Work Text:
Tensions were high at camp. Annabeth’s quest had been gone for 2 weeks, the threat of Luke’s invasion was looming, training was rigorous, and the overall mood in camp was at an all-time low. The head counselors specifically, were responsible for running the training, hoping to spread enough information into the new campers to keep them alive. Even though Katie didn’t have as much on her plate as some of the others, the Apollo, Athena and Ares Cabins specifically were practically drowning, she still felt the pressure. She’d been in a horrible mood for weeks, she hadn’t had time for her strawberries, and most of all she missed her friends.
They’d all been so busy, she genuinely couldn’t remember the last time she’d spoken to Lou Ellen or the Stolls, the Hermes Cabin was on an opposite schedule, they didn’t even cross paths at meals anymore. She’d hit an all time low on Saturday morning, sitting at breakfast, trying her hardest not to cry into her waffles, when a mischievous voice spoke from over her shoulder.
“Hey, Kates.” Travis said in a cheery voice. He put both of his hands on the table in front of her, trapping her between his arms, his face was only inches away from her ear. “Long time, no see.”
Katie couldn’t contain her smile. She and Travis had spent the better part of the last 3 years hating each other, but at some point in the last year, he had secretly become one of her favorite people. Now, even the way he smelled made her feel 10 times better, she’d never admit it, but she had missed him like crazy.
“What do you want, Stoll.” she mused in fake annoyance, eyes staying focused on her breakfast.
She felt him smile, and it took all her energy not to turn to look at him, knowing that if she did, their noses would practically be touching. She blushed at the thought.
“Can’t I say hi without wanting something?” He said, “I’m offended.”
“You have never in your life said hi to me without wanting something.” Katie reminded him.
“You wound me KG.” He ate a grape off her plate and swallowed before he continued, “Are you off today?”
Chiron had started assigning the head counselors break days about a week ago, after Clarisse, of all people, had passed out from heat stroke. She’d been teaching a group of Aphrodite campers spear techniques and had forgotten to drink water. Even though there was still so much to do, they all agreed to alternate days to take breaks, Katie's wasn’t until Wednesday.
“No, I have to teach the Hephestus kids about medical herbs.” She answered, trying to not sound too disappointed that she had to say no. “Why?”
“I wanted to go to the lake.” He took another grape, “ But if-”
“Who would be going?”
“I was kinda wanting to go, just us.” Katie’s stomach burst with butterflies. They’d done a lot of “just us” in the last few months, “just us,” was quickly becoming Katie’s favorite thing.
“I coouuld get Miranda to help out a bit, then I’d be done by 2.” She took another bite of her waffles, wanting to seem way chiller about what he was proposing then she really was.
“Definitely ask Miranda to help out.” He insisted, another wave of butterflies reacting to how excited he sounded.
“Meet you at the campfire at 2:15?” She finally turned to look at him, she had to look up slightly to meet his eyes, but they were so close that if either of them moved at all their noses would touch. Close enough that she felt him stop breathing, she blushed. They stayed like that for a moment, daring the other to move away first.
“Wouldn’t miss it.” He whispered, then quicker than she could register, he placed a kiss on her cheek and was walking away.
“Have a good day Katie-Kat.” he gave her a mock salute, “Don’t do anything I would do.”
Long after he was gone, Katie kept looking in the direction he disappeared. Her whole body felt like it was going to combust. Life was stressful, but her mood had drastically improved.
Across the table, her younger brother Liam cleared his throat, Katie blushed harder, she’d forgotten he was there.
“Not a word, stink.” She threatened, standing up, “or I’ll grow thorns in your pillow till you die.”
***
Katie ended up having to give Miranda half her free day, but she knew it would be worth it. Unfortunately, that meant that the 6 hours from 8 to 2 were absolute torture. She kept looking at her watch every 10 minutes, willing time to go faster. Despite that, Katie was having a better day than she’d had in a long time. For the 1st time in over a month, she finally had something to look forward to. Not even the complete outdoor incompetence of the Hephestus kids could get her down.
The idea of hanging out with him alone made it hard for Katie to focus. The last time they had hung out alone was the night before the summer campers arrived. They’d laid on the roof of the Demeter cabin for hours just talking. It wasn’t anything special or crazy but the thought of how he’d hugged her before he’d gone back to his cabin still made her blush. She could live in that memory forever.
“KATIE!” Miranda shreeked, grabbing the trowel out of Katie’s hand, “Watch what you’re doing, you almost took off my finger.”
Sure enough, Miranda had blood running down her hand. Katie had nicked her finger.
“Omigods! Miranda I’m so sorry.” Katie pulled the rag out of her apron and handed it to Miranda, “I wasn’t paying attention, I’m sorry.”
Miranda seemed more annoyed than hurt, and Katie didn’t blame her. In the 5 hours they’d been teaching, Katie had accidentally handed a younger Hephaestus girl poison ivy, dropped a mason jar of bramble seeds, given herself a rash after she dumped fertilizer all over herself and spilled a bunch of potting soil.
Miranda sighed and looked at her watch, “It’s fine,” she smiled, “just go, go be distracted by Stoll somewhere that won’t get anyone else sent to the infirmary.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to leave all this on you.” Katie asked, seeing that it was only 1:15.
“Yes, I’m sure.” Miranda held out her hand, Katie quickly gave her the shed key.
Katie beamed, and quickly collected her stuff, “I’m so sorry, I owe you, I love you.”
“Go!” Miranda said, laughing at how frantic Katie was being, “Have fun!”
***
Katie had just enough time to take a body shower, wanting to make sure the rash on her arm was clean. She tried to get dressed quickly, but her cabin was a mess. There were only 4 of them, but everyone had been so busy that they’d stopped doing inspections, so very slowly their laundry had accumulated in piles on the floor. It took Katie 10 minutes to find a bathing suit (turns out she hadn’t used one yet this summer and they were still in the drawers under her bed), and another 5 to find her sandals, which were buried under Miranda’s pile of dirty laundry. Once she was fully dressed, the reality of what she was getting ready for resurfaced. She was suddenly nervous. Nervous about what she was wearing, nervous about hanging out with Travis, nervous to be hanging out with Travis alone. She forced herself to take a breath, it was just Travis, she’d known him for years, it’s not like this was a date or anything, just going to the lake. Plus she’d worn this outfit a hundred times, she looked fine. The clock on the wall read 1:57, Katie thought about waiting, and not showing up early, but she was too excited. She grabbed her bag and her sunglasses and headed out the door.
Even though it was almost 20 minutes before they agreed to meet, Travis was already sitting by the firepit, his back turned toward her. She walked quicker, butterflies filling her stomach at the sight of him. His curly hair was a mess, which it always was, but she doubted that he’d even tried to fix it in the last few weeks. It didn’t matter to her though, she could imagine running her fingers through it no matter what it looked like. He was wearing one of his campshirts that had the sleeves cut off, exposing his arms. Katie wasn’t complaining about that either.
“Waiting for someone, Stoll?” She called when he was in earshot, he whipped around and his smile made her heart flutter. “You look a little lost.”
“You’re early KG.” He pointed out, “Did ya miss me?”
“In your dreams Stoll.” He was standing right next to her now, close enough to make her heart pound. “But you're early too, does that mean you missed me?”
“Absolutely it does,” He took her hand and spun her around, Katies stomach flipped, “I always miss you Kates.”
“Oh shut it.” Katie rolled her eyes, “C’mon, before I change my mind.”
With that, they set off. The lake was about a ten minute walk from the main part of camp, but they had to take a wide arch around the training grounds, not wanting to get sucked back into training, so the walk would be more like 15. Katie didn’t mind though, she still wasn’t over the fact that he had never let go of her hand. She had to focus to make sure she wasn’t smiling like a lunatic. They talked while they walked, about anything and everything. It was strange how easy it was to talk to him. It made her realize how much she had missed him. She’d missed his laugh, it was stupid and contagious and in all the years she’s known him, it had never failed to light up a room.
“So why not go with Connor?” Katie asked, “Why did you want to go up here with me?”
He chuckled, “Well Connor is teaching and Chris is…well, ya know.”
The mention of Chris, made Katie uncomfortable. He was a senior Hermes camper that had gone with Luke, but had come back after going crazy in the labyrinth; she sometimes forgot that he was Travis’ brother. She pushed the thought out of her mind, realizing what he said about Connor.
“If Connor’s teaching, aren’t you supposed to be teaching too?” She smacked him in the arm, “I thought you had the day off!”
“Nope!,” He wiggles his eyebrows at her. “I never once implied that I had the day off, see, I very regularly flake on my responsibilities to do whatever I want.”
“Travis!” Katie scolded, one again smacking him in the shoulder.
“I asked if you had the day off. I wanted to hang out and I knew you would never just blow off your schedule, especially not to hang out with the little old me.”
He said it with confidence, but the blunt statement twinged his cheeks pink. These were the times when Katie was sure he liked her back, not when he would scream across the dining pavilion to get her attention, not his stupid pranks, even though Miranda was sure he did them to get her attention. But when he smiled at her sweetly, making her feel like she was the most important person at camp.
“Well technically, I’m supposed to be teaching too.” Katie pointed out, “clearly you vastly underestimate your importance, Stoll.”
He stopped, taken aback. “You think I’m important?” His voice landed somewhere between real and sarcastic surprise.
Katie didn’t stop walking, mostly hoping to hide her blush and surprise that that had just come out of her mouth.
“Don’t let it get to your ego.” She forced the sarcasm, hoping to not sound as flustered as she felt.
Suddenly she was being lifted off the ground, the hours of training allowing Travis to lift her easily. He spun her around by her waist, her giggles being directed in every direction. Eventually he put her down, leaving her breathless and blushing.
“Me? Ego? Never.” Travis’s words were meant to continue the joke but he also seemed to be struggling to breathe.
Katie realized how close they were standing now, realized how pivotal this moment could be. He was staring at her, searching her face for what she had meant, but in a moment the questions left his eyes.
“Well I appreciate that Katie-Kat, I think you’re pretty important too.” He turned suddenly, headed towards the lake. “Come on, we’re burning valuable daylight. THE LAKE AWATES!!”
Travis charged forward, grabbing Katie’s hand as he went. The moment was gone but Katie still laughed as he thrust his fist in the air, pretending to march into battle. She skipped beside him, the nervous energy being left behind as both teenagers let the stress of camp melt away.
They didn’t really speak again until the lake came into view, causing their merriment to crash to a halt. The swimming hole looked like it hadn’t been touched in a year, dust and spiderwebs leaving the area a ghost of lake days past. The orange umbrellas were still closed and chairs missing their cushions, making the place seem empty and sad.
“No one set it up.” Katie whispered sadly after they had properly starred, “I guess nobody’s been here all summer.”
“I guess not.” Travis responded, with the same sad tone, he paused, “It’s okay, I know what we need to do. Who knows when I’m gonna be able to charm you away from your responsibilities again.”
He let go of her hand, setting off towards the edge of the water. Katie followed behind him, more nervous about what he had up his sleeve than anything else. He found a clean spot in the sand, the forgotten umbrellas and chairs long behind him, and opened his backpack. He pulled out a blanket, which he spread out dramatically and laid over the sand.
“There. Now it’s less depressing,” He glanced over Katie’s shoulder, “uh- just don’t look back that way.”
Katie beamed, then directed her attention to the other object that he’d pulled from the backpack. A paper bag, which suspiciously looked like it’d come from the mortal convenience store that was about a mile from camp.
“What’s in the bag, Stoll?” She asked suspiciously, Katie’s relationship with Travis’ mystery bags wasn’t necessarily a positive one.
“Just snacks, don’t be negative.” He answered.
“I’ll stop being negative when those bags stop appearing in my cabin with spiders in them.” Katie dropped her bag on the blanket, “Are we swimming or not?”
“Last one there’s a smelly harpie!” Travis said, pulling his shirt over his head.
Katie followed suit, battling the straps of her sandals. Travis took off towards the water, only for the weeds around his feet to send him tumbling to the floor. She raced past him, trying desperately not to trip. Travis had seen this trick before however, and quickly caught up with her, grabbing her hand as he ran. They collided with the water together, sending small waves up the bank.
“Foul play, Gardner.” He said after they had both reamerged. “I taught you well.”
“Well no one has used ‘smelly harpie,’” she quoted with her fingers, “since middle school. There was a lot on the line.”
“That’s not true,” Travis shook his head like a wet dog, “Con called me one last week when I put his tennis shoes on the roof.”
“Well then, you had it coming.” She pushed her hair out of her eyes, “And Connor still uses all the middle school slang, that’s not surprising.”
“Nuh-uh. He graduated from calling me an “annoying egomaniac” to “fuckass egomaniac.” Travis’ voice was proud, like he’d solved world hunger.
“Wow, growth.” Katie laughed. “Though I’m pretty sure he stole both of those from me.”
“Of course he did. You two are the only people I’d let call me an egomaniac. But either way you say dipshit, not fuckass. You're much nicer than he is.”
She smiled, the fact that she was lumped in with just his brother on something was strange, but it was a strange that she liked.
“So,” Travis floated on his back, “how was teaching indoor people outside magic.”
“UGH,” Katie floated next to him, “I dumped brambles everywhere, gave Bree poison ivy and almost chopped Miranda’s finger off. And I spilled fertilizer all over myself and now I have a rash on my arm.”
“So not good?” Travis asked, a weird look in his eyes.
“Total chaos.” Katie sighed. “What about you? What did you do this morning if not your actual job.”
“That’s an awful lot of condescension coming from someone who is also supposed to be teaching right now.” Travis replied, dodging the question.
“I worked 5 hours today, Stoll. What were you doing? Burning holes in leaves with a magnifying glass?” Katie knew he hadn't done that in years but it was fun to tease.
“I will have you know: I haven’t done that since we accidently set the dining pavilion on fire. But if you insist on being so nosy, I was actually helping Connor, we made the same deal that I’m sure you made with Miranda.”
“Half your next free day?”
“All of my next two free days, actually.” He paused, “Damn, maybe I should find other siblings to make deals with, Miranda’s price is a whole lot cheaper.”
They floated in silence for a moment. Miranda only made it half the day because she knew how important this moment was to her, she’d known that Katie would’ve bargained away every single free day she got for the rest of her life to be right where she was and Mira had done the nice thing.
If this lake day was the same for Travis as it was for Katie, (gods please please please let it be the same) then Connor had probably done the opposite, seeing how much Travis would give him to be here. Typical Hermes Cabin nonsense unfair deals. If all the was true, this was a bigger deal than Katie realized. One that she was now mortally terrified of.
“That’s a lot of days just to hang out with me.” Katie couldn’t believe that those words came out of her mouth, but it was his words that were the most surprising.
“I’d pretty much do anything to hang out with you, Katie.” He was standing now, water reaching to just under his ribcage.
She looked at him, unable to form any actual words. She turned so her feet were on the ground, though she kept her legs bent so that her shoulders were still under water. (Holy shit he called me Katie.) She tried to say something, many different somethings actually, but her voice never came. He was staring back at her, he looked nervous. (Holy Shit he’s nervous!) Katie was standing now, not breaking eye contact.
“Im- Um- I don’t-” He was stuttering, possibly trying to take back his words, but she cut him off.
“I’d pretty much do anything to hang out with you too, Travis.” Her words didn’t sound as nervous as Katie felt. Thank the gods. He beamed at her, she beamed back. They’d just crossed a line that could never be uncrossed but Katie didn’t mind, as nervous as she was, she was glad they’d done it.
Travis reached up and tugged a piece of her hair, his smile turning sheepish. It was a gentle tug, a sweet reminder of the way they’d gotten into brutal wars with each other when they were younger. Except this time he didn’t run quickly away, he didn’t stick his tongue out at her over his shoulder, she didn’t make his feet sink into the soil.
The staring became too much. What would they do if they just stayed like that? The thought made Katie shiver. She returned the favor, lightly shoving his shoulder. Anything to diffuse the tension hanging in the air.
The moment was gone, as Travis took a handful of water and flung it at her.
“Hey!” she squealed, shoving water at him as hard as she could. The splash war that broke out would have been one for the Katie v. Travis scoreboard that Silena had started during Katie’s first summer. For the record, Katie was winning. Not that Travis was trying to actually beat her.
“Okay, okay, okay.” Travis wrapped his arms around her, pinning her arms to her sides, preventing any more water from going up his nose. He was laughing. “I need to oxygen. You win Kates.”
She was laughing too, until she realized he still hadn’t put her down and they were basically nose to nose. He seemed to realize it at the same time that she did and set her gently down on the ground. Neither of them stepped away though, and the staring began again. Katie's heart actually stopped beating when he reached up and tucked her now wild hair behind her ears then used his thumbs to wipe water off her cheeks. Katie wanted to kiss him, she’d wanted to for months but she’d never truly thought she would until this moment. He pulled her towards him. HOLY SHIT I’M GOING TO KISS TRAVIS FREAKING STOLL. Katie let her eyes flutter shut.
“KATIE! TRAVIS!” a voice shouted, they jumped away from eachother as Miranda and Connor ran past the sad closed umbrellas into view.
“What’s wrong?” Katie asked at the same time Travis spoke, “What happened?”
“Annabeth’s back.” Miranda answered, her words quickly drew Katie and Travis out of the water.
Katie felt so relieved, maybe it was over. Her friend was safe and maybe they’d beaten Luke, Travis had a look very similar on his face.
“She’s back,” Connor’s next words sent shivers down Katie's spine, tears prickled around her eyes.
“Annabeth is back ALONE.”
The four took off, the perfect Lake day had ended, the last of Katie's hope ending along with it.