Happiest Place On Earth

Disclaimer: I kinda don't own Artemis Fowl. Big Shocker.


After the aircraft had taken off, Caroline had visibly calmed. She rationalized that once they were in the air, the chances of the plane being hijacked by terrorists greatly overtook the chance of her being kidnapped. Until they landed, that is.

"It's hardly likely that someone would try to hijack the plane with your friend on board."

She wasn't trying to make conversation; she never bothered with it, but was simply pointing out the fact. Caroline knew that the boy (he looked about her age, but she could never really tell anymore) and his 'friend' weren't really so. She had spotted the relationship immediately; the older man worked for the boy, Artemis. Artemis turned to look at her, as is polite in conversation, but noticed that her facial expression was exactly the same as it had been before; blank. He'd only ever encountered that face in the mirror or at the poker table with seasoned business men.

"If anyone was stupid enough to, Butler would have them taken care of in an instant."

The name rang a bell in the back of her mind, but she ignored it for now. A brief smile graced her lips, it was a formality, and she could tell that Artemis could see through it as she introduced herself, "I'm Caroline Edderstein, heiress to the Edderstein fortune." Her smile was met with an equally real smile on Artemis' part.

"I am Artemis Fowl, heir to the Fowl fortune." For a moment, the fake smile on Caroline's face turned real. Then she stifled it and went back to a blank face. She smiled because she had recognized Artemis Fowl's name. She always smiled when she figured things out, so her family had taken to giving her extensive mind exercises just to see her face light up with accomplishment.

"It is very nice to meet to meet you, as we'll be neighbors for the summer." She trusted his intellect, after having heard extraordinary things about it.

Edderstein manor was neither as old nor as big as Fowl manor, but the Eddersteins held more land over the Fowl's heads. They were as close to neighbors as they could get, basically across the street from each other.

After a long stretch of silence between them, only fractured by sighs and Caroline's squirming in her seat, Caroline felt that she ought to break it, if only to confirm a niggling suspicion. "Your friend, he wouldn't be of any relation to Juliet Butler, the Jade Princess?"

She had taken a long shot, and even though it could be a huge miss, she felt the connection somewhere. Maybe because of the family resemblance, or it was just that she knew Artemis' manservant's name from somewhere.

Casual conversation was something Artemis Fowl wasn't very good at and talking to girls his own age he could just forget about. In the rare instance where he found himself in the situation, he pretended he was talking at a business meeting. He might come off a bit stiff, but it was better than stuttering and blushing. He didn't opt for the business meeting option this time, as the Eddersteins were frequent visitors to the Fowl manor. His parents had a bit of a soft spot for the elderly couple, and Artemis had no intention of being made fun of by the adolescent girl in front of his parents, which he was sure a teenage girl would do.

"You don't seem like the type to watch Mexican Wrestling," he artfully dodged the question. He could see Caroline's face soften to an almost-smile. His brain started jogging through a psychoanalysis of the girl next to him.

"I'm not really, my brother is, was, and he told me all about it. I still watch it on occasion as an honor to him." The pilot announced that they were halfway over the Atlantic, and the flight would only be several more hours, and that dinner would be served. Caroline was glad that she was leaving New York, and then she remembered she was supposed to be having a conversation.

She tuned in to hear the end of Artemis' comment, "…younger sister." She nodded, and the conversation died off there, to Artemis' relief.

She had taken a MacBook Pro out, and was watching a movie in a foreign language. It wasn't a language he knew, but he recognized the landscape and their lip movements as something Germanic, probably one of the Scandinavian languages. After further eaves-watching he recognized the Actor to be Danish, and inferred the movie to be in the language. He took out his mobile phone and wrote several emails to pass the time. Every time a stewardess would pass by, he hid his actions with a magazine. When Caroline was done, she put her laptop away, and their eyes met. "I'm teaching myself Danish." She was sitting cross-legged in the comfortable seat, and was drinking Sunny D from a small bottle.

"Why?" He'd looked up from his phone.

"It's the happiest place on earth." His mismatched eyes looked at her hard, and Artemis Fowl felt something he'd never felt before. Artemis Fowl was looking at a girl that he'd just met, and was feeling compassion.


Edited 6.25.08

the epitome of randomness: I understand that rape is something that people are really iffy with. I'll do the kidnapping in detail, but the rape will just be her feelings.
The thing is that the rape is kind of a focal point in the story.

jadeddragon212: I'm aware of all this yellow tape around the rape subject, and I don't care if I'm flamed. Thank you for liking it, and I'll keep your warning in mind as I write.

This is set post Lost Colony, circa summer of 2009, therefore Artemis is 18 and Caroline is 16.
I'm not sure if romance is going to break out between the two, but Caroline meets the whole gang, including Holly and Mulch and Foaly, and um, yeahhh.

READ THIS SHIT NOW.