Disclaimer: I don't own Artemis Fowl, obviously.
Prisoner of your Own Home
Chapter three! At last!
Holly sipped wearily at what seemed to be her 50th coffee that morning. She felt as if Chix had kept her up all night. While she knew this wasn't true, she couldn't stop herself…
Holly jerked her head upright. There she was, dozing off again. She had to keep her mind focused on her work.
She was aware of someone snapping their fingers under her nose. "Wha?" she mumbled.
A figure swam into view. It was Foaly. Holly straightened herself to look at him with a half-awake glare, and said, "What do you want Foaly?"
"It's our favorite Beetroot. He wants to see you in his office pronto. Some goblins escaped from Howlers' Peak last night. Nothing major."
"Then tell him to give it to some other unwilling officer," muttered Holly quietly.
"What?"
"Ah, I meant, I'm on my way," Captain Short briefly wondered why Julius hadn't simply yelled for her like he would on any other day.
She got up from her spinning chair and walked the short distance between her cubicle and the commander's office.
The commander did not look happy as she knocked and entered. "Sit down, Short." he barked in his usual gruff manner of greeting.
She sat. "Did Foaly tell you what this mission is about?"
"Not in great detail, sir."
"Right. A couple of our scaly friends have escaped from Howlers' Peak. Bring a neutrino just in case. I don't know how they got out their seeker-sleepers, but when you get them, make sure to tag them with these brand-new ones. CAPTAIN SHORT!" His face took on a dangerous red hue as he realized Holly was asleep in her chair.
Holly woke with a start to find the Commander's face inches from her own, a blood-red color. She swore she could feel the warmth emanating from it this close.
For a moment the dangerous gleam in his eyes turned to concern. "Are you alright Short?" he said in the politest manner he could manage.
Holly nodded, then the commander flew into a rage.
"Were you listening?"
"Yessir," said Holly, nodding her head quickly.
"Then go to it. And-" the commander paused. "Is anything going on?"
Besides Chix, you mean? Holly knew better than to say this out loud, so she said, "No sir. It's just I –er- didn't get much sleep last night. I'll be good as new tomorrow, sir." She mustered what she hoped looked like a convincing smile.
"Well, then," the commander's face began (or rather, continued) coloring. "Get to it!"
"Yessir." Holly jumped up from her seat.
After the mission:
Holly looked forward to going home, even if it meant seeing Chix again. All the caffeine in the whole entire coffee machine hadn't been enough to boost her energy level.
The mission took longer than usual. Twice Foaly had been forced to yell into the microphone in Holly's helmet to wake her up (how she managed to sleep in the pod when it was trying to turn her inside-out was a mystery), with the result that after the mission he was becoming a little more than slightly worried about Holly, but not enough to force Chix out of her house.
The mission itself was a no-brainer. Holly could have done it in her sleep. Goblins…the most useless fairy breed who had the misfortune to live.
She arrived at her door and unlocked it with her four-digit code. Another one of the many irks of having Chix with her- she did not trust him to keep her access code a secret.
Chix was on her couch, watching TV with a bored expression on his face that quickly turned to delight once he saw her. "Hey beautiful!" he tossed his hair back in a way he thought he could impress Holly with.
Sprites have so much to learn.
"Call me that again and I won't hesitate to punch you." Holly threatened, bringing her fist up for demonstration. Without waiting for a reply, she stormed into the kitchen to look for her leftover pizza.
It was gone. Cursing silently at how much sprites ate, Holly took out the only untouched piece of food in the fridge left- a grilled cheese sandwich. She put it in the microwave briefly, and ate it. After that she decided to go to sleep.
In the morning:
Her alarm blared at 6:30 a.m. Groaning, Holly slammed her fist on the off button, and heaved herself out of bed. She was still tired, but that was the normal in-the-morning, once-you-wake-up tiredness.
Chix was downstairs. Once he saw her, he whined, "There's no more food left."
"Too bad," Holly planned to simply buy a nettle smoothie or something on the way to work.
"What do you mean, 'too bad'? if I starve, think of all the ladies who will never get to see this hot Chix man again!"
Holly ground her teeth. "Chix, no one in their right minds would even half-like you, not even Lili Frond, and we all know what a slut she is.
"You're wrong there, Holly. You may not admit it, but you know you like me."
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Do not."
"Do too."
This continued for a while, as you can imagine, until Holly said, "Look, why don't you just buy something on the way to work?"
"All my money's gone and I don't get my paycheck for another two weeks."
Darn. She'd forgotten about that.
"Fine." Holly said indifferently. "I'll buy you a nettle smoothie. I'll get one too."
"Aww, how about we just share a large?" Chix said innocently.
"Are you crazy? Do you want one or not?"
When they arrived at On-The-Go Breakfasts and Brunches, Holly was extremely irritated that the guy at the register was one of Chix's sprite friends, therefore, he tried to give them a large nettle smoothie despite Holly's orders of two small ones. Holly threatened to sue.
At work:
"So how's Chix?" It was lunchtime and Trouble Kelp was leaning his chair back on two legs nonchalantly.
Holly shuddered. "A nightmare! Not only does he eat all my food, but today he waned to share a large nettle smoothie with me!"
"Woah."
"Exactly. I feel like punching the living daylights out of him."
"Why don't you lodge a complaint?"
Holly snorted. "Like Grub? Who do you think I am?"
Three hours later:
Holly stared at her letter, debating whether to rip it up or not. She couldn't believe she'd taken Trouble's advice to write a complaint. Was she becoming just like Grub Kelp? The idea was too horrendous to think about.
Holly nervously looked the letter over, checking it for mistakes, and headed to the Council's mailbox.
"Where are you going Holly?" A familiar voice issued from behind her. She turned around to see Foaly.
"N-nowhere…" The last thing she needed was Foaly to find out where indeed she was going.
"What's that?" He pointed to the envelope clutched in her hand.
"Just a letter…" It was true, right? "Well…gotta go…" Holly dashed off to the mailboxes. She slipped her envelope into the mailbox and raced back to her cubicle.
End chapter
Well, there you go! Sorry it took so long for me to update, in between school and everything I basically wrote this over. Tell me what you think of it. Next chapter we'll find out what Beetroot has to say about Holly's letter...dun dun dun dun…….
Review replies:
Cola4Life- No, I'm not that cruel… shows teeth Or am I? Thanks for reviewing.
Kreepi Spicer- Thanks!
Trouble Kelp- Thanks, I'll try to make them longer. They look so much better on Microsoft Word! Anyway, sorry, no pairings in this one. I might do a troubleholly fic soon though…
Trouble Kelp- Thanks for reviewing.
athleticsrulz- Thanks for reviewing! You were my first reviewer! Anyway, thanks, at the time I hadn't explored my account very well, but now I've enabled anonymous reviews. I usually write out a plotline for my stories but this is my first. In other words, not really. Thanks again for reviewing.
I'm going to update my other story first before I put another chapter on this. Sorry for the inconvenience!