A/N: Part one of my "Sixty years" series. Dedicated to my family. I'll miss you.

Disclaimer: My name's not Eoin Colfer, so I apparently don't own Artemis Fowl.

Sixty years without him

It had been sixty years. Sixty years of loneliness. Sixty years of unrequited love. Sixty years of hate for a mud woman. Sixty years of longing for him.
Sixty years weren't much. She had been ninety when it happened, still young for the People's standards. Now she was 150 years old. And she would live on for much longer. The passing years didn't really affect elves. Unlike humans who had a rather short life, Holly Short would see centuries pass by. But sixty years were still… a lot to bear.
If you had known happiness like she had, if you knew you could have had it, sixty years of loneliness were not the least bit unimportant. Yes, she had once truly known what she'd given up, she'd been happy once. Then she had decided their species shouldn't mix too much. He was a mud man after all, for Frond's sake! Holly herself was an elf. They had been friends although she never would've admitted it. Time had passed by and Holly'd found herself more and more attracted by the mudboy genius who had already been a mudman genius by then. If he knew or not, he offered an irresistible kind of love. Finally Holly had grown conscious of her changed feelings towards him. As a result, in spite of the pain it caused, she had left immediately. She'd never seen him since then.

And here he was, dancing with his mudwoman. Minerva. Holly spit the name out. Two geniuses just didn't mix, had nobody told them? Of course he would correct her, he'd say the plural of genius was genii. The elf smiled sadly. She still knew him a lot better than most people. And she missed him.

But down there, in the brightly illuminated ballroom of Fowl Manor, he seemed content, almost happy. His marriage had been arranged, she knew, but he seemed to be quite fond of her. Artemis and Minerva had married three months after Holly had run away. They had been friends since the demon incident. Now, however, that wasn't friendship any more, it was more likely… it resembled love. The way he looked at her, the way she looked at him, the way they were smiling at each other during the whole course of the evening, it was unmistakable.

Holly gritted her teeth in frustration. Yeah, it was true, she wanted him to be happy. Why for Frond's sake did he have to choose just this mudwoman? He knew she hated her. The accusation probably was unfair because it had been their parents that had chosen her for him. Although the female elf wanted Artemis to be happy with all her heart, she still didn't want him to be with her. But he was happy. Moreover, if she wanted to destroy his life, she wouldn't be able to.

Sitting on the roof top, she watched them until the light faded and the shadows became darker by the minute. Everyone in the ballroom was closely observed. For example, there was Juliet Butler, beside a handsome man and three already grown-up children. There were the twins, dancing with their fairly similar looking girlfriends. There was Minerva's little prat of a brother, Beau Paradizo, smiling fondly at a small woman next to him. There were people Holly had spent many adventures with, people she loved, -in Beau's case- people she despised. Nevertheless, she couldn't help noticing they were all old unlike her relative youth. In that moment, she regretted belonging to the People. As she would presumably outlive them for centuries, she would soon have to face the deaths of many beloved people.
Besides, many were already dead. Artemis Fowl Senior and Angeline, for instance. Butler.
Almost crying at the thoughts she was having, she continued sitting on the roof and looking at the display of happiness below her. Holly watched as the assembled people slowly departed until there were only Artemis and Minerva left. Long after the music had stopped playing, they still danced on and on, eyes never leaving the other. And the silent visitor outside caught a glimpse of what the 

couple must have been when they were still young and beautiful. Apparently completely forgetting everything but themselves, they turned in a waltz for hours. Once, they must have been greatly in love, and even though old, they still were. It was a happy and a sad image at the same time. In spite of their love and friendship, they were old. The end of their time together was approaching. They knew, but they didn't care for all that mattered was this happy moment.

The elf Holly Short sighed. She was still young. But he was old, they were old. She knew that, soon, she would be mourning for Artemis. But down there he was, finally happy.
Yes, it had been better this way.

A/N: Please review! (And I promise I'll post the second part of the series soon.)