Matteo

It's tough to be a god

There was something near relieving in the colour that so returned to his sons body in the wake of his own affinity. Matteo so drawing from his own life force in that moment in a near desperate effort to undo all that had been done in the expanse of a singular series of horrific hours. That release of his own power was nothing short of potent. That affinity guided and reinforced by his own emotional onslaught that he so desperately sought to conceal from Aiden now when the man needed strength far more than he needed to see Matteo's own struggle with keeping together those fractured pieces of his precious, youngest son. Aiden's sobbing had only increased in those moments in which the Were had managed to wrap his own arms around the Frenchman in turn. Matteo treasuring that singular gesture with a true profoundness. Hugs from Aiden were terribly rare. Like the passing of a solar eclipse. How readily he knew that Aiden surely loved him near as much as he loved his son in turn and yet displays of that very emotion were few and far between. Matteo not unwilling to admit how very much he adored that fleeting affection and yet how terribly he wished it had not come about like this. It had been years since Risque had wrought this level of damage. Years since he had last seen Aiden cry. The Were-King had built those metaphorical walls so strong and so high they had seemed near unbreachable and yet here they lay in pieces around them both. Pieces Matteo was not wholly sure could ever be repaired with the same strength again and yet how desperately he hoped such a thing was hardly true.

For now however, upon that cold bathroom floor so slick with blood and sweat and grime there was little to do save for let Aiden cry. As much as he needed. To release however many years of emotion so forced back and stuffed down in an effort to protect himself. Those words the Frenchman uttered were so aimed to do little more then attempt to sooth whatever terrible pain it was that seemed to ensnare his companions heart and soul even if the words themselves meant terribly little in the expanse of the world. Matteo simply determined to reassure him that he would not leave as Aiden's clinging became almost more desperate. Risque herself could surely have appeared in that moment in all her fury and he would so hardly have left the boys side. Aiden's near desperate breathing had finally become even. Th sheer panic his earlier, racking breaths had instilled within Matteo's own heart finally having settled into something calmer. Life having returned to the Panther's figure. His skin once more pristine and free of any blemish. Those cuts and scrapes and burns chased away, those broken ribs forced to yield to Matteo's own power and heal. If only a soul could be mended in much the same way. That.....a battle far harder to win.

It was only once Aiden had made some effort to settle those sobs that the near ancient Fae lent back ever so slightly to utter the boys name in some effort to prompt a reaction or indeed assess whether or not Aiden was capable of aligning his thoughts just yet. Tobias' still living state wholly important for Aiden to perceive lest that guilt continue to eat away inside like the very virus it was prone to be when left unchecked. That very utterance so seemed to be met with no small measure of disbelief. Aiden's hand lifted to brush at the skin off his neck, searching for that bite wound as his head softly shook in some faint disagreement to the very words Matteo offered. The Frenchman's own head simply shaking now before offering that soft explanation that Risque's own powers had changed. That the creature whom had died at Aiden's hands tonight had most surely not been his best friend. Matteo so hardly ever having lied to Aiden before, not about this. Never about this. That very question of who he had killed in placed of Tobias so hanging in the air between them and yet....Aiden so surely deserved those answers.

A single, soft sigh fell from the Frenchmans own lips then. Aiden's gaze lifted to his own. That silver meeting that striking emerald as his son so desperately searched his own gaze for that truth just as he had so many times before in his childhood. Matteo struck once more with how terribly young Aiden looked in that moment. That desire to protect him from the very world itself so surging near potently once more as he offered those very answers his son surely did not desire to hear and yet so deserved to all at once. How readily he could see that remorse for the death of that girl so afflict his son in that moment. Aiden barely offering even a sound in response to that truth. His poor, battered soul taking but another blow and yet what words could he truly offer him in comfort? Had that girl not died at Aiden's hands tonight then her future had lain with death by Darcy. A future Aiden would still have found some way to blame himself for in the end. It was surely better, for now, not to consider that girls death more than they need.

Matteo's hand lifted then, summoning that blanket from his own Chateau within France. That blanket so taken from Aiden's bedroom nestled safely within its walls. Those very scents of Chambord, of Matteo himself, of that safe white room so embedded within those very fibres and so aiming to offer the man further comfort now as Matteo so easily wrapped it about his shoulders less the chill of the fading night steal away any of the warmth he had fought so hard to bring back. That shock, after all, was still capable of returning. Forcing Aiden's figure to fight for warmth very likely to prompt it to do so. Matteo, in that moment, so simply requesting Aiden reach for those pack bonds as best he was able if only to reassure himself, unquestionably, that Tobias was entirely alive. His very offer to fetch the boy, if Aiden desired to see him, met with that stuttered insistence that the Alpha did not know what he wanted.

"That's fine, I'll ask you again a little later."

To burdan Aiden's mind with those choices, simple though they seemed, would likely only distress him further in that moment. Matteo content for now to leave Tobias sleeping and allow Aiden those further moments to gather himself. The true extent of that damage so remaining to be seen. This by far the most....broken his son had been in a terribly long time. Whether or not that resolve within the man could be repaired was a far more telling question. Aiden so balanced precariously upon that pinnacle of armoring himself once more, stronger then he had been before- or falling from that cliff entirely into that veritable abyss of utter defeat. How readily Matteo knew with as much assurance as the rise of the sun that Aiden was likely to retreat within himself in those next few days, further then he was assured even he might reach him. After all, in this, his son was.....so terribly like himself. Aiden prone to losing himself to the depths off his own mind for days and days at a time in some desperate effort to withdraw, heal and put together the pieces of what had occured in some effort to....survive them. Aiden likely to be become very near...insufferable in those next few days and yet it was who or what might emerge after that process of thought that so concerned the Frenchman the most. If Aiden could not piece himself back together he so hardly knew what that outcome might be. Matteo assured his own heart could surely not take it. That very battle so far from over just yet. For now however, even those very thoughts were cast aside. Dominated by that singular desire to take care of his son. Matteo so uttering that singular sentence, those words so rarely spoken, the pair so never talking about what went on within the depths of Syn. Aiden responding with that simple insistence that he knew what Risque had tried to do that night. How hard she had tried to break him. That silence that followed saying far more than words surely could.

Matteo so easily drew Aiden toward him that final time, offering that final, warm hug before leaning back. His hand so moved to gently rest agianst Aiden's cheek, his thumb wiping away those tears as so many parents had surely done for so many children over the years before so asking if Aiden desired to come home. The younger man shifted then, moving to lean back agianst that bathroom wall. Aiden's gaze turned down to eye that grout. That veritable 'retreat' so already having begun it seemed and yet for now Matteo so hardly pushed, the Frenchman so merely shifting to rest beside his son and lean back agianst the wall in turn. His own figure near....exhausted from the sheer amount of power he had spent tonight. That softly whispered 'no' so prompting that look of surprise to his features. Aiden so fearing she might call again.

"She won't call for a time now. Her mind has already shifted from you. Another coven, another bar, has declared war on her. She is far more interested in war then you for now. If you would rather not come with me though then that's fine- I will stay here a few days instead. You can protest if you desire but a few days of decent food will not go amiss. Your pack will not know im here."

Aiden, he knew, was likely to protest that very care, although whether or not his son was even capable of that protest here and now remained to be seen. The Frenchman hardly perturbed in any sense, his silver gaze merely lingering upon the man beside him as Aiden's fingers continued to trace that tile grout in a fashion almost akin to Tobias and his obsession for lines. That quiet surrounding them both once more. The Frenchman unwilling to leave Aiden to the depths of his thoughts to long. Matteo at last leaning forward to slowly pull himself up and onto his own feet. One hand was held out and down toward Aiden then to help him up in turn.

"Here, I think a shower is in order, no? Clean yourself up and I will clean....this up while you do. Tobias will want to see you after that."

The Frenchman's hand so gestured loosely to the bloodied mess that surrounded them. Matteo's own clothes bloodied in turn and yet how easily blood came out in the wash and too- would rub clean from those tiles as if it never existed. The Fae so moved to cross those few steps towards that shower then, the water turned on with ease, that heated stem readily beginning to rise as if to further coax Aiden toward tha enticing warmth. The panther hardly seeming to need terribly much enticement all the same. Aiden already heading towards it.

"Son? You might find the shower more agreeable without the blanket."

That Aiden had failed to unwrap the blanket from his figure had apparently not occurred to the man himself. That faint simper so tugging at the Frenchmans lips. Matteo reaching to take that blanket before Aiden stepped into the heated water. A single, final burst off his own affinity return that blanket to its unbloodied state, Matteo stepping out of the bathroom, if only briefly, to spread that quilt across Aiden's bed. The Frenchman so returning to the bathroom then, a mop easily summoned to his hand before beginning that task of cleaning the floor. That simple, mundane task oddly satisfying in the wake of the emotion of this very night. His voice raising just slightly above that shower then.

"I can give you something, after you have seen Tobias, that will make you sleep- if you desire it. Sleep with no dreams. You will feel a little dazed when you wake but it is effective and I think, Mon Amie, you could use the sleep."