The Sparks of Reminiscing Ch. 4:
Secrets Untold
Just like the night before, Ralph lead Vanellope over to her seat and pulled it out for her, just as two root beers slid their way. Ralph took a moment to settle himself down in the seat next to her, and before he began to speak, he took a drink from the mug in front of him. Vanellope began to toss back her head, laughing out loud, and Ralph could not see what was so hilarious at first. "Ralph, you've got a root beer 'stache!" Vanellope was in stitches. Embarrassed, Ralph tried to laugh it off with her and wipe it away. "Heh… Yeah. It's always pretty funny when someone gets one of those." Ralph grinned at her, still trying to hide the embarrassment. The blush returned to Vanellope's face as she suddenly began to fidget. "Well, actually… More than funny, I think it was… It was kinda…" her voice kept trailing off.
Ralph chuckled a bit more, causing Vanellope to look up before finishing what she was going to say. Anything to keep either of them from admitting anything so early. The ice was still very thin, but it was getting thicker over time. He pointed a finger at her face, laughed and said, "Look, you've got one too, guttersnipe." before taking the liberty of wiping it off of her face for her. This practically melted her, although she tried her best not to show it at all. He was just so warm and inviting to the touch that she just wanted to crawl into his arms, throw her arms around him and just stay that way forever. Then, it seemed, she was not doing a very good job of hiding these feelings, as Ralph's reaction after realizing what he did was even more embarrassing. He pulled back almost immediately and said, "Oh! Sorry, Vanellope… Didn't mean to embarrass ya more…", looking as if those same feelings were mutual.
Vanellope reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Ralph. Lets just start back on those stories." she reassured him and reminded him about what they actually came there to do. "Alright" Ralph seemed to brighten up "Where did we leave off last time?". Vanellope, glad to see that Ralph was getting over it too, leaned forward with a look of enthusiasm. "The last story was the one where I first started messing around with Sour Bill!" she answered and they both laughed aloud. Ralph dried one of his eyes and said, "Yeah, when you were a kid, you weren't the type ta just sit around without trying ta bug anyone first.". Vanellope giggled and kicked her feet around a bit. She liked these stories of her adventures in childhood. But the thing she loved more than them was… Well, the one thing she loved more than anything, actually, was just something she would not yet admit to herself or to anyone else. Ralph must have been thinking the same things, or else he would not have gotten so embarrassed when she did. It must be something… Wonderful, this feeling… she thought to herself as she listened to Ralph elaborating on another one of her grand escapades. But, she wondered, when are we ever going to get to the beginning of our story?.
Finishing up another wonderful tale, Ralph and Vanellope were both overflowing with laughter and were going through their third set of root beer mugs. "But", Ralph grinned an even bigger grin than Vanellope had ever seen before on his face, "The most epic tale began when I first decided to game jump.". Now, Vanellope thought, comes the beginning of our story together and there spread a rather lovely, romantic expression over her features at the thought.
