tratie oneshots

{ kidnapped }

words: 568

-

"Travis?" Katie hissed into the near darkness, struggling against the rope tying her to the chair, "What are you doing here?"

He paused in his attempt at untying the first knot, "Um, saving you?"

"But we're enemies," as silly as it seemed, Katie couldn't grasp the fact that Travis Stoll was actually doing something to help her.

He laughed a dry, practically humorless laugh, which was unusual for him, "That doesn't mean I want you dead, Katie-kat."

She groaned at the nickname, leaning as far away from him as she could as he fiddled with the rope binding her wrists.

An awkward silence seeped into the air, one that Travis almost immediately broke, "How'd you even get kidnapped in the first place, Kates?"

Sighing, she weighed her options. Travis would probably know if she lied to him; he was the son of the god of lies, but at the same time, she didn't want to confess anything to him. Taking a deep breath, and attempting to gather her scattered mind, she said finally, "I was tending to the strawberries, like I do every morning, when someone came and put a sack over my head. Your run-of-the-mill kidnapping. I-I..." she faltered suddenly, trying to read Travis's facial expression in the gloom.

"Go on, Katie," his voice was gentler than she'd ever heard it, and he also used her real name. Something seemed off.

Maybe it was her over-hyper reflexes from being cooped up in one place for so long, or the glint of something in Travis's eye that she might have imagined or misinterpreted, but she was suddenly more wary of her enemy than even when he'd pulled his worst pranks on her.

Raising her newly-freed right foot, she did the only logical thing her muddled brain could comprehend doing to a possible imposter. She kicked him square in the face.

He fell backward, crying out in pain and surprise, "What was that for?"

Suddenly, Katie realized what she'd done. He had just rescued her, freed her from her bonds, and she had kicked him in the face. "You didn't seem like your normal self."

She stood up, the rope falling to the floor around her with a soft thud, and moved to help Travis off the ground, "Why were you being nice?"

At that he started laughing a real laugh, accepting her hand and pushing himself off the ground, "You'll never trust me, will you, Kates? I was...worried about you."

His cheeks tinted slightly pink, and she felt color rush to hers at hearing his words, but quickly hid her blush with a small smirk, "And why is that, Stoll?"

"Because then I would lose my favorite person to prank, obviously," he rolled his eyes, and anyone else would've figured he was telling the truth, but Katie had studied him for so long over the years, searching for a sign of a future prank, that she recognized the lie easily.

"Mhm, whatever helps you sleep at night, Travis."

"On a first-name basis now, are we?"

She groaned once more, and for a split-second, everything seemed to go back to the way it had been previously.

But their hands were still entwined from where she had helped him up.

With a jolt, she realized: She didn't want everything to go back to normal.

She liked this new normal they were starting to create.

And it appeared Travis did, too.

-

ahhh I actually hate this

yay for self-deprecation! (but not really)

I'm so sorry this took so long to update, but I was just feeling really...unmotivated in the 'oneshot land' section of my brain

on a different note, AHHHH THANK Y'ALL SO MUCHHHH FOR 4K READS I FEEL LIKE ALL THESE THANK YOU'S ARE GETTING OLD BUT I'M STILL IN SHOCK LOL Y'ALL I DON'T DESERVE THESEEEEE

anyway, bye!

~~