It was that very sensation of burningthat seemed to stir the near ancient Fae into a sudden and profound wakefulness. A sudden gasp of forced from his own lips as he sat abruptly upright within his bed, his own brunette hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. His breath came in near gasps for several moments as Matteo struggled to separate himself from those visions that tore at his mind and invaded his dreams until his own body had hardly understood where it was or just what was happening. It was rare for that future sight to find him when he slept. To activate without his consent. Rarer still to blend with his dreams until it prompted that physical response from his own body until the very force of those things he saw became a reality that so catapulted him into wakefulness. He could feel the erratic beat off his own heat slamming within his sweat-soaked chest, his left hand fisted within those bed sheets as if he had so been attempting to hold on to someone...something? Matteo fought to shut that affinity down, forcing back the red hue from his vision, severing that tie to Aiden his mind had formed of its own accord and within in his state of sleep. Tearing himself free of that bond bringing a near instant relief to his own figure. It was, perhaps, the singular part off his own affinity he had never truly understood in all the years he had lived. That ability for it to so activate even when he was hardly awake- to find the people he cared for the most and in those times when they so needed him the most in turn. His Mother- before her death, Dorian, Alexander and Aiden alone the only beings to whom that connection seemed capable of finding off its own occured. Some part of his own mind, perhaps, so eternally linked to those three alone. Yet,here and now was so hardly the time to contemplate those very things.

"Shit."

Those blankets were pushed easily back from his figure. Matteo already peeling that sodden shirt from his fit frame to toss it to the floor, the man striding into that wardrobe the grab the first clean, dry shirt he could find along with the nearest pair of jeans. Those visions, he knew, had already occurred, that damage already done well before he could stop it and yet- he had so checked on Aiden's future an hour or so before he had gone to bed. He had known that woman would come and yet he had hardly seen this outcome. He would surely have acted to change it if he had! She had changed her mind. Deviated from her original plan. Changed Aiden's future in those few precarious hours he had been to far gone in sleep to see that change and act upon it. It had been.....years since she had been bitten him like that. Aiden's body surely already overcome with that hallucinogenic venom. Matteo so attempting to fight back that abhorrence he felt within every fibre of his being for that woman. That anger within himself, at himself for being to late, at her for so subjecting Aiden to those things over again- was near searing. His very veins felt as if they were alight with it and yet he so hardly had time to consider it, to allow it to overcome him in any sense. The Frenchman so hardly bothering with his shoes as he teleported abruptly to his own kitchen. Several items snatched from within before that affinity embraced him once more. The wholly disheveled and barely dressed Fae so appearing readily within the Ark then. His bare feet landing softly against the carpeted floor of Aiden's own bedroom. Those few things he had bought tossed onto the nearest chair before his silvered gaze readily sought that near crumpled, bloodied figure off his own son against the door.

For twenty years he had seen this. For twenty years he had watched it over and again. There were times it had been worse, times to it had been far better, and yet each and every time was the same. Each and every time it was as if that vampiric woman had taken a second dagger or nail or silver chain or fang or whatever other device she could so reach and plunged it straight into his own heart. Risque, he was sure, so hardly knew of the depths off her damage- of the pain she inflicted upon Matteo himself over and over again. His own figure, he was sure, would be near littered with those invisible scars that came from watching someone he loved so dearly suffer again and again. How that woman would have relished in it if she knew! Yet for twenty years they had both deceviedher with his existence. That in itself a small victory and one the Fae was near determined to cling to in those moments as he struggled to press back that emotion that clawed so potently within him. Aiden did not need emotion here and now. He needed the strength he did not have himself. Matteo wholly determined to provide it as he stepped across that room and towards his fallen companion.

"Aidun?"

That very stirring to the boys figure so assured him he was awake all the same, even if only barely. That near hazy look to those emerald eyes so confirming what he had already suspected. The venom that tore through Aiden's system undoubtedly driving those hallucinations, whatever they were. Matteo careful now to reach for the Were's less damaged shoulder and rest his hand upon it. That singular touch so aimed at offering the boy a grounding within reality and yet- within the full depth of those hallucinations there was every chance Aiden might not recognise him at all. He had lost count of the times Aiden had swung at him in those precarious moments under the belief he was someone or something else. The Panther having afforded hima terrific bloody nose just before his fifteenth birthday when, in the depths of that venom, he had so believed Matteo to be some demon here to harm him. He had thrown a good punch at fifteen. The Frenchman hardly inclined to see how much he had improved since then. Matteo ready to duck any impending assult and yet, he suspected, this time, Aiden was far to weak for that.

"Oh, Aidun."

The words were very near a whisper. A regret, a silent plea? He hardly knew. Matteo near assured he had achieved some sense of recognition now within the man as he so crouched beside his him. The Frenchman allowing his eyes to rove over that damage done. His jaw set near firmly and yet those decidedly French curses fell from his lips all the same. Had she tried to kill him? Was she truly trying now? Or had the sickness of her mind merely driven her to see how close she could come? His silvered gaze so lifted to Aiden's once more. Those accented words parting his lips again.

"They are not real, whatever you are seeing, you know they are not. It is just a trick. You know I would not lie to you. You are in bedroom, in the Ark- you are safe here. All is well. Come now, I will stop it hurting."

Those reassurances came easily once more, after all, he had given them time and again. Aiden so often responding better to knowing he was safe even if he did not always know quite exactly where he was. Matteo's hand remaining upon the Panther's shoulder as he so allowed that restorative power to rush from himself and into Aiden in turn. Restoring the boys figure to the way it should have been, healing those bites and blisters and burns and scratches, kickstarting Aiden's own Were-healing into overdrive to replace that lost blood and chase the venom out of his system entirely. A look of clarity, at last, seeming to fight its way onto Aiden's features.

"Hey, Scoundrel."

That warm simper so found his own features even if it so hid behind it a myriad of other emotions the Frenchman so refused to let show here and now. Aiden needed strength, not to see him break in turn. Matteo so fighting that veritable desire to hug the man as his hand lifted from his shoulder. He looked...better. Significantly better. Matteo rose smoothly from his place then, crossing the floor back to that sofa to grab one of those chocolate bars from it and return to his place beside his companion then. That sweet treat pressed into Aiden's hand.

"I know you may not feel like chocolate right now, Mon Amie, it is for the blood loss. Your body needs the sugar, it will help. Aidun, I....."

Those very words were near halted. Matteo so suddenly and distinctly aware that they were no longer alone within Aiden's room. The Frenchman frowning softly then as he paused to glance behind himself, his gaze searching those shadows. That room so suddenly holding a near eerie stillness that set his own instincts on edge. Ah, but he had come sooner then Matteo had so anticipated. The Frenchman, perhaps, already aware of the veritable carnage about to be unleashed. Matte suddenly and abruptly teleporting himself across the room in near the same moment that golden spotted cat seemed to erupt from the darkness to collide with the space the Frenchman had occupied near moments ago. That roar near deafening. Matteo's palms turned outward in that gesture of innocence from across the room.

"I did not do this, Tobias. I did not hurt him."

Such words, he knew, were futile in that moment. The leopard beyond all care. That very desire to protect his brother all that seemed to matter in that moment. Such loyalty was in itself admirable, he supposed. Another deep growl so erupted from within that spotted cat. Tobias' lean figure placing itself between Matteo and Aiden in that moment. The boy assured of only one target. Matteo's gaze so shifting from one to the other. His gaze at last finding Aiden's own once more.

"I will see you in a few hours, Mon Amie, when he is calmer. Eat the chocolate. You are lucky, I think, to have such a friend as that."


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