Chapter Text
Mac and Dennis stumbled into their apartment, laughing far too loud for three o'clock in the morning. Mac held a half-drunk bottle of cheap whiskey in his hand, taking a sip from it as he closed the door behind them.
Dennis flipped the light switch, but the room was still dark. He flipped it up and down a few more times to no avail, his laughter stopping as Mac rambled on about something.
"And then-"
"Did you forget to pay the electricity bill again?" Dennis quickly cut him off, suddenly serious.
Mac stopped laughing. "Oh shit. Sorry, that's my bad."
"Yeah, it is," Dennis sighed. He'd be angrier if he wasn't so happily drunk and decided that yelling at Mac could wait until the morning. "Whatever, it's late anyway. Goodnight, Mac." Dennis turned towards his room, stumbling in the dark.
"But I'm not tired," Mac whined behind him, "Can't we play a game or something?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know, anything," Mac responded as he felt his way to the bathroom, grabbing the unused candle they kept by the sink, and lit it with a lighter he pulled from his pocket.
Mac's features glowed in the candlelight, a stupid drunk grin on his face.
"Fine," Dennis sighed, taking the candle from Mac's hand and sitting down on the couch. Mac plopped down next to him, a little too close for Dennis's comfort, but he didn't protest. Mac offered him the whiskey bottle, and Dennis gladly took a long sip.
"Truth or dare?" Mac questioned, looking at Dennis expectantly.
"What, are we twelve? I'm not playing truth or dare with you."
"Come on Dennis, it'll be fun. You can make me do anything you want. Nothing is off the table."
Dennis considered this, deciding that making Mac look like an idiot was a decent way to end the night. "Fine," he sighed.
"Yes!" Mac exclaimed, "Okay, truth or dare?"
"Uh, truth."
"Okay, um..." Mac looked at the ceiling as he thought, "Oh! What was your first impression of me?"
"I don't know, that you were a grimy weed dealer?"
"Yeah, I know, but like besides that. I mean, we're still friends, so it couldn't have been that bad."
I thought you were ridiculously hot, the voice in Dennis's head said, thinking back to how Mac had towered over him in high school, as Dennis hadn't hit his growth spurt until their senior year. His hair was longer then, strands always falling in his eyes, face always freshly shaved and he'd still worn his sleeveless tees almost every day, though he'd been much slimmer back then.
"Well, you were literally drenched in sweat the first time I bought from you, so I really did think you were just some grimy drug dealer," this was true, but Dennis had thought it was hot, remembering the way Mac's shirt had stuck to his slender frame.
"Okay, yeah," Mac frowned, "But I've told you, me and Charlie had just-"
"I know, I know," Dennis cut Mac off, not needing to hear him tell him a story he'd already heard a million times. "But I came around eventually, didn't I?"
Mac smiled shyly. "Okay, good enough. Your turn to ask me."
"Okay, truth or dare?"
"Dare," Mac replied immediately, as Dennis knew he would. He was always trying to show off.
"Um..." Dennis looked around the room, searching for inspiration, and his eyes landed on the window. "Go out the fire escape and knock on one of the neighbor's windows."
Mac giggled like a little kid. "Good one," he said as stood up and opened the window.
Dennis leaned out the window, watching as Mac climbed to the floor above them, and knocked rapidly on the window, until they heard someone yell from inside the apartment. Mac ducked and hurried back down the ladder and through their window, both men giggling. Dennis briefly felt like they were in high school again, laughing as they pulled pranks on Charlie in his sleep.
"Okay, okay," Mac said, catching his breath. "Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"Lame," Mac teased as they sat back down on the couch, grabbing the whiskey from Dennis and taking another swig. "What's your biggest regret?"
"Jesus, Mac, too serious," Dennis complained, but Mac just stared at him with his big brown eyes and Dennis sighed obnoxiously. "I don't know..." the thousands of mistakes Dennis had made throughout his life flashed across his mind, but one stuck out. "Uh, my... my mom called me, like, a week before she died. I saw that it was her and I declined it. I regret not answering it."
"Oh shit, man, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked that," Mac said, patting Dennis's shoulder.
"It's fine, really, just playing the game," Dennis replied, forcing a smile.
"Are you sure? We don't have to play anymore."
"No, really, I'm good. I want to keep playing." Dennis's mom had always been a sensitive subject for him, especially since her death last year. But he really didn't want to think about that right now, and if they stopped playing he'd just be up all night letting it linger in his mind. He took the whiskey from Mac's hands and practically chugged it. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare, obviously," Mac replied.
"Okay, uh, do a hundred push-ups."
"Easy," Mac grinned and positioned himself on the floor, counting out loud as he quickly pushed himself up and down.
Dennis smirked, noticing the way Mac's biceps bulged as he did the push-ups. Mac had always been so competitive, constantly feeling like he needed to show off to Dennis and Charlie (probably due to the lack of attention he received at home), and he'd never lost a physical challenge between them, no matter how hard Dennis had tried. Sometimes, Dennis would provoke him like this on purpose, just because he liked the way it felt when Mac would drop everything to do whatever he told him to.
"99...100!" Mac grunted as he stood up, sitting back on the couch, breathing heavily, "Crushed it. Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"C'mon, don't be boring. I have a good dare for you," Mac complained.
Dennis rolled his eyes, "fine. Dare."
Mac grinned mischievously, "Let me give you a permanent marker tattoo."
"You're such a child. That's not even a dare."
"Please?" Mac pouted.
Dennis sighed in response, and Mac took that as a sign to feel around in the kitchen drawers until he found a marker.
He sat back down and grabbed Dennis's wrist, pulling his arm toward the candlelight. Dennis hated the way his stomach flipped at the touch.
"No peeking," Mac said as he began to scribble on Dennis's arm, the marker cool on his skin.
"No dicks, please," Dennis asked.
"No promises," Mac smiled, his eyes fixed on whatever he was drawing.
"There, done," Mac smiled as he released Dennis's arm.
Dennis tilted his head to get a better look at the drawing. It was a crude recreation of Mac's own dragon tattoo, in the same spot on his forearm. Dennis shot Mac a questioning look.
"Now we're matching!" Mac grinned stupidly, pressing their forearms together to compare tattoos.
"So childish," Dennis replied, but he couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from creeping up as Mac's big brown eyes stared into his. "Okay, now you have to pick truth since you made me pick dare."
Mac playfully rolled his eyes, "Ugh, fine. Hit me."
"Hm..." Dennis thought for a moment, what could he possibly ask Mac that he didn't already know? Mac was the biggest open book he'd ever met, sharing even the smallest details of his day with Dennis whenever they were apart. He decided it was best to keep it light.
"Okay, fuck, marry, kill. Me, Charlie, Dee."
"And I'm the childish one?" Mac smirked.
Dennis playfully pushed his shoulder. "Just answer the question."
Mac took another sip of the whiskey, "Well, it's a loaded question, you all have a lot of good qualities..."
"Stop stalling."
"Fine. Kill Dee, marry Charlie, fuck you."
Dennis was taken aback for a moment at the certainty in Mac's voice. Fuck me? He cleared his throat, "You've thought about it before, hm?" He teased, his voice a little shaky.
"Don't get your hopes up dude, I'm not in love with you or anything," Mac teased back. Dennis laughed, trying to hide the hurt that filled his chest. He grabbed the whiskey from Mac and took another long sip. It was almost empty.
"But Dee's annoying as shit, so obviously I'd kill her. And fucking Charlie would probably be really gross, so I'd marry him. And you're always talking about how you're a sex god or whatever, so why not?" Mac said with ease, big dumb eyes staring into Dennis's. But there was something else there, Dennis noticed as the candlelight flickered in them. Was it hope? Longing? Fear? No, just too much whiskey, he thought, but took another swig from the bottle anyway.
"Yeah, you'd be so lucky," Dennis retorted, wanting to end the conversation as quickly as possible, "My turn. Truth."
"Okay, you go. Fuck, marry, kill. Me, Dee, Charlie."
"Well I'm not marrying or fucking my sister, so she's getting killed."
"Right, fair. Me and Charlie?" Mac said, his voice a little higher than usual.
Dennis raised an eyebrow at this. Obviously, he'd fuck Mac in a heartbeat. Was Mac really that much of an idiot that he didn't see it? Or was this a test? If he said he'd marry him, Mac would probably just call him gay and they'd move on. But fucking was different, right? No strings attached. People fuck their friends all the time, don't they? Dennis shook his head, angry at the voice in his mind, what are you talking about? You're not actually going to fuck him, it's a game, idiot.
"Do you really have to think about it that much?"
Dennis snapped out of his trance and met Mac's eyes again, a pout prominent on his face.
"No, I was just- fuck you, marry Charlie, okay? Happy?"
A smile crept onto Mac's face, and Dennis pretended not to notice him scooting closer to him on the couch, their knees just barely touching.
"Very," Mac said, sporting that stupid grin that Dennis hated, hated the way it made the butterflies in his stomach dance.
They stared at each other for a few moments, Dennis searching for something past the drunken haze in Mac's eyes.
"Truth or dare?" Dennis said, finally breaking the silence.
"Dare me."
Dennis's head felt fuzzy as he drank the last of the whiskey, setting the bottle down on the coffee table. Mac looked at him expectantly, brown eyes glimmering in the candlelight. Fuck it.
"Kiss me," Dennis mumbled, the words coming out quieter than he intended.
"What?"
"I dare you," Dennis took a deep breath, "to kiss me."
Dennis didn't know what he was expecting, but it definitely wasn't Mac grabbing his face and planting a kiss on his lips, that's for sure.
Mac pulled back, opening his eyes to look into Dennis's already widened ones. "Oh shit, uh, sorry, is that not what you-"
Dennis cut him off by pressing their lips together, Mac immediately reciprocating. Mac tasted like whiskey and cigarettes, not too far off from what Dennis was sure Mac was getting from him. And suddenly his head was clear, and he realized that he was kissing Mac, something he'd only been dreaming about since the day they met. And wow, the real thing was so much better. He loved the way Mac's stubble felt rough against his clean shaved skin, and the desperation in the way he kissed him, like he'd been waiting for this just as long as Dennis had.
They pulled back after a while, foreheads pressed together, Dennis's cheeks still in Mac's hands. They breathed heavily for a few moments, laughing hysterically once they'd caught their breath.
Mac spoke as their laughter died down, "Wow, um, that was... I'm not gay though, dude. Like, that was just a dare, right?"
"Yeah, uh, of course, me neither. Just a dare," Dennis replied, hurt flashing across his face before forcing a smile. "Wanna keep playing?"
Mac nodded. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare."