Alright. So, here is something I have been working on for a while... I am tentatively posting this chapter just to see reactions to it- if they're good I might keep writing, if they're not, then I probably won't keep going with it. Leave a review if you like!

~O~O~O~

Everybody was waiting by the train station, eagerly searching for the train that was supposed to be pulling in any moment. Well, Stephanie and the kids- Trixie, Stingy, Pixel and Ziggy- were practically bouncing off the walls in anticipation. Sportacus had sent them to go for a run along the green strip that was just outside the station and within the eyes of the watchful above-average hero and the two other adults with him.

Mayor Milford Meanswell looked at his watch and then at the tracks that hadn't seen a train on them since Stephanie had arrived in town and changed it for the better, ten months ago.

"It should be here now," he said, his voice laced with an urgency that made the woman standing beside him rest her hand on his arm.

"It will be fine, Milford. The driver probably isn't used to having to go to Lazytown all that often."

The Mayor's face calmed as he turned to look at Bessie, his wife of three months and Stephanie's new aunt.

"You're right," he muttered, staring off into the distance.

"Uncle Milford!" Stephanie shouted excitedly as she and the kids ran to the platform. Sportacus reached out and grasped Trixie's arm, pulling her back from the tracks before she fell onto them.

"The train is coming!"

Everyone on the platform looked at the large train that pulled into the station. As it stopped, the door to the carriage at the absolute front of the train opened and a petite figure with bright, fire engine red hair that fell longer than her shoulders in loose curls, a plain white t-shirt and blue denim jeans hopped out. She held a red suitcase in her hands, and she smiled at the driver before waving as he left.

"Scarlett!" Stephanie shouted excitedly, running towards the girl. The girl dropped her suitcase and scooped the pink-haired girl into her arms, spinning her around as they both laughed.

"Steph! I haven't seen you in ages! Look how big you are!"

"Well, duh!" Stephanie said cheerfully, taking Scarlett by the hand and leading her over to the group of people standing on the platform. "I am eleven now!"

They stopped.

"Everybody, this is Scarlett. She's my sister."

A chorus of hello's rang through the group. "Scarlett, these are my friends- Trixie, Stingy, Ziggy and Pixel." The four children in question waved at the tall teenager.

"This is Aunt Bessie, Uncle Milford you already know, and Sportacus. Sportacus is our towns superhero."

The Nordic man blushed faintly as Scarlett's gaze ran over him. He felt like he was being x-rayed, and that everything was exposed for her to see. The corners of her lips turned up as she shyly ducked her head and looked at Stephanie, occasionally glancing up at Sportacus, who caught her doing it a few times but was equally as guilty.

As she stood in front of the group, Sportacus got a good look at her face- full, sweetheart lips, bright emerald eyes that sparkled as she smiled at them all, button nose that wrinkled as she laughed at something Ziggy said to her. Her arms were toned- muscled even- as she lifted Stephanie into the air with ease, then giving the pink haired girl a shoulder ride back to the car that her uncle and new aunt had got to the station with.

All the kids and the other two adults piled in.

"Ah, I think I'll walk. I need to stretch my legs after the six hour train trip," Scarlett said, leaning through the window to talk to her uncle. "It's not that far, is it?"

"No, but I don't like the idea of you wandering around on your own. Robbie Rotten has been skulking around at the moment, and although he's usually harmless, as of late his schemes have been getting a lot more diabolical," Uncle Milford said.

Scarlett looked disheartened by this. Sportacus caught her arm and smiled at the mayor. "I will walk with her, if you want?"

The mayor smiled, and Scarlett winced at the look Stephanie was giving her through the car window. It was her little sister's eyes that gleamed of mischief before she tried to do something she knew her sister wouldn't like. Usually before she set Scarlett up with a guy by using her cuteness as a weapon.

"That should be fine, Sportacus. We'll see you at the house then?"

Scarlett waved to the kids who waved enthusiastically back, Stephanie and Trixie making kissy faces through the back window before giggling at each other.

"So, you're the infamous Scarlett?" Sportacus said as they made their way along the cracked footpaths of Lazytown, shielded by trees that lined the sides of the roads.

She laughed, looking up to meet his ice blue eyes. "Yep. And sadly, pretty much everything Steph has told you is true."

"So you did get detention for putting dye in the school showers?" Sportacus asked curiously.

"For a month. But it was worth watching the school football team run around like Smurfs the Grand Final this year."

"You made them blue? Did they have to wear the white hats?" Sportacus asked, his blue eyes twinkling as he stared at the girl walking beside him.

"No, but now you mention it, it was a wasted opportunity." She pulled out her phone and showed the winning team's photo. Both she and Sportacus had to hold each other up, they were laughing that hard. Not just at the team, but also the expressions on the faces of their opposition. The members of the opposition were on the ground, laughing extremely hard.

They walked in silence for a while.

"It was good, while it lasted. I'm glad I'm moving here. School kind of sucked."

Sportacus stopped. "You're moving here? Why?"

She chuckled at the expression on his face, but then sadness overcame her features as she glanced at the ground. "Steph told you about our parents?"

"No, she didn't- your uncle did. They don't sound like they were good people."

Scarlett laughed. "They most certainly were not. I got us both freed from their care- and Uncle Milford signed for guardianship- so that she didn't have to go back to that. Not ideal for a kid. But I can't help but feel that I'm cheating her out of something. Even though they're bad people, they're still our parents. What if she wants to be with them, not Uncle Milford and Aunt Bessie?"

Sportacus looked at the girl who had previously been laughing and joking, noticing a lone tear slip from the corner of her eye and slide down her cheek. He sat her down on the closest park bench, wrapping an arm comfortingly around her. She relaxed against him, her head buried in his shoulder as he felt her tears soak his super suit.

"Stephanie never told me about your parents," Sportacus said slowly. "She only ever talks about you. She idolises you. And you care very much about her. I doubt that she would want to go back to your parents. You did the right thing."

Scarlett looked up, tears still running down her cheeks. "You think so?"

Sportacus nodded, and she lowered her head back onto his shoulder. His thumbs reached out and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I know so. You are a good sister."

Scarlett gave him a watery smile, then noticed the tear stains on his suit. "I'm sorry. I don't usually cry about my life to strangers."

Sportacus placed a hand over his chest in mock indignation. "I am offended that you think of me as a stranger, Scarlett."

Her name slipped off his tongue smoothly, with the exception of the rolled 'r', and Scarlett decided that she quite liked the way he said her name. Sportacus decided he quite liked saying her name. There was just something… enchanting about it.

"I barely know you," she replied, laughing. "You could be one of those weirdos my uncle was talking about, Sportacus."

He adored the way she said his name, and he felt something in his chest ache as she sat up and moved a little away from him. Scarlett felt the absence too, and regretted moving. Plus, he was warm and she was not.

"Well, what do you say we do something tomorrow? Just the two of us? We can get to know each other better."

Scarlett grinned at him with a look that reminded him of Stephanie when she was thinking quickly about something. Perhaps that's where the younger sibling had got it from?

"Okay, new best friend. It's a date."

~O~O~O~

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