Crash
Sportacus fidgeted. He rolled back and forth on his feet, from heel to toe, and glanced around the dark cold metal lair of town villain, Robbie Rotten. He supposed villain was a strong term… Robbie was never really evil (though he had come close a handful of times to injuring people). He was more… Sportacus tried to think of an appropriate term. Mischievous? That wasn't right…
He picked up some strange metal object and tossed it from hand to hand, on impulse. Maybe the right way to describe Robbie was that he was just antisocial. Though, Sportacus had no idea why that was. It seemed odd. In a town as small as Lazy Town, you would think that people would know each other very very well. But, when he asked around, no one knew very much about Robbie Rotten at all. He lived away from the main town, and only came out of hiding to disrupt the peace. Or buy junk food from the grocery. But that was about it.
Curiosity eventually overwhelmed Sportacus. It was fall- Stephanie had gone back home until winter break, when she would come back. So while the other kids kept him relatively occupied, saving them from bicycle accidents and such, and that kitten was still getting stuck in trees, Sportacus was bored. And the thought had occurred to him, one day while he was doing jumping jacks and the computer on his air ship had been keeping count for him, why did Robbie Rotten stay away from everyone? What was he like when he wasn't angry or plotting? A million other questions buzzed through his head, and that had been the day he went around asking about Robbie Rotten.
Sportacus set the object back down where he got it from, and looked around. He had been in here before, but he was concentrating on other things at the time. He was sorely tempted to poke around and see what things did. But then he recalled the man's penchant for sugar, and he eyed the machinery mistrustfully. Robbie was a genius after all. He made machines that shot toffee, and that was dangerous enough. If he wasn't careful, he might set off something that… coated him in sugar, or something of that nature. He shuddered and looked around for a clock. It was already past sunset, and he had checked everywhere else Robbie might have been… though it was a short list. Maybe he was hiding somewhere, waiting for his newest plot to fall into place? Robbie was decent at hiding, he had to admit…
Sportacus frowned and sat on the edge of the garishly orange furred recliner. If that was the case, there was nothing he could do about it except wait. He was likely to come back sometime, for cake at the very least. And unless his crystal alerted him to trouble, there really wasn't anything for Sportacus to do besides try to beat his old records, like usual. He couldn't concentrate on that for very long, ever since he started having all these questions. The logical thing to do was get all these thoughts out of the way, and then he could get back to what he usually did. And the only way to do that was to talk to Robbie himself, and somehow convince him to answer.
He sighed and leaned back in the chair, flicking the fur with one hand idly. That would be a battle in itself. He didn't think Robbie would willingly just have a heart-to-heart conversation with him, but he just couldn't leave without figuring this out. He knew what motivated other people, and it was fairly simple. Ziggy liked sweets because they tasted good to him. Pixel played video games because he thought they were fun. But the only motivation Robbie seemed to have was hating him. It didn't make sense.
He yawned suddenly. It was probably 8:08 already… where was Robbie? It was getting kind of late, wasn't it? He was still absent-mindedly stroking the fur of the chair. It was pretty soft… He yawned again, his eyes sliding closed. It was too soft…
He fell asleep, sprawled across the chair.
Robbie shivered, barely having enough energy to lift the lid to his door. It was past midnight. He didn't know what had possessed him to walk of all things, much less so far. Even if it had sounded like a decent idea at first, getting out of Lazy Town for awhile to get his mind off the flipping blue elf. He had gotten lost for a few hours in the outskirts of the town, and by now he was completely exhausted. He could barely see straight.
He finally crawled into the pipe and came out in a heap on the floor. He groaned and stood up shakily, his vision blurring. This was definitely too late for him to be awake. He caught the blur of orange that was his favorite chair and staggered over to it, his eyes half-closed and his entire body singing for blessed sleep.
He collapsed onto it, becoming unconscious instantly. He was so deeply asleep that he didn't notice the warmth underneath him shift slightly, and a heavy arm drape itself across his lower back.
Sportacus yawned widely and gradually opened his eyes. Where was?…
Oh. Robbie's house. Had the man ever shown up? It felt like morning now. Sportacus frowned slightly and tried to sit up.
Tried, anyway.
The weight on his chest and legs made him look down. There, sprawled on top of him, was a deeply asleep Robbie Rotten. Who had (dare he even think it) cuddled up to him while sleeping, even while half his body was dangling over the edge of the chair. He then noticed he had Robbie in a sort of hug, and blushed. What had happened here? He remembered sitting here waiting for Robbie to show up eventually, and then feeling tired… had he fallen asleep? Probably… but when had Robbie shown up? And why was he currently draped across his lap?
He blushed deeper when Robbie shifted in his sleep, murmuring something unintelligible and snuggling further against Sportacus.
'Oh, no,' Sportacus thought, his heart beating faster. 'Don't you dare, body. You stay down, do you hear me? There will be none of that, no matter how nice it is to have Robbie right… there… No, I said down!'
He started thinking of things like what his latest records for sports feats were at that moment, and how many shapes he could find in Robbie's dark ceiling. He didn't notice Robbie blearily opening his eyes until a sleepy voice intruded on his thoughts.
"Nngh… wha?… sport…"
Sportacus looked back down at Robbie, who had barely lifted his head to speak. It looked like the man might fall back asleep at any moment. He might have possibly still been asleep, at least partially.
"Good morning Robbie," he said quietly. He didn't want the man to panic or do anything drastic. There had been an obviously well-used mallet in the piles of tools Sportacus looked through the night before. Robbie blinked sleepily, deciding he was still in a dream. A weird dream, but one none the less.
"'morning," he murmured, nearly closing his eyes again. He sighed in contentment. This was a very nice dream, so far. It felt real. And Sportacus was warm, he didn't make a bad pillow. Plus, the man smelled pretty nice. Like a stand of pine trees on a rainy day. He buried his face in the man's shirt and inhaled.
Sportacus blushed again, uncertain of what to do.
"Robbie?…" he ventured, still talking as quietly as he could. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing…" he muttered into the shirt. The smell wasn't from the shirt itself, it seemed. It had to be soap then.
"Where were you last night?"
Robbie frowned.
"Why're you askin such hard questions?" he whined. "Walking. Hadta think."
"About what?" Sportacus asked next. He figured maybe this was as good a time as any to get answers out of Robbie, as he probably wouldn't answer anything when he was fully awake. Robbie yawned and closed his eyes, breathing warmly onto Sportacus (which only caused the man to blush harder and force himself to think pure thoughts).
"I dunno," he finally muttered. "You." He yawned again, and shifted so he was pressed further into the other man. "I was walking… and thinking 'there's nobody who likes me, especially not him'. And how…" he trailed off, his head nodding as he slipped in and out of consciousness. "How it wasn't fair… I like you a lot… but it's not fair…" He finally succumbed again and closed his eyes, holding on to Sportacus.
Sportacus stayed completely still, his blue eyes wide. Robbie… liked him? He swallowed hard. That didn't mean anything, beyond that they might be friends. It certainly… He grit his teeth as Robbie groaned in his sleep about something. He was getting his hopes up for nothing, and his body had better agree to that, or it'd be a very bad day. He swallowed thickly again, and gently shook Robbie's shoulder.
"Hey… wake up now…"
"Noooo," Robbie whined, slowly coming out of sleep and clutching harder to Sportacus. "Dun wanna." Sportacus paused, having a thought. He glanced at Robbie. He probably wasn't awake enough yet… he leaned over Robbie, his lips close to the man's ear.
"Hey Robbie? I love you." he whispered. Robbie smiled a little, his eyes still closed. He knew he was still dreaming. So it was safe to do whatever he wanted.
"Mmm," he murmured, voice lower than normal from both sleep and affection. "Yeah. Love you too Sportacus…" he yawned widely and rested his head against the dream-Sportacus' chest, or near anyway, because that crystal got in the way…
Wait a… Sportacus never had that damnable thing on in Robbie's dreams. It would have interrupted whatever they were doing. He slowly blinked open his eyes.
Sportacus meanwhile was fighting a battle with himself and his body.
'Robbie… loves me?' the stunned sports elf thought, the words repeating in his head. 'What… what should I do?'
Robbie lifted his head with some difficulty (it was entirely too tempting to just let it remain there and listen to the man's heartbeat) and blinked sleep from his eyes. He had come home early in the morning, and collapsed on the chair… but when did the chair feel so warm and… breathing?
He glanced down and nearly had a heart attack on the spot. Ohhhh, no. That could not possibly be…
"R-Robbie?"
He slowly, fearfully, looked in the direction of the voice.
Oh, damn. So it was Sportacus, and it hadn't been a dream.
As much as he internally screamed at his body to move, it refused, and he was frozen, staring up at Sportacus' equally wide blue eyes.
"U-umm…" he started articulately.
"You…" Sportacus interrupted. "You love me back?"
Robbie was startled to see the beginnings of blushing on the man's face. He then realized the man's arms were still around him, and the realization sent shocks of tingling throughout his body. Robbie opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, before swallowing, and nodding very slightly. His eyes slid to the other side of the room, refusing to look at him for the moment. He remembered why he had been out for so late, and why he had been disturbed enough to go walking of all things.
He had been trying to figure out what this infatuation with Sportacus was. He was loud and encouraged the children to be loud too, but they weren't loud all the time. So, he had eventually come to the conclusion that he did have a crush on the flipping blue elf, however horribly ironic that revelation was.
The reason he stayed out until well past midnight, however, was that it was much more difficult to think of what to actually do about it.
He blushed and got to his feet shakily, standing up.
"W-well, why were you here anyway?" he started, trying to cover up his nervousness. "Why the heck were you sleeping on my chair in the middle of the night?"
Sportacus looked up at him and smiled, reaching up and grabbing the front of his vest and pulling him down.
"Eh?" Robbie started. "What're yo-"
His question got lost between their lips, and disappeared entirely as Sportacus dragged him down into a deep kiss.
AN:
This is my response to a challenge (yet again I get my inspiration from fan art. I need new hobbies). PsychoTiyal, your challenge is answered. It was fun to write, and an interesting break from my other SportaRobbie fic.
It's a little cliche, but I can live with that.
The title is a reference to the title of the fan art, "Crashin' on the recliner" or "Can I crash at your place tonight?"
Not much to say here. Enjoy guys.