A big thank you to all the people that have reviewed on this fic! I apologise for the last chapter ending so depressingly. & a big sorry for my confusion with tenses, one day I was perfectly fine, the next I was spouting present-tense stories (which might work perfectly fine with other authors, but apparently not with me).
UNNECESSARY DISCLAIMER STATING I DO NOT OWN ARTEMIS FOWL IS UNNECESSARY.
If there was one thing Minerva Paradizo had not expected, it was to be forgotten.
For three years, she anticipated the return of Artemis Fowl, imagining all the possible scenarios in her head. Other girls daydreamed about Prince Charming sweeping them off their feet, away from their boring lives. Minerva had a juvenile mastermind that had saved her life before vanishing mysteriously.
Artemis may have steered clear to avoid her, maybe she would have brought up unpleasant memories. Alternatively, Minerva also expected her expectations might fall disappointingly short if he did make an attempt to talk to her; she had set the par pretty high in her adolescent daydreams.
But forgotten? No, Minerva had been too self-important to anticipate that.
When Butler had called her up to say that Artemis had returned, haggard but otherwise alright, she had felt a helium-like elation, but as the days passed by, Butler called and conversed as regularly as before (Minerva had a nagging suspicion that he thought she might be lonely), but Artemis made no attempt to ring her up. She had wondered if it had been the first possibility - avoidance?
But after taking a flight to Dublin, seeing Artemis' shocked face as she rapped on their door, she realised that she was completely out of her game.
She had been forgotten. She was befuddled.
"Uh," she coughed. Uh? Where is your dignity, Minerva Paradizo?
"Hello there, Artemis," she said, quickly covering up her blunder with a genuine smile. "It's nice to see that you're back in town."
Artemis arched an eyebrow, and Minerva nearly palmed herself in the face. Back in town? Really?
"Yes, it's a pleasure to be back as well," he replied, courteous facade in place. Minerva nearly wished he would mock her with a vampiric smirk; she felt like one of the clients he felt obligated to pretend to be polite to. "What brings you to Dublin, Minerva?"
"A few business calls here and there," she replied nonchalantly. "I thought I would stop by and say hello to Butler and the twins, perhaps congratulate you on your recent return from the unknown."
Artemis raised an eyebrow again, but opened the door wider silently to let her in nonetheless.
"Butler is in the kitchen, the twins are in their room playing with their toys. Do you need help getting around?" he asked politely, yet his eyes kept straying back to his room in a way that reminded Minerva painfully that he probably had better things to do. Illegal businesses, probably.
"You can go if you'd like, I know the way around the mansion pretty well, I've been here quite often," she replied, striking him where she knew it hurt most, the guilt of being absent from his family's life for the past three years.
"Alright, thank you, Minerva," he said, maintaining his composure, but Minerva noticed with a guilt-ridden, triumphant smirk that he had winced a little before walking brusquely back to his room.
Minerva contemplated the shut door Artemis had just entered with a scowl.
It seemed to be taunting her.
It was just a small crush, like he ever had feelings for you. You know how hormone-addled teenagers are like these days.
Minerva really hated that door.
Silently, she tiptoed towards his room and pressed her ear against the door, guilty expression in place.
"Who was that?" a female voice said, her voice distorted as though Artemis was using a walkie-talkie. Bad reception, perhaps? Unbidden, the feeling of jealousy weighed down on her heart. Artemis had skipped out on spending some time with her to talk to another person? A female person?
"Minerva."
"Minerva? Really?" the voice asked, and Minerva wondered briefly how she knew about her. Had Artemis told her?
"Yes, really," Minerva heard Artemis say, his void seemingly void of expression. "She said she was paying a visit to Butler and the twins."
The female (girl? woman?) snorted, and Minerva hated her even more in that moment; hated herself for feeling so strongly about someone she had never even met. "Didn't you have a humongous crush on her before Hybras?" the female inquired.
Dimly, the word "Hybras" set up a question mark in her brain, but the alarm bells in her mind had gone off, screaming the words crush crush crush.
"I was fifteen," Artemis said, his voice dismissive. "Not to mention completely romantically inexperienced." Minerva's heart cracked a little.
"You're still kind of fifteen," the voice replied, and Minerva frowned, wondering what that meant. "And you are definitely still romantically inexperienced."
"It doesn't matter," Artemis said, his voice once more evasive and brusque. "It was just a silly crush."
"Whatever you say, Mud Boy," the voice snorted again, and Minerva slinked away from the door, breathing heavily as though she had been forced through another gym session. She leaned back onto the stairwell, sighing.
Just a crush, just a crush, just a silly little crush.
Dully, she wondered if this was what the girls at school had dubbed "heartbreak".
Minerva, who seems to be largely unpopular among people, surprisingly (and sadly, since I actually quite like her characterisation). But anyway, EOIN COLFER WHY YOU ABANDON YOUR SUBPLOTS. But seriously, she was just cast aside.
I like it when an author doesn't feel the need to resolve all the plot so there is some ambiguity, but the lack of any mention of Minerva after that one book was a very striking contrast.