Hello PJO fandom :) I'm back from camp! It was super awesome! And…Today is Percy's birthday! :D In honour of the demigod who started it all's special day, I have a double update for this story—which means I'm posting two chapters at once, yay! :) Plus I'm publishing a Percabeth one-shot called And Life Begins. I'd really appreciate it if you could go check that out when it gets posted tomorrow :) Anyways, enjoy the double update! (wow lots of smiley faces and exclamation points in there :P)

Disclaimer: PJO & HoO belong to Rick, not me.

Travis' POV

Travis woke up that morning to Katie's incessant, annoying shrieks.

"What is it?" he moaned, rolling over in his sleeping bag to face Katie.

"Ants!" she squeaked. "Ants everywhere!"

Sure enough, Travis glanced down at the ground and little brownish-red ants were swarmed all over the floor inside the tent. "What the…?" he questioned. They were inside a tent. How had ants gotten there?

"Leo must've set the tent up on an anthill!" Katie cried, telepathically answering Travis's question, "And there has to be a hole in the tent somewhere!"

Travis nodded and slid out of his sleeping bag, taking care to not step on the ant-covered ground. Then he shuffled to the edge of the sleeping bag, reached out as far as he could and was able to grab his favourite pair of sandals.

"Well," he said, "See ya later!" Travis saluted to Katie and ran out of the tent as fast as his legs would carry him (which was pretty fast— he was a son of Hermes, after all, and just like all his siblings, he was a speed demon).

"Travis Stoll!" yelled Katie angrily. "Get back in here and get me out right now!"

Travis smirked, rolling his eyes. He wouldn't have actually left Katie in there—he was just going to pick up her shoes and toss them inside the tent so she could escape like he had—but instead he ducked back inside the tent, picked Katie up and dodged back out.

"Thank you," she huffed. Travis set her down (a little disappointedly, he might add—Travis, although he would never admit it, had a massive crush on Katie) and Katie looked down at her feet. Then she shrieked again and started flailing her arms and legs around wildly.

"What now?" grumbled Travis, crossing his arms.

"Those godsdamn ants again! They're on me!" wailed Katie. Travis looked hard at Katie's tanned legs and her socks-and-sandals–covered feet, and truth be told, there actually were a few little ants crawling around on her. Travis figured he probably had some on himself, too, but he didn't really care.

"Shouldn't you not be afraid of ants or something?" asked Travis pointedly. "I mean, your mom's Demeter. You garden all the time. Aren't there tons of ants in gardens?"

"At camp we have things to get rid of the ants!" she explained hurriedly. "Now shut up and help me make me ant-free!"

Travis complied and bent down to try and get some of the ants off Katie's legs. He flicked six off and then circled her legs, checking for more as Katie brushed off her arms and her torso and her everything else.

"All clear," announced Travis, standing back up. Katie sighed in relief. "Thank the gods. I hate ants."

"You don't say," muttered Travis, flicking an ant off his arm.

"What was that, Stoll?" she asked, eyebrows raised and hands on hips as if daring him to repeat his sentence.

"Nothing," he sighed, flopping down dramatically onto a camp chair. "So whaddya wanna do?"

Katie looked at him like he was crazy. "What do you mean, 'Whaddo I wanna do'? I'm going to go get a piece of bread and the jars of peanut butter and jam from the van, make myself a sandwich, and sit down in a chair to eat it. Then I'm going to read my book, still in the chair of course, whilst waiting for someone I actually want to spend some time with to wake up."

"Ouch," said Travis, placing his hand on his heart dramatically as if he were drastically wounded by her words. "But fine. And if you're making yourself a PB & J, then bring me a piece of bread too. Because peanut butter and jam sandwiches happen to be my most favourite of the sandwiches."

Katie just rolled her eyes and stalked off. Travis hoped she was kind enough to actually get him some bread, because he really didn't feel like walking all the way down to the van. Plus he actually did want a PB & J.

A couple minutes later, Katie reappeared holding two jars and a whole loaf of bread. Yes, thought Travis giddily. Now he got to have lots of PB & J's, and it proved Katie actually maybe cared for him a little bit! Or at least, she wasn't as rude so as to not get him a piece of bread if she was already getting one for herself.

Katie plopped into the camp chair next to Travis's and set the supplies down on the ground. Travis grabbed the loaf of bread, pulled off the tab and took out a piece as Katie untwisted the lids on the jars. Then Katie grabbed a piece of bread and Travis scooted his chair closer to Katie's. (Pfft, no, not because he liked her! The scooting of the chair was purely for the purpose of the sharing of the peanut butter and jam. Jeez.)

Katie glanced at him with an emotion that Travis couldn't quite decipher, and he stared at her quizzically, but she looked away.

Travis carefully balanced the jars between the armrests. Then he took his piece of bread, swiped it in the peanut butter, swiped it in the jam and took a bite out of it.

"Ew," said Katie. Travis looked over, chewing thoughtfully. Katie's nose was crinkled cutely. He stared at her freckles, which were also very cute, for a moment, and then grinned toothily at her, knowing full well there was peanut butter stuck all over his mouth. Katie slapped his arm playfully and Travis closed his mouth, running his tongue over his teeth to pick up the peanut butter.

A little frown graced Katie's features. "Other people have to eat that, you know," she commented slightly disgustedly. Travis shrugged. "Who cares? We're family."

Katie raised her eyebrows at him. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare is your family?"

Travis blushed at his pointed-out mistake. "Well, we're obviously not related to Rachel. But what's the likelihood that she's gonna have some jam and go, 'Hm, tastes like Travis has been swiping peanut-buttered bread in here?' "

Katie rolled her eyes. "You have a point," she grumbled, and followed Travis's lead, swiping her own piece of bread through the peanut butter and then the jam. Travis grinned inwardly. He was breaking the ice a bit here.

They polished off a couple pieces of bread each in no time at all, and Travis sat back in his chair. He looked over at Katie, who was licking some peanut butter off her forefinger.

"I like you," he blurted randomly. Then he widened his eyes and mentally slapped himself as he realized what he'd just said. Katie looked over at him, finger still in mouth and eyebrows raised. "Huh?" she mumbled, pulling her de-peanut buttered finger out of her mouth. Travis blubbered like a fish. "Um… Uh… I… I like you?" It came out as more of a question. He honestly hadn't intended to say it in the first place, but now that it was out there, he couldn't exactly take it back.

Katie grinned. She actually grinned. Travis was more than a little confused. He was pretty certain Katie hated her, or at the very least, didn't like him. But her grin grew wider, and she said in what sounded like a completely honest tone of voice, "Good. Because I like you too."

Then she did something that shocked Travis even more: She leaned over and kissed him. Her mouth tasted like peanut butter, and his probably did too, but he kissed back and it was a completely unexpected but utterly magical moment for Travis.

When Katie pulled away, her eyes were sparkling. Travis smiled at her, about to say something romantic, but then the stupid son of Hermes side of his brain got in the way and he smirked. "So. Am I a good kisser?"

Katie laughed and slapped his arm playfully again. "You're definitely not bad," she admitted. Travis grinned and did a mental fist-pump. That was one more won bet against Connor: Kiss Katie on this camping trip and have her like it. He was racking up drachmas faster than a pegasus could fly. But at this point, he almost didn't care how many drachmas he was earning, because now he knew Katie Gardner liked him back.

• • •

Later that day when everyone was awake, Travis walked up to Connor with a pep in his step and surrounded by an aura of confidence and swagger. "Bro," whispered Travis excitedly. "She kissed me."

Connor, who was sipping from a can of Dr. Pepper, did a spit-take. "Katie kissed you?"

Travis grinned proudly. "Yup! I accidentally blurted that I liked her, but then she said she liked me too and kissed me on the lips and I kissed back and it was awesome!"

Connor fist-bumped Travis. "Nice. So did she like it?"

"Yup!" Travis made a motion with his hand, like Pay up. "So hand over the drachmas. Thirty, baby!" Connor rolled his eyes and rummaged through his pockets. Then he dumped seven drachmas into Travis's waiting hands. "All I have on me right now," he explained. "I'll pay you back the rest later."

"Fine," said Travis, not really caring because Katie Gardner kissed him! and he was still on Cloud 9.

• • •

That night around the campfire, Travis no longer felt left out or jealous when he looked around the circle at Percy and Annabeth, Jason and Piper, Leo and Calypso, Frank and Hazel and Grover and Juniper, because Katie was sitting next to him holding his hand and he was smiling and she was smiling and in that moment, for that day, the gods seemed to be on his side, because everything felt right.

"Yo, Travis!" called someone from across the circle. Travis's head whipped towards the source of the voice and found Will Solace staring at him with a grin on his face. "You and Katie, huh?"

Travis grinned a little sheepishly and nodded happily.

Will smiled broadly. "I saw it coming!" he laughed, and Travis laughed too. He'd only seen it coming in his dreams, so he still couldn't believe he and Katie were actually a couple now.

"Travis!" called a second voice. Leo was walking towards him. "The ants are gone from you and Katie's tent, and I patched up the hole. Happy sleeping!" he bode, plopping down into a chair next to Calypso.

Katie clasped her hands together and looked at the sky. "Thank the gods, no more disgusting ants! Thank you, too, Leo," she called. Leo tipped an imaginary hat towards her. "No problemo."

Travis looked at Katie and found that she'd been looking at him. She blushed lightly, and so did Travis.

"Uhm," murmured Katie, partly to Travis and partly to their circle of friends, "I think I'm ready for bed. We were up at five a.m. thanks to those stupid ants."

"Yeah," Travis agreed, standing up and stretching his arms above his head. Katie did the same, and her sweatshirt lifted up a bit, exposing some of her midriff. Travis couldn't help but stare a little, because she was a daughter of Demeter; he hadn't expected her to be that in shape. But then again, wasn't everyone at camp in shape? You sort of had to be if you wanted to last more than a week.

"'Night, guys," mumbled Katie sleepily. "'Night," repeated Travis with a yawn.

And just like that, they headed into the tent, changed, and hopped into their ant-free sleeping bags. Travis drifted off into sleep, and his perfect day came to a close. He hoped the rest of the trip would be as good as it was that day.

Sorta short and a little cheesy, but there you have it! I sort of forgot I was doing all these updates today until 7 p.m. so I had to crank out a bunch of writing that was hopefully still good.

Don't forget to Review, Follow & Favourite!

–ImpulsesOfLife