Alternative

by Tronella

A/N Praise be to the almighty Thesseli for inspiration/permission: this is a sequel for her 'Substitute' (go and read it now).

This is m/m slash (noticing a theme in my stuff yet?) and it's really short - oh, and the characters belong to various people, none of whom are me.

Oh yeah, and /this/ means thinking.



Alternative
by Tronella

Lister walked into the sleeping quarters, to find Rimmer trying to memorise yet another astro-engineering textbook. "There you are! I've been looking for you everywhere, man. Anyway, listen, I... I need..." He'd never managed to find a way to phrase this, but Rimmer had always known what he meant.

"Holly? Swap disks again, will you?"

"I'm sorry, but Christine Kochanski's disk has been irreparably damaged. Nothing I can do."

They looked at each other for a long moment, then Lister shrugged.

"Ah well, I can always go back to using me hand." He turned to leave the room, but as he reached the doorway something crossed Rimmer's mind.

"We could always..." Lister stopped, looked back.

"Could always what?"

"We could always... do it anyway." Lister's eyes widened as he worked this out, horrified at the thought of fucking Rimmer (and ignoring the fact that really, that was what had been happening all along).

"You mean..." he gestured, still unable to find the words.

"No! No, I just meant... with hands, that's all." Lister still looked skeptical, but, well... anything was better than jerking off by himself for the millionth time.

/This is no different from any other time./ Rimmer told himself. /You're just... helping him out. Being in your own body doesn't make this any different - it's Kochanski he wants, not you./ The small amount of self-control that this won him back was shattered almost instantly as he made the mistake of looking up at Lister's face.

/This is me making him look like this. Not Kochanski. Me./ he thought, and let himelf believe, just for a moment, that he was the one Lister wanted, that Lister wanted him as much as he wanted Lister. That he wasn't just a substitute.

And when Lister came, he let himself believe he'd heard his name within the incoherence.



end

A/N. slowly... getting... higher... rated... Ak, that was even shorter than I thought! Anyway, after you've reviewed (hint) go and read all the rest of Thesseli's stuff. Now. Note to self: use less ...s.