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Every nerve in his body was on edge, jumping at every movement that caught his eye. Never had he felt so nervous. As a hero he shouldn’t be so nervous about such a thing: he faced challenges thousands of times more stressful than this, but still he was a nervous mess.
Stephanie glanced up to Sportacus, a concerned look on her face, “Are you alright Sportacus?” She placed a hand on his lower arm, eyes meeting his bright blue eyes, “I haven’t seen you this nervous before.”
The elf let out a small laugh, turning his gaze to the girl next to him, “I-I am a little nervous about this,” He itched the back of his neck with his free hand, turning his focus to the side, “I’m still not used to the expression of love how humans do it…”
There was always that nervous feeling around the one who he felt such deep feelings for. And today it seemed even worse. Who knew that one day could reduce the brave hero to a nervous mess.
“You’ll do fine,” Stephanie tugged gently on his arm with a bright smile, “He loves you so much and you look absolutely amazing.” It was different to see Sportacus in something besides his normal outfit: at this moment he was in a finely tailored suit—one of which the man he was going to visit made for him. Rarely Sportacus ever changed out of his one outfit, liking the comfort he felt how it fit his body shape perfectly and the fabric wasn’t like needles against his skin.
Still, the current suit he donned felt wonderful against his skin, smelling of the scent he associated with the man who stole his heart: a slight sweet smell like cherry blossoms and apple pie. It was comforting—bringing down his levels of nervous energy just a bit.
Sportacus bounced on his heels, trying not to do any flips since it would more than likely tear a seam in the suit—then he would never hear the end of it. He never wanted to purposefully ruin his work: it was so well crafted just like all the other things the villain made.
In the hero’s hands was a heart-shaped box containing chocolate covered cherries and strawberries, in his other was a bouquet of purple roses holding over twelve of them. The kids questioned him where he had gotten the roses, but the only reply they were given that he ‘had his ways’ of getting them.
It was all in the magic. Not too far from the boarders of LazyTown was a small garden Sportacus visited all the time, a place for him to relax and feel at home when he wasn’t in his airship. Today he was meeting his villain there for the human ritual of Valentine’s Day.
As Stephanie and he approached the garden, Sportacus’ heart increased in rate, stopping dead in his tracks. The girl glance to him, concerned for him.
“Are you sure I look alright?” His ears twitched underneath his cap: he felt silly for wearing the cap with the nice suit, but his fear of the townspeople finding out about his secrete outweighed his feeling of being silly.
“You look perfect Sportacus,” Stephanie urged him, giving him a small playful shove towards the direction of the garden. Already the two could see the tall villain of LazyTown sitting amongst the plants, humming a soft tune as he touched each one gently.
“Don’t keep him waiting,” She gave another shove to Sportacus, prodding him to go forward, “You’ll be great! Just be yourself and show him how much you care for him. Be above average,” A playful smile was given before she waved to him. Another wave was given to the villain as his gray-blue eyes glanced up towards the two.
He returned with an awkward wave, standing up to his height as the pink haired girl left. They were left alone in the lush garden.
“You finally arrived Sportatardy,” Robbie let out a sigh, crossing his arms over his chest, remaining in the interior of the garden, “You’re just a few minutes late—ten to be exact.” Slender fingers drummed along his thin arms, a small pout forming on his lips, “You know I don’t like you being late—it makes me nervous.”
A sliver of a smile came to the hero, getting enough courage to enter the garden and approach Robbie, “I’m sorry Robbie. I’ve,” Sportacus let out a nervous chuckle, “I’ve been a bit nervous coming here…”
“It’s your garden Sportagreen,” Robbie couldn’t help but laugh. All the nicknames he gave the hero were always cute to Sportacus. When the two first met and for years after that the nicknames were said with spite or distaste, but now they were said with affection and care. It made the elf’s heart skip a beat every nickname he was given, and nearly made it stop every time his name was spoken—no nicknames, just his name.
“I know,” the elf nodded slowly, “It’s not the fact of the location, just what’s happening.” There was only one thing Sportacus disliked to the point of almost hating: and that was being clueless about something. He didn’t boast about knowing a lot of things in his fields of expertise, but it frustrated him when he couldn’t understand something—and the concept of how human’s expressed love was baffling and beyond frustrating.
Still, he was getting the hang of it, and Robbie was a wonderful teacher for him to learn from. Despite being a villain and having so many years of trying to force the hero out of LazyTown, showing a seemingly lack of care for the townspeople, he really knew something about love. He was kind deep inside, a soft side Sportacus had seen, but had never gotten a good glimpse of it—like the rare lily blooming in the morning light before it closed back up when the sun grew high enough in the sky. Sportacus wanted to stare at that rare lily all day and all night, to help nourish it and watch it grow into a bigger, more beautiful flower.
“You’re wearing the suit I made for you,” Robbie hummed with a hint of joy, seeing his hero dressed up in something besides those ridiculous hero garments. He had to admit the elf looked absolutely dashing in it—and he would have to find more reasons to get Sportacus to wear it.
The hero nodded, giving a sheepish smile, “Stephanie thought it would be appropriate,” and he took note of what Robbie was wearing: it was a similar suit, except instead of being a deep dark blue jacket and pants it was a dark purple with the jacket open to reveal his classic purple and red stripped vest and the blue undershirt he always wore.
Beautiful looking as he always was. A blush creeped over the elf’s face, burning the tips of his ears. His mustache twitched as it always did when he was blushing and as well with the lingering feeling of frustration from still not grasping why he blushed like that.
“Ah,” Robbie snorted, taking a step closer to the hero, “You’re being all frustrated about not knowing how to express this stupid holiday made by companies to get people to buy cheesy cards, cheap boxes of chocolate and to sell large quantities of flowers.”
“The way you make it sound it’s like you don’t like the holiday,” Sportacus’ ears dropped under his cap, “Do you not like Valentine’s day?”
“I don’t like it,” the villain started, before seeing the expression on the hero clearly drop, “But,” he added with a finger pointed at the other, “That doesn’t mean I won’t spend the time with you.” His eyes trailed to looking behind the hero’s back, noticing the items currently being hidden—or at least attempting to be hidden.
“You have gifts?” The villian’s expression dropped, frowning, “I hope you didn’t buy those from a store…”
“Oh no!” Sportacus beamed, holding out both items from behind his back, “The kids helped me make the chocolate covered berries, and I grew these roses right here in the garden for you!” He offered out the two gifts with a bright smile.
The smile was met with a tiny grin from the other, “You’ve got a green thumb then—or more a green magic thumb.” Delicately Robbie took both gifts from Sportacus, before leaning in giving him a peck on the cheek, “Well, Þakka þér fyrir.”
It always made the hero’s heart flutter hearing the villain say ‘thank you’ to him, especially when he said it in Icelandic. Sportacus was thrilled when he found out Robbie spoke Icelandic—though it meant he would get an earful of excited chatter from the elf, but he didn’t seem to mind after some time to adjust to it. In fact, he seemed to love hearing the elf’s voice as he ranted about anything and everything he could.
“Verði þér að góðu,” Sportacus beamed at the kiss, bouncing up and down in place. He noticed that there was nothing in the villain’s hands—though he knew that Robbie didn’t like the concept of gift giving because he would stress about what to get him, plus trying to give something of equal value when he didn’t know what he was getting. This didn’t bother Sportacus at all: he didn’t care if he got a gift in return—Robbie already gave him everything he ever wanted.
“I do have something for you,” Robbie spoke up, placing the roses and box beside him before taking up the hero’s hands, “I know you tell me not to stress about what to get you or to even give you something, but it wouldn’t feel right.”
He shifted his weight from one side to the other, averting his gaze for a beat, “I wracked my brain for hours thinking of something, but nothing came,” Robbie let out an annoyed huff, “Everything I thought of would have put you into a sugar meltdown. But…”
“I found something that could work,” His voice shook slightly, clear signs that he was getting nervous, “A few months ago you showed me your ears—with how nervous you were and relieved you were to know I wasn’t going to judge you or leave you just because of them…”
Subconsciously, Sportacus reached up to touch the bottom of his ears. Following through with the action he removed the cap, revealing the fluffy blond hair and the pointed ears beneath the locks. The smile on Robbie brought heat to the tips of the ears: it was always so sweet how much Robbie teased him about his ears, how much he seemed to adore them.
“And that made me think,” Robbie continued, giving a squeeze to the hands in his, “there was only one thing I would do around somebody I could feel comfortable around—that I trusted. I trust you with my heart and my life Sportacus…”
He let go of the hands, taking a step back. The elf across from him tilted his head, curious and confused by the sudden action.
In a flash of purple light something semi-translucent sprouted from Robbie’s back: beautiful colors of pink, purple and blue as flecks of glittering balls of light fell from their surface. The darker veins within the body of the wings seemed to glow for a moment before darkening to a shade just darker than the body. They were beautiful, sectioned off into three parts, the bottom ones curling into a curve at the ends, two pairs of cattail-like parts dangling down below.
Sportacus was speechless, staring wide eyed at the magnificent wings. He knew Robbie was part fae, it was something the villain told him one night after they had spent time talking and eating in his lair, but he never knew that Robbie had the wings.
“Robbie…” He paused to just stare at them some more, awestruck, “They’re beautiful…” He moved forward, gently touching the edge of the top wing. When Robbie let out a strange sound he pulled his hand back, his shoulder scrunching up, “S-sorry! What did I do?”
Robbie cleared his throat, the wings behind him fluttering, “It’s okay Sportadork,” He gave a kiss to the elf’s nose, “They’re just really sensitive like your ears.”
“You start purring when they get touched?”
“Not exactly,” the villain chuckled, pulling Sportacus into an embrace, “It’s a little different than that.”
“You mean…” Sportacus paused for a moment. When he realized what the other meant, his face went bright red, “OH!” He frowned, “You mean in that way.”
In a second Robbie burst out with laughter, bumping his head against the elf’s, “You’re so adorably innocent Sporty,” he shook his head, letting it rest against Sportacus’ head, “I love you so much.”
The bright smile snuck back onto Sportacus’ face, holding Robbie close, “I love you too Robbie.”