[Phase 1]

It's been around half a month since Noodle had first arrived at Kong Studios. Murdoc and 2D still aren't used to her being there, and oftentimes she uses that to her advantage; mainly so she can hide behind corners and jump out at them. Stuart screams every time, but she's only done it to Murdoc twice due to him not usually hanging around in the actual 'studios' part of Kong Studios-- instead preferring to spend the majority of his time in his Winnebago down in the car park. Russel's gotten used to her company, willingly being her primary caretaker for all things any parent would do for her if she had one.

Speaking of, Russ has been scanning newspapers containing reports of missing children in Japan. No one's put out a search alert for Noodle, which he finds suspicious. It's also strange that she can't remember anything about herself other than her age. Even then, they don't even have a solid birth-date. Hell, how she even managed to FedEx herself from Osaka escapes him. She's only nine, for fuck's sake, and appears even younger than that, maybe six. She literally appears to have come from nowhere. Then again, he's probably too attached to her to contact someone about where she's come from. After all, it can't be safe to send her back if she had deemed her former situation too dangerous, right? Seriously, though, who could ever be cruel to her? She's the textbook definition of joyful.

"Rus-ol!" Noodle exclaims, jerking Russel from his train of thought. The pattering of her tiny feet can be heard echoing along the corridor. She barrels into the room, a blur of red and blue. The force of her impacting Russel's chest nearly sends him flying backwards out of his chair.

After quickly regaining balance, Russel shakes his head. "Jeez, baby-girl. You're gonna end up breakin' your neck." He says, helping her get situated.

"Huh?" She asks, confused. Noodle then begins ranting in Japanese, doing over-exaggerated hand motions. He picks up a word relating to clothing, he thinks, but that's not much to go on.

"Slow it down a little, baby! I can't understand a word you're saying!" Russ reminds her, putting a finger on his lips.

"Oh, hai. Uh." Noodle begins constructing English words in her head, reciting a string of seemingly random ones under her breath. "Shoe." She points down to her foot.

"Yeah?" Russel says, a tad confused.

She mimes a motion of breaking a stick or something of the like.

"Stick?" Russel guesses, now even more confused.

"Um. No." She repeats the motion.

"Twig?" He asks. He'd never been good at charades as a kid.

A sigh of hopelessness is her answer. "Stay." She slides off of his lap.

"Okay, then. . ?" Russel shrugs, returning to his newspaper.

Hardly a minute passes before she's barreling into him again.

"You really need to stop doin' that, you're gonna get hurt." The drummer urges once he's recovered.

Noodle shakes her head again, shoving her sneaker in his face. It has the tread peeling off, revealing a large hole where her toe would definitely be exposed.

"Oh, broke. Your shoe is broken," he says with a sigh.

"Hai. Shoe, uh, um. Shoe dead. Ah. Bye-bye, shoe." She agrees, shoving her finger through the hole. He notices that she hasn't changed from pyjamas, yet, even though it's now getting on to be eleven o'clock. Russ supposes that this new development had probably distracted her from it; and from the looks, she had tried to fix it with a rubber band.

"Well, looks like we'll have to get you more shoes, huh? Probably more clothes, too." He decides with a chuckle.

"Oh! Noodle, uh, Noodle get shirt. Yeah?" She looks excited.

"Mhm. I'll have the others get up, we'll all go." Russ says. Then again, it's not as if they could've gone without Murdoc, considering he's the only one out of them that can legally drive in the UK. Plus, Stuart doesn't like being alone in Kong, he always insists that it scares him.

"Toochee!" Noodle grins widely.

"Yeah. Now, let's go get some clothes on, yeah?" He stands, offering to set her back down. She shakes her head, clinging to him tightly. The girl always seems to want to be held, despite her age. Russ doesn't mind at all, thinking she may have had a lack of physical contact before she'd arrived. Again, he's wondering what could her life have been like before she met the three men? He knows she has nightmares often; though she can never say what they're about. He knows because she wakes up crying sometimes, and it breaks his heart every time it happens.

Clearing his mind, the man knocks on Stuart's door. "Dee, get up, we're going to the store."

There's no reply.

"Toochee! Noodle get shirt! Up!" The child adds impatiently, banging on the door as hard as she can.

Finally, there's a groan. "Mum, there's no school, it's a weekend, let me alone," Stuart's voice sounds. Moments later, there's more soft snoring.

"Right, I'm coming in, then." Russ tells Noodle. She giggles, nodding with approval.

He turns the knob, then stepping into 2D's room. Walking to the bed, he then drops Noodle onto the singer, causing her to squeal with delight.

"Wha--" Stuart is immediately cut off by the child covering his face in kisses.

"H-erro!" Noodle chirps, scooting to rest herself on his stomach.

"Oh, hello, luv! Blimey, I thought you two were me mum trying to wake me for school!"

"You've done stupider things, trust me. Anyway, we're going to the store to get baby some new shoes and clothing." Russel explains.

"Oh, alright. That's better than school, yeah?" Stuart replies, pulling Noodle closer to himself. Her head's rested directly over his ribcage, now, and she happily listens to the sound of his heartbeat.

"Probably, yeah. Now, start waking up, we'll be leaving after I make us some breakfast and she's dressed. I gotta get Muds up, too." He looks at Noodle with amusement. He read somewhere that a heartbeat is one of the most calming sounds to a child, especially to one with no mother. She's living proof of that statement, definitely.

"Alright. I need the toilets, so here." The lanky man pries the girl off, much to her annoyance, handing her to Russel.

"Hmph." Noodle complains, resting her chin on Russel's shoulder.

They ignore her for the time being. "See you in a bit, then." Russ starts towards the door.

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They've woken the two, now. Murdoc had been less-than-willing to get up, and Russ is sure that the Satanist had broken the record for the most swear words spoken in one minute. He'd even been tempted to cover Noodle's ears, it was so bad. Luckily for her, she can't understand most words in the English language.

Right now, he's got Noodle sitting at the dinner table drinking chocolate milk. She's mostly ready to go, just needs her hair combed. Someone will have to carry her while they're out, considering the state of her shoes, just until she's purchased new ones.

Russ is getting breakfast ready, humming silently. "Rus-ol, a food?" Noodle requests impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah, almost ready." The man replies, chucking. "Hungry, aren't ya?"

"Hai, a food. Noodle eat."

"Right, thought as much." He turns from his cooking to search one of the cabinets for the plates.

"What a food Rus-ol do?" Noodle inquires. The child's eyes are wide, her hands tapping on the table inaudibly.

"Just eggs and sausages. Nothin' big." Russ replies, now scooping portions of the food into a plate.

"Oh! Mmm." Noodle grins widely.

"Alright, baby-girl, here ya go." Russel sets the plate down in front of her.

"Thank! Um. Thank a Rus-ol!" She says happily.

He laughs. "No problem. I'll be right back, gotta make sure that Dee and Muds are both getting cleaned up before I eat."

She nods as if she had understood, shoving a forkful of egg into her mouth. "Mmm!"

Russel kisses the top of her head before heading towards the corridor. He's grinning, though he doesn't notice it. The man's not used to getting compliments on his cooking. There's the occasional one from Stu, yeah, but Noodle always looks like she's taken a bite of the most delicious meal whenever she eats his food. Kinda motivates him to improve.

"Oh, hey, Russ!" A cockney voice pulls him from his thoughts.

"Hi, there. I was just gonna go make sure you didn't go back to sleep." Russel hums a bit. "Breakfast is, uh, in the kitchen, baby's already in there." He says.

"Ooh! Thank you," the bluenette grins; the gaps where his front teeth should be are showing. "I am quite hungry, yeah!" 2D starts towards the kitchen eagerly. "See you in a bit, then!"

"Yep. Don't eat too much, you'll get sick." Russel reminds the young man.

"I won't!" Stuart waves him off.

Changing course for Murdoc's Winnie, he sighs, finally frowning. It's hard to stay fully happy for Russel, but he doesn't ever really have the time to feel fully depressed anymore since Noodle had arrived. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he trudges to the lift. Pressing the 'parking lot' button, he sits down on the floor. It'll be a good three minutes for it to arrive to its destination, given how damned slow the thing moves. The elevator begins to move, also starting to play the quiet background music. Murdoc had changed it to an instrumental of 'Stairway to Heaven' by Led Zeppelin for a bit of a laugh. The idiot recently read somewhere about the supposed satanic message that is given when the song is played backwards and had thought that it was the cleverest thing. Russel, on the other hand, had heard the song play backwards and had thought the theory was farfetched and ridiculous. However, the reversed instrumentals had creeped out 2D in the first thirty seconds and he didn't even get to the actual 'singing' part, so they didn't get much of an opinion from him.

But, enough of that.

Russel's mind is blank throughout the ride, he just feels like shit. Eventually, the lift dings and the doors slide open. He stands up and then steps out into the car park. Another sigh escapes him before he goes to bang on Murdoc's door.

"Yo, Muds, you woke? We're leavin' as soon as breakfast's over." His voice is gruff. He doesn't like Murdoc much.

"I'm getting my fuckin shoes on! Stop rushing me, damn you!" Murdoc's not in the best mood, obviously.

"Great. Hurry it up, then!" With a final rap on his door, Russel turns around and heads back towards the lift.

His way back up isn't much different from his descent. It's quiet, at least it would be if it weren't for that godforsaken Zeppelin song. Russ had never been crazy about it, no, even before Murdoc discovered the whole reversal theory. He's got half the mind to change the song when they're back. Literally anything might be better than this.

The ding sounds, and Russel exits, scratching his neck. It's got that annoying soreness that comes with sleeping weirdly, as it usually does. He's almost used to it, by now, but it's still painful. Turning into the kitchen, he lifts his head to investigate the pair occupying it.

"-- so then I was standing on the roof of my school with my four mates. It was beautiful! It's kinda sad that they tore down that school. I guess all of the rats was an issue. I think there might have been a rumour that someone inside was murdered-- oh, hey, Russel! I was just telling Noods a story." Stuart explains with a smile in the man's direction

"That's real nice, Dee." Russel stretches his arms as he heads to the stove to get a plate of food for himself.

"Rus-ol!" Noodle exclaims, leaping from her chair and going to hug his legs.

"Hey, baby-girl. Missed me?" Russel chuckles, bending down to ruffle her hair affectionately.

"Good Rus-ol!" She nods. "Um. Uh. Mu-doc?"

"He's on his way up; he was gettin' his shoes on, he said." The man explains.

"So, 'nother half an hour, then?" Stuart asks.

"Probably so." Russel answers with a nod. He tells Noodle to go finish eating her breakfast before standing up straight and beginning to serve himself.

The girl starts back over to her food with a hum. She takes her seat and begins her last few bites of food. "Mu-doc a bad, no like Noodle a shirt."

"I'm sure he has nothing against you getting new clothes, luv. He just doesn't like early mornings. Or late mornings.. Or early noon.. Or late noon.. Or early afternoo--"

"Dee, shut up." Interrupts Russel. "Just eat your damn food, we don't have all day. Look, you haven't even touched it; you've been talking so much."

"Oh, oops. I should fix that, yeah?" Stu finally picks up his fork, gazing down at his food. He's debating what to eat first. Takes a lot of brainpower to decide whether to eat eggs or sausage first, after all.

"Oh, um. Uh." Noodle's finished. "Noodle, uh, get a red shoe?" She inquires, now grabbing her chocolate milk and drinking a bit more of that.

"Red shoes? Sure, baby-girl, some red ones." Russel nods, now heading back towards the table.

"Ah! Good, good. Thank!" She does a thumbs-up. "A food lost." Noodle points to her empty plate and then to her stomach. "Bye-bye a food!"

"Good job, Noods! That was fast!" Stuart congratulates. His mouth's full.

"More?" Russel offers, amused. The man takes a bite of his own food.

She shakes her head no, instead going over to climb up onto her father figure's lap. "A Rus-ol."

"Mhm." He settles her on his lap gently. She sighs with contentment and rests her head down on him as he eats.

"You know," Stuart says, setting down his fork. "It's stormy today, do we have any umbrellas?"

"Think so; dunno where they are, though." Russel says between bites of egg.

"Maybe we'll miss the rain."

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Hello, all!!

That concludes part 1 of this chapter. I know that not much happens here in this part, but it was fun to write when I had the focus.

I just got back from Myrtle Beach. ( the trip was from 05/15/17--05/18/17, not counting travelling time.) I ended up listening to Plastic Beach while on the beach, it was really fulfilling! Especially when I was on the beach before sunrise today, (05:15, it was so early for me), the whole album just made me enjoy the experience all the more! Especially the songs 'On Melancholy Hill' and 'Some Kind Of Nature'. They really made it so that I had a great time. Thanks again, Damon Albarn! Oh, and Ticker Tape played on my phone last night and I nearly cried, it is so good. I can't believe I'd not listened to it sooner.

I bought a hermit crab. Named it Faust (after Murdoc's middle name.) I love him a lot, I hope he doesn't die.

You guys are gonna be reading this three weeks after I wrote it; I like to stay ahead in my writings. ;)

Until next time,

Liz