"Are you sure you aren't going to need to record backing vocals?" Hazel asked skeptically. "I guess I always imagined it as a faster paced song."

Connie shrugged. "Well, since you boys were so busy with TokTok we decided to try to compose it ourselves. It's not complicated by any means, but I think you'll be surprised."

"We like surprises," Adam chuckled.

"It's so weird not knowing the song before I start mixing it." Steven stared down at the dials, then raised his eyes toward the girls. They looked so relaxed lately, and if this was important to them then it was important to him too. Maybe hearing it sung would change his own buried feelings about it. His girl seemed suddenly more sure in them than she'd ever been, and yeah that was great, but the fear she would realize they weren't perfect and leave him was clawing away at his insides.

"You'll do great," Connie said into the mic. "I trust you."

His cheeks burned with a confusing mix of relief and embarrassment. She always knew what to say. "Y-yeah okay."

He hit play and shut his eyes to let the music talk to him. There was no way he could've been prepared for how elegant it sounded, the plucking of the strings section made it feel quiet.

He exchanged a look with the other men, Hazel standing on his left and Adam slouched in the seat on his right with Jacob perched on an empty part of the table. They seemed just as clueless as he was.

Connie smiled to herself and took a breath in. "I'm jealous
I'm overzealous."

Anna took it next. "When I'm down
I get real down.
When I'm high I don't come down."

Jasmin pushed her hands into her pockets and clenched her fists once before relaxing again. "But I get angry
Baby, believe me."

Jacob let out a snort at that. This song was already growing on him.

Hazel hadn't admittedly noticed the first part of the song. He only had truly seen the things he projected into the lyrics. The fact that the girls were starting with their specific shortcomings was wildly unexpected, and amazing.

"Well I could love you just like that
And I could leave you just as fast." Connie forced herself to make eye contact with Steven and hold it. "But you don't judge me
Cause if you did baby,
I would judge you too."

"No you don't judge me
Cause if you did
Baby, I would judge you too." Anna's voice rang so velvet soft in his ears he turned up her mic a bit.

Jasmin came out with a surprising amount of passion compared to her last line. "Cause I've got issues
You got em too."

"So give em all to me
And I'll give mine to you."

"Bask in the glory
Of all of our problems
Cause we got the kind of love
It takes to solve em." Steven blinked away his tears and willed himself to pay attention to the track and not the fact that he was falling head over heels for this woman all over again.

Looking around, it seemed he wasn't the only one. Hazel and Adam were holding hands, staring out at Anna like she was a figment of their imaginations. Jacob had brought his knees to his chest and rested his chin on them, hugging himself in place of Jasmin.

Alex's cameras light was flashing red still, meaning it was at least recording them singing and swaying in time with the music so he could pair the video with the voices later.

If Steven could have listened to one part of a song for the rest of his life, he'd have listened to the three part harmony that was making him choke up. It didn't take a lot to make him cry, but music rarely did this to him.

Anna and Jasmin took backing vocals, bringing the question to his mind on how they were going to pull this off without a second recording.

"Cause I've got issues,
You've got em too," Connie's voice rose above to join Anna, who kept her alto in a switch so seamless he almost didn't notice until it was Jasmin singing.

"So give em all to me
And I'll give mine to you," This time Jasmin took lower while Connie stayed high.

"Bask in the glory
Of all of our problems," And then they switched back again. It was something he'd have to tell the media about when this came out. He loved his talented best friends, and he loved talented his wife.

"Cause I've got issues,"

The backing, "I got, ah," made his cheeks flush for no apparent reason. It was romantic and sweet, it felt like chocolate.

"And one of them is how bad I need you," Connie admitted freely, shrugging playfully as they rocked.

They mixed again with one high, two low, and Anna took the next painfully true declaration. "And one of them is how bad I need you."

They each took their turn to tell their partners that their biggest fatal flaw was them. And goddamn it, when Jasmin hit those last notes with no backing or instrumental he started clapping, quickly joined by the other men.

The girls all fanned their faces and exhaled the rest of their anxiousness as they curtsied and bowed to their adoring standing ovation.

Steven pulled Connie away as soon as the basic exclamations and hugs were had. He marched them right to their bedroom and sat her on the bed. "Darling."

"Yes, my love?" She crooned up at him.

He took a second to notice how far she was tipping her head up to meet his eyes, and how small she looked in them. His knees bent so he could poke her backwards and climb over her. He was feeling light as a feather, and then almost problematically so when she snuggled him into her breasts and pressed a million kisses to his head. "I love you. I know I say it all the time, but," He tugged his head up to look deep into her eyes, the lovesickness aching in his voice. "I love you. Please don't ever leave me."

She grinned and decided that feeling happy about her enjoying his need of her wasn't toxic, it was love. "Don't forget, I need you too."

"I will always be there for you. Always."