A/N: Per request by Ninja of Sunshine, a Joe drabble!
The karaoke scene in the first season has to be in my top five favorite moments of digimon ever. If you don't remember what I'm talking about, watch it now: youtube com/watch?v=vcaomR2yNmI
004
"Look, I know I'm not the best singer around," Joe confessed. Matt had his head bent down nearly to his lap, still trying to recover from Joe's last attempt at singing.
Between gritted teeth he said, "No, it's fine. Just, uh, we'll work on it." He took a deep breath and sat back up. Whoever the girl was Joe was trying to impress, Matt was really starting to doubt if singing was the way to win her heart and if singing this song was necessary.
"Here, let's start back at the basics!" Joe said sounding uncharacteristically optimistic. "How do I make my voice go higher?"
"You just… you just do. I don't know."
"I think you're teaching skills need a bit more polishing," he deadpanned.
Matt sighed then reached forward and took hold of Joe's shoulders. "Here: sit up straighter. Bad posture means bad singing. Stop trying to hit the high note because you don't know how; keep it simple. Also stop trying to be Adam Levine. The man cannot be replicated. Sing with your own style. And most importantly, believe you can sing. Don't be scared."
Joe smiled. "That was really good advice, Matt. Here, let me try again." He took a deep breath and scrunched his eyebrows in concentration.
"I don't mind spending ev-er-ree-day"
"Good, less emphasis on 'everyday'," Matt interjected.
"Out on your corner in the pouring rain.
Look for the girl with the broken smiiiiilllee"
"Not so dramatic."
"Ask her if she wants to stay awhile…"
"Take it home."
Joe gulped in air then bellowed:
"AND SHE WIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLL BE LOOOOOOOVVVVEEEEDDD"
Matt physically cringed.
"AND SHE WWIIIIII-aw, sorry, out of breath—be LOOOOOOOOOVVVEEEEEEDDDD"
His voice cracked spectacularly on each 'will' then followed them with a very, off-pitch and throaty 'loved'.
"Alright." Matt clasped his hands together, turning his knuckles white. "Alright, alright, alright." He brought his head down. "Okay. So Joe, I'm going to be honest because I am your friend, and you deserve to hear this." He brought his head back up and unclasped his hands. He massaged his eyebrows with one hand and placed the other on Joe's shoulder.
"She is not worth it. Go get a cat."
"Hilarious."
"I'm serious," Matt said. "Cat ladies are becoming more common nowadays, and you've gotta get ahead before all the good cats are taken."
Joe looked extremely offended. "I'm neither a cat nor a lady!"
"Yeah, yeah," Matt dismissed his words with a wave of the hand, and they each took a moment of silence to contemplate another way for Joe to go about impressing her.
"What if I rap?"
Matt looked Joe up and down and suppressed a chuckle. "You can't rap," he said.
Joe pouted, "How would you know? I always thought I'd be good at freestyling."
Matt grew panicked catching the determined glint in his friend's eye. "If you start rapping, so help me, I will kick you out of this apartment."
"It's my apartment," Joe said.
"Yeah," Matt said, "have fun explaining that one to your parent's."
With a smirk, Joe challenged his friend's hollow threat. He took a deep breath and at an off-beat speed that grew steadily slower as he went on, Joe rapped:
"Yo, check it! My name is Joe, I'll keep this slow—er, and short."
Matt covered his ears. "Joe, stop! please!"
"I mean short and sweet to match this beat that I don't got…"
"I'm begging you!"
"'cause I haven't taught myself to sing, so I don't got no ring to my… beat?... What? Uh—"
Matt sprung out of his seat. "I WARNED YOU!"
Sure enough, a few hours later Joe's parents returned home to find Matt Ishida lying on their couch lazily strumming his guitar and their son locked outside, leaning against the door muttering the words to some rap he couldn't get quite right.
Thank you for all the reviews! I'd love if people wanted to review this chapter :)
I can see people disagreeing with Joe's characterization here, but I don't know, I can picture him doing this haha
