Chapter Text
Noodle was startled from her sleep by the sound of a scream. She leapt from her bed-a cot, really, covered in blankets- and scanned the room. Nothing moved. The house was silent. Then-
"F***, 2D, take your g****** pills!" She heard Murdoc-that was his name, right?-stomp past her room. She tiptoed closer to the door.
"C'mon, man, let me handle this, go back to bed." Russel's baritone voice sifted through the cracks between the door and the carpet.
"Oh, really, you'll take this off my hands this time? Thank Satan, I've had enough." A pause. The volume escalated:"You hear that, 2D? Enough!" There was no response. "If I'd known he came with terms and conditions I would have crashed into another music store," Murdoc muttered.
Noodle cracked open the door just enough to see Murdoc round the corner at the end of the hallway. She tried to push it farther, but instead bumped into Russel.
"Who the fu-Oh, it's you." Russel squinted at her with his milky eyes. "I keep forgetting; you're staying in that room now." He smiled at her. Noodle matched his smile, but she didn't really know what she was smiling about. Russel was certainly the most helpful of the group: he was the only one who made a conscious effort to teach her English.
Russel glanced at the door of the next room over, which had fallen silent. "Uh, not sure if you should come with me on this one." Noodle blinked vacantly. Russel rubbed his eyes and sighed. "Alright, you're gonna need to know how to do this sooner or later."
He bent down and looked her in the eye. "I'm not sure about how much of this you'll understand, but 2D gets headaches." He pointed at his face. "Head."
Noodle mentally added the word to her small English vocabulary. "Head. Head." The word sounded like a breath.
"Head-uh, hurt. Ache." His face scrunched up in a pantomime of pain.
"Head hurt. Headache." The 'ache' sound felt like something was clicking in her mouth.
"That's it. Now, be quiet. You're going to need to pay attention. And close the door behind you." He mimed closing the door, then shook his head and walked inside.
It wasn't the first time Noodle had been in 2D's room. She'd spent plenty of time exploring Kong Studios during her first night after arriving on the doorstep. The place was a mess; food, clothes, bottles, and other bits and pieces of junk were scattered everywhere. It looked like a dadaism scene.
She didn't notice 2D until she spotted a shock of blue juxtaposed against the gray carpet. She started forward, but Russel pushed her backwards with one huge hand.
"Hey, 2D, I got you." He knelt down to the nearly-indistinguishable figure on the ground. "Right here," Russel said softly. He revealed a small plastic bottle Noodle hadn't noticed he was carrying. A twist of the cap and a few small green-and-white pills fell into Russel's palm. "Let me get you some water." He vanished into the bathroom.
Noodle's eyes slid from 2D to the bathroom door to 2D again. She crept closer.
He was curled into the fetal position, long limbs entangled around himself and shielding his head. He trembled-with pain, with fear, with 'headache'? It wasn't easy to tell. Noodle stretched out one hand to touch his shoulder, but he shivered away from her. "Headache," she repeated in a whisper. "Headache, headache, headache?"
His hand twitched and then black eyes were squinting at her. Noodle shuddered. They were filled with pure terror, an almost animalistic fear. A kind of pain that drove the mind in circles and caused people to crawl somewhere so deep inside themselves they couldn't tear themselves back out. 2D whimpered, a high whine shattering the loaded silence. He was biting his lip so hard that Noodle could see where the skin was turning red, threatening to split into thin rivulets. A bolt of fear flashed through her veins. Despite 2D's general harmlessness, his appearance was enough to cause her to freeze every time she saw him. He looked more like something that was snap at her if she moved too quickly than someone who forgot how to tie his shoes, especially now.
He tucked his head back under his arm. Noodle didn't know what to do. Russel was cursing from the bathroom. It sounded like he couldn't find something.
She reached out and took his hand in her own. She didn't really know why-in fact, she half expected him to shy away again, or worse-but it felt right. It felt like something she might have wanted someone to do to her when she was trapped in that box for so long. He squeezed her hand once in response, not letting go. "It's awright, darling." His voice cracked.
"Found it," Russel said, reentering the room with a plastic cup of water. He paused when he spotted Noodle crouched next to 2D, then shrugged.
It took fifteen minutes to convince 2D to swallow the pills. He wouldn't even look up at first, then when he finally did he tried to take more than were necessary-or recommended. After that went forty more minutes staying by his side as he retched and shivered, until Russel finally coaxed him back into sleep. Noodle held his hand the entire time. She tried to pull away once, but his grip only tightened.
At 4:36, Russel ushered her out of the room. The door closed with a soft snick! "You didn't have to do that, but I think it helped," he said outside of her door. Then he bid her "Goodnight" (to which she replied with "Goodnigh...?") before going back to bed.