AN:
tfw you wake up alive after your failed suicide attempt hahahaha...
My headcanon is that Rick gets easily jealous and anti-social when going through highly emotional experiences, as well as denies every feeling to anyone who bothers to ask.
He also drowns in any drinkable substance he can get his hands on.
God I wanna hug this poor bastard.
Anyway, I wanted to test the waters with describing Rick, how he'd really feel and think in events like these, getting a sense of why he'd do a particular thing, and how he'd end up coping. I hope I was as close to canon as possible, and, if you have any tips you want to relay to me, feel free to. I want to improve!
Thank you for reading!
Today started off as usual. Wake up in a post-drunken stupor and immediately resume work. Last night had him passed out in the garage, only this wasn't the normal everyday situation, he woke up under the weapon that was previously flickering with a beam that could successfully melt anything organic in its path, but had given up at the mercy of its power source. What a waste of a bulb.
He didn't want to think about the previous night's events any more than he wanted to try again. He concentrated entirely on getting the rest of the vaporized creature off his work desk before putting away the contraption in the back of the garage so he didn't have to focus on it. He then took a hearty swig from his flask before tweaking with his portal gun to attempt to fix any issues he knew weren't actually there, he'd just rather think about anything else.
Eventually, hunger ensnared the scientist and he went inside to choke down whatever food Beth happened to make this particular morning. He ate the pancakes and eggs made for him fast, and held a confident but quiet exterior, rather than the apathetic and blunt personality he'd expressed late last night. It'd throw everyone off his back if it was just assumed that he'd had a bad night. Besides, once he got back into the garage he could avoid everybody.
Talking at the table was minimal, Beth suspected nothing and it seemed the rest of the family was too wrapped up in their mundane lives to bring up anything about last night. Good. As soon as he was finished eating, Rick excused himself to the garage nonchalantly and began fiddling with anything he could get his hands on. One by one, the family dispersed from the house, Beth saying goodbye to him before she drove off. He sighed loudly, relieved that now he only had to avoid Jerry, which was his specialty. He rubbed his face and then sipped from his flask once more out of habit before hearing the door creak open.
"Get out, Jerry." He jabbed, not in the mood at all for some sort of lecture or request for him to fix something mundane and stupid.
"Hey, Rick..." Morty? He turned toward the door and sure enough, The fourteen year old boy had managed to get past his obligation to get to school to talk to him. Weird.
"O-oh, hey Morty." He greeted. Why wasn't he getting ready for school or somesuch bullshit? He wanted to ask, but that would be out of character for him. He should be proud that he'd rather hang out with his Grandpa, but he simply wasn't up for any adventures right now.
"I-i was worried about you last night is all..." Rick pursed his lips and tried his best not to reminisce on what exactly went down on Unity's planet. "What happened to Unity?" Morty questioned, curiously.
Unity. Unity. Oh god, Unity. He held back a sigh.
"R-ruh-really? Y-you sure you want to know all the horny details? That's pretty pervy of you, M-morty. If I had known you wanted to watch I would've fuh-" A belch interrupted his speech. "Filmed it. Goddamn... creepy bastard."
"Gross, no! Yo-you know what I mean, Rick!"
"I dunno Morty, can you be a little more specific, M-morty?"
"Ugh, whatever. I-i gotta get to school." Morty frustratingly went back inside, much to the relief of Rick. His shoulders slumped as he looked behind him at the closed door. Morty was a good kid, but he was in over his head sometimes. Rick didn't talk about his issues, Not to anyone, and especially not about 'love'.
When he looked back at his project on the table he'd realized he'd tightened a few of the screws too tight.
Hours seemed to pass by like seconds between the amount of drinks he kicked back and the boredom that encircled him as soon as he'd finished a project. Most of the inventions that were now fixed had been lying unfinished for years, now. ADHD was starting to kick in, and he thought about snatching Morty out of school to go cheer himself up, maybe also shut Morty up. He figured the best way to do that was a movie, no kid thought something was wrong when the movies were involved, not as far as he was concerned.
His tinkering ended and the silence and stale amount of boredom weighed over him like a heavy blanket. He took a swig from his flask and was about to refill it when It hit him. Fucking Beta Seven must have her, of course she'd go there! Who else would she go to? that sectre of the universe had little to no planets for forever! That son of a bitch was probably bending over backward for her every word, its okay darling, tell me all your problems while I get balls deep in your goddamn self!
It sickened him to think of her with him. How dare they. A sort of growl ripped from his throat at the thought.
And at that moment, he heard the front door open, and he knew what he was going to do.
"Unity! Unity! Unity!" Yelling like that strained his voice, but he didn't care. Beta seven finally picked up on his presence in front of the fleet of surrounding ships as the video monitor popped up in front of his windshield. On it, one of Beta Seven's selves.
"How can I assist you?" He asked, obviously smug despite the expression worn on his face.
"I want to talk to Unity-" A burp ripped from Rick's throat before he could finish. "-Buh-Beta Seven. I know it's in there." He could play nice and dumb for now. He could be classy and forward.
"You're classified as a hostile entity, and Unity doesn't want to talk to you." Oh, that smug son of a bitch. The gloves were off, now. Classy time over, asshole. Now I step on your ballsack.
"I know your game, Beta Seven. You little on-deck, in the wing, shoulder to cry on!"
"You. Are classified. As a hostile. Entity."
"Oh, you're just loving this, Mother-" He pulled at his own hair in frustration, spitting threats left and right. "This isn't going to shake out like you think, pal! Unity's not into other hive-minds! It's gonna suck you in, and use you up, and a month from now I'm gonna be making out with all of you in a bunch of red wigs!" He gripped the monitor in front of him in rage. The signal garbled slightly. "Unity! Unity! I know you can hear me, get out here!" He yelled desperately at the monitor.
"Weapon systems engage." Shitface singsonged, pressing a button off-screen.
"Oh, in your dreams you have 'weapon systems'." Rick spat, gritting his teeth angrily.
"Rick, you said we were going to see a movie." Morty whined in shotgun. Rick 100% forgot why he brought Morty along for this. He must've just been that annoyed. Oh well, It was a good excuse to leave on a different note. If he went any further he'd get them both killed.
"We are, Morty." He promised, voice full of malice toward Seven. "Alright, Beta-shit-Seven, You just got saved by the bell, bitch!" And with that, he disconnected the signal and turned the car around. Maybe later, he'd pop by unexpectedly and rip the dicks off of some of them.
"What was that about, Rick?" Morty asked after a period of silence, clearly curious to decode whatever happened yesterday.
"N-nothing. Don't worry about it." Rick excused, not wanting to get into it.
"Clearly something's going on, Rick. You're gonna tell me or I'll, I'll-"
"Or you'll WHAT, Morty?! You'll stop the car? You'll tell your parents? What? I-i-it doesn't matter what you do, Morty, I don't care anymore." He drank again from his flask, drawing long this time.
"What about Unity?"
He rolled his eyes, annoyed as all hell. Could they just drop this already? "What about Unity?!"
"Do you care about her? th-them? It?"
There was a beat, a moment of hesitation, where everything fell into place. He really didn't. While they had fun together and often 'made love' there wasn't any.
Or so he told himself.
"No, I don't care." He answered, the words echoed between them like the hallow sound of a malicious lie.
and that was that. They saw the movie, they went home, They adventured, they almost died for the twelve millionth time, they lived their lives, simply.
But Rick never saw Unity again.