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Rick was an experienced enough drinker that he felt pretty immune to hangovers by now, but as he made his way upstairs the day after breaking things off with Unity—okay, he could be honest in his own head—the day after Unity broke things off with him, his whole body hurt. His head was throbbing, his muscles ached, and even though there weren’t any lights on in the house, with Beth having left for the day, Jerry outside mowing, and the kids still asleep, the house looked so bright that it hurt his eyes.
“Man,” he muttered as he turned the knob on his bedroom door.
He felt like shit. He was shit. He was the smartest man in the universe and he couldn’t even properly kill himself with his own invention. Something about the thought made him shudder and almost gag. He was ready to flop down on the bed and sleep the rest of the day away, while knowing that would never be enough, when he saw the sleeping figure on his bed.
Morty was in his pajamas, his body mostly under Rick’s covers but with one leg sticking out. His headphones were in his ears, and Youtube was auto-playing some video of a young woman talking and smiling with her face uncomfortably close to the camera. Probably one of those ASMR videos Morty watched to help him sleep. Rick narrowed his eyes at the invasion of privacy—everyone in his family knew nobody went in his room when the door was closed, and he’d had that talk with Morty plenty of times specifically. Still, he didn’t have it in him to wake the kid up and lecture him right now, so he just tried to scoot Morty over so he could lay down, without waking Morty up.
Of course, Morty was a light sleeper, and an anxious one too, so that failed spectacularly. As soon as Rick put his hands against Morty’s back, Morty jumped up with a yelp, his headphones falling out of his ears as he did so.
“They really gotta design them better than that,” Rick remarked.
“Wh-what?” Morty asked, not waiting for an answer before he kept talking. “Look, Rick, I—I know I’m not supposed to come in your room without permission, but M-mom said not to bother you in the garage and I—I really wanted to talk to you, so I c-came in here and waited.”
It was clear from Morty’s nervous stuttering that he thought he was in big trouble, but Rick just sighed and got under the covers. “You came to wait for me in your pajamas on my bed? With your—your weird little whisper videos?”
Morty’s face reddened at that.
“So,” Rick said, trying to ignore the headache that got worse the longer he kept his eyes open, “what do you need?”
Morty’s eyes widened. “Huh?”
“What,” Rick said slowly, “is so important that you waited for me in my bedroom all night?”
He was trying to keep an image of some other reality, a reality where a Morty waited and waited for a Rick who would never come back from the garage, out of his head.
“Oh,” Morty squeaked. “I—I’m just happy you’re back, I guess.”
Rick arched an eyebrow. “That’s it?”
Morty looked more embarrassed than ever. “Y—yeah?”
Rick sighed. He thought about the dark, loveless, random universe outside his bedroom window, the universe he’d never quite manage to escape as long as he kept living in it. Going from world to world with his spaceship or his portal gun couldn’t get him anywhere else. He was still here, in the ever-expanding bullshit, for as long as he was alive. Hell, he didn’t even know what would happen to him after he was done being alive. He was pretty sure it was nothing, just blackness. He’d told that to plenty of the people he’d killed (mostly in self-defense), but… he didn’t know.
“Are you okay?” Morty asked. “Your heartbeat’s, like, really fast.”
Morty was snuggled up to Rick now, his face buried against Rick’s chest. Rick hadn’t even noticed him moving closer, but he didn’t mind him being there.
“Yeah,” Rick said. “Yeah. Don’t worry about it. I—I’m just hungover. No adventures today, okay? I feel like shit. You got school later?”
Morty shook his head, and when he spoke he sounded like he was about to fall asleep again. “No. Saturday.”
“Good.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Rick said, his headache receding a little bit as he settled deeper into his pillow. “I need someone to keep refilling my water for me so I can rehydrate. That’s how you kick a hangover, Morty. Lots of water. Just… remember that when you’re older. If you ever drink enough to get this hungover, I’ll beat your ass personally though.”
“Oh. Geez. Okay.”
“Now let me sleep, will you? You—you can stay and hang out as long as you’re quiet.”
“Okay.” Morty snuggled in closer to Rick’s chest, awkwardly wrapping one arm around him. “I—I really am glad you’re back. I love you, Rick.”
“Th–thanks, kid,” Rick said. “You too.”
With that, he drifted off into sleep, still not feeling good but feeling better.