Alrighty, quick note. I'm new to RENT, and I didn't want to go straight to the main characters, because I didn't think I'd do them justice at the moment. So I used two of the bohemians from La Vie Boheme. Mikey is that guy with the brown hair, bad blond highlights, and the leather jacket with a bunch of flags on it. Jackson in the guy with the wavy blond hair who sits pretty close to Benny's table. And Shanelle is the black girl with the blond hair. Yeah, it's slash, but isn't everything I write?

Mikey and Jackson had an epic sort of friendship that could be called nothing but 'better-than-brothers'. The two lived together, seeing as they were both musicians and wouldn't care how much noise the other made. Sometimes, the loud music got a bit annoying, but they didn't really ever stay mad. Jackson didn't mind Mikey's drumming at 1:00 in the morning, when the tall man was feeling like an insomniac, just like Mikey didn't care about Jackson playing his electric guitar whenever he couldn't sleep.

It didn't annoy them, but they did whatever they could to get the other to sleep, even if they did like the music. When it was Jackson that was awake, Mikey would simply poke his head out from his room, staring at Jackson until the skinnier man retreated into Mikey's room to try and sleep, curled up to his roommate. When Mikey couldn't sleep, and was drumming instead, Jackson just walked up, took the drumsticks from Mikey's hands, and led Mikey back to his own room and onto the bed before leaving Mikey sprawled on the bed, already half-asleep. Mikey didn't need someone near him; he just needed a reminder that he needed to sleep.

But, there was one night when Mikey didn't want to go with what usually happened.

"Mike, it's 1:30," said Jackson over the noise of the pounding drums.

Whereas Mikey would usually look up at the blond, tonight Jackson was ignored as Mikey kept slamming away at the drums. Cautiously, because Mikey's behavior was so odd, Jackson stepped forward to take the drumsticks. But as soon as his hand came into Mikey's sight line, the drummer ripped himself away from the other man and his drum set.

"Mike," said Jackson slowly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," replied Mikey shakily. "Just...let me drum tonight."

"You're keeping me up," Jackson replied. "And you don't look like you should be awake."

It was true. Mikey was swaying slightly and looking...almost depressed.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling so good," grumbled Mikey, throwing himself on the room's low couch, drumsticks clacking in his hand.

"Why?" asked Jackson, hoping Mikey didn't have...AIDS.

Mikey looked at his roommate for a moment. "Shanelle decided to break up with me."

Jackson felt a wave of pity wash over him. Mikey had been with Shanelle for at least two years now. He really liked the girl.

"What'd she do that for?" grumbled Jackson angrily, joining Mikey on the couch.

"She said I was 'too friendly' with you. So she left. Said something about me fucking you, or something," Mikey replied bitterly.

Jackson looked sadly at his friend. Mikey looked thoroughly miserable, staring at the wooden floor. So Jackson stood and tugged his friend up by the flag-studded leather jacket he wore like always. Mikey didn't look at the skinny blond. He just let Jackson take away the drumsticks and lead him towards his ever-messy bedroom, to leave him there. So, hoping to seem a bit normal, Mikey sprawled across the futon, ignoring the single blanket. But just as Jackson was about to leave, though, Mikey grabbed his arm.

"Uh...can you stay?" he asked, feeling fairly stupid and quite wimpy.

Jackson grinned. "Sure..."

"Thanks, man," mumbled Mikey, removing his leather jacket and throwing it onto a nearby wheeling chair.

"You don't care that I crash usually. I probably would've ended up in here, anyway."

Once Jackson had thrown himself on the bed next to Mikey and threw the blanket over the both of them, he felt Mikey's arms close around his waist. Jackson had to grin. Maybe Shanelle was right for breaking up with him.

Maybe Mikey should be with him instead.

"G'night, man," he muttered. "Love ya," he added, as he usually did as a sort of joke.

"Love ya, too, Jack."

Now that was new.

Annnnndd...the end!

How did I do? Decent for the RENT world?

Reviews are love, dearies.