This fic takes place during the middle of season 1, in the event that Matthew met Will before his admission to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. There's always been something off about Matthew's adoration for Will, something a bit unfounded, and something a little unnerving. I'm surprised there's not more fics with a mentally unstable, obsessive Matthew as their focus. I've made it my goal to fix that.


There is something special about Will Graham.

Of course he had always known, but in that moment, Matthew knew it like law; undeniable and powerful. It was an unwritten truth that struck him with a force so heavy that he questioned nothing other than his own principle, everything in his life shaken when he laid eyes upon him.

There is something special about Will Graham.

Maybe it was curiosity. Or maybe it was just the simple novelty of the way he stood like a man alone in the world (hands in his pockets, eyes downcast, always carefully avoidant) that Matthew new that there was something to be found in the life of Will Graham, some sort of understanding there that made him stand still in awe before his feet began to move on their own after him.

There is something special about Will Graham.

It wasn't something that he had ever anticipated happening. Of course he'd known his name, known his face. Everyone who worked for Frederick Chilton did, an avid critic (or subscriber, depending on his level of honesty) of . But seeing his face pixilated and cropped in a tabloid article with the glare of a computer screen was much different than seeing it in person.

All he had ever meant to do was pick up a pack of cigarettes and maybe a box of dime store macaroni that could count for dinner. But then he saw him, standing alone underneath the fluorescent lighting of the convenience store isle he had happened to walk into. And in that moment he had forgotten everything else that existed in the world.

He was solitary and Matthew took him all in. Will stood alone. Hands in his pockets. Coat buttoned up. Dark curls hiding his face. Glasses on. Walls, walls, walls. There were forts that Will built all around himself, and he found himself fascinated by the idea of what they may be hiding.

Matthew Brown was a man possessed.

Will must have noticed his staring. After a moment he seemed to snap out of the reverie that Matthew had caught him in, feeling his eyes riveted on him. He glanced up to meet his gaze and looked away almost the second he did so.

"Sorry." Will said, gesturing at the boxes lining the shelves in front of him, thinking Matthew had been waiting for him to move, and turned to leave.

For a moment Matthew didn't know what to do. He had been captivated by his hidden complexities. But Will was gone then, leaving the store, leaving Matthew, back to his life alone by himself. He knew there was no reason for it, but his heart beat hard in his chest, and Matthew found his feet moving by themselves. He didn't know what he wanted. All he knew was that he wanted to see more of Will Graham and to know what lay beneath all of the walls that he put up around himself to keep the rest of the world away.

And so he started to follow him.