8th May 2005: Due to this website's recent outright ban of songfics, I have had to edit my songfics and remove the song lyrics so as not to have them deleted. I am also reposting all of my other fics (without making changes to them) so that they appear in the right order on my profile. I apologise if this annoys anyone.
OPEN YOUR EYES
Holly and Juliet sat on plastic chairs outside the Intensive Care ward. They were not family, so they had not been allowed in. The only reason Butler was in there was because nobody had dared to say no to him. His charge was in an "unstable condition", and he had received nothing more than a broken arm.
The two girls seemed to be locked in a little bubble, removed from the hustle and bustle of the hospital staff around them. Neither could really put what they were feeling into words.
"Do you..." ask Holly suddenly, her voice sounding unusually frail. "Do you think he'll be okay?"
Juliet said nothing, but turned to meet the urgent, innocent eyes of her friend. She smiled an almost-smile, trying to give hope when she herself had very little. "I don't know." She didn't think she could lie to Holly. Not about this.
There was silence between them then, and Holly turned away. She screwed her eyes up, balling her hands into fists. When she spoke, her voice sounded like it was about to crack.
"He just can't die." A single, tiny tear rolled down Holly's cheek. "I haven't even told him that I love him."
Pain flickered onto Juliet's face. "Neither have I," she whispered, thinking Holly would not hear. But she did.
"Y-you're in love with him?" she managed to stutter, turning her tear-filled eyes on Juliet, who sighed and looked away.
"I know it's wrong of me," she began, staring at one of the ceiling lights further down the corridor. "But anyone looking at you two knows you're meant to be, and that's why I never said anything before. You don't have to tell him, Holly, he already knows."
A few more droplets fell from Holly's lashes before she spoke. "It doesn't matter though, does it?" And she said it in such a wretched way that Juliet looked around, nearly frowning, asking for an explanation via her expression. "We can never be together. I'm a fairy, he's a human - it would never work."
"Love can always find a way," said Juliet in a faraway voice.
"Not for both of us," said Holly. "And not for either of us, if-"
"Don't say it!" interjected Juliet, harshly. Holly gaped at her, year-stained face momentarily frozen. "I... I'm sorry," she continued, "but saying it makes it sound like a possibility. And we can't afford to think like that."
It seemed like nearly ten minutes before anything more was said, but it was really only ten seconds. The desparate thoughts and emotions whirling around the two girls' heads were warping their perceptions of reality.
"You know neither of us can be with him, whatever happens." It was a statement, not a question, but Juliet answered anyway.
"Yes." She hooked her fingers around the sides of her seat. "I accepted that long ago." She dropped her gaze to look at the lino floor. "Not that it made me love him any less," she added more quietly.
"Sometimes I wished it could be different..." said Holly, seemingly ignoring Juliet's last sentence.
Juliet snorted derisively. "Oh, so did I. And hated myself for doing it. You two were in love, but you couldn't be together. He and I could have been." And the angry tone which had permeated this speech evaporated as Juliet's voice cracked. "But he didn't love me. And he never will!" She squeezed her eyes shut, but she couldn't hold the tears back.
Holly gently prised Juliet's nearest hand off the edge of her chair, and slid one of her own hands inside it. "We're in the same boat, we are. Neither of us can be with him, but neither of us can bear to give him up however much it hurts." Juliet nodded in silence. She was still crying. "I guess we're both lost causes. So we should stick-"
The smile that had been working its way onto Holly's face disappeared in an instant, as a nurse stepped out into the corridor. "Is he okay? Will he be alright?" Holly jumped out of her seat, dropping Juliet's hand, as the other girl stemmed the flow of her tears so she could see the nurse properly.
One look at her face gave them an answer. But it wasn't the one they wanted. "I'm sorry," the nurse managed to breathe in the seconds before Holly collapsed. She reached out a comforting hand to the sobbing, kneeling girl. But before it connected, Holly was on her feet again, and running gown the corridor. Juliet doubted she could even see where she was going.
Artemis was dead, and Juliet knew it would do no good to see him now. She rose, and began to walk the other away down the corridor. There was a quiet garden in the courtyard, she would go and visit it.
In the end, it had been so easy for the two girls to walk away from the one person who could ever make them happy. And that person wasn't Artemis.
The nurse sighed, pushed the door back open, and went inside again.
Disclaimer: Artemis (sob), Holly, Juliet and Butler belong to Eoin Colfer. And each other. Possibly.
Author's Note: This fanfic could be slash, or not, depending on how you take it. In fact all of my Holly/Juliet fics will be like this. I believe that they're soulmates, just not sure if that's in a lesbianish way or a friendship kind of way. I haven't decided. It's your choice, really. Although if you're anti-slash, I suggest you go for the friendship option rather than flame me, because I won't care. I'll just laugh.