Lion-O's unease at the weight of responsibility placed on his shoulders hadn't settled by the time that he and Tygra arrived back home. Their father had sent them back ahead of him hours ago. It was dark outside now, night having fallen, and he had yet to return. But that was to be expected given how busy Claudus often was.
"Lion-O, you'll do fine," Tygra said as he walked around the counter towards the refrigerator. Having changed out of his business suit, the older brother wore a short-sleeve shirt and white pants.
"You don't understand. There are at least one hundred people I'm in charge of overseeing with this project on our end alone. The money being placed into it by our company isn't something to scoff at either. If I botch things, it'll cost people their jobs and set our company back by who knows how many years."
"Look, Father wouldn't put you in that sort of position if he didn't think you were ready. You know how he is. He does what's best for the company and those inside of it. Besides, you've been following us for a good long while, so you know the ins-and-outs now."
"It'd be easier if I at least had someone more pleasant to work alongside. That woman made it clear that she preferred you or Father."
Tygra grimaced. "…Yeah, she's going to be a tough one to work with. But, even if that's the case, it's already done. Besides, a woman like that might be the sort of person best-suited to keep you grounded instead of having your head in the clouds."
It may have been a jest, but that didn't help him at all. Not when one of their father's gripes had been how Lion-O often daydreamed to escape reality. That was part of the reason Claudus had essentially strong-armed Lion-O into shadowing him and Tygra, to prepare him for the day he would inherit the company.
Tygra tapped him on the shoulder, rousing him from his thoughts. "Look, just trust your intuition. And if there's something about the project that's really too much for you to handle, just talk to me about it. I've got your back on this."
As reassuring as that was he couldn't rely on Tygra all the time. He had his own responsibilities as well, and the last thing Lion-O wanted was being responsible for putting more of a burden on his adoptive brother's shoulders. Plus, he got the feeling that their father wanted him to deal with this on his own.
His thoughts were immediately diverted when he heard footfalls coming from the stairs. It was Cheetara, a model and Tygra's fiancée. She took notice of them both and then made her way into the kitchen to give her future husband a kiss. Lion-O felt that he would rather be anywhere else at that moment, a feeling that lingered even after the kiss was broken.
"So, what are you boys discussing?" she asked.
"Father put Lion-O in charge of his first project and he's nervous about failing," Tygra said, gesturing to Lion-O. "I'm telling him he'll do fine, but it's not really getting through that skull of his and he keeps whining about it."
"I'm not whining," Lion-O argued. "I'm just pointing out that there were better choices than me."
"You shouldn't think that way," Cheetara said as she approached him in an attempt to try her own hand at easing his fears. "It's natural to be nervous the first time you do something. But you should still give it your all so that you won't have regrets, instead of clinging to the thought that someone else could do better."
Lion-O looked away at that, for more reasons than one. He still felt a great deal of discomfort at her being so close. For her it was a natural thing when she wanted to support someone, but when they'd first met he had somehow deluded himself into believing there was much more meaning to it than there was.
A distraction came in the form of ringing from the intercom that linked the front gate to the mansion. Being a family of old money and high-standing, their mansion was located twenty miles from the company. It towered over any of the other trees or structures nearby, inside and outside the vast swathe of land they were nestled on, and was walled off from the outside world via gates that circled around on top of that.
"Are we expecting visitors?" Lion-O asked the other two. If it was their father, he would be able to unlock the gate on his own. They both shook their heads.
Tygra pressed the intercom button and responded. "Who's this?"
"My name is Panthro," said a masculine voice through the intercom. "I'm a detective from the Thundera Police department. I need to speak to the family here involving an investigation."
A foreboding sense of dread welled up in Lion-O's chest. He didn't think that anyone in his immediate family would do something to become involved in an investigation. His hobbies weren't the sort of things that would draw the attention of the police, while Tygra was a model citizen, and Cheetara had a clear record as well. That was something their father investigated before he consented to Tygra's eventual marriage to her.
The silence that fell over the kitchen for a pause was eventually broken when Tygra asked, "What exactly is the nature of this investigation?"
"An hour ago, police were informed of body was found in an alley in the capital. We believe that the individual in question was murdered." The detective paused after that, giving them a moment to understand the weight of what he was saying.
The feeling of dread in Lion-O's chest fell to his stomach, churning. He closed his eyes and took a steadying breath, hoping with all his might it wasn't the sole member of their immediate family that was absent.
That fleeting hope was instantly crushed when the detective spoke again.
"The identification found on the body was that of a man named Claudus."