Chapter 1: Don't Look Down
The day was bright, birds were singing, children outside playing, and the blue air ship floated gently on the breeze. Flowers were blooming, their sweet fragrance perfuming the fresh air, and there was the sun, sending down warm fingers to caress everything.
This would have been the case, Stephanie imagined, if not for the violent storm that rolled in.
She grabbed what stationary object she could as the air ship lurched again, and she felt vaguely nauseous from the constant movement. Normally, the air ship was fairly smooth in the air. You could hardly tell you were high up in the atmosphere.
Again, this was not a normal day.
Stephanie whimpered as her stomach rolled with the ship, suddenly wishing she was with Robbie in his underground home instead. At least the earth didn't rock so badly, even if it was dark. She could handle dark.
Feeling her stomach clench, she grit her teeth and glanced at Sportacus' back. He was trying his hardest to pilot the poor wind-battered ship into a calmer patch of sky, but this just wasn't a good day. She looked away and rolled across the floor (she didn't dare even try to stand), slapping the wall button that opened the bathroom door and crawling to the sink, pulling herself up. She felt her vision swim for a moment, turning colors and fading to black even as her balance failed her and she bent her head over the sink.
Sportacus cringed worriedly at the sounds of retching and redoubled his efforts to get the ship steadier. If he could have, he would have let Stephanie out of the ship and had her stay with Robbie or one of her friends for the duration of the storm. But there hadn't been time, and by now it was too dangerous to even think about getting off the ship. He bit his lip and pointed the ship upward, above the clouds. It messed with the air pressure, but he didn't have much of a choice.
Stephanie was sprawled out across Robbie's chair a few hours later, much to its owner's irritation. Sportacus was resting momentarily, exhausted from his efforts to first ride out the storm, then anchor the air ship once the storm passed. He needed to do repairs on it, but he needed a quick rest first. His nerves were still frazzled from the storm and he could feel it, just a scant few miles away. He sighed, leaning against the cold pipe.
"Sportacus?" Stephanie piped up. He opened his eyes.
"Yes?"
"You need a regular house."
He laughed weakly at that. Robbie sat on a table, watching the two of them with one arm propped up on his knee and supporting his head.
"I'm surprised he hasn't got one yet," Robbie interjected. Sportacus scoffed lightly.
"You live underground Robbie. I don't think you can talk."
"Regardless," Robbie waved his hand briefly in a "whatever" gesture. "At least my house isn't a blimp, vulnerable to all the elements-"
"We've been over this," Sportacus interrupted. "It's an air ship."
Stephanie watched the two of them banter back and forth, and smiled slightly. If she didn't still feel sick, she'd go over and group hug the both of them. As it was, she curled up in the orange fuzzy chair and closed her eyes, burying her face in the fur. She breathed deeply and noticed the faint smell of Robbie and coconuts. She giggled slightly to herself, amused, and felt comfort wash over her, suddenly feeling tired. It was odd, she thought, that she had come to associate the town's ex-villain with comfort, but she did anyway. In the same way she loved the things she associated with Sportacus, she found herself taking comfort in things she associated with Robbie as well. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep to the background noise of two men talking and the dripping of water through pipes.
"Oh wow!" Stephanie squealed, delighted. She twirled around the empty room, doing an impromptu dance. Sportacus laughed from the doorway.
"You like this room then?" he ventured. Stephanie stopped and grinned at him, rushing over to hug him around the middle.
"I love it!"
Sportacus grinned back at her and ruffled her short hair affectionately, hugging her back.
He owed Robbie horribly now (though, really, Robbie only used "owe" to mean that he wanted attention- he had very little interest in money, surprisingly enough) but the bright grin on Stephanie's face was angelic.
"I have no idea what we're going to do with all this room," he mused. Two bedroom, two bathroom, kitchen, living room. He didn't think he'd ever resided on this much space in his life, and silently wondered at how he was going to utilize all of it.
Stephanie twirled around in the middle of the room again, singing to herself and dancing in the sunlight that shone through the windows.
She'd have to show Trixie, and Pixel, and Ziggy… maybe not Stingy. He could get jealous. But she'd show him eventually. She stopped dancing and paused to consider where furniture was going to go. Bed against the wall, facing the window. Book cases next to it, vanity on the other side… she laughed happily.
Everything was going great.
Within a week, all furniture arrived, and was unpacked, assembled, and moved in. It had really been a group effort. Pixel helped extensively in the beginning, making blueprints for the layout of furniture and then helping with ordering the furniture online. Then once it all arrived, Sportacus brought it into the house, and managed to pull Robbie up from his house to help assemble it all. Sportacus was adept at using a hammer and nails, and simpler things like that, after all he did do modest repairs on the air ship, but some of the components for the larger pieces were too complicated, and Sportacus had never been one for following diagrams very well.
All in all, when it was finished, it was beautiful. Stephanie was delighted, and Sportacus wasn't displeased either. Personally, he almost wished he could have built a turf house perhaps, but… there weren't many hills in Lazy Town anyway, and it would stick out… this house wasn't bad at all.
Besides, at least it was New Year's. The perfect time for moving, he thought. Mentioning the satisfaction to Robbie was a mistake however- the man had promptly wrung more information out of him, in ways that still made him blush to think about. And then even afterwards Robbie still delighted in teasing him about it. It wasn't his fault he preferred moving into a new home on New Year's! It was a cultural thing! But no matter how many times he told Robbie that, it didn't matter.
It was a very good thing that he knew teasing was a form of flirting and seduction, at least when it came to Robbie.
AN:
AH-HA! You thought I had lied, didn't you? That there would be no sequel? Well too bad. I have it. This is less plot-oriented than PBBS, but a plot does come in later... odd thing that it is. But anyway, this is more focused on... a series of snapshots, if you will. Stephanie is more of the central character (don't cry you, there's still more SportaRobbie than there logically should be) and we get to see a bit more of daily life than the drama-fest that was PBBS.
... as soon as I say that I realize that next chapter is all angsty and drama-filled. Lovely.
I was going to post it later, once I had all the kinks worked out and the last couple of chapters pounded out. But I check this section every day and the only SportaRobbie I see is Kami's fics and A Slippery Slope? Shameful. I had to remedy it.
Well, that and I was starving for reviews. My House M.D. oneshot only got 3. Sadness.
Ah, the New Year's thing! I need to explain that. I read awhile back about folk legends in Iceland about elves, aaaand there's this thing where it's believed that elves change residence on New Year's Eve. You can sit in the middle of the road (who sits in the middle of the road at night in Iceland when it's winter?) and block their way, and they'll offer you bribes to move... but as long as you stay put and don't say a word, they can't do anything and in the morning you'll have all this treasure to take back. If you talk... well, you lose your mind and get nothing. Whee! I just kinda borrowed and tweaked the general concept. I do love elfy Sportacus.
The chapter titles are David Bowie songs. Random, I know. But I've taken a liking to using them as chapter titles, because there's so many to pick from and I can find anything that fits.
Ah, this is long enough. Leave reviews please! Enjoy.