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Murdoc had woken up in a cold sweat, nightmares again. He had nightmares frequently but they seemed to be getting particularly bad recently, maybe it was the colder weather coming in, maybe it was his mood generally getting worse, perhaps both. The nightmares were usually about his childhood, but on occasion his brain would also bless him with a particularly awful, vivid and recurring nightmare about him dying in some boring uneventful way, an overdose on something was the usual, and nobody remembering him afterwards. No one attending his funeral, his bandmates moving on with their lives and forgetting about him, him being buried with nothing incredible on his tombstone, maybe something copy and paste like ‘rest in peace’ or ‘sleeping peacefully’ if he was lucky.
Tonight, it was the ladder.
He groaned, rubbed his face and checked the digital clock on his bedside. Two am, the time made Murdoc groan again, this time a less self pitying groan and a more pissed off that he was awake this late groan. He dragged himself out of his bed and almost tripped over a pile of clothes in the process, deciding he would have a smoke and then hopefully try and go back to bed. Murdoc doubted the fact that he’d get back to sleep, but he considered lying in his bed until morning to be better than standing around the house in the cold and dark in his underwear.
Murdoc eyed his bass near the door, he had others packed away in his closet but this was his favourite. It was on display proudly right at the entrance of his bedroom. It was a Vintage Fender Precision Bass, neatly kept and surprisingly clean. He had gotten it a little while ago and surprisingly hadn’t scratched it up yet. He felt the cold headstock and ran his fingers down the strings he could comfortably reach from his hunched over standing position. He plucked one of the strings lazily, watched it until the string finished vibrating and left the room, feeling more grounded weirdly enough. The nightmare was lingering in his head unfortunately, despite the grounding. He wasn’t entirely sure why. It shouldn’t have bothered him, but it did. And he hated it. It bugged him beyond belief, he wasn’t supposed to care but he did.
Murdoc, half awake, managed to blunder to the small kitchen in Kong. He looked through the drawers for his packet of cigarettes but paused midway through. The quiet of the studio was being interrupted by….crying? It was soft, but it was there. Small, heaving sobs. The man followed the sound down the hall to Noodle’s room. He stood outside the room for a moment, yep, it was her, before knocking softly and opening the door.
Noodle was huddled under her blanket with a flashlight, she stopped crying when Murdoc entered the room but he could see her softly shaking from where he was standing.
“Noods?” He mumbled, lifting the covers carefully. He was greeted by a bright flashlight to his night-adjusted eyes, causing him to hiss. Noodle quickly pulled the flashlight away and shone it at the wall instead.
Once Murdoc had regained his vision, he examined the small girl in front of him. She was definitely crying, her cheeks were still wet and her eyes were still puffy. She was rugged up in her Pj’s but she was still shaking. A look of concern crossed Murdoc’s face unintentionally.
“You alright?” He asked her, Noodle shook her head softly.
“Bad dream.” She managed to say, wiping her eyes. It was said rather clearly for a ten year old learning English. Murdoc probably would’ve felt proud if he wasn’t feeling worried.
“Yeah, you and me both.” He muttered, giving her head a pat.
“Drink?” She asked quietly.
“You wanna drink? Like water?”
Noodle nodded, wiping her face again. More calm now.
“Uh, yeah, yeah I can get you a drink. C’mon.” He got up off the corner of her bed, Noodle following. Noodle held his hand for support getting off the bed but didn’t let go afterwards. Murdoc rolled with it and led them both back into the kitchen, bringing Noodle’s flashlight with him.
This wasn’t exactly what Murdoc was planning to do at two in the morning, but it distracted him from his own nightmare so he wasn’t complaining much.
He placed the flashlight in the middle of the small wooden table in the centre of the kitchen and sat her down, getting her a small glass of cold water. Before finally finding his cigarettes, lighting one and sitting down across from Noodle.
He took a puff and sighed, sitting in the quiet as he watched the girl sip her water.
“What was the bad dream about?” He asked after a few moments, Noodle swallowed her water and said something complex and quickly in Japanese. Murdoc stared blankly at her, trying to decipher what she said. He could’ve grabbed the small Japanese translation book 2-D had brought to try and help understand Noodle that was sitting in the same drawer his cigarettes were in, but his head hurt too much, he was now comfortably sat on the chair and he was just too tired.
Noodle sighed. “Monster.” She said, seemingly also too tired to be bothered trying to string out a more complex sentence in English. Murdoc could respect that.
“Ah, Right.” He said. “I’m sorry that scared you Noods, you don’t need to worry about monsters though. If I see any monsters I’ll bash their ‘eads in with my bass, i won’t let ‘em get you.” He said with a toothy grin, Noodle returned the same grin with a giggle. Murdoc couldn’t help but laugh too, a gritty chainsmoker's laugh but it was a laugh nonetheless.
Noodle mimed some of her martial arts moves with soft grunts.
“Yeah you’ll kick their asses with your karate! Those monsters would be in deep shit if they entered the studio and wanted to mess with us. Russ would probably be able to break them in half with his ‘ands and face-ache....actually I’m not sure wot 2-D would do….but he’d probably figure it out.” Murdoc concluded, satisfied with their plan to defeat any future monsters.
Noodle said something in Japanese and took another sip of her water, Murdoc nodded, imagining she was probably talking about how good the plan was and took another puff of his cig.
Noodle repeated what she had said in Japanese again and pointed at Murdoc this time. He raised an eyebrow and Noodle grumbled. Before clearly stating “Dream?” And pointing at him again, with a little more energy this time.
“Oh! Er, yeah. I’m awake ‘cus I had a dream. A bad one, just like you.” He said, taking a long drag of the cigarette. Noodle frowned at him with a worried look on her face. “I’m ok Noodle, don’t worry. Murdoc’s strong, I’m not scared of bad dreams.” He lied.
Noodle still looked a little worried but stopped nudging and finished her glass of water with a content sigh.
“D’You feel better now?” He asked with a smile. Noodle grinned happily and nodded. Murdoc snuffed out his cigarette on the table (a move that would get Russell majorly pissed at him in the morning but that was for Morning Murdoc to deal with) and stood up. “I should probably get you back to bed now, hm?”
Noodle looked a little less convinced but followed his lead anyways as he picked up the flashlight and they walked back down to her room.
He rested the flashlight on her desk on top of multiple drawings done by Noodle of the band members in bright crayon colours. Murdoc walked over to Noodle and started tucking her in gently, making sure the covers were all tightly cocooned around her so she wouldn’t get cold. Noodle gave Murdoc a scared look, he attempted to reassure her but he could tell she was trying to tough it out for him. He remembered all the times when he was growing up where he would’ve loved for his Dad to comfort him after a nightmare, let alone care that he had a nightmare in the first place and the guilt of possibly leaving her in a room in the dark scared despite the fact he hadn’t even moved yet started to chew away at him.
‘Ah fuck.’
“Would you like me to stay with you until you fall asleep?” He asked her softly, surprisingly softly, The regular grit in his voice disappearing temporarily.
Noodle hesitated, looking like she wanted to say yes but something was stopping her.
“You won’t be keeping me up if that’s wot you’re worried about. I probably won’t be falling back to sleep anyway.” He reassured her. She paused, before nodding slowly. Murdoc smiled softly. “Alright then, night night Noodle.” He gave her hair a tussle but before he could move away Noodle had pounced on him, wrapping her arms tightly around his. Murdoc froze for a moment, shocked, before returning the gesture and tightly hugging Noodle in return. A smile creeped onto his face, a genuine one that he couldn’t stop. He gave her a small peck on the cheek and she lied back down.
“Love you..” she mumbled, snuggling into the blankets and leaving a hand out for him to hold. He took it tightly.
“Luv you too, Noodle.” He said, his voice quivering slightly.
If any of the other band members were awake at two thirty in the morning, they would’ve seen a very rare but peculiar sight. Murdoc Faust Niccals, bass player, edgelord, and sex god, ugly crying on the floor of his adopted daughter's room in nothing but his underwear in the middle of winter. He may have been freezing his ass off and not getting any sleep but Murdoc had decided those weren’t his priorities right now.
For some reason, the nightmare that had been nagging him quietened in his head for a bit. Not completely gone, but greatly silenced by Noodle’s presence. Again, he wasn’t entirely sure why, or if he wanted to admit it to himself, but at least he wasn’t freezing AND sad anymore and that thought made a small smile appear on his face.
—————————————————————————————————————
(Bonus!!)
2-D, Noodle and Russell were already eating breakfast when Murdoc woke up and made his way downstairs. He poured himself a large cup of coffee and lazily put together a bowl of cornflakes and sat down at the table, this time not being in his underwear and instead wearing black jeans he had picked off his bedroom floor and decided they were clean enough.
“Man, what the hell happened to you?” Russell asked him. “You look like you’ve been hit by a bus.”
“Er, ’just didn’t sleep well last night.” He grumbled.
“Right, well on another note. Care to explain what the fuck happened to my table Muds?” Russell said, anger entering his voice. He pointed a large finger at the round burn mark in the polished wood.
Morning Murdoc was starting to regret Last Night Murdoc’s decisions, something he did frequently.
“Uhh—“
“How many times do I have to tell you, don’t burn the vanish!! That shit is expensive!!” Russell persisted. Murdoc could feel his headache worsening.
“WHY IS IT ME IMMEDIATELY?? Could’ve been Face-ache for all you know!!!” Murdoc snapped back, jabbing a finger at the blue haired man sitting next to him who was devouring toast.
“It wasn’t me!! I’m not tha one that smokes!!!” 2-D defended, shooting Murdoc a look.
“Oh, yeah, no, you’re just addicted to painkillers which are definitely better.” Murdoc hisses in return.
“I’m not addicted I—“
“Alright! Alright!!” Russell broke up the argument, before starting Murdoc’s lecture. And while Murdoc was listening to Russell go off on him about inflation and the price of tables and how much it would take to fix the burn, his eyes wandered over to Noodle, who was drawing without a care. She was very clearly used to the arguments, especially considering they happened almost daily.
Murdoc eyed what she was drawing and despite the raging headache he had, despite the fact that Russell’s scolding was making it worse, despite the fact that his cornflakes were now a mere memory of a solid food, he couldn’t help but feel a small beam of joy in his heart when he saw she was drawing in crayons him and herself fighting off monsters, Murdoc using his favourite guitar to comically bang a monsters head and Noodle kicking one of the monsters in the butt with red and yellow scribbles around them for added pzazz. Murdoc probably would’ve shed a few tears if he hadn’t gotten them out of his system the night before, but that didn’t stop him from feeling an almost overwhelming sense of pride and happiness. Maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t be completely forgotten when he was gone. That was a good feeling to wake up on, so good he almost forgave Russell for yelling and the headache he had. Almost.