"I had no idea you were so fashionable," Artemis said in way of greeting Holly as she stepped into his room through the balcony, dragonfly wings already curving into the dainty looking jacket they'd been attached to.

"Sometimes I think you're almost making progress with these sorts of things," Holly said, half her mouth quirking up in an amused and lopsided grin. "Then you open your mouth and that comes out."

"My apologies, Captain," Artemis said, offering to take her jacket, which, surprisingly, she yielded, revealing the slight poof to her cropped sleeves. With its Empire waist and knee-length skirt made from layers of tulle, the dress looked very much something you might put a baby doll in. His mother would love it.

"Stop staring," Holly snapped, moving from amused to self-conscious in the handful of seconds between appropriate appraisal and gawking.

"You must understand that before we started this charade, I was genuinely unaware that you owned anything other than uniforms."

"What, you thought I just lived in the LEP regulation jumpsuits and uniform variations?"

"Yes," Artemis said. "And clothes in the same vein"

"For a genius, you sure are dumb."

"I know," Artemis sighed. "I happen to have a wife that reminds me all the time what a fool I am."

"Keep her around," Holly said. "She sounds like she has some sense about her and someone has to keep you in line."

"I'll try," Artemis replied wryly. "Shall we?"

"Can't put it off any longer, can we?"

"Not likely. Mother is almost certainly waiting impatiently at the door for you even as we speak."

"She's at the door, and yet you're here, in your bedroom."

"Waiting for you, too, only I knew where you'd be landing."

"Didn't share that with her?" Holly laughed, taking Artemis's arm before he'd even had the chance to offer it. She'd known he was about to and had preempted it. Artemis smiled ever so slightly at the small gesture. They'd gotten into a routine in this charade of theirs and it had come to feel natural and right.

"I wanted you to myself for a moment before all the commotion," he said simply. Holly faltered, stumbling slightly in her low heels. Artemis steadied her easily, not missing a beat.

"You can turn down the adoring husband act when we're topside," Holly grumbled, but Artemis noticed that she seemed not just surprised by his comment, but flustered. Curious, he thought. He'd caught her blushing a fair amount recently. It was unlike her.

"I'm a method actor," he told her with a sly smile, rather than tell her he wasn't an actor at all. Not in this. To do so would be selfish and end with awkward feelings between them he didn't want interrupting their time together. He'd do anything to keep this time with her, to get more time with her, and for it all to be unmarred by his own fool heart. Even tweak the truth, in harmless ways such as this. "I thought I should debrief you on the disaster this day is likely to be."

"Artemis, it's only tea."

"Fowl Family Tea," Artemis said importantly. "It will start quiet enough, but I assure you everything will get out of hand in ways not even I can predict. My brothers have a way of doing that to events that should be peaceful."

"Did they turn your date with Daphne into a disaster?"

"No, that went surprisingly well," Artemis admitted, and Holly pursed her lips. Artemis wondered what he'd said to provoke her displeasure this time. "But the boys adore you. You're one of Beckett's personal heroes. There's no way they'll act politely with you as they did with Daphne, who might I remind you, was a stranger to them. And you know Juliet's a hopeless snoop. She'll find an excuse to come join in the revelries and all will turn to chaos. You'll see."

"Sounds like more fun than I'd bargained for," Holly grinned, a new bounce to her step. "Chaos is what I do best."

Myles was the first to spot them as they came down the grand staircase. He squinted at Holly, as if she were a stranger like Daphne, but his little face turned to a smile soon enough. "Mum!" He called. "Artemis had Holly in his room!"

Artemis was mortified at this announcement, but Myles barreled on as the rest of his family turned their attention on the pair still only halfway down the stairs. "I didn't know you liked pink, Ms. Holly," he said, prompting Holly to laugh.

"Let me guess, you thought I only ever wore my uniform."

"Of course not," Myles scoffed. "I'm not a simpleton." Holly smirked again at Artemis, but he had bigger things to worry about than inadvertently being called a simpleton by his younger brother. Nerves were already gnawing at his insides over the thought of this entire event. He wanted very much to steal Holly away and back to the privacy of his room.

"Silly Myles, you're supposed to say it simple-toon," Beckett corrected with a tut he could only have learned from Artemis. Myles glowered, but was unable to get a word in before Beckett had scampered up the stairs past him, attention already diverted. "I won't tackle you today, Holly," Beckett said, serious as Artemis had ever seen him. Startled, Holly dropped her pre-tackle stance. Artemis loved this possibly most of all about Holly. How good she was to his brothers, how ready she was to wrestle with Beckett on the grand staircase on a moment's notice.

"Why not?" Holly asked, taking the bait curiously.

"You look so pretty," Beckett told her earnestly.

"And that, gentlemen," Holly announced, "is how you give a compliment." She chucked Beckett on the shoulder playfully. "You look rather dapper yourself," Holly told him, and Beckett turned to Myles.

"She means you look good," Myles translated. Beckett and Myles both looked nothing short of adorable in matching pastel colored button-downs and plaid bowties, with their hair styled neatly. Artemis wondered if he looked like that when he first started wearing suits. Cute instead of imposing and smart. He hoped not.

"Thanks!" Beckett smiled toothily at Holly. "But I'm marrying Juliet, so don't fall in love with me."

"She's already married, little man," Juliet said, nabbing Beckett off the staircase where he'd been blocking Artemis and Holly's descent. "What'd Mulch say when you told him?" She asked Holly, one twin tucked under each arm.

"That's a story for another time," Holly laughed, and Artemis realized that he hadn't seen much of their dwarf friend since Qwan had announced their marriage to all of fairykind. "Actually, I can sum it all up by saying this: he reacted just how you'd expect him to react."

"Got shi—poop for having an interspecies relationship, did you?"

"Yes, I did. He tried holding an intervention." The girls laughed, and then finally it was time for his parents to officially and formally meet Artemis's wife. His best friend. His savior. He felt himself start to sweat under his suit. He was more nervous than he'd thought. And he'd thought himself a good deal nervous.

"Mother, Father," Artemis said, standing in the foyer at last, Holly on his arm looking as delicate and pretty as a peony. He felt like a teenager introducing his prom date to his parents. "This is Holly," he considered a label, but wasn't sure how best to describe their relationship, especially given the current circumstances. "I've told you about her at length. Holly, this is my father, Artemis Fowl, Senior." His father took Holly's hand and shook it with an appraising gaze, Holly followed suit, and Artemis thought his wife and his father might very well be sizing each other up. He might have been amused if he were not so notably stressed. "And this is my mother, Angeline Fowl."

Angeline was far less formal than her husband, sweeping Holly into a warm hug and kissing her cheek lightly. Artemis watched this with as much apprehension as he had the interaction between Holly and Artemis Senior. "It is so nice to finally meet you, my dear," Angeline said, hands still holding Holly's shoulders. "I owe you a great debt, my sanity, my husband, my son, you've brought them all back to me. Thank you, truly, for all you have done for me and my family."

"Oh," Holly managed faintly. "You don't have to do that, really. It was no trouble." Angeline only smiled brighter and hugged Holly once before releasing her.

"Let's sit for tea, shall we?" And the precession followed Angeline obediently to a fine sitting room. Artemis and Holly found seats together on a couch—thankfully free of rock, moss, and bug collections, which was a rarity in Fowl Manor since the twins had become mobile. Butler stood diligently at Artemis's shoulder, more out of habit than anything else, while Artemis's parents sat across from them in ornate chairs his mother loved and his father detested, but always sat in so as to be next to Angeline. And Juliet sat in the remaining armchair, settling in for a show as Artemis had known she would. Beckett insisted on climbing into her lap. Juliet argued, but she wasn't much of a fighter when it came to the twins, and at Myles' red-faced pout, she pulled him onto the over-crowded chair too so they all sat squished in together.

Idle chitchat and the spectacle of Juliet juggling two boys with their tea and cakes on her lap, trying to avoid getting crumbs down her top and spills on her skirt was sufficient in keeping the exchange pleasant and distant enough for comfort. Artemis kept glancing at Holly, to make sure she didn't need an excuse to leave, but she smiled and laughed and seemed to be enjoying herself, in no need of a rescue. Until, that was, Angeline started probing. Then they could both have done with some rescuing.

"You and Artemis are very close, aren't you?" Angeline asked, pouring Holly tea as conversation burbled pleasantly around them.

"Yes," Holly said without hesitation. "We've been through a lot. He's got to be the person who understands me best in the world."

"Really? But you're not even the same species." Angeline was leaning in close, and Artemis watched her small smile wearily. She was up to something.

"You don't realize how close you are with someone until you try to casually mention some trauma to a different friend and see the look on their face." Holly laughed. "It's almost frustrating sometimes, trying to talk with people and realizing that they just can't see all of you. How could any fairy understand me better than the human who's been through practically every defining moment of my life with me?" Artemis didn't mean for it to happen, but his hand found Holly's, resting on the couch, and eclipsed it. He'd never felt so known as he did when he was with Holly. And to know she felt the same was a tremendous joy. Holly didn't pull her hand away, and so neither did Artemis, though he knew he should.

"Yes," Angeline nodded serenely. "It's like he's more a part of you than anything else. Artemis is the same. He gets terribly dreary when you're not around, like you've taken a piece of his soul with you. Or maybe you are the missing piece of his soul." Artemis was about to object, face hot with embarrassment, when Holly nodded slowly.

"Maybe more than our eyes got mixed during our time in Limbo," Artemis spoke as if prompted by the nod, desire to cover up his mother's embarrassing commentary gone. "I certainly feel as though I'm more complete in your presence."

"I'd like that," Holly smiled, bringing her free hand to tap just under Artemis's once hazel, now blue eye. "I miss seeing that piece of me in you."

"I'm not magical, of course," Angeline hummed, politely reminding the pair on the couch of her company. Artemis and Holly turned away from each other so fast it got a low rumbling chuckle from the mountain of a man behind them. Artemis had momentarily forgotten where they were. In the middle of tea with his entire family. And he'd started spouting nonsense. "But that's how I've always felt about my Timmy. I suppose the concept of soulmates is universal."

Artemis could hardly believe his mother, but she just smiled innocently back at his accusatory glare. Holly stared at the both of them in shock for a moment, then she laughed, and it was so unexpected that Artemis's concentration broke and his attention flew back to Holly.

"It's mums that are universal, if you ask me," Holly said once she'd settled enough to speak without breaking out in renewed laughter. Artemis smiled, thanking her silently for understanding his mother's antics and excusing them as nonsense. She squeezed his hand slightly, accompanying a shrug that said I get it, don't worry. Artemis stared down at their hands, now intertwined, and wondered when that had happened. Holly had, at some point since his hand had covered hers, flipped hers around to twine their fingers together. And he hadn't noticed. How had he not noticed?

As Artemis looked on in awe at their hands, he almost missed the curious way that Holly gazed at his mother. With something close to wonder herself, wary and guarded, like she was trying to figure something out. Angeline just nodded a tiny bit and moved the conversation along tactfully.

"You look lovely," Angeline said, pulling Holly out of whatever thoughts had consumed her. "I just adore your dress."

"Thank you," Holly shifted, a little uncomfortable, though she smiled pleasantly. "I've never been to tea before, so I asked Caballine for help. You'd love Caballine, she likes to hold social events and the like, too. She's what you humans call a renaissance woman. Centaur, really. I should have known better than to ask for her help, though, because I'm afraid she took it as an invitation to use me as a dress-up doll. She actually made this for me," Holly said, picking at her skirt.

"She sounds fabulous," Angeline said, "I do wish I could meet her, too."

"She'll be pleased to hear that. Artemis has communications set up with Foaly, I'm sure you could borrow his vampire cave to call down, if you wanted. Caballine's a very social type, she'd be glad to talk with you about tea parties and—,"

"Weddings?" Angeline asked sweetly, and the side conversations ceased at once, leaving the room silent as all attention turned to Artemis and Holly at that single word, ringing clear in echo.

"As I've explained," Artemis said, breaking the silence. "There will be no need for a wedding, Mother."

"Maybe," Angeline said, tapping her lip in thought, "but it would be beautiful, don't you think? A proper ceremony between the two of you for all the world to see," she frowned. "Only all the fairy world, that is. Humans aren't ready for fairies just yet."

"You'll simply have to put off your ambitions of wedding planning until Myles or Beckett gets married. There is no possible reason why Holly and I would have a wedding."

"Unless there was," Holly said, a mischievous smile on her face. Artemis was sure this was leading to a bad idea he'd agree to against his better judgment. "Imagine the spectacle our wedding would cause. It would light a fire under the council's backsides."

"More than building a house did?" Artemis argued.

"Keep on like that, Arty, and I might take it personally that you don't want to marry me. Besides, we'd be broken up before the wedding date even came." Artemis stared at Holly, aghast. How was he supposed to diffuse this idea politely with his entire family as an audience?

"Can I be ring bear?" Beckett asked, wiping jam on Juliet's skirt. She'd clearly given up on the battle to keep clean ages ago, spotted as she was in stains and smears of food, tea, and her own coffee that Beckett had made a grab for earlier.

"Ring bearer," Juliet corrected, as Myles was clueless to the ways of weddings and thus wasn't able to take up his usual role in correcting his twin.

"Oh, yes," Angeline gushed, clapping her hands together. "Beckett would make a darling ring bearer, though we'd want to sew the rings to the cushion. And Myles could be flower boy, unless you've got someone else in mind?" Angeline paused, looking to Holly.

"No, I haven't. All my relatives are dead."

"Splendid," Angeline said distractedly, mind already far ahead of the conversation. "Do you think Caballine would be interested in helping me plan the wedding? I would love to host it here, of course, but that's a bit tricky, given that you're not meant to exist and it's a rather obvious event, a wedding. Although," her eyes lit up now, "Artemis told me about your time warp thing…"

"Time-stop," Artemis said, "and it's completely impractical to set one up for a social event."

"But it would be so romantic! They could freeze time just at just the right moment and your entire wedding would be backdropped by a beautiful sunset, or any other scene you decided on."

"No. 1 could make that happen," Holly put in, clearly just to antagonize Artemis. "And he owes us a favor, for getting us into this whole mess."

"I'll work under that assumption, then. You'll have to fill me in on the traditions of your people's weddings. We'll want a nice blend of human and elf, don't you agree?" Angeline was talking a mile a minute and Artemis, as well as everyone else, lost track of her planning. Finally, she petered off, though she was scribbling notes on a napkin. One from a finer embroidered set, too.

"What is it that made you forgive Artemis for kidnapping you?" Artemis Senior asked into the new silence as his wife destroyed another napkin with wedding plans. "I've always wondered."

"He was a kid," Holly said, and Artemis winced inwardly, feeling it was the wrong thing to have said considering his father's concern with their mismatched ages. "A kid desperate to get his dad back. The reason he kidnapped me was for you, a father that shouldn't have left him alone in the first place. Kids are dumb, no matter how smart they are, and Artemis was no exception. He hadn't lived long enough to know how to make good decisions. That's what parents are for, to stop foolish, dangerous ideas before they get any further than being ideas. I didn't see it at first, though. I held him accountable for his actions as if he were a man acting like a spoiled child and not a lost and terrified little boy who pretended to be an adult so well that everyone forgot he needed to be taken care of. And that's what he wanted, really, to be taken care of and loved.

"He's asked a lot of me over the years, your son has. He asked me, a fairy he had just imprisoned and conned her people out of their gold, to heal his mother's broken mind so that she would recognize him. He asked me to go to a noxious snowy wasteland and save you, so that he may have his father back. And again, when I thought my adventures with him over, we got a call and there he was, asking for me to bring Butler back from the dead so that he would not lose what was, at that time, the most reliable person in his life. He causes a lot of trouble, a lot of hurt, too, but in the end, he really was a kid trying to hold together a life that was falling apart, he just had the resources and intellect to figure out how to pull it back together, no matter the consequences. I've forgiven Artemis a lot for his youth and love." Holly seemed to finish and Artemis Senior seemed to be impressed with her blunt response, which was an immense relief, though Artemis himself felt the ever-present guilt burbling higher as Holly spoke. His youth had run out, surely, faster than most children's. His adventures had to have taught him his lesson, surely. And yet he did it all again, inevitably, hurting Holly and taking from her. And as for his love…his love for other people always led him to take more from her. Even his love for her had caused her pain as he'd died to save the world. To save her. How could his youth and love be reason enough to justify her forgiveness? But Holly wasn't done talking just yet. "And I've forgiven him the rest for watching him grow and become a far better man than that child tried to convince the world he was."

"Thank you for helping to shape him into who he is now," Artemis Senior said, the last vestiges of apprehension gone from his face as he offered Holly a sincere smile with his thanks.

"Mum says it's rude to talk about people like they aren't here," Myles broke in, and Juliet groaned.

"It was just getting good, did you have to derail it, Myles? Did you really?" She asked, exasperated. "This whole thing is straight out of a soap opera and you can't just shush and watch it?"

"But Juliet, you hate soap operas," Myles protested. "You always make me turn off A Bright Sun!"

"That's different," Juliet chided. "Who wants to watch A Bright Sun when you could be watching wrestling? No, my small friend, drama is only fun when you personally know the people involved."

"You're not a very nice friend, Jules," Beckett piped up. "Don't worry, though, I still love you."

"Sure I'm nice, I just also like to watch my friends struggle through hilarious situations. Nothing mean about that, is there?" She was grinning, fully expecting her young charges to berate her, which they loudly did.

"I told you," Artemis leaned into Holly, "chaos." For now, the boys were arguing with Juliet, who was cackling, and his mother was still writing on napkins, pulling his father into her planning process as a sounding board. Butler, behind them, spoke for the first time the entire afternoon.

"Could have been worse, couldn't it?" He asked with a smile.

"Much," Artemis agreed. His father hadn't outwardly accused Holly of anything untoward, though she'd rightly read his mood toward her. And, somehow, had won him over through criticizing him as a father. It had all seemed like some hidden macho ritual where the person who could punch the hardest was considered worthy of respect.

"One question, though, Holly," Butler said, as amused as his sister, even if he didn't show it quite the same. "If this magical bond can't be broken, are you really going to marry Artemis?" They all eyed Angeline's growing pile of notes and wondered how to stop her from putting on a wedding unless legal action was indeed taken.

"I suppose I'll have to," Holly laughed, and Artemis let himself pretend, for one single moment, that she wouldn't mind so terribly if such a thing should really happen.