A.N. Hey guys! In the spirit of All Hallows Eve, I decided to write this story. And of course it has to have Jack-o-Lantern! It isn't much, but I hope you enjoy this one-shot anyway. Happy Halloween!
Candlehead squeezed a delicate swirl of purple icing on cupcake and carefully moved it to an almost full tray. She grinned and turned to pick up a bowl of shimmering, edible luster. With a steady hand, she dusted a fine layer of the sparkling sugar over the cupcakes. "There!" The young baker chirped, wiping her sugar coated hands on her skirt and taking a step back to admire her handiwork. In front of her lied two dozen perfect purple cupcakes that sparkled in the light from her candle. She smiled again and then carefully picked up the tray and slid it onto the bottom rack of her large refrigerator.
Just as she closed the door to the fridge, a loud knock resonated through her house. A new smile lit up her face as she ran to go answer the door. She only knew one person who could make such an impression in a knock. She opened the door, and then frowned. There was nobody there. She peered out into the early afternoon light and then closed her door, a frown still marring her often cheerful face. She turned back towards her living room and nearly jumped out of her skin. Two monsters had creeped up behind her, so when she turned around they were right in front of her. She backpedaled rapidly, soon bumping into her closed door and stared at the two beasts in terror. There was a tense silence that stretched for one minute... two... three... And then the creatures looked at each other and burst into a fit of giggles.
Candlehead's fear turned to surprise and then outrage as she suddenly recognized the two pranksters. One of them glitching as she laughed only confirmed her suspicion.
"Sugar and Spice!" One of them cried in a girlish voice.
"It ain't always nice!" The other replied as they high-fived each other.
"Vanellope! Gloyd! What is wrong with you!" She demanded of her two fellow racers, an anger that did not often show in her etched all over the girl's face.
"Ha! You should have seen your face! You looked like you were about to wet yourself!" The pint-sized president hooted as she pulled her hag mask off.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh at the scaredy bat of Sugar Rush. That's real mature."
"Sorry Candles. But what could you expect on the scariest night of the year?" Candlehead felt her heart flutter a bit as her boyfriend addressed her, having already taken off his spooky scarecrow mask. Still, she held her ground and crossed her arms as she glared at the two of them.
"I could expect to be left in peace while I make the treats for the party tonight!"
"Ooh, how are you doing on those, by the way?" Vanellope broke in, bouncing slightly on her heels at the thought of the sweet racer's baking.
"Fine. I just got done with the cupcakes. Now I have to make the little chocolate ghosts." She replied, sighing and rolling her eyes at her best friend's ridiculousness.
"Well when you get done with that, you wanna go trick-or-treating with us?" Gloyd asked, tilting his head to the side hopefully.
The cake themed racer hesitated. She never really went trick-or-treating. She loved the treats, but prospect of being tricked influenced her to shy away from the Halloween tradition. Of course, she also knew that Vanellope hadn't been trick-or-treating before either. "Well... I don't have a costume."
"Oh, we can fix that easy peasy! I'm sure your code has a few costumes and outfits other than your racing gear. We'll just pop by the Code room and find one that you like!" The glitch of Sugar Rush assured her, making it sound as if the Code room was a place to be frequented by all the racers.
The president's best friend sighed and finally relented. "Alright, alright. I'll go. But let me finish these treats first."
"Of course, of course. Just try to be at the castle by 6:00. Kay?"
"Okay." Candlehead ushered the pranksters out of her house and shut the door, leaning against it with her eyes closed for a few moments. Then she shook her head with a faint smile and walked back to the kitchen.
"Vanellope, I just realized I forgot to make the cookies! We have to go back right now!" Candlehead whirled around and tried to run off as they approached the castle. The president, however, was having none of that, and she grabbed the nervous young racer's wrist before she could get away.
"Ah ah! I checked, you have three dozen cookies in your fridge right now! Come on, we're almost to the castle." Still keeping a grip on her friend's hand, Vanellope forged ahead, over the bridge, into the castle, and straight up to the Code room door. Only then did she release Candlehead to type in the passcode. She tied a piece of licorice around her waist and handed the other end to Gloyd. She grabbed her best friend's hand and leaped into the Code room without giving her chance to protest further. She 'swam' over to Candlehead's code, still dragging the racer along behind her, and started pressing various buttons. Several pieces of white coding chips detached themselves from the pink-tinted code-box and started drifting in a loose orbit around them, each displaying a simplified version of an outfit.
"Ooh, this is a good one!" The glitching racer said, tapping one box as it floated past the two girls. It stopped and expanded to show the outfit in full detail.
"Well, yeah but, that's not really a costume." The cake-themed girl said as she looked over the display.
"No, but it's still cool. Here, I'll put it in your wardrobe." The president paused as she tapped the box to return it to it's original size and then moved it over to another section of her friend's code. Then she smirked, lowering her voice slightly. "Maybe you can wear it on one of your dates with Pumpkinhead."
Candlehead flushed and swatted at her friend, hoping that the insufficient lighting would hide her red face. "Oh, shut up. Can we just get a costume and go? I don't like all this floating around." She shivered and rubbed her arms, though the room perpetually remained a noncommittal temperature.
"O-kay then." Vanellope replied in a sing-song voice. The two surveyed each of the birthday cake-themed racer's possible outfits and finally decided on a pale pink fairy dress with intricate wings attached to the back. Sugar Rush's former glitch tapped the code a few times and the costume glitched into existence on Candlehead's body. After carefully arranging the various layers of the dress, Vanellope tugged lightly on her licorice rope, and Gloyd pulled the two back to solid ground.
"O-oh my Code!" The halloween loving boy faltered when he saw Candlehead, a vibrant blush appearing on his cheeks as he stared at her.
Vanellope smirked and crossed her arms. "Take a picture, Pumpkinbrain, it'll last longer." She said sarcastically, causing Candlehead to blush and suddenly become very interested in her shoes.
"S-sorry." Gloyd stuttered. He cleared his throat nervously. "Shall we go?"
"Oh yeah! Last one to the outlet is a rotten easter egg!" The president called as she zipped down the hallway, glitching every few seconds with excitement.
Candlehead giggled and glanced at her boyfriend, a small blush creeping back on her cheeks. The pumpkin themed racer held out an arm, which Candlehead happily took, and they followed Vanellope out into Sugar Rush and towards the entrance to Game Central Station, well aware that they would never beat their over-excited president tonight.
"Trick-or-treat!" Vanellope cried with a wide grin as she held out her bag to the good guy of yet another game. Candlehead and Gloyd stood behind her, also holding their bags. After getting their candy from that particular game, the three huddled together to check out their loot. "Oh my Code, we've gotten so much candy! We could live off of all this for a year and still have some left!" The glitch commented as she sifted through her bulging bag.
"We could, except we live in a world of candy." Gloyd said rolling his eyes.
"Should we head on back? The party will be starting soon." Candlehead asked.
"But we haven't gone to Stinkbrain's game yet!"
"Okay, then we'll go there first, then we'll go home. I don't want all my baked goods to go to waste."
"They won't, Candles. Don't worry about it." Gloyd reassured his girlfriend, slipping his hand into hers. The nervous girl smiled thankfully and they all walked over to the outlet for Fix-it Felix Junior, where Felix, Sgt. Calhoun, and Ralph were all stationed to give out candy. Unfortunately, most characters were shying away from the old game because of Ralph, much to his disappointment. The three members of the 'Core Four' each had bored expressions on their faces as they watched character after character walk past their game nervously. Calhoun was entertaining herself by twirling her gun around her finger like a fan, whilst Felix obsessively fixed every crack in his immediate vicinity with his hammer.
The three brightened up when they noticed the Sugar Rushers walking up to them. "Hey, kid." Ralph greeted his best friend, holding up his fist for a knuckle bump.
"Heya Stinkbrain! Are you scaring everybody away with your horrible body odor or something?" Vanellope teased as she glitched up onto her usual perch on the wrecker's shoulder.
"Nah, we were just taking a break. You just missed a huge crowd leaving some game over there." He gestured with his hand toward Sugar Rush. "Something about a horribly rotten kingdom there." The bad guy grinned at the tiny character on his shoulder, who rolled her eyes and glitched up on top of his head.
"Oh, I'm sure they just ran into Sour Bill when he was in one of his 'moods'." She replied, sitting up with her feet dangling in his face. "So, are you guys gonna come to the Halloween party in Sugar Rush?"
"We were actually just about to head over there, Vanilla." Felix answered her with his usual good guy cheeriness.
"Then what are we waiting for? Onward, my royal steed!" Vanellope pointed straight ahead, and Ralph played along, though he shifted the pint-sized president to his shoulder before lumbering towards Sugar Rush's outlet. The other four characters shook their heads and followed the two best friends to the sugary game.
"See, that wasn't so hard Candlestick, now was it?" The president asked gloatingly once Gloyd and Candlehead caught up to her and Ralph. Candlehead simply rolled her eyes and mumbled something under her breath, though it was clear that she had enjoyed herself. The others simply chuckled as they boarded the train to Sugar Rush.
Hope you liked it! Please review, favorite, and all that stuff.