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Charlie was babbling about some bullshit, as usual. Some “having fun” bullshit, some sort of childish fantasy where 40-year-old men get to just have fun and not face real life responsibilities like winning a goddamn laser tag game. It infuriated Dennis, and he was nearly at his limit. His mind was set on one thing, and one thing only: Winning the game.
A robotic, monotone voice echoed over the speaker system: “Warning.”
Oh, shit. Dennis readied his laser gun, guarding the entrance to his right while Charlie took the left side. This could be it, this could be their chance to-
“Dennis, they got us!” Dee shrieked as she came stumbling into the Green Base, holding her stomach like she had been shot.
Mac followed closely behind, looking haggard as all hell. He looked like he had just crawled out of the trenches, the sweat on his forehead reflecting the green light that shone above them.
“I- I tried to stop them, but-” Mac was panting, and he sat down on the bench beneath the neon Green Team sign.
Dennis could physically feel the last straw holding his sanity together snap. He whipped around to look at the scoreboard, and-
“We’re losing?!” Dennis all-but screamed, turning back around to give Mac an incredulous look. “How the fuck did you manage to screw up that bad?”
Mac seemed to be taken aback by Dennis’ sudden change in tone. “Well, I- You see, Dee was-”
“I didn't do shit!” Dee said immediately in her own defense. “Mac was off flirting with one of the dads, and a whole swarm of those little goblin children came out of nowhere!”
“You were flirting with one of the dads?” Dennis repeated, throwing his hands up in the air. “Do you even care about this team?”
“O- Of course I do, Dennis, it's just that-”
“You know what?” Dennis’s arms dropped to his sides and he shook his head. “It's fine.” He turned to Charlie, then to Dee. “It's fine.”
Dee stepped forward from beside Charlie. “We can go back into the air ducts, get back on the leaderboards, right?” She tried to reason with Dennis.
Dennis wasn't having any of it. “No, Dee, Mac isn't going anywhere.” He turned to Charlie. “You want to have fun, right Charlie?”
Charlie stood, wide-eyed, like he was caught watching his parents fight. “I- I mean, yeah-”
“Great.” Dennis put on a smile. “Then you go back out there with Dee, shoot some kids for us, and get us back on that leaderboard.”
A grin spread across Charlie’s face. “I get to fight?” He asked giddily.
Dennis nodded. “Go full-on berserker, buddy.”
Charlie exchanged a look of pure excitement with Dee and held his laser gun with a newfound energy. He nodded for Dee to follow as he ran out the left entrance of the base, his footsteps echoing down the hall.
Mac sat on the bench, looking to Dennis for instruction. “What am I gonna do?” He asked, giving Dennis possibly the saddest puppy dog eyes he had ever seen in his life.
Dennis tried not to let his heart melt.
“You're gonna guard the base,” Dennis sighed. “With me.”
Mac didn't seem to get it. He was always on the offensive when the gang played laser tag, and he was usually good at it. He seemed like a fish out of water- Dennis almost felt bad.
“Listen,” Dennis sat next to him on the bench. “I'm not mad at you, per se, I just…” He glanced over to meet Mac’s eyes. Fuck. “I really want to win this, okay?”
Mac was still giving him that look. That desperate need for constant approval, that sort of pathetic clinginess that only Dennis could satisfy. It was off-putting, sometimes, but lately Dennis had started to grow fond of it. Mac never gave anyone else that look, after all.
“Sorry for flirting with one of the dads.” Mac lowered his gaze to his laser gun, fiddling with the strap.
Dennis scoffed and shook his head. “I don't have a problem with it.” He said. “It’s just that we’re, y’know, losing the game now.”
Mac let out a small breath and leaned back against the wall. “I just know that sometimes, you get a little...” He gestured with his hands, leaving the sentence at that.
Dennis furrowed his brows at Mac. “I ‘get a little’ what?” He probed, needing Mac to elaborate. “Angry? Irritated? Frust-”
“Jealous.” Mac cut him off, meeting his eyes. “You get jealous sometimes.”
“Jealous?” Dennis almost laughed at how preposterous of a notion that was. “Me? Jealous?” He stood from the bench, facing Mac. “What do I have to be jealous of? Your receding hairline? Your glamor muscles? Your pathetic attempts to hide the fact that-”
“Not of me,” Mac cut Dennis off, thankfully, before Dennis put his foot directly in his mouth. “Jealous of, like, the guys I talk to.”
“Why would I be-” Dennis laughed as he lost a little bit of his mind. “I mean, the guys you talk to? Are you hearing yourself right now?”
Mac bit the inside of his cheek and shrugged. “You get mad whenever I mention having feelings for someone else, I just figured-”
“Well don’t ‘just figure’!” Dennis huffed and turned his back on Mac. The walls felt like they were closing in on him, and he tried to steady his breathing.
“You know I only… Really have feelings for you.” Mac said from behind him. Dennis felt his stomach lurch. He might be sick.
“Don't say that shit.” Dennis managed to choke out.
“It's okay if you get jealous sometimes, I mean, I think it's sweet that you care-”
“I don't care!” Dennis turned around, tears pooling in his eyes. He wanted it all to fucking go away . He was stuck there with Mac having a conversation he never wanted to have.
“But it's okay if you do-”
“I don't!” Dennis shouted. “I don't give a fuck who you bang, I don't care, I never cared!” He felt a lump in his throat rise, and his hands might've been shaking. “You could go move in with the love of your fucking life and never speak to me again, you think I'd fucking care?!”
Mac didn't seem phased by Dennis’ reaction. He looked up at Dennis with an expectant look, as if he knew this would happen all along.
“Dennis, it's fine.” Mac said gently. “Maybe you're right, maybe I've had you pegged the wrong way.”
Dennis felt the white hot heat in his chest die down a little, but he continued to glare at Mac like he could rip his throat out. He hated what Mac was saying. He hated the fucking pity, the knowing look that Mac was giving him.
“I don't want to talk about this.” Dennis said conclusively, letting out a heavy breath. “We just need to focus on guarding the base.”
Mac set his laser gun down beside him. “What if we… Didn't?”
Dennis screwed up his face, giving Mac a look like he was clinically insane. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“I think it'll be fine if we just sit here.” Mac said nonchalantly. “Everyone’s out fighting each other anyways.”
Dennis looked between the two entrances of the Green Base. No footsteps, no signs of movement, no robotic voice announcing a warning.
“That’s just- that’s stupid, Mac, we’d be vulnerable, we can't just leave the base unguarded-”
“I did,” Mac shrugged, looking up at Dennis. “I do it all the time. That's like, my thing.”
Dennis shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts from wherever they were steering off to. They were talking about laser tag. Nothing else.
“Well, that's not my thing, so…” He tightened his grip on his gun and took a deep breath.
“Maybe you just need to loosen up a little bit, you know?” Mac sat up on the bench, and Dennis could feel his eyes on him. “If you'd just let your guard down, like, a tiny bit, you might have more fun.”
Dennis scoffed. “You sound like Charlie.” He said. “It's not about having fun, Mac, it's about winning the game.”
“Winning for what?” Mac continued. “So you can keep pretending you're something you're not?”
Dennis felt his stomach turn over and he clenched his jaw, standing still where he was. “I have no idea what you're talking about.” Dennis lied.
“You do, though.” Mac’s voice was too soft, too gentle around Dennis. He hated it. “We’ve been playing this game for what, twenty-something years now?”
A ghost of a smile pulled at Dennis’ lips. “Yeah, something like that.” He said quietly.
Mac stood from the bench, taking a step in Dennis’ direction. “Maybe…” He took another step. “Maybe it’ll be okay if we lose this time.”
Mac was close, now, close enough that Dennis could see the light radiating from the LEDs on Mac’s padded armor. Close enough that, if Dennis wanted, he could embrace Mac right then and there.
Dennis swallowed hard and shook his head slightly. “I can't.” He said, barely above a whisper.
“You don't have to,” Mac placed a gentle hand on Dennis’ arm. Dennis felt the heat of his hand seep through his shirt, and he shut his eyes to stop any tears from forming.
“Hey, look at me, okay?” Mac said quietly. Dennis took a deep breath and tentatively met Mac’s gaze. "You don't have to."
Dennis felt his breath hitch as he looked at Mac, who stared back at him with nothing but understanding and acceptance in his eyes. Of course Mac would get it. That's what scared Dennis the most. He couldn't hide from Mac. He had spent over half of his life with him, they had been through thick and thin together, and even then…
Dennis’s laser gun dropped from his hands, dangling by the strap it was attached to, and Dennis moved in to cup Mac’s face in his hands like he had done so many times before. Within a fraction of a second, without thinking, Dennis was kissing him, their helmets hitting together as Dennis tilted his head and squeezed his eyes shut.
It was like nothing else in the world had ever mattered. Like the hole in Dennis’ chest was finally full, like twenty-something years of bullshit had led Dennis to that very moment, to kissing his best friend in a laser tag base, green and blue behind his eyelids as he became putty in Mac’s hands.
Mac took a deep breath in through his nose and tightened his grip on Dennis’ arm as if it would stop him from running away. Dennis only deepened the kiss, snaking his hands around the back of Mac’s neck and coming his fingers into his hair. Too late to back out now.
Surprisingly, Mac was the one to break the kiss. He leaned his helmet against Dennis’, the clack of the plastic making them both giggle.
“I've wanted to do that for like, twenty years.” Mac said, barely a whisper.
Dennis smiled. “I guess I have, too.”
Mac simply held his gaze, a whimsical, far-off look on his face. Save for the goofy laser tag getup, Mac had never looked so beautiful to Dennis. His doe-eyed stare, the way his tongue flicked out over his lower lip like he could still feel Dennis’ mouth on his. Everything was all Mac. Everything.
Knowing that Mac wasn't going to- and probably wouldn't for quite some time- initiate another kiss, Dennis tilted Mac’s head up and reunited their lips once again. Mac tasted like strawberries and beer, and Dennis could live in it.
So caught in the moment and wrapped up in the feeling of Mac’s lips on his, Dennis hadn't noticed the footsteps echoing down the hall, nearing their base. The electronic pew-pew of laser guns snapped Mac and Dennis out of their moment, and they both whipped around to find a group of three little goblin children firing at them and their base’s center. The one thing they were supposed to be guarding.
Dennis didn't really fight back, though. He could've shot at them, since the kids were blatantly standing in the entrance to their base, completely unguarded, but he didn't really see a point to any of it anymore. Maybe that was what Mac meant.
Mac and Dennis exchanged a glance, Mac clearly holding back laughter as the three kids scampered off down the hallway.
“Guess we lost.” Mac couldn't stop himself from grinning. That asshole.
Dennis smiled, too, and unbuckled his helmet. “Doesn't really feel like it.” He admitted. And, for the first time, Dennis didn't care about the electronic sounds of their team dropping off the leaderboard.