Prompt | Inspired By A Song

Ninjago

Inspired by Mooncakes from Over The Moon

🥮 - 🍁 - 🥮

"Cole, you're rolling the dough too harshly. You're going to make it tough." Nya scolded.

Cole groaned and stopped beating the dough with his rolling pin. "I'm rolling it as softly as I can! I don't have delicate hands like Zane!"

Zane smiled amusedly from where he was carefully folding the dough around the filling. "I'm not sure if I have delicate hands. It's more that I have careful movements, but thank you, Cole." Cole frowned and crossed his arms. His annoyed stance was broken when Jay shooed Cole away from the counter.

"Stop ruining all the mooncakes!" Jay wailed. "This is the worst day for you to cook, Cole! I let you ruin my birthday cake, I tolerated your weekly cooking experiments, I even sacrificed my Valentine's Day dinner for you!" Nya gave Cole a glare at that. "Please, just give me some delicious mooncakes. At least for one dinner."

"Fine," Cole grumbled. Only because he wanted to eat mooncakes too. The master of earth shuffled out of the kitchen with a sulky expression. "I guess I'll help Kai set up the table outside."

Zane gave Cole a sympathetic look but continued to focus on carefully folding the dough over the paste and then passing the ball to Misako, who was using the mould to form the shape. Nya would then take the mooncakes and place them on the pan so they could go in the oven later.

"We better get a clear sky this year." Nya sighed. "We didn't even get to see the moon last time!"

Lloyd squeezed past her, setting a bowl down beside Misako so that he could help make more paste. "The news said the weather was clear tonight," he assured her. Misako smiled at him as he began assembling the ingredients. Jay moved to the other side of the kitchen with Nya to keep an eye on the crabs and slowly conversation fell into a comfortable silence as they worked.

"You know, it was my mother that taught me this mooncake recipe," Misako told Lloyd with a fond look in her eye.

"Really? I thought it was Master Wu's." Lloyd stared into the paste in surprise.

Misako shook her head. "This one is mine." She tapped him gently on the nose before continuing in a reminiscent tone. "I remember wanting to make them into a new fun shape because my friend Xiao Ju had brought rabbit-shaped mooncakes and my mother told me that the round shape of a mooncake-"

"Symbolizes the reunion of a family." Lloyd finished with a chuckle. "I know."

Misako brushed a lock of his hair from his face, getting some flour on his cheek as she tucked the blonde strands behind his ear. "It was always hard at this time," Misako said softly. "Before... we found each other. I'm glad that we can share this holiday again."

"Me too," Lloyd rested his head against hers for a moment. He looked at the mooncakes and another memory sprang forward. "Remember when Dad burned all the mooncakes?"

"Oh, that was terrible." Misako huffed with laughter. "They were all black and you couldn't even see the design on them anymore-"

"And they tasted like coal scraped from the fireplace." Lloyd finished. They both paused as they held that moment. Lloyd cradled it in his hands, the memory felt so close, yet so far. A bittersweet feeling rested on his tongue and he swallowed it back, falling quiet.

"We're still a family, Lloyd." Misako reminded him confidently, her eyes serious. "He's still with us. The good part of him. We're still a family." She repeated at the end.

Lloyd's lips twitched. "Of course we are."

There was a thud as Wu entered, shattering the moment, a large smile spread on the old man's face as he dropped off the bag of lanterns he had. "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!" He cheered, the look in his eye was more youthful than Lloyd had ever seen. "The moon will be full tonight!"

"Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, Master Wu." Lloyd nodded at him.

"It's the festival, Lloyd! This is about family! Today I am Uncle Wu!" Lloyd exchanged an eyebrow raise with Zane from across the kitchen. Lloyd hadn't called him uncle since... well since he was an unruly kid in a skeleton sweater.

"I-okay?" Lloyd said in confusion. Misako just shook her head. She sent Lloyd a look that seemed to say: hey, just roll with it.

"Mmm...mooncakes." Wu sighed as he took a deep breath. The smell of cooking filled the air with something warm and tantalizing. Steamed crab weaved through the scent of baked mooncakes, wrapping around them like a comforting hug.

"Legend has it that when Chang'e floated to the moon, Yi made mooncakes because he missed her so much," Zane said informatively as he pulled on his blue oven mitts. He did it very seriously. As if he was a doctor meticulously sliding on their rubber gloves. Except in his case, he was putting on bulky fabric with a bunny design on them.

"Oh, that is so sad!" Jay sniffed. "Nya, if you ever leave me then I will make mooncakes every day!"

Nya wrinkled her nose. "Why would I leave you?"

"I don't know! Maybe you died or something?"

"DIE?" Nya scowled at her boyfriend and poked him in the shoulder. "Who's to say that you won't die before me with all the stupid things you do!"

Jay yelped. "Fine! Then when I die you can make mooncakes every day."

"Listen, mister-"

"Master Wu?" Kai ducked his head into the kitchen. "Did you find the- oh there they are!" He grinned as he pulled the lanterns from the bags. He paused when he saw Nya and Jay giving each other hard stares. "Uh... what are you doing?"

"Is the table set up?" Zane asked.

Kai nodded. "Cole's just bringing the seats."

"Lloyd, Nya? Why don't you two go help Cole with the seats? Jay, Zane and I will finish with the food." Misako said calmly.

"I'll get the lightbulbs," Wu told them. Nya shot Jay one last pointed look, backing slowly out of the room with her brown eyes narrowed.

"Just so you know," Nya jabbed a finger at him. "I'm gonna make the best mooncakes when you die!"

"Not if I die first!"

"THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!"

Lloyd dropped the bowl he was holding onto the counter with a clatter, causing the two to stare at him. "Just go help with the seats!" He said in exasperation. Lloyd cleaned off his hands with a towel and grabbed Nya by the shoulder, pushing her out the door before she could protest.

"Can you believe him?" Nya scoffed as they walked. "Boys!"

Lloyd gave a short tick of the head. "I don't know if it's boys..." he muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing!"

Lloyd went to the storage room where the chairs were and pulled them out. He shimmied some of them over to the table, sidling them around the circular table until they were all squeezed together. Pretty soon Kai came out with the lanterns with Wu and they hung them around the courtyard. Lloyd smiled as he watched each one is lit up, the soft warm light filtering through the multicoloured paper looked so mystical in the evening light.

"Foods almost ready!" Jay called and Nya went to help get the dishes before they piled food onto the table.

Lloyd took his place in between Misako and Kai, pulling his shoulders in so that he could fit without bumping into anybody. They all began to grab food, passing dishes and chopsticks around until everyone had one.

"Hey, hand me a mooncake," Nya called to her brother across the table.

"Have some mushrooms first," Kai ordered, motioning to the stir-fried dish. He then went against his statement by shoving his own mooncake into his mouth.

Nya's jaw dropped and she poked Lloyd with her chopstick, causing him to choke on his shrimp. "Can you hit Kai in the head for me? I can't reach without dipping my sleeve lion-heads."

Lloyd rolled his eyes and gave Kai a light smack before looking to Nya like ya happy?

"That was hardly even a tap!"

Lloyd shook his head, watching with amusement as Kai and Nya began to bicker, waving their chopsticks threateningly as they talked, the points getting dangerously close to Jay's eyeballs. Cole was trying to shove as much food in his mouth as he could while Jay was picking at his tomatoes suspiciously. Misako and Wu were laughing over some old story and Zane was attempting to calm everyone down.

Lloyd looked up at the moon, watching as the glowing sphere watched above like a guardian in the sky. "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival." He whispered to no one in particular.

Magic in these memories. Forever I hold true. Mooncakes and the memories of you...

~ Over The Moon

NOTE****
I got my information on the Mid-Autumn festival from China Highlights: Mid-Autumn Festival (Mooncake Festival): Celebrations, Greetings, Origins... and Xiran Jay Zhao's YouTube video of the cultural details in Over The Moon.

I recently had my first mooncake! I'm not sure if it was a traditional mooncake because it did not have the egg yolk inside of the paste but it was good!

I absolutely love the movie Over The Moon and I've been wanting to do a one-shot on mooncakes for a while.

Hope you all have a nice night!

Lucky 🐞