Title – Realisations
Author – GTA Otaku
Rating – PG
Summary – Late at night, Rimmer cries holographic tears (could be Pre-Slash, could be smarm, Readers choice)
Warning - It is Pre-Slashy (look at that, I wrote Pre-Slash) but it is also written by me and therefore let it fall into the category of smarmy if you want it to.
Is also my first Red Dwarf fanfiction (RUN) and therefore could suffer from anything from poor writing to OOC
Disclaimer – I don't own Red Dwarf, not one smegging bit.
Flames will be used to fuel the rocket ship.
He could hear Lister talking to Holly, Holly talking back in her sing song voice. Rimmer's name came up.
So he was finally asking to have him turned if. His snivelling must have been keeping Lister awake.
'Please, please switch me off, I can't take this, I don't want to be here I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I get it. Can I wake up now?
He waited for the inevitable, and it finally came.
Well, sort of.
There was a soft, almost affectionate feeling in his hair. At first it surprised Rimmer, how long had it been since even the wind had blown through his hair, stroking it back. It continued for a while, and he felt another pressure on his arms, gently pulling him over so that he was lying on his back. Rimmer let it; he was too absorbed in simply feeling touch again.
Lister kept his hand there, holding it so that it seemed to rest on Rimmer's arm while Holly translated every touch to the appropriate sensation in Rimmer's matrix.
"You want to talk man?"
"Do you?" Rimmer asked, confused.
"I asked first".
Scratch that one up there with 'I am a Fish' then.
Rimmer thought for a while. "I understand it Listy".
"It?"
"You, the Cat and Kryten all 'Oh isn't he the coolest' over Ace".
"Is that was this is about?" Lister pointed to Rimmer's eyes, making the Hologram look away.
"Yes that is what this is about". Rimmer bit back, then closed his eyes. Lister was trying to help him after all, least he could do is try and be nice. "I'm sorry".
The younger man stood up, pacing the room as if considering each word carefully. "Come on man, you know I'd sooner have you around".
Well, Rimmer hadn't been expecting that small nugget of a revelation. "Very funny". He said, sitting up on the edge of the bunk and burrying his head in his hands.
"I'm serious Rimmer. If it had come to an active choice between you and Ace, I would have picked you".
Rimmer looked up. "So you don't want the guy who can beat the space speed record for asteroids belts, whilst blindfolded and thinking about his nurse waiting for him covered in cranberry sauce".
"No, I want the guy who put me on report five times in as many minutes, whose own subconscious hates him, who couldn't pass an astronavigation exam without a blindfold much less with, who goes on and on about Risk as if it's the most amazing thing alive and reads War diaries".
"Why?"
Lister knelt back down, placing his hand back on Rimmer's arm. Holly was a little late with the pressure this time, but it came.
"Because he's also the guy who saved my life when the Cat was more concerned with his lunch. Remember that. Oh and the time ".
"Ace would do that".
"For anyone, without even thinking about it. And I expect he would burn his favourite toy soldiers to keep someone from hypothermia without thinking about it as well, for anyone, easily". Lister looked down. He wasn't normally one for this kind of talk. "But it was hard for you. It was hard for you but you still did that for me. It meant something to you, I think it meant a lot you, and so it meant a lot to me as well". He smirked. "Would have been better if you hadn't stolen my body, but you're still my friend".
Lister laughed as he climbed back into his bunk. "Now go to sleep".
And that was that, Rimmer's first normal human conversation, granted with a guy only a few steps above Neanderthal man, but then.
The thought struck him as he lay down. Lister had used the word 'Friend'?
Holly was gone, they were alone.
"Lister, do you...do you like me?"
No answer. Rimmer closed his eyes. Maybe he had imagined it.
"Night Ace". Lister murmured.
"Night Skipper".
Kipper Man and the Boy Kangaroo. 'I am a Fish'
For all its moments, sometimes Fate did give you a royal flush.
It was still a gimboid.
