Disclaimer: I don’t own Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer does.

I didn’t know what to categorize this. I stink at writing romance, and I don’t really like to write it, either, but the ending is a bit romantic. 

Artemis stepped out of the Bentley and started to walk towards a specific place. He didn’t have to tell Butler to wait for him. Butler knew what Artemis was going to do, not that his principle had told him.

 

Artemis’s steps alternated, along with his feelings, surety that his plan would work, and surety that it would not. Yet he was filled with determination. He would try.

 

Artemis arrived, lost in thought. This was where it all started. He crouched among the leaves looking for something. He found it, straightened up, and crossed the clearing. He didn’t know that someone was watching. Someone who was waiting to see if Artemis would do what he was doing.

—-

Holly alighted on a tree branch. It was the first full moon since they returned from the past, and Holly felt sure that if Artemis were to try to replenish his stolen magic, it would be tonight. And there was no question that it would be here, the place he had kidnapped her so long ago. Almost six years ago it had been. How much they both had changed since then.

 

Holly saw Artemis approach and crouch down beneath the spreading branches of the oak (she knew it was him, who else could it be, a human attempting a ritual?), and thought that if it had been any other human trying to do a Ritual, she would have declared it impossible at once. But this was Artemis Fowl II. The impossible was a daily occurrence for him.

Even so, he certainly was trying to defy the odds. But Artemis defied odds every day, so he stood a good chance of success.

As she started to watch Artemis, he turned and looked at the very limb she was sitting on. Ah, well, so her watch wasn’t a secret, then.

—-

Artemis once again crouched on the ground, thinking that his twelve year old self would never have done something that left him in danger of getting his suit dirty. He had changed, no doubt about it. And Holly had helped him to change. Artemis felt Holly’s eyes on him, turned, spotted her, and turned back. He prepared a hole, gathered up his courage, and stuck the acorn inside the hole. The force of sparks nearly knocked him out; it certainly knocked him over.

 

Holly saw it, and smiled. She had had a felling that Artemis would succeed, and she had been right. He was even more predictable at almost 15 (technically 18, of course) then he had been at 13, in the Spiro Needle.

 

Artemis carefully got up. He made a small scrape on his arm, and sparks immediately encircled it. He didn’t even have to concentrate as he had with his stolen magic.  He knew he had been defying the odds, but he always defied the odds. It was his personality.

 

He crossed the clearing and stood under the branch where Holly sat. “I know you’re there, Holly,” he said, “I did it. I have magic.”

 

Holly jumped down, activated her wings to hover at Artemis’s eye level, and unshielded. “Yes, you did do it, Mud Boy. You’re the first human to do a lot of things.” 

 

“Once again, I defy the odds,” mused Artemis, almost to himself, “though I defy the odds so often now, it might not even count as defying the odds. If I were to truly defy the odds now, I would have to fail. Which I have no intention of doing.”

 

Holly smiled, “Does it ever occur to you do be modest?” joked Holly.

“No. It never does.” With that, Holly cut the power from her wings and alighted on the ground.

 

they hugged, as best friends would, and in the hug they expressed there feelings from all their adventures, from hatred to rivalry to friendship. There was a bit of love in there, too. But it was still in the developing stage.

Then Holly stood up on the tips of her toes to reach up to Artemis’s new height, and kissed Artemis lightly on the cheek. She settled back down on the ground, blushing. How would Artemis react? she wondered. 

Holly thought Artemis loved her, but she wasn’t entirely sure. She had worried for nothing; Artemis loved her. The two exchanged glances, Artemis blushing.

They both knew that they would some day love each other. One day they would most likely defy the odds, an elf and a human, and marry, something that only one fairy and human couple had done since the fairies were driven below-ground. Someday. But not today.  Today they were best friends.

Some other stories by EvilOpal:

• If We Were a Movie
• Happy New Year! Here's a Present!
• There Were Such Things As Monsters
• Memory
• The Second Midnight (Challenge Entry)