A/N: Sorry this chapter is late. But if you watch the news at all I don't have to tell you how distracted I was. I wasn't personally effected, since I live in New Mexico, but still...

Chapter 19: Pondering

Ralph spent forever rehearsing what he was going to say. No matter how many times he said it, even just to himself, he kept stumbling over the four most direct and basic words he could put it in.

"I'm... I'm attrac-" Ralph coughed as he choked on the word. "-acked to you." He finished.

It was sad, but that was the best he'd been able to do all day.

He suspected it might be a little easier if he'd had to say it in a different context. But the way things were... It was something he had to admit to, not something he could just say. It had to be a warning.

"I'm a...at-attracted to you, and what you're doing is sending the wrong signals. So if you don't stop something might happen." Ralph said, trying to think aloud

That sounded too incredibly stupid, or maybe just too embarrassing, to say out loud ever again.

He thought about working on another part of the speech. He almost had the 'your actions have effects on other people' part of it down. It was just the explanation and the follow through he was having a hard time with.

Ralph sighed as he mulled it all over. He wished, not for the first time, that this was something that he just didn't have to explain.

+++[And then...]+++

At the end of the working day Ralph was sort of concerned. Vanellope actually hadn't been to visit him for a while. After the first day or so he was feeling sort of relieved. It had given him time to go over everything in his head and practice what he wanted to say. But now it'd been nearly a week. It was unlike her to not show up randomly about twice in that time period. They didn't have any officially set times to spend together, but they'd sort of fallen into a predictable schedule. One that they didn't break very often.

Was she avoiding him?

It seemed possible. Maybe she had figured out more than he'd given her credit for? She could be attempting to avoid him in her own effort to make him less uncomfortable. The idea was good, but the execution was a little flawed. He didn't like the avoidance thing any more than she did when he'd tried it on her.

He resolved to take his nap and stop thinking about it for right now. If she didn't show up today than he was going to go talk to her in Sugar Rush.

+++[Sugar Rush...]+++

Vanellope had been spending the last few days at home. Not deliberately avoiding Ralph, but she knew that that was an aftereffect of what she was doing. She just had too much to think about. There was something she'd gotten wrong in all of this. It'd taken her a while to figure it out, but she was sure she had this time.

She hadn't considered a lot of things about what Calhoun had told her. Calhoun had told her that she'd explain Ralph's initial weird behavior, and the very first thing she'd talked about was...

Vanellope blushed and put her head in her hands. How did she ever get so stupid? Ralph thought she was... he wanted to...

"That's what everyone was talking about!" Vanellope thought in anguish. "That's why everyone said I had to start acting different."

It was discouraging to get something so wrong. Why couldn't anyone just have said it plainly? Then she wouldn't have been so stupid about all of it. She didn't really know what to do about it now. It seemed too embarrassing to talk to Ralph about.

What was Ralph thinking right now anyway? Did he actually want to, or did he just think she wanted to? She knew how easily he caved in when he thought she really wanted something... Or did he know that she just didn't know what was going on? That seemed just as bad, but she sort of hoped for it.

She had to talk to him. She really REALLY didn't want to. But now that she'd figured it all out, she had to know where they stood. Even if Ralph knew that she'd been wrong, it would just prove that Ralph always had all the answers. Not only that, but she knew he'd be understanding about all of it.

She got up to go to Fix-It Felix Jr. Now that she'd decided to talk to him she couldn't put it off.

+++[Fix-It Felix Jr.]+++

Vanellope got to Ralph's house and nearly barged in the door. Or nearly tried, she was pretty sure the door was probably locked anyway, but she stopped herself before she attempted to turn the knob. She wanted to display a sort of changed behavior. It wouldn't do to just barge in and deposit herself on Ralph like she was used to.

She knocked on the door, sans hollering or whining. It felt a little awkward, to be honest.

Ralph opened the door, looking a little tired. His tired went immediately to surprised.

"I was wondering where you went off to." Ralph said, opening the door wider to let her in.

"I just needed to think about... stuff." Vanellope said meaningfully.

"I take it I'm going to be hearing about this 'stuff'?" Ralph guessed.

"Umm... yeah." Vanellope answered. She sat down on the bed, because there was nowhere else to sit.

Ralph looked at her with concern. She supposed she must look a little distressed.

"What's wrong?" Ralph asked. He sat down next to her, but not too close she noticed.

"Ralph, you want to have sex with me, don't you?" Vanellope asked plainly.

Ralph's brain proceeded to lock up.

A/N: This was short, but I can't resist a build up chapter like that. Good news is the next chapter title is "Confessions" . I'll let you ruminate on that. It might not be out on time due to the fast we have guests tonight, and my computer is our source of entertainment.