AN: Thanks to- got2'heart'nico, unbreakable0, Blue is the Sea, mwaterbender96, daughter of the sea, emtionalpoemgirl, daughter of Athena, coconut1559, thisismini, XxXThe Silver ArrowXxX, chowgow, kushkeshet, pa0lamarie, lilacmayn, xox jonas xox, srta strawberry, fanclubofme, omgitskyana, tratie4ever, and omg, for reviewing and favorite-ing and alert-ing.

a special thanks to XxXTheSilverArrowXxX- she brought to my attention that Katie has brown hair, not strawberry blonde. Sorry, guys :)

Anyway-on with the story!

Katie had decided that Travis should be the one to shadow her first. She told him so while walking up to the Demeter cabin-to her surprise, he agreed without complaint. As they approached the her cabin, she let go of Travis's hand, somewhat wistfully.

However, Travis had other ideas.

He grabbed her by the waist, pulled her against his well-defined body and whispered,

"Sleep well, Kates."

Katie stiffened, her mind in a hazy blur. His lips looked absolutely kissable, and she was dying to take him right there.

They were this close.

So close.

She could feel his breath on her lips.

He could smell her perfume-a intoxicating smell of flowers and everything else heavenly.

She could see the gold flecks in his eyes.

He could see freckles sprinkled lightly over her nose.

But just as he leaned closer, he pulled away, leaving Katie unsatisfied. Her eyes fluttered, and she felt overwhelming disappointment. She was so close...damn him. She heard Travis sigh, and she felt his lips brush lightly across the top of her head. Her eyes closed involuntarily, and much to her embarrassment, a soft hum-moan-sigh escaped her.

Shit.

As he pulled away, he said, "Good night, Kates." Graceful and lithe, like a panther, he lept from the Demeter porch and strolled off to the Hermes cabin. As he left, she swore she head him chuckle.

Bastard.

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The next morning, Katie awoke abruptly from an extremely vivid dream involving her, Travis, strawberries, and somehow, whipped cream found its way in there, too. Wondering the reason as to her sudden return to consciousness, she groggily heaved herself out of bed, slipped on her kimono, and opened her eyes blearily.

Standing over her looking as though she was trying to crack up, was her half-sister, Melanie.

"It's 7 in the morning! What the Hades! I was having a really good dream!" Katie shouted, thoroughly annoyed.

"I know...it must have been a good dream, Katie, in order for you to make those kind of sounds," Melanie said, trying and failing to stifle a snigger.

Oh, Hades.

Catching sight of Katie's mortified expression and stiff body posture, Melanie said, "No worries. I won't tell anyone. Who, may I ask was the boy in question? He seemed to be giving you a mighty fine time," she finished, raising an eyebrow. Katie was silent.

Melanie paused. "It was a boy, wasn't it?"

"YES!" Katie shouted, indignant. "I'm not telling."

Melanie smirked. "I guess I'll just have find out by myself, then." She hopped off Katie's bunk and trotted out the door to breakfast.

Fuck. Why did that seem to be the theme of her life lately?

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At breakfast, Katie's day hardly improved. She glanced over at the Hermes table, only to see Travis seated with his back to her. NOT that she felt anything for him. At all. Just friends. After all, friends dreamt of each other all the time, right? Right.

Not bothering to sacrifice some of her meal to Demeter, she scraped her bacon in the dancing flames, muttering a quick prayer to Aphrodite instead, practically begging her to make her feelings for Travis fade, and quick.

Suddenly, the most heavenly scent drifted towards her.

There was a feminine, rosy scent, but overpowering that was a stronger, masculine, yet fresh scent that made her weak at the knees and her bones feel gooey. It was such a enticing scent, that Katie felt her skin go hot and cold and crawl with anticipation. It was strangely familiar, but she couldn't remember from what.

Blushing furiously, she turned away from the flames and settled at the Demeter table, staring at the back of Travis's neck the entire time, not touching her food.

Last night, she'd agreed to meet Travis at the top of the strawberry field, so he could shadow her for the day and see what life was like as a child of Demeter. She'd go about her daily routine, pruning and taking care of the plants, harvesting, then they'd go to the sword-fighting arena and have a little 'friendly competition', as Chiron put it. Bull.

Well, that was the plan, anyway. But Travis had a way of making sure nothing ever went according to plan.

This time around, Travis was already in place in the fields, his hands in his jeans, cocky but sexy grin in place, leaning against an old, faded tree. Katie marched up to him, determined to keep her unreliable feelings in check.

Her sacrifice was wasted.

Apparently, Aphrodite didn't give a shit.

The moment she came with in five feet of him, her heart started beating erratically. Her face was tinged with pink. DAMN you, Aphrodite, she thought. Utterly nonplussed as to why a guy would have so much influence over her, Katie decided to proceed as normal. As normal as she could get with a male model next to her, anyway.

Katie consulted her list. "Mkay, Travis, right about now I usually head over to the fields to get in some gardening before archery and sword practice. Then, I'll...Travis? Are you even listening to me?" For Travis was staring morosely out at the sparkling lake, his eyes glum.

He turned, flashing me a crooked smile. "When's the last time you didn't do things according to plan, Kates? Have you ever thought about being a little spontaneous?" he finished, his eyes flickering. One thing Katie noticed that was whenever Travis was nervous, angry, or thoughtful, his eyes seemed to have more gold in them. Shaking herself from this thought, she paused, saying, "No."

"Got it!" he crowed. "I know what we're going to do today."

"Stoll, I swear, if you-"

"Too late."

With that, Travis grabbed her hand-oh, Zeus, her HAND-and tugged her along to the lake.

Approaching the lake, he picked her up, bridal style, and proceeded to chuck her in the lake.

With clothes on.

With a white shirt. And pink bra.

Real smart, Gardener.

When she emerged, sopping wet and furious, on the sand, the first thing that entered her line of vision was a grinning Travis. "So, Kates? Feeling spontaneous yet? You know, in the future, I wouldn't wear a pink-" Katie cut him off.

"You know what I see in the future, Stoll? My sword up your-"

Katie stopped, with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. Travis backed up warily on the dock, eyeing her. "Nevermind, Travis," she purred. She prowled closer to him, getting within an inch of him face, forcing him to back up til he was at the edge of the dock. Time for a taste of your own medicine, baby. She leaned in, as if she was going to kiss him, then put out a finger and ge-e-ently pushed him.

Travis fell in the water with a resounding splash. Katie smirked, triumphant. What she didn't count on, however, was Travis's hand to shoot out and grab her ankle, pulling her down with him into the lake.

"Oh, fuck, Travis!" she shouted, before the water cut off her garbled complaint. Freshly re-dripping wet and laughing, she popped up, pulling Travis up by the hand.

There was an uncomfortable moment when the two were rather close together.

Travis closed his eyes briefly, exhaling with a sharp gust. "You, uh, wanna go fit in some sword practice? So we have something to tell Chiron at the end of the week?

"Uh, sure," said Katie squeezing her t-shirt, splashing out of the water. Together, they trudged to the arena, where, in a hot, sweaty hour of sword fighting, neither could gain the advantage, so they agreed to call it quits.

Travis panted, wiping his forehead with a towel. "I gotta admit, Gardener, you aren't bad, not bad at all." Katie huffed. "Not bad? Pft, I so could've whipped your sorry ass. I was going easy on you!"

"Sure, whatever, Kates," he said, grinning.

"Wanna go clean up?" he asked, his eyebrows raised. "It wouldn't do at all to appear to dinner looking like ragamuffins," Travis said pompously, doing a perfect imitation of the Aphrodite campers.

Katie giggled, but nevertheless allowed Travis to escort her to the showers, where he bowed, and said, "This where I bid thee farewell, mi'lady. Unless...?" He let his voice trail off suggestively. Katie blushed. "Gods, no! I'll be out in twenty minutes."

Travis sighed dramatically, then winked and walked over to the boy's shower.

Katie let out a moan of relief as the hot water cascaded over her back, washing off evidence of the day's activities. Despite her prayers, she couldn't help but enjoy her time with Travis today. Satisfied she was clean, she departed for the Demeter cabin, furtively checking to see if the coast was clear, making sure no one saw her skimpy pajamas.

But gods, it was summer, so who would have expected her wear a fleece and pants?

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Katie tapped her foot. Would it be completely weird for her to go to the Hermes cabin at all?

After all, she couldn't sleep. Friends went to friends to help them with insomnia, right? Nevermind the fact that they couldn't sleep was because she was too busy thinking about a sexy son of Hermes? Wearing skimpy pajamas? Right.

Tap, tap. The sound of Katie's impatient tapping echoed through the silent cabin, apart from the snores of her siblings. How soon was too soon to go visit Travis?

It's not like she planned to seduce him or anything.

Not really.

Five minutes passed.

Then another five.

Finally, Katie, unable to take it anymore, bounded up from her bunk and practically sprinted to the side window of the Hermes cabin where she knew Travis's bunk was. Muttering a quick prayer to Hermes for luck on her sneaky exploit, (hoping he would overlook the fact she was trying to seduce his son) and gently slid open the window.

"Psst, Travis. Wake up," she whispered, gently prodding his stomach, ignoring the rather dry feeling in her mouth as she felt his rock-hard abs.

He didn't wake up.

Katie sighed. Time for method two.

"Traaavis. Wake up."

She continually poked him, harder each time. No response. Well, too bad. He MADE her resort to the last method. Katie bent down, brushing her lips against his forehead. She climbed over Travis's legs, settling herself in a straddling position. He jerked awake.

"Huh? Wazzgoinon? Katie?" He blearily opened his eyes and said, "Kates? What are you doing here?"

Katie paused, then said, "I can't sleep."

Travis smirked. "So you can to visit me in the middle of the night, wearing that sexy getup because...?"

Katie sighed in irritation. "So, I was hoping you could help take my mind off...things."

Travis's smirk grew even more pronounced. "Any ideas, Kates?"

"Just talk to me," she shrugged, staring at his face as though trying to memorize his features.

"Ah, ah, ah. If you come in my window, at 2 am in the morning, wearing that, you are NOT looking to talk," Travis said, sitting up.

His eyes widened when he realized how she was sitting.

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A beautiful girl who you happen to be in love with wearing a sexy nightgown practically straddling you isn't the worst way to be woken up.

It so happened that Katie crept into Travis's room, wearing less than she should be, waking him up, claimed she couldn't sleep, laying on top of him, at 2 am.

Not to say that Travis wasn't enjoying this immensely.

Katie gazed at Travis intently, her eyes wide and innocent. Damn, he always had trouble saying no to her. Ever.

Travis sighed, giving in. "C'mere," he said, roping an arm around her waist. He pulled her down next to him, very aware of here short nightgown. She cautiously laid down next to him, relaxing when she entwined her legs with his.

Oh, fuck. He never knew Katie could feel so good. Her legs were smoother than silk, not to mention she smelled amazing. He sent a prayer up to Aphrodite, begging to let him keep it together.

Apparently, Aphrodite didn't hear him.

That seemed to be a trend lately.

Travis groaned, relenting. He flipped over, putting Katie underneath him. Katie squeaked, taken by surprise. "Why are you really here, Kates? You're killing me, coming in at night dressed like this," he said, gesturing to her attire.

"Travis, I-"

He cut her off by pressing a kiss to her warm collarbone. She inhaled sharply, her eyelids fluttering shut. Travis grinned, triumphant. "Friends do this...right?"

"Um...right," she breathed. Travis could practically feel the heat emanating from her body.

Suddenly, Connor sat up.

"Travis!" he hissed, his voice sounding like a gunshot in the warm darkness. Katie had the look of a cornered rabbit. She ducked underneath his bed.

"What, Connor?" he said, irritated. Why were their almost-kisses always interrupted?

"I had a dream...stealing the...got caught...never happened...before..." Connor trailed off into silence, and before Travis could respond, his head hit the pillow, snoring.

"You dick, Connor! I was.." Then he remembered Katie was still in the room. He turned, but she was backing away towards the window, her eyes wide. "I should go," she said. So saying, she climbed out of the window and into the night.

He was this close.

Travis slumped back on his pillows in frustration, groaning.

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Okay, that's it for this chapter. I tried to make it longer than usual. Thanks so much for the lovely reviews. Keep it up! And yes, they STILL haven't kissed. I'm holding out.

Review, tell me what to change or add, or if you have a request for the plot.

Kisses!