Eli wasn't gonna lie, he was genuinely curious about what an angry Matthew was like. To be fair, he'd never really had to deal with that, mostly because Matthew rarely got mad at anyone. Especially not him.

Now, here he was, sitting on the couch with a positively furious Matthew staring down at him while they both looked like absolute crap.

If he weren't so sure it would make things worse, Eli would probably laugh. It was all just too funny to have Matthew be so mad over Eli trying to save his ass. Still, in hindsight, he probably should have tried to be more understanding.

"So, you're just gonna stare angrily at me, or can I go make a sandwich?" Definitely not the best way to start the conversation.

In Eli's defense, he was hungry.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm just having a hard time understanding what you could have been thinking." Eli didn't appreciate the sarcastic tone. That was his thing.

"Mostly that my stupid boyfriend was gonna get killed because he trusted the shady daughter of a criminal—who also tried to kill him. You know, just as long as we're talking about stupid choices." Eli finished with the fakest smile he could muster. Matthew's glare reached a new level. Eli wasn't really impressed. "Look, I didn't do it because I wanted to. I showed up because I knew you were in trouble and honestly, Adria doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me." Which really wasn't a surprise.

"And you think I trust her?"

"I hope not. Because if you do I'm seriously going to start questioning your sanity." Not that Eli didn't do that already.

"Eli, I'm working with Adria to keep you safe. You literally walking into danger is really just making it all useless."

"Oh, I'm sorry, was I supposed to just sit here binge watching true crime shows and wondering if you'd get your own episode when you finally got yourself murdered?" Honestly, Matthew would probably enjoy that if it didn't require him getting murdered.

At the moment though, Matthew was probably too upset to even consider the thought. Instead, he let out a tired sigh, and sat on the couch next to Eli.

"Why can't you just try to stay safe?" he said, sounding absolutely exhausted and pretty much at the end of his rope. Which Eli didn't appreciate, considering he felt very much the same.

"Why can't you?" Perhaps that wasn't the best thing to ask, but Eli was feeling petty at the moment.

"Eli," Matthew groaned, covering his face with his hands as he leaned forward. Personally, Eli thought he was being a tad bit too dramatic. After all, it wasn't like either of them died.

"Okay, well, I'm gonna go make a sandwich." Eli stood, fully intending to get some food before his stomach ate itself. He did his best to ignore the ache in his leg.

"Why can't you take things seriously?" Matthew asked from his seat, and Eli paused after just a couple of steps towards their temporary kitchen.

"I am. Which is why I even went in the first place. Or what, did you think I missed the part where the guy after us is a freaking mercenary?" Eli figured that was a pretty good sign of how dangerous the guy is. "Kinda sounds more dangerous than the usual mugger you go after, and honestly, this whole plan was a fucking mess and it's not like I could trust Adria to help. For all I knew she planned the whole thing to get rid of you." Sure, Eli might have been ranting a bit, but he was just done with the whole argument. He was pretty sure he should just walk away before he said something stupid.

"Then why would you go?!"

"Because I love you, you fucking idiot!"

Well, that wasn't the best thing to say. Still, at least it shut them both up. Even if Eli was just wondering whether his face would spontaneously combust, considering how warm it felt. Matthew just looked like he was in the process of loading, but the wifi was shit. Which was a terrible comparison but still pretty spot on.

As was to be expected, Matthew recovered first.

"To be honest, not what I expected but still nice to hear." Eli just glared, because really? Matthew just let out a sigh, but didn't look as angry as before. Actually, all the anger seemed to have drained out of him, and just left the mildly concerned—and heavily stressed—looking mess that was Matthew.

Maybe it was just because so much had been happening as of late, or maybe it was just that Matthew always tried to put on a brave face, but at that moment, Eli truly saw how tired Matthew was. He saw the dark circles under his eyes and the defeated slope of his shoulders. Eli saw the paleness of Matthew's face, marred by dirt and flecks of blood—a bruise blooming along his cheekbone. More than anything, Eli saw how desperately Matthew was trying to keep himself together even as he was likely falling apart. Not for the first time, Eli had to wonder how Matthew managed to keep going.

And for how much longer he'd be able to do so.

Not wanting to think about that, and figuring he might as well do something useful instead of smacking Matthew over the head, Eli turned and headed for the bathroom. He ignored Matthew's question about where he was going and returned a moment later with their first aid kit.

Eli wasn't surprised to find Matthew had started to follow him and nearly bumped into him as Eli headed back to the living room. Maybe he thought Eli had finally snapped and was off to pack for his trip to the countryside where he would start his new life. It was something he'd often discussed with Matthew, after all. With a sigh, and wishing he could just eat something and go to bed, Eli grabbed Matthew's arm to lead him back.

"Come on," Eli said, dragging him to the couch.

"You should go to bed, I can take care of this," Matthew said, catching sight of the med kit Eli was holding. He still did nothing to release himself from Eli's hold. They both sat on the couch and Eli busied himself with the med kit.

"If I go to bed you'll just take some pain pills and pass out on the couch like an idiot," Eli said, not bothering to look at Matthew.

"To be fair, I don't think I'm bleeding anywhere," Mathew said, like that was an impressive accomplishment.

Actually, it kind of was and Eli hated that.

"Well good for you, now take off your shirt." When Matthew didn't make a single stupid comment about Eli's phrasing, he knew something was wrong. Still, he decided not to say anything. Whatever was bothering Matthew was something he'd open up to Eli about on his own.

And so, Eli focused on what he could do at the moment.

Trying to forget just how utterly exhausted he was, Eli cleaned Matthew's wounds, patched them up, and was glad most of them were limited to scrapes and bruises. Granted, some of said bruises were pretty nasty looking and would only be worse by the next day.

"Huh, you weren't kidding about the ballistic resistance being shit," Eli said, looking at the growing bruise on Matthew's back where he'd been shot. Of course, a bruise beat a bullet hole any day, but still.

"To be fair, I'm alive, so I guess points to the vest even if it was kinda shitty?" Eli snorted, because that's just how weird their life was. Here he was, sitting in the living room of their temporary safe house and doing his best to patch up his idiot boyfriend while they discussed the efficacy of bullet proof vests.

His life was officially a fucking joke.

"Maybe we should send Adria a thank you card." She would hate it, Eli just knew it. Kinda made him want to actually send one.

"Please stop trying to get her to murder you," Matthew said, sounding exhausted. Eli wasn't sure if it was because of the night they'd had or because of him constantly annoying Adria. He still snickered either way.

At the very least, it put a weak little smile on Matthew's face. Even if it only lasted a second.

"Did you get hurt?" he asked, looking concerned. Honestly, Eli was surprised it'd taken him so long to ask. Usually, Eli's wellbeing was something Matthew was particularly obsessed with. As if Eli didn't get his head bounced off of concrete on a semi-regular basis.

Clearly, the man was out of it.

"I'm fine," Eli said, stressing the second word.

"You jumped out of a moving car." Well, good to see Matthew was back to his usual self.

"A slowly moving car."

"It went through a metal screen." Frankly, Matthew didn't need to point that out.

"Which clearly wasn't as secure as you'd think. That warehouse had very shoddy security measures." Eli thought that sounded very reasonable.

Of course, that was when Matthew burst out laughing. Eli did his best to look insulted. Really, he was just glad Matthew had stopped looking like he was slowly dying inside.

"I'm starting to think I'm a bad influence on you," Matthew said once he'd stopped laughing.

"When have you not been?" Eli wasn't gonna lie, he liked the idea of blaming Matthew for the slightly stupid choices he'd been making as of late. He just wished that excuse had a chance of holding up against his mother.

Which reminded him, he needed to come up with a good excuse as to why it wasn't really Matthew's fault Eli had almost died again. Just in case his mother found out about their most recent escapades. Eli was so focused on thinking about how to cover for Matthew's various shenanigans, that he missed the way the man smiled as he looked at Eli. There was a soft look in his eyes, mouth curved into a smile—the kind he ever showed Eli.

If he'd seen that expression on Matthew's face, perhaps Eli wouldn't have been so surprised.

"I love you," Matthew said, the words flowing out easily. Maybe that was why Eli was so taken aback by it. After all, it wasn't like it was the first time Matthew ever told him, it was just the offhand manner in which he could say it—and the way he clearly meant it.

For a moment, Eli didn't really know what to say. His mind blanked out, frozen like the screen of some shitty old computer, unable to process even the simplest of things. Eli's mouth, on the other hand, had always been rather quick to react.

"I sure as fuck hope so." Well, that wasn't what he'd wanted to say.

To his credit, Matthew just snorted. Probably because he knew Eli well enough to not expect much from him.

"You're so bad at being romantic," Matthew said, still snickering. Eli just glared, face red but still feeling oddly pleased.

Before Eli could say anything they were interrupted by the sound of Matthew's phone going off. The one that Adria had given him. With only a brief look exchanged between him and Eli, Matthew picked up.

"What is it?" Eli asked when Matthew just stared at the screen, apparently reading a text, brow furrowed.

"She says to check the news." For a second, they both looked at each other as they processed that.

"Well, that can't be good," Eli said. Matthew was already grabbing the TV remote.

He switched channels for a bit, searching for the news without luck until Eli took the remote from him and switched to the right channel. Matthew shot him a questioning look while Eli just shrugged.

"I watch a lot of news," he said. He figured it was probably obvious why. Mathew decided not to say anything about that, instead focusing on the screen.

"Authorities are not sharing any details at the moment, though sources have confirmed the bodies found are those of notorious cartel leaders, some also known to have dealt in weapons trafficking."

"Okay, that's definitely not good."

"Probably not," Matthew agreed, still staring at the screen.

And there went their last bit of peace.

# # #

Hey everyone! Isn't it nice to slow down after shootings and car chases, and just relax? :D

Speaking of relaxing, I won't be relaxing for a while because I somehow managed to eat through all my buffer chapters so if you need me I'll be weeping at my desk. I do have the rest outlined though, so there's that. Expect the next chapter to be out on Friday, May 14th!

Anyway, thank you all for reading and I hoped you liked this chapter. Also, I mentioned it earlier but I'm on Tapas now! You can check out an edited version of Vigilante with some new bits added, so yes, check it out if you can, link's on my profile!

Other than that, I hope you're all staying safe! And now I leave you with this meme I forgot to post last time.