tratie one shots, vol. i

[ loved her / tw ]

With scattered brainwaves, he connected the dots that there was a car right outside his alley. A woman rested with her head against the wheel, out cold like the rest of the mortals. 

Her phone. 

The woman's cell was on the dash of her car, and with the window broken open, he could've easily reached through and grabbed it. 

This time, when Travis stood, he didn't crash back down. He slumped against the wall and hissed in pain as the brick scraped at his hands, but he held himself up and inched his foot forward. His stab wound throbbed with such fierce pangs that he shook from head to toe. But, he had to get to that phone. 

His vision blurred with pain as he took another excruciating step towards the mouth of the alley, knowing full well that he may not have even been able to get there before he keeled over. Just ten more steps, tops, and he'd be there. 

Katie had to know. 

The blood drained from his side down his body, and the leg of his shorts became drenched. Every move he made he created more blood flow. Biting his lip so hard he was sure he busted it, Travis staggered another few steps before slipping in the dark liquid and falling flat on his face. 

The world spun around him as he looked up, so close to the front wheel of the car that he could've touched it. So close. 

The sharpness in his side felt like someone was pulling at all his arteries, and punching him a few times in the process. But he had to tell Katie. 

He had never loved her more than in that second. 

The footboard was within reach, and Travis pushed through the swell of pain to grab it and pull himself towards the car door. He had to do this, and if these words were the last breath he uttered, then so be it. He had to tell her. She had to know. 

He loved her. 

Reaching the car door proved to be a much simpler task than the one before him - climbing back to stand up and get to the phone. 

But he had to.

With legs wobbling and arms quivering, he tugged at the locked door handle to try and carry himself up the side of the car. Unsuccessful. He attempted to swing his leg under himself to push up, but he could hardly inch his left thigh out to take him from the position he was currently in. 

Scrambling to hype himself up was a challenge, considering the only thing he had going for him was that a monster hadn't found him yet, and his nose wasn't broken from when he fell on his face. But, looking past the feeling of his guts spilling out of him, he saw only one thing.

Katie. 

She had to know. 

A final burst of strength was found as Travis yanked himself up with the handle of the car door, and he swayed as he balanced himself on his feet. Luckily, he was still vaguely numb, even after moving around and aggravating the wound. The vertigo he experienced doubled as he leaned in over the broken window to retrieve the phone. 

It slipped in his bloodied hands, but he was able to keep a grip on it and bring it out of the vehicle before sliding down its door again. He recoiled as his head swam, but he summoned all the brain power he had left to hack into the woman's phone. 

Hermes must've been looking out for him, because the password ended up being 123456. 

The last thing he had to do was look up the Empire's lobby number and call it.

Call her. 

Tell her that he loved her. 

With trembling hands, he wiped his fingers off on his shirt (that turned out to be just as bloody as his hands, so he resorted to using the gravelly road). He found Google, but his head involuntarily collapsed against the car with a thud. 

A new shockwave rode through him, starting at the crown of his scalp to the injury that would ultimately kill him. He was no doctor, but he presumed he had a few minutes left.

Flinching as he tilted his head back up, he punched in what he was looking for, and luckily, the bars on her phone carried him to the number he so desperately needed. 

He pressed it. 

It rang. 

Travis vaguely remembered pressing the button to put his call on speaker before he shrunk back and dropped the phone due to another wave of pain. 

He had to do this one thing. 

Then he'd be done. 

"Hello...?" He barely recognized the voice to be an Apollo camper's, but he didn't know who exactly. 

He didn't care. 

"I need Katie," he croaked, spitting out a gob of blood onto the concrete as he tried again. "I... get me Katie."

"Katie?" the voice asked before repeating it louder. "Katie! Someone called for you."

He sighed as relief coursed his wrought veins. He could talk to her. He could tell her. 

He was blacking out. 

Stay with it, dude. You've come this far.

Tell her.

"...Yes?" 

Katie.

He gasped out a breath and struggled to pick up the phone again to hold it closer to his face, as if that held her nearer, too. "Katie... Ka..."

"Who is this?"

"Katie-kat..."

On the other side of the line, he heard a sharp inhale. "Trav?"

"Heya, Kates." With failing gumption and spiraling vision, Travis managed a light chuckle. "What's up?"

"Travis, are you okay?" Her worried tone hardly clicked in his head. Her words all ran together like they were molasses.

He shook his head, but choked out another sentence. "Just... making sure you're okay."

"I'm safe, but... you don't sound okay."

"I need you to know something."

He knew he sounded slurred and clambering, but he had to force his next words out if it killed him.

He would die anyway, so he may as well have died trying at this. 

"Travis, where are you? I'm sending someone to get you."

Again, he shook his head. Shreds of wistfulness overtook him - he wanted to have more words with her. He wanted to spend forever talking to her. 

But that wouldn't happen.

He didn't have forever.

"You gotta know... I didn't," he gathered a shaky breath, "I don't hate you. At all." 

Her silence conveyed obvious confusion and concern, but he had to continue. Travis didn't know how much longer he could take talking, but he wanted to spend every last second with her on the line. 

"I love you, Katie-kat."

He loved her.

"Travis?" The pitch in her voice changed as she let out a small sob, and he wanted more than anything to make it better.

"I loved you." 

He loved her.

Darkness closed in around his peripheral, but he felt like a million pounds had been lifted off of him. It could've been his declaration or the blood loss, but he was sure he'd never felt lighter. 

He loved her.

The sun beat down on the son of Hermes as he completed his last action - pressing the "end call" button. He knew in his heart that the demigods would win. They had to. Katie would be safe, Katie would live her life after this. 

He loved her.

And now, he only loved her from afar.