Bodyguard

Rigby was always the one who would latch on to Mordecai.

"Dude, stop holding onto me." Mordecai said, trying to free his hand. Rigby held on tighter, facing down, hands clammy.

"No," he said, not looking at Mordecai. It was the first day of sixth grade, and Rigby was nervous.

"Come on, dude, we aren't in Elementary school anymore."

"But...Mordecai, I..."

Mordecai sighed, "fine, let's find our classes."

[...]

Rigby was now twenty-four and held a job at the Park.

During their elementary school years, Mordecai's mother would often take them to an ice cream parlor. Mordecai would order vanilla and Rigby, chocolate fudge ripple. Mordecai's mother would sit and talk to them about school, friends and anything else that would come up. Those were good times, times when Rigby did not worry or feel scared.

After work, he walked to an ice cream shop. As he opened the door, the bells chimed after him. He took a deep breath, the smells of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla hit him. He welcomed it and drew in another breath as he continued forward.

He gave the employee a forced smile before his eyes flickered down to the flavors encased under the glass. He knew what he would ask for, the same flavor he ordered every single time: chocolate fudge ripple.

"Here you go." The employee handed him his ice cream in a waffle cone.

He took the cone in his right hand and pulled out his wallet to pay.

"There's no need for that," the employee said, motioning Rigby to stop.

So he knew. News sure gets around. This man was no stranger. He was the same man who would serve them ice cream when they were kids.

Rigby paid him anyway handing him five dollars. "A free chocolate fudge ripple won't bring him back, but thanks." His voice felt shaky, but he was determined to keep himself together.

He began to walk away.

"Rigby," the employee said behind him, "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, it's not your fault," he managed to choke out.

Upon exiting the shop, he walked on, one hand balled up in his jacket pocket. He found himself at a park.

Seeing the children playing saddened him even more. He chose to sit on a blue bench; one that once held bright blue color in it was now worn and dull. He ate his ice cream slowly while his mind was on other things.

"Hey Rigby, look at this!"

"Rigby! Are you okay?"

"Here you can have the rest of my ice cream."

His mind felt about ready to explode. All those memories. He couldn't believe what they had told him only a month ago. Rigby still clung onto the pain and feeling of hopelessness.

He felt tears wanting to fall. He blinked hard to keep them away. "Mordecai, you jerk," he whispered. He wiped his dampened face with his sweater sleeve.

"Rigby?" He heard a voice say. He looked up and saw blue eyes. Just like Mordecai's.

It was Mordecai's mother.

"I guess we both had the same idea." She slowly sat down next to him. She had a vanilla ice cream in a sugar cone. It had not been touched and a bit of vanilla was running down the side of her hand.

"Here." He handed her one of the napkins he had grabbed back at the shop.

She only nodded in and wiped her hands.

They sat in silence and watched the children play.

It brought Rigby back to when he was that age; always following Mordecai around, one hand holding tightly onto his hand, and the other in his mouth, sucking on his thumb.

All the other boys made fun of him; they called him a baby for still sucking his thumb. That's when Mordecai came in and protected Rigby. He had been his unofficial bodyguard since he could remember.

When middle school came around, Mordecai still allowed Rigby to hold onto him, but he would only grab onto his shirt, dragging behind him.

That was fine with them, until boys became teenagers and the bullying escalated.

Those were the worst three years of his life. With Mordecai's help he got through it and they both prayed high school would be better.

It wasn't.

Rigby dropped out the second semester of his sophomore year while Mordecai went to study art in college.

"His birthday is—"

"Today…yeah," he fiddled with his keychain. "Twenty-five, right?"

This seemed to please her. She smiled, and her eyes brightened only a while. "Yes, twenty-five."

A/N: Wrote this a couple weeks ago and finally got around to making a couple of corrections. It can be Morby if you want, or it can just be them being bros.

AU where Mordecai and Rigby are people not animals.

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