At this point, not only has Rigby reverted back to being lazier than he's ever been, but he refuses to leave his room anymore and Mordecai is forced sleeping on the couch. Mordecai groans because he never realized how many people woke up so early (early being before 9:30 in the morning). But to Mordecai, anything single digits in the am is too early. He's forced to get up around 8 and figures if he's going to be awake he's going to make himself a good breakfast.
He rubs the sleep out of his eyes and starts up a frying pan. When he looks in the cabinet he spots a bag on pancake mix, "Sweet!" He eyes the fridge and opens it. "Score!" He dances in place when he sees some blueberries inside. He mixes the ingredients together like a madman and pours the batter in the frying pan to make the biggest pancake he can muster.
He hears the front door open and when he sees Benson walk into the kitchen, they exchange glances briefly. They've barely talked since the incident, but Benson blushed and looked away. "Did expect you to be up so early."
Mordecai awkwardly sighs through his lips, "Y-yeah, well, Rigby locked me out of the room and I had to sleep on the couch again."
Benson folds his arms across his chest, "Speaking of Rigby… I'm going to have to fire him today."
"Stop joking, Benson," Mordecai says, flipping his pancake. His tone was a bit dark as if to say, we aren't having this conversation again.
"I'm not," Benson said, a bit defeated, "Mr. Maellard wants him gone."
Mordecai turns to Benson and gives him a hard stare, "What the heck? What did you tell Maellard?"
Benson laughs bitterly, "Me? Maellard doesn't listen to me. He chewed my ass out when he found out Rigby was sunbathing in the fountain. He said if I didn't fire him…"
Mordecai frowns. He gets it. He loves his friend to death, but lately he wasn't doing anything. He knows Benson doesn't want to do it. He can see it in his eyes. The fact that he's looking down and rubbing his arm nervously, he can tell. After he lost his memory and started hanging out with Rigby more, must have made Benson a little closer to him because the situation was much different from before.
"I'll wake him up…" Benson says and Mordecai can see tears pricking at his eyes.
Mordecai frowns and stops him. He places his hand on his shoulder and hands him the spatula. "I'll do it," Mordecai whispers to him and pushes him lightly into the kitchen.
Benson watches Mordecai walk out into the gaming area and can't believe what he just heard. Mordecai was taking responsibility? It was a mixed feeling of warm and hurt and he just let out a nervous breath.
Mordecai knocked on Rigby's door, "Hey, wake up!"
There was no answer. Mordecai sighed and knocked again.
"Come on, dude! I need to talk to you!"
Still, there was no answer. He decided he needed to get in. Rigby has been in there for days and for all he knew he could be dead. He slammed his shoulder into the door until he broke it open and tumbled to the floor. When he stood up and looked around, he was terrified by what he saw.
Their bedroom was no a portal to a different dimension! "What the heck!?"
"Hello," it was the guy who he got the guitar from.
"You!" Mordecai said, bitterly, "Where's Rigby!?"
"Your friend is with me," he said smartly.
"Well, give him back!"
"I will…" he waved his hand a great maze appeared behind him, "if you can get through my labyrinth."
"What!?"
"You have 13 hours or I'm taking your friend," the guitar salesman said before disappearing.
Benson rushed upstairs when he heard the screaming and was expecting to see Rigby and Mordecai going at in, not a labyrinth in the household. "Holy crap! What is going on!?"
"Come on!" Mordecai grabs Benson's hand and rushes both of them into the entrance.
"Are you crazy! We can't just-!"
"He has Rigby!" Mordecai shouts.
Benson stops him and glares at him, pissed because he's lost at what's going on, "Who has Rigby?"
"The.. uh… Guy who sold me the guitar…?" Mordecai explains.
"….I knew you didn't learn guitar," Benson says with defeat. He sighs and he grabs Mordecai's arm, "Come on!"
"Wait," Mordecai pulls away and slings the instrument over his shoulder.
"Why do you need that?" Benson asks.
"Dude, you never know," Mordecai shrugs. He waves his wrist in Benson's face, "You can continue to drag me against my will."
Benson smirks and grabs his wrist tightly, "Why do I get this feeling you enjoy this."
"Let me come over tonight after work," Mordecai gives him a half-lidded gaze.
"Shut up and help me find Rigby or you're fired," Benson pulls him through the seemingly never ending paths of the maze.
"Dude, no. It's this way. Trust me," Mordecai says, pointing in one direction.
"Why the heck do you think it's that way?" Benson asks, folding his arms.
"I-I don't know? I can just feel it," Mordecai says.
"You can feel it?" Benson repeats doubtfully.
"Trust me," Mordecai holds his hand out for him.
It takes Benson a second, but he finally rolls his eyes and takes his hand. His cheeks light up slightly because he kind of likes being lead by Mordecai. The gears turn in his stomach and he thinks that he might actually consider taking Mordecai home with him after all this.
It's an hour of Mordecai's hunch and they're both starting to lose hope, until they turn the corner and the castle emerges into their view.
"How did you know?" Benson asks.
"I think I saw it in this older movie," Mordecai explains and leads them through a small village and onto the steps of the castle. He kicks open the door and a bunch of goblin guards are awaiting their arrival.
"Crap…" Benson sighs and gets into a fighting stance. He takes out one of the goblins holding a spear and takes out the other dozen with a swift motion. He claps the dust off his hands, successfully clearing a path in record time. "Come on, it's this way—" Benson is silenced because Mordecai's arms around him, trailing up his body and kissing his cheek. His gears crank inside him and his face fumes bright red.
"That was hot," Mordecai whispers.
Benson pulls away and pushes down his slot that's raising without his say so, "C-come on! Focus!" His voice squeaks and quickly continues down the corridors, trying to take his mind off Mordecai.
Mordecai blissfully follows after.
When they get to the throne room, there's nothing but stairs wrapped around the room. The salesman smiles smoothly and makes his way over to the two through the complex maze of steps.
"So nice of you to show," Prince Boe says.
"Give us Rigby!" Mordecai calls out.
"He's free to go," the salesman explains, "that's his own choice in the matter."
Mordecai looks up and sees Rigby standing with his arms crossed over his chest, standing up-side down on a stairway.
"Come on, dude!" Mordecai shouts to him.
"No! You've acted like my friend, but you're nothing but a big jerk! Ever since your stupid promotion all you do is hang out with Benson! You don't even care about me!" Rigby screeches angrily.
"Dude, you're my best friend! Of course I care about you!" Mordecai defends himself.
"If you cared you wouldn't try so hard and get demoted like we planned!" As Rigby says this, Mordecai and Benson exchanges glances. Mordecai looks away with embarrassment, "But no! You're tied to the hip to Benson and you never have time for me anymore!"
"Rigby…" Mordecai says with sadness dripping in his voice.
"Stop talking!" Rigby shouts and it's so loud it shakes the room a little.
"Looks like Rigby wants to stay with me," Prince Boe says triumphantly, "He shall be the new Goblin Prince and I will be the King!"
Mordecai just looks away like all of this is his fault. Benson looks up and is determined. He rushes upwards and down the stairs in every direction in order to catch Rigby, but no matter which stairway he takes, it seems like Rigby is getting farther and farther away from him. Benson gives Mordecai a look that says, 'Do something!' When he sees Mordecai hang his head in defeat, he knows something needs to be done.
"Rigby!" Benson shouts to get his attention, "Stop blaming others for your actions! The only one who doesn't care is you! If you cared about Mordecai, you would understand and stop making his job harder than it is! You'd make both our jobs easier if you just tried!"
"Why should I listen to you! You're just a mean jerk who has no friends! You couldn't care about anyone if you tried!" Rigby shouts and rumbles the room until the stairs fall apart and the four of them are floating in pure space.
Benson closes his eyes. He looks like he's going to lose it, but he takes a breath. "I care," Benson finally whispers. He reaches out and grabs Mordecai's hand. "We both care," Benson says as he opens his eyes and stares at the distraught Rigby. Benson holds his hand out to him and there's sadness and regret in his eyes. "I care about the two of you more than anything. Even the stupid park and even more than my job. I risked my job many times for you two, just to ensure that you have some sort of normal and secure life. Something I just didn't have growing up." Benson reaches out as far as he can to Rigby, but he knows Rigby has to take that last inch and reach back to him, "Please, I love you two so much."
Mordecai looks up and sees the sincerity in his face. His hold tightens on Benson's hand and he reaches out to Rigby as well. "Come on, dude. Let's go home," Mordecai says, smiling at him.
Rigby frowns and looks down at the two hands that are presented to him. It's like he can't believe what he's hearing. He turns to look back at the Goblin King and he shakes his head. Rigby throws his head up and bawls as he grabs onto them, "I love you guys too!"
With the help of Mordecai, Benson reels Rigby in and holds on tight to him.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The King shouts in anger as his castle deteriorates away. He holds his hand out and it's as if Rigby is getting sucked toward him, "You will be my prince!"
"Hold onto him. I've got a plan," Mordecai explains.
Benson wraps both arm around Rigby and holds him in place as he gives Mordecai a nervous look.
Mordecai whips the guitar in front of him and lets his fingers dance along the fret board. It begins to light up with a white light. When he strums the last chord he says, "Dance, magic die!" The white light sprays out of the instrument and the King melts away beneath the thick light.
It's like the gravity shifts on them and they start falling downward. After a good while in their plummet, they fall in a pile back into the bedroom.
When Rigby sees that everything is back to normal, he scurries out of the dogpile and wraps his arms around both Mordecai and Benson, "Thank you! Thank you so much!" He cries and sobs, and he's just a mess between them.
"Haha. What a baby," Mordecai teases.
"STOP TALKING!" Rigby shouts angrily.
Maellard is standing outside of the door with his arms crossed over his chest, "My office. Now."
Benson eyes show fear as if he knows what this means. He gets up, but is stopped by Mordecai. Benson reaches for him, but Mordecai is already out the door and behind the office door.
"What is he doing?" Benson whispers to himself.
Rigby shrugs, "Covering for you."
Benson looks away in shame.
Benson is downstairs, sitting at the kitchen table with a look of worry on his face. He doesn't know what will happen or if he even has his job anymore. He could only trust that Mordecai had a plan. When he hears the door upstairs shut, he stands up and sees Maellard walk to the front door.
Maellard acknowledges Benson and nods, "Good work, Benson. You trained your employees well." With that he shuts the door and is gone.
Benson is blinking rapidly with confusion because not only did he just get complimented, but his boss actually said his name right.
Mordecai makes his way down the stairs with a smiles on his face as he whistles. He gives Benson a half-lidded look and a proud expression as he makes his way over to him.
"How-!? What-?! What did you tell him!?" Benson stutters.
"I showed him the resale value on that guitar I had and totally saved the park a lot of money. After that, I told him you told me to fire Rigby and I came to the conclusion that Rigby just needed to be retrained. He totally bought it," Mordecai explained and casually wrapped his hand around Benson's waist. The total surprise and impressed look on Benson's face gave him enough courage to lean in and whisper, "So, your place tonight?"
Benson's slot opens abruptly between them and he quickly pushes it closed, walking away. "No way!" He shouts with his whole head fuming with a feeling that isn't rage. He pants a little and closes his eyes shut. This was inappropriate and he's so happy that there isn't anyone inside right now.
Mordecai sighs and shrugs, "Alright, alright. Sorry, dude." Just when he's going to turn and walk away, Benson's hand is on his wrist. He stops and waits for him, with a hopeful feeling fluttering in his chest.
"I don't know if I'm ready," Benson finally says, "I haven't been with anyone in a long time…"
"Dude," Mordecai says with a smile, "take your time. I'm not going anywhere."
Benson's fingers knit together behind Mordecai's head and pulls him into a rough kiss of lips and tongues. It slowly turns soft and sensual. Benson's body is pressed against Mordecai's as he feels Mordecai's arms rest on his hips. They slowly pull away as the kiss breaks naturally and their faces are flushed with excitement.
Benson gasps as his slot bumps between them and he looks away with embarrassment.
Mordecai bites his lip and presses it down again, earning him a low groan from Benson's mouth. "I can't wait until you're ready," Mordecai whispers with a smile.
"You're going to have to," Benson says with a pout and meets Mordecai's hands down to his slot. He looks into his eyes for a good moment before dusting Mordecai's hands away. "G-get back to work," Benson says with a flustered look on his face.
"Yes, sir," Mordecai salutes him and add a wink for good measure.
Benson huffs and walks away with a huge smile on his face that he'll never let Mordecai see.
