She held out the little plastic ring delicately, its false facets glinting in the light.
"Ma-ree me?" Noodle asked again, fumbling with pronouncing it all correctly.
2D eyed her strangely, "Uh… Noodle… I don' fink yew evun know what'chor sayin' 'ere, so umm…"
"No!" she cried in protest, holding up the ring, "Mar-iee me!"
"Noodle-love, do yew undas'and what this means?"
"Yes. It mean we love each other and neeever ever wanna be apart!" the little girl replied with a smile.
He had to admire it a little bit, how she seemed to carry such bright little rays of sweetness and hope, even in the casting shadows of all the zombies and what-not of Kong, despite the fact that she was so lost in translation and in their world and even in the face of Murdoc Niccals. Sometimes he wondered how she managed it.
"Well, i's a bit mo' serious than tha'." 2D sighed, "I's a very impor'ant an' an adul' kinda thing, see?"
"Marry me." she insisted again.
"Look, Noodle." he knelt down to her level, looking at her straight, "I can' marry yew. I's jus' not righ' an' prolly not legal. Wha' are yew, anyway, like twelve?"
She couldn't look at him. Her eyes fell to the floor and she blinked slowly as if deep in thought.
"Noodle… do yew unders'and wha' I'm sayin' 'ere? I still wanna be frien's, but we can' get married."
"I understand, 2D-kun. I must go. Excuse me." she answered solemnly, making her way back to the kitchen, hopping up into her seat by the side of her fellow bandmembers.
She'd tried to explain these kind of actions before to 2D, calling it 'humility' or something. He never quite understood it.
"He did not buy it." She mumbled to Murdoc at her left.
"Aww, for sweet Satan's sake! Wha' a time to actually smart up for once and ruin our fun!" Murdoc growled, pounding his fist on the table for emphasis.
"Now, Muds, I dunno if our fun is ovah yet. Noodle-girl still got a turn!" Russel reminded him calmly.
"Oh, yes, it is my turn, isn't it?" 2D couldn't see it, but she smirked mischievously, but what she said, he heard clear as whatever is really, really clear. "Murdoc Niccals-"
The bassist gulped,
"Truth. Or. Dare?!"