Family Night
To think that Felix was over at Tappers just the other day, guzzling down the tainted root beer until he felt he could stand to be back at his chaotic apartment again. And right now, he was actually so relaxed that he felt he could lay himself down on his couch for a snooze. Without stressing about the little sugar junkies damaging the place.
It had been a week since Sugar Rush was fixed and Felix and Tamora were slipping back into their old routine. But the kids didn't forget to pay them a visit every now and then. And of course, the three little girls that latched onto them since the beginning still spent the nights under their roof. Nougetsia seemed to have an interest in fixing as equally strong as for racing. On days when Felix was out gardening with Q*bert, Nougetsia would come over and help in anyway she saw fit.
Felix noticed a funny detail about her interactions with Q*bert. Despite not being able to communicate in the traditional sense, Nougetsia seemed to understand Q*bert's language almost as fluently as Felix could. She even laughed at the little guy's jokes when Felix didn't fully understand them.
Maybe she was just humoring Q*bert.
Crumbelina smiled a lot more and the nightmares she'd had about dissipating into nothingness had disappeared. She shared some of her troubles with Tamora, and in response, the military lady had given advice about handling such turmoil. One day Crumbelina made a comment to Tamora about how fortunate she felt to have such a strong lady role model in her life.
Candlehead seemed was having a bit more trouble being away from her home in Sugar Rush. A lot of her time was spent worrying about Taffyta. As her right-hand girl and best friend, Candlehead always leaned on Taffyta whenever she needed a shoulder, and Taffyta did the same. But nowadays, the two were distant. Back in Sugar Rush, Candlehead tried her best to reach out to the pink racer, but Taffyta always recoiled.
One day, Felix saw her sitting on her knees on the couch, with her elbows resting on the back couch cushions, gazing out the window. It was on a Monday morning, when the arcade was closed for its weekend, and Felix thought she'd been stuck in her own thoughts again.
"Are you alright, Candy-Cane?" Felix asked her.
"I'm fine, just a little tired." Candlehead said, resting her chin in her hands.
Felix came over and sat on the couch beside her. "Still worried about Taffyta?"
Candlehead sighed. Felix and Tamora had gotten to know her so well recently, and she knew she couldn't hide her inner thoughts from either of them. "Yeah, I guess I am. She's been acting so weird lately. Whenever we try to talk to her, she clams up and runs away to her house. It's like she's never met us before, or something."
"Well, she's got a lot on her plate now," Felix explained. "She's probably still getting used to being the leader. I reckon she needs a little time to fully come to terms with it."
Candlehead slid down from her position and plopped onto the couch cushions. "But she used to tell me everything."
"She'll come around, I'm sure."
The handyman stood up and stretched his arms out.
"Why don't we try to help her cheer up?"
Candlehead looked at him. "How? She won't talk to us, or even look at us whenever we ask her what's wrong."
Felix pursed his lips together in thought. "Well, why don't we invite her and the rest of the kids over for a little family get together?"
"You mean like a party?"
"You bet'cha! We'll play games, watch a movie, and tell ghost stories." He scratched the back of his head. "Well, maybe not that last part, but we could tell non-ghost stories.
Candlehead seemed to like that idea a lot. "Yeah! I'm sure she'll feel better once she let's loose and enjoys some time away from Sugar Rush. She's probably running tirelessly around that whole place!"
Crumbelina and Nougetsia looked up from where they were laying across the floor with some crayons and loose leaf paper.
"What's this about a party?" Crumbelina asked.
Candlehead hopped off the couch. "Guys, Taffyta's been in a rut all week. Let's get her and the others over here so we can put a little sunshine on that gloomy face of hers."
Nougetsia raised her hand up in agreement.
Crumbelina nodded. "Alright, let's do it."
Felix and Tamora moved around furniture to create a little viewing space for the kids in front of the ancient television box Felix has kept since he popped into existence. He was probably the only character in the whole arcade that still had VHS tapes. Even Pac-Man upgraded his home viewing system to more modern technology.
He was a bit worried about the kids not being big fans of his choice in movies. He was into things centered around family before he had one of his own. And heroism, because Felix always felt that stories where a person performed heroic acts of kindness were the most admirable.
Over in the corner of the storage closet were Tamora's stash of action/adventure, horror, and dystopian flicks. There was one movie that would have embarrassed her greatly if others knew she had that was in the romantic comedy genre. She said she only liked it for the plot.
Candlehead went over to Sugar Rush to retrieve the others while Crumbelina and Nougetsia sat in the pile of VHS tapes and DVDs.
"Now remember," Tamora said, sitting in the living room. "Pick a movie that we all can enjoy."
Crumbelina cringed at the DVD box with a scary-looking clown and a red balloon on it. "Gloyd would love a movie like this. He's always pulling tricks on us during Halloween. One time, me and Sakura were walking through the corn mazes late one evening and Gloyd jumped right in front of us! He covered himself in strawberry jelly and white frosting and did this weird zombie walk. We all thought he was dead because he disappeared the whole entire day and didn't show up 'til then!"
Felix's eyes were wide. "Oh my land! Was he okay?"
"Oh yeah, he was totally fine. We still haven't gotten our revenge yet. But someday, he'll get a taste of his own medicine."
Nougetsia's eyes were gazing intently at a DVD that was buried at the very bottom of the stack that Felix and Tamora both forgot about. From a distance it looked harmless, but upon noticing the back cover, Felix could see an image of a man and a woman locked in a tight embrace, one nibbling the bottom lip of the other, and dressed in slightly-revealing clothing.
His cheeks burned and he snatched the DVD away. "Sweetie, that's not for kids."
Nougetsia blinked like she'd just seen a ghost. But she shook her head like nothing happened and went back to sorting through the movies.
Crumbelina compiled a small stack of VHS tapes decorated in pastel colors and bright scenery. "I think these are the only movies everyone would enjoy seeing. A lot of them are about princesses and knights."
Tamora clasped her hands together. "Perfect, now we just wait for the little critters to get here and-"
There were several knocks on the door.
Felix got to his feet. "That sounds like them!"
The door was opened and everyone walked in with wide smiles on their faces. They all politely greeted the two adults while they entered. Almost all of them. There was one missing.
Felix looked down at Candlehead. "Where's Taffyta?"
"She said she wanted to be alone..." Candlehead responded, glumly.
Gloyd and Rancis both looked down at the ground and Gloyd said, "She said she might be coming down with something."
Felix shared a look with Tamora, both equally puzzled. But they decided to take Gloyd's word to heart.
...
Several minutes later, Felix came into the living room with a giant bowl of popcorn in one hand. "Okay, kiddos, did you decide what movie you wanted?"
"Let's watch Pet Sematary!" Gloyd responded first.
"No!" Snowanna responded. "That stuff'll give us nightmares!"
"Let's watch The Princess Bride!" Sticky suggested.
"Gross!" Swizzle said. "A movie with girls and princesses in it? How about we watch something for us guys, like a movie about soldiers and fighting in wars?"
Tamora bent down to his level. "Swizzle, are you implying that movies about battling soldiers can't have girls in them?"
The green-haired boy lowered his eyes. "N-no, but... I am a guy and it's something that I'd want to watch."
Jubileena looked up from her spot on the couch. "Why not both? A story about girls and soldiers? I'd totally watch that!"
Felix laid the popcorn bowl on the side table and dug through the stack of movies until he found the one he was looking for. "How about this? It's a movie about a girl that takes her father's place in the army and fights in a war for her country."
The kids all nodded and mumbled to each other in approval. And Felix pushed the VHS into the TV and sat in the middle of the crowd.
In the middle of it, Adorabeezle snatched the bowl away from Gloyd and shoved her hand through the center.
"Hey, quit hogging all the good stuff!" Gloyd screeched.
Adorabeezle moved the bowl away from his reach. "You already got enough in your bottomless pit. If I let you have it, there won't be any left!"
Jubileena pointed a finger at her. "You better save some for me too!"
"And me!"
Tamora clapped her hands together before this escalated. "There's plenty for everyone, guys, and if we run out, we'll get more. It's no big deal."
That quelled them down enough for them to sit and enjoy the rest of the movie. They were entirely captivated by the story, and even sang along with the music, and several of them felt a few tears trailing down their cheeks when the most emotional part of the movie took place. And at the end of it, they all cheered. It was the ideal scenario for taking kids to see movies in theatres.
"Let's watch another!" Citrusella suggested.
"But I want to play a game!" Minty Sakura replied.
"I want to see a movie with castles and knights!" Minty Zaki said.
Tamora thought for a moment. "Why don't we split you kids off into groups? Whoever wants to watch another flick, stay in the living room. Those of you that want to play a game, come over to the dining room."
"Yeah!" Felix stood up. "And I'll go make some more popcorn."
Tamora pulled up a chair and brought out an unwrapped deck of playing cards. Nougetsia, Torvald, and Minty Sakura gathered in the chairs positioned opposite of her.
"Alright, shorties, hold onto your striped socks because I'm about to teach you how to play Texas Hold 'em."
"Isn't that a game for grown-ups?" Torvald asked while she rested her elbows on the table.
Tamora began expertly shuffling the cards, making a bridge, folding them, and spreading them across the table. "Alright, then, let's play a more kid-friendly game of Go Fish."
She separated the cards into individual hands for the players and the little girls took them. While Felix picked another movie for the rest of them, Tamora was sitting through this long session of Go Fish. Though she could say she didn't enjoy it, as it was better than having these hooligans complaining about how boring card games were.
After the first round of Go Fish was over, Torvald leaned forward on the table and asked, "How'd you and Dad meet?"
And suddenly, Felix's super-hearing picked up over the sound of loud happy voices and he turned up from his spot on the couch to look at Tamora. It was always his favorite story to tell, but this time he let Tamora take over.
Tamora cleared her throat and placed her cards face-down on the table. "Well, we met by accident. It was just like any other day in my game when all of a sudden, that short knucklehead over there just came bopping through the tunnels and almost gave me a heart attack. I could've sworn he was a cy-bug trying to gun it straight out of Hero's Duty, and then I-"
"What's a cy-bug?" Minty Sakura said.
Tamora lowered her eyes. "It's an enemy from my game, now here I was-"
"Why'd he come over when his game is here?" Torvald asked.
"I'll get there when I get there, my little yellow friend," Tamora straightened her posture and folded her hands together. "Do you kids remember the time when Sugar Rush almost got anhialated by those flittering monsters?"
The three girls grew slightly pale and nodded their heads.
"We still don't even know how that happened." Torvald said.
"I'll tell you how it happened," Tamora sat back in her chair. "That buster, Ralph, barged into my game looking for a little respect and some acknowledgement, and ended up bringing one of those abominations to your game."
"Why did he want respect?" Sakura said.
"Well," Tamora's voice trailed off for a second. "Because in your dad's game, he's technically the bad guy."
Sakura didn't seem to understand the concept. "But, Ralph's one of the nicest guys we know. Why would he be treated like a bad guy even if it's in his code?"
It would have been difficult to explain all of this to children whose game didn't actually come with a hero and villain. Yes, King Candy was actually the villainous mastermind in Sugar Rush, but all the people in his kingdom revered him as their ruler.
Felix once stayed loyal to his code as being the hero and Ralph's as the antagonist, and only recently did he look past their labels and became good friends with the big man.
"Some games are just by the book," Tamora explained, not that she expected the children to understand what she meant. But they did surprise her every now and then, with how mature and self-aware they could be. They were wise beyond their years, at times when they weren't being spoiled little preteens. Maybe they had to be, being orphans since the beginning and having to cope with the loss of a home more than once. "I heard this little noise emerging from the tunnels and I thought to myself that something was about to ruin my day a little more. But then I turned, and there he stood on the platform."
The three girls all sighed dreamily at the thought of their parents' first meeting.
"Did you know you loved him from that moment like in those movies?" Sakura asked.
"Was your face all red and warm?" Torvald asked.
"I almost shot him with my semi-automatic weapon and I kicked him back hard enough that he could have fractured his skull." Tamora answered, sheepishly.
The girls looked at her in horror.
"But why?!" Torvald asked.
"Was he okay?!" Sakura asked.
Even Nougetsia didn't find it humorous.
Felix chuckled from the living room. "It's okay, girls, it was an accident and I was still fit as a fiddle. Those cy-bugs are a lot tougher than they look."
"And so is your dad." Tamora said. "We had to team up to go bring Wreck-It back to home base, safe and sound." Her face turned pink and for once, she didn't try to hide it. "And... he saved me. We saved each other. I realized that he was the light that I didn't know I was missing."
Felix was grinning at her from ear to ear and she returned the expression without struggling.
"But how did you know that?" Sakura asked.
"I just did."
That was the oversimplified version of it, but she figured this was a topic too complex for these young ones to hear. At least, for tonight. Also, she didn't mention this out loud, but in the back of her head she was thinking that if Ralph never ditched his game, she wouldn't have found true happiness.
And she'd neglected to thank him for that.
...
Later that night, almost all fifteen of them were slumped over the couches and recliners in a sleepy daze. Tamora picked up Nougetsia after she'd fallen asleep at the dinner table and Felix scooped up Crumbelina from the recliner and carried her off to the room.
It used to be a simple guest room, or a minor workshop for architectural projects, but Felix used his trusty hammer and tools to expand it for the kids. He built fifteen twin beds, each of them matching the racer's unique styles like their karts.
They all looked so peaceful and comfortable, and both of the adults hadn't felt so content before. It wasn't until they were overlooking each and every one of them, all happily snug underneath their covers, that the couple realized these children were theirs. To teach lessons about the world and to spend evenings together like this, to laugh and cry with. It made them forget about the difficulties of having all of them here at once.
Candlehead was the last to be put to bed and while Tamora lowered her sleeping body, she stirred awake and asked in a very soft tone, "You guys won't leave us, will you?"
"No, of course not." Tamora said.
Candlhead laid on her side and closed her eyelids. "I don't want to lose my family, again."
And drifted off to sleep. Tamora thought she was thinking about Vanellope when she said it, or maybe there was a hidden tragic backstory that she never discussed.
Whatever it was, Tamora silently promised that she would be there to help Candlehead along the way.
"Goodnight, Candy-Cane."
And both her and Felix gazed at them again before exiting and closing the door silently behind them.
AN: It's so fluffy!
I've realized that I'm more in my element when I write drama and hardships, but I do enjoy putting some family fluff in once in a while. This is a day later than I intended because I was composing some art for one of the chapters. I'll be posting it on tumblr soon, but I need to obsess over every detail first.
Also, for some reason, I feel like if this were in a Bojack universe, Calhoun would be Princess Carolyn, Ralph would be Bojack, and Felix would be Mr. Peanutbutter (but less dumb). And now I can't un-see it.