Finally finished my first ever Tratie. And it's long. Hope you like it anyway. Please R&R.

Again, I do not known anthing thing to do with PJO, HOO or Rick Riordan. I only own Tyler, Griffin and Ryan

Kiss From A Rose

Ever since Katie Gardner had come to camp, Travis had known that something was different about her. He didn't know what, but he knew that something was different about her. The way her dark brown hair sat perfectly around her face and over her shoulder until it stopped in the middle of her back. The way her deep brown eyes shone, especially when she was in the sun or out in the strawberry fields. The scared look on her face when he first saw her that made him want to hold her and reassure her that everything was going to be okay. He just knew.

She was his brother's age when he first saw her; ten. But he and Connor had been at camp for at least two years before she showed up. So, really, that made them her seniors. By two years, but still. Travis especially because he was a year older than her. And he and Connor knew who their father was, whereas she was still undetermined. Meaning that she was placed in the Hermes cabin until her godly parent claimed her.

Two weeks. That's how long it took. Two weeks for Demeter to claim her… and for the fun to really begin.

At first they were small, friendly almost. Like drawing on her face while she was asleep; switching the label of her shampoo with a bottle of mayonnaise; hiding her gardening tools in plain sight so she thought she had just misplaced them. Yeah, she was a little annoyed with them. But they were just small pranks. And he couldn't understand why he liked to choose the Demeter cabin a lot more now that she was there.

Then he found out that she was only a summer camper. He couldn't understand it, but he felt upset about the fact that she was going to be leaving. The shine in his eyes dimmed at the news. So what did he do… or rather Connor do? They pranked the Apollo and Aphrodite cabins.

Later, on the second last day of camp for the summer campers, Travis heard a small laugh like tinkling wind chimes in a soft breeze. When he turned around, he found Katie laughing as she watched the Aphrodite campers fighting each other and the Apollo campers trying to figure out what was wrong with their arrows. That was when he decided that her difference from the other campers was a good difference. Who knew rubber arrows and golden mangoes could accomplish so much in one day?

Then, she was gone for the rest of the year. Travis found that not a day went by when something didn't remind him about her. And he eventually found himself working on pranks to get her to laugh again, saving them for when she was back in the Demeter cabin when summer came around again. But no matter what he did, for some reason his world seemed to have dulled slightly without her there.

It was like that for three years. Travis Stoll had managed to hide his crush on Katie Gardner for three years. But then Connor started to notice how his brother was acting whenever Katie was around and whenever she wasn't. He began teasing and pranking his own brother more often. And Travis didn't know any other way to stop him but to fight back. Pretty soon Prank Wars had erupted everywhere the other campers looked. Nowhere was safe. And, when summer came along, Katie usually got it from both of them.

Finally the Prank Wars stopped when Travis was witness to a particularly nasty prank on Katie by Connor. That beautiful long hair of hers had been roughly cut to the top of her shoulders not to mention it had been dyed Aphrodite pink. And the blue flower hair clips that her father had given to her as a birthday present one year were now just clips. The flowers had been ripped off, leaving the poor girl in tears at the sight of them.

That was not how Travis liked to see her. In fact, he turned on his heels and marched down to the forest edge where he knew Connor was hiding. His face had hardened at the sight of the girl he had a crush on brought to tears by his brother's cruel joke and, to be honest, he looked downright scary when he was angry. And that was saying something considering the Stolls very rarely got angry.

" Connor!" He called once he got to the trees.

Connor never realised that his brother would be this angry with him. As soon as he had walked out from behind a particularly large tree, his brother decked him. Yeah, he was shocked at the attack. But at least he knew one thing, now. If Travis was this angry over what had happened to Katie Gardner, then he must really like her.

" Why would you do something like that?"

" This is a prank war. Nobody gets spared." Connor replied, rubbing his jaw where his brother had hit him.

After a few more words, Travis walked off. Word of what had happened spread quickly enough and almost everyone realised what that meant. The Prank War was off. And, two days later after dinner, Katie had found a little package sitting on her pillow. Inside the package was a pair of hair clips with silver flowers and a note in Ancient Greek.

'I know they're not the ones your dad gave you,

but I hope you like them anyway.'

Katie smiled, realising that she had a secret admirer somewhere in camp. But she had no idea who. And the fact that this person hadn't even left some form of sign off told her that finding them was going to be difficult. She didn't realise that all she had to do was look out her window to see Travis Stoll sitting on his cabin stairs watching her smile at the hair clips that he had bought for her, strangely proud that he hadn't stolen them for once.

But things began to change when Travis and Connor became the new cabin leaders of the Hermes cabin. The summer after the big Prank War between the Stoll brothers, Travis barely left his cabin. He only left if it was absolutely necessary. For four years, now, he had had a crush on Katie Gardner. And already his heart felt like it was being torn in two. It was worse than having to deal with Tantalus.

She had become the new cabin leader for the Demeter cabin after the old one was forced to move to South America. There was no choice for either of them. The old counsellor wasn't allowed to stay at camp full-time and Katie was the oldest in the cabin with the most beads. Not to mention she had been sent on a quest with some guy from the Apollo cabin about a week after last year's Fourth of July celebrations.

And that was where his troubles started.

He didn't realise what was going on until after Clarisse had left to go on her quest. He had been sneaking around with the supplies for his next 'secret' prank when he saw them. They were sitting on the beach, talking. It was Katie Gardner with the Apollo guy from that quest they had gone on together. At first he didn't realise it was her… until he heard her laugh. Seeing them together broke him.

With a heavy sigh, Travis had to remove himself from the scene. How he managed to get back to the Hermes cabin, he did not know. All he knew was that once he got there, he dumped the supplies onto Connor's bunk, climbed up to his own bunk and refused to get down. The wrenching of his heart made his eyes sting and his blood boil at the burning memories. He never noticed when Connor waltzed in, excited about the prank.

" Alright! You got the stuff! Now, let's go put Operation Baby Boom into…" Connor started, before noticing his brother not acting like his brother.

" I'm pulling out for this one, Connor." Travis muttered dejectedly.

" What? You can't!"

" I'm not in the mood."

" Not in the…! This is so not like you, Travis."

" Leave me alone, Connor."

" No! I'm not going to take orders from a guy who is clearly not my brother. I'm going to find out where my brother really is."

Travis turned on his side to face the wall of the cabin. Not even a minute later, he heard his brother leave, slamming the cabin door behind him.

Over the next couple of weeks, Travis found his brother going around and otherwise spying on Katie and, more importantly, the guy from Apollo. For some reason, though, Connor wouldn't let him in what was going on. He only said one thing when Travis asked him. It turned out the guy's name was Tyler. The Aphrodite campers were going insane over the whole triangle thing between their dream 'Tratie' and dream 'Kaler' and it was driving him insane. But what scared him most was when he saw Connor sneaking over to the Aphrodite cabin one day and overheard him talking about love letters and other love stuff.

But Connor's plans didn't go into action until after the summer was over and Katie had gone home. Travis found Connor writing love letters to Katie, which angered him for some reason. And then, when mail came for the all-rounders, he found his brother writing love letters to Tyler. That deeply disturbed him.

He was about to ask what was going on after the fifth letter arrived for Tyler one morning at breakfast when one of his younger brothers, Griffin Lowe, suddenly asked one of the most disturbing questions no eleven year old should ask. Needless to say, the entire Hermes table became the centre of attention as Travis yelled out in disgust. Griffin, who had been sitting across from Connor, then reached over the table and high-fived the younger Stoll as well as his best friend/brother, Ryan. That was when Travis discovered that, not only was the Aphrodite Cabin involved in this, but so was the rest of the Hermes Cabin.

After that, and for the rest of the day, whenever Travis went to ask his brother what he was doing with someone else's love letters one of a series of events happened. First he would hear Griffin's voice in his head repeating the question from breakfast. If he managed to get past that, he was doing well. If not, he paid a visit to the bathroom. After that he would either see Connor with Griffin and the memory would return, he would see Ryan with Connor and the memory would return, Connor somehow avoided the question, a Hermes camper would drag him away and distract him somehow… or an Aphrodite camper would drag him into their cabin to give him a 'talking to'.

In other words, it was horrible and he never did get to even ask the question.

Finally summer came around. And with it came Katie. When Travis first saw her, he made a mental note not to cross her path for the rest of the day. She didn't look too happy. Apparently, according to one of her sisters he overheard talking to her Athenian friend as he walked past, she had received some nasty letters from Tyler over the summer. Only one person came to mind. His brother. Connor Stoll.

" What have you been doing Connor?" Travis called out when he saw his brother walk out of the Hermes Cabin after he had heard this.

He didn't find the chance. He made it. Right in front of Tyler and Katie, too.

No one was happy after that. Katie stopped talking to all three boys, which completely ruined Travis. He began taking desperate measures. He returned to pranking. At first, she didn't take notice. Then came the chocolate Easter bunnies. No one knew how he managed to get Easter Bunnies at that time of year, but the roof of the Demeter cabin was littered with them. It may not have had the same effect that Travis had hoped, but at least it proved that he and Katie were now back on some kind of verbal communication basis. Even if it was yelling.

But things began to get rough as the fight against Kronos drew closer. And when finally it did come, Katie was struck hard. Travis had been there when she was overwhelmed with monsters. He had gone to her aid and managed to get her back to Olympus to get the wound in her side healed up. That was when they found that Tyler had been killed. Then came the news of Silena. That news had been too much for Katie and he pulled her into him where she cried her heart out. He only left her again when Connor pulled him away to help defend the Empire State Building again.

" We're in the middle of a world threatening battle and I can't believe I'm thinking about that. What is wrong with me?" Travis muttered half an hour after Percy had gone up to Olympus.

" I don't know. What is wrong with you?" Connor asked.

" You're my brother. That's what's wrong with me."

" Hey!"

" It's true."

" Okay, now. Tell Conny what's wrong." Connor said in concerned parent/doctor voice.

" Aside from the fact that my brother's demented?" Travis asked, looking at his brother like he was some sort of alien.

" Yes, aside from the fact that your brother's demented."

" Okay, well… I might as well say it now before I die."

" You're not going to die. You are going to live so you can prank another day." Connor interrupted.

" I'm trying to tell you something here." Travis sighed.

" Sorry."

" Anyway. I've had a crush on Katie Gardner for eight years."

" Wow. That's a long time to be crushing on someone."

" And I might never get to tell her that I love her."

Connor looked over his brother's shoulder and that familiar mischievous gleam returned to his eyes. Travis, however didn't see it. He was too busy looking out the doors and judging the best ways to stay alive. But he was forced to look back at his brother when he felt a hand on his shoulder. The look on the younger Stoll's face was not like him at all. But it seemed to say everything.

" She knows." Was all that was said before Connor rushed out into the fray.

It wasn't until that year's summer camp was nearly over that Travis finally understood what his brother had meant. Of all the pranking that he and Connor had done on the Demeter cabin, the one prank that won him Katie's heart was one that Connor alone had pulled.

Both Travis and Katie had received letters saying to go to the Big House basement. Why? Neither of them knew. But they went…and were locked in. The only way to get out (according to the note that was locked in with them) was to confess their love to each other in the face. And when Travis looked at Katie, he noticed that she was wearing the silver flower hair clips that he had bought for her four years ago.

" I see you're wearing those hair clips. They suit you, you know Katie-Kat." He said, a grin on his face, as he leaned against the wall.

" Thank you." Katie replied slowly, not trusting the older Stoll.

" I'm sorry for what my brother did that day."

" Tha-wait, what?"

" It was part of that Prank War we had. But I pulled out when he did that to you. After I gave him what for, though."

" What are you saying, Travis."

" I'd never hurt you. Not like that. Not in any way. I could never see you hurt. You mean too much for me to do something like that."

" Travis…why?"

" Isn't it obvious? I love you. I always have. Ever since I first met you."

" You always will, won't you."

" I suppose so."

" The bunnies?"

" You missed out on Easter, so I brought Easter to you."

" Travis Stoll, I did not miss out on Easter!"

" But you liked it right?" Travis asked, standing straight and taking a step towards Katie.

" How many times do I have to tell you, you do not go decorating the Demeter cabin roof with chocolate?"

" So does that mean you liked it?"

" Aahhggg…"

" Well?"

" …Yes. I thought… it was cute."

" It's taken you three years to admit that, you know."

" You… you goof. I wouldn't like the pranks if I didn't like the prankster." A blush crept on Katie's face as she spoke.

" What?" This time is was Travis's turn to be confused.

For an answer, Katie closed the distance between her and Travis. Too stunned to move, Travis could only watch as she reached up to him. Only when her lips smacked against his did he realise what his answer was. But it was as he was only just beginning to enjoy it that she pulled away from him.

" Is that answer enough for you?" Katie asked.

It took Travis a minute to try and recollect himself from cloud nine before he answered. " Yeah."

" Good. I need to get ready for the trip home tomorrow."

And with that, Katie turned on her heals and walked out of the Big House. Connor hadn't really locked the door like the two thought. But it didn't really matter because Travis was still somewhere up on cloud nine. That was as near as he was going to get to asking her to be his girlfriend. And, considering who he was, as near as a yes as he was going to get.

It took him another fifteen minutes just to get out of the basement. When he finally got back the cabins area, he was greeted by everyone. And in the lead was a surprised looking Katie Gardner and a smiling Connor Stoll. The Aphrodite cabin was going crazy over 'Tratie' to which Katie finally got annoyed and yelled at them for. And there were mutters of 'Took them long enough' going around too.

" Well?" Connor asked him when he was close enough. " Have I found my brother yet?"

" Yeah." Travis replied, still a little bit hyper from his first kiss.

" And where was he?"

" Receiving a kiss from a rose."

Well, folks. There you have it. Tratie. It may be a little OOC, but I did try my best to make this short but long enough to get eight years of hidden love. Please don't hate it... or me.

Scene inspired by the song 'Kiss From A Rose' by Seal.

Again, I own nothing of PJO or HOO.

Hope you enjoyed it. Next up a Jasper/Jeyna scene. Please R&R.