Ok! So, I just randomly got this Tratie idea, and yeah...I am beginning to love trite more and more though!
Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan, therefore, I don't own PJO.
She should be yelling half heartedly at Connor Stoll right now for another prank he did.
She should be laughing with her half siblings.
She should be growing her lovely petunias right about now.
She should be taking a long walk on the beach.
She should be anywhere but here.
Katie stands in the dark corner of the amphitheater, refusing to let her tears fall.
"Unwanted tears." she thinks bitterly. It will do no good to cry.
But she doesn't even care. She's not supposed to.
Katie steps a little closer to the podium, where Percy is giving a speech about his friend.
She looks to the right, where several are gripping white tissues as if it were their lifeline.
All listen with trembling lips, shaking hands, and pale faces.
But one boy stands out to her in particular.
He looks, if possible, worse than anyone else in the room.
Because not only has he lost a friend, he lost a part of his life.
"They were always a pair." Katie thought. She managed a weak smile.
It was true. Never had Katie seen one without the other.
Connor then walked up to speak. His hands gripped the podium stand tightly as he spoke.
His copper hair blew wildly in the wind. His blue eyes shone with tears.
Like Katie.
He looked so unique, so original, that you'd think you couldn't find anyone else like him.
"He was a great guy." He started.
Katie bit her tongue to refrain from sobbing.
Why did she want to cry?
She was Katie Gardner. She hadn't lost someone important, like Clarisse had in the war.
"Relax." Katie tells herself.
It's not like she was Annabeth.
So why is she shaking as if she were Annabeth, shaking like she lost Percy?
She wasn't Jason, experiencing the near death of Reyna or Piper.
She wasn't like Will, or Lee, or Pollux, or even Luke.
She didn't have anything to lose.
So why?
"He didn't ever think he would-" Connor stopped abruptly, and fell to his knees.
Many people in the theatre were too shocked to do a thing, while Connor cried.
Never had anyone seen Connor so sad and serious. So filled with anger and remorse.
So heartbroken.
Katie stepped closer to the stage.
It was probably her fault. If she hadn't gotten so mad for nothing, he would be here.
Silently, she hoped this would be like three years ago, at Percy's "funeral."
That in the middle of Connor's speech, he would burst open the door and smile.
Connor would run from the stage and envelop the boy in a bone crushing hug.
One can only hope.
But in the shroud was his body, his lifeless, bloody body.
And it was all Katie's fault.
She stepped even closer to the stage, near one of the chairs.
Her hands shook as she placed one of them on Connor's shoulder.
She reassured him that he was going to a better place.
"Now go up there, and make him proud." she says.
Connor manages a weak smile and walked back up to the podium.
"There was only one thing he ever asked of me." he said.
Connor laughed softly. "Like, literally. He never asked me for anything."
He said the night before,
"Whatever happens to me, in one year, or even fifty seven, tell her that I loved her.
That I never dated anyone because I didn't like anyone else.
That she was my first and only love. That, even if I don't get together with her, I hope she feels the same way."
Connor looked straight at Katie.
She was confused, still focused on blinking away tears.
"Katie Gardner, he loved you." Connor said.
Katie, along with everyone else in the audience, gasped.
She closed her eyes.
"If only I had known earlier." she thought.
Last night
"Why?" Katie yelled at the boy.
He smirked and put on his signature grin.
"What Katie?" he teasingly.
Katie, however, was not so pleased.
"You dragged him into that quest, and you didn't once think he might die?" she screamed.
The smirk dropped from his face.
"I knew that, Katie." he said softly.
"But it was the Fates. I did everything I could, and-"
Katie slapped him across the face.
"My brother died because you were too slow." she said.
"Nothing you ever say or do will ever counterbalance that."
The boy looked over her shoulder and widened his eyes.
He pushed Katie into the brambles.
Katie's eyes flashed with anger.
"He dares push me!" she whispered.
She felt pain rush up her arm.
Great. He pushed her into some bushes and now she has a sprained wrist.
"He is dead." she said fiercely.
Katie heard a scream. But not any scream, his scream.
She ran over to a boy laying down on the floor, a pool of blood surrounding him.
She saw a bloody knife and monster dust.
But nothing could ever compare to the gash on the boy's stomach. It was turning green, and no matter how much she yelled, she knew no one could hear her.
They were in the secluded part of the forest, and the dryads were asleep by now, of no use to her.
He was there. They were there, in that part of the woods.
There in the exact spot where Luke almost killed Percy many nights ago.
Katie then realized that there was a manticore behind her.
The boy had saved her life.
That had definitely counterbalanced it.
But it was too late for sorry.
He grabbed her hand tightly and whispered something incoherent.
His grip slackened.
Katie stepped closer to the stage, where they were burning the shroud.
It was silver, with a caduceus in the middle, and the words,
"He will forever stay in our hearts."
He had died in what the half bloods now call, "The acre of the fallen saviour."
A bit dramatic, but a worthy title.
Katie Gardner had declared Travis Stoll a dead man that night.
And it looks like she finally got her wish.
The tear she's been holding back for so long glided down her cheek and fell gently onto her lap.
The words she's been dreading for so long finally rolled out of her mouth.
"He's dead."
How did you like it? I know, I hate emotional funerals like this, but I think this would be the best way write my first Tratie fic, after so much of that happy ending percabeth. I will write a lot more percabeth and Tratie one shots from now on.
Love,
Seaofwisdom18