AN: A year ago on the 9th, I met and started a friendship with tumblr user Claudeyclu. She's the entire reason I joined Tumblr, and was the first and is one of the best friends I've made on there. I posted this on Tumblr on the 9th, but completely forgot about posting it on here. XD I hope you all enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Wreck It Ralph. Disney does.
"I wanna throw a party for the Sarge."
Kohut didn't even flinch as the Princess-turned-President glitched in front of his feet, instead just stepping over her and continuing on his way. The little girl had been bugging him for the last month in a vain attempt to get him to help in her scheme; so far, he'd manage to hold out and tell her 'no.'
But only by avoiding her puppy-like gaze when she pouted and sticking to the exact same answer every time she asked.
"Sarge doesn't want a party, kid, and you wouldn't be doing her any favors by throwing her one." The truth, really; Tammy had quickly met her party quote earlier in the year, her new husband's people's tendency to celebrate even the smallest of events working against her. The social niceties that went along with a formal gathering-while a field she could easily play-had never been her thing, and the weekly need to dance around fragile egos for the sake of peace in Niceland and her husband's sake was grating on her nerves. If Kohut knew Tamora-which he was pretty sure he did, if twelve years of serving together had given him any kind of indicators as to what she liked-she would prefer if her and the kid hung out and shot at stuff then go to another party.
Something the kid still didn't get, even a whole year later.
"She may not want another Nicelander party, and who can blame her, but there's no way the Sarge wouldn't want one of my parties," Vanellope refuted, almost tripping Kohut as she glitched to the spot he had just been about to step, forcing him to fix his stride to avoid crushing the little racer. "Besides, it'd only be the two of us, so she wouldn't have to act nice or smile or anything! She could even shoot the Laffy Taffy, if she wanted! Come on, Kohut." Glitching so she was on top of a pile of crates, putting her at eye level so he was forced to meet her gaze, Vanellope gave him a half pouting, half determined stare. "All you have to do is make sure Sourpuss is in the right place at the right time. I can do the rest. What do you say, pal?"
It was only then, as he unconsciously reached out to take the hand he hadn't even realized he'd been offered, that Kohut realized how Wreck-It had gotten mixed up with the little glitch. Sighing and shaking his head, he picked the triumphantly smiling child off the box and put her on his shoulder, his steps quick as he fled to his bunk to make the plans they'd need.
"Fine. Sure kid. But it's your neck, not mine if things go south, and we're going to do this my way."
Tamora might have been young (with her game only a year old, she was, in fact, still one of the "babies" of the arcade) and so still ignorant of some of the arcade's customs, but she wasn't stupid.
She knew there was no such thing as a 'Friendly Friend Day' that required her to carry a hollow tube of sugar cane and enter Sugar Rush blindfolded, guided only by Kohut's steady hand on the small of her back as he lead her toward the meeting place the little Cavity had chosen.
But it was for her, so how could she protest too much?
"Can't believe you let the kid sucker you into this, Kohut," Tamora grumbled as he helped her over a tangle of roots, hand in hers until she was safely on the ground again. It had only taken a few days for Kohut to break, his inability to lie to her face eventually forcing him to spill the beans about this party Sweetness was throwing. The theme and reason he'd kept to himself, but at least she knew a little of what was in store for her.
"You're the one who agreed to the blindfold, Sarge," Kohut laughed, gently leading her around a bush. "I was just going to have you put it on once we got close; you're the one who decided to wear it the whole way." Finally reaching the clearing they'd agreed on he came to a halt, watching her take a few more steps before realizing they were there.
"She'd be upset if I didn't," Tamora shrugged, turning her head so she was facing where she thought he was. It was hard to go without her sight, but she trusted her second in command, and his breathing was loud enough to track him through the entire Game Central Station anyway. Now that they'd stopped, though, she was starting to become curious, and the need to wait in the dark annoyed her.
"She would be, yes," the man agreed, pulling a pink pouch from his belt and pressing it into her hands, "but you still can't complain." Quickly leaving a friendly kiss onto her cheek, Kohut was quick to take his leave, waving over his shoulder despite the fact she couldn't see. "You two enjoy!"
"Two… Sweetness?" Tamora called, rolling the pouch between her fingers as she waited for the President to respond. Small, round…a frown creased her face as Tamora opened the bag, feeling what was inside for herself. Popping one into her mouth and chewing, the taste didn't surprise her, though its presence did. "Chocolate…?"
"Yep!"
"Hey," Tamora yelped as something hit her shoulder, leaving a stinging mark where she hadn't been able to move out of the way quickly enough. One hand tearing off the blindfold while the other shifted its grip on the tube, ready to use it as a weapons should the need arise, Tamora was ready for anything as she squinted into the light, blinking rapidly to clear her sight.
She was ready for everything, everything except what she saw.
The clearing had been turned into an arena, sugar cube blocks stacked on top of each other and held together by whipped sweet butter into a wall that wound throughout the trees, its only seeable opening the entrance behind her. A small table sat in the center of the arena, piled high with non-sugary food and local treats she'd come to recognize over the past year. She could hear a rustle behind her, but didn't even bother to look; the little girl's lowly muttered curses were well known to her by now. Eyebrows raised as she glanced down as Vanellope came up to her side, it was with a jerk of her head to indicate their surroundings that she spoke.
"Care to explain, Von Schweetz?"
"Friendly Friend Day," Vanellope responded, tapping her own hollow tube against the ground. The little girl had dressed for battle, tight clothes leaving nothing to be grabbed with a piece of Laffy taffy tied around her waist, several of the same pouches Tammy had stuck to it. She'd even rubbed alternating grape and strawberry sauce in lines on her face and hands, 'camouflage' to blend in with the trees. Bad camouflage, but at least the kid was learning.
"It's actually a thing? Why didn't Fix-It tell me about it?" Tamora asked, confusion clear in her voice; Felix had spent weeks when they were first dating getting her filled in on the many different holidays the characters at Litwak's had created to fill their extra time, and never once had he mentioned 'Friendly Friend Day.'
"Well…no," Van admitted with a shrug, her nervous tapping speeding up, "but I'm making it a thing! Our thing! Today, as President of Sugar Rush, I'm officially declaring today 'Friendly Friend Day'!"
"And why is that, Sweetness?" Kneeling so she was level with Vanellope, Tamora brushed a lock of hair that had gotten loose from the girl's tie out of her face, chuckling and licking a dab of strawberry from the fingers that had touched her cheek. Although her tapping continued, there was no nervousness in the child; just a sly grin on her face as she responded.
"You really don't know, Sergeant Sourpuss?" Glitching over to the table, she motioned to the cake that sat in the middle, slowly shaking her head and clucking her tongue at the older woman. "Then for the sweet mother of monkey milk, come find out."
Only half a dozen steps separating them, it only took a few moments for Tamora to close the distance, staring down at the cake the little princess had had made for the occasion. Simple white words written against a dark chocolate background, Tamora hadn't even read them before Vanellope was saying them herself, explaining the reasoning behind them as well.
"'Thank you for being my friend.' Last year, today was the day you talked to me outside of a combat zone. The day we first became friends. So, Friendly Friend Day."
"Kid, I…"
"Duck."
Tamora took Van's warning, dropping to the ground as a piece of chocolate struck a cupcake, sending splatters of icing across the table and her face. Spinning around, crouching low to the ground to avoid other attacks, she just managed to roll as another piece shot past her ear, drawing her attention to Vanellope's vantage point from the tree she had glitched into. The princess-turned-president casually loaded another chocolate ball into her sugar tube as Tamora watched, blowing into it until the piece hit the far wall behind her.
"Kohut said you didn't want another party," she explained as she loaded her blow gun again, "so we thought maybe a game would be more fun. The balls can't kill, but they'll sting if you're hit. And whoever gets the most hits by the time we're done wins. You in, Sergeant Friendly?"
"You bet, kid," Tamora replied, rolling forward so she was hiding under a sugar tree bush, using the cover to figure out her weapon, "but don't think I'll go easy on you just cause we're friends."
"Course. Wouldn't be fun otherwise," Vanellope called down, glitching away into the woods, yelling to be heard over the distance between them. "And Sarge?"
"Yeah?"
"Really, thank you. Thank you, for being my friend."
Tamora's only response was a well-aimed chocolate ball that almost knocked Vanellope out of the tree, causing the little girl to laugh and the game between two friends to begin.