AN: I don't know why, but I just love writing Tamora's playful side. Yes, I know that she's a badass cy-bug killer, but the movie shows that she can lighten up some too. I like to think that, once she and Felix got together, while she could still beat anyone, even Zangief, without breaking a sweat, her playful side came out more. So, although some of my stories will have her running around covered in cy-bug guts and killing them with glee, a good portion of them will be fluff like this. Plus, I've seen way too many pictures where Calhoun has Felix's hat to let it go. I hope that you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Wreck-It Ralph. Disney does.
For the entire thirty years that Fix-It Felix Jr. had been plugged in at Litwak's Family Center, Niceland had been exactly that: nice.
Not counting the prevailing attitude towards Ralph that had run their lives during that time-something that they were now working as best that they could towards fixing-the Nicelanders had always been friendly, welcoming folk, more than ready to lend a helping hand or a listening ear if that was what the occasion called for. Although they rarely left their game, the times that they did they were always welcomed in whatever game they were frequenting, for Nicelander visits were almost always accompanied by various baked goods and a party that even the grumpiest of gills could appreciate. Despite the fact that the apartments had been built with doors that locked, said mechanisms, had it not been for Felix's constant repair jobs, would have been rusted and stiff, for never before had there been a need to use them.
Niceland was perhaps the only place that actually fit its name, and other characters respected that. It was because of this that the crime rate, for the last thirty years, had been an excellent zero.
Or rather, it had been zero. That all changed the moment Felix woke up to find that the work shirt he had been planning on wearing had gone missing.
At first he had just shrugged it off, believing, at the time, that he had just thrown it into the dirty clothes hamper without realizing it. He had been tired and distracted the night before, so it was more than a possibility: it was likely. Figuring that it would reappear the next time he traveled into the basement to do laundry, Felix had just shrugged off the incident, gotten dressed, and gone to work. For the next week he forgot about the missing shirt, instead choosing to focus on his new family of three that had sprung up overnight almost exactly a year ago. A family, he was proud to say, that consisted of a wrecker named Ralph, a princess that went by the moniker President Vanellope, and the most dynamite gal to ever hold the position of Sergeant: Tamora Jean Calhoun.
However, when that week had passed, his clothes had run their course through the rinse cycle, and a hanger was still swinging empty, Felix couldn't help but be a little concerned. For the next few days, he spent every moment that he was alone searching through his other belongings, wondering how he had managed to misplace an entire shirt within such a small room. When his search finally came up empty, Felix had no other choice but to push the issue once more to the back of his mind and make sure to keep an eye out for it. Figuring that he had just left it in Sugar Rush that one time they had all gone swimming in one of the lemonade lakes, Felix had consoled himself with the fact that it would eventually turn up, and had continued on with his day.
It wasn't until he realized that other articles of clothing had also gone missing that Felix began to suspect that there was, in fact, for the first time ever, a thief in Fix-It Felix, Jr.
The first thing that he made sure to do was question and warn the rest of his people.
At first the Nicelanders and other characters that had come to call Niceland their home had been worried, the idea that someone was not only abusing their trust but invading their personal privacy as well almost starting a panic before he, with Ralph's help, had able to calm them. Once their heads had been cooled and their worries, for the moment, appeased, it had been easier to concentrate on the problem at hand, each member of their eight-bit society contributing ideas as to how to deter said criminal. Soon enough, after a bit of gentle manipulation from him and an honest reminder from Ralph that not all of the villains in the arcade were like those at Bad Anon, the Niceland Neighborhood Watch had been born. With a task force of alternating members of four that spent the night patrolling the streets in return for a day off from work, combined with locks that were seeing action for the first time in their lives, it had been with sound minds that the characters of Fix-It Felix Jr. returned to their own homes, finally feeling safe that nothing could go wrong in their game again.
It took another week for them to realize that, besides Felix, no one was missing a single thing. In that same week, the last of Felix's clean work shirts and half of his undershirts were gone, stolen from under his nose in the middle of the night as he and Tamora slept.
Although he himself would never admit it, the rest of the Nicelanders expressed their fears loud enough for him, for if someone could sneak into the penthouse, arguably the safest and most secure room in the game, and steal something with Felix and his wife right there, what else could said culprit do?
For Felix, it was perhaps the fact that Tamora had been there, that she had been sleeping right next to him every single time and had never sensed that anything was wrong, that freaked him out the most. Already a light sleeper, her slight paranoia of a cy-bug attack that followed her even when she was not conscious had quickly taught Felix that there was no sneaking around in their home when she was sleeping, for even the slightest of sounds was more than enough to rouse her. This, combined with the fact that she always had a gun within arm's reach, had always been a comfort to him before. But now…
But now it was the fact that said burglar was able to enter and leave their home without appearing on her radar that freaked Felix out the most. This, in turn, caused him to ask her to stay in her own game until the crook was caught.
"I don't want you to get hurt," had been his reasoning when Tamora had questioned him, taking his request much better than he would have expected considering its content. "You're outside of your own game, and until we can make Niceland safe again, I won't take the chance that someone could mean you harm." Amazingly, instead of refusing him like he had expected, Tamora had instead just nodded and agreed, though whether it was because she actually believed in the danger or because she was just humoring him, he couldn't be quite sure. Quickly stealing a kiss before leaving for the night, her lips twisted into a mysterious smile as she returned to her own rooms in Hero's Duty, no matter what her reasoning, Felix was just glad that, for the time being, his wife was out of danger.
Then, after everything was set and ready, for the next three weeks, nothing happened.
It had been a bit of a disappointment, really, for after everything that the Nicelanders and the others had gone through to try and make his home safe, it had been a shame for it to all go to waste. After finally deciding that the thief, whoever they were, had gone for good, the traps and snares that had been set up to catch them were removed, the 'thank yous' for the attempted help were said, and, smiling sheepishly at the fact that he had once again overreacted to what had turned out to be nothing, Felix had personally gone to escort Tamora to an apology dinner for asking her to leave and back to their home.
It took him waking up to an empty bed, a missing hat and hammer, and a missing wife to finally put all of the pieces together. A quick check with the Surge Protector only reconfirmed his revelation when it turned out that, besides Vanellope and the characters that lived there, the only person to enter and leave the game on the same days that his things disappeared was her.
"So, you finally figured it out," Tamora said teasingly as he pushed open the door to her rooms, a pair of his gloves covering her hands as she twirled his hammer between her fingers. "Took you long enough, Fix-It."
"Why," Felix asked with a soft smile as he leaned against the door jamb, honey glow filling his cheeks as he took in her attire. Clad in a little bit of everything that she had stolen from him over the last few weeks, a pair of blue boxers, his unbuttoned work over an undershirt, and his hat pulled low over her eyes, it was a mesmerizing picture that his wife had painted before him. That, combined with the look that she was giving him and the way that she had laid herself on the bed, had him wishing that he still had his hat to use as a fan. And to hide the effect that said picture was having.
"Because I could," Tamora replied playfully, turning so that she was on her side, facing her flustered husband. "I knew you would figure it out eventually, and until you did, I decided to have some fun."
"Jiminy jaminy…I-I mean, c-can I have them back," Felix stuttered back, pulling at the collar of his shirt as he spoke in an attempt to cool himself off. "I-I k-kind of need them for work," he continued, his hand waving in such a way that he motioned to everything she was wearing, his flush growing deeper as her smirk widened.
"Maybe, if you earn them," Tamora said with a quiet, cheeky purr, reaching out to grab Felix's hand and pull him closer until they were face to face. Releasing him, she leaned back so that she could enjoy her handiwork, her eyes dark as she watched him try to find the words that he wanted to say.
"H-how," Felix finally stammered, his voice hoarse and breathing heavy as he waited for her to reply.
"I'm sure that we can work something out," Tamora finally said with a growl as she reached out and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulling Felix onto the bed and into a long, suggestive kiss that told him everything that he would need to know.
By the time Felix finally made it back to Niceland the next morning, uncaring of the fact that he had missed an entire day of work, he was tired, had managed to reclaim four of his things, and was more than a little excited to see how many he would get back tomorrow.
AN: Can I just say, for the record, that this turned out a lot differently than I thought it would? I had planned it as pure fluff, but then Tamora decided the plan needed to change. So, with a heavily blushing face and a happy muse, I bid thee adieu.