Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: I'm just adding my story to the few (good) Artemis and Alex stories.
The faces in front of him were to familiar. The seat he sat in was to familiar. The words being spoken, also to familiar. Everything he did was to familiar. Dodging bullets, saving the world, fighting different masterminds to help people, risking his life, all to many familiar things. Alex Rider was familiar with it all. The only thing Alex Rider wasn't familiar with was falling in love.
"So, Alex, do you accept?" The familiar gray clothes, glasses, and face of Alan Blunt asked. But both he, the peppermint sucking secretary Mrs. Jones, and even Alex knew that when he enters the room he would accept.
Alex nodded slowly. He didn't need Mr. Blunt to to tell him to go to the bubbly Smithers to retrieve the needed gadgets for his new mission. He quickly made his way to the bubbly fat man and was greeted with a large smile. "Hi ma boy." He greeted and with one hand he gestured to a small table with a few gadgets on it. "Here they are." He said and picked one up that looked like a ring with an emerald stud, Alex was smart enough to know that it wasn't.
"This little 'ring' here is just that, a ring. Unless you twist it to the right." He said, demonstrating. A small barrel came out from under the stud. "And if you push the emerald down it will fire a small tranquillizer dart that is good enough to take down two horses." And he turned to Alex, all serious. "And it was tested." He said. He went on to pick up another gadget.
He picked up a watch. "If you put the hand at twelve it will contact us and we can get your location."The next thing he picked up was a cell-phone. "This here can operate as a real cell-phone but if you press the call button twice and then the end button and then the call button again a small laser beam that is strong enough to go through steel will shoot out from the camera. But it will only last for ten seconds."
"And finally, a bomb pen and computer glasses. If you press down on the button at the top you better get rid of this thing quick because in ten seconds it explodes. These sunglasses, if you tap the left nose piece, you can record things like the best camcorder, search the web, look through things like an X-ray, and it even works as a real pair of sun glasses." He said, Alex could tell he was filled with joy at all his latest accomplishments.
"Thanks, but what happens when it's twelve?" Alex asked. Smithers paled.
"Just...be careful Alex." He said, laughing nervously.
"Thanks Smithers." Alex muttered dryly. He could tell this mission would be quite the handful. Wonderful.
"Well, good luck ma boy." He said and Alex walked off. He was to go to the airport where, after boarding his plane, a stewardess would hand him an envelope filled with all the information he would need to successfully complete his mission. His mission, capture and successfully apprehend Artemis Fowl the Second. Compared to saving the world all the times he did, it should have been easy.
The keywords where should have.
Alex sighed in frustration. He had been trailing the young mastermind, and his mountain of a man bodyguard, for over two hours but they never went anywhere important and never stopped for more then a few minutes. Until they hit a small cafe, the Requiem, in northern Ireland. And it held true to its name. They had a live band playing a soft melody and the cafe was littered with song titles, album covers, and all around music memorabilia. The Requiem, he noted, had most of its seats outside. Artemis and Butler took one of those.
He kept walking, wasting time, but after a few minutes he circled back and sat down at the nearest empty table. One right next to theirs. As he sat down a waiter came up next to him, holding a menu. But in his hurry he knocked against the young Fowl. In turn Butler bristled but Artemis shot him a look, the big man backed down. "Sorry." the waiter apologized.
Artemis said nothing but just glared at the flustered waiter. The waiter looked embarrassed.
"Can I get you something to drink?" He asked Alex.
"Uh, a Coke please?" He asked. He loved his Coke.
"Coming right up." The waiter said, writing down the order and giving Alex the menu. He hurried off.
Alex leaned over. The tables, small green things made of a cheap metal, where close together. Defiantly not Fowl standards, this little Cafe. "Sorry about the waiter Mr.'s." He apologized.
Artemis turned to him. "It wasn't your fault...by the way my name is Artemis Fowl. Yours?" Artemis said. It was weird. Artemis wouldn't have said anything...but he was asking about this boy. Why? He hated most people.
Alex was taking off guard. He thought the Fowl was supposed to be more cold. He was shocked into a moment of silence. And then he was greeted by the cold Fowl he had read about.
"Are you ill? Do you not know your name?" He asked. Not as cold as he expected but still cold.
"Er, no, i'm fine. I know my name. I'm Anthony Herm. Nice to meet you." he greeted, smiling. And it was true. The slim, pale boy was...fair to look at. Soft black hair framed his face and he had piercing blue eyes.
The Fowl in turn looked at him. He studied, that was his nature, the boy in front of him. A pen in his left pants pocket. A golden watch, an impressive fake. His black sun glasses where also a designer fake.
He had a small ring, an emerald sat in the middle of it, that was made out of a silver mixture, the emerald in it was fake. But besides the fakes he had on the boy was...fair. Blond hair, a muscular build, all in all a good bit of girls...and guys would want him. This Anthony Herm was..perplexing to the black haired pale skinned adolescent.
"Your Irish." Alex said, trying to start up conversation.
"Your not. In fact...your English." The Fowl replied. Normally he would have scoffed at the person who said that. They where in Ireland after all. But again, Anthony still had Artemis perplexed. So...different then other people he met. Either they where average or they where close to his intelligence level and slightly evil, or they where 'nuts'. But Anthony was...smart, not nearly as smart as some people he dealt with, but smart. Anthony was defiantly not 'nuts' but he didn't hold that ignorant mundane attitude that most people did, people who where bored with their life had that attitude. He seemed tired, not in the sense that he hadn't slept lately but in the sense that he was permanently fatigued. Someone who had seemed to much in his years. A trait they both held.
Artemis speculated that Anthony had seen to much death. He also had a deep sadness in his eyes, that was what gave Artemis that bit of information. But no matter what little bit of information he picked up off of Anthony he didn't know the whole story. He knew the whole story with most people. Most people where predictable. Readable. The perplexing feeling that Artemis had, the Irish boy deduced, was the nagging voice in his mind that said he didn't know it all. The voice that had helped him multiple times, and also got him in a bit of trouble. So, to get rid of the nagging voice and hence get rid of the perplexed feeling Artemis would have to get to know the boy. Because everybody knew that Artemis hated to not know everything.
"Your right, from good ol' London in fact." he said, laughing nervously. The boy had noted the silence. He also noted that the Fowl's where richer then the file he had said on them. The boy was born with a drawer full of silver spoons. He held himself the way only the rich could pull off. His black suit was made of a rich material that Alex didn't know. Everything the Fowl did screamed he was wealthy, but unlike some of the super rich he had dealt with Artemis held himself with the 'I'm obviously rich' attitude but with a 'I have gone through hell' one to. Intriguing. And to successfully complete his mission, he would have to not be intrigued, he would have to know.
So with both teens determined to know each other more, action was set. But stopped. By the waiter with Alex's menu. But Alex wasn't hungry.
Artemis gave Anthony a few minutes to look through the menu, he didn't want to appear rude, before he moved the short distance to sit across from him. Of course Butler started to get up but with a quick infamous Fowl glare he sat back down. As soon as Artemis set down Anthony put the menu down. He already knew what he wanted. When the rich food is given as a choice, he would take it. M16 gave him a good bit of money so why not spend it on chicken cordon bleu.
"Hi." Alex greeted smiling.
Artemis raised one of his eyebrows. "Didn't we already do this Anthony?" He asked. Dead serious.
"Er, yeah...I needed a filler sentence." He admitted laughing. Artemis didn't really see what was so funny but he laughed slightly, as not to appear rude.
Butler just sat, wondering what on earth his charge was doing. He wasn't a people person.
"A filler sentence would imply that you would have something else in stored to ask me but did not know how to approach the question with out being overly blunt and appear to be overly rash."
Alex stared blankly at him for a second. This kid was a lot smarter then the file gave him credit for. "Er, yeah. Wow your smart. But, yeah I had something else to say. You really hit on the mark their Artemis." Alex said. Which was the truth. Directly on the mark.
"What did you expect, I'm a Fowl, we are known for our high IQ's. But thank you none the less." Artemis said, leaning in, resting his chin on his folded hands.
"Oh. But on to what I wanted to say. Artemis...would you...want to go on a date with me?" He asked, feeling rushed. Alex had deduced it to be the only way to really get to know him, to apprehend the crook he knew the Fowl was. But because of timing Artemis was cut off from his response. The waiter had arrived.
He placed the cordon bleu in front of Alex and gave Butler his order. After a second of being confused the waiter gave Artemis his order of cordon bleu. He also moved Artemis' drink to his new seat. The waiter hurried up to go...wait on the other customers.
The boys picked at their food for a few minutes before Artemis replied. "Well, Anthony, in absolute truth...I would love to." he said, a small smile gracing his pale features. Alex beamed. His mission was getting somewhere...but that wasn't the whole reason. He was actually looking forward to knowing this boy. This, Artemis Fowl.
A/N: This story is the reason why I haven't been updating lately. That and general life. But I hope you like it.