The Last Woman

Fine Living

It had been a few weeks now since she had been trapped on the ice planet with Lister and Rimmer and she had to say it was great to be back on the Red Dwarf. As much as she loved the guys there was only so much time she could spend with them especially when all they seemed to do is get into fights which only got worse when she as present half the time.

So for a while, she had been by herself searching around various decks attempting to understand the complete maze that was the decks of Red Dwarf. She had found a cinema and some more of the higher-ups quarters as well.

Recently Rimmer and Lister had moved into the officers quarters which were far bigger and nicer than the one they had had before. So Zora took a page from their book and began looking around the quarters for one she liked the best. One she came across seemed quite nice it was large and spacious, had a shower and a small kitchen as well as a double bed and a small table with two chairs.

"This will do nicely," She smiled before heading down to where she had found the stores filled with things for the maintenance of the interior of red dwarf.

She scanned through the paints and eventually found some black and dark blue paint. And after grabbing some rollers she headed back to her new room-clearing things away from the walls and began to paint. She split the room into two parts painting one black and one blue then blending them together in the middle. When she was finished she was covered in paint though, for the most part, her clothes were clean.

"Impressive work, Z," Lister admired as she was putting things back where they should be.

"Cheers Lister," She returned then paired when she noticed he was staring at her with a confused expression.

"Zora, you have your own clothes, you have the lady cat clothes...so why Is it that you're still wearing Rimmer's" He half exclaimed completely baffled.

"They're comfy," she explained taking a lot of interest in the paintbrush clutched in her paint-covered hand.

"Their previous owner was a complete and utter smeghead!"

"That doesn't dictate, how comfy clothes are. Besides, why are you so concerned about what I wear? Or are you just jealous that I'm wearing Rimmer's clothes and not yours?" She teased folding her arms across her chest her hair draping down one side of her face.

"Me? Jealous? Of Rimmer? No chance!" He denied but the look on his face told a bit of a different story.

"Are you sure?"

"Sure? Of course, he's not," Rimmer jumped in, a small smug smile making its way onto his face. "I mean what's not to be jealous of. My charm, my work ethic and the fact there is a beautiful woman wearing my clothes," He beamed.

Zora snorted slightly amused by both Rimmer's statement which was rather questionable and Lister's reaction which was somewhere between embarrassed and furious.

"Work ethic? Charm? Since when did you have either of those?" Lister retorted and Rimmer's smug face fell making Zora laugh again.

"Honestly you two. You never fail to be entertaining and incredibly annoying." She laughed heading out of the room scooting around the two men who followed her out.

"I'm not the annoying one I'm the funny one," Lister objected.
"You? Funny? What a load of tosh. Annoying, however, seems rather accurate," Rimmer returned a smug grin still firmly in place.

Zora simply rolled her eyes and smiled. The boys of the dwarf as annoying as ever.

Zora headed back down to her old quarters where she unsurprisingly found Kryten dusting about the place.

"Hey Krytes," She smiled grabbing her things from the room which didn't take too long seeing as most of her clothes for into one large bag and the rest of her belongings were still packed away in her rucksack.

"Hello Miss Zora, I see you're moving out and you set Mr Rimmer and Mr David off for at least the next two hours," He noted. "If I may ask ma'am why is it that you're still wearing Mr Rimmer's clothes despite having others that don't belong to Mr Rimmer," Kryten said stopping his cleaning to carefully watch Zora's reaction which only seemed to silence and a small amount of blush.

"They're comfortable," she replied dismissing the other reason that popped into her head.

"So its got nothing to do with the fact they belonged to Mr Rimmer?" He asked in a rather inquisitorial tone. "Or that fact that they probably still smell like Mr Rimmer?" He pressed further.

"You know I'm actually starting to regret helping Lister with your lessons on becoming more human Kryten. But all the same, I'm proud they've worked." She summarised escaping once more. But despite her attitude, she found herself thinking that maybe Kryten was right not that she was going to admit that anytime soon.

When Zora returned to her newly painted room she still found it still a little devoid of life even after she stuck up the three small photos of her and her friend on the wall by her bed. On her old ship, she'd had band posters, film posters, random things she'd found on different worlds. All of it had plastered the walls of her quarters now there was nothing.

With a sigh, she laid back on her bed staring up at the ceiling not quite sure what to do with the rest of her day. She hadn't seen Cat at all. Last time she checked Rimmer and Lister we're still arguing and Kryten was cleaning.

"Well looks like so much fun in here," A sarcastic voice commented prompting Zora to prop herself up on her elbows. Her hair fell neatly down either side framing her face nicely.

"Well it beats arguing with Listy for hours on end," she countered. "So is there something you wanted to say of importance or have you just come here to annoy me instead," she teased the hologram who stood in her doorway.

"Me? Annoying?" Rimmer laughed. "What a preposterous notion."
Zora cocked an eyebrow at the man dressed in green. "I don't think it's preposterous at all." She smirked brushing her hair out of her face making Rimmer's heart flutter slightly.

"I-i wanted to give you something but seeing as everything is quite literally out of my grasp. You'll have to get it." His face was tinged slightly red as he glanced down at the floor not quite able to be the beautiful woman's gaze.

"You want to give me a present?" Zora attempted to tease whilst hiding the scarlet now lacing her cheeks at the kindness she wasn't quite used to.

She jumped off the bed recovering herself.
"Well, where is it then?" She asked with a kind smile looking up at Rimmer.

He brought her to his and Lister's quarter grateful to find the Scouser nowhere in sight. Scanning the room he eventually located the box he was looking for under a few of Lister's clothes and general random crap that he left around.

"I swear Lister has a genetic condition where he is incapable of keeping a place tidy for longer than five seconds," Zora laughed kicking off the mess with her boot.

"You've got more chance of teaching a chimp to do the Charleston than teaching Listy to be tidy," Rimmer added as the woman rifled through the trunk of war memorabilia.

"What exactly am I looking for?"

"You'll know it when you see it," Rimmer noted and when Zora gave a cheer he knew she had located the relic in question.

"Wow, a polaroid camera. I used to have one when I was little but I think I ended up braking it." She laughed, a smile dancing over her lips as she examined the large black camera. "Thanks, Arnie," she smiled and it was times like this when she wished she could actually touch him. Give him a hug or something. He was standing not a foot from her yet nothing to be done to ever close the gap.