Author's Note:

Tratie strikes again! This was a request from kalisfandom1004!

Cheers!

justapercyjacksonfan

So maybe I care a little bit.

"What's up with you?"

"Nothing. I'm fine."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. I'm good, why?"

"I don't know, you just look...sad."

Katie sighed. "Honestly, Miranda, I really am fine."

"And this has nothing to do with-"

"It has nothing to do with Travis! We're taking a break, okay, I'm not even thinking about him!"

Miranda hesitated. "Right, I was just - right. Rock paper scissors for who has to keep track of the littles at breakfast?"

Miranda lost, but took it in stride, leaving Katie and making sure the three youngest Demeter campers, Poppy, Meadow, and Linden. Yes, all three agriculturally themed, and yes, everyone in the cabin was sure that their mom had some hand in it.

It only left Katie to her thoughts. Because, yeah, things weren't fine. She missed Travis. They'd never been a kumbaya, always happy and sunshine couple. They argued, and bickered with each other constantly, but if anyone else tried anything, they would defend each other to the end.

Unfortunately, that meant it was harder to tell when something was actually a problem. And after the last fight...yeah, they'd had to take a break. Both of them decided they needed perspective. Of course, everyone in cabin ten had had a field day, running around and falling over themselves as they came up with plans to get 'tratie' back together. But for Katie - she was only just realizing how much she missed Travis. It felt odd not to have him by her side.

Something felt more off today. Of course, everything felt out of sync lately, but there was something else. Katie couldn't quite put her finger on it. But as the minutes ticked into an hour of her not being able to figure out what was wrong, she grew more uneasy. She jumped at little things, and grew more and more anxious.

Today, the Demeter and Hermes cabins were paired for activities, starting with arts and crafts. Katie had taken charge of all the youngest children from both cabins, and was supervising the crayons and coloring pages, the clay and the paints, the construction paper and pipe cleaners, the stickers and glue sticks. For the most part, it didn't get too out of hand, but she was used to breaking up the occasional tantrum when someone stole the markers someone else was using, or accidentally put a hand in their painting.

Katie smiled as she watched Linden laugh at a Hermes girl's clay sculpture, only for the girl to retort that he was a stupid head. They both blushed furiously, going back to their own projects, but Katie noticed them both trying to let the other notice they were looking at each other.

Kinda like Travis and I

Ouch.

No, Katie. Not right now. No thinking about Travis. Later, you don't need to get all emotional in front of the kids.

She glanced across the room, past where some of her half-siblings were designing a new topiary, to some Hermes kids who were digging through the supply closet. Surprisingly, Travis wasn't with them.

The uneasy feeling lessened marginally. Katie took a brief lap around the room, checking to see if she'd missed him anywhere, or if he'd simply been hidden from her view by a group. No such luck.

"Connor." Katie stopped the younger Stoll as he was dragging a bag of sand back to ...whatever his project was. "Where's your brother?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Which one?"

"Which one do you think? Travis, duh."

"Oh!" Connor did a quick scan around the room. "I don't know. Why?"

"Because...because it means he's absent from a scheduled lesson! As a co-counselor, I have to report him."

"...no other reason?"

"No."

He rolled his eyes. "Right. Well, as a co-counselor myself, I'll also be turning in an attendance record with him marked as present, so as it's a tie, Chiron will have to just drop it."

"No way. Miranda will side with me."

"C'mon, Katie, just let it slide today."

"I will if you tell me what was so important he missed."

"Deal. I honestly don't know, he just said he needed some time to himself to think. Which is weird, because he hates being alone."

"Ugh. Fine. You might as well put that back, we're getting close to clean up."

They parted ways, Katie going back to the littles to encourage them to take their paint 'palettes' (they were just paper plates) to the garbage, and to start washing brushes and hands while she took their projects to the drying rack.

"Nice shot."

"Thanks." Katie muttered.

"So what were you talking to Connor about?"

"Nothing, Miranda."

"Puh-lease. You've barely spoken all day, and the one time you actually have a conversation, it's nothing? Katie. You can tell me what's bugging you."

Katie sighed. "Travis hasn't been at any of today's activities. I didn't see him at breakfast, he wasn't there for arts and crafts or when we had litter detail at the amphitheater, and he's still not here for archery."

Miranda cracked a grin. "It sounds like you care."

Katie scoffed.

"Katie."

"Fine. Maybe I care a little bit." Her eyes fell toward the strawberry fields, where she saw a flash of orange. "Could you cover me? I need some time to think."

Miranda's gaze softened. "Or course. Go ahead."

Katie gave her thanks before sprinting towards her beloved strawberries. The fertile earth hummed underneath her feet, and she had to shrug off the sensory overload. It was cool that things like fields could act almost as an extension of her eyes, allowing her to see/feel things in it, as long as she was also in the field. It just meant she had to get very good ignoring the irrelevant information. As far as she knew, the ability was fairly unique to her.

Whatever the case, it let her locate another human in the field fairly easily. A quick walk revealed that it was Travis.

It was at that point that Katie realized she didn't have a plan as to what to do once she found Travis.

She cleared her throat. "Hey."

He turned around. "Katie…..you're….here."

"Yeah. I...I guess I am."

"...why?"

She bit back a snippy comment. She desperately wanted to settle back into their old dynamic of trading insults, but that was the whole reason they were in such an awkward position in the first place.

"Because I missed you. I miss us. I want to work through this. Together."

She waited nervously for what he would say.

Instead, he just pulled her into a hug. And no words needed to be said

Author's Note:

Please excuse the late update, this was supposed to go out on the third, but I've been in an awful writing slump for the past two-ish weeks, so I pushed it to the eighth but only did the final edit this evening.

Moving on….oh yeah, over TWELVE THOUSAND views? That's so many more than I ever could have dreamed of, thank you to anyone who has read this!

And now, follows, favorites, reviews, and just general mayhem.

Thank you to TheDayofRickening and Cookmac11 for following, as well as pao930528, bigdoors, and TheDayofRickening (again!) for favoriting!

PYBooks543 - yeah. It's mostly because aroace's are often told that, 'you'll like it (whether that's a relationship, kissing, sex, whatever) if you try it/find the right person' and most of those fics tend to draw from a space that's a bit of a sore spot for me. More power to you if that's your jam, I just can't right it. The weapons were pretty fun to come up with, my favorite being Marianne's throwing stars. Well, it was meant to be like, godly grandparents and not romantic, but read into it however you'd like.

Lol, I'll put them in the queue, sounds like fun!

Milkshakes and Cookies - Thank you! Same on the twin thing-I don't have one, but I've always kind of wanted one. Thank you-I was particularly proud of that one. Hmmm...when Leo is alone with them...I have to assume he takes them out to whatever thing their own parents deemed not allowed and then says, 'Well, they were at my house, my rules.' He's the cool uncle. I get along with my older siblings fine, for me it's my younger siblings where we almost unanimously are in disagreement over...everything. Stay safe!

Bdarwin85 - Of course! Sorry, writing slump :( Hopefully I'll have the next one up by Valentines?

AyaTheDoggo - shit dude, say whatever the fuck you want, I don't care. That is quite the time crunch. Well, I hope your mom wasn't *too* disappointed in you. Cya soon!

WolfOfSilverGoddessArtemis - Thanks, I try :)

Thumbellina - thank you!

Guest - The world, and then some. Sherman and Miranda are on the list!

WAIT, STOP AND READ THIS!

Next one-shot is scheduled for February 14, the day before the fifteenth, and a day on which nothing else falls and is not at all special. That February 14.

Similar to Some things should remain unbroken was the New Year's holiday special, I'll have a new completed work up on Valentine's Day, February 14. Wait…

I'm kind of backlogged, so expect a whole bunch at once in about a month as a spring break special, and then I'll probably have another week after that where there's a post everyday

That is all.

Cheers!

justapercyjacksonfan