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In hell, seasons don’t really matter. It’s always the same stuff, red hot fire, cold patches, death, destruction, screaming, pain, the works. Not that I mind it, if I did, I probably would’ve renovated the place ages ago. Plus, my plan to bring in more life and nature didn’t really work out. Which is a bummer, cause now I gotta keep Clownpiece in Gensokyo. She can’t stay here like this, hell is no place for a fairy.
But, Clownpiece visits a lot(yeah, even though I did ban her from ever coming back. It’s not a strict rule). And one of her favorite things to tell me about is the weather back in Gensokyo, and how the seasons change and the sun shines, and the cold winter snow. It all sounds great, honestly. Despite who I am, I do love watching the snow. But maybe that’s because it’s Junko’s favorite season, winter; I digress.
Right now, it’s mid-Autumn according to both my calendar and my fairy reports. I’m Gensokyo, leaves are changing colors, it’s getting chilly, and Piece wants to spend more time in hell to get away from the cold. I have nothing to do today, and so I’m enjoying a warm cup of tea with my wife instead. It was her idea, actually. We’re sitting in bed together, having tea and reading with one another. It’s a nice day for this. Or, night, if you wanna be specific about it.
“Hecatia,” Junko suddenly asks, breaking the silence. She puts her book down and picks up her cup of tea, gripping it with both hands. “Do you happen to know what day it is today?”
I think for a moment, and then shake my head. “Uh, no? What day is it?”
As far as I’m concerned, there are no special days coming up. Our anniversary is in the winter(is that why it’s her favorite season?), Clownpiece’s birthday is in the summer, I don’t have a birthday, and Junko can’t remember hers. There aren’t many other special days I can think of off the top of my head, so…
“It is the day of the mid-Autumn festival,” she explains, taking a sip of the steaming hot tea in her hands, then setting the mug back down on her nightstand, “a traditional Chinese harvest festival”
Oh. Junko doesn’t often talk about a lot of the stuff she celebrates, so I’m not surprised she’s never brought it up before. But why is she bringing it up now? Either ways, I’m interested. She really should talk more about herself.
“There are many traditions and celebrations that go into it,” she continues on, shutting her eyes for a moment as she speaks, holding her hands together in her lap. She does that a lot, it’s the cutest thing. “but there is one in particular that I still take part in every year. Most years, you have been out of the house on this day, but how would you like to join me this time around?”
My eyes light up, and I smile at her, “yeah, I’ll totally join you! What is it?”
Junko gets out of bed, and so do I. I take her hand as we head out of our bedroom, and she takes the time to tell me all about it, quite passionately at that. With how into this she is, now I’m actually surprised she’s never brought it up.
“Mooncakes are often used in celebration of this festival. Every year, I do what I can and make a batch in honor of the event. I always take them to Gensokyo and watch the moon with them after I’m done”
We make it into the kitchen, and Junko flicks on the light. It’s about 7pm, and even hell gets dark at night. Hell is just always dark, really. Sometimes even the fires dark, believe it or not. Junko then walks up to the sink, washing her hands as I walk over to her to do the same. I stick my hands in the sink with her, planting a kiss on her cheek and grabbing her hands. She removes them and dries them off with a nearby towel, then kissing my cheek back. I chuckle warmly, drying my hands as well.
I wish Junko would’ve told me all this sooner, though. I wonder why she didn’t. Is it because she didn’t want me to know, or she just didn’t feel like telling me? Well, whatever the reason, I’m glad she’s comfortable enough to do it now. She keeps a lot of things secret, so anything she’s willing to open up about is a win for us. I mean, it’s probably largely due to Eirin’s help. without it, I’m not sure where we’d be. Not making Mooncakes, that’s for sure. She’s doing a lot better now, and I’m happy for her.
“So,” I start, letting out a breath and putting my hands on my hips, “what first?”
Junko doesn’t say anything for a moment, but she then reaches for something in one of the upper cabinets. It always amazes me how tall she is, and how easily she’s able to reach things I have to physically climb on the countertops for. It’s kinda hot. “what do you know about Mooncakes?”
Junko begins pulling out different things from the cabinets, presumably for baking. Mooncake molds, mixing bowls, a baking pan, stuff like that. She then turns on the oven to preheat it for later. I think for a moment, and I tell her, “well, they’re little pastries filled with lotus paste or something, right?”
She nods, “yes. It seems you actually listen to my rambles”
I walk up to her, and I stand on my tip toes to reach her face, bringing it down and kissing her on the lips for a brief moment. “I love your midnight rambles. So, there are like, a bunch of different kinds of Mooncakes, right? Depending on region and country and stuff?”
Junko nods again, shutting the cabinet. “Also correct. Truth be told, I do not remember which kind I used to make. So, when I first started making them again, I had pulled out a cookbook and chosen the first one I saw. In any case, we will be making the Cantonese ones. They also happen to be the most known in popular culture”
I watch Junko as she prepares everything, and I head over to grab two aprons. As she finishes up preparations, I secure my apron around myself, and then I walk to her, wrapping it around her from behind. She jumps a little, but calms down the minute she realizes what I’m doing. I keep my arms around her body, resting my head on her back. I feel her sigh, listening closely to her breathing, and her heartbeat.
“I love you,” I whisper quietly to her.
“I love you too,” she whispers back. “..are you trying to seduce me? You are holding me very sexily”
I chuckle, squeezing her tighter, dropping my hands a little lower down her torso. “Maybe”
Even though I can’t see it, I know she’s rolling her eyes at me. “We have Mooncakes to make. Later, my love”
I let go of her, rolling my eyes back. “Fine, fine. Let me have some fun, I wasn’t being serious”
She turns to face me, and then plants a kiss on my lips. “I know. Now, do you mind getting the salted eggs out of the fridge? I prepared them a few days ago, they should be ready by now”
I nod, turning around and heading to the fridge. I swing it open, looking for eggs. We have a normal container of eggs, but I assume that’s not what she’s looking for. After a moment, I find them, and I pull them out, shutting the door and bringing them over to Junko and all the other supplies. I set them down, looking up at a Junko expectantly.
“First,” she explains, “we are going to need to cook 16 of these salted egg yolks. If you can crack them, I will grab the wine”
She walks away, and I get to cracking. Then, I have a realization. “Wait, why do we need wine?”
Holding a bottle of some sort of traditional Chinese wine that we keep around the house for special occasions(such as this one, I suppose), she nonchalantly says, “to get you drunk so that we can have a fun night”
I laugh, finishing cracking the eggs onto a baking sheet in one of the pans she had brought out. Junko takes my place in front of them and pours out about a tablespoon of the wine, using a brush to add a thin layer of the wine to the eggs. She takes the eggs, and puts them in the oven, setting a timer for about 12 minutes.
“Now,” she starts, “we are going to work on the dough. For our wet ingredients, we are going to need 150 grams of golden syrup, 50 grams of cooking oil, and half a table spoon of lye water. And for the dry ones, we only need 220 grams of flour”
I grab the cooking oil and lye water, whilst Junko gets the golden syrup. Together, we pour what seems to be just about the right amounts into a bowl, and get to mixing. While Junko mixes, I grab the flower, adding it in.
Junko then sets down the mixing soon, and begins kneading the dough with her hands. I watch intently, her hands doing a wonderfully graceful job, like she’s done it all her life. She probably has, she probably used to do this for her husband and son. I wonder if it hurts to be doing it again, for her wife and.. well, if Clownpiece ends up stopping by, daughter. If I were in that position, I don’t think I’d be able to do it.
She covers the mixing bowl with a plastic wrap, a look of seriousness on her face. She’s determined, that’s what it is. She’s really into this now. It comes completely naturally to her.
“This is going to need to sit for about half an hour,” she explains, “we have another.. 4 minutes on the eggs. While we wait for the dough, we will work on the paste. As with the eggs, I have some homemade lotus paste prepared in the fridge, could you grab it?”
I nod, walking back to the fridge. “Is this what you were doing a few days ago? With all the food preparations and stuff, you wouldn’t tell me what it was for”
“Ah, yes,” she sheepishly nods, “this is what that was for. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell you”
I giggle, bringing her the bowl from the fridge. “Tell me, don’t tell me, do what you want. But if you want to tell me, I’ll listen”
Suddenly, the beep of a timer ending starts going off, and Junko is quick to stop it. She opens the oven, and simply sticks her bare hand in, pulling out the pan.
“Well ok then,” I comment, snickering, “I thought you told me not to stick my hand in the oven like that, since when did you get to do it?”
Junko looks down at her hand, and then begins running it under some cold water. She stares at me with this very serious expression, almost spooked. “These are Mooncakes. They do not deserve the time it would take for me to find the oven mitts”
Being the goddess of hell, the oven can’t really hurt me. I mean, it can, but, I just don’t care. I do, however, care if Junko burns herself.
With the newly cooked egg yolks, Junko instructs me on what to do next. “Now, we will shape the paste so that we can add the egg yolks in later. Watch”
Junko demonstrates, grabbing out a good sized chunk of the paste, and flattening it out, setting it down on a baking sheet. I copy her, and the two of us get into a rhythm, quickly finishing up.
Junko then grabs two of the egg yolks and fits it into one of the paste molds, completing the filling. I do the same, and soon enough, the filling is done.
“Now…” Junko sighs, pausing for a moment, “we wait. The dough needs another 20-25 minutes”
The two of us stand in silence for a minute, saying nothing, doing nothing. Well… I guess now would be a good time to ask her something I’ve been meaning to ask. It’s sort of important, and might ruin the mood. Maybe I should wait, actually. I look up at a Junko, staring her in the eyes. We lock eyes, and I sigh.
I should say some thing about it. “Hey, Junko, can I ask you somethin’ important?”
She nods solemnly.
“You’ve seemed sorta upset recently,” I take a deep breath, leaning back on the counter, making sure to maintain eye contact. It’s the only way I’ll get through to her. “Is everything ok? Do you need to talk about it?
Junko says nothing for a brief moment, a look of sadness on her face. Something is wrong, isn’t there? “Yes, I’m alright. It’s just…” she hesitates. “Well, as I have already said, the mid-autumn festival is-“
“ARE YOU GUYS MAKING FOOD????”
I screech, jumping back into Junko’s arms. She catches me, and the two of us stare at the door, at one very excited looking hell fairy. Oh Jesus Christ. It’s just Clownpiece.
“Clownpiece!” I snap, tensing my shoulders, “learn to knock, will ya? And learn to read the room, we’re kinda busy”
Clownpiece frowns, half glaring at me. “But I smelled food, and I’m hungry”
I sigh, groaning. There’s no use arguing with Clownpiece, especially not over food. I can’t be mad at her. I glance up at Junko, and she seems to find this amusing, so I guess I really can’t be mad. It is a funny situation, after all.
Junko wraps her arms around me, and I continue to talk to Clownpiece as she walks up to us. “How long have you been in my house for?” I ask.
Clownpiece thinks, and then says, “5 minutes. I came here for a snack, but looks like it was perfect timing! What kinda food are you makin’?”
Junko chuckles warmly as Clownpiece taps her feet onto the ground rhythmically. Wait, Clownpiece came all the way to hell for a snack? Hell food sucks, I dunno why she’d do that. “Ah, yes, we were just making Mooncakes. It is going to be a little while until they are ready, however. But, you may join us, if you’d like”
Clownpiece smiles like a lunatic, and excitedly agrees, “yeah, I wanna join! But, what’s a mooncake?”
“Well…” Junko lets go of me, walking off with Clownpiece, explaining the concept. The two walk off into the other room, presumably to grab a cookbook to show her a picture. That’s where we keep them. But, it’s not like we really ever use them for anything, we sort of just guess while we cook. It’s fun.
I sigh. Junko and Clownpiece get along really well, actually. I dunno if it’s that Junko’s good with kids or just that Clownpiece loves all things destructive, and Junko’s a very destructive person. Which I guess isn’t actually a good thing, she’s both self-destructive and destructive to the things around her. But what is a good thing is that the two get along well, no matter the reason. She’s getting better with Eirin’s help, though. They(Piece and Junko) were a bit awkward when I first introduced them, but, I think they really clicked after maybe like, 10 minutes? It was really fast. I think Junko recognized that Clownpiece was basically a child, like all fairies, and just ran with that. Motherly instincts, I suppose.
Obviously, as I said before, Junko is good with kids. She had a son, she raised him til he was 5(and then he… well, I don’t need to go into detail on that). So, I guess she’s good with young kids. But she has a knack for any kind of child, she always knows what to do, no matter the age. It’s interesting. And fairies are like, the pinnacle of children. They’re like kids who never age. It’s really no wonder they’re so close.
“Hecatia?”
I jump, darting my eyes around, just to see Junko and Clownpiece. I sigh, relaxing my shoulders. “Sorry, must’ve zoned out. What happened?”
“Nothing happened,” Junko explains, approaching me. “I simply was showing Clownpiece pictures of Mooncakes, and we may have gotten a little distracted”
“I almost burned down the bookcase!” Clownpiece chuckles, seemingly very proud of herself. Good, she should be. Well, maybe not in my house, but in general. “It was fun! Also, Mooncakes look really really tasty! When do we get to eat them? Is it now? Can we eat them now?”
“Once they are finished,” Junko smiles warmly, a look of almost genuine happiness on her face. Almost. She really does like Clownpiece. “which is not going to be right now. But, I think the dough is ready, which means we can move onto the next step, one of the most important ones. We are going to be actually assembling the Mooncakes themselves”
Junko first preheats the oven again(this time just to a different setting), and then grabs the bowl of dough, carefully taking off the plastic sheet, and throwing it away in the trash can nearby. Clownpiece happily claps her hands together like a child excited over ice cream, but everything makes Clownpiece excited. Junko rips off a piece of the dough, forming a ball in her hands with it.
“We are going to form spheres like this,” she demonstrates, setting it down and picking up more dough to continue. I grabs some and so does Clownpiece, and barley a minute later we’re done. We’ve made about twelve dough balls. “Now, we will flatten them, and fill them with the lotus paste, like so”
Junko takes one of the balls of lotus paste, and smooshes it into the dough, wrapping the dough around the paste. Clownpiece is quick to copy her, and her version of it is definitely a little messier, but still. I grab some, and I fill it up, finishing another one. Soon enough, we’ve got twelve weirdly shaped dough balls full of weird looking paste. Ok, weird is the wrong word. That feels kinda mean.
Next, Junko opens a cabinet, pulling out a mooncake shaped mold. She sets it down, and picks up one of our Mooncakes, “now, we shape them. Hand me the dough and I’ll press it into the mold”
I pick up a piece of mooncake, handing it to Junko. She gracefully takes it from my hand, not even looking, and putting it into the mold. Clownpiece hands her one, and with her eyes still closed, she perfectly puts it in. Junko is.. well, great at this, apparently. She is literally doing it with her eyes closed. It’s hot. It’s really hot. God, only if Clownpiece weren’t in the room.
Soon enough, we’re done, and we’ve made six Mooncakes, Junko puts them onto a baking sheet, and promptly sticks them into the oven. She turns around to face us, and smiles. “Alright. Now, we wait”
—
Ok, there was more to do. About halfway through the baking process, we had to give them a quick egg wash, but other than that, it was really just waiting. We let ‘em cool for a while, and now, we finally get to eat them. Actually, Junko said that we should theoretically wait 2 days for them to taste the best, but, we’re going to eat them. Clownpiece is very impatient, to say the least. And I am too.
We also did another weird thing, which was take them up to Gensokyo. I don’t exactly know why, but she said she’d explain it, so, whatever. I’m pretty sure she said something about bringing them to Gensokyo earlier, so maybe that’s what this is about. Still, no exact reason on why she does it. It’s almost midnight, and the full moon is high up in the clear night sky. Just as I’d expect from mid-autumn, it’s chilly. Like, wayyyy too cold for me. Especially in what I’m wearing, I’m freezing, literally shivering. Clownpiece has a sort of winter outfit that she quickly went to put on before we came out here, we’re sitting out next to the Hakurei shrine. Why? Cause Piece lives here, and she wanted to be here. It has a good view of the moon.
Junko seems a little off. She’s unbothered by the temperature, she has nothing against extremes. But this isn’t an extreme temperature, so I’m really not surprised that she doesn’t care. But I am a little worried about her nonetheless. I sit beside Clownpiece on the floor, hugging myself to try to get any sense of warmth. I’m pretty hot(both kinds), so, I do give off a lot more body heat, and this is kind of working. Junko is sitting in front of us, holding the plate of Mooncakes, her back to us. She hasn’t turned around yet.
“Do either of you know what the mid-autumn festival celebrates?” Junko asks, staring up at the moon.
I shake my head even though she can’t see it. “No, you never told me. Or Piece, I assume”
She stays silent for a moment, and then takes a deep breath.
“It is the celebration of Chang’e. Every year, I partake in the festival by making Mooncakes in celebration of Chang’e. And I take them to watch the moon, like I always have. But…”
She falters, glancing back at me over her shoulder, a look of almost anger, yet sadness on her face. I stare wide-eyes at her, taking that. A celebration of, what, Chang’e??? She looks at Clownpiece too, and based on the look on her face, I don’t think she really gets it. I’m a little too speechless to try to explain it right now.
“But, unlike how I used to act, I don’t actually celebrate her,” Junko finally says. “I don’t eat the Mooncakes. I destroy them. Fuck Chang’e. It’s sort of like a warning, you could say, to spite her. Would you two like to join me?”
Clownpiece immediately signs up. “Yeah! Fuck Chang’e!”
“Language,” I warn, crossing my arms. “But, yeah. Why not? Fuck Chang’e!”
Junko stands up, holding the tray and smiling. It’s not even an evil smile, it’s a cute one. A sweet one. Piece and I stand up, and I take one from the tray. I crush it in my hand, throwing it as far as I can. Clownpiece laughs happily, taking one as well, throwing it to the ground and lighting it on fire. Junko grabs one, and with a very small flash of pure light, it sort of erupts in a strange purple fire. She drops it to the ground like it means nothing to her, almost sadistically. She is a bit of a sadist, and I love that.
Soon enough, after a lot of fun, we’ve destroyed every single mooncake, expect for one. Junko picks it up, inspecting it. She then rips it in half, and gives one half of it to Clownpiece. “Here. Taste it”
She gives one to me too, and I stare at it for a moment. Clownpiece has already finished hers, and is smiling like a lunatic. “Wow, those taste amazing! Miss Junko, can we make more another time, but like, not to celebrate Chang’e?”
Junko chuckles to herself, setting the tray down on the floor and placing her hand on Clownpiece’s shoulder. “Of course.” She glances to me, and then urges, “try it, my love. You’ll like them”
I rip my half in half, handing it to Junko. “Nah. Not if you’re not gonna have any”
She refuses it, handing it back to me. “I can’t. It goes against my moral code”
I laugh at the absurdity of the implications of that. “Ha! What moral code? Junko, no offense, but you kinda suck when it comes to Chang’e. But it’s ok, cause I do to. We’ll eat it together, in spite of her”
I hand her one half, but instead of letting her eat it alone, I pull her close to me. I hold my half up to her face, feeding it to her. She does the same to me, and I can only imagine what the look on clownpiece’s face must be. Probably disgust. She usually is disgusted by our antics.
I take a quick look at Clownpiece, and almost immediately lose it, buckling down choking on my piece of mooncake. She looks horrified, it’s the funniest shit I’ve seen all day. Junko takes action, placing a hand on my back. I put my hand up to stop her from doing anything, and I cough up the food successfully. Maybe that’s Chang’e’s way at getting back at us. Not like I can really die anyway, I’m the goddess of hell. Still, not the most comfortable thing.
Junko stands me up, and I hear the sound of a door opening in the nearby distance.
“What the hell??”
We all look over to the Hakurei shrine, and there stands a very confused looking Reimu Hakurei. She’s in her sleepwear, and she looks really tired. But she has her gohei.
Clownpiece waves to her excitedly, “hi! We’re destroying Mooncakes!”
Reimu looks sort of annoyed. She walks down the steps, still standing right beside the shrine, however. “Outside of my shrine? At almost midnight??”
Junko nods, “well, Clownpiece lives here too. And we were simply celebrating something”
Reimu looks at the remains of the Mooncakes on the floor, and just stares for a minute. She groans, pointing her gohei out towards me. “Well, stop it. Unless you want me to exterminate all of you”
I laugh hysterically, like a lunatic. “Hahahahaa! I’d love to see you try!”
Reimu growls, glaring. “Whatever. What are you guys celebrating?”
Junko smiles, letting go of me and walking over to Reimu. “Chang’e. Well, I suppose we were more.. hmm… what is the opposite of celebrating..?”
Reimu rolls her eyes, and smirks back. She puts a hand on her hip and shakes her head at us. “Well, I can’t stop you from hating her. Just do it quieter, will you?”
Junko bows her head, “of course. Have a good night!”
Junko’s never that sweet to people. Except to me sometimes, and to Clownpiece. But certainly not to shrine maidens. Reimu heads back inside, and Junko walks back over to me, giggling, clearly trying to stop laughter. “Exterminate us? Just who does she think she is?”
I place a hand up on Junko’s shoulder, snickering too, “a shrine maiden whose job is to exterminate people like us. God, Clownpiece, how do you live with that woman?”
Clownpiece shrugs, and then shudders. “I dunno, but she’s terrifying”
“Hey,” I beckon, “if she bothers you, you got two moms you can call. We’ll take care of it”
Clownpiece smiles, standing in front of the two of us. Junko wraps her arms around me, warming me up on this cold night. I sigh happily, staring up to the moon, leaning myself on my wife. It really is a full moon, a very bright one at that. I wonder if Chang’e is watching. I wonder if she knows what we’re doing, what we did. She’d better.
Fuck off, Chang’e. Leave my family be.