Friday night. Lister was walking back to his quarters, looking sad and –truthfully – a little red round the eyes. Despite their talk, despite the fact he knew that this was right, saying goodbye to Alex had been a lot harder than he'd expected. He hadn't gone with him to the shuttle port; they had said their goodbyes in Alex's quarters, where they would have a little more privacy.

Alex was sitting on the sofa when he came in, his bag at his feet, looking nervous. When Lister came through the door he smiled, relieved. "I thought you might not come," he admitted honestly. Lister scoffed,

"You didn't really think you'd get away that easy, did you?" Alex stood up and they hugged each other hard. Lister looked down at the bag, "All packed?"

"All packed. I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"Excited?"

"Terrified. But excited too."

"Good. You'll be fine, man."

"I know. At least, I hope so." He put his head to one side and looked at Lister, "And what about you?"

"Me?" Lister laughed softly, "I always seem to be okay. One way or another." He looked back at him, "I'm really going to miss you."

"I'll miss you too."

Holly's head appeared up on the vid screen. "It's time for you to make your way to the shuttle port now, Alex," he said, "The lift will be waiting for you at the end of the corridor." He disappeared. Alex and Lister looked at each other.

"I suppose this is it," Lister said weakly.

"Yeah," Alex said softly. Without a word, he pulled Lister gently into his arms and for a few seconds they just held each other. Lister could feel his eyes starting to sting and tried to hide it. Tears would only make things worse. Finally, they separated and Alex bent down to give him one last kiss. A kiss goodbye. It lasted perhaps a few moments longer than it should have done in the circumstances.

"I have to go," Alex said finally. Lister nodded,

"Take care."

"I'll write," Alex promised again and Lister laughed. It was either that or cry.

"Go, Alex."

He stood outside the door and waved to him as the lift closed and started to make its descent. When he was gone, he went back into his quarters, sat down heavily on the bed, looked around and then started to cry.

Rimmer was sitting at the table reading when he got back. "Hey, man," he said softly. Rimmer looked up and to Lister's continued surprise he actually seemed concerned; if a little awkward showing it. He'd taken the news of Alex's impending departure very strangely. They'd all been expecting him to be thrilled, perhaps even a little triumphant, but he'd actually been very sensitive about it. Despite his own feelings about Alex, he knew Lister was going to be upset. "How did it go?" he asked gently. Lister shrugged,

"Okay, I suppose."

"You alright?" Rimmer asked.

"Yeah. I think so. I'm going to miss him but...I'll be okay. Don't worry about me, man." Rimmer nodded and went back to his book, deciding not to press the matter. He'd noticed Lister's red eyes.

Lister went through to the bathroom to have a shower. He took his time, giving himself a long leisurely scrub-down. When you shared a room with someone, the bathroom was one of the few places you could actually be alone with your thoughts and tonight Lister needed to make the most of it. He definitely had more thoughts than normal crowding his head and they were nearly all complicated. Finally, when he had no more bits left to wash and the little light on the shower started to flash a warning that he was running out of hot water, he had no choice but to switch it off and get dried. He gave himself a brisk towelling, then wrapped the soggy article around his waist and ventured out to get some clean clothes.

Rimmer was in the middle of the room doing his exercises, "One, two, three, stretch!" Lister leaned against the doorframe and watched him, a smile slowly finding its way onto his face. There were few things in the world he found more humorous than watching Rimmer exercise and right now he could do with a laugh. He always looked so serious. "Stretch up! Reach down! One, two..." He did a series of toe touches. Lister put his hand over his mouth to suppress a giggle. At least he had a good view from here. Wait a minute...

He paused. Did he really just have that thought? He looked again and had to admit...the view was actually pretty good. Rimmer really did have a pretty decent butt on him. Not as round as Alex's perhaps, but firm and kind of sweet...He shook himself. What the hell was he doing? This must just be a weird emotional reaction to Alex leaving. He wasn't gay! He didn't look at other guy's asses! What had happened with Alex was a one-off thing. An experiment. A bit of fun. He didn't want to do it again, not with anyone else, and certainly not with Rimmer! No matter how toned his butt was...

Rimmer turned round and saw him and did a double-take, "What are you doing lurking in the doorway?"

"What d'you mean, 'lurking'? I'm not lurking!"

"Well, what are doing just standing there then?" Rimmer demanded, then gave him an odd look, "Were you looking at my bum, Lister?"

Lister scoffed, "Don't be stupid! What would I want to look at your bum for?" He brushed past him, "Looking at your bum, indeed," he muttered, rummaging through the clothes thrown over his bunk and hoping his face hadn't gone red. Rimmer paused for a second, then smiled evilly, "Well," he said sweetly, "I think you should return the favour!"

Quick as a flash, he grabbed Lister's towel and whipped it off. Lister's jaw dropped, "Rimmer!" He'd never been so shocked in all his life. Rimmer just didn't do things like this! "You...I...I can't believe you just...," he spluttered, not sure where to put his hands, or whether to turn around or what. Rimmer grinned smugly and twirled the towel. Lister made a grab for it but Rimmer yanked it back, "Oooh! So close!"

"Give it back!"

"Come on, Listy. You can get it. Just a little faster..."

Lister snatched a pillow off his bed and walloped him. Rimmer yelped and gave him a smack with the towel. "Ow!" Lister indignantly rubbed the red mark, "That hurt! I didn't hurt you!"

"Love and war, Listy," Rimmer replied, taking aim again. Lister dodged,

"Oh, it's war, alright! You just wait, man!" Lister dived at him and yanked his shorts down around his ankles. "Aaargh!" Rimmer lost his balance and toppled over, tangled in his shorts. Lister pounced on top of him and started to beat him around the head with the pillow. Rimmer wrestled it off him and started to hit him back. Lister scrambled backwards under the onslaught and Rimmer sat up and grabbed him round the waist, knocking them both back down onto the floor, and started to tickle him.

Amid all the kicking, squealing and flailing of limbs, neither of them noticed when the door opened and Kriss wandered in. "We're going for a drink up on C deck if you guys want to come along..." She stopped, taking in the scene in front of her. Lister and Rimmer froze, looked at each other, then both grabbed for the discarded towel and started wrestling to cover themselves up.

Kriss closed her eyes and threw up her hands, "You know what? Don't worry about it. I can see you're obviously very busy. Just come on up whenever you're done and can find the time to put some clothes on. Okay?"

"He grabbed my towel off me...!"

"...Pulled my shorts down...!" They both started talking at the same time and Kriss, her eyes still shut tight, waved for them both to be quiet. "I don't care," she said, "I don't want to know. Just...sort it out between yourselves, okay? I'm going now and I don't want to see either of you again until you're fully clothed and behaving like grown-ups, right?" She turned round and made her way out, shutting the door behind her.

The two of them got to their feet, looking rather shame-faced. "Nice one," Rimmer grinned, pulling his shorts up, "Real smooth, Listy."

"I don't know what you're laughing at," Lister grumbled, snatching the towel back off him, "It wasn't just my bare ass she saw. You weren't exactly looking the epitome of dignity either."

"Doesn't bother me. She's not the love of my life."

"Yeah, but she's bound to tell everyone else, isn't she? And you'll get some funny looks when people hear that she walked in and found you straddling my naked body with your keks round your ankles."

"So will you."

"Oh, bugger off."

"Was that a pun?"

Lister shot him a warning look and Rimmer censored his smile, "Oh, come on. Why are you so ticked off? Kriss knows we were just play-fighting. Do you really think she would have reacted the way she did if she'd thought it was anything else?"

"Yeah, well," Lister muttered, "You started it. What's got into you, anyway?"

"I was just trying to cheer you up a bit. You looked so miserable when you got back. Admit it; right up until Kriss walked in, you were having fun."

"Fun? I couldn't breathe! I thought I was going to die! And you're bloody heavy as well!"

"Oh, be that way then," Rimmer sniffed, "Are we going for this drink or not?"

"Maybe," Lister replied, seeming slightly mollified, "If you can get your pants back on!" He darted forward and pulled Rimmer's boxers back down and the whole thing started over again.