Mac was far too annoyed to enjoy competing against Dennis, so he attempted to aim his frustration at Dee in the pre-game reception. The former seemed entirely aware of his plans and quickly thwarted them by pushing his sister towards Charlie. Dennis then stepped closer, thrusting all of his irritation at Mac.

It was equally cathartic for both of them, despite how unpleasant it appeared. However, the tone of the game worsened towards the end of the first round.

Both teams were neck-in-neck, when Dee pulled an old and wrinkled Trivia car that had crumpled into the corner of the box. "Trivia." She called theatrically as she unfolded the decrepit card and read it quietly to herself. "This one is definitely Mac's," She warned her brother.

Dennis nodded intently, already scouring through his memories for all of Mac's past trivia cards, hoping it was one that had been answered before.

"Favorite scheme." Dee read woodenly. Dennis froze for a moment, but she continued. "With a drunkenly scrawled subheading of 'Best Time I've Ever Had.'"

Dennis looked very closely at Dee's hand, recognizing the withered and long-forgotten index card.

As Mac wracked his brain for the answer that he never remembered writing, Dennis locked eyes with him.

There was a rare, but fleeting guilt behind his eyes as Dennis watched him. There was no effort in his expression as he answered in a level voice. "Posing as Honey & Vinegar."

Mac felt outraged to hear Dennis' response as he kept his eyes on him.

"Point to us!" Dee cheered though Dennis only offered an apathetic smirk. "God, you know, it's funny." She continued with a laugh. "You guys used to get so ridiculous and defensive every time you played gay, focusing on and explaining who the bottom was, like they picked the short straw or something, and now, fully straight, super masculine dudes are getting pegged by their girlfriends and it's no big deal." Dee shrugged. "Kind of makes you guys look pretty stupid."

Dennis swallowed a sip of his wine before looking down.

"Pegged." Frank said bluntly, not allowing his inflection to reveal his single-word sentence as a question.

"You're not even playing." Dennis mumbled irritably under his breath.

"Oh, no." Dee shook her head vehemently. "I absolutely refuse to believe Artemis never strapped on piece and paid the Toll Troll."

"I don't get it." Frank said steadily.

It was Mac who finally answered Frank's unspoken question. "Pegging is typically when a chick will put on a strap-on and bang a dude with it."

Frank shrugged. "It's where a guy's g-spot is, so it makes sense to me." He answered somewhat simply. "Besides, if it's a chick, doesn't make you gay."

Mac scoffed. "And as we already know," Dennis ventured a look at him, so he turned back to Frank. "There are much worse things to be than gay." He completely ignored Dennis' soft attention as he pointedly spoke to Frank. "Like bald and short." He dramatically turned his head down to look at Frank.

"Listen here, you little Fairy-"

"Woah!" The gang chimed in, and Mac stayed quiet as they all admonished Frank.

"So, what can I call him?"

"Dude," Charlie huffed. "Anything that's not a slur."

"How about an asshole?" The whole group nodded in unison.

"Everybody's got an asshole." Dee chimed in officially.

"Fine!" Frank huffed. "Piss off you little asshole." The older man harrumphed before grabbing a beer.

Soon, both teams were advancing to the Second Round, Charlie and Dee seemed to strategize running to the bathroom during the post-Round One Break, while Frank disappeared into the office to order his pizza.

The bar was dead silent as Dennis turned to Mac. "Look, Mac, about last night-"

"What the hell, Dennis?" Mac angrily asked.

"I know it was messy, but-"

"That's not what I'm talking about." Mac insisted, giving Dennis a fiery glare of understanding. "You and I both know that wasn't my Trivia card."

"Are you sure? Maybe you forg-" Dennis lamely accused.

"Don't gaslight me, Dennis." Mac interrupted with a concise edge to his voice that revealed the depth of his ire.

"Okay," He looked down.

"When did you write that?" Mac never let the anger dip in his tone.

"Years ago." Dennis finally admitted. "Do you remember that night we spent in the bar after that day in the strip club?"

Mac grimaced. "You mean after you randomly married Maureen, kicked me out of my home, forced me to finance the retroactive Bachelor Party that you demanded of me, before getting us both kicked out of the apartment by your wife?"

Dennis had the sense to act as though he knew how bad it all made him sound, still Mac had a hard time believing it.

Dennis nodded. "Yeah, well, when we got hammered in the bar that night, after you passed out, I started messing with the gameboard."

"And wrote that?" Mac's tone challenged.

"Well, I was drunk and nostalgic. You know, realizing how much I couldn't stand my wife and how much fun we had together." He shrugged. "I browned out and I guess I shoved it in the box and forgot about it."

Mac shook his head and scoffed. "Lame."

"I know, it was such a cheesy-"

"No," Mac emphasized his explanation. "It's lame that you care that much about acting like you don't care at all." He forced himself to look away from Dennis. "I feel sorry for you."

"Mac, I-"

"Are you bitches, ready?" Dee called animatedly as she exited the bathroom, Charlie not far behind.

"Goddammit!" Dennis huffed at his bad luck to be interrupted twice when trying to fix things with Mac.

"What?" Dee asked, completely confused by her brother's frustration.

Dennis exhaled slowly, holding Mac's gaze for a painfully long second, before shaking away the moment. "Nothing. I just can't wait to own these dorks and their game pieces."

Mac swallowed a growl. "You're not going to lay a hand on my piece without a fight."

Dennis smirked as he heatedly eyed Mac. "When have any of your threats been successful?"

Mac glared at him. "I've never meant it this much."

Dennis' gaze grazed over every feature on Mac's face, before he smirked arrogantly. "Dee, time!"

"15…" She began and the other 4 joined in the countdown.

The second round commenced with cruel chaos. Even Dee and Charlie could sense the personal competition burning between Dennis and Mac, though neither tried to calm it, selfishly hoping their side might be provided the winning edge.

In Round Two, having personally challenged Dennis, Mac made quick time shot-gunning his beer. By the time Dennis had finished his, Mac was already 15 'dizzy bat spins' through. Purposefully, he slowed to give his opponent the illusion of being able to catch-up and also to make sure Dennis was good and dizzy when he finished at 21.

Mac completed his final spins slowly, causing his dizziness to lessen. Just as Dennis pulled away from his bat, Mac threw his arm back. He waited until Dennis was making dizzy, yet direct eye contact.

Without a thought of restraint, nor an ounce of guilt, Mac allowed his hand to fly freely as it quickly collided with Dennis' arrogant face.

Much to his brief satisfaction, the slap took Dennis down.

"Shit," Dee huffed.

"Drink, Bird." Charlie excitedly called. Mac nudged him to carry on with the chugging count for Dee while he kept his attention on his fallen roommate/opponent.

Dennis raggedly returned to his feet. "I'm fine, Dee." He nodded before sipping his beer. His eyes remained fused with Mac's as he finally began to register the searing pain across his face.

Charlie finished his 5 count and Dee loudly gasped for air.

The gang watched her sputter to breathe for two seconds, before Dennis resolutely bellowed. "Golden Geese call a time-out."

Dee nodded tipsily, hurrying off to the bathroom, as Dennis headed towards the bar.

Mac could feel the wine and beer mixing into a horrendous concoction that filled his bladder and bloated his stomach, causing him to also disappear into the bathroom.

Just as he began finishing up, Dennis walked in. Mac tried to ignore him, but it was Dennis who spoke first. "See, how much fun we're having?"

It felt like the simple argument of a child. "I never denied that we have fun together, Dennis, but a game of Chardee Macdennis doesn't make our problems vanish."

"I know." His voice interjected weakly.

Mac gave him a slight shove away from the sink to wash his hands. Once he finished drying them, he looked into the mirror and noticed Dennis intently watching him in the reflection.

Seeing Dennis' red face, Mac couldn't fight off his own grin despite his frustration. "Well, I will say that I feel a bit less angry now." He offered congenially.

Dennis' expression lit up as he laughed, his pink cheek stinging all the more, but he didn't care in the least. "I should hope so, after that."

Mac turned to face Dennis full on, his eyes refusing to yield to the blindingly bright blue. He kept his gaze on the red print stamped onto his features. "Boy, I really got you."

Dennis kept his eyes on Mac's avoidant ones. "Yeah, you did." The double-meaning of his words almost made them catch in his throat.

Mac reached out very briefly. He quickly thought better of it, snatching his hand away as if the mere promise of contact was enough to make his flesh catch fire. "You should get some ice for that." He blandly stated before trying to side-step his way around Dennis.

"Don't be like that." He tried, blocking Mac's way out.

Mac stepped back and deeply exhaled. "I'm not being like anything, Dennis." He shrugged. "It's called personal space. I'm just trying to offer you some."

"Well, stop it!" Dennis complained. "It feels like you're treating me like a leper."

"You don't want me to touch you, Dennis. At all." Mac sighed sadly. "Those are your words, not mine. I'm only sorry it took me this long to get it."

"Mac-"

He held his hand up. "It's fine, Dennis, I get it. Everything changed when I came out. Touching you shouldn't still come as easily as it does, but" Mac forced a shrug again, now looking down. "I can't touch you as a friend, if there is more to it than that."

Dennis' stomach squeezed so tightly, he feared he would double over.

"And I won't know for sure until I get some time and space to think about it."

"I don't want to ruin this, Mac. I just-"

"Saying, how you feel won't ruin us, Dennis, but not respecting how I feel, will."

Dennis cleared his throat and tried to drudge up any fragment of sincerity that he still possessed. "I didn't mean to push you away, Mac, that's not what I wanted." He inhaled deeply, feeling his nerve vanish, he scrounged for the unrehearsed truth he was terrified to admit. "I was just scared-"

"Of me." Mac nodded as if he understood, despite cutting Dennis off. He grimaced unpleasantly. "Or at least of being thought to be like me."

"More of being actively pursued, maybe." Perhaps worse, to realize how tempted he might actually be.

"Why?" Mac scoffed. "Do you think all men are like you?"

Dennis nodded in pensive understanding. "The predatory gay."

Mac nodded and sighed. "This is what I'm talking about. I never want to make anyone feel like prey. The problem of such stereotypes is in treating sex and sexuality like it's some game or a competition."

Yet, that was the only way Dennis had ever thought of it.

"I mean, I had so many miserable experiences trying to prove I was a straight man, but there was no enjoyment or excitement."

His words struck a chord in Dennis. How long had it all felt like an empty numbers game? Why had that seemed so normal to him?

"It's been a very long time," Mac inhaled deeply. "Me getting here, finding myself and figuring things out." He was quiet for a second as he thought. "I'm done asking. I never needed your permission. We're allowed to have our own separate lives."

"Mac-"

"We have a game to get back to, Dennis." He slipped his way around shaking his head in irritation that he had allowed himself to be pulled into Dennis' favor.

Dennis watched him leave and an aching sadness cemented itself around the pit in his stomach. It wasn't simply that he felt bad to see Mac so deflated; deep down, he realized that Mac had been right; he did only care about himself. He hadn't noticed or worried about Mac's distress until it had manifested into distant behavior that now wounded him. It hurt even more when he understood that he had started it all.

Mac was the only person Dennis actively cared about besides himself and still he had hurt him, for no reason beyond his own need to maintain a façade of apathy. How many times had it already happened? And how many more could it, before their entire relationship collapsed?

Dennis tried to shake off the stress that now enveloped him, as he deeply exhaled. With reluctance, he forced himself forward to re-join the gang and resume Round Two.