Kiss Me, I'm Irish {An Artemis Fowl Fan Fiction}

Chapter 35: Daily Pessimism

Hello readers! :) It's been a while, so I thought I would write a quick chapter before the Thanksgiving holiday. This chapter... was written on a whim mostly. Thinking this chapter makes it possible for me to add another chapter or so to the story for you all before the sequel. :P Hope you all enjoy this!

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Artemis sat in the Operations Booth with Foaly. The boy was awaiting Butler's arrival to escort him home. Artemis had spent the day assisting the centaur on one of his newest projects. Mostly, Artemis had been bored with his time there; he had only wanted to keep his mind busy. He had been preparing for starting university in a few weeks, and admittedly he was not quite ready to go yet. It was late August, and his time was ticking down. Not to mention that Artemis found himself missing Diana more than he anticipated. It was only going to get worse too; the boy wouldn't be seeing her again until Christmas time.

"It was nice having your help tonight, Artemis," Foaly broke the boy's pessimistic thoughts. "I would've been here all night trying to fix this if you hadn't been here. I'll have to have Caballine make you some cookies or something."

"No problem," Artemis muttered, staring at his feet. He honestly didn't care about cookies right now, or much of anything else.

Foaly frowned slightly. This was not the typical arrogant Artemis he was used to. Something was not right with the Irish boy, and Foaly was going to find out what it was. "You alright Artemis?" he inquired, picking up a stack of paper.

Artemis looked up from the floor and met his friend's inquisitive gaze. "I'm fine," he answered, although his voice proved he wasn't so sure.

Foaly didn't buy his answer either. "Are you sure? You don't sound like yourself. Heck, you didn't even ask if I was going to give you credit on your contributions to the project."

"I'm fine, Foaly," Artemis insisted, almost in a hiss.

"Damn it, Artemis! You can quit lying to me anytime now," Foaly snapped, dropping the stack of papers he had been shuffling. "I know something is bugging you, whether you want to admit it or not."

Artemis bit his tongue for a moment, debating silently how to answer his friend. "You're a genius, right?" he asked. When Foaly nodded, he added, "Figure it out."

Foaly sighed, somewhat angrily. "D'Arvit... why are you so difficult?"

Artemis had plenty of reasons for that. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could counter Foaly, Holly strode into the room, plopping herself down in one of the spinning chairs. She glanced between the two males, and smirked.

"Well, well. What did I stumble into here?" she asked, resting her chin on her fist.

Foaly snorted. "Your little buddy here is being a brooding fool right now and won't tell me what is wrong with him."

Holly laughed at Foaly, something Artemis was rather intrigued with. "I know exactly what's wrong with him, and I haven't spoken to him yet," she retorted. "The boy is going through a rough time with the transition to the university, plus he's really missing Diana."

Holly was right, just as Artemis suspected she would be. He sighed, resting his head against the wall behind him. "However did you guess?" he asked quietly.

"Oh I was young and in love once," Holly briefly explained. "Right around the time I started the academy too. So... you know life was hectic on many fronts. Much like you, I let it get me down- all the changes, being away from him for so long. It killed me. But I shook it off and kept going. You're a strong boy, Artemis. You can get through this."