Disclaimer: Don't own RENT. Nothing to do with it.
Summary: You look familiar, your smile reminded me of… I always remind people of…
Not quite the Cat Scratch Club. How Mimi and Roger really first met.
Melpomene
Chapter Three
"Come home with me tonight. I don't want you to feel alone." She said quietly.
He laughed at her and gently pulled his hand away.
"I have people to meet."
"We should have fallen in love." Mimi said, the air around them too quiet, muffling her words in the soft absorbent texture of the falling snow.
"Some other time." He said absently. Mimi had a general idea he wasn't really focused on her anymore.
"What's your name?" She asked him, attempting to lure him back in.
"What?" He asked, abruptly. Before she could repeat the question he coughed again, the smoke from the cigarette swirling in the air around his features. He stared at her shamelessly for a long moment, his expression full of desire, acceptance and a strange fiber of bravado.
"I'd stop living if I had a day of life back." He said. "But it doesn't matter, you know? Cause people aren't built on strengths, they're built on their weaknesses."
Mimi smiled. "Don't become a statistic." Like me.
He smiled, his eyes downcast as he tossed the cigarette aside. He shivered, but somehow Mimi knew it wasn't from the cold.
"I've got… stuff, now. You know?" He said. "I'm going that… I think I'll go that way."
She watched him start in one direction, change his mind and go another instead. He looked completely confused.
"Maybe." He said. "Maybe not."
And then he was on his way down the path out of the park. Mimi pulled her coat tighter, hiding inside and pressing her chin against the coarse fabric. It was getting late.
It was also getting really hard to concentrate.