A little look at how Artemis and Holly's relationship would have turned out, if I'd been writing is. Each chapter will show events happening before and after Artemis leaves for the moon. Smut for the first couple chapters is rather tame, but will get more descriptive later. I am going to try to update fairly frequently, and I already have much of the next couple chapters written, so hopefully I can follow through on that.
Holly ground her teeth like a dwarf chewing clay, as she selected a helmet and a pair of wings off the wall. The cramp in her middle had persisted for almost a week; like her normal inconvenient cycle, but worse. Stress probably; her recent promotion to Commodore had only been accepted upon direct order.
It was a new position in the LEP hierarchy, meant to get senior officers out from behind their desks and in among the grunts. But in spite of her best efforts, Holly was still finding most of her time stuck in one office or another. Her most frequent "field-work" was mentoring new recruits and specialists; who displayed widely varying degrees of promise. She was beginning to understand why the late Wing Commander Vinyaye's hair had turned white.
"I've got you a shuttle," Foaly looked up from his screens. "Used LEP priority to get you a seat on the next tourist bus to the McGraney farm, leaves in an hour."
"Thanks," she sighed, already imagining the light of moon and stars, and the feeling of fresh air blowing across her skin. "Of course we shouldn't abuse priority privileges too much; I'd understand if I had to spend a few extra hours flying in circles topside before I could get a ride back." In the last couple of years she'd been spoiled for surface visits; but the good times were over, and now they came few and far between.
"I've got a map of the best sights near Tara," Foaly sent the file to her helmet. With her new rank she could have had her staff make these arrangements, but she had a weakness for the friend touch. "I'd recommend Ulster #3, should have the least chance of other traffic."
Holly noticed that a certain spot near Tara was not listed, even though it would have been one of the most convenient. "I'll use the usual sight, it should be un-occupied." She appreciated his discreet effort to spare her melancholy, but it wasn't necessary. Things had turned out the way they did, there was no use moping about it; and she certainly wasn't going to block out everything that happened to be a reminder of one of her closest friends, regardless of their current separation.
There was just the briefest pause, as Foaly gave her a sideways glance, then "alright, you have your clearance." He glanced at her again, openly this time, his intelligent eyes analytical. "You completed the ritual a month ago, didn't you? Before that you did it the last time you were . . . um, topside. Are you burning through your magic faster all of a sudden?"
Holly sighed again, retracting the visor of her helmet to knead between her eyebrows. "I haven't been using that much magic, but it does seem that way. I haven't been feeling particularly bad though. In fact, aside from slaving at a desk, I've felt in top shape . . . " She decided not to mention the cramps, probably just normal feminine problems.
"Hmmm," Foaly stroked his shaggy beard. "You may want to go see a warlock about that; I can get you a first slot-"
"No need to push back anyone who really needs to see a warlock," Holly insisted, adjusting the straps on her wings one more time. "In an hour I'll be running hot again, and I probably just need to get more sleep. It'll get back to normal when I settle more into the new job."
"If you say so," Foaly continued to study her critically. "Be sure and give me a heads up if you decide to make any other . . . pit stops, while you're on the surface."
"Don't think I'll be in the mood for that tonight," Holly replied as she strode out of the ops booth. Part of her was tempted, to touch down at "Fowl Island,'' and suggest for the thousandth time that a certain mudboy (mudman) keep his feet on solid ground. But that wound was healing, she didn't want to open it again. "Strictly business tonight!"
It would be difficult to say exactly how it had happened
About a month beforehand there had been a change, starting when Holly had kissed him, again. They had been working to break up a dwarven arms dealing ring operating out of Glasgow. A relatively tame adventure, by their past standards; but when Mulch made a rare misjudgment in reckoning his tunneling, things had turned quite exciting. Blood was still running hot when Holly departed Fowl Manor. Activating her wings and hovering off the ground with eyes level with his, she had made one last wisecracking goodbye, and reached out and kissed him.
Their immediate reaction to this momentous event, was to essentially laugh it off. In their frequent calls they pretended nothing was different, and they were nothing more or less than good friends. Holly's next visit to Fowl Manor had been their chance to prove it to themselves; an opportunity they'd lost when Artemis had finally given into the temptation to kiss her back.
And so now things had changed; perhaps irreversibly so.
The two friends were now tiptoeing around each other, aware that their relationship was teetering on a drastic edge. Though they couldn't name precisely what it was the edge of. It might have been wiser to put some distance between them for a time; but they still kept finding reasons to be together.
"That Night" began like so many other of Holly's visits to Fowl Manor. The elder Fowls and the twins were gone, and the elf literally dropped in for a nice evening with her close mudfriends. She, Butler, and Artemis had stayed up around one of the manor's large fireplaces, trading stories and memories as the irish night settled outside.
In the months that followed Artermis would mentally pour over the events of That Night, trying to identify the logical chain of events that lead to the escalation of their relationship. But logic had played no part in it.
Butler had gone to bed early, and Artemis and Holly had been left entirely to their own hormonally unbalanced devices. Holly had decided to stay the night, and Artemis escorted her to a prepared guest room.
Neither was quite ready to say goodnight, and they sat on the bed as they treasured this rare moment of actual privacy. Though both their lives were surrounded by friends and family, the two had a growing sense of loneliness; a hole that was only closed when the other was around.
When their lips met again, it was as if all the remaining emptiness was filled by an electric energy. Like magic.
This wasn't like the other kisses they'd shared before; quick and clandestine, with barely a moment to react. Now they had all the time in the world, and no one to hide their feelings from.
They kissed slowly, gentle and savoring. Artemis leaned back on the mattress, lowering closer to her height. He really had shot up in recent years; only middling height for a mudman, but he loomed over his fairy friends. In the past, in guilty moments, Holly used to fantasize about grabbing him by the lapels and trapping his smirking mouth with hers. Now, she imagined having to climb him to do it.
They silently revelled in this long, intimate moment, until they finally had to part for breath. The great Artemis Fowl was grinning like a loon, tripping over himself for something to say. The banter that passed between them was fluffy and meaningless, but it was the most enjoyable exchange he'd ever had; until their lips met again.
She was straddling him now, arms and legs wrapped around him as their lips fought for dominance. They were so very close, but still wanted to get closer. Artemis raised himself up to embrace her, so that when they again parted for air, she slid down into his lap, settling on his hardness.
There was a shocked silence, as they both panted for breath. Artemis' face was overcome by a burning redness, as he mentally cursed his traitorous anatomy with a vocabulary that would have made Mulch Diggums blush. Holly was momentarily overwhelmed by a collision of many emotions. Shock, fear, lust, pity, and affection. She almost laughed outright, at the surrealness of the whole situation; she only managed to control herself because of the look of pure humiliation on Artemis' face. The poor mudboy, who had been so lonely for so long, but had come so far in spite of it all. And he had the same desires she did.
Slowly, knowingly, Captain Holly Short pressed her hips down onto his erection, lighting them both up with glorious friction. Artemis bit his lip savagely to stifle his reaction, and she deliberately ground into him harder until his facade broke. He let out a moan of pure longing, until Holly climbed up to silence him with a kiss.
It was an awkward, rushed affair. Holly had the benefit of some experience, though with a considerable drought in the last decade. Well studied though he was, Artemis was very nearly tripped up by his purely theoretical understanding of the technique, practised only in fantasy.
Much to his own shame, Artemis' pure intellectual and mental discipline did not make him entirely invulnerable to the same biological impulses that plagued young men his age. Occasionally he would be forced to take that issue in hand; and if he engaged in mental exercises conceptualizing assistance of the female persuasion, it was only to end the inconvenience as quickly as possible.
It wasn't something he had done very much recently, however. He had tried to force such things from his mind, after the imagined partners began turning distinctly elven.
But both friends were now throwing their mental inhibitions out the window. The young do tend to think they're invincible; and all the near disasters the two had survived might have done more to feed that delusion, than defeat it.
The practical logistics inherent in a copulation between a human and an elf were another issue, but one that was surprisingly easy to overcome. Holly didn't know how Artemis compared to other humans, but he was certainly bigger than anyone she had ever taken before. The fullness of him inside her was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She was still a young elf though, in peak physical condition; and after her recent completion of the ritual, running hot with more than enough magic to overcome the discomfort.
That fact that Artemis came at her from behind, "centaur style" as fairies called it, seemed to help.
Their first time was very quick, almost panicked as they desperately vented their long repressed urges. It seemed to last forever as it was happening, but was over in a few minutes. Those few minutes would still change everything.
The aftermath found them both collapsing onto the bed, his arms wrapped around her as they panted with exhaustion. The fatigue was more mental, emotional, than it was physical. There was so much they were feeling, so much that should be said, that they couldn't choose any path forward but to lie there and enjoy the moment. They fell asleep lying beside each other, in blissful peace.
That harmony ended as soon as they woke up.
Please review, and tell me how you think I did. Even when I'm writing smut, I always try to get the character's right, and make the dialogue seem real. Your thoughts would be very appreciated!