Lunar Cycle

The next few days passed surprisingly quickly for Lyle. A small outburst from Sam about his new roommate, daily visits from Ricky, and a few band practices along with his bartending job made the end of the week approach faster than he expected. Garin accompanied him through it all, much to his surprise (his boss apparently liked dogs), and he found himself doing something he had always tried to avoid. He was growing attached. Of course, he still felt a little embarrassed around an animal that studied him so intently. He usually ended up changing in his bathroom and coming out to find Garin with an odd look, sort of like disappointment on his face. Whatever it was, it made him almost want to blush.

Friday came and Lyle was ecstatic. Tonight he was going over to Sam’s house and would finally meet the mystery date. He felt like rubbing his hands together and cackling evilly as he thought of all the embarrassing moments he could bring up. As he stepped out of the apartment, with Garin on his heels, he was whistling. That didn’t last long.

A crash from a few doors down pulled Lyle from his thoughts. A voice rose through the din of crashes and bangs.

“How dare you talk back to me, you little psycho!” The voice was masculine, rough and muffled behind the wall, but Lyle didn’t need to be closer to tell that its owner was drunk. He quickly scanned the door numbers and found what he didn’t want to. The shouting came from Ricky’s apartment.

“Stop it, Karl, stop!” Ricky’s mother screamed right before another crash.

He’d heard enough. Lyle kicked down the door. A quick look around the apartment showed several dishes shattered on the floor and more than a few random appliances broken against a wall. Lyle’s eyes found the source of the last crash. Ricky’s step-father had him held up against the wall, his mother was collapsed on the floor, crying. Ricky had a swollen eye and spilt lip. Ricky, his first friend after Sam, despite their differences Lyle often considered Ricky as his little brother. His brother was bleeding. Lyle saw red.

Quicker than Garin expected, Lyle was across the apartment and had slammed his fist hard enough into the other man’s jaw to send him flying sideways. The man lost his footing and landed hard on the ground cursing in confusion. Garin figured that man was the only threat, so he moved protectively in front of the slumping Ricky and cowering woman, when the man looked at him he bared his teeth and growled menacingly. After the man seemed properly intimidated, Garin took a moment to study his human.

Lyle’s back was turned to him, but Garin saw restraint in the muscles of his back and arms. His right hand was flexing slightly, as if wishing for something, and his left was curled into a tight fist. Both were shaking. It seemed it was taking most of Lyle’s control not to simply walk over and beat the man to death. Instead, his human took a few deep breaths.

“If you ever touch Ricky or his mother again, so help me,” Lyle’s voice was so tightly constricted with barely suppressed rage that he found it difficult to force out, “I’ll hunt you down and make you regret it. Now get out.” His voice was low and more growl-like than anything else; there was no mistaking the animosity. The man scrambled away, calling out curses as he fled through the door. Lyle turned back to Ricky and knelt down next to him. Lifting his head and turning it side to side, “Nothing broken?”

“Don’t think so, Chief.” Ricky said quietly, wincing when Lyle touched his cheek. His throat still burned from the hold his step-father had had on him, so he breathed shallowly.

“Can you stand?”

Ricky nodded, then wished he didn’t, it set off pins of pain throughout his head. With Lyle’s help he got to his feet, but he grabbed the wall for support as a wave of dizziness shot through him. Lyle made sure that Ricky wouldn’t fall over before turning to the still sobbing woman. He really wasn’t good with females…especially hysterical ones, but he had to try to do something, she was Ricky’s mom after all. He knelt next to her.

“You okay? He didn’t hurt you too, did he?”

The small redhead lifted her face, noticing for the first time that Lyle was in the room. More tears poured out and she suddenly threw herself into Lyle’s chest, sobbing from relief this time. Lyle tensed, unsure of what to do, he glanced at Ricky who raised an eyebrow before nodding toward his mother. Lyle carefully wrapped her in his arms, almost like she was something that would break if he touched her too hard, and simply let her sob.


*****************************************************************************************************************


“Where is he?” Sam bit his last nail as he paced around his kitchen, oozing nervous energy.

“He’s always late, isn’t he? That’s what you said, right?” A young woman sat patiently at the table set for three, her dyed platinum blond hair shimmering as she tilted her head to the side charmingly. Sam stopped to admire for a moments, but went back to his pacing a few seconds later.

“Yes, but not this late. He’s ‘fashionably’ late.” Sam stressed the word with amiable irritation. Lyle always made a point of saying why his type of late was different from everyone else’s. The woman smiled and gently shook her head before standing. She moved in front of him, effectively stopping his nervous pacing.

“I’m sure he’s fine.” She leaned up and placed a soft kiss on his mouth. Sam melted into it, relaxing a bit.

“Yeah,” he sighed, as they broke apart. His phone rang. Sam sprung toward it, wrenched it up and nearly yelled into it, “Where the hell are you?! Do you know how worried I’ve been?!”

“Whoa! Calm down, buddy!”

“I would be calm if you actually showed up on time, Lyle!” Sam’s foot began tapping.

“Uh, yeah, sorry, it’s just, stuff happened and now I’m kinda at Kenny’s and—”

“WHAT?! ARE YOU HURT?! DID YOU GET IN A FIGHT?! DID—” Sam gripped the phone as images of Lyle covered in blood passed through his mind, after all, he only went to Kenny’s when he got hurt. Lyle cut him off.

“Sam! I’m fine! I’m calling to let you know I can’t make it tonight. Ricky got hurt and I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave him and his mom alone for awhile.”

“Oh. Okay,” Sam breathed out in relief then he asked, “Wait, Ricky as in your neighbor Ricky? The kid always following you around?”

“Yeah…”

“Spill it.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” Sam said, Lyle used ‘that’ tone, the one he uses when he’s depressed, “what happened?”

“N-nothing…” Lyle’s tone was see through, and Sam could almost see him pulling on a strand of his hair, which he does when he’s nervous.

“You liar, you’d better tell me right now or I’m coming over and wrang—hey!” The phone was yanked out of his hand by an exasperated female.

“Hello, Lyle?” She said while ducking behind the table, out of Sam’s reach, as he made a grab for the phone.

“……Yes?”

“This is Jessica Hatlin, Sam’s new girlfriend.”

“Oh? Hi, sorry I won’t be able to meet you tonight.”

“That’s okay, I’m glad you called, Sam was a nervous wreck.” Jessica smirked at Sam as he huffed indignantly
and made another grab, she dodged easily.

“He can be very mother hen-ish.”

“I heard that Lyle!”

“Heh, did you know this one time on a ski trip to—”

“LYLE, DON’T YOU DARE!!!” Sam bellowed and dove for the phone. Jessica’s smirk widened as she back pedaled away. Sam was positively adorable with his face flushing red like that.

“He’s blushing, isn’t he.” Lyle said in a lower voice. Jessica could hear the smile in it. She giggled and ducked into the living room, farther away from Sam.

“Lyle! What are you telling her?!”

“Ha, ha! You’re really lucky, y’know that, right, Jess?”

Jessica stopped moving away and turned with a happy smile to Sam, “Yes, I know.”

“Good. I look forward to meeting you in person, later!”

“Byeeeee!” Jessica called in a singsong voice and hung up. Sam, thinking Lyle must have finished the story, groaned and covered his bright red face. She pulled his hands away and kissed his nose. “Now that we know we won’t have company, whatever shall we do…” she trailed off and smiled up at the man she hoped would someday worry about her like he did for his friend. He smiled back coyly.

“I can think of a few things.”

*****************************************************************************************************************

Garin was furious. It had been three days. THREE DAYS!!! And the woman they had saved was still clinging to his human as if her life depended on it! She and Ricky had even moved in! He kept hearing Lyle say it was temporary, until they felt safe again, but that didn’t matter! She took every opportunity to touch, ‘accidentally’ of course, talk to, or even stare at HIS Lyle. She then had the nerve to blush whenever he spoke to her or she was caught staring. It was maddening.

Garin curled up on the futon in the for once empty apartment and allowed himself to sulk. He couldn’t do it around Kenny or Ricky, they made fun of him and he couldn’t do it around Lyle either, that would make him seem weak, and as for the woman…well she was barely ever separated from his Lyle, but he didn’t think he would be able to handle her trying to ‘cheer up the poor puppy.’ It was during this rarely seen quiet that Garin realized something. He had been calling Lyle his.

He had barely know the human over a week, why on Nixullia (his plane) would he be so possessive? Sure the human
had saved him, sure he was a nice guy, sure he was HOT as HELL…...but that’s no reason to act like, to act as if he, as if he was…

“In love.”

Garin started, falling off the futon. He hadn’t heard anyone enter! Had he been so preoccupied? He glared up at the laughing duo.

“TOLD you he’s been thinking about it!” Ricky snickered to Kenny who was chuckling as well.

“Apparently so! You seem to have a sixth sense for these things, young master Ricky.” Kenny smiled wider as his prince picked himself up with as much dignity as he could and turned his snout away.

“I don’t know what you fools are talking about.”

“Oh, come now, don’t be that way! You’re acting like a jaded lover.” Kenny shook his head at his prince’s denial. Really, the boy was so stubborn.

“I am not! Besides, he’s human, I’ve already swore off all—”

“Hey, Lyle’s back!” Ricky pointed towards the door. Garin’s head snapped to follow and found…empty space, he’d been had. Ricky rebounded into laughter again. Kenny pulled on his scraggly beard to keep from grinning.
Garin glared death at them both.

“Who’s the portal holder? I’m ready to go back.” Garin said in a monotone that stopped both their mirth.

“Garin…”

“No, I have to go back and make my excuse. I shouldn’t have spent extra time here anyways.” ‘And I don’t think I can stand another week of someone else cozying up to Lyle while I barely get noticed.’

“But, we didn’t—I didn’t mean—” Ricky started, Garin simply shook his head.

“It’s better this way. Please, Kenny, tell Lyle where to take me.” Garin turned around and walked into the bedroom, his canine form giving voice to his depression perfectly.