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"King Candy?" A little voice called out, along with continuous knocking on the castle doors. It was one of the racers; Jubileena Bing-Bing! After a couple minutes of her endless knocking, the one of front doors finally cracked opened, and she stopped.
King Candy flashed a strained smile. "Yes, my loyal racer, what is it you need?" He asked, trying to sound regally goofy, despite his voice cracking with annoyance.
She put her hands behind her back and giggled. Her voice squeaked softly as she spoke. "I have something for you!" With puffed pink cheeks, she grinned and held her hand out to him.
King Candy looked down at what she had. A card made of thin taffy, the cover was decorated with a myriad of sprinkles and frosting swirls. He raised an eyebrow and looked back at Jubileena Bing-Bing, his voice uncertain. "What is- Why are you giving me this?" It would be an understatement to say that he's suspicious.
For all he knows, this card could be some sort of manipulation attempt from this cherry gremlin. He's seen her behavior with the other racers, she's not the worst of the bunch but she's definitely no sweetheart.
He raised an eyebrow, plucked the card from her small hand and opened it. Inside was some art and writing. He squinted, it took him a second to realize what was on the card. It's a drawing of him!
"You're the best King Dad!" Was handwritten in red frosting.
His eyes stayed on the card for a while, refusing to look up at the girl. It's like his mind went blank. He didn't know what to say. What can he even say to this?
In all his years in TurboTime, he's received a ton of fan-mail from NPCs. But out of all gifts he received in his life, this one seems sincere. He can't place it, but this one is different. Without a doubt.
"Do you like it?" She asked innocently, snapping him out of his own head. Finally, he looked to her. With her hands stuffed in her jacket pockets, she smiled at him. Her eyes held genuine affection, something he's not used to.
He audibly gulped and scrambled to close the card. With a forced smile, he kicked down the lump in his throat. "This is very sweet of you, Jubileena, thank you! I'll make sure to- uh, I'll put this on my royal fridge!" His voice cracked as he tried his best to grab hold of the steering wheel in his mind, desperately wanting back control of his facade.
"Now- how about you go back to your friends, I'm sure they're all wondering where you went," He gave her a gentle pat on the helmet, his smile straining slightly. She just nodded and skipped away, even turning to wave goodbye as she made her way out the castle yard.
His smile immediately fell as soon as the racer was out of sight. He shut the door and sighed loudly, looking at the card. He then stomped over to the wall, his slippers jingling softly, and pulled one of the many many candy cane levers.
A small box in the wall immediately popped open, he reached out with the card, but paused. Breathing heavily through his big nose, he let out a slow and dragged out sigh. Literally everything in his code is screaming at him to throw this down the disposal chute, but all the muscles in his hand froze.
Frustrated, he clawed at his own scrunched face with his free hand. "Good grief.." He pulled his other hand back and looked at the card with broken distaste. "What's wrong with me?" His voice cracked softly as he mumbled.
When he first stole this saccharine hell he was definitely prepared to deal with a bunch of brats who don't sugarcoat anything. He, however, didn't prepare for those brats to be the ones to melt all those hard caramel layers to his heart. This is just the cherry on top, and he hates it.