Word of their success had beaten them back to Sugar Rush, and they only got as far as Chocolate Town Square before NPCs in the road became too much of a hazard to keep driving. They stopped and got out of their karts and out of nowhere, Candlehead barreled into Taffyta. "You're safe! And you did it! I knew you would!"

Taffyta hugged her back. "I'm glad someone thought so." At that, King Candy caught her eye and winked at her.

NPCs closed in around them, cheering and demanding to be told everything. Her heart soared. But then, as she started to bask in the attention, it just as abruptly crashed. Suddenly, she didn't want any of it. She didn't want to be the center of attention, she didn't want everyone fawning over her. She was tired and she'd almost died how many times in the past twenty-four hours? There was only one thing she wanted, and despite what Vanellope said, she didn't see any way that she was going to get it.

But King Candy hadn't gotten to be the center of attention for practically a decade. If one of them was going to reap the rewards of what they'd just pulled off, she was happy for it to be him.

So she grabbed him by the arm and pushed him forward. "Hey! Guys, listen—I couldn't have done any of it without King Candy." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him look at her, but she didn't meet his eyes. There was usually nothing she liked more in the world than everyone cheering her name and telling her how great she was. This was out of character and she didn't want him somehow guessing why. Like he'd just told her, he knew her and could tell when something was wrong. Anyway, she wanted to do this for him. "He's the one you should be cheering for," she added.

The response was immediate. NPCs mobbed him and so did several of the racers, Candlehead among them. Taffyta backed out of the crowd and stood at the edge of it, smiling. King Candy was beaming from the attention. No one had acted this happy to see him for nine years. He didn't even have fans in-game anymore and no one else's had been willing to cheer for him. Taffyta knew; she'd asked. Cajoled. Begged, as much as it had hurt her pride. None of it had done any good.

It made her happy to see him so happy. Tomorrow, things would go back to the way they'd been for nine years, but for today, he was a hero.

"Did you really just give up a chance to be in the limelight?" Rancis asked.

Taffyta glanced at him. His arms were crossed over his chest and his eyebrows were raised. "Guess I did," she drawled.

Rolling his eyes, Rancis said, "Hey Taff, I'm saying this as a friend, okay? You're being really stupid."

She jammed her hands on her hips. "Excuse me?"

Rancis gestured. "Just tell him how you feel about him and stop waiting around for him to do something about it."

"I—" Taffyta looked away, hoping the expression on her face was unconcerned. "I don't know what you're talking about."

If someone could roll their eyes harder, Rancis was definitely doing it now. "C'mon. It's really obvious how you feel about him. I don't know why you're pretending."

There was a lightness to King Candy's face that she hadn't seen in years and years and Taffyta felt a stupid smile spreading across her own.

"Exhibit A," Rancis said.

Taffyta hugged her arms around herself and turned to him. "Because I don't want to mess anything up. We're like…I don't know."

"Something special?" Rancis supplied.

She glanced at King Candy again, her sternum aching with longing. "Yeah."

"Hey." He punched her shoulder lightly. "I get it. It's hard to change the status quo or whatever. Right? But Taff, you gotta take a chance sometime. Like in a race. You don't win without taking risks."

Blinking and looking at him, Taffyta said, "That's like…shockingly insightful, Rancis." When he scoffed, she sighed and let her arms fall to her sides. "You really think I should say something?"

"Better than this whole unrequited-love thing that you have going on," Rancis said cheerfully. He elbowed her and added, "I mean, do what you want, but I'm just saying, you and him are kind of obvious." With that, he turned and walked away to join the crowd, smirking.

Taffyta crossed her arms over her chest and looked towards King Candy again, but she couldn't see him through the crowd of NPCs. Maybe Rancis was right. But maybe he wasn't. Anyway, she wasn't going to interrupt this now. Let him have some adoring fans for once.

One of her fans turned to her and tried to pull her into the spotlight again, but Taffyta shook her arm free and just held a hand up, demurring. They'd probably keep trying to cheer for her if she stuck around, so maybe the best thing to do was leave.

Anyway, she had a lot to think about. They'd both almost died. In the face of that, why was she so afraid to tell him how she felt? Was possible rejection really more scary than dying? Except, of course, it wasn't just the rejection. It was the fact that if she told him she was in love with him, and he wasn't in love with her, nothing would ever be the same between them again. Sure, they were a team now, but if she spilled her heart out to him and he didn't feel the same way? Kiss the team good-bye.

She went home but that didn't feel right either, so she took her kart and drove. And when she drove aimlessly in Sugar Rush, especially when she had King Candy on the brain, she had a tendency to end up in the same place every time.

When she reached the overlook in the Frosty Mountains, she pulled her helmet off and set it on the hood of her kart, then climbed out and walked to the edge of the cliff. Sugar Rush was as beautiful as always, sparkling and green under the summer sun, the turquoise sea glinting all around and each track like a ribbon of smooth taffy. She couldn't imagine losing it. She couldn't imagine leaving it. There was nowhere else in the world she wanted to live, and there was only one person in the world that she wanted to share all of it with.

Making a face, she pushed her fingers through her hair, feeling it snarl around her knuckles. She needed to say something. But she had to plan it out. She wasn't just going to like, wing it. Not something this important.

The faint sound of an engine on the cold mountain wind drifted across her hearing. Was that—? She pulled her fingers out of her hair and listened, then dropped her arms to her sides. Of course it was.

The Royal Racer appeared and skidded to a stop next to Pink Lightning in a swirl of snow. King Candy stepped out, looking at her through his goggles. "Oh, Taffyta, you're here, good—glad I found you—but, well, why? I mean, that is, you left, and you didn't say anything…"

"I figured you'd want to hang around back there. All the adulation and accolades?" Taffyta smiled. Oh pixy sticks, her hair probably looked horrible. Quickly smoothing it and hoping he hadn't noticed anything, she added, "It's been awhile since you had that."

He pushed his goggles up onto his forehead and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, I—I mean, yes that'sth true, but…" He looked, just for a second, at a loss for words. "It's just, I looked around suddenly, back there, and, er, well…"

This was a lot of stuttering, even for him. What was going on? Was he nervous about something? "Well?" she prompted.

He pulled his goggles off and looked at them, then fogged his breath on one lens and rubbed his sleeve on it. When he remained silent, Taffyta wondered if she was going to have to remind him again that he'd said anything. But then, he looked up at her and said, "You weren't there. And I just…well…um. You weren't there."

Something fizzy opened up in her stomach and flooded her veins. "Does that matter?" she asked, hoping her voice came out as something approaching normal.

"Well, if you want to know the truth, that is, it…" King Candy stopped and took a deep breath. "Yes. Yes, it does."

And then he stopped, and the snow blew around them while the wind whistling through the peaks high above filled the silence. A snowflake landed on Taffyta's cheek and melted, and she brushed the drop of icy water away with her hand. King Candy was staring at her, and she didn't know if she should wait for him to speak or risk shattering this delicate moment. It felt like possibilities were stretching out in every direction, and she didn't want to confine them to one road. Anything could happen right now. It was the moment before possibly the beginning—or the end—of everything.

It was terrifying.

He took a step forward. Then another. He was close enough that either of them could reach out and touch the other, but neither of them did. "Taff, I…" he began, then shook his head. "I'm not doing this very well, am I?" he asked.

"I don't know what you're trying to do," she said honestly.

His fingers fidgeted and he dropped his arms to his sides. "You're an incredible woman," he said.

The fizzy feeling in her veins got warm and even more bubbly. "I am?"

"Yesth. Of course you are. You know you—" He cut himself off and cleared his throat, still looking like words were failing him. "And you know, at first it was hard for me to see you as anything but that nine-year-old girl, and I think maybe I—well, it took me sort of by surprise, when it hit me that you're…well, not. That girl anymore, that is. And I mean, not that it hit me like—well I mean I knew, obviously, that you're an adult, and you have been for yearsth, but I just didn't…" He stopped and held his hands out, like he had to physically arrest this flood of words. Then he began again, "You're, um. Well." He swallowed. "You're a gorgeous, smart, funny woman, who's saved my sorry life more timesth than I can count—"

"It's only been like three or four," she said, then immediately felt like kicking herself. He just called you GORGEOUS, SMART AND FUNNY, stupid! And she interrupted him with that?

That startled a surprised laugh out of him. "I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit, my dear. Anyway, Taff…I've said it before. I know I haven't done anything to deserve having a friend like you."

The fizzy feeling in her veins went flat instantly. Friend. Friend. He still thought of her as just a friend.

"So," he said, but it came out sounding oddly strangled. He cleared his throat, and tried again, "So, if I don't even deserve that, I know I don't deserve anything more. But I can't—I mean, that is, I can't stop thinking, you know, if I wasn't glitchy, and if I hadn't taken over your game and tried to delete your princessth, and if I wasn't—well, old, I suppose, even though that was more a matter of appearance and choice, I mean, you know, I'm not really that much older than you in a programming sense, ten years really, it's not much when you think about it—"

The way she was staring at him made him stop. "You don't have to stay if this is too much for you," he said, with an attempt at a smile.

Her heart kicked. "You've never been too much for me," she said. "Even when you should have been."

His fingers curled at his sides. "I suppose the main thing, then, is that I lied to you. For—well, too long. Yearsth. And Taff, I haven't lied to you in a long time, but I can't change that I spent fifteen years doing it. So I understand if…"

Something in her snapped. She reached out and grabbed his hand, wrapping her fingers around his tightly. Stop waiting around for him to do something about it. "Spit it out, King Candy," she said, feeling wildness leap within her chest. "When has any of that mattered? You know it never has. I would—I would do anything for you, or—or go anywhere. Like, to hell and back kind of anywhere. You're like, kind of everything to me." Then, mortified by this catastrophic lapse in judgement, she clamped her lips shut, staring at him with wide eyes. So much for planning things out.

The rise and fall of his chest seemed heavier than normal, and there was a glitchy red frisson at his fingertips. "Well," he said. "I think that makes this a little easier. Taffyta, the thing is—" He swallowed. "The thing is, I love you."

The whole world seemed to go still around them as they stood there. The gusting wind in the peaks above, the whisper of snowflakes landing, the hiss of snow blowing over the road behind them, all of it just stopped. Or maybe the ringing in Taffyta's ears was drowning it out.

"You…you do?" she said, her voice coming out as a strangled squeak.

He nodded, gripping her hand. "I, well, I have for awhile, and I just…I didn't know how to tell you, and that'sth…okay, isn't it?" Her stillness seemed to be unnerving him., but she couldn't make herself move or say the one thing that she'd been wanting to say for…well, forever. Now that the unbelievable was happening, all she could do was stand there like an idiot.

His fingers slackened, and that finally snapped her out of her paralysis. "Yes," she said breathlessly. "I mean, oh my god, I'm so—that is, I love you too, I—"

Then she didn't even think, she just acted, because there was nothing else she could do in that moment. With an inarticulate noise, she closed the small distance between them and kissed him.

And he kissed her back. He kissed her back. Like, she'd been expecting him to, but the fact of it, the way he put his arms around her and pulled her to him, the warmth of his body and the way there wasn't a single inch of space between them, was so much more than she'd imagined it. She'd imagined it so many times, but the reality was infinitely better.

He glitched and she did too, but it felt like the most natural thing in the world, and even though she knew she was kissing Turbo instead of King Candy, he felt exactly the same in her arms.

Eventually, he pulled back, his yellow eyes a bit dazed, before he glitched to King Candy. "So," he said, and then laughed effusively. Taffyta grinned, grabbed his face in her hands, and kissed him again. Putting a hand to her face and brushing his fingers down her jawline, he repeated more softly, "So."

Her smile felt like it was going to split her face in half. "So this is like, a thing now," she supplied. "You and me."

Taking her hand again, he chuckled and said, "It might just be the best thing. Maybe ever. For me, I mean, not to be presumptuous—"

She kissed him again, more gently. "Me too," she said. For a second, she thought about saying something else, but she didn't need to, did she? They were there, holding onto each other, and there were a million things to say but none of them needed to be said now. They had the rest of forever for that.

Instead, she wrapped her arms around him and said, "Want to go home?"

He held her tightly, then leaned back and put his hands on her shoulders, staring at her with a look of such goofy happiness on his face that it was everything she could do not to kiss him one more time. "You read my mind," he said, squeezing her shoulders. Then, he raised an eyebrow. "Want to race there?"

He didn't even need to ask. That was the thing about them, wasn't it? For years now, they'd understood each other implicitly. In some ways, they always had. As she held his eyes, Taffyta grinned. Maybe they lived in a world where things were supposed to be wrong. He was a game-jumper, she was a bully who'd infected her own game. Sugar Rush was permanently down one racer and out a princess/president. But none of that mattered.

For the first time, everything was right.

Thank you so much to everyone who's stuck with this series to the end! I hope you enjoyed it. If you did (or didn't!), it would truly mean the world to me if you dropped me a review.

Taffyta's adventures aren't over, of course. Stay tuned for future hijinks…

And lastly, this fic has a playlist!

1. "Quarter Past Midnight" - Bastille
2. "Midnight City" - M83
3. "The Gathering" - Michael Giacchino
4. "22" - Taylor Swift
5. "False Start" - SPC ECO
6. "Back to the Start" - Mr. Little Jeans
7. "Carved Intentions" - Lavender
8. "Ghost Town" - Shiny Toy Guns
9. "Listen Don't Speak" - Heathers
10. "Rim Shak" - Letters to Cleo
11. "We Remain" - Christina Aguilera
12. "The Wolf" - Fever Ray
13. "Find Me (feat. Birdy) (Acoustic) - Sigma
14. "With Strawberries Like Dead Men" - Solkyri