Blue Eyes
Title: Named after the man himself.
Finished: September 9th, 2003.
Summary: "The best and the worst I've ever had. Were you ever truly good or bad?" Artemis questions his daddy, but you know he'll always love him.
Characters/Pairings: Artemis, Butler, and perhaps Frank Sinatra.
Word count: 233. I can never do just one hundred.
Notes: Set after Artemis has heard the news about the Fowl Star being blown up. It also sucks - a lot - but was fun to write.
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Butler had heard the first few strains after he had set the last terminal down, making room for the large computer part by nudging the other dozen of them away from the stair landing. The music was somewhat muted and tiny, sounding aged and as though it had not been touched in years or even decades. Opening the study's heavy oak door to investigate, Butler turned his eyes to the source.
He saw Artemis curled tightly into the room's far corner, staring avidly at a rusty phonograph, the last of his father's possessions in the study and, most likely, the last of his father period. Artemis never wavered his gaze from it, even after Butler had fully entered the room, and together they listened to the final words of the song just barely playing:
"Oh they say that all good things must end
But endings always leave somebody sad.
But I remember that the worst you ever gave me
Was the best I ever had."
As the needle clicked off, Artemis stood without a word and dusted himself off, not looking Butler in the eye. As he began to leave the room, Butler hesitantly placed his hand on the young boy's shoulders, softly saying, "It's okay to miss him, you know."
Artemis shook the comforting hand off and turned his cold eyes away. "I never needed him." And with that, he walked away.
---
Aaaand this one is even worse.
