He felt sure people were staring; after all, isn't that what nosy tourists do when they see an eleven year-old sitting alone in a café, gripping a mug of tea like it was the only tether to the rational world? But really, if one was to be rational, which one usually is not in these situations, perhaps the mug was in fact his only lifeline. The mighty Fowl empire had fallen, that was what people were saying. Fowl Senior had gone missing, his wife had presumably gone into seclusion and Fowl II was trying his damndest to rebuild everything. Starting with the fortune, and maybe, if he was incredibly lucky, getting to his mother's mind.
He would never admit it to anyone, not even Butler, and certainly not his mother, not in her current state, but he missed his father. He felt vulnerable and fragile without the presence of Artemis Fowl Senior to deal with everything from money to family outings to schoolwork. But the Fowls were not a fragile family. Nor were they particularly vulnerable. But Artemis Fowl, aged eleven, felt (quite rightly) that he had a perfectly good reason to feel both vulnerable and fragile, not that anyone else needed to know this.
Though, if he'd taken the time to really think about it, he may have realized that they did in fact notice. Indeed, Artemis' fragility was the proverbial elephant in the room. But this elephant was not content to simply sit in the corner and be a good elephant. No, this elephant had proceeded to trample every free space in the proverbial room, broke the china and stamped on those who were sharing the room with it. And then proceeded to run rampant round the proverbial house, causing further destruction. Of everything.
Juliet had taken to peering round corners before walking into the various rooms of the mansion, as though Artemis and his proverbial elephant were of any real danger to her. Actually, Artemis was quite sure that Juliet could probably do a number on both he and the elephant, if she didn't live in fear of her elder brother. Although Butler was doing the peering thing now too.
And Artemis was still vulnerable, still fragile, and still gripping the mug. The tea had long ago gone cold, and still they stared at him.
Yo!: So, this is rather short and also un-beta-ed, but an Artemis Fowl mood gripped me and I couldn't really wait. Hah. This was inspired by/written to "Elephants" by Rachael Yamagata, who I've just recently discovered. Again, sorry about the possibly less-than-great quality/shortness, but I'm kinda rusty and also wagin war against my very persistant writer's block. :) Although my muses are a big help.