Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Dude, quit it! You're gonna make me mess up!"

Mordecai lifted the controller, avoiding Rigby's elbow as the other attempted to knock it from his hands. It was a rainy day outside, and Rigby had invited him over to play video games in his basement, where they usually hung out in order to avoid his dad. A round of this epic new PVP game Rigby had ordered had Mordecai fighting for his life out here - not that he was bad at the game, but Rigby would not stop cheating.

"Quit!" Mordecai snapped again as Rigby leaned over into his space, trying to block his view of the TV. A few seconds later and Rigby lost his balance with a yelp, dropping the controller as he fell on top of Mordecai, causing the other to drop his controller too.

Game now abandoned, Mordecai flailed and shoved Rigby off of him. The other responded by flailing his arms, reaching up to smack Mordecai in the side of the head. Mordecai shook his head as he saw stars, giving Rigby the opportunity to flip the other over, coming out on top again.

"I win!" Rigby declared. "Admit it."

"Dude, you cheated!" Mordecai squirmed beneath him but Rigby pinned him by the wrists and Mordecai glanced up at him with an annoyed look.

"I did not! Just admit that you lost." Rigby urged and Mordecai had to resist the urge to roll his eyes as he sighed out loud. Honestly, he just wasn't in the mood to have a three hour long argument about this, so you know what, fine.

"Okay, I lost. Are you happy? Gonna let me go now, champ?" Mordecai asked sarcastically and Rigby grinned.

"Maybe I won't." He teased, but one hand did let go of Mordecai's arm to lightly thump Mordecai's forehead, making him wince.

"Dude, what the hell? Come on, you won, you can stop acting like a jerk now."

"Okay okay!" Rigby said and went to climb off, but Mordecai sensed an opportunity and seized it - more specifically, he seized Rigby's arm and yanked. The other yelped as he fell and oh. Their faces were only inches away from each other. Mordecai felt his heart beat hard in his chest, his face flushing, and he had to quickly regain the moment as he shoved Rigby to the side and threw a blanket on top of him, catching the other off guard and causing him to protest from beneath it.

"Too slow, dude."

"Aw man! You suck!" Came Rigby's voice as he finally managed to rip off the blanket, glaring at his best friend.

Mordecai's laughter rang throughout the basement as his heartbeat steadied.

-

When Mordecai finished unloading his things from the car, his parents hugged him. They told him to stay safe before they finally left, and the two friends were alone once again in Mordecai's brand new college dorm.

"Dude, you're in art school." Rigby told him, throwing a bunch of his clothes onto the trampoline he had dragged in here. "How's it feel?"

He could say a lot of things in answer to that. Scary, overwhelming. He could talk about how he was sure he wasn't going to be half as good as the other students, especially since he had only really drawn for Rigby and himself. Instead he said, "Cool. Like... really cool. I'm in college, dude."

"Hell yeah you are!" Rigby grinned and pointed to the door. "Dude, let's go check out the local pizza place we saw down the street. I wanna celebrate."

"What do you have to celebrate? You're not even attending." Mordecai pointed out, smiling nonetheless as he grabbed his key, his wallet, and his phone. The two headed out together, the door automatically locking behind him.

"My best bro got into art school! C'mon, how is that not celebration worthy?" Rigby asked, nudging him, and Mordecai snickered, lightly shoving him as they headed down the hall.

The setting sun bathed the two of them in a pretty blue glow as they walked down the streets of his college campus, and as they passed several college kids, it occured to Mordecai that he was one of them now. It felt... weird. He glanced at Rigby and snorted when he saw the other was twiddling with a rubber band he had found in his pocket, slapping it against his wrist and not even paying attention to the other students. Okay, that felt less weird.

He didn't really know how he would feel if Rigby wasn't here with him.

-

"Come on, Mordecai, everyone in art school goes through a dyed hair phase at least once."

Honestly, Mordecai didn't know the girl too well. He didn't know her friends, either. They were all in a class with him, and had convinced him to come shopping with them. And somehow, that had ended up with them in the hair dye aisle, a box of blue dye in her hands as she smirked up at him.

"I dunno... I don't really wanna call attention to myself like that." Mordecai argued. Handling this big group of students was so new and overwhelming. He wondered what Rigby was doing back at home.

"No one will pay that much attention to you, I promise. Come on - I'll give you a kiss?" She offered and her friends all whistled and whooped at him as he felt his face grow red.

"Oh... O-Okay." He cursed himself for stammering because that was so fucking uncool, but whatever. It only took 10 dollars and a stained towel before he was making out with this green haired chick, her hands grabbing fistfulls of his freshly dyed hair.

He had just started to relax when his phone rang and he cursed, lightly pushing her away. She pouted and shot him a look that made him nervous, but he quickly stood and fumbled to answer his phone, feeling the eyes of her friends on him as they all paused in their conversations to see what was wrong.

"Hello?"

"Dude, it's 9 at night, where the hell are you?"

Oh... Rigby.

"I'm with a, uhm, fr... frien- girl." He stammered and heard a few snickers behind him.

"Oh." Came the response. It was so... curt, and almost disappointed? "Well don't let me bother you then. I'll just eat your fruit snacks."

"Wait, no, Rigby don't eat those-!" He was cut off as the other line went dead and he cursed, shoving his phone in his pocket.

"What's wrong, tough guy?" Came the voice of the pretty green-haired girl on the couch.

"I gotta go." He blurted. "My best friend is being a jerk again."

"Awe, right as things were starting to heat up, too..."

"W-Well..." He shrugged awkwardly and quickly bolted for the door. "I'll see you in class! Thanks for the hair dye!"

When he got to the dorms, Rigby was spread out on his mattress, a movie playing on the TV that barely fit in their small dorm. Mordecai felt tense as Rigby turned to look at him.

"Please don't tell me you ate-"

"You dyed your hair!?" 

Mordecai blinked. He had forgotten about it in the events of the night, but as the door to the dorms closed behind him, his best friend bolted over to him and yanked him down by the shirt collar, causing him to stumble slightly. "Dude, watch it!"

"Sorry! I can't help it if you're tall, and I wanna see." Rigby lightly brushed his fingers through the hair. "Dude, this color looks amazing on you."

"R-Really?" Mordecai squinted at him as he lightly pushed Rigby's hands away. "Lez said that a natural would look better-"

"What? Who's that?" Rigby furrowed his brows and then suddenly seemed to realize. "The 'friend girl'?" He teased.

"Dude, shut it!" Mordecai blushed and shoved him, making his way to the bed. Rigby's laughter followed him.

"You know, I don't think you should listen to her. Blue looks really good on you."

"You say that like you mean it."

He expected another teasing quirk out of Rigby, but what he got was a tilt of his head as Rigby flopped down onto the bed next to him and leaned closer. "I do mean it. You're beautiful like this."

Mordecai couldn't stop the way his face flushed bright red, and he swore he could see it reciprocated on Rigby's face for a second as he quickly looked back towards the TV. "A-Anyway," Rigby stammered. "Wanna hang out now that you're here? Oh, and I ate your fruit snacks."

"Dude! That's all I had!"

"Sorry, man. Your loss."

He'd probably keep the blue hair... probably.

-

Developing friends that weren't Rigby wasn't as hard as he thought it might be. Sitting in a circle of those friends at the dining hall, he found himself boredly checking his phone.

He had recently got a new one. His wallpaper was Rigby and him, his arm slung around Rigby's shoulder, a big grin on Rigby's face. Looking at it sorta made Mordecai feel like he was carrying Rigby with him everywhere, even in places Rigby couldn't come, like his classes.

"We have a huge party planned for this Saturday to celebrate midterms." One of his friends was saying. "Mordecai, you coming?"

"Sure thing. I'm always down for some chill time." He joked, slowly looking up from his phone.

"You should bring your boyfriend." Another of his friends spoke, absentmindedly. "You two look like such a cute couple, I'm sure it'd be fun."

"M... My what?" Mordecai froze in place.

His friend pointed to his phone. "Is he not your boyfriend?"

"Wha- Rigby!? No! He's my best friend! I don't even swing that way!"

"Oh..." His friend looked at him oddly for a moment. "You know, I always thought you were bisexual for some reason. Guess I was wrong."

Mordecai couldn't help the way his face reddened as he laughed nervously and said, "Yeah. Guess so."

-

Mordecai stared at himself in the mirror, trying to will his beating heart into submission. He was well aware that he was hogging the bathroom right now and he did not care.

Okay, Mordecai, from the top. You are a straight guy. Someone insinuating that you might be dating your best friend means nothing. The sweaty palms and racing heart is just nerves because you're being seen as something you aren't. You're normal.

Yeah.