A/N - Okay, I've never written for Wreck-It Ralph before and I have a bunch of non fanfic projects going on at the moment, but I just had to give this idea a try! This is technically coauthored with writer Cryssy-miu, and although I'm not sure how much involvement she'll have with it, she at least deserves credit as a creative consultant. I'll make sure to let you guys know which chapters she writes.

Also, for the sake of plot n' stuff, this takes place seven or eight months after the end of the movie and Felix and Calhoun aren't married yet. Okay? Get it, got it, good.

Other than that, enjoy!

If It Ain't Broke
Chapter 1: Stripes

Being part of a game at Litwak's Arcade was alternatively satisfying, infuriating, and nerve-wracking. It was satisfying when a game ended and the gamer was pleased, and you could sit back and smile, knowing that you'd done exactly as you were meant to do. It was infuriating when whoever was controlling you didn't know what they were doing and you were forced to obey their commands while knowing that you were better than this, or – if you were a villain – when you didn't get half the respect of the hero for working twice as hard. And it was nerve-wracking for a number of reasons. There were a lot of things to be afraid of in Litwak's Arcade.

One thing was travel. It was nice to get out, see new settings, and meet new friends, but everyone knew that if you died outside of your game, you'd be gone for good. It was enough to turn more paranoid characters into stubborn recluses. Another drawback was getting unplugged. Usually there was forewarning if that was going to happen, in the form of an enormous "OUT OF ORDER" sign slapped onto the screen, but everyone still worried in a far corner of their mind that their game would be decommissioned without cause, and that their lives would end in the blink of an eye (or the pull of a cord). And then there were hardware glitches. Horrible, horrible hardware glitches.

People and places were a part of the software, which they had control over, to an extent. The hardware was the actual machinery that kept the software running. If the hardware of your game started malfunctioning, you couldn't go anything about it, except cross your fingers and hope that the mechanic could fix the problem. If he couldn't, then you'd be unplugged, no if, ands, or buts about it. The latter scenario had only occurred twice in Litwak's Arcade, since games were normally removed due to lack of interest or software errors, not irreparable damage.

Super Rocketeer had been one of the first games in the arcade. About ten years ago, its inhabitants had noticed that their screen was behaving strangely, often obscuring their view of the outside with random colored lines. The gamers noticed the obstruction, too, and complained about it. Then the screen had lost all power, a phenomenon that was completely unheard of. Most of the Super Rocketeer characters had abandoned ship during this frightening blackout. Those who didn't were erased when the aging cabinet lost power completely and was subsequently unplugged and towed away.

A much newer game, Guitar Master 8000, had met the same fate a few years later. Fortunately, everyone was able to get out okay.

Most of the time, no one bothered to worry about what would happen to them if their game's hardware went haywire. They had faith in their machinery, especially if they lived in a game that had withstood the test of time…say, Fix-It Felix Jr. Things like blackouts were very scary and distressing, but surely nothing like that could ever happen to them…

Could it?

…

On a typical afternoon, Ralph was tossing bricks down the side of the Niceland apartment building as he was supposed to, and Felix was being jerked around from ledge to ledge by a gamer, swinging his hammer and snagging the occasional pie. Ralph watched as the numbers rose up and evaporated. 100, 100, 100, 200, 100, BONUS; at least they seemed to have someone with skill today. After so many years of working together, he could always tell when Felix was getting worried or annoyed about whoever was controlling him.

For the first time that day, the game was completed, and all of the Nicelanders hoisted Ralph up as they prepared to throw him off of the roof. He smiled internally. There were still several more hours before the arcade closed, and depending on the skill of the next players, this might be the only chance he'd get to see Vanellope in action. He angled his head subtly in order to get a better view of Sugar Rush…

Just in time for a series of multicolored stripes to explode across the screen out of nowhere, like a neon sideways rainbow. They didn't cover the whole thing, but it was enough to be noticeable.

"Hey!" shouted the kid at the console indignantly. He reached out his arm, and the world trembled around Ralph as the gamer's fist presumably smacked against the side of the cabinet. An uneasy mutter rose up from the Nicelanders, but before he could make out any words, he was tumbling through the air until he landed, face-down, in the ever-present mud puddle on the ground.

By the time he had pushed himself up and wiped the dirt away from his eyes, the stripes were gone.

…

There were a few more sessions that day. Fix-It Felix Jr. had enjoyed a spike in popularity after the retro characters had first joined them, but after a few weeks, levels had gradually gone back to normal. This had surprised no one; they knew exactly how long most gamers' attention spans were. Ralph, despite his resolution to take life "one game at a time," always looked forward to closing, but today, he was particularly anxious for it.

Somebody lost, somebody else won. He waited in his mud puddle for a while, sneaking occasional glances up at the screen. There was a scuffle in the arcade, which ended in Litwak separating a couple of kids on the verge of a fistfight; over at Hero's Duty, a girl screamed as a Cy-bug lunged at her, prompting laughter from all her friends; Vanellope was taken out for a few rounds of Sugar Rush. He felt calmer when he saw her, even though he was only looking at the back of her head. He was unable to see what Felix and the Nicelanders were doing from his current location.

In the down-time between games, he kept expecting more stripes to creep over their window to the outside world, but everything ran smoothly. Hopefully he had just imagined the malfunction. Vanellope would lose a life laughing at me, he told himself. If she saw me this worried, she'd never let me live it down…

And at last, the arcade door was locked for the night, and the game characters were free to do as they chose.

"All clear!" called Felix from the top of the building.

Ralph extricated himself from the mud puddle's sludgy embrace and stood up, swiping the glop from his broad arms as the Nicelanders began to leave their in-game formations, and headed towards the neighborhood of leftover bricks that had come to be called Niceland Village. It also happened to be the direction of the exit to Game Central Station. He was scheduled to pay Vanellope a visit in Sugar Rush today, and with any luck, he'd be able to catch Felix before the handyman went off to…wherever he was going. Probably on a hot date. Ralph smirked inwardly at the thought.

He looked over at the screen again, but it was still unblemished, displaying nothing but the normal evening landscape of the arcade.

Felix came trotting over soon enough, with a spring in his step and a hummed tune buzzing on his lips. He had tucked a flower into his shirt pocket, meaning that there could be no doubt about his destination tonight. He sent a cheerful wave in Ralph's direction as he passed.

"Hey, Felix," started Ralph. "Did you see what happened this afternoon?"

Felix paused. "What do you mean?"

"I think the screen glitched. It was earlier today, right when you guys were lifting me up to throw me off the building. Did you see those weird colored lines?"

Felix blinked, and the optimism on his face flickered for the merest second. Then he smiled. "Yeah, I remember. The player hit the cabinet and made the ground shake. Right."

"Right." Ralph looked at the smaller man expectantly. "So…do you think we should be worried about it?"

It was funny how Felix was always automatically treated as the leader in every situation. Even before the whole game-jumping incident, before Ralph and Felix had been anything close to friends, Ralph had still treated Felix as if he was the supreme authority of the game. It was all in the programming, of course. There were some more overt controls that could be challenged, but some bits of code ran so deep that they were never even noticed.

"No, of course not!" declared Felix. "You know how technology works. Everything gets a little flickery sometimes. But this old cabinet has served us well for almost thirty-one years. A couple of glitches are nothing to be scared about."

"Got it. Glad you think so." Ralph exhaled and allowed a small smile to slip across his face. Everything was fine, everything was normal, he had no reason to be concerned…especially not now, at the best time of the day, when he was about to go see Vanellope.

"You're going to Sugar Rush, right?" asked Felix, changing the subject. Ralph nodded. "You can tag along to Game Central Station with me, if you want. I'm off to Hero's Duty to meet Tammy."

Ralph snorted. "Tammy?"

"I mean, Sergeant Calhoun!" sputtered Felix, his cheeks turning red with a hot blush, or a "glow," as he would call it.

"Wow, I didn't know that you two were on a first-name basis now. This must be getting serious," teased Ralph. "Because, y'know, I'm pretty sure that Calhoun would give me a plasma blast right in the face if I tried calling her Tammy."

"She's not like that," insisted Felix gravely. "I mean, in battle she is, but that's because she has to be. Outside of game time, she's sweet, and fun, and beautiful…she's one dynamite gal."

"If you say so," said Ralph, who would never in a million years think to apply the adjectives sweet or beautiful to Sergeant Calhoun.

They chattered idly as they rode their pitiful little trolley into Game Central Station. The whole thing was the picture of peace and normality, so much so that Ralph managed to avoid realizing that they were pointedly keeping themselves from talking about the stripes. After a few more minutes, they split up, and Ralph breezed right into Sugar Rush without being subjected to any "random" security interrogations.

Admittedly, he still found the environment of Sugar Rush to be garish and grating, and it seemed that a clumsy guy like him couldn't make the trek to the castle without falling into something sticky along the way. Today was no exception, and although he was pretty sure that he'd shaken off most of the jelly bean berries by the time he reached his destination, he was still greeted by the unimpressed face of Sour Bill when he arrived at the main entrance. "Oh, it's you," muttered the amorphous attendant.

Ralph rolled his eyes. There were still some people who would dislike him no matter what, he figured, although Sour Bill didn't actually seem to like anybody. "Yeah, it's me. Can you go tell the President that I'm here to see her?"

"There's no need for that," answered Sour Bill begrudgingly. "She's already expecting you. Follow me."

Ralph did so, doing his best to squeeze into the castle. His shoulder chipped off a piece of the doorway as he worked his way in.

"And don't do that!" snapped Sour Bill without turning around.

Ralph muttered an oath under his breath, brushing off his shoulder in a way that hopefully wouldn't cause him to break anything else. For the past few months, he had been keeping his temper in check with a decent amount of success, but he could still often cause destruction by just his sheer size. This was especially true in a game world like Sugar Rush, which had been designed for tiny, cute characters and not hulking villains. Luckily, he made it to the throne room without further incident.

"President von Schweetz," announced Sour Bill as they entered, "you have a visitor."

A little girl of approximately nine years old, with black candy-spattered hair pulled into a loose ponytail and a ratty mint green hoodie, was bouncing around the room like the hyperactive bundle of energy that she was. "Ralph, my main man!" she exclaimed. "What took you so long?"

"Oh, come on! I'm not even five minutes late this time!" protested Ralph. She scampered over to him, and he knelt down so that he was at the appropriate level for Vanellope to tap fists with him. "How's it going, kid?"

"Fine. How's it going for you, stink-brain?"

"Just fine. Did you get picked for a lot of races today?"

"A few. I had to do some sitting out, though. I guess that there were some new players who hadn't heard yet that I'm the most awesomest racer ever!"

Ralph rolled his eyes again, but now he was grinning. The thing about Vanellope was that she could be extremely irritating – in fact, she was hands-down the most annoying person he'd ever called his friend – but her enthusiasm was infectious. No matter how nerve-grating she got, he could never get past the fact that he was happy just to be with her. "Well, that's their loss. Why don't you tell me about something exciting that happened today?"

This was a sort of ritual that they had developed since they'd started visiting each other. It was actually a way for him to let her blow off steam so that she wasn't unbearably hyper, but she didn't need to know that. She was talkative, and she certainly enjoyed talking about herself, so he let her blabber on a bit about a particularly exhilarating victory that had taken place during one of the day's races. He smiled and nodded, saying "Wow!" or "No way!" at the appropriate times, and sure enough, by the time she'd finished she was noticeably calmer.

"Hey, Ralph," she remarked. "Do you know who I never see anymore?"

"Who?"

"Felix!" She wrinkled her nose. "I don't think I've seen him, in, like a month. What's his problem? Doesn't he like me?"

Ralph smiled slightly. "Sure he does. If it makes you feel better, I haven't seen him that much, either. Outside of work, I mean."

"How come?"

"Because he's always going off to Hero's Duty to visit his girlfriend Sergeant Calhoun – excuse me, I mean Tammy."

Vanellope burst into a fit of giggles. "Sergeant Calhoun's first name is Tammy? I'm so going to call her that the next time I see her!" She paused. "Y'know, come to think of it, I haven't seen her lately, either."

He shrugged. "I guess that's what happens when you fall in love with someone. You just want to spend time with your girlfriend or boyfriend, and it's like eve3rybody else doesn't exist anymore. I'm sure they're not doing it to be mean. They're just…" He tried to formulate a good word. "Infatuated."

"In-FAT-choo-ay-ted," mimicked Vanellope. "What's that mean?"

"Basically, it means that they're being lovebirds. You know, like 'Felix and Tammy, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…'"

"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage!" She finished the chant, cackling delightedly. "Their baby is going to look so weird!"

Ralph tried to picture it, but the combination of the absurd concept and Vanellope's contagious snickers soon got him laughing so hard that tears were pressing at the corner of his eyes.

"Anyway," she continued, after the humor value had worn off. "What would you do if I got a boyfriend and we got in-FAT-choo-ay-ted, Ralph?"

He seriously doubted that she would ever reach the maturity level required for having an actual boyfriend, but he could tell that she was just joking around, so he pretended to give serious contemplation to the concept. "I don't know…" He pondered. "I guess I would probably beat him up."

"No, don't!" she squealed. "You wouldn't really do that, would you? I'll tell you what. If you don't beat up my future boyfriend, I won't beat up your future girlfriend. Deal?"

All right, he absolutely knew that was an impossibility, not to mention the fact that Vanellope wasn't an intimidating presence even to a nonexistent girlfriend. But instead he just chuckled and answered, "Sure, kid, it's a deal. And if you really wanted to see Felix again, I'm sure that I could pry him away from his lady friend for a few hours."

"He should come here. And the sergeant as well. And the Nicelanders!" She spread her arms, as if to encapsulate the number of people that her invitation included. "We should have everybody come here, and then it will be a party!"

"A party?" he repeated. "A party celebrating what? The fact that there's nothing to celebrate?"

"Exactly," she agreed. "There's never a wrong time for a party, is there?"

Ralph remembered the last major party he'd been to, which had been more than six months ago, on the thirtieth anniversary of his game. He had crashed the gathering in more ways than one, and it had only served to confirm just how poorly the Nicelanders thought of him. It had set him on his course to find a medal, from Tapper to Hero's Duty to Sugar Rush, in a series of events that had changed his life for the better…

So maybe normality really was something to celebrate, when his current definition of normality was so much more enjoyable than it had been just a few short months ago.

"Of course not," he declared. "I'll definitely try to get ahold of Felix and Calhoun for you, and we'll all pick a date and a time. A party sounds just about right to me."

A/N #2 - I like feedback, and since I've never written for this fandom before, please shoot me a review to tell me how you think I'm doing thus far! Constructive crits appreciated! Thanks!