Chapter Text
It was like any other day in Lazytown. Pixel and Ziggy were on the bench in the park, enjoying the pleasant weather slouching around, doing pretty much nothing.
“Ahhh, the sun is so nice today I almost don’t miss my room!” Pixel exhales, closing his eyes.
Ziggy shakes his hanging legs “You are right, if I had some taffy in my hand, it would be the best day ever!”
“Ziggy, you say that every time we are outside!” Pixel looks at him.
“It’s true!” Ziggy exclaims, laughing. “But now I'm really hungry for something sweet… all the talking and sun makes me want some ice cream with sprinkles or or some chocolate milkshake, hmmm.” He leans into the bench, thinking about all the sweets he would consume right now.
Pixel laughs some more at the dreaming Ziggy right beside him. “Maybe we could go get some ice cream Ziggy! I think we deserve it after sitting in the sun.”
This sentence immediately wakes Ziggy up from his dreaming state. He sits up with glowing eyes, looking at Pixel, almost shaking. “Really!?” His excited tone is evident.
Pixel gives him a slight nod of affirmation before slowly getting himself off the bench.
“And can I get three scoops of bubblegum with chocolate icing in the big cone with the colorful sprinkles on the edge?!” Ziggy smacks his hands on the bench, leaning in his friend's direction, desperately waiting for approval.
“If you give me a taste, then yes!” Pixel answers.
Ziggy´s mouth grows into a big smile, and without second thought, he springs up from his seat with his legs ready to fall on the ground.
RRIIPP!!
A loud noise of something tearing stuns both boys.
Pixel frantically looks around him before pointing in horror behind Ziggy.
“ZIGGY!” he yells out.
His expression frightens the little boy, and so he turns to look at the bench he just jumped off.
“MY CAPE!” Ziggy cries out, looking at the large tear in his red cape, with one corner stuck between the bench boards. Instantly, he grabs it, trying to free the piece of cloth.
“NO WAIT ZIGGY!” Pixel quickly stops him before he can tore his cape even more.
“We have to loosen it without force, look, the cape somehow knotted on the other side, and when you pulled it tightened-“
Pixel´s explaining is interrupted by quiet snobs coming from underneath him. With one look, he sees tears running down Ziggy's cheeks.
“Oh-ou um, r-right..” Pixel quickly tries to calm him, saving his dear cape from the pressing pieces of wood. With one hand, he untugs it and easily slips it out. Ziggy is watching all this, almost blind with the amount of tears blocking his sight.
Pixel slowly approaches him, holding the rest of the cape, defeated.
"I'm so sorry Ziggy…I think your mom will have to buy you a new cape…this is far too torn even for my gadgets to fix.”
The snot and tears are wiped by Ziggy´s sleeve, and he takes the piece of cloth with shaky hands, still uncontrollably sobbing.
“B–-b-but this this-” he pauses to take a hard, painful swallow, “M-my cape… t-this is-” he pauses again, failing more deeply in his grief.
“Awww, Ziggy…” Pixel offers comfort by placing his hand on his shoulder, kneeling down to close the gap between them, and try to properly help him.
“I know it’s your favorite. But sometimes our stuff will break to the point where we can't fix it…and we have to buy a new one.”
He strokes Ziggy´s shoulder. “Like, remember just last week, my favorite favorite FAVORITE! Controller broke, all the springs and buttons fell out from the back, it was like something from a horror movie!”
Ziggy laughs a little at the memory of Pixel freaking out, crawling under the table frantically looking for the tiny springs.
“I couldn't fix it… so yesterday I went and bought myself a brand new one, green with beautiful patterns and shiny buttons, way, way fancier than my old one!”
His words seem to calm the little boy slightly as he catches his breath, wiping the rest of the tears and snot.
“B-but I don’t want a new shiny fancy cape… I-i like this one! Even Sportacus said he likes it! A-and and-” he hiccups as his eyes start watering again, his voice becoming more shaky.
“What if I can’t find the same one!” And all the tears are pouring down again. He tightly hugs the cape, burying his face in it, crying his little heart out.
Pixel doesn’t let go of him and tries to talk some more sense into Ziggy.
“You will, Ziggy! I´m 159% sure there are plenty of capes like this. We can come to my house and look online!”
He slowly reaches for the cape, trying to take it from his tight grip.
“But first, let’s throw this one out, to make a space for the new amazing one! I will make sure that your new cape will be the best cape ever.”
Pixel slowly pulls on the torn-up cape, but Ziggy quickly protests and jumps back, away from Pixel's hands.
“NO! I WANT THIS CAPE. I DON'T WANT TO THROW IT OUT!” He yells out with red eyes and snot sticking onto the wrinkled cape.
His reaction surprises Pixel and knocks all words from his mouth. The sight of clearly angry and upset Ziggy makes him lose confidence that he’s able to actually help him.
“I’m s-sorry, I'm sorry I didn't mean to-“
“I´M NOT THROWING IT OUT PIXEL” Ziggy cuts him off and quickly runs away, disappearing behind the low wall.
He may have small legs, but they sure are able to run, so before Pixel can get up after him, he’s nowhere in sight.
Angry and frustrated, he scolds himself. “Ugh, why did I say to throw it out… I should have remembered how sensitive he is about his cape…screw you, Pixel...”
He smacks his forehead before yelling out to Ziggy with apologies, hoping he would appear.
Meanwhile, all this was happening, on the brink of town, behind the billboard with the purple cow, deep down in his lair, filled with loud snores and constant mumbling, was sleeping Robbie.
Turning and twitching in his fuzzy orange chair, unable to find a comfortable position. His only little blanket was already on the floor with the rest of his mess, containing several dirty plates from icing and cake crumbs.
Yesterday, after yet another failed scheme Robbie consumed a large amount of sugar in his desperate state, which now he greatly regretted as the 8 pieces of caramel-chocolate cake lay heavy in his stomach.
He was restless the whole night, unable to get a good sleep, and now, when he finally feels a little bit closer to falling into slumber, some strange noise shakes within the pipe above his head.
“WHAT IN THE LIVING HELL IS IT NOW?!” Robbie rises from his chair, fingers digging into the fuzz. His grunts are loud with face cramping in annoyance.
“FIRST MY POOR INSIDES ARE ACHING LIKE I SWALLOWED ROCKS, UNABLE TO CLOSE MY SORE LITTLE EYES, AND NOW SOME UNCONSIDERED BRAT IS MAKING NOISE!?”
He springs from his chair, stomping right up to his periscope. Surprisingly, upon looking, he’s met with noone.
“Huh?! The park is empty!” He slides to the side. “Not a living soul in sight!” He slides back, “Not even the flippity-flip blue stain!”
With one swift move, the periscope descends into the ceiling. Robbie rubs his temples, closing both eyes to calm his mind.
“Must be my imagination, must be my brilliant, tired mind playing tricks.” He stops for a second, hearing the weird, mysterious sound again. He shifts his sight up frantically looking around for the source.
“It’s outside! Oh, who dares to even step near my sanctuary?!” Robbie yells out, sprinting towards the pipe that leads outside, panting out of breath, looking like he’s ready to do some really villain stuff.
Once reaching the hatch cap and hardly opening it to scan the situation, Robbie is pretty much out of breath. The lack of sleep has been really taking it´s effect on his already fragile body, so climbing up the pipe took more energy than he anticipated.
Seeing the outside of his hatch empty, he opens the cap fully with the last bit of strength, huffing as he falls forward, hands hanging down, almost at the brink of passing out.
Sliding out, Robbie sluggishly stands up, adjusting his vest and stretching his lower back.
“Someone or something is about to experience a true piece of villainy...”gruntting once more before trying to kick the door in the billboard open, which doesn’t cooperate like he wanted, so he groans and opens the door normally.
Peeking outside, Robbie hears the sound again.
“Sounds like…sobbing?” He looks to both sides. “I appreciate the desperation only when it’s on my behalf, and right now I would much prefer a quiet morning!” Morning meaning 1 in the afternoon.
He moves closer towards the sound that’s coming from behind the tree near the billboard. Quietly taking each step, he looks behind the tree.
There, sitting like a pile of sorrows, is Ziggy, wiping his face furiously and catching each breath. His whining is loud, so loud that Robbie covers his ears, face twisting with disgust.
Right now, he would do anything for him to shut up. Even tho it’s in his job description to spread evil and problems, he prefers when the kids are either angry or just slightly gloomy; crying was never his style of work. It was too loud, too evil even for him to make the kids cry. Much pleased he was when they argued, or even better, when they were just slugging around being lazy.
He begins considering a plan on how to shoo away the weepy boy, but before he can try anything, he´s noticed.
“M-mister Rot- *sniif* Rotten?” Ziggy weeps.
“Right, yes, unfortunately I'm awake, and here your bawling eyes aren’t deceiving you, eh, hmm, whatever which one are you.” Robbie answers, still peeking from behind the tree.
A small bubble inflates from under Ziggy's nose as he tries to breathe. All the tears made his nose stuffy, and of course, he wasn't carrying a tissue around because why would he. Not to mention both his sleeves are already wet and crusted with tears and snot.
Robbie scrunches his nose, disgusted.
“Now, would you please go away and do your crying elsewhere?” He motions with his hands shooshing him away. On the second look, he notices something missing on Ziggy.
“Wait, didn’t you have a cape following you?” Robbie gasps and giggles, “Don’t tell me you came to your senses! The cape was highly unfashionable, let me tell you…”
Ziggy’s over-dramatic loud cry makes him jump. The little boy breaks down in an emotional cry again, and Robbie doesn’t know what on earth is happening right now.
He’s confused about what he said, so cry-inducing that the sticky child is reacting as if he committed homicide.
Plugging his ears again, Robbie grunts angrily. “Argh, STOP WHINING! I only have one pair of eardrums!” His words fall on deaf ears.
Robbie can't take anymore of the ear-tearing child cry, so he storms in front of Ziggy, squatting down to eye level with the sitting boy. Unwillingly he unplugs his fingers from his ear and grabs Ziggy´s shoulders.
“Listen kid, my cup of patience is already spilling everywhere, and my head is ringing from the lack of sleep. I'm really gonna need you to STOP whining! What even happened so horrible, I haven’t done anything yet!”
Ziggy swallows hard and looks up red-eyed straight into Robbie´s eyes. A drop of snot is dangling underneath his nose.
“For the love of god.”
Robbie quickly reaches into his chest pocket, pulling out bright purple cloth tissue, showing it under Ziggy's nose.
“Now blow,” he orders him, keeping his irritated tone on.
Ziggy listens, and with full force, he blows everything out of his system. He repeats two more times, each time Robbie gags a little. Finally, he retrieves his wet tissue, holding it between his thumb and index finger like a radioactive specimen.
“Kids are so eugh-“ he gags one last time before throwing the ecological hazard tissue behind him.
Ziggy wipes the rest of the tears on his chin.
“M-my cape…it it it-“ he pulls it towards his face with trembling hands. “It it-“ he’s unable to express the hurting words.
“Just spit it out already!” Robbie grows restless.
“It-it” Ziggy takes a deep breath, “it tore!” He finally yells in Robbie's face, crying again.
“…”
Nothing but sobbing and bird chirping can be heard. Robbie is left speechless by the revelation, slowly letting his eyelids slide down. He exhales and drops his head forward.
“Oh, what a catastrophe…” He mumbles to himself.
With a quick glance, he sees the torn-up cape.
“Kid you know this can be fixed right? Just I don´t know, ask your mother or the sportadork since he’s the deal around here.”
Leaning forward, he takes a closer look at the clutched, snot-covered cape in the little boy's hands.
“You are really crying for nothing, just a stitch here, here boom like new cape, now go fix it and please stop crying.” Robbie lets go of his shoulders and begins slowly getting up, not too quickly or he would pass out.
“But b-but..” Ziggy continues, “Pixel said that *hiccup* that it can’t be fixed!”
Robbie raises an eyebrow, intrigued.
“And that…that” he stops again, biting his lower lip, “that I should throw it out!” And he buries his face into the cape.
Robbie's expression has confusion written all over it. “ And what does Mister Keyboard know about sewing, huh?”
He reaches down, grabbing the cape from the boy's hands. Ziggy is a little hesitant about letting the cape go, but Robbie's glance is too scary, so he lets him take it.
“So absurd… you kids can be so wasteful,” Robbie says, inspecting the tear. “It’s evident Poodle lets his computers do all the work.”
“P-pixel.” Ziggy corrects him.
“Whatever,” Robbie hisses, pondering if he has the exact same thread color and material.
Ziggy sees that Robbie has taken an interest in his cape, so he asks the very dangerous question.
“Will you *sniff* will you fix it?” he asks with a nervous note.
Robbie slowly turns, looking down over his shoulder at the kid. The round sparkling eyes are piercing him through, desperately asking for his help. He’s quite confused by his look since most of the time, the kids frown whenever they see him. For the first, he receives a look of asking for help.
“M-me?!” He stutters.
The little boy moves closer. “Please! I will do anything!”
A sudden idea pops up in Robbie's mind. “Anything?… ohohohoo, but this is absolutely perfect! I can make Sportacus leave the town forever by sending this little sticky kid to tell him he has to leave… I'm sure he will do that, making a scene for this piece or cloth AHAHAHA! Oh! This is utterly brilliant!” Robbie deviously giggles, looking back at Ziggy with his propositions.
“It’s your lucky day candy boy. I will fix your little cape, but you must tell Sportado-“ he suddenly loses balance from Ziggy running to him and hugging his leg tightly.
“WOh! Thank you! Thank you! I will bring you so much candy, all my chocolate and taffy will be yours!” he exclaims happily, tightening his grip.
“Ow ow- wait, I didn’t finis- Ow stop squeezing my calfs there are sore. You OW- STOP YOU MUFFIN!”
Ziggy finally lets go, jumping up and down like a puppy waiting for a ball to be thrown. Robbie shakes his legs and annoyingly looks down at the little pile of sunshine he created.
“I wanted to say that you…you…” he slowly lets go of his brilliant, evil idea as he watches the happiness radiating from the child.
“Ugh, forget it, just promise you and the rest of the brats will be quiet for the rest of the day!”
His preposition is accepted by Ziggy´s exaggerated nods, so Robbie turns around to make his way back to his lair.
“Why are you following me?” Robbie suddenly looks back.
His indication is correct, and Ziggy is slowly following him. “ You have m-my cape.”
“Yeah, well, that’s kind of an important aspect if I want to fix something i need to have the thing.” Robbie snorts, slowly continuing with his steps.
“But-but I need to see it!”
Robbie rolls his eyes. “Kid, listen, do you want me to fix it or will you rather run around with this rag?!”
He opens the hatch and jumps inside. Ziggy is right behind him, trying to climb up.
“Wait! Wait for me, wait!” He jumps up, scratching the metal and kicking the smaller pipes around him.
“Kid!” Robbie yells, holding the hatch above his head. “I'm not letting you in, you understand? This is my house, and no sticky, snotty, crying child will ever enter. This is child free zone!”
He notices the small tear in Ziggys eyes.
“P-please, please my cape! I won’t tell anyone!” He continues persuading.
Robbie grunts, clenching his teeth, “ Argh, for crying out loud, you are lucky I'm incredibly tired, or I would push you right outside the billboard with your ragged cape!”
He reaches down, picking the boy by the collar and pulling him up, both disappearing into the pipe.
“Ziggy!!” Pixel yells out.
“Look i´m sorry! I-I didn't mean to make you upset!”
No response. Pixel takes a break and sits down on a bench, staring at his feet, defeated.
“Whatcha yelling for?” Immediately looking up, he´s met with Trixie holding a basketball.
“Ou Trixie please, you have to help me find Ziggy!”
Trixie shifts her weight to the other leg. “Are you two playing hide and seek again? Pixel, you can't cheat like this! You find him yourself!” And she quickly spins, ready to dribble her ball away.
Pixel runs from the bench to stop her. “No, no, nothing like that i umm…” he slides his worried face into his palms.
Seeing this, Trixie becomes worried too. “What is it, smarthead? Did something happen to him?!”
“I mah him had….” he mumbles.
“What? Pixel speaks clearly, you aren’t making any sense!”
Pixel looks up, frustrated that he has to confess.
“I told him to throw out his cape, and he got sad and ran away okey?! But but look, it had a big tear, and there was this whole moment I tried to be like Sportacus and find a solution to help him.” He deeply inhales.
”But instead I made it far worse, and now I feel bad, and I want to apologize, but he’s nowhere to be found…”
Trixie immediately gasps, dropping her ball, both hands covering her open mouth.
“Pixel, you didn’t!”
Her words don’t ease the situation.
“I know I KNOW!! I forgot how sensitive he is towards his cape… It's like Stingy and his piggy bank…”
Trixie sees the true regret on her friend's face. “Fine i will help you, and we definitely should tell the others, and you mister should think of a proper way of apologizing!”
She smacks Pixel on the back as friendly fire. “Come, you big head, we have to find the little guy and others!”
Just at the perfect time, a blue shadow flips over the kids, landing directly next to Trixie.
“Pixel! Trixie! Glad to see you two out on this fine sunny day!”
Both kids happily smile, “Sportacus!”
Trixie pushes Pixel towards him. “Sportacus Smarthead here really needs your help… right?” she asks, glancing at him.
Still a little ashamed and nervous, he nods and begins explaining his issue. After hearing the full story, Sportacus gives him a reassuring smile of understanding.
“Don’t worry Pixel, we will find Ziggy and figure out how to solve this problem!” To really calm him down, he squats and strokes his back.
“I'm sure Ziggy isn't mad at you, he’s probably just really sad, he’s a smart kid, surely he will understand you didn’t mean it in a bad way- oh oh.. okey Pixel, there is no need for tears.”
He pats him on the head, but Trixie isn´t really getting it.
“Oh come on, don’t be a crybaby!” Sportacus isn´t really a fan of Trixie's words, but she´s sending the right message.
“Pixel instead, let´s put this energy into finding Ziggy. What do you think? Come on, let’s also get Stephanie and Stingy, they are on the sports field!”
He gets up, still keeping his hand on Pixel's back to encourage him, and then running with both of the kids towards the rest of the group.
“Don’t let Stephanie see you like this, loverboy!” Trixie teasingly bumps into Pixel while he´s aggressively rubbing his eyes to hide the redness and tears.
“Shut it, Trixie!”
“You have a big house, Mister Rotten!” Ziggy says in surprise, swinging his head around, amazed by the large space he’s in.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, just be quiet, I need silence to concentrate.” Robbie sits down at the workbench, his back turned to Ziggy. His head was already pulsing with migraine from the lack of sleep, and having some kid talking to him was the most tiring point right now.
First comes the needle. Robbie keeps them all secured on his muffin-shaped pin holder, now over-stuffed with needles, pins, and safety pins. He intuitively takes one out, a slim, very delicate one. Next is a thread. The tear is in a very unconventional spot, cutting through blue and white stripes, making it more challenging for a seamless stitch. That´s also the reason why he completely resigned on using a sewing machine. Something like this needs a human touch and precision.
“Hmm,” Robbie strokes his chin, analyzing the color tones.
A sudden motion is caught in the corner of his eye. Shifting his sight, he’s spooked by the sticky child standing right next to him, his eyes fixed on his cape.
“OH, you wish to give me a heartattack? Move move, keep those dirty paws to yourself.”
Robbie slouches forward, pulling a large purple briefcase from under the workbench. Upon setting it on the table, it sparks interest in Ziggy.
“What’s in it?”
Robbie smirks, secretly enjoying the fact that he will be able to show off all his inventions and get all the praise from the easily amazed child. Once again boosting his ego about his undeniable intelligence.
“Oh? this? Well…hehe that’s one of my personal inventions, a very exceptional one, my what’s the word hmmm-hmm-Ah! my magnus opus, well, one of them, of course i keep myself busy, you see, creating all these world-breaking- “
Taking a quick glance, he’s met with a look of a child who just heard too many new, long, and confusing words.
Robbie’s cheeks flush in embarrassment. “AHAHA errr ehm- kid stop staring that’s rude i- right- STOP STARING!“
He tries to shift Ziggy's attention back to the briefcase by pressing the button intended to open it.
After pressing it, the cover pops open, and 3 trays on each side swing out on top of each other. Two rows of neatly organized spools swing up from the higher trays. Sorted by color, the spools brightly glow with a high variety of colors from cardinal red, cadmium orange, violet purple, to very rich ones, french lime, citrine or even byzantine purple.
Ziggy gasps at the amount of colors beating him into his eyes. On the second trays lays vibrant and fuzzy-looking yarn of all thicknesses, from super bulky to super fine, again varying in the same colorful spectrum as the threads. More so, Ziggy is struck with the obre type and the color combinations Robbie owns.
Lastly, the lowest tray contains small cups with precisely organized buttons. Shiny, gold, silver buttons or glitter ones, Robbie even had them with patterns, stripes, polka dots, floral, and many, many others.
It was evident that the child was pretty overstimulated by the bright colors. Ziggy was standing on his toes, resting his chin on the table, with eyes almost falling out of his sockets.
“So much colors…so so…”
Robbie pridefully adjusts his vest, feeling a sense of accomplishment by leaving the child almost speechless.
“So innovative, I know! Noone has their sewing materials so organized-“
“So colorful…” Ziggy says with his mouth slightly open.
Robbie gives him a slight sideways glance before rolling his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, colors wow, never seen them before,” shaking his hands comically.
He reaches inside and prepares all the necessary equipment for the repair. While setting his tools, Ziggy is still pretty stuck to his side, watching every movement Robbie makes, which makes Robbie quite nervous to some extent. He is used to working alone, just him and his thoughts, now he has an observer, not that he would be scared of screwing up, but more so, he has to keep his villainous and cool face.
“Candy boy, would you please, move, eh…somewhere else? I cannot work with you stuck to my side like a lost calf.” With his index finger, he tries to push the child away, but Ziggy just shakes his finger away.
“I want to watch!”
Robbie sighs, “ Ugh, well, fine, but be quiet.”
All that is left for Robbie is to pick the right cloth material, fortunately he already knows where the exact one is. After he retrieves from his stash, where Ziggy also followed him, he begins with his work.
“Keep your eyes open kid, this is the only time you will ever see the greatest villain in work!”
There was a big fuss happening over in Lazytown. All the kids running around yelling out to Ziggy, with Sportacus switching between cartwheels, flipping over the walls, and using his spyglass.
“Anything?” Stephanie asks while out of breath.
Everyone shakes their head. Even Sportacus is crossing his arms, deep in thoughts.
“Something must have happened to him i know it! He fell into a canal, or some big BIG animal ate him!” Stingy yells.
“Shut up, Stingy, or you will end up in a canal!” Trixie answers.
Stephanie steps between her friends. “Guys, stop arguing! We won’t find him like this, if something had happened, Sportacus´s crystal would be beeping like crazy!”
Sportacus watches as the kids get restless and worried. Only Pixel is standing next to him, swinging his head, looking down at the ground.
“It’s all my fault…”
“YEAH IT IS!” Trixie points her finger at him.
Pixel looks up, stunned but not surprised. It looked like he would start crying again, but it was evident he was holding the tears back as much as he could.
“Now, now, everyone, let’s breathe and think.” Sportacus tries to calm the group down. “As Stephanie said, nothing could have happened to him, my crystal had been quiet the whole time.” He looks around the park.
“We searched the park, the sports field, the town plaza, and all the streets, which means Ziggy can only be in two places…” he wanders off, waiting for the kids to answer.
“He must be in the Canal!” Stingy says..
“NO!!” All the kids yell together.
Trixie scratches her head. “Well, we haven’t looked into his house yet…”
Sportacus cheers, “Exactly! Let’s go, everyone!” And all five of them set towards Ziggy´s home.
“Hmm, the stitch came out better than I expected, Phe! Noone is better than me! Not even a sewing machine can measure itself with me.” The villain grins.
“Alright candy boy here, here is your cape…I even washed it I´m not letting you run around with sugar-snot-tear covered cape, eww, please tell Sportadork to teach you something about hygiene…” Robbie trails off, looking around for Ziggy.
He didn’t even noticed but the little kid disappeared when he was in the middle of sewing. Of course, he was so occupied that he wasn’t paying attention to the absence of heavy breathing and occasional sniffing.
Holding the cape in front of him triumphantly, Robbie starts walking around his house.
“Hey, where are you hiding?!”
He stops by his chair, realizing something blue is curled up in it.
Slowly, he leans to take a closer look. It´s Ziggy, sleeping with his hands tucked to his face.
“Ugh…”Robbie growls.
“Wakey wakey! Candy boy, this isn’t a hotel!” He rocks with the chair a little.
Instantly, Ziggy springs up, almost hitting Robbie in the chin. “What!? What! I wasn’t s-sleeping!” he claims while massaging his eyes.
“Whatever you say, here.” Robbie shoves the cape into the little boy's hands.
“MY CAPE IS FIXED!!” Ziggy yells out, immediately throwing it over his shoulder, trying to tie it around his neck.
“But of course it’s fixed, did you doubt my ability to sew? Oh, you kids always doubt me, hm!” Robbie snorts.
The little boy's hands are shaking with excitement, making it impossible for him to make a steady knot.
“Unbelievable…” Robbie kneels down and takes the corners, tying a perfect knot not too tight but not too loose.
Ziggy spins around, looking at his cape fluttering behind him. “Thank you, Mister Rotten!”
“Yeah, whatever, now get out, and remember to be quiet with the rest of the brats.” Robbie gets back up, taking his place by the pipe that leads to the hatch.
Ziggy follows, but when looking up the pipe, the excitement disappears from his face. “U-up the pipe?” He asks, unsure.
“Well, since we are underground, it is essential for you to go UP to leave my house, now go.” And he points upward to the pipe.
The boy´s frozen in place, stepping over his feet, looking back and forward at Robbie and the open pipe. Robbie begins stepping with his left foot, running out of patience. His eyebrow quirks, and he pinches the bridge of his nose.
“Why am I being punished…what did I do so horrible that I'm being tortured like this….”
He takes a deep breath and stomps towards Ziggy, picking him up under his armpit like a sack of potatoes.
“This is the last thing I'm EVER doing for you, candy boy…cover your head.”
Ziggy listens and curls his hands around his head to protect it from the walls of the pipe.
Robbie curses once more under his breath before climbing up the pipe with Ziggy hanging from under his arm.
“HE’S LOST! LOST FOREVER!!” Stingy cries.
All the kids with Sportacus are walking on the edge of the town in the sparse forest, making it evident they´re all exhausted and hopeless. Trixie angrily grunting towards Stingy, keeping her fingers stuck in her ears, while he frets.
“STINGY! CUT IT OUT! Ugh!!” She speeds up front from the loud Stingy, but he follows.
“DONT LEAVE ME HERE! TRIXIE!”
Far behind is Sportacus, Stephanie, and Pixel whos been just slightly sliding his feet behind both of them.
“Sportacus?”
“What is it, Stephanie?”
Even with all the kids distressed, Sportacus maintains his enthusiasm. He also cut on his flips and cartwheels, sensing it might distract the kids from their mutual quest to find Ziggy.
Stephanie looks up, “What if we don’t find Ziggy? We looked everywhere, and there were no signs of him!” Her tone sounds serious, so Sportacus tries his best to calm her rising worry.
“Don´t worry, we will find him! There are still plenty of places we haven’t checked.”
Stephanie raises an eyebrow. “But you only talked about his house and the forest? And we already been to his house and nothing… and now we are almost at the end of the forest and-“
“ZIGGY!!!” Trixie´s and Stingy´s united yell catches them off guard.
Pixel immediately rushes between them, and Sportacus and Stephanie follow. The three of them run up to Stingy, hugging Ziggy tightly, almost falling to the ground, while Trixie is waving to get their attention.
“Guys!! Look, we found Ziggy!”
Once they get close, Pixel snatches Ziggy out of Stingy´s grip, burying him in apologies.
“Ziggy! I-I’m so sorry for making you upset! I didn’t, I was - or I I-“ he´s stuttering while speaking, but the little boy seems to listen closely.
“I just want to say- I didn’t mean to make you cry… I will fix the cape for you. I will make a machine that will fix it right away! Your cape will be like new i- just please forgive me for-“
A quiet giggle escapes Ziggy, and the whole group looks at each other, confused.
“It´s okey Pixel, look!” Ziggy steps back and twirls around, showing his new enchanted cape.
“See? No more tear!”
Pixel´s mouth is wide open, as is the rest of the group.
“H-how did it-“ Pixel stutters, not comprehending the fact that firstly, Ziggy is back to his overwhelmingly happy and energetic self, and secondly, the tear mysteriously disappearing like it was never there.
Trixie interrupts, “Better question, Ziggy! Why were you running around in the forest? It's so dangerous, there are wild beasts, and a tree could crush you, or you could fall into a wild beast's nest!”
“Oh i just got here, I was looking for you guys! And I heard Stingy, so I ran by the sound until I found you.” Ziggy answers.
Stephanie joins “Wait, so where were you the whole time?”
“Well, I was in Robb-“ he smacks both hands on his mouth, mumbling the rest.
“Ziggy, we can’t hear you!” The kids complain.
He shakes his head, nervously looking at the puzzled faces of his friends. All of them throw questions at Ziggy, making him scared he will spill the secret he vowed to never share.
Sportacus sees the discomfort he´s in, so he decides to step in.
“Kids, let’s calm down with the questions, alright? The important thing is we found Ziggy and that he is safe, right?”
All the kids nod, and so Sportacus kneels down to the little boy.
“Ziggy, it´s okey, you don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to.”
His words help him calm down, and he retrieves his hands from his mouth.
“Uhh, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you guys…” he whispers, making all the kids lean forward to actually hear him.
“Then what is it?” Trixie continues with the whispers.
Ziggy figets with his new special cape before saying anything.
“It’s a secret…and I promised not to tell anyone.”
Pixel moves closer. “Then, tell us at least who fixed your cape…”
“Why are we whispering…” Stingy asks in a normal tone.
Everyone shushes him, then shifts their attention back to Ziggy. Unfortunately for them, not even this information is Ziggy willing to share. All of the kids sigh.
“Can’t you tell us anything?!” Trixie throws her hands, annoyed.
Ziggy immediately shushes her with his finger. “ I promised that we would be quiet today…”
“To whom?” Stephanie asks.
Again, Ziggy shakes his head, confusing the kids even more. Sportacus sees the eagerness in the little boy's eyes, together with his serious tone, so he supports his demand.
“I think Ziggy means we should take a little break today. We ran around the whole town, I think everyone is already pretty tired.”
Sportacus rests his hands on his hips. “I'm sure all of you are also hungry, so what if we all go see what the Mayor is doing? He might have baked something delicious that is waiting to be eaten!”
The kids excitedly jump up and make their way back to the town. Just before they´re out of Sportacus´s view, he reminds them. “And whoever is the quietest will get some delicious fruit salad from me later.” And just like that, the kids quietly disappear.
Suddenly, Sportacus senses something tugging on his pants. Looking down, he sees Ziggy still next to him.
“Ziggy?! Why don´t you join the other kids?” And he kneels back down to him.
“I…I have to tell you something…” he mumbles.
“Oh..what is it you want to tell me?”
Ziggy looks quite nervous, but he continues leaning over Sportacus’s shoulder and whispering to his ear.
“……Oh?…hmm hmm…Wow Really?!…Robbie did all that?” Sportacus looks back at Ziggy, not believing his words. He nods enthusiastically and even adds, “His chair was really comfortable! But Mister Rotten can be scary…”
Sportacus smiles to himself and pats the little boy on the head. “He sure can be…”
Ziggy chuckles, “But you can’t tell anyone! I promised Mister Rotten that it would be a secret…”
Sportacus sends him a heartwarming smile and reassures Ziggy he won’t tell the rest of the kids, and with that, they are on their way back to the town.
Sportacus couldn’t stop thinking about what Ziggy told him. Walking throughout Lazytown, accompanying him back to Stephanie's house, he´s repeating the words Ziggy told him in his head.
He never thought Robbie would be… kind, like that. Of course, he isn´t entirely sure about it, after all, Ziggy might have left out some details or take his behavior as kind even if Robbie didn’t mean it like that. His sarcasm is something not even Sportacus can sometimes notice. But still, it´s the first time Sportacus reflects on his past in the town, and more so on Robbie.
Ever since he came to Lazytown, Robbie has been hostile towards both him and the children. However, pretty quickly, Sportacus looked through this “mask” he made for himself. But until he meant no harm, Sportacus was okey with Villain Robbie. He even found it funny sometimes, playing with him like this, and so did the kids. Even his constant “trying to run Sportacus out of town” didn´t bother him. He understood it was an important part of Robbie´s villainy to try to get rid of him.
But now a new question popped into his head. Is Robbie secretly just… a big softie? Does he actually like the kids and….does he actually want to be friends with them? All these questions were just a bunch of what-ifs, and Sportacus was starting to get a little lost with all these theories, until he was brought back by Ziggy.
“Sportacus!!” is the last thing he hears before almost walking into a pole, just a quick flip to the side, and he´s out of danger.
Ziggy immediately runs to him, “You almost walked into that pole there!”
“Sorry for scaring you, Ziggy! I was just in the clouds heh, I probably need some sportscandy to get my focus back.” Sportacus assures the boy while fixing his hat.
“Stephanie's house is over there. Why don’t you go join the others? I still have to do some maintenance on my ship, so I should get it done before my bedtime.”
Ziggy smiles, and waves before walking to join the others.
Sportacus watches as he enters the house safely before calling out for his ladder and returning to his ship.
First thing he does after getting inside is a call for a paper and pencil, sitting down and writing all that Ziggy said to him. Just in the middle of the second paragraph, he stops, looking up with raised eyebrows.
“Why am I writing it down?” He looks back at the paper.
“I never write anything down…so why this?”
He jumps back up to stretch. Unfortunately for him Sportacuse´s mind is far busier when he works out, and more thoughts start to flow as he switches to push-ups.
“When was the last time Robbie did something nice for the kids…hm i don’t remember, he fixed Ziggy's cape and even let him to his lair…No, Sportacus must leave town forever, or you kids must be lazy forever… Ziggy didn’t even look traumatized, so he must have taken a good care of him… I don’t know what I would do…Crying children are the hardest to calm down…maybe I should.-“
He stops mid push up before sliding to the floor face slamming it.
“I should thank Robbie,” he mumbles.
He lies like this for about five minutes before gathering himself back up. Looking at the table with the paper, he takes it and crumbles it into a ball.
“Probably means nothing, maybe it’s another of his schemes, I will go to his house, and a giant cage will fall on me heh… we will see tomorrow.”
He throws the paper ball behind him, towards the trash can in the corner, but somehow misses without noticing it.