Shopping for.. 'friends'

Zoe watched him carefully as he mentioned his hair and moved to his seat. "I could give you a haircut.." She said carefully, her eyes wandering over him as he sat down and pulled out what looked like a joint. "I give myself haircuts.. I don't see how your hair wouldn't be different than my own." She fingered her own short hair, and looked at his. "Just a bit shorter than I would go on myself.. but I'm sure I could do it just fine.." She said carefully, holding her drink carefully, staring at the liquid in it's depths while he lit his joint and smoked it.

She frowned at the smell it produced and slowly walked over to him, sitting in the chair by him. "Mo.. I don't want to have to beg you.." She said, sitting forward and holding her drink in both hands, her eyes slowly shifting towards his figure in the midst of the cloud of smoke. "But I really need your talents tonight.. you are great company.. and.. I need to get drunk.. maybe high, just.. something not sober okay?" She looked at him carefully, pondering how to best phrase this all without him storming off to the main room again. "I can pay you, or supply the drinks.. or.. whatever else you want, I don't even care.. just. say what you want, and I'll do it, I just need to get away from my own head for tonight.." She looked at him, pleadingly, her eyes showing that she meant it, and even with all her drinks tonight, was still too much inside her own mind.

Nemo's LED light eyes were set aglow by the prospect of being relieved of the abundance of hair that had gathered atop his head. "Awesome," He grinned, expecting Zoe to understand the expression as an agreement; as permission. It had been months since he had last cut his shaggy and matted hair, due to the time that he'd spent, hidden from the world in the makeshift tent that was his business.

"You don't have to beg, for crying out loud," Nemo sighed as he flopped his arm towards Zoe, holding the spliff before her lips between a pair of his fingers. "I'm here, aren't I? If I planned on being sober tonight I'd have successfully committed suicide," He added with a grin that did not possess the enjoyable qualities of his last, but the aftertaste of a bitter sweetener. "Smoke that. We'll have another rum in a second."

Zoe's eyes went wide when he shoved the smoke in her face and ordered her to smoke it. She looked at him warily, knowing she had asked for it, and knowing she didn't agree with smoking, but she was getting what she asked for. "Maybe I should cut your hair before we get drunk or high." He said, holding the joint like it was about to scream at her, the look on her face almost comical. "Really, I could easily cut it in my sleep, but I should be handling a pair of scissors at least somewhat sober.. and not hungover.." she said lightly, her eyes going to his hair, and she tried to hand the joint back to him.

"Come on.. I'll cut it really fast, and then I'll smoke it, promise." She said and pulled out her wand, conjuring a pair of scissors from nowhere and standing up. "Sit still, I'll be done quickly." she said and immediately started to snip at his hair, whether he protested or not. "You'll feel better when it's done." She got his hair short, styled, and clean looking in a relatively short amount of time for how much hair there had been. She got rid of the hair with a wave of her wand, and sat back down, smiling to him. "About that joint.." she said holding out her hand, knowing it was probably already gone, but that had only been half of her point.

Nemo hadn't realized how desperately he had missed the contact of another being until he'd found Zoe's hands in his hair; her nails scraping lightly at his scalp; delicate fingers dusting stray hairs from his head. His longing for such physical communicated had easily gone ignored in the silence amongst no other than the drink and the dark. But the weight of its absence crashed against him in the manner of a wave beneath Zoe's touch.

"Hmmm?" Nemo murmured through the haze of his comfort. He had melted in his chair, and between his lips his joint slowly burned. "What?" He repeated as he slowly jolted from his trance, breathing in a large breath of marijuana as he climbed upward in his chair. He plucked the joint from his mouth and offered it to Zoe, "Last drag. I have another in my jacket."

Nemo shook his head, marveling at the loss of the mop that once been.

Zoe took it and took a long deep breath of the smoke, coughing once, before the joint burned out completely. "You look.." She stopped to cough again. "Much better with your haircut.. you can look in the mirror.. if you want." She said, pointing to a mirror above the fireplace, already feeling slightly lightheaded from the joint. "Do you actually enjoy this stuff?" She asked, watching him curiously. She had noticed his behavior during the haircut, but hadn't commented on it, because he seemed to enjoy it so much. It made her smile, thinking that her touch wasn't just poison as some people believed it was, but instead could cause pleasure to someone, it made the corners of her lips twitch at least.

"I'll get the other one.. you check yourself out in the mirror okay?" She said, standing up to find his jacket and pulling the joint out of it, lighting it and drawing it to her lips again, trying to get past the horrible feeling that she was going to suffocate and just enjoy the relaxation effect it gave her when it was puffed out. "You like it? I tried to style it slightly.. make it look less like a chopped haircut and more like you got it done somewhere professionally.. not much different than mine.. just shorter." She walked up behind him and offered him the joint, a small smile playing on her lips, as smoke leaked out through the corners.

For a man who never ceased in his attempts to draw chaotic attention to himself, Nemo had never been one to express genuine concern twards his appearances. His halfhearted choices of attire, often consisting of witty t-shirts and beaten denims, being a fine example of his disinterest. Thus, it was with a simple ruffle of his hands through his newly trimmed hair before the mirror that Nemo inspected Zoe's work. "S'nice. It's feels great to have all that off my head."

"Yes, I enjoy it. What's not to like about weed?" was Nemo's belated reply to Zoe's inquiry. And with a grin he retrieved the drug that he'd been offered with nimble fingers and slotted it in his mouth before turning on the spot to face Zoe, who stood much closer than Nemo had originally assumed.

"Your rum," The bartender greeted the pair as he entered the room. “Oh – sorry,” He hastily apologized as he spied Nemo and Zoe. And with great haste he dropped the bottle on the table and fled the room.

“Yes!” Nemo cheered and away from Zoe he broke. “It’s about time,” He added as he lifted the beverage from the table and traded his joint for a swig of alcohol.

Zoe was taken by surprise when Nemo spun around to face her, much closer than she had expected. Her eyes met his, her eyebrows raised, her lips slightly parted, her face near his and her heart started to race. What were these feelings? She had never experienced them before. Heart racing, heated cheeks, and odd thrumming in her stomach, all in the simple motion of him turning around and standing a bit too close for comfort, all because of what? The weed? Maybe..

When the bartender brought the drinks in, Zoe took a hasty step away from Nemo, her cheeks on fire as the door was closed with a snap and Nemo rushed over to the rum without so much as a blink in her direction. With only a moment's hesitation, she went to him and snatched the joint out of his fingers, bringing it to her lips, she breathed in the smoke and coughed again, but leaned against the table, her eyes focused on Nemo, curiosity exploding inside of her. What had caused the odd thrumming in her stomach? Why had her heart sped up? She was going to find out.

"So tell me.. did you feel what I just did? Because I'm quite honestly confused at my own body's reaction to the closeness we were just put in." She said straightforwardly, no use beating around the bush anyway. "Am I high? Is that a symptom of the high? Or is it a symptom of the drink? I wish to know." She said lightly, her eyes trained on him as she took another puff from the joint, managing to not cough this time, and more looking really hot as the smoke poured from her mouth, her body lined up for his view without her even noticing.

Laughter struggled against Nemo's mouthful of rum and he swallowed, nearly choking in the process. He simply could not help himself; the flustered way in which Zoe had noted the tension that had grown between them both when they'd neared one another was immensely amusing. "That'd be-" He chuckled, turning his back towards Zoe as he fought for breath. He always had gotten carried away with the giggling.

Only when he'd calmed himself to the extent of being capable of concluding his sentence did Nemo face Zoe, "The increased heart rate: that'd be one of the gifts of the high, yeah. But whatever else you felt may as well be chalked up to my sex appeal," He answered, ever modest. Nemo's eyes instinctively fell in examination of her form and he added, slowly, "Or yours."

Zoe failed to see what was so funny that made him turn his back in order to hide his giggle fit. She simply stood there, leaned against the table, the joint between her fingers, watching him calmly, waiting for the fit to subside before he was able to turn around and face her again. Once her eyes met his though.. that odd tension filled up her stomach and she couldn't help but lean back slightly, trying to gauge the feeling. "Alright.. so I'm slightly high.. and..." Her eyebrows shot up into her hair line when he mentioned his sex appeal.

"Wait wait.. you think I'm.. sexually attracted to you?" She asked, her voice carrying the sound of complete disbelief. "I don't know if you know this, but I've never been sexually attracted to ANYONE.. in fact I've never even done anything sexual.. I've never even KISSED a guy before.. so what should make you so different? Why would I be.. attracted to someone like you?" She asked, her mouth open as he looked her over and she stood up straighter, her eyes locked onto his. "I am not sexually attracted to you Mo.. I.. I am not.. I do not feel those emotions." She said lightly and turned away from him, sitting in front of the fire again, puffing on the joint like it was a regular cigarette.

"De-nial!" Nemo sung as he fell into his chair and cast Zoe an upward glance through his teasingly batting lashes, and from her lips he swiped his joint and flicked it into the fire. "Don't overdo it. You'll end up napping instead of getting drunk - like you asked me to help you with, if you recall." He drank from his bottle and simultaneously stretched towards the table to coil his digits around the neck of Zoe's drink. "Bottom's up," Nemo stated, passing the alcohol to his companion for the evening.

He fidgeted briefly in his chair, feeling somewhat aroused. "All it takes to get that energy going is the right company and enough of the good stuff," Nemo informed Zoe, speaking against the mouth of his bottle. "So don't get your panties in a bunch. Most people see that as a good thing; it means the night just got that much more fun," He argued with a knowing smirk.