Double Trouble - Part 6

[felineranger.livejournal.com]

Phew...This weekend is the first time in ages I've actually got my head down and done a real block of serious writing.  It's such a shame I have to go back to work tomorrow! I'd so much rather stay at home and finish this!

 

Double Trouble - Part 6

 

             Rimmer walked blindly, letting his feet do the thinking for him. In just twenty-four hours his world had changed so irrevocably. Suddenly he found himself living in what seemed to be this weird parallel universe where the only thing he really wanted was his bunk-mate, a world where said bunk-mate had turned out to be more malicious and cruel than he’d ever thought possible, a world where Commander Smug-Git, Stupid-Hair, Golden-Boots Ace Rimmer had wiped the slippery suds from Lister’s periscope and Rimmer had never even known. Rimmer felt lost.

            He looked around himself. He was lost. He wandered into a supply room. He turned to leave and came face to face with the cause of his distress. Lister was just walking in.  They glared at each other reproachfully. “Excuse me,” Lister brushed past him haughtily and started to take a stock check of the shelves, obviously preparing a shopping list for their raid on the derelict. Rimmer watched him silently. After a few long seconds Lister turned round and snapped, “If you’re waiting there for an apology, man, you’re not getting one.”

            Rimmer looked at him hard. A terrible thought had started to form in his head. Everyone else is on the habitation decks, a nasty little voice in his mind whispered. They wouldn’t hear a thing if something were to...happen...in here right now. If you just shut the door and grab him, quickly so he doesn’t know what’s happening, you could have what Ace had so easily...

            “Rimmer? Are you receiving me? Arnold Rimmer, come in, please!” Lister waved a hand in front of his face, “What’s the matter with you?” 

“Nothing. Nothing’s the matter.”

“Then what’s this all about? Why are you down here anyway?” Rimmer’s eyes flicked nervously towards the door. He knew he could lock it with just one softly spoken word but his vocal cords just wouldn’t obey.  “Are you really that smegged off because of what I said about Ace?” Lister asked, his voice softening somewhat, “Because the pair of you deserved it, you know. I only wanted...”

“Shut up,” Rimmer interrupted, “Don’t say that name to me ever again.” Lister’s jaw clenched. “Fine. If you really want to be that childish about it. Now smeg off, I’ve got things to do.” Rimmer didn’t move. Lister rolled his eyes, “Fine. Then I’ll go and work in another store room and come back here when you’ve finished sulking.”

He walked past Rimmer towards the door. And Rimmer suddenly found his voice.

            “Lock,” he said quietly. Lister stopped short as the door whirred shut in his face. “Hey!” he wheeled round angrily, “What is the matter with you?” Rimmer took a step towards him and – to his mild gratification – he saw Lister starting to look genuinely uneasy. 

            Lister swallowed hard. He didn’t want another fight, he really didn’t. They’d already hurt each other enough for one day, surely? He looked pleadingly into Rimmer’s eyes and saw with a sinking heart that they were beginning to look more and more like his doubles. This wasn’t good. It wasn’t healthy. For any of them. “Rimmer,” he said placatingly, “I’m not going to do this with you. Okay? I’m out.”  He turned and pressed his palm against the panel and Rimmer poised himself to spring, to grab...to have. “Open!” The door purred open smoothly and Rimmer, surprised, quickly stopped himself in pre-lunge and fell over. Lister turned to look round at him, perplexed, “What are you doing?”

“I locked it!” Rimmer replied from the floor, unable to keep a very slight whine of annoyance out of his voice.

“Yeah, I noticed, you moron! And I unlocked it. Kryten gave me clearance on all the doors onboard.”

“Why?”

“In case of emergencies, Sherlock! Why else?” He held out a hand to help Rimmer up but he knocked it away angrily, “Don’t try and be nice to me,” he snapped, “I don’t want your pity.” Lister stepped back, paused as if to say something, then thought better of it. He left, shaking his head.

            Rimmer stood staring at the open door for a moment, then wheeled round and sat down on a crate of peanuts, trying to regain his composure. What had he been thinking? How could he have let such an insane idea even enter his head?  It wasn’t just sick, it was stupid! Rimmer had never been in a serious fight in his life, how had he expected to overpower Lister – survivor of many a drunken bar brawl? At the first hint of danger, Lister would probably have floored him and then fetched the others.  And he would have deserved it. 

            Rimmer knew he was a deeply-flawed man, in almost every sense of the word. But, he wasn’t a monster.  Yes, he wanted Lister - maybe even...oh smeg it all, yes, alright, he loved the little bastard, hard as it was to swallow - but not like this. Even he was above that, coward and weasel though he was.

            ‘I’m not going to do this with you’ Lister had said, and what exactly had he meant by that? Had Lister, in that irritating way he had of getting under peoples skin, looked into Rimmer’s heart just now, seen what he wanted and told him quite flatly that it was never going to happen? I’m not going to do this with you.  “You did it with Ace though, didn’t you; you cold-hearted little shit?” Rimmer said out loud, “I just wonder if you made even him beg for it first.” He gave the crate a miserable kick and buried his head in his hands.

Comments

[erinptah]

Aaaargh, Rimmer. Hurry up and come to your senses, already.

Lister's dream was a really powerful image, and now I'm dying to find out the truth behind alt!Rimmer...

[tits-teapot.livejournal.com]

Yay! This story can't be more dramatic!
Next one, quickly, please, please, please!

[metalkatt.livejournal.com]

Work bedamned, I need you to finish this so I don't haul Rimmer Mark N up and slap him silly, then stick all three in a shower and make a Lister sandwich.