In the beginning, it was awkward. For all the months he'd spent coming to terms with his crush on his little brother (hey, don't look at him like that, you don't understand), Travis never thought that he'd act upon it, let alone that it would be like "falling in to place" or anything else that an Aphrodite kid might say. He more thought that it would be something like bitter and regretful and, although Travis was confident nothing could ever drive between them, it might be a difficult bumb to ride over. In short words, he freaked.

So when Connor called him out on watching him clean himself as they were alone in the shower block, and they ended up necking, naked and leaning against the cold tiles, Travis reacted as he expected himself to. He liked it, of course, it totally got him going, but at the back of his mind - just behind the feel of Connor's tongue in his mouth and hands on his body - all he could think was this is incest you freak, never mind that he's pretty much a kid, you sickcreeppervertpedoweirdo.

The Stoll brothers jacked eachother off while the water continued to run. Travis scolded himself for every second he kept his hand jerking his brothers cock, but he did keep doing. Connor ultimately came over his forearm and though the water washed it away, Travis could still feel it like a burn. When this made him come even harder himself, he felt like vomitting.

Back in the cabin, Travis lay on his back, wide awake staring at the ceiling of the cabin. His mind was racing and he couldn't have fallen asleep if Clovis, or even his dad Hypnos, put a drowzy spell on him.

He had just given his little brother a hand job. Like, really, who does that except sick creeps? Oh god, he was a sick creep. A pervert. A freak. He'd totally taken full advantage of his kid brother.

Despite the situation, it was still Connor who was the only person Travis wanted to speak to right now. He leaned over the side of his bunk and ducked his head into the space below, Connor's bunk. He saw his brother's eyes brighten in the moonlit cabin as Connor smirked and whispered, "I was beginning to think you'd never give in." quickly. Travis huffed out the breath he didn't realise he was holding, and sat back as Connor slunk out of his bed and climbed up onto the top bunk, where he sat in his big brother's lap. Not in a sexual way, just cross legged in the V of Travis' splayed thighs.

"You're freaking out," his brother tells him, matter-of-factly, like it's exactly how he'd expected... did he plan tonight, or something?

"I-" Travis swallowed spit and frowned, "you're not." he pointed out.

"No, I'm not. I mean... let's be honest Trav, it was gonna happen." Travis didn't dwell on what that was supposed to mean.

"Potentially jacking my brother off and actually jacking my brother off are different!" By that point Travis was shout-whispering and that wasn't really what he wanted to say. He was starting to become distressed and he could feel tears prickling in his eyes - what the hell was wrong with him? He looked quickly around the room to make sure all the other Hermes campers were still sleeping - they seemed to be.

Connor looked hurt by his words, though. He glanced down at the thin summer blanket and scratched the back of his neck and head, mumbling, "well, I had fun, did you not have fun?"

Travis' protective must-make-Connor-happy mode kicked in and he grasped Connor's shoulders with his hands, shaking his head and whispering quickly "Hey hey hey, no, don't get upset Baby Boy, I enjoyed it, of course I did - I - that's the problem, isn't it?"

This, for reasons beyond Travis, got a short laugh out of Connor. He looked up through still damp hair and opend his mouth to say something before laughing again when he sees Travis' face.

"Trav, are you crying?" he asked like it was the funniest thing to happen all day. Like he wasn't sitting between the legs of a sick creep pervert.

"No. Dude, no." Travis shot defensively. His mouth felt dry and cottonny despite his wet eyes.

"You don't get it do you? You're such an idiot." Connor was finding this way too amusing.

"Am not! And I'm not crying." One tear does not count. Neither does two. Shut up, Connor.

"Dude." Stupid Connor acting like he knows everything. He was almost crying a minute ago too!

"Dude!"

"I don't understand why you're crying, Trav, pretty much all we do around here is for the purpose of cheap thrills, and now you're crying because - oh no, what cruel fate - you recieved a handjob."

Travis paused for a second to swallow the lump in his throat, "But... you're my little brother. I totally took advantage of you." He hung his head, then frowned and looked back up. "This is kind of serious."

"Look, I don't know you noticed," Connor sat up on his knees and turned around to sit back down next to his brother before wrestling himself under the blanket, "but I came on to you. And then came on you. We've obviously both wanted it for months even if you were too dumb to realise, and now we have it, so stop freaking and go to sleep, okay?" Had he really? Connor had wanted this for months, too? Travis found himself smiling.

They'd shared beds before plenty of times, the same way they shower together and it's never been weird. Hell, before Camp Half Blood, when Connor was little, Travis used to be the one washing him. They used to only have eachother and now although they have other half-brothers and sisters at camp, it's still only eachother that they really need. The Hermes cabin were never really surprised anymore to find in the mornings that Connor and Travis had migrated to the same bed overnight.

But now, as Travis settled down in his bunk, pressed against Connor, there was a kind of soft energy bubbling between them. They had always brought eachother familiarity and comfort but now there was something else - a radiating love that came from one boy's body and went to the other boy's heart, both ways. Travis wrapped his arm around Connor's back and pulled him flush to his chest, kissing him once on the mouth like a test, nervous. When Connor grinned and opens his mouth, letting in Travis' tongue, he guessed he passed. All energy wasted on freaking out seemingly for nothing, Travis quickly got sleepy. They eventually drifted off tangled together as had happened countless times before.

Okay, so it wasn't that awkward in the beginning. Maybe Travis was just being an idiot, like Connor said. Maybe Travis was right and they should have reacted as bad as he did. It was doubly illegal, besides, between their ages and the incest, but if Connor was okay with it, and he could convince Travis he wasn't a freak (or at least that if he was a freak, that it was okay), then Travis was okay with it too. Travis always knew nothing could come between them and, if anything, the fact that the Stoll brothers were really acquainted with eachothers bodies and sexual preferences just strengthened their relationship. They really were all the other brother needed.