carpe noctem// rick and morty

family discussion

in walked rick sanchez, the self-proclaimed smartest man in the universe, and dubbed by those around him as a selfish prick.

aster felt overwhelmed, seeing the person (...character?) she'd been admiring for so long. rick looked unbothered, as per usual with a hint of boredom as well. rick said nothing as he sat down and began eating first, not paying any mind to the fact that everyone else was looking at him.

"dad, we have a guest" beth pointed out.

"and?" rick continued to eat, not even bothering to look up.

"dad it's rude to start eating without praying, don't be disrespectful to aster." beth tried to reprimand him. aster looked to beth at the mention of her name,

"oh no no i don't really buy into that whole religion business, it's okay" aster tried to diffuse the situation. that seemed to catch ricks attention, as he finally looked up from his plate.

"would you look at that...", he marvelled, "morty you finally picked up a decent person, i never expected that from you"

"actually she's my friend, grandpa rick" summer retorted

"hey what do you mean your friend, shes my friend too!" morty argued,

"no she came because of me, so she's my friend!"

"uh no duh, you invited her before i could, shes my friend just as much as she's yours!"

"no! aster! who are you friends with, me or morty!?" summer stood up from her seat and slammed both her hands on the table.

aster was dumbfounded. truthfully, she never thought she would be the subject of fighting, at least not in an argument between any person who's over 10 years old.

"ehm, guys? you are both equally my friends and i came here because of both of you, okay? i mean we only met today, so even if i were to choose one of the two, I wouldn't have nearly enough information to make a choice at this point in time. It's really not worth arguing."

the adults seemed just the tiniest bit surprised, and the two teenagers seemed to have realised the stupidity of the situation and had settled back down. well, to be more precise, jerry had paid no attention whatsoever, rick whistled in acknowledgement and beth was busy giving a light talking, to the siblings.

aster was hung up on the fact that THE rick, the man known to keep to himself the most, had actually acknowledged her being there, and even initiated some communication between the two, even if it was brief and not really via words.

aster realised she was behaving as if she was down bad for rick (please help wtf), but the reality was that she admired him so much that even the smallest gestures of his felt so important to her.

this visit had already been a success in her books, despite knowing that even if rick sanchez had acknowledged her, he wouldn't remember who she was that easily, just cause she was of no importance to him.

it hurt her pride, even more so because she knew that even jessica had more chances of being remembered by rick, simply because she was important to morty, who was important to both beth and himself.

choosing to focus on what she can change, rather than what she cannot do anything about, she decided to strengthen her relationship with the siblings. to her surprise though, there was more in store for her than what she had expected.

"so, where did you come from? it's not every day I see a person that makes use of their brain."

rick was surprisingly talking to aster, something she thought would take at least two more visits of hers for it to happen.

"well im not from here, so i guess it makes sense for you to say that" aster knew fully well that this sentence didn't only have one meaning, not to her nor to the portal traveller.

shed been tempted to reveal her identity right then and there, she could've made an amazing joke out of it but she refrained from doing so. she knew that would've put more distance between him and her, and not just that. shed been sure summer and morty would've felt betrayed as if they were seen only as a stepping stone in asters eyes, the end goal being their grandpa. she didn't want that to happen.

 she chose to add more to her initial answer.

"im from europe, and have been raised in a household of scientists and professors, so science was the only thing i have been taught to put my faith in haha"

yet another eyebrow raise was earned from the scientist.

"oh my, really aster? this is great, we are also such a household. how great this is!" beth expressed delighted, it seems she was pleased with her, which aster took pride in.

"oh that's great, i wouldn't want to offend you, mrs smith"

"oh no aster, just call me beth, no need to be formal. now that i think about it, you haven't been introduced to the rest of the family"

morty saw an opportunity to enter the conversation, and so he was the one to speak this time.

"aster, this is grandpa rick, he's a scientist"

aster feigned an impressed expression, raising her eyebrows and tilting her head lightly.

"wow really, mr... rick? what kind of work did you do?"

"morty that's enough. i don't do any kind of work in particular" (r)

"he works with portals" summer chimed in the conversation.

aster was shocked. not because of ricks work being revealed, as any person with no prior knowledge would, but because the words slipped so easily out of summers' mouth.
was it really safe to be going around, practically telling people that your grandpa is working with things that were previously thought to be impossible? aster was not sure.

"w...wow mr rick, that's... impressive? im sorry, i don't exactly know how to react" aster admitted sheepishly

"summer, why did you think it was a good idea to talk about my work without permission?" rick said through gritted teeth, and it could be seen clear as day that he was angry.

oh boy were they in for a ride