Does That Smell Funny To You? - HH SURPRISE CHAPTER!
#30 of Hockey Hunk Season 3
Victor really needs some coffee, and Rory isn't far off after him. Time to put those four legs into good use.
Hehhey - guess what?
Yes, it's a surprise Wednesday chapter of the HH, served to you by yours truly, simply because I can. No announcements, no banging the drum, just an extra chapter, to keep the story flowing nicely.
Don't forget to comment - all the feedback is always much appreciated! Also remember that al the faves, votes and watches will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well!
EDIT: Also, Devilflare just commented about a new VICTOR FAN ART made by the always talented and generous kensukethecat - please take a look and see a VERY nice rendition of everyone's favourite Hockey Hunk!
Thank you, kensuke, you sure treated me to a great surprise!
EDIT: Now also as special cover art, as per permission by kensukethecat
Have a good read, y'all!
G
*
"You mind offering a big guy a coffee, would you?"
He looked so...tired. I guess that was the best way to put it, how that face and those eyes reflected the inner mindscape of the Dobie finally standing next to me, in the flesh, out here on the street, and the sun shone over the brown furs that were so much like Victor.
My fingertips squirmed around the grips of my crutches, my tail was trying its best to stay still, but my belly felt just like my fingers, I supposed, as I stood there and appraised the Dobie. He kept watching me, carefully, though the eyes weren't quite as bright as I remembered them to be, when the more cheerful personality of Victor's would be on the surface.
This version was almost scarier than the angry one.
"Hi!" I managed, with a smile that was a genuine, warm tug on my lips and I hoped it showed the way I wanted it to be, because that's how I felt.
He gave me a look, and only then did I remember that he'd also made that question before! I almost blushed right there and then as I realized that it had slipped through my mind within the space of two seconds while I was too busy watching Victor, but perhaps things could still be led into a smooth recovery on that respect.
"And sure!" I added, ears flicking eagerly, though my smile was a small one, "Though I have to warn you, I haven't been in my apartment for weeks now so there won't be much besides coffee on the offer I'm afraid."
Victor huffed, and nodded.
"I don't mind. Can we go up now, please?" he asked me.
Somehow I got the feeling that Victor was more than eager to get away from the pavement, where the two of us were drawing a few eyes, I had to admit, maybe if only that we were blocking much of the route for the pedestrians who now had to walk past my four-legged self and Victor who was just...Victor-sized, as always. I hurried to nod to him and murmured a "Sure" before I headed for the small door alcove again, and leaned against the wall for support when I dug into my pocket for the key.
The musty smell of the hallway was a familiar one, but did not evoke many feelings of nostalgia while we stood there and waited for the elevator to arrive. It was still silent between us, Victor's eyes roamed the walls and I tried not to stare at him, to the best of my ability. It was kinda hard, though, considering Victor's innate ability to draw my eyes, but I wasn't so sure how much he'd appreciate any too open ogling. This was my territory, too, kinda, my home, not his, and that might have had something to do with it as well.
Then again, he might have just been freaking out still after everything that had happened between him and Cobb, the details of which I was not privy to as of yet. I have to admit that I felt painfully curious, though, considering that this mess had gained a whole new layer with the inclusion of the brother Dobie. Hadn't Victor vowed not to tell COBB at all about what was going on? What had changed his mind?
My belly was already fluttering when the elevator finally arrived and we jammed ourselves into the little box and I punched the number four button quickly.
The doors had barely closed again before the familiar sound of a phone ringing filled the small space and made my ears flick with surprise. For Victor, it brought a low rumble out of his throat, and an ugly grimace over his muzzle. The Dobie's paw pushed quickly into his jacket pocket and brought out his phone, which he only glanced, slammed the screen with his thumb, and then stuffed the device back into the pocket while all the time rumbling loudly.
"Shit," Victor grunted.
My ears fell.
"What is it?" I asked gently, carefully watching him.
Victor shrugged.
"Cobb," he snorted. "He's been trying to call me about a dozen times since I left home. Sent a few texts too."
Hmm. So that meant Cobb wasn't tied down in a chair with a rolling pin stuffed into his...muzzle.
My ears jumped a little and I nodded.
"Did you have a fight?" I asked tentatively.
Victor bared his teeth and I took that as a definite yes. I was just about to start to wonder whether anyone was injured when the elevator made a loud 'PING' !!!!! and expelled us into the hallway. Victor stomped out and I followed in my own peculiar awkward gait, careful not to fling my tail too much and cause a balance issue.
It was strange to have Victor's scent mix with that of the mysterious cooking coming from that apartment down the hallway, the occupant whom I had never positively identified, but who always liked to eat cabbage. It was odd to have two scents like that mingling, one that marked my personal territory, in a way, and the other, a more foreign one, though slowly becoming more familiar with each moment we spent together. The circumstances weren't perfect, but I was glad that he was here now.
Victor's phone began to chime and vibrate.
"For fuck's sake," the Dobie grunted and patted for his pockets.
I decided not to comment, and instead concentrated on taking my own keys out again so that I could let us into my small apartment while I listened to Victor's huffs and mutterings and the sudden death of the ringtone telling me that he had again slammed the proverbial phone onto the presumed Cobb brother's ear.
"Here we are," I announced lamely at the turn of the key and the roll of the door handle.
Ugh.
An unpleasant stench escaped from the crack of the door and made my nosepad wrinkle. What was that smell? My ears flattened at the possibility of leading Victor into a room that smelled like a sewer, and my nose remained at its attempted lockdown state while I fumbled for the light switch near the doorway.
The lights came on and illuminated the small, crowded apartment. My eyes immediately fled to the kitchen that seemed like the most reasonable source of a horrible smell in apartment that didn't have a body hidden inside it. I knew that my mother had been here, on a mother's insistence on the day when my parents shipped me to Rome, because she'd told me that this was what you had to do when you left your apartment for a long time, and I had perfectly well witnessed her chugging down a bulging black trash bag full of my perishables before we rode to sunset along to the tune of dad's Springsteen albums. I couldn't see anything rotting out in the open, yet, but it was a rather cursory glance.
I stood on the doorway for a while before I remembered that I was supposed to let Victor in as well, and hurried to scamper forward and deeper into my apartment to make room. I turned to face him, hurriedly, and watched how the big Dobie navigated the doorway and stepped in.
I frowned and felt my ears flop when his whiskers wobbled with the deep sniff he took.
"Sorry," I said quickly. "Something's smelling here."
Victor shrugged and closed the door behind him, leaving us all alone in the world for now.
"Never mind," he said. "Open a window or something."
I gave a quick nod and wondered what to say next to make Victor feel more welcome, but the Dobie made the choice for me and lumbered over to the couch, onto which he promptly sat down with a great sigh. I watched and felt my tail swipe quickly, and then watched some more and saw Victor rub his side, briefly, once he was comfortably seated...I hoped.
"Right..." I muttered. "I've got some air refresher in the bathroom, I'll get that and give it a try."
Victor nodded and I made my hobbling way over to the door into my small bathroom. The opening of the door sent out another wave of stink into my nose, this time even stronger, and enough to almost make me stretch before I managed to clear my nose.
"Phew!" I made a face as I turned on the light to illuminate the potential biohazard zone.
It didn't take me long to find out what was causing the stink. A quick look into the toilet bowl revealed that there was no water at the bottom, which must have meant that once the thing ran dry, it would start to bleed SHIT AIR into my apartment!
I made a face at my discovery and instinctually pulled the lever to flush the toilet. The quick rush of water made my ears flick rapidly, and to my pleasure, and relief, I saw that some of it remained on the bottom once the water was done discharging down the drain. Hmmm. Maybe that did the trick.
"I think I found the stink!" I yelped after a few more moments of studying the newly formed shimmering porcelain pool.
"YEAH?" Victor's voice echoed from the great beyond.
My hip twang with some pain when I leaned down to rummage through the infamous cupboard under the sink, and discovered the tall spray can there. The hiss was a loud one in the confined space, and the cloud of vapor smelled like...well, toilet refresher, I guess, I couldn't really compare it to anything that had any more natural an odor.
I gave it another squeeze, just to be on the safe side, and then stuffed the can under my arm and made my slow trek back into the living area.
"Yeah, the drain had gone dry," I explained as I walked over to my little kitchen table and then leaned against it so that I could spare my paw safely for the purpose of spraying some more of the makeshift tear gas into the confined atmosphere of the apartment. "I hope this'll work."
The can hissed and pissed and soon everything smelled like a toilet brush, but at least there wasn't the worry of having our furs ending up smelling like someone had an accident on them. Once my nose was sufficiently numbed, I leaned on my bad side's crutch and my good leg and then opened the small part of the little unwashed window on the wall between the stove and the fridge. The air coming in was relatively fresh, city air or not, and ruffled me mane nicely once it rushed in and took some of the artificial smell away.
I turned over to face Victor, and managed a smile.
"I might not have much food here but I do have coffee," I said, after a quick glance at the familiar Folger's jar on the sideboard. "Not all's lost."
Victor chuffed from his seated position, arms folded over his chest, and he smiled a little, too, in return, and flicked his good ear at me, too.
"No milk for yours?" he mused.
I snuffled and made the show of opening my fridge, which contained little besides a few cans of certainly non-perishable tuna, ketchup, raspberry jam and a partially eaten bar of Belgian chocolate.
Fucking hell.
Damn it. I closed the door quickly and tried not to slam it shut, but it still made a bit of a racket when the glass jars in the little shelves on the door clattered against one another. I tried my best not to look back to Victor, because I was pretty sure that agitated or not, he'd notice the funny look on my face and start making questions, or at least think about things that he shouldn't be thinking about when we were having a whole different kind of problems now. Me discovering the remains of Colin's thoughtful gift for me was not going to earn any extra Victor Loyalty Points, nor any extra comfort for me, personally.
"Heh, no," I managed a smile as I turned to face him again. "But I think I can manage a cup without my splash."
"Sure do," Victor nodded thoughtfully.
Things went silent for the moment, and then, as it happened, I decided that trying to make the promised cup of coffee ought to be the next step to take, and that's why I turned around to the direction of my kitchen. It was a bit awkward, trying to keep my legs in check all the while my paws were supposed to be doing things to the electric kettle. I was just about to put it under the tap to put the water into it when I heard the message warning beep go off in Victor's pocket, which resulted in another round of rumbling and snorting from the Dobie. I gave him a careful look over my shoulder, and saw that same displeased expression on his muzzle. I decided not to ask about it, not this time, and put the kettle down and then flicked the switch to turn it on.
What next?
Mugs.
I shuffled to one side and reached for the cabinet.
"Rory?"
My ears jumped at my name being spoken by the rumbling voice, and I turned to look at him, quickly.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Do you need a paw?" Victor nodded toward me.
My tail flicked slightly as I realized what he meant, and then I flashed him a quick smile.
"I'm alright, "I said quickly. "This won't take long."
Clumsily, I retrieved the two matching mugs from the shelf and put then down to the sideboard next to the kettle. I then moved to fetch spoons from their little neat gay drawer.
"Does your leg hurt?" Victor asked suddenly.
I placed the spoons down and turned to face him, carefully as ever on my footpaws as I was, one paw clutching the grip of my crutch.
"Only if I exercise it too much," I replied, my tail flicking amiably. "I still got some Vicodins I can take if it starts hurting but mostly it's just really stiff and feels a bit numb if I leave it in one position for too long. And I'm not allowed to put my weight on it yet."
Victor nodded.
"Gonna take long to get it into shape?"
"I don't know," I shook my head slowly. "I'm getting some physical therapy on it every week."
"Must suck big time," Victor grunted. "This sure as fuck does."
He waved a paw over the side of his head that still had several white bandages attached, though not of the kind they mummified you with, but rather, those patches they glued on over a wound, or the like. His mutilated ear looked a bit droopy, yeah, and though it moved, I got the idea that he was very hard trying not to.
"Does it hurt?" I asked.
Victor touched his side, briefly.
"This one does," he said. "This here..."
He pointed at his ear with his index finger.
"...it itches like shit."
My ears perked with surprise.
"Itches?" I questioned.
"Yeah," Victor made a face that showed an ample row of teeth. "The plastic surgeon said it's the nerves and the blood vessels growing back or something like that. It keeps itching like something stupid."
I grimaced a little.
"Ugh," I groaned.
"Yeah," Victor yeah'd.
Another resonant series of beeps went off in Victor's pocket, signaling another rough grunt from the Dobie in question. Victor buried his face in his paws and huffed deeply into his own paws.
I watched him worriedly, looked how those ears flicked, one plenty, the other a little, and heard the rumbles rising from his chest. I wanted to comfort him, in any way I could, but knowing what to say...let alone do...it was difficult.
But I could do something. I could walk across the small room and seated myself next to him on the couch. There was barely enough room for the two of us, considering Victor was the size of one and a half Rorys or so, and when I sat down, my knee brushed against his. The touch drew his eyes and I gave him a small look, and he looked back, and I saw the one perky ear flick sharply again. I arranged my crutches to one side as was my custom by now, and watched how Victor tried to place his paws and arms into a posture that would relax him the best. I could still see the tension, big lines above the collar of his shirt.
"Cobb again?" I suggested.
I might as well as say it. We knew it was him.
"Yep," Victor grunted.
I breathed out.
"What happened?" I asked.
Victor scratched the side of his handsome muzzle and grunted.
"I was going to call you today," he said. "Check on how you were doing, huh?"
He gave me a sideways glance as he spoke, and I fed oddly...humbled by the knowledge that he'd been planning to call me anyway.
I nodded.
"But when I was going to do that, Cobb went all weird and I...well, got it out of him," he snuffled.
It slowly started to make sense. He must've meant the time Cobb told me to get the fuck out of Victor's life. Even thinking about it made me feel nauseous, and my tail snapped against the side of the couch.
"The call?" I stated.
Victor nodded.
"I got so fucking angry I just stopped listening after a while and told him that I was going and he tried to tell me not to go and..."
Victor fell silent, and for a moment I feared that he would mention the extension cord.
The Dobie rubbed the side of his muzzle again, and let out a grunt.
"So I left and got a cab a couple of blocks down and got here because I thought you were here," he said, watching me.
I nodded, in understanding, though I would definitely need some more time to process all of this in my mind. Obviously there had been some sort of an altercation between Victor and Cobb, the melting point had been reached and it hadn't been very pretty, either judging by how upset he was even now, after the incident.
"I'm sorry," I rumbled.
Victor snorted.
"I'm sorry," he said in a low voice. "It's my fault."
My ears jumped.
"What is?" I asked quickly.
Victor shrugged.
"I had a weak moment," the Dobie said.
What a puzzling statement.
My face must've said it all because he continued speaking without me having to say anything else to prompt him to carry on.
"I'd been thinking about it all day," Victor grumbled. "About the whole mess and..."
Victor snorted and bit his teeth together before he poke again.
"Well, Cobb happened to be barging in and talking all the stuff he does and wondering if we could do something nice for you to help you recover and I just went and..."
Victor waved his paw in front of him and then snapped his fingers.
"I went," he said.
I shuddered at the idea of the amount of mental anguish he must have been in at the time, and wondered whether I should try to hug him or something, but knowing that I had caused the incident in the first place...I held back, just for now.
Victor sighed.
"I went and said that there were problems and possibly..." he paused, "...maybe there was another man and...Cobb went overboard. Really."
I winced.
Victor cleared his throat loudly.
"He shouted and hugged and maybe he cried, I don't know, and then sulked and I was sulking and he tried to pretend he was alright and then today..."
BAM! I presumed.
"He told you I called you," I breathed.
Victor nodded.
"And the shit was everywhere," he said. "Jesus..."
The electric kettle thrummed and then clicked to signal that the water had reached the boiling point, much like the relations between Victor and HEAR HEAR HIS BEAUTIFUL HOT PANTS WEARING BROTHER COBB AND THATS ME FOLKS!
Victor's ears jumped and he glanced over at the little trail of steam rising from the kettle.
"I could really use that coffee now, Rory," he said.
I hurried to nod and grabbed my crutches.
"Hold on," I said.
*
Thanks for reading, y'all!
Don't forget to comment here - as always, all the feedback is much appreciated.
Also remember that all votes, faves and watches will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well!
See you on Friday!