tratie one shots, vol. i

[ out loud ]

sorry this one's shorter, i promise i'll try to get a longer one together next! this idea wouldn't get out of my head until i wrote it.

words: 412

. . .

Stop being so adorable.

No matter how hard he tried, Travis couldn't will Katie to quit her habit with his magical brain waves. They were in a head counselor meeting, and Katie was complaining about the recent drop in temperature in their environment bubble over the camp. Apparently, her crops were dying, or something. But Travis wasn't paying attention to that part. All he could focus on were her dazzling green eyes, the way her mouth formed the word "watermelons", and the fact that he couldn't snap out of it. It was so obnoxious.

For the love of the gods, stop being so cute!

"What?"

The other cabin counselors turned their heads towards Travis, eyes wide and mouths agape.

Did I just say that out loud?

"Uh... yeah." Katie raised an eyebrow, scuffing her shoes on the pavement of the Big House's porch.

"Oh." If Travis was the type to get red in the face, he would've been burning up from irritation. Unluckily for him, everyone thought he never got mad or intolerant. So he brushed it off, playing out his regular spiel and going off on his nemesis. "Um, I mean it. You need to stop being so breathtaking all the time."

She squinted, anger trying desperately to replace the butterflies in her stomach. "I do? Tell me, O Wise One, however will I accomplish that?"

"I don't know, you just need to be ugly," he erupted, smacking a hand on the table and forgetting about the other demigods present. "How am I supposed to hate you when you're just sitting there all gorgeous and stuff?"

"Gorgeous and stuff?" She bit back, eyes on fire.

He nodded sternly. "Yeah, gorgeous and stuff! You're so annoyingly beautiful... You should get out of here so I can think!"

"You never think, ever," she remarked steadily, sticking her nose up.

Travis whined. "Not around you, I don't!"

Chiron finally interrupted the squabble, but not after shushing the other counselors' laughter. "Do you need to take this outside?"

Travis snapped, "Gladly!" as he and Katie stormed outside, still bickering about how stupidly cute she was.

When they were out of earshot, Silena sighed. "Finally, it took those two forever."

"Seriously," Connor scoffed. "That was the most unsmooth thing I've seen Travis pull with any girl in the history of ever."

And, though indeed it was, it was the perfect way to break the ice for the best thing to happen to either of the two.