It was a distinctly rare sight indeed. One Matteo was assured he might never forget. Aiden, a man known to embrace his inner feline in his eternal pursuit for warmth, dry places and comfort- had managed to be coaxed into venturing not only outside- but outside in the rain and wind. The sheer look of disdain upon his sons features could hardly be missed. Matteo quite unable to prevent that simper of amusement that danced upon his own lips all the same as the rain fell all the more heavily around them both, the pair making their way toward that thoroughly sodden field with its ruined crop. Hmmm. Aiden, for all his huffing and scowling must surely have loved him if he was willing to put himself though such hardship as this. Either that- or the boy was easier to guilt then perhaps Matteo had truly anticipated. How amusing such a thought. The earth squelched beneath the Frenchmans boots. The soil long since having given up attempting to drink that downpour. The result so being a flood field and an ample supply of mud that seemed determined to coat his shoes with every step. This was so hardly how he ad anticipated spending his afternoon, especially not with Aiden, Matteo more often then not so tending to attempt to assure those days he spent with his youngest son were the epitome of peaceful- if not fun- in some effort to provide the Alpha with respite from his daily life. A flooded field, however, could hardly be helped. Especially not when half his workforce had taken ill from that downpour and chilled conditions.

Matteo's gaze fell readily onto that field Gregory had spoken off. If any of those crops had been fortunate enough to survive the flood- they had surely fallen to onslaught of overzealous goats the pranced about within that muck as if it delighted them! Goats, Matteo had long believed, were a ridiculous animal. Useful, perhaps, in some regards and yet in most instances they were little more than bottomless, bleating pits who would consume anything not bolted down, climb anything they deemed climbable and, if given the chance, seemed to take great delight in knocking others over with their heads. In all the years he had farmed he had never kept goats. Not when sheep existed. Sheep were quiet, peaceful, gentle and far more economical. Goats were overzealous trash bins with horns. Rather a number of which ran loose within his field now. Matteo could hardly prevent that heavy sigh that left his lips. A decidedly rare note of irritation finding its way to his accented voice as he gestured towards those animals with despair and a scowl settled firmly upon his features. How rare such a look upon the normal optimistic Frenchman! Goats, it seemed, were inclined to bring about a distinct dampening to his mood even more than that rain.

Aiden (perhaps wisely) so hardly seemed to object to his instruction as Matteo moved to open the gate and omit them both into the field before gesturing towards that whole in the 'fence' that he was assured they need attempt to drive those animals back through. The ready nod of his sons head so conveying the Panther's understanding before the pair split up to take one side of that field each. Matteo's arms lifted from the warmth of his pockets to wave towards those animals. The goats, as he suspected, quickly fled before him- in all directions. Such tiresome beasts! Those French words fell with no lack of force from his lips. Matteo content to curse those animals as he was forced to run several feet in an effort to prevent the miniature goats coming back towards him. Four of those goats, by some miracle, making it through the hole in the fence before the Fae was forced to engage his own teleportation and startle several more in that same direction. His feet had long since become sodden beneath his boots, his jeans equally as stained with mud before the last of those goats on his side was chased back through. This- was far more like his days in his own Father's army then he cared to remember. Matteo, for now, rather pleased Alexander was not here to witness such a thing. The Frenchman's gaze shifted across that field then to eye his own son. Aiden, in his own reluctance to run, was near being circled by those goats as if they hereded him!

A warm, ready laughter easily found its way to Matteo's lips at the sight. The Frenchman met with that characteristic insistence that he 'fuck off' at the suggestion that Aiden might need to run. A sight Matteo had not seen in years (and might well have paid to see) before the other man readily summoned his own powers for teleportation. Those shadows embraced Aiden quickly, the Alpha managing to startle those last two goats mercifully back through the hole before Matteo hurried to repair that fence in turn. His own powers for restoration readily saw that wood and stone reset itself as if it had never been broken at all. Matteo's hands pressed once more agianst the fence as if to assure himself it had been mended sufficiently before his silver gaze turned to meet the emerald green of Aiden's own. His son's hood had fallen back in those moments in which he had chased those creatures. Aiden's hair and face thoroughly soaked- his sons jeans and boots having feared no better than Matteo's own. Indeed, the Frenchman was near assured his own coat had a hole in it, somewhere. The man certain he could feel his shirt damp agianst his skin. The sooner they were out of this weather the better.

That very suggestion that they make their way back to the house had no sooner found its way to the Frenchman's lips then that near pathetic bleating saw the man pause. Aiden's own shoulders lifted upward in a shrug and yet it was clear enough that the Were had heard it in turn. Those goats who stood in eager hope by the repaired fence were surely far too old to make a sound so....pitiful. Matteo's gaze instead cast downward to a decidedly tangled bush that rested beside the fence. Ah, but for all he carried on about those creatures he so surely did not have it within himself to leave one to suffer. That distinctly....soft nature that Alexander had so often bemoaned him for, a nature he had passed on to Dorian in turn, so readily saw the Fae attempt to hold those wet branches out of the way to afford Aiden the chance to reach into the bush and pry that pitiful little wet creature from within. Aiden, it seemed, had perhaps already anticipated that request before it left his lips. His son reached into that bush then, that entnagled goat kid bleating all the more pitiful as Aiden worked to untangle it- all the while commanding that it 'stay fucking still'. Ah, but such wishful thinking his son had!

Aiden, at last, seemed to manage to free the tiny creature. The baby goat hardly bigger then Aiden's hand, its tiny frame shaking near violently from the cold as the Were held it to his chest. A kid so small was far too young to be weaned from its mother yet, of that Matteo was certain and yet.....no mother goat seemed to be calling. At least not that he could hear. For several long moments the Frenchman merely paused beside that fence to listen agianst the rain. Surely the mother could hear her kid bleating for her, could it not? Little more than the dull thud of that rain however seemed content to answer him. Hmmm. Perhaps they need take it to the farmer himself then. Surely he would know his own goats and know just which mother was missing her child. That sudden declaration from Aiden however readily drew Matteo's own gaze downward, that tiny creature, in its pursuit for warmth, had managed to struggle free from Aiden'shands and scramble into the man's jacket- its head poking near comically out between the buttons. The very sight of it managed to coax a soft chuckle from Matteo in turn as he reached a singular finger out to brush agianst the goats damp head. The goat, as Aiden suggested, had seemingly made itself comfortable indeed.

"Ah, Mon Amie, she is like all babies. She wants to steal everything you own- starting with your warmth. And you have already let her."

One eye rose just so, those accented words nothing short of teasing as another soft chuckle rose to hum within his throat before Matteo gestured toward his neighbours house, the Frenchman content to lead the way toward it. It so hardly took long toclambour out of those fields and back onto the gravel path that wove its way around his own estate, Matteo content to follow it down until it joined his own distinctly long drive way- the Frenchman pausing just long enough for Aiden to come to his side before Father and Son made that long, wet walk down to the front gates of that Chateau. Matteo pressed easily agianst one side of those gates, holding them open for Aiden and the goat kid he cradled to pass through before the pair made their way along the sidewalk and through the set of gates that led to the, fortunately, shorter drive of his neighbours Chateau. It had been months since the Frenchman had last called upon his neighbour. The pair were nothing if not civil with one another and yet Matteo had made a habit, over the years, of near constantly rejecting neighbours invitations to join him for dinner. Pascal had long been a part of a decidedly significant vampire coven, one he often entertained. Matteo so hardly saw a need to tempt at their supposed good natures or appetites with his own presence. Indeed, his conversations with Pascal were so often limited to that talk of pleasantries or farming alone whenever the pair might occasionally pass by one another.

"My neighbour is not....unfriendly, but he is a curious fellow. Do not accept his invitation to go inside should he invite us. There are some men in this world i do not trust, for reasons even I am not certain off- but instinct warns me from this one."

Matteo's boots slid softly along the rough surface of the stone stairs as the pair made their way up and onto that rather sizeable verandah. In the very least the roof above so shielded them from the rain as Matteo lifted his hand to bang his fits agianst the heavy, double oak doors that stood as an artistic statement of wealth to the world outside. It was several long moments before any sound could be heard from within. Pascal, despite his vampiric status, had proven several times over that he could walk in the daylight. Matteo, by this notion, was assured the man would be awake. Then again, perhaps a servant was preferable. The sound of several locks being unbolted rang out agianst the rain. Matteo and Aiden left to wait several more seconds as they dripped onto the cement before that door was at last pulled back to reveal a tall, broad shouldered, middle-aged man dressed in an immaculately pressed evening suit. His near watery blue eyes observed the sodden pair before him for several seconds, his lip lifting ever so slightly to show the barest hint of a fang that prompted Matteo's own figure to tense ever so slightly- before recognition seemed to dawn in the vampires eyes. His features softening into something far more...peaceful and yet how Matteo could hardly shake that feeling of unease the other man gave him. Devereux! What brings you to my Chateau this afternoon? Have you finally come to take up my invitation? Who is this? Pascal's head nodded toward Aiden then as Matteo merely offered that dip of his own head in greeting.

"Bonjour, bonne après-midi, Pascal. This is my younger son, Aiden. We cannot stay, I fear. Your goats have gotten into one of my fields. Again. One of the boundary walls was broken. I have repaired it and returned the goats but this one has become separated from its Mother. It is too young to be alone. We have come to return it to you so you can reunite it with the mother. She will be missing it."

Matteo gestured toward that goat still nestled within Aiden's jacket as Pascal turned to eye both Aiden and the small creature in turn. The vampire offering a sniff of curiosity. I didn't know you liked the latino women, Devereux. You surprise me. Those words were so hardly...complimentary, despite how they sounded. Matteo's own words inclined to equal dryness despite the politeness layered atop them.

"I surprise many."

Pascal's lip merely quirked. The vampire's watery stare shifting between Father and Son before resting upon the goat again, one large hand abruptly held out toward Aiden with the clear intention of having that goat placed within it. You might as well have left her in the bush. I thought her Mother had gone another season without giving a kid, not profitable, so I didn't keep her. The babe needs to be bottle feed and I haven't got the time. The dogs can have it.

"What do you mean you did not keep the mother?"

Pascal's hand shifted to press agianst the other side of the door, pushing it back to afford Matteo and Aiden both a view of that hallway that led directly to the kitchen and dining room beyond. What was distinctly roast goat lay clearly prepared on the dining room table at the end of the hall.

"Ah, I......see."

It was so hardly unusual, in any sense, to cull an unprofitable animal from any farm. A goat that did not give kids was hardly useful and yet, in turn, Pascal had hardly been diligent in checking his stock to miss such a thing as that. The goat kid in Aiden's jacket now thoroughly orphaned by the vampires simple carelessness. The man so fully intending to allow that kid to become a meal for his dogs. Even Matteo, despite those years in which he had worked his own farm, was inclined to...frown at such an outcome as that. I know you don't keep goats, Devereux. You have no use for it and neither do I. Hand it here, lad.

c'est dur d'être un dieu.