Chapter 1: Red Vines

Title: Red Vines

Rating: T, for Travis's references

Words: 1,834

Summary: They just brought down the Titan army, most of them are injured, and NYC is still in crisis. So the naturally, the Hermes kids go raid Dylan's Candy Bar. But someone Travis wasn't expecting is already there… Tratie oneshot.

A/N: I was reading the end of TLO and this practically wrote itself. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own 'em. Only even own one of the OC Hermes kids; the rest belong to deadmanwalking123, TropicCitrus, and Cellz-of-the-nonexistent-pen-name. Don't own the Gummy Bear song, don't own The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (why is the monkey left out of the title?), and don't own A Very Potter Musical. I shamelessly ripped off all three of them and called it 'making anecdotes'. Sue me. (Not really. I got nothing worth taking.)

"Cookie, this is Drunken Monkey. The target has been confirmed, repeat, the target has been confirmed, do you copy? Over," Travis Stoll stage-whispered to his brother.

Conner rolled his eyes at his partner in crime. "Travis," he said patiently, "one, that is a style of martial arts, not a code name. Two, children of Hermes can't get drunk. Three, I can see it as well as you can. And four, you're standing right next to me!Trav, can we just go before the klaxon back there–" he jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the Empire State Building "–dies down? You know Percy would make us leave."

Travis sniffed haughtily. "Hmph. It wouldn't be a mission if there weren't code names. Wait – hey, guys, wait up! Cookie, look what you've DONE!" He fake-sobbed as he chased after his siblings, Chris, Reed, Julian, Lilah, and Daniel, who'd headed off towards the target without him, leaping over slumbering citizens and weaving between idling cars.

"What? How is that my fault? And did I mention that five, we don't need code names to raid a candy bar when the owner's asleep?" Conner added to the space where Travis had been.

"But it makes it more fun," pointed out an adult voice, right behind him.

"Ah!" yelped Conner. He whirled around.

A fresh-faced young jogger was grinning down at him. "You didn't think you were going without me, did you?" Hermes smiled. He and his son followed the rest of the cabin, eventually arriving at the door of Dylan's Candy bar.

"Told you Dad was awesome," Travis mumbled to Conner as they stepped inside.

Typical Hermes kids. They'd just defeated a Titan army, most of them were injured, and the biggest city in the country was still in crisis. So what do they do?

What else but rob a candy shop?

Dylan was presumably the man snoozing at the counter. Reed lifted him up and laid him on top of the counter, and then speedily picked the lock on the display case underneath. The other six demigods and their father, however, simply stared in wonder at the mind-blowing array of confections.

Honeydukes had nothing on this place.

An entire wall was devoted to chocolate, prominently featuring the display case, which held a dazzling selection of gourmet truffles and fudge. The familiar wrappers of Hershey's of all kinds, Godiva squares, Lindt truffles, Snickers, Twix, Reese's, M&M's, Kit Kats, York peppermint patties, Toblerone, Tootsie rolls, Milky Ways, Three Musketeers, and so many more gleamed from the shelves. Boxes of Milk Duds, Charleston Chews, Junior Mints, and pocky flaunted their colors between Butterfingers, Baby Ruths, Pay Days, and Almond Joys. Chocolate heaven? Oh yes.

On the other walls, the shelves and carousels displayed candy that would've made Willy Wonka himself green with envy. Nerds and smarties, lollipops and dum dums, Now and Laters, Lifesavers, Ring Pops, Necco wafers, Starbursts, laffy taffy, saltwater taffy, pixie sticks, jolly ranchers, and far more lined the walls. A deep bin in the center was dedicated completely to assorted gummies – gummy worms, gummy lifesavers, gummy animals, gummy bottles, gummy fruits, gummy people, gummy hamburgers and hot dogs, gummy eyeballs, gummy hearts, Swedish Fish, and of course gummy bears, right underneath a cardboard display of the infamous green Gummi Bear and speakers playing his song, "Oh I'm a gummy bear, yes I'm a gummy bear…" over and over again. Marshmallows, peppermints, jawbreakers and warheads, rock candy and Pez, caramels and candy canes, licorice, Sour Patch Kids, Airheads, and thousands of varieties of gum showed off brightly colored wrappers and mouthwatering scents.

There were more exotic candies, too, the Gumtwizzlers and Fizzwinkles from China, Frothblowers and Spitsizzlers from Africa, Tummyticklers and Gobwangles from the Fiji Islands, Liplickers and Plushnuggets from the Land of the Midnight Sun. There were Giant Wangdoodles from Australia, with a huge red strawberry hidden inside each crispy chocolate crust, Electric Fizzcocklers that made every hair on your head stand up straight, Rainbow Drops that turned your spit eight different colors, the Stickjaw for talkative parents, the Mint Jujubes that give you green teeth for a month, Nishnobblers and Gumglotters and Blue Bubblers and Sherbert Sluerpers and Tongue Rakers and Scarlet Scorchdroppers and Glumptious Globgobblers and Pishlets and Devil's Drencehrs and…

"All right there," whispered Conner hoarsely. "Ripe for the taking."

This was no mere candy bar. This was treasure.

And as any good thief knows, treasure is there to be stolen.

"FOR SPARTAAAA!" the Hermes cabin bellowed as one, descending on the candy like a pack of hungry wolves.

Because if an army marches on its stomach, then the Spartans must've visited Dylan's Candy Bar before each campaign.

And who were they to break Spartan law?

Travis Stoll was in heaven.

He was buried almost completely in the central bin, gummies disappearing down his throat at a rate that defied the laws of physics. Wrappers littered the floor around him, concealing the wood under scraps of paper and cellophane. He'd already pillaged the chocolate section, as the generous streaks of brown on his face would testify. Mm, chocolate.

Absently, Travis glanced at the chest-high pile of wrappers that was rapidly accumulated in the only candy-free place in the store, behind the counter. A grin split Travis's face and he climbed up out of the bin, emerging with gummies dripping from his clothes like Poseidon rising from the depths. He teetered on the edge for a moment, leaped to the counter, and fell as much as dove headlong into the pile, sending wrappers flying into the air like spontaneous psychedelic confetti and it was wonderful.

And then Travis crashed into something.

"Ow!" said the something. A head of thick brown hair, followed by a pretty face and large green eyes, materialized from the pile. Katie Gardiner blinked up at Travis, rubbing her head.

"K-Katie! Gods, I'm s-so sorry, a-are you all right?" Travis stuttered, startling away from the daughter of Demeter like she'd electrocuted him and awkwardly offering her a sticky hand up.

Katie looked dubiously at the sugar-coated hand and climbed out herself, brushing off the stray wrappers.

"I'll be fine," she answered, a glint in her eye, "after a delicious… Red Vine." She pulled two Red Vines from her pocket and offered one to Travis.

"Oh my gods!" the son of Hermes blurted out. "I love Red Vines!" He stuck the Red Vine in his mouth.

Katie followed suit. "Inorite?" she agreed, leaning against the counter. "They're, like, my favorite candy ever–"

Suddenly, both demigods fell silent as if struck dumb by Stickjaws.

Stunned, Travis turned towards Katie at the exact same time that she turned towards him.

Travis mutely raised his right hand. Simultaneously, Katie raised her left. Abruptly, both hands dropped back to their owners' sides.

Travis raised his left hand and Katie raised her right, perfectly in synch.

In a voice trembling with emotion, Travis spoke. "Favorite Aimee Mann song on three. One, two, three–"

"Red Vines," they answered in unison.

"Favorite vines that aren't green," Travis continued.

"Red Vines!" the two demigods chorused.

"Favorite way to say red wines with a German accent?"

"RED VINES! OH MY GOD!" The daughter of Demeter and son of Hermes hugged each other like they'd found their soul mates. "Where have you BEEN all my life?" cried Travis.

"In a cupboard, under some stairs," Katie replied nonchalantly.

"That is SO COOL!" enthused Travis.

"Red Vines! What the hell CAN'T they do?" shouted Conner from across the store.

"…" said Travis.

"He was…uh…listening to us?" Katie inquired uneasily.

They looked at Conner. He appeared to be setting his breath on fire. He wasn't paying the two demigods behind the counter any attention.

"I think he was just talking about Red Vines…" said Travis uncertainly.

Katie shrugged. "That just proves the omniscience of Red V–"

"Even gods must bow to Red Vines!" hollered Hermes.

"…" said Travis.

"…" said Katie.

"I feel the need for an abrupt subject change how did a daughter of Demeter get in the middle of a Hermes candy raid?" asked Travis in one breath.

Katie blushed green. (Demeter kids do that. They also have green thumbs. Literally, the skin is green. There's your random demigod trivia of the day.) "You know how we made Fifth Ave into a jungle?"

"Yeah," recalled Travis. "There were some palm trees. The coconuts were good."

Katie swatted him, sliding down the counter and sitting cross-legged in the cluttered carpet of candy wrappers. "Do you EVER think about anything but food?"

"Yes." He sat too, putting a hand on Katie's shoulder and staring seriously into her eyes. "I think about sex."

She snickered in spite of herself. "What about both at the same time?"

"That, my good miss, is what we know as 'bacon'," Travis answered gravely. Then he couldn't keep a straight face any longer, and they both cracked up.

"Hey, you never answered my question," Travis realized when they sobered up.

"You never let me!" Katie protested indignantly. "As I was SAYING, we made a jungle…and now we have to clean it up before Morpheus wakes up the city."

Travis cocked his head. "So you're here for rocket fuel?" He meant candy, to give her the energy to unmake the jungle. But 'rocket fuel' just sounded so much awesomer.

"Noooooo," answered Katie reluctantly, "I'm here because…BECAUSE I'M HUNGRY AND I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE CLEANING, OKAY?" She flushed bright green.

Realization dawned on Travis. "So…Miss Responsible Demeter Jr.…is…skipping out of work?" He started laughing.

"Shutup," retorted Katie automatically. He just laughed harder, and she turned forest green with embarrassment. How on Olympus to shut him up? she thought angrily.

"You have chocolate on your cheeks," Katie snapped, and, before she could lose her nerve, leaned forward and licked off a smear of chocolate with a small pink tongue.

He froze.

She blushed.

Travis slowly turned towards Katie, eyes enigmatic.

"You missed," he said quietly.

Katie's heart fluttered like hummingbird wings. W-what does he mean? What did he – oh gods, he's leaning towards me, why is my heart beating like this, he's so close, did I just answer my own question? Oh my gods, what is he doing…

Their faces were inches apart. Her breathing hitched at his proximity, closer, closer–

Travis's lips touched hers.

Katie's eyes widened. He-he's kissing me? What? Some stupid Aphrodite's gotta be behind this–

Suddenly, she noticed that Travis tasted like Red Vines.

Katie remembered Conner's words.

Red Vines! What the hell CAN'T they do? he'd said.

If Red Vines could give Travis Stoll the courage to kiss her, then Red Vines could give her the courage to kiss him back.

So she did.

THE END

EDIT

Wow. This story got way more of a response than I expected. So I'm continuing it. Congratulations. Next oneshot should be coming soon, and it's definitely not what you expect. "Katie's mom has got it goin' on, she's all I want and I've waited for so long..." IT'S JUST INNOCENT CRACK DON'T EAT ME