It was supposed to be a normal night at Litwak's. The arcade closed and that meant the Code 4 got to go on another adventure. Unfortunately, Ralph found a note from Vanellope saying that she injured her leg. Worried about his friend, Ralph made his way to Sugar Rush as fast as he could. When he reached the castle, he saw Vanellope with a cast around her leg and laughing with Sour Bill by her side.

"Ralph!" said Vanellope. "Whatcha doing here?"

"You left me a note, remember? You sounded histerical!"

"Oh, right! I was freaking out because I won't be able to race for a while."

"She broke her leg," said Sour Bill. "She'll have the cast off in six weeks."

"How'd it happen?"

"After the last player came, I went to check on the track. I stopped by the giant gumball machines when suddenly, a huge gumball came out right in front of my face!"

"And it crushed your leg?"

"No. I glitched out of the way just in time before I could get hurt. After I finished checking the track, I stopped by Diet Cola Mountain to practice for the roster race. I made a hard left, but it was too hard and I flew out of my car, over Diet Cola Hot Springs, and crashed into the mentos chandelier!"

"And it broke your leg?"

"Stop interrupting, Stinkbrain! Anyway, I glitched to safety as an explosion came out of the Hot Springs. You should have been there, it was awesome! After that I went to the candy cane forest and swung myself on the branches of the tallest tree and made it to the top! I was so high I could touch the clouds! But when I got on the last branch, I lost my balance and fell!"

"And that's how you broke your leg."

"No, I landed on a gumdrop on the way down."

"So how did you break your leg?"

"After all that, I had some time left before the roster race would start, so I went to the junkyard to get some scrap pieces that I thought would look good in my room and I tripped over a giant jawbreaker."

Ralph looked annoyed.

"Really? You did all those dangerous things without getting hurt and you break your leg because of that?"

"I still don't know how she does it," said Sour Bill.

Ralph didn't want Vanellope to make things worse, so he took action.

"That's it, from now on I'm taking care of you until your leg heals."

Vanellope got excited.

"Really?"

"Well, I'll at least come every night."

Vanellope pumped her fists in the air.

"Yes!"

Sour Bill looked at Ralph and sighed with relief.

"Thank you! That girl was driving me nuts! Don't you know how long it took to get her to stop screaming?"

"You're welcome."


The Next Day

Ralph made himself comfortable in the castle with Vanellope, who was sitting on her throne.

"Thanks for taking care of me, Stinkbrain!"

"Just doing you a favor."

"Make yourself at home," said Vanellope. "You won't even know I'm here!"

He shrugged and went towards the hallway by the kitchen.

"Oh, Ralph?" said Vanellope.

Here we go.

Ralph looked at her in an annoyed way.

"Yes?"

Vanellope looked at him with a smug smile, moving her fingers on the armrest of her throne to make them look like they were walking.

"I'm kinda thirsty. Can you get me a glass of milk?"

She folded her hands and looked at him adorably while fluttering her eyelashes. Ralph went to get her milk.

"Oh, wait!"

He stopped.

"Make that chocolate milk. Yet again, strawberry milk is the best."

She proceeded to annoy him by rapidly changing her mind.

"Never mind, get me some soda. Ginger Ale will do. No, Coca Cola tastes better. Get me some Diet Coke. No, Coke Zero. No, Coke Cherry!"

At that point, Ralph ignored her and went to the kitchen.

"You know what?" said Vanellope. "Forget the whole thing. Just get the milk and we'll see what happens from there."

Ralph came back with a glass in his hand.

"What's that?"

"Water."

"Perfect! Just what I needed! Thanks, Ralphie!"

She drank the water, making sure there wasn't a single drop left.

"I gotta pee. To the bathroom!"

Vanellope extended her arms out so Ralph could carry her. Ralph chuckled as he gently picked her up and decided to make a remark about her ability to annoy him.

"I knew you still had it."

"Oh, yeah. I still got it alright!"


One Week Later

Ralph was back at the castle. He brought some cherries to share with her, fresh from Pac Man.

"Vanellope, I've got something for you- Vanellope?"

He looked around, noticing that she wasn't sitting on her throne.

"Vanellope?"

"Up here!"

Vanellope was sitting on a chair at the top of the stairs. Despite her broken leg, she managed to come down with grace. The chair was slowly bringing her to the bottom of the stairs.

"What's that?" said Ralph.

"It's a stairlift. I started feeling bad that you had to carry everywhere, so I had Beard Papa make one out of a kart to make things easier for you. Also I started physical therapy with Sour Bill while you were gone. Ok, I'm almost down, just give me a few seconds. Any minute now. Aaaaaaannnnnd I'm not there yet...getting closer now- there we go."

Ralph helped her out of the stairlift. It didn't take long for Vanellope to notice the cherries in his hand.

"Ooh! Whatcha got there, Ralph?"

"Cherries, straight from Pac Man. I was thinking we could share some after Bad-Anon ended."

"Thanks!"

She took a cherry and ate it, with Ralph eating the other.

"That hit the spot. You know what would go good with this? A drink from Tapper's!"

"You want me to go to Tapper's and get a drink for you, don't you Vanellope?"

"Yep!"

Ralph sighed.

"Fine, but I'm not getting anything else!"

Ralph went to Tapper's and came back with two mugs of beer: one for Vanellope and one for himself.

"Actually," said Vanellope, "I changed my mind. I don't want it anymore."

This made Ralph mad.

"Vanellope!"

"I'm just playin' with ya, Stinkbrain!"

She playfully punched his shoulder.

"Did ya really think I'd be that ungrateful?"

She took a sip out of her mug.

"Mmmm you can really taste the beer. It's strong...but you're definitely stronger!"

Ralph laughed and sat by Vanellope's side, drinking his beer.


Although Vanellope occasionally made things hard for Ralph to take care of her, he enjoyed almost every second of it. There was nothing better than getting to see his best friend every night. When the six weeks passed, Vanellope got her cast taken off by Sour Bill.

"Yeah, I can race again!" she shouted as she glitched and did cartwheels everywhere.

"Thanks again for taking care of me, Ralph. It was fun getting to see you every night."

"Same here. You know, I actually might miss that...well, at least it was nice while it lasted."

The disembodied voice announced that the arcade was about to open, meaning that it was time for Ralph to go.

"Well, I gotta go. See you later, Fartfeathers!"

"Bye, Stinkbrain!"

He left the castle and returned to his game.