He could hardly remember the last time he had set an alarm of any kind. That irritable beeping sound and the flashing screen off his phone on the bedside table quickly reminding him why. It was downright offensive. One silver eye fluttered reluctantly open. Matteo eyeing the offending phone with a clear and distinct disdain before one arm fought its way free of the blankets to fumble at the screen in an attempt to shut it off and return his bedroom to silence. Would it be terribly to merely rest his eyes a few moments more now that the room was silent? Then again, that was the eternally dangerous game to play once the alarm had been switched off. Really, he supposed, he ought to get up. Especially with all he had to do this morning and yet- they had gone to bed so damn late last night. The memory of it brought that simper to his lips all the same. Matteo chuckling softly as he at last sat upward, those blankets drawn aside as he swung his bare feet from the bed and onto that plush white carpet. The Fae stretching easily before making his way toward the ensuite for the shower he was assured he needed. Even if he had spent most of last night in the hot tub with Aiden.

That shower so proved to be nothing short of glorious and very much worth having risen from his bed for. Matteo loosely tying that towel around his waist before wandering into that ever expansive walk-in wardrobe he owned- just as Gregory so entered the room to draw back those curtains and see to making the bed. The grumpy little man as eternally wary as always in making sure the Frenchman was alone within his room. To many incidents with to many women having made the manservant veritably nervous about strolling into that room as haphazardly as he might once have done and yet, really, where on earth he believed Matteo had found a woman last night when he and Aiden had been up until nearly three in the morning he hardly knew. Still, it amused him to watch the little butler eye his bed warily only to sigh in relief to find it empty. Matteo offering him that good morning as he pulled his jeans onto his figure, his chosen shirt following a moment later.

"I have not decided if it is good or not, Your Lordship."
"Haven't you? That decision must be taking up a great deal of your time."
"Amusing as always, Sir. What time would you have me wake the Young Master?"
"Not for a little yet, I have some things to do first, let him sleep. Is everything in order?"
"Of course it is. Do you plan to give him this today?"

Matteo paused in his efforts to tie his shoe, his head leaning out of that wardrobe to eye that stack of documents with the seal of France itself printed upon the cover Gregory held within his hand. The near ancient Fae pausing for several moments at the sight of it. That stirring of emotion threatening to tug at him once more, his gaze turned back to his own shoes for several long seconds. A soft sigh at last falling from his lips as his head simply shook. Matteo standing once more to step out of that wardrobe and back into his bedroom, that stack of papers taken from Gregory then, the Frenchman glancing at that cover once more before placing that stack atop the set of drawers that had once been Isabella's own all those years ago.

"Not today. Before he goes home though, I will make sure he has it with him so he can decide what he wants."
"I never took you for a coward, Matteo."
"I have no idea how he will react to it and believe me, Gregory, I have looked. I have seen just about every possibility imaginable but I have no idea what he will choose in the moment. I worry it is too little too late. It is not cowardice, it is.."
"It is being a parent and a friend all in one- I have four children. I know what it is to want to protect them. For what it is worth though, Your Lordship, it is never to late- not for that."

That simper of sorts found the ancient Fae's lips once more. That utterance of thanks upon them before Gregory took his leave. The old man occasionally prone to usefulness when he tried. The pair having known each other so terribly long that Gregory was one of the few staff to perhaps allow that formality to slip between them, on occasion. The manservant as much a friend as he was an employee. Even if they irritated one another near endlessly. A single, final glance was offered towards those papers before Matteo teleported easily from his room to appear within the kitchen. That mornings eggs and milk and cream already laid out upon the bench for him, the Frenchman easily reaching for those ingredients along with that mixing bowl. A birthday tart, after all, was far better made fresh then it was left in the refrigerator overnight. That dough would need time to rest though. Matteo glancing upward at that clock once more. It was only seven thirty. Aiden surely not about to wake until at least nine. That, he was sure, so provided him sufficient time to create that elaborate chocolate tart he had in mind. Maria so bustling about him in turn to prepare that breakfast and secondary birthday meal in turn- one they would surely need after the energy they would likely expand this morning working upon those very skills of teleportation.

It was some time later that the delectable chocolate tart was nestled within the fridge. The dining room table had been draped in a blue and white table cloth, the backs of several chairs adorned with a handful of blue and white balloons. Matteo distinctly careful to have no more then a small handful of those decorations lest Aiden find it to entirely overwhelming. This the first birthday in....far to long, that had been celebrated away from that city, that woman and the memories it held. This the first year he might truly be allowed to throw Aiden that party he deserved and yet, in this, the Frenchman had been distinctly careful to show a measure of restraint. Parties were not his adoptive sons style in any sense. The Frenchman instead having altered those usual French traditions to something far more subdued. His housekeeper having become terribly excited about the affair all the same. Maria having cooked far more breakfast then he was sure they required and yet she had so insisted Aiden should have choice on his birthday. The little woman busily laying out those pancakes and eggs and rashers of bacon and hash browns with clear delight. Matteo merely inclined to shake his head before announcing he so intended to wake Aiden, even if it might take him another half hour still to prompt the boy from bed at all. The Fae paused at the base of those stairs to eye his staff below a final time.

"No one is to sing, alright? If anyone sings at him I will....fire you."

It was an empty threat in every sense and yet he was assured he had made that point clear. Aiden, he was sure, not about to appreciate his staff singing any of those birthday songs towards him. Matteo mounted those stairs easily then. The Frenchman navigating his way to Aiden's room far more easily then the panther ever seemed to manage to do himself. Aiden having spent the better part of twenty minutes last night attempting to find his room at all! Matteo's knuckles rapped easily against that bedroom door before easing it open. That room still dark and the fire still burning low with embers. Any hope that Aiden might have woken on his own quickly dashed by the sight of the man piled beneath those blankets and still entirely asleep. Matteo's own ahead shook lightly, if not fondly, before he strode easily to that fire to toss another half log upon it and increase the warmth of that room for when he man did decide to wake. Aiden hard enough to get out of bed without adding a cold room to that veritable mix. That affinity for teleportation once more embraced the enigmatic Fae, Matteo reappearing atop that bed in turn and beside his companion then, his arms folded behind his head as one leg cross over the other. That soft 'thud' off his own figure landing on the bed seeming to rouse some wakefulness in his son. Matteo greeted with that singular emerald eye staring sleepily toward him. An impish simper readily finding his features.

"Ah, Mon Amie, you are awake! I feared I was going to have to rouse you. Aidun! Do not go back to sleep! I is nine in the morning and you will miss breakfast again. Besides, do you know what day it is?"

Matteo paused but briefly, the man entirely assured he would be rewarded with little more than grunt at best in response to that very question. Aiden having offered him that same grunt for twenty years every time he asked that question. Matteo, as always, content to answer it for him in those accented lyrics.

"It is your Birthday! I fear though, you will need to take your head out from under the blankets if you desire your first gift."

That small rectangular parcel wrapped in blue and white paper and tied with string was momentarily held upward. Matteo content to move it out of the way of that reaching hand lest Aiden manage to pull that gift beneath the blankets with him. Matteo quite content to force the younger man to face some degree of wakefulness and throw back those covers if he desired that gift. The Frenchman chuckling softly at that disgruntled figure he was at last presented with when Aiden so at last admitted that veritable defeat and sat up within that bed. His present dully handed to him then to unwrap. How ridiculous it was that after near twenty years he still enjoyed watching his companion unwrap those gifts just as much as he had when the man was a mere child. Aiden's birthday one of those very events Matteo had never once been late too, not in all those years. At least one gift so given to the boy each and every year even if they had so often needed to be hidden afterward to prevent that vampire woman ever knowing. His own silver gaze lingered upon that rather small nondescript black leather photo album the panther had unwrapped, that album decidedly (and perhaps surprisingly) empty when it was opened. Save for a singular photo nestled within that first slot within the book. That single photo one of the very room they sat within now. Aiden, he knew, rather unlikely to understand that gift at all- at least not yet. That smile finding the Frenchmans features all the same.

"Happy birthday, Aidun."



m a t t e o
it's tough to be a god