Early in the morning, on the first day of the Lunar Festival, Solarine awakened to the gentle buzzing of her pocket watch upon the nightstand. She'd set the enchanted timepiece to wake her just after dawn, and though she had not yet had enough sleep, she dragged herself from the comfortable warmth of numerous pillows, blankets, and the still-asleep form of her fiancé nestled amongst them. She took a moment to admire Illapa's bare shoulders and the softness that touched his normally-rigid features as he slept. With a smile that quickly turned into a stifled yawn, Solarine shuffled out of their bedroom and down the hallways toward the kitchens. It was good to have her own kitchen back, she thought with a sudden surge of good humour. The work to mix, fill, and bake the special pastries was tedious and time-consuming. The cake itself had to be both dense and buttery, the fillings had to be sweet but not tooth-achingly so, and they had to be stamped with Festival imagery before being baked to a perfect golden-brown. Solarine had gathered purple lotus seeds, twilight jasmine and mageroyal blooms, and fresh figs for the moon cake fillings. The first batch was made with lotus seed paste flavoured with twilight jasmine, and the second was puréed figs and the spicy mageroyal blooms. Both had the traditional center of a creamy-soft salted duck egg yolk, to symbolize the full moon. Once the cakes were filled and set into their basic forms, Solarine topped each one with a circle of dough pressed into pretty shapes. The cakes with lotus seed paste were given lotus blossom tops, and those with figs were topped with the eternal Sin'dorei symbol, the Phoenix. The little Priestess nearly nodded off as the final batch of moon cakes baked. It was the first time she'd made them since her parents had passed, however, and fatigue could not stop her from sharing what she hoped might become a renewed tradition for her odd little family. The scent of freshly baked pastries wafted through the bedroom as Solarine returned, carrying a platter full of the rich, sumptuous treats, but as a half-awake Illapa sleepily reached out one long arm toward her, as if beckoning her back to bed, she decided that presenting the treats to him and Varali could wait a little while longer. She shed her robe, then slipped back under the blankets and snuggled up to Illapa, her smooth, air-cooled bottom tucked in comfortably into the curve of his hips and lap. And so, they dozed together. The moon cakes could wait. ----- @illapa-greybane
