Title: Elysium
Author: damnielle / littlefishh
Description:Audrinne Redalucci is seventeen-year-old model about to hit it big in Paris; the stick in the mud is… she's colourblind. She solicits the help of a familiar healer in Vietnam, ultimately leading her to Artemis Fowl, in hopes to pour colour into her future. Before the magical restoration can be performed, Artemis and Audrinne find themselves in possession of an unexpected acquisition: another mouth to feed.
Pairings:Artemis/OC, Holly/Trouble, Foaly/Caballine
Rating:MA for sexual scenes and themes, language, and general ridiculousness.
01. Audrinne has had it with the vision impairment, Holly and Trouble agree to double date with Caballine and Foaly, and Artemis and the Paradizo girl break up
NOTE: LEMON LEAD-IN IS IN CHAPTER FOUR. LINK TO THE FULL VERSION WILL BE POSTED ON THAT CHAPTER.
The sticker pinned to the left corner of the scarf said yellow. But it didn't look yellow.
She cross-referenced it with the other tagged 'yellows' in her wardrobe, and it was certainly different. But she had twenty-three other colour labels, and she didn't really have the time to deduce with colour it was and, since Lexi was out waiting for her at the café, she had no one around to ask. She swung it around her neck and tied it just under her chin, hoping for the best.
She was wearing Steve Madden custom yellow vinyl ankle boot heels with a cork spike, an Oscar de la Renta synch-tie yellow-and-black checkered overcoat with a 'tutu' bottom, opaque black tights, and her (hopefully) yellow scarf. It was couture as was protocol, but her almost barren face—save a few stokes of Covergirl LashExact mascara—added a casual undertone to the mix of designers swirling about her.
Audrinne Redalucci was pretty—she had to be to get where she was—but she was not drop dead gorgeous. Men seldom realized this when catching glimpses of her ads on Broadway or the candid smiles she sneaked from behind her sunglasses for they were so enraptured by her charm to take her—if you'll pardon the semantics—at face value. In her face were so smoothly blended the soft features of her mother, a supple and lithe French dancer, with the harsh blood of her father, a proud and commanding businessman from the nineteenth generation of the Redalucci house. She seemed to have lost the traditional Redalucci black hair colour: instead, long tresses of honeyed-blonde poured from her delicate scalp onto slender, skinny shoulders, and at last ended just over the budding thrust of her bosom. She had bristly brown lashes that arched elegantly away from her face and high cheekbones that sloped obliquely into the button of her nose. It was an arresting face, and, when played alongside her charm and grace, she was able to capture the attention of any in her midst.
But there was a reason she was sure to put a pair of thick Armani sunglasses on. She had a very peculiar set of eyes, considering both her father and her mother had electric green eyes. Hers were inexplicably and definitely grey.
And these grey eyes dyed the rest of the world grey. She was colourblind.
She dodged the paparazzi excellently, even in heels on a cobblestone surface. Lexi had picked one of few cafes in Milan that allowed her privacy, this time through personal advantage. The owner, Benito Giovo, had all patrons not there for eating shut out. As soon as Audrinne arrived and greeted the floor manager with her signature smile, he ushered her on to the porch, where Lexi was waiting, and ejected all of the cameramen, who hungrily scampered around the outside of the building for an alternate view of the fledgling model.
Lexi was sitting on the open-air porch with her cappuccino in hand and a small, fruity pastry lying half-eaten on a plate before her. She had ordered Audrinne's signature drink, a double shot espresso with light cinnamon and honey, but the cup had long since gone cold. She was reading a tabloid through Fendi glasses, legs crossed and sipping frequently. She was wearing her favourite pair of Rocket Dogs and Religion jeans accompanied by a cropped-neck peacoat in a rust colour.
As Audrinne sat down and unloaded her shoulder bag from her arm, she said curtly, "JCrew?"
"Ann Taylor," Lexi said absentmindedly, folding the tabloid. "Being your body-girl and general canyon-woman has its perks."
She signaled to a waiter to remake the espresso and then folded her hands, looking over at Audrinne. From behind her bug-eyed glasses, she grimaced. "Gross! Why are you wearing a green scarf?"
Audrinne nearly tore it off her neck and held it up as if it were coated in muck. "I tacked it as yellow," she said softly.
"That sucker's green. It totally doesn't match. Everything else looks good, though." She gave her a one-eyed going-over. "I like the shoes. Madden?"
"They came in this morning. They feel weird in tights, but I just hate tights."
They jabbered on about fashion for a while until a waiter called to them. "Misses, I have an order I must run. Audrinne, your espresso is in the green cup on the Lazy Susan."
Audrinne was on her feet, and so was Lexi. Lexi took off her glasses. "Please, girl. I'll get it."
Audrinne glared from the safety of her own glasses. "I'm not five, Lexi," she said in perfect Italian.
"Sì," Lexi conceded, and sat back down.
Audrinne glided gently up to the barista's table. The rotating circle on the bar was made with mahogany instead of the usual place's cherry wood. Her drink was not alone—there were three others—but which was hers?
All were in coffee mugs with the Italian logo swirled across them. She lifted up her sunglasses and squinted. Sometimes, when she squinted, dabbles of colour would settle in the corners of her sight, but she was not this lucky. But she was daring, and she was a celebrity.
She selected the farthest cup and turned to walk back to the table, but instead came chest to chest with the flustered waiter. Her glasses thunked back onto her nose.
He looked at her questioningly. "I said green, Miss." He took the cup form her and plucked a warmer one from the table. "Not yellow." He smiled curtly and laughed as he zoomed off with her first mug.
She sat back down nervously, eying Lexi, who was looking at her expectantly. Audrinne soured instantly. "It was the sunglasses."
"I didn't say anything," Lexi said. "Is it just green and yellow?"
"I don't know. What are green and yellow? I wouldn't know if I saw them," she said miserably.
Lexi patted her arm. "It's okay. It's not important. Here's what is important."
She whipped out her stack of papers and folders and selected a green one. She knew Audrinne couldn't see it, but she still felt like she was insulting her. She licked her finger and expertly flicked though several pages until she came to a letter she'd tucked in between the notebook's clips. "Armani had scheduled you in to his line-up for fashion week in Paris in his 'ready-to-wear' and 'haute-couture' lines. He should have told you last week—"
"He did, Papa and I took him to dinner."
"Excellent. I take it you are officially going with Armani for Paris, then?"
"Definitely for Milan. Who else has offered for Paris?"
"Christian Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier, both for haute couture. Armani wants you to walk in two shows."
"Gaultier! Wow. I have a pair of shades and maybe a coat by him. This is tough."
"This should make it easy: Armani has notified me that he is considering you as an opener for his haute-couture run."
"Armani it is."
Lexi smiled. "I like Mr. Armani. He is very polite and always happy. I spoke with him on the phone and nearly fainted."
Audrinne laughed. "He is very kind. He actually sent me a personal Christmas card last year."
Lexi shot an acute look over Audrinne's shoulder. "The kids are here. Looks like Dante Boy-Wonder drove."
Audrinne turned around in her chair and nudged her glasses a little off her nose. Sure enough, her younger brother had brought all five younger siblings to come see her. Lucia and Aurelius ran immediately in her direction, followed by Francesca, who was carrying baby Marvalone. "High heavens. He's only just got his license."
She caught Lucia and Aurelius in her arms and hugged them tightly. They were chattering simultaneously and cancelled out the other. She smiled nonetheless. "Hello, amores. How are you?"
Francesca put her head forward for Audrinne to kiss, which she did. "Dante says he can drive now. He's taking us to the Fountains tomorrow."
Audrinne kissed Marvalone and then stood. "Your brother is foolish. I'll take you to the Fountains myself. We'll ride in the long car."
Appeased, Francesca took Audrinne's chair. Audrinne turned to greet her two brothers who were currently swaggering over, drinks in hand.
She embraced Dante's shadow, Ettorio III, and kissed him on the cheek. "Etty! Good to see you."
"You too, sis. I learned a whole bunch of new moves in fencing. I'll take you on when you come home some time."
"I'm coming home tonight. I didn't tell Papa. And I'll gladly accept that challenge," she said, punching him lightly in the chest. He smiled brightly.
Dante snorted. "I'll play winner." He hugged his sister warmed and kissed her on the mouth. "I wished you had told me you were in. We had to follow the waves of paparazzi just dying to get in here."
"I'm glad an unlicensed driver like you didn't get caught by the police holding them off," she said coldly. "You know you can't drive for another three months."
"You didn't mind when I drove you to the airport!"
"Lexi was with me, and you were not driving around my family."
"I'm family," Lexi protested, bouncing Marvalone on her knee.
"What do we say to Lexi, everyone?"
"Buon giorno," they chorused monotonously. Lexi smiled, apparently mollified. Francesca and Lucia began asking her about the goings-on of the fashion world.
Audrinne turned back to Dante. "Watch it, punk. And I mean it. This isn't one of those 'one-strike' things. One strike, and they could be dead."
"Audrie, you know I'm a fine driver. And I would never put my own family in jeopardy. You know it."
"You get over-confident sometimes, Dante." She turned back to her siblings. "Hot chocolate, everyone? No whipped cream, Lucia?"
They nodded, and began loudly dragging chairs over to their table. When Audrinne arrived at the bar, Benito had already made five hot chocolates, one without whipped cream. He winked. "I love my Redalucci's."
"We love you too, Mr. Giovo," she said, smiling. She picked up the tray and eyed the cups. They were all the same colour, she guessed. She set them down in front of their corresponding drinkers and said bravely, "He gave us red for 'Redalucci'. What do we say to Mr. Giovo?"
They looked at her strangely, and she felt a heat rise to her face with no concealer to hide it. She had guessed the colour wrong.
Lexi covered her. "Audrinne got you! Yellow isn't red." She tickled Marvalone, who giggled shrilly. "Good one, Audrie. But what do we say to Mr. Giovo?"
"Grazie, Signor Giovo!" Lucia stared at Audrinne in admiration before tucking in like the rest.
That's it, she said to herself, shaking her head. I am so done with yellow.
"I won't do it."
"Please, Holly, pleeeeeease!"
"Absolutely not. It's ridiculous."
Foaly stamped his hooves in a mini-temper-tantrum. "Why? It is one night, Holly. I'm not asking you to marry him."
"But you are asking me to put up with unnecessary awkwardness for an entire night," she said, flustered. She hung her Neutrino blaster on the gun rack and buffed out a scratch in her visor with a ball of her sleeve.
"It won't be awkward."
"Yes it will. You and Caballine will call each other 'my stallion' and 'my sugar-booger' and—"
"I do not call her a sugar-booger, Holly—"
"The point is, Foaly, that you two are obviously more serious about this relationship than I am. And Caballine isn't your coworker, so it's different."
"Oh, please, Holly. You and Trouble are two fun, lively people. I don't have anyone else to go with."
"Then go alone."
"I have four tickets!"
"Don't you need one for your rumps?"
Foaly snorted in distaste. "Don't be the party-pooper, Holly. Just ask him and come."
She shut her locker and inflated her chest sarcastically. "Oh, now I have to ask him, too?"
Foaly threw up his hands. "Damn it, Holly, I was inviting you to the biggest concert of the year because you're a friend and coworker I respect! And I'm asking you to bring another coworker we both like and respect! If I told you Artemis was coming, you'd say yes in a heartbeat."
"We should bring him and the Paradizo girl. I don't know her and I ought to, especially if she's bouncing around with Artemis."
"She's clean. I went through her files extensively, and I've had satellites on her ever since Artemis met her. She's quite the devoted girl."
Foaly suddenly blushed. Holly narrowed her eyes to slits. "You've been spying on her and Artemis, haven't you?"
"Well, it has been somewhat necessary! With two kid geniuses together, they could potentially plan a Nazi revival or something…it was purely for safety, Holly."
Holly's face didn't change.
"I swear. I haven't really watched anything tat'd they've done, at least, not much."
Holly's eyebrow shot up to her hairline.
"I might have watched a few dates, but that was only when I had no other surveillance to do! It was only like one or two…"
Her eyes became thinner.
"Maybe three or four…"
"You've been watching them copulate, I bet."
Foaly turned so red, she expected blood to pop out of his ears. She made a face. "Gross, Foaly! That's pretty low."
"I was on the tape, so I watched it. I tried to look away, but I was laughing too hard."
"You recorded it?!"
"All of my satellite feeds save to a private database! Artemis' files are saved to an extra-secure vault, so don't worry. The Council won't find them."
An awkward silence settled over them. Foaly clicked his hoof against the ground and looked at the ceiling, embarrassed. Holly crossed her arms and stared him down, a pinkish tint rising in her own face.
"I want to see them."
"WHAT? Absolutely not. They are classified. Double classified—"
"I'll ask Trouble to the concert."
Foaly weighed his options, mulling it over briefly. "Deal. But you can't tell him that either of us know."
Holly smirked, relief washing over them both. "Even the People sin in pairs."
Foaly sighed. "But he's only fourteen. Or eighteen, depending on how you count. A little young. Just a little."
"That's just because you haven't gotten any in your entire life," Holly teased.
Foaly glared at her. "Yeah, well I'll have you know that Caballine calls me her stallion for a reason."
"Nasty," Holly said, miming being sick, and the two retreated to Foaly's lab, extra careful to ensure the door was locked.
Somewhere in the middle and dark of night, Minerva Paradizo woke.
She was carnally exhausted, but her mind was firing rapidly, as always. She rolled over to face him, but he had his back to her.
Artemis Fowl had been awake the entire time. The more he tried to sleep after he'd…entertained Minerva, the less it came to him. Now he had crested into a stage of insomnia, which angered Minerva the Morning After. For all her hard and logical rationale, she expected their romance to be quite the storybook sort, and that, for Artemis, was utterly impossible.
His attraction to her had become increasingly physical, as he found her inexplicably annoying and haughty, constantly bashing him for being a perfectionist and gloating for days when she finally exploited one of his flaws. It was a love-hate relationship, and it wasn't at all what she pictured. And, judging by the irritated snort as she turned back to her other side, it wasn't want she'd had in mind, either.
He waited a few moments for her to slip back into deep sleep before extracting himself from the covers and putting on a bathrobe. He already had his boxers on since his business with her was quite finished. He walked to the door and opened it, silently looking back at the sleeping girl in his guest room bed. He had never been able to welcome her into the warm of his own sheets for the sinking pit he felt opening in his stomach every time the idea came to him.
But she made a pretty picture sleeping where she was. Her blonde curls had unfurled across the pillows, and the sheets draped demurely across her breasts and thighs, leaving expanses of youthful skin free to bask in the glow of the moon. He tried to see the beauty he once drank greedily of in the beginning, but his gaze was lost. It was not the way a man looked at a woman he loved. It wasn't even lust. It was something rather colder and more calculating, and it turned the Irish boy's already pale eyes to the color of a winter frost.
He left the room and went downstairs, seeing that Juliet and Butler were lazily watching a television program on wrestling. Butler noticed Artemis immediately and walked out to greet him. Juliet was mesmerized, as easily as ever.
"What is it?" Butler was strangely attuned to his charge's emotions, however thickly masked.
"It's Minerva," he said, as if he were trying to crack a puzzle. "I've lost it with her. I feel nothing for her, nothing in the places I should be feeling things for her."
"What happened?"
"Nothing. We went to dinner, and she didn't want to go to the cinema, citing it was too late. So we went upstairs, and…I'm sure you know, my friend…but now it's over. And I can feel it, more than ever."
"Is it Holly?"
Artemis scoffed. "I could never love Holly. What would we talk about, besides the People? We have nothing in common and we're from separate worlds. I admire her beauty, but Holly is simply out of the question."
Butler shook a martini for himself and downed it in a single gulp. He scowled at the taste and began assembling different liquors. "When did this rut with Minerva begin?"
"About two months ago."
Butler thought for a moment. "No event comes to mind."
"There was no trigger. I mentioned it in my journal about two months ago. One month and twenty-three days, I believe."
"Well, what do you like about her?"
"She's smart, but I'm smarter. She is pretty. I like her hair and eyes. I like the dresses she wears. She smells like jasmine, and I've deduced that she buys from an Indian spice company acquainted with her father. She makes me feel less alone in the world, but she doesn't know Holly or Foaly… or Julius. Half of my life is severed from her understanding."
"Julius…" Butler said wistfully. "A good man."
They raised their glasses, and drank to him. Artemis sighed. "I feel rotten for not liking her anymore."
"It is not your duty to like her, Artemis. It is your duty to respect her. You cannot simply toss her out on the street because you tire of her."
"Yes, I know. I think I shall ask for some space to think things through before I do something too quickly. We have that gala event at the end of the month… perhaps I shall ask to see her then."
"She had mentioned something about fashion week in Paris…"
"Yes, she wants to see Christian Lacroix's haute couture line as he's just bought some of her father's stock. Giorgio Armani is supposed to be there as well, and I hear he is looking for a business consultant."
Butler smiled. "There he is. Always on the look-out for an opportunity."
Artemis pulled a piece of paper and a think-tipped pen and began to scribble a note. "I am leaving for the night. I'm going to fly to Berlin to see Mother and Father. I'll take the private jet. Please give this to Minerva and see her home safely."
Butler grunted and read the note through a squint. It announced his departure and told her he would see her in Paris in late November for fashion week. "Master Fowl, I should like to accompany you—"
But he was up the staircase to pack. Butler sighed and folded the note, then went back to the wrestling program.