The Lion's Den
#16 of Hockey Hunk Season 3
Rory has some more quality family time, and remembers times of berets and laughter.
Hehhey, welcome to the Hockey Hunk and the super hyper extra Thursday Chapter! I've been so creatively lately, and here's to you...the third update of the week, and we're looking at fourth tomorrow, so don't you go anywhere! *chuckle*
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Have a nice read, and remember that you are most welcome back tomorrow for yet another installment!
Cheerio!
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"Can we uhh...talk a bit?"
My brother looked undoubtedly cute, standing there like he was, all bad posture and overactive ears and a slowly swaying tail behind him intent on continuing its natural perpetual motion. Justin's eyes looked shy, though.
"Sure," I smiled wearily." Come right in."
My brother padded over the threshold into the room and gave it a casual look around as he did. I wasn't sure if he was trying to find something, or whatever he might have had in mind, but I knew that he stopped a couple of steps away from my and a little bit to the side, and then he simply stood there. His paws were stuffed into his pants pockets and he wasn't exactly meeting my gaze, which only added to the effect. He looked like a guilty cub...and I wondered if he thought that he was one, at the moment.
"So, what's on your mind?" I asked and tried to appear all calm and measured and big brotherly, as was required of me, perhaps.
"Uhmm..." my brother rumbled and kept his eyes on his toes.
"Is something bothering you?" I asked.
It seemed reasonable. There had been the...event, of sorts, after all, during which Justin stormed out of the room after declaring my parents gross. That could be it...maybe he was repenting on that now, and acting like such a baby in front of my eyes. Could be that, I thought, or something else altogether.
My brother's ears flicked sharply, up and down they went.
"Uhmm..."
"It's alright," I said. "Take your time."
Justin gave me a quick look, and then began to study the bookshelf instead, without turning his eyes upon me for the moment.
"I'm...uhh...sorry, Rory," my brother mumbled.
I flicked my ears in surprise. That wasn't the first thing I expected to hear.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
My brother scratched his chest and still avoided my eyes. His tail began to tap against the floor, to show that he was obviously nervous.
"Well I...uh...caused that fight, didn't I?"
I frowned a little, and bit my teeth together, if only for a moment. He must've heard...I thought...he must've heard the raised voices and...maybe he even heard the crying that ensued. Maybe dad told him something when he went up to try to get Justin to come down again to finish his lunch. I wasn't sure how much he knew, but nonetheless, I felt an uneasy clenching in my belly. Who knows, maybe Justin had been angsting in his room ever since, thinking that he had caused a massive falling out between me and mom and dad. That wasn't good at all.
"What do mean?" I breathed.
Justin snuffled and swayed a little from one footpaw to another.
"Well..uhh...I ran out after dad said that stupid thing and...and...uhh..." my brother's voice wavered a little..."I heard you shouting and...and..."
Damn. Were we that loud? Was I that loud? Shit...Justin's must've heard all of the argument between me and our parents, complete with my whacked-up, paranoid accusations about my parents' alleged poor treatment of the concept of homosexuality.
"Oh, damn..."I muttered.
Justin sniffed.
"And then I thought you had to be arguing about...about what I did..." my brother still avoided my eyes. "I'm sorry, Rory."
Ohhhhh damn to the next power of ten and beyond!
So that's why he was there...he thought the argument was about ME being angry to my parents for Justin showing...what to call it...disrespect towards my parents' well meaning attempt to raise him in an accepting environment. My poor brother must've been thinking that I was angry because Justin had reacted like that to their "girlfriend or a boyfriend" joking and bolted out of the place...while he simply just pissed off at my parents for being embarrassing and making implications about my little brother, too!
Oh, crap...
I ran my paw quickly over my headfurs and cleared my throat.
"Hey..." I said.
My brother flicked an ear at me, but didn't look at me.
"Hey, Justin, we weren't arguing about you," I said. "We were arguing about me."
Both of my brother's ears flicked this time, and I think I saw a quick glimpse of an eye, too, before he returned to looking at everywhere except me.
"Yeah," I continued.
I might as well let him hear it, too. Show my brother that I had learned a lesson, too, and that he too could learn something out of it, if he put his mind into it. Being a big brother meant about also telling about the times when you weren't acting so smart, after all.
"I kinda...got angry with them, Justin...it had nothing to do with you."
My brother let out a deep breath.
"Really?" he said in a small voice.
"Yeah,"I nodded, mostly to affirm myself, and kept on speaking. "I just...uhh...I never heard them talk like that when I was your age and...I kinda misunderstood a bit."
"What do you mean?" Justin peeked at me, sideways, quickly.
I scratched the back of my neck with my good paw and wondered briefly on how to put it, before I carried on and tried to keep it light but meaningful.
"I've been really tired after the accident, Justin," I said. "And really scared and...since I can't really do much, I've been thinking a lot and...you know when you're troubled about something and try not to think about it but then you just end up thinking about it more and more until it's the only thing you think about?"
My brother nodded.
"Yeah," Justin said.
I smiled a little.
"Yeah, something like that," I spoke. "That's what, Justin, I...I guess I lost my temper because I thought they were saying something they weren't really saying, and then I shouted at them and they told me that I was wrong."
"What did you think they were saying?"
I had to pause again, to think about how to make it sound...not too bad, and also, not to involve Justin in it too much. I had told him that it wasn't his fault, after all.
"It sounded to me...a little bit...even though it wasn't like that, not really, that dad said that...uhh..."...damn...I must've sounded a lot like Justin myself, speaking like that... "...well it sounded almost like dad made it sound like a joke, when he added that...'boyfriend' back there, you know, when he told you that some day you'll know when you have...one of your own."
Justin's ears flicked down sharply, and for a moment I wondered whether my brother now interpreted it exactly the way I feared it would be and again thought that he had caused the argument. I hurried to clarify.
"So, Justin, I thought dad was maybe making fun of me a bit, even though he wasn't, and I got angry with them for that and then I just didn't really know what I was saying anymore. It had nothing to do with you."
Now he looked at me, carefully.
"Really?"
I nodded energetically.
"Really," I said, and tried some more smiling. "It was just me being a jerk at mom and dad. I feel really sorry about it."
"Oh..." Justin rumbled.
I snuffled loudly.
"Yeah," I said. "My fault, if you need to blame anyone, that is. It was just a stupid argument. I wasn't really doing the right thing. I feel pretty stupid about it, too."
Justin nodded now.
"Uhh okay..."
"Yeah," I smiled.
My brother scratched behind his ear and still sought the sight of his toes rather than me, but it still felt like progress. I had told him that it was me being a jerk and not him that caused the event downstairs.
"And you weren't think that I was being like a...uh...you know, against...gays or something..."
I snuffled.
"Of course I don't think you were," I said, "I know you were against our mom and dad being gross."
I smirked a little and flicked a cheerful ear in my brother's direction. Justin dared to smile a little in return, too, and even his tail managed to draw a number 6 behind him. I took that as a good sign.
I raised my good paw and smiled.
"Can I get a hug?" I said, still smiling. "I got one from mom and dad but there're never too many hugs, and I really feel like one."
My brother gave me a surprised look, sure, but that didn't stop him from walking over and settling by me, at easy enough a distance that I could put my good arm around him and squeeze Justin a little. His smaller paws patted my shoulders quickly. They still felt a bit fluffy, too, and the thought amused me. He might've been acting more and more grown up every day, but still...there was a fair amount of cub in him left, too, which was a pleasure to see. I didn't want Justin to have to grow up too fast.
I smiled a little, snuffled, and patted Justin's back briefly before I allowed to hug to break and then sat upright again and gave him another smile. Even Justin managed a smile, just a little one, from the corners of his muzzle.
I grinned.
"You okay now?" I asked.
"Hmph," my brother rumbled.
I took that as a good yes, and let it be.
"Are you hungry?" I asked. "I'd help you out with heating it up but I don't think I should try to scale the stairs without mom or dad to help me."
Justin's ears flicked sharply.
"Lol, I can use it myself," he said, with a plentiful tail bat over the rug on the floor.
I chuckled.
"Sure you can, but are you allowed to?" I asked.
Justin shrugged.
"It's a microwave, not a nuclear reactor," Justin said.
I flicked my ears amusedly and chuckled a little.
"Sure is," I said.
Justin snuffled.
"So what're you doing here?" Justin mused.
I waved my good paw in a quick circle around the room for emphasis.
"Just checking out the place," I said, "didn't really get up to much yet, since you came around."
"There's really a lot of stuff here," Justin commented.
I chuckled.
"You ever poke around here?" I smirked.
Justin shook his head.
"Not really," he said, "mom keeps trying to drag me here to find your old clothes to wear or to get some book or something but...uhh...you know..."
I smiled.
"I know, it's just a big pile of old junk," I said, "It's fine. You don't have to wear my clothes, you've got your own. And you got some new even today!"
"Yeah", Justin rumbled.
"A lot of stuff..."I scanned the room for something interesting, which might amuse Justin, too.
My eyes first caught the photo album that was still on the desk, complete with the green faux leather and campy golden letters.
Hmmm...
Well...that could be something.
I picked the album up and placed it onto my lap.
"Well I found this old photo album and I was thinking of giving it a quick look," I patted the album, "would you like to look at it with me?"
Justin gave the album a suspicious look.
"Are there any embarrassing pictures of me there?" he asked.
I chuckled.
"Probably embarrassing pictures of me, more like, "I said, "we can look, if you like, I'd enjoy the company."
He seemed to be thinking about it for a moment, whether quality time with brother could be better than going back to his computer games or to get something to eat.
"Okay," he said, finally.
I grinned.
"Alright," I said, "pull that stool for yourself from over there and come sit next to me, so that we can both see properly."
Justin glimpsed the low wooden stool and nodded.
"Sure," he said.
It didn't take him a long time to carry the little seat by me and then settle himself down there, eyes already set curiously onto the photo album.
"It's probably a bit messy," I mused, my fingertips resting over the cover, "I think mom got this album for me and I just kinda put everything into it to get it out of the way, so it's probably not very well organized."
"It's real photos, though, yeah?" Justin mused.
I chuckled at the question, outright so. What a thing to say.
"Sure," I smiled. "Film and all."
Justin's nod was accompanied by ear flicks.
"Mom's got plenty of albums with prints of our photos in them, downstairs," Justin said. "But she also has them on DVDs."
"That's a wise thing to do," I nodded. "Keeping them safe and all. It's pretty nice to look at them like this, too, I think...not just staring at a computer screen, isn't it?"
Justin shrugged.
"Dunno."
I chuffed at Justin's lack of romantic ideas about photos and opened the album and leafed over the empty white pages on the front to expose the first plastic-encased snapshots.
"Hah!"
Justin pointed at the first thing he could see, which was, incidentally, a caption of yours truly sitting amidst a pile of Christmas presents, about five years old, and wearing a little 5-year-old-sized blue coveralls, complete with suspenders and oversized buttons on them. I was staring at the camera with big, open, and very red eyes.
I looked happy.
"Yeah," I smiled, happy about my brother's amusement, too. "Ought to be Christmas...1988 or so, I think."
"That's 10 years before I was even born!" Justin snuffled.
"That's right," I smirked.
I turned the page and there was another photo of me there, probably from that same Christmas time, but this time dad had also crashed into the shot. I couldn't help but smile, and Justin went...
"Oh shit ha!"
Dad was wearing a knit Christmas sweater, something green that looked like a Christmas elf hat, and his glasses had very thick plastic rims and looked like they covered half of his face. Dad was grinning in an exceedingly goofy manner, and little Rory looked more puzzled than delighted with the appearance of his dad.
"I think I remember those glasses," I rumbled.
"I'm glad I don't," Justin rumbled.
"Wrong decade," I chuckled.
"No," Justin said. "Just wrong."
I flipped over to the next page. I was almost expecting yet another holidays-themed snapshot, but instead there was one of me, aged maybe 12, holding up a big wooden spoon that had unmistakable cookie dough remains still attached to it. The furs on my face held the majority of the chocolate stains, however.
"Hmm..."I mused, "looks like I've been helping out mom."
"And eating all the dough," Justin rumbled.
"And that too, because it's yummy," I said and licked my lips for the show.
"Heh."
I flipped the page, and instantly hit the proverbial Rory Embarrassment Factor 100, on a scale that only went up to...maybe 101. It was snapshot into a room that was quite dark, with red brick walls that had plastic vines hanging off them, besides framed old movie posters for decoration. At the center of the view was an oversized couch, and onto that were piled a lot of furs, including myself, complete with a burgundy red beret.
Yeah...
One of my paws held a bottle of imported cider. I was wearing a purple collared shirt, with a black waistcoat over it, and that beret, perched over my head. I wasn't wearing my faux glasses, but I did have three artistically asymmetric black spots painted over each of my cheeks, as was the suggestion of the fashion craze at the time. I was grinning broadly, and I had my free arm around the shoulders of someone sitting next to me, a cougar wearing relatively normal brown corduroy pants and a casual-looking striped shirt.
Peter looked so bright and so handsome, smiling like that, with just a fraction of his teeth showing for the benefit of the camera. He wasn't looking at the camera or me, though, but rather towards the other side of the room, perhaps, past the others on the couch.
"Wow," Justin muttered.
I felt a definite sensation of heat creep over my cheeks. It was embarrassing to think about my old fashion statements, let alone see them in the form of an old photograph...and to have Justin witness the lunacy as well.
"Yeah," I mused, as I allowed my eyes roam the picture. "I think it's from...uhh...2003, 2004, maybe. Back when I was college."
"I kinda guessed that," Justin replied, his eyes also fixed on the picture.
I made a bit of a "heh" face.
"And I looked a bit different, didn't I?" I casually pointed out the...car crash of style that was evident in my dress.
Not the worst one in the room, though, I assure you. There were contenders alright.
"Ummmmyeah," Justin snuffled.
"Yeah," I rumbled.
Justin's finger tapped over a face in the picture.
"Isn't that...you know...Peter?" Justin asked.
I smiled and nodded.
"That's him," I noted. "Having a lot of fun in this party...it must've been something for the students at the local student bar at the campus...we had plenty of those little parties."
"Are you drunk?" Justin pointed at me now, in my perfect beret-wearing glory.
I snuffled.
"Maybe a bit, but it's hard to judge, really, from this picture."
"Ohh alright," Justin replied, "so who's the rest of these furs?"
I looked at the various faces, quietly, for a moment, and allowed myself to remember.
"it's been a while..." I mused, rubbing the side of my neck, "but let me see...hmm..."
A vixen, wearing a pink T-shirt of such a tight quality that she reminded me a bit of Marge, even.
"That's Amanda, she studied English and French."
A coyote, with a bottle of beer and a goofy grin at the camera.
"Christopher...English and some economics, I think."
A lion, who had dyed a red fringe to his mane, which created a wholly ridiculous effect.
"And that's Nick...he studied English, too."
Justin probably didn't have to know that Nick was dating Christopher at the moment, and that's why they were sitting together on the same beanbag on the edge of the photoframe.
"And I think this mare here is Shauna...she studied...hmmm...chemistry I think... but she liked hanging around with us bunch..."
A wolf, not much unlike a certain frat wolf I knew and worked with, who saw on the end of the couch.
"And that's Clay...he studied German and loved to fool around with a movie camera."
A Bordercollie girl, waving at the camera and grinning broadly.
"Melissa...she studied drama...really into acting. Really...bubbling personality."
"Really annoying too?" Justin suggested.
I chuckled.
"I suppose after a couple of drinks she could be...yeah," I rumbled, not wanting to sound judgmental.
"Were they all your friends?"
"Not everyone, but we all liked having a good time."
In more ways than one, but that was a bit advanced knowledge for someone as young as Justin, and I left it to be.
"And...uh...was Peter you boyfriend"? he asked.
My ears jumped a little in surprise at that particular question.
"No," I said. "He wasn't."
"Ohhh..." my brother snuffled. "You just kinda look like you were...uh."
I looked at the photo again, and wondered. I was sitting there, smiling and grinning and with an arm over his shoulders...no worries about personal space or anything of the sort...it was obvious even to Justin that we were enjoying each other's presence.
"Well, sometimes you can love someone a great deal, but not be...uhm...together, with them, " I replied.
Justin snorted.
"Hope you're not gonna tell me that it's one of those things that I'll understand when I'm older," my brother frowned.
I chuckled and ruffled Justin's head furs.
"Yeah," I grinned. "I am."
"Awww man!" my brother pouted.
I nudged his side with my elbow and turned the page.
There was another picture there, of me, standing next to a wiry young coyote and a very happy-looking Peter.
Oh.
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