Shopping for.. 'friends'

Zoe walked briskly down the street, her heels clicking on the pavement. She had done well for herself these past couple of months, moved on in her job, been promoted, moved on and up, and her old spot had been taken by her favorite, Jack Dyllan, now Zoe was out on a normal day, the weather was getting nicer, the air was warm, and she was walking to Gringotts to get herself some money out, so that she may buy herself some nice things, she had a banquet to go to for a friend.. well a person who Zoe considered to be likable and had asked her to join them. She needed to get some nice new dress robes, and find something to give as a gift, it was one of those kind of parties anyway.

After withdrawing a small purse full of coins, Zoe walked down Diagon Alley, slowing her breakneck speed of a walk, and walked down the alley, looking into shop windows and viewing outdoor displays. She strolled along before she came to the robe shop, disappearing inside of it, she came out with a slip of parchment, detailing when she could pick up her robes later that day, and a signature of the witch who had sold them to her. Putting it into her pocket, she slowed her walk, walking down the road, peering into shops, and looking for any trinkets her.. 'friend' might like.

“Get out of my shop!” The red-faced wizard called angrily as he gripped in his tightly wound fists the lapels of Nemo’s jacket, and from his store he pushed the offending man.

Nemo lost his balance, tumbling over the threshold and onto the unforgiving streets to which he’d been so forcefully thrown by the man with whom he had only just been speaking nonchalantly several moments prior. The skin of his palms met roughly with the bricks beneath him in an instinctual attempt to prevent the collision of his skull with the ground, and the sharp pain was immediate.

He remained unmoving, resting his forehead atop his hands, from which blood had begun to sprout. “Moody f-cker,” was Nemo’s only voiced response as he recovered from the blow that he’d received to his stomach upon collided with the curb.

Without further a due, Nemo Omara.

Zoe stared down at the man who had been shoved roughly onto the street mere feet from her, landed, and started to mutter curse words. Zoe looked down at the man she knew, and found herself crossing her arms, her eyes narrowed down at the only man who could loosen her up. "And what did you do this time Mr. Omara?" She asked loudly, her eyes traveling over the man who appeared to be bleeding slightly.

"Steal? Insult him? Walk in drunk?" She asked, and although she sounded accusatory, there was a hint of amusement in her voice, and on her face. "Get up Mr. Omara... let me see if you are badly hurt." She said simply, crouching down next to the hurt man, amusement written more plainly now across her face.

Identifying the familiar voice of the woman at who's feet he lay had been no challenge at all. He hadn't so much as lifted his head from the street before responding in a tone which had been muffled by his positioning of his face, to Zoe Gould's accusative inquisition, "I polity informed him that his wife is presently having an affair." His tone was flat, as though the possible results of such an action had not occurred to the Seer.

He heaved himself upward with great effort, feeling as though the wizard whom he had so blatantly angered had used him to scrub the streets, rather than having merely shoved him forward. And from there, he sat on his knees and examined the damage that had been done to his palms; bleeding as they were, it appeared two, if not three layers of skin had been breached. He glared at the injury, for he had never been particularly skilled in the area of healing spells, and he had come to the realization that such methods would now be required of him. Unless Zoe were to be of some assistance. "Heal these up, would you?" He asked, presenting the woman before him with his extended hands.

"Sounds very like something you would say sir.." She said, chuckling, she looked at the man who lay sprawled in front of her, and she couldn't help but feel a bit powerful, well she WAS powerful, but when looking down at the man who had been shoved roughly into the street, yeah, she felt good. "You know if you want to be treated nicely, you should act nicely." She smirked when he showed her his palms and then shook her head. "Say the magic word." She laughed and stood up.

"Follow me.. I'll get us both a drink at the Leaky Cauldron." She said without even glancing back at him, just assuming he would follow when the word drink had been uttered.

The seemingly uncharacteristic behavior of the woman with whom he had previously assumed he had grown to know rather well had thoroughly shaken Nemo to the extent of rendering him incapable of movement or logic for a brief moment. His eyebrows had risen to meet his hairline, and his mouth had fallen open several inches. "I...?" It was a rare occurrence indeed, that Nemo Omara be left speechless.

Struggling with the bruise that had begun to spread across his torso, Nemo rose to his feet and dusted against his denims his raw palms in an attempt to desensitize the flesh there, which proceeded to complain.

Only with the fresh introduction of pain was Nemo awakened from his surprise-induced stupor, and after Zoe he did call: “Gone and turned yourself into a dominatrix, have you?” He then stumbled after her, fighting with the sudden onset of dementia that his fall had triggered. But no argument was received from Nemo, due to the mention of alcohol - which had likely been the purpose of Zoe's proposal, Nemo distractedly noted, but made no attempt to voice.

Zoe wasn't quite sure what was up with her, but seeing the man who had effectively broken through her many barriers so easily.. well for some reason it stirred up memories, and she found the situation amusing. He was shocked, and she could see it on his face, before she turned away and walked towards the Leaky Cauldron. She listened hard, and soon heard him stand up, and rush after her, as she knew he would.

Once inside the Leaky Cauldron, Zoe ordered a private room, and made her way back to her favorite spot. Zoe never dined out in the regular bar area, but instead spent most of her time here in a back room, so people would not see her, and start talking to her. She led the way there, and finally opened the door, holding it open for him, before she entered herself and picked up a bottle of wine from the table, pouring herself a drink, before her eyes roamed over Nemo. "Now.. lets see what damage has been done to you eh?" She asked, her eyes roaming over him, an amused smirk written across her normally stoic face.

Evidently, it had been fortunate for those who presently occupied the Leaky Cauldron’s main lounge that Zoe had come to the decision to purchase for the pair a private room, for immediately after she and Nemo had stepped over the threshold and settled in, Nemo had managed to shrug himself free of his jacket. Over his head he did pull his t-shirt, which disobediently fought against his hair, catching strands that had grown the longest they had ever been during Nemo’s recent bout of depression; a hole out of which he had only just climbed.

The shirt shortly joined his jacket in the chair he had claimed as his own, before he casually presented Zoe with his hands without so much as a muttered explanation as to why he had stripped down to stand half-bear before her. “It’s not bad. Couple layers, maybe,” He informed her with a shrug of his shoulder: a lethargic roll of his right blade.

“Drinks?” Nemo inquired insistently with a smile that nearly reached his eyes. “Or was that just a ploy to get me to follow after you like a good little pet? Sometimes I think you must spend too much time with those animals of yours; you start thinking that we’re all magical obedient bunny rabbits and puppy dogs.” Nemo visibly relaxed as his joke sprung to life, despite the discomfort he experienced; Zoe was recognizable company, and he felt at ease amongst old drinking companions more so than anyone else.

Zoe watched his movements carefully as he pulled off his jacket, and then his shirt, smirking slightly, her eyes traveled his chest, before she set her glass down, and pulled out her wand, stepping nearer, she examined his hands. "Not bad.." She said examining the wound, before glancing at him. "This might sting a bit." She said lightly, and prodded his hand with her wand. There was a moment of nothing, and then a small flash, a large stinging sensation, and then the wound was healed, the skin closing in on itself, and looking as though she had merely sped up time of any naturally healing injury.

"And yes, there are drinks." She said as she sat down, holding onto her cup once more. She sat by the fire, and motioned him over. "You may put your shirt on again if you wish... not sure why you took it off.. but alright." She said, her eyes glued to the fire, watching it crackle and pop as it consumed the wood that had been added to it, relatively recently.

"You may order whatever you want.." She added, glancing back at him and sighing slightly. If anything, these days Zoe looked even more dreary than she was as Head of the Furries. "I am no longer head of that department Mr. Omara." She said lightly, her eyes traveling back to him. "I don't know when you last heard, but I am now Warden of Azkaban sir.." She said letting the threat in her voice carry for a moment, before she smiled and took a sip of her drink.

As the string of the healing spell sunk its teeth into Nemo's palms, he rolled his fingers, flexing them as he adjusted to the sensation of his mending skin. He shook out his wrists, and swung his arms downward to join his sides after they'd been healed.

"Oh, I didn't tell you why I took it off, did I? That must have been confusing for you," Nemo replied, feigning concern as he turned at an angle to revel to Zoe the purple that had already begun to creep across the skin that stretched across his lowest right rib. He gestured towards the bruise, which was forming mere inches from the long green rash that he'd obtained as a result of the 'Illness'. "How 'bout it? That'll really screw with my auror duties tomorrow if I don't get it healed up," He informed her, if only to provide her with an incentive to assist him. "I'd do it myself, but I might just blow myself up," Nemo added as an afterthought, "The Ick messes with your ability to cast simpler spells."

OOC: Between the above and below paragraphs, I assumed Zoe agreed to heal him. Hope you don't mind.

His LED light eyes glowed with the prospect of ordering any alcoholic beverage that came to mind. "Anything I want? Have I ever told you how much I love you?" He giddily inquired. "I'll have vodka, Firewhiskey, and rum." He grinned and excitedly clapped his hands together, before making a grab for his shirt, so to pull it over his head once more. In a flurry of clothes and brown hair, Nemo re-dressed and plopped heavily in the chair adjacent to Zoe, "And you can stop calling me that, you know. The formalities are really boring. I'd like to think that we're on a first name basis, eh Buffy?"

"Besides, what's gotten in to you? Showing up looking like you fought Wizard World Four... - your eyes, that is. Something in them. And whatever I'm reading from you now," Nemo paused to cock his head out of curiosity as he watched her, his own face void of any other expression than his desire to know what it was that he’d missed, "is making me feel like shit." But his words came to an abrupt halt at the mention of the infamous wizards' prison.

"Well, that explains it. Damn. What the fck are you doing there, Buffy? You moron. That place is a prison for a reason. Why do you think its so difficult for them to find a warden who'll stick with it? The job turns people into psychopaths."