A lot had changed. Summer had shorter hair now, due to her ponytail being chopped off in the battle, and had stylized it into a pixie cut. She had a tattoo, one of the only mementos of her relationship with Glorxha. And she had mental scars.
Morty hadn't been unaffected by Summer's relationship with Glorxha, but he was surprised by how he reacted to that relationship. He...liked how happy it made Summer. As much as he hated how she was pulling away from them, spending more time with Glorxha, he also really felt happy for her. That she was safe and happy with someone who loved her. It was entirely different from what he had felt when she was with Ethan.
And then Glorxha died. And Summer fell apart.
Morty didn't know what to do. Summer had always been the strong one. The confident one. The one that didn't let anything get her down for long. He hadn't been the strong one since she had seen her sides Rick and Morty dead in the backyard.
So for a while, he had no idea what to do. Summer would be a zombie, robotically going from home to school back to her room. All the life in her eyes had died. Morty thought that he preferred when she was partying and drinking too much. She at least seemed alive then.
"Su-Summer?" Morty said to her one day, when he finally had enough. It was just after breakfast, and neither Jerry nor Beth had noticed. Typical.
"Yeah Morty." She said, her eyes glazed over with grief.
"I-I was just wondering if-uh, maybe we can spend time together you know? Tonight, like to maybe cheer you up or whatever." Morty said. He felt nervous, enough that he felt he was breaking out in hives just talking to her.
Summer's eyes looked a bit more focused, like she was actually seeing him.
"...Yeah, sure." Summer said.
"O-Ok. Sounds cool." Morty said. He kicked himself internally for how stupid that sounded.
"Yeah..." Summer said and then she left. Morty felt a pang of empathy in his heart. Combined with the shame that he was still looking at her ass, even as she was in this state. His libido had no conscious, it appeared.
Morty spent the entire day planning what they could do. Ignoring lessons entirely. Thankfully Rick never pulled him away on an adventure, Rick had been spending a lot of time in his garage lately, working on projects he never showed them. As soon as he got home, Morty went right to the preparations. He finished them sometime after dinner, went over to Summer's room and knocked.
After a few moments, Summer opened the door.
"Yeah, Morty?" She said, her eyes were puffy and her voice was scratchy.
"I-I...well I thought we could hang out. You know...like I asked you this morning?" Morty said.
"Oh...yeah sure. Sorry. I just...it slipped my mind." Summer said, she was looking down. Couldn't meet his eyes.
"It's fine Summer. I-I understand. We don't have to...I mean we can do it another time if you-" Morty said.
"No! No...I-I shouldn't be on my own right now. I mean...I want to spend time with you." Summer said, her eyes had bugged out and she had grabbed him by the arm. Hard. She was...very strong.
"I...I see. C-could you let go?" Morty said.
"Yes! Oh my god, I'm sorry Morty." Summer said, letting go of the iron grip she had on his arm. Morty rubbed the place where she grabbed him.
"I-it's fine. Le-let's just go back to my room. Ok?" Morty said. Summer nodded and followed him.
The room was kitted out. Snacks. Morty's cache of "girly stuff" and crossdressing supplies. Various game consoles were hooked in and ready to go.
"I...I got everything ready to go. If you don't want to game or uh...get made up, then we can watch netflix instead. Or we can do a bit of all three? I got everything ready so we can last in here for a late night if you want to. I-I hope I did everything ok." Morty said.
"No." Summer said as she looked around. "This is perfect."
Morty smiled.
