You're incredible, Kieren.

Halbrand in his armor + his dirty grimy face

the bf arrives shortly after, extremely apologetic. he's good-looking and charming, with just enough rough edges to fit in. he wins dee, charlie, and frank over quickly; makes mac almost forget about the fight with dennis. they all have a great time together. get tipsy. hit a bar. dance and drink even more.

at some point, mac and the bf have an intimate, startlingly serious conversation about what had happened with dennis earlier. about mac's feelings for dennis and their fucked-up history. about mac and the bf's feelings for each other and their possible future??? they kiss with emotion.

mac laughs to himself a little afterwards and confides that dennis has been such an asshole lately that he's been secretly using just for men touch of grey when he dyes dennis' hair. instantly, dennis peels off his hyper-realistic silicone mask and launches into a bond villain monologue about how he suspected mac was sabotaging him so he fabricated this identity and pretended to be mac's bf until he could trick mac into feeling safe enough to reveal his secret.

dee and charlie say that mac has been bragging about switching out dennis' hair dye almost every day at the bar, and they could have told him if he'd asked ever.

"dude you like full-on fucked me multiple times," mac says.

"no," dennis says. "you're not understanding."

a good time;

Has exactly the tropes you like and the characterization you want to read;

Gratification: yes you did finish a thing and yes you did do good;

just a very fun time all around.

Cons of re-reading your own fic:

the trustworthy telecommunications dish: