YEY! Another chapter! This story is getting more developed, I'll admit, but I feel bad for not diving right into the kissy kissy stuff. That will come in later chapters, though. Probably as soon as the next chapter. The next chapter will probably be the end of Stephanie's summer in Lazytown, but the chapter after it will pick up one year later. So don't worry, it's not nearly over yet. As long as my sick mind is still working, this fic will live on. Tons o' Robbie in this chap, I promise. Plus, a cliffhanger! Cliffhangers are great. They get me motivated to actually… write!

Your faithful writer,

Scoutsdream

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Robbie forewent dinner that night, choosing sleep in the place of eating. His dreams were shaky and hazy, but he managed to find himself in a cold sweat when he opened his eyes the next morning. He woke up to find his lair not dark and quiet as usual, but found all the lights on, and a faint sizzling sound coming from the kitchen. He reluctantly dragged himself from his chair and walked into the kitchen he never had used.

Genevive stood, dressed to the nines except for a gaudy pink apron, flipping eggs. She turned to find her brother looking strangely at her, as if he didn't know what she was doing. "Morning, sleepyhead!" she sang cheerfully, as he walked by her and sat at the dusty table.

"Since when do you cook?" He asked sarcastically.

"Since five minutes ago when I got hungry," she retorted as she plopped the eggs onto two plates, and a couple pieces of toast. "You didn't even eat the dinner I made last night?"

"I was asleep, you dork," he said through absentminded bites of toast. Genevive smiled to herself, noting that her distracted brother was eating healthily and didn't even realize it. "What was it you made, anyways?"

"I don't know. Something heal- something… hellishly… delicious. The leftovers are in the fridge if you want any after I leave," she hastily covered up her slip, reminding herself that she shouldn't say the H-word around her brother.

Robbie paused in his eating, and looked at her. "When was it you said you were leaving?" he asked, in a feigned casual manner. Now that she was here, he certainly didn't want his little sister to leave.

She beamed at Robbie, and his stomach panged… only one other person ever smiled at him like that… so quick to forgive.

His dream from the previous night came back to him in pieces. The little pink one was crying, because Sportasmell had done something mean to her… she was all alone, and he asked her what was wrong, even though he didn't really want to know, but there was something so sad in her eyes. The last thing he remembered was her hugging him and whispering something in his ear…

"Robbie? Robbie, Did you hear what I just said?"

Robbie snapped out of his memories to find his sister looking expectantly at him. He laughed embarrassedly and picked up a piece of toast, and shoved it in his mouth. "Unf un heuhn hainen!" he screamed through the toast crumbs, knowing that she'd have to repeat herself.

"Robbie… Oh, I said… Well, I asked if it would be okay if I stayed a couple more days. Is that alright?"

Robbie swallowed quickly, nearly choking. "Well... I guess it's okay," he said, not wanting to let his sister know how happy he was.

"Well, good. Maybe by the time I leave, you'll have yourself a girlfriend!" She said quietly, folding her arms.

"Yeah… whatever. Listen, maybe I should show you around town. Show you all the stupid people, you know… get you up to speed on all the town losers. That sort of thing. And then you can buy me some ice cream!"

Genevive rolled her eyes as her brother ran giddily out to his lair to get ready. Of course he wants ice cream, she thought. But he is, of course, getting frozen yogurt instead.

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The night before, Stephanie had been hugging the toilet quite violently when her aunt and uncle had come home. Stingy and Ziggy filled Mayor Milford in on Stephanie's sudden feelings of sickness, but didn't tell the mayor why she was throwing up. They also managed to evade the mayor's questions about the smell of cake coming from the kitchen, because they had eaten all of it to "get rid of the evidence", as Stingy had put it.

Stephanie didn't get much sleep that night. She was too busy thinking about Robbie, and wondering why everyone was joking or making remarks about her and him. Together. Weird, and wrong, and… she didn't know what else to think. Like she'd written that one time in her diary, she knew deep inside of her that Robbie really was a softie. A genuinely funny and nice guy. Well, maybe not nice. But… nicer than he looks.

At about four o'clock in the morning, she decided it was useless to wonder why people thought things like that. She laughed quietly, remembering one time a few years back, when she witnessed an interesting scene; Robbie had dug a hole for Sportacus to fall into and hid in the bushes, and Stephanie watched from a few yards off as a tiny kitten chased a ball of yarn very near to the hole. Robbie immediately jumped out of his hiding place to pick up the kitten by the scruff of his neck. "No, no kitty. That's not a kitty trap!" The kitten purred slightly, and Stephanie watched, in shock, as Robbie held it to his chest and made baby noises at it. "You are super cute, kitty!" he exclaimed. He rocked it back and forth as Stephanie, very confused, walked away. She had forgotten about that incident until just now, lying sweaty in her bed. She jumped out and pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt, and silently crept out of the house, hoping to not wake her aunt and uncle.

The outside sky was still littered with stars, and a purple hue that Stephanie took in breathlessly. She couldn't remember a more beautiful sky in Lazytown. The morning air was a little chilly, but against her sweaty skin, it felt like heaven. She ran silently into Town Square, and looked around, amazed at how empty it looked this time in the morning. She was secretly hoping to find Robbie sleeping on a bench, but remembered that he lived somewhere on the outskirts of town, in some underground house.

Well, no one's around to follow me, so I might as well try to go see where he lives, she thought, running quietly past Pixel's tall house and down the path to the outskirts of town.

She arrived on the edge of the circular town, and decided to run right around it. She made a mental marking point, and set her stopwatch, just for fun. In her mind, an imaginary gun set off, and she took off with the wind, her hair flying behind her. As she ran, she looked around her for signs of a house that no one would notice. She looked at her watch. 1:05.

In the short distance, she saw the cow pasture billboard. It was growing closer and closer. She almost ran right by it, but turned to examine the billboard. She vaguely remembered Robbie sitting atop the billboard at one point, afraid of his own creation, a vicious robot dog. Well, this is the place Genevive told me to leave the groceries, so maybe he lives around here, she thought as she walked near the billboard. She walked up the platform in front of it, looking for some kind of secret latch that led to a secret underground fort, or something. She shrugged, hopping down from the platform.

She peered around the billboard, to find some sort of big pipe leading down to what was presumably the town's water system. She suspiciously walked closer to it, and saw that there was a ladder attached to the side of the pipe. It was still kind of dark, but she definitely saw a ladder. She was about to climb the ladder when…

"Stephanie? Is that you? You have to talk to me sometime,"

She froze midstep, extremely frustrated. Who would be up this early in the morning? Only one person would have that much energy…

"H-hey Sportacus," she reluctantly turned to face her captor. The blue elf stood, with his arms crossed, smiling at her. "Why are you up so early?" she asked, not bothering to keep the annoyance from her voice.

"Well, it looked like it was gonna be such a nice day, I decided to start early by taking a jog around Lazytown. What are you doing up so early?" he asked, obviously amused with her early morning antics.

"I was just… doing the same thing. The billboard distracted me." She walked over to him, not caring to look him in the eyes. The eastern sky was slowly growing more lavender than purple, and she knew he could see her face, but tried to keep the guilt from it anyways. She was telling the truth after all. The billboard most certainly did distract her.

"Well, I'd be careful if I were you, Stephanie. That's where Robbie lives, down that pipe. I'm not sure if he'd want any early morning visitors." Stephanie was at least glad that the color of her face wasn't visible this time of the morning; otherwise, Sportacus would have seen how deep her blush was.

"Are you saying that I couldn't handle myself with Robbie Rotten? Because I can!" she said defiantly, crossing her arms.

Sportacus laughed, which made her even madder. He put a patriarchal hand on her shoulder. "I know you could handle him, Stephanie. But nowadays I'm not sure if you'd really want to be around him. You're growing up, and he's-"

Stephanie couldn't believe what she was hearing "And he's what? What is he, Sportacus? What is it that he could do to a sixteen-year-old brown belt? Besides, he's not like that. Honestly. He's much too selfish. Sportacus, I hate to say this, but I think that I'm probably the only one in town who really has an idea of who Robbie is. Everyone thinks he's so… mean. Rotten! But I know he's not. He's just a slightly arrogant guy who has some growing up to do. So… leave him alone!" And me too, she thought, as she started running down the path. She could feel Sportacus' confused gaze on her back. She almost rounded the corner when she stopped, turned around and sighed. She couldn't stay mad at him.

"Well? Are you running with me or not?" He smiled and sprinted forward to join her.

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Stephanie spent the rest of the morning with Sportacus. They finished their run, and went back to Stephanie's house to eat breakfast. Luckily there was no talk of Robbie, the entire time.

Mayor Milford padded out to the kitchen in his nightgown to find his niece and the local superhero eating omelets and drinking orange juice. "Sportacus! How nice to see you! You haven't been over for breakfast in a while."

Sportacus automatically looked at Stephanie, who was staring into her omelet. I guess it's my fault Sportacus hasn't been around, she thought, as her uncle grabbed a muffin and went back down the hall.

She looked at him, sitting across from her. "Sportacus," she began. "I know I've been sort of avoiding you lately, and-"

Sportacus smiled his usual smile. "Well, I did notice that something was a little wrong with you. You don't really talk with me as much as you used to, and we never dance, or anything. You know that you can tell me whatever you have to, Stephanie."

She smiled in spite of herself. "I know. I just wanted to say sorry for not hanging out with you more often. You really are a great friend, Sportacus."

"You are too, Stephanie," he said, clearing his plate from the table.

Stephanie nodded and stood up. The jog from the morning had left her a little sore, so she stretched out her muscles. "Good girl," Sportacus said, happily.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know. Hey, we should go play basketball. Then I'll buy you some of that new frozen yogurt at the ice cream shop. Sugar free!"

He shook his head and smiled, happy to have his best friend back. "You're on!" he shouted as she threw the ball at him, and they went out to the court together.

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"What flavor should I get? Cherry? Chocolate? Chocolate covered cherries? WHAT!" Robbie yelled at his sister. She looked up to the sky in annoyance. "Or maybe I should get a triple scoop. Those would be… perfect!"

"Robbie, you need to shut up right now. You are NOT getting regular ice cream. If I'm buying, I'm buying frozen yogurt."

Robbie looked at Genevive in disgust. "You are kidding, right? I mean, really?"

She sneered right back at him. "Yes, I mean it. Besides, it tastes just as good as regular ice cream. It's probably even worse for you than ice cream."

"You are such a lying liar."

"Am not."

"Are too!"

This was the spectacle that any passerby would have witnessed in front of the Lazytown ice cream shop, were there anyone around. Two adults, two siblings, arguing over ice cream and frozen yogurt.

Genevive stared directly into her brother's eyes. "You know what, Robbie? You stay out here. I'm going inside to get you some… well, it'll be a surprise. And you are going to eat all of it, and you are going to have a fun day whether you like it or not."

All he did was stamp his foot in protest. Ignoring Robbie, she slipped inside the entrance door shop to get what Robbie presumed was a frozen calcium disaster. Having nothing else to do, he sat down on the bench outside the exit door. Diseased ice cream, what a joke, he thought. Frozen yogurt. How stupid.

"Frozen yogurt, I'm so excited!"

The bell on the exit door to the ice cream shop rang as the door opened and closed. Great, that stupid jerk Sportacus's getting ice cream too. Robbie shuddered at the sound of his voice…. He hated him. He hated him so much, he didn't even know what to do with himself. The fact alone that he was just an all around nice guy was enough to make Robbie hate him even more. He mimicked his stupid voice.

"R-Robbie?"

Robbie looked up to see that Sportacus wasn't alone. The blue dork was with Stephanie, who had a huge towering triple scoop of chocolate fudge ice cream. She wasn't eating it, though. She was too busy confusedly staring at him with her big almond eyes, looking too surprised for words, like he was the last person she'd expected to be sitting on a bench in front of the shop. Her mouth was parted just slightly in shock. It took him a moment to realize that he was looking at her the same exact way. His heart was in his throat, and his stomach was in his shoes. He shooed the feeling away, reminding himself that it had only been a dream, a stupid dream. He blinked a little and shook his head.

Stephanie looked desperately away, and Robbie noticed her hands were shaking a little. Surely she wasn't afraid of him? She had turned just about the same hue as her garish but appealing hair, and cleared her throat a little.

Sportacus, uncomfortable and confused, broke the silence. "Robbie! What are you doing here?"

Robbie looked almost scared. As Sportacus asked the question, Genevive pushed her way out of the exit door, two frozen yogurts in hand. "Look what I got for my big brother, I- Sportacus?"

"Genevive?"

"Genevive?"

"Stephanie!"

"ROBBIE!" screamed Robbie, very confused. He grabbed his frozen yogurt from his sister, and walked very quickly away. "Damn you, Genevive! Thanks for the frozen crap," he shouted behind him.

"Oh! You're his sister? That explains a lot," said Sportacus. "Stephanie, how do you know Genevive?"

Genevive looked very confused at her brother's abrupt exit.

Stephanie looked at Sportacus and Genevive, and said, "I'll be right back."…

And followed right after Robbie Rotten.