Author's Note: Here's the final chapter of this story. For those of you who have been waiting for the Roger and Mimi fluff, here it is! Please leave me a review, guys. I know you're out there and there's a little green button that's just screaming to be pressed at the bottom of the page! Thank you, and enjoy!

*S. Snowflake

La Chanteuse et la Danseuse

Part III

"Dusting desire, starting to learn,

Walking through fire without a burn…"

The transition from a tight family living in that loft to the separate, recognizable circle of friends was too rapid to believe. April's death had sparked a chain reaction for other things to happen: Benny getting married to Allison, Maureen meeting her girlfriend Joanne, Collins leaving for MIT. Mark helping Roger out with his withdrawal.

April's parents had her funeral back in their hometown. The Bohemians, the swine who had caused this tragedy, were not invited. Roger never had the chance to say goodbye to April. Not before he left that day of her death, not before the paramedics took her body away, and not even at her funeral. He never saw that sunny smile again, never told her how much she meant to him, and never told her how much he needed to be needed by someone.

Playing his guitar in the loft, Roger barely realized how much time he had lost. It had been awhile since he had put some thought into April's death, but the song had reactivated memories and pains that he hoped he would have just forgotten.

"Roger?" asked a girl's voice from behind the door in the hall. "Babe, I know you're in there. You're playing your guitar."

Roger stood up and walked to the door, putting on a pseudo smile and holding back a tear or two. When he opened it, he found the person he was expecting. "Hey," he said to the skinny, brown-eyed girl standing in the loft doorway.

She smiled, the glow of her face growing brighter with it. "Hey. I picked up that outfit from work and- babe, what's wrong?"

Roger twitched a bit. So, it was obvious. "I'm fine, Mimi."

Mimi held his hand lightly. "You don't look like you're fine. What's up?"

Roger turned to sit back down on the couch. "-Just… playing this old thing." He demonstrated by playing the song he had before, plucking the strings with his fingers and creating the music flowing through his heart. He could almost hear April singing with it. Don't leave me yet, he thought.

Mimi cocked her head to the side like a curious kitten looking at something it could pounce on. "I've never heard you play that song," she finally said.

Roger continued playing, but just barely looked up at Mimi. "I don't play it much anymore. It's old."

"-But it's good. You should play it again," Mimi countered as her head swayed from side to side to the notes she was hearing. She tapped a foot on the floor playfully as the song as he played. A thought struck her then, or maybe it was inspiration. Whatever it was that made her do it, Mimi rose from her spot on the couch and began to dance. It was not the erotic sort of dancing she did at The Cat Scratch Club or anything like a sexy courtship, rather, it was moving art. This was the kind of dancing she really liked to do. It was the kind with feel and emotion, not just showing off her beautifully frail body. The music naturally made her do it, and she felt alive in the action of it.

Roger looked up from the guitar and saw what his girlfriend was up to. Dancing in here to this song? he wondered. She really has no idea does she? But instead of ridiculing her, he shook his head and sang again:

"That sunny smile…

Singing to me like April showers,

Bring your May Flowers to me.

Over the winter cold we go,

Oh-oh, just you and me…"

Mimi stopped dancing and posed dramatically in cool posture. "You wanna dance?"

Roger stopped playing and stood up. "No tricks this time?"

Mimi grinned. "No tricks." She took his hands and tried to guide him along in her billowing, waltzing, and fluttering path, even though Roger was not much of a dancer himself. "I've got you, now you sing."

"Without my guitar?" Roger asked.

"No, go ahead and dance with it. Of course without the guitar!" she said.

Roger sighed and sang softly:

"Never I guess right or wrong

'Cause your smile takes me home again

Home with you,

Where I'll belong."

A silent tear slid down his cheek, not stopping until it hit Mimi's chest. She noticed it immediately. "Roger, what's going on?"

Roger let go of her and they stopped dancing altogether. "It-it's that song," he muttered weakly. "I wrote it for her."

The realization hit her. "Oh, babe, I'm sorry, I never would've meant…I'll go."

Roger looked up, watching Mimi pack her things back into her bag. "No, don't go, Meems," he said slowly. Mimi looked at him puzzled and he filled in pathetically, "I…I liked dancing with you."

She approached him more slowly. "You sure?" she asked.

"Yeah," Roger muttered with a returning smile.

They danced again, not singing or doing anything that might cause more trouble. Mimi was not April, and she never would be, but she was just as much Roger's love. She was just as much someone he could not take for granted. He tried to hold the moment in his heart with her head resting on his arm, swaying from side to side in the current of the music river. Mimi stopped dancing shortly and looked into Roger's eyes with her searching eyes of brown that he loved so much about her. If only it were nighttime, then he might see the moonlight shimmering in the strands of her hair.

He kissed her on the nose and hummed April's song once more. It couldn't hurt to sing about sunny smiles and April showers, he thought. Not anymore.

THE END