**CRASH**
The monstrous sound echoed across the soccer field. When the dust selected, Sportacus was holding up a portion of the machinery that Robbie Rotten had been knocked in the path of, undoubtedly having just saved his life yet again.
~~That Morning~~
Earlier that day Robbie had gotten wind of a soccer tournament that was scheduled to take place in the evening. He knew how much noise those little brats could make playing a normal game without spectators and he hated to think of how much louder they would be with them.
"I have a plan," Robbie had said with his finger in the air. Talking to himself in his lair he continued, "I will build a machine to destroy the field and then those kids will never be able to play in it again!." He pulled a lever and an old farming plow machine materialized. It was covered in rust and had some missing parts, but with a little bit of tweaking, it would work fabulously in no time.
For over an hour he worked on the improvements, ramping up the speed, adding a coat of orange and purple paint with red lettering. Once he was satisfied with the RR™Earth Shredder, Robbie shifted his focus to a credible costume. He created a referee's uniform but with deep purple stripes instead of the customary black.
"There, everything is perfect," Robbie said with his hands on his hips as he admired both his machine handiwork and himself in the mirror. "Time to put my plan into action!"
~The Evening~
Unfortunately, for both Robbie and the kids, the plan worked only halfway. Robbie had set the power of the Earth Shredder up too high which cause it to short out shortly after it started to execute his dastardly plans. He got his shoelace stuck on one of the levers and when he went to jump clear after losing control, he pulled half the machine towards him. The blades just barely missed his skin, although they didn't miss Sportacus. The latter being the one who saved Robbie. It wasn't anything serious, just a small puncture wound on a bicep. However, it was bleeding and most of the kids had never seen blood before.
Ziggy fainted, Pixel turned an odd shade of dark olive green, and Trixie managed to blanch. Mayor Meanswell was shouting something at Ms Busybody who was already running to get a first aid kit. Stephanie cried out in concerned fright while Stingy was just staring dumbfoundedly at the field.
Half of the soccer field was in ruins. There was somehow purple ooze all over the destroyed half of the field, mixed in with the dirt and clumps of sod. Some of the brick walls on either side were pulverized, to dust in some places. It looked like a bomb had gone off and felt like a war zone to the kids.
*Cough**Wheeze*, Robbie started to sit up, somewhat dazed as he surveyed the damage he had caused. He honestly didn't think that his plan would work and would instead be like all his other plans, a failure. A hand was in front of his face, it was Sportacus's. Robbie went to grab it so as to free himself the rest of the way from the goop that he had managed to get partly submerged in, but then noticed something on the proffered hand.
Blood.
It was dripping down from a wound in Sportacus's bicep and slowly landing on the ground in front of Robbie, forming a small puddle.
"Sp-Spor-Sportacus?" Robbie sputter as he fought to pull himself up without help. "Are you okay?" Concern trickled into his tone before he could stop himself.
Sportacus looked from Robbie to his arm, "Yes, I will be alright Robbie. Are you okay?"
Robbie's stomach turned. This goody-two-shoes got hurt saving him and he still cared more about a villain than his own health. What was wrong with him. He grumbled something under his breath and, as he was getting nowhere in his futile attempts to get up, he grabbed Sportacus's hand and was hauled upright.
"What do you think you were DOING!" The last word a shrill and accusatory shout. It was Stephanie, who had finally rushed over to Robbie and Sportacus. "You could have got all of us killed, you could have gotten Sportacus killed!" An angry storm of emotions played across her face. Fear, revulsion, anger, hatred, disgust. She wasn't normally one to get mad at someone, not even at Robbie, but all of her friends narrowly escaped the jaws of that contraption.
"It's okay Stephanie, I'm okay and everyone else is fine. Robbie just got carried away." Sportacus tried to reassure Stephanie, but the last line faltered and fell flat. He, too, did not understand why Robbie had made such an uncontrollable and dangerous machine just to mess up a field.
"No." Stingy spoke up, awakened from his shock. "Robbie could have hurt my friends. He hurt you, Sportacus." He was standing next to Stephanie with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face to match the one that Stephanie had displayed.
"I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean for.." Robbie was cut off.
"Yes, you DID. You always mean to do something mean to us!" Stephanie exclaimed. "You keep setting up traps or making horrible machines to either chase Sportacus away or to hurt us."
"Not… not to hurt you brats…" Robbie looked around at the absolute mess that he had made. "Just to get you to be quiet," he finished weakly.
"Not to hurt us?" Mayor Meanswell and an out of breath Ms Busybody was now standing next to Stingy and Stephanie. Ms Busybody walked over to Sportacus and helped to bandage his wound. "What do you call all this? You did hurt someone whether you meant to or not." The Mayor tried to look angry, but he was too shocked and what had just transpired he ended up looking worn out. "Go away and please don't come back. LazyTown doesn't have any need from someone as terrible as you."
"What?" Robbie straightened up a little, from his previously defeated hunched over position. He couldn't quite understand what he was hearing.
"You heard what I said," Mayor Meanswell stated as his voice got a touch tougher and more authoritative. "You have no business being in this town."
Sportacus looked at the Mayor and was about to interrupt when, surprisingly, the Mayor shor him a sharp look. His words died him his throat. He couldn't remember ever seeing the Mayor like this.
"You don't help anyone and you don't do anything worthwhile. You are worthless having around here. We don't need the trouble and the danger," the Mayor swept his hands around at the current scene, "that you bring to this town. Intentional or not. Just go."
The words hurt like a punch in the gut. Worthless. Not needed. More trouble than it's worth. Robbie looked at all of them, anger and fear looking back at him. He locked eyes with Sportacus for a moment, before Sportacus looked away and down at what Ms Busybody was doing. It was all true. No one wanted him. "Okay. Fine. See if I care. You all will miss me." With that bravado, he balled his fists and turned around sharply, stomping off back to his lair.
Stephanie and the other kids watched him leave. "Good riddance," Ziggy said. He had come to right as the Mayor was telling Robbie to leave.
"Yea," Pixel chimed in. "No more terrible devices to go haywire."
"Mhmm," agreed Trixie.
"Sportacus, are you sure that you are alright?" Stephanie asked with concern as she walked over to where Sportacus was sitting. Ms Busybody had just finished up with the first aid.
"Yes Stephanie, I am fine," He smiled half-heartedly at her. His muscle stung a little, the blade just managed to pierce it, but it hurt no worse than a tetanus shot. "I will be as good as new tomorrow, I am sure." He stood up and looked more closely at the damage. "This field on the other had. That will take a little bit more time to fix." Sportacus place his hand on Stephanie's shoulder, "We will fix it and then we can have the tournament."
"With no Robbie Rotten?" The kids questioned at once.
"Yes, no Robbie Rotten," Sportacus reassured them with a small smile and a sad look in his eyes.
~Robbie's Lair~
Of course they didn't want him. He was worthless. Who would want worthless trash messing up your town. Making it dirty.
Words that Robbie had never heard used to describe him since coming to LazyTown were bouncing in his head. Words that he was sure they didn't call him were being added, what did they call him? Good for nothing? Filth? Annoying? Worthless.
Robbie chuckled sadly, "I am worthless, aren't I?" He slouched down further in his orange fuzzy chair. He pressed a button and his new TV monitoring system descended from the ceiling. It was more effective than having to get up and look out the periscope all the time. That and it was more discrete. Surely the townspeople didn't think he was all that bad, did they? After all, that little pink pixie called him a "big Softy" in her diary. Maybe they had calmed down and everything would be okay by tomorrow.
"Can you believe this?" Stingy said as he picked up a deflated soccer ball that had been nearly torn in half. "He destroyed my soccer ball. I hate Robbie Rotten."
"You think that is bad, Robbie crushed my Soccerbot 7000" Pixel kicked a scrap of twisted metal. "I spent months building that and fine tuning it, now it's ruined. I hope I never see Robbie again."
"All of my candy," Ziggy couldn't even finish his sentence as he pulled out a mangled lollipop from the purple goop in the ground and started to cry. Robbie could make out a choked "Horrible person" through the small sobs.
Trixie was nowhere to be found, but Stephanie, Robbie could see, was sitting on the last intact bleachers close to the quiet machine. He could see that she was staring at the blood that came from Sportacus. The blood on the ground and on the blade. "I never want to see that rotten, evil person ever again." She stood up quickly and rushed off in the direction of her Uncle's home - probably to cry.
Worthless. Worthless. Evil. Rotten. Why was he so rotten? No one needed him, but he didn't need anyone neither, did he? He pulled out his old video collection as he began to slip into a dark place that he hadn't been in since before coming to LazyTown. He popped a video in and pressed play.
Absently, he opened the compartment on his chair and pulled out a worn pocket knife.
~The Air Ship~
Ms Busybody had done a good job. She cleaned the wound out with some hydrogen peroxide and put some Neosporin on it after making sure that it wasn't deep enough to require stitches. If she had tended to it the moment after it happened, then she would have thought it needed stitches. That was one benefit to being so healthy, he healed really fast. By tomorrow it would be nothing more than a scab, and in another day it would be a barely noticeable scar. A few days after that and there would be no trace of it ever happening to him, apart from the memory of the pain.
Sportacus began his night stretches before retiring for the night, it was a few minutes past 8:08, but he had to make sure that his routine was complete before sleeping. As he stretched, he thought back on the day's events. It wasn't like Robbie to make something so dangerous. In fact, Sportacus couldn't remember the last time anyone had actually been harmed by one of Robbie's inventions.
He remembered the look on Robbie's face when their eyes caught on the field, or what was left of it. It was the look of a man whose facade was cracking. It was not a look that Sportacus had seen very often, and he didn't recognize it until he was deep in thought doing his stretches.
It was the look of someone who was losing control.
Just then, a high pitched beeping drew Sportacus from his thoughts. He looked around the airship for a moment before realizing that the sound was coming from his crystal. It was an odd orange colour, unlike the rainbow glow the crystal normally gave off.
"Someone needs my help," Sportacus stood upright and flipped over to the pole, pulling out his telescope as the platform lowered down. He looked around the town, but it seemed like everyone was in bed. That only left Robbie, who Sportacus couldn't see from his airship. He had a feeling that he would find Robbie in his "secret" lair on the other side of the billboard.
"Glider!" He shouted at the computer as he jumped off of the platform. Landing on it moments after it completed folding out, he started to pedal towards the outskirts of town.
~Robbies Lair~
It wasn't fair. "I never asked to be born. I never asked for any of this." Robbie mumbled as he felt control of the situation in the town slipping from him. He couldn't control anything. For awhile after moving to LazyTown to get a new start, everything was great. He was able to get some good sleep and he was able to keep the kids from making too much noise. "But I couldn't control that pink pixie showing up. I couldn't control her when she got those kids to play with her outside. I couldn't control Sportacus from showing up, no matter how hard I tried."
Robbie had taken off his tight longsleeved waist coat after he finished watching the first video he had put in his machine. It was an old family video that had showed some nice times and some not so nice times of when he was growing up. Like when he was praised for the A that he got in his math and engineering classes. But then was called garbage by his dad for having failed PE, again. Why his mom thought it was a good idea to film him giving his report card to his dad, he had no idea.
The dull light of the screen, now full of that quiet white fuzz, showed light lines up and down the length of Robbie's skin. Everytime he had said the word "control", he had added a new line to his skin, only in fresh red instead of the faded skin colour of the other lines.
This was how he regained his control over things. He couldn't control how the townspeople felt about him, but he could control how he felt. He couldn't control Sportacus and get that blue elf to leave so things could be back the way that they used to be, but he could control his own pain.
Long ago he found that, when the world was swirling away from him and he began to feel disconnected from reality, all he needed to do to ground himself was to cause himself some pain. It started on accident. He had mindlessly shut the fridge on one of his fingers so hard that it bruised a tendon. He felt more alert than he had in days prior to that. He was able to finally concentrate and finish a project that he was working on for a class.
After that, he would periodically "fix" himself if he felt that he was drifting. Soon it had become a drug. People began to question the random bruises and odd finger casts that he switched to 'fixing' himself with a pocket knife that his horrid father had given to him during either a birthday or for Christmas - he couldn't remember which. After his father gave it to him, he had told him "Hopefully one day you will kill yourself with it. I could only be so lucky." Yea, his father was the worst villain that a person could be.
Once he started "fixing" himself that way, he took to wearing long sleeved shirts. To keep from suspicions being raised, he would wear skin toned sleeves that were breathable and matched his hands. He would also use concealer if he wasn't showing the entire arm. No one ever thought anything of it, and it was almost always just a little bit chilly in LazyTown, so he rarely had to resort to that level of deception unless it was for one of his disguises.
Now he wouldn't have to worry about that. Robbie figured that he would be spending most of his time from then on down in his lair, if he didn't leave to another town altogether. Maybe in a few weeks when he felt more in "control" over himself and he was no longer bleeding, he would move to another town. It would be for the best.
"Control, control, control, control," Robbie muttered to himself as he absently cut up and down his arms, alternating between the right and the left. Savouring the sharp pangs of pain as they fired up and began to ebb to a dull throb. It was like a drug to him, and it took all he had to keep from finding his anchor on days where his plans were royally foiled.
Robbie looked down, the armchair was starting to get wet and slick from his bleeding arms. How long have I been doing this? He thought to himself. He looked his left arm and saw that in his stupor, he had drawn the word "worthless" on his skin with the blade. His other arm, he noticed with a sickly sad smile, had the word "trash" etched in. For something that normally brought him control and focus, he had lost control.
And lost a lot of blood. More than he was used to.
Robbie saw little sparks of white in his vision as he surveyed his handiwork. He finally felt clean, at peace. Maybe tonight he could fulfill his father's wish. No one wanted him anyway.
He turned the blade over, admiring the blood as it glistened in the dull light from the TV. Robbie didn't hear the hatch open, as lost in his thoughts he was. It would be quick right? Painless. No one would even care that he was gone. He doubted that anyone would even notice him. Maybe there would be a footnote in the legend of the town in some years time of a nuisance that was chased away by the tenth blue elf.
"Maybe someone will remember me as more than just a waste of space," Robbie sighed quietly to himself as he made up his mind and brought the blade to his left wrist. Just a little more pressure and it could all be made right. Just a little mo-
Before Robbie could realize what was happening, a hand came out of nowhere and gripped his right hand in a vice grip. Another hand pried away the knife and threw it across the room, surprisingly the accuracy was impeccable and the knife bounced it's way down the trash shoot to the furnace. With blackness encroaching on his vision, he looked up with the bemused thought that he should have just gone down the shoot to the incinerator, it would have been less messy and no one would have been able to find a trace of him.
"Sportac- why?" Robbie half whispered with his face trying to scrunch up in a scowl.
"You were in trouble," Sportacus started before he tried again, "You are in trouble still." He looked down at the angry red and bloody mess on the villain's arms. "What happened? What have you done?" Sportacus was towering over the much taller man, hand still locked in a vice grip over Robbie's, unsure of what to do.
"Trying to control the situation," Robbie said with a low growl, slightly slurring his words. He was annoyed but euphoric. Maybe it was too late for Sportakook to save him. Maybe he had already lost too much blood. Maybe he was still able to control one thing in his life. He chuckled as a continuation of his thoughts, "My death." Then the world faded to black for him and he slumped back into the chair.
"Robbie?"
"Robbie?!" Sportacus relaxed his grip and knelt down to check Robbie's pulse. It was there, not weak or strong. Hopefully, it was just some minor blood loss, but as Sportacus looked around and as evidenced by the still flashing crystal, it was more serious than simple blood loss. It was a man that didn't care if he lived of died. Something inside of Robbie had broke and Sportacus wasn't entirely certain if he could save him.
He jumped up and began to look for something clean to bandage up Robbie's wounds. The lair was a mess compared to the last time Sportacus was there. Broken devices, trash, candy wrappers, rusty tools scattered on the ground. He looked up where the disguises were normally on display and noticed that the one closest to the machine was a doctor's outfit. "Maybe that will be sterile enough," Sportacus mumbled as he flipped over the railing and vaulted back after retrieving the coat. He started to rip the jacket up into strips and realized that he would need to at least try and clean up some of the blood so as to know what he was dealing with.
Quickly he sprinted over to a lonely looking sink and some of the remaining cloth damp. He ran back and began to clean Robbie's arms off. Most of the cuts looked superficial, as though Robbie really wasn't trying to do much harm. It was then that Sportacus noticed the numerous faded and crisscrossing scars running up and down Robbie's arms. "This is not good," he muttered to himself, "Not good at all."
After it was all said and done, there was only one cut that could really be considered bad, but it had managed to clot up enough that it was barely bleeding. Sportacus cleaned around the clot and applied firm pressure when dressing that area. It took almost thirty minutes to take care of everything, and in that time Sportacus was unable to deny how serious things were. It also was not unnoticed the words that Robbie had spelled out in the cuts.
He had depression and Sportacus didn't know what to do. You can't save someone from depression as easily as you could save someone hanging off the edge of a cliff. Once you pull them up and carry them away from the ledge, then they are safe. Sportacus knew that with depression, you needed to lower a ladder and stay to talk with the person hanging there, hoping that they will take the offered ladder and work their way back up and away from the cliff. All you can do is to be there for them.
"That is what I will do then," Sportacus said to himself as he looked at the sleeping Robbie in the darkened lair. "I will make sure to be here for my friend." He hoisted Robbie over his shoulder and started the quiet journey back up out of the lair and to the airship. Sportacus was glad that it was nighttime so that no prying eyes would see what was going on. The kids were smart, but they were not ready for some something so difficult to explain.
~The Airship~
After making his slow ascent on the ladder with Robbie slumped over one shoulder, Sportacus had had to leave his glider down for the time being as the two of them were just too heavy, he softly called for the computer to open the guest bed. There were no other rooms in the airship apart from the massive living chambers that he had. Everything was compact and could be called when needed. Gently, he laid Robbie on the bed and pulled the covers up halfway. He left Robbie's arms out over the blankets just so he could make sure that there was no blood seeping through the makeshift bandages. Robbie was still unconscious, maybe properly sleeping now.
It was just after midnight and Sportacus was completely exhausted. He decided to wait until he got some rest, and then go back to Robbie's lair in the morning to retrieve the old orange chair - after he cleaned it of course. Robbie should have something familiar if Sportacus was going to keep him in the airship until he wasn't in danger anymore.
'But how can I be sure he will be out of danger?' Sportacus thought to himself as he laid down in the bed next to the guest bed. He looked over at the face who's eyebrows were furrowing intermittently. 'Depression doesn't just go away, does it?' He would just have to wait and see. Maybe he could help Robbie get better, and maybe he couldn't. All he could do was be there for him as a friend.
"Airship, wake me up when Robbie starts waking up," Sportacus said quietly to the ceiling. He didn't want to risk somehow oversleeping and Robbie waking up and doing something drastic.
"Understood." Replied the equally quiet soothing robot voice.
~Morning~
Sportacus's eyes snapped open.
He looked down at his crystal, which was glowing the normal rainbow colour. "Some one is in trouble," He said as he flipped out of bed. He glanced over at the clock and noticed that it was almost ten in the morning. He then looked over to the guest bed and saw that Robbie was still asleep. As long as he didn't take his time, he could be back before Robbie wakes up. Hoping for the best, he flipped over to the pole and lowered down to where the ladder was already hanging, the airship intuitatively knowing what he wanted. He rushed down at record speeds to find who was in trouble and to save them in time.
A minute or so after Sportacus left, Robbie began to stir. It wasn't him waking up, but rather him slipping into a terrible nightmare.
He was standing in a dreary and distorted image of the ruined soccer field. He looked around and saw that he was surrounded by shadowy figures that he couldn't quite make out - until they started to speak.
"Why were you ever born?" His father's head leered down at him, huge and scowling.
"You were an accident you know." His normally kind and thoughtful mother chimed in, voice dripping with venom.
"All you are good for is making accidents." This time it was that pink haired brat, voice high and mighty with a distorted body that towered over him.
He was so small compared to everyone else, so weak. So useless.
"Why don't you just go away?" One of the many long forgotten bullies from his school sneered. "No one wants you."
"That's... that's not true," Robbie's voice faltered.
"Go away." The voices of his parents, the bullies, and all the people in LazyTown blended together in unison. "Go away! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!"
Robbie started running away from the distorted town square, faster than he had ever thought possible. He ran past ruined trees and failed contraptions. He ran past molding cakes, half-eaten sugar apples, and mounds of trash. Everything rotten he had ever done to the town was laying around and in his pathway to his lair. Finally, with the shadowy figures of the townspeople chasing him, he made it to the entrance of his lair. His heart was pounding and what was that on his face. Tears?
After prying the hatch open, he jumped down to safety. Landing roughly in his favourite recliner, he looked around. Nothing was out of place. Everything was quiet. The nightmare was over.
Or was it.
Standing next to Robbie's costumes was Sportacus, arms crossed and glaring at him. "What have you done Robbie?" Harsh and grating, the question came out sounding more like an accusation.
Robbie jumped up and turned to face him, holding some big book up as a defense. "Me? I didn't do anything?" He squeaked as he hunched over.
Sportacus walked down the ramp, limping. He stepped into the light. "What did you do to me?' Blood was pouring from a huge gash down his arm. It was terrible, to the bone. Sportacus had blood running down both of his legs as well. Injuries that had happened on accident that the kids didn't know about. Injuries that Robbie had forgotten Sportacus had ever gotten in the first place.
"Why did you kill me?" Sportacus grabbed Robbie's shoulders with both hands. Blood began to ooze from his mouth.
Robbie looked down and saw that the book had turned into a sword and had impaled Sportacus through his chest. The world melted.
Sportacus's grip got tighter, his face distorting into a vicious looking demon as the blood turned black. "Go awake".
"I didn't mean to, I didn't want you to get hurt." Robbie started to cry and hyperventilate. "I just wanted peace."
The Sportacus demon opened his mouth, teeth all pointed fangs. "Wake UP" he screeched as he lunged down on Robbie's throat, intent on ripping it out.
Robbie's eyes shot open, struggling to escape the strong grip that the demon had on him. He had to get away, if he could just get free. He thrashed around for a few more seconds, trying to kick and punch his way free. Suddenly he felt sharp pains, but not on his neck. His arms felt as though they were on fire. Robbie slowly stopped moving, finally started taking the room as the vision of the dream faded away. He became aware of words being spoken to him.
"It's okay Robbie, you are okay. It was just a bad dream."
"What?" Robbie looked dazed as he tried to focus on the sound of the voice. It was Sportacus. He was on the airship.
Sportacus leaned back and slowly let go of his grip on Robbie. "You were having a bad dream, I came back as soon as I could but I couldn't wake you up."
Right after he had saved Ziggy from falling from Pixel's window, his crystal started beeping and glowing orange. Sportacus flipped and sprinted back to the ladder as fast as he could. When he got to the top, he saw that Robbie was trashing around and switching between whimpering and screaming, with cheeks wet from shed tears. He ran over to try and wake Robbie up, but talking to him didn't seem to work. The best he could do was to try and hold him down and keep him from hurting the not-quite-healed wounds.
Robbie sat upright, swung his long legs over the bed and crossed his arms. "Why am I here on your ship?" He had fully expected to either wake up in his lair surrounded by his attempts to 'fix' himself, or to simply not wake up at all.
"You needed help, so I came to help you." Sportacus answered weakly. It wasn't the best explanation, but he was not familiar with the kind of help that Robbie needed. He didn't know what he was supposed to say.
"Hmpf," Robbie glared at him, relaxing his crossed arms just a bit to relieve the burning pressure. "I'm sure that someone else is worth saving more than me." He stood up abruptly, brushing off his pants and looking around for his waistcoat. His waistcoat. He looked down at his arms and realized for the first time that he wasn't wearing his longsleeved top, he wasn't wearing any of his skin toned shirts or concealer on his arms. Instead, his old scars were pale streaks over his flushed unmarred skin. His forearms wrapped with cloth that looked like it came from one of his many disguises. He hung his head and let his arms fall to his sides. "You saw, didn't you." Quietly spoken, barely audible.
"Yes," Sportacus said gently.
Silence reigned for a minute or so.
"What can I do to help you Robbie?"
"Leave me alone," Robbie glared and straightened up. He would be damned if he would let Sportacus try and save him. He had made it this long without needed any friends or people to 'save' him, he would be fine. He took a step towards the pole in the room, anxious to return to his quiet and dark lair, a welcome change from this bright and noisy airship. Without warning, or so much as a swooshing sound, Sportacus was standing in front of him. "Get out of my way Sportakook," Robbie growled and he brought up his hands to push him out of the way. This was beginning to remind him of the nightmare that he had just woken from.
"I can't do that." Sportacus resolved then and there to make sure that Robbie would be okay before letting him go back down to the surface.
"Get. Out. Of. My. Way." Robbie sputtered each word with more and more anger.
"No," Sportacus stood his ground like the Great Wall of China.
Annoyed and angry, Robbie faked to the left and took a step to the right, determined to get past that blue jumping bean and escape the ship. Sportacus was one step ahead of him and blocked his path again.
"If you don't move right now, I'm going to..." Robbie trailed off. Going to what? Kill him? Sportacus suddenly looked like the Sportacus in his dream, blood dripping from his lips from a punctured lung. "Going to..." His breath hitched. The room darkened. Robbie's heart started to race. Words began to float around in his head. The taunting words of the bullies telling him to go away. The Mayor of LazyTown calling him worthless. He couldn't breathe, was he dying? Was this what dying was like? The room closed in on him and he could hear Sportacus yelling something, his name perhaps, as he crumpled down into a ball and screwed his eyes shut. He was vaguely aware of being lifted up and placed back on the bed he just had left. He was trapped in his nightmare, but the scenes played out transposed over the room in the airship. Robbie began to rock back and forth, trying to calm down his racing heart and catch his breath.
Sportacus had only seen something like this once before. He vaguely remembered that it was called a panic attack. That didn't make any sense to him, there was nothing on the airship to cause Robbie to panic. He didn't really know what to do apart from carrying Robbie back to the bed and slowly rub his back in a circular motion, occasionally talking to him about the weather or the kitten he saved a few days ago. All Sportacus could do was sit with him and be there for him when he came out of it.
Half an hour later, Sportacus's crystal finally stopped glowing orange. Robbie was breathing normally and had promptly fallen asleep again without saying anything to him.
For the first time in his life, Sportacus just didn't know what to do.
A/N : I wouldn't call Robbie's actions out of character, for they are not that far out of character for people suffering from depression and anxiety. I used some experiences in my own life to write this, as I felt it is important to be addressed. People who suffer from both depression and anxiety often act "out of character", hence the reason behind how I wrote Robbie in this. It is my first time ever writing a story - fan fiction or otherwise - so I do apologize for grammar errors and any odd usage of wording. I'm an accounting grad student that has simply become wrapped up in LazyTown.
I spent three hours on this so far because it was simply stuck in my head. I am not sure if I should keep going further as this is my first writing attempt and I'm not sure how this story will fare. Let me know what you think. Thank you.