Infatuation can be a scary thing, you're simply going about your life until one day you notice you've started thinking about this one person more and more until it hurts to know how much you care about them. It starts off as a small little feeling, a sort of crush at first. Sometimes it fades as the friendship grows and you feel as though it was nothing big. After all people have crushes on their friends all the time and they fade quickly. However, sometimes the infatuation never fades completely and after a while it returns-stronger, more pronounced. Infatuation is terrifying, especially to those who have never felt such a thing before.
Sakuraya, an easy going introverted gardener, lives on the outskirts of Ikebukuro. A good few miles out of town and down the dirt road and it would be easy to spot his unusually large home-at least it would be easy to spot the rather exquisit garden. His estate is rather large as it used to be an inn when he was younger, run by his father and mother, who unfortunately passed away when Sakuraya was a child. It is no sad story, nothing extraordinary and Sakuraya doesn't feel much grief, not because he didn't love his parents! He loved them very much, but because it would do no good to be upset over something he had no control of preventing. However due to his ridiculous fear of social interaction he was forced to close the inn after his father's death.
Soon after his father's untimely death he'd met a boy who seemed to share his face-he'd said his name was Virus and Sakuraya remembered thinking it was a strange name for a person. However he hadn't said that outloud, he wouldn't have wanted to be rude. After all the boy seemed nice enough. Though Sakuraya didn't travel to the city often he did need to get supplies every once in a while and he'd always run into that same boy looking starved half to death and dressed in rags. It was surprisingly easy for Sakuraya to associate with the other and he had no problem inviting the male to stay with him.
Even now, Sakuraya is glad he met Virus and that he took the other into his home.
Virus no longer lives with him, he's off with his boyfriend in the city somewhere. Sometimes he comes to visit but his job usually keeps him busy. Sakuraya doesn't mind it though, he keeps himself busy with his garden and has adopted a rather rambunctious puppy that had strayed into his garden one day. His every day life is nothing to be talked about, it's usually the same everyday. Wake up, garden, play with Flower, garden some more, and eventually go to sleep. Of course there's a few meals peppered throughout the day but usually not until late at night-he has a tendency to forget eating sometimes. Variation only comes when it's a rainy day. Rather than garden he'll simply clean or learn a few dances-which he knows way too many of.
Though recently it's come to the gardener's attention that he's starting to feel something he'd never felt before. Towards a certain blond man who works in Ikebukuro as a bodyguard for a debt collector. Regardless of the fact that he's completely terrified of Shizuo Heiwajima he feels a sort of attraction to the male. He wants to know more about Shizuo and find out what it is that makes him happy-he's never really seen a smile on the blond's face unless he's actually talking to the man he's with. Originally he's surprised by the fact that he's so curious about Shizuo-Sakuraya had never been curious about anyway besides Virus in his entire life. Upon realizing his small infatuation with the bodyguard, Sakuraya refused to go to the city for months; until he needed supplies again of course.
At first seeing Shizuo in the city, Sakuraya had assumed him to be Shitsuo-a butler to one of Izaya's "alters" as they(and himself) were referred to and one of Sakuraya's only...friends for lack of a better word. Sakuraya knew of Shitsuo's own infatuation with him, yet he had no idea why the male was infatuated. It was simply a surprise which he chose to acknowledge and keep to himself. It wasn't that Sakuraya didn't like Shitsuo, the man just kept him on edge all the time. It's obvious to say he was surprised when who he thought was Shitsuo hadn't approached him-though upon further inspection of the blond(from a safe, unnoticeable distance of course) it was obvious he wasn't Shitsuo.
There was no cocky air about him, no cold, vermilion optics piercing whatever happened to be in his line of vision. Instead Sakuraya found a sad face and caramel optics looking at the world with a sort of fear-fear of being rejected, hated. Fear of being feared. Shizuo had definitely been a person of interest for the gardener-infatuation at first sight.