Bittersweet Good-bye
A Gorillaz oneshot by JeniOctavia
Ratt-tat-tat-tat-tat!
KrackTHOOM!
BaBOOM!
Overly loud animated gunfire and explosions rattled a set of giant speakers belonging to an insanely large television screen, the screen its self currently sporting a three-way split screen of a Halo 2 cooperative play segment. Three individual Spartans ran over a battle marked field, gunning down and tearing through their enemy. Behind the controls of these warriors of destruction and semi-organized chaos were three parts of the world famous band Gorillaz. 2-D, Russel, and Murdoc, to be exact. All three were gathered on the large semi-circle plush couch that took up most of the room in Kong Studio's game/entertainment hub. What the couch didn't take up, the enormous television screen and various players, consoles, speakers and controls did.
Long, pointed tongue sticking through his jagged, rather unhealthy looking teeth, Murdoc grunted and growled, making an array of noises as he twitched his arms all about, trying to keep from getting completely murdered on the game. Not three seconds after giving a triumphant cheer of taking down a rather large opponent, something landed a one shot kill from behind, dropping his Spartan instantly.
"Oh bloody hell!" he cursed loudly, dropping his arms as he waited for his character to respawn and rejoin his two team mates on the field. Leaning forward a bit, his arms hanging at the elbows from their resting point on his skinny legs, Murdoc made a face and brought something up that had been prodding at his mind for a while, "You know those boxes that came the other day?"
"Yeah." 2D chimed in his soft spoken, slightly high pitched voice, his eyes never leaving the huge screen or his Spartan's militaristic movements, "Wha'abou them?"
"I think they were for Noodle," Murdoc said, keeping rather cryptic about it. His character finally respawned and he lifted his arms again to begin thrashing about in his rather unique method of playing.
"Yeah, so what?" Russel demanded in his deep, rumbling tone, casting a sideways glance at the rather spastic Satanist.
"Well...they were empty,"
"...so?" 2D queried, raising one large eyebrow as he looked away long enough to stare at Murdoc in dull witted confusion.
"Well," Murdoc said once more, giving a grunt as he raised his arms rather high, mashing buttons left and right on the controller, "empty boxes usually means moving. Moving usually means some one's leaving. Which leads me to conclude-"
"I'm surprised you can conclude anything, the way your mind works," Russel interrupted, barely receiving a glare from Murdoc who was simply too busy trying not to get blasted again to waste the energy on properly giving his band mate a good leer.
"Which leads me to conclude," Murdoc began again, "that Noodle's leaving."
There was a resounding silence, save for the blaring noises of the game, in the room after his statement. His strangely colored eyes shifted back and forth between Russel and 2D, awaiting a reaction of any kind. Their faces remained blank, 2D's particularly so, as they remained ever focused on the game at hand. Giving another grunt, though this one at them rather than at the game, he shrugged and sat back a bit.
"Not that I care or 'nything,"
He returned to the game, having some how avoided getting mauled during those few seconds he'd actually looked away from the screen, and was fragged not more than thirty seconds after his attention was devoted again. Cursing up a barely understandable storm, he was forced to wait for his Spartan to come back to life again.
Suddenly 2D's nimble fingers halted on the controller, one forefinger still curled around the trigger, holding it there as his character began shooting aimlessly all over the place, his thumb having been removed from the analog stick. His face slowly took on the expression of some one coming to realize something very important. His eyebrows knitted together and he turned his blank, black eyes on his older band mate.
"Wait. Did I hear you righ'?"
"Huh? What? Oh. About Noodle?" Murdoc fumbled, eyes on the game. It had only taken him a second to forget he'd even brought it up, "Yeah. 'least I think so, I don't know. For all I know that daft girl could be buildin' a bloody fort or sumin," he said with the same shrug he'd given earlier.
Not even a second later 2D was up and out of his seat, bolting out of the room as his controller clattered to the floor noisily, leaving his Spartan to give a spastic twitch on screen before getting gunned down.
"D! What the hell, man?" Russel called after him, one eyebrow raised in obvious confusion. Murdoc also watched him go, a soft growl and some unintelligible mutter being emitted from his lips. Reaching down, he snatched the fallen controller and exited 2D's window, bringing it to a two second split screen. Russel turned his gaze to him, his expression growing in curiosity, "You're not going to go after him?"
"If face ache wants to get all worked up over that bloody brat leaving, I'm not going to stop him..."
"You're not going to stop her , either?"
"No. Why should I? No one forced that nutter to be here,"
"...crackahass," Russel grunted, shaking his head in obvious disgust as he continued to mutter while going back to playing, "Doesn't even care about his own band mates. Cold hearted bastard..."
While all this was going on 2D had made it to the lift and was waiting in clear annoyance as slurred voice of Shaun Ryder repeated "Its comin' up" to signal that the cab was on its way to that floor.
"Bloody annoying..." 2D muttered, tapping his hand impatiently against the wall. He wasn't even sure why he was freaking out as badly as he was, but something about what Murdoc had said, when it finally registered, that is, had sent his heart straight to his feet and washed a terrible sensation of dread all over his body.
"It's dare!" the Shaun Ryder voice declared as the lift doors opened wide to reveal the small cab. Jumping in and slamming his hand on the up button, 2D slumped against the back wall with his arms folded across his stomach, his face screwed up in a confused, worried expression. The lift seemed to take forever to get him to the first floor, but the instant the doors started to slide open he bolted out, banging his elbow against the metal door but barely taking notice as he dashed down the hall way. He only paused to yank the corridor door open, stumbling as the swinging momentum came very close to taking him out. He kept running, though, all the way to the end of the hall where Noodle's room was.
Skidding to a halt, falling over partially but catching himself before he actually face planted, his eyes went wide as a sick sense of horror washed over him. The door to her room was open, and the room itself was devoid of any of the young guitarist's nicknacks, posters, and personal items. It was empty, just as Murdoc had predicted it would be. For all his rushing down to that location, 2D suddenly found that he couldn't move a muscle, still crouched down from his fall-saving position. His eyes darted around as his chest heaved from running, but he saw nothing that could indicate that he was either hallucinating, dreaming, or just plain wrong.
Gone...
After what felt like an eternity he finally willed his muscles back to working order. He rose to a standing position and took one step, two steps, three steps in to the empty, dimly lit room, the only source of illumination coming from the corridor lights. It really was empty, only a few scattered items lying on the floor, clearly dropped in a haste to get her things out. A pair of panties here, a slipper there, and on the tatami mat that once housed her Japanese style bedding a photograph lay. This particular item caught 2D's eye and he moved towards it like a stunned zombie to a food source, one hand out stretched until he knelt down and wrapped his fingers around the glossy surface of the photo.
Lifting it up and giving a good squint in the poor light source, he realized he was looking at a fairly old memory, from before the band had went their separate ways for a time, just after their first album had actually been released. It was a time when Noodle was barely distinguishable as a boy or a girl, in the days when she could barely speak a lick of English, and what she could speak she'd learned from hanging around the boys.
It was Christmas, probably 2002. Noodle was a little taller than when they'd released Gorillaz , but not by a lot. A slightly ill looking Christmas tree stood in the middle of the Kong Studios lobby, decked to the frills with tinsel and ornaments. Murdoc was sitting off to the side on the couch, looking disgruntled as ever as he smoked a cigarette. Russel was bent down under the tree, placing various gifts. Noodle, unable to reach the top of the tree even on the step ladder that was near Russel, was on literally standing on 2D's shoulders. He was holding her ankles while she reached to put the large gold star at the top. She'd begged him, in broken English, to let her do it. Just the thought of getting to put the coveted gold star atop the evergreen seemed to bring her great joy. That joy was contagious; both her and 2D had their mouths open wide in laughter.
A high whimper broke 2D's train of recollection and he looked around the barren room only to realize that it was him who'd made the noise. No tears fell, but he felt something well up in his chest that he knew was something very close to it. He fell back and drew his knees to his chest, fingers still clutching the photograph as he draped his arms over his knees and let his head fall on top of them.
She's really...gone...
He wasn't sure how long he sat there because time had seemed to slow down and expand beyond the reaches of normal logic, and he didn't really care how long he stayed there, either. He'd resigned himself to staying in that cold, desolate room with nothing but a long gone memory of some one he cared about like a little sister.
Some time later, it could have been minutes or even hours, he didn't know, a soft shuffling reached his ears, causing his head to jerk up instinctually. For a brief second he thought it was Russel or even Murdoc coming to find him, but his heart wound up skipping a beat when he instead saw the diminutive and distinctly female form of Noodle shadowed in the doorframe, one hand against the doorjamb and the other at her side.
2D was on his feet in an instant, staring in utter disbelief that she was still there in Kong Studios at all. He took a tentative step forward, afraid that she was really an illusion and would vanish the second he touched her. She did not vanish, but instead moved just enough that an angled light slashed across her face showing skin stained with tear blotches and one non-hair covered eye red and bloodshot.
"...you're leavin'." 2D said in probably the most definitive tone he'd ever taken. It wasn't a question, it was a statement of affirmation, to which Noodle gave a halted nod, her lips pursed tight in a sign that she wished not to speak for fear of the emotional well that was inside her, "...why?"
The purple haired girl closed her eyes and slowly shook her head, a single tear sliding down her cheek.
"I cannot say," she said in her thickly accented voice.
There was a tense, horrible silence that followed as 2D stared at her in complete confusion and she stared at the floor in obvious grief. Her eyes eventually landed on the picture that still hung slack in his fingers. Gingerly she reached for it, taking it out of his hands as his own gaze followed her motions. She gazed upon the photograph for a long while, and neither seemed able to even utter a word to one another.
Her fingers clutched tightly at the glossy photo, crinkling the material as her other fist clenched at her side. Tears slipped freely then from her narrow eyes, falling in large droplets upon the picture.
"G-gomen ne...2D-san..." she choked out in a strained voice.
Suddenly she was gone, but not in a vanishing sort of way. She simply took off running down the hall at a rather surprising speed, and it took the sound of the corridor door slamming to make 2D realize that she hadn't simply disappeared.
"Noods! Wait!" he cried out, bolting out of her room and down the hall way after her. He rammed the door open with his shoulder, sending a jolt of pain across his collarbone and back. He shook it off quickly and looked around the lobby area of the first floor, seeing nothing but the usual decorations and hearing only the hum of the ventilation system. A curse escaped his lips and he almost admitted to defeat when a far away door closing caught his attention.
The kitchen...the balcony!
He spun around and threw the next door open, zipping down the hallway as fast as his thin little legs would carry him. He reached the kitchen door and yanked it out, halting just inside the kitchen itself. Through the window he could see Noodle's floating island tethered to the land fill balcony, hovering a good twenty feet or so above the ground and about five feet or so out from the balcony itself. Propped up over the railing a loading ramp lead from the ground to the lowest point of the island. Noodle was running up the ramp, stumbling as if blinded and unable to properly keep her footing.
"NOODLE!" 2D cried out, hoping to stop her, to maybe talk some sense in to her before she really was gone. He ran for the balcony door and burst through it, b-lining for the railing and the ramp. Just as he made it there Noodle crawled on to the grassy surface of the island and reached for the tether that binded the mass to Kong Studios. Within seconds the tether was cut and the island began to ascend swiftly in to the sky. The ramp detached itself as well, falling from the island and flipping over the railing in to the landfill below.
"NOODLE!" 2D yelled again, staring at the receding form of the young girl who was still kneeling in the spot that she'd landed. She herself was staring back at 2D, tears going in rivulets down her cheeks. Slowly she stood on trembling legs as the island continued to drift up and away. In her fingers the photograph fluttered and was yanked away by the whistling wind, drifting back towards 2D who jumped a few feeble times before he was finally able to snatch it back to his hand. Her tears stained the surface, leaving salty trails across the glossy photo.
"2D-san!" Noodle called just before she was out of an ear shot, " Wasure wa shinai kimi no koto wa! "
And then she was gone...
Some twenty minutes later, having spent a good long time sitting on the balcony with the crumpled photo in his hand, 2D finally made his way back to the game room where Russel was now reading a magazine and Murdoc was flipping through channels on the giant television. Letting out a heavy sigh, he flopped down on the plush couch and hung his head, a few chunks of blue hair falling over his eyes. Russel looked up from his book, a frown crossing his dark features but no questions or statements coming from his lips. Murdoc on the other hand seemed content to make the clearly bad situation worse by opening his big mouth.
"So she's gone, ya?"
2D nodded slowly, his head acting more like a bobble than an actual appendage. Murdoc gave a scoff and looked back at the TV, a wicked smirk twitching on his lips.
"Told ya,"
"Shadup, Muds," 2D muttered, not even bothering to cast a glance in his band mate's direction.
"I don't see why you're gettin' all worked up over some gurl, face ache. Its a wonder she stuck around this long," Murdoc continued, causing Russel to shake his head in clear disgust.
"I said shadup, Murdoc," 2D said, his voice becoming a mite more threatening. Murdoc seemed to pay him no heed.
"Of course now we're down one guitarist. Supposed we'll be looking for another one, ya?"
Russel winced as he watched 2D's right hand curl in to a trembling fist.
"Hey, crackahass, you might want to quit while you're ahead," the larger man suggested. Murdoc only laughed at this, unable to see the threat when it was coming from some one like 2D.
"Yehknow, maybe I should call Paula up. She'd be alot easier to deal with than that nutters Jap, that's for s-"
Murdoc was cut off when a sharp pain ripped through his skull, courtesy of 2D's right fist connected with his temple. Murdoc was on his feet in a second, and Russel was instantly on him, grabbing his arms from behind as he growled and spat curses at the red-faced 2D. 2D himself was also on his feet, one clenched fist raised and the other down at his side. Never before had he looked as furious as he did then, and though he wasn't exactly intimidating, it was definitely a look not worthy of dismissing easily.
"Sweet suffering fuck, what the bloody bullocks was that for, D?" Murdoc finally managed to sputter out through his undeniable rage. Russel watched with clear worry written on his face. Though he had a hold of Murdoc, who could do considerably more damage than 2D's skinny frame, that didn't mean 2D wouldn't try. For the moment, though, the younger band member seemed to be composing himself rather well despite his anger.
"The least you could do," 2D growl, "is at least be respectful of her, Muds. If you're going to be a right ass about her leaving, at least show some respect for what she was to us," leaving that as his final words to Murdoc, 2D turned around and left, slamming the door behind him with such force that a framed picture of something or another trembled off the wall and fell to the floor, the glass shattering upon impact. Murdoc and Russel stared at the closed door, mouths agape in shock.
"...bugger actually made sense for once," Murdoc muttered, receiving only a numb nod from Russel, "...Russ?"
"Yeah Muds?"
"Get the ruddin' hell offa me before I deck you."
" Sorry, man,"
Later that night 2D lay in his room, the only light coming from his jukebox. It cast moving multi-hued pastel lights across the randomly scattered objects that littered 2D's floor as it played through a mixed collection of 80's music. His arms behind his head, eyes staring at the dark ceiling, he tried desperately to get his mind off of everything that had happened that day. His hand still ached from where he thwacked Murdoc, and though he wanted to he got absolutely no satisfaction from doing it. It only made him feel more empty about Noodle leaving, and even gave him a slightly sick sensation to think that mere seconds after her departure they'd basically fallen back to being squabbling little boys again.
Muds would never admit it, but she kept us together, kept us from being right rude boys and actually made us behave like men. ...what are we gonna do wifout her?
Heaving a sigh and rolling over on his side, 2D knew he was never going to get those thoughts out of his mind, nor was he going to get any sleep. He was simply too plagued by it all. He rubbed a bony hand over his tired, stinging eyes and grumbled in random noises. A ding from the other side of the room caught his attention: his computer was telling him he had an email message.
A noncommittal grunt uttered from his lips, for for about five minutes he lay there, staring at the black computer screen that was slightly illuminated from the lights of the jukebox. Eventually he dragged himself off the bed and flopped on the floor in front of the terminal, pressing the power button on the monitor and waiting for the screen to come on to full resolution.
" You have 1 new message. Read now? " a pop up screen asked him. He moved the mouse and clicked OK, causing a message to pop up on the screen. He felt his mouth go dry at seeing the address in the "from" field, and his heart skip a beat at seeing that the time sent was only minutes ago.
His eyes dropped down almost nervously to the message field.
2D-san,
I am sorry I left the way I did. It wasn't my intention for anyone to see me go. You being in my room when I came back surprised me; I didn't want to have to say good-bye because it would have been too painful. You and the others have become like big brothers to me. Yes, even Murdoc. I wish I could tell you why, but I cannot, and for that I am also sorry. Try not to be sad, 2D-san.
Wasure wa shinai kimi no koto wa means 'I will never forget about you'.
Love always and forever
Your adopted little sister
Noodle
2D stared at the email, blinking a few times before he started to guide the mouse to the reply button. He paused, though, the arrow hovering over the clickable button. His large eyebrows knitted together and a soft sigh escaped his lips. Some how, though he was never able to figure out how, he knew that replying wouldn't do any good. There would never be a response, no matter how much he longed for one.
Despite this thought, though, he actually felt happy. Strangely happy, in a scared sort of way that made his heart thump, though not in a painful way. His eyes traveled to a certain line, and a smile actually crossed his features.
' Wasure wa shinai kimi no koto wa means 'I will never forget about you'...'
END