UNMASKED

#05

Matthew had gotten nearly stabbed. Again.

Eli supposed he should be glad the man only ended up with a nasty cut on his arm, but he was really just annoyed he was forced to—once again—stitch Matthew back up. Still, Matthew was right, Eli was getting better at stitches. Not a skill he really wanted, unfortunately.

"Do you even try to dodge?" Eli couldn't help but ask. Matthew gave him a look because apparently he was the one being unreasonable. "Just saying." Eli shrugged and continued stitching Matthew up.

"What can I say, criminals are getting more persistent," Matthew said, as he sat in the brightly lit bathroom, shirt off and all his various cuts and bruises on full display.

"Or maybe they're just used to you swooping down and beating the crap out of them," Eli pointed out from his perch on the bathtub's edge, right next to Matthew. After all, Matthew had been running around as Vigilante for a while. The element of surprise was long gone by then.

"They were surprised enough to see me around last week."

Eli supposed that was true, if only because Matthew had stayed out of the streets for nearly two weeks while he healed. It probably would have been a shorter absence if Eli hadn't been around to make sure Matthew rested.

"That's 'cause they thought you'd finally gone belly up." Eli carefully tied up the last of the stitches.

"I love how casually you talk about me dying," Matthew said flatly. Eli just shrugged, finally looking up at him.

"I mean, you're always almost dying." Which was true, though Eli still wished Matthew would try a bit harder to stay alive. Preferably by abandoning his crime fighting gig. Unfortunately, that didn't seem likely, which left Eli with the need to find more euphemisms to use in case of Matthew's untimely demise.

"I can just feel the love," Matthew deadpanned.

"I'd love you a hell of a lot more if you didn't wake me up in the middle of the night because you got stabbed."

"Almost stabbed," Matthew corrected. Then, he grinned. Eli didn't like that grin. "Oh, so you do love me."

"I will smack you in the stitches." Eli hoped his threat and glare would be effective despite the blush he just knew was on his face. For once, Matthew had pity on him. Or maybe he just took Eli's threat seriously. Whatever the case, he didn't keep picking on Eli. For about a minute.

"So, would you say there's love in every stitch?"

Eli simply glared and slapped on the bandage he'd just unwrapped before standing. He ignored Matthew's complaining, knowing he hadn't used that much force. Besides, Eli had seen Matthew take a gunshot with less whining.

"They're getting worse," Eli commented after a moment. He didn't look up from where he was cleaning and putting away the medical supplies into their large—and well supplied—first aid box.

Matthew finally stopped complaining. Clearly, he knew who Eli was talking about.

"Things will calm down eventually," Matthew said. Eli wasn't really convinced, mostly because things had been getting progressively worse instead of better.

"Well, at least you haven't run into that guy who kicked your ass again," Eli said, trying to look at the bright side.

"He didn't kick my ass." Eli did his best not to smirk at the sulky tone Matthew said that in. He wasn't very successful. "He didn't."

"Sure he didn't. You just crawled back home because it was fun." Eli really couldn't help it. It wasn't often that he could make fun of Matthew for losing a fight. Granted, he wished he didn't—or that he didn't fight at all in the first place. "Oh, stop sulking. You're back in one piece and that guy's gone now that Fisk's probably pissed at him for screwing up."