#anyways i had another idea for this that included scce but i couldn't put it into words and DEFINITELY not a oneshot

[transsweet]

18 for scc!

[or encouragement]

ON IT o7 !!!!!!!

the door to the backstage of the cafe opened as the cassette player waltzed in from the outside crowd .

rushing to the door, a swatchling attempted to stop him . "excuse me, you need a -" before the swatchling could even finish their sentence, capn flashed his lanyard and card stating "EVENT STAFF" with his photo on it, smirking . the swatchling went silent, then nodded and went back to stage management .

as he ventured to his destination, he took in the sights of a show in preparation . tasque manager doing vocal warmups, swatchlings rushing around panicking and flocking around faulty equipment, and a guest from the newly rescued tv world testing out his sax . he almost thought about how that could've been him, but was quickly humbled by the mental reminder of his ever present stage fright .

finally, he made his way to those he was looking for . sweet stood by the stage entrance, hands and legs shaking as they gripped their sheet music, eye focused and taking in every small ink mark on the paper . k_k on the other hand fiddled with their drumsticks and "hi-hat" worriedly, the smile they kept permanently on shaking and breaking the more they fidgeted .

this would be their first performance since the music ban had been placed . worries were bound to rise, especially after not performing live for so long , opting to go underground instead .

"so how's the last minute performance prep ?" he asked as he leaned in between the two, making sweet yelp as they broke out of their perfection fueled study session, taking a relieved breath after realizing it was just capn . "great ! great ..... ! yeah, going .... going great ." k_k stuttered out, very obviously showing that, at least for them, it wasn't going great . k_k's smile began faltering .

capn's smile fell, now leaving a concerned expression . he contemplated for a second, before coming up with the perfect plan .

"hey," he started, "you both have been practicing vigorously since you got the letter from swatch that you'd be performing. sweet, i heard you practice so much i could say that i know the background vocals about as good as you do . and k_k, you had to learn an entirely new way to drum considering your choice of headwear . that's extremely impressive ."

he saw sweets shoulders fall slowly, their nerves loosening, and k_ks nervous fidgeting slowly cease. good, this is what he'd hope he'd accomplish . "you both know this performance like the back of your hands . you are so ready for this . those darkners are going to hear how good you both are and they're going to ROAR with applause and cheers . for you two ." he flicked sweet's top hat and k_ks hi-hat, rattling it . "you're not gonna do good . you're gonna do great . no, you're gonna do phenomenal ."

sweet's shaking had significantly gone down, now looking hopeful and confident, and k_k's genuine smile had returned, which always brought cap'n's back as well .

"5 minute warning you all ! 5 minutes until showtime !"

before sweet and k_k could process what the swatchling had just announced, capn held sweet's face and pulled them in for a kiss . after releasing sweet, he pulled k_k in by the shoulders and pulled it in for a kiss as well . both were left flustered, but excited and confident . "i gotta go back and close up the ticket booth . but i'll be in the second the show starts . good luck, both of you, i love you both so so much ." he waved, pulling his bandana over his face to hide his own blush . his plan was a success .

sweet attempted to recompose themselves, reorganizing their sheet music, straightening out their tux, while k_k stared at the door with a big lovestruck grin .

"he's so romantic ...."

sweet rolled their eye, "he's corny, that's what he is ."

still, sweet couldn't erase the bright blush nor their eye's smile from their face .