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"C'mere, Morty, I-I-eeuurp- I got some shit to get done before we have to come back home" Rick said tugging Morty's arm leading him to the garage.
This was not their reality, but the house looked exactly like theirs. Rick had already explained to Morty he needed to retrieve something from there and… well, he knew better than asking more questions than necessary.
"R-R-Rick where are w-we going now? I wanna go home already" Morty said whining grabbing Rick's lab coat.
"Shut up, Morty, I do-uuurp-don't need this right now. I gotta go" Rick took his flask on one hand, portal gun in the other one.
"What?! W-w-where are you going, Rick? Wha-what am i supposed to do here?"
"Ugh -bluurp-, i'm gonna get someone to make you company while I'm gone. Is that okay, your whiny majesty?"
Rick was clearly teasing him, but the prospect for the day had built more levels of anxiety than Morty could manage.
"WHAT?! You gonna leave me with a babysitter? O-o-or is it Squanchy? Please be Squanchy"
"L-look, I know you're too du-uuurp-mb to understand, but Squanchy is not a good idea – not even when you're old enough and drunk. Believe me…"
"Then who, Rick? C-come on, let me come with, I'm not gonna bother"
"You don't know how to do that, Morty. Hold up just a second, I've got the perfect company for you"
With that, Rick left through a shiny green portal right before his eyes.
Before he could even blink twice, the portal appeared once again on the ceiling and all he could see was a lab coat falling and loud THUD. Instinctively, Morty closed his eyes and held to a shelf for dear life and heard some other footsteps approaching him.
"Okay, now w-we're talking." Rick walked towards Morty and patted his head "Soooo… this is your babysitter, have fun."
In front of Morty was a man he could swear he'd seen before but the memories were foggy. Nonetheless, his clothes were definitely familiar: lab coat, brown pants, cyan shirt... but the man before him lacked of Rick's cocky vibes. He had an almost childish expression, cartoonish while trying to take in his surroundings.
"Yo, dipshit, be right back. You can be as stu-uuuurp-pid as usual, just don't let him ruin this reality."
"Huh?!" Doofus Rick was still trying to recover from the fall when he was -unceremoniously- presented to Morty as his babysitter of some sort. "B-b-b-ut..!" he managed to complain.
"No but, I know your fears, d-d-on't make me become the worst one"
"RICK WHAT THE F-" With that, Rick was gone and all complaints about to burst out from Morty's mouth were gone.
"I-I- Hi?" Doofus Rick stood up and approached Morty shyly offering a hand to shake "I'm sorry for all this, h-he came to my place and grabbed me here… wherever this is. I'm Rick J19Z7, hope I didn't scare you?" he smiled despite the fear and tried to approach Morty.
"U-uh hi? -sigh- Excuse Rick, he's an ass" Morty said shaking hands with the Rick in front of him frowning at the thought of his Rick leaving him there.
"Oh, It's okay Morty, he meant no harm, I-I-I'm sure he just cares about your safety"
Morty scoffed. In all the time he spent with Rick, not a single time he did care about his safety or wellbeing for the case. "He doesn't, he's just too lazy…"
With that, Morty scanned the place and headed for the living room with Doofus Rick hot on his heels. Everything looked normal, just empty. No family photos, no knick-knacks on the shelfs, not a single trace of someone even living there but everything still seemed so familiar.
This was going to be a long day, Morty thought when he noticed there was no TV connection and by the sight of Doofus Rick's dumbfounded face.
"Don't you-do you have a portal gun too? Can't we just go find my Rick so we can both go home?"
Doofus Rick shaked his head "U-uh, no. He actually took mine so we wouldn't do that? Maybe we should t-try and find s-som-something to do while he's back?" his face lit up for a moment.
The teenager's exasperation melted a bit seeing Doofus Rick's excitement about the prospect of finding a way to pass the time. Something about his smile was reassuring. He looked very much alike his Rick, but something about him felt… purer?
Maybe that's why Rick chose him out of aaaall the Ricks in the multiverse. 'Cause, even being the 'ugly duckling' of them all, he was still the empathic one, the sweetest one and maybe the only one capable of caring more about others than his own self. Doofus Rick was just as smart, but unlike the other Ricks, there was no chance he would put Morty in danger. It all made sense. Of course Rick knew what he was doing. That son of a bitch.
Morty sighed. "Fine, let me check my room?" He said and walked towards the stairs. It was and it wasn't his room, but maybe there was a small chance he would find something useful to pass some time.
The room he entered in was just like his, but there were no posters on the walls. He cursed Rick under his breath while checking under the bed for anything funnier than a rubber ball. It wasn't until he checked his closet that he found a box in the bottom, dusty after years of storage.
Morty took the box in his hands and blew some dust from the top of it to read the inscription "Artist Painting Kit". He raised an eyebrow. He'd never really been into painting and, coming to think of it, he had that very same kit in his reality. One of Jerry's brilliant birthday gifts to his teenage son… But it could work. All the pieces inside the box were actually there. Not that he had many options at this point so when he heard Doofus Rick calling from downstairs with an unease tone, he grabbed he box and head to the living room.
"S-Sorry, uhm, thi-this is the only thing I could find. This place gives me- gives me the creeps" Morty said placing the box on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
"How fun! Look! so many colors!" Excited, Doofus Rick opened the box and began placing every item on top of the table, some brushes, watercolors, paint tubes, a few pencils, a wooden easel and three blank canvases. "Do you like painting, Morty? I-I actually enjoy it very- very much."
"I-I've never done it before, I'm n-I'm not really good at drawing o-or whatever" Morty said from the couch just looking at Doofus Rick with amusement. His enthusiasm was contagious. It was hard to picture him as a Rick.
"C-c'mere, Morty" Doofus Rick called having his whole impromptu atelier ready for the task in hand "Look I know you-you wanna go home, but how about we-we just have fun until your Rick comes back?" he said softly putting a reassuring hand on Morty's shoulder at the sight of the little one hanging his head. "We can paint something together, look" and with that, he took a brush, soaked it in a glass of water he previously prepared. "What w-would you like to paint?" He said holding the brush over the watercolors ready to pick a one.
"Uhm- i- uh- I don't know?" Morty said shyly. He wasn't that used to people paying him that much attention, less of it asking him what HE would ever want about anything. For a moment it hit him and he felt like he was swallowing a rock when he gulped.
Doofus Rick couldn't ignore his pained expression and left the brush and watercolors aside, kneeling in front of Morty to mirror his height "Oh, it's okay, M-Morty. We can- we can do something else?"
"It's no-it's not that. I'm fine..." he replied with a faint smile "Can w- can we paint a landscape?" In his head, it was the first thing he could think of. It may have sounded lame but his life as a sidekick was just too much for him. Adventures with Rick were fun and all but normality was a luxury he couldn't afford on a daily basis so maybe this could be just that. A normal moment. Some normal activity. No guns, no aliens, no danger. And, at least, someone who cared.
"Great idea, Morty! Let's see…" The elder man jumped back on his feet and went back to were the easel was placed against the window. He grabbed the brush he just left on the coffee table and went back to the task at hand.
Doofus Rick was certainly not the same kind of smart as Rick. When he softly began brushing the stretched canvas with the light blue watercolor he picked, he seemed relaxed and his deftly movements really showed he had some knowledge on the topic. Morty could hear him humming while he applied some more water to his brush and stroke it on the canvas.
"Okay! Now th-this is a nice sky don't you think?" Doofus Rick said proudly showing Morty his creation with his both hands on his hips. The teen just looked at the canvas slightly confused and replied "Y-yeaaah. Uhm, is this the landscape?"
Doofus Rick cackled "No, Morty, it's just the sky! I'm not gonna do this by myself. Now t-take one of those bru-brushes and come"
The teenager did as told and approached the easel dumbfounded "I don't know how to do this…Rick."
"You don't have to push you-yourself, Morty, everyone can paint!"
With that and some expert guidance, the young man took the brush determined to do something worth the while. "S-so… you're friends with my dad, right?" he said while shaping some trees on the right side of the canvas.
"I am! It's bee-been a while since I last saw him. I don't want to cause h-him any trouble, y'know?" Doofus Rick replied with a hint of sadness in his voice.
"I think he would be m-much more trouble to you…" the teenage replied with a soft laugh
"Your dad is a good man, Morty. H-he just sees the world with differently. Different is not always wrong?" Doofus Rick with a shy smile.
"Hey b-but don't you have your own Jerry?" Morty asked curiously, concentrated on the mountains he was trying to add to his landscape.
"Uh- I do. I mean, he-he's not my Jerry 'cause I don't... have a f-family of my own. But he's my dimension's Jerry."
Morty turned his head towards the old man and asked "Are y- are you friends with him too?"
Doofus Rick paused momentarily deep in thought and quickly replied "Hm… n-no. He's a bit scary. He kind-kind of rules the world, y'know…"
"HE WHAT?!" Morty said with something close to fear in his voice almost knocking off the easel and putting it in place on the last second.
"Ha, yeah" Doofus Rick sentenced rubbing the back of his neck "He's rich, and-and powerful and very… mean."
"Wow"
"I know… but i-it's fine. Your dad is a good friend" The elder added with a faint smile on his face while cleaning his brush in a glass of water.
"I don't…I don't really get it but okay" Morty said without hiding his confusion at the thought of a version of his dad ruling the world and then Doofus Rick choosing his -real- dad as a friend. It was somehow close to disturbing to him.
Some minutes went on without too much sound around the room than the brushes stroking the canvas every now and then while they both shaped their landscape, when Morty suddenly broke the silence startled by a drop of water he dropped on the painting that -he thought- would ruin all the hard work they both put on it.
"Aw geeeez! I'm-I'm sorry! I ruined it!" He said panicking, trying to find something in the surroundings that would help to save all the work.
"It's okay, Morty, we can fix it." The old man said with a calm tone softly pressing his sleeve on the canvas, absorbing the drop with the fabric without that much damage "Don't stress y-yourself out, this is meant to be fun!" he said and patted the kid's head affectionately.
"I-I… you're not like the other Ricks, huh?" Morty thought aloud softly caressing the canvas in the place where the drop was.
Doofus Rick chuckled "I'm not. I've been- I've been told I'm the worst of them all, y'know?" He added somewhat sad "But hey, as I said, d-different is not necessarily wrong!"
Morty nodded and they went back to work fixing the painting. Adding a little color here, a little color there.
The teenager was not sure if this was what this Rick had in mind but he was having fun.
"See? Looks better! I knew you could do it, Morty, c'mere!" the elder man said and hugged him tightly.
For a moment, Morty felt his whole world was okay and his eyes filled up with tears. He was doing his best to try and control the sobbing but the warm sensation in his chest wouldn't allow it.
"Oh my, are you okay? Wa-Was it something I say? I'm so sorry, Morty, don't be sad" Doofus Rick said clearly concerned with both hands on Morty's shoulders. He tried with all his might to think what could've possibly upset Morty, how to comfort and cheer him up but his sadness was really painful for him.
With a bit of pride, Morty brushed away his tears rapidly "It's-it's okay you didn't say anything. I'm just… ~geez~ I'm just not used to encouragement and… ugh nevermind, sorry to upset you"
The elder man leveled down to talk to the kid's face "Morty, you're- you're a good kid. Maybe I'm not the best Rick, I-I'm not your grandpa, but I mean it. And the secret to doing anything is believing that you can do it. Anything th-that you believe you can do strong enough, you can do. ANYTHING. As long as you believe. Like this…" he said addressing the freshly painted landscape "Y'see?... And I know your Rick loves you… he's just… tough."
Morty scoffed, skeptic "He-he cares that I don't die for his own selfish mo-mo-motives. He always goes around saying he has infinite M-Mortys… I'm just tired of not being special at all, y'know?" he added with something between annoyance and pain.
With a knowing look, his grandpa's alternate version spoke "I don't think I know your grandpa as-as much as you do, Morty, b-but believe me when I say he cares. See, when you were born, he paged aaall of the other R-Ricks in the multiverse just to tell us y-you were better than any other Morty ever born. He was so happy and proud of you... he actually did that for a week." He pondered with a finger scratching his chin.
"He WHAT?" Morty exclaimed.
Doofus Rick chuckled "He-he wanted everyone to know you were special, Morty. That's how I-I know he cares. I can only imagine the th-things he's put you through, but he's been through a lot too. His lack of sensibility i-is just a symptom of years and years of heartbreak, y-y'know? He's seen a lot…" he explained.
Hanging his head, and still a little annoyed, Morty added "Ugh I know. I just wished he didn't act li-like he's a god -or whatever- and we're all pieces of crap f-floating around his own cosmos."
Doofus Rick smiled and said "W-well, that I cannot promise will happen."
And with that, they finished adding some little touches to their art. It wasn't some fancy artwork, but it looked pretty decent. Doofus Rick was able to show Morty some techniques to work with watercolor and create a beautiful landscape with a bright sky, a few mountains on the back, autumly trees, a small pond and some birds. And, above it all, it definitely showed the love and hard work both of them putted in its creation.
The day resumed while they chatted alongside various topics while cleaning the brushes and letting their work of art enlighten the plain living room when suddenly, a portal appeared on the back and Rick stepped out.
"Whaattuuuu-euuuurp-up, bitches! Missed me?" he said with a flourish and taking in the surroundings "What the fu-uuuurrrp-ck were you doing?"
With a sheepish smile, Doofus Rick spoke up "Oh, we found this and-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't care, Doofus Rick" Rick said dismissively walking past him.
"Hey leave him alone, Rick, y-y-you left us hostages here and w-what did you expect? Us to be worshiping you while- while you come back?!" the teenage yelled stepping in front of his unamused grandfather.
"Uh… yeah?" Rick replied without stuttering.
"Fuck you, Rick! Can we go home already?!"
"Tch. We-we'll go when I say s-uuuurp-o, Morty." he replied putting his hands on his hips and standing still for a moment in front of a -now- angry Morty.
"Okay, I'm bored… say your good-uuuurp-byes and we can all go back to not eating shit… well, except you." He added with an accusing finger pointing right towards Doofus Rick.
"RICK!" Morty shouted exasperated feeling sorry for Rick's behavior towards maybe the nicest Rick in the multiverse.
"Ugh… Laaaaame" Rick said, tossing a portal gun at Doofus Rick and heading towards the garage flask in hand.
With him gone, Morty turned back to Doofus Rick slightly embarrassed and broke the short yet uncomfortable silence in the room "Uh… I-I'm sorry" he said scratching the back of his neck.
"It's okay, Morty. Here, do you wanna keep our painting?" the elder man said holding up the painting for the kid to take with a somewhat sweet excitement.
"Y-yeah!... Are-are you sure?" Morty said with excitement.
"Of course! Then you can look at it as a reminder that you can do whatever you picture in your heart and mind." The man replied patting his head delicately with a smile.
"Will I… see you again?" Morty said with the painting in his hands, avoiding the elder's gaze.
"Oh I… I'm not sure about that, lil one, but maybe?"
"Thank you, Rick" he said, holding back a few tears grabbing one of the man's big hands in his and giving it a small squeeze.
"Thank you, Morty. Stay strong, okay? " the man replied with a soft smile and quickly left though a new portal he opened in the window.
"Are you done?" Rick asked impatiently standing in the frame leaving to the entrance flask in hand taking a hearty gulp.
Even if he couldn't really notice, Morty's mind was railing. The bittersweet sensation this whole day left in him was overwhelming. And he knew well enough that crying around Rick would just make things worse so he just walked past him choking back tears and not paying that much attention to his nonsense on the way to the garage.
"Ugh don't get soppy on me" Rick said with a loud facepalm.
"Screw you, Rick… Can't you just let me be and not be an asshole about it?" the teenage demanded angrily.
"I ca-auuurp-n, I just chose not to." Rick said proudly before noticing his grandson was too upset for their usual bikering "… but hey, we can go pick up some ice cream before going home" he said ruffling the kid's hair,
Morty's face lightened up a bit and turned to the elder man "Can we?"
He rolled his eyes with fake annoyance and finished "Yeah sure, whate-eeeuurp-ver" before opening a portal.
The way to the -alien- ice cream parlor was silent. Mainly because of the awkwardness emanating from Rick at the sight of his annoyed grandson.
Whatever the case, they bought some ice cream and sitted on a bench in a more comfortable silence until Morty couldn't help himself and spoke up
"Rick… di-did you told all the versions of yourself I-I was the best Morty in the multiverse when I was born?" he shyly said playing with the hem of his shirt.
"THAT SON OF A B-"
- The End