(Quick A/Ns- (Edit: I made a few changes in this one-shot, to make it flow better with the later chapters ;))

This is just going to be a brief series of one-shots that describe what I think happened the first day or so after Vanellope and Ralph met. The first one kinda lays the foundation and the emotions involved, and the other two will be what happens later on. (Also, Part 3 is going to a nightmare one-shot...I tend to be drawn to reading/writing those a lot lol)

A quick disclaimer: This is NOT a Jawbreaker story. I do not ship Vanellope and Ralph together in this or any other story of mine. (The word 'love' is an intentionally important part of this story- but not romantic love in any way lol It will be deeped explained in the next two chapters ;)

Hope all enjoy!! :))

Chapter 1: It's All So Brand New

"Man, kid! We've had a lot of fun tonight, haven't we?" A loud yet notably tired voice boomed, causing a gentle echo to bounce around on the arcade station walls. "You must be exhausted now...right?"

At her new best friend's overly hopeful-sounding words, the child perched on the man's shoulder just puckishly laughed. Man, could Ralph be stupid sometimes or what?

"Uh, no," the mischievous child smirked out, carelessly rocking back and forth on the man's shoulder. "Not at all."

Ignoring his loud, pointed sigh in return, the girl gently noogied his messy, auburn hair.

"Listen, my main man," she smirked down as she set him straight, "I know you've only known me for liiiiike..."

The child paused in her playful disheveling to suddenly peer up, thoughtfully calculating the exact amount time she'd known the man she was sitting on...

And quickly became utterly shocked at just how short that time really was.

"...A day and a half now? Tops?" she finally murmured out loud, her black eyebrows hunched down in speculation as she looked down at him. "That can't be right..."

"Wait, seriously?!" Ralph immediately responded, shock overcoming him as well. He jerked to stop in his casal walking for a moment, which would've caused the light-weight child to go tumbling off his shoulder had she not quickly latched onto his hair. "That's it?"

A day and a half? That didn't seem right to either of them. Not at all.

No, Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz couldn't just have known each other that long...could they? That didn't seem like enough time. Didn't FEEL like enough time. In fact, in a more logical, more realistic point of view, it was practically impossible.

There was virtually no way two people as different and yet as much alike as Ralph and Vanellope were could simply bond that fast. It was pretty much unheard of for two people to be complete strangers one day and literally best friends the next.

This obnoxious child Vanellope -or 'kid', as he so lovingly called her often- meant so much to Ralph this point. And this bad guy hobo -or her 'Stink Brain', as she so endearingly labeled him- was Vanellope's honest-to-goodness best friend. They seemed to know each other inside and out- and were already super close because of it.

Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz honestly really loved- er, cared about each other already...

And they'd really only known each other for a mere day and a half?

"Man, it feels like we've known each other forever!" Ralph finally gawked openly, shaking his head in a strangely happy haze as he picked up walking again.

"I know!" Vanellope agreed quickly as shook her own head in a stupor. A smirk quickly took residence on her face, however- just as Ralph knew it would as she then gloated. "But you have to know by now that I never get tired! Like, ever! Ga-doi!"

With her relentless smirk still plastered on her round face, the child swung a bit on her best friend's shoulder- so full of life and excitement...

And unwavering, exhaustingly strong energy.

When she then batted her overly large, beautiful and teasing eyes down at him, an overexaggerated sigh couldn't help but escape Ralph's mouth. He semi-knew deep down that those would more than likely be Vanellope's conceited answer to his question; the child, after all, always seemed to have more energy than...well, a child on a sugar rush.

And as much as he loved- er, had great affection for Vanellope already, Ralph wasn't quite used to being around someone so perky. Someone who could (and wanted to) go exploring so late into the night...knowing full well that they had to get up and work the next day...

"But come on, kid!" the large man pointedly whined, starting to rub the back of his neck- his tick when he got too tired, Vanellope had noticed. "I've already introduced ya to a lot of my friends and showed you around the arcade. And then we played around a lot of games you wanted to see- and then some!"

Starting to physically wind down, the large man slumped forward, somehow making himself tired all over again just talking about all they had done.

At his tired words and mien, however, the sassy child just raised her eyebrows and stared down at him.

"What?!" She crowed, her raspy voice echoing slightly itself in the slowly emptying station around them. "I know you're a total dunce, Ralph, but come on! We bearly did anything! For one thing, you haven't introduced 'a lot' of your friends to me! I only met your buddies from Villains Anonymous-"

"Bad-Anon," Ralph corrected her, rolling his eyes as he smirked up at her. "It's called Bad-Anon."

"Villains Anonymous, Bad-Anon. Whatever. It's practically the same thing, Mutton Head," the child quickly brushed away his correction- before softly laying her head upon Ralph's own, silently winding her hand through his hair as he walked on. "You crumby bad guys just dorkishly gather around, share a donut and a cup of coffee, and 'talk through your feelings' with that hippie orange guy, Clyde."

Despite being so exhausted he could fall asleep on his large feet, Ralph couldn't help but chuckle at her evaluation of their meetings. Vanellope was almost too smart for her own good sometimes.

"You've gotta have more friends than that, right?" She then pointed out, lifting up her head to smirk down at him-

Before her face fell a bit, a rare time Ralph ever saw it so soft and sympathetic as a suddenly new possibly occurred to her for the first time.

"...Or did you have even fewer friends...than I did before the reset?" She concluded softly, her voice the most gentle Ralph had ever heard it.

"Well, the baddies at Bad-Anon are most of my friends, kid. Before and after we met," the wrecker told her with a gentle, carefree shrug, causing the child's face to lose its gentleness. "I have only a few other friends outside of them, actually- like Felix and Calhoun, of course."

"Oh, and what am I to you? Chopped liver?" Vanellope jokingly responded, gently pushing the side of Ralph's head...

But although it was meant to be said jokingly, the sensitive man could still hear a slight hint of seriousness, of even hurt in her fake-harsh tone. He could detect that there was some odd sort of fear, a strange level of actual belief in her own words...all in which caused Ralph's thick eyebrows to rise only slightly in surprise.

Despite the fact that they already felt like siblings, Vanellope's level of friendship and trust in Ralph could only realistically and genuinely be so high. And, of course, despite all they'd been through together, nothing could alter or remove the brutal past the small girl had experienced and lived through- or that it had shaped her into who she was now.

The closed-off, seemingly carefree girl had just as bad of a trustless, loveless past as Ralph did, after all. Far worse, actually, when the wrecker really thought about it. It was really a miracle that Vanellope could even recognize love- er, affection when she received it...

The poor kid could only distrust everyone she'd ever known... And sadly, to some extent, that even included Ralph. He well understood that although he'd well-earned her trust by now, the child may still have some hesitancy in trusting him. Truly trusting him, anyway.

Sure, Vanellope could laugh and tease (and annoyingly mock)...but did she really trust her Stink Brain? His friendship? Even his genuine love- er, immense adoration for her?

Those were questions that bothered Ralph- more than he'd ever cared to admit. So the second he realized just how stand-offish his best friend really was, the big-hearted wrecker promised himself that he'd practically do anything to solidify her trust in him- but he knew needed to start small.

They'd only known each other a day and a half, after all.

"Best friends don't count," the wrecker finally smirked at his kid, purposely making his voice extra soft and kind. Briefly rubbing his head up against hers, he felt his eyes go soft when looking at her. "Ga-doi."

At his pointed words, Vanellope forced down a rare blush and all-out avoided his gaze for a moment... but she couldn't quite as successfully hide the happy little glow overtaking her.

A happy little glow she wasn't quite so used to having yet... a happy little glow she hadn't quite even accepted as being real, even...

But one she was starting to love- er, greatly like, nonetheless.

"W-well, you gotta have someone else you can introduce me to, right?" The child quickly pressed, gently but playfully shoving Ralph's head to the side again. "Gotta know of another game that's super duper fun?"

"But there's really nothing left to explore or anyone else to really meet, kid," the large, gentle man complained as he paused yet again in his pace to look at her sluggishly. "At least not tonight. And trust me, we've gone into the best and most fun games already!"

"Ralph, we've only been into, like, three games!" Vanellope instantly countered, suddenly glitching to the other side of Ralph's broad shoulders and gestured to the game portals on their right. "We've only gone into Dig Dug and Pac-Man-"

"And Whack-a-Mole," Ralph added as he shot her a pointedly grumpy look, rubbing the still sore place on the crown of his head as Vanellope just giggled.

Pixlateling down to stand before him, the child ignored his muttered groaning about how hard that stupid hammer really was. Instead, Vanellope suddenly found her eyes dancing around Game Central Station all over again- and found her excitement growing all the more.

The station was so huge, what with it's dozens upon dozens of game portals, all lined up one right after the other. Some were games the once game-trapped child had heard about in passing from other Sugar Rush characters; others were games with names she didn't recognize at all. But regardless of her preexisting knowledge of it or not, each game was just beckoning Vanellope to venture inside and explore- right then and there.

And sweet mother of monkey milk- that was just the games themselves, Vanellope quickly realized. The characters that spewed out of those games were just as interesting, unique, and amazing as their game appeared to be. Creatures of all kinds and of all different sizes, shapes, and colors wandered around the ground of the main terminal, not even seeming to notice how amazing they all were.

It was a lot for one small, once confined little girl to take it. And she really, really love- er, beyond cherished every single second of it all.

Maybe the newness and the refreshness and the shock would wear off eventually for her- but at the moment, Vanellope just couldn't get enough of this station...of this dream...

And the happy glow in her eyes, the wide, toothy grin on her face, and just the excitability practically radiating from her were enough to make Ralph fondly smile down at her. He loved- er, greatly adored when Vanellope got like this.

The goofy, warm feeling swallowing him only intensified as the child spun in an aminated, wide-eyed circle, motioning yet again to the games around them.

"I've only seen a tiny part of this huge place, Stink Brain!" She bellyached, causing a smiling Ralph to roll his eyes again. "There's still so much to explore!! We have to go explore it all- tonight!"

"Right," the wrecker chuckled as he reached down and gently ruffled her raven hair. "'Cause it's not like we have the rest of our lives to do so."

"Exactly!" The girl crowed, not detecting his sarcasm- and instead taking it as his way of agreeing with her. "So let's get agoin' already!!"

Glitching around, the excited child smiled widely as she jabbered away, numbering off all the games she still wanted to see.

"We can go into that one root beer game, and then Peter Pepper and then that game where you fight on the streets and- ooh, ooh! Then I want to go into that game with the little frogs! That one looks cool, and-"

Her best friend before her felt his happy doting smile become a painful grimace almost instantly. He couldn't help but begin to rub the bridge of his nose in silence as she gushed on. Just the sheer amount of games the child was naming off was powerful enough to increase his poor, fatigue-induced headache.

The wrecker was about to futility and tirelessly argue with her - asking that couldn't they at least take a nap first?- before a much better idea into his mind.

He may've only known Vanellope von Schweetz for a short period of time, but Wreck-It Ralph had already learned that when he couldn't get her to agree with him, his fall-back method was the next best for any energetic child.

Completely and utterly distract her.

"Say...you know which game you haven't gone into yet?" He quizzed her, a pointed smile stretching across his face.

"Shut up and listen," she hissed as she glared up at him with narrowed eyes. "I'm naming them off, genius."

Matching her scowl, Ralph rolled his eyes.

"That's not what I meant, kid," he deadpanned. "You have to guess."

The child thought about his words for a moment, her dark eyebrows cutely hunched again in thinking as she tapped her chin mockingly.

"Hmmm...How 'bout more than half the games here?" She finally stated sarcastically, smirking at him with half-lidded eyes.

Unamused, Ralph placed his ginormous hands on his hips.

"No. I was thinking more like a game we both know of... and that a few good friends of yours live in," he told her, eyebrows explicitly up as another obvious smirk settled in on his own face.

Not getting his hints, the child then seriously squished up her face, perplexity settling in- before a small, hopeful smile appeared.

"Hero's Duty?" She asked excitedly and expectedly, grinning optimistically up at her friend.

Almost immediately, Ralph's face fell and a sharp glare of disgust surfaced on his face. There was no way this little girl was stepping one foot into that death-trap.

"Uh, no," he corrected dryly before finally giving up in their guessing game, a genuine smile now upon his face. "I was thinking about my game, kid! I just realized I haven't even shown you around Fix-It Felix Jr-"

The wrecker couldn't even finish his line of thought before Vanellope quickly began wiggling excitedly and loudly squealing- which caused Ralph to half-jokingly cover his poor ears.

"Yes, yes, YES!" She exclaimed at last, bearly able to control herself as she glitched erratically in place. "I'm such a candy turd! How could I forget all about exploring your game?!? Let's go, let's go, LET'S GO!!"

A relieved smile surfacing on his face, Ralph sighed happily down at his impish, eager best friend.

This was perfect. Simply perfect.

He could quickly show her around his game -ooh, and up on the apartment rooftop!- and then they could head to his shack. Maybe they could eat that cherry pie that was in his fridge...and then turn some calming tv...

And then if Vanellope just so happened to pass out on Ralph's new couch from pure exhaustion and sleep all night until having to get up for work the next day, Ralph could happily make do with that.

The child couldn't just keep going, after all; every top runs out of spin, every car runs out of gas, and everyone gets tired at some point. Even an extremely bouncy kid like Vanellope...

At least, that's what Ralph certainly hoped for. He could really use that nap.

Getting excited at that more-than-likely prospect, Ralph smiled as wide as Vanellope was.

"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" he asked happily, maneuvering around the excited child and already sprinting quickly towards his game portal. "Let's gets a'movin'! Last one there is a rotten Mario mushroom!"

Nearly tripping and falling flat on his face, Ralph clumsily bolted ahead, mistakenly thinking he was well in the lead...

Suddenly appearing a few dozen feet ahead of him, however, Vanellope glitched easily before him. Turning to smirk carelessly in his direction, she waited at a near-by bench for Ralph to breathlessly catch-up.

"You're racin' with the wrong kid, Chumbo," she teased him, shaking her head at the sadly optimistic yet weakening zeal Ralph had on his paling face. "You're never gonna win against me."

"I'm...gonna...die trying," the large man wheezed slightly, slowly to a stop as he neared his game's portal. Suddenly aware of just how physically out of shape he really was, the wrecker comically placed his huge hands on his knees and bent over to overdramatically hack a few times.

Wincing, the child backed even further away from him, afraid her friend's nasty exhaustion could rub off on her.

"Don't take that so literally, big guy," she teased, glitching over to gently punch one of his slightly shaking legs. "Not everyone can be an adorable winner like me; there has to be ugly losers like you to balance the world out."

"Hardy...har-har," Ralph panted out, still out of breath as he finally straightened up his aching back- eager for that nap more than he'd ever thought possible. "Let's just go into my game already."

Dramatically limping closer to his 8-bit game's large, dome-like portal, the large man mosied into the tunnel, imagining that his kid was trudging along right behind him...

Which she was- until Vanellope realized an entirely new sensation was touching her skin.

Suddenly curious to see just where said sensation was coming from, Vanellope paused and looked around the station- and abruptly saw the three ginormous windows Game Central Station had in the far side of the terminal. She'd somehow not noticed them until now, what with there being so many other things to see and feel in the station already.

Nearly blinded by something extremely bright seeping through the windows, the child shielded her eyes for a moment with her hand- before she realized what she was feeling was very different to her...

And that it was caused by something she thought she'd never get to experience in person.

The sun -a real sun, not even made of candy or sugar!- was what was brushing against her skin so softly. It was a real, refreshing sun that was shining beautifully through the large windows, kissing everything they touched in the station- including Vanellope.

It was the real sun that the child had always heard about- and always thought was just a myth, a legend...and then a mere dream...

Something she'd never thought she'd ever get to see or feel one day in her life.

The hiddenly sentimental child sighed deeply, instantly dropping her hand...and without thinking, she actually closed her eyes. She was too overwhelmed, too relaxed for a split moment to even think clearly...to think about what could happen when she opened her eyes again...

Abruptly realizing what she'd done, Vanellope gasped and made her eyes jump open again- and, to her totally relief, she saw that the sun was still there...Still shining it's rays upon her- and still warming her entirely.

Her heart not pounding quite so hard, she bit her lip, struggling to fully take in her new bubbling, warm feelings. She was the first to admit that she love- well, greatly liked this new sensation of an actual sun...

And she could only hope it'd last...

At the thought of this all just being a fleeing feeling, a temporary sensation, the girl shook her head hard- clearing it of all the negative thoughts filling her inside. Mostly.

Forcing a smile, she just allowed herself to take in this moment, not worry about or fear anything else...and as she did, Vanellope then felt her smile become more relaxed. She deeply sighed, her mind and heart in almost complete peace as one thought bounced around happily in her mind for a moment in time.

Life just can't get better than this.

Deep-seated fear suddenly gripping her yet again, however, the girl's eyes doubled in size- a new worry shaking her out of her calm stupor. Frantically turning to look back down Ralph's game portal, Vanellope winced in her place...afraid her best friend might not be there anymore...

Upon seeing Ralph was still there, still over-exaggeratedly limping along, however, the child sighed in relief. She winced again, beyond ashamed at her irrational fears and worries that overtook her. They made her feel so weak...so vulnerable...

As Ralph suddenly paused in his mawkishly painful hobbling, he turned to smirk at his small friend at his side...seeing that she wasn't there for some odd reason. Quickly looking over his shoulder, he saw that Vanellope was standing at his portal's mouth- just staring deep into the tunnel.

Although too far away to see her face, the wrecker felt concern for her suddenly pausing. Ignoring it as it nagged on him, he forced himself to smile her way, eagerly waving her forward- and beckoning her to join him into his game.

And once she shook herself from that oddly familiar feeling of dread, Vanellope smiled from cheek to cheek as well- moved to quickly skip towards her best friend.

As she did, Vanellope surppressed her nagging fears...and it was then that she happily realized that for probably the first time in her entire life, she had been completely wrong.

Her life could get better- because now she finally had a best friend to share it with...

One that she could only hope was permanent.