It was late afternoon when Holly came back into the room. She found Artemis sitting on the bed, using one hand to type on a laptop. He was surprisingly quick despite the impediment. In the dying light of dusk, she could just barely make out what was occupying his other hand. Nopal was asleep, slim pixie fingers pinching Artemis's jacket sleeve. She had surprising grip strength.

Holly smiled at the scene. Then the smile turned impish. The elf had never gotten one over the stupid mud-boy whenever she had tried, but maybe this time. He was awfully engrossed in whatever he was typing anyway.

Holly shielded, allowing herself to take advantage of Butler's tireless work and closed the door silently. If anything, there wasn't any way that Fowl could even hear her. The breeze was picking up outside, and the grass rustling brought inside the sounds of crickets beginning their performances. Cat-like, she traced her steps carefully on the carpeted floor. The captain felt like a true leonine predator, stalking her brainy and handsome prey—

Shut up, brain.

Holly was close. Nearly enough that she could almost feel the warmth—okay fine, the lukewarm that Artemis radiated—off of his skin. She sucked in her gut and held her breath to steady her shaking. Truly a good application of years of academy training. This was usually the part where he found her. She waited a beat. Then cracked a wicked grin.

Gotcha, mud-boy.

Now, what to do? Something scary. Couldn't just shout or something. A fairy had to have some self-respect. Something subtle then. A tap on the shoulder? That was good. Simple and effective. Holly could imagine Artemis whipping around, dumb, watery eyes going wide imaging Nopal rising and tapping him. She reached out.

Then she looked and saw Artemis looking directly at her. No way, I'm—

The elf unshielded, a legendary pout blowing out her cherubic cheeks. She had done the whole "no-way-the-mud-people-can't-see-me-I'm-invisible" song-and-dance too many times by now. This was Artemis Fowl. Then, to her surprise, as she returned to the visible spectrum, Artemis started. A very disciplined reaction, but he definitely repressed a sound and definitely typed something wrong if the rapid deleting was any indication.

Holly quickly replaced her pout, much to Artemis's dismay, with a wide-cheshire grin. She opened her mouth to say something, but switched to a whisper when Artemis tilted his head to indicate at the sleeping Nopal.

"So," she asked, voice soft and smug, "thought you saw me coming."

"Please, Holly," he responded in the same whisper, "I knew you were in the room. I saw the door open, I'm not an amateur."

"You kind of looked like one, just now."

"Well, you'll notice that I simply waited until what I felt like would be an appropriate time for you to decide how best to scare me, and merely looked at where I estimated you to be."

"Still surprised you."

"Well yes, but I think I should receive more credit for so accurately tracking you through the room. Call it a tie."

"You got lucky, Fowl."

"I prefer to think that I simply know you exceedingly well."

"Oh yeah? You think you know me, Arty?" she challenged, her voice coming out huskier than she'd wanted.

"I think I do," Artemis responded, leaning in the slightest fraction.

Holly regretted what she said about his lukewarm skin, because right now it was definitely not. Or maybe that was just her. To diffuse the situation, she pulled several plexiglass containers filled with soil and dropped them in Artemis's lap. He didn't exactly have a free hand to deal with them and they were somewhat covered in dirt, so Holly received a thoroughly unamused look.

Holly shot back a sunny, unabashed smile, so he forgave her quickly.

"Did they work?" he asked, typing into his laptop. This was important data. "We generally have them picked every full moon to refresh our supply, but I was indisposed for the past six months or so."

Holly nodded, then wiggled her hand, equivocating the middling success of some of the staler acorns.

"I'm surprised they worked at all, to be honest. I think the whole ancient fairy magic figured out we were cheating. I went through two acorns before I even got one that gave me any juice. And then I buried another three just to get a full tank. I swear, I feel like the sparks were giving me lip." She frowned at the memory. Definitely wasn't going to do that outside of an emergency again. She shrugged. Ah well, she had those often enough. Holly continued complaining.

"To top it all off, burying all those acorns made me look like a squirrel. I think I got cussed-out by an actual squirrel."

"I'm sure you made for a lovely squirrel."

"Thanks, mud-boy. You tell that to all the pretty elves that walk in here?"

"No, though I occasionally have a difficult time telling between the manor squirrels and Beckett."

Holly chuckled, lightly punching Artemis on the shoulder. He smiled too, finally closing his laptop and setting it aside. The elf scooted his laptop, much to his indignation, and sat down besides him. She made sure to sit down carefully. Wouldn't wanna wake up a sleeping pixie. Speaking of.

"So," she began, looking pointedly at Nopal's death grip on Artemis's sleeves, "how'd that go?"

"Surprisingly well. I made sure she was fed and watered before she fell asleep. I had initially brought some chocolates and consigned myself to simple bribery, but I think that I managed to connect with Nopal. She reminds me of myself in some ways."

Holly frowned incredulously, looking at him.

"Seriously? In what way?"

"Several ways. I'd like to sort them out myself first, but I'll discuss them at length with you at a better time."

"Sounds good to me. I'm holding you to that, though. I seriously wanna know what you think you hold in common with a vat-grown Opal clone."

Artemis pursed his lips at that. He glanced back briefly at the small digits pulling him back towards the peacefully sleeping pixie.

"Holly, can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"What will you do if hypothetically Nopal were to be revealed as Opal Koboi?"

Holly sucked in a breath, brow furrowing, Eventually she came to a decision, nodding to herself.

"I'd probably kill her."

Artemis gulped.

"Really?"

"Really really," she nodded. Then she continued, a bit more slowly, choosing her words very deliberately. "It... would probably be a heat of the moment thing. I mean, it's at the point where if I need to do what needs to be doing, then I'm not exactly going to lose any sleep over it. Frond knows that Butler's been itching to do it since the whole B'wa Kell thing."

Artemis nodded, a bit more numbly. How far he was from when he had first met Holly. That person would have likely had Nopal killed without a second thought. Now it was the battle-hardened but kind LEPrecon he had first kidnapped who was voicing the thought. She hadn't even wanted a troll killed. Granted, Opal Koboi was a few steps upwards in malice to a troll. And yet the thought of having her killed made Artemis blanch at the very suggestion.

Maybe this whole growing a conscience thing was getting to him.

"Hey Arty, you better not be questioning your being a halfway-decent person now," she teased, poking him in the chest. "It was a pain to get you where you are, so don't go throwing away all my hard work."

"How on earth did you know what I was thinking?" asked Artemis, a mite dumbfounded.

"Pfft. Don't think you're the only person who can read someone. This knowing each other thing? It goes both ways, you know?"

"Of course, Holly. It never does pay to underestimate you, does it captain?"

"And don't you forget it, Fowl," she said, looking up at him.

"I don't think at any time soon I shall," he smiled, meeting her gaze.

They looked into each other's eyes, the long shadows of dusk making it difficult to make out much of anything. It was quite comfortable.

"I believe," Artemis finally said, softly so as to not break the moment too soon, "that we should prepare to heal Nopal, so she can at least walk around."

"Yeah, but we should probably get Butler in the room for this."

"I doubt he'd be entirely happy if we gave Nopal back her ability to escape without his knowledge."

"He gets a little touchy about that."

"I will elect not to tell him that you removed Nopal's restraints without consulting either of us," Artemis offered, tone gracious.

"Oh, stuff it, mud-boy," Holly retorted. "You know you deserved it."

"Debatable. Shall we?"

"Sure thing, Arty."

The pair made to get up. However, as Artemis gently pulled his sleeve away, Nopal's grip tightened. She made a small groan in her sleep, unconsciously turning to face the couple. They stared at her unsettled sleeping face, pale cheeks softly lit by a fading purple sunset.

"I suppose we can wait until Nopal awakens to find Butler."

"You're getting soft, Fowl."