And I bring you some more fluff to enjoy. Hopefully this will cheer up those of you who read that dark one-shot I wrote the other day ("Popular"), lol.
Save Me from My Dark Side
Chapter Twenty-Two
Day Seven...
The iced-over pond made of Invisible Kool-Aid that was located behind Adorabeezle and Nougetsia's two-story igloo house was already teeming with happy kids skating effortlessly over its frozen surface. Turbo gulped from his position on the bench and looked down at his custom made red skates that were handcrafted by Crumbelina herself. He felt warm appreciation that she'd gone through all the trouble for him (even using his favorite color), but the fact remained that he was…well…scared. He was going to look like an idiot out there.
Turbo looked up and over to his right at Ralph, the only other person there besides the children. Felix and Calhoun had come to the last ice skating party, so they had opted out of this one in favor of spending some alone time together.
"Why don't you go out there?" Turbo asked the wrecker inquisitively, who was standing next to the bench out of fear that he'd break it if he sat down.
Ralph laughed nervously and crossed his arms in a show of self-consciousness. "Yeah, a nine foot tall guy that weighs over six hundred pounds going out onto the ice."
"Right, I see your point," the racer said quietly, casting his gaze once more to the pond.
Sticky was attempting to skate with Swizzle, who was currently trying to partner up with Snowanna, who could really have cared less. Vanellope, Candlehead, Minty, and Taffyta were swinging each other around in a conjoined circle, giggling wildly as they came close to falling a few times. Crumbelina was as graceful as always performing figure-eights and little twirls, while Gloyd was racing around stealing the hats off the other girls' heads in order to get them to chase him. Citrusella and Adorabeezle were taking a break and making miniature ice cream snowmen on the sidelines.
They were all having fun and Turbo felt immensely left out….like he always did. He wondered when Rosie was going to come; they'd told him she'd be here, which was the only real motivation he'd had in showing up. Snowanna managed to get the Swizz off her tail and focus his attention on Torvald, which only made Sticky try harder to vie for his affection, and she whistled for Jubileena to come over to her and they skated up to where Turbo was sitting.
"Come on, Crumbelina's feelings are going to get hurt if you don't come out here," the rainbow-haired girl was telling him as she held her hand out for him to grab.
He winced at the thought of hurting her feelings, even though he hadn't really spoken to her that much.
"I'm going to fall," he said almost bashfully, something Ralph or even the girls thought they'd never hear.
"Hey, at least when you fall, you don't cause a ten on the Richter Scale," Ralph said in a light-hearted manner to get him to see the bright side.
"Maybe you'll learn really fast and won't fall too much," Jubileena offered sweetly.
He highly doubted that and it showed on his face that he was still unsure of this.
"The faster you get out here, the faster you learn how to do it," Snowanna recited, pointing an authoritative finger down at the ice to get her message across.
Jubileena added, "Yeah, then when Miss Rosie shows up, you can skate with her." She sighed after she said it. "It'll be so ro-man-tic."
Turbo looked back down at the vanilla ice cream snow surrounding his feet. "Yeah, until I trip her up and fall on her."
Ralph blew out an aggravated breath, quickly tiring of the conversation. He couldn't believe he thought this way, but he actually missed Turbo being his old cocky, over-confident self. Without warning, he plucked the smaller man up off the bench by the back of his suit and, ignoring his cries of protest, dangled him over the ice before lowering him onto his feet.
"There, now quit whining about it," Ralph insisted firmly after he released the reluctant student.
Turbo was too scared to move a muscle, his whole body rigid as he attempted to stay upright on the slippery surface. He immediately wished to go back to the bench as he felt his feet barely slide under him.
"If you don't have a problem crashing during a race, then it shouldn't be a big deal to fall," Snowanna pointed out in an effort to enlighten him.
"Not everyone stares at you when you crash in a race, because they're all too preoccupied either driving or watching who's left," Turbo retorted back stubbornly as he kept his eyes fixed fearfully on his feet.
Jubileena tapped at his knees with one of her hands. "Bend them, you can't keep your legs straight or you really will fall!"
"Pretend you're sitting in a kart, but don't bend down quite as much," added Snowanna helpfully.
"And relax! You topple over faster if you're not relaxed!"
Turbo worriedly glanced behind him at Ralph, who was giving him a thumbs-up and nodding in encouragement from his place by the bench. He sighed and turned his attention back to his two adamant teachers.
"Here, take my hand!" Jubileena offered assertively, grabbing his before he had a chance to answer or do it himself.
"Now start walking, mister!" Snowanna commanded while pointing her finger in a forward direction.
"Walk?"
"Baby steps!" the cherry-pie themed racer explained to him. "That's how we all started."
"And don't step down with your toes first, that'll make you trip for sure!"
The two girls both taking turns telling him what to do was making Turbo feel dizzy and he shut his eyes for a few seconds to clear his head. Okay, he can do this. Baby steps should be easy enough for him to handle without tumbling over. He squeezed Jubileena's hand a little too hard since she squeaked painfully, and he slowly and very timidly picked his right foot up off the ice and moved it about an inch in front of him before carefully putting it back down.
"There ya go, that's one foot!" Jubileena cheered him on enthusiastically.
"Do the other one or you'll wind up doing the splits," he heard Snowanna advise from the other side of him.
Banana splits, the "King Candy" part of him said and Turbo rolled his eyes at himself in exasperation. That was the one thing that would be worse than landing on his face. He picked his left foot up a tad faster and placed it down by the other one. He smiled meagerly at his minor accomplishment, mentally patting himself on the back for not falling right away.
"Good job! Now just do it a bunch more times until you get your balance figured out," Snowanna instructed him, saying it as though she was asking him to do the easiest thing in the world.
He blew out his breath and, keeping his hand in Jubileena's, made another set of baby steps.
"You're hands are so cold, I can feel it through my glove!" the little red-haired girl complained.
"Well excuuuuse me, sorry to be such a burden to you."
"Don't you have any winter clothes?" she kept probing him. "Like a scarf or something?"
"I used to," he answered, taking another little step. "I didn't exactly have time to pack before my TurboTime house disappeared."
The only reason he even had pajamas or other small personal trinkets was because he had kept a few items over at Rosie's dorm room while they were dating for when he stayed the night at her place after one of her after-hours basketball games, and she had fortunately opted to keep it all as memoirs after his "death". Unfortunately, seasonal wear wasn't included with those things so he didn't have a coat, scarf, gloves, nothing.
Conversing had made Turbo not concentrate fully on what he was doing and suddenly the world went upside down as he slipped backwards, his legs flipping up in the air landing hard on his back on the ice. He groaned painfully and slowly opened his eyes to see Snowanna and Jubileena's faces peering down at him worriedly as they leaned over to make sure he was all right. The fallen racer braced himself for a chorus of mocking laughter, dreading this to be a repeat of the incident at BurgerTime.
To his astonishment, he heard no such thing. Vanellope skidded into view to join the other two girls at peeking down at him from above, followed by Candlehead who had her usual ditzy smile on her face.
"What are you doing down there, Mister Turbo?" she questioned bouncily.
"Oh just chilling out, you know, the usual," he muttered halfheartedly in response, getting embarrassed at all these witnesses.
They all four giggled and he cringed at the noise until he figured out that they weren't laughing because he had fallen.
"You can't lay there all day, lazy bones," smirked Vanellope in good nature. "Don't want someone running you over with their blades, do ya?"
"I don't think I can move," Turbo whined, feeling the dull pain in his spine.
"At least you didn't crack the ice!" Ralph was calling out to him in a helpful manner, his large hands cupping his mouth so his voice would carry.
"Oh, come on, silly!" Jubileena perked up, trying to shove against Turbo's shoulder. "You have to roll over on your hands and knees to get up!"
"Okay okay, quit pushing me," the older racer waved her off as he finished the chore himself.
The ice was freezing against his bare hands and his back creaked when he got up on his knees. Someone, he wasn't sure who exactly, told him to bring one knee forward and put his foot flat on the ice to stand up, but his attempt at doing this only made him fall again. His jaw slammed into the ice roughly as he landed flat on his stomach, groaning as he laid there.
"For the love of gumdrops, you really are a klutz," Snowanna shook her head in disbelief.
"Told ya," he squeaked out, not daring to move from his new prone position as he stared longingly at the pond's edge where there was solid ground to stand on.
That's when Taffyta of all people decided to skate in front of his face and stop, kneeling down enough to where he could look up into her cold blue eyes. She was staring at him with disinterest, her lips puckered around her precious lollipop and with one hand placed on her hip. The other kids piped down when they saw her and Turbo could see out of the corner of his eye that Ralph was even still. Everyone always shut up when Taffyta appeared, that's just how much of an impact her presence made.
Here it comes. She's going to bitch about what an epic loser I am. Just what I needed.
The platinum blonde popped her trademark candy out of her mouth, twirling the stick part between her fingers, before opening her mouth to say,
"Look here, Turbo. You're supposed to be the greatest racer of all time, right? The former most popular arcade game character, right?"
"Um...yeah?"
"Then start acting like it," she nearly commanded of him. "I'm almost embarrassed for you. You go from being a racing idol to a king to a guy acting more timid than a marshmallow bunny. We all know you're better than this, so get up off your molasses and grow a pair of gumballs already."
The other girls gasped at her use of two foul words in one sentence, regardless of the fact that they were G-rated candy-pun curses. Turbo blinked a few times at her, not sure what to say in response or if he should respond. Taffyta could be a pretty scary bitch, you know. Nevertheless, something in what she said made him put his hands underneath him to begin pushing his upper body up off the ice. His palms slid slightly and for a moment he thought he was going to crash back down on his face until...
"I gotcha, come on!" Jubilenna piped up reassuringly, wrapping her own arms around his left one to help support him.
Vanellope saw what she was doing and got in front of Snowanna to copy her cherry friend, pulling up on his right shoulder. "Get your legs underneath ya and help push yourself up!"
Candlehead was humorously trying to push his knees in a bent position from behind him to help get his legs under him. Gloyd had skated himself around in close proximity to where they were and sped his way over to forcefully give Turbo the right amount of push he needed on his lower back to complete the standing-up process. Turbo lurched forward at that and his arms went flying wildly to the side of him at the unexpected force, causing him to skate forward a bit and Taffyta quickly darted over to the side out of fear that he was going to run her over. Snowanna acted fast and got in front of him to push against his stomach to get him to slow down and he eventually got his bearings enough to stand still in one place. The girls backed off once he was still but they kept close by just in case.
Turbo relaxed once he felt that he was sturdy, allowing himself to sigh in relief and he looked down at all the chibi-styled racers with an genuinely appreciative smile on his face.
"Thanks, kids!"
"You're welcome!" they all chimed together.
They all had helped him up when he fell without complaint or hesitation, like it was completely natural of them to do such a thing. It warmed his heart so much that he was tempted to scoop them all in a hug, except that he didn't want to risk falling down again quite just yet.
Not to mention, it might weird them out.
"Hi, Missus Turbo!" Candlehead called out loudly, sticking her hand way up above her head to wave.
Turbo wasn't sure how to turn himself around without slipping so he could only twist his head to the side, barely able to see his pretty wife skating up from behind him. She had a light pink turtleneck sweater on instead of the pastel yellow tee she had taken to wearing since her game days and white knit gloves on.
"Hi girls!" she cheerily greeted them and they moved out of her way so she could get in front of Turbo, giving him a playful smirk. "So, you gonna be a skating pro anytime soon?"
She threw a red scarf around his neck while she talked and Jubileena said accusingly, "Hey, you said you didn't have any winter gear!"
"I can't even stand back up by myself," Turbo answered his wife then turned his head down to the cherry pie girl and said, "And I don't."
"Oh, I bumped into Mario," Rosie informed him casually as she finished fixing the scarf around him properly. "He had a spare he said you could have after I told him what we were doing today."
He seemed surprised. "That was awfully nice of him."
"I couldn't find any gloves for you though," she said regrettably, holding his freezing hands in her own warm gloved ones. "The whole four finger thing, you know."
He blushed a little, his hands warming up already in hers. The Sugar Rush racers all had four fingers as well but none of their gloves would fit his adult hands, as they had already attempted to offer him some of their own spares for him and it not working out. The girls giggled quietly to themselves and he heard Vanellope whispering,
"Turbo and Rosie, sittin' in a tree-"
He shot her quick warning glare and she responded by sticking her tongue out playfully before skating off with Taffyta and Snowanna to race around the pond. Jubileena grabbed Candlehead to follow the other three so the couple could be by themselves, Jubileena giving Turbo a thumbs up and mouthing the words "ro-man-tic". Turbo felt his face get hotter, the scarf beginning to act as an insulator to his neck and chin.
"Well...um...thanks," he told Rosie, not knowing why he was getting so embarrassed. It's not like he'd never held hands with her before. "Sweater looks nice on you."
She beamed at the compliment and started trying to tug him forward while she skated backwards. He tensed up at the motion and squeezed her hands a bit too hard, trying to keep his legs from going out under him.
"It's actually Raven's, but she said she hardly ever wears it anymore so I could have it if I wanted," Rosie was telling him, smiling to herself at the adorable expression of uncertainty that was etched on her husband's face while he tried not to slip. "You really need to loosen up, champ."
"How come you're not having trouble?" Turbo wanted to know, keeping his eyes on the ice the whole time.
"I'm programmed to have perfect balance," she replied matter-of-factly with a small shrug. "And I might have come out here yesterday to get a feel of the ice."
"You came out here without me?" he questioned with a slight pout.
"Well, you were kind of busy with the maze thing and I was bored so Adorabeezle said I could hang out with her if I wanted to."
"Hey, wait a minute, where'd you even get skates at anyway?"
"Oh Crumbelina made them for me at the same time she made yours," she answered him casually, wringing one of her hands out of his clutch so she could waggle her fingers at the aforementioned Italian girl, who had waved at her from where she and Minty were doing tricks in the middle of the pond.
"Well, aren't you just Miss Popular?" Turbo kidded with her, feeling uneasy at the loss of her supportive hand and wound up sandwiching her other one between his own two hands in a death grip.
"I am married to Mister Popular, you know," she retorted back with a small smile.
"I don't think that's an accurate title for me these days," he frowned slightly, casting his eyes downwards.
Rosie's face fell, mentally slapping herself for saying something to sadden him, but she forced herself to perk up. She had to pry one of his hands loose from hers so she could go back to holding it correctly. "Sure you are, honeybun. The kids all seem to like you, that has to count for something."
He slid his eyes back up to hers and a hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, which made her smile.
"Yeah, you're right," he said softly while looking over at the kids playing on the ice. "They're a pretty good bunch."
I knew he'd eventually start liking kids if he actually hung out with them, Rosie thought warmly to herself as she noticed the almost fond look he was giving to the little rascals. He probably didn't even know he was looking at them that way.
It was then that Turbo realized that he had managed to, without thinking about it, make decent progress from his original starting point by several yards. Adorabeezle and Citrusella were still sitting down making miniature snow men as they slowly passed by them.
"Look, we made snowbabies!" the Inuit-resembling girl said proudly as she waved her hand over their creations.
Rosie grinned at the large collection that they had made. "How cute!"
"It's a whole family!" Citrusella added with her own grin.
"More like an army," muttered Turbo under his breath.
"When are you two going to have babies?"
Rosie giggled at the innocent question while her husband's face turned bright red with a dropped jaw, him having to squeeze her hands even harder to keep from accidentally slipping from shock.
"We...we can't have those!" he blurted out, feeling even hotter now despite the chilly environment.
"Why not?" Adorabeezle asked curiously, oblivious that Turbo was absolutely mortified.
"Be-because we just can't, that's why!"
Rosie was still giggling and she twisted one of her hands out of Turbo's, grabbing him by the scarf to gently pull him towards her so she could teasingly whisper, "We can still have fun practicing."
Dear. God.
His eyes bugged out and he was so flustered at her flippantly suggestive comment, saying it in the company of children no less, that he suddenly got weak in the knees and his feet ended up slipping sideways underneath him. That jolted him into action and he ripped his other hand out of Rosie's to fearfully grab her around her shoulders to hold himself up. The unexpected added weight made her screech to a quick halt with her knees bending inwardly while she wrapped her arms around his waist in an awkward hug to help support him. He wasn't fat by any means, but he still weighed a good deal more than she did (having more pixels tended to have that effect), as she herself was programmed to be light enough to jump around and do gymnastic activities.
"Turbo...honey...pick your feet back up," she was begging him in a strained voice as she felt a sharp pain in her back. "You're gonna make me fall."
"What do you think I'm trying to do?" he asked of her as he felt himself sliding down lower, which as a result was making Rosie have to bend her own knees down as she tried desperately to keep him up.
"Sweet mother of monkey milk, guys, get a room," they heard the bemused snark that could only come from a certain candy-haired president.
Turbo would have glared at her only the way he was positioned he couldn't even see her. "Oh go flirt with Fluggerbutter, why don't ya?"
"Rancis?" She started laughing wildly at the very idea, even wiping the corner of her eye. "Please, that pretty boy? I like...GLOYD!"
The panicked way she screamed the name tipped him off that something had either happened or was going to happen. Sure enough, about five seconds after she screamed his name, Orangeboar accidentally rammed himself right into Turbo's backside. He had been preoccupied with escaping the angry clutches of Taffyta who had been his latest hat stealing victim so he didn't even see the couple in his path until it was too late. Rosie had shut her eyes tightly and tensed up to brace for impact, dreading the thought of being at the bottom of the pile when it all ended.
Thankfully, it didn't quite happen that way. Turbo hadn't wanted to land on his petite wife and break her, especially with Felix not currently available, so he shoved her away from him. She ended up sliding backwards and crashing on her bottom while he ended up laying prone on the ice with a certain prankster boy laying askew on top of him. Vanellope helped Rosie get up, while Turbo propped his head up with his bent arm to rest it in his hand, keeping his other hand busy by drumming it impatiently on the ice as he awaited for Gloyd to get off of him. The boy sat up and rolled off, looking over at his unamused house guest with a rather sheepish expression.
"He he...sorry?"
After everyone was done skating, Adorabeezle and Nougetsia said that everyone was welcome to stick around for hot chocolate. Naturally, Turbo couldn't resist so he helped himself to a cup. Candlehead insisted on sitting beside him outside on one of the picnic tables that was set outside and pretty soon everyone was wanting to sit at the table too. Rosie couldn't help but smile as they all tried to talk to him practically at the same time without really giving him much chance to respond and she heard a "psst!" coming from behind her.
Vanellope had her finger to her lips to silently tell her to be quiet and then she waved both her hands towards in her a beckoning motion. With a cocked brow, Rosie followed the candy-haired girl around to the other side of the igloo house where she finally started talking.
"I didn't want Turbo hearing this," she started off, "But me and some of the others had this really cool idea for a surprise."
"What kind of surprise?" Rosie asked warily. "He's not too big on those sometimes."
"Relax, it's a good one! Only thing is none of us know what it looked like." She shrugged her arms up helplessly. "So I need you to sneak off sometime and help me make it."
"What is it?"
Vanellope waved her to bend down so that she could whisper in her ear and Rosie's face lit up in a wide grin. "Oh my gosh, that is so sweet and thoughtful!"
"Shhhhh! You can't tell him, okay?"
"Oh don't worry, this is definitely staying a secret. He will be beyond thrilled when he sees it."
"OOORRANGEEBOOOOOOARRR!"
When they heard the unmistakable screaming from Turbo, the two girls exchanged worried glances before rushing back to the other side of the igloo house. What they had missed was Gloyd perfectly targeting Turbo's face with an ice cream snowball, the retired racer's face dripping with vanilla. He had dove into the snow to make his own snowball and hurled it back at the boy, just getting him in the leg. Notably, instead of a deep scowl marking his features as he sought revenge, he had what could be considered a gleeful competitive grin.
Someone yelled "SNOWBALL FIGHT!" and it was on. Everyone played a role. Out of the Sugar Rush-ians, the most formidable opponents were Gloyd, Vanellope, Minty, Taffyta, and the Swizz. Vanellope was able to glitch out of an oncoming missile's way and also teleport herself to a different location in order to do a sneak attack. Ralph made both a good shield and a good snowball thrower, even if he wasn't too good at actually making the snowballs with his large hands.
It didn't take long for everyone to get covered in vanilla slush but everyone was laughing and having a great time. Even Turbo had what he would say was a turbo-tastic time getting pelted and assaulted by the kids, all of them cracking up and running away screaming in hysterics every time they managed to hit him. He even helped some of the not-so-good kids get a few shots in at the others.
Rosie would say to him later that it was nice to see him laughing again, which earned her a tickle attack.