Warnings: still keeping the Rick/Morty slow burn going, also some dissing Jerry (but who likes him anyway?)

Rick and Morty Forever and One Hundred Years – Chapter 3: Coming over for Dinner

They were still inside the garage and Morty was still wandering around with a big trash bag in his hand, filling it with the empty beer cans that were strewn all over the floor.
By now he had his emotions back under control and Rick had probably also calmed down again – or, at least, Morty hoped that he did. It was hard to tell with the other being so silent and busy tinkering with his portal gun.
He looked over to the teen who was leaning over his workbench and staring down as the pulled apart gadget while also double-checking with his blueprints to search for the mistake.

"Hey, Rick." Morty started. "Why don't you just let the portal gun be for now and work on something else instead? I mean, what about the space car. Don't you want to finish that one first?"

The brunet's eyes drifted to the piece of machinery that was the leftover of a car that Rick had picked up from some scrapyard.
This one had been already in the garage long before Morty had even met Rick and was one of his longest lasting projects yet. The first time that he had seen the car, which's model couldn't really be identified anymore, he had thought that it maybe was a DeLorean and Rick was trying to build a time machine.

As Morty had told the other his thoughts though, he had commented, "This isn't "Back to the Future", Morty!"

Rick didn't really see the point in building a time machine – though, he said that he probably could, if he really wanted to – and revealed that he was actually planning to convert this piece of scrap metal into a space cruiser.
While a time machine would have been cool, Morty also realized that time travel came with all sorts of risks. Travelling through space – while also considered dangerous – sounded exciting, too, and the brunet had actually started to look forward to the completion of the space ship…uh, car.

"I would continue to build the cruiser, but I started with the portal gun and had hoped to complete it so I can get the materials that I would need for the car easier." Rick began to explain. "You know, that I can't just use any material for it, right Morty? It would need to endure really high temperatures for the start but also for returning into the planet's atmosphere and I also don't want to have to build a new one after every landing, so it also needs to withstand the impact of that. But in truth that isn't even the biggest problem that I have. I mean, I know how to get those materials. At this point it just takes a lot of time and money…"

He sighed deeply and threw the screwdriver that he held in his hand hard on the work surface before he turned in his swivel chair around to Morty.

"You do know how NASA is sending their rockets into space, right Morty?"

The boy nodded at that, having watched quite a few launches on TV or videos of it on the internet.

"The method that they're using is just is-it-it's archaic!" The blue-haired teen sounded offended. "And do you know how long it takes for them to get to mars, Morty? It's taking them around 7 years! Seven long fucking years, Morty! And that is when they time it with mars being in its closest position to earth. Mars! A directly neighboring planet!"

Rick stood up from his chair and began to walk around as he began to wildly gesture with his hands. To anyone, he would have looked like a madman now and would probably freak people out, but Morty was already used to his best friends antics and was only mildly worried.

"You know, Morty, when I go out ther-to—into space, I don't plan to hang around on just a planet in the-the-the neighborhood. I want to be able to travel through our solar system and get to the next one over in no more than a single day." Rick continued and his eyes looked as if he was currently not in the garage but with his thoughts far, far away. "So the crucial thing that I need for the space cruiser is a new fuel. One that hasn't been invented on earth yet, that-that no human had even thought about yet!"

He suddenly stopped pacing and looked at the ground. "But I'm afraid that there might not even be materials on earth that I could use to create such super fuel… So maybe, I need to focus on something else that allows me to travel off-planet—or, no! Even further than that! Maybe something li-like—that allows me to create a rip in space and time so that I can go to different dimensions…?"

"Holy crap! How late is it?!" Morty's sudden yell completely ripped Rick out of his current train of thoughts.

"What? Why do you need to know?"

"'Cause I need to g-go—get home a-a-as soon as school's out, so my parents won't know that I skipped again. I-I-I'm still grounded, too, o-or have you forgotten that?" The brunet turned into full-on panic mode as his eyes fell on the clock that hung on the wall. "W-wa-wait! What if the principal called my parents again? I-I-I'm sure he called them again since I was skipping classes!"

"Calm down, Morty. I fixed the phone and also rigged Vag's mobile. His call went through the call divert earlier and I reprogrammed the AI to imitate your dad, so chill out. Here, take a—listen to that."

With those words, Rick pulled out his mobile and dialed a number. He put it on speaker and held it up so Morty could listen with no problem as well.
After a few rings, the receiver picked up and a voice that sounded like his father suddenly spoke.

"Hello? Jerry Smith here. Who is calling?"

"Hi. Am I talking to Morty's dad?" Rick asked.

"Yes, I'm Morty's father. Jerry Smith. And I looove sucking biiiig, sweaty boners and licking disgusting, furry testicle sacks." Came the natural-sounding reply.

Rick laughed loudly and hung up again. "See?"

"That doesn't really sound like my dad! I mean, it's his voice but he would never talk like that!" Morty protested with a frown.

"What? I think that this totally sounds like him." Rick argued back.

"How can you say that, Rick? You haven't even met my dad yet."

"Yeah, not in person…" the other drawled off.

What was that supposed to mean? Could it actually be that Rick had…?

Morty got a bad feeling as a certain suspicion was dawning on him.
It couldn't really be that Rick had installed cameras and microphones in his house, or could it?

Why would his best friend do something like that? And when should he have done that?
Rick had never actually been over to his house…other than that one time when Summer had thrown a party on that weekend when their parents were gone, much to Morty's dismay who had to help cleaning the mess up again to avoid them both getting into trouble. However, it was impossible to think that his best friend had wandered through the house and planted this stuff without anyone else noticing. Also, he was pretty damn sure that his best friend had been too busy partying.

No, it was impossible to think that Rick had bugged his house somehow. While it was technically possible for him to do something like that, it made no sense.
Rick couldn't have done that!

Morty hastily shook his head to get rid of his paranoid thoughts. "Anyways. When did you even do that?"

"Last night, after we came back from watching the meteor shower."

Last night? When had Rick slept then when he had been doing all that stuff last night?

"I know that I messed up that one time. Even though that usually never happens. But I rectified it and I sure as hell won't make the same mistake twice, so stop looking at me like that, Morty!"

The brunet shook his head again. "Still, I need to get home really quick or I get in more trouble than I already am!"

"What can your parents actually do to you at this point? Lock you up in the basement that you don't have?" Rick joked.

The humor was lost on the yellow-shirted boy and even if his friend might have a point, he still frowned deeply at the other.

"Okay, okay. I'll give you a lift." Rick said and went to grab their helmets.

The prospect of getting a quick ride home finally calmed Morty down and he accepted the helmet with a small smile on his face.
Sometimes Rick was really a great friend…even though Rick was the reason why he was in all this trouble to begin with.

The drive towards Morty's home was a silent but not an uncomfortable one.

"Rick? Please drop me off here. I'll walk the rest home." Morty suddenly spoke up when they were just a few streets away from his house.

Rick stopped his vehicle as requested, but asked. "What? Why? I can drive you to your front door. This isn't like last night when you snuck out."

"It's so my parents don't see you. I'm not supposed to hang out with you anymore." The brunet took off the helmet and stood up from the motorbike. "They think that you're a bad influence on me."

Rick scoffed at that after he had also slipped his helmet off. "As if."

However, his face said the opposite as if he knew exactly that he was not good for Morty. That being around the innocent boy was tainting him and Rick would eventually destroy him because he was toxic…

"Hey! How about I ask my parents to invite you over for dinner on weekend or something, so that they can see that you're not so bad?" Morty tried to lighten the mood with this ingenious offer.

"What good would that do?" Rick didn't see the point. "I doubt that your parents are going to agree to that."

At Morty's crestfallen expression, he quickly added, "But if they're okay with it, sure. I'll show up."

The brunet smiled brightly at that answer and maybe it was just a trick of the light, but it looked like Rick was blushing.

"Great! I'll ask my parents and let you know when to come over. I'm sure when they see what a good guy you are, they'll let me hang out with you again. I'll still be grounded though, but at least you can come over to visit me or something."

Rick looked a bit skeptical and if Morty was honest, he wasn't quite so convinced either. He knew that Rick wasn't really such a good guy – he was sometimes, but that was it.
This would only work if Rick presented himself from his best side. But surely, he would manage to do that for one evening, wouldn't he?
Well, Morty hoped at least that he would.

He bid his best friend goodbye and hurried home, careful to get his timing right so to not arise suspicion.
Apparently, that didn't matter though because shortly after he entered, his dad called him over into the parlor.
Both of his parents were sitting on the couch and watching TV and they were miraculously not arguing with each other.

"Morty? Have you hung out with your friend Rick again today?" Jerry asked skeptically.

The question made Morty nervous. Did Rick's invention fail again and the principal had called even if his friend claimed that it worked perfectly earlier?
Deciding that this might just be a trick question to make him confess something that they didn't know about, the brunet put on his best poker face and answered.

"Well, we're in almost all the same classes, so I can't really avoid him at school, Dad."

Jerry still bore with his eyes into him as if he was trying to poke hole in his son's logic.

"He's got a point, Jerry." Beth spoke up. "We can't make Morty avoid his friend at school. That's ridiculous."

"Sorry, that I don't want our son to hang out with that hooligan and end up becoming a criminal." The older brunet fired back.

"Rick isn't a hooligan!" Morty protested before his mother even had the chance to reply something.

Having his parents' eyes completely focused on him again made nervousness flare up in his gut once more, but now that he had their attention, he needed to pull through. "He-he really isn't such a bad guy. And you can't judge him because you don't know him. You've never even met him, Dad."

"Well, I can't see how that's going to change." Jerry protested back.

This was the perfect prompt that Morty had been waiting for. "Then how about we invite him over for dinner on weekend?"

Beth was the one who was quicker to answer now. "Oh, that's a great idea, Sweetie! It would be nice to meet your friend Rick in person for once."

"Beth!" Jerry protested and looked anything but happy at the prospect of inviting a potential criminal inside his house.

"Oh, c'mon, Jerry. Morty had never a friend over at our house. And this also a good chance to see with who our son is hanging out with." She tried to give her husband an encouraging smile.

Jerry only sighed and gave in. "Fine."

Morty was glad that his parents had actually accepted his idea. And all of that without even breaking out into one of their big arguments like so often, which usually ended in both of them ignoring their son completely and leaving the issue that he brought up unresolved.

"Great! I'll tell Rick! Uh, tomorrow at school!" He quickly caught himself on that one.

If he let them knew that he got a new phone from Rick, they would immediately confiscate it again.
After he hurried up to his room, he immediately texted his best friend the good news. The response he got didn't sound as enthusiastic as he felt right now, but it was good enough. Rick promised him that he would show up.

Okay. Fine. I'll come over for dinner then.

On Saturday evening, Morty was so nervous and excited that he wasn't even sure that he could eat dinner without throwing up. Honestly, he felt like he might barf right now.
He constantly glanced at the clock. Rick was supposed to be here any moment now and he hoped that he wouldn't give his parents a bad first impression by being late – because his parents didn't care if it was "fashionable" or not.

Morty paced through the parlor and was driving his sister, who was sitting on the couch and trying to watch TV, almost insane.

"God, Morty, calm down. This is just Rick who's coming over and not your girlfriend or something like that."

The notion of a girlfriend threw Morty so out of his loop that he stumbled over his feet. Luckily, he still caught himself before crashing head first into the couch table.
He didn't need another scar on his head or Rick making fun of him for it again.

Before Morty could comment on what his sister just said, he was interrupted by the sound of a familiar engine roaring right in front of their house.
It was Rick!

Forgetting everything else, he stormed to the front door and swung it open to greet his friend. Rick just got off his motorcycle and pulled the helmet off, then ran a hand through his spiky hair to fix it, before he ventured over the brunet who was waiting for him like a puppy that had waited for his owner to come home.

Morty noticed that the other hadn't bothered with dressing up. He wore basically the same blue t-shirt and khakis that he wore every other day.
It made Morty feel a little silly, since he had actually pulled out one of his better dress shirts – a yellow button up shirt with the top two buttons undone – for the occasion. Thankfully, he had decided to stick to his simple jeans, or he would have felt completely overdressed now.

"Hey." The other greeted him casually as he finally reached the front door.

"Hi, Rick. C-come in." Morty invited overeagerly.

"What's with the outfit? You're having a date after this dinner thing?" Rick snickered a little.

A blush immediately worked itself up on Morty's face.
God, he did feel overdressed now!

"U-uh, no. Ju-just thought since you see me ina-in my plain boring t-shirt ea-every day that I could wear sum-something different for yo—for once." He quickly caught himself at the end there.

"Looks good on you." Rick commented as he obediently followed the other teen into the parlor.

"Tha-thanks, Rick." Morty stuttered to the obvious compliment and turned a tiny bit redder.

No one had ever complimented him on his looks before…

"Hey, Rick." The redhead that was still lazing on the couch greeted casually.

Rick took a seat right next to her and they fist bumped. "Hey, Sum-Sum. What's up?"

"Nothing much right now."

Obviously, Summer and Rick already knew each other from school. While Morty's sister was usually someone who fawned about all the hot guys in school, Rick had been an exception to the rule. Or, maybe she had had a small crush on him and was over it already.
Whatever the case, since he was one of the popular kids, she tried to stay in his good favors and they could probably consider each other as friends. At least they were cool with each other.

It was at least one thing that Morty didn't need to worry about. His entire worries were focused on how his parents would think of Rick.

"Wasn't there supposed to be dinner?" Rick asked, but looked like he already made himself feel at home in front of the TV.

"My mo-mom and dad are still in the kitchen, but it should be done pretty soon." Morty hastily explained. "I-I-I should probably check up on them and see if they need any help."

Without waiting for a response, he already made a beeline straight for the mentioned room. Both of his parents were indeed still standing at the stove and adding some last spices to the food – or rather discussing if and what spices should be added to it.
In all truth, the sight of his mother cooking was such a rare one. Usually she was too busy with work and when she did cook something, it was always something microwaved or warmed up frozen food.

Cooking wasn't her strength, but thankfully his father was pretty decent at it.
This made Morty occasionally wonder if it was the reason why his mother had actually married him, so she wouldn't need to worry about that anymore.

"I'm telling you, there needs to be more salt in the sauce." Beth argued.

"Believe me, Beth, there doesn't. The roast is already plenty salted, so if you add anymore to the sauce, it would be too much." Jerry argued back.

"Yeah, but if you eat the sauce together just with the potatoes and vegetables, it tastes too stale."

"No one eats it that way!"

"Um—" Morty dared interrupting his parents who were already salty enough from their discussion that no spice would be needed for dinner anymore. "R-Rick's here."

"Where is he right now?" His father asked, not looking happy about the news at all.

"H-he-he's in the den. Watching TV with Summer." Morty quickly added the last part before his dad would come down on him for leaving his friend unattended in their house.

"This is great, Sweetie. Dinner is almost ready." Beth smiled, though it did look a little forced. "Be a darling and set up the table, will you?"

"S-sure." The small brunet went over to the cupboard and got out the plates.

"And be careful not to drop the plates." The blonde added in a chastising tone.

She acted as if he let plates drop every day or something. Which was of course not the case! Even if he was a little clumsy sometimes, he wasn't a little kid!

"I won't drop them, okay?" He replied in a slightly annoyed voice.

However, just after he said that, the tableware almost slipped from his fingers. He barely managed to catch the dishes again before they crashed on the floor.
…that was a close one.

Deciding to be a bit more careful and acting as if that hadn't just happened, he proceeded with setting up the table.
After all the tableware and the food was placed and everyone was called to the table and seated, Rick was the one who began with the conversation.

"I knew from Morty that you are a very intelligent woman, but he never mentioned that you are such a beauty, too, Beth." He directed at the blonde. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't even ask if first name basis is okay with you. I can call you Mrs. S. if you prefer that."

"It's okay. You can call me Beth, Rick." Morty's mother giggled, obviously flattered by the compliment.

Jerry looked horrified between his wife and the guest, not believing that this was happening.

"Hmm. The food's delicious. Did you cook it?" Rick asked after he took a first bite.

"I'm the one, who cooked it." Jerry interrupted rudely.

"It was a combined effort." Beth said and threw her husband a warning glare for that.

"Well, I can certainly taste your love in it, Beth."

The blonde giggled again. "Oh, you."

Morty swallowed nervously as he could feel the tension rising in the air around him like thunderclouds that were gathering overhead. Just what was Rick doing?
It was nice that he got along with his mother, but his dad was throwing glances at his best friend that could potentially kill.

"Hey, Morty. Could you please hand me the salt?" Rick suddenly asked.

Morty's mother threw another glance over at her husband as she said. "I'm sorry, Rick, that the sauce is a little stale. I wanted to add some more salt to it, but someone else wouldn't let me."

The yellow-shirted teen's mouth dropped and he stared in disbelieve at his best friend, who only grinned.
Had Rick somehow overheard that conversation in the kitchen and did this purposely? But how could he have overheard that?
Summer would have surely caught him if he would have gotten up from the couch to eavesdrop on them.

Again, Morty felt paranoia settle in as he had the suspicion that Rick might have planted microphones inside the house. While he had no reason to do that, he certainly had the means…

Despite the bad feeling in his stomach, the brunet followed the request and passed him the saltshaker.

"Thanks."

For a moment, there was silence around the table and only the typical noises that accompanied the devouring of a meal could be heard before Jerry finally decided to land his first strike against their guest.

"So, Rick. I've been wondering what you have actually planned for your future? With skipping school all the time, the goals can't be really that high, right?"

"What the hell, Jerry?" Beth hissed.

"Dad?!" Even Morty was shocked at that direct approach of his father.

"That's a low blow, Dad." Summer, who had been silent until now, threw in.

"Nah, it's okay." Rick assured the people, who were clearly on his side here. "I know that I'm not attending school very often, but that's because I think it's stupid. As for what I'm planning to do in the future, I'll be a scientist. In fact, I already am one, which is also the reason why I'm so frequently absent from high school."

"Morty mentioned that he's helping you with some projects." Beth's friendly demeanor was back. "Any breakthroughs yet."

"A few, but nothing that I'm too proud of."

"So, what? You've been winning a few school science fairs? What are the prizes for those? Hundred dollar or something?" The older brunet still sounded unimpressed.

"Oh, I'm not wasting my time with science fairs. However, I do sell my inventions or the patents to them, so I make quite a sum on the side." The blue-haired teen was smug now. "I'm sure, I earn more with that then you do, Jerry. Oh, wait! You're unemployed, so that doesn't really sound like such a big feat. In comparison to you everyone makes more money."

Jerry's facial features derailed, but the statement made Beth laugh loudly while Summer whooped at the comeback.
Even Morty couldn't quite hide the smile at his father's epic defeat even if this was not how the evening was supposed to go and he should be rightfully worried now.

The family patriarch shut up after that, however, he still threw occasional angered glances at the spiky-haired teen, who entertained the rest of the family during dinner with his charm, wit and funny jokes.

After Rick had left and Morty fell into his bed, completely exhausted from the events today, he thought that maybe it hadn't gone that bad.
At least his mom seemed to like Rick and his sister had always been cool with him. Just his dad seemed to have a dislike for the teen, but that was also not completely unexpected after what had occurred.

Deciding that it was more important to him what his mom thought about Rick, since she was always the one who had the last word, Morty decided that it was a success.
However, as the voices of his arguing parents reached his ears, he sighed.
It didn't particularly mean that they were quarreling about Rick right now. They always found something to argue about, but it was most likely that their current fight was related to the events of this evening.

Morty decided that he didn't want to give a fuck about it this time and pulled his pillow over his head so that he could sleep in peace. This was how he dealt more and more often with his parents' arguing lately.
Not that there was anything that he could do about it. He tried, he honestly did, by helping around the house, trying to be a good boy and acting responsible, but it didn't help.

Summer kept saying that it would only stop once they would finally divorced, and while Morty did see her point, he didn't want that.
He just wanted for his parents to make up and love each other as they used to in the past…they surely still did. They just needed to see past their disagreements and learn to be happy with their lives again.

Morty didn't really know how his sister was able to be so calm about it. She didn't particularly care if they argued unless it involved her, which led to an even bigger argument that always ended with Summer storming to her room crying and claiming that she would leave – but she thankfully never did, because Morty could stop her every time – and their parents continuing to fight.
She certainly didn't seem scared by the prospect that they might eventually "walk different ways".

With uneasy thoughts and the dull voices of his parents in the background, Morty eventually fell asleep.

Just across the hall, Beth and Jerry Smith were still in a heated discussion. And unsurprisingly it was about none other than Rick Sanchez.

"I don't know what your problem is, Jerry! Rick is a decent kid. He's smart and he's already earning money and not by delivering newspapers. He's good for Morty and you should be proud of our son that he managed to find a friend like that." Beth was currently busy taking out her earrings as she looked angrily back at her husband through a small mirror.

"I don't know, Beth! Is he really such a good friend?!" Jerry argued back. "Because if I were a decent teenager, I wouldn't be openly flirting with my friend's mother!"

"He wasn't flirting!"

"Oh, let's see here! Calling you by your first name. Making you compliments. To me that certainly sounded like flirting! And you were flirting right back at him!"

"No, I wasn't! What are you even saying?!"

"You were! You were acting like a panther!"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, uh…what are they called again…?" Jerry looked lost for a moment. "A cougar, I mean!"

"You're being ridiculous, Jerry!"

"Am I, Beth?! Am I really?!"

The blonde huffed, crawled under the covers on her side of the bed, turned off the light and laid on her side, her back facing the brunet.
For her this conversation was over.
Jerry also laid down, but the male was still brooding. For him this conversation was far from over yet.