Disclaimer: I do not own Durarara!
Warning: Shounen-ai
Date Started: 08/13/2015
Date Released: 03/26/2016
Why is a guest of Hibiya-sama helping him with his workload? Is the quality of his service...inadequate?
The Person who Stole my Attention... and Job?!
Shitsuo never thought much of Hibiya's beloved cousin, Sakuraya, due to him being the son of a branch family of the Orihara clan. Sakuraya does not visit the main household very often so Shitsuo never saw him enough to acquire a personal opinion of him. Although he heard from the gossiping young maids that whenever Sakuraya comes to visit Hibiya, Hibiya will act more considerate of his actions. He wonders what they meant by that and what was Sakuraya's secret?
Hibiya, while slowly becoming a great leader for the clan, does not know when he is working his employees to the death! Last year for his cute nephew's birthday, Hibiya made them work weeks straight to show the other clans how much the Orihara clan value all of their members and how much they put great care into celebrating everyone's birthdays.
While that is understandable, it was quite hard for Shitsuo since he was the butler for the family. He had to overlook the preparations for the party and had to change a few major events due to Hibya's last minute decisions on how to make the party more intriguing! It was very nerve-racking especially since Hibiya decided that they required a few 'exotic' animals to liven up the party. Snow leopards, Sumatran tigers, and giant pandas are NOT exotic animals! They are EXTICT animals! Thank goodness, Hibiya was not naive enough to make it a petting zoo or else that party might have ended up as a disaster.
Shitsuo gave a deep sigh while reminiscing the hellish weeks it was to set up for that party. For this past month, they were making preparations for Sakuraya's birthday. Hibiya wanted to make it a grand party with an epic gift at the end. He wanted to give Sakuraya a takizakura* which was not so bad...if he did not picked the Miharu Takizakura as the gift. Of all the trees he could have picked, he had to pick a national treasure of Japan. Even if somehow magically Japan agreed to trade the Miharu Takizakura, how were they suppose to carry such an ancient ginormous cherry blossom tree which was over 1000 years old to Hibiya's house, then to Sakuraya's? Shitsuo wanted to cry at the mere thought of it.
He could easily be able to schedule a private, flower viewing party at the Takizakura Park, but making Japan relinquish their national treasure is a whole another matter.
There was a thing called going overboard and Hibiya was beyond that point already.
Thankfully, the maids managed to convince Hibiya's father, Izaya, to invite Sakuraya over to the main house to overlook his own party planning and to calm Hibiya down a bit for the week before his birthday.
Sakuraya had managed to convince Hibiya that he wanted a small, private party with only his family and friends that Hibiya relented some of his...more extreme ideas. So now Sakuraya will be staying here for 3 weeks and Shitsuo will finally be able to see what he will do to make Hibiya become more of a carefree person. Hopefully he can learn and use some of Sakuraya's techniques to help pacify Hibiya in the future too.
While Sakuraya did say this would be a small party, their clan has around 80 people and with all of his friends also being invited, the total of people coming to the party would be 105. Shitsuo mentally mapped out how to arrange the tables, chairs, and the decorations as he walked around in the gardens.
Since Sakuraya was born on the 27th of March, it was the perfect time to watch the flowers in their full bloom on that day and Hibiya agreed with this plan.
'Speak of the devil and he will appear.' as Shitsuo walked towards the Koi pond and saw a delicate small hand feeding the fish with their high quality wheat germ food pellets. The gardener was out for this week due to a family emergency so Shitsuo took up the task of feeding the Koi fish now that the weather was slowly becoming warmer and they were getting hungry again. It seems that he was too late though and someone else took up the task.
He looked at the famous person named Sakuraya, taking in the picture of the petite figure sitting on a bench feeding the fish.
'He is simply breathtaking' he thought to himself. 'Is this the extraordinary beauty Kaguya-hime* had also that compelled the five princes to take up her impossible requests?'
Shitsuo never had the time to really look at Sakuraya up close before, he always had to run errands or check up on the servants and never really focused on what their guests looked like. Now that he finally had a chance to see Sakuraya, he was absolutely blown away by his beauty. He was just absolutely stunning. He looked like a life-size doll with his white kimono and soft pastel pink haori; it was unrealistic that a person can look so flawless. All of the Orihara clan members had smooth black hair with some kind of shade of red for their eyes and soft facial features. Sakuraya had all of those traits, but somehow he looks extraordinary beautiful compared to the rest of the Orihara family, which was saying quite a bit since all of them make the living examples of the word gorgeous.
"Thank you Sakuraya-sama for feeding the fish for me. May I continue the job for you?" he asked politely while bowing lowly at him.
"Haha, it's alright, I'm almost done anyway." 'Wow, even his voice sounds wonderful,' Shitsuo thought to himself.
"Of course, please allow me to help you put the food away after you finish feeding then." He respectively stood a few feet behind where Sakuraya was sitting so he doesn't invade his personal space.
"Oh it's not heavy, I can do it myself."
"..." 'He's very independent, however, let me do my job!' "Oh I insist. You will be spending the day with Hibya-sama later on so you will need to keep your strength up; please allow me to help you with this at least."
"Haha, then how about we walk back together? However, since I was the one who took the bag, I want to be the person who puts it back."
"...I suppose that's fine. Although, please allow me to carry it for you until we return to the house."
"Wow, you're so persistent mister butler, I bet you won't give up until I yield eh? Fine fine, please help me carry this bag." he joked to Shitsuo.
Shitsuo mentally sighed in relief. He didn't want people to think that he was forcing the guests to work also.
Sakuraya threw the last pellets into the pond before picking up the bag beside him, he got up from his bench and walked towards Shitsuo, lifting it with both of his hands, he presented the bag to Shitsuo.
"Here you go mister butler."
Shitsuo bowed before proceeding to take the bag from Sakuraya, "thank you very much for your help Sakuraya-sama."
He giggled at the butler's actions. "It's not a problem. Oh, I never did get a chance to hear your name mister butler."
"Where are my manners, my name is Heiwajima Shitsuo, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Sakuraya-sama."
"I know that you heard of me, but allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Orihara Sakuraya, it's an honor to meet the butler of the main family. I have heard great things about you, but no one told me how handsome you were also." he bowed as Shitsuo blushed at the words. It's almost unheard of for any nobles to give respect to other families' servants personally. They would just tell the hosting family of their compliments, never directly talking to the servants especially as if they were equals. So this came as quite as surprise to Shitsuo. He smiled before quickly covering his facial expression and lightly coughing into his hand.
"We should get going, lunch will start in approximately 10 minutes Sakuraya-sama."
"Alright, please lead the quickest way back then Heiwajima-san."
"Thank you for leading me back Heiwajima-san, may I have the bag back so I can place it properly into the cabinet?"
Shitsuo was quite tempted to put it back himself now that it's in his possession, but he didn't want to upset his guest. To perform his work properly and upset his guest or let Sakuraya-sama do it and get shamed for being a horrible butler, this was a very hard decision to make. He looked at Sakuraya's innocent face as he lifted his hands for the bag.
'Ugh, shit, I have no idea what to do at all.' He glanced subtlety around the room to see if there was anyone lingering before making his decision. He handed the bag to Sakuraya and watched as his lips turned upward, giving such a beautiful smile as he was thanked.
'At least I don't feel guilty as much as before since I get to see such a nice smile for this decision.'
"I'm going to the dining room now, thank you once again. I volunteered to feed the Koi fish for the week since I heard Watanabe-san will be out so I hope to see you there again." he smiled as he left the room.
'Wait what, no that's suppose to be my job since he's off! Come back!' he looked at the back at the person who stole his attention and his job.
He was hoping that he would see Sakuraya again so he could convince Sakuraya why taking his job is not a good idea. However it seems that fate was not on his side that day. So the next morning, he was hoping to get the food pellets before Sakuraya and they could walk there together so at least it looks like he wasn't making Sakuraya carry something heavy (1 pound) and his guest won't be upset that Shitsuo went behind his back and feed the fish without him. It was the best solution for this situation, however he got sidetracked when a maid dropped a plate and he cleaned up the broken shards for her. He frowned as he went to the kitchen to throw away the broken glassware, before noticing that the bag of food pellets was missing.
'Dang it!'
He jogged to the pond and saw Sakuraya feeding the fish. He grumbled in disappointment that he took too long helping the maid that he allow Sakuraya did some heavy-lifting.
"I apologize for arriving late, I shall repent by taking care of the fish for the rest of the week."
"Haha, it's not a big deal Heiwajima-san, I like taking care of the fish, I do it at home all the time."
"That might be true, but this should be a vacation for you, you shouldn't have to do the same chores as you would do at home." 'Who the heck stepped aside and let him do chores around his house? If I worked there, I would fire that servant immediately.'
"It's no trouble at all, it's quite fun to do this. I just barely started, would you like to feed them too?" he held out his hand, full with pellets, as he smiled.
"...sure, if you would be so kind." he muttered softly. He grabbed a few of the pellets from Sakuraya's hands before throwing them into the pond for the Koi fish to gobble them up.
"Haha you're suppose to take all of them silly." Sakuraya grabbed his hand and poured the remaining food onto his hand before releasing him.
'His hand feels so soft...'
He flushed as he threw the food in the pond.
He shook his head as Sakuraya raised the bag towards him.
"It's alright, if you enjoy doing this, then I won't take that pleasure from you."
"Haha you're such a charmer Heiwajima-san."
He couldn't hold back his reaction to blush at those words. He quickly turned away to prevent Sakuraya from seeing his reactions.
"So how is the planning going? I hope my birthday party hasn't stress any of the servants of this household . I know that Hibiya-kun can be a little excessive with these kind of events." He smiled lightly, but it was obvious that he was also concerned.
"It...hasn't been too challenging. Your presence has helped in calming Hibiya-sama. Thank you for your concern though."
The smile that was given was worth all of the hard work that he had to prepare for the party. He couldn't help but to smile in return.
"So I heard that you are having your hands heavy with Hibiya's friend, Delic-san." he giggled.
His smile vanished immediately at that name. He loathed, LOATHED that person. How dare he approach Hibiya-sama and try to taint him with his seductive words and wandering hands. He's like a cockroach, every time Shitsuo managed to throw him out, he comes back better than ever.
Sakuraya quickly apologize seeing as how dark Shitsuo's face became. "Oh dear, I'm terribly sorry, did I say something wrong?" His hands raised in mid-air, hesitated if he wanted to hold Shitsuo's hand or not.
"It's not that, I just have a different opinion of Delic than that of Hibiya-sama. He has an...uncouth personality."
"Haha, I see, well isn't it a good thing for Hibiya-kun to be surrounded by different types of personalities? When he will become the next leader, he will have to deal with many people and while Delic-san is more...unique for a noble, he doesn't mean any harm I believe."
'Great...another Delic supporter...'
He sighed, "I suppose you're right, but I have the right to toss him out whenever he makes those disgusting remarks about Hibiya-sama or anyone's bodies."
"Haha he is a different type of intense compared to Hibiya-kun."
"That's mildly putting it...he's a bloody wanker" he whispered the last part.
"Hm?"
"No nothing, we should get going now Sakuraya-sama." He took the bag of fish food from Sakuraya's side and held his other hand for Sakuraya to take.
"Yes, Heiwajima-san." It felt nice when Sakuraya reached up to accept his hand. He felt his body heat up at what he just thought, but kept calm as Sakuraya stood up and balanced himself with his hand.
'He is still your master. Stop making these situations weird.'
Author's Note
I was hoping to make this a big one-shot, but I wanted to release it in time for Sakuraya's birthday (that I made up since this is usually when Sakura trees bloom in Japan).
*Takizakura – waterfall sakura – a huge tree (12 meters high, trunk is 9.5 meters, etc) that looks like a cascading waterfall.
*Kaguya-hime is from the folktale "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter". She is the legendary gorgeous princess of the Moon who was discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a bamboo plant. When she grew up, she became super pretty and received many marriage proposals. She didn't want any of them so she proposed a challenge for her suitors by giving them each an impossible task. So basically she's pretty and smart. ;)
I didn't want to write Hibiya-sama when Shitsuo was mentally thinking about him because adding a 's to Hibiya-sama (Hibiya-sama's ) looks very awkward. Hopefully I can finish the rest soon.
If I made any grammar mistakes, I'm sorry, I tried proofreading it but I might have missed a few since I finished up writing the chapter today. If you see any that is unbearable to read, please comment so I can fix it.