Chapter Four

Disclaimer: I don't own the Gorillaz.
A/N: 2D's POV and memory. Thanks for the comments!
Another day in May, but so much nicer. Like spring, almost. Noodle and I are on the Island, laying in the grass. She is wearing a pink tank top and blue shorts, and me, the same, only with a long white t-shirt. Noodle points at a cloud and laughs and says, "That cloud looks like Mud's nose."

We laugh, and watch them go by, and I ask her, "D' ya want t' know why it's like that?" The great thing about the Island is that the grass is really long and if you lay in it, you can't see the other person over it, so you could get pretty deep in thought and you wouldn't have to look atsomeone directly. But she must've been uncomfortable by this, 'cause she sits up and looks at me from the corner of her eye.

"Is it something I'm not supposed to know?" she asks, cautiously. Noodle was very big on privacy and not butting into things that weren't her business.

I sit up, too. The grass tickles. "It's jus' some'fink I hate ta think about," I admit. Noodle shakes her head fiercely

"No, then. I don't want you to be uncomfor–"

"But," I cut in, as gently as I can, "It's some'fink I want t' tell ya."

There is a silence, and I can see her debating over whether to press it or not. She puts her nervous grin on, glancing around, as if looking for backup. Her hair blows, and she brushes it out of her face and behind her ear. Should she listen to the whiney twenty-year-old, or spare his feelings?

"Ok," she says, very slowly, pausing again, "So tell me."

And I do. About the accident and my coma and Murdoc and my ex-girlfriend Paula and how Muds stole my girl and Russel caught them in stall 3 and broke Mud's nose and how we fired Paula and Muds went to the hospital and I layed in my bed for three days and cried, that the two people I respected above all would do something to me like that. And how after that, everything was different.

And Noodle, she was a good listener. A real good listener. Like, even if she didn't care about what you had to say, (but she always did), she'd agree and keep her eyes on you and smile and nod and take it all in without taking sides until the end.

And when I was done, she looked at me, and her eyes were sad, but there was no pity, just compassion and wanting something... wanting to help. And she said, "2D..." In the saddest voice I've ever heard, and she leaned over and rested on my side. Her hair smelled like vanilla. "I'll make sure he never does something like that again."

I wanted to ask her, what can you do? You're only fifteen. He's older than me. That's more than a good ten years on you. But the confidence in her voice was promising, and the peacefulness of the moment just said no, don't rehash it.

And she shifted against yours truly, and quietly asked, "Do you still love Paula?"

I glanced down at her, her eyes focused on a butterfly. "...D' you know what love is?" I asked back.

"Of course I do. I'm not a child, 2D-chan. Do you still love her?"

I didn't know what to answer, because I had never let myself really think about her, but the answer dawned on me like a bolt of lightning.

"...I did. After all that, I mean. But it went away."

"I know it did," she said curiously, not looking at me. I stared. How could she know what it meant, how it felt, to suffer that?

"Wha?" I asked.

She turned to me, and I swear, it seemed like she was giving off a glow, a sparkle, something, making her shine like the sun. And she answered my question.

"Because anyone who hurts you in the heart and spirit cannot ever really love you."

There is an air of childhood innocence around Noodle, like someone who has never seen war or death or violence, but there was the wisdom of someone who has lived their life and experienced everything. And it was coolest thing, being near her. It was the strange, hearing her talk like that, like someone older than me.

But not necessarily a bad thing. Not at all.

So I layed back down, and so did she, each absorbing what had just been said. The cool grass brushing my side, her head resting on my stomach, we lay there, watching the clouds go by, until there wasn't a spot in the sky.