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opesodanuvem · 6 years

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Sportacus Died

Sportacus died silently, which was a strange change from everything he did, Sportacus was noisy. Even these days when his mustache was completely white and keeping him in a straight position cost hours of work with hair gel. Sportacus quietly died his sleep and Robbie only noticed when he woke up at eleven o'clock when he was sure Sportacus should be flying while whistling some old song. Robbie put his hand on his chest, wishing with all his being the constant noise of his heart beneath soft skin, without so much muscle in old age, but nothing came and he still stood for a long time just staring at the calmness that covered the face of his enemy, his friend, his lover. When he finally raised the sun was already setting. He spoke in a quiet voice and calmed instructions for the ship to go to some locality that he only knew by name. Two years ago, shortly after Robbie became very sick with a virus, Sportacus had told him when they were out of the hospital where he had spent almost three months, the ship had new guidelines if should something happen to any of them that should be followed automatically with only one voice command. The ship followed with a low noise as Robbie slowly dressed, never leaving the eyes of the bed for long.

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The children had left the town a long time, Robbie spent most of the time sitting in the park, now empty and silent, years ago he would have found this scene comforting, but now it was almost painful, a deaf pain occupied his chest constantly and not all the cakes or naps he could have did not take away this. Things were already silent before they even left. Growing up and learning, Sportacus spent much more time saving kittens and fixing fences, then the mayor had retired, others took over town, more competent people, people who created schools that lasted all day, so the kids could not play, schools that had spent all weekend and sports and clubs and courses. Things enough to keep them as busy as possible. Sportacus and Robbie spent a lot of time together then, first as friends and then as something, not boyfriends, they kissed only once, but there was the clear doubt of their places in the city and in each other's lives. The Pink girl was the first to leave, she went to a renowned college in a big city, there was a party, of course, and tears and empty promises of a return that would never happen. The selfish boy was next, a better school abroad, more tears and less promises, so the boy Pixel to a school more focused on his interests, the girl in trouble fled to the same city of Pink, she wrote a letter only to inform who was well and never apologized for his attitude, finally the candy boy, who had grown enough so that all the child fat disappeared, appeared with an indication for the army one day and the next day had left the city. He did not see Sportacus for the next three days, so one night he appeared, an apologetic look, and before he could even open his mouth Robbie kissed him. They did not speak for the rest of the night, sitting on the billboard, watching the stars until, somehow Robbie knew they would not have another chance to do that, he tried to resist as much as possible, tried to keep his eyes open, but at the end he lost, and when he opened his eyes again he was lying in his chair covered by a blanket. He did not get up, he knew there were no airships circling the skies of Lazy Town. He lost.

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Robbie was sitting in the pilot's chair when the ship finally came down in a small town, it was early morning and he had not slept or eaten anything in a long period, the ship still threw bottles of water in his lap that he drank too numb to complain. He saw the small houses grow in the distance and some people gathered around him, the closer he got, the more he could see that they were not really people but elves like Sportacus, in all sizes and all colors, but with the same energy infinite, all running and tumbling around. When the ship's door opened, Robbie could see an entourage waiting for him, solemn faces that seemed to know exactly the reason for his return, one of them, looked like a woman, red clothes and hair stuck in a coke approached first giving his condolences to Robbie, he did not respond not trusting his voice. The same elf offered him his hand and he caught it being guided to one of the houses, he might have marveled at the engineering of the houses before, but he had no strength for anything but following her. Entering a room where he was seated in a chair in front of a round table where other elves surrounded him, all so young and bright, so much like Sportacus that Robbie could not look at their faces choosing to keep his head down. There the same elf who received him explained to him in a calm voice what would happen next, that there would be a ceremony, that they knew Robbie and knew of his importance to Sportacus, that he could participate if he wished or would speak for too, Robbie just nodded positively to the ceremony, but negatively to the speech, he still did not trust his voice.

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The new kids in town were not interested in parks, but technology, once it was thought that the greatest danger in the city would be for children to become like Robbie, so the fact that they became Pixels was a surprise. Technology was their new favorite toy. At home with their computers and cell phones they did not have to worry about anything. The old park on the edge of town was not a priority of the town hall, but Robbie maintained his upkeep, at first he told himself that it was not to have to doze off and a dirty bench, and not even have to look at rusty toys, he kept it even if no one else had used. He spent a good time like this, hiking in the park in the afternoon, a picnic a week, sometimes he would even eat one fruit or another, but quickly, without chewing so he would not have to taste it for a long time, he was never an apple despite keeping the apple tree in the park alive, he'd rather see them fall down and spoil themselves on the floor than pick up any of them. A few years went by, some good years. Everything could be ordered for mail and Robbie had no need to go beyond looking after the old park. His hair, he had noticed one day, now had two wispy side bones of white hair, almost imperceptible, Robbie spent a week without looking in the mirror and avoiding any reflection of himself. One night he heard a strange noise, as if a large fan had been connected well over his bunker, he jumped so fast out of his chair that his vision dimmed momentarily, yet he walked in the dark with the certainty of who knew his lair more than anywhere. The fear that they might be machines to clean the grounds of the park was growing, a while ago he had unearthed one of his inventions, one that could listen to conversations over long distances and thought it would not be so bad to test if it still worked and at the top of the billboard, he listened to a few conversations, and most of the time they were just silly conversations about the daily life of the city, until he heard something between two people he did not know, something about making use of the periphery of the city, and build something useful. Robbie spent days without getting anything else to some naps, very sensitive to any noise, so he ran as fast as he can until his observatory looked in all directions to see if anything was out of place but there was nothing but a man standing in front of the park, standing a hat, even in the dark, Robbie knew it was blue, and before he even realized what he was doing, he found himself striding toward the man.

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Robbie sat at that table for some time, he could not say exactly how much. One by one the elves went out, some talked to him quietly before leaving, others just left, he did not care, he drank some water and ate some berries, in all those years traveling with Sportacus then make Robbie developed a greater tolerance to fruits , but only the small ones that did not give much work to chew, sometimes he even ate apples if Sportacus cut them into small thin slices. In time he was alone in the place, he stood looking around for the first time since he had arrived, a chair and a table, a bed in a corner the size of the bed that Sportacus had replaced after it became clear that Robbie could not get comfortable alone in bed that the airship offered much less accompanied. Now, however, it was almost a comfort not to have room to move, to be able to join the knees in the chest and to be as small as possible, the sensation of space would only make everything worse. Then Robbie slept, the smell of green and clean around him, just as the ship smelled when it was new, as if no one used it. He was awakened later by the same elf who had received him, apparently his personal guide, she informed him that the ceremony would begin and that she had brought him clothes to change leaving as soon as he sat down. It was early, there were no clocks around, but living with Sportacus was like having a live watch around, he ended up picking up some habits, the sun was still mild, he moved slowly, unhurried, the clothes nothing was more than one their old disguises, a purple suit and a blue tie. He still wore predominantly purple, but the clothes were different now, lighter, less complex, just as Sportacus also did not constantly wear his hero costume he had worn to jeans and blazingly blue shirts yet. When he finally finished changing and went out the door that was immediately opened as if they already knew he was ready, Robbie could finally see the place where he was, wooden houses, one on top of the other, but in an orderly way, large trees with stems and ropes for locomotion, seemed exactly the place where Sportacus would have grown. He stopped his remark when he noticed that the place where the airship was supposed to be was empty, a wave of panic swept through his mind until the elf gently touched his forearm informing him that the airship was currently parked in a suitable place and going through some routine checks, but after the ceremony Robbie could take it back. The way to the ceremony area was long and quiet, nobody said anything and the more people joined the walk greater the silence seemed.

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It was six months before Robbie accepted Sportacus's invitation to leave the town. From the first night they met again, when Robbie walked up to him in the park and hugged him before either of them said anything, they stood for a long time standing hugging tightly and breathing into each other's skin, keeping any a trace of heat in the mind if it was just a dream. They did not kiss that night, but they talked, Sportacus told about the new cities he was assigned to, about children, about how Lazy Town was their first city of many, that no matter how many villains he faced, none of them were so creative and ingenious as Robbie and that when his mother told him that he should not be attached at the time he did not call the warning, but now he understood, children grew up, people left and that when he had received the call to go to another city he I wanted to tell Robbie, he wanted to take him along, but none of this happened and he left, Robbie said as well, his voice a little hoarse from his lack of use, he talked about the changes in the city, about the new children, the park and the plan to vanish everything. They also wept and hugged and lamented the unspoken words and Sportacus had invited them together, that Sportacus wanted to show him so many things, that there were other places to be lazy and resourceful. Robbie denied that night, he was not yet ready to leave the city and Sportacus understood, the two of them held each other until the sun appeared on the city line, the next morning they kissed, timidly, but longing, and Sportacus left. He came back the following week to retake the invitation, and the next of the next week, and the following month and the month after the next, he would come and go again, spending the night or the day, exercising around, making noises and disrupting the Robbie naps, talking and picnicking, but one day he came in silence, with the same look from years ago when Robbie knew he would leave and now he knew it would be the same, but this time he spoke. He talked about how he was putting off accepting the next mission, how he could not put it off, that he would leave, he did not ask Robbie to go with him this time, he just kissed him deeply, like two lovers who knew each other for a long time ago, he spent the night in Robbie's bed, old and dusty from lack of use. At dawn Robbie found himself strangely awake, two hours before the sun, Sportacus hugged his chest tightly even subconsciously. Robbie felt a strange urge to move, which when he was younger he would find strange, but after so many years he learned to accept that even he needed to stretch his legs a little, getting out of Sportacus lacking body was not the easiest task and in his own head he could remember all the nicknames that had given him so many years, as soon as he managed to leave the room he put on his own clothes and left the bunker on a short walk to the park, he sat on his bench and watched the place, all the toys, all the plants, the old apple tree that was bearing fruit, closing his eyes he just felt the moment, memories of laughter and singing, then he got up, the sun was already rising on the horizon and soon Sportacus would have to stood up, passed the old apple tree picking up one fruit and returned to its hiding place, upon entering the room saw Sportacus sitting on the bed, looking at his pillow in his hands almost unconscious of being observed. Robbie sat in front of him on the bed and could see the lonely tears streaming down his face, Sportacus looked tired, looked like someone who had seen many people leave and was tired of it, he looked at Robbie and tried a small smile that fell apart as fast as emerged. Robbie did not want to look at that scene anymore so he hugged Sportacus and whispered low that they should leave soon, that the day would be very good for the airship, with no apparent rain forecast and when Sportacus pulled away from him slowly looking good in his eyes happiness and hope characteristic of his features finally showing up. Robbie handed him the apple, rising quickly as he wiped the small tears that mirrored his face, stammering over help to pack up and that he was too lazy to carry everything.

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Robbie cried during the ceremony. Not all ceremony, he managed to keep his composure for most of the time, it was all very well done, in a large oak with many flowers, many elves around, Robbie was taken to a chair in the first row and listened attentively to the speech about how the number ten did his work exemplarily, as even in such a modern world he had the courage and creativity to reinvent himself and keep changing people, that when even in his retirement he was still willing to visit other heroes and teach them his techniques and that he would always be remembered for it. Then Robbie saw the coffin, solid oak wood trimmed with elven runes and a big ten drawn in the front, and the first thing he thought was that he could have done better, which led to the thought that Sportacus deserved much more than being remembered for a number, because in their travels they helped so much more than children and heroes that they did so much by each other and by others that speech could never encompass all their deeds and before Robbie realized he was on the ground in front of the casket playing the runes and weeping so loudly that even in the silence it seemed that he wept for thousands of people, for all the children, for the pink girl and for his friends and for all the people who did not have a chance to say goodbye to Sportacus and who could not be there to tell all the wonderful things he did. When an elf approached to touch him he shrank even more, almost embracing the runes with his hands, it took some time until the light persuasions reached him words that he should let go, that it was time, that they would see each other again one day then at some point he found himself with all his strength drained and being carried, whoever he was had the same size as Sportacus and Robbie could not help sinking even more in that known heat, he was informed that if he wished he could back to the airship and Robbie nodded positively at it, opening his eyes he was greeted by the sight of his airship which currently contained a large purple strip that Sportacus had painted one day to show Robbie that it was his home as well. He was standing in front of the entrance so he can look at whoever carried him there, from below up he can see the green boots and the uniform in green and white with a crystal in the chest where he could read the number twenty, passing by face without a mustache, youthful features, dark skin, and eyes as brown as the bark of a tree. With a slight smile, the elf said goodbye and warned that if he needed anything he could inform the airship that someone would be sent and left without any somersault. Robbie got into his flying house and looked around, all seemed the same, as if Sportacus had just gone out for a walk in the park or out to help some young hero over any number of subjects that heroes could have. So Robbie felt extremely tired, as if he had walked all the way here, so tired that he could just crawl to the bed and throw himself at her, the bed where the sheets still smelled of his love, the sheets where they had lying down for two nights and sing "we are number one" to each other and smiled and kissed for the last time. Robbie covered himself and hugged Sportacus's pillow, breathing deeply, humming to himself the same song until he fell asleep.

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A week later there was another ceremony, in the same place as the previous one, the same people were present and the coffin contained the same runes, the only difference being in the front registration, according to information taken from the number ten journals and the airship system.

Robbie Rotten

Number one

Master of Disguises

#lazytown #sportacus #robbie rotten #i make myself sad #sportarobbie #just sad #everything need to over #my first fic sportarobbie #sorry to make you cry

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asgardian-light · 6 years

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If You Insist (Part 1)

Pride Month mini fic under the cut. Part 1 because they will only let me post so much. *Ugh.* Enjoy! :)

If You Insist (Part 1)

"Candyboy! What IS all this fuss about again?" groans Robbie Rotten while he stares at the busy citizens of LazyTown running around and working at the great meeting place "Why does it look like a unicorn puked rainbow-colored toffee all over town???"

"Toffee?!" Ziggy looks at him with big eyes and then back to the place, his face soon growing slightly disappointed again "Oh... You mean the flags and banners? Why does it look like toffee to you? And did you see a unicorn somewhere around here or..."

"CANDYBOY!" snaps the town villain now annoyed "Forget what I said! Just tell me WHAT is ALL THIS ABOUT!?"

The kid winces a little at Robbie's yell and tilts his head "Why, Robbie... Is everything okay? You seem to be...upset?"

"Well, what do you EXPECT?! All this noise woke me up from my nap and I STILL GOT NO ANSWER WHAT IS GOING ON H-"

"Hi, Robbie! Ziggy."

Robbie does such a jump, the next second he's sitting on the small wall he's been hiding behind until a few minutes ago and doesn't really understand how he got there out of a sudden. His heart is still hammering violently and he stares at the cause for his shock. "Sorry!" Sportacus laughs apologizing "I didn't mean to scare you, Robbie. I just wanted to check why you're yelling at Ziggy like that." The villain needs a moment to regain his composure then he crosses his arms in front of his chest and glares at the hero while still sitting on the wall "I didn't YELL at him!"

"I heard you from over there," Sportacus points in the distance and gives the other a slightly scolding look "You DID yell."

"Well, maybe I'm already DEAF from all that NOISE these kids are making all the time! And today I don't even know WHAT stupid game they're playing! All I see are COLORS!"

"You're yelling again, Robbie..." remarks the boy with a light grin. "Ziggy," murmurs the hero lowly before smiling lightly and taking a look at the business himself. Not just the kids are running around with colorful things, even Bessie and the mayor are. Robbie on the other hand looks quite tired and almost more exhausted than annoyed... "Now, Ziggy," Sportacus nods over to the meeting place "Tell us, what are you playing, hm?"

"Oh, don't act as if all this...MOVING isn't YOUR doing again, Sportaflop!" growls the villain now accusing. "It is not. I am just as clueless as you, Robbie," assures the hero friendly before focusing on the boy again. Ziggy looks back and forth between them, his eyes growing huge "You don't know what month it is?!"

"June. Stupid b-"

"Robbie."

"...question," finishes the inventor his sentence and averts eye contact with the hero to avoid meeting his warning glare. Ziggy laughs "Yeah! And June is PRIDE MONTH!"

"June is WHAT now again?!?" Robbie stares at him utterly confused now and is kind of relieved to see the same expression on the hero's face after taking a quick glance at him. "Pride month. Don't you know what that is? We learned it at school," announces Ziggy proudly "It's the month for LGBT people! You know... Men that like men and women that like women and... Uhm..."

"People who like both and men that rather want to be women and women who rather want to be men. Of course!" Sportacus laughs softly, happily "I've read about that! But I didn't know it's in June!"

"It is!" Ziggy grows even more proud and a little excited "And we're gonna celebrate it with a huge party! Everybody is invited and that's why we're working so hard!"

"...and loud..." murmurs Robbie more to himself. Ziggy and Sportacus both look at him now. They noticed that the usual edge and the annoyance in the villain's voice was missing, and now they realize it's the same with his eyes. They look dull and even more tired than before. "Well... I'm sorry about that..." remarks Ziggy now carefully "It's not intentionally. We're just..." But Robbie weakly, dismissing waves his hand and slowly lets himself slide down from the wall "I'm just gonna search another place for my nap as long as all this lasts..."

"You're...not gonna try to...manipulate our work?" asks the boy now carefully. Robbie who's already slowly heading away just shakes his head in negation and walks on, leaving behind a quite puzzled hero and Ziggy. "Is he...okay?"

"I don't know, Ziggy... I don't think so..." replies Sportacus with a worried frown and then looks at the kid "You don't need my help with the preparations at the moment, do you?"

"No, we're fine."

"Good. Then I think...I'll make sure that our beloved troublemaker finds a good place to rest..."

"Good idea," Ziggy nods approving "We need to know where to find him, anyway so we can call him when the party starts!"

Sportacus smiles and nods then he flips away and after Robbie. Ziggy meanwhile leaves to pick up helping his friends again...

"Robbie! Wait up!"

The villain groans "What do you want, Sportaflop? I said I wouldn't cause any trouble and I was serious this time! I just want to... Just leave me be, okay?! You won't see anything of me during June."

"But that's the opposite of what we want!" with another flip the hero jumps over the other and lands right in front of him, smiling brightly at him. Robbie winces back and just looks at him for a second before he tries his best to sound annoyed "What's that supposed to mean again?"

"Well, you're invited to the party as well, of course!" Sportacus smiles even more and reaches out to gently nudge the inventor's arm like he does it with the kids sometimes to cheer them up. But Robbie quickly takes a step back, his expression growing alert and even scared for a moment. The hero furrows his brows now even more concerned but before he can open his mouth to ask something Robbie snaps weakly "Anyway! I'm not coming!"

"But..."

"I'm not interested in any loud parties and...and...whatever!" Robbie flails with his arms and then attempts to walk around the other in a great circle. But Sportacus blocks his way "Robbie. What is wrong?"

"Wrong?!" Robbie tries to laugh but he realizes that it fails miserably and he quickly clears his throat and defensively crosses his arms in front of his chest again "How do you get the idea that anything is wrong?!?"

"You're behaving...strange."

"Well, maybe it's because I'm tired! I didn't sleep all night again and I... I... I've been...working on a...uhm...plan to drive you out of town and... I..." Robbie realizes too late how bad he's stammering and he starts to panic so he clenches his hands into fists and growls "And this is none of your business!"

Sportacus softly shakes his head "You're a very bad liar, Robbie."

"EXCUSE me!?" the inventor turns a dark shade of red and opens his mouth but then he quickly turns away instead to head back into the direction he came from. Anywhere, just away from this horrible hero...who's so horrible correct... But of course he won't let him get away like this. "Robbie," a single jump and he's right in front of the villain again, eyeing him with growing concern "I'm sorry if I upset you. I just want to help you..."

"I don't NEED your help, Sportaflop!" Robbie stomps his foot and feels his face growing even hotter in embarrassment. He feels like a stubborn child...again... "I... I just...need some...sleep..." he mumbles after a while of silence and looks at the ground, wishing for it to open up and swallow him whole. Sportacus knows that's not all. But he just witnessed how bad the other reacts on any kind of help or advice attempts. "Okay. Then please...let me show you a good place where you can sleep a little in peace."

"As if YOU'd know where such a place could be..." mumbles the other still without raising his gaze. "Oh, but I DO! After all, a healthy, peaceful sleep is just as important as enough moving if not more!" the hero's soft smile is audible and he carefully takes another step closer to the other "So... Do you allow me to show it to you?"

Robbie wants to negate especially after feeling this strange tingle in his stomach and chest at hearing the hero's gentle words directed at him. But for his own shock he hears his own reply "If it makes you leave me be then!"

"Yes. If...you insist. Then yes..." Sportacus doesn't manage to hide his disappointment completely. Robbie feels even more tingling but finally manages to look at the other again, his voice not even half as powerful and annoyed as he wants it to be "Then what are we waiting for?!" Robbie pushes past the hero and walks a few meters before he stops, and, blushing even worse, does an annoyed but mostly helpless gesture with his hand "Then YOU should probably take the lead..."

Sportacus manages to suppress a soft smile and nods instead, walking over to the other and gently nudges the wincing villain towards the woods.

"WHAT?!"

"It's absolutely quiet in there. And it even has a bed. That would be much better for you than sleeping on a bench or..."

"Do you think I'm THAT stupid!?" Robbie immediately turns around and wants to dash off. Just away from here. Away from this cheap trick. Away from this AIRSHIP!

"Robbie, wait!" once again this day Sportacus blocks the villain's way, his expression hurt "I would never trick you! I want you to REST!"

"You're gonna lock me up in there! Or even fly off! You KNOW that I hate heights!" Robbie starts to shake at the mere thought of being stuck up there in the hero's airship...AGAIN. "Yes, I know. That's why I'd never do that to you," states Sportacus now gently and reaches out to touch the villain's arm once more. Again, the other winces back. The fear has returned to his eyes and body language and Sportacus quickly takes a step back, signalling that he doesn't want to grab and force the inventor to enter the ship in any way. Robbie blinks slowly when he notices that. Then it slowly dawns on him that, if Sportacus REALLY wanted to lock him up in any way this would've already happened by now because not even the town villain is so bold to believe that he'd stand a chance against the hero's strength. "It... It's too...bright in there, anyway..." murmurs Robbie finally and glances at the airship, shuffling with his feet in a nervous manner "...I couldn't sleep there like that..."

"Oh, it has blinds! I can turn it completely dark inside, don't worry!" Sportacus can't hide his happiness over the inventor's voluntary talking now. Robbie gives him a shy but also slightly disbelieving look "Why...does it even bother you if I can sleep? Do you...want me out of the way for..." he doesn't finish his sentence, he just looks questioning at the hero. "No. That truly got nothing to do with that. More...on the contrary. I..." Sportacus hesitates and tries to consider how much open talk might scare Robbie off again, but then he decides to risk it "I'm worried about you."

Robbie blinks once. Slowly. Then he blinks again before asking barely audible "You're what?"

"Worried."

"Worried?" echoes the villain still as lowly and then he sighs softly, turns away very slowly and murmurs "Should've thought that you're just making fun of me with this whole thing..."

"Robbie?" Sportacus becomes even more concerned at hearing this "What are you talking about?! I'm not making fun of you! I'd never..."

"Yeah, okay. Joke's over now, okay? I got it..." Robbie weakly waves his hand again and his shoulders drop even more "I understand..."

"No, obviously you DON'T!" now Sportacus jumps over him again, blocks his way and tries to look into Robbie's eyes "This is no joke! Robbie, I REALLY am worried about you! Since Ziggy said what they're doing...you look...so..." he searches for the right word "...sad... Ziggy noticed, too! We agreed that I should follow you to make sure..."

"...that I don't cause any trouble?"

"...that you'll be OKAY! And now I know for certain that you are NOT! Robbie..." carefully, Sportacus reaches out with one hand but this time he doesn't touch the other but offers him his bare palm "Please. Come inside and tell me what is wrong out of a sudden. You're not your usual self..."

Robbie stares down at the offered hand and feels that he's close to either sobbing or breaking into a cold sweat...maybe both... But then he blinks in utter confusion when he watches his own shaking hand rise and then lower again very slowly into the offered, strong hand of the hero. Sportacus is just as surprised by his action but he manages to push this feeling aside and instead focuses on closing his hand very, very lightly and softly around the villain's, locking his own eyes with Robbie's still scared ones and gently pulling him over to the airship, whispering softly "Come. Let's take a seat..."

Why did he let this happen? How could he allow himself getting dragged her by the town hero? Although...admittedly 'dragged' doesn't do the gentle treatment of the hero any justice. Robbie groans lowly and wraps his arms tighter around himself. "Are you cold, Robbie?"

He winces at Sportacus' low question and blinks his eyes open again. Strange. When did he even close them?...

"No... I'm... I'm good..." his voice sounds strange even to his own ears. Sportacus swallows his comment that he looks just like the opposite is the case and walks over to him instead, but keeping a certain distance so the other won't have to shrink back again. "I put a glass and a bottle of water next to the bed in case you are thirsty when you wake up. And there are more blankets in the closet over there…"

"...Thanks..." Robbie doesn't know what else to do or say but then he asks again "And it's...really okay for you if I...sleep in your bed? I mean..." his voice trails off. Sportacus suppresses a sigh and smiles softly instead. They just had a five minute discussion about this topic because Robbie's first instinct was to yell in audible but surprising panic "I'm NOT sleeping in your bed, Sportaflop!!!"

But Sportacus has managed to talk him into it after a while.

So now he smiles even more encouragingly and nods "It's perfectly fine for me, really. Don't worry about it! Just try to get some sleep... You...need it..."

The inventor is too exhausted to argue with that and so he just nods, mutters once more "Thanks..." and then almost stumbles over to the bed, drops down on it and then fixes his eyes on the hero. Sportacus understands at once "I'll be gone then. But if you need anything..."

Robbie weakly shakes his head no. "Okay... See you later then. Sleep well!" with a small, soft smile, the hero leaves the airship and the villain alone in it to get some urgently needed sleep...

"Robbie!?" Sportacus dashes into the airship "Lights!"

"Ah!" Robbie sits up with a jerk and shut squeezed eyes at the bright light, trembling violently and clutching to the blanket. "Robbie!" the hero is next to the shaking man at once "Robbie, are you okay???" The other is panting heavily but he finally manages to open his eyes again and blinks repeatedly, staring at the hero...and at his hand that he put on Robbie's shoulder right away when he arrived at the bed. Then he stammers lowly "Y-Yes..."

"Are you sure?!" Sportacus can't help himself, he reaches out to cup Robbie's cheek to hold his head steady. But the villain winces back again reflexively and nearly falls off the bed during this. "Robbie!" the hero quickly catches him and pulls him into a proper position, then he once again gets into a distance that will calm the other and tries to talk softly "Easy. It's okay."

"Y-You tell me... You came in here screaming, S-Sportaf-flop!" stammers the other and swallows hard and starts to rub his shoulder in an attempt to get rid of the feeling of the hero's hand there. Not because it's unpleasant! The opposite is the case. But that only scares him more... "I'm sorry," Sportacus frowns, disappointed in himself "I... I just reacted like this because...my crystal went off and showed me that you were in distress so I hurried here and wanted to help you..."

"Well then you... Your crystal...was mistaken!" snaps Robbie suddenly and looks away. He doesn't want to be this mean to the hero who obviously just wanted to help. But his instincts...his panic tells him to shut any attempt of the other off because he's simply afraid...to get hurt...

"Robbie," Sportacus' gentle voice rids him out off his dark, confused thoughts "My crystal never is mistaken. Come on. Tell me what is wrong..."

"Nothing!"

"Robbie."

The villain looks away and then tries to focus on the white wall, telling himself to breathe and to ignore everything he's feeling right now...

Sportacus sighs mutely. Why is the other refusing to tell him what is upsetting him? His eyes move over the bed and finally reach the pillow. He furrows his brows and then carefully, unnoticed by the inventor reaches out to touch it. It's soaked. Soaked with tears. So his crystal WAS right.

"...You didn't sleep at all...did you, Robbie?..." asks the hero finally softly. The villain closes his eyes and a shuddering breath escapes him. He feels called out. He feels horrible for ranting at the hero like that. He feels...sad...

"...No... I didn't..." his voice breaks. Suddenly everything becomes unimportant. "I was busy crying my eyes out," he states emotionlessly and glances at the hero's hand at the pillow "...As you probably already figured..."

Sportacus notices his change of voice at once and grows even more concerned "Why did you cry, Robbie? Why didn't you talk to me when I asked you..."

"Because it doesn't matter."

"How can you say that? You cried about it. This..."

"I should go. I can't sleep here either so it doesn't matter where I am, anyway. But thanks for trying," he gives him an as well emotionless smile and stands up from the bed, swaying slightly but without noticing it as it seems. "Robbie," Sportacus jumps up and follows him outside, softly calling his name again and again until he finally calls a little louder "Why does Pride Month upset you so much?"

Robbie freezes. He feels something inside his chest shattering, gasps and clenches his hands into fists. "Robbie?" Sportacus approaches him carefully, seeing how bad he starts to shake out of a sudden "Robbie, you should..." At this moment the villain breaks down crying and sobbing. "Oh, Robbie..." Sportacus sighs lowly, then he kneels down behind the other and carefully wraps his arms around him, ignoring his low cry and wincing this time and softly murmurs "Come. Let's sit down over there..."

#lazytown #pride month #sportarobbie #lgbt #mild angst #?#Sportacus #Robbie Rotten

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a-slightly-above-average-hero · 7 years

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Have a Sportaflop origins story...

Not in true story form, unfortunately. That would take several chapters. I have it more or less planned out, but not written. >.< It follows pretty closely with the original origin story that LazyTown Entertainment posted in ‘03, but it’s not exactly the same. Without further ado, here we go. It’s long, folks.

LazyTown was just how you would expect it to be. A sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere. The children of LazyTown didn’t play, didn’t sing, didn’t dance, didn’t do anything you’d think a normal child would. The most popular boy in town was Robbie Rotten, a lanky young boy who managed to tower over the other children. If you asked the townspeople who their ideal child was, they would all point to Robbie. Robbie liked nothing better than to sit around watching TV and eating sweets. He had all of the town’s children wrapped around his little finger, and whatever Robbie said, went.

One child who always stuck out from the crowd was little Alex Alltbjart. He was a bubbly little boy who couldn’t sit still for a moment. As energetic as he was, Alex adored Robbie just like the other children. Everyone teased him for his constant bouncing, his thick and often indecipherable accent, and, most often, his ears.

Alex and his mother Anika were elves, the only two in town. The adults loved Anika; she was a sweet woman who had quickly charmed the town when she’d immigrated from Iceland with her infant son. Yet her being an elf did not have the same effect on her as it did on Alex, and his ‘elfy-ness’ was a constant source of ridicule.

One day, while Alex and Robbie were still very young, an enormous, gleaming airship appeared over LazyTown. The children, who were sitting in the town square eating their sweets (except Alex, of course), all looked up in wonder as a ladder dropped down and a red-clad figure descended from the airship. He was certainly funny looking with his bulging muscles, tight, vibrant red costume, gravity-defying mustache, and those big pointy ears! The children were spellbound when the man (or elf, as it were) began jumping and vaulting around the town square.

Most of the children quickly lost interest, dismissing the elf’s antics with pointed glares. But Alex remained captivated. Once the elf had finished his acrobatics, he introduced himself to Alex as ‘Sportacus, Sportacus 9.’ Alex, cheerful as ever, excitedly asked Sportacus to teach him some of his tricks.

Sportacus and Alex spent much time together over the next few months, with Sportacus teaching Alex about exercise, healthy eating habits, and other important things. Anika was pleased that Alex had a positive role model other than herself. After almost a year, however, things changed. Sportacus approached Alex one day and told him solemnly that his time in LazyTown was over. He gave Alex a mysterious box and told the boy that, when he was ready, the box would open. With that, the elf hero departed from LazyTown.

Alex trained long and hard for the next 11 years. He grew up to be a sweet, kind boy who had the mannerisms of his mother and, at least according to Anika, the energy level of his father. Alex managed to befriend Robbie, and during their high school years, the two were practically inseparable. Anika sadly passed away Alex’s junior year, but, with some help from his friend and his family, Alex came out of the grief stronger than before. He’d all but forgotten the mysterious box.

Everything changed when Alex was nineteen. Late one summer night, after a long day of work and training, Alex returned home to find the box emitting a soft glow from inside his closet. Curious, he pulled it from the back of the closet and found that the box readily swung open. To his great shock, the box held a beautiful Sportacus uniform, made in hues of blue and emblazoned with the number ‘10′. A crystal in the badge glowed softly. Trying it on, Alex found it to be a perfect fit.

A voice in his head called him outside, and he walked into the night air to see a familiar silhouette against the moon. He ran to where the airship floated above the town, and he used the phrase he’d heard Sportacus utter hundreds of times. Alex clambered into the airship, part of him expecting to see the old elf waiting for him. All he found was a note. Reading the note brought him near to tears, but Alex knew what he had to do. He gathered a few things from home before returning to the airship and looking out at the sleepy little town one last time.

Steeling himself, Sportacus said goodbye to the town he’d called home for 19 years. There were people who needed his help.

Tell me what you think, but be nice, please!

#lazytown #sportacus #sportacus 10 #robbie rotten #sportacus 9 #origin story #I did not expect it to be so long when I started

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sportarobbie-shorties · 7 years

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CXLIV - Time To Start The Show

Sportarobbie Fanfiction - The 144th Shortie

Warnings: None :)

Summary: Tonight is the night. The kids have worked hard on their musical, and now it’s time to get on the stage and show what they got.

Pixel is busy at work, setting up the lighting and sound mechanisms at the theatre, while all of the other kids are preparing themselves, backstage. Stephanie is helping Stingy get into the big, shiny, red dress of the Queen so they’ll know what to do when he actually has to get into the dress, while Trixie tries her best to do her character makeup, and Ziggy hums the chorus of the tea party song nervously.

Sportacus arrives through the back door with a big smile on his face, Robbie following behind him. “Hi, guys! How are you feeling about the show tonight?” Stephanie helps Stingy back out of the dress as she responds: “Great! A little nervous. Very nervous. Terrified.”

Stephanie chuckles, and Sportacus laughs along with her: “Don’t worry, I know you’ll all do great. And being a little nervous is always good when you go performing.” The kids nod, but Ziggy keeps walking back and forth, mumbling to himself. Robbie walks over to him carefully.

“Hey, kid. Are you okay?” Ziggy nods: “Yeah, I’m just scared, that’s all.” Robbie smiles at him. He fixes Ziggy’s hair and pats him on the back. “Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. And if you mess something up, literally no one cares. You have nothing to worry about.” Ziggy nods at Robbie with a smile. “Thanks, Robbie.” “No problem, kid.”

“Guys!” Pixel suddenly shouts from above the stage, ready for the show. “It’s almost time! Are you all in costume?” Stephanie checks all around her and sees that everybody’s almost done. “Pretty much, yeah!”

“Alright! Stephanie, you should go and tell the mayor and Miss Busybody to come in then.” “No, wait, we have to huddle up first!” Trixie exclaims. Pixel then climbs down, and all of the kids get in a circle, all of them close together. They tell each other encouraging words and remind each other of important things to remember on stage. They finally all nod and throw their hands in the air, shouting all together: “Go Wonderland!”

Robbie and Sportacus smile at each other. Sportacus pats all of the kids on the back before leaving with Robbie: “Alright, we’re going to the side of the audience. Break a leg!” “And Ziggy, don’t take that literally!” Robbie adds, receiving laughter from the kids.

Robbie and Sportacus go and sit in the audience with Bessie and Milford, waiting excitedly for the show to start. Soon enough, the lights get dimmer and dimmer, until it’s completely pitch black.

It takes a moment of nothing happening before the lights on the stage turn on slowly, revealing the sets made by Sportacus, Milford, and the kids. It’s only a tree and some flowers around, but it looks nice with the lights setting the mood of a sunny day.

Robbie smiles as he hears the soft piano music starting to play along with birds chirping, and Ziggy walks on stage, looking around himself, pretending to look at the singing birds. He smiles, but the audience can see how nervous he is. When Ziggy glances at them, Robbie makes sure his encouraging smile is noticeable, and when Ziggy sees it, it actually boosts his confidence.

Ziggy sits down by the tree, and Stephanie appears on stage wearing neat, pink dancing clothes, with white bunny ears and a fluffy tail. She dances to the front of the stage and looks at Ziggy with a curious smile before looking at the audience and starting to sing.

“Oh, once there was a boy.” The background music has backup vocals sung by Stingy, answering Stephanie’s singing: “Named Alex.” Stephanie chuckles a little bit, glancing at Ziggy and then looking back to the audience. “He was an ordinary boy.” “Named Alex.” “He was not rich nor poor or famous. He was just a boy…” “Named Alex.”

“But Alex had a wild imagination. He’d create fantastic, fantasy nations.” The lights start smoothly switching between different bright colours, and Stephanie starts dancing her very own choreography. She continues singing with her strong, sweet, bubbly voice, as Ziggy continues to ignore her, staying in character pretty well. Robbie is proud of him - especially for kids, the hardest part might be staying in character when you have nothing to say.

“With his fantasies, he’d jump into exciting stories. But he was just a boy.” “Named Alex.” Stephanie gives Ziggy the spotlight, walking to the back of the stage, but still remaining visible, while Ziggy begins his monologue: “Wow, would you look at these flowers! They’re really big… Imagine if there were flowers as big as the trees. Would mushrooms be that big too? What about bugs? That would be quite scary…”

“Oh dear! I am so late! I am so very late! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…” Stephanie runs - or more like dances - back and forth on the stage, carrying a huge watch. Ziggy looks at her with wide eyes. “Who are you?” “I’m late, that’s who I am!” The kids receive a little chuckle from the audience.

Stephanie goes on to running away in a hurry, and Ziggy, of course, follows her. The other kids manage to create the illusion of them running a longer way by pulling the tree and flowers away with a rope and pushing the rabbit hole onto the stage on wheels. Stephanie stops at the hole for a moment before jumping off stage with a spin. Ziggy looks down the fake hole, then pretending to climb down into it.

The lights go dim, and the little bit of light they have shining on the stage turns into blue and purple, and mysterious music starts playing. Once all of the sets are off the stage, Ziggy appears from the top, slowly going down with several objects floating around him. They’re of course on ropes, and so is Ziggy, and they aren’t that invisible, but the illusion somehow still holds up.

Milford gets a little worried for Ziggy’s safety, but Sportacus assures him that he taught the kids how to do the stunts safely.

“Oh dear, this is peculiar.” Sportacus chuckles at how strange those words sound coming from Ziggy.

Next obviously comes the scene where Alex struggles with the door. Ziggy takes a lick of a lollipop, making himself shrink. A bunch of the other kids are dressed in all black, and they run over to the stage, replacing all of the sets with identical, but bigger versions of them, and when Ziggy takes a bite of a carrot, the kids run over to replace the sets with smaller versions. Sportacus and Robbie agree that it’s a fairly smart trick.

Once Alex gets through the door, sudden lighthearted music starts playing all around and the sets are switched to magical, detailed backgrounds. A river with a small bridge, different colour trees, strange road signs. Stephanie dances onto the stage while the other kids start sneaking around, singing a song.

“Welcome to Wonderland. A very peculiar land. You will not believe all the wonders you see. Here in… Wonderland.”

“Wow! This place is amazing! It’s not like home at all…” It’s Pixel’s time to shine when suddenly huge flowers appear on stage. They’re the marionettes the kids have worked hard on.¨

“Would you look at that strange little boy…” Pixel starts making funny voices for the flowers while moving them around. “Quite peculiar.” “What does he think he’s doing here?” “Oh, hello there!” Alex greets with a smile, walking over to the flowers. The flowers hum at him disapprovingly.

“Could you tell me where to go, please?” “Why don’t you go and find where to go yourself?” Alex looks around himself: “I would, but I don’t know where to go. That’s why I’m asking you.” “We don’t help intruders!” “Intruders?” “You are clearly an intruder! We have never seen you before!” “But I’m…” The flowers start trying to shoo Alex away. “He’s stepping on the poor grass! Murderer!” “But I didn’t know…” “Go away!” “Leave!” “Shoo! Shoo!”

Alex tries to dodge the flowers’ leaves hitting him, and also tries not to step on any more grass while trying to run away. Suddenly he spots the White Rabbit with the pink outfit, dancing away in a hurry. “Hey, you! You could help me! Can you please tell me where to go?” Stephanie turns to look at Ziggy in shock and starts running away. “I’m late, I am so late, I’m in a hurry!”

Ziggy tries running after Stephanie but loses her. But on the way, he finds the Tweedles, played by Stingy and Trixie. They’re arguing about something, and Ziggy moves closer. “Hello? Can you two help me?”

The Tweedles turn to Alex in surprise. “Hello! I’m Tweedle Dee! This land is mine.” “I’m Tweedle Dum. Though Dee is the dumb one.” “Excuse me? You are talking to the Prince of Wonderland, need I remind you!” “ No, if I remember correctly, I’m talking to the Prince of Dummyland.” Alex looks back and forth at the Tweedles confusedly. “So… Can you help me?”

Alex’s question is ignored when the sudden music starts, and the Tweedles continue arguing through singing. The song goes on with simple choreography, and Alex shakes his head, slowly backing away.

Next, Alex wanders over to a tea party in the middle of the woods. The scene starts with a song. The Mad Hatter played by Stephanie is singing and dancing right away, with the March Hare played by Trixie joining her quickly. Sportacus thinks that it must’ve been stressful to do such a quick change of costume.

“Oh, hey, hello there! We have found another!” The Hatter sings, smiling at Alex. “Another one to join our tea party!” The March Hare joins in: “Oh, hey, nice to see you! We have tea and cakes too! Would you like to join our tea party?”

The Hatter starts dancing all over the place, singing with the March Hare, while another puppet controlled by Pixel, the Dormouse, dances in a teapot. “This is quite perfect! Here, would you like some bread? This tea party is one of a kind! Keep that in your mind!”

Alex tries to carefully ask for help: “You know, I don’t really know this place, so maybe you could…” The March Hare interrupts him by singing: “Oh yes, my dear boy. Tell us all your stories. I’m sure you’ve done a lot of adventuring. Oh, hey, Mad Hatter. Give me a piece of cake, please. Oh, sorry, boy, the cake is so distracting. Yes, tell us more!”

“Oh, well, I’m a little lost, so could you tell me…” Alex gets interrupted again, by the Hatter: “You know, I feel like dancing! Dance all your worries away! There’s jazz and breakdance, stepping, and ballet! Join us on the dance floor!”

The lights start twinkling all around in different colours, and the music gets louder with lots of different instruments. The Hatter drags Alex to come dance with her, and the March Hare runs in, to dance as well. Everyone continues singing the same melody with “Lalallalallaa!” and even Alex dances, though looks reluctant. The background music gets even more intense, with shouts of “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” in rhythm with the song, and everyone apart from Alex is smiling wide.

“Stop!” Alex shouts, making the music end with a final beat of the drum, and everyone stops dancing. “Can you just please tell me where to go?” The Hatter and March Hare look at each other questioningly. “You might want to go to the Blue Caterpillar for that”, the March Hare says ominously. “Who?” “He’s very wise”, the Hatter confirms, with the light slowly going dim and the tea party table being dragged away.

“But where do I find him?” Suddenly Alex is all alone in the dark. He starts wandering around and finds himself lost in the woods. Strange signs telling him to go in all different crazy directions are scattered everywhere. There’s sudden laughter and snickering, and a cat, played by Trixie, appears - the Cheshire Cat.

“Hello?” “Hello?” the Cat echoes back. “Are you the Blue Caterpillar?” “Yes, of course. I am very blue, and most definitely a caterpillar”, the Cat says mockingly. Next, comes a whole scene of the Cheshire Cat saying riddles and laughing at Alex. Eventually, the Cat leads Alex over to the Blue Caterpillar, played by Stingy.

“Hello. You are the boy everyone has been complaining about, aren’t you?” “What?” The Caterpillar moves closer: “Well not really, just the flowers, but oh well, that’s good enough for me.” “Can you help me?” Alex asks, receiving a disapproving look from the Caterpillar. “Just going straight to talking about what you want? No wonder the flowers didn’t like you…”

“Can you just please help me get home?” Alex asks again, with frustration. “Alright, fine, here.” The Blue Caterpillar gives Alex a muffin. “What’s this?” “It’s a magical muffin. If you eat the other side, terrible things will happen, and if you eat the other side, you will get taken to the castle of the Queen of Hearts. She will help you.” Alex looks at the muffin confusedly. “What if I eat both sides?” “You can’t.” “Why?” “Because the other side is mine.”

Alex takes a big bite, and soon enough strange birds - Pixel’s marionettes again - start leading him over to a castle. Alex enters the castle carefully and tries to look for the Queen.

“Hello? Does the Queen of Hearts live here? I was told she could help me.” The Queen turns to look at Alex. Her shiny, big dress glimmers in the light as she turns around and smiles at Alex. “Yes. That would be I, the Queen.” “Can you help me?” “Hush, child. Hush. I need to think about that…”

Suddenly, the Queen ends up singing fantastic, epic song. Stingy takes the whole stage, standing in the spotlight and singing his heart out. He hits the high notes perfectly, and everyone is surprised to hear how strong his voice is. He even earns little applauds from Robbie in the audience.

When the Queen starts singing the chorus again, Alex tries joining in on the song, and the music stops. The Queen stares at Alex with wide eyes in silence. “Did you just try to sing my song?” “Well, yeah, I thought that would be how it works since everyone around here has been singing all the time and…” “Off with his head!”

Suddenly, exciting music starts playing and all of the lights turn red. Playing card soldiers appear, which are also puppets controlled by Pixel, and they start chasing Alex. He runs back and forth, away from the soldiers, moving along with the music, and eventually Alex successfully runs away. The lights turn blue, and slow, soft music starts playing in place of the chasing music.

Alex sits down on the ground, looking around himself. “I’m lost. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know anyone here. I don’t know what to do.” Alex lets out a sob. “I don’t like it here. It’s scary. I want to go home!” Alex starts crying all alone in the darkness.

The White Rabbit appears again. She dances over to Alex carefully, singing softly: “Hey now, my child. What is the matter? Hey now, my child. What seems to be wrong? You might not believe it, but it’ll get better. You don’t have to do it on your own.”

The Rabbit helps Alex up from the ground and continues singing: “Hey now, my child. Wipe away your tears. Hey now, my child. You’ll have to face your fears. But it won’t be that hard if you let me help you. When we’re together, there’s so much we can do.”

A huge choir starts singing with the Rabbit, as she takes Alex’s hand and starts leading him home. “Life is not easy. We all know it. You often feel queazy and you might often get hit. But together we’ll make it. I know we’ll survive. You’ll just have to believe me, and we’ll see the sunlight.”

The sets and lights change, going back to the original scene with the tree and the flowers, and the birds are chirping again, while they’re all still singing the song. In the end, everyone appears on stage, singing the song together. When the song ends, Robbie, Sportacus, Milford, and Bessie give massive applauds, and Pixel runs onto the stage as well. They all take a big bow with huge smiles, and the lights on the stage turn off again.

#lazytown #lazy town #sportarobbie #fanfiction #sportarobbie-shorties #fics #sportacus #robbie rotten #married #the kids #mayor meanswell #miss busybody #the musical

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indigowallbreaker · 7 years

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Prompt for a ficlet. Sport or Robbie have a bad day and the other forces them to relax via hot bath. Whoever goes in the bath gets their hair washed for them and feels so loved it's unbearable.

I am all for the boys being loved, absolutely.

did you say ficlet or fic because whoops

–

An outfit had gotten caught in the disguise machine, clogging up the whole thing. Annoying, but fixable. While doing his morning makeup routine, he had dropped his favorite eye shadow, reducing half of it to dust. Again, inconvenient but not the end of the world. There was some kind of festival he had forgotten about causing the kids to be twice as loud as usual. Not an uncommon thing, he was used to that.

Individually, Robbie could take these events in stride.

Taken all together, he was ready to break something.

Sportacus had taken one look at the enraged Robbie stomping into town and half dragged, half carried him up to the airship and away from the townspeople.

“Why would you drag me up here of all places?!” He snapped when the platform had finally lifted them into the ship. He could feel a migraine coming on and his fear of heights was the last thing he wanted added to today. Instead of answering, Sportacus covered his boyfriend’s ears. Robbie saw him speak to the ship’s computer but couldn’t hear a word.

When Sportacus finally pulled his hands back, Robbie pushed away from him, “What am I doing here?!”

“You need to relax-”

“Don’t tell me what to do, elf!”

“You need to relax,” Sportacus repeated, “and I want to help.”

Robbie crossed his arms, glaring, “How?” Sportacus took his hand and lead him into another room.

The bathroom was small, but had everything one could need.

Including a decent sized bathtub. Which was filled with steaming water and a generous about of bubbles.

“How have I never seen this before,” Robbie stated more than asked.

With a laugh, Sportacus pushed him towards the tub, “Get in. You need a good soak.”

Robbie didn’t need telling twice. Without any embarrassment, he stripped and stepped into the bath. The water temperature was perfect and he sunk into it until only his head and toes were showing. He sighed, disrupting some bubbles.

Behind him, he heard Sportacus moving around, then there was a pair of hands on Robbie’s bare shoulders.

“Dunk your head,” Sportacus said. Robbie did as he was told. When he popped back up again, Sportacus began massaging his wet hair, pressing his fingers lightly into his scalp. Robbie leaned into the touch.

“Tell me what happened today,” Sportacus’ voice was soft, close to a whisper, “Why are you so worked up?”

It was like popping a cork off a champagne bottle. Robbie vented to Sportacus, telling him everything. He told him about having to take the disguise machine apart almost completely to fix it. He told him about burning his toast that morning. He told him about trying to press his eye shadow back into a usable state and failing miserably. He told him about stubbing his toe on the work table. He told him that hearing the kids screaming and laughing had made him snap.

The whole time, Sportacus said nothing. He just rubbed shampoo into Robbie’s hair and listened. When Robbie was done, Sportacus’ fingers lowered to rub at Robbie’s temples for a few moments.

“Dunk your head again,” He ordered. Robbie did so. He expected Sportacus to demand he leave the tub now so he could rejoin the kids.

Instead, Sportacus wrapped his arms around Robbie’s neck, nuzzling into his shoulder. “I’m sorry you’ve had a hard morning,” Sportacus said right into his ear, “I wish I could help you but I don’t know anything about makeup. Or machines.” He snorted, “And you know I can’t make the kids stop.”

Robbie let himself chuckle and he turned to kiss the corner or Sportacus’ mouth, “The head massage was nice. Very helpful.”

Sportacus lifted his head and smiled at Robbie. He leaned back again and began running his fingers soothingly over Robbie’s hair. Robbie groaned and let the bubbles fade around him as he relaxed. Occasionally, Sportacus would bring his hands down to massage Robbie’s shoulders and neck, or he would press kisses into his soaked hair and murmurer ‘I love you’s.

When Robbie couldn’t take it anymore, when the migraine was a distant memory and he felt so loved and protected he could hardly stand it, he grabbed one of Sportacus’ wrists and lightly pulled it down so he could kiss the back of his hand.

The blinding smile he received in return was worth every hardship.

#lazytown #lazy town #sportarobbie #without a doubt #this could not be fluffier i tried #i wanted to do more ficlets in sports pov i swear #but i wanted robbie to feel loved #i cry this ficlet got too long #fic #mine #any more requests i can make into sports pov?#i feel bad for the guy #but omg this was a joy to write #hoopoeflight #prompt

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thursdayplaid · 7 years

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afdrif (someone’s fate)

Hey @mymomsareallygoodfriendtome! It’s Secret Friend Day! I’m your secret friend! Since fic is my strongest suit I’ve written one for you!

I hope you enjoy! This was the story that kept wanting to be written, and it originally didn’t really have a lot of old school fae dark and danger about it, so I went and added a few things so it can be as dark or as light as you want to read into it! (Also I added an OC for plot purposees, I probably should have asked first, but too late now!) Enjoy and Happy Secret Friend Day! (Also its unbetaed, so sorry!)

afdrif (the fate of someone)

Word: 8196

Robbie loves his mother and then she’s gone. *** Robbie hates Sportacus and then he stays. (Somewhere in the middle is Robbie’s Uncle trying his best to plot, plan, and parent.)

When Robbie was small he heard the sound of mouse feet in the back garden, he heard the feather light softness of their little pads (pat, pat, pat) and the gentle tap of their little claws (tip, tip, tip). He could feel the softness as though they were already in the palm of his hand, against his cheek. As though he had already slipped them carefully into his mouth and swallowed them whole so they could run in the world inside his belly, like a great whale swallowing little prophets.

When Robbie was small he lay awake with silver eyes staring at the electricity flowing blue and sleek through the walls of their home and feeling the iron springs in his mattress like a piece of meat between his back teeth. He always got up in the morning with a backache and dark circles under his eyes.

When Robbie was small his brother Glanni would laugh and take him by the hands and they would spin together in a circle until mushrooms would pop up. Mamma would come out with a hand shovel and dig out the mushrooms one by one, burning them in a big barrel.

Glanni couldn’t sleep on a spring mattress at all, he slept on a plump pillowy thing their uncle had brought them for a present. Glanni was thoughtless as Mamma, but twice as cruel. She loved to laugh over how foolish someone must be to trust a stranger with their life savings, she wore other people’s family jewels, and didn’t always remember to get them a babysitter. Glanni made their teacher dance until his ankle broke, and made a girl sick so he could be class president, and taught classmates to encourage their parents’ fighting so they could get love-me-best bribes.

Robbie was a nosy boy, he wanted to know everything. He wanted to play forever (FOR-EVER), he wanted to be in control, he watched, and he tinkered, and he thought.

Robbie’s world was small when he was young. Small and safe and strange.

His mother was a big part of his young life, her laughter, her patience, the way she rested her chin in her palm and her eyes twinkled as she watched him build with his blocks. She was more a part of his life than even Glanni was for a long, long time.

***

When that sports elf, Number Nine, parachuted into town Robbie’s heart almost stopped, his wings shivered with fear against his back. Down in his bunker he couldn’t escape the feel of phantom hands pulling his spine straight and pushing him to and fro. Harder, faster, higher, longer. He had crouched behind a wall to watch Nine lecture little Ziggy.

“No,” Number Nine said, pulling the lollipop out of the boy’s hand. Robbie felt the swish of the stick across his palm. “That is bad for you! Do what I say or you’ll get sick!”

Ziggy stared up in wide eyed confusion, but didn’t argue, he had always trusted authority too much.

He told Uncle about it in their weekly (though Uncle had only the loosest grasp of what weekly, or daily, or routine meant) telephone call right after Uncle’s update about how in jail Glanni was feeling at the moment.

“You do know you’re an adult, right?” Uncle said. “If you want me to come and kill him you can just say. Or do it yourself. You’re allowed you know. You might even get a second one after they come to figure out what happened to the first.”

“I’m not going to kill him!” Robbie shouted, flopping back into his chair.

“No! Of course not! But if you wanted to…”

“No!” Robbie snapped at his uncle. His voice popped with magic that cracked down the line until Uncle’s sleek dispersal of it made him feel clumsy and six again. He flinched in on himself in shame. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, darling,” Uncle said, voice low and gentle. “You don’t need to apologize. If it means that much to you I won’t interfere yet. No harm done, and if it was I’d probably deserve it.” He barked off a laugh, a sound like a glacier cracking. “I just worry sometimes you’re too human. You’re allowed to defend yourself, Robin dear. That’s what Stingy was about, wasn’t he? That you’re allowed to have things that are yours and you’re allowed to keep those things safe.”

Robbie closed his eyes, his body slumping.

“My weird darling. You’re not just fae you know, you’re allowed to be a little human too. Allowed to have a little revenge. Now go eat some cake, I’ll talk to you next week. It’ll be alright. You’ll figure it out, my clever boy.”

***

Mamma had an uncle who stood ten feet tall with long hair the pearly ivory of mistletoe berries and a laugh like an avalanche. He bent himself into a child sized chair at Glanni and Robbie’s little table and had tea parties with them. He told them stories about stars and seasons and taught them to pick pockets and pick marks. Mamma watched them with a pinch between her eyebrows and her mouth pulled to the side in something too worried to be a smile.

He’d take them on adventures too, beaming down at them with a mix of pride and amusement that made Robbie feel like he could fly.

“They’re fine,” Uncle would tell Mamma when they came back from the toy, or the candy, or the beauty store.

“You wrecked the store! It was on the news!” Mamma would shout back.

“Its fine, my jewel. I erased all their memories, they thought it was a wind storm.” Or an elephant, or a ghost.

“You’re impossible! I’m trying to keep a low profile, what if an elf was there?”

“Then we would have been careful,” Uncle would roll his eyes. “You know I'd do anything in my considerable power to keep them from real pain. Now let the children go play, they’re only this young once.”

Then Mamma would get down the wine and she and Uncle had conversations in the kitchen, Uncle’s face like a frozen heart, like a laugh at a good joke while Mamma was like the velvet of the sky at midnight, like the quiet of a good sleep. Glanni and Robbie watched from the upstairs railing as Mamma took down the braided knot at the crown of her head, jewels and passion flowers and raven’s feathers shining in her dark hair.

“What do I have to do with the Courts?” Uncle told her, waving the hand with his wine glass through the air. “Stuffy and unsatisfying. Boring. They know I helped hide you away somewhere, but they dare not cross me directly as long as they know it’ll mean a fight. And you’re stronger than I am as far as they’re concerned, and they’re right.”

“Hmm,” she said, flexing her fingers on the table.

“A tree in winter still has all its strength, you have your power still. It is the nature of nature to shift and change and become something new. You’re finding yourself, you’re learning love and the Fair Kings have been broken with love by heroes enough to prove you have a greater power than them all. After all you can command me with a word.”

“You and your words,” Mamma said. “You could always convince me of anything, that you were anyone you wanted me to believe you were. That I was whatever you said I was. And you haven’t talked to me in so long. Just. You understand so much more than they ever could for all the good it’s done. Now look at me, one child with all the harm, one with all the charm, and neither I know what to do with.”

“Hmm,” he said, shrugging.

“You were the only thing about the Court that didn’t bore me,” Mamma confessed like it was something awful. “I don’t think they could stand that, that you were the only thing I found interesting. You never wanted anything but for me to be safe and happy. I’m trying to do that. I think it’s better than what they had in mind for me. Tying knots in cows’ tails can’t be more interesting than watching babies figure out walking. Babies are so dumb and funny.”

Neither Robbie nor Glanni had much more than a distant academic curiosity in who their father was when compared to their towering great-uncle and their perfect mother. Mamma was the one who decorated what she laughingly called fairy cakes with them. Mamma was the one who let them wear her long flowing scarves as she told fortunes in her little shop. She was the queen of all women.

***

“Well,” Robbie shrugged as he looked over his clipboard. The clipboard was the most important part of his small town judge disguise. “This is the laziest, least well behaved town I’ve ever seen. That boy in sleep on a pile of taffy, that other boy has been playing video games for six days, and what is that girl doing?” he asked, pointing at Trixie. She skateboarded by painting a long purple line down the wall. “Have you been officially assigned to the town? If so I’m afraid I’m going to have to make a report to the hero’s league.”

This was going to be a hard line to balance on, getting Nine to believe him, but he hoped after the long weeks of being shot out of cannons, caught in nets and smothered in chocolate sauce the elf wouldn’t care. If Robbie didn’t act fast, that well placed yet of Uncle’s was going to be the death of the sports elf. He certainly didn’t like elves, he wasn’t crazy, but he didn’t want Uncle to murder one.

“No!” Number Nine said, hands held up. “Not at all! I’m sick of this awful place! I’m leaving!”

Robbie waited until he was back into his bunker to dance around his fuzzy orange chair, his long wings fluttering behind him.

***

“Well, if you’re going to play with the dumb elf I’m going to play with my friends!” Glanni shouted at him with all of his fourteen year old wrath.

“You don’t have any other friends!” Robbie shouted back, looking up at his older brother, going up on his toes to try and shorten the gap between their heights.

“Yes I do!” Glanni shouted back.

There was a sort of pop in Robbie’s ears and there was a giant ugly rooster standing there next to Glanni. For a moment it was a cloudy ghost of a thing before solidifying into something as real looking as Robbie and Glanni if strangely rubbery, almost puppetish.

Both of them stared at it until Glanni grabbed it around the neck and pulled it close. “See! I have a friend and he’s all mine!”

“Well! Well!” Robbie shouted back, stung by his brother’s preference of some dumb chicken over him. “I have one too! And he’s twice as cool! He doesn’t steal my cake and he loves taffy and playing just like me! And he’s a superhero!” There a sort of pressure inside his chest and there was a small boy next to him with a red cape and a dandelion puff of yellow hair. His face looked super weird, smooth as a doll’s, but he blinked up at Robbie and took hold of his hand.

Mamma burst in from the hall holding a ball of frozen light, the temperature of the room dropping several degrees. Her wings fluttered behind her before flaring up, sparkling and purple.

The brothers startled, clinging to their new friends.

“What happened?” she said, then pointed. “What’s that?”

The weird chicken turned to look at her. “I’m Hannin.”

Robbie’s weird doll friend burst into tears.

“Uncle!” Mamma called out. “Uncle, come here! We need your help!”

Uncle appeared in a cloud of lavender steam in a fluffy white bathrobe and his pale hair wrapped up in a towel. “What is it? I was at the spa.”

“Look,” Mamma said. “Look at those. There was this burst of magic and then I came in and those two whatever they are were in here.”

Uncle sighed and spun himself into a sleek suit the color of dawn. His long paned wings hung down his back, heavy and powerful. They buzzed at Mamma and Mamma flashed hers back at him. “Ugh, fine. I hope you appreciate I’m doing this with my hair and makeup undone. I look a fright. Still, family first, let me take a look at them. They aren’t dangerous or the wards would have been tripped and I would have been here sooner.”

“That’s nice and all, but these are my kids and I want them to be safe,” Mamma crossed her arms at him.

“Well,” Uncle said, crouching down. He tilted up Hannin’s face to squint at him; for a moment he glowed silver blue. Glanni gasped, clutching at his chest, and Uncle nodded, seeming pleased at the result. “It is a changeling, both of them are changelings.”

“They can’t be, that one’s a rooster,” Mamma said. “How did he make it?”

Uncle pressed his lips together, his wings emitting a low annoyed buzz. “Well, when you mix together two volatile things, weird stuff happens. Usually the changelings are attached to the children that get whisked away, but as there are no such children I would say they’re probably attached to the boys. As long as they doesn’t try to kill any of you in your sleep I’d say leave them be.”

“But they look so weird,” Glanni said.

“Only to fae, to everyone else they’ll look normal. I have a changeling left over from a project that didn’t work out. I might even bring old Milford by sometime. You remember Milford, don’t you, my jewel?”

“Milford?” Mamma said. “He was a changeling?”

“Of course he was. He was a great nanny, wasn’t he? He’s an idiot, but he’s reliable”

“I liked Milford,” Mamma said in a strange voice, brow furrowing.

“You’re my uncle, aren’t you?” Ziggy asked Uncle before Mamma could say anything else, wiping his eyes.

Uncle blinked and opened his arms, as though Ziggy had spoken some magic word. “Yes, I suppose I am.”

Snuffling, Ziggy wrapped his arms around Uncle’s neck. Robbie shifted awkwardly, he wanted to get a hug from uncle, he didn’t understand what was happening. As soon as uncle’s arms went around Ziggy’s shoulders, Robbie felt warmth wrapped all around him like he was getting a hug too.

“Oh. What a sweet little baby. I haven’t had a hug from a baby for so long.” He pressed his cheek to the top of Ziggy’s head. “It’ll be alright, little baby. I’ll keep you safe.”

“Will you?” Ziggy asked in a small voice.

“Of course, little one. Of course.”

***

No sooner had Robbie got everything settled in town than the pink girl showed up and started jumping and kicking and playing. She tried to get the kids all running and playing with her with a little dance, the sound bizarrely funneling in through Robbie’s ears as well as all the children’s in the way it sometimes did. She tried her best, but Robbie knew the kids like he knew the back of his hand.

And then she ruined things again by calling for another hero. Robbie could already feel the phantom pains. He had to get that elf out of town. The elf would have the kids up running around again, falling down and skinning their knees and breaking their wrists and slipping and falling. And pushing and shoving and shouting.

Lazy was good, lazy was safe.

But nothing was working with the Number Ten. He’d look angry, and act angry, but then he never did anything.

“Don’t look a gift elf in the mouth,” Glanni said over the phone. “I would know, it never ends well, I have my own elf problems. Why don’t you ask Uncle for advice?”

“Because Uncle’s advice tends towards mayhem and mauling. Besides, what else are you going to do in your safe house other than help me figure this out? Do your nails for six weeks? I want to run the blue kangaroo out of town, not have him turned into a frog and smushed.”

“What about uncle’s changeling? Shouldn’t Milford be putting up more of a resistance?”

“I don’t know. Milford hated Number Nine, well hated him as much as Milford could hate anyone, but he gets along great with Sportakook. All the kids do too!”

“Hey,” Glanni said. “Stay sharp, bro. Keep your head on straight.”

Secondhand delight wrapped around him like a hug, he barely held back his indirect laughter. He was trying to have a serious conversation with his brother, it was very annoying. “Don’t worry, the sooner that blue buffoon is out of here the better.”

“Blue baboon,” Glanni answered in a sing song voice.

Robbie let himself laugh. “Blue balloon!”

***

Mamma had been as constant as the rising and the setting of the moon, sometimes disappearing for short time periods before returning again. Always returning, until she didn’t anymore. They ran out of grocery money and then they ran out of food in the house. Every day seemed exactly the same, cookie cuttered over the top of the other, in the way that time did when one was achey and tired. Somewhere in the patch of days they had gotten a bit rowdy and wrecked some things in the house. They felt very bad about it, but there wasn’t much they could do about it until Mamma came back.

Glanni was up on the kitchen counter on his knees, trying to see if there was anything hiding in the very tip, tip top cabinets.

“Did you find anything?” Robbie asked, hands tight on his blanket.

Glanni sighed, head bowing so it rested on the cabinet door. “No. I think we might be in trouble.”

Robbie jolted as his ears popped.

“Uncle! Uncle!” Hannin cried out from where he was slumped down on the counter, flapping his wings. Robbie spun on his heel to see Uncle standing person sized in a dark suit and a weird flat brimmed hat, he wore funny round sunglasses that reflected back a picture of the brothers’ back at themselves.

“Did someone call?” he said, adjusting his hat.

“Uncle Vetur!” Glanni called out. He jolted back from the cabinet, his eyes wide, then leapt to the floor to wrap his long arms around his uncle’s middle.

“Oh,” Uncle said, surprised as he always seemed when they looked happy to see him. He wrapped his arms around Glanni’s shoulders to give him an absent squeeze. “Hello. This is a nice hug.”

Robbie rushed forward to be hugged as well, snugging in under his uncle’s arms.

“Why are we hugging?” Uncle asked, his voice pleasant and calm. He smelled kind of weird, like ice and magic and electricity.

“We’re hungry,” Robbie said. “Mamma’s been gone for a long time and there’s no more food in the house. Glanni tried to steal a cake, but the baker chased him away.”

“I’ll have to teach you to do better,” Uncle told them, squeezing them tight. He breathed in a tight, sharp breath and then pressed his cheek to the top of their heads. After a moment, Uncle seemed to have gotten over whatever had him so upset and he was smiling down at them. “Theft is a cake wake with two, but that’s for later. Come sit and eat and you’ll have to tell me more. I see Hannin on the counter, he’s seen better days. Robbie, where are your little changelings?”

“Ziggy’s sleeping,” Robbie said. “I don’t know what Stingy’s doing. Counting my toys again probably. When I started getting hungry, he got tired and stopped wanting to play.”

“You’re young yet, when you’re older you’ll be stronger and they won’t drain so much energy.”

Robbie blinked slowly, pressing a hand against his hungry tummy. "When I grow up will they get bigger too?”

That confident affection slid off Uncle’s face. “We’ll see when we get there.”

“You know what happened to Mamma,” Glanni said. “Why did you take so long to get here?”

He pulled back from them, waving a hand so the kitchen table groaned under the weight of cake and cookies, ice cream and deviled eggs. “I’ll go get him, you eat, and then- Do humans usually have the children decide or do the adults decide?”

“The grownups,” Robbie said.

“The kids!” Glanni said over his brother. “And you didn’t answer my question!”

“Hannin?” Uncle asked.

“I’m not getting in the middle of this,” Hannin squawked back.

Uncle laughed as he turned to head to their rooms.

The brothers ate until their bellies were full and they laid in a pile on the sitting room floor. Uncle wandered in after they had woken up with Ziggy in his arms and Pixel trailing behind him, laughing at them. Ziggy’s weird changeling face looked down at them and at Uncle before tucking it into Uncle’s neck.

“Ziggy’s really grown,” Uncle told them. “Mentally if not physically. I’ve been reading him stories and he’s been paying attention. Great work with him. If you had really replaced a child with him he would have done fairly well at pretending to be human.”

“I don’t want to take any children,” Robbie said where he sprawled out on the floor.

“No,” Uncle rolled his eyes. “Of course not, you’re still a child yourself. I’ve talked to Ziggy and he’s told me everything that’s gone on. I’ve come to a decision. I’m worried something bad happened. Your Mamma didn’t act like she was bored with you and so something must have happened to make her stay away. So what I’m going to do is take you to a different place and do something, I don’t know. Build a house and put you two in it. I’ll figure something out.”

“What about Mamma?” Robbie said.

“Shut up,” Glanni elbowed him. “He’s trying to distract us, he knows what’s going on. Tell us.”

“Glanni!” Uncle laughed. “So paranoid!”

“No, I know you. I’ve known you for my whole dumb life. All Mamma has to do is say help and you’re there right away!”

Their reflection stared back at them from Uncle’s mirrored sunglasses.

Robbie felt scared, he got up to take Uncle by the hand and pull. “Where’s Mamma?”

“She went away,” Uncle said. His wings were invisible, but Robbie could still hear their tight annoyed buzz.

“Where?”

“She died, pumpkin bread,” Glanni said, arms crossed tight over his chest.

Robbie looked up at Uncle and pulled on his hand again. “Is she dead?”

“How would I know?”

“Liar!” Glanni snapped, jumping to his feet. He sniffed and scrubbed at his face, pretended like he wasn’t going to cry. “Take off those ugly glasses and say that to my face!”

Uncle got down on one knee and slipped his glasses off to slip into his pocket. “Glanni, I’d know if your Mamma was in danger right now, or if she was-” Uncle had to stop for a moment. “I’d know, okay, I promise. She’s not in danger right now. Wherever she is she’s not scared or hurting.”

Glanni fidgeted in place, before jutting out his chin. “You love Deals, you love them more than you love me or Robbie or Mamma or anyone else. Make a Deal with me.”

Uncle’s eyes got a sharp silver glow to them, his whole face shifted to something razor edged and craggy. “No reneging. You offered a Deal.”

It took Glanni a second to get to get his courage up, but he stuck out his hand. “I mean it. Make me a Deal, I want to know what you know about what Mamma!”

“You’ll have be more specific, cupcake. I can’t fulfill a deal if I don’t know what I’m fulfilling.”

“I don’t care. Tell me anything, just tell me something.”

Uncle’s hand grabbed his with a clap of thunder. “Your conditions are set, if you’re brave enough to try this again you’ll word it differently. Too late now. Here’s my conditions, sweetheart, you can’t try and go after your mother and you have to call me for help whenever you or Robbie need it. No matter where you are or what’s going on.”

“That’s two things!” Robbie protested on behalf of his brother. “Glanni only offered one.”

“Well, he’s the one who wants to make the Deal with me,” Uncle said. “As far as negotiations go I have the upper hand.”

“He’s right,” Stingy said.

“That’s what you want? Just, like, for us to ask for help?” Glanni asked. “That’s dumb.”

“Well, I’m dumb,” Uncle said. “And it’s more than a request, you’ll be compelled, you won’t be able to help it. Yes or no? Are we shaking on this?”

Glanni shook. He opened his mouth to ask a question then made that gasping sniffing sound he made when he was trying not to cry and seemed to change his mind. “Are you really going to take care of us then?”

Some of the sharpness went out of Uncle’s face, he pressed his lips together, looking over the boys. “Well, I’m not going to be very good at it. But at least I can keep you fed and clean or whatever. I don’t know. It can’t be that hard.”

“Then I accept the Deal. You could have asked for more you know, I’m only going to be this naive once.”

Laughing, Uncle let go of his hand to pull him into a tight hug, picking Robbie up with one hand to bring him into the hug too. “Don’t worry, you’ll be plenty naive for plenty longer. I’ve still got plenty of tricks up my sleeve.”

Glanni popped back from Uncle with his elbows. “Can’t we stay with any other family?”

Uncle’s shoulders slumped. “You don’t really have any other family.”

“You’re our uncle though,” Robbie said. “That means you and Mamma had the same parents.”

“Great Uncle, that means a whole generation back. And Fae don’t have parents, darling. I was born when a glacier cracked.”

“Everything has a parent, that’s like how stuff works,” Robbie told him.

Uncle just gave them a look. “Your Mamma should have taught you better. Fae are unnatural creatures, no parents, no siblings, no children in the truest sense. They just become and then they are, their only chance for offspring is with a human lover or a stealing a human child. Most fae never really know love. They make do with jealousy and obsession and call it the same.” Uncle pulled back from them to stand and pick Ziggy back up, resting his cheek on the top of the changeling’s head. “They make their lovers dance until they die and turn their stolen children into china dolls when they stop being amusing. Bad news all around.”

“So fae aren’t good with kids?” Glanni asked, staring at uncle with an intense gaze.

“No, they aren’t.”

“And you’re fae.”

Uncle set his jaw. “Yes.”

“Ugh,” Glanni said, flopping down on the sofa. “Fine. But you still have to tell me what happened!”

“Just wait until you’re wings start coming in,” Uncle grumped. “Then you won’t be so disrespectful.”

***

Robbie had watched the elf who’d taken up guardianship of the town flip flop his way around town in a flash of blue and white and a stream of helpful words. He seemed to take the children’s happiness to heart, as much as an elf could. He was dangerous, certainly, but he still seemed to enjoy the kids, want to help their little games. Robbie preferred their laziness, but had allowed as best he could for the hero to do the children some good.

This was Robbie’s town, his world, his magic.

Take right now for example, the children were playing even without Sporkadork egging them on.

“Hey Robbie!” came a voice behind him. “What are you doing?”

Robbie jolting, shouting as he fell over.

“Oh no!” Sportacus said, darting forward. “Are you alright?” Why did the flippity flopper have to exclaim everything?

“I’m fine! I’m fine!” Robbie flinched back against the low wall he had been hiding behind.

The corners of Sportacus’ mouth tipped down, his hands curling as they pulled back. “Alright,” he said, taking a step away.

“Go on,” Robbie shooed at him. “Go play soccer or whatever it is you’re going to do. Make a lot of racket.”

“You know, Robbie,” Sportacus said with that little head bob of his. “Sports are really fun.”

“Sports, ugh,” Robbie said, crossing his arms.

Sportacus sat down on the ground cross legged in front of him, just far enough away he was out of direct arms’ reach. “You could join in too if you wanted. There’s always room for one more!”

“No thank you!” he pulled his legs close and his arms tighter across his chest.

“If you don’t mind me asking, Robbie, why do you hate sports so much?”

“Because they’re loud! And bothersome! And dangerous!” he told him.

“Dangerous?” Sportacus asked, eyebrows drawing together. The blue kangaroo had never looked like that at him before, like he was actually listening. The way he looked at the kids. Lazytown felt silent all of a sudden, still and paying attention to this moment right here. Then Sportacus’ face did something, twitched like a big cat when it had scented something and there was noise again, the playing of children.

“The kids were safe before you came,” he snapped. “They didn’t need you to come rescue them from falling and tripping and-” he tried to make a vaguely sport-ish motion that was meant to indicate a whole host of activity related dangers. “They were happy and quiet and totally fine.”

“You really care about the kids, don’t you?” Sportacus asked him, leaning forward, his face pinched up with thinking.

“Of course I do you blue buffoon!”

“That’s why you get so upset with me all the time. I promise, Robbie, that I’ll do my best to keep them safe. I care about them too.”

Robbie looked away and sniffed, trying to channel Uncle’s powerful disinterest. “You can’t do everything,” he said. He could hear the listlessness in his own voice.

Wide-eyed, Sportacus startled back. The elf looked so vulnerable all of a sudden that Robbie found he didn’t want to hurt him after all. “I-”

"You make the kids feel safe," he said, his arms wrapped around himself. "But they're not, you're not."

"Oh," Sportacus said, a look of epiphany making him look open and harmless. "Oh."

"What?" Robbie pulled back and Sportacus immediately pulled back as well.

"Robbie, will you describe Nine for me?"

Narrowing his eyes, Robbie considered him. It didn't seem like a trick, but then it never did with heroes and their obedient followers. Uncle would trick him sometimes, but he always knew the conditions, always knew roughly what the consequences would be. Heroes tested you and if you didn't fit right with their philosophy then bad things happened.

"Please. Robbie, I would like to know."

"Dangerous."

"Can you tell me how?" Sportacus seemed actually interested.

"Have you ever been somewhere old? Old and abandoned."

Brow furrowed again Sportacus nodded.

"Have you ever been walking along in that old house and everything was fine, but then you stepped on a rotten board and your foot went through and your heart hurts from stopping in horror and your lungs hurt from gasping and for a moment your whole body seizes up in anxious terror?"

"No," Sportacus said, his face sad. "But I think I understand. One of those feelings that you can call up at a moment. I was attacked by a pod of orcas once, I was really afraid for a moment under they pulled me down before they realized I wasn't a seal."

"That moment is the worst," Robbie told him. "The moment gets fossilized, caught in amber. Nine was like that, the old house with the rotten board, but there was the feeling about him that there were rotten boards everywhere and I had just been lucky to step on solid wood so far. There was just something about the way he grabbed them..."

Sportacus made a sort of rumbling snarl in his chest, his pupils narrow. “He touched the kids after they told him to stop.”

"No, well, they’re just kids and he was the hero," Robbie said quickly. "They could tell he didn’t mean harm by it, but the way he treated them- I tried to- to sort us all out, but there were so many of them and I-” He pressed the palms of his hands against his temples. “They wanted to believe in a hero so much. They didn’t feel it like me. The way he treated them like they couldn't choose, like they weren't real."

“Robbie,” Sportacus said, his face crumpling. “I’m so sorry. I’m sure in his mind what he was doing was alright, but that’s absolutely no excuse. I wish there was something I could say or do. My dad was like that, more so when he was younger. He just knew how things were supposed to be. It was very frustrating. I don’t know him personally, the hero here before me was from the ninth house and I’m the most recent champion of the tenth, but I can send word to make sure the League takes a look at him. I promise that as long as I can I’ll stay and protect the children, keep them safe for as long as I can so you don’t have any other hero problems.”

“You’d really stay here? Forever?” The echo of the word shuddered through Lazytown.

Sportacus laughed. “Maybe not forever. Just until the kids are grown, Ziggy is what? Six? So that twelve more years at least. Just so you don’t have to worry about any other heroes.”

“I mean I guess the other tens could come too,” Robbie said, “if they’re like you I guess.”

Sportacus laughed, “Sure, just my family and me. Would that help you feel better?”

“I don’t know,” Robbie said, some old instinct flaring up in him. “Can we shake on it?”

***

“There are these creatures, nasty things,” Uncle said, spinning the cherry in his drink round and round. The fancy restaurant was kind of crowded, but everyone but the waiter seemed to be ignoring them. Uncle was drinking a Shirley Temple and love-hating every second of it because Glanni had tried to get Uncle to agree to let him have whatever Uncle was having and Uncle had forgone his usual expensive wine for a little familial torment. Glanni could have bought his own bottle after that small job he pulled off in Mayhemtown, but he would drink something he hated as long as Uncle had cash in his pocket to pay for it. Robbie didn’t get what they were complaining about. He loved Shirley Temples.

“Elves,” Uncle told them. “Alfar. They’ve taken it upon themselves to be heroes instead of receding to the shadows to drink cream and perform elegant con jobs like the rest of us. And they’re so bossy! Such strict definitions for what’s acceptable, who’s allowed where, what they’re allowed to do when they’re there. They talk about health and exercise and the power of words, of giving your Word like a fae doesn’t know! And the flipping and the flopping and the nonsense-”

“Uncle!” Glanni said, leaning forward in his seat. “You told us to tell you everything!”

“I did no such thing!” Uncle demurred, hand on his chest. “You made me promise to tell you anything.”

Glanni growled, then hissed, then crossed his arms.

Looking down, Uncle’s face tightened for a moment before it went blank, a pleasant empty expression. “I’m sorry for teasing you. This is very hard for me to talk about. Just because I took cares to protect you from any real pain, I can't protect you from everything. Some times pulling up all the weeds pulls up all the flowers too, its better this way I think. I mean I'm terrible at parenting, but at least I can do that.”

“It’s alright,” Robbie said. Uncle wasn't really terrible at parenting as human style parenting was still a foreign land he was journeying through with no map. “You were telling us about elves.”

“Elves, right. Well, your Mamma stepped on some curly toed shoes.” Uncle’s face seemed to sort of crack and he looked away, his eyes shiny with tears. Robbie could watch him wrestle with a decision, watched him chose one path and shut the other up to himself. “Usually when there’s a changeling, it means a child’s been stolen. That’s how it usually works.”

“Because there’s only two ways for a fae to have a family,” Robbie said, leaning back as he realized something. “They have to make a changeling or they have to have a mortal wife. Why a changeling?”

Glanni looked back and forth between the two of them.

“You, you, um. A fae makes a fake child out of their magic that’s connected to the real child. Then they take the real child and the magic, the fae’s magic comes back the other way through the connection and it makes them. It makes them-”

“Your daughter,” Glanni said, leaning back in his chair. “Mamma was your changeling child. You’re not our uncle.”

Uncle covered his face. “You don’t know what it was like. I’d never loved anything before. I- I hadn’t loved anything and then she’d ask me something and even if it was inconvenient, or if it hurt, or if she wanted to leave me. I thought once her wings came in she would change, but she didn’t. I could have changed more of her memories, had her forget but- It hurt. To think of taking something like that from her, the idea of changing her mind, even for my benefit repulsed me. I was so mad, enraged, furious, but she was so sad and the thought of hurting her...”

“So, you’re our-?” Robbie started.

“Please, keep called me Uncle, I can’t take the responsibility of grandfather. Ugh. It sounds so respectable.”

“Gross,” all three of them said together.

“So Mamma fell in love with a mortal,” Glanni said, leaning forward on the table. “That’s why our magic is so weird, why we make changelings when we’re upset, and why they’re attached to us instead of some normal kid.”

“She was a princess, engaged to be married to a prince of another Court, she had made a Deal.” Something hard flickered behind Uncle’s eyes before it disappeared. “I don’t know why, I thought I had raised her better. She had to marry him, but she hadn’t said anything about staying put.”

“So you helped her escape on her wedding night.” Robbie grinned. “That’s so cool. Did Mamma look cool? Did she repel down a tower in her wedding dress? Was it very Avant Gard? I bet she looked so cool.”

“I never take a bet I would lose,” Uncle pulled up, a fingertips resting against his chest. “Her dress was the Avant-est. And of course I helped her bust out of there, I mean, what’s a little war compared to my little girl’s happiness?”

“So did they come back for her? The other Court?” Glanni asked.

“The thing is, they’re too scared of me to try directly. I’d already decimated most of their army and took the spoils. But the elves aren’t, aren’t aligned with one of our courts, aren’t afraid of me. So all the fae had to do was tell those self-righteous heroes there was a fae who had given herself in marriage and then taken herself off to parts unknown. She didn’t want to be married to that idiot prince, but as far as the elves were concerned she’d given her word to stay forever.”

“What? Forever?” Glanni asked. “What good is forever if someone makes you promise?”

“That’s the alfar, standing on ceremony. She must have made a run for it, made those fools rethink how fast they considered themselves. Never mind what elves think of changelings. If they found you… Well, she led them on a merry chase and to be honest I don’t know where she is now. I think I’d know if she died.”

“You think!” Glanni shouted, no one noticed.

“Please,” Uncle waved him off that big thing shifting behind his eyes for a moment. “There are no absolutes, just really good chances, but knowing her she’s probably on an island beach somewhere. If I know my girl at all she’ll show up eventually when she’s done doing whatever she’s doing.”

“You would know, wouldn’t you?” Robbie asked.

“Darlings, if anyone had stolen my own sweet baby girl from me do you honestly think I would be doing anything except planning the perfect, cruel revenge on them and their families?”

“That’s right,” Glanni said. “If they had really done something to Mamma you would be ruining their lives. So, I guess we just have to wait for Mamma to come back then.”

“What do we do until then?” Robbie asked.

“Well, I found this place called Lazytown.”

***

The next morning Robbie woke in a panic. He thought about calling Uncle, but then thought that was probably an awful idea, then he thought about calling Glanni and that was worse. Glanni would have to tell Uncle and then Uncle would show up being all tall and over the top and fae. And Robbie was starting to have a friend that wasn’t just Glanni or Uncle and who wasn’t just a weird doll faced part of his personality.

He seriously thought about hiding in the bunker for the rest of his life, but who knew how long that could be? He made a run of it, but ran out of cake after three days and accepted he’d have to do something about this. The Deal. He also thought seriously about leaving, just picking up and going, but the same instinct that compelled him to shake hands with Sportacus somehow told him that he had to stay. The Deal with Sportacus was that the elf would stay in Lazytown until Ziggy reached adulthood, and Ziggy was attached to Robbie. The idea of longterm separation from his changelings was somehow repulsive, and Robbie didn’t know if it would even make a difference to the Deal.

There was nothing for it, he would have to collect his cowardly bones and go and face the elf and the consequences of the Deal. The only trick was how to do it. He couldn’t approach him directly, those kids were very nosy, especially Stephanie. He’d have to get him alone another way.

He found the Uncle’s changelings at town hall, milling around and doing whatever it was that they did when Uncle wasn’t using them in some plot. Milford was looking at some kind of papers when he approached.

“Milford,” Robbie said, wringing his hands.

“Yes, Mr. Rotten?” the changeling nodded, that blissfully absent look on his face. Robbie wondered if Uncle had made him that way or if whoever Milford had been created from had been that way.

“Could you go and get Sportacus for me?”

“Whatever for?”

Robbie grumbled, “Because I said so!”

Milford blinked and held up his hands, placating Robbie. “Oh, no, I only meant what should I tell him?”

A thousand different plots and plans filtered through his head before he remembered he wasn’t trying to trick Sportacus, he was trying to do the opposite. “Tell him I’d like to talk to him. If you don’t mind.”

He thought he might have to wait a long time, if he was Sportacus he’d certainly be suspicious, but the elf flipped into the office in record time. When Sportadork landed, Robbie let out a shout of surprise that startle the blue kangaroo back on his heels.

“Robbie?” Sportacus said, eyes wide, arms outstretched as though he’d need to catch Robbie. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fae!” Robbie shouted at him and then flinched back, covering his face. That was both an answer and no answer at all. When he peered at Sportacus between his fingers the elf was staring at him in confusion.

“Okay?”

“Okay!” Robbie flung his arms out. “That’s what you have to say?”

Sportacus gathered himself into his hero pose, chin lifted and fists on hips. “I’m glad you trusted me enough to tell me!”

Robbie rubbed his face. “Sportacus, yesterday you shook my hand.”

“Yes! I did!”

Robbie rubbed his face harder. “Sportacus, we made a Deal, and well that’s a big deal.”

Sportacus shifted out of hero pose like shifting gears, making these little half steps forward with his feet and then lowering his hands. His face took on an expression Uncle would call canny and Robbie would call only half as dumb as he looks. “Yes, I suppose we did.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

“I’m trying not to make any assumptions or jump to any conclusions.”

“Why not?” Robbie grumbled. “You jump everywhere else.”

That got him a chastising look, he was chastised. “Why don’t you just tell me what it means to you?”

After a moment of breathing in deeply and then breathing out, Robbie settled himself. “Its instinct, I don’t know why, it’s just instinct. And it was more than a mistake, a mistake is adding a tablespoon of salt instead of a teaspoon. But it was a mistake too, an accident. And now that I’ve made it I can’t go back on it, it is what it is. You’ll be compelled to stay in Lazytown until Ziggy becomes an eighteen year old, you’re trapped, you can’t leave the environs.”

Something shifted behind Sportacus’ face. Before he could say something entirely hero-y and entirely missing the point, Robbie continued.

“This wouldn’t really be a problem except Ziggy isn’t a little boy, he’s a changeling. He’s been six for the past eighty-three years. He might be six forever.”

Sportacus’ face went even sharper. “Robbie, I know the kids are changelings.”

“Well, not all of them,” Robbie admitted, too distracted by all the confessions. “Stephanie is a real girl, or a real pain at least. I’ve tried to figure out what her deal is, but sources aren’t sharing.”

“Oh,” Sportacus relaxed, half talking to himself. “I thought Lazytown was some kind of... Maybe that wasn’t fair of me. Obviously it wasn’t.”

“Elves generally aren’t this open-minded about fae and changelings and all that-” he waved his hands around in a way that was meant to represent fiddle faddle. “Wait. You said you know they’re changelings!”

Sportaloon gave him one of his really looks. He probably deserved it.

“You knew this whole time?” Robbie said, shrunk back against his spine.

“I figured it out,” Sportacus told him. “At first I thought you might have the real kids secreted away somewhere, but it became obvious pretty quickly that they weren’t really attached to anyone, they were just… little pretend children. And you didn’t really mean any harm. You grouched at them if they were too loud, but they seemed to enjoy being around you and you seemed to enjoy them too. That and there isn’t anyone else. There are just houses with nothing inside, the way someone might make a neighborhood for their dolls.”

He watched the elf.

“After that I just watched you and them. You and Ziggy have the same look when you’re happy, on the rare cases you do smile. And you and Pixel share technological brilliance. Then there’s you and Trixie, that’s fairly obvious. And Stingy and you share the same possessiveness, you over the town and he over, well, the town. I thought at first it might be some kind of trap, but all you did was try to get me out of town forever and you were so scared of me. I’ve heard how fae are with Deals, and I thought maybe if I stayed I could help you.”

“Help me?” Robbie asked, clutching at his vest.

“Robbie, what happened to you eighty-three years ago?”

Robbie shrunk back.

“Oh, never mind then.”

“No, its okay, I never thought about it that way. I was lonely and felt betrayed by someone who was supposed to like me best.”

Sportastare just looked at him. “Okay. Maybe we can help you not be lonely, and then you won’t need Ziggy anymore.”

Clutching at his heart, Robbie watched the elf.

Face creasing with frustration, Sportacus tried to shake it off like an annoyed dog. “Elves live a really long time, Robbie, a really long time. I know you didn’t mean to trap me, and you don’t really want to hurt me. You’re just trying to keep yourself safe, and that’s always okay. Maybe the Deal will mean I will be here forever, maybe it will only mean I have to stay for another week. I want us to be friends, Robbie, in a way we already are. I care about the kids, and they’re just a part of you. Aren’t they? So maybe I’m trapped, but that’s okay. I wouldn’t want to leave anyway.”

#succateers #secret friend day!#secret friend day #lazytown #long post #the story just didn't want to end until it was done

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shoelace-and-friends · 7 years

Note

A very homesick sports elf!

Despite the fact that he lived in a big and fancy, futuristic-looking airship, Sportacus was actually not exactly the most tech-savvy guy. However, after HOURS of insistence from the children that his life would be so much easier if he had a cell phone to communicate with people, he finally caved and went to the nearest electronics store to pick out a phone of his own, with the help of Pixel. It sure was a good thing that he had Pixel there to help him; these “smart phones” were really confusing. Pixel is a very smart boy though, and even someone as technologically inept as Sportacus still managed to figure out the basic functions of the phone, thanks to him.

It really WAS useful, he had learned. Not only had he and the kids grown the habit of texting each other good night before 8:08, but he was also able to easily catch up on current events, and the phone functioned as an excellent planner that reminded him of what he needed to do; which REALLY helped someone like him who had ADHD. He’s also been watching a lot of exercise videos on it and has even downloaded a couple apps to help him keep track of how much he has exercised.

Phones REALLY ARE nice…maybe he’ll write to his family about how useful they are. MAYBE, …he can even give them his new phone number. He doesn’t think that any of the elves back home had cell phones, and it was probably wishful thinking but- …he just really wanted to hear everyone’s voices again….Getting letters from his family every once in a while really felt special, but sometimes…the wait in between letters made it feel like it wasn’t enough….

******************************

It was two in the morning when his phone started to blare out its default ringtone, vibrating from across the room on the floor, over by the outlet where he had it plugged in. The elf groaned, slowly sitting up and attempting to rub the sleep from each of his eyes, but he still felt really tired. He definitely didn’t get his full eight hours of sleep yet; who on Earth would call him at THIS hour? Was someone in trouble? That can’t be it; his crystal wasn’t beeping…

Drowsy and confused, Sportacus climbed out of bed and walked across the room, unplugging his phone. …That’s funny. He didn’t recognize this number…

“Hello?” He yawned. “This is Sportacus…”

“Oh! It works!” A female voice on the other line chimed excitedly from the other line, and Sportacus immediately perked up, feeling his heart jump in his chest and almost completely forgetting the fact that he was tired. “Mamma!” He cried out into the receiver, his tone frantic as he clutched the phone tighter in his grip. Was it REALLY her? Or was he dreaming? This felt like a dream-

But no, he heard her familiar, warm laughter on the other end, laughter so unique and so distinct to him that he couldn’t rationalize it as possibly belonging to anyone else.

“Yes dear, it’s your mother,” the voice on the other end confirmed it for him, giggling once more before she let out a gasp. “Oh dear! I forgot about what time it is over there! Did I interrupt your sleep, honey?”

“N-no!” the hero immediately stammered, waving his free arm around frantically, even though the other couldn’t see. “I mean- you DID, but it’s really no big deal, mamma. I can stay up and talk,” he said quickly. “I WANT to talk-”

“Okay honey.” His mother laughed again, before letting out a soft sigh. “I’m sorry to have woken you up so early- actually, it’s still pretty early over here too. But your father and I got your letter last night about you getting a cell phone, so we went ahead and left the elf village to go buy one so we could talk to you.” “You DID?” He asked, his eyes widening as he felt his heart swell in his chest. …They left the elf village and went through all that trouble to do that for HIM?

“Yes, we did,” his mother answered, and Sportacus SWORE that he could feel the warmth of her smile from the other end. “I was going to wait until a little later to call you, but I guess I got excited.”

“No no mamma, it’s NOTHING,” he insisted. “You guys can call me at any time that suits you.”

“Oh, but we want you to get your sleep, darling. We KNOW how important your job is. Next time, we’ll call you at a more reasonable hour. …Maybe we can even do one of those “video chats”…once we figure out how-”

…A video call? A chance to see his family? “…I would really like that,” he told his mother, his mind pulling back to the last time that he had seen everyone’s face. It’s…been a long time. A couple of years, even. He wondered if everybody even looked the same. Being that elves kept to their youth pretty well, they probably did, …but maybe his father was finally beginning to grey? Or his mother got a haircut? Perhaps his brother’s facial hair had gotten longer…

“We would like that too. It really has been a while, hasn’t it?” she noted.

Sportacus swallowed, a but more thickly than he expected. “…Yes,” he told his mother. The more he thought about his family, …the more that he realized that he was sort of forgetting what everyone looked like. “…It really has been a long time- …Umm, mamma, could you fill me in a bit about what’s been going on back home lately?” He asked, hoping that that would get his mind off of it.

“Oh, of course dear! As you know, May is just around the corner, so we’ve all been getting ready for the flower festival. Your father has been spending EXTRA time back in the garden these days.”

Oh! How are his apple trees doing?” he asked. “Has he finally gotten them to sprout sportscan- duhh, fruit?” he asked, correcting himself.

“He HAS,” his mother replied, beaming. “And your father is really proud of himself. It really WAS a stubborn tree. Perhaps we’ll send you a crate of apples- I don’t think your father will take no for an answer anyway-”

“I don’t think he would either,” Sportacus laughed. “Tell him that i’ll take them.” Sure, it was true that Lazytown had more than enough apples for him to eat already- but he still MISSED the distinct taste and crunch of an elvish apple from back home- actually, there were a LOT of things back home that he missed…

“Your brothers are doing well,” his mother continued. “Alfreð still has his job working with the human police,” she told him. “And Magnús and Reginleif are expec- ooh, I probably shouldn’t say more,” she hesitated.

“Shouldn’t say what?” Sportacus asked.

“Well…I feel like Magnús would want to tell you this himself, ..but I’ve probably already said too much. He and Reginleif are expecting a baby.” “What? Really?” Sportacus sprang up, surprised by this news. “They are? That’s great!”

“Yes honey, they are. But promise me to pretend you heard nothing when he finally tells you that you’re going to be an uncle.”

“My lips are sealed, mamma,” he promised. Wow…he’s going to be an UNCLE. He’s never been one of THOSE before! It really did seem like a lot of fun, when he thought about it, teaching his niece or nephew to play games, and getting to spoil them…but then Sportacus realized something. He’s stuck in Lazytown. He’s going to MISS the birth of his brother’s child. He’s not going to get to meet his niece or nephew in person…

He’s been seeing and missing A LOT, the more he thought about it. This year’s flower festival, and the one the year before it. He’s already missed his brother’s wedding, and now he’s missing his firstborn too. He’s missed every funny dinner table conversation, …and now that he thought of it, he missed his father’s sense of humor. He missed the rolling hills, the streams and waterfalls, he missed getting big group hugs, tackles by his brothers and friends and tickles behind his ears… “…Dear? You’ve been awfully quiet for a while,” he managed to hear his mother say to him through all of his thoughts. “Are you tired? We can talk again tomorrow.”

“NO, I-” Sportacus swallowed, suddenly feeling tears spring into his eyes. “Don’t go, mamma-” he begged, his voice breaking. “I miss you…” Before he knew it, he was crying into the receiver, his breath hitching as his body began to rack with sobs. Why was this happening to him so suddenly? Why couldn’t he control it?

“I miss you,” he sobbed out, wiping at his eyes frantically, but the tears just kept coming. “I miss y-you and pabbi, a-and I m-miss Magnús and Alfreð, and I miss HOME…” he hiccuped, feeling his cheeks only get wetter. “A-and I feel b-bad b-because I feel like I’m m-missing out on e-everything that’s i-important to all of you-”

“Oh darling…” His mother put on a sympathetic tone, trying her best to hush her son. “I know, it must be really hard on you, only being allowed to visit once every eight years…and sometimes, it’s hard on us too,” she told him. “There isn’t a day that goes by that the whole family doesn’t think about you. Alexander darling, we love you SO MUCH…and we’re all VERY proud of you,” she said, trying to console him. “Me, your father, your two older brothers, the WHOLE VILLAGE is VERY proud of what you have been doing.” “Y-you are?” he whimpered out, sniffling and wiping his nose on his wrist.

“Yes, Alexander sweetheart, we are,” she said warmly, comfortingly, using the same tone that she did back in his boyhood whenever he seeked comfort. “The elf council couldn’t have possibly picked a better elf to become the tenth Sportacus. Whenever your father and I read the letters that you send to us, we always smile when we hear about how you’ve been helping the children in your town stay safe and healthy. Yes, we read about what you’ve been doing sometimes and it makes us miss you, …but we’re always so HAPPY to see you write about how much you love your job and what you do. I’m not sure if we say it enough or not, but we’re SO proud of you. You really are making a difference in that community you’ve been taking care of.”

“I am?”

“You are. You’ve been doing EXACTLY what you were assigned to do, and the whole village is proud of that. …Are you happy with what you’re doing?” she asked him. “I-I AM,” he nodded, wiping his eyes. He was sure of that much. “I LOVE what I do. I love it SO MUCH. I LOVE everyone in Lazytown to pieces.”

“We KNOW you do,” his mother responded warmly, and the hero could feel himself calming down. “And you’ll continue to make all of us proud, each and every day. We LOVE you, darling-” “I love you too, mamma.”

#lazytown prompts #prompts #asks #homesick sportacus #yes i named sportacus alexander #deal with it #and yes the two ithros are his brothers #they are named magnus and alfred #sportacus #lazytown #lazy town

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gayzytown · 7 years

Note

If you take prompts. Robbie getting some unwanted flirtation or advances from someone who is new to town or passing through and as soon as said person touches robbie like grabs his wrist, sportacus is there in seconds very angry and protective sporto!

I got 2 asks for the same thing nd they were worded v similar ??? it was kind of twilight zoney but idk omg :0 im not sure what happened 2 writing things in order hdofinsd im kind of just randomly ?? srry 4 the inconsistency omg nd also srry bc !!! i meant to get more things done 2day but my sister was home !! c: nd shes not home v often so we spent the morning 2gethr nd then she fell back asleep so i played w my dog !! nd that doesnt have anything to do w the story so uh here it is !!

WARNIN bc // its kind of sad, robbie gets catcalled and is very uncomfy and then sportacus chases the bad man away

Without warning or build-up, the man planted one broad, muscular hand on the top of the wooden picnic table where Robbie Rotten sat across from Sportacus. Before either could look up, the tall, strong, unwelcomed man cleared his throat and said to Robbie:

“Hey, boy. Fancy a trip back to my place for drinks a good time?”

Robbie’s eyes widened, but other than that, he didn’t respond or move, and his attention strayed to the table in front of him. A soft growl erupted from Sportacus’s throat.

“He’s a living, breathing human being, mister, why don’t you treat him with a little respect?” Sportacus hissed in a tone Robbie had never heard come from the elf before. The man scoffed.

“I don’t take orders from you, little man,” he answered, grinning sarcastically. He turned back to Robbie, “Did you hear what I said, boy? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Don’t pass this up.” When Robbie didn’t immediately jump at this gratuitous offer, the man grabbed Robbie’s wrist. Robbie flinched, and the man continued, “Listen, boy, are you going to-”

Before he could finish Sportacus stood up from the bench, and for the first time the man noticed that what Sportacus lacked in height he made up for in sheer muscle. In the elf’s silent rage, his entire body tensed and the man watched Sportacus’s massive biceps twitch and inadvertently demonstrate their power. The man’s hand fell limp and slid from Robbie’s delicate wrist.

“Get away from him,” Sportacus said calmly. The man took a small step away, as if still trying to keep what remained of his solid resolve but still avoid the wrath of Sportacus.

“I said get away from him,” Sportacus repeated, his patience worn thin. He took a step forward and the man moved back.

“Fine-fine, I’m leaving,” he said, and he turned around. Head down and tail between his legs, he scurried away.

Sportacus sat back down and leaned forward so he was eye-level with Robbie, who hadn’t moved throughout the whole exchange. “Hi, Robbie,” he whispered. Robbie blinked once. Twice.

“Is he gone?” he asked, barely audible.

“Yeah, he’s gone,” Sportacus answered. Robbie’s rigid body seemed to loosen some.

“Okay. Thank...thank you,” he said softly, resting his head on the table. “I think I’ll… nap… exhausted,” he mumbled.

“Alright! I love you. I’ll be here when you wake up,” Sportacus said, laying his head on the table by Robbie’s.

im srry this is so sad and uncomfortable xdcfgvbhkjn

#mod roria's trash heap #im srry omg this is so sad #fanfictions #Anonymous

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memesforstefan · 7 years

Text

Fooled You!

Summary: Robbie isn’t who or what he seems. Someone comes to collect him. Inspired by the Star Trek episode The Squire of Gothos. Friendship fluff.

Rated E for everyone.

Sportacus stood in the middle of the sports field, his hands planted on his hips, staring sternly at his nemesis. As always, once Robbie’s schemes were stopped and his disguises fell away, Sportacus was left torn between disappointment and admiration. Villain or not, Robbie was simply, undeniably, a genius.

Robbie stood caught between the kids and one of the walls that lined the playing area. He wrung a matador’s hat between his hands, nervously, while still smirking insolently. Disguised as a matador, he had told the children tales of a rogue, possibly phantom, bull that had escaped and come to Lazy Town. In reality, the bull was one of Robbie’s mechanical monsters, programmed to chase Sportacus out of town. Full of determination and sportscandy, Sportacus had jumped onto the creature’s back and over-turned it. Using a set of jump ropes, he had lassoed and tied the monster. Sportacus had kept the bull still long enough for Pixel to shut it down.

As Sportacus struggled to find words–how did one lecture an adult about such antics?–a strange magic filled the area. Sportacus frowned. He knew Robbie had some magic, but this didn’t feel like him. Robbie seemed to sense it, too, his smirk falling into a dramatic sulk.

“Nooooo,” the villain whined, shaking his hands in front of him, in frustration. “Not now!”

“Yes, now,” a new, feminine voice insisted.

Sportacus spun to his left, eyes wide. A tall, beautiful woman stood next to him, her dark blue eyes focused on Robbie. Her pale skin was flushed from flying and strands of her light brown hair were stuck to her face, despite the crown of flowers keeping back the rest. Her dark, purple gown, light and airy, still floated around her, as if caught in a breeze. Orange and black wings fluttered against her shoulders and back.

“Please, no,” Robbie pleaded.

“You are coming with me,” the woman said firmly, unmoved.

“No, he isn’t,” Sportacus retorted, moving between them. “Robbie is my friend. You can’t make him go with you, whoever you are.”

The fae stared at Sportacus with wide, angry eyes and he sensed Robbie shifting behind him. Sportacus held up a placating hand, intending to try reason, but the fae cut him off sharply.

“I am called Rhoswen and I am his mother,” she asserted, with angry dignity.

“Just a little bit more, Mommy?” Robbie asked meekly, drawing gasps and gazes of surprise from Sportacus and the kids.

“You’ve used up all of your ‘little bit mores,’” she told him, shaking her head, daring Sportacus to interfere with a hard glance.

“But, we haven’t finished our game, yet!” Robbie complained.

“That’s what you said ten years ago,” Rhoswen said with a tired sigh. “And he is not the same elf you were playing with then.”

“But, we weren’t done!” Robbie insisted. “Nine just had to go…somewhere.”

“Even if Robbie is your son,” Stephanie spoke up, feeling sorry for Robbie, even if he was the villain, “why should he have to go?”

“Because, little one, it is way past his bedtime,” Rhoswen said, a bit more kindly.

“I don’t believe that!” Pixel argued. “Robbie loves sleep. He wouldn’t try to avoid it. He’s always trying to keep us quiet, so he can take naps.”

“Yeah!” Ziggy said, waving his lollipop in indignation. “He’s always sleeping on the benches and stuff. You can’t fool us, right, Sportacus?”

“I don’t know, Ziggy,” Sportacus said, honestly.

Rhoswen stared blankly for a moment, then burst into laughter.

“Well, you silly little gremlin!” she playfully scolded Robbie. “You haven’t told them anything, have you?”

“I’m being the villain!” Robbie announced proudly.

“Mmmhmmm, I’m sure you are,” Rhoswen agreed, before turning back to Pixel. “You see, that’s part of his game. If he manages to take a nap, then he can claim he isn’t tired and should be allowed to stay up and play some more.”

“Well, ma'am, he is an adult,” Stingy said. “They’re my benches and he can sleep on them, if he wants to!”

“Is he now?” Rhoswen answered, smiling brightly. “Robin, my love, remove your glamours.”

“But, Mooommmmy!” Robbie wailed.

“It is time for bed. Don’t you want to show them your pretty wings, before we leave?”

Robbie’s nose twitched with indecision. Everyone watched him, wondering what was about to happen. Finally, the villain gave a sigh of defeat. He whirled around twice, almost hidden by the glow of magic. When he stopped, he was smaller, even than Ziggy! His pompadour was gone, revealing a soft mass of dark curls. Robbie smiled brightly, expanding his wings. They looked like the wings of a bird, in soft shades of purple, pink, and orange. He flexed them, rising up off the ground.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Rhoswen warned. “Don’t you even think of flying off on me.”

Pouting, Robbie settled back onto the ground. Looking closely, Sportacus saw how weary the boy looked and shook his head, fondly. The boy’s wings drooped slightly and his eyes were trying to shut. His natural form couldn’t hide his tiredness.

“He-he’s a little boy!” Trixie said, voicing everyone’s astonishment.

“Well, of course he is,” Rhoswen laughed.

“I fooled you!” Robbie exclaimed happily, giggling behind his hands.

“Yes, you did,” Sportacus agreed, grinning down at him. “More than once, I think.”

“You’re not going to ask for a snack or anything?” Rhoswen asked.

“NOPE! I had cake,” Robbie said, smiling happily.

“Lots and lots of cake,” Stephanie agreed, while Robbie nodded.

“Good. Then, it’s time to go.”

“I have to say bye, first!” Robbie protested.

“Well, hurry up, then.”

Robbie almost literally flew to Stephanie, wrapping his newly chubby arms around her waist and grinning up at her.

“Bye bye, Stephanie.”

Stephanie went down on one knee and hugged Robbie tight.

“Good-bye, Robbie. You’re a very fun villain.”

Robbie laughed, nodding vigorously, before pulling away and giving Trixie a hug.

“Bye, little guy,” she said. “I’m gonna miss all your mischief.”

“Bye, Trixie,” Robbie said, cheerfully.

Ziggy was sniffling, when Robbie came up to him. He didn’t wait for Robbie, but pulled the smaller boy close.

“Th-thanks for all the candy you ever gave me, Robbie.”

“Candy is good!” Robbie said enthusiastically, before leaning closer to Ziggy and whispering, “Eat lots of candy.”

“But, not too much,” Sportacus couldn’t help adding, grinning down at them.

“Pfft,” Robbie laughed, turning to Stingy for hugs. Stingy hugged back.

“It really won’t be the same Lazy Town without you. You can still sleep on my benches, whenever you’re in town.”

Pixel hugged Robbie tight, next, agreeing with Stingy.

“We’re gonna miss you. No one does gadgets like you!” Pixel complimented.

Rhoswen sighed.

“Say good night to Sportacus, then you’re done. You are not giving hugs to the entire town!”

Sportacus knelt down, facing Robbie, holding his hands out. He smiled a bit sadly, not sure how much of Robbie’s disdain was faked. To his delight, Robbie flung himself into Sportacus’ arms, wrapping his arms around his hero’s neck and hugging tightly. With a warm laugh, Sportacus stood up, bouncing him playfully. Robbie grinned, patting Sportacus on the top of his head.

“You’re a good hero,” Robbie praised, then yawned.

“Thank you. You did very well as a villain,” Sportacus said, kindly. “Sleep well, Robbie.”

“I don’t want to,” Robbie said mournfully, staring at him with wide, sad eyes, leaning back against his shoulder.

“I know, but do you know who the best super-heroes in the world are?” Sportacus asked, waiting for Robbie to shake his head, then answering. “Mommies.”

“Yeah,” Robbie agreed reluctantly, smiling at Rhoswen.

“Well, thank you,” she said, lifting Robbie gently from Sportacus and holding him.

With a wave of her hand, Rhoswen shrunk the mechanical bull down to the size of a toy and handed it to Robbie, who cuddled it close.

“You should see my lair, Mommy! I’ve got costumes and machines and stuff and this big, orange chair!” Robbie rattled off.

“Yes, you can come back for your toys, later,” she assured him.

“Bye, Robbie!” the Lazy Town kids echoed, unable to hide their sorrow.

Rhoswen smiled, winking at them.

“Oh, don’t look so glum. Robin’s just going to bed. He’s not leaving forever,” she teased her son, rubbing their noses together, making him giggle. “He’ll be back, later.”

“We look forward to it,” Sportacus assured her, happily, waving good-bye, as magic carried Rhoswen and Robbie away. The kids joined him, trusting Sportacus that their villain would eventually come back to play.

#psifitopia #submission #long post #fic

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asgardian-light · 7 years

Text

Random HC #101 (Continuation of #4 - #100)

#sportarobbie #robbie rotten #felf #pixel #lazytown #talking #friendship development #very short #🙈🙈#headcanon #part ninety-eight #my own #Sick! Robbie mini fic

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thursdayplaid · 7 years

Note

For the fic request: Sportacus finds out one of the kids is being bullied by someone at school.

My first Lazytown fanfic!

Please keep in mind that I asked for prompts to get a handle on characters and to practice in the world of Lazytown. Hopefully its enjoyable, if not I welcome any sort of constructive criticism and guidance. Also, I really like the idea of elves having characteristics that are different than humans and so I played with that a bit. Maybe it worked? Also its not betaed because a) time, and b) I don’t know any Lazytown betas yet.

álfatrú(belief in elves)

summary: Sportacus finds out Ziggy has been bullied and tries to give him some level of comfort.

words: 2322

Sportacus had always been restless. When Sportacus was younger, Pabbi hadconsidered him in that brusque way of his, patted his head and told him he wasjust his own sort of person. He hadliked the idea of being his own sort of person. It sounded promising, it sounded special, it sounded like the beginningof an adventure. Here he was now, in themiddle of his adventure and still restless.

It was an etched in part of him, like his Name, like thesame old instinct that made Sportacus tread careful at crossroads. Asecond skeleton he wore under his skin, a second set of ears attuned to hear, asecond set of nerves singing with electricity. It gave him the need to keep watch over thecity that he’d adopted and that had adopted him, an anxiety to be activelyavailable. For children, absence andomission could be as harmful as open malice. The children of Lazytown just wanted attention, just wanted someone tolisten to them. The knowledge set himorbiting Lazytown in his airship, telescope out.

There was faint vibration against his chest, just someone invague distress, not quite someone in trouble. His crystal hummed and buzzed from time to time, like when Robbie wassuffering from insomnia, or when Trixie’s mother felt lonely, so today wasn’t anydifferent until he spotted two boys pushing and tugging on the familiar shapeof Ziggy. They had him by the cape likea baby bird by the wing and were dragging him backwards up a hill. No sooner had Sportacus recognized what was happening,processed it, he found he’s already leapt from the airship, his teeth bared.

Sportacus wasn’t quite sure how he got there, other than hegot there fast, but the damage seemed already done. Ziggy lay crumpled on the ground, and the twoboys stood over him with his cape in their hands. His body felt steaming with temper, he couldfeel the heavy knit in his brow. He felthis ears twitch hard under his cap as they tried to lay back against hishead. It took real effort not to bearhis fangs at them. The boys were beingcruel, but they were still children. Hetried to remember that. He tried reallyhard.

“Give me that,” he ordered, hand out. His voice sounded like flint, like the crackof glaciers. There had to be a way tosoften it, but he couldn’t think of anything but the soft sound of Ziggy’stears and the horrible nonsense certainty that the boys had torn off Ziggy’swings. It made him equal measures illand furious for all he knew little human boys didn’t have wings.

The boys tossed the cape at him and fled. Despite his anger, no amount of fury could causehim to chase after the boys and leave Ziggy, the youngest of his charges. He had the boys’ scent now, he could findthem when he was in control of himself.

“Ziggy,” Sportacus said, drowning in a wave of helplessnessthat surge over his anger. He croucheddown next to Ziggy, placing his hand on the boy’s back. “Ziggy, they’re gone now.”

As though the boy had been holding onto his dignity in frontof the bullies, the boy began weeping in earnest, his small body limp. Sportacus closed his owned eyes against thestinging wetness that formed there. After he had so utterly failed the boy, he didn’t need to make it abouthim by crying too. If he needed it, he’dcry later.

Through sobs Ziggy, sat up, pressed his face to Sportacus’side, and told him the story. Those boyshad been targeting him for weeks, an eternity for a child. They told him heroes didn’t exist, that he’dnever be one, that the world was dark and horrible and soon would be coming forhim. Maybe not that last one in so manywords, but his brother who had the skill and experience to maintain severaltowns often ran into that philosophy. That because the world had been cruel to one person, the whole world wascruel, and everyone should suffer with them.

He almost asked the boy why he hadn’t told him, but thatfelt entirely the wrong question for his little friend. “I wish you had told someone so that youwouldn’t have felt so alone, Ziggy. Youcan tell me about things like this, I’ll listen to you.”

“I thought your crystal would let you know and you’d comesave me.” He tucked his head down, shiftinghis shoulders in that way he had as though trying to distract from his face.

Sportacus had to close his eyes against the accusation thatwasn’t an accusation, the question Ziggy was too sweet to lay at a hero’sfeet. “I’m so sorry, Ziggy.”

“Did I do something wrong? Did I not need help and just did something wrong?”

“I do not think it means you do not need help, Ziggy,”Sportacus said. He took deep breaths,pulling with his diaphragm like he had been swimming to control his breathing,his tone, to keep his hands from making fists. “I think it only means the crystal believes it is a trouble that youcould fix on your own.”

He looked at Ziggy holding his cape in his hands, and feltsuch an exquisite pain it felt as though a hatchet had entered his side and hehad to brace himself against the wave of anger that surged up to overtakehim. Ziggy didn’t need his anger rightnow. That anger wasn’t for Ziggy anyway,it was for Sportacus, born hydralike out of a fear that he might fail Ziggy andan anger someone would threaten someone under his protection. At the heart of the matter both feelings wereunderstandable, but about himself and what he wanted. He could go be angry when Ziggy didn’t have ause for him anymore.

When Ziggy’s silence persisted, Sportacus leaned toward himagain. “That doesn’t mean I don’t wantto help you, Ziggy, whether or not you needme. I want you to be safe and happybecause I care about you.”

Ziggy made a little hmph-ing sound.

“You are my friend, Ziggy. And you are special, not just special to me.”

He could the hope begin to reignite in Ziggy’s eyes.

“What makes me special?” Ziggy asked, looking up at him.

As it sometimes did, the desire to respond absolutely correctly almost overpoweredhim. It felt as though whole worlds heldin the balance of what he said next. Hewished his Pabbi was there to advise him in that brusque, affectionate way ofhis, or even Ithro who was a little bossy, but seemed to have a magic touch forthese sorts of situations. It was justhim though, and he had to answer.

“You remember, Ziggy,” Sportacus told him, and hoped heunderstood. “When the other childrenforget, or are distracted by things that are not important or not good forthem, you remember. When you havelearned a truth it is yours forever. Itis a great gift, to hold a truth like a star inside you and never lose it.”

Ziggy’s eyes grew large, as large as they ever got. “Really?”

“Ziggy, when have I ever lied to you?”

The boy looked down again at the torn cape, red and limp inSportacus’ hand. He offered it without aword and the boy took it, considering it. “Grownups don’t call it lying when they do it.”

Pressing his lips together, Sportacus waited for the wave ofsomething too biased (frustration, ire, disappointment, disbelief at the poorhandling the children received habitually by the adults in their life) topass. “Maybe not, but a mistruth is amistruth and it leads to mistrust. I maynot tell you everything, Ziggy, but everything I tell you is true. I trust you with the truth and you deserve itfrom me. You’ll always deserve the truthfrom me.”

“I guess you do,” Ziggy allowed, thoughtful.

“I guess you do,”Sportacus corrected, tilting toward him to bump his shoulder and tap theirheads together gently in a way that definitely wasn’t scent marking. The boy wasn’t his pup, he had no businessmarking him anyway. Never mind when theyfirst met the boy had smelled so young, like milk from his breakfast andsunshine and enthusiasm underneath the choke of refined sugar sticking to him. It had made all the predisposition of hispeople come alive in a surge of protective instinct and natural affection. Ziggy wasn’t a baby, but some part of himkept an eye on him as though the boy was. Except when it counted apparently.

Tears spent, Ziggy took a few deep breaths against his side.

“I’m sorry they tore your cape, Ziggy,” he said for lack ofanything else. Feeling a compulsion tospeak since he was too afraid to move.

“It’s okay. I guessif I’m not a hero anyway. If I was Icould have stopped them.”

His heart jolted loose in his chest. His respect for his Pabbi, which had alwaysbeen healthy enough to survive the winter, grew even larger. Something had to be done.

“I want to tell you something important, Ziggy. It’s not a secret, but I think the people whoknow it don’t talk about it wait until someone is ready before telling them.”

“It is like a secret!” Ziggy said, the old enthusiasmcreeping back again. “Is it magic?”

Sportacus laughed. “Iguess it is. Just probably not in theway you’re thinking. Being strong, orreally, really fast, those things don’t make you a hero, not a real hero. What makes you a hero is the ability to helppeople be better, be stronger on the inside. Because a hero can’t always be there to protect someone from everything,even if they want to with all their heart.” He felt himself get a little wet behind the eyes, but shook it off. It was good for the children to see him crysometimes so they knew it was okay, but this didn’t feel like the rightmoment. “A good hero is supposed to helppeople be strong on their own so whatever happens they will be alright.”

“Like you then?” Ziggy looked up at him so earnestly. “You taught be how to be brave one step at atime, a-and you taught me that I can try my best, a-and that I can help myfriends!”

This time when Sportacus laughed it was a little wet. “Yeah, like that.” He swallowed, composedhimself. “Do you understand why thosebullies were mean to you?”

Ziggy’s face scrunched up, and he sat back so his back wasstraight. “Because they were mean boys.”

“Yes, and what they did was wrong. That’s not why they did it though, no one isjust one thing. People act that waybecause something is wrong in their life. Sometimes it’s because they’re afraid and they think if they makesomeone else afraid too it will make them bigger than someone’s fear. And sometimes they do it because someone theycare about acts that way and they want that person to like them more. Sometimes it’s even because they wantfriends, and they don’t know how to make them, and so it makes them jealous andangry at people who are happy and have things they like and care about.”

Face creased in thought, Ziggy seemed to consider this,seemed to roll it around in his brain as he came to terms with it.

“For someone like that, if a hero was really strong and justcame in and beat them up it wouldn’t teach them anything,” Sportacus said toconvince himself as much as Ziggy. “Itwould make them feel even angrier and more scared. It is hard because everyone has a right todefend themselves and say no, but a hero coming in and hurting them, thisdoesn’t change anyone’s mind. It onlybreaks them or makes them harder and both of these things are wrong.”

“So they were mean to be because they were mad I’m happy andhave friends?”

“Probably. It’s notanything you did wrong or should be ashamed of, they just tried to make itsound the way to justify what they did. You’re not to blame for what happened, you didn’t do anything to attracttheir attention, it was just sad chance.”

“So I should just be their friend?” Ziggy looked up at him.

Sportacus leaned back, trying to think about how to saythis. “Not right now. You shouldn’t ever put yourself in a positionwhere someone might hurt you or take advantage of you, and you have a right toleave if you find yourself in a position like that on accident. I want you to be safe, Ziggy. Both inside and out. Right now they’re too unkind. I’ll make sure there’s someone with enoughtraining and knowledge to talk to them and help them make better choices.”

“Okay,” Ziggy said with total faith in him and Sportacuscouldn’t help it. He leaned in, knockinghis forehead against the side of Ziggy’s head and left a quick swipe of his ownscent across the boy’s hair. It settledpart of the restlessness in him that his friend (pup) was safe and marked aspart of his clan. It took him back tohis own youth when his grandmother would hold up him and Ithro one at a time,rubbing her forehead against theirs before they left for the day.

“Okay,” Sportacus mirrored. “Now, why don’t we see if we can get that fixed?”

“That’s okay,” Ziggy smiled up at him. “I don’t think I need it. Not right now.”

#lazytown #lazytown fanfic #ziggy #sportacus #tw bullying #bullying #its my first try #sorry if he doesn't work

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thursdayplaid · 7 years

Note

So, LazyTown! One of the most loving memories of my own father is that he always came to pic me up when I got a migrain and took care of me and now that I am grown up we can talk about the panic he got every time since I almost always thru up and lost conciosnes. So I would like to promt you for a migrain fic?

Hey Anon! Hope you don’t mind, but I combined your prompt with one from @snuffles05 about Robbie saving the day. So here it is! Enjoy 3000 words of me trying to figure these characters out. (Please do keep in mind I’m writing these to figure out these characters.)

föl (athick film of snow covering the ground)

Stingy has a migraine and Sportacus has a moment.

Sportacus was practicing the new flipkick his brother had shown him when the AI alerted him. “Incoming mail.”

He cartwheeled over to catch the tube asit flew up through the floor, it always felt too strange to go from flipping towalking again.

“What could it be?” he asked no one inparticular, although sometimes the AI responded according to her mood.

“It came from the school,” she toldhim and left it at that.

Maybe the kids wanted him to come teachthem some trick again?

The paper was a faint blue, and thenote was written in Ms. Busybody’s script, grace with a barely concealed lineof authority underneath.

Stingy is sick, he needs to go home. His parents are working, will you come gethim?

Ms. B

He felt his eyebrows crumple together,it always felt weird under his hat.

Sportacus had been around sick peoplebefore, as a hero that was. His crystalhad called him to someone was ill before, like when Mr. Hyperbyte had an asthmaattack or when Ms. Busybody had that bad flu and needed someone to go get hermedicine. Both of those times the personhad been an adult and reasonably alright. They’d understood what was happening to them and what they needed to do,and in general were adults. An ill childwas something else.

He jumped out of the plane and flippedhis way over to the school and sticking his landing in the nurse’s office. For a moment he startled in the dark room,trying to get his bearings. Ms. Busybodyfroze at the standing cupboard, illuminated by the light coming in through theopen door, with a mop in one hand and then there was Stingy next to her lyingon a narrow cot. The boy’s face wasclenched up in a knot of pain, his body contracted in jagged angles and twistedfeatures. The smell the boy’s threadypain and the acid of vomit floated over the top of the familiar perfumed scentof Ms. Busybody and the chemical smell of the nurse’s office.

Alarm jolted through him, pushing himback on his heels, his eyes wide. Hetook in the papery dryness of the boy’s face as though he was being somehowmummified, looked down to the rubbish bin pushed into range of the cot, the waythe wit and activity of Stingy had been reduced to a trembling figure on a thinmattress.

“It’s a migraine,” Ms. Busybody whispered,putting the mop away and closing the cupboard door.

“A migraine?” he repeated, he couldhear the nervous thickness of his accent. How was he supposed to protect Stingy from a migraine? In the past, he’d heard Robbie grumble abouthis migraines, but had never seen what one looked like.

“A really bad headache,” sheexplained, voice soft. Perhapsmisunderstanding him, perhaps needing something to say just as much as he didto push back the helplessness. “Mrs.Rotten used to get them, I believe Robbie does too.”

“Mrs. Rotten?” Sportacus asked, justfor something to say. He still feltfrozen, panicked.

“She was before your time, Ithink. Blew up the old city hallonce. Saved the clock though, she saidtradition was important. She was like that,”she spoke in a soft tone. “Stingyprobably should go home, but his father works until seven and his mother doesn’tget off until six.”

“What can I do?” Sportacus asked.

“You can lower your voice,“ Ms.Busybody told him.

Sportacus jolted in place, awkward andstumbling over what to do. He feltunsteady not knowing how to solve this problem, felt out of place. This wasn’t an apple he could knock out of atree or a fence he could flip over. “Sorry!” he whispered back.

"Migraines make him sensitive tolight and to noise,“ she told him, lifting one finger, lecturing again, inteacher mode already. “He needs to headhome, I can’t just leave him here. That’s why I called you, I need to get backto class. There are other students here,you know.”

Sportacus felt a mixture of alarm andfrustration at her flippant answer, true though it may have been. Did she see how pale the boy was? Couldn’t see smell his distress?

Stingy stirred on the small bed. His voice sounded wet and pained, ragged atthe corners and alarming. As reedy andthin as the smell of pain coming off of him. “Don’t leave me! I don’twant to be left alone, I want someone to stay with me!”

Sportacus jolted, surprised. He needed to relax, to stay still. Inside an enclosed space, flipping andjumping, with someone who suffered at every sound? It would be a disaster.

With effort Stingy began to lift hishead to look at the two of them, then his brow knit together in a way Sportacushad never seen in a child before. Stingy’sface turned impossibly paler, sweat beading up on his brow and suddenly hevomited over the side of the bed into the rubbish bin. Ms. Busybody started back, going up on hertoes as though to keep the vomit off her shoes. Then as though she had remembered herself, stepped forward to smoothback the boy’s hair.

"You’re alright, dear. You’re alright, I know you feel awful. It’s alright. Sportacus will take you home to rest, won’t you Sportacus?”

The smell of Stingy’s distress sankinto him, acrid and stinging in his sinuses, activating some primal part of hisbrain that was used to fixing things. His hands felt like they wanted to shake. Stingy lay on his side, his body hung limpoff his spine like a puppet with the strings cut. "Of course,“ he whispered. "But surely I can’t just take him homeand leave him like this?”

"I think I’m dying,“ Stingywhispered, shivering in pain with each word he spoke.

"There has to be something thatcan be done,” Sportacus whispered again, barely loud enough to hear.

"Well, if you have some kind ofmagic something that’s one thing, but I don’t.“

"Magic?” he squeaked out.

Ms. Busybody rolled her eyes athim. "Nine was here for quite awhile until Robbie ran him off.”

"Robbie ran him off?“ Nine had never said why he had left.

"He’s been nicer with you, Ithink because you’re less… aggressive. Comparatively. Maybe just softer. I think Nine scared Robbie a bit. He likes to be in control, that one,”she told him, tossing her gloves away with a wrinkle of her nose.

"You really are quite good atreading people, aren’t you?“

She huffed out a soft laugh, “Ofcourse I am. Someone has to be in thistown. Well, I’ll leave you to it.”

“You will?” he asked in alarm. “His mother’s not off until six. I just take him home and leave him there?”

"He won’t be getting into anytrouble like this, he’ll be fine for a few hours.”

“You can’t take me home,” Stingyrasped out. “I don’t have a key.”

“You don’t have a key?” Sportacusblinked at him.

Stingy curled up into an even tighterball. “Momma says being home alone isn’tsafe, I play at Pixel’s house, or go to the Mayor’s until she gets home.”

Thatjust wouldn’t do, that wouldn’t do at all. Sportacus couldn’t stay here in this tiny room and trying to get Stingyto the airship would be a nightmare, where else could he take the boy?

"I’ll take him to someone who canhelp him feel better,“ Sportacus said, slipping back into his hero posewith his hands on his hips before remembering he needed to whisper.

“Who?” she blinked at him.

"To Robbie,” Sportacus toldher, voice quiet. "You said he hadmigraines, he’ll know what to do.“

"I don’t know if that’s a greatidea,” she advised him.

Maybe not a greatone, but he didn’t need a great idea. Most of the time am average idea and a lot of work would do. Sportacus felt certain that if Robbie sawStingy’s face that he would let them in, that he would know what to do. "He’ll help him, I’m certain of it.”

Belligerent optimism also went a longway toward accomplishing one’s goals.

She considered him. "I think he might. He might after all. Go on then. Just be careful with him, he isn’t feeling well. You need to be careful for the both ofyou.“

He nodded, anxious, moving aside tolet her leave the room.

“Stingy,” he said quietly, kneeling byhis bedside. “You don’t have to respondif it hurts to talk, but I’m going to take you to Robbie’s so he can help you. I’m going to carry you there so you don’thave to walk.”

“Yeah, alright,” Stingy breathed out,reaching up to use Sportacus’ shoulder for support as he pulled himselfupright. Sportacus tried to smilereassuringly as the boy wobbled in place.

He could walk to Robbie’s couldn’the? Why did Robbie have to live so faraway from all of them? When he liftedStingy up in his arms, the boy groaned, in so much pain he was helpless in hisarms. A second hand agony lodged itselfin Sportacus’ heart, he was so helpless himself. His Pabbi had told him plenty of times thatsometimes not even good advice could solve a problem, that he’d have to bestrong when that happened, but he hadn’t expected it would be like this, thatStingy’s pain would be his own. That he’dfeel so inadequate.

“It’s going to be alright, Stingy,” hetold him as he stood. “It’ll bealright. I’ll get you there in no time.”

He’d have to walk very carefully. It seemed to take forever to get to Robbie’sbillboard, Stingy frighteningly still in his arms. The boy seemed to have relaxed some, or hehad tensed up so much he couldn’t flinch anymore. Laying Stingy down so he could have bothhands free he opened the top of the bunker to save from the usual gonging knockand tapped with gentle knuckles on the inside of the tunnel entrance. He needn’t have worrying about being heard,no sooner had he given a couple raps then Robbie surged up. Robbie could sure move fast when he wasmotivated.

“WhatSportaflop? Did you do too many flipsand make everything in your brain about manners go flying out your ears?”

“N-No, I-“

Robbie’s grin bloomed bright and whiteat the sight of Sportacus bouncing worriedly on his toes. “What has you all in distress?” he said. “I’ll have to get some of whatever it is.”

“Stingy has a migraine and he’s thrownup twice and he’s hurting,” Sportacus blathered at him, his hands knottingtogether.

That sly face that Robbie liked to puton fell away, his gaze intense on Sportacus’ face. “Is he with you?”

Sportacus nodded, grateful.

“Give him to me. I’ll take care of it.” He held out his arm, his nose wiggling. There was an authority in the set of his jaw thatlifted the tension in Sportacus’ shoulders, lifted the weight somewhat off hischest. Stingy looked so small inRobbie’s arms; young, vulnerable, and precious in the way all children were. He made a discontented sound, but made noreal effort to stir.

Robbie looked down at the boy in hisarms, assessing, and then up at Sportacus. “Don’t just stand there fretting at the hatch, I won’t be able to getanything done with you pacing around up here.”

When he felt sure Robbie had moved outfrom under the entrance he leapt down. Robbie had organized Stingy in his big orange chair and was in whatpassed for the kitchen running water and arranging things. The lights had already been dropped low, the darknessbrought out the illumination from the faint glow from the machines. A soft orange like the flesh of a cantaloupeand the soft violet that was the last color in the sky after sunset.

“Sportacus,” Robbie said, voice lowand soft. A shadowy, winterdownvoice. “There’s a flip switch by thedoor. Flip it, until the speakers lower,and then when they’re low enough, turn the volume knob to zero.”

The simple task filled Sportacus withgratitude, something to do while he waited. Anything that could be done to help the boy in the face of his pain, andin the face of Robbie’s practiced competency.

Hovering nearby, Sportacus bounced onhis toes, terrified to speak. Robbie strodeout of his kitchen, almost silent and looking entirely certain of what todo. He spoke in a soft tone to Stingy,all simple questions as he knelt down. Had Stingy drunk water today? Hadhe slept last night? Did he feelnauseous now? Had he had a migrainebefore? Did he eat any cheese oranything red? Somehow the soft rumble ofthe questions seemed to relax Stingy, seemed to give him something to cling to,that there was someone helping him who knew what he was doing. The knit in his brow relaxed, and then thewhiteness in his pinched together lips faded somewhat as Robbie pressed thecold cloth to Stingy’s forehead. Againstthe clatter of his heart in his chest Sportacus concentrated on the low murmurof Robbie’s voice pitched low and soft as the early morning fog. He concentrated on the breadth of Robbie’spalm on Stingy’s head holding the compress in place, watched him flip it to theother side. How proficient Robbie was.

Sinking into a deep crouch, Sportacus breathedwith his head between his knees. Breathing. Counting his breathsin and out. Stingy was alright, Stingy was okay. There was a new scent in theair, something he had always associated with Robbie’s underscent. Something… sparkly. Something authoritative. Then there was the scent of lavender, lighterand more real than the imitation Sportacus usually smelled around humans andthen the bright high notes of peppermint drowning out almost everything else inthe bunker. He watched Stingy’s bodyrelax, his small hands going limp, his face turning into Robbie’s chair as hewent to sleep.

“Hmm,” Robbie hummed to himself, softand satisfied. “I really should get abed in here, what if he has another migraine?”

“You don’t have a bed?” Sportacusasked, feeling like a brass band in the quiet Robbie had somehow weaved throughthe bunker.

“Mmm, too much trouble, not enoughtime,” Robbie told him, standing with a liquid elegance for all his long limbswobbled and wiggled. “I keep meaning toexpand, but that would take work. I don’tlike doing work unless I can get it done fast and get it done well. I don’t even do this much work for myselfwhen I have a migraine.”

“Don’t you?” Sportacus blinked up athim.

The smile he got in return was halfself-effacing, half teasing. “Sometimesmisery is my favorite medicine. What’sthe point of things if you can’t complain about them? Stingy will be alright now. He still won’t be feeling great, but it won’tbe as bad when he wakes. People feelbetter after a nap. When he’s donesleeping it off you can take him home.”

Sportacus nodded once, three times,fives times, far too much and too frantically to seem calm.

Hecouldn’t look Robbie in the eye. Robbiehadn’t mocked him yet, although he could have the moment Sportacus all butcollapsed down into his lair. He could see his weakness reflected in thevillain’s eyes, analyzed in the hands on his hips, the tilt down of hiseyebrows. With helpless weakness he stood and tried to pull his shakenand torn self-discipline around himself to prepare for the attack.

“Youseem pretty shaken up.”

“Whatabout it?” Sportacus puffed his chest out, felt his ears try to lay back.

“Relax,Sportaworry.” He took a couple stepsforward and the familiarity of standing nose to nose with his nemesis wascalming.

“I’mfine.”

Robbie’slarge hand curled around the back of his neck. There was just the barest pull forward and Sportacus collapsed againsthim, his arms wrapping around Robbie on some instinct. Robbie laughed under his breath then hummed,a low even sound. “Relax, Sportacare. You’re little friend is alright, he’s goingto be okay.”

“I-I’m fine.”

“Youwere scared stiff and looked utterly destitute crouching there like a kickeddog.”

“Heynow,” Sportacus told Robbie’s shoulder.

Robbie’shand offered him a little squeeze. “It’sokay to be scared when you care about someone.”

“Iknow.”

“Hey.”Robbie squeezed gently on the back of his neck again. “It’s okay to be scared when you care aboutsomeone. Don’t tell anyone, because Ihave to keep up my villain cred, but you did a good job. Stingy needed someone and you were thatsomeone. You did it. Hooray.”

Thelast of the tension in Sportacus’ spine melted away. They just stayed there like that for a while,Sportacus tipping himself back toward center and Robbie twitching from time totime. “I didn’t know what to do though,I saw him in pain and I was so scared.” His heart rate started ratcheting up again, his hands felt shaky.

Thevillain pulled back, holding Sportacus by the shoulders as he examined hisface. He didn’t look quite satisfied bywhat he found.

“Whyare you being nice to me? Is- Is this atrick?” What kind of trick he couldn’tguess, but Robbie’s mind did the sort of acrobatics Sportacus could never tryand replicate when it came to him plans.

"Doyou know the difference between a criminal and a villain?” Robbie asked.

Sportacuswheezed unhelpfully.

"Acriminal breaks the law. A villain makesart. Breaking you wouldn’t be art, I’d sooner destroy a stained glass window as someone like yourself.”

Sportacuslooked up at him, face filled with something. He wasn’t sure, he couldn’tstop shaking, never mind control and take note of what exactly his face wasdoing, it felt a bit like hope though.

Thevillain rolled his eyes at that and pulled Sportacus close so the hero couldhide his face again. "It figures you wouldn’t get a pop culturereference if it hit you in the face like a halibut.”

"Ilike halibut,“ he offered.

"Ofcourse you do.” Robbie laughed, the sound rumbled through Sportacus’chest cavity.

Itwas a wonderful feeling, it made him feel enclosed and special. Like hewas crouching at the edge of a great glacial crevice, too deep to see thebottom, the air cold enough to nip pink spots in his skin, smelling like cleanwater sweetness and the trapped bones of ancient things. Like he was small but still acceptablesomehow. It was too bad Robbie was sogood at being a villain, Sportacus thought he would make a very good hero.

#lazytown #sportacus #stingy #robbie rotten #beautiful icelandic words

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