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find_rightbrainTitle: Someone Else's Story
Chapter: Three
Characters/Pairing: April/Mimi, Mark, Benny, Collins, Joanne, Maureen, mention of Roger
Word Count: 2168
Rating: PG-13
Summary: I could be in someone else's story, in someone else's life, and she could be in mine... April lived. Roger didn't. Mimi still knocks on the door of the loft on Christmas Eve.
Disclaimer: I do not own Rent. Plus, I kind of half-stole some lines from the show. Half-stole, because most of them I've kind of altered.
<< Previous Chapter
iii. and it's beginning to snow
April had almost forgotten what it was like, being out of the house, being around people again. She shrank into the thick jacket she'd grabbed from the loft before allowing Mimi to drag her out of the building, and wondered how the hell she'd gotten here. It was like she'd been swept up by a miniature whirlwind, with no say at all where it carried her to or any such thing. A few hours ago she'd been in the loft, determined to stay there regardless of anything Mark or anyone else said, and yet here she was, on the street, back in the world after a year's absence. She couldn't quite decide whether she'd missed this familiar, chaotic vibrancy, the cars and people, sounds and smells and life, or if it was all too much just then, if she would rather return home and go back to the relative quiet there, staring at her notebook and searching for her right brain. It seemed almost tempting...
Mimi reached out to take April's hand, lacing delicate cold fingers through April's, and April, startled, didn't pull her hand away. She glanced over to Mimi, who smiled at her, and she decided that perhaps she could stand being out in the world just a little while longer. However, she did wonder for a minute at how cold Mimi's hands were, chilly fingertips pressed against April's palm. She supposed her own hands were probably as cold – she hadn't been able to find a pair of gloves at home – and that anyone's hands would be cold out here, but it still seemed incongruous with Mimi, when April had come to think of her as bottled fire. Somehow she'd expected Mimi's hand in hers to feel something like licking flames, but not quite burning...
"Mark should be around here somewhere," April murmured to Mimi. "At least, if he's not busy hovering around Maureen?"
"Maureen?"
April smiled wryly. "His ex. A friend of mine, used to be our roommate too. She's the one who's performing in the lot tonight." Her wry expression turned to a grin as she spotted one of Maureen's posters announcing the performance and gestured to it. The things seemed to be everywhere, affixed to telephone booths and light poles and random walls all down the street. She wondered absently who Maureen had gotten to hang them everywhere. It used to be April and Mark's job, advertising Maureen's performances; Maureen considered herself above such things, being, after all, an artist.
Mimi studied the poster for a minute, and turned back to smile at April. "Your friend makes a habit of hovering around his ex-girlfriend?"
April shrugged. "He's still in love with her."
Mimi stared to walk again, lightly tugging April along with her, fingers still laced through April's. "She's not in love with him?"
"Maureen is in love with herself. And, right now, a lawyer named Joanne." She paused and stood on her tiptoes to look down the street, bouncing a little to see if she could spot Mark. She'd thought she caught sight of him a moment ago, but no... "Anyway, if you see Mark, say something. He's a little taller than me, blond hair, glasses... He's probably wearing this big plaid coat too."
Nodding, Mimi turned to survey those passing on the sidewalk, lips still curved into a faint shadow of a smile, a hovering smile waiting to come out again, a flame burning low, not out completely. April continued looking for Mark – or Maureen, if she happened to be anywhere around – but her eyes kept returning to Mimi, her pretty smile and her brown eyes bright like an excited child's and her warm skin, irresistibly drawn to her like a comet pulled in by the gravity of a star. Once Mimi caught her looking and asked, "What?", but April just smiled and glanced down, hoping that her blush could be mistaken for flushed cheeks from the cold.
A Christmas carol reached April's ears, music playing somewhere, just the tune and she couldn't remember the words but she hummed along anyway for a second or two, unthinking. And Mimi's hand was in hers, a little warmer now than before, and Mimi's smile and Christmas lights and the throbbing pulse of the city April had almost forgot existed, and with all of that to draw her attention she almost forgot she was supposed to be looking for Mark.
"Hey," a man's voice called, and April didn't know how or why her ears picked that out in the noise all around them, but she heard it nonetheless. Mimi did too, let go of April's hand and spun around. April turned around as well, more slowly, wondering distantly in the back of her mind why she recognized that voice, why she recognized it from another life over a year past – and then she saw him, and she knew.
She'd used to come meet him with Roger, lingering uncomfortably behind Roger, tense and nervous, and then later to meet him alone once the addiction and need was enough to overcome nervousness. He had his hands buried in the pockets of a heavy jacket, and April realized inconsequentially he'd had when she last saw him ages ago, the jacket he'd wear even in summer. She flinched a little as his eyes skimmed over her, wondering if he remembered her at all, but he didn't really focus on her, just on Mimi, intent and studying. "You looking for me?"
Mimi shook her head, lips pressed tight together. "Not– not tonight."
The Man – the only thing April had ever heard him called, so much it had become his name in her mind – simply shrugged and turned his gaze away, content in the knowledge that there would be other customers, and in any case Mimi would be back, tomorrow or the day after. Mimi carefully took April's hand again and gave her a silently apologetic look. April simply shook her head with a vague attempt at a smile: Don't worry about it. If she walked a little faster down the street than usual when the two of them went on, April told herself it was just that she was cold and trying to keep warm, not that she was trying to outrun a past she wasn't entirely certain she'd left behind. Mimi walked beside her silently, thankfully unquestioning – but then again, she probably didn't want any questions herself.
They didn't find Mark until they reached the lot and April spotted him on the stage, fiddling with the sound system and making last minute adjustments the way he'd always used to before Maureen's shows. There was someone else on stage too, a woman April didn't recognize, but she didn't pay her much attention just then. April took the lead weaving through the crowd that had started to gather for the performance, trying not to look at anyone's faces or meet anyone's eyes. Some of these people used to be her friends, and Roger's, before...
When they were a few yards from the stage, Mark noticed her and simply stared at her for a moment, no doubt stunned just to see her out of the house. "April?" He jumped down off the stage and rushed forward to meet her, smiling with a mixture of relief and uncertainty. "What're you... I thought you weren't going to come. What changed your– Oh, um. Hi." He had, apparently, just noticed Mimi.
"Mark, this is Mimi," April said, glancing between the two of them as they both said hello. She paused, looking again to the woman on the stage, and after a moment caught Mark's eye and gestured to her. "Who's that?"
Mark glanced over his shoulder, and then looked back to April with an entirely unamused expression. "That," he said slowly, "would be Joanne."
April bit back a smile; behind her, she heard Mimi suppressing laughter. "Oh. Where's Maureen?"
Mark's expression darkened a little. "Not here. She hasn't shown up yet."
Somehow April managed a sympathetic expression, although she could find nothing to say to him, and was certain that if she did try to speak she wouldn't be able to conceal her amusement. Abruptly, Mimi bounced and touched April's shoulder lightly. "Hey, one of my friends is over there – I'm gonna go say hi, okay?" April nodded and waved her off, and Mimi rushed into the crowd calling, "Angel!"
April watched her for a moment as she hugged her friend, and turned to ask Mark, "That's Collins' new boyfriend... girlfriend, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Mark said distractedly, his eyes on Mimi, and then he turned back to April, frowning at her. "How'd she get you out of the house?"
April blinked at him for a second, a little surprised at the question. "What makes you think I didn't just leave on my own?"
"Because I asked you about twenty times earlier and you seemed pretty dead set against it."
"Okay," April said simply, and didn't even bother trying to answer Mark's question. She couldn't even explain it for herself how Mimi had gotten her to leave, let alone to anyone else.
"How the hell did you meet her?"
"She came up to the loft while you were gone. She needed a light." Mark arched an eyebrow and said nothing, and at last April added, "And then later she came up to the roof."
Mark considered that for several seconds, lips pressed together in thought, and at last asked, "Are you with her?"
"What?"
"Are you, you know, with her?" He grinned at her. "I'm just curious to know if every woman around me is going to turn into a lesbian."
"Mark!" April laughed despite herself, shook her head and started to follow after Mimi. Mark trailed along persistently, still smiling.
"No, really. Is there something about being around me that just turns all women gay?"
April rolled her eyes and calmly reached out to smack Mark on the back of the head; he ducked, a second too late, and ended up rubbing the place where she'd hit him as if it had actually hurt, which she was absolutely certain it had not. Reaching the others, she gave them a vague, almost shy smile, but Collins quickly pulled her into a one-armed hug, murmuring to her in a low tone meant only for her to hear, "It's good to see you out of the house, girl." She couldn't help but smile, and close her eyes against an unexpected rush of tears, and hug Collins back tightly.
"It's good to be out," she murmured back softly, not letting go of him for some time. She hadn't been sure what Collins would think of her now, if he blamed her for Roger, and she'd been distant when she saw him earlier in the loft, but this was proof enough of her redemption, in Collins' eyes at least, and she'd missed her old friend. At last, she released him and stepped back, giving a little wave to Angel and a warm smile to Mimi, and the five of them fell into comfortable conversation as they waited for Maureen's show to begin, or at least the others talked and April, fallen out of the habit of conversation this past year, listened and offered the occasional comment. Even if she hadn't known Mimi and Angel before tonight, and they hadn't known her and Mark and Collins, it didn't feel like a group of strangers, none of that uncertainty, nothing uncomfortable as there ought to be.
Maureen's entrance, when she showed up, was of course impossible to mis, as she came riding through the crowd on a motorcycle – and where she'd gotten that, or learned how to ride one? The crowd parted for her, and closed again in her wake, while she stopped the motorcycle by the stage, bounded up smoothly, took off her helmet and gave her assembled audience one of those radiant, perfect smiles only Maureen could manage. April thought she noticed a bit of surprise in Maureen's eyes when she noticed April standing a short distance from the stage, and April smiled at her in response and joined in the cheering, only stopping when Maureen swept out an arm in a gesture for silence. Maureen waited until everyone was quiet before she spoke.
"Last night, I had a dream!"
Something cold and wet landed on April's neck, and she glanced up, startled, to realize that it was starting to snow, drifting down in little flurries. She reached out to catch a tiny snowflake in her hand, watching with a slight, enchanted smile as it melted on her palm, and then looking back up to the sky. "Maybe it does snow on Christmas Eve after all," she murmured, no longer able to hide the bright, beaming smile that had spread over her face.
Next Chapter >>
Chapter: Three
Characters/Pairing: April/Mimi, Mark, Benny, Collins, Joanne, Maureen, mention of Roger
Word Count: 2168
Rating: PG-13
Summary: I could be in someone else's story, in someone else's life, and she could be in mine... April lived. Roger didn't. Mimi still knocks on the door of the loft on Christmas Eve.
Disclaimer: I do not own Rent. Plus, I kind of half-stole some lines from the show. Half-stole, because most of them I've kind of altered.
<< Previous Chapter
iii. and it's beginning to snow
April had almost forgotten what it was like, being out of the house, being around people again. She shrank into the thick jacket she'd grabbed from the loft before allowing Mimi to drag her out of the building, and wondered how the hell she'd gotten here. It was like she'd been swept up by a miniature whirlwind, with no say at all where it carried her to or any such thing. A few hours ago she'd been in the loft, determined to stay there regardless of anything Mark or anyone else said, and yet here she was, on the street, back in the world after a year's absence. She couldn't quite decide whether she'd missed this familiar, chaotic vibrancy, the cars and people, sounds and smells and life, or if it was all too much just then, if she would rather return home and go back to the relative quiet there, staring at her notebook and searching for her right brain. It seemed almost tempting...
Mimi reached out to take April's hand, lacing delicate cold fingers through April's, and April, startled, didn't pull her hand away. She glanced over to Mimi, who smiled at her, and she decided that perhaps she could stand being out in the world just a little while longer. However, she did wonder for a minute at how cold Mimi's hands were, chilly fingertips pressed against April's palm. She supposed her own hands were probably as cold – she hadn't been able to find a pair of gloves at home – and that anyone's hands would be cold out here, but it still seemed incongruous with Mimi, when April had come to think of her as bottled fire. Somehow she'd expected Mimi's hand in hers to feel something like licking flames, but not quite burning...
"Mark should be around here somewhere," April murmured to Mimi. "At least, if he's not busy hovering around Maureen?"
"Maureen?"
April smiled wryly. "His ex. A friend of mine, used to be our roommate too. She's the one who's performing in the lot tonight." Her wry expression turned to a grin as she spotted one of Maureen's posters announcing the performance and gestured to it. The things seemed to be everywhere, affixed to telephone booths and light poles and random walls all down the street. She wondered absently who Maureen had gotten to hang them everywhere. It used to be April and Mark's job, advertising Maureen's performances; Maureen considered herself above such things, being, after all, an artist.
Mimi studied the poster for a minute, and turned back to smile at April. "Your friend makes a habit of hovering around his ex-girlfriend?"
April shrugged. "He's still in love with her."
Mimi stared to walk again, lightly tugging April along with her, fingers still laced through April's. "She's not in love with him?"
"Maureen is in love with herself. And, right now, a lawyer named Joanne." She paused and stood on her tiptoes to look down the street, bouncing a little to see if she could spot Mark. She'd thought she caught sight of him a moment ago, but no... "Anyway, if you see Mark, say something. He's a little taller than me, blond hair, glasses... He's probably wearing this big plaid coat too."
Nodding, Mimi turned to survey those passing on the sidewalk, lips still curved into a faint shadow of a smile, a hovering smile waiting to come out again, a flame burning low, not out completely. April continued looking for Mark – or Maureen, if she happened to be anywhere around – but her eyes kept returning to Mimi, her pretty smile and her brown eyes bright like an excited child's and her warm skin, irresistibly drawn to her like a comet pulled in by the gravity of a star. Once Mimi caught her looking and asked, "What?", but April just smiled and glanced down, hoping that her blush could be mistaken for flushed cheeks from the cold.
A Christmas carol reached April's ears, music playing somewhere, just the tune and she couldn't remember the words but she hummed along anyway for a second or two, unthinking. And Mimi's hand was in hers, a little warmer now than before, and Mimi's smile and Christmas lights and the throbbing pulse of the city April had almost forgot existed, and with all of that to draw her attention she almost forgot she was supposed to be looking for Mark.
"Hey," a man's voice called, and April didn't know how or why her ears picked that out in the noise all around them, but she heard it nonetheless. Mimi did too, let go of April's hand and spun around. April turned around as well, more slowly, wondering distantly in the back of her mind why she recognized that voice, why she recognized it from another life over a year past – and then she saw him, and she knew.
She'd used to come meet him with Roger, lingering uncomfortably behind Roger, tense and nervous, and then later to meet him alone once the addiction and need was enough to overcome nervousness. He had his hands buried in the pockets of a heavy jacket, and April realized inconsequentially he'd had when she last saw him ages ago, the jacket he'd wear even in summer. She flinched a little as his eyes skimmed over her, wondering if he remembered her at all, but he didn't really focus on her, just on Mimi, intent and studying. "You looking for me?"
Mimi shook her head, lips pressed tight together. "Not– not tonight."
The Man – the only thing April had ever heard him called, so much it had become his name in her mind – simply shrugged and turned his gaze away, content in the knowledge that there would be other customers, and in any case Mimi would be back, tomorrow or the day after. Mimi carefully took April's hand again and gave her a silently apologetic look. April simply shook her head with a vague attempt at a smile: Don't worry about it. If she walked a little faster down the street than usual when the two of them went on, April told herself it was just that she was cold and trying to keep warm, not that she was trying to outrun a past she wasn't entirely certain she'd left behind. Mimi walked beside her silently, thankfully unquestioning – but then again, she probably didn't want any questions herself.
They didn't find Mark until they reached the lot and April spotted him on the stage, fiddling with the sound system and making last minute adjustments the way he'd always used to before Maureen's shows. There was someone else on stage too, a woman April didn't recognize, but she didn't pay her much attention just then. April took the lead weaving through the crowd that had started to gather for the performance, trying not to look at anyone's faces or meet anyone's eyes. Some of these people used to be her friends, and Roger's, before...
When they were a few yards from the stage, Mark noticed her and simply stared at her for a moment, no doubt stunned just to see her out of the house. "April?" He jumped down off the stage and rushed forward to meet her, smiling with a mixture of relief and uncertainty. "What're you... I thought you weren't going to come. What changed your– Oh, um. Hi." He had, apparently, just noticed Mimi.
"Mark, this is Mimi," April said, glancing between the two of them as they both said hello. She paused, looking again to the woman on the stage, and after a moment caught Mark's eye and gestured to her. "Who's that?"
Mark glanced over his shoulder, and then looked back to April with an entirely unamused expression. "That," he said slowly, "would be Joanne."
April bit back a smile; behind her, she heard Mimi suppressing laughter. "Oh. Where's Maureen?"
Mark's expression darkened a little. "Not here. She hasn't shown up yet."
Somehow April managed a sympathetic expression, although she could find nothing to say to him, and was certain that if she did try to speak she wouldn't be able to conceal her amusement. Abruptly, Mimi bounced and touched April's shoulder lightly. "Hey, one of my friends is over there – I'm gonna go say hi, okay?" April nodded and waved her off, and Mimi rushed into the crowd calling, "Angel!"
April watched her for a moment as she hugged her friend, and turned to ask Mark, "That's Collins' new boyfriend... girlfriend, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Mark said distractedly, his eyes on Mimi, and then he turned back to April, frowning at her. "How'd she get you out of the house?"
April blinked at him for a second, a little surprised at the question. "What makes you think I didn't just leave on my own?"
"Because I asked you about twenty times earlier and you seemed pretty dead set against it."
"Okay," April said simply, and didn't even bother trying to answer Mark's question. She couldn't even explain it for herself how Mimi had gotten her to leave, let alone to anyone else.
"How the hell did you meet her?"
"She came up to the loft while you were gone. She needed a light." Mark arched an eyebrow and said nothing, and at last April added, "And then later she came up to the roof."
Mark considered that for several seconds, lips pressed together in thought, and at last asked, "Are you with her?"
"What?"
"Are you, you know, with her?" He grinned at her. "I'm just curious to know if every woman around me is going to turn into a lesbian."
"Mark!" April laughed despite herself, shook her head and started to follow after Mimi. Mark trailed along persistently, still smiling.
"No, really. Is there something about being around me that just turns all women gay?"
April rolled her eyes and calmly reached out to smack Mark on the back of the head; he ducked, a second too late, and ended up rubbing the place where she'd hit him as if it had actually hurt, which she was absolutely certain it had not. Reaching the others, she gave them a vague, almost shy smile, but Collins quickly pulled her into a one-armed hug, murmuring to her in a low tone meant only for her to hear, "It's good to see you out of the house, girl." She couldn't help but smile, and close her eyes against an unexpected rush of tears, and hug Collins back tightly.
"It's good to be out," she murmured back softly, not letting go of him for some time. She hadn't been sure what Collins would think of her now, if he blamed her for Roger, and she'd been distant when she saw him earlier in the loft, but this was proof enough of her redemption, in Collins' eyes at least, and she'd missed her old friend. At last, she released him and stepped back, giving a little wave to Angel and a warm smile to Mimi, and the five of them fell into comfortable conversation as they waited for Maureen's show to begin, or at least the others talked and April, fallen out of the habit of conversation this past year, listened and offered the occasional comment. Even if she hadn't known Mimi and Angel before tonight, and they hadn't known her and Mark and Collins, it didn't feel like a group of strangers, none of that uncertainty, nothing uncomfortable as there ought to be.
Maureen's entrance, when she showed up, was of course impossible to mis, as she came riding through the crowd on a motorcycle – and where she'd gotten that, or learned how to ride one? The crowd parted for her, and closed again in her wake, while she stopped the motorcycle by the stage, bounded up smoothly, took off her helmet and gave her assembled audience one of those radiant, perfect smiles only Maureen could manage. April thought she noticed a bit of surprise in Maureen's eyes when she noticed April standing a short distance from the stage, and April smiled at her in response and joined in the cheering, only stopping when Maureen swept out an arm in a gesture for silence. Maureen waited until everyone was quiet before she spoke.
"Last night, I had a dream!"
Something cold and wet landed on April's neck, and she glanced up, startled, to realize that it was starting to snow, drifting down in little flurries. She reached out to catch a tiny snowflake in her hand, watching with a slight, enchanted smile as it melted on her palm, and then looking back up to the sky. "Maybe it does snow on Christmas Eve after all," she murmured, no longer able to hide the bright, beaming smile that had spread over her face.
Next Chapter >>