title: Common Knowledge

pairings: Murdoc/2D

disclaimer: Gorillaz is in no way, shape, or form mine. I'd never be able to come with something that cool.

rating: PG-13 (Grr, Murdoc's mouth.)

summary: Murdoc gets sick. 2D gets stuck watching him for the day. Noodle gets some new clothes, but that has nothing to do with anything. slash

author's notes: Grrrrbleeaagghhh. I need to sleep. School is starting in two weeks and I need to start fixing my sleeping habits. But noooooo, my muse had to come and bite me in the ass at 1 in the morning with cutesy fanfiction ideas based off an equally cutesy picture I saw.

Ahhh, it's my first Gorillaz fanfiction. Pplleeeaasseee don't bite my head off if they're kinda ooc-ish.

And it's a one-shot, folks. As in I won't be writing chapters. ;;

---

It was common knowledge that Murdoc had poor hygiene.

It simply never occurred to him, or anyone else, that it might actually affect him.

So no one was more surprised than him when he came down with some sort of sickness that left him tired, weak, and more angry and bitter than usual. He had simply been sitting, watching some late night shows with 2D and Russel (they didn't let Noodle stay up that late) and he had, apparently, fallen asleep there instead of down in his winnebago, and neither 2D nor Russel had bothered to wake them, just headed to their respective rooms.

And when Murdoc woke up, he felt like shit.

He wasn't hung over or anything, he knew that feeling. His nose was stuffy, his eyes would barely open, his throat burned every time he breathed, and he felt completely and totally weak. Weak to the point of not being able to push himself off the couch and move. See, he'd been entirely capable of pushing himself off the couch and landeding face first onto the floor with a muffled curse, he simply hadn't had the energy to move from there. And that made him angry. Because damnit, he should at least be able to move.

Noodle had come in first, because she always came in bright and early and enjoyed making breakfast for the others, and had noticed Murdoc face down on the floor and swearing at the carpet. There was a moment's hesitation, but then she bustled over and helped him back up onto the couch. There was another pause as she watched him slump against the back of the couch and glower, and then she scurried off somewhere.

Yeah, and he knew exactly where she was going.

She was going to fetch 2D or Russel, so he was either going to be laughed at or fussed over.

Great.

Juuussstttt great.

And sure enough, Noodle returned. But no, not just with 2D or Russel, but with both of them trailing behind her. Russel had a bottle of something purple tinted, thick, and dark in his hand and 2D came bearing blankets and fluffy pillows. They were just going to go all out here, weren't they? It was just a damned cold.

A cold that rendered him virtually helpless.

But a cold nonetheless.

"Murdoc, wot 'appened?" 2D asked, holding the blankets and handing the pillow to Russel, who fluffed it and set it on one of the arm rests of the sofa. The larger man took hold of Murdoc's shoulders and pulled him down to the pillow, keeping one hand there to keep him from getting up or fighting against it.

Not that he had the strength to or anything.

"I got sick, brain-ache, wotsit look like?" he snapped hoarsely, glaring up at the two men who were currently tucking blankets around his body. He didn't need all this. It was just a cold, he'd be on his feet in no time!

"But yeh look terrible," 2D murmured, sounding genuinely concerned about him. Murdoc probably would have had some wise comment about his tone of voice if he wasn't feeling so groggy and useless. So instead he just grunted, watching Russel pour that nasty looking liquid into a spoon, then hold it towards him.

"…'m not drinkin' that," he told him, glaring.

"Yeah, you are," Russel responded, and promptly pinched his nose and lifted until his mouth was forced open. He shoved the spoon in, let Murdoc's mouth snap shut, and watched him cringe visibly at the taste before swallowing hard.

"Wot the fuckin' hell was that crap?" he asked, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Medicine."

"Yeah, ya probably fed me cyanide and are just waitin' for it to work…" he muttered bitterly, finding enough energy to cross his arms over his chest and sulk.

There was a long, awkward silence in which Murdoc got a terrible itch on his leg that he couldn't get to because of the blankets tucked so tightly around him.

"Well, look. Me'n Noodle are going to shop for clothing for her today, I promised her we would, since she's starting to grow out of her old clothes," Russel explained, taking a few steps towards the Japanese girl. "So I'm not staying here to take care of you or anything like it. So, you'll either have to watch yourself or…"

All three gazes turned to 2D, who looked up from staring at his feet and blinked.

"Wot?"

It was common knowledge that 2D idolized Murdoc in a fairly healthy sort of way, if you could call associating with Murdoc at all healthy.

But despite that, he did not want to take care of a whiny, angry Murdoc who could do next to nothing for himself.

On the other hand, if he came out and said that, there was no doubt that he'd get beat once Murdoc was well again.

So he'd been stuck with babying the older man for the day, while Russel and Noodle went shopping.

"D'ya want somethin' ta eat, Murdoc?" he asked, sitting in a chair a couple feet from the couch he was laying on. Murdoc just grunted and made an attempt to roll over so his back would be to the singer, but only managed to look like he was wriggling around with no purpose. An awkward silence fell over the two of them, 2D trying to figure out what to do with him, and Murdoc trying to have some semblance of control over his body and make it roll over.

Surprisingly, Murdoc was the one to break it.

"Don't they say chicken noodle soup is good fer this kinda thing?"

2D lifted his head from staring at the ground, surprised that Murdoc was trying to help, but more surprised that chicken noodle soup hadn't occurred to him. Probably because they didn't have any.

"Uh, yeah. They do. But we dun have any of that stuff… I could heat up some'a Noodle's ramen, if ya want…" he offered, watching Murdoc's expression to make sure he didn't become angry or anything. Murdoc just lay there, staring at the ceiling and looking like he either didn't care about the idea or hadn't heard him. "Murdoc?"

"Yeah, yeah…" he gathered enough energy to lift and wave his hand dismissively. "Ramen noodles, great, good, whatevah. Just go get me somethin' ta eat."

2D gave a small nod and got to his feet, shuffling quietly towards the kitchen. He found one of the packets of ramen and read the instructions on how to prepare it, and spent more time trying to find clean dishes to use than he did cooking it for Murdoc. One he'd added the flavoring he stirred it all up, stuck a fork in the noodles, and came back to the room where Murdoc was spending the day. The older man was glaring at a hole in the ceiling, as if it were somehow that hole's fault that he was sick.

"Murdoc?"

And now the glare turned to him. Well, at least he was able to move some now.

"I got yer ramen noodles here. D'ya want me to just set 'em on ya or get a little table to put them on or.. uh, I dunno, feed 'em to ya?"

Murdoc's eye twitched visibly. "Just set the fuckin' food on me, dullard. There's no way in hell I'd let you feed me an' we probably don't got any tables."

2D, now nervous that if got any closer Murdoc would find the strength to hit him, took slow steps forward, set the bowl on the bassist's chest carefully and took faster steps away. Murdoc watched him like he was insane, then shook his head and started eating the noodles.

And there was that uncomfortable silence again.

Actually, things weren't perfectly silent. There was the slightly annoying noise of Murdoc slurping ramen noodles, an occasional cough from him, the sound of 2D tapping his fingers slowly against his knee, and the noises the wooden chair made any time the singer shifted because the position he had been sitting in got boring.

Murdoc hadn't finished his noodles, he'd simply paused in eating them to look at 2D. The other turned to meet his gaze and Murdoc's eyes narrowed defensively, as if 2D had been watching him first. "Wot?"

"N-Nothin'. I was.. uh, I just… d'ya wanna watch TV or somethin'?"

A shorter, less awkward silence in which Murdoc shrugged. "Eh, sure."

2D got to his feet and turned on their television, then dragged his wooden chair to sit next to the end of the couch Murdoc's feet were at, got the remote, and finally sat down. "Whadda ya wanna watch?" he asked.

"I don't fucking care," was the muttered response. "Find a movie or somethin'."

2D frowned a little but hit the power button on the remote, watched the TV flicker on, and started flipping through the channels. There was never anything on in the morning, so this was not going to be easy.

As he came down into the one digit channels, though, he noticed little shows with bad acting and overly dramatic plots. This would have to do.

It was common knowledge that the soap operas you found on the channels no one watched sucked.

And yet, both 2D and Murdoc found themselves strangely caught up in one of the suckish programs.

"Oh, Harold, how could you? How could you sleep with my long-lost twin sister?"

2D's eyebrows lifted. He stuffed some of the popcorn he'd made himself during a commercial into his mouth.

"I thought she was you, Lisa! I should've realized she wasn't when she didn't make my stomach flutter the way you do, darling."

"Oh, Harold!"

And the two on the TV screen kissed passionately as the credits started. "That ain't Lisa," Murdoc said seriously, his bowl of ramen still sitting unfinished on his chest.

"Wot?"

"That lady who just kissed Harold; she ain't Lisa."

"How d'ya figure?"

"Lisa had a scar on her neck from when she tried to kill herself after her first husband slept with her half-brother, right?"

"Right."

"That chick did not."

"So… who's that then?"

"Probably her twin or somethin'."

There was a pause where they both stared at the TV screen, before Murdoc made some odd, disgruntled noise and set his ramen bowl on the floor. "Wot the hell are we doin'? We're sittin' around watching suck-ass shows and havin' conversations about 'em!" He made another noise and began to glower again. 2D decided to take that as a cue to turn off the television.

The silence stretched on uncomfortably and 2D just got up, took the mostly finished bowl of ramen from the floor and his popcorn bowl, and took them to the kitchen to wash. That didn't waste nearly enough time and he had to go back and try to find something for Murdoc to do.

He looked at the man who was now staring at his feet, which currently resided under the covers, and thought hard for a moment. Which, of course, was not an easy thing to do when your mind was all fogged up with painkillers. But he did and eventually decided that video games would probably be a good time waster.

"Murdoc, 'ey. Do ya wanna play some video games or somefin'?"

The older stopped glaring at his feet to look at 2D, then nod and go back to staring seriously at his feet. 2D wasn't entirely sure why he was doing that, because he looked like he expected them to fall off his ankles and run off if he looked away. Maybe he just needed something to stare at. Maybe he was silently willing them to explode because they just weren't working today and were leaving him bedridden. Or rather, couchridden. But he hoped that video games would take his mind off that, because him glaring at his feet was starting to get creepy.

So 2D set up the console and tossed Murdoc a controller, then took one for himself and settled back on the wooden chair, which was becoming increasingly uncomfortable the more he sat on it. But whining would just result in an even bitchier bassist. And that would be bad.

The game was some sort of nonsensical violence game where Murdoc was a man in black with a chest the size of a fridge, and 2D was his obligatory large-chested female friend with a gun. Murdoc snorted a little when he saw 2D's character, but said nothing else and the two began the go on their video game world killing rampage.

They cleared the first level with no difficulty at all, shooting down every zombie and monster that so much as came into their line of view. The second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth level weren't much different, it just took more time for the two to shoot down the monsters.

On the seventh and final level, though, there was apparently a boss they had to defeat. It was a large, disgusting looking creature with too many eyes and arms and a crapload of weaponry. It didn't take him long to take 2D's character down.

"Shit, wot the hell are ya doin', dullard?" Murdoc said, pressing buttons repeatedly and glancing at 2D out of the corner of his eye while trying to focus on the screen as well. This was apparently not easy, because he let out a cry of frustration and jabbed at the buttons harder than ever.

"The thingy killed me," 2D explained, shrugging.

Murdoc growled, pressed the pause button and scrolled down to their inventory. He chose some weird potion they'd found earlier and selected the option of feeding it to his partner.

2D's character was instantly revived with full health and a loaded gun.

And 2D was startled that Murdoc would do anything remotely thoughtful or nice for him, video game or otherwise.

"Help me out here, ya idiot!"

He snapped back to attention and set to work on firing rounds at the creature, then blocking, then reloading, then firing, and so forth as Murdoc used hand grenades and insanely complicated attacks with a sword he'd obtained somewhere around level three.

The boss fell, some bright light made the dark and bloody world of the game beautiful and happy again, and some sappy music started to play. Murdoc glanced over at the singer, who was currently grinning like an idiot and just staring in happy, proud sort of way at the screen.

He was attractive. That was why he was the singer, the front man. But Murdoc never really stopped to appreciate his looks.

So for one small, medicine induced moment he just sort of stared at 2D, the light coming from the window framing his blue hair and face and making him look sort of… angelic.

This was definitely the medicine's fault, making him all dopey-like.

He managed to notice a small twitch as 2D started to turn and instantly looked away. Oh, he was good.

"Well, that took up a good three or four hours, huh? It's early afternoon… anything ya wanna do?" 2D smiled a little and watched him.

Murdoc shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.

"I think I'll jus' sleep or somethin'."

2D nodded and got to his feet, going around the back of the couch.

"Don't try to tuck me in or anything, lackwit."

"I won't."

Pause.

"Good."

"Alright."

"Fine."

"'M gonna go shower and change my clothes now. I'll check in on ya later."

"Fine."

And with that, 2D quietly made his way towards one of their bathrooms to do exactly what he had said he was going to do and Murdoc forced himself to fall asleep, which wasn't too hard with his current tired state.

It was common knowledge that dreams were supposed to be your subconscious mind telling you things you needed to address in reality.

It was also a generally accepted idea that medicine could induce some very odd dreams.

And that would be the explanation Murdoc was going to use to convince himself once he was awake.

Because this dream went beyond weird.

It started out fairly boring. He had been sitting in his winnebago and was fiddling around with his bass, trying out new tunes and grunting when he got it wrong and just being… himself.

It hadn't occurred to him that the fact everything was tinted purple wasn't normal. It was like his dream self just accepted the purple tint as if it had always been there. Everything else was like it was in reality, right down to the mess and the stench. Well, except his door was missing.

It was when he noticed the door was missing, which his dream self did take as odd, that none other than 2D came through the door. Just came through the door casually and sat down on the floor next to him. Dream-Murdoc glared.

"Wot're ya doin', jus' waltzing right into my winne?" he asked, narrowing his eyes dangerously.

Dream-2D just smiled and shifted to sit behind him, quietly fiddling with his hair.

Dream-Murdoc didn't pull away. He was a bit shocked that 2D would find the courage to do that, dream or not. "Wot're yeh..."

"Shh," was the soft reply and he felt something warm nuzzle his neck.

This was so very wrong.

"Look, dullard," he managed, turning around to face the younger man. "Yer actin' weird and I think ya should jus' go back t'yer room and lie.. down…"

His words slowed towards the end of his sentence because dream-2D was leaning in, closer and closer towards his face until their noses were touching and…

Murdoc, real life and still quite sick, shot up on the couch with enough force to untuck most of the blankets around him. Eyes wide and heart racing, he swallowed hard and shook his head, taking one moment to think about the dream, then another moment to shove it to the back of his mind and brush it off as something the medicine generated that held no meaning or value.

He could hear the shower running down the hall and became aware that he couldn't have been out for more than fifteen or twenty minutes, grumbling bitterly as he close his eyes and tried to make himself fall asleep again.

Which was proving to be more difficult than the first time because of that damned dream.

It was not common knowledge that 2D had wondered for quite some time what it would be like to kiss Murdoc.

After all, he drew women to him like a magnet, there had to be something that did it for him. It wasn't his charm, since he had almost none, and it wasn't his looks, or he would've been the singer instead of pretty boy 2D. It could be the fact he was in a band, but that wouldn't draw all those women, would it?

So, 2D assumed it had to be something in his kiss.

He emerged from the bathroom in a white t-shirt with a pink flower printed across the front, blue jeans, and a belt, towel drying his hair while he went to check on Murdoc.

Watching him for the day hadn't been so bad. He did wonder every now and then just how long Russel and Noodle intended to stay out, but he paid more attention to the bassist than anything.

When he found him, Murdoc's eyes were closed and his breathing was even and he appeared to be asleep.

This would be the perfect chance to kiss him.

Not only was he asleep, which gave 2D a lovely chance of pulling it off, but he was also sick so he wouldn't be able to hit him. Of course, he felt guilty about thinking about taking advantage of Murdoc when he was vulnerable, but…

The chance was right there, practically wave a flag in his face that said, 'Go for it!'.

So he did.

2D braced one hand on the back of the couch and let his towel drop to the floor, leaning over the edge of the couch until he was hovering just an inch above Murdoc's face.

Murdoc didn't move.

So 2D closed the distance between them and pressed his mouth to the older man's.

Their mouths met, gently, because 2D was incredibly wary about waking up Murdoc. Which would have been a completely understandable fear, provided Murdoc was sleeping.

Which he was not.

Murdoc had been trying to go to sleep, trying so hard he hadn't noticed 2D's breath across his face and just took it as the fever acting up, but lost all interest in trying to sleep when he felt a soft mouth against his. His eyes opened instantly and crossed uncomfortably when he tried to focus on who it was. Of course, when he noticed the blue hair, he didn't have to think twice.

2D was kissing him.

Maybe this was another one of his weird dreams.

But, with his luck, it wasn't.

2D pulled away slowly and his eyes fluttered open. There was a pause, a beat, and then he looked completely and totally terrified when he realize Murdoc was very much awake.

"Wot're ya doin'…?" Murdoc asked him, even though he knew. Maybe 2D would come up with some clever explanation.

There was another pause. The singer looked like he was strongly contemplating lying, or running like nobody's business.

"…. kissin' ya..." he finally murmured, embarrassed.

"Oh."

Another long pause where 2D fidgeted awkwardly and Murdoc just sort of thought.

"You'll be hackin' up a lung, y'know," the bassist said seriously.

"Yeah.."

"I might be the one stuck takin' care of ya."

2D blinked slowly and lifted his eyes to Murdoc's mismatched gaze, which he had been avoiding the whole time.

Without stopping to give it a second thought, because if he had he may have stopped, Murdoc placed his hand on the back of 2D's neck and pulled him down for another kiss, stronger, warmer, and less timid than the first. 2D made an 'mmmpphh' noise of surprise, struggled, then relaxed when he managed to wrap his mind around what was happening, and let his mouth move against Murdoc's.

The kiss was definitely what drew in the chicks, though he didn't doubt there were probably some other things that Murdoc would show him once he wasn't ill.

---

author's notes: Grrrrbleeaagghhh. I was trying to make it short but it just kept going and going. Longest one shot I've written yet. Anyhow. That's my fanfiction, unbeta-ed because no one was online to beta it for me. Laaadeedaa, hope it doesn't suck.