Summary: You reminded him a lot like his wife Diane. Your voice, the way you presented yourself reminded him too much of her. In every universe—no matter the outcome— Rick always loses their Diane. Maybe the universe is playing tricks on him again. (PART ONE)
Tags: black! reader insert, no use of yn for reader, angst, quiet/shy reader!
MY DEAREST, DIANE
“It's like the universe is coming to haunt me again. Literally."
Rick Sanchez hated you. He hated the way you made him feel, as if you're not a painful reminder of his wife. Whenever you're around, he has to force himself to stay distracted or to stay glued in his garage. Rick Sanchez didn't want to relive the memory of what he lost in every goddamn universe. It wasn't fair to you, nor was it to him. It was hard to ignore you when all he can hear is the laugh that Diane once made. Everyone at the table noticed the way Rick stiffens when you crack jokes with Beth, and the way his eyes narrowed whenever he saw the way you smiled in his direction.
“Ugh, this food tastes like plastic and slime” he grunts, pushing himself away from the table. He stands up, grabbing his flask and walking towards the pathway leading to his garage. “I'll be in the garage. Do not follow me, do not ask me for anything, and do not say shit to me for the next three hours.” He says, leaving the table silent and confused. Rick rests against his workbench with a sigh, his eyes staring over at the cracked frame of Diane.
“Fuck me,” He groans, downing the rest of his drink before he pulls out another, snapping the cap off. Rick takes a long swig of it, wiping his mouth after he lets out a belch. He starts to work on something to help keep his mind at ease, however it doesn't work like he wanted to. Around an hour later, the garage door opens. Rick doesn't look up right away, expecting for Morty or Jerry to come bombarding him with nonsense.
“I..I told you not to come in here for the…the next few hours.” Rick grumbles irritably, and there's a wave of silence. You stood there awkwardly with a sheepish smile on your face. He finally turns to see who the person was, only to see you staring at him. He frowns, but quickly masks it with a look of nonchalance. “Oh, it's you.” The way he said it had a hint of bitterness laced in it. You noticed it right away and cleared your throat.
“Sorry, I came to see if you were okay. The others went out for ice cream.” You said, feeling a bit stupid for caring for someone who barely wanted you there. Until your house was fixed, you were stuck with the Smiths. Rick doesn't respond, and he mutters about something regarding a wrench. You hand him the nearest one and he takes it instantly.
“Oh great. They left you here to babysit me? Typical.” Rick scoffs. You're not sure what he was referring to, so you kept quiet. Rick moves back and forth within the span of ten minutes, testing his inventions. Your eyes follow his hands and how he worked on them so effortlessly. Any other scientist would have taken them decades to discover the kind of tech Rick has. “So…so what do you want? A new gadget, some way to get powers? Or…or are you here because you feel bad for me?”
Your brows furrowed. “No, Beth suggested that I check on you, she's worried.”
Rick rolls his eyes, stating that Beth probably was saying that because she thought he was a loner. He was in a sense. “I'm…I'm capable of being alone without some lousy tutor watching me.” He replies. Ouch, that stung a bit. Didn't need to be so rude about it, but then again when was Rick ever not rude to begin with? You nodded your head, somewhat understanding what he meant. So you chose to leave him alone for the time being, and you left him to his thoughts.
—
The next time you had a one-on-one interaction with Rick was when he needed Morty's help in the garage. He skims the living room, and he looks at you sitting on the couch with a book in your hand. Rick debated to find Morty himself, but his patience was already being tested. “Where's…where's Morty?” He asks, taking you off guard. You turn to see him staring down at you, his lips pulled into a flat line.
“He's at therapy, remember? Beth mentioned it last night that they were going first thing.” You answered calmly, and his shoulders slumped in annoyance. Damn, he did forget that Beth signed up for some shitty therapy session. He turns away and heads straight towards the lab. It was around fifteen minutes later when he came back out.
“Are you doing anything?” Rick interrogated.
“No, other than reading. Why?”
“I need you to help me with something.” Rick doesn't really give you a choice, holding high expectations that you'd help anyways. That's what you're good for, right? You take a pause before setting down your book. You follow him into the garage, looking over everything on the table. “Don't touch shit, just…just stand there until I tell you to touch anything, got it?”
“Yeah.”
Rick 'humphs’ in response. As time passes, you help him with what he had instructed you to do, and eventually you're finished. “Break time,” he announces, taking a pause on the project. You sit on the stool, while Rick drinks. Music plays softly from the radio, releasing some of the tension in the air. For a moment, Rick examines your face again. Rick's heart thumps faster, and he mentally curses at himself for feeling a pull towards you. Not like he'll ever tell you that.
If you thought some of the latest adventures would have me making comics about an AU were Aradia and Dave traveled to places like Disneyland and used their time powers to go through all the lines at super speed like I always wished I could do….then you were absolutely right.
I….will probably be drawing more things along this line of thought.
humanstuck au q&a lallapalooza extravaganza in replies. sorry if u wanted ur ask to be a 19 page comic my inbox was just getting soo cluttered! this is my spring cleaning :u
Sollux: ye2. ii’m practiically jumpiing for joy over the fact. iif you lii2ten carefully maybe you can even hear my rapturou2 ec2tatiic 2hriieking rattliing the aiirlock2.
Aradia: 0h cheer up s0llux! this is the first time in a while weve b0th been untethered at the same time
Aradia: arent y0u excited?
Sollux: 2ure, but–
Aradia: n0 buts!
Sollux: two but2.
Aradia: three buts
Sollux: oh god AA help! ii’m 2uddenly drowniing iin an ocean of exponentiially multiiplyiing a22e2, who wiill delete my 2earch hii2tory once ii diie?
Aradia: see i knew y0u were excited :)
Sollux: diid you get an ETA yet? they wanted me two focu2 on replenii2hiing the auxiiliiary power bank2 after the jump and wouldn’t giive me deet2 2o ii wa2n’t ‘dii2tracted’, whiich ii2 2tupiid and make2 zero 2en2e becau2e rediirectiing power ii2 2o ea2y even a wiiggler wiith iit2 claw up iit2 own a22 could do iit.
Sollux: fucker2 even diivorced me from the maiin cabiin 2o ii couldn’t 2noop viia the audiio or theiir log2.
Aradia: eta r0ughly 48 h0urs
Aradia: and speaking 0f
Aradia if y0u were tasked with charging the banks then y0u sh0uld be recharging y0urself t00 mister
Aradia: thats pr0bably why y0u g0t unh00ked s0 early especially if they plan 0n making y0u d0 the next hyperspace jump 0nce we finish transferring
Sollux: engh.
Aradia: theyre g0ing t0 tube y0u again if you d0nt
Aradia: y0u kn0w that s0llux
Sollux: ii don’t care.
Aradia: will y0u st0p being s0 stubb0rn f0r 0nce and just j0in me at breakfast!!!
Sollux: ii already have food here.
It's stiff as a board and rock solid. Normally you don't care if food has sat out for a while but you'd chip a tooth if you tried eating this.
Ugh. It's completely flat and you think you felt a chunk of something hit your tongue.
You aren’t doing that. Besides, half of this crap is Aradia’s mess anyways. You'd let the cleaning drones in to do it for you but last time you let that happen they cleaned so thoroughly that neither of you could find any of your stuff until it was thrown all over the place again.
The photos on the wall above your dresser are target practice for your shuriken, which you legally aren't allowed to own anymore but snuck onto the ship anyways. The pictures are of certain crew members on board that you don’t care much for.
This bitch in particular gets the brunt of your ire and not just because of her obnoxious costumes or shitty haircut or hilariously oversized mug. She's been a pain in the chute ever since you were commissioned to this vessel so you are burdened with the Herculean task of returning the favor and being a pain in her ventral fin as much as physically possible. And your favorite way to spite her is taking bad photos of her, specifically because of the way she flips her shit right off the diving board when you leave the photos lying around for other crew members to find.
The photos on and above your desk, however, are of you and Aradia.
She gave you this ancient polaroid camera because she thinks it’s good for you to have hobbies outside the helm that don’t involve staring at screens. You aren’t entirely sure what you’re supposed to be taking pictures of but if it keeps her off your case then you'll use it.
Aradia: s0llux? hell0?
Sollux: 2orry AA, got dii2ttacted. ii’ll be there iin a few miinute2.
-----
What will you do now?
>pocket shuriken
>message Karkat
>stop screwing around and go meet Aradia
>something else?
