Merry Midwinter by Aprilertuile  

Hot Chocolate

Lunch had been a pretty fast and light affair considering that everyone knew the main meal would happen that evening for the celebration proper of midwinter.

So at the end of the meal, Maitimo raised and while his brothers were busy cleaning the table, he picked up chocolate, fresh milk, cream and cinnamon.

Maitimo was distractedly listening to Makalaurë’s running commentary on a letter that Findaráto apparently had sent him that day. Maitimo was quite sure that their cousin wrote the letter specifically to rouse his brother’s temper.

Their friendship was of the strangest kind.

He put the milk to boil on the stove while he was cutting the chocolate in tiny pieces.

“Why are you cutting a perfectly fine chocolate?” Umbarto asked his brother with a grimace.

“Because I’m making hot chocolate and the tiny pieces will melt more quickly and easily in the boiling milk than a big chuck of chocolate would.” Maitimo answered, even as he saw this brother of his stealing a piece of chocolate from the plate.

“Careful little one, I’m still cutting pieces, don’t put your hand in my way.” He warned.

“Like anyone would believe you’d cut one of us.” Ambarussa snorted dismissively.

“I wouldn’t want to, but it could still happen on accident. Just ask Tyelko.”

The twins exchanged a look and turned toward their third elder brother who smiled in a way that showed a hint of teeth.

“Who did you cut?”One of the twins, Umbarto, asked Tyelkormo.

“I cut no one, Nelyo got my hand with the knife once.” He showed them a fading scar on his hand. “That taught me better than to try to steal anything that Nelyo’s in the process of cutting.”

The twins looked mildly shocked at that.

“But you like Tyelko.”They told their eldest brother.

“He didn’t do it on purpose kiddo, that was an accident. A stupid accident might I add, that wouldn’t have happened had I not tried to steal a piece of caramel from the pile he was in the process of cutting into pieces.”Tyelkormo intervened gently.

“Uh. I’ll… Keep my hands for myself.” Umbarto promised.

“How come you still have the scar? Didn’t Estë heal it?”

“No, Estë didn’t heal it, we went to a healer in Tirion, it was quicker and frankly it healed well enough that I don’t see the point of going to Estë for a mere scar.” Tyelkormo answered with a shrug.

The twins exchanged a look and grimaced eloquently.

“You’ll add cinnamon to the chocolate too?”

“Hm…”

“Oh sweet. Sugar as well?” Makalaurë asked, hopeful.

“Over my dead body.” Maitimo answered.

“Oh come on, Nelyo!” Makalaurë insisted.

“You want to add sugar to a perfectly fine chocolate, you make it yourself.”

Makalaurë grumbled at that:

“I’ll add it to my cup then.”

“You’ll do whatever you want to your poor sad cup of hot chocolate.” Maitimo sniffed primly.

Once the milk was boiling, Maitimo add all the chocolate pieces into the milk, stirring the pot until the chocolate was dissolved and the liquid was smooth.

While he was stirring the hot chocolate until it thickened a bit, his mother put cups for everyone on the table.

Makalaurë lost absolutely no time adding two spoonfuls of sugar into his cup, grumbling that a good hot chocolate was also sweet.

Maitimo added cream to all cups and sprinkled cinnamon on top, the twins tasting the hot chocolate without the cream first, and then with the cream and then with the cinnamon.

“Uh. And with sugar how is it?” The twins asked.

Makalaurë let one of them grab his cup to taste and Ambarussa grimaced, not really fond of the more sugary drink while Umbarto, who stole the cup from his brother, liked it so much he drank half of the cup, under Makalaurë’s scandalized eyes.

Nerdanel preparing another cup of sweetened hot chocolate nipped in the bud any argument from her second eldest son before they arose.

Makalaurë was very careful to keep his new cup in his hand and out of reach of his littlest brothers. He did want to finish his own drink…