Disclaimer: See initial chapter.
A/N: Did I mention this was crazy? And unbalanced? What about Danny whump; did I mention that? Or the dry/dark humor? Suspense?
"What is it, where are you hit?" Chin had fallen to his knees beside Kono who had fallen as well, sinking down into the marshmallow fluff. It had been her scream, followed by two thuds, which had caused Steve's buttons to react as they had.
"It's not me," Kono said, turning toward Chin, the icing of her mouth formed a wobbly 'o' shape, and her eyes were crinkled around the edges. Lying face down in front of her, nearly buried in marshmallow fluff, was Danny.
"What happened?" Steve knelt beside them, immediately reaching for Danny.
There was a smoking hole in the back of Danny's shoulder, the licorice gun had slipped from his grasp when he'd been hit, and was lying several feet from where they were positioned. Steve was torn between helping Chin and Kono dig Danny free from the marshmallow fluff, which was starting to harden, just like real snow, when the temperature dropped below freezing, would do.
"We got him, Steve," Chin said, eyes following Steve's toward the lost weapon. Their only weapon.
Steve vacillated, but another rat-a-tat-tat, and a burst of white marshmallow fluff exploding nearby decided things for him. He went for the gun, and ignored the colorful swearing, as well as the obvious pain in Danny's voice that accompanied Chin and Kono's efforts in freeing their friend.
"It's not bleeding," Kono said, confusion evident in her voice.
"I don't like the way that it's smoking," Chin said.
"Smells like burnt cookie." Kono grimaced.
"Of course it does," Danny said, voice faint. He craned his head, trying to get a glimpse of the injury, but having an overly large, round head and almost no neck at all made it impossible for him to do so.
"Take it easy, Danny," Chin said, voice clipped, and icing mouth in a straight, no nonsense line. "Steve?"
"Working on it. You and Kono get Danny to the cabin; it's just a couple of yards in that direction." Steve pointed toward the right. "I'll see what this licorice gun can do."
"No, no, no you don't get to play Lone Ranger commando here, Steve," Danny said, moaning and nearly fainting when he twisted and jarred his still smoking injury.
"Danny, this isn't open for discussion. Chin, Kono, get him to safety," Steve said, and, even as a gingerbread cookie he looked bad-ass. Little fudge-like smudges appeared beneath his eyes, like warpaint, and a bandana made of sour belts (a Hawaiian candy that's flat and sugary) was fashioned around his head.
If Rambo had been a gingerbread cookie, he'd have looked like Steve did now, Danny couldn't help thinking.
He felt his cheeks flushing as images of Steve, in full Rambo mode, flooded his mind. That his mind supplied Steve, naked, coming up out of the ocean, water clinging to his bulging muscles...made Danny very happy that he was currently a gingerbread cookie, because if he wasn't, he'd have had a very hard time hiding his feelings for Steve right now.
"You okay, Danny?" Kono asked, mistaking the sudden rush of blood - sugar crystals - to his face as something else.
Danny kept his eyes locked on the marshmallow fluff surrounding him and nodded. He couldn't look any of them in the eye right now, not with how expressive gingerbread cookies seemed to be here. His eyes would probably give him away, shaped like hearts or something sappy like that. Hearts with arrows in them.
"I'm fine," Danny grunted when Kono nudged him. "Just, help me up, would you?"
"Easy," Chin cautioned when Danny wobbled unsteadily to his feet.
Kono and Chin were positioned on either side of him, Steve had disappeared into the white fluff that they were now engulfed in. What had started out as a 'snowstorm' had become a blizzard, with very low visibility.
"Where's Steve?" Danny asked, trying to peer around Chin and Kono, the childhood taunt of - you make a better door than a window - popping into his head when Chin and Kono kept blocking his line of sight.
"He's fine, Danny," Kono assured him. "We need to get you to that gingerbread house, or cabin, or whatever the hell it is, and take a look at that wound."
"But..." Danny frowned when his efforts to catch a glimpse of Steve were fruitless, and only caused his arm to ache.
"He'll be okay, Danny," Chin promised. "You know Steve. He'll be fine."
"Yeah, I know Steve, that's why I'm worried," Danny said.
It felt like his arm was going to fall off at the shoulder, and, given that he was a cookie, that could very well happen. He shivered when he remembered what had happened to the gingerbread man in Shrek, how he'd had to have his broken legs reattached with icing after Lord Farquaad had finished torturing him for information.
Would that be Danny's fate as well, his right arm reattached with thick frosting or icing? And if, when, they made it back to reality, would he be armless? Would this injury remain with him beyond the portal out of this place?
His stomach, or whatever passed for that now, hurt as well. It was a persistent stabbing pain, as though his stomach was filled with tiny, sharp knives. He groaned when he tripped over some unseen obstacle, the pain increasing tenfold.
"What's wrong, Danny?" Kono asked.
"Stomach," he grunted. His eyes turned into little x's, and then blinked out altogether as he lost consciousness, sagging between Kono and Chin.
Kono frowned and exchanged a look with Chin. His mouth was little more than a very thin, almost not there, line of icing, and his eyes were small rectangles. Kono's mouth was a wavy line, and her eyes were twin frowns.
"I think I see the gingerbread house," Chin said, his voice giving away nothing of his worry for Danny, or Steve, who had seemed to disappear into thin air.
The rat-a-tat-tat sound of gunfire exploded somewhere behind them, causing Kono and Chin to quicken their pace. It wasn't easy, lugging Danny at a jog through the thick, white fluff, but they somehow made it to the gingerbread house Steve had told them about without falling, or losing Danny, or his arm, along the way.
Thankfully the deadweight of a cookie wasn't as heavy as the deadweight of a full grown man, though perhaps that was in part due to the adrenaline rush that fueled Kono and Chin's awkward sprint toward what they hoped would provide adequate shelter. Chin kicked and pushed at the door, his grip on Danny slipping a little.
"I got him, cuz," Kono assured him, taking the bulk of Danny's weight so that Chin could get the door open.
After several pushes and shoves that left Chin panting from th effort, the door finally squeaked open. The thick frosting that held the door together was a little orange in color, as though it had rusted. The doorknob was a blue gumball.
It was a quaint little gingerbread house, more like a cottage, and it smelled strongly of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. It was almost overpowering, and Chin wondered if he and the others smelled as strongly of the gingerbread spice mixture as the house did.
"Do we smell like that?" Kono asked, the dot of icing that was her nose formed an upside down triangle.
Chin shrugged, and reached for Danny. There were more pressing matters at hand than whether or not they smelled like Christmas morning at the Kelly's.
"Do you think this place is furnished?" Kono asked, trying to peer around Chin's shoulders to see within the dimly lit interior.
Chin helped Kono lug Danny into the cottage, and shut the door behind them. He doubted that the gingerbread walls would be much of a match for the guns that the toy soldiers (why couldn't they have become toys instead of gingerbread people?) were toting, but they were better than nothing.
A quick perusal of the small structure revealed a cozy looking room with a couch made of marshmallows and sections of chocolate bars. It was rather stylish looking. Chin and Kono maneuvered Danny onto the couch, mindful of his injured shoulder.
"Holy..." Kono exclaimed, eyes popping right off of her face and back on again, like a cartoon. It was mildly disconcerting, and slightly off-putting, but Chin said nothing, just focused on Danny who was a pale shade of ginger.
"Look at his gumdrop button," Kono said, pointing at the object of interest with her rounded appendage.
Chin frowned at the middle gumdrop, and rubbed his forehead. "That explains his comment about his stomach. Looks like the gumdrop button took a bullet, and protected him."
"And that dark circle around the gumdrop button's like a bruise?" Kono asked. "Do you think there's any internal damage?"
A set of thin eyebrows, perfectly arched, etched themselves onto Chin's forehead, just above his eyes. They telegraphed his surprise at his cousin's question, as well as the possibility that Danny could be hurt even worse than they'd initially thought.
"Don't tell me, my eggs have been scrambled," Danny croaked, and a single blue dot appeared as he opened an eye.
"That's not funny, Danny," Kono said, sounding a little choked, but there was a twinkle (literally) in her eye.
"I'll see if I can find a first aid kit, or whatever passes for one here," Chin muttered as he moved away from Kono and Danny.
"Where's Steve?" Danny asked, voice weak, eye winking out again.
"Don't worry about Steve," Kono said, awkwardly patting Danny's uninjured shoulder. "I'm sure he's fine."
A loud burst of gunfire sounded from somewhere nearby, and Danny's eyes popped open. He tried to sit up - groaning as the injuries to his stomach and shoulder were jarred with the sudden movement- but Kono pushed him back down.
"He shouldn't be out there alone," Danny said, eyes moving toward the edge of his face, as though he would be able to see outside if his eyes reached far enough.
"I know." Kono said. "I know, Danny, but you're in no condition to go out there and be Steve's backup right now. As soon as -"
"Bingo!" Chin raced into the room, the icing of his mouth was shaped into a half moon. "Found a cookie repair kit."
"Chin, you and Kono should go help Steve. I can take care of myself." Danny reached for the cookie repair kit, head reeling with everything that had happened, was happening. It was insane. Or maybe just he was insane.
He tried to keep the bubble of hysterical laughter from bursting forth, but couldn't. If ever there was a moment that called for laughter, it was this one, though it felt like his gut was being sliced open as he shook.
"Shit," Kono exclaimed. "Chin..." There was something in the tone of her voice that caused Danny's laughter to dry up. Though she had placed an arm on his good shoulder, and had positioned herself to be in his direct line of vision, Danny saw what had caused Kono's eyes to widen. One of his gumdrop buttons had a huge chunk out of it, and his laughter had loosened it. It was tearing off of him, and it hurt.
"Not my gumdrop button," Danny said weakly, chuckling and frowning, turning his eyes, which were blue spirals, on Kono as though she held the answers to why it hurt so much.
"Danny, it's going to be okay," Kono said, the concern in her voice betraying her fear. "It's going to be okay, right Chin?"
"Yeah," Chin said, voice lacking its usual authority. "Everything is going to be alright, Danny."
Kono and Chin exchanged a look, and that's when Danny realized that it wasn't just his gumdrop button that was at stake, and he tried to struggle free of Kono's hold. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"Danny, hold still," Kono said. "You need to stop moving around so much."
"Tell me what's wrong." Danny's eyes were on the sides of his face once again, and he still couldn't see anything. It was a handy thing to be able to do, because it did give him a wider view, but it was useless right now, because Kono wasn't letting him see anything.
"Danny, look at me," Chin ordered, and Danny's eyes snapped toward Chin. His mouth was a thin line of red. "Your arm is starting to crack." Chin held a hand up when Danny's mouth formed an 'o'.
Chin's eyes started to narrow. "You need to stop moving around so much, and let Kono and I take care of you."
"I feel like Humpty Dumpty," Danny said, voice flat, but he stopped struggling to see his injury.
"Don't worry, Danny, we're going to put you back together." The grin that Kono was wearing looked forced, even by gingerbread cookie standards, and Danny had seen some pretty scary looking 'happy' faces on gingerbread cookies that Grace had decorated when she was younger.
"All the king's horses, and all the king's men..." Danny's voice faded and his eyes winked out again.
"Chin, what if we can't -"
"Don't," Chin said, holding a hand up. "Danny will be fine. We'll all be fine."
"How can you be so sure?" Kono asked, eyes forming into what looked like teardrops.
"Because anything less than that is unacceptable," Chin said, and, with a determined frown fixed firmly in place, he opened the cookie repair kit.
It was filled with a variety of cookie parts, none of which were gumdrops. There were a number of different colors, and flavors, of frosting and icing. Each item had its very own compartment. There were little silver balls, red hots, sprinkles in a rainbow of colors, and a number of things that Chin had never really seen in person, but knew by name, only because of his mother and aunts. He didn't know where to start.
Kono peered over Chin's shoulder and plucked some pouch-like thing out of the kit. She was grinning triumphantly as she wielded it high in the air.
"Hand me the..." she squinted her eyes as she read something over Chin's shoulder. "Hand me the extra thick white...caulking?...icing."
Chin handed her the requested item, and stood back, watching her work. He wanted to go out, help Steve, but knew that, without a weapon, there was little he could do. So, he played nurse to Kono's doctoring, and tried not to over think every burst of gunfire he could hear, or the lack of gunfire that accompanied the final 'stitch' that Kono put into Danny's cracked arm.
Danny's eyes popped open and his mouth formed a thin, wriggly line when Kono had finished. He attempted to sit up, but Kono pushed him back. "Easy, Danny, I just got done patching you up."
"Feels like I've been chewed up and spit out," Danny croaked.
"Hey." Kono slapped Danny's good arm. "That's my handiwork you're talking about." He mouth turned downward in a mock frown.
"My bad." Danny attempted a smile. "You'd think that being a cookie would have some perks. You know, like no pain, or -"
A sudden gust of wind, and a loud crack rent the air, cutting off the rest of Danny's words. The door to the cabin flew open and a dark, shadowy figure filled the doorway.
I need feedback. Please. Like crackers need cheese. (I just revised this request for feedback so that it would rhyme...sad)