4 Short Leash

Continuation of Lyle's POV:

Everest was already in the ball room, giving Emily a dance as he seemed to be carrying on a pleasant conversation with her as the musicians played. Primrose was dancing with Silas, but they both didn't seem to be happy with it. Esther looked towards me and walked up with a sweet smile.

"Is he asleep or something?" She asked me softly, taking my hand as she started to pull me towards the dance floor, not taking no for an answer as she didn't even ask. I started to lead her into a dance.

"He passed out. You know little fledglings can't stay up full nights." I told her with a small laugh. She laughed and nodded.

"That's true. I'll just have to get my dances from him when he's older," she purred to me and followed me in the dance. "You know... you should get his first official dance as his maker. It'd be cute."

"Well I could have had his first lesson but someone stole that from me," I sighed out.

"Let me guess.... Everest?" She laughed and kissed my cheek. "You can teach him so many other things, but take his first dance since how you didn't get his first lesson. It's only fair. You should maybe even be his first bite unless you're not going to teach him biting at all."

"I've already taught him about his fangs. I might teach them about biting tomorrow as well as steal a dance." She purred and nodded.

"That sounds like a plan. I'll make sure that Silas doesn't bother you.... Oh, and I've got the maids cleaning up the bugs. Everest mentioned something to me. They're working on it while we dance," she whispered, leaning in towards my ear. "Everest is going out tomorrow to see about getting some remodeling done for his room, said he wanted to personally look in town, and I think he's taking Sylar with him. I can try to get Silas out of the house and go with them if you'd prefer to have the entire castle to yourself for your own private amusements."

"You don't have to shoo Silas away. He's not bothering me, except for the bug problem he's been keeping his distance." I told her softly. "You should go with them though and have fun." She nodded and smiled.

"Yeah, it'd be like having the castle to yourself with just Silas here," she told me. "Milo will be able to wander freely without much problems if you want to turn him loose too."

"Milo is probably going to stay in my sight the whole time. I doubt he'd walk off on purpose. Silas isn't going to bother us." I looked towards him quickly. Silas was smirking like he had heard me.

"Okay," she purred and then kissed my cheek. "Make sure to have fun tomorrow, okay?"

"Be careful," I warned her. "There are beasts out there. I'm glad Everest is going with Sylar and with you there I won't have anything to worry about." She nodded and then smiled.

"Don't worry. We'll all be careful," she promised me. "We'll take some black jackets with us incase we get stuck." She purred and then pulled away from me as the song ended. "Go mingle or something. I'm going to go get a dance with Jason to get good spirit going between the families."

"Thanks Esther," I purred and gave her a slight bow, kissing her hand in the process. I started towards Zachary with a small smirk as I stopped right in front of him. "Zachary," I held out a hand towards him and we shook hands.

"I was just being playful earlier, I didn't mean to make it appear I was trying to take your fledgling." Zachary told me quickly. Xzander scoffed nearby and looked over at Zachery like he didn't believe him then shook his head, starting to walk off.

"I hope that's the case," I told him softly.

"It is the case. It's not every day you get to play with a fledgling's thoughts. I'm not interested in stealing him even if he is one of the many authors I've kept up with. You take care of him though. One day someone might try to steal him from you. You're a king after all."

"That's why I've never had one until now." I muttered.

"Really? Is that what you've been worried about?" I heard Everest ask as he walked up, done with his dance. "You could've had me babysitting any of your fledglings... but I guess it turned out for the best. You'll probably only make him which makes Milo really special, not just cute." He smirked at me.

"Milo asked me, he's the first human to ask." I admitted. "It was impossible to say no." He nodded towards me.

"I see.... Don't turn another one," he told me and smirked. "You might make him jealous."

"I don't think I will for a very long time," I told him. He smiled.

"Good. We don't know if Milo is the jealous type yet," he purred to me.

"We'll find out eventually," I laughed at the thought.

"Hmm... if he is, what will you do?" He asked me, giving me a playful look as he stood by my side. "Will you ignore it? Will you tell him to knock it off? Will you make him feel better?"

"I'm not going to do anything to anger him if he is the jealous type," I mumbled. He nodded to me.

"That's wise.... You should probably find out if he is the jealous type soon," he whispered to me. "Just to avoid problems in the future. I doubt he is... but you never know. It probably won't matter much unless you get another fledgling."

"How do I find out?" I asked curiously.

"You could ask him or you could test him out by giving him situations to be jealous. It might ruin your relationship for a little while if you result to attempting to make him jealous. If you're looking for an ask and get answers from each other relationship, I'd ask him what he'd be jealous of." He shrugged.

"I'll consider testing him..." I muttered.

"Alright," he whispered and then kissed my cheek. "I'd start with small things first if you're testing him instead of asking." I nodded and looked around the room to check in on everyone. It seemed that the mood had greatly improved for everyone, my siblings having fun. Everest looked everyone over then stretched. "I think I'll head to bed early. It was a little tiring to organize the party, and I need to go shopping for remodeling stuff," he told me then gave me a hug. "Night brother." He disappeared with that said, ditching me. I could faintly feel like the sun was going to start coming up in a few hours. I frowned and looked around then towards Zachary.

"If you ask the maids, they'll take you to your quarters. That's when you're ready to get some shut eye."

"So I won't get a private escort from you?" Zachary teased.

"No," I told him and ran my eyes back over to everyone in the room. "I'm afraid not." Silas had finished dancing and was standing by a window, looking outside before he walked away from it and headed for the door, looking bored as he walked out of the room, slipping outside and just leaving my sister and Sylar in here with me in the Rosario family. "It's time for the king to get some shut eye," I muttered. "Goodnight."

"I think I'll join you," Zachary said and started to walk towards the door, looking over his shoulder expectantly for me. I raised an eyebrow and started after him.

"Ready for me to lead you to your quarters?" A maid asked him by the door.

"Not yet," he told her. "I'm going to walk with Lyle for a few minutes before I lay down for the day."

"Very well," she told him. "I'll come find you in a minute." I walked with Zachary out of the room in silence and frowned as I watched the servants already covering the windows. When we were out of sight from the ball room, Zachary moved quickly to pin me up against the wall.

"I didn't like the way you spoke to Jason earlier..." Zachary hissed towards me. "While we were at dinner. Raise your voice at him again and I'll make sure you won't be able to voice a word for a week." His fingers trailed over my throat. "You've forgotten we're the Nero family. Your authority doesn't mean anything compared to us. You should have been more polite especially since we came here to deliver one punishment. If we come back to do it again.... I might just gut you in our private time together. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." I growled through a clenched jaw.

"Take good care of yourself...." He looked me over before stepping back from me. I felt something snap in me and I pinned him against the wall quickly.

"Oh I will," I promised and exposed my fangs. I felt a cold metal press up against my back, directly over my life source.

"I'm sure you will," I heard Jason purr behind me. "How about you put those away?"

"Hey guys~ Oh," I heard Esther as she approached and froze up a few feet away, seeing the situation. "Hey, let's just calm down.... Let's not take this too far," she said, keeping her voice as calm as she could as she slowly walked forward towards us. "Jason, I'd appreciate it if you please put your gun up in my brother's castle.... Lyle, if you could not provoke them, that'd be great.... We can handle whatever happened in a nice, polite manner instead of resorting to this violence right here. Lyle, you've got a fledgling to raise, so don't act so recklessly," she scolded softly. "Jason, I'm sure you'd rather not leave a fledgling without a maker to raise it, especially one so young and the king's first one. It'd result in more problems for you in the future and more headaches, so let's think this through and just back off from each other."

"He threatened me first," I hissed and hid my fangs quickly. I turned to look towards Jason. "Keep Zachary on a short leash."

"That's something brave of you to say when I have a gun pointed at you." Jason's eyes looked me over.

"You're not going to kill me." I challenged. He broke out into a small chuckle and tucked his gun away.

"No, I won't kill you today." He looked over my shoulder and then reached over me and yanked Zachary to the side and started to drag him down the hall. "Sleep well," Jason called to me. "I'll make sure to keep him on a very short leash." I relaxed as they faded from my view and looked towards my sister.

"He wasn't going to kill me," I muttered.

"I still don't like guns being pointed at my brother," she told me and watched them go before she walked up and took my hand. "Let me take you to your room." She smiled and started to lead me down the hallway, humming her favorite song under her breath as she watched the maids closing up the house.

"Thanks for your help," I purred to her. "You're the best Esther. So how was your night? Was it worth waking up to?"

"Yeah, I got a few dances in, and I saved you a few times and my other brothers a few times. I'd say it was worth it," she purred back, looking up at me. "Now would I like to repeat tonight, no. Don't invite them over for awhile."

"They invited themselves," I grumbled. "You'll bet they won't be on my invite list for a very long time though."

"Good," she whispered and then sighed. "I don't see why we don't just carefully get rid of them."

"I know that's something a bunch of people want," I admitted. "They would be noticed though and that's why no one has done it yet." I stopped in front of my door and looked towards her. "They're the head of the council. If they were to disappear, there would be tons of questions. Good day Esther." She nodded and kissed my cheek before she bounced off, walking away from me.

"Good day my sweet brother." I opened my door and stepped in, locking it behind me then walked up to the bed and collapsed down on it, stretching out my muscles to get comfortable. Milo moved closer to me after a few seconds, wrapping his arms around me in his sleep as he laid his head on my chest and curled up to my body as he lightly rested his knee on my leg a little from the way he was laying and I could hear a purr rise up in him.

"Lyle," he mumbled happily in his sleep, a smile curling up on his lips as he recognized my scent. He nuzzled his head against me then lightly kissed my chest in his sleep, pulling me closer to him. I purred and wrapped him up into my arms.

"It's me," I whispered and closed me eyes to try to sleep as well. He leaned his face into the crook of my neck, his breath tickling my skin a little as he got comfortable and settled down against me, giving me a small kiss where my jawline met my neck and purred happily, his own purr making me relax easily as his sweet scent enveloped me. I felt myself drifting to sleep under him and before long I passed out, the last thing I felt was dawn.