Chapter Text
When Dennis gets back to Paddy’s, he finds that the gang has already bought a pressure cooker. He walks in to find them all crowding around it and talking loudly. They hardly pay any mind to Dennis as he settles back in, except for Mac, of course, who tenses up and immediately stops talking.
Mac could at least try and fake it, but he has never been as good at hiding his emotions as Dennis is. Even with Mac’s new, recently-abandoned life philosophy, Dennis could still tell what Mac was really thinking and feeling underneath it all. Mac is just too fucking easy to read.
“Hey, Dennis, what happens when you use a pressure cooker below sea level?” Charlie asks.
“Yeah, how do we make it explode?” Frank says.
“No, Frank, the whole point is to not make it explode,” Dee says. “If it explodes, we can’t make a diamond.”
“I already told you yesterday,” Dennis says, “That thing is for cooking food. It won’t make a diamond.”
It continues like this for the rest of the afternoon. The gang, except for Mac, who barely participates in the conversation at all, go on and on all afternoon about the pressure cooker that they have just bought.
They go over different types of pressure cookers that they looked at, and things that they could potentially cook in the pressure cooker, as well as the different ways in which the pressure cooker could be made to blow up, and whether sea level is a factor. It’s all incredibly unnecessary, and it’s boring as shit.
Dennis doesn’t care about the pressure cooker, or whether it would work or explode below sea level, or why the gang even bought one in the first place. He doesn’t care about any of this shit. It’s all just so meaningless, and he keeps getting lost in his own mind, dwelling on everything that happened this morning and drifting back into thoughts of his frail and fragile body.
Mac is still being quieter, still treading lightly, still smiling and laughing in ways that feel just a bit too orchestrated. Things still aren’t right between Mac and Dennis, not really, and maybe they haven’t been for a while, even before last Friday.
This thing that they have right now since they kissed and since Mac said he loved him isn’t working for them. The post-Johnny arrangement wasn’t working for them. The Johnny arrangement wasn’t even working for them, at least for Dennis. And the pre-Johnny and post-Ireland arrangement where Mac was desperately looking for a boyfriend wasn’t working for them, either.
Dennis just feels kind of lost and untethered right now, as if he’s floating around in the air and desperate to pull himself back down, or else to be pulled back down by the combined inevitable weight of gravity and the sands of time. He doesn’t know. He’s just so overwhelmed, and tired, and maybe a little bit empty inside.
When they finally finish up with work for the night, Dennis gently touches Mac’s back.
“Ready to go home?” Dennis asks softly, but Mac shakes his head, tensing up at the touch. Before Dennis can ask what Mac means, Charlie jumps in.
“No, Mac, you can’t go home!” Charlie shouts. “You said you would test it out tonight.”
“I am, Charlie,” Mac says back.
“Test what?” Dennis asks.
“The pressure cooker,” Charlie answers in a way that makes it seem obvious, as if Dennis is a total idiot for asking. Apparently, in even just a morning away, Dennis missed out an entire new step of the scheme.
“Test it out how?” Dennis asks.
“We’re gonna strike it with lightning,” Dee interjects. Dennis doesn’t like the sound of this. He finds himself wishing, not for the first time today, that he’d just bailed on work and stayed at the duck pond for the rest of the day.
“What?” Dennis asks, baffled.
“We’re gonna make a diamond,” Frank brags.
“We’re gonna cook it in the pressure cooker right as lightning strikes during the storm tonight, and bam, diamond!” Charlie says. Dennis didn’t even know it was supposed to storm tonight, but sure enough, he now hears thunder and heavy rain outside. Huh. Dennis hadn’t even noticed.
“That’s not how diamonds are made,” Dennis says. “You guys clearly know nothing about how diamonds are made.”
“Oh no, we did our research,” Dee says. “Just wait and see.”
Mac is noticeably quiet throughout all of this. Even now, when he and Dennis are supposed to have made up and put everything aside, Mac is treading so lightly around him. Mac is still being ever so careful, like a wounded bird trying to learn how to fly again with a torn wing. It’s irritating as shit.
“Mac’s gonna camp out with it on the roof, and then he’s gonna bring the diamond back here in the morning,” Charlie says. Dennis frowns and turns to Mac.
“Okay, this plan is obviously the dumbest fucking thing you guys have ever thought of, and you’ll probably go ahead and get yourself killed, but why are you going alone?”
“You think the rest of us want to be out in a storm, getting all wet?” Frank asks.
“Frank, you spend your free time hanging out in sewers,” Dennis says.
“There’s no lightning in sewers,” Charlie says, jumping in.
“So you’re going to send Mac out into the lightning on his own?” Dennis asks.
“God will protect me,” Mac says.
Dennis sighs, but he drops the argument. Mac gathers an extra-long extension cord and a tarp that were at one of the corner tables this whole time apparently, but that Dennis didn’t even see.
Charlie, Dee, and Frank walk outside to leave for the night. Dennis stays back with Mac.
“Wait right there, Charlie!” Mac calls out, and then he heads up to the roof, carrying the pressure cooker, the extension cord, and the tarp. Dennis follows closely behind him.
Once Dennis and Mac make their way up to the roof, Mac tosses the other end of the extension cord off the side of the building, where Charlie is waiting down below. Frank is standing next to him, and Dee has already left for the night.
Charlie takes the cord through the door, presumably to plug it in inside the bar. Charlie then walks back out, and then he and Frank head out for the night, leaving Dennis and Mac on their own. Instead of giving Dennis instructions, Mac just waits a moment.
“So, goodnight, Dennis,” Mac says with an awkward pause, waiting for Dennis to leave.
It seems like Mac actually wants Dennis to leave. He doesn’t want Dennis here with him. And Dennis doesn’t even want to be here with Mac in a thunderstorm, after the day that he had, and after almost passing out this morning, but somebody’s gotta keep the guy company to make sure that he doesn’t die, apparently.
“Wait, I’m staying here with you,” Dennis says.
“No, you’re not,” Mac says.
“Do you even know how to use a pressure cooker?” Dennis taunts. He knows he’s got Mac here, and sure enough, Mac sighs in defeat.
“Fine,” Mac says.
As Dennis suspected, none of the gang actually really thought this plan through, beyond just the very basics of the scheme. The whole thing is overall a bit odd and unstructured. Mac plugs the pressure cooker into the extension cord, and then he pulls out a lump of coal from his pocket and places it inside the pressure cooker, shutting the lid. Mac turns the pressure cooker on and presses the button to make it start cooking.
The rain is heavy, pouring over and around them, and Mac and Dennis are both soaked. Dennis is absolutely freezing, shivering to the bone. A clap of thunder booms overhead, and lightning strikes just off in the distance.
Mac lifts the tarp and gestures for Dennis to come underneath it with him. They don’t have tent poles or anything to hold it up, so they just drape it over themselves. It’s not even very effective, considering the fact that they’re both already soaked, even from being out here for less than a minute.
“It should happen soon,” Mac says.
“Okay,” Dennis says, though he knows that the plan is complete and utter bullshit. He could tell that there would be no talking Mac or the gang out of it, so Dennis just went along with it, because he figures that it’s at least better for him to be monitoring Mac here during the storm, than waiting at home on his own.
“It’s supposed to turn into a diamond,” Mac says. There he goes talking again without substance, filling the void of their silence with meaningless schemes, because he doesn’t know how to act around Dennis anymore after what happened last Friday.
“Good luck with that,” Dennis mutters.
Then, sitting there under the tarp with Mac, absolutely freezing and soaking wet, Dennis feels something in his chest start to crack a little bit. It’s as if everything that he’s spent so long trying to hold back, suppress, and control is finally starting to leak out.
Because if Dennis can do everything right by his body and still almost faint in the bathroom of the doctor’s office, then all of these restrictions that he has imposed on himself for so many years are just arbitrary. Maybe they don’t matter anymore, and maybe they have never mattered at all in the first place.
“I had my physical today,” Dennis says.
“Oh,” Mac says, his face and voice still neutral. “Healthy as ever?”
Dennis can tell that Mac is just asking to fill the silence and to keep an easy, surface-level conversation going right now while they wait for lightning to strike the pressure cooker, and not because he actually cares. But Dennis will take what he can get right now. Dennis finds himself talking before he can think about what he’s saying.
“Sort of,” Dennis says. Mac’s eyebrows lift in surprise.
“Hm?”
“I’m healthy, but, ah, apparently I have high blood pressure,” Dennis says. He pauses, then adds, “And I almost fainted today.”
“Well, shit,” Mac says. Dennis chuckles in spite of himself.
“Yeah,” Dennis says, bumping his shoulder against Mac’s, “Shit. But apparently these are all normal things for men my age who drink as much alcohol and kratom as I do.”
“Dude,” Mac says, wrinkling his nose in disgust, “You’ve gotta stop with that kratom shit. It’s so fucking gross.”
“Yeah,” Dennis says, “That’s more or less what the doctor said, too.”
It’s not so bad up here, really, with Mac beside him, and the rain pouring down around them like a heavy curtain. The night air is crisp and calming. Dennis takes a deep breath, feeling more awake and alert than he has all day.
“You didn’t need to see the doctor for that,” Mac says with a tentative grin. “I could’ve told you that. Actually, I did tell you not to drink kratom.”
“Well, apparently I’ve been doing a lot of shit that I don’t need to be doing and that has unnecessarily complicated things, and it all culminated in me almost passing out in a doctor’s office bathroom today,” Dennis says.
“In the bathroom?” Mac asks with wide eyes. Fuck, his eyes are so brown, and his lips are so distracting.
And Dennis is just starting to feel like none of the other shit matters. He has spent so much time and so many years depriving himself of the things that he wants and needs, and he has taken so much pride in depriving himself of those things.
He has told himself for decades that these rules that he’s imposed on himself have made him a god, with power over his every impulse, who has truly mastered the concept of self-control. But what has it gotten him, huh? Where has depriving himself of all of this gotten him, beyond catfishing Mac and fainting in public bathrooms?
Dennis opens his mouth to say something, and he feels a thrill of fear and anticipation at the fact that he’s not sure what. But suddenly, Dennis is interrupted by Mac lifting up the pressure cooker and holding it close to his face to inspect it. The tarp falls a bit off of their heads and around their shoulders, now that Mac is no longer holding it up.
“Dennis, I think it’s dead,” Mac says. Dennis leans forward to investigate.
“The light’s off,” Dennis says. He thinks for a moment and then adds, “Oh shit, Man, I don’t think these things are supposed to get wet.” He says it so softly, even though this would be a perfect excuse to yell at Mac. Dennis doesn’t know why he feels compelled to be so gentle with Mac right now.
“So I killed it?” Mac asks. Dennis examines the pressure cooker some more, mostly just to humor Mac, because it’s most certainly dead.
“It appears we drowned it,” Dennis says, “But we should unplug this so it doesn’t explode. Just in case.” Dennis unplugs the pressure cooker and tosses it to the other side of the roof, where it crashes against the surface.
“Wait, the diamond,” Mac says.
“Mac, it was never gonna make a diamond anyways, but there’s no way it did with it dying. And we didn’t even get any lightning.”
But Dennis can’t get through to Mac. Mac gets up and goes over to the pressure cooker, leaving Dennis sitting on his own, with the tarp barely even covering him at this point.
Mac opens the pressure cooker and digs around inside, pulling out the lump of coal. He looks absolutely defeated.
“Fuck!” Mac says, clutching the coal as he paces around on the roof. “They left me in charge of this scheme and everything’s ruined! We were supposed to have a diamond!”
“Hey, Mac, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Dennis says, standing up and discarding the tarp on the ground behind him. Dennis hurries over to where Mac is pacing around, and grabs his wrists, holding him in place.
“Dennis, it’s all ruined,” Mac says.
“I know, Baby,” Dennis says soothingly, “But you’ve gotta stop pacing or you’re gonna fall off the roof.” Dennis realizes that he slipped up by using that pet name again. Mac doesn’t react to it, but Dennis can tell that it makes him feel uneasy.
“Well, I guess we can go now, then,” Mac says, pulling his wrists from Dennis’ grip and walking away from Dennis and over to the entrance to the roof.
“Mac,” Dennis says softly and desperately, tugging on Mac’s wrist and pulling Mac to face him. With one hand around Mac’s wrist and the other cupping Mac’s face, Dennis leans in and kisses him deeply. Mac kisses him back after a moment as the rain pours heavily over the two of them, but then he pulls away and looks at Dennis with a tortured expression on his face.
“Den, you’ve gotta stop fucking with my head,” Mac says.
“What?” Dennis asks softly.
“When you do the beads thing and the kissing thing and the tricking-me-into-confessing-my-feelings thing to prank me or help me or whatever, it just kinda stirs things up and I get all fizzy,” Mac says.
“Fizzy,” Dennis repeats.
“Yeah,” Mac says. “And since it doesn’t make any difference to you, you’ve gotta stop, because it’s too much for me, Man. It’s taking too much out of me to go back to normal each time.”
This is it. Dennis’ heart is thrumming in his chest with anticipation. They can still go back from here. Dennis could still call it off now, say that it’s a prank or that he was just helping Mac, both solid excuses that he’s used with Mac in the past. They could end the night here, and then they could go back to playing at normal. It would be so easy to go backwards from here.
But Dennis doesn’t want to anymore.
“And what if it did make a difference to me?” Dennis asks, so softly that he can barely hear himself over the rain.
“Huh?” Mac asks dumbly.
“Hypothetically, if it did make a difference to me, then what?” Dennis asks.
“Stop fucking with my head, Dennis, okay? I’m really fucking trying here,” Mac says. “I’m trying to be normal.”
“And hypothetically, what if I don’t want you to be normal?” Dennis asks. Mac frowns.
“Dennis, you lost me with all the hypotheticals,” Mac says. Dennis grabs Mac’s face in his hands, and Mac’s breath hitches.
“Mac,” Dennis says, “Why did you fall in love with Johnny?” It’s horrible timing, and it could ruin everything, but Dennis has to know. He has to know, and he has to make sense of this, or he feels like he might just die right here and now.
“What? Why do we keep coming back to that?” Mac asks, stepping backwards and out of Dennis’ touch. Dennis’ arms fall back down to his sides.
“You fell in love with another guy!” Dennis says. “And you didn’t even know it was me.”
“But it was you,” Mac says.
“But you didn’t know that, Mac,” Dennis says, even though they’ve had this exact argument before, and they didn’t get anywhere with it last time.
“You obviously don’t even care, Dennis, so why does it matter?” Mac says.
“Just walk me through it,” Dennis insists.
“I don’t know,” Mac says, thinking it through. “It was different with him than it was with you, obviously, but… I don’t know, I liked taking care of him and trying to protect him. I liked balancing each other out. I liked that he needed me, and I liked that he was so sensitive. So he wasn’t… he wasn’t you—well, he was you, but I didn’t love him for the same stuff as you fully… I guess, well, it’s just that there were parts of him that were things that I loved that also were similar to you.”
And there it is, really. Dennis has spent all this time feeling so angry and insecure, like if Mac could fall in love with some random guy who treated him like shit and who he never met in person after just two months of dating, then his love for Dennis was shallow and flaky, and that it meant nothing.
But Mac fell in love with Dennis twice, with his essence, for the things about himself that he hates the most and usually tries to tone down. The thought makes Dennis dizzy.
“Oh,” Dennis says.
“So, we good then?” Mac asks. “Can we go home now?”
They’re both completely drenched, with their hair and clothes soaked, water pooling in their shoes, and the rain coming down so hard that it gets caught in their eyelashes and sort of blocks Dennis’ vision. They should probably go home now, should probably make the walk back to their apartment now before the rain gets to be too much. Yes, that would be the practical thing to do.
“Yeah,” Dennis says. “Just one more thing.”
“What’s that?” Mac asks. His hair is dripping, his mouth is parted open just slightly, and his eyes are wide. He’s never looked so beautiful.
“Mac,” Dennis says, pointing a finger and gesturing between the two of them, “This. I… I want it.”
“What does that mean?” Mac whispers.
“I just, I—I just,” Dennis stammers, trying so hard to find the right words without stumbling onto anything too heavy, “Mac, I’m tired and I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t think I can do this anymore, not for another fucking second.”
“Do what?” Mac asks, face going hard.
“Everything,” Dennis says. “Drink kratom, skip meals, and oh, I don’t know, pretend I’m not fucking in love with you!”
“Pretend you’re not what?” Mac asks in a strangled voice.
Dennis can still take it back. He can still retract it. But. But.
“Mac, I—” Dennis pauses and shrugs. “I, uh… yeah.”
“Oh,” Mac says softly. And then, before Dennis can say another word, Mac is scooping him up and enveloping Dennis’ mouth with his own.
The rain is pouring over them heavily, and even with his eyes closed, Dennis can see another strike of lightning hit close by. But he kisses Mac back like they’ve got all the time in the world.
The walk back to their apartment from the bar is too long, too cold, and too wet tonight, but Mac and Dennis hold hands the entire time, and they talk to each other in an easy and open way that they haven’t been able to for a while.
Then they get inside, and as soon as the door shuts behind them, Dennis immediately kisses Mac again. Without disconnecting their mouths for longer than a second, Dennis peels off Mac’s soaking wet T-shirt and pulls it up and over his shoulders and head. Mac lifts his arms to help Dennis out.
Once Mac’s shirt is off, Mac immediately starts unbuttoning Dennis’ flannel and trying to tug it off of him. Mac struggles with the buttons, and Dennis doesn’t make this any easier for him, distracting Mac with every button by nibbling on his collar bone and palming his erection through his pants.
When both of their shirts are off, Dennis begins to pull Mac over to the bed, when Dennis notices that the bed is still in its couch form, and he sighs impatiently. Mac beams at him and kisses him once.
“Wait here,” Mac says, as if there are so many other places that Dennis would be rushing off to right now, during a major thunderstorm, when he has the opportunity to bang the guy that he’s been pining after for thirty years. Unbelievable. But Dennis is quiet as Mac undoes the inflatable couch into a bed within seconds.
“We’re gonna have to get a real one now,” Dennis says as Mac walks back over to him and kisses him.
“Sure, Den, anything you want,” Mac says.
“I’m serious,” Dennis insists between kisses. “I hate the inflatable bed. I want a real one, with a bed frame and a mattress.”
“But selling our beds was your idea,” Mac reminds him affectionately.
“Oh yeah,” Dennis says sarcastically, “Because I couldn’t have possibly had any other motive to want to share a bed with you every night.” Mac’s eyes widen in surprise. So he really had no idea, then. He always has been really fucking obtuse.
“Oh,” Mac says, and then he kisses Dennis hard. “Yeah, we can get a real bed tomorrow. We’ll have to go buy a new pressure cooker, anyways.” Dennis doesn’t give a fuck about the pressure cooker, but he still nods.
Dennis turns them both so that Mac’s back is facing the bed, and then he pushes both hands to Mac’s chest, shoving him backwards onto the inflatable mattress. This takes Mac by surprise, and then Dennis is climbing into Mac’s lap, straddling him, and grinding their clothed erections together. Mac clutches Dennis’ back desperately as they grind against each other.
“I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you,” Mac says over and over in between kisses, like he’s been granted everything he’s ever wanted for just one night, and he’s trying to cast a spell to ensure that it will last forever.
“Yeah,” Dennis says, unbuttoning Mac’s pants. Dennis has to get up from Mac’s lap to properly take off Mac’s pants and boxers, but then Mac is completely naked, and Dennis is getting up to toss his waterlogged clothes off to the side.
“Oh, are you looking for the beads?” Mac calls out. “They’re on the floor next to my sleeping bag.”
Dennis comes back and pulls Mac’s hips forward so that Mac is sitting on the edge of the bed, and then Dennis kneels down in front of him.
“Why?” Dennis asks in a low voice. “You don’t think I can get you off without them?”
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll have any problem with that,” Mac murmurs, and then Dennis is stroking Mac and taking him into his mouth.
“Oh shit, Dennis, fuck, fuck,” Mac groans as Dennis blows him.
Dennis looks up at him after a while, and Mac looks completely wrecked, trying so hard to keep his eyes open so that he can look down at Dennis, but frequently unintentionally sealing them shut every time that he clenches the sheets.
When Mac starts getting close, Dennis can feel Mac’s thighs trembling around his head. Sure enough, Mac cries out, “Fuck, Dennis, I’m gonna come, I’m gonna…”
Dennis pulls off while Mac is still on the edge, and he calmly sits back on his feet.
“Still want those beads?” Dennis asks smugly.
“Fuck,” Mac pants. Dennis cups Mac’s hip in one hand and softly brushes his thumb along Mac’s hip bone in soothing circles.
“Think you can hold off a little longer?” Dennis asks.
“Yeah,” Mac says, but it doesn’t sound convincing. Dennis crawls up and gives Mac a messy kiss on the mouth, and then he pulls back.
“I wanna ride you,” Dennis murmurs.
“Oh, fuck, Dennis,” Mac breathes.
“Can you wait for me, Baby boy?” Dennis asks. Mac nods his head vigorously.
“Yeah,” Mac says.
Mac gets up and pulls off Dennis’ pants and boxers, and then Dennis takes his place on the bed. Mac rearranges Dennis so that Dennis is lying back on the pillows, and then Mac gets the lube from his room. Mac pours a generous amount of lube on his fingers, and then Mac positions himself on the bed so that he’s crouching down between Dennis’ bent knees.
“You good?” Mac asks, his finger hovering just over Dennis’ hole.
“Yeah, yeah, just hurry up,” Dennis says. Mac smirks and gently pushes one finger in.
Mac goes unbearably, agonizingly, excruciatingly slow as he works Dennis open, taking a very long time with each finger. Dennis can at least take comfort in the fact that the waiting is as much torture for Mac as it is for him.
It is when Mac is three fingers deep, bumping against Dennis’ prostate with every thrust, that Dennis can’t take it anymore.
“Mac, please, fuck, please just hurry up and get inside me,” Dennis moans.
Mac grins at him, and then he pulls his fingers out of Dennis and goes to get a condom. Mac returns to find Dennis standing up next to the bed, and as soon as Mac has the condom on, Dennis roughly grabs Mac’s shoulders and shoves him back onto the pillows, with Mac helping him out by scooting where Dennis wants him to go.
Dennis straddles Mac and lines himself up, and then he sinks down onto Mac’s erection as they both moan. They waits like this for a few moments while Dennis adjusts, and Mac trails his fingers up and down Dennis’ arms.
“I love you so much,” Mac says softly. To hide his blush, Dennis rolls his eyes, but it’s not very believable.
"You said that already,” Dennis murmurs. Mac beams at him.
“Yeah,” Mac says. And before Mac can say anything more, Dennis starts moving. Dennis uses his thighs to lift himself up, and then he slams himself back down. Mac lets out a high-pitched whine.
“Fuck,” Mac breathes.
Dennis repeats the movement a few times, and then Mac’s hips jerk up involuntarily and it feels so good, but Mac quickly goes, “Fuck, sorry,” and stills himself. Dennis realizes that Mac is still holding back, being so gentle with him even now.
“I want you to do that again,” Dennis says. “Fuck me.”
“Oh, fuck,” Mac groans, and then Mac is thrusting his hips up again.
Dennis and Mac soon fall into a rhythm, matching their thrusts up perfectly. When Dennis is close, Mac starts stroking him. Dennis comes shortly after, with Mac following him within seconds.
Afterwards, Mac pulls out and collapses at Dennis’ side, and Dennis presses an open-mouthed kiss to Mac’s shoulder. Before they can get comfortable, Mac gets up to dispose of the condom.
When Mac is gone in his room for a little too long, Dennis starts to worry, but then Mac returns with two sets of pajamas and a wet towel. Mac sets the pajamas down on the floor as he wipes Dennis off.
“We can finally use those,” Mac says, nodding his head towards the pajamas. But Dennis recognizes them, so he shakes his head.
“No, I’m not wearing those,” Dennis says, trailing kisses along Mac’s collar bone as Mac cleans him off. “You bought them for Johnny.”
“But if I bought you new ones, would you wear them?” Mac asks, tossing the towel over to the side of the room.
“That would be a waste of our nut,” Dennis says. But after a moment, when Mac is still standing there looking at him, Dennis adds, “Yeah.” Mac grins.
“Okay, well, that’s good to know,” Mac says. And then he starts to walk over to Dennis’ room.
“Where are you going?” Dennis calls out.
“You like to sleep in clothes,” Mac says. But Dennis is sleepy, and he just wants Mac to come back to bed, and he sort of exaggerated that part a little bit when he was writing to Mac as Johnny.
“Just get in the bed,” Dennis says, so Mac hurries over and crawls in next to him. Dennis curls up with his back against Mac’s chest. Mac wraps his arms tightly around Dennis and buries his face in Dennis’ temple.
“Den,” Mac whispers. He doesn’t follow it up with anything, but he doesn’t have to. They both know what it means.
Dennis can both hear and feel the change in Mac’s breathing as Mac falls asleep. Dennis lets his own breathing shift to match Mac’s, and then he falls asleep shortly after.
The storm is over when Dennis wakes up in the morning, still in Mac’s arms. It’s so quiet outside, and in the apartment, too. The only sound that Dennis can hear is Mac’s heavy breaths, signaling that he’s sleeping very deeply.
Dennis feels peaceful like this. His mind briefly drifts over things like his high blood pressure, and the fact that he still doesn’t know when his car will be out of the shop, as well as the whole situation with the gang and the pressure cooker.
The thing is, though, none of that seems to matter right now. It all can wait, and Dennis is going to let it all wait.
Dennis turns around in Mac’s arms so that he’s facing him, and then he kisses Mac’s temple to wake him up. It takes a moment, but then Mac opens his eyes with a sleepy grin and a soft yawn.
“Morning,” Mac whispers.
“Morning,” Dennis says, pressing their foreheads together. Mac gives him a soft, closed-mouth kiss.
“Do we have to get up already?” Mac asks. Dennis smiles, and then he shakes his head.
“Nah,” Dennis says, “We’re good.”
“Cool,” Mac says, and then he falls back asleep almost immediately, with Dennis still pulled tightly against his chest.
Dennis doesn’t fall back asleep right away. He just lays there with his head against Mac’s chest, listening to Mac’s heartbeat.
Yeah, they’re good.