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It was the heat that dragged Tommy out of bed. He tried to go back to sleep but his comforter was sweaty and gross, forcing Tommy to push it off of him. The eight-year-old didn’t normally wake up this early but the heat and the all-together disgusting state of his bed forced him to venture downstairs.
As he crept down the stairs, careful not to wake his brothers or Phil, he could feel his hand sticking to the banister. Tommy had wanted to eat a cookie first thing in the morning but before he was able to grab one and run back upstairs, he saw a figure humming at the stove.
Tommy tiptoed until he reached Phil before jumping onto his back. Phil startled, moving away from the stove and struggling to remove whatever was on his back before realising just who was hanging off of him like a little monkey.
“Good morning Tommy,” Phil murmured, trying to salvage the quiet peace of the morning knowing Tommy was going to be causing a commotion any second. “You’re up early aren’t you?”
To his surprise, Tommy only nodded as he slid off of Phil’s back and onto the floor. Instead of his usual energy, Tommy also seemed intent to keep the calm.
“You’re quiet today Tommy. You feeling okay down there?”
“’m just tired,” Tommy replied. “And hot” he tacked on a second later.
“I feel ya. This summer has been intense”
“What’re you doing?”. Some of Tommy’s energy returning to him.
Phil had been in the middle of taking out a pot and placing it on the stove.
“I’m making tea. You wanna help?” Phil asked. Tommy nodded once more from the floor.
“Do you know what the most important ingredient is in tea?” Tommy just looked up at him expectantly. Phil smiled as he ruffled the boy’s hair.
“It’s cardamom, it’s the most important ingredient in tea but people often forget it because they think it’s useless, but they’re wrong Tommy. They’re very wrong. It may be small but it packs a punch,” Phil explained as he turned the stove on. Tommy sat at his feet, listening to Phil’s words, his head leaning against the warmth of Phil’s legs.
It was early enough for the noises of outside traffic to be a fuzzy backdrop against Phil’s soft words. The morning light streamed through the windows of the kitchen, illuminating the quiet scene.
For as long as Tommy could remember, Phil’s had the same thing for breakfast every day; tea with biscuits. It was a habit he’d instilled into all of his three sons, even though they all preferred other breakfast foods. Habits like those were hard to break.
“Can you grab the milk from the fridge, Tommy?” Phil asked, craning his neck as he turned to make sure the young boy was following his instructions. Tommy did what was asked, struggling slightly to set the heavy carton on the counter.
“How many people do we need to make it for?” Phil asked, smiling slightly.
“4?” Tommy replied, unsure of himself. His eyes watched Phil walk around the kitchen, following as he grabbed other ingredients from their respective homes: the sugar and tea leaves from the pantry, some cardamom seeds from the drawer. The moment Phil pulled open the drawer, Tommy ran over.
Tommy was known for telling more than the occasional lie but he truly believed that the drawer Phil was opening held all the spices in the whole wide world and he wasn’t shy of telling that to strangers.
The reality wasn’t so different, inside was a round steel container filled with every flavor imaginable. The seeds Phil used to make the morning tea, the spices Wilbur had bought a couple of summers ago on his quest to become a better cook, the same ones Techno was so distrustful of.
It was a home for all the smells and tastes Tommy had come to associate with his life.
Tommy was brought back to the conversation by Phil’s quiet rumble as he tried not to wake the two kids sleeping upstairs.
“Yup, we’re four people. So that means you need four cups of milk and four cups of water, one cup for each person that wants tea. Then you do the same measurements for the tea leaves and sugar, one spoonful per person,” Phil explained, Tommy staring into the pot as the water began to simmer. When the water finally started to boil, in went the milk and a few minutes later, the sugar and leaves.
Tommy sat back down, craving the coolness from the tiles. The hot summer air drifted through the open window, inviting him to come play outside. It reminded him of afternoons spent with Tubbo playing pirates and chasing each other around.
“Now’s the most important part,” Phil pulled open the famed drawer and took out a small bottle. Sitting on the floor Tommy couldn’t tell what it was but as soon as the lid was squeezed off, the pungent smell of cardamom wafted through the air.
Phil handed Tommy the bottle and a small pewter bowl to crush them in. Tommy squeezed himself between the oven and pantry and got to work. The stone was cold to the touch and foreign in his hand. His grip was clumsy when he started, the seeds so small that they slipped and landed on the sides of the bowl without being crushed at all but he kept practicing.
A couple minutes had gone by before Tommy presented his creation: a small handful of crushed cardamom seeds. Phil took the bowl from him and poured it over the tea that was slowly forming, Tommy watching in wonderment.
“Now we stir,” Phil said, handing Tommy a spoon to use. Tommy cautiously leaned over the pot and dipped the spoon in. He began to methodically move his hand as he forgot about the blistering heat outside. Slowly but surely the tea began to come together as the familiar smell permeated the kitchen.
From their rooms, the muffled voices of Wilbur and Techno floated down the stairs.
“It’s done now Tommy, you can stop stirring,” Tommy removed the spoon and placed it in the sink a couple of feet away.
“What we need to do now is drain the tea and then serve it” Phil grabbed the pot by the steel handle, the heat seeping into his hand. He held it over the sink in one hand and in the other was a cup with a strainer placed over it. Slowly he began to pour, the tea filling the cup as the larger objects were caught in the strainer.
“Can you get me 3 more cups? They should be in the cupboard across from you” Phil asked.
Tommy nodded in response as he grabbed a stool and dragged it underneath the cabinet. He stared up at it for a moment before stepping onto the stool, opening the cupboard, and grabbing three cups similar to the one in Phil’s hand. He placed them next to the sink, waiting for them to be filled up.
Not before long, 4 steaming cups of tea had been placed on the dining room table while a plate of biscuits sat at the center. From upstairs, the noises of Techno and Wilbur were getting louder, a sure sign that they were going to be coming downstairs any minute.
Tommy took his seat at the table and grabbed a cup of tea before pulling the plate of biscuits towards himself. Behind him, unbeknownst to Tommy, Phil watched him, smiling slightly. It had been so long since he'd done something with Tommy, just the two of them. It was a nice change of pace.
Soon the sound of footsteps pounding against the older staircase filled the kitchen as Techno and Wilbur stepped into view. They both grabbed a cup of tea before resuming their conversation.
Tommy watched them, waiting with bated breath to see if his brothers liked it. To his surprise, both Techno and Wilbur seemed to have liked it even if they didn't find anything different about it.
The conversation resumed around him and suddenly the hot summer air didn't seem so bad. He couldn’t remember how long he had been sitting there but by the time he realised what was going around him, Wilbur and Techno had left and it was just him and Phil sitting at the table. The sun had risen and was almost out of sight through the windows.
Phil ruffled his hair “You did good Tommy.”
Tommy smiled. “Of course I did good Phil. You know I am the biggest man in this house.”
Phil smiled back.
Quiet settled over the kitchen again.
If Tommy continued to wake up earlier than normal for the rest of summer, it was nobody’s business but his and Phil’s.