Eighteen Birthday
Ever since Lister had discovered he was his own father he started making Father's Day card for himself. It was something he kept secret from Rimmer because he knew that the hologram would tease him. He didn't keep making cards for the child version of himself and Jim and Bexley a secret from Rimmer and had even managed to get the hologram to join him making his own cards for the three children.
"Those the cards for the boys?" Rimmer asked seeing Lister working on the art project. It was never planned when they would make the cards. Some years in was months in advance and others it was just before the twins birthday or on their birthday.
"Yes," Lister grinned. "Eighteen today, it's a big birthday. Have to make their cards special."
"I see you already made Dave juniors card." Rimmer picked up the completed card a small smile gracing his lips as he examined the card.
"He'll be twelve later in the year. Then he'll become a man. I'm not sure if I should be disappointed as his father or happy because that was one of the best days of my life." Lister grinned.
"I wouldn't call that becoming a man. I still wouldn't call you a man. You're one of the most childish people I know. Twelve is far too young to lose your virginity. You should have waited until you were nineteen like I did. I'm very tempted to time travel to the past and stop that from happening. Maybe even raising you after your Gran dies."
"Gran died when I was thirteen, you raising me would change the timeline too much and would likely end in erasing the twins and even myself. Rimmer, I know you lost your virginity to McGruder when you were in your thirties so stop lying to yourself." Lister teased knowing that McGruder was still a sore point for the hologram even years later.
Rimmer huffed, taking a seat and starting on his own card for the boys.
"Think the boys have lost their virginity yet? They were physically eighteen when we saw them last. They'd be almost physically forty now if they aged correctly after we dropped them off. I wonder if I'm a grandfather yet. I'd like to be a grandfather."
"Technically you would be Jim and Bexley's grandfather through your youngest Dave junior." Rimmer teased. "Who is there to have children with? The only females they know are their mother and Aunt Arlene or father and Uncle Arlene? I never got my head around how that dimension works."
"Maybe someone from the nano crew?" Lister suggested. They didn't know if the other Red Dwarf had ended up remaining like there's just with the children around or had split into an entirely different timeline.
- Red Dwarf -
The years had become easier after Rimmer had returned from his adventures as Ace. Jim and Bexley's seventh birthday had been just as hard as the twin's sixth. Being stuck with nano resurrected Rimmer in the tank who had no clue why he'd been upset. Lister had to get Bob to smuggle in paper for him to write down that year's events that had to be written in secret and hidden until he went on parole then rewrote them at a later date when he was finally out of the tank.
Kochanski hadn't realised the date until days afterwards, so she hadn't been any comfort and Lister had suffered alone. Hurting nano Rimmer emotionally because he wasn't his Rimmer and since Lister was hurting everyone else needed to hurt as well.
It was back to the old days when they had the whole ship to themselves. The living nano resurrected Rimmer was now gone, as was the rest of the resurrected crew and Kochanski from the other dimension. Rimmer insisted the Kryten has pushed her out the airlock since he was the one who told them about her death. Kryten never did like Kochanski.
Kochanski didn't remain alive in the journal that he and Rimmer still wrote together each year. Rimmer insisted that her being gone was the first true death that the boys had experienced, so as much as it pained Lister, she was killed off in their fantasy life.
- Red Dwarf -
"So what are our boys doing for their eighteenth?" Lister asked after they finished out writing the alternative events for that year.
"Well they are your sons, they'll get into the liquor and get blind drunk," Rimmer started the story, writing down all the mischief the possibly could've got up to.
"And Uncle Arnie will make their hangover the worst experience of their lives, so they think twice before drinking again." Lister continued. Rimmer nodding that would be exactly what he'd do.
"We both know that only works for a short while since they are both your sons, so they raid the medibay for a hangover cure and get drunk again."
"They then break into the holographic simulation room and program you so that you are drunk as well. Where they learn that the true reason you don't drink around them is you always end up in a dress and telling the most awful truths about your family that no one wanted to know." Lister grinned.
"I don't want to include that," Rimmer said in a heightened pitch. Putting the pen down, crossing his arms, glaring at Lister for even making the suggestion, trying to make Lister burn on the spot for making the suggestion.
Lister was not at all put off, they had this argument almost every year. "You're the one who wanted to keep this as realistic as possible. This is something that could possibly happen." Lister argued his point. "It's not fair if you can put in embarrassing things about me but not about yourself.
With a sigh, Rimmer picked the pen up, writing out the embarrassing passage with more detail then Lister intended. He stopped writing, chewing the pen nervously before putting it down and making a request. "Even though the boys aren't here I think we should have a party for their birthday."
"Brutal, let's get drunk." Lister grinned at the hologram. He never even thought of having a party for his children.
- Red Dwarf -
Kryten quickly had a room setup for a party. Lister had done a collage from the three short days they'd spent with the twins, and before they knew it, they had a party in full swing by that evening.
"You need to drink more Rimmer, have fun, this is a birthday party." Lister was shoving alcohol into his face. While Rimmer had a couple of drinks it was less than everyone else.
In the background Cat was yowling and dancing having the most fun. Kryten was chatting to one of the scutters about cleaning, also enjoying himself and counting down till the party was over so he could clean even more. The mechanoid would get excited every time a drink was spilt, or something was knocked over since it gave him more to clean.
"Not yet," Rimmer pushed the drink away. "You know I'm a light drunk, I'm already tipsy. I have something to show you before I get too drunk. I'll regret it forever if I don't show you today."
Lister had to help Rimmer to his feet and followed his down a few corridors away from the thumping music. One he would've assumed Rimmer was trying to take him away from the fun, but after years of knowing him, he was aware that he had something important to talk about away from noise. Lister stopped in the doorway of the room Rimmer lead him to. The room was supposed to be Jim and Bexley's bedroom in their old officers quarters. They'd used this room for a short while when Lister was pregnant and could no longer get out of the top bunk, and they discovered that Rimmer couldn't get into the top bunk due to a glitch with the holographic system.
They'd moved quarters, away from this side of the ship when Rimmer returned from being Ace. They all needed a fresh start, especially with Kochanski still with then at the time. It felt too personal having her invade their old rooms and nitpicking everything, and they didn't want her going into the twins room.
On the wall between the two beds was a portrait. A new portrait. A painted portrait. Jim and Bexley standing together how they looked all those years ago. Rimmer and Lister standing either side of them with a hand on each boy's shoulder with how they looked now. In between the twins was Lister's younger self how he looked when he was eleven. Kryten was next to Lister and Cat next to Rimmer.
The painting was in a beautiful hand carved frame with a golden plaque which read 'Jim and Bexley Lister, Happy Eighteenth Birthday, Love Dad and Uncle Arnie.
"It's beautiful Rimmer, you actually painted this?" Lister asked, looking at the painting from every angle.
Rimmer was red with embarrassment. "Ah yes, I did this. Do you like it?"
"I love it. I didn't know you could paint. This is amazing, thank you so much" Lister said in disbelief.
"When I was Ace, I met a Rimmer who remained on Io. Father had died when he was a baby and without father's expectations to get into the Space Corp mother let him do whatever he wanted. He was very creative. He wrote and illustrated books. Did very well for himself, he taught me how to draw properly, and I've been practising ever since."
"You don't talk much about your time as Ace," Lister said. They both sat on a bed each. Lister on Jim's bed and Rimmer on Bexley's.
"I wasn't very good at being Ace, I was to Arnold Rimmer to let go and become and Ace that Wildfire was trying to mould me into. I just couldn't let go of the past."
"I'm glad you came back, those years without you were the hardest, especially on this day," Lister admitted. "Tell me what it was like."
Rimmer nodded and started talking with a story about the twins. "I saw dimensions where we got to raise the twins. Dimensions we had girls instead, occasionally one girl and one boy and even ones with only one child. Many different dimensions.
"Some nothing was wrong, others we worked out how to fix them, others it was Deb who ended up pregnant, and we ended up with the twins at three days old and physically eighteen. Dimensions where I gave birth instead. Dimensions where one of us was male and the other female. Dimensions where one of us were born the opposite gender and transitioned, so it appeared we were the same gender.
"A lot of dimensions where we both survived. One we both died and still ended up getting the twins. Then there were all the dimensions with Kristine Kochanski as the twins mother. So many dimensions with us together. It scared me to admit that Rimmer's who were so much like me ended up with you. The ones more like Ace ended up alone."
Instead of partying like the original plan the two men talked about the dimensions Rimmer had visited. Lister was happy to hear about the twins even if they weren't exactly his twins.
Lister looked at the painting hoping that one day he would get to see his sons again and tell his boys how much he loved them and always would love them. Show them the room they were supposed to have and the portrait their uncle had painted and the book they'd written together or what ifs. The handmade birthday cards and the years worth of presents for every year Lister and Rimmer had missed the children.
Lister moved to the bed Rimmer was sitting on. This was the first year he hadn't started crying that Rimmer hadn't held him not including the years when Rimmer was Ace. Lister wrapped his arms around Rimmer, and the other man held him close awkwardly activating his holobook to show Lister photos of his time as Ace in the dimensions with their twins. He'd seen this book the first time Rimmer had come back, on the twins birthday and Rimmer had shown it to him every year since.