fortydust // j. // brockhampton

𝔱𝔴𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔶 𝔢𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱

They were at the BH studio making the last two songs today.

And Harley was completely stressed although she was acting calm, cool, and collected.

She just wanted to make sure that everything fit together well. Joba and Harley had already worked privately with their song, but now it was time to perform it in front of everyone. The others stared in awe as they played the piano together.

Joba's hands daintily played the keys, his long fingers stretching out to make an intricate melody. His intro was one of her favorite parts of the song purely because of his raw talent. The keys were slow, but it clearly sounded like a love song full of longing and passion.

Harley closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before playing lightly. Her notes were a little more sporadic and added a layer to his playing. She liked the way that her thin, small fingers looked against his own large hands. And then Joba started to sing.

Joba talked about not being able to reach something, or someone rather, while painting a love story full of progression. Harley joined in, talking about holding people back while wanting more. They'd worked for hours on their lyrics, wanting it to be extremely special and specific to them while remaining vague.

And then Millie joined in with her own smaller verse, tangled with metaphors and her own guitar playing. They were quiet for a second and Harley leaned back on the stool, looking over at Joba. He gave her a small smile but it was clear that they both were shocked with the performance. And so was everyone else.

"That was amazing." Kevin blinked. Kenny's mouth was wide open and Merlyn was staring at them with big eyes. "Thanks guys." Joba said while Harley added, "Let us know if there's anything we could improve on. I want it to be perfect." Matt started laughing. "If that wasn't perfect already, then I don't know what is."

Joba and Harley called it Crayons for obvious reasons and the more she listened to the recorded track, Harley loved it.

The last song they worked on was called BYOB (BECAUSE IT AIN'T FREE) and it was the party song of the ep. Kevin described it as something similar to their track "1999 Wildfire" mixed with some unreleased track called Edamame.

"This is fucking crazy!" Romil shouted over the beat. The song started off with sirens and then Kevin and Gen joined in on the chorus. It was loud, catchy, and pure fun. It also reminded her of the beat on "Paranoid" by Kanye West before it switched to something more scratchy and denser.

Harley was dancing to it with Trinity as they played the song back. The beat was full of switchups and when Kenny came in, she sang a part that reminded Harley of Beyonce in her Destiny's Child era. Joba joined her, singing beautifully before rapping fast and loud. "We're making a music video for this one."

A few days later, Ashlan filmed as Kevin and Gen were in one box, Joba and Kenny in another, and Merlyn by himself when he slid in at the end. His part was on a mix of the scratchy, disco, and techno parts of the beat.

Kevin and Gen were dressed in all blue, dancing in a blue room with blue furniture. Kenny and Joba were in a yellow room, sitting on a yellow couch while Merlyn was in an all red room. And then they were done with the entire ep.

"A week early." Harley noted and they all looked at each other in shock. "Holy shit we did that." Hk had made a track cover design with all the songs listed out. "Ok what's everyone's favorite?" "Mine's Crayons." Kevin said immediately and Harley felt herself smile. "That means a lot." "It was amazing and you deserve every bit of credit." "Stop complimenting me, Kevin." She laughed with a slight blush.

"Why not?" "I'm supposed to be annoyed with you no matter how good of friends we are now." "Well now you're stuck as my friend." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she laughed. "You're the worst."

"Can we talk about something?" Matt asked and Harley raised an eyebrow. "What's up?" "I just wanna talk about the stupid joke that started our fued." Every single person in the room groaned.

"Kevin said that we could never be as good as you guys and it pissed me off." Harley shrugged and Dom said, "Valid. That was a dick move." "I was just joking. Every kept comparing us to each other and I thought it'd be funny. Was it right of me to say?" Kevin cringed, "No definitely not, but I was trying to be funny even though it's not." "That's the uh," Harley rubbed the back of her neck.

"I just never expected an apology from you." "Well you," Kevin looked individually at the rest of the girls, "And the rest of you guys deserve it." "Joba was always defending you." Ciarán said suddenly with a snicker and Harley looked over at Joba with a small smile. "Really?" "I don't know about always." He blushed and she smiled even brighter. Interesting.