*Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Wreck It Ralph or any of the involved franchises. Thank you! And enjoy ~ ;3
Chapter Four
Vanellope tossed and turned underneath her blankets, slowly coming into consciousness. She felt something stiff and crinkly wrapped around her and wrinkled her nose at the sensation. She stretched out her tired limbs, and felt a bout of confusion when the material fell away and the cold air hit her.
Shivering slightly, she forced herself to open her heavy eyes and push herself up to a sitting position. It was then that she noticed the difference in the the texture of her mattress. She looked down with a start; she was sitting on the familiar dessert sponge she had slept on for almost fifteen years.
With a yelp, she leapt up out of the makeshift bed, and sure enough, several candy wrappers floated softly to the ground. Her heart thudded rapidly in her head. She clawed at her hair desperately. The world spun in a dazzled haze and her eyes fogged up with oncoming tears.
She tried her best to get it together but her breathing became labored and every step she tried to take made her feel as if she would crumble. The ground beneath her looked oddly fuzzy and so did all the distant surroundings. She struggled to find her way to the exit of her secret little hideout.
This can't be happening. This can't be happening. She finally managed to gather her senses enough to walk faster towards the wall. Everything around her seemed to drown out as the frantic thoughts echoed around her brain. Please don't tell me this has all just been a dream. She pushed herself out of the Diet Cola Mountain and looked around eagerly.
The air was still and silent. A shiver rolled up her spine and she gulped a lump down her throat. She shakily drew a hand up to her face, feeling the moisture on her cheeks and chin. She tried to wipe it away but they just kept coming and she couldn't halt the flow of tears. "R-Ralph?" She called out shakily, her voice barely above a whisper. The first name that came to her was the only thing she could think of. Is this some sort of sick prank? "Ralph?" she called out again, this time her voice reached about normal speaking volume. "Ralph!" She called out louder still, repeating his name over and over again until she was screaming at the top of her lungs, "Ralph! Ralph!"
Her screams turned into loud sobs as she sunk down to her knees and thrust her face into her hands, choking on heavy bursts of sadness as despair seemed to clog all of her artifices. Her blood felt cold and numb. The world around her locked her down in her own little world of defeat. It was all a dream, a strange voice inside told her, you were never good enough to be a real gamer, and you never will. Her whole body shook and she gagged on what felt like vomit rising up her throat. Suddenly she heard a familiar voice call her name.
"Oh, Vanellope! Vanellope?"
Taffyta? Vanellope scuffled to her feet and did her best to wipe the tears and snot off her face with her hoodie sleeve. Taffyta!
She scurried towards the voice as fast as her little legs would carry her, and soon reached a very familiar clearing. There all the racers of Sugar Rush were gathered. At the front was the familiar trio: Taffyta, Candlehead, and Rancis. They all had mischievous smirks plastered on their faces. Please just let this be a sick joke. Or maybe I sleepwalked, or something. Anything.
"Taffyta!" She cried out, launching herself at her friend in a tight hug. It lasted about a millisecond before she was viciously thrust away.
"Ewww!" Taffyta screeched, hurriedly rubbing and dusting off her clothing as if something distasteful spilled on it. "The Glitch touched me!"
Vanellope fell back in the dirt, her hands out behind her to catch her fall. She stared up at the blonde in horror, eyes wide and bottom lip trembling. The whole group started laughing raucously, taunting and teasing relentlessly as they slowly closed the circle in on her. Closer and closer they grew, readying their legs and arms in menacing positions. Their voices and laughter all drowned out as Vanellope helplessly huddled over herself in a protective manner. She tried desperately to glitch herself away, but to no avail. She seemed to have lost her ability.
She braced herself for the attack.
"Vanellope?" Everything seemed to still and the world grew silent as she heard a soft, familiar voice calling out to her. "Vanellope?" The voice grew slightly louder. "Vanellope, calm down!" She felt her body and the world begin to fall away. Opening her eyes, she saw darkness. "Vanellope, wake up!"
Bolting upright in her bed, she immediately felt breathless and gasped for air. She felt sticky tears covering her face and the sheets around her felt wet with sweat. "Vanellope, it's okay, it was just a dream."
She felt monstrously large hands gather her up and looked up to see none other than her favorite wrecker. "R-Ralph?" She questioned, feeling vulnerable and weak.
"It's me, kid," he whispered tenderly. He held her against his broad chest, hushing her gently as she started releasing the last of her tears. "Hey, it's okay now, you're fine. Look, you've made my shirt all damp," he teased gently.
Vanellope looked up at him with wide eyes then slowly smiled and wiped at her damp face with her arm. She wasn't wearing her hoodie, just the simple tank top and sweat pants she normally wore to bed. He rolled his eyes at her before holding her up to his sleeve to use that for her face.
After drying off her tears to the best of her ability, she suddenly remembered where she was, and the awful nightmare she had awoken from. "Wait, Ralph, w-why are you even here?" She stammered questioningly.
"Well, uhm, you kinda...missed game day…" He told her sheepishly.
"What?!" She bolted upright in an instant, accidentally glitching out of his grip. She fell backwards on the bed with an "oof!" before straightening herself back up again. "I missed game day and nobody came and got me?!"
"Well, those three brats, Taffy head and the weird blonde kid, I don't know their names...Anyway, they came to Fix It Felix, Jr. after game day ended and told me that you didn't show up so they had to put someone in your place last minute. And well, the door to your bedroom was locked, so…" He looked away sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
Vanellope turned to look towards her bedroom door, which, well, wasn't there anymore. It was in a jumbled mess on the floor down the hallway. "So you had to come wreck it?" She asked blandly, though she looked at him with a toothy grin.
"Well, yeah," he admitted, avoiding her stare. "They were real worried about you. And, when I found out you missed all of the game day, I was too. So I came up here to see what was going on. And it looked like you were having some sort of terrible nightmare," he conceded, looking down at her again with eyes full of concern.
"Oh, that...yeah, it's okay, it was nothing," she mumbled, a faint blush dusting her cheeks.
"It sure didn't look like nothing," Ralph chuckled. He waited through a few moments of silence and Vanellope bit her lip and looked away, crossing her arms. "Hey," he eased, "What's the matter? You can tell me."
After another few moments of obstinate silence, she sighed and let her shoulders slump. "I-I….I dreamt that all of this was just a dream," she finally stammered out. Her lip began quivering and her eyes slowly turned glassier, but she grew more confidence in her voice. "I dreamt that I woke up back in my home at Diet Cola Mountain, and….nothing had ever changed. And then I walked outside, and all the racers surrounded me and….and they laughed at me, and they were about to start hitting me. And then I couldn't even glitch. I-I felt...so trapped. Ralph, I just…" She looked up at him through watering eyes and drew a long breath of air. "But then I heard your voice, and everything stopped, and-" she gulped, trying to keep the tears from pouring out. "You saved me once again," she murmured with a small, sad smile, wiping away a stray tear with the back of her hand.
Ralph eyed her somewhat bashfully as he fully absorbed the contents of her dream. He took in a deep, shaky breath before pulling the racer back into a hug. She sighed and pressed herself against his chest. A comfortable silence settled over the two as he tried to think of the right words to say.
"You know," he began, "I know how terrifying that must have been for you. If I lost everything I've gained since then...I don't know what I would do. It would be absolutely awful- having a taste of what living feels like and then being thrown back down into the mud. I can't even imagine." He paused for a few minutes, tightening his grip on her a little as she began to shake with silent tears. "But none of this is ever going to go away. This is what you've always been meant to have. This is your life now. Your friends...we're never going to turn our backs on you; I could never abandon you, Vanellope. You're my first and my best friend and nothing is ever going to change that."
She slowly grew still and he could tell the tears had finally stopped. She leaned back to look at him, streaks of sticky liquid trailing down her flushed cheeks. "Thanks, Ralph," she murmured softly. "For everything."
The next day went by relatively uneventful. Like usual, Vanellope came in first place for the roster race so she got to participate in the game day. After racing and quarter alerts were over, she moseyed over to Taffyta and Candlehead, who were eagerly chatting by their cars.
"Hey, guys," she greeted somewhat nervously. They had checked up on her briefly the night before with Rancis, after Ralph left to go back to his game, but besides that they hadn't really talked since her nightmare.
"Hey, Van," Taffyta returned cheerfully, grinning her usual quirky smile at the brunette. "I'm glad you were able to race today. Are ya feeling better?"
Vanellope nodded with a smile. "Yeah I am. Thanks. And thanks again for coming to see me last night." During their visit she had explained everything to them. They, of course, had given her a multitude of reassurances that they would never do anything like that again. They showered her with apologies and affection and even ended up making her dinner. She found she was warming up to this trio of smarties more and more every day.
"It's really no problem!" Candlehead piped in. "You're our friend now, Vanellope. We wanna make sure you're okay."
Vanellope beamed at the shy racer. "Aw, thanks, Candle. That means a lot to me."
The three girls started casually bantering about the racing day and all the Users who had played their game that day. They talked about different racing maneuvers and the varying abilities of the other racers. Laughing and joking for a few minutes with the two, Vanellope felt all her troubles ease away and started feeling at home once again.
"Is Ralph coming over today?" Candlehead asked shyly. After witnessing how much he cared for their friend the day before, they were all even more eager to get to know him. "We'd love to hang out with the both of you, if that's okay."
It was then that Rancis chose to stroll over. He gave Vanellope a friendly side hug and eased himself into the conversation. "Yeah, when will we get to see what he's like?" He asked teasingly, repeating Candlehead's query.
Vanellope chuckled and rolled her eyes playfully. "I'm supposed to meet him halfway today," she responded, "I think we're just gonna hang around the candy cane forest."
The others nodded and beamed at her. "Is it okay if we come along?" Candlehead asked shyly.
Taffyta interrupted before Vanellope could open her mouth. "Well, of course we're going," she joked with a grin. "We have to see if he's really worth Vanellope's crushing."
Vanellope frowned, quickly becoming flustered as her cheeks grew red. "Guys," she whined. "I swear, I do not have a crush on Ralph."
"Someone's in denial!" Taffyta chimed in a singsong voice, bounding ahead of the others and grabbing Vanellope's arm along the way as she started running towards the candy cane forest. "Come on slowpokes, let's go!"
"Wait!" Vanellope giggled, digging her heels into the dirt and making Taffyta halt. "Our carts!"
Ralph was just getting off of the rainbow road into Sugar Rush when four barely distinct blurs could be seen racing towards him in the distance. He held his hand up against his brow to block the setting sun, but before he could even process what was happening, he was circled in a blur of dust as four racing midgets slowed down around him in a haphazard circle. He let out hacking coughs, swatting at the dust in the air as he tried to get it away from his face. He supposed at least it was dust made out of candy and not just dirt.
"Wha-?!" He spluttered out and caught eyes with the dirty-haired brat herself. She just smiled up at him sheepishly and hurriedly climbed out of their exquisitely created vehicle. "Are you guys trying to gag me or something?!"
"Sorry, Ralph," she said sincerely, though a small snort managed to escape from her mouth. "We were just trying to surprise you."
"Yeah, yeah," he grunted, rolling his eyes at the band of kids surrounding him. "Are we going to the Candy cane forest or what?"
"Yeah," Vanellope beamed, climbing back into her cart. She patted the back, where he normally sat. "Hop on." She flashed him her signature toothy grin.
Several minutes later, Ralph had found himself roped into playing hide and seek with all four smarties. And he was seeking them all. Lesson learned: racers from Sugar Rush are very good at hiding because of their ridiculously small size. Other lesson learned: they also know really good hiding spots because they practically have their map memorized.
Ralph let out an exasperated grunt as he lifted another chocolate boulder to no avail. He put a hand on his hip and ran the other one through his crazy auburn hair. He heard soft giggles coming from somewhere nearby. He looked up and around him hastily before spotting a strange abnormality in one of the trees. Sure enough, as he grew closer, he saw that there were legs, donned in candy-cane colored tights, blending in perfectly with one of the trees.
"Aha!" He exclaimed, reaching out and grabbing the blonde haired shorty by the hood. She glared up at him with a devilish smirk and folded her arms over her chest. "I finally got one!"
He looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. He frowned when she mimicked his facial expression, and frowned even deeper when she exaggeratedly frowned as well. With a sigh he set her down on the ground again and rolled his eyes. "You Sugar Rush weirdos sure know how to get on a guy's nerves."
At this, she chortled loudly. "You're a good guy, Wreck-It Ralph," she reluctantly admitted.
"What?" He spat, still unsure of how to take this particular smartie.
"I know you probably still don't think well of me and the others, but you're a good friend to Vanellope, so I like you," she conceded firmly, nodding her head as if to further affirm her statement.
"Whatever," he said with a roll of his eyes, though he couldn't help returning it with a small smile. Maybe hanging around this batch of oddballs wouldn't be so bad after all.