tratie one shots, vol. i

[ facebattling ]

okay ahhhh there are only two more shots left (including this one)! i'm so excited to wrap this up and start the next volume lol.

the next shot will be uploaded tonight as well, i just have to finish the end! :D

this shot is super basic, but i had fun writing it, so up it goes.

words: 908

. . .

"Admit it, Katie-kat. You like me."

The words had rang in her ears since the moment he'd spoken them. She couldn't get them out of her head; they played themselves on repeat the entire day.

She'd said, "No, I don't!"

To which he replied, "Oh yeah? Why do you keep looking at me like you wanna facebattle?"

She'd been stupid enough to ask what facebattling was.

Now, she couldn't get the image of herself kissing him out of her brain.

Who even uses the word "facebattle" in a sentence? That's not even a word. He'd told her it was a more exciting way of saying kissing. Katie scowled to herself as she walked away from the campfire that night. The Apollo kids weren't done leading their songs to sing along to, but Katie direly wanted the day to be over. The fact that she'd been daydreaming about kissing the Stoll made her sick to her stomach. And it wasn't a plaguing thought, it was a reoccurring realization that maybe she didn't hate him. Maybe she wouldn't have minded "facebattling" him.

Ew.

She had to wash her thoughts - maybe after a long shower, she'd have some nice dreams about houseplants, or about murdering Travis. But a voice calling after her told her she would have to suffer a dose of reality Travis first.

"Hey, Katie-kat, wait up!"

Sighing, Katie turned around to see Travis stalking up to her as if he wasn't aware of the distress he'd caused her that day.

She knew him all too well, and she knew he was all too aware. He just enjoyed it that much.

"Go away, Stoll."

"Nah. Been thinking about me today?"

Grinding her teeth, she muttered, "Thinking of ways to kill you. I've come up with thirty-seven."

He stood much too close for Katie's comfort when he stopped walking. She could barely make his facial features out in the dark, but the divots of his smile would've been noticeable in any light. "Oh, come on, Kates. You know what I'm talking about."

"It's thirty-eight now," she added, though it wasn't true.

None of it was.

"You keep doing it, you know," Travis hummed, stepping ever closer to her.

In response, she walked backwards some paces. "Doing what?"

He grinned. "Acting like you hate me when you really don't. I see through the cracks, and I can read between the lines. I'm not stupid, you know."

She would've made a more ruthless remark to his advances had she not been privately wishing he'd close the gap between them. Facebattling may have been a stupid fake word, but the feelings that occurred when he spoke it was all but fake to her.

"Well, that was out of the blue," Katie observed, taking a hesitant step towards him to examine his face in the moonlight.

He shook his head. "Nope. It's written on your face all the time, so it's definitely not random to me."

She expected him to crack a smirk and laugh it off, but his lips remained pressed into a line, and his eyebrows were drawn together with earnest curiosity. He looked urgent, hopeful.

What? 

"Why are you bringing it up now, though?"

His eyes aimed downwards to his scuffed Converse. "Dunno."

Huh.

Would she regret telling him how she really felt the next morning? Probably. Would she regret opening a door she may have a difficult time closing if things backfired? Obviously. 

But would she regret not saying anything in the moment?

Oh, most definitely. 

"You know," she ventured, "I've been thinking about how you used that made-up word earlier."

Travis perked slightly, but said nothing. He seemed skeptical, like this wouldn't turn out well for him. 

"Facebattle was the term, I believe."

He frowned, apparently forgetting his situation. "That's not a made-up word - it's what kissing should be called."

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help the nervous laughter that escaped her. 

"What? Kissing is such a boring word!"

Katie couldn't ignore how they stood toe-to-toe, breaths mingling. The tension in the air could've smothered her, but in that second she'd never felt more clarity. 

This was right.

"Kissing kind of is a boring word," she allowed. A smile inched the corner of her mouth up as she dared to gaze up at him. "So, I guess I'll ask if you wanna facebattle instead."

He did.

Scooping her up into his arms, he brought their lips together. Katie's feet dangled off the ground, her toes barely touching the grass, and she wouldn't have rather been anywhere else. 

This was right.

In the silvery night light surrounding the empty cabins, Katie experienced her first facebattle. Though it was clear their enmity had been thrown out of the window, she couldn't help but feel competitive at a word with "battle" in it. She pressed harder into the kiss, almost in a devouring fashion. He responded by sighing into her mouth with relief and joy. 

She could hardly contain her fluttery emotions.

So, when they broke away with gasps and needy inhales, she fought to bite back her continued anxious giggles. 

He broke a nonchalant grin, setting her down gingerly but keeping her in his embrace. "What is it, Katie-kat?"

She shook her head, but her smile never left her face. "It's just... you were right."

Travis' shock was evident as his eyebrows shot up. "Oh?"

Flattening another chaste kiss to his lips, she muttered, "Yeah. Facebattling's way better."