Reindeer House pt.18
“You boys eat so much gingerbread, I was wondering if you’d like to help me make some!!” Mrs. Claus poked her head into the lounge room, where all the deer were lazing about, achieving absolutely nothing.
“OOPS I FORGOT I WAS LATE TO DO IMPORTANT STUFF!!”
“MY, HOW THE TIME FLIES!!”
“I’ll helwp you, Mrs. C!! ♡”
“I have all these documents and business documents and—”
Mrs. Claus smiled serenely. “You can decorate them when they’re done~ ”
“ACTUALLY, I THINK I CAN MAKE SOME SPACE!!”
“Oh, my documents are all finished, I just remembered!!”
“Yes yes, all of that can absolutely wait!!”
And so, one by one, they obediently filed into the kitchen, all donning outrageously lurid aprons and immediately beginning to talk excitedly about how they’d decorate their gingerbread men.
It took approximately five minutes for things to go wrong.
“RITSU WHAT DID YOU TOUCH?!!”
“I didn’t even touch anything this time!!” Buritsen protested, moments before slipping on flour and nearly impaling himself on a rolling pin.
After the third near-death incident, Donaa calmly lifted Buritsen, sat him in a chair, and tied him there with kitchen twine.
“For safety,” Donaa said evenly, handing him a gingerbread man and patting his head.
“Wow!! This is the safest I’ve felt all day!!” Buritsen beamed.
Meanwhile, Bikkusen and Kometto had discovered something far more dangerous.
“Darling,” Bikkusen whispered reverently, holding up a tiny jar, “do you see what I see…?”
"A star, a star, yes it's in a jar...!!"
Edible glitter.
The kitchen was soon filled with sparkles. Gingerbread men glittered. The bench glittered. Kometto glittered.
“She would love this…” Kometto sighed dreamily, dusting an alarming amount of glitter onto a cookie. “Elegant… mystical… horned…”
“She’s. A. Goat,” Puransa muttered, scribbling serious notes for a baking scene, with glitter stuck to his face.
At the other end of the kitchen, Dashaa was intensely focused. “More mass,” he muttered, stacking two unbaked gingerbread cut-outs together. Then a third. “Strength is built through layering.”
“Dashaa, that’s not how baking—” Rudorufu began.
And before he could finish, the oven timer went off.
What emerged was not a buff gingerbread man, but a single lumpy entity with uneven limbs and a slightly unsettling smirk.
Dashaa stared at it. “…It’s... got muscles... of sorts...” he said defensively.
By the end of it all, the kitchen was a disaster. Glitter floated through the air. Half the cookies were misshapen. Buritsen was still tied to a chair, humming happily. Kyuupiddo had eaten at least eight gingerbread men and possibly some decorations.
Mrs. Claus surveyed the scene, smiled warmly, and said, “Well!! That was… productive~ ”
And somehow — despite the chaos — every last gingerbread man disappeared by the end of the night.
To be continued....