A/N: this was written by Cynthia Darling and I, so I don't take all the credit.
5/1/14 EDIT: I don't take credit for the picture either. It's by Arty-the-Puppeteer. I just love it. Second chapter will be up whenever we finish writing. Comment, compliment, critique, love, hate. Review and enjoy! :) J & Cynthia Darling
"Mother," said Artemis. He was standing in his mother's bedroom, hands behind his back professionally, even though he was just talking to family. It was a habit he couldn't knock off. Kind of like calling his mom "mother" against her wishes. He'd never informed her of something like this, and had had no plans to. But, nether-the-less, he was. "I am going on a picnic with my, ahem, friends. And I am not certain if it will be appropriate for Myles and Beckett."
"And why would it not be appropriate, Arty?" questioned Angeline Fowl, her eyes sparkling with teasing humor. "Unless you're planning something with Holly?"
Artemis refused to blush, yet he did. When you were as pale as he was you're skin screamed your emotions. And his mother was joking, how could she possibly know that he wished to talk to Holly about what happened when they time travelled?
"No, Mother," Artemis lied. Before he could lie easily and have no qualms. But now that he had a conscious he had some difficulty lying, particularly to his mother.
Angeline chuckled, leaning her head back on the pillow. "Alright, then. Have fun!"
Artemis nodded, still flushed, and stiffly turned to exit the room. He hoped his red cheeks would return to his normal tone by the time Holly, Butler and everyone else would see him.
When Artemis came downstairs, Butler noticed something seemed off about his young principal. Nervous in fact, which is not a word you would generally associate with Artemis Fowl.
"Artemis," said Butler in his deep, gravely voice. "Are you okay?"
Artemis turned his head towards his bodyguard, "Yes, I am fine. Why wouldn't I be? I am not shot in the head." Inside Artemis was slightly worried, had his emotions been that noticeable? Before he was able to keep his feeling hidden and in check, but Artemis was also able to lie before as well. What if Mulch noticed his nervousness and said something, that would be the type of thing Mulch would do.
Butler remained unconvinced, "If you say so, we need to go now. The Fowls have always been punctual. Let's not make this day any different."
"Let me get Myles and Beckett, I am supposed to be taking care of them while Father is out and Mother is having 'me time' as she put it," said Artemis.
But, instead of walking upstairs to get the twins, the twins came to him. Myles was first, dashing down the stairs with Beckett nipping at his heels! But both of them tackled Artemis at the same time, knocking him to the ground and shaking him roughly.
"When are we going to go?" whined Myles.
"R-Right now. Now get off me!" Artemis grunted.
Butler chuckled, and received a glare from his principal. He tried to scowl again.
Just then Holly Short walked in, much to Artemis' embarrassment. When Holly saw the twins dog piling on Artemis, she tried (and failed) to stifle her laughter.
Holly crouched down to Artemis' face with a flicker of amusement in her eyes. Artemis saw this and knew what would most likely happened next.
"Oh, Arty Boy," she crooned. "Having a little trouble are we?" Holly delighted in pointing out when Artemis was in a pinch he couldn't get out himself, as it so rarely happened.
"Yes," replied Artemis testily. "That's why I have Butler around." Honestly, the nerve of people making fun of him, he was genius for goodness sakes! He had only helped the People avert a crisis several times.
Seeing that as his cue, Butler stepped forward and picked the twins up by their shirt.
"No fair!" Beckett cried. "We were jump, jump, jumping on Artemis!"
"Simple-toon," sighed Myles, the twin that inherited Artemis' smarts.
Holly chuckled at Myles's words. "He's so much like you it's unfortunate... but anyways, are we all ready to go picnicking?"
"My sister and Mulch need to be here, I think," Butler said.
"Here!" cried a female voice from above. They all looked up and saw Juliet running down the stairs, blonde hair flying in a French braid behind her. She landed next to her older brother, and leaned her elbow on his shoulder.
The LEP captain smiled. "Great. Now all we need is Mulch."
Juliet's smile disappeared and she groaned. "Do we HAVE to take Mulch? He'll attract flies. That's not good for the food."
"What about me attracting flies?" Mulch popped his head through the door. "Because I don't know if you smelled the twins lately."
Butler gave a low rumble that was actually a chuckle. "Nothing, just my sister and her graceful comments."
Juliet stuck her tongue out at Butler, if it was anyone else she would have busted out some fancy wrestling move. "Whatever, Dom, you're just jealous that I will outlive you."
This startled Butler. "What? How did you come to that conclusion?"
"Statistically speaking, Juliet is right," said Artemis. "You are nearly two decades-"
"And that's enough genius talk for one afternoon," interrupted Holly. "Time we go on our picnic!"
Butler nodded gratefully at Holly. "Yes, thank you."
Artemis almost chuckled for once in his life, and started to walk to the door after the twins.
Nearly ten minutes later, they arrived at their destination. When they stepped out of the car, the sun immediately pounded them, filling them with warmth. Juliet enjoyed it, but Artemis was missing his computer already. This was mostly from having a black blazer on; he felt like he was in a microwave.
"I'm boiling," Artemis muttered, sincerely hoping no one would hear him.
But Holly's elf ears did. "If you're so hot, why don't you take your blazer off? On second thought, why did you come in a suit at all?"
"Holly, did you just call Artemis hot?" Juliet asked, delighted. Finally, Juliet had been waiting for years to hear Holly or Artemis, whoever came first, to admit their feelings for each other.
"No-yes-well, I was just saying the-the-the temperature he was feeling," stuttered Holly, heat rising up to her cheeks. Artemis could feel the same thing happening to him.
Butler could feel a laugh coming up so he busied himself with setting up the picnic. "Juliet, everyone, come here and help!"
While everyone was distracted and walking over to Butler, Artemis whispered to Holly. "Come with me, I need to talk to you."
Artemis needs to talk to me? thought Holly. What could he possibly want to talk about, nothing has happened between...oh! That. Holly had been hoping Artemis didn't give any thought to what happened when they time travelled. It was extremely embarrassing when Foaly managed to find out and mercilessly teased her about it.
"Um, we should really help Butler," said Holly.
Artemis rolled his eyes, "Honestly, Miss Rule-Breaker. Since when did you care what you were supposed to do?"
Holly bristled at the nickname. Foaly had started calling her that around the office and it spread to the Mud Men. "Fine."
Artemis crooked his finger to follow him to the tree. Artemis couldn't believe he actually worked up the nerve to talk to Holly. He was so nervous about it the night before, he actually rehearsed in front of the mirror like he was some average intelligence fifteen year old.
He had told himself that he would speak like he normally would, without a single waver in his voice. But, as one half of him (the right side of his brain, most likely) had known, when they were under the tree, Artemis choked and couldn't get a single word out. His face flushed bright strawberry red, and he just stared at her, wordless. Holly, shifting her weight to one hip, waited for a conversation starter for a few seconds, then grew impatient quickly.
"Arty, what do you need?" she asked, though she knew exactly what this was about. She just hoped her suspicions were wrong.
Artemis swallowed, straightened his back, and finally worked up the nerve to speak. He tried to ignore all the voices in his head telling him that she would say she didn't like him. He, more than anyone knew that even if you had the slimmest of odds, there was still a chance.
"Holly," he said confidently, "I want to talk to you about the time we time traveled."
The captain's heart sunk; she had assumed correctly. She opened her mouth to speak, but was still deciding what to say in her head.
"Arty," she said slowly, "that was... a mistake."
"A-a mistake? It seemed kinda... passionate for a mistake." Artemis said. Inwardly he winced. Passionate? He was a criminal mastermind, a genius! Not some love struck idiot from those romance novels Juliet often read.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I was an adolescent fairy and I was really-"
Just then Juliet interrupted them. "We're going to eat soon." Then with a knowing smile, "Keep it PG guys." then left. Artemis and Holly both blushed, much to their annoyance.
"As I was saying," continued Holly. "It was a mistake. I was wired with magic and the time travel made me barely older than you in human terms. My-"
Once again they were interrupted. This time it was the twins. "Simple-toon!" said Myles in a way of greeting. "We eat soon."
"Yes, yes, Myles. Now go away, I have much to converse with Holly." Artemis told his brother. He fervently hoped this interrupting business wasn't going to become a regular thing.
"Your... girlfriend?" Beckett asked innocently.
"No!" denied Artemis, red faced. "Whoever gave you that idea?" Though Artemis already suspected who.
"Julie says so," said Beckett.
Artemis sighed, he knew it. Juliet was always teasing him about Holly. Constantly coming up with 'ship names' and asking how he felt about her.
"Anyway-"
"You know what?" Holly sighed, "They're right. Let's just go eat." She pushed past him before he could get another word out, desperate to escape that subject. She sat next to the twins and Juliet, and joined in the conversation sociably.
Artemis looked at them all for a minute, then walked and moved into their circle too. But he promised himself that this wouldn't be the last she heard of that. He'd talk to her the next chance he got.
