For the Invisible and Insecure

Matthew Williams is not your typical socialite teenage boy. For starters, he has the tendency to fade from visibility - something that his fellow classmates (the few who bother to remember him) have dubbed as the Matthew Williams Phenomenon. Secondly, he comes from Quebec, Canada, which means that he's part French, which means that his parents are rather prideful of their hair, which means he seldom gets to cut it, which means he kind of looks like a girl. Thirdly, his eyes are an unnatural shade of indigo, which leads even more people into thinking that he's a female.

(Three-and-a-half: His eyelashes are also rather long...)

One of the most normal things about him is his insecurity; every teenager goes through that phase at one point in their lives. However, Matthew entered that phase when he was twelve and is still not quite through it yet at the current age of seventeen.

He's pretty sure that that's too long of a time to be normal.

Girls only give him the time of day when they're asking for answers to the homework or scowling jealously at his hair.

Boys mistake him for a girl, flirt with him, then go bug-eyed when he softly explains, "I'm a guy."

His parents don't really pay much attention to their only child and spend their leisure time on various cruises.

So Matthew grew up with some rather nasty insecurities gnawing at his mind. "Why am I never good enough, Kuma?" he would ask his closest friend, and then lament some more when he realizes that his closest friend is a stuffed polar bear.

And despite that, he finds himself talking to the toy anyway.

Friday night finds the young Canadian entering his bedroom, just about to go to sleep. Under his arm, he carries Kuma-what's-his-name, and once he's settled into the warm sheets, he asks it, "Why doesn't anyone like me, Kuma?"

The stuffed animal stares back with its beady little eyes.

Matthew sighs and snuggles further underneath the comforter, reaching over to turn off the lamp. "Good night," he mumbles, and tugs on the string.

He's just starting to doze off when he feels an arm slowly creep around his waist.

Quickly, his eyes snap back open. He smacks the unseen entity beside him, all the while fumbling for the lamp. He hears a "Bloody hell!" before his fingers finally land on the string. He pulls it and light floods the room.

"Wh-Who are you!" he cries out, still batting away the stranger.

"Belt up, you arse. I'm trying to help you, and you're thanking me by hitting me in the face?" It's a man with short, spiky blond hair, emerald eyes, and rather prominent eyebrows. His voice has a strong English accent. "How rude."

"Y-You're in my room!" Matthew almost shrieks. Mama, Papa, why do you have to be out on a cruise on this night? I'm going to get raped! Die! Or both! "You're in my bed!"

The stranger coughs sheepishly at that, sitting up. The sheets slip down to his waist to reveal that he's wearing a...toga?

Oh, maple.

"Yes," the man says, giving a short nod. "I've been working nonstop for the past few days. The bed looked awfully tempting."

Matthew opens his mouth to ask why he couldn't have picked another bed to invade, but he's cut off, "Anyways, onto business, lad." The man slips out of bed, landing on the carpet with apparently bare feet. It confirms that he is indeed wearing a toga. And he's holding a wand. And...are those wings? "I'm Arthur Kirkland."

"What are you?" Matthew gawks.

The question goes ignored. "So I understand that you've been feeling rather insecure lately?" Arthur asks, cocking his head in slight impatience.

"I g-guess you can say that," Matthew replies hesitantly. He wonders how long it would take for him to jump up, high-tail out of the room, grab the phone, then lock himself in the bathroom.

"And what makes you think that?" Arthur queries.

"W-Well, everyone just ignores me most of the time. I'm always the last one to be picked when we have to get partners, and sometimes I have to work by myself. I've liked several people, but none have liked me back. I either look too girly to be in a relationship with a girl, or I'm too much of a "wimp" to be with a guy." All the while, Matthew inches towards the door.

A notebook appears out of thin air and floats down to Arthur's waiting hands. He waves his wand, appearing to be writing something on the pages. "Bisexual, I see?" he murmurs. He sounds vaguely...pleased?

Matthew doesn't want to stick around to find out why. He reaches out for the doorknob-

"All right, Matthew Williams." Arthur snaps his fingers, and Matthew is whirled around abruptly to face the him. "You'll be visited by seven other...visitors tonight," he says casually.

Matthew chokes on his own spit. "Wh-Why?" he splutters brilliantly.

"Because your self esteem is so low, I could cry," Arthur replies blandly. Then he seems to soften a bit, the hints of a blush garnering around his cheeks. "And...you need to realize that you're not as unwanted as you think you are. I'm not sure what's wrong with your peers, but you'd be able to tame even the wildest of sins."

Matthew's eyes go wide. He gapes, trying to figure out how to respond to a threat(?) like that. Finally, he opens his mouth to utter, "Are they going to be wearing togas like you?"

Arthur's eye twitches. "What did you say, you wanker?" he snaps.

"N-Nothing," Matthew says hastily. "Now, I'm just...gonna go..." He really didn't want to meet this man's seven other friends. God knows what sick perverts they might be.

And so Matthew turns the knob and yanks the door open. He flees down the hall, almost tripping on his silk pajamas, heading straight for the telephone in the kitchen.

Halfway there, he bumps into his first visitor, Alfred F. Jones.


A/N: Another plot bunny, yay.

Can anyone guess what the seven visitors are? Arthur makes a reference to it, hinthint. :D

This silly little fic will be around seven more chapters. And this won't be the last you'll see of Arthur. ;3