Work Text:
Their first show is a massive deal.
Five months ago, when Mae had jokingly suggested that they should start a band, Nom had never expected for it to amount to this—at the time, it had been just a joke, something not to be taken seriously. But then 4C started learning how to play drums, and Katie finally figured out her electric guitar, and Nom already knew how to play the bass…
It had kind of spiraled from there. Scott took some voice lessons to improve his already stunning singing, and Mae had been a long-time fan of singing as a hobby, so she quickly joined him. Nights eating snacks while practicing individually in Mae's garage became weekly band meetings.
Upon learning that the two of them were decent enough at singing, Mae dragged Katie and Nom into being backing vocals alongside their music.
And now, Nom is standing behind a stage barely thirty minutes before he's going to be performing on it.
Graecie, their wonderful friend, fluttering about nervously as she does their makeup, because Graecie is a freaking angel and if not for her hands trying to hold his face in place while she does his red graphic eyeliner, he wouldn't think that she was real.
The time passes too quickly, but he gets the chance to scrutinize everybody. Scott's painted lilies and garb decorated with green hearts require no notes, rounded out with a green mesh short-sleeved jacket over the top and ripped jeans embroidered with various floral designs. Mae looks much the same, but her gear is yellow—a sunshine-colored ruffle top over a denim skirt, tons of beaded bracelets decorating her arms and sunflowers on her face, as well as a clip resembling the flower tucking her hair back.
Nom, 4C, and Katie all match in their mostly red-and-black outfits, with their flower motif for the show being roses. Katie's choker displays the bloom, and Nom had reluctantly allowed a clip similar to Mae's to be stuck into his hair.
4C frets over his drums while Katie tunes her guitar for the second time in ten minutes. Nom ties her hair back in a low braid while she does, neat and tidy the way he's done it since she was little, and she shoots him a small, nervous smile to express her gratitude.
All of their instruments are covered in stickers, most of them random. Nom's acoustic guitar back home is decked out entirely in stickers that Katie would get at school when she was littler, alongside various ones that she's gotten for him specifically as souvenirs to stick on there. He swears that one day he'll run out of room, but she's found a workaround: putting them on his bass and her electric guitar instead.
Mae, Scott, and 4C had no mercy in adding to the collection, either. One of these days the entire thing would be covered in layers of stickers.
They've performed before, but only for small audiences or online—this is an actual music festival! A much smaller one, but still. There are going to be way more people there than there usually are, and Nom, as loathe as he is to admit it, is terrified.
At the least, he won't be the focus of the event—he has no idea how Mae and Scott are so collected right now, as the vocalists, but they've both got excellent crowd control skills. He's not worried about their performance, they're always on top of it, and even if they weren't, they could put on a damn good show, but it's impressive how put together they seem.
The thirty minutes feels like it's over before Nom can blink, and they're on stage.
Mae introduces the band with an over-exaggerated bow, even though the speakers have already done that. "Thank you for coming, all you lovely people, we are The Labyrinth Glow!" She shouts into the mic, with no small amount of enthusiasm. It gets the crowd riled up, applause responding to her words.
Katie, 4C, and Nom bring in the intro when mae gives them a thumbs up, in sync as always, and that's really all it takes to get Scott and Mae going.
"When I wake up, I can't even stay up," Mae sings, clear and bright as day. "I slept through the day, fuck, I'm not getting younger!"
Nom hums along to the rest mentally, careful not to let it be a physical thing. "But when I'm older, I'll be so much stronger, I'll stay up for longer—"
Scott comes in, cutting off his mental tangent and fixing him back on the strings. "Meet me at our spot!" The blond sings in harmony with Mae, grinning wide. They have great chemistry on stage, having done this for so long and being practically best friends.
Mae smiles wickedly before she continues, and then tamps it down so as to not mess with her tone."Caught a vibe!" Nom and Katie quietly accompany Scott's backing, and though Nom can't see Katie, he can tell she's smiling internally too.
The rest of the song passes in a blur of fun and exhilaration. Nom finds himself tapping his foot along to the beat and absent-mindedly losing himself to the rhythm of playing and listening to his two awesome friends sing with awesome voices.
Ending is a wild thing that drags Nom, Katie, and 4C to the front to wave goodbye and bow. Thank God, the crowd shares their enthusiasm—cheering their own 'bye's to them and hooting and hollering as much as Mae was when she introduced them.
The ginger tugs 4C and Scott off the stage by their wrists, leaving Nom and Katie to trail along, exchanging a high five. Once they are safely backstage, the euphoria-induced fog finally breaks, and everybody seems to collectively realize what just happened as they exchange excited, tearful hugs.
"OH MY GOD!" Katie is jumping up and down with the force of her elation. She grabs Nom by the shoulders and shakes him vigorously before moving on to everybody else in turn and then finally snatching all of them into a group hug.
"You guys were great," Scott says, clearly unable to wipe the giant grin off of his face. "That's one of the best performances I think I've ever heard from us."
Graecie greets them when they finally leave with their instruments on their backs, excluding, of course, 4C, who had his loaded in earlier, and Mae and Scott, whose only instruments are their vocal chords. She holds a bouquet in hand, and Nom can't pick out the flowers, but judging by the look on Scott's face, she is well versed in flower language.
She hands the bouquet to Mae and 'forces' all of them to stand in a line for a picture.
Nom doesn't even have to force his smile or the way his arms are slung over his bandmates.