Disclaimer: I do not own Artemis Fowl
*waves* Hello new fandom! I've read from you guys for quite a while, and just kind of wanted to write my own stories (since there seem to be so few AF fans on here, compared to some other series). So, this is the first idea I've managed to write completely without changing my mind, so I hope you like it! If you don't, *whispers* just blame CaptainS10, she was the Beta for me ;P
Also, to anyone here because they're following me from the PJO fandom, I highly suggest that you read Artemis Fowl, it's a fantastic series!
I hope all of you enjoy, and please review to let me know what you think, like I said, this is my first AF story.
Artemis sat alone in his study, as he'd done for hours on end for weeks now. It was quiet there, and his family rarely interrupted him, assuming he was doing something business related or working on a project. The truth was far from either of those. Over the last few weeks, Artemis had been researching something of a more personal matter.
His eyes were bloodshot from staring at the softly glowing screen, taking in the information, analyzing it, storing it in his memories. He'd been in his study for almost the entire day, and it was nearly midnight. He'd only left the study for dinner, and to bring a glass of water back to his study. Occasionally, he would take a break to walk to his window, and just watch the moon, or the snow that was softly glowing from the moonlight. It was like a blanket, making the scene seem warmer, and yet not. The breaks never lasted long though, he wouldn't allow them to, so he always returned to his chair, occasionally writing a little note or an idea, before scribbling it out a few minutes later, putting it in the bin beside his desk with the rest of his ideas.
The dark bags under his eyes, his pale skin, and mildly unkempt hair were quite obvious signs to anyone who met Artemis before that he wasn't himself. He always kept his appearance to a standard, and it never changed, almost regardless of the circumstances or conditions. If anyone had gone to talk to him, they would've noticed a slightly raspy voice from the lack of almost any talking for over a week.
He took a deep breath and sighed, standing up and stretching a little, trying to relieve some of the tension from his muscles before walking over to the window again. He opened the window, leaning on the sill and looking out over the cold, white landscape. His breath froze in the cold air, making small clouds every time he exhaled. He stared at the moon, like he did every time it was full. It lit up the normally dark landscape, made everything seem a bit more comforting, more forgiving, less harsh, and lighting up the unknown. It was peaceful, with the lack of wind, no sounds from animals, no cars to be heard.
He took a deep breath of the air from outside, trying to clear his head from all the information that was starting to mix together. He'd hardly slept for a few days, and his mind wasn't as sharp as it normally was.
After a few more seconds, he partially closed the window, leaving it open enough to let a flow of air continue to come into his study. He picked up his suit jacket from where he'd set it earlier, and put it back on, before returning to his desk. He leaned back in his chair, and looked at the screen. He assumed that no matter how much he researched, how much he learned about this topic, none of it would help, but he had no other viable route to take to solve this. It had never been his forte at any time of his life.
He sighed, and stared at the last idea he'd written down. Nothing he'd written had helped, all of them would end terribly. He crumpled up the paper and tossed the pen and paper ball onto his desk, and leaned back into his chair. He slouched down in the chair, and closed his eyes.
He was so tired, but he couldn't sleep. Whenever he laid down, he tossed and turned for hours because he knew he still hadn't solved this.
He took another deep breath of the cool air that was still coming in his window. So many hours of sitting at this desk, and he couldn't find a solution… Maybe there just wasn't one. Maybe he'd finally found a problem that he just couldn't solve. Every single "solution" he'd found either had no chance of working, or was a terrible risk that would almost certainly fail.
He clenched his teeth a little harder. Why couldn't this be like every other problem? Something that was logical, made sense, and could be predicted.
He rubbed his eyes, trying to keep himself focused. There had to be something he could do, something that he knew would work. It had to be possible to-
"So Artemis Fowl is capable of slouching like a regular Mud Man?"
Artemis moved his hands back down to the arms of his chair and lifted himself back into his normal posture, which was about as stiff and motionless as a statue. Holly sat in front of him on his desk, legs dangling off the edge and a small smirk on her face. She nearly looked like a small mischievous child who'd been caught causing trouble, but didn't really care.
"Evening Holly."
"Evening to you too Fowl."
Artemis glanced at the time on the screen he'd been scrutinizing for days, "What are you doing here Holly? It's after midnight, are you even supposed to be on the surface?"
Holly rolled her eyes at the question, "It's a full moon Artemis, I came to the surface for the Ritual, and I thought I would stop by to make sure you weren't causing too much trouble. What are you doing up this late anyway? Are you busy planning another way to exploit the People for gold?" She said sarcastically, turning to look at the screen.
"It's nothing of importance," Artemis said, quickly hitting a few keys to open a simple screen saver, "Just a problem with a solution that's evaded me for the past… two weeks, I think," Artemis said, rubbing his eyes and trying to get his memory and mind working as quickly as they should be.
"Is there anything I could help with?" Holly said, glancing at the now-blank desktop, curious of what had been there.
Artemis was still rubbing his eyes roughly in an attempt to wake himself up and not really focusing on the conversation, "I think involving you in this would either solve it or ruin it, I don't…" Artemis stopped before he continued the sentence, before anything else slipped.
Holly's eyes were half squinted at him now, not sure if he was insulting her or just teasing, "And what do you mean by that?"
Artemis thought through all of his options and ideas as quickly as he could, but the severe lack of sleep had his mind muddled. Holly leaned over towards his keyboard in an attempt to see what was on the screen again, but Artemis noticed and leaned forward, quickly grabbed her wrist just above the keys.
"Still no respect for privacy I see?" Artemis said, a small smirk hiding how nervous he was.
"Not if you won't tell me what you're working on," Holly replied.
"Can't you just leave it at a personal problem?"
Holly shook her head, "Come on Artemis, you know the People, myself included, are too curious for something like that. So, tell me what it is."
Holly stared at him, and he stared back. He couldn't tell her, because it was too complicated. It was more than complicated, it was dangerous and could potentially ruin his friendship. He had to find something to avoid telling her. He kept looking at her eyes, and he could see curiosity, mischief, what was always there, part of what had caused this issue… Her damn eyes…
He looked away, over to the window that she must've pushed open when she'd entered the study. He was so obsessed with figuring this out that he hadn't even heard it. He knew Holly would wait for a bit longer before demanding to know again, or maybe trying to read what he'd been studying. He looked back over to see Holly kicking her legs back and forth a little, watching him.
"I can't."
"And why not?"
"It's just too complicated, now, please, leave it at that."
She paused for a few seconds, looking at him, "And if I say no?"
Artemis took a deep breath, "If you say no, then…" Artemis rubbed his eyes, nerves finally waking him up from his sleep deprived state, "You'll be asking me to blindly walk into this problem without fully understanding it."
The small smirk still rested on her mouth as she watched him, but she was a little concerned, he could see it in her eyes.
"Well, no, I won't leave it at that."
Artemis closed his eyes, clenching his teeth and taking another deep breath of the cool air to try to calm his nerves. He opened his eyes, and looked over at the bin that was full of papers, filled with words and ideas he'd written and scribbled out, then to the last crumpled up paper on his desk. He leaned forward and picked up the paper ball, gently working it back into a semi-flat object, and looked at the words, reading them several times without looking back up.
Holly still sat on his desk, watching him curiously. She looked at the paper in his hands, but she couldn't read the words on the crumpled paper from where she was sitting. She kept looking at the paper and didn't notice Artemis nervously start tapping his foot as he kept re-reading the paper in his hands. She watched him close his eyes and grip the paper a little tighter. She took her opportunity of his eyes being closed to lean forward, closer to him so she could read the words on the paper, but they weren't what she was expecting to see.
Written on the paper in a very un-Artemis like script, were two words.
Tell her.
She looked back up to Artemis's face as he opened his eyes and looked at her, leaning over to read the paper.
"Tell what? To who?"
Artemis took a deep, slightly shaky breath, breaking eye contact , looking over to his window again, staring at it for a few moments.
Holly still sat in a confused silence as she looked at him, and could see how nervous and worried he was about this subject. She wasn't sure what to do, so she stayed still on the desk, waiting, but he didn't say anything, and just kept looking out the window.
After a bit more waiting, she leaned forward, putting her hand on his shoulder and shaking him gently.
"Artemis, are you alright?"
Artemis turned his head to look back at her, and looked her in the eyes. Holly could see more emotion in those eyes than she ever would have expected to see from Artemis. He was nervous, very, very nervous, that was easy enough to see, but there was something else… Something she couldn't place, and she'd never seen in Artemis before.
Artemis stayed silent for a few more moments, watching Holly. He saw that she was concerned, but there was still that spark of curiosity.
He stared at her mismatched eyes, memories flashing before his eyes, before he finally spoke.
"You want me to tell you what the problem is... But it might be easier to solve it now," he said, crumpling up the paper in his hand and tossing it to the side.
"What?"
Artemis looked back to her for a few seconds, then down at her hand that was still on his shoulder. Before she could react, he raised one of his hands, pulling the hand off and causing her to lose her balance, since she was still leaning from the desk.
When she fell forward, Artemis caught her, so close he could feel her breath.
"The problem, Holly, is you," Artemis said, before leaning in and kissing her quicky.
It didn't last long before Artemis pulled away again, the nervous look filling his eyes and a red color coming into his cheeks as he stared at her face, waiting for a response, but she stayed quiet, just looking back at him.
"Holly, I don't... For a long time, I've been trying to figure out what I thought about you, and especially over these last few weeks, I've been trying to find any way to tell you, but-"
Holly cut him off with another kiss, leaning closer to him as she did, now completely off the desk and in the chair with him, before pulling away a few seconds later.
"Artemis... This is never going to work, you know as well as I do it's impossible."
He held her closer to himself, as he felt himself relaxing for the first time in weeks.
"I don't think that'll be a problem Holly, I've learned quite a few things to deal with it over the past weeks."
Holly pulled away from him a little bit, looking at his face again.
"Artemis, it's not that'll it's going to be hard... I just don't see how this can work."
A small smile slowly appeared on Artemis's face as he looked back at her.
"One thing you seem to have forgotten though, Holly," Artemis said, pulling Holly back to him and holding her close, "is that I excel in performing the impossible."