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Dennis’s eyes opened slowly as he winced at the intrusion of the light. What the fuck had he done last night? He rolled over to check the time, and sighed when his phone said 11:30am. Good. He hadn’t missed too much of the day. It was a Sunday, it’s not like he had anything to do for a while, but he hated the feeling of waking up past noon. It always made him feel like he had missed out on some great opportunity to do something, even though he knew that all he would have done was sit on the couch with Mac. Mac, who he had definitely yelled at for something -- Dennis couldn’t remember what -- whilst he was drunk. His head pounded as he sat up slowly. His stomach flipped as he tried to remember what they had been talking about, what had led to the fight, or what the outcome was, but all Dennis could pull out of his fried brain was that Mac hadn’t deserved that. Although he was used to Dennis taking his anger out on him, Mac didn’t deserve that, and that being the only thing that Dennis remembered, stuck out like a sore thumb. He stretched his arm over his head, trying to get his blood circulating. There was no point in thinking about it -- he wasn’t going to remember what had happened. Dennis didn’t black out often, but when he did, nothing ever came back to him.
Dennis blindly grabbed his phone off of his nightstand and read the clock again. He had spent thirty three minutes just thinking. He needed to get a hold of himself. He scrolled through all of his missed notifications, but besides a Facebook update from Dee complaining about her hangover, he hadn’t missed anything. Light was reflecting off of something on his dresser right into his eyes, so Dennis turned to observe. There was a glass of water and two tabs of aspirin sitting right next to where his phone had been. He definitely hadn’t done that last night. He probably wasn’t even able to get himself to bed on his own. Mac must’ve done it. Mac must have helped. Even very soon after Dennis had treated him so badly, Mac had still done things to make him as comfortable as he could be.
He took the aspirin and downed the glass of water, breathing heavily through his nose when he felt himself get nauseous. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he didn’t know why. He understood why his head was pounding, and his stomach turning, but he felt weirder than he ever had in any of his past hangovers. He dismissed it as the clouds moved from where they shadowed the sun, and Dennis winced as the light rushed through the window.
After giving the aspirin a few minutes to kick in, Dennis was able to get up. He took a hot shower, brushed his teeth, and got dressed in lounge clothes. He wasn’t going to do anything while he felt like shit. He headed out to the living room to see what Mac was up to, and maybe to solicit some food if he felt like eating. Instead of seeing his roommate sitting on the couch, watching whatever was on TV at noon on a Sunday, Dennis was hit with the absence of Mac. Dennis wandered around, stopping in the kitchen where he saw a note.
Hey Dennis
Had some errands 2 run will be back later
Take the aspirin and drink water
Also i made breakfast check fridge
-Mac
Dennis opened the fridge to see a stack of pancakes on a plate, and some bacon wrapped in a paper towel next to it. Behind that was a glass of cold coffee. Mac knew that Dennis preferred cold coffee when he was hungover, and he had remembered, even after the events of the night before. He ate on the couch and watched some game show that he wasn’t paying attention to. He just thought about nothing in particular and dozed off occasionally.
It was when Dennis had just fallen asleep that Mac came back. There was the jiggling of the lock, the turn of the doorknob, the creak of the hinges, and the telltale claps of Mac’s boots against the ground. Dennis kept his eyes closed as Mac walked from the door to the kitchen.
Before Dennis could process what he was doing, he followed his best friend into the kitchen. Mac turned around quickly when he heard him, eyes wide.
“Oh, hey Dennis,” he said calmly and exhaled loudly. “Feeling any better?”
Dennis just let himself do what he needed to do and wrapped his arms around Mac. Mac was obviously startled by the way he tensed up at the sudden contact, but relaxed almost immediately, moving one arm to the small of Dennis’s back, and the other to his shoulders, where he drew circles with his thumb. It was soothing, and Dennis felt calm for the first time in a while. Both of them savored the intimate moment, until Mac spoke.
“Is everything okay, Den?” Dennis dropped his arms, and hoped that Mac would take the hint to do the same, but he didn’t. “Shit, I’m sorry--”
“No, man, don’t,” Dennis interrupted. “This is really good,” he buried his face into Mac’s neck “I just need a minute.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay.”
Dennis could feel Mac’s chest move unsteadily, and wrapped his arms around him again. “Nothing to be worried about, Mac, chill out.” Dennis brought him closer and held him tighter. “I promise.” That motion seemed to calm Mac down a bit, enough so that his hand squeezed Dennis’s shoulder in return. They stood like that, Mac still wearing his coat, until Dennis convinced himself to speak.
“Mac, uh, I know that I yelled at you last night.”
Mac sighed. “You did, yeah.”
“I don’t remember what for, but I know that you just... didn’t deserve that.” Mac tried to speak but Dennis shushed him. “Just give me a couple minutes here. I’m trying to say some shit.” He could feel Mac looking at him, but refused to look up. “You didn’t deserve that. I was mean to you. I’m sorry. But--” he took a deep breath. “You got me home. You gave me aspirin and water. You made me breakfast and coffee, just, why, Mac?”
Mac tensed again. “You know why, man.”
“I know I do, but I don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve you.” Dennis pressed his face into Mac’s neck more firmly. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Do you want me to try and stop? I’ve tried before, it didn’t work well, but I can--”
“No.” Dennis pulled away, and Mac dropped his arms as well. “I love it. I love, fuck. I love you.”
Mac’s entire face softened, tension in his eyebrows easing as he realized what was happening. “What?”
“Yeah, man,” Dennis sighed loudly. “I love you. Goddamn it, I love you. That’s like a boulder off of my chest, dude, you don’t even understand.” He laughed nervously. “It’s like, it took me so long to realize, but even after I realized I couldn’t tell you, because I didn’t want to fuck things up and hurt you, because that is honestly the last thing that I want to do but I do it all of the time and I don’t know why, but I’m sorry, and I love you, and Jesus, please say something before I explode.” Dennis made a frustrated noise when Mac was silent. “I care about you a lot, and I love you, and I know this is dumb of me, because you show it in every single way, but please just say it.”
“You already know how I feel about you, ” Mac said. “I can say it a billion times more if that would help you, but, you know, I love you.” Dennis took in the expression on his face, that dorky half smile that he used whenever he felt like he shouldn’t be smiling but couldn’t help it. “Goddamn it, I love you.”
“Yeah, don’t be an asshole,” Dennis chirped jokingly.
“What? You’re the one who took so long to say anything!”
“I... yeah.”
Mac laughed and grabbed Dennis’s hand. “That’s your killer comeback?”
“You’re really talking mad shit for someone within kissing distance, Mac.” Dennis snaked an arm around Mac’s waist, pulling him in. “I’d be careful if I were you.”
“Hmm. I think I’ll take my chances.”