Disclaimer: RENT is Jonathan Larson's. I'm just playing with the characters.

"Roger. Roger, baby, open the door," Mimi purred in her sweetest voice.

Mark scoffed. He had seen this time and again; he had knocked on Roger's door, baited him with chocolate, coffee, even half-kisses melted in fresh coffee. He had promised to listen and understand and be there… but nothing worked. Roger would come out when he was good and ready.

"Roger…"

He hadn't heard that tone since… had it really been two years ago, when Roger learned of Mimi's past relationship with Benny?

"Roger," Mimi appealed. Her face was fresh, but her voice was on the verge of breaking. It was her final appeal. "Great." Mimi flopped down on the couch. She shook her head. "Just great!" she said, the pitch of her voice rising. "So what now?"

Mark sat beside her. "He'll come around." For both of us.

"Come around?" Mimi repeated. "I can't just sit and wait… I'm not his wife," she observed. "I had his babies but I'm not his wife. He can't think I'll just sit around and wait for him."

Mark shrugged. "Won't you?" he asked, but not unkindly. They both knew the answer.

Mimi slumped back against the cushions. "Yeah," she admitted. Her tummy puckered out, and Mark clenched his jaw, wishing away the allure of her belly. Hating Mimi would be so much easier if her body did not drive him wild, second only to Roger's. "I'm sorry," she said frankly, almost defiant, cutting into his thoughts.

"Hm?"

"I am sorry. Mark, please don't kill yourself."

His temperature rose. "It's not about that," Mark mumbled quickly.

"What is it?" Mimi asked.

"It's like… sometimes it's like there's so much on the inside, if I could just focus it all on this one point…"

She blinked. "It would kill Roger," she said. "It would hurt him forever, he'd never recover, Mark, if you killed yourself."

"I told you," Mark replied, gritting his teeth, "it's not about--"

"He thinks it is!" Mimi interrupted. She placed her palms on Mark's cheeks then paused, recognizing what she had done, and plowed on anyway. "That's what it looks like to us, Mark, like you don't care about yourself!"

Mark shook her off. "I don't see," he said, "how you can say that, and still act like you do. Mimi, you do anything Roger wants." They were the same concepts he had tried to express, but spoken softly. Mark pushed his glasses up on his nose. "I know you love him, but bringing two people into the world--"

"Mark," Mimi said, her tone suddenly iron, "Roger and I discussed that. It was none of your business."

"Then what about me?" Mark asked. "Doesn't it degrade you to have your boyfriend's best friend in bed with you, to watch Roger suck me off instead of eating you out?"

Mimi paused, hearing the echoes of her own moans as Roger stroked her stomach, her wriggling as he wrapped his lips around the tit on her swollen breast. "It's not so much about that," she told Mark. "And anyway, I suggested you."

"What?"

"I've seen him look at you, Mark. I've looked at you. We both wanted you, and you wanted him, that much was obvious. But I was the one who suggested the three of us together, and I didn't do it for him."

Mark asked the obvious question: "Why?"

"Because…" Mimi shrugged. "I wanted you, and it was the only way I could have you, by sharing you with him."

"Because you didn't want to lose Roger," Mark concluded for her.

Mimi shook her head. "No!" she exclaimed quietly. "No, not at all, Mark." She chuckled. "It's because I know how you feel about women."

"How I…" Mark began to repeat Mimi's words, then realized what she meant. His jaw dropped. "Oh… oh! No!" Mark laughed. "No, I don't mind women at all!" he cried. "Mimi, I've thought you were hot since Roger started dating you.

"You serious?"

"Yes! Seeing you two kiss, woah. No, I'm not gay, at least not exclusively!"

"Well huzzah to that."

"Yeah!"

"Mark?"

"Mm?"

"Listen…" Mimi shook her head slightly and could not meet his eyes. "I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I don't want you to die. Like, ever," she added, and laughed.

Mark smiled. "Me, too," he said. "I mean, I'm sorry. I'm sure you'll be a great mom to those kids."

"No, you were right about that. I still wonder if Roger and I had any right, bringing them into the world, but…" She shook her head. "They're here now, you know? And I remember, six months into the pregnancy, thinking how I'd agreed with Roger, no more talk about abortions, we were going to have these babies, and he was so happy… and I still knew, twenty-four weeks into it, that if I asked him he would come up with twenty-two hundred dollars for the abortion, and he'd hold my hand throughout, too."

Mark hissed sharply. "Twenty-two hundred?" he asked. "Is that what you owe Collins now?" Fuck! Yet another of Mark's ridiculous outbursts, probably second to announcing at Christmas that he would suck Roger's cock. Of course now that he'd had it the other way around, he felt better about that.

Apparently Mimi didn't think so. She shook her head. "I repaid him," she said. "And it was five hundred. First term is a lot cheaper. Still, you can't imagine what it's like to ask someone for that kind of money, even--especially someone you know will lend it." She explained, "Collins wasn't going to say no. He wasn't going to tell me to keep the babies, or that I was killing them, and I knew that. Made it harder."

Mark nodded. He understood that. "You know," he said, "Roger's always wanted babies. I'm just saying."

"Have you?" Mimi asked. The implication didn't take a second to sink in, and she amended, "I don't mean mine. We've talked about what's going to happen to them if the outlive us, Roger and I, and we wouldn't ask you to do that. I just mean… ever. Like when you're a bigshot director out in Hollywood with your perfect wife and 401k, would you ever consider having children?"

Mark didn't know, and said as much.

"You can have as much to do with Sasha and Gabriel as you want," she said. "If as much as you want is nothing at all, then that's it."

Mark nodded. He looked at his knees. The truth was, he had barely given any thought to the babies since… had it only been yesterday, that Roger invited him into bed? It seemed longer. Yet, in that time, Mark had not thought of the twins because to him they had only ever been an obstacle.

"Mark?"

"Hm?"

Mimi grinned with her tongue between her teeth. "I think you're sexy," she said.

"I… think you're sexy, too," Mark said. The word felt and sounded awkward, but he meant well.

"C'mon," Mimi said, jerking her head. "Let's go see if Roger's up for round two."

They found him asleep, curled up on his side, so they shut off the light and climbed into bed. Roger didn't ask questions the following morning.

TO BE CONTINUED!

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