AN: You guys are amazing. Seventeen reviews in three days? Really, thank you. Originally, I was going to leave this as a one-shot and let you all decide what happened, but after reading all of your reviews, combined with a very depressed Felix muse and a pissed off Calhoun muse that's spent the last few days screaming at me to fix it, I've decided to write this. It was actually really hard. I've rewritten this literally five times, and only now am I happy enough to post it. Part of that was because I had to keep taking breaks so that I could stop crying. My own feelings aside, I hope that you guys like this, and that it serves as a good second chapter for 'Bow Out.' Thank you for reading, and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wreck-It Ralph. Disney does.

Walking down the tunnel that would take him back to his game with his head held high, his hand clutching the now empty bag that he had borrowed from one of the Nicelanders, and his hat pushed upwards so that he could see the world around him, it was the work of a moment for Fix-It Felix to realize that, eventually, he would be okay.

So long as Tamora was happy, despite the ache in his chest that refused to go away, he would survive.

The players, of course, would be easy to fool. Fake a grin, pretend to taste the random pies that his job forced him to eat, and pretend to care about the medal that would be hung around his neck each time that he won. Continue on fixing the messes that Ralph caused with each new round, and so long as he could force himself to remain focused, there would be no need to worry. For the player, the children that had kept his game alive for the last thirty years, nothing would ever change. Of that, Felix would make sure. He owned them that much, and he always paid his dues.

Reaching the train station with less than an hour to spare before the arcade was due to open, all it took was a single look at the pity in Ralph's gaze for Felix to break down once more and cry.

The only thing the larger man could do was helplessly wait for the final pieces of his brothers' heart to finish tearing themselves apart.

"You gave her the papers," Ralph stated calmly as he watched Felix finally dry his eyes with the back of his glove, leaving a wet spot where the leather was a darker brown then the rest. For the last week the wrecker had been fighting with his co-worker over the decision that the handyman had made, trying, as best as he could, to keep his friends' life from falling apart at his own two hands. Every moment that could be spared between games had been spent discussing the move that Felix had decided to play, and now, his efforts in vain, Ralph was seeing his worst fear come to life.

Felix may have fixed one problem, but the one that he had created would take so much more than a magic hammer to repair. Ralph was not even sure that there was a cure for a heart so broken.

"I left them where she would find them," Felix replied softly after a moment, his voice thick with the feelings that were still swimming in his eyes. "I was too much of a coward to give them to her myself, so I left a note to explain everything." Seeing the look in his friend's eyes, it was with a watery smile that Felix pulled out his hammer and tapped his face with it, banishing the irritated skin and blotchy marks that had been his most defining features a moment before. "I'm fine, Ralph; truly, I am. The arcade's about to op-"

"No, Felix, you're not," Ralph interrupted with a slight growl, his hands curling into fists as he stared at the hero of their game in a mixture of angered disbelief. "You just gave the woman you've been waiting thirty years to fall in love with the perfect way out without even telling her why in person, so no, you are not fine. You are so not fine, there's not even a word to describe how not fine you are. I know you, Felix, and I know how you work, so don't even try to sugar coat this. You are not fine."

"I'm better than I would have been if I had decided to stay in the game, brother," Felix said with a sigh, his head bowing under the weight of Ralph's words. "This way, at least, the decision to give up was on me, not her. Tamora can be with Brad without having to have chosen between the two of us, and you know what, Ralph? I'm glad. I'm glad that Tamora is going to be happy with the man that she was programmed to love, and that she won't have to start that new life knowing what it was that she left behind. She's free, and that's all that matters to me."

"You talk as if you knew that she was going to choose Brad, when in reality you had no stinkin' clue," Ralph shot back, his arms shaking as he fought to reign in the temper that was screaming at him to smash something while his tongue threw out the exact same words that he had been saying for the past week. "She could have chosen you, Felix, she could have chosen you. And what did you do? You threw it all away." Turning on his heel so that he was no longer facing the smaller hero, it was with a roar of frustration on his friend's behalf that Ralph brought his fists down on the station benches, splinters and flecks of metal soaring through the air as he continued to pummel them into dust. Finding that his rage had been spent and that there was nothing of his targets left to finish destroying, it was with a sigh that the wrecker turned back, a deep sadness that had nothing to do with himself replacing the anger of before. "I know you Felix, and even you can't say that the solution you came up with fixed everything, especially if the broken heart icons that have been floating around you for the past few minutes are anything to go by."

"Ralph," Felix said hesitantly as he swatted at the few remaining pixels that had given his feelings a physical representation within their world, "what else could I have done? What-"

"The arcade is officially open!"

Wincing slightly as the announcement was made that would begin their newest day of work, for a few moments more Ralph and Felix met each other's gazes, their eyes locked as they ignored the steadily increasing sounds of the children filing into the room and making their way towards their favorite game. It took a shadow finally passing across their screen, the only indicator that a quarter would soon be heading their way, for Ralph to turn away, his head slowly shaking as he prepared to take his spot.

"You could have fought for her, Felix," Ralph said softly as he prepared to begin wrecking the building. "You could have fought and let her know that you loved her. But it's too late now."

With that, another day began.

It was a busy day, for that Felix had to be thankful, for so long as he focused on the movements that the children playing his games commanded him to make, his mind couldn't wander to the high definition first-person shooter game that he could always catch a glimpse over the player's shoulder. So long as he was dodging ducks, fixing windows, and jumping for the next platform, he couldn't focus on the black-clad warrior that was shooting her way through level after level of cy-bug scum. So long as he remained focused on fixing Ralph's messes, he couldn't hear the almost words that were just loud enough to be almost audible in his little corner of the room.

So long as he had a player, Felix was okay.

It was those moments, however, those few minutes between one player moving on and another taking an interest in his game, which tore him apart, for it was during those moments that he had nothing other than her to think about.

By the time Litwak closed up the arcade for lunch, Felix was almost at the end of his rope. Smiling the fake smile that he knew was convincing no one as he left, though the Nicelanders were, at Ralph's prompting, nice enough turn a blind eye to this fact, it wasn't long before the handyman found himself sitting amongst the trees that made up the eight-bit forest that surrounded their town, his back pressed against the pixilated bark for support. Surprisingly, his eyes were dry, though as he pressed his forehead against his knees he couldn't help but wish that the tears would come, for at least when he was crying the unspeakable pain within his chest lessened to a more bearable level.

His only comfort was that fact that he had chosen this, and so it had to be a thousand times better than the pain that would have come when Tamora finally told him that she had chosen Brad instead.

"Stink Brain said that I would find you here."

"H-hey, Vanellope," Felix greeted as the young princess seated herself next to him, the smile he had thrown on falling as he caught sight of the look on her face. "What are you doing around these parts? Shouldn't you be back in your own game?"

"Ralph came and told me what had happened," Vanellope said softly as she looked at the ground, refusing to look him in the eye as she pulled out blade after blade of grass. "Are you and the Sergeant really getting a divorce?"

"It's for the best," Felix said as ways of reply, turning his head slightly so that he could watch the little girl sitting next to him destroy the patch of woodland around her. "This way, everyone's happy."

"But you're not," Vanellope said as she dropped the handful of grass that she had just pulled up, instead twisting so that she was leaning against Felix, her arms wrapping around him as she buried her face into his shoulder. "Everyone but you is happy, and that's not fair."

"Oh, sweetheart," Felix whispered as he uncurled to return her hug, his body trembling slightly as he tightened his hold, "life's not always fair. But so long as Tamora is happy, for me, it's fair enough." For a long while the two just sat there together, silently waiting for the time to pass that would send them back to work. When the call finally came that Litwak would soon be returning, meaning that the afternoon swarm of children was not far behind, Vanellope left without another word, the only sign that she had been there the torn up grass and the small lollipop that she had pressed into Felix's hand when she had turned to go.

The tears finally came when Felix saw that, on the back, the words We love you had been carved into the sticky red coating.

By the time the final bonus round had ended, Felix was more than ready to head on home.

After the lunch break had ended, the rest of the day had continued on in a blur, the children that had not been able to join their friends for the morning rush swelling their numbers until every game was filled, leaving lines for the more popular games as children watched each other play, hoping to gain a hint or two on how to win at their favorite pastime. Luckily for him, ever since Q-bert and the others had joined their crew, Fix-It Felix, Jr. had become the talk of the town, filling almost every afternoon with players trying to reach that last, fabled level. Normally it was a hardship, for while other game were given a moment or two to rest after each round, the characters of their game no longer had such luxury. On a normal day they had to bite back exhausted groans and continue on without giving themselves away, though no one could complain too much, for they would rather be tired then unplugged. On a normal day, it was just a day like any other.

Today, Felix threw himself into his work, each level passing quicker and quicker as he tried to out jump and out fix the thoughts that refused to leave him.

"Good job today, Felix, Ralph," Gene said with a nod of his head as they all met up at the base of the apartment, the others chiming in in agreement as they worked to clean up the last bit of debris that the final player had left them with. "That was some wonderful wrecking and fixing. Will we be seeing you two at the after party tonight?"

"Sorry guys," Ralph said with a chuckle as he shook his head, "but I already promised President Fart Feathers that I would meet her for the roster race. Maybe tomorrow."

"Fair enough," Gene said with a nod, though something in the tone of his voice gave away the relief at the wrecker's absence that he was no longer allowed to publically express. "Felix? Seeing as how you no longer have a previous engagement, so will we be seeing you?"

"N-no, Gene, I'm just going to go home," Felix said quickly as he saw Ralph's hands begin to curl into fists, hoping that he would be able to prevent a fight if he got the larger man out of there. "Good night everybody, great job, and we'll be seeing you tomorrow. Ralph, come on." Reaching up to tug on the larger man's sleeve, it was with just enough time to spare that the handyman dragged the wrecker away, though the latter continued to shoot glares over his shoulder at the Nicelander behind them.

"I really hate that guy sometimes," Ralph growled as the two of them continued down the street that would take them to the train station. "He just makes me so, so angry, sometimes, I just want to wreck something."

"Gene's just being Gene, brother," Felix said distractedly, his eyes fixed upon the yellow-painted door that was quickly, too quickly, coming into range. "Don't let him get to yah."

"Hey, are you okay," Ralph asked as he realized what Felix had been looking at for the past few minutes, the wrecker himself taking a couple of moments to examine the entrance. It had been built for someone much taller than Felix himself, the handyman having specially made it for the woman he had intended to spend the rest of his life with, painted to reflect the sunlight that was missing from both of their games. Inside, Ralph knew that everything would be exactly the same, the entire building built to scale perfectly for her. "You're not going to stay here, are you?"

"Just for tonight," Felix replied as he turned away, his hops up the stairs sluggish and slow. "Tomorrow I'll move back into the main complex, but I just wanted to spend one last night here. To remember."

"And there's nothing I can say to change your mind, to make you keep on trying," Ralph asked softly as Felix reached up to open the door, standing on the tips of his toes to reach the handle that would have been at the perfect height for her. "You're sure?"

"Absolutely, brother. I'm sure."

"You know," Ralph almost whispered, "I asked you the exact same question when you told me that you were going to ask Calhoun to marry you. And you gave me the exact same answer."

"I know, Ralph," Felix replied, his head bowed so that the brim of his hat covered his eyes. "When it comes to her, I'm always sure." With that, Felix closed the door and left the last member of his family to continue on alone.

Hours later, lying on what had once been their bed, staring at the picture that stood on his nightstand, the one that had been taken on their wedding day, when Felix heard the door softly open and shut, he automatically assumed that it was Ralph coming to check on him.

"How was the race," Felix asked wearily, wondering just how long he would have to wait before he could politely ask Ralph to leave. "Did Vanellope win?"

"I wouldn't know, Fix-It," a voice that was definitely not Ralph's replied coolly, "because I've been too busy debating whether I should shoot you myself or just feed you to a cy-bug and be done with it to go watch."