~The Three Fairies of Light have a Feast~
OR:
~Sunny Milk, Luna Child and Star Sapphire May Be Known as the Three Fairies of Light, but there's Nothing Light about their Appetites~
Warm sunlight was casting its orange glow through the curtains, but Luna Child felt quite all right where she was. Her blanket was perfectly warm and snuggly and her pillow was as soft as ever a pillow could be. With a sigh, Luna burrowed under her soft pillow and sank into restful dreams.
"Luna! Luna! Get up! Get up! Get up!"
Luna awoke to a terrible commotion. Some unseen force was throwing her up and down on her mattress. With a startled cry, she threw off her covers and blearily took in the sight of Sunny Milk jumping up and down with glee.
"Do you have to do this every morning? Really?" demanded Luna.
"Sure do! Come on, it's a beautiful day full of adventures and fun to be had!" Sunny grabbed Luna around the waist and carried her down to the sitting room.
Star Sapphire was laying the table with glasses of orange juice. She barely glanced up as Sunny stomped into the room. "Good morning, you two. I hope you've got your appetites with you!"
"Sure have!" said Sunny blithely, dumping Luna in her chair. "What's for breakfast?"
"A loaf of bread. With butter on it." Star hopped up on a short wooden stool and grabbed a wicker basket from the shelves. Her face fell when she peeked inside. "Oh… That's not good. Ladies, do you like irons?"
Sunny looked at Luna. Luna looked at Sunny.
"What do you mean?" asked Sunny.
"Irons! I bought one instead of a loaf by accident," said Luna, with a nervous laugh. "It's made of copper. Does anyone like copper?"
Luna fell face-first on her placemat.
"Star," said Sunny dangerously, "what are you telling me? You tried to buy a loaf of bread and bought an iron?!"
"I didn't mean to! It just sort of happened!" Full of timidity, Star clutched the stout copper clothing-flattener to her chest. "I'm really sorry, you two."
"All right." Sunny downed her orange juice in one gulp. "What are we going to eat, Star?! I can't not eat! I'll starve! And so will you and Luna!"
"I-I don't know!" wailed Star.
Luna gasped. "Wait! I know! We'll buy more food!"
Sunny's jaw dropped. She ran to Luna's side and hugged her. "Oh, Luna, you're the best!"
"G-get off!" Luna shoved Sunny away. "Uh, what are we going to buy?"
"Let's have fried sugar donuts!" suggested Star.
"No, I fancy moon cakes!" declared Luna.
"Chicago style deep-dish cheese pizza!" yelled Sunny.
"Well, um," said Star, "we can't eat all that."
"All right, we'll have a race!" Sunny's eyes were aflame with passion. "I'll get the pizza, you get the moon cakes, you get the donuts and we'll eat the thing whoever gets back the fastest had with them!"
Luna looked at Star. Star looked at Luna.
"Got it! I'll be back soon!" Star dove out of the window.
Sunny jumped for joy. "Oh, this is going to be the best! Let's go! Let's go!"
"Um…" Luna stared after her hurrying friends, her mouth shaped uncannily like a chestnut. "All right, I'll get the moon cakes and hurry home, I suppose."
"Thirty of your finest Okinawan sugar donuts, please!"
"I… I'm sorry?"
"Down here."
The baker cast her eyes around in mild panic until she saw the pint-sized fairy beneath the front of her stall. "Oh, hello there, little… thing! I, um. For thirty sugar donuts, it'll be a thousand yen. Is that all right?"
"Hmmm…" Star dug through her purse, discarding a couple of buttons and a spare tin whistle. She eventually dumped a handful of coins on the counter, several of which rolled onto the cakes below. "Here you go!"
The baker sighed heavily. "Thank you. Do you want a bag?"
"Hello? Marisa?! Are you in?!" Sunny hammered on the door to little effect. "Marisa, I need help!"
"What?! I'm watering the frogs!" came the quiet reply.
A faint splash caught Sunny's ear. She ran through the undergrowth until she found Marisa throwing buckets of water into her oozy green pond.
"Hey, Marisa! It's me! I need help!"
"Okay…" Marisa dropped her bucket and wandered over to Sunny, slipping off her gardening gloves. "What's the problem?"
"I need to make a Chicago style deep-dish cheese pizza for Luna and the gang!" Sunny erroneously referred to Star Sapphire as a 'gang'. "You can do anything, Marisa! If anyone knows how to make a Chicago style deep-dish cheese pizza, it's you!"
"Well, Sunny, it looks like you've come to the right place! I happen to be a genuine Pizza Master, trained by the legendary Annelisa DiFiatapunto of Brindisi!" Marisa put her hands on her hips. As tall as she was in comparison to Sunny, the gesture looked properly badass for once. "I'll go and put the oven on. Your job's the most important: weeding the mushroom bed."
Sunny tilted her head. "Weeding the mushroom bed is the most important job for making a Chicago style deep-dish pizza?"
"Oh, yes!" Marisa nodded earnestly.
"Okay! Can I borrow some overalls?"
"And what can I do for you, little miss?"
"I want to buy some moon cakes, please!"
"Moon cakes?" Nemuno stared down at Luna. "You… Want to buy…? I don't sell moon cakes!"
"What?!" Luna's face fell. "But-but that sign over your door says this is a bakery!"
"No it doesn't!" Nemuno shoved past Luna and stared door. Her jaw dropped. Sure enough, a roughly painted wooden sign which read 'BAYKARY' had been nailed up above the door.
"See?" said Luna smugly.
"Who the hell could've done that?!" Nemuno angrily stomped her foot. "Goddamn vandals! Do you know anything about this?"
"No…" Luna's brow furrowed. "Sunny was doing pranks up here a couple of days ago. She'd've told me if she saw anyone drawing a silly sign."
"She… She what?"
"She'd've told me," repeated Luna, "if she saw anyone drawing a silly sign."
For a full ten seconds, Nemuno was silent. Then she hefted Luna and turned her around. "Try Mother's Deliciousness in the Human Village."
"Oh, thank you! Now, could you maybe put me down-"
Nemuno delivered a blistering kick to Luna's bottom. Luna sailed all the way to the Prismrivers' house and splashed down in Lyrica's bubble bath.
"I win! I win!" squeaked Star, bursting into the treehouse with her arms full of sugar donuts.
"Another victory for Sunny Milk!" yelled Sunny, smashing through the sitting room window. Her dress was ragged and her knees were all muddy.
"Moon cakes are served!" declared Luna, sliding down the chimney in a soggy shower of soot.
The fairies plonked down their spoils on the table and looked expectantly at one-another. Their faces fell when they realised none of them was being hailed as God-Queen of Provender Acquisition.
"Who won?" Sunny bit the bullet.
"It's me! It has to be! I came in here a whole second before the rest of you!" said Star insistently.
"I got kicked up the bum for this meal! I'd call myself the moral victor," pouted Luna.
"Well, it can't be both of you," said Sunny reasonably, "so it has to be me! All right! Three cheers for Sunny Milk!"
The indifference from Luna and Star was deafening.
"W-well, um, we can agree to disagree…" Sunny gave a nervous laugh. "But seriously, the Chicago style deep-dish cheese pizza's very hot, and Kasen says bacteria love hot food."
"What's a bacteria?" asked Luna.
"They're these tiny youkai who eat all your food and make you unwell," explained Sunny.
"How horrible!" gasped Star. "You're right, Sunny, we have to eat the pizza before it gets bacteria-ed."
"Then let's tuck in!" Sunny tore the cloth off the basket and unveiled her pizza with relish. It was lumpy and misshapen and contained a lake of steaming hot cheese marbled with blue mould. "We made it with Marisa's special blue cheese!"
"Wow…" Luna's mouth hung open, chestnut-shaped as always. "Is there enough for all of us? I could eat the whole thing!"
"You do have a point… Oh, wait a minute!" cried Sunny. "Didn't you buy a load of moon cakes?!"
"Why, yes!" Luna's face lit up. "We can eat those too!"
"And have my donuts for pudding!" squeaked Star, licking her lips.
"Then let's not wait another moment!" Sunny pulled a gleaming boot knife from her adorable buckle shoe and started carving the pizza. It looked like it would be a delicious afternoon.