Author's Note: So, I had this chapter totally written and decided I hated everything I wrote, so scratched almost everything and started over. Let me know what you think, it helps for sure to know if I've taken this in the best way. I added in a little fluff, because who doesn't love a little Mark and Roger fluff! Anyway, thank you again to all my great reviewers! As always, Rent does not belong to me and I just use it for fun. Enjoy!

Chapter 5 – I Love Central Park

Mark's POV

We glance at one another and both exhibit looks of horror on our faces. Joanne sets down her bags and walks over to the two of us, a look of shock still resonating on her face. We step apart from each other, acting as if nothing, but I don't think she's going to buy it. We don't have much time here, considering Maureen should be coming out of the bathroom any minute.

Roger steps in at this point and insists to her, "You can't tell Maureen."

"Tell Maureen what?" she asks in response.

"What you just saw, you can't tell Maureen, she'll… I don't know… go ape shit or something," he tells her. I second that with a fierce nod of the head.

"Well, I guess I could be persuaded not to let this information out if you two were to tell me what the hell is going on," she says to us. I turn to him, nudging him to give in to her demands only in hope that we wouldn't have to deal with Maureen and this any time soon.

He lets out a slight laugh before he begins with, "Mark and I… might have a little thing… but it's nothing huge yet, we're just taking it a day at a time. Good enough answer for you?"

The tone of his voice near the end of his statement is a bit harsh, but I know he's doing it to protect us. We're not even sure about what 'we' are yet and one of our friends accidentally finds out. Not exactly one of the best events to occur right after you've just declared some form of feelings for your best friend. It was awkward enough before and now… now it's worse.

She lets out a small sigh and relaxes her body. "Alright, but you'll have to tell her eventually and when she finds out I knew, she's not going to be happy."

"We'll deal with her later," I reassure both Joanne and Roger at the same time. I have some experience in the Maureen department and once I figure out what's going on between Roger and I, dealing with Maureen will be easy.

"Alright you two, how about we get back to getting dinner ready?" she says to the both of us and we nod in agreement. We slowly turn back to readying the vegetables as Joanne grabs the bags she came in with and starts preparing the other half of the meal. We quietly prepare our portion, occasionally glancing over at one another and giving little smiles. I never noticed that when Roger smiled, which seemed to be very uncommon lately, that how gorgeous he really is. I mean, obviously, I considered Roger to be a quite good looking guy to begin with, but now, knowing he's… well… sorta mine, it's all too surreal.

"Honey bear, you're home!" I hear Maureen squeal as she comes out of the bedroom. She runs over to Joanne and places a rather outrageous kiss on her lips while Roger and I just share looks of disgust. Although, I guess, we're not ones to talk anymore.

They break away and Joanne starts in on her, "I saw you went to the store and I noticed a rather interesting purchase."

"Oh, come on Joanne, we have guests!" she exclaims.

We both glance over at Joanne, who has that look on her face like she can't resist the charms of Maureen. I know it all too well, I suppose. Joanne smiles and says, "Alright, but please… just don't act like you did last time."

Maureen gets that huge smile upon her face and places a gentle kiss on Joanne's cheek. "I promise, plus Mark and Roger are used to me!"

I smile at her remark and consider if Roger and I will ever have a relationship like Maureen and Joanne. I mean, obviously, not the parts where Maureen flirts with other girls, or in our case, guys, all the time, but the affection and adoration they have for each other in every situation. I suppose I might be getting ahead of myself here, considering not only a half hour ago I didn't even think I liked Roger like that. Imagine how fast things can change?

Maureen comes up and stands behind the both of us, placing a hand on each of us. "How are my favorite boys?"

We share a glance and reply simultaneously, "Great."

"You guys suck at doing that," she tells us, pointing to the pile of vegetables we had been working on preparing for the meal.

"Oh, well, we got sidetracked…" Roger comments, and I quickly add, "When Joanne came in."

She grabs my hand and pulls me away from Roger, "Marky, you can help me get everything organized and set up."

I try and protest, not wanting to be far from Roger, "But… can't you handle that yourself?"

"When can I honestly do anything by myself? Come on, it'll be fun, and you look like you need some fun," she says. I glance back at Roger and give him a sad smile and he just has a goofy look on his face. He's probably laughing at me behind my back as well.

After we've placed out everything down to four glasses of wine, Joanne brings out a couple of entrees she had picked up on her way home. Roger joins her shortly with the tray of veggies we had prepared and we all sit down to eat. It's quite an odd situation, if you really take the time to consider it.

The whole dinner consists of general gabber, which includes Maureen discussing her upcoming performance plans, how I should be taking better care of myself (in which I gave dirty looks to everyone at the table), and a rather funny story about one of Joanne's clients that involved a mentally insane man running naked through a courtroom. The entire time I could feel Roger's eyes burning my soul. Every time I would look across at him, I would smile and he would do the same. I noticed Joanne observing our quite suspicious behavior and giving me an evil glare. I laughed a little, but regained composure to avoid any questions from Maureen.

We finish and Roger and I start politely picking up the remnants. We get into the kitchen and put our first load in the sink when his hand brushes mine and turn to face him. I have that urge again to just start kissing him and I'm a bit concerned about where that is coming from. We know better this time and continue helping clean up our dinner. Joanne and Maureen start arguing about who knows what and we avoid getting in the middle of another one of their pointless fights. After we finish cleaning everything up, we walk back into the room and stand at the end of the table.

"Well… thanks for dinner, we probably should go, we've intruded enough already today," I tell them both, hoping that we could escape the lair as quickly as possible.

"But Mark you have to stay for some drinks!" Maureen pouts.

"Do you really think that's a good idea, Maureen?" I reply, dreading the possibilities if we stayed with Maureen and any large amounts of alcohol.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" she replies.

I can see the look of concern in Roger's eyes and before he can say anything to anger her, I reply to her, "I've had a long day, I'm feeling quite tired, I just want to go home." That whole fainting thing really has worked to my advantage I think.

"Alright, but next time I won't let you go so easily," she says with a wink.

Joanne and Maureen hand us some of the leftovers and we say our goodbyes. We head out of the apartment and I realize that this day has lasted forever. I can't believe it all started with waking up with Roger, going grocery shopping, relaxing in bed with Roger (in the completely platonic sense), going to a café where Roger proceeded to kiss me and I fainted, waking up at Maureen's, kissing Roger two more times (these times are for real), Joanne walking in on us kissing the second time, and dealing with Maureen and Joanne both at dinner. I don't think either of us has done that much in one day in a long, long time.

As soon as we walk outside, I feel the cold overtake me and the pleasant feelings that had warmed me up soon vanish with the snow that started accumulating all over me. I shake slightly at this first blast of cold air, but then continue following Roger down the street.

"I'm surprised we got out of there alive," I comment after catching up to Roger, who was walking quite rapidly.

"You think Joanne will tell Maureen?" he asks with a somewhat concerned tone in his voice. We hadn't had the chance to talk about things again since 'it' happened, but I knew he was worried about it. Maureen knowing would be disaster for us and we both knew it. I don't even know about 'us' right now, except to say that I really enjoy kissing Roger and every time he touches me it makes me feel all warm inside.

God, I sound like a teenage girl who's got a crush on the cute, popular guy. I realize I haven't replied to him yet, continuing to get lost in my thoughts. He snaps me out of it with a simple question, "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Oh, sorry. I got to thinking. You know me… thinking about everything," I reply.

"Any epic thoughts?" he asks.

"You mean the story to the great American film? No, nothing about that. I don't think Joanne will tell Maureen. But who knows, she could surprise us."

He shrugs his shoulders, "Yeah, you're probably right."

We continue walking as it continues to snow. When will this snow stop, seriously! However, we arrive back at the loft soon enough and I am temporarily done being annoyed with the powdery precipitation. We brush off the mountain of snow that's accumulated on our jackets and make the trek up the stairs to our space. He opens the door and puts the leftovers Joanne forced us to take on the nearest table.

I follow him in the loft and collapse on the couch. While climbing up the stairs it really hit me how tired I am. I feel like a truck ran me over, it's that bad. I just want to curl up in a warm bed and go to sleep.

I close my eyes for a moment and feel Roger sit down beside me. I open them back up to see him looking away from me. Now we're back in the loft and we could do whatever we wanted… without the chance of being walked in on. That's a good thing… right?

"I can't believe how tired I am," I tell him.

"Hell, you look like you just got beat up by a guy twice your size," he replies.

"Thanks, real comforting words there…" I throw back.

"I didn't mean it like that…." is his response to my statement. He pauses a second before continuing with "You wanna climb into bed again and wrap ourselves in all the blankets again?"

"Actually, that sounds amazing." We both stand up and head into my room. He starts organizing the mess that we made earlier and I throw on a different sweater to sleep in.

I pick up my camera and bring it over away from the bed, away from danger. Who knows if Roger might have the urge to act like a dragon or whatever that was again, but I figure I should play it safe. As soon as I turn around, I watch as he leaps into the heap of blankets and dives underneath the pile. I slowly walk towards the bed and pull back a couple of blankets so I can join him.

I wade through the sea of blankets and find him with a silly look on his face. He proceeds to pout at me and comments, "Why didn't you make a grand entrance?"

"I was supposed to make a grand entrance?" I smirk back.

"Well… I figured after all that I did you might have some form of response," he responds.

"You are just too much," I reply, smiling at him as I roll over back to my side of the bed. I've almost made it completely there as I feel his hand grab my side and pushes me back towards him.

"Yes?" is my response to his action. He's got a sly look on his face and I can see him planning something in that head of his.

Without a verbal response to my question, he starts attacking me through the blankets and he's… well… he's tickling me? I have no time to response as he has me trapped and I can't control the laughter that overcomes me. I'm screaming as he tickles me everywhere possible, my sides, my feet, and my arms. He found out a couple of years ago where my ticklish points are and apparently has been storing that information for later use. My arms and legs are flaring and I see the blankets flying every which way.

"No, stop… Roger, seriously… I'm going to die… you're going to tickle my organs out of my body," I scream out in between my laugher and try to break away from his death hold on me. He finally seems to get tired and collapses right next to me. I still have tears formed in my eyes and wipe them away. He knows how to make me feel better, although I suppose in a sick and evil sort of way.

We sit there silent for a moment before he sits up to face me. We're still underneath the blankets and our space gets smaller by the second. Being with him suddenly becomes something I've never felt before with anyone, not even Maureen. We need each other in ways we never did before and I can tell our relationship changing even further.

He leans closer into me and can feel my heart beating faster as our mouths finally connect. He rolls on top of me and I feel his body pushing onto mine and I don't even mind. I stroke his wonderfully soft hair and grab a hold of him, never wanting to let go. Our tongues play a tango and I enjoy the way he's so forceful on me, he's always in control. It's so comforting to feel him want to be with me, to touch me, and to care about me. I once considered that since Roger always had such a fierce way with his music he had to be the same way when he was with his girls. I guess I was right.

We both pull away when we realize we've worked up quite a sweat underneath the mountain of blankets. We peek our heads out from them and glance back over at each other. I was having far too much fun today and I knew that this day couldn't last forever. That eventually all these happy times would come to an end. Maybe he'd come to realize that he was just crazy and that he didn't have these feelings for me. But the way he looks at me, I just have to believe that he does.

We're both sitting in silence as I continue to ponder our situation. I can't even describe in words how amazing it is when I'm kissing him. It's like I never want it to stop. But I know the reality of the world and I know we don't have forever. I know I won't have him forever to tickle me or jump into bed with. And by jump into bed, I meant literally jumping into the bed. I hadn't even thought about us… I don't even know if he'd let us. He probably would get all protective and insist that it's too dangerous and that he'd never want me to see me get the disease. I would imagine that's what he'd say. I'd love to ask him, but I'm afraid it's too soon.

I'll enjoy tonight and worry about everything later. He grabs my hand under the blanket and holds it tight. We fall asleep like that; hand and hand, and I know tonight we'll both be sleeping peacefully.

Four Weeks Later

I wake up alone to the sounds of a guitar quietly playing in the room next door. Lately Roger's taken up waking up early and playing his guitar as the sun rises. I haven't asked him why, he just does it. Some times I'll just watch him from the bedroom and observe his grace when it comes to playing the guitar. I have yet to get him on film, but I don't want to disrupt him, it's too peaceful.

The past four weeks have been such an improvement from where I was physically and mentally. I suppose I owe it all to Roger. I went to work with him one day to see what he was doing and I could see the happiness in his eyes like he used to have. The 'good' days, before April and the drugs, before Mimi, when he used to play with his band and have this look of shear and pure happiness on his face at all hours of the day. He's like that again for the most part.

We occasionally fight about little stuff, but we always end up making up… and making out. I guess I could say I've initiated a couple of fights for that exact reason, but I'd be lying… well, only a little.

I get up out of bed and head into the living area. He sees me enter and gives me his morning smile. I walk over to him and kiss him on the cheek, "Good morning."

"Morning," he replies, the same as every time. I go over to the kitchen and start making tea while he returns back to picking his guitar, something I don't recognize. He's really been writing a lot lately and I only wonder if I have something to do with his creative inspiration returning, but I don't want to sound conceded. I listen to his melodies while I prepare my tea and stare out the window. It's finally stopped snowing and it's starting to be at least a little bit warm in the loft. We still sleep underneath the heap of blankets and have a pillow fight every night.

Think about it all, I can't believe how routine our lives have become. We do the same things, but rarely do anything different. We haven't told anyone about 'us' yet and there really officially isn't an 'us'. We discussed it once, two weeks ago, but it ended up turning into a screaming match, so I've opted not to bring it up again any time in the near future. Joanne still is the only one that knows and has yet to tell Maureen. Needless to say, we thank her every time we see her.

I grab my tea and sit down across from Roger on the couch. He sets his guitar down and comes to sit down beside me. I rest my head on his shoulder and relax. He's so comforting.

"What should we do today?" I ask him.

"Well… I actually had something planned for us today," he replies and I sit up to look at the smile on his face.

"Really now? Is it a surprise?" I say with excitement in my voice.

He shrugs his shoulders a bit and replies, "I guess so. Go get dressed and we can go. And you can bring your camera."

I finish my tea and go into my room. I change quickly and gather up my camera. We're obviously doing something I'm going to be happy about and he knows if I didn't have my camera I would get sad and he'd have to deal with me for a week about it. So I grab my bag and walk back into the living room ready to go.

"You ready?" he says to me and I nod in reply. We head out and I'm excited for a little break in our routine.

As soon as we walk out of the subway station, I know right away where we are. I had a sinking suspicion the entire time on the subway where we were going, but as soon as we reached the outdoors and I saw it, my heart leapt. He brought me to my favorite place in the city to film: Central Park.

"Roger, you brought me to Central Park," I exclaim, wishing I could just jump on him and kiss him right there.

"Yes I did. I thought we could walk around and you could film… whatever you film," he says with a proud look on his face.

"Really? Can I film you as well?" I ask him, considering he normally hates it when I film him. Lately I've tried filming him more, but he gets angry and shuts himself in his room.

"Uh… I guess… but you can't just film me the whole time… you better film other shit too, like kids playing or something happy like that."

We start walking through the park and I film everything, the sky, the trees, adults, children, the pond, and Roger. I point my camera at him occasionally and he tries to grin and bear it, obviously wishing he hadn't given into my simple request. However, he was the one that brought me here. I just absolutely adore filming this park, it always has so many interesting things going on to film.

We walk near the center and find a bench to relax on. I put my camera down for the time being and he grabs my hand and puts it in his. It sends shockwaves through my entire body because Roger hardly is affectionate in public. It's not because it's the two of us, he never was like that to April or Mimi as well.

"So, I was thinking about our fight we had two weeks ago," he starts. "About us… well… being more than what we have."

I glance up at him, unsure where he was taking this. He probably decided that he was acting irrationally and that he didn't really like me. Bringing me to Central Park to lighten the blow, I suppose.

"And?" I respond.

"Uh… I feel bad for yelling at you. I'm sorry. I'm the one that started this whole thing between us and now I'm going back to my asshole self and… I know that we're both still unsure what's happened between us…" he tells me.

I say softly, "Yeah…"

"Anyway, what I wanted to ask you, is that, well… I think I'm ready to admit that… God, I'm such a girl," he pauses to laugh at himself. "Well, I'm ready to admit that I think whatever we have is something for real and well, I figure we should make it official. You know, tell everyone, Collins, Maureen…"

My eyes light up at his stuttered speech because that's all I was wishing he'd say to me. That what we had was for real. I smiled at him and replied, "Wow Roger, of course. Yes. I've been thinking the same thing… I think what we have is for real."

He leans in and kisses me gently, a soft light kiss on the lips, nothing like the hard, fierce kisses I'm used to when we're back at the loft. This one is sincere and perfect. He pulls me up and grabs me into his arms. I feel so safe with him and I just want to scream for everyone to hear.

I love Central Park.

Thank you again for reading and reviews are greatly appreciated!