Day 3: Tea



Tea was always his favourite.

When he was a boy and his family couldn’t afford to warm the whole house, and the windows were too thin, too cracked to keep in heat for any length of time. The crisp frost turned his nose cold and fingers completely red, frozen to the touch. Even from the chair pulled up to the fire, he could see his own breath.

It was during these times of bitter frost that he would take the kettle from the fire and pour it into a mug. It was never strong, tasting more like hot water than tea, but flavour wasn’t the point of this process.

He would grasp the chipped mug with numb fingers and hold it close to his chest. Peering over it, he would take a deep breathe, allowing the steam to rise up into his face. On particularly cold days, he would raise it higher, his body hunched over the mug, trying to absorb as much heat as possible. Then, with his face an inch from the rim he would blow gently on the tea inside. The hot air would rise up and gently brush against his face, as though there were someone above him, breathing down.

On endless, winter nights it was his ultimate comfort. Closing his eyes he would pretend the mug was a forgotten family member or friend come to embrace him.

Even now, when the snow started to fall, or a cool breeze crept in under the door, he would pour himself a cup, close his eyes and breathe in the warmth.

 /////

 This was Day 3 of my NaNoWriMo project where I am writing a new short story every day in November! Originally all of these were posted to instagram, but the 300 word limit was a little confining so I've come here to post everything I've written and a little bit more!

There isn't really an ending to this story because, it's actually based on a character for something I'm writing that's a lot longer than 300 words. It's 313 pages actually, and I'm very excited for people to read it, so they can tell me if it's super weird to write fanfiction about your own characters. 

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