FSE

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Hehhey, and welcome to the Hockey Hunk! It's a Wednesday chapter today, and I hope that this'll keep your speculation going on until Friday! *chuckle* Still quite a bit of steam left to season 4, I say, and then...after a summer break...the exciting season 5!

I hope you'll enjoy the read, and as always, hope you'll comment, vote, fave and watch - all feedback is always appreciated, and will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well!

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The keys rattled. The lock rattled. Shiver. What was the time? I flipped a button on the remote to get the clock to show up on the TV screen. A bit after ten PM. That was damn early. Was it...

The door opened. His crutch banged against the old steel shoe rack that had been here when we moved in, whoever left it there, no idea. Lots of stuff in this apartment was stuff that had been "found", let alone donated, which consisted of about 99 percent of the stuff in the apartment.

I turned a bit to see the door. Tate turned on the lights and I blinked a couple of times. He just tugged his tail out of the way, closed the door and put on the deadbolt and the chain.

"Hi," I said.

He never took off his sneakers, because he needed them to feel steady on his leg and all that jazz, so he just walked in.

"Hey."

He didn't sound that cheerful. He just stomped past me on his way to the kitchen. I stopped wanting to watch the TV and watched how Tate went to the kitchen and pulled out the drawer where we kept drugs and stuff.

"You okay?"

He took out some packet and squeezed out a couple of pills onto his palm and put them onto the table. He grabbed a dirty glass from the counter, put some water to it from the tap and then swallowed the pills.

"What's that? You in pain?" I knew he got that sometimes. It could get scary.

He closed the kitchen drawer with a bang.

"Pain in the ass more like," Tate grunted.

"Oh," my ears fell.

Tate smacked his lips, probably at the terrible taste of water coming from that glass, grabbed his crutch, and walked over to the couch. He sat down and I made a little bit of extra room for him. I'd been sitting kind of widely there. I liked spreading myself out.

"Was the party fun?" I asked.

Tate snorted.

"Almost ended up ruining it by doing a bag nasty," he grunted. "Fuck it."

I looked at him a bit. He didn't look happy at all.

"Had to do a runner?" I asked, using his term.

"And it was all running," he replied.

I winced.

"Sorry, man."

He shrugged.

"Nothing that never happened before," Tate grunted. "Fuck that. At least I made it in time. Would've been one worst kind of a party pooper if I didn't."

I snorted. You got used to this kind of talk after a while, especially if it was your everyday life, or something like that. That it definitely was.

"Sorry to hear that."

He stretched his paws out high above his head and let out a big grunt before putting them down. One paw began to rub his probably sore stomach a bit.

"Screw it," he said.

"So did you leave the party early or...?"

"Just didn't really feel like it anymore after three runners," he replied. "They kinda understood, I guess, by the time I asked Victor for some matches."

"Ouch," I didn't know what else to say.

"My fault," he said. "There was so much food, I rushed a bit, I guess and that's all you need."

"Still a shame...you were so looking forward to it."

"It was fun for as long as it lasted," he said.

"How were your friends? You said you didn't see in a really long time..."

"Dunno about friends," he was looking at the TV now, "just old schoolmates..."

"At least they wanted to throw a party for you," I said. "Don't know if any of my schoolmates even remember me anymore...not that it matters..."

"I suppose it wasn't meant to be one, but it kinda felt like one, to be honest," Tate said, "there was so much food and Cobb was so all over me..."

"Cobb?" I was sure I'd heard the name before, but maybe I just didn't remember it right.

"Yeah," Tate said, "that's Jacob, I mean, Cobb's just his nickname, everyone always called him Cobb...everyone...family, friends...even the teachers, hah..."

"Right," I nodded, "so is he the football buddy you mentioned?"

"Yeah, that's right," he said, "we played in the Chargers...the football team. His brother Victor was in the ice hockey team."

That was a familiar name, too.

"And they were brothers, yeah?"

"Twins, even," he chuckled, "not identical but pretty close, I guess..."

"Hahah," I laughed a bit. That sounded pretty cool.

"So they both live here, right?"

"Only Victor does," he said, "his brother's been helping him out ever since his accident."

I didn't like the sound of that. Knew too much about that sort of things to like hearing about it even quickly like that. I nodded.

"Cool that he's there for his brother. Guess not everyone could do it."

"No," he shook his head.

"Well it's cool that you've got an old buddy living here," I said, "I think my closest relative is something like a cousin in Pittsburg or something."

"Yeah, it's fun," he said, "dunno if I'll see them again but..."

"Why not?" he sounded excited about meeting them, even if he was now feeling a bit bad otherwise.

"Well I don't know...dunno if they want to hang out with an old lug like me..."

"Well you're pretty cool..."

Damn. Almost blushed when I said that. I looked at my knees instead of him. Felt a bit funny, saying that to him. At least I hoped he didn't mind. That'd be weird if he'd start thinking all sorts of weird stuff about me.

"Well thanks."

Well at least he didn't sound pissed off.

"So what do they do?" maybe I should make some conversation. Get some practice in doing it again and not think about everyone just staring at me and not listening to what I gotta say. Not that I said much to begin with, but still.

"Victor works in this big company that sells office supplies to businesses and schools and stuff, and Cobb owns an online store with their sister."

"Cool! What do they sell?"

"All sorts of trash," he said.

"Wow..."

"They handle the sales coming from lots of websites selling fan memorabilia and stuff," he said, "T-shirts and something like that. When the orders are made on those websites, they get the orders and they send the stuff out from their warehouse. So it's like concentrating lots of small sales onto one place to cut costs."

"Bit like Amazon?"

"I suppose," he was scratching again.

"Wow...you've got rich friends then..."

"Well don't know about that...but guess they both have good jobs...unmarried too..."

"Hahah, that's the best money-sparing method," I chuckled. "Don't have kids!"

"Shaddap, kid," he chuckled and made a little pass in my direction with his paw, which I dodged. It felt kinda good that he'd dare to do something like that, even with my horrible face and all that...I mean...his paw was coming kinda close to my muzzle when he was play-punching me and I tilted my head and...

...kinda felt good. Kidna felt good that he didn't just look away or pretend I didn't exist. Guess we didn't have the comfort of doing that, considering that we lived together, and knew everything about each other's secrets. We'd cleaned each other's pressure sores for fuck's sake. What else you could do with a dude to feel more naked? Not that I was gonna tell that to him. Didn't want to sound weird. Didn't really want to think about it too much either.

"I ain't a kid," I said.

"You are compared to me," he said. "I'm gonna turn 31 soon."

"We can hold a birthday party," I said, "let's invite everyone from the group and school and your buddies too!"

Tate shook his head and smacked the floor with his tail.

"No way in hell I'm gonna invite anyone here," he said grumpily, "this place looks like a crackhouse."

I wanted to blush again. There were a few clothes lying around, and the pizza box and a few soda cans and...well...I hadn't really sorted out that old pile of mail yet, either, except to take out the bills and the other important stuff...really should put up that "No ads please!" sign...I don't know...

"Guess I should've cleaned a bit...sorry..."

"I'm as responsible as you are for keeping this place tidy," Tate said. "No need to be sorry. I gotta shape up, too."

"It's okay...guess we've both been busy."

"Still, we'll be getting bugs here soon if we don't keep this place clean..." he eyed the mess around us, "why don't we clean this place out tomorrow after we come home, huh? Put out all the trash and maybe sweep or maybe even mop this place, if I can find some detergent."

I looked at the stains on the carpet near my footpaws and nodded.

"Looks like we need Clorox..." I said.

"Or a mom..."

"Or that..."

"Want me to ask mine to come from Cleveland?" Tate sounded so not serious.

"Is she good with cleaning?"

"She even cleaned our ears with Q-tips," Tate sounded serious now. "Even dad had to submit to a weekly checking."

"Wow..."

He flicked his ears.

"Never had an ear infection as a cub," he said.

"Wow..."

"I was a dirty pup, "the fox said. "Always coming home with my clothes dirty..."

"Hahah," the thought made me smile.

Tate yawned.

"I think I better go to bed," he said, "still don't feel perfectly good and I don't want to feel like shit tomorrow at school."

"Oh, okay."

He grabbed his crutch.

"Better just take my Elavil and go to bed" he said as he got up.

"I hope you'll feel better in the morning..."

"Thanks, Marker...kid."

Kid again...but guess it was cool, coming from Tate. He disappeared in a swish of a tail and a slightly difficult step taken towards the kitchen where he kept his drugs along with the rest of our arsenal.

I yawned, too. The TV didn't seem all that interesting anymore. Maybe I should've gone to bed, too. My eyes felt kinda heavy.

*

Thank you for reading my story! Hope you enjoyed the read, and hope you'll feel like giving me a teeny weeny (string bikini) comment to tell me how I did! Also remember that all votes, faves and watches will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well!

See you on Friday!