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Hello, and welcome to Hockey Hunk! Rory's misadventures continue in this chapter, and as always, comments are most welcome, so that I can have a proper gauge on how the story is faring.

Also note that Toumal has added the new "watch this series" button to SF 2.0, so if you're using the beta, let's try to see what happens if you click that as well! : )

Don't forget to check the comments section on the last chapter, for kensukethecat has drawn a sketch of Alex, so if you want to see his interpretation of the character, go check it out and leave him a thank you or a comment as well! Thanks, kensuke!

Have a fun read everyone, I had a lot of fun writing this!

Cheers!

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"Wel - !"

"WELCOME to the Albrecht brothers, how could we help you today?"

The coyote girl gave me a slightly odd look, before her eyes were firmly set to the curly-haired, dark-furred, waggy-tailed and good-smelling Lab who manned the cash register next to me, behind the sales counter.

"Uhh...do you have the Diary of Anne Frank available?" the coyote girl spoke in nasally twanged voice.

Alex was leaning over the counter, paws planted on either side of the cash register, practically invading the coyote's personal space, while giving her his best smile.

"Such a notable world literature classic always deserves a spot in a first rate bookstore, miss," the Lab's tail kept on wagging and caught my thigh in the process.

I tried not to bristle, and instead kept the happyhappy face up as well as I could, and just carried on smiling. My own tail tried to strangle itself.

The coyote girl seemed pleased enough.

"Okay, so where do I find it?"

Alex's eyes turned towards me with deliberately slowness, though he did keep one at the coyote, his smile never wavering.

"Our sales assistant Rory will show you to the correct shelf, right, Rory?"

My smile started to feel like someone had stapled it on.

"Of course."

"There we go!" Alex beamed.

I had to squeeze myself between the Lab and the table behind the counter, and my tail almost swept down some decorative boxes and rolls of cellophane down from the gift-wrapping section, as I made my way over to the actual shop floor, and made it for the biography section, trailed by the hapless coyote.

*sigh*

Alex...Alex...Alex...Alex...we might have as well changed the name of the shop to Alex Brothers for the day, or something. It was only a quarter past eleven, but this coyote was already the sixth customer he had stolen from me right upon entry, and I did not foresee an end to his behavior. He was exactly like I remembered him to be, and time had not done anything to change my opinion - grade A butt or not, he also easily made me want to headbutt him, and that probably wasn't the civilized thing to do.

I rummaged through the F shelf with my eyes and located the book was after.

"Are you interested in the original Otto Frank-edited version or the new uncensored version?" I asked, plucking out two different books from the shelf, hoping that my professional flair would at least help to make a good impression for her when it came to the...shop assistant.

The coyote girl gave me a puzzled look.

"There are different versions?" her tall ears flicked expansively.

I gave her a quick nod.

"The modern edition contains passages that were removed from the original, and the names are not changed, like in the original version," I explained, holding the two books in my paw, acting as a leonine display stand.

The girl rubbed her chin and I saw that her eyes kept flicking between the two books, seemingly indifferent.

"Well I'm not sure...I was going to read it for my gender studies literary analysis, you know..." the college girl mused, giving me a curious look.

My decision done, and with a broad tail flick, I offered her the modern version.

"Then you will want the new version, it's got the lesbian innuendo that isn't in the original," I told her, my face completely serious, no matter how ludicrous my sales pitch had to sound to anyone uninitiated.

Her eyes and ears seemed to light up as she snatched the book from my paw.

"Thanks a lot," she gave me a quick smile and was already on her way to the cash registers, manned by the dark devil himself, waving his paw at her.

Oh shit...

I started to walk back towards the sales counter at an especially low pace, hoping to buy at least a few seconds more without having to be in the hyperactive Alex presence. He was usually quite tolerable, but after the weekend, and all that, I wasn't really in the mood to be told about the latest superfood fad or just how many books HE was selling at the ultramodern Stepford Center, while we languished here.

I shuffled along, and then, to my surprise, my savior came in the form of a frat wolf climbing up the stairs from the second-paw section of the store, seeking me with his eyes.

Oh damn...

It was all too possible that the wolf was going to start harrowing me about the date again...the date I should have been planning when I wasn't planning it, and Mason seemed to all too keen to get at least some hint of what kind of an exciting night I had planned for us...and I had planned nothing!

My ears tried to drop instinctually, but I forced them to stay up while Mason approached, and I stopped, and I made sure that my tail would not give me away.

"Rory!"

"What is it, Mason?" I sounded all civil and cool.

"You wanna give me a paw with a couple of boxes we've got in the back, I was thinking of putting the books to the shelves now that it's a bit quiet downstairs?" the wolf gave me a questioning look, his tail swishing languidly.

I could have man-kissed him, seriously, what a beautiful idea.

"Sure!" I beamed. "I bet Alex can handle upstairs for a little while, and Crystal can always go over and help at the counter once she's done with the kids' section."

"Thanks, man!" Mason smiled.

I followed him at a newly invigorated, frisk pace, down the stairs and into the musky coolness of the storage area, amidst the cardboard boxes and steel shelves. I decided to follow Mason, for he seemed to know where he was going.

"So it's just a couple of boxes?" I asked, wondering just how much time I could waste doing this and not stay up on the counter with Alex.

"Yeah," Mason replied, not turning to face me while he continued walking along the narrow corridor between the shelves, "one of them is for the 2-dollar bin, but the rest we have to put on the shelves."

"I see!" now this was going to be goooooooooood.

We rounded one of the shelves before Mason came to a halt, and I stopped by him, and peered at the shelf he studied, rubbing his chin.

"Hmm..." Mason mused, "I think it's this one and that one..."

His paws patted two boxes in turn, and I gave him a nod and a smile, and extended my paws in front of me.

"I'll take one, you take one," I grinned.

Mason snuffled and hauled one of the boxes off the shelf and then deposited it over my arms. It was quite heavy, but I wasn't quite that flabby yet, and managed to keep a steady face once the box was bestowed upon me. Mason pulled the second box off the shelf, and then it was my turn to lead us, along the corridor and then up the rambling stairs, and I held the door open for the wolf. We put the boxes down onto the small counter we had downstairs, next to the "STAFF ONLY" door, and we both chuffed dust off our noses after the visit to the back room.

"VERY GLAD THAT YOU VISITED, PLEASE DO COME BY AGAIN, AND REMEMBER THAT WE ALSO SERVE YOU AT THE STEPFORD CENTER!"

_ _

Mason's ears flattened at the sound of the Lab's enthusiastic holler upstairs, and I gave him a small smile, and flicked an ear at him, while I tore into my box, to see what treasures were hidden within.

"It's not normal that we hear it all the way down here," Mason rumbled to me after a few moments.

I looked up from my work and gave him a small smile.

"Maybe he's used to having to shout, the Stepford Center store is double the size of this at least," I mused, though not without a small Rory smile, not the happyhappy one, but a gentle one that couldn't be faked.

The frat wolf shrugged.

"If he finds the PA microphone and starts using that, I'm calling it a day," the wolf snorted as he took out a pawful of old books and unceremoniously dumped them into the big treasure trove of the 2-dollar nearby.

I chuckled at the wolf's outrageous humor and kept on smiling.

"I'm sure he has his reasons," I offered, gently, studying my own discovered book in my paw and wondered into which shelf I should put it.

"I don't wanna know."

"I'm sure it's not contagious," I snuffled.

Mason chuffed, but his tail told me that he approved of my crude joke, and we carried on working.

"AHAHAHAHAAH!"

That was Crystal again...she always got along fine with Alex, during the short time they worked here together...I wouldn't have called it a double act, but she certainly knew how to deal with him better than I did. Maybe it was a female thing...Marge never had any problems with Alex either...so maybe it was a male thing. I wouldn't call it envy...I mean, maybe I wasn't the most macho lion around, or exactly king of the jungle type, or...yeah. I didn't really know how to explain it, but something about him really got onto me nerves, and it wasn't just the fact that he was so loud, or trying hog all the attention, or that he just happened to be very good looking.

Whatever it was, I wasn't too compatible with Alex, and there was very little I wanted to do about that.

Predictably, my thoughts were interrupted by a softly spoken "Rory?" coming off Mason, and I had to flip my ears and put my best curious eyes on, and regarded him.

"What is it, Mason?" I spoke.

The wolf's tail flicked tensely before he replied.

"Should I bring flowers?"

Damn...the wolf surely put an awfully lot of thought into our upcoming man-date! It made me feel guilty, because obviously I had put very little thought into it, and now I was being reminded of that fact on a daily basis by the wolf making curious questions to me. They were also such detailed questions that I wondered whether the wolf had indeed never had a proper date before...and now that he was going to have one with ME, he was really trying to get the best out of it. I had a lot of responsibility, I guess, and I think I was also letting Mason down a bit, by not doing anything about the date...yet. I definitely knew that I would have to do something about it, otherwise the wolf would be seriously pissed off with me, and nobody wanted that.

I rubbed my chin and enacted a thoughtful visage over my face while watching the calm wolf with my own secretly not so calm eyes. He really had thought a lot about this...clothes, flowers, gifts...at least he knew what there was supposed to be...yeah.

"Well, that depends on a few things, "I tried.

"Oh?"

I almost expected him to flip out a notepad or something for writing things down, but instead I only got a very curious look and flicky ears.

"Yeah, I mean...many furs are allergic to flowers, or might not like strong scents...and then there's the question of favorite flowers or favorite colors or..."

Mason frowned.

"So it's a bad idea to bring flowers?" he stated.

I rubbed my chin and tried to pick a suitable answer.

"Well..uuhh...ahh...it really depends a lot about what your date likes, you know, so flowers might be good once you get to know them a little, so you'll know what they like and what's not good for them."

"So flowers are not good for first date?" Mason suggested.

My tail tried to tie itself into a knot as I dwelled into the mysteries of flower gifts.

"Well of course they're nice but...hmmm...uhhh..."

Then the right words came up.

"But you know, we'll be going out on town, and it'd be a bit difficult to carry flowers around from place to place, so flowers are more suitable for when you visit someone's home, really, or a place like a restaurant..."

Mason gave me an enthusiastic nod.

"So we'll be going to more places than one?"

Oh crap...when would I learn to stop laying these land mines for myself? Now I had made another promise to him out of a date itinerary that was still almost wholly blank, except that we were supposed to meet in front of the Truman department store, and that's it...besides that, it was an empty page.

"Yeah, maybe we will," I winked, hoping that the cheekiness would satisfy Mason's curiosity, at least momentarily.

Mason's tail wagged from side to side as he placed the next load of cheap books into the treasure bin.

"Wow, thanks, man!"

I flashed him a toothy grin.

"Only the best for you...newbie," I knuckled his shoulder, bro to bro, and felt like the worst date in the world for once.

"Heh, thanks!" Mason grinned.

*

"It'll be 24,99," I spoke to the otter I was serving while I punched in the final numbers into the cash register after running the paperback copies of Stratagem of St. Percival and The Magic Cauldron over the barcode reader. "Cash or credit?"

"Cash, yeah," the otter replied, his eyes flicking between me and the books still resting on the glass counter.

"...yes, yes, everyone's fine...yes...everything's just fantastic...yes...yes...it's splendid, everyone's a real trooper...yes...yes...everyone's missing you...yes..yes...yes, Rory is here...yes...yes...Rory is being extremely helpful...yes..."

Next to me, Alex was on the phone, and had been talking on it for almost five minutes now, never missing a beat in his conversation...or trying to serve the customers, for that matter.

I kept my complaints silent and grabbed a suitably sized red Albrecht Brothers carrier bag from underneath the counter and slipped the books into it while the otter dug his pockets for cash and then provided me with the required amount of money. I tapped the cash register screen, opened the till, put the money in and then printed out the receipt, my ears flicking along to the odd whirl of the machine.

"...yes, of course we all miss you and love you, you're the heart of the shop! Maybe heart of the industry! We'd love to have you at the Stepford Center, but we both do know that this place would go down without you...yes...yes...yes..."

_ _

I clenched my teeth and grabbed a small glossy slip of paper from a plastic stand on the counter.

"You can get 5 dollars off with this special Autumn Cleaning voucher the next time you visit us and if your purchase is over 50 dollars," I let my happyhappy voice surface for my sales pitch.

The otter seemed to be more interested about his books than me, or the ticket, or the receipt, which I both showed into the bag and then handed over to him over the counter.

"Thank you for visiting, hope to see you again," I sounded even more forced than usual.

"Thanks," the otter replied and then he was off.

"...yes, of course, we all love you, goodbye!"

_ _

Alex clicked off the shop's antiqued cell phone, and put it back to its place under the counter, and then turned to look at me with those big, bright eyes that seemed all too keen all the time.

"Heheh, that was Marge," Alex grinned.

"I figured that out," I snuffled. "How is she?"

"She was calling from the hospital, she mentioned someone called...Goggy?"

"That's her boyfriend, Gordon," I enlightened the Lab, just because I could.

"Ohh...ohh right...well, they were at the hospital, waiting to see a GP, and she wanted to check up on us to see how we were doing."

My tail made a busy number eight behind me as I stood there, arms folded over my chest.

"I presume you told her that everything is going extremely well."

"Of course I did!" Alex's tail wagged all over the place. "It simply took a moment to convince her that you can survive without her, but then I reminded her that I am here, so everything should go just smoothly."

"Of course, right, yeah, yeah, of course," I nodded energetically, and let my ears work as well.

"Oh yes!" Alex's floppy ears flopped some more when they tried to flick.

Oh yes...

"Well we are doing fine, sales are good and everything's running smoothly," I concurred.

"Quite so!" Alex bounced off his soles, seemingly almost ready to go airborne doggie at any time soon. "You know, Rory..."

"I know a few things but I can't read minds, so, what is it?"

Alex gave me a quirked look.

"Well, I'm going to my karaokespinning class tonight, I was wondering if you wanted to come?"

I gave him a blank look and some blatantly impolite ears.

"What's that?" I didn't really want to know, honestly.

"It's so much fun!" the Lab sounded like he was having fun. "It combines stationary bicycles with karaoke-singing! We're having an ABBA night!"

What the fuck...

"Come again?"

Alex grinned.

"Everyone's got a stationary bicycle, and we also got a video screen on which they show the lyrics, and everyone can sing along while you pedal along! We're gonna go through the Mamma Mia! soundtrack tonight!"

"Well..."...

Shit...

"Well, I have to go and check on a sick friend, so I can't really come, uh...sorry about that, Alex."

The Lab didn't seem to mind at all, because he kept on smiling.

"Aww, that's a shame, Crystal already said she would come."

"Well you guys have fun, but I have to go and fetch groceries to someone who can't walk," St. Rory at work, maybe, but Alex deserved it.

"Ohh right."

"WELCOME TO THE ALBRECHT BROTHERS!"

*

What a day...

By the time I managed to unlock my door and collapse into my apartment, I felt like crawling under my blankets and sleeping until...next Friday, or something like that. Yeah, that'd be a good solution, I thought, just a long, nice sleep, and then it'd be weekend...weekend also meant that Cobb would be leaving town, and that meant that Victor would be free to do exactly what he wanted, and if he wanted to do a lion...I was going to be available.

It felt really nice to be back home, if only to get some fresh clothes on me after a shower, and maybe there was still some food in the fridge...though a quick run to the supermarket might also be relaxing, since at least there were no nosy Labradors working there, as far as I knew. I could get something nice to eat and then call Peter to make sure that he was alright, and then...maybe after a text to make sure that he could have some privacy, I could call Victor, too, and find out how the Dobie was doing and what he had been up to.

I shucked off my clothes and put my keys and my phone on the table, and then my eyes noticed the chocolates, still resting on top of a Sears catalogue. My ears jumped at the sight of the expensive slab - how could I have forgotten about it? So much had happened between Friday and now, so maybe it wasn't such a surprise that I had almost completely pushed the mysterious gift out of my mind.

I sat down on the chair, let my tail flop down to the floor and then grabbed the mystery chocolates and turned them around in my paw. It still felt heavy and expensive...and I still didn't know who had sent it to me. The small card with the scrawled number was on the table, though, reminding me that there was a simple way to find out...but...it was weird!

It couldn't hurt me, right?

I picked up the card, turned it around to be absolutely sure that there weren't any additional messages on the back, and then concentrated on the number again...the strange number I was certain to not to belong to anyone I knew. My eyes flicked over to my phone resting on the table...it'd be so easy...hmm...

I'd probably been unable to relax with the mystery hanging in the air, so I took the easy solution, picked up my phone, and tapped in the number, and with only a couple of seconds of hesitation, dialed in, my tail flicking a little behind me, as I listened to the phone chime.

The phone went off three times, before I heard the line click open, and then a voice, soft and rumbling, spoke.

"Hello?"

My ears flicked upon the unfamiliar voice, puzzled...though at least IT WAS NOW CERTAIN THAT IT WAS NOT A COBB WHO HAD SENT THE CHOCOLATES!

I frowned a little.

"This is Rory Gliese, I...I presume you're the one who sent me the chocolates."

There was a long pause, before the voice spoke to me again.

"I...I thought you didn't want to...call me back."

My tail smacked the floor with surprise.

"Uhh, I'm sorry, but who am I speaking with?"

I could practically hear my own heartbeat while I waited for the answer.

"Oh...I'm sorry, it's...it's Colin. Or...heh...Mistwillow."

*CUE FREEZE FRAME AND END CREDITS*

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There we go! Friday chapter's over, but remember to stay tuned for new installments in the near future!

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Thank you for reading, and a cheerio to you!