Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I pulled up on the gutter and checked the house number on the letterbox. I trailed my eyes up to the house and squinted at the sun as it barely peaked out over the brown roof, on its way to set on the horizon. I took a deep breath, and exhaled it to calm my nerves.

‘Chances are the kid’s more nervous than you are,’ I reasoned with myself, ‘Just go inside.’

With a nod of finality to my reflection in the car mirror, I hopped out and grabbed my bag from the backseat, hoisting it over my shoulder as I made my way to the front door. I cleared my throat and knocked lightly on the door.

After about 10 seconds, the door swung open and revealed a very average looking man with cropped brunette hair. He blinked at me in surprise.

“Oh. Hello! May…I help you?”

“This…is the Smith house, yes?”

“Jerry?” I heard a voice call. She sounded like the woman I’d spoken on the phone with, and I assumed that was Beth. The man, Jerry, turned his head to acknowledge the voice. “Is that the housesitter?”

Jerry turned back to face me with an eyebrow raised. “Are you the housesitter?”

I suppressed the urge to laugh. “Yes, that’s me.”

“I’ll be just a minute!” Beth called out as Jerry stepped aside to let me in. I mumbled ‘thank you’ as I went inside, and he closed the door behind me. A sigh escaped my lips as the warmth from the thermostat engulfed me and I shed my coat, holding it over my arm. As an uncomfortable silence settled between Jerry and I, I started shuffling my feet awkwardly.

Finally, the silence ended when Jerry said, “Oh, I didn’t catch your name!”

I introduced myself with a shake of his hand.

“Thank you so much for doing this,” He said as he let go. “We usually have our daughter, Summer, in charge of the house, but she’s over at her friend’s tonight.”

“It’s no problem.” I replied with a polite smile. “Beth told me Morty needed a hand with some school work as well, so I’m more than happy to help out.”

Suddenly, a blonde woman came around the corner and smiled warmly at me, and the grin I gave her was as genuine as it could get. She asked my name as a question and I nodded.

“That’s me.”

“I’m Beth.” She introduced herself, extending her hand for me. I shook it. “Thank you again so much for doing this, and for agreeing to help out Morty.”

“It’s no trouble.” I answered sincerely. “I’ve got quite a bit of spare time now that I’m out of college and looking for work, so this is just saving me from having a lonely night at home.”

Beth gave my hand a gentle squeeze before letting go. She suddenly turned to the man and her smile fell. “Jerry, please give our guest the house tour.” Then she turned back to me and the smile was back. “I’ll go up and get Morty.”

‘Strained marriage, probably been separated already, main reason for staying together is the kids.’

As Beth made her way up the stairs, Jerry cleared his throat and gestured to the room on our right. “Shall we?”

‘Second reason being her husband’s incredibly dependent on her.’

I nodded and followed close behind him.

“Here’s the dining room,” Jerry announced and I placed my bag and coat in the corner of the room. I kept following him. “The living room’s just through here, and the kitchen’s just in here.”

My eyes landed on the coffee machine and I couldn’t help but grimace at it.

Oh, don’t worry, it’s really easy to use.” Jerry assured me, gesturing to a single button on the side. “You just push this button and it’s good to go.”

I smiled and trailed my gaze over to a stream of light coming out from underneath a closed door. “Is someone else here?”

“Hm?” Jerry followed my gaze to the door and I could feel him stiffen beside me. “Oh. That’s just the, uh…the garage. Don’t go in there.”

I turned to look at Jerry and found him to be scowling at the door.

“There’s some really weird…eugh. Just don’t go in there.” Jerry shivered and I scrunched my brows together, suddenly very curious as to what laid behind the garage door. However, I knew better than to poke and prod in things that were none of my business.

Maybe I could sneak a peek once they were gone…

“I’m sorry, but I really have to get ready,” Jerry said once he’d led me back to the front door, bouncing on his feet. “Thank you again, for doing this.”

I waved him off. These two must really be appreciative they could find someone to look after their kid. That, or they didn’t really interact with many people outside their household. “It’s no problem. Really.”

“Please, make yourself comfortable.” He offered as he gestured to the dining room table and with a parting smile, Jerry quickly made his way up the stairs.

I walked back into the dining room and grabbed a book and pen from my bag. I took a seat at the table and brought my phone out to check the time. 5:46, and I was getting paid for 6 hours’ worth of housesitting.

“Just until 12.” I mumbled to myself with a nod. “Then you can go home, run yourself a hot shower…and…”

I trailed off at the sound of footsteps approaching from the room’s other entrance, by the living room. I glanced up just as an older man walked in, with spiky blue hair and a scowl that seemed like it was permanently etched on his face. The faint smell of whiskey emanated off him and he held himself in a way that exuded knowledge and lack of care for his surroundings.

I blinked up at him. “You look a bit too old to be a ‘Morty’…”

It seemed that he hadn’t even noticed I was there since he jumped at the sound of my voice. When his eyes snapped to mine, he narrowed his gaze at me and squinted. “Excuse me?”

I straightened my posture and cleared my throat nervously at his immediate hostility. Not one for jokes, I supposed. “Sorry. That was a, uh…that was a joke.”

“Aren’t jokes supposed to be funny?” The man asked deadpan, grabbing a flask from out of his lab coat pocket and taking a swig of whatever was inside. “Who are you, anyway? Is –- are you Morty’s little girlfr -– eurgh -– little date? ”

Both my eyebrows shot up. “Date? How old do I look to you?”

His lips split into a grin and he wiped the liquor that had slipped out of his lips with the back of his hand. “See? Now thaa –- eurgh -– aat was funny.”

I bit my tongue. Touché.

“I’m housesitting for Beth and Jerry.” I explained as I tilted my head. “Well, and I’m helping Morty out with his school work. Tutoring, if you will.”

He furrowed his unibrow. “You’re a babysitter?”

As I opened my mouth to correct him, another voice cut me off.

“Housesitter, Dad.” Beth had come back, a small brunette boy by her side. He was almost the spitting image of his dad. I met his gaze and gave him a friendly smile that he returned after some hesitancy.

Once Beth introduced me by name, she said, “Morty’s falling behind in school and needs someone to help him catch up, and Jerry and I are going out to date night.”

“Yeah but…babysitting?” The man said incredulously, turning to Beth. “Beth, sweetie, we’ve talked about this. Morty doesn’t need school; and as far as babysitting goes, hello?” He exclaimed as he gestured to himself.

“Dad!” Beth cut in. “You’re always finding a way to drag Morty with you on whatever…space adventure that is happening at any moment.” I couldn’t even begin to process what that meant when Beth continued on. “Morty needs to catch up with school; and I know damn well that you aren’t going to help him with that, which is why I’ve hired someone who will!”

When Beth gestured to me, I felt the overwhelming urge to shrink away. Beth kept her eyes locked with her dad, but he’d turned back to me with a sneer.

“Y-you're kidding me, right? All she’s –- all this kid’s here to do is give as little help as possible, make a fucking mess of your house, and scam you of your money!”

I should have been more offended; don’t get me wrong, it definitely stung a bit. But more so, I was intrigued as to why he’d unleashed his sudden annoyance out on me. I was a stranger to him, and yet he was already prepared to make me an enemy before he even got to know me.

While his two family members gasped, I raised my eyebrows at him and even found myself smiling a little bit. When he saw this, he furrowed his brow and his scowl managed to somehow deepen.

Well, now I’d at least given him a reason to be annoyed at me.

“R-Rick!” Morty exclaimed in surprise.

“Dad.” Beth snapped. I noticed that her tone made Morty cower. “You. Me. Garage. Now.”

The man, whose name I’d learnt was Rick, hadn’t taken his eyes off me while both Beth and Morty had scolded him. He looked me up and down, sizing me up I guessed, before he sighed exasperatedly and walked out of the room. I followed him with my eyes as he walked away until he turned the corner and I couldn’t physically see him anymore.

Oh, he would be a fun case to crack.

“I’m so sorry about him,” Beth’s voice brought me back and I glanced at her sympathetically, “You’re more than welcome to…well…I’ll be right back.”

She darted off in the direction that Rick went. A moment later, a door slammed and silence followed suit. I immediately felt bad for Beth; she shouldn’t feel the need to apologise on behalf of her father’s behaviour.

I turned to the kid. “Morty, yeah?”

He nodded. I introduced myself and I shook his hand. As Morty sat down in the chair beside me, I looked over in the direction Beth and Rick had just walked off in.

“Is your grandfather always so cynical?” I couldn’t help but ask. Thankfully, Morty snorted at the question.

“Yeah,” He said as he put his books down on the table, “He-he’s a scientist. Science is all he really knows.”

He looked down at his lap, a mix of dejection and fatigue in his eyes. “Or cares about.”

I tilted my head at Morty with a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry.”

He blinked up at me, as if just remembering I was there, and waved me off. “D-don’t worry about it. That’s just how he’s always been. ”

As curious as I was to learn more about Rick, I didn’t want to push for information that was none of my business. After all, I was here for Morty, not for his grandfather.

And I wasn’t here to be anyone’s therapist, either.

“I’m sorry about him.” I heard Beth’s voice before she rounded the corner from the living room and looked up at her with a smile. “He told me he wasn’t going to be here tonight. I knew he would scare off any poor sap who came here, otherwise.”

I laughed at that. “It takes more than a cynical mind to scare me off. Trust me, I’ve dealt with worse.”

“Oh, I doubt that.” Beth chuckled.

“Beth? Honey? Are we ready?” Jerry called out as I heard his footsteps trotting down the stairs, and all three of us jumped at the sound of his voice.

It had seemed that all of us had forgotten Jerry existed.

Beth gave Morty and I a smile. “We’ll be back in a few hours. Morty, be good.”

Morty gave his mother an embarrassed smile. “I will, mom.”

She pinched his cheek and he swatted her affections away with an annoyed-sounding “mom!” that made me crack a smile. After waving us off, she and Jerry left out the front door. Soon, we heard the car start up and drive off, and I turned to Morty with a smile.

“What do you say we work on this stuff for an hour or two, then call it a night?” I proposed. Morty nodded with a wide smile. I cleared my throat and shuffled through my books. “Your mom told me there were a few things you needed a hand with. What did you wanna start on?”

We worked through a couple of different subjects over the course of the next couple hours. He got the hang of some concepts quicker than others, but it was a slow process. I found his imagination to be extraordinary, however; when he’d find some miraculous way of explaining how a problem worked using an example derived from some sort of alien scenario. Whether it was about space or an entirely new planet, or through explaining the inner workings of a bizarre invention; the way his brain worked at putting the problems into real scenarios was super impressive.

When I expressed my admiration for how creative he could get, he waved me off bashfully.

“Aw, i-it’s not really that interesting.” He blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Me and Rick go on adventures in space all the time. He-he has a spaceship that he built himself; all out of scrap metal and spare parts.”

So what Beth was saying earlier wasn’t a metaphor. Rick and Morty had both actually gone into space. Multiple times. And they all talked about it like it was nothing.

“The garage is full of his inventions,” Morty continued. “But he doesn’t let people go in there very often.”

I nodded as I listened to Morty talk; circling an error in the math working I was checking over for him. “And he lets you go in there a lot?”

“Only if he’s in there.” Morty said. “Same with mom and Summer. Rick has an alarm set up if Dad tries to set foot in there, though.”

“Strained son-in-law relationship, huh?” I mumbled distractedly as I circled another error. I quickly caught myself and looked up at him apologetically. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to pry. Really. If you don’t want to talk about this anymore, we can talk about something else.”

“No, that’s okay.” Morty assured me with a smile. “It’s nice to have someone to talk about this stuff with, y’know? It’s hard to explain, y’know…my family.”

“I’m a very curious person,” I smiled back at him, “Always have been. My college degree has just made me able to analyse why I’m so curious.”

His eyes widened with curiosity. “Wh-what do you study?”

“I just graduated, actually.” I said with a smile, adding a final mark at the bottom of the page and circling it. “Bachelor of Psychology, minoring in Philisophy.”

“Aw, geez.” Morty laughed nervously. “Rick would hate you.”

I couldn’t help but smirk at that. “I think your grandpa already hates my guts.”

I handed Morty back his working and widened my smile. “You’re really close to getting it. It’s just these ones that aren’t quite sticking yet.” I pointed out his errors with the tip of my pen, than turned back to him. “But you’re doing a lot better than earlier.”

I cleared my throat and checked the time on my phone. “I’d say we’ve made a good chunk of progress. You wanna take your stuff upstairs and I’ll get us a pizza?”

Morty’s eyes lit up. “O-okay.”

As he scurried to take his things upstairs, I called up and ordered a pizza for delivery. While waiting for it to arrive, Morty showed me the expanse range of channels on his television set.

“Rick calls it ‘Interdimensional Cable’.” He said. “Th-there’s a lot of cool stuff on here.”

As Morty browsed through the channels, I answered the knock at the door and paid for the pizza. I placed the box in the kitchen and grabbed some plates, calling for Morty to grab his. When he asked if I was coming to the living room to watch TV, I nodded.

“I’ll be there in a sec.”

As Morty made his way back into the living room, I grabbed a plate with two slices of pizza and made my way over to the garage. Despite him being kind of a jack-ass, if there was food here, it may as well not go to waste. I took a deep breath and knocked lightly on the door.

Silence.

Just as I was debating leaving the plate on the ground, the door suddenly burst open and Rick stared down at me with a quirked brow. I craned my neck to look up at him.

God, he was tall.

“What?” He sighed.

I didn’t react to his bored tone or his impatient foot tapping. I lifted the plate in my hand up a couple inches. His eyes darted down to it.

“Just wanted to see if you were hungry.”

Rick looked back at me and I gave him a polite smile. He started at me for a long time, trying to figure out what ulterior motive I had, what trick was up my sleeve. I didn’t move a muscle, letting him take his time in sizing me up. Finally, he took the plate from my hand and closed the door in my face. I blinked and jolted back in surprise.

“Thanks, says Rick. Hey, you’re welcome, buddy!” I mumbled to myself, sighing as I walked away. I got about two steps away when I heard the door open again. I spun around and acknowledged Rick with a raise of my eyebrows.

“Well, I was gonna thank you…” He smirked at me. “But it looks like -– it-it seems like you’ve got it covered.”

My eye twitched right before he closed the door again and I stared at the door, hoping somehow it would just suddenly burst into flames.

“Why do I even bother?” I sighed, shaking my head as I made my way to the living room.

Morty and I ate our dinner and watched TV for an hour or so, until Morty yawned and stood up.

“I’m gonna, um…” He laughed nervously and cleared his throat. “Uh…good night.”

“Good night.” I replied as Morty left the room. I heard him make his way up the stairs as I collected the plates from the room. A wave of fatigue washed over me and I yawned, stretching my arms up above my head with a groan.

“Coffee.” I nodded to myself. “I need coffee.”

I walked into the kitchen and gave mine and Morty’s plates a wash. I debated offering to clean Rick’s for him, but I really didn’t want to see his cocksure expression again. I turned to the coffee machine and pressed the button Jerry had showed me earlier. As the coffee brewed, I started searching through the cupboards for the mugs.

“Second drawer, on your -– urrp -– left.”

I whirled my head around to find Rick leaning against the wall, his flask hanging near his lips. I gave him a silent once over, hoping he couldn’t read my mind and know exactly where I wanted to punch him, and followed his instruction. I grabbed the plainest mug and placed it on the bench in front of me without acknowledging him further. He sighed rather loudly, but I ignored it. Hell, maybe it wasn’t even for me.

“Alright, look.”

Okay, it was for me.

I turned around and leant against the bench as he crossed his arms. I cocked a brow at him. “I’m…sorry. For what I said earlier.”

“Are those your daughter’s words or yours?” I smirked and shook my head. “I know you’re not actually sorry, but it’s whatever. That’s just the kind of person you are.”

He squinted at me. I wondered if he did that a lot or if it was only with me. “You don’t know shit about me.”

“And you don’t know shit about me.” I retorted calmly. “We’re strangers, and no matter how smart of a man you may be, you can’t just know everything about a person the moment you meet them.”

“Oh, sweetie, I most definitely can.” Rick sneered. I resisted the urge to react to the pet name, mostly because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of a reaction, but also because I didn’t know if I would react disgusted or flattered.

“I maa -– eurgh -– aade that device a decade ago. Because I was bored. It’s been sitting there, on one of those fucking shelves, getting -– collecting dust ever since. Do you know why?”

I shrugged in response. Something told me that showing disinterest would get more of a rise out of him than getting heated.

"Because I don’t fucking care.” Rick said calmly. “Why bother caring about anyone when they’re not gonna do anything for you?”

“So you don’t even want someone to share your inventions with?” I asked with genuine curiosity. “Someone to pass your vast expanse of knowledge onto? Someone to maybe even learn things from?”

“What the fuck could anyone teach me?!” Rick said incredulously. “There’s no one smarter than me, because there’s no one like me. There’s only me! There’s only Rick!”

I tilted my head. “Care to elaborate?”

“It means that’s all I am.” Rick sighed, obviously bored with having to explain something that he saw as being so simple. He brought his flask from out of his coat pocket again. “The smartest man. There isn’t another, and there won’t be another. It’s just…infinitely Rick. Infinitely me.”

There was a beat of silence as I mulled over his words and he took a swig from his flask. It all sounded pretty ridiculous, and yet I found the whole ‘going into space constantly just because we can’ thing the most surprising piece of information I’d learned from the night.

“So, you think you’re superior to these…” It sounded ridiculous in my head, but I swallowed and said it, “other Ricks?”

He belched as he packed his flask away. “I’m the Rickest Rick, babe. Fucking duh I’m superior to the rest of those fuck -– eurgh -– to those shitheads.”

I gazed at him sympathetically. “Being the smartest man in the world must get incredibly lonely.”

“First of all, that’s smartest man in the universe.” Rick corrected with a finger up. He stuck a second finger up. “And second: me? Lonely?” He cackled. “There are women from every fucking galaxy who want -– urrp -– who beg to jump on this dick. If I wanted to fuck a new woman on a new planet every night until I died, I could do it no problem.”

I didn’t allow myself to blush at his brazen language and pushed through to the point I was trying to make. “But how long would you stay with them after?”

He gave me a look. “What?”

“Would you actually hang around once you were done?” I prodded. “Maybe learn about them? Their hobbies? Their job? Their family? Their life? Would you consider going back to see them, dare I even say, not for sex?”

Rick scoffed. “Waste of time.”

“And what if you’ve brushed off someone who could have made a real impact on you, because of that mindset?” I asked.

“No one’s that special.” He rolled his eyes. “Listen, kid. The whole concept of ‘love’ is just --”

“-- A chemical reaction in the brain that compels humans to procreate and keep the bloodline going.” I finished. Rick raised his unibrow, though I didn’t know if it was because he was impressed, surprised, or annoyed that I’d interrupted him. “Yeah. Okay. But you obviously didn’t care about that whole world view once upon a time.”

Now Rick was curious as to where I was going. He prompted me to explain myself with a simple, “Oh?”

“At least once; some time when you were younger.” I nodded. “You didn’t care if love was ‘just a chemical reaction’, because you had it; and she made you feel a way that the creation of a gadget never could.”

Rick sneered. “And why the fuck do you think that?”

“Because you’re here,” I gestured to the general space around us, “In your daughter’s house, trying to be a constant in her life because you weren’t before. You must have felt something for Beth’s mother, and you must feel something for Beth herself; maybe even for your grandkids, too. Otherwise, why would you feel the need to have to be here to take care of her?”

The glare Rick gave me made me feel strangely powerful; since he seemed rather stumped in what he wanted to say. As I kept his gaze, I couldn’t help but admire the intelligence behind his eyes. He obviously knew a lot of information; his IQ would have been off the charts, and not to mention his inability to be wrong. He and I were very similar in that way.

We were almost like two sides of a coin; his being his smarts in physics, and mine being my smarts in behaviours.

“Wh-when did this turn into some fucking –- into a therapy session?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Thought you would have picked up on that a bit quicker, Mr Smartest-Man-In-The-Universe.”

Rick sneered at me. “What was your major?”

I crossed my arms. “Law.”

The surprise on Rick’s face broke me before I could let the joke simmer, and I cracked a smile. “My exact degree is a masters in psychology, with a minor in philosophy.”

Rick groaned in frustration and slid his hand down his face, and my smile grew at his frustration. I’d battled with egos like Rick’s all throughout college; granted none of them ever had the smarts to back up the ego, but they had the ego nonetheless. There was nothing they hated more than being on the same level playing field as someone who studied behavioural sciences.

“Stings like a bitch, doesn’t it?” I said with a smirk. “Matching wits with someone who, quote unquote, ‘didn’t study a real science’.”

Rick scoffed as the coffee machine finally beeped to signify it being done. “Comparing our -– saying our wits are matched is not only wrong; it’s an insult.”

“Uh huh.” I nodded, turning around to pour the coffee into my mug. I poured in some creamer and some sugar and mixed it with a teaspoon. “Or maybe, you actually secretly enjoy that there’s someone who can combat your smarts with some smarts of their own. How about-–?”

I jumped when I turned and Rick was standing directly behind me. His lips spread into a smug smile.

“You really –- y-you think you’re smart?” His voice was low and his hot breath fanned my face. “Do you think that highly of yourself that you can confidently say that you and me are intellectually matched on any level?”

The alcohol on his breath was overwhelmingly strong, and yet it sent tingles down my spine. I kept my breaths short, not wanting that to happen again.

Why wasn’t I saying anything?

He slowly leant forward and planted his hands on the kitchen bench on either side of me, trapping me snuggly between the bench and him with no room for escape.

“That’s cute.”

I swallowed, feeling paralysed under his gaze. He smirked at me and leaned even closer, which I responded to by leaning backwards. I stared him down, determined to not let him win.

Though I wasn’t really sure what I was trying to win in that moment.

“Ex -– urrp -– scuuuse me…”

He reached forward and grabbed something from behind me, while I kept my eyes on him. Once he’d retrieved it, he gave me a wink and turned away. I stayed frozen in place, watching him as he started to walk back towards the garage with the bottle he’d retrieved from behind me. Though, when turned back to look at me, I instinctively glanced down at his lips. I hoped he didn’t notice it, but when his smirk grew to a grin, I knew it was too late to brush off. He hummed, a low sound in the back of his throat, and gave me a once over before turning away from me walking out of the kitchen. When I heard a door close, I presumed it was to the garage, I covered my face with my hands and let out a sigh.

What the fuck just happened?

Why did he do that? Was it to intimidate me, or make me flustered? More importantly, why was it suddenly so hot despite only being in a singlet and skirt? Now that Rick was gone, however, I did notice the knots twisting around in my stomach. I face palmed myself and groaned.

“Come on. Really? Get it together!” I hissed to myself.

I took heaping gulps of my coffee, hoping it would do some miracle of getting this all-too-familiar, all-too-gross feeling out of me. I just needed to go home and never interact with Rick again and I’d be alright…except for the fact that I was even more curious about him and the workings of his inner mind, and the fact he was trying so hard to keep me at arm’s length only made me want to push the boundaries even more.

The moment I pictured Rick’s face, there was a strange fluttering sensation in my stomach and I groaned in frustration. This was not the time to be getting attracted to a man at least double my age. Possibly even triple.

“You’ve literally studied this stuff!” I groaned. “Stop letting your daddy-issues go to your fucking legs.”

I looked over at the clock hanging on the wall and sighed heavily. 2 hours to go.

I downed the rest of my coffee and the hot liquid mixing with the constant knots created an almost painful sensation. I groaned as I made my way to the thermostat to lower the temperature, then to the couch to lie down. The moment my head hit the pillow, I sighed in relief.

Coffee be damned, I needed a nap.

I got my phone out and set an alarm for an hour later and popped it under the pillow

‘Just an hour won’t hurt…’ I thought to myself before closing my eyes.

Chapter Text

The moment I dozed off, I found myself in some kind of garage. It felt weirdly familiar, yet I knew I’d never seen it before. I walked over to the shelves of gadgets and peered at them. Just as I went to pick up one of them, a curious looking high tech box with a big blue button on top, the nearby door opened and in walked…

“Oh, come on!”

Rick let out a low whistle as he walked in, taking his time looking around the garage.

“G-geez. You think I work in a dump like this?” Dream Rick quirked his brow at me.

“Of course. Of course it’s you.” I held my head in my hands. “Even when I’m asleep, I just can’t catch a fucking break!”

“Still thinking about me, huh?” Rick teased. I glared at him as he took a seat at the desk chair.

“Shut up,” I huffed, crossing my arms, “Your flirting and shit earlier got me flustered.”

“Flirting?” Rick scoffed. “You call that flirting? Jesus, babe; you’re worse off than I –- y-you have some serious daddy issues.”

“You didn’t think that was flirting?” I exclaimed, ignoring his latter comment. “You were practically humping me against the kitchen bench!”

“I was getting a –- eurgh -– drink, and you just so happened to be in my way.” He said as he retrieved his flask from his coat pocket, shaking his head. “Maa –- eurgh -– aaybe your oh-so-smart brain is tricking you into thinking I was flirting with you, because you think I’m hot.”

“Are you seriously trying to gaslight me?” I almost cackled.

“It’s –- urrp -– your brain, sweetheart,” Dream Rick shrugged, taking a swig from his flask, “If anyone’s gaslighting anyone, you’re -– it’s you.”

I groaned and rubbed my eyes. “God, what is wrong with me?”

“So you do think I’m hot.” Rick was wiggling his unibrow suggestively when I looked back up at him, holding out his flask for me. I sighed heavily in defeat.

“What can I say?” I said as I walked over to him. I quickly reminded myself this wasn’t actually him, it was just my subconscious. “You actually have the smarts to back up your ego. You’re cocky, in a mature way. It’s hot as hell.”

When I reached him, I took the flask and took a heaping gulp. Tears prickled at the corners of my eyes and I coughed once I’d swallowed the contents. I stared at the flask with furrowed brows.

“What kind of dream logic is that?” I wheezed.

“Nothing like a bit of pure moonshine to transcend all your dream logic, babe.” Rick grinned and leant back in his chair. He couldn’t have looked more smug if he tried. Even my subconscious couldn’t do me a solid and make him a bit less cocksure.

His legs fell open and I forced myself not to look down. Even if he was a figment of my imagination and this scenario wasn’t real, I couldn’t let him win.

Even if I was still unsure as to what was being won.

I cocked a brow at him, trying to look unamused. “Really?”

“It’s your dream, baby. I’m just following -– just doing what you want me to do.” Rick shrugged.

My eye twitched. I knew I couldn’t argue with him on that one.

“Now,” He patted his legs and dropped his voice, “Come sit on daddy’s lap.”

The sound of his voice shot straight to my core and I groaned, a sound that combined my feelings of annoyance and pleasure. It only took a beat for me to say “Fuck it.” And take the few remaining steps up to him. The moment I straddled his lap, his hands found my waist and his fingers were dancing along the hem of my shirt. He groaned as I ran my hands down his chest, feeling the warmth of him on my fingertips.

Since when were dreams so realistic?

“You could always go –- urrp -– go pay me a visit.” Rick grinned slyly, grunting as he shifted me on his lap. My breath hitched when I felt his bulge briefly shift over my core. “I’m in the garage, aren’t I? R-real me, I mean. Y-you can wake up and go do this for –- urrp -– for real.”

“Yeah, right,” I scoffed, “Like you wouldn’t brag about it and kill the mood instantly; and that’s if you even let me.”

I inhaled deeply and slid my hands up from his chest to hold his face. There was a momentary look of shock on his face that he covered up quickly, but it made me freeze for a second. I looked at him sceptically.

He looked between my eyes. “What?”

I ignored him and ran my thumbs over his cheekbones. I traced around his face and down his jaw, furrowing my brows as I followed the trail my thumbs took. I didn’t even remember picking up on such intricate details, like the sharpness of his cheekbones or the small mark on his right temple. Maybe I was adding them myself subconsciously, but they looked so…

“What’s with the face inspection?” Rick’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. “If you fucked up how I’m supposed to look, that’s on you, babe. Your brain, yyy –- eurgh -– your fuck-up.”

“It’s not that…” I mumbled distractedly, not really paying attention to his words. I tilted his head to the side, which he let me do with a resigned sigh. I leaned down to kiss his neck and he groaned softly.

His skin was so warm…

“Jesus,” Rick huffed out, his hands mindlessly sliding up and down my hips. “I didn’t realise you were such a fucking softie –- fuuck.”

I scoffed into the crook of his neck and kissed the fresh hickey I’d just made. When I felt Rick’s hands slide further up my back, my singlet bunching up at the hem, I leaned back with the full intent of letting him remove it. He looked at me, with an almost sad smile, and smoothed the hem back down.

I cocked a brow at him. “What are you doing?”

“Just…trust me.” Rick sighed, snaking his hands back under my shirt and trailing his fingers along my spine. I arched my back into him with a soft whine. “Wake –- urrp -– wake up and just -– just go kiss me or something.”

“What makes you so sure he’d even let me?” I pouted and sunk my fingers into his hair. He closed his eyes with a soft moan. “I can’t even begin to imagine what goes on in that brilliant mind of his.”

He grinned at that. I gave him a deadpan look, even though he couldn’t see me.

“I may be stubborn, but I can admit a genius when I see one.”

“Hey, who am I gonna tell?” Rick shrugged. “I don’t even exist.”

“Right.” I agreed. God, even my brain’s version of Rick was way too Meta. “Besides, he’s already made it blatantly clear what he thinks of me. Oh, look at me; I’m the psychology student who also took some philosophy classes. Apparently, I’m not worth the interaction of a scientific genius who’s already answered 90% of the world’s biggest questions and built his own functioning spaceship out of scrap metal.”

I huffed out a sigh. Somehow, saying this in front of the person I was talking about made it easier. “I’m dirt in the gristle of his boot, as far as importance goes.”

He opened his eyes, a look of genuine guilt in them. It took me back for a second. “He doesn’t…actually think that about you.”

“Oh, yeah? What would you know?” I asked deadpan. He furrowed his brow and glanced away. “You’re just a part of my brain in the shape of him. Who knows how much I’ve dumbed you down; or changed you around to be a more idealistic version.”

“Maybe you know me –- well, him -– better than you think. Be –- eurgh -– etter than he’d let you think.”

My eyebrows shot up and I stared at Rick while he continued to avoid my gaze. I scoffed. “He’d never admit something like that. Especially to me.”

“How do you know?” He asked, finally meeting my gaze. “How do you know that you’re not one of the -– that you’re the only person who’s gotten the closest to figuring out the absolute -– the shit storm in my head?”

I blinked down at him in surprise. He noticed this and rolled his eyes at me.

“But like you said, I’m just a figment of your imagination. What the fuck do I –- urrp -– do I know about me?”

I sighed heavily, slumping against Rick and pressing my forehead to his shoulder. “Why can’t I just fuck you in my head and get it out of my system?”

Rick snorted as he rubbed my back. The gesture felt strangely comforting. “Y-yeah. ‘Out of your system’. Even you know damn well that isn’t gonna –- that isn’t fucking true.”

He shifted slightly under me and I felt his lips near my ear. “We both find each other far too interesting for that to work.”

I straightened up and frowned at Rick while he smirked at me. “Aren’t dreams supposed to make, like, a romanticised version of the person they’re with? Why does some of the shit you say actually sound like him?”

Rick shrugged again. “M-maybe you’re finding dumb excuses to get out of this dreamscape and go -– urrp –- go fucking bone me.”

I glared at him, but he was right. Of course he was right. Somehow, even my brain knew that putting all my rational thoughts into the figure of Rick would actually convince me to go do something about it.

“Okay, fine.” I sighed as I straightened up, but I didn’t make any attempt to move off his lap.

Rick cocked one side of his unibrow up. “Are you going?”

“One second.” I shushed him, running my fingers down his neck and to his shoulders. I gave his muscles a squeeze and he sighed. “I just…I wanna enjoy this. Before I go do something incredibly stupid that I can’t take back, y’know?”

My eyes followed the trail of my hands as they followed Rick’s shoulders, down his biceps, to his forearms. When I reached his wrists, he moved his hands to cup my face and I blinked at him. It really felt like I was looking at him; not a dream version of him that I’d conjured, but the real him.

I swore I could actually feel my heart rate spike in real time.

“Every second you spend here, you could be out -– be doing this out there. For real. With me.”

I held his gaze for a moment longer and sighed. The confidence in his voice only convinced me further that I would regret not at least giving it a shot. I bit my lip and glanced down at his. He smirked and ran his thumb over my bottom lip.

“It’ll be way –- it'll be so much better for real.” Rick said, his gaze lingering on my lips before snapping up to meet my eyes. “Trust me.”

With a huff of resignation, I hopped off his lap and walked over to the door. It opened into a vast expanse of nothingness. If I wasn’t so horny, it probably would have scared me.

“And you want me to just…go up to you and kiss you, right?” I asked as I glanced at him over my shoulder. Even if it wasn’t actually him, I needed all the assurance I could get before I did something that I knew was incredibly stupid.

Rick grinned and tucked his hands behind his head. “Trust me, sweetheart. Nothing gets me more riled up than the unexpected.”

I furrowed my brows and nodded, turning to the door and taking a breath. Right as I went to step through, I heard Rick mutter.

“Which is why you’re fucking perfect.”

...

I awoke with a jolt, blinking up at the dark ceiling. I’d had my fair share of lucid dreams, but none of them had felt as real as that one had.

I sat up and glanced toward the small stream of light coming from just beyond the kitchen. The garage. I closed my eyes for a moment and saw him and his smug grin; I could practically hear his voice in my ear chanting at me to just ‘fucking go in there already!’. Before I could chicken out, I made sure to turn off the impending alarm on my phone, and walked over to the garage. I took a deep breath and opened the door.

Knocking would only waste time.

Rick was hunched over something at his desk, having paid the sound of the door opening no mind; I just assumed he hadn’t heard me yet. I exhaled a short breath and took a few long strides to reach him. The moment I took my last step towards him, he cocked his head slightly; as if listening for something. After a short moment, he finally turned around to look up at me. He quirked a brow as he stood from his chair and leaned back against his desk, planting his hands on the surface behind him.

“Oh. It’s you.” He sighed, though his unibrow furrowed after a moment. He’d probably just realised I hadn’t knocked before coming in. “Wh-what are you doing in here?”

The disinterest in his voice made me falter, but Dream Rick’s voice in my head was somehow louder.

‘Nothing gets me more riled up than the unexpected.’

Was it true? Who knew? It was a figment of my own brain who told me that, and yet somehow it made sense. A man who bragged about knowing and seeing more in one day than the rest of humanity would experience in a lifetime, would get bored of even the most spectacular things pretty quickly. He craved excitement. He craved something different.

The next thing I knew, I’d thrown my arms around his neck and was kissing him.

He didn’t react right away. In fact, he even jumped and made a startled grunt at the sudden movement. Just as I was about to pull away and apologise that I had been so brash, he parted his lips and started kissing me back. His hands found their place comfortably on my hips and I keened into him. I slid my fingers into his hair and he moaned into my mouth; the same, gentle sound he’d made in my dream.

He whirled us around and he lifted me onto the desk. Rick stepped between my legs, holding me to his chest as he began trailing hot kisses along my neck. I moaned softly and slid my hands down his neck and to his shoulders.

“Oh, Rick…” I sighed, feeling like I was about to topple over into pure bliss.

“So,” He mumbled into my neck, “You think I’m cocky and mature, huh?”

I felt my entire body turn ice cold and I dug my nails into Rick’s shoulders. He winced. “Uh, b-babe? Do you mind?”

I pushed him off me and met his shit eating grin with a look of pure horror. I knew something felt off about how real he felt in that dream; how real it all felt. He was in there, fucking around in my brain.

That ‘logical’ part of my brain wasn’t even me!

“What did you just say?” I whispered.

“Babe, I’m the smartest man in the universe.” He said matter-of-factly. He fished into his lab coat pocket and held out his palm, showing me two small devices with little antennas and a row of green lights. “When I went back to the kitchen to see if you’d left yet, y-you were passed out on the couch instead.”

“So…that Rick…” I glared at him, wishing daggers would shoot out of my eyes. “In my dream…everything I said…was to you?!”

He grinned as he shoved the devices back in his pocket. “See? I knew you -– I knew there was a brain in there somewhere.”

My jaw was on the ground. “Are you kidding me?”

“I could fucking smell your cunt from here, babe.” Rick scoffed with a roll of his eyes. My face burned red. “It was obvious you just wanted a good fucking. All I did was go in gave you a bit of a –- a little push.”

“I cannot believe you invaded my personal space,” I huffed, holding my face in my hands, “Literally twice tonight!”

“It’s not like I was trapping you there,” Rick shrugged as he started to approach me, “In the kitchen or in your head. And if I recall correctly, you were the one –- urrp -– you came to me in the latter.”

“Because I thought you were a figment of my imagination, you fuck!” I cried as I pushed him away again, embarrassment burning my cheeks. Rick blinked at me in surprise the moment he regained his footing, though his cocky smile still remained.

“Are you just so hell bent on embarrassing me or…?”

Suddenly, it clicked.

“You wanted me to make the first move…because you were too much of a coward.”

Rick’s smile dropped, an unimpressed scowl replacing it. “What?”

I grinned. Jackpot.

“Why else would you have gone to so much effort just to make me be the first one to crack?” I scoffed. “You were pushing my buttons, waiting until I made the first move. But I was being too stubborn, and of course so were you, so you invaded my dream and coaxed me into making the first move…because you didn’t want to be rejected in case you were wrong. You didn’t want to be wrong…”

There it was; the root of it all.

“I was making you doubt yourself.”

Rick laughed bitterly, and a bit too loudly. “Seriously? That’s your conclusion?”

“Whatever happened to ‘Nothing gets me more riled up than the unexpected.’?” I asked, ignoring his question as I hopped off the desk. “What’s more unexpected than a fresh psychology student, hired by your daughter to housesit and tutor your grandson, reading someone as complex and as brilliant as you like an open book?”

He scoffed, getting obviously frustrated. “You’re so -– you don’t know a fucking thing about me!”

“Oh yeah?” I challenged, slowly making my way towards him. “So all that stuff you were saying, about me being the only person to actually get what was going on in your head, was just a lie to coax me into getting in your pants?”

His silence was deafening and I revelled in it. I kept approaching him. “And you’re saying that the reason you said I was ‘fucking perfect’ wasn’t because I was the first person in a long time to catch you so off guard, that it almost made you cum in your slacks?”

I tilted my head at him and grinned at his seething silence. By this point, I was inches away from him. I lowered my voice. “And you’re telling me…if I lifted up my skirt, and bent over your desk right now, you wouldn’t want to spank me red for acting like such a conceited, know-it-all brat?”

His eye twitched, and I knew I was hitting every nail right on the head. Time to go for the kill.

“You wanted me to make the first move; to catch you off guard. Well here I am, so teach me a lesson…” I craned my neck and nuzzled his nose, his heavy breath fanning my face. The smell of him was absolutely intoxicating now that I was allowing myself to actually let it hit me and I held his hips lightly, knowing I was seconds away from going weak at the knees just from the scent of him alone.

“Daddy.”

I watched his eyes slide down my body and goosebumps popped up on the back of my neck. When his eyes met mine again, there was a bizarre concoction of emotions in his eyes; anger, annoyance, admiration and excitement, all coated in a thick layer of lust.

He looked like he wanted to devour me.

When he started walking away from me, I followed him with my eyes and watched as he went over and sat down in his chair. He grinned slyly up at me and the moment he patted his legs, a tingle shot down my spine. I bit my lip and walked over to him though when I made the move to straddle him, he put his hand on my stomach to stop me.

“Oh, no.” Rick tsked with a shake of his head. “Like you were – like you said, I’m teaching you a lesson. For being a…what did you say? A conceited, know-it-all little brat?”

I bit my tongue lightly to hold back my smile. Rick patted his lap again, his smirk growing to a grin. “Bend over.”

Heat rushed to my face, and to my core, as I followed his instruction. Manoeuvring was a little awkward, but once my stomach was across his legs, he rested one hand on my back to keep me there while the other ran up the backs of my thighs. He hummed and took his time with me, while I tried to mentally prepare for what was to come. He lifted up the hem of my skirt and pulled my panties down my legs, letting them drop to my feet. He groped both of my cheeks with a groan.

“You have such a -– God, your ass is fucking perfect.”

I didn’t have time to register the compliment since Rick dipped a finger inside me. I choked on my breath at the sudden intrusion and the feel of his slender finger slowly sliding into me. He chuckled.

“You’re so fuckin’ easy.”

I gripped onto Rick’s thigh when he wiggled his finger around, the unfamiliar feeling making my thighs twitch. My toes curled and I arched my back.

“Oh, God…”

Suddenly, he pulled his finger out and landed a sharp smack on my bare cheek. I let out a startled whine before slapping my hand over my mouth.

The last thing I needed was Morty coming down or Beth and Jerry coming home to see this.

“Be -– you can be as loud as you want, baby.” Rick cooed, rubbing his hand over where he’d just smacked. “No one can’t hear us in here.”

He landed another smack. And another. And about 5 more after that. He alternated form cheek to cheek, blowing cold air over my stinging skin after every smack, making my knees shake and tears leak from my eyes. Yet even through the pain, I’d never been so wet in my life, and Rick was struggling to contain himself every time he saw my cunt throb.

“What a –- such a good girl.” Rick cooed, landing another smack. I cried out. “Now, what have we learned?”

I groaned as he slid two fingers inside me this time, pumping them in and out at an excruciating pace. “Don’t –- nngh -– don’t be a conceited, know-it-all brat to the –- fuck -– the smartest man in the universe.”

“Unless?”

I swallowed. “Unless I want to be -– haah –- treated like a know-it-all brat.”

Rick took his fingers out and pinched my clit. I gasped. “Which means?”

The grin appeared before I could stop it, and I craned my neck around to look him in the eye. God, he looked good from this angle.

“There’ll be double the smacks next time.”

Rick grinned down at me as he landed the last smack on my ass, and I moaned outright.

“Good girl.”

I hadn’t realised how tense I had been until I slumped over Rick’s legs, squeezing my eyes shut as the cool air of the garage stung my raw skin. Rick shifted under me slightly and I heard some clattering, then a lid being opened. Suddenly, there was a freezing cold hand on my ass and I yelped in surprise.

“Stop –- quit squirming, would ya?” Rick scolded as he rubbed his hand over the surface of my skin. Immediate relief flooded over me the moment his hand was gone and he moved over to the other cheek.

“Wh…what is that?” I mumbled, trying to twist around and see what he was doing. Rick pinched my still stinging cheek in response and I winced.

“Something you won’t find in a – in your local pharmacy.” Rick stated, rubbing the gel over my other cheek. I sighed as the stinging ceased on my skin. Rick helped me to stand, but I immediately went to straddle his lap, and bit my lip when the material of his pants scratched my clit. I rubbed myself in his leg and panted at the glorious friction his pants were giving me. Rick tsked softly as he looked down, though his hands rested on my hips and he made no move to stop me. In fact, he even flexed his thigh and a spark shot up from my core.

“Sure, go ahead and -– just go and stain my pants.” He huffed.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” I rolled my eyes. “What a major inconvenience it is to wash your fucking pants.”

“Are you really that much of a brat?” He asked with a quirked brow. “Do you need to –- urrp -– do I need to bend you over my knee again?”

I started moving my hands down his chest. “As far as I see it, you owe me.”

Rick’s eyes widened and he cackled. “Oh I do, do I?”

“Mhm.” I took my time in unbuckling his belt and undoing his pants button. “Remind me, who was the one who snuck into whose dream and trick them into bleeding themselves dry with all their sappy feelings and crap when all they wanted was a voice of reason? Oh, right. You.”

“Hey, I didn’t trick you.” Rick rolled his eyes. “You were already blabbering away before I could even –- fuuck.”

Rick let his head fall back once I started stroking him. When he closed his eyes, I snuck a glance down and I felt my stomach drop. How the hell did one man have the smarts and the dick to match his huge fucking ego?

“I told you,” When I looked back up at him, he was grinning smugly at me through half-lidded eyes, “Women around the galaxies beg to jump on this dick, baby.”

I scowled and shook my head, but didn’t stop stroking him. “Do you have any idea how infuriating it is that I can’t even counter that?”

Somehow, his grin got wider, and something twinkled in his eye. “I can only imagine.”

It took a moment of simply looking into his eyes, and suddenly I was giggling. I let my head drop to Rick’s shoulder as I laughed; at how ridiculous this was, at how much I actually enjoyed Rick’s company while also hating so many of the words that came out of his mouth, at how overwhelmingly cocksure he was. My brain was completely overloaded, and I had no other way of dealing with it other than to laugh about it all.

Rick sighed and I felt his hand stroking the back of my head, while his other hand rested on my back; and a strange sensation washed over me. One I hadn’t felt before. It wasn’t love, but it was something similarly lifting. Appreciation, maybe? Contentment? Either way, it was a feeling I was ready to welcome and delve further into.

As the giggles finally died down, I mumbled a ‘sorry’ into Rick’s shoulder and planted a kiss before straightening up again.

Rick cocked a brow. “Amusing you, am I?”

I grinned at him, a genuinely happy one. “Something like that.”

There was a look that flashed across Rick’s eyes, something that looked completely foreign on his face. There was a moment where neither of us moved. Neither of us said anything. Then, suddenly, Rick moved his hands and held my face.

As I looked into his eyes, I felt that familiar comfort as I had in the dream when we’d been in this position. I glanced down at his lips and he grinned, clearly having no intention to stop me this time. In fact, he was the one to initiate it as he leant forward and captured my lips in his.

I could have sworn I’d started floating.

It seemed we both had the same idea as both of our hands were under the others’ shirt and tugging at the hem. I broke away from his lips.

“I didn’t know you were…such a fucking softie.” I panted, repeating the words he'd said to me in my dream.

“You’re not the only one who can –- urrp -– with surprises up your sleeve.” He replied with a smirk, pulling my shirt up and over my head. The moment he’d thrown it away, I pushed his lab coat off his shoulders and did the same thing with his sweater, throwing it somewhere along with mine. As he worked on my bra, I tried to wiggle his pants from under his ass and push them down his legs.

“God, look at these.” Rick sighed as he held my breasts, pushing them together and taking his time to silently marvel at them. Goosebumps popped up on my arms as the coolness of the garage finally hit my searing skin. I had a quick look along his desk for something resembling a condom packet.

“You got protection?” I panted as I started stroking his cock again, with more urgency this time.

“I’ve gotten the snip, babe.” Rick mumbled as he brushed his thumbs over my nipples. I arched my back with a gasp. He grinned up at me. “Be-besides, if worse comes to worse, I know a great trick with a metal coat hanger–”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I chuckled, lifting myself up onto my knees and scooting closer to Rick. As I lined myself up with his cock, Rick latched his lips around my right nipple and groaned, the reverberations spreading like a wildfire throughout my body. I was both thankful and embarrassed that I was wet enough to act as a lubricant, and slowly lowered myself onto Rick’s cock. He moaned with every inch I went down, and I had to take a moment between each to adjust to his size. It felt like I was splitting in half, and the pain was almost unbearable.

But it was the sound of Rick struggling to control himself that pushed me those last few inches.

Finally, when I was sat on his lap, with his cock fully sheathed inside me, he released my nipple with a wet pop. I let out a small whimper at the electricity shooting through my veins.

“Holy fuck.” Rick rasped, his grip on my hips tight enough to bruise. I grinned at the thought of his finger marks seared into my skin.

“Oh, fuck…Rick.” I gasped as I dropped my head to the crook of his neck. “Not that…your ego can get any bigger, but…fucking hell.”

“I know, babe.” I could hear the smug grin in his voice. “Y-your pussy is fucking heavenly.”

I bit my lip as I raised myself off him, and slid back down. I choked out a gasp as Rick groaned. I tilted my head slightly and sucked a hickey into his neck, and I felt his dick twitch inside me.

“Care –- y-you better be careful,” Rick panted, his voice low, “I’m -– I don’t wanna hurt you…”

“I’m a big girl.” I cooed in his ear, holding his face as I lifted myself off him, than back down. The pace was excruciatingly slow, but I couldn’t physically go any faster. I smiled against his cheek. “I can handle it.”

Rick scoffed, but he didn’t need to be told twice. He held me under my ass and stood up. I held onto his shoulders with a surprised squeak as he walked over and placed me down on his desk. I hissed at the cool metal on my backside, but Rick had his brow knit in concentration.

“Don’t cum just yet,” I teased as he lifted my leg and rested it over his shoulder, “We haven’t even done anything.”

When his eyes met mine, I felt the urge to cower away from how intense his gaze was. He grinned at me.

“Oh trust me, babe. You’re getting –- I’m gonna give you the best fucking of your life.”

He began slamming into me, determined to fulfil his promise. He held my chin to keep my eyes on him and I gasped with every thrust, his cock hitting deeper than I’d ever felt. Rick slid his thumb passed my lips and I sucked on it, dragging my tongue along his coarse skin and clenching around him when he groaned. He smeared my saliva along my bottom lip, his eyes glassing over, as he looked back at me.

“God, you’re so -– y-you’re so fucking gorgeous.”

As Rick’s panting got shorter, I knew he was close. I reached down and began rubbing my clit in quick circles, determined to reach the edge before he did.

“You are -– you are so fucking perfect.” Rick whispered against my lips. “I could just -– oh fuck.”

With one last, deep thrust, he cried out as he came deep inside me. That one thrust, coupled with the explosive look in his eye, triggered my own orgasm. I arched my back into him as waves of pleasure washed over me and I curled my toes. Rick groaned with each deep thrust, and I clenched around him as my orgasm kept coming over me. I held him close, our breaths intermingling, our lips brushing against one another’s’, and our eyes locked on each other.

Then, after a very messy kiss with lots of teeth and tongue, Rick pulled out and collapsed on top of me as he caught his breath. I sighed heavily as the afterglow set in and I thread my fingers into Rick’s hair. He moaned loudly.

“God, I love when you do that…” He mumbled.

I smiled as I began mindlessly scratching Rick’s scalp, revelling in the feeling of his body weight resting on my bare chest, our breathing in sync, and his breath hitting my shoulder.

“Well…” I laughed breathlessly, “You...definitely gave me the best fucking of my life.”

Rick panted into my shoulder. “I think you just -– I think you gave me the best fucking of mine.”

The urge to tease him for that was strong, but the overwhelming surge of pride I felt at being Rick’s best fuck made me keep my mouth shut. Rick sucked a hickey into my neck with no warning and I moaned as my core clenched around nothing.

“Fuck…Rick!” I cried out. Rick pushed himself up to grin at me. “How the hell am I gonna hide this from Beth and Jerry?”

He rolled his eyes and pushed himself off me, standing upright and going over to collect our clothes. “Tell them you got bored and I gave you the best dicking of your life.”

“Oh, sure. Sounds like a great idea.” I scoffed. “Hey Beth! Thanks for letting me housesit! Morty did great with his homework. We had pizza and then I got super turned on by your dad’s ego and intelligence so I went and fucked him. See you next week!”

He grinned and threw me my clothes. “I don’t see the problem.”

“Uh huh. What, because I said you’re egotistical and smart?” I rolled my eyes. “That’s not exactly new information.”

Once I’d gotten dressed, I watched as Rick’s eyes slid down my body and I blushed. He smirked at me. “It –- urrp -– it just sounds better when you say it.”

I bit my lip and reluctantly my way over to the door leading back into the house. Of course there was the urge to lay with him on a softer surface, but he’d made it blatantly clear he wasn’t into that kind of thing. Besides, the mere thought of a soft surface to lay on was the only thing keeping me conscious.

“Woah woah woah.” Rick’s voice made me stop in my tracks. “What are –- where are you off to?”

I blinked at him and threw my thumb behind me. “Uh...home, I think. I’m sure Morty can take care of himself until his parents get back and, well...I’m exhausted.”

“Huh.” Rick shrugged. “Figured you’d be the type to...stick around.”

“Oh, I am.” I nodded as I opened the door. “But I know that you're a ‘sex only’ kind of guy. Which is fine. That’s why I’m outta here.”

I walked out of the garage and through the house, gathering my things from the kitchen and dining room and heading to the front door. Right as I opened the door and took a step into the cool night, I felt a hand grab my wrist and spin me back around.

“You better not -– you won’t be a stranger, right?” Rick said with a quirked brow. “I’m sure you’d -– urrp -– love to pick at my brains some more.”

I smirked. “Is that so?”

Rick rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Fuckin’ duu -– eurgh –- uuh.”

“You sure it’s not just because you want to see me again?”

He scoffed, but didn’t reply. I smirked up at him. That was the closest to a ‘yes’ I would get.

“It all depends if Beth wants me to tutor Morty again.” I shrugged. “Otherwise…who knows?”

It was only at that moment that I realised I might not actually see Rick again. She’d only asked me to come around tonight, and that was primarily to housesit; it just so happened that Morty needed help with his school work. If I’d done a bad job, or Morty didn’t need any more help, then she wouldn’t need me around again.

There was also the fact that I’d just fucked her dad and if he just spilled it one day during some drunken ramble, there was no way in hell I’d be back.

Silently, I dropped my bag and grabbed a scrap piece of paper and a pen. I scribbled my number and address down and folded the paper over a couple times. I could feel Rick’s eyes on me the whole time.

“In case you ‘want your brains picked some more’.” I stood back up with a knowing smirk and handed the piece of paper to Rick. “Or, y'know, you wanna fuck on a more comfortable surface.”

Her smirked as he took the piece of paper from me and read over the contents. I bit my lip as my gaze drifted back down to his lips, though I darted my eyes away before I could linger too long. I heard Rick sigh heavily.

“You’re not very -– you’re not exactly subtle, are you?” He asked plainly.

I clenched my jaw when I met his eyes and I felt my cheeks grow warm. His eyes were burning into mine. “You know you could just...ignore it, right?”

“And if I don’t want to?” He asked as he quirked his brow. “Then what?”

His tone was that of boredom, but his words held such a different meaning. My brows furrowed as I tried to decide what he meant. Either he wanted to keep making fun of how I brought emotions into something that he kept emotionless, or he was encouraging me to act on those softer things because he wanted me to be satisfied before leaving.

Or, just maybe, he wanted them as well.

He rolled his eyes and grabbed my chin with his forefinger and thumb. He leant in, but my eyes were closed and my lips were open before he even reached me. His kiss was sweet and promising of more to follow, and I smiled against his lips. When he tried to deepen it, I chuckled and placed my hands on his chest to pull away.

“If you’re going to break into my house tonight,” I whispered, “Just don’t wake up my roommate.”

I gave him another quick peck and turned away before he could lure me back in with his magnetic aura. I heard him chuckle and close the door behind me as I made my way to my car. I bit my tongue as I got in and started it up.

I could only hope I’d get to my place before he did.

Chapter Text

The moment I pulled into my car spot, I felt like I could have just slept in my car. My muscles ached, I felt pleasantly satisfied, and honestly; I was ready for a shower and an early night’s sleep.

When I got inside, the apartment was dark; so I presumed Kylie, my roommate, was asleep. Or, at the very least, she was sticking within the confines of her room for the remainder of the night. Once I dumped my bag of things in my room, I got a fresh t-shirt and underwear and took my pyjamas with me to the bathroom.

If there was even the slightest chance Rick would show up, I wanted to at least smell clean.

I closed and locked the bathroom door and stripped out of my clothes. My skirt absolutely reeked of sex; overwhelmingly so that it made me wet again. I shook my head with a chuckle and chucked it on my dirty pile of clothes, making a mental reminder to put on my load of washing once I woke up the next morning.

I climbed into the shower and blasted the hot water. I sighed the moment the water hit my skin and let my eyes flutter closed. The steam surrounded me in a cocoon as the scalding water started to relax my aching muscles. I let out a long moan when I began massaging a particularly tense muscle and the hot water beat down on it. It was like heaven.

Well…almost like heaven.

I began humming a song as I let the water run down my body, basking in my privacy, away from everyone and everything; a place where I was free of judgement and I could just bask in my own company.

“Pr-pretty voice.”

Or not.

I straightened up instinctively at the sound of his voice and the feeling of his breath hitting my shoulder. I froze for a moment, trying to decide if I was physically and mentally ready to see him again, before whirling around and meeting his lazy grin. He was completely nude and his spiky hair was damp from the stay droplets of water I’d flicked onto him. I exhaled, a mix of surprise and relief, and had barely opened my mouth to greet him when he’d shoved me against the wall and kissed me.

He was impatient and it was quickly clear to me that he had a mission, his hands sliding down my waist and to my ass where he gave the flesh a squeeze. He moaned in my mouth and he swallowed my whine.

“It’s barely been an hour.” I chuckled as he hooked one of my legs around his waist.

“What can I say?” He grinned against my lips. “Y-your pussy is addicting, babe.”

“You sure you didn’t just miss me?” I quipped, licking stray water droplets off his jaw. He groaned low in my ear.

“Behave.” He warned, and the bratty side of me wanted to test that so badly. However, the moment I felt his head at my core, all resolve for that was gone.

He slapped his hand over my mouth right as I moaned.

“What happened to –– what did you say about waking up your roommate?” Rick hissed as he slid into me, with a lot more ease than last time. Still a stretch, but at least this time I knew what I was in for. “Y-you want ‘em to walk in and see us –– s-see you like this?”

A whole new wave of desire washed over me and I knew there was desperation in my eyes when Rick’s eyebrows shot up. His expression soon turned sly.

“Y-you would wanna get caught, wouldn’t you?” He grinned, beginning to thrust at an excruciatingly slow pace. I whimpered into his hand. “You dirty little slut.”

When he took his hand away from my mouth to hold me, I let my head fall back and rest against the tiled wall, biting my lip hard to stop myself from making any noise. As Rick’s pace picked up, it was getting harder to keep quiet as the hot water combined with the friction of Rick made me feel like I was about to explode.

My knees quivered and my eyes rolled back when Rick’s cock started hitting a spot so deep inside me that it made me see stars. I could have sworn Rick’s eyes sparkled.

“That was so -– fuuck -– you’re so fucking hot.”

I wrapped my arms around Rick’s neck and bit into his shoulder, letting his skin muffle any sound that came out of my mouth. When his pace started getting erratic, almost desperate, I knew he was about to cum.

“God…Rick.” I mumbled into his neck. “Pl-please…I –- haah -– I’m gonna cum…”

“Come on, baby.” Rick grunted, bringing his fingers down to play with my clit. “Cum on my -– c-cum all over my cock.”

I held onto Rick for dear life as I came, everything inside me tightening almost painfully before I erupted in a twitching mess in his arms. He bit on my shoulder hard and groaned as he came inside me, filling me up with his cum and let it drip down my legs. He pulled out when he was done, yet we both used each other to lean on while we caught our breath. I was the first one to lift my head, and I winced at the mark I’d made on Rick’s shoulder. I traced my finger over the teeth marks and Rick groaned softly into my shoulder.

I supressed a giggle. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise,” He said, “Gimme –- urrp -– mark me as much as you want, baby.”

I grinned and ran my tongue over the blossoming purple bruise, which made him chuckle and pull away. I bit my lip and looked down at his smirk; avoiding eye contact would make this request more bearable to ask.

“Did you…want to stay a while?”

He quirked a brow at me and I fumbled for an excuse. “I-I mean, you came all this way–”

“‘All this way’.” He snorted. “You only live -– urrp -– 30 minutes away.”

“Right…” I nodded. “Well, the offer’s there so…you can take it or leave it. As long as my roommate doesn’t catch you at any point, I don’t care.”

Of course I cared. He knew I cared. But ultimately, the decision was for him to make for himself.

Rick bit his tongue as he gazed at me, an unreadable emotion in his eye. His eyes darted over to my collection of hair and body washes.

“J-Jesus.” He belched. “How many bottles of shit do girls need?”

I stared at him. “Don’t tell me you use the one bottle for everything.”

“I can guarantee what I use is way better than any of this crap.” Rick picked up a bottle of body wash, scrunching his nose up as he read what fragrance it was. I cocked a brow and he rolled his eyes. “But simply put, yes.”

I crossed my arms. “Is that why you smell like fumes and whiskey?”

“Hey, last I checked, whatever I smell like made you literally weak in the knees.” Rick smirked as he placed the bottle back. “So it’s obviously not that bad.”

“Okay, whatever.” I huffed, grabbing the bottle of shampoo and squirting a bit into my hand. “But I still need to actually shower…so…”

He quirked his brow. “…So?”

I blinked at him. “Are you just gonna stand there and watch me like a creep?”

Rick shrugged. “I’ve got –- urrp –- nowhere else to be.”

I glanced up at his hair and wondered how long it’d been since he’d washed his own hair.

“Well then,” I grinned, “I guess you’re joining me.”

I beckoned him with a finger and he gave me a look.

“Seriously?”

“Come on!” I whined. He scowled down at me and I outstretched my arms. “You let me do this, and you have free reign.”

His lips twitched upwards. “Free reign?”

I smirked. “Of me.”

He scoffed. “Don’t I already –- urrp -– have that?”

I groaned and rolled my eyes, turning away from him and massaging the shampoo into my own hair. “Forget it. We only have so much hot water here and at this rate, I’m about to use all of it standing here arguing with you.”

While I was rinsing the shampoo out of my hair, I heard Rick shuffling behind me. When the shampoo was all out of my hair, I turned around to ask what he was up to and froze. I cocked a brow when I saw him squirting some of my body wash into his hand.

“What are you doing?”

He grinned at me. “Having free reign.”

I furrowed my brows and opened my mouth to ask what that meant, but Rick put his soapy hands on my neck and brought me in to kiss me. I moaned into his mouth and relaxed against him as he slid his hands down my back, around my ass, up my sides, across my stomach, to my breasts. When he squeezed them, I chuckled.

“Something funny?” He mumbled against my lips, running his hands up my arms and lathering them with body wash. When he was done, he pulled away and I grinned up at him. I twisted myself around and grabbed the shampoo, squeezing a bit onto my hand and turning back to Rick.

“Your turn.”

He sighed but didn’t bother protesting when I thread my fingers through his hair and began massaging his scalp. Rick let out a heavy, relaxed sigh as his eyes fluttered closed, and I felt my entire body grow very hot at the sight.

“God, you’re good at that.” Rick moaned once I had finished up lathering the shampoo into his hair. I kept massaging his scalp though, watching the bubbles forming in his hair, my smile growing as his hands slid up and down my hips. Looking at him this close, seeing him this relaxed, he looked decades younger than he actually was. I stared at his lips, watching the corners slowly starting turning upward. I bit my lip in contemplation, though a tiny voice in my head told me that if I didn’t make a move soon, Rick would ruin the moment by teasing me about it.

So I held his face in my hands and his eyes opened slowly, immediately finding mine. I pulled him close to me to stand directly underneath the showerhead, and kissed him as the water rinsed us off.

He returned the kiss with a sigh, holding me close and letting me lead. I kept it slow, with my main goal to taste as much of him as I could before we were completely rinsed off. I broke away to smooth his hair away from his forehead, wiping away the last of the soap suds on his face.

“Now your hair’s gonna smell like green apple.” I mumbled with a grin.

“If it smells like you,” He smiled lazily, “I guess -– I suppose it’s not so bad.”

I tried desperately to ignore the butterflies in my stomach as Rick reached behind me and turned the water off. He stepped out of the shower and let me use his hand to step out as well. He grabbed my towel from the rack and wrapped it around me, pressing a kiss to my forehead. Without another word, he grabbed his clothes and twisted a dial on a weird looking gun with a glowing green top. He pressed a button and a circle of green goop appeared. The term 'portal gun' suddenly popped into my head.

“A-are you going?” I asked dumbly.

Rick turned and smirked at me. He held my chin and dragged his thumb along my bottom lip. “Don’t miss me too much.”

Without another glance back, he turned to the green goop and stepped through it, and it closed up immediately behind him. I sighed the moment he was gone, though deep down I knew it wouldn't be the last time I'd see him.

Like he said, we both found each other far too interesting.

I dried my hair and got into my shirt and panties, before leaving the bathroom. I tiptoed down the hallway, past my roommate’s bedroom, and walked into my bedroom. I closed my door behind me and flicked my light on, jumping violently when I saw Rick standing buck naked by my desk.

“Jesus fucking hell!” I wheezed, placing my hand over my chest.

“You –- urrp -– you sure you didn’t go to college for acting?” Rick rolled his eyes as he picked up a picture frame and looked at it. “Because you’re a real fucking drama queen.”

I breathed heavily, trying to slow my heart rate down. “Well sorry, but I wasn’t fucking expecting you here!”

“You literally offered for me to stay.” Rick said with a quirked brow. “Y-you think I’d just leave without a ‘goodbye’?”

“Yes!” I scoffed and nodded. “Yes, I’m pretty sure you typically would!”

He opened his mouth to counter, but took a beat to think about it and shrugged. “Touché.”

There was a soft knock at my door, and Rick’s and my eyes darted to one another. I pressed my finger to my lips, telling him to be quiet, while his lips spread into a sly grin. Kylie knocked on my door again and I mouthed ‘I swear to God’ as Rick walked over to the other side of the room and out of sight.

I opened my door a crack and peered around at Kylie. I smiled at her. “Hey. Everything alright?”

“Yeah.” Kylie nodded, stifling a yawn with her fist. “I thought I heard something, just checking if you’re okay.”

“Yeah, no I’m fine.” I exhaled a tired sigh and waved her off. “The kid I went to tutor tonight…Jesus Christ. Its nuts what they’re teaching middle schoolers in maths these days.”

“Oh, really?” Kylie winced. “I was gonna say, it sounded like you were in the shower for a while there.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I completely lost track of time.” I explained with an apologetic smile. I made sure to choose my words carefully so I wouldn’t lie to her. Sneaking in a college student for the night was fine with either of us, but I didn’t know how she’d react to me fucking a 60-year-old scientist.

Speaking of…

Rick was pressed against my side covered by the door, one hand brushing the hair off my neck so he could lick a stripe up my skin, and the other hand sneaking past the waistband of my panties. I dug my heel into one of his feet, but he didn’t budge.

“The kid did really well, though. It took him a little bit…” I exhaled a breath when Rick’s fingers touched my clit. “To get right, but he’s a trooper. His parents are really nice, too.”

“And his grandpa.” Rick whispered into my ear. “Is the best fuck you’ve ever had.”

I kept my face even. “His grandpa was a bit of a dick, though.”

Kylie smirked at that. “Just your type, then.”

I felt Rick grin against my neck and I rolled my eyes.

“Ha ha. Very funny.”

Rick slid a finger inside me and I inhaled sharply. Kylie furrowed her brows at me.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m alright.” I nodded. “They had the thermostat up kinda high at their place…” He began pumping his finger in and out, while he slowly sucked a hickey into my neck. I had to close my eyes for a brief moment to compose myself. “And I think…the shower was a bit too hot…I’ll be okay.”

“You do look a bit red…” Kylie noted with a nod. “If you need anything, let me know though, yeah?”

“Of course.” I smiled, biting the inside of my cheek when Rick inserted a second finger. “I’ll…see you tomorrow.”

Kylie smiled. “Yeah. Good night.”

“Night.” I waved her off as she turned and went back to her room. The moment her door was closed, I closed my door and twisted the lock. I locked my fingers around Rick’s wrist and pulled his hand out of my panties, then whirled around and began pushing him backwards to the bed. He smirked down at me the entire time.

“I’m just your type, huh?”

“You are such an ass.” I huffed, ignoring him as I pushed him down on the mattress once it hit the back of his knees.

Rick raised his unibrow as he sat up on the edge of the bed. “You’re –- urrp -– way too good at lying.”

“I didn’t tell a single lie.” I said as I shed what little clothing I was wearing. “I withheld some things, but nothing I said was a lie.” I flicked my wrist to signal for him to move back. He scooted back to the middle of my mattress. He leaned back on his hands as he roamed his eyes over my body.

“You think I’m -– you thought I was a dick?”

“No.” I shook my head as I crawled to him. “I know you’re a dick.”

“Best one you’ve had.” He grinned lazily. I rolled my eyes with a smirk.

I straddled his lap. “You just want me to say it again, don’t you?”

“You’re not the first,” Rick shrugged, “But it’s –- urrp -– it’s nicer coming from your mouth.” I raised my eyebrows and nodded at him.

“Alright.”

I held his face and leaned in, smirking against his grin.

“Sanchez.”

My movements faltered for a moment. “Huh?”

“I want you…” His hands rested on my hips and groaned softly. “To say my full name. I want you -– I wanna hear you say it.”

I bit my lip and inhaled his scent. Whiskey, fumes, and a hint of my green apple shampoo. I could feel my core throbbing impatiently from the familiar scent mixed in with the unfamiliarity of something uniquely him.

“Rick Sanchez,” I mumbled, “You are, by far, the absolute best fuck I’ve ever had…” I nuzzled his nose with mine. “And the best fuck I ever will have.”

He grinned. “So you can be a good girl.”

“What can I say?” I slipped my arms around his neck. “It’s much more fun to be a bit naughty.”

I rolled my hips over his half-hard cock and he rolled his head back with a sigh. Though, before I could sick down on top of him, he held onto my hips and forced me to stay still.

“I think you deserve a little reward.” Rick said. “For being so good…”

I gasped in surprise when he flipped us over so I was lying underneath him, his cocky grin enough to set my body alight with anticipation. I could feel the slickness gathering between my thighs and deepened my breaths.

“Ever since I could smell your pussy in the kitchen,” He said, moving himself down my body, “I wondered if you were -– if you tasted anywhere near as good.”

His hot breath hit my soaking core and I sucked in a breath. I licked my dry lips and swallowed nervously. Rick seemed to have sensed this, since he placed his hands on my thighs and squeezed them softly.

“I’ll go -– I’ll be easy on you.” He said softly. I bit my lip and nodded, slowly spreading my legs for him. His eyes darted down and he moaned behind closed lips.

“Well helloo –- eurgh -– oo beautiful…”

I blushed and placed my hands on my chest, over my racing heart. College guys weren’t exactly the giving or experienced type, so I’d never been eaten out before. Needless to say, it was nerve-wracking having Rick’s mouth so close to such a sensitive part of my body.

Rick gently pushed my thighs further apart, than hooked his arms under them so they wouldn’t close. “You ready?”

I inhaled sharply and nodded. He stuck his tongue out and licked a slow, flat stripe from entrance to clit and I slapped my hand over my mouth to muffle my surprised squeak.

“Oh, fuuck.” Rick moaned, before shoving his tongue inside me. I jerked my hips up and arched my back, feeling Rick’s groan reverberating inside me. I reached down and thread my fingers into his hair and he chuckled.

When he made eye contact with me, the pure lust in his eyes almost made me cum right there.

“Oh my God…” I whispered, unable to take my eyes off him as he ate me out. “You are so hot…”

He smirked and latched his lips around my clit. When he sucked on my clit, I felt sparks shooting through my veins and I jerked my hips up as I muffled a cry with my hand.

“Holy shit!” I gasped.

“You’re doing so good, baby.” Rick cooed when he pulled away, using his thumb to slowly rub my clit. I panted as I looked down at him, his chin glistening and his tongue gliding over his wet lips. My breath hitched in my throat at how erotic the sight was, and yet I couldn’t look away.

“Oh baby girl…” He mumbled, sliding a finger into me and lazily pumping it in and out. “I’m about to make you -– y-you’re gonna cum so hard…”

It wasn’t just a statement, it was a promise; and it gave me goosebumps all over my body.

“Just do me one thing?” He grinned at me. “Lemme know when you’re gonna -– urrp -– when you’re about to cum, okay?”

I swallowed and nodded. He spat on my clit before licking the saliva away, and adding a second finger to join his first. He was quick to speed up his pace, sucking my clit and fingering me at a speed I didn’t even know a man could do. I whispered praises to the ceiling, and his moans against my clit told me that he could hear me. My orgasm was sneaking up on me and Rick was only getting faster. I didn’t even know how that was possible, but my brain was so muddled that I could barely think about anything. All I could think was to tell Rick right when I was about to cum.

And that would be any moment at the rate he was going.

“R-Rick…” I rasped out. “I’m…I’m gonna -–”

“Do it, baby.” Rick hissed. “Come on. Cum for me, baby.”

Right then, when Rick swapped out his fingers for his tongue; that was when I lost it.

I arched my back and held my head back in a silent cry as spasms shook my thighs; all the while Rick swapped between penetrating me with his tongue and sucking on my clit to keep the orgasm going. I chanted his name like a prayer and held onto his hair for dear life as I bucked my hips against his mouth, which he encouraged with his low moans.

Finally, when I couldn’t take anymore, I released my grip on Rick’s hair and tried wiggling out of his hold. “Rick, baby, I…I can’t…”

He detached his lips from my clit with a wet pop and a satisfied sigh, releasing my legs and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. I stared up at the ceiling and caught my breath, overwhelmed and utterly spent.

“And once again, I am proven right.” Rick said cockily as he hopped off the bed and put on his clothes “We’ll definitely be doing that again.”

I forced myself out of my sleepy state and sat up. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

“I need to go tell my daughter that you’re ‘actually not too bad’ and ‘worth keeping around for Morty’s sake’.” Rick said as he tucked his shirt into his pants. He tossed me my clothes and I chucked them on quickly. “Besides, I’m pretty sure I just sucked the last bit of –- the last shot of adrenaline out of you with how good I ate you out.”

I blushed at his words, but smirked at him. “I’d be willing to bet that was your best work yet.”

He smirked. “I think you might be right.”

Rick turned and shot a portal with his portal gun, and I jumped up from the bed. He turned around at the sound and I brought him to me in a deep kiss that made him grunt in surprise, but that he happily accepted with a groan. The taste of me on his tongue made my clit throb and I whined as I pulled away.

“Don’t get into any trouble.” Rick mumbled, giving my ass a pat before turning away and walking to his portal. I sat on the edge of my bed and chewed the inside of my cheek as I watched him. Before he was about to step through, I called out.

“Hey Rick?”

He turned to look at me with a quirked brow. I smiled sleepily at him.

“The offer’s always open…‘kay?”

It was small and barely noticeable in the dark, but I caught his genuine smile right before he turned away and walked through the green portal goop. I sighed and a wave of fatigue washed over me the moment he left, leaving my muscles aching pleasantly and my mind bizarrely refreshed. I scooted up and laid down on the pillows and bit my lip.

Rick’s smile was the last thing I saw before dozing off.

Chapter Text

A week rolled by and I was on my way to tutor Morty again. No housesitting this time, since Beth and Jerry would be home. Instead, I’d been promoted – or demoted, depending on how you looked at it – to weekly tutor.

And occasional taxi.

I put the address of Morty and Summer’s school in my phone and started driving there to pick them up. Since Beth was working and Jerry was...occupied I guess, Beth had asked if I was able to go pick them up for an extra $50. Of course I agreed to do it.

It was on the way from my place, anyway.

I pulled into a car spot and waved Morty over. He looked surprised to see me at first, and I presumed the message that I was picking him up was supposed to be relayed to him by one of the parents, but they both assumed the other had done it and, therefore, hadn’t told him I’d be picking him up.

I didn’t know for sure, but I could make an educated guess.

“H-hey!” Morty greeted me as he hopped in the car.

“Hey yourself.” I smiled at him. “Are we waiting for your sister, too?”

Morty shook his head. “She usually catches a ride with her friends, anyway.”

“I see.” I nodded as I set the GPS up to take me to the Smith house and pulled back onto the main road. “How do you usually get home?”

“Bus. Honestly, most days I don’t even do a full day of school.” Morty said. “Rick usually pulls me out by second period.”

I furrowed my brows. “What for?”

When I glanced over at him, he was giving me a lopsided smile.

“Space stuff.”

I raised my brows and nodded as I turned back to focus on the road. I listened to the GPS and took a left turn. “What kind of adventures have you been on recently?”

Morty shrugged. “Nothing, really. H-he hasn’t come to grab me for about a week straight.”

I wondered if that had anything to do with my showing up, when Morty added, “I think his record was about 3. M-maybe mom’s given him another lecture about it. That’s the only reason he laid off last time.”

I smirked. “So…he lays off long enough for you mom to get off his back, then just goes right back to repeating the exact same behaviour that got him in trouble?”

“Pretty much.” He snorted. “She probably found out that the last time he pulled me out of school was so we could go to Blips-n-Chitz, b-because he’d won a bunch of coupons.”

“‘Blips-n-Chitz’? What’s that?”

“It’s this really big arcade in the middle of space.” Morty explained with a wide smile. “I-it’s got really weird games. Like there’s this game, where you play as this guy called Roy, and-and it’s this VR game where you live out as a regular person, and it really feels like you’re him. And the highest score is how old you get him before he dies and how many things you do as him while he’s alive.”

It was a little hard to keep up with his explanation jumping around, but I got the main premise pretty quickly. “Wow. Sounds like a blast.”

“Rick and I go there all the time. On weekends, after missions, things like that.”

“Ah,” I nodded, turning down Morty’s street, “So Rick has his priorities in order, I see.”

Morty chuckled nervously. “Don’t…tell him I told you that.”

“You say that like your grandpa can actually stand to be around me long enough to speak to me.” I smirked as I pulled up on the gutter outside his house. We both hopped out of the car and made our way to the front door, which Morty opened with a spare key.

“I-I just gotta get my stuff.” Morty explained before going up the stairs.

I made my way to the dining room and set myself up with my books and pen. Just as I shed my coat, there was a strange whirring sound outside and a heavy metallic clunking. I went over to the window and peered out to the driveway, where I saw the spaceship of scrap metal that Morty had mentioned the week prior. The main garage door opened and the spaceship door opened with it, and I just caught Rick’s blue spikey hair when I heard Morty coming back down the stairs.

I turned my head and met his gaze. “That’s pretty cool.”

“Rick’s spaceship?” Morty clarified. I nodded. “Yeah. I-it’s kinda small, though. And he never cleans it…”

I held back my laugh. His grandfather had built a fully functioning spaceship all on his own and he’d been into space more times than he could count, and yet all Morty had to say about the machine was that it was small and a little dirty. I shrugged and sat back down at the dining table.

“You must have been in space a lot,” I said, “Because I don’t know if I could ever get sick of hearing about it.”

Morty sat in the seat next to me and got out his homework. “Y-you should come with us some time.”

I raised my brows. “Into space?”

Morty nodded. I chuckled.

“Isn’t Rick the one who drives that hunk of metal? Why on earth would he let me in his ship?”

Morty shrugged. “Maybe if you gave him a point to prove, h-he’d take the bait.”

Just as Morty said those words, the garage door connected to the kitchen opened and a loud belch announced his presence.

“M-Morty. When Beth -– when your mom gets off my back, w-we gotta -–”

The moment he walked into the dining room, he cut himself off as we made eye contact. I could have sworn I felt static zipping through the air, but it may have just been whatever space stuff Rick had brought in with him. I kept the look on my face unamused, even though the butterflies in my stomach were going crazy.

“Oh, great.” Rick muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes and taking out his flask. He swirled the contents around as he took his time dragging his eyes down my body and I had to fight hard not to jump him right there. “It’s –- urrp -– it’s you.”

“Yeah. It’s me.” I nodded and gave him a fake smile. “Again. Bummer, huh?”

He snarled at me, but I could see the sparkle in his eye. “You’re not babysitting again, are yy –- eurgh -– yyou?”

I sighed heavily, heavier than was probably necessary, hoping it got my annoyance across to Morty. “Housesitting. And no, I’m only here for a couple hours to tutor.”

“Couple hours is more than enough to scaa – eurgh – aam my daughter of her well-earned money so you can spend it on…” He scowled. “What do college kids blow their money on these days? Something fucking useless, I bet.”

“A-aw geez,” Morty winced. “Um, R-Rick? C-couldn’t you…be a bit nicer to her?”

Both of us turned our attention to Morty with our brows raised in surprise. He swallowed and glanced at me. “Sh-she’s really been helping me out…with school, y’know?”

I blinked in surprise. I’d only known him a week, and yet he was willing enough to stick his neck out for me; against his grandpa, too.

“W-wow.” Rick said sarcastically. “Sticking up for her-– for your little girlfriend, huh Morty?”

“Shut up, Rick!” Morty snapped, his ears burning pink.

“What is the matter with you?” I shook my head at Rick. He quickly hid the amusement I saw flash in his eyes. “Do you feel high and mighty now, bringing down a kid’s self-esteem like that? You must be so proud of yourself for that one.”

I knew damn well he’d tease me about this whenever we got the chance to be alone.

“What -– eurgh -– ever.” Rick belched as he made his way out of the dining room, though I caught the wink he sent me while Morty’s head was down and I widened my eyes in warning. Morty was avoiding eye contact with me when I looked over at him.

“That was really sweet of you.” I said genuinely, with a smile to accompany it. He finally looked at me and his cheeks were pink. “But just as a word of reference, I can handle my own against people like him. I did it all throughout college.”

“Oh…” Morty looked away again. “S-sorry -–”

“No, don’t apologise.” I rested my hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently. “Sticking up for someone when they’re getting picked on is a really noble quality. Plus, girls think it’s hot as hell.”

He blinked up at me. “Th-they do?”

“Mhm.” I nodded, tapping my pen against my temple. “Trust me, I’ve learnt this stuff. Girls really dig courage.”

“Huh…” Morty trailed off, deeply in thought. “Wh-what kinds of things do you like?”

I quirked a brow. “You’re not asking for personal reasons, are you?”

Morty’s eyes widened. “Wh-wh-what? I-wha-no! I just -– !”

“I’m only teasing you.” I smiled, pretending to ignore how red his face had gotten. I even felt a little bad for eliciting that reaction from him, but I couldn’t help it. “I like…a guy who knows who he is. I like a guy who has a reason to be cocky, y’know? Like if he’s smart, I like a guy who knows he’s smart.”

I smirked when the first face to pop up was Rick’s. I blamed it on the reason being that I was only within the same vicinity as him, but deep down I knew that wasn’t the only reason.

“I also like when he’s a bit of an asshole.”

Morty blinked in surprise. “An asshole?”

“That’s just personal preference though.” I clarified. “And it’s mostly because I’m a bit of an asshole myself. So I enjoy having someone around who can test me with that, y’know? And I like testing them, too.”

“Y-you’re not an asshole.” Morty assured me, to which I chuckled.

Flashback to not even 2 minutes ago when I made him stumble over his words because I knew friendly teasing would get this poor, pubescent boy all flustered. Yeah, totally not an asshole.

“That’s sweet of you, but I don’t act the same around you as I do around other people.” I explained. “The situations are different, so we show different parts of ourselves based on that. Like, similarly, I wouldn’t be like this around other people; because the circumstances would be different. That’s just how humans are. Does…that make sense?”

After a moment of hesitation, Morty slowly nodded. “Y-yeah, I think so. But…isn’t that…lying?”

I shook my head. “Not really. More like…selective truth.”

“Oh…” Morty nodded again. “Okay.”

“Cool.” I smiled at him. “So what did you want to start working on first?”

We worked through the homework he’d accumulated over the week and I commented that it used to be easier when I was at high school.

“Aw, man.” Morty sighed. “That blows.”

“Granted I wasn’t in high school that long ago…” I said as I showed him the working of a difficult problem. “But I didn’t realise so much could change about the curriculum within a mere decade or so.”

I passed the paper back to Morty and caught a flash of blue in the corner of my eye.

“Is there a bathroom down here?” I asked Morty. “Or is it only upstairs?”

He looked up from his work and pointed towards the stairs. “It’s just the end of that hallway.”

“Oh, cool.” I nodded. “I’ll be back in a second.”

I got up from my seat and made my way down the hall and to the door at the end. Just as I reached for the door knob, a door I hadn’t even noticed on my right burst open and a hand locked around my wrist, yanking me inside the room. It was dark and smelt strong of gasoline, metal and alcohol…

And through it all, even after a week, I could still smell the slightest hint of green apple.

Rick pinned me to the door and pressed his thigh between my legs with a grunt. He leaned in, his lips brushing against the shell of my ear.

“You little, fucking -–”

“I am in the middle of tutoring.” I cut him off with a hiss. “This is the worst possible time to be -– fuck.”

Rick’s hand had gone straight past the hem of both my pants and panties, and his fingers were rubbing my clit quickly. My chest heaved and I flexed my fingers above my head, where Rick’s other hand was holding my wrists against the door.

“You have some fucking mouth on you.” Rick grunted, pushing his thigh harder against my core. I whimpered softly. “Y-you keep sticking up for him like that, and he’s gonna -– M-Morty’s gonna ditch his stupid crush on Jessica for you.”

I tried wriggling my hands out from his grasp, but he only held on tighter.

“Stop moving.” He grumbled.

“Are you –- haah -– trying to get us caught?” I panted.

When his eyes met mine, there was a fire behind them I hadn’t seen before, and it made my knees go weak. “Y-you’re not going back out there ‘til I’ve made you cum.”

I panted harder, my orgasm building quickly. This wasn’t about pleasuring me. This was about pulling the loose thread and uncoiling me, then forcing me to go back outside and try to explain myself away to Morty when he saw me come back from the bathroom looking like I’d just been near a bomb when it went off.

For Rick, this was about getting even.

“R-Rick -–”

“I’m the only one who touches you.” Rick growled into my ear. “This cunt is fucking mine.”

He kissed me hard and I moaned into his mouth, my body on fire as he kept rubbing my clit. He nuzzled into my neck and started softly kissing the skin. The uncharacteristic gesture made me more weary than turned on, and yet I still couldn’t help but push his buttons.

“Feeling a bit possessive are we?” I smirked. Rick growled.

“Say it.” He hissed into my skin. “Say you’re mine.”

I let out a breathless laugh. “What? Scared your grandson’s gonna steal my attention away from you?”

“Careful.” Rick whispered. “If you don’t behave, I’ll open that door right fucking now and drag you into the living room, rip your pants off, and fuck you so hard that everyone in this fucking street will hear you scream.”

My breath hitched and I bit my lip to suppress my moan. Rick smirked against my skin.

“That’s right. You’d fucking love that, wouldn’t you?”

I swallowed and shook my head. “N-no. Rick…please.”

“Then fucking say it.” He hissed again. I squeezed my eyes shut so I could focus on a coherent thought, my orgasm on the brink of breaking.

“A-alright!” I caved. “Okay! I-I’m yours, Rick. All yours…fuck!”

I could feel him grin. “Good girl.”

When his lips were ghosting over my pulse point, he pressed hard on my clit and sucked a hickey into my skin at once, and it felt like he’d just charged a defibrillator and jolted me with enough electricity to both kill me and revive me at once.

I bucked against Rick’s hand as I came and pressed my lips tightly closed to muffle my cry as much as I could. He let me hump his hand and ride out my orgasm until I was slumped against his door and panting hard. When he planted a gentle kiss on my neck, over the spot he’d just marked, I groaned in frustration; despite the gesture making me lean into him a bit more.

“Did you…” I huffed as he pulled away. “Really just give me…a fresh hickey?”

He grinned and licked any wetness from my pussy off his fingers like it was nothing. “Not my problem, sweetheart.”

He held my chin and brought me in for a searing kiss that made me squeak in surprise, before pulling away, opening his door and shoving me out. I barely managed to catch myself from falling when his door closed behind me.

I quickly ducked into the bathroom to flush the toilet so Morty could hear it, and let the faucet run while I tried to cool myself off. I looked flushed and my hair was a bit of a mess, but I had time to finger comb my hair and splash water on my face. By the time I was ready to leave the bathroom, I looked only slightly dishevelled.

I exited the bathroom at the same time that Rick exited his room and smirked at me, dragging his eyes down my body again with a faint hint of lust in his eyes. He groaned softly and palmed himself, and I glanced down to find him half-hard. I blushed wildly at his brazenness and had to take a deep breath to control myself.

“Geez.” Rick said far louder than necessary, waving his hand in front of his nose. “Did you –- w-was that a number 2?”

I bit my tongue and glared at him for a moment, before shoving past him and going back to the dining room, his devious chuckle echoing around in my head. Morty blinked up at me when I entered and smiled. Either he didn’t notice anything off with my appearance, or he wasn’t saying anything out of politeness.

I was just thankful he didn’t draw attention to it.

“Hey.” He greeted.

I gave him a smile as I sat back down. “Going okay?”

He nodded and slid the paper over to me. I grabbed my pen and looked over his working, nodding and giving him a grin. “Good job.”

Morty’s smile grew as I slid the paper back over to him. I checked my watch. “We only have 10 minutes or so left…we could try to do a quick quiz, but honestly you’ve done so much today as is so I’m happy to call it early.”

Morty shrugged and gathered his things. “Y-yeah. Okay.”

I got up and grabbed my backpack to stuff my books into and Morty stood awkwardly in the archway, picking at his fingernails.

“You’re good to head upstairs.” I told him. “I’m just going to grab a glass of water, and then I’ll be off.”

“Oh.” Morty said. “O-okay. Thanks, again. Um…see-see you next week.”

I nodded and smiled at him. “See you next week, Morty.”

With a final nod, Morty turned around and trekked back up the stairs, heading back to his room. I sighed softly and placed my backpack against the wall before going into the kitchen and grabbing a glass. I placed the glass under the faucet and filled it up with water.

“I’m gonna rail you against that bench one day.” Rick said as he casually sauntered in to the kitchen. “Y-you can quote me on it.”

I planted the glass down a little too hard on the bench and some of the water sloshed onto my hand. “Are you trying to get me fired?”

He scoffed. “I didn’t realise this was too -– urrp -– too hard for you, babe.”

“Your bedroom is so fucking close to the dining room, Rick.” I hissed, storming up to him and getting in his face. “I could have been dead silent, and he still might have heard us in there!”

The unbothered smirk on Rick’s face somehow put me at ease, though it just made me go from weary to plain annoyed. “He…couldn’t hear anything behind that closed door, could he?”

Rick grinned. “At least you’re catching on quicker.”

I crossed my arms. “And you didn’t bother to tell me that while you were getting me off and I was obviously trying to stay quiet?”

Rick tapped his chin in fake thought, before shrugging. “Guess it slipped my mind.”

I shook my head at him, trying and failing to stop the smirk on my lips.

“Fuck you.”

“Oh, but –- urrp -– but that’s just the thing…” He gripped my chin and leaned in close to me, invading my senses with everything him. He grinned. “You already do.”

Our lips had barely touched when we heard the front door open and Beth’s voice call out, “Hello?”

I gently pushed Rick away and he smirked, turning and walking in the direction of Beth’s voice.

“Hey Dad.” She sighed.

“H-hey, honey.” He greeted her, then looked disinterestedly over at me. “Y-your money leech is still here.”

“Dad!” Beth scolded, but he simply belched and walked back into the garage, closing the door behind him. Beth rounded the corner and gave me an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry -–”

“Don’t bother.” I waved her off with a light-hearted smile. “I’m sure it’s just what comes with the job description. Plus, I’ve got tough skin.”

Beth sighed. “I think it’s become second nature at this point. Apologising for him.”

“You should try to unlearn it.” I said sincerely. “It’s not your job to do it, y’know? The people he annoys will either walk away, or annoy him back. Fight or flight.”

She laughed softly. “And I presume you’re more of a fighter than a flier?”

“I’d rather be a lover,” I shrugged, “But that would be in an ideal world; and this isn’t that.”

“You can say that again.” Beth huffed out a tired sigh. “How’s Morty doing?”

“Really good.” I nodded, putting my empty glass in the sink and walking back to the dining room to grab my things. I heard Beth following behind me. “He just needs the extra explanation or two, but he’s a clever kid. He picks up on them pretty quickly.”

I opened the front door and stepped outside, turning to smile at Beth. “Let me know if you need me around again, yeah?”

“Sure.” Beth smiled. “Thank you heaps, again.”

“No problem.” I nodded, before walking off to my car and hopping in. Just as I started it up, Beth knocked on my window. I wound it down.

“I’m not sure how busy your schedule is,” Beth said, “But I’d love if you could join us for dinner sometime next week. Just as a thank you from me.”

My instinct was to decline her offer out of kindness, but my thoughts drifted to Rick. Not only would I get to see him again, but I could even possibly get him flustered enough to consider us even for how he embarrassed me earlier. I gave Beth a nod.

“Tell me when and I’ll be here.”

Chapter Text

There was a light knock at my door, a beat of nothing, then Kylie’s head popping in to smile at me. She whistled at my getup. “You going on a date or something?”

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. “You know that kid I started tutoring a few weeks ago?” Kylie nodded. “It’s dinner at their place. His parents insisted.”

Her eyebrows shot up as she looked me over again. “That is a really cute dress.”

I bit my lip. It was a plain, black strapless number that had been through the dryer a few too many times and had shrunk to my mid-thigh. I remember when I bought it; it was just above my knees.

“It’s not too much, is it?”

“No way.” Kylie assured me. “Plus, it’s the perfect getup if you’re heading to the bar afterwards.”

I rolled my eyes playfully, then checked my phone, and my eyes almost popped out of my skull. “Shit! I’m late!”

I scrambled to grab my purse and heels and bolted past Kylie laughing at me in her comfy pyjamas. To say I was jealous was an understatement.

“Have fun!” She called as I ran out the door.

I hopped in my car and started driving to the Smith’s house. I was hoping since it was a family dinner, they would have put at least a little bit of effort into their outfits. Nevertheless, it was the plainest dress I had. It was either this or a shirt and jeans, and for some reason that felt even weirder.

Besides, the sole reason I chose the dress and not anything restrictive was to get a reaction out of Rick. That was the main reason I was even going to this dinner in the first place. If there was no reaction out of him, then at least I got to wear it for one more night before putting it in retirement for God knows how long.

I parked the car and put my heels on quickly. The moment I stepped onto the pavement, I sighed heavily. I just hoped I’d be sitting for most of the night because I could tell these heels were going to kill me. The satisfying sound of my heels clicking on cement followed me as I walked up to the front door and knocked.

The moment the door opened, my face went hot.

Beth was dressed in very regular looking clothes, and I presumed that the rest of the family would be in similar attire. Her eyes widened in surprise when she looked at me and I mentally face palmed myself.

“I didn’t know how formal this dinner was going to be.” I explained guiltily.

“No, no! It’s fine! It’s cute!” Beth assured me as she ushered me in. “I can go upstairs and put a dress on so you don’t feel super out of place?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” I laughed, waving her off with a smile. I glanced down. “I mean…it’s barely even formal, right? Just more…” I clicked my fingers. “Smart casual.”

“Ah! Nice one.” Beth nodded in agreement and closed the door behind me. “Well, you look lovely.”

I smiled bashfully. “Thank you. You look great too.”

She smiled knowingly at me. “Dinner will be ready soon, so you’re welcome to make yourself comfortable.”

“Thanks.” I nodded. “I’m just going to duck to the bathroom and freshen up a little bit.”

“Sure.” Beth smiled. “I’ll be in the kitchen -–” There was a short, pained whine that came from the kitchen area and Beth and I jumped at the sound. She sighed heavily and I gave her a sympathetic look. “-– making sure Jerry doesn’t burn the house down.”

I gave a soft chuckle and nodded before making my way to the downstairs bathroom. I couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Rick’s room’s door, and immediately felt my skin grow hot at the reminder of what happened on the other side of that door just last week. I shook my head to force the thoughts away, than went into the bathroom to relieve myself.

As I was washing my hands, I patted my pink cheeks with the cold water to cool down. I took a deep breath and stared at my reflection for a long while. I didn’t look bad, just a little more dressed up than the rest of the household.

“It’s fine.” I assured myself as I turned off the faucet and dried my hands. “The main purpose of this dress is to one-up Rick. As long as that happens, then the stares from the others won’t matter.”

As I opened the bathroom door, the door to Rick’s room opened and he walked out, mid-swig of his flask. His eyes glanced over to me, then widened when he registered that it was me. He slowly took me in, head-to-toe, and lowered his flask from his lips.

“Decked –- urrp -– decked out to the nines, I see.” He teased as he met my gaze.

I got self-conscious again and rubbed my upper-arm. I hated that I’d barely made eye contact with him and he already had the upper-hand, and that I still felt embarrassed.

“It’s not like there was an established dress-code…” I mumbled.

Rick’s eyes slid down my form again and I noticed that his eyes lingered on the lower half of my body. His brow furrowed and he cleared his throat.

“Have you always had…so much leg?”

There was something in his voice that wasn’t there when he first spoke, and he was almost starting to look tense. My appearance was affecting him more than he was letting on, and there were slight giveaways that he wasn’t nearly as composed inside as he was showing off.

I knew deep down the heels were a good idea.

I batted my eyelashes at him as I sauntered up to him. I wanted to see if acting overly oblivious would rile him up more.

“I believe so.” I said as innocently as I could muster as I reached him. He swallowed and stared me down, but didn’t budge. Out of stubbornness, I assumed. “Though it’s not like this is the first time you’ve seen them so…bare.”

I rested my hand on his shoulder and leaned in, brushing my lips along his earlobe. “The heels are a nice touch though, don’t you think?”

I felt him stiffen as I left his side, a triumphant smirk on my face. I could feel his eyes burning a hole in the back of my head and I swayed my hips as I walked through the living room and to the kitchen. Jerry was taking a bowl of mash potato to the dining room and Beth was leaning against the bench with a half-full glass of red wine. When she saw me, she raised her glass to silently offer me a glass of my own while her mouth was full, and I sighed in relief.

“Please.”

She poured me a glass and I took a sip just as I heard Jerry call out, “Summer! Morty! Dinner!”

There was a chorus of thudding as the two kids made their way down the stairs.

“Mom, do we have any Dr Pepper…?”

A red-headed girl wandered into the kitchen with her nose in her phone, glancing up to acknowledge her mother. Her eyes shifted to me and I almost would have said that her expression was unreadable, but that was just because she didn’t have any expression.

She was just completely and utterly bored.

“Summer, this is Morty’s tutor.” Beth introduced me by name and I smiled at her. She gave me a barely-attempted half-smile.

“Hey.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” I said and she gave a small nod.

“Yeah, you too.” She mumbled before she was absorbed in her phone once more. Beth gave me an apologetic smile and I raised my finger.

“Not a word.”

She chuckled, but said nothing. Jerry walked in and sighed, planting his hands on his hips in true dad-fashion.

“I think we’re ready to eat.”

“Wonderful.” Beth sighed, looking over at me. “Hope you’re hungry.”

“Starving.” I smiled, taking my glass of wine and following her and Jerry into the dining room. I took my regular seat next to Morty, finding a sense of comfort in the familiarity.

“H-hey!” Morty greeted with a small smile. “Y-you look nice.”

I gave him a friendly wink as I tucked my chair in and Beth took the head of the table next to me. Jerry sat at the other head, and Summer took the seat diagonal from me, which only left the seat directly across from me empty.

The moment I heard him walk in, I glanced up at Rick only to find his eyes already on me. He raised his brow and made his way to the seat opposite me, and I had to hide the smile that threatened to split my face.

“Well, let’s dig in before it gets cold!” Jerry announced.

Plates and bowls were passed from person to person as they grabbed portions of steak, mash and vegetables. Morty poured a heap of gravy over all of his food and Summer snapped at him with, “Leave some the rest for us, dummy!”

That earned a classic motherly scolding of, “Don’t talk to your brother that way.” From Beth, and I had to hide my smile behind my glass of wine.

As the family delved into what they’d been up to during the day, I got an idea to potentially get Rick flustered. I stared down at my food and began gently prodding my foot around in search of Rick’s. When I found his shoe, I glanced over at Beth to make sure it wasn’t accidentally hers. When she paid me no mind, I was confident that it wasn’t.

I started to slide my foot up Rick’s pant leg and snuck a glance at him from under my lashes. His eyes darted to Beth first, then to the other side to check to see if anyone was paying us any mind, before they locked with mine and his brow rose by a miniscule amount.

He was challenging me to go further.

I kept sliding my foot up and when I reached the bend of his knee, I slowly popped the forkful of food into my mouth, making sure to keep the innocent façade on my face. I saw Rick’s eyes literally darken as he stared at me, though I wasn’t sure whether it was in warning or lust. I saw his eyes dip to my cleavage, which had been more on show since I’d leaned forward to eat, than lock with mine again. There was the smallest smirk on his face and I felt my stomach drop.

I was so in trouble.

Jerry cleared his throat and I quickly retracted my foot from Rick’s leg. When Jerry addressed me by name, I glanced over at him in acknowledgement.

“Beth said you just graduated college, right?” He asked. God, I hated idle chit-chat to fill awkward silences. Even worse; since I was the new shiny toy, I got to be asked all the questions.

“A few months ago, yeah.” I nodded. “It was a long 5 years, but it was absolutely worth it.”

“So…does that mean you can be a therapist now?” Beth jumped in.

I nodded at her. “After a couple years of licenced training, sure.”

“You should be our therapist,” Jerry chuckled, “Maybe then the advice you gave us wouldn’t fall on deaf ears…”

I looked over at Jerry and blinked in shock. I couldn’t find anything to say. What the hell would someone even say to that?

“Jerry.” Beth scolded him. She really did that a lot. To be fair, I could understand why. “Really? You’re going to do this now?”

“I doubt she’d want to listen to all your –- urrp -– stupid problems anyway.” Rick said, glancing up at me with a bored expression. I didn’t answer. No one did. The table instead dipped into a rather awkward silence that had me shifting on my chair.

Or maybe I was shifting because Rick was still staring at me.

“Uh, h-hey mom?” Morty’s voice filled the silence and I could feel the tension starting to dissolve. “I got 83% on my math homework from last week.”

“That’s great, honey.” Beth said with a smile. I also turned to him and grinned.

“Way to go, Morty.”

He chuckled nervously and dipped his head, focusing intently on his food. I snuck a glance at Rick and he was staring at me. I felt like a deer in the headlights of a lion and I felt goosebumps prickle on my arms.

I had to take a large gulp of wine to calm my jittering nerves.

The moment dinner was over, Rick was the first one to stand and leave, with a kiss to Beth’s head as a ‘thank you’ for the meal. I was the only one who watched him walk off to his garage and he turned, held up a single finger with a smirk, then closed the door.

One? One what?

Jerry was grumbling about something to himself as he started cleaning up the plates and utensils, Summer mumbled a thanks into her phone before making her way upstairs, Beth and I stood up and she put her hand on my shoulder.

“You’re the guest.” She said, kindly but with a firmness that only a mother had. “No cleaning.”

I nodded and sat back down. “Thank you.”

She smiled and took my plate, and her and Jerry cleared the table while Morty and I sat at the dining table. I turned to him and grinned.

“When were you gonna tell me you got an 83 in math?” I teased.

Morty laughed nervously. “Y-yeah…I, um…I just kinda forgot, I guess.”

“Well that’s really awesome and I’m proud of you.” I said genuinely. “Hell, soon you won’t even need me tutoring you.”

“I don’t know about that.” Morty winced. “I think we’re starting on trigonometry soon.”

I let out a low whistle. “Triangles are absolutely useless in the real world, unless you’re an architect or something.”

Morty smiled. “R-Rick says that, too.”

“See? Even a genius like him knows how useless triangles are.” I smirked. I glanced up at the clock in the dining room and something suddenly clicked in my mind. Rick’s gesture. One. It was a warning. He was going to be at my place in one hour, and since it took me 30 minutes to drive home…

I had to go now.

“Shoot, is that the time?” I winced, getting up from my seat and giving Morty an apologetic smile. “I have to go, but I’ll see you next week, yeah?”

Morty smiled and nodded, then left to go to upstairs. I went into the kitchen and smiled politely at Beth and Jerry. “I have to head off, but thank you both for the dinner. It was lovely.”

“Oh, that’s no problem.” Beth smiled, walking with me to the front door. “I’m really glad you came around, and that you’re obviously helping Morty out so much. He really needs that kind of person around him right now.”

I waved her off. “Like I said: he has the potential, just needs another way of having it explained…” When I saw Beth’s face, telling me to ‘stop being humble and just accept the compliment’, I sighed. “But thank you.”

She gave me a satisfied smile. “Drive safe.”

“I will.” I nodded, giving her a wave as she shut the door.

I had to restrain myself from running; both to my car and from my car when I’d gotten home.

It seemed as though Kylie was occupying herself in her room so I tried to be as quiet as possible, practically tip-toeing to my room and opening the door. The moment I did so, despite it being too dark in my room to see anything, I smirked.

I could fucking smell him.

When I flicked on the light, Rick was taking a swig from his flask as he sat on the edge of my bed, legs spread and shoes discarded on my floor.

“You’re –- urrp -– you’re late.” He said as he put his flask away.

“You never specified a time,” I countered, reaching down to undo the strap of my heels, “So really, I’m not ‘anything’.”

“Nuh uh.” Rick’s voice made me freeze and look up at him. He made the move to stand up. “Those stay on.”

I raised my brows and straightened up. “So you do like the heels.”

“I swear to fucking God,” He growled, ignoring my comment and walking towards me, “If you like –- i-if you want that dress to stay in one piece, take it off right fucking now.”

I grinned and complied, reaching around to tug the zipper down the back of my dress. I watched him the entire time as he made his way towards me and the moment my dress pooled at my feet, Rick was on me, slamming me against my door and I gasped. He quickly captured my lips in a searing kiss, frantic and rushed. I could tell he’d wanted to do this since the moment he saw me coming out of the bathroom.

“For God’s sake,” I moaned as Rick’s hands went straight to my ass, “My room’s not soundproof like yours.”

He smirked against my lips. “It’s not, is it?”

I let my eyes flutter closed as he moved his lips to my neck and began nipping along my skin. “When did you -– ?”

“You were taking your -– taking too long.” He mumbled, sucking a hickey into the spot that had only just faded from last week. “Figured you needed an –- urrp -– an upgrade.”

I panted as Rick began rubbing his clothed erection against my thigh. “How kind of you.”

He grinned and looked at me. “At least I told you this time.”

I rolled my eyes with a smirk. “Only because I prompted you to answer.”

With no warning, he hooked his hands under my legs and lifted me with a grunt, and I wrapped my legs around his waist on instinct. He carried us to my bed and threw me down and I landed with a soft squeak. While Rick undressed himself, I quickly shed my undergarments before he crawled over me and kissed me once more. He coaxed one of my legs to hook around his waist again and I obliged with a growing smile.

“Tell me…” I broke the kiss and batted my lashes up at him. “Did I look pretty tonight?”

There was a look in his eyes I’d never seen before. It was there and gone in a flash, but I knew it was there. It set my nerves on fire and made me grow even wetter than I already was. The look was replaced with something I was far more used to seeing in his eyes and he smirked.

“I wanted to bend you over that dining table all fucking night, if that’s what you -– if that’s what you’re asking.”

I had just opened my mouth to respond when he suddenly thrust his entire length into me and I gasped, gripping onto his shoulders and arching my back into him. He groaned and his head fell to my shoulder.

“Fucking Christ…”

I giggled at his proclamation and he started pulling out. He was almost all the way when he slammed back into me and I whimpered.

“More…” I whispered. “Please, more…”

Rick growled and started an agonisingly slow pace. I whined in annoyance and slipped one of my hands from his shoulder to his bicep to squeeze.

“Rick -–”

“Actions have consequences.” He lifted his head to smirk at me. “Or did you think you could – you got to be a little minx for nothing?”

My chest heaved as I stared at him, shifting my gaze from one eye to the other. In that moment, I felt something shift inside me. It felt…new and warm and exciting, and it was making the butterflies in my stomach go wild.

“Rick, baby…” I cooed, resting one hand in his hair. “Please?”

His brow furrowed by the smallest amount, and I wondered if he’d seen something in my eyes that I hadn’t realised I’d shown him. Regardless, he listened to my plea and began to pick up his pace. He rubbed my clit as he panted against my mouth, and I gasped against his lips.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…Rick!”

And with a cry of his name, my orgasm had snuck up on me and made me clench hard around Rick’s cock. He grunted and his already quick thrusts turned erratic, and I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck.

“Say my name.” I whispered.

His eyes snapped to mine. I stared into them.

“Please?”

The moment he whispered my name on my lips, he thrust forward and came hard. I brought his lips to mine to muffle his moan and clenched around him as he spilled himself into me. When he was done, he kept his cock fully inside me and panted against my lips. I nuzzled his nose.

“That was…really hot.” I whispered.

Rick didn’t say anything. Whether it was because he didn’t hear me or he didn’t have anything to quip back with, I wasn’t sure. After a few moments of silence, he pecked my lips and pulled out.

My leg fell from his waist when he hopped off the bed and I was reminded of the heels on my feet. I winced as I brought one of my feet up to examine it. The strap of the heel had dug in uncomfortably and had made a reddening mark on my ankle.

“As charming as you are,” I said to the shoe as I undid the strap, “You really fucking hurt.”

My foot close to the edge of the bed was suddenly lifted up and I watched Rick as he undid the strap of my shoe and slid it off my foot. I sighed in relief when the cold air hit the bottom of my aching foot, and took the shoe off the foot I was holding.

“Now that’s the stuff…” I moaned, letting Rick take the shoe from my hand without a word. Drowsiness washed over me and I stretched my arms up with a yawn. Rick came over and silently tucked me in, and again I thought nothing of it. Mostly because my brain and body felt like mush and I barely had the capacity to keep my eyes open.

I watched him reach into his coat pocket for his portal gun and reached for him weakly.

“Wait.” He glanced at me and I blinked tiredly up at him. “Can you stay?”

He sighed and dropped his gaze. “Sweetie…”

God, I loved when he called me that.

“Just until I’m asleep.” I said, and his eyes met mine again. “The moment I’m out, you can go.”

Rick stared at me for a long while, and I stared right back. I blinked again. At this rate, I’d be out before he could give me an answer.

“Please?”

His gaze softened and his posture slumped, though I wasn’t sure whether it was in defeat or guilt. When he heaved a sigh, I knew I was about to be let down.

“Nevermind.” I mumbled before he could form a response. I turned away from him and finally let my eyes shut with no resistance. “It’s probably not a good idea anyway…”

There was silence for a moment, until I heard him open a portal. I don’t even know why I was feeling like this in the first place. Maybe it was because I felt so incredibly alone and just holding someone for an hour or two might have distracted me from that ever-increasing hole of emptiness inside myself. Maybe I was just cold. Who knew?

The whirring sound of the portal hadn’t gone yet, which either meant it hadn’t closed up behind Rick yet, or he hadn’t left. I didn’t feel like turning back to acknowledge him, so I stayed still with my eyes closed and listened out for the silence that I was sure was soon to come.

But then, I felt the mattress dip slightly and Rick’s lips pressed gently to my temple.

“You did look very pretty tonight.” He mumbled against my skin before pulling away. Immediately after that, the whirring sound was gone, and I knew he’d finally left.

I couldn’t help but smile.

Chapter Text

I knew it was a bad idea. I fucking knew this is how it would end and yet I still let Kylie drag me into the middle of this mess.

‘Just a couple!’ She’d insisted, and I nodded along. Of course, Kylie took that as the go ahead to make those couple of drinks both very strong, home-made long island iced teas. After that, God knows how many shots and other drinks we threw back. It was nice to catch up with my friends from college again, but I was already on the way to gone when they showed up at our place; and I was blacked out by the time they left.

I didn’t even remember getting to my bed, but as the land of the unconscious started slipping through my fingertips, the familiar feeling of my mattress was a comfort. Unfortunately, the lingering stench of whiskey invading my nose was now. The smell made my stomach start churning violently and I groaned in protest. I didn’t even remember if I’d had any whiskey amongst the copious amount of liquor both Kylie and I had slammed down, but I wouldn’t have put it past either of us to have done a few shots.

And if this whopping headache and nausea was anything to go by, my body wasn’t handling it too well.

“Kylie,” I moaned, waving my hand around in the vague direction of the smell. “That’s not funny…”

“G-geez.” A voice belched and my stomach churned some more, but for a very different reason. “Y-you really did a number on yourself, huh?”

Of course he was here.

I forced my eyes open and found Rick standing over me, his hands propped on his hips and his brow quirked disapprovingly. If I didn’t feel so shitty, I would have laughed and teased him for looking like such a dad.

However, I did feel shitty, and the overwhelming smell of alcohol on him wasn’t helping in the slightest.

“Jesus, Rick.” I groaned and rolled over so I was facing away from him and closed my eyes again. “Your stench is gonna make me throw up.”

“Fucking kids…” Rick sighed and I heard him make a portal and leave.

I sighed and let out another soft moan. Why was he here? I wondered if it was just an unfortunate coincidence, or…

Oh no.

My friends in high school used to embarrass me with the copious amounts of drunken texts I’d send them after I’d had a few drinks. I never remembered sending them, but it happened often enough that whenever I’d go to a gathering with alcohol and I was on the way to tipping over the edge, someone would confiscate my phone until I was dead asleep. I’d never told my college friends, because why the fuck would I? It’s embarrassing as is.

Yet now, I kind of wish I’d at least told Kylie.

Just as I was about to doze off again, I heard him portal back into my room. The edge of my bed dipped as he sat down and gently rolled me over to face him again. I slowly blinked up at him and my lips twitched into a smirk. His unamused stare made me giggle.

“Hi.” I whispered.

“Sit up.” He ordered.

I grunted in protest, but complied. “What are you, my mother?”

“God, you’re so -– urrp -– annoying.” Rick groaned.

“I’m hungover, Rick.” I snapped at him. “Something I doubt you even remember being. It’s not like I fucking asked you to come here, either!”

“Oh.” He scoffed. “You didn’t, did you?”

I felt a chill shoot down my spine and my stomach churned more. Ah, good; so it was true. I had drunkenly asked him to come here.

My voice was small when I countered with “…No.”

His smirk made the scowl on my face deepen and he fished his phone out from his lab coat pocket. He opened up our text messages and turned his phone to show me. I squinted at the brightness of his screen and began scrolling through the string of messages. I sighed at the profanities I’d said, among them being if there was a sex god, itd be you and i can’t wait to jump on ur dick again.

“Geez,” I sighed, “I really gave your ego a good stroking, didn’t I?”

I glanced up and met Rick’s cocky grin with an unamused stare.

“I thought they were cute.” He teased.

“Oh, shut up.” I snapped as I looked back down at his phone. I kept scrolling until, at 2:56am, one message in particular stuck out and I stopped scrolling to stare at it.

ii luvc wern uu take csare iof mee:)

‘I love when you take care of me’ was what it was supposed to say. I felt a blush on my cheeks and snuck a glance up at Rick. Thankfully, he was distracted by pouring a pink liquid of some kind into a glass on my bedside table. I swallowed and stared at the words for a bit longer. This wasn’t good. Our relationship was one based purely on pleasure, and this text suggested the possibility of something deeper. I knew the type of person Rick was, and serious commitments were not his forte. Not only that, but I didn’t even know if I was serious commitment material.

I deleted the message from off his phone and flicked my thumb to scroll until it reached the end of my gibberish rambling; the letter ‘e’ sent at 3:27am.

“None of this counts.” I grumbled as I handed the phone back to him, rubbing my eyes to try and get the sleep out of them. “Obviously I was too fucking drunk to know what I was saying.”

“So you were -– urrp -– you’re saying you don’t want to fuck me?”

“Of course I want to fuck you, you ass.” I snapped. “I didn’t mean I wanted to do it this morning.”

“You mean this afternoon.” He corrected smugly.

I scowled at him. “Is it possible for you to refrain from being a jackass for 2 fucking seconds?”

Rick’s widening grin was all the answer I needed and I pressed my hands to my face. My skin was clammy and hot. I began swaying when there was a sudden harsh pain in my temples, and a nauseating wave of dizziness hit me like a ton of bricks.

“Woah…”

I hadn’t even realised I’d started falling forward until there were suddenly two hands on my shoulders, keeping me from face planting into the bed. I blinked up at Rick, who simply sighed down at me. I took in a couple whiffs and noticed the smell of alcohol was gone.

In fact, he didn’t smell like anything.

“Did you…” I swallowed. “Speed wash your clothes or something?”

He rolled his eyes and picked up a glass of liquid from my bedside table, thrusting it into my hands. “Drink.”

I looked down at the contents; it looked like a bright pink juice of some kind and I scrunched my nose up at it. I gave it a whiff and almost gagged.

“Nope.” I shook my head, trying to give him the glass back. “Nuh uh. I don’t know what’s in that, but it smells fucking revolting.”

Rick stared at me incredulously. “It’s raspberry-flavoured.”

“It smells awful!” I persisted. “Give me some ibuprofen or something.”

“Oh, would you fucking -– ” Rick yanked the glass from my hands and tilted my head back. He forcefully opened my mouth and tipped the contents in my mouth, then closed my mouth and pinched my nose shut to force me to swallow. He let go of me once it was down and I coughed, the horrendous taste lingering on the back of my tongue.

“What the fuck was that for?!” I wheezed.

“To take -– to get rid of your fucking hangover.” Rick snapped back. As if on cue, the pain in my head literally disappeared along with the nausea in my stomach and I felt completely revitalised. I blinked at him in shock while gave me an annoyed glare.

“Yeah. You’rr -– eurgh -– rre welcome.”

I furrowed my brows. “Why did you do that?”

He quirked a brow. “What?”

I took the now empty glass from his hands and squinted to look at the few droplets left. The way it practically glowed gave me the feeling it was created from a beaker, not bought from somewhere. I looked up at him.

“Did you…just make this now?” I asked. “For me?”

He rolled his eyes and snatched the glass from me. “Why can’t you just shut up and -– urrp -– be thankful that I helped you?”

His lack of denial was all the answer I needed and I smiled at him. “Thank you.”

I grabbed his lab coat and brought it to my nose to smell. There was still no scent at all; not just his usual smell, but there was no ‘cover up’ scent. It just smelled of cotton.

“That’s fucking amazing.” I grinned genuinely as I pulled back to look at him. “Did you actually go home and make those two things in the span of…what? 10 minutes?”

“What? Y-you thought I was lying when I said 'smartest man in the universe'?” Rick scoffed. “Frankly, I’m pretty fucking insulted.”

“You’re so dramatic.” I rolled my eyes.

“Oh yeah, that’s rich, coming from you.” He sneered, though I could pick up on the playful tone in his voice. “And for the record, making those -– urrp -– the hangover cure and the scent spray only took 5.”

“I get it, you’re smart and you’re bragging and you’re proving that you’re telling the truth.” I sighed. “Can’t you just be thankful that I complimented you?”

I smirked as I repeated the words he’d just said and he stared at me, something unfamiliar dancing in his eyes. I couldn’t say for sure what it was, but I knew it was something good from the way he smirked at me.

“Well…” Rick started leaning over me and I leant backwards onto my bed, reaching up and wrapping my arms around his neck. “I can think of one -– urrp -– another way you could thank me. For coming to your rescue this morning.”

“‘Coming to my rescue’.” I snorted. “I would have been just fine with painkillers and water.”

He leaned down and started lazily kissing my neck, making me close my eyes with a sigh and keen into him. With Rick’s hands sliding up and down my hips, I was suddenly hyper-aware of how grungy I felt and the lingering taste of alcohol, and whatever the fuck Rick had just concocted for me, on my tongue.

“Okay, hold on cowboy,” I pushed lightly on Rick’s chest and met his annoyed gaze with a smirk, “Before you get too carried away, I need a shower.”

I was half-expecting Rick to counter that, but he shrugged and hopped off. “I mean, I wasn’t gonna say it, but…”

I rolled my eyes and punched his arm before hopping up and gathering a change of clothes. I’d just opened up my drawer when Rick’s voice cut through the silence.

“Why bother?” He asked deadpan. I turned to cock a brow at him and he shrugged. “We both know clothes’ll just -– they’ll just get in the way.”

“I never took back what I said earlier.” I smirked, turning back to sift through my drawers. “So if fucking is what you’re expecting, then prepare to be sorely disappointed. In fact, you’d be better off just -– ”

I glanced over my shoulder, only to stop my sentence before I could finish it. Rick was nowhere to be seen, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. Despite his rather shallow reasons for doing so, I was still thankful he’d helped me out with my hangover. Hell knows how long I would have spent grumbling and groaning in my bed trying to motivate myself to get up and start my day.

Unless he was waiting in the bathroom to surprise me.

I gathered a clean shirt and panties and tip toed to the bathroom. I knocked on the closed door to make sure it was empty. When I heard nothing in reply, I felt confident that at least Kylie wasn’t still in there.

“Thought you could spring another one on me?” I smirked rather cockily. “You’re getting far too -– ”

I opened the door to an empty bathroom. I sighed heavily, though I was thankful that I was alone to save myself the embarrassment.

“Well…damn.”

The scalding water was welcoming on my skin and I sighed as it washed the lingering sweat from my skin. I tried to make a mental list of what I needed to do during the week, including grocery shopping and working out what to work on with Morty during our next session. However, after only a few minutes of making mental lists, I decided nothing was going to properly stick and that I could take the day just for me.

After all, if it weren’t for Rick, I’d be spending the day nursing a wicked hangover.

I hopped out of the shower once I had thoroughly scrubbed myself and dressed myself. I wrapped my hair in the towel and carried my dirty clothes with me back to my room. The moment I opened my door, I jumped at the sight of Rick lying on my bed with his nose buried in a device of some sort.

“Jesus, Rick.” I snapped, closing my door and chucking my dirty clothes in my hamper. “Do that one more time and I’m making you wear a bell around your neck.”

Rick hummed as he tinkered with his device. “Sounds more up your alley than mine.”

I scoffed as I dried my hair with the towel, and chucked it in the hamper with my dirty clothes. “I’m not the one sneaking into the other’s room at any given -– what is that?”

I’d finally turned around and found a takeaway cup on my dresser. Rick glanced up at me, then followed my gaze to the cup, then shrugged and returned his attention to his device.

“Coffee, last I checked.”

I blinked at him, despite him not looking up at me, and walked over to the cup. As sweet as this was of him, it felt bizarre being looked after by Rick like this and there was a weird swirling happening in my gut. I cautiously picked up the cup.

“What brought all this on?” I asked softly, tipping the cup up to take a sip. I hummed and smiled down at the cup. It was just a regular cappuccino, though I noted it was slightly sweeter than I preferred to have my coffee. Still, I appreciated it.

“What’s with all these fucking -– urrp -– questions today?” Rick sighed, and I could hear the smirk in his tone. “I thought you liked when -– you liked being taken care of.”

I swallowed the coffee that was in my mouth with a large ‘gulp’. I felt every muscle in my body freeze at the realisation that he had seen that specific text, and that he’d notice it was gone if he went back to check. I could only hope that I could convince him that I hadn’t sent it in the first place and that maybe he’d misinterpreted one of the other gibberish texts instead. If he asked to see my phone though, since it still had the text on there, I was done for.

I decided to play dumb, and turned to look at him with the vaguest look I could muster, even going as far as to tilt my head. “What are you talking about?”

“It was one of your many ridiculously nightmareish-to-read texts that you sent last night.” Rick scoffed. When I kept staring at him blankly, he fished for his phone in his pocket with a cocksure smirk. “I’ll even -– urrp -– prove it.”

He swapped the device in his hand for his cell phone and opened up our messages. I took another sip of coffee as he began scrolling through, and I hoped the look on my face was confusion and not guilt as I watched him. Soon enough, his brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed in on his screen. When he shifted his piercing gaze up to me, I almost cowered away.

“Funny,” He said in a deadpan voice, “It’s not there.”

I blinked blankly at him. “Are you sure it said -– ”

“You sent a message,” Rick cut me off as he stood up, pointing and slowly stalking towards me, “At 4 to 3 in the morning, saying you liked being -– liked when I took care of you. It was -– urrp -– riddled with typos, but it was clear enough to know that’s what it said.”

“Then show me it.” I pressed, hoping he would get too flustered to think about the evidence I held.

“I fucking can’t, because it’s not -– ” Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes in on me. “Show me your phone.”

I couldn’t help but be taken aback by how quickly he’d figured out and stuttered, “Wh-what?”

“If you never sent it, then it won’t be there, right?” He explained slowly, patronisingly.

I absolutely would have slapped him if I wasn't in the wrong.

We stared at each other for a while, before I sighed and unlocked my phone, went to our messages and handed it to him.

‘Of course it was going to backfire,’ I thought to myself. ‘You can’t outsmart the smartest man in the universe.’

He snatched my phone from me and scrolled through our texts until he reached the message he was looking for – I could see it in his eyes as he read over it again. Then he looked at me again, smug but not smiling, and let me take the phone back from his slackened grip.

“You are such a fucking hypocrite.” He laughed venomously, and I couldn’t help but be taken aback by his tone. I didn’t realise he’d take it quite this hard.

“Okay, fine.” I confessed. It wasn’t like I could keep lying to him. “Yes, I deleted that message when I saw it.”

“And then you tried to make me think it was in my head.” He scoffed. “You really tried to -– you really thought you could trick the smartest man alive? Geez. You’re -– urrp -– way stupider than I thought.”

“Would you let me fucking explain myself?” I snapped. It was a beat of silence, where Rick was obviously shocked I had the gall to interrupt his rant, but it was all I needed to press on.

“I deleted it because I was embarrassed.” I admitted through gritted teeth. “We’ve known each other for barely a month, Rick. I don't even know your birthday or your fucking middle name.”

The fact Rick was staying silent meant that he could understand where I was coming from, or he agreed in some way; or he simply had nothing to counter with. So I kept going.

“Saying that kind of shit implies an emotional connection, but I don’t know if we can even have one at this point.” I sighed. I should have stopped there, but I couldn't help but add, “And I have a sneaking feeling that once emotions start to hit is when you run off and stick your dick into another hole.”

Rick sneered at me and opened his mouth to retort, but I held up my hand and cut in before he could.

“And I’m not criticising your inability to form an emotional bond beyond that which solely benefits you and your needs.” Rick cocked his brow at my long-winded evaluation and I sighed, dropping my hand. “Look, my point is that I...I didn’t want to scare you off. I really likethe time we spend together, and I don’t want it to stop. Besides…”

I trailed off. I should have stopped before that, but I wanted to be truthful with him. It was the least he deserved, after all. Unfortunately, I was worried I might have been pushing it a little too far. Rick tilted my chin up with his finger and looked at me. Like, really looked at me. I could feel his eyes searching everything within me, and it sent goosebumps over my skin.

His voice was uncharacteristically soft when he prodded, “What?”

“I was blacked out by the time it hit 2.” I sighed and avoided his gaze. “I don’t even remember sending you that message. Hell, my high school friends used to make fun of me for constantly sending drunken jibberish to them to the point where they used to take my fucking phone away.”

Rick’s finger left my chin and he went over to sit on the edge of my bed. I looked over at him and was surprised by the rather melancholy look in his gaze as he stared down at his shoes. I didn’t let myself think twice before going over and sitting hip-to-hip with him. I placed my hand over his and met his gaze with a small smile.

“But if I did ever want to tell you something like that, I’d want it to be when I’m sober; and when we’re face-to-face.”

His eyes darted between mine, an unreadable emotion in them. Maybe he was trying to see if I was actually telling the truth this time, or maybe he wanted to say something himself. I clasped my hands in my lap cast my gaze down to them, signifying that I was finished talking.

Rick sighed heavily and stood up. I looked up when I heard the portal gun’s sound and he ran his fingers through his hair. I should have known he’d leave, and yet a part of me hoped that he would have stayed.

“I hate to say it when I say it but…you’re right.” He nodded, looking at me. There was no readable emotion in his eye. “We've only been -– only known each other for a few weeks. We’ve barely shared a -– urrp –- a fucking conversation.”

He took another heavy breath while I blinked up at him silently, waiting for him to say more. His eyes darted away from me.

“But when I read that…horrendously typed message,” He admitted quietly, “I got this…feeling…”

He trailed off and the psych student in me dared to prod him for more, but I knew what his reaction would be; so I kept quiet and let him close himself up again. Maybe one day I’d get to hear it.

“Something I haven’t felt in a really long time.” He sighed heavily. “And it made me feel…young again.”

I nodded in understanding. “So, the hangover cure and the coffee…was just you chasing after that feeling again?”

The moment the words left my mouth, I facepalmed myself. My face was buried in my hands, though I could feel Rick’s eyes on me. I was relieved when I heard him scoff.

“’Course.” I heard him say, “What else should you -– should I have expected from a fucking psych graduate? A normal response?”

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled into my hands, “It’s like a disease.”

“Ironic that they’d condition you to say that kind of shit in a regular conversation.” Rick retorted.

I sneaked a peek at him and he gave me a lazy smirk. I could physically feel the tension in the room beginning to lift.

“You’re one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever met,” I said as I sat up and turned to look at him head on. He quirked his brow at me, “And I don’t think we’re quite done with each other yet, do you?”

Rick gave me a once over and his smirk widened. “Pr-pretty sure I was the one who -– urrp –- who said that first.”

“Point still stands.” I returned his smirk with a grin. “And I promise, no more psychology stuff.”

Rick rolled his eyes, knowing full well that wouldn’t last nearly as long as he’d hoped it would, and I stepped away from him and his portal. I shuffled my feet while Rick cleared his throat.

“The, um…” I gestured to my room. “The offer’s still open, if you, um…if you wanna hang around or, y’know…”

He grinned and I could physically feel the mood between us having been reset; and yet, strangely even more playful.

“I know.”

He gave me a wink before walking through his portal and having it close up behind him. I scoffed and shook my head once he left.

“Han Solo motherfucker.”

Chapter Text

Another tiring day out, another evening where my bed was as close to heaven as I could picture. I grabbed myself an apple once I walked in the front door and cleaned up the living area a bit while I still had the energy. Once I was done, and my apple was nothing but a core, I threw it in the bin and went to my room.

I wandered in and flicked on the light, jumping at the sight of Rick laying on my bed. I had my mouth open ready to yell at Rick for coming into my room with no warning for the umpteenth time, when I stopped short. He was fully clothed, his arm flung across his eyes and his chest rising and falling at a steady pace. I swallowed and tread carefully around to his side of my bed and held my breath when he stirred for a moment. Then, when he’d stilled, I hovered my hand over his face and prepared for the worst.

I snapped my fingers a couple times, right in front of his face…

Not a budge.

I exhaled in relief and went around my room, grabbing my clothes for my shower. As I showered and prepared for bed, my mind wandered. Had he been waiting so long on me that he’d fallen asleep? Also, I could have sworn he was a light sleeper, so how the walking around and especially the clicking hadn’t woken him up was eating me up. Maybe he was too exhausted to care. But why was he here if he was that tired?

Back in my room, Rick hadn’t moved from his spot. The only thing that was different was the sound of light snoring coming from Rick’s mouth. I caught myself from smiling and forced it away. No. No, I was not going to do that to myself. No way.

I reached for the pillow on the other side of my bed to take with me to the couch for the night, but stopped short of the door. If Kylie saw me sleeping on the couch, she’d ask why I wasn’t in bed, and no excuse I could give her would make her question why I wasn’t in my room. Besides, it wasn’t like Rick and I hadn’t shared a fucking bed for the night…

Holy shit. We hadn’t shared a bed before.

“Oh yeah, like he hasn’t fucked you to infinity and beyond.” I scoffed as I set the pillow back on the mattress and fluffed it. “It’s sharing a mattress. What the fuck is wrong with sharing a mattress? People do it all the time. It doesn’t mean anything…”

The entire time I was quietly justifying this to myself, I hadn’t made the move to hop under the covers. I stared, shifting my gaze from the empty space and Rick’s form. 'God, what would he do when he woke up and saw me sleeping next to him? No, wait, who cares? He’s in your bed, so if anything, you get to be mad at him. It’s not like you asked him around…'

I quickly checked my phone for any messages I may have sent while spaced out. Nothing since the other night when I’d drunk texted.

'Yeah. You didn’t ask him here, therefore he shouldn’t be here. So wake him up and tell him to fuck off out of your bed. Or better yet, just push him off!'

Despite the voice in my head, I didn’t budge; not to lie on the bed nor to wake Rick up. It seemed I had come to an impasse.

“Would you just fucking lay down already?” Rick grumbled, and I felt the blood in my veins run cold. He hadn’t moved his arm, nor had his breathing changed. I stayed silent, hoping he had somehow sleep-talked the exact question I had been trying to figure out in my head. Then, before my mind could start down the rabbit hole of ‘He’s snuck into my dreams before, maybe he’s able to read my mind even when he’s asleep’, Rick’s arm flopped onto the pillow I’d just fluffed and his head rolled to me. He blinked slowly up at me, an emotion I couldn’t read in his eye.

“You’re really fucking -– y-you’re so loud.” He sighed.

I crossed my arms defensively. “Apologies, your highness, but I wasn’t expecting you in my fucking bed!” I hissed.

Rick raised his monobrow lazily. “You offered for me to stay, on more than one occasion. So here I am; accepting your open offer and staying.”

I opened my mouth to counter, but he was right. I had offered, twice, and said that the offer was open. Granted, I didn’t exactly expect him to choose the most random time to cash in on it, otherwise I might have put some conditions on the ‘staying over’ offer.

Although…maybe I still wouldn’t have.

“Oh, for fuck’s -–” Rick reached up and used the hand that was resting on the pillow to grab a fistful of my singlet and pull me onto the bed with him. I fell onto him with a gasp, which he acknowledged with a lazy grin. His hand fell to my waist naturally and his other one rested behind his head.

“Well hell -– urrp -– o...” Rick burped softly in my ear, and I shuddered at the goosebumps that slithered down my back. I planted my hands on his chest and propped myself up to glare down at him, but I knew it would have looked more like a look of gentle scolding from the way Rick’s eyes twinkled up at me. I rolled my eyes with a sigh and got myself comfortable on my side of the bed, with my back turned to him. I doubted the emotionally detached Rick Sanchez was a cuddler, anyway.

“God, you’re annoying.” Rick huffed out and the next thing I knew, his arm was around my torso and his chest was moulded to the curve of my back. I could feel his nose brushing along the base of my neck, and I heard him take a breath in, and sigh it out.

“You smell nice…” He mumbled into my hair, I presumed not meaning for me to hear; so I pretended that I didn’t and allowed myself to relax further into him. I felt him smile against my shoulder.

“Good night, Rick.” I whispered into the dark.

“Good night, sweetheart.” Rick mumbled tiredly in reply, giving the back of my head a gentle kiss. I knew I was playing with fire, but at that moment, laying alone with Rick, I didn’t care.

I only hoped I got to do this whole domestic thing a little bit more.

When I woke up, the sun was bright in my eyes and the space next to me was empty. I sighed in disappointment and hopped up to start getting ready for the day…

Only to find all of my undergarments missing.

My jaw fell slack once the realisation hit me and I felt an angry fire burning in my veins. Frankly, this is what I deserved for letting my fucking guard down. Domesticity? With Rick? Yeah right.

In my blind rage, I’d dialled his number and had the phone pressed to my ear, waiting for him to pick up. The bastard almost let it ring out before he answered in a tone that made me grip my phone even harder.

“Goo –- eurgh -– ood morning.” Rick answered.

“Give them back right now.” I snapped.

“Give what back?” Rick asked with fake confusion in his tone.

I gritted my teeth. “You fucking know what. Make a portal, and fucking give them back!”

There was a hum, followed by a cheeky, “Nah. Guess you’ll have to –- urrp -– wait and come – come grab ‘em when you come over – come to tutor Morty.”

I couldn’t stand listening to another word out of his mouth and hung up. In the back of my mind, I knew exactly what was happening to me, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it. I felt sure that when I saw Rick this afternoon, if I just gave him a good screaming match, it would relieve all the built up tension and set us back to normal.

We might have to fuck the tension out of each other, but still.

For the entire rest of the day, including on the ride over to the Smith residence, there was an uncomfortable swirling of nausea in my stomach. This is exactly the kind of shit I wanted to avoid with Rick. Also, the fact that I was displacing a lot of this anger and hurt onto him wasn’t very fair, but my brain rationalised that it absolutely was fair considering that Rick was fully aware of where we were headed in our…relationship? What even was it?

'That was another thing,' I thought as I walked up to the Smith’s front door. 'I couldn’t even put a name on what this was, even when it was implied we wouldn’t need to label this whole thing with us. I should have known this would have happened. At least I had the time to back out, and it wasn’t like Rick had any emotional attachment to me anyway.'

“Fuck.” I sighed to myself as I knocked on the door.

Morty answered it and beamed up at me. “Hey!”

The smile on my face was natural as I greeted the kid. “Ready to kick your homework in the butt?”

Morty stepped aside to let me in and walked into the dining room. I walked in through the door and ahead of me, standing in front of the hallway that lead to his room, Rick dangled a plastic bag by his head with a wicked grin. I knew my undergarments were in there, and I glared at him. ‘Give them back right fucking now’ was what I hoped I said, and from Rick’s eyebrow raise in return, I felt my heart drop.

‘Come and get them.’

As he walked out of sight, I told Morty I had to use the bathroom and that I wouldn’t be long. I stormed down the hall, turned and walked to Rick’s room. I shoved the door open and jumped at the unexpected sight of Jerry snooping through Rick’s things. He jumped as well, dropping whatever he’d picked up with clear guilt in his eye.

“Oh!” I stammered, “Shit, I-I thought this was the bathroom. I’m so sorry…”

I closed the door before he could answer me and stood frozen for a moment. Did Rick know Jerry was snooping through his stuff? Probably. And if there was anything worth hiding in there, he either would have A. hidden it somewhere Jerry wouldn’t look, or B. stashed it literally anywhere else.

I swallowed my pride and turned to the bathroom door. I figured while I was there, I might as well actually use it. I opened it and Rick’s laughter burst out of the room. I widened my eyes in panic and stepped into the bathroom with him, shutting the door behind me. Yet another soundproof room, which meant I could scream my piece at him.

I snatched the plastic bag from his hand. “You have some fucking nerve on you -–”

“I can’t believe you just did that!” Rick wheezed. “God, Jerry’s face…your face! Holy shit!”

Of course he’d seen it somehow. I wasn’t surprised.

What I was surprised at, though, was the genuine hurt I felt squeezing in my chest.

“I can’t believe you just did that!” I meant to scream it at him, but my voice was barely above a whisper. I hated it. I wanted to be mad and loud about it, but instead what I really wanted was to just curl into a ball and cry.

Rick finally made eye contact with me and his smile faltered, but didn’t go away. “…What?”

I shook my head, more at myself than at Rick, and dug the heels of my palms into my eyes. I would not cry over him.

“Oh, don’t be like that.” He sighed exasperatedly and pried my hands from my face. It was mostly boredom in his eye, but there was something else there too. It could have been a sliver of guilt, but I couldn’t tell.

Frankly, I didn’t care.

I snatched my hands away from his grip and glared up at him. He sighed down at me again and held his hands up defensively. “Geez. If I’d known you’d act like this, I wouldn’t have –- urrp -– done it.”

I squinted at him. “Which part do you think I’m angry about, might I ask?”

His brows furrowed. “…The prank?”

My eyebrows shot up and a scoff slipped past my lips before I could stop it. A scowl quickly replaced Rick’s expression and I shook my head.

“For the smartest man in the universe, you can be a real dumbass.”

I didn’t give him the chance to reply. I turned my back on him and walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me. I took a moment to calm myself and let my face cool down, and put the plastic bag of my undergarments in my bag before heading to the dining room. The moment Morty looked at me, his expression dropped.

“Y-you okay?” He asked.

I gave him a smile and nodded as I sat in the chair beside him. “Yeah. Just this guy I’m seeing…he’s being kind of a dick. It’s nothing.”

Morty furrowed his brows. “Y-you sure?”

“I’m a big girl. I can deal with it.” I said with a tone of finality that Morty picked up on. “Now, what are we working on this week?”

Morty and I worked on his math assignment for the time I was there, and I left pretty much straight after. Morty offered for me to stay and help myself to a coffee, but I politely declined and told him I just wanted to go home. He nodded and smiled, bidding me a goodbye as he shut the door on my way out.

At least Rick’s dickhead genes hadn’t infested his grandson.

I arrived home to an empty apartment and I sighed in relief. I was thankful I got at least a little bit of time to myself before Kylie got home from wherever she was. I walked to my bedroom and opened the door, and a scowl fell onto my face.

“I’m getting real sick of not being left alone.” I mumbled as I threw my bag to the side, narrowly missing Rick’s foot. He jumped out of the way just in time and was too busy focusing on it while I retrieved my fresh set of pyjamas from my drawer.

“Hey, wait a minute -–”

I ignored Rick as I walked out of my room and to the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind me. I put my hair up and stripped out of my clothing before turning the shower onto scalding, wincing at the heat of the water when I put my hand under to test.

Perfect.

The water burned my skin as I stood under it and I hissed at it, but the heat was all the more welcoming. I’d barely lathered soap on my skin when the shower curtain was pulled back suddenly and I jumped. I snarled when I met Rick’s gaze and dragged the shower curtain back closed.

He opened it again. “Stop acting like a fucking brat.”

“I swear to God the next time you do that, I’m going to punch you in the face.” I snapped, before dragging the shower curtain closed once more.

Rick dragged the shower curtain open again and I swung my fist at him, but he caught it and pulled me to him and crashed his lips to mine. My body responded before I could stop it and I melted into him, kissing him back with a passion that sent fire to my chest and to my core. A small whimper slipped out and Rick groaned in response. His grip had loosened on my wrist and I took that momentary distraction to pull away and give him a hard slap. He gave a start and glared daggers at me, placing his palm against his cheek in shock. I pushed him away and closed the curtain again, rinsing off the lather of soap from my skin. I heard the portal shot from his gun, then heard it close up as he left the bathroom. I sighed in relief and turned the water towards cold to cool off my red skin. I gasped at the shock of the cold water, but let it run over my body and splashed my face with it. I then got out, got dressed, and went back to my room.

This time when I opened the door, Rick wasn’t there.

I sighed heavily, a mix of relief and frustration, and put my dirty clothes in the hamper. I got my undergarments from the plastic bag and checked that everything was there. All bras and panties were accounted for, except for a pair of lacy black panties. I rolled my eyes.

“Fuckwit.”

I fixed myself some leftover dinner and set myself in front of the couch to watch a movie I’d seen enough to recite off the top of my head. I curled up on the couch and hadn’t even realised I’d fallen asleep until I felt the weird sensation of being carried, then my mattress suddenly supporting my back. A pair of bony fingers brushed some loose hair away from my face and I finally forced myself to open my eyes, meeting Rick’s as he’d squatted down to meet me face-to-face. I stared at him, begging myself to get up and start yelling at him. I just wanted to scream at him and tell him to fuck off and to leave me alone…

But I felt my jaw trembling instead.

This time, it was definitely guilt I could see in Rick’s eyes as he gave me a sympathetic tilt of his head. “Sweetie…”

“Don’t.” I shook my head, turning to face away from him. “I can’t…I can’t do this…just go away…please…”

“Hey, come on now…” Rick rolled me back to face him. I didn’t even try to fight him. “I…I didn’t think you -–”

“After last week?” I whispered. “I knew you could be a dick sometimes, but that was just cruel.”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay?” He sighed. “I did want to stay here for the night. It wasn’t just to do that stupid prank.”

I finally sat myself up, which gave me a slight height advantage to Rick squatting down, and shook my head down at him. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not.” Rick said immediately after, not a hint of dishonesty in his tone. “Jerry and Morty were giving me -– driving me nuts, a-and I needed somewhere to think. And hopefully sleep a bit. But mostly think. So I came here.”

I kept my face emotionless. “Why?”

“Because being with you helps give me a clear perspective.” He said. “Not just you you, but being around you. Your cramped room, your way-too-soft mattress, your stupid smelling shampoo…”

Even when complimenting me, he couldn’t help but add some insults to my surroundings. I hated that I was more endeared than pissed off.

“I completely forgot about the other week when I took your stuff, and it was only right before I left that I thought of it.” Rick said. “It wasn’t why I came here in the first place, and it definitely wasn’t why I wanted to stay.”

I swallowed dryly and nodded at him. “Okay.”

Rick sighed and closed his eyes in relief, but I wasn’t finished.

“I still meant what I said.” I continued. Rick opened his eyes and looked at me. “I can’t do this.”

He furrowed his brows. “Can’t do what?”

I dropped my head and shook it. “I can’t let myself go in too deep with you, especially if this is going to be the outcome.”

Rick’s entire demeanour changed as he stood up and scoffed down at me. There he was. “You’re fucking giving up?”

“I don’t want to,” I said, and I knew that he knew I was being honest, “I want to try. I really do. But I know that that’s not what you want, so I’m telling you that I can’t…if you won’t.”

The moment the realisation dawned on his face, I wanted to cower under my covers until he left. I’d rendered him speechless, both out of confusion and anger, and I hated it.

“You…literally said last week that you didn’t know if we had any sort of emotional connection.” Rick scoffed. “And, what? Suddenly you do now?”

“I still don’t know if we do have one,” I explained, “But if this is what it’s going to be like every time you knowingly, or unknowingly, tug on a particularly sensitive heartstring of mine…I don’t have the strength for this.”

“Holy shit.” Rick laughed, ignoring everything I’d just said. “And the fact that you said when emotions hit is when I start to run? Look the fuck at you! The hypocrisy comes right back out!

“It’s because I’m starting to feel more for you than I know you feel for me. You think I can control any of that?” My voice broke as I spoke. “You think anyone can control how they feel?”

“I can!” Rick shouted, pointing to himself. “I’m the smartest fucking man alive. Controlling shitty feelings is what I fucking do.”

I gave him a sad smile. “Which is exactly why we don’t work.”

Rick stared down at me and I gave a final sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

He scoffed and broke my gaze to fish for his portal gun. He shot a portal and went to step through it, but stopped suddenly and turned back to me. He pointed at me and seethed.

“And you say I’m the cruel one.”

Safe to say, I couldn’t sleep that night, with Rick’s final words on repeat in my head.

Chapter Text

I should have felt relieved.

I’d made the mature – if I might say so – decision to call it off before it could reach a point where we couldn’t just ‘call it off’. We were at the tipping point, where even one more encounter would send us toppling over into a place I wasn’t sure either of us were ready to go.

So why the fuck did it still hurt so much?

Granted, two weeks doesn’t seem that long. But when Beth asks you to come over to tutor her son pretty much every second day because of how well his results had gotten since you started your tutoring job with him, and you have to watch the guy who knowingly played you like a fiddle as he scoffs at you when he sees you come in, roll his eyes into the back of his fucking egotistical head and slam the garage door behind him especially loud like a 2 year old throwing a temper tantrum; it’s a little hard to move forward.

It had gotten to the point, where I was both annoyed at him for acting so childish and annoyed at myself for letting the whole thing go on for too long, that I had drafted a letter of resignation for Beth. I couldn’t stand being around Rick when he still had so much distaste for me and he was acting like a bloody kid about it all. It was driving me up the fucking wall!

Worst of all, Kylie had noticed something was up with me. She’d called me out on my displacement of anger towards her, which only got me more irritated that she’d use words that I’d learned in my own course to paint a target on my back. Though looking back on it, I was lucky she was such a patient person and somehow managed to make me talk about what was happening without asking for specific details.

“You sure you chose the right career path?” I asked while wiping tears from my cheeks. “You could be one amazing shrink.”

“No way,” She’d laughed, handing me another tissue, “Everything I’m telling you is what you’ve told me. Every shrink needs a shrink.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “What would I do without you?”

“More or less the same.” She shrugged with a grin. “Just slower.”

We’d fallen back into rhythm after that.

It was a Friday when I went over to the Smith’s house, for what I planned on being for the last time. I sighed heavily, the resignation letter in my left hand, as I knocked on the door with my right. I’d miss the family; and by the family, I meant Morty, Beth, and even Summer and Jerry. Even if I didn’t know Summer all that well, and Jerry was as forgettable as an extra can of black beans in the back of the pantry, I didn’t mind them all that much. Beth was a good mother, and Morty was a really smart kid. I just knew I could help him out so much more…

If only his old, drunk, dickwad of a grandpa had the capacity to just man up and fucking–

The door swung open with urgency and Beth’s dishevelled form answered the door. Relief flooded her face when she saw me and she pulled me inside.

“Thank God,” She sighed as she grabbed a jacket from the coat rack by the door and threw it on quickly. “Summer’s done something really stupid and I need to go get her.”

“O-oh.” Was all I could say.

“Would you mind looking after Morty until I get back?” Beth asked, though from watching her as she checked herself over to make sure she had what she needed, I knew she would assume I said ‘yes’ no matter what I actually said. “I’ll pay you overtime, of course.”

“I-I mean -–”

“Great, thank you so much.” She said giving my shoulders a squeeze. “I’ll be back soon!”

And with that, she dashed out the door and let it slam behind her. I sighed heavily and hung my head, the paper hanging loosely in my hand.

“Wh-what’s that?”

I snapped my head to the staircase, where Morty was pointing to the letter in my hand.

Of course. A spanner just had to be thrown into the works.

“Nothing important.” I brushed off, folding the paper and putting it in my pocket. “Any clue what’s happened with Summer?”

“I think she got taken to the police station.” He said, scratching the back of his neck. “I couldn’t hear much on the phone, b-but it sounded like she was caught doing drugs or something…weed I think?”

I sighed and shrugged. “It’s not exactly uncommon for teenagers to try that stuff out.”

“St-still, it’s not exactly…legal.” Morty sighed.

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s definitely better when you’re not caught trying said stuff out.”

He gave me a small smile. “I’m just gonna grab my stuff.”

“Okay.” I smiled at him and watched him disappear back up the stairs. While waiting, I dropped my stuff in the dining room and helped myself to a glass of water from the kitchen. Walking past the garage door, I snuck a glance at the gap at the bottom and saw the warm glow of the garage light streaming through.

So he was home. Great.

As I took my regular seat at the dining table, Morty came down with his homework. He plopped it on the table and sighed.

I clicked my pen. “Ready?”

He took his seat reluctantly. “I guess.”

I took a look at the page of questions and immediately understood Morty’s pain. Algebra was the biggest pain in the ass.

“The only reassuring thing I can tell you is that you’ll never have to use this shit in real life.” I said, giving Morty a sympathetic smile. “You just do 3 years of this and then that’s it.”

He nodded and swallowed. “O-okay.”

After explaining some terms to Morty and having him go through the practice paper, I was about halfway through marking it when I heard a door to my left open. His footsteps stayed relatively far away, as I heard him make himself a cup of coffee, than start getting closer until they suddenly stopped, I assumed in the archway connecting the dining room to the kitchen.

“Oh.” I heard him say.

“H-hey Rick.” Morty greeted.

I could feel his stare on me, but I kept my head down and continued marking.

“Where’s Beth?” Rick asked.

“Summer’s in trouble,” Morty told him, “Mom just went to help her.”

“Uh huh.” He drawled clearly disinterested in his grandson’s words. He slurped his coffee loudly as he watched us – most likely me, but I didn’t look up to check – at the dining table.

“It’s 2 by the way.” Rick said. I finally glanced up at him. He sneered at me. “Which you would know if you’re anywhere close to being as smart as you say you are.”

I stared up at him, emotionless. “I don’t remember asking for your input.”

“I’m just saying,” Rick shrugged nonchalantly, though he glared daggers at me over his coffee cup as he took a sip, “If my daughter is paying you to help Morty on his -– urrp -– with his homework, the least you could do is get it right.”

“Uh huh.” I replied, sounding as unfazed as I could. “And I wouldn’t be here in the first place if you actually helped him when he asked you to.”

With a roll of his eyes, Rick stalked off back to his garage, mumbling something like “Fucking kids these days.” and slammed the door behind him. When I was sure he wouldn’t come back, I checked the equation and found Rick was right, much to my dismay. I snuck a glance at Morty as I wrote a 2 in the answer spot.

“Don’t tell him, okay?” I whispered with a wink.

Morty smiled back. “I won’t.”

Silence settled over us as I kept marking Morty’s work. After a few moments, I looked over at him.

“Rick seems to be particularly short these days.” I noted, even though I knew full well why. Or at least, I had a good idea.

“Y-yeah.” Morty shrugged, seemingly careless to the whole thing. “He does that sometimes. Probably some space adventure gone wrong or something.”

I felt a small surge of relief when he’d said that. At least there was no indication of another woman being behind Rick’s shortened temper, and more importantly, that there was no hint as to me being the reason for his shortened temper. I was thankful our relationship had started out rocky, so there was no need to hide just how irritated we were at each other at that moment.

After marking Morty’s practice run, in which he got about half of them right, I told him that he’d done well and that we’d pick up where we left off when I next came over.

“I don’t know what I would do without you.” Morty nervously chuckled on his way out of the dining room. “Y-you can head home whenever. I’ll be fine here with Rick.”

I gave him a smile. “I’m just gonna make myself a coffee.”

Morty gave me a smile and a wave before retreating back upstairs. When he was out of sight, I brought out the resignation letter from my skirt's pocket. Biting my tongue, I read over what I’d typed out barely 12 hours ago, and sighed heavily. I couldn’t leave Morty. Not when we’d already gotten to a point where he felt comfortable with me being around and being a help to him.

Screw Rick. Right now, Morty needed me more than I needed to be rid of Rick.

I went into the kitchen and started preparing my coffee, turning the machine on and grabbing the plain mug that had become my regular. I heard the garage door behind me open again and tensed up.

‘Just ignore me. Please, be the child that ignores their problem, for the love of God.’

When I heard his scoff from behind me, a snarl curled my upper lip and my eye twitched.

That’s it.

“Alright,” I whipped around to glare at him, “You want my attention? Here it is. Now spit it out.”

“Who do you -– who said I wanted anything from you?” Rick snapped. “This is my fucking house. Why the hell aren’t you gone yet?”

“This is Beth’s house, not yours,” I corrected, “And last I checked, since this is Beth’s house, and I’d be willing to bet anything she trusts Morty more than the father who abandoned her; you have no fucking say on when I stay or leave.”

“Wow, look at you! Pulling out the absent dad card!” Rick gasped sarcastically. “Sure you’re not compensating for anything, sweetheart?”

“You are such an asshole.” I hissed. “You wanna talk about being cruel? Take a good, long look in the fucking mirror, buddy!”

“Oh baby, that’s not cruel.” His volume had dropped significantly, and that made me much more nervous than our rising voices. “I could always tell my naïve daughter that her – that the tutor she speaks so highly of, jumped at the first chance she could to hop on for a ride on her daddy’s dick.”

My jaw fell slack and my stomach dropped. I knew we weren’t on good terms, but to threaten me with that was a whole new level of low, especially with Morty right upstairs.

“And you’d conveniently leave out the fact you tricked me into doing that, wouldn’t you?” I sneered with a shake of my head. “And to think I genuinely believed that you were mature. What a joke!”

“You think your opinion matters at all?” Rick scoffed, storming up to me and slamming his hands on the bench either side of me, trapping me between him and the counter. “You, some nobody where there are infinite ‘you’s to use as a replacement; compared to me, the only legitimate Rick in the entirety of existence?”

“Whose dick are you trying to suck here? Your own?” I spat, “Go call one of your ‘other Ricks’ and get them to fucking do it for you then. Go on.”

His chest was squashed against mine, his breath fanned my face, and I could feel the warmth from his arms as they kept me trapped against the bench. I cursed myself for letting my eyes flick to his lips; because the moment I did, a knowing smirk twitched at the corner of his lip and he scoffed lightly.

“You wanna kiss me?” Rick said, his voice low and hitting the exact place I was hoping it would avoid.

Despite his smug tone, I could read his tells, too. The way his heart was hammering away in his chest, his constant wetting of his bottom lip, and his bobbing Adam’s apple. I tilted my head ever-so-slightly and let myself smirk back.

“Like you don’t.”

It was barely a beat, where the inklings of doubt had already crept into my subconscious, when Rick suddenly grabbed my wrist and began dragging me towards his room.

The moment we were inside, he slammed me against the door and I kissed his face, his neck, anywhere my lips could reach. He reached up my skirt and shoved my panties aside, freeing his cock from his pants in record time and thrusting suddenly into me. I gasped and arched my back into him as he filled me, and I finally felt the missing piece of the puzzle slot right back into place.

“You’re such an ass.” I mumbled into Rick’s neck.

“God, I missed you.” Rick groaned as his hands ran down my sides. “I missed you so fucking –- so much.”

Not what I expected at all. His words, and the desperation laced in them, sent me spiralling into a whole other level of need that I didn’t know was possible.

“Fuck…Rick.” I dragged my lips up to his and panted against his mouth. “Please. I need you.”

I caught his lips in a searing kiss as he fucked me, sending sparks shooting through my veins with every thrust. It didn’t take long for his composure to start to break and his thrusts lost their rhythm, which only brought me closer to the edge. He held onto my thigh with a grip tight enough to leave bruises in the shape of his fingers and I gasped into his mouth.

“I’m gonna…” I let the sentence trail off, because I wasn’t quite sure as to whether I was going to say ‘cum’ or ‘cry’. Rick’s eyes locked with mine and he searched my gaze. I could see the moment he found whatever it was he’d been searching for, and a weight was lifted from his shoulders.

“Do it, baby.” He whispered. “Let go.”

With one final thrust, both Rick and I came in unison. I craned my neck and gasped to the ceiling as an overwhelming rush of emotions overcame me at once. Tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes as Rick buried his head into the crook of my neck and groaned against my skin. I thread my fingers through his thin blue strands and massaged his scalp on instinct while we both caught our breath against the wall.

“God damn it…” He cursed. I snorted.

“I think you lost on that one.”

“Shut up.” He grumbled.

Silence settled and neither of us moved; save for Rick pulling out of me. Soon, I noticed that Rick had matched his slow breathing to mine and I felt my chest ache in want.

“I didn’t mean it.” Rick breathed into my neck.

I knew what he was talking about, but I played dumb. “Mean what?”

“About telling Beth…about us.” He shook his head. “I’d never do that to you. Not until you wanted her to know.”

More silence fell over us for a few moments, until I finally let out a breathless laugh.

“I’m such an idiot.” I whispered to the ceiling. Rick chuckled against my neck and his breath sent goosebumps down my spine.

“And…?” Rick mumbled into my neck, planting a soft kiss where he spoke.

I sighed and shut my eyes. “Being away from you is a million times harder than being with you and knowing the risks. I was wrong to let you go like that, and I’m sorry.”

My eyes opened when I felt Rick’s fingers grip my chin and tilt my head down to meet his eyes. He tilted his head. “So…what are you saying?”

When I realised what he was doing, I sighed heavily and shook my head. “You’re insufferable.”

Rick grinned at my tone of voice. “Would you want me -– want it any other way?”

I rolled my eyes, but didn’t answer, because he knew that I wouldn’t.

“I’m saying I want to be with you, Rick.” I said. “I want to go all in…if that’s what you want, too.”

“You want that, do you?” Rick hummed. He glanced away in mock thought and shrugged. “I’ll think on it.”

Another roll of my eyes and I went to push him away, only to find his hold on my waist to not budge. I quirked a brow.

“Yes?”

“I didn’t say I was finished.” Rick smirked. He slipped his hands to my ass and I gave him a look.

“Apology accepted.” He said, leaning in close and brushing his lips against mine. I pushed at his chest before he could lean in all the way.

“Your turn.”

He blinked at me. “What?”

“Your apology.” I said. Rick gave a look of disbelief. “You didn’t think you were getting off scot-free, did you?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry that you think -– that you feel like you need an apology from me.”

I raised my eyebrows slightly, indicating I was being completely serious. “You wanna try that one again?”

Rick opened his mouth again, to make a snide comment I presumed, but stopped himself short. He bit his tongue and stared me down but I didn’t budge. I wouldn’t move until he either admitted he was also in the wrong, or he showed that he didn’t care about me as much as I thought he did.

Finally, he sighed heavily.

“Okay. Okay! Fine.” Rick grumbled. Another sigh. “I’m…sorry for what I said, and I’m sorry…for playing with your feelings…knowing full well how you felt about me.”

I couldn’t help but be surprised, and I guessed I didn’t hide it well at all by the scowl that fell onto Rick’s face. “You think I’m that -– you think that little of me?”

“Can you blame me?” I asked sincerely. His lack of a response was answer enough.

A realisation came over me and I tilted my head at him. “Y’know, you brag about how you can have any woman in the entire galaxy, and yet you’re willing to admit your faults to me.”

He quirked a brow. “So?”

“So…” A smile crept onto my face. “It must mean I’m not just any woman in the galaxy. To you.”

He shook his head, but I could see the smirk threatening to break through on his face. “You can be really dumb sometimes, you know.”

“You know what this means,” I said, ignoring his comment, “No going off and fucking any other chicks. In any galaxy.”

He lazily raised his brows, as if preparing to counter what I’d said, but his gaze drifted across to the side of my face. He reached up and watched his own fingers as he tangled them in the loose strands of my hair just out of my line of sight.

“Alright.”

Again, I was surprised. This time just by how complicit he was he was to something I’d asked of him. “Really?”

“Yeah. Besides,” His eyes snapped back to me and he grinned, “I think I like you too much.”

Chapter Text

……hello. long time no see..

oops.

i have tried for So Long to find the motivation to write, but it’s just not coming to me. i actually have chunks written out (important plot stuff), but it’s connecting it all and having the word count per chapter be consistent that’s hindering me.

i’m not abandoning this story, despite how it appears (i dont blame you guys for thinking i have). i’ve come up with too good a plot to leave it at this point. however, i’m considering doing some Heavy editing before i upload anything new. not sure yet. i’m gonna open up my word doc on this fic soon and have a read through, see how i can get this story finished. it’s the least you, the reader, and i deserve.

this story hasn’t ended yet. in fact, in all sincerity, it’s only just gotten started.

for those of you still here, thank you for being so patient. i really hope the outcome is worth it for you :)

see you soon

hopefully.