The Autobiography.

T: I've been meaning to write a sequel of sorts to 'The Interview' for a while now but I just couldn't quite get the feel right…now I give you a little of the inner workings of Toma's mind (Scary thought) and my own thoughts on Grasper's history! I do not own Gravitation or any of the character's mentioned in this story! Random ANGST and a SLAH warning just to be safe! Is set a year after the last chapter of 'The Interview' and thus two years after the conclusion of the manga/ Anime.

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Toma Seguchi had barricaded his door, had despatched his wife and young son to see her elder brother and, horror of horrors, had turned off his mobile phone.

Thus removed, for the moment at least, from all possible distraction he opens up a Word document on his computer and begins type;

It becomes clear, by this point in the narrative, that I was on the way to becoming both a model son for my parents and completely and utterly miserable with my life.

Then my 'dorm buddies' got it in their heads to get stupidly drunk and thus changed the course of my life forever.

How? I hear you ask…simple…slightly tipsy and looking for a little entertainment while we continued to do away with our brain cells, we headed in the direction of a western style karaoke bar.

As I wobbled across the threshold and into the crowd my ears were accosted by the voice of an angle.

That sounds a little cheesy, I know and yet…

That voice, and the tender vulnerability encased within it, was so completely perfect that it could well have been a divine voice.

Thankfully for me the owner of that voice was not an angle but a rather gangly looking man who I guessed (correctly as it later turned out) to be about 22 years of age.

I stayed at the bar watching that boy sing even after my friends had moved to another bar…indeed I stayed until time was called and the boy finally gave his voice a rest.

The bartender pushed him over a glass of water as he approached and tipped his head in my direction before telling the boy,

"You've got your self quite the fan there, Ryu." The boy…Ryu...flushed a little at that and his fingers had grasped hard to his glass before he moved to come and stand behind me.

"Excuse me?" He had enquired, his voice a little harsh for singing so long and so hard.

As I turned I had a momentary glimpse of the intense blue of his eyes before his hair had fallen as a barrier between us.

"I'm Sakuma Ryuichi…" He had remarked before his had nerves seemed to get the better of him and he had all but frozen in place.

It was clear then that he was shy and not wishing to lose an opportunity merely for that fact I offered him my hand and replied with,

"I'm Seguchi Toma and I believe that your voice could earn you a fortune."

He had remained unsure a moment and then he had taken my hand…that one simple action setting into motion the chain of events that has brought me here.

In the weeks afterwards I placed advertisements around the university for a synth player, dusted off my old keyboard, accosted Ryu into writing a few of his own songs and interviewed four potential candidates for our third member.

Noriko stood out from the word go and though I gave the other candidates a fair go, she was always going to be the winner.

We were originally named 'Nettle Grasper', but after the announcer read the name wrong for our first gig we became lumbered with 'Nittle Grasper' instead.

It took us two years to work our way up the ladder to fame and then everything exploded.

I met Mika turning the first year of that and fell instantly in love with her, enough that when, two years later, she asked me to take her brother Eri with us when we went to America I agreed instantly.

You will forgive me if I do not dwell on 'the incident', for I have no wish to dredge up memories for something that is now all but forgotten.

I changed, of course…became more cautious in my dealings with others and I became also fiercely protective of those that I considered my friends…enough that I believe some people might have begun to get the wrong idea about Eri and myself.

Before I go on I wish to set the record strait in that regard. Eri is as a brother to me, nothing more; nothing less…my love is for Mika alone, something that I know I do not always show.

Back to the tail in hand, however, Grasper had five long years at the top, during which time a change had come upon our lead singer.

For a while Ryu had remained shy and unobtrusive off of stage…this retracted personality due to the loss that he had suffered during his youth.

Then, slowly, he became the bouncy, child like figure who most people think of still as the 'real' Ryu…this over the top personality supposedly so that he might bring happiness to everyone's lives.

It was also during this time that Kumagorou came into our lives.

Ryu claims not to recall how he came by the bunny or why it is named 'Mr. Bear', but there is a certain something in his eyes when he says that, which makes me uncertain as to its validity.

The bunny was discovered on the floor of a festival in Kyoto, not by Ryu, but rather by a nine year old Tatsuha.

I had gone to the festival at Mika's request and Ryu had simply 'tagged along for the ride' as he had put it.

I am sure that most of the readers of this autobiography are going to want me to say that the instant they met there were fireworks…

That was not, I fear, the case.

There was affection between them, true enough, but it was merely the affection of one brother for another, rather than the deeper affection that would later blossom between them.

After discovering the bunny Tatsuha clung to it for dear life, claiming that as he had found him Kumagorou was now his property and that he would rather die than give him up.

It was thankful that the bunny's previous owner did not appear to claim it, or I am sure that there would have been more than a little blood shed for the sake of the creature.

The precious toy came into Ryu's care because Tatsuha wished him to have something to recall him by and because he believed that 'Kuma-chan will be happier with you!'

Since that time the bunny has travelled everywhere with Ryu, recalling to him a little boy who had been so nice to him and who is now Ryu's entire world.

My marriage and Noriko's pregnancy eventually saw an end to Grasper, the split amicable enough that during our three year absence we kept still in regular contact.

I knew, the instant that I heard the minute change in Ryu's song, that he had found someone and I was continually pestering him to tell me who that 'someone' was.

During our brief reunion I became suspicious that it was someone close to us and that Ryu was keeping quiet for fear not just of the media frenzy but of our own reactions.

I was so close to learning the truth on my own, then Ryu started that silly rivalry with Shuichi and I became distracted by the terrible realisation that he was again splitting the band up.

To be honest I was angrier with him for that and for the belief that he could let go his god given talent, than I was when I learned that he had been lying to me...to all of us.

I understood why he had done it, you see, understood that the love he had for Tatsuha was so precious to him that he had not wanted to share it with anyone.

I did not, however, understand how he could believe that he could simply stop singing and that something as soulless as acting would prove a suitable replacement.

I have, until now, kept my opinion on this matter to myself…something that I am glad that I did, if only because it allowed Ryu to see for himself how silly he was being.

He pauses a moment to work out the aches in his fingers and sets his hands again to the key pad, before his door implodes.

Ryu looks sheepishly at the debris about him and then glomping onto his friend remarks,

"Toma!"

"I thought you were in America."

"Tatsuha was getting sad about not seeing his family and so we've come to visit."

"And?"

"And I was wondering if you wanted to come and have a chat with Noriko and me!"

Aware that he is already defeated Toma saves the file and shutting down his computer informs his friend,

"Lead the way."

"Yay!"

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T: 'Nettle Grasper' was the name of the group in the Dojinishi 'Help!' Which was basically Gravitation but with Tatsuha and Ryu in Eri and Shuichi's shoes…it's here as a recognition of that Doji and in an attempt to comprehend why Murakami-san changed it to 'Nittle Grasper' which makes no sense! Kuma's discovery was inspired by my own recent discovery of a soft toy…sadly I am 21 which means that really I should have tried to find the owner before I kidnapped it…sigh... Finally I felt itchy with the idea that Ryu is giving up singing to be an actor, if only because it seems to me that he's squandering his natural talent! Don't get me wrong I love acting…in fact I was quite the armature dramatics queen while I was in school…it's just that Ryu seems almost born to sing and for him to do anything else…

Yeh, now that I have a little mini rant in the making I will ask you to R+R and let you be!