(Genre: Science Fiction- what genre is it if its set in a video game? Warning: Violence towards and love for an underage minor)

1.

They are curly, sparkling gold.

She can't help but love them.

Her name is Sugar de Abeille. She knows she is part of Sweet Racers, a racing game set in a land of sweets. She knows that she is fourteen. And right now, she grips a crisp white bedsheet and accepts clothes from the king's jawbreaker themed butler.

She does not remember how she got in King Saccharine's castle.

A sweater dress, as white as the sugar she is named after. Dark brown leggings and dark brown boots. But what catches her attention is the curly, sparkling golden hair ribbons. Sugar does up her hair in pigtails and can't help but smile at the sight of them in her blonde curls.

It fades when the first crackle of blue code goes across her skin.

2.

She is a glitch.

A corrupt part of the system. A person never meant to exist.

Sugar desires to race, even though she can't. She leaves the castle and ends up establishing a reputation as the glitch- no name, just the glitch- and everyone hates her. Including the racers- the actual, true, racers.

Cocoa Hershey and her group corner Sugar one day.

The girl can't help but glitch miserably with every horrible word. That day, she's surprised that she didn't frazzle her code. Done with words, the brunette decides to snap the golden ribbons out of her hair. Throwing them in the mud, the trio leaves.

Sugar wipes the tears in her eyes on her sleeve and then plucks the ribbons out of the mud.

When she looks up, Saccharine is there.

3. 

They argue.

Saccharine is king, and he considers it his duty to take care of her. Which means poor Breaker has to do most of the work.

It's not so bad. There's this one window she can watch the track.

What the king actually does is butt heads with Sugar.

They argue whenever they end up in conversation.

It gets worse as time passes. In public, he'll be openly aggressive to her. In private, when it is just him, her, and the butler that watches their arguments- the only three inhabitants of the castle- he could get worse or offer her anything as long as it didn't involve racing. That gives her more ammo. 

(He fears her escaping. Of her leaving him.)

He storms off, probably to sulk, Breaker following.

Sugar yanks the ribbons out of her hair- her pigtails are slipping.

Once she reties them, she heads on her way.

4. 

It is a day that the arcade is closed when Sugar gets a knock on her door.

Breaker, a frown on his face, is standing there. "The king requests to spend the day with you," he says, handing her the box in his hand.

"Okay...?"

He nods and quickly closes the door. Sugar blinks before opening the box.

It is a long dress, off-color white. It is sleeveless, with a brown ribbon to wrap around her waist. Sugar stares at it, something niggling at her, saying she has seen this dress before, or something like it. She pulls off the familiar warmth of her sweater and pulls on the dress and the matching flats. It fits her perfectly. She lets her hair down and brushes it, then she heads out.

Saccharine is waiting for her. He is missing his bowtie, the purple and gold jacket, and the stupid lace collar. He looks ordinary, except for his crown. He is pensive until he sees her. He approaches. "Sugar..."

"Hm?"

"You..."

There is a strange silence and it catches Sugar off guard.

They spend the day in their own little world, most the day spent in the garden. There are flowers made of sugar and candy, yes, but there is also real flowers, brought in from other games. It is one of these, a pale pink rose, that he hands to her.

And tells her that he wants them to be closer.

It is her choice, he tells her.

Sugar tucks the rose behind her ear, a pale replacement to her ribbons, and does not give him an answer.

It is when they dance that things go sour.

It is awkward, with jokes on her height that weren't needed- (she knows she's short, darn it)- until he syncs their movements. It is only later, years later, when Sugar realizes the courtship it is. 

"Well done dearest!" he says when he dips her. "You dance like you were a real princess!" She is unsure why his eyes are laughing.

"...I wish I was." The dance stops and he almost drops her. "If I was, I would-"

Hands grips hers, eyes uneasy instead of laughing. "You're not making any sense dear-"

"Will you stop calling me that?!"

Her outburst catches Saccharine off guard.

"Sugar-!"

"There's nothing I can do here!"

"There's plenty-"

"Sometimes I wish I wasn't here!"

There was silence as he stared at her in shock. She has hit one of his weaknesses. Shock turns to anger and he grips her shoulders, letting out an incensed laugh. "So you want to be alone?"

"You know what I want!"

He grips her shoulders tighter. "And I told you already Sugar: no. Never ask me again. You will never race on that track as long as you exist in the game."

Sugar swallows back emotion, pushes him away, and storms off. 

She ties up her hair with her ribbons as soon as she reaches her room. Dressing in her old clothes, leaving her outfit on the floor, she heads to her observation window. It is night when she opens it.

She crumples the rose in her hand and allows a breeze to sweep the remains away.

(In Between.

There is the pain of tears in her eyes as Breaker shuts the door.

"I am done playing games, ungrateful brat."

She manages to glitch out of his arms when he goes for a kiss. Saccharine grabs one of her ribbons- once her greatest prize, now her enemy- and yanks her back down on the bed, pulling the ribbon. He comments on her lack of control as he pins her wrists with one hand and pulls out the last ribbon.

There is the pain in his kisses.

Before he can pull her clothes off her body, she slaps him.

His first reaction is anger but he pauses. Instead of backhanding her, he orders her out.

"Tie up your hair. Put on your shoes. Walk. And don't you dare talk."

She doesn't talk.

Later, she forgets what happens. (They were destroyed.)

5.

Sugar is banished from the kingdom. She does not know why.

She is alone for five years, making a home in an abandoned bonus level. Then one day, a spaceship crashes.

Inside is a large man- a Bad Guy.

His name is Rex.

She steals his stolen medal, uses it to get into the race. She pales when there is a shriek of "Sugar?!"

Rex reappears after the chaos of the entry, chasing away the racers that tore apart her handmade kart. Sugar agrees to race for him. They build a kart, a real one, in the Bakery. She pales again when Saccharine appears with the police force. They escape with the embarrassing realization that Sugar doesn't know how to drive.

Rex teaches her how to drive.

Then he destroys her kart.

(Saccharine has spoken to him.)

She weeps as he leaves, sadness in his eyes and a gifted medal around his neck. What feels like hours later, she is exhausted and cried out. She shifts to sit against a chocolate rock, staring at the remains of her kart. She stands when she feels a familiar presence approach.

Sugar and Saccharine, his hands on her shoulders, stared at the remains before he gripped her shoulder- gently, gently- and dragged her to the police truck.

She was locked in the dungeon, in the glitch proof chains, created for her. Saccharine visits and Sugar sees how he's fallen apart without her. But the truth is the truth.

She hates him.

Then he leaves and then Rex breaks in with her repaired kart. He apologizes and tells her that if she crosses the finish line in a race, she'll be a real racer. She doesn't have to win- just cross the finish line.

She's already a real racer.

And she'll win.

Her golden ribbons shine as she winks at her former guardian, who stares in shock as she passes him.

Told you I can race.

+1

Everything is fixed.

Sugar stares at herself.

She is the princess of Sweet Racers. King Saccharine was no king but a disgraced racer, a murderer of his own game and another, one named Jet. One whose own pride and envy took over and he attempted to kill her several times in jealous rage, only for it to turn into "love".

He's currently in the dungeon built for her, in the chains created for her.

She's dressed in her princess outfit- a gown of white and off-color white with brown ribbon. A golden tiara sits on her head, her hair pulled back into a high ponytail with golden ribbon. Her true racing outfit is the same, except her sweater is off white and a brown ribbon is wrapped around her waist. Sugar mentally shifts through the years spent under his care and all the little details shift into place.

Comments that she brushed off as the insanity everyone knew was him revealing what he had done.

The princess comment was him telling her who she was.

The dress was a mockery of her true clothing.

She glitches- a disability, created from a failed murder attempt, she has turned into her power- out of her dress. She changes and hangs the dress in the closet. She avoids looking at the other dress in the closet.

Sugar pulls out the golden ribbon, letting her hair flow around her shoulders.

Then she does her hair in pigtails.

The ribbons are curly, sparkling gold.

And Sugar de Abeille can't help but love them.

~'~'~

A/N: Idea for a story idea. Sugar is based on sugar and honey, considered to be part of the oldest candies.