Chapter Text
“I'm not Alfred! we don't even look that similar!!” Matthew cried, unsuccessfully attempting to push away the stranger who had grabbed him by the arm and accused him of being his twin.
“Come on, you can't just attack another country and then deny your own existence!”
So Alfred had started another war, Matthew was honestly surprised it had taken so long.
Before Matt could rebuke his assailant's claim, a fist collided with his face.
The woman who hit him finally let go of his arm and walked away, angrily muttering something unintelligible under her breath, and Matthew was left shakily staring after her as his lip began to bleed. He wiped it on his sleeve before thinking, leaving a dark reddish streak on his shirt.
The day after Matthew was punched he knew he needed to do something. He had two ideas: the first was to confront Alfred… but that was terrifying, so he went with his second, and admittedly worse option.
Matthew's chance came to him during one of the world meetings, which he attended even though the other countries never seemed to notice him…
Arthor had gotten especially angry about something –probably related to Francis– and stormed out of the conference room. The thing was, he forgot his weird little star wand thing that he was always waving around. Matthew snatched up the wand without even thinking, for once he was extremely grateful for his imperceptibility in the eyes of the others.
The polar bear –whose name Matthew could never remember– had noticed him, but it had forgotten who he was again, so the Canadian wasn't particularly worried.
After the meeting Matthew hurried home with the wand in his bag, when he arrived back at his house it was getting dark.
Matthew wasn't sure if he actually believed in the strange Englishman's magical prowess, but anything was better than talking to his brother, so there he was, in the dead of night in front of a circle of candles.
“uhm,” he started, not exactly sure what the proper etiquette for this kind of thing was. “I need something that stops people from thinking I'm Alfred. Or uh- maybe something that protects me from.. the others.”
He touched his lip gingerly where it had been split by the punch, it was bleeding again, he must have been chewing it – he was nervous after all.
At this point Matthew was completely winging his ritual, so he decided it wouldn't hurt to smear the blood onto the floor in the middle of the circle; he was pretty sure he had seen something in a movie like this. He also waved the wand around, feeling very stupid whilst doing so.
Mathew wasn't sure what he was expecting, but a large… thing manifesting in front of him was definitely not it.
The monster was kneeling, and it seemed to flicker into view. It was wearing an entirely black suit. The things that captivated Matthew's attention were the rather large curled horns atop its head, the tail wound around its legs, and the sharp, thin, bat-like wings which protruded from its back.
The creature daintily ran a finger over the floorboard, licking Matthew's blood before looking up at him. “Hello.” it smiled at him with a terrifying sweetness which was somewhat reminiscent of Matthew's fellow country representative, Ivan who was universally feared.
Maybe it was the fact that Matthew had just summoned a demon, or maybe it was that said demon had just been licking HIS blood off its forefinger, but either way, Matthew was paralyzed.
The creature stood, and it had to be at least 6’10. It walked over to Matthew, who was still kneeling with the wand in his hand and staring up at the demon.
“You look scared.” the demon snickered. “Didn't you do this on purpose?..” it gestured towards the candles.
Matthew swallowed. “I- well- I wanted to not be mistaken for my brother. I didn't… uh…” He gestured desperately towards the monstrous figure before him.
“That's not what you said.” The demon knelt down, wiping the blood from Matthew's lip with its thumb and bringing its hand to its lips in order to lick it off.
“You wanted protection.” It reminded him. “I'm (y/n).” He introduced himself as if his name was a sufficient explanation.
“And you're a… demon?” Matthew ventured.
(y/n) snorted “What gave me away?”
Matthew opened his mouth, but he couldn't think of anything to say. The demon took it upon himself to introduce him “You're Matthew.”
Matthew was even more confused, and it clearly showed in his face because the demon laughed at him
“...how do you know who i am.???” Matthew asked as if it was the most important question he could ask.
He promptly scooped Matthew up “We have our ways. Anyway, I won't let any of those freaks do things like that to you anymore,” he gestured towards Matthew's lip with his head.
Somehow the demon knew where Matthew's bedroom was located, and he set him down on the bed. “It's late – you humans are supposed to sleep a ton or something.” He paused for a moment. “you're not human, but I assume it's the same. Right?"
Matthew nodded, “I- yeah I guess. don't you sleep?”
The demon shrugged as he curled up on the floor right beside the bed, “If I want. I'm not technically alive though, so I don't have to.”
Matthew noticed that he was boxed in on three sides, since his bed was in the corner of his room. He decided not to question the part about not being alive.
“I think there's been a mistake…” Matthew ventured. “I just wanted a spell or something… I dunno.”
the demon huffed. “I'll keep you safer than some flimsy spell. You should go to sleep.”
Matthew could see he was out of options since he was too Canadian to ask the creature to leave, and it was already past midnight, plus he had another meeting with the other countries tomorrow, meaning he had to wake up somewhat early, so he pulled the covers over himself and hoped that the demon he summoned wouldn't try to rip his organs out or anything.