A Glitch and Her Dog

[Vanellope]

Angel liked that, she could tell; Vanellope could see the expression of bliss on her new friend's face, and the way her tail beat back and forth, as she continued to scratch with her stubby fingers. First just with one hand, and then with both, caressing the spot just beneath the little dog's chin that she clearly liked so much. Vanellope was so busy concentrating on Angel's pleasure at the sensation, in fact, that she almost missed when the small dog spoke up to answer her musings on the subject of a collar.

"I reckon if you're my dog, you're gonna need one, right?" she stated by way of reply. They couldn't have Angel running around with no collar as though she were still homeless - admittedly, what Vanellope had back in Sugar Rush was only a home in the loosest definition of the term, but it still counted - and if having the collar would make Angel happy too, then that would be doubly worth it.

Actually, come to think of it... why wait until she was back in Sugar Rush? Before she'd left the game, Vanellope had gathered up a stash of sweets when the other kids were busy racing, figuring to take them with her. She hadn't known what the world she was coming to had in the way of food, and she had wanted to be prepared. She'd stashed a small supply at the bottom of her tattered candy-wrapper backpack along with what few other personal effects she had, but hadn't touched much of it since arriving here. Maybe there was something in that she could use, at least as a temporary measure?

"I might have some of the stuff I need here, actually. When ya let me up, I'll see."

[Angel]

"Really?"

That was worthy getting up off of Vanellope, she decided. Angel wasted no further time in debating the issue. Instead, she moved to sit beside Vanellope instead of being on top of her. Shortly thereafter, she nudged her friend's hand with her nose. The sensation may have been odd, as Angel's nose was cold and wet, but she hardly cared. Eagerness to see if Vanellope actually had the things she would need for a collar had taken over. Her tail continued to beat back and forth like a golden blur and would have thumped against just about anything if it had been close enough. Thankfully, the only thing that was close enough to be thumped was Vanellope. Angel thought that her tail wasn't quite strong enough to really thump much of anything in spite of that.

"Well, now you can see. Go on," Angel urged. She wouldn't have been too disappointed if Vanellope didn't have what she needed, though. All she could do was hope that maybe, just maybe, she was about to get herself a collar after so long.

[Vanellope]

"Here, let's see..." the nudge of Angel's nose against her hand - not an unpleasant sensation, even if she hadn't expected it to be wet - spurred Vanellope into action. The girl rolled onto her belly and again leant over the edge of her bed to rummage through her nightstand once more. Given how few possessions were really in there, it didn't take long for Vanellope to retrieve the bag she'd stuffed full with all sorts of odd candy bits and pieces, which she promptly emptied out all over the bed. The fact that it might make the sheets awfully sticky didn't even occur to the child; in a world made entirely of candy, that had never really been a consideration.

Mostly, the selection consisted of shards of lollipops and other hard candies, crumbled chunks of cookie, some squashed chocolates... a moment later, however, Vanellope found what she'd been looking for. She'd carefully torn herself a strip of rainbow sour candy from where it 'grew' in Sugar Rush, intending to snack on it when the need arose, but... holding it up to Angel's throat, Vanellope quickly realised it was exactly the right length to loop around the canine's neck without being uncomfortable. And for the tag...

She was worried for a moment that she'd forgotten to collect any lemon drops, which she'd already imagined would be ideal; then realised she needn't have been concerned as she discovered a small stash of them. A thin strand of licorice, just like the strings on her own hoodie, was selected for the loop.

Then there was just the matter of putting it all together... though Vanellope would hardly consider herself an expert craftswoman, she had picked up a few tricks out of neccessity; and aside from a short delay as she tried to figure out how to make a hole in the lemon drop for the licorice loop to fit through, she worked quickly. Within a few minutes, the girl was admiring the results of her handiwork.

It didn't look especially professional, all told. Still, Vanellope felt pretty pleased with it, and after gathering the rest of her candy stash back up into the bag, she turned to Angel, keeping the finished item behind her, out of the canine's view.

"Okay, close your eyes..."

[Angel]

As Vanellope worked and retrieved her required candy, Angel tilted her head to the side and tried to get a view of what was happening. She couldn't really see anything, though, and so she'd have to wait for the ultimate finished product. Patience was something she believed she had plenty of. After all, she'd waited this long for a family. Waiting a little bit longer couldn't have hurt anyone. So, Angel let her little bottom go onto the bed for a few moments and just tried to observe. Vanellope had to have some kind of skill when it came to making things, because otherwise she suspected the little girl might have just been wining it. That didn't seem to be the case, though. Vanellope must have gained some skill in all the time she'd spent on her own.

Soon enough, Vanellope had finished and hidden the end result. The next thing Angel knew, she was being asked to close her eyes. A surprise, huh? Angel could cope with that much. She nodded once and, after a moment, her blue eyes were closed. Her tail started to wag a bit in anticipation. Really, she couldn't wait to see the end result. It was sure to be better than anything she'd had up until that point, right? Right...

Anything was better than having no collar to speak of for as long as she had.

[Vanellope]

Once Angel had done as instructed, Vanellope brought the candy collar out from behind her. On her knees on the bed, the girl shuffled closer to the little canine. She held up the collar to Angel's neck, as though checking how it would look, and then stretched out to slip it over her friend's head. The muzzle through the loop first, then the rest of her head... Angel's ears pushed back, and for a moment Vanellope was afraid they wouldn't go through; and then the collar was over them, and Vanellope lowered it down to the canine's throat.

That left one problem before she released the collar; would it go under Angel's shirt and tie, or over? Over would look odd, it was true; but it would be hidden from sight is she tucked in beneath the shirt's own collar. Vanellope pondered this for a moment, then decided over would do for now; it could always be tucked in beneath later, once Angel had approved of it.

The front of the collar came to rest just atop the knot of Angel's slackened tie as Vanellope released it and sat back to admire her how it actually looked on her new companion. All in all, the girl figured, it suited her pretty well; though, she supposed, whether Angel agreed at all was another matter.

"Okay, open 'em up."

Vanellope stuffed her hands deep in her hoodie pockets, hoping Angel approved of the gift.

[Angel]

She could feel something being slipped over her head. Angel's ears apparently were giving Vanellope a little bit of a problem, but after a bit her ears managed to move back enough for the thing to slip into place. Then, she felt something around her neck. Angel could even smell it. It smelled very... Sweet. That alone was a bit strange to Angel, as she wasn't used to sweets, but it smelled nice. Whatever could it...? Wait. Angel wasn't stupid; she had a fairly good feeling about what it was Vanellope made. The girl had mentioned it just a few minutes prior.

"Okay, open 'em up."

Angel did so, and she looked down at her neck. There was a rainbow colored strip of some kind of candy around her neck, which served as the collar. Attached to it was a lemon drop to serve as her identification tag. A collar... Vanellope had actually managed to make the thing she had always wanted. Her tail began to whip back and forth in delight and a gasp was quick to follow. It wasn't one of horror, but delight.

"It's perfect," Angel said. Not long after, Angel raised herself up on her hind paws, let her front paws rest against Vanellope as gently as she could manage, and started to lick the little girl's face. Her tail continued to beat back and forth so fast that it looked like nothing more than a golden blur.

"Thank you!" she yipped.

[Vanellope]

Vanellope had almost been holding her breath in anticipation; when Angel spoke, she exhaled it with substantial relief. She'd made candy stuff for herself before, but Vanellope had never had anyone else at all who she had felt inclined to make a gift for and though she was proud of it, the glitched girl had been worried that its handmade appearance might make Angel think it looked shabby; she was glad to find out that wasn't the case. A grin spread its way across Vanellope's face as Angel stated how perfect it was, but she didn't have time to say anything.

Before Vanellope knew anything else, Angel was all over her; her front paws were up on the girl's chest, and she was licking every part of Vanellope's face that she could reach, and Vanellope found herself laughing aloud as the canine's tongue seemed to be trying to drown her in dog-slobber. Others might have found it disgusting; for the girl who had been, for so long, told that she shouldn't even exist and no-one liked her, it was wonderful. Vanellope didn't make any move to try and stop Angel as the little animal painted her face with drool.

It was only once Angel seemed to have finished that Vanellope made a move, drawing the small canine into a tight hug. Not crushingly tight, of course; but still tight enough to let Angel know her friend had no intention of letting go anytime soon. Only the sensation of her hand bumping slightly against the canine's new collar reminded the girl of what she had been going to mention.

"I figure you'll hafta tuck it beneath your shirt in class," she pointed out. So it didn't actually look as odd as she might have expected sitting over the top of Angel's tie as it presently did; but that didn't mean the teachers would approve of it being worn over the top of the uniform. For now, though, she figured her canine friend was probably plenty happy keeping it exposed to show it off.

[Angel]

A hug... A real one this time. Not just a quick adjustment to her position so she was on top of Vanellope. Oh, Angel couldn't have been happier even if she'd tried. This had to have been the best day of her life. She'd gotten to spend time with Patch on top of standing up for Vanellope and earning an owner in the process. On top of that, she'd gotten a collar. A collar other dogs might have thought odd looking, granted, but a collar nonetheless. To her, a canine who hadn't had such a feature in quite some time, it was more than she ever could have dreamed for. Besides... It was unique. She couldn't have really imagined what her collar would have ended up looking like if she'd been with anyone else. Over the course of her life, Angel had worn many different colored collars. This one was all the colors of the rainbow, and it suited her just fine. ...Even if it was on the outside of her uniform at the moment.

"Yeah, I see what you mean. Once I get this uniform stuff off, though," Angel said, "I'm sure it'll look even better. For now, it's just fine as it is. I'm happy to be wearing it at all."

That much was true; Angel wouldn't have taken off that collar for the world. Not even if other dogs thought it looked odd. To her, it was a symbol of the new life ahead of her. The acceptance from Vanellope meant the world to her, and the fact that she'd made her a collar made it all the sweeter. For the moment, whether or not she had on the uniform hardly mattered to her. What mattered was that she had something that she had only dreamed of for ages before.

[Vanellope]

As Angel touched on the uniform, Vanellope again wondered if she didn't ought to offer to help the small dog take it off; but when she went on to mention that it was fine how it was, Vanellope figured that she was probably better off just leaving that decision up to Angel's discretion. If Angel was happy in the uniform, Vanellope had no reason at all to force her to take it of; or vice versa either, had that been the case. Besides, it could have looked a lot worse on her than it did.

The glitched girl didn't give any sign that she was planning on releasing Angel anytime soon. The way she hugged her close looked almost possessive, as if Vanellope was scared someone would come along and try and snatch Angel away from her. She didn't know if any of the other racers from back home were here; though with Taffyta's presence, it was a fair bet that some of them were, and if any of them had landed in the earth circle, Vanellope almost felt she had a right to be worried. They'd always been mean to her back home, after all; what would they do to the dog who had dared befriend her, if they ever got their hands on Angel?

Vanellope hoped not to have to find out.

"Okay, word of advice; if you see any kids around here who looks like me an' Taffyta, avoid 'em, okay? I don't wanta have anyone from home give you a hard time for bein' my friend," she voiced at length. Perhaps her concern was for nothing, Vanellope couldn't say; after all, Angel must have been plenty good at taking care of herself after the life she'd lived. Still, the other kids from Sugar Rush could probably have given even street-smart Angel a hard time if they set their minds to it, and the girl didn't want to see anything bad happen to her first and only friend.

[Angel]

Really, Angel had no objection to being hugged as long as she was. After so long of being out of a human's comforting, welcoming, warm touches, this was as good as she ever could have imagined it. She silently prayed that this wasn't a dream. It felt so real, though... There was no way it could have been a dream. She would have woken up before getting the collar if it was, right? Right... That was generally where her dreams ended in the past, anyway. This was far too wonderful and real to be a dream.

Soon, though, Angel was brought out of her thoughts by Vanellope's next statements. Avoiding kids that looked like her and Taffyta should have been easy enough. If they looked like those two had, they should have been relatively easy to spot. Vanellope's concern couldn't have been without reason, either. If they took the time to threaten and bully Vanellope, she could only imagine what they might do to her for being Vanellope's friend. Still... She couldn't just let people bully her owner. What kind of a dog would she have been if she did let them hurt her?

"I'll avoid them," Angel said, "but if they try to hurt you I'm not going to just let it go. It wouldn't be right."

[Vanellope]

"You... really?" Vanellope tilted her head, blinked once at Angel, as if trying to wrap her mind around the idea that she was worth defending. In truth, she was still trying to adjust to that. No-one had ever seen her as worth anything, she'd always been never meant to exist, never cared for... the fact that she had Angel as a friend even after the dog knew what she was was stunning enough; the idea that Angel thought she didn't deserve to be treated in what was the only way she knew was another thing entirely.

"I still can't believe you think I'm worth somethin'. I never thought anyone else would." In what was a vastly unfamiliar gesture to Vanellope, the little glitch leant down slightly to place a gentle kiss atop the crown of Angel's head. The little dog's devotion was just about the most valuable thing Vanellope had ever been able to call her own; and as precious as each and every one of her possessions were to her, so few as she had, the girl would have given them all up if it came down to a choice between them and Angel's friendship. That the canine cared so deeply as to defend a little glitch like her, quite simply, meant the world to Vanellope.

She had drifted off to silence for a short while; once she had left Angel sufficient time to digest that, however, Vanellope spoke again. "You've gotta sleep over here with me from now on. I know you got your own bed here an' all, but..." Her fingers traced the canine's collars as Vanellope continued to hold her close, and she gave a small shrug. She just wanted to keep Angel near to her at all times; never mind that come Monday, their different classes would separate them again temporarily. Vanellope didn't mean to sound clingy, but after not having anyone for as long as she could remember, she felt as if she couldn't bear to let Angel get too far away from her for too long.

[Angel]

"Of course you're worth something, Vanellope," Angel said. The fact that her human thought she wasn't just about broke the little dog's heart. She was used to thinking of herself as worthless, at least to a degree, but a human thinking the same thing just didn't sit well with her. She was brought out of that line of thought after a few moments, though, when Vanellope kissed her on the head. That was an action Angel hadn't felt in a long, long time. Not since her... First home, was it? No, that would have to have been the second home. She remembered the mother clearly enough before the baby had come, and how she'd doted upon her in the time she'd stayed with them. But that was neither here nor there. Angel had left that family behind ages ago due to how they'd abandoned her. Angel finally had an owner who would love her and care for her... An owner who wouldn't abandon her.

The thought that she should move from where she'd been sleeping over to where they were presently wasn't a problematic one. It actually suited her just fine. If she was closer to where Vanellope slept, then she could be there to comfort the girl if the need ever arose. At length, Angel nodded to confirm her liking the idea. She didn't have any worldly possessions apart from her uniform, so it wouldn't even be a problem to change her sleeping arrangement.

"I'd like being closer to you, actually. It sure would beat being by myself," Angel said. She was a big girl, and she could sleep by herself just fine, but now that she had a human she wanted to stay close to her. They seemed to be alike in that regard. Neither of them wanted to lose the other after finally gaining something they had desired for so long.

[Vanellope]

"Kinda hard to think that when everyone else jus' says you weren't even meant to exist." Vanellope lifted her right hand - the one that wasn't supporting most of Angel's weight - to tug at one of her hoodie's drawstrings, not quite meeting her friend's eye. Truth was that Vanellope had spent a lot of time in the past trying to convince herself that she was worth something; but in the end it all came down to nothing. Taffyta and the others were just too insistant; no matter how much self esteem Vanellope could build up when she was on her own, the other kids always brought it crashing straight down around her ears again.

But she could have been. If she could just become a racer, prove to them that she had what it took - THEN she'd be worth something. If not in their eyes, then at least in her own.

"But thanks." If nothing else, a little smile was managed in the small canine's direction. Vanellope hardly knew how to react to actually being told her life was worth something; she probably should have been overjoyed that someone beside herself thought she had worth, but after the life she'd lived, it was just a really hard thing to adjust to.

She brightened considerably, however, when Angel accepted her offer of sharing her bed. Apparently, she hadn't come off as too needy after all, and Angel was only too happy to oblige; Vanellope hugged the little dog tightly with both hands again. This was certainly going to be a better arrangement than Angel being in the next dorm room over, or wherever she'd been sleeping previous nights.

"You could curl up on my feet or somethin' I'd like that," she suggested after a moment. The constant reminder of Angel's presence during the night was one that would be very much appreciated by the young girl. Like a fluffy hot-water bottle... a hot-water bottle that loved her unconditionally and thought that she was the best thing that had ever happened to her. Vanellope was still amazed that Angel thought that way about a little glitch like her.

[Angel]

Sleeping near Vanellope's feet... Yes, that could work. The only disadvantage would be if the girl happened to kick her in her sleep. Angel wasn't about to bring up this possibility, though. Just being nearby would have been enough for her. Being hugged closer to Vanellope wasn't so bad, either. She rather liked this arrangement, all things considered. It was much better than sleeping all by herself like she had in the junkyard. Her tail resumed wagging blissfully at the mere thought of it. After all she'd had to endure in her own life, this was about as good as it was going to get.

"I could do that," Angel said. "Just having a place to sleep that isn't just by myself is more than I could've dreamed of. It'll be much better than it was back home."

She knew she had mentioned to Vanellope that she'd been a dog who lived in a junkyard, but did Vanellope know just what it was like? Maybe... From the sound of it, the two of them were just alike. She wasn't about to ask just how much of her life Vanellope understood. As far as Angel was concerned, the two could have had entirely different lives and it wouldn't have mattered in the slightest. As long as they were together, that was all she could ask for.

[Vanellope]

"You're tellin' me." There was a gentleness to her voice as she spoke, distinctly different from her typically harsher tones, and the girl delicately fondled her friend's ears. She had thought she'd been the only one, really, to be treated like an outcast and a reject; she would never have imagined finding a kindred spirit to sympathise with.

Vanellope was aware that, sooner or later, she should probably stop cuddling Angel quite so tightly. While the little dog had yet to offer a single word of complaint to being squeezed up against the girl's chest as she was, Vanellope figured it wouldn't be much longer until that became an uncomfortable position for Angel. Still, the child was wholly unwilling to release the canine who was her newfound best friend, pet, and defender, all in one. She'd just got so used to having no-one... there was almost a touch of desperation in the manner with which she hugged Angel, as though afraid that of she let go, the pomeranian would dissolve into thin air.

So Vanellope still maintained her hold on the dog, even as she leant backwards to prop herself up against her pillow. While her living conditions back in Sugar Rush had been... well, Vanellope figured they were tolerable, though anyone else would probably have been appalled at a child living in a dump like that, she'd still been all on her own in the vast cave, with just her candy wrappers to bundle herself up with. Actually having a proper bed here which she could sleep in without looking like a little homeless lady had been an amazing improvement upon arrival anyway - she hadn't even believed it was for her at first - sleeping with her friend was just going to make it even better than she could have imagined.

And for Angel herself... Vanellope had an idea of what the little canine's life must have been like. There was a junkyard in Sugar Rush, it was where she often visited to scrounge up parts for her hand-built Lickity Split; but it wasn't a fit place for even a dog to live in. And a real-world junkyard couldn't have been any improvement at all.

"You'll never hafta go back to the junkyard again, Angel. You can share my place back in Sugar Rush, too. I know my home's a dump, but it's gotta be better than that."