Work Text:
It was like a routine they knew all too well.
A quiet knock on a bedroom door; the steady creak creak creak of shoes on a wooden staircase; and the shushed whispers of two people who knew they were doing something they shouldn’t.Two pairs of footsteps threaded as one, as they crept about the house carefully to not disturb its sleeping inhabitants.
Or maybe… maybe it was a dance.
A hand on the other’s shoulder, protective yet stern; the harsh staccato rhythm of two individuals who anticipated each other’s movements as easily as they anticipated their own; and the looming hyperawareness of each other’s presence, knowing that one false move from either one of them would spell catastrophic disaster for them both.
The sixty-year-old man and his apprehensive grandson basked in the soft green light of a dimensional portal, ready to run off to do whatever inane mission was in store for them.
“Rick, I just want to talk about something,” the boy stammered. “I-I-I’m… can I just say, about, well, you know—”
“Don’t worry MoURPrty,” his grandfather replied, wringing his hands. “W-w-we’ll be back before your parents ever find out. A-a-and y-you’ll be back with time to spare f-for your stupid test tomorrow.”
“I didn’t—”
“W-w-who cares about what Jerry thinks anyway—”
“Rick, just listen—”
“…And remember what I-I told you about school, Morty—”
Morty cut him off mid-rant. “I’m not talking about that, Rick. Y-y-you know that. L-last night—”
“What about last night?” Rick said sharply.
Rick’s sudden change in demeanor made Morty stop short. There was something about Rick’s expression that made it seem like a dangerous subject to touch.
“W-w-well, I…” Morty trailed off, suddenly feeling like he had been doused with ice water. Rick waited impatiently.
“Spit it out Morty, y-y-you’re wasting my time.”
“I think…uhh…”
“Nothing? Okay then.” Rick turned to leave, one foot already in the portal.
“Wait, Rick!” Morty grabbed Rick’s hand unthinkingly as he forced Rick back towards him. “I—”
Rick’s chest slammed heavily into Morty. As Morty attempted to avoid toppling over, his grandfather steadied him with a deft arm wrapped around his waist.
“Morty, you klutz — ”
The pair both stilled. They were pressed flush against each other, arms entangled as they held each other upright. The arm around Morty’s waist tightened as their eyes locked. The world tilted, the memories of last night coming forward unbidden.
It started with their bodies just a hair too close together than the usual. A small hand pressed itself against the older man’s chest. A calloused finger ran lightly on the boy’s lower lip. The two stared at each other for a small eternity, their previous argument all but forgotten as they sat in the cramped space of the ship, the smell of stale beer mixed with vodka permeating the air. A whisper and a nod of agreement later, all inhibitions were thrown to the wind.
In no time at all, a lab coat was being shed, belts unbuckled, and shirts thrown haphazardly on the floor. The pair’s eyes were hazy with lust as hands roamed over each other’s bare chests. Their bodies twisted and tangled so intimately that they couldn’t be separated without injuring the other. A boy’s nimble fingers tugged hard on spiky powder-blue locks, his mouth open in pure ecstasy. The other smirked, leaning forward to lick the sheen of sweat off the neck of the boy more than four decades his junior—
Rick jerked away violently.
Morty’s eyes widened as he realized his mistake, backpedaling as if he was teetering on the edge of a precipice. “I-I’m sorry Rick, I-I didn’t mean—I just wanted to—”
“Shut. Up.” Rick’s cold voice froze the boy’s core. A tense atmosphere quickly descended upon the room.
“I’m leaving riOOOUght now. You either go with me or y-y-you don’t, Morty.” the scientist turned abruptly and entered the portal without another word. After some brief hesitation, Morty followed suit.
Throughout the adventure, Rick was as distant as he could be to Morty. Rick tolerated only the barest minimum interaction, paid him little attention other than to give him orders, and didn’t even look Morty’s way when the boy almost slipped off a ledge. Any attempt at talking that strayed too close to last night was met with silence or an obvious change of subject. Rick even flinched away from Morty whenever he stood a little too close.
It frustrated Morty to no end. He wanted to talk about last night. He needed to talk about it. His relationship with his grandfather had always been fucked up, sure, but last night had been different. Still fucked up, but different.
Last night was the first time he felt… loved. Truly, honestly, loved. Rick had hugged Morty close to him, whispering soothing nothings to the boy as he drove himself deep inside the other. He cradled Morty’s face as he gazed at his grandson with starstruck adoration. Rick acted as if he wanted to imprint himself on every cell that made up Morty’s body. But after that…
Rick had just sat at the edge of the seat and held his head in his hands, unmoving and with a stony expression on his face. After they made love, after Rick caressed Morty until he came down from his blissful high, he just grabbed his clothes, dropped Morty off at the house, and left.
Without a single word.
And his grandfather was determined in pretending the whole thing never happened.
Morty couldn’t take it anymore.
“FUUUUUUCK!!!” Morty yelled, causing every alien in a thirty-foot radius to turn their heads. Rick looked at him in alarm. Morty tugged his bewildered grandfather into an empty alley, ignoring the protests streaming from the other’s lips.
“W-what the actual hell, Morty—”
“I-I-I don’t care what you say, we’re talking about it right now.” Morty hissed, putting his hands over his hips.
“L-listen, Morty, I doOOUGHn’t know what the hell you’re—”
“You know, Rick. You. Know. Don’t f-f-fucking bullshit me!” The two stared at the other in defiance, until one of them caved.
“Fine,” Rick snapped. “You wanna talk so bad, Morty? Then I-I’ll give it to you straight. It was a fucking mistake.”
“Mistake? Mistake?!” Morty screeched. “Y-y-you took my fucking virginity!”
“Exactly.”
“How was that a mistake? We-we’ve done things that —w-w-what the hell was so different this time? W-w-we’ve made out, I gave you a hand job, you’ve even sucked me off — ” Morty was hysterical. His hands fisted Rick’s labcoat, quivering in anger and distress. “We’ve done everything short of actual sex, Rick! And now that we’ve done it i-i-it’s different? W-we weren’t found out—M-m-mom and dad didn’t even know I was gone yesterday — ”
Rick laughed without humor. “T-t-that horse left the barn a loOOGHHng time ago, Morty. The HELL we weren’t found out. Jerry and Beth found us swapping spit a-a-a whole month ago. W-w-why does it matter if they know if y-you were gone yesterday? Th-they’ve been thinking that I’m a child rapist for a month!”
“They can mind their own business, Rick, a-a-and stick it up their—”
“Remember? Remember, Morty?” Rick taunted, prying Morty’s fingers from its death grip on his lab coat. “The-The whole family found out a-a-about us, the-they kicked me out of the house and threatened to call the police, i-is it ringing any bells for you, Morty?”
“I—Rick—”
“A-a-and now we have to sneak around at night to go on any adventures, Morty,” Rick continued, ignoring Morty. “W-w-we have to meet up in the middle of the night, M-morty, so Beth and Jerry and Summer won’t fucking have a clue—”
“That-that doesn’t mean–”
“A-a-and now, we have some messed up relationship that y-you think is completely normal. Do y-y-you realize what kind — how many dimensions consider us freaks? How many planets in this galaxy alone? This thing w-w-we have? I-I-It isn’t fucking worth it. To you, and more importantly, to me.”
“Geez, Rick! Twist the knife a bit more, will you? I-I know what we have i-i-isn’t normal! I-if it wasn’t a mistake for us before this, why is it a mistake now?” Morty yelled, distraught. “W-w-we’ve been doing just fine like this for weeks! You could’ve—”
“ — Drawn the line at molesting my own grandson? Yes. I could’ve.” Rick shook his head. “Oh, Morty…y-y-you fucking moron. Engrave this on your minuscule brain, Morty.” Rick leaned in, mouth brushing lightly on the shell of Morty’s ear.
“It’s always been a mistake.” Rick said, soft but clear. Morty recoiled as if he was punched in the face.
“Do you think I liked the fact I kissed my own grandson?” Rick sneered, his words dripping with malice. “Do you think I thought it was great that w-we’re fucking around behind everyone’s backs? W-w-what did you expect would happen? A-a-a happily ever after? A-a fucking wedding? A honeymoon cruise? Do you think that we’re j-j-just gonna slow dance and stare at each other’s eyes u-until the fucking song ends and we make gooOOURPgly eyes at each other? W-w-why the fuck should we stay together when i-i-it’s this much work to even be able talk to you?”
Rick stepped closer, backing Morty into a wall. “N-n-news flash Morty, we’re not slow dancing, w-w-we’re doing the salsa over hot coals, a-a-and we don’t know any of the fucking steps. W-w-what we’re doing right now? I-it’s just gonna burn the both of us.” Rick leaned away from Morty. “So do us both a favor a-a-and stop fucking pushing it, okay?”
Morty’s answer was swift and cutting. “No.”
“What?! W-what do you mean no, Morty, th-this isn’t negotiable!”
“I—I don’t believe you. You care for me, Rick,” Morty said, in one last desperate attempt to win over his grandfather. “You love me. Y-y-you can’t tell me that you don’t care about me a-after last night. A-a-after everything we’ve been through.”
There was a long silence.Then Rick uttered the words that would drive the final nail into the coffin.
“M-morty,” Rick replied with as much indifference he could muster, “i-in no conceivable reality is that sentence even close to true. I-I-I don’t love you. Y-y-you think you’re so special, Morty? You’re not even on the double digit list of people I-I’d want to fuck again. W-w-we have done absolutely nothing to prove the fact that w-w-we’re anything more than physicaUUURPlly involved with each other. Y-y-yoOOUGHr ego i-i-is so inflated, I’d be able to fill two Macy’s day balloons with y-your hot air. Get over yourself.”
Rick has seen a truly astounding amount of horrifying, sickening and bloodcurdling things in the long time he had been alive, but even he had to look away from the painful sight of Morty’s heart being shattered into a million pieces.
“…That’s it, then… w-we’re finished…” Morty mumbled. “J-just like that…”
Rick stepped away from Morty, ignoring his grandson’s tears. He pulled out his portal gun and shoots a portal to Morty’s house. “Y-you can’t finish what you’ve never started, Morty,” he said with finality. “The-there was never anything between us.”
He yanked Morty through the portal—
—Into the disbelieving and angry presence of the whole Smith family.
The two groups stared at each other.
“…I knew it,” Summer said, turning to her parents after what felt like an eternity. “I told you Morty was sneaking off to see Rick. And you guys didn’t want to stay up to check.”
I thought I told you to stay away from my son, you perverted bastard,” Jerry snarled at Rick.
“Dad, you’re not supposed to be here,” Beth murmured sadly.
The house was anarchic. The Smith family descended like vultures, tearing into Rick and eating him alive piece by piece. Over and over, they hurled their criticisms, until they had nothing left to give.
But it wasn’t Summer’s disgust, Beth’s disappointment or Jerry’s outright hostility that got to him.
It was the complete apathy in Morty’s eyes.
As Jerry, Beth and Summer crowded around Rick, Morty stood in the background, face impassive as the rest of the family doled out their verbal punishment. Mouth pressed in a hard line, Morty clenched his hand and climbed up the stairs without attracting anyone’s attention.
Anyone but Rick.
“Dad, I’m only going to ask you one last time,” Beth cried, tearing Rick’s gaze away from Morty’s retreating figure. Her eyes were wet with tears and her voice was hoarse from screaming. “Please go. Just leave.”
“And don’t come back,” Jerry added after a moment. Upstairs, a bedroom door closed quietly.
Rick left.