#I was thinking I'd do the same thing on our Annette & Venti one when I reply too ^^

[outoftheirdifferences]

"Don't gotta apologise. Things can be a bit much sometimes, it happens t' all of us."

Not that Vanellope was much of a crier herself; she'd a long time ago learned that doing so would just encourage the other kids at her old school to bully her more. But still, she could relate to the feeling, and it wasn't a fun one.

"We'll figure this out, I promise."

She could take the problem to Garnet, her new mom, if need be; but for now Vanellope figured she had things in hand. It was a start, anyway.

Riley, huh? She nodded at the other girl's name, storing it away. Whether she'd actually use it or run with her usual tactic of throwing out passing nicknames instead... well, they'd see.

"Psh, who'd put broccoli on pizza? That's a pretty terrible combination."

She was sure Riley hadn't meant to be amusing, but Vanellope couldn't help but smirk nonetheless. She didn't even hate broccoli - at least not specifically, although vegetables in general weren't ever going to be Vanellope's favourite things - but? Some things didn't belong in certain contexts, and veggies of any kind on a pizza was just a bad life decision in Vanellope's book.

"Nah, we can get any of the good old flavours. Their meat feast's a good one; or something classic like pepperoni... you name it, pretty much. Got a good range."

Sure, she had her own preferences; but this was about cheering Riley up. Worst came to worst, and assuming one pizza would be enough for both of them, if Riley went for something she didn't like then Vanellope would just pick the topping off her own pieces.

'Course, Riley might also just be hungry enough to eat the whole thing herself, after a long journey like she'd just taken. Vanellope wasn't one to judge. She gestured for Riley to follow her.

"C'mon, the pizza place is just around th' corner."

@outoftheirdifferences (sorry, just moving this to a new post for the beta editor! <3)

All things considered, it really, really wasn’t the other girl’s fault that Riley was currently having a breakdown. As much as Riley couldn’t accurately express it right now, it wasn’t anything the other girl said or didn’t say ; there would be something about anything that another person said which would trigger another round of tears. She was frustrated and angry with herself for making such horrible decisions. She was smarter than this, wasn’t she ?

But here she was anyway. Alone, hungry, scared, and certainly hundreds of miles away from home.

At least, there was something a little comforting about having someone who was clearly not as worked up as she was. In a way it reminded her of her mom, that sort of easygoing ‘ everything will be okay even if it isn’t right now. Okay ? ’ attitude. Someone who wasn’t treating this as a big deal ( even though it was ) brought Riley’s mind down to Earth a bit. Despite solutions not being right in front of her, everything still being overwhelming, that didn’t mean there weren’t any solutions. It didn’t mean things wouldn’t be okay.

“ I’m … I’m SORRY, ” she mumbled, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her hoodie. While she was still breathing kind of hard and still obviously crying, she was doing her best to calm down even if just a fraction. These feelings were all so big and unfamiliar, she had precious little practice dealing with anything other than being happy … it wasn’t easy when she seemed to be able to feel everything but happy now. “ I’m just … I-I don’t know the word … overwhelmed ? ”

That seemed to fit. Riley took a shaky breath and sniffled before giving a small nod of her head. If Vanellope really wanted to, Riley wasn’t in much of a position to refuse. “ I … I guess. Did I … tell you my name ? I can’t r-remember … I’m Riley. ”

She rubbed her eyes on her arm again in an effort to relax a little. “ … The pizza … doesn’t h-have broccoli on it … right ? ”