Chapter Six
Even though he had lived in Arendelle City for his entire life, Ralph could count the number of times he had been Downtown on one hand with fingers to spare, one of which had been the trip to Tiana's hardly a month ago. The financial heart of the city was packed with classy stores, shops, and restaurants — all of them far above his price range.
He followed Anna down the one-way streets artfully cobbled in red brick with matching wide sidewalks to park behind a building smaller than the rest. As Ralph and Vanellope exited his truck, Ralph took a longer look at the building. It was modeled, he thought, after French architecture, like images of old manors he'd seen in history classes during high school.
"Come on, everybody," Anna called, taking Kristoff's hand and leading the way. Ralph took Vanellope's hand in turn and followed. As they walked around the building, Ralph couldn't help but notice that Kristoff seemed a bit tense. He smirked at the thought and guessed that he wasn't accustomed to the area, either.
When they emerged on the sidewalk, Ralph's eyes went wide at the sight of glamourous gowns and well-tailored suits in the display windows. A wooden sign reading So This Is Love in elaborate cursive hung over the door.
Anna stepped in without missing a beat, revealing a massive room with marble floors and elaborately molded stucco walls, a brilliant mural of a castle decorating the ceiling. Spread throughout the room were mannequins displaying everything from simple-yet-elegant business suits to dresses fit for a princess — in every color and style imaginable.
"Welcome!" came a voice from the back, alerted by the bell above the door. "I'll be right with you!" After five minutes of looking at mannequins and the clothes they displayed, Anna at least once dragging Kristoff to pose next to a displayed suit for her to judge, the owner of the voice emerged from the back.
She was a pretty woman, with light ginger hair, fair skin, and crystal blue eyes, her features soft and kindly. She was dressed in a brown bodice with aquamarine sleeves, with a knee-length brown skirt and flats, a pair of rimless glasses perched on her nose.
"Hi Ella!" Anna greeted, waving enthusiastically.
"Oh, Anna," Ella said, a bright smile turning her from pretty to radiant, "welcome back! I wish you had called, I would have been waiting for you."
"Well, this wasn't exactly planned," Anna said sheepishly.
"So what can I do for my favorite patron?" Ella asked.
"Well, my cousin's Spring Gala is coming up, so …" Anna smirked knowingly.
"You don't have to tell me twice," Ella laughed. "I've been swamped with dress orders for weeks! I think your gown last year really upped my reputation." She gave a graceful, yet still teasing, curtsy. "My humble self graciously appreciates your support."
"Ella, sweetie," Anna giggled, "you do everything graciously. I think you could give Elsa a run for her money in that department."
"Well, if you're here to check on yours, Elsa's, and Kristoff's outfits, I can have them out in a flash."
"As amazing as that sounds, I'm actually here to tack on one last order," Anna smiled guiltily, wringing her hands a bit.
Ella gasped and covered her lips with her fingers. "Has it finally happened?"
"Yes!" Anna squeaked. Both women gave the most high-pitched squeals of joy and embraced. Ralph and Vanellope, who had been watching all of this with mixtures of amusement and confusion, glanced to the side at the faint sound of Kristoff chuckling with his ears covered.
"So is this the lucky man?" Ella asked, gesturing at Ralph.
"Yep, this is Ralph Rector," Anna said, holding her hands out like a presenter at a game show. "He's the second sweetest gruff guy I've ever met and I'm happy to have set them up."
'At least she didn't say that I saved her life,' Ralph thought.
"And he saved my life when we first met, so that left a great first impression," Anna added with a wry look.
"Well, whatever the case, it's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Ralph," Ella said with an extended hand that Ralph shook as gently as he could. "I'm Ella Fontaine, and I believe it will be my absolute joy to outfit you for the coming evening."
After a few more pleasantries, Ella led them to a back room filled with boxes of fabrics and threads, as well as a wide stool and a cart of sewing supplies, including several measuring tapes. She kindly directed Ralph to take off his jacket, shoes, and socks before guiding him to the stool. As he got situated on the stool, Ella pursed her lips at the even greater size difference between them.
"This is gonna be a bit different," she chuckled before taking a folding three-step ladder and setting it up. "I bought this when I first opened the shop, just in case." She picked a specific tape measure, as well as a pencil and notepad, and climbed the steps. "It's nice that I finally get to use it."
The next twenty minutes or so was spent with Ralph struggling to remain still as Ella measured him in more ways than he had ever thought possible. She started by asking him to stand as straight as he could and measuring his height from heel to the crown of his head, then heel to shoulder, heel to collar bone, heel to waist, and finally heel to knee.
Then she asked him to take off his shirt, her professional tone the only thing that kept him from refusing outright — he had never really been proud of how he looked. With his shirt gone, Ella measured the length of his forearms from shoulder to wrist and elbow to wrist, the circumference of his biceps while flexed and relaxed and his forearms, the circumference of his neck, the width of his shoulders, the circumference of his chest below the arms, and his belly at the navel.
All the while, she kept up pleasant chatter with Ralph about his job, his hobbies — of which there were few — and his general likes and dislikes. The story of his adopting Vanellope was brought up by Anna, of course, which Ella sighed happily at before casually giving Vanellope the same conversational treatment. And through it all, without slowing her brisk, methodical, and practiced pace, Ralph never once thought he was being humored or patronized. Ella just seemed genuinely interested in getting to know her customers.
"Okay, Ralph," Ella said as he put his shirt back on, "this last one may be a bit odd. But I need to measure your legs without the jeans." Ralph's face turned from pink to crimson.
"Don't worry, Ralph," Anna piped up. "I won't look and I've got Van covered, too!"
"Fine by me," Vanellope groused, her eyes covered by one of Anna's hands.
"Fine," he sighed, sliding down his jeans with visible reluctance.
"I'll be quick," Ella assured him. True to her word, she was done in less than a minute. With an entire page covered in shorthand notes, Ella strode over to a filing cabinet and rifled through it for a moment before removing a file folder and examining its contents. "Gentlemen, unless you want a hand in a few color decisions, why don't you wait out front for a bit?" she suggested sweetly.
"You got it," Kristoff laughed tensely before grabbing Ralph's arm and forcibly dragging him out of the back room. "Move faster," he growled under his breath.
Ralph chuckled nervously before realizing that the light steps of his daughter were absent. He glanced back at Vanellope, who was watching Ella and Anna with something like longing. "Vanellope?" he asked, drawing her gaze. "You coming?"
Vanellope looked back at the women, who had paused their discussions to observe the father and daughter. "Um, would you mind if I, um, stayed here?" she asked timidly.
Ralph smiled. "Do what you want, kid. Just don't break anything." With that, he ducked back into the main room and waited. It was a grueling fifteen minutes, as both Ralph and Kristoff's solitary natures made small talk outside of work a bit … difficult. And neither man wanted to broach the topic of what might be going on in the back room.
Finally, Anna swept the curtain aside to allow Ella and Vanellope to pass her by. "Well, we got it all figured out," she chirped, latching onto Kristoff's arm and planting a kiss on his cheek. "You're sure you can make it by the Gala date?" she asked Ella.
"Very certain," Ella answered, with a faint air of fond exasperation that hinted she had answered the question more than once. "I wouldn't have taken the job if I couldn't. I'll let you know when the orders are ready for pickup."
"Great! Thanks Ella!" With that, Anna dragged Kristoff out of the store, Ralph and Vanellope following after bidding Ella their own goodbyes. As they ambled down the street — after Anna had declared an impromptu tour of downtown — Ralph finally let his curiosity get the best of him. "So, what's got you interested in fashion all of a sudden?" he asked.
"I just want your date with Elsa to go well," she grinned up at him.
"It's not a date," Ralph replied.
"You're going to a fancy party in ritzy clothes. Together, I might add," Vanellope countered.
"Doesn't make it a date," Ralph defended stubbornly.
'Let's hope that attitude changes by the end of the party,' Vanellope thought.
"You have a date?!"
Ralph winced at the high-pitched question from his oldest friend. Ever since he could remember, Felix had been the only reliable source of advice he could turn to, be it financial, occupational, or general. Though small-statured and rather boyish, what he lacked in traditional masculinity — which Ralph had in spades — he more than made up for in honesty, kindheartedness, and a sense of youthful wisdom.
Which was why Ralph had called him up for advice after the "events" downtown earlier that day.
On his part, Felix looked absolutely ecstatic for Ralph, his boyish smile stretching from ear to ear. Ralph was briefly distracted by sci-fi noises from inside and was content that Tamora, Felix's Marine sergeant bride, was keeping Vanellope entertained with that insane "Hero's Duty" game she favored.
"It's not a date," Ralph grumbled, although at this point even he wasn't buying it.
"Sure it isn't," Felix said with a grin. "In any case, you're having an 'outing' with a lady. So who's the lucky gal, anyway? You've only mentioned that her sister set you two up."
"She's not just some 'gal', Felix. She's Elsa Winters," Ralph said, a weight to his tone cutting off any idea that he may be joking. "And I wouldn't call her lucky, either," he added under his breath. But Felix caught the words, even after a stunned pause from the name drop of the most powerful woman in the city, and lowered his eyebrows.
"And just why-oh-why would she not be lucky to have you on her arm, Ralph Rector?" he asked, a bit of heat in his voice. "You, my friend, are a noble, honest, hard-working gentleman and any woman would be more than lucky to have you. Even and especially Ms. Elsa Winters."
Ralph couldn't keep the smallest grateful smile from his face. "Thanks," he said before the smile faded. "But that's not what I needed advice for."
'Sure it's not,' Felix thought wryly, but let it pass. "So what did you need advice for, Ralph?"
"I was hoping you could, uh, teach me how to, I dunno … not make a fool of myself at a ritzy shindig?" he asked with a wince and nervously rubbing the back of his neck.
Felix stared blankly at him for a few moments before laughing. It wasn't a harsh, mocking laugh like Ralph had heard so many times in his life — he wasn't sure Felix even could laugh like that — but a genuine, warm laugh of joy. "When did you say the party is, again?" he asked when he'd sobered up, wiping a tear from his eye.
"Two weeks," Ralph groaned.
Felix hummed in thought, rubbing his chin as he looked at Ralph with a kind of intense pensiveness. "Yeah, I can work with that." He shrugged. "I can at least make sure you don't make a complete fool of yourself."
"So let me see if I've got this straight," Tamora said, the volume on the television cranked up so that laser sounds, other miscellaneous sci-fi noises and screeches of the in-game cy-bug enemies drowned out their conversation, "you want me and Felix to help you set Ralph up with an uptown girl?"
"No," Vanellope said with a smirk, "I want you guys to help me set him up with an awesome, super smart, stupidly beautiful uptown woman." She went quiet to focus on obliterating a cluster of cy-bug nests with a rocket launcher. "I know it could work out between them, and so does Anna."
"Anna being the sister who hatched this half-mad scheme," Tamora clarified, eyes never leaving the game even as the gears in her brain were turning over Vanellope's revelation.
"Yep! She wants a guy for Elsa who's honest and can stand on his own two feet, and I want a lady for Ralph who can see how awesome he really is! It works out great!"
"And you two didn't consider just, you know, talking to them both and letting them figure it out on their own like adults?" Tamora asked sardonically.
Vanellope paused the game and looked at Tamora, her eyes burning. "We did think of that," she said with measured calm, "but we trashed that plan when we realized something." Tamora's raised eyebrow was indication enough for her to continue. "Both of them have crazy-bad self-esteem problems. Ralph doesn't think he's worth any lady's time. And if Anna's right, Elsa's convinced no guy would like her for anything but her money or her looks."
Vanellope glanced at the back door before tossing her game controller to the carpet in front of the TV. "I wish they could do this on their own. But since they clearly can't …" Vanellope looked lost for a second before her gaze hardened again. "We're gonna make sure they're happy or die trying," she declared.
Tamora turned Vanellope's words over in her mind before she came to a decision. "Alright, Pipsqueak. You got my attention. I'll talk it over with Felix tonight. Frankly, I'm not sure what either of us could do to help out, especially since you and the sister arranged this little date of theirs, but we'll keep our ears to the ground." Tamora chuckled. "Oh, Felix is gonna get a kick out of all of this."
The back door opened to let Ralph and Felix back in, the carpenter practically vibrating with excitement. "Evening, ladies," he said jovially. "Taking a break from that horror show?"
Tamora smirked. "Meh, just for a little girl talk."
"Girl talk with you?" Ralph laughed. "Not sure how that would even work."
Felix paled at Tamora's narrowing eyes and clapped his hands for attention. "Well, I think it's time to head out for the night." He swept Vanellope up in a hug. "It's always so nice to see you, sweetie."
"You too, Felix," Vanellope said with an affectionate roll of the eyes. She stepped back and offered a raised arm. "You too, Sarge." Tamora shrugged and tapped the side of her forearm against Vanellope's in their personal greeting/goodbye gesture. With that, the Carpenters headed home for the night in their Jeep.
"I gotta tell ya, Tammy, I am so excited for Ralph's date! And of course we will be babysitting Vanellope so Ralph can have some peace of mind for the weekend. Oh, getting him up to par on table manners and dancing is just gonna be so fun!"
Tamora smiled with genuine warmth at her husband's enthusiastic babbling about what he and Ralph had discussed, dividing her attention between him and the road with practiced ease. If there was anyone who had the combination of skills and patience to teach Ralph Rector of all people how to behave in the upper echelons of society, it was her Felix.
"Felix, do you mind reeling it in a bit? There's something I gotta tell you that might, mmh, change things a bit. In a good way." That caught Felix's attention, and he immediately quieted down and listened with a quizzical look. "Well, the squirt has apparently been working with Anna, the little sister that set it all up, on a little … project that she wants our help with."
If asked a year before, Anna Winters would never have said she liked "traditional" music. Her usual tastes aligned more with pop or classic rock, stuff she could dance to. Then she had met Kristoff and after they had started dating, he had revealed his skills with the acoustic guitar. Granted, she had heard him playing the first time they met, but snippets of a goofy song with his dog accompanying was different than hearing him shuffle through complex and stirring melodies.
And every couple of weeks since, she had insisted on a night where he would come to the Winters penthouse and play for her. Anything from the classical pieces he seemed to prefer to covers of songs he knew she liked, he played with his heart and soul. And in those moments, she could almost feel the love he put into the music just for her.
As Kristoff wound down his newly-practiced rendition of Sweet But Psycho, he looked at Anna to find her blushing like a schoolgirl. Warmth swelled in his heart at the look in her eyes, that soft, unyielding joy that she showed whenever he played. Frankly, it was one of the reasons he had upped his practice since they had started dating. He just loved having a way to make her happy.
"That was quite lovely, Kristoff."
Both of them looked to the door of the sitting room to find Elsa standing in the doorway, a soft smile on her lips. While Elsa enjoyed Kristoff's music nights, too, she usually tried to let them have their alone time. The fact that she had made herself known was somewhat unusual.
"Anna, may I speak to Kristoff in private?" Elsa asked, her tone betraying no emotion, damning or otherwise.
"Uhh," Anna floundered for a second before standing from the loveseat she had occupied. "Sure, Sis." Anna turned to Kristoff, who had suddenly gotten a bit paler and kissed his temple with a faint giggle. "Don't worry, I'm sure everything's fine," she whispered, before passing Elsa with a warning look that silently screamed, BE NICE!
Elsa rolled her eyes and sat on the loveseat. "Kristoff, please relax," she said levelly. "I assure you, I am not at all angry with you." Quite the opposite, Elsa appreciated his relationship with her sister immensely. She knew he could be trusted with her heart and wellbeing. "Actually, I wanted to-" she coughed as embarrassment preemptively rose up, "-ask some advice."
Kristoff blinked in surprise before returning his guitar to its case, then settling in his chair to give Elsa his full attention. "Advice about what?" he asked.
Elsa's cheeks began to redden, the contrast quite noticeable against her porcelain skin. "About … well, the wager I lost to Anna." She huffed a sigh at her own embarrassment. "Actually, more about Ralph."
Kristoff had to carefully hide a smile. "What about him?"
Elsa began playing with the end of her braid, tugging her hair gently in a way Kristoff had come to associate with nervousness. Something she never let anyone but Anna, and more recently he himself, see.
"What do you think of him? Of his … character?"
Kristoff tilted his head in faint confusion. "You've met Ralph several times. Why ask for a second opinion?"
Elsa pressed her lips in a faint line in frustration. "I worry that Anna's perception of him is a bit ... shall we say 'rose-tinted' after he saved her life. And I fear that my own perceptions may be colored by that same gratitude."
Kristoff's brows lowered and he fought to keep himself from frowning. "And why, exactly, do you think I'd be any different? I saw Ralph save Anna, the woman I love, with my own two eyes."
Elsa smiled at Kristoff's casual declaration about Anna. "True enough, but you have a much more level head on your shoulders, Kristoff. You are a practical soul who sees the world as it is." She paused to play with her fingers for a moment before continuing. "And you've spent more time with Ralph than either of us put together. You've seen him at work and mentored him." She looked Kristoff straight in the eyes. "I trust your judgment, Kristoff. So, please … what do you think?"
Kristoff couldn't help but blush a bit at having Elsa's trust like that. He was silent for several moments, his eyes tracking back and forth as if reading a book as he went over every shred of interaction with Ralph that he could remember. Finally, he smiled and looked back to Elsa.
"I think he's a great guy. He's hardworking, he's honest, and he cares enough to save someone he'd never met before." Kristoff's smile faded into a determined look. "But more than a great guy … he's a good man. And there's no doubt in my mind that he'll treat you right." His smile returned and he glanced at the door. "And I know that Anna wouldn't have arranged him to be your date to the gala if she didn't think so, too."
Elsa took some time to digest his words before nodding. His assurances about Ralph matched perfectly with her own understanding of the man. And with the support of both him and Anna, she finally shed the last reservations about the arrangement. Well, about Ralph himself, at any rate.
Whether the man could acquit himself at a gala such as this had yet to be seen.
"Thank you, Kristoff," Elsa said, standing and making for the door. "I'll leave you to resume your evening with Anna." Before leaving, she looked back at him with a faint smirk. "And, of course, I do hope you two are being responsible."
Kristoff's mind went blank at Elsa's implications, but before he could sputter assurance that they hadn't even gotten close to anything like that, she was gone. He sighed at the sound of her chuckles echoing down the hall.
Anna returned less than a minute later and found Kristoff with his elbows on his knees, cradling his face in his hands. "Is everything okay?" she asked quizzically.
"I think your sister's finally accepted Ralph as her date," Kristoff said with a smile.
Anna gasped in surprise and squealed with delight before draping herself over Kristoff's lap and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "Oh, I sure hope so." She giggled and kissed his cheek. "Because I can tell it's gonna be an awesome night."
Hey everyone! It's been a while, eh? Here's hoping this chapter makes up for it, because you're probably in for another sizable wait until I finish off some other projects. Sorry...!
*Ella Fontaine means "fountain", the place where she met her fairy godmother.
*Ella's shop is modeled on the castle in Cinderella's film, the mural on the ceiling and the view from her canon window.
*In regards to Ella's measuring Ralph: I have no practical experience with clothing measurements, so I just tried to be as thorough as I could conceive.
As always, I hope this was a fun read! Leave a review if you can! And may your own works be fun to read and to write!