Chapter 8: In Which Ralph Carries Sorceress to the Top of a Building

The clumsily assembled pile of bricks that was Ralph's shack looked pitifully small and shabby. All it had to make it resemble a house was a roof, one window, a blue door, and a steel pipe for a chimney. Ralph had been so proud of it when he first built it. It was the second thing he'd ever built in his life, right after Vanellope's go-kart. It didn't matter to him that it wasn't very big or fancy like the obviously superior row of apartment houses Felix built for the new guys. It was Ralph's own personal space, and as long as it kept him from sleeping outside on a pile of bricks with a stump for a pillow, it was the perfect home.

But now, with Sorceress standing next to him holding her partly eaten cherry pie, Ralph didn't feel as confident with the place as he used to. All he could see were its flaws. Everything was crooked, the roof and the door frame were cracked, and there was that one big brick that didn't match the others. Sorceress was just quietly taking it all in, and he worried that she was thinking about how pathetic and sloppy it was. If she hadn't insisted on seeing his house, he would never have brought her here at all.

Ralph cleared his throat. "Well, this is it. It's not much, but..." He trailed off, eyes drifting down to the apple pie in his hand that was almost gone. "Yeah, it's not much."

For a moment Sorceress didn't say anything. Then she let out a high-pitched squeal that would have been more suited to a teenage girl. "It's so cute!"

He looked at her with a mixture of surprise and confusion. "Huh?"

She beamed up at him, small white fangs showing and crimson eyes sparkling. "Your house! It's adorable!"

Ralph arched one of his bushy eyebrows skeptically. He glanced from Sorceress to his shack and then back to Sorceress. "We are talking about the same house, right?"

Instead of answering, Sorceress thrust her unfinished pie into his hands and floated up to the little shack, hovering giddily around it like a blue and red hummingbird. "Oh, it's like a cottage from a fairy tale! Look at this little path going up to the door! And this blue paint! It's the perfect color to contrast the bricks!" She paused suddenly to look back at him. "You built it all yourself, right?"

For a moment Ralph just stood there, eyes wide and mouth hanging partly open, too stunned by her overwhelmingly positive response to say anything at first. She was acting as innocently exuberant as a child, but even Vanellope hadn't been this excited to see his shack for the first time. "Uh… Yeah, I did," he said at last.

Hands clasped and grinning girlishly, Sorceress drifted back to his side. "Wow. That's very impressive."

"Impressive?" Ralph echoed, eyebrows rising up to form wrinkles in forehead. "How is that impressive?"

"Well, think about it." She turned around to sweep an arm out at the row of apartment houses behind them. "Mr. Fix-It uses his magic hammer to build things like that, right? That doesn't take much effort. He just waves it around a bit and he's done." She turned back to face Ralph. "You, however, just have your strength to rely on, and you were still able to make something. Isn't that impressive?"

Ralph couldn't help turning a little pink at her compliments and stared down at his bare feet, shuffling awkwardly. He still wasn't quite used to having people say nice things about him but it always felt good to hear it, especially if the person talking to him was someone he was growing attracted to.

He finally looked at Sorceress with a sheepish grin on his face. "Well, when you put it like that, I guess it is kind of impressive."

Sorceress returned the smile and took her pie back from him. Then she turned to his shack with one eyebrow arched in curiosity. "I can't help wondering, though. How do you fit inside? It doesn't seem big enough for you."

"Yeah, it's kind of a tight squeeze. It used to fall down on me, too, but I think I've finally got it sturdy enough. She might look shaky, but this baby's as solid as a rock."

Ralph patted one of the walls with one huge hand. Unfortunately, he patted it just a little too hard. With a noisy clatter, the shack collapsed. He coughed on the cube-shaped puffs of dust and fanned his face to blow it away. When the blocky clouds settled, there was a pile of broken bricks, wood and glass where his shack had once stood.

He stared at the remains of his house in stunned silence for a moment. Then he grinned awkwardly at Sorceress, trying to pretend he wasn't at all embarrassed about how easily he'd just wrecked his own home. "Heh. Not such a solid rock after all."

Sorceress raised a hand to cover her open mouth. "Oh, dear…"

He shrugged his big shoulders. "It's fine, really. I'll just rebuild it later. It's not like this hasn't happened before."

"But where are you going to sleep tonight?"

Ralph's brows furrowed pensively. She raised a good point. "Maybe I can get the couch out of there." He held out his half-eaten pie to her. "Can you hold this for a second?"

Sorceress took the pie from him and stepped out of the way to watch as Ralph crouched on the ground and dug through the rubble. At last he found his worn-out old couch buried under the remains of the roof. Dragging it out of the pile of bricks, he lifted the large, heavy piece of furniture effortlessly over his head and carefully set it down on the grass. He brushed some dust and broken bricks from the cushions until he thought they looked passably clean.

"There," he said, wiping his hands on his overalls. "Now I've got a place to sleep, and we've got a place to sit and eat our pies. Two problems solved."

Sorceress couldn't help but be impressed by this casual display of strength. There were many super strong people in the arcade, but Ralph was well known to be one of the strongest. His job was to tear down a building with his bare hands, after all. She'd seen him use that strength for wrecking things on their first sort-of-date in Street Fighter, but it was different to see him use the same power for something as mundane as moving a couch.

She came forward to give him back his pie. Then she took a seat on the couch. The middle was caving in and it wasn't especially soft, but she was a guest here and he was trying to be a good host for her. "I'm sorry about your house, Ralph. I thought it was very nice."

Ralph sat down next to her, springs and wood creaking under his weight. "You're just saying that to make me feel better."

Sorceress started picking at her pie with her fork. Yes, she was trying to make him feel better, but that wasn't the only reason she was giving him compliments. "No, I really did like it. It was very charming and sweet."

Feeling his face warming up again, Ralph wondered if she was trying to flirt with him. Charming and sweet? Nobody ever used those words when describing him or the things he did, not unless they were being sarcastic. It didn't look like Sorceress was being sarcastic, though, or even flirty. She was just telling him how she really felt. "Thanks," was all he could think to say.

Not knowing what else to do, Ralph picked up his fork and tried to finish the rest of his pie. As he scooped up chunks of apple and stuffed them in his mouth, it struck him that this was the first time he'd been alone with Sorceress since their first date. Having Vanellope come along with him to Blood and Thunder yesterday had been fun, and he was glad she was so supportive of his new relationship, but he could only take so much teasing and coaching from her. This time it was just him and Sorceress, and thus it was a proper a date.

Now all he needed was something interesting to talk about. Best start with simple chit-chat and let things go from there. He swallowed his mouthful of chewed up apples before speaking. "So, uh, how was work today? Get many quarter alerts?"

Sorceress dabbed at her lips with her handkerchief before answering. "A decent amount, yes. Quite a few gamers got Hunter as far as the Final Boss fight, so I was busy. It was hard to concentrate on giving a good performance today, though. Normally it takes the gamers several tries before they can kill me."

Ralph wasn't entirely surprised to hear this. Sorceress talked about her work at Bad Anon fairly often, and most of the other Bad Guys had violent, dangerous jobs like her. Zombie, for example, died so often that he could hardly tell the difference between life and death anymore. However, it never really bothered Ralph as much as it did this time.

Sorceress sensed that his mood had turned serious when he went quiet and his expression turned grim. "Did I say something wrong?" she asked worriedly.

Ralph shook his head, poking at his pie with his fork. "No, you're fine. I guess I just don't like the idea of you dying."

Her eyebrows twisted in confusion. "Why? It's not as if I'm the only person in this arcade who's ever died. Don't your friends Mr. Fix-It and Sergeant Calhoun die on the job every day?"

He tapped his fork against the side of his pie dish. "Yeah, but it's different for them. They're Good Guys. Nobody wants Good Guys to die."

Sorceress stared down at the cherry pie sitting in her lap. She honestly hadn't thought about that in years. Well, she had, but she tried not to think about it too much. Those kinds of thoughts never lead to anything good.

"It's just one of the challenges of being a Bad Guy," she said at last. "We all do our jobs and give the Good Guys a good fight, but at the end of the day we're never really allowed to win the game. That's one of the reasons I joined Bad Anon, actually. Living in a game where your death is the gamers' ultimate goal isn't exactly healthy for your self-esteem."

Ralph poked at the remains of his pie, deep in thought. He'd never thought about it before, but dying had never been part of his job. When he lost a game to Felix he didn't have to die, and there was nothing in Fix-It Felix, Jr. that could kill him. In that sense he had it better than Sorceress and some of the other Bad Guys. He could relate to some of what she was saying, though. Whether or not they lived or died as part of their games, Bad Guys were always meant to lose.

"Wow," he said at last. "You're a trooper for putting up with that as long as you have."

"I've found an effective method of coping," Sorceress replied. "I make wagers with Hunter about who can win the most Final Boss fights each day."

Ralph perked up at this. "Really? What happens if you win?"

"The loser has to buy the winner drinks at Tapper's." She brushed some hair behind one ear and sighed. "Hunter must be spending all my money over there as we speak."

He chuckled. "You're a tough cookie. You'll settle the score tomorrow."

"I'll have to," she said with a smirk. "I need that money back."

They ate in companionable silence for a while. What little was left of Ralph's pie soon disappeared. Sorceress was only able to finish about a fourth of hers, and not wanting it to go to waste, she gave the rest to him. As Ralph worked away at the last pie, Sorceress gazed around at the scenery, marveling at the curiously cubic trees, shrubs and weeds. There was a certain quaint charm to the old-fashioned 8bit style game. Her eyes inevitably wandered back to the building, where the Nicelanders' barbecue was in full swing. Then her eyes drifted past it to gaze at the inky black sky. Wait, it wasn't just black. There were tiny spots of brightness up there, and when she recognized what they were she gasped out loud.

"Sweet belladonna…"

Ralph arched one bushy eyebrow, mouth full of cherries and lips covered with crumbs. "Huh?"

Sorceress clasped her hands together, eyes fixed on the sky and an expression of childlike wonder on her face. "You have stars here."

Ralph looked up at the tiny specks of colored light, not quite understanding why she was so enthralled with them. Then he remembered what the sky looked like in Blood and Thunder. He swallowed and wiped the crumbs from his mouth before speaking. "Oh, yeah. You don't have stars in your game, huh?"

Sorceress shook her head. "Too many storm clouds. It's a shame, I've always loved stars." Her lips curved into a smile. "They're beautiful."

Watching her marvel at the sky, Ralph felt any doubts he had left melt away. If Sorceress could be so fascinated by something as crummy as his humble shack or as simple as 8bit stars, maybe their second date wouldn't be so awkward after all.

Then he looked at the building and had an idea. "You wanna see something really cool?"

She turned to him, still smiling and eyes shining bright with barely contained excitement. "What could be cooler than stars?"

He couldn't quiet suppress a chuckle. Her enthusiasm was fun to watch. "Let's go to the roof," he said, pointing to the top of the building. "It's the best place to see everything in the game. We can even get a look at Sugar Rush on the other side of the screen."

Sorceress' smile faded as she turned her eyes toward the building. The Nicelanders were still having their barbecue behind the building, and there were more of them now than there were earlier. "Wouldn't we be disturbing them if we went back?"

Ralph already had a solution in mind. "Not if we go around the front. Those guys are so busy having fun that they won't even notice us."

She tapped her bottom lip with her finger as she thought. Then her smile came back. "Alright, then! Hurry and finish eating so we can go!"

Ralph finished off the cherry pie quickly after that. Then they set their empty dishes on the couch next to the remains of his shack and headed for the front of the Niceland apartment building. Sorceress tipped her head back to gaze up at the multistory brick building. It really was taller than she'd imagined. The front door and all the windows were all Nicelander size, though, too small for her and Ralph to get in.

"How exactly are we going to get to the roof?" she asked, turning to Ralph.

He looked down at her with a smile on his face. "The same way I get there all day. We climb."

"Climb?" She arched a pencil thin eyebrow at him. "You do know I can fly, right?"

"Yeah, but I can't," Ralph pointed out. "By the time I climbed my way to the top you'd be done and ready to move on." He held out an open hand to her. "So, what do you say? Free ride to the roof?"

Sorceress considered his offer for a moment. She couldn't tell if his plan was motivated by chivalry or the chance to show off his strength for her. Most likely it was a little of both. Either way, it might be fun to humor him on this. "Alright, just try not to drop me."

She put her hand in his. Then, without warning, Ralph easily swept her up off the ground and onto his back as if she were completely weightless. "Hold on tight," he said, tugging her arm over his shoulder.

Sorceress was too stunned to reply. She just wrapped her arms around his meaty neck and nodded dumbly. Ralph allowed himself the tiniest smirk of satisfaction. She was usually so composed that it was fun to catch her off guard like this. Then he cracked his knuckles noisily, gripped the bricks with both hands and started climbing his way up the building.

Sorceress clung to him tightly, legs dangling uselessly beneath her. She could feel the huge muscles in his neck, shoulders and back shifting under his shirt as he climbed. It was a very odd sensation, but not an unpleasant one. They were rapidly moving higher and higher. In less than a minute Ralph had cleared five floors with seemingly no effort whatsoever. "Comfy back there?" he asked his passenger.

"Y-Yes…" Sorceress replied. It wasn't until she heard her voice shaking that she realized she was nervous. Not about falling, of course. If she lost her grip on him she could simply levitate to safety. So what was she so nervous about?

Ralph picked up on this, of course. Not only was her voice shakier than usual, but her whole body felt stiff. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to do this after all. He stopped climbing and turned his head in trying to look at her. "You sure? I can climb slower, if you want."

She adjusted her grip on him, thinking it over. Even though she was nervous, even though she could easily fly the rest of the way, she didn't really want to let him go. "No, don't slow down. The sooner we get to the roof, the better."

After a moment's hesitation, Ralph resumed his climbing at a brisker pace. If Sorceress wanted him to keep going then he would, but he didn't want to prolong her discomfort longer than she could stand. A few more minutes of climbing later, Ralph pulled himself up and over the edge of the roof.

"We're here!" he announced, and reached a hand to help her off his back.

Sorceress released her grip around his neck and took his hand gratefully. After she slipped off his back, high heels clicking on the concrete, she stretched her tired arms over her head and groaned with relief.

Then she noticed Ralph standing next to her with his hands resting on his hips and showing absolutely no signs of fatigue. "Aren't you tired from all that climbing?"

Ralph looked at her as if that was a weird question. "Why would I be tired? That was a piece of cake. If I was smashing up walls and windows, then maybe I might be a little bit winded." He tipped his head as his brows furrowed with concern. "What about you?"

She shook her arms out to loosen up her tense muscles. "A bit stiff, but I'll be fine. We can't all be programmed with superhuman strength and endurance, you know."

He smirked back. If she was well enough to make sarcastic comments, she would be fine. Then he pointed toward the giant window in the sky that was the game's screen. "Look."

Sorceress followed his finger with her eyes. Sure enough there were the brightly lit dual consoles of Sugar Rush, coated with sparkly pink paint and emitting musical sound effects as their signs flashed like a pair of monumentally huge billboards. After a moment of wide-eyed staring, Sorceress spoke. "Sweet belladonna! What a view!"

Ralph flashed a gap-toothed grin at her. "I know, right? Too bad there's no one racing now or we'd have the best seats in the house."

Sorceress leaned forward and squinted, trying to get a better look at the game outside. The bright lights and flashy colors were disorienting, but she was able to make out the image of a familiar little girl driving a sugary white go-kart painted on the side of the console. The white jumpsuit was different but the black ponytail and cheeky grin were unmistakable. "Is that President Von Schweetz up there?"

Ralph came up next to her and folded his arms on top of the ledge. "Yep, that's Vanellope. She doesn't wear that outfit, though, and she's never driven the kart in that picture."

That was because the kart in the picture used to be the kart King Candy drove. Although it rightfully belonged to Vanellope, she couldn't stand the idea of driving the same kart as the man who made her life miserable for fifteen years. Sorceress knew none of this, of course. While the tale of the Sugar Rush incident had quickly become legend, especially the fact that King Candy had actually been Turbo all along, nobody ever talked about little details like what kind of kart he drove.

Sorceress looked up at Ralph curiously. "What kart does she drive instead?"

Ralph smiled warmly as he remembered the story. "We made a kart together in the Bake-a-Kart mini game. That was the first time I ever made anything in my life, by the way. The thing looks like a ton of frosting and sprinkles threw up on it, but the kid loves it and it works better than you'd expect."

Sorceress placed her chin in one hand, trying to imagine what such a kart would look like. "It must be a truly wonderful kart if she's as good at racing as you've said."

"It is, but that's not the only thing that makes her a good racer." As Ralph went on, his gestures and tone of voice became livelier. "She's got some serious skills, and she's totally mastered her glitch! I watch her in the Random Roster Race after work every night, and every time she wins a spot on the next day's board. The only reason she didn't get first place tonight was because Taffyta, that sneaky little lollipop-licker, saved her Sweet Seekers for a surprise attack and…"

The sound of Sorceress chuckling interrupted Ralph's thought process. He realized then that he'd been rambling. Embarrassed, he cleared his throat and stared down at his giant hands. Even when she wasn't around Vanellope had a way of taking over the spotlight. "Uh, well, you get the idea. Sorry for blabbing on like that."

"No, no, it's fine," Sorceress assured him. "I don't mind listening to you talk about your best friend. You're so proud of her and all her accomplishments, and you always watch races, even when you're on the job. It's very admirable, actually."

Ralph gave her a crooked smile. "Thanks. Don't tell Vanellope I said any of that stuff, though. Her head's big enough as it is." He tapped his big fingers on the ledge for a moment. "Thanks for putting up with her last night, too. She can be a handful sometimes."

Sorceress rolled her eyes dramatically. "Please, have you seen what Hunter is like? Compared to that, a nine-year-old girl unleashing hurricanes in my living room is a piece of cake."

Ralph couldn't help chuckling at that. Felix could be annoying in his own way, but after meeting Sorceress' Good Guy yesterday, he was grateful he didn't have to work with someone quite as obnoxious as that. "Man, I'd hate to see what that guy is like on a sugar high," he joked. "By the way, have you ever been to Sugar Rush before?"

She blinked up at him in surprise. "Me? Go to Sugar Rush?"

"Yeah, why not? We could cheer Vanellope on at the next Random Roster Racer. She'd like that."

Sorceress drummed her polished nails on the ledge, eyebrows crinkling in thought. "I don't think that's a good idea. It's always sunny there, isn't it? You remember what happened the last time I was out in the sun for too long."

Oh, right. Ralph had practically forgotten about Sorceress' weakness to sunlight. When they'd gone to wreck things in the bonus stage of Street Fighter the past Saturday, she started running out of magic from being in the sun for too long. She'd almost been crushed by a falling oil drum, and he'd gotten a second degree burn on his hand from catching the stupid thing. Both of them agreed not to repeat the experience again. That was all pretty important stuff to remember.

"This is different," Ralph insisted. "There's nothing in Sugar Rush that could kill us. Well, except for the boiling hot Diet Cola, but that's easy enough to avoid."

"But I've never been in the sun for more than a few minutes at a time. I don't know what would happen if I was there for an hour or more."

"You don't need to stay as long as that. If your magic runs out like before, I'll have your back."

Sorceress arched a pencil thin eyebrow at him. "Ralph, we've talked about this before. I don't want you getting hurt trying to protect me."

Ralph paused to collect his thoughts. He was reminded of how seriously Sorceress took her status as a self-sufficient, competent Bad Guy who didn't need any rescuing, so he had to somehow get his point across without turning the conversation into an argument. He hesitated a moment, choosing his words carefully in his mind.

"Sorceress, I… I know you don't really need me to protect you. As far as I've seen you're pretty good at taking care of yourself. All I'm saying is, if you happen to be in trouble, and if you somehow can't handle it on your own, and if I just happen to be there…" He looked her straight in the eye. "That's when I'll protect you."

Seeing the firm resolve on his face, Sorceress felt on odd sense of déjà vu. Ralph had looked at her that way and said something like this before, when they had argued about him catching the burning oil drum to save her in Street Fighter. It surprised her back then how serious he was about wanting to protect her, even though she was practically a stranger to him at the time, and it still surprised her now. The look on his face was so intense that it left no doubt in her mind that he meant every word and would absolutely come to her rescue no matter what. There was no way to talk him out of it.

And, somehow, she didn't really want to talk him out of it. Maybe having Ralph protect her wouldn't be so bad.

Realizing that she was staring at him, Sorceress turned her gaze downward and pretended to study her nail polish. "Thank you…" she muttered, too flustered to make eye contact.

Ralph didn't say anything. He was too distracted by the way her pointed ears were slowly turning from pale blue to warm pink. After seeing it happen yesterday he could never ignore it again.

It was just so…

"Cute."

Sorceress' head jerked upward in surprise. "Huh?"

Ralph froze up. Oops. He said that out loud, didn't he? Maybe he could still save it. Clearing his throat, he tried some verbal backpedaling while stammering pathetically. "Uh, I-I-I mean… Y-Y-You… You're welcome."

Sorceress' eyebrows twisted in confusion. He was obviously trying to cover it up, and it was a something she didn't hear very often. "The word you said was cute, Ralph. What do you mean by that?"

Ralph groaned inwardly. Why did she have to be so perceptive? Squirming with discomfort, he cleared his throat and tried to explain as tactfully as possible. "Uh, it's your ears. They… They turn pink when you blush."

Her eyes stretched wide open, utterly horrified by this news. "They do what?" Blush deepening from pink to scarlet, she clapped both hands over both of her ears, pressing them flat against the sides of her head. "Why did no one ever tell me?!"

He hadn't expected her to react so strongly to this news. "What's the big deal? It doesn't look bad."

She shook her head, still holding her hands over her burning ears. "No, it's terrible! I've never liked my ears, and now you tell me they change colors when I blush?! Ugh, I must look like a complete freak!"

Frowning, he reached out, took one of her hands between his thick, square fingers and gently pulled it away from the ear she was covering it with. "Don't say that! You are not a freak, Sorceress. You're..." He stopped, unsure if it was appropriate finish that sentence.

Sorceress froze. Her face and ears were still hot pink with embarrassment but she didn't try to pull her hand away. She wanted to hear what he was going to say next. "I'm what?"

Ralph's mouth went dry and he almost forgot what it was he was talking about. Swallowing a lump in his throat and steeling his nerves, he plunged ahead. "You're pretty," he said firmly. "And your ears are cute. So don't call yourself a freak, because… you're just not."

Sorceress felt her heart skip a beat and her whole body grew warmer. Pretty… Ralph thought she was pretty. He even thought her pointy, freakishly long, color-changing ears were cute. Cute. And he had that intense look in his eyes again. It was the same way he looked at her when he talked about protecting her, like he really, honestly meant everything he'd said.

She couldn't get her voice working with him looking at her that way, so she had to break eye contact and lowered her gaze. "That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me."

Ralph had a moment of satisfaction for causing her to blush so hard. It was kind of fun to catch her off guard and watch her get all flustered. But he really did mean it when he said those things to her, and he wanted her to believe him. "It's true, you know."

She peered back at him timidly from behind her long blue bangs. "You're sure it's not just sweet talk?"

He smiled and rubbed his thumb lightly across her knuckles. "Maybe it's both."

Sorceress couldn't seem to her find her voice again. Why did that keep happening? Was she seriously starting to fall for him? Wreck-It Ralph, of all people? After all the years they'd been in the same arcade she never imagined anything like this could happen between them. Then his game-jumping adventure happened, and now it was as if his real self that was hiding behind that gruff exterior for thirty years was finally free. Was that why she was so drawn to him now?

After some silence had passed, Sorceress realized she'd been staring at Ralph the entire time. Her eyes dropped from his face to his hand still holding hers. It looked so very tiny and fragile in his grasp. If he wasn't careful he could easily crush all the bones in her fingers, but he was holding her with the kind of gentleness one wouldn't expect from a man so huge and powerful.

Then she heard him nervously clearing his throat. "So, uh, was that a yes or a no about Sugar Rush?"

Oh. Right. Sugar Rush. The game he brought her up here to see. The one he'd invited her to go to. She still hadn't given him a direct answer.

Sorceress turned to gaze at the colorful, brightly lit console beyond the screen. Vanellope's smiling image on the side seemed to stare back at her. After a moment of pensive silence she looked up at Ralph with a timid expression on her face. "Are you sure the president wants me there?"

He smiled back at her reassuringly. "Are you kidding? This is Vanellope we're talking about! You're her second favorite Bad Guy besides me! Heck, she practically begged me to invite you over!"

Sorceress looked up at him in surprise. "She did? Really?"

He nodded firmly. "Yep. Well, it was really more like demanding than begging, but you get the idea."

She suppressed a chuckle at the image of tiny young Vanellope bossing Ralph around. That seemed like a fairly common occurrence between them. "I see. Well, then. If the president demands it, I suppose I must."

"You don't have to if you don't want to. I won't push you into anything that's bad for your health."

Sorceress shrugged her pale blue shoulders. "I can take extra precautions against the sunlight. Besides, I want to see for myself if your stories about the president and her incredible racing skills are true."

His expression turned hopeful. "So that's a yes, then?"

She smiled at him and nodded. "Yes, it is."

Ralph grinned broadly at this. "Great!" he exclaimed, realizing too late that he sounded a little too excited. He coughed, trying in vain to play it cool. "I mean, yeah. That's good. Yeah. She'll be happy about that."

Sorceress couldn't help chuckling at this. Then she tucked her hands behind her back and looked down at the toes of her boots. "By the way, was there something else you wanted to tell me?"

"Huh?"

She peered up at him from behind her long bangs, pale blue cheeks turning just the lightest shade pinker. "After you said I was pretty … It seemed as if there was more you wanted to say."

"Oh." He started squirming and shifting his weight uncomfortably, trying not to make eye contact. "Um… Well, I was just thinking." He paused, feeling his mouth going dry. "You, uh… You remember the other night, right? When you… when you kissed me?"

Sorceress focused her eyes on the toes of her boots, causing her long bangs to hide her face from view. "Yes, I remember that."

Ralph swallowed a lump in his throat that hadn't been there before. "I've been thinking about that a lot lately, and I just started wondering…" He paused again to rub the back of his neck with one huge hand. Taking a deep breath, he tried to spit it out and get it over with. "Would you be mad if I said I wanted to kiss you?"

Sorceress' head snapped up and she gaped at him with huge, astonished eyes.

Ralph mentally kicked himself and turned away from her, hiding his burning face behind his hand. If only he could delete that last sentence and start the conversation all over, but it was too late. "Never mind," he grumbled behind his hand. "That was stupid. Forget I said anything."

Something touched his shoulder. Ralph peered up from his hand to see Sorceress floating exactly at his height with that familiar warm, gentle look in her crimson eyes. The melting sensation came next, the one he only got when she was looking at him exactly like that. His eyes drifted to her lips and the lump in his throat swelled up.

"Ralph," Sorceress said gently. "I've grown very fond of you, and I've truly enjoyed the time we've spent together." She pulled her hand away from his shoulder, her face turning serious. "Even so, it's too soon for us to kiss at this point in our relationship. When the time is right and I feel I'm ready for it, I'll let you know. Okay?"

It was hard for Ralph to get his brain and his mouth working at the same time when his insides were still liquid. He swallowed hard, struggling to organize his thoughts enough to put a sentence together. Finally he managed to get a few words out.

"Okay, sure, no problem." Then more words were tumbling out of his mouth. "I-It's not like I'm in any big rush to do any kissing, you understand. I'm still a newbie at all this dating stuff, so if I screw it up I'm sorry. I just thought I should check with you before I did anything really stupid."

Sorceress brushed a long piece of hair away from her eyes, cool and composed as ever. "Well, as an experienced dating professional, I can honestly say that so far you haven't done anything really stupid." She turned to face the screen, her expression still very serious. "Kissing is something you definitely don't want to screw up, though. You must never do something so intimate without first asking permission."

Ralph watched her with some concern. There was something about the somber, introspective look in her eyes that bothered him, like she was staring off at something he couldn't see. Even though she was floating right in front of him she seemed so cold and far away. Maybe he'd accidentally stumbled across a sensitive subject. "You okay, Sorceress?" he asked worriedly.

His voice appeared to bring her mind back from wherever it wandered off to. When she looked back at him the warmth was back in her eyes and her smile was starting to return. "Yes, I'm fine. Why don't you show me more of your game?"

Seeing that she was back to normal, Ralph smiled back. Maybe he could still fix this. "Good idea. The night's still young and we haven't even touched West Niceland yet." He opened his hand to her, smile widening into a grin. "Free ride to the ground?"

With a soft chuckle, Sorceress put her hand in his. "I was hoping you'd ask."

Author's Note: This chapter would have been done a lot faster if it wasn't December! So much holiday prep going on at my house that I barely had any time to write, but I did it! This will be my last chapter of the year, though, since I want to enjoy the limited time I have to hang out with my family and do fun Christmas-type things. So until January, happy holidays and thanks for reading!