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That night, after the consumption of the chocolate cake Joanne brought in the pink box and good-byes on the part of herself and Maureen, while Mark suited his camera for travel, Collins pulled Roger aside and told him, "Look, I know you're an asshole and you can't help that, but you could've been nicer tonight. You could have tried to appreciate what Angel and Mimi did."

"I do appreciate it," Roger replied, baffled. "What are you talking about?"

"Your I-don't-want-to-celebrate-love act," Collins explained.

Roger protested, "I didn't say that! That isn't what I said or what I meant."

"That's what it sounded like," Collins told him.

"Maybe to you," Roger allowed, "but not…" He glanced over his shoulder at Angel. Momentarily their eyes met, and Angel scowled slightly, beautifully, then turned away. "I didn't mean that!" Roger insisted. "Collins, I didn't."

Collins shrugged. "I don't care," he said. "I'm used to your bullshit. But Angel and Mimi aren't."

Taking his cue, Roger took a deep breath. "Right," he said. "Guess I'll get on this, then." He turned away from Collins and marched himself over to Mimi and Angel. They dropped their conversation in favor of expectant expressions. Mark paused. His shoulders stiffened, nerves on end. Roger could only make this worse. His apologies had a nasty habit of coming as swift explanations, always given in an unwilling tone.

"Look," Roger said, true to form, "I think Valentine's Day is stupid because, Mimi, I'm not going to love you any more in a week than I do today. Because I can't. Because I just love you every day. And I think celebrating love on one day goes against everything you preach, Angel, because every day is a celebration of love." He took a deep breath before continuing, "Anyway, that's why I don't like Valentine's Day. I don't like love being commercialized and having a price tag stuck on. And if you want that gesture, Mimi, fine, you can have it, but I won't love you any more perfectly than I do right now, tonight."

Angel stood in awe. She had never heard more than two grumbled sentences at a time from Roger. The clear, rambling speech surprised her, and she knew she forgave him. Roger was more than Collins' immature jerk of a friend, as she had described him earlier. If only he let people know that.

A lengthy pause gave Roger the chance to breathe again. When he said no more, Mark cleared his throat. "Rog," he whispered, "you've left out the most important part!" To Mark, this didn't matter. He understood that the fumbling, angrily presented speech was, to Roger, an apology. Mark found himself kvelling uncontrollably, painfully, pride swelling like a balloon in his chest. Farshadat-freylech.

Roger thought for a moment. "Mimi, I love you," he said, taking her hands in his.

Mimi smiled. "I love you, too, Roger," she said, "but those aren't the words Mark meant." When his mouth flapped like a flounder's, she rolled her eyes and told him, "Just stop explaining and apologize."

"Oh! Oh. Angel, I'm sorry. I ruined your dinner. I'm… I'm so sorry. Thank you."

Angel gave her most benevolent smile. "Oh, I forgave you already," she said, and strode over to Collins, who seemed in sore need of some appreciation.

Mimi found herself unable to take her arms away from Roger's. Her skin had burned onto his, and she no longer knew where one ended and the other began. Even before he spoke a word, Mimi knew Roger would invite her up to the loft for the night. She knew she would accept without a word, and it would be her and him, them, nothing but them in the night, in the silence, lying together and not rubbing their shoulders as the skin ached from the fading memory of the night's closeness.

Mark forced himself to smile at the couple. When he swung his camera bag onto his shoulder, his fingers lingered, vainly striving to awaken a memory.

THE END! Reviews are nice... I hope you all enjoyed this!