With a Strum of My Heart Strings

Want You Back

"How is 'No Scrubs' coming, Shinsou?" Kyoka asked with a very much needed subject change. Shinsou shrugged.

"I still haven't figured out all of the lyrics," he told her. "Do you two have your parts down, though? We can practice the instrumental part, at least."

"I guess that would work," Jirou said. "Though, why practice it now if we're not going to be playing it tonight?" Shinsou just shrugged again.

"You never know. Inspiration could strike and--" He clapped his hands together, "--I figure out the lyrics and we can play it." Bakugou didn't seem entirely convinced, but he agreed anyway, along with Kyoka.

"Fair enough," she said as she handed Hitoshi her bass for the song and made her way over to the keyboard, instead. "Ready?" Bakugou picked up his drumsticks and Shinsou set down his guitar, pulling the strap of the bass over his shoulder.

"Ready," he said, and both looked to Bakugou to count them in. He slammed his sticks together in a familiar fashion to count them in.

"One, two, three, four!"

*    *    *

Okay, seriously, what was with the nerves? Shinsou was never like this before a show. They only had five minutes until they needed to be on stage, and he couldn't calm himself. Not at all. He was sweating buckets, his stomach coiled into knots, as he paced around backstage, muttering quiet curses under his breath.

"Shinsou?" Jirou asked, causing him to look up at her with his hands threaded through his hair. "You okay? We need to get ready." Yeah, yeah, he knew that. But how was he supposed to perform if he couldn't concentrate on anything other than the overwhelming nervousness that was seemingly drowning him?

"What?" Shinsou asked, forcing himself back to reality again. "Yeah, I'm okay, I know." Jirou didn't seem even the least bit persuaded. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she let out a small sigh.

"What's wrong?" she asked him. He knew he couldn't deny anything to her. She would just see right through him. There was no use for Shinsou to lie at this point, it would just waste both of their time.

"I just--" Hitoshi hesitated for a moment before saying, "I can't shake this weird feeling about tonight." Jirou raised an eyebrow, a quizzical expression crossing her face.

"What do you mean?"

Shinsou paused again, trying to find the right words to explain it. "I don't know, honestly--"

He was cut off as Bakugou started screeching at them. "What the hell are you two doing?" he called, coming up to them and slapping both of them on their arms, hard, causing them to yell out in pain. "We're literally on in seconds!" Jirou gave Shinsou a wary glance before he nodded at her. She didn't seem completely content with that, but neither of them had time to really worry about it because Bakugou was partially dragging them to where they would climb onstage.

A couple of staff members were waiting for them, checking their instruments and making sure the sound and tech were running smoothly. After a few moments, they were given the go-ahead and were ready to get on the stage.

Small applause was heard as they entered, given that the audience wasn't too big, less than a hundred people, for sure. Shinsou could feel some of his anxiety slip away almost instantly, and with good timing, too.

Okay, so, maybe Shinsou had slightly lied to Jirou before getting on stage. Maybe he'd told her he didn't really know why he felt off, even though he had actually figured it out. And maybe the song he was about to sing reminded him about it all over again. But he just had to push those thoughts away and concentrate.