The Sprite Thief Nr. Uno.
Connor Stoll x Fem!Reader
Full on fluff oneshot. Words:2421
WARNINGS: SPOILERS (maybe) TO THE MAIN SERIES PJO, Bad Grammar, Kinda OOC.
Summary: Lately you can’t help but notice that Connor had gotten a hold of a LOT and I mean A LOT of Sprites. And not those fake sugar free sodas that the nymphs usually hand out, nope. The real kind. He had gotten so many to the point you start questioning where he gets them… And why he always offers you one.
It was a normal Saturday afternoon at camp, you were walking through strawberry fields by the saturs who was busy at work, spring this year had produced a lot of harvest, so there was plenty of fresh strawberries. The smell of the heating sun and clear skies were enough for you to come outside, your winter depression had finally poofed, passed.
You adjusted your posture just for a second before completely getting cut out of your day dream by the one and only Connor Stoll. The tall lanky guy had put his hand on your shoulder, that smirk on his face only meant trouble. Blue iced water eyes stared into yours.
“Are youuu busy?” He asked in a half whisper, trying to make this whole encounter seem like a secret meeting for some odd reason.
“I mean… Not really, why?” Your answer obviously fueled his engine, making him yank your arm before sprinting out of the fields. His long legs faster than you could keep up with, making you trip over your own feet in the progress. The faint giggles from the group of nymphs and Aphrodite girls was clear after you passed them. There was definitely a faint whisper of rumors about you and Connor between the four. But you and Connor were just friends.
Your mind was scrambled with confusion as you neared the parts of firework beach that no one usually visited. The usual hidding place that he would drag you too every week or so. For a messy Hermes kid, he was surprisingly consistent on this.
"Just wait here." Connor said before climbing behind some stones, leaving you to stand on the colorless, black and grey rocks. He had done this a few times lately, dragging you away from whatever you were doing to somewhere more private. At first you could have sworen it was a prank by the Stoll brothers, maybe to waste your time? But it wasn't. The warm beach air waved, blowing your face softly from the sweat that had been starting to fog up.
Just to the second your frame of vision was blocked by a cold can of Sprite, again.
"Another one?" He just hummed to your question, watching you take it from hand. The bubbles inside roaring for you to just open the can already, wanting the lemon-lime flavours to flood not only your tastebods but your sense of smell.
"Just thought you needed one, since you have been working all day with the satyrs and stuff." He moved close to you, standing right by your left side. Both of you staring into the endless waves from the ocean. The sun reflecting onto the water surface, what a wonderful sight.
"How do you even get this many? Seriously... I know you're like from the god of thieves but this is starting to worry me." Silence hit the both of you and you had no clue what the boy was thinking. What did a Stoll even think about? How to pull the next prank or steal some candy?
His choke of a laugh, which kinda sounded like a donkey mixed with a high pitched chicken type of laugh, did not help the situation. "Don't worry about it."
He was already chugging down his own can of Sprite. He looked like your average frat boy at a college party, just a lot thinner and more elf like. "And why did you drag me out here again?" The corner of his eye moved to your face, you could see the smile lines of his semi-permanent smirk coming in again.
"And why do you ask so many questions? I'm just a guy."
"A guy with dangerous tendecies, like filling a girl's shirt up with poison ivy or covering the Demeter cabin with chocolate bunnies."
"Oh come on those were one time incidents! Besides they were funny as hell." His comment only made you roll your eyes... And maybe crack a little smile. But only a small one. It wasn't because he was funny, god no.
"Is that a smile? Did the lady with a permanent frown actually smile?"
He poked your side with his elbow, wiggling his eyebrows a bit in excitement. If that guy knew one thing, it was to tease you to death over the smallest things. "It wasn't a smile." Maybe you were in a sour mood or flustered, you couldn't tell. You just knew that the last sips of your sprite was amazing. A refreshing drink which was a real soda? Not something you get often at C-H-B.
"Do you want another can? I got a few more left." He asked while already taking out another long sprite can, offering you the end of it.
"Okay seriously, why do you have so many and who’s your supply?"
"A dealer never tells his secrets." The finger over his lips and the wink he gave you, made you frown again. You knew you wouldn't get an answer out of him. He was persistent like that.
"The quote goes; a magician never tells his secrets. Not a dealer. You make yourself sound like a drug lord by saying it like that.” Another donkey chicken laugh escaped his lips by your statement.
The afternoon ended with Connor walking you back to your cabin, passing by the nymphs yet again. The sun already coloring the sky a beautiful orange as he bowed you a goodnight, calling himself your personal thief. You paid him back with a slap behind the head, before turning your head into the wooden building. The 'See you next Saturday!' he let out was loud enough for you to react with a thumbs up.
The two of you kept up this 'meeting up by fireworks beach' every saturday in May, with him always taking you from whatever you were doing to the secret layout, as he called it. Before handing you another cold beverage. How was the can always so cold when he gave them to you?
-
Connor and you had sneaked out of your cabins and sat by the beach again, sipping to the totally natural lemon-lime taste of Sprite. Fireflies slowly drifting between the two of you. You could feel Connor's eyes on your face again, yet every time you tried to catch his gaze he would turn away or laugh awkwardly. You knew the rumors about you and Connor had spread a lot since your last meetings, no thanks to the nymphs and that small group of Aphrodite girls. People were saying the two of you were secretly dating or maybe even something more, which was insane. People would whistle at the two of you if you just glanced at one another's direction.
Was... Was Connor uncomfortable around you now? Had the rumors made everything between you two, weird? By the fact he hadn't made a single joke yet was freaking you out. Hell, he hadn't even spoken to you. He only had that weird smile and avoiding eye contact. It was unnerving and awkward. The only thing keeping you from spiraling further down the classic overthinking rabbit hole, was the can of Sprite you were holding, your fingers glancing over the bold letters, stopping by the t.
You decided to say screw it, try to start a conversation or lighten up the mood. "Seriously how do you get so many Sprites? I'm starting to think you are an actual drug lord and selling drugs just to have a delivery-man come with a truck full of Sprite."
The bold letters of silence hit the two of you again as he sipped on his can, still avoiding eye contact. His bony thin fingers holding the can so tightly that it left an indent on the green metal. "Well haha, you know that old married couple by the camp?” He started out, finally making eye contact with you. “Yeah… They might have a whole attic filled with Sprite cans for some reason. So I just took some.”
Some?
SOME?!
No, Connor hadn’t just taken some, like a small handful. You had started counting after the start of May, the two of you had at least consumed over 10 gallons over the last month… Okay maybe you were bad at math, but still. He was playing it off as if he only stole five when he knew damn well it was over that.
“Connor, respectfully. We have drank over the number of ‘some’ cans.”
Connor picked up another two can from behind the large stones, coming back to your side. “Okay fine, I might have taken a few boxes… 3 boxes.” He quickly came back to your side, like an awaiting puppy full of energy. He did remind you of an energetic puppy now that you really thought about it… A mix of a racoon and a puppy.
“What? 3?! Seriously why do you even steal that many- not to mention the fact you had to carry them.” His lanky arms could not possibly have carried 3 boxes or crates of Sprite cans, that was just… Insanity. He had probably gone multiple times by those poor old married couple, stealing their sodas.
“I steal them for you.”
You choked on your can of sprite, the spicy carbonated liquid burning the back of throat, as your eyes adjusted to the new found tears that had started forming in your eyes out of instinct. Connor quickly came over with his hand on your back, completely confused and concerned about what was happening.
“Y-you what?!” You stammered not fully there yet, wiping your eyes from tears.
“I steal them for you..? Are you okay-“
You coughed out an ‘I’m fine’ before adjusting your seating. Your heart beat in your ears again, beating against your eardrums and canal.
“What do you mean, you steal them for me.” Your question was more of a statement than a question, and Connor just awkwardly smiled. Taking his hand off your back again.
“Well, remember December when that Christmas party was happening?” He asked while you slowly nodded. “I heard you complain to that nymph who was serving the drinks, that the sodas didn’t taste good, like different, and how it was a disgrace to the Sprite gods. Since I knew the old couple had a secret stash of Sprite, I stole them. Thought it would be a good enough excuse for us to start hanging out..?”
The thing inside your head called a brain? Yeah it was set on pause for a moment as you took in his words. The flickering of fireflies moved around the two of you, one of them landing in Connor’s curly black brownish hair. He had done all of this… Because he wanted to hang out with you?
“Okay, last time I say this word this night, but… Why?”
Even if it was late at night and the only forms of light you had were the fireflies and half-moon, you could clearly see the pale boy’s face turn a red scarlet color, the tip of his elf like ears turning even darker than his cheeks. His freckles covered by the red hue, his blue eyes focusing on everything at once, shifting from the corner of his eye to straight forward.
“I thought it was kind of obvious by now, but I like you. Like more like like than like? Like if I don’t see you just for a second everyday my day is ruined- god this is an awful confession.” He coughed this time, not because he had something stuck in his throat but because he didn’t know how to react.
Confession, that word didn’t leave your earshot. If anything it was like a worm, wiggling its way through your ears, passing by your eardrums and going past your brain. Down your throat and making it to your heart, squeezing it just so it would beat faster.
“You have a crush on me?!” You yelped and somehow managed to trip while sitting down. Making your head smack down into the small rocks of the beach. Connor came to try to help, but his hands stopped mid air as he looked down at you.
He was red, and no… Not just a normal red or the scarlet color from before. But neon red.
“Yeah..? Is that so strange?” The Sprite in his hand was completely crushed, maybe out of panic that his confession had gone wrong or maybe something completely else. But either way you say up, looking at his drenched hand, covered by the sugar sirup liquid.
“No… I guess not, just a strange way of showing it.” You tried to put on your calm face, but eternally you were panicking. The fireflies that used to glow a golden color had gotten scared by the two of you and all that sudden movement that had gone on. So the only light source was the moon, which only made The Sprite Thief Nr. Uno look even more handsome. Screw his cute red elf ears.
“Well..?”
That got your attention right back on track and he could tell his word confused you by the twist of your eyebrows.
“Do you like me back?” He wasn’t delighted to ask that question, it was more like he wanted to hide away from ever confessing this to you at all. Meanwhile you didn’t know what to respond. Did you like the thief who would always steal your attention from anybody? The answer is more apparent than 2 + 2 for everyone but you, until this very moment.
So with a happy smile you answered “Do I like you back? I think I do. I think I really like you, a lot. You dork.”
That seem to put Connor back on track, laughing normally again. The weird tension in the air drifting by, floating with the fireflies to a place you would never know off.
His normal donkey chicken laugh back as he cleaned his drenched hand with his t-shirt. The Sprite can he had crushed before down between his legs. The red hue still stirring on his precious face and you couldn’t resist but move closer, just to give him a peck on the cheek. It wasn’t anything special or spectacular at all, just a small gesture of appreciation. Maybe those nymphs and Aphrodite girls knew what they were gossiping about.
“Glad the Sprite Gods helped your personal thief with the whole romance department.” He wiggled his eyebrows just one more time, before bursting into another set of laughter by your last response.
“You completely ruined the mood by saying that.”
