Eli grimaced at the pain in his leg.

The chill in the late autumn air made it ache long after it had healed. He did his best to ignore it as he climbed out of the bus and made his way down the street. Just a block ahead was the place where he'd be meeting his friends, and Eli figured he could make it that far. Hopefully, the warmth of the diner they were waiting for him in would make the sharp jolts of pain go away.

It wasn't the pain that bothered him most, really. Rather, it was the constant reminder that came with it.

More than a year had passed since the night Eli had last seen Matthew, and every time he closed his eyes he could see the flames shooting up out of the burning warehouse. A long plume of dark smoke rose up and scattered in the wind, leaving an acrid smell behind.

Eli still remembered all too clearly how he'd sat outside and watched the place burn. The blaring of the sirens was faint even as they grew closer. Before he knew it, there were people talking to him and grabbing him with careful hands. His wounds were treated, his family notified and -- very much against his will and despite his many complaints -- he was taken to the hospital. Eli never saw Matthew come out of the building.

As clearly as Eli remembered everything that had happened that night, he preferred not to think about it. He had other things to worry about.

The door to the diner opened and instantly, Eli could feel the warmth of the place. It washed over him as he stepped inside and made him feel a bit better. The ache in his leg was still there.

Collin and Tucker were already seated at one of the booths in the diner and Eli made his way over to his friends. They both smiled when they saw Eli and the redhead pretended not to have noticed the way they had stopped talking in hushed voices. He smiled faintly as he stopped in front of the booth they were sharing.

"Sorry I'm late," said Eli. He did his best not to wince as he sat next to Collin. "I missed the bus." He rubbed his sore leg beneath the table.

"It's fine," Tucker said with a shrug.

"We just got here anyway," Collin added. "So, how're you doing?"

"Fine," Eli said. It was his usual response to a question that he had been asked more times than he could count in the last year.

A waitress approached them and they were all quick to order coffee and, in Tucker and Collin's case, some food. Eli found that he wasn't very hungry.

"So, we were planning on actually getting some work done tomorrow," Tucker said a moment after the waitress had walked off.

"Yeah, do you wanna come over? Maybe get that essay for Professor Miller done?" Collin added.

Eli tried to make it seem like he was at least considering it. He was still fairly certain that he wasn't fooling his friends though. Unfortunately for him, they were smarter than they seemed (at least, when it was inconvenient for him).

"Maybe next time," he said, and still saw Collin's expression fall even though he tried to cover it up. Eli was just glad they didn't press the issue.

Not that they would know what the real issue was.

No one knew about Matthew, or at least, about him being Vigilante. There was no way Eli could tell anyone, even though he knew that it didn't matter anymore. It was Matthew's secret. Something he had trusted Eli with. So now, he had to deal with being the only one that knew Matthew was dead.

Eli wasn't sure his friends could help him get past that. Maybe it was easier to let them think the worst thing that had happened to Eli that night was getting shot.

He sat in the diner for a while. Long enough that he actually felt a bit better as he walked to the door with his friends. Collin and Tucker paused outside and Eli did his best to ignore the feeling of that now all too familiar ache in his leg coming back slowly as he stood in the chilly night.

"You sure you don't want to stop by tomorrow?" Collin asked. "There'll be food," he added, waggling his eyebrows in a way that made Eli roll his eyes. He took in his friends' expressions. The badly disguised hope might have been what made him give in.

"Yeah, okay," he finally agreed. He figured it was time he started to be more social or people would start calling him a hermit. Besides, he did like free food.

The three young men went their separate ways, with Eli heading off on his own with a wave. He pulled his coat tighter around himself and began the short walk to the nearest bus stop. Fortunately for him, he didn't have to wait long and was soon inside the considerably warmer bus and on his way home.

Eli hadn't moved after the whole mess at the warehouse. A lot of people said he was stupid because of that. Eli tended to agree with those people. Still, he wasn't planning on moving any time soon.

He wasn't being sentimental either. If only to himself, he would admit that it was mostly just him being stubborn. A lot had been taken from him the night of the fire, leaving the crummy little apartment would somehow feel like losing again.

With a faint grimace as a sharp pain sparked in his leg, Eli unlocked his door. As soon as he stepped inside, he was pounced on by his newest roommate.

"Get off Matt," Eli said, shaking his leg to try to free it from the claws of the cat clinging to it. Not that it did him much good as the cat proceeded to climb up his leg. It must have realized it wasn't worth the trouble, because it gave up somewhere around Eli's knee and dropped back to the ground.

"Stupid cat," Eli muttered, even as he walked to his kitchen and dug around a cabinet for a can of cat food.

Matt, or Matthew as was actually the cat's proper name, had started living with Eli just a couple of months earlier. It had been scratching at Eli's bedroom window one night while he tried to sleep. Maybe Eli had let him in because he'd felt sorry for the scrawny little animal, or maybe he was a sentimental idiot like Michael said when he found out (granted, he thought the cat was named after a customer who suddenly disappeared and Eli just missed the guy's tips). Whatever the case might be, it had worked in the cat's favor.

Now it was fat, lazy and too clingy for it's own good. Eli thought it lived up to it's namesake.

He opened the can of food and emptied it into the cat's bowl while the animal lingered at his feet. It's tail waved from side to side and its blue-grey eyes watched Eli expectantly as it rubbed it's head against Eli's leg.

"Eat up," Eli said as he set the bowl down and patted the cat's black and white fur. He stood then, and walked over to his phone, noticing he had a message waiting for him.

Eli didn't even need to hear it to know it was his mom. She made it a point to call him at least three times a week, even though they both knew they didn't have anything to actually talk about (working at a coffee shop was not that interesting).

They'd never really seen eye-to-eye on many things (mainly Eli not being picky on which gender his dates were). Honestly, Eli thought they were both too similar to ever be close, so it was no surprise when he moved out as soon as he was old enough. After that, they'd only really talked on the phone, and even those conversations became more and more rare as time went by. Things were just too awkward between them, neither one knowing the other that well and both too stubborn to admit they missed each other. It figured all it would take to fix things between them would be Eli nearly dying.

Not that he was one to talk.

He stifled a yawn as he pulled his laptop out of his backpack and settled down on his lumpy old couch. Eli figured he should at least attempt to get some school work done, however much he hated it. He still turned on the tv before he even opened his laptop.

"In other news, the leader of a prominent drug ring--" Eli changed the channel before the anchorwoman was done speaking.

It had been a while since he'd bothered with the news. Most people would think it was because of some trauma left over from the night of the warehouse fire. Eli would tell those people to stop watching cheap tv dramas. The real reason was simple enough; there just wasn't anything that interested him in the news.

Eli didn't care about murders he couldn't do anything about or what sleazy politicians were up to (fraud and generally screwing the working class seemed to be the usual). If he wanted to hear depressing stories mixed in with the occasional heartwarming report of some adorable animal doing something cute he'd just surf the internet for a while. The only reason he had ever paid any attention to the news was gone.

After the whole warehouse debacle, the news realized that the friendly neighborhood vigilante seemed to have just up and vanished. What followed was a perfect example of how far the media would go for a story. For more than a month, all the reporters could talk about was Vigilante.

Where did he go? Why did he suddenly quit his hobby of beating up petty criminals? Who was he? Was he dead?

As redundant as it all got, Eli had to admit that there were some pretty amusing attempts to answer these questions. Sometimes, he even got a kick out of the things Michael would tell him during work (to keep him "in the loop", he claimed). Sometime during the third week of nothing but people talking about Vigilante, it all got to be a bit too much.

Besides, Eli already knew the truth and he really wished he didn't. All it did was bring up new questions. Things that the media would hardly ever even consider asking.

Who was Vigilante?

Eli might have known the face behind the mask, but could he really claim to know the man at all?

Who was Matthew? That was the real question for Eli, and something he often found himself wondering.

Who was the man that put on the mask and why did he ever even bother? What was his full name? Did he have family? Why did he ever take any interest in someone like Eli?

Now that he was gone, Eli wished he'd bothered to ask at least a bit more about Matthew. But he hadn't, and now he had no way of knowing if there was even someone out there missing the man as much as he did.

He stared blankly at the television screen, not really paying attention to the game show that was playing. A feeling that was undoubtedly regret stirred somewhere inside of him only to be driven away along with any other thoughts of Matthew or Vigilante. Eli had work to do, after all.

As Eli started up his laptop, Matt wandered over to him, hopping onto the couch and staring up at the redhead after rubbing it's head against Eli's side. Eli stared back for a moment before he patted the cat and turned back to his work, feeling just a tiny bit better.

-- -- -- -- --

The next day seemed too bright for Eli. But then again, he was in a bad mood the moment he woke up. Once again, he'd fallen asleep on the couch and it had proven to be a pain in the neck - literally.

"Son of a bitch," were the first words Eli spoke that morning.

From somewhere nearby, he heard Matt mewling in what was probably disapproval of Eli's language. He was about to snap back at the cat - though he would forever deny that he argued with an animal - when he caught sight of the clock and realized he was late for work.

Eli's day went downhill from there.

Maybe it was just him imagining things, but even the coffee shop customers seemed particularly despicable that day. He still did his best to get through his shift, and after that, school.

By the end of it, he was exhausted, but he'd promised his friends that he would study with them that night. Eli knew that it was something they were looking forward to. He hadn't been very social since the night at the warehouse -- not that he'd ever been very social. With a sigh of resignation, Eli started on his way to his friends' dorm.

He hadn't walked more than a half a block when his phone rang. Somehow, he wasn't surprised that it was Tucker.

"I'm on my way, I haven't ditched you," Eli said by way of greeting.

"Well that's nice to hear," Tucker answered cheerfully. "But we were actually wondering if you'd be a good friend and do us a favor."

Eli held back a groan. He could tell by his friend's tone that he wasn't going to like what this favor entailed. "What kind of favor?" he asked, because even he wasn't stupid enough to say yes without hearing what it was. Or maybe he just knew his friends really well.

"We ran out of chips and soda. Would you mind picking some up on your way?"

Eli paused for a moment and drew the phone away from his ear to glare at it. He hoped Tucker would somehow feel it if he glared hard enough.

"Why didn't you two get some earlier?" he asked.

"We forgot. But hey, you can probably get some on the way, right?" Eli had no doubt that, had Tucker been standing in front of him, he would have been giving him the puppy eyes. Not that it would work on Eli -- not when Tucker was about a foot taller and fifty pounds heavier. Eli probably would have just kicked him in the shins.

"The nearest store is about two blocks away from your place," Eli said. He hoped that would make Tucker feel guilty enough to get off his lazy ass and get the damn chips himself. It wasn't very likely. "You can get there before me if you leave now," he pointed out.

"But you're already outside."

Eli made up his mind to punch Tucker as soon as he saw him. "Fine, I'll get the damn snacks," he snapped and hung up before he could hear all of his friend's cheering.

With a scowl on his face, Eli hitched up his backpack and started off in the direction of the nearest convenience store, complaining all the way about his horrible friends.

"Great idea," he muttered. "Send the guy with the bad leg to get your stupid snacks! Lousy friends. Hope they choke on their damn chips, see if I care." Eli did his best to ignore the looks he was getting from the few people he passed by.

Luckily for him, the farther he walked, the less people he saw and the less he had to worry about someone calling the cops to report a crazy red head muttering nonsense. But of course, Eli's luck never lasted.

He slowed his pace as he heard the sound of someone laughing loudly somewhere nearby. There was some talking mixed in, but he couldn't make out the words. Eli figured it was probably some drunk college students celebrating the weekend. He was just starting to pick up his pace, eager to get the snacks his friends wanted and get back to their dorm room to study, when he heard what was unmistakably a cry of pain. A loud THUD followed, and Eli froze in his tracks, listening for anything else.

It wasn't long before the laughter started up again. Without really thinking about it, Eli hurried to where the noise was coming from. Ignoring the dull pain in his leg as he quickened his pace, Eli crossed the street and turned into a small side street between a mostly empty parking lot and an office supply shop that was closed at that time. Just a bit further down the street was a group of men, about three of them, standing over someone on the ground -- looked like a guy a bit younger than Eli.

Eli's friends often told him he was stupid for various reasons. Most of the time he strongly disagreed, but he had to admit, he'd made some impressively bad decisions in his life. As he looked at the scene before him, he could almost feel another of those exemplary moments of sheer stupidity fast approaching.

"Hey!" he called out. "Leave that guy alone!" From what he could see of their features in the poor lighting, the group of men didn't seem too happy. That changed when they got a good look at the person who'd interrupted them.

Eli was short and skinny and he was very much aware of that fact -- he blamed his hatred of milk and the fact that his diet consisted mostly of ramen noodles, snack bars, grilled cheese sandwiches and coffee. It was painfully obvious that he wasn't going to scare away anyone any time soon. He was still not going to let a bunch of guys gang up on a kid.

No matter how much that part of his brain that sounded a lot like Michael told him he was being an idiot.

The guys were getting closer, the one nearest Eli just a scant few feet away. He was a fairly tall guy -- at least, compared to Eli, he was -- but still pretty skinny, with a long face and short dark hair. The guy right behind him had a bigger build, even if he was a bit shorter. Bits of dark hair stuck out from under the hat he wore. Eli couldn't see much of the other one, but he could see that he was pretty big around the waist. They all looked more amused than irritated now and Eli supposed it must have been pretty funny to have some scrawny college student trying to stop them -- not that Eli found it funny, it was mostly nerve-wracking for him.

Eli didn't pay much attention to what they were saying. Mostly because he could almost feel his heart pounding in his chest (maybe it thought death by heart attack would be less painful than death by beating). He was only aware that the kid the guys had been bothering had gotten up and away from the place.

Good, Eli thought.

Before the guy in front of Eli knew what was happening, he was getting hit with a bag full of textbooks. His lanky frame was no match for the heavy weight that hit him with all the force Eli could muster. The man went down, stumbling for a couple of seconds before falling back onto the grimy street. The man second closest to Eli was surprised for a moment too long. Eli took that as his chance to throw his bag at the guy, making him stumble back and onto the man behind him.

As soon as the bag's strap had slipped from his fingers, Eli made a run for it, pausing only to grab his bag and slipping it on as he ran. Most of the guys were still on the ground and the only one left standing was big enough that Eli could outrun him. He was still very glad for the slight head start he'd gotten as he felt a sharp pain in his leg, building up with each step he took.

Eli could hear the cursing behind him and the quick footsteps of the men as they chased after him. By the time he'd run a whole block he was breathing hard. Eli couldn't remember the last time he'd had to run for his life - not that he ever should have had to run for his life, but things never worked out the way Eli would like.

Just one more block, he thought, knowing that if he managed to run a bit farther he'd arrive at a more crowded part of town. Eli was hoping he'd be able to slip away then. That is, if he didn't slip first.

Eli should have known better than to think about something like that.

His foot collided with a slab of concrete from the sidewalk that rose up unevenly. For a couple of seconds, Eli stumbled, trying to stay on his feet. A sharp stab of pain on his leg finally made him lose his footing, and a moment later he was slamming down onto the ground. The palms of his hands burned and he was sure that they would be badly scratched if he cared to look. Of course, he had more pressing matters at the moment.

Eli could hear the men following him just behind him. Their footsteps were quickly growing closer and even as he hurried to get up, Eli knew he'd be caught. It wasn't too much of a surprise when he felt a hand grasp the back of his jacket. He wasn't really expecting to be flung to the side though.

Rude, he thought. Eli had never been good with sticking to his priorities, even when said priorities were dealing with a group of enraged men.

"Caught you, you little bastard," one of the men said. Eli honestly didn't know who it was that spoke. Mostly because he was more concerned with finding a way to not be severely beaten. Though he did take the time to be amused at the largest man in the group panting heavily as he caught up to his friends.

And I thought I was out of shape, Eli thought. His amusement quickly went away when one of the men grabbed him and dragged him up to his feet, only to slam him back against the wall.

"I don't know what the hell you thought you were doing," said the guy. It was the lanky one that was -- at least to Eli -- freakishly tall. "But you should have just minded your own business."

"Probably trying to play the hero," one of the others said and Eli could tell by their tone they were mocking him. "That other guy's gone and left a job opening."

Eli could hear the men laughing at that. He knew they were talking about Vigilante -- about Matthew -- and it made him clench his fists even as he stood there with someone else's hands gripping his shirt.

"You know, there's a reason the guy's gone," the tall one said.

Don't say it, Eli thought as he watched the guy smirk. Eli was pretty sure of what the man was thinking of saying but was still desperately hoping he was wrong. Not that he'd ever had that much luck.

"He probably went and got himself killed," the man finished with a grin.

"Got himself killed."

Something snapped in Eli when he heard those words. He knew Matthew was dead - how could he not - but he still didn't want to hear it. Much less from some third rate mugger.

He didn't get himself killed, Eli thought bitterly.

Without really thinking about it, Eli swung his leg with as much strength as he could muster, hitting the one holding him right between the legs. The cry of pain from the man who'd been holding him against the grimy wall just seconds earlier was a satisfying sound to Eli's ears. He tried not to think about how underhanded that was. The guy deserved it anyway.

Which was why Eli took advantage of the moment by grabbing him and pulling him forward to hit him again. Eli's knee hit the guy right in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and making him crumple to the ground.

It didn't take long for the other two to snap out of their moment of shock and move forward, but by that point Eli was already swinging his heavy bookbag. The bag caught the largest guy in the head and even Eli had to wince at the sound it made. He wasn't surprised when the guy went down. Twenty pounds of textbooks to the head would make just about anyone want to lay down for a while.

The last guy left was surprised for a moment longer before he rushed at Eli. The redhead honestly had no chance in hell at dodging the fist aimed at his face. Really, all Eli could do was brace himself. It still hurt like hell.

Eli stumbled as the man's fist connected with his face and he was pretty damn sure he'd have an impressive shiner come morning. Even as he did his best to stay on his feet, he couldn't help but wonder how he'd explain that to his friends -- Michael was going to have a fit.

He'd probably complain that no one would want to buy coffee from a potentially violent redhead. Which wasn't not true.

Eli's train of thought almost got him another black eye and he decided he should focus on what was going on if he wanted to survive. Granted, he'd been expecting to be in a lot more pain by that point in time.

He ducked just in time to miss another fist aimed at his face and threw himself at the guy, knocking him back as he slammed against the man's middle. The guy stumbled back and they both crashed to the ground. Eli sat up, only to be pushed back down as the other man had managed to recover faster. He pulled his arm back, apparently ready to punch Eli's face into the ground. Eli did his best to accept the fact that his face would end up looking like it went ten rounds with a wrecking ball. He flinched back, shutting his eyes.

And then he opened them at the alarmed yelp he heard and the weight of the man on top of him lifting off abruptly. Eli hurried to sit up, not wanting to be caught off guard again. Not that he was prepared for what he was about to find.

The man who'd been about to punch him was getting his face rearranged. He was tossed back after a solid hit that might have broken his nose -- at least, Eli hoped it did -- and he scrambled back to help his friends. But Eli wasn't paying much attention to that.

"Hey, Eli," the man who'd just rescued him said, sounding entirely too casual.

Eli stared, dumbfounded, wondering if he'd hurt his head to the point of hallucinating. Or maybe he was dead. That seemed likely.

Whatever the answer may have been, Eli didn't have much time to consider it. Later, he'd blame the shock of it all for making him pass out.

-- -- -- -- --

When Eli came to he was, unexpectedly, not lying on some dirty street. Instead, he was comfortably resting in his own bed. Which meant that either he had dreamt about getting his face punched in and the dull pain he still felt was just him imagining things, or someone had actually taken him to his apartment and tucked him into bed.

Both thoughts were fairly alarming.

He was startled out of his thoughts as he heard the door to his room open and someone walked in. Once again, Eli found himself staring, only this time there was a dull ache in his chest as his gaze rested on the man standing at the doorway. There was no mistaking him.

"Matthew?" he heard himself ask, the name slipping from his lips with a tone of incredulity tinged with hope.

"Uh, hi Eli," Matthew said -- because of course it was him. Eli was already getting out of bed, his gaze never leaving the other man. Matthew smiled tentatively, his mouth twitching into a sort of grin that made Eli's heart skip a beat.

And then he punched the man. Right in the face. Eli didn't know if matching black eyes were romantic, but they'd have them all the same.

"Fucking hell! Ow!" Matthew said. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting that -- which honestly, he should have. "What the hell, Eli?!" Matthew questioned, holding a hand up to his face.

"I should be asking you that, you stupid asshole! I thought you were dead!" Eli snapped, face as red as his hair and fists still clenched in absolute fury. His heart was racing, his blood boiling and his eyes watering with tears that he firmly insisted were out of pure anger and nothing else.

Matthew didn't say anything. He looked to be caught somewhere between surprise and dread, like he wished he didn't have to go through this. Which was too bad because Eli didn't give a crap about what Matthew wanted.

"I know," Matthew said at last, while Eli tried to calm himself down. He didn't want to end up killing Matthew after the man had just seemingly come back from the dead. "I know and I'm sorry," Matthew continued, apologizing again as if that would actually make a difference. Eli could have punched him again.

"Oh, you're sorry," Eli said, voice absolutely dripping with sarcasm. "Well, that makes it all better. I can almost forget about all this time I spent thinking you died in some stupid fire!"

To his credit, Matthew did at least look guilty. Eli still felt like punching him. Again.

"I know," Matthew said once again, raising his hands to either try to calm Eli down, or block any hits that might be aimed at him. "And I'm sure it was really horrible and you have every reason to be mad at me, but I thought it was better if I left for a while. I mean, I'd already caused you enough trouble. I figured it might be for the best."

Eli looked at Matthew with incredulity. "So you just ditched me outside a burning building? One you had just run back into?" he said, voice rising with each word. "You didn't think a fucking note might have helped? I thought you died you asshole!" Really, Eli couldn't stress that last part enough.

"And I thought I'd die too," Matthew said in a much calmer tone of voice than Eli. There was enough truth in those words to make Eli pause. He looked at Matthew and felt a twinge of some emotion that he didn't care to identify -- maybe because he knew it would hurt too much -- and instead reverted to his usual anger.

"So what, you were okay with dying?"

"Of course not," Matthew was quick to say. "But when I came out of that building I thought it was a good opportunity."

"To do what? Give me a freaking heart attack?!"

"To make sure you were safe!" Matthew said, frustrated and seemingly desperate to make Eli understand. "Did you think those guys at the warehouse were it? That there wasn't any more danger?"

Eli scowled because yes, he'd known that. He wasn't that stupid.

"What did you think I was doing this whole year?" Matthew asked, sounding more calm now. "Those men knew about you, they knew you were connected to me somehow. They weren't going to leave you alone, Eli. I had to do something."

"No, you didn't," Eli said, still utterly furious, but now tired as well. "You didn't have to leave and you didn't have to go after whoever the hell it was you were after -- that's what the cops are for. And it's not your job to take care of me. I can take care of myself well enough, in case you haven't noticed." After all, Matthew hadn't been around for a while and Eli had managed to stay alive. "But what do I care what you do. You want to run around pretending you're some hero? Fine. But the next time you get yourself killed don't come back."

It was quiet for a couple of moments after that. Matthew clearly had no idea of what to say to that and Eli had said about as much as he needed to. Everything he'd wanted to tell Matthew but never thought he'd have a chance to.

That's not true, some part of him said. Eli ignored it just as he ignored the odd ache in his chest at the thought of Matthew going away. It was what Eli had asked, after all.

Matthew was looking at him, searching for something in Eli's expression. Something that meant he should stay. Eli wasn't sure if he found what he was looking for because all he could really feel was anger.

"What were you going to say?" Matthew asked after a while. "That night, before I left. What were you going to tell me?"

It took a moment for Eli to realize what Matthew was talking about. He flushed as soon as he did because he knew -- they both did. It made him glare fiercely at the man standing in front of him for asking that.

"You're such a dick!" Eli snapped. He turned to walk away, only to be stopped by Matthew's hand on his arm holding him back.

"Probably," Matthew said with a crooked grin. "But I also happen to love you." That brought a new wave of heat to Eli's face, one that he fought furiously to get rid of. He was fairly sure that he was nowhere near successful.

At the very least, Matthew decided to release him then, but Eli didn't bother walking away. There was nothing left to run away from anymore.

"I hope you didn't think that would change," Matthew said, looking entirely too serious. "I know I was wrong to do what I did, and I don't expect you to forgive me for that. I don't expect you to want to see me again either."

Against his will, Eli felt his heart drop at those words. He swallowed thickly, working to get his mouth to work. "Then why did you come back?" he asked at last.

Matthew gave him a smile that was both fond and heartbreakingly sad. "Because I needed to see you at least one more time."

And really, that wasn't fair. Eli should have punched him again.

"You're leaving again?" he asked, which was a much better response. At least for Matthew.

The man sighed before answering Eli. "I can't make you deal with all of this anymore," he said. "When I came back, I didn't think I would end up here, talking to you. I didn't plan to. All I wanted was to make sure you were okay so that when I left I'd know you're safe, and that with me leaving you would stay safe."

That was all Matthew had ever wanted, from the moment he'd met Eli. Somewhere down the line he'd stopped thinking like that though. Matthew had stopped worrying so much and maybe he'd focused too much on simply being with Eli. So much so that in the end he'd only ever managed to hurt the younger man. He didn't want to do that anymore -- didn't want to drag Eli down with him.

"I know you don't like what I do and I can't ask you to put up with it or with me. It's for the best," Matthew said, maybe more to himself than to anyone else. "I'll still miss you though," he added with a small sort of half smile that seemed more for Eli's benefit.

Not that it did anything to make Eli feel better. If anything it just made him more upset. Maybe it was because, for the first time, he thought he might understand Matthew. Even if it was just a little.

He was lonely, and had probably been so since his supposed death -- maybe even before that. And now, despite that, he was leaving. Eli was probably the only person who knew Matthew even a little -- the only one who knew about Vigilante. That alone must have meant more to Matthew than anything else, and he was still leaving. Eli very much wanted to tell Matthew how stupid he was being.

So, of course he did just that.

"You are the biggest idiot I have ever met," he said. Matthew blinked a couple of times in quick succession, his face wearing an expression of surprise. "After all the crap that's happened, after I literally just told you I don't need you to take care of me, you're going to try to tell me that this is all for my benefit. Well screw that, you dick!"

Eli tried not to look too smug when Matthew actually took a couple of steps away from him. He supposed he might have looked a bit demented, what with the red face and positively vicious glare, but really, Matthew kinda had it coming.

"You wanna know why I'm pissed off at you right now?" he asked. Matthew probably didn't -- which was smart, really -- but Eli didn't care. "It's not just that you let me think you were dead for a freaking year, it's not even the whole getting me kidnapped thing. No, what really makes me want to hit you is the way you constantly decide what's 'best for me' without even asking me what I want!" Eli was almost out of breath at this point, but somehow he felt lighter.

It was like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He sighed, releasing some of the remaining frustration and found that, for once, things were clear. For once, he knew what he wanted, and he didn't care about anything else. His mind was made, and however stupid his choice was, Eli was fairly certain he wouldn't regret it (or so he hoped).

"What I want right now, is for you to stay," he said, and he knew that this time there was no going back.

"But, you just told me to get ou--" Matthew started, still surprised.

"I know what I said!" Eli cut him off, because he was very aware of just how desperately he'd been lying to himself. Almost until it was too late.

Matthew was looking at him strangely. It was a soft kind of look, something like fondness and sympathy mixed into one. "I'll still go out at night," he pointed out, because that was important. He wasn't going to lie, not to Eli. If Matthew was going to stay, then Eli deserved to know what he was getting into. After all, he was right - this was his choice. It had to be.

Matthew was only sorry it took him so long to realize it.

"I know you will," Eli said, a frown still on his face, though he looked calmer, more thoughtful. "But that's your choice and as stupid as it is, I can't make it for you. I can only be there when you get your ass kicked," he added with a weak glare. Eli always did hate it when Matthew ended up getting injured.

Matthew smiled back, a bright grin that reached his eyes and made the corners of them crinkle up. The kind of smile that almost made Eli want to smile as well, and that told him he'd made the right choice this time.

When Matthew moved forward, Eli didn't step away, and when their lips met, it was a hell of a lot more pleasant than the last time they'd kissed. There was none of the irony taste of blood and ash that had been present that night outside the warehouse -- none of the urgency and heartbreak.

Matthew was still smiling when they parted, and Eli was fighting not to smile as well.

"I'm still pissed off at you!" he said after a moment, because he wasn't letting Matthew off that easily. At least, not about the whole 'pretending to be dead' thing. For his part. Matthew just laughed, and Eli couldn't be too mad at him this time.

There was a mewling sound somewhere nearby, and both men looked down to see Eli's pet, staring up at them with big blue-grey eyes.

"You didn't tell me you had a cat," Matthew said, and then looked confused at Eli's groan because that would not be fun to explain. Then he felt Matthew's hand curl around his own. He figured there were worse things.

-- -- -- -- --

That's right, you're not hallucinating, I actually updated! As always, a thousand pardons for the ridiculous wait, but life has been busy what with work, school, and health issues. Not to mention, this is the second version of this chapter I've written and I did not expect it to be so long.

I'm always a bit sad when I finish a story, even if I keep writing little shorts with the characters, and this one in particular is something I'll miss. I started this story while going through a difficult situation, it was a way to make myself feel better, to distract myself with something that I love. It's not just me playing with cliches and humor and superheroes, but also trying to make myself feel more like myself at a time when I was fairly depressed. I wasn't sure if I would complete this when I started it, or if I would ever write again.

Vigilante isn't my first completed work and neither is it my most popular, but for it's own reasons, it is special.

Thank you all for taking the time to read it, and especially for sticking with it through all the long wait times between chapters. Thank you for your comments and votes, for the advice and support and I hope that I was able to entertain you even a bit.