"So, you never told me why you decided to ask me to have lunch with you," Matthew said, swallowing a bite of his burger.

Eli had hoped the man wouldn't mention that again, but apparently, that had been too much to ask for. In all honesty, he wasn't all that sure why he asked either. He'd wanted to do something nice for the guy—after all, he'd fixed his window, however creepy that was—so he thought he'd buy him lunch. Besides, Coffee wasn't really enough to sustain anyone and Eli rarely ever saw Matthew actually eat anything other than cookies and pastries. He figured it would be his good deed for the day to keep the man from dying of scurvy.

Of course, he’d overlooked Matthew's talent for pissing him off in record time. Usually it was thanks to a highly inappropriate or embarrassing comment.

"Well, you can't live off of coffee and if you die of malnutrition who else if gonna tip as well as you?" Eli said, going for the simplest answer. There was no chance of him actually telling Matthew he'd been trying to be nice.

"So you were trying to be nice to me." Of course, Matthew didn't need to be told, much to Eli's chagrin. He decided to just ignore Matthew for the time being and focus on his delicious—though definitely unhealthy—bacon cheeseburger. It was a real shame that he didn't get to enjoy it as fully as he would have liked. Especially because Matthew wasn’t going to just quit annoying Eli just because the redhead was ignoring him. “You know, that’s pretty sweet of you.” 

Eli could have choked on his burger at that if he’d been quicker to take a bite out of his food. Instead, he stared at Matthew, absolutely bewildered. He also might have spluttered a bit. Definitely didn’t blush though. Of course not. 

“The hell do you mean sweet? I’m not sweet.” He really wasn’t. His own mother could attest to that. 

Matthew just smiled and focused on his food. Which was probably for the best, actually. Eli was very close to walking out before his face spontaneously combusted. After grabbing the rest of his food, of course. When Matthew next spoke, Eli was immediately wary. 

“I also wanted to thank you,” Matthew said, and there was a soft smile on his face that made Eli’s traitorous heart skip a beat. Honestly, the man had no right looking at him like that. 

“For what?” Eli said, sounding about as cautious as a cornered animal. 

“For all the help you’ve given me. I know the things I’ve asked you to do aren’t exactly easy favors, so yeah. I really appreciate everything you’ve done. Especially your, er, discretion, about my little side job.”

Eli actually snorted at that. And not just because of how uncharacteristically bashful Matthew sounded, but also because he made it sound like Eli had a choice. 

“Well, it’s not like I can just let you bleed to death or something,” he muttered, trying to focus on his food and refusing to make eye contact with Matthew. “Besides, it’s not like I had much of a choice about keeping your stupid secret. You know, considering I like living and all.” 

Now it was Matthew’s turn to snort. Which wasn’t ideal, considering he’d been sipping his drink. He coughed into his napkin, the sound mixing with laughter and Eli reflexively sank into his seat as he noticed the looks being thrown their way. He was very grateful for their booth being a good distance away from the nearest occupied table. 

“Eli, we both know that’s a bunch of bullshit,” Matthew said once he’d recovered from his little fit. “And we both know I’m not going to do anything to you. You could go to the cops whenever you wanted and there wouldn’t be much I could do. Hell, you could poison my coffee and I’d probably thank you for the drink and chug it down.”

Well, that last part was true, at least. Matthew did have an unhealthy dependency on caffeine. And Eli supposed Matthew wasn’t nearly as terrifying as he’d first thought. Especially when he was sitting across from him, messy haired and with ketchup on his cheek. 

Yeah, definitely not the kinda guy who’d murder him in his sleep.

Both Eli and Matthew walked out of the restaurant a while later, the redhead not quite happy with how things turned out. Aside from having gotten irritated at Matthew—which was to be expected—he'd ended up being the one treated to a meal. He didn't want to complain because it was free food. But still, it wasn't how he'd wanted things to turn out.

"Well, that was fun," Matthew said with a cheery tone. He certainly looked a lot better after having a decent meal. "Didn't think you'd be the one asking me out on a date, but I can't complain."

Eli nearly tripped when he heard that. Then he nearly punched Matthew again.

"What? I didn't, that wasn't—I'd never go out with you, you creep!" Eli said, face flushed with what he liked to think was anger and only anger. Matthew just grinned. Of course he would.

"No need to be shy, you already know I like you," he said with a calm tone.

"I'm not being shy! And how the hell do you like me? You don't even know me!" At least, Eli thought Matthew didn't know him. They talked, of course, but that was mostly random chatter about unimportant things while Matthew drank coffee and ate cookies and pastries. And sure, sometimes Eli would sneak an extra cookie Matthew’s way—at least, he did before he knew the guy was a jerk—but that was just him trying to get more tips. And so what if sometimes he’d save his favorite muffins. It was good customer service, is all.  

"You realize I've been going to the coffee shop for over a year," Matthew said, an eyebrow quirked. "That's plenty of time to get to know you. Plus, Michael tells me all sorts of things when you're not around," he said, probably adding the last part mostly to mess with Eli. Granted, it was still very likely true. If only because Michael was a terrible gossip. 

"You're lying," Eli said, even though he was fairly certain Matthew wasn’t. "Either way, I seriously doubt he told you anything to make you like me." That was said mostly to reassure himself that Matthew was insane.

"I don't need to know everything about you to like you, Eli," Matthew said, his tone holding something like exasperation mixed with amusement. "I want to get to know you because I like you, and I like you because I know you’re a good person. Maybe you’re not the nicest to most people, but you work hard and you try. And sometimes it’s the little things you do for people that usually go unnoticed. You’re a good person, Eli," he explained.

Eli stood there, staring at Matthew, and trying to think of a response while his face heated up.

"I treat you like crap!" That was the first thing he could come up with. It got a laugh out of Matthew, a real laugh that made the corners of his eyes crease and his body shake. To Eli's alarm, it wasn't as annoying as he'd expected it to be.

"Yeah well, it's not that bad," Matthew admitted with a shrug. "Just be nicer to me every once in a while and we'll call it even." Eli would have loved to tell him there was no way that would happen, but he knew better. "Or, you know, you can just give me a ki—"

"Say it and I'll hit you," Eli cut him off, noting the strange looks a couple of people walking by sent their way. Matthew snorted out a laugh that he'd tried to hold back.

"You're such a prude," Matthew teased, getting a glare from Eli.

"That's it, I'm leaving," Eli said, turning and hurrying away from Matthew. The faint sound of laughter that seemed to follow him as he walked away did nothing to improve his mood.

Another thing that didn't help was the way the news constantly reminded him of the person he most definitely didn't want to see at the time. 

It was the early evening and Eli was finally back home after the lunch from hell, as he liked to call it. He chose to spend his night like he usually did—in front of the television with a pile of schoolwork to get through. It wasn't the most fun choice, but it helped ease his workload for the rest of the week.

The evening news started, and Eli really wasn't surprised to see who they were reporting on first. As soon as the word 'Vigilante' was uttered by the chipper reporter that stared almost blankly at him through the screen, Eli changed the channel. Sad as it was, he preferred to watch a game show than hear about Matthew's latest exploits.

With a sigh, he leaned back onto his couch, glaring at the books laying at his side as if they were the cause of all his problems. Granted, they were the cause of about half his problems while Matthew claimed the other half.

Eli studied for as long as he could manage to keep his attention on the words displayed on his computer screen, but every sentence he typed took more effort than it possibly should and his mind couldn't focus on his work. Thoughts of irritating masked men with warm smiles and a taste for trouble kept floating around in his head. It was with just a bit of surprise—and much denial—that Eli realized why that was.

He actually cared about Matthew. 

At least enough to not want the man to end up in a ditch somewhere. It certainly explained why he never really wanted to watch him on the news anymore. Not since the last time he'd been injured at least. Of course, at the time he'd thought it was just because the very mention of Matthew annoyed him. Now though, he wasn't so sure.

And sure, Eli had always liked Matthew well enough. He was a good customer and was usually good to talk to, at least, before Eli had known about his nighttime escapades. When Eli thought about it, Matthew had always been a bit distant back then, always keeping to topics that were well away from his personal life. But the thing that never changed was the way he’d look at Eli. 

The thought of it was enough to have Eli’s cheeks warming. Especially now that he knew Matthew had a weird crush on him. Against his will, the image of the man winking at him with a smile back at the restaurant popped into his mind. Sometimes, Eli really hated his traitorous brain.

Suddenly not feeling up to doing his school work, Eli shut his laptop and decided to give himself a break. He switched the channel, trying to find something that would distract him enough. Thinking of Matthew wasn't a pastime he enjoyed. Even so, he couldn't help but stop at the mention of the man's alter ego.

The news reporter looked straight at the camera, her face and tone denoting the serious nature of the story she was covering. Eli heard the news with something like denial and a sense of shock mixed in with something he couldn't quite recognize. It was an unpleasant feeling that seemed to settle in his chest, squeezing it painfully. The words the woman on the screen had just spoken played over in his head.

Vigilante—no, Matthew—had been shot.