Title: This Real Life
Pairing: Sportacus/Stephanie
Genre: Semi-AU. Romance. Humor. Adventure. WiP
Rating: Will turn mature, eventually.
Summary: Ten years after her life in Lazytown, Stephanie thought that college was the only adventure left. But after an Rotten experiment gone bad, she finds out how wrong she could be.

Ten years after her life in Lazytown, one year into her freshman college year and Stephanie began to pine for a simpler life than one dominated by books, schedules and enough studying to make a robot cry.

It was yet another Saturday night spent in the company of books, even as her dorm-mates mocked her for being such a nerd as they headed out to yet another great party. Maybe it came easily to them, but Stephanie fought for her first semester "A"s, fought for them hard and the work wasn't magically getting any easier. Her parents were far from rich and she was there on a scholarship, so the pressure to succeed was greater than theirs ... maybe greater than anything she'd ever known.

Still, she was lonely and it was Saturday night ...

Flipping her textbook closed, she slipped off the bed and pilfered through her clean clothes. There wasn't much to be had; she hadn't much to begin with and whatever she liked, she had the habit of wearing constantly. Sighing, she dug through the pink pile again, by now dotted with black pieces as well as some shiny silver bits and it took some work, but she pulled together a decent enought outfit, although not something she'd normally wear -- the low-cut black blouse showed off a bit more than she was used to showing was pulled over a flouncy pink skirt and the glittering hairclips ... kind of gaudy, but fun for a night out and besides, nothing coordinated everything like pink hair, tinged with black highlights.

More daring in looks than at heart, but tonight that might change, Stephanie thought, slinging her worn messenger bag over her shoulder, the one that doubled as everything from bookbag to suitcase to purse.

Flinging open the dorm room door, she was just about to race down the stairs when she bumped right into someone who was already standing there.

Shocked, Stephanie leaped back. "Oh, excuse me, I didn't know anyone was there. Are you ..." She paused. The person in the doorway looked very familiar and Stephanie's mouth dropped open to see Robbie Rotten, her old ineffectual nemesis from Lazytown, standing in front of her again, but much changed, and not for the better. "Oh my God, it's ... it's you." The sad figure looked up at her and a wave of pity overtook her. "Oh, Robbie, what's happened to you?"

His once shiny black hair had grayed terribly, in uneven streaks over his temples and forehead and his face ... she'd never seen anyone so worn-looking and prematurely aged, as though he'd been to hell and back. "Well, little girl, the day has finally come," he said, his voice hoarse. "The day I Robbie Rotten has come to ask for your help. And not even for myself."

"Not for yourself?" she asked warily, stepping aside to let him in. Leading him to one of the dorms comfy chairs, she shrugged off her bag and helped him sit. "For who then?"

He laughed and that, she thought, was the same. Somewhere between bitter and mournful, not like a laugh at all. "For, of all people, Sportakook." He sighed, as though it pained him to say it. "Oh, and everyone else in Lazytown, but who cares about them?"

Stephanie's mouth fell open. "Who cares about them? My uncle, Bessie ... my friends! Of course I care about them! What happened?"

"Well, you have a funny way of showing it, Pinky. Never coming to visit, but ... " He sighed and Stephanie remembered how infuriating he could be. "Anyway, that doesn't matter." He grabbed her hands. "What does matter is that you come back and try and help me figure a way out of this mess, because, much to my surprise, I realize that I really, really, don't like being alone. As much as I might claim to..."

Something inside Stephanie went cold with dread. "Alone? What are you talking about?"

Robbie sighed. "My throat is very dry. Perhaps if I had some soda to drink ..."

But Stephanie wasn't ten anymore and her current life had made her impatient, to say the least. She grabbed him by his striped vest, which was covered with what looked like dust. "Tell me what happened, Robbie and then, you get something to drink. That is, if I don't clock you one you first."

He blinked at her with a shocked expression. "I have to say, little girl, this life seems to have improved you."

"Now, Robbie."

"Oh, all right. It all started the day Sportakook ..."

"Sportacus," Stephanie interjected indignantly. "His name is Sportacus."

Robbie made a face. "Fine. Sportacus. Whatever. It all started the day that I was performing a simple, tiny experiment that went wrong, through no reasons of my own, mind you ..."

Slowly, Stephanie sat down across from Robbie, and sighed heavily. "Oh, Robbie."

"When these very interesting people from out of town appeared, right out of nowhere in my liar, er, home, and I might have mentioned something to them about a ... oh, I dunno, a vague interest in making a certain blue elf disappear, you know, forever and that's when they rose up and not only made him go away, but everyone else, along with everything else." Robbie paused guiltily.

"Everything else?" She shook her head in confusion. "What do you mean ... everything else?"

He extended his hands and flailed them expansively. "The whole town! Everything, just like it was never there! Lazytown is gone!"

Stephanie hit the gas harder once they were out of the city limits. Robbie squirmed in the passenger seat of her car, wincing at nonexistent traffic violations and basically being a nuisance the entire trip. "Are you sure you have a license to drive this thing?"

She viciously swerved onto the throughway exit, crossing over to a local interstate without so much as a glance in her mirrors. "Robbie, I swear to everything, if this is some garbage you made up for some stupid reason ... I'm going to throw you out and run you over. Repeatedly. I'm not ten anymore, damn it."

"I'm not making it up!" he protested vehemently. "I'm telling you, the entire town vanished in the blink of an eye, and the only reason I was left -- besides the world needing my genius and good looks -- is because I was below ground. The top half of my house was gone too. Vanished. Poof!"

"That's insane. Towns just don't go poof. Didn't Sportacus show up?"

Robbie glanced at her. "Well, you know, he hasn't been around all that much since the day you packed up and ran off all of a sudden."

Stephanie felt her face flush hotly. She was not going there, not with Robbie Rotten of all people. Of all the things she wanted to forget, that day was number one on the list, for a good reason.

"But he had been floating overhead in that ridiculous blimp of his, but even that's gone now." Robbie sniffed. "All that's left is me, which I'd thought would be a good thing -- nice and quiet and peaceful -- but it turns out to be quite the sad life without anyone to, you know, be a villian with. Besides, I figured you'd start blaming innocent little me for what happened."

"Robbie, I don't know what happened, but I'm pretty sure you are to blame. Somehow. Now where ... oh, here's the exit," she said, squinting up at the numbered post. "But where is the big welcome sign? You know, "Welcome To Lazytown, The Place Where You'll Want to Stay"?"

"I told you, every sign that there ever was a Lazytown is gone. Except for you and, of course, me."

"That's insane," Stephanie growled, looking around in consternation. All she could see for miles were green meadows and a few bushy areas scattered here and there on the roadside. "Okay, we must be lost," she said, but inside, her heart was sinking. There were very familiar natural landmarks coming up, that couldn't be mistaken for anything but those places she'd played daily on top of for years, but ... but everything else, her uncle's house, the town hall, the playground and her friends' houses ... they were gone.

All of them. "It's creepy, isn't it," Robbie whispered, pointing to a large tree in the distance, one that used to be ringed by a low stone fence, now surrounded by nothing. "See, there it is. The tree I used to tie you to."

Stephanie eased off the gas, letting the car roll to a stop. Her mouth dropped open. "Oh my God. It is. And there's what's left of your ... oh my god, Robbie, what happened?" Getting out of the car, she wandered, shocked, through the empty areas, holding her forehead. "This is impossible." She shook her head to clear it. "Okay, you said people showed up and that's when everything vanished. Who were they?"

Robbie squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. "Ah, well, uh ..."

"Robbie." Stephanie glared at him, hands on her hips. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do it!" he insisted, but after a few seconds, he sighed, his face falling. "All right, I might have stumbled across a certain book, that had, shall we say, certain powers, such as granting certain wishes and if you summoned the creators of the book, then you got your wish, but they didn't explain that they would make the entire place disappear and ..." He winced, as Stephanie's glower grew furiously hot in his direction. "All right, I made a mistake. But I've been trying to undo it, I swear! But nothing is working, so I figured that maybe it's because I used my wish and if I could get someone else to wish the town back again ..."

Stephanie sighed. This was the reason she's never told anyone about her old life in Lazytown. She was pretty sure no one would believe her. She was no longer sure this still wasn't all a dream and the barren landscape all laid out before her didn't help dispel the illusion, but no, her childhood playground was gone, along with her uncle and Bessie and friends and ...

Sportacus. She'd tried to keep him out of her mind since that day, with limited success, but even he was gone and this just wasn't right. Something had to be done to save her friends and if that idiot Robbie couldn't do it ... "All right," she said, climbing back into the car. She started it and made a beeline for what was left of Rotten's lair. "You're going to show me this book, show me exactly what you did and we'll take it from there. And, I swear to you, if this is some sort of trick ..."

"You'll run me over, yeah, yeah, yeah," Robbie said, waving her off. "I have to say, life in the big city has really not been good for your temperment." He leaned in smiling. "I can't tell you how happy that makes me."

"Shut up, Robbie."

"Heh, heh, heh."

Once they were below ground and settled in, Stephanie began to examine the huge book Robbie hauled over to his workbench, grunting and groaning beneath its oppressive size and weight. The cover was silver metallic and still covered in a thin layer of dust, even though Robbie's greedy hand prints were still readily visible. "This is amazing." she asked, awed at the thousands of pages of faded hand-written calligraphy. "Where did you find it?"

"Well, you know, dig a little here, steal a little there ..." He coughed suddenly, as if he realized he'd said too much and then quickly turned to a well-worn page. "Here is the part you're interested in. Wish summoning."

She squinted at the faded lettering and read through a dozen pages quickly, her year of college cramming coming into good use. "This seems to be just a batch of silly rhymes. I can't believe this actually works."

"Oh, supposedly this book was owned by some very famous people who wished their way into history," Robbie exclaimed rapturously. "And me, of course."

She gave him a sour look. "I also can't believe you actually own this book, but whatever. Let's see if we can call your pals back and fix this mess," Determined, Stephanie rolled up her sleeves and started reading aloud.

A wish is but a dream untold
A heavenly thought that stars may guide
So say aloud your fondest dream
And let unfufilled desire stand aside

She paused, waiting. Nothing and Robbie impatiently pointed to the next stanza. "Try this one."

This is ridiculous, she thought with an eye roll, but did as he said.

Call to us, the Mages of the Night
Let our powers put dreams within your sight
But be careful how you choose to state your dream
For what you say, is often not quite what you mean.

Yet another big dramatic moment of nothing and Stephanie was just about to shut the book in frustration, when in the corner of the room, she saw some papers start to ruffle, as if a wind were blowing them. That's odd, she thought, even odder when the papers lifted up and started to swirl, the wind picking up until she felt her hair flying and heard Robbie whimper in terror next to her.

"It's them," he hissed. "This is how it started the last time."

A bright glow suddenly filled the room, as if a bonfire had been lit and Stephanie was forced to shade her eyes against it, as Robbie dove beneath his workbench, teeth chattering. There were forms in robes, standing in the light, whether male or female, she couldn't tell through the glare, but she could make out their outlines and they looked human enough.

Sort of, except that their booming unified voices weren't quite human at all. "You have called upon The Mages. State your wish."

Stephanie blinked. Holy ... "Uh," she stammered, as Robbie tugged on her skirt.

"Be careful!" he warned. "Say it right or ..."

"I want to see my uncle again," she blurted out in a panic. "My uncle and Bessie and my friends and Sportacus! I want to see all of them again, right now."

The Mages glowed a bit more brightly. "As you wish," they intoned and the wind and light suddenly grew hot around Stephanie.

The blinding heat enveloped her completely, making her feel dizzy and light, forcing her to shut her eyes, while somewhere in the back of her head, she could hear Robbie howling in terror. "Oh, you silly girl! You did it all wrong! I warned you ..."

But she was far away then, flying somewhere and Stephanie wondered if this was what it was like to die. But she was still breathing, still thinking and when she found herself lying down on what felt like the coolest, softest blanket ever, she thought that if this was Heaven, it wasn't all that bad.

There was something tickling her cheek, and her eyelids and she struggled to sit up, her palms braced against what felt like grass. Opening her eyes, she saw that it was grass, with a blue sky overhead and Stephanie stared openmouthed at her surroundings, much lusher and more beautiful than even what was left of Lazytown.

Glades that went on for miles and in the distance, a castle, rising above the fields like a dream. From its hills there was a figure running toward her and Stephanie immediately recognized the familiar face. "Trixie?"

And it was Trixie, except this Trixie was not quite as Stephanie remembered her upon leaving; the rebellious teen with the pieced eyebrow and gothic happy face tattoo, the one that had driven her parents nearly to despair with her attitude. Her once spiky hair was now long and loose and she was wearing, of all things, a dress.

A full-length gown, made of some sort of incredibly rich material and she was gasping for air, grabbing Stephanie's arm, tugging her to her feet. "My lady," Trixie exclaimed. "How worried we were. Why have you been sleeping out here, in the dirt?"

Stephanie blinked at her. "What? Trixie, are you all right?"

"I'm very well, but come now, we must get you back to my lord. He is frantic with worry," Trixie said, pulling an unresisting Stephanie toward the castle. "He's preparing to send out knights to find you."

"I ... I ... think you've made a mistake," Stephanie stammered, stumbling after Trixie.

Trixie laughed that hoarse chuckle of hers and thank God, at least that was still the same. "I doubt that, my lady. It would be hard for me to mistake the king's wife, I think."

Now Stephanie stopped in her tracks. "The what???"

The gallop of horses could be heard at that moment and Stephanie's confusion only grew greater as three men on horseback thundered toward them, as Trixie waved them forward. "She's here and safe, my lords!"

The riders came to a dusty stop before them. Stephanie glanced from face to face, unable to speak. She knew them all, especially the tall, impossibly handsome man who leapt from his horse to take her hand in his and kiss it. "My dearest wife, what a fright you've given us. You must be more careful next time."

And it was these words that startled her into a little scream. Because there was no mistaking who her supposed "husband" in this strange world was.

It was Sportacus.

TBC ...

Hee, that's fun to write. Anyway, reviews are appreciated, thanks.