reddwarfslash | First Red Dwarf Fanfic Attempt...

....and also my first attempt at LJ cutting...... so this might turn out terribly wrong...
and unfortunately I've found a problem straight away..... Chapter 1 is too long for LiveJournal to handle..... so it'll have to be in two parts

Anyway.... i'm new to this community.... I've been lurking around, reading your fanfics and generally loving them all. Red Dwarf slash fans are such a talented bunch on people.

Like I said, this is my first attempt at RD fanfiction, and it's going to be multi-chaptered, so except lengthy chapters. The idea came to me after I got bored one evening and, whilst reading some other RD fanfics, I made myself a playlist on iTunes comprised of songs that either reminded me of Rimmer and Lister's relationship (both canon and in various fanfics), or would make up a good basis for fanfiction of my own.
This then made me finally decide to actually write my own based on most of the songs in the playlist, each chapter based on a certain song. If you'd like to hear any of the songs then please tell me and I'll upload them somewhere.
So here it is:

Title: Pretences and Sincerities

Pairing: Rimmer/Lister
Genre: Angst/Romance (Not much romance in the first chapter mind you)
Rating: PG (For now)

Summary: [Set between Rimmerworld and Out of Time –with references to Terrorform)

A few days after leaving Rimmerworld, the Starbug crew have neither seen nor heard anything from Rimmer. Lister, being the compassionate soul he is, is worried and comes to the decision that he should see what he can do about it. However, will Rimmer accept this strange display of concern? And will Lister learn some things from Rimmer that he’s not sure he wanted to know?

Song Inspiration: (don’t)Leave me alone – Ayumi Hamasaki

Spoilers: Rimmerworld, Terrorform (and possibly any other episode pre-Out of Time)
Length: 2,651

Lister took another fleeting glance towards the consistently empty entrance to the cockpit he was currently residing in. It was unusually silent… well, silent if you ignored the constant noise of the engine that Lister had soon grown accustomed to… and it was this silence that unnerved the Liverpudlian. Ever since leaving that godforsaken rock, known only as ‘Rimmerworld’, things had quickly reverted back to normal. Well, almost back to normal anyway. It would all be back to normal if Lister could hear that same nasally, pitchy voice, barking orders and misquoting Space Corps Directives constantly at anyone that may have been unfortunately listening at the time. In other words, it would have been back to normal, if Rimmer was back to normal.

Lister sighed for what felt like the thousandth time that shift and turned back to look into the blackness of space. In some ways it was comforting, whatever changes were happened within Starbug Lister could always count on the space around them to stay the same, though, sometimes the endless expanse of it just looked bleak and hopeless. At that particular moment, Lister couldn’t quite tell what his feelings were towards it.

Suddenly, Cats naturally loud voice broke through Lister’s reverie, causing him to jump at least a couple of feet into the air,

“Changeover, bud!” The ever-presentable Felis Sapien exclaimed, “What’s up with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost” He added, taking in Lister’s somewhat tense and dishevelled appearance.

Lister didn’t reply, choosing instead to give Cat a rather sarcastic glare before moving out of the seat. Cat moved forward and wrinkled his nose in disgust at the usual state the Scouser left the console in,

“You know what” Cat said, clearly expecting some sort of answer from the other man, a mild look of offence crossed over his features when none came, still he carried on with his mini-rant “I’m gonna start getting novelty-condom-head to come in here before the changeover and clean up your mess…”

“Yeah, sure, whatever man” Lister cut him off before it could go any further, “Listen, I’m really exhausted so could you tell Kryten that I’ve just gone for a lay-down alright?”

Cat grumbled a reply that Lister decided meant ‘sure’, however, a thought suddenly crossed Cat’s mind, “Actually bud” He began, causing Lister to stop in his tracks,

“What now?” Lister asked, feeling just about ready to kill someone if the other man had found something else to complain about,

“I wouldn’t go to your room if I were you” He stated as he attempted to position the chair into a more comfortable position,

“Why not?”

“Well, it’s just that Goalpost head seems to have settled down in there today….”

“What? Rimmer’s in my room?” Lister cut him off. Cat turned and glared at him, forcibly reminding Lister how much the other man hated being cut off,

“Yes” He replied, “Like I was saying, Goalpost-head is in there and you know how he’s been lately. Been a bit depressing to be around if you ask me…” Cat trailed off, “Well, not like he was any fun beforehand” He added quickly, before turning back the console,

“He’s been on his own in a prison cell for over 500 years, what do you expect?” Lister mumbled, not expecting the Cat to even care, let alone give him a reply.

Lister rolled his eyes at Cats behaviour, all the while wondering what on Earth Rimmer was doing in his bunkroom, and what on Earth he should do in the meantime. Suddenly a determined look came over his face and he set off on a march through Starbug. Rimmer hadn’t spoken to anyone since he’d been back on the ship, he hadn’t even looked at anyone and so this gave Lister the perfect opportunity to find out what was going on with the hologram.

The Liverpudlian stormed past a rather bewildered-looking Kryten, ignoring the calls of ‘Sir’ as he continued on his way towards his bunkroom. It didn’t take long before he was standing outside the door and it was about then that it hit him that just on the other side of the door was the man he’d wanted to talk to for the past three days. The man who unknowingly plagued Lister’s every waking, and sometimes sleeping, thoughts.

Lister stood there for ages, just staring at the door. He’d realised a while ago that instead of just growing accustomed to Rimmer’s many odd habits and mannerisms, he’d gone a few steps further and had begun to feel what could only be described as a strong attraction towards the other man. Being an enlightened 23^rd century guy, the fact that he was attracted to another man didn’t bother Lister in the slightest. The only thing that bothered Lister was that he was attracted to a man that for ages he’d convinced himself he hated.

When Rimmer had pretty much left them for dead on the stimulant ship Lister had felt some of that familiar feeling of hatred, mixed with the newer feeling of betrayal and hurt. Until Kryten had explained to both him and Cat that Rimmer was suffering from a somewhat severe stress-related condition, which caused Lister to understand the reasoning behind the other mans decision, however flawed they may have been. After then seeing Rimmer looking so weak, broken down and confused at the sight of other people Lister had felt another kind of pain and he realised he’d do anything to prevent that feeling from happening again.

Lister finally sucked in a deep breath and opened the barrier between him and Rimmer.