A/N: Okay ;-;. This popped into my head after watching The Fountain, but I had been thinking of doing it ever since I saw this horribly yet wonderfully sad video in Sex Ed last year about AIDS.

I'm not too great with Rent stuff, but whatever. Loss of eyesight is in fact a side-effect of AIDS in patients in the later stages. I don't know a ton about AIDS, unfortunately, but that I do know. Narrator's Roger to Mark, though I'm sure you can figure that out.

Elegy - a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive expression, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.

Elegy

I remember the last conversation I had with you.

I was lying in the hospital bed, preparing myself for the inevitable death I was sure was only hours away. Every breath I took was painful, and the sounds of machinery surrounding me were nearly too much to stand.

I couldn't see you. My eyesight had finally failed the previous day, logically supporting the conclusion my heart had come to a long time before: time was running out.

I couldn't see you, and for that, I was selfishly grateful. I couldn't see my pallid reflection. I couldn't see the pitying looks we both were sent. I couldn't see the tears running down your cheeks.

But I heard them; it broke my heart.

We were silent for a long while, the only relief to the hush your shaky breaths and the beeping of the electrocardiogram. My lungs were burning, but I didn't want to cough- I didn't want to break this delicate silence with yet another reminder of my rapidly failing health.

Eventually, though, I had to cough, so I did. I could hear you shift in your seat.

"Roger?" you whispered, sounding half-asleep. The obvious crack in your voice nearly brought me to tears.

"I'm here, Mark," I replied, trying to sound as strong as I could.

The tension in the air was palpable. "Are you okay?" you said finally, sounding even more choked up than before.

I chuckled, trying to ease the apprehensiveness we both felt. "Yeah, I'm peachy."

Our half-hearted laughs echoed in the silence that reigned once more, sending a shiver down my spine.

I was almost asleep when you called my name again. "Roger?"

"Yeah, Mark?" The obvious sound of a sniffle convinced me to stay as alert as possible.

You breathed a heavy sigh then, almost as if you were trying to get some large weight off your chest. "Are you- are you scared?"

The time it took me to think of my response was far less than I'd thought. "No," I whispered, so much awe radiating from the one syllable that it scared even me. "I don't think I am. I mean, I'll get to see Angel, Mimi, and Collins again, right?"

I immediately regretted my answer as I heard you start sobbing.

"Mark," I said suddenly, urgency overcoming my desire to be placating. "Do me a favour?"

The sound of your bitter laugh stung. "Anything."

"Don't be numb anymore."

Your sobs renewed for several moments before subsiding. I could picture you, wiping at your eyes furiously, nodding your head. "Alright," you whispered. You breathed in and repeated it, more steadily this time. "Alright."

I felt the pool of tears that had welled up in my eyes spill over. We stayed there like that for a while longer, just listening to each other's breaths. My chest felt tight, then, and I knew it was almost time. "Mark?" I whispered again, startled at how weak my own voice sounded.

"Yes?" you immediately responded, moving to clutch my hand.

I smiled through the tears running down my face. "I'm gonna miss you." My heart began to race as my breaths became shallower and quicker, but I didn't care. You weren't sobbing anymore.

And in that moment, I knew you were going to be okay.