That very air of suspicion that seemed to surround his youngest son was one Matteo had become near strikingly used to over the many years he had known the boy. Aiden was wary by simple nature of surprises, gifts or celebrations of any kind- as if the Were feared they might somehow provoke some emotion from him, force him to participate or somehow go awry. Matteo too had long since come to suspect that a part of Aiden simply did not believe himself deserving of kindness or celebration and that it was a wasted effort on the part of those around him to bother with such things for his sake. That very belief one so firmly planted by Risque and those veritable years of abuse that even the Frenchmans own efforts to assure the boy otherwise had not managed to fully eliminate that belief. Concealed though it was within the depths of the Were's conscious. That wary suspicion Aiden wore quickly seemed to dissipate into outright disdain at the sight of the box within Sebastian's hand. Matteo insisting that, despite Aiden's misguided desires, his birthday had not been forgotten and, this year, their entire family so intended to celebrate with those gifts and dinner. Aiden's gaze fluttered towards his own vibrant silver eyes in that moment. Matteo awarded with a distinct and notable silance along with that faintest press of Aiden's lips in a gesture the elder Fae had long since come to associate with his sons displeasure. How loudly that silence spoke! Aiden, quite clearly, still very much caught beneath that blanket of darkness he had draped over himself. The boy likely to accept those gifts and that dinner and yet it appeared he would do so begrudgingly. Aiden's very manner seeming to have prompted that hesitation in Dorian in turn as his elder son shifted near uncomfortably beside him.

It was Matteo's own gesture forward that at last seemed to prompt Dorian into action. The Monarch managed that warm grin Matteo had seen him wear but a thousand times over before proudly presenting that card to his brother with that explanation of just what it was. Dorian, as was his usual good nature, leaving out just how terribly hard he had worked on that card. Aiden, for his part, remained distinctly silent for several more moments before glancing upward once more. Matteo, this time, unable to prevent that faint simper that found his lips in amusement. The Frenchman well aware of just whose gaze Aiden had found in that moment. One that seemed to coax that thank you from the Were even despite the uncertainty that seemed to lace those words. Alexander, for all he so pretended, would not allow one grandsons feelings to be hurt by the other. Matteo distinctly pleased for the Hunter's intervention in that moment if ony to spare Dorian any distress over his siblings often guarded attitude. It was Sebastian who stepped forward then to present Aiden with that bottle of Whiskey that the panther delicately made an effort to open before proceeding to stare at that expensive label for several long moments in clear confusion. Matteo took that opportunity then to inform him of the trouble they had gone to for his birthday present that year. The Frenchman entirely content to mislead the man into the belief that they had travelled the world itself for whiskey. Aiden's confusion seemed only to grow more prominent as he glanced up toward them, the emerald-eyed man clearly struggling for any sort of appropriate words for that gift before seeming to manage a rather confused utterance of a single syllable. One that prompted a chuckle from Matteo himself before the Frenchman so at last held out his own hand with that set of keys nestled within.

Aiden pressed that ball of wrapping paper into his own hand, Matteo trading him that set of keys before nodding toward that warehouse door. Alex, in turn, gestured toward Sebastian as the vampire moved to slide back the door and reveal that glorious car that sat nestled within the darkness and beneath the glow of a singular light. Matteo, this time, offering that 'Happy Birthday' before merely affording Aiden that chance to inspect his gift. For several truly long moments Aiden seemed merely inclined to stare into that inky darkness and toward his new car. The Panther so at last managing to draw his gaze away from it only long enough to glance at that card Dorian had gifted him again before returning his eyes to the car. Dorian's drawing, it seemed, so at last having made sense to his sibling. Matteo made no move to interrupt his younger son as Aiden seemed to struggle to...comprehend just what he was looking at. The Were's lips so finally parting in a look of near awe. That very look the first true crack in the boys usually impenetrable facade of apathy. Matteo so daring to hope that, finally, this gift, this gesture, had managed to reach Aiden in that bleak darkness that seemed to surround him so potently.

That striking car so finally seemed to coax the Alpha forward, Aiden hardly hurried in his examination of that vehicle as he strode slowly around it to admire that body and frame, those wheels and paint and lights. Aiden seeming to be searching for ...something. Though what even Matteo hardly knew. The young man seemed to find it upon the back of the car as his fingers reached out to brush agianst that vehicle before a soft breath left his lips and Aiden slowly strode to the front of the car again. How difficult a man Aiden was to read at times and yet Matteo was near certain that this time, this silence, was not from disdain or wariness but rather that Aiden had found himself ...overwhelmed perhaps. The man merely trying to sort out that collection of emotion Matteo had, admittedly, so purposely thrown agianst him with such a gift as this. Something significant enough and grand enough to draw the boy out of his own solitude for just long enough, perhaps, for him to see that someone cared. Several someones, in fact. Dorian, beside him, seemed positively fit to burst from uncertainty on whether Aiden liked that gift or not and yet, for now, Matteo made little effort to reassure his youngest son. This very moment for Aiden alone. The flash of the Bugatti's lights and that soft sound indicated that vehicle opening as Aiden pressed at the key fob. That faintest of simpers danced briefly upon the young man's face before Aiden so at last turned to face them all as they stood within the entryway to that warehouse. Each of them awaiting the WerePanthers reaction to that gift. Aiden managed several words before they seemed to escape him entirely. Matteo wholly aware that such speechlessness was, for once, hardly the result of Aiden simply refusing to talk (as was his favourite trick on occasion) but rather a loss of words entirely from the shock of that gift. That very response coaxing a warm simper to Matteo's own features.

It was only now that the Frenchman stepped forward to help relieve Aiden of the pressure of facing the entirety of his family with those emotions, he suspected, the man was not totally equipped to process completely on his own. Matteo simply coming to stand beside him then, one hand lifting to rest upon Aiden's shoulder before affording it that gentle squeeze. The Frenchman, in that moment, strikingly aware that Alexander had offered him that same gesture less than an hour earlier. Matteo's accented words spoken quietly and gently then.

"I already told you how, Mon Fils. I found where it had been sold to and organised a meeting, Dorian and Sebastian flew to Europe to deal with its previous owner and acquire it and Alexander organised its transportation here. We, all of us, helped to bring it here and we are giving it to you. You did not think I meant the whiskey did you?"

That near impish simper so found his lips as his gaze met Aiden's own once more. Matteo holding out his hands then for that very bottle and card.

"Perhaps you should let me hold those for you. You want to sit in your new car, no?"

Dorian, he knew, was dying to sit inside that car as well and yet Matteo had insisted the Monarch need wait until Aiden invited him to do so. It was, after all, Aiden's gift alone to enjoy uninterrupted. Matteo waiting only so long as it took Aiden to walk towards that drivers side door. A near teasing grin finding his features once more.

"Aidun? Try not to drive too fast."

It was, surely, the very words every parent had said to near every child at some stage in their lives. Matteo assured his words were likely to be ignored all the same and yet, in that moment, the Frenchman so hardly minded. That relief at Aiden having liked that gift, at even the smallest simper having been coaxed to his lips all that Matteo had truly desired to see. His son, it seemed, had not been lost entirely.

c'est dur d'être un dieu.