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Russel had no idea what was going on. Where was 2D or Murdoc? The show was already delayed ten minutes, he was lucky that he could talk to the warm up band into playing a few extra songs to stall. With a huff, he hustled down the hallway to bang his fist up against the dressing room door. “Come on! What's taking so long?!”
“Wait a bloody minute!” Murdoc screamed right back, but quickly lowered his tone when he saw how it made 2D flinch. “Five more minutes.”
Russel licked his lips, ready to say something back but was it worth it? Yelling at Murdoc was like yelling at a wall. “Five minutes.” He shook his head, hurrying back to tell Noodle the news.
This had happened at the worst time possible. One of 2D's crippling migraines had settled in fast, making it hard for him to even open his eyes. And Murdoc, with his medical degree, was doing his best to comfort him. The show had to go on!
“Where exactly does it hurt?” Murdoc asked, his hands on either side of his singer's face as he carefully rubbed his thumbs along under his eyes. He was feeling pretty clammy already.
“Everywhere.” 2D mumbled. “Mostly 'round here, though.” He touched near where Murdoc's fingers were, then against his temples.
Murdoc hummed, slipping his hands further back to instead massage his finger knuckles against 2D's temples. The poor thing. He didn't feel sympathy for much but he'd seen what these migraines did to him; It put him in bed for nearly an entire day. He didn't want to eat or move or talk. Every slight movement made him cringe and even the dimmest of lights hurt.
“Can you sing?”
“Do I have a choice..?”
Murdoc heaved out a sigh. That was a real question- He wasn't about to cancel the show, fuck that. But he couldn't really go out on stage without his frontman, neither. Then if he did force 2D out there, who knew just how well he would do? Or if he would stay conscious. “Hold on.” He pulled away, going over to the sink in the back corner to fill up one of those little paper cups in cold water. Then he rifled around in one of Noodle's bag for some aspirin maybe--
She had Midol? A pain reliever was a pain reliever.
“Here.” Murdoc handed the supplies over, which 2D took down without question. Pills usually solved his problems.
Now, the bassist was standing behind him. Starting at his shoulders. He kneaded his neck muscles for a moment, then starting to bend 2D's head down in different directions to stretch those muscles out. At first, the pressure hurt the front of his head. But the more Murdoc's rough fingers rubbed around his ears, eyebrows and base of his skull-- He actually was feeling a bit better.
2D couldn't even help but make a slight moan of relief.
This surely went on for longer then five minutes, but there were no distractions or interruptions. “Feeling better?” Murdoc asked, rubbing the pads of his fingers up and down the back of 2D's head.
Would it be bad if he lied just to continue the massage?
“Yeah, actually.”
“Think you can sing now?”
The headache wasn't completely gone but the severity was definitely less intense. Before the head rub, his teeth was practically aching from it. “I think so.”
“Great!” Murdoc pulled his hands back, almost yanking the singer up to his feet by the arm. “Let's finally give the fans what they came here for! Poor lot have been suffering through the warm up band for much too long!”
His hand swung down to give 2D a hard swat right on the arse as they headed out the door and towards the stage.