Hello loves,

I do hope you all like this chapter. It was fun to write!

Holly was comfortable. That is the first thing she realized. She was warm, comfortably enclosed in soft fabrics, and there was a very warm body next to her.

She took a peek through her eyelids, attempting to gauge the time. The pale light spilling through the heavy curtains told her it was barely after dawn. Promptly deciding that she was not going to be awake if the sun wasn't, she closed her eyes and snuggled deeper into the blankets and pillows.

Taking a deep breath, she savored the lavender scent that lightly covered the pillow she was resting her head on. Under the lavender, she could detect a hint of the scent of the shampoo Artemis used.

Despite her determination to go back to sleep, she recalled that there was something nearby that she wanted to look at. The Gift Artemis had given her the night before sat where he had placed it. She quietly and slowly rolled over, grabbing the small package. She smiled, knowing that whatever was under the wrapping, it would be wonderful.

She quietly removed the blue paper, carefully extracting what marvel existed beneath the wrapping.

It was a book, she noticed immediately. She considered rolling her eyes; only Arty would present her with a book for a gift, until she saw the title. "A History of The People's Military, with Special Emphasis on Females in the Force."

Her jaw dropped. The book was written in Gnomish, words spiraling around the pages as The Book did. There was no author, but she wasn't surprised. The People rarely considered the vanity of claiming ownership of historic knowledge. The book was not particularly old, but it was not new, either. She smiled, this was a book she would enjoy reading.

She shifted her weight to look at Artemis. He was still asleep.

'Poor Arty,' she thought. 'I really should be nicer to him.' She had to stifle a giggle at that thought. There was no way she was going to temper her actions; it was just too much fun to watch him struggle.

She couldn't help it, she shook her head, thinking about the day before.

When Artemis had made that little…suggestion…yesterday in the gym, she could have given him a direct answer, but that wasn't much fun. She knew he didn't expect her to agree, and she took advantage of that little detail.

She took her time answering, looking him over.

She was well aware that her heart beat had sped up, and it had nothing to do with the workout she had just finished.

She finally met his eyes, mischievousness written all over his face. She smiled, her own eyes glittering with mirth. She then turned away from him and began to walk towards the door, making sure to walk in a way that would make Arty very nervous.

Once she had gotten to the hallway, she broke into a run, racing up the stairs.

Artemis' brain was just a fraction slower than usual and didn't realize what Holly was up to until she had a good head-start on him.

By the time he caught up with her, she had locked herself in his bathroom, shower going. He was fairly sure he could hear her laughing- maniacally at that.

On the other side of the door, the little elf certainly was having a good laugh at his expense. Without saying a single word, she had gotten his hopes up and crushed them, all in less than two minutes. And now he was stuck waiting to take a shower until she got finished.

Ten minutes later, she walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed, toweling her hair dry. She walked over to the table where one of her most recent gifts sat, the lotion with Dead Sea nutrients. She couldn't wait to use it on her ears. She purposely avoided Artemis' gaze until she had put the lotion on her ears, replaced the cap and put it back on the table.

He was sitting at the desk in his bedroom, his eyes never leaving her. Someone who didn't know him well would say that his face was passive. Holly, however, read his features and laughed aloud. His typically graceful features read like he had just sucked on a lemon.

When he heard her laughter, he slowly closed his eyes and raised his face an inch or so, as if looking to the heavens to ask for patience. This only made Holly laugh more.

He leveled his gaze at her, which did nothing to stop her giggles.

"That was not very nice, Holly," he said evenly.

She finally gave up trying to control herself and jumped up to the bed so she didn't fall over. She grabbed a pillow and flopped on her back, still laughing.

Artemis stoically got to his feet, walking over to the edge of the bed. Moving faster than Holly honestly thought him capable, he grabbed the pillow out from under her head and smacked her on the face with it. Shocked into silence, she bolted up, shedding the pillow. Instead of being upset, she started laughing again when she saw the bathroom door close as Artemis went to take his own shower.

'Well lookie there,' she thought, 'someone actually does a sense of humor. That's good to know.'

Shaking her head at Artemis' ridiculousness, and still slightly in awe that he had the ability to even be ridiculous, she headed to the kitchen. She was starving!

Considering that the day had been a bit emotionally charged, Artemis and Holly silently agreed that they would relax for the afternoon. At first, they went to help the twins with various projects.

Myles needed Artemis' assistance with the details of one of his plant cross-breeding attempts. From what Holly could gather, he wanted to make the plant more resistant to insects without using chemicals, so he was taking DNA from an array of other sources, including the insects themselves. The results had been…varied, to say the least. More often than not, Myles had to scrap a weeks' worth of work because the whole thing broke down on a molecular level. He wanted to see if Artemis had any ideas on stabilizing the original structure of cells before adding anything to the mix. He hoped that strengthening the design of the molecular sequence would help keep some of the projects from breaking down so quickly so he could have more time to analyze the breakdown process.

Becket had his own project. He was testing various techniques of adding texture to oil and acrylic paints, with emphasis on building layers of paint that dry with the speed of a basic, thinner layer. Holly got to act as assistant and spent at least an hour poking and prodding piles of paint to see if they had dried, and to what extent.

Since the twins' workroom was just one big room with tables on either side, Artemis and Holly were able to watch one another, as well as both of the smaller boys.

At one point, with over a dozen shades and textures of paint covering her fingers, hands and wrists, Holly wandered over to Artemis and Myles. She left Becket leaned over the pages where he was recording his findings, muttering to himself and shaking his head.

The brothers noticed her approaching, and smiled at her. Holly was somewhere between fascinated and disgusted by the mass of plant matter smudged over discs. The microscope being used was nearly bigger than Holly herself. When she leaned in to get a closer look at the machine, she noticed tail-tale signs of tampering with the original chassis. She wondered who had done the changes, and if there was Fairy technology in there.

Before she could ask, Artemis took a step back from the scope. His hands were empty, and a smile suddenly flitted across her face. He had only a second to notice the look on her face before she suddenly jumped up and poked him in the face.

Not only was this surprising, no one likes being assaulted by a pointer finger, but it was also annoying to Artemis because, of course, Holly still had paint on her hands. Now Artemis had a dark splotch of paint on his cheek, and both of his brothers had taken notice.

The air was still for a moment, then Holly and the twins broke out in raucous laughter. Artemis audibly "huffed" and narrowed his eyes. In one fluid movement, he reached down to where Holly's paint-smeared hands were hovering, shaking, in front of her face and smashed one right into her cheek.

At this point, everyone broke down and laughed. Holly made the mistake of trying to stifle her laughs with her hands, making an even bigger mess, and making everyone laugh even more.

On that light note, Artemis and Holly left the boys to their work and cleaned up.

They spent the next few hours watching movies and talking about Foaly, Mulch, Trouble and everyone else they knew below ground. After a late dinner, Holly realized that she was exhausted. The events of the day had worn her out. She expected it was the emotional turmoil, since she hadn't done very much physical work. That was okay with her, though.

When she finally climbed into Artemis' bed, she had gathered the guts to confront him about his little request earlier in the day.

"So what would you have done if I'd said "yes" earlier?" she asked. He was sitting at his desk, working. Just because Holly was tired didn't mean he could laze about when he had so much to do.

"When would that be, Holly?" he replied, straight faced. She had to give him credit for that. He hadn't even flinched.

"What would you have done if I'd said yes to your little suggestion earlier, the one about a shower?"

He looked up, meeting her eyes.

"You know that I did not expect you to even consider the idea," Artemis said, the hint of a smile on his lips.

"Well, still!" Holly objected. "What would you have done if I had gone ahead with the idea?"

Artemis' face broke into a full smile.

"Holly, we have never actually seen one another completely unclothed. The closest we have ever come to such a situation was many years ago when we were dealing with Hybras. If you suddenly decided that you wanted to jump into a shower with me, I would question your frame of mind. I would also have not joined you. The first time I touch you unclothed, I would prefer it not be because we needed to wash off the sweat from a workout. I would much rather touch you because I want to, not because I am cleaning you." He took a breath. "I am not saying that the idea is unappealing in any way, but when I finally explore your physical body to its fullest, I would like to have the choice to do so in a situation where we have no particular need to accomplish, such as getting clean."

Holly grinned. She had suspected such a reason from him, but hearing it from his mouth was relieving. She agreed. She didn't want any kind of outside requirement surrounding the experience she was (if she was honest with herself) so looking forward to.

Without saying anything, she nodded to him and turned, lying down in the cozy bed.

A few moments later, when she was almost asleep, Artemis walked up to Holly while she was in bed. He gently set a small something next to her on the blanket. Her eyes fluttered, curious as to what he had placed there, knowing it was another Gift.

Instead of allowing her to wake up and explore the present at that moment, Artemis leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

"You can look at it in the morning. For now, sleep, my love. We will deal with tomorrow when it comes."

How cute?! :D

Same rules as before, 10 comments/reviews/PMs. I had fun reading everyone's input!

We are getting to the end. Can you believe that it has been 27 chapters so far? That seems so crazy to me.

I love you all!

Love, Peace and Dolphins,

BlueQueenBee!