A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long to get up. School started once more and it is already killing me, so I haven't had much time to write, which is awful. Though don't worry, I missed writing this story to ever take such a long break again!! So the next update should be quicker than this one!! Hope you enjoy the chapter, though!

Why, Why Love

Chapter 11

Sam always thought herself to be a semi-practical girl. She never did have any sort of irrational phobias, and she most certainly wasn't afraid of airplanes. But after one flight with Mulch, Sam wasn't certain she ever wanted to board any sort of air transportation vehicle ever again.

"Did Holly want to kill us?" she gasped as Mulch made a bumpy landing about five kilometers away from the tarmac that they were supposed to land on.

"The mission is top secret," Mulch said, "she had to pick someone she trusted to fly the plane."

"And she picked you?" Artemis asked, "a thief with a criminal report a mile long?"

"I never said that she made the right choice," Mulch said, shrugging.

"Well at least we made it, and in one piece," Butler said, standing up, "let me pilot on the flight back"

"Be my guest," Mulch answered, "I think I enjoyed this flight less than any of you guys anyways"

"Oh, I think that is quite impossible," Artemis said, shrugging on his jacket as the group exited the plane. Sam stepped outside and was immediately taken aback by how cold it was. It was into late fall in Ireland, the wind there was picked up a mean chill at night; but it was absolutely freezing in Wakkanai.

"Why is it so cold?" Sam wailed as the stepped onto the ground, "I thought that Japan was supposed to be hotter than Ireland." Artemis just sighed and continued to walk, not bothering to turn around and face the girl.

"Don't you know anything about geography?" he asked as they made their way towards the airport.

"Not Japanese geography," Sam said, "I never thought I would need to use it"

"Wakkanai is the northernmost city in Japan. It is closer to Russia than it is to Tokyo. Of course it is going to be cold," he said.

"Oh," Sam whispered as they reached the airport. The Wakkanai airport was nothing grand or spectacular; just a small, white building with tall glass windows. Sam bet that the city didn't get many outside visitors every year.

"Alright boys, let's get going," Mulch said, leading the group around the airport, to the front of the building.

"Wait, don't we have to go inside? Go through customs? That sort of thing," Sam asked. The only time she had ever flown internationally before was when she came to Ireland, and the whole process of entering another country was a tiresome one.

"Why don't you ever think for a minute?" Artemis asked the girl, "what are we supposed to say to the customs people? That we are here to investigate vampires?"

"No need to be so harsh!" Sam said back, "I just thought that was the legal way to do things". From beside her Butler laughed.

"Sam, you are now in business with both Mulch Diggums and Artemis Fowl. Kiss all your 'legal ways' goodbye," the large man said as they reached the front of the building.

"Why is there no car waiting for us here?" Artemis asked looking around. Mulch just laughed.

"Who could come pick you up? Do you think that there are actually LEP agents in this godforsaken place?" Mulch asked, kicking the ground with a large frown, "the dirt is probably frozen solid here. What am I supposed to do?"

"How are we supposed to get to the VAMP building then?" Artemis continued.

"Um…we walk?" Mulch answered, as though it were the most obvious answer. Which, Sam thought, it sort of was.

"Walk?" Artemis gaped, as though he had just been told that he needed to swim in a sea of fire ants. The boy might be the youngest, most intelligent multi-millionaire on the planet, but the thought of doing anything physical still got to him.

"Oh buck up," Sam said, patting Artemis on the shoulder, "how bad could it be?"

It turned out to be very bad. The city of Wakkanai wasn't really large, and the scenes of snowcapped mountains and frozen lakes in the background were breathtaking—but trekking through the city was something different altogether. The streets were winding and confusing and the cold air was bitter and unforgiving.

"Maybe you had something going with that car idea," Sam whispered to Artemis, her teeth clattering so badly that it was hard to understand what she was saying. Artemis turned around and looked at her. Her small frame was shivering with every step she took.

"Who told you not to pack a jacket?" Artemis said, turning back around.

"I never thought we were going to be traveling anywhere!" Sam answered back. She kept her eyes glued to the floor, trying to think of warm thoughts; of her grandmother's large fireplace that used to be so inviting, of drinking hot chocolate with her brother on the front porch of the small house in Boston he had bought for them.

Those thoughts, however, just made her even more cold. And just as she was sure that her bones were going to snap because the cold, she felt something heavy fall on top of her. Looking up in surprise she saw that Artemis had draped his jacket around her. She pulled on the jacket, a huge smile spreading across her face. She looked at Artemis, who was still walking, as though nothing had just happened.

"Thank you," she cried, running up to him. The boy continued to look forward, not even casting a glance at her.

"I don't want you to get sick," he said simply, "what good will you be on this mission if you are around coughing and sneezing all the time"

Sam just smiled and fell back a little. Even though his words were a bit cold, she couldn't help but feel happy. Throughout the plane ride, Sam had been thinking about Artemis in order to distract herself from the great possibility of Mulch crashing the plane. She had been thinking of why she wasn't frightened by his drunken kiss, why she hated Holly so much, why she had been trying to avoid the boy for the past month. And all of her thinking led her to one conclusion. She had fallen in love with Artemis Fowl. It was the one thing that she had warned herself not to do and she had went and done it. And she didn't even know exactly why she loved him—he wasn't nice, he wasn't caring, he wasn't anything a lady would look for in a potential boyfriend. But still, he had his moments, those moments of kindness; and it was those moments that made Sam fall for him.

Not that she was expecting anything in return form the boy. Oh no, that would never happen. Artemis shouldn't, couldn't, fall in love with her in return. She was supposed to be a guy after all. His roommate. His friend. Nothing more.

And as the group walked down the street, Sam decided to herself that she wouldn't reveal the fact that she was a girl to Artemis. She had planned on doing so once she met the faeries, but she had never expected herself to fall in love with the boy. Now all she wanted to do was stay with him, to continue to see faeries with him, to just stay as they were now. But if she revealed that she was a girl, that could never happen. She couldn't still be roommates with him, she probably couldn't even be friends with him, since Jin had told her that Artemis hated girls.

I guess you are stuck as a boy for a little longer then, Sam thought to herself. She didn't enjoy masquerading as a boy, but she couldn't think of any other way to stay by Artemis.

A few feet in front of her, Artemis was thinking about the same thing. Sam was a girl. He knew she was a girl yet he hadn't confronted her about it so far. He had planned to do so on the plane ride over to Wakkanai; but when the time came he couldn't do it. Admitting to Sam that he knew she was a girl meant that once they got back to Ireland she would have to leave. They could never be roommates again; he could never hear her tell him lame jokes, never have her try to force feed him midnight snacks, never see her eyes light up in childlike wonder or listen to her bell-like laughter ever again.

He shook his head and continued to walk. He wanted to keep things the way they were. While he didn't quite know his exact feelings for the small girl, he knew that she was the only person his own age that he actually didn't mind being around.

So he decided, in order to keep Sam near him, he wouldn't let the fact that he knew she was a girl surface. He turned around and looked at the girl. She was walking, eyes glued to the ground, obviously deep in thought.

As long as I can keep you by me, you secret will be safe with me, he said, shaking his head slightly as the words popped into his brain. Since when had he been such an emotional, sentimental person?

"Hey, what's wrong with the two of you?"

Both Sam and Artemis's head's snapped up when the heard Mulch's cry.

"What is it?" Sam asked quickly.

"We're here," Mulch answered, "I was trying to get your attention for the past minute"

Artemis looked up at the building in front of them. It was nothing special, just a small little place with whitewashed walls and a stone pathway leading to a stark wooden door. Sam noticed that there were two flowerpots near the doors, each filled with beautiful, blooming flowers. It must take a lot of hard effort to keep those flowers blooming in this weather, she thought, whoever planted them must love them a lot.

"It doesn't look very impressive," Artemis said, looking at the tiny building.

"Well neither did that farm cottage," Sam reminded the boy.

"Okay well this is where I leave you," Mulch said. Both teens turned towards him.

"You're not coming with us?" Sam asked. The dwarf shook his head.

"Oh no way are you going to get me near those VAMPs. I've never met one in my life and I would like to keep it that way," he said. Sam shook her head. To her it seemed a bit silly for the faeries to be afraid of a group of people that none of them had ever met before.

"And this is where Butler will be leaving you too," Mulch said. The large man just stood his ground.

"No way am I leaving," he said. Artemis sighed.

"Butler, Holly said that the VAMP agents do not interact with adult humans very well. It would probably be more effective if you didn't come with us," he said.

"Artemis, I am not going to let you go in there by yourself," Butler said resolutely. Normally when Butler was certain about something, only one thing could change his mind. Luckily that one thing was Artemis Fowl.

"Butler, I have my communication signal," Artemis said, taking a thin metal piece out of his pocket, "if we run into any trouble I will contact you"

Butler frowned and looked down at his young master. He trusted the boy, but even sometimes the smartest human on Earth could make some mistakes.

"Only if you are sure, Artemis" Butler sighed. The boy nodded his head.

"I am always sure," he answered. Well, most always.

"I won't be far away, then," Butler said, frowning deeply. He didn't have a good feeling about letting Artemis go into their alone—especially since Sam was there. Sam meant well, but she lacked a bit of common sense and Butler knew that Artemis would protect the girl no matter what, even if it meant harm to himself.

"Butler don't worry," Artemis said, waving him and Mulch away, "you two best get going now. The quicker we finish this mission the better."

Reluctantly, Butler followed Mulch away from the building, leaving Artemis and Sam staring up at the unimpressive walkway.

"Well then, let's do this," Sam said, breathing deeply. Artemis nodded and the two made their way down the stone walkway. They reached the door and stood there lamely for a few seconds.

"Uh…do you suppose we should knock?" Sam asked, looking up at Artemis. The boy shrugged and knocked firmly on the door twice. There was a rustle of quick footsteps coming from behind the door. Suddenly it burst open.

Standing in front of Sam and Artemis was a very frazzled lady who seemed to be in her late 30s. She was a little taller than Sam, with jet-black hair streaked with random gray hairs. Her skin was deathly pale, her eyes were brown and wild and her clothes were quite eccentric.

"Oh, are you two hear to help us?" she breathed, grabbing both Sam and Artemis's collars and pulling them inside the building. She was surprisingly stronger than she looked.

"We have been wondering when those blasted faeries would get their acts together and bring us some help," she continued as she released her vice grip on the two teens. Sam stumbled back a little.

"Who are you?" Artemis asked the lady. He was slightly frazzled by the woman's sudden actions.

"Oh no time to explain," the lady said, waving a hand through the air, "come, follow me"

She started to walk away. Sam and Artemis exchanged glances and stood their ground.

"Oh please do hurry," the lady said, turning around, "we have already wasted so much time!"

"We are not going anywhere with you until you tell us who you are and where we are going," Artemis said firmly. Sam nodded beside him.

"So rude!" the lady said, shaking her head, "somebody needs to teach you some manners, young man!"

And with that, the lady went to Artemis and grabbed him by the collar once more. She started to drag him away. Artemis tried to struggle against the woman's grip, but she seemed to possess superhuman strength.

"Hey, what do you think you are doing!?!" Sam cried, following the lady. She grabbed Artemis's arm, trying to help him pull away.

"Let go of him!" Sam said, pulling harder. The lady sighed deeply.

"So bothersome, the both of you are," she said warily. She swooped down, grabbing Sam with her other arm and dragging her along too. Sam kicked and clawed at woman, but it was as though the lady was made out of steel.

"Where are you taking us?" Sam asked. She looked around her. They were going down a very narrow hallway that seemed to slope downwards. The hallway was dark and lit by rows of small lights on the ceiling.

Ad the two teens were dragged further down the mysterious tunnel, Artemis's brain was working at full speed, trying to figure out what was going on.

Is this lady one of the VAMP agents, he thought, and if she is, why is she so tall? Holly had said that they were just regular faeries that were chosen to be agents, they should be normal height.

But as skeptical as Artemis was that this woman was a VAMP agent, he hoped dearly that she was. If she wasn't, then the situation had just gotten quite a lot more dangerous. Is this what the VAMP pyre was about, he thought, were the agents trying to find help because some random human organization was taking them over? And if so, how powerful did these humans have to be?

The lady finally stopped and tossed the two on the ground. Quickly, Artemis got up. He turned to around and saw that they were in some type of control room. There were flashing computers on every wall, each with pictures of different locations. Shocked, Artemis saw a picture of SB on one of the computer screens.

"What is this?" Artemis asked. He quickly looked around to see if Sam was there. She was standing about two feet away from him, a look of awe on her face.

"Are these the people that LEP sent? Finally!"

Both Sam and Artemis turned to see a boy on the far end of the room. He looked maybe a year or two older than the two teens. He was a little taller than Artemis with messy dark brown hair. His eyes were a very light amber, almost a yellow color, and his bangs flopped down messily over them.

"How do you know about LEP?" Sam asked. She thought that her, Butler, and Artemis were the only humans that knew about the existence of faeries.

"Please, what fairy doesn't know about LEP?" the boy asked, walking up to a computer besides them and tapping on the keys, "I might have been living up here for a while, but I didn't forget everything about underground"

"That's not possible," Artemis said, "you can't be a fairy. You look exactly like a human"

"Growth hormones," the lady who had brought them to the room said, "Plus, both Killian and I gave up magic long ago"

"Which leads us into the introductions," the boy said before Artemis or Sam had a chance to say anything, "I am agent Killian Malley. This lovely lady here is agent Ross Taylor. We are the two VAMPs that work here in Wakkanai"

"Only two?" Sam asked. She had thought that the place would be teeming with agents.

"It doesn't take many of us to run a place," Ross said, "we are rather efficient"

"I could not fathom why either of you would willingly take growth hormones and give up your magic," Artemis said. Killian shrugged.

"We wanted to be more like the humans," he said simply, "we decided that we would have to know what it was like to be you before we could study you properly".

Artemis looked as though he was about to say something else, but Sam cut him off—eager to get to the point as well as keep Artemis from getting into an argument.

"Alright, why did you two light the pyre?" Sam asked quickly. Killian looked up at the girl and smiled. He walked over to her and bent down so that his face was scant inches from hers. Artemis stiffened slightly.

"You have very rare colored eyes," Killian said. Sam blushed a furious shade of red and backed away a little. Killian's gaze was piercing.

"They're just green," she mumbled, waving her hand a little. The boy in front of her stood up and leaned against the table next to him.

"Only around 3 percent of the world's human population has green eyes," he stated simply, "and that can be any variant of green, including hazel. Pure, dark green emerald eyes such as yours are found in less than one percent of the population. And since you don't have red hair and don't seem to be of Irish decent, I would say that you lie in the .1 percentile"

'Really?" Sam said, rather impressed by the show of knowledge, "how did you know all of that off the top of your head?"

"VAMP agents are brilliant," Killian answered, shrugging.

"Oh please, show offs more like it," Artemis said quickly.

"If one is brilliant why not show it off?" Ross asked, coming up to the group, "What an aggressive personality you have, boy! Not very easy to get along with are you?"

"Aggressive!" Artemis said, surprised. He had been called many things in the past, but aggressive had never been one of them. He was always cold, aloof, detached. Since when had be come aggressive?

"Either way, Sam and I didn't travel all the way to this barren wasteland to be treated to a demonstration of useless knowledge," Artemis said, waving away the lady's comments, "do you two have a problem or not?"

"There will be no talking to you until you learn some manners," Ross said, frowning. Sam rolled her eyes. Artemis really did need her here.

"Okay, Ross—I am sorry about Artemis. He's a little hasty sometimes," Sam said, "we really do want to help you, though. That is why we are here."

"Finally someone a little more diplomatic," Killian said going up to Sam and lazily draping an arm across her shoulder, "I think we could become fast friends".

Artemis's facial expressions didn't change one bit as Killian put his arm around Sam's shoulder, but his eyes did flicker away for a brief second; and that movement was caught by Killian. Slowly, a wide grin spread across the young VAMP agent's face. If there was one thing the VAMPs were it was intuitive. And boy did intuition go a long way…

'Well it's been a long time since we've had such a cute little human come by, so I guess we can oblige and give you some answers," Killian said. Sam frowned up at him.

"I am not cute!" she said, "I don't see why everybody thinks it is okay to call a boy cute. It's not really a compliment"

Killian and Ross looked over at Sam in surprise. A boy? They had both known at once, given their high intuition, that she was clearly a female. But if she wanted to play the part of a boy, then so be it.

"Our apologies, little sir" Ross said quickly, before Killian could shoot off his big mouth, "we set up the pyre because we fear that something terrible has happened"

"What?" Sam asked. Artemis leaned forward, eager to hear what could make the VAMP agents so worried.

"There is this man—a very powerful Taiwanese business man named Lai Huan Wei. Immensely powerful, immensely wealthy, and immensely ruthless," Killian said, sighing, "exactly the kind of humans that we hate the most".

"Humans like that are all over the place," Artemis said, joining in on the conversation, "what makes this one so special?"

Ross turned to him, deciding that it would be better if he did join in. After all, if anybody would be able to deal with powerful, wealthy, and ruthless people, it would be Artemis Fowl.

"This man," Ross said, "has found about faeries"

"How?" Artemis asked, shocked.

"In the same way that you did, I suppose," Killian said, "and much like you did when you first found faeries, Chairman Lai wants to use them to get as much gold as he possibly can"

"The only problem is that he has more resources and wealth and power than us VAMP agents can handle alone," Ross added on.

"Also, it seems impossible to track him down," Killian said, "nobody knows the exact location of his house, not any personal information about him. We cannot even find a picture of him. It is like he doesn't even exist".

"How are we supposed to fight against him then?" Sam asked.

"That is we asked for help," Ross said, "VAMP agents do not venture outside the complex. Though we have given up magic, we are still a little sensitive around human buildings. And regular fairies are even worse. That is why we need you two to find out the location of Chairman Lai."

"There are more than 6 billion people in the world. How are we supposed to find this one man?" Artemis asked, leaning against a table, his mind racing.

Back in SB, Jin was sitting in his room, contemplating his predicament. Since Sam and Artemis had left, he had been utterly confused. On one hand he had a beautiful girlfriend that truly did like him. It was what every guy wanted. He should be happy.

But on the other hand was Sam. Sam was his best friend, his classmate… a boy. And though he couldn't explain why, Jin knew that he was completely in love with him.

"This shouldn't be about what is right or wrong," Jin said to himself, clutching his head, "it should only be about love. I should be with the one I love, no matter what it means"

Jin let go of his head and looked up, a revelation creeping up on him until it stared him straight in face. Swallowing hard, he nodded his head and stood up, making his final decision.

"I shouldn't have to run from my feelings any longer," he said resolutely. "I love Sam. If that means that I am gay, so be it". He sighed deeply, feeling oddly relieved that he finally said it out loud. But before he had the chance to think further, his phone rang.

He quickly went to pick it up, hoping that it was Sam.

"Hello?" he asked, excitedly.

"I have never heard such excitement in your voice when you spoke to me in the past," a calm voice answered in quick Mandarin. Jin frowned slightly. It was only his father.

"Father. You haven't called in a while,' Jin said.

"And neither have you," his father answered, "I was just wondering how your studies were going"

"They are fine," Jin answered, sighing. What a typical conversation.

"You have winter break coming soon, do you not?" his father asked, Jin perked up a bit.

"Yes," he answered.

"You are coming back to Taiwan then, right?" his father asked. Jin said he would. He spent every winter break back home with his family. Since they lived so far away, he didn't get to see them very often.

"Are you going to bring any friends with you?" his father asked. Suddenly, Jin had a perfect idea. He could bring Sam along! That way Sam could meet his family and the two of them could have a romantic break. He could show him of his favorite places, introduce him to all of his childhood friends…

"Jin, are you there?"

"Yes, father, I think I will bring a friend along," Jin said, beaming.

"Okay well, be sure to tell your mother who he is before hand," his father answered, "I have to go now. Be safe."

"Alright, bye" Jin said quickly, hanging up the phone. He had plans to make.

Back in Taiwan, Chairman Lai put down the phone. His son was a good boy, but he worried about him from time to time. Jin was always an emotional child, very quick to show everyone what was on his mind. He had hoped that sending Jin away to study would force the boy to become more manly; but sadly it didn't seem to be working out that way.

Sighing, the man swiveled around in his seat, pushing his son out of his mind. He had bigger things to worry about at that moment. Fairy things.

A/N: Alright, how was that? Hope that you all enjoyed it! As always please review and tell me your thoughts on the story, any ideas you have, plot details you want to see, ships you would like. I am always open to any opinion.

Also if my grammar is really bad or if I made a lot of mistakes, point those out as well. English is not my first language by far-- so I am always looking to improve my writing!

As always, Gracias y besos (which, for those who asked for a translation means "Thank you and kisses") =)