(2D's POV)
Several hours had come to pass with the couple tossing and turning in the dark, hollow bedroom. In a gentle, noiseless waking, Stuart peeked his eyes open, disoriented and extremely comfortable in the soft, overtly warm sheets in his bed. Normally he awoke in the cold sweat that dripped down his neck or was chilled with a light trace of heat in his comforter, but this time, something was providing the source for him, making him shiver in delight and look about him questioningly.
He shifted his blurred eyes down to his upper torso and found a mass which was letting out faint snores and soundless breathing.
2D tried moving his left arm but soon found it was lying under the mass that was inhabiting his bed and making him warmer by the second. His other arm, he found, was lying on top of the person's side, touching soft skin and a ruffled shirt.
This aroused the man awake, forcing him to blink hard at what all his eyes could see and lifting his head off of the pillow to crane his neck and get a clearer view.
He recognized soft purple hair that cascaded down the side of a soft face and the tiny body of Noodle, her backside facing him, pressing into the crook of his body. Her forearms were partially covering her head, hiding her small button nose and shiny hair away from the stunned man who lay there, befuddled.
"Wot…?"
His head traced back to last night and it wasn't until he saw a large bruise cover the side of her face, harboring a long cut that he realized that Noodle was alive. She'd come back to the band with the company of Russ and had asked for the favor of sleeping with him in his room.
It was then that he took his eyes to his hand, where he'd felt smooth skin under his fingertips. Rubbing his thumb across Noodle's hip he connected the dots and realized that sometime during the night, he'd unconsciously began to cuddle this woman and had, in fact, spooned her.
Awkward as it was, he wasn't too upset with the idea. He'd gone through the entire night without even an image entering his subconscious. He was finally warm in his sleep and his awakening, and had woken up to Noodle, who he'd never finished grieving over when he believed her to be dead, years ago. But now that she was in his grasp, it wasn't hard to appreciate what all had happened in that night, whether he was awake to experience it or not.
The only bothersome thoughts that entered his mind when he woke to find himself cuddling the woman was how completely blissful he was that he was sleeping in bed with a woman in general- much more, with someone as special to him as Noodle. He'd tried pushing away this feeling the previous night, his mind distracting him with unpleasant labels and age factors, but he managed to toss his worries away for the time being since he was so completely happy with his current whereabouts with her now.
Pedophile…
2D shuddered and his conscience returned, a little black cloud pouring rationalities into his head, picking away at his positivity and pulling down the unexpected smile that had grown when Noodle had caught his eye.
Ever since Noodle had been deemed dead, he'd had no other friend other than Murdoc who'd yell in his face or greet him with unpleasant and obscene names. In attempts to keep himself active, Muds would resort to getting wasted on any liquor he had stashed away in his headquarters in the prettier parts of the mansion. This would result in a nasty knock in the head for 2D if he was found wandering the upper sections of the house or out on the dirty plastic that was a viewpoint for the towering home above.
And so, when 2D had finally come to his senses, pushing out the nightmares that mixed in with his reality from the continuous sleeping, he clung to every chance that he could to be by Noodle's side: crying on her when he realized she was alive, walking no farther than a few feet away when she was escorting him to meet Russ beside the island, to watching her walk away with a suspicious Murdoc who demanded her to talk to him privately.
And yet, during that, he'd been silent and resorted to soaking in the very idea that she wasn't gone. It was complete exhilaration that his long-lost best friend was with them and wasn't going to leave anytime soon; a new high that left him light-headed and almost disbelieving of it all. But he forced himself to shrug off the weariness and enjoy.
If Noodle wakes up with me and her like this…I'll fake ih' an' act like I'm asleep. This wos accidental and nevah intended…
2D smirked and let his head rest on the pillow again, looking down at Noodle's uncovered head and admiring her soft purple hair.
Yeh… jus' an acciden'…
(Noodle's POV)
Noodle woke to something brushing against her hip. Resisting the urge to kick whatever was behind her and was touching her bare skin, she simply opened her eyes into small slits and inhaled the sharp scent of butterscotch and cigarettes.
Toochie…? What are you-…?
Her eyes closed and she did not move, as her mind raced into memories and as soon as she remembered where she was and how she got there, she heard a sigh and 2D's hand went still on her hip. Chills ran down her spine, goose-bumps rising on her back and shoulders at the thought of being in a bed with Stuart. In all of this, she forced her body to lie still, savoring the sweet moment and dwelling on the issues that arose in the previous day.
She'd managed to figure out a demonic murderer was set out to find the band and get vengeance against Murdoc's lies. In attempt to flee from the maniac, Murdoc shipped 2D to the island against his will and took the time to build upon the island she was on now, furnishing it with expensive equipment for recording albums and simplistic living out in the middle of the ocean. While 2D was being shipped, Murdoc had apparently gone to make a duplicate of Noodle, replacing her with a weapon-wielding bodyguard that both played her instruments and, supposedly, the drums, since Russel was gone for the time being as well.
She'd been found by the African American man that had grown several stories, was taken to Plastic Beach, and discovered 2D, engulfed in confusion between reality and whatever horror his mind had provided him while she was away.
She felt partially responsible for his newly-found drug addictions, delusions and confusion and it made her feel distraught, seeing him so broken-down and frightened. It struck her in a place she'd built a barrier over when she vowed not to let destruction violate her sureness of everything. It hit her in the heart, an unexpected wave of something she'd dare not say out loud, for she knew it wasn't something she should succumb to. It was the whole reason why she built the wall up in the first place.
Broken feelings for another person that was years older than her were not in any way helpful to her own, psychological health. But it was definitely a bittersweet welcome to see him still alive and safe from the demonic murderer. She owed Murdoc- if it wasn't for him, the demonic psychopath would've gone after Stuart too, possibly killing him in the act and it still wouldn't be enough for the crazed man. Bloodlust, like what Muds had explained, was something to be feared because it was never a predictable crime.
Minutes later, after considering all of these things, Noodle opened her green eyes and stared blankly at the wall before her and yawned, stretching her legs and raising her arms above her head. She stopped in mid-stretch, her joints and muscles burning and crying for her to stop. So instead, she flinched with her limbs stretched away from her torso and she pulled these back, sore and achy.
2D's hand was still slung over her hip, limp, when she looked over to the blue-haired man behind her. His face was still, but she could see his eyes moving under his twitching eyelids. She smirked and turned her body to where her back laid against the mattress, her back popping and muscles displeased with her movement. She ignored this and continued to stare at the man.
"Toochie… you've been a terrible liar ever since I first met you. Don't think you can fool me now with your twitchy eyelids," she scoffed in a tired voice.
She smiled wider, getting a pouty face from the man who peeked one eye open and looked at her questioningly while he supported his head with his hand.
"I don' know where you got "terribol liah" from cos I know for a fact that Muds is gullible like nobody else I've evah seen."
Noodle rolled her eyes, flipping back to the green bastard and frowning at the image.
"He's drunk most of the time though, isn't he? Of course he's going to be gullible…"
2D didn't reply to this; he simply traced her stomach back to her hip that was farthest from him, and he pushed himself higher, narrowing his eyes.
"Okay, if I'm wrong 'bout being a liah, I definitely still remember tha' yew are ticklish almost ev'rywhere!"
Noodle widened her eyes and was prodded softly in her hips, making her jump and smile a little at 2D. This pushed the man to excel further, hovering over the woman and tickling her ribcage, making her giggle and thrash on the bed beneath him. Although it brought back soreness in almost every area that he tickled, she withstood the aches and cried for him to stop in between gasps and laughing.
After about a minute of severe tickling, 2D bent over her body and whispered in a husky voice, "do yew surrender?"
Noodle gasped again, tears falling down the sides of her face and she laughed even harder when 2D tickled her hips and back to her ribcage again. She nodded faintly; she was already cringing from all the soreness and tickling he was giving her, making it harder to respond without feeling like her body parts would fall of their limbs.
Finished with his work, 2D sat back on his heels, an air of victory plastered onto his smirking face.
Noodle propped her body against the metal railing of his bedpost, wiping away the tears and smiling back at the man, angry at the fluttering heartbeat inside her chest. The longing had returned and she'd fought off with every ounce to not give into her emotions and let them take over. But 2D's sweet, mellow face had soon begun to wash over him and he looked softly to the girl, making the goose-bumps rise once again and the beating in her chest skip.
Why is this happening to me…?
(Author's Note:)
Awww cute. It took a while to write and update this chapter. I was fangirling too much over this and the wifi sucked, so I decided to add some fun into it while I could instead of longing to submit it in fanfiction with the loss of internet.
I hope you guys liked this chapter!
I don't know how to progress though… I'll keep tabs with anyone who replies. I think I have an idea, but I'm not so sure about it. WRITER'S BLOCK! UGH! I HATE IT!
Reviews. I'm in desperate need for them, seeing that I'll need to PM you for ideas. Don't hate me. I hate blanking out on a story like this, especially when there's more to the plot than just romance…
Help!
Thanks for all your support! I love you all!
I do not own Gorillaz.
