A/N: Woo! Chapter 5! In which: Artemis and Holly finally explain their feelings through my way of interpreting the contents of the books!
Brick turned the car back onto Holly's street. Artemis, feeling unusually conversational, had learned that the driver was called "Brick". It was a nickname given to him by Councilman Cahartez after he had made a few questionable turns early in his career. "Steers like a brick" was too long, so he shortened it.
Artemis got out of the car and walked to Holly's door. To an outside observer, his walk seemed sedate and calm, however a close friend or master of behavioral observation would notice a slight stiffness in his gait that gave away his underlying excitement. He reached the correct door and knocked several times. On the fifth knock, the door flew open.
"Decided not to just open it this time?" Holly said, grinning at her . . . friend. The grin quickly faded when she saw the gauze pad taped over his eye.
"What happened?!" she then realized that this was over the eye that, until recently, had been replaced. "I'm not giving you another eye, one was enough!"
"That will be most unnecessary captain," Artemis said smoothly, "May I come in?"
Holly stood aside and he stepped into the center of her living area. He turned to her and began removing the tape.
"I had a procedure done to my eye, the effects of which will be obvious." He said, wincing as the tape pulled on his skin. "While they were testing my blood, they found a few, abnormalities."
He pulled off the pad at last, and Holly gasped. The previously ice-blue eye was now Holly-hazel again, but the white was bloodshot with irritation. As she watched, blue sparks danced around the eye until the redness disappeared, leaving his eyes to once again mirror hers.
"Your eye . . . magic . . . but . . ." You're doing it again. What is it about Artemis that leaves you so speechless all the time? Holly ran over and jumped on her small couch, putting her at eye level with Artemis. Before he could react, she scratched her nails across his cheek, leaving three angry red scratch marks.
"Ow!" Artemis exclaimed, giving her an incredulous look. The sparks came unconsciously, zipping up the lines until his face returned to its pale state. Holly couldn't contain herself anymore. She placed her hand back where the scratches had been, causing him to flinch. Before, he had recovered, she pressed her forehead against his. Artemis was confused until he felt Holly's magical probe. With a sudden jolt, she almost flew back from his head, overwhelmed by the magic inside him. He's running hot! She thought, shocked at the development. She also felt the familiar magical signature of No. 1's special blend.
Looking down from his forehead, where her gaze had been fixed for several seconds in the aftermath of the probe, Holly realized her face was very, very close to Artemis'. With slight hesitation, she leaned in and kissed him.
A second later, she broke the kiss. "You're an ass. You know that right?"
"Me? What have I done?" Artemis said, mock hurt on his face.
"A call would have been nice! 'Hey, I'm undergoing surgery so I can have a part of you looking me in the mirror again. Oh, and by the way, I have magic.' That simple!" she walked back to the bedroom, carefully tossing the picture she had still been staring at into the box of things she had been packing. After that . . . there's no sense lying to yourself now. She called back over her shoulder. "You specifically do these things to set me off my guard!"
Artemis thought about this for a moment. "Captain, I'm hurt," he said, still feigning innocence, "I try to show you a new development and decide to do so in person and you repay me with accusations of deceit, physical abuse, and forcing yourself upon me!"
"It's only forcing myself if you didn't want it." Holly said, still packing things and, turning, noticing Artemis helping, putting a few objects carefully in the box. She turned to face him, looking him directly in the eyes. "I'm willing to admit to it if you are," she said, suddenly sheepish, taking a few steps toward him. "Look at me and tell me that you don't think of me as more than a friend."
Artemis looked down, into her eyes that once again matched his. He opened his mouth several times, but each time, before he could say anything he stopped. After a few seconds of watching him imitate a fish out of water, Holly took action. She grabbed several pillow off of her futon and threw them at his head.
"Ow!" Artemis cried, more out of surprise than pain, "What was that for?" He was looking at her with another confused look.
"If you want me to move in with you, you're going to have to help out." Holly said, decisively.
She simply pointed to a box on the floor and returned to her packing. Artemis caught her meaning and began putting the pillows and various other related items in the box. After several minutes of silent packing, Holly spoke.
"So I guess that answers it." She said, turning to face the young man again.
"What?" Artemis said, halfway through trying to fold a large blanket by himself, and utterly failing to do so.
"You couldn't say it," she said, almost sheepishly, as if he would suddenly remember what he was trying to say and prove her wrong. "You do think of me as more than a friend."
Artemis gave up with the blanket he had been tangling and sat on the futon. He was silent for a moment as he planned his sentences, then began.
"Holly, I've never thought of you as a mere friend." Under normal circumstances, this might have worried Holly, but his tone implied something. "When we first met, you were a hostage. Hardly the materials for a friendship. Then, in the Arctic, you were a teammate, we were just working together. It wasn't until you revived Butler that I realized we had moved passed that, but I didn't realize what it was until 'friend' had already been passed, in my mind. By the time we beat Koboi and I started my demon research, I thought of you as something more."
Holly moved to sit next to him, and he made some room. This proved futile as Holly sat as close to him as possible without sitting in his lap. Though that would be nice . . . Holly thought, before banishing the thought. For now . . .When she had settled, he continued.
"I was waiting for some sign that you returned the affections, or that they were not some product of my hormone-riddled mind." He recalled his brief fascinations with the driver, Maria and Minerva Paradizo. "I thought I had seen it in the gorilla cage at Rathdown park, but afterward . . . Anyway, I tried to push it from my mind, but it didn't work. After my resurrection I decided to pursue it again. I have been given a second chance at life, and I'll not make the same mistakes twice."
As Artemis spoke, he got closer and closer to Holly. As he finished, he finally closed the distance and punctuated his statement with a kiss. He was thrilled to find that she did not push away or try to back out, but simply returned the kiss, allowing the moment to extend, as if suspended in time.
A sarcastic voice broke them out of their daze.
"Are you two going to just sit around and neck all day?" the voice said, full of mocking disapproval, "I thought somebody was attempting a move."
Holly, who had broken away from Artemis when she heard the voice, rummaged through her pockets until she pulled out her communicator. On it, a small screen showed Foaly standing at what was unmistakably her door, grinning like an idiot at having interrupted the two. From out of the frame, another voice, far more gravelly, was heard.
"If you're not moving, I'll just be on my way." said Mulch, "No need to hang around . . ."
"I am moving," Said Holly, giving Artemis a smile as she finally confirmed it aloud, "And you will help. Half of what's in this apartment was bought on your nagging anyway." Holly thought of the movie collection and modest entertainment center in her main room, which had been purchased after Mulch complained constantly that there was never anything to do while Holly planned stakeouts, an activity she demanded he be present for, as a warm body to talk to more than anything. There were also several items in the kitchen required for preparing foods that she had certainly never made.
Between the four friends, Holly's few belongings were all quickly stashed in the boxes and loaded in the back of Brick's car. Mulch and Foaly climbed into the centaur's newly refurbished van (Holly refused to call it the centaur mobile) while Artemis and Holly squeezed into whatever space was left in the back seat of the car, which had quickly been used as storage after the trunk had filled. Unfortunately for the two, they were unable to be close or even see each other due to the contents of the vehicle. Holly once again felt shy in Artemis' presence. He had, after all, admitted to having feelings for her for years. What do I say now? She wondered to herself.
Before long, they had arrived at Artemis' house and, after getting the various boxes at the very least inside the house, Foaly and Mulch made various excuses for needing to leave abruptly. This left Artemis and Holly to unpack her things.
They started with the mundane, putting away the previously mentioned movies and appliances, then began decorating. Holly directed which box they were going to go through, shying away from one in particular. Artemis, of course, noticed this quickly and began plotting. He had, after all, been the one to pack the box and knew precisely what it contained. While Holly was distracted by placing a few of her pictures, Artemis picked up the box in question and began walking away with it. When Holly turned around, he had already rounded the corner of the short hallway and disappeared.
"Artemis!" she shouted, both angry and surprised, "Come back here!" Terrified, she realized immediately which box he had taken. From around the corner, his voice called back.
"You were taking too long to make your decision," He said as she ran after him, "So I took matters into my own hands."
She rounded the corner as she said this, finding him standing between the doors of the two master suites. On the floor at his feet was the box of her pillows, bedclothes, and sentimental items. Things that go in a bedroom . . . She thought, staring at the box as if it were going to sprout fangs and bite her.
"I answered your question back at your previous residence," he said, almost emphasizing the previous part, "But you never upheld your end of the deal."
"What deal?" She asked, momentarily distracted from the box.
"You said you were willing to admit feelings for me if I admitted them for you." He said, recalling the conversation, "I want to hear you say it."
Holly merely stood there for several seconds, mouth slightly agape. After a moment she began her own story.
"It was kind of sudden, almost jerky, like a shuttle that doesn't want to start." She said, now choosing to look at her feet, unable to look into those very familiar eyes, "For the longest time I saw you as the insolent mud boy who kidnapped me. Then I saw the way you cared for your father's safety, and that perception slipped a bit. It came back when you went up against Spiro. You were that meddling boy genius again, too caught up in your schemes to worry about Butler or the People."
Her face hardened momentarily as she remembered these events, her tone cold. "Then you lost your memory, and Julius died, and I felt like I was all alone, and in that moment, you tried to make me feel better, in your own way. You tried to convince me that you remembered, and that just before I died I was not alone. The perception of the spoiled brat slipped off, and I saw that you were capable of caring, and that you cared for me, even without knowing who I was. During the Hybras incident, you saved my life, standing in defiance of time itself to wipe my death off the record. I started to feel something then, something more."
Here she finally looked up, only to find that Artemis wasn't making eye contact either. In fact, he looked nervous, as if he didn't know what to do with his hands. She decided the answer was to put them in hers, and walked up to him, taking his hands. This got his attention, and when he looked into her eyes she continued.
"During our trip to Rathdown park, I felt guilt and pain over what I thought I put you through, and I wanted to make it go away, so in my artificially teenaged confusion I embraced the other end of the spectrum. I allowed myself to care openly for you, to feel what I wanted to feel. Afterward I was so angry that I decided it was a mistake, that it could never happen again. Then you broke, and I felt it was my fault for letting the guilt of lying to me bury you. When Orion professed his love for me, I realized how much lying to me had taken from you. And when you died . . . I couldn't take it."
Holly stood on her toes and, barely reaching, managed to touch her lips to Artemis'. He responded by bending slightly, allowing the kiss to deepen. After a minute, she broke away for air.
"You got a second chance at life, and through that, so did I." she finished, pressing her forehead to Artemis'.
After another minute, Artemis stepped back. He held his arms out, gesturing to the two doors.
"You have a choice. We can take it slowly, feeling our way through, and you can take the spare master bedroom. Or we can dive in, and neither of us has to sleep in an empty bed tonight. It's up to you."
Holly looked down again, the box was at her feet. Which did she want? It wasn't a huge decision, as she had decided several hours ago that even if things developed, she would want to wait before she "slept" with him, but sleeping with him . . . that was another story. It's not like you can't do that if you live in the other room the side of her brain that still had doubts said. On the other hand, you've waited for years, and now you have him said the side that was ready to through caution to the wind.
Making a decision, took a deep breath and picked up the box.
What will she choose? Where will she sleep? Where had Jay jay been all this time? Wait . . . that's not important . . .
Review the chapter and make your decision: Do Artemis and Holly take the plunge? Or do they let things take their course? It probably won't include smut yet as I don't yet feel I could write it well enough.
The most votes decide the chapter! (said chapter will also answer questions about Artemis' newest talent!)