Fic: That Was Then - R/L, PG

[the-summoning-d.livejournal.com]

Title: That was Then
Pairing: (Future)Rimmer/Lister, (Future)Rimmer/(Future)Lister
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All belongs to the wonderful and gifted Mr Grant and Mr Naylor
Spoilers: Out of Time
Author's Note: For my birthday I got a Mr Flibble puppet. To celebrate, I'm writing slash.

He hadn't realised how much they'd changed, not really. It had happened so slowly none of them had seen it. Maybe the others still didn't, caught up in their current predicament as they were. But as their younger selves confronted them Rimmer had a startling moment of clarity.

I don't know how we became you, but I certainly don't intend to let you carry on doing what you're doing.

It was Lister, as it always had been back then, who made him stop and take a look at himself, and it was an indication perhaps of how badly wrong things had gone that it didn't happen any more. The last few years had been good to them, but perhaps, just perhaps, the price had been too high. What had happened to the helpful, self-effacing Kryten he remembered? How on Io had Cat allowed himself to get so out of shape? And Lister just a brain in a jar.

As for himself... well, he didn't want to think too much about that one.

He hadn't realised how badly corrupted they had become. The brain in the jar wasn't Lister, not really. The Lister he knew would have been appalled by the very thought of how they were living now...was appalled by the mere thought of the way they were living now.

He finally understood, as he hurried back to their own ship with the bazookoid blast still ringing is his ears. The scruffy young man wielding the weapon was his Lister, not the disembodied mind fixed only on personal gain. The incorrigeably optimistic space-bum who had looked at him with grim determination in those bright brown eyes was the man he had fallen in love with.

Gods, they had all been so different back then. But that was then. And this was now. And there could be no going back.

"Fire!"

Comments

[sunny-bexster.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwww!

Huzzah for Flibble puppets! :D

[kahvi.livejournal.com]

This is really well written - I'm sorry I haven't commented before! It does leave me with a lot of questions; what, exactly, was the relationship between Rimmer and Lister in the future (before Lister's accident)? And if it was something more, why isn't Rimmer fazed by the fact that Lister is now even more incorporeal than he once was? Still, it's a lovely little taster, very much in character, and excellently written, as I mentioned.

Also; I've just realized what your username and icon is, and I would like to present you with this internet. *hands over*

[iris-summers.livejournal.com]

Lovely ficlet from Rimmer's perspective in the "Out of Time" episode. I'm so jealous that you have a Mr Flibbe puppet! But if it makes people write more slash, then hurray! ^_^

[the-summoning-d.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the comments, everyone! I would like to answer your questions, but frankly I'm not sure of the answers myself. I didn't write this fic, it just sort of...happened.

Oh, and...I appear to have an internet. Thankyou!