So this is my first attempt with these characters. Be gentle please :P

A Little Help

Artemis tapped his fingers on the discarded book on the ground, impatience filling the very air around him. The rhythm was simple, in threes – not fours, not yet, but definitely not fives. He looked at his watch, the silver looking oddly out of place on his bare arm, resting against the baggy blue jeans. His brown leather jacket lay discarded to one side – as much as it bothered Artemis to be displaying his 'fashion' to the world, it was much too warm to cover the offending t-shirt up while he sat outside. It was summer again, and Artemis' mother had insisted on him donning last September's birthday gifts, with the promise that his sixteenth birthday present would be more satisfying.

Out of the corner of his eye, Artemis thought he could see a slight haze. Most humans would regard it as a by-product of the heat, but, as proven time and again, Artemis Fowl II was not most humans. "You're shimmering, Holly. Not one of the new suits, I take it?"

The heat haze seemed to solidify, and a sharp, pretty face surrounded by red hair – longer, now, and the fringe more defined, Artemis noted – appeared, followed quickly by a willowy figure in a tight green jumpsuit. Captain Holly Short smiled at Artemis, turning off her wings and approaching to sit down beside him.

"How's the treatment going, Arty?" were the first words out of her mouth. "I'm sorry I haven't seen you in so long, but with one thing and another I just-"

Artemis held up a hand to stop her. "It's going well," he replied, "Though I'm not, of course, completely cured, but I am getting there." This little speech was followed by an internal scowl as his subconscious congratulated him on the fifteen word sentence. "Slowly," he repeated firmly. Holly raised an eyebrow at his tone, so Artemis cast around for something else to say.

"You…eh…look nice today, Captain," he mumbled. Mumbling? Whatever next?

Holly looked like someone trying their very best not to look too pleased by a compliment. "Thanks, Artemis. Your jeans suit you," she replied, gaining a frown in her direction for her effort. "Actually, you've kind of nicely brought me round to what I wanted to talk about."

Artemis sighed. He knew what was coming. He just didn't know where it would go. Nevertheless, he prompted the elfin captain to continue.

"Orion," Holly said softly. Artemis knew she saw him tense, but she continued regardless. "You remember what I said last year, don't you? We need to have-"

"A long talk about it, yes," Artemis replied. "I know."

Silence between the two friends.

"Well?" Holly asked, suddenly studiously not looking at him, becoming very interested in a lone daisy growing out of the grass. "Those things Orion was saying. About you. And me. They must have come from somewhere."

"Not necessarily," Artemis replied, his customary dryness winning out over emotion. "I, personally, make it a rule not to trust the derivatives of mental illnesses."

"Then none of it was true?" Holly asked, looking up at him, her blue and hazel eyes meeting his. She sounded – hopeful or disappointed? Artemis couldn't tell. He couldn't bring himself to respond, however, and Holly was clearly displeased with what she saw in his eyes. Holly groaned. "Artemis, this is ridiculous."

Artemis opened his mouth to protest his innocence, and then closed it again. There was nothing to be said; he had no innocence to protest.

More silence fell, not a strained silence, but not exactly comfortable either. Both people, elf and human, were suddenly lost in their own thoughts.

"How long?" Holly asked abruptly.

"What?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Artemis Fowl, how long has this been going on? Tell me the truth. When did it start? Was it when I…when we…"

Artemis grimaced. There was no point in trying to hide it now. She knew his feelings just as well – probably better – than he did. "Kissed?" he prompted.

"Yes," Holly replied, becoming significantly interested in the daisy again.

The young genius had a moment of hesitation. He considered the question, properly considered it. Holly deserved an answer, and, to be honest, he was more than a little curious himself. "No. Yes. Partly."

"Come again?" Holly asked after a beat, frowning at the grass in confusion.

"No, Holly, that wasn't when it started. Yes, it was when I realised what the feelings were. So the answer is 'partly'." Artemis was pleased with this conclusion. It was sound, without any quick assumptions in any direction.

"So when?"

Artemis' groan, unlike Holly's earlier, was entirely internal. Alright then, so be it. He would clear this up for both of them by re-examining his memories.

"I noticed you very early on," Artemis admitted, allowing the clinical part of him to take over to avoid embarrassment. That would come later. "I knew that, if our relationship continued as it was, my soon-to-be-pubescent body and mind would soon see you in a different way. Nonetheless, I suppressed this as much as was possible."

Holly closed her eyes, looking afraid and eager for him to go on simultaneously.

"They wiped my memory. I could have just left it at that. I could have just gone on with my life. But I couldn't stand the idea of forgetting everything – forgetting you. You saved my father, Holly. And then you saved my oldest friend from almost certain death that I had brought upon him. I could never stop being grateful for that."

"I did what anyone would have done, Artemis," Holly said gently. "There was no…there was nothing…"

"Perhaps. In any case, my plan to beat the mind wipe worked – but only after you had saved my life, again. And then we saved the world, together, yet again."

"With Mulch and Butler to help us," Holly reminded him.

Artemis ignored her interruptions. He was concentrating. "And then we teamed up, again, to save two different worlds. We had three years of our lives taken from us, but we were together. I had magic, and in the time tunnel...we were close. We were part of each other."

Holly couldn't help it; she looked up into his face, staring at her own hazel eye winking out of his socket. "Friends," she said softly, with a slight smile on her face. "Bonded by trauma. Wasn't that how you put it a few years ago?"

"It was then," Artemis concluded, ignoring the slight jibe. "Then, in Hybras. I remember the moment exactly. When I thought, for a moment, that you were gone forever."

"When you took your turn at saving me," Holly finished. The two friends lapsed into silence again.

It was Holly who spoke again first, a firm shake of the head accompanying her words. "I'm sorry, Artemis, but it's just ridiculous. There are so many things wrong with that situation that I can't even count them all."

"Try?" Artemis suggested lightly, a smirk on his face.

Holly glared at him. "Well, first, Artemis, you are human. I am not."

"Irrelevant."

"No. We've seen, firsthand, how damaging that can be. Turnball Root was not a good man, but he loved his wife. I don't think I could do what he did – watch the person I loved grow old, while I…and there would be nothing, nothing I could do."

Artemis raised an eyebrow, mentally noting all of the connotations of this argument, but refraining from comment out of both a feeling of courtesy and a love of not being punched. He simply nodded for her to go on.

"And you're what, fifteen?"

"Nearly sixteen. An adult."

"I'm in my eighties, Artemis."

Artemis laughed. "Oh come now, Holly, in human equivalents you can't be any older than your early twenties. And by those standards…"

"I am still too old for you," Holly pointed out lightly. "And even more than that, there's the issue which I know you are avoiding. And it's a rather big one."

Artemis was not smiling anymore. He frowned at her, clearly hoping this wouldn't be brought up. "Yes, I know."

"Yes, you do. And I told you at the time, Artemis, it wouldn't happen. It couldn't happen. Not ever again."

"Yes. You did."

A third period of silence, both once again distracted by their own train of thoughts.

"I'd better go, Arty," Holly said presently. "I promise I will see you soon. Please try to put this out of your head for me."

"That's your last word?" Artemis asked her, standing as she did.

"You know it is," Holly replied, turning away and almost falling over the book Artemis had left lying on the ground. "What is this?"

"Ah…something Juliet lent me," Artemis replied quickly, reaching out and taking her arm, turning her to face him, ignoring the look of surprise on her face. "I have a question."

Holly raised an eyebrow. "Okay?" she said, after a brief hesitation.

"You don't think my feelings are appropriate. You don't think it would work. But you haven't actually-"

"Oh no," Holly interrupted. "No way. I am not playing that game."

Artemis smiled his trademark vampire smile. "Okay then, Holly. Then I have a different question. What would you do…if I kissed you now?"

"If you wha-" Holly started to demand, but she was cut off by Artemis performing exactly the action which he had just stated.

The kiss lasted perhaps longer than it would have, due to Holly finding herself not being as discouraging as she thought she would be. That didn't stop her, when they were finished, from drawing back her arm and punching the boy on the shoulder.

"What in the name of Frond are you playing at, Artemis?" she demanded.

"An experiment. Are you unhappy?"

"Th…that's not the point! Did you even listen to me?" Holly spluttered.

"Answer the question, Captain," Artemis answered, in an almost playful voice.

"I'm leaving," Holly snapped, turning her face away so he wouldn't see how red she had turned. "I'll call you tomorrow or something. Goodbye."

A shimmer, and she was gone.

Artemis grinned. That went well. He bent down and picked up the book, surveying the cover. The grin slipped a little. Taking advice from a romantic self-help book? Juliet was never going to let him live it down.

And, with that silly attempt at fluff, the end. Reviews are always nice :3