PJO/HOO One Shots

Strawberry Basket

Third Person POV

Katie Gardener was picking the strawberries. She fully excepted a prank to come from Travis, but nothing had happened so far, and she almost forgot about it.

That is- until it actually happened.

A bucket of water was dumped on Katie. She dropped her basket of strawberries, and slowly turned. Travis was standing there, laughing his head off.

His laugh was so cute. The way his small nose scrunched up, and- Shut up, Katie. He doesn't like you.

She looked down towards the basket, and saw it flipped upside down.

Katie scrambles to pick up the basket, but all the strawberries were rolling in the dirt. She spent so much time picking them!

Silently, tears ran down her face. Travis has no idea that she was crying. He just kept laughing until a sob came out of Katie's mouth.

His adorable laughter abruptly stopped. Travis looked up and saw the tear streaked face of Katie.

Her nose was pink, her eyelashes were stuck together from being wet. She's so cute.

Travis had no intention of making her cry. He felt so bad that tears started to threaten to spill out of his eyes.

"Katie, I-I'm so s-sorry! I d-didn't m-mean for it t-to make you c-cry!" Travis felt terrible. He turned on his heel and ran from the strawberry fields and into a small clearing in the middle of the woods. Sitting down, Travis started to sob louder since no one was around.

He heard footsteps, then someone's arms wrapped around his body. Travis knew the arms from anywhere- they were brother, Connor's.

"Travis, what's wrong? You can't expect me to not chase after you when you just run off," Connor asked.

"I-I did a p-prank on Katie. I m-made her c-" he stopped to take a breath. "I made her cry, Connor. I didn't mean to make her so upset an-" he was interrupted by Connor.

"It wasn't your fault. Come on. I'll go walk with you to say sorry, okay?" Travis nodded.

Connor pulled his brother up from the floor and practically dragged him back to the strawberry fields. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Travis furiously trying to wipe away the tears.

Katie's half-sister was trying to calm her down, telling her that they could pick more strawberries. That made Katie feel a little better, but she was still soaked. She was about to get up and change when she heard Travis' voice.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry." Travis was barely audible, and she could tell from the sniffles and raspy voice that he had been crying as well.

Katie just looked down. When Travis noticed this, he told her that he would help her pick more if he had to. When she still didn't answer, he started to turn away and run back.

What he didn't expect was a small hand to wrap around his scrawny arm.

He turned back around and saw Katie, her tear streaked face. Raising a silent eyebrow, he asked, "What?"

Immediately, Travis was pulled into a hug. He tensed, but eventually relaxed and put his arms back around Katie.

"I'm so so so sorry, Katie. I didn't expect you to cry or get so upset. I'm so sorry." He kept whispering the same thing over and over again. He was cut off by a small, "It's okay."

Because of this, he started crying and said, "No it's not. I mean I know it was a prank, but I shouldn't have made you cry."

Katie pulled away and put her hand on his face. Wiping his tears with her thumb, she pulled his face up to look at her. The usual glint of mischief wasn't there. It was instead replaced with heartbreaking sadness.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes again and told Travis, "Trust me, please. It's okay. I forgive you. It's just... why me? You always pull the pranks on me. Never Piper, or anyone else. I know you hate me, but-" she was cut off by a hand being placed over her mouth.

"That's the thing. I don't hate you. All those pranks were to get your attention. I'm sorry." Travis quickly looked down after he said that and started to turn away again.

Katie was surprised. Her half-siblings had told her it was obvious that Travis liked her. She never believes it. Now, he had just admitted it and started to walk away. She felt a little part inside her feel sorry for making him cry, even though he made her cry.

So she did the only thing she could think of. She wrapped her hand around his skinny arm, turned him around, and put her hands on his face.

"I like you. A lot," she said.

A surprised look came over Travis' face, but before he could protest, she kissed him. It was a full kiss, not just a friendly one on the cheek. She kept her hands on his face, and she loved it.

Travis didn't pull back. He felt so happy inside. His arms wrapped around her waist and went up her back, into her hair.

Katie brought her hands to the back of her head, into his hair. They fit so perfectly together- it was like a puzzle piece.

When they finally pulled away, Katie was the one to speak.

"You don't know how long I've waited to do that for."

She expected him to be angry at her for kissing him, but instead he was smiling like crazy.

"I think I might like you too."

And then he kissed her. Again.