Not two seconds after thinking better of saying anything, he remembered something that needed to be addressed. "You didn't have to stitch yourself up, you know that if anyone- even you- is in trouble I'll be there."
The villain snorted, "Yeah, I'm sure you rush over to help me every time that trinket flashes that I need it. It took you at least 10 minutes to get there- and we both know you couldn't stitch it up yourself and it'd take even longer to get me to someone who could."
"It didn't take me two minutes," Sportacus insisted, crossing his arms over his chest. "And it wouldn't have taken that long but I had to make sure you weren't anywhere else."
The man's eyebrow raised slightly. "Are you certain about that? From the time your crystal went off it was only 2 minutes?" The hero nodded defiantly, frowning at the insult to his hero abilities. Robbie 'hmm'd to himself and tapped his chin curiously. "It took me longer than that to get started on the stitches, I know it took me that long just to thread the damn needle…" the elf shivered at that mental image, "So what actually caused it to go off?"
"What?" Sportacus asked uncertainly, not really following. Was his crystal malfunctioning? The tall man didn't seem to hear the question, but continued muttering to himself for a moment before leaning down so that his face was an inch from the chest plate. The elf fidgeted slightly, not at all comfortable with the sudden invasion of his personal space. "Robbie, what are you doing?"
Robbie looked up at this, and the hero could hardly recognize him. His grey eyes were bright and curious, an effect which lit up his entire face and made him look years younger. "Haven't you ever wondered what your crystal actually responds to? And don't say trouble- that's too vague. It might start going off whenever a kid goes to detention or gets grounded. It has to respond to something, right?" he returned his gaze to the chest plate that hid the crystal. "Damn I wish I could study this."
"Why can't you?"
The villain chuckled, standing up straight at this. "You just made it clear I can't hurt anyone on purpose- even if it is for science and the greater good. Hopefully I can come up with enough information from memory to get a decent idea."
"Why do you even care? I thought you wanted to be left alone- not helping me," Sportacus asked weakly, placing a protective hand over his crystal in case Robbie decided to grab it right off of him. It seemed possible.
This was replied to with an eyeroll, "This has nothing to do with you- I want to know what makes it tick for my own knowledge," he continued staring at the chest plate as if he could magically see through both the elf's hand and the metal covering and into the secret that was in the heart of it's magic. "Haven't you ever seen something and just had to know how it works?"
"Can't say I have, no," the elf replied nervously. As much as he wanted to be happy to see the man so interested in something good, this was not something he trusted. The self-assigned villain only cared about things that benefited him, if he was interested in the crystal it was for a reason. That reason might be a very bad thing.
Robbie tutted slightly at that, shaking his head. "And you condemn my life style," he muttered to himself. The elf caught it, but said nothing, not really sure how to respond. "Ugh, you don't even know how to make one for me to play with and all the books that might be useful are in gibberish—"
"Gibberish?" Sportacus asked curiously.
The villain shrugged, "I'm sure it isn't to someone- but I don't know what language it is so I can't even ask if I know anyone who speaks it."
"Can I see them? It might be in a language I know, or at least recognize."
"Eh?" Robbie asked, a bit surprised by that. Of course, considering his accent and where he was from he'd probably know at least one other language, and for all he knew he'd been the 'local hero' in a few countries in the past. But he never expected the elf to be of any use in anything academic. "Yeah, sure, I'll just have to find it again, I think it got lost in the shuffle." He held up his hand to indicate exactly which shuffle he was referring to.
Sportacus wrinkled his nose at the sight of the scar. "Do you know how long it'd take you to find it?"
"No idea, maybe 5 minutes- maybe 5 days. It's hard to tell, the mess that's down there."
"How about I just wait, and then you send me a letter telling me you have it," the elf suggested, not wanting to drop in every few days to find out. Although it would help him make sure Robbie wasn't up to anything bad. "I'd offer to help, but I know you don't want me touching anything of yours."
"No, I really don't," he agreed, glad to hear that this message had made it's way into the elf's brain. That would be convenient. "But I really don't feel like using that stupid mailing tube of yours. You can always just drop by whenever you feel like it- it seems to be working so far."
"I didn't think you wanted me doing that," Sportacus said uncertainly.
Robbie raised an eyebrow, "I didn't think you actually cared whether I wanted you around or not."
The elf smiled gently at this, shaking his head. "I want to be your friend, Robbie. Part of that is respecting what the other person wants. And when you threw me out a few days ago- you made it clear that you didn't want me around any more than I absolutely had to."
"I don't do well with losing function of my strong hand and having to spend most of a few days around an over-eager health nut," he muttered, "As long as you don't decide to live with me I think we'll be fine."
"As tempting as that might be, I can't stand being underground for any amount of time," the elf shook his head. So that was just Robbie throwing a tantrum because things weren't going his way. For someone so tall, the man certainly had a lot of growing up to do. It would also be difficult to tell when Robbie was being serious and when he was just being his disobliging self, which didn't make things any easier. It really would be easier to just avoid him after this whole thing was over. He'd certainly have to make sure the kids did just in case it turned out the villain was capable of following up on his threats.
"I guess I'll just have to give you a few days and then come down and check if you've had any luck finding it," Sportacus said after he remembered what they had been talking about before. The villain just shrugged his ambivalence. Rather than wait for a more decent response that wasn't coming, the hero lept off with his signature move and off to do hero-ish things.
The villain simply stared after him for a moment before lazily making his way back to his home. Just watching that elf got exhausting sometimes.
---
Continuing to use the 'knock if it's locked, just go in if it isn't' methodology, Sportacus was soon in the main room of the villain's 'lair'. It was a few days after their last conversation and in the late evening. The kids had all gone home for supper and wouldn't be out again, and he hoped that it was long enough that Robbie might have had a chance to find what he was looking for. Sportacus certainly had. He finally remembered about the book Robbie had left for him— that he thought Robbie had left for him—and was now going to return it.
He was surprised to find the place empty, and wondered if he should have made sure Robbie wasn't out and about. No one had seen any sign of him in the past few days, though, so that seemed unlikely. Sounds coming from a room down a hallway he didn't even realize was there verified this.
"Robbie?" he called down to announce his presence. This was met by a loud thunk and a bit of cursing. The hero instantly rushed down to the room to make sure nothing serious had happened.
The room seemed to be nothing but storage. Piles of boxes were stacked precariously in front of shelves that held a disorderly mess with a layer of dust on half of it. Amidst the mess, Robbie Rotten was sitting next to a cluttered desk with his hand massaging the back of his head.
"Are you alright?" the elf asked, kneeling down next to the tall man to get a closer look.
The villain leaned away automatically, not used to having people so close. "Yeah- you just took me by surprise," he muttered, not caring to admit what had happened. He'd dropped something under the desk and was grabbing it when the hero came in. Hearing his voice called, he'd automatically sat up and smacked his head against the desk. "I'll be fine." And he would.
"I'm sorry about that."
"It happens," was the muttered reply. Robbie continued massaging his head for a few minutes before remembering why the elf was there. "I haven't been able to find it yet."
"So you were looking for it under the desk?" he asked with a slight chuckle, before remembering that the man had just smacked his head, and why he'd smacked it in the first place. The chuckle and smile fell from his fac and he awkwardly looked at the book in his hands. "You sent me this, right?"
The tall man looked over for a moment before nodding. "Mhm. Thanks for getting it back to me, though, I figured you'd be able to tell who sent it."
Sportacus stared for a moment, surprised. He'd fully expected the villain to snort and insist he'd never do something helpful or make a cheap shot. He smiled slightly and handed it over to the villain. "I would have sooner, but I kind of forgot about it in the…" what was that word Robbie had used for it before? "shuffle. So I had to find it again."
The tall man sighed at that. He had to find the book? That settled it, he was never letting the elf near anything important. "You didn't have to. I figured I'd seen the last of it when I left it on the mayor's desk."
"Then why did you write asking for it back?" the elf asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Seemed like the thing to do," he replied vaguely. Mostly he was curious about whether or not he would get it back, and that seemed like the best way to hint at who had sent it without outright stating it. He really didn't want to do that, last thing he needed was for anyone to get it into their heads he was turning good. He'd never get any peace like that.
Robbie finally took the book back, and held it in both hands as he turned it over a few times to assess if there were any damage. There weren't, or nothing appreciable.
"Why did you leave it in the mayor's office?" the elf asked quietly, hoping he would want to hear the response. He could think of a few less-than-lovely scenarios and he'd probably have to tell the mayor about.
The villain shrugged, "I was going to just leave it outside- but that idiot left the door open. It wasn't even latched."
The local hero groaned when he heard this, that was something the mayor would do. He made a mental note to talk to the mayor about that. Lazytown didn't exactly have a high crime rate, but it was still a good idea to lock the door to the town hall when he closed up for the day. There were a lot of important files saved there, and someone less scrupulous could have gone in and done serious damage.
"Where did you get that book, anyways? Did you find it while cleaning as well?" Sportacus asked, eyeing the look that Robbie was still holding protectively.
"Yeah, pretty much," he replied, remembering that it was in his hand. He placed it on the desk and stood up, stretching slightly as he did. "The place needed to be cleaned, I guess it was just a lucky coincidence."
That wasn't entirely true, he started cleaning things out to try and find books on the subject. His grandmother had been highly interested in magic and he had more books than he cared to admit on the subject stashed away in storage. Really, he had more books than most libraries. His family had always put importance on intelligence, and ended up amassing a large collection of books on just about every subject that no one could bare to throw out.
"Do you know where the other books might be?" the elf asked, standing up as well and looking around the room. He didn't want to snoop, but he couldn't help but be curious about everything that was in here. Robbie Rotten, who seemed so focused on mechanics, was the last person he'd have expected to have anything involving magic. He couldn't help but wonder what other secrets were hidden in here.
The villain twitched slightly, watching the sports elf looking around. Thankfully the elf seemed to remember that nothing in Robbie's lair was to be touched, but it still made him nervous.
The man scratched his chin slightly as he considered what to do. His little project was reaching the point where most people could recognize it as something bad, and if Sportacus saw it he would probably have more than a few things to say about it and the villain would never get a moments peace again. He had two options- either find it now or get rid of the elf for a few days. "I'm not sure, it's deeper than I'd thought… I may need your help on this after all."
Sportacus's eyes widened at that for a moment, then he raised an eyebrow at the villain. "Didn't you threaten me with bodily harm if I ever touched anything of yours?"
"—Without permission," he pointed out, trying to ignore just how little he wanted to be doing this. Something in this room would be broken by the end of the day if that elf helped him. And it would probably be something valuable and ireplaceable. "But, eh, Pinky keeps going on about how things are easier when you work together," he groaned the word, "And this is a bit important, so why not?"
He was starting to rethink his decision to stop getting rid of Sportacus.
A/N: Getting back to plot now. Sorry for the delay. Not sure if this is OOC for Robbie, but he strikes me as a scientist- and they seem to enjoy a good puzzle. Or maybe I just read too much XKCD (webcomic about science/math/etc)