Writer's note:

this is a short one, so, whatever

love, Cat


It's a dark and shiny place

But with you my dear, I'm safe

And we're a million miles away

-Karen O


There was rain pouring outside and there was rain dripping from his blue hair. There he was, on the couch in the dark; there had been a power failure. His bag, his banjo case, his jacket, all wet, all there on the floor. And there was Paula, in his arms.

His nose was buried in her hair. She smelled faintly of cinnamon, like she always did. She was cold. He was used to that too.

"Stu… you can stay." She broke the silence, even though he hadn't asked yet. But she could tell that he wanted to. She always knew, somehow. He inhaled the smell of her hair again, and kissed her forehead.

"I wish the lights would come back on." She whispered. "we could get you dried off and settled in."

"I'm okay." Said 2D.

But she insisted that he change out of his soaked garments and into some dry ones. He had to grope around a bit to find his pajamas among the rest of the items he'd haphazardly lumped into his gym bag. He changed in the dark.

"Has it really come to this?"

"Come to what?"

"Out of all the places you could have gone for sanctuary, you came here?"

"Yeah."

"But why?"

Because Murdoc wasn't going to look for him in Paula Cracker's apartment. Hell, his own mother wouldn't look for him anywhere near Paula Cracker. He sat back down on the couch.

"I just… feel secure when I'm closer to you."

"In my cold, dark little hole in the air?"

"It's not cold when you're in it."

"Now you're just trying to sweet talk me."

"Your hair smells good."

"Thank you."

And like that they were lying on the couch together, in embrace, trying to get warm through sheer determination (when they were both chilled to the bone). It was like ecstasy to him, to be able to hold someone he really cared about after feeling so alone for so very long, he wanted to revel in it, he wanted it to last forever. He wondered where her cat was, and if he wanted to join them.

The lights came back on like an unwanted party crasher. And when Paula could see his arms around her, and feel his breath on her neck, she was more conscious of herself- her "now", and all the mistakes she had made in her past. So she very gently pushed herself off.

"I'll go get you a blanket."

He took that to mean that she wouldn't be sleeping beside him, and that she wasn't inviting him to her own bed. He had never been good at hiding his disappointment.

"Do you think you might ever go back to them?" She asked, and she awaited his answer before leaving the room.

He hesitated. He thought of Murdoc throwing physical and verbal abuse at him on every occasion. He thought about the perpetual sense of insecurity he had gotten accustomed to from being around him. He thought about Russel, who had stopped intervening to help him, how his old friend had become more distant and aloof with every passing day, and how he spent long hours doing who knows what all alone in his bedroom. Then finally he thought about Noodle, who had reacted with outrage when he told her he wanted to leave the band after it had gotten back together for the first time in years, as though wanting a break was his fault, as though he had been wrong.

Murdoc had crossed a line the moment he had tried to be Gorillaz all by himself, and it still disturbed 2D that he had gone as far as to abduct and incarcerate him just to make an album. Not to mention all the nasty business he'd gotten them into with various crime organizations who were after their heads. Being a band on the run wasn't as fun as it sounded.

"No." He said, finally. "It's highly unlikely."

But he knew she could tell he didn't mean it. She always knew, somehow.