The Karaoke and the Beastmaster

A Get Backers fanfic by Rabid Lola

A/N: No, I couldn't resist. n.n This is a strange little ficcie, that's been jumping around my head since early or mid- November, or something like that. Hey, have you heard Shido's image song? –shudders- I'm scarred for life. Honestly…

Get Backers is property of Rando Ayamine and Yuuya Aoki. Shido's…um, musical (in)ability is property of the character himself. The miscellaneous offspring are their parent's. But I had a hand in naming them. n.n

Oh, character key: Fuyuki children – Satsu , Ayame, Taki, Hige; Midou children – Yamato, Ginji, Yuji, Michiko; Amano children – Teshichan, Ban, Reiko; Fuuchoin children – Hitomi, Keisuke. For ages…well, all you need to know is Satsu is sixteen, and only he, Yamato, Teshichan and Hitomi are in their teens.

(Note to Invader Androgynous: Nope, sorry, no Akabane children. Aside from the fact that I can't think up a wife for him--I'm not good enough to pull off Akabane/HEVN n.n;--I just...can't imagine his children. I'm sure you can. n.n)

This will be a three or five-part story, my contribution to Christmas-themed fics. Merry Christmas!!

Part I: The Bombshell

My dad can't sing.

All right, all right, he can. A little. Very little, and only when we're really, really lucky.

I remember discussing it with the others, once. Yamato agreed with me wholeheartedly. Teshichan said we were mean, but there was an uncertain look on her face when she said this. Hitomi winced…I think it was because she left a string lying around our house, once, maybe when Hige was younger and Otosan was trying to sing him to sleep. Her ototo, Keisuke, told us she woke up screaming and scared the heck out of Kazuki-san and Ren-san.

He also said that their parents couldn't stop laughing when they heard the reason why.

It's funny: Otosan married a woman who's got supernatural hearing (hey, she can hear my imouto (1) Ayame tiptoeing from her room to where the phone is!) and is the best violinist in Japan, yet he can't tell one note from the other.

Ban-san promised to tell me, one day, how Otasan tried to serenade Okasan. Note: Keyword: TRIED. Really, when I heard this, I though my eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. Lullabies are bad enough, but serenading? Ayame shook her head no, and my other imouto, Taki? She was only five at that time, and she told Ban-san very, very seriously, "Otosan can't sing." Ban-san was laughing so hard…he shut up quick, though, when Otosan came in with Hige.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that my dad can't sing. Even if he labors under the delusion that if he tries really, really hard he'll be able to.

Which is why I'm staring at my little brother in horror, caught mid-flute. "Emishi-san got dad a what?"

Hitomi, beside me and leaning back on the tree, opens one eye. "Hey, Satsu, why'd you stop playing?" The animals around us—four dogs, three cats, six snakes, a lioness and her cub, a couple of hawks…useless to enumerate, we're always picking up animals from every which where—stir and make similar complaints.

I can talk to the animals, but they don't obey me much. They listen more to Ayame. What they do love about me is my music. I can play nearly any instrument, and Otosan and Kaasan once said that the music I make sometimes sounds like the fluting of a bird, or the majestic roaring of a lion, or the tinkle of a brook…or simply the language of nature, strange and beautifully wild…

Screw that right now, because Hige's repeating what he just said with all his seven-year-old solemnity. "Emishi-san got Otosan a karaoke set for Christmas."

Ayame jerks up from where her head's pillowed on the lioness' flank. "Yeah right, Hige."

Hitomi shakes her head. "Emishi isn't that stupid…" she trails off and looks at me. "Right?"

Taki raises herself up from the grass and asks a sensible question. "Is Paul-san brining drinks tonight?"

I cringe. Please no please no please no…

But Keisuke, seated beside me, cocks his head and listens at his strings. After a while he groans. "He is."

We all die. Tonight is the usual Christmas party—it was Ginji-san's idea to start this, mostly—and this year it's being held at our house. Lots of drinks, courtesy of Paul-san, mean tipsy adults. Tipsy adults (mostly our dads) means lots of singing. Lots of singing plus Emishi plus his delight in torturing Otosan (and us) means…

"Sorry, Niisan," Hige says in a small voice, as he crawls to a spot beside me.

I sigh and ruffle his head. "It's not your fault, squirt."

The sound of kids running through grass: we turn to see the Midous and the Amanos, apparently just arrived and coming to join us under the tree.

The younger kids obviously didn't notice anything, because they begin roughhousing right away, but Yamato and Teshichan have got pleading looks on their faces when they see me.

"Tell us what we saw isn't true."

To be continued...

(1) imouto means "little sister".