One Thing

Pairing: Travis/Katie

Time Frame: Post Last Olympian

Song artist: Stan Walker

Disclaimer: Own, I do not.


"TRAVIS STOLL YOU IDIOT!" The loud scream from the daughter of Demeter could be heard from across the entire camp ground. Connor Stoll glanced at his brother, raising an eyebrow as if to ask what in the Hades he had done now to infuriate his girlfriend. Instead of replying, Travis flashed a grin towards his brother, jumping off the bed they were sitting on.

"You'll just have to wait and see," he said with a waggle of his eyebrows. He stood near the door of the Hermes cabin, patiently waiting for Katie Gardner to storm through the door. As if on cue, the door was slammed open, causing Connor to jump slightly. Katie looked murderous as she glared at her boyfriend. It didn't help that he had his innocent face plastered on.

"What's wrong Katie-Kat?" he asked smoothly, like he couldn't sense her anger. That seemed to anger her even more. She swatted away the hand that was trying to snake around her waist.

"Don't you dare 'Katie-Kat' me Travis Alexander Stoll," she growled, crossing her arms over her chest. She narrowed her eyes, causing Travis to gulp. As a son of Hermes, he enjoyed the looks of his exasperated victims especially his own girlfriend, but he knew he had gone too far. Connor, who was still in the room, had tried to his grin. Although Katie had the tendency to yell at Travis as often as they made out, when she had said his full name, Connor immediately knew his older brother was in deep trouble. He wore a bemused smile, wondering how his brother was going to worm his way out of this mess.

"I'm sorry," Travis gave his wounded puppy dog face. Usually, it would work like magic on Katie, but not today. She was enraged beyond belief.

"You aren't sorry! You think its one stupid joke! It's not, Travis! My siblings and I work our asses off to tend to the vegetable gardens so the camp has fresh produce. Digging up the dirt and 'pulling out the weeds' just put my whole cabin a whole two months behind our planting schedule! Do you know how freaking hard it is to explain to my cabin that it was my boyfriend's fault? I'm the head counselor, but they don't respect me anymore because I'm dating you!" As soon as the words left Katie's mouth, she knew she had made a mistake. She loved Travis, she loved him dearly, but she had her own siblings to look after and be responsible for. Half of the older kids were all having separate goes at her for going out with 'that Hermes devil spawn' as her half brother Austin so affectionately called Travis. She had tried so hard to defend him, but it got tiring. Her brothers refused to listen to any of her commands anymore and she was just sick of it. Sick of them. For the first time of his entire seventeen years of living, Travis Stoll was speechless. He knew that he was awfully stupid and incredibly immature, but he never knew how much of an affect that was having on his girlfriend.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, quietly and more sincere than before. He had broken his usually lighthearted, happy go lucky demeanor and Katie knew she had said the wrong thing.

"Travis, that's not what I mean-" she started, but the dark haired boy cut her off.

"It's okay Katie, I get it. I think you should go," he murmured, sounding uncharacteristically defeated. Connor raised an eyebrow. It was definitely not like his brother to be so…accepting of defeat. He was Travis freaking Stoll. Cocky, immature, full of himself. Not like this.

"No, Travis," she tried again, but he just cut her off again.

"Just go," he gulped and nodded his head towards the door. Although Katie desperately wanted to stay, she knew she had some damage control to do in her cabin. Without a word, she left. As soon as she was out of earshot, Travis let out a long string of curse words that could have made a sailor blush.

"C'mon man, she didn't mean it," Connor lamely tried to comfort his brother once he had finished his rant. Travis shot him a death glare that made Clarisse's glare look like a Barbie.

"No, it's not Connor. Just leave me alone, kay?" he let out a resigned sigh as he flopped onto his bed. Connor nodded and left him to mope in his cabin. Usually, he'd stay and try to convince his brother to lighten up, but he knew it was a bad move. Generally, Hermes demigod children were not a fan of emotions, and Connor Stoll was no exception.


Save me girl,

You're the reason I can't sleep now.

Nothing seems to work,

To cure the hurt,

That's pulling on my heartstrings now,

Travis Stoll leant on the trunk of Thalia's pine tree, his head in his hands. It was nearing midnight and usually he'd be in the Hermes cabin fast asleep, but tonight was different. It wasn't often that the dark haired boy was hit with insomnia, only happening when he was extremely upset or sad. Tonight, he was a mixture of both. The words Katie had spat out at him were still whirling around in his thoughts. Each sentence hit him harder each time he thought about it. Although he tried not to, there was no avail.

Baby, cause there's so much more I wanted but,

You didn't really give me the chance to tell you,

'Cause my heart could say a thousand words,

But it wouldn't change your gone,

He had wanted to say so much more to her than tell her to get out his cabin. Travis let out a moan of annoyance, pulling on the ends of his dark curls in frustration. Wooing girls used to be so easy for Travis Stoll with the amazing looks, sex god hair and perfect pick up lines. When it came to a certain Katie Gardner, however, it was a different story. She wasn't like any other girl he had dated. She wasn't shallow, materialistic, superficial. Katie was the type of girl who loved getting mud underneath her fingernails, ate like a horse and knew the value of hard work. She was so different, but that's what made Travis fall even harder for her. She definitely was not easy to impress and when she had finally said yes to go on a date, Travis could hardly believe it. He had thanked every god he could name and danced around his cabin for two days. She was the light to his day. He could quite honestly say that he wouldn't have any idea where he would be without her.

So, if there's one thing,

I could say to you then I'd tell you,

I love you.

You're one thing I need in all my life.

Although the pair had been going out for what seemed like only a little bit of time, Travis already knew that he loved her. He had always had the helpless feeling that his emotions were not returned. Katie liked to quite openly admit on a daily basis her hatred for a certain son of Hermes. While he would brush it off with laughter, his heart would break a little more whenever he heard 'I hate you Travis Stoll!' They had only been going out for about three months, but Travis had already wanted to drop the L bomb. When he asked his brother for advice, he laughed.


Flashback

"You don't love her Travis. You just want to get into her pants," Connor replied once he had stopped howling with laughter. He ducked the pillow that was angrily thrown in his direction. Travis had glared at his younger brother, wondering why on earth he had asked for Connor's advice in the first place. That's right, he thought with a grim smile. Because he couldn't think of anyone else to ask. Going to the Aphrodite cabin was like committing suicide. A pink, girly, feathery hell. Travis had considered going to one of the Apollo boys, but had quickly realized that he didn't know any of them well enough to pour his heart and soul out. His last resort had been his brother. Which had proved to be an utter mistake. Cursing Connor in ancient Greek, he had left the Hermes cabin in a fit of anger, only to bump into Percy.

"Hey, you okay man?" Percy asked, eying his demigod friend closely. They weren't the best of friends, but they were quite close. They had shared their number of small quests, battles and laughs together. Without meaning to, Travis started to tell Percy of his predicament. Although Percy was not the wisest tree in the woods, he obviously knew a thing or two about girls. Well, that's what both boys would like to think. Annabeth and every other girl in the camp would disagree.

"..So I don't know if I want to say I love you to her," Travis finished, mumbling his last words. Percy nodded, knowing exactly how his friend felt.

"Well," he began, pausing a bit. "Only say it if you mean it." Without thinking, Travis blurted out.

"I do mean it! I think about her every freaking second, for Zeus' sake! Even more than that, I would do anything for her. Anything," he crossed his arms over his chest, sighing.
"Then say it," Percy suggested it plainly, as if Travis was merely considering whether to by a hamburger or a pie.

"It's really not that simple Percy," Travis replied, starting to feel quite annoyed. "I mean, what if…" he trailed off, not wanting to finish his sentence. Travis had lost the usually cocky overconfident side to him and he just looked like a normal teen. A lovesick teen, to be more precise.

"What if she doesn't love you back?" Percy finished his friend's sentence. Travis nodded, rather miserably. The son of Poseidon couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. Travis narrowed his eyes, not enjoying being laughed at.

"What the Hades is so funny Jackson?" Travis demanded. Once Percy had finished his bout of laughter, he looked Travis in the eye.

"C'mon Stoll! You've got to be blind. Of course she loves you! How on earth could she have put up with you this long if she didn't?" he replied, with a 'this-should-be-obvious' tone. Even though Percy's little pep talk had given Travis more confidence, he still hadn't said the three little words.

Flashback ends


Here I am,

You can take me if you want to,

You've changed your plans,

Wish I could turn back time again,

Looking back on it now, Travis Stoll was seriously regretting his prank. That was saying something. There weren't many things he regretted, but this was one of them. If he had known that Katie was going to react that badly, he wouldn't have done it. Travis thought it was kind of funny, digging up the vegetable patch. It looked pretty empty, as if they hadn't planted anything yet. Oh boy, how wrong was he.

Baby girl, I need you,

You are the one that I need more than a bugatti shorty,

I guarantee that.

I know there's more than one thing,

That you want me to change,

Like how I act, talk, think, plus you wish you could my way,

If anything, Travis was constantly thinking what in Hades Katie ever saw in him. With the Aphrodite girls, it was easy to tell because they told him. To them, it was always about his looks and what he could do with his mouth. With Katie, it was just so much more than that. Even though he wasn't going to say it to anyone, that's what Travis was so scared of. He was worried that he was going to mess it up so bad, that she was finally just going to get sick of him. It turned out, that he was right.

If there was one thing that Travis Stoll could say to Katie Gardner, it would be:

Baby girl, don't you worry about a thing, cause my love for you will always remain.


A/N: Oh, and I messed around with the song a bit (the lyrics are in italics if you hadn't figured it out) You like? Review please (: