Rimmer felt like he had closed his eyes for a moment, then his alarm was blaring. He had fallen asleep in an awkward position, not wanting to move after Lister fell asleep on his lap. Lister lifted his head and looked at Rimmer in anguish. Rimmer tried to ignore the pain in his neck and back and gave Lister what he hoped was a sympathetic look.

"Rimmer, I can't do this," Lister said, his voice sounding strained and gravelly.

"You can. We have to."

Lister took a tense breath in, then released it. "I know," he muttered, and took hold of Rimmer's hand.

Rimmer curled his fingers around Lister's hand, and stroked the back of it with his thumb. Lister squeezed, and Rimmer squeezed back. Lister's warm brown eyes were full of sadness, and Rimmer felt aggrieved that he couldn't do anything to ease that pain. If Lister wanted to call off the plan, Rimmer didn't know if he'd be able to deny him that. But that would put them all at risk. If they went through with it, well, Rimmer would be sad too, if he really was honest with himself. Plus, Lister might decide to blame him for ruining everything. That was a worry. That after all of this he might still end up being Lister's shortest relationship.

Lister leaned over and kissed Rimmer on the cheek, and was putting on his jacket while Rimmer was still frozen in shock at the casualness of the gesture. Lister had no idea what was going on in his head. He had no idea how scared Rimmer was of losing him.

Rimmer took a few shallow breaths. He couldn't enjoy what might be his few, short-lived moments with Lister. If not for the cats, they would never have grown closer, and now it would be the cats that would tear them apart. The irony wasn't lost on him.

They had prepared almost everything for their trip the night before. They had packed both of their clothes in the same bag, leaving another bag free to carry the cats in. Lister refused Rimmer's help to crush up and measure out the sleeping tablets, saying that if anything went wrong, he wanted to be the one responsible.

Rimmer watched him working. He looked so serious as he dissolved the powdered sleeping tablets in milk, then fed it to Frankenstein and each of the kittens in turn. At first it seemed to have no effect. Frankenstein was walking around, looking at them and scent marking various places in the room with her mouth. It was obvious that she knew something was going on.

Lister just quietly watched them, stroking the kittens, and Frankenstein when she walked past. The kittens started to become more wobbly and subdued. Frankenstein sprawled out on the floor.

Lister looked up at Rimmer, a pained expression on his face. Rimmer went over to him and touched his shoulder, then helped Lister to carefully place the cats in the bag.

"Liiiiister!" Petersen said, lifting his can of lager and sloshing it over his hand. He was wearing a sash with here comes to bride written on it in loopy pink letters, and there were L plates attached to his clothes. Chen and Selby were wearing t shirts with Petersen's face on them.

"Petersen! I'm so sorry I can't come on your, er, stag do."

Petersen shrugged and spilled his lager again. "Don't worry I know you have important stuff to do," he said, clapping Lister on the shoulder and winking at him.

"Have a drink," Selby said, picking up a can and holding it out to Lister.

"Nah, I'd better not," Lister said.

"He's a bad influence on you," Selby said, pointing at Rimmer.

Petersen went up to Rimmer and jabbed a finger into his chest. "You'd better not dump Lister again, d'ya hear?"

Rimmer looked uncomfortable. "Excuse me-"

Lister cut him off, moving Petersen away from Rimmer. "It was all a big misunderstanding."

"Right," Petersen said.

"So who's the lucky… lady?" Rimmer hazarded.

Petersen swayed and his eyes darted about, then he confidently announced, "Secret!"

When Rimmer had brought up the issue of getting the cats through customs control on Europa, Lister had just said to leave it to him. Rimmer had a sneaking suspicion that Lister's boozing mates featured in that plan. He felt his heart rate increase.

Just as the doors opened to let people get into the shuttle that would take them down to the planet, Lister saw Kochanski arrive with her bunkmate Barbara. Neither of them looked particularly excited about planet leave, in fact Kochanski looked like she'd been crying. Lister smiled at her, but she didn't return it.

Lister found himself shoulder to shoulder with Kochanski in the shuttle. He put the bag containing the cats down between him and Rimmer. It was getting heavy now.

"You all right?" Lister asked.

Kochanski nodded but didn't smile. "Not so bad," she said. "How about you? You two back together then?"

"Yeah," Lister said, and felt himself break out in a wide smile.

Kochanski swallowed and bit her lip. "Good," she said.

There was an awkward pause. Lister glanced at Rimmer and thought to grab his arm and snuggle up to him, but Rimmer was staring straight ahead with a business-like expression.

The shuttle lurched as it took off. Lister found himself bumping into Kochanski. "Sorry," he said.

"It's all right," she said. "You might as well know, me and Tim have had a tiff."

"What a time to break up with you. That man sure knows how to pick his timing," Barbara said.

"We're on a break. It's not permanent," Kochanski said.

"You'd better not let him get away with not paying for the hotel suite," Barbara said.

"We'll still have a good time," Kochanski said, and looked at Lister. "We have the penthouse suite at the Spaceport Grand. If you're in the area, come around, bring some people, we'll have a party."

"Oh, we're staying there our first night. Maybe we'll drop by," Lister said.

He felt Rimmer elbow him and give him a warning look. Lister frowned back at him.

Before long the shuttle touched down on the planet, and the doors opened. The crowd made a rush for the door, but Lister hung back and waited for his mates to leave first. He saw Chen hand Kochanski a can of lager, then Petersen thumped him on the arm and started dragging him along with him.

Outside the shuttle, they made their way along a long tunnel covered with adverts and notices to have all documents ready for inspection.

They joined the end of a long queue. Lister shifted the weight of the bag from hand to hand. He looked over his shoulder at Rimmer, who met his eyes but said nothing.

After their passports were checked, Rimmer followed Lister to another queue, this time for security and customs. In front of them, Petersen, Chen and Selby were still shamelessly slurping down booze. Kochanski and her bunkmate had joined them and were looking a little bit happier.

Two clerks, a man and a woman, were supervising the scanners and directing people to put their luggage and possessions into boxes for scanning.

"I'm getting married!" Petersen announced loudly.

"I can see that," the female clerk said, maintaining a serious expression.

"Do you like this?" Petersen asked, taking hold of his here comes the bride sash and shaking it.

"It's very nice, sir. Now please place it in the tray with the rest of your belongings," she said.

"D'you wanna kiss? While I'm still allowed?" Petersen said, leaning towards her.

Her male colleague came over. "What's going on here?" he asked.

"Oh, you want a kiss?" Petersen said, climbing up on the conveyor belt between them, knocking several trays flying.

Rimmer had been frozen in place watching the scene unfold, silently having a panic attack at the thought of trying to get their bag of contraband through the scanners. Lister grabbed his arm and dragged him through the crowd, past the scanners, as the clerks tried to subdue Petersen. Chen and Selby had started to sing the Bridal March.

The corridors were filled with more adverts and huge signs proclaiming Welcome to Europa and The Closest Thing to Earth Off-Earth!

"So that was your plan to get through customs?" Rimmer said when they had safely reached the exit of the spaceport. His heart rate still hadn't gone back to anything approaching normal.

Lister grinned and nodded. "I just told 'em we needed a diversion."

"And they didn't ask why?"

"No, I told 'em not to. They're me mates."

"Wow," was all Rimmer said in response. He had no idea friends did that much for each other, and with a weight in his chest, he thought that maybe he could have benefited from having some.

Outside, the sky was an inky blue-black, but neon lights illuminated the skyscrapers that dominated the street scene. They found a taxi to take them to the hotel.

There was some awkwardness at the check-in desk when the clerk asked them whether they wanted a double or a twin room. Lister looked at Rimmer. Rimmer just looked back at him, unsure what to say. If Lister had asked for a double, Rimmer wouldn't have protested. But the fact that Lister didn't immediately make that decision made Rimmer think again about what had happened on the shuttle ride over here. The clerk took pity on them and told them that if they got a twin room they could always push the beds together if they changed their minds.

When they got up to their room, Lister put the bag with the cats in it down on the floor and opened it. They were still curled up sleeping, oblivious to what they'd been through. He checked them all, making sure they were still breathing, then sat down on one of the beds. Rimmer hadn't even put his bag down, he was holding it and staring into space.

"Rimmer, what's wrong?"

Rimmer turned to look at him, and dropped his bag heavily on the ground. "What's wrong?" he echoed. "Oh hello, Kochanski. How are you, Kochanski. Of course I'll come to your party, Kochanski. Can I kiss your feet, Kochanski?"

Lister stared at him. After a few seconds, Rimmer started looking uncomfortable. "I was only trying to be nice. She was upset," Lister said.

"If that was trying to be nice, then I'm Queen Elizabeth the second!"

Lister stared at him some more, then smirked. "Are you jealous?"

"Jealous? Jealous? Of course not! Why would I be? The love of your life breaks up with her boyfriend and I'm supposed to act like you're not going to go right back to her."

"You what?" Lister said. "Smeggin' hell Rimmer, do you think none of what we've been through together means anything to me?"

"I- I didn't say that."

"Then what did you mean? If yer gonna get all bent outta shape every time I talk to someone else, maybe you better think about if you actually wanna be with me."

Rimmer looked taken aback. Then he gestured towards the bag containing the cats. "You put them on the floor in the shuttle and forgot about them! Anything could have happened to them while you were talking to her."

"Oh. Well, I did put them down for a minute. But they were heavy! But anyway the bag was between us the whole time, nothin' woulda happened," Lister said. He sighed. "Keep an eye on 'em, yeah?"

Lister opened the balcony doors, and went outside. Rimmer sat down on his bed, noticing the cool outside air and the smell of Lister's cigarette. He looked in the bag, and saw no movement from the cats. Suddenly he felt lonely. Perhaps he had been too hard on Lister. But he really didn't want to lose him to Kochanski. He had to say something. He didn't want Lister thinking he wouldn't care if he went back to her. But if the choice was between himself and Kochanski, Rimmer really wasn't sure if he stood a chance.

But then Rimmer thought about how Lister had reacted when he'd turned him down. He'd been upset, more upset than Rimmer had ever seen him. He got up.

Lister was leaning on the balcony rail, smoking and staring out into the Europa's seemingly perpetual night. Everything had gone as planned, but it still hurt, and it was still hard work. And Rimmer, he was still hard work too.

The sound of footsteps made Lister look up. Rimmer leaned on the rail next to him.

"I want to be with you, y'know. You're not me second choice," Lister said, flicking the stub of his cigarette off the balcony.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry. I suppose I was just feeling insecure."

Lister nodded.

"Can I… kiss you?" Rimmer asked quietly.

Lister turned to him. Rimmer didn't need to ask, but the way he did made Lister's heart skip a beat. His smile must have been answer enough because Rimmer stepped towards him and wrapped his arms around his waist and pressed his lips against Lister's.

Throwing his arms around Rimmer's neck, Lister kissed him back. He'd wanted this since early this morning. He'd craved the comfort and reassurance of being in Rimmer's arms. But Rimmer had seemed distracted. He wasn't distracted now. His attention was focused completely on Lister. And Lister loved it. Rimmer didn't have a monopoly on feeling insecure. With the amount of times Rimmer had pushed him away, their relationship felt flimsy and tenuous.

Lister tilted his head the other way to kiss Rimmer deeper, and he felt Rimmer's arms tighten around his waist, pressing their bodies closer together. Lister felt Rimmer flinch a little as he touched the back of his neck and wriggled his fingers into his hair. Lister kissed him gently then withdrew, smiling at how he could still make Rimmer squirm.

He felt Rimmer press feather-light kisses along his jaw, and let his eyes fall shut. A low noise escaped from the back of his throat.

"Lister?"

"Huh? Don't stop."

Rimmer continued to brush his lips along Lister's jawline. Lister's breath was coming out in short sharp gasps. He seemed to be enjoying this. But the longer this went on, the more nervous Rimmer became. When they'd been pretending, kisses had been short, and there was a point to it, they were supposed to be distracting or proving to others that they were together. Now, there was no point to this, apart from wanting to do it. Rimmer was so afraid of doing something wrong and smegging things up.

Lister opened his eyes and smiled warmly at him. He kissed Rimmer softly and then rested his head against his and held him tightly.

"Is everything all right?" Rimmer asked.

"Yeah. Well, it was. Thanks for remindin' me what's wrong. I really wanted to forget."

Rimmer tensed up. "Did I do something wrong?"

"You reminded me we're not keeping the cats."

"Oh. Sorry."

Lister abruptly leaned away from Rimmer and let go of him. Rimmer wanted to reach out for him. But instead he watched Lister walk back inside.

The cats were starting to wake up now. A couple of the kittens had made their way out of the bag and were stumbling sleepily around. Rimmer shut the balcony doors behind them to stop Frankenstein and the kittens from getting out there and falling. He sat down next to Lister, and put an arm around him. Lister leaned against him. They sat together and watched the cats slowly coming to. They had the one night in this hotel, and then they would have to move on and search for a new home for them.