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Buongiorno, everyone,

and welcome to the Hockey Hunk!

It's Monday, and once again, it's time to slip on your fursuit and enjoy some more adventures from Rory and co! I'm most happy for all your feedback during this season so far, and I'm sure we can make this and even more tightly knit one than the ones before - your words mean a lot to me. And I do hope that you'll enjoy today's chapter as well, and like I always say, please do comment and tell me what you think!

Have a nice read!

*

Dad led the way this time, as Victor and I ambled into the living room. The drapes were open and drab light was coming in, and everything like it should be, I observed. The TV was on and showing what looked like an aerial shot of that wretched island that'd been on the news all day yesterday. A voice was speaking, too, but not for long, since dad was swift to hit "mute" on the remote before he settled onto his favorite chair.

"Been watching the news?" I asked him as Victor and I lingered and tried to decide where to sit...the couch seemingly most tempting for now, and it would be...nice.

Dad shrugged, and I could tell that his mane was bristling.

"It's either that Norwegian gunman or now that...what's she called again...uhm..."

Mom walked through the door from the kitchen into the living room, carrying the old flowered tray which now held a bunch of soda cans. Even from afar, I could tell that they were icy cold, sweating now that they were out of the fridge. My tongue started to feel especially parched at the thought.

"And here's drinks!" mom announced happily.

Dad scratched his muzzle.

"Sweetie, what's the name of that singer who died and is on the news all the time?" dad asked as she bustled further into the room to serve the soda.

Mom shook her head as she held the tray out for dad to take his pick, which was a diet Coke.

"Amy Winehouse," she said, matter-of-fact.

Victor's ears jumped.

"She died?" he spoke.

Mom gave him a look and nodded.

"They found her dead today, it's all over the news," she said, "that and the horrible thing that happened in Norway."

She glanced at the TV that was now showing a picture of that gloomily staring, smirking man, labeled "LONE WOLF HELD UNDER CLOSE POLICE SUPERVISION". The picture soon faded out and was replaced by the face of a vixen news anchor, her lips moving but no sound coming, thanks to dad.

"Wow..." Victor shook his head, his ears flat still.

I could tell that he was shocked by the news, and I kinda wanted to take his paw and tell him that it was alright...but I wasn't sure if I should do that just yet. I felt ever so glad that I was at home, though, with Victor on my side, too. It made the world feel like a safer place, in a way.

"Drugs," Rory's dad huffed, "You'd think that they're not a problem here, but you hear more and more about them all the time."

"Yeah," mom was shaking her head while she approached us with her tray ,"it really is so."

"I really wouldn't be surprised if it was drugs," Victor commented, "she had a history.

"Here's some real Coke for you, Rory, I know how you like it better than the Diet stuff dad drinks," mom smiled, offering us our drinks, "What would you like to drink, Victor? This is all we've got in the way of soft drinks, unless you'd like to have a beer, or something."

Victor smiled extra politely while he scooped a can of Sprite from the tray.

"Perhaps later," he said, "I think this will be nice for now, thank you! The drive was so hot."

Mom smiled brightly and then walked away to put the tray down on top of a chest of drawers, next to a framed photo of me in my graduation gown, and some other family photos.

"COME ON DOWN JUSTIN, DON'T BE SHY!" she bellowed, muzzle pointed upstairs, and even with a paw held up to amplify the sound...as if she needed to do that. She really did sound like a drill instructor sometimes.

Or a Cobb.

"Kids and computers," dad chuckled, "Sometimes I feel like I should have a screen instead of a face so that he'd listen to me."

I chuckled, and my tail flicked around, and caught the backs of Victor's legs, but I'm sure he didn't mind.

"He's thirteen, isn't he?" Victor asked, then. "Rory's brother, that is?"

"Oh yes!" mom said. "Our baby boy!"

Nice one, mom...hope Justin didn't hear that.

"I thought I was your baby boy," I pouted a little.

"Oh of course you are, Rory!" mom replied, while dad kept on smirking.

"You have siblings, Victor?" dad asked.

And now, for the beginning of the inquisition...

"I've got a brother and a sister, yeah," Victor said, "they live in Chicago, though my brother Jacob's been staying here for a while, helping me out with stuff."

"I think Rory did mention you had a brother!" mom said.

Victor looked at me then, curiously. I flicked my ears at him.

"I'm sure I did," I said in a soft voice.

Victor looked back at my parents.

"Well that's nice," he said, "I don't know how much he has talked about me yet, but Rory has told me a lot about you!"

Mom padded over to the armchair next to dad's and settled down, which definitely meant that the couch would be an option for us to sit, once we'd choose to...I hoped that Victor would agree with that. I knew he wouldn't mind. I was pretty sure my parents wouldn't mind, either. Sharing a couch wouldn't have been too outrageous to them, I hoped.

"Hopefully not telling you that we're embarrassing old farts!" mom said.

Way to go, mom...

"Not at all," Victor smiled, sounding convincing enough.

"Oh, how nice," mom said while cracking open a can of Coke, real stuff like mine, slowly dampening my paw, "I'd hate that a nice young man like you would think we were."

"Heheh," dad chuckled.

"I'm very glad to meet you," Victor said, repeating what had been exchanged at the door.

"As we are to meet you, Victor!" dad said.

"Thank you, sir," Victor nodded.

Before this was going to end up into a continuous loop of slightly awkward pleasantries, I stepped in.

"So, is everything alright here?" I asked. "I hope you haven't gone through too much trouble, I mean, you do know that we just wanted to come around to say hello and spend some time with you..."

"Oh, Rory, of course everything is alright in here!" mom declared. "We've just been enjoying our summer!"

"We sure have!" dad patted mom's arm, over on the other chair, "It's been hot but we've been managing."

"That's good to hear," I said.

That really didn't answer my question whether they had planned something elaborate to mark the occasion of our visit, but maybe they weren't avoiding the issue...maybe that really was all they had to say...for now...

"Was it really hot in the city, too?" mom asked.

"It's been, yeah," I said.

"It's oppressive now," dad said, "it's going to be a storm, I think. Can feel it in my whiskers."

I couldn't help but smile at dad's predictions. He was probably right, too. We'd been watching the sky get darker and darker as we drove over, anyway.

"At least we'll be nice and dry here, inside," I said.

"JUSTIN! YOUR BROTHER IS WONDERING WHERE YOU ARE!" mom hollered. "AND SO IS VICTOR!"

Oh, nice...

"I'm sure he's just in the middle of a game or something," Victor smiled.

"Still, I told him we were going to do this together..." dad said.

Do what? Ogle at Victor and I? That sounded suspicious enough to me, even put like that.

"How about we go and fetch the presents, maybe that'll bring him down?" Victor said, looking at me eagerly.

I gave my parents a "Shhhh" look before either of them could start with "Oh you shouldn't have!"'s, and then I gave Victor a nod.

"That sounds good!" I said. "They're in the car...so..."

"Back in a minute," Victor spoke to mom and dad before heading for the hall.

"Yeah," I added quickly before tagging along.

I didn't dare to speak anything before we stepped out of the front door and onto the driveway, Victor striding ahead.

"You alright?" I asked.

Victor stopped by the car and leaned onto it, then, looking at me curiously.

"Sure," he said, "your parents seem nice."

"Thanks," I said.

Victor thrummed the car roof.

"You've got the keys," he glanced meaningfully at the closed rear door of the car.

"Oh, right," I felt a bit flustered as I took out the keys from my pocket and hit the remote opening button.

"Thanks, Rory!"

Victor opened the door and leaned in to fetch the couple of plastic bags from the back seat. I just watched and felt kinda nervous...what was he thinking now? Did he already think that something was up? Did he think something was wrong? Was he really getting upset over hearing that Amy Winehouse had died? I wasn't sure...would he feel that passionately about something like that? I wasn't sure, I didn't know...

"Hope you don't think Justin's avoiding meeting you or something," I added, since that thought was always there.

"He's a kid," the half of him inside the car spoke while I looked at the other, not a bad-looking half, "kids do kid-like things."

"As long as you don't think - "

"I don't think anything," he re-emerged with the bags, one with his gifts, the other with Cobb's, notably bigger one, too, typically.

My tail flipped in the air behind me, but I held back any nervous remarks I might have lingering on my tongue.

"Okay," I said.

Victor flapped an ear at me.

"It's cool," he said.

"If you say so," I said.

Victor closed the door.

"Yep!"

I closed the doors and followed him back inside, wondering how this would turn out.

"Oh my!" mom went as she saw not only one but two gift bags, one on each Dobie paw.

"My brother insisted on buying gifts to Rory's family, so I've got some stuff from him, too," Victor gestured with the more bulky of the two bags, "he's gets so excited so easily, I just couldn't stop him."

"That's so very nice of him!" mom said. "You be sure to relay our thanks to him, yes?"

"By all means," Victor nodded.

"JUSTIN, YOU'RE MISSING OUT ON PRESENTS!" dad took his turn to try to parent my brother out of his room. "THEY'RE PRETTY COOL!"

"He can get his later, if he prefers," Victor cut in, sounding cheerful still even as he put down the Cobb bag and decided to start out with the one with the gifts he had bought.

"Well it's not nice if he doesn't come down with everyone else..." mom said, "JUSTIN, I'M GONNA COME AND GET YOU HERE STAT IF YOU DON'T COME DOWN!"

Nice one, mom...

Victor rustled with his bag and took out a box of chocolates.

"Rory tells me that everyone here likes chocolate...and that someone likes mint-filled ones especially..." he smiled.

Mom...giggled.

"I wonder who that is..."

Victor strode across the room and offered the cellophane-wrapped box for my mom, who accepted it with a most radiant of smiles.

"Ohhhh, thank you, Victor!" she purred, "how'd it just happen that you bought my favorite kind?"

"I might have gotten a little help," he winked before retreating a little to watch my mom roll the box around in her paws.

"Oh you're too sweet," she flicked her paw.

Well that went down well! I still felt a bit nervous over this whole situation, considering that this had definitely never happened before...this whole 'our son's boyfriend's bringing gifts' scenario was probably not covered in any parental manual.

"And something for you, sir," Victor continued browsing his bag of wonders, "Rory told me that you're big on DIY, so..."

Dad's ears perked.

"Well, I try to keep this house in good shape..." he mused nonchalantly.

"So I was wondering if you had some use for something like this?" Victor said before pulling out a plastic-wrapped set of screwdrivers in different sizes.

"Heheh!" dad commented, eyes gleaming through his glasses as he received the gift, "I've been meaning to do some maintenance on the back door but I didn't have a screwdriver in the right size to take the hinges apart....but I suppose Rory might have mentioned that..."

I peered at my toes while he looked at me, but I was smiling a bit.

"Maybe..."

"Well that's great, son!" dad waved his new screwdrivers happily while I considered blushing some more, "maybe you two can give me a paw! Do you do DIY, Victor?"

"I did have to take a dishwasher apart some months ago," the Dobie replied, "I suppose a hinge isn't any more complicated."

"Hah, well it sure ain't!" dad smirked.

"Then I don't mind getting my paws a bit dirty, sir," Victor said.

Oh my...weren't we being macho now, really? I could get my paws dirty, too...I hoped dad knew that! I wasn't only good for choosing the right shade of paint...not that I really...did something like that...really...

...only when told to...

"Heheh, we'll take a look at it if we have the time, then!" dad commented.

"Sure!" Victor said.

If things kept being this macho, mom might soon ask him if he wanted to see her gun...well...guns...she had a couple...since I last saw them...

"So what do we have for Justin, then?" mom asked. "We may have to withhold the gifts until he apologizes for being evasive..."

Victor scourged the back and pulled out an envelope.

"Well, I got him a gift certificate to the Apple Store, because I really didn't know what would be appropriate to buy to him, so...he could choose for himself...I hope 20 dollars isn't too much in your opinion...I don't know what kind of an allowance he gets, so..." he explained while waving the envelope in his paw.

"Well that is very generous of you!" mom beamed. "I'm sure he'd be so delighted, if he was here..."

"What about me?"

We almost jumped...the soft voice appeared almost out of nowhere, though of course it wasn't as disembodied as my flying-fleeing tail thought at first...a quick turn of eyes in the direction of the voice told us that it indeed was my brother, whom had managed to slide into the room without detection during the ruckus caused by my dad's screwdrivers.

"JUSTIN!" that was mom.

My brother stood on the open doorway, paws tucked in his pockets, dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt with the letters "SKREX" and some strange symbols on it, and he wasn't wearing socks or shoes, so he was actually barepaws, with his tail drooping between them and touching the floor...a sure sign of a grouchy teenager, in leonine terms. His eyes jumped from one fur to another. I smiled a bit, glad to see him, of course.

"Well there you are!" dad said. "Come on and say hi to Victor!"

He didn't budge...but at least Victor was on top of the game...

"Hi, Justin!" he said in a cheerful voice, "how're you doing?"

Justin mumbled something that I couldn't decipher, which brought looks from mom and dad, but Victor's smile wouldn't wane.

"Well, I had some gifts and there's this for you..." Victor held out the envelope.

"How do we say, Justin?" mom said.

This would've been hilarious if I wasn't sure that this was really embarrassing for everyone involved...otherwise I could've been giggling...if this had been on TV, instead of...well...here.

Justin rambled over and took the envelope from Victor's extended paw, but didn't open it, or anything.

"Just something little so that you can get yourself some nice music or an app or two, if you like," Victor continued.

"Justin..." mom said in a warning tone.

"Uh...thanks...dude..."

"It's nice to meet you, Justin," Victor continued, "Rory has told me a lot about you."

Justin gave me an accusing look and slinked backwards towards the door.

"I've got another gift for you as well," Victor hurried to say before the lion would have a chance to disappear, "my brother wanted to send something for everyone as well, so..."

He bent over a bit to pick up his other bag (okay so I did peek a bit but that's fine right), and then hoisted it up.

"...just a sec..." he dug into the bag.

"I got chocolate!" mom waved her box.

"And I got some nifty screwdrivers!" dad declared. "You can help me and Rory and Victor with fixing the back door! It's a bit tight, you know."

Justin looked horrified.

"But I was gonna go and hang out with Len and Matt..." my brother rumbled.

"You'll at least stay for the coffee and you'll come back for dinner if you will," mom said, "your brother has come a long way with Victor and they want to spend some time with you."

"Mom..."

"I'm sure those...killmatches can wait a bit, eh?"

"Deathmatches," Justin grumbled, "we're playing capture the flag, anyway, on Matt's X-Box..."

"I'm sure they'll understand," mom said, "you could invite them over here, too!"

"We don't have an X-Box," he replied.

Well...at least that was a better reason than...not wanting to bring them home while his gay brother was there with his gay boyfriend...hmm.

"Well I'm afraid I didn't bring you an X-Box," Victor chuckled, "But I do have a...well..I'm not sure..."

He took out a wrapped packet with "RORY'S BROTHER" scribbled over it in Cobb's paw-writing, and held it out.

*

Thank you for reading my story! I hope you enjoyed the read, and I hope you'll leave me a 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!