Meeting
RENT
by SylverIce2

Mark was never entirely sure when friendship became relationship between them. It happened, slowly and gradually, over the years that they were together, all the sleepless nights they sat up, talking, Roger strumming on the guitar.

Mark knew he was the only person that was ever allowed to simply sit, and listen, while Roger twiddled with songs and softly sang to himself.

Mark knew, deep down, that he was all that stood between Roger and the ends of despair. It was a relationship, because of all the unspoken words, all the deep glances and subtle hand gestures. A hand on an arm, a hug in a restaurant. Standing that little bit too close, needing the support. Roger was all open nerve endings, too sensitive, too desperate, too...complicated.

Mark was his simplicity, his rock. The one thing that never changed, in a world that was all too sudden in its changes. He would never wake up one day and decide to do heroin. He would never decide to take a bus across the country on a whim. He would never do anything outside the boundaries of safe, and that meant that Roger could count on him.

Mark knew.

He could see it, every time Roger's eyes met his, even when Roger was holding Mimi close, or his hands were caressing the strings of his guitar. He knew that Roger couldn't find the words, not in speech or in song, to determine what exactly they were.

But it was Mark that Roger always returned to. It was Mark that Roger couldn't part from. It was Mark that Roger stayed with, holding firm in their loft, sitting close in the dark, sitting silently as they listened to parents call on the answering machine. It was Mark that Roger stayed near, when out with friends or at events.

When Roger couldn't handle Mimi anymore, it was Mark who was there to pick up the pieces, to hold Roger together in the dark, candles burning softly on the table. In the darkness, it was always easier for Roger, to pretend that life was sane. Mark knew better, but the lie was an easy one, when the stars were shining and all he could see of Roger was a flash of smile in the shadows.

Mark knew, even if Roger didn't quite. It had never really been friendship between them, and it had never quite been relationship between them and anyone else. Everything was inbetween, in the spaces where the two of them didn't quite meet, couldn't quite meet yet.

But as life rushed forward, Mark knew that it would happen. Eventually, ineffably, insatiably.