Oh what the hell, I have so much to study rn wtfff
Morty couldn't believe his day.
For one, if Rick hadn't woke him up at exactly midnight to congratulate him, Morty wouldn't have remembered it was his birthday. Then, considering the situation, he'd made that day the most fun one of his life indoors. They played and joked and laughed. He couldn't have asked for more.
"So, ready for your present, Morty?" Rick beamed at him warmly, filling him with excitement.
"Yes!" He squealed, grinning widely. "C-c'mon Rick! Show me what it is! I want to see!"
"Alright, Morty." He laughed. "Will you fetch grandpa's portal gun? I have something to pick up from my room." He gestured as they stood in the hallway. A quick thought flashed through Morty's mind.
They can only create pleasant memories.
"Haha! O-okay Rick. I'll-" His smile slightly wavered. "I thought we were quarantined, though. Di-did you catch all the parasites?"
Rick's didn't. "Don't worry about it Mortyyy!" He ruffled the boy's hair, which suddenly didn't appear quite as comforting as before. "Caught 'em all, buddy. We- we can get the hell out of here! Y-you remember the passcode to the safe, right? You should be able to get my portal gun."
You know it too, right?
Right?
Morty resisted the urge to ask questions. Instead smiled painfully. "Heh, yeah! I'll um, I'll get something from my room too." He didn't wait foran answer before running to his room.
Ignoring the feelings of hurt and betrayal, he dug out the forgotten plasma gun out of his dirty laundry. He sniffed and tried to contain his tears as he hid the gun. "It can still be Rick." He reassured himself with a shaky voice. "Being nice doesn't necessarily mean being a parasite." He nervously smiled, forcing on himself the obvious lie.
Getting to the garage was a haze of confusion and denial as Morty stopped his steps, looking at the safe that contained the portal gun.
The house was still being isolated from the outside world by the trusty blast shields Rick had put up. Right now, Morty was starting to doubt he'd spoken to Rick at all in the last twelve hours.
"Hey, pal!"
Morty cringed at the fake amount of enthusiasm, but forced it down. "H-hey, Rick."
"Got my portal gun yet?" He casually asked.
"Err, no." Morty turned back at him. He needed to make sure. "I- I kinda forgot the password, heh." He nervously chuckled.
"It's alright, Morty." Rick's smile stayed there. He didn't speak further, just stared at him.
"Well, t-tell me what it is so I can open it." He tried to keep the hope out of his voice.
"Of course!" Hope bloomed in Morty's chest, but he felt a punch in his gut as Rick subtly reached in his lab coat.
They locked eyes and their smiles fell.
Rick aimed the shot at him with the gun he brought out and Morty evaded it, rolling on the ground. Morty swiftly pulled out the plasma gun and shot the man's head wordlessly, watching with a blank expression as he let out an inhuman screech and fell on the ground, his body deforming into a painfully familiar slick-skinned blue alien corpse.
Morty stood up, observing the corpse numbly.
Why the heck did he believe a second of those memories?
Suddenly there was a loud clicking sound, and the hatch to the subterranean layer opened, revealing Rick.
He looked pissed, and as he gazed up, he zeroed in on Morty. "Wait, w-what the-" His eyes fell on the gun in his hand and the alien. "Ugh, son of a bitch. I knew one of them was left. W-wait a second." Then he dived back in, leaving Morty on the surface floor.
Morty sighed, hearing another screech and dropping his guard as the blast shields were lowered.
"I can't believe the sly fucks mutated like this." Rick grunted as he crawled back out. "I was convinced my wife was alive like twice. I-I saw you down there too. If you weren't standing here, I would've let that parasite out."
He then leaned down the hatch. "The house is safe, get the fuck out of my lab!" He yelled. "Ugh, one pussy family you got there, M-Morty." He muttered toward him. "Except Beth, cause she's my daughter. They weren't really co-operative so to speak." He followed Morty's gaze.
"Let me get rid of this one for you-" Rick made his move to the disgusting corpse, but Morty's sudden jump startled him. "N-no!"
Rick's stare turned scrutinizing on Morty. "N-need some time to unpack, whiny little bitch?"
"I should've known." Morty whispered absently, staring at the dead body. "You're never nice."
Rick blinked, thinking he'd misheard at first. "Err, don't beat yourself up. Ha-happens to the best of us, M-Morty." He awkwardly offered, not knowing how to react to that.
"Please, just leave me here." Morty's shaky voice pleaded from him, his eyes never leaving the floor.
"…" Rick stared at him, his mind carrying a confusing number of emotions. "What was he like?"
"Everything I could've ever asked for."
"Uh, more specifically?" Rick kicked the ground, trying to appear nonchalant.
"Nice." Was his response. A few moments later. "Caring, kind, open, giving, friendly, easy to talk to.." He trailed off, kneeling in front of the parasite.
"What's the point if he wasn't real?" Rick hesitantly asked.
"I'm not sure if anything's real anymore." Morty intoned miserably. "B-but it would've been worth it anyway."
"And you'd just ignore that anyone else might want to live because of the delusion you want to pretend you're not under?" Rick's tone had a hint of annoyance to it.
"Why do you think I killed this bastard, Rick?" Morty's voice rose, slightly coated in anger. "How was that something selfish to do? And you can't teach me about selflessness, you heartless monster."
Rick pursed his lips. "Did I tell you I'm some sort of a saint? Trust me on this, people who are or have done something are better capable of deterring you from fucking yourself up about it." Morty remained silent. "And who said jack shit about selfless hero bullcrap? I'm just saying you can hold onto that lie for just a while before letting it go. Might as well rip the band-aid off now." He shrugged. Had comforting people always been that difficult of an act to keep?
"He had a present for me." Morty said in a small voice, as if he hadn't heard Rick at all.
"Let me guess, it was out of the house?" Rick snapped. "You can't be that fucking gullible, Morty! He was fake! Do you hear me? The Rick of your dreams is just in your head, get off the goddamn floor!" He stomped in feet in frustration.
"Stop.." Morty started sobbing quietly, making his anger flare.
"Morty, I'm burning this body." Rick finalized in a stern tone.
"Why do you take everything good away?" He buried his face in his palms.
Rick frowned. "What good is a corpse of an alien who would've ended up bringing extinction to your entire species?"
"It's the best I can have, okay?" He hunched lower onto the parasite, murmuring defensively.
"Stop being a dramatic piece of shit." Rick said through gritted teeth, yanking Morty's arm away from the body, making him yelp in pain. "Get the fuck out of here."
Morty rubbed his arm where Rick had gripped and silently turned around, exiting the garage, not before shooting the alien corpse a longing look.
After the echo of his footsteps faded away, Rick let out a breath he didn't notice he was holding. "Son of a bitch.." He cussed, his voice cracking in the end. He quickly cleared his throat and wiped an unwelcomed tear away, releasing a sigh of disgust.
"I bet the bastard would love this." He grumbled. "Open and easy to talk to." He mocked to himself, rolling his eyes. "More like a depressed bitchy old man with a stripped soul." He spat out. "Who the fuck would want that?"
Caring
"Yeah, well.." He trailed off uncertainly.
Friendly
"Oh, come on." He groaned.
Kind
Giving
"What do you want me to give?" Rick muttered under his breath.
Nice
He paused. "I hate being human." He finally announced to the empty garage, giving an impressive burp.
A few hours later, Morty was tossing and turning in his bed, unable to sleep.
Deep down, he knew Rick was right. He was always right. But Rick didn't know what it felt like to have the amazing day Morty experienced, only for it to crumble down into reality. Morty didn't easily let himself feel hope; hope was a dangerous emotion, and its fall always hurt Morty deeply. He had probably made the mistake of getting it up because of being under the influence and haziness the parasite had created in his mind.
In any scenario, he just couldn't stop his tears. He was tired of bawling and crying, but the tears kept streaming down.
At the sound of his door handle being opened, Morty pretended to be asleep. He didn't feel like talking to anyone right now.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Rick come in and stare at Morty for a full minute. Just when he thought about giving up and calling him out, Rick sighed and held up a card to himself, narrowing his eyes at it.
Morty watched the scene with slight interest as Rick took a few steps back and forth, appearing to be in a dilemma. At some point he muttered curses and other words Morty couldn't identify, but he never exited the room. And that card seemed to be his problem.
"Ugh, fuck this.." Rick grumbled and made his way to the door, and Morty felt the urge to stop him from doing so.
"Rick?" His voice was croaked.
Rick visibly tensed, turning at him. "How long have you-?"
"I never went to sleep."
"Ah, well, shit." He slumped, attempting a shrug.
"What are you doing here, Rick?" Morty sat up, rubbing his sleep-deprived eyes. "Don't you have better stuff to do than.. whatever you were doing?"
"That's a very good question." Rick deadpanned. "I wasn't sure if I should give this to you." He then waved the card in the air. "But I guess I don't have a choice anymore, soo.."
Morty frowned as he took the offered object, turning on the lamp so he could read what was written on it. "Uh, what is this?" He felt confused, looking at the empty drawn table. It looked like his Morty adventure card.
"It's like when you pick one adventure out of ten, re-remember that?" Rick belched, sounding bored. "But instead of adventure, it's literally anything, and because it's a pretty big fucking deal, it's once a month."
Morty froze, still looking at the card. "A-are you serious?" He breathed out, looking up at Rick, rueful in advance hope twinkling in his eyes. "A-anything?"
"Yep." Rick smirked, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Go nuts."
Morty shook his head. "B-but why?" He asked, still in awe and disbelief.
"Geez. It's bad when you of all people forget your birthday, Morty." He rolled his eyes with a smile.
Tears formed in Morty's eyes and Rick seemed to take it in a wrong way, because he stilled.
"J-Jesus fuck, what do I ever do that isn't wrong?" He uncharacteristically whined in a stubborn manner. "I just thought heyy! I've basically bought and brought you everywhere and everything." He shrugged, making hand gestures. "S-so if there's anything I've missed, you can tell me about it... Oh, don't just fucking cry!" Rick said harshly as a sob escaped Morty's throat. "Say something you piece of shit!"
"Tha-ank you." Morty said in between sobs, somehow managing a snort. "I just- I'm just happy, y'know?" He wiped his tears as his sobs turned to a half-laughter.
"No, Morty. No. I don't know." Rick gave him an unimpressed look.
"So, I get to pick this first wish?" The idea seemed very amusing to Morty.
"If you want to call it that." Rick exhaled a puff of air.
"What's the difference between these wishes and normal stuff I ask you about every day?" Morty pushed off the blanket off himself, no longer interested in staying in bed.
"Well, some excuses on my side are no longer valid." He explained. "Like cause 'you're a piece of shit', 'I don't want to' and 'it's ridiculous'. I could go on for hours, but you get the gist." He waved it off.
"And you do realize what my wishes even are." Morty grinned. "I'm pretty predictable."
"Yes, you are. And.." He cocked his eyebrow. "Why do you even think I made the card? I'm no where near 'Nice', but I uh, I figured this could help you get your ass back in reality. I could tolerate some unnecessary physical intimacy." He pursed his lips. "So here's the first one. What is it? I'm willing to bet on it in my head." He joked.
"Only you can gamble with yourself." Morty snorted up his laughter. "O-okay, so um. Oh come on, I.. I don't think once a month gets me anywhere right now." He furrowed his brows. "Can I make this one a routine for a while?" He looked at Rick sheepishly, who only groaned.
The next morning, Summer was starting a rather normal day.
"Come on, kids. You don't want to be late for school!" Jerry scolded as her and Morty tried to quickly finish their breakfast.
"Inaccurate assumption, Jerry." Rick drawled his name. "Why don't you ask them whether or not they want to be late?"
"I'm done." Summer stood up from the chair, eyeing Morty.
He said something muffled through the food in his mouth, and Summer made a disgusted sound. "Ugh, just finish your plate."
Morty swallowed heavily and stood up as well. "I-I think I'm done too."
"Great. Now fuck off, I want to enjoy the silence." Rick shooed them away with his hands, acting disinterested.
Summer and their father were starting to move when Morty huffed. "You think I'd forget this easily, Rick?"
After a moment of curious silence, Rick pursed his lips. "Well, yeah. But eh, fuck it."
Summer watched in disbelief as Rick got off the table, got down on one knee and spread his arms toward Morty in a welcoming manner. Morty smiled and ran towards him, and Rick wrapped his arms around his grandson and stood up, spinning the boy in the air as Morty giggled with glee. Rick finally stopped spinning him and glued him to himself, chuckling. "Go fuck up some tests, Morty."
The wine glass in Beth's hand slipped and shattered. "Have I- have I been drinking too much?" She rubbed her eyes incredulously.
"That was so weird." Summer commented, eyes wide.
"Y-yeah?" Morty jumped down from Rick's embrace. "Then get used to some weird for at least another twenty nine days." He skipped to the door, a shell-shocked Jerry following suit.
Rick patted his daughter on the back. "I wish I could take it all back sweetie, but it's too late." But as Summer exited the house, he caught a glimpse of Rick wearing an unusual soft smile.