Rimmer let out a nearly inhuman roar of frustration and tugged his chestnut curls almost viciously. None of this gibberish made an ounce of sense to him, and this time he had legitimately made a valiant effort to study, if eight hours could be considered legitimate. He had read over half of the textbook and it appeared completely Greek. It might as well have been written in an alien language as far as he was concerned, because he was sure it wouldn't have any difference.

There was nothing else for it, had had to face facts. There was no way he was going to be able to become an officer at this rate, even if he had an eternity to memorise these textbooks inside-out it still wouldn't be enough. It was one thing to commit the facts to memory, it was another to comprehend them – and you would never truly be an officer if you had zero expertise in the field. At one point Rimmer had been willing to do whatever it took to get up the ranks, cheating seemed a perfectly acceptable idea. Now he wasn't as sure: if you cheated to get somewhere, did you really ever get there at all?

Everything seemed hopeless, no matter what he tried. He would never outshine his brothers, or impress his parents. In fact he doubted he would ever shine at all.

"Rimmer!"

The hologram turned around surprised by the urgency of the voice calling his name, only to catch sight of Lister and have his face drop in disappointment. "The Cat's been looking for you, you know. He came in twice complaining about how you're harder to find than a matching sock."

Lister stopped in front of Rimmer, who was standing in the middle of the sleeping quarters still unchanged from the morning and clad in his white shirt, boxers and socks which he routinely slept in. The shorter man bent over and rested his weight on his knees for a few moments, trying to catch his breath. "Cat can wait," he finally answered, standing back up straight.

Rimmer blinked disinterestedly. "I don't suppose this is about anything remotely interesting or useful," he remarked snidely.

Without warning Lister lunged at Rimmer, enveloping the hologram in a bear hug. Rimmer immediately went rigid in shock and discomfiture, his eyes widening to three times their usual size and darting around frantically in his head, trying to figure out what was going on.

Lister sensing Rimmer's tenseness abated and stood back, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. Rimmer did not unfreeze from his statue-like posture, instead staying in exactly the same position he was in after Lister had attacked him; he stared at Lister with wide eyes, still unsure of what the other technician was thinking. When Lister realized Rimmer was not going to speak, he took the proactive approach and broke the silence that had fell upon them. "Sorry abou' that, but I just wanted to let you know that you're me' mate, and I care abou' yeh."

Lister watched as Rimmer slowly became animated again, very gradually moving so he was facing him front on almost as if he had been frozen in ice and was now melting, giving movement to each of his limbs one by one. When the hologram had finally gathered his senses he responded in the only way he could think fit. "My mother never hugged me."

It was totally unexpected; Lister raised an eyebrow. "Wha'?"

"My mother, she never once hugged me or any of my brothers. The best we got was a nod, but I was lucky to even get that."

"That's terrible," said Lister, his eyebrows knitting together in incredulity.

Suddenly Rimmer realized what he had said and how intimate and uncalled for it was. His primary mental defense mechanism kicked in and he abruptly snapped back to his usual demeanor to cover his embarrassment. "Not that that gives you the right to lay your filthy hands on me, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Lister recoiled slightly but gained his composure again quickly. "What you just said, that's what's wrong Rimmer. Nobody has ever given you any affection, have they, not even your mother."

"What's it to you?"

The third technician blew out a breath. "I'm starting to wonder that."

Rimmer crossed his arms over his chest. "Well it's not true anyway. I've had affection, people have been affectionate to me."

"You just said your own mother never hugged you."

"She hugged me, mentally. But I didn't really deserve to be hugged anyway, so you can't blame her. Nothing strange about that." Rimmer put on a fake smile.

Lister blinked, not believing what he was hearing. "You don't earn hugs, they're not something you "deserve" Rimmer, just like affection isn't something you earn. It's a part of love, something that should be unconditional always. You should be loved regardless of your job or your rank or your personality." The third technician suddenly felt a pang of guilt course through him as the statement brought back the reason he had ambushed Rimmer to the front of his mind. He looked at the ground. "Everybody should be loved by somebody."

Rimmer felt very uncomfortable. "And you're telling me this because?" he asked, masking his unease with an uppity smile as he began to rock on his heels.

Lister looked back up at Rimmer. "Because I'm sorry," he said, "I'm sorry that I've always just dismissed you, that I've always treated you as neurotic, uptight, megalomaniac; because even if you are one, and you are a total smeghead, it doesn't mean you don't feel."

Rimmer halted his motion. "Well that's as well as may be, but I'm still failing to understand what you're driveling about."

Lister's face went serious. Looked like he was going to have to spell it out for his bunkmate. "I love you. As a friend."

There was a pause. "Uh, thankyou?" Rimmer looked to the left and right suspiciously. "Am I being punked?"

"Nobody has ever had any confidence in you, nobody has ever told you that they think you're capable of accomplishing whatever you set your mind to. They've always told you you're no good, and you'll always be no good. Well I'm going to change that, I want to change that. I want you to know that you are better than you think you are, and you can achieve anything you want. I want to let you know I'm here for you." Lister's expression was earnest. He looked into Rimmers eyes with a sense of conviction, willing the other man to understand his genuineness.

Rimmer, having never been confronted with straight-out, honest-to-goodness compassion being directed towards him though still failed to connect the dots. "You've just realized you're gay, haven't you?"

"Argh!" Lister slapped a hand to his forehead is frustration.

"I knew it," Rimmer continued, now sure he had finally caught on to the crux of Lister's point when really he was completely off base, "You were far too friendly with that insufferable pretty boy, Ace Rimmer. I'm still certain he would have proposed if he hadn't dashed off so unceremoniously."

The third technician shot Rimmer an exasperated look. "I'm being serious here!"

"So am I, he left rather abruptly, it was actually quite rude. I guess proper manners and social etiquette were the only two things he didn't know."

Lister put his hands on his hips. 'Stop trash-talking Ace. He's exactly what I'm talking about, he gained some self-confidence and look what he did! And you can't say that that has nothing to do with you, because he IS you! That's all you need, but you can't get it the way Ace did - that ship sailed long ago."

Something about Lister's words made Rimmer's stomach drop and his fake bravado finally began to fade. "I never got the break he did, it's true, but what can I do about it now? I'm trying to understand this stuff, I just can't." The second technician bowed his head in shame.

"I'm here to tell you that you can."

The door to the sleeping quarters opened with a mechanical hum and Kryten waddled in holding a tray with a fried-egg-chilly-chutney sandwich and a beer milkshake balanced on it. "I just came to give you your lunch mister Lister," the mechanoid paused when he saw the serious expressions on Lister and Rimmer's faces. "Is this a bad time Sir?"

"Yeah Kryten, it is. Leave the food on the table, I'll get to it in a –"

"There you are, I've been looking everywhere for you buddy!" Cat strode into the sleeping quarters, stopping next to Kryten and grinning inaapropriately. "Why's everybody so serious?"

Lister pinched the bridge of his nose. "Rimer and I are in the middle of something, can you come back later?"

"What's happening dudes?" Holly's face flicked on the mirror that doubled as a computer screen, peering curiously at the four characters huddled in the sleeping quarters.

"Oh come on!" Lister snapped getting more exasperated by the second. "Okay, since everybody is here I have an announcement. We're all going to support Rimmer from now on. We've been too cruel to him. He's one of the boys, and he deserves to be treated as such. Savvy?"

The Cat raised an eyebrow. "Wait a minute, you want us to be nice to goal-post head? I don't know if that's physically possible bud."

"I going to have to agree with the Cat on this one, it's going to be tough," Holly inputted. "But if it's for you Dave, I'll give it a try, or at least I'll try to give it a try."

"I am one hundred percent behind you Sir, since my protocol chips won't let me be anywhere else no matter how much I disagree with you," Kryten added.

Lister looked over the faces of his friends, letting his eyes land on Rimmer's miserable face last. It was clear that Rimmer was on the verge of bursting to tears, and who could blame him? His four closest acquaintances were saying they didn't even want to attempt being nice to him. Listers face hardened into an expression of determination. "That's not the attitude and not the Red Dwarf way!" he declared. "Now we are going to support our friend, okay?" The others stared at him blankly so he repeated himself with more force. "OKAY?"

The others gave in with a simultaneous "Okay".

"Good," Lister smiled, feeling accomplished. He leaned forward and shook his hands loosely in front of him in the posse's signature handshake, "Boys from the Dwarf!" Kryten and Cat copied him and repeated the motto, but Rimmer stayed still and silent. Lister smiled at the hologram and nudged his arm lightly, "Come on, you're one of the boys as well it's not complete without you."

Rimmer looked at Lister, and then at Cat, Kryten and Holly who were now all smiling at him. He suddenly had a warm feeling in his stomach that he had never felt before. So this was support, it felt good. Rimmer leaned forward with Lister and together the posse did their signature handshake and motto together:

"Boys from the Dwarf!"


To Be Continued...

I have to admit, this chapter was quite hard to write and may come across as OOC. But I did try, it's a bit shorter than the previous chapters, but it does its job.

Amber***