Author's Note: This is a longer chapter, just to cover all of the meetings and catching up with friends. Hope it isn't too boring! We'll start getting into the more exciting things over the next few chapters now most of the catch-up is done.
Where I Belong
The rain showed no signs of easing up, but they'd made it inside just before it really started to pelt down. The smell of freshly baked pastries was intoxicating and both Stephanie and Ziggy shared the same level of excitement at the idea of eating as much as they could the moment Milford uncovered the tray that was sitting on the bench beside the oven. Clearly, he had just finished baking before he and Ziggy had gone out to the train station to meet her.
"Oh my gosh, Uncle, these smell divine!" Stephanie cooed eagerly, eyeing off the apple Danish corner of the tray. They were her favourite little treats, mixing the delicious taste of apples with the sweetness of pastry, whilst still being one of the more healthy options. Even before she'd come to Lazy Town the first time, she'd been a healthy kid, loving her fruits and vegetables and rarely ever being a picky eater, and only indulging in sweets or junk foods on rare occasion.
The three sat around the kitchen bench for some time, enjoying their lunch and exchanging stories and playing catch-up on important things. Milford filled her in first on the general happenings of the town first. Being such a small remote place, there was very little that had changed over the years. He had consistently kept the Mayor's role, largely due to the fact that everyone in town was happy with how things were run; it helped, too, that Milford was one of the few people in a political role that well and truly cared about his town and its people. There was nothing in particular that required noting, though, except the percentage of accidents had dropped over the years. Stephanie guessed that was largely due to Sportacus's influence over the years, resulting in people becoming more aware and less clumsy.
She seemed to zone out of the conversation – although she was only listening, not talking – as she wondered what their slightly-above-average hero was up to these days. She hadn't thought to look up in the sky to see if his ship was there, she'd been too focused on running to her Uncle, but the fact it was raining probably meant the clouds would have concealed it anyway. A sudden thought made her heart sink a little: if the rate of accidents was down, maybe he felt that Lazy Town no longer needed him; perhaps another child had no friends to play with and had written him a letter, just as she had done.
Ziggy snapped her back to reality though as he touched her arm, causing her to startle a moment but she giggled softly at the surprised look on his face. Obviously, she had zoned out a little more than she'd meant to and maybe he'd asked her a question or something that warranted a reaction from her, but instead of responding all she'd been doing was staring blankly across the kitchen in a daze.
"You alright, Steph?"
"Ah, sorry Ziggy. My train of thought got a bit derailed… Did you ask me something?
Ziggy laughed softly and shook his head with a half goofy smile. "Ha, it's alright. I just asked if you wanted to go meet up with the others. They dunno you're here yet, so it'd be a pretty awesome surprise for them all. That is if you want to. I mean, I know it's still raining and you probably wanna spend time with your Uncle…"
Stephanie giggled and put her hand over the one Ziggy had placed on her arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze with a grin. "It's alright, Ziggy. I'm not going away anymore. I'm here to stay, permanently."
At this, his blue eyes lit up and noticed that Milford was nodding his head on Stephanie's other side. The man got to his feet and began to clean up from their lunch, putting away the leftover pastries and tidying up their plates in the sink as he spoke over his shoulder.
"Your old room is ready for you whenever you want it, my dear. There will be plenty of time for us to spend together, so go and enjoy yourself. Surprise your friends, I'm sure they'll all be thrilled to see you."
"Thanks, Uncle. Wait a minute for me Zig and I'll go put my stuff away and put on some boots." Stephanie watched him nod eagerly before she grabbed her bag that she'd put by the front door, and headed down the hall into her old room.
Over the years of her staying in Lazy Town, she'd of course grown out of her old bed, and during the stay before last her Uncle had brought her a new bed and helped her repaint the room as well. Now, instead of that bright sunflower yellow that it once was, the walls were a light baby blue with flower motifs along the very top and bottom. The carpet had also been redone at some point (this must have happened whilst she was away), as it was now a soft plush off-white type. In the left corner was still her old pink dresser, and to the left was the newer white wood framed double bed.
A content smile tickled her lips as she walked in, putting her bag on the bed before sitting on it and taking off her sneakers. She hadn't brought much with her, as she'd just wanted to leave everything behind; in her bag was a couple of pairs of clothing like what she already wore, plus typical toiletries and some books like her old diaries. She still had a lot of stuff in Lazy Town anyway. Getting up, she walked over to the wardrobe and slid open the door, finding some clothes from her last time, as well as at least one of her old gaudy pink cheerleader dresses.
Thankfully, her feet had stopped growing a while back, so she knew a few pairs of shoes – her boots included – would still fit. So she grabbed out a pair of black calf-high Docs and pulled them on before switching out her blush pink cardigan for a similarly coloured jacket that would better keep her dry in the rain.
Just as she was about to leave the room, she caught sight of herself in the mirror on the dresser and tidied up her hair a bit; fixing the ends at the front so they hung over the jacket nicely, and ensuring that it all sat nice and kept her ears covered. Then she did a quick inspection of her face – her skin had always behaved really well, something many a female friend had been jealous of – then smiled at herself. She quickly grabbed her wallet and phone from her bag and tucked them into her back pockets before heading back out to the kitchen where Ziggy was awaiting her by the door, umbrella ready.
"I'll see you later, Uncle. Thank you so much for the pastries! I'll call if I'll be late."
"Don't stress about me, ok, go and enjoy yourself and surprise all of your friends."
"I'll get her home before 10, Mr Meanswell."
At Ziggy's playful jest, the trio laughed and Stephanie gave his shoulder a gentle punch before she went and gave her Uncle a hug before leaving. She did feel a little bad that she'd only just arrived and had only stayed long enough to eat, but her Uncle was such a good-natured man and she knew that he understood that her friends would be just as excited to see her back as he had been.
"I know they're all gonna be so excited to see you. I was really surprised the Mayor was able to actually keep a secret – well, mostly." Ziggy mused as they headed down the street, ensuring he kept the umbrella between them so they'd both stay as dry as possible. Not that he cared if he was wet or dry, he loved playing in the rain even now.
"Hah, yeah, not going to lie, I did find that a bit surprising too. Remember that time that he kept blurting out that Sportacus was going to win that trophy, and he had to put the rope tassel in his mouth?" Stephanie giggled and Ziggy nodded his head after a brief moment of thought as he seemed to try and recall that moment. Unlike Stephanie, the other kids hadn't been the types to keep diaries or records of things; except maybe Pixel, given he had quite a few recordings of some of their adventures.
"Yeah, that was pretty funny. As I said earlier, I could see he was pretty pent up about something, like he was going to burst at the seams if he held it in any longer. So when I eventually convinced him to tell me and he said you were coming back... Boy, I was so excited! But he never said you were staying permanently… Are you really?!"
Stephanie nodded and gave him a sincere smile, "There's nothing in the city for me. I mean, sure, I could do a huge range of things with my studies or dancing or gymnastics but… Without that support there," she paused sadly for a moment and glanced out at the muddy sports field as they walked past it. A sad nostalgic smile tugged at the left corner of her mouth as she imagined all of her friends and herself as 6-to-10-year-olds running about with Sportacus, playing soccer or baseball, or generally just goofing off. She felt Ziggy's hand rest on her shoulder and she leaned into him in a semi-hug. "I missed Lazy Town and how relaxed everything and everyone is here. Everything here feels like it goes at a slower pace than in the city as if you can really get the most out of your day here."
Ziggy had noticed her drift off into a daze again and felt a heartstring tug a bit in sympathy, so he'd done the only thing he could really do: give her a hug. Well, half of one, anyway. He smiled though as he listened to her explain why she'd wanted to come back, why she wanted to stay here forever and not leave again. It made him grin, despite the circumstances that helped lead her to this decision.
"HEY, ZIGGY! WHAT'RE YOU… WAIT, IS THAT… PINKY?!"
An over-excited voice boomed out from a nearby window, causing them both to jump in surprise and turn around to see who it was. For a moment, neither could see anyone, until Ziggy looked over at Pixel's house just further down the street near the end of the sports field. He laughed, and Stephanie followed his line of sight until she burst out laughing.
Practically hanging out of the top window was a dark-haired tanned girl, waving frantically at them and constantly screaming out "PINKY'S BACK!"
"Race you there?"
Stephanie challenged Ziggy with a devious grin, to which at first he seemed to be caught off-guard, before he matched her grin and nodded, "You're on!"
The moment he folded the umbrella, it was go-time. They took off, but despite the fact Ziggy had grown out of his excessive love of candy and had taken working out more seriously and even joined the school's soccer team, Stephanie was just that little bit better. Not surprising, given she had naturally been more athletic than him and her years spent dancing and doing gymnastics had given her amazing stamina. So it was expected that she would beat him; that said, though, he hadn't gone all-out. Not with everything being so wet.
The moment Stephanie reached Pixel's door it was swung open and she was just about tackled to the ground by Trixie. The girl basically launched herself at her friend, throwing her arms around Stephanie and causing her to stumble backwards.
"Trixie!" Stephanie squeaked in surprise, eyes wide as she felt herself losing balance and realised she was unable to maintain her footing on the wet front step. Thankfully, though, Ziggy came up behind her quickly and caught them both as if they'd been doing a trust fall.
"Careful Trix, you don't wanna break her on her first day back."
"Pssh, she can handle it." Trixie basically cackled as she took a step back, grinning even bigger than Ziggy had been at the train station. Stephanie could do nothing but laugh as she gained her balance again, fixing her hair and clothes up once she was able. "C'mon, the guys are upstairs."
It was both a surprise and not, at the same time, that both Trixie and Stingy were hanging out in Pixel's room like in the past. Last time she'd been here, Pixel had been at University still and Stingy was on some exotic holiday overseas, so Ziggy and Trixie had kept her entertained in their own ways, which was usually with random sports matches or movie nights or random craft projects. Trixie really had a natural talent for art once she'd stopped simply scribbling graffiti on things, and of course, Ziggy was still a child-at-heart and loved when he could make things.
Whilst Ziggy sorted out the umbrella, shaking it off and putting it somewhere it wouldn't cause a puddle inside, Trixie took Stephanie's hand and basically dragged her up the stairs. Pixel had moved most of his stuff out of his room – which did still have a lot of stuff, true – into the upstairs living room he'd converted into a giant computer room. There were large and small screens alike, spread out over two whole walls, whilst a giant TV was against another with a long comfortable-looking cream coloured couch adorned with pale mint coloured cushions.
Pixel was at his desk, eyes darting from one screen to another as he seemed totally absorbed in what he was doing, whilst Stingy was curled comfortably into one corner of the couch, hugging one of the cushions as he read a book. The moment the door swung open, however, and Trixie lead Stephanie in, the boys looked over and stopped what they were doing to cry her name out in unison.
"Stephanie!"
"Hi guys, it's so good to see you again!"
Stingy was the first to get up, likely because he was closer than Pixel, and pulled her into a hug. Given it had been longer since she'd last seen Pixel and Stingy in person than the others, she was surprised at how little they had changed. Stingy was still proper skinny but had some subtle muscle definition, and still wore his hair the same, only now it had some lighter streaks in it; the only thing that was an obvious change was that he wore his glasses permanently now. He did look dashing in them, though, but Stingy looked dashing in anything he wore.
Pixel had the biggest growth spurt of them all, and if he wasn't such a tech guy, he'd have easily been able to pass as a basketballer. He still kept his hair short, but it had lost some of its harsh orange tones and was a little darker, verging on a light brown. Of course, he still wore his headset, but he had to. For a long time when they were kids, they'd all just thought that it was a regular headset he liked to wear, but one day they'd found out that he actually had to wear it because he'd been born deaf. Over the years, as he'd really found his love of technology, he'd started to develop gizmos and gadgets that would help not only himself, but others like him as well, and so he had constantly improved upon the headset so that it was helpful for more than just hearing better.
"You never told us you were coming back. Your uncle never mentioned anything either… Didn't he know?" Pixel asked curiously as he walked over, wrapping Stephanie in a hug when Stingy eventually released her; he always gave the longest hugs because he hated letting go. They all knew how bad Milford Meanswell was at keeping secrets.
Stephanie laughed softly, "Oh, he knew," as terrible as her Uncle is at keeping secrets, she knows that he will always keep the really important private ones, "I think Ziggy getting it out of him helped him keep it from everyone else." She bit her bottom lip with a sheepish smile as all three friends turned to glare at Ziggy with open mouths that he had known but also not told them. The blond gave a grin and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.
"I thought it would be more exciting this way!" He defended himself as Trixie punched his arm, harder than the playful one Stephanie had given him earlier, to which he rubbed the spot afterwards. "And the best part…" He trailed off to allow Stephanie to finish.
"I'm staying. Forever."
"For how long?" Stingy's eyes went wide, but there was a playful dare to his tone.
"Forever!" She caught on to Stingy's suggestion and mimicked Robbie Rotten as she said it before they all burst out laughing, each remembering in perfect clarity exactly how he used to say it.
They spent the afternoon catching up and exchanging stories, Stephanie telling them of the more fun and exciting things she'd done (whilst trying not to make herself sad or think too much about her parents), and then the others all updating each other on things they'd been doing. Stingy had become an avid wildlife photojournalist and had often been away overseas, but decided to come back and do a special article on the rather unique flora and fauna in and around Lazy Town; Pixel was working on a collaboration with the Hospital in the nearest main town, Greenshore, to update some of their equipment and work on improvements to certain machines to help with a huge variety of things (the way he'd explained it was a bit too technical, honestly); Trixie was a freelance artist and web designer, and was attending LTC – Lazy Town College – for it. Ziggy, the youngest of them, was still in High School, but he knew that he wanted to become a Personal Trainer; Stephanie put that down to Sportacus' influence, given the huge impact he'd had on them as kids, and how impressionable Ziggy was.
"Sooo, are you seeing anyone yet, Pinky?" Of course, Trixie wanted all the juicy details, and saw her friends cheek flush, "Oh my gosh, you are?!" Trixie's excitement was soon extinguished, however, when Stephanie shook her head slowly.
"No, I'm not. I mean, I was pretty close to someone back home but… Not enough to be like that. Besides, I was a bit preoccupied with everything." She sounded a little sad towards the end, although her words had been in reference to all of her activities, not her parents' death. Trixie gave an apologetic smile and wrapped an arm around her friend, pulling her in so they were more or less snuggled together on the couch.
"Sorry hun, I didn't mean it like that. You know that."
Stephanie nodded and gave her friend a reassuring smile. That was one thing Trixie had never grown out of: speaking before thinking. She'd gotten better, true, but was still pretty rough around the edges at times. But that was one thing Stephanie loved about her because she would always tell things how they were and wouldn't beat around the bush to get to a point. If you needed to hear something but others were afraid to say it or weren't too sure, you could almost guarantee that Trixie would be the one to say it, even if it hurt a bit.
"Hey, if none of us knew you were coming back, that would mean Sportacus doesn't know either!"
Stingy's words caught Stephanie by surprise and she sat up again, turning to look at him with a bit of a bewildered expression, "He's still in Lazy Town?" She watched Stingy nod, although it wasn't a terribly convincing nod, "I thought he might have, y'know, found another town or something." In a way, she sounded sad, but the bewilderment had turned to a happy smile.
"Well he's still stationed here, he's just not here at the moment. He's really had an impact on Lazy Town, being here for so long, and as the Mayor said earlier, the accident rates are way down. He does go out to Greenshore sometimes when he needs to, but at the moment he's way up north. He didn't say much before he left, just that he had to go home for something and he'd be back within a week."
Stephanie nodded slowly as she listened to Ziggy explain that their beloved childhood hero was still around, only that he was also helping the people of Greenshore. What intrigued her though was that he was… On holiday? That was the best way she could explain it to herself as. Ziggy had used the word 'home' so, wait, that would mean he was probably visiting family. Her eyes seemed to glaze over a little as she zoned out, wondering what type of a family he had and if they missed him after he'd been away for so long. He'd devoted so much of his life here, she couldn't imagine not seeing her family for that long. Yet now...
"Steeeephanieeeeee." Trixie waved her hand in front of her friends face to try and get her to snap back into reality whilst Ziggy chuckled. He'd noticed how much she'd been zoning out since arriving, and wondered if there was more on her mind than just wanting to get through the loss of her parents.
"Oh, yeah, sorry. I seem to be easily distracted today." She apologised sheepishly.
"Uhuh, thinking about all those muscles, I bet."
"Trixie!" Stephanie picked up one of the cushions and whacked the brunette with it as her cheeks flushed hard, and all the guys just laughed. They'd all known, some earlier than others, that there'd been something special between Stephanie and Sportacus, and they'd all expected that once their pink friend had turned 18 that something would finally happen.
But it didn't.
A rumble in the clouds overhead seemed to echo around, sounding much like thunder from the world beneath, but it was far from thunder. Rather, it was the blue and white airship of Lazy Town's slightly-above-average Hero, returning from his travels up north. He was glad to be back, as it made him anxious to be away for too long, even though the citizens of Lazy Town had become much better at keeping out of trouble; it helped, too, that Robbie Rotten rarely got up to his old tricks and schemes. All of that seemed to ease off gradually as the kids had grown older and were less gullible.
Unfortunately, upon his return, there were rain clouds covering Lazy Town that prevented his near-perfect birds-eye-view of the town. And so, for a while, he simply sat in the pilot seat and leant back, admiring the breathtaking view of the world above the clouds as the sun began to set.
