Eli thought it would be best for his sanity if he just tried to not think about Matthew.

This became rather difficult when he got home the next day and found the man—still fully dressed in what Eli liked to call his ninja-knockoff suit—sitting on his couch. Matthew was nonchalantly flipping through the channels when Eli walked in.

He heard his bag drop to the floor with a dull THUD and was faintly aware of his mouth hanging open. For a while he didn't really know how to react. Matthew, on the other hand, just grinned and waved at him from the couch.

"Hey Eli," he greeted, as if he weren't just about the creepiest person Eli had ever met.

"That's it," Eli said after a while, sounding resigned. "I'm getting a restraining order."

He wasn't sure what it said about him that he just closed the door and walked to the kitchen to scrounge up some dinner. Eli heard Matthew walk into the room just as he searched through the fridge for ingredients he could combine into something edible.

"I brought you some takeout," Matthew said from the doorway. A quick look around the kitchen and Eli found the food on his counter—which he hoped Matthew hadn't bought in his current attire. His gratefulness for the food didn't quite outweigh his irritation. It was very close though. "Are you still mad at me?" Matthew asked.

Eli took a minute to consider this. He was irritated with Matthew for many reasons—him breaking into his apartment wasn't one of them, oddly enough. It was something Eli had gotten used to already.

"No, but I'm not happy about you breaking into my apartment after I told you not to," Eli said, stressing the last part as he grabbed a can of soda and the bag of food and walked past Matthew into the living room. Still ignoring Matthew, he sat on the couch and pulled out the bacon cheeseburger Matthew had bought.

The man knew how to buy his forgiveness, Eli would admit  that much. 

"To be fair, you've been ignoring me lately, and having a door slammed in your face isn't all that fun," Matthew said, sitting next to Eli. The younger man was stubbornly focused on the television and his burger. With a sigh, Matthew leaned back into the couch, arms crossed and the corners of his mouth tilting down into a slight frown.

Eli tried not to think about the fact that there was a masked vigilante pouting on his ratty old couch next to him.

They stayed like that for a while, and Eli was reminded of that night he'd found Matthew outside his apartment. He remembered the panic he felt at seeing the blood on Matthew's clothes. Suddenly, Eli wasn't all that hungry, but some of the anger he thought he'd gotten past returned.

"Aren't you going to leave?" he asked, putting his food down and changing the channel. "I wouldn't want to distract you from your oh-so-important work." There was a fair amount of sarcasm that Eli didn't even attempt to hide. He did, however, manage to hold back an eye roll.

"Well, I wouldn't consider it work," Matthew pointed out.

"Don't care, go away," Eli said before picking up his soda and taking a long drink from it. Of course, Matthew didn't leave and Eli felt like flipping a table. He felt like that a lot since meeting Matthew.

"I'm sensing some hostility here." It was probably because Matthew always said that kind of thing that Eli was always so annoyed with him. "If you're mad you should just say so."

Eli set  his soda down on his cheap coffee table that already held a pile of textbooks and the rest of his dinner. He took a deep breath and turned to glare at Matthew.

"I'm not mad, why would I be mad. Just because you were stupid enough to go back out and actually look for the guys that shot you and then didn't show your stupid face for weeks? Well, I don't care," Eli said, his frustration finally too strong to hold back. "You can go out and die if you want, see if I care. And don't even think about coming back here when you get shot!" Eli finished, crossing his arms and turning back to the TV with a frown and a furrowed brow. Matthew just stared at him for a while, seemingly shocked at the redhead's outburst.

And then he laughed. Or it was more like he snorted while trying not to laugh. Either way, Eli was deeply offended.

"What the hell's so funny?" he asked. Matthew just shook his head, smiling in a way that looked like there was more than amusement hiding behind it. Eli thought that it might have been a bit regretful. Which was weird but so was Matthew in general.

"Nothing," he said. "It's just that I didn't really expect you to worry so much about me."

The look Eli gave Matthew very clearly told him that he didn't actually care. Of course, Matthew knew better, to Eli’s chagrin.

"I'm sorry for making you worry. I just didn't want to bother you. Guess I didn't think about what you'd think if I just went away for a while," Matthew admitted, looking a bit thoughtful and very sheepish.

"Of course people will wonder what happened if you just go missing after getting shot!" Eli couldn't help but say. "You're such an idiot," he added with a huff, feeling like his anger had just been drained.

"So I've heard," Matthew said, his lips twitching with restrained laughter. Eli turned away from him looking very much like a petulant child. "Well, as fun as this has been, I really should get going," Matthew said, standing from the couch.

"Are you really going back out?" Eli asked, clearly not happy to hear Matthew was back to his old ways of endangering his life. Not that it really mattered what he thought. It wasn’t like Matthew was gonna stop, Eli realized with some bitterness. “Not to be rude but you still look like crap.” 

Matthew didn’t look very offended, so Eli figured it was alright. Besides, it wasn’t like Matthew didn’t already know how rude Eli could be. 

"Will it make you feel better if I tell you I'll be fine?" Matthew asked.

"No," Eli replied without a pause.

"Thought so," Matthew said, letting out a sigh. "Then how about I leave a way for you to contact me," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a phone. It was the cheap kind of prepaid phone that hardly anyone used anymore. They were all over gas stations though, which made Eli wonder what kind of people actually used those. Apart from Matthew, of course.

"I'll call you if I plan to take a break for a while," Matthew said, handing the phone to Eli, who took it rather reluctantly.

"Does this mean you're going to stop breaking into my apartment, because seriously—creeper alert," Eli said, sounding a lot less angry as he took the phone.

"I'm not a creeper," Matthew defended himself, a bit indignant at being called a creeper. Not that it was the first time Eli did so. "And I didn't break in, you left your window open. Really, you should be glad it was just me."

"Right," Eli said, unimpressed. He did make a mental note to check his windows more often.

Matthew left soon after—through the window, Eli recalled with a shake of his head—and Eli stared at the phone resting on his coffee table for a while, not sure what he should do with it.

Rationally, he should have given it back. He'd already decided not to get involved with Matthew again. And yet, he'd just seen him leave while wondering if he'd be at the coffee shop the next day.

In the end, Eli admitted that reason and rationality weren't the most commonly associated things with Matthew, and that wasn't such a bad thing. He went to sleep feeling a bit better that night, and hoping Matthew wouldn't think to call him while he was in class. Just in case, he'd shoved the phone to the bottom of his schoolbag.

It's just in case, he thought, as a part of him questioned his decision to keep it. Just before he fell asleep a stray thought crossed his mind. 

In case of what?