fortydust // j. // brockhampton

𝔱𝔴𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔶

*Joba's POV*

Joba whistled to himself while flipping blueberry pancakes over the stove. He'd woken up at 2:00 in the afternoon after going to bed so late, mind still on Harley. He still couldn't believe how she'd suddenly opened up to him like that.

Before Harley came over, Joba was watching gaming videos on his bed. He usually did this whenever he was bored or wanted to relax. And there were Podcasts that he enjoyed but he wasn't feeling that yesterday.

When Harley just showed up out of nowhere, he didn't even ask why, distracted by how happy he was to see her. Joba smiled to himself, thinking about how tightly she'd held him. But then he frowned, thinking about Cat showing up and being the reason why Harley had come over. He wanted to meet this...Cat.

"You're up early." Ciarán mumbled sarcastically and Joba looked over his shoulder. "What's with the attitude?" "Attitude?" Ciarán laughed dryly, "I'm joking." Joba eyed him before shrugging. "Do you want a pancake?" "Blueberry?" Ciarán leaned over Joba's shoulder to look, "Yeah, I'll have two." "I said a pancake but sure." They stood in silence and Joba wondered why he wasn't sitting down.

"Do you need something?" Joba raised an eyebrow, "There's syrup in the cabinet." "Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Ciarán furrowed his hair before walking towards the cabinet and Joba poured some more pancake batter into the pan. Ciarán walked over to the table, placing the syrup down and then stood there, still not sitting. Joba couldn't tell if he was watching the pancake being made or him but he felt super uncomfortable.

"So what's going on?" Ciarán sucked on his teeth before saying, "Nothing much." They were silent once more before Joba said, "You do anything for the song today?" Fortydust was coming over to make the second song today and Joba was excited after how great I Need A Heart Autopsy turned out.

"A little." Joba put down the spatula, turning to eye Ciarán. He folded his arms over his chest, challenging Ciarán to say more as they stared at each other. "So did you have fun last night?" Ciarán asked him suddenly. "I was just producing something for Harley so it wasn't like...a blast or anything. We were working."

"She looked upset when I answered the door." Ciarán watched as Joba slapped two pancakes onto a plate. "Who knows." "Well," Ciarán mumbled, "That's too bad you guys weren't having a good time." "When did I say that?" Joba laughed forcefully. "Oh you just made it sound like-" "Ciarán, what are you getting at, man?" "I-I don't know," Ciarán swallowed hard while lathering syrup onto his pancakes, "I guess I'm just confused about why she was here."

"I don't get what's confusing," Joba's eyebrows furrowed, "Do you have a problem with her or something?" "No, it's just weird that she came here that late." He was still standing there, soggy paper plate in hand by the time Joba served himself his own pancakes and sat down.
And then Ciarán finally sat down with him. "What'd your feet get tired?" Joba smirked and Ciarán rubbed his beard. "I was just waiting for you." "Uh. Ok."

Then there was a comfortable silence, Ciarán chewing and Joba ready to eat his food. Joba was about to take a bite of his blueberry pancake when he had to stop, hearing Ciarán's voice. "Now why was she here?" Placing his fork down, he faced Ciarán. "For the last time, Harley came over to work with me for Loverboy. And Harley and I are friends now. She's super cool," Joba's voice lowered, "Maybe you should hang out with her to see so you're not up my ass."

"Cursing?" Ciarán laughed, "Aggressive today, huh?" "Yes, agraysive. Because you won't leave me alone about nonsense," Joba mimicked Ciaráns accent before pointing at his plate, "And these beautiful blueberry pancakes are waiting for me." "Fine." Ciarán mumbled, poking at his pancakes.

They were quiet until Joba went for the more lighthearted approach. "I make a mean blueberry pancake, no?" "Yeah they're good," Ciarán swallowed, "So I was thinking about something last night." "What's that?" "Why don't we sell our apartment-" "NO!" Joba's eyes went wide and then blushed, trying to relax himself. How does Harley conceal her emotions so well? He'd have to ask her about that.

Ciarán was watching him with a big smirk before he said, "I just-what use does it have, ya know?" He nudged him before taking a big bite, "Right?" "I feel like you have something you want to tell me." "No, no," Ciarán laughed while shaking his head, "Not. At. All. But I'm seriously about selling the apartment." Joba paused, trying to figure out how he'd casually convince him to keep it. "Why do we need to sell it?" "Cause we don't use it," Ciarán shrugged automatically, "And why not save the money so we could put it towards something else? We could even get another place in-in Hawaii or something." Ciarán wore a small smirk on his face before quickly frowning to hide it.

"We're talking about two totally different things here," Joba eyed him, "And you don't even like the beach." "Woah, woah, woah," Ciarán shook his head, "We had fun in Hawaii when we went." "And you kept your sweatshirt on when it was 98 degrees out." "It's colder by the water." "Bullshit." Joba laughed. "Oh I know," Ciarán studied him, "We could get a place on Planet Greebus." Joba shook his head at him with a small smile.

"We're keeping the apartment." "Why? I don't want to pay for it anymore." "I-I have a use for it." Joba finally spit out and Ciarán smiled. "Like what?" "I need my personal space." "Your personal space? You have your own room. And I don't know if you've realized, but this house is huge." "I know, I know. But I like having a separate place."

Ciarán was quiet for a second. "Is this because of that one time I walked in on you?" "When?" Joba looked confused before Ciarán blushed. "While you were with that girl." "Oh," Joba turned bright red, "No, no. That was a one time thing." "One time thing, huh?" Ciarán leaned back in his chair and Joba frowned. "Yeah. One time."

"Right. Okay well," He got up, "Think on it, okay?" "I'm probably not gonna change my mind." "Probably," Ciarán nodded before slowly spinning around to leave, "Great pancakes by the way." "Thanks." Joba grumbled, swiping at his plate to clean it up.

An hour later Fortydust was there. "Okay so Millie started a chorus." Harley looked back at her, wanting to tell everyone. "Oh that's cool," Kevin smiled, "Can we hear it?" She blushed before nodding and sitting up on the stool in the corner of the room.

Slowly strumming, her sweet voice rang through the room. She was singing about being too shy to talk about her feelings, hidden by metaphors and rhymes. Everyone was entranced by her guitar playing and the smooth notes she created. When she was finished, Millie looked up at everyone with a faint smile.

"I was thinking something slow like that." Ciarán said. "Well, why don't you guys go figure that out together?" Kevin suggested and Ciarán rolled his eyes. "Okay we'll be in my room if you need us." "Perfecting the chorus." Millie nodded.

And then Dom and Trinity went off to write verses together while the rest of them were all left standing there, looking around at each other. "Kevin what do you think of this beat?" It was super bouncy with a carribean style to it. "Wait, that's sick." "But it totally wouldn't go with Millie's chorus." Harley interrupted. "Tell me Trinity wouldn't sound fire on this." Genesis said, looking over at her. "She would. But we're doing two songs. And we agreed that this was gonna be more of a pop song." Harley shook her head and everyone was quiet until Kenny said, "Why don't we make more than just two?"

"But we were worried about the deadline for two songs." Merlyn raised an eyebrow and Harley agreed. "But we just made a whole other beat in no time," Kevin said, "We can do it." "But how many more? We say one more and then this will happen all over again." Harley raised an eyebrow. "Then we limit it to 6 songs." Kevin suggested and Kenny agreed. "A 6 song EP."

Harley was silent for a second to think. But then she realized that making more songs would mean a longer time with Joba. "Fine. I'm in if everyone else is." 

A/N- whos excited for da EP ;)