Chapter Text
Cutie dangled from one leg, the other flailing wildly as she tried to pull her caught leg out of the claw machine. Cody and May were approaching, so she didn’t have long to get it out and escape before they started to... to kill her.
She thrashed and cried but it wouldn’t come out and the two dolls were getting closer. “Ah! My foot is stuck!” she sobbed, twisting and pulling, but only a second later she felt cold clammy hands grab onto her ear.
“Hurry, before she escapes!” Cody yelled to May. His grasp on Cutie’s ear was slipping slightly but he adjusted his hands and she felt her ear take all of his weight. Her heart sped up as the pain registered, bringing yet more tears to her eyes.
At Cody’s words, May flung herself towards the claw machine. “We’re really sorry for this!” she promised, and for a second Cutie believed her. Then May’s bony hands wrapped around her other ear and all thoughts were wiped from her mind.
It wasn’t her ears anymore that were stretching like they were holding all of Rose’s weight, it was her leg. Jammed beneath the heavy door, her leg was taking all the strain from Cody and May’s surprisingly heavy weight, which was surely enough to pull her out. How she wanted them to pull her out! She didn’t care what they would do to her anymore, she just wanted to be released, she wanted the strain on her leg to disappear.
A thousand little pinpricks were stabbing all parts of her leg as each stitch frayed and then broke. Cutie didn’t understand how her leg could create so much pain, or how it only took two little dolls to do this to her. It seemed obvious, but now she thought about it, she’d had her leg her whole life. She was really going to miss it. That pain was even worse than the physical pain.
Somehow through it all, she heard Cody’s voice as he tried to back May up. So earnestly, with no thought to the blatant lie he was telling and the hypocrisy of the situation, he said, “Yeah, we don’t like violence.”
And Cutie, calm sweet Cutie—Cutie the loving elephant—suddenly saw red.
“You don’t like violence?!” she squealed. “You don’t like violence? Do you have any idea what you’re doing right now?”
Upside-down and with her arms waving wildly Cutie wouldn’t have been very threatening, but the anger, the desperation, the heartbreak in her voice made Cody and May pause for a second.
Cutie was too upset to notice, she just continued pleading. “You’re being a—a—a hypocrite! This is violence! Don’t you understand? You’re hurting me, please!”
“We don’t want to do this! We don’t like violence!” Cody cried, and he tightened his shaking hands as far into fists as he could, only Cutie’s ear stopping his fingers from reaching his palm.
She cried out in pain. “Oh, no, please! Can’t you find another way?” She squirmed around to look at the dolls, hoping to see sorrow and understanding on their faces. Unfortunately, though they shared a look, it ended with grim expressions and set jaws. She let her eyes close again. “Please don’t kill me! You’re making me sad! And you’re going to make Rose sad, really sad! I know you love Rose like I do, right? Please?”
She couldn’t bear to open her eyes, Cody and May still hadn’t given up their tugging and she felt like she only had one or two threads holding her leg to her body.
“But we have to make Rose sad!” May burst out. “We really don’t want to, but she’ll thank us in the long run... We just need her tears!”
“Don’t listen to her, May, or I won’t be able to do this! I gave her a hug. I built her a castle. And now we’re killing her just to make Rose cry?” Cody hissed.
“Oh! Oh! I have an idea! You don’t need to kill me, I don’t want to die, just make her cry another way,” Cutie desperately pleaded. “I’m her best friend, I know how to do that!”
Cody’s hands loosened ever so slightly and Cutie’s heart leapt in her throat, though the excitement had a hard time penetrating through her guilt. She’d just sold out Rose and now she was going to cause her best friend to cry. Cutie whimpered and squeezed her eyes even more tightly closed. She had a plan though, and it would hopefully make Rose cry without hurting either of them so much.
“May...” Cody said hesitantly.
“Fine, let’s hear her out,” May said. She completely let go of Cutie’s ear, Cody instantly following, and Cutie sobbed in relief. Her whole body felt like it was floating now, and the pain had gone down to only a background feeling.
“Oh, thank you, thank you!” Cutie cried, and quickly wiped at her eyes with her shaking ears. After giving herself a second, she tried to get her crying and breathing under control, but it took nearly half a minute, in which time May was getting agitated.
“I’m sorry, I’m just so glad we can all be friends again. This idea’s just an idea remember, and I don’t want you to be offended...” Cutie trailed off, watching Cody and May for their response.
“We don’t care, we’ll do anything to make her cry,” May reassured her.
“Okay. You’ll have to go back down to Rose’s bed but she won’t have stopped drawing, so all you’ll have to do is get the pencil and—and write something like ‘You’re a disappointment, we don’t love you.’ And then poke her with a pencil or something!” Cutie said hurriedly, as she covered her eyes with her ears in shame. “I know it will work,” she whispered.
“You’re a genius!” Cody exclaimed. “May, quick, help me get Cutie down.”
May jumped up to where Cutie’s leg was stuck, gesturing at Cody to join her. With a little more effort he managed to get up too, and they both wedged themselves in between the small ledge and the bottom of the slightly open door. Braced as well as possible against the frame, they lifted their arms to the door and pushed.
“Ow, ow, ow,” Cutie whimpered as the shaking door bumped her leg.
“I’m sorry!” May called. She pushed harder, grunting against the weight, but soon the dolls managed to open it far enough that Cutie’s leg slipped out.
Cutie tumbled to the floor with a squeak, with May and Cody following soon after.
Cody peered at Cutie’s hurt leg, his face growing serious. “Oh, no,” he said. “May, look at this. We almost ripped it completely off. Are you okay, Cutie?”
The throbbing in Cutie’s leg didn’t seem so important anymore. She wasn’t going to be killed, she was free, and she was going to be able to keep her leg. “I’m okay!” she said confidently.
Having had a look at Cutie’s leg, May immediately hurried to a spool of purple thread she’d seen to the right of the claw machine. “No you’re not,” she called. “But you will be in a moment. I’m going to take care of you.”
Cody left Cutie’s side to follow hurriedly after her. He glanced back at the little elephant, and seemed to have decided he was far enough away to not be overheard, because he turned to May and started whispering.
“Why are you bothering with this now? You wanted to kill her five seconds ago! We have to get to the castle,” he quietly said. Cutie whimpered at the reminder, especially with the word kill, but she was ignored.
“I know, Cody,” May whispered back, “but I feel so bad! I can’t believe I almost killed an innocent creature like that. She deserves to be treated a bit more humanely now, doesn't she?”
“Okay, she does,” Cody agreed. “I… I’m so relieved we didn’t kill her, I don’t know how I would have lived with myself. A killer? I know it’s only a toy animal but... We were hurting her, and I don’t think I’ll forget those cries of pain for a while.”
“Well if you’re so grateful, then help me find a needle and we’ll fix her up.”
They soon found a needle to go with the thread and dragged it all back to Cutie who had been lying on the ground.
“Wait a moment!” Cody dropped the needle and ran over to the cake stand covered in cookies and sweet cakes. He picked three different—but equally tasty looking—items up, with a big chocolate-covered cookie for Cutie.
When he brought it back, he carefully propped her up against the cardboard claw machine. Cutie’s eyes lit up seeing her cookie and she lifted a shaky arm to take it from Cody. When she bit into it, the delicious chocolate wiped all pain from her mind and she grinned at her friends. “Thank you very much!”
“Now stay still,” May directed. Cutie quickly obeyed, stopping even her hand on its way to her mouth again. “Oh not that still, silly, just keep your legs still.”
Cutie relaxed and continued eating as May threaded the needle. She turned away when May prepared to plunge the needle into her leg, and almost managed to ignore the shot of pain it caused.
Cody held her hand and told her all about designing the castle to distract her while May started stitching her up. In very small sections May sewed her back together, keeping the stitches small, and as invisible as she could. Her movements were sure and precise, leaving Cutie with a straight line of purple stitches circling her leg.
“All done!” May said cheerfully.
“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Cutie cried. She stood carefully with Cody’s help and tentatively put weight on it, beaming when it supported her.
“Be gentle,” May reminded her. “You’re not used to it, and it’s probably not as strong as it once was.”
“I’ll be gentle, I promise,” Cutie said solemnly. Then a delighted smile spread across her face again and she slowly and carefully walked up to May.
“Thank you,” she said again. She held her arms out for a hug and May didn’t hesitate to step forward and let Cutie embrace her with her big welcoming arms. Cutie ignored the slight dampness appearing on her stomach and what could have been sniffles, and patted her on the back, hugging her close.
Eventually May stepped back and turned to Cody. “Thank goodness you hugged her before we went to kill her, I knew you’d never let someone this good at hugging be killed. Now we’re both even! I think we both really needed a hug.”
“Yeah, we did,” Cody agreed. “Come on,” he continued, “we still have to make Rose cry. We’ll be eternally grateful if this works.” He smiled at Cutie.
“It will!” Cutie said, looking worried again.
“It’s okay, we won’t hurt her. Just a few tears and we’ll be fine, we know what to do and to write,” May reassured her. “Thank you, and I’m sorry that we, well, tried to kill you.”
“It’s okay!” Cutie said brightly. “Good luck!”
“Thank you!” Cody and May called. Without wasting time, they headed towards a section of bunting that was strung up nearby and would take them over Rose’s bed, then jumped on.