*Chapter 63*

Vanellope's eyes widened before she quickly tore away from Ralph and began scrambling towards the door. Ralph grabbed her arm as the two immediately began to tear for the large wooden door. They both slammed into it, their hands clawing at the handle. Vanellope finally flung her large, round, wooden door open and tore for her staircase. She beamed a wide smile as her heart began to practically speed ahead of her; the sound of Ralph's large, approaching footsteps made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

"You had a head start!" Ralph bellowed as the two heaved loud laughs that carried all over the castle.

"Did not!" Vanellope squealed as she practically tore down her staircase; she skipped steps.

The two practically crashed to the bottom of the stairs and began to tear towards the kitchen. Vanellope giggled loudly as her feet slipped a few times on the slippery marble tile of the main hall. Ralph bumped his way past her as she tried to fling her arms out for him.

"That's not fair, I slipped!" Vanellope hollered as the two rocketed towards the kitchen wing of the castle.

"Too bad, so sad," Ralph laughed as the two panted.

"No no no no no!" Vanellope squealed as Ralph bursted into the kitchen first.

"The winner!" Ralph bellowed as he spread his arms out to the kitchen; Taffyta and Candlehead whirled around in surprise.

"No!" Vanellope hollered as she bumped into him. They both stumbled before coming to a stop, they panted and heaved, their facial expressions nothing short of pure bliss and exhaustion.

"What the sugar plum?" Taffyta exclaimed as both her and Candlehead gazed at the two in shock.

"Yeah, we'll see if you're a winner, later, Turbotastic," Vanellope sneered as she shoved Ralph's arm playfully.

"I won fair and square," Ralph boasted as Vanellope slowly approached the island that Candlehead was sat at.

"Yeah yeah yeah," Vanellope rolled her eyes and plopped down.

"Ralph, I know you haven't see Vanellope all month, but," Taffyta trailed off and chuckled nervously as she powdered more of the jelly puffs, "I didn't think you would only last five minutes."

"We decided not to take our chances," Ralph chuckled, his face immediately turned beet red, "Ms. Power Surge doesn't want me to game over."

"Excuse you," Vanellope snapped playfully, "You remember the last code swapping power surge event."

"I would like to get SOME sleep tonight," Taffyta choked back a laugh and gave Vanellope a knowing look.

"Oh, User, Ralph," Vanellope groaned as she slumped her face into her hands, "You just HAVE to embarrass me."

"I'm the boyfriend, it is my job," Ralph said as he exhaled a final, calming breath. He slowly stood next to Taffyta, who was across from Candlehead and Vanellope at the large kitchen island.

"Touch a jelly puff and see what happens, I dare you," Taffyta barked playfully, she felt defensive of her creations; Ralph heaved a quick sigh.

"I'm not going to wreck the jelly puffs," Ralph said in a monotone, "I came over to this side of the counter to see if you needed help."

"Hmm," Taffyta pondered before their communicator screen on the wall, by the stove, made a small alert noise; Taffyta slowly strolled over to it but kept her attention on Ralph, "Maybe your big hands could be of use."

"Leave it to me," Ralph said eagerly as he picked up a doughy puff and began rolling it in the powdered sugar; puffs of white dust went everywhere.

"Ralph, you're getting it all over the counter!" Candlehead squealed with a happy giggle.

"What was the alert for, Taff?" Vanellope said through a small chuckle as Taffyta scrolled her finger on the screen a few times.

"It's just a schedule for the New Year's ball and stuff. I guess Litwak's is going to be closed for a whole week this year," Taffyta explained as she kept her eyes on the glowing blue screen.

"A whole week?" Candlehead exclaimed softly, "What for?"

"I guess Mr. Litwak is going out of town again," Taffyta explained.

"Doesn't the poor guy have employees?" Vanellope laughed.

"Count your blessings, Vin," Candlehead chuckled as she lulled her head, "You'd never see a week off in the Disneyland arcades."

"Touché," Vanellope mumbled as she fixed her eyes on Taffyta past Ralph, "Are there any cool events going on during the week off?"

"Yep, a whole load of stuff," Taffyta said with a smile, "Looks like there's going to be an award ceremony?"

"Award ceremony?" Ralph wrinkled his nose as he kept his eyes fixed on what he was doing.

"Yeah," Taffyta exhaled, "I guess Surge and a few of the other surge protectors are giving out awards for the characters with the highest game scores, most loved good guy, most feared bad guy, most challenging opponent…the list goes on, here."

"Most feared bad guy," Ralph repeated before rolling his eyes, "I will bet any of you a thousand jelly puffs that I will win that award."

"Either you or Bowser," Candlehead chuckled before shivering, "That guy freaks me out."

"He just looks intimidating," Ralph chuckled as he remembered his Bad Anon. days.

"I guess EZ Living is having a motocross tournament," Taffyta said with excited eyes as she quickly looked at Vanellope; both girls perked up.

"You mean," Vanellope inhaled to continue, as she clenched her hands with excitement.

"We can finally use our racing bikes?" Both Taffyta and Vanellope exclaimed with excitement; Ralph shot each girl a look.

"You guys have bikes?" He chuckled as he wrinkled his nose.

"Hooo do we," Candlehead beamed.

"I can't wait!" Vanellope squealed as she firmly planted both her hands on the counter.

"You know what I just realized," Taffyta breathed as she gently turned the communicator screen off.

"Hmm?" Vanellope urged.

"We're going to be spending all of these events with everyone," Taffyta explained before exhaling nervously, "Which includes Rancis."

"User, I completely forgot," Vanellope breathed with a shocked facial expression, though she began to look sleepy.

"Why does he have to come along?" Candlehead asked innocently.

"I don't think it's wise for all of us to go prancing off to the award ceremony and leave Rancis alone in Sugar Rush," Ralph chuckled, "Who knows what would happen."

"It'd be best to have him with us so we can sort of keep our eyes on him," Vanellope said as she heaved a long, annoyed sigh.

"Well, at least we have two weeks, to see how he fares as a legitimate citizen of Sugar Rush, before New Year's week," Ralph explained.

"I wonder what he's doing right now," Taffyta wondered as she came back over to Ralph; she lovingly pat his back as a silent thank you for helping with the jelly puffs.

"I'm sure he doesn't know what to do with himself," Candlehead said as she watched what Ralph was doing.

"Are we going to go check up on him before game day tomorrow?" Taffyta asked Vanellope; she nodded softly.

"Yeah," Vanellope breathed, "I just hope all the other racers aren't upset."

"Maybe we should get to their neighborhood early so no one is caught by surprise," Candlehead explained.

"I'm kind of nervous to go to sleep tonight," Taffyta said gently with a frown as she remained motionless next to Ralph.

"Don't be scared," Ralph chuckled as he furrowed his eyebrows, his eyes were fixed on powdering the jelly puffs, "He can't harm us. If it will make you girls feel better, I can stay the night in Sugar Rush."

"Wouldn't Vanellope love that," Taffyta sneered playfully towards her sister; Vanellope blushed and looked down, hiding a smile.

"Only if she will have me," Ralph said sweetly as he glanced at his girl.

"You're always welcome to stay with me, Ralph," Vanellope chuckled as she kept her eyes down, "It'd make me feel better if you stayed anyways."

"I second that," Candlehead said gently as she gazed at Vanellope, "I hope nothing bad happens."

"He has no way of getting into the castle," Ralph said gently as he finished powdering the last jelly puff, "Does he know the passcode to the code room?"

"Unfortunately," Vanellope breathed.

"Isn't there a way to reset the passcode to the code room?" Taffyta asked as she perked up, "We should just change it, so only us four know the code."

"None of us know how to change it, though," Candlehead worried.

"I do," Ralph said with a small smile; Taffyta shot him a look.

"How?" Taffyta prod curiously.

"Do you want me to show you?" Ralph asked plainly.

"How is it he knows our code better than we do?" Candlehead asked with a chuckle.

"I haven't studied up on our code book in years," Taffyta admitted sheepishly. Vanellope nodded once as if to second her statement.

"That code book was the only reminder I had of you guys," Ralph chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, "Reading it frontwards and backwards every night was the only thing to console me during the month of separation from you guys."

"Alright then, King Ralph, show us," Taffyta chuckled as she put her hands on her hips and gave him a happy, knowing smile.

"Sure thing," Ralph chuckled as his face got hot. He glanced at Vanellope and was surprised to see her cheeks blushed as well.

"King Ralph," Candlehead chuckled as everyone quickly stood and began moseying out of the kitchen; she linked arms with Vanellope and nudged her a little, "That has a nice ring to it."

Vanellope held her breath as she looked down at her feet; she felt a small smile creep across her face as her, her sisters and Ralph strolled across the castle to the main hall. The four quickly pushed towards their code room, the electric blue wires of the long hallway hummed with life. It kept Sugar Rush running with ease. Ralph pushed to the code room door and punched in the code easily; the doors flew open and all four friends pushed inside. The code room was still brightly lit, it's white surroundings instead of black. Vanellope inhaled sharply and silently as she quickly remembered Tessa. She smiled at the fact that the code room remained its white self, something Tessa had made possible. Vanellope felt her cheeks grow red at the fact that meeting Tessa wasn't just some wild, crazy dream. She was surprised to see Taffyta shoot her a knowing look, as if she read Vanellope's mind. Vanellope raised her eyebrows and scrunched her shoulders a little.

"Let's see what we got," Ralph said confidently as he motioned his hand a little; all the code boxes began to swirl and move around methodically, easily obeying Ralph's command. The three girls gasped and scrunched closer to each other as their wide, eager eyes looked all around.

"It needs to be something we all can easily remember," Taffyta said to Ralph as the code boxes slowed to a lull; Ralph gently opened the code room passcode box and eagerly gazed at the three girls beside him.

"What do you guys think?" Ralph asked the three with a smile as he put his wrecking hands on his hips.

"Hmm," Taffyta wrinkled her nose before punching in a different password. She stepped back and quickly looked between her three friends for reassurance.

"I can remember that," Vanellope said confidently as Candlehead nodded. All three girls looked up to Ralph with curious eyes.

"Was, I supposed to see the passcode?" Ralph asked sheepishly as he glanced at it before gluing his eyes to the group of girls next to him.

"Why not?" Taffyta asked curiously, not even batting an eyelash of concern.

"O-oh," Ralph said as he raised his eyebrows, "Well, thank you. I'm honored."

"You knew our old password," Candlehead chuckled, "It's not like you're a threat to the game."

"Thanks, you guys," Ralph said shyly as he saved the new passcode and closed the code box.

Vanellope opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get anything out, there came a loud knock from their large castle door. All three girls froze and quickly looked at each other with shocked facial expressions. They all immediately shot their worried looks to Ralph; he scrunched his shoulders and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Who would be at the castle at this time of night," Ralph questioned in a breath as he glued his eyes to Vanellope, "Let alone in the middle of this massive storm."

"User, I hope it's not Rancis," Vanellope worried in a high pitched voice as the three girls immediately began to scramble for the exit of the code room.

"Well, if it is, just duck because these hands have a mind of their own," Ralph chuckled as the four properly closed the code room and tore into the main hall of the castle. Whoever was outside continued to knock eagerly, the loud pang of the metal door knock against the wood rang through the castle's massive hall.