Counting Crows - Mercury

Noodle hadn't quite been the same ever since he little "trip" to Hell. She seemed more jaded, more guarded, less... happy. Or maybe she had just gotten older.

Anyway, she enjoyed the night-life more, exhibited an odd need to dance and grind at endless hours with strangers, drinking in the excitement and energy of the neon-drenched world around her, craving that brief, chaotic physical contact rather than nights alone, strumming an acoustic guitar and scribbling notes on music sheets. Her closet suddenly swelled with party dresses and high-heels in reds and purples and deep midnight blacks.

2D remembered a little girl with a radio hat, a mohawk, and a wide smile.

He could feel the thumping of the mindless, up-beat techno music through the brick wall of the London club, cold and rough as sandpaper on his back. Noodle was crouched on the ground beside him, shoulders heaving, staring at the ground. Her hair, which seemed to go through frequent style changes recently, was dripping with perspiration, her outfit in a similar state of disarray and dampness. Her shoes lay forgotten down the alley where she had flung them. Her make-up was smeared and smudged, especially around her lips.

2D took one last drag of his cigarette before handing it down to Noodle, who received it silently. He had no right to judge.

She inhaled deeply and blew it out in a long, slow stream. Gazing up at the moonless sky she said, in a surprisingly calm voice, "I smoke mostly for that. I remember when I was little, I thought it was so cool that you could see your breath when it was cold out. Now, I don't even have to wait for it to be cold."

A smile stretched across 2D's face. Still Noodle, then.

Dixie Chicks – Heartbreak Town

The world was too small for her. There would never be a city big enough, a venue crowded enough, enough people listening, enough things to say. She needed more. There had to be more.

He was always just along for the ride; he had never been the one driving. But seeing her longing, reaching, insisting on more made him both want to try for once in his life and, at the same time, made him wish he could hold her to his chest and tell her, "calm down, love, your gonna kill yourself."

But he'd never been very good at talking so he just sang, sad quiet songs, and she played her guitar just a little bit louder.

Fionn Regan – Put a Penny in the Slot

"It been a while," said a remarkably un-accented voice from a short, Asian woman.

2D almost dropped his cigarette in surprise. Noodle was still beautiful twenty years later. How old would she be now? Thirty-nine? Forty?

"Long while," 2D agreed, and even though he was wrinkled and had a decent beer-gut on him, he felt Twenty-three again, felt like things were just about to start. He grinned the same gap-tooth grin he'd had since he was twenty and she returned the gesture for all she was worth.

"So, you found my radio hat, then?" she asked, sitting down in the space beside him, the place where she has always belonged, "I haven't seen that thing since I was eleven."

"Didn't even realize I had it," 2D replied, crushing out his butt in the ashtray the restaurant had provided. "No idea how it ended up in my stuff."

"Maybe I put it there," Noodle remarked absentmindedly, and 2D raised an eyebrow. She quickly added, "I don't remember, obviously, but maybe eleven-year-old me stashed it in your belongings so you wouldn't forget me when we, ah, took our first break as a band. And then I ended up forgetting myself."

2D laughed. "I thought you were the smart one, Noodle. How could I ever forget you?"

Van Morrison – Into the Mystic

"It is strange to be at a beach after... well, everything."

2D couldn't deny that statement. He adjusted his hat tighter to his head to safe-guard it against the wind and looked down at Noodle, digging her toes into the sand beside him. Her dress fluttered around her in the breeze.

"Well, at least there aren't any whales," 2D said, suppressing a shudder. Damn whales.

Noodle laughed, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out why, and he turned to stare at the surf. Suddenly, he felt pressure on his shoulder and something soft against his cheek and he turned his head to see Noodle on the very tips of her toes, flushed with the slight embarrassment of having just kissed him.

"At least," she agreed.

Gorillaz - Gravity

"I am high," Noodle realized.

"As a kite."

Something from their first album – Noodle couldn't quite recognize what in her current state – was droning in the background, but her mind was too fuzzy with fumes to really listen to it. She breathed out again, and this time a hazy giggle accompanied the motion along with the smoke.

"You," Noodle said to 2D, handing him the joint with a lazy hand, "are a terrible influence."

"Sure am, love," he said, taking a deep drag and blowing it out in a series of rings ("I have got to learn that," Noodle thought, somewhere distant.). He smiled conspiratorially. "Fancy another puff?"

"Yes."

A/N: I apparently have a thing for Noodle and 2D sharing cigarettes and joints.