Bad Anon night came around a lot sooner than either of them wanted it to. With racing out of the question until she could teleport again, Vanellope spent most of her time in Ralph's shack either resting from a fun night or trying to add her own personal touch to the place. She'd already put some mint-green curtains in Ralph's bedroom window, as well as adding a few bowls of candy around the place. The sweet stuff made her feel more like she was home, reminding her both of the tracks and of her own castle.
While Ralph was at his Bad Anon meeting, Sugar Rush's president sat on her boyfriend's lounge and ate from a mysteriously-bottomless bowl of candy while watching a DVD that Ralph had got from Skrillex. He'd got some more for her after she'd gained her freedom from the castle, as she'd requested due to her mounting boredom. She couldn't race, she couldn't spend the day with him, and she didn't exactly want to spend more time in the castle after having been stuck there for a while. She supposed that she could always talk to Taffyta, but she was feeling particularly lazy.
The front door opened (a lot smoother now that Felix had insisted upon fixing it so that a proper lady could reside there) and Vanellope looked up from the TV, swallowing the last of a peppermint candy.
"Hey, President Smartypants, do you feel like going out for dinner tomorrow night?" Ralph asked, scooping her up and then replacing her on his lap as he sat down on the lounge.
"Sure," Vanellope grinned. "It's better than being cooped up inside watching movies and eating too much candy."
"You're the one who refuses to go anywhere or do anything else," Ralph reminded her, and she laughed.
"So where are we going tomorrow night?" she wondered, nuzzling into his chest.
"Into Mario's game," Ralph informed her. "Bowser invited us over and Peach is going to have her Toads cook a meal for us all."
"Oh, so like a double-date," Vanellope figured, nodding. "It sounds nice. I don't know how I'll get along with Peach, though, considering she's such a princess."
"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Ralph shrugged, and stroked her hair. Vanellope smiled at his gentle touch.
"Wait, so who are we going on a double-date with? Mario and Peach?" Vanellope asked, slightly confused.
"No, it's actually Peach and Bowser," Ralph corrected. "They've been dating for a lot longer than we have, probably even longer than you've been plugged in."
"So bad guys can have princesses," Vanellope declared with a giggle. "That's nice to know."
When the time for dinner finally came around the following evening, Vanellope stood in Ralph's bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She hoped that she hadn't dressed up too much or too little for the dinner, and quite frankly she was more than a little nervous. She wished that she'd asked for Taffyta's opinion but her best friend had been on the roster and she'd fallen asleep watching a movie around the time the arcade closed. Regardless, her dress did look quite nice- it was her trademark mint-green colour with a low neckline, sleeves that reached her elbows, and skirts that were neither too puffy nor too slight. Standing side-on, she frowned at the slight pudginess of her stomach but decided that there was nothing she could do about it short of wearing a corset. It was her own fault for eating nothing but candy for so long. As an afterthought, she removed the red liquorice from her hair and ran her fingers through the black locks.
"Are you ready yet?" Ralph asked when she opened the door and walked out of the bathroom.
"I guess," Vanellope shrugged, though she still wasn't entirely happy with her appearance. She wanted to wear her hair up, but then it would make her neck look too long.
"I think your outfit's missing something," Ralph mused, rubbing his chin with his hand. He was already dressed, of course, in a pair of black dress pants and an orange button-up shirt. Even his hair looked alright, combed back rather than messy. "Wait here for a second."
"Okay," Vanellope smiled, and watched as he walked away into his bedroom. He rummaged around for something but finally emerged with a large black box. He handed it to her wordlessly and Vanellope opened it curiously, her eyes widening at the sight within. It was a necklace with a very thin gold chain, a jewel-studded crown shape hanging from it.
"Do you like it?" Ralph prompted, fidgeting nervously.
"I love it," Vanellope finally grinned, and threw her arms around him with the box still clutched in one hand. "Hold on while I put my hair up, this was exactly what I needed to complete my outfit." And Ralph waited patiently as she zipped back into the bathroom and placed the box carefully on the bathroom cupboard and pulled her hair back into a ponytail much like her usual messy one only without the sweets. Finally, she added some candies here and there for decoration and fumbled with her necklace before Ralph stepped in behind her and saved the day.
"Let me do it," he said gently, somehow managing to work the delicate clasp so that the necklace sat against her warm skin and glinted in the bathroom light. Vanellope had to admit that the necklace was beautiful.
"It sure beats that cookie medal I gave you," Vanellope joked, turning to wrap her arms around him comfortably.
"Hey, that medal looked pretty good for being made by a little kid," Ralph assured her. "I still have it, too. I wore it for a long time until it broke, then Felix fixed it and it's been in a special box in my bedroom ever since."
"And where did you get my necklace? I don't think you made it," Vanellope laughed. "Your huge hands could never make something this delicate."
"Bowser gave it to me to give to you. It was Peach's idea," he shrugged. "So, shall we go now? We don't want to keep the other two waiting. And I happen to know that Peach has baked a cake, and they're very nice. Nicer than Mary's."
"Is that even possible?" Vanellope laughed. "Mary's the best baker in the arcade."
"Then you've never tried Peach's baking," Ralph replied, and took her smaller hand in his. Vanellope followed him out of the bathroom and, after turning all but the main light out, the two of them walked to the train station and were soon on their way into Mario's game.
At the castle, Vanellope looked around in awe at a castle that was every bit as princess-y as hers only not made of candy. The red carpet was a nice touch, and the stained-glass windows were beautiful. She wondered if they were as tasty as hers, but doubted it. Her stained-glass windows were made of sugar-glass, where these were most likely made of actual glass.
"This is a nice castle, isn't it?" Ralph prompted, and she nodded and closed her mouth which had been open in awe at her surroundings. Everything was just so... pretty.
"Oh, you must be the princess's guests," a Toad greeted them. Vanellope looked down at the strange little character, a little confused before she realised that her own butler was a talking sour candy so a talking toadstool wasn't that strange in retrospect.
"Yes, we are. I'm Vanellope and this is Ralph, we came here for a dinner date," Vanellope informed the butler.
"So you'll be looking for your host, no doubt. Come with me, she's in the dining room with Bowser." The Toad looked a little uncomfortable at the company the princess was keeping, and Vanellope smiled in mirth at his disapproval. She knew that feeling but if Peach could assert her right to date a bad guy, then so could she.
"Vanellope, Ralph, so glad you could make it," Peach greeted them, getting up from where she was sitting and walking towards the duo as they entered the room. She embraced her fellow princess and gave Ralph a hug as well for good measure before ushering them towards the table. "Come, take a seat. The Toads should be bringing out the first course any minute."
"Good thing I laid off the candy today," Vanellope smiled, taking a seat beside her date. She couldn't help but notice that the other two were seated very close together.
"She's been eating it practically non-stop," Ralph agreed with a laugh, and the koopa king smiled.
"Peach eats half of what she bakes as well," he commented, and laughed.
"It must be good, being the princess of a candy kingdom," Peach enthused, drawing Vanellope's attention away from the conversation between the two villains.
"It has its upsides, that's for sure," Vanellope agreed with a smile. "I get to eat all the candy I want whenever I want."
"Do you get out amongst your subjects very often?" Peach wondered.
"Well, yeah, considering I race with the other racers," Vanellope nodded, already feeling out-of-place. Here was Peach, talking about subjects and ruling, when Vanellope had little idea on how to rule or treat her peers as subjects.
"That's nice," Peach smiled, picking up a teacup in front of her and taking a sip. "Did you have a programmed boyfriend as well?"
"Not that I know of," Vanellope shrugged. "You heard about what happened to my game a while ago, didn't you?"
"Yes, the whole Cybug fiasco. That must have been awful," Peach sympathised. "I heard that you didn't get your memory back after Turbo took over your game, too."
"His clumsiness cost me everything," Vanellope laughed, although she didn't much feel like laughing. "I'm so glad I have Ralph, though. He's helping me remember some things, and I have the other racers to tell me about what I was like before my memories were erased."
"Well, that's what we're here to talk about, isn't it? Our partners," Peach recalled, grinning in a very un-princess fashion.
"Yeah," Vanellope agreed, perking up again. "Was Bowser also misunderstood before you saw the good in him?"
"Yes," Peach confirmed, nodding. "The poor guy was so used to being hurt by Mario. While the big hero was on his way to rescue me, the bad guy always had to worry about how he was going to try to beat him. Then one day I decided to try talking to him."
"And the rest is history?" Vanellope guessed, seeing the way the princess was looking at her game's bad guy.
"I suppose so," Peach smiled gently. "Did you and Ralph have a similar meeting?"
"No, he came to my game looking to be a good guy," Vanellope informed her. "He crashed a spaceship near where I was in the candy tree forest, then I stole his medal and used it as a coin to enter a race. He taught me how to race, he taught me how to believe in myself, and he taught me how to control my teleport."
"I think I remember being told about that," Peach nodded. "Ralph told the Bad Anon group about it and then Bowser came back and told me about it. With a meeting like that, you two will have a solid relationship."
The first course was finally brought out, halting their conversations so that they could eat. Vanellope looked in slight confusion at the plate of mushrooms with a buttery sauce and poked a larger mushroom with her fork. Everyone else was eating with gusto, though, so the president took a bite out of a mushroom and quickly joined in. The buttery taste may not have been as sweet as what she was accustomed to, but it did taste quite nice. And, all of a sudden, she was starving.
The rest of the meals were much like the first one, with mushrooms comprising a large amount of each dish. The mushroom-stuffed chicken was the most unusual dish, but there were at least vegetables on the dish to balance out the taste. To Vanellope's surprise, the cake had nothing to do with mushrooms. Rather, it was a dark chocolate cake with mint-green icing.
"Did you base this cake on us?" she asked the princess who'd baked it, and Peach giggled and nodded.
"When Bowser said that the two of you were an official couple, I just had to celebrate," the pink princess explained. "I also gave Felix and his wife a dinner when they first started dating."
"She's a real sweetheart," Bowser commented, and kissed her on the cheek. The princess made a slight noise of surprise and her cheeks flushed bright pink, much to the amusement of Vanellope.
By the end of the night, it was clear that Peach was an excellent dinner host as well as an excellent baker of cakes.
"Thanks for inviting us over, Peach. I had a great time," Ralph thanked the princess as they stood before the front doors of the castle.
"Oh, it was no trouble," Peach smiled bashfully. "Like I said before, I just had to invite the new couple to have dinner at my castle."
"Dinner was delicious," Vanellope agreed, placing a hand on her stomach which felt so full that she was now glad she hadn't eaten before coming here.
"And I get to eat like this every night," Bowser agreed, wrapping an arm around Peach and pulling her closer to him. The princess kissed him on the cheek before bidding the couple farewell and making her way up the staircase with her partner. Ralph and Vanellope left the castle holding hands, and they didn't stop holding hands until they got back to the shack. There, they relaxed together on the lounge until Ralph had to carry his sleeping girlfriend to his bedroom and tuck her into bed before climbing in to rest beside her.
This was such a long time coming but hopefully the wait makes up for it. Sorry if any wording is clumsy. And I get to include my favourite ship from the Marioverse, I absolutely adore Powser. It's simply adorable. To be honest I was stumped for what to do this chapter until I looked back at my first ever Jawbreaker story (Sugar Sweet) and then I decided to have them go on a date. So hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. If you have any ideas for the next chapter, feel free to leave them in a review!