Underneath A Canopy Of Cherry Blossoms (Nalu AU)

{6} Hanami : Viewing Flowers (Part 3)

Levy took a large inhale as she lifted her humongous thermus out of her backpack with the help of Gajeel, who was holding the bag down. The entire group gasped when the container was thumped on the ground in the middle of the blanket.

"This is full of matcha that I made this morning before I picked you all up" Levy declared proudly, a wide smile plastered onto her thin face.

"Holy shit you are such a mom" Gray gawked.

"I think we can start without Jellal and Erza, something tells me they might be a little late." Levy said as she pulled out some light pink napkins with pictures of strawberries on them and passed them around the circle, just like we had done earlier with the cups.

Now that we all had a napkin and paper cup in our hands, Levy unscrewed the lid to the thermus and we all breathed in the lovely scent of matcha. I could feel the excitement rise within me as Levy began to fill everyone's cups to the brim with the green liquid. I had always heard about tea ceremonies at festivals, but never participated in one. I was so ready to be a part of this one.

"Ow its hot!" Natsu screeched as he spit his tea back in his cup, green trails of matcha running from his open mouth and down his chin. Gray burst into laughter at his friends idiocy.

"What did you expect flamebrain? Its tea, it's meant to be hot" He said through laughter, eventually getting everyone to laugh with him as Natsu sulked, his burnt tongue sticking out of his mouth cutely.

Our laughter soon ended when Levy stood up abruptly, waving her hands frantically. We all followed her gaze to see Erza and who I'd assume is Jellal approaching, hand-in-hand.

"Hey guys you made it!" Levy spouted.

"Sorry guys, hope you didn't have to wait too long. It was hard to find you, this place is huge." Erza gestured to the festival around her as she and Jellal sat right in between Natsu and Gray.

"No worries we just finished setting up" Juvia answered as Levy passed each of them their own cup and napkin.

Jellal spoke up, "How have you all been doing? I haven't seen everyone for a while now," his eyes gazed over everyone in the circle until his eyes landed on me, "Oh? Who are you?"

"Oh I um, I'm Lucy, nice to meet you" I smiled lightly, trying not to look to awkward.

"Nice to meet you Lucy, I'm Jellal" He reached his hand out to for me to shake it and it took me by surprise. I guess he was a formal guy, which I wouldn't expect based on his face tattoo and bright blue hair. I shook his hand out of politeness.

"Oh yeah sorry, I forgot to mention that Lucy is new to our group" Levy piped in, informing Jellal about the news, "well since we are all here let's begin this tea ceremony thing." Levy held her cup in the air as she spoke and we all raised our cups with her, beginning with a cheers and a small sip of our tea since it was still hot. "So I have a bit of a confession to make" her tone dropped significantly as she hung her head in embarrassment, " I have no idea how to do a tea ceremony"

There was a pause as everyone exchanged looks and then burst into laughter. "Babe you told me you would handle it" Gajeel spoke to Levy as he chuckled lightly.

"Well yeah I was going to research it but then I fell asleep" Levy's cheeks began to turn red in embarrassment.

"Hey Lev, its okay. We can just make up our own" I suggested.

Her eyes lit up and I could tell that she had new found inspiration. "You're right Lu we can make our own very special tea ceremony and this is how it's going to work. We will go in circle and when it is your turn to speak you have to hold your cup in the air like you are giving a toast. Then you tell us about your day at the festival. Once you are done, take a sip of your tea, then wipe your mouth with the super cute napkin and we move to the next person." Everybody's eyes were as wide as saucers as we listened to her ramble on about the process. We all sat there speechless until she eventually spoke up again, "Ok I will start us off" She raised her cup and cleared her throat, and putting on a really bad fake british accent she began, "Hello everyone and thank you all for joining me on this fine day here at this cherry blossom festival. I would just like to say a couple of words." She paused, and cleared her throat once more before laughing at herself and dropping the accent, "In all seriousness though I had a wonderful time today and I hope you all did too. I would like to make this a tradition with us so that we can come back every year and do this together, so that we can keep our bond strong and grow together." She finished smiling cheesily, and wiping her mouth before looking over at Gajeel, silently telling him it was his turn.