Page 4: Drabbles on Events after the Movie events- Part 2
(I imagine these 3 drabbles taking place about 6 months or so after the events in the movie. Enjoy! )
10.) Genuine Good Guy
Ralph stood on the porch of the Niceland Apartment building, gazing up at the highest floor. His eyebrows somewhat scrunched together, half in already feeling regret and half in embarrassment.
Inhaling deeply, the wrecker finally had the guts to enter the building. He didn't exhale until he got in the elevator and pushed the button that would take him to the highest floor...where Felix and his penthouse stood unknowingly waiting for Ralph's unexpected arrival.
Fretting and worrying, the massive man gulped. He nervously and subconsciously twisted his large hands around each other, as he'd done from the moment after he'd punched that stupid hole in the wall.
All because of that stupid spider... Ralph thought angrily.
Maybe I should've just gone to Vanellope's, he began to wonder nervously as the elevator climbed higher and higher.
Despite his elevating anxiety, the wrecker couldn't help but smile slightly at the thought of his little impish, obnoxious best friend. He could almost just hear her insults against him now...
"You already put a hole in a wall of your shack?!" She would tease him the second he would explain what had happened. "You haven't even been there a full year yet, Moron!"
"It's not my fault the walls weren't made 'wrecking proof'!" He would defensively tell her, throwing his massive hands in the air.
She would, of course, just smirk and roll her eyes, wittily ready to just insult him again.
"Oh, they were made 'wrecking proof'," she would tell him with half-lidded eyes as she'd move from her castle doorway so that Ralph could enter. "Just not 'clumsy, overly-afraid-of-little-8-bit-spiders' proof!"
Ralph, of course, would just glare at her with mock, playful anger in return as he'd enter inside her castle and flop himself down on her candy couch- his bed for the night.
"Hey! If that spider had bitten me, I could've died, kid!" He would say dramatically, fluffing up one of the couch cushions as his pillow. "Besides, you would've been trying to punch the coding out of that spider, too!"
"Yeah, just not to the point it'd break down my own wall," she would just giggle in return - before she went running up the stairs to grab her sleeping bag to join her unexpected sleepover with her best friend...
Ralph chuckled quietly at the make-believe conversation in his head. That definitely sounded like a conversation he'd have with Vanellope, alright.
But he had a strange comfort in knowing that no matter how much she teased him, mocked him, or made fun of him, the sweet child would never turn him away when he really needed her...or if he needed somewhere to stay for the evening. She'd been a true, loyal friend to Ralph from the get-go, never -at least, never seriously - acting like it was a pain having to help him...
Ralph was shaken from his thoughts as the elevator dinged suddenly open. Gulping once again, he squeezed his way out and lumbered slowly over to where Felix' apartment was.
It would've been stupid to go to the kid's place just for this, anyways, Ralph confirmed as he walked. Yeah, she'd let me stay for sure, but...Felix' place is just right here...
Despite the pep talk of sorts, the wrecker still drew in another shaking breath, unsure of what he was about to do.
He genuinely didn't wish the bother the handyman, especially if Calhoun was staying the night as well...
But, too, something about asking the fixer for help made Ralph...worry and unsure.
Sure, his relationship with Felix was a lot better than how it used to be before the wrecker went Turbo. They had gone from mere uncomfortable acquaintances to having a friendship with actual meaning. Now the wrecker and fixer both considered the other to be a close companion, a brother even.
So why did unnerve Ralph so much to ask the fixer for help, a temporary place to stay?
Because although they were on good terms now, Ralph's mind couldn't help but wander back to the past...when things weren't always so relaxed between him and the good guy. 30 long years, actually.
30 years of feeling like a mere liability, a mere citizen that may or may not need help from the game's hero...
Of course, Ralph knew the fixer would do anything for anyone, him included. But Ralph couldn't help feel in the past that it was because it was in Felix's programming to be a helping good guy- and that was the only reason why he ever helped Ralph. It was not necessarily because he wanted to...
Yes, things were now different. ..but after years and years of being slightly treated as a mere requirement for help still played and questioned the bad guy's mind.
Would Felix really be cool with him crashing (literally) at his place until morning? Or would he, although hiddenly, begrudgingly say yes out of mere duty?
And what if Ralph asking ruined everything, reminding Felix just how needy the wrecker is, how stupid he is?...
Those questionable thoughts made Ralph halt in his steps...and slowly back away before turning around completely to head back towards the elevator.
I've slept in the brick dump for years, he reasoned. One night of sleeping in it again won't really hurt me any-
"Ralph?" A sleepy-voiced called out softly, belonging to none other than Felix himself.
The wrecker froze before slowly turning around to face his colleague. He'd been so deep in troubled thoughts that he hadn't even heard the man's apartment door open- or to hear Felix step out onto his welcome mat before the door.
"Oh...H-hey, Felix," Ralph blushed as he rubbed the nape of his neck awkwardly. "Did I wake you up somehow?"
Despite absolute exhaustion being clear on his face, the pajama dressed Felix smiled.
"You can't really walk around without going unfelt, brother," he told him good naturally and softly.
Rubbing his eyes in a way that reminded Ralph of Vanellope, the fixer then yawned loudly. "What are you doing up so late anywho, brother? It's past midnight."
In mounting anxiety, Ralph sighed and ventured closer to his friend.
Here goes nothing. Or something. The wrecker couldn't really tell which.
"Well..its kinda a long story...see, I, er, well, Ikindapunchaholeinmyhouse-becauseofaspider..." he rushed out quickly, rubbing his neck in embarrassment again as he grimaced at the handyman.
When Felix peered at Ralph curiously and he tried to smooth his own bed hair out (and to decipher the man's words), Ralph hesitantly continued.
"I need a place to stay for the night... and was going to ask ya, but I then thought it'd be too much of a hassle for ya and-"
"What?!" Felix gawked suddenly, his eyes wide now as he uncharacteristically interrupted the large man. "'Hassle'? Ralph, you're not a hassle to me in any way! I don't give a boo -forgive my potty mouth- what you did." He suddenly smiled kindly at the friend on his doorstep. "If you need a place to stay, then it's going to be right here in my apartment!"
At the short man's words, Ralph twiddled his thumbs nervously. He knew Felix would say that, but...
"Are you sure, Felix?" the wrecker asked cautiously, carefully- already feeling himself back up again. "I can just sleep in the dump again, really-"
"What?! Ralph..." Felix stammered for a moment as if the mere thought hurt him...and it was clear it sincerely did. "I will never allow you to sleep in that dump again, brother. Not even for one night..."
The small man looked away suddenly, embarrassment and worry and sadness so strong in his eyes.
"I can't believe I ever did let you, Ralph..."
As Felix sighed with a heavy heart, it was clear that his past treatment of Ralph still pained the small man, haunted him even...perhaps even more than it still did Ralph.
"Really?" Ralph asked softly as if Felix's face wasn't already a clear enough answer.
"Of course," the small man continued, sadness suddenly turning into warmth. "And Ralph, always always know you're always more than welcomed here, really. Anytime you need again, I'm here. 'Cause we're family, remember?"
And with that, the handyman in the doorway stepped aside so Ralph could enter- clearly not taking 'no' for an answer on Ralph's part.
As the wrecker just felt a twinge of happiness, contentful peace...what he could call, closure, he guessed..he then carefully, cautiously walked inside the apartment.
And as he walked passed a smiling Felix, he saw it. A look of a genuine good guy in Felix's eyes, a look of brotherly affection for him...
And Ralph couldn't have felt any better or more relieved that he had Felix as his real, genuine brother.
11.) McShorty
"Come on, give it back!" Vanellope growled as viciously as she jumped up and down, waving her hands in the air. "That cookie is mine, Monkey Face! I earned it!"
Tauntingly holding the treat closer to her face before raising it higher again, Ralph just rolled his eyes playfully at the whining child.
"Yeah, right," he scoffed. "You didn't 'earn' this cookie; you just picked it up from your candy game while on the way here, McShorty."
"Yeah, the same way you picked up a few extra pounds on the way here, Chubo," the child sassed back, still bouncing up and down on a bar stool right beside the one where Ralph sat.
The wrecker sneered at her and fake laughed. "Ha! Good one, kid. That was just as lame as one of your 'Hero's Doodie' jokes."
In response, Vanellope just growled and continued jumping on her stool, nearly falling off serval times as she did. She finally resorted to glitching, using her powers to pixelate up closer to where Ralph held her prize above her. However, the wrecker was faster than the child had anticipated, always moving the cookie just enough out of her reach.
"Ralph, C'mon," Felix softly reprimanded the wrecker to his right as the three of them sat at the bar top of Tapper's. The two friends' 'game' was starting to cause a scene in the usually calm root beer game. "Quit torturing Vanellope and just give her her cookie back."
Jiminey Jaminey, these two, the handyman thought to himself with a head shake -but still couldn't help for feel a slight smile forming on his face at the two's sibling-like banter and teasing.
When Ralph still didn't lower her treat, the child groaned loudly and stomped her foot childishly on the bar top she now stood on. She definantly crossed her arms, shooting daggers at her best friend in defeat as she did so.
"Ugh! You're so annoying, Ralph!" Vanellope exclaimed angrily at him, flopping to sit down on the counter she was on.
"And you're so short, President Fart Feathers," the large man teased in return, not caring that others were staring at them- though he was already used to that. "Grow a few inches, and then u can reach stuff."
Sensing that Vanellope was really getting seriously aggravated with him, though, Ralph finally tossed the cookie back down on the bar top and chuckled as the child quickly devoured it.
"Oh, I'm noth that sthorth," Vanellope hissed with a mouth full as she stood up and plopped back down on her stool.
In fondness, Ralph rolled his eyes as he ruffled his friend's hair gently.
"Yes, you are, kid. You're, like, the shortest game character ever!" he exaggerated, purposely trying to get under the child's skin.
"Nuh uh!" Vanellope countered defensively, wiping cookie crumbs off her face. She leaned over and pointed to the handyman sitting on the other side of Ralph. "Felix is even shorter than me!"
"Is not," Ralph calmly rolled his eyes.
"Is too!"
"Is not, Booger Face."
"IS TOO, DIAPER BABY!!"
Not this argument again, Felix groan silently, taking another long sip of his root beer.
This was an often debate between the wrecker and the child... and Felix always got pulled into the middle of it.
The handyman decided this time to just ignore the argument and hoped his wife would get to Tapper's soon.
"Alright, fine," Ralph finally stated after a few more rounds of banter with Vanellope. "Let's just settle this once and for all."
He turned towards his short colleague in blue sitting beside him- who refused to look him in the eye.
"Felix, hop off real quick!" Ralph instructed him. "We're going to measure you up to Vanellope to see who's really the shortest. Once and for all!"
In vain, Felix started to resist, then figured it just be easier to comply and get the 'measuring' over with. The blue vested man hopped off his stool with a sigh and crossed his arms impatiently as he waited for Vanellope to do the same.
The child glitched to the ground quickly and stood back to back against Felix, making her back as straight as a pole. At first, the top of the twos' heads appeared to be just about even, Ralph's surprise.
But then Ralph noticed Felix was grumpily sloughing slightly, which he quickly reprimanded him for and told him to stand up straighter. And when Vanellope tried to stand on her tip toes, Ralph quickly called it out as cheating.
After a few moments of "examining", Ralph finally smirked. He held a hand over each of his two short friends' heads, the one over Vanellope being clearly lower than the one over Felix.
"See? I told you- you are shorter than Felix," he confirmed to the little girl, who growled angrily as she glitched back up to her seat.
Shaking his head, Felix climbed back on his stool and prayed Calhoun would arrive soon. She had a way of keeping the two's teasing in line better than he did.
"Hey, Vanellope," Ralph mocked a few moments of silence later, "you want me to get you a booster seat?"
He turned to smirk tauntingly down at his little friend, only to see she wasn't there.
"Vanellope?" Losing his smirk, the wrecker looked around him, trying to find a trace of his friend. He looked under the bar top and around the seating area. A look of worry quickly filled his face, not likely that the child had suddenly gone missing.
"JUNK PILE!" An irate voice boomed loudly suddenly, shaking Ralph from all thinking.
He knew that voice all too well.
The wrecker winced and slowly to turn his head in time to see that Calhoun had busted through the doorway of Tapper's. And she did not look pleased.
She marched over to where Ralph sat waiting in a panic- and punched him as hard as she could on the side of his face, forcing him to go flying off his stool and to lay flat on his back on the ground.
"How dare disrespect of my game like that!!" The war woman hissed threateningly. She rolled her eyes in disgust at Ralph and flopped down beside her husband, who gawked are her silently.
In numbing pain, Ralph rubbed his tender jaw, completely puzzled as he tried to prop himself up on his elbows and to fully understand what she meant.
"Wha- I didn't say anything about-"
"Can it, Wreck-It!" The angry women hissed. "Candy Head already told me all I need to know. Call my game Hero's Doodie again and I'll pulverize you into next Tuesday, got it?"
As Ralph continued to lay slack-jawed on the ground, Vanellope appeared suddenly as she glitched on a bar stool next to Calhoun. The smirk on her face told Ralph everything he needed to know.
Hands innocently placed behind her back, the child leaned forward and stuck her face down in Ralph's face, smirking triumphantly.
"Who's the McShorty now?"
12.) Stargazing
"Look! Look! I found a hammer, Felix!" Vanellope chirped excitedly as she pointed up at one group of the beautiful 8-bit stars above her, loving to see them twinkle the way they did. "Ha! What a discovery!!"
Laying on his back to her right, the handyman chuckled at the child's enthusiasm. Peering up at the sky, he too saw the hammer constellation- and didn't have the heart to break it to her that he'd been the one who'd first found the starry connection over 30 years ago.
But a certain wrecker present didn't mind bursting the little girl's bubble, teasingly humble her as he often did- he didn't mind one bit.
"Uh, of course there'd be a hammer constellation here, Fart Feathers!" Ralph told Vanellope matter-of-factly as he laid on his back to her left. "The very game is called Fix-It Felix Jr and the good guy in the game has a hammer."
The candy child huffed and crossed her arms angrily at his words.
"Ga-doi! I knew that already, Captain Moron," she countered, although her tone said otherwise. "I was going to point out that I saw a few brick constipations to you as well, but nevermind."
"They're called constellations, Speed Demon," Sergeant Calhoun chimed in finally, peeking a look at her husband to her left to see he too was trying not to laugh.
"Constipations, Constellations- whatever," Vanellope waved it off- although she felt her cheeks felt a little hot in embarrassment. "Point is, I found them- you 3 have been just laying here, makin' me do all the work."
The three adults just eyed around at each other with a shared smile and an eye roll. Vanellope could be such a childish drama queen.
The four friends laid in silence for a while, all staring up at the same starry sky. They all were reclined on their backs in a makeshift circle, heads close to one another with their elbows near touch as they folded them behind their heads.
It had been a long day for them all- the arcade itself had been busy, meaning more business for the games of Fix-It Felix Jr, Sugar Rush, and Hero's Duty. There was no better way from the friends to relax and unwind than by meeting up and stargazing together.
The decision of looking for constellations in the game of Fix-It Felix Jr had been a quick and easy one. Sugar Rush had an overcast of cotton candy clouds this particular night, blocking the view of the candy stars. And the intense game of Hero's Duty was wished not to be visited again by both Felix and Ralph (who was more or less banned from the game, anyway).
Thus, the calm, cleared, and starry sky of Fix-It Felix Jr it was.
The game itself after the arcade was close was calming and simple to the four friends; the 8-bit crickets chirping happily, an occasional firefly was seen as well. The soft grass tickled each of their necks, and the sound of a digital trickle of water was heard not too far from where the group laid.
The silence between them was calming and relaxing for the group as well- at least for the three adults.
"Ooh, look! " Vanellope, not one too fond of silence, broke out suddenly. She pointed up at the stars again. "I see a Pac-Man!"
Both Felix and Ralph curiously eyed up at each other. The good guy and bad guy of the game knew that the group (well, mostly Vanellope) had already found most the game's constellations, including the game's version of the Big Dipper, a pie, a group of stars formed together that reminded Calhoun of Gene's mustache, and a hammer.
But neither of Ralph nor Felix remembered ever seeing a constellation that resembled Pac-Man.
"Really?" Ralph asked the child. "Where?" He peered upwards to see if he could find it himself, but to no avail.
"Ha! Gotcha, suckers!" Vanellope laughed impishly and loudly, gripping her stomach as she giggled at her own prank. "Can't believe you two were dumb enough to actually buy that!!"
"Why you little-" Ralph jokingly growled angrily. He gently snatched up the child laying by his side and tickled her relentlessly, causing her to squeal happily.
When the tickling stopped, the wrecker released the child and allowed her to settle back by his side- only to feel Vanellope cuddle closer to him than before.
Peering around Ralph's large shoulder, she looked to find that Felix and Calhoun too had scooted closer to one another themselves and that the couple had enter woven their hands together.
Sighing contently, the child returned to snuggling her best friend's side, his large, protective arm cradling her gently. All four friends resumed eyeing the starry sky as Vanellope muttered sleepily what all the others were undoubtedly thinking.
"Stargazing was a good idea."