Anna rubbed at her eyes and groaned loudly, stomping back downstairs at 11 to see the band lying on the basement carpet. "I know I said I was tired but I can't sleep."

Hazel and Adam sat up, both motioning for her and then elbowing each other.

"Fuck you."

"No, fuck you."

"How about I do that right fucking now then, you fucking cuck?" Hazel snapped playfully, smiling at Adam.

The boys crooned as Adam straight up pinned him and started tickling him mercilessly. "A cuck? That's a great idea. Hope you enjoyed your last time with Anna and me, cause that's it for a week and a half."

"Wait, please!" Hazel cried desperately, making them all unsure whether he was begging to not be cut off or if he was about to pee himself.

Adam hummed and jumpercabled him, causing Hazel to rise like a bull but he stayed steady. "Who's my little cuckhold, hm?"

"Ah—! You'll never—," Hazel gasped as Adam went for his thighs with squeezes that tickled so much it nearly aroused him. "W-wait! Please! It's me! I'm the cuck!"

"Who's cuck?"

"Urgh," Hazel growled in frustration. If he admitted it Adam just might go through with it and Hazel would end up enjoying it and that would make it so much more embarrassing especially in front of everyone else. But if he didn't, Adam would tickle him until he pissed himself. And he would call him Pissy Cottontail. "Fine! I give! Your cuck!"

Anna giggled and stomped her foot to regain their attention. "HELLO?! I want you guys to tell me a bedtime story!"

She nudged Steven with her foot, who nudged Connie and so on until they were all staring up at her. Steven sat up and shook off the vertigo. "Baby wants a bedtime story? I know a million."

Connie grinned. "Why?"

He ignored her and tried to pretend like it was Anna being adorable that was making him flush so hard. "Anyways, we can play you a bedtime story if you want."

Adam and Hazel were still bickering, but at the mention of music they all grew excited.

Jasmin tugged on his jeans pant and exclaimed, "Does this mean we get to be musically connected again?"

"No," Jacob corrected her with a pinch of her cheek. "It's more spiritual than that."

"It's orgasmic," Hazel added seriously. "The better we perform, the stronger it gets."

Steven tipped his head toward them and gave them a sweet smile. "It's your power too. You guys do have the ability to access it without my help, just so you know. It's why your blood after this long is tinted a little pink, Connie's is straight magenta."

"I'm pretty sure all fusions make new powers, too," Connie mused, patting the suddenly starry eyed group on the heads. "I think Pluto might have enhanced charm-speak and music skills that surpass even Steven's. Possibly illusion too. Jaden's... hilarious actually. He's the perfect amount of annoying as fuck and he fucks so good."

"I think it's funny how a boy can be super hot but the reason your pants come off is cause you're always laughing," Jasmin chuckled, looking over at the very funny husband who'd made her laugh so many times that somewhere between being annoyed with him and giggling with him, a ring had been slipped on her finger. "Charisma."

Jacob grinned and shook his head. "I still can't believe that happened."

"And Heaven." Connie stopped at Hazel and stared at him for a moment before murmuring, "It combined everything about both of them and made... the perfect man."
No one could even argue that fact, but she added, "And he has aphrodisiac kisses."

"Bed. Time. Storyyyyyyyy!" Anna reiterated, clapping loudly. "I'm fussy and tired and I just wanna sleep!"

Adam hopped up. "I'm way too high to deal with a tantrum, Baby. Anything you want!"

They chuckled and walked back to their 2.0 Room to gear up. Steven paced around to stare up at the instruments and squint. Complete silence fell upon them and he began to glow. "Adam, Connie, Jacob, and myself on acoustic."

"Going simple?" Adam asked with a smile.

Steven shook his head and pointed Hazel to his drum set. "Normal setting, no rice, tambourine addition."

Hazel saluted and went with a skip to his step. Banging on things was fun and a great way to release built up stress. It was loud, and he needed that relief.

"We need a pianist, so scratch Jacob on guitar. Keyboard." Steven turned and surveyed all of their bright faces. "We'll need some rootin tootin hand percussionists."

Anna gasped and her eyes went starry. "IS IT A COWBOY STORY?!"

Steven laughed, groaning, "Dammit, I spoiled it."

"Nuh uh!" Anna protested emphatically, her voice going softer at the same time. "I'm invested now."

He smiled widely at Adam and the shorter man narrowed his eyes immediately. "What?"

"Would you be our main chorusist?"

He huffed and blew his hair out of his face. "If you expect me to do a cowboy accent you're out of your fucking mind."

Anna crawled up and pouted. Adam's face twitched into a grimace, but he eventually sighed. "Well, I reckon I can come up with somethin'."

Steven was once again thrilled by the versitality of Adam's voice. He could do almost any genre of music from screamo to barbershop quartets to show tunes, and he had a killer range of accents for some reason Adam didn't actually know either. Maybe he'd watched too much TV as a kid, but it made for a helluva show. "We've got Jasmin as The Mysterious Cloaked figure, Connie as Bo, Adam as Rudeboy, and the rest of us as the narrators. Anna, we now take you back to the Wildest West, not quite like the Wild West, oh no." The hum of the speakers being flipped on only added to the atmosphere.

He chuckled when her eyes widened and slung his guitar over his shoulder. "The Wildest West was the darkest of the Wests, the people there were the meanest you ever saw. To be a baddie out there you had to duel, draw your gun quicker than the other and then not even get the privilege of death if you fail. When you get got, they make you walk down the streets of the town toward the jail while the people on the street would beat the shit out of you and spit on your bruises. Then they'd kill you after the humiliation ate away at your sanity. They were all ruthless, cruel Wildest Westmen. But the biggest, baddest bitch of them all was my personal hero and good friend, Smokin Joe Rudeboy."

Jacob glanced back at Connie. "You guys need kids yesterday, shit, I'm invested now."

"He can't tell our kids stories with swears until they're 15," Connie murmured back, suddenly thinking really, really hard about having kids.

Steven stepped back and let out a slow breath. He started strumming, fiddling with it until he got a sound he wanted and stuck to it. Music was his deepest passion, it flowed through his veins and spread like wildfire to the others as he pieced together the song. Anna watched, completely mystified by watching the process occur so perfectly, but carefully. Twice Hazel changed the way he was drumming and once he got it, Stevens glow jumped to Hazel and heightened as it had two energy sources. He grinned and started playing more surely, and then Steven finally ticked on the mics.

"Are you ready?" He shouted joyously, laughing when they all cheered and Anna squealed the cutest little sound he'd ever heard as she threw her hands up.

Jacob got the glow next as he switched his stagnancy accompaniment to a country, deeply western intro and Hazel lifted a hand without thinking to walk in a few notes of a xylophone.

"Let me tell you a little story
About a man a long time ago
He was the quickest draw in the Wildest West
By the name of Smokin' Joe," Stevens eyes were wide with wonder as he introduced Adam with a nudge of his head and Anna scooted a little bit closer but still far enough away that she could see the whole band.

"It's Smokin' Joe!" They all exclaimed in their best western accents and ducked like someone had fired off gunshots.

"Hit the floor!" Hazel exclaimed.

Steven shook his head at Anna. "But he didn't own no six gun
Lemme tell you what he'd do
When the varmint rode in to town
He'd shoot 'em down with a big fat 'Fuck you'!"

She burst out laughing and clutched at her sides. This was already the best bedtime story ever.

"Smokin' Joe,
Smokin' Joe Rudeboy," They all sang but Adam who tucked his thumbs through his belt loops and regarded Anna with an annoyed scowl.

"Lemme make sure I heard you right
$7.50 for a large soy cappuccino?
Lemme get my wallet," He faked digging one out but instead brought his middle finger out and she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Fuck you, eh!"

"Smokin' Joe
Smokin' Joe Rudeboy,"

Adam scoffed. "Lemme make sure I heard you right
Even though I'm not with Amazon
You're calling me to tell me that
My profile has been hacked?" He'd had his hand up to his ear like he was on the phone but morphed it into his middle finger once again. "Fuck you!"

"And so Joe held the law
In the town in which he lived," Steven told her.

Jacob leaned closer to his mic and grew gleeful. "Yeah, only stupid motherfuckers
Would talk shit around Rudeboy
With his whiplash wrist!"

"Leeroy "Two Gun" Jenkins
Thought that he could surely win," Steven stopped playing to whip out two finger guns and tuck them into his pockets.

Hazel cringed in half sympathy. "But before Leeroy could blink
He was told to sit and spin!"

Adam smirked at Steven. "Why don't you take it for a ride now?"

He blushed but pushed on, strumming a bit harder and trying to complicate their parts a bit more as they all sang, "The Mongoose Mountain Gang
Played dirty with a twenty man crew."

Hazel took the line again with bright eyes that made Anna reciprocate eagerly to hear more of the story. "But tales are told that Joe grew
Eighteen arms that day as a gift from Vishnu."

"And as he rose in fame
Every quickdraw outlaw came
To the man they heard
Whose fists would burn
When he flipped the bird."

Anna watched with maximum delight but couldn't help but wonder why Rudeboy wouldn't just use a gun. Sure, if someone was so fast that by the time she drew her gun he had his middle finger up she'd definitely just walk into the cell, but that was a little strange in what was supposed to be the most dangerous part of outlaw territory. Maybe they didn't have real guns and it was symbolic?

Adam shook his head in disgust as he flipped off an imaginary cashier telling him he couldn't get his money back but could get a store credit. She grinned, knowing they all probably remembered the time she'd gotten a defective dress and now had store credits she didn't ever want to use. Next he bristled in offense at the party guest who'd dared to bring soda water to his party and told them to fuck right off.

Jacob caught her eye and smiled. She was too damn cute for her own good with that innocent curiosity and hanging on their every word. "He got that name because
His finger burns hot like the sun
And leaves you smokin' when he's done
It's just as well that Joe is fast as hell
'Cause in every duel he won
I'm not sure Joe knew
That they had a literal gun."

She choked on a giggle. Well, that answered her earlier question for sure. Joe was just that much of a badass, or a himbo.

Adam widened his stance like a cowboy, and threw a cocky smirk onto his face. "I know that they're packing heat
And I know that they know
That I'm the man to beat
But when I step onto the street
With a jingle in my feet
They know that I know that
They know that they can fuck themself!"

So he was aware. She loved when Adam got a little silly, it was becoming less of a rare occasion to the point where even their fans had noticed. He somehow was the perfect country boy somewhere under all that black, he played the part well. Now she definitely decided she liked this man who thought he was the shit and actually was. There probably weren't much for laws or regulations in duels back then, save for the ten paces and no cheating. If he could simply flip someone off with a literally flaming middle finger, why would he even bother with a gun? She giggled as she realized she was putting way too much thought into it and let herself regress a bit more.

Her eyes turned back to Steven as he started weaving further detail and grew in passion. "Some say many years ago
Before Joseph Rudeboy was Smokin' Joe,"

Hazel and Jacob shared a quick smile. "He had a wife, her name was Bo
Bo was with child in a happy home."

"But into town an outlaw came
Who wore a velvet cloak like a bloodstain
Now, Bo didn't like Joe usin' no gun
So Bo told Joe to fuckin' run!" Steven told her seriously as Connie grabbed her back like she was pregnant.

Connie clutched at her stomach and frantically pointed to the door. ""You gotta bring back help!""

"Run fast Joe, fast Joe!"

Adam shook his head quickly. "Lemme stay and fight."

"But Bo said,"

Connie pretended to wipe away tears and cried, "No guns, you've got to go!"

"Joseph Rudeboy was too slow," The band shook their heads solemnly, all mourning the imaginary person like he was real.

Suddenly the song had slowed down and Adam fell to his knees in agony. It was almost like Steven had made everything slow motion in the story, Anna could see Joe running to get help while the outlaw shot his wife and she wrapped her arms around herself. This story was good.

"For a child that he'd never know," Steven lamented.

"Joseph Rudeboy you're too slow..."

Jacob felt the tingling buzz rising in his stomach and stood, knocking the bench over. "Burning inside Joseph died
But from the ash the man who rose was–,"

"Smokin Joe
Smokin Joe Rudeboy!" Adam rose back off his knees looking mean and callous, dusting himself off with pride.

Anna gasped in sadness. Losing his family had made him cold blooded and angry with the world. She related to that in a way.

"He's a human phoenix!" Hazel proclaimed proudly.

Jacob agreed with a hearty nod. "Yes, that's the word.
I heard he was born in a fire
And rides a pair of flamin' birds."

Even Adam giggled at that, red in the face. Was this about the story? Because he couldn't help but notice a bit more feeling that went into those lines.

"I've heard he's never shot no-one,
But he's still locked up half of the wild west Lookin' for a velvet wearing son of a gun," Steven narrated with a mischievous grin to Jasmin.

She lit up excitedly as the boys walked her in, "One day an outlaw came to town,"

She held up a gun and Adam glowered, turning his head only slightly to regard her. ""Come out here Smokin' Joe
You're just as well already dead""

"He wore a velvet cloak but Joe saw red!" Jacob and Steven watched Anna's face show recognition of the big fight and started fidgeting with her pajama pants as she zeroed on a bit more.

"And on the street
The fateful pair did meet
All the townsfolk came to watch
When they knew Joe was gonna
Tell someone to,"

Hazel leaned into the mic and gave a button tag line of, "Fuck off!" that made Anna titter a tiny bit. Steven was so dangerously creative, and they were all such good storytellers. She felt like she could see the story happening right in front of her eyes. A quick thought of her boys in cowboy outfits brought a strange rush to her face.

"Their eyes were locked
What seemed like three eternities
To Joe the velvet man seemed different
From how he remembered him to be," Steven squinted a little at Jasmin but Adam shrugged it off and readied his Fuck Off hand. Anna's mind went to other things he did with his hands and she had to shake the thought from her head quickly.
"But it was all the same
To Smokin' Joe who'd been through hell
He'd dreamt every night the last eighteen years
Of telling this guy to fuck himself."

Anna cheered, fuck that velvet cloak fucker for turning Joe into such a lonely man. She watched tensely as Adam and Jasmin glared at each other with the tension.

Wait. 18 years?

"But when Joe went to ball
His hand into a flamin' fist
The outlaw shot him first with a
Middle finger that looked just like his," Jasmin was actually a pretty quick draw but she couldn't even begin to fathom that when the outlaw shared his superpower and disregard of guns.

"No way!" She crowed with a dropped jaw, eyes sparkling excitedly.

Steven slowed them down again just to strike at her heart one more time. "And as Joe fell
He beheld the outlaw's face
A young girl who'd seen it all
And grew up in a terrible place
Whose mother once told Joseph
To run and bring back help
A girl who thought her father
Had run out to save himself."

Anna jumped up to clap and cheer, and to her surprise the glow spread to her too. Warm, fuzzy and pleasuristic feelings filled her past full as Jasmin and Adam reconciled.

Adam held up his hands in begrudging filled surrender. "Lemme make sure I heard you right
You been tellin' everybody
I'm a deadbeat daddy
Didn't know I tried to save ya?"

Jasmin nodded. "Yeah"

"Fuck you daughter!"

They all joined one last time to speak the name of the legend himself, "Smokin Joe, Smokin Joe Rudeboy."

Jasmin stuck her hand out to offer it to Adam for a truce handshake. "Lemme make sure I heard you right
Now I found my father
And I learned the truth
We can be reunited?"

Adam smiled at her and went for her hand. "That's right."

At the last second she snatched it back and roared, "Fuck you, old man!"

Anna was cheering at the top of her lungs as the filter of magic lifted and the band laughed, hugging each other and flexing their bodies a bit to unstiffen themselves. "That was so cool! That was the best bedtime story ever in the whole wide world!" Anna practically screamed.

Hazel picked her up and bounced her softly to calm her down. "You riled her up more, thanks a lot," He accused with a laugh.

Adam kissed her cheek. "I just embarrassed the hell out of myself, so you'd better make sure you use your manners and thank everybody, baby."

She nodded earnestly and thanked them all one hundred times over. It really was the best story in the world, and by the looks of it Steven was more than pleased with every excited bounce. She grabbed both of her Daddies hands and rocked back and forth on her feet. "Thank you, Steven! Will you play me another?"

He nodded, hooking up his guitar. "Sometimes I like to just make music without all of the media and press coverage."

Adam chuckled. "Is fame boring you?"

"I'm in love with you fellers and music, not fame, partner."