how fate does so love the restless

Ah, but how this was so entirely not the fashion in which he had intended to meet that young woman whom fate had placed at his son's side! How much of this evening had already not gone to plan! If only he had seen that change within Risque's mind perhaps this entire evening might well have been prevented. The vampire woman having shifted her thoughts so suddenly and so rapidly that the future itself had changed with such haste the Frenchman had hardly been afforded a glimpse of it and now.....now his son had lost another home. A near familiar...heaviness of sorts had already settled upon his chest. Why the world seemed so very determined to take things from his younger son he hardly knew. Aiden, it seemed, veritably forced to fight for but even the barest glimpse of happiness within his life when for others it came so readily and so willingly. Even for all the years he had lived Matteo so hardly understood why. Aiden was nothing if not masterful at shielding his emotions from the world and yet how precariously close they lingered to the surface tonight. Even if the WereKing still struggled in vain to conceal them. That anger, hurt, confusion, outrage and distress were so terribly close to overflowing. That proverbial dam was already beginning to crack. The single and only saving grace of that emotional onslaught Matteo so knew was coming was the very fact that Risque had been robbed the pleasure of seeing it. How much less she would enjoy her momentary victory when denied any view of its aftermath. Oui, how willing Matteo was to take the brunt of that emotion if only for the knowledge that woman would be denied any notion of the distress she had caused tonight. Six hundred years and he still took pleasure in denying her those things she desired most. Aiden, after all this time, still...unbroken. Even if Matteo had long ago begun to struggle to hold those pieces together.

The Frenchman's gaze, for now however, wasso hardly focused upon his son. That destruction the car had caused was, admittedly, rather more than the near ancient fae had intended. Matteo so purposefully avoided meeting Aiden's gaze as he strode into that room to finish those introductions his family had denied the hispanic woman who had joined them for the evening. The irony of his own...unique first impression was hardly lost upon him. Matteo so eternally seemed to appreciate the ridiculous even if those around him did not. Mira, for her part, seemed to have found some amusement in that notion all the same before his insistence he was Aiden and Dorian's father seemed to prompt her words to trail off entirely. That surprise on her features hardly missed. Ah, but how often he had heard that very sentence! How often to its ending had been nothing if not...unfortunate. Matteo, in that moment, was wholly content to coax those words from her that she had left unfinished. Mira insisted that he looked young.

"I like this one, Aidun. Oui, you should keep her."

Those accented words fell smoothly from his lips. A warm simper easily found his features in turn. It had been a veritable age since anyone had called him young. Matteo, in that moment, rather enjoyed that unintended compliment and yet this, it seemed, was the very limit of Aiden's own control. That pain within his son's voice, for now, concealed by that anger as Aiden's shouting all but filled that room. How much better it was that such outrage found Matteo himself rather than Mira, or Dorian, or whomever else might have been unlucky enough to tread upon the WereKings final nerve. This, after all, was so hardly the first time Aiden had shouted at him, nor would it be the last. Matteo, for now, so merely allowing the younger man to say all that needed to be said. The Frenchman shifted to face him then. His silver gae at last meeting the striking emerald of his son's own. How well Aiden's words offered little but anger and yet....how readily his eyes did not lie. That pain distinctly clear. He had spent near decades looking into his son's gaze, after all. How little Aiden could hide from him. How much they so surely had to discuss later on. Matteo, for now, so simply remained near unflinching in the wake of that outburst. Aiden, he knew, needed that release far more than he suspected the panther did. This hardly the first time Aiden had shouted at him. The rest of that room, however, had so seemingly been stunned to silence. This so surely the first time any of them had witnessed Aiden offer more than a short sentence at a time.

How willing matteo was to allow Aiden to unleash upon him and yet how....unanticipated that sudden mention of Alexander was. That single utterance of his own father's name was quick to poke at a veritable crack in Matteo's own mask of indifference. His features near instantly scowling. Alexander, he suspected, would be less than pleased with his methods tonight. Much less the distress he had caused Dorian in turn. Alexander held a...soft spot for Dorian alone- of that Matteo remained convinced. Aiden's command to have Dorian send a photograph of that damage was quickly overruled by Matteo's own demand to have Dorian put his phone away. The younger Fae so momentarily caught between his father and his sibling and yet Dorian, Matteo was certain, could be relied upon for at least some level of obedience. Aiden was another manner entirely. Since when had he raised a nark? That very comment so seemed to earn him an equally snarky response from his son. Aiden demanded to know when he had gotten 'shit' at teleporting. Matteo, this time, so affording the younger man his own scowl in turn as a snort of derision left his own nose.

"Shit at teleporting? Please Aidun, you couldn't have managed that if you'd tried. Besides, you inherited it from me. If I am shit at it then you are destined to be the same!"

Matteo's arms folded over his own chest in a fashion that nearly dared Aiden to continue to argue with him. Both men, it seemed, were near oblivious to how alike one another they appeared in that moment before the sudden ringing of Matteo's phone prompted the Frenchman to glance downard. That phone was fished from his pocket a moment later only for Alexander's name to appear upon the screen. Matteo's gaze shifted abruptly from that phone and toward Dorian then. Hmmm. He had raised two narks, it seemed. How talented he was. Several curses were muttered beneath his breath then as Matteo made every effort to ignore that call. His attention deviated back to Aiden then with a clear insistence he had corrupted his brother before Matteo pivoted on his heels to stride back toward that garden he had left in disarray. How he so hardly needed to glance backward to know that look of victory so surely lingered upon Aiden's face. That very demand that such a look better be removed by the time he returned was met with Aiden's near classic 'whatever'. Matteo's own eyes rolled once more. The gesture unseen by the room at large as he stepped back into the garden. His own affinities were easily reached for then. That gift for restoration so easily one of his most potent, practised affinities. Matteo's hand extended forward then to rest upon the Aventador, that burst of power readily commanding those pots and plants to be repaired, along with that fence and soil. The car beneath his hand, in turn, readiy restored itself to pristine perfection. The way it had existed before it had even left that now sunken ark. There. Perhaps now that family might cease to stare at him as if he had been the one to put the tower of Pisa on a permanent lean (that one was entirely Alex's fault).

Matteo's figure abruptly disappeared only to reappear before Aiden then, the car keys dropped into his hand as he had demanded. Sebastian and Dorian,it seemed, had attempted to hold some sort of conversation with Mira. Matteo and Aiden, in turn, momentarily afforded a moment to themselves alone as Matteo's hand abruptly reached out to rest lightly upon his son's shoulder with that singular, softly uttered promise that they would fix it. All of it. That soft sigh that left Aiden's lips so signalling both the end of the Alpha's anger, for now and too- just how very tired he was. The briefest of simpers found the Frenchmans lips before he moved to settle himself upon the couch with a vague suggestion that alcohol might surely be better than the tea and coffee Dorian offered. His suggestion that Sebastian might surely fetch those things was met with clear derision from Dorian. Matteo, for now, chose to ignore that remark entirely as he focused upon coaxing that fire to light. That newest of affinities seemed to inspire Dorian's curiosity in turn.

"For a little while now but it remains...difficult. In truth I am not even sure it is fire. At least not in the usual sense. I have my suspicions."

That, it seemed, was all the Frenchman was content to offer upon that topic as Dorian shifted slightly to eye that fire more curiously. Mira settled upon that sofa between Aiden and himself then. The young woman, so far, having done remarkably well beneath that barrage of questions. Matteo so taking that moment to inform her of just who Alexander was- only for Mira to inquire as to whether he was the order to the chaos. Whatever remake Matteo had been about to offer was cut short by Dorian's insistence that much was surely true and that Alexander was in the military. Sebastian suggested that much was still true as he moved to see to those drinks.

"Yes, I suppose Alexander and I are both still in the military- in one way or the other."

How very different the military of today was to those of....centuries ago. The Frenchman's head shook briefly in an effort to prevent those very thoughts from finding him now, his hands reaching out to take the offered tumbler from Sebastian. God, how he needed that drink.

"Merci, Sebastian."

That liquor was nothing short of entirely welcomed, that taste truly satisfying as he lifted that glass to his lips. Dorian and Sebastian really did have exceptional whisky. Matteo listened in silence then as Dorian asked after Mira's animal form and too- for more details upon that relationship. It was hardly difficult in any sense, despite his elders son's efforts, to see that...curiosity that seemed to grip theFae King over his brother's relationship. One Aiden had kept from him, from all of them and yet how readily Matteo understood why. Just as he understood how difficult it would surely be to explain such things to Dorian without affording him the very truth he knew Aiden desired to keep hidden above all else. Affording Mira that title of girlfriend was, perhaps, a necessary entitlement and yet- affording Dorian the truth was a boundary the Frenchman staunchly refused to cross. That secret was Aiden's alone to tell if and when he chose and yet....waylaying Dorian and Sebastian both from that truth of why Aiden had kept Mira hidden from them would be no easy task. Mira's tale of how the pair had met prompted a soft simper to his lips once more before that easy chuckle hummed smoothly within his throat.

"You will fit in well with this family, Mira. Your ability for first impressions is equally as impressive."

That gentle tease was uttered with nothing short of good nature. Matteo so attempting to make the young woman feel more....content within that room. Aiden so readily having slipped back behind those shields. That tiredness wearing heavily upon his son. Dorian's sudden question of just what title Mira and Aiden might prefer Mira be called, however, readily prompted Matteo's attention in turn. This a veritable question even he could not save that couple from. Yet, Mira was destined to have that very title- amongst others. Now was, surely, the very time to admit it- even despite the reservations he knew clung to Aiden over that very thing.