Chapter Text
-/-
Robbie was tired of Christmas. He’d always liked it before, but this year he was done. He was tired. Everything was so cheerful and loud, the children were attempting to be extra-well-behaved to get in any last-minute good list points and thus were being more cheerful and loud than usual, and Sportacus-
“Hi Robbie!”
-Sportacus was being even more… Sportacus.. than usual.
He had also swapped out his awful blue hat for a more festive red and green one, apparently. It clashed horribly with his clothes.
“Hi, Sportacus,” Robbie replied, as flat and uninviting as he could. Sportacus had tied a piece of mistletoe to his goggles. Robbie wondered who he was expecting to get a kiss from.
“Why do you look so grumpy, Robbie?” Sportacus said. He fell into step beside the other, which only served to make Robbie seem even more grumpy by comparison. “Come on, it’s Christmas! You should be happy!”
Robbie just shrugged. “I don’t like Christmas,” he said. “It’s too loud.”
“I thought you liked Christmas? You had so much fun last year! And you even tried to make dinner for us.”
“And ruined it. And nearly ruined the whole Christmas, for you and everyone else, too.”
“It wasn’t that bad.” Sportacus hummed happily, and bounced into a handspring. Robbie said nothing when Sportacus fell back in beside him. He was honestly just surprised the other had waited that long.
“What are you doing here, Sportacus?”
“You really must be down, Robbie,” Sportacus said. “That’s the second time you’ve gotten my name right.”
“Did you have a reason to bother me?”
“You never r-s-v-p-ed Stephanie’s invitation to the Christmas dinner tomorrow,” he said. “I wanted to make sure you were going to be there.”
“I didn’t rsvp because I’m not coming. I thought that was clear.”
“No?” Sportacus looked sad, and Robbie turned away rather than see the hurt in those blue, blue eyes. “But everyone was really looking forward to seeing you!”
“You don’t have to lie, you know.”
“I’m not lying!” Sportacus looked even more hurt, then suddenly his face lit up. “I know! I have just the thing to cheer you up. Wait here.”
With that he backflipped away, off toward his flying… pedalcar… thing. Robbie ignored him and kept walking. Sportacus could catch up, he had no doubt, and maybe Robbie walking away would discourage him.
No such luck. Sportacus somersaulted back beside him a moment later, then dashed forward until he was facing Robbie, walking backwards so he could hold out a festively wrapped gift to him.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a gift, for you!” Sportacus grinned, looking like the sun come down to Earth to play. “I know the gifts are supposed to wait till tomorrow at the dinner, but I thought maybe getting one now might cheer you up.” He winked. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.”
Robbie looked down at the gift, then took it. “Is that all you wanted?”
“Actually, no.” Sportacus stopped, and folded his arms. “I’ve been told to give you a message. Are you ready for it?”
“I… guess so?”
Sportacus held up three fingers. “I’ve been told to tell you that tonight, you will be visited by three spirits. They’re being sent to help you, so please cooperate with them.”
“….what.”
Sportacus just shrugged. “I’m just passing on the message. I don’t know who it’s from.”
Robbie stared at him for several long, silent moments, searching for any sign of dishonesty. His face was open and pure, but Robbie knew how to look deeper- knew how to see through the glamour that kept the kids believing his gentle little white lies about his diet, his abilities, his supposed humanity- and he did now. There was none there, nothing to suggest that Sportacus knew more than he’d said.
Which meant that some mysterious person had given him a message and intended to bother Robbie that night, probably to show him the meaning of Christmas or… something. And Robbie wasn’t dealing with this.
He vanished.
Sportacus stared at the suddenly empty street, watched the last traces of disappearing smoke. He sighed. “Merry Christmas, Robbie.”
-/-
Robbie reappeared in his lair and dropped the gift beside his chair with a sneer. What color would these socks be, he wondered? Or maybe it was another attempt to feed him sportscandy. Robbie threw himself into his chair and folded his arms, glaring around at his lair and daring it to challenge him.
At least now he didn’t have to bother with the Christmas dinner. He already had his gift.
And the thought that he wouldn’t be missed, that they’d be happier without him, didn’t bother him at all. Of course.