"Wait, what? Back up a little," Vanellope requested from her perch lying on her stomach on Ralph's shoulder. "How can someone like this ugly mug have anyone who loved him?"
"Hey, you're not exactly good-looking either," Turbo sneered at her. In response, Vanellope made a rude gesture that she could only have learned from her gamers.
"Anyway, my game and Turbotime were plugged in around the same time, back when the arcade first opened," Felix reminisced.
Litwak's Arcade, circa 1980
Back then, the games in the arcade had been so few that they'd been plugged into the one outlet with a few double-adaptors. Felix, naturally curious, walked along what had then been a dirt path out into the wire-cable tunnel and through to the tiny double-adaptor station that had then been simply called The Junction. There had been no surge protectors back then, either. All of that was added later, around the time the arcade started getting more games in.
In The Junction, Felix looked around with childlike wonder. Everything was so white, so much blanker than anything in his game. Hearing heavy footsteps behind him, he glanced over his shoulder to see that Ralph had followed him out into this place.
"Go back to the game, Ralph, you're wrecking the place with your footsteps," Felix worried, glancing at the slight cracks that had appeared in the white floor.
"Sorry," Ralph replied, and Felix winced as his loud voice echoed. And then he heard another sound once the place had stopped echoing. It was, curiously, the sound of a racecar that he'd heard earlier in the day. Soon enough, a white car appeared out of the tunnel on the other side of The Junction. Looking up, Felix noticed a sign taped over the tunnel- Turbotime. He had one above his own tunnel called Fix-it Felix Jr, as he soon discovered. And then he turned back to look at the newcomer.
"Hi there, neighbour," Felix greeted him cheerily, waving to the grey-skinned male as he jumped out of his car.
"Hi," the racer replied, looking a little uncertainly at the ground before stepping out of his car. To Felix's surprise, he stumbled and had to lean against the car to hold himself up.
"Are you alright?" the handyman asked, running over to him to help him stand.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, It'th jutht that my game'th really popular and I've been rathing all day," he replied, closing his bright yellow eyes and grimacing either at pins-and-needles in his legs or at his lisp.
"Well, I've been climbing a building and fixing it all day so I'm pretty tired too," Felix informed him with a smile. "I'm Fix-it Felix Jr, by the way, from my game over there."
"I'll jutht call you Felicth," the other character decided. "Thorry about my lithp, by the way. It geth worth when I'm tired. Oh, and I'm Turbo from my game over there."
"I gathered that," Felix chuckled. "It's nice to meet you, Turbo."
"Thame to you," Turbo replied with a smile, and stepped forward to shake his hand. But he fell and was caught by Felix, who laughed awkwardly. Before long, they were both laughing.
"I remember that," Turbo grinned. "I didn't know what was going on outside my game when I heard all that banging around and yelling."
"Yeah, that was me," Ralph admitted, nervously scratching the back of his neck. "Back in the day, I used to really act like a wrecker and I didn't know how to speak in a normal voice."
"And then there was the day you wrecked my car," Turbo added somewhat viciously. "Good thing Felix had his hammer."
"I've never seen you so upset since then," Felix remarked, laughing at the memory.
Since the day they'd first met, Felix and Turbo had been regularly meeting up in The Junction to talk about their games and how their day had been. But on one day in particular, Turbo decided to drive his car straight from his game into Fix-it Felix Jr. He never went anywhere without it, either because he didn't trust the other racers in his game with it or just because he was so attached to it. On this day, however, Felix hadn't finished his last game yet before Turbo arrived. Instead, Litwak had decided to have a try at one of the arcade's most popular games. So Turbo waited just off-screen, past the mud puddle.
When Ralph hurtled down into the mud puddle, Turbo was splashed with mud and grimaced as he wiped it off his helmet. It would take forever to get the mud out of his racing attire, not to mention the upholstery of his car. But then, as soon as Litwak exited the arcade, the wrecker got up and took his anger out on the first thing he saw- Turbo's car.
"Ralph, no!" Felix cried, jumping down to stop him, but he was too late. Turbo just managed to leap out of the way before a massive fist came crashing down on his car.
"You idiot! That could put me out of order for good!" Turbo snarled, jumping to his feet and punching the wrecker in the side. He heard a crunching sound and fell back with a choked sob. That had really hurt, but his precious car was hurt worse. So he did the only thing he could think of to do- he headbutted him.
Turbo awoke dazed and confused, wondering why his helmet was lying on the ground somewhere to the right of him. He hadn't ever had it off before except for when he slept, so the fresh air of Niceland ruffling his hair felt unfamiliar to him. It almost felt like fingers- no, it was fingers running through his hair.
"Oh my land, thank goodness you're alright! I didn't know if my hammer could fix people but I guess now I know it can," Felix commented a little breathlessly as though he'd been holding his breath.
"Did you fix my car?" Turbo asked, sitting up and turning to face the handyman.
"Good as new," Felix confirmed, gesturing to the racecar sitting off to the side. "I fixed your hand and helmet too, and your head. You might need to wash yourself and your jumpsuit, though."
"Thank you," Turbo beamed (literally, his smile was that bright), and hugged him tightly.
"And I thought you threw tantrums," Vanellope smirked at Ralph. "I wish I could've seen his face when you smashed his car, though."
"And I wish I could've seen your face when he smashed your kart," Turbo retorted.
"Guys, please, don't bicker like children," Felix urged, holding up his hands. "Turbo, if you want her to let you out of the Fungeon, you'll have to stop fighting with her."
"She started it," Turbo complained, pointing at her pitifully.
"And I'll finish it," Ralph threatened, raising a fist. But once again, Felix intervened.
"Look, if I promise to keep an eye on him, can I at least show him what he's been missing of the arcade for the past twenty years?" Felix requested, looking pleadingly at the president.
"I suppose," she allowed. "But first he has to tell me how he ended up in the Fungeon. I won't let him out straight away, though."
"Of course you won't," Turbo grumbled, and turned to walk away from the door to sit on the small bed in his cell. Once he sat down, he removed his helmet and long, tangled black hair cascaded down his back.
"Can I ask another question first?" Felix asked, but Vanellope got there first.
"How'd your hair get so long? Didn't you say it used to be short?" she asked, her fear forgotten in the face of curiosity.
"When your game's unplugged, you start to grow outside your original coding," Turbo explained, running a hand through his thick tresses until the tangles became too great to continue. "I wasn't always so tubby. I just happened to eat too much candy when I first came here."
"I don't blame you," Ralph admitted. "But how did you end up in the Fungeon?"
"I regenerated in here," Turbo informed him. "I guess this game must've been based off mine or something. So is that an acceptable answer, your highneth? Can I go now?"
"I'll let you spend another night in the Fungeon first," Vanellope decided. "Ralph, you can take me back to my room now. And I don't exactly feel safe sleeping on my own so I order you to stay in my room with me."
"Sure thing, Miss Scaredy-cat," Ralph chuckled, and walked out of the Fungeon with Vanellope still lying on his shoulder. Felix spared one last look for the defeated racer sitting in the daylight on the bed, looking at his helmet as though remembering the great racer he'd once been.
I guess some parts in this could be considered jawbreaker but they're just friends in this fic, at least for now. I really hope Turbo's lisp isn't too bad in the scene where he's tired, and that I haven't overdone it. Please tell me if I can and how I can improve it, I only have Sollux from Homestuck to go on as reference for lisps.