Disclaimer: The TV series "LazyTown" was created Magnús Scheving and is owned by Turner Broadcasting System. This work of fanfiction is solely for entertainment purposes. I do not own the characters depicted in this story, nor do I gain any profit from using them.
"And I like doing chores?" Robbie handled the broom as though it was liable to jump to life.
"You don't just like it," Trixie said, "you LOVE it! In fact, you are LazyTown's handyman!"
"Really...?" Robbie considered the idea and tried to twirl the broom around with his fingers but all he managed to do was drop it on the ground. He hastened to pick it back up while the pigtailed girl snickered at him.
"Yes," Trixie assured him. She waved good bye. "Have a nice time!"
"Thanks," Robbie said without much energy as Trixie ran away, leaving him to his duties. Setting his jaw and squaring his shoulders he gripped the broom in both hands. "Okay. I can do this."
There was a lot to clean up in the town square. Somebody had left a big mess of broken metal bits over near the stone wall. And according to Trixie, it was Robbie's job to clean it up. So be it. He put his head down and got to work sweeping it up.
For a good couple of minutes he swept. After that his back ached and his hands were stiff from squeezing the broom handle. He had to stop and wipe at the sweat already forming on his forehead. The trash had barely shifted but he went to get the dustpan anyway.
It was even harder for him to crouch down and sweep some of the scrap metal into the pan. The physical labor had him grumbling under his breath.
"Stupid piece of junk. Whoever left this here should be the one to clean it up, not me!"
Pixel walked by, passing through the town square with his head down. He was so absorbed mumbling to himself that he didn't even notice Robbie to say hello. Robbie stopped what he was doing to listen in, anything besides do his chores.
"Oh, I can't get my computer to work!" the gizmo guy lamented.
"Maybe I can fix it," Robbie offered. "After all, I am LazyTown's handyman."
"Huh?" Pixel looked at Robbie nonplused before shaking his head. "Never mind, it's hopeless. The memory's gone from my computer for good." He let out a big sigh. "None of the other kids understand either. They think I'm freaking out over nothing."
"I think I understand," Robbie said. "With no memory, you don't know who you are or what you do. No memory means no you..."
Now it was Robbie's turn to sigh. Pixel meanwhile got a little fidgety in the face of Robbie's somber words and cast about for any means of changing the subject.
"Hey, there's Ms Busybody!" Pixel put on a lighter tone of voice. "She always likes to get help around her house, why don't you go see her and lend a hand?"
"Ms Busy-what?" Robbie squinted across the square towards where Pixel was directing him. The woman had her big blue hair perfectly styled today for the special occasion of hanging her sheets out on the laundry line. Robbie looked the fashionably dressed woman over and kept his distance. "I couldn't do that, I've never even met her before."
"Sure you have," Pixel said. "You just don't remember."
"Then we're as good as strangers," Robbie said.
"Then I'll reintroduce you to her," Pixel said, not taking "no" for an answer. "Come on!"
Bessie Busybody didn't need much persuasion to welcome Robbie in for help with the yard work and take him off of Pixel's hands. She gave the lanky man a rolled up list of chores for him to peruse.
"It's only a few teeny-tiny things I need help with," the woman tittered. Robbie unrolled the list more and more until the whole lengthy spool unfurled across the yard. His eyes bugged out a little.
"I'm not sure—" Robbie started to say, but Bessie waved her hand with a hooting laugh.
"Now don't start slacking already, Rodney, or I won't let you have any of my fresh squeezed lemonade later. Chop-chop!"
"It's Robbie," the man mumbled, not to be paid any mind to by the bossy woman.
"Just ask Milford any questions you have," Bessie said as she settled herself down on her lawn chair and picked up her foil reflector to angle the afternoon sun into her face. "I simply must take in the sun while it's still strong. Please no interruptions!"
With the unwieldy list drooping in his hands Robbie looked to the other man present in the yard. Mayor Milford Meanswell was trying to hammer the picket fence back together and already had several thick bandages around most of his fingers.
"You couldn't have come at a better time," Milford said. "There's just too much for me to do by myself!"
"It's hard to say no to her," Robbie said, still eyeing Bessie as she placed a couple slices of cucumber over her eyes. It would make some interesting tan lines, that was for sure...
The mayor chuckled in agreement. As he swung the hammer up again the hammerhead flew straight off the handle. Robbie threw himself down on hands and knees just in time to duck the projectile while Milford stared at the bare handle in his hand with a puzzled expression. Together they gazed at the tree where the hunk of steel had embedded itself in the trunk by its claw end.
"Oh my," Milford said. He shrugged it off with a small laugh. "Well, there's plenty more we can do. I know! Why don't we trim the tree instead?"
Robbie got up slowly, looking at Milford in a new and more cautious light. He glanced back at the tall tree taking up a corner of Ms Busybody's yard and the rickety ladder leaning against it.
"Why don't I hold the ladder," Robbie offered, "and you can go up."
"Excellent idea!" Milford dropped the hammer handle and took up the oversized hedge clippers next. He tucked them under one arm as he hefted his way up the ladder.
"And remember, Milford," Bessie trilled, overhearing their plans, "not too much off the top."
"Oh!" The Mayor startled himself so badly on the first clip that he almost dropped the shears. "I almost got my nose on that one!" Robbie just held tight to the ladder and kept an eye out for any plummeting sharp objects.
For a short time Milford trimmed the branches without any issue. Robbie hunched his shoulders and twitched his nose, trying not to sneeze as all the trimmings fluttered down on top of his head. But suddenly a buzzing interrupted the regular snip-snipping of the clippers. A bumblebee had come to investigate the mayor's activities.
"Shoo, shoo!" Milford flapped one hand at the insect whizzing around him.
"What's going on?" Robbie asked, peering up through the leaves and twigs still falling down on him.
"Oh my," the mayor fretted, "that's a BIG bee! Get away, get away!" He squirmed and shook on the top rung of the ladder, making it wobble. "Oh, I'm getting out of here!"
Whipped into a frenzy Milford tried to climb back down the ladder as fast as he could. But in his urgency to navigate the rungs, the branches, and the bee, he fumbled the hedge clippers and dropped them first. Robbie gasped and dove out of the way, abandoning the ladder to save his skin while the sharp scissors stabbed the earth right where he'd been standing.
The ladder teetered and tottered under Milford's thrashing until it completely toppled over!
With a desperate grab Milford managed to cling onto a sturdy tree branch. It was only a tenuous grip with his fingers already bruised and wrapped in bandages, and one that was failing him fast.
"Help," the mayor whimpered.
"Of course you're helping, Milford," Bessie drawled, oblivious to the man's predicament.
Robbie ran back over and tried to pick up the ladder. It was so heavy though, and his arms shook with the strain of trying to lift it. He wouldn't be able to get it back up against the tree in time before Milford fell!
The sound of swishing and swooshing competed with the creaking tree and Milford's strangled grunts for help. All the fingers of one hand lost their grip on the branch, then the other. The mayor seemed to hang there free in the air for a split second before plummeting down to the ground—
And Sportacus came whirling and spiraling through the air to land in Bessie's yard, just in the nick of time to catch him! A final shower of leaves fell down around the men and Sportacus set the mayor down, helping him regain his balance.
"That was close!" Sportacus said.
"Thank you, Sportacus," Milford said between gasps. Once he caught his breath some he dusted himself off, removing a bit of foliage from his suit.
"Do you need any more help?" Sportacus offered. Robbie began to nod but when he opened his mouth to speak the mayor was already answering.
"That won't be necessary," Milford said. "Mr. Rotten is already helping quite a bit."
"Well, all right then," Sportacus said. He nodded to Robbie and brushed a few leaves off of the taller man's shoulder with a wink and a grin. "Just try to be careful. I'll be around."
Robbie stammered wordlessly as the blue suited savior sprinted away. The mayor meanwhile was busy trying to pull the hedge clipper out of the ground.
"Back to work," he said pleasantly. "This is so much easier with someone else here."
"This is hopeless," Robbie murmured.
Milford and Robbie toiled onward under the hot afternoon sun. The mayor struggled with an armload of wooden boards meant for the fence. It quickly became evident that he'd piled on more than he could handle as he staggered blindly into Robbie, interrupting the purple suited man's hedge trimming and knocking him into the shrubbery.
Thankfully Sportacus was still in neighborhood and as soon as his crystal started to beep he knew just where to look for trouble first. The admirable athlete flipped and cartwheeled his way into the vicinity. With a swift kick he sent an idling wheelbarrow racing across Ms Busybody's yard on a direct course for the mayor. It scooped him up just as his strength gave out under all the heavy boards and saved him from a nasty fall.
"Oh—" the mayor panted and wheezed, "Oh my, thank you again, Sportacus!"
"You are welcome, Mayor," Sportacus said as he sauntered over to check on the portly man. It seemed like Milford was taking advantage of being off his feet and let his limbs dangle weakly out of the wheelbarrow.
"This yard work is tougher than I thought," Milford said.
While Sportacus helped pull Robbie out of the hedge Bessie peeled one cucumber slice away from an eye and looked over towards the new commotion.
"Are you taking a break?" she asked them, more like an accusation. "Milford? Roger?"
"N-No! Not at all!" Milford tried to chuckle as he struggled to get out of the wheelbarrow. "Well, back to work..."
"All right," Sportacus said, "I'll see you guys later then."
Robbie snatched Sportacus by the arm before the hero could depart and pulled him in close. "You have to help me," Robbie growled under his breath so neither the mayor nor the gossipy woman would hear him. "Get me out of here!"
Sportacus took in Robbie's dirt streaked and wrinkled clothes, his sweaty face and tightly reigned in frown, and the equally tight grip the man had on his forearm.
"I'm afraid Robbie has to be going now, Mayor," Sportacus said, his gaze still arrested by Robbie's intensely pleading stare.
"Oh, really?" Milford's voice dipped with a hint of distress at the prospect of losing his assistant, but Sportacus nodded, looking over at the mayor.
"I'm sure you can handle it from here. But if you still need help I'll come back."
"Thank you, Sportacus," Milford said once more.
"Milford!" Bessie called out a warning, and Milford quickly hustled to get back to work on his own. She let out a contented sigh at the sound of chores resuming. The woman didn't even bid a farewell to either Sportacus or Robbie as they made their exit.
"I don't care what Trixie says," Robbie continued to ache and complain as they left Ms Busybody's house behind, "I do not like doing chores. Some handyman I turned out to be, fah!"
"Trixie said that?" Sportacus asked. Robbie gave a curt nod and sneered.
"Shows what she knows! Maybe she's the one with the memory problem. That Loud-Girl..."
"That's not nice," Sportacus said, "you shouldn't call people names, Robbie."
Robbie's eyes widened and the sneer vanished from his face. "Oh," he said, soundly chastised. "I didn't mean to... It just sort of came out."
"It's all right," Sportacus said, "just... try not to do it again, all right?"
"I won't," Robbie said. He held up one hand and offered a grin. "Scout's honor."