( A Rick and Morty/Wander over Yonder crossover oneshot )

Warning: Minor language in some parts.

Be warned, it contains some spoilers from certain Rick and Morty episodes if you have not watched them yet.

"Riiick, I think it was a bad idea!" A 14-year-old boy whined as his grandpa, Rick tries to drag him to his riding ship.

"*urrp* Morty, come on! I need your help!" Rick spat back at his grandson.

"Y-y-you kept saying that every time, Rick!" Morty tried to pull his hand off of Rick's grasp, but to no avail.

"We're just going for a *urrrp* ride, Morty! Live with it!" Rick pulled Morty inside his ship.

"RICK! THAT IS IT!" Morty then gets out of the ship with anger in his face. Rick isn't even fazed by that emotion at all. "I'M SICK OF YOU ALWAYS DRAGGING ME INTO ADVENTURES THAT I DON'T EVEN WANT TO GO! YOU COULD JUST GO BY YOURSELF FOR ONCE!"

Usually Rick would just ignore Morty's whining with just a swig of his flask and a scowl he usually have on his face, but this time..

" W-w-w-well, you know what, Morty? You are absolutely right! In fact, I HAD traveled by myself before! You had just opened my eyes about that, Morty!" Rick angrily said to Morty. To be honest, he HAD used Morty many times on the fly at all the times that they traveled together and well, it was traumatizing to begin with.

Morty just looked at his grandfather with hurt eyes and tears welled up. Rick had saw this before and as much as he wants to comfort Morty, he has to keep distant from becoming attached because after all, Rick have seen many many alternate dimensions of Morties. For now, he just needs to shove his face in for just backing out this time.

"I'LL LEAVE RIGHT NOW AND *URRRP* HELL, THERE WILL BE A CHANCE THAT I WILL HAVE FUN WITHOUT YOU THIS TIME, MORTY!" With that, Rick get in his ship and takes off, leaving poor Morty in shambles.

—

Flying over the city, which it isn't his real dimension to begin with, Rick tried to fight back his own tears. Not even a swig of his alcoholic drink in his flask doesn't even numb the pain.

"Stupid Morty..Dumb..alternate and real family! Why have I *urrrp* made a choice to come back to their lives? They don't even like me in the way beginning except Beth. I should've remain out of their stupid lives…"

Rick then steered the wheel up to the sky and there, he entered into the vast and admittedly beautiful galaxy. No time to admire the beauty, of course Rick wasn't even into this as well. Rick traveled by himself and seeing plenty of planets from here and there. Rick knows very well that he has done this before and all happy emotions are all gone from madness from all the chaotic things in infinite dimensions. There may be no way to get rid of this pain as it was still fresh now and then.

" Sigh, if only there was something that isn't dumb and so out of place..that maybe I'll be happy again, but that will *urrp* never happen in a million of years.. " Rick lamented, can't fight the tears anymore, he let them out. Hell, he never even cried in his whole life, not even in front of Morty or his family.

Then, at the corner of his tear stained eye, he saw a clear and shining sphere moving along with the stars and nebulas. Rick quickly wipes his tears and drove slowly to take a closer look. If his ears deceive him, he could've swore he heard banjo playing. Rick had never hear any banjo playing before and it's strangely…soothing to the ears.

"Wow, I never hear any music like this ever. I wonder where is it coming from. Maybe it's where that floating *urrrp* sphere is?"

He looked closer, but he brought out his bionic binoculars, one of his random inventions. He looked closely inside the sphere. His eyes widen at what he has seen. One alien is an orange lollipop shaped alien with a large green hat with a star on it, he is riding on another alien who is kinda like a horse, She is light blue with magenta mane, matching the fur on the tip of her long tail. She also wears a black saddle with a pink and yellow blanket under it and wears reins exactly like a horse. The orange alien is playing along with his banjo.

Rick could hear whistling too, normally he would be annoyed by sounds like this, but he isn't this time. It sounds..catchy. The mad scientist couldn't help but gently close his eyes and listen. He could feel his head moving to the music rhythm. He begin to think happier times when he held baby Morty, being there for Beth when she was very young, everything before he started to travel dimensions. Why is he feeling like this, he never done this for a really long time, not even when he and Morty escaped the simulator (Or so they thought they had, luckily they did escape but they have to escape the simulation via simulation.)

Rick opens his eyes and realized he has to meet them! There's no asking why, he has to! He carefully drive his ship near the sphere and being careful not to disturb them. The two aliens stop playing the music and the singing to look at the dirty ship.

"Hey Sylvia! What a neat lookin' ship! I bet there's cool things in there!" The orange alien said in a southern accent.

"Wander, That ship right there is dirty and rusting. There's no way that it's cool. It could be something bad" The blue alien, Sylvia warned.

" Somethin' bad? Impossible! I can see that there's some nice feller in there!" Wander looks up to the ship, which is lowered down to their level.

Rick isn't too sure how to say something without scaring them. So he decided to take the risk and say anything.

"Um, hello?" Rick asked, careful not to burp, which is his signature thing he does.

"Well, hi there nice stranger! What brings you here?" Wander asked in a friendly tone.

"I got into a fight with my grandson.." Rick answered.

"What?" Sylvia's little scowl softened after hearing this.

"Yeah, it's true. he doesn't want to come with me to an another adventure I want to go. He said that he has enough of-" He choked back a sob, which thankfully isn't a burp. "Me and my travels. It's not because of his brain waves and crap, he honestly thought I don't care about him. I really do! I just don't want to get attached to him, I seen many alternate realities of him…He'll just die just like before and..and.." He couldn't say it anymore, he sobbed silently, muttering "wubba lubba dub dub.."

"Oh gosh, that is so awful, Mr…"

"Rick Sanchez, but you can call me Rick.." Rick sniffed.

"Mr. Rick, that is awful of you goin' through all that. I'm sure your grandson knows that deep down you love him." Wander said.

"I know that isn't true" Rick calmed down and wiped his tears.

"How come?" Sylvia asked curiously.

"Because I took Morty into countless traumatizing adventures. He absolutely despise this so much. I need his help with my inventions and crap. His parents even said if I screw up, no more adventures for me and Morty. Oh man, we almost got in trouble once, we buried our dead alternate selves and took their place for Christ sake!"

"Dead alternate selves…?" Sylvia gasped.

"That's right, I made Morty a 'love potion' that is acted like a drug. It spread like wildfire, everywhere in the world. I tried to fix it, but I made things worse…Praying Mantis, Cronenburged, everything.. We have no choice but to ditch our dimension and move to another one. In the one we settled in, we died from an explosion. Morty and I buried our selves in the backyard. Man, you should've seen Morty when that happened. He was so traumatized by this he hasn't spoke in hours…"

"Oh my grop…" Sylvia felt sad for Rick now.

"Mighty stars! Have you done this before, Rick?" Wander asked.

"Yes, I had done this countless times, so much that I can't feel a thing anymore. I lost all emotion I have! Happiness, sadness, love, almost all of them.."

"That's horrible! Everyone should feel love and happiness! It's impossible to not feel it after all the times you went through…" Wander felt awful for the mad scientist now. Oh how he want to hug the poor guy so bad.

"What should I do? I want to repair my relationship with everyone I love…but at the same time, I don't want to be attached to them...What can I do?" Rick asked desperately to the two nomads.

Wander and Sylvia looked at the broken bird of a man and then think. Wander puts on his signature smile, but it's more a sad one more than too happy.

"Rick, you are grateful that your family dearly loves that doesn't mean you should be forcing yourself out of their lives. Morty may not show it that much, but deep down, he loves and cares about you. Just be sure you keep 'im safe, got it Rick? Sure there are many alternate Morties out there, but it will never change the fact that you risked your life to save your family. Because families are forever" Wander said with every love and care in his speech.

"That's right, Rick. Don't be drowning your sorrows, just be grateful that Morty and everyone else are ok, even in other dimensions." Sylvia added.

"Wow, you two. Thank you so much guys, as I never say this with much sincerity from my heart in my life." Rick said.

"Of course, Rick! It never hurts to help!" Wander said with his happy smile.

Rick smiled for real. Those two aliens are very nice, unlike all other ones he and Morty has seen. Maybe he should be friends with them, just as long as he doesn't mention a thing to Morty and his family.

"Well, Mr. Rick, we got several planets to go to, so see ya!" Wander waved goodbye.

"It's nice meeting you, Rick Sanchez and we'll never forget you" Sylvia said to Rick before she walked off with Wander on her saddle.

Rick's eyes widen as if he forgot to ask an important question…

"Hey wait, you two! Before you go, I didn't catch your names. What are they?" Rick asked curiously as he never was before.

"Oh! The name is Wander and this is my best pal, Sylvia!" Wander introduced himself and Sylvia to Rick.

"Wander and Sylvia…I shall always remember those names." Rick thought to himself. He give them a smile.

The two nomads smiled at the scientist back as their job is done helping him reach an epiphany on how to repair his relationship with his family and mostly Morty. They both waved to the man before they left in their Orbble Bubble. Rick was tempted to wave back, but it's too late, they're both gone.

Rick felt a lost familiar feeling, was it happiness? No, he usually felt happy when he's drunk or up to his stupid schemes. This time though, he felt sincerely happy that Wander and Sylvia helped him through this and also how to repair his damaged relationship with Morty.

Rick puts his hands on the steering wheel of his ship, preparing to return back to his house to do the right thing, but not before he looked at the cosmos with a smile.

"I hope maybe someday I'll get to know you guys better *Urrrrp* but for now…Thank you Wander and Sylvia...for everything"

—

He flied home with a real smile on his face, he never felt so happy in a very long time before he start dimension jumping. It was until he parked his ship inside the garage, gets out his ship and sees Morty nearby.

'Oh crap, better hide that smile from him. He shouldn't know why' Rick thought. With that, he return to that trademark frown of his as Morty opened the door.

"H-hey Rick." Morty said timidly.

"Hey Morty, how have you been? I h-hope you felt better after that *urrrp* fight we had." Rick asked with little remorse from earlier.

"Eh, I got over it, But I was worried that you were mad at me, I'm sorry if I yelled…" Morty apologized.

"Hey you're alright, Morty It's my fault to begin with, I should've not drag you along with me without asking you. From now on, I shall ask you *urrrp* first"

"You do that for real, Rick? No faking?" Morty asked with a hopeful look.

"Of course Morty, I should be the one who's sorry after *urrrp* all" Rick smiled again, not just because of his encounter, but Morty forgive him.

"Hey Rick?"

"Yes Morty?"

"Come watch TV?"

"Sure thing, Morty! I would love to!" Rick answered, but not too sarcastic.
With that, the grandfather left to watch TV with his grandson. Sure there may be Beth, Jerry and Summer to fix his relationships up with, but at least he knows he is never alone. Since that day, Rick kept his encounter a secret but he does mention it once in a while, with a real smile on his face, content that Wander and Sylvia helped him and he would've lose everything if he never saw them. Rick remained hopeful that he will see Wander and Sylvia again and get to know them better. Rick looked at the sky with the sincere smile on his face.

The End