Emo Trinity x Reader

Nicole Row x Reader - The New Bassist

You motioned over to the table on which beverages were set up and poured both of you a cup of water.

"There's nothing to worry about," you tried to encourage her. "You're playing fantastic."

"But what if I make a mistake?"

"Listen, the whole crowd will be so focused on Brendon, that they won't notice if you slip a few times. But I still don't believe that's gonna happen, you've made hardly any mistakes in any of the rehearsals."

She smiled shyly at you, before suddenly wrapping her arms around you.

"Thank you," she whispered, sending a shiver down your spine.

~*~

The venue in Cleveland was small and intimate, nothing compared to the arenas Panic had played in the last years. Backstage was busy with musicians tuning their instruments and doing vocal warm ups and you went on stage to check all the cables again. Doors would open in a few, so you made sure that the stage electronics were safe from the audience, and duct taped the last loose cables to the stage. A little duct tape here and there has never hurt anyone. You went just backstage when the first excited fans entered the venue, and smiled at their cheering, before disappearing behind the safe curtains.

You always loved the buzz backstage. There was excitement, even when it sometimes got close to routine. People tried to hype each other up for the show and those who had to do singing were trying out accords, even when not in the same room. Your fellow technicians hurried around, making sure that all the instruments were prepared properly so there would be no embarrassing incidents, and made sure the microphones were all connected to the control unit. Of course all this had been checked during sound check already, but it was never wrong to check a few times more. You were done with your job for this part of the evening, so you went to look for Nicole.

You found her in one of the rooms furthest away from the stage, fixing her hair in the mirror.

"Hey there," you called her, entering the room.

She looked up and smiled, but you could see how forced it was.

"Stage fright?" You asked sympathetically and sat down at a chair.

She nodded quietly, and turned back to the mirror.

"You're gonna be fantastic," you told her, secretly admiring her outfit consisting of a tight black shirt, a black skirt and black knee-length socks.

"You think so," she turned around to you, and you could hear the doubt in her voice.

You stood up from your chair and walked the short distance over to her, taking her hands gently into yours.

"I know it," you assured her.

"Are you going to listen," she asked.

"Do you want me too?"

You tried to catch her eyes that were fixed on her hands in yours, and she nodded.

"Then I'll listen, I'll listen to no one but you," you quietly said to her.

A smile spread over her face, making the room light up and your insides all fuzzy.

"Then there's nothing that can go wrong," she grinned.

You smiled back, glad to have encouraged her, and marveled at the tiny blush on her cheeks. Did she even have the faintest clue how cute she was? Just in that moment one of the other technicians came into the room.

"Nicole, are you ready," he asked, completely ignoring that you were still holding her hands.

"As ready as I'll get," she answered, still smiling.