A/N: I don't own Wreck-It Ralph. Cheesy title? Check. Cheesy romance and a bit of slapstick humor? Check. Is this the last chapter? Yes, indeed! Well, actually, this is a three-parter. I'll save my final thoughts for it for the final part. I hope that you still enjoy this chapter. Oh, and I'm not restaurant-smart, so excuse me if I use incorrect terms. Summary: It's been six years since they started dating and Vanellope plans to propose to Taffyta, but she'll have to do something kooky to get her attention!
Vanellope took a deep breath and exhaled. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale… She was clearly nervous about this, even though she and Taffyta dated for six years now. But when she recently bought a nice diamond ring for her girlfriend, Vanellope couldn't handle the feeling and asked her best friend Ralph.
"Okay, just calm down, kid!" Ralph assured her, smiling at how much his little pal grew throughout the years.
"But what if she says no?" Vanellope worried, looking at the ring.
"True, I don't like the girl for being your former bully, but I know she'd never say no!" the big guy comforted her. "Here, how about I pretend to be the Muttonfudge brat?"
The raven-haired 22-year-old woman scrunched up her nose and gave off an expression of general horror and nope. "That's not gonna work, Knuckles…"
"Oh, come on! I'm sure it'll boost up your confidence at least a little bit."
"Fine...fire away, Stinkbrain," Vanellope conceded, not wanting to hear what he'll say.
Ralph cleared his throat and raised his pitch a bit, it it was still sorta deep, so he had to make do with it. "Oh, my God, Vannie! I really love this dinner date you planned out for us! The scenery's gorgeous and the food is great! I love you so much!"
Vanellope tried not to laugh, but she kept her cool and spoke. "Listen, Taffyta...we've been dating for a few years now and from all we've been through, I'm glad to have a rock-steady girlfriend like you. Can I just ask you one thing?" At that, she whipped out the engagement ring and snickered as she tried not to look at Ralph. God, this is so weird, she told herself. "Taffyta, will you marry me?" she asked out loud, even kneeling down on her knee!
Ralph opened his mouth to clear out the laughs and responded with, "Oh, my... This is a huge question, Vannie... No." At that, he burst out laughing, much to Van's annoyance.
"Ralph, this is serious! If you laugh now, there's no way I can ask Taffy that!" she groaned, facepalming.
"Hey, don't sweat it, ya crazy guttersnipe. Just act cool and be yourself!" the big guy smiled as he pat her on the shoulder. "Wait, do I get to be the best man at your wedding? Because I was at Felix and Calhoun's, if ya remember."
A few days later...
Vanellope and Taffyta were all dressed up fancy for their dinner date. Of course, Taffyta found it a wee bit odd that they went out to a really nice place, but thought nothing of it. Then again, Van never paid this much for dinner, which did indeed cost a pretty penny for the firebrand.
"Whoa, Vannie! You're really going all out for this dinner date! Are you sure this isn't so you can get in my pants?" Taffyta giggled.
"Pfft! Yeah, right! Why would I bang ya when all I want is to have a nice dinner date with ya?" Van remarked, giving her the all-too-familiar bucktooth smile.
"You dork," her girlfriend smiled as she gave her a kiss. "Heh. You really impressed Daddy when you said that you're taking me out to one of San Francisco's finest restaurants!"
"Hey, I know you'd love French cuisine."
The two women went their way to the crazy-expensive restaurant, the receptionist (or whatever. The heck if I know!) looked up and smiled. "Well, you two look pretty spiffy tonight. What's the occasion?" he teased.
"Hehe. I guess you could say that," Vanellope hinted, nodding. That really piqued Taffyta's curiosity now! "Anyways, a table for two and the name's Vanellope Von Schweetz."
The guy's eyes widened a bit as he nodded frantically. "Oh, yes! I almost forgot that you reserved a table for two a week ago! Yes, yes. Just follow me, you two."
"Huh. Even reserved one for us, Vannie? How are you gonna pay for this?" she laughed, gently poking her girlfriend in the side as the two followed the guy around.
"Don't sweat it. Like I said, this is gonna be a really great night for us!" And the two stopped at a gorgeous spot in the restaurant.
The receptionist smiled and nodded. "I hope you enjoy your night, you two," the young man complimented as he gave them the menus.
Van clicked her tongue and pointed two fingers at the guy as they sat. In her jacket pocket, she jostled the ring box a bit, a metaphorically heavy weight in her hands as she caressed the box. Alright, I can do this…, she thought. She snapped back into reality when Taffyta asked her about all of this. "Huh? What did ya say?"
Taffyta blinked a bit in surprise. Clearly, Van was preoccupied with something. She seemed a bit...jittery and more so than usual. "I, uh...I wanted to know what the big crazy event was."
"Oh! I guess it's cuz we're almost out of college now, ya know? Figured we'd have our own little night out before a real girls' night out," Vanellope giggled, getting distracted as she stared into Taffyta's cobalt-blue eyes. Those gorgeous blue gems…
Fortunately, that worked with Taffyta well enough. Good. But then how will the raven-haired spunk will go about asking the big question? She'll have to do something really impressive to get her girlfriend's attention! She did remember seeing an episode of this one show… It had the guy putting the ring on a breadstick in hopes that his girlfriend would take it and things would be smooth sailing. That could work…
Again, she snapped back into attention when the waitress asked for their orders. "Err, Mademoiselle Von Schweetz?"
"Uhh... I'll just have some escargots," she smiled awkwardly. The knots in her stomach are gonna make this difficult for her, it seemed. At this rate, she'll need a megaphone and go up on an empty table just to ask Taffyta! Wait a minute…, Van told herself, eyes widening a bit. Of course! That'll definitely work! She smiled and relaxed a bit, having figured out the proposal situation. Now she just needed to figure out when to ask.
"Decided to try the stereotypical cuisine? Lame," Taffyta playfully teased, giggling a bit.
"Oh, ya know...Mom always tells me 'Try the snail! It's dead already, so try it!', so I might as well try it now and tell her so she'll stop bugging me," laughed the rowdy young woman. "Clearly, she's outta her brains sometimes."
The two leaned in and kissed, happy to be with each other. "I'm just glad you managed to take some time out of our crazy schedule and arrange this, Vannie! Especially with exams just around the corner, too!"
"I can always manage to squeeze some time for my gal, ya know? How? Procrastinator's secret!" Vanellope wryly teased as she sipped her milkshake. Under the table, she started tapping her foot nervously, knowing that she'll probably mess up somehow. Besides, worrying about this kept Van away from precious studying time for exams. That and she felt that the time for marriage was in full bloom anyways.
"Okay, you've been acting real nervous, Vannie. Why?" When Vabellope didn't answer, Taffyta prodded on. "Listen, it's okay to tell me. I'm your girlfriend, after all!"
"It's, uh...it's something pretty important I wanna ask ya. BUT...could ya wait till after dinner? I think I shoulda told ya this earlier, but that's the real reason I planned this dinner date for," Vanellope hinted, nodding as she at least admitted the truth.
Ah, so no wonder why she wasn't being herself, Taffyta thought. She smiled, though, and nodded, sorta wondering what her darling would ask. "Why didn't ya say so, silly billy?"
"I dunno, butterflies in my stomach made me nervous?" the raven-haired young woman playfully retorted. She paused a bit and looked at the pink-clad blonde that sat before her, smiling unusually modestly. Blue eyes met hazel as the two looked back at their years together. Six years before, Taffyta was not as refined as she was now. She was still graceful and high-class, but her younger self had that obnoxiously rich American teen girl vibe about her, whereas the Taffyta of this day and age had a more elegant look akin to her mother and modest personality from, surprisingly, her girlfriend's influence. One would think that if her past self popped in now, they'd freak out at each other for reasons other than the obvious.
Vanellope, on the other hand? She...didn't really change that much at all. She was still the video game-loving, childish, spontaneous, Jeff Gordon-loving rascal from six years ago. Maybe she did get some responsibility and a pinch of maturity whipped into her head due to Taffyta, but Van was always pretty silly for her age. Six years ago, Van would never have thought she'd be proposing to Taffyta. She didn't even think they'd be compatible as a couple! But they managed to work out the kinks and whatnot in their relationship. If her past self decided to join, it'd basically be two of the same person.
No wonder Vanellope had to refrain herself from her typical slobbish eating habits when she dug right into the escargots nicely. "What?" she asked as she forked a snail, mouth gaping open as she paused. She awkwardly bit into it and swallowed, smiling as if nothing happened.
The other girl kept giggles to a minimum, but she couldn't restrain the smile to show how much she liked it when Van did this. "I dunno... I think you look sorta cute when ya eat like that. Grubby and kinda gross, but sorta cute," she admitted.
"Thanks, Taffy! I never knew that. I thought you'd freak out since you're so fancy and stiff."
"Well, it'd be boring if I were to date Crumbs instead of you, ya know?" Taffyta quipped. "Variety's the spice of life, after all."
"True. Besides, Crumbs and Juju? They're a lot like us, ya know?" Van commented, finishing off her milkshake.
"Right, right…" Taffyta agreed, noticing Vanellope spacing out yet again. "Looks like this question's got your brain all up in a frenzy, eh?" she asked, finishing up her French onion soup.
"Gah, I can't take the waiting anymore!" Vanellope admitted, acting like it was an itch that needed to be itched real badly. She got up from her seat and stood up on an empty table, pulling out the ring box from her jacket pocket. "Taffyta, I've been meaning to ask this of you for a while now! We've been dating for ages now and we've been through some crazy shenanigans together. Remember that Nutella incident a few years ago? Haha! Or that time I made you play video games with me or that one NASCAR race we watched in your basement? Don't forget the awkward movie time, too! Gee, Candlehead sure ruined that one for us. Anyways… Taffyta Strudelia Muttonfudge, will you marry me?"
Taffyta covered her mouth and she walked over to her girlfriend. Sure, she was embarrassing themselves in front of everyone, but she thought that she'd never ask! "I will! Of course, I will, ya cuckoo bird! But it might help if ya got off the table. Makes it look like you're on a soapbox or something. And it'll be easier for you to put the ring on me, darling."
"Oh, right. Whoops!" Vanellope hopped off and put the ring on her fiancee. "A shiny diamond for the duchess of diamonds."
"Still going on about the name of my YouTube account? Geez, Vannie!" Taffyta laughed as they kissed. The waiters and busboys clapped and some even went "d'awww"!
"Knowing you, you'd show off that ring to everyone! And then there'll be someone in our group going, 'you're too young to get married! You're only 22 and blah blah blah!'. It's probably gonna be Crumbs," Van smiled, holding her darling's hand. "Hey, I still gotta pay! Can't have them hunting our heads!"
A/N: Yes, I made up a middle name for Taffyta. The only one I could think of was a mix of strudel and Delia. But I'll be honest…it does flow nicely.