Shaman King - It's Not What It Looks Like

Disclaimer: Although the severely warped and twisted imagination is my own, Shaman King and its characters are the property of Hiroyuki Takei.

Author's Notes: This is definitely an alternate universe.  I haven't figured out all the particulars about it, but it's the only legitimate explanation I can come up with for the set up I have going here.

                                    It's Not What It Looks Like

Yoh was good at sleeping.  It didn't make much difference to him whether it was just a relaxing afternoon nap or one of those days when he would doze off in the middle of class.  Depending on the situation he could pass himself off as a very light sleeper or a very heavy one.  This could either be attributed to circumstantial laziness or it might just have been that Yoh was very good at making himself comfortable when it suited him.  He was certainly very easygoing like that.

On those occasions when he would begin to indulge in the more desirable deep sleep there was usually some external factor that would startle him into wakefulness.  In school this was usually accomplished by Manta freaking out at him for sleeping in class that usually snapped Yoh out of it.  When he was supposed to be training for the Shaman Fight the knowledge that Anna might catch him slacking off and the inevitable punishment that would follow were enough to keep Yoh on his toes.  At least he didn't have any trouble with going to bed at night.

However, there were certain things that Yoh wasn't accustomed to waking up to.  In this case it was the fact that he seemed to be curled up next to something warm and soft that definitely wasn't Anna.  She rarely spent the night with him as it was and in Yoh's experience she always asked permission first.  Anna wasn't the sort of person who would sneak into his bed after he had already fallen asleep.  There was only one person Yoh could think of who would pull a stunt like this.  The intruder in question made a point of ruffling Yoh's bangs in the manner of obnoxious older siblings everywhere.

"Did you sleep well?" Hao was practically beaming with unwarranted amusement.  At least he wasn't naked this time.

Yoh did the only thing he could with the mental processing power available to him while he was still half asleep.  He flailed away from his older twin effectively tangling himself in his quilt in the process.

"What are you doing in my room?" Yoh wailed as he struggled to free himself from the unyielding mass of cloth.

Hao took a brief moment to contemplate Yoh's question.  Once he had fashioned an appropriately ridiculous response he answered, "Would you believe me if I told you this was my room?"

Yoh paused and stared at him.  Hao had to be kidding him.  Yoh finally managed to disentangle himself from the offending blanket leaving the robe he had been wearing rather loose around his shoulders.  He took a quick look around at the familiar landmarks that firmly established this as being his room with walls lovingly adorned with posters of his favorite idol.  Which reminded him, when was that new Bob album supposed to be coming out anyway?  Yoh could worry about that later.  Right now there was still the matter of Hao being in his room.

"This is definitely my room," Yoh rounded on his older twin with a conflicted expression somewhere between mild annoyance and restrained amusement.  He turned to point at the door which caused the sleeve of his robe to slip down his arm exposing more of his torso.  "Hao, get out."

"I'd rather not," Hao managed to sound somewhat defiant through his smirk.  He stretched out on Yoh's bed and folded his arms behind his head.  "You're going to have to make me."

Hao wasn't exactly what you might call heavy.  In fact, he was actually a bit scrawnier than Yoh.  Despite this he was also well practiced at adjusting his center of gravity to make himself seem heavier than he really was.  This was what caused Yoh so much difficulty when he started trying to drag Hao across the floor to get him to the door.  It wouldn't have been so bad if not for the fact that a sudden knock on the door caused Yoh to lose his focus so that he tripped over himself and landed in such a way that it looked like he was straddling Hao.

"Yoh-sama," Tamao stood in the doorway.  "I'm supposed to tell you that breakfast is almost ready..."  She trailed off as she finally observed the scene she had apparently walked in on.  Taking in the fact that Yoh was on top of Hao in the middle of the floor looking all frazzled and the fact that Hao seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the attention it didn't take long for Tamao's face to achieve a pink color that very nearly matched her hair.  She made a muffled squeaking sound and quickly slammed the door.

"It's not what it looks like!" Yoh called after her although he doubted Tamao was still close enough to the door to be able to hear him.  He rolled himself off of Hao and collapsed onto the floor next to him.

Hao propped himself on an elbow and offered Yoh an amused grin, "I think that went well."

Yoh reached over and promptly shoved him over.

"This is all your fault," he grumbled.

Hao didn't reply.  He was too busy basking in his own amusement.

                                        End