Disclaimer: Shaman King belongs to Hiroyuki Takei, not me. Neither does the song "Hey, Soul Sister;" it belongs to the band Train.
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Redseb tore through the little house. "Yoh!" he hollered. "Yoh! Yooooh!"
Yoh opened one eye. "What is it?" he asked.
Redseb leaped onto the couch and landed squarely on Yoh's diaphragm. He let out a loud "oof." "Look what Seyram and I found!" he said.
Seyram followed behind him and held out their prize. "Whatcha got there, kiddos?" HoroHoro asked.
"I don't know, that's why we're asking Yoh," Redseb said impatiently.
"It's a ukulele," Yoh said. He sat up on the couch, picked up Seyram, and settled her on his knee.
"Like a guitar?" Redseb asked.
"Kind of," Yoh said. He turned the tuning keys slightly.
"Don't tell me you can actually play that thing," Ren scoffed.
"Kinda," Yoh said. He plunked the strings experimentally.
"That's amazing," Tamao breathed.
"It's just a ukulele," Pilika shrugged, tossing her long hair over her shoulder. "How well can anyone play that thing?"
"Don't let him fool you," Anna said. She sat on the opposite side of the room, idly flipping through a magazine. "He's been banging away on his guitar since he was eight. He can play it."
Redseb grabbed Yoh by the headphones. "Play something!" he bellowed.
"All right, all right," Yoh said, grinning. "Don't choke me to death."
He set Seyram next to him; she slid to the floor and made her way over to Anna. Redseb crawled onto the arm of the couch. "Whatcha gonna play?" he asked.
Yoh scratched the back of his neck. "I haven't played anything in a while," he confessed. "But I'll give it try."
"Here we go," Ren muttered.
Yoh strummed the ukulele. The room fell silent as he played. Anna ignored him. He opened his mouth, closed it, cleared it. "Your lipstick stains," he sang, "on the front lobe of my left side brains."
Tamao looked at him, rapture in her eyes. "I knew I wouldn't forget you, so I went and let you blow my mind," he continued. "Your sweet moving, the smell of you in every single dream I dream. I knew when we collided, you're the one I have decided who's one of my kind."
The joy slowly faded from Tamao's eyes as Yoh continued to play. He focused on the little twanging ukulele, holding the frets with ease, his slim fingers plucking the strings. "Hey, soul sister, ain't that mister mister on the radio, stereo," he sang. "The way you move ain't fair, you know. Hey, soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do tonight."
Redseb kept his face so close to the strings in his fascination that he ran the risk of scraping it. The others lounged around the room, silent, listening thoughtfully. Anna continued to read her magazine, and Yoh continued to sing.
"Just in time, I'm so glad you have a one track mind."
His voice was untrained, but clear and strong. The ukulele's quietly cheerful melody jangled underneath his words. "You gave my life direction, a game show love connection we can't deny," he sang. "I'm so obsessed, my heart it bound to beat right out of my untrimmed chest. I believe in you, like a virgin, you're Madonna, and I'm always gonna want to blow your mind."
Seyram climbed onto Anna's lap. Anna absently tucked one arm around the child and balanced the magazine in her other hand. Yoh glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She looked up at him sharply; he dropped his gaze as he sang through the chorus again.
Tamao glanced from Yoh to Anna, caught uncomfortably between them. None of them acknowledged each other.
"Well, you can cut a rug," Yoh continued. "Watching you is the only drug I need. So gangster, I'm so thug, you're the only one I'm dreaming of."
He tossed his hair out his eyes and his headphones slipped down his neck. Caught in the music, he didn't seem to notice. "You see, I can be myself now finally- in fact, there's nothing I can't be."
He looked at Anna as he kept on strumming. "I want the world to see you'll be with me."
She glanced back at him coolly and closed the magazine. Seyram wriggled on her lap, watching her adoptive older brother with interest.
"Hey, soul sister, ain't that mister mister on the radio, stereo," Yoh sang, his dark eyes on Anna. "The way you move ain't fair, you know. Hey, soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight."
Anna met his gaze. He smiled at her. "Hey, soul sister, I don't want miss a single thing you do…tonight."
He finished the song, leaving them in a thoughtful silence. Anna broke his gaze, picked up Seyram, and left the living room. Yoh leaned back on the couch, smiling to himself, as if he had just won a victory that no one else knew about.
Redseb broke the silence. "That was so cool!" he screeched. "Yoh, Yoh, you gotta teach me."
Yoh laughed. "All right," he said, handing over the dusty ukulele. He guided the boy's small fingers. "Hold there."
"Like this?"
"Yeah. Just like that."
He glanced up. Anna peeked around the doorframe with Seyram on her hip. Her golden brown eyes shone, and only he could see it. He grinned.
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Author's Notes:
Oh mah gah. Sorry you had to sit through that.
So the story behind this is that I have to listen to a soft rock station while I work (I work in the alterations department of a wedding dress shop). Now, typically I don't mind soft rock, but they usually play the same terrible songs over and over again (like that Lady Antebellum song) with a sprinkling of decent ones every so often. Ergo, I hear "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train all the time. As I kept listening to it, I realized that, if Yoh was to pick a song for Anna, he would pick something like that- lighthearted, relaxed, and sweet without being sappy. And since I can't technically write a songfic, I wrote this.
The original draft began with Yoh playing guitar and everyone demanding requests. I deleted a particularly awesome sequence of HoroHoro bellowing "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi. I'm sad you missed it.
In any case...turn on this song while you read this. I guarantee it'll improve the experience.