A/N: Thanks to liesygirl for being the first to review!
THE END—
"Come on, Seaweed Brain; let's go find a body of water to make out under."
Percy looked confused but grinned as Annabeth pulled him away from Travis and Katie. They had spent the last twenty minutes walking around Central Park with ice cream, and Katie had been wishing she had some alone time with him. Annabeth, sensing her desire to be alone with her date with her girl radar, had obliged, yanking away her boyfriend.
"What was that about?" Travis whispered in Katie's ear.
"Meet us in half an hour by the gazebo!" Annabeth called back. She winked.
Katie grabbed Travis's hand. "No idea."
"Well, I guess we're alone."
Katie bit into her cone, getting vanilla on her upper lip. She licked it away quickly, blushing slightly. "Yeah, I guess so."
Travis pulled his hand out of hers and threw his arm around her shoulders. She smiled.
"Today really has been perfect."
"Yeah. But next time, less museums, more paintball." He nuzzled her neck as they walked towards a bench.
"Sounds good."
They sat together and Katie offered him a bite of her ice cream. He declined but continued nuzzling her neck until she blushed and pulled back.
"Why are you doing that?"
He grabbed her around the waist with his other arm and pulled her back to him. "We have an hour without parental supervision or nagging demigods on our backs. Let's just…relax."
"Okay." She settled on his shoulder and he kissed the top of her head. Tingles shot through her. She felt kind of bad for holding back the kiss Travis so desperately wanted. And she wanted it to. But there was something funny about her past relationships. With her first boyfriend, it had seemed that the more she knew him, the less she wanted to kiss him, and she regretted that that boy had been her first kiss. With her last, Tyler, she hadn't known him enough, her heart acting out of what minor attraction and fascination there was between them and so had kissed him because it felt…maybe not right, but what she thought she wanted.
Katie wanted to kiss Travis. But her kisses seemed to be the Kiss of Death—pun intended—on the relationships she had previously had and she didn't want it to be that way with Travis. If she rushed into it, it could end, and that was the last thing she wanted. Taking things slow wasn't her first choice—in fact it wasn't even on her list—but she knew she should.
A few feet away, there was a saxophone player belting out a few fast runs. People wandered by, dropping change and bills into the case, and some lingered, wanting to listen to the music. Travis looked down at her and Katie could feel his gaze. When she looked up, he smiled warmly.
"You have no idea how long I've fantasized about us. Like this. I've had a silly little crush on you for…way too long."
Katie smiled. "Yeah. Me too."
"Connor was so pissed at me," he laughed. "He thought I was betraying him."
"My sisters were pretty shocked, too." She blushed, dropping his gaze, as she remembered the night her sisters had caught her mumbling Travis' name in her sleep.
"I guess we shocked the whole camp, didn't we?"
"At least we haven't been caught making out in a closet or under the canoe lake or in the woods during Capture the Flag… Do Percy and Annabeth seriously think they can ever get away with being alone together?"
Travis chuckled. "Well, they keep trying, so I guess so. But I don't think I'll wait for them to come out of the lake again. Last time I waited, they splashed me."
"Where you in on the bet last year?"
"Sweetheart, everyone was. There was no way we could have predicted that Annabeth would have been the one to make the first move, and so soon, too. I lost 50 bucks!"
"I'm pretty sure we were all surprised when Nico won the bet."
Travis held her chin in his hand, forcing her to look up at him. "I think I'd like to kiss you now."
"Oh, you think?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
Travis faltered. "Um…" He smirked and ran his thumb along her bottom lip. "You have very kissable lips. And your eyes, they're staring at me with this…longing."
Katie snorted. "Longing?"
"Oh, yeah. Can't you feel it?"
Even though Katie rolled her eyes, she knew he was right. She really did want to kiss him.
"And I'm assuming that right now you taste like vanilla ice cream."
Katie looked down at the melting ice cream in her hand and set it on the arm of the bench, turning fully now to look at Travis, one eyebrow arched. "Anything else?"
"I've wanted to kiss you since the moment I realized I couldn't stop thinking about you and maybe, just maybe, you had the same problem. I love the way your hair falls in your eyes like it's just there so that I can brush it away and get close enough to kiss you." As if on cue, a piece of brown hair fell in front of Katie's eyes. They both looked at it. Travis grinned as he held it, brushing it lightly behind her ear. "I like the way your breath catches when I get close to you, and the way you stutter and drop your gaze. It's like I'm breaking down the walls to who you really are. And I rather like that girl."
Katie bit her lip and Travis brought the arm that wasn't around Katie across his lap to grab her hand. "I couldn't stop think about you either, you know. And…I'm thinking I rather like you, too. A lot."
"Good," he whispered.
They both leaned in, but Katie hesitated. That hesitation made Travis smile and stroke her hand with his thumb.
"Look, I know I don't really have a lot of evidence from my past about me being a great guy, but you can trust me."
"I know."
"Let's walk to the gazebo. We're late."
Katie nodded, feeling slightly guilty. But Travis tightened his arm around her and she instantly felt better. They walked in a comfortable silence and found Annabeth and Percy sitting on the steps, kissing contently.
"Ahem," Travis said, smirking.
Annabeth looked up, blushed, and pushed Percy away as he tried to go in for another kiss. "Seaweed Brain…"
He looked up and also went a bit red. "Um, hi, guys. Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
The drive back to camp wasn't long. The girls sat huddled in the back whispering while the boys talked in the front. But the conversations weren't important, and they were soon back at camp. Percy clapped Travis on the back and hugged his cousin before grabbing Annabeth's hand to escort her back to her cabin. While being tugged away, Annabeth waved back at the couple. Travis laughed as he noticed Percy was walking in the direction of the lake, not Cabin 6.
"Come on," Travis whispered, taking Katie's hand. "I'll walk you home."
"Your cabin's closer. I'll walk you home."
"Katie—"
"If you have to walk all the way back, you'll miss curfew and be eaten by Harpies. I'd rather not get my boyfriend eaten."
He arched an eyebrow. "Your boyfriend?"
"You are my boyfriend, aren't you?"
He nodded. "Definitely."
Katie grinned and began walking towards the Hermes cabin. It was a fairly short walk but Katie couldn't focus on the distance. Her fingers seemed to be having a conversation with Travis' and it took up all of her attention. She hardly noticed it when they paused in front of his cabin.
"Thank you for tonight," she whispered.
"Any time." He pulled her into a hug and she rested her head on his chest. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Definitely."
He began to pull away, but Katie reached up and threw her arms around his neck.
"You'll be late," he warned.
She shrugged, smirking. "Yeah, but I think it's worth it."
Grinning, Travis pressed himself against her and lowered his lips to hers fiercely. The kiss lasted what felt like hours. Travis threaded his fingers into her hair; Katie held onto his shirt. He ran his tongue along her bottom lip and Katie prayed that she wasn't a terrible kisser. When they broke apart, they were both flushed and panting.
"I'd invite you inside, but…my family…"
Katie laughed and pulled him into another kiss. "I'll see you tomorrow," she whispered.
Travis was still in a daze when her form disappeared from sight. He grinned and fist pumped the air.
"Best double date ever!"
A/N: Yay! It's DONE! That's right, folks. That was the last chapter!
I know I said I would update yesterday, but I was SO exhausted. I mean, I so exhausted that I fell asleep during the season finale of Leverage! Why would I do that? UGH! Anyway, thank you all so much for reading and reviewing this story as much as you guys have! I love you all so very much.
Love,
E. M. Zeray