Fic: Rain

[sunny-bexster.livejournal.com]

Title: Rain
Disclaimer: Aint mine, baby!
Rating: G
Pairing: Very quick and light hints at Rimmer/Lister
Notes: I got caught in the rain a few weeks back. It got me thinking. It’s more about Lister than it is about slash, but I figured maybe you ladies might appreciate. Concrit welcome, as always. Ta to ouroboros13  for editing.

 

Stranded in the deepest, darkest depths of space, there were lots of things Lister missed about Earth. He missed the people; he missed the sounds of crowds, the feel of a thousand strangers around you. He missed the freedom.

He really missed the weather though. Rain technically, but where he came from there was really only two states of weather: raining and not raining. Course, there was no rain in space (meteor showers didn’t count) and no-one in their right mind would terraform a planet that had regular periods of precipitation. Rain? Oh no, it would interfere with so much. No thank you, we’ll stick to an underground sprinkler system – far more dignified.

As Lister recalled, there had been one planet terraformed in his time, an early attempt, where something had gone wrong. The atmosphere mimicked a wet weekend in Whitby and it was promptly abandoned. It was just left where it was, like the universe’s largest testament to dodgy DIY.

Rain was something special though. As daft as it sounded, Lister had always liked the rain. Back in Liverpool, no-body really cared if it rained. Girls would scream that it would ruin their hair and a few of the vainer lads would worry about the squeaky whiteness of their trainers getting grubby, but mostly people just carried on through it.

Lister heaved a sigh as he watched the dark grey clouds trundle by, the sky a churning, twirling mass of slate coloured swirls. The rain was relentless; slicing through the cold air till it inevitably stabbed the sodden ground. Safe and dry as he stood and stared out of Starbug’s airlock, Lister sighed once more, a sigh more reminiscent than weary this time.

It was ages ago, even without the 3 million year long hiatus that had occurred - he’d been a just lad. Back then he’d have told you he was an adult, at 15 he felt like one. Yet looking back now, through the gift and the curse of hindsight, he saw himself exactly as he was. A child. It was summer, there was no school and as per sods law, there was no sun.

Summer holidays were classically, traditionally and maybe even obligatorily wet affairs. Sunbathing weather was anything that didn’t require goggles and a snorkel. In Liverpool, you took what you got and you were happy with it. If you weren’t happy with it, your gob stayed shut and you pretended otherwise. That ethos had applied to a heck of a lot back in Liverpool, be it weather, beer, sex, marriage. Whatever.

It had been that year. The year of the unbearably hot summer, welcomed at first, detested within days. Everything seemed to grind to a halt, bullied into listlessness by the oppressive heat. Weeks crawled by, as scorched and as sweltering as the humans of that grimy little Northern city. Just as everyone began to believe the torment would never end, everything  changed.

There was a rumbling first of all. Like a lorry had just gone lumbering along on a broken, potholed road. Most ignored it. In a breath, the rumbling stopped. Seconds ticked by. Again the sky growled and grumbled. Clouds gathered in clusters, they seemed to turn themselves inside out, exposing their black and sodden innards and upending their contents upon the city.

Big, fat raindrops slipped from the sky, splattering the dry concrete. The rain began to fall, quite softly at first. Rather lazily in fact, but soon it became fast, furious spurts of showers. Puddles grew and grouped across the floor, the drains gurgled and the roads sloshed between the curbs. Lister had been outside at the time. After seconds of rain he was soaked. The rain dripped through his thin t-shirt, it splashed onto his jeans, darkening the denim as it went. His shoes squelched with every step.

Staring up at the sky, he blinked through the droplets of rain, savouring the feel of the water on his skin. It was one of those moments when he felt inexplicably alive. Despite the terrible weather and for all that his clothes were drenched and dripping, he loved it. He felt...magical almost.

Lister could see his younger self now, as clear as day. He was laughing, running around the streets of his city, splashing his friends and kicking water into the air. That moment, even after all these years, still seemed as fresh and as vibrant as it did back then. It seemed to sting, like the air after the storm. It felt clean, new, untainted.

Outside Starbug, the rain continued. Lister watched it for a few seconds longer, he watched as he made a decision. Shrugging his shoulders out of his leather jacket, he stepped out into the storm. The first sheet of rain struck him like a punch. It was cold, far colder than he’d expected. The raindrops nestled on his shoulders, before they slipped down toward the small of his back. His shirt hung limply off his torso as he walked. Rubbing the rain out of his eyes, Lister carried on walking.

It was Rimmer that saw him first, quite by accident. He’d been striding back towards the cockpit and glanced out of the open airlock door. Sneering at the weather, he’d made to move forward but a block of black in the mere distance grabbed his eye. He stopped and stared.

Lister.

For reasons that evaded Rimmer’s logic, the human was strolling about in the middle of what appeared to be a typhoon. Glancing down, Rimmer noted the leather jacket, slumped against the wall. He went back to watching Lister.

Unaware of the attention he was getting, Lister was enjoying the rain. It had been years since he’d been out like this. He felt refreshed and alert, like every part of his body was suddenly awake and extra receptive. He felt every raindrop, every gust of wind. The cold was beginning to twist itself around his body, his shoulders were shivering involuntarily but there was still something unquestionably magical about the whole affair.

Allowing himself a heartfelt grin, Lister flopped back onto the swamped grass. Puddles seemed about his body and trickled into his boots. He lay and stared at the sky and for the first time in a long time, he felt glad to be alive.

Rimmer knew Kryten was behind him. “What is that goit doing?” he demanded, assuming Kryten would be more knowledgable on this matter.

“I have no idea, sir. It does appear he’s just lying there, in the rain.”

“Thank you very much Kryten. With astute observations like that you just might make this months’ Mr Smegging Obvious after all!”

The mech tactfully ignored the insult “Is this normal behaviour, sir? I’m not entirely sure.”

“For humans, no. For Listy, smeg knows. This could be some bizarre mating ritual, a salute to the God of Slobbiness, or maybe just an unorthodox bath...one never can tell with that ‘thing’.”

Kryten stood and fretted. He fretted hard. “I do worry about him. If he stays out there much longer, he’ll catch pneumonia...not to mention the grass stains. Oh, they’ll never come out!”

“Should one of us go and get him?” asked Rimmer, crossing his arms and glowering at Lister’s form, still sprawled on the grass “And obviously, by us I mean the Cat.”

Rimmer’s suggestion provided quite unnecessary, as Lister pulled himself upright and began to slowly make his way back towards the ‘Bug. As he reached the airlock, he looked up to the find Kryten and Rimmer, both wearing matching confused expressions. Lister nodded his greetings before slipping inside.

“What the smeg were you doing out there?” asked Rimmer, wrinkling his nose at Lister’s sodden attire.

“Walkin’” came the simple reply, as Lister wringed the water from his dreadlocks, leaving a little puddle on Starbug’s floor.

“In the rain?”

Lister grinned “Why not?”

Kryten engaged his fuss mode and instantly set upon Lister with the tenacity of a worried mother. “Now sir, just look at the state of you. You’re soaked right through.” Without asking permission, he hastily unbuttoned Lister’s shirt and yanked it off his shivering body. He twisted it in his hands before whisking it away down the corridor “I’d best get sorted on the laundry, if you can bring the rest of your wet things through when you’re ready sir, that would be dandy!”

As Lister sneaked one last look at the rain outside, Rimmer sneaked a look at his bunkmate. His t-shirt was plastered to his frame, his soaked leather trousers squeaking with the slightest movement. He looked serene, as if a great weight had suddenly been lifted off his mind.

Rimmer found himself blushing and he coughed to cover his discomfort. “You’d best get out of those wet clothes...before you catch your death or something. Next time you want to go frolicking about in a storm, you might consider adequate clothing and perhaps an umbrella!” He clicked his heels together and marched off on his original venture, hoping to God Lister hadn’t heart the tiny note of concern in his voice.

The human smiled as he watched Rimmer storm off down the corridor, before he turned one last time to watch the rain.

 

Comments

[sadera992.livejournal.com]

aww, how sweet! lovely. i love that kind of rain where you just wanna run around in it - doesnt happen often enough.

[dauphkantus.livejournal.com]

...<3

[felineranger.livejournal.com]

I love, love, love this. The evocative descriptions, the sharp humour, the soft touch of sensuality that hovers over the whole thing. Bex shoots, she scores!

[tits-teapot.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant. I always love your descriptions of Liverpool. You must love your city, I can feel it from this<3.

And Rimmer is just so charming!

[kms726.livejournal.com]

Ahh, coming from Seattle where it rains on average 226 days a year, I can really appreciate this fic! :D

Kryten has a fuss mode? I love it!

>“For humans, no. For Listy, smeg knows. This could be some bizarre mating ritual, a salute to the God of Slobbiness, or maybe just an unorthodox bath...one never can tell with that ‘thing’.”
LMAO!!!

I really loved this, it has some great imagery--I could picture everything perfectly.

And it made me miss Liverpool even more...

[koriathain.livejournal.com]

That was lovely!

[tsukinobun.livejournal.com]

definitely kindled some homesickness in me for wet, gray england.
i'm glad listy got a moment's peace from the encroaching space-craziness.
very well written.
<3
(think i'll come back and read it again in a couple of hours, 'n i'll ruminate on it till then)

Beautiful

[starbug69.livejournal.com]

It's sunny with blue sky today but I also wouldn't have minded walking in the rain after reading that. It sounds very romantic

[kahvi.livejournal.com]

I missed totally missed this, and having read it now, all I can say is... wow.

First and foremost; fantastic writing. So evocative and visceral and eerily Listerine. You capture him so perfectly, but you also, amusingly, seem to seem him exactly like I do. Maybe I should stop being surprised by this, at some point. ;) Case in point, I've written about the exact same things as you have here; Lister missing crowds and rain. You've done a better job of it than me, though; you've captured exactly what I was trying to in my own stories, but couldn't quite manage.

I need to get some of those WIPs finished; you've inspired me. <3