Anything (Rick and Morty Fanfic)
Authors Note: I guess this could both be seen as platonic and romantic. Visualize it however you want, lol. Enjoy!
It was cold. Very cold. And dark. His head was pounding as he slowly regained his consciousness after however long he'd been knocked out. The last thing he remembered... it was... he remembered him and Morty going off for an adventure in an ice dimension to get some extremely rare ice crystals. He was going to use them to make a more advanced ice ray that was requested by one of his buyers.
But someone found them, and Rick... did someone knock him out? Yeah... yeah, that's what happened. They had just found the ice crystals when one of the natives of this icy wasteland— a large, sentient creature, that looked like the ice version of Bigfoot, or maybe the abominable snowman— punched him in the face.
The blow had knocked him out cold, and now he was coming to. His eyes slid open, and he groaned. All around him was ice. Of course, that didn't surprise him, because they're in an ice dimension. It looked like he was in a prison cell, and even the bars were made from ice. It looked too thick to be able to break with your bare hands, unfortunately.
"F-fuck..." he groaned again, reaching a hand up to grab at his pounding head. When he pulled his hand back, a bit of dried blood came back with it. He wiped it off on his jacked.
Before coming here, Rick created two jackets—one for him, and one for Morty— that had special heaters in them that were just warm enough to keep them from freezing to death. What made Rick frown, however, was the fact that his jacket was yellow. He could have sworn he gave Morty the yellow one, and he took the blue one for himself.
Speaking of, where was that kid? His vision was still blurred, and he had to squint in order to see anything solid, but as he looked to the other corner of the room, he could clearly see Morty leaned up against the wall. He had the blue jacket instead of the yellow one. He looked like he was sleeping, but there was also something very off about this situation. He wasn't sure what it was, but he had a strong hunch that something bad was happening.
Rick scrambled to his feet, using the surprisingly non-slippery ice wall to support him. His entire body protested against, his joints popping and cracking as he moved. His right foot nearly gave out from underneath him, and pain began to radiate from it. As he limped over to Morty, he could clearly see that the kid wasn't even really wearing the jacketed, it was more or less just draped over him awkwardly.
He slipped down next to the kid, grabbing him by the shoulder gently— he was cold to the touch. "M-Morty?" Rick stammered, shaking him a little bit. He was now noticing that Morty's lips were tinted a light blue, and he could feel frequent shivers wrack across his body. His hair was a matted mess, and had little flakes of snow in it, and his skin was a sickly pale compared to its normal luster.
Rick looked down at the jacket, picking it up to examine it. He had to struggle to get it around so that he could feel the inside of it. The heat that it should be giving off wasn't there at all. He felt around inside the jacket some more until he found the little device inside of it that was supposed to control the heat. It was smashed into bits, chunks of it missing, and wires sticking out. It must have gotten smashed when that native knocked him out. The jacket was broken, and Rick felt his throat tumble down into his stomach.
A cruel realization fell upon his shoulders; Morty switched the jackets and gave him the only working one.
Rick didn't know how long it had been, but this place's temperature was always in the negatives. And Morty had been sitting in it without the proper clothes, getting colder by the minute. And, shit, the kid probably has hypothermia at this point. Panic was rising with in him.
"T-this fucking kid— Morty!" He tried again, shaking the kid harder this time, and he moaned, grumbling out a few unintelligible words. "C-c'mon, kid, are you fucking nuts?! What d-did you do?!" He started to shrug his way out of the yellow jacket.
Morty's eyes fluttered open, and for a moment he stared up at Rick with a confused expression. But once he realized what Rick was doing, he spoke. "R-Rick, no," He slurred, reaching out for him clumsily. It took him a moment to find Rick, weakly grabbing his arm. Rick stilled, looking at him with a worried expression that Morty wasn't used to seeing. "Y-your... yy—jacket, Rick— he broke it." He continued once he was sure he had Rick's full attention. "I-I switched em. Y-you—He—your head—you're hurt R-Ri-Rick, y-you need it m-m-more than I do. Y-you need the g-good jacket." His voice was a jumbled slur, but Rick managed to understand it.
"M-Morty, I'm fine." Rick assured. He slipped the rest of the jacket off. "You're—I think you have hypothermia, Morty-"
"I'm f-fine!" Morty grumbled, pushing the jacket away when Rick tried to hand it to him.
"No, you're not, Morty." Rick growled in response, but Morty was still trying to shove him away. "Take the damn jacket!"
"No!" Morty's voice rose as he struggled. "R-R-Rick, I-I-I can't take it. I-I can't."
"Jesus fucking—" Rick cursed angrily, desperately trying to wrap a struggling Morty in the yellow, still working coat. "M-Mort, Just— Stop struggling!"
"I c-can't, Rick, y-y-you—fuck you, R-Rick, I-I c-can't take it!" Morty used all his strength to push Rick away, but it wasn't working too well. Right now, he was shivering, weak, and in a weird haze. He didn't feel good at all. He was so cold. But Rick needed it more than him. Rick had gotten hurt, he remembered, and the ice monster broke his jacket's heater.
"W-why the fuck not, Morty?!" The scientist questioned in a harsh tone, retracing from the teen a little bit. He wasn't going to get anywhere if the kid continued to struggle like this. "Y-you're fucking—you're gonna freeze to death! L-look at yourself!" Rick instinctively reached for his flask, only to groan when he realized all of his pockets were empty.
"S-since when do you care about that?!" Morty snarled out, scooting further from Rick. He hugged himself tightly, huffing out a few puffs of air before continuing. "I-I'm— Rick, I'm just a Morty. I-It doesn't matter w-w-what happens to me. I-If I—If I die before you find a-away out, y-you could—you can just g-get—you can get another Morty at the C-C-Citadel."
The words hit Rick's heart in a way that he'd never admit. Of course Morty thought he was replaceable— Rick was always a dick to him. Though Rick really did love Morty, he struggled immensely to admit that to anyone. So instead, he covered his emotions up in a true Rick fashion, groaning, and pinching the bridge of his nose. "F-fuck, kid. Still sore about that?" He practically forced himself to roll his eyes. Guilt was building up in his chest with every word that he uttered. "I don't have time to go to the Citadel— if you died here, I-it would only make things harder on me." He lied. Both him and Morty knew Rick had plenty of time to go to the Citadel. He was only busy when he wanted to be.
Morty glared at him. Hard. "I-I don't care, Rick." His head lulled to to the side, facing away from the scientist. "Y-you having to go to the Citadel is s-s-s-s-" He huffed a shallow breath, shivering more due to the cold. "S-still m-m-more con—convenient t-than y-y—you dying."
"Morty—"
"Ffff-fuck off, Rick." The teen interrupted, still not looking at him. "Y-y-you may not c—care about me, Rick, but I—I ca—care about you. And I-I'd do anything for you, you a—ass—asshole. E-even if y—you're just g—gonna replace me I—in the end."
There was a long, cold silence, the only sound being Morty's quivering breath. Rick rand a hand down the side of his face, the words 'Fuck it' echoing in his mind. The kid wasn't going to let up, and every word Morty spat out was chipping away at his defenses. He was mentally panicking— Morty was not in a good state right now, both physically and mentally. It was tearing him up inside. Morty had basically sacrificed his own well-being for Rick's sake, and it was only a matter of time before the cold would prove to be too much for the small boy. Morty was showing heavy signs of hypothermia, and if he didn't fix it soon, he might lose him. And then where would he be?
"M-Morty," Rick began, more softly than before. He reached forward, placing his hand on Morty's shoulder. He couldn't let him freeze to death. "Morty, look at me."
Reluctantly, Morty turned to look at him. He didn't say anything, his bottom lip quivering and his teeth silently chattering. He looked so close to passing out.
"I-I... I couldn't ever replace you, o-okay?" He looked straight into Morty's eyes as he said it, meaning every word. "I-I mean, w-what's the Rickest Rick without t-the Mortyest Morty, eh?" He offered the jacket again, urging Morty to take it.
Morty started at him for what felt like an eternity, and the look of panic that overtook Rick's whole frame when Morty instead pushed the jacket away again was so obvious that Morty almost started crying right then and there. "I-I c—can't, Rick." He said for the umpteenth time. "P-please, I'll—I'll—I'll be fine. Y-... you... you have... to...-" Morty felt dizzy, like he'd just spend the past hour on a spinning t-cup ride. He started to slip forward, falling as the world seemed to spin around him.
Rick lurched into action, catching him before he could fall to the ground, and pulled the boy close to his chest. Morty finally let out a choked sobbed at the body heat coming off of Rick, and he clutched tightly at the labels of his lab coat with his practically numb fingers.
Before Morty could react any further, Rick rapped his arms around him, pulling the yellow jacket around them both at the same time, so that both of them were covered. He was lucky that he made the jackets large enough for this. He then took the blue one and pulled it around them as well, hoping that even if it didn't give off heat, it would still help keep the heat coming off the other jacket from escaping.
"R-Rick..." Morty choked out through the sobs he was finally letting out after suffering for the past few hours that Rick had been unconscious. "I-I can't—hnngh—Rick." Now that Morty was enveloped in the warmth of both Rick's body heat and the jacket, he couldn't get himself to physically pull away. But verbally, he continued to protest against it. And against Morty's pleas, the older many only pulled Morty closer so that he was sitting on his lap. His arms wound around him protectively, and he rested his chin on top of Morty's head.
"Shh, Morty, it's o-okay." He cooed softly. "Y-you're okay, buddy."
Morty buried his face into Rick's chest, muffling his broken sobs. Rick was so fucking warm, and he'd been so cold for so long. Morty had been so cold that he could hardly move— could hardly stay conscious— could hardly feel his limbs.
But even when Rick came with the offer of warmth, he'd tried so hard to hold back. He was a stubborn, selfless brat, and he was proud of it. Better him die than Rick. But now the old bastard wasn't even giving him a choice in this. Why? Why was he doing this? Why was he trying so hard to help him?
"I-I c—could—I couldn't s-stand to l—let you freeze, R-Rick." He hiccuped. Rick held Morty's violently shivering frame even closer to himself, and Morty melted right into him. "Coul-couldn't let you d-die—I need y-you, Rick. I n-need you so m-much."
"Kind of a s-selfish m-move, Mort." Rick spoke sadly. "I need you too, kiddo. A-and not for—for the bullshit brainwaves thing. You—" Rick took in a shaky breath. "If I had w-woken up even an hour later, you probably would've been dead, Morty. You understand? Y-you could be dead..."
"Y—you coulda—you would have d-died if—if I did—didn't." Morty countered. He was getting more drowsy by the second.
After a moment of taking in Morty's words, Rick spoke again. "Don't ever do something like this again, M-Morty." He sounded stern. "I can't— you can't just sacrifice y-yourself for me. I-I ask you for a lot of things; Your time, your help, your sleep, your company, your forgiveness. B-but I'd never ask you to give your life."
"T-that's— it's not som—something y-you ask for, Rick." Morty whispered, barely loud enough for Rick to hear. "Y-y-y-you don't have to ask f-for it. It's something that's—that's given to you. B-because I c—care about you. Because I l-love you, Rick."
Morty felt Rick tense up at his words. "I'd do a-anything Rick. A-anything to keep y—you alive. I-I don't know—don't know what I'd do without you."
"Don't s-say that." Rick sighed heavily. He didn't want Morty to think like that. He didn't want the kid to be ready to sacrifice his own life to save his. It felt wrong. "I-I'm not worth it, Mort."
Morty made a sound that could be described as either a chuckle or a sob. "T-that's for—for me to d-d-decide, Rick." Morty's whole body seemed to relax and his breath deepened.
Passed out, it seems.
"Ah, kid, you're driving me nuts." Rick's voice wavered as he spoke. He shifted around, maneuvering Morty in his arms to a much more comfortable position. He almost couldn't believe what Morty had just done. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Morty could have died.
...At least the kid's warmer now.
Rick would get them out of here for Morty's sake.
Authors note: Sorry for all
The stuttering. Mort Mort has hypothermia, so he's kind of struggling to talk normally. Had to keep it at least a little realistic. (It was as annoying to write as it was to read, but I'm proud of it, so screw off.) hope you enjoyed! I might continue this IF I ever feel like it. That's a HUGE maybe.