A/N: Ah, the Easter Saturday Night church service is a great time to come up with ideas for RENT fic. This is my first one, considering I've only been in the fandom for about a month, so be nice:)
Disclaimer: Ha, don't I wish… and there's one line of dialogue which I lifted from the Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, so I guess I don't own that either.
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Tom Collins entered the apartment to find Angel sitting sideways on the couch, her knees hugged up to her chest. She looked up when she heard him come in and gave him a weak smile, but it was obvious something was wrong.
'Hey, baby, what's up?' he asked, crossing to the couch and sitting down next to Angel, taking her hand and gently pulling her across to lean on him.
'You know what makes me angry?' she asked in reply.
'What?'
'Angry people.'
'Angry people?'
'Yeah. I mean, what's the point of being angry at all? Where does it get you? Best case scenario, you make up with the person who made you angry, but it would've been much easier if you'd never fallen out with the person to begin with. Worst case scenario, I dunno, one person goes and jumps in the river and then the person who made them feel that way is wracked with guilt for the rest of their life. Where does it really get you?' she finished emphatically.
'What happened, baby?' Collins asked, brushing a strand of hair off her cheek. He knew Angel well enough to know she didn't get this worked up over nothing.
Angel sighed, then replied, 'I was coming home from Mimi's and my heel got caught on a bit of loose pavement and I tripped over. Some sleaze came over and started laying on the charm, asked if I was okay and all that. Then when he realised I was…' - Angel didn't finish the phrase, but Collins knew what she meant - 'he started mouthing off at me. He called me a faggot and…' Angel didn't want to repeat what else she'd been called, but she knew Collins would be waiting for her to finish her sentence. She took a deep breath and finished, 'and AIDS fucker.'
Collins bristled beside her. 'Bastard,' he hissed.
'It's funny, you know,' Angel continued, 'no matter how tough I think I'm getting, it still hurts.' Collins tightened his arm around her shoulder, and she squeezed his hand.
'I wish I'd been there,' Collins said.
Angel turned her head sideways so she could look up at Collins' face. 'I'm glad you weren't. See, that's my point. If you'd have been there, you would have got angry at him for being angry at me, then there would have been a fight, and quite frankly Tom Collins, we can't afford a hospital bill at the moment, so being angry wouldn't have helped at all, even if it did make you feel better.'
'It would've made me feel better,' Collins confirmed.
Angel squeezed his hand again. 'It's okay now,' she assured him, 'I'll fine.'
Collins smiled and kissed her cheek. 'That guy was probably just jealous that you're such a beautiful man and a beautiful woman all in one.'
Angel sat up straight and turned around to look Collins squarely in the face. 'And don't even get me started on jealousy!'