A Heart of Glass or a Heart of Stone
#58 of Hockey Hunk Season 5
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Appropriate fan art is by Frosted_Fur today - I can't believe he did it!
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Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Hockey Hunk!
It is my delight to announce that today is the third anniversary of The Hockey Hunk (and apparently the 40th anniversary of ABBA winning the Eurovision, so this day must have historical significance, right?) - so much time has passed, so many chapters, so many "heh's", and at least so far, not enough Cobb in leather pants. Perhaps today will do something about that...but indeed, it is business as usual, and I hope you'll enjoy the read!
I'd like to thank everyone for joining in on the fun, for all your comments, votes and faves - without your encouraging feedback, I doubt I would have had the confidence to go on for as long as I have. And more stories are still to be told in Kirk City, and I hope that the upcoming seasons will even further develop these characters and their lives and times. There will be more to come indeed.
As for now...have a fun read!
Special compliments to Hammerfist for his craft beer expertise :P
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Rory
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"...In a West End town, a dead end world...The East End boys and West End girls..."
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"Come on guys, aren't you going to dance?" Cobb bounced upon me and Victor, tail wagging and looking at us accusingly while the two of us were standing there, with beer bottles in our paws and watching (and at least I was trying not to cringe) while Nicholas Faye and his otter friend were doing some rather exaggerated dance moves by the stereo and seemingly having a wonderful time.
I glanced nervously at Victor, whose face was difficult to read. It had acquired a kind of an expression of a mask of resignation that shed very little proof of what was going on behind the tense muzzle of his. I just hoped that he wasn't planning to grab a carpet duster and show Cobb what happened to naughty Dobermans when they made a fool of themselves and their brother by arranging the gayest party ever.
"Maybe later," I hurried to say before Victor would hiss, or something, "we've got these beers to enjoy first, don't we?"
I quickly lifted my bottle, one that had a picture of a yellow cartoon cat smoking a cigarette on the label, and smiled, hoping that'd persuade Cobb to stop trying to persuade me and Victor to join Nicholas and Demetrius in dancing.
"Sure," Victor grunted, clutching his own bottle.
"Awww, well, of course!" Cobb slapped his paws together. "Are you liking it, Rory? That Sapporo nice for you, Victor?"
"Sure," Victor grumbled.
"Aww, great!" Cobb slammed his paws down on each of our shoulders, hard enough that it felt like my knees might have given a little. "You better dance a bit, though, two those guys are having fun with it!"
He pointed at the feather boa-adorned pair and sounded oddly pleased at the fact that he managed to make two gay guys very happy indeed. Perhaps it tickled that part of Cobb, deep in his brain that received great deal of pleasure from making other furs happy...or at least, by the proxy of having them be grateful at him for being such a lovely, playful Dobie.
With leather pants.
Oh, damn...my balls were aching from the very sight of that get-up. He squeaked with each step. I could only imagine how sweaty he must've been underneath all that.
And where'd he gotten them in the first place? I couldn't imagine him wearing anything like that under any normal circumstances...but Cobb had remarkable proficiency in pushing the limits of normal, even when he wasn't wearing eye-watering leather pants on him.
"They seem to be, indeed!" I cheered.
"You have weird friends, Rory," Cobb suddenly leaned close to me and whispered, hot beer breath brushing against my face and making me blush.
"Cobb..." Victor huffed.
"Heh," I scratched the back of my neck, to give me some sort of a distracting physical sensation that wasn't related to Cobb at all, "well, they're a bit eccentric...but I only know Nicholas, really, Demetrius is his friend, actually."
"Well he likes me beer!" Cobb sounded so happy. "That's great!"
"It must be," I smiled.
"I better get some, too...and you guys better have another one, too!" he chuckled roughly. "So many you haven't tasted yet, guys! Victor, you've barely drank your Sapporo!"
"I don't want to get drunk," Victor said.
"Bah," Cobb sounded offended, "not with that stuff you won't! You should have an Old Scratch to get a good buzz going on!"
He sauntered away, his tail wagging and his ass swinging, and I suspected that he already had quite the buzz indeed...sweet mother of mercy...
Against my better judgment, I followed his trail to the kitchen, which also allowed me to spy Peter standing by the dining table, staring down at the fox sitting there and looking...well...maybe not quite as happy as he should be, in a party that was meant to be in his honor, more or less.
Tate
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" ...too many shadows, whispering voices..."
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"May I sit here?"
That weird cougar was there now...a bottle of water in one paw, a plate of food in another, looking at the empty side of the table where Cobb had sat me down and said that he'd come back right away but had not been seen since, because he seemed to be too busy either bringing more beer to his brother and that Rory guy or trying to run away from those two queens who wanted to tie him down with their feathery things and sit on his lap, it seemed. And now there was this guy standing there with that white thing over his face, like he had come dressed as a very unconvincing Michael Jackson or something. He was glaring at me over the rim of what white thing.
"I must eat with these utensils, so I'd rather sit down than balance this plate on my knee," he continued in a rumble.
"Fine," I said.
The cougar sat down, placed his plate down, then the bottle, then the utensils that had been wrapped in a napkin after he'd told Cobb that he just couldn't accept anything else, and then he fussed with them, too, rubbing them with another napkin, as if giving them a polish, and I just didn't know what the hell was going on with him. I tried tasting my own food...there was a bit of salad and chicken that looked really nice, but my stomach was churning and I wasn't sure if I was able to summon much of an appetite. I did want to eat, but remembering the last time with Cobb's cooking...I didn't want to cause that kind of a scene again.
"So much food..." the cougar said.
"Yeah," I said.
He slipped fingers under the elastic bands of the white mask, which was then flipped off his muzzle, to reveal a slightly puffy tan-shaded face, and a somewhat downturned expression. The mask was carefully laid down onto the table and the to the side, with very dainty fingers indeed. Then he smiled.
"3M Aura N95 respirator," he said, "a bit pricey but it's comfortable. Better than surgical masks."
I had no idea, really, what he was talking about. I just looked...wondered if I should just ignore him. I didn't know who he was, but I did know that Cobb's frantic phone call to me to invite me over had had a large portion being devoted to that nice cougar friend of Victor's boyfriend's, who would surely be extra nice company.
"My name is Peter," he said as he picked up his fork and poked it through a slice of cucumber, "Jacob did introduce us before...but indeed, I am Peter."
"Tate," I muttered, not sure what he was after with this chit-chat.
"Hello," he said, "excuse me if I don't shake paws. I don't like touching. It's part of my agoraphobic obsessive compulsive disorder."
Well that was one way to introduce yourself, I guess.
"Tough shit," I said. I knew that one agora-word well. Been a victim myself. Had known days when I was too afraid to go out because I knew furs would be staring at the one-legged fox.
"I call it collateral damage," he said, chewing on that cucumber, "I have had health problems and it has required me to adhere to utmost standards of hygiene, and at some point I must've snapped and went overboard with it and I became quite pathological."
Hmm. So was that it, Cobb? Pair up the two broken guys while the rest of the queers played around? One without a leg and one with strange things going on in his head. What a fantastic plan, Cobb Holden. Wonder if he'd soon bounce over to ask if we had already decided on a nice gay date spot. Nah...for now he was busy chugging down a beer behind the kitchen counter.
"I understand you've known Jacob and Victor for quite long?" the cougar said.
I might as well be polite, if he was.
"Yeah," I said.
"I can't say I have known them for a particularly long time yet but they have certainly made an impression," he said.
"Oh," I said.
Peter
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This fox didn't seem to be of a very talkative sort. Or maybe he was too distracted by the sight of the love of his life pirouetting about in his posterior-enhancing apparel or lack thereof. Even I was not blind for such joys, but I did not want to be a bad guest.
"Oh, indeed," I said, with a forkful of salad ready to go into my muzzle for a thorough chewing. "I think they have brought much action into my friend Rory's life."
Perhaps that was an understatement, but I wasn't sure how much this gloomy vulpine was in the know of the local Holden-Sinclair-Gliese gossip.
"It...seems so," he said, looking at somewhere that must've placed to my left, and indeed, as I looked over, there they were, standing together with their heads leaned close to speak over the blast of the music, in that cute way couples do, while Nicholas Gaye and his presumed otter fuck buddy were still shaking their asses to the music and doing some _Saturday Night Fever_dance moves, just because they could. Perhaps they were getting the best out of this deal, getting the kind of amusement that fit them most. Everyone else were bound to just stare at the slow motion Hindenburg disaster unfolding. All I missed was some unsalted low fat popcorn...
COBB
Hmm... I finished an Old Scratch earlier...this Blaecorn Unidragon was something nice to zero down the taste buds before going for something more adventurous...maybe a Gumball Head. Rory seemed to like that...who'd believe that gay guys were so keen on beer? That otter had already downed a Gulden Draak before he decided to have a dance with Rory's friend. I wasn't sure about that but I guess they weren't harming anyone...and the music was there for everyone to enjoy, so if you wanted to do some dancing...sure!
And ohhh...what did I see? Wasn't that good old Tate chatting all nicely with Peter? Oh, if only those two would have some good time, I knew Tate couldn't really dance and he didn't seem like too interested in talking with Victor and Rory not either....and I was so busy keeping everyone happy and having fun that I didn't really have too much time to concentrate on him...but at least there was Peter, talking with him and they were looking alright! I couldn't really hear too well what they were saying but they were chatting nicely! Might pop by and say hello.
"...I know all there is to know about the crying game..."
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Tate
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"...about the crying game..."
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The cougar glanced over his shoulder, his ears flicking back and forth, before he chortled and looked at me.
"It appears that our friend Jacob has a large collection of Boy George music," he said.
What kind of right he had to call Cobb his friend? Didn't he just say that they barely knew each other? Why did everyone want to lay a claim on him, just like that? Cobb might've had his heart in his sleeve but still...some manners.
"I didn't know he likes this kind of music," I said, remembering only very different songs being hollered in drunken voices in various parties.
"Perhaps he considered it would make for a good...atmosphere," the cougar wearing the leather cap said.
Like the light that was too dim to make it difficult to walk around without colliding with stuff and inviting those weird queers around? Like I wanted to be shown how I should act so that I could find some real gay furs to be with, unlike Cobb...the only straight guy in the room. Hell...the straight Holden brother...fuck...it might've as been Victor I liked...he was handsome...muscular and friendly...I'd noticed him almost as much as his brother alright...though...when it came to everything else...it was Cobb, not him.
Just Cobb.
"I don't know," I said, to have something to say.
He began to scratch his arm.
"Do you like this kind of music?"
My ears went back and forth.
"Don't pay too much attention to it," I replied.
"I'm more a Kate Bush kind of a cat," he said.
"I don't know who that is," I said.
The cougar chuckled.
"An acquired taste, I'd think," he said, "but very, very talented."
"I'll take your word for it," I said.
We ate idly in silence for a moment, before he snuffled.
"You're not very happy, are you?" he said suddenly.
My tail bristled at the surprise question. He was looking at me...looking in the eye, like you didn't do when you were just looking at someone in general...
"What?" I said.
He stopped scratching and simply held his arms folded over the table, leaning forward a little.
"Somehow I get the feeling that this might not be your idea of a great party," the cougar said.
Excuse me, was that really his business? Had Cobb really put him up to this? To get me off his back by having someone distract me? Someone to try to hit on me, even? Was this cougar gonna ask me soon if I wanted to fuck or something? Didn't some furs call that "partying", too, sometimes.
" ...when the rain is falling on your face..."
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"Oh, Adele too?" the cougar sounded cheerful at that.
Nicholas
"This Jacob really has most lovely taste in music!" I spoke to Demetrius, smiling.
"May I ?" he offered a paw.
I gasped.
"A slow dance?" I questioned. "Shall we?"
He cocked his head to the side confidently and curled his fingers, briefly.
"If you might," he said, "but you'll have to lead, you're taller."
"So that's what it takes..." I chuckled as I put my paws on him and led him into a sway...our boas rustling together.
Rory
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"Those two are getting cozy..." I nodded towards the dancing pair a little way from me and Victor.
"Do you want to as well?" Victor asked me, looking curious and...maybe a bit concerned. Hell, I'd be...doing anything that counted as even the least intimate with Cobb around...perhaps there was a primal fear that Cobb might whip out a video camera or something.
"You'd dance with me?" I questioned, watching him carefully.
"Maybe when the other guests are gone?" he said.
"And your brother passed out?" I licked my lips teasingly.
Victor chuckled, and that was a reassuring noise alright.
"And with his door barred with a chair from the outside or something," he said.
"I could live with that," I said.
He smiled a little, and I rubbed his arm.
COBB
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Looked like those two liked Adele alright...wonder if Tate liked Adele...I should go and ask him right away! And why weren't Victor and Rory dancing...if those others were...maybe I should ask Tate out to dance or something...just friendly, I mean...everyone else was dancing...hahaah....
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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the story, and I look forward to reading your comments! Also remember that all votes, faves and watches will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well!
See you on Friday!