tratie one shots, vol. i

[ sick ]

okay, this one's kinda shorter, but i had fun writing it and i totally picture this being a scene at some point in the series that uncle rick couldn't have been bothered to mention.

words: 835

. . .

"A-aachoooo!" 

I ripped out a sneeze, sniffled, and crashed onto the sickbed. My sinuses felt like they were exploding in my face, and I felt lightheaded from sneezing so much. I was pretty sure I looked like Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, and that was not a good look for Travis Stoll.

Stupid flu.

"Are you feeling any better?" Will questioned as he entered, a small dose of ambrosia in his hand. 

When he handed the cup to me, I downed it in one gulp. There was no use in trying to savor my mom's homemade pancakes when my tastebuds were so dead. "Nope."

"Sorry to hear that." He sounded sincere, but there was a certain light behind his eyes. "So, there's a visitor here for you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah, but I can tell her to go if-"

"Her?" Now, I was intrigued. If there had been a visitor, and it was Connor for the seventh time that day, I may have considered just letting Will take care of it. He could tell Connor not to do the stupid thing as good as I could. But now that I knew my visitor was of the female persuasion... "Send her in!"

Obviously, I'd expected plenty of girls to swing in and check up on me. I was used to it. I was Travis Freakin' Stoll! 

A corner of Will's mouth lifted, like he knew something I didn't. And when she walked in, I knew why.

Long brown braids made my assumptions trail from a girl with a crush on me to... my own mortal enemy.

"Katie?!"

Will grinned and slipped out of the room, only to poke his head back in to say, "I'll be at archery if you guys need anything. Bye!"

And then, I was heartlessly left with my nemesis while my immune system was on the fritz and my reflexes were no doubt out of time. 

Jolly.

"Uh, hey." Katie's words were soft and uncertain, and I scrunched up my nose.

"What are you doing here?"

Flustered, she held up a Tupperware container. "I... erm... there was some soup in the pavilion today and I figured it'd do you some good."

Katie Gardner wasn't the flustered type. 

Katie Gardner also wasn't the type to give me soup.

Suspicious.

"How do I know this wasn't poisoned or something?" I took the container from her and inspected the outside, as if it could give me a hint to its contents. "You know it's not moral to kill a man in his sickbed, right?"

"I'm pretty sure it isn't moral to kill a man at all," she remarked dryly, settling into the chair beside my cot. "But you're not a man, you're a bother."

"I'm gonna be stuck in here for another week at least!" I whined, not at all caring that Katie didn't come to listen to my woes. 

"Well, that's a ray of hope in this dire situation."

I grinned, but I couldn't help but notice the blush on her cheeks and nose, and the way she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt now that I was holding the bowl of soup and her hands were idle. I opened my mouth to comment on it, but instead a sneeze overtook my words.

"Achoo!" 

Katie flinched, her face morphing into a disgusted expression. She held out her fingers in a cross position, like she was trying to banish Satan. "Stay away with that stuff! I'm not trying to get sick."

I shrugged limply, my shoulders aching as I moved. "Then you shouldn't have come here."

She rolled her beautiful eyes, and I decided to take a risk.

"But I'm glad you did."

The confusion spread from her demeanor to mine, and I became just as surprised that I said it as she was. It must've been my sick brain, doing all the talking for me instead of going through my filter of "should I say this?" 

I definitely shouldn't have said that.

"You must be really sick," Katie commented, the corners of her lips tweaking up. "The healthy Travis would never have said that."

"Or I'm just really hard up for some company in here," I complained, trying to throw out every possible excuse I had. "Connor's the only one who visits, and it's not hard to be a step up from him."

Katie laughed, and I smiled. It felt good to actually make her laugh, even if it wasn't from one of my normal pranks or jokes. 

"Okay, then," she decided, standing up and tossing me a plastic spoon. "I'll swing by when I can. If you're so bored that you want me around, then gods help you, but I'll visit."

"Katie-kat, I always want you around." I smirked as she rolled her eyes at me once more, but I knew it was out of amusement this time. "See you tomorrow?"

"Don't press your luck," she warned before making her way to the door. Before she left, she faced me again and said, "Probably, though."

And she was gone.

Just so you know, she came by for a lot more tomorrows.