Epilogue: Underground

He woke upside-down in his chair, the television buzzing quietly. It was the middle of the day, and he could hear the pounding of small feet on the ground above him. He glanced around fearfully before righting himself (the blood was rushing to his head in his previous position) and he shakily made his way over to the pipe entrance.

Stephanie threw the ball to Ziggy, but missed at the last moment. Was that Robbie Rotten she saw sulking around? She narrowed her eyes, puzzled. He didn't have that sneering calculating look on his face. He looked… apprehensive. She paused and quickly scampered over to where he was, coming up to his side while his head was turned.

"Robbie?" she questioned. Robbie yelped and cringed backwards, whipping his head back around to look at her. Once it registered who she was, he relaxed and… was that relief? Stephanie's young face wrinkled in confusion for a moment.

"Robbie, are you okay?" she asked finally. Robbie glanced around in that darting, nervous way that was his trademark.

"Y-yes, perfectly fine," he finally muttered. His eyes continued to scan the horizon, as if looking for someone.

"Are you looking for something Robbie?" The other kids were starting to get curious and wander over.

"Ah…" Robbie started. "Have you brats seen Sportadork around?" Stephanie made a face at being called a brat, but decided to ignore it for now in favor of figuring out what in the world was wrong with Robbie.

"He's in his air ship I think," she answered, glancing at the other kids for confirmation. Robbie visibly relaxed.

"O-oh," he replied. "Good." Stephanie narrowed her eyes.

"If you're going to try and make trouble to get him kicked out, we'll stop you!" she declared. The other kids nodded their assent. Robbie blinked and only now seemed to notice them. When his eyes met Stephanie's, she couldn't help but sense that there was something strange going on. Robbie never looked this… lonely or vulnerable. She paused, and bit her lip.

"Robbie…" she started hesitantly. "Do you maybe… want to play with us? Pixel got a new video game…" she glanced at Pixel, and though he looked mildly disturbed, he nodded for her sake. Robbie looked vaguely startled, his grey eyes a little wider than normal.

"… Will there be popcorn?"

Ziggy affirmed that yes, there would be popcorn. And candy. And more popcorn. Robbie seemed to regain some of his former bravado and straightened up, adjusting his vest.

"I suppose I have enough free time at the moment to indulge your silly little whims," he conceded. Stephanie grinned brightly up at him and it threw him off, so that when she grabbed his hand and Ziggy grabbed the other and they pulled him along to Pixel's house, he didn't get the opportunity to protest.

High up in the air, a sports elf grinned to himself and snapped the looking glass shut, twirling it in one hand like a baton before flipping it into its holder again. He walked back into the interior of the air ship, humming a little tune, bits of the song escaping his lips occasionally.

"Dance, magic dance…"

AN:

End! It's rather short, but too bad.

I ended it rather oddly. I don't know what exactly I was doing. Am I implying Sportacus knows what happened? That they shared the same dream? I don't know. I don't know wtf it is. So like every author worth their salt, I'm going to say "It's up to the reader! 8D" and act like I did it on purpose for some very important reason.

I like Stephanie and Robbie bonding (most of you have already caught on to this, but I feel like babbling). Because they're like siblings. Siblings that annoy the hell out of eachother.

I'm so writing that side story to PBBS... or maybe HBT... everyone pile into the air ship, there's gonna be a ROADTRIP! Eeee. "Sportacus, Robbie won't stop eating my snacks!" "Tattler." "Stop it!" "Sportacus, she's TOUCHING me!" "He touched me first!"

... for another day.

Thank you guys for the awesome reviews! I hope you enjoyed.