Blue
Chapter 5
Disclaimer: I don't own Gorillaz.
Ps, Blue character profiles are now up on my author page thingymajig if you're curious.
Rebecca was awakened by the slamming of car doors. She sat up groggily and looked at the tiny clock on the table. The white hands read out eight in the morning. She got up, dug around in her bag and trotted off to the bathroom, clothes and toiletries in hand as she could hear someone coming up the outside stairs.
The smell of food wafted in from the kitchen. Her stomach growled as she multi-tasked by combing her hair with toothbrush in mouth. She pulled her hair back and placed the white flower clip on the right side before venturing out into the main area with her bags. Noodle was standing at the stove while Hubert still was soundly sleeping on the futon, glasses on the kotatsu.
"You could have slept in you know." Noodle spoke quietly. "D called earlier and said he'd be over around nine since Russel will be driving and he generally is getting up around now. Muds is probably still asleep. Although knowing your father, he's probably hovering around Russel and Russel is probably yelling at him, which in turn will wake up some member of the Niccals family who will wake up someone else because they get up and go investigate the source of the noise, etcetera."
"Niccals…family?"
"Yeah. You didn't know Muds had two kids?"
"No. Never met them."
"Hm. Thought you had. Dante and Cassandra. Twins. Got their mother's good looks thankfully. Dante tans green like Muds though."
"I met some kid named Dante at the cafe last night. Kept calling me bluebird and wouldn't leave us alone."
"Yes, that sounds like him. I think Muds and your father attempted to get you and your siblings acquainted a few times, but someone was always sick and it never really worked out. Was he smoking again last night?"
"Yeah."
"His mother's going to have a fit." Noodle shook her head.
Hubert groaned as he sat up.
"Mmm where am I?" He mumbled vaguely as he looked around, brown hair thoroughly disheveled.
"Morning sleepy head." Rebecca spoke a bit louder as she nicked a piece of bacon.
"Oh…yeah. Morning."
Noodle handed Rebecca a plate and she began loading it.
"So everyone lives up at Kong?" She asked as Hubert shuffled off to the bathroom.
"Yes. You haven't been around most of the building, have you? I moved out since we get incredibly sick of each other from time to time, but I'm still close by and can go up whenever but still have my own privacy with my fiancé. When they rebuilt Kong, Muds put up a section of the building for him and his family, a section for D where he can live, a place for him to ride out the migraines and some room for all of you when you're visiting and Russel designed his own area for taxidermy, experimenting with percussion and things and living. There's an apartment for me in there too. If you want, you can stay in there while you're here since we aren't recording this month."
"Oh thanks."
"You're welcome. I expect you've already been in the studio, the kitchen and other general areas of the building."
"Yes."
"I always thought it was nice for Murdoc to go all out for D, especially after the whole Plastic Beach ordeal."
"Huh?"
"Forget I said it." Noodle grinned.
"What ordeal?"
"Just Muds having a vacation from sanity and the world."
"Oh, you mean when Uncle Murdoc went insane and locked Dad in the underwater room and paid a whale to watch him constantly and built that stupid robot while under attack from Hell and the spirit world while his body deteriorated to something corpse-demon like due to his failed agreement with the Boogieman until the Evangelist came and restored order and his body and soul?"
"Er…Yeah, that."
Hubert emerged from the bathroom just as Rebecca finished eating.
Rebecca looked up from her cup of coffee as the sound of a car came from the alley.
"That will be D." Noodle got up and glanced out the window. "Yes. Well, I expect I'll see you around."
The sound of someone running up the stairs became louder before the pounding on the door.
"Door's unlocked D." Noodle called. Stuart Pot came flying through the door and nearly tackled his daughter.
"Rebecca…Fank God… Don't you be scarin me or your mum like that ever again? Got it? Thought sumfing 'ad 'appened to you. Dunno wot I would've done if tha' happened. If you 'ad been kidnapped or sumfing horrible like that!" He kissed the top of her head as he squeezed her tighter.
"Daddy, I can't breathe." She squeaked.
"Sorry." He released her and took a step back. Rebecca looked up at her father. His once shockingly blue hair was fading in color and he hadn't shaved that morning nor did it look like he had attempted to do anything to his hair. His blackened eyes had even darker rings around them. She felt a surge of guilt go through her.
"Yo." Russel stood in the doorway, his trimmed beard was shot through with grey and he twirled the keys around o n his finger. "Who's this?" He pointed at Hubert standing in the corner.
"Oh. Dad, Uncle Russ, this is Hubert. He's friends with Lucas and James."
"Hi." He gave a nervous wave.
"You ain't her boyfriend, are you?" Russel stared at him from behind sunglasses.
"N-No."
"Or Cecelia's or Chelsea's?"
"N-no sir."
"Good." Russel grunted. "Don't need none of those running around right now."
"You're in a pleasant mood today Russ." Noodle yawned.
"Yeah, well, D woke me up early and was like a damn satellite until we left." Russel grunted. "Glad you're alright though Becks."
"Hey D, Becca can sleep in my apartment at Kong. It's clean, I was just there last week." She held out the key to Stu who took it.
"You coming wif us then?" D looked over at Hubert.
"Um…"
"Well, he's got nowhere else to go unless he's heading home now his escort duties are over with." Russel shrugged.
"I don't want to be a bother."
"Nah, we got room." Russel grunted. "You're telling Muds though, D. You know how badly he freaks out when there's teenage males in the same building as Cassie."
"Awright, awright. You got everything then?" He glanced at Rebecca.
"Yes."
"You too?" Russel directed toward Hubert.
"Yes."
"Alright, let's go."
The ride up to Kong was quiet. Rebecca watched out the window at the passing farmland as they started up the hill.
"Is that a landfill?" Hubert peered out his own window.
"Yeah. Smells awful in the summer. Keeps the zombies occupied at night though."
"There's no such thing as zombies! Why is everyone saying this?"
Both 2D and Russel started laughing.
"Just wait, just wait."
"No such things as zombies…ha! Boy, you're in for a very nasty shock tonight."
"See these?" D twisted around in the seat and pulled up his shirt to reveal very ugly scars. "Zombie fightin' scars."
"D, shut the hell up, those are the scars Noodle gave you when she was sleep walking and you tried to wake her up."
"Well…erm, at least one or two of 'em are from zombie fighting!" D went red.
"No."
"Hubert, I've told you, the zombies are real."
"And I've told you, it's medically impossible! I mean-"
"Look, Herman-"
"Hubert."
"Hubert, just wait til nightfall and we'll see who's right."
Hubert laughed and shook his head.
"Hey, I will spend the night outside, just to prove you wrong."
"NO!" Rebecca squealed and covered her mouth.
"Rebecca, I promise you, there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of." Hubert reassured her.
"Yes there is!" She moaned.
"Becks, if he wants to spend the night among the undead, let him." Russel snorted as he pulled into the carpark.
Rebecca glanced out the window to see the crappy, fire and smoke damaged Winnebago parked against the wall as Russel turned off the car.
"Here, I'll show you where Noodle's apartment is. YOU, 'owever, are staying…um…Russel?" Stu looked at the man from outside the vehicle.
"He could probably stay in the boys' room? I dunno."
"Erm, we need to wash the sheets and make the bed though." Stu scratched his head.
"I gotta do a load of laundry anyways. We can wash Noodle's sheets too."
"Awright. C'mon Rebecca. I'll show you the apartment and after, you and I need at have a talk." D patted her head and headed towards the lift. She grabbed her bags and trotted after him.
Russel glanced at Hubert.
"I'll show you where you're sleeping them Howard."
"Hubert."
"Whatever." He motioned for him to follow the pair to the lift and locked the car behind him.