Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters (duh).

A/N: I haven't written any RENT fiction in about five years. In fact until a couple weeks ago, I hadn't written any fanfiction at all in about five years. So, uh, sorry if it sucks.


She opened the door to his home office without warning. She would have heeded his secretary's warning had the woman been at her desk- but she seemed to have abandoned her post. While the image Alison was met with was positively detestable, she couldn't say it was too astonishing. Her husband had that little slut up on his desk.

Her vision went blurry, and before she fainted, Alison stormed out. Benny had seen her and paused. He quickly zipped up, abandoning the woman in his office to call after his wife. "Alison, wait! Honey! Let me explain!"

But she was too smart for that. Make that too wise. She'd fallen for it before and she wasn't going to fall for it again. First, it was the dancer, then the secretary (whom she made him replace with her 60-year-old former nanny), this time it was the intern in the Victoria's Secret suit. Who buys work clothes from a lingerie company anyway? Allison supposed she couldn't say much, though, as she'd never held a real job in her life.

All she could think about was the whore she called a husband and that skinny little bitch. She was behind the wheel of her car and a block away before she realized she wasn't in the building anymore. She was crying. She knew she shouldn't drive right then, but she didn't know what to do. Where could she go? Home was out of the question, and this was a social nightmare. Most of her friends barely knew the definition of sympathy, much less were they able to feel it. Her best, and only real friend (barring her sister) was in Tuscany, and her sister was... well she wasn't stateside, that was for sure. It was too embarrassing to go to Daddy again. He'd just tell her to get a divorce like always. But she loved Benny! She couldn't explain it, but even though he hurt her so much, he was still her Benjamin. He was so secure. Divorce simply would not suit her. Anyway, she was sure he could change. But maybe it was unfair if only he had to change. Yes, she could use some improvements to become more enticing to her husband, to give him more incentive to stick around. She just had to ensnare him again. Marriage is a two-way street, after all.

A goal, she had a goal. Now what to do about it. She still had no clue where she was headed. Or did she? It came to her! That little harlo- dancer. She'd know what to do. She could help her. She owed Alison, didn't she?

Alison pulled up to the building Mimi and the gang lived in. "What a dreadful place. Who in their right mind would choose to live here?" She asked herself looking at the run-down property. She knew these people didn't really have much of a choice, but still, couldn't Benny fix it up a bit?

When she reached the door she realized that not only did she not have any means of getting in the building, but that she didn't know where that flooz- Mimi (she had to get used to calling her that) lived. She knocked on the door, not expecting much. She got what she expected, no answer. After only a few minutes, though, a man walked up to the building and let himself in. She caught the door before it closed, following a ways behind clutching her pepper spray. After ascending a flight, he left the staircase and entered his "apartment".

She had no clue where th- Mimi lived, but she knew where someone who might know was. Five flights of stairs later, she reached the top. They need an elevator. She knocked on the loft door.

Mark was editing some footage. Well, he was supposed to be editing footage, but he was too burnt-out right now, and was really just staring at the editing equipment as though he expected it to do his job before him. A noise jolted him out of his vegetative state. Someone was knocking at the door. This was very strange for a few reasons: A) if anyone were to get into the building, they'd need the key from him first, B) people often called before coming up to get said key or at least to confirm that someone was home, but the phone had definitely not rung, and C) they pretty much never got any visitors. Everyone else who normally accessed the loft had a key. Mark shrugged and answered the door.

"Muf- Alison?" She looked distraught. Also, her voice was shaky and her eyes were red.

"Hi, it's Mark, right?" They had met a few times before, but never really spoken much.

"Benny's not-"

"I know," she cut him off, "I'm looking for Mimi."

"I can assure you that he hasn't seen her i-"

"I know," she cut him off again, "Just tell me, do know where I can find her?"

Mark answered cautiously, not wanting to give Alison means of finding his friend, but not wanting to be rude. It would be hard not to give away that she lived in the loft. "She's at work right now. What business do have with her, anyway?"

Alison started sobbing. Great going, idiot Mark chastised himself silently, though he had no clue how he'd caused her tears. He reached out to pull her into the flat from the doorway. "Please, don't cry. Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be alright. There, there." He was just observing to himself how being withdrawn had left him with lackluster social skills, when he realized that Benny might be dead, in which case it would not be alright. Fuck! What was he supposed to do?

Alison instinctively reached out and started crying on his shoulder. This left Mark even more confused. "Come here. Sit down." He led her to what they called a couch, "Maybe talking about it will help. I'm a great listener." More than anything, it was because he was a terrible talker.

She sat down next to him, catching her breath, and straightening up. She managed to shake her head and nod at the same time. After a few deep breaths she was ready. "It's Benny," she sighed, "I caught him cheating. Again." A dry laugh broke up her last word, a bit. She didn't know why she was opening up to this Mark guy, but for some reason he just felt trustworthy. Or maybe she just didn't have anyone truly trustworthy in her life, so she projected the quality onto this relative stranger.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I know what that feels like. Well, I wasn't married, but I did really love her- way too much- so I can imagine." That made Alison perk up. She wasn't alone in her misery. "Let me get you some water and tissues, okay? From experience, this might be a long one." Alison just nodded as he stood and walked off. She was starting to calm down. If she had to open up about something utterly humiliating, at least she was doing it to someone who had been there before. Maybe she knew that. Maybe that's why he seemed so trustworthy.

He returned with a glass of water for each of them, a box of tissues and a blanket. "If I had chocolate, I'd offer it to you, too. But alas, we have none of that divine comfort food." Mark was trying to pull off some sort of joke with his hyperbole. Despite his lack of any sort of skill at comedy, Alison laughed.

"Don't worry, I'll have more than my share before the day is through."

They talked and talked. Mostly, actually, about other things. They touched a little on Maureen and Benny's infidelities, but mainly their conversation was a diversion from the unpleasantness of the day.

Four glasses of water, and a quarter of a tissue box later, it was getting late. Alison was getting hungry, and Mark would have gotten hungry if it weren't for the fact that he already had been. "Are there any good places to eat around here?" Mark mentioned the Life Cafe as it was the closest and first that came to his mind. "Great, I'm starving."


The two laughed over dinner about pretty much anything. In some ways they very little in common, but in others, they may as well have been the same person. Mark found it strange. He never knew he could get along with someone with her background. But it wasn't like she chose her upbringing.

They were done with the actual meal, but when Alison saw Double Chocolate Fudge Cake on the menu, she had to order it for dessert. Mark was, she told him, obligated to help her with it, for the sake of her thighs. He wasn't about to object. While they waited for the sugary confection to arrive, they continued their conversation. Eventually, Mark had to ask the question that had been nagging at the back of his mind for hours by then. "I'm sorry if you mind my asking, but why were you looking for Mimi? I mean you said you knew it wasn't her he was with."

Alison cradled her forehead in her hand and gave a dry laugh, shaking her head. "Now that I'm a little more level-headed, I can see how stupid it is. I was hoping that maybe she could help me win him back. I mean she knew how to seduce him. I had decided I needed to change for him."

"Oy. Well, I'm glad you've come to your senses. It's always so hard to come to grips with, but it's never your fault. Though I suppose he could make a case if you were cheating on him and/or doing something vindictive like withholding sex as a punishment."

"I almost wish! He hardly ever touches me anymore." she sighed, then turned scarlet when she realized what she had just said. Yes, he seemed trustworthy, but they had only known each other a few hours. And she wasn't sure she would admit that to her best friend.

Mark shook his head, "You deserve better." She nodded. "Have you tried couple's counseling?" In fact, they had. But neither had put much effort into it.

"Yeah, but I'm willing to try again. We just let it fall by they wayside, but if we go for it again, I'm going to take it seriously. I mean how can I expect him to work at it if I don't?"

"You do have a point. Maybe you should talk it over with him." The cake arrived, though and the previous conversation was quickly forgotten for talks of chocolate, comfort food, memories of mom's (or nanny's) homemade baked goods and all sorts of silliness.

When they were done, Alison paid the bill with a generous tip. She was feeling so much better. She was still very upset, of course, but part of her had been uplifted. Mark offered her coffee back at his place. But it was more out of loneliness than anything else. He hadn't seen much of Roger or Mimi lately, and he lived with them. Collins, Joanne and Maureen were even more distant. It was starting to get pretty cold outside, so they walked briskly back to the building. Without speaking, it quickly became a race. Once they got in the building, the race continued up the stairs, with them laughing.

They got to the loft. Alison won. She started making fun of Mark and he just looked at her pretending to be hurt. "I let you win, to be polite."

"And then how polite is it to reveal that to me?"

"You were making fun of me, that's not polite either," he said with a mock sad-face. Their eyes met. The next thing Mark knew, he had pinned her up against the door inside the loft, and was kissing her. That was quick. They moved slowly toward the bedroom, clothes coming off, one item at a time, in the process. Mark needed this. He hadn't had a date in three months, and it had been over six since he had last gotten laid. But when he felt her struggling to undo the button and zipper on his pants he froze. He pulled away. "Stop. We shouldn't do this. I can't do this to you."

"To me? I want this just as much as you do. Which is a lot, going by how tight your pants are."

"You have no clue how much I want this." For a moment, he considered leaving it at that and picking up where he'd left off with her neck. He took a deep breath, "I'd be taking advantage of you. You're in a fragile state. Trust me, you'd only regret it." While she was humiliated, she knew he was right. As if reading her mind he told her, "It's my fault, not yours. Don't be embarrassed. So few women can resist my sexiness- you're showing incredible restraint now- I'm very impressed!" He tried to diffuse the situation with humor. She laughed, looking at his scrawny, pale body. It worked. "Hey, it wasn't that funny." She laughed even harder.

They picked up their respective clothes and got dressed. As Mark was putting his glasses back on, she said, "Well, I should leave now. Bye, Mark."

"Wait, are you going back home?"

"I think tonight I'll stay in a hotel." Right. She had the resources to do that.

"Good idea. Goodnight then." She waved and walked out the door.

Roger came home just moments later. "Who was that chick leaving our place?" Mark was thankful he didn't recognize her.

"Nobody." He decided he should keep the events of the day a secret. It seemed like the best course of action. For now, anyway.

"Well, 'Nobody' is kind of cute. Will we be seeing her again?"

"Probably not." At least not as a woman with me.

"It didn't go well?"

"More like it went a little too well." Roger raised an eyebrow. He had no clue what Mark meant, but it was clear from his friend's expression that he wasn't getting any more explanation than that.