Disclaimer: Oh please, if I were Eoin Colfer, Artemis would have confessed his love to Holly by now, and Minerva would be nothing more than a minor character.

It had been a week after he kissed her on that beach.

It was quite a nice kiss, but then he stopped calling, after a day or so.

And as any fairy knows, when the male stops calling, he’s either dead, or just not that into you.

Holly sat on her bed, absentmindedly fiddling with the communication ring that Artemis had created, watching the sparkles her lamp light made on the walls, as she stared out of her window, into the smog of the Lower Elements.

Holly Short strongly resented the city. It was so… Mud-man like.

Her wireless phone vibrated on the desk where her files laid, and some of the white pages fell to the cotton carpet.

Her fingers left the ring as she crossed the room and eagerly answered it.

‘Hey Holly,’ came a whinny of greeting.

She inwardly berated herself- if Artemis called, it would be on the ring, not on her cell- it operated on a totally different frequency than that of a mud-man’s.

‘Hey Foaly, what’s up?’

‘Just wondering if you’d like to test one of my latest wing designs. Everyone else is out helping the demons adjust to their simian life-style,’ he snickered, and Holly knew how he thought that his technology would have blown the poor blood thirsty creatures away.

She looked out the window again, opening it and recoiling in disgust at the smell of smoke.

‘Holly? You there?’

She had forgotten the centaur for a second. ‘Yeah, sorry Foaly. I’d love to. I was going to go up to the surface anyway.’

--

An hour later, Holly was in the sky, breathing the fresh, clear air of Ireland.

She skimmed the water with her fingers, her hard face softening as the dolphins leapt to greet her. They were such friendly creatures.

The mansion came into view, and she said goodbye in their native tongue as she veered upwards, barrelling into the clouds.

Her eyes closed and a mischievous grin wound her way onto her face as she turned off her wings and plummeted to the sea.

She really should have worn her whole uniform and not just her helmet, but the force grasping at her skin was worth it.

Time to test these wings out.

Foaly claimed they connected to the brain by means of skin contact. Holly hadn’t understood the specifics, but she understood that she could supposedly do things automatically, without the joystick.

Her sonix sponge earpieces sealed around her eardrums as the sea sped towards her at alarming speeds, and then suddenly she was veering upwards in a spiral, looping the loop.

She let out a whoop of joy, immediately felt embarrassed, and was then glad her radio wasn’t on.

She shielded herself, and flew lazily towards the mansion, looking for the window made of dark blue and green lead light Artemis had made himself supposedly.

He had failed to mention however, that essentially all the windows were leadlight and had some blue somewhere.

She grumbled, muttered, and brought up the house map on her helmet display.

A few seconds later, she was veering towards the left side of the building, for the thirteenth window. Hopefully Butler was occupied with the twins, or reading Pride and Prejudice.

Figures. He’s on the devil’s side AND he has the thirteenth room.

She softly landed on the gargoyle that jutted magnificently from the balcony, and turned on her vibration sensor.

It was a clever little eaves-dropping device that Foaly had created a year after they had been sucked into that curst time tunnel. It operated by translating vibrations made by sources of warmth- i.e, human, animal or fairy bodies.

She hovered a bit closer to the wall, and pressed her ear to it.

She didn’t turn on her radio of course. Foaly was on a need-to-know basis, and he didn’t need to know.

Turning the dial on her helmet, she received a rush of static, a dog howling, the sound of children snoring, and then…

‘That was wonderful Artemis.’

Bingo.

Wait, who is that?!

‘Thank you Minerva. Not to boast, but I had only a single practice on Saturday.’

And thus, Holly immediately went into shock.

It had been a Saturday that he had kissed her.

Had she been practice for that horrid human girl with the blonde hair and willowy figure that she yearned for?

Suddenly Holly felt so inadequate. She was shorter, and fatter, and ugly. Her mother called it curvaceous, but Holly always felt big. And she only had auburn curls, not beautiful poker straight hair that did that flippy thing she could never manage…

A tear ran down her face, before she suddenly felt angry. She was going to punch his face in for the second time in the six years she had known him, and then demand answers.

She pulled off her helmet, and pressed the small sapphire on the ring, twisted it into the palm and placed it in the classic phone position.

If a human had seen her in the instant she had unshielded to take off her helmet, she looked all the world like a teenager on a pretend phone. But no-one had seen her- only a bird that flew off as soon as she materialized.

She received a dial tone, and could hear it from outside. Evidently the humans had neared the window- she could now hear their voices easily.

‘My apologies Minerva. My cell is vibrating, and it may be my mother. She likes to check up on me, ever since the time tunnel.’

‘Of course,’ she said sweetly.

She could just imagine them standing closely together, her hand on his arm, and his sigh of disappointment as he floated away to flick open his phone. He had somehow managed to combine the ring into the cell, and it made talking to her a lot easier… when he actually talked to her.

‘Mud Boy, we need to talk, right now. I just flew onto your porch. I’m right outside.’ Her voice was hard, but her newly made fists trembled.

There was a slight pause, and she saw the silhouette on the curtain nod, as if he was taking in information. She wasn’t surprised- and she had a suspicion that he hadn’t shown any if he was either.

‘Of course, Mother. Do you want me to have dinner for you when you arrive?’

‘Clever Artemis. I don’t want dinner, if you get my drift.’

It seemed he did.

‘Minerva, I’m terribly sorry, but my parents are having a family friend over, and would like my help. Would it be inconvenient…?’

She felt immense satisfaction, as his voice became crackly as he spoke to the girl, and she imagined with glee the look of disappointment that would cross her porcelain skin. And then;

I wish I had skin like that. My skin’s olive brown…

‘Of course not. I understand completely. My chauffer should be outside. It was wonderful to see you again,’ Holly heard her answer back faintly, and a few minutes later she saw a perfectly disgruntled sixteen year old climb into a sleek black ride and drive off.

The curtains flew open, after her hearing picked up the noise of a lock clicking, and a handsome young man with mismatching eyes and raven black hair leant against the cool glass sliding doors, before straightening himself, and placing an elegant hand on the handles.

She was surprised to see his top button undone, and his tie loose, and then immediately disgusted by the possibilities brought to mind.

He placed his cell back the pockets of his suit pants, and pulled open the doors with a magnificent flourish, and Holly noticed muscles that had never been there before.

A gust of cool wind came from the direction of the sunset, and he smiled.

Artemis never smiled much, and it’s an amazing thing to watch a vampire turn into a human.

A smile lit up on her own face, before she remembered she was meant to be angry.

She un-shielded, and drew herself to her full height.

Which, admittedly, was only to his shoulders, but her mismatched eyes looked cold and fierce.

‘Holly,’ he said softly, bending down to kiss her. He received a punch in the face, and to her immense vindictive satisfaction, he stumbled back and held his nose.

Moving it to the left and right, she heard a sickening clicking noise.

To the man’s credit, he kept his smile and civility, though it was more confused than happy.

‘May I ask why I was denied the pleasure?’ His voice was slightly muffled, but otherwise confused and sharp.

‘Firstly, why was she here, secondly, why haven’t you called?’

‘To answer the former, she was here to discuss with me a latest piece in which I had written for the violin and grand piano, which was inspired by you,’ -his face grew very soft, before hardening slightly again- ‘and to answer the latter, My parents have been.. overly protective, and I only got back my cell phone this Saturday. As you well know, I do not like talking on the phone in the presence of guests.’

And then he inhaled quietly, having said it all in one go.

Holly opened her mouth, eager to find the flaws, before she took in the worried young man in front of her.

‘So.. you weren’t…’ she motioned with her hands to get the point across.

Artemis chuckled, and shook his head.

‘So.. what did you mean by “I only had a single practice on Saturday?”’

‘Well, I wrote the piece a week earlier, and I was preoccupied with the twins. I managed to find a bit of peace after you left.’

He watched her with one cold blue eye, and one brown one.

‘Artemis…’ she started, and turned a pleasing shade of red barely visible on her russet brown skin.

‘Yes, Holly?’

‘What did.. Saturday mean to you?’

Now she was the one watching him.

‘The world. Why?’

She broke into a smile, and kissed his broken nose, and it healed as blue sparks ran down her lips and danced across his skin.

‘Why do you ask?’

‘It’s just nice to know.’

‘Thankyou, by the way... would you mind if I played the piece for you?’

His eyes were eager, but soft, and even if she didn’t want to, she couldn’t have refused.

I suppose so,’ she said gruffly, as he wrapped his pale, elegant hand around hers and drew her to an oak loveseat.

She sat down, and fiddled with her hands as he played with a tape player, and then stood up, drawing a mahogany violin from a case next to the lounge, and held it to his chin.

And then, the tape started, and the Mud Boy began to play to the sounds he had already recorded for this moment.

Author's Note: I was asked to continue this, so... anyway, this completely disregards 'The Time Paradox', which is the sixth Artemis Fowl book coming soon.

I have also been told I romanticise Artemis... I apologize, but I try to keep him in character as much as I can for someone in love. I hope I got Holly right though...

All I can say is that Trouble has given Holly a room because her house was old, and Minerva drops in regularly.. both love their respective persons, and make life difficult. Also, I am hoping this will be a nice, long, interesting fan fiction with the usual escapades thrown into the mix. I am sorry to say the only other song-themed chapter will be the ending one... I will be updating as much as possible, which will probably be every one to two weeks. Please stay tuned...

Holly was wearing loosely fitting cargo jeans and a scarlet tank top, no shoes, for anyone wondering. I see Holly with the same style of hair as Alice Cullen from the Twilight series, and I suggest looking for the Cullen family shot, which contains the actor who plays her.