Note: This was written in conjunction with the Legend of Luoxiaohei collab event. So all the unfamiliar names in the story (xiaobai, ah gum, and bijou) was my interpretation of the characters' names from Luoxiaohei series. Also fun fact: the original author's web name is very likely derived from the main character of the Luoxiaohei series. It may also be one of their favourite animated series.

Night 38: Suzuran & Luoxiaohei, Crystal Mirror Sakura Mousse Cake

The Late Night Diner is a part of Rhodes Island's canteen. That goes without saying – to whom had anyone ever heard of a diner in the boiler room?

As the name implies, it opens around midnight. There are only a handful of customers at a time.

Operators off their night shift could take an order and bring back to their quarters. Night owls could sit dining-in while leeching off the Diner's wi-fi. The Doctor would come for instant noodles from time to time.

Drinks are in the cooler. Anyone burdened by their own thoughts could take one and chug it down, anytime.

Menu? No such thing exists. What the Chef prepares is what you get. It all depends on his mood of the day.

Welcome to the Rhodes Island Late Night Diner. In here, you might even meet a familiar face or two.

One of the unspoken rule of the Diner was that if one met the Chef outside the business hours, don't ever bother him and don't even talk to him. Period. And never look for him in his dorm room. Prolonged overnight works had not only flipped his circadian cycle, it also gave him quite a temper flare, especially when someone interrupting his sleep. Though unfortunately for him, to those who rarely visit the Diner during its regular hours – such as the children of the Rhodes Island – this rule was as good as non-existent.

Ding! - *btzzzzz* – Ding! Ding! Ding!

The jarring sound of the door bell combined with sparks from faulty wiring pulled the Chef from his heroic combat with the eldritch Demons of the north. He pulled the blindfold off his face with one single swipe and tossed it on the floor, then stomped hard on it. In big unsteady strides he stumbled his way towards the door.

"*Ursus swearing*, don't you know I need my sleep?! For *More Ursus swearing*, if you don't want to be boiled alive go away right at this instant!" With a slew of profanities he opened the door. What he saw before him was an empty hallway. He blinked sleepily and stood still for a few seconds. "Who the hell was it?!" He mumbled angrily. "Don't you know pranking me in the middle of the day is – Holy *Yan swearing*!"

He looked down and immediately let out a loud yelp. As if being hit by a bolt of lightning he bounced almost a feet off the floor. A petite Vulpo girl was standing at his door step. With a series of fluid motion he retreated back inside and locked the door behind him. If some nosey operator recorded him losing his cool like this then uploaded it to the ship-wide web forum, it'd definitely make a bigger ruckus than a clip of Dr. Kal'tsit snoring on the desk of her office – although to be honest, the latter would not survive for a minute online before it would be completely scrubbed off the face of Terra.

The Chef was right to be in a panic. Cursing in front of a child in just underwear was nowhere near appropriate. Therefore when the door opened again a few minutes later, he had transformed back to that skilful and kind old cook of the Late Night Diner, cloth and all.

"Aww, it was our young and adorable Suzuran! Can I help you with anything?" The Chef kneeled down so he could talk to her at eye level.

"Um...There was a really mean grandpa who answered the door. Do you live together?" Suzuran , leaned her head aside, peeked in through the opening of the door with a hint of curiosity. "I would like to ask for a favour to the grandpa chef of the Late Night Diner. Does he live here?"

"Yes he is. I am him. The other guy well..." The Chef scratched the back of his head and said. "He was just in a really bad mood. Don't trouble yourself with him."

"Did I woke him up by accident? I'm really sorry." Suzuran lowered her head and looked a bit ashamed. She had always been kind at heart. "I should go apologize to him."

"No, no. No need for that. Just be more careful next time, that's all." The Chef shook his hands and stopped her from entering his dorm room. "What kind of favour would you like to ask? Want a taste of something sweet?"

"Ah, it's about the picnic we planned for tomorrow. Me, Miss Rockrock and Xiaohei are going out with Xiaobai and Ah Gum. The grown-ups in the canteen said you were really good at making cakes, so I'd like to ask you to make one for us." Suzuran tugged at the frill of her dress bashfully. "I don't know if it's right to trouble you, but I feel my friends are going to be disappointed if we don't have a tasty cake for the picnic tomorrow..."

The Chef hesitated for a moment, then composed himself with a slight sigh. He pat Suzuran on her head and said. "Okay. I will make one for you. Tell me though, which one told you about me? Was it the Liberi with the large nose?"

"No, it was the Feline mister with cerulean hair who talks really really fast. He said you knew how to make bouncy yogurt mousse cake and it was really tasty! Grandpa, was he telling the truth?"

"Ah, him. Of course he was telling the truth. I make some mean cakes." The Chef ran the description through his mind again. He know which operator Suzuran was talking about. He worked in the Logistics. "Just come over to the Diner and pick it up before you leave for picnic tomorrow. Never tell anyone else though, or they will steal the cake from the kitchen! Oh, other than Miss Rockrock, who else did you say were coming?"

"Ah Gum and Xiaobai. I met them from a trip to Lungmen and we had been friends since. Ah, there's also him. His name is Xiaohei." Suzuran moved aside just for a little bit, and a lithe black creature poked its big head out from behind her bouquet of fluffy tails. "Xiaohei, say hello to the Chef~"

"Meow~" The little creature that looked very much like a Feline beastkin replied. Its large round eyes beheld the Chef with sparkling curiosity.

"So this is the 'Xiaohei' you mentioned. Huh, I thought you meant...Ah never mind. You can go now, grandpa still needs some sleep." The Chef stretched, and let out a sigh of relief.

Suzuran did not leave right away. Instead she stood pondering for a short while, then took out a small cloth pouch from her breast pocket. "Um...I have this for you. Mommy and daddy left this for me they came visiting last time. Mommy said it's for food. I donno if you could find a use for it..."

The Chef took the pouch from her hand. On the lavender cloth there was an embroideries of a nine-tailed Vulpo beastkin. He took a sniff at the pouch, and a faint scent of flower flew into his nostrils.

The story about the mousse cake was in fact real. It was a recipe the Chef had developed when the Rhodes Island was still called the Babel. It had proven to be quite popular back then, yet also because of its popularity, the Chef was forced to make ten or even twenty servings on daily basis. It burnt him out, and he quickly lost the interest of making any more and took it off the menu. This time however, he was making quite an exception.

When the evening came and the Chef started his work in the kitchen, the first thing he did was taking out a bag of cream cheese and a bag of yogurt from the fridge to let them slowly warm up. Just then he caught a bolt of dark shadow sprinted across the door way in his sight. The Chef turned his head around sharply, and found that the small sprightly black creature he met during the day was sitting on the dish rack above the sink.

"You again, huh. Good thing I didn't expose you right there and then during the day." The Chef let out a sly smile like a cunning old Vulpo beaskin.

"Meow!" Xiaohei protested.

"True, that mean old man was also me. How could I know it'd be Suzuran who knocked on my door? Calm down now, I know better not to have my face filled with claw marks in the morning." The Chef said, and reached into the overhead cabinet to pull out a can of meaty treats for Feline beastkin. He waved it in front of Xiaohei. "Want a bite? Victorian Royal Crown, even Miss Christine had only a handful out of all her visits here with Phantom."

Xiaohei whipped his unusually long tail in the air. A small fuzzy ball instantly fell out and flew over onto the Chef's shoulder. It had the same appearance as Xiaohei, and it was looking at the can in the Chef's hand with unblinking gaze. The Chef nodded, then the small fuzz ball quickly jumped into his palm. It lifted the can onto its head and swiftly bounced away.

"Once you had your fill, you can stop stealing cakes from me." The Chef mentioned half-heartedly and opened up the bag of cream cheese and poured it into a bowl. "The Logistics had been keeping and eye on your little friend Bijou so that they don't sneak into the kitchen again. Don't you learn the bad habits from them."

After the cream cheese mixed with sugar and was beaten till smooth, the Chef added in lemon juice, yogurt and egg yolks while kept on mixing. He had also wanted to add a spoonful of rum to neutralize the pungent taste of the raw egg yolks, though after some consideration he put away the rum bottle. The yogurt was also mixed till fully liquefied. The Chef then prepared a pot full of water and started heating up cystmilk and cream in a smaller pot bain-marie style. He added in a few pieces of gelatine and waited till they melted. Then he left it to cool, and added the mixture back into the yogurt in slow successions and continued mixing.

Just when he was about to start with the cake base, he paused as if forgetting something. He took out a bottle of strawberry concentrate and added a few drops into the yogurt mix. The pink droplet quickly spread out through the snow-white mix, and in just moments coloured the entire bowl into an adoring light pink.

The Chef took out a cake mould from inside the fridge. There was already a layer of white-and-dark crumbs at the bottom. It was a layer of crushed oreo cookies he had pre-prepared. He wanted to make a cake base from crushed whole oreo cookies and smooth butter, so that the cake could give the children a well-rounded taste as the highlight of the picnic. He poured the yogurt mix into the mould and shook lightly to rid the trapped air, then put it back into the fridge again to let it chill and grew firm. When it was done, he took out from his pocket the pouch Suzuran gave him and opened it carefully. A faint yet refreshing scent instantly came out of the pouch and spread in the air.

"I know it. Salted sakura flowers. Quite fitting too for decorating the cake." The Chef said, taking out a few wrinkled, dark pink flowers and put them in a bowl of warm water. "I heard the girl's father was a kannushi from Higashi. Better not waste any of these flowers – Looks like he made them himself."

"Meow."

"Yes, I know the meaning behind sakura flowers. Pure, noble and compassionate, they all suited her well, don't you think?" He answered, and took out a small bottle of kumquat flavoured soda water from the fridge. After shaking it a few times and letting out most of the fizz, he poured it into a bowl of melted gelatine. "You should've asked around and hear what others say about the girl. You'd be quite surprised if you know what they knew."

"Meow?"

"I know you had your fair share of hardship with your past, but that girl had also gone through a lot. She's far stronger than you make her to be." The Chef peeked at his watch, then left the spoon he used for mixing in the bowl. "The cake still gonna take an hour to be ready. Come now, help me with the customers." He said.

"Meow..." Xiaohei followed the Chef out of the kitchen reluctantly and jumped onto the bar counter. The adorable Feline beastkin-like creature had officially became the mascot of the Diner for the night. Every customer would instinctively pet it on its furry round head, or scratched under its chin. It stayed close to the door and greeted customers like a Higashi maneki-neko, and quite a few who were merely passing by got entangled in its charm and took selfies with it, then came in and ordered food. With Xiaohei's help, the already bustling business had became even more lively from the newly wrangled customers.

It was already past midnight when the Chef remembered the cake in the fridge. He took the cake mould out, sprinkled a few tiny strips of edible gold foil on the top, then poured in the clear kumquat gelatine water. The golden strips floated in the fluid gleamed in the light of the kitchen. Then the Chef placed in a few soaked salt sakura flowers. Delicate pedals expanded out one by one, blooming once again under the Chef's sublime culinary skill.

The cake stayed in the fridge for another two hours. When the Diner was about to close for the night, the Chef took out the mould for a final time and unmould the cake with utmost care.

"How is it? Not bad, eh?" He looked at the cake on the table and folded his arms with pride. The smooth, light pink mousse cake with black rocky base was topped with a layer of clear, mirror-like surface. The salted sakura flowers, gold strips and tiny spots of trapped air bubbles dotted within, and a scene formed on the table – A serene pond in the late evening, with blowing gentle night breeze sakura flowers from a nearby tree landed on the pond and quietly sank into the water. The last rays of sunlight reflecting off the water's surface , leaving behind shiny strips of gold.

Xiaohei reached a paw forward and wanted to touch the cake. The Chef slapped on the paw. "No touching. Go wash your paws."

The Feline creature let out a tiny "Humph", and vaulted off the table with a backflip. In a flash a young boy appeared, and just as quickly as he landed on his feet he poked the cake. "Nope." He said.

The cake swayed like a lump of jelly. Xiaohei poked it again and again, making the mirror surface on the very top bouncing like waves of water as if pebbles were being thrown into the serene pond one by one. "Just like Bijou's belly." He said with a smirk while looking at the Chef. "Soft and squishy and fun to play with."

"You'd better stop now. This is for picnic tomorrow. You all will get no cake if you break it." The Chef picked up the cake with both hands and carefully placed it deep in the fridge. Then he lifted Xiaohei by his back collar with one hand and placed him just outside of the kitchen door. "Also it's a bad habit to stay up late for a kid like you. Go now, go back to bed."

"Hey! No fair! I was there helping you getting all those customers!" Xiaohei grumbled.

"Well, thank you for helping me getting all those customers." The Chef said, then closed the kitchen door.

Xiaohei pouted. He stood at the kitchen door, though ultimately gave up on the idea of phasing through the walls to get inside again. He looked through the port window on the opposite side of the hallway to the brightening sky outside. The evening rain had ceased and they were graced with another beautiful day. A day perfect for a field trip and a picnic. There would be sunshine. And flowers.