"WIR Mud"

It was finally closing time, Ralph pulled himself up from the mud and began to head back to his shack for a good shower. He decided that it would help make him feel better to have some form of a bath, instead of just trying to wipe it away with his hands or shake it off like a dog. Before he could though, something small jumped onto his shoulders, and two tiny hands covered his eyes! "Guess Who!" He knew that squeaky, raspy voice right away, but he decided to humor her. "Hmmm... Felix? Mary?" The voice scoffed, "Pfft, No! Come on, try harder!" "Dana? Beth? Lucy? Rita? Janet?" "No! I'm not one of your Lice-lander coworkers, Butt Stench!" "Oh, of course! Princess Zelda!" "No! It's me!" The figure removed her hands and glitched down in front of him revealing herself to be the raven-haired ball of spunk that was his best friend. Ralph pretended to act surprised "Oh, of course! I should have known from the irritating voice and tiny grubby hands!" Vanellope rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I'm the grubby one!" She said gesturing to his muddy self still not fully cleaned. "Well, as soon as I get cleaned up we'll go hit up Tappers." Ralph said as Vanellope glitched onto his shoulder. "Yes! Right after I beat you at Tapper's," She proclaimed, "I'll be sure to kick your butt at Tron, too!" Ralph looked over at her, "Ha! As if you could burp louder than the Arcade's Best Root Beer Belcher of all time!" He puffed out his chest with a sense of pride. "Well, just because I look cutesy and petite, doesn't mean I'd ever back down from a challenge!" As he started to walk toward his Shack, Vanellope glanced over at the mud puddle, and at the tracks that Ralph left behind them. Even though she knew it didn't bother him too much anymore to be thrown off the roof into the mud, she couldn't help but feel a sense of pain in her heart. "Uh... Hey, Ralph?" Ralph looked over at her "Yeah, Kid?" Vanellope looked down at her hands, rubbing her thumb with one hand shyly. "Are... Are you ok?" Ralph was confused, "Uh, yeah. I'm good... pretty tired from work but-" No. I mean, like... When you fall off the building and into the mud, does it... Does it ever hurt?" Ralph thought about it for a moment. He always knew how bad it had felt in the past in an emotional sense, it had always felt degrading and depressing. It wouldn't have been so bad if things were different after work, but until now, that was never the case. The emotional pain of being thrown in the mud still stung even after closing. No one congratulated him for a job well done, no one ever bothered to check if he was doing ok, and no one offered to let him in the penthouse for a nice, hot shower. But now that the Nicelanders had realized his importance in the game, and just how Good he was on the inside, things started to become different. They began to congratulate him, check on him, and even donate some things, like blankets, books, and other things to help make his shack feel more like home. But he never thought about how it felt physically to be thrown off a roof into the mud. "Well... I AM pretty durable. As you would know since when you first learned to drive you kept hitting me with your kart multiple times!" he joked, Vanellope chuckled at the memory. Ralph turned to look at her, "Why do you ask, Kid?" Vanellope began to rub her neck awkwardly, still not making eye contact with Ralph. "Well...It's just that... Every time I see you get lifted by the Lice-landers after we wave to each other..." She began to smile at the memory of their little tradition, but it quickly faded as she continued, "I also see them tossing you into the mud. A-and just watching you fall from such a great height, especially after I saw just how tall this building was when I visited for the first time, as you crash into the mud it's like... It just reminds me of... of..." Tears began to well up in her eyes. she tried to wipe them away, but they just kept coming. Ralph then stopped in his tracks, "Whoa, Hey, Kid. What is it? What's wrong?" She then clutched the side of his head, tightly hugging it. She started crying. She always tried to keep herself from crying in front of others, she hated feeling so weak and pitiful. She was a daredevil racer President for Pete's sake! She could take on anyone or anything that came in her path! But when it came to all of her old memories flooding back to her, the painful, heartbreaking, lonely memories of her life before meeting Ralph... some things were just too hard to overcome even for her. No matter how hard she tried to press them down or forget about them. "I-I just... can't help but remember what the other racers did to me, and how much pain I was in afterward. I just... wanted to make sure you were ok." Ralph was touched, he put one of his slightly muddy hands around her, hugging her, "Oh, Kid. I'm so sorry. You don't need to worry about me, I'm fine. I've been falling off that roof for 30 years, and it doesn't hurt really, I'm used to it." She sniffed and wiped away tears with her hoodie sleeve, not caring about the mud that Ralph had gotten on it. She sighed, "I don't think I've ever told you this but, whenever the racers came to bully me... taunting me and pushing me into the mud was usually just the beginning of the torment. If you had never gotten there in time to scare them off, it may have gotten much worse." Ralph was appalled, "What?! What would they have done that was worse?" She took a deep breath and continued, "They... They used to..." She held back her tears as she tried to get her words out, "Kick me, while I was down. A-and hit me and pull my hair... And..." She started to cry again. Ralph was shocked beyond belief, he knew those kids were worse than rotting cavities, but he never knew they were capable of being such demonic brats. And Despite Turbo's demise and her code being restored, the poor kid was still dealing with a lot. After all, the stress and trauma of her entire life wasn't just going to disappear like that. Part of him wanted Turbo to come back just so he could pound his body into nothing but pixels for hurting a poor, innocent child and brainwashing an entire game for power and pride. Ralph picked Vanellope up off his shoulder and wrapped her up in a warm embrace, soothingly stroking her back with his thumb. "Oh, Kid. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. If I could, I would go back in time to make sure none of this ever happened to you." Vanellope clutched his mud-stained shirt tightly, softly crying into it, not caring if she was getting even dirtier. She nuzzled under his chin and mumbled, "Thanks, Stinkbrain. I'd do the same for you too." Ralph then propped her up in his hands, and she started to blush. " I'm glad that you're ok, I just... I just didn't know how to ask without getting all sappy and blubbery like I am now." Ralph lifted her chin, "Hey, even if you are being sappy, it doesn't make me think any less of you. You went through so much even though you're just a kid. It's gotta be hard being so strong all the time." Ralph stroked her cheek, "I love you, Kid, every bit and pixel, Glitches and All." She sniffled and began to slowly smile. "Thanks, Buddy. I love you, too." She hugged him again. "Now," he continued, "Let's go get cleaned up. I think the both of us are gonna need to wash up now." Vanellope looked down at her mud-stained clothes. She just shrugged and said, "Eh, I think I'll be ok, after all, I haven't washed my hair in 15 years so I'm used to a little dirt." Ralph eyed her mischievously, "Oh yeah?" He gently booped her nose with a little mud from his shirt. She giggled, "Hey!" He began gently tickling her cheeks as she laughed. "You sure you don't need a bath?" She couldn't stop giggling, "Haha! Ha! N-no! Come on, Stinkbrain, you know that's where I'm ticklish! Haha! Ha!" She glitched up onto his shoulder and tickled the back of his neck behind his ears. "Let's see how you like it!" Ralph laughed as he tried to get her off his head. "Ha Ha! Kid, stop! Ok ok! You don't have to take a bath! Please, just stop!" She stopped and rested her head on his as they then continued on their way over to Ralph's Shack. Ralph had hoped that one day Vanellope would be able to live her life without having daily reminders of her past, but for now, he would do anything and everything he could just to make sure he kept seeing her smile.