*Disclaimer; while I keep dreaming, I unfortunately don't own any part of Rent
Roger walked into the loft taking off his jacket and scarf and hanging them up next to the door. Teenagers he thought to himself as he picked up Angela's jacket and hat, put a dirty pot in the sink and turned off the blasting TV she'd left on. He then knocked on Angela's door gently before opening it. Angela sat at the desk Collin's boyfriend, Gordon had made Angela when she was five. After twelve years the desk was falling apart, but Roger couldn't afford a new one and anyway, even if he could, neither of them could bear to get rid of it after Gordon and Collins died.
"Hey Dad," Angela smiled looking up from her textbook.
"Hey sweetheart," Roger smiled back leaning against the doorway.
"Test?" he said nodding at the textbook.
"Yeah, AP Physics." Angela breathed, still studying the text and jotting something down in her notebook, filled neatly with her small, delicate, handwriting.
"Ah, so that's why you're staying home tonight," Roger smiled, his face fell when he walked over to the desk looked at the textbook, glancing at a page.
"What?"
"Nothing," Roger shook his head "just having flashbacks as to why I failed Physics, actually all of my classes, in high school."
Angela smiled "How was work?" she asked.
"Eh, it's work." Roger shrugged, he wasn't fond of being a waiter at the Life Café but it helped pay the bills that the gigs his band played couldn't, "How was dance rehearsal?"
"Awesome, I think we'll kick ass at the competition this weekend."
"I'm sure you will," Roger grinned, he enjoyed seeing his daughter dance, he thought about how much Mimi had looked forward to seeing Angela perform on stage when Angela had started lessons. It had made Mimi so happy to see Angela doing something she herself had always wanted to do, but never got a chance to. The closest thing Mimi got to dancing was dancing at the Cat Scratch. Dancing, she'd confided in Roger was pretty much the only reason she'd taken the job, she loved dancing to much to do anything else, even if it did involve taking off your clothes in front of strangers. Mimi never did get a chance to see Angela perform.
"For the ballroom section, Aaron and I are doing the tango." Angela continued slurping from her bowl of Ramen Noodles.
"Really," Roger laughed "you know your Uncle Mark and Aunt Joanne do a mean tango,"
"You're joking," Angela said laughing too.
"I know," Roger shook his head comically "I had to see it to believe it, Mark with coordination," he continued to shake his head if the idea ludicrous. Angela continued to eat her dinner as Roger stared at his daughter, who looked just like her mother, her hair, still damp from her shower, was pulled back into a sloppy bun towards the top of her head. Roger thought back to the times he'd seen Mimi look exactly like this after a night at the Cat Scratch club doing homework for the classes she had the next morning. She'd worn those exact same sweatpants and t-shirt, and pulled her dark curls back the same exact way, and in an instant anyone who hadn't known both Mimi and Angela as Roger did could have mistaken the two instantly, only Roger noticed little things such as the way Angela held herself with less confidence, how she was shier than her mother, who had never shied away from much.
"What?" Angela asked noticing her father staring at her.
"Nothing," Roger said shaking his head "your smile reminds me of..." Angela's face softened before he could even finish the sentence, her mouth slowly moving into a small grin. She looked towards the picture taken of her and Mimi by Roger on her first day of kindergarten. Roger looked at it too, and he thought of who Angela had become; a smart, straight-A student who was friends with everyone, and was compassionate and caring, just like her mother. She was, in other words, everything Roger had wanted his daughter to become.
"That's my favorite," he beamed looking at the picture, Mimi and Angela grinning at the camera, as if just for that moment everything was okay, as if Mimi wasn't incredibly sick at that time. You'd never guess that Mimi would be rushed to the hospital a day later, and die later that week from that picture; she looked just like any other mother smiling with her daughter.
"Will you tell me about her?" Angela asked looking up at her father. When she was little Angela would ask her father this question all the time, she didn't remember her mother that well, and all the hospital visits had started to mix in her memory. Every time she asked her father this question he would quickly change the subject, but this time he paused for a second before saying anything. He walked over to Angela's bed and sat down on the edge of it "Your mother, she was well… hard to describe." Angela grinned as Roger took a second to find words "she was stubborn," he sighed; silence flooded the room as Roger continued to struggle to find words to tell Angela about Mimi.
"Tell me how you met," Angela insisted.
Roger smiled "It was on Christmas Eve, she lived here while Mark and I were upstairs. The power had gone out, Mark was out of the loft and Mimi knocked on the door and asked me to light her candle."
"Aww…" Angela cooed smiling "Was it love at first sight?
"It might have been, but I didn't let her know it." Roger laughed "I kind of shoved her out the door after she flirted with me. But then she came back, like I said, she was stubborn." he smiled, "I got mad at her, but she got me outside for the first time in a while. We met up later that night and got back together. But right before Angel's death we got into a fight and broke up, then after Angel died I left for Sante Fe."
"I never knew you've been to Sante Fe. Why'd you go there?" Asked Angela, reminding Roger of when she was a toddler just learning to talk and she questioned everything; Mimi had called her "our little interrogator".
"I don't know, to get away I guess, Collins, Mark and I sort of had this dream to open up a restaurant there, but I didn't last long. I got home and Mark told me he hadn't seen Mimi in weeks. I went looking everywhere for her. Finally Maureen and Joanne found her on the streets, she passed out when they got her into the apartment, we thought she was dead, we had no heat and it was freezing out. But she came back saying that she saw Angel." Roger took a second, that night still haunted him. He could still see Mimi's cold, dead body as Maureen and Joanne had lied her on the table and they'd covered her with Roger's jacket to keep her warm. "Eventually we had you." He added smiling at Angela, wanting to end on a happier note.
"What happened when mom told you she was pregnant with me?" Angela asked looking at Roger expectantly.
Roger sighed "To tell you the truth I wasn't exactly excited," he admitted.
"You weren't?" Angela asked, not looking upset, merely curious.
"Not that I didn't want you," Roger said quickly, although he knew Angela wouldn't be upset "but because how we live, I didn't think our style of living was the best to bring a child into, and plus," he said looking at Angela "I thought having a baby, when we both had HIV was almost a death sentence to you, I thought you'd have a horrible life, I never knew all the medical advances that would be made, I thought you'd be dead before you were five."
He looked at Angela who was looking down at her feet, and memories came flooding back.
*What do you think so far? Please Review, constructive critisism would be appreciated, but don't be too harsh it's my first Fanfic.