Disclaimer: I don't own the Gorillaz.
Summary: Murdoc gets drunk, trouble ensues. Typical Gorillaz fic...right? Wrong! Something very interesting happens when he starts playing with the chem set a fan sent him...
Untitled
"Get the cool shoeshine." 2D said very patiently. The little girl in front of him looked up curiously and mumbled a string of something in Japanese. 2D brushed aside a lock of thick blue hair with his long fingers and blinked his eyes a little.
"Na." he said, holding one finger up, gesturing with each word he said, "Get...the...cool...shoeshine..."
She blinked again, "Gessa coo soosine." she tried, smiling. 2D scratched his head and then winced a little.
"Closer...." 2D said, " 'Get.' Try that one."
"Gessa?" she tried. 2D shook his head.
"Get."
"Get."
"The."
"Sa."
"No, THE."
"Saaa."
"One last time. The."
"Tha. Soosine."
"Shoe...shine."
"It's no use, dullard." commented a voice from behind them. 2D turned and a goofy grin spread over his face as Noodle's almond-shaped eyes narrowed and then she smiled as well, her round bronze face lighting up as she realized this was possibly a free pass from the forced English lesson 2D was subjecting her to.
"Oi, I'm helping her learn the words for the new song, Muds!" 2D said.
Murdoc, the new occupant of the room, leaned back against the door frame, placing the heel of his brown boot against the wood with a low 'thunk' and dent in the wood, tossing back a swig from the bottle of vodka he held and resenting how 2D seemed to be pointing out that Murdoc hadn't been the sole writer of that song.
"No use. The kid's not gonna be able to learn English, specially with a dullard like you teaching her." he said, as revenge on them both.
"Well I fink she's smart enuf to learn." 2D said, turning to find that Noodle had sneaked into the other corner of the room and was sitting on the floor with her legs spread, leaning over her remote control gorilla and fixing something in the back. Murdoc threw his hands up over his head and walked off, muttering and taking swigs from his vodka bottle.
"Well, p'raps I'll jus' make some sort potion an' turn tha little face-ache into a proper worm..." Murdoc muttered to his best friend, the bottle.
2D walked over to Noodle and sat down beside her against the wall, legs pulled up against his chest and long arms wrapped around his knees, one hand closed neatly over the other wrist, pinky finger extended slightly, "So Noodle, that fing's broken?"
Noodle glanced up at him, and then politely started explaining her steps in Japanese. 2D nodded as if he understood...it seemed Noodle's impromptu Japanese lessons were far more successful than his English ones.
~*~ Three Hours Later, In the Winnie ~*~
Murdoc tossed aside his second empty bottle of vodka, and sat on his bed, laughing to himself. His world was a drunken unreality, and he was plotting things to do to 2D for that snide comment about the song earlier. Standing blearily and staggering over to his table, he noticed the chem set a fan had sent in. Some kid who thought the 'great Murdoc' would enjoy being able to create things to torment 2D with.
Murdoc snickered to himself as he mixed something in a beaker that seemed, in his fuzzy drunk mind, to be the perfect potion for making 2D into a slimy worm he could stomp. Of course, his band wouldn't have a front man anymore, but he was sure he could find some other braindead beautiful teenager to fill 2D's place, so it all seemed logical. After several bottles of vodka, of course.
Finally, Murdoc completed his creation, and, holding the white concoction up to the light, grinned.
Stumbling out of the Winnie, Murdoc staggered into Kong Studios and down halls that all looked the same to his drunken mind. Finally, he found the kitchen, and just as he was about to spike 2D's bottle of orange juice in the fridge with his magical worm transformation juice, Murdoc felt like he had to be sick.
He staggered to the sink, retched, and then staggered out of the room, his messed-up mind forgetting the cup of milky-white worm liquid on the table.
~*~ Meanwhile ~*~
2D tapped out the tune of '19-2000' on his keyboard, singing the verse as Noodle strummed easily to the tune, improvising to fill out for the rest of the band, who were absent.
"Keep a mild groove on.......Kay, try it now." 2D said, after completing the verse and continuing the song for a few beats, humming a happy little accompaniment to the music.
Noodle took a deep breath, "Here you go!" she said cheerfully, checking 2D's face for indication of whether she'd said it right. He nodded encouragingly and sung softly as a backdrop and hint for her.
"Get tha cool, get tha cool shoeshine." Noodle said shyly, and 2D's voice overpowered hers easily. She felt like she'd done it wrong, but 2D's entire face lit up and he paused in his playing to quickly give her the thumbs-up. She sang it more loudly the next time, and they practiced through the chorus a few times to get it JUST right.
When both finally sunk to the floor in a tired enjoyment of getting it right, laughing delightedly, 2D finally looked at the girl again, "Kay, Noodle, bed time now, right?" he said softly.
Noodle pursed her lips and hugged her knees, then forced a smile, her excitement wearing off.
"We all gotta sleep sometime, ne?" 2D said, inadvertantly picking up one of her Japanese speaking habits.
Noodle shook her head and started to mumble in Japanese, and 2D nodded uncomprehendingly. He'd never really heard her talk like that before, with that feeling in her voice.
"Noodle monogonashii." she said softly, simplifying as much as possible for 2D's sake, "Hoomushikku." When she spoke very simply in her own language, like a tiny baby, sometimes 2D understood her...he was really the only one who did.
2D nodded, picking out that the last word had sounded like 'homesick.' He could understand how she felt, he remembered being a kid and homesick...vaguely. Sometimes things seemed to just slip out of his mind.
He put a long-fingered hand on Noodle's small back and rubbed a little, "If ya want, you can sleep wiv me tonight." he said, then got flustered, "Er...not like that, jus' in my room wiv me, maybe in a sleepin' bag or sumfin'."
Noodle's face broke into a smile and she nodded, "Arigatou! Wo ai ni." she said softly, and hugged 2D's arm, then skipped off to her room. A few minutes later she was back, dressed in a Powerpuff Girls nightgown and carrying a pillow and stuffed green dog. 2D smiled, took her hand, and they went to his room together.
2D never took up much of his huge bed, preferring to sleep close to the left side, curled up in a ball. He pulled his orange comforters over to the left side of the bed and made a sort of nest there, then dug around in his messy closet behind his shrine to Tibet, and produced a sleeping bag. He unrolled it and lay it on the right side of his bed. Snagging up a pair of pyjama pants he usually never wore, he headed to the bathroom to clean up and change, returning in a few minutes to find Noodle snuggled in her sleeping bag with her stuffed animal, and half asleep already. 2D tousled her mohawk and then curled up himself inside his nest of comforters, pulling the blanket up to his chin and closing his eyes, face turned toward Noodle.
"If you need anyfing, jus' wake me." he mumbled as he fell asleep.
"Arigatou. Oyasumi nasai." she whispered, also falling asleep.
~*~*~
Noodle woke with a bit of a sore throat from feeling sad. She always felt that way after she was sad for a while. She didn't want to wake 2D up for just a bit of a sore throat, though, so she crawled out of her bed and down to the kitchen for a glass of water.
She padded down the hallway to the kitchen and headed towards the cupboard when she noticed a glass on the table. It seemed to be full of some white liquid. Moving closer, Noodle inspected it with her bleary, sleepy eyes, and peered at the cup. She climbed onto the chair, her nightgown swishing around her ankles, and sniffed it. It seemed to be some of the coconut milk she bought in cans in the 'Foreign Foods' aisle at the grocery store! Someone must have bought her some as a present.
Smiling and feeling very happy, Noodle downed the glass. It tasted a little funny, but that must have been from sitting out overnight. She climbed off the chair and padded back down the hallway, yawning as her sore throat went away.
She padded into 2D's room and crawled back into her sleeping bag, falling peacefully asleep within minutes.
~*~*~
Sunlight shone from the high windows of 2D's basement room, hitting her bronze face as her dark eyelashes fluttered. She sat up and stretched, her arms far above her head. She knew she was awake far before 2D would ever even stir, but she didn't feel like lying still until the boy woke.
She looked down at him, noting how skinny and sickly he looked. Maybe she should share some of her food with him, he never seemed to eat enough and he smoked and didn't take proper care of himself. Of course, Murdoc had the same problem, but Noodle was always a little afraid of Murdoc. He was a very strange man, and seemed to like not taking care of himself..and when Murdoc liked something, no one could talk him out of it. 2D just didn't seem to know any better than to neglect himself.
Noodle moved her legs, and her attention was immediately drawn to something strange. Her feet were lumps far further down the sleeping bag than she remembered them being last night. She also felt curious in some places. She lifted the edge of her sleeping bag and peered down, startled to find two long, shapely bronze legs extending down her sleeping bag. She blinked and looked around for the owner of those legs, and then looked down at herself to find two breasts on her chest, and curves she'd never seen there before. She yanked out the collar of her nightie and looked down to find that the curves were, indeed, attached to her.
"Nani!? Mou..."
She screamed and leaped over onto 2D, stumbling and landing on him in this awkward long-limbed body she wasn't used to. He startled awake and almost fell off the bed.
"2D-chan! 2D-chan!" she screamed, "Atashi.....onna! Shinjinai!" She continued repeating the word 'onna' and a string of Japanese that could barely be understood by even someone who spoke her language. 2D rolled over under her weight and almost fell off the bed, then ducked back and shrank against his headboard, staring at her with his deep black eyes widened in shock and fear.
"Wha? Who're you?" he demanded, his head starting to throb under his unruly blue-purple hair. He was still exhausted, and wasn't prepared for some small-but-shapely beautiful asian girl crawling on him. What had happened last night? He couldn't remember taking home some pretty groupie, just letting Noodle stay with him, but here was this girl...and she wasn't anything like Noodle! In fact, she appeared to be about 10 years older and much more shapely and she even had a full head of thick, straight black hair instead of a weird mohawk.
The girl continued chattering at him in Japanese or something while he stared at her blankly, trying to figure things out. When he realized that she wore a very-tight Powerpuff Girls nightgown, something clicked.
"Wassa?" he muttered, slurring the words together in his sleepiness, "You aren't...?"
"Noodle!" the girl said miserably, pointing to herself. 2D nodded and blinked and nodded again, "Noodle." she asserted again, and then started crying, asking over and over in Japanese what had happened. 2D didn't understand the words she said, but he understood she was afraid, and so took her gently in his arms and held her for a moment, just like he would have any other time Noodle was scared. She buried her face in his shoulder and cried out the confusion of a 10-year-old girl trapped in a woman's body she didn't understand.
Finally she sat back and looked at him, then asked in sullen Japanese what they should do.
2D looked very serious, "Usually I'd say talk to Murdoc, he's smart, but since he's prob'ly hungover, we best talk wiv Russell."
He crawled out of the bed and tossed Noodle his Fila sweater and another of his pyjama pants so she would be decent, and led her out of his room.
Noodle walked awkwardly on legs she wasn't used to controlling, but seemed to get control over herself within a few yards down the hallway. She was glad she'd awakened this way in 2D's room rather than by herself or in one of the other boys' rooms. Russ would have freaked, thinking Del had done something weird, and Murdoc would have leered at her, thinking she was a girl he'd had for a 'sleepover' the night before. 2D was the only one who was slow enough to catch on that it was her...2D wasn't entirely stupid, but he didn't let his intelligence get in the way of seeing things for what they were. Murdoc or Russ would have refused to believe it. Like Russ was going to now. Noodle steeled herself for her oniichan (note: 'oniichan' is an affectionate way to say 'big brother') to not recognize her when he saw her.
2D knocked on the door and there was a grumble from inside. Noodle leaned forwards nervously, almost losing her balance, and then knocked again, "Gomenkudasai?" she asked quickly.
"Errrum...ur...Noodle, c'min." Russel said softly, his voice cracking with tiredness. Noodle managed to make her strange fingers turn the knob, and walked in awkwardly, afraid of what Russ would say.
~*~*~
Russel awoke to the sight of 2D walking in with a lovely young Asian lady Russ had never seen before. He smiled charmingly and sat up, tugging his quilt over his broad, bare chest. The girl was small, only about 5'4, and looked light. She was pretty and curvy without being large-chested, but seemed unsteady on her feet and confused in her dark eyes, and wore some of 2D's clothes, which were comfortably huge on her. The sleeves of the sweater covered her hands and the pant legs were crumpled against the floor.
Russell looked the girl over, then quirked an eyebrow, "Groupie? 2D, man, never thought you'd end up comin' home wid a groupie." he commented, running a hand back over his head and grinning at the girl. She got an offended look on her face.
"Nantaru!" she snapped, crossing her arms with an extremely familiar annoyed look on her face.
"Noodle?!" Russell yelled suddenly, sitting up straight in bed. 2D looked fascinated.
"Wow, you sure are smart, Russell! I didn't figure it out till she tol' me!" he said. Russell moaned and jumped out of bed in his boxers, grabbing the girl's hands and looking in her eyes.
"Noodle, what happen'd?" he asked.
Noodle shrugged and pantomimed drinking something, then shrugged again. She sighed deeply and looked back and forth between Russell and 2D, then adjusted the sweater uncomfortably and peeked down the front again.
"Mou..." she moaned. Russell and 2D looked at each other, an expression of bewilderment. They couldn't figure out what to make of this new turn of events. What would they do now? And how the heck did she turn into a gorgeous 20-year-old!?
Russell looked her over one more time, "Well, she definitely needs some new clothes, either way." he said, noting that she had none that fit her save what the guys had...and there were some things girls needed that guys wouldn't have.
2D smiled, "Good! I love shopping!" he said gleefully.
~*~ Next: 2D takes Noodle shopping for 'girl stuff' while Russell pounds a hung-over Murdoc for info! Will Murdoc remember anything? Will Noodle kill 2D of embarassment? Find out in the next chapter - don't miss it!