WIR: Beauty and the Bricks, Chapter 2

Chapter 2: In Which Ralph Spends an Unexpected Evening with Sorceress

Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

"Random security check, sir."

Ralph rolled his eyes to the vaulted ceiling of Game Central Station. "Aw, come on, Surge! Do we really have to do this again?"

The Surge Protector glanced up from his clipboard, not the least bit frightened by Ralph's intimidating stature. "If you didn't keep smuggling contraband out of Sugar Rush, we wouldn't have to do this at all."

"Well, you've got nothin' to worry about. Vanellope didn't send me off with any snacks this time. See?" He held up both of his huge hands to show that they were empty.

After a few seconds of inspection, the Surge Protector was back to scribbling on his clipboard. "Mm-hmm. Empty your pockets, please."

Ralph clenched his fists, growing more frustrated by the second. "They're already empty!"

"Do I have to pat you down, sir?"

Ralph groaned in frustration and reached for the pockets at his sides, turning them inside out to show just how empty they were. He did the same with his back pockets. "There. Now do you believe me?"

The Surge Protector scribbled something down on his clipboard, seemingly oblivious to the look of intense hatred Ralph had leveled at him. "Proceed," he said tonelessly.

Grumbling under his breath, Ralph stalked away from the outlet of Sugar Rush, tucking his pockets back the way they were before. He slowed down to peek over his shoulder, watching as the Surge Protector vanished in a streak of crackling blue electricity. As soon as he was out of sight, Ralph reached under the tattered bib of his overalls and carefully fished out a vanilla cupcake with two of his fingers. The white frosting was a little squished and some of the pink and blue sprinkles were falling off, but otherwise it was still intact.

Ralph smiled a triumphant little smirk. "Heh. Sucker."

"Looks more like a cupcake to me," said a voice off to his right.

With a surprised yelp, Ralph whirled around and hid the cupcake behind his back. His eyes darted nervously around until they landed on a familiar blue-haired woman in a slinky red dress seated on a nearby bench. Judging from the smug look on her face, she had seen everything.

"Good evening, Mr. Wreck-It," Sorceress said pleasantly. She gestured toward the hidden cupcake and winked. "Relax, I won't tattle on you."

Ralph blinked a few times in surprise. Then he let out a relieved sigh. After dealing with one of his least favorite people in the arcade, it was nice to see a friendly face. He hadn't spoken much to Sorceress since Felix and Calhoun's wedding, though. Their dance at the reception had been their first real conversation outside of Bad Anon, and it surprised him how fondly he remembered it. After that, though, they both got busy with their own lives again. Ralph spent most of his free time with Vanellope, and quite often with Felix and Calhoun, too. Sorceress, meanwhile, had her own circle of friends and her own game to take care of. The only times their paths ever crossed were at the weekly Bad Anon meetings and occasionally in Tapper's. Other than that, they never saw each other. So it was a bit surprising for Ralph to see Sorceress here now.

"Don't scare me like that," he said, taking a few steps toward her bench. "For a second there I almost thought you were Surge."

Sorceress arched a questioning eyebrow. "You're not honestly suggesting I look like him, are you?"

"What? No, of course not!" he said quickly. "Seriously, the only resemblance is the blue skin. Other than that, you've got nothin' in common with the guy."

"Well, that's good news," she said with a smile. She gestured toward a bench next to hers. "By the way, you're welcome to sit down."

"Thanks, don't mind if I do," Ralph chuckled, seating himself on the empty bench. The metal creaked and groaned under his immense weight.

Sorceress turned in her seat to face him and folded her hands neatly in her lap. "So, what were you and the Surge Protector arguing about this time, if I may ask?"

Ralph shrugged his big shoulders as he carefully peeled the wrapper off his cupcake. "Eh, you know how that guy is with his not-so-random security checks. I was just minding my own business, heading home after watching Vanellope in tonight's Random Roster Race."

Her eyes drifted to the cupcake in his hand. "You're sure it has nothing to do with your repeated attempts to sneak food back to your game?"

"Hey, it's not my fault the kid never lets me leave empty-handed."

It was rare for Vanellope to send Ralph home at all. Having been trapped in her game for most of her life, she was eager to take every chance she could to go see the rest of the arcade and play with her best friend. Being the ruler of Sugar Rush was a big responsibility for such a little girl, however, and there were times when she just couldn't afford to leave Sour Bill to manage things for her. She always felt bad sending Ralph home early on nights like this, so she tried to make up for it by loading him up with as many sweets as he could carry. He didn't mind this at all, but the Surge Protector certainly did.

Ralph crumpled up the cupcake's wrapper and stuffed it into one of his pockets. He paused to lick some icing from his finger. "So, uh, how come you're sittin' out here all by yourself? You waitin' for somebody?"

Sorceress' smile wavered and then collapsed. With a sigh, she turned her gaze down to the green circuit board panel that covered the floor. Her long blue bangs hung down like a curtain to hide half of her face. "Well… I was supposed to meet a blind date here at ten o'clock."

Ralph frowned in confusion. "What do you mean, you were supposed to?"

"I mean my date was a no-show." She raised one hand with the palm facing up. A brass pocket watch appeared in a flash of sparkly purple mist. She flipped the lid open with her thumb to check the time. "And now it's eleven o'clock."

His eyes widened at this revelation. "Are you serious? You've really been sittin' out here alone, waitin' for this guy to meet you, for a whole hour?"

Sorceress snapped the watch shut. It vanished in another sparkly purple flash. "Yes," she said. Her tone was almost emotionless, but there was a definite tinge of disappointment there.

Ralph thought back to the most recent Bad Anon meeting. Sorceress had been talking excitedly about having a date, her first in over a month. Zangief had been the one who set it up for her, as he always did. Of course since it was a blind date she didn't know who he'd set her up with, but she didn't seem to care that much. As long as he was a single adult humanoid, she was happy just to have a date. But after getting dumped like this, it looked like she'd be spending another Saturday night alone, feeling miserable and unwanted.

"Here," Ralph said at last, holding his unwrapped, uneaten cupcake out to her.

Sorceress stared blankly at the cupcake for a moment. Then she stared blankly up at Ralph. "Huh?"

"Take it," he said simply. "You need it more than I do."

She hesitated a moment longer before taking the cupcake. Her hands weren't nearly as big as Ralph's were, so she needed to hold it with two. "Thank you," she said, smiling at him gratefully.

He smiled back at her and waved one hand dismissively. "Nah, don't mention it. Don't feel bad about the date, either. Whoever that guy is, he's a moron for standing you up."

Sorceress turned her face away. "He's not the first moron to stand me up," she muttered, fidgeting with the cupcake in her hands. Then she heaved a tired sigh. "Ugh… I'm just so sick of all this nonsense."

Ralph arched one bushy eyebrow curiously. "You mean dating?"

"Exactly," Sorceress replied. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find somebody who's willing to date a Bad Guy?"

He shrugged and shook his head. "I wouldn't know. I've never really tried dating before." He rested his elbows on his knees and let his hands dangle between his legs. "Being ignored and rejected, though… That's the kind of stuff I know a lot about."

She sighed tiredly again. "It's not just being a Bad Guy that's the problem. I'm a vampire, Mr. Wreck-It. People tend to be scared of you when they think you're going to bite them and feast on their blood."

Ralph was only slightly surprised to hear this. Oh, yeah, Sorceress was a vampire. It was an easy thing to forget since her fangs were rarely visible and she never drank blood outside of her own game. And even then, she only did it because she had no choice in the matter. It was pretty ironic, actually, for a vampire to hate the taste of blood. Eating large amounts of your least favorite food every day just to survive couldn't be easy. Ralph wondered briefly what it would be like if his own survival depended on him always eating chocolate. Then again, nobody ever considered people who ate chocolate all the time to be monsters.

He was quiet for a moment as he searched for something helpful to say. "Well, it's a big arcade, right? There are plenty of guys out there. It might take a while, but you'll find your Mr. Right one day, maybe when you're not even looking for him."

Sorceress didn't answer this time. Instead, she took a small, dainty bite from her cupcake and chewed it quietly.

A moment of silence followed as Ralph tried to think of something else to say. Part of him wanted to find out who Sorceress' mystery date was and forcibly drag him out here. If the guy didn't want to date her, he should have just said from the beginning instead of backing out at the last second. It just wasn't fair to lead her on and let her down like this. Furthermore, Ralph couldn't understand why anybody would turn down a date with a woman like Sorceress. Sure, she was a Bad Guy, but she was still a nice person and pretty attractive in an eerie kind of way. Yet here she was, lonely and sad on a Saturday night.

Ralph was no stranger to loneliness. He was still getting used to having friends after thirty years of solitude. He started out with just Vanellope, then Felix and Calhoun, and over time his circle of friends gradually expanded to include more and more people. Sorceress was one of those people. And right now, she needed a friend more than anything else.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, trying to think of something he could do to cheer her up. The cupcake and the talking seemed to help a little, but it wasn't enough. There had to be something else. Then it dawned on him. "You know what? Maybe we could do something tonight."

Sorceress looked up at him in surprised confusion. "Mwuh?" she said, forgetting that her mouth was full of chewed cupcake. She swallowed before speaking again. "We? As in, just you and me?"

He smiled at her and shrugged his big shoulders. "Sure, why not? Neither of us has anything better to do, right?"

She wiped a smudge of frosting off her lips. "You don't have plans with any of your friends?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I was just gonna go home. Vanellope's busy doing president stuff tonight, and I can't hang out with Felix and Calhoun, either, 'cuz this is their date night." He made a face at this. "Trust me, you do not wanna hang out with a couple of lovey-dovey newlyweds on date night. So, whadda ya say?"

Sorceress looked down at her cupcake, drumming her polished nails on one knee as she considered Ralph's invitation. It wasn't like she had anything else to do, since she'd cleared her schedule for the night. What was the harm? At least she wouldn't have to spend the evening alone, and there were worse people to hang out with than Wreck-It Ralph.

"Alright," she said at last. "What would you like to do?"

He rubbed his chin some more. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the Surge Protector walking by in the distance. Scowling, Ralph curled the thick, blocky fingers of his right hand into a fist and smacked it into the palm of his left hand. "Well, after dealin' with Surge earlier, I'd really love to punch him in his scrawny little face. But since I can't do that, I'd settle for punchin' something else and pretending it's his face."

The moment he finished saying all this, he realized just how barbaric it sounded. Sorceress was a classy, cultured woman. After hearing him talk like that, she probably thought he was an uncouth, brutish lout. But then he heard the unmistakable sound of her chuckling, and he remembered that she was a woman who thought Zangief's stories about crushing skulls between his thighs were funny, and the sight of Cyborg ripping Zombie's heart out of his chest bored her. Compared to all of that, his fantasy about punching Surge in the face must have seemed pretty tame.

Currently, Sorceress was sitting calmly in her seat with a half-eaten vanilla cupcake in her lap and a pensive expression on her face. "Actually, that sounds pretty good right now," she said at last.

"What sounds good?" Ralph asked. "Punching Surge?"

Sorceress chuckled again. "Not quite. I mean venting my negative feelings with violence against inanimate objects. I especially like your idea of pretending to hit the person you're most angry with. In my case that would be my date, thought I don't know who he is. So I'll pretend I'm hitting Zangief instead, since this whole blind date thing was his idea."

Ralph pictured this slender, delicate woman punching the huge, brawny wrestler in the face and grinned. He'd pay good money to watch that happen. "Okay, then! Let's go someplace where we can wreck stuff."

Sorceress took a moment to consider this. "Hmm… Speaking of Zangief, why don't we go to Street Fighter? There's lots of stuff we can wreck in the Bonus Stage."

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm, I dunno. The Bonus Stage is mostly outside in bright sunlight. Isn't that deadly for vampires?"

She shook her head. "Not for all vampires. In my case, it just reduces my powers to a lower level. So long as I don't waste too much energy, I'll be fine." She lifted the unfinished cupcake in her lap with both hands. "But first, I'd better finish eating this thing. Can't have the Surge Protector stopping us on the way, can we?"

Ralph chuckled. "Yeah, I'm still mad at him, and nobody likes it when I'm mad." Then he grinned mischievously at her. "You know what else I'd like to do to that guy?"

"What?" Sorceress asked, taking a small, dainty bite from the cupcake.

"Stuff his glasses down his throat, break his clipboard in half, and then shove it where the sun don't shine." He didn't mean any of it, really. He just wanted to see if Sorceress would laugh.

And she did. She tried to stifle it behind her hand, covering her mouth to keep her food from falling out. It didn't work, though, and she had to choke the mouthful of cupcake down to let the laughter out.

Ralph grinned even wider. Tonight was gonna be fun.

The first event of the Bonus Stage, and the most famous one, took place outdoors on a pier. The object of the game was to destroy a car in less than forty seconds. Any attack was allowed. Ralph stepped aside and gestured for Sorceress to go before him, flashing a lopsided grin at her. "Ladies first."

"You're too kind," Sorceress said, drifting past him and toward the car. She raised her arms in front of her and cupped her hands, forming a glowing orb of orange flames between her palms about the size of a grapefruit. Then she straightened her arms, shooting the flaming ball at the passenger side of the car. It burst on impact, leaving a large, smoky dent in the door.

Satisfied with her work, she turned back to Ralph with her hands on her hips. "How was that?"

Ralph arched his eyebrows. This was his first time seeing Sorceress use flashy attack spells like this, and he had to admit she was pretty good at it. "Not bad," he said, honestly impressed. "Were you picturing Zangief when you did that?"

She smiled and nodded. "Who else? Your turn, Mr. Wreck-It."

With a chuckle, Ralph moved around to the opposite side of the car. "Okay, now let a pro show you how it's done." He took a moment to picture the Surge Protector's face in place of the door on the driver's side. Then he brought his fist down hard against it. The powerful blow cracked the window and left a huge, knuckle-shaped impression in the metal.

"Poor Mr. Surge Protector," Sorceress remarked, shaking her head and clicking her tongue. Then she lifted both hands, forming matching fireballs in each one. "Now hurry! We've only got twenty-two seconds left on the clock!"

Ralph cracked and popped his knuckles noisily. "No problem! Let's wreck it!"

Using both fists, he quickly pounded the driver's side of the car into a crumpled mess of broken metal and smashed glass. Sorceress, meanwhile, flung multiple fireballs at the passenger side until it was full of scorched dents and cracked windows. By the time the seconds ran out, there was nothing left of the car but a pile of blazing, mangled metal and a smell of smoke in the air. The word 'Perfect!' flashed on the screen, announcing their victory.

Ralph propped his hands on his hips as he surveyed their handiwork. "I'd say we did a pretty good job here." He looked past the smoking heap at his female companion levitating across from him. "Nice work with those fireballs."

Sorceress smirked and brushed a few stray pieces of long blue hair back into place. "Oh, this is nothing. You should see what kind of damage I can do in a nighttime setting. Shall we go on to the next event?"

He grinned broadly at her. Not only was he glad to see her smiling again, but he was starting to have fun, too. "Of course, milady," he said, bowing with a flourish. "Let us proceed to the second violent activity."

She chuckled at his performance, and once again he was struck by how different her laughter sounded when she wasn't in gloating Bad Guy mode. The evil laugh was appropriate for her line of work, but this warm, natural laugh suited her better.

The second stage took place indoors. Here there were two conveyor belts whirring overhead, both carrying wooden barrels to drop down from above, and the players had to break them using any attack. Instead of a timer, there was a counter for how many barrels were left to break, currently set to twenty. There were also counters on either side of the stage for two-player mode, both set to zero.

"We'll play against each other for this one," Ralph explained. "Whoever breaks the most barrels wins,"

Sorceress didn't answer. She was watching the wooden barrels on the conveyor belt, considering what kind of spell was best to use on them. Blowing them up with fireballs would be too dangerous. Bits of burning wood would go flying everywhere, possibly injuring her or Ralph. Lightning, however, would disintegrate the wooden barrels instantly. That should be safe enough, just as long as she didn't zap Ralph by accident.

Then the barrels started dropping one after the other. Ralph had the advantage of height and easily broke the first barrel with one swift punch. The counter over his head went from zero to one. Not to be outdone, Sorceress hurled an orb of lightning at the next barrel. Sure enough, it disintegrated just as she expected, and her counter went up to one. The score was tied and there were still eighteen barrels to go.

Ralph and Sorceress locked eyes and grinned at each other. Oh, it was on now.

As more barrels fell, the two Bad Guys fell into a rhythm. Every time Ralph punched a barrel, Sorceress would zap the next one. They went back and forth like that the whole time, punching and zapping. Punch, zap, punch, zap, punch, zap. By the time they ran out of barrels, their scores were tied.

"Ten for ten," Ralph said, reading their counters aloud. "Looks like it's a draw this time."

"This time?" Sorceress echoed, arching one eyebrow at him. "Does that mean you want a rematch?"

He smirked. "Maybe, if the next stage doesn't tire you out."

Sorceress rolled her eyes and flipped a long piece of blue hair over her shoulder.

The third stage was set outside a Russian warehouse, which just happened to be the exterior of Zangief's stage. During arcade hours there was a crowd of rowdy drunken spectators in the background, but since the arcade was closed there was no one there but Ralph and Sorceress. The objects to be destroyed were six oil drums stacked in a pyramid formation. They were full of burning oil, occasionally spurting short jets of fire to scorch the players as they tried to break down each drum one by one. Like the first stage, it had a forty-second timer.

"You can't use fireballs or lightning on these," Ralph warned. "They'd blow us sky-high."

"No problem," Sorceress said calmly. "Fire and lightning aren't the only spells I can use."

"Okay, if you're sure." He motioned for her to take the first turn. "Don't forget, we've only got forty seconds to wreck this stuff."

She nodded, waving a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes, I know. Now pay attention, I've got an idea."

So saying, she cupped her hands to form a new spell. An orb of bluish white light appeared, which she hurled at the stack of burning oil drums. Ralph ducked and raised his arms protectively over his head, expecting a fiery explosion to result. Instead, the orb of magic energy morphed into an icicle as big as a sword. It stabbed straight through one of the three oil drums forming the pyramid's base, weakening the whole thing.

Pleased with the success of her spell, Sorceress rested one hand on her hip and gestured at the stack of oil drums with the other. "Your turn, Mr. Wreck-It."

Once Ralph got over the relief that nothing had exploded, he rolled his eyes. "Okay, now you're just showin' off."

She pouted at him and pointed up to the timer, showing that the seconds were quickly ticking away. "Save it for later, Mr. Wreck-It. We're wasting valuable time."

With another exaggerated roll of his eyes, Ralph started pounding away at the oil drums and Sorceress resumed stabbing them with her icicles. Just like the previous two stages, they quickly fell into a rhythm. Sometimes they had to back off when one of the drums spurted a jet of flame. When this happened, Sorceress would extinguish the fire with an icy wind spell, allowing Ralph to smash the drum without getting burnt. After the first twenty seconds, they had managed to break down half of the drums.

Now there were only three drums stacked precariously on top of each other. Still in his rhythm, Ralph pounded away at the bottom drum while Sorceress prepared to put out the flames with her magic. Suddenly, the orb of magic energy in her hands began to fade, its brightness flickering like a light about to burn out.

Ralph's punches halted abruptly as he stared at the blinking light. "Huh? What's happening?"

Sorceress frowned. "My magic's starting to run out," she replied. She tried to strengthen the spell, but it flickered even more wildly. "Come on," she muttered, concentrating hard. "I just need enough energy to finish this stage."

While she was focusing on her spell, Ralph heard the telltale hissing of flames overhead. He looked up and noticed the oil drum on top of the pyramid, squirting little jets of fire from the sides, teetering dangerously above Sorceress' head. The voice of Sonic the Hedgehog's public service announcements in Game Central Station blared through his head, warning about permanent death outside one's own game.

Before Ralph could warn Sorceress, the burning oil drum tipped over and fell.

"Look out!" Ralph yelled. Instinctively, he lunged forward and caught the falling drum just before it could crush her. However, he grabbed it just hard enough that the metal cracked open, releasing a jet of fire all over his right hand. Crying out in agony, he dropped the burning drum on the ground and flailed his arm wildly, sending the two remaining drums crashing down as well. Then he slumped to the ground clutching his injured hand to his chest.

"Ralph!" Sorceress cried, kneeling on the ground in front of him. He was still hunched over, hiding his wound from view. "Are you alright? What happened?"

If he wasn't in so much pain, he might have noticed she had called him 'Ralph' for the first time instead of 'Mr. Wreck-It'. Instead, Ralph shrank back and pulled his hand away, trying to hide it from view. "Yeah…" he lied through clenched teeth. "Yeah, I'm fine…"

She frowned at him and folded her arms. "No, you're not. Now show me your hand."

"I said I'm fine!" He scowled darkly at her, hoping she would back off and leave him alone.

She glared right back at him, eyes as cold, hard and sharp as the icicles she'd been flinging around earlier. The staring contest would have lasted longer, but the increasing pain in Ralph's burnt hand forced him to cringe and look away.

"Ralph…" Sorceress said, laying a dainty hand on his massive forearm. Her eyes softened and her tone was both gentle and earnest. "Please… Show me your hand."

He wanted to argue, to insist that he was fine and didn't need any help. But he just couldn't get any words out. Not with her looking at him like that. Also, the pain was too much. He couldn't hide it forever. With a sigh of defeat, he held his hand out for her to see.

Sorceress studied the damaged flesh of his huge palm for a moment. Not only was it red and swollen, it was grotesquely blotchy and blistered, too. Without a word, she produced a violet handkerchief out of thin air. Ralph watched curiously as she scooped a few chunks of broken ice off the ground and wrapped them up in the cloth. "Hold still," she instructed.

Before he could ask her why, she laid the bundle of ice over his burn. He yelped in surprise at the sudden cold wetness on his hot skin, and then relaxed as the pain became less intense.

"Does that feel better?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah… What kind of magic is this?"

"It's not magic," she explained. "It's a cold compress." Holding it in place with one hand, she produced a roll of cloth bandages with the other. "I can't use healing spells even when I'm at full strength, so I had to learn basic first aid to make up for it."

"Oh," Ralph muttered, not knowing what else to say.

Neither of them spoke as Sorceress wrapped bandages over Ralph's huge hand to hold the cold compress in place. While she focused on tending his wound, he focused on her. This was a side of her he hadn't seen before. He knew she was a nice person, but he never would have guessed she could be so gentle and nurturing, especially after watching her gleefully destroy a car, as well as several wooden barrels and steel oil drums. What else did he not know about her?

Sorceress spoke up, distracting him from his thoughts. "Idiot."

Ralph blinked a few times in confusion. "Huh?"

"You caught that oil drum before it could fall on me," she replied. She paused in wrapping bandages to look him straight in the eye, more severely than before. "You were trying to protect me, weren't you?"

Again he was speechless. Why was it so hard to talk to her when she looked at him like that? He had to avert his eyes to get his brain and his mouth working at the same speed. "I, uh…" he began, shifting his weight awkwardly. "Yeah… Yeah, I was… Sorry, I… I didn't really think it through…"

Fortunately for him, Sorceress looked away and went back to bandaging his hand. "Don't do it again," she went on. "You got away with only a second degree burn, but next time you may not be so lucky."

Ralph frowned at this. "Well, what was I supposed to do? Stand there and watch you get crushed?"

"It was only an oil drum, Mr. Wreck-It," she said sternly. "I could have handled it."

"How? You didn't even have enough magic left to conjure up a snowball!"

"Don't patronize me. I'm a Bad Guy like you, remember? Not some helpless Damsel in Distress who needs to be rescued."

"I never said that you were!" he snapped in frustration.

Sorceress didn't even flinch at his outburst. She simply directed an intense crimson glare at him. No words were spoken, but the message was clear.

Ralph sucked in a breath and shut his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose with his good hand. He was losing his temper, and that never lead to anything good. There was no getting through to her unless he was calm about it.

"Look," he began, straining to keep his voice steady. "I didn't save you because I thought you were helpless. All I was thinking when I saw that thing about to fall on you was that you were in trouble, and if I didn't do something quick, you'd die."

He lifted his eyes to meet hers and fixed her with an intense, serious gaze. It wasn't a strain to keep his voice steady this time.

"I saved you because I wanted to, Sorceress. And if I had to, I'd do it all over again."

This time it was Sorceress who was at a loss for words. People never said things like this to her, not even her fellow Bad Guys whom she'd been friends with for years. She and Ralph were still practically strangers. Their first real conversation was less than a month ago, and tonight was the first time they'd done anything together. Yet he was willing to risk his life for her, and he already had an injury to prove it.

She was so confused that she had to force herself to break eye contact with him, trying to concentrate on finishing up with the bandages. If there wasn't a thick curtain of blue hair hiding half her face from view, Ralph might have noticed that her pale blue cheeks were slightly pinker.

The train ride back to Game Central Station was a quiet one, save for the occasional crackle of electricity from the copper wires lining the tunnel. On the way into Street Fighter, the two Bad Guys had been chatting and joking around comfortably. That was before anything unpleasant had happened.

Although Ralph was seated right next to Sorceress in the same car, he felt as if there was an invisible wall between them. Once she had finished wrapping up his hand earlier, they agreed that he should go home and have Felix heal the burn with his magic hammer. She hadn't spoken since then and showed little to no sign of emotion. She just sat there stiffly with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap, gazing off into the distance at something he couldn't see. So he drew the only conclusion he could; she was mad at him for ruining her evening, and now she was giving him the silent treatment.

Ralph sighed, staring down at his thoroughly bandaged right hand. The cloth strips were getting soggy from the melting ice of the improvised cold compress and his fingers were slowly going numb, but it didn't hurt. He still hadn't thanked her for taking care of his burn. Then again, she had never thanked him for saving her, either. Where had he gone wrong? Was it a mistake? Had he offended her? Maybe he shouldn't have invited her to Street Fighter in the first place. Then maybe none of this would have happened, and they would still be friends. As it was, it didn't seem very likely that she'd speak to him ever again.

Soon the train pulled into the terminal and the P.A. voice announced their arrival in the station. Ralph slowly stood up, ignoring the numb, tingling sensation in his right hand. He offered his good hand to help Sorceress off the train, not really expecting her to take it.

To his surprise, she did.

Sorceress didn't levitate when she got off the train. She just stood in front of him on the platform, keeping her eyes from meeting his and holding his hand as if she wasn't ready to let go just yet. Looking down at her like this showed Ralph how small she actually was. Even wearing stiletto heels, the top of her head didn't even reach his chin.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Sorceress gestured to Ralph's right hand hanging down at his side. "The cold compress…" she said at last. "It's been on your skin for too long. I have to remove it, or you might get frostbite."

He nodded wordlessly and let her guide him to one of the benches inside the terminal. Once they were seated, she went quiet again as she began to remove the soggy strips of cloth. He watched her for a while, trying to make out what emotion she could be hiding behind her expressionless mask.

Finally, he couldn't take the silence anymore and said the first thing he could think to say. "I'm sorry."

Sorceress kept her head down. Her movements became slower and eventually stopped. With a sigh, she shook her head. "No, I'm the one who should be sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong," he started to say.

"Yes, I did," she said meekly. "You've done so much for me all night, and instead of thanking you I treated you horribly." She raised her head to look up at him. The expressionless mask was gone, and her face was full of worry. "That's why I'm sorry, Mr. Wreck-It. Just please… Please be more careful next time, alright?"

Ralph was taken aback by this. It all made sense now, and yet it made no sense at all. What seemed like anger before was actually fear. Fear for his safety. Why? Why was she so worried about him? How could she care about him that much when she hardly knew him?

And how could he care that much about her?

Ralph blinked himself out of his trance and averted his eyes. This was getting uncomfortable in a whole new way. He cleared his throat, trying to think of an answer to her question. "Uh… Y-Yeah, sure," he muttered, studying the graffiti scrawled across the greenish-blue tiles on the opposite wall. "And, uh… Thanks for patching me up."

Sorceress removed another strip of cloth from his hand. "You're welcome," she mumbled in reply. Finally, she took off the last wet bandage and peeled the waterlogged handkerchief from his skin. "There. How does it feel now?"

He flexed his fingers experimentally, restoring some of the feeling to them. The burn mark was still just as glaringly huge, ugly and red, but it was less swollen and tender than before. "Well, the pain level's gone down from searing agony to dull aching, so that's definitely an improvement."

She twisted her handkerchief up and squeezed out as much cold water over his hot skin as she could. "Good, glad to hear it. Make sure your friend Mr. Fix-It takes care of it with his magic hammer as soon as possible."

Ralph rolled his eyes and groaned. Showing the burn to Felix meant explaining how it happened. That was a conversation he wasn't looking forward to at all. "You're sure you can't use any healing spells? Like, not even a little baby-aspirin-type spell?"

"Really, Mr. Wreck-It," she said, wringing out what little water was left in her handkerchief. "If I could use that kind of magic, do you really think I'd be wasting my time doing all this?" She waved a hand over the soggy piece of cloth. It vanished in a puff of sparkly mist. "Well, I've done all I can. Let's get you back to your game."

"What about all this stuff?" Ralph asked, gesturing to the pile of sodden bandages on the floor. "Aren't you gonna poof them away, too?"

Sorceress rose to her feet and hovered several inches above the ground. "They're just trash. Let the Surge Protector deal with those drippy things."

He chuckled and stood up. "I like the way you think."

They left the terminal side by side and moved out into the station. Fix-It Felix, Jr. was in the same row of plugs as Street Fighter, about six outlets down to the right. Sorceress' game, Blood & Thunder, was on the other side of the station on the left, directly between Hero's Duty and Sonic the Hedgehog. Ralph stopped walking just outside the outlet and turned to face Sorceress. He was reluctant to say goodbye to her, especially now that things were starting to go well again. But it was getting late, and his hand wasn't healing any faster.

Sorceress appeared to feel about the same way as she turned to face him, floating just below his eye level and fidgeting with her cuffs. Then she smiled timidly up at him from behind her long bangs. "By the way, I really did have fun with you tonight."

"I had fun, too," he said, smiling back somewhat awkwardly. "Actually, I wouldn't mind doin' this again some time. Except, y'know, for the part where I horribly burn myself and make you mad."

"No, that part wasn't much fun." Then her smile turned into her familiar, playful smirk. "As long as you don't go pulling any more reckless stunts, I won't get mad at you. I'd rather not get in the habit of playing nurse, either."

He chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with his good hand. It was probably inappropriate to admit that he kind of enjoyed being taken care of, so he chose a different topic. He glanced over to his left and saw that the outlet for Tapper was directly beside Street Fighter. "What if we went to Tapper's? Last time I checked, nobody ever died over there."

"I'd like that." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Tomorrow is Sunday. That's Karaoke Night."

He shrugged his big shoulders. "Sure, why not? I'm not much of a singer, but I'm game if you are."

"Oh, I most definitely am." Still smiling, she brushed some hair away from her face. "That just leaves one more question. When and where should we meet?"

"Eleven is the best time for me. I gotta watch Vanellope's next Random Roster Race. If I miss that, she'll never let me hear the end of it."

"Then I'll meet you by the tunnel to Sugar Rush." Sorceress nodded her head in approval. "Alright, then, it's a date. We'll meet for Karaoke Night at Tapper's at eleven o'clock tomorrow night. Don't forget, and make sure your hand is fixed by then."

"Yes, ma'am," he said obediently. He hooked his thumbs in his pockets, shifting his weight from one bare foot to the other. "Well, uh, I guess I'd better go home and take care of that. So, see ya later, Miss Sorceress."

She gathered the long train of her dress and performed a graceful floating curtsy. "Good night, Mr. Wreck-It," she said courteously. Her smile was as warm and sincere as ever when she straightened up. "I look forward to seeing you again."

Ralph could only nod in reply. His right hand still felt cold from the ice, but the rest of him felt suddenly warmer. She giggled behind her hand, and for a split second he was sure he saw her blush. Then she turned and floated toward her game, waving goodbye as she went.

He waved back to her and stood watching her retreating form for a while. Still feeling warmer than usual, he started making his way down the row of outlets toward his own game. He was between Undead Apocalypse 3 and Virtua Cop when he realized he was grinning like an idiot.

Then, about halfway between Frogger and Burger Time, he froze as something Sorceress said before dawned on him. His eyes widened hugely and his mouth fell open in shock.

"Wait a minute… It's a date?!"