Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Start your story with someone making a cup of tea — either for themself or for someone else.

Posted in Fluff on Oct 25, 2022

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 170 stories

my fellow passerine

Winner of Contest #128 🏆

Content warning: Alcohol use, mild language, sexual themes, referenced sexual abuseWhen Bast hears the low groan from the bedroom, he quietly begins making tea. The motions are familiar, as soothing as the brew itself. He takes a handful of dried ironwort stalks down from the cupboard, the flower buds crinkling as he counts out six and returns the rest to the bundle.The floorboards creak with soft footsteps in the next room over.He fills a pot one-third of the way with water and adds the stalks whole. Some of them need to be folded in half t...

229 likes 75 comments 75
Read story

Zero

Shortlisted for Contest #128 ⭐️

When Japan’s fighter plane—the Zero—first appeared, it could outmaneuver any aircraft it encountered. It ruled the skies. Uncontested design. The allies found themselves at a loss to deal with it. Yet, Japan did not prepare for a long war. Shirua picked up an antique teapot, careful not to burn his hands. He poured out two cups. Steam rose from the water; sweet and floral. He placed the cups and teapot on a tray, then walked to the living room, sitting down on a cushion across from his grandfather.He handed him a cup. His grandfather sipped....

88 likes 74 comments 74
Read story

On Becoming A Writer:

Submitted to Contest #128

Real writers drink tea. I want to be a real writer, not just someone who pens as a pastime. So I wake up at writer’s-time: 7:00am, when the sun is bruising a soft periwinkle. The birds are chiming on the utility power lines and I know my body will be destroyed by this change to my sleep schedule. However, we writers make sacrifices all the time. I stay in my maroon sweatpants, overly large tank top, and mismatched socks. Fitting my glasses to my nose, I type “how to make tea” into the blinking Google search bar. Another note: real ...

59 likes 51 comments 51
Read story

The Enduring Present

Submitted to Contest #128

“Why don’t you have a cup of tea?” Gina sounded weary, even over the phone. “You know, take a moment to relax.” Her voice leeched its warmth. “There’s no one after you, Matt.”“I’m driving.” Matt adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “To your house.”Gina sighed. “Well, I’ll make one, then. Are you just leaving the farm? I’ll have it ready when you get here.”Matt glanced in the rearview mirror. Nothing. Just fingers of inky darkness stretching behind him.“Your doors locked?”“Yes, Matt.”“Don’t let anyone in.”“No.”“Stay away from the windows....

59 likes 31 comments 31
Read story

Tea by the Sea

Submitted to Contest #128

I listened and waited for Lizzie to say, ‘when’ as I poured the milk into her teacup. Adding milk was the easy part, having committed to memory the exact shade of her favourite beverage. She’d always smile and claim my expertise was more due to luck than judgement. I’d chuckle in response and put it down to my discerning eye and training with inscrutable baristas in far-flung lands.‘Almost perfect,’ she’d say, after judging the colour of the steaming brew.‘You’d expect no less,’ I’d say, and she’d raise a finger to curtail our exchange and c...

48 likes 20 comments 20
Read story

In It To Win It

Submitted to Contest #128

“Two sugars?” asked Tony holding Colin’s cup of tea out towards his illustrious boss. “… no just milk, Tone,.” Colin responded with his voice set to “Won’t Suffer Fools” mode. “Really? Since when?” asked Tony sounding like he’d just discovered who assassinated JFK. “Since always, Tone. You just keep forgetting!” sighed Colin at his dim PA whilst also rolling his eyes, he decided not to pat his head as well. “No boss I don’t! If you took two sugars I’d remember that.” insisted Tony sounding like an injured bird if they could talk and make tea...

46 likes 13 comments 13
Read story

The Phantom of the Shadows

Submitted to Contest #128

“Don’t ever trust a soul, Vivian. This world is a very cold and wicked place.” Those are the warnings of my mother. To her, I am a normal girl, innocent, naive, and young. She’s worried for my safety as any mother should be, yet little does she know how wrong she is.The world should be scared of me.Because here I am, at home on a beautiful Saturday morning, having tea with a woman. A woman that I plan to kill.Let me explain. To put it quite candidly, I am a hitman. I kill people for living. Which is quite ironic considering most hitman are, ...

44 likes 13 comments 13
Read story

Woven

Submitted to Contest #128

I’m pouring us a cup of tea, just for the two of us. It’s not for the whole world, it isn’t even for the people down the street. It’s only for her and for me. The steam wafts up and warms my hands, wetting them. And it feels like a bit of it is melting, lightly like the way a flame slowly melts a candle. Mine, green. Hers, jasmine. She’s always been that way and in that is something I’ve always loved about her. Not too different, but different enough to notice. Maybe that’s the way she wants to be remembered, just a little different. Enough ...

44 likes 17 comments 17
Read story

Mr Mallory's Traubles

Shortlisted for Contest #128 ⭐️

Have you heard of Mr Mallory? Mr Mallory lives in a huge tree in a dense green forest. But it's what Mr Mallory can do that makes him truly special. Lost souls wander through the forest and stumble upon Mr Mallory's tree house, and he whispers for them to come up for some tea. There's a battered old tyre swing with a rope older than your granny's teeth that sways gently in the breeze. People sit in the tyre swing, and Mr Mallory slowly pulls them up towards him, high up in the canopy of the trees. He grunts and strains and clenches h...

41 likes 18 comments 18
Read story

Devil's Brew

Submitted to Contest #128

(Content Warning: Crude Humor, Mild Language.) Thick steam filled the great chamber in the Unholy Kingdom as Satan stirred his cauldron. The shadow of his silhouette danced along the blood-soaked walls like a Cirque du Soleil performer. His red skin glistened in the twinkling light of the fiery flames revealing a masculine boulder-like body that was chiseled from stone. Satan’s thick black curvy horns looked like trumpets from a grand orchestra, and his dark fingernails tapped his trident with great fervor as he mixed the ingredients t...

39 likes 22 comments 22
Read story

Cold Tea

Submitted to Contest #128

"Shit. All I have left is Earl Grey. Is that okay?" "Sure," Angela replied curtly. She stretched and then succumbed to a long yawn, deciding to curl up on the apartment's only couch.  Marcus had moved into the bottom floor of this 100-year-old shotgun house just outside of Cincinnati three months ago. The grip of December made the original hardwood uncomfortably cold. To compound the problem, the fireplace did not function. He had placed a menagerie of candles on the hearth and mantle. Last night, the wax had slowly trickled down th...

35 likes 23 comments 23
Read story

The perfect cup

Submitted to Contest #128

Rebecca stood in the kitchen, tears streaming her cheeks and a solid resolve were the only things keeping her out of bed. She opened the first cabinet and pulled out a fancy wooden box with a glass top. On the top, he’d etched the word tea in eloquent script, and she gently traced her finger over the word. Noah had bought her this storage box one Christmas when they’d first married. It was a silly thing, but the most thoughtful of the gifts he’d ever given her.    She’d had a love for tea from an early age and often tried new flavo...

34 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

The Tea Of Love With Extra Ginger

Submitted to Contest #128

When the aroma of tea escapes her five by eight kitchen to probably reach her neighbours, Savi knows that the tea leaves are dissolving in the air as much as in the milk. She digs out a large piece of ginger from the fruit basket, and cardamom seeds and cloves from the shelf, to beat them to death in her Imam dasta. The whipped layer of cream engulfs the crushed spices like the evil sea takes humans in. Setting the gas stove to sim flame, Savi lets the tea take its time. After a rough span of ten minutes, when the tea has boiled to half...

31 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

Sick Day

Submitted to Contest #128

“I hate tea” Jason called out from the couch. “You’re wasting your time making it, Kevin because I’m not drinking it.”I sighed while pouring hot water into a Garfield mug. “For a sick person, you sure are loud babe. Keep it up and I’ll spike it with NyQuil.”“Spike it with gin then I’ll drink it.”Going to the pantry I retrieved a tin of butter cookies and a bottle of honey. “I promise, this is the only time you have to drink it. I just want to see if it works.”A coughing fit delayed any response my boyfriend may have had which was good for hi...

29 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Tunnel Vision

Submitted to Contest #128

Lady Astor: “Winston, if I were your wife I’d put poison in your coffee.”Winston Churchill: “Nancy, if I were your husband I’d drink it.”Alison watched the powder dissolve into David’s tea with grim satisfaction. David liked his tea milky. He would never tell the difference.“How’s the tea?” he called from the other room.“On the way,” she shouted back. It was taking too long. She thrust a teaspoon into the mound of toxic grains and swirled it out of existence. Stirling silver clinked against bone china. She carefully put the spoon aside ...

27 likes 12 comments 12
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story in a tea house.

Spring – 36 stories

Write a story about a tea party that your character is reluctant to go to.

Summer – 44 stories

Write about a character who’s dying to “spill the tea” (gossip) about something.

Fluff – 21 stories

Write a story about a conflict that breaks out over something ordinary (like tea, perhaps).

High School – 26 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel