Chapter 1: The Glass Bottle
2D was laying on his bed, guitar in his arms. He plucked a few lazy notes, nodding his head in time with the music.
"I'm 2D, mmm," he sang, his eyes closed as he let himself go in the song. "Won't you buy me, mmm..."
He hummed, opening his eyes to look down at his fingers plucking the strings.
"Narcissist," came a sneer from his doorway. 2D stopped his playing and looked up to see Murdoc smirking at him, that ever-present mean glint in his eye.
"Huh?" 2D replied. He wrinkled his nose slightly at the stench of alcohol, worried that he could smell it from all the way from there.
"Singing a song about ourselves, are we?" Murdoc said, raising an eyebrow. His words were severely slurred. 2D stared at him blankly, and Murdoc nodded at the guitar in his arms for emphasis.
2D's expression turned into one of confusion.
"But Murdoc," he said, "You have a song called 'Murdoc is God'..."
Murdoc blinked, his eyes focusing on a point over 2D's shoulder for a moment as his incapacitated mind sorted out what 2D was saying. Then his lips turned into a snarl and he threw the empty bottle in his hand at 2D. The singer ducked just in time, glass exploding on the wall behind him. He felt a few shards sting him as they bounced off the wall and cut his bare neck and shoulder.
When 2D opened his eyes and uncurled himself from his brace position, Murdoc was gone. 2D sighed and gingerly got up from his bed, turning around to survey the damage. Shards of glass were scattered all over his bed, and a few tinier pieces were embedded in the wall. But of course, Murdoc hadn't wasted a single drop of alcohol. The bottle had been dry as a desert when Murdoc threw it.
He wordlessly began the tedious process of cleaning it up. 2D wasn't one for tidying up (quite the opposite, really), but he couldn't sleep on glass.
"2D?" he heard Noodle calling from the hallway. A moment later, she poked her head into his room. As soon as she saw the mess, she paused and raised a slow eyebrow at 2D.
"It wasn't me, I swear," he said, and Noodle rolled her eyes and gave him a smile.
"I believe you," she said, "It was Murdoc, right? I just passed him in the hall. He's been getting more violent lately," She added. "I wonder if all the guilt is starting to catch up with him."
2D wasn't sure what Noodle meant. Murdoc had an endless list of horrible things he'd done that would make any normal person cringe with guilt, but in all the years 2D had known him, Murdoc had never even hinted to feeling bad about any of it. All the way from the early 90's, starting with knocking 2D into a coma and turning one of his eyes black, to a couple years ago, replacing Noodle with a cyborg and kidnapping 2D just to make more music, presumably to make more money.
And in all that time, he hadn't said a single apology, not to anyone.
Could Noodle be right? Had it all finally started to sink in for Murdoc? Was he finally starting to feel things like regret and guilt? 2D doubted it. The bassist was always this snappy.
"2D?" asked Noodle, snapping her fingers in front of her eyes.
2D blinked and continued wordlessly cleaning up the glass.
"What are you thinking about?" she whispered, taking a seat on the floor. Her long, slender legs curled up underneath her and she hugged the leg of 2D's bed. 2D smiled down at her, memories of a smaller Noodle flooding into his mind. She may be an adult now, but he would never forget the little pipsqueak she used to be.
"Nothing," replied 2D.
Usually, this answer was good enough for anyone who ever asked that kind of question. People just assumed because 2D wasn't the brightest crayon in the box that he was like some sort of empty shell, devoid of feelings and incapable of processing life around him. 2D knew he wasn't that smart, but he liked to think that instead of logic or facts in his brain, he had something far more valuable. Something like music, a thing that can't really be explained, but managed to explain everything.
Truth was, there was a lot going on in 2D's mind. Things like the sunsets in California and the stupidity of today's top "artists" and Plastic Beach and Kong Studios and everything.
Everything. Always.
It certainly added to his constant migraines.
"2D, are you bleeding?" asked Noodle suddenly. 2D blinked and slowly reached his hand up to his neck. Noodle stopped him, "Wait! Don't touch it. It might be the glass. Here, let me help."
Noodle told him to stay put as she retrieved the first aid kit from the bathroom. Then she sat him down and took a pair of tweasers to his neck and shoulder, carefully picking out the bits of glass. 2D winced with each removal, his eyes squinting in pain. But he stayed silent, his dark eyes like two voids as he let his thoughts drift.
"Stupid Murdoc," he heard Noodle growl under her breath. She apologized to him, but before he could ask why, she quickly dug into one of the small wounds and retrieved the biggest piece of glass from his shoulder. It was only the size of a fingernail trimming, but 2D let out a cry of pain and jerked away from her, his hand flying protectively to the wounded area.
"I'm sorry, Toochi," said Noodle, eyeing him with sympathy. "That was the biggest piece, I promise the others won't hurt that bad."
2D reluctantly sat back down and allowed Noodle to pull the rest of the glass out of his flesh. After it was over, she wiped the small amount of blood away from his cuts and pressed bandages onto the bigger ones.
"Thank you, Noodle," he said, offering her a bright smile. Her face softened from the concentrated look it had held, and she gave him a gentle hug, careful not to touch his shoulder.
"It shouldn't have happened in the first place," she said with a sigh. "What did he even get mad about?"
2D explained what happened and Noodle gritted her teeth.
"He threw a glass bottle at you for that?" she hissed out, glaring down at the cuts Murdoc had created. Then, she seemed to decide something. "I'm going to go have a talk with him."
2D didn't like that idea. He knew that if Murdoc had gotten mad enough to throw a glass bottle at him for essentially calling him a hypocrite, he'd probably be furious at being told off by Noodle.
It wasn't like Murdoc would hurt Noodle. He might be evil enough to hit girls, but Noodle wouldn't ever let him lay a finger on her. She was small and slight, but he was still no match for her pure skill, and it wasn't one of Murdoc's hobbies to make himself look like an idiot.
Murdoc also wouldn't ever touch Russel, for obvious reasons. Even if he hadn't eaten that radioactive seaweed and wasn't the size of a house, Murdoc still wouldn't be able to take him.
So the only person left for Murdoc to take his constant anger out on was 2D himself. As soon as Noodle was done berating him for throwing glass at 2D, the bassist would come right back to his room and beat the living daylights out of him.
"Please don't," said 2D in response to Noodle's statement. "It's fine, really. I just need to finish cleaning up, and then it'll be like it never happened."
He even smiled, going over to his bed to sweep the shards from his covers for emphasis. When he turned around to see if he'd convinced Noodle, he paused. She was looking at him with the strangest expression. She seemed sad, but also a bit angry. 2D blinked in surprise, straightening his back and tilting his head in confusion.
"What's wrong, love?" he said, walking back over to her. She sighed heavily and glared at the floor, closing her eyes. After a second she looked back at him, her eyes kinder, soft.
"Nothing, Toochi," she said. "Don't worry, I won't yell at him."
She gave him another hug, then left 2D to his thoughts.
After he finished cleaning up, he sat back on his bed and picked up his guitar once more. As he strummed, he wondered what was going to happen to them all. The band had left Plastic Beach behind, and now lived in an apartment in London. It'd been a while since they made any music, and 2D was admittedly not sure at all what would become of them.
Maybe they'd just lie low for a while. Considering everything that had happened to them as of late, maybe they'd earned a break.
Little did they know, their little break wasn't going to last much longer.
