Work Text:
“Leo/Need, you’re up in five minutes!” The lady dressed vaguely in a black three-piece shouted at Ichika. “Get ready!”
Ichika gives the lady a nervous nod, hands sweaty as they slide over the arm of her guitar. “R-right!”
She takes a deep breath. The backstage feels unusually cold and oppressing at this particular time, and the music of MIRACLE, the band that’s just started their last song, feels like a distant ringing in her music. Ichika can vaguely make out the pain-filled lyrics, but it’s all far-away sound as she tries and fails to calm herself down.
Leo/Need is currently standing at the backstage of a massive stadium, about to perform for a multi-band event indie music concert. And Ichika is nervous.
Unusually nervous.
Calm down, Ichika. This is just another show. Just with a bigger venue this time. You’ll be fine. Leo/Need’s frontwoman told herself. Turning around to face the rest of her partners, Ichika puts up a nervous smile.
She’s met with a worried look from Honami and Shiho.
“Ichika-chan, don’t be nervous.” Honami is the first to speak as always, moving her drumsticks to one hand and placing a gentle hand on Ichika’s shoulder. “We’ll be fine. You’re going to be fine.”
Her voice is like a soothing balm on Ichika’s chest, and Ichika lets out a deep, shuddering sigh as she tries to get her own panic under control. “Right, but this is a really big concert with a place where the audience tickets sold out. Will we really be—”
Shiho cuts in with a pat on her shoulder. “Ichika, it’s fine. We’ll be fine.” She says reassuringly, before smiling. “You practiced. We all did, right? You know how our parts are supposed to sound with your parts. We’ve rehearsed.”
This does bring some reassurance, but Ichika still feels concerned. “A-alright, but what if the nervousness gets to me?” She whispers, mostly to herself. After all, even with hours of practice and mastery, people will mess up. And Ichika knows that it’s going to be exactly what happens. Something—anything, will happen and Ichika will mess up—
However, Shiho notices this and lets out an exasperated sigh, slipping her bass off of its strap and to the side as she walks over and rests a hand on Ichika’s cheek reassuringly, causing a brief blush to rise onto their panicking frontwoman’s face at the contact. It’s strange, she thinks, seeing Shiho act like this before a concert. Especially a big one. But maybe that’s because they’ve become more confident in their playing. More confident in each other.
Maybe Ichika’s just being paranoid and grasping in the dark for issues that don’t exist. Shiho and Honami are right—Ichika has practiced, and this is just another concert. But Ichika doesn’t want to fail—and this intense fear of failure is starting to drag her down.
Saki, ever the bundle of joy, takes this chance to jump in. “Yeah! And think about how well we’re going to do, and how we’re going to do it all together!” She exclaims cheerfully. “Icchan, don’t be worried! We’ve all worked hard, so let’s do our best and then celebrate after!”
It seems that Saki has somehow sneakily crept her way behind Ichika and give her a tight hug, sending a reassuring burst of heat throughout the latter’s body. Saki is warm, energetic, and a glowing star for Ichika to focus on.
However, right now Saki and the others are trying to calm Ichika down. Their words are said with the gentle reassurance of those who know and love her like no other person— And it’s working. Ichika can feel the tension slowly seep into the rest of her body, and her fingers become slightly less sweaty.
Shiho laughs. “Sure. But Saki, let’s get the concert out of the way and show them what we’ve got, alright? Then we’ll worry about celebrating.” She says to Saki with a light smile. “Together.”
Serious again, Shiho is air-playing notes on her Bass, and Ichika vaguely recognizes the pattern as her part for their opening song. Then, her mind immediately springs into action and pulls the memory of her part from the very forefront of her prefrontal cortex, forming a recollection of all those hours of practice from the various firing neurons in Ichika’s mind.
She’ll be fine. They’ll be fine, Ichika finally accepts the idea as reality and laughs, a happy smile finding its way to her face once more. This isn’t back in high-school, where they’ve just gone pro, and the words Shiho have just said now are repeating themselves in her head, acting as a reminder of what Leo/Need has done together.
They’ve been pros for years, now. Almost five, this year. And Ichika knows that Leo/Need will keep on shining, because they’re together, and they’re never going to fall apart ever again.
She turns to her bandmates. Her partners. Her girlfriends. And Ichika smiles. “Ah, thank you, Shiho. Honami. Saki. I…needed that.”
A relaxed laugh escapes Saki’s mouth. “Don’t worry about it, Icchan! We’ll always be there to hype you up before a concert!”
Ichika vaguely notices that Saki has her arm draped around Honami’s waist, and is gently squeezing and releasing the latter’s shirt. She’s nervous too, Ichika realizes. Just as much as Ichika is.
Actually, everyone here is some level of nervous—after all, who wouldn’t be? They’re about to play in their first major concert venue, with thousands watching them. Of course everyone is going to be scared.
Shiho is air-playing her Bass. Honami is air drumming her part. Saki is air-playing her keyboard part. Ichika is unconsciously air-playing, too.
And so, the words spill out from Ichika’s mouth before she can really control it, before she can think about what she’s about to say. “I’ll do that too,” She blurts out, “in any way I can. Seriously. I love you guys so much.”
Honami gently slides Saki off of her with a kiss, and gestures to the stage. There, the last band has just gotten finished with their final piece, and it’s just about to be their turn.
“Ichika-chan, Saki-chan, Shiho-chan! It’s our turn!” She exclaims with an encouraging smile. “Let’s go!”
Shiho nods, and turns to Ichika. She’s smiling encouragingly, filling Ichika with confidence in herself, and love for her four girlfriends that are holding her up like the pillars of her entire existence. “Go ahead, Ichika. You’re the frontwoman. You have been for the past three years, now.”
Ichika nods, and puts on her serious face. In front of her, Saki, Honami, and Shiho also put on their serious faces. “Alright, then. Once we get on there, let’s tune, I’ll say some things about our songs, and then we can jump into performing. How does that sound?”
It’s their usual thing at any venue they play at. There’s nothing special about it, but the familiarity makes Ichika happy, filling her with this sense of accomplishment. There’s no need to talk much about their band, because their music will speak for them. Music is their way of talking, and their songs are their words.
Her three bandmates respond with various derivatives of “yeah!” and “alright!” before walking over to the shining stage up front. As they pass by the previous band, their frontwoman gives Leo/Need a smile.
“Good luck out there.”
Saki grins at the frontwoman. “Of course! We’ll kill it like you guys did, too!” She happily exclaims before following the rest of them to the stage.
Turned to face Honami, Shiho frowns. “Hm, that band…Miracle. Their frontwoman is interesting.” She notes. “Half-japanese but born in Australia, and made a band consisting of her childhood friends and a boy from a coal-selling family in the rural prefectures.”
Calm and composed, Honami just laughs as she sits down onto her stool behind the drums. “Well, Rita Bernal-san, they’re just like us. Childhood friends that became a band.”
Shiho laughs as well. She just gives Honami an endearing smile before standing at her spot and plugging her bass into the amp, running sound checks.
Ichika lets out a smile and smiles as she walks over and takes up her position at the front. Shiho does the same and moves to their right, and Saki to Ichika’s left. As always, Honami is at the rear on the drums, the foundation of their band.
Low, not as nervous breaths escaping Ichika as she gets into the familiar rhythm of tuning their instruments, Leo/Need gets ready for its first major Tokyo Performance.
It’s nothing much—just them playing some open chords and tuning by ear—by this point, Shiho and Ichika have done this so many times at so many different places that they might as well have perfect pitch.
Tuning goes smoothly, and Ichika turns to Honami for their lead-in beats. Even now, Ichika can’t help but admire Honami’s composure even seconds before the performance. Actually, she feels that familiar stirring of determination at the feeling of Saki’s bubbly energy, of Shiho’s steady support.
Ichika turns to the audience. “Hello, everyone! We’re Leo/Need! Thank you for coming!” She announces. They go wild, and Saki laughs at the applause.
“Wow, Icchan! They’re really excited to see you belt out lyrics, huh?” She quips, gently swaying back and forth as she waits for the cheers to die down.
Honami smiles and raises her drumsticks. Ichika gets ready. Saki lifts her hands and places both hands at her first chords. Shiho lifts her pick.
Here we go, Ichika thinks. Let’s make this concert shine like a star, together.
“One, Two, Three, Four!”
Counting down the beats to their very first note, Ichika lets her fingers turn that cold, freezing feeling in her fingertips into energy and lets the first few notes erupt into the stadium.
This may not be a solo concert with just their band, but it’s still big. Either way, Ichika’s going to make sure that she lives up to the hype. Two measures pass by, and she finally opens her mouth for the first lyrics of the song in a split second.
She sings, and lets her music speak for them all.