After a considerably shorter amount of time than Eli had expected, Matthew was all fixed up and relatively clean. Thanks to about half of Eli's towels, of course. He wasn't looking forward to laundry day.

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Matthew said as he attempted to fit into one of Eli's old shirts. "Of course, it would have been easier if you weren't so squeamish." He gave up once it became clear that he’d only fit in the shirt if he wanted to wear it as a particularly tight crop top.

"Well, I wouldn't have been so squeamish if I hadn't had to treat a gunshot wound!" Eli snapped, making his way to the bathroom, arms loaded with dirty clothes and bloody towels.  He dumped it all with the rest of the dirty laundry and made his way out of the bathroom and to the bedroom. There, he paused to stare at Matthew, who was fighting to get out of the shirt without worsening his injuries.

With a roll of his eyes, Eli walked to the closet and opened it, searching for something along the bottom. Matthew watched in amusement from his perch on Eli’s bed as the redhead practically disappeared amongst the coats before emerging with a cardboard box.

“I knew it was in there somewhere,” Eli muttered, opening the box and rifling through its contents. A second later, he was tossing a shirt Matthew’s way.  

“Was this from before you shrank?” Matthew asked with a wry grin as he held out the shirt and inspected the university logo printed on it.

“You’re fucking hilarious,” Eli deadpanned. “It’s from my ex, you dick. And it’s probably musty as hell but at least you probably fit in it.” And if not, Eli wasn’t really sure what they would do because Matthew’s clothes were ruined and there was no way he was hopping through the rooftops to get home—or to his lair, whichever.

“You kept your ex’s things?” Matthew asked, eyebrow quirked.

“I use his shit as cleaning rags. Oh and there’s some neat stuff here.” Eli dug around a bit and pulled out some old headphones. “Huh, forgot about these.” He set them aside for later use. One man’s trash, and all that. 

Matthew just snorted before carefully trying to slip into the shirt. He winced as he finally got one arm into the sleeve and had to pause. That was when Eli decided to get up with a sigh and made his way over to the man. 

“Here, let me help before you pass out,” he said, carefully guiding Matthew into the shirt. 

“Well, you weren’t lying about the musty part,” Matthew said as his head slipped through the neckhole and he tugged the shirt down, which was still a tight fit, though at least it fit. 

“Better than blood soaked clothes,” Eli said with a shrug. 

“Can’t deny that.” Matthew looked up then and something in the way he looked at Eli made Eli’s heart skip a beat. There was a gentle look in his eyes that took the edge out of his slightly pained expression. “Thanks,” Matthew said, voice soft.

“For what? Not letting you bleed to death?” Eli said, doing his best to not sound as flustered as he felt. 

“Well, yeah, among other things.” There was a small smile on Matthew’s face now. One that seemed to brighten up his face. “But really, thanks for everything. I wasn’t kidding about you being the only person I could ask. And I really do trust you.”

“Why? I tricked you and ripped off your mask,” Eli pointed out before he could stop himself. 

“To be fair, I kind of had it coming,” Matthew said with an amused shrug. “And you haven’t called the cops on me so I’m guessing you don’t hate me all that much.” 

“I don’t hate you,” Eli muttered, cheeks warm. He suddenly realized just how close he was standing to Matthew.

“Well, good because like I said, you’re kinda the only one I can ask for help.”

Eli knew Matthew was joking, but he was still irritated by the casual way in which he admitted he planned to get into trouble again. Trouble that Eli might not be able to help him out of. It was enough to have him feeling angry at just how willing the man was to put himself at risk. It was probably for the best that he turned and began to head back out into the living room.

"What, you're leaving me so soon?" Eli paused for a moment, but didn’t bother to turn to look at Matthew.

"I left the t.v. on," he muttered, not really caring whether he was heard or not. He didn't think he could be around Matthew for much longer. Not when the concern he'd felt was quickly giving way to anger.

It had been a long and extremely chaotic night, one that Eli wasn't entirely sure was real. Hell, he could hardly even keep up with what was going on. One minute he had been watching the news, listening to some story about the touching reunion between a previously missing dog and his family, and the next he was watching as the man who had saved his life more times than he could count fell to what had seemed to be his death. It had all been too sudden and unexpected and it left Eli feeling anxious and more worried than he would ever have thought.

It also made him think about things, and consider feelings he'd rather ignore.

"...police still searching for any sign of the man known as 'The Vigilante'..."

Eli stopped to stare at the television screen once he reached his living room. They were still reporting on Matthew's fall—which he hoped wouldn't boost his ego any more. As he watched, they replayed the footage of the man being shot, and if Eli looked closely, he could see Matthew's desperate attempts to keep from falling. They said the police had found blood, plenty of it and Eli tried not to think about how Matthew could have died at any point between that damn alley and his house, tried not to think of how he had crawled up to his balcony, badly wounded and in pain.

He tried not to think about how this probably wasn’t the first time Matthew was injured and how maybe next time he wouldn't be so lucky. Maybe next time, when he came to Eli—bleeding and saying he trusted him—Eli wouldn't be able to fix him.

Eli wasn't aware of having sat down on the couch, too focused on his thoughts and the images flashing by on the screen in front of him. He also didn't really notice when the couch cushions shifted at his side.

"You okay?" Eli was distracted enough that he jumped a bit at the other man's voice.

"Yeah, uh, you shouldn't be walking around," he said, attempting to sound casual, even though he really was worried. Of course, Matthew just shrugged it off.

"I'll be fine, probably sore as hell tomorrow, but I'll live," Matthew said. Eli didn't miss the way he winced as he leaned back on the couch. "It's not the first time I've been shot you know," he added, because it didn't look to him like Eli was convinced.

"You fell off a building," Eli pointed out with some disbelief coloring his tone, because really, that shouldn't be something that Matthew just brushed off. "How did you even survive that?"

"It wasn't that high," Matthew said. Eli didn't bother to point out that it was a two story apartment building. His expression might have said enough. "And there might have been some unpleasant, but lifesaving, trashbags," Matthew added.

Eli didn't have a response to that, because what could he say? Instead of talking, he just turned back to the TV screen and watched as they kept reporting on Matthew. He'd been watching the trio of thieves running, just about to get to the part where Matthew was shot, when the image changed abruptly. Eli found himself watching an old episode of a game-show instead. With a questioning look, he turned to Matthew, who was still holding the TV remote.

"It's kind of boring when it's the twentieth time they play it," was all he said, and there really wasn't anything else to say.

So they sat there for a while, with Matthew occasionally changing the channel until he settled on an old sci-fi film—the type people watched because the bad acting was more entertaining than the poor plot. Sometime during the night, Eli must have fallen asleep, because he woke up to find the sun shining, the television turned off, and a blanket draped over his body.

The apartment was empty except for him. There was no note, the bedsheets had been changed and the doors and windows were all closed. Matthew was nowhere to be seen, and Eli couldn't say he was surprised.