The interview.
T: Hi! This is my very first jaunt into this fandom but I'm not a newbie by any stretch of the imagination so don't feel the necessity to be nice to me, I want you're real opinions! I don't own the characters or Gravitation in general and I warn in advance that it'll be of a mixed cannon because I've only got as far as volume 7 in the manga…set about a year after the conclusion of the anime…some OOC and Slash…but then if you read Gravitation the latter shouldn't bother you!
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He smiles on of the wide and seductive smiles that have driven fans wild for years and he says,
"You took you're time getting to that question, didn't you? But then I suppose you've a want to keep the readers in anticipation for a little while."
"Will you answer, Sakuma-san?" She enquires, her pen already poised to write down the exclusive story that will finally get her no good boss to give her that promotion she has already worked her socks off for.
"Of course." The smile deepens into something truthful before he says, "It began three years ago now, back when Grasper was still divided and Bad Luck had not reached beyond the occasional school gig.
"It was rare for me to get fan mail from Japan any more, what with the cost to mail internationally and some of the fans blaming me for the divide between the group.
"Thus when an air mail letter clattered through my door it instantly caught my attention.
"I'd never been a wiz with Kanji even when I was younger and so it was nice to see that after a polite hello in perfectly scripted characters the letter changed into English; the pen strokes uncertain now as though the words were unfamiliar or copied from something else.
"It was a typical fan letter, ranting about how much they had loved me in Grasper and how much they adored my solo work and myself as a person.
"I was about to toss it to one side and get the studio to send back one of those 'thank you for your support, here is my signature, hope to see you at the next concert' letters they had saved onto hard drive when my eyes caught the next sentence.
'Sorry about that, had to get the fan stuff out of the way before I got serious.'
"After that the letter went on to discuss the writer's brother, of how low he was of late, how reserved and unlike himself.
"The writer told me that they knew about my brother's suicide back when I'd been little and my parents had just died and they wondered if I might help him help his brother before it became too late.
"Of course I replied, how could I not when all he wanted was a friend?
"I thought that would be an end to it, thought that he would find his own way to help his brother and not even use my pathetically simplistic advice.
"About a month later, though, the postman arrived with a small package that was again covered in the red and blue stripes distinct to air mail.
"A simple gold ring lay inside along with another letter and a simplistic drawing of two young men who looked so very similar and yet, judging by the victory sign that one was holding about the others head, of two very different personality types.
"The ring fit perfectly and the note, though childish still in the wording and diction, had me laughing to myself on several occasions as I read it.
"I wrote back because the letter had made me happy and I even sent him a picture of my own…a sketch of Kumagorouand myself if I recall correctly.
"After that we became pen pals, sending letters, pictures and presents to one another across the ocean.
"It was nice, actually, to have someone to talk to without putting on a show. To have someone who I could give a little of the me I had been keeping private…the me I did not want the world to see.
"In the summer after we'd began writing to one another, so about two months later, I was coming to Tokyo for some business and I suggested to him that we meet and perhaps go out somewhere together.
"That first meeting was as all first meetings, full of silences, misread signals and the chemistry that makes a friendship work.
"After that I started finding excuses to come back to see him, started cancelling interviews and generally doing major harm to my solo carer.
"K eventually put a stop to it and after placing me under hose arrest grilled me in regards to why I had been spending so much time in a country I had claimed to have a few months back.
"I tried every lie in the book until eventually K placed a gun to my head and said,
'You have been going over for dates.'
"Until that point I had not really considered a romantic liaison between us…not because of the age difference or our genders but just because it had not come to mind.
"Of course once K said the 'D' word I knew he was right, new that I had fallen head over heals with the boy and our meetings as 'friends' had become as dates for me.
"Seeing my tomato like colour K had dropped the gun and remarked,
'Bingo!' Before he had horded me out of the house and told me to 'go get them!'
"I bought out a penthouse suite and then sent him an invite to come and part with me.
"I will make no secret in the fact that I was nervous and that I spent a good hour changing my outfit only to end out in the one I had started out with.
"When he arrived he was decked out in his casual gear, clutching a board game and a small wicker hamper.
"I was stressed and thus not the best of company for an hour and then he stole Kumagorou and did a little dance with the bunny that eased my tension.
"We ate dinner in a polite fashion before he decided to have a food fight and after clearing as much of the mess as we could we decided to break out the game, which turned out to be Monopoly.
"Thankfully I had long since memorised my American board and thus the Kanji posed me no problem what so ever.
"I had found my courage by that point and I suggested to him that we change the game slightly so that it was now Strip Monopoly.
"Needless to say one thing lead to another and you'll forgive me if I don't dwell on the details, I want some aspects of my life to remain private, after all.
"Having him with me…having his love…it made me feel unique and though it made sense to tell those that we cared about we both decided early on that we liked it being just the two of us.
"Of course K had to be told that there was someone in my life, but I made sure never to specifically mention a name or a gender.
"A year after that first night I got the call from Noriko regarding Bad Luck and their concert.
"Of course I leapt at the chance of being in Tokyo even if for only a little while and I soon found that in Shuichi there was something to admire and a talent beyond compare if he would only learn to loosen up a little more.
"I recall the phone call I got from my boyfriend the night Noriko had arranged for a meeting of the Grasper members. Apparently he had been hoisted out of the apartment with Shuichi and wishing to maintain his 'fan' persona he had had no choice but to invite himself along to the gathering.
"Pretending to have never met him was fun, actually, and I was doing really well at ignoring how handsome he looked that evening until he happened to catch my eye and smile in that oh so lazy fashion that he has reserved for me alone.
"After that I had to get out of there and he found a perfect excuse in an 'illness' which allowed us to escape while maintaining the personalities we had built for ourselves.
"Despite the guilt that had begun to swamp me I was glad for the decision to keep our relationship private after I saw how the media chewed Shuichi and Eri-san out, because I knew that at the time I could not handle such attention…could not handle people prying into the almost complete perfection that our relationship had become.
"Despite the happiness it had bestowed me I could not love Tokyo and after Shuichi found 'happiness' with Eri-san it made sense for me to go back to New York and try again with my solo carer.
"I suppose I should have seen that eventually my constant trips to Tokyo or the correspondence I maintained with him in Kyoto would arouse suspicion…
"To be honest I believed that everyone would keep believing the act I put on for them…believed that they would never think that naive little Ryu could have an adult relationship." He pauses then, his fingers absently twirling the gold band on his index finger before he enquires,
"I wonder could I ask you a question, or should the interviewee merely stick to answers?"
"You may ask me anything, Sakuma-san, as long as you recall that I will be writing the question down.
"Of course. What finally got you to realise who it was that I was seeing? I mean for months now I have seen my name attached to some of the brightest starts of this country and then suddenly there were pictures of him all over the papers."
"A reporter in Kyoto saw you together and after a great amount of research to assure that his story was correct he sold it to the tabloids over here."
He nods and she quickly scribbles a few more notes before she enquires,
"How do you think your friends have reacted to the news?"
He smirks and replies,
"I had a long involved phone conversation with Shuichi this morning in which he tried to discern if it was some sort of a joke and then when he realised it was not he went on to discern if I was mad that he had kissed my boyfriend.
"Then Toma rang and gave me a warning not to hurt his brother-in-law which rather scared me if the truth be known.
"After that came Noriko's angry call, in which she asked if my brain had been stolen by space aliens or something along those lines.
"In other words I think that are reacting just as I thought they might."
"Will Mr Uesugi be coming to join you in America now that this secret has been revealed?"
"Actually it was to that regard that I asked for this interview and that other thing I mentioned to you when I called."
This was the moment she had been waiting for, the major exclusive that would earn her a story on network television just as she had always hoped and dreamed.
Producing the tiny camcorder that Sakuma had requested when he had phoned to arrange the interview she pressed the record button and enquired,
"What do you have to say, Sakuma-san?"
The man smiles to the camera, this one truer than those that had come before and then he says,
"Tatsuha, the game is up and it is time for us to decide whether this is worth a shot or not…whether we want to go to the next level of commitment.
"I love you and I want to spend my life proving that to you if only you will let me."
She presses the stop button after a moment recording the serious expression that is now on his face and smiles to herself as she pictures the money she will earn by selling this clip to not only the American networks but to the international companies also.
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By the next day the small clip, along with an interview with the journalist that had taken it, is being broadcast almost internationally and by the afternoon a flock of journalists are camped in front of Sakuma-san's door.
At one o'clock precisely the press are met with a loud gun shot which seems to announce the appearance of the young man they have been waiting for.
They go to scrum him, to ask what he will be responding to Sakuma-san's proposal, but another loud gun shot from the vicinity of a man who turns out to be Bad Luck's manager, stops them in their tracks.
The boy comes alone to the doorway and he has only to knock once before Sakuma-san is there, a welcoming smile clear on his face.
The young man whispers something to him and the older man smirks before he wraps him into an intimate kiss.
They do not separate immediately despite the flash of cameras and the press of the journalists about them.
Once the kiss is broken Sakuma-san answers as many questions as he can before the young man stops him with a hurried burble of Japanese and answers each question posed to him in broken and heavily accented English.
"Yes I have accepted Ryu's proposal, yes I shall be moving out here to America, no I will not be coming immediately , yes that is because I wish to finish my schooling…now if you do not mind Ryu and I have some catching up to do!" He smiles brightly for the cameras and then ceasing Sakuma-san's hand drags him off into the privacy of the house.
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T: A few things before I go…the whole idea of Tatsuha and Ryuichi being an item during the cannon of the series came after seeing their first meeting in volume 3 (I think). It just seemed to me that there was…something…there between the pair and so I made this jump of intuition. I've twiddle a little with the Ryu personality because to me it seems like both his stage presence and the child like act he puts on otherwise are a part of a greater well of intelligence and charm that he's keeping to himself. The dead parents and the brother killed via suicide are a plot construction to give my lovers an equal footing to start their relationship on. Oh and I know that I said I've only read as far as 7 but I know Ryu goes back to America in the manga and thus he does as such here. Ryu being a little lax as far as his native language is concerned seems to be one of those fan canon things and makes enough sense that I've put it in here…I think that's it! R+R and I may write a sequel with Tatsuha.