Caramel Seasons
Crunchy leaves, warm clothing, crisp fresh air! There wasn't a better time of year, Sportacus thought, than autumn. There wasn't anything about autumn he didn't like.
Except one thing.
He had approved of Stephanie's costume, a pixie, appropriately. And it wasn't like there was a lot of things to worry about, in this small community. There was going to be a Halloween party. No, the thing he didn't like about this season was what came with that particular holiday.
Candy.
Tons of it.
Robbie of course had squealed with glee as the thirty-first day rolled around. As he told the elf later, Halloween was his absolute favorite holiday. Privately, it worried Sportacus that the man's favorite was a day that emphasized darkness, trickery, and the like. But it really wasn't surprising. The whole holiday centered around candy, costumes, and tricks. It really wasn't that big of a surprise Robbie loved it so.
Sportacus sighed, swinging down from the branch he had been perched on to watch while everyone set up all the stuff for the party. He needed a break. Stephanie was in good hands at the moment.
The sight of all the candy was making him depressed.
It wasn't as if he was afraid, really. He had taken cake to the face at least once (more than once, after Robbie had gotten involved) and handled it fairly well. It was more the thought of all the children stuffed full of it that was making him nervous. He scowled at a bag of candy corn as it was passed around.
'Deciever,' he thought at it. He still hadn't really gotten over that particular incident in his past.
He sighed again and walked over to Robbie, who was, for once, participating. He had made a show of protesting, but Stephanie got used to this and dragged him along anyway. So now the tall man was playing "candy guard", and keeping Stingy and Ziggy from getting into it.
He had of course used the occasion to set up elaborate traps around the candy pile, and was currently trying to provoke one of the two boys into setting off one of the traps.
"Yes, yes, it's a real lollipop. Just pick it up already and-"
Sportacus walked up behind him and wrapped his arms around him, leaning against his back. Robbie paused, mid-rant.
"Actually, Zicky-"
"It's Ziggy."
"-you should probably go and make sure the uh…. Uh, pig tailed girl isn't getting into trouble. Playing pranks, and whatnot. And I think I see the yellow one over there trying to steal some food."
Ziggy gasped, horrified, and scampered off to play hero within his group of friends. Sportacus smiled slightly at Robbie's rather unique way of dealing with things. He felt Robbie turn around and grab him by the shoulders.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked. "Someone spike the punch with sugar?" Sportacus laughed slightly.
"No," Sportacus explained. "I just felt like coming over. I'm bored."
"It's not my fault you can't participate," Robbie replied. Sportacus smiled.
"I know. I just feel bored and you looked like you needed a hug."
Rule number one when dealing with Robbie: Divert the conversation to him.
"Hmm," Robbie hummed thoughtfully. "I needed no such thing." Sportacus grinned. "Now go save kittens or something, you crazy elf. Your pixie has been looking especially pixie-ish as of late, and she might think it's clever to spike the vegetable dip with honey."
Sportacus laughed louder at that, and finally flipped off to go frolic somewhere. Robbie shook his head and barely turned around in time to see Stingy set off the cage trap by grabbing one of the various shiny items laying around.
"HA! Caught you, you little kleptomaniac."
Sportacus came back some time later to find Robbie passed out with candy wrappers littered all over and around him, Pixel off in a corner trying to get his wrist-computer to replicate carved pumpkin firelight, Stingy and Ziggy were both caught in traps (but seemed rather content there, as his crystal hadn't gone off), Stingy asleep after having eaten too much candy and having a sugar crash, and Ziggy still going strong, gnawing on the lollipop. Stephanie was sitting by Trixie, and they seemed fairly normal, if a little buzzed from the sugar.
He sighed and shook his head, bending over to pick Robbie up.
"Stephanie," he called out. "Come on. Bed time."
"But I'm not tired!" she protested.
"You will be," he replied. She pouted but followed him away (after Stingy and Ziggy had been freed of course).
Robbie groaned, clutching his stomach and rolling onto his side.
"Finally," and exasperated voice said. "It's almost ten in the morning. Stomach ache?"
"Shut up, you smug sports elf," he muttered, then groaned as his stomach roiled. His mouth felt like something had died in it and left a residue, and his head hurt. He rolled out of the bed.
"It figures," Sportacus commented dryly, helping Robbie stand up and slowly make his way to the bathroom. "I have to take care of both you and Stephanie today. How much candy did you eat anyway? I thought you were immune."
"Just… shut up and let me shower. I feel like-"
"Can I say 'I told you so' now?"
Sportacus grinned smugly even as the door shut in his face.
A week or two after the incident, four people were in Robbie's lair. Sportacus was trying to not growl suspiciously at Pixel when he held Stephanie's hand, and Robbie was torn between feeling worried that the boy was down here and practically foaming at the mouth to get to his inventions, or flattered by all the attention. It was a tense affair.
Stephanie finally managed to get them to settle down, and Robbie let the boy play around with one of the safer machine while Stephanie was in his kitchen… doing something, but he had been banned from entering it. He was occupying himself by picking at a jigsaw puzzle and Sportacus was hanging upside down from a pipe and doing sit ups from that position.
Pixel looked up from the machine, his eyes shining with enthusiasm.
"This is great!" he exclaimed. Robbie glanced up, one eyebrow raised. "I mean, the way the gears are put together, the physics of it would make you thing that it wouldn't work, but it actually works better!"
Robbie smiled slightly, a vague upturning of the corners of his mouth, before tossing the kid a pair of tools.
"Have at it," he muttered, turning his attention back to the puzzle. Sportacus eyed the whole process skeptically, and he physically shuddered when he caught the look of rabid enthusiasm on Pixel's face.
"Done!" Stephanie chirped, stepping out of the kitchen with a plate. Sportacus jumped down from the pipe and wandered over. She set the plate down and tossed him an apple, winking. He looked at her oddly, wondering what she was up to, but bit into the apple and munched away at it fairly happily.
Until he saw what was on the rest of the plate.
She had told them earlier it was going to be a special treat. She said she learned how to make something new and wanted to try it out.
Caramel. Everywhere.
Sportacus shook his head, catching the suspicious way Robbie was eyeing them. Pixel grabbed the stick and ate it, complimenting Stephanie's skills at making them. She grinned happily, and held the plate out to Robbie.
He was still staring at them skeptically.
"What is it?" he asked flatly. Stephanie gasped in mock horror.
"You've never had one?" she squeaked. "They're caramel apples!"
Robbie narrowed his eyes, taking the stick and picking one up off the plate. Stephanie took the last one and bit into it with difficulty, getting caramel on her face.
"Caramel… apples?"
She turned and looked at Sportacus, who looked more horrified than she had ever seen him look. She would have giggled, if he wasn't taking it so seriously.
She glanced back at Robbie, who was cautiously taking a bite, taking half of the caramel off with it. She looked back at Sportacus.
"It's an apple coated in caramel," she explained. This only increased the incredulous look of horror on his face.
"Why? Why would you do that?"
She pointed to Robbie, who was actually eating some of the apple along with licking the caramel off. It was getting everywhere, with caramel and apple juices creating a huge sticky mess, but he was eating it. Sportacus shuddered, but grudgingly accepted it.
Stephanie glanced back at Pixel, only to see him trying to eat the apple in such a way that none of the electronics attached to him got any of the stickiness on them.
Sportacus watched the lot of them and the sticky gooey mess on each face, and he sighed. He wasn't going to help clean that mess up.
He took another bite of his blissfully caramel-free apple, and watched Stephanie try to apply a napkin to Robbie's face, despite his struggling against such an act. He and Pixel glanced at each other while the two were arguing. Pixel had eaten his apple all the way to the core, and was still nibbling on it slightly. Sportacus smiled slightly at him, and Pixel smiled back, relieved.
So maybe things changed. It really wasn't so bad, Sportacus reminded himself. Seasons changed too, after all.
AN:
They had caramel apples at dinner tonight. And I remembered the sketch that Shinju did of Robbie and Sportacus and a caramel apple. I always loved that picture, and eating caramel apples tonight made me think about how Sportacus would react to such a bastardization of his favorite sports candy. And then I started to think about how much Robbie would love Halloween.
This is a continuation/off-shoot of Peanut Butter Banana Sandwiches.
Happy Halloween guys! (I spoil you all with so many updates.)