AN:

Apparently Hana and I did not manage to finish our christmas project in time, as we were quite busy. However we still want to complete it, so here is another story belonging to it.

~Ichigo

What could be ours

„That is impossible! How could something like that happen to me? Me, Foaly, technical wizard of the LEP, unbeaten in terms of intelligence and craftsmanship when it comes to police gear and new inventions, the most handsome centaur underground and…"
"Calm down", Holly told her best friend. She was looking over his shoulder, impressed at her daughter´s tactics and secretly amused by Foaly´s disbelieving expression. "You just lost a game of chess, that's all."
"That's all?", Foaly shouted, knocking over the game board as he jumped up. "I´ve never failed at such a simple task!" The female elf rolled her eyes. "Guess there is a first time for everything."

"You!", her best friend pointed an accusing finger at her daughter. "I, Foaly, technical wizard of…"
"Cut it off." Holly growled, not willing to listen to that again. "Well", he started again. "I, Foaly declare chess-war towards you, Lyra Fowl and I demand a rematch as soon as possible!" The little girl grinned, sending shivers down the centaur´s spine. She definitely got that expression from her father. "With delight, my dear four-hoofed friend. Call me when you finished your work." She offered him one of her small and well manicured hands, which he took with a firm grip and shook it. "It´s a deal then." With that, he grabbed his coat and left the apartment with as much dignity as he had left, which apparently almost had vanished, considering the fact that he just lost to a little girl still being in school.

As soon as the door had closed, Holly looked at her daughter´s amused face. "You love to beat him at something, don´t you?" A smile found its way onto her lips. The young elf spun around, sending her long black hair flying through the air. Her mismatching eyes, an exact copy of her parent´s ones, shone with amusement as she faced her mother. "It´s always fun to tease uncle Foaly", she declared. With a soft giggle, Holly helped the young female to pick up all the chess pieces the centaur had knocked over earlier. "Don´t overdo it, or otherwise he´ll become paranoid again, thinking you can read his mind or something." Her father´s vampire grin appeared on Lyra´s lips. "Nobody can do that!" Except for me, she secretly added in her mind.

Lyra loved her mother and father deeply, but she could not deny a challenge.

As her father had stopped all "not-so-legal" activities, in order to become a member of the technical support of the LEP, it was now up to her to carry on the traditions of the Fowl family. Even if none of them knew about it.

She looked up to Artemis, the human who had managed to become part elf so he could stay with the woman he loved for the rest of his life. Who held a competition with Foaly – whoever could invent more impressive new gadgets for the LEP and who was, in her eyes, the most intelligent being under – and above ground. There was only one aspect she could not agree with him on: always being on the "proper side" of law. It was incomprehensible to her how he could give up a life full of advantages and opportunities. Maybe it was because of her mother, the elf who worked for the police, who was supposed to follow the rules. If he got in trouble, so would Holly, which would ultimately have an impact on her too, and her parents loved her too much to destroy her future.

Fine, Lyra thought, maybe he does have a reason. But that does not mean I have to act the same as he does!

As for her mother? She had worked hard to climb up the ladder of success, now finally being second in command to the big boss o the LEP. If she would start something illegal now, she´d probably lose her position and Haven City one of its best officers. True, she did not always follow all the rules, which was probably even impossible for an officer in action. But as she got the job done and nobody was harmed, they looked over it, playing everything down. Unfortunately however, her days as the crazy girly captain were over now. She did not seem to mind though, being fully occupied with her husband, daughter and tasks. Still, it bugged Lyra that she willingly left a lot of action and adventures behind.

All the possibilities – Gone! Everything they could have reached together – Gone!

But luckily they got me, a perfect combination of both of them. I´ve got the intelligence of my father, the skills from my mother and both their tactical mindsets. Everybody tells me I have a pleasant character, that I am indeed good looking and an overall wonderful person. One could say I am close to perfection. She softly giggled at herself. Well, maybe I´m a bit egoistic and overly self-confident. However I never claimed to be absolutely ideal in the first place. Just close to it.

"What are you giggling about?", her mother asked as she placed the last chess piece into its box. Lyra gave her a smile, while shaking her head. "I just thought of Foaly´s shocked expression about losing against me again." Holly giggled too. "Yes, that was indeed hilarious." The girl bit her lip. I hate lying to my mother, but I cannot tell her about my secrets and plans, it would ruin her and our family. She stood up from the floor, brushed some imaginary dust off her skirt and excused herself, saying she needed to finish her homework. Holly nodded, knowing that excellent grades and a perfect image at school were important to her daughter. "Just remember dinner will be ready in half an hour. I want you to be present, as your father will be home too", the older elf shouted after her. "Sure", Lyra answered over her right shoulder.

Lyra closed the door behind herself. Her eyes scanned the almost dark room, the only light coming from small lamps of her computes and other gadget. With a sigh she switched on some more to be able to work properly. Her desk was full with technical drawings, showing new designs for wings and shuttles. Her father had given her access to outdated versions of them, so she could experiment a bit and get creative. What he did not know however was the fact that they only served as a cover. Her private computer was full of projects containing them, however her really important data was saved somewhere else. It rested on her own version of her father´s c-cube, which she always carried around with her, disguised as a necklace.

Now let´s continue my latest invention, Lyra thought as she sat down. She removed the jewelry around her neck and activated the small circuits. Within seconds the room was illuminated in a soft turquoise light. Half transparent pages appeared, similar to computers ones. They were filled with numbers, instructions written in gnomish and results from former tests. By simply touching them with special gloves, Lyra could add more information or images, exchange the order of her documents or create new ones. Parallel to her own work and experiments, the c-cube carried out its own ones and scanned for possible intruders. If someone tried to gain access to her data, the cube would attack by itself, sending a virus and retracing the source of its opponent.

The project she currently worked on laid safe deeply hidden in this dice, hidden from everybody. Lyra smirked. Yes, I am definitely the only one who is capable of reading other persons minds.

She had experimented with brain waves, inspired by Foaly´s paranoia, always questioning herself what if someone could truly do that? It took her only a few months and some more experiments until she was able to read simple creatures minds. Her first "victims" had been swear toads, although Lyra had sworn herself not to listen to them anymore. They weren´t called swear toads for nothing. Disgusted by her memory, she shook her head.

To have access to someone's thoughts, all the young elf had to do was put on some special microchips disguised as, well, earrings. Lyra had to laugh. Why do all my inventions end up as jewelry? What comes next? A belt or a bracelet? Maybe I could build something that looks like a ring too? Hopefully none of my friends will ever ask me if I could borrow them for a night.

As time was running by, the girl quickly took down some notes on her c-cube, mentally making a note to rename the object. She was part Holly after all, and a Short was creative as hell, especially when it came to breaking, or how her mother called it "bending" the rules. Something that already existed, even if it was only a name, was inacceptable! Looking at her watch and how the minutes flew by, Lyra decided that she needed a private time machine too, or at least some gadget to stop the flow. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she thought about all the wonderful things she could do when everybody else was frozen. So many possibilities!

Downstairs, the front door opened, signalizing her father´s arrival. He had to work overtime because of some unfamiliar electronic device that had been found near Foaly´s laboratory. Right before anybody had been able to examine the parts, it had exploded. The centaur had gone crazy, thinking someone had tried to spy on him, so Artemis had send him home to play a game of chess with his daughter to calm down. Said one had been responsible for the little incident, as the device belonged to her.

That was a close one, I´m not sure what would have happened if they caught me.

"Lyra, come down, dinner is ready."
"One second mother!", she shouted back, quickly saving her documents and turning of her cube. I definitely need a better name for that thing!

Rushing downstairs, she almost knocked down Artemis, who was rubbing his hands. "Mother punished you for trying to steal again some food from our dinner didn´t she?" A grin appeared at the little girl´s lips. "The elf is pure evil I can tell you", he answered with an equal smirk. "Rubbish darling", the answer came from inside the kitchen, "and you love me anyway." Artemis shook his head in amusement. "Sure, if you say so."
"Now get your ass over here, I have to be at work in two hours, Trouble gave me a night shift."
"Charming as ever Holly", he said as he entered the room, Lyra trailing after him.

Dinner was rather amusing, as both father and daughter laughed about the centaur´s shocked face, while her mother tried to protect Foaly´s pride, failing miserably at it on purpose. "We could play a game of chess later too", Artemis suggested while helping Holly to put the dirty tableware inside the dishwasher. Lyra had to think about the offer for a moment.

I used the earrings to read Foaly´s mind as we played, just to be sure if they worked too when a genius is your opponent. Should I use them against my own father?

Deciding not to do so, she nodded. I´ll try to beat him without unfair aid! We are related and share the same IQ, it would be interesting who has the better strategy. Lyra looked at her mother, the queen of clever and random ideas in case of an emergency. Yes, it would be indeed interesting.

[Break]

And this is what would happen if you two ever had a child.

Both Holly and Artemis stared at Foaly, unable to say anything, still in a state of shock. "A…a child?", the female elf managed to stutter, making the male next to her blush even more. "No way! That would never ever happen!" She jumped up, new energy rushing through her veins. "Me", she pointed at herself, "and Artemis would never… never…" Holly blinked, then blushed and finally shook her head. "You know we would need to have… you know. Ugh, no, just no!"

The human found his voice again, still bright read as a tomato. "I fail to see such a scenario too, as Holly and I only share a friendly relationship, which, in the past, had to switch quite often into a professional one, caused by the fact that we successfully tried to save the world. Anything apart from that seems unrealistic to me." Foaly grinned. "How many times did you two kiss again?" Artemis face turned deep crimson, which apparently was contagious, as Holly adopted the same color. "That is none of your business!", she shouted, pulling her best human friend out of his chair. "And to prevent further nonsense, we´ll go now!"

The door slammed behind those two.

"That idiot and his crazy ideas", Holly grumbled angrily, as she dragged Artemis down the hallway. "He´s just afraid that someone could beat him at his silly games and be a real threat. It´s not like we couldn´t do that too if we worked together, there hasn´t to be a child involved in that! I´m actually surprised he even considered himself losing at chess."

The human just stared at their linked hands, not sure what to say at the moment.

"Though I have to give him credit for the name, Lyra sounds really nice. I personally like Camilla too", the elf continued. "But why did I have to be the one to give up the family name?"
"Because Artemis Short does not have a pleasant sound?", the male suggested. He got an angry stare as an answer. "Oh be quiet Fowl!"

Their hands were still linked as they turned down into another corridor.

"And why did he turn me into a housewife?"
"It did not appeared so to me, he only said that you were at home preparing dinner. And if I recall correctly, his imaginary version of you did announce to have to go to work later, so you did not give up your job after all, you even got promoted." Holly stopped. "Do you also have an intelligent comment about "Lyra´s" invention too?!"

Her angry face was inches apart from his.

"Well", he started, pulling his reddening face a bit away from hers. "I do like the idea of special gear that allows you to find out about your opponent´s thoughts." Reading yours for example would surely help me a lot from time to time. "As for the time machine or a portable version of Foaly´s time stop, I am currently working on something similar." The elf lifted an eyebrow. "Is that so? What are you planning Fowl?" He lifted his hands in front of his body, as if to protect himself.

Their hands were still linked.

"Nothing, honestly. Just some experiments."
"Right, that´s exactly what I thought, now spill it!" Her eyes caught their entangled fingers. Quickly she drew her hand back, looking away. Artemis let out a sigh, though he was not sure if it was relief or maybe frustration. "How about you come with me for a visit at Fowl Manor and I show you? It will be easier than explaining everything." The female nodded. "Sure, the LEP ordered me to keep an eye on you anyway. I just need to pack a few things and tell commander Kelp I´ll be absent for a while."

"Is it that easy for you to travel to the surface now?" Holly laughed. "If you are planning something, the LEP gladly lets me go to watch after you and your crazy experiments. After all, I´m the one who fixed you." She punched him into the shoulder, making the human wince a little. "You broken boy." She winked at him. "If you continue doing that", he rubbed the sore spot at his upper arm, "I will turn into a "broken boy" again." Holly laughed at his comment. "What, the tall human is afraid that the tiny elf could physically harm him?" Finally, he was able to grin again. "I am positive you are capable of doing so."

Together they entered a office which door had the letters "Captain Short" engraved, to grab Artemis´ coat and the keys to Holly´s apartment.

"Say, what would your reaction be if I appeared at your front door being an elf one day?" She spun around. "Why do you ask?" He shrugged. "Just curious." The female crossed her hands over her chest."Artemis Fowl II that was not a complete sentence, which makes you even more suspicious. What are you planning!"

Riddle:

How many times did Artemis and Holly kiss?

(Bonus: name the book and the scene)

Stories so far:

1 The Lord of the kitchen (Inuyasha)

2 The tale of the handsome commander (Artemis Fowl)

3 Miroku's wish list (Inuyasha)

4 Dream beaches (Iron Fey)

5 How to not freeze to death (Kamisama Kiss)

6 Surprise surprise (Inuyasha)

7 I'm going into town, Tomoe (Kamisama Kiss)

8 No one ever calls me to simply drink coffee (Artemis Fowl)

9 Tigers and Badminton (Tigers Curse)

10 Geography with Myoga (Inuyasha)

11 Preparations (Iron Fey)

12 The other way to fight (Iron Fey)

13 Meeting Tomoe (Kamisama Kiss)

14 That's not an emergency, Foaly (Artemis Fowl)

15 Hn (Inuyasha)

16 For my dearest friend (Artemis Fowl)

17 Magical Folders (Iron Fey)

18 That is a pretty dress (Tigers Curse)

19 Things and hot springs (Inuyasha)

20 Christmas Party at Mikage shrine (Kamisama Kiss)

21 What could be ours (Artemis Fowl)