Work Text:
-/-
“Robbie. Robbie. Robbiiiie. Robbie!”
Robbie woke to a very insistent Sportacus, leaning close to him while he shook him. Robbie squinted at him. “Sportaloon? Wha- wh-” He broke off, and yawned, and then gave Sportacus a grumpy look. “What are you doing here? Why are you in my house ?”
“I need you to come to the farmer's market with me.”
“I'm sleeping.” In fact he had only gotten to sleep very recently, and he would like to go back to sleep. He carried on glaring up at Sportacus, who was looking hopefully at him.
“Please, Robbie?”
“Why do you need me to go to the farmer's market with you?”
“Um.” Sportacus bit his lip, and Robbie noticed his ears turning pink. “To help carry things?”
Robbie gave him a flat look, and then looked down at himself, and back at Sportacus, very pointedly. Sportacus got the point, and his blush spread down to his neck.
“Um. Please?”
Robbie sighed. He knew he wasn't going to get to sleep again any time soon, and now he was curious about why Sportacus could possibly need him to accompany him. Besides, their... friendship, or whatever, was still in its early stages, still tentative and fragile, and if he didn't come to Sportacus in his time of need, maybe Sportacus would retract his friendship.
(Sportacus wouldn't do that, Robbie told himself, but there was still that little voice in his head that worried he would.)
“All right,” he said, with a heavy sigh, and pushed to his feet. “Let's get this over with.”
Sportacus's face split into a wide grin. “Thank you, Robbie!” he said, grabbing Robbie around the middle and lifting him in a bear hug. Robbie wheezed a little in shock. Oh yes, there was also that. The utter delight Sportacus showed whenever Robbie agreed to spend time with him.
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
-/-
Sportacus was ridiculously happy and energetic for such an early hour. The sun was barely over the horizon when he landed the airship a little way outside of CityTown, and the whole way he was backflipping along the road, occasionally coming back to walk beside Robbie, regaling him with wide hand motions about all the lovely sportscandy he always got at the market, how fresh and delicious it was, how friendly the people were, how much he loved coming here.
Robbie didn't get excited, but listening to Sportacus talk about it, he was kind of looking forward to their day out by the time they got there.
It was... a let down, when he saw it. Sportacus had described it as some magical place, but in reality it was just a square, with stalls selling fruits and vegetables and flowers and other home-grown things, and people milling about with shopping baskets and cloth sacks.
Sportacus made a beeline for the apples as soon as they arrived, and Robbie followed him at a more sedate pace. Sportacus would likely spend an hour at that stall alone, so there was no need to hurry and keep up.
“The apples here are some of the best outside of my home village,” Sportacus said, holding one up to his face and breathing deeply. The apple seller, a middle aged man in a worn ball cap, watched him with a disinterested look that suggested he was used to this kind of thing. When Robbie caught his eye, though, the apple man gave Robbie an amused look.
“Is he always like that, or is it just at the market?”
“If I were you I would consider myself lucky that he's bothering to stand on his feet to do this.”
“Sometimes he stands on his hands.”
“Yes that... sounds about right.”
Robbie sighed, and turned his attention to Sportacus, who was inspecting the apples before tucking the ones he liked into his bag. Robbie folded his arms and stood up straight, watching him until he was satisfied that he had enough.
“How are you going to pay for that?” Robbie asked, suddenly curious. Sportacus didn't exactly have gainful employment, after all.
“I have money,” Sportacus said, producing said money. Robbie squinted at it- but it was indeed money, the right kind and amount and everything. As they made their way along to the next booth, Robbie kept turning around, curiosity eating him up.
“Where did you get money?”
“Don't you know the stories, Robbie? Elves always have money.”
“Yes, but it's usually stolen or magic, and you're too... too pure for that.”
Sportacus laughed at that, a loud, open laugh, nothing like his usual delighted giggles while playing. “I assure you, Robbie, the money is both mine and real.”
He carried on to a stall selling an assortment of berries, oblivious to Robbie standing where he'd left him, staring stunned at him.
He'd never heard Sportacus laugh like that, and it had sent something clenching in his chest, something tight and unidentifiable. He just knew he wanted to hear Sportacus laugh like that again, wanted to be the one to make him laugh like that again.
In the distance, Sportacus let out a nervous giggle, and Robbie looked up at him. He was standing at the berry booth still, arms folded with a young woman leaned a little too close in his personal space. She had a wide grin and she was regaling him with some tale or other, and didn't seem at all to notice that he looked a little uncomfortable.
Something pinged in Robbie's head. He headed over, and as soon as he saw him Sportacus's expression changed to relief.
“Robbie!” he said, a little too loudly. “Look at these strawberries, aren't they great?”
Sportacus knew perfectly well that Robbie didn't even know which ones were strawberries. He leaned over the berries, hoping he'd got the right ones, but it didn't matter, because the disappointed potential suitor had left. Sportacus gave a little sigh of relief.
“Thanks, Robbie.”
“For what?” He feigned innocence, so Sportacus just gave him a small smile before grabbing his hand and pulling him toward a stall selling carrots.
His hand was warm and calloused and oddly soothing, and Robbie's breath stopped for just a moment before he was doing an awkward half-run to avoid having his arm yanked from its socket.
-/-
They traveled from stall to stall all morning, buying a far wider variety of sportscandy than Robbie had ever known existed. A few almost even seemed appealing to him- not the apples, of course, but a tray of raspberries had him thinking longingly of raspberry cream, and he hadn't even realized cherries were sportscandy, having only ever encountered them in candy-candy.
And then Sportacus got hit on again.
This time it was a man hawking melons, and he kept leaning into Sportacus's space every time he pointed out the merits of a different specimen.
In fact Sportacus had been getting flirtatious advances all day, but most had stopped as soon as Robbie had come near them. Robbie wasn't stupid, he knew why- was this why Sportacus had brought Robbie with him? To stave off advances? If so, how did Robbie feel about that? He wasn't sure.
Well, he could do something about this one, too, anyway. He'd figure out his thoughts later, or more likely run from them, but for now he headed over to join Sportacus at the melon stall and grabbed his hand, doing his best to look as though he was used to doing so.
“Sportacus, leave the melons for now, you don't want to carry one around all day. Let's go look at the flowers.”
Sportacus's face lit up at the contact, and he nodded eagerly. “Okay, Robbie!”
He laughed as he was pulled away, and Robbie couldn't help grinning. He'd gotten Sportacus to laugh again!
-/-
There was a stall where an enormous, heavily muscled man with a buzzed head was making flower crowns. One a whim, Robbie bought one for himself and another for Sportacus. They made their way to the next stall, which was selling honey, and Robbie happened to glance down to see Sportacus pluck one of the flowers from his crown and nibble on it.
Robbie thought a lot of things in the course of a second, but in the end he just burst out laughing.
“I didn't buy you that as a snack, Sportadoof,” he said. Sportacus gave him a curious look.
“But it's tasty!” he said. “You should try it.”
“I think you're doing good to get me to try the cherries,” he said. “Don't push it.”
“Okay, Robbie.” Sportacus bit the head off of his flower and slurped the stem into his mouth as well, and then Robbie's heart stopped- actually stopped- for just a moment when Sportacus reached down and took his hand in his own.
Robbie concentrated on his breathing, and reminded himself that Sportacus was just trying to save off potential suitors, and kept walking.
It was still nice, though.
-/-
By the time they left and headed back toward the airship, the sun was dipping low and Robbie was loathe to admit he'd actually had fun . Who would have guessed?
Sportacus was carrying most of the produce he'd bought, all but a single basket of strawberries, which Robbie had in one hand. Robbie wasn't sure why he'd volunteered to carry them, except that it amused him to pretend he had really come along to help Sportacus, who could carry everything he had on one arm if he'd felt like it.
Which he apparently did, because he was shifting everything to his far hand as they walked. This time Robbie was expecting it when Sportacus took his hand, but it didn't stop him from feeling a little flustered anyway. Sportacus stopped them, and turned so he could smile up at Robbie.
“Thanks for coming to the market with me, today. I had fun!”
Robbie opened his mouth to respond, and found that he couldn't form the words. It had finally hit him what he'd been trying to realize all day, and his voice was caught in his throat, and he was doomed.
He was in love with Sportacus. Sportacus, who moved too much and ate nothing but sportscandy and made far too much noise, and was kind and gentle and thoughtful and patient and wonderful ... oh, Robbie was doomed.
“No problem,” Robbie said, a touch high. “Any time.”
-/-