:: THREE DAYS EARLIER
"A new guy!?" Psyche bounced happily. The pink orbs of his eyes were glimmering in excitement.
The infamous information broker of Shinjuku, Izaya Orihara, who—to everyone's surprise, should they have known about this—was currently living with his archenemy, had gathered their twins together to discuss about an addition to their 'big family'. Sitting together on two sofas, were Izaya and his twins, and Shizuo's. It must have looked very bizarre to other people's eyes, that there were four Izayas sitting side by side and four Shizuo's look-a-likes just across them. If they weren't wearing different clothes, no one could really tell who was who.
It was the blond in pristine white suit who first scoffed over the idea. "So I have to anticipate yet another Izaya? Like Hell," Delic rolled his eyes disapprovingly. Although he knew that he was being a hypocrite, as he was so happy when Hibiya first came into the family because he had been having unrequited love toward Psyche since forever. But now that he had finally settled with Hibiya, another Izaya would only mean more pain in the ass to him.
"Delic-san, I think we have to welcome him like we did to Hibiya-san," said Tsugaru, the oldest of the twins, as he smiled kindly.
"I don't wanna!" Delic insisted. "Hibiya was different; he was really mesmerizing!" Delic turned his head toward his beloved boyfriend. "I fell in love with him on the first sight…" he then jumped from his seat and knelt to his little prince, Hibiya, taking his petite, pale hands into his own. He looked deep into the golden eyes of his lover, who in turn lowered his head to hide his embarrassment.
"Delic! Not in front of everyone!" Hibiya blushed red like a tomato.
The original, Izaya, who had been watching in silent as he waited for a chance to speak, couldn't waste his time anymore and finally spoke up. He knotted his eyebrows in frustration as he massaged his temples. "Look, I don't expect you to be friends with him. Just don't go around bullying him."
"H—How does he look like?" Hibiya replied, just to keep the conversation going since Delic wasn't stopping on holding his hands; rather, the blond was now stroking his face toward his fingers.
"Well, he wears exactly the same attire as Tsugaru… Only his was pink."
Psyche blinked for a few times, still couldn't fully process Izaya's words. "Can we swap clothes? I wanna wear the same clothes as Tsu-chan, too!"
"No, Psyche. I wouldn't be able to differentiate you two, then." Izaya sighed. How in the world could a genius like him produce a dumb, over-excited person like Psyche? "He'll be in Tokyo in three days, but unfortunately I can't pick him up because I have some work to do.
"So… Any volunteers?"
Everyone was in silence, one looking at the other.
"I'm afraid I can't," Hachimenroppi, the youngest twin of Izaya's, broke the silence. "Tsukishima and I have made some plans to fix his glasses that day."
"Ro—Roppi-san!" the blond in glasses cut him off, before turning to Izaya. "Izaya-san, if I really have to pick him up, it can wait!"
"Tsukishima…" Hachimenroppi's shoulder drooped in disappointment. He knew Tsukishima all too well, how selfless he was, and how he would easily put anyone else's matters before his own. Knowing that arguing with him wouldn't bring him anywhere and instead make Tsukishima sad, Hachimenroppi glanced hopefully at Izaya, telling him that he had been looking forward to this date.
Looking at his own face with big puppy eyes made Izaya cringe inwardly. "Fine, fine. Don't worry, I won't disturb your date," he waved his hands defeatedly. The raven then turned his bossy sight to Delic and Hibiya, in which Delic smirked mischievously in return.
"Too bad we can't, either," Delic put his index finger in show as he clucked his tongue. "Y'see, the musk-scented and almond-flavored lube, Hibiya's favorite, had ran out. So we have to buy some more, right, my little prince?" he shamelessly raised his eyebrow toward Hibiya.
"DELIC!" Hibiya bashed Delic's head, his lips trembling in shame.
'Why is it so hard for me to find someone to go to the airport, damn it…' Izaya grunted to himself. "So the rest are just you three," Izaya glared menacingly at Psyche, Tsugaru, and Shitsuo. "You three better come up with a nice excuse, or else…"
"I can go," Tsugaru smiled gently without a doubt. His chatterbox boyfriend, on the other hand, was against the idea. For some reason he panicked, fidgeting all over as he grabbed the sleeves of Tsugaru's hakama, before looking up at Izaya. "We—We can't, either!" he put on a tough face despite his shaky voice.
"I just remembered that I need new batteries for my headphones!"
"Batteries? I have some, Psyche." his counterpart replied in between his painful groans from Hibiya's punches to his stomach.
"E—Eh? B—But I don't wanna burden you, Delic-chan!" Psyche was nearly in tears because he couldn't come up with more excuse. He tugged Tsugaru's sleeves relentlessly, begging the latter to go with his idea. "Right, Tsu-chan? Right?"
"You look like you don't want me to go so much, Psyche… What happened?" Tsugaru, not getting any clue about Psyche's behavior, stroked the raven's hair to soothe him.
"I—I—" Psyche's eyes traveled around anxiously, before stopping at Izaya who was glaring at him with narrowed, accusing eyes. Like a dog with its tail between its legs, he slowly lowered his eyes before finding another blond; this one was wearing a butler's uniform. Finally finding a glimmer of hope, his eyes brightened.
"Right!" Psyche clapped his hands happily. "Shitsu-chan can go!" he was so relieved that now he and Tsugaru didn't have to go.
"Are you okay with this?" Izaya looked at the red-eyed butler. 'You better say yes or I'll throw you useless bunch of stupid clones from the top of Tokyo Tower…' he cursed inwardly.
"Yes," Shitsuo nodded.
Izaya sighed in relief. At least a clone was made with favorable treats.
"I'm counting on you, Shitsuo."
When night came, everyone had returned to their own rooms, including the butler, Shitsuo. As always, he spent his night reading an advanced-level cooking book, to find new recipes for everyone to enjoy. When he first came into this world, he was so taken aback over the fact that everyone who lived here had such low-nutrition daily intakes. The gap of each person's liking was so wide that it took him so long to figure out how to work things out.
For example, Shizuo liked sweets so much he rarely ate anything else except deserts. Izaya, on the other hand, loved sushi—tuna belly sushi, in particular, and hated sweets because it reminded him of Shizuo. To make things fair, Shitsuo had to make delicious deserts for every meal, and it should be delicious enough that Shizuo had no choice but to eat his main meal first before having the deserts as a 'reward'.
Everything was complicated but somehow Shitsuo managed.
"Hot white chocolates with rum and marshmallows?" Shitsuo mumbled to himself as he read the cooking book intently.
He was about to take a note when he heard a knock on his door.
"Shitsu-chan, are you awake?" Psyche's whisper was heard from behind the door.
"Yes." Shitsuo answered concisely.
He was about to get up and open the door when Psyche stopped him, "Ah, don't bother, Shitsu-chan! It's already late and I don't think Tsu-chan would be happy knowing us meeting at night…"
Shitsuo knotted his eyebrows, thinking that Psyche worried over the most trivial things.
Despite of that he obediently remained seated on his desk, waiting for Psyche to continue.
"Um…" Psyche mumbled incoherently. "I—I know that maybe I'm worrying over nothing, but ever since today when we had that talk, something has been bugging me, that… maybe the new comer would come to like Tsu-chan… not as a friend, but as… You know.
"I don't know if this is too much to ask, b—but… could you please… grab his attention?" Psyche's voice was getting weaker word by word. The more he told Shitsuo about his request, the more he realized that jealousy had taken the better of him. And to think that he was jealous over someone he hasn't even met yet? Even Psyche himself didn't understand why he was. "Tsu-chan is really nice and everyone likes him, so—"
"I understand." Shitsuo's calming voice was heard from inside the room. Psyche blinked, trying to get rid of the budding tears that had started to blur his sight.
"You—You really don't mind?" Psyche asked once more.
"Yes." Shitsuo answered reassuringly.
Psyche smiled in relief. It was as if a heavy lump inside his chest had finally lifted. "Th—Thank you! Thank you so much, Shitsu-chan!" he wiped the tears that failed to roll down his cheeks. "I—I will repay you! What do you want me to do? Anything!" he bounced happily.
"You don't need to do anything."
"Shitsu-chaaan!" Psyche was trying so hard to hold himself from opening the door and give Shitsuo a big hug to show him his gratitude. He really did want to hug Shitsuo, but he didn't want to cheat on Tsugaru. A man should remain loyal to his loved one! So instead, he bowed deeply, although he knew that Shitsuo wouldn't be able to see him bowing with the door closed.
"Thank you, Shitsu-chan!"
"You're welcome, Psyche." Psyche somehow could see Shitsuo smiling.
"Well then, I… I guess I'll just return to my room…" Psyche stroked the back of his head, feeling embarrassed after spilling so much. "Good night, Shitsu-chan!"
"Good night." Shitsuo replied. When he heard the sound of footsteps going further, he covered his mouth with his gloved hand to muffle a yawn.
"Let's call it a day…" Shitsuo whispered to himself. He put a bookmark on the page about the recipe he had read as he reminded himself to try the recipe tomorrow morning, before closing the cooking book, and turning off the desk lamp.
:: EIGHT HOURS EARLIER
When the morning of the scheduled day finally arrived, Shitsuo was still getting ready when Izaya—followed by Psyche—made their unauthorized way into his room.
"I would be very thankful if you remember to knock before coming in next time, Izaya-san," Shitsuo was still tying his black tie when Izaya stepped in.
"This is my house," Izaya replied nonchalantly. "Well, that aside…" he handed out a crumpled piece of paper to Shitsuo, to which the latter wondered why the paper was so crumpled and why Izaya didn't make an attempt to rewrite it to make it more presentable.
"Remember this well, Shitsuo," the information broker, however, didn't look like he was feeling guilty at all. "Have I mentioned this before? Maybe, whatever," he shrugged. "Anyway, his name is Sakuraya, and he wears the exact hakama as Tsugaru's, only his is pink in color. He has my face. Meet him at Narita Airport, 11 AM, sharp. And he should notice you right away since I've sent him your photo."
Shitsuo nodded, sinking in every single information Izaya gave simultaneously without a pause. He secured the sad, crumpled paper inside the pocket of his swallowtail coat, before Psyche, who had been hiding behind Izaya, called his name nervously.
"Um… You still remember about our promise, right?" Psyche asked, his fingers busy playing with the buttons of his coat to keep himself from panicking. "I—I'm counting on you!"
"About what?" Izaya narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"N—Nothing!" Psyche waved his hands restlessly. "I just told Shitsu-chan that he should go for grocery shopping and make a delicious dinner tonight!" Psyche took Izaya's arm and clutched onto it firmly. Izaya's curious eyes were so frightening! "Right, Iza-chan? We should give Sakuraya—I mean, Saku-chan, a warm welcome, right? Let's hold a party!"
Izaya shrugged. He knew that something was off with Psyche, but he knew better that Psyche must be in yet another senseless delusion, thus paying attention to it could only waste his precious time. "Whatever. Don't get lost and get back home before dinner," he ordered Shitsuo, sending him off.
Shitsuo, who had finished dressing up, nodded in reply before walking passed Izaya and Psyche, out of his room.
Psyche crossed his fingers hopefully and prayed, 'Don't let him fall in love with Tsu-chan, Shitsu-chan!'
Izaya could feel his upper lip twitching over Psyche's weird behavior. "Just what's wrong with you, Psyche?"
Psyche jumped in shock and awkwardly released his apparently-too-strong grip off of Izaya's arm.
"Nothing!" he grinned sheepishly before taking slow steps back. "I—I'll just go wash the dishes for tonight's dinner!"
Before Izaya could even retort back, the pink-eyed raven was already out of the room.
:: FOUR HOURS EARLIER
Arrived half an hour earlier than scheduled, Shitsuo had been waiting for hours already at the arrival gate of the airport and he started to wonder whether they accidentally walked passed each other or whether Sakuraya had actually arrived much earlier and finally decided to go to Izaya's apartment on his own.
But that shouldn't be the case. Izaya had it written which flight Sakuraya took and the arrival time. There shouldn't be any mistake.
Exhaling deeply, Shitsuo took out his cellphone from the pocket of his coat and dialed Izaya's office number.
It was Namie Yagiri, Izaya's one and only secretary, who picked the call.
"Hello, this is Shitsuo," Shitsuo's voice was as calm and collected as ever, despite actually panicking right now. "I'm at the arrival gate of Narita Airport right now. I've been waiting for exactly two hours and fourteen minutes but I haven't seen Sakuraya-san yet."
"…I see." His lips curved into a slight frown when Namie told him that no one named Sakuraya came to Izaya's apartment yet.
Shitsuo ended the call in disappointment.
For the umpteenth time his eyes roamed through the arrival gate, feeling even more discouraged each time he saw passengers met their acquaintances and walked out of the building.
'I should be home at least at 4 PM…' Shitsuo reminded himself. He sighed in worry. But it was already passed 1 PM… The people living in Izaya's apartment usually had dinner around six because Izaya and Delic cared so much about their figures, while Hibiya believed that a great noble should live a healthy lifestyle. Not to mention that it took around an hour to prepare for a dinner, and it didn't make things better that tonight's dinner would be more elaborate than the usual, since they would be celebrating Sakuraya's arrival.
'Should I look around once more?'
:: TWO HOURS EARLIER
Shitsuo was already a panting mess. He ran his way throughout the whole building for two more hours, and now his body was feeling so hot from running and he had gotten rid of his swallowtail coat, vest, gloves—everything, leaving only his white shirt which sleeves had been rolled up to his elbows, and his jet black pants.
He wiped the sweat on his forehead and licked some more around his lips. He looked at his golden pocket watch, only to feel even more anxious since it was already 3 PM and he needed to arrive at Izaya's apartment in one hour. Which was impossible. Because even with little to no traffic, it should take him at least two hours by car to arrive at Shinjuku.
Giving up, he walked out of the building and got into his car, assuming that Sakuraya had indeed gone from the airport ahead of him and should be somewhere near Shinjuku. He prayed inside his mind so he could find Sakuraya on his way to Izaya's apartment.
:: PRESENT TIME
After driving through the highway for about two hours, Shitsuo finally arrived at Shinjuku and decided to go for a detour to Shinjuku Park, just across the biggest and busiest train station in Japan, Shinjuku Station. He parked his car somewhere near the train station before buying some drinks for himself. He was already an hour late from the dinner time, anyway, so he figured that Izaya must have already catered some foods for everyone and his presence wasn't needed anymore.
Perhaps it was true what they said, that when you were feeling down, it seemed like the whole world hated you.
He would be lying if he said that he didn't hate Sakuraya already, someone he hadn't even met yet.
With his shoulders slumped, he made his way into the big park, enjoying the Spring breeze under the golden light of the twilight sun. He tried to free his mind from negative thoughts and enjoy the view of cherry blossom trees around him. The flower petals were falling down beautifully from the trees, and the sound of tree leaves scraping onto each other, created a very relaxing atmosphere that could make anyone forget about all bad things in the world.
Who would have imagined that such a beautiful park existed just behind the bustling train station? It was as if this park was a hideaway place for those who need to find a break from their strangling routine.
"I didn't even realize that it's the cherry blossom flowers' blooming season right now…" Shitsuo whispered to himself. He slowly found himself able to smile again, despite a very thin one.
He was still walking slowly through the park, enjoying the beautiful scenery as he drank his bottled hot green tea, until his eyes found someone in pink hakama sitting on a grass field that was now fully covered in pink flower petals. The pink color of his clothes and the grass field matched each other it looked as if he diffused with the field itself. The long sleeves of his hakama were so long it covered his arms whole.
The man was smiling to himself, humming, as he was playing with a branch of cherry blossom flowers. As he sang a song he blew the flowers gently, watching as the petals blew into the sky, joining the rest that were falling down from the trees.
Shitsuo's eyes widened, he froze in fascination.
He knew right away that he was the man he had been looking so desperately for the past few hours. He had seen four men with a face identical to him, but the one who was sitting across him right now was the most beautiful of them all. In all honesty, he was, probably, the most beautiful person he had ever seen in his life.
When the wind grew stronger, the long sleeves of his hakama flew along, in a way so beautiful, so beautiful, it looked like he was one with the wind… The way his black, silky hair moved gracefully, in rhythm with the wind… And the way those red lips curved upward into the most beautiful smile…
If Shitsuo's jaw could drop, he swore, it would.
He blinked several times just to make sure that he was still on the grounds, thinking that this was just his hallucination since he just had the worst day of his life.
But no, the man was real.
The beautiful man was still there, sitting on the grass field.
Shitsuo couldn't move an inch even though his eyes could, following that person who was now walking barefoot toward him.
Closer. To. Him.
He was now standing right in front of Shitsuo.
"Hello," Sakuraya bowed to Shitsuo as an introduction, before studying Shitsuo's appearance as he tilted his head to a side.
He waited for Shitsuo's reply, but the latter remained stiff as a stone, so he reached out his arm and tugged the rolled sleeve of Shitsuo's shirt gently.
The blond butler didn't even realize that his cheeks were now beet red. Trying to calm his beating heart down, he swallowed a lump as he took a closer look at Sakuraya's face. The orbs of his eyes were soft pink in color, completely different to Psyche's magenta ones although both were pink. His long eyelashes framed his eyes in just the right way. Shitsuo secretly liked how contrast the color of Sakuraya's red lips and his pale skin.
"Hello?" Sakuraya tried once more as he waved his hand in front of Shitsuo's face.
Finally the taller man snapped from his daydream, jolting slightly in the process.
"Ah, I," Shitsuo didn't even have enough courage to look at Sakuraya in the eyes without blushing so much, so he looked to the pastel colored bricks where he was standing on instead as a distraction.
"Shitsuo-san, isn't it?" Sakuraya smiled kindly. "Izaya-san has told me about you."
Sakuraya took a few steps back and played around with his the long sleeves of his hakama, swinging them in the air playfully as he chuckled to himself. He spun on his feet, as if he was dancing on the ground, before stopping with his two feet touching each other. He looked straight at Shitsuo with his cherry blossom orbs.
"The flight arrived rather early so we might have missed each other," said Sakuraya. "I was looking for you at the airport, I really did. But there were some children looking for their home teacher on a field trip, so I went to help them," he smiled apologetically. "Turned out their group was already off, so I couldn't help but to help them find their group.
"…
"Hey, are you listening to me?" Sakuraya narrowed his eyes.
Despite not listening any of it, Shitsuo nodded. He still could feel his cheeks reddening, so he covered half of his face with his hand to hide it from Sakuraya. Like he could say out loud that he was actually too intoxicated by Sakuraya's voice rather than the content of the conversation.
"I'm sorry." Sakuraya bowed deeply. "Did you wait for too long? I don't have that much money right now, but it should be enough for a dinner."
"Ah," Shitsuo chuckled nervously. "I think we're already too late to have a dinner with everyone. I'm sorry to say that we might have to postpone your homecoming dinner…" He didn't know how to act in front of Sakuraya, it was as if all reasons had flown out of his mind and he couldn't think logically at all.
"I… I'm very sorry…" Sakuraya bowed deeper than before.
When he raised his head, he looked at Shitsuo with a smile drawn on his face. "Maybe we can eat at a fast food restaurant, then? But if you mind, then I'll be more than willing to help you cook…"
Shitsuo smiled, feeling a little less nervous. "Let's just go to the nearest supermarket, shall we? We can't keep them waiting."
Sakuraya was feeling so guilty he had to force a smile, "I… I'll go get my geta, then," he ran to where he was sitting earlier and put on his socks and geta.
Shitsuo watched in silence as Sakuraya ran back, coming to him.
He sighed inwardly, surrendered.
'I… definitely, without doubt…
Am in love… with this man.'
FOOTNOTE - Hakama: TL;DR, Kimono, but simpler and more wearable. Minority of Japanese people still wear hakama on daily basis. Geta: Traditional sandals with tall wedges (not really wedges but wedges). The cheaper ones are made from rubber, like flip-flops, but the one Sakuraya wears are the 'real' geta which are made of wood.
AUTHOR'S NOTE - Hi! I've been dying to refine this story from a long time ago but finally got the time to actually do it! I sucked big, big time at this story. For those who didn't know, this is actually my very first fan fiction, ever, so there were lots of tweaks here and there. Plot-wise, I loved it, and am still liking this very much even now, but the way I wrote this story and the grammatical errors… It was so messy, I can't even…
Also, I haven't started on living in Japan when I wrote this so there were some 'weeaboo' stuffs in this chapter, but now that I've lived here for years, I've fixed the stuffs to the more accurate ones.
I hope you enjoy this! My first baby… Hngggh…