Vanellope was quick to change into her other outfit, only swapping out her t-shirt for a long sleeve and ditching the sweater all together. As she adjusted her clothes, she paused as she caught sight of her reflection. Tilting her head slightly, she did her ponytail up into a bun, and looked herself over.

There was a frantic look in her eyes, exemplified with her pupils occasionally twitching. It made her grimace, but not really hate it. Because she knew why they were like this: This was probably her only shot at making things right with Hilda. She couldn't lose her.

Shaking her head to focus back on the task at hand, Vanellope finished getting dressed and doing her hair. She then quickly sprinted into the bathroom and brushed her teeth, doing a pretty sloppy job. But she didn't care, she was fighting against time, and Hilda's patience.

With her bathroom duties done, Vanellope looked at herself in the mirror, took a deep breath while closing her eyes, and left the room at a fairly restrained pace. She exited out of the home's back door, and made her way back to the secluded patch amongst the trees. Looking up at the night sky through the leaves, she swallowed nervously.

As she stepped into the clearing and used her phone to open another portal, she found herself once again frozen as she stared at the swirling blob of colours. Only without Ralph, she most definitely was gonna just give up but not go. She felt stuck, tense and tired as she contemplated just flaking on Hilda…

Until Twig came through the portal. Vanellope blinked and looked down at him, and the deerfox simply titled his head. After a few minutes of the intense stare down, Twig pranced up and chomped down on one of the racer's sleeves, dragging her into the portal. She tried to fight back, but by the time she tried to glitch she was already through and the portal had closed.

The racer blinked then turned around, staring at Hilda wide-eyed as she stared back with an unreadable expression. The blue-haired girl was silent. Eerily silent. The tension was thick as Twig moved behind Hilda.

"You came…" Hilda whispered, her voice devoid of the usual energy.

"Y-Yeah…" Vanellope stuttered back. "Of course I came. I… I know we needed to talk…"

Hilda nodded. "Let's go… somewhere else. Follow me…" Hilda started heading towards the stairs that led down to the courtyard, with her deerfox companion right by her side. Vanellope trailed behind, mind a partial blur as they went down the stairs and headed down one of their custom paths through the plant life. No words were spoken between either of them, which made Twig look between both girls sadly, his ears drooping.

There were moments Vanellope opened her mouth to say something, but just couldn't do it because she failed to find her voice, feared what she wanted to say would just upset Hilda more, or a combination of the two.

Soon, the trio made it to a secluded part of the courtyard. It was a secluded brook amongst the massive and alien flowers, with a log over the small stream and a few rocks dotted about.

It was their special spot.

Hilda walked over to the edge of the stream and sat down, patting the spot next to her without looking at the racer. Vanellope's heart twisted more as she joined her friend, and Twig went around chasing butterflies to give the two of them space.

The two girls were silent as they watched the flowing water, listening to its rhythmic crash against the rocks underwater.

"Hilda…" Vanellope croaked out. "I… I know I messed up. I screwed up so bad by not talking to you."

"You did", Hilda responded. She sounded hurt, and a bit bored. "When Caleb told us what happened, I… I didn't know what to think at first. I was confused… angry… sad… and then a combination of all three."

The racer winced and looked away in shame, picking at a loose thread on her sleeve. "I know… And I'm sorry Hilda. I'm sorry I was just so… I don't even know why I didn't talk to you. I don't know if it was because I was ashamed, if I was scared, maybe just so shocked that it just didn't register…"

The Trolberg adventurer hummed, and picked up a rock. She fiddled with it for a bit before throwing it into the water. "I. Just… We're sisters, Vanny. We promised we could talk to each other about anything, and yet… you didn't."

Vanellope nodded miserably, fighting back her urge to cry. "I-I know… I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry Hild… I just…" She curled up and looked away and a few tears trickled from her eyes. "I'm sorry I'm such a bitch…"

Hilda looked at her friend in complete shock, and she frowned. "I… I don't think you're… that, Vanny. Yeah, I was hurt, but you aren't that bad." The adventurer turned her body fully towards the racer, and forced the racer to look at her. "You just… crashed. That's what happened when me and Frida had our falling out before the Jellybean started causing chaos. I crashed because I didn't know what to do…"

Vanellope swallowed, closing her eyes as more tears escaped. "I'm sorry, Hilda/ I'll say it a hundred times if I have to, I mean it." She opened her now tear filled eyes. "I love you. You're my sister, and I hurt you. I was awful, and you have every right to be mad. If you don't wanna be friends anymore, I under-"

The racer was cut off when Hilda hugged her. "Yeah, we're sisters…" She whispered as she tightened the hug. "We're sisters who sometimes fight, but in the end we'll make up…" The adventurer pulled back, and gave Vanellope a genuine smile. "I know you're sorry, Vanny. I'm not mad. We just needed to talk… and this really helped."

Vanellope was struggling to process fully what was happening. "Y-You… You aren't mad…?"

The other girl shook her head. "No. I was for a moment when Caleb told everyone, but then I just was… hurt. But after thinking just before you found me… I decided we just needed to talk."

"So… We're… We're good?" Twig perked up, getting excited as he sensed the outcome.

"Yeah. We're okay."

Vanellope cried out and wrapped Hilda in a suffocating hug, tears of relief and joy escaping from her eyes. The blue-haired girl had tears of her own escape from her eyes, and they both started laughing as the hug broke apart and Twig started licking the tears away.

After a few moments, the both looked back at each other with exhausted but calm expressions. Smiles adorned their faces, and they sat up and shook the grass and leaves out of their hair.

"Wanna go and check out any new books that got added to the library?" Vanellope suggested, voice still a bit fractured but a lot better. "Maybe we could find out about some more crazy animals."

Hilda nodded and stood up, Twig barking happily. "Yeah. And then we could head down to the museum to check it out in action."

Vanellope beamed and jumped to her feet, before getting a mischievous look. Before Hilda could react, the racer lightly tapped her and ran off. "Tag, you're it!"

"Hey, no fair! That was a sneak attack!" The blue haired girl ran after her friend, Twig happily chasing after them as the sun shone bright in the sky…

~X~

And here it is, Hilda and Vanellope's talk. Was needed, but I also wanted to have the sisters have a moment together after all the turmoil and uncertainty. This story was a nice change of pace for me, as it wasn't as long and emotionally heavy as DCT and TIYCC. Hopefully this fic is one par with the others!

Next is Claw My Heart Out… Hope y'all are ready.

Keep close attention on my series for the future…

~Caleb~