Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this story, nor any other rights of LazyTown. Everything belongs to Magnus Scheving.
Author's Note: This is my very first LazyTown fanfiction and I hope you like it. I am not a native English speaker and I could not find a betareader for this fic, I'm very sorry for every mistake that might still be in there. But now, enjoy reading!
Dancing With You
It was a wonderful summer day in LazyTown. Like on most days Stephanie was playing outside with her friends Trixie, Ziggy, Pixel and Stingy. Today they played softball.
"Come on, Ziggy. I know you can do it", Stephanie cheered for her friend.
Exactly in this moment the town's slightly above average hero appeared by doing some back flips.
"Hey guys", Sportacus greeted the children with arms akimbo. "What are you doing?"
"Hey Sportacus, we were just playing a game of softball, would you like to join us?" Stephanie asked.
"Sportacus is on my team!" cried Stingy before giving Sportacus a chance to answer.
The town's hero laughed and began, "I'd love to…", but he never got to end this sentence as his crystal went off right in this moment. And in the same second they heard Mayor Meanswell crying out Sportacus' name as he approached them.
"Sportacus, how good that I find you." The Mayor gasped. "Someone opened the doors at our animal shelter and now all those poor dogs and cats are walking the streets of LazyTown. And today of all days the annual Towns-Rally will come to LazyTown. More than a hundred cars are going to drive through our little town soon."
"You don't have to say anything else, Mayor. I'm sorry guys, it looks like our game has to wait", Sportacus apologized.
He was already in the middle of doing his signature move when Stephanie asked: "Can we help you somehow, Sportacus?"
He smiled at her. "No, thank you though, Stephanie. With all these cars driving through LazyTown today it wouldn't be safe for you to look for the runaway animals. You better stay here and keep on playing. I'll join you later." And with that Sportacus did his signature move and bounced away.
The children looked at the Mayor who caught his breath again. "What are you going to do, Mayor Meanswell?" Trixie enquired.
"I? Oh, yes, yes, yes. I've got to go and tell Miss Busybody about this emergency", he said and went off.
Stephanie looked at her friends and they all simultaneously shrugged their shoulders and were about to go back to their game, when they heard someone calling.
"Kids! Hey there kids! What are you doing?" asked a man who wore a sweat suit and sun glasses.
"We were just playing softball", babbled Ziggy.
"Who are you, anyway?" asked Trixie suspiciously while having a closer look at the stranger.
"Me? My name is Cising, Axel Cising and I am a personal trainer for local heroes", he introduced himself.
"We have a superhero in LazyTown, too", said Pixel. "His name is Sportacus. Do you know him?"
"Sportacus you say? Hmmm… let me think…" The stranger scratched his head. "Oh yes, I remember him. He was a lot of work, always so lazy and not in shape. He never really had superhero potential, but he just refused to listen to my advice to let it go."
"That so doesn't sound like Sportacus, he's in such a good shape now", Stephanie replied.
"Well, that's all because of my training", the stranger bragged.
"Really? Wow! Then you have to show us some of your training techniques", Ziggy pleaded. "I want to be just as strong as Sportacus."
"Yes, please, would you show us some of your techniques? Please", the others joined in.
The stranger laughed inwardly. His plan was working perfectly. The children hadn't recognized him as a disguised Robbie Rotten. And Sportakook really fell for his little red-herring with the animal shelter. Since there wasn't any chance he would be able to take a nap today, thanks to the many cars coming through LazyTown, Robbie figured he could just as well try to oust Sportadope.
"Of course I'll show you how to train correctly, so that you'll be even stronger than your lazy hero", Robbie said generously.
And with that he told the children to do as many push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups as they could. Of course they did just as he ordered them to do.
"Mister Cising, my belly hurts from so many sit-ups", Ziggy wept after a few minutes.
"Yes, my arms ache from all these push-ups, too", Pixel agreed.
"Are you little babies or are you superheroes in training? A real superhero never weeps. Go on doing the exercises until I tell you to stop", Robbie commanded in a harsh tone.
Ziggy moaned but did as "Mister Cising" had told him to. Robbie in turn could hardly suppress a grin, his plan was working great. Tomorrow the kids would all have sore muscles and would never want to exercise ever again. And then Sportakook, who could never possibly save each and every one of the cats and dogs, would not see a reason to stay in a town in which he neither was able help the helpless nor making the children move. And then he'd finally leave LazyTown forever!
After a few more minutes Ziggy's muscles really began to hurt a lot and he was about to ask "Mister Cising" if he could do another exercise, when he heard someone say: "Hey guys, I'm back. Now we can play softball together."
"Oh no", Robbie said, because he recognized the voice instantly as the voice of the town's slightly above average hero. But that was impossible; there was no way he could possibly already be done with catching all the animals!
"Sportacus, we've been practicing to get just as strong as you are", Ziggy told his idol excitedly.
"Yeah, your old trainer showed us some techniques", Pixel added.
"My old trainer?" Sportacus asked obviously confused.
"Yes, his name is Axel Cising. He told us that he was your trainer before you became a superhero. He's sitting right over there", Stingy interfered pointing in the direction of the now empty bench on which Robbie had sat.
"Where did he go?" asked Trixie and took a look around.
"There he is!" Stephanie said and pointed at Robbie who tried to steal away. He, however, heard her, turned around to look at them and while he did so his sunglasses and fake beard fell off. Then he quickly ran away.
"That wasn't a personal trainer at all. That was Robbie Rotten", exclaimed Stephanie outraged.
"Don't you want to go after him, Sportacus?" Pixel wanted to know.
"No, Pixel. First I want to know what he told you to do, it can't be good if it came from Robbie Rotten", Sportacus explained with his accented voice. The children did as he asked them to and told him everything that Robbie had done and said.
"Oh, I see. He wanted to give all of you aching muscles tomorrow. That's not a nice thing to do, it keeps you from moving", Sportacus stated. Then he explained to the children, that it wasn't only important to move, but to move correctly.
"Without the right technique and especially when you're not in shape and moving more than you're used to, sports can harm your body. You should always warm up properly and never do more than you feel is right for your body, otherwise you'll get aching muscles for the next few days and that ruins all the fun of sports", Sportacus told the children.
"Wow, Sportacus, I didn't know that", Stephanie said.
"So it's not just about doing sports…" she began to sing.
.o.O.o.
It had again been a long day in LazyTown and now Stephanie was sitting on her bed, her pink diary in her lap, as she wrote the events of the day.
She couldn't help but think about Sportacus, the town's slightly above average hero. Fortunately he had been able to catch all the pets in time to see what Robbie was up to.
Stephanie had been so relieved that Sportacus had once again saved the children that she spontaneously broke into a song about how important it was not just to do sports, but to do them right. And during the choreography to the song she couldn't help but notice Sportacus' touch when he whirled her in the air or hold her in his arms while they danced.
She had already danced with a lot of people, but no one she ever had danced with had nearly as quick reflexes as Sportacus did. She never had to think about what moves he could do or how she could show him, what she would do next, he simply knew.
Okay, that wasn't the truth and Stephanie was aware that it was in fact only Sportacus' reflexes which allowed him to react so quickly to her movements that every normal person wasn't able to see any hesitation. Deep down Stephanie liked the idea that Sportacus knew what she was about to do next.
As she was thinking about the slightly above average hero a smile had sneaked onto her lips. Quickly she finished off her diary entry for the day, since it was already eight minutes past eight.
Stephanie turned out the light on her nightstand and took one last look out the window, where she could see an airship floating over LazyTown.
"I just love dancing with you. Good night, Sportacus", she whispered and closed her eyes.
The End