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An adequate amount of batter was poured onto a hot pan by Caleb as he hummed to himself.
As he watched the batter cook, the blonde waited for it to mature into a delicious pancake to give to his little brother.
After a minute or so, tiny bubbles started to form on top of the developing flapjack as it sizzled, and Caleb knew it was time to flip it.
After doing so, he patiently waited for the other side to cook with a small smile.
Once the single flapjack had two golden sides, Caleb set it on a plate and proceeded to make more.
Mornings were always made sweeter when Caleb served pancakes for breakfast.
...
As Philip arrived at the dining room entryway, half-awake with bed head, he let out a yawn before using his arm to wipe the sleepiness from his eyes.
When warm air wafting from the kitchen entered his nose, he sniffed it. The sweet smell snapped him awake immediately.
When his blue eyes gazed at the table, they started to sparkle with excitement.
"Pancakes, pancakes!" Philip happily cheered as he rushed to take a seat.
Flapjacks made by his brother were always the best.
Caleb came into the dining room with a butter dish that he placed in the center of the table.
He then took a seat across from Philip, a plate of two pancakes in front of him, and smiled.
After using a wooden butter knife to spread butter on his pancakes, he began cutting his short stack into crisscrosses.
"Hmm...," Philip hummed, scrunching his brown brows as he squinted, studying his stack with very keen eyes.
There was something amiss about his pancakes...
Something smooth and silky should be emanating from the top of them.
A topping.
They lacked...
"Syrup!" Philip said aloud in an 'aha!' tone as he quickly stood.
Heading over to the kitchen cupboards, a look of disappointment soon took over Philip's face when he found a small glass syrup bottle covered in cobwebs with only an itty bitty bit of syrup left inside of it.
From behind, Caleb approached his brother.
"Hmm, seems like we're out of syrup...," he noted, noticing the chapfallen expression on Philip's face.
The blonde ruffled his hair. "Not to worry, Philip. We'll just have to buy some more," he told him, determined to brighten his mood.
...
Heading into town together, Caleb and Philip walk into a shop in hopes of obtaining some maple syrup.
When Caleb asked the shopkeeper if there was any maple syrup in his store, the owner informed him that he had just sold his last bottle to another customer.
After leaving, the two brothers go from shop to shop looking for maple syrup, but each shop they visit lacks it.
...
"What are we going to do now, Caleb?" A sad Philip murmured lowly to his brother while slumped over the dining room table.
Breakfast was nearly over, and he had yet to touch his flapjacks.
"Hmm...," Caleb hummed in thought while sitting across from him.
"Well, maybe we could..." A small and sudden gasp quickly escaped Caleb, his brown eyes widening as a fantastic idea came to his mind.
"I know! We can just make our own maple syrup!"
"We can?" Philip questioned and blinked before a smile quickly crossed his face. "Oh, we can! Let's do it then!"
This was going to be fun.
...
Caleb and Philip encounter a sugar maple tree that is perfectly sized and has yellowish-green leaves that are fused with vivid red-orange in the clearing of the woods.
Caleb inserts a small spout into the incision of the maple tree while Philip sets a wooden bucket below it.
Sap begins to flow from the tree at a steady drip.
Once the bucket is halfway full, Caleb removes the spout from the tree, and Philip takes the half-filled bucket as both boys proceed home.
They intended to make maple syrup from the sap they collected at home by boiling it down.
...
As his brother poured the homemade syrup they had made onto his pancakes, Philip couldn't help but display a hearty and hungry expression that spread like butter across his face.
"Hooray!" he cheered as Caleb cut his small pancake pile into crisscrosses.
"Now I can eat my flapjacks LIKE A REAL MAN!" he said, finishing his sentence in a gruffly and masculine tone that was excessively silly and playful.
Caleb giggled at his brother's remark as he sat across from him and observed him eating happily.