#[[ Chance biting Rick's finger out of context is hilarious ]]

[countlessrealities]

send a number + an emoji to bite my muse || No longer accepting.

@dynamoprotocol sent: 🗡️(scared) + 9 (hand) Chance lashing out without thinking when Rick's trying to put that damn IV or an injection in him :'^) this is why Morty needs to be here...

There was a rhythmic pulsing in the back of Rick's head. A dull noise, but still loud enough to be impossible to ignore. His mind kept being inevitably drawn back to it, just as his thoughts didn't stop spiraling around the same, painful subjects. It was like being caught in a relentless centripetal force, like being dragged back towards the ground by an invincible gravity. There was no reaching escape velocity.

He had almost forty years wishing that he could turn his brain off, but in very few occasions he had wished to be successful as much as he did in that moment.

The scientist gritted his teeth a little as he finished preparing the bag of fluids connected to the IV. Anger, guilt, bitterness and frustration had been his faithful companions for a so long, for too long, but in situations like that current one they felt as overwhelming as they had been during the first weeks after Beth's and Diane's death. But how could he not draw a comparison between past and present, when once again one of his closest loved ones was on a deathbed because of him?

For a moment, Rick's fingers shook so bad that the needle he was holding almost slipped from his grip. There was a part of him, his reason perhaps, that was trying to remind him how this was not his fault. He hadn't directly caused Chance to get infected by those cursed nanobots, just as he hadn't been the one to drop the bomb in his garage four decades ago. But, even considering that, could he be considered truly blameless? It didn't feel like that. Not to him.

He had allowed Chance to tag along for that adventure, even knowing how dangerous it could have been. Hell, he had even been the one to invite...well, he and his boyfriend...because he had thought that the trip could be a "great bonding experience". And a way to relive, in a better, healthier way, the shared rushes of adrenaline that had brought him and Clarissa closer and closer almost a decade before. Even if, of course, he would have ever admitted this last thing out loud.

In any case, the hows and the whys were of no imports now. What mattered was the result and the hard reality of facts. Chance was being eaten away by an artificial infection that he and his counterpart, the self-proclaimed "smartest men in the universe", were struggling to figure out. Chance would die if they didn't succeed.

Steadying his hand as he reached out to hold his lover's arm took him an inhuman effort. The mere thought out touching the other filled him with dread and with the irrational fear that Chance would crumble into ashes the moment their skins would have come into contact.

You destroy everything and everyone you touch.

And how not to believe that malicious, cutting voice when he had the umpteenth proof that it was right under his eyes? He had lost Clarissa once already, he shouldn't have known that getting another try with her...with him couldn't have worked out either. People like Rick didn't get to have and keep good things. They were fated to ruin them each and every time.

To make it even worse, Chance was the one paying the price for it. That wasn't fair. It wasn't fucking fair at all. It should have been him in that bed, surrounded by the most brilliant yet useless tech. He should have been the one wasting away, the one suffering his way towards...

The trail of his thought was abruptly cut off as a searing pain hit his hand. Rick instantly dropped the IV, more out of surprise than because it had hurt that much, and stumbled backwards, almost tripping on his own feet.

"W-What the fuck?! D-Did you...Did you just...?" He spluttered, eyes wide as saucers. There was no anger in his voice, just shock and incredulity as he struggled to wrap his mind about what had happened.

Every thought and emotion in that direction, however, instantly vanished as his gaze landed on Chance's face. The terrified and horrified stare on the other man's face caused him to freeze in place for a long moment, even the pain forgotten.

However, that stasis didn't last long. Being look at as the source of his lover's panic and distress was more than RIck could bear. The guilt that had already been crushing him filled his lungs like thick syrup, making him feel like he was drowning. He couldn't breathe, his heart was beating deafeningly loudly in his ears, and he felt about to throw his whole inside up.

So, he did the one thing he had become a master at: he turned on his heels and fled the room like a coward.

He couldn't have said where his rushed steps were taking him, but he couldn't have cared less. He just needed to put distance between himself and that look. It was just too much and he couldn't afford breaking, not when he had to keep it together to save Chance. He couldn't take care of himself, all his energies and time had to be focused on his lover.

Eventually he stumbled to a stop in one of the corridors of the lab. The lights were dimmed, thankfully, because they strengthened the impression that he could have hid away from everything there.

With a quiet, wrecked sob, Rick let himself slide down against the wall, ending up seated on the floor, knees up to his chest and his arms crossed over them. His head quickly fell down, face hiding in his lab coat, and he remained there, drained and unmoving, if not for the visible trembling of his limbs.

And if the white cloth got wetter and wetter with every passing minute, that would have been something for him and only him to know.

#[ ic :: c137 Rick ] #&& Chance Rennard #[ v. Forever a hundred years ; main verse :: c137 Rick ] #[ relationship :: Rick & Chance ] #dynamoprotocol #[[ hi yes this came 100 years too late =.=" ]] #[[ also it would be almost funny if it wasn't so heartbreaking ]] #[[ Chance biting Rick's finger out of context is hilarious ]] #[[ but then you add the contest and it becomes so fucking angsty >.< ]] #[[ you me and Rin need to explore this plot ]] #[[ it's so good so many chances for angst and conflict and bonding !! ]] #[[ also character and relationship development ]] #;; queue