It was Saturday morning at about 5:30am, a time when usually no one in their right mind was up, no one in this house anyway. Which leaves Morty who was decidedly not in his right mind, who was currently making his way down the stairs and over to the kitchen.
Night after night lately it seemed he was being woken up by nightmares. He never did seem to get any sleep anymore. It was really beginning to affect him and he worried it'd soon begin to sink his grades even lower than they already were. Then again, according to Rick grades didn't matter anyway. Maybe he should just relax.
Morty made sure to be quiet so as not to wake up any of his family. Just because he was plagued with nightmares didn't mean anyone else should have to deal with a severe lack of sleep and insomnia problems.
Opening the fridge, Morty peered inside, squinting against the harsh bright light which was now illuminating the darkened kitchen. Nothing good to eat, he thought as his eyes roamed over the various items inside. He shivered a bit from the introduction of the cold, refrigerated air.
Just how much longer was he going to have to deal with this? Yawning a bit, he blinked blearily at the carton of orange juice sitting inside with little regard.
From behind came the flip of the light switch startling him so hard he slammed the door of the fridge shut, all of its contents inside shaking and rattling from the impact. With the lights on now and with Morty finally able to see around the dim lit house, his eyes traveled immediately over to his grandpa Rick who stood in the the entryway.
"You hungry or something?" Rick asked moving towards him and the fridge.
"Oh... u-uh n-no.. " Morty said straightening up and beginning to head out of the kitchen when Rick stopped him.
"Then why the hell are you up?"
Morty spun on his hell, shrugged and tried to play it cool. "I dunno. Why are you up?"
Rick cocked an eyebrow at him and then went about setting up their coffee maker to make some much needed coffee. "Uh, cause I never went to bed? Pulled an all nighter on this replicator thing I'm working on."
The boy nodded sleepily and shrugged, "I just... couldn't sleep. I had a bad dream... a nightmare, I guess. I dunno."
Rick watched him for a second before nodding. "Well, I'm no stranger to bad dreams. Look, how bout I make you my dimension famous breakfast complete with all the fixins?"
Suddenly, the promise of a hot meal perked him right up. That was sure to make him feel better. Morty beamed up at him. "R-really, Rick? Gosh, that'd be great. I-i-i've never had your cooking before. That'd be... th-that'd be awesome!"
He watched as his grandpa got to work pulling out skillets and bowls and various cooking utensils. He moved closer to lean against the kitchen counter.
Upstairs, the rest of the family continued sleeping peacefully completely unaware.
Rick poured a bit of sesame oil in one of the pans and began heating it. "So, Morty, what was this dream about?"
The teenager shrugged a little and began rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Oh, well, I don't really remember. It seems so terrifying when I'm in the dream and then when I wake up I'm still out of breath and nervous but then I forget why. The memory just... goes away. That sounds kinda weird I guess."
Rick shrugged as he continued preparing and gathering the ingredients he was going to need. "That's the way dreams go, in my experience at least. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Sucks that you're losing sleep over it though."
"You have no idea."
A companionable silence passed over them then with Morty just sort of zoning out, staring at the far kitchen wall. A long beeping noise sounded signifying that the coffee was finally done.
"Alright! Coffee's done, bitches!" Rick said gleefully.
Morty glanced up at his best friend's face inquisitively. "What kind of dreams do you have? Do you remember yours?"
Rick grew silent for a moment, focusing on the potatoes he was currently dicing. The atmosphere of the kitchen seemed to change. After a moment, he raised a hand to gesture over at one of the cupboards. "Hey, uh, hand me the salt and pepper, would ya?"
His grandson did as he was asked, retrieving them silently before handing them over. He watched as his grandfather set them with the other food items and continued dicing. He watched his face, noting the serious and somber? Expression he now held.
"Are they bad dreams?" Morty guessed since Rick appeared to be trying to change the subject.
Rick shrugged and bit his lip. "Just... don't worry about it. I have normal dreams just like everyone else."
Morty nodded, getting the hint that he really just wanted to drop the subject. After a moment or two, Rick tossed the diced potatoes into the skillet and the delicious sizzle of oil that sounded filled the kitchen.
He turned to his grandson, "The thing is, bad dreams or nightmares or whatever you want to call them... they're not real. They're just built up horrors, memories of times past, things that for one reason or another are coming to the front of your consciousness. They don't matter and they can't hurt you. They're not real."
Taking it all in, Morty began to smile. "Hey... hey, yeah, you're right. I guess when you think about it, they're not that big of a deal. That really... th-that makes me feel a lot better, thanks Rick."
Rick smiled down at his grandson and continued stirring the potatoes. "No problem, Morty."
It was while before any of the rest of the family managed to climb out of bed and make their way downstairs. The two of them spent the entire time chatting away about this and that, mostly new science experiments that Rick wanted to work on that he wanted to brag to Morty about. Rick taught him how to make a proper breakfast, coffee and all, lecturing him on the importance of the bean as well as proper kitchen knife care.
"Hey uh, Rick?"
"What is it, Morty?"
Morty rubbed the back of his neck and looked away then back at his grandfather. "Thanks for... you know, thanks for always being there and stuff. I know it's hard for you. I know you don't... y-y-you don't really care all that much for... emotional stuff."
Rick glanced down at his grandson for a moment then turned back to the pan, stirring the food gently. "Morty... you are single handedly the most important person in the world to me. Sure, you can be a huge pain in my ass and yes you can be tedious, fickle and just downright annoying half the time-"
He glanced back at Morty to see his pinched brow in annoyance before continuing, "but that doesn't mean that whatever trivial, dumbass shit you're going through, th-th-that doesn't mean I don't want to hear about it."
Morty grinned up at him again. "Thanks Rick! You know... y-you can talk to me a-about whatever too, ya know?"
"Don't push it, Morty."