He was sure that the plan would go perfectly. He would not allow anything else to happen.
He switched off all the cameras that evening, cutting off all visual contact with the outside world unless someone crept up and peeped in the windows. He wouldn't put it past the stalkerish freak to have a laptop tapped straight into the webcams filling the studio, and if he wasn't up in the windmill yet Murdoc wasn't going to give him any reasons to start getting suspicious by giving him a chance to snoop when he cornered Noodle to say goodbye. Especially when there was a thing or two he really needed to tell her before the shoot.
She was boxing up the last few odds and ends in her room that she hadn't gotten to yet when he came in. Once she'd sealed up and shipped off the last of the boxes the only thing left in the room would be a few pieces of junk that she wasn't going to bother taking along with her, Shaun Ryder's giant head which couldn't survive without the machinery it was attached to long enough to make it where she was going, and her bed which would join the rest of her things after she woke up in the morning.
But right at that moment it looked like her packing had slowed to a crawl. She had a bundle of old Polaroids stacked up in her lap and was boxing them up one at a time, looking over each one closely before it got put away. "Look, I found photos from our first trip to Japan in the back of my closet," she said once he was right behind her, flipping one of the whole band up for him to see. Murdoc didn't especially like looking of photos of himself from back then-although he was proud to say that he made a fine figure at any age, he wasn't that fond of being reminded of just how much black eighteen months in jail had stripped from his hair-and he suddenly discovered that he wasn't that fond of having the tiny little ten-year-old he'd once known her as waved in his face either. So he just grunted his acknowledgement to make her stop pointing it at him. She moved on to a snapshot of herself looking morosely at the camera. "I don't know how all of you were able to put up with me back then. I was so moody that I know I could not have been very good company."
"Helps that we couldn't understand one word in ten you were saying. Besides, we had Dent-head around. You'd have to make a deliberate effort to get more annoying than that fucking git."
"Even so, I was being so foolish. I was so upset by the feeling that the place I had come from was no longer my home it did not even occur to me that I did still have one, here."
"Funny thing to say when it seems like you can't get out of here fast enough, love. Not that I blame you for getting sick of the company that isn't currently in this room."
"Murdoc, I am only going on vacation. It's not as if I am running away for good." She reached up to grab his wrist and pull him down to sit on the floor beside her, and for the moment started ignoring the rest of the snapshots in her lap. "It is not even Kong itself or the band that I wish for a break from. I don't think that I would be ready to leave just yet if it hadn't been for that mad schedule on the radio tour and all those people attempting to kill us wearing down my energy much faster than usual. Although I do hope..."
He rolled his eyes at her. "Don't start trying to get mysterious on us, Noodle. Spit out whatever the hell it is instead of trailing off like that."
"Well, I do hope that perhaps my leaving now, the band beginning to separate without any type of fight causing it, will help keep all of us from falling apart as badly as we did last time." She glanced at him, smirking slightly, "Although I'm sure that not all being locked up together in a hotel room with no privacy for days will help with that as well."
"Hrrm, what a god-awful idea that was. Who came up with that one anyway?"
"As I was unable to speak English at the time, I'm certain I could not say," she replied, her voice ringing with innocence but her eyes quirking up knowingly at the corners. She was a lovely little thing when she went and lied through her teeth like that and showed that she wasn't quite as endlessly innocent as most people seemed to think.
"All right, love, so you thinking taking off now will keep an insane drummer from making another attempt at punching my head off. Thank you for that," he said, rubbing the top of his head at the remembered pain. "Still planning on heading for the Maldives when you vanish?"
"Oh yes! I have my hotel room booked and already have scheduled time to go scuba-diving! I am going to a place they say has sharks, and I believe that I'll think of you every time I see one." She started to reach out to him then seemed to think better of it and pulled back to tap her own teeth illustratively instead.
Rather disappointing that she'd decided against pressing her fingers to his lips, but it might be for the best. If she had he didn't think he'd have been able to resist sucking them in and nibbling on their tips.
Before he could say anything about her implied commentary on his teeth she surprised him by going on, "But I think that I'll only stay there for a week or so before moving on."
"Wait, what's this now? Moving on? I thought you were planning to stay there your whole break!" This was not something that should have just been sprung on him now, as if she never would have said anything at all if he hadn't stopped in! All right, it wasn't as if he didn't realize that she was being incredibly closed-mouthed about her plans; Russel and 2D still had no idea that they weren't going to be picking her up at the crash site after her she landed her parachute the next day. But that was them! He was him! Murdoc! And she was his guitarist, she couldn't just vanish off into the ether without leaving him any idea where to find her.
"Staying in just one place wouldn't be very interesting, would it?" She dropped the rest of the photos into her box and leaned back on her elbows, staring thoughtfully up towards the ceiling. Which had the added bonus, from his point of view, of showing off the arch of her back. "Besides, I'm hoping to find... a place."
"'A place.' Feeling unspecific today are we, love?"
"It is nowhere specific. A place where the infection has yet to spread. A place where we can go together, all of us, and create with our ears untouched by the taint of zombie moans. Such a place must still exist somewhere in the world, I refuse to believe otherwise." As if on cue the eerie echoing moan of one of the zombies stuffed up the studio chimney could be faintly heard after she finished speaking, but that was hardly a coincidence worth paying attention to. The eerie echoing moans of the chimney zombies could be heard a good dozen times an hour when they were feeling especially noisy.
Murdoc crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. Usually he didn't especially mind when she went on about that sort of thing, at least as long as she didn't start pushing them to sort through another million steaming piles of shit sent in by fans in search of the few pieces that could be shined up into something half-decent, but usually she was just working herself up to go out and make another dent in the zombie population surrounding Kong. She wasn't using it as an excuse to run off to Satan only knew what distant armpit of the world she'd be searching to find a place where Simon 'Shit Shoveler' Cowell and his ilk had never gotten their stinking fingers into the local culture. "And just what the fuck am I supposed to do if I need you, Noods? Having to search every island in the Maldives was already going to be annoying enough!"
"Generally, Murdoc, my being on vacation would mean that people shouldn't be bothering me, not unless you are also on vacation. But..." Her head lolled to the side to face him and she softly sang to him, "If you do that, I'll be someone to find you..." She shifted until she was leaning towards him, resting heavily on one arm, her shoulder jutting up far enough for her to rest her cheek on it. Her body language fucking had to be screaming 'come hither' at him, he couldn't believe he'd be mistaken about that, but when she tilted her head a little more so he could see her eyes through her hair she looked more serious than lustful. "Will you find me, Muds? I would allow you to, if I heard that you were looking. If it was you."
"...You know what, fuck it," he said, obviously startling her as he reached out to grab her. "I've been patient for two bloody years, and you know I'm not a patient person. I've tried to pretend I could be a decent man and never push you into anything if you weren't obviously into it first. But I do not want to keep waiting for who knows how long it'll be before you decide to grace us with your lovely presence again, that was a fucking love song you were singing at me, and I'm counting that as you making the first move."
She didn't kick him out of her room, literally, the minute his mouth touched hers, which he took as a good sign. She'd never been shy about showing her displeasure if anyone tried anything with her that she didn't want; the few slobbering scuzzbuckets who'd managed to reach her before he or Russel or 2D could send them on their way had always quickly discovered that her talk about being a child soldier wasn't just a band publicity stunt when she clobbered them. But she didn't really respond either, her lips soft but slack beneath his own.
When there was still nothing from her after another moment he dragged himself back with a growl in his throat. "Hell," he spat out. "You still weren't ready for that, were you?"
He tried to yank himself away from her further, but was stopped by her fingers resting lightly on his cheek over where his jaw was tense, his teeth clenched tight. "Two years, Muds? Really?" Her voice shook slightly, but he thought that it was with laughter she was attempting to hide and not an upset sound. He hoped that it was.
"Rather thought you'd have noticed by now, love. Apparently I was wrong."
"Very wrong," she agreed, which hardly made him feel any better. Her fingers traced along his hair line, around his ear and she stared at him like he was something brand new, her eyes wider than he'd seen them since she was hanging on upside-down in the 19-2000 video. "Don't think that it's anything to do with you. It is... it's nothing that I even think about usually, unless it is dealing with someone who's attention I do not want." Her touch returned to his cheek but this time she pressed her hand flat against it instead of just grazing her fingertips across. He could feel her fingers shaking. "I supposed that in a way not noticing would be my way of showing that your attention is not unwanted. I'm sure that when I look back I'll realize that on some level I saw and unconsciously choose to do nothing to stop you; you're not that subtle. Somewhere in me I must have known, because somehow this seems much easier to accept than I think it should be..."
Where he had moved in as quickly as he could to steal his kiss from her she leaned in slowly, her eyes fixed on his the entire time. Her expression was a strange mix of hesitation and determination, like every second she was rethinking her actions and again deciding, yes, this was what she wanted to do. He'd gotten to her first, he could tell, just like he'd wanted to. Just like he was meant to. There wasn't a trace of experience in the way she kissed, though he could feel the care she put into deciding how she should move her lips against his, into working out exactly what worked.
"Let me show you how it goes, love," her muttered against her mouth, and then took over. It was even odd for him, in a way. He had experience to spare, of course, he had so much experience it was falling out his arse, but when it came to the billions of groupies who didn't care about anything except being able to say that they'd shagged a member of Gorillaz he just focused on his own pleasure and didn't bother much about theirs. If they got off, good for them, if they didn't, whatever, he was good. It had been around a decade since the last time he'd actually cared about making it good for the woman he was with, and he was a bit out of practice.
It was odd to slide his tongue into her mouth and not use its length to do a quick test of her gag-reflex. It was odd to focus on hunting down her erogenous zones instead of just grabbing her hands and leading her to his. It was odd, but it was very very good, good enough that he was already thinking about the many repeat performances they'd need to have whenever she got back before they'd hardly gotten anywhere into this one.
He pushed her down to the floor, knowing that he really should get her to the bed but fuck if pulling away from her far enough to wrangle it didn't seem damned near impossible just then. He was just sliding his fingers up under her shirt when a raspy voice shocked the hell out of him by coming out of nowhere to say, "It's coming up..."
"Shit!" He startled away from her and stared at the closet, which he only now noticed was cracked a little. "Fucking hell, I am not doing this with a voyeur!" He dragged his hand through his hair, squeezing his eyes she as his mind started working again, and muttered on, "Fuck, no, can't do this now at all, can we? What was I thinking?"
"Murdoc?" she asked quietly, sounding worried and frightened, and he winced a little when he saw the upset look on her face.
"No, darling, nothing to do with you. He just reminded me that this isn't a good time. Russ and 2D'll probably be barging in to take one last shot at convincing you not to go along with this promo idea at any time, and you'd have to put off your vacation in favor of planning a funeral worthy of Old Muds if they caught us with your legs wrapped around me." Being crushed to death by 400-lbs of insane drummer enraged over Murdoc fucking his baby girl didn't sound like the way he wanted to go out. He stole one more quick kiss, then hopped to his feet when the kiss didn't seem likely to stay quick if he didn't get further away from her. "Come out to the Winnebago tonight, if you still want to then. If you don't, fine, we can work this out when you get back. Probably... better this way anyway, give you a chance to make sure it's what you really want and you aren't just caught up in the moment." He hated to admit it, it outright turned his stomach to drag himself away from her after waiting so long, but he couldn't say that just this once, just for her, he'd try to act half-decent only to throw her down and ravish her before she'd had any real time to think about what she wanted with a clear head.
He quickly crossed the room to her door, not trusting himself not to dive straight back on top of her if he didn't get right out of there, but he paused before opening it. There had a reason he'd stopped in that night, and he couldn't let himself forget it. "But, love? If you don't come I've got something I needed to tell you. Tomorrow, don't head up into the top room of the windmill while you're up there. Don't ask what this is about, just trust me about that, whatever happens. Got it?"
"I do trust you, Murdoc," she said, sounding more composed, and he heard her getting to her own feet behind him. "And, Murdoc? Tonight, could you brush your teeth before you go to bed for once in your life? For me."
He laughed as he opened the door. "All right, love. I guess that's not too much to ask."