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Most days the yelling matches were bearable. Today was not one of those days.
It had started off as any other Saturday. Summer had dedicated her morning to playing with Morty—much to his delight—while Beth was off working at the horse hospital and Jerry…was doing whatever he did most days. Morty wasn’t quite sure what that was exactly, not that he truly cared about it anyway. He was just ecstatic that his sister wanted to play with him. And for a fleeting moment it seemed as if nothing could go wrong. But it could never stay peaceful in the Smith household.
Morty wasn’t even sure what this fight was about nor did he care. All he could focus on was the barrage of loud noises bouncing off the walls of the house and the shouts that bled into his room. He hated the noise, the feeling of it all rattling inside his skull, the building of pressure behind his ears and eyes. His small hands began to shake as he balled his fists into the fabric of his shirt, tears pricking up in the corner of his eyes. He wasn’t sure why he got this way, why he felt so overwhelmed by noise. The only answer he had ever gotten was that he was considered “special”. Morty didn’t feel all too special, not when his skin felt wrong whenever he heard someone chewing or talking too loudly.
Usually Morty had his noise mufflers to help block off the chaos that was the world, but he had left them on the coffee table when he was playing superheroes with Summer earlier and was far too scared of going downstairs and ending up in the middle of the conflict. His second option would be to shuffle his way to Summer’s room, where he would crawl into her bed. She would cuddle him until the worst of the fight blew over. But Summer was not home, having left for a sleepover a few hours ago, leaving Morty to face his parents’ altercation alone. He hated how weak it made him feel, that no matter what he did his parents would continue to scream at each other.
So he opted for the next best thing; curl up into a ball and cry his feelings away. The soft fuzz of his space rug brought a small bit of comfort as tears pooled down his cheeks, the taste of salt overwhelming his senses. He didn’t know how long he was on the floor for, but obviously long enough for his cries to turn into sniffles. Eyelids drooping, Morty was aware that the exhaustion of his emotional turmoil was kicking in, yet he was too tired to drag himself to bed. It wouldn’t hurt to close his eyes for a bit, just to build back enough strength to crawl under his covers.
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His eyes suddenly snapped open when a sharp noise pierced his eardrums. With newfound energy Morty wasted no time sitting up, mouth agape at what was right in front of him. There was a literal PORTAL a few feet from him, bathing his room in a green light. He thought only cartoons had portals and magic! But his excitement was quickly crushed with overwhelming fear. What if it was aliens, come to take him away and harvest his brain?! In the midst of his panic he found himself diving underneath his bed.
Morty put both hands up against his lips to muffle his breathing as his floorboards creaked, followed up with the sound of the portal closing. He could hear a few more boards creak as someone, or something moved about his room. His whole body froze as a pair of boots stood right in front of him. Morty had never seen shoes quite like these, most boots he’d seen didn’t seem to be made of metal. But just as quick as the boots were to appear, they were as fast to disappear. Morty’s shoulders sagged, eyes closing in relief. But it was quick to fade as when he opened his eyes he was face to face with a man.
“Boo!”
Morty’s scream died in his throat as he was grabbed by the scruff of his shirt and dragged out. His limbs flailed with a desperation to get away from this strange portal man. Now out fully Morty could see the man much better. He was wearing a darkish purple-blue jacket adorned with red accents and dark pants. From his height Morty could see what looked to be a gun holster and an armor like shoulder pad. If Morty wasn’t so scared he might’ve been astonished by the other’s blue, spikey hair and the way it was speckled with a few grey hairs and darker blue stripes.
Prime was laughing his ass off, I mean, how could he not? The face of terror his grandson gave him was enough to throw him into hysterics.
“Aw man, you should’ve seen your face!” He snickered, shooting the boy a grin. Morty couldn’t help but get a sense of familiarity upon seeing Prime’s tooth gap, reminding him of his own.
He was snapped out of his thoughts as Prime gave him a firm pat on the back, wiping a tear away with a sigh. Stuffing his hands in his pockets Prime crouched downwards in an attempt to match Morty’s height, his manic blue eyes staring deeply into the much softer blue orbs of the boy.
“So you’re what all those inferiors were gushing about.” He tilted his head to the side. “You are much shorter than I expected.”
Prime was met with a fearful yet confused stare. Morty had no idea what this man was even talking about, and honestly he still thought this man was an alien here to harvest his brain. One side of Primes’s unibrow arched up in a puzzled look.
“What? Cat got your tongue?” A beat passes by before the realization hits Prime, his expression falling back into a grin. “Oh, right. I forgot you don’t know me. I’m your grandpa.”
Morty was taken aback. This man was his grandpa? Well, no, actually it wasn’t that surprising. He had heard his mom talk about him to his dad in passing before, mostly when they were fighting. And Morty may or may not have snuck into his parents’ room to look at an old family album. But his grandpa’s face was torn out of them. The outfit was similar to the pictures, so it was probably true.
“Oh.” Morty paused for a moment, digging his heels into his carpet to ground himself. He had a million questions flowing through his head. Why did his grandpa come through a portal? How did he know Morty if he wasn’t in contact with his mom? Why was he here? But only one question came out.
“Why did you leave m-mmom and grandma?”
Prime’s unibrow shot up in a bit of shock. He had forgotten how blunt kids could be. “Sheesh, right to the big questions. I kinda like your straight forward attitude.”
Stretching up to his full height Prime began to mull over the question at hand. What was a good way to phrase this other than ‘I got bored so I ditched Beth’? He was sure the kid wouldn’t like him if he said that.
“I had to leave for… spaaaace stuff?” He smiled, shrugging his shoulders. Fuck, hopefully the kid bought it.
Morty did in fact buy it. It made perfect sense to him, like in Star Wars movies the main characters always left their home planets for the good of space, so it was probably the same for his grandpa. He visibly relaxed more, his shoulders slouching a tad as a smile graced his features.
“What is space l-like? Is it cool? What do y-yyou do in space, do you help people? Do you fight against like- an evil group of people like in Star Wars?” He let out a sharp gasp. “Do YOU have a lightsaber?!”
Prime couldn’t help but let out a sharp bark of laughter at Morty’s rushed words of excitement. He liked this kid’s spirit, it reminded him of himself at that age. He ambled over towards one of the boy’s many shelves, picking up one of the SuperMan figures. He opened his mouth but before he could even talk a loud crash was heard from downstairs followed by booming voices. It seemed whatever cease fight his parents were going through had ended, the two going back to shouting at each other.
“Yeesh, rough day?” Prime asked with his brow arched up, watching as Morty flinched then meekly nodded. Prime wasn’t too surprised. I mean, it was his daughter, and if she was anything like him—which she was—means she’s fucking crazy. He set the figure back to its original spot.
Prime thought about just leaving then and there, the shouts grating against his skull and honestly he had no patience for it. But when he glanced back at the boy who was obviously in distress he couldn’t bring himself to pull out his portal gun just yet. It’s not like he truly cared about Morty, he didn’t care about anyone. But it reminded him of himself a lot. Fuck he’s thought that quite a bit tonight, hadn’t he? Even Beth wasn’t fully like him, but Morty? Practically a carbon copy of him despite looking like Jerry.
Then an idea struck him. If all the other inferior Ricks could have a Morty partner who’s to say he couldn’t do better? Plus he already grew tired of other Rick companions, and it would be a fun challenge for himself. And once he succeeded he could rub it in against all other Ricks that he had the best Morty.
With a shit eating grin Prime scooped Morty up from under his armpits, holding the boy up to his face. “Hey, how would you feel about hanging out with Grandpa for a bit? I can show you actual space, not the made up crap on TV. And you’d get away from your parents’ bullshit fighting.”
Morty’s eyes widened in shock. His cool space grandpa wanted to hang out with him of all people? Nobody wanted to hang out with Morty! Well, except for Summer but he felt bad about it since she had friends of her own. But as exciting as it was, Morty couldn’t help but worry.
“Won’t my mom and dad be l-like, worry about me being y’know, gone?”
“Pshhh! It’ll be fine, I’m sure they won’t notice you being gone for a bit. In fact I think they’re a bit preoccupied with their shouting match to care.”
Prime rolled his eyes at Morty’s worried expression. Why did everyone worry so much? Setting Morty back on his feet he pulled out his portal gun. He typed in some coordinates before shrugging, “I mean you don’t have to come with me. It’s your choice bud.”
Morty was stuck in awe as his grandpa shot open a portal, the green swirl taking up space in his room once more. As much as he wanted to go with Prime he still couldn’t stop worrying. How would Summer feel about him being gone? Would his parents ground him for leaving without their permission? But even with all his worry he couldn’t shake off the nagging thought.
Who cares if he left?
It’s not like his parents truly cared to spend time with him, and maybe Summer wouldn’t have to take care of him all the time. She could hang out with her friends more often, and maybe focus on school more. Of course he would miss Summer a ton but it wasn’t like this was forever.
Right?
Sensing Morty’s internal turmoil Prime suppressed a sigh before holding out a hand for Morty to hold. Maybe if he gave the boy some reassurance he wouldn’t act like such a puss over this. Morty stared at his Grandpa’s hand before glancing up at the man’s face, then to the portal, and back to the hand being offered to him. With a shaky breath Morty took the hand, his small one being practically swallowed by Prime’s bigger one.
With his grin returning to his face Prime gestured to the portal with his head. “Alright! This should be fun, come on lil’ fella! I’ll show you the wonders of space, just the two of us! Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty for a hundred years bud, juuuust the two of us!”
Morty couldn’t help but giggle at this. A hundred years, what a funny thing to say.
He found himself being pulled through the green mass of the portal before it finally closed, leaving his room empty.
Rick and Morty, A hundred years.
