Beep. "Holly, if you're still awake, would you be so kind as to come up to my laboratory? I could use your assistance in testing a theory." Click.
This wasn't an unusual request for Holly to hear over the house's intercom. Over the years, Artemis had asked her to come provide input on and/or assist him with many different experiments in his lab. Sometimes he just needed someone to ramble to. Were his experiments always the most interesting things in the world to her? No. But he didn't like it when she called it a la-boring-atory, and she loved him despite his occasional being a bore, so she was happy to go see what he was up to.
She got up from their sofa, memorized the current page of the book she was reading, the classic "The Straw That Broke the Centaur's Back," and took the stairs at a leisurely pace up to the lab.
The sight that greeted her in the lab was also not an unusual one. Dozens of test tubes and beakers that lined the white countertops were filled with colorful liquids. She saw red liquids, yellow liquids, purple, green, you name it. And then there was Artemis, in the center of it all, and it looked like a fair amount of the colored liquids had ended up on his usually spotless lab coat. It was the closest his clothes had ever resembled tie-dye in his life. His face had the stubble that went along with a late night in the lab. He clapped once at her arrival.
"Good evening, Holly. I have here, as you can see, several colorful concoctions. That is, I hope you can see. I'm assuming you've not gone colorblind in the last few hours."
"Uh-huh." She cracked a grin. "You know Arty, you'd better not have asked me up here just to have me hold something again. Can't you get one of the kids to do that tomorrow or something?"
"You wound me, my dear. And, trust me, this requires your assistance, not the children's. By the way, are they retired for the evening?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Now, come here, if you please." Artemis beckoned her to an area with red, white, and blue liquids in beakers.
"Well, well. What's all this? Are you dyeing an American flag?"
Artemis held a beaker with a little bit of red liquid out to her. "Drink this."
"What."
"I'm conducting a taste test. Try it." He lightly swirled the glass, as if to prove its content wasn't dangerous.
Holly crossed her arms. "I'm not Alice, Artemis. I don't just drink random stuff. Tell me what's in it."
Artemis huffed, as if all his fun had been ruined. "Fine. It's puréed strawberry, if you must know. Now drink."
Holly eyed him very suspiciously. "What is this about?"
"I told you. It's a taste test," he said, as if this was all anyone needed to know. Then he adopted the glint in his eye that she knew and loved. Oh how she loved it. "Trust me," he grinned.
At that, Holly grabbed the beaker and downed its contents. After a moment, Holly smacked her lips and proclaimed, "Well, it's good strawberry."
"Hmm... This confirms my suspicion."
"Which is...?"
"That was the one with the strawberry in it."
Holly had half a mind to splash something onto Artemis' person, but she couldn't be sure it wouldn't be explosive. "Artemis..." she growled. Sometimes the man could be rather obtuse.
"Alright, now try this one." The beaker he now held out had what Holly had thought from afar to be white liquid. Peering at the stuff now, though, it was more of an off-white, slightly yellow. When Artemis swirled it, it was obviously very thick.
Holly eyed this one even more suspiciously. "Looks like egg nog."
Artemis shrugged. "A decent guess at first glance, I suppose. But no, it's banana purée."
Holly sighed. "I don't suppose you'll tell me what this is about until after it's done?"
"Correct. Such is the way of blind experiments." He sighed wistfully. "Ah, science. My first love."
Holly raised an eyebrow.
"Well, it's second to you and the children now, of course. I was saying science was my first love chronologically, not in order of importance, because of course you're first now in order of importance..." he chuckled nervously. "Banana?"
Holly downed the banana with record low enthusiasm. "Banana," she confirmed.
"Right. Now, this next one is the last."
"It better be."
This liquid was a purplish blue, and Holly noted that, unsurprisingly, it tasted like blueberries. She slammed the final empty beaker onto the counter, and said, "First strawberry, then banana, now blueberry. As much as I enjoy fruit, Artemis, I do not enjoy being blindly led around in some experiment. So you'd better tell me what-Mmm..."
Holly could no longer speak then, for Artemis' lips were on hers, his tongue entering and tasting around her mouth with the ease of practice and Holly's wholehearted reciprocation, and then he was sweeping her up to sit her on the counter in front of him so that he might gain better entry. Holly and he ran their fingers through each other's hair, trying to pull each other as close together as possible. She could taste a few different fruit juices on him that he'd evidently been drinking. The mango was a particular highlight, oh so sweet...
After they finally broke for air, panting, breathing in the fruity scent of each other, their faces mere inches apart, Artemis was the first to speak. "My theory was correct... Even after your second and third drinks, I can still taste the strawberry on you."
