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Hello, and welcome to the second part of the mid-season opener of "I'm Still With the Hockey Hunk"! Rory' story is up to a strong start, with this chapter, I think ,as the story becomes deeper, and the drama gets bigger and more personal!

I've been astonished by the amount of feedback on the latest chapter, I thank everyone for your contributions, I have had so much pleasure reading your thoughts, and they have also made me think a lot about the story as well, and ways to improve it even further. Thank you for that, everyone!

As always, all comments are valuable, so no need to hesitate!

Also remember that all votes, faves and watches will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well!

This chapter is being posted in two parts, so don't forget to check the next chapter as well, because it's up tonight as well!

Have a fun read, everyone, I sure had lots of fun writing this 12,000-word special double chapter!

Cheers!

*

Oh, Jesus, I don't think that I'd ever had such a tense car ride anywhere, and that includes a few funerals and the like, so believe me when I tell you that I was not a comfortably fluff-butt of a lion when I sat in the back of Victor's nice car. I listened to Haakon's happy chatter on the passenger's seat, pointing out stuff he could see on the outside or sharing a few words about the game he had just played against Victor, and all the time the lynx's ears flicked with pleasure at getting to have a good chat with his buddy Victor.

I, Rory, the one who should've been the one talking with Victor, sulked on the backseat and tried my best to not to show it, in case that would put Haakon off and make him suspicious. I tried to keep my eyes on the street lights and on the things going on at the sidewalk and try not get myself too involvement in he boys' hockey business. I didn't think I had the right , anyway, not after I royally pissed off Victor with my lie, the all too convenient, fast lie that had slipped from my muzzle to cover my sorry ass.

All because I wasn't brave enough to be who I was without any public regrets.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rory Gliese sucked that night.

I didn't feel exactly like I was in the mood for a party when Victor pulled up the car and parked it along the quiet street. We got out and me and Haakon trailed the big Dobie stamping along the hundred yards or so that we had to walk until the red neon sign of "Bart's" told me that we had arrived to the destination of the harrowing trip I had to take.

The loud sound of whooping and singing assaulted my ears as soon as the three of us entered into the small bar, which, judging from the décor on the walls and the giant television off to one side was some sorts of a sports bar. The fact that there were also about a dozen guys wearing black or red ice hockey shirts littering a few tables that had been pulled together to make one big island of boozing did also help me to place the genre of the bar into the right category. There were a few other patrons sitting around as well, but I think that at the moment, the majority consisted of the rowdy hockey team of the Taylor University supplemented by the burly dudes from United Stationery Company, Victor Holden included.

As soon as we entered, a bespectacled deer still wearing his red game shirt raised his beer bottle high above his antlers and yelled.

"Hey, hey, Victor's here!" the deer called out, drawing all the attention to the large Dobie in the doorway, and by proxy, me and Haakon as well.

"Wassup!" Haakon called out, his tall flicking so widely that he even smacked my hip with it.

"Yo, everyone!" Victor replied in a rough rumble, which seemed to please the furs on the table, because there was a general round of "Hello's" Hi's", "Yo's" and waves and paw-slapping over the table to greet the new arrivals.

I followed Victor and Haakon, feeling just a little meek and out of place in this fortress of dudehood, but at least I had Victor here with me, and it wasn't like I expected anything weird out of the place, it was just a regular bar, with regular furs going there...I shouldn't think of every place like this as a gathering place for skinheads or something like that. I did also realize that Victor would probably have to introduce me somehow to these furs, many of whom were his co-workers, and the thought itself made me a bit more nervous, and also, admittedly, more guilty. We might have only went out a couple of times, Victor and I, but already he was confident enough about me to show me off to his friends? Make me part of it all. Did they know Victor was gay? Would they think of me as a friend or a FRIEND, with a meaningful pause and a look after saying the word? Why didn't I think of that before?

My belly clenched as I wondered how Haakon would react to hearing such implications from Victor's co-workers, and I wasn't really sure what my mood was when we reached the table staffed by so many hockey furs, and Victor pulled out a couple of chairs.

"Come on and sit down, I'll get something to drink for both of you, what do you want to have?" Victor growled close to my ear, almost managing to make me blush.

"I'll have a Budweiser," Haakon spoke quickly as he smoothly landed down onto the offered seat, next to a muscular pit bull.

I snuffled.

"A Sprite for me, I'm the driver, eh?" I felt like I was 12, having a soda when everyone else was going to have booze, but there was no changing Victor's mind at this point, so I just submitted to my fate and sat down next to Haakon.

Victor disappeared towards the bar counter, and I sat down, wondering just how on Earth would this turn out in the end.

Next to me, Haakon and the pit bull brushed knuckles together and grinned and chuckled and snuffled and generally acted like dudes, and the lynx was certainly beaming again with that pearly white smile that could melt the ice from all the fjords of his native lands.

"Wassup, man?" I heard the pit bull speak.

"Just great, great game!" Haakon declared to his buddy.

"Ace!" the pit bull patted Haakon's shoulder.

I, on the other paw, felt eyes on me, and realized that the deer who had greeted Victor earlier was now looking at me, curiously, from behind his square glasses. My cheeks immediately flared.

"Hey," the deer said.

"Hello," I said, meekly, probably barely audible across the mayhem of the table where everyone seemed to be talking with everyone, and noisily at that.

"Are you a friend of Victor's?" the deer asked, still watching me curiously.

Shitshitshitshitshit.

I tried smiling.

"Yeah, he asked me to come and see the game," I replied as truthfully as I possibly could.

"Sure," the deer replied, and pushed his paw towards me, across the table. "Toby Williams, assistant manager of the stapler department."

I gave the offered paw as hard a squeeze as I could, and kept a good, solid eye contact, and nodded, and flicked an ear.

"I'm Rory," I said, as we shook paws.

"Nice to meet you Rory," the deer replied. "What's your business?"

Oh, god...

"Book retail," I replied, once our bone-crunching pawshake was over.

The deer called Toby took a sip from his beer and gave me a thoughtful nod.

"How's the Kindle doing for your sales?"

I tried my best not to frown.

"We trade in second-paw collectible books and college textbooks, that's keeping sales good," I said after a pause to try to think of what the hell I could answer to such a question.

"Niche market, good, good," the deer nodded expansively. "Do you sell any stationery?"

Oh my God...

"There's a greeting card and stationery shop just around the corner, it wouldn't really be good business for...uh...us," I tried, my tail flicking erratically under my seat, trying to hide from this nervewracking conversation.

"Oh, I see," the antlers waved in the air in front of me as he again nodded broadly, up and down he went.

There was a bear sitting next to me, who now suddenly came to life and gave me a nudge with his elbow, on my side, almost making me jump.

"Don't mind Toby, he always talks about staplers," the bear grinned, giving the deer on the other side of the table a wink.

The deer chuckled.

"Market research, Kipper, that's what it is."

The bear, now presumably called Kipper, chuckled.

"Or being a bore," the bear opinioned.

The deer didn't look exactly fully amused, but at least there was soon distraction when Victor returned, placing a bottle of beer in front of Haakon, and a glass of ice-cold Sprite down by my paw. The big Dobie circled the table and then landed down on the other side, next to the deer who just happened to be sitting right next to the only remaining empty seat.

"Thanks, Victor!" Haakon grinned and lifted his bottle in a toast before he took a sip.

"Woot!" the pit bull joined in as well, and clicked bottles with Haakon, smiling toothily.

I turned to look at Victor across the table, and saw that he held a small tumbler in his paw, containing what I presumed to be whiskey. He certainly hadn't joked about needing a stiff drink...

The stapler-loving deer turned to face Victor, with that same grin on his face.

"Good game, Victor?"

Victor's big head gave a brief nod.

"Sure," he replied. "I think it was a pretty good game."

"Gave the kids' their money's worth alright," Toby smirked, and I he didn't keep his voice down.

The college dudes surrounding the other side of the table seemed to be too busy cavorting with each other to really notice, though, but Victor started to talk about some kind of a save he had done during the game, and the deer got into it as well, and soon the two guys were busily going on about the game while I sat there with my kiddie drink and felt out of place something serious.

It could be worse, I guess, I thought as I took a sip of my ice cold Sprite, at least nobody was paying any special attention to me, an alternative that might have been even worse, in a sense. I didn't want to get on the spot and cause trouble to myself, or Victor, this was mostly about him, anyway, these were his friends, not mine...well...maybe except for Haakon, but he seemed to be quite busy and happy talking with the pit bull, and that meant that I didn't have anyone to talk to now.

Maybe this was a due punishment to me...sitting here, nervous and a little bit bored, and only able to watch Victor and not do anything fun with him, like...well, like what we had done in the deserted locker room, before the game, for example. That had been fun, but the prospects of anything else happening tonight seemed pretty low, considering that the time was wearing on, Victor was probably angry with me, and there was always the fact that we both had to go to work tomorrow, and Victor would also have to go back home to Cobb. Brother Holden was probably already worried about where his brother might be hiding.

"HEY HEY VICTOR WHERE ARE YOU I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO WATCH TELEVISION TOGETHER IN THE EVENING I DIDN'T THINK YOU'D STAY OUT THIS LONG I GOT US BEER AND FRIED CHICKEN AND THOUGHT WE'D HAVE A BROTHER'S NIGHT IN AND WATCH FRASIER RERUNS TOGETHER AND HAVE FUN AND MAYBE BREAK OUT THE PHOTO ALBUM AND REMEMBER ALL THE EMBARRASSING THINGS YOU DID AS A CUB OF COURSE AND THAT'S SO MUCH FUN!"

Rory-Cobb's hysterical antics weren't quite enough to make me feel perfectly alright, but at least I was smiling a bit the next time I lifted my glass and took another icy cold sip of the fizzy drink prickling over my tongue. At least it tasted nice, and at least things were relatively calm now, there wasn't an argument going on between me and Victor, and Haakon was fine and distracted by his pit bull buddy, and I was alright...kinda...as long as I didn't let myself think about it too much.

I think we had sat there for over an hour, and Victor had downed two whiskeys as he had predicted he would, earlier. Then he put down his empty glass, wiped his chin, and gave me a long look across the table...one that made my belly jitter, and then he turned for the slightly more drunk than before deer sitting next to him.

"I think I'll have to be off now, lots of work tomorrow and I have to go and see what my brother's up to," he spoke, and received a nod and a smile from the deer.

"Shame that, but guess all of us could use some sleep too when it's time for that," the deer nodded energetically.

"Sure," Victor patted the older deer's back and then gave me another look again, making sure that I knew that we were going now.

Haakon seemed to be listening in as well, since he, too, elbowed me, gently.

"Already leaving?" the lynx smiled.

"Yeah, I'm driving Victor," I replied, hoping that it sounded like a convincing reason for me to leave with him, besides the fact that we were friends in the first place.

I was so paranoid!

"Aww, well, yeah, it was fun to have you around!" Haakon beamed.

Guess it was good he thought like that, even if we had hardly spoken during the whole evening at the bar.

"Yeah, it was fun watch you play and...this," I indicated my empty glass that still had a couple of slowly melting ice cubes at the bottom.

"Great fun!" the lynx grinned with extra enthusiasm provided by two beers. "Hope we'll see you around, Rory!"

"Yeah," I said as I got up and forced another smile on my lips, and Victor was there now as well, close by, waiting for me, obviously.

"Haakon, I'll get your stuff from the back of my car and drop it here for you, ok?" Victor spoke to the lynx.

"Sure, I think I'll catch the bus with Shark here," he flicked an ear in the direction of the pit bull who was busily downing another beer.

"Okay," Victor gave a quick nod.

"Good night now," I said to Haakon, and got a smile from him in return.

"Good night!"

"Good night everyone!" Victor waved to the assembled furs on the table, and got another wave of farewells from his friends, and even my meek little wave got a couple of returns, before I followed him out to the street.

The night air seemed colder than it was before, and I heard Victor take a deep, long breath, which he then slowly expelled. He stood there by the entrance to the bar for only a few moments before he started on his way along the sidewalk, to where his car was parked, walking in long strides.

I hurried up to walk level with him, and tried to catch his eyes.

"Victor," I spoke, tentatively.

The Dobie chuffed.

"We'll talk later on, Rory," he replied, eyes fixed ahead of him.

I felt an unpleasant weight in my belly again, and decided to do as I was told, and kept quiet until we reached the parked car, and Victor dug into his pocket to get the keys, which he then handed over to me.

"You're driving, remember?" he reacted to my weird look.

"Yeah," I replied, and went around the car to open the doors for both of us, and sat down behind the weird wheel of the car I had never driven before.

Victor hauled himself to the passenger's seat and slammed the door shut, sitting down heavily.

"Just drive us over to Bart's and I'll get the stuff from the back and take it over to Haakon, okay?"

"Sure," I replied, as I put on my own seat belt.

Victor still avoided my eyes.

I shook my head briefly, tucked my tail out of the way of the pedals and then hit the ignition. I might have been a bit out of practice, but I still managed to get us out of the parallel parking Victor had done before, and only a few moments later I put on the signal, and stopped us in front of the bar. Victor got out without saying a word, walked over to the trunk and soon I saw him disappear into the bar again, carrying Haakon's hockey bag and stick with him. I tapped the wheel with my fingertips and sighed again to myself. This was going to be so tense...and I would have to drive Victor home, and then probably catch a bus for myself, to get back home myself. Hopefully the busses ran regularly around this time as well.

Victor soon returned, put himself down on the seat, and put on his seatbelt.

"Just drive ahead and turn right when we reach Grantham Street."

"Okay."

I put the automatic gear on and gave the car some gas, and we were on the move again, me and Victor, in his car, with my nerves in a total state of wreckage, and Victor remaining quiet and not speaking at all.

I signaled on the end of the street to take us to Grantham Street, and drove on, trying to steal a glance at Victor whenever I could. He kept his eyes straight ahead of him, unnervingly so.

It took a while a before he spoke.

"There's a parking lot coming up after about a hundred yards, turn over there," Victor said.

I gave him a puzzled look, but did as I was told, and soon I had the car in a halt, parked next to a closed florist's shop, and an open convenience store, its bright lights shining into the car, too, as I turned off the engine, and let my paws fall down from the wheel.

For a while I could only hear our breaths, canned in this car, and thus, more audible than normal. I didn't really dare to look at Victor, I still felt guilty, and shamed, and...all that I was supposed to feel when I didn't quite do the right thing. My ears slowly flopped down to be flat against my head, and I tried to open my maw to speak, but thankfully, or perhaps not so, Victor beat me to it.

"That's a pretty fucking insane thing that happened back there with Haakon, Rory," the Dobie said.

I turned to face him, cautiously, and met his eyes, finally, and they were looking at me, sternly. My ears remained as flat as they were before.

"I know," I said, looking as guilty as I felt. "I'm so sorry."

Victor snorted.

"I can't wrap my mind around it, you know...I can't...how..."

"It's a small world after all," I quoted Haakon, quietly.

Victor rubbed the side of his head, behind one of his tall, flicking ears.

"That was still a pretty spot there, Rory, lies and all that."

"I know it was shit," I replied in a huffed breath. "But I..."

"You're not out," he noted.

"Are you?" I asked, almost snapped it at him.

"It's never been an issue for me," Victor replied. "I don't make noise about it, but if someone would ask me, I'd say yes. But you don't seem to feel the same."

I blushed heavily as he spoke, and I knew that I was probably a poor excuse of an emancipated homosexual lion, in his eyes.

"I just...," I breathed out, "I just don't want it to be an issue at all."

"So why the lies?" Victor wouldn't let me go off easily, that much was clear to me as he gave me a pointed look, his face cut into a light and a dark half by the gleam of light from the convenience store front. "Why couldn't you just say that we are friends, and leave it there?"

"I...panicked," I whispered through tight lips.

Victor gave me another of those doubtful looks that made me feel very nervous.

"And because of what? Did you really think that Haakon would automatically assume that we were boyfriends or something? I've never told him that I'm gay," Victor said.

I rubbed my face with my paw and sighed.

"I just don't...I just never told anyone at my work, and Haakon known Mason and...and I..."

"And would that Mason dislike you for being gay, Rory?"

"He's just a kid, I don't know what he thinks about it," I replied, quickly.

"But you don't want to risk anyone knowing that you're gay."

"No!"

"Why? Are you ashamed?"

"No!" I grunted.

Victor chuffed again.

"Do you fear that they'd bully you at work for being gay?"

I knew that they wouldn't...they weren't of the type, to actually discriminate me for being who I was...but all the other stuff...Marge...Crystal...Mason...how they might be all too curious about my private life...prying...making suggestions...teasing...I guess it wouldn't count as bullying, but it sounded so...complicated.

"Not really, I don't think anyone of them would have anything against it."

"So have you been bullied for it before?" Victor made the next question.

"I've never talked about it at work, anywhere," I replied.

Victor snorted.

"I do hope that you simply don't have a habit of lying about things."

I felt a twinge of anger mix with my fear when I spoke up, my voice rising, too.

"I just freaked out, Victor!" I snapped. "Honestly, I just freaked out and acted on some mad self-preserving impulse that made me come up with that stupid lie about how we knew each other! It didn't mean anything other than that!"

"But you still lied!" Victor growled.

"I know, I...!"

Victor's paw landed over my wrist and held me in a tight grip, its suddenness made my furs bristle, and I bared my teeth, instinctively, out of the surprise of being manhandled.

Victor's eyes were stern on me.

"I don't like lying," he said, in that deep rumble of his that didn't sound gentle now, like it usually did, "I...just don't like lying, especially about that. Do you understand that?"

I gave our connected paws a glance, then looked up to him, and nodded.

"Of course I do!" I breathed.

Victor's eyes seemed to soften a little, his ears flicked rapidly, and he did not let go of my paw yet, but some sort of a change seemed to take place in him, I felt, and didn't know whether it was for the better or the worse.

"That was a stupid thing, Rory, it was unnecessary."

"I know," I grunted.

Victor sighed.

"But I can understand, what's with the Haakon and all that..."

"It was insane," I snuffled.

"It was," Victor snorted. "I can't believe it..."

"Neither can I," I even managed to smile, just a little.

Victor didn't smile yet, but he nodded again.

"And I think that I owe you an apology as well, for being off all night when we should've been having fun, Rory," he said.

"At least I got what was coming for me, right?" I snuffled without humor.

Victor gave my wrist a squeeze, a gentle one, now.

"It wasn't very...grown up of me to sulk like that, I'm sorry for that," he said, and I knew that he meant it, that look...I don't think he really wanted to fake it, or anything like that.

"I'm sorry too, for freaking you out. For freaking us both out."

Victor managed a little smile...just a little one.

"I hope you understand it was just because of that completely unnecessary lie you had to come up with for no purpose whatsoever."

"I know," I replied, meekly and suitably guilty.

Victor rubbed my arm.

"Cheer up, okay?" he said. "I don't want this night to end up ruined, Rory."

"I don't want that either," I put my own paw over Victor's, and held it there, sandwiches between my arm and my palm, and gave it a little squeeze.

Victor leaned over towards me almost before I realized that it was happening, and all residual feelings of anger and confusion were promptly wiped away when his soft canine lips touched mine, whiskey-flavored, and with a gentle pressure, when he kissed me.

My eyes widened, and my paw over his clenched, out of surprise, and out of the want to hold him, when we were kissing, quite publically, in his car, so that anyone walking by could see what was going on, but I didn't care, I saw Victor's eyes, across his muzzle, the same muzzle that was touching my own in a kiss that made my lips prickle with heat.

Even when the kiss parted, Victor's hot breath washed over my face and made my blush intensify, as he sat back on his seat. My own tail twitched against my ankle.

"Wow..." I breathed out.

Victor chuckled, roughly.

"That's what I was thinking all the time in the bar, even when I was angry with you," he chuffed.

I frowned a little.

"You thought...wow...?" I asked.

Victor reached out and elbowed me, gently over the ribs, making me squirm appropriately, while he chuckled again.

"No, doing that," he said, looking at me meaningfully with those all too expressive eyes.

"Ohhh..." my ears flicked upon hearing the fact, and a little smile spread over my lips, even.

Victor cleared his throat.

"And I would like to do it again, and...ahem...ask you, Rory Gliese...would you...have Victor Holden over at your place, for a third night stand?"

I know that I should have been feeling angry, or something, or...pissed off, or freaked out over the whole Haakon business, and my argument with Victor, and all the shit and drama I had managed to cause and come up with within a couple of hours' time. I should have told myself that I didn't deserve anything from Victor tonight, besides that telling-off he had already done, that I should not lie pointlessly, because that only hurt furs in the end, and served no appreciable purpose except making my life more miserable when the lies collapsed down on themselves. I suppose that's what I should have been thinking, that Victor had already done me a service tonight...besides the muzzle service in the locker room which I still should reciprocate...I wanted to...and now it seemed that Victor still had that in mind, when he made that question that made my eyes widen again.

"You..." I felt blood rush over my cheeks and my chest and...down there as well, of course, I'm a healthy lion, "...you wanna come over?"

Victor snuffled.

"Kinda feeling like some make-up sex would be in order, to be honest, Rory," he spoke, but not without a grin on his lips, making it seem dangerous and...not just a little sexually charged as he regarded me across the two feet that separated us on the front seat of the car.

Now Rory Jr. reared up its barbed head fully, and poked out of my fuzzy sheath, in my pants, as a reminder of just what kind of an effect anything sexy related to the sexy Victor Holden had on me.

I smiled back, trying to make it as toothy as the one Victor gave for me, and spoke.

"Well...we already had a drink...so guess that...counts as a date..." I said.

Victor's paw returned on me again, over my thigh, and gave it a squeeze.

"I think it does," he grinned, and leaned over, and soon I had a Dobie muzzle nibbling over my ear and I was purring and even moaning quite openly, while Victor ravaged me there in public!

My pants felt one size too small when he finally returned to his seat, sounding a bit breathless, and looking at me with warm eyes.

"I think we can get going to your place now, Rory," he spoke, and I saw that he was digging out his phone from his pocket. "And now I'm going to text Cobb and tell him that I won't be home for the night, so he'll have to fend for himself."

My paws felt a bit shaky with excitement when I grabbed onto the key and the wheel.

"What are you going to tell him?" I whispered.

"I don't have to tell him anything except that I'm staying out for the night, and he can make his own assumptions from that," Victor replied, already tapping the keys on his phone to compose the text for the brother Dobie.

The engine purred, when I turned the key, and put the car on reverse gear.

*

What do you think of that Gruffhanger? How to resolve this business? Well, just click on the next chapter to find out! It's a double whammy tonight :)

All comments are appreciated as always, so no need to hesitate with the feedback. Also remember that all votes, faves and watches will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well.

Thank you for reading!