Burning Ice & Freezing Fire

Different!?

He was expecting a comment.

An acted sound of disgust or even an exaggerated 'Aw!'.

Anything.

But they walk on next to each other in complete silence.

Except of his low sniffing then and now.

The felf tries his best not to think about the hero back in his airship too much, but each time he does try to remind himself not to do this, it only gets harder to suppress the upcoming tears and his sniffing gets worse.

Suddenly, he gets tugged at his arm and when he turns to look down at the girl, she's holding him a pink tissue, a sympathizing, soft smile on her lips. With a weak, shaking smile, Robbie takes it "Thank you, Pinky."

"You're welcome. And...don't worry about Sportacus. He'll be fine. You know him. Nothing can sweep him off his feet that easy!"

"Except of a sugar apple," the felf smirks and blows his nose, then he blushes lightly "Yeah... Nothing I did could... But...maybe that's because I never...really tried... Sportacus was right about that... I... Uhm... I'm gonna wash that, then you'll get it back..." he waves with the mostly clean, just slightly wet tissue. Stephanie giggles "You're fun, Robbie! That's why all the kids like you!"

"Really?" the felf blushes even more "Well... I...never really noticed..."

"That you're fun? Or...that we like you?..." the girl furrows her brows "If it's the latter, then I'm sorry! I... We really thought you'd know..."

"...Both...I guess..." Robbie shrugs weakly and absently starts tugging at the edges of the pink tissue while slowly walking on "...Don't apologize... I'm...complicated... I know and always knew that... And I didn't make it particularly easy for you, I'm aware of that..."

"Neither did we, for you. We could've been a little bit more understanding when it was obvious that you were tired. At least sometimes... After all, you often looked pretty groggy and Sportacus taught us that a good sleep is essential for staying healthy!" she tilts her head and her expression becomes guilty "Do you think...that's why you fell sick?..."

"It's not your fault. I always had trouble sleeping. Especially at night. It's..." he shrugs weakly "...It's part of my nature you could say..."

"I'm really sorry..."

A short break.

Then "...What...were you and Sportacus talking about? Hallucinations? Did you...have any?..."

Robbie involuntarily slows down a bit and his tugging at the tissue gets a little weaker, too, when he mumbles "...I... I live with them...since I can remember... They mostly set in when I'm calming down...or try to fall asleep... Almost always at night or in the evening or early morning... Sometimes...it's not easy to tell whether a situation is real or not anymore... But I got some tricks. They work well, as long as I'm in my...usual environment, like my lair..." his voice trails off. Stephanie eyes him for a few seconds, thinking carefully about what the villain has just said "...Then... What happened in Sportacus' airship? That's no familiar environment, is it?"

The felf smiles lightly "Clever girl. No. It's not... And...I actually had some troubles pretty soon when I got a strong hallucination because of my fever... But...Sportacus was there for me..." his smile brightens and he blushes even heavier, focusing on the tissue again. The pink girl smirks "You really love him, hm?! I'm so happy for you! It really was about time you two finally realized! Took you long enough!" she laughs softly "The others will be excited to hear about this!" she stops and tilts her head once more "You...are going to tell them, right?"