Dancing With the Dragons

Tea

The Sakakis were welcomed by the tea host and all sat down together around a table. Yuri and Yuya were particularly excited about the tea ceremony as avid tea enjoyers.

The tea ceremony started with the host performing a ritual of purification, washing her hands and mouth with water, before preparing the matcha tea. She used graceful, deliberate movements, traditional in emphasizing mindfulness, before serving the tea to Yusho.

"Thank you," Yusho said, taking the bowl with both hands. As he sipped the tea, he smiled. "It's very good tea. Quite fresh, too!"

Yuri watched his father closely. Matcha tea was one of the cabbage-head's favorite teas, second only to sencha tea. He was quite eager for his turn to taste the tea. The family was seated in order of their age, first Yusho, then Zarc, Yuto, Yuri, Yugo, and finally Yuya. As tea ceremonies served the tea in a single bowl that was passed around while being cleaned in between each guest, Yuri had to wait until Yusho, Zarc, and Yuto each had their turn before it was his own turn.

Yuya, too, was looking forward to his turn. As the last guest to be served, he had a lot of anticipation building up. Matcha tea was one he enjoyed as well, but it wasn't amongst his top five favorites. He preferred floral, herbal, and fruit teas, but matcha was in his top ten favorites.

The host cleaned the bowl when Yusho passed it back to her, before preparing a serving for Zarc. The oldest Sakaki brother did enjoy tea, but not as much as the quadruplets. Yuto, Yuri, Yugo, and Yuya always had tea parties together on Saturdays, and would even dress up in fancy clothes and hats during these tea parties. Their quadruplet hivemind was most noticeable during tea parties, and they would even turn their heads in unison to stare at an intruder with wide, blinking eyes. Their friend Dennis had once joked that they must be bees when he saw their teatime hivemind.

Well, it was a relief to both Zarc and Yusho that the quadruplets weren't having a hivemind moment during this tea ceremony. Perhaps having to take turns drinking tea interfered with their hivemind.