A/N: This chapter is so cute I nearly died while writing it. Not to boast... Just sayin'. Also, to those who expressed interest in the 5 new racers... I got nothing. They were kind of an afterthought. Tell you what though... I just got my tablet. So if you guys leave plausible Sugar Rush racer names, I'll pick the 5 I like the best, and I'll make little doodles of them for you guys. Sound good?

Chapter 6: Nap Time

After a week or two Vanellope could finally say that things were finally getting back to normal. Everyone was finally feeling comfortable in their own skin again, they had all been on the new tracks at least once so that wasn't scary anymore, and the new racers were starting to feel like part of the group. Now that all of that was settling down Vanellope felt like she didn't have to spend so much time supervising the dealings around Sugar Rush anymore.

She hadn't been out to Game Central or to visit Ralph or anything almost since that first day of the upgrade when they visited Tappers. She could fix that now. She decided to go and see if Ralph was home and to see if he wanted to go do something.

It never took very long to get to Fix-It Felix Jr. when she used her kart instead of waiting for the boring ol' train that some people liked to use. Ralph gave her a hard time over it, saying that she'd run someone over one of these days. She just argued back that she wasn't any faster than Sonic (though she'd challenged him to a race for the 'arcade's fastest' title and he turned her down) so she couldn't really be any more dangerous than he was. She mused on that while she made her way into Fix-It Felix.

She parked the kart near the exit and went off to find Ralph. His new little shack of a house was off to the right somewhere. Just past the huge brick pile that was the dump.

"Oh hi there Vanellope!" Felix shouted. Vanellope turned and saw Felix striding towards the train stop.

"Hey there Felix. Where ya goin'?" Vanellope asked. Felix seemed to stumble just a little as she smiled at him. "You okay?" Vanellope asked.

"Oh... yeah I'm fine." Felix said. "I was just going to see Tamora." Felix answered.

"Well, I'd give you a ride. But she banned me from Hero's Duty after that one time." Vanellope said with a laugh.

"Nah, it's fine. I don't mind taking the train. I'm not a speed demon, I like going a little slower." Felix said, waving off the offer. "You going to see Ralph?"

"That's the plan." Vanellope answered.

"Word of warning, you might want to enter a little gently. We had a really busy day today and he said he was planning on taking a nap. You know how he gets when you wake him up with a start." Felix said with a laugh. Vanellope nodded sagely.

"Gotcha." Vanellope said. "You and Sgt. Calhoun have fun 'kay?" Vanellope bid Felix goodbye as the train finally came down the track and picked him up.

"You and Ralph too!" Felix said as he waved. He seemed to consider what he'd said and froze up.

"No, I mean... not like that!" Felix hastened to correct. The train was already headed down the tunnel though, so Vanellope just heard a bunch of incoherent stammering. Vanellope just leaned over the track and waved at him until she couldn't see him anymore.

"I wonder what that was all about?" Vanellope said to herself as she stood up straight and headed down the alley towards Ralph's little house.

When she got there she opened the door as quietly as she could, since it tended to squeak a little, her head was already full of at least a dozen ideas on how to startle Ralph awake. Oh, how she loved to annoy him. Especially by waking him up. The way his mouth screwed up when he realized that he was annoyed, it was her fault, but he couldn't actually DO anything about it... Oh, priceless.

Vanellope crept into the one room house and snuck up to where Ralph was laying.

Ralph, oddly enough, had decided to keep his bed of bricks. A little more finely pounded, and now covered with a blanket, but still made of brick chunks. When questioned about it he said something about being a creature of habit. Vanellope could sort of understand that. She had had a hard time getting used to her room in the castle after living in Diet Cola Mountain for so long. Her marshmallow bed was much softer than her old spongecake one, and the sounds of the night weren't interrupted by the bubbling sounds of the hot springs and the occasional falling mentos.

She had eventually gotten used to her new bed, but she'd guessed that Ralph had been sleeping on a pile bricks a lot longer than she'd been sleeping in a cave.

Diet Cola Mountain had finally been finished in the expansion they got. But her little nook was still there. Sometimes the people playing the game would get just a brief look at it when they went around a turn. She'd heard lots of speculation on it, it kind of tickled her that they'd probably never guess the truth about it.

So anyway, here was Ralph, laying on a lumpy, sort of bed shaped, pile of bricks. He was sound asleep, she noted with satisfaction. He looked really peaceful, actually. Vanellope had to wonder if it was really worth it to wake him up. Normally, in a situation like this, Vanellope would take a flying leap onto his chest... and then hide behind something while he widely thrashed around in a short panic attack. Suddenly that seemed really mean.

Vanellope crept up to the bed and, in a fit of something she couldn't define, situated herself beside him. She slid under his arm, which was draped over his chest. She just lay there, all tensed up and nervous, completely motionless.

"What am I doing?" Vanellope thought. "Why did I do this?" It had just popped into her head to do it, and it had seemed like the best idea she'd ever had. She couldn't think why.

She examined her situation. She was mostly on top of Ralph, and not bricks. That was alright, she guessed. Ralph made for a pretty nice place to lay down, all things considered. He was always really warm, and while he wasn't particularly soft (the big guy had a lot of muscle) he was just soft enough. She'd fallen asleep on him more than once in the past. She'd been a bit smaller at the time, but she was quite sure the principle remained the same.

This thought made her relax quite a bit. This had never bothered Ralph in the past, so she couldn't see any reason this would bug him now. She was pretty convinced wasn't doing anything wrong. With that in mind she could relax, and examine someone else.

Ralph was taking deep, rumbling, breaths. They weren't quite snores, though Vanellope sometimes protested that they were. He could get pretty loud at times. They made it whole chest vibrate just a little, making him just that more comfortable to lay on. Vanellope rested her head on his chest and sighed contently as it rumbled beneath her.

Her sigh had made her inhale deeply. Ralph, bless him, wasn't the most hygienic individual she'd ever met. Unfortunately, you could definitely tell it by the way he smelled. He smelled a bit like mortar, a bit like apple pie and various other sugary things (he hadn't been to Sugar Rush for a while, but the smell clearly had stuck), and quite a lot like fresh sweat and older body odor. She knew from experience that he usually had somewhat unpleasant breath, but as she was down by his chest she couldn't actually smell that.

It was actually sort of pleasant, all things considered. He smelled familiar, and the smell of the sweat that was still warm on his skin seemed to make something in her sort of tingly. If she'd paused for introspection she would have wondered at that one. But she didn't.

Vanellope felt her eyes get all droopy. She'd been all full of energy and mischief just a moment ago, she was sure of it. But here, with Ralph where it was calm... And where she felt all warm and relaxed. The arm that was draped around her moved a little and rubbed her back slowly.

Vanellope vibrated a little as the tingly sensation sent a shiver down her, and then back up in a wave. She clenched her jaw as she felt a yawn coming on and it went through her nose instead.

"Well... if Ralph has time for a nap, I do too." Vanellope thought as she closed her eyes with a smile.

A/N: It's... sooo... cute! Next, Ralph's reaction to the whole thing? I might be a little longer in getting that one out though, since I wanna draw Vanellope in color with my new tablet. I'm sort of rusty with my digital art skills, I gotta relearn how to use the thing.

Review Response:

Trent - Thank you! That was the plan.

- I'm really glad you like it. I'm trying to keep true to Vanellope's personality, but it's kind of difficult. You gotta think about how much you changed between 9 and 17 and take that into consideration. But you have to remember that the change happened really quickly, so not everything gets translated... It's weird.

Jesscheaux - I have to admit, I was skeptical about the Ralph/Vanellope idea at first too. Then I read this adorable little fic called 'In A Pickle' by someone here on FFnet where Vanellope was a little older and was starting to develop a crush on Ralph. It's just a little oneshot, but it's worth reading if you haven't.