Red dwarf one shots

Comfort

Summary: Cat gets scared when the others celebrate Fourth of July, who will comfort him?

"Hurry up Holly, let's get this party going." Exclaimed Lister as he put a beer pack into the table, which was already covered in food of all kinds.

The crew had decided to celebrate every holiday they knew to stop the days becoming too repetitive and driving them all insane with boredom.

Tonight was the 4th July and Lister, coming from America on Earth, was really excited to celebrate the independence of his country.

"So what do you do on this holiday? Is it like Christmas?" Questioned Cat as he helped himself to some fish cakes, he was curious about human holidays and traditions.

"No Cat, the Fourth of July celebrates the independence of the country America from being ruled by England. The Americans celebrate this every year by eating and setting off fireworks." Explained Rimmer distractedly.

"Sir, if I may ask, what are these 'fireworks'? I have no data in them." Questioned Kryton and Cat looked up too, also puzzled by what it meant.

"Pretty lights in the sky." Lister explained simply.

"Firework simulation ready." Holly stated.

Soon the 3D simulation let loose a yellow screamer and all was silent for a few moments.

"Wait for it." Whispered Lister.

As if on cue the sky lit up with multiple fireworks of different size and colours. The loud bangs echoing throughout the room.

Cat's eyes widened in terror as the noise continued to assist his ear drums, making him hiss quietly while covering his ears.

Deciding to get away from the noise, he put his fish down and quietly sprinted from the room.

No one else had noticed apart from Rimmer, who watched the Cat run off with mild concern.

He pondered why he had run off before almost slapping himself in realisation of his stupidity.

Most animals hated the sound of fireworks, it was too loud and sudden. And considering Cat is well...part cat, of course he would be effected.

He considered telling Lister to turn off the simulation before thinking that the Cat would not appreciate that, he would feel as though he had wounded his pride.

So with no other option, Rimmer left the room in search of Cat to comfort him.

He looked nearly everywhere for him, the kitchen, the movie theatre, some of the vents, but he was no where to be found.

He was about to pass his and Lister's shared room in his search for him when he heard a faint whimper.

Stopping in his tracks, he strained his ears for the noise again and sure enough he heard it again.

Opening his room, everything seemed normal before he noticed his bead sheets, normally tidy and tucked in were crumpled up into a big pile at the end of his bed, shaking.

Sighing slightly, he made his way over to it, he did come to help the Cat after all.

The bundle stopped shaking when it heard footsteps and a familiar scent coming closer.

"Alphabet head?" Cat asked from underneath the lump.

"Yes, it's me. Want to talk?" He asked and sat next to him.

Hesitantly, Cat made his way out of the bundle. Standing up to smooth the wrinkles in his clothes, he sat back down next to Rimmer.

Awkwardly since they didn't normally have conversations that weren't insults, Cat spoke to Rimmer.

"No, I'll be fine, bud. It's not even that scary."

But at that moment another simulation of fireworks started up, startling Cat into leaning against Rimmer while he covered his ears.

Reacting on instinct to help him, Rimmer scratched Cat behind the ears.

After a few seconds, Rimmer felt the awkwardness in the air. He was about to stop when Cat let out a purr and leaned closer.

"Don't stop." He muttered "it relaxes me." He explained as he let out another purr.

Rimmer shrugged, he was comforting him so he shouldn't really care about how he was doing so.

Besides, this was quite relaxing. He could feel the stress he had built up by organising this party, almost getting killed by asteroids the day before etc. melting away.

After a few more minutes of this, Rimmer was beginning to feel quite tired, Cat's purrs were very soothing.

Looking to his right, he saw that Cat had already fallen asleep, purring in his sleep. He was almost cute when he wasn't making side comments about him.

Smiling, he also got comfortable by pulling them both down to lie on the bed, before drifting off to sleep.

Hours later, Lister arrived at his room, feeling a pleasant buzz from all the alcohol he consumed.

Kryton helped him stumble into his room "Please be quite sir, Mr Rimmer may be asleep already." He whispered to the human.

"Yeah yeah." Muttered Lister as he stumbled in.

However nether one was prepared for the sight they were met with.

Cat had ended up snuggling into the holograms chest, still purring softly.

Meanwhile Rimmer's hand was still on the Cats head, having stopped his petting.

"Holly" Lister whispered "Get a photo of this."

Holly's face appeared in the screen next to them.

"Already have, saved to the data file." They informed.

"Great, now get you two, I can get to bed fine now."

"Night" said Holly as they switched off the monitor.

"Very well sir, I'll see you in the morning." Kryton said as he made his way to the simulation deck, he needed to clear up all that mess after all.

Looking back at the content pair, Lister sighed and shuck his head.

"'Bout time you two got along." He muttered as he made his way onto his bunk and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.