The air stuck to Holly's calf-length black tights, hung her loose top heavy over her shoulders. The moon peeked out from the wispy clouds, drawing her heart toward the sky. Or it would have, if that particular organ hadn't been weighed down by a few choice thoughts. Numbers really. Eight and ten. The former being the hour Artemis promised to meet her, ten the present one.
Despite the humidity of the air, Holly wrapped her arms around herself, indulging in a petulant sigh. Perched on the roots of a familiar acorn tree, she looked out onto the still bended stream, her eyes glazed as the surface. She refused to analyse why she remained there – stubbornness, probably. Mulish desire that forced her to prove that the surface could be enjoyable without him.
And it was. The air, perfumed with the musk of the trees, freshened her lungs and her breath somehow came easier up here. The chirrup of crickets that so irritated some Mud-people fell as a salve onto her ears, the almost inaudible trickle of water tripping over pebbles just as well suited. Mhm, no way was she going to waste this night on the likes of Artemis Fowl.
The scuff of a shoe against a bramble interrupted the sound of crickets. Holly glared up sharply at the intruder of her serenity, and found herself facing the form of none other than the Mud-boy she just decided she'd rather spend her midsummer night without.
'I am sorry,' he said quickly, crossing the space between them. She raised her eyebrows sceptically at him. 'Truly,' he continued. 'Annie came across with a fever.' Holly examined him critically and led herself to believe he mightn't even be lying about it. 'Thought you might've gone home…' Artemis finished softly.
She smiled, wrapping her arms around him. 'Should know me better than that, Artemis.'
'I think I know you well enough,' he whispered into her ear. 'And I am sorry for being late.'
'Not your fault,' Holly whispered back. She squeezed gently. 'You can make it up to me.'
She grabbed his hand to sloshed into the previously still stream.
'Er, I was not aware 'hanging out' entailed … water sports.'
'Be glad we're not discussing a waterbed, Mud-boy,' she shot back, tugging at his arm. 'C'mon,' she whined, splashing water at him. A tiny glint in his eye made her hesitate, and suddenly he pushed her backward into the stream, managing to stay almost upright himself. Holly shrieked, flailing about, pulling him closer to her, wrestling about with him – until she drenched him as thoroughly as he had her.
Eventually, Artemis escaped onto the grass and Holly tailed him, collapsing beside, both of them panting heavily. Artemis lay prone, so Holly used his shoulder as a resting place for her head, her drenched auburn hair trickling water over his skin. He looked down at her – she could see the incline of his head, from her peripheral vision as she gazed at the moon – warm puffs of his breath tickling her forehead.
'You're very pretty,' he said suddenly, brushing away locks of sodden hair from her cheek. 'Dangerously so.'
'Dangerous?' Holly leant her weight, now, onto one elbow, looking down on her quixotic friend. 'As in I look dangerous, or as in I'm dangerous for your hormones?' She smirked.
'Erh …' Artemis paused for a moment, and Holly took that moment to kiss him lightly on the lips.
'Decided?' she asked brightly, as he caught her eyes and tried to search them for ridicule.
'Why did you do that?' he finally replied.
'Liked kissing you on the cheek,' she said simply, letting that he hadn't answered slide for now. 'Thought I might like it more if I did so on your lips.'
'Did you?' he asked slowly.
In answer, she kissed him again.
'Yeah,' she said, a millimetre from his lips. 'I think I did.'