Dry white wine(Rimmer x Lister)

Chapter 6: What We Await

"You look terrible" Cat said moving away slightly as if Lister had a disease he could catch. He was right, Lister did look terrible, and felt so too, he was unable to let himself sleep thanks to Rimmer. He intended to wait for him so they could talk about the situation they found themselves in in the corridor, but the smeghead never came back to their bunk, which meant that Lister had to lie awake replaying the moment over and over in his head. So safe to say he wasn't in the best of moods.

Lister let his head fall and hit the table, letting out a low groan of both frustration and pain.

"Good morning everyone, I would like to call a meeting if that's alright with you?" Lister froze, his eyes widening at the sound of the voice and he felt his heartbeat begin to raise. He slowly raised his head and turned around to see the man standing in the doorway, and once his eyes fell upon his face he couldn't tear them away, he heard Cat speak but couldn't make out any of the words. Rimmer looked past Lister at Cat but let his eyes meet his for a second that felt far too long and Lister felt his face flush, looking away swiftly. "Don't hate the messenger, I just think every time you do a meeting everybody finds that they days go down hill" cat said with his usual snarky tone "how can you be the messenger if it's your opinion?" Rimmer said "and that is just false, my meetings are insightful" Rimmer fixed his posture slightly and gave a smug smile "Insightfull? I find more insightful things in Lister's laundry bag. You? Insightful? I'd laugh but I don't want to encourage wrinkles-"

"CAT, JUST LET HIM SPEAK!" Lister yelled, catching everyone in the room of guard, Lister was tired of hearing the two of them argue, they argued more than Rimmer and him, if that was even possible. "Uh- Thank you L-Lister" Rimmer said weakly before clearing his throat and continuing "Now due to recent events it has become clear to me that we all have a potential to have a strong relationship with one and other" Lister looked at Rimmer with wide eyes in disbelief. He wasn't going to go there was he? "Now, what I suggest is that we all have one on one sessions with each other where we can establish a level of intimacy. Now I'm not suggesting that we all caress each other's faces and snog them" Lister watched Rinmer's face as he quickly gave him a cold glance. The bastard actually went there.

Rimmer continued for a while but Lister hadn't bothered to listen, that insufferable little git, that whinny little Smeg head actually had the nerve to go there. Well two could play that game "You know something Rimmer, I actually think that that is a cracking plan" Lister said raising himself from his chair and smirking at the hologram, Rimmer looked at him with almost shock "you do?" "Yeah man, I mean building up the relationships so we're not all tearing at each others throats, genius" Rimmer looked shocked for a moment before putting on a smug smile and raised his head looking at cat with a snarky look "We could even watch the dream recorder as a 'bonding activity'" Rimmer's eyes grew and looked at Lister with flared nostrils "or we could hold hands while walking down the corridor's" Cat let out a small laugh, believing this mockery to be lister simply making fun of Rimmer's absurd idea "but you're right Rimmer, don't think we should go around snogging one another. Should we?" Lister's smirk grew, while Rimmer was practically Red with embarrassment and rage "I asked ya a question Rimmer. Don't think we should go around snogging one another" Rimmer looked Lister dead the eyes with an uneasy almost scared look "should we?" The words were cold and sent a shiver up Rimmer's spine, it took all his energy to form words, and even when he did they were weak and shaken " n-no" and with that Lister tapped him on the shoulder and left the room, smirking proudly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What the Smeg was that Listy?" Rimmer said firmly as he burst into the room, Lister attempted to suppress his smile as he looked at Rimmer's rage filled face "What was what?" "don't play dumb with me Lister" the way he said his name sent shivers up his spine, he spoke so firmly, and so dominating that the smile slowly faded from his face "that. That little mockery you just did back there. How dare you reference us- that incident, do you know the level of embarrassment you just happily dropped on me." "Ey! You referenced 'that incident' first, ok? So don't come in here and stared screaming in my face for something you stared. From day one, you have made my life hell, always making me feel horrible for who I was and making me confused about things I used to be so confident about, and even now, when we are the only ones of the original crew left, you still insist on ruining my life. First, you snoop through my dreams, then, you flood my brain with all these thoughts about you when you snogged me in the corridor, you don't even show up at the dorm afterwards so I could talk to you, meaning I don't get get no sleep. And then, after all of that, you set out to embarrass me infront of the guys and make my think my feelings for you are insignificant , and then have the nerve to pin it all on me? You selfish, entitled, smug, useless little SMEG HEAD!"

Rimmer stood frozen, Lister's words piercing through his heart like a badly sharpened dagger, forcing themselves roughly into the deepest parts of his already damaged heart and slowly scratching into the very fibre of his being. He fought the tears threatening to leave his eyes and drew a shakey and shallow breath, unaware to the face that he was holding it to begin with.

Lister looked at Rimmer, his heart aching as his eyes fell upon Rimmer's defeated face, his eyes fell the floor as he let out a low sigh and slowly walked to the bunk, taking a seat on the hologram's bunk.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room letting the two of them burden their minds with thoughts they had been ignoring or had been to painful to let their minds acknowledge. Rimmer suddenly felt his heart raise itself from the pit of pain Lister had placed it in at the thought, his sorrow being replaced with a potential for pure joy. Lister had spoken words that broke Rimmer's heart, words that when spoken by another person, embedded themselves deep within one's soul, but Lister had also spoken one positive statement, one glimmer in a pit of despair.

'My feelings for you are insignificant'

Rimmer looked at Lister sitting on his bunk with his head in his hands. Could it be possible that this slob, this slime, this utter excuse of a man, could it be possible that he, could have feelings for him that went past a friendship. Rimmer felt his legs carry himself towards lister and he soon found himself seated next to him. "Listy" Rimmer said softly "I'm" Rimmer paused, unsure if it was going to be enough "I'm sorry" Lister looked up at him with heavy eyes and Rimmer felt his heart begin to ache again " I know it's probably not enough but Listy it's all I can say, I don't know any other way to make amends for being what I am, so all I can say is sorry" Rimmer sat for a few seconds waiting for some kind of reply from his bunk mate but when none came he listed himself off of the bunk, only to be stopped by Lister's hand once again intertwined with his, Rimmer took the hint and sat back down "I'm not gonna sit here Rimmer and act like I'm mr innocent, I have done and said some terrible things to you and I never once apologised for it, so don't think you're the only one who has to apologise here" Lister looked Rimmer in the eyes still keep his grip firm on his hand. Rimmer looked at the man with a soft look before letting out a small chuckle "I guess, we're both bastards then" they laughed together for a moment, and when it ended Rimmer began to speak again.

"What did you mean when you said...you're feelings for me?" Lister shot his head back up to meet the hologram's eyes, the eyes weren't filled with any harshness or judgement and filled Lister with a warm feeling that made him feel comforted. Had he really said that? He let out so much that he didn't follow half of it but had he really said that "I-I don't know" Lister said, his eyes falling back to his feet "it's just for a while now, I've been feeling...different around you, like I can't get you out of my head half of the time and I miss you when you're away, but man I don't know" he slouched back against the wall and pressed his hands into his face, letting out an exhausted groan.

"Listy, you are a total git" Rimmer said, but with no trace of mockery or aggression , but with a soft tone and an almost caring nature embedded in the words, lister looked at him for a moment, all their moments together rushing through his head.

"Screw it" Lister said and practically pounced on Rimmer, grabbing him by the collar and pushing his lips against his. Rimmer's eyes grew wide and he gasped as he felt Lister press their lips together, a small voice in the back of his mind was telling him to pull away, that this was wrong but he ignored it entirely. Letting his eyes fall shut and hands pull the man closer he found himself kissing him back, their hearts racing and their stomachs filling with the familiar comforting pain. All the years on Red Dwarf, all the fighting and hating each other had lead them to this moment and both never wanted it to end.

They were forced to pull away to breathe but kept their eyes locked and bodies presses against each other not wanting to let go. The feeling was intense and burned like a wild fire, igniting itself deep with in each other's hearts and drawing them to each other. Rimmer let himself cup Lister's cheek and spoke.

"I love you"
"Promise?"
"Oh Listy"
"Rimsy"

With that they let their lips meet again and their bodies fall back into the cover beneath them, they had waited so long for each other and they had never been so sure of anything in their whole lives.