Rancis puttered along following the wheel tracks left in the frosting mud. He rounded a bend and saw a familiar hodgepodge kart sitting on the edge of a taffy pool. The green liquid was studded with floating gumdrops and there was a pink candy cane tree growing in the middle. He parked his kart next to the other one and climbed out, running his fingers over the maker's mark as he passed.

Stopping at the edge of the goopy pool and peering nervously at the bobbing gumdrops, the only way to the tree, Rancis decided not to risk it. "Vanellope?" he called nervously, "are you here?"

There was a whoosh and Rancis' favorite President appeared on the lowest branch of the tree. "Rancis?" she asked. "What're you doing here?"

"I saw you driving away earlier," he replied. "I wanted to make sure you were – you know – okay, I guess." He scuffed his shoe against the ground and flicked his single curl out of his face.

Vanellope blushed. "I'm fine. Just…wanted to get away for a while…"

"Oh! I'm sorry, I'll just go…"

"No, wait!" Vanellope called just as he was climbing back into his kart. "It's not you, Rancis, it's all those other guys." She waved her hand dismissively in the direction of the main area of the game. "I hated them being mean to me, but they're all being super nice now. It's like they're trying to kiss up or something."

Neither racer said anything for a moment. "Do you want to come up?" Vanellope asked when the silence became uncomfortable.

Rancis looked uncertainly at the gumdrops again. "Umm…"

"Oh, don't be such a scaredy cat, Mr. Priss," Vanellope teased. "Look, just jump on the orange gumdrop right in front of you, then the green one, the pink one, the yellow one, and then onto this branch," she stomped on the branch she was standing on. "Simple as that!"

"Ooookay…" Rancis did as he was told and hopped to the orange gumdrop, then the green one, the pink one, and so on until he was making a leap of faith toward Vanellope's branch. His jump was just the tiniest bit shorter than he needed it to be and he ended up dangling from the branch by one hand.

"Help me!" Rancis gasped, his feet windmilling in the air above the taffy.

Vanellope leaned casually against the trunk of the tree. "What's the magic word?"

"NELLIE, PLEASE!" he cried. He reached his free hand up to her, truly terrified of plummeting into the murky green depths below him.

Startled by her friend's horrified expression, Vanellope took his hand and pulled him up onto the branch. Rancis wrapped his arms and legs around the branch. "I wouldn't have let you fall," Vanellope said quietly. She offered her hand once more and Rancis accepted it to get to his feet.

They stood side by side on the branch. "Race you to the top?" Vanellope offered with a grin.

Although he was still terrified of imminent death by taffy, Rancis knew it would make Vanellope happy if he said yes, so he smiled and nodded.

"Yes!" Vanellope jumped in the air and twirled. She crouched down and touched the branch with one hand. "Ready?" she asked.

Rancis mimicked her pose. He may have been an excellent kart racer, but he wasn't much for foot racing. Either way, he replied, "Ready."

"Set," Vanellope continued. She looked up the tree towards the top. "Go!"

She took off like a rocket, leaving Rancis in her dust. He scrambled after her, struggling to keep up. He leapt from branch to branch, not really looking, just sort of hoping that there would be one where he needed it. He paused once to catch his breath, knowing that he was already beat, but the branch disappeared from under him.

Rancis screamed as he fell, his hands flailing above him. He was pretty much resigned to the fact that he was going to drown in the taffy pool, but people always screamed in movies.

"Rancis!" Vanellope cried. She dropped down at top speed and caught Rancis. She was dangling from a branch by one hand and clutching Rancis' in the other. She swung him to a nearby branch and then got over herself.

"What just happened?" Rancis panted. "That branch disappeared!"

"Double stripe," Vanellope explained. She was on her knees next to him, winded from her race up the tree and her sprint down to save him. "Double stripe breaks."

"Oh." Rancis straightened his hat and plopped down next to Vanellope.

Vanellope sat up and leaned against the trunk of the tree. "Why were you so scared?" she asked, pushing her bangs out of her face. "You would have just regenerated in your kart like you always do."

Rancis shrugged. "You feel like your drowning before you regenerate though. It's still terrifying."

Vanellope pulled her knees up to her chest. "Does it hurt when you crash your kart during a game?"

Rancis' eyes widened. "You've never crashed?"

"Nope. Whenever I get close to the edge I just glitch back to the center of the track."

"Yeah, it hurts," Rancis said. "And then you just flicker back into your kart and the pain is gone. You just keep driving."

They were both silent as Vanellope seemed to ponder this. Rancis cleared his throat awkwardly and said, "Maybe we should head back. It's about time for the Roster Race."

Vanellope nodded and stood up. "Let's get going." She turned and smirked at him over her shoulder. "Watch out for double stripes on the way down." With that, she was leaping off the branch and plummeting down.

Rancis cried out in alarm and bent over to watch her descent. Vanellope landed gracefully on one of the gumdrops below and hopped to solid ground. She dashed to her kart, brushing her and Ralph's signatures as she passed just as Rancis had. Once seated she gunned the engine and looked back up at where Rancis was watching her, awe struck.

"Are you coming or not?" the President called up to him.

Rancis shook himself out of his stupor and carefully made his way down the tree. He moved cautiously from one gumdrop to the next and still tumbled onto his face when he hit the shore. When he stood Vanellope couldn't be sure if the pink on his face was a blush or if it was from the pink frosting he'd face planted in. She giggled either way.

"Pink is not you color, Fluggerbutter," Vanellope commented as he got in his kart.

"Shut it, Princess," Rancis shot back with a grin.

"Ooooh, we're bringin' out the P word are we?" Vanellope sneered evilly. "If that's how it's gonna be, fine then. Let's race to the track. Loser has to treat the winner to Tapper's tomorrow night."

Rancis beamed. Finally, something he could win at. He revved his engine, "You're on."

And they were off, leaving a cloud of sugar that would have clogged Calhoun's radar for a month.