Disclaimer: I stole lyrics for Roger's song from Adam Pascal's song "I'm With You." From Civilian. Go buy it. Spread the Adam-love.

Chapter Nine: It's Gonna be a Happy New Year
Poetry, Joan. It's the only language worthy of love.—Joan of Arcadia

"December 25th, 8:32 AM. Christmas Day." Mark held his camera in one hand, glancing up every now and then as he narrarated. "Maureen felt the need to wake us up—trust this to be the one day she's awake before the rest of us."

On the couch, Maureen laughed indignantly. "Marky…" He just smiled at her from behind the camera and went on. He shifted the camera a little to focus on Benny, still half-asleep leaning against the arm of the couch though they had managed to all but drag him out of his room, then to Roger, glaring at the camera from on top of the table, and April, grudgingly awake with a blanket clutched around her shoulders. Besides Maureen and apparently Mark, Collins was the only one really awake, watching Mark with a smile from where he stood behind the couch.

"Roger, you could at least try to smile," Mark said, which only earned him a rude gesture from Roger. Mark ignored it and continued to speak. "We have no Christmas tree, and no heat despite the fact that it is freezing outside—and, consequently, inside—but! We do have presents."

"Mark?" Roger said, still watching him from the table.

"What?"

"Put down the camera or it goes out the window."

Mark hesitated, then slowly lowered the camera and turned it off. "You throw my camera out the window and your guitar goes right after it," he muttered. Roger ignored the threat, responding only with a mocking smirk.

Maureen bounced on the couch excitedly, while April just rolled her eyes. Maureen's enthusiasm for holidays, while it could be endearing and sometimes annoying, unfortunately was rarely contagious, at least in April's experience. "Can we do presents now?" Maureen asked excitedly.

Benny sat up and smiled a little at Maureen, perhaps amused by her energy—even if he had, moments ago, been half-asleep. "Sure, babe. Knock yourself out."

Maureen squeaked happily and bounded off the couch, over to the table where they had put the presents last night, on the opposite side of the table from where Roger now sat. All of them were small, of course, because aside from Benny most of the loftmates were broke—and they had made Collins promise not to "liberate" any of the gifts he'd given. Maureen sorted the presents into piles and handed them out to the people they were meant for, while Roger watched her with an air of bemusement. April noticed, and grinned. He probably hadn't seen this side of Maureen before.

When Maureen handed April her presents, April took them and set them aside for the moment, watching the others opening theirs first. After a minute or two, she stood up and retrieved Mark's camera from where he had set it down and, after a moment or two figuring out how to turn it on, started filming. Maybe it wouldn't turn out as good as anything Mark would shoot—after all, he was the filmmaker—but Mark was busy, and at least Roger probably wouldn't threaten to throw the camera out the window while April was holding it. No one even noticed April was filming them until Maureen glanced up and frowned at her.

"April! Stop playing with Mark's camera and open your presents."

Mark blinked and looked up at her, and April smiled at him, shrugged. "I thought you might want this on film. Or else I just picked up too much from my mother, when she brought out the camera every Christmas…"

Mark grinned up at her. "Thanks. Don't worry about it—my mom used to do the same thing every Chanukah. And every birthday. And… you get the idea."

April laughed and handed Mark his camera with a warning look at Roger not to protest, then picked up one of her presents—from Mark. She smiled at him and unwrapped it carefully, not tearing so much as a single corner of the paper as she did so. Maureen rolled her eyes at the time April took to unwrap it, but didn't say anything. It was a blank notebook, thick and with a hard wood cover, fastened closed with a clasp. Tucked in alongside the notebook was a nice pen, sparkly and bright, almost pinkish purple—her favorite color. She wondered absently how Mark knew that as she looked up at him. "Mark, I—"

"Look inside the front cover," he said with a bit of a smile.

She undid the clasp that held the notebook closed and flipped open the front cover to find a note written in Mark's handwriting inside.

April Shower,

You are such a wonderful, talented, amazing person, and I'm so glad to have met you. Now take this notebook and write something that's going to change the world, okay? I know you'll make us all proud.

Love your "brother", forever,

Mark

April set the notebook and all but launched herself at Mark, disregarding the camera as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, almost knocking him over backwards as she did. "Thank you so much, Mark. That's so sweet!"

He smiled a little sheepishly at her. "I just… I though you might… I'm glad you like it."

She grinned and kissed his cheek quickly. "Of course I do." Before she released him from the hug, she murmured softly in his ear, "I'm glad I met you too. I'm glad you're my brother, Marky." When she let go of him and sat back, she could see that he looked both embarrassed and absolutely happy.

April lay on her futon, eyes closed with her tape player resting on her stomach, just listening to Roger's voice coming in through her headphones. His present to her had been a tape he'd made of himself singing, and she'd put it on her tape player as soon as she'd gotten the chance. Most of them were songs that she'd heard him play before, either in the loft or one of the times she'd seen him actually perform, but he'd told her there was one he told her he had just written recently, for this tape…

Unfamiliar guitar chords filtered through the headphones, and April smiled faintly. This had to be it. When she heard his rough voice sing the first song, her guess was confirmed: it was a new song, one she'd caught him working on once or twice in his room, but he'd always stopped the second he realized she was around.

"Starlight and wonder, the universe seen through your eyes… The moon is a glorious halo hanging high over your head every night." The words themselves captivated April—who would have ever guessed that Roger was such a poet? Well, truth be told, she'd known—she'd always known—but most people would never see it in him…

April listened silently as the tape played itself out, winding to the end of this, the last song on the tape. When the tape player shut itself off with a loud click, she opened her eyes, the last line of Roger's song echoing in her mind.

"Hold on to something 'cause your life's about to begin."

"I can't believe we actually got thrown out," April said quietly as the six of them walked down the dark street. They were almost alone on the street, unusual as it was—tonight, on New Year's Eve, most everyone else was elsewhere.

"Oh, that's nothing unusual," Mark commented. He had his camera out, filming as he walked in front of the group, walking backwards so that he could get the shot he wanted. Roger had commented earlier that he'd be lucky if he didn't trip over his own feet doing that, but so far he hadn't, by some miracle. "It's happened before… I think they're kind of used to that from us by now. Besides, we were kind of loud."

"We didn't get thrown out, exactly," Collins corrected. "We simply voluntarily removed ourselves before it became necessary."

April rolled her eyes. "Sure, Tom, whatever you say. We got thrown out."

Maureen bounced alongside April, entirely too chipper, and more excited then disgruntled at having been thrown out of the restaurant. "That was the best birthday ever!" Maureen's birthday had actually been yesterday, the 30th, but they had waited until tonight to take her out to celebrate—to the Life Café. But… well, however Tom chose to phrase it, they had gotten a little too loud, and been asked to leave. For some time afterwards, they had been wandering around the city despite the fact that it was late, and dark out, none of them quite ready to go home.

Mark glanced at his watch without lowering the camera, and commented, "About a minute to midnight. Any New Year's resolutions? Anyone?"

April hesitated before she answered, a little shyly. "I'm going to get something published. Or try, at least."

Maureen grinned and slung an arm around April's shoulders. "I think I'll make it my resolution to get our April-dear a boyfriend. She's been single for too long."

"Maureen," April said seriously. "You can't make that your resolution."

"Why not?"

"Because your resolution has to be about you."

"Who says?"

April pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead and decided not to argue any further. Otherwise Maureen would just give her a headache. She was saved from the need to reply as Mark glanced at his watch again and started counted down. "Five… four… three… two… one… Happy New Y—"

He broke off in startled surprise as April bounded forward and gave him a quick, friendly kiss on the lips; at the same time, Maureen turned and gave Benny a somewhat more than friendly kiss, but he didn't protest. Collins and Roger were left standing alone. Collins looked at Roger with a bit of a smirk, and Roger narrowed his eyes.

"You even think about it and I swear I'll kill you."