Alright, so I've actually decided that I want to take a quick little break from my stories and do a few oneshots. I have a couple lined up to do, including a request from someone else that I agreed to do separately from the Fanfiction Rotation, so expect those for a little bit.
Anyway, this first oneshot happens to be inspired in part by the Manti Te'o story, more specifically the interview that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo (and yes, I had to look up how to spell it) did with Dr. Phil where he admitted that he fell in love with Te'o while pretending to be the woman, and I figured that I'd like to try out something like this with Mordecai and Rigby. So yeah, if you can't tell, this is going to be a Morby story, so anyone not comfortable with this should hit the back button. So anyway, enjoy!
It was a quiet day at the park. The only real important thing going on outside of all of the visitors enjoying the sights of the park is taking place inside the house. Everything inside the house was also quiet as well, except for the sounds of furious typing coming every so often from the computer room upstairs. Mordecai happened to be the one on said computer, chatting with another girl using an online chat program.
You see, ever since Margaret last rejected Mordecai, he decided to take the plunge once again and do some online dating. Rigby agreed to sign him back up for Couple's Corral, and it didn't take him all that long to receive multiple requests for meeting. Mordecai skimmed through each of their profiles, but the one that really caught his eye just happened to also be a female blue jay, whose name he eventually learned was Marie. He immediately clicked on her profile and found a lot of things that she liked were very in common with his interests.
So now that Mordecai was convinced that she was a good choice, he sent an email to her, and a few days later she replied. They spent the last few weeks communicating through the chat program (at least, as much as Mordecai could do with the limited time slots he had).
So, this time he figured that it might as well be a good a time as ever to finally meet face to face and see what she's really like.
"So Marie, how do you feel about going out on a date sometime?" he typed.
"I'm sorry, I can't." typed Marie.
"What? Why?"
"I thought you already knew about this from my profile. I live in Colorado."
Mordecai racked his brains, trying to remember if he saw where her location was.
"I'm sorry. I must have overlooked that one part on the profile."
Mordecai paused for a second before typing the next sentence.
"How about we do video chat?"
There was a bit of a long pause from the other end. Mordecai began to wonder if something was going on with Marie, but she did eventually reply.
"I'm sorry, I have to go."
Mordecai was disappointed, but he said his goodbyes and signed out from the program. As he left the computer room and started to make his way downstairs, he couldn't help but sigh, thinking that Marie just might possibly be the one who could stand up to the level of Margaret.
Little did Mordecai know was that Marie wasn't exactly who she said she was. The explanation for this odd turn of events would be located inside Mordecai and Rigby's room, where the raccoon himself was sitting on his trampoline doing something interesting on a laptop computer.
Before we define what exactly Rigby was doing on that computer, I think most of you would probably be wondering how Rigby got his hands on a computer with his extremely low salary. Well, it turns out that he actually somehow managed to convince the people from the One Laptop Per Child program that he was a poor child forced to live in a ramshackle house near the park. One thing led to another, and Rigby was now the proud owner of one.
Now, the important thing to consider when it came to this was that Rigby's computer "purchase" wasn't a completely random occurrence. The little raccoon actually had a plan in mind. April Fool's Day was coming up, and Rigby wanted to make his prank on Mordecai something to remember. He tried to think of something big, but nothing came up until a documentary on the practice of catfishing came on TV one day as he was flipping through the channels.
With nothing really better to do, he decided to watch the program, eventually realizing that he could try it out himself. So, he got a computer, signed up for Couple's Corral (as Marie) while convincing Mordecai to do the same, and spent most of Mordecai's computer time in his room, chatting with the blue jay while pretending to be Marie. At first, he thought that this whole thing was all in good fun, but as the weeks wore on, some doubts begun to linger in his mind. He began to wonder if maybe he went a little too far.
Sure, it was a nice joke to some people, but stringing someone like Mordecai along right after the love of his life rejected him maybe felt a little mean. So, he decided a few days before April Fool's Day to shut the whole thing down and confess.
Little did he know was that it was going to be a lot more difficult than he thought it would be.
Mordecai spent most of his work shifts during the few weeks he was communicating with "Marie" almost in a daze. Every so often, his mind would wander, wondering when he would get a chance to finally make his move on Marie. Rigby would end up having to snap him out of it, and Mordecai would return to normal for a little while, before the process starts over.
So, as Rigby looked at Mordecai, once again in one of his dreamy-eyed looks, he was hit with a pang of regret, really not wanting to be the one to bring his blissful ignorance crashing down to the ground. The weird thing that happened, though, was that the feeling of regret was not the only feeling he had hit him at that moment.
As Rigby stared into Mordecai's eyes, he suddenly became lost in how beautiful they were. He stared at them for a few seconds, lost in thought, before he finally realized what he was doing and shook his head, snapping out of his trance. As he shook Mordecai back to reality once again, he returned to work wondering just what had happened.
You see, while Rigby was pretending to be Marie, he didn't want to just half-ass acting like a female. He wanted to go all the way. But considering the lack of experience he had with interacting with any females, he had a tough time doing it, but he did try his best. Thankfully, Mordecai didn't catch on.
It took until he decided to confess when something completely unexpected happened to him. He may have ended up developing feelings for Mordecai. He completely ignored them at first, but this incident made him realize that something may be going on. And that just made him feel much worse.
So, after some debating within his head on the consequences, Rigby decided to just tough it out and hope for the best.
As Mordecai and Rigby walked back to the house after finishing their work for the day, Rigby decided to speak up.
"Hey Mordecai, can I talk to you for a second?"
"Yeah, sure dude. What's up?"
"Actually, can we go up to our room first before we do this?"
Mordecai was a little confused, but he nodded, and they both made their way upstairs.
Mordecai went into their room first, turning back around towards Rigby as the raccoon closed the door behind him.
"So…what's up?"
Rigby sighed before answering.
"I have a couple of confessions to make. One good, one bad. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"I guess the bad one."
"Well, this is about Marie."
"What about her?" Mordecai asked, confused.
"She's…not real."
"What do you mean? Of course she's real! I've been talking to her all the time." said Mordecai.
"It was actually me you were talking to. I was pretending to be Marie the whole time." said Rigby, his eyes downcast.
"What?" asked Mordecai, unable to register what Rigby had just said.
"Marie isn't real, Mordecai! She was just a joke I wanted to play on you for April Fool's Day, but I felt guilty at stringing you along like this."
Mordecai froze, staring at Rigby in shock.
"I'm sorry, Mordecai."
Mordecai suddenly broke out of his catatonic state, and socked Rigby in the jaw, sending the raccoon to the floor. As Rigby turned around to face Mordecai from the floor, the blue jay began speaking.
"I'm willing to forgive you, since you told me the truth about what you did, but you did still deserve that punch for what you put me through for those last few weeks."
"So you're not mad?"
"A little. I do appreciate your honesty, though. Heck, it's actually kind of funny when you think about it."
Rigby smiled, happy that he hadn't destroyed their friendship over a simple prank.
"Just don't do it again, alright?"
Rigby nodded.
"So, what's the good confession?"
Rigby blushed furiously after realizing what Mordecai was asking about. Mordecai adopted a curious look on his face, but let Rigby go on.
"Well…um…I really like you."
Mordecai once again became confused.
"Yeah, I know. We're bros, right?"
"No, no, no. I actually like you as more than a friend."
Once again shocked, Mordecai could only sputter out one word.
"What?"
"Being Marie has made me realize that I want to be with you. We've been inseparable ever since we were five years old, and I know now that I want to take it a little further."
Mordecai pondered for a second.
"Wow, dude. You've given me a lot to think about. I mean, you're a great friend to me all these years."
Rigby's face fell, thinking he was going to be rejected.
"I'm not sure if I'm all that ready to take it to the next level."
Mordecai paused once again.
"But I'm willing to try."
Rigby's face lit up after that last sentence.
"You mean it?"
"Absolutely. Just keep it between us for right now, okay?"
Rigby bounded over and latched on to Mordecai, hugging him as tightly as he could. Mordecai balked for a second, taken aback, before he wrapped his arms around Rigby, returning the hug.
The rest of the evening went by like it normally does around the house. Everyone then soon went to bed, Mordecai and Rigby included. Rigby was about to lie down on his trampoline and call it a night, when he was interrupted in his thoughts by a light whistle coming from Mordecai's side of the room.
Rigby turned around and saw Mordecai beckoning Rigby towards him, lifting up one of the sides of his sheets. Rigby was a bit taken aback at Mordecai's gesture.
"You sure, dude? I didn't think you were at that level yet."
"No harm in trying." said Mordecai.
Rigby shrugged, before hopping up onto Mordecai's bed and wriggling under the covers. The last thing he felt before he fell asleep was Mordecai's arm draping over him, and he couldn't help but sigh in content, thinking that maybe things are going to work out after all.
And that's the end of this story! I hope you guys have enjoyed my first foray into non-Fanfiction Rotation related oneshots, and I will see you guys next time with possibly either a new oneshot or a new chapter of my other stories. See ya!
RK