Fic: Communication - PG

[smaych.livejournal.com]

Title: Communication
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sort of Rimmer/Lister, nothing explicit.
Disclaimer: Don't own Red Dwarf, don't make any money.
Spoilers: None really, it's kind of set before the first season.
Notes: This is just a bit of nothing that got stuck in my head while having a conversation about how Lister and Rimmer's problems come from (or at least, are made worse by) poor communication.



You could tell Lister was in a room even if you couldn't see him. There was something shiny about him, some aura that people were drawn to. If there was any commotion, any excitement, Lister was always in the thick of it. He just seemed to have been born with the knowledge of how to talk to people, how to be at ease in social situations.

Rimmer was different, had always blended in without fitting in. Spent his life unwittingly practicing for being incorporeal. If there had existed a set of material rules – a set of Space Corps Directives to govern socialisation – Rimmer was convinced he would be a veritable Casanova, with the conversational skills of Oscar Wilde and popularity far outstripping Lister's. As it was, he felt like he was constantly revising for an exam for which he'd never been given the syllabus.

The bottom line was, it was unfair.

Rimmer had never seen Lister practicing that cheeky grin, but it always came out... unnervingly charming. Not at all like Rimmer's winning smile which, no matter how long he spent in front of the mirror working on it, always seemed to have a tad too much sneer about it.

Lister was also, for some reason Rimmer would always pretend was unfathomable, good with women. This had led to some awkward times, Lister stumbling back from the ship's disco with some anonymous bint, the two of them trying to be quiet in that stupid, drunken way as they fooled around and Rimmer pretended to be asleep in the bunk below.

By morning, of course, she would be gone and Lister, as he opened his bleary eyes, would be greeted only by the sight of his bunkmate - sneering at him from across the room.

Comments

[smaych.livejournal.com]

It's exactly how I always felt too. When you're sitting in a corner and you desperately want someone to notice you but you also know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the worst thing in the world would be if someone noticed you.

Thanks a lot for your comment :)