The sight of his first batch of mooncakes, glistening and intricate, was still fresh in Vicente's mind as he went to The Cove with Madeline that afternoon. They'd be spending nearly the entire day together — after they were done with their homework at the little cafe, there was dinner at Wang's and whatever Mid-Autumn's Festival celebrations his siblings had planned on while he was away.

They were sat down at their usual table, a plate of candy between them. Madeline was having a steaming cup of black coffee like she always did, eyes on her laptop as she reached for a piece of ginger covered in dark chocolate. Vicente was supposed to be writing, too, but it was far too difficult to concentrate on his work with Madeline right across the table. She tapped away rapidly, fingers flying over the laptop's keyboard as though she were a skilled pianist. The relentless "click-clack" of her typing, to Vicente, sounded better than any piano concerto ever could.

"I added a few points in slide six." Madeline's voice cut through his reverie. "Can you take a look at it?"

On his own laptop, he clicked into the slide Madeline just altered. "It looks good. Should I make a graph showing the change in the hotel's revenue and put it on slide ten?"

"Sure." Madeline nibbled at her ginger, saying, "should we make the text bigger? It might be easier for people to see."

"Let's change the font, too. This one's a little unclear." Vicente took a piece of candied lemon peel from the plate, inadvertently brushing fingers with Madeline. She was about to take another piece of chocolate-covered ginger.

Madeline took her hand away first. "Our hands always seem to touch for no reason, huh?"

The result was instantaneous. Vicente felt heat prickling at the back of his neck, and his ears were most likely red. There was nothing he could do to hide his blush, he could only hope Madeline didn't notice.

Thankfully, she didn't say anything about how he suddenly fell silent and began trying to imitate a tomato. The typing continued.

Half an hour later, their presentation was halfway done. They still had a week to finish up the report, so they had plenty of time to complete the second half and write out speaker's notes. Having finished his part of the slides, Vicente reached for another sour-sweet candy and washed it down with the cup of mild, yet aromatic jasmine tea the waiter had recommended he get.

"It's getting late." Madeline spoke up for the first time since they accidentally touched. "Should we continue this another day?"

Vicente nodded, closing his laptop. He drained his mug of tea and reached for his purse.

He was stopped by Madeline, who was already counting notes. "Let me pay," she said.

"But — "

"You'll be treating me to dinner later, so it's only fair I pay now," she insisted.

"All right, fine." He placed his wallet back into his bag and waited as Madeline paid the waiter. "Do you want to go to Wang's now, or…?"

Madeline closed her wallet. "Sounds good to me."

They left The Cove for the bus station. As they waited, Vicente suddenly remembered that Kiku would be spending the evening with them, too. How will he act when he meets her?

"There's something I forgot to tell you."

She glanced at him. "Hm?"

"My stepbrother will be celebrating Mid-Autumn's Festival with us," he elaborated. "Er, I hope that's okay with you."

"Your stepbrother's named Kiku, right?"

"Yes, that's him."

"I don't mind at all," Madeline said. "The more the merrier, right?"

He exhaled in relief. "That's great. I was worried you'd be surprised or mad."

"Why would I be?" In the distance, the bus was approaching the station. Madeline pulled out her wallet again, adding, "he's the only one of your siblings I haven't met yet. I'd like to talk to him, too."

The ride to Wang's was mostly quiet until the bus took an unexpected swerve. Vicente's bag slid off his lap and fell onto the floor, and Madeline slammed into him just as he was bending over to pick it up. He let go of his bag in surprise when he felt her fall against his arm. His entire right side felt warm and remained so as she sat back upright, heating up so much he felt like he'd catch on fire.

"Sorry about that." She flicked her braid over her shoulder again, thankfully unaware of how flustered he was for the second time.

"It's all right," Vicente managed to say, voice an octave higher than usual.

They got off two stops later and walked to the restaurant. The exterior of Wang's looked pretty much the same save for the lantern swinging at the doorknob. Had Ling not finished her decoration yet?

Then he pushed the door open and gasped.

The lights were dimmed and red paper lanterns hung from the ceiling, bathing the entire restaurant in a soft red glow. Dangling from each lantern was a paper tag, low enough that customers could read the words while standing up. Ling was attaching the last tag to a lantern in the corner with a length of crimson ribbon.

She looked up as the two of them approached. "Do you like it?"

"It's amazing," he said in amazement. "How did you manage this in an afternoon?"

"She had help, of course." Kiku walked up to them, holding another lantern. "Poor Leon has been climbing up and down chairs for two hours now, helping to hang these from the ceiling." He pointed at his little brother, who was standing on tiptoes on one of their chairs and trying to keep a lantern from falling off.

Madeline looked around, the dim red light juxtaposing interestingly from her radiant blue eyes. "This looks beautiful," she exclaimed. "I've never seen a restaurant decorated so nicely in such a short time."

Kiku handed his lantern to Ling and turned towards her. "I take you're Madeline?"

"Yes, that's me. And you're Kiku, Vicente's stepbrother, right?"

He nodded. "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too." She looked around the restaurant again. "This is my first time celebrating Mid-Autumn's Festival, and I don't really know what to expect."

"This is my first, too," Kiku said. "Ling briefed me on the traditions today, though, so maybe I can give you a crash course."

Vicente cut in before Kiku could begin. "Should I go to the kitchen?"

"Oh, right." Ling reappeared in their little cluster and began pulling him away. "Yao says you're needed there. There aren't enough mooncakes."

He left Kiku and Madeline to talk and ran for the kitchen, grabbing his apron and putting it on. A bowl of pre-prepared mooncake dough, lotus root and cups of oil and syrup were already waiting on his bench, no doubt thanks to Yao. He wasted no time in starting to roll out the dough.

When the first tray of mooncakes was done and cooling on a baking rack, Vicente left the kitchen to find Madeline. She was sitting at one of the tables in the corner, nodding along to Kiku's Mid-Autumn tradition lesson.

"The tags hanging from the lanterns contain riddles," he explained. "One side has the riddle, the other side the answer." He looked up. "Oh, hello."

"I thought I'd drop by while the mooncakes are cooling."

"I can't wait to taste them." Madeline smiled up at him. "I'm glad I can celebrate Mid-Autumn's with you. All these traditions sound fun, and they must be even more fun with you to try them with."

For the third time, he could feel his heart thudding so hard it was probably close to breaking out of his chest.

Kiku raised an eyebrow at him, having clearly noticed how his face flushed even with the red light shining down. Thankfully, he didn't say anything about it. "Go check on your mooncakes. If they're good, bring some back for us."

He went back into the kitchen, passing Leon, who was slumped down on a stool while holding a glass of iced milk tea. With him taking a break, Ling was frantically trying to be both the waitress and cashier.

The mooncakes were still a little too hot. Vicente got to work making a second batch, all while hoping that the first would taste good. They had to be perfect for Madeline.