FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

Through a collaborative effort this story came to be. My friend and I wondered what it would be like if certain sports mascots weren't just costumes but actual anthro animals with their own lives. This work, like most that will show up here, contains homoerotic themes and mature scenes. It ended up being pretty long so I broke it down into five chapters. Please enjoy!

The life of a professional sports mascot can be an interesting one. It's a really tough gig both mentally and physically but for the few lucky enough to have landed such jobs the rewards can far outweigh any obstacle they might come across. S.J. Sharkie was quickly learning this as he settled into his new role as the mascot for his local professional hockey team. He was a perfect fit; lots of energy, good with kids and adults alike, photogenic, skating skills, and above all he was a shark. That's sort of one of the key factors in being a mascot is to match the team's moniker for easy association to the brand. It was a daunting schedule to keep with not just the games at home but attending plenty of games on the road as well throughout the season, not to mention charity events, hospital visits, autograph sessions, weddings, you name it; but he loved every minute of it...except for the bus rides, those were always the worst. He preferred the farther away road games so at least they could take a plane.

He pondered this thought as he lay lengthwise on a seat on said bus, his long gray tail draped down one side, "Why couldn't we just fly to Arizona, it would take like an hour from the Bay." Sharkie had been with the team now for a few months but the season itself was only about a month old so he was still learning the ropes.

He was planning out what time he would have to get up in the morning to have some ice to himself; much like the players on the team liked to get the chance to practice before a game he tended to like to get in a bit of practice for himself; new dance moves, new antics, whatever else he could think of so as to not get too stale. He would have to get to the arena early in the morning but only after a good night's sleep on something that wasn't a seat on a bus.

The shark smiled as the team bus finally pulled up to the hotel. The players had to split rooms but being the mascot he always got his own which he was extremely thankful for. After checking in it didn't take him long to strip down to his boxer-briefs and just fall face-first onto the bed and fall asleep.

The sun was only just coming up and Sharkie was chomping aggressively on some muffins from the hotel as he made his way to the visiting arena, another one of which he was mentally crossing off his list of new rinks having visited. Today he was at the home of the Coyotes, should be a game they'll win, at least on paper. There would be Sharks fans there though and it would be his job to keep their spirits high regardless of the outcome of the game. He changed into his full game gear since he figured it would be silly to practice in street clothes when that's not what he'd be wearing during the event. He laced up his skates and made his way to the ice, taking a quick glance at the ice conditions before going on.

There were some skate grooves here and there which was good, he hated being the first person on fresh ice; not that he wanted a dry, rutted surface but it was just one of his superstitions, all sports players have 'em. He slid out onto the cold surface, gliding up to the logo, a maroon coyote's head looking up and howling at something. "Probably whining about losing their last 4 games." The shark snickered at himself as he started to take a few laps around the rink, getting his skating legs back under him. He loved being on the ice, which was not terribly common among his species.

The majority of sharks don't feel comfortable with water that isn't in its liquid form but Sharkie was just a bit different. Even though he grew up in California he preferred the colder winter months to the summer ones. His family was very sports-centric and while he loved his 49ers it didn't take much for him to latch onto hockey as well given his cold-affinity. He played a bit growing up and was very proficient, really quick for his size, but at some point during his college years his focus shifted to that of mascots. He loved the idea of being an icon and using it to make people happy so when the vacancy opened for this gig he put everything he had into his audition and he was beyond ecstatic when he found out the job was his. Here he is now and he's pretty much living his dream. After about 30 minutes of skating around and just generally being goofy he plopped down in the center of the ice and just laid back for a moment to catch his breath.

"Who's there?"

Sharkie shot his head up and looked across the rink. A dark-furred figure in reddish attire was standing on the inside of the home player bench.

"Um...uhh, just me." As he focused on the figure he realized who it was even though they'd never met before. It was his Arizona-equivalent counterpart; Howler the coyote. Sharkie was about to call out a greeting but was cut short.

"Who are you? How did you get in here? This area is restricted, you know." As the shark got up onto his skates he heard a groan from the bench. "Uuggg, a shark on my ice? Oh and it's Mr. Sharkie himself. What're you doing anyway, carving your name in the ice? Plotting some kind of prank?"

"No! Nothing of the sort. I was just trying to get in some time on the ice by myself before the teams showed up." He had skated over near the bench now, his hands up in an innocent gesture. "I didn't think anyone would mind."

Howler wasn't familiar with mascots wanting to come to an away game early just to "practice." "Likely story. Look, I don't know how they do things in San Jose but there are rules to follow here, a chain of command. And here I'm top dog."

"I'm sorry, no hard feelings ok?"

"Hmph. How did you get in here anyway?

"Staff member let me in, he didn't seem to have a problem with it."

"Figures, they don't even bother to check. Now get off the ice before I have to subdue you and kick you out until the game." Sharkie sighed and was just about skate off when he was hit by the comment and paused.

"Wait, you think you can subdue me? I'm not some mindless fish."

"Could've fooled me. But yeah I'll take on a dolphin like you no problem." The hockey background in both them was clearly showing itself, there was no backing down from this one now. Besides if he let Howler walk all over him like this then that would set the tone for the rest of his career every time they crossed paths and he didn't want to be remembered as the guy who ran off with his tail between his legs.

"Let's do this then. You pin me and I'll go without another word."

"You're on. This'll be easy" Howler had already swung open the door to the bench and was skating at the shark. He leaned his head down and wrapped his arms around the shark's mid-section with a thunk as they collided. Sharkie could only hold onto the canine in an awkward headlock as he was pushed backwards but he quickly reached down and peeled him off and pushed him away. With a quick turn he spun and his long shark tail connected with the back of Howler's legs and he was swept off his feet. The coyote was knocked prone to the ice and before he could decide his next plan of attack Sharkie had dropped down on top of him, straddling him and pinning his arms to the ice above his head.

"Ha, who's the top dog now?" Howler had his teeth bared and was growling a little at his compromised position, he wasn't used to having his dominance tested and backed into a corner like this. The canine was ready to let loose a flurry of punches at the shark but as he stared up at his rival he remembered something. He recalled that the Sharks' mascot had retired this past off-season.

He thought to himself, "of course, this must be a new Sharkie. No wonder he was acting so odd." Howler focused on the face and it certainly wasn't the Sharkie he had seen before. How did he not catch that at first? This face seemed a lot more kind; he was not looking at an aggressive face as he assumed for a shark, far from it. Sharkie was just grinning down at the canine, beaming with a genuinely happy, disarming look in his eyes. Howler calmed down just a bit, stopping his snarl and just stared back at the shark, unsure why he couldn't look away. For a fleeting moment he wondered what it would feel like if he leaned up and stole a kiss from that gray, toothy muzzle. He could feel his cheeks warming as he started to blush and he shook his head to rattle the thought out of his brain. "No that's stupid."

Sharkie had let go of the canine's wrists and had shifted back to sit upright, but was still straddling him. At that moment Howler realized something was off, his shorts seemed tighter than usual. He froze in fear; he realized that his little daydream had gotten him a bit worked up. His panicked brain thought, "this isn't happening!" He shoved his paws up at the shark's chest to push him off and hurriedly got back onto his skates.

"Easy, Howler. I was just playing, I thought you just wanted to wrestle. Are you ok?" The flustered coyote turned away quickly, trying to look like he was brushing himself off, praying that Sharkie hadn't noticed anything. He glanced down and was slightly relieved to see that his bulky padded hockey shorts didn't reveal a tent. He couldn't just retreat though, that would be too odd.

"You just...caught me off guard is all. I didn't expect you to be so quick"

"Well I am a shark after all!"

"Yeah, well I need to go...prep for an autograph session. I'll see you at the game." He skated away and made his way off the ice. "What was I thinking?" He walked the passageways until he reached his dressing room, he practically fell through the door as he tried so quickly to close it. "How can I think like that about that stupid fish? He's my rival for crying out loud." His mind flashed back to staring at Sharkie's face, looking up at his cute smile.

He cursed under his breath at himself as he sat down to take his skates off, grumbling as his stiffy had not gone down. Reluctantly reaching for the laces that held his shorts closed and undoing the knot, flinging the laces open and tugging the bulky shorts down to his feet and kicking them away. His brown paw quickly made its way down and rubbed firmly at the tent in his maroon trunks. "Dumb shark" he muttered as he rubbed the increasingly apparent outline before bringing his other paw down, hooking a thumb under the waistband and pulling his underwear down enough to let his shaft free.

"Oh, so now you want attention," he quipped at himself in light of recent months without being able to get any sparks to happen in the bedroom with his girlfriend. "Well, now I've got to take care of this." With a little dribble of pre already drooling from the tip it was nice and easy to stroke himself. He wasted no time in reaching a quick pace, his paw almost a blur as he worked the shaft. "Gotta think of Emma."

The coyote closed his eyes and leaned his head back, he saw his girlfriend's face and was leaning in to kiss her, but she faded and his mind quickly wandered back to moments earlier, under the shark, only this time he'd gotten his paws up under Sharkie's jersey, rubbing his smooth chest while their muzzles were embraced in a warm kiss. The conflicted canine huffed a bit and his shaft throbbed as he complained out loud, "No, not Sharkie...can't...no..." He was brought to his limit quite soon, his toes curled into the carpet and he opened his eyes just in time to watch ropes of jizz spill all over his chest. There was little regard for where the shots were landing and Howler's mind was full of conflicting messages as strands of his warm seed landed on his jersey. "God dammit, Sharkie...now I need to clean my sweater."

While the coyote was having his moment Sharkie had gathered his things and decided to head back to his hotel, going over the little victory in his head, tail swishing, "Huh, so that was Howler. Too bad that ended so quick I was kind of hoping for more of a fight. He was kinda cute up close though."

The lights in the arena had dimmed, the pre-game antics had ended leaving only the team introductions. Being the road team the Sharks would head out first, led out of the tunnel by none other than Sharkie. He was carrying a big flag with the team logo on it as he skated out to a sea of boos but he didn't care, he was representing his whole organization and he loved leading the team out every time. He only managed one lap around the ice before the Coyotes were announced.

As it was not a home game he skated right off to give the home mascot the opportunity to rile up the crowd after leading in his team. The crowd cheered as the Coyotes skated around the ice. Howler was in the center, leading them with howls and fist pumps. Finally there was the national anthem and then the lights returned to normal, with the game commencing shortly after. Sharkie stayed behind the scenes until the game had begun and then he was pretty much free to do as he wished as long as he didn't interfere with anything game-related. He mainly stayed with the pockets of Sharks fans he could find; taking selfies with their phones was quickly becoming one of his tropes. Howler kept an eye on the shark over the course of the game, watching him wander and interact with just about everyone he could; even saw a Coyote's fan or two stop him for a quick picture. He wanted to be upset that his own fans wanted a photo with the rival mascot but he actually admired how much effort he was putting into that job; he was proud, in a sense. Mascots didn't always travel with their teams to road games but when they did it wasn't uncommon for them to just hang out in one spot and take a few pictures and mainly just relax but not this one, he was on a mission to get in touch with as many of his Sharks fans as he could find.

It helped a bit that the home fans were kind of quiet after a quick 2-goal lead early in the game which turned into a 3-goal victory by the end. Howler watched as the shark celebrated with some fans before joining his team on the ice for a quick congratulations and then disappeared down the tunnel with them. As he watched the figure walk out of sight Howler wondered why he was paying so much attention to the shark.

"That whole event was just in the heat of the moment" he tried to convince himself. "There was no real attraction, right? At least that's the last I'll see of him for a couple months."

Howler seemed more flustered than usual when he arrived home; he tossed his bag aside as he entered the door and made his way right to his bed and fell backwards onto it with a thump.

"Hun, is that you?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't even say hello, what's wrong?" Howler's girlfriend, Emma, walked into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. She was a slim-figured cat with all white, silky fur and golden eyes. "I take it you guys didn't get the win tonight?"

"No, we got beat by that dumb shark."

"Just one?"

"What? Oh, uh...no. I meant -the- Sharks. Sorry it's been a weird day."

"Yeah, apparently if you can't remember how many players were on the other team." She turned and lay across Howler and gave him a hug. "Perhaps there's something I can do to help take your mind off some things."

He pondered what she meant but as soon as her white paw was rubbing his crotch he got the message. This was a bit more straightforward than usual for her but he didn't object. He knew she had been making a push to be more intimate recently, while part of him wanted to just be left alone with his thoughts the other part of him even figured it would be a good idea for helping kick Sharkie out of his head.

"Sure, babe. Go crazy."

"That was easier than usual." She quipped, earning her a cheek rub from Howler as she tugged his pants and boxers off. Her tail flicked as she massaged the sheath in an attempt to get something going. After about 10 minutes of trying, including the removal of everything she was wearing and the straddling of a coyote, no amount of hands, mouth, or grinding seemed to produce any interest from Howler. Emma rolled off to the side, Howler's ears were folded back against his head as he gazed apologetically at her.

"Emma, I'm sorry...I have no idea what's going on." She sighed but placed a reassuring paw on his chest.

"Babe, you wouldn't be the first guy in history who had trouble getting it up." He pondered telling her that he had no trouble rubbing one out earlier that day. "Maybe we can, I don't know, go see some kind of specialist?"

"Em, I'm not broken. Do we have to talk about this now?"

"I suppose it can wait. But, not to be selfish, I miss how it was back when we started out. You couldn't finish but at least we had fun." Howler had his paw on his face. "Sorry, hun. I worry about you is all."

"I appreciate that, I really do, but I think I need to be alone for a bit."

"Mkay, I'll leave you be." She kissed the canine's forehead, dressed, and disappeared from the room.

"Well great, that backfired. Now she thinks I can't put out anymore...I just need this day to be done." The coyote wrapped himself up in his covers and passed out.