Travis POV

Once Nyssa, Jason, and Percy returned, things weren't as lively as they had been before. I could definitely understand that; Nyssa and Percy had just watched someone dear to them get blown to bits for the second time. I could tell that they both felt pretty guilty about it, even though they weren't guilty at all. They picked the best option for that scenario, actually.

No one really wanted to joke around or make any sarcastic comments anymore. I knew they would eventually let up; they had to. I'd have gone insane if they hadn't. The only reason they'd gotten better after what happened with Beckendorf was because Piper had just started here and they didn't want to make her think we were rude. We still had Ibuprofen, Tylenol, and leftover ice cream.

Ice cream was very symbolic at our office. It was used for the bad times: break-ups, deaths, injuries, etc. It was also used for the good times: New relationships, anniversaries, babies being born, solving a case; stuff like that.

Surprisingly Katie seemed okay. Sure she was tense, but she didn't seem affected too badly. Thalia, of course, was going on a rampage. Jason finally temporarily adopted Nico and locked Thalia in her office until she cooled off. Will did the same for Leo. Percy was pacing the lounge, muttering to himself. Annabeth decided to go talk to him.

Katie worried me though. She looked okay, but I had learned very quickly that she was very different from other girls. Most girls had a few switches. You'd say one thing and they'd respond to how they took it; you clarified what you meant and the discussion carried on. Katie had several switches. She wasn't bipolar, but she was very…fragile, I guess. With a lot of coats of bubble wrap.

"Are you okay?" I finally had to ask her. She was bothering me by not pulling a Thalia.

Katie sighed. "I guess. Silena and I had met, and we'd gotten close. But we didn't have a relationship, like she and Nyssa did. We were friends but we hadn't seen each other in a while."

I nodded, completely understanding what she meant. For the first time I could actually know how she felt, and exactly what emotions she was going through. And it scared me to death.

I grew up in a huge family. When I was twelve, our family got together for Thanksgiving, and just the babies/kids/teenagers group was 20 people. All of the guys managed to tell me that if I ever understood what a girl meant and it wasn't school related, we had a serious bond. Since we would be going to the wedding together, what kind of bond did that mean in our case?

"Why do you have pictures of yourself everywhere?"

It took me a minute to process that Katie had asked me a question. "Hmm?"

Katie rolled her eyes and gestured to my computer. When it had been idle for a while, it would start a slideshow of my pictures. Most of them did look like they were of me. I also had a few pictures slid under the glass covering of my desk. And a few framed ones rested on my computer table.

"That's not me." I told her.

Katie crossed her arms. "Really now? Then who is it? I know you don't have a twin."

I leaned back in my chair. "Actually, he's a year younger than me. Other than that, yes, yes we are almost identical twins."

"There is no way. You have got to be lying to me."

I shook my computer mouse to wake up my computer and pulled up my picture file. I found one from a hunting trip when I was fourteen. I showed Katie. My brother and I were both wearing camouflage clothes and sitting up on a tree branch, talking to each other. The deer lease sign was blurry in the background. Katie was gaping at the picture.

"But…who is that?"

"Connor, my little brother. He travels around the world and does a bunch of stuff. Takes pictures of landscapes and sells them for money, learns how to make weird food, things like that."

Katie smirked. "So seeing that he's your brother he's probably the one that ripped off those Girl Scouts at the airport."

"That was him." My little brother, all grown up and wreaking international havoc…he made me so proud.

Katie's eyes got even bigger. "I was joking."

"I wasn't."

Katie laughed. That also scared me. Since when was I funny to her? Nico poked his head in.

"Hey, um, big favor to ask. Thalia's going to flip out when she realizes there's no more Cookies N Cream. Do you mind going to get that, and maybe some more Tylenol?"

"Sure; why not?" I stood up and held the door open for Katie. The nearest Wal*Mart was only three blocks away; we could walk.

Katie reached the door and surprised me by kissing my cheek.

"You never took the mistletoe down." She left me standing there, dumbfounded. I was grinning like an idiot but I really didn't care.

I had to jog a few paces to catch up to her. She laughed and slightly pushed me to the side.

"Losing your touch, Stoll?" Oh no she di-in't.

"In your dreams, Gardner." I replied. I fell into step with her. We walked in silence for a while.

"So tell me more about Connor. I had no idea you even had a brother!"

"And? I didn't know you had a nearly identical sister."

Katie blushed. "You met Miranda?"

"Who do you think sold me your flowers?"

Katie pushed me again. I rolled my eyes and pushed back that time. We came to the end of the block.

"Well, Connor's something of an oddball. He always does the stuff nobody wants to do. He snuck in and spiked the punch at my senior prom."

"Did you go to school with Annabeth? She told me a story like that." Katie said. I nodded.

"Yeah. Her reaction was one of the best ones. She took one sip and spit it out on the floor. One of the biggest hotshots slipped in it and dragged the entire snack table down with him. It was hilarious."

"I'm sure it was. That sounds like something she would do. Did she accuse you of it?"

I shook my head. "My work was mostly anonymous. But Connor and I pulled the best pranks. Everyone knew who we were because of our spontaneity."

"Like what?" Katie was really interested for some reason. The words of my family kept floating through my mind.

"One time he helped me write a song for English. We had to re-write a little kid song for our poetry unit. It was to help 'enhance our rhyming skills' or whatever excuse the teacher gave us."

"What did you do?"

"Row, Row, Row Your Boat. By lunch everyone knew it. That was what got us on the popular charts. The high school A-list, jocks, whatever you want to call it." We reached the end of the second block: one more to go. Good thing, too; it had looked like it was going to rain.

"How did it go?"

She wanted me to sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat. I figured what the heck? No one's around.

I took a deep breath. "*Swag, swag, swag I have; I have it all the time. YOLO, YOLO, YOLO, YOLO, this is my rhyme.*"

Katie burst out laughing. "Are you serious? You wrote YOLO Swag?"

"You've heard of it?" That was surprising.

"Yeah, one of my friends had just transferred from your school and had it as her ringtone."

Wow. Katie knew who I was before she actually knew who I was. That may not have made sense, but it did in so many ways.

We got to Wal*Mart and split up to get the stuff. I grabbed a small bottle of Tylenol and a thing of Aleve before meeting Katie at the register. She had grabbed a pint of Cookies N Cream for Thalia. I paid and we stepped back outside. Sure enough it was fixing to rain.

"We'd better hurry." Katie said, tying the bag shut. She then looped and tied the plastic handles through one of her back belt loops. I shook my head and we started speed walking back to the office.

We had just finished the first block we heard the thunder.

"Hey do you have your phone? Maybe someone could pick us up." I suggested.

"No. It's on the charger back in our office. Do you have yours?"

I felt in my pockets. "You confiscated it when yours died and you needed to make a call."

Katie stomped her foot and crossed her arms childishly. "Well that's not fair."

"You're right; it's not fair that you stole my phone."

Katie hit my arm. I held my hands up in defense.

"Abuse! Foul! Time out! Ref, are you seeing this?" Katie doubled over laughing at me.

"You're crazy. And why do you always say that?"

I shrugged. "It's what I do. I grew up on a field or court of some kind. Angry parents were always yelling that when someone screwed up, so I just adopted their sayings."

"You're insane. Ow; stop." Katie stopped walking and sat down on a park bench. I looked up.

"Do we have time for this?"

"There is something in my shoe!" Katie dug out a small fuzzball and flicked it onto the concrete.

As soon as she stood up it started pouring down rain. It thundered in the far distance.

"C'mon!" I motioned to Katie. We took off running down the block. I realized something after about thirty seconds: it was already raining. We were soaked to the bone. Why were we wasting our energy trying to get out of it? I grabbed Katie's arm and pulled her to a stop.

"Travis, we're getting soaked!"

"We already are, so why not take our time?"

"Pneumonia isn't exactly what I want the night before a wedding I RSVP'd to. It also wouldn't help us solve the case at all!"

I grabbed her other arm and held her still. She had no choice but to look at me.

"Katie. We're dripping water and we have two blocks to walk. If we kept running full force we'd run out of breath and have to slow down or stop, meaning more time in the rain. That or we'd slip and fall, nearly killing ourselves."

We held eye contact for a full ten seconds. I could tell Katie was debating what I'd said.

"Alright then. If we walked or ran we'd end up getting pneumonia. What do you propose we do?"

An idea immediately came to mind. I kept hold of her right hand and slid my other hand onto her hip. Katie must have thought I was crazy.

"Dance with me."

This is where YOLO is applied. Like I said, Katie had several switches. She could have responded in a million ways right then, rational or not. I honestly didn't know what to expect.

"I can't exactly lead, now can I?"

I found it kind of attractive that Katie had to slightly look up to make eye contact. It made me feel powerful in a way. I took a step back and Katie went with me. Side, side, turn, front, back, repeat. That was our pattern. Gradually we sped up. I managed to get us to the end of the block. One more to go.

We continued our pattern, creating our own rhythm as we danced down the street. At one point I proved my logic; Katie slipped in a puddle and would have fallen if I hadn't caught her. She could have easily gotten up, but she seemed frozen in my arms. It was kind of cheesy and cliché, but it was perfect at the moment.

Katie eventually stood and cleared her throat. "We should probably just walk the rest of the way."

We were only ten feet from the office. She was right. We walked the rest of the way. Like usual, I got the door for her. Hazel's eyebrows shot up when she saw us, dripping wet.

"Where have you been?"

"Getting ice cream for Thalia." I replied, shutting the door.

"Jason, Percy, and Nico just took her, Annabeth, and Piper out for ice cream. They just got back about ten minutes ago."

We were set up. They wanted us out of the office for some reason. I got the door to our office. Katie walked in and stopped almost immediately. I followed her in.

"What's up?" I asked.

"You tell me," Katie replied. She took what I'd said quite literally. I looked up and felt a rush of emotions: surprise, admiration, shock, pride, and a little bit of joy mixed in. Our ceiling was covered in mistletoe.

Some Tratie fluff to hold you over until I get to write the next chapter. Enjoy! R&R! Sorry I've been so busy; school has me piled down with work. I'll try to publish a small story to tide you over soon. Love you guys!