Sooooo yeah, writer's block sucks majorly. For everyone reading this fic, I'm very sorry for taking so long to update. School ended and so, it seems, did my inspiration. Here's the next chapter though, and I hope it's worth the wait.

Feel free to review to your hearts content, lemme know how you like it.

Enjoy.

"Roger...Roger get up." Mark says, shaking Roger's passed out form, trying frantically to get him up. He had been walking around his own respective room for the passed hour and a half or maybe more, he's lost track, unable to go to sleep at all. He once again finds himself restless, too many thoughts passing through his head to really thinking clearly let alone go to sleep. He doesn't know what he's going to do once he gets Roger up...he knows what he would like to do, but he can't get his hopes up for that. All he knows is that if he's going to be awake and restless, Roger is going to be awake too.

"Damn it you lazy ass. Get up." Mark says a bit louder, exasperated. Honestly, that man can sleep through a friggin parade.

Roger rolls over tiredly, muttering into his pillow. "I didn't steal your girlfriend...she came on to me..." He slurs a bit, his voice muffled by the fabric pressed against his mouth. Mark rolls his eyes hearing that, shaking him a bit more. "Up now Rog." He says, practically yelling now, taking one of Roger's pillows and smacking him in the head with it.

"Gah..." Roger mutters, sitting up a bit, trying to blink the drowsiness from his eyes. He seems to have gotten the point. "Whaddya want Mark..." He mutters, rubbing his palms against his eyes before looking back up at him.

Mark considers this question for a second. What he really wants is a piece of Roger, right here and now on the bed...but he feels asking this of him while he's too tired to see straight would be a bit tactless, so he has to think of an alternate answer to that. "I...just can't sleep." He says lamely, mentally thwacking himself for not coming up with anything better.

"And what, you want me to read you a bed time story?" Roger asks teasingly, apparently feeling awake enough have full use of his sarcasm. He sits fully upright now, stretching his arms out wide over his head, letting out a stifled groan. Mark replies to this by hitting him with the pillow again and sitting down next to him.

"I dunno...just talk..." Mark says with a small shrug. "You know, that thing that comes between waking up and having sex."

"I thought that was drinking." Roger replies with a small smirk, to which Mark chuckles.

"I'm serious. It's been a while since we had a real conversation."

"Real conversations isn't usually something I'm big on." Roger says, raising an eyebrow, wondering exactly what Mark is getting at. "Maybe you should talk to Collins. He'll talk...or get you so fucked up you can't talk. Either way you don't have to worry it."

Mark can't help but laugh, as exasperated as he is feeling. How the hell is he supposed to do anything about how he's feeling about Roger if he can't even talk to him. "I'm not talking about deep piercing talking in which we bare our souls to each other." He clarifies, not wanting to weird Roger out or anything. "Just, you know...small talk...which usually sucks when it's forced...kind of like now..." He mutters, taking his glasses off and rubbing his eyes, wondering just what the hell is messing with his mind to make him act like this.

"Maybe you're right." Mark concedes after a few seconds of silence. "Maybe its easier to just drink and have sex."

"In which case, I need to get more rest." Roger says before laying down, pulling the covers over his head. "I require at least four hours of sleep before I give sexual favors...besides, me and Mimi are going somewhere tomorrow."

Mark gets up from the bed, running his fingers through his hair. "Beautiful..." He mutters, not loud enough for Roger to hear. He's sexually frustrated, his head is spinning, and now Roger is going to see Mimi again in the morning. "Pleasant dreams Rog." He says as he walks out the room.

"Night Marky boy..." Roger calls out to him, his voice muffled by the covers.

Mark manages to fall asleep about an hour or so after Roger goes, Roger's snoring clearly audible through the lofts thin walls. Mark tosses and turns in his bed until his mind gets as tired as his body and he passes out. Unfortunately that sleep only lasts for a few hours, waking up just after the sun rises with bags under his eyes and a need to talk to somebody, anybody about whats going on.

He tries to think about how he is closest to, so he doesn't have to walk very far to get to them. The closest of his friends is Mimi, who lives on the floor below...but, given the situation, going to her for this is out of the question. Somehow he thinks that telling Mimi that he as fallen for her boyfriend wouldn't go over so well. He considers his other options. Well...there's Maureen. That could go either really good or really bad.

Actually, now that he thinks of it, more like half way decent or really, extremely bad. Oh well, he can't think of anyone else he can go to. Off to see Maureen it is.

He throws on his jacket and makes his way to her apartment. Well actually, it's Bebe's apartment, but it's where Maureen has been staying since the two had started going out. It took a while for Mark to stop feeling awkward around Bebe after what had happened between the two of them. As much as Mark tries to suppress it, he still has feelings for the girl. Damn him and his tendency to fall in love with lesbians. Luckily, he's put all of his awkward feelings behind him and they are on good terms again.

He uses the time it takes to walk to the apartment to think about what exactly he's going to ask Maureen. He has found out over the years that if he leaves Maureen any room to breathe at all when they talk, she will take over the conversation completely and will end up forgetting completely why they started talking in the first place. Maureen's funny like that...and Mark is beginning to think that he needs more friends.

It's with a sigh, and a strong feeling that this is going to be a damn circus, he presses the buzzer to Maureen and Bebe's apartment. "It's Mark." He says. The door unlocks and he walks in.

He spends the time it takes to walk up to their apartment telling himself that it might be Bebe up there, and that she is a lot easier to talk to than Maureen. After his bad luck with Roger the previous night, he figures the world owes it to him to give him a decent damn conversation with someone who will actually listen and not just wait until he pauses so she can talk. Yeah, his luck will pull him out of this one.

As Maureen opens the door for him, he can feel his luck waning.

She looks a bit distressed, but she attempts to smile as Mark walks into the room. "Hey Marky...how are you?" She asks.

"I'm alright...I actually wanted-" He begins to say but Maureen cuts him off.

"I'm so annoyed." She says, a rant spilling out of her mouth as if someone just opened the floodgates. "People at work are being annoying, my feet are starting to hurt from being on them all day, and Beatrice and me fighting and I..."

Mark can't really hear what she says much after that. He can see her lips moving, but his mind has already begun to block her out. He was afraid this was going to happen, he knows it's useless to try and get a word in edgewise. All he can do is nod a few times and say "mmhmm" or "yeah" or "you're right" whenever there is a pause in her sentence.

"And this guy keeps coming into the cafe, and I'm pretty sure he's just there to stare at my ass. Not that I can blame him much but at least he could be more subtle. And another thing..."

She's talking about...some perv in her work staring at her ass. All he can think about is that he knows she really likes the attention thing, and that half of the customers stare at her ass as she walks away. It's easier to just look indignant on her behalf than point these things out.

"So...whats up with you Mark?" Maureen asks, taking what appears to be her first breath since she started complaining.

"Oh nothing..." Mark says, who has lost the urge to talk to her completely after that. He knows Maureen doesn't mean to, that she just has a lot of drama and, especially with her and Bebe fighting, she doesn't have that many people to vent to...he just wishes it didn't always have to be him. "Just wanted to say hi, see how you're doing and all that." He says, forcing a smile.

"Aww, you're sweet." Maureen says, hugging him and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"So I'm told." Mark says, managing a small smile at that. "So, where is Bebe now?"

"She's at work right now." Maureen says huffily, a small pouty lip forming. "Maybe she'll be ready to apologize by the time she gets back."

"One can only hope." Mark says, not really knowing what she should be apologizing for. He is sure she mentioned it during the long rant but he can't recall anything intelligible from the whole thing. He feels the pressing need to get out of here before he goes completely ape shit, standing up from the couch where he was sitting. "I'm gonna head out now."

"OK, nice seeing you again Mark." She says standing up as well, giving him a tight hug. "Stop by again soon, we don't get to talk enough."

"Yeah." Mark says, trying extremely hard not to roll his eyes at that.

"I really appreciate that you talk to me and let me vent to you, it means a lot." Maureen says seriously. "I know I can be a bit hard to bear sometimes...but you always listen. You know if you need to talk to me about anything you can."

Mark can feel his annoyance abate a little bit as she says that, showing a rare serious side about her that he finds impossible to be mad at. He ran his fingers through his hair, letting out a small sigh. "Yeah...don't worry about it." He said, looking her in the eye for the first time since he got into the apartment. "I'll stop by again later this week...or next week." He says, a small smile curving his lips.

"Oh good." Maureen says, grinning brightly.

"Yeah...later Maureen." He says before opening the door and walking out.