Chapter Text
It wasn’t every day it snowed in LazyTown, and it certainly wasn’t every day it was cold enough for the pond in the woods to freeze over. Robbie Rotten pushed his way through the bare branches and thick snow toward the quiet, secluded little body of water. When he reached the edge, he knelt down in the snow to scrutinize the integrity of the ice. Tapping it with his purple gloved finger, it seemed promising.
Getting bolder, he stood up and pressed the toe of one of his boots against it. Still, it held. He tentatively placed the weight of his whole foot on the ice, and then the other foot with a self-satisfied smirk and chuckle. As he moved to step back off the ice, he lost his balance and came crashing down onto the frozen pond. Still not a crack. Well, if it could handle that, it could handle anything. “I meant to do that,” he muttered to himself.
Quickly, he got to his feet, brushed himself off, and headed back toward his lair. It was time for a costume change, and for once, it wasn’t a disguise he had in mind.
“Sportacus, look! The pond’s frozen over!” called Stephanie, running into the clearing just a few minutes after Robbie had left. Sportacus and the other kids followed close behind her. “Do you think we could go ice skating?”
“Yeah! Can we?” the other kids clamored enthusiastically.
“First, we have to make sure it’s safe,” said Sportacus. “It may look frozen on top, but the ice could be very thin.” In one swift movement, he snapped a twig from a nearby tree and slammed it against the ice. “Pretty sturdy,” he concluded.
Pixel was already one step ahead, scanning the ice with the Sonar device he kept in his pocket. “My readings say the ice is four inches thick.”
“Excellent!” said Sportacus. “Ice skates!” he called up to his airship, and six pairs of skates fell from the sky into his waiting arms.
The kids gathered around, awestruck. “Woah.”
Half an hour later, Robbie came trudging back through the snow, this time clad in a puffy purple coat, matching earmuffs, a long maroon scarf, and on his feet, a pair of shiny, white ice skates. Finally, he would be able to get some peace and quiet and clear his mind as the ice glided underneath his feet. It was one of the only times he truly felt at peace. “I just hope Sportasnoop and those meddling kids don’t find out…” he mumbled as he brushed past the last tree. Now, he could see the pond and— “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“Robbie Rotten!” gasped Stephanie, nearly slipping on the ice in shock.
Sportacus was at her side to steady her in an instant. “Robbie!” he grinned brightly. “What are you doing all the way out here?”
“Leaving,” said Robbie, promptly turning around and stalking off in the opposite direction, but not before Sportacus could notice what was on his feet.
“Robbie, did you come here to try ice skating?”
“These aren’t skates. These are my knife shoes. It’s a fashion statement; I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” Robbie replied matter-of-factly.
“I think it’s great you wanted to try skating, Robbie,” said Sportacus, gliding to the side of the ice to get closer to him. “The kids and I would love it if you joined us.”
“Yeah!” Stephanie agreed.
“We would?” asked Ziggy.
“Forget it. It was a stupid idea anyway,” said Robbie.
“It’s okay if you don’t know how. I taught the kids; I could teach you too.”
“It’s not that I don’t—” But before Robbie could finish his explanation, Sportacus had grabbed both of his hands and pulled him out onto the ice. Robbie clung onto him in shock and Sportacus chuckled fondly.
“See, it’s not that hard. You just have to keep your balance.”
Robbie took his eyes off his feet and looked up to Sportacus’ face. He could see their breath mixing together in the cold air. Something about being so close to the hero was making his heart pound and making his face feel like it was on fire despite the freezing conditions. Anger, that’s what it must be. How dare the flippity blue elf, with his cocky grin and his too-blue eyes, make a fool out of him like this? What right did he have to just grab his hands and skate with him, in front of all the kids to boot? But if it was anger, why didn’t he want it to stop?
“I got it, Sportaflop,” he muttered, pulling away a bit. He loosened his grip on the elf’s hands, but Sportacus held on. Robbie didn’t know if he should be touched that Sportacus cared so much about him falling on his face, or offended that he thought he was less capable of skating on his own than a gaggle of eight-year-olds.
Speaking of eight-year-olds, the pink girl was gliding her way over to them. “Sportacus, maybe if the pond is still frozen tomorrow, we could play ice hockey!” Trying to avoid a collision with the two men, Stephanie dug her skates into the ice to stop her forward momentum, but only ended up losing her balance. Instinctively, Robbie held out his hand and put it on her shoulder, steadying her to a stop.
Sportacus grinned, but decided to say nothing to save Robbie and Stephanie both the embarrassment. “That’s a great idea, Stephanie! I love ice hockey.”
Stephanie looked over their group and did the math in her head. “We can be in teams of three.”
“How do we decide who gets Sportacus? Whoever has him on their team is going to win for sure!” said Ziggy.
“Well, I think Sportacus should be on my team,” said Stingy.
“We could use a random number generator to decide the teams,” suggested Pixel.
“That still doesn’t make it any more fair,” complained Trixie.
“What if the team that doesn’t have Sportacus gets an extra player,” said Stephanie.
“Where are we going to find someone else to play with us?” asked Trixie.
Robbie realized all eyes were on him. “What are you looking at me for?”
“Robbie, would you like to play ice hockey with us tomorrow?” Sportacus asked.
Robbie looked from the ground, to the kids’ eager faces, to Sportacus’ hand still holding his own. “I don’t know if I—”
At that moment, Sportacus’ crystal beeped. “Someone’s in trouble! I have to go. Kids, you should head back into town. Robbie, I can come back later today and we can practice skating some more before the game tomorrow.”
“But I don’t need you to—”
“I have to go!” Sportacus pulled Robbie safely to the side of the ice before doing a backflip out of his skates, into his normal shoes, and running back toward town at lightning speed.
Robbie sighed. He’d really gotten himself into it this time.