Hey everyone! Glad you decided to click and read my humble little fic:D
Yesh, this is my second Artemis Fowl fic. The other is called "The Fowl Deception", and yesh, I wrote it before The Opal Deception came out.

This was supposed to be a one-shot. But I separated it into three chaps. You'll see why! (cackle) Hope you guys like it! Don't forget to review! I sorta usually say this after the fic, but you guys will be too mad at me.

EDIT: 23/9/06

Disclaimer: Eoin Colfer owns everything! (sob)

Note: The Eternity Code didn't happen.

17 year old Artemis Fowl sat at his desk. Staring at the white board disinterestedly, he ignored the glare given by his teacher Mr. Liu, behind his oversized glasses. Unlike the rest of his diligent classmates, he sat there fuming. He didn't want to come to this stupid extra class. It his mother's entire fault for signing him up, telling him to socialize, meanwhile threatening to destroy his computers if he didn't go.

At least his father was still like himself, making (legal) money and working. His mother seems to have taken an interest to Artemis's social life, which he intended to stop, before it got out of hand.

He wondered whether or not it really was a good idea to cure his mother. He shook his head, slightly disgusted at himself for even thinking of such a thing. An hour and a half of sitting with imbeciles wasn't so bad, he could put up with it. His mother's health was surely more important?

Deep in thought on this matter, he continued to ignore the class, which still seemed to go by painfully slow. Instead of copying down the text on pathetic fallacy,he opened his laptop and logged onto his mail inbox. A letter from 'Mike Dig' caught his attention. He clicked it.

Yo, Arty! It read. Artemis's eye twitched.

How you been? I've already finished what you asked about that certain 'thing' from the vault. Now it rests safely in you know where! I expect full payment! You promised! You know where to put the money of course.

Cheers,

Mike Dig.

Artemis closed his laptop, after safely deleting the mail by a virus he programmed himself. Even Foaly wouldn't be able to trace it. He frowned. What if Mulch forgot to use the laptop he'd given him and sent the mail by a public one? He will have to take that slight risk. Unfortunately he was still working on how to delete a mail completely, like it never happened, never existed. He sighed. This time could have been used to developing that software.

A little piece of pink notepaper sailed past onto his desk. He turned and saw two girls from his class giggle and wave to him. He opened the note.

Dear Arty His eye twitched.

Will you go out with Jen this Sunday?

He fought the urge to roll his eyes and groan. Instead he gritted his teeth. As the bell ran, a slight blush stained his cheeks. Stuffing the note to the bottom of his bag, he left. He's had at least ten of them now.

But it'd be a long time before he even gives them a second thought. The only female he had ever respected was Captain Holly Short, and she certainly earned it.

Right then, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit stepped down from her shuttle, ready to report to Commander Root. As she removed her helmet from her head and massaged her ears, Trouble Kelp walked by and bumped into her. "Oh, sorry Holly!" He apologized. She sighed. She knew it was no accident. He has been finding reasons to 'bump' into her everywhere. Even Chix Verbil was too, often complimenting her, especially on her shoulder length chestnut colored hair, where she often tied it into a ponytail.

Also, she was no longer short - that she was glad - but instead she had grown taller - half a metre taller. She now towered above other elves. It had happened when Foaly was conducting a particularly volatile experiment, and Holly just happened to be there in the wrong place at the wrong time, along with Mulch Diggums. The flatulent dwarf had been the subject of the test (no one was knew whether or not it was voluntary), and had accidentally farted. Foaly, with his sensitive nose, reeled back from the devastating smell and knocked over one of the test tube racks, where they promptly exploded upon impact with the floor. Holly, who was there just in case Mulch felt like escaping, was caught in the blast. Afterwards, when the smoke cleared, The three fairies looked at each other in astonishment. Mulch's arms had elongated by a metre, and Holly's height was changed. No body knew for sure where Foaly had changed, but the term 'Hung like a horse' took on a whole new meaning.

She entered into Root's office, trying to ignore the pungent smoke issuing from the cigar in Root's mouth. Foaly stood in the corner, swishing his tail.

"You wanted to see me sir?" She asked, trying not to inhale the smoke that drifted in lazy wisps to the ceiling.

"Yes, Capt. Short. It's about Fowl." He said, shuffling papers. Holly's heart thudded.

"Fowl? Artemis Fowl? What did he do this time?" She demanded as her face went to a soft blush. She had no idea why. Or perhaps she did, but just didn't want to acknowledge it.

"Actually, it's the opposite." Foaly cut in. "Julius and I were getting worried. Fowl has lain down since the last case, four years before. We fear that it's - too quiet, if you know what I mean. We want you to check it out. What he's been up to."

Holly nodded. It made sense. It was true; she had wondered why Fowl hadn't exploited The People more already. Something was definitely up.

"Yes sir, I'm on it sir." She said as she left.

"Oh, and Holly?" Foaly enquired.

"Yes?" She replied.

"I know it's hard for you to go back and look at that Mud-Boy again, but you know Fowl best, plus you're the only one that isn't afraid of Butler, and isn't scared easily by Fowl. The other elves said they wouldn't go near him with a ten-foot bargepole!" She grinned.

"And remember, just an interrogation. Be back as quick as you can. It's Fowl we're dealing with here." He gave her a somewhat encouraging hairy thumbs-up.

"Yes Foaly, understood." And she left at a jog.

Root looked at Foaly. "I know what you're thinking, she might just shoot Fowl on the spot, with all her vendetta and all, but -"

Foaly tapped the keyboard. "I don't think so, Julius. I'm sure you saw the change in her?"

Root sighed. "I have, pony. But I'm not sure if it's good though."

"Let's see then." Foaly said as he showed Root the camera feed from Holly's helmet.

"Right. And Pony? Don't call me Julius."

When Artemis got home that day, he dumped his bag on the kitchen table and went to the fridge for a jar of Caviar. Taking it out, he opened his bag, grabbing the books. The piece of pink paper fell on the ground. Just as he was about to pick it up, he caught a slight shimmer outside the window. Slowly he reached inside his jacket pocket and took out his sunglasses. He put them on.

There was no Butler here. He had gone to a friend's place to stock up on arsenal and Juliet to a wrestling tournament. His mother was at her tennis club. It was only him, and he could not risk it, even if it was just the sun's heat, not a fairy, just him being paranoid. But he had realized, at an early age, that sometimes paranoia could just be your best friend. And he also learned his humiliating lesson during the Arctic incident, so now he regularly goes to gyms with Butler, to train himself up.

He slowly turned, and was just about to go to a secret panel in the wall for a fairy gun, when a shrill mocking voice behind him girlishly read:

"Dear Arty, will you go out with Jen this Sunday? How sweetly disgusting. Public Enemy Number One's got himself a girlfriend. Where do you keep these love letters? In the basement with your forged Mona Lisa paintings?"

He turned back around. "Nice to meet you again, Holly. And no, I burned them." A slow smile managed to escape his control to creep up onto his face.

Holly scowled. "Don't call me Holly. It's Captain Short for you. And I think you know exactly why I'm here, Fowl." She took an apple from the fruits basket and bit into it. She placed her helmet on the table. She jumped and sat on the tabletop bench, swinging her legs.

"Please, call me Artemis." He said smoothly. Holly shot a glare that would have peeled stone. "No. Care to enlighten me? I haven't done anything illegal for The People lately. I've left them alone, what more do you want?" He took off his glasses, and opened the jar of Caviar.

"I don't believe you, Fowl. I think you're -" But she was cut off.

"Arty, are you here? I'm so silly, I drove all the way to the club, only to find that I had forgotten my racquet! And you know how I can't play without my lucky racquet!" Angeline Fowl's voice rang through the house, freezing both Holly and Artemis.

"Arty? Where are you? Do you know where my racquet is? I think I - oh!" She exclaimed as she saw Holly. Ms. Fowl blinked a few times. So did Holly.

"I-" Holly stammered.

"Mother, this is Holly, one of my classmates. Holly, this is my mother. We were taking a- study session together." Artemis said quickly, taking control of the situation in case his mother got wrong ideas. Holly quickly pushed herself off from the bench top, brushing her jumpsuit guiltily.

"Oh! Oh, right! Holly, what a nice name! Pleased to meet you, I'm Angeline Fowl, Arty's mother." She winked at Holly, whose face colored to a deep shade of red.

"Pleased to meet you too, Ms. Fowl." Holly forced out, nearly choking.

"Mother, your racquet's in your room, I believe." Said Artemis.

"Ok! Thanks Artemis, you're a great help. Have fun kids! I'll be going now. You can have the whole house to yourselves!" And with that, she gave a deliberately huge wink at Artemis, and almost skipped away, humming happily to herself. Only when she had left did Artemis and Holly relax.

"That was too close." Artemis muttered, as he pinched the bridge of his nose and massaged his temples. Maybe the wish for my mother's health worked too well, he thought grimly.

"I thought she was never going to leave!" Holly gasped, laughing. They were both beetroot red, especially after those deliberate winks.

"Anyway, um... Artemis, back to what I was saying. You'd better own up. You've been too quiet. If I know you, and I do, you should have already exploited The People more." She tried to go back to sounding stern and business like, but the look Artemis was giving her weakened her knees, and she knew that he knew he had really rattled her chains.

Artemis smirked. "What?" Holly demanded.

"You used my first name." He replied smugly.

"So?" She snapped. Inside she was kicking herself for slipping. "Tell the truth Artemis. Or maybe you need persuasion? Maybe I'll leave this note somewhere for your mother to find?" It was her turn to sound smug when his pale face was drained of the little colour it had.

"Give it back." Artemis demanded. He did not want his mother to find it. She would probably get some silly idea and put him up for blind date agencies, god forbid.

"No. I'll tell her all about just how popular her little Arty is!" She cackled. Of course, she knew she wasn't supposed to provoke him, but it was so tempting. Unfortunately, it was then that she let her guard drop.

In a flash he was on top of her, pinning her down. Artemis wrestled the pink note from her fingers.

"I'll be taking this." He said casually, as he put it into his breast pocket.

She smirked this time and flipped him down. She took it from his breast pocket. "And I'll be taking this back, Fowl."

"Back to last name basis again?" He called as she got up. "Help me up then." She narrowed her eyes, but extended a hand. Mud Boy would never be able to defeat me in hand to hand combat anyway, she thought confidently.

Instead, he pulled her down with him and flipped her over again. "I've been working out since we last met, Captain Short. Don't underestimate me." He smirked, his eyes locked on hers. Holly's heart was thudding painfully. Her cheeks colored.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "You just got lucky." Immature and childish, but she couldn't do anything else.

"Did I? Or are you just too proud to admit I've gotten stronger?" His mouth curled into arrogant-male smile, leaning even more forward.

"Let me go!" She hissed, blushing even more fiercely at being so close.

"No." Was his amused reply.

"Let me go or you'll regret it!" She turned crimson.

"Will I?" He asked, his deep blue, almost black eyes still locked on her hazel ones, never wavering.

"Yes!" She yelled.

"Then tell me, Captain Short. Do you regret this?" He questioned, leaning closer.

And kissed her. And did some more interesting things.

Then Butler walked in.

Toldja. :D

Cheers,

Earthborne