guinevere to decide that all he wanted to do was be with her for as long as she'd have him?

Finally, it was Merlin who threw him a life vest.

"Her name is Guinevere Leodegrance," Merlin began. He was beginning to feel sorry for Arthur. "Her family owns a bookstore and she was helping me write my story about Morgana."

"Was?" Morgana asked. "What do you mean 'was'?"

"Oh, I finished your story days ago," Merlin smiled.

"Can I read it?" Morgana asked, in obvious awe at this side of Merlin she hasn't seen before.

"Not until you've finished yours," Merlin touched her chin. "And we agreed that we'd publish it on the site."

"Will you two focus?" Arthur practically snarled. "You two are..."

"Making you jealous?" Morgana finished Arthur's sentence and her grin was almost evil. "You want to daaaaaate Gwen. You want to kiiiiiiss Gwen."

"Morgana, I swear to God..." Arthur's voice trailed off and he sighed in frustration. "I...want to get to know her better."

Well, Arthur thought. It wasn't a complete lie. He wanted to get to know her better, he wanted to date her, he wanted to know if her lips were as soft as they looked, he wanted to know what names she wanted for their kids...

"...don't you think?" Merlin's voice broke through Arthur's reverie.

"What?" Arthur focused and saw a smug smile on Merlin's face.

Morgana was nearly doubled over in silent laughter, her elegant gown a contrast to her undignified posture.

"I said," Merlin replied. "Gwen, I mean Guinevere looked lovely, didn't she?"

"Absolutely."

"But black is too plain a colour on her," Merlin continued.

"What the hell are you going on about, Emrys?"

"What he means, my dear, dense brother," Morgana straightened and once again regained her composure. "Is that Gwen would look more beautiful in other colours-"

"Are you her stylists or something?" Arthur interrupted Morgana's rambling. "Because she looked bloody perfect-"

"Like, say, lavender," Morgana said, completely ignoring Arthur's tirade. "Yes, she would be a lovely lady in lavender."

Arthur goggled at the smirking couple before him.

"No way," were the first words that came out of his mouth. "You mean Guinevere...G...wait, how did you know about this?"

Morgana simply raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Nevermind," Arthur said. He cast a look around the deck and saw that his father was nowhere to be seen and it was safe to scarper.

"I have to go," he said as he ran to the elevators.

"Well, that was rude," Morgana commented as she watched her brother bolt from the party. "He didn't even say thank you or goodbye."

"Party's winding down anyway," Merlin commented.

They both looked around and saw that the crowd had thinned considerably.

"Give it another 30 minutes and this place will be clear," he laced his fingers with Morgana's. "Are you up for a nightcap?"

"I'm up if you're up," Morgana teased.

"Promises, promises," Merlin smiled and dipped his head to capture Morgana's lips in a sweet kiss.