Title: Nightmares and Dreamscapes- Chapter 6/?

Fandom: Lazytown

Pairing: Sportacus/Robbie

Rating: T

Summary: There is no such thing as magic...right? However, when Robbie starts noticing something strange about Sportacus and unusual things start occurring in Lazytown, that belief just might have to be changed.

Author's Notes: I apologize. I was supposed to write this days ago. And then I got distracted. And then I got distracted some more. Curse you distractions! Thanks to the few that review this story!

Sportacus flipped into the courtyard, landing heavily, and glanced around. None of the children were out yet, the courtyard still and silent in the early morning air. Knowing that some of the children would probably join him soon, he let himself fall and started doing some push-ups. As the energy flowed through him, sun warming his skin, his mind started to race.

Something was very, very wrong…and he didn't know what it was. All these strange things, all happening at once. Absently, Sportacus frowned. Something was wrong, and he didn't know how to fix it.

That line of thought cut off when Stephanie walked slowly into the courtyard, attention obviously not focused on where she was going. She tripped, cried out, and Sportacus was there to catch her just before she hit the ground.

Grinning, she straightened and said, "Thanks, Sportacus." And then her attention was once more wandering, fingers going up and trying to draw through her hair.

"You alright, Stephanie?" Sportacus asked, holding back his chuckles.

Stephanie glanced up at him and tried to tug her fingers free. However, they resolutely remained tangled within her hair. She scowled. "I'm fine, Sportacus. It's just…my hair is really knotty this morning. I couldn't even get a brush through it." She sounded particularly put out about that.

Sportacus may have been a guardian for the children, and he may have tried to help them when he could, but this was definitely out of his league. He patted her awkwardly on the shoulder and she pulled her fingers free. Hesitantly, she reached up and patted her hair, sighing when she encountered the rather obvious tangles.

She shrugged her shoulders and let it go. Then she brightened some and smiled at him. "Can we play soccer again today, Sportacus? It was really fun when we played it last time."

"Of course we can play." Then he glanced around the courtyard. "We just need a soccer ball, though."

Her slight smile turning into a wide grin, Stephanie agreed and ran off.

Once she disappeared from sight, Stingy meandered into the courtyard. He was mumbling under his breath, one hand scratching fiercely at the other. He did not look at all happy.

"Ah…Stingy?"

The boy looked up at him, the intensity of his frown lessening. "Hey, Sportacus."

"Are you alright?"

The frown darkened. "My hand is itching really badly." He held up the aforementioned extremity in dismay. There was a dark, splotchy red spot on the back of his hand, welts appearing from what had to be Stingy's hard scratching.

Sportacus took the hand carefully and drew one finger lightly over the rash, sending tendrils of magic out. With his healing magic, the rash should have faded into nothing; however, his magic bounced against it and looped back into him, a shiver running up his spine at the feeling. Letting go of Stingy's hand, he said, "Did your mother put anything on it?"

Stingy nodded and started talking, but most of the words completely passed Sportacus by. That wasn't a normal skin rash. That rash was coated in a magic of its own sort, but where would Stingy have acquired a magical affliction like that?

Sportacus tried a smile. "Well, once you start playing, you'll completely forget about it and be fine." The words were almost trite, almost silly, but he was a little distracted.

Stephanie ran back into the courtyard, soccer ball in one hand, hair still a tangled mess. She and Stingy started talking, the noise slowly growing as more kids joined the group. They started playing, although Sportacus still kept losing his train of thought.

Sportacus was almost horribly glad for the day to end. The kids went back to their respective homes, all pleased with the game of the day.

He climbed into his airship, thoughts chasing each other fruitlessly. He lay down in bed and stared at the ceiling. There were so many things going on. His crystal was going off at night, for both nightmares and…well, whatever had happened to Robbie. Robbie was hiding out, refusing contact with any of them. Stingy had a magical rash. And…he frowned at the blank ceiling, remembering the garden he had helped and the strange ring of mushrooms around it. Was that important at all? Not knowing what was causing any of this, he conceded that it may. And people—or at least Stephanie and Robbie—were questioning his presence and his magic.

There was no cause to all of those things that he could imagine and yet…yet everything sounded familiar to him. Magic seemed to be the only common factor, but he hadn't done anything…

Without warning, the ship rolled. Sportacus slid off his bed, hands grasping ineffectually at the covers. He hit the ground with a THUMP and rolled across the floor, hitting the curved wall of his home painfully.

He tried to stand, but the ship rolled to the other side and he went stumbling again. This…this only happened with storms, but the night sky had been still and clear of clouds. The ship continued rolling from side to side, Sportacus stumbling his way clumsily across the floor as he tried to make his way to the pilot seat.

He fairly fell into the seat, eyes searching the open sky presented in the window. Still, there was no rain, no apparent wind, no clouds. His ship couldn't be malfunctioning, could it? He spread out his magic, trying to feel around the metal and technology. As the tendrils of magic seeped into the airship, he grabbed the wheel and tried to counteract the rolling and swaying that was apparently coming from nowhere.

He fought the ship, magic weaving throughout his home. Everything felt in order and perfectly fine…

And then he felt a brush of magic, foreign and dark, manipulating his home. The unfamiliar magic shrunk from his and then completely disappeared, the ship's rolling coming to abrupt stop. Sportacus stared blankly out the window, at the shimmering stars. Something was very horribly wrong in Lazytown and he needed to figure out what.

He ran his magic along the ship that had been touched by another magic and frowned. Something about the magic was strangely familiar…