Artist and the Hunter 43

         Victoria was not all that surprised when she didn't see Artemis for the next couple days.
          "Of course he would avoid you," she muttered to herself, mixing pigments rather violently on her palette. "If he saw you, you might deign to expect him to act on his promises. Artemis Fowl: very good at making grand speeches, not so good at commitment." Then she'd remember it was she who rejected him, and would panic for the next half hour, wondering if he was avoiding her because he thought she wanted him to.
           Then again, she thought, when has that ever deterred him?
By the end of the day she would be thoroughly irritated with him, but when she went back to her room she'd find a bouquet of peach blossoms or a box of chocolates or a set of expensive brushes on the floor next to her door. Though the gifts were cliche, they always bought her forgiveness.
           Victoria was curious, thought, about where her best friend had been disappearing to lately. She'd see her at meals and around midnight when they both stumbled into bed, but other than that, Charlie was totally AWOL.
            "Well, you always say you work better alone," she said one night when Victoria asked about her absence. "I've actually been bowling with Butler. Did you know he averages two-twenty? That's almost as good as me!"
             Victoria eyed her suspiciously from her side of the bed, the comforter tucked up to her chin in a cocoon of warmth. The whole blanket moved when she shrugged. "I suppose I'm not the greatest company when I'm painting. But I miss you, Charlie."
             The older woman bit her lower lip, as if convicted about something, then tackle-hugged her. Both girls squealed, and the redhead pushed her off when she started to give her a noogie.
             When they had settled down, Charlie said, "Fine, I'll visit more often." Her grin curled mischievously. "I'll make sure Artemis visits you more often, too."
             Victoria rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop the pleased smile forming on her face. It wasn't till Charlie had turned around that she wondered how her friend had gotten on such friendly terms with Artemis in the first place.

            The next morning, Charlie got up before Victoria and tip-toed around the room to get ready in time to meet Artemis in his lab at 8 am.
            Artemis turned when he heard the pneumatic hiss of the door to his basement lab open, and pulled his pale blue gloves up to his elbows.
           "Look, Holly, our guest of honor finally makes an appearance."
           "I'm only five minutes late, Arty," Charlie growled, downing half the mug of coffee she held in one gulp. "Is he always like this? I thought it'd wear off by now."
            "Ridiculously dramatic, isn't he?" Holly rolled her eyes, holding a mug of sim coffee bigger than Charlie's. "And no, this is as good as he gets." The elf captain sat on the back of the lab's white, clinical couch near the experiment table. The table had a frosted glass top with the LED lights running along the interior to light up the petri dishes, sealed containers of chemicals, rows of viles in their stands, and microscope organized on it from underneath.
            "Victoria asked me where I'd been last night," Charlie said, setting down her empty mug on the "safe desk" specifically designated for non-scientific equipment. Artemis glanced over at her, trying to look uninterested as he placed safety goggles over his eyes.
            "She did, did she?" he said nonchalantly, and when she collapsed onto the couch without offering any more information, he sighed and prompted, "what did she say?"
            "She said she missed me." She frowned at her entwined fingers. "She said she missed me and I lied to her face. It was an ingenious lie, actually, she didn't doubt me for-- for a second." She squeezed her brown eyes shut and hit the couch cushions with open palms in frustration. "Is it always going to be this hard? Am I always going to have to lie to her about this?" Her voice lowered a few decibels as she said, "Am I a horrible friend for lying to her?"
            Artemis, for once, could offer no explanation. He'd gone through the same internal dilemma once he had grown a conscience, but now lying had once again become second nature to him when it came to the well-being of the People.
             He, too, had made a promise to Victoria to be honest, and then almost immediately dashed that oath to pieces. When-- no, if-- she ever found out about this, it could ruin them, but--
             "You are doing what is right." Holly said sternly, her gaze flitting between the two downcast humans. "I learned long ago not to judge people based on the mistakes they make, mostly because I kept asking you, Artemis, to make them." She stared into her cup, tilting it in a circular motion to swirl the liquid inside. "To lie to your friends, to your family. Ten years ago I would have thought it despicable, but it isn't. It's heroic. Sacrificial, even. And if your loved ones love you, they'll respect that."
            "Maybe," Charlie conceded. "But they'll still be mad."
            Artemis tested his first antidote on Charlie's brain fluid, and it worked surprisingly well.
            "This prototype is not to the stage of cancer obliteration, but it does shrink the cancer cells, and completely exterminates the fairy flu," Artemis declared, leaning back from the microscope and delicately placing the pivotal slide in its glass case. "Just a few adjustments and additional tests to make sure the compound is stable, and it'll be ready for a fairy test subject."
            Holly felt like hugging the brilliant Mud Boy, but squeezed his shoulder instead. "You've done great work, here, Artemis."
           "Yes," he said, falling back in a black swivel chair. Charlie was passed on the couch from the last cranial tap. "I would suggest waiting a week or so to see if the sample deteriorates or some other complication, but I know how much this means to you. Time, as ever, is of the essence. I'll wait a couple of days, while doing some separate tests on the other samples I've just accrued. Perhaps in that time I can 'whip up' a more conclusive antidote, to borrow the colloquialism."
           "You always get talkative when you're tired," Holly smirked, taking a seat on a file cabinet. "We've been down here for hours. I think we could all use a break--"
           Artemis was out of the chair and shedding his lab coat in an instant. "You are completely correct, I'll be back in half an hour."
           "I met for all of us, Artemis!" she called, sending an agitated glance to the sleeping girl on the couch. "I can't go anywhere with her like this! Artemis!"

           He finally found her sketching in the library, huddled up in the love seat and staring at a still-life arrangement on the coffee table.
           "It's about time you got here," Victoria said without turning around. Either his entrances were getting clumsy, or her ears more accustomed. "I talked with Butler on the stairs, and he said you weren't going bowling today, but I couldn't find you or Artemis any--" she looked over her shoulder and inhaled sharply. "Oh. Hello."
           "Are those the peach blossoms I sent you?" He gestured with a jerk of his chin to the floral arrangement she was sketching. She frown defiantly and he grinned, exposing his gleaming incisors.
           "No, as a matter of fact," she said, closing her sketchpad and tucking her pencil behind her ear. "I get peach blossoms from all my numerous rich, handsome suitors." She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of admitting such an obvious fact, let alone tell him she was drawing them because she was so touched by the romantic gesture. To her bafflement, he grinned wider.
           "You think me handsome?"
           Victoria blinked, then sighed in defeat and smiled, close-lipped, up at him. "Obviously."
           Artemis blinked his mind scrambling for a equally flattering reciprocal compliment that wouldn't make him look like an idiot.
          "Do you have time to sit down?" she saved him with a distraction, though he sensed the duality in her question. He crossed in front of her as she scooted over to make room for him on the small couch.
          "My apologies for being so-- absent," he said, taking one of her hands suppliantly in his. "I cannot tell you what I've been up to, but I assure you it's of-- upmost importance."
          Victoria tilted her head back, her gaze skimming up the stacks of books to the vaulted, exposed beam ceiling.
           "Well, that's a relief," she said, and when Artemis looked up at her her eyes were crescent moons. "I'm used to you keeping secrets, Artemis," she said, squeezing his hand. "You can tell me about it if you're ready-- and allowed, I guess. Or even if you're not allowed." She smiled so that her teeth showed, and he mirrored her smile, her words setting his heavy heart at ease.
          "I don't know when that will be," he admitted, studying their intertwined fingers.
          "That's OK," she shrugged. "I have Skype, and there's always the telephone."
          And the heaviness was back.
          Artemis thought about telling her she had to stay. He'd devised multiple plans: commissioning her to do many more paintings, getting a famous Dublin painter to mentor her, even paying for her tuition, to keep her from returning to America. But when he opened his mouth to propose them, he realized he wanted her to stay for him, and no other reason.
          "Artemis?" Victoria asked, watching his brow furrowed and lips thin as he thought over these schemes. His face smoothed at the sound of her low voice, and their gazes locked.
          "I love you, Victoria," he decided to say, and though the unabashedness in his eyes made her blush, she could not look away.
          "Artemis, I--" she murmured as their faces grew nearer, "--I-- I, uh--"
          Suddenly, Artemis's pocket buzzed, and the moment lost. Victoria instantly withdrew, her cheeks crimson, and Artemis cursed in Gnommish under his breath. He pulled out his vibrating cell phone. It was Foaly's alias number, Dr. Rivers. Something was up.
          "My apologies," he said, standing. "I have to get back to work."
          "Wait!" Victoria stood as well and grabbed his blue sleeve, using it to pull him toward her and kissing him firmly on the cheek, then hopped away in case he attacked her. "Um, good luck!"
          Artemis nodded, mute, then turned and rushed out the door as the temperature rose in his cheeks. Though he struggled to keep his composure, he couldn't suppress a giddy grin as he thought,
          I am definitely taking breaks more often.