Night Terrors
by wxrsethannicotine
Description: Noodle has a nightmare... again. She confides in her usual source of comfort, 2D. He does everything in his power to get to the root of her nightmares and see his beloved band member smile again. Takes place after the whole plastic beach fiasco, sometime between phase 3 and 4 in the House on 212 Wobble street , in which all of the Gorillaz were seen living together in the "DoYathing" music video.
Author's note: Hey guys! I'm Alex and this is my first fic. Please go easy on the harsh comments okay :'D. I don't really know where i'm going with this story yet, it's a just alittle something I whipped up during Japanese class at school. But it has potential. It May eventually get really smutty. idk yet. But I decided to make Noodle speak Japanese in some parts. In this case, I will write what she is saying in romaji, and then put the translation in brackets, bold it, and italicize it Like this: "Konnichiwa" [Hello].
Without further ado: Our story begins.
Chapter 1: Noodle's literal awakening
Noodle jolted upward, her mouth wide open omitting an ear-piercing shriek. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. Hot, thin tears dripped down her pale cheeks. She took note of the sweaty sheets mangled around her legs, and the down comforter, which was hanging halfway off the bed. With this, she concluded that she must have been tossing and turning in her sleep. She hopelessly panted in a pathetic attempt to regain her breath, but found difficulty doing so. It felt as if she had gotten the wind knocked out of her.
After a few more seconds, it dawned on poor little Noodle why she was screaming; she had a nightmare. Again. This was the 19th consecutive nightmare she's had.
Although Noodle was a fully grown woman now, the dark still gave her an uneasy stir. She had seen enough in her lifetime to make her fear even the smallest of things. Some would even say she has something similar to PTSD. (She has still not fully recovered from the Japanese training camp incident when she was a young child, nor the El Manana incident. No one ever suspected this because she was so good at hiding things.) With the vivid delusions still fresh in her mind, she began to hallucinate and see shadows dancing about her bedroom walls. Her heart started beating even faster, she had to get out before she lost her shit completely.
Without much thought, she launched herself out of he bed, and fled the room. All the while, she was whimpering uneasily, like a child would when they're scared, but not scared enough to actually scream. Her footsteps echoed as her legs carried her down the dimly-lit hallway. She barged into a room a few doors down, and proceeded to collapse on the floor in relief as if she had just escaped from someone trying to harm her.
And, for the first time in a long time, Noodle broke down.
A figure shifted in the bed before her. In the shadows, she could vaguely make out an arm, groggily reaching for the lamp on a nearby nightstand. Light illuminated the room, revealing a shirtless 2D who was now sitting upright. He was awoken by the sound of Noodles footsteps upon entering the room.
"huh... Who's tha'?" he mumbled almost inaudibly.
He rubbed his eyes upon noticing the band member quietly sobbing on the floor beneath him. This alerted him, he'd never seen Noodle cry before.
2D had always been quite fond of Noodle, and vise versa. Lately, however, they've been spending more and more time together. He just assumed Noodle was trying to re-kindle the "special Zen bond" they had after spending all those years away from each other. He suspected something has been wrong with her ever since she started having nightmares, but now there no way she could brush it off with an, "I'm fine, 2D-san. Just a little tired. Don't worry about me."
Still half asleep, he rolled out of bed and managed to half-crawl over to Noodle.
"Noodle? Yew awrigh' love?"
"Oh 2D-sama!" she gasped violently between sobs, "It was awful!"
Noodle snaked her arms around 2D's bare back, hugging him tight. Since he was still half asleep, this alarmed him just enough to bring him back to full consciousness.
"Yew mean you had another nightmare?"
"Hai . Watashi wa kore ga naze okotte iru ka shira nai ," [Yes. I do not know why this Is happening] she replied in mother's tongue. Every now and then she would switch between English and Japanese, although 2D rarely asked for translation.
He held her even closer now. This was the only method of comfort he could think of at the moment. She pressed her head on to his bony shoulder. 2D could feel her tears dripping down on to his collar bone. They sat there in silence (besides the occasional whimper and choppy gasp for air from the crying Noodle) for a few moments.
2D was beyond concerned now. He hadn't much experience with sad girls for one matter. But seeing tears flow out of the green-eyed guitarist, the girl he's grown an undeniably beautiful bond with, nearly broke his heart. He had to do something... but what? Do he dare ask what the nightmare was about? Should he sit there in silence for a few more minutes and let her cry herself to sleep in his arms? After a few short seconds of debating, he decided to ask her.
"Noods..." he started, "Can yew tell me wha' the nightmare was about?"
She un-hugged 2D, much to his hidden dismay, and nodded slightly as she wiped away the remaining tears. She took a deep breath and collected herself so she can explain the horrific nightmare.