Bend With the Wind

Storyshark2005

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Artemis Fowl, or anything related, blah blah blah.

The wind blows out of the gates of the day,
The wind blows over the lonely of heart,
And the lonely of heart is withered away.
- William Butler Yeats.

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
- Ernest Hemingway.

...

Artemis anxiously glanced at his watch for the tenth time in the past three minutes. Normally, he would not resort to such idiosyncrasies, but today everything in his normally smooth façade was slipping, just a little bit.

Holly was coming for a visit.

He hadn't seen her in what seemed like ages. (Amusingly enough, he thought, the word 'ages' is fairly appropriate, considering…) They had kept up quite well, using their communicators, but ever since they had gotten back from the paradox…well things had changed.

Even more so since the Hybras incident, Artemis now felt a tangible bond between Holly and himself. It seemed as if he had a physical need, to hear her voice, to feel her very presence…and it wasn't just because of the kiss. He wasn't self-absorbed enough to equate her act of kissing him as anything more than giddy relief.

It was just as if no one else, not Butler, not his parents, certainly not Minerva…no one but Holly truly understood him now. How he worked, what he was thinking. (Though, even Holly had a time working that out. But she seemed to get closer than any mortal ever could.)

Minerva…now that was another issue entirely. She had changed. Now good friends with his family, with Butler…and Myles adored her. While Artemis had grown distant, Minerva had become a surrogate elder sister to Myles, and even a lab partner.

She really is something…he mused. Yes, she was smart. Yes, she was beautiful. Yes, she got along great with his family. Yes, she had even managed to evade that propensity for which most genii fall victim to…She wasn't an egotistical bastard.

He didn't know why he just didn't ask her out or something. She had all but begged him, dropping hints here and there. Now that's hardly fair, he told himself, it wasn't really her. An awful lot of it was his parents doing, inviting her over and dropping her hints that Artemis was interested.

But she was no Holly.

And that was enough for him.

...

Minerva Paradizo tucked a stray lock of gold hair behind her ear as the biting autumn wind flung it chaotically about her delicate, pink face. Her soft blue sweater seemed to do nothing to cut the gusts, and she tightened her arms around her middle, pulling her thumbs into her sleeves.

As her feet crunched down the long white gravel drive of Fowl Manor, lined on both sides by tall Cyprus trees, looking like a Greek paradise, her clear blue gaze flicked up to the back of a young man standing about 100 meters further down the drive. His back clad in black Armani, complimenting his dark head of hair.

She stopped a several feet back, hesitant.

"Artemis?"

Artemis turned his head slightly at the sound of her softly accented voice, and cocked his ear in her direction, acknowledging her to continue.

She drew in a shaky breath, cold and still unsure.

"Don't you want to wait inside? Your mother has hot chocolate, and she's worried…well everyone's worried. You've been out here for two hours. It's cold…"

Artemis smirked. "Minerva, I've been through worse." He faced forward, his words now being carried away by the wind. "Siberia…" and he was carried off by memories.

Minerva bit her lip. "But you had a coat in Siberia." She smiled softly, and stepped the last few feet, even with him. She surveyed him from the side, her gaze quietly scanning his pink cheeks, foggy breath, dark hair, blue eyes…

"I'm not cold…" he said.

And he turned to face her, his hazel eye startling her, as it always did. It seemed she would never get used to it. Its warmth seemed out of place amongst the cold blacks and blues. Everything about him used to be sharp…cold. From his eyes to his wit.

Now…well, he had changed.

It had finally seemed, after three years, that she had gotten him back. But as soon as he had come, he was gone again. Maybe not physically, but mentally he was somewhere else. At first she had thought it was because of his mother's sickness. But really, it had started after that…after Angeline had recovered.

She wanted so badly to know what was going on inside his head, what he was thinking. But every time she got close, he shut her out again.

The air a few feet in front of them seemed to shimmer, and she heard a quiet laugh from Artemis.

He turned to face her again, still smiling. "I'll be there in a minute. Tell mother to make another mug of hot chocolate."

She nodded, gave a last glance at the shimmering spot, and started back towards the house.

This time, the cold air blasted her face.

A/N- Hey everyone! Thanks to my first three reviewers! JJohnz, midnightwaters, and ilex-ferox.

So what do you think?

I do wish Eoin would have made Minerva a little more three dimensional. Don't get me wrong, I was with all the rest of the Minerva-haters after TLC came out, but now I've gotten to thinking what she would actually be like, as a real person. She has potential guys…