Hey everybody. Sorry if this doesn't seem very in character, but I don't really think 2D's as simpleminded as we believe. Enjoy! This is not a oneshot.

Disclaimer.

I leaned back in my kitchen chair and squinted at the project in front of me. Beads and wire were strewn about and I was quickly growing frustrated. Matter of fact, I was getting ready to throw the entire bleeding thing out the window. Noodle's birthday was in three days and I was ever so diligently working on my present for her. It kind of had to be spectacular, with me being her boyfriend and all. I tried threading the skinny wire through the tiny bead again but my hand slipped. Fuck. I grunted and tossed my attempt at jewelry making on the table, choosing to cross my arms and stare out the porthole window angrily instead.

The last few months have been wonderful to me. Me and Noodle have finally realized our long-speculated about feelings and had done something about it. On the beach. On the floor. Against the wall. I still smirk whenever I think about it. Having Noodle as a girlfriend turned out to be one of the best things that had ever happened me, it even topped the day I pressed a key on one of my dad's keyboards and realized I could make sounds. She seems to be the only one who gets me sometimes and is definitely the only one who tolerates me for more than a few hours. She was having such a good impact on just about every aspect of my life. Every. Single. Aspect. Yep, you know what I mean. Not that every single fucking moment with her wasn't the best I could remember, but the sex was pretty damn good. And her birthday was on Tuesday. It was up to me, the self-proclaimed best boyfriend ever, to get the perfect gift. And up until this point, I wasn't doing so great.

Get this, my original idea was to write her a song. Should be easy right? I'm a freakin' musician! No. Writing a song for a crowd of people is a heck of a lot easier than writing one for one single person. That idea was scrapped after two hours and the only thing I could find to rhyme with Noodle was "oodle". There's only so many times I can use that in a song without sounding like a swotty nancy boy. In my despair, I went out to the beach to clear my head. You've seen the beach, yeah? It's basically just a load of garbage floating out in the middle of the sea. I'm pretty sure I could've designed the thing in my waste bin. Anyway, I was staring at the ground, wondering what all my years of musical training meant if I couldn't write a song, when I saw a piece of glass sticking up out of the ground. Granted, there's a lot of glass 'round here, most of it belongs to Murdoc, but this one was different. It was the very shade of green that I got to look into every time I went in for a kiss. I stared at it for a moment, trying to think of what I could do with it when it hit me. Bracelet. Girls like jewelry and stuff like that, right? I scooped it up with what I'm sure was the stupidest grin I've ever worn and ran back to the house.

My new plan was to make beads out of the pretty glass and string them all together on a wire. And that was going pretty well, the beads were (relatively) symmetrical and I even was able to bore holes in them, I had the calluses on my hand to account for that. It was just this bloody stringing business that had me stumped. I don't know whether it was my lack of sleep or the fact that I was probably trippin' on some serious medication, but the damn beads would not stay on the bloody string! I rubbed my forehead in annoyance and exhaustion. When was the last time I slept? Eh, can't remember.

I heard footsteps coming down the hallway. They weren't the clomping, slightly drunk stagger of Murdoc and Russel was still outside, yeh know, being huge and all. The light footsteps had to belong to Noodle. I glanced down at my project in a panic. She wasn't allowed to see this yet! I waved my hands around and mouthed some probably unnecessary profanity in my silent freakout but managed to pull myself together to swipe the bracelet into my pocket before she appeared. I tried my best to act casual. She looked really cute in the morning. Most girls don't have that ability, their hair is all over the place or they have makeup smeared everywhere, not my girl. No, she looked every bit as damn perfect as when I left her last night. I mentally smacked myself. Stuart, do not make this more awkward than it has to be.

"'Ey love." It always amazed me how stupid I could sound when I spoke. Stupid Cockney accent… least it brought the girls round. Noodle smiled at me sleepily and went to the kitchen for some breakfast. I tilted my head and watched her backside as she moved around the kitchen. Yep, I was a letch. Heh, guilty as charged. I fumbled in my nearby pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. I stuck the cigarette in my mouth and lit it expertly. I took a drag grinned at Noodle as she sat down beside me. Instead of eating, she slumped and put her head down on the table. I straightened up. What was wrong with her? Oh God, three months as my girlfriend and I've already killed her! I touched her shoulder hesitantly and she groaned. I sighed in relief.

"Wos wrong, love?" Noodle picked her head up and glared at me.

"I'm tired, what do you think?"

"Why are yeh up then?"

"Because it's noon…?" She said this like it made a difference, which it didn't, but hey. To each their own.

"Up awl night?"

"Couldn't sleep. I was too nervous."

"'Bout wot?"

"My birthday. I'm going to be twenty-one. I'm not a kid anymore." I cracked a grin. Yeah, I was glad she wasn't technically a kid anymore, it meant that I didn't have to feel like Hugh Hefner anymore.

"Wull, bein' twenty one isn't s'bad. Hell, I remember that twenty one was prolly the best time ah me life." She shot a skeptical glance at me before starting on her cereal.

"Do you even remember your twenties? Aren't they kind of a drunken haze?" I shut my mouth. True, I had spent the better part of my twenties either in a bar or beside the toilet recovering from my times in a bar. I reached over and stole a few marshmallows from her bowl, earning me a swat on the back of my hand.

"Wull we dun' 'afta get slobberin' drunk on yeh'r twenty first. We can… ok, I dunno wot we'll do, but ih's yew'r night, we'll do wotever yew want." She didn't look appeased.

"I guess… the drunk part wasn't what I was worried about." Uh oh. I recognized that look. The set jaw and eyebrows meant she was considering something drastic… and potentially harmful to my well being. I got the same look when she wanted to try some LSD with me. It was fun while it lasted, but it had been a nightmare trying to keep her away from Russel and Murdoc. God, I was such a bad influence.

"Ok… wot 'as yeh'r mind, love?" She looked up at me with the green eyes that were omnipresent in my every dream. You like that word, omnipresent? I found it on the Word of the Day calendar that Noodle bought me as a joke.

"I'm just a bit concerned about… the location." I raised an eyebrow. We lived on an island, what was she expecting? The party was either going to happen in the living room or on the beach if we were feeling frisky. There weren't actually that many places to have a raging party of four… five of you counted the repairman, which we didn't. I tried to keep my voice level.

"Where exactly were yew plannin' on 'avin 'is party?" She took a deep breath and smiled.

"I want to have it on the mainland."

I'm fairly certain my jaw dropped in surprise. Who did she think she was kidding? There was no way Muds was going to let us off of the island, well, mostly me, but still.

"Okay… and 'ow're yeh going to convince Muds of this plan, eh?" Noodle's smile faltered and I felt a little bad.

"Well… I was going to talk to him about it, maybe use my best puppy dog face," Don't laugh, it works. I've seen it many times. "And then I was hoping…" She directed one of her famous puppy dog faces at me. I felt my stomach drop. Something bad was headed my way. "Maybe you could talk to him too? It would mean so much to me." I nearly laughed. Like she thought she could win me over like that. What was she on? Ok, she could look away aaaaaaany time now. Really, I'm not that much of a pushover. Yeah, she looked pretty pitiful with her big eyes and her little pouty mouth and… dammit.

I threw my hands up in surrender.

"Okay, I'll talk to 'im. But yew better be 'round afterwards to clean me up when 'e's finished beatin' me to a pulp." I pointed my finger sternly at her. Sometimes, I really hated how she had me wrapped around her little finger like that. She threw her arms around me and pulled me in for a big kiss. My hand went up to wind in her hair and pull her closer, smiling as she grabbed my shoulders.

Maybe wrapped around her little finger wasn't such a bad place to be.

Thanks for reading, my dears! Perhaps a review now?