Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Paparazzi ❯ The Job ( Chapter 1 )

I’m your biggest fan, I’ll follow you until you love me…

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“Do you think you can handle it?”

For a moment I was too stunned to move. When my sister’s husband had promised to find me a summer internship at his record label I had assumed I’d wind up a useless gofer or a paper-drone, stuck behind a copy machine all summer. While those weren’t exactly the most prestigious jobs around, I’d take anything at NG Tohma could give me, as long as it got me out of Kyoto and as far away from my father and the temple as possible.

What he offered me however was beyond anything I could have anticipated.

Ryuichi needs a new assistant. he’d said. Would you be up for the job?

Yes! A thousand time yes, of course I was up for that!

I nodded my head calmly to answer him, afraid that if I opened my mouth some evidence that I was so excited I could die might slip out and jeopardize my chance at snagging the job of a lifetime. I’d been a closet Ryuichi fan since I was eleven and this was quite literally a dream come true for me.

“I am glad to see you are confident in yourself, Tatsuha-kun, however…” Tohma folded his hands on his lap and gave me a stern look, as though I had done something wrong.

“I want to be sure you know what you are getting into by taking this position. Personally, if I had any other option I would not have offered you the job, but because Ryuichi insisted on my finding him a male assistant and because you are available immediately, I had no choice.”

What a confidence booster. I fidgeted with my suit jacket nervously, afraid now that Tohma would change his mind and assign me some other job.

He leaned over his hands to look me squarely in the eyes. For a small man he could be awfully imposing when he wanted to be.

“I want to tell you that this will not be an easy job. You will be on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. You must be willing to travel with him regardless of where or when he is going. There will be some very late nights and very early mornings and of course you must be prepared to handle anything and everything concerning his affairs with the utmost discretion. He can be frightfully demanding and stubborn to the point of being childish.”

I nodded along with all of this, but inside I knew I was ready for it. If it was for Ryuichi, I could handle anything.

“Now again, there are plenty of other positions available in the building; simple, nine to five, with a decent number of off weekends a month. You don’t have to take this job with him if you don’t think you can handle it.”

“You don’t have to worry about me. I can handle it. It would be an honour to work for you and for Sakuma-san. When do I start?”

Tohma smiled at me, the look on his face strangely peaceful.

“Alright then, Tatsuha-kun. I trust you know yourself and what you are capable of better than anyone. Be here tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I hope you know what you are getting into.”

That night I was so excited I couldn’t sleep. I tried to tell myself that this was work and that I had to treat it just like any other job, but I was having a hard time listening to myself. For the rest of the summer I was going to be keeping track of Ryuichi Sakuma’s life; following him around, listening to him, talking to him, running errands for him. It still felt like I was dreaming, that at any moment my fantasy world would melt away to reveal my bedroom back in Kyoto. It had happened to me so many times before.

I stared at the ceiling and listened to the hum of the air conditioner as I tried to fall asleep; the distant sound of fervent typing coming from Eiri’s office across the hall added to the plethora of white noise filling my ears. I was amazed that he had volunteered to let me stay with him, though I suspect that Shuichi had played a hand in that gesture of kindness. My brother is not known for being overly hospitable to guests, to family or even to his lovers. Shuichi is thankfully the exception to this because he’s a really nice guy, and as my sister would agree, I think he’s been a good influence on my brother. He calls now, and he visits occasionally, and always seems to have the smiling kid in tow.

I know he’s older than me by a few years, but because of his size and his gentle, sometimes immature, nature he feels a lot like what I imagined having a younger brother might feel like and it’s easy to be protective of him once you get to know him; I’m sure a lot of people in his life would agree with that one, my brother especially.

He was so excited when I returned from my interview with Tohma, and particularly excited about the job I’d received. He and Ryuichi are good friends and he assured me over dinner that I would have a great time working for him. Eiri had sat there in silence, adding an occasional snort of disbelief or amusement as Shuichi and I talked; We ignored him for the most part.

As dinner ended and Eiri disappeared back into the dark depths of his office I realized that their house must be pretty quiet most of the time. Shuichi had given me a comforting, “Welcome home”, kind of smile as I helped him clean up the supper dishes. I’d joined him for a few hours in front of the television after that, genuinely enjoying his company but also using the opportunity to ask him questions about Ryuichi. He couldn’t answer all of them, but what information I did glean from him I was glad to have. I learned that he loved green tea ice cream, that he hated flowers and that he was a night owl.

Just like me, I’d thought.

We went our separate ways at ten thirty, he to Eiri’s study and myself to the guest bedroom I’d picked out for myself. Their new house was much larger than their old apartment had been and I loved how new and modern it was. Nothing like the house on the temple grounds where Eiri and I had grown up.

Laying in bed, running the events of the day over and over in my head for what felt like hours, had a lulling effect on me. Just as I began drifting off to sleep I heard Shuichi’s voice enter the hallway from Eiri’s study; he was trying to coax my brother to come to bed with him. I heard Eiri sigh and mutter something under his breath, to which Shuichi replied with an equally muffled response. Their footsteps traveled down the hall shortly there after, followed by their bedroom door opening and closing softly. I was surprised. Apparently Shuichi was a magician as well as a singer, though perhaps “snake charmer” would be the more appropriate approximation to his talents.

Laughing quietly to myself at this revelation I slowly began to drift back to where sleep had left me only a few minutes before. I was Ryuichi’s personal assistant as of 9 a.m. the next morning and I honestly couldn’t wait.

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AN: A brief intro to a story I have been cooking up in my head for a while. While Paparazzi by Lady Gaga was the inspiration for the story, this isn't a song fic, it's not going to have anything to do with the song itself really, more the idea of it. I just always found that Paparazzi reminded me of a Tatsuha/Ryuichi type relationship. This story will contain the imagined scenes that I see playing my head every time I hear the song. Most of my intro chapters are fairly short, either I hook you with them or I don't, however expect much longer chapters in the future. Any readers of my current stories should know I don't dissapoint in the length department. This one should be fun, I've never written an extended piece in first person like this, and certainly never as Tatsuha.

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