Hello peoples! So, this is an idea I've been nursing for a long time but was never sure how I was going to go about it until recently. Just recently a scene for this hit me and I realized how I wanted to do it, so... yeah, here it is. (Mind you, that scene will be making an appearance and it's rather dirty, so let THAT be an indication of how this story is going to go.) The rating WILL go up on this, I'm sure, although when is debatable as of yet. So! Just keep that in mind.

In the meantime, enjoy! :)

Imposing.

This was the first word that came to Holly's mind as she approached the front gates of Fowl Manor. It was a grand and imposing structure, and one with a dark feel to it at that. A shiver ran down her spine as she took it in, and she chewed her lip nervously. The urge to turn tail and run was overwhelming.

Yet she stayed put, reminding herself why she was there. She needed this job, desperately. Otherwise she'd end up out on the streets, not able to support herself, let alone her dying mother. After everything Coral Short had done for her and her homeland, she would think she ought to get a little more sympathy, aid, or at least something to show for it all - but no. She was dying of radiation, slowly, from a failed experiment, and now Holly was left to deal with it alone.

Not that there was much to deal with. She had not even a few weeks left to live at last diagnosis. But with her father missing in action, presumed dead, they'd been on their own for a while, meaning now that her mother was gone, it was truly all left to her. Most everything was gone, which Holly was honestly fine with - they hadn't had much in the first place - but she was determined to keep her mother comfortable in her last few weeks, and that took money. She would need a job to support herself anyway. So here she was.

The job she'd found at Fowl Manor seemed perfect - on paper at least. She would be a live-in maid, to help keep things running smoothly around the manor, and she'd be provided with most everything she needed to survive. Mrs. Fowl had also promised her through email that she would be allowed to go see her mother twice a week and on the weekends with no problem, and that she could leave on a moment's notice if something came up so long as she told them first. It seemed agreeable enough; she knew she'd spent way too long moping by her mother's bedside anyway. Coral was not happy to constantly see her daughter sitting, catatonic, beside her, in the rare moments she was full awake and not in too much pain to speak.

Holly sighed, hitting the buzzer on the gate and waiting for the lock to disengage so she could go in. She swiped at her eyes as she approached the front door and pressed the bell, determined not to turn into a mess right before she met her new employers. She couldn't afford to think too much about it, or she'd have a melt down again - something that had been happening more and more lately. On the inside, she knew she should go get help, but that would have to wait until her mother was gone, at least. She had to be strong until then. She couldn't afford to be locked in the loony bin right now.

The door opened in front of her, and Holly suddenly found herself face to face with probably the biggest man she'd ever seen. He was probably the size of a mountain, honestly - tall, bald, bulky, and overall intimidating. He looked down at her impassively. "Yes?"

Yikes. Even his voice was deep and bass. Holly gulped, fidgeting with the strap on her bag. "Um, hi. I'm Holly." When this got no response, she quickly stumbled on. "I'm the new maid?" It came out sounding more like a question.

Before the big man could answer, another voice cut in from behind him. "Must you be so imposing all the time, Butler? You're scaring the poor dear. Let her in."

Butler's only response was a slight frown, and he stepped aside to let her in, revealing the speaker. It was an older woman, clearly not young but not yet much older than perhaps her 40s. She was tall, thin, and elegant looking, even dressed in nothing but a long blue bathrobe as she currently was. She smiled at Holly as she stepped in.

"Don't mind him, dear. He was hired to scare people away, if you know what I mean." She ran a hand through her still scraggly hair - obviously, she'd just come from the shower or the pool or something of the sort; either was possible, as it was still summer - and took her by the elbow. "I'm Mrs. Fowl, as I'm sure you've guessed. You're Holly, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am." Holly smiled weakly back at her, glancing around. Butler had disappeared, which was a relief, but she founded herself flustered by something else entirely as she took in her surroundings. She suddenly hoped she wouldn't be in charge of all of this.

"Good. Right on time. I like that." She steered her down a hallway. "Come, I'll give you a tour. How's your mother?"

Holly winced slightly at the reminder of her. "She's...bad," she murmured, hoping to shut it down at that.

"I imagine so. It must be terrible for you. Losing both parents so quickly… I can't even begin to imagine." She sighed, shaking her head and glancing back at her. Noticing how pale and uncomfortable the girl looked, she suddenly dropped it. "Well, let's see…"

Mrs. Fowl led her through the lower levels of the house, talking all the while. Holly tried to listen, but ended up tuning her out automatically most of the time as she tried to memorize her surroundings. The Manor was massive, and she could see herself getting lost all too easily. Something told her that was not something she wanted to happen - why, she wasn't sure yet, but she'd been taught a long time ago not to ignore her gut instincts. They were usually right.

"And here we have the dojo," Mrs. Fowl continued, stopping suddenly enough to bring her back to reality. Holly blinked, looking up at the older woman as she came to a stop just inches away from her. Thankfully, she either didn't notice Holly wasn't paying attention or ignored it gracefully as she turned away and opened the dojo door. She stepped inside, holding it open for Holly to follow.

Holly stepped in and glanced around, feeling her jaw go slightly slack. Suddenly she understood how Butler got to be quite so big. Their gym was massive, stocked with every type of equipment a person could dream of and probably even a few pieces that they couldn't. There appeared to be everything from a section of normal training equipment one might find at a local gym, to a firing range, to a place to practice hand-to-hand combat. She glanced at Mrs. Fowl.

Mrs. Fowl chuckled softly at the look on her face. "Do you enjoy exercising, dear?"

Holly nodded mutely. As the daughter of a high ranking cop, she'd been trained from the time she could walk on defending herself and much more, and had regularly went to the gym with her father in the early hours of the morning to spar and exercise. She hadn't been since he disappeared, though. It was almost too painful. Even the thought made her cringe slightly inwardly.

"Well, you're more than welcome to use it when you're not working. You'll be on a normal 9-to-5 schedule, so long as everything you're in charge of gets done during that time. If you finish early, then the day is yours... with the exception of little tasks we may ask of you and circumstances that may come up, but that's not for you to worry about now."

Holly nodded. "So what all am I supposed to be taking care of?" she asked.

But Mrs. Fowl was no longer listening, her eyes focused on something else. Holly realized she wasn't listening and turned, her eyes following the older woman's gaze to the lean figure that had just emerged from a door in the back of the room. It was a man, probably about Holly's age or possibly a little older. He was tall and thin, pale but not sickly so, with dark, ebony hair, and, as Holly saw when he looked up and locked his chilling gaze to hers, with brilliant blue eyes. He was also not wearing anything but a towel.

Holly felt herself flush and looked away as he approached. Mrs. Fowl smiled and drew him into a hug, mindless of his barely clothed state. "Arty! There you are. I wondered where you'd gotten off to."

The male allowed her to draw him in for a moment, keeping a hold of the towel at his waist and embracing her with one arm. "Hello, Mother," he murmured pleasantly before pulling back. His eyes never left Holly. "Who is this?"

"This is Holly. She's the new maid I hired to help Butler and Juliet out around the Manor." Mrs. Fowl smiled, patting her shoulder. "Holly, this is my eldest son, Artemis."

Not wanting to be rude, Holly reluctantly lifted her eyes back to his. He smirked at her, almost vampirically, and a shiver ran down her spine. "Hi," she whispered, unable to find her voice enough to raise it anymore.

"Hello." His eyes flicked up and down the length of her body once, making no effort to hide the fact he was checking her out. He let his gaze linger just long enough to make her flush before turning back to his mother. "How long will she be staying with us?"

Holly frowned when he blatantly ignored her despite her standing there, but knew better than to say anything. Mrs. Fowl just smiled. "As long as we can convince her to stay, I should think," she said. "I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to get to know each other better."

Artemis's smirk didn't fade. "I certainly hope so," he murmured, meeting her eyes for just long enough to make her flush again before turning and exiting the dojo.

Holly leaned heavily against the wall, exhaling deeply. She felt slightly weak at the knees. "Is he...always…?" she trailed off.

Mrs. Fowl gave her a knowing look, but didn't actually answer, gesturing for her to follow her out. Holly frowned slightly and took a steadying breath, straightening and following her.

She lead her into the area of the manor where all the bedrooms were last, pointing out whose was what. "Artemis and the boys' rooms are all in this wing, but different hallways. My husband and I's is in the west wing. Butler's rooms are also in this wing, since he is primarily Artemis's bodyguard, but yours is a hallway over, with his sister's. I'm sure you'll meet her eventually, but she's away currently." She looked back at her. "I'll show you yours and that will be the end of the tour. Any questions?"

Relieved to finally have an opportunity where the woman would hear her, Holly blurted, "How much of this am I actually in charge of?"

Mrs. Fowl blinked. "Oh! Not that much, dear. Just the boys', for the most part, and some general housework things." She stopped in front of a door, unlocking it with a key and then handing it over to her. "It will vary, of course, and any specific tasks will be assigned to you as they come. But that's for you to worry about later, as I said earlier." She pushed open the door. "Anything else, before I leave you to get settled in?"

Holly thought about it. There was a multitude of things she was wondering about, but nothing that she deemed it appropriate to ask her boss on the first day. "No," she said at last. "I think I'll be fine. Thank you, Mrs. Fowl. For… everything."

Mrs. Fowl smiled kindly at her. "Don't worry about it, dear. Take today, get acquainted with things, and make yourself at home. I expect Butler will fill you in on the full extent of your duties by tomorrow." Then she left.

Holly watched the door closed behind her, then fell heavily against the wall, taking a deep breath. She could tell this was going to be an… interesting job, at best, and a dangerous one at worst. Something about this place put her senses on high alert, but she wasn't sure why yet. Something told her she was going to find out, and she wasn't going to like it when she did.

Sighing, she tossed her bag - one duffel bag of belongings was all she had left at this point - down at the foot of the bed and flopped down. This was all to be worried about in the morning. Now, she needed to rest. She had a full day of work ahead of her tomorrow, after all.

She laid down, pulled the covers up to her chin, and was asleep almost immediately.

Are you intrigued yet? Is it worth continuing? As you can probably tell, it will get a little sad in points, but I promise it will be packed with enough romance and surprises to balance it out, so don't let that turn you off to it. Please let me know what you think, and I'll try update soon! :)